ANS

A new variety of groundnut that can be grown in summers has been developed by agro-scientists of the Chandra Shekhar Azad Agriculture Technology University (CSA), Kanpur.

The Times of India

The fear that rich farmers may corner a substantial portion of the largesse under the farm loan waiver scheme is not without basis. Statistics accessed by TOI from Maharashtra government’s co-operation department shows that just 17% of all defaulting farmers account for 46% of total amount owed to banks in the rural sector.

The Times of India

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged that Fadnavis’ claim that the loan waiver scheme would benefit 89 lakh farmers. “We feel that Fadnavis is misleading farmers. We have analyzed the CM’s statement and the order issued by the cooperation department, since farmers, who had taken loans between April 2012 and June 2016 have been excluded from the scheme. Less than 10 lakh farmers will get the benefit and amount (of loans written off) will not be more than Rs 8,000 crore,” Sawant said.

Business Standard

Hands-on, process-oriented approach is needed to meet the challenges of the sector agriculture sector. The emergence of contract farming via revolutionary farm-firm linkages can create unparalleled value addition here. Following announcements by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in this year’s Union Budget to create a new legislation as a part of the reform measures for agriculture, the NITI Aayog (erstwhile Planning Commission) is preparing an outline structure for the proposed Contract Farming Law, to connect farmers with all stakeholders.

Bloomberg Quint

Recent episodes of farmers’ distress in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have reopened debates on two fronts; the problem of bumper supply in the market, and the public policy response in terms of a loan waiver to manage the agrarian crisis. Loan waivers bring temporary relief, but as Ashok Gulati points out in a recent article, waivers do not address fix the markets.

The Times of India

As per the budgetary provisions made for the loan waiver, the Punjab government has taken over the loans of up to Rs 2 lakh of 10.25 lakh small and marginal farmers (with land less than five acres). Out of these, around 8.75 lakh farmers have an average loan of Rs 2 lakh each and around 1.5 lakh a debt of over Rs 11-12 lakh. They will also get a relief of Rs 2 lakh each. Loans of around 8,000 farmers who committed suicide will be completely waived off.

The Hindu

“The important change is that farmers who do not have any crop insurance coverage as per the new guidelines will not be eligible to make any future claim for compensation from the government,” says Deputy Director of Agriculture (Credit) H. Suresh. He adds that the agriculture department, with the support of Krishi Bhavans, will strive to improve farmers’ participation in the project as it is the basic requirement to process future claims.

The Indian Express

Amid reports of farmers’ suicides even after announcemrny of farm loan waiver, CM Amarinder Singh on Thursday met representatives of farmers’ unions and asked them to tell farmers that their loans had been waived off. As some expressed displeasure saying that the loan waiver was too inadequate, Amarinder told them that a Cabinet sub-committee had already been formed to speak to the Arthiyas to resolve the issue of non-institutional loans.

The Hindu Business Line

As the country gets ready for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout on July 1, farmers are angry as the new tax regime would mean a higher burden. The GST Council has put fertilisers in the 12 per cent bracket, which is likely to impose a burden of Rs. 24,000 crore on farmers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Besides the hike in the tax rate on agricultural pumpsets, sprayers and drip irrigation implements, too, would make life difficult for farmers.

India Today

The Agriculture Production Commissioner would be the PSF chairperson, while the principal secretaries of agriculture, finance, cooperatives, horticulture and food processing, food and civil supplies, animal husbandry, water resource and fisheries departments would be its members. Besides, the managing directors of State Warehousing and Logistics Corporation, State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd and State Agriculture Marketing Board would also be members of the new body.

Down To Earth

Climate change, which for India is predicted to result in higher and more erratic precipitations, will have negative impacts on the productivity of important crops such as rice and wheat. Beyond general climate change trends, what is more critical is the need to address the impact of climate variability and extreme weather events. The latter has an immediate impact on supply, causing price shocks and volatility that spread across sectors and borders.

Business Standard

Informed sources said that the authority, under the chairmanship of R R Hanchinal, passed the resolution in its meeting held recently after receiving complaints from the users of GM cotton seeds, popularly known as Bt cotton, about the arbitrariness of the NoC stipulation, which was leading to a monopoly by its developer Monsanto. Based on its earlier decision, the authority obtained a legal opinion that indicated that the NoC stipulation was contravening the legal provisions and giving an undue advantage to trait developers like Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMBL).

DNA

Karnataka — preceded by UP, Punjab and Maharashtra — is the fourth state to have waived off loans taken by farmers.

Hindustan Times

For families that live on the fringe of forests and interact frequently with wildlife 71% lose crops to animals, 17% lose livestock and 3% report injury or death, according to a new study that looked at the fate of 5196 families living around 11 wildlife reserves.

Business Standard

Meanwhile, the government asked seed companies to reduce the prices of all hybrid seeds (except Bt cotton) by 10 per cent with effect from June 19. The move is aimed at providing relief to farmers whose profits are shrinking due to higher production costs while realizations have softened due to bumper harvest.

The Times of India

To ensure that benefits of the state government’s loan waiver programme reach genuine farmers, a social audit of the beneficiaries will be carried out. Giving this information to ToI, additional chief secretary, finance, Anoop Pandey said a list of the beneficiaries will be posted at the tehsil offices all over the state. He said nearly 86 lakh farmers have already been shortlisted and the government would disburse nearly Rs 36,000 crore.

Telangana Today

The impending Goods and Service Tax is going to leave an adverse impact on farming sector, which is already reeling under crisis-like situation due to crop failures and unreasonable prices for produce. This has worried farmers who are struggling to cope with losses they incur every year. They have demand the Union government to consider revising the tax on agriculture sector.

The Pioneer

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is all set to trim the misgivings about the State Government’s farm debt waiver on Thursday. After announcing the much-awaited debt relief to the State farming community past week, the Chief Minister would meet all the farmer organisations of the State to elucidate the same. Farm loan waiver —karja, kurki khatam — is the major pre-poll promise of the Congress party. Punjab Government had recently passed the Bill to do away with the kurki (mortgag.

The Times of India

The state government had also announced a concession for farmers regularly repaying loans. But these farmers have had to repay loans for 2015-16 and 2016-17 till June 30 to be eligible for the concession of a maximum of Rs 25,000 or minimum of Rs 15,000. Farmers groups were unhappy with the eligibility criteria and said the government’s decision was an eye-wash. “These criteria will keep away many people from the waiver,” said Ajit Navale of the Kisan Sabha.

First Post

Hundreds of farmers from nearby villages took part in the protest. They threw 500 bags of potato at the Tahsil office gate. The farmers called off the protest after sub-divisional magistrate Garima Singh assured them that the government would be apprised of their demands. “The demands of the farmers include MSP of at least Rs 1,200 per quintal for potato, subsidy in agriculture inputs and pension to every farmer,” Singh said.

Hindustan Times

State agriculture department commissioner Vikas Sitaramji Bhale said the onset of monsoon has brought cheers among the farmer community. “So far the sowing of kharif crops has been more than 20%, which will increase in coming days with more rains in the state,” he told Hindustan Times. Agriculture department officials said the target for kharif 2017 is 162.16 lakh hectare and sowing has been done on 31.92 lakh hectare, which is more than 19.7%.

The Financial Express

Under OMSS, FCI releases wheat and rice to bulk buyers from time to time for increasing domestic supplies during a lean period, which keeps the prices under check. Although under OMSS bulk buyers participate in weekly auction to buy wheat, FCI still incurs a subsidy as economic cost of procuring and storing wheat is Rs 2408.67 per quintal for the current fiscal.

YourStory

Farmers suicide, droughts, debt, crop failure, and poverty— these words echo the massive scale of problems faced by the agrarian community in India. However, technological innovations, agriculture startups and aggregators, primarily driven by the youth, have helped the farmer community to mitigate some of these challenges.

Business Standard Hindustan Times

Nearly 70% of India’s 90 million agricultural households spend more than they earn on average each month, pushing them towards debt, which is now the primary reason in more than half of all suicides by farmers nationwide, according to an India Spend analysis of various government data.

The Financial Express

According to a commerce ministry official, “Only those pesticides should be used by farmers which are recommended by the state agriculture universities for application on paddy crop. In addition, the correct dose of the recommended pesticide.” The official said the country is largest exporter of rice in the world since last five years. “However, export of rice has faced problems in last few years in different markets like USA, EU and Iran due to detection of residues of pesticides exceeding prescribed MRL,” he noted.

The Hans India

The bulk of the so-called agricultural subsidies go to fertiliser companies so that they produce and sell fertilisers at cheap rates to farmers. The rest of the food subsidy, if we can call it that, is the purchase of food for distribution. So, there is an extremely unequal playing field out there. It needs to be understood. It is time we talked about the real cost of our food, about how to benefit the farmers who grow our food.

The Hindu

At Kodangudi village in Mayiladuthurai Union, he inspected the fields where mechanised transplanting was already carried out and where the crops were in good condition. Mr. Bedi visited the fields of a farmer P. Kalyanam at Arupathy village in Sembanarkoil Union. He instructed the officials to expedite the works on constructing an agricultural extension centre at Thirukkadaiyur. He also gave away benefits to 40 farmers under the special kuruvai package during the visit.

The Indian Express

Traders fret over government move to credit tax only on stock less than 1-yr old NDA has disappointed people on agriculture front as well: Mani Shankar Aiyar Haryana farmers to gherao Niti Aayog office on July 3 Greenhouse Farmer Association (GFA), a registered body of more than 600 greenhouse farmers in Gujarat, Tuesday alleged that the Greenhouse scheme of Gujarat government has failed due to lack of prior planning and has left hundreds of farmers in debt.

Live mint

To protest the proposed ‘high GST rates’ on fertilisers and pesticides in the country, fertilisers and pesticide dealers in Punjab on Tuesday kept their shops closed. They also submitted memorandums addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, through their respective Deputy Commissioners, demanding repeal of the decision in the interests of dealers and farmers alike.

The Hindu

He said the government has already borrowed money to finance several other development works. Mr. Fadnavis was speaking to a delegation of farmers from around 40 villages, including Puntambe in Ahmednagar district, which had turned out to be the nerve centre of the farmers’ agitation earlier this month. The delegation met him at the Sahyadri guest house on Tuesday afternoon.

Live mint

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that the state government will continue to make long-term investments in the farm sector to double the income of farmers in five years. Fadnavis told a delegation of farmers that the state government had already invested around Rs18,000 crore in the farm sector in two-and-a-half years to expand irrigation network, crop insurance coverage, and establish market-linkages for farm produce.

Bangalore Mirror

Agricultural scientists from Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR) at Hesaraghatta have certified jackfruit as perhaps the only vegetable free from pesticides, triggering huge demand for the fruit. As a result, villages around Toobagere near Doddaballapur and Dobspet have witnessed large-scale jackfruit plantation. Noted agriculture activist Sri Padre told BM that of late people began to understand the importance of jackfruit. ICAR-IIHR had organised two-day interaction of scientists, farmers and general public about jackfruit.

Business Standard Bloomberg Quint

Cotton output in India, the world’s biggest grower, may increase to a three-year high as some farmers plant more of the fiber on better returns compared to other crops. Production will probably climb to 37.5 million to 38 million bales in the harvesting season starting October 1, from 34.1 million bales a year earlier if the monsoon is normal in main growing areas, said Nayan Mirani, president of the Cotton Association of India.

The Financial Express

The single objective appears to be to support Monsanto, an MNC with deep pockets, and target M Prabhakar Rao, the chairman & managing director of Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd (NSL), who opposed Monsanto’s monopolistic business practices, and also levelling upon him personal aspersions in the ongoing legal matter, which is sub judice before the High Court.

Core Sector Communique

The World Economic Forum’s annual list of emerging technologies includes new techniques that allow drinking water to be harvested from air, and “artificial leaves” that convert CO2 into fuel; other technologies include applications for medicine, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and farming.

Tech Crunch

Infarm, a 40-plus person startup based in Berlin is developing an “indoor vertical farming” system capable of growing anything from herbs, lettuce and other vegetables, and even fruit.

The Times of India

“Boosting the levels of this chloroplast signal also restores tolerance in drought-sensitive plants and extended their drought survival by about 50 per cent,” said Kai Chan from ANU. Boosting the chloroplast signal, by breeding, genetic or agronomic strategies, could be the key to help plants preserve water and boost drought tolerance, he said.

