Yourstory

Amidst the crowd of thousands of enthusiastic farmers who had come to Bengaluru from all over Karnataka for the National Trade Fair organised by the state government was a beaming 32-year-old. Vikram Sankaranarayanan was exuberantly greeting people at the organic millets fair that he helped organise with Karnataka’s Minister of Agriculture, Krishna Byre Gowda.

The New Indian Express

Some entomologists have pointed to a wide range of potential explanations for this CCD: Heavy pesticide use, viruses, GM crops, monoculture crops, mites and even radiation from mobile towers and phones. Laboratory tests show some bees infected with several pathogens and fungi at the same time. Experts fear that the insects’ immune systems collapse due to malnutrition and viruses.

The Economic Times

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya today said there is a need to formulate proper policies to ensure farmers get better prices for produce and asserted that there is no question of taxing their income. “We must have policies in place that would give better prices to farmers. And this is where the NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the state governments and on behalf of the Centre, tries to accomplish (the task of proper) marketing of agricultural produce,” he said.

Hindustan Times 

Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy stirred up a hornet’s nest by proposing tax on agriculture income. Though finance minister Arun Jaitley quickly ruled out taxing farmers, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian later waded into the raging debate by advocating tax on rich farmers. The controversy comes just days after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced Rs 36,350-crore farm loan waiver and Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh set up an expert group to assess the agriculture debt and suggest ways for its waiver to help farmers

The New Indian Express

The NITI Aayog further writes, “However, there is a strong public sensitivity towards the health and environment safety aspects of these technologies in India and in most of other countries, which cannot be ignored.” In India, only GM cotton is cultivated. Activists have been raising seed monopoly by multinational companies as an issue, along with pest-affected crops leading to losses for farmers.

The Wire

As part of efforts to move towards “climate-smart” agriculture, several countries have shared in a meeting in Rome new experiences on how to produce food in ways that help farmers cope with the impacts of climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. The exchange took place at a special 26 April side-event during a session of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation– FAO’s executive Council.

The Times of India 

Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers (MCF), a subsidiary of Zuari Fertilizers and Chemicals, has restarted its operations. The Mangaluru plant had shut-down for annual maintenance from March 3 after reaching the full production of the re-assessed capacity of 3.80 lakh tonnes of urea for 2016-17.