Downpours and heatwaves caused by climate change could disrupt food supplies from the fields to the supermarkets, raising the risk of more price spikes such as this year's leap triggered by drought

The changes will result from the South Pacific rain band responding to greenhouse warming.

New Delhi Despite deficient monsoon rains, the country’s foodgrain output this year is likely to surpass that of the 2009 drought year, the government said on Thursday. Monsoon rains have been 15% deficient between June 1 and August 1, and four states — Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra — are facing drought-like situation.

“Despite weak monsoon, total grain production is expected to be better than 2009,” minister of state for agriculture and parliamentary affairs Harish Rawat said at the golden jubilee celebration of state-run National Seeds Corporation (NSC).

Brussels/Amsterdam Drought-stricken crops and record-high grain prices have strengthened critics of the European Union biofuel industry, adding fears of a food crisis to their claims that it does not ultimately reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The renewed anxiety adds to pressure on the EU’s executive Commission to forge a deal this year to help ensure that EU biofuels do not clash with food production or the environment.

Such an agreement would remove some of the uncertainty that has hung over the multi-billion euro bioenergy industry during years of debate. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation last week called for a suspension of US ethanol quotas as a response to the impact of the worst US drought in more than half a century on corn supplies and prices.

Mhaswad Armed with the latest monsoon rainfall data, weather experts finally conceded this month that India is facing a drought, confirming what millions of livestock farmers around the country had known for weeks.

For over three months, even state agencies have been providing free fodder to those most vulnerable to a shortfall in India’s annual monsoon — farmers who eke a living out of small landholdings and the milk provided by cattle.

JAIPUR: To deal with the drought-like situation in Rajasthan, the state government has demanded Rs 7,424 crore from the Centre as well 27 lakh metric tones of wheat. The memorandum presented before the Central government is interim and includes the relief work for only 26 districts. The call on the other seven will be taken after the Girdawari.

In the memorandum, the state has asked the Centre to provide Rs 2,500 crore under MNREGA.

Asks State to arrange for transmission

Union Power Minister M Veerappa Moily on Sunday said the Centre is ready to provide additional 1,500 mega watt (MW) of power if the State government ensures availability of transmission lines connecting the Central grid with the State. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a backward classes awareness conference, he said the Centre can provide additional power in a week’s time to the State if the lines are made available.

In a finding that could help predict drought, farm scientists have noticed that deficit rainfall and drought follow a chronological pattern, repeating every 2.5 years in Telangana and Rayalaseema,

Though copious rains in the last few weeks helped Andhra Pradesh achieve averages in rainfall, the distribution of rainfall is not uniform.