MINT

It’s finally starting to look like the world wheat glut has peaked. Dry, hot weather from the US to Europe is taking its toll on crops, and the US government is forecasting global output will fall for the first time in five seasons.

The Indian Express

Agriculture and water management expert Madhav Chitale believes a strong rural banking network replacing the existing pre-Independence-era money lending system in Maharashtra can go a long way in giving fresh impetus to the rural economy and stop exploitation of the poor and needy farmers.

MINT

Ashok Gulati, Former chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices; Abhijit Sen, former adviser (agriculture) in the Planning Commission: and Neelkanth Mishra. India equity strategist for Credit Suisse, answer these questions, Gulati believes in the next few months this farm loan waiver issue is going to be a contagion which other states will also have to follow.

The Economic Times

India’s first government-owned co-working space for startups is set to come up in Mangaluru, offering cutting-edge technology such as 3D printing and new-age digital infrastructure, such as high-speed Internet.  It would have several specialised incubation centres, and 20 tinkering labs for schools aimed at encouraging the creation of innovative solutions in areas such as agriculture, health and education.

The Times of India

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said that the BJP government in the state has disbursed the highest ever compensation of Rs 2,400 crore to the farmers. Such an amount had not be disbursed to farmers in the past 48 years, he claimed.

The Indian Express

From July 1, farmers will pay a flat 12 per cent goods and services tax (GST) on fertilisers, as against current levies ranging from 1.03 per cent to 7.03 per cent depending on various states. But the big question that people in the industry are asking is this: How will the higher duty be recovered from farmers for an estimated 65 lakh tonnes (lt) of bagged fertiliser material worth around Rs 9,500 crore, on which the existing maximum retail price (MRP) has already been printed?

Hindustan Times

The Centre had announced another loan waiver in 2008, which was fraught with irregularities. This time, the state will train officials from the banks and its cooperation department on the procedures to stop misappropriation of funds. And to avoid confusion among farmers, a government resolution (GR) formally announcing which of them are eligible for a loan will be issued at the earliest.

The Hans India

Taxing agricultural income has been an emotive subject in the Indian context. However, taxing agricultural income at minimal rates of about 5% can help rather than hurt our poor farmers. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has categorically stated that government has no plan to tax agricultural income. This followed a proposal by Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy to levy such a tax.

Hindustan Times

Speaking at Aurangabad, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also took credit for the government’s decision to grant a farm loan waiver in the state. “The Shiv Sena managed to get a farm loan waiver out of people who equated demands for a loan waiver to being a fashion statement. The government had to grant a loan waiver because farmers and the Shiv Sena came together,” he said.

The Hans India

Vegetable prices are increasing at the Vijayawada Rythu Bazaars making the common man think twice before he buys them. Prices of most of the vegetables, which are used daily like tomato, green chilli, coriander leaves, brinjal and carrot were on the rise when compared to the previous month.

MINT

The practice of consuming millets as part of the daily diet is not new to India. “Millets had been the major staple food in central India, Southern India and hilly regions of Uttarakhand for centuries till the time of the Green Revolution. After the advent of high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat during the 1970s, millets got sidelined from our food basket,” says Vilas A. Tonapi, director of the Indian Institute of Millets Research in Hyderabad. The reason for this is lack of awareness about the nutritional benefits.

The Times of India

“Cotton buying by mills has reduced noticeably as mills are preferring to keep minimum stock,” said Nirav Patel of a city-based cotton export house. “The purchases are expected to remain low till things become clear after the GST is rolled out.” Patel said that purchases from even exporters had declined as there is still confusion over whether exporters will get duty draw back on cotton purchased before June 30.

The Indian Economist

Transgenic varieties of seeds have increasingly incensed the fervent discourse on genetically modified (GM) crops. This time, it’s genetically modified mustard that’s making the news.

The Hindu

The threat of substandard seeds and other agricultural inputs making their way into the market appears to have returned to haunt farmers at the threshold of the sowing season. Unauthorised sale of seed has been detected in Kallur and Khammam rural mandals. Spurious chilli seed had played havoc with thousands of farmers in the district last year causing extensive crop losses on little over 15,000 acres in 12 mandals of the district.

Nyoooz

On behalf of the farming community, he urged the government to keep the agriculture goods and equipment out of GST. He said since Punjab was an agriculture-based economy, the state government should take up the cause of farmers with the Centre. Instead of giving Rs 446.85 subsidy on a bag of DAP manure, the government will give it to the farmers at full price and also add GST charges.

Bangalore Mirror

IISc’s latest will capture images of crops to help spot maladies.

The Hindu Business Line

While the chemical, which is used in Monsanto’s flagship Roundup weedicide, has been declared safe for public use by the European Chemical Agency (Echa), there have been petitions signed by citizens seeking a ban on the chemical in the EU market. Such cases may risk growth.

The Hindu

Most often when the farmers failed to repay the loans, the banks recovered it by auctioning the jewellery. In spite of the Madras High Court direction to waive off loans and RBI (Relief Measures by Banks in Areas Affected by Natural Calamities) Directions, 2016, asking banks to restructure loans of farmers affected by drought, banks have continued to send notices for loan repayment to farmers who failed to return crop loans borrowed last year.

Hindustan Times

Thackeray met farmers from Puntamba village of Ahmednagar district and Nashik district on Sunday. These farmers had taken the lead during the strike, which started on June 1, demanding loan waiver(HT) Farmers’ outfits rejected the government’s decision to waive farm loans worth Rs 34,000 crore and plan to resort to protests after July 26. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray hinted that the party will support the agitation and force the government to their meet demands.

MINT

Global investors have pumped in millions of dollars through venture capital and private equity investments, which have grown more than five times in the last five years. The sale of The Climate Corp. in 2013 to Monsanto, in nearly a billion dollar deal, was the tipping point for the sector in attracting global investment. India, too, has seen a sharp increase in entrepreneurial and investment activity in the last four years, with the number of start-ups in the FaaS space doubling during this period. Each of the top three start-ups reaches out to 400,000 farmers on average while investment in the sector currently stands at around $80-$90 million.

The Hindu

But over time it has been supplanted by Bt cotton. This has not only supplanted the indigenous cotton variety but has also resulted in native cotton seeds disappearing from the market. Farmers are thus forced to procure them from MNCs who, reportedly, manipulate prices.

Outlook

The most common grievance of farmers against MSP (minimum support price) levels fixed by the CACP (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices) is that the price falls below the cost of production. What CACP does is to set MSP at such a level that it is likely to be higher than the paid-out cost with most farmers and higher than the full cost of C2 (cost of cultivation) that includes imputed cost of land, labour and capital for relatively efficient farmers.

News18 The Indian Express

At present, the total area in the country under irrigation is 45 per cent and the production in irrigated area is double as compared to the rain fed area and endeavour would be to increase the irrigated area by seven per cent, which would imply that the production would be enhanced by 14 per cent, said Romesh Chand, member of NITI Aayog.

The New Indian Express

Monsanto, a GM company, is the supplier of GM Cotton seeds in India. Notably, Bayer is set to merge with Monsanto. Large international GM companies have deep pockets—the influence they wield on the research labs and agriculture universities in India is enormous. The tobacco industry in the US was able to influence all concerned to turn a benign eye on the adverse effects of tobacco, and delay firm governmental action for over 70 years!

Business Standard

The Haryana government has decided to implement a special scheme under which it will purchase small landholdings of farmers, consolidate these and use the consolidated land for development works, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Saturday.

The Times of India

Professors from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) educated the farmers on the use of shade net, use of polyhouse, biofertilisers, vermicompost and use of hybrid seeds. “Hybrid seeds are better cultivated in pro-trays because there will not be competition among the seedlings for water and nutrition. They will all grow to the same length within 25 days and can be transferred to the field,” said PR Kamala Kumaran from TNAU. “But, hybrid seeds are expensive and can not afford to be wasted,” he said.

Im4change

The seeds of the agrarian crisis lie in the seed. The Green Revolution seeds were bred for chemicals. That is why Norman Ernest Borlaug had to evolve dwarf varieties that reduced biomass, triggered desertification and water famine. Monsanto’s GMO Bt cotton increased cotton seed prices by more than 70,000 per cent, trapping farmers in debt and establishing a seed monopoly. Most of the 3,10,000 farmer suicides were in the cotton belt. Monsanto controls 95 per cent of the cotton seed.

Indo Asian Commodities

Among the major concerns is researchers’ and developers’ inability to learn the regulatory status of new genetically engineered organisms without undergoing complex risk assessments, providing little clarity about which products will be subject to regulation. The requirement that risk assessments would be conducted for plant products based only upon the technology used in their production, rather than actual risk, is a concern. “This runs counter to USDA’s 30-plus years of experience regulating biotechnology,” the groups’ letter said.

The Hindu Business Line

Sluggishness in the spot pepper market kept prices steady on Friday. North-Indian buyers stayed away from the markets as they are said to be confused over certain GST provisions, and, as a result, no trading activity is likely between June 27 and July 05, market sources told BusinessLine.

The Hindu Business Line

A large number of stockists and wholesale dealers of crop protection products in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns are not GST-ready yet and this is likely to affect the availability of agrochemicals in July, a crucial month for sowing, said Rajesh Aggarwal, MD of Insecticides (India) Limited, on Thursday.

The Covai Post

The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has introduced Aeroponics Technology that would help in growing vegetables without soil. According to Dr. R. Murugesan, Director of Agribusiness Development, TNAU, Aeroponics is a unique method of growing plants in an air and mist environment without the use of soil. “By this method most of the uncultivable lands can be utilised.

Bloomberg Quint

The farmers blame the lower prices on the Chinese rejection. Syngenta said this wasn’t a factor. The Swiss company was under pressure because Monsanto Co. had a seed that was equal to Syngenta’s that already had Chinese approval, Scott Powell, the farmers’ lawyer, told jurors Thursday.

Daily Post

The Madhya Pradesh government has constituted an authority to make recommendations for providing beneficial pricing and marketing of agricultural produce in the state in the interest of farmers.

The Times of India

Punjab would soon set up two centres of excellence- one for potato at Dhogri (Jalandhar) and another for floriculture at Doraha (Ludhiana).

Live Mint Guerilla News

Use of genetically engineered (GE) corn varieties can lead to better output. A National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper by Jayson L. Lusk from Purdue University and co-authors has found this using data from 28,000 observations for corn from 800 counties in the US during 1980 and 2015.

Hindustan Times

Under the e-NAM, farmers sell their produce through a unified virtual market within and outside the state. Farmers bring their produce to the mandi and buyers anywhere in the country can make bids on e-platform and feed the price on the portal.

India Today

“Uttarakhand had remained untouched by farmers suicide until recently when a debt-ridden farmer of Daul Dungar village in Berinag block of Pithoragarh district committed suicide due to his inability to repay the loans he had taken from banks. This is a proof that the problem afflicting other parts of the country has begun to infect Uttarakhand now. On an average 35 farmers commit suicide every day in different parts of the country,” the PCC president said in the letter.

YourStory

Using just water and agricultural excess, Bio-lutions is making the world greener one biodegradable carton at a time.

The Hindu BusinessLine

The onset of the monsoon brings both hopes to the large farm community as also uncertainty. Despite sophisticated models being in place, weather predictions have more often than not gone awry.

Deccan Chronicle The Asian Age

The seeds of the agrarian crisis lie in the seed. The Green Revolution seeds were bred for chemicals. That is why Norman Ernest Borlaug had to evolve dwarf varieties that reduced biomass, triggered desertification and water famine. Monsanto’s GMO Bt cotton increased cotton seed prices by more than 70,000 per cent, trapping farmers in debt and establishing a seed monopoly. Most of the 3,10,000 farmer suicides were in the cotton belt. Monsanto controls 95 per cent of the cotton seed.

FirstPost

Every time the farmers have come out with the same demand that is remunerative prices for their produces. There is nothing wrong in a producer of a product or service demanding a just price. But the fundamental issue is why should only a farmer demand a just price for his product? Why cannot he command a price, especially, now that we have adopted market economy, in the same way as suppliers of non-agricultural produces?

Bfirst The Economic Times Avenue Mail India Business Standard Sify

With a decision to allow commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) mustard pending, a top executive of Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco), that has developed several GM crops, said its concern was that the government’s approach towards GM technology was “more emotion-based” than fact-based.

The Financial Express

Keep in mind (see graphic), India has too many people on the farm producing too little, and it can’t create enough jobs to shift them, so creating more value on the farm is critical. Shifting the government-support system from cereals to ensuring processing and storage of fruits/vegetables will not only bring stability to farmer incomes, it will create millions of jobs in food processing.

