Hindustan Times

“This initiative of Rajasthan will be taken up as a global project. Such books will be published for 128 agro-climatic zones in India, and later in Asian and African countries,” he said. About 6000 agriculture supervisors will refer to the book and prescribe pesticides to farmers in 10 agro-climatic zones in Rajasthan, said Prakash Gupta, state head of the project. “Farmers can come with the affected plants, otherwise agriculture supervisors will go to the fields to identify crop diseases and prescribe pesticides.”

The Hindu Business Line

Prospects of the upcoming kharif crop harvest have taken some beating following deficient rainfall in parts of the country in the last four weeks. Crop yields are likely to be hurt and harvest size is expected to fall below the season’s production target. This, in turn, can increase the upward price pressure on food commodities, on top of a spike in the consumer price index in August.

The Indian Express

Secondly, the agriculture ministry’s own data on area sown during the current kharif season shows a decline over last year for most crops, barring cotton and sugarcane. Lack of rains has especially hit Karnataka, with the state reporting lower acreages under maize, jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl-millet), rice, arhar (pigeon-pea), moong (green gram), groundnut, soyabean and sunflower. MP has recorded higher plantings of urad (black gram), moong, maize, bajra, jowar and sesamum, but it remains to be seen to what extent their yields — and also of soyabean, the state’s main kharif crop — have been affected by the extended dry weather from August.

The Financial Express

The Government Has imposed an antidumping duty of up to $60.3 5 per tonne for five years on a chemical used in fertiliser industry from four countries — Russia, Indonesia, Georgia and Iran. The move would help guard domestic players from below-cost imports of‘ ammonium nitrate’ from these countries.

Stat Times

A farmers training camp was organised on topic Orientation of Climate Smart Agriculture at village Nandwal Panchayat Ghaink and Panchyat Showa Zone Bhalwal under National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC). The agriculture officers briefed the farmers about the various components of the said project. The camp was organised on the directions of H.K Razdan, Director Agriculture, Jammu, R.L Bhagat CAO Jammu, A.K Malhotra State Coordinator NAFCC, Arun Makhontra Nodal Officer Jammu NAFCC and T.K Atri-SDAO Marh.

Nyooz

Chief agriculture officer, Dr Dalbir Singh Chinna, said the farmer, Balwinder Singh, had stopped burning crop residue as an experiment in 2011. Farmers just need to change their mindset that there is no solution to crop residue than burning,” added Chinna.

The Hindu

The Group of Ministers constituted to oversee cotton procurement in anticipation of a bumper crop was informed by the officials on Wednesday that 143 procurement centres would be opened this year against 92 last year.

News Boss

On Midwestern fields and in research greenhouses, agricultural giants like Monsanto Co. and BASF SA are teaching machines how to farm. The companies are expanding early-stage investments in artificial intelligence, joining other industries in betting that research and decision-making can be streamlined with computer programs that teach…

Indian Hub

Israel’s expertise in arid climate agriculture, efficient dairy farms, resilient seeds, drip irrigation, as well as novel plants (such as cherry tomatoes and collagen-producing tobacco plants) attracted many agriculture MNCs including Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Duponto and Syngenta, to collaborate with Israel’s agri-tech sector, sometimes to acquire an Israeli startup or establish an R&D branch in Israel.