Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Who is Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, MoS in Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfareedit
A technology-savvy farmer Gajendra Singh Shekhawat comes from Jodhpur, the home district of former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, and is a prominent member of the Rajput community. Born in Rajasthan’s Sikar on October 3, 1967, he was the national general secretary of the farmers’ wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP Kisan Morcha. His inclusion in the Cabinet comes ahead of the Rajasthan Assembly elections due next year.
Special drive to ensure reach of investment support to farmersedit
The special drive to be taken up for cleansing the land records in the State, ‘Rythu Vari Bhu Survey’, from September 15 to December 15 would have the main objective of ensuring the proper reach of investment support to farmers, proposed to be implemented from kharif next. Official sources involved in the exercise from the beginning stated that the special drive had been necessitated since the data collection about lands being cultivated by the Agriculture Department had no sanctity and it had to have the stamp of Revenue Department.
Say Hello to Precision Farmingedit
Nearly 5,000 farmers in Samastipur, Begusarai and Muzzaffarpur districts of Bihar are reaping benefits of a smart decision taken last season. Instead of selling their produce cheap, immediately on harvesting, they warehoused yields and waited for grain prices to appreciate in the off-season.
No water for Rabi crops as dam storage at a lowedit
As the dry spell has brought down levels in dams of the region to a low, there may be no water for the Rabi crop in large tracts of farmland. After Kharif cultivation, which depends on the monsoon, some farmers also go for a second crop under Rabi, during winters. This depends on irrigation facilities, which includes dams and well on farms. The Rabi crop helps farmers get extra income or cover up for losses in Kharif.
New faces in the Agriculture Ministryedit
The Narendra Modi government today inducted a technology-savvy farmer Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as a new junior agriculture minister and moved Krishna Raj to this important ministry, apparently aiming at strengthening the farm sector. Shekhawat and Raj will replace SS Ahluwalia and Sudharshan Bhagat, who has been moved as Ministers of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation and Tribal Affairs respectively in the major cabinet rejig. Krishna Raj was earlier the minister of state for Women and Child Development, while Shekhawat, an RSS activist in Rajasthan, was a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.
‘Jeevamrutam’ gives a push to natural farmingedit
But it is only a humble beginning as the four mandals of Anantagiri, Araku, Dumbriguda, and Hukumpeta account for around 5,000 farmers cultivating vegetables. Of them, 524 are members of the Tribal Vegetable Growers’ Society and sell vegetables at the 12 rythu bazaars in the city. Only in Hukumpeta and Anantagiri, the ‘Jeevamrutam’ clusters have started functioning. There are 13 varieties of organic inputs. Besides, individual farmers are encouraged to make ‘Jeevamrutam’ by providing assistance.
Hyderabad: ICAR for world class agriculture educationedit
The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) is planning to select 30 agricultural universities based on their capabilities, innovations, and infrastructure and spend Rs 1,100 crore to create world class infrastructure in agriculture education, said ICAR Deputy Director General (DDG), Dr. NS Rathore here on Sunday.
Experience will help frame agri policies, says Shekhawatedit
Seven months after the MP of Jodhpur, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, took up the issue of farmers pointing to the discrepancies and flaws in crop insurance and their impact on the farmers with the then agriculture minister for state Sanjeev Balyan and the joint secretary, he himself was given the charge of the agriculture and farmers’ welfare ministry as a minister of state.
Did farmers get benefits to stop crop burning?’edit
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the governments of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to submit specific cases of small fanners being given incentives to desist from burning crop residue in a bid to prevent air pollution.
DBT concludes Smart Agriculture Conclaveedit
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, convened the Smart Agriculture Conclave in New Delhi from August 29 to August 31, 2017, in partnership with the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Research Councils UK (RCUK) India, said a government release. The objective of this conclave was to set the stage for Farmer Zone a collective open-source data platform for smart agriculture which will use biological research and data to improve the lives of small and marginal farmers.
Cropping system based training programme conductededit
MLA of Kumbi AC, S Bira, Agriculture Department Additional Chief Secretary, Dr Suhel Aktar, Director of Agriculture, Ph Rajendra Singh and social worker N Ibobi Singh, attended the event as the presidium members . Speaking at the event, S Bira urged the farmers to take benefits of the various schemes and programmes provided by the State Government as well as the Agriculture Department . He also stated that it is unfortunate that most of the rice and paddy were not sown due to the recent flood and incessant rains and appealed to the farmers to interact and learn from the experts on how to improve agricultural yields and produces etc.
Bhadra reservoir command area farmers to get water for rabi cropedit
At present, the live storage of water in the reservoir is 34 tmcft as against the total live storage capacity of 63 tmcft. Of the 34 tmcft, 7 tmcft should be reserved to cater to the drinking water needs of the human habitats on the banks of the Tungabhadra and in the command area of the Bhadra reservoir. B.M. Sundaresh, Chairman, Bhadra CADA, told The Hindu that as the south-west monsoon is reaching its concluding stage and winter will commence in the region shortly, even if the water is released along the canals now, the farmers cannot take up the cultivation of paddy, the main crop here. Instead, CADA has planned to release water along the right ...
Successful Eco-Friendly Farmers Highlight Need for Policy Changesedit
These ecologically protective methods have clear policy implications. Most of the government’s policies so far have been exactly in the opposite direction. Most policy interventions have led to great environmental damage, which is now likely to increase with preparations being made for a bigger role for genetically modified (GM) crops.