For several decades following 1947, the modern large dam in India presented itself as a political conundrum, often voiced in strange, contradictory tones. In an oft-quoted speech in July 1954 Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister (1947–64), likened the large dam to a “modern temple.” Later, in a less remembered speech before a gathering of engineers and technocrats in 1958, Nehru, as if in contrition, bemoaned the quest for big dams as a “disease of gigantism.” Nehru’s con more...

The 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that the world has made slow progress in reducing food insecurity since 1990, with dramatic differences among regions and countries. In the nearly two decades since 1990, some regions — South and Southeast Asia, the Near East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean — have made significant headway in improving food security. Nevertheless, the GHI remains high in South Asia. The GHI is similarly high in Sub-Saharan Africa, where progress h more...

This paper was prepared by World Food Program, which called for a twin-track approach combining long term development with direct intervention to broaden access to food.

The vultures of corporate America are closing in on the carcass of cheap food. With corn selling at $5.86 a bushel (up from just $2.00 in 2005, and $4.28 just six months ago), the food price crisis has been somewhat of a windfall for farmers. But the briefly glimmering hope for rural communities is about to go out.

Last week Monsanto announced it would increase the price of its corn seed by $100 a bag, or about 35%. $100 a bag! So if you are a farmer with 1,000 acres in corn, Monsanto will b more...

The correct theorizing of the questions of food security and poverty has become
particularly important at the present time, which is one of rapid changes in the
economic environment in which small producers including farmers and workers are
living. In a poor developing country, the incidence of poverty is very closely linked to
the availability of food, in which the staple food grains still remain predominant,
accounting for three-fifths of the daily energy intake of the population. The
me more...

Today, but few can recall memories of the Bengal famine of 1943 and 1944. Most disturbingly, after almost two decades of 'reform' and a full decade or more of a nonstop media festival of growth rates and India Shining songs and chants, a massive acute food crisis is again a possibility. For the rulers of India such concerns, while now unavoidable, remain highly abstract. The memories of Bengal famine are again of special importance. Ashok Mitra, in his memoir Apila-Chapila (Ananda Publishers more...

In much of his writings on poverty, famines, and malnutrition, Amartya Sen argues that Democracy is the best way to avoid famines partly because of its ability to use a free press, and that the Indian experience since independence confirms this. His argument is partly empirical, but also relies on some a priori assumptions about human motivation. In his “Democracy as a Universal Value” he claims:
Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to do so, and a democratic government more...

Latin American and Caribbean countries should strengthen social programs to alleviate the impact of higher food prices among 71 million poor people in the region, newly-released numbers on the potential impact of food prices by Inter-American Development Bank show. More than 26 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean could fall into extreme poverty if food prices remain high, according to the IDB.

Low-income families may be pushed deeper into poverty if high prices for commodities s more...

Masanobu Fukuoka was born in 1914 in a small farming village on the island of Shikoku in Southern Japan. He was educated in microbiology and worked as a soil scientist specializing in plant pathology, but at the age of twenty-five he began to have doubts about the 'wonders of modern agriculture science.'

While recovering from a severe attack of pneumonia, Fukuoka experienced a moment of satori or personal enlightenment. He had a vision in which something one might call true nature was reveale more...

With the advent of supermarkets in urban centres in many developing countries, the question of their impact on access to food and food security for the urban poor has arisen. This paper examines the consequences, and also looks at the effect supermarkets can have rural agriculture and food security.

Supermarkets can provide better quality products to better-off consumers in developing countries, and thus contribute positively to their food security. With some food commodities, supermarkets ar more...