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Over the last two decades, as much as 84% of total addition to the net irrigated area has been groundwater linked. Also, groundwater now provides for over 70% of the irrigated area and about 80% of domestic needs. Already, as many as 15% of aquifers are in a critical condition, and the figure would rise to 60% over the next two decades without remedial policy action. ET 230610
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Steep depletion of water table in Punjab
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*Punjab State Govt. voluntarily wanted to cut area under paddy and wheat as the farmers have been mining underground water to grow foodgrains. “The water table in the state has gone to the extent of 500 feet to 600 feet and at this level, it is difficult to recharge the underground water. The state government proposed to grow maize to replace paddy as both crops have the same cycle and maize requires less water. BS 240610
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Foodgrain output in India stagnant for 10 years-NASA Remote Sensing Data
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An analysis of the remote sensing data collected by Nasa satellites on the changes in vegetation in India during the last 25 years (1982-2006) has
confirmed that the growth rate of foodgrain production in India has been stagnant in the last decade, which crop statisticians have been aware of for some time now. |
MS Swaminathan, the architect of India’s green revolution, has called for efforts towards a second green revolution in eastern India to tide over this challenge to the country’s food security. “...We must step up our efforts to promote conservation- and climate-resilient farming in this area, and to derive benefit from the vast untapped production reservoir existing in eastern India,” said Dr Swaminathan |
In India, the main increases in foodgrain production during the past four decades have been realised during the rabi season. Rabi season crops have gone from contributing a third of the food grain production in the mid 1960s to today’s capacity to produce as much as the kharif season on one-third less cropped area,” says the paper published in online journal Remote Sensing in March 2010. |
The study expresses fear that the groundwater-based expansion of grain production in India may have reached its limit and a further overexploitation of the aquifers may lead farmers to revert to low productivity crops. ET 230610 |
Worsening food security due to near stagnation in food productivity-FAO |
Food security requires comprehensive planning |
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have warned that farm commodity prices, especially foodgrains, may rise by as much as 40 per cent by the end of this decade. This warning must be taken seriously given its implications for food insecurity. FAO’s Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019 projects prices of wheat, coarse grains and dairy products rising by 15 to 40 per cent in real terms (after adjusting for inflation) in the coming decade. Though, at present, international food prices are ruling lower than their peaks in 2008, FAO expects them to begin picking up again due to a surge in consumer demand as well as demand from biofuel producers. The current concern over worsening food security can be traced to near stagnation in food productivity in most part of the world, shrinking public investment in technology generation and diversion of wheat, coarse grains, vegetable oils and sweeteners to biofuel production. B S/ June 24, 2010
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Fertiliser subsidy leakage may add Rs 12-15,000 crore to bill |
Fertiliser subsidy leakage may likely total to a shocking 10 percent plus of the country's massive subsidy bill this year. Estimates by the department of fertilisers (DoF) have pegged fertiliser subsidy leakage at a mind boggling Rs 12-15,000 crore in 2008-09 alone, when subsidy levels touched alarming proportions of Rs 76,603 crore. |
Interestingly the data showed that India consumed more fertiliser in drought year 2009-10 (the worst in over three decades)than in non-drought 2008-09. Districts in UP, Bihar, W Bengal and Assam are being watched especially. |
The assessed requirement of major fertilisers for 2009-10 was 520.45 lt, of which 254 lt were used in Kharif 2009 alone, when over 270 districts in the country were drought struck and cereal production at an all time low. In comparision, the total requirement assessed for 2008-09 was 504 lt (including urea, DAP, MoP and complex ferts) which is 16lt lower than the requirement for this year. In summer 2009, the actual sale of ferts (April-November) was 330.74 lt against 127.92 lt, i,e., a good 200 lakh tonnes lower than in 2009-10. ET 190610 |
| Power capacity addition will be short of target |
India may yet again miss power capacity addition target for a Plan period as the country is likely to add around 55,000 MW of generation capacity against the targetted 62,000 MW in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12).
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"In the 10th Plan period (2002-07), the government had envisaged an additional power capacity of 41,110 MW. It ended the Plan with a capacity addition of only 20,950 MW, 49 per cent short of the target.
The Planning Commission, in its mid-term review, had reduced power generation capacity addition target by over 20 per cent to 62,374 MW for the current Plan from the original 78,577 MW. |
"It is anticipated that additional power generation capacity of 45,234 MW can be commissioned during the remaining period of the 11th Plan, noting that 19,207 MW capacity was added till 31 December 2009," Plan panel said in its review. The present installed power generation capacity of India is over 1,55,000 MW. PTI 220610 |
| SNIPPETS: 'India's super-rich 1,26,000' |
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In India, the number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) with minimum investable assets of USD 1 million (around Rs 5 crore) rose by 50% to 1,26,700 by the end of 2009 compared to just 84,000 in 2008. "India also has a relatively high market-cap-to-GDP ratio (two times GDP) and its stock-market capitalisation more than doubled in 2009, after dropping 64 per cent in 2008" . |
China continues to have the world's fourth largest HNWI base of 477,000 wealthy people at the end of 2009. Overall, the world's population of HNWIs grew 17per cent to one crore in 2009, returning to levels last seen in 2007, despite contraction in the world gross domestic product. The global HNWI population, nevertheless, remains highly concentrated in the US, Japan and Germany, which accounted for 53.5 per cent of the world's HNWI population at the end of 2009. The wealth of ultra-HNWIs, having investable assets of USD 30 million or more, also increased in 2009 and accounted for 35.5 per cent of global HNWI wealth. F E 2010-06-23/ KRSR/280610
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