Dainik Yashobhumi

Seven states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Bihar, are lagging behind in issuing soil health cards to farmers and have been asked to expedite the process, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said today. Against the target of 12 crore, nine crore soil health cards have been issued so far.

ET Markets

“It has increasingly become difficult to plant tomatoes during April and May due to high temperatures. The yields are falling drastically by 50-60 per cent,” said Ajay Belhekar, a farmer from Narayangaon. Sunil Waman, a tomato broker, said, “All the farmers who had sown late crop could not get good yields. Those who planted early, could not recover cost of production due to low prices.” In the Himalayan hills, tomato crop was affected due to intermittent rains and heavy heat, which reduced yields as well as quality.

Curriculum

Government has approved the establishment of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), South Asia Regional Center (ISARC) at campus of National Seed Research and Training Center (NSRTC) in Varanasi. Under the proposal, a Centre of Excellence in Rice Value Addition (CERVA) will be set up in Varanasi.

Hindi Business Standard

Agri loan waivers in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have not only added stress to HDFC Bank, which has considerable direct exposure in the sector in these states, but Bandhan Bank, which doesn’t even have a direct agri exposure has also come under stress as a result of the government scheme.

The Wire

While vegetable seeds remain tax exempt, paddy, cereal and corn seeds now attract 5% tax. This has hit sales at companies such as Monsanto, whose local seed merchants have no experience of paying tax. “Our sales are getting hammered at a time when they would normally be booming,” Arindam Lahiri, Monsanto’s taxation lead in Asia & Africa, told Reuters. “This anomaly needs to be fixed urgently.” Revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia, overseeing the GST rollout, tweeted this week that nearly eight million businesses were enrolled to pay the tax and the transition “is going on smoothly.” He did not respond to a request for comment.