India has enough grain stocks to ride out an expected poor harvest, but the failure of the monsoon adds to global uncertainty about food and grain stocks, the head of an agricultural think tank said on Wednesday.
India's monsoon rains have been 29 per cent below normal since the beginning of the June-September season, hurting crops such as rice and cane and triggering a sharp rise in food prices in India and sugar futures abroad.
For the time being, India has built up sufficient grains stocks, said Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, but warned that the uneven rainfall has raised concerns.
"If government food distribution systems and national markets operate well, there should not be any serious issue for increasing hunger," he said in Beijing.
"But it will draw down stocks and that will make the international market again more nervous. It is very difficult to rebuild stocks from the low levels we have."
IFPRI in April released a report that warned of a rush by wealthier nations afraid of food shortages to buy agricultural land, particularly in Africa.
It called for standards of transparency and ethics in the acquisitions, to avoid people being displaced from land or food being exported during a crisis.
The deal spree was triggered by a spike in agricultural prices in 2008, as high energy prices triggered greater interest in biofuel, that caused many countries, especially in Asia, to limit exports and build domestic reserves.
"It's systematic, it's there to stay, and it shouldn't surprise us. The undermining of trust in trade through the export bans of last year... has not been forgotten," he said.
"It was a huge failing of the world trading system."
IFPRI has tracked land deals and leases totalling 20 million to 25 million hectares, an area greater than France, von Braun estimated. Investors in overseas land include hedge funds, private entrepreneurs and state-backed corporations, as well as government-to-government deals.
Between one-third and one-half of the overseas land deals studied by IFPRI have been for the purpose of growing crops for biofuels, he said
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
May be seeing beginning of recession's end - Obama
President Barack Obama said on Thursday the actions taken by his administration have helped stop an economic freefall and the United States may be seeing the "very beginnings" of the end of the recession.
Obama, addressing a raucous campaign rally for the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, offered a spirited defense of policies implemented in his first 200 days in office to combat the worst U.S. economic crisis in decades.
"I'm convinced that actions we've taken in the first six months have helped stop our economic freefall," he told a crowd in Tysons Corner, Virginia, outside of Washington.
"We're losing jobs at half the rate we were at the beginning of this year."
"Our financial system is no longer on the verge of collapse. The market is up. Housing prices are up for the first time in nearly three years. So we may just be seeing the very beginnings of the end of this recession," he added.
Obama acknowledged more work is needed on recovery efforts but struck back at Republican critics, reminding his audience he had inherited the economic crisis when he took office in January. It began under his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.
"I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess," Obama said to loud cheers.
Many Republicans have accused Obama of making economic matters worse by trying to spend the country out of recession.
Obama spoke after a government report showed the number of U.S. workers submitting new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, fanning hopes the fragile labor market was on the mend and the broader economy was stabilizing.
Earlier, top White House economic adviser Christina Romer cautioned, though, that economic recovery will be painful and Friday's widely watched report on July unemployment likely will show hundreds of thousands more jobs were lost.
Obama, addressing a raucous campaign rally for the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, offered a spirited defense of policies implemented in his first 200 days in office to combat the worst U.S. economic crisis in decades.
"I'm convinced that actions we've taken in the first six months have helped stop our economic freefall," he told a crowd in Tysons Corner, Virginia, outside of Washington.
"We're losing jobs at half the rate we were at the beginning of this year."
"Our financial system is no longer on the verge of collapse. The market is up. Housing prices are up for the first time in nearly three years. So we may just be seeing the very beginnings of the end of this recession," he added.
Obama acknowledged more work is needed on recovery efforts but struck back at Republican critics, reminding his audience he had inherited the economic crisis when he took office in January. It began under his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.
"I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess," Obama said to loud cheers.
Many Republicans have accused Obama of making economic matters worse by trying to spend the country out of recession.
Obama spoke after a government report showed the number of U.S. workers submitting new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, fanning hopes the fragile labor market was on the mend and the broader economy was stabilizing.
Earlier, top White House economic adviser Christina Romer cautioned, though, that economic recovery will be painful and Friday's widely watched report on July unemployment likely will show hundreds of thousands more jobs were lost.
Tunisian woman pregnant with 12 babies
Believe it or not, a Tunisian woman is said to be pregnant with 12 babies. The unnamed teacher and her husband are ecstatic about the pregnancy that was achieved with fertility treatment after she suffered two miscarriages -- the couple are expecting six boys and six girls, the media reported.
Her husband, who was named only as Marwan and is also a teacher of Arabic at a high school in their home town of Gafsa, southwest of the capital Tunis, said it was an "amazing and wonderful miracle". "In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered.
Our joy increased with the growing number," leading British newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'' quoted him as telling the local media. In fact, the woman, who is thought to be as much as nine months'' pregnant, is about to eclipse the octuplets of the American mother Nadia Suleman.
Fertility experts have condemned the news, alleging the doctors who treated the couple are "irresponsible" and risking the health and lives of the mother and her babies. Simon Fisher, a fertility expert from the University of Oxford, said the news of the duodecaplets was "horrendous" and the doctors involved were "irresponsible" to allow it.
"Whatever the reasons behind this, the chances of there being a happy ending are pretty remote. The chances of all of them surviving are extremely remote and the chance of some of them surviving without any problems is unlikely -- they are likely to have significant problems," he said.
Her husband, who was named only as Marwan and is also a teacher of Arabic at a high school in their home town of Gafsa, southwest of the capital Tunis, said it was an "amazing and wonderful miracle". "In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered.
Our joy increased with the growing number," leading British newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'' quoted him as telling the local media. In fact, the woman, who is thought to be as much as nine months'' pregnant, is about to eclipse the octuplets of the American mother Nadia Suleman.
Fertility experts have condemned the news, alleging the doctors who treated the couple are "irresponsible" and risking the health and lives of the mother and her babies. Simon Fisher, a fertility expert from the University of Oxford, said the news of the duodecaplets was "horrendous" and the doctors involved were "irresponsible" to allow it.
"Whatever the reasons behind this, the chances of there being a happy ending are pretty remote. The chances of all of them surviving are extremely remote and the chance of some of them surviving without any problems is unlikely -- they are likely to have significant problems," he said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