The Indian Express

After the white fly attack in the cotton belt of Punjab in 2015, farmers had to be compensated at the rate of Rs 8,000 per acre, which cost the state exchequer around Rs 600 crore. Most farmers had grown BT cotton at the time, which suffered extensive damage. Patches having desi cotton variety survived the pest attack.

The Indian Express

The story of 2017 kharif so far clearly has been about cotton’s comeback at the expense of pulses. The Union agriculture ministry’s data bear this out: As on June 16, farmers had sown 16.67 lakh hectares (lh) under cotton, as against last year’s corresponding all-India area of 12.25 lh. This, even as pulses acreage has dipped from 3.63 lh to 2.22 lh

The Hindu

Indian tomato varieties are all set to be grown in Ghana, after pilot studies have demonstrated higher yields and better taste.

NDTV

According to a study by the state-run Punjabi University in Patiala, 86 per cent farmers and 80 per cent agricultural labourers in Punjab are facing indebtedness. The study said one in three farmers in Punjab earns less than Rs. 2,500 a month -or nearly a third of Punjab’s farmers lives below the poverty line, based on an estimate by an expert group of the now-disbanded Planning Commission of India. The university’s study covered 2015-16.

The Economic Times

Agricultural inputs are going to be dearer to access for Indian farmers in the kharif season despite the prediction of a good monsoon as dealers delay placing orders with the fertilizer and pesticide manufacturers waiting for clarity over the impact of goods and services tax (GST).

The Financial Express

A loan waiver can help bankers to renew the loans, and farmers can use the borrowed money for production of more crops, hopefully manifold than the amount of the loan waiver. In fact, a loan waiver can actually benefit the economy, but not in the way it is fashioned now. The analysis needs more depth.

Hindustan Times

Farming is not something that came naturally to 65-year-old S Ranganayaki. Widowed at the age of 45, with three children to take care of, and 23 acres (9.3 hectares) of cultivable land along the Cauvery delta region, she had no choice but to take up farming.

The Hindu Business Line

After failing to support pulse growers adequately through timely, effective and adequate procurement, the government now finds itself in a quandary over disposal of about 16 lakh tons that its own procurement agencies are holding.

Business Standard

The borrowings from the market may become costly for state governments due to rise in their borrowings for funding the farmer loan waivers. Rating agency ICRA says the spread between state development loans (SDL) and government bonds will widen by 100 basis points due to the increase in the yields at which SDL are placed with investors.

MINT

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is likely to be successful with significant increase in budget outlay for it and as more and more cultivated area is covered under the scheme.

Hindustan Times

In a move that aims to ease the state’s distressed farm sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) to deposit demonetised currency worth Rs2,772 crore with it by July 20.

The Hans India

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday performed Bhumi Puja for the Rs 400 crore Jain Irrigation’s seed processing unit at Tangedancha in Nandikotkur mandal of Kurnool district. The seed processing unit is being set up in 623 acres. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the Jain Irrigation would meet the seed requirement of several countries. In the first phase, the Jain Irrigation would develop maize, onion and mango seeds.

The Indian Express

It is a formula on the lips of every farmer-protester today. But the M S Swaminathan committee’s widely disseminated recommendation, to fix minimum support prices (MSP) for crops at levels “at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production”, remains a holy grail or partial reality at best.

The Hindu Business Line

Cotton expert Arun Dalal maintained that the monsoon delay has damaged the cotton sown earlier. Nationally, about 1516 lakh hectare of area has been covered under cotton so far. “The monsoon delay is damaging for cotton farmers who had started sowing. Without availability of water, the seeds will get spoiled. The situation is the same in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra,” said Dalal.

First Post DNA India Press Trust Of India India Today Outlook Business Standard

Though BT or other genetically modified crops are supposed to be resilient to pests, they have led to emergence of new pests, she said. Ten states in the country have rejected GM mustard and 13 states have refused to allow plantation of BT brinjal, Shiva claimed.

Tech2

It’s fairly fascinating to see how completely different tasks use synthetic intelligence to enhance our society. Within the case of Monsanto, the explanation for doing so is pretty easy. Crops will be decreased to nothing as a consequence of illnesses and pests. Up till this level, there isn’t a viable resolution to efficiently counter this drawback in a handy method. That is the place AI comes into the image.

Equity Bulls

Offers protection in adverse conditions. Our initial study of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) shows it offers hope to banks lending to agriculture in adverse conditions.

The Times of India

The Congress government in Punjab has hiked the allocation for the agriculture sector by a good 66% to Rs 10,580.99 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 6,383.01 crore in 2016-17.

India Finance News The Financial Express Shafaqna WN

Mehta said the PPVFR Act only required a declaration from the applicant seeking registration of a plant variety or hybrid that they had “lawfully acquired” the genetic material or parental material for breeding, evolving or developing it.

The Times of India

State Bank of India has said that the past farm loan waiver had resulted in worsening of repayments on future loans.

The Hindu Business Line

Micro-finance companies are harassing borrowers, especially women, in rural Maharashtra, according to farmer leader and Lok Sabha member Raju Shetti.

The Economic Times

Agricultural inputs are going to be dearer to access for Indian farmers in the kharif season despite the prediction of a good monsoon as dealers delay placing orders with the fertilizer and pesticide manufacturers waiting for clarity over the impact of goods and services tax (GST). Dealers fear the notification of the Union government that allows only up to 60% of refund on input credit for dealers for an initial period.

The Times of India

The farmers’ steering committee has decided to burn copies of the June 14 government resolution on Wednesday, in protest against the government’s alleged failure to keep its promise on farm loan waiver.

Business Standard

The opposition Shiromani Akali Dal today termed the maiden budget of the Congress government as a “massive fraud against farmers”, with the AAP accusing the ruling party of having backed out of its promise of total waiver of agricultural debts.

Business Standard The Financial Express First Post

According to the letter, cotton MSP has been raised by Rs 160 per quintal to Rs 4,020 per quintal for medium staple cotton and Rs 4,320 per quintal for long staple cotton. The MSP of soyabean, a major crop in Madhya Pradesh, has been raised by Rs 275 per quintal to Rs 3,050 per quintal.

Money Control

Agriculture income in the country is exempt from tax, and so the I-T feels that income is being misreported to evade tax.

The Indian Express

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday alleged that the NDA government, after having promised to double farmers’ income, has disappointed people on agriculture front as well.

Live mint

The number of farmers in Punjab who would benefit from the loan waiver announced by chief minister Amarinder Singh on Monday.

India Today The Hindu

Promising to restore fiscal health despite financial constraints, the Congress government in Punjab today unveiled its maiden budget for 2017-18 with key focus on agriculture, employment generation, education and real estate. It also showed reliance on the upcoming Goods and Service Tax (GST) to rev up resources to cover the “ballooning” mismatch between income and expenditure.

The Hindu

The State government has decided to implement single licensing policy in the agriculture markets spread across Telangana.

The Hindu Business Line

An assessment of direct benefit transfer (DBT) in fertiliser carried out in six districts found that most farmers gave a thumbs-up to the scheme, but highlighted that some retailers had maintained details of Aadhaar numbers in their registers, which could lead to privacy issues.

Live mint

Keeping the Congress’s electoral promise, Punjab’s Amarinder Singh government has declared that it will waive off loans up to Rs2 lakh for small and marginal farmers. Following on the heels of the Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra governments, this will inevitably boost the demand for loan waivers in other states.

HuffingtonPost

Pre-monsoon showers are already on and the monsoon is expected to hit Kerala two days ahead of schedule this time.

The Economic Times

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) shares the assessment. “El Nino’s impact on the south-west monsoon will be on the decline. We had changed our El Nino forecast in April itself.

The Times of India The New Indian Express The Hindu

Gone are the days when the rubber farmer had to collect separate samples of top and bottom soils from representative locations in his holding and get it tested in laboratories to know their nutrient status, so that he could apply the correct dose of fertilizer.

The Indian Express

The deflation in vegetables and pulses is worrisome, as remunerative prices are necessary to sustain farmers’ interest in growing such crops, says a study by rating agency ICRA.

Hindustan Times

The farmers under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh headed by Shivkumar Sharma ‘Kakkaji’ will lodge their protest through practice of this yoga posture as their demands for loan waiver and better prices for the agriculture produce are yet to be met.

Financial Express

India is still predominantly an agrarian society, with over 50% of the country’s workforce engaged in agriculture and allied activities. However, the sector contributes a meagre 18% to the GDP, despite being the largest producer of fruits and vegetables, and the second-largest producer of foodgrains in the world.

India Finance News The Financial Express Shafaqna

This reported susceptibility had apparently led the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to serve notice to Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India Ltd (MMB) — the licensing arm of the US life sciences giant — calling upon it to explain why the patent for the technology should not be revoked. Bollgard II technology, which involves introduction of Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab genes from Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium, into cotton plants, is claimed to confer resistance against three insect pests: American bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), pink bollworm and spotted bollworm.

The Indian Express

The Maharashtra government Monday decided to extend its loan waiver decision to all farmers with an outstanding debt of upto Rs 1 lakh, irrespective of the size of agricultural land they are holding.

The Economic Times

Official think tank Niti Aayog has urged the government to link part of the financial grant given to states under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to agriculture reforms implemented by the states, an official said.

Money Control

The Indian government unfortunately uses Minimum Selling Price (MSP) for pricing some crops, which does not take into account the actual cost that is involved. A paper published by the Commission of Agriculture Costs and Prices on pricing policy of MSPs noted that it is not rooted in ‘cost plus’ pricing principle, though cost of production is certainly one of the important factors that go into the determination of MSPs.

Business Standard

The announcement has thus paved way for eventual total waiver of agricultural debts, which was a major poll promise of the Congress during the Punjab Assembly polls in March this year.

The Hindu Business Line

Amidst protests by farmers all over the country demanding higher minimum support prices (MSP) for their produce, the Centre has quietly has announced new floor rates for 14 kharif crops for 2017-18. However, the rates are only marginally higher than those of the previous season.

Financial Chronicle

Ahead of assembly elections in Gujarat and Karnataka, the prime minister’s office is believed to have directed the finance ministry to study the whole issue of farm loans and work out a formula by which the government is able to announce a waiver scheme around August 15.

The Times of India

Officials in the agriculture welfare department said that government is already spending Rs 35 to 40,000 crore on farmers under various welfare schemes and programmes. After the recent sops, expenditure on individual schemes would reach up to Rs 23,000 crore a year which would put an additional burden of Rs 5,000 crore on the state exchequer.

The Economic Times

Official think tank Niti Aayog has urged the government to link part of the financial grant given to states under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to agriculture reforms implemented by the states, an official said.

The Economic Times

The current situation of farmer is worrisome, but who has brought this situation? In past two years we have speeded up work to empower farmers. The monsoon has begun well. Are we expecting a bumper harvest?

The Times of India Business Standard ABP

For debt relief to farmers for loans raised from non-institutional resources, the government has decided to review the ‘Punjab Settlement of Agriculture Indebtedness Act’ to provide the desired relief to the farmers through mutually acceptable debt reconciliation and settlement, which shall be statutorily binding on both the parties, the lender and the borrower.

The Times of India

In an exclusive interview to ET, his first major media interaction since the farmers’ agitation in the state made headlines, Chouhan said farmers want good prices for their crops, and blamed ‘anti-social elements’ for the recent violence. The assertion is in sharp contrast to the farm loan waivers offered by the CMs of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Financial Chronicle

Over 260 million farmers depend on monsoon to grow crops such as rice, cane, cotton, corn and soybeans bec­a­use nearly half of India’s farmland lacks irrigation. In June 1-14, the country received 5 per cent more rains at 88.7 mm whereas the normal rainfall stood at 84.6 mm, the India meteorological department (IMD) data showed on Monday.

Hindustan Times MINT

Packaged food companies will soon have to disclose details of genetically modified (GM) ingredients used in processed food on labels. The country’s food regulator, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), is working on the final guidelines on the labelling of GM foods, its CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal said.

Deccan Herald

Agriculture, being the primary sector, has the most number of people in India earning their bread from it. Rural farmers today, moving from subsistence cultivation to market retail, contend with a host of issues pertaining to right pricing, branding, quality checks, and above all, finding a lucrative customer base.

The Economic Times

Farmers are not upbeat despite a heavy monsoon period expected which will enhance their harvest, as the proposed implementation of 18% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on pesticides will add to their existing plight.

