1.   

India to give Afghanistan 250,000 tonnes wheat – govt

India will send 250,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan to help its regional neighbour tide over a food crisis caused by drought, the government said in a statement on Friday.The grain will be sourced from government stockpiles and would be shipped from India's western Kandla port via Karachi in Pakistan, the statement said.

2.   

Indian onions hit as Indonesia lifts ban on Dutch produce

Indonesia's move to lift a ban on onion imports from the Netherlands has begun to hurt the prospects of Indian white dehydrated onion exports. Indonesia had banned Dutch onions on 2009 when consignments were found to be infected with stem nematode, a destructive pest.

3.   

Govt lifts restrictions on organic product exports

Aiming to promote organic farming, the government has partially relaxed restrictions on exports of sugar, pulses and edible oils, produced without using chemical fertiliser and pesticides. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has allowed exports of organic cooking oil, sugar and pulses upto 10,000 tonnes each per annum.

4.   

UK: Continuing drought makes food security a major issue

The drought situation continues to affect vegetable production in the UK, most predominately in the South East of England where there has only been 20% of the normal rainfall since the end of February, creating the driest spell in 100 years. In terms of the brassica crop, Scotland, Cornwall and also to a degree Lancashire have had rain but it still falls short of normal levels.