Business Standard

Surging onion prices have toppled governments in India. Now there’s a new threat looming for policy makers. Tomatoes. After touting better food management as a reason for record-low inflation during much of the summer, a surge in the costs of vegetables and fruits is causing price pressures to simmer.

The Hindu Business Line

The figures emerging from Network Programme on Climate Change, ICAR, paint a disturbing scenario. A reduction of 4.5 to 9 per cent in agriculture yields is expected in the medium term (20102039), and over 25 per cent in the long term (2040 and beyond) if no corrective measures are taken. What this means for India’s GDP growth in the medium term is a hit of up to 2 per cent per annum.

Millennium Post Hindi Business Standard The Pioneer

Sowing operation in the kharif season begins normally with the onset of the south-west monsoon and picks up pace from July. Paddy, tur, moong, urad, soyabean, sunflower seed and cotton are the main crops grown during this season.

The Hindu Business Line

Deficient rains in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana seem to have hit kharif sowing this year with the total area covered coming down for the first time from the corresponding period last year. The total sown area during the ongoing kharif season had dropped to 976.34 lakh hectares (ha) by the end of the week, against 984.57 lakh ha during the same time last year, according to data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday.

The Hindu Business Line

Passing of the Nabard (Amendment Bill) 2017 and transfer of the Reserve Bank of India’s token stake in the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to the Centre has evoked mixed reactions. Union Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar had tabled the Bill in the Lok Sabha, saying Nabard will have a major role in realising the Centre’s professed objective of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.

Prajatantra

Farmers are not deriving the promised benefits under the Centre’s crop insurance scheme, and instead it is private insurers who are profiting. The delay in claim settlement is due to state governments delaying paying their share of premium and delays in carrying out crop-cutting experiments to estimate yield loss.

Live Mint

As the window for the sowing of rain-fed Kharif crops nears an end, farmers in India have planted less of pulses, coarse grains and oilseeds year-on-year and increased the area under sugarcane and cotton, shows data released by the agriculture ministry on Friday. Overall, during the 2017-18 Kharif crop season, farmers have planted 97.6 million hectares under different crops so far, about 0.8% lower than the area planted by this time last year.

The Economic Times

In the last phase of planting mostly in rainfed regions of the country, crop acreage saw an increase of 3.5% in the past one week. However, compared to the previous year it was 0.84% less covering 97.63 million hectare, according to the Agriculture ministry data. The government has set a target of planting crop on 105.86 million hectare this kharif season.

The Times of India

Extreme weather events are costing India $910 billion annually and climate change is projected to impact farm productivity with increasing severity from 2020 to the end of the century. In a recent submission to a parliamentary committee, the agriculture ministry said productivity decrease of major crops will be marginal in the next few years but could rise to as much as 1040% by 2100 unless farming adapts to climate change-induced changes in weather.

Millennium Post

After examining the varieties, agricultural scientists opined that the weather and soil are conducive for the production of these types of rice. The cultivation is carried out without any artificial chemicals and these rice varieties are free from health hazards.

The Financial Express

According to agriculture ministry data, despite a sharp decline in arhar, overall kharif pulses sowing, till Friday, had been around 130.68 lakh hectare, which is about 3.5% less than compared with last year, indicating another bumper output like last year. Recently, the government had put imports of pigeon peas and arhar under the restricted category and fixed a quota of only 200,000 tonne per annum.

Business Standard Trading Calls Hindi Business Standard

“India has commercialized desi cotton variety which has potential for much higher yield than Bt cotton and also benefits of pests and weeds resistance capability. Also, the desi variety is longer staple in nature which might replace some quantity of long staple cotton. Thus, the desi variety offers better realization than Bt and other conventional varieties of cotton.