Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Time to focus on ‘more crop per drop’edit
Familiar scenes play out in urban India in the summer. As the heat drives up demand for water, tankers crisscross city streets supplying water to parched homes. Residents line up to get their share. Most tankers can carry 5,000-10,000 litres, which can meet requirements of 10 to 20 families for a day. (BASF)
Telangana Government is committed to welfare of farmers: KT Rama Raoedit
Addressing a public meeting after laying the foundation stone for feeder channel works in Narmala, he said that with a view to making agriculture profitable to farmers, the government has taken up a number schemes. Construction of a project to provide water to one crore acres, 24×7 power supply to agriculture sector, supply of pesticides free of cost, special drive to maintain land records and Mission Kakatiya were a few programmes initiated by the government for the welfare of farmers. With this, the farmers would become self-sustainable.
Rains resume, give fresh impetus to kharif sowingedit
With the rains having picked up pace over the past few days across the state, sowing activity for the kharif season has once again regained momentum. In the backdrop of considerable rainfall in the past few days across the state, so far, sowing has been completed on 1.01 crore hectares of land, which is 72 per cent of the 1.39 crore hectares on which kharif crops are grown.
Rain brings cheers to farmers in Telangana, cities live in flood fearedit
The agriculture department said the rains that occurred during the last two days are good for all crops. The rainfall across the state is good for all crops. There has been no damage to any crop,” agriculture commissioner M Jagan Mohan told TOI. Revenue officials claim they have been monitoring the situation and even all district collectors have been asked to do so. The rain may be good for agriculture, but some other sectors have been adversely hit. Coal production in Singareni Collieries at Manuguru was affected.
Opposition targets government over agrarian crisis, farmers’ suicideedit
Opposition members in Rajya Sabha today strongly raised the issue of agrarian crisis in the country, saying farmers were being forced to do distress sale of crops in the face of cheaper zero-duty imports. Several members gave notices under rule 267 that allows adjournment of the proceedings to take up a discussion on an issue.
No proposal to write off farm loans, says govtedit
To ensure availability of concessional debt, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said the government is providing interest subvention to make short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh for a period of one year available to farmers at the interest rate of 7 per cent per annum and in case of timely repayment, the same gets reduced to 4 per cent.
Nitish takes stock of agricultural schemesedit
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today took stock of progress related to Bihar’s agricultural roadmap and arrangements regarding distributing subsidised diesel in the event of drought-like situation. He took stock of the rainfall in the state this year and sowing of kharif crops and directed officials to prepare a plan for proper use of sewage water for irrigation to boost agriculture.
Karnataka agri markets see higher volumes despite drought hurting farm outputedit
The electronic trading platforms in the agriculture markets of Karnataka have caught the attention of chilli and paddy growers in neighbouring States such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, who are seen increasingly bringing their produce to the markets here, seeking better prices.
ICAR sets target for doubling farmer’s incomeedit
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed 596 high yielding climate resilient crop varieties/ hybrids of field crops for cultivation in different agro-ecologies of the country during the past three years, said an Agriculture Ministry release.
GST effect: Trichy farmers unable to buy fertilizersedit
Farmers in the district are left in the lurch as they are unable to purchase fertilizers such as urea and potash, as the concerned Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) have not been allotted a GST registration number by the tax department. Farmers are being sent back by the PACCS authorities stating that they cannot generate bills with GST.
‘Centre doing little for farmers’edit
Leading Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), on Wednesday launched a frontal attack on the Narendra Modi government for being “insensitive” to the problems of farmers across the country. While the Congress, represented by Jyotiraditya Scindia sought the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Committee report, the BJD’s leader in the Lower House Bhartruhari Mahtab called upon the Centre to revisit the controversial minimum support price (MSP) mechanism.
What Happens When the Goals of Scientific Innovation Are Defined by Profitedit
Their attempts through litigation to prevent and delay the entry of affordable drugs, even the ones listed by WHO as essential medicines in the Indian and other developing-world markets, show no signs of stopping. The lobbying for genetically modified agricultural crops also continues and many experts refuse to recognise the basic conflict-of-interest issue.