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.