Business Today

Minister of state for agriculture and farmers welfare Sudarshan Bhagat has urged scientists to focus on technologies that will increase productivity with less production costs. Interacting with scientists after inaugurating a Pollen Collection Chamber at Sugarcane Breeding Institute here last evening, he said sugarcane could play a significant role in achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi a vision of doubling income of Indian farmers, provided improved cane varieties were evolved to tackle new challenges like climate change and less water availability.

Business Standard

This e-marketing platform is expected to help farmers in facilitating better price discovery through efficient, transparent and competitive marketing platform; better marketing of agricultural produce; reducing wastages; and getting market related information and with access to large number of buyers from within and outside the State through transparent auction processes.

Deccan Herald

In a scenario, when most of the youth in the country are not finding interest in the agriculture sector, Gold Farm decided to venture into the field. AK Surya Power Magic, a Bengaluru based technology startup that focuses on the farming sector, launched Gold Farm, a mobile application that helps farmers get farming equipment on rental basis, in September 2015. The company, founded by Karthic Ravindranath and Abhilash Thirupathy, was earlier based in Coimbatore, and shifted to Bengaluru seven months ago.

Arunachal Times

Nari-Koyu MLA Kento Rina encouraged the farmers to adopt modern farming technologies to increase crops yield and profitability. The MLA, who inaugurated the two-day Agri Expo-2017 at College of Horticulture & Forestry, Pasighat on Saturday, asked the farmers to obtain advice, technical support and guidance from the scientists to resolve any problem related to agriculture and horticulture farming.

The Hindu

Agriculture growth in the last five years has been negative though it has been compensated by contribution from allied agricultural activities in Telangana, said the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) in a report presented at the credit plan seminar on Friday. Expressing the bank’s perspective with regard to doubling farmers income in the State within six years as enunciated by the Central Government, the bank said a multi-sectoral, multi-agency approach is required to increase productivity in different sectors to increase the income of farmers substantially.

The Hindu

As expected, the cultivation of crops in the ongoing rabi (yaasangi) season, particularly that of paddy, in Telangana has gained momentum in the recent weeks in spite of the adverse impact of the cold wave conditions on the nurseries, and demonetisation.

The Hans India

Maize prices are expected to rule steady in the next half year from now, on account of renewed interest of stock holders and failure of rabi crop in some pockets. However, during the current season, the prices remained at Rs 1400- Rs 1500 per quintal. Despite the drop in the export volumes and bounty harvest in kharif season, the prices remained high due to some extraneous factors. Kharif production was estimated at 17.6 million tonnes while the total production during the current year is expected to touch 22.98 million tonnes as against the demand of 22 million tonnes.

Live Mint

The first green revolution, helmed by visionary scientists like Norman Borlaug and M.S. Swaminathan, born of a near-death food crisis, turned around Indian agriculture through an increase in farming land, development and use of grains hardened against pests, use of fertilizers and pesticides, multiple cropping, higher farmer credit and better irrigation techniques.

Live Mint

Finance minister Arun Jaitley may announce several measures to revamp farm infrastructure and support farmers as the National Democratic Alliance government seeks to win over this politically important section of society before crucial state elections next month, a top official familiar with the matter said.

The Economic Times

Agriculture-technology is emerging as one of the hottest sectors for investors this year, primarily for the mountains of data these startups are able to harvest. Leading venture capital firms including Accel India and SAIF Partners are evaluating several agritech firms to invest in, according to entrepreneurs and investors ET spoke with. IDG Ventures-backed Agrostar, a platform for farmers to procure raw materials, is in advanced talks with Accel to raise $10-12 million.