A group set up by the Planning Commission has pointed out that the reimposition of controls on wheat and pulses under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955, "has not had any favourable effect on

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.

Global investment funds smelt greater profit potential in commodities than in stocks and from 2002 started diving into oil, followed by metals and grains NEW YORK, April 2: High food prices around the world? Blame, at least in part, the investors who moved their money into commodities in the past five years, looking for better returns than they were getting from stocks and bonds. Global investment funds saw the potential for profits in commodities outstripping those from the stock market, and from 2002 started diving into oil, followed by metals and then grains.

For years, anti-poverty campaigners railed against low commodity prices, which depressed farmers' incomes in developing countries.

The anti-inflation package hammered out by the Cabinet Committee on Prices (CCP) in a marathon three-hour-long meeting on Monday night makes it clear that the government is short of ideas.

EFFORTS TO CONTROL PRICES: A DAY AFTER CABINET MEETING Ajay Modi / New Delhi April 02, 2008

The Bharatiya Janata Party has charged the United Progressive Alliance government with "mismanagement of the food economy' and warned that prices of cereals, pulses, edible oil, and other essentia

Global agricultural commodity prices, which are rising for the last two years, are expected to remain high in the near future, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).

Cabinet Committee on Prices holds emergency meet late in the evening at PM's residence BS Reporters / New Delhi April 01, 2008 Scraps import duties on edible oil; pulses exports ban stays.