Food is the first among the hierarchical needs of a human being and this is likely to be the worst sufferer under conditions of global warming and sea level rise Prof M.S. Swaminathan

The draft Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) notification published recently by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for public comments will replace the existing Costal Regulation Zone (CRZ) when it is finalised. Attempts to protect the coastal stretch started in 1991 when developments were regulated with respect to the high tide line. In 2004, the MoEF set up a committee under the Chairmanship of M.S. Swaminathan to review the existing rules and recommend changes and if ne cessary recast the coastal regulatory framework.

M.S. Swaminathan It is hoped that at the Rome Conference on world food security, Indian representatives will serve as a bright affirming flame in the midst of the sea of despair we see around us.

Monday and Tuesday have been the coolest days during the month of May this year in the region. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts the weather is going to more or less remain equally pleasant for the next three days-Wednesday, Thursday and Friday-as well.

Baskets and averages have no meaning when you have extreme economic variations tough job M. Mohammed Ibrahim in Pondy Bazaar, T. Nagar. As the clamour over rising prices grows, some senior economists say that the way that the government calculates the consumer price index and the food basket needs to change. For most people, a food basket is the woven container you carry along when you go grocery shopping. With the recent focus on inflation, however, it is taking on a new meaning.

NEW DELHI: Forty years after he helped rescue the world from growing famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies, Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is once again agitating for an agricultural revolution - this time a perpetual one. The 82-year-old scientist, regarded in India as the father of the Green Revolution for helping develop a hybrid wheat seed that allowed Indian farmers to dramatically increase yields, said the current food crisis offered the world a chance to put farmers on the right road to unending growth.

Eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan has called for setting up an Indian trade organisation as a national counterpart of the WTO. Addressing an "International Conference on Natural Rubber Extension and Development,' organised by the Rubber Board, he said there was need to segregate the support extended to farmers for their livelihood and the support for commodities that could be considered trade distorting in the global market. Agriculture exports accounted for only 6.2 per cent of the total agriculture production.

The State government has demanded that the Centre implement the agriculture package for Idukki district, submitted by agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, in a time-bound manner.

The M.S. Swaminathan Commission, appointed by the Central government to study the distressed farm sector in Idukki district, has submitted its report to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, team leader S. Balaravi has said.

India, now under scrutiny due to rice export curbs and growing consumption that have helped drive grain prices to record highs, could help ease global food security fears, M S Swaminathan, the country's most revered rural economist, said. A rich diversity of secondary food crops, a huge base of rural workers and good rainfall mean India is able to raise production quickly with small investments, allowing it to export a bigger surplus to world markets, he said on Monday.