The Times of India

The state government is worried that disruptions caused to the state’s agriculture activities, including sowing, germination and maturity of crops, by climatic change and accompanying erratic weather conditions have become real, but what is more galling is the fact that no immediate solutions are in sight to alleviate farmers’ problems.

The New Indian Express

While the Centre is yet to respond to the demand for assistance to the tune of Rs 22,573 crore for restoration and reconstruction work in the aftermath of the cyclone Vardah, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday approached the Union with another request, this time for a grant of Rs 39,565 crore for drought relief measures in the districts reeling under severe water shortage.

The Financial Express

Pinning hopes on conducive weather conditions prevailing currently and an increase in sowing areas of rabi crops — wheat, pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals — compared to last five years, the government is aiming at a bumper foodgrains output for the ongoing crop year (2016-17) after two consecutive drought years.

Kashmir Images

However, one sector offers a glimmer of hope: Agriculture, and its allied sectors, which registered a jump from 1.2 per cent last year to 4.1 per cent this year. This sector engages almost half the workforce of the country and provides food security. Droughts hurt this sector badly in the last two years. So, the anticipated growth of 4.1 per cent brings much needed relief, although it is far lower than the 5.5 per cent agri-GDP growth NITI Aayog officials were projecting for some time.

The Economic Times

Indian importers have purchased 2.7 million tonnes of wheat from Australia, France and Ukraine so far this fiscal and additional 1.2 million tonnes of grain is expected to arrive by the end of next month.

The Hindu Business Line

Agricultural sustainability is intrinsically linked to food security, and therefore critical to India’s progress and socio-economic development. One of the biggest challenges facing Indian agriculture today is to make it economically remunerative for the farmer, while ensuring that operations are socially sustainable as well as climate-resilient.

The Hans India

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently called for focusing on higher agricultural productivity through the use of latest technology and high-yielding crop varieties to help double farmers’ income by 2022.

DNA India

A cess, unlike tax, is an amount levied and collected to raise funds for a specific purpose. For example, collections from Education cess, Secondary and Higher Education cess are solely used for funding primary, secondary and higher education respectively. In that sense ‘Krishi Kalyan Cess’ (KKC), where Krishi means ‘farming’ and Kalyan means welfare in Hindi, is levied to finance activities for the improvement of agriculture and farmer welfare.

The Times of India

Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh has urged the cooperative sector to adopt cashless methods to ensure transparency on a daily basis.

The Times of India

“There was a consensus on a proposal not to tax on farm equipment and products used by the farmers. Similarly, we have also demanded that there should be no tax on the goods that are used by common people and have extensive consumption. We will sort out the remaining issues in the next meeting scheduled on February 18,” said Etala Rajender.