Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Farmer caution slows seed demandedit
“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.
Cotton sowing in full swing in Haryana as pre-Monsoon rains pick up paceedit
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.
Road to increasing engagement remains challenging for agri-input startupsedit
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.
For sustainable development, transformation of agri systems imperativeedit
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.
Maha Farm Loan Waiver may Cover Only the ‘Most Needyedit
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.
Strike effect, decreased the supple 10 percent reduction in supply of vegetables in Vashiedit
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.
Opposition wants to spread violence under the control of farmers: CMedit
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.
‘Reckless’ farm loans by pvt banks: Govt to write to RBIedit
“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.
Most APMCs shut as farmers stop supplyedit
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.
Farmers ask parties to boycott prez polledit
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.
Fast forwarding farm economyedit
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
Madhya Pradesh farmers selling wheat in distress as FCI suspends purchaseedit
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.
Nitin Gadkari Gets It Right on Farm Loansedit
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.
Now, drones, RST to help Haryana decide crop cover compensationedit
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.
‘Restless’ Sharad Pawar urges all to stand by farmersedit
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.
Spotlight on agriculture as mining, tourism, fishing take a breakedit
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.
Telangana to let farmers decide on crops they want to growedit
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.
TN to roll out millet package for farmersedit
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.
Tur purchase by over 300 APMCs under state lensedit
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.
Vegetable prices soar, milk shortage looks inevitableedit
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.
Glyphosate Market To Be Driven By Growing Demand For Genetically Modified (GM) Crops Till 2020: Grand View Research, Incedit
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.
Fertiliser Shares Likely to Outperform Marketedit
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.
GM Crops: Answer to Climate Changeedit
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.
Epigenetic modification for better cotton coming upedit
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 ethics of modern scienceedit
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 .
Farmers resist GM tide with local seedsedit
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.