The New Indian Express

The untimely rain has brought misery to chilli farmers who are already hit by the steep fall in the market prices. Sri Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Market Yard has received record stocks of chillies after the announcement of `1,500 per quintal compensation by the State government and `6,250 MIP by the Centre. There is no space for additional chilli stocks in the market yard.

The Hans India

According official sources, the farmers took up tomatoes in about 18,000 acres but unconfirmed reports say the crop area crossed 25,000 acres in Chittoor district. The crop was taken up by small farmers under bore-well irrigation with a fond hope of a getting a good revenue this time like last year summer in which tomatoes sold Rs 80-90 per kg. Enhanced awareness among the farmers on crop management coupled with the micro irrigation method opted by the farmers saw they reaping a good harvest this time despite very limited water sources.

The New Indian Express

“The state government made the real culprits in the incident go scot free. But, it arrested the innocent farmers, which is shame on its part, ”The state BJP chief, who came to take part in the 12th parliamentary booth committee meeting of the party held here on Wednesday, accused the State government of adopting a vindictive attitude against farmers and trying to silence their voices by framing them in false cases. “We would not rest until all the farmers all released and cases are withdrawn,” he said.

Hindustan Times

State BJP president Raosaheb Danve on Wednesday kicked up a new controversy when he said farmers have not stopped complaining even though the state had procured large quantities of their tur dal produce. Marathi news channels aired clips of Danve speaking at a meeting of BJP workers in Jalna.

The Morung Express

India’s total food grains production in 2016-17 was estimated at a “record” 273.38 million tonnes, according to its third advance estimates, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.

Nagaland Post

Speaking at the programme district agriculture officer, Longleng B. Imti Tzüdir highlighted the participants on the importance of SHGs and encouraged them to take up activities which would uplift the rural economy. He also informed that the Department would provide technical support whenever necessary. Training on package and practices of large cardamom and technical support was provided by facilitator A.I Bongkam Phom.

Free Press Journal

The rich farmer is a very rare institution. It is not the norm. It is only a rare exception and therefore, at a time when you need to support agriculture because of the distress, this is hardly the time to deflect the issue and start taxing agriculture. This is not the time. They are under distress, he said. The Finance Minister said farmers should be helped and not taxed. The government is very clear (on that), he added.

The Hindu

The government will adopt the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme to pay the support price for paddy farmers from next season, Kerala Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar has said. The money will be immediately credited to farmers’ bank accounts electronically to reduce delay in payment. The Agriculture and Finance Departments are jointly executing the scheme, the Minister said, adding Rs 1,039 crore was given for paddy procurement.

Live mint

While the initial idea was presented in 2013, it took a while for the team to get things moving. Bhooshan took the help of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation’s IT division in designing the application. But while the idea was in place, data collection and updates were a challenge.

First Post

Then as mentioned by Sudarshan Bhagar, minister of state in the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare (in reply to Lok Sabha unstarred question no 6200 on 11 April 2017), scientists of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) are involved in research to develop the new varieties of pulses crops. A total 19 high yielding varieties of pulses including 6 of pigeon-pea, 5 of urad-bean and 8 of moong-bean have been developed by BARC to date.

Free Press Journal

Agro-chemical firm Crystal Crop Protection expects 20 per cent increase in turnover this fiscal at about Rs 1,600 crore and plans to launch an initial public offer (IPO) early 2018 to raise funds for expansion. The company plans to file the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for IPO with market regulator Sebi by the end of this year, Managing Director Ankur Aggarwal said.

Business Standard

After subdued for some, chana (gram) price has managed to stay above minimum support price of Rs 4,000 in wholesale spot markets. Though, the rise is seen in past one month is not causing panic, unlike many pulses specially Tur, chana is not in that bad position so far as farmers returns are concerned. However, looking projection of Chana production in 2016-17 at over 9 million tonnes, the firming up is cheerful for farmers.

The Financial Express

The Maharashtra government’s move to relax norms and deregulate agriculture markets seems to have paid off. In the last couple of years, private markets in the state have earned around Rs 4,200 crore in terms of revenue while direct marketing licences earned some Rs 4,800 crore worth revenue in the same period. Until now in the traditional system, farmers sold produce to Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs,) whereas the government’s move to deregulate markets was meant to boost direct retail sales of fruits and vegetables to ensure stronger farm-to-fork linkages and in the process ensure better prices for producers and lower rates for consumers as well.

The Economic Times

Indian agrochemicals companies are looking to replicate the success that the country’s generic drug makers have had with medicines going off patent. They want to exploit the opportunity opening up with the patent expiry of several significant agrochemicals in the North and Latin American markets. Falling commodity prices have been driving US and Latin American farmers to shift to generic agrochemicals over the past few years from expensive patented products, said industry representatives and analysts.

The New Indian Express

“We have certain parameters in this regard that include checking the steps being taken to preserve forest lands, the misuse of forest land for other purpose, whether the fund allotted for afforestation drive was diverted for any other purposes and so on. Our objective was to look into the implementation of Swachh Bharath programme as well as to conduct a study on the impact of genetically modified (GM) seeds on the environment,” said a member on condition of anonymity. In the wake of rampant complaints of encroachments in Munnar, the committee also considered grievances of the public and NGO representatives.

