Afternoon

The long wait for India’s landmark tax reforms, Goods and Services Tax (GST), is over and the industries in various sectors including agrochemicals have geared up for the changes that would be resultant of the GST. The two major segments of agrochemicals have different tax rates under new tax regime; chemical fertilizers are to be taxed @12% and pesticides @18%. For fertilizers, the proposed tax rate is higher than 0-8% Value Added Tax (VAT) before the GST roll out, depending on raw materials used and in which states the products are sold.

The Hindu

After a prolonged dry spell from June to mid-August, the district received 113 mm of rainfall as against normal rainfall of 146 mm in the last week of August. The rainfall recorded by Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) shows that farmers in 29 of the 32 hoblis in Kalaburagi district have deficit rain up to 57% , while three hoblis including Afzalpur, Aland and Madana hipparaga received 114 mm, 152 mm and 159mm against the normal rainfall of 104mm, 142mm and 137 mm respectively.

Business Standard

The total sown area as on 25th August 2017, as per reports received from States, stands at 1013.83 lakh hectare as compared to 1019.60 lakh hectare at this time last year. It is reported that rice has been sown/transplanted in 358.28 lakh ha, pulses in 135.96 lakh ha, coarse cereals in 178.85 lakh ha, sugarcane in 49.78 lakh hectare and cotton in 119.67 lakh ha.

Business World

Agriculture requires focus as a business and even venture capitalists have started finding it as a potential area to invest. There are loop holes remaining in agriculture trade, unlike confidence factor in healthcare industry.

The Economic Times

Access to reliable and trusted information is creating a huge difference in the way agriculture is done in India,” says Arvind Nevatia, SVP – consumer segment, Vodafone India. The telecom company has an information service package (Vodafone Kisan Mitra) for farmers. According to a report prepared by Vodafone titled ‘Connecting farmers in India’, close to 62% of Indian farmers own less than one hectare of agricultural land. Companies such as Crofarm procure directly from farmers and sell to food processing majors and small retailers.

The Hindu Business Line

The farm ministry is mulling NITI Aayog’s proposal to introduce a price-deficit mechanism for kharif crops this year, a senior Government official said. Mooted by NITI Aayog in 2015, price-deficit mechanism proposes that Government compensate farmers the difference between modal price of a crop and its minimum support price, in case the modal price falls below the minimum support price (MSP).

The Times of India

Cotton sowing has reached a record high of about 120 lakh hectares in the country during the ongoing kharif season on the back of good rainfall in key growing regions. The area under cotton has grown 6.4% year-on-year, or an increase of 7.23 lakh hectares, as on August 24, data with the union agriculture ministry showed.

The Times of India

Each group will be given a corpus fund of Rs 5 lakh. All these groups will be integrated to form Tamil Nadu Farmers Agri Business Consortium with funding from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). Madurai has been sanctioned Rs 375 lakh grant for 2017-18, collector said. Joint director of agriculture, A Selvapandi said the department will sensitise farming community about the collective farming to enrol them into farmers’ interest groups.

Deccan Herald

A Bengaluru-based startup has developed an app that keeps farmers up-to-date on demand and supply since lack of such information leads to excess production and price crash.

The Indian Express The Economic Times Business Standard

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it aims to double the income of farmers by 2022 to tackle suicides among them. The Ministry of Agriculture also proposed to make special efforts to ensure adequate flow of credit in under-serviced areas, eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Economic Times

This will reduce handling costs, bring economies of scale, reduce prices and increase returns for farmers. The idea has been discussed at the highest level of the government and the Centre is likely to reach out to states for such an enabling provision after full consultation with the ministry of consumer affairs, a senior government official told ET.

The Hindu

Buoyed by higher price in the open market than the minimum support price announced by the Centre last year and good rains, farmers across Telangana have cultivated cotton crop in the highest ever extent of over 18.6 lakh hectares during this kharif season.