Live Mint

With only few days left before the election code of conduct comes into force for civic and zilla parishad polls, Maharashtra government on Tuesday took three major decisions for paddy, soyabean, and tur farmers. Maharashtra’s revenue, agriculture marketing, and relief and rehabilitation departments announced a financial incentive of Rs200 per quintal for paddy farmers, direct monetary grant of Rs200 per quintal for soyabean farmers, and ordered a revised survey to measure the damage to tur crop in parts of Vidarbha and Marathwada.

The Financial Express

The Centre’s demonetisation drive did not have any impact on rabi sowing and prices of crops like paddy, soyabean and maize, Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand has said. “Tentative estimates of area sown are provided by the Ministry of Agriculture each Friday of the week. This data shows that up to November 11, which can be considered as start of demonetisation, rabi sowing was completed on 14.6 million hectare area which was 5.7 per cent lower than the normal crop coverage.

The Hindu Business Line

The fact that Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are in the grip of a severe drought has somehow not received the national attention it deserves. Both the south-west and north-east monsoons have failed these States, raising fears of farm distress. Rabi acreage under rice, oilseeds, coarse grains, maize and pulses has fallen steeply in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kerala government expects a major drop in winter rice output, with over 7,000 hectares of farmland in Palakkad district and another 4,700 hectares in Thiruvananthapuram district being affected.

NDTV

Madhya Pradesh aims to raise production of pulses by 60 percent in the next three years to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi achieve his goal of making the country self-sufficient in the staple, the state’s chief minister said. India, the world’s biggest consumer of pulses, faces an acute shortage of the protein-rich food, forcing the country to fork out about $2.65 billion a year to import the scarce commodity from Canada, Austria, and Ethiopia among others.

Bangalore Mirror

Stating that the policy decision to provide free or subsidised electricity has been a key driver for widespread groundwater exploitation, estimates by ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Ballari, reveal that in Karnataka, groundwater depletion has forced farmers to drill up to depths of 200 to 300 metres, costing about Rs 2.5-3 lakh for a successful bore-well.

The Economic Times

Playing down the impact of demonetisation on agriculture, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said even post demonitisation the growth story of agriculture is intact as there is small and insignificant effect on growth of output as well as farmers’ income since November 8 when the government decided to cancel the legal tender of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, thus rendering 86% of the currency redundant.

Business Standard

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed his happiness at the significant progress in partnership with Israel in the agriculture sector, an official said. “Indian farmers had successfully adapted to the knowledge and expertise imparted by the Israeli Centres of Excellence. The new agriculture work plan would also promote cooperation in the areas of water and dairy,” he told visiting Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel in a meeting on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, said a Ministry of External Affairs statement.

Live Mint

After two successive years of drought, 2016 was turning out to be a relatively better year for farmers till 8 November. The decision to scrap high-value currency notes, announced on that day, seems to have hit the farm sector the hardest. While credible and timely data on farm incomes and output is hard to come by, a look at the trends in farm prices suggest that the sector may have been adversely affected by the note ban. As the chart below shows, the prices of farm products, especially that of perishables such as fruits and vegetables, fell sharply in November.

The Times of India

Traders at the APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee) yard in Bengaluru’s Yeshwantpur say their businesses are back to normal – or almost normal – after some disruption in the months of November and December following demonetisation. The APMC yard is the wholesale trading hub for foodgrains and pulses.

The Pioneer

About 77 per cent of rabi season sowing target has been achieved in Chhattisgarh so far, according to officials. Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal informed that the Agriculture Department has made preparations for taking up sowing activity in  18.30 lakh hectares of land  for sowing seeds for food grains, oilseeds, pulses and vegetables.