It is amusing that the Union Government should express concern at the increasing use of foodgrains for production of bio-fuels in parts of the world.

Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan Saturday told governments to invest more in agriculture to avoid future food crises, but warned that current shortages would hurt the poor. Annan said the surging price of basic foods like rice, wheat and corn in some of the world's poorest countries, which have triggered riots in Haiti and demonstrations in some African countries, will last for sometime. Factors contributing to the rise include the increasing demand for biofuels, and the rising cost of oil and transportation.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, on Sunday said the interim government had breached food security at the prescriptions of the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank. This has increased rice prices although there is no supply shortage of rice, he said as he addressed a daylong hunger strike programme of the party in its central office.

The Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that it is necessary to procure maximum quantity of wheat on support price for ensuring success of Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana, under which wheat would be supplied at the rate of Rs three per kg to poor families from fair price shops. Keeping this target in mind, commissioners, collectors and all the concerning officers must act on a war footing and make concerted arrangements for immediate payment to farmers apart from transportation and storage of wheat.

BRAZIL'S President has blamed rising oil prices for the current global food crisis, saying biofuels are not the problem. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said rising oil prices were pushing up freight costs which, in turn, affected world food prices. "Ethanol production has not contributed in any way to the food price crises," Mr da Silva said yesterday in Accra, Ghana, where he was attending a three-day UN Conference on Trade and Development. "It is the oil prices that have brought about high freight charges on the transportation of food."

The International Research Institute (IRI) for Climate and Society at the University of Columbia has come out with more daring predictions on the Indian monsoon compared to those made public by India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday. The most glaring difference in perception relates to rainfall trends for northwest India. While the IMD was apologetic about the prospects for this region, the IRI predicts good rainfall here during the July-August-September and August-September-October quarters.

No need for alarm; but some Chinese ring bells anyway

Urgent action to help the world's poorest farmers help themselves would make a significant contribution to tackling the global food crisis in a single growing season, according to Jeffrey Sachs, United Nations development adviser. "In much of the poorest parts of the world, the potential for significant increases in food production is very real," said Mr Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and adviser to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.

The ambitious National Food Security Mission (NFSM) scheme has taken off in Karbi Anglong. As a part of its first experience, transplanting of rice under the NFSM scheme has been started in several areas in the district. Especially 10 hectare of paddy field of Langparpan and Borjan areas have been absorbed under the ambitious scheme for the first phase. Dr M Angamuthu, deputy commissioner, Karbi Anglong and chairman of the NFSM revealed launching the scheme that the Karbi Anglong hill district received Rs 65 lakh for the implementation of the project.

Deniliquin (Australia): Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. "It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety,' he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, "and now it has stopped.' The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98% and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.