Business Standard

The Dubai-based DP World and National Investment Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) have signed an MoU to develop projects spanning the port and logistics sectors including opportunities under the Sagarmala initiative, the dedicated freight corridors and logistics infrastructure aimed at reducing agriculture produce losses.

Hindustan Times

In a move to expand its footprint all over the world, country’s largest agri-irrigation solution firm Jain Irrigation Systems Limited (JISL), spread over 2,100-acre land in Jain Hills with more than 10,500 associates and 30 locations across the globe, is planning to expand its existing business verticals and looking for more overseas acquisitions in the near future.

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Syngenta sells its products in more than 90 countries under such brand names as Acuron, Axial, Beacon and Callisto. It sells seeds such as cereals, corn, rice, soybeans and vegetables. The other deals in the sector are a $130 billion proposed merger of Dow Chemical and DuPont, and Bayer’s plan to merge with Monsanto.

The Hindu Business Line

The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Raigad, Maharashtra, is set for a fillip with NABARD Financial Services Limited, a subsidiary of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), initiating its direct lending operations in Raigad in partnership with Swades Foundation. The partnership, according to a release, will enable rural households in Raigad engaged in dairy activities to access the formal credit market at reasonable interest rates.

The Wire

Ramanathan recalls the initial days of euphoria. Suddenly there seemed to be plenty of water. Combined with the green revolution practices of using chemical fertilisers and pesticides, farmers enjoyed good farm income for the first time. However, their success was short-lived. After a decade, their expenditure on the farm inputs increased. Beyond a point, the yield not only did not increase but started decreasing.

The Economic Times

In lockstep with the prime minister’s ‘per drop more crop’ initiative, micro-irrigation companies are expanding in India to water more than half a million hectares of farmland in the sowing seasons.

Scroll

Given the state of affairs, if provided with small pumps, and extending it to regions beyond South Kamrup, it is entirely possible to double the income of small and marginal farmers in Assam. The government might want to intervene to reach this large number of farmers, who are still facing distress in agriculture and migrating in large numbers to cities, with a solution as simple as a small water pump.

Business Standard

Over the last few months, the Indian twittersphere has been awash with citizens concerned about government websites leaking millions of individual digital ID numbers. On May 1, the Centre for Internet and Society, a multi-disciplinary think tank in Bangalore, released a report indicating that faulty information security practices have exposed as many as 135 million ID numbers, leaked from four government databases.

The Hindu 

Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Sudarshan Bhagat has said that the fisheries sector has a lot of potential to bring about nutritional security among the poor and malnourished farm families and double their income. He was addressing a meeting during a visit to ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) on Friday to review its activities.

The Times of India 

The ‘rice bowl’ of Kerala that produces more than 50% of the total paddy produced in the state has taken up an ambitious upland and fallow land paddy cultivation in the district with central and state government assistance. The agriculture department, encouraged by the success of upland paddy cultivation taken up in over 200 hectares last year, is planning to bring over 2,000 hectares during the current pre-monsoon season of April-May.

Moneycontrol 

The Cabinet has approved the restructuring of the scheme for agro-marine processing and development of agro-processing clusters (SAMPADA). Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the SAMPADA scheme is going to be an overarching umbrella scheme.

Daily Post

The Modi government’s fight against black money will be rendered incomplete if the agricultural sector is not brought within its ambit. Secondly, it hardly makes sense to keep big farmers and agricultural companies out of purview of the tax department. Companies like Kaveri Seeds and multinational Monsanto India claimed exemption of Rs 186 crore and Rs 94 crore as agricultural income in the year 2014-15.

The Hindu Business Line

Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation has completed the process of demerging its core business — fertiliser and technical ammonium nitrate — into a wholly-owned subsidiary Smartchem Technologies.