Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Aruna Roy on India’s agrarian crisis: ‘Policy without dialogue is killing our farmers’edit
70 years after Independence, India’s farming community has seen little progress. With little access to land holdings, limited formal credit, and continued droughts & crop failure, farmers face a bleak future.
Why Indian Agriculture Is Not On Permanent Declineedit
Observing and speculating agriculture and its economics in a nation like India can be misguiding at times. A key reason of selective players in world trade to malign image with the intents, termed unconvincing. In the words of S Ganeshan, chairman of international treaties expert committee from Indian chemical council “From suicide to productivity ground reality is very much emotionally driven and this makes it vulnerable for misrepresentation”.
When farmers’ incentives clash With policymakers goalsedit
For Policymakers wanting to wean away Punjab farmers from water-guzzling paddy, 1.35 lakh hectares (lh) area sown under maize this kharif season may not seem bad, even if it is way below the 29.11 lh for the former.
Time ripe for a nutrition revolution: Swaminathanedit
Hindustan Times The Economic Times
It was time for a nutrition revolution in India and it is important to work to achieve that to end malnutrition, renowned agriculture scientist Prof MS Swaminathan said here on Wednesday. Stating India was a country with the largest number of people with malnutirition, he said this was despite adequate food production and availability of cereals.
NITI Aayog drafts three-year road map for Evergreen Revolution: Ministeredit
The NITI Aayog has drafted a three years action plan for all the sectors including agriculture for a Evergreen Revolution, said Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Parshottam Rupala, in on Tuesday. In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Rupala said the action plan on agriculture deals with remunerative prices for farmers and raising productivity.
Facilitating investment in organic food business in India through right policiesedit
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare came up with a Participatory Guarantee Scheme for India (PGS-India) which aims at encouraging the small and mid-sized farmers to take up organic farming and promote it in the domestic market on a large scale.
A first in years: Paddy not sown in rice bowl Mandyaedit
Facing the drought for the third consecutive year, Mandya farmers haven’t taken up paddy production this time — a first in many years. By July-end, paddy was to be planted in 60,067 hectares in the once-bountiful district, considered a rice bowl of Karnataka.
A farmer and banker-friendly alternative to agricultural loan Waiversedit
From The 1970s, a lot of private investment in tube-well irrigation, farm mechanisation and allied agricultural activities took place with bank credit support. After the establishment of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1982, institutional credit flows not only accelerated, but also exhibited diversification to fund livestock and horticultural along with assorted non-fami rural activities.
10 lakh hectares lost to drought, migrationedit
Agriculture Price Commission chairperson T N Prakash Kammardi said the loss of land was a serious concern, and will be worse in the coming years. “Our estimates place a total loss of 6.9lakh hectares in the past decade alone, with 20,000 acres going out of agriculture each year,” he said.
‘NABARD focuses on raising farmers’ income’edit
In this Government through different agencies like state agriculture departments, panchayat bodies, non-government organisations supported by the National Bank Agriculture and Rural Development, Co-operative Banks, etc have initiated work on constituting self-help groups and other such bodies to perform target oriented works.
TNAU comes out with solution to extend shelf life of fruits, vegetablesedit
The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has come up with a solution that would prevent the loss of fruits and vegetables during the post-harvest season. Around 30 to 35 per cent of fruits and vegetables (worth Rs. 2,40,000 crore) are lost every year in the country during the post-harvest period.
Saffron Heat Sends GM Food Crops into Freezeredit
The government is in no hurry to introduce genetically modified food crops in the country three months after the sector regulator gave its nod to commercialisation of GM mustard, because of widespread opposition from different quarters.
India in No Hurry to Grow GM Cropsedit
The government is in no hurry to introduce genetically modified food crops in the country three months after the sector regulator gave its nod to commercialisation of GM mustard, because of widespread opposition from different quarters.
Cotton yield to fall on pest attacksedit
Business Standard The Tribune Trading Calls
Bt cotton seeds claim to possess protection against bollworm. But, India’s cotton crop has witnessed sporadic bollworm attacks in the last few years. “Pest attacks have become a regular phenomenon,” said Arun Sakseria, a cotton trader and exporter. An agriculture ministry bulletin on August 4 estimated India’s cotton acreage at 11.43 million hectares, 18 per cent more than 9.65 million hectares at the same time a year ago.
It’s Raining Money For AgriTech Startups: EM3 Agri And Crofarm Raise Fundingedit
In a country with 157.35 Mn hectares of agricultural land, about 250-odd agritech startups are working to support a cultivating population of over 118.9 Mn. With the aim of improving the efficiency and output of the farming process, these startups are shouldering the ambitious task of revolutionising the agriculture industry in India. Two agritech startups i.e. EM3 Agri Services and Crofarm, have disclosed their funding today.
Competition
Mahindra launches new small tractor ‘JIVO’edit
A new age, superior technology small tractor platform in the sub 25HP category, the Mahindra JIVO, priced at Rs four lakh for 4WD model (ex-showroom Karnataka), is suitable for row crop and horticulture farming, company officials said.
Sonalika beats M&M, John Deere to become India’s largest tractor brand in more than 51 HP segmentedit
International Tractors Limited (ITL), makers of Sonalika tractors, has emerged as the number one tractor manufacturing company in more than 51 HP Segment category for the month of June.
The segment is dominated by progressive farmers who always opt for technologically advanced tractors across the country.
Technology in Agriculture
Farmers asked to use machine planting for kuruvai cultivationedit
Ploughing operation is in full swing in most of the clusters where mission on sustainable dry land agriculture (MSDA) scheme is implemented after the receipt of rainfall for the past one week. As Asokan reviewed the progress of all schemes implemented by the department of agriculture, he also reviewed the formation of village-level groups and asked the club members to speed up the registration process.