If Americans ever eat genetically engineered fast-growing salmon, it might be because of a Soviet biologist turned oligarch turned government minister turned fish farming entrepreneur.

That man, Kakha Bendukidze, holds the key to either extinction or survival for AquaBounty Technologies, the American company that is hoping for federal approval of a type of salmon that would be the first genetically engineered animal in the human food supply.

What stops the government from using good harvests to reduce, if not eliminate, hunger?

New Delhi: Food Corporation of India (FCI) has warned that unless the government can distribute 750 lakh tonnes of food grain, there will be no storage space for the bumper harvest being currently procured, the food ministry told Rajya Sabha on Monday. The crisis of plenty has been engaging the government for a while as it is under pressure to distribute food grain to the poor or intervene in some manner to cool inflation, and the FCI alarm provides the clearest indication of the scale of the problem.

In flood-hit fields in the Philippines, farmers are testing a hardy new variety of rice that can survive completely submerged for more than two weeks.

In Kenya's Kibera slum, poor urban families are turning around their diets and incomes just by learning to grow vegetables in sack gardens outside their doors. And in India, a push to help marginalised rural communities gain title to their land is leading to a significant drop in hunger.

The requirement of foodgrains for public distribution system and other welfare scheme is about 61 million tonnes which is 30 per cent of the nation's grain output, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. The Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Minister, Mr K.V. Thomas, said during Question Hour that as directed by the Supreme Court, 50 lakh tonne foodgrains have been earmarked for 74 poorest districts in the country. Of this, only two-three lakh tonne foodgrains could be distributed under the direction of Supreme Court, he said.

New research suggests that global warming is causing the cycle of evaporation and rainfall over the oceans to intensify more than scientists had expected, an ominous finding that may indicate a higher potential for extreme weather in coming decades.

By measuring changes in salinity on the ocean’s surface, the researchers inferred that the water cycle had accelerated by about 4 percent over the last half century. That does not sound particularly large, but it is twice the figure generated from computerized analyses of the climate.

State takes lead in using biometric data from RSBY cards, first phase likely in May. Chhattisgarh government plans to plug leakages in the public distribution system by identifying the beneficiaries through biometric data stored in the smart cards being used to deliver health insurance to the poor.

‘Raise PDS Allocation Or Wheat Will Go Waste Due to Lack Of Storage Facilities’
India could see unprecedented levels of foodgrain rotting this year in government godowns unless the central government increases the amount of grains it distributes to the poor through PDS across the country, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has warned in an internal note, which was accessed by TOI.

The total stocks across the country in the central pool are expected to be an all-time record of 750.17 lakh tonnes in June 2012 — almost one lakh tonne more than last year.