Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Government to link 200 more mandis to eNAM this fiscal: Agriculture secretaryedit
The government will link additional 200 wholesale mandis to the online trading platform eNAM this fiscal and also encourage inter-mandi transactions, Agriculture Secretary S K Pattanayak has said. At present, 585 regulated mandis in 14 states are linked with the electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) launched in April 2016.
Agri credit dips due to loan waiver?edit
According to banking experts, the farm loan waiver could be the reason for low credit figures. The drop registered last year has been attributed to drought and other reasons. The latest data submitted to the state-level bankers’ committee (SLB-C) at the end of March reveals that the crop loan target for the state was Rs 54,221 crore in the 2017-2018 financial year but both public as well as commercial banks have shown a negative year on year growth in crop loan disbursement over last year. “After the government announced the wai-ver last year, fewer farmers opted for fresh credit. The drop could be because of the waiver,” SLBC officials said in the meeting.
1L farmers benefit from natural farmingedit
About 200 villages under 20 clusters benefitting 1 lakh farmers have been declared ‘natural farming’ villages by the department of Agriculture in the district. The department’s natural farming project is part of the government’s plan to popularise natural farming and bring down the use of chemicals and pesticides in agriculture crops.
PM2.5 levels rising in proportion to stubble burning, finds Nasa studyedit
A new study by Nasa scientists has concluded that there is a strong link between agricultural fires in Punjab and Haryana and PM2.5 levels in Delhi during the post-monsoon months of October and November.
Competition
ASL develops first of its kind bio-stimulants to raise agri output in Indiaedit
Canadian company Acadian Seaplants Ltd (ASL) has developed first of its kind seaweed-based biostimulants to help farmers raise their agricultural output in India.Powered by Acadian BioSwitch™ technology, the stimulants help reduce the development of weeds in the field which helps multiply germination of plants and thereby yielding higher produce.
Technology in Agriculture
Krishna district first in mechanisation of farm sectoredit
Krishna district stood in first place in mechanisation of farm sector. Collector B Lakshmikantham said that as many as 3,19,968 farmers registered their names for getting various agriculture tools. He said the government would provide the agriculture tools with subsidized price as per their requirement soon.