Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Central team visits Delta region to assess drought situationedit
“The monsoon failed us while Karnataka denied us precious Cauvery water causing our samba and thalady paddy crops on more than nine lakh acres in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts to wither. Much like our crops, the delta tour of the high-level team constituted by the Supreme Court in October last also did not yield anything significant. We fervently appeal to the Central government through your team that the entire relief amount sought by the State government needs to be sanctioned immediately to provide us some solace and compensation,” desolate farmers pleaded with the team that conducted field inspections in the delta region on Tuesday.
Boosting Tamil Nadu’s agriculture: Case for private investmentedit
With a 62% deficit in the north-east monsoon, Tamil Nadu has been declared a drought affected state. Dr K Ramasamy, vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, estimated a 40% drop in paddy production in the current samba crop due to a huge shrinkage in area under paddy crop — from the normal 9 lakh ha to 3-3.5 lakh ha. This in turn will impact severely on rural incomes. The state’s relief for crop loss may alleviate the distress of farmers to some extent, but there is a need for a paradigm shift to impart health to the state’s agriculture that contributes a mere 8% of the state’s GDP.
Loan for tenants: small reform, big gainedit
More than half of India’s labour force is still connected directly or indirectly to agriculture for its livelihood. This sector gets one-seventh of the national income. Its income share is shrinking rapidly but its employment share is not. Hence the dual challenge is to increase its income share, and increase the rate of employment absorption into industry and services.
Provide incentives for increasing agricultural biotechnology researchedit
Agriculture, which is the largest informal sector and the main driver in the Indian economy, experienced distress due to the demonetisation drive. With the Budget 2017 being preponed, expectations are running high especially in the Indian agricultural sector. Many companies are yet to realise that there is a scope behind it, by which the current scenario can change for good with logical budget allocation and implementations.
Why the farm sector is in dire need of a push from the Union budgetedit
After consecutive years of drought in 2014 and 2015, rural India was looking at a turnaround following the normal monsoon in 2016 but a bumper kharif harvest and the cash crunch following demonetisation of high-value currency notes took a toll on crop prices, especially for vegetables and pulses. Earlier this month the government estimated that agriculture growth will bounce back to 4.1% (in 2016-17) from the low 1.2% and a contraction of 0.2% in 2015 and 2014, respectively. However, this is yet to translate into higher income for farmers.
Enhancing agriculture, horticulture productivity Govt’s priority: Hanjuraedit
Stating that the Government is focused on giving a fillip to the Agriculture and allied sectors, the Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura today said several Centrally and State sector schemes have been introduced to infuse vibrancy in the agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and sericulture sectors.
Budget 2017 Wishlist: Expectations from the agriculture sectoredit
Making Payments Digitallyedit
Farmers mostly buy agriculture inputs like seeds, fertilisers etc with cash or on credit because the technology has not yet fully reached rural areas. In order to enable farmers for cashless transactions NABARD has asked credit societies and cooperative banks to open saving accounts directly or under Jan Dhan. Farmers can buy seeds, fertilisers and other farming equipment through RuPAY cards. 200,000 point-of-sale (PoS) machines are planned to be deployed in 100,000 villages, for NABARD has allotted funds of Rs 120 crore. These PoS machines will be installed by commercial banks. NABARD will give Rs 6,000 per equipment incentive to the commercial banks for purchase of PoS machines.
Farmers want 100% waiver, after Cabinet okays 60-day interest waiver in light of demonetisationedit
Tamil Nadu farmers say that the two-month interest waiver for farm loans, announced by the Union government to mitigate the effects of demonetisation, is inadequate since it doesn’t address crop losses due to drought. Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) in Trichy, Thanjavur and Madurai, want the Centre to grant them 100% waiver in view of the state government declaring the “drought-hit.”