The Times of India

The Krishi Vidnyan Kendra (KVK) of the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) in Nashik is not only helping farmers know about the soil health of their farms, but is also informing them about crop change pattern. It was only after the help from the KVK, Suresh Gholap, a young farmer in Trimbakeshwar tehsil, decided to opt for a pulse crop instead of paddy. “The soil health card suggests taking pulse crop at least once in order to keep the soil health intact. This will benefit me next time when I will sow paddy again,” said Gholap.

The Times of India

Despite Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh’s claim that demonetisation has not adversely affected rabi farming and the coverage of land by rabi crops has been more than the previous year in the country, farmers of Bihar feel that even their recourse to ‘jugaad’ has failed to yield positive results after scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

The New Indian Express

At a time when the Indian economy is faced with a slowdown, it is the farming sector that stands crippled. Suffering from back-to-back drought for two years, demonetisation has struck a severe blow. I am sure it will be sometimes before a clearer picture emerges. But all efforts to paint a bright picture for agriculture are now beginning to fall apart. While the serpentine queues in the urban areas show no signs of ending even after a month of demonetisation, the picture in the rural areas remains too bleak. With the bank branches not getting adequate cash, I know of villages where the farmers had to return empty handed even after seven days of queuing up.

First Post

As cash is the primary mode of transaction in agriculture sector, demonetisation is bound to cause temporary stress in the system. But as they say ‘No pain, no gain’, for I believe this historic move has the potential of bringing about transformational changes in the sector like better access to credit for farmers, elimination of middlemen, direct transfer of subsidies to farmers and ultimately linking the Indian farmer to the global agricultural market.

Business Standard

Agriculture Scientists should develop techniques adaptable to the needs of marginal farmers: Shri Radha Mohan Singh. The Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh has appealed to the agriculture scientists that they should develop techniques adaptable to the needs of huge number of marginal farmers in the country. The Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister stated this on the occasion of completion of centenary year of IRAR- Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) situated at Kasargod in Kerala today. Shri Radha Mohan Singh also inaugurated the Kisan Mela here and participated in an international seminar on research and development of coconut & plantation crops.

 

IANS

Farmers’ organisations and agriculturists are upset over the decision of the central government to waive the import duty on wheat and bring it down to 10 per cent. Though the move to lower the import duty for wheat follows the recent marginal rise in retail price of wheat flour, which has gone up by Rs 1-2 per kg in different parts of the country after the November 8 demonetisation move announced by the government, farmers are worried that traders will take advantage of the situation to import more wheat while the local produce will not be preferred.