For the past 40 years, consumers have had the upper-hand in the global rice market, which has witnessed a steady decline in prices, interrupted only by the brief spike in 1973-74 triggered by the first oil crisis. The structural decline in prices was the result of the Green Revolution, the agronomics movement that spread the use of irrigation, fertiliser and high-yielding varieties of rice in Asia in the late 1960s and led to bumper crops.

The haze which annually envelops huge swathes of Southeast Asia could be worse than ever this year, according to the region's environment ministers. The problem occurs when smoke from forest fires combines with industrial pollution to create and acrid smog. As well as being an environmental issue, the smog costs the region's countries billions of dollars each year through lost working days and tourism.

Rising food prices across the world are generating a great deal of heat and dust. Some of that high-decibel debate about food versus fuel and end of an era when food prices were declining, has found its way into India as well.

Food prices are on the rise and not only in India. The increase has been sharper still in in other Asian counties, such as Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar. The continent is paying for its neglect of agricultural research and irrigation. There has neen a dwindling of prime land and shrinkage of water supplies owing to industrialisation. The UN's Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific has stated that a boost in farm productivity is the only way out of the crisis. India urgently needs another Green Revolution.

The System of Rice Intensification is an alternative to the traditional way of flooded rice cultivation and is showing promise in addressing the problems of water scarcity, high energy usage and environmental degradation. The SRI method involves synergy of five important farm management techniques. Vibhu Nayar V. K. Ravichandran

Bird Flu's Spread Around The Globe UK: April 3, 2008 LONDON - The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Wednesday that two Indonesians, an 11 year-old female and a 15-year-old male, have died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu began in Asia in 2003. Following are some facts about the virus and its spread: >br> * Since the virus re-emerged in Asia, outbreaks have been confirmed in about 60 countries and territories, according to data from the World Organisation for Animal Health.

By Raphael Minder in Hong Kong, John Aglionby in Jakarta,,Amy Yee in New Delhi, and Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok For years, farmers in the remote village of Pallantikang on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi relied on middlemen to sell their produce and found themselves largely isolated from the realities of market demands and price fluctuations. But when 50 of them recently started going directly to retailers, the outcome was a jump of 80 per cent in their earnings from their rice and cassava and 40 per cent from their corn.

Soaring food prices are making holes into the wallets of consumers but throwing a golden opportunity to poor farmers in Asia, including India, to ramp up production and increase profits, a report by think tank International Food Policy Research Institute has said.

Everyone seemed to have a Mark Tully story to share at the launch of Foreign Correspondent: Fifty Years of Reporting South Asia at The Ambassador Hotel on Tuesday evening. Foreign correspondents and local journalists came together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Foreign Correspondents' Club. Initially known as the Foreign Correspondents Association, the FCC was founded in 1958, and has counted many eminent journalists and photographers such as David Orr, Mark Tully and Pablo Bartholomew among its members.