Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Farmers shrug off cash blues, accept cheques, online paymentsedit
Demonetization has hindered trading activities in agricultural markets across the country but Karnataka, a pioneer in the IT sector, has managed to minimize the damage, thanks to the automation of Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets. Data provided by the state agriculture marketing department revealed that a record number of farmers are using the unified marketing platform (UMP) run by Rashtriya e-Market Services (ReMS), a joint venture of the state and NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd to sell their produce. About 152 of the 158 APMC markets have been linked to UMP in the state.
Cash crunch leaves farmers high and dry in MP’s Bundelkhandedit
The Centre’s demonetisation move has hit the farmers in MP’s Bundelkhand hard who were hoping for good rabi crops after facing four years of hardships owing to drought in the region. Farming is the main occupation in the region, and heavy rains this year had brought smiles on the faces of farmers. As the sowing for winter crops was almost complete in this part of the state before demonetisation was announced, the farmers had little problem in arranging seeds, fertiliser etc.
Drought extends into rabi seasonedit
The impact of drought and lack of moisture has extended to the Rabi season bringing to a halt agricultural activities in Mysuru district. Sowing of crops like cow pea, horse gram, maize, and Bengal gram has been hit owing to failure of rain. In view of the persistent drought in the region, farmers, who otherwise would sown different crops by this time, are still languishing under the impact of the failure of the Kharif crops. However, a few farmers have cultivated some of the crops on a small swathe of land in the district in anticipation of showers or release of water from the reservoir.
No impact of demonetisation on Rabi sowing: Haryanaedit
Farmers in Haryana have so far achieved 86.17 per cent of the target set for sowing of wheat and other crops in Rabi season 2016-17, an official said on Saturday. Farmers have covered 28.41 lakh hectares against the target of 32.97 lakh hectare, a spokesman of the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department said, adding that the demonetisation of old currency notes has not caused any adverse effect on sowing of Rabi crops in the state.