The Tribune

A racket of fake BT cotton seed sellers has surfaced in Muktsar, Fazilka and Mansa districts. A seed dealer has been arrested, while action has been initiated to cancel the licence of others in the three districts. The kingpin is yet to be identified. Fake seeds seized from the three districts bore the mark of RCH 773 of Tamil-Nadu-based Rasi Seeds Private Limited. Officials said the seeds were in demand because of high yield last year.

The Financial Express

India continued to rank among the top five countries in GM crop plantings because of GM cotton, whose insect-resistant traits are all sourced from Monsanto, but that brings little cheer. Area under GM cotton in India declined marginally to 10.8 million hectares last year from 11.6 million hectares the previous year, but the earnings of Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (MMB) have been impacted more than proportionately. MMB licenses the genetically-engineered Bt traits which are poisonous to bollworms, a family of deadly cotton pests.

Business Standard

Monsanto Mahyco Biotech (India), a joint venture of Mahyco Seeds and Monsanto, licenses its patented BollgardII cotton seed technology to domestic seed companies, for a royalty fee. Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-supportive entity, has opposed any move to commercialise even locally produced BT cotton.

NetIndia123

A warming climate could affect the stability of alpine grasslands in the Tibetan Plateau, threatening the ability of farmers and herders to maintain the animals that are key to their existence, warned a team of researchers from the US and China.

Tribune India

PAHAL organised a one-day training programme for the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices, irrigation practices and new technology available for optimum use of water for agriculture, with the help of the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) regional office in Chandigarh.

DTNext.in

Integrated agriculture extension centres at four locations in Namakkal district estimated at Rs 6 crore and another 14 such centres in six godowns in different parts of the state were inaugurated by Chief Minister Edapadi K Palanisamy through video conferencing recently.

The Tech Portal

Seedstars has announced the top eight seed-stage startups that will compete in Delhi to represent India at the Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland. As pre-selections were brought to an end, the most disruptive tech startups were chosen and invited to participate in a dynamic pitch event hosted by Seedstars World at 91Springboard Okhla on 13th May.

RML Agtech, a technology-based farm solutions provider, has launched indigenous version of Variable Rate Technology (VRT) to enhance the soil nutrients and productivity for Indian farmers. The application helps farmers to decide the quantity of nutrients required for a plant. It is also a tool to know how many plants can be used on a piece of land based on the soil nutrient value. The technology is popular among the developed countries.

Business Standard

The government is expected to soon allow commercial release of three genetically modified (Bt) and indigenously developed varieties of cotton seed, for the first time. These were grown using the now off-patent Bollgard-1 technology (BG-1).

Livemint

In a country of 12 crore farmers, it is surprising that technology is not as focused on the development of agriculture as it could be. The knowledge available to the urban agricultural researcher is difficult to transmit to the farmers in the hinterlands. It is with this agenda that Neeru Bhooshan started working on creating an app for information sharing with farmers and industry stakeholders alike.

Financial Express 

Smart city Tel Aviv has joined hands with Thane to replicate in the Maharashtrian city the civic transformation the Israeli capital underwent using digital technologies. Isareli Ambassador Daniel Carmon said this after inaugurating his country’s pavilion at the 3rd Smart Cities India 2017 Expo at the Pragati Maidan here. When asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel, the envoy just said, “It will take place very shortly.”

The Hindu Business Line

The Haryana government will set up 140 consolidated pack houses across the state for packing, storage, processing and marketing of vegetable and horticultural products on commercial and industrial level. The venture will be under the Rs. 510.54 crore horticultural village project. Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department, Abhilaksh Likhi, while informing this here today, said that 20,000 farmers of the state will be associated with the scheme.

The Hindu Business Line 

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) expects its total disbursements to grow by 30-45 per cent in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during the current fiscal. “We want to increase our disbursements to the level of ₹18,000-20,000 crore during this fiscal against ₹13,792 crore last year,” S Nagoor Ali Jinnah, Chief General Manager of the bank, said here.

Financial Express 

Talk to executives at Monsanto India about agricultural biotechnology and one sees boredom, even fatigue. Area under genetically-modified crops increased to 181.1 million hectares worldwide in 2016, or 5.4 million hectares more the previous year (but a little short of the 2014 acreage), according to ISAAA, an advocacy body for GM crops of which Norman Borlaug, credited with initiating the Green Revolution, is the founding patron.

The Hindu Business Line

With the food sector being governed by multiple ministries — agriculture, food processing, and consumer affairs — a situation of ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ seems to be emerging. Acknowledging that policy regulations governing the sector are scattered between various ministries, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, said: “There is a need for an overarching body such as NITI Aayog or something like the National Highways Authority of India, which can develop a roadmap and a long-term plan for growth of the sector. Create an authority which will help synergise the schemes of all the ministries.”