Financial Chronicle

Foodgrains set to be cheaper under GST Foodgrains will cost less from Jul% 1 when GST is rolled out as the GST council has exempted the daily-use commodities from the levy.

The Times of India

“We will ask BARC to set up such facilities in Madhya Pradesh and other parts of the country for onions, potatoes and other perishable horticultural produce. Bumper production can be dealt with through better post-harvest management.

DNA

Till now only one GM crop — Bt Cotton — is grown in Indian fields. The only other food crop to receive all approvals was Bt Brinjal. However, the government blocked its introduction. There has been widespread political and public opposition to the technology

The Hindu Business Line

Looking at the way the agrarian crisis has built up in different pockets, it does appear that the overall approach to agriculture is marked by reactive, rather than clear-sighted, proactive thinking. Almost all policies are geared towards ‘price’. It is assumed that getting this right is the panacea for all the problems. It is not surprising that the focus has deflected from enhancing productivity, which is the right answer to most problems in agriculture.

The Pioneer

Besides the National Seeds Association, representatives from the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) were present in the meeting. Global seed firms Monsanto, Bayer and Sygental are members of FSII. More than 80 per cent of seeds sown are hybrids in the country. The size of hybrid market is about Rs 6,000 crore.

The Indian Express

Even As the controversy over GM Mustard rages on, another row is in the offing over genetically modified (GM) crop version of jowar — or sorghum, said to be the poor man’s food in India — as some members of a Parliamentary committee is learnt to have taken strong note of it.

DNA

Till now only one GM crop — Bt Cotton — is grown in Indian fields. The only other food crop to receive all approvals was Bt Brinjal. However, the government blocked its introduction. There has been widespread political and public opposition to the technology.

The Tribune

Amid the farmers’ unrest that is threatening to damage the image of the Modi government, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh appealed to the pesticide and seed industry to bring down retail prices.

Housing.com

Preeti Patil, a catering officer with the Mumbai Port Trust (MBPT), had a unique solution to the large amount of waste that was generated in the MBPT kitchen – terrace farming. Patil, who later founded ‘Urban Leaves’, converted 3,000 sq ft of terrace space, into an urban garden.

The Economic Times

Continuing its gaining streak for the third straight day, wheat prices rose further by 0.91 per cent to Rs 1,655 per quintal in futures trade today as speculators engaged in widening their positions, tracking a firm trend at spot market on pick up in demand.

Your Story

The toughest issue for Earth Food was getting the right people. Nilesh says there is shortage of good talent in agriculture, and hence took a long time to get a CEO and farm head.

The Times of India

Amid unrest among farmers for multiple reasons in different states, the Centre has increased the minimum support price (MSP) of pulses, oilseeds and cotton for 2017-18 crop year and also convinced seed associations to curtail prices of hybrid seeds by 10%.

Deccan Chronicle Money Control The Economic Times Free Press Journal The Indian Express

The Centre has released Rs 700 crore to cooperative Nafed to undertake procurement of rabi pulses and other agri-produce, grown in the 2016-17 crop year, at the support price and protect growers from falling prices.

Deccan Herald

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar has announced the government’s decision to revive five closed plants of Fertiliser Corporation of India (FCIL) and Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Limited (HFCL).

The Financial Express

Dupont And Dow Chemical have won US antitrust approval to merge on condition that the companies sell certain crop protection products and other assets, according to a court filing on Thursday.

The Telegraph

Global seed companies Monsanto, Bayer and Sygental are members of the FSII. More than 80 per cent of the seeds sown in the country are hybrids. The size of the hybrid market is about Rs 6,000 crore.

Hindi Business Standard

Global biotech companies are reducing research activities and investments in India following policy uncertainty over the use of genetically modified (GM) crops. The government last March lowered by 74 per cent royalty rates for BT Cotton and asked Monsanto, which developed the seed, to allow companies to use the Bollgard-2 variety. “The cotton seed price control order, fixing a trait fee for our Bollgard technology, and other issues have created significant uncertainty in the business environment. This has compelled Monsanto to withdraw introduction of new technologies

Financial Chronicle

Farmers’ protest in Mad-hya Pradesh has once again exposed the myopic view of the politicians who are helpless in planning to provide a lasting solution to majority population in the country. The poli-tics of loan waiver may help peasants in the short term but their problems need serious and long-term strategy. The gestures seeking to douse smouldering embers of the farmers’ unrest by providing ex-gratia to kin of the deceased will not meet the end. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s visit to Mandsaur where six people were killed in police action can be seen merely a cosmetic exercise.

The India Saga

One of the follies of the political leadership is to look at short term gains rather than taking an overall view after a proper assessment of the prevailing situation and working in a determined manner for sustained and multi-pronged development on the agriculture front.

The Financial Express

The Centre Has approved Rs  580 crore to cooperative Markfed in Madhya Pradesh for procuring various pulses in the current year. The union agriculture ministry has approved the said amount to the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) which in turn will release it to the MP-Markfed.

The Asian Age

With the agrarian crisis threatening to spread to other parts of India after getting ignited in Madhya Pradesh, the Centre on Wednesday approved the disbursal of short-term crop loans to farmers for the current season. Under it, farmers will get loans upto Rs 3 lakhs at seven per cent interest for six months, as in previous seasons ever since the scheme started in 2006-07. Those who repay on time will get a three per cent rebate; that is, they will be charged only four per cent interest. To provide relief to farmers hit by natural calamities, the government has decided to give two per cent interest subsidy for the first year on the restructured amount.

Inc42

PocketIndia holds the record for the second-largest agricultural land in the world, with around 60% rural Indian households making their living from agriculture thus creating a huge scope for agritech startups in the country.

The Hans India

Kakinada: ATMA (Agriculture Technology Management Agency), the nodal agency of the Union agriculture ministry, has taken up propagation of PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana) in East Godavari district for better agriculture practices. As part of this, the ATMA has taken up awareness campaign on accelerated irrigation development programme with irrigation department to increase water resources to suit the needs of cultivation, particularly in upland and agency areas

The Financial Express

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi today said the country has witnessed enormous growth in agriculture which can play a significant role in alleviating poverty. “As per the current estimates there have been a record 267 million tonne of foodgrain production, 281 million tonne of vegetable production,” Tripathi said addressing a convocation at West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences here.

Financial Chronicle The Financial Express

Aarti Industries Ltd (AIL), a speciality chemicals company, today said it has entered into a Rs 4,000 crore multi-year contract with a global agriculture company for supply of high value agro-chemical intermediary. The project will entail an investment of about Rs 400 crore by the company, AIL said in a BSE filing. As per the contract, the company will supply high value agro-chemical intermediary for use in herbicides over a period of 10 years. The supplies are expected to commence from the 2019-20 fiscal and would generate expected revenues of approximately Rs 4,000 crore over the contract terms, it said.

The Hitavada

“It should not be ignored that the access to irrigation, roads to farms, agricultural pump and market rates of the cultivated products of Western Maharashtra is quite better than of Vidarbha. Despite, the 2008 loan waiver was beneficial to Western Maharashtra farmers than of Vidarbha farmers. If a farmer in Vidarbha is having 10 acres of agriculture land, he seeks more crop loan because of the infertile land. The government should take into consideration such type of cases,” said Khandewale.

Equity Bulls

To increase productivity, the focus should be on three broad areas: (1) quality and usage of key inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, and irrigation; (2) usage of modern technology in terms of equipment as well as seeds, especially the genetically modified ones which could reduce uncertainties due to weather and yield better produce; and (3) shift farm jobs to more remunerative ones such as horticulture and animal husbandry.

The Indian Express

He had demanded a study on impact of GM varieties of seeds to know if they benefit farmers and multinational companies. The Seeds Association of Madhya Pradesh has asked the National Seed Association of India to intervene saying that the order infringes upon provisions of Central government’s Seed Act, 1966.

VC Circle Avashya

In Indian agriculture, the scope—and application—of technology has long been limited to genetically-modified crops, high-yield seeds and, of late, a handful of sophisticated tools like aerial images and GPS technology. Needless to say, a lot of challenges that farmers faced remained unresolved, partly because there were no problem-solvers around. But that’s fast changing. Leveraging rising mobile and internet penetration, an army of agri-tech startups is offering farmers services such as on-demand delivery of farm inputs, online financial assistance, weather updates, drone-driven crop health identification, soil health assessment and equipment on rent, among others. Then, for purposes of edification and infotainment, there are startups offering both financial literacy videos and online games, such as Wonder village and ...

Nyoooz

The incidence of chemical use is higher in these parts owing to the extensive cultivation of cotton. It would have been higher still had it not been for the Bt cotton which requires lesser quantum of pesticide. “The tremendous shortage of workers has left us with no choice but to go in for pre and post emergence sprays of weedicide,” lamented farmer Gurnule Shivaji of Gudihatnoor in Adilabad district. Helpless “We know the land is being poisoned but new pest attacks are forcing us to use pesticides more than it appears to be required,” he added with an air of resignation.

Business Wire Reuters

By combining Atomwise’s sophisticated artificial intelligence systems with Monsanto’s ability to apply real-world validation through the integration of plant breeding, plant biotechnology, crop protection, ag biologicals and data science platforms, together we can develop technologies that support farmers as they work to grow better harvests, protect their crops and deliver more to society in the face of mounting environmental challenges,” added Williams.

The Indian Express

Few Farmers have met the fate that the ones growing soyabean — a crop which was planted in almost 11.5 million hectares during the last kharif season — have. In October-November, while harvesting was on, soyabean quoted at Rs 2,800-2,900 per quintal in Madhya Pradesh’s main Indore market.

The Economic Times

Farmers are a powerful voting bloc, and the government already faces criticism for not making significant progress towards its promise of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 and ensuring a 50 percent profit over the cost of production of crops. “There will be tremendous pressure on the Modi government from farmers and young people looking for employment,” said political scientist and pro-vice chancellor of Bengaluru’s Jain University, Sandeep Shastri. “These are the two biggest challenges the government will face in the coming years -in both these areas very little has been done in concrete terms.”

The Financial Express

A glimpse of the price movement of some of the key farm commodities in recent years suggests that while one-off factors like demonetisation may have temporarily dampened the prices at the wholesale level, in a remonetised system, it’s the same old issues that continue to haunt farmers.

MINT

It is here at Mangoli, in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district, that four dejected farmers abandoned over half-a-tonne of potatoes a week ago, unable to find buyers who would pay them a decent price. Some of the tuber has melted into a muddy slush, while the rest decay under stacks of hay.

The Economic Times

Tractor Manufacturers’ Association (TMA) on Wednesday said that as per the new tax rates under GST input cost per tractor would go up by Rs 25000. This will have an impact on industry working capital to the extent of Rs 1600 crore.

Hindi Business Standard

Once the monsoon was active, a fast growing period of spices, including coriander started. Coriander prices once again reached Rs 5,000 per quintal. Spot market with futures also witnessed spurt in spices.

The Economic Times

Nonetheless, it will be a mistake to treat the agitations as a domino effect of the UP government’s decision to waive loans worth Rs 36,359 crore. It is a manifestation of an agrarian crisis that has been in the offing for several years now.

Hindustan Times

Experts say that burden of farm loan waiver, which is a short-term measure, should fall on the Centre which should also announce a hike in MSP. “It is the duty of the Union government to bail out farmers in this hour of crisis, but it is passing the burden onto the state government. The chief minister should write to the Centre urging it to release the funds. When the Centre can write off loans of the corporate sector, it can do the same for the agriculture sector,” agriculture expert Devinder Sharma told HT.

Business Standard The Hindu Business Line The Financial Express The Economic Times Financial Chronicle The Telegraph Navbharat Times DNA

Ajay Kakra, director, agriculture and natural resources, PwC-India, said the interest subvention scheme could serve only as a good stop-gap arrangement. “However, the real relief to farmers will be through systematic structural reforms, focussed on increasing income — especially for small and marginal farmers.”

Free Press Journal

The state government on Tuesday has issued orders to establish the “MP Agriculture Products, Cost and Marketing Commission”. The eight-member commission will work for the improvement of farm sector in the state and it will have two years’ working term. The commission will have a president and the state government will nominate that person, who will be an agriculture expert. Two members who will be expert in farming and marketing will also be nominated by the government.

The Hindu Business Line

As far back as in October 2016, kharif crop production estimates were a clear signal of the emerging market situation. A near-normal SouthWest monsoon, combined with high open market prices, motivated growers, who ensured a rebound in agricultural output, especially in pulses and oilseeds.

