Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Sustainable use of the natural resources Part-IIIedit
The National Commission on Agriculture (1976) emphasized on scientific land use planning for achieving food security, self-reliance and enhanced livelihood security. The National Policy for Farmers (2007) has recommended revival of existing Land Use Boards and their linkage to district-level land-use Committees, so that they can provide quality and proactive advice to farmers on land use.
Policies that will help farmers strike it richedit
How do we enhance farm income on a sustained basis? Farm income is the excess of income from the sale of farmer’s produce over his expenditure incurred on producing the same. The equation, therefore, has three components: Maximisation of revenue; minimisation of costs of inputs, electricity, water, mechanisation, interest rates and logistics; and development of alternative sources of income.
MP to help farmers in hiring farm equipmentedit
After announcing a price deficit scheme, Madhya Pradesh, which saw protest over declining farm prices, decided to setup custom hiring centres for food processing a teach block headquarters. Under the scheme, machines are hired by farmers at rates approved by the state government.
Mahindra Agri launches Tromph insecticide to build crop care solutionsedit
The unveiling ceremony in Karnal was attended by over 200 farmers, agricultural university and research and development (R&D) scientists and foreign delegates from Japan, who shared their experiences about the new insecticide and the advances in the agro-chemical sector. Tromph has been developed to kill the insect pests that infect various crops such as rice, cotton, chillies, vegetables and fruits like mangoes. It will help farmers protect their crops from insects like the brown plant hopper, known to severely damage rice, and also from the sucking pest in cotton.
Govt. to bring out policy to develop agri-clustersedit
The government will soon bring out a policy to develop agricultural clusters and boost farm exports, said commerce minister Suresh Prabhu. Speaking at the 10th Agriculture Leadership Summit 2017 on Tuesday, Mr. Prabhu said, “If there are clusters for industry, why should we not think about clusters for agriculture. Farmers have the right to access global markets and get better prices (for their produce) and for that we will put in place a good policy framework soon.” He added, “We have to develop global supply chains and we will work on that.”
Floods Dampen Kharif Outlook, But Plentiful Stocks to Prevent Shortfalledit
This year’s kharif harvest may be lower than 2016 because of floods in several states and lower planting of some crops, but the country has enough stocks to meet food requirements and keep prices under control, traders and analysts said. Output of pulses and oilseeds is expected to fall because of lower planting, while production of rice, the main kharif crop, is likely to be the same as last year as higher yields will offset lower sowing, trade bodies representing buyers of pulses and rice said.
Drought makes Karnataka government force farmers to opt for ragi over paddy; here is why this is a good newsedit
Farmers claim that the returns from paddy and sugarcane are much higher—area under ragi had already fallen from 7.87 lakh hectares in 2010-11 to 6.77 lakh ha in 2015-16. While pushing ragi seems like a just solution, the fact is that forcing farmers to swallow the crop is not going to work; the state must look at incentivising it and possibly even making it a part of the public distribution system.
Deficient August rain clouds kharif prospectsedit
However, transplantation of paddy seedlings has surpassed the target. Paddy transplantation has been undertaken over 63,779 ha against the target of 63,721 ha. The Agriculture department had set a target to cultivate paddy over 1,06,800 ha during the current kharif season. Under the non-paddy crops, pulses have been cultivated over 25,897 ha till August 31 against the target of 35,800 ha.
Agriculture must attract youth, loan waivers no remedy: Swaminathanedit
Millennium Post Business Standard
Indian agriculture must become profitable to boost farmers’ income and attract youth to the farm sector as loan waivers cannot be sustained, according to eminent scientist M S Swaminathan. He also pitched for including pulses under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to deal with the issue of deficiency of protein and micro-nutrients.
New opposition for GM Mustard, Andhra CM expresses strong concerns against Centre’s pushedit
In a letter to Minister of Forests, Environment and Climate Change Dr Harshavardhan last month, the CM wrote about his concerns over GM mustard and its implications on the economy, nature and agriculture. Disapproving the Centre’s stand, Andhra has now joined states like Delhi, Bihar, Kerala and Tamil Nadu that have opposed the commercialisation of GM mustard, Live Mint reported.
Hyderabad varsity develops transgenic rice varietyedit
In this context, the recent advancements in genetic engineering has provided new opportunities to enhance yield potential and tolerance to drought and other stresses by manipulating some of the regulatory genes involved in complex physiological and biochemical processes, such as osmotic adjustment under water deficit environment, the researchers stated.