Agricultural Stockpiling

The World Trade Organization failed on Thursday to reach a deal to standardise customs rules, which would have been the first global trade reform in two decades but was blocked by India's demands for concessions on agricultural stockpiling.

Rising wealth due to a rally in agricultural crop prices, a jump in farm loan disbursement at more favourable interest rates and larger houses with space for storage are giving millions of farmers the freedom to decide when to sell their harvest.

India will be unable to consume or export enough wheat and rice to rein in a record stockpile after another bumper harvest, a failure that means crops risk rotting in fields instead of being sold on world markets to cash in on higher prices.

The World Trade Organization failed on Thursday to reach a deal to standardise customs rules, which would have been the first global trade reform in two decades but was blocked by India's demands for concessions on agricultural stockpiling.

Rising wealth due to a rally in agricultural crop prices, a jump in farm loan disbursement at more favourable interest rates and larger houses with space for storage are giving millions of farmers the freedom to decide when to sell their harvest.

India will be unable to consume or export enough wheat and rice to rein in a record stockpile after another bumper harvest, a failure that means crops risk rotting in fields instead of being sold on world markets to cash in on higher prices.