MINT

Tamil Nadu minister for commercial taxes K.C. Veeramani tabled the goods and services tax (GST) bill in the Tamil Nadu assembly on Wednesday, the first day of a three-week session. Ruckus prevailed in the assembly as the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) demanded discussion on the alleged bribing of AIADMK legislators. Speaker P. Dhanapal denied a discussion on the alleged bribery charges and said that “the matter is sub judice.”

The Financial Express

The Parliamentary standing committee on agriculture in its 2015-16 report—Impact of chemical fertilisers and pesticides on agriculture and allied sectors in the country—has expressed serious concern over unscientific, excessive use of pesticides.

The Economic Times

Farmers, from Punjab in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south, have started agitations demanding farm loans be waived. The Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra governments have already considered it politically expedient to write them off. Some other states may follow the suit. However, such decisions are as misguided as they are misleading.

The New Indian Express Hindi Business Standard Navbharat Times

Farmer’s concern that they were not getting the right price for their produce, especially vegetables and fruits, was reflected in the 2.17 per cent slump in wholesale inflation in May – a five-month low. The figure was 3.85 per cent in April.

The Hindu Business Line

With traders not heeding to the state government’s call on purchasing pulse seeds strictly on the minimum support prices, trading in Indore mandis continued to remained paralyzed.

MINT

Despite the prediction of a good monsoon, optimism is missing in the shares of agrochemical companies whose fortunes are directly linked to the rains and farming activity. While forecasts of a good monsoon have emerged over the last one month, shares of Rallis India Ltd, Dhanuka Agritech Ltd, Bayer CropScience Ltd and Insecticides (India) Ltd were little changed.

The Hindu Business Line

The Tractor Manufacturers’ Association (TMA) has indicated that the proposed GST rate of 28 per cent for tractor components would lead to an increase in input cost by ₹25,000 per tractor. The Association has requested the government to reduce the duty for all tractor components to 18 per cent from 28 per cent. The anomaly is due to the downward revision of GST being limited to token components of a tractor while major aggregates and components such as engines, transmissions and other parts will continue to be levied at 28 per cent.

The Indian Express

Lending to the agriculture sector by banks and institutions in India is not just about providing funds to farmers who want to grow crops. Farm credit, going by its definition spelt out by the Reserve Bank of India, includes short-term crop loans and medium-term or long-term credit to farmers.

The Times of India

Concerned over the fallout of prolonged agrarian unrest, the BJP-led government in Maharashtra backed down on Sunday and “in principle” agreed to a loan waiver for all sections of farmers, including the big ones who depend solely on agriculture. The criteria will be fixed by a committee comprising officials and agriculturists.

Hindustan Times

Madhya Pradesh’s farmers have always grown onions, but when prices skyrocketed in 2010-11, the land under onion cultivation doubled over the next five years, resulting in the current problem of plenty.

The Indian Express

India needs to promote agricultural practices that need less water for crop cultivation and give thrust to water conservation and harvesting over the next one decade to avert crisis of shortage, according to an eminent scientist. Calling for a holistic approach towards water conservation, including recharging of structures, the former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, K Kasturirangan said agriculture in India, particularly paddy cultivation, consumes substantial amount of water. “There are agricultural practices that are coming up now which needs much less water,” the former Rajya Sabha member told PTI.

The Hindu

The ongoing farmers’ agitation has taken on a shockingly violent form. Discussion has revolved around an apparent paradox: why are farmers rioting after a bumper crop? But any student of economics knows that prices fall after bumper harvests, which is good for consumers but terrible for farmers. This is why the government needs to step in to buy from farmers at a minimum support price, while subsidising consumers so that they get affordable food. This is what we have done over the last fifty years after setting up the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in 1965.

ABP Live

Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) [India], June 13 (ANI): Arunachal Pradesh would turn totally organic soon with global organic scientist Dr Nilmadhab Nanda offering progressive farmers the required mantra. Dr.Nanda, who arrived here on June 7 at the invitation of Chief Secretary Shakuntala D Gamlin and prolonged his stay, gave a presentation to state Agriculture Secretary Ajimul Haq on June 8 on his organic product Win (Shree) Crops, besides holding a series of meetings.

The Hindu Business Line

Amid negligible arrival and absence of trading with local mandis remaining closed on account of farmers’ stir, soy oil in Indore for the past some time has been ruling higher with soy refined today here being quoted at Rs 624-26, for 10 kg, while soy solvent ruled at Rs 592-95. Soybean quoted at Rs 2,800, while plant deliveries of soybean ruled at Rs 2,900 a quintal.

The Economic Times

Farm loan waivers are “populist actions” and lead to disruption of credit discipline among borrowers, says a report as Maharashtra became the latest in the list of states writing off farmers’ loans. Uttar Pradesh and Punjab had announced such measures recently. According to Kotak Institutional Equities, frequent occurrence of such populist actions may lead to “risks of impaired credit discipline and weak risk-reward for banks” and reduced credit availability for borrowers.

Your Story

Maharashtra’s striking farmers on Sunday said they will withdraw their 12-day-old strike as the State government had accepted, in principle, a majority of their demands, including loan waiver and crop loans for the current season.

The Telegraph

A krishi mitra gets Rs 500 per month only for stationery. But, our job involves helping farmers with latest know-how about agricultural best practices and technology like suggesting ways to get better seeds and so on. We are the link between the agriculture department and farmers at remote places,” krishi mitra sangh chief Sashi Bhushan told The Telegraph. Kisan sangh president Dhruv Narayan Singh maintained that two months ago they had written to the state government to consider waiving farm loans. “We will soon meet the chief minister before the situation flares up in Jharkhand,” he said, adding that several farmers were struggling for basic resources.

Hindi Business Standard

Industry needs to work on areas like exploring new markets, increasing value addition and using new technologies to boost agriculture exports, a top official today said. Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia also asked exporters of organic goods to certify their products as it helps increase competitiveness in the global markets.

NDTV

More than the crop, it is a failure of the cropping model. The cotton crop being grown presently is a product of intensive agriculture, it includes Bt seeds (genetically modified), extensive irrigation where the input of pesticides, fertilisers and water is tremendous. It is not only unsustainable but effectively uneconomic for farmers,” said Umedra Dutt of Kheti Virasat Mission that is working to promote organic farming in Punjab.

DNA ANI News Outlook Business Standard Indian Live Today New Kerala India

We have opposed of this from the very beginning. GM seeds are the cause of diseases. I am not just blaming NDA. The use of GM seeds was prevalent during UPAs regime too. The MNCs would only earn profit, ultimately affecting the livelihood of the farmers? Criticising the production of BT cotton, the Kumar said, The areas where BT cotton is grown, there are more reports of farmer suicides.

The Financial Express

The almost deliberate impoverishment of the agriculture sector by successive governments, which has translated into poor returns to farmers, and the recent loan waiver decision by Uttar Pradesh appear to have triggered massive protests in many states, including Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Farmers are struggling hard to meet their input expenses due to a drop in prices of agriculture produce, which agricultural experts attribute to the rising cost of farming, the haphazard use of fertlisers, and failed government policies over the years.

The New Indian Express

Like Samuel, 15 other farmers of the village are cultivating pulses after gradually diverting from paddy. The success story of Samuel and other farmers has led the Agriculture department to chalk out plan to increase pulses production by additional 5,022 tonnes during the ensuing kharif season. Pulses, including arhar, mung, biri, kulthi and other varieties will be cultivated on 35,800 hectares of land with a production target of 21,140 tonnes. The target last season for pulses was 16,118 tonnes.

The Times of India

Amid raging farmers’ unrest across the country, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Sunday announced that his government would extend Rs 3,200 crore as interest-free loan to the farmers this fiscal. Speaking at the 22nd episode of his “Raman Ke Goth” telecast on All India Radio, he said his government’s action plan to double the income of farmers included measures to reduce input cost of farming and increasing the yield. “I would like to tell farmers that they should work without any stress or tension,” he added.

The Financial Express

Anger is brewing among farmers in this district on multiple scores including the issue of non-remunerative prices for potato and the longstanding dispute with farmers in bordering Haryana over some farmlands. The resentment has been simmering for several years but has flared up recently as Aligarh farmers feel that since both state governments belong to the BJP, there is no reason that it cannot be resolved by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

The Hans India

Joint Director of Agriculture, Guntur district, VDV Krupa Das said, “During the kharif this year, we will encourage the farmers to cultivate crops under nature farming in 26 clusters. The farmers have already cultivated crops under nature farming in 10 clusters during the last year. This year, another 16 clusters will be added.” He said apart from the awareness programme being conducted by Subhash Palekar, agriculture scientists too will give suggestions to farmers on natural farming.

The Indian Express

Minutes after an inter-ministerial committee and farmer leaders agreed upon a complete loan waiver for farmers in Maharashtra, Swabhimani Paksha MP Raju Shetti, who heads the state’s largest farmer outfit, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, announced that they would now take the fight to the doorsteps of the Narendra Modi government.

Green Ecosystem Sify India Millennium Post Business Standard Nerve IANS Live India Forums News Wing Millennium Post

Had we been aware of the ill-effects of the Bt Cotton, we would never have approved it, said T.S.R. Subramanian, who had recommended the Genetically Modified (GM) variety of cotton for commercial cultivation as Textile Secretary in the 1990s.

The Indian Express

CBDT Aadhaar must for ITR filing, new PAN from July 1: CBDT Despite a statewide awareness drive, farmers not only continue to burn stubble in their fields after harvesting wheat ahead of the paddy sowing season beginning June 10, but most of them have also refused to pay fine for burning stubble, forcing the authorities to almost suspend the fine collection drive. During the wheat harvesting in April-May this year, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has imposed a fine on farmers totalling Rs 61.32 lakh, of which it has recovered Rs 18 lakh so far.

The Hans India

Small and marginal landholdings make up 85 per cent of the number of operational farms in India. Small farms make it tough for farmers to use modern machinery, because such farmers are too poor to afford such equipment. Manual labour costs also increase. And the small size and output makes it difficult for the farmers to get loans and institutional credit

Telangana today

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday directed officials to procure paddy from farmers irrespective of the expenditure involved and ordered payment Rs 1,000 crore due to the farmers instead of waiting for the FCI to clear them. He said the farmers are ready to take up kharif operations and they would be hard pressed for crop investment if the money owed to them by the procurement agencies was not cleared on time. Chief Minister said the State, for the first time in history had a bumper paddy harvest this year and the paddy arrivals in the purchase centres were bound to be on higher side. He said the State government was ready to spend any amount ...

The Times of India

Against the backdrop of a farmer in Kidaduru village of Kushatgi taluk in Koppal district receiving Re 1 as compensation for losses sustained owing to drought, the state government on Friday sought a report from the authorities concerned about the lapse.

The Indian Express

One gloomy afternoon this March, a disillusioned Dhanu Dhorde Patil, 43, sat watching his television in Dongaon village, about 2 km from Puntamba in Ahmednagar district, the heart of the recent farmers’ agitation in Maharashtra. On screen were reports of doctors striking work across the state in protest against the growing violence against them. Patil, upset by the dip in onion prices, threw an idea at his friends that evening, one that would take Maharashtra by storm

Deccan Chronicle

He said the government had so far procured 37 lakh tons of paddy worth Rs 5,300 crore from farmers this year, of which Rs 4,000 crore had been paid. He asked officials to pay the balance Rs 1,000 crore immediately without waiting for funds from the Food Corporation of India.

Nitidina

Khurdha, the farmer had complained to the district collector for compensation of 2015-16 droughts. The govt had declared the block as drought affected. The insurance company had not paid the crop insurance to farmers. it is due to difference in the report of govt and insurance company on crop loss.

The Indian Express

Ahead of the paddy season, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has set up control rooms to help farmers and announced to provide eight hours of uninterrupted power supply to them during the entire paddy season. This was informed by the recently appointed PSPCL Director (distribution) NK Sharma who was in Jalandhar on Saturday to take the stock of situation here.

The Indian Express

The agitations were primarily along two belts — Nashik-Ahmednagar-Pune extending to Satara-Sangli-Kolhapur in Maharashtra, and Ratlam-Mandsaur-Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh — both home to relatively prosperous farmers. In both stretches, apart from the usual wheat and soybean grown in these parts, farmers grew spices such as methi (fenugreek), dhaniya (coriander) and ajwain (caraway) in Ratlam-Mandsaur-Neemuch, and grapes, onions in Maharashtra’s Nashik-Kohlapur belt.

