Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
KCR’s blueprint for betterment of farming sectoredit
Laying out a virtual blueprint to pull the farming sector in the country out of distress, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Sunday made a strong pitch for various measures including division of the country into crop colonies for specific crops based on agro-climatic regions to achieve the objective of doubling farmers’ income in five years.
Govt aims 40 per cent sown area under insurance cover in 2017-18edit
The government is aiming to bring 40 per cent of gross sown area of 194.4 million hectare under crop insurance schemes in 2017-18 season beginning July. In 2016-17 crop year, about 26.28 per cent or 51.1 million hectare of gross area under crops was insured. At present, crops are being insured under two schemes: Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) and Pradhan Manthri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). The PMFBY was launched last year.
Overuse of groundwater for irrigation is leading India to disaster. Here’s what India needs to doedit
A graphene-based membrane produced by the Graphene Centre at the University of Manchester promises to remove over 97% of salt from water, enabling farmers to use far more brackish water for irrigation than they could have done before. It has been demonstrated to be scalable as well.
Nano-technology will soon make GM obsolete: M.S. Swaminathanedit
Noted agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan, hailed as the mentor of the Green Revolution that saw India achieve self-sufficiency in foodgrain, feels GM technology, which has generated much heat in the country, will soon become “obsolete” with the advent of nano-technology and other solutions.
He also felt that it was “very important” that the loans of farmers across the country be waived — as the new Uttar Pradesh government has done — due to the prolonged drought, climatic abe ..
Why crop burning may continue this year tooedit
A few patches of black disturb the golden spread of ripe wheat ready for harvesting in Haryana’s Karnal district. These are tracts that were set on fire recently after the standing crop was reaped to ready the field for paddy planting in the monsoon.
Technology in Agriculture
Sonalika ITL sets up new fully integrated assembly line for tractors INDUSTRY Sonalika ITL sets up new fully integrated assembly line for tractorsedit
Tractor manufacturer Sonalika ITL has opened a new state-of-the-art assembly line at the company’s existing plant in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. The new manufacturing capacity has come up in an area of 225,000 square metres. With the inclusion of the new fully integrated multi-model assembly line, Sonalika ITL sees its total production capacity being scaled up by 200,000 units annually. The older line, with a capacity of 100,000, will now cater exclusively to exports, which, in FY2016-17, clocked 12,241 units (+29.3%).
Greaves Cotton: Picking up steamedit
Improved realisations from the new BS-IV compliant engines, sanguine outlook for the farm equipment division and the company’s efforts to shore up its higher margin after-market business make the stock of Greaves Cotton (GCL) attractive.