Delay on the part of State governments to pick up their allocation for the Mid-Day Meal programme in April has cost them dear. As per a directive of the Union Food Ministry, the allocation for the first month of this fiscal has lapsed; a decision that has not gone down too well with the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. While HRD Ministry appreciates the rationale in the Food Ministry's contention that there should not be any retrospective lifting of foodgrains, it is of the view that the decision should not be forced upon States without a warning.

Rubbishing claims by western leaders that the current food crisis was caused by the growing consumption in India and China, BRIC foreign ministers on Friday sought a "just" global economy keeping in view interests of all nations. "There are multiple reasons for the current food crisis, primarily due to recent cyclones in Bangladesh and Burma, which destroyed the entire rice crops in these countries, also exporters of rice.

The surplus foodgrain production in the country could open new vistas for exporters, in the wake of a global shortage in food grains. With the food production in the country exceeding the estimates, the government could review lifting the ban on exports.

Bangladesh calls for immediate global action to address three major global challenges - food crisis, increased oil price and climate change. Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, Ismat Jahan, made this call while speaking on behalf of the least developed countries at the high level segment of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in New York Wednesday. Ambassador Jahan said the price of food grains had surged to its record high, affecting the LDCs most disproportionately.

The government on Thursday decided to empower the agriculture export promotion agency(AEPA) to protect India's farm and horticulture products like Basmati rice from anyone patenting them anywhere in the world.

Punjab may be flopping on fronts like health, information technology but its flavoured Verka lassi, desi ghee,ice-cream, sweetened milk, panjiri, paneer, curd, and kheer are doing very well in the national and international market. Milkfed, state's leading cooperative, known for Verka brand in and outside the country has achieved 64 per cent growth in the sale of lassi, 37 per cent in sweetened flavoured milk, 31 per cent in ghee, 21 per cent in ice cream, 70 per cent in kheer and 39 per cent in paneer last year. Desi ghee and lassi have been traditionally strong area of Punjab.

Biofuel manufacturers at an international gathering in Spain have strenuously denied media charges they are driving up food prices and world hunger. As the world seeks sustainable energy supplies and ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, concern has grown that land used for plant-based fuels is competing with land for growing food. Speaker after speaker at the World Biofuels convention, which ended on Thursday in southern city Seville, said plant-based fuel production accounted for just 3 percent of world demand for grains.

The soaring food prices that have triggered global political and economic turmoil over the past year have finally shown the first tentative signs of stabilising. The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation food price index, considered the best measure of global food inflation, saw its first decline in 15 months in April, as wheat, dairy, sugar and soyabean prices fell.