Hindustan Times DNA

Nearly seven lakh farmers who have availed crop loan through cooperative banks in Rajasthan will get an insurance cover of rs6 lakh by giving only rs27 as yearly premium a state minister said Saturday.

Deccan Chronicle

Emphasising that GM mustard is unsafe for the environment and health, Dr Sultan Ismail, said that the scientific evidence from other countries shows numerous problems.

The New Indian Express

The agitators demanded that the State government, which banned Bt Brinjal after continuous agitations, should also go against GM mustard if they want the support of farmers as in the past. Ads by ZINC “In fact, Odisha was the first State to ban Bt Brinjal. But unfortunately, the government has not yet taken any initiative to ban GM mustard whereas other states, including Kerala, have already passed resolution against it,” Beshra added

Kashmir monitor

Milk, vegetables and fruits, puffed rice, salt, organic manure, animal feed, fire wood, raw silk, wool, jute and hand-operated agriculture equipment too will be zero-rated under the new indirect tax regime. “Due to no GST on these items, most of them are expected to become cheaper in the range of approximately 4-5 percent as compared to their existing prices,” a finance ministry statement said.

The Economic Times

With a farmers’ agitation simmering in Madhya Pradesh over a loan waiver demand, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed banks not to issue any notices of default to farmers in UP till his government comes good on its loan waiver announcement.

The Economic Times

Rainfall has been above normal in every major region of the country, particularly in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, adding much-needed moisture to the soil for kharif planting and preparing the ground for a good harvest for the second consecutive year.

The Hindu

The Centre will shortly unveil a policy on the production of second-generation ethanol from biomass, which will be a “game changer” for farmers, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said here on Friday.

Daily Post

In 2014-15 Kaveri seed company took the exemption from Income Tax on Rs 186.6 crores as shown the agricultural income similarly Monsanto India took the exemption for Rs 94 crores and there are number of other cases also. To bring whole of the agricultural profession under the Agricultural Income Tax net will be a futile exercise and it will be erroneous to assume that tangible results will be available by this taxation.

India Press

A banned brand of Bt cotton seeds has become the favourite of region’s farmers. Some 20 days ago, the commissioner (quality control and seeds), of state’s agriculture department had banned sale of Rashi 659 variety of seeds. This came after it was found at some farms in Dhule district that the cotton crop grown with the seed was infested with pink bollworm pest.

Business Standard

The country’s largest stainless steel maker Jindal Stainless Ltd will establish an incubation centre for agriculture technology (agri-tech) startups in collaboration with the Japanese company Future Venture Capital Company Ltd. “The co-working space for the incubation centre will be located at our office complex at Gurgaon and alongside our office at Bhubaneswar and laboratories across intervention areas,” said Abhyuday Jindal, vice-chairman of Jindal Stainless Ltd at ‘Krisi Unnati’ organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Bhubaneswar.

The Times of India

A bird’s eye view of agriculture points to an anomaly. Around 77% of farmland is devoted to staples such as cereals. This results in output almost equivalent to what high value crops such as fruits and vegetables yield on less than 20% of the land. Rectifying this mismatch will solve many problems. This is where government policy has a crucial role to play. The Indian farmer has to function in an overregulated environment made worse by capricious bans on exports.

The Hindu

Officials ask farmers to slow down the process; express fears that rain may play truant this time The first shower of monsoon keyed up the farmers in the district who desperately started tilling their land, hurrying to sow their crop. However, the officials say the rain may play truant and that the farmers need to be patient. The erstwhile Warangal district witnessed sporadic rain with agency

The Pioneer

According to officials of Ministry of Agriculture, the e-trading enhanced the income of farmers by weeding out middlemen. “They (middlemen) eat up almost 75 per cent of the final price, leaving very little for the farmers. The State-run Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) often has the disadvantage of middlemen deciding the price of the produce.

Hindustan Times

Our farm subsidy policy encourages the production of lowvalue staples, and the output of fruits and vegetables is not covered by the government’s minimum support price.

The Pioneer

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reviewed future action plans and preparations of Agriculture department at Mantralaya in Bhopal on Thursday. Reviewing the onion purchase arrangements, Chouhan said that onion at the rate of Rs 8 per kg will be purchased from the farmers and will be made available to poor consumers at the rate of Rs 2 per kg at PDS shops. Limit for purchase will be fixed for the consumers. It may be mentioned that about 4 hundred consumers are covered by one PDS shop.

Business Standard

As farmers in Madhya Pradesh struggle to find buyers for their bumper crop, an electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), the Union government move that was designed to help them in that very task, is still a work in progress. The e-NAM is envisaged as a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) wholesale markets (mandis) to create a unified national market.

One India

Amidst all the farmer protests in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the father of the Green Revolution, M S Swaminathan said that if agriculture goes wrong, nothing will go right. “Need serious attention to their long-term economic viability,” he posted on Twitter. He also said that if the government did not take care of the farmers, everything would go wrong.

The Financial Express

When news first broke of the farmers’ agitation in the state, and of it turning violent later, the standard response was that the stories of Madhya Pradesh’s miraculous farm growth were bogus. How can, the argument went, a state where agriculture has grown at 10% annually for a decade, and at more than 14% for half this period, have such bloody violence over farmer incomes? Ashok Gulati who, at ICRIER, first highlighted MP’s prowess has been at the receiving end of many such barbs.

Web Feed

Some commercial varieties of corn have been engineered with genes for a toxin borrowed from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, known as Bt, that kills the earworms when they eat the crop. In areas with a lot of Bt corn acreage, plants defended by the Bt protein Cry1Ab suffered more earworm damage when summers grew warmer, the team reports June 7 in Royal Society Open Science.

The Times of India

All of a sudden it seems to be Kashmir in Madhya Pradesh: at least five protesters shot dead in Mandsaur district, prohibitory orders and internet shutdowns enforced.

The New Indian Express

Months before crisis struck the BJP-ruled states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, when distressed farmers took to the streets, the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra chaired a meeting at South Block to discuss measures to liberalise agriculture from controls and restrictions that affect farmers’ income.

Hindustan Times

Even though supply is still short, the prices have reduced. Customers had bought extra stock earlier.

News18

Bitter lessons from the year gone by As the new farm season sets itself on the beleaguered, indebted, sullied and fatigued farming masses across the country, the year gone by tells us three things

Orissa Post

Inching a step forward in enhancing the farmers’ income, the state government Wednesday sanctioned 47 agriculture, food production and allied sector projects under Rashtriya Krushi Vikash Yojana (RKVY) for 2017-18 fiscal.

The Financial Express

Politicians in India are spoiling farmers through populist steps like loan waivers, which can have an adverse impact on the agriculture sector in the long run, Niti Aayog member Professor Ramesh Chand has said.

First Post

Barely a month ago, Ashok Gulati, an eminent agriculture expert, wrote in The Indian Express: “Several of these steps (like farm loan waiver, government purchase of wheat and potatoes and notice to sugar meals for clearing farmer dues, etc) highlight the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s concern for farmers who have been getting a raw deal for years.

The Financial Express The Echo of India

With Pulses prices under pressure due to supply glut, the Reserve Bank today made a case for government interventions to arrest the price fall. Pulses prices, especially tur dal, have fallen sharply in wholesale mandis below the minimum support price (MSP) of $5,050 per quintal due to a record crop this year.

Nyoooz

Citing high rainfall as one of the reason for the high acidity in the soil content of the state, the department of agriculture has launched a scheme for farmers to get the soil from their farms, tested.

Millennium Post

Acknowledging the role of farmers of tribal areas in generation and conservation of biodiversity, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that new technological innovations in agriculture must reach to the fields of tribal areas as they contributed a lot in protecting the environment.

The Times of India

In a bid to revive rice cultivation in Wayanad district, the agriculture department will implement a Rs 2.94 crore scheme under which financial aid would be provided to farmers for paddy cultivation in 9,000 hectares of land.

The Financial Express

Uttar Pradesh, Usually a laggard in wheat procurement despite being the biggest grain producer, has purchased a record 3 million tonne (MT) of grain from farmers so far in the on going rabi marketing season.

The Hindu

After incurring heavy loss last year for extensively cultivating onion, farmers of Vijayapura district are now reluctant to take up the same crop this year with the fear of meeting the same fate

The Hindu Business Line

Arrival of pulses, pulse seeds in Indore and other mandis has been disrupted badly, leading to rise in prices of pulses and pulse seeds.

BW Hotelier

BEING NATURAL in the most hygienic, healthy way possible is the mantra for life. And this has been very well adapted by Earth Food which is producing its own range of fruits and vegetables grown in the purest form without using pesticides and sold to the customers without adding preservatives and synthetic food enhancers.

Nyoooz

“The district normally receives around 40 mm of rain in June and around 167 mm for the season,” said director of the agro climate research station at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University S Paneerselvam.

Business World

Genetically Modified (GM) mustard can make the nation self-dependent on edible oil requirements,” says a collective statement by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) during an open session in New Delhi. More than 250 noted scientists have participated in the session. Going a step forward NAAS has challenged opponents of GM mustard that they have created havoc out of nothing. The NAAS scientists had even passed a proposal in favour of GM mustard crops. NAAS has written a letter, appealing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for intervention in the sensitive matter of national welfare.

The Financial Express

In the innovative venture, every farmer each get a 320-square-foot steel shipping container for a year, and they can even control the climate of their own farm. The container consists of pink LED lights where the farmers can harvest GMO-free crops throughout the year. Groszyk makes personal deliveries to his 45 customers. He says that he selects particular crops based on the feedback from users as well as experiments with new crops if there are special requests.

The Tribune

“While farmers, who produced BT cotton last year, harvested an average of 21 quintals per hectare, those who sowed desi varieties reaped 15 quintals. The yield was even poorer where farmers could not get quality seeds,” says Gurjeet Singh Mann, a progressive farmer of Sirsa district that has the largest area under cotton in the state. Mann says there are several other problems such as attacks by caterpillars and desi cotton requires eight to 10 rounds of picking against three rounds required for BT cotton. The spinning industry prefers BT and American cotton due to its long staple, better strength and fineness.

HuffingtonPost

Last but far from least are the areas of agriculture, food processing and consumer protection. Technology innovation is essential and important in the Indian agricultural sector and a few German startups are already doing some work in this area. For instance, PEAT—Progressive Environmental and Agricultural Technologies, a German startup has developed a mobile app called Plantix which is a massive database of pictures of plant disease which can be used for comparison.

The Hindu Inc42 The Times of India

Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC), the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, will soon establish an Indian arm to invest in the growing start-up ecosystem in the country.

The Financial Express

Ahead Of the kharif season, country’s largest lender State Bank of India on Tuesday said it will meet nearly 10 lakh farmers to understand their credit needs and provide finance. The meeting will be organised at the bank’s 15,500 rural and semi-urban branches across the country on June 8.

The wire

The loan waiver is also restricted to small farmers. The government hopes that this will diminish the strength of the agitating farmers. But this seems unlikely, as the loan waiver issue appears to be just a manifestation of a deeper disquiet in the farming community. With this, Fadnavis seems to have lost his grip over the political discourse on agriculture.

The Hindu

Small retailers and consumers across Maharashtra were harried as the farmers’ agitation dragged into the sixth day on Tuesday, sending prices of vegetables soaring even as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that farm loans would be waived by October end. The prolonged agitation, which retained its intensity in Nashik and Ahmednagar, is hitting the ordinary consumers in the pocket as prices of vegetables have continued to skyrocket.

Nyoooz The Times of India

Gandhinagar has declared guidelines for farmers so that they could be able to increase their yield and become economically sound and aware about the necessary insecticides and pesticides and High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds to be purchased for their farms.

The Hindu

The National Agroforestry Policy, 2014 was formulated to have trees along with the crops in the farmers fields. Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF) is an initiative to this end which will promote “Hai Medh Par Ped”. Agroforestry will pro-vide additional income/savings opportunities for farmers and will also serve as a cushion to crop damage.

The Hindu

In an attempt to reduce the inappropriate usage of chemicals in agriculture and raise awareness amongst farmers for judicious use of fertilizers, Government of India has started a nationwide campaign.

The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line

Indian fertiliser makers and farmers may get badly hit by the high taxes on fertilisers, which will double after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout, said representatives of fertiliser industry, farmers’ associations and sector analysts.

