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The Revolution was a technological success.

The Revolution was a technological success.

"Before the 1960s, the population of India was multiplying like rats in a barn," said Jagjit Singh Hara, "but we didn't have the grain to feed them. After the Green Revolution, we doubled our yield and now we have proved that India can feed the world".

But the process has limits and they may have been reached. Population, on the other hand, has continued to rise in poor parts of the world.

The graph, compiled for the BBC by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, shows that while yield per hectare has increased, the amount of land used for the major staple grains has remained fairly constant; this is because the amount of good farmland is finite.

U.S. pushes for more access to Japan auto, insurance markets

TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States urged Japan on Monday to open its auto and insurance markets more to foreign companies as the two countries pursue bilateral talks linked to a broader free-trade agreement that covers two-fifths of the globe. The United States hopes to make a proposal to Japan on its trade barriers in September, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said, as part of a drive to reach a conclusion on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade initiative by the end of the year.Reports that Japan's government is willing to phase out tariffs on 85 percent of goods under negotiations for the TPP are a "good initial step", Froman said, suggesting there was still a gap between the trading partners."The foreign share of the Japanese auto market is about 6 percent," Froman told a news conference."The foreign share of the U.S. auto market is closer to 40 percent. I don't think there is any question that the U.S. market is quite open."The U.S. government has long pushed for fewer tariffs on its cars and more access to Japan's insurance market but has met with little success.U.S. markets are some of the most open in the world, Froman said, suggesting there was not much that the United States could offer in return to the access that it was seeking.However, making it easier for foreign firms to do business in these two areas would increase Japan's productivity, contribute to its economic growth strategy and help secure progress in TPP negotiations, Froman said.Officials from the 12 countries in TPP talks will meet in Brunei from Thursday, but vested interests make it difficult to agree on lowering tariffs for agricultural products or barriers to industries that countries want to protect.Japan is under heavy pressure from farmers to resist cutting tariffs for products like rice.There is also resistance in Vietnam and Malaysia, where state-linked enterprises and selective handouts of government contracts are entrenched and politically sensitive.Froman, in Tokyo for talks with Japanese government officials, said it was natural for every country to have areas that they were sensitive about, but those areas should be dealt with in TPP negotiations.The United States is spear heading the TPP initiative, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan and Brunei, as part of a shift to focus more on Asia.China has said it is studying joining the TPP but it is not part of negotiations on the grouping.(Editing by Robert Birsel)

This article is taken from Reuters.com

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This article is taken from Reuters.com

Italy leads European shares lower on fear of new government crisis

* FTSEurofirst 300 down 0.6 pct, FTSE MIB down 2.5 pct * Threat of government crisis fuels profit taking on Italian shares* Morgan Stanley expects pullback of up to 10 pct as Fed tightensBy Francesco CanepaLONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Italian shares led European bourses lower on Monday as reports of a rift opening up in Rome's coalition government triggered some profit taking on the region's best-performing index in the past month.Italy's FTSE MIB index fell 2.5 percent, as traders cashed in on its recent 14 percent rise, after reports that Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party may withdraw its vital support from the government if he is expelled from the Senate following his recent conviction for tax fraud.Prime Minister Enrico Letta warned on Sunday that the collapse of his government would undermine the nascent economic recovery in Italy, which has helped the FTSE MIB outperform all other indexes in the region in the past month.Volume on the FTSE MIB was 126 percent of its 90-day average, compared to a meagre 73 percent for the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300, which fell 0.6 percent to 1,224.58 points."The market is betting that we're going to have a bout of uncertainty," said Ugo De Pasquale, an option trader with Qubed Derivatives."Italy needs the coalition government to stay in power. That's what the market is telling us."Italian lenders UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo shed 5.2 percent and 4.1 percent, their biggest daily losses since June after hitting six- and 18-months highs on Friday.Traders said a nearly 30 percent rally in Italian banking shares in the previous month, fuelled by some better-than-expected economic data against very low valuations, magnified the extent of the profit taking on Monday .Short interest in Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit, a gauge of interest from speculative sellers, was hovering around a one-year trough last week, Markit data showed, and the cost of insuring against future swings in both stocks recently hit its low for the year, showing sentiment around the shares was at its most bullish.Around Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.5 percent, France's Cac shed 1 percent and Germany's Dax fell 0.3 percent.Investors were positioning for a reduction in the U.S. Federal Reserve's asset-purchase programme, which along with other, similar central bank schemes around the world has helped the FTSEurofirst 300 rise 30 percent since June 2012.Traders will look for hints on when the Fed might start cutting back its quantitative easing programme when the minutes of the July policy meeting are published on Wednesday."In the past, when markets started to price in a change in the monetary policy cycle, you tended to see a pause in the market or a bit of a correction," said Ronan Carr, a strategist at Morgan Stanley, who expected European indexes to pull back as much as 10 percent in the near term."It doesn't necessarily derail the favourable outlook which is defined by improving growth but we think it will cause some indigestion in the near term."

This article is taken from Reuters.com