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The Government procurement intervention has helped farmers get remunerative prices for kharif pulses, the secretary said. The IMC directed procuring agencies to continue procurement operations for pulses at MSP plus bonus. Procurement and price support would incentivise farmers to take up cultivation of pulses on a larger scale. For moong dal, the target was set at 250,000 MT but 2,10,864.96 MT was procured at 269 procurement centres.

Business Standard

The government might ask the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) to assess farmers’ income once every five years, instead of the current practice of every 10 years. This is part of the stated objective of doubling farmers’ income by 2021-22. A senior official said the Centre is aiming at the real income of farmers, adjusted for inflation. The base year would be the 2016-17 financial year, ending next month.

The Hans India

It  may be a while before robots and drones are as common as tractors and combine harvesters on farms, but the high-tech tools may soon play a major role in helping feed the world’s rapidly growing population. At the University of Georgia, a team of researchers is developing a robotic system of all-terrain rovers and unmanned aerial drones that can more quickly and accurately gather and analyze data on the physical characteristics of crops, including their growth patterns, stress tolerance and general health.

The Asian Age

The government’s much-touted plan to develop the Northeast region as the country’s organic farming hub has run into rough weather. The charge for the organic farming plan has been taken away from the ministry for development of north-eastern region (DoNER) and given to the agriculture and farmers’ welfare ministry.

The Indian Express

Next month, Uttar Pradesh (UP) will have a new popular government, hopefully with a clear mandate. If UP was a country, with a population reportedly of more than 214 million in 2015 (as per UN population projections), it would have been the fifth most populous country in the world after China, India, US and Indonesia. Holding free and fair elections in such a large state is a proud moment for democracy, which is supposed to be for the people, by the people. One of the key objectives of such a democratically elected government is to adopt policies that can quickly alleviate hunger and poverty and create an environment where people can enjoy peace and prosperity.