The Times of India

“Middlemen have always been a bane for farmers in the agriculture markets as they shortchanged the small and marginal farmers by quoting the lowest prices. But with the successful launch of UMP, their role is increasingly getting eliminated as farmers get a far better price in the market,” said Manoj Rajan, managing director and CEO, Rashtriya e-Market Services, the brain behind the venture.

India Today

Punjab has pleaded helplessness on the farm fire menace clearly citing the impending Assembly elections in March-April 2017. Members of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) told Mail Today that at two recent meetings, Punjab agriculture department officials prayed they may be excused from fining farmers for burning paddy straw.

Business Standard

Nearly 52.75 lakh tonnes of paddy has arrived in the grain markets in Haryana this season, food and supplies officials said on Wednesday. This is much higher than the paddy arrival of 44.73 lakh tonnes during the same period last year. Procurement of paddy in Haryana started almost a week ahead of the official procurement commencement date of October 1.

The Financial Express

When top-ranking agricultural states like Uttar Pradesh or West Bengal don’t even figure in the list of the top five states, or 10 for that matter, in an index on farm-friendly states, it is obvious there is serious problem when it comes to agriculture reform. NITI Aayog’s index of states ranked by ‘agri marketing and farmer-friendly reforms’ is a start, and it is obvious why Maharashtra tops the list—it has just removed fruits and vegetables from the APMC list for Vashi, the country’s second-largest mandi, and the state even has a few privately-owned mandis that are doing well. But starting reforms under the APMC Act and joining the eNAM initiative—this is one of the three areas ...

The Indian Express

Gujarat’s groundnut farmers aren’t the only ones facing the heat from crashing realisations. Soyabean growers in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh — also BJP-ruled — are facing a similar situation, with prices in mandis currently at Rs 2,700-2,900 per quintal. Not only are these below last year’s Rs 3,400-3,500 levels at this time, but perilously near the minimum support price of Rs 2,775/quintal — a rare phenomenon in soyabean where open market rates have tended to rule much higher.

Live Mint

Indian agriculture is approaching an important crossroad. Based on the sector’s current trajectory, the demand-supply mismatch in crops is likely to hit more than 15% by 2020, with the gap worsening to 20-25% by 2025 if unaddressed. The underlying trends (input variables if you will) are equally distressing. Agricultural productivity levels have been stagnant for the past 10 to 15 years, with our crops requiring around two to four times the average global water intensity. Wastage levels in our agricultural supply chain hover between 30% and 40%. More than a third of farmer households today live below the poverty line. These distressing trends highlight the enormity of the challenges lying ahead for the Indian agricultural industry.

The Indian Express

For over a year, there have been news reports of Niti Aayog, the erstwhile Planning Commission’s new avatar, working on a wide-ranging reform package for India’s farm sector. In recent months, teasers have appeared hinting at the Centre’s plans of liberalising rules governing tenancy, contract farming, agri-marketing or even forestry. But given the past glacial pace of reform in agriculture, one can only hope for, rather than expect, anything dramatic soon.

Eastern Mirror

Development planning in Nagaland since the state’s inception has always revolved around economic development in the form of building infrastructures, roads and bridges and small scale industries. However, local legislator Dr. Benjongliba Aier has observed, little effort has been made to determine how agriculture production, with emphasis on food production, can be increased through advanced input.