The Hindu Business Line

We have collection centres at the farm gate in Malur and Chickballapur where we source tomatoes and other veggies. We also buy from consolidators in Ooty the hill vegetables. We buy onions from Nashik where we have a full-fledged procurement team. Today 85 per cent of our purchases are directly from farmers.

The Financial Express

Modi lauded farmers and the agricultural scientists for record crop production this last year. He said the government had procured 16 lakh tonnes of pulses this year, far in excess of the procurement of previous years.

The Economic Times

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the government would handhold farmers right from procurement of seeds to access to the markets in order to improve their lives.

The Financial Express

More than a year after the rollout of the NDA government’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the response has been mixed. Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh spoke to Sandip Das on implementation aspects of the crop insurance scheme and other hey issues impacting the agricultural sector.

The Hindu

He said that the dams have only 43 tmcft of water, with cities such as Mysuru and Bengaluru requiring 35 tmcft of water for drinking purposes. “In such a grim situation, the government is forced to advise the farmers not to cultivate sugarcane and paddy crops which required huge quantum of water. We have been urging farmers to cultivate more short-term and rain-dependent crops this year as water should be saved for drinking purposes,” he said.

The Times of India

The report says that the climate change would surge production of potato in Punjab, Haryana and western and central Uttar Pradesh by 3.46% to 7.11% by 2030, but in rest of India potato production may decline by 4% to 16%. The 31-member committee, headed by Bihar MP and former Union minister of state Hukumdev Narayan Yadav of BJP, also submitted that irrigated rice in north-west India comprising Haryana and Punjab is projected to reduce by 6% to 8% by 2020. Whereas in other parts of the country the loss would be below 5%.

Business Standard

The Centre is exploring a mechanism to assist states in depositing the losses suffered by farmers into their bank accounts, instead of purchasing their produce. The move would give some relief to the states, which were finding it difficult to dispose tonnes of onions, pulses and other commodities purchased from growers during a price crash.

The Hindu Green Ecosystem

There are many methods of plant breeding, of which molecular breeding is one. Genetic modification has both advantages and disadvantages. One has to measure the risks and benefits before arriving at a conclusion. First, we need an efficient regulatory mechanism for GM in India. We need an all-India coordinated research project on GMOs with a bio-safety coordinator. We need to devise a way to get the technology’s benefit without its associated risks.

Deccan Chronicle

Speaking on the occasion, Kamal said, “To prevent insects from spoiling the saplings and seedlings grown out of hybrid and genetically modified seeds, we spray pesticides, which may turn poisonous. So, avoid these hybrid seeds and use only traditional varieties of seeds for cultivating our food. We have lost 70 percent of heirloom seeds and let’s all strive to preserve the rest of 30 percent of our seed varieties. To save it, each one of us should become a farmer.” Kamal also requested his fans welfare associations to join hands with the team to ensure its success.