Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Little gourd farmers in a fixedit
Little gourd (donda in telugu) growers dumped their produce on the road and staged “rasta roko” at Angadipet village of PA Pally mandal in Nalgonda district demanding setting up of a vegetable market at PA Pally and Minimum Support Price of Rs 600 per pack of the vegetable, on Saturday.
GST impact: Good news for farmers, tax rate on fertilisers reduced from 12% to 5%edit
The farmers of the country would benefit to the tune of Rs. 1261 crores under GST regime. Under the new GST rates announced by the Council, average weighted MRP will decrease to Rs. 5909/ Ton (or Rs. 295.47/ 50kg bag) as compared to the existing All India weighted Average of Rs 5923/ Ton (or Rs. 296.18/50 kg bag),” said Ananth Kumar.
Conference on farming technologiesedit
According to Vanitha Mohan, president of the chamber, there are many youngsters who are doing weekend farming. Traditional farmers also want to switch over to new technologies and systems. The speakers have contributed to making agriculture viable and enjoyable. Some of them are integrated farmers who have taken up value addition.
Sarson Satyagraha: Activists up in arms over genetically modified foodedit
In May this year, a regulatory body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, had given its go-ahead for cultivation of genetically modified mustard. Earlier, it was Bt cotton that was genetically modified and its ill-effects on the ecology are for all to see. Now mustard, a traditional and important crop linked to good health, will be manipulated so that traditional seeds of this crop will be destroyed in a systemic manner.
Technology in Agriculture
Fertilizer, tractor parts to cost lessedit
The GST Council provided relief to farmers reducing the tax rates on fertilizers from 12% to 5% and tractor parts from 28% to 18%, hours before the Friday midnight transition to the new system. The fertilizer industry was disappointed with the previous rates and made several representations to the government.