The Hindu

Committed to doubling the income of farmers, the Central Government is continuously engaged in making Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) more robust and effective.

The Hindu

The Government of India is committed to double the farmers income and is taking gigantic steps. Promoting Organic Farming is a fresh start to achieve this goal. Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana is first comprehensive scheme in this direction and As 947 crore has been allocated for the period of 2015-18.

The Economic Times

Finance minister Arun Jaitley was correct when he stated in April that constitutional constraints do not empower his government to tax agricultural income, implying that he is not constrained from amending the Income-Tax Act.

The Hindu Business Line

Amid sluggish demand and buying support, decline in chana and other pulse seeds continued with chana (kanta) declined to Rs.5,0005,100 a quintal, while Chana (desi) ruled at Rs.4,900. Chana dal (average) quoted at Rs.6,500-6,600, chana dal (medium) at Rs.6,700-6,800, while chana dal (bold) quoted at Rs.6,900-7,00 a quintal.

Financial Chronicle

India may witness another record production of crops such as rich, wheat, pulses and oilseeds as the latest monsoon forecast by the weather bureau has raised the hopes of 263 million farmers who look forward to rains to irrigate their land.

Business Standard Nerve The Statesman Daiji World Green Ecosystem

The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) has urged the government to allow commercial use of Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 (DMH-11), a Genetically Modified (GM) Mustard variety, from this year and to support scientists to develop such hybrids in future. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), which is a regulator under the Environment Ministry, had last month recommended commercial use of the GM Mustard variety, DMH-11.

The Economic Times Financial Express DNA

Global beverages major Coca-Cola today said it will contribute, along with its parters, over USD 1.7 billion (Rs 10,943 crore) in next five years to the Indian agriculture ecosystem.

Press Release India

New Holland Agriculture, one of the world’s leading agriculture equipment brands, delivered the first 230-hp tractor in India to Antony Lara Enviro Solution Pvt Ltd recently.

Navbharat Times

On the fifth day of the farmers strike, the appeal of Maharashtra bandh made by the farmers got good support in the rural areas of the state. Leaving farmers apart from sporadic incidents, Maharashtra remained peaceful and successful. Due to the peasant strike, business turnover in most agricultural produce markets Due to the vegetables coming from other states, there is no shortage in Mumbai, Although vegetables have become expensive.

Hindustan Times

For more than a week, the farmers’ agitation in Maharashtra has grabbed the national headlines. Farmers are rarely a topic of discussion in a city like Mumbai, except when the media reports their suicides. However, the agitation affected the supply of vegetables, fruits and milk to the cities. Prices of these essential commodities spiralled at several places, which made the agitation a prominent subject of discussion.

The Hans India

The concept of solar agriculture pumpset, the brain child of Energy Secretary Ajay Jain aimed at drastically bringing down the conventional thermal power consumption and make agricultural operations eco-friendly and independent, minimising dependence on government supplied power, is catching up with farmers due to its long term social and economic benefits.

The Economic Times

The company would provide a state digital agriculture platform with a database of all Punjab farmers, besides tracking their agriculture activities, such as fertiliser usage, timely soil, water and tissue analysis.

Business Standard The Financial Express India Today Outlook DNA The Hindu Business Line Khabar NDTV Navbharat Times Financial Chronicle

Agri think-tank NAAS today urged the government to give final nod this year itself to the genetically modified (GM) Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 (DMH-11) for commercial cultivation and pave way for further research in developing better hybrids using this technology.

Financial Chronicle

According to the provisions laid down under the good and services tax (GST), the definition of an ‘agriculturist’ means an individual or a family who undertakes cultivation of land (a) by own labour, or (b) by the labour of family, or (c) by servants on wages or by hired labour under personal supervision or the personal supervision of any member of the family. Any other ‘person’ carrying on agricultural activities would not be considered as ‘agriculturist’ and will not be exempted from registration provisions as provided in the Act.

Business Standard The Hans India

Farm loan waivers will amount to two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2019 polls as other states may follow the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (UP) governments, says a Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) report.

The Times of India

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is likely to be open its centre in Varanasi soon as Prime Minister Narendra Modi evinced keen interest in enhancing rice production in the country through propagation of multiple stress-resistant varieties.

First Post

After sweeping the Maharashtra Assembly polls three years ago and subsequently foraying into local self-governing bodies, the euphoric BJP is facing a major challenge: containing the ongoing agrarian unrest in the state. As farmers indulge in violence and arson, besides dumping milk and vegetables on roads, the tactics of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis do not seem to be working, raising a question mark over his competence in handling rural issues.

The Hans India

In its effort to help boost agricultural sector, the State government has decided to award licences to fertiliser and pesticide traders only if they possess a degree in any relevant subject. As per the government direction, traders who want to obtain license to sell pesticides or fertilisers must have a degree in Agriculture, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Botany or Zoology.

The Financial Express

Food Aficionados May be scrambling for ingredients that are gluten free, but in the wheat market, traders can’t get enough of the stuff. Gluten is the element that gives dough its strength and stretch — making it a key component in bagels, pizza crust and specialty breads. It’s found in greater abundance in protein-rich wheat.

The Economic Times

The early arrival of monsoon rains has prompted many Indian cotton millers and traders to cancel or settle their import contracts, with expectations mounting that the South Asian nation would have a bumper crop of the textile fabric this year.

Print Week

According to a leading chemical industry publication, the merger of Huntsman and Clariant continues relentless chemical industry consolidation. Dow Chemical and DuPont expect to complete their historic merger in August. Deals to combine ChemChina and Syngenta, Bayer and Monsanto, and Linde and Praxair also continue to advance.

Deccan Herald Business Standard The Economic Times

Agriculture scientists came out in the open on Monday, backing the indigenous genetically modified mustard, which they said would lead to the creation of better and high-yielding hybrids.

The Hindu

Union Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh had to face farmers’ protest during his visit to Nagpur on Sunday to inaugurate a refurbished milk processing unit of Mother Dairy. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari were also present. A group of farmers shouted slogans during Mr. Singh’s speech at Deshpande Hall. One farmer asked him to stop his speech and demanded that the 7/12 receipts of Maharashtra farmers should be cleared and a proper price should be set for milk. The farmers received support and applause from the audience.

Telangana Today

Mr Srinivas Reddy on Sunday distributed the subsidized soybean seeds at Jakora village of Varni mandal. The Minister said that the Agriculture Department had distributed the required seeds to each and every village to fulfill the needs of farmers. Earlier, the farmers faced problems to purchase seeds and fertilizers, formed long queues, waited for week to purchase seeds and fertilizers, but now the Telangana government had introduced reforms, stabilized the situation and was providing the required inputs on time.

The Hindu Business Line

A day after the south-west monsoon hit the Kerala coast on May 30, the Union Ministry of Agriculture quietly uploaded the production target for kharif 2017-18 crops on its website. To be sure, the Minimum Support Price for the kharif crops is yet to be announced (as of June 1). Rice, coarse cereals (mainly maize), pulses (mainly tur/arhar or pigeon pea), oilseeds (mainly soyabean, groundnut) and cotton are the most important kharif season crops. Sugarcane, a 11-12 month crop, is also harvested at the end of the season.

Business World

Keeping in mind that more than half of the Indian population depends on agriculture but the share of agriculture in GDP is nowhere near expectation, in 2002 the then National Democratic Alliance Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee called upon MS Swaminathan, an agriculture expert, to file a report for the improvement of farmers’ condition in India.

The Hans India

Even as the Kisan Kranti Jan Andolan Samiti announced on Saturday that it was calling off the farmers’ strike, some disparate farmers’ organisations have decided to persist with the strike and also called for Maharashtra bandh on Monday, 5 June. The Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha announced on Sunday that it would continue an indefinite farmers’ strike and also observe Maharashtra bandh on June 5.

The Indian Express

Earlier, the government had tried to divide agriculture land into land pooling policy zones and non-land pooling policy zones. In August 2016, the AAP government had issued a notification raising the circle rates of agriculture land from Rs 53 lakh per acre to Rs 1 crore to Rs 3 crore per acre, in villages where the land pooling policy had been approved.

The Times of India Nyoooz

Over a thousand farmers were mobilized for the function to inaugurate Mother Dairy’s taking over of government milk scheme plant at Nagpur. “Till now, the industry could not flourish on account of vested interests. Politicians have their own dairy farms whose interests had to be protected,” he said

The Economic Times

AgroStar, which sells products from brands including Dow Chemicals, UPL and Monsanto, is now busy building a lighter app in other regional languages besides the three it is available in. Sheth says farmers who have smartphones now have at least one agri-app on their phones as an essential.

First Post

Hundreds of companies had lobbied the Trump administration to remain in the agreement. Apple, Starbucks, Gap, Nike, Adidas, L’Oreal and Monsanto all voiced their support for the Paris deal. Even oil companies like ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) gave their backing, reports CNN.

India Today The Indian Express Business Standard Outlook DNA India India Gist The Economic Times

Presently, the US and Europe ask for non-GM labelled honey, for which samples are tested in two private testing agencies in Germany and thereafter the shipments are undertaken. Even, testing costs are also high, he added. Echoing the views, Shiv Gramodyog Sansthan Secretary Devrat Sharma said about 50 kg honey is produced by honey bees from desi mustard crop, while it is only 25 kg from hybrid mustard crop due to reduction in the flowering period.

The Times of India

The government has found an innovative solution to cut urea consumption, which can help it save about Rs 6,000-7,000 crore subsidy annually. In the next six months, all urea bags will be available only in 45kg instead of 50kg. The fertiliser ministry believes this will result in farmers using two bags weighing 90kg against the current practice of using two bags, which weigh 100kg, and this will lead to a significant change in the consumption pattern and decline in costly urea imports. It has set aside Rs 14,000 crore for urea import in 2017-18.

The Times of India

Sources said that agriculture minister Gauri Shankar Bisen, who is touring all over the state to felicitate farmers after MP bagged the fifth Krishi Karman award had to cancel his Ratlam visit due to “some unavoidable circumstances” on Saturday. Ratlam is badly affected due to the on-going agitation

Dainik Yashobhumi

Soil health cards have been distributed to 8 crore farmers out of 14 crore so far, and the rest will be issued in the next three months, the Agriculture Ministry said today. A scheme to issue soil health cards was launched in February 2015 in a bid to promote balanced use of soil nutrients and boost the crop productivity

Navbharat

New Delhi, after receiving the good news of monsoon the union govt had to get the better production of pulses. This year the monsoon will give good rain. In 2018 the production of food rains will be 27.46cr tonne.

The Tribune Nyoooz

The Project Sankalp team has associated with 750 farmers from 15 villages in three states through a joint initiative with Indian Cotton Association Ltd and Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Ltd. Adoption of recommended agronomic practices from sowing till harvesting is the key driver to harvest good yield from the cotton crop is the core objective of the team.

The Hindu

Around 100 other seed conservationists and groups from various parts of India will participate in the festival, which is in its fourth edition. The previous editions were organised in Delhi, Chandigarh and Hyderabad. One of the thrust areas of the event, organised by Bharat Beej Swaraj Manch, which is attached to the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, is conservation of heirloom seeds. The event is also supported by Safe Food Alliance.

The Times of India

The Tamil Nadu government is all set to announce a special financial package to provide succour to delta farmers for the third successive year. The package is aimed at helping farmers raise less water-intensive pulses and millets. The customary June 12 water release from Mettur reservoir will be given a miss this year the sixth consecutive year also owing to shortage of water, depriving the farmers an opportunity to cultivate Kuruvai paddy.

The Hindu Business Line

Millet processors from across the country gathered recently to brainstorm ways to enter the export market, under an initiative jointly led by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), and the Institute of Millets Research (IIMR). The suggestions included trade exhibitions and promotions, effective distribution chain and market testing of products. Dr David Bergvinson, Director General of ICRISAT, said the idea was to create a millet movement as it should be made part of the daily meal.

Business Standard

Apart from government agencies, the state government has authorised two private agencies to procure wheat to accelerate procurement. The private entities would collectively procure about 100,000 tonnes of wheat and open their separate procurement centres. Meanwhile, UP Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi said the farmers were happy with the procurement and there was no discontentment among them.

The Times of India

The farmers’ strike intensified on Friday, hitting supplies and leading to increased prices in the city. Only 15% of the market yards across the state functioned and the arrival of fruits and vegetables at main market yards reduced to 10% compared to Wednesday, aday before the strike commenced. Farmers are agitating for a slew of demands, including a complete loan waiver and implementation of the Swaminathan committee report that proposes support pricing for all agricutural produce.

