On Kalabagh dam: Construction of the controversial Kalabagh Dam across river Indus will not begin without reaching a consensus among all the four provinces, Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister

In the face of soaring food prices, the government of Cameroon has launched an emergency plan to boost local food production and make the country an agriculture-based economy. Cameroon, which

In anticipation of a global summit on the food crisis, the United Nations called on world leaders on Wednesday to agree to urgent measures to ease demand for grains and alleviate high food prices.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged Thursday $50 million in additional aid for Africa to deal with soaring food prices and the World Bank and three U.N. food-related organizations renewed their commitment to address food shortages and high food prices on the continent.

Twenty-two mainly African countries are "especially vulnerable' to soaring food and fuel prices, according to a report by the UN food agency ahead of a summit on food security next week in Rome. "Large increases in food and fuel prices threaten macroeconomic stability and overall growth, especially of low-income, net-importing countries,' the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) notes in the report published on Wednesday.

Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer is preparing to walk into a buzzsaw of criticism over American biofuels policy when he meets with world leaders to discuss the global food crisis next week. Mr. Schafer took the offensive at a press conference on Thursday that discussed the food summit, planned for Rome. He said an analysis by the Agriculture Department had determined that biofuel production was responsible for only 2 to 3 percent of the increase in global food prices, while biofuels had reduced consumption of crude oil by a million barrels a day.

The post harvest wastage in India for instance, is estimated to be as high as 26 per cent. This figure is just two per cent in the developed countries OUR POLYMERS BUREAU

India will review bans on exports of wheat and basmati rice, but shipments of other grades of rice will not be allowed at least until November, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said. India last exported wheat in the 2003-04 fiscal year and became an importer in the past two years, but a bumper crop has helped the government purchase from local farmers a record 24.8 million tonnes of the staple this year. Pawar said on Thursday that a government panel, called the Empowered Group of Ministers , (EGoM), would soon consider lifting the ban on wheat exports.

Food prices will remain high over the next decade even if they fall from current records, meaning millions more risk further hardship or hunger, the OECD and the UN's FAO food agency said in a report published on Thursday. Beyond stating the immediate need for humanitarian aid, the international bodies suggested wider deployment of genetically modified crops and a rethink of biofuel programmes that guzzle grain which could otherwise feed people and livestock.

Ahead of a global summit on the food crisis, the United Nations called on world leaders on Wednesday to agree to urgent measures to ease demand for grains and ease high food prices. A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations suggested that countries might need to reconsider policies that encourage the production of ethanol and other biofuels. The report also suggested that the food summit in Rome, which will run from June 3 to 5, will give world leaders a chance to renew a war on hunger.,