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.

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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.