The Times of India

AgroStar, which sells products from brands including Dow Chemicals, UPL and Monsanto, is now busy building a lighter app in other regional languages besides the three it is available in. Sheth says farmers who have smartphones now have at least one agri-app on their phones as an essential. The next steps for the company involve building features such as predictive recommendations that can help farmers with notifications on, say, how a certain watermelon crop is likely to be affected by a certain disease due to unseasonal rainfall. It is also working on 30-second cartoon clips to feature in the app as visual aids for the not-so-tech savvy farmers on matters such as applying the right ...

Business Standard

The waiver could open the door for many more companies to develop hybrid cotton seed varieties based on Monsanto’s Bollgard-2 technology. “The NoC greatly hampered the growth of small and medium seed companies, those denied access to the technology” said Kalyan Goswami, executive director, National Seed Association of India.

Business Standard Shafaqna

“Kharif 2017 should be good for Indian agriculture, as the monsoon is projected to be normal. The sowing season is expected to be on time, with the monsoon already setting in Kerala. There are some positive shifts in acreages expected towards cotton and maize this season. There might be some reduction in acreages of soybean and pulses.

Desi Viral Skymet Weather

Planting of Kharif crops have begun with the pre-Monsoon showers picking up pace across India. Early trends are indicating that farmers are opting for cotton, pulses and oil seeds. As on May 26, cotton area has been increased by 27% to 11.24 lakh hectares against 8.83 lakh hectares sown at the same time last year. Out of 11.24 lakh hectares, 10.49 lakh hectares has been sown with Bt cotton and 0.746 lakh hectares with Non Bt varieties.

The Economic Times

AgroStar, which sells products from brands including Dow Chemicals, UPL and Monsanto, is now busy building a lighter app in other regional languages besides the three it is available in. Sheth says farmers who have smartphones now have at least one agri-app on their phones as an essential.

FnB News

To achieve sustainable development we must transform current agriculture and food systems, including by supporting smallholders and family farmers, reducing pesticide and chemical use and improving land conservation practices. This was stated by José Graziano da Silva, director general, FAO, in an address to European lawmakers. “Massive agriculture intensification is contributing to increased deforestation, water scarcity, soil depletion and the level of greenhouse gas emission,” he added.

The Economic Times

The farmers are facing problems, we are aware of that and we are trying to resolve (the issues). However it would take time because many of the issues have been there for the last 15 to 20 years.” He said the farmers are causing harm to themselves by going on strike and they should come for a dialogue. Small lenders like Equitas and Suryoday were reporting above normal defaults in Maharashtra in the last two quarters, as farmers were waiting for a loan waiver following promises from some politicians.

Navbharat Times

The impact of the state government on the state-wide shutdown movement has begun to fall on the wholesale vegetable market in Vashi, as the state government has not announced debt waiver. However, due to the first day of the shutdown, there was no special effect on the wholesale vegetable market on Thursday.

Navbharat Times

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis appealed to farmers to withdraw the strike and said that the people whose struggle did not respond to the trip, people want to spread violence under the guise of strike. The opposition wants that the farmers and the police fight together. The Chief Minister warned traders to take advantage of the Kisan strike that the government is keeping an eye on them.

Hindustan Times

“We are planning to write to the RBI urging it to look into the issue as to how heavy advances were made to poor farmers beyond their pay-back capacity?” a senior official of the Punjab government told HT. When contacted, finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal said that in the course of studying farm debt pattern, he observed that the lending was unethical and not prudent. “There are banking norms which are to be followed before giving loan to any loanee, which I think were tweaked,” he said.

The Indian Express

Major Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) shut operations on Thursday after farmers decided to stop supplying their produce as a mark of protest against the government for not acceding to their demand for a crop loan waiver.

The Times of India

The federation of farmers in Trichy commenced a five-day hunger strike on Thursday protesting against the BJP led Union government’s proposal to constitute a single tribunal for water issues. The farmers appealed to the political parties to boycott the presidential election saying the Union government had done nothing for the farmers in Tamil Nadu.

Telangana Today

It would not be an exaggeration to claim that perhaps nowhere else is the farmers’ interests protected, safeguarded and perennially given a thought, as in Telangana. Welfare measures such as farm loan waiver, input subsidy, free power and construction of godowns are solely focused on making agriculture a profit-making sector in the State. A majority of people in Telangana depend on agriculture and so, the State government according top priority to the sector has a big impact

Business Standard

Farmers are selling wheat in distress in Madhya Pradesh after the government-owned Food Corporation of India suspended its purchase last week. As a consequence, wheat prices crashed to Rs 1,400 a quintal (fair average quality) against its minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,600 a quintal. A senior FCI official attributes the plight of wheat farmers to three primary facts.

The Economic Times

Union minister Nitin Gadkari is spot on when he says farm loan waivers are not the answer to tackling rural distress. Making crop insurance more effective would certainly help, but a blanket loan waiver is clearly detrimental to the development of credit markets, adversely affects credit discipline and plain misallocates governmental funds that ought to shore up much-needed investment.

The Times of India

The state agriculture department would be using drones, remote sensing technology (RST) and smartphones to decide the amount of claim for crop insurance under the Centre’s much talked about Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). The state government’s proposal to use of modern technology has come in the wake the petitions filed before the Punjab and Haryana high court questioning the scheme and accuracy of the crop cutting experiment (CCE) presently carried by the state agriculture department under the scheme.

The Indian Express

Pointing out that consumers should stand by the farmers in these struggling times, he said, “The present time is very difficult for farmers and we should help reduce their grief.” “I hope sense prevail in the state and the union governments on the issue of farmers’ suffering, so they take appropriate decision in the interest of farmers,” he added. Pawar said the Union government had recently informed the court that 12,000 farmers have committed suicide in the country in the last three years.

Herald Goa

The closure of these three industries puts the focus on agriculture in the State, an activity that has been on the decline over the decades and where the government recently promised to double the income of Goan farmers in the next five years, in keeping with the policy of the Union Government. Despite this promise, agriculture is an activity that is finding fewer takers in Goa, with large areas of land that were once cultivated being left fallow across the State. Getting farmers back into the field would be the first and most difficult of tasks for the Agriculture Department.

The Times of India

In fact, against the prevailaing expectation, cotton fetched good prices while pulses and chilli did not do well. With elections likely sometime next year, we cannot afford to upset farming community again,” a ruling party leader said. The advise against cotton, first issued by the chief minister last April, finally resulted in area under pulses last kharif rise to 5.74 lakh hectares from 4.40 lakh hectares with red gram dominating acreage at 3.85 lakh hectares.

The Times of India

The state government is set to announce a special financial package to provide succour to delta farmers for the third successive year. The package is aimed at helping farmers raise less water intensive pulses and millets. The customary June 12 release of water from the Mettur reservoir will be given a miss this time also — the sixth consecutive year it is being done — owing to shortage of water, depriving the farmers an opportunity to cultivate Kuruvai paddy.

The Times of India

The state government on Thursday ordered an investigation into the tur purchased by all the 307 Agriculture Produce Market Committees across Maharashtra. The development comes close on the heels of Jalna collector Shivajirao Jondhale ordering probe into the tur sold by over 800 farmers at the facility of National Agriculture Cooperative Market Federation (NAFED) in the area. Among the farmers were minister of state Arjun Khotkar (Sena) and former minister Rajesh Tope (NCP), following which doubts were expressed on whether or not the tur belonged to cultivators.

The Times of India The Economic Times

The vegetable prices soared 15%-25% in the city markets on Thursday with the supply to the Pune Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) dipping by 40% on the first day of the farmers’ strike. Pune APMC officials stressed that if the strike continued for the next couple of days, the city would face a major shortage of vegetables. Milk would also be in short supply with major dairies, including Chitale Bandhu one of the major suppliers in the city announcing to stop milk collection and supply in support of farmers.

Tamilnadu Mail

Major industry participants include Monsanto, Syngenta, Nufarm, Dow AgroSciences and DuPont. Other companies mainly include BASF, Bayer and a large number of Chinese manufacturers. Key players have targeted weed management systems development, which help lower adverse environmental impact and control weeds through different modes as compared to traditional glyphosate application.

The Economic Times

Shares of fertiliser companies, which have been in demand for the past few weeks on the back of strong results, are likely to outperform the market in the coming months, helped by the government’s policy changes in the subsidy regime from kharif season, high likelihood of government clearing past subsidy dues and the onset of monsoon from June.

Krishi Jagran

The modified crops could survive in much higher concentrations of salt water. The opportunities are endless and as the case of GM mustard and Bt Brinjal. Indian scientists are up to the challenge of being the food factory not just for their own country but to other countries as well provided the policy scenario favors scientific innovations in biotechnology.

Fibre2Fashion

In the study, the researchers identified more than 500 genes that are epigenetically modified between wild cotton varieties and domesticated cotton, some of which are known to relate to agronomic and domestication traits. This information could aid selection for the kinds of traits that breeders want to alter, like fibre yield or resistance to drought, heat or pests. For example, varieties of wild cotton might harbour genes that help them respond better to drought, but have been epigenetically silenced in domesticated cotton.

The Economic Times

We embrace biotechnology when it comes to saving lives, getting genetically engineered drugs and saving cancer patients. And yet, we have this activism against genetically modified crops, which is also saving lives by the way,” Shaw said. There is no right or wrong obviously. But the question of addressing these moral dilemmas persists .

The Times of India

Upli Nagni, Tehri-Garhwal: The words ‘seed capital’ take on a whole new meaning in the hills of Uttarakhand. Far from the networks of seed corporations, farmers here still do agriculture the traditional way where they are not only cultivators but also field scientists and seed tinkerers. Most farmers in the Garhwal and Kumaon hills have never bought commercial seeds. They cultivate their own and share them with other farmers, who repay with their own local seeds or return double the quantity of the borrowed variety from the next crop. This system has preserved seed diversity and quality for centuries.

The Times of India

Reacting to Congress cabinet’s decision to scrap the sale of agricultural land for recovery of loans by cooperative banks (kurki), former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the Amarinder Singh government to go beyond this and not try to gain cheap political mileage by repeating what the previous government had already done.

The Hindu

A majority of farmers who had grown guava in the district in recent months were happy as they had been getting a good price for the produce, said Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao here on Wednesday.

Live mint

India’s agriculture markets are notoriously fragmented. So, some months back when farmers in Chhattisgarh were forced to let their tomatoes rot, consumers in Chennai were paying Rs20 per kg. This too needs to be corrected if the success of a bumper crop has to translate to better farm incomes.

The Economic Times

Black pepper exporters fear a repeat of last year’s record low, with Vietnam selling at nearly half the price offered by India. “Vietnam is currently selling at around $4,500 per tonne, which translates to about .`300 per kg. Indian price is around $7,400 per tonne, while Sri Lankan pepper is going at $7,000 per tonne,” said Prakash Namboodiri, chairman of All India Spices Exporters Forum.

The Economic Times

Residents in India’s commercial capital might need to ration their dinner portions as talks between farmers and the state on loan waivers and farmgate prices remained deadlocked, prompting producers to halt supplies of vegetables and dairy to the city from Thursday. Mumbai and Pune are among the cities likely to be hit by the strike after the farmers failed to secure their demands from the Maharashtra government on the waiver of loans and remunerative prices, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission.

The Times of India

Development is significant, as the current process of CCE carried by the authorities was being questioned even by agriculture officers of the department, who had resorted to strike in September 2016. They had claimed that present method of carrying out CCE lacked reliability which may affect the claims settlement of farmers in future. CCE is required to be done for all notified crops in the notified insurance units to assess the crop yield.

Morung Express

Five days farmers training programme on horticulture crops for Phek district is underway which was launched at Chetheba Village on May 30 organized by Central Institute of Horticulture (CIH), Medziphema in collaboration with the District Horticulture Office, Phek. The inaugural programme was launched with a participation of more than 50 farmers from six neighbouring villages.

The Financial Express

Even as the courts decide on the battle between GM firm Monsanto and one of its licensees Nuziveedu Seeds, the government appears to have considerably whittled down the powers the former has in terms of collecting royalties on its patented gene.

FnB News

The nine collaborating institutes are the School of Agriculture and Environment and Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia; Shenzhen Millennium Genomics Inc, China; Macrogen Inc, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Institute of Biotechnology, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad, India; Agricultural Research Station, Gulbarga, University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Karnataka, India; The Department of Plant Sciences