The Wire

Amid the growing chorus for opposition unity to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in next year’s general elections, the chief ministers of non-BJP ruled states used Sunday’s meeting of the NITI Aayog’s governing council to mount a coordinated attack on the Centre over its economic policies, especially those relating to the agricultural sector, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the national “Team India” spirit.

The New Indian Express

In a move aimed at curbing pollution caused by stubble burning, the Centre has released Rs 269 crore to the Punjab government to enable it to subsidise the prices of crop residue management equipment.Punjab generates 17.5 million tonnes of wheat residue and 19.7 million tonnes of paddy residue every year. A Harvard study done by using NASA’s satellite data has found that agricultural fires caused nearly half the pollution in Delhi last October and November, the peak stubble-burning season.

The Indian Express

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, in his address at Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi in Delhi Sunday, made a case for a national debt waiver scheme for farmers. He urged the PM to constitute a committee of the Union Government and some Chief Ministers to formulate a blueprint for a debt waiver scheme for farmers in consultation with states, said a government statement after the meeting.

Financial Express

It is not clear why India’s political class keeps talking of what is required for the country to grow its GDP in double digits. UPA politicians would talk of how, since India’s GDP was growing at 8-9% per annum, it was just a matter of time before it grew at 10%, and now prime minister Narendra Modi has done the same thing at the weekend meeting of NITI Aayog’s governing council. He said that while the economy grew at 7.7% in the fourth quarter, the challenge was to take this growth to double digits. Though India’s growth has averaged 7.3% in the four years of the Modi government, the prime minister’s statement seems to assume that such a progression ...

Business Standard

Haryana Agriculture Minister O P Dhankar today urged officials to encourage farmers to adopt crop diversification in view of the changing climate scenario and help them come out of the traditional wheat-paddy cycle to enhance their income.

The Indian Express

By the third week of June, less than 15 per cent kharif sowing was recorded across Maharashtra. The state agriculture department has now advised farmers to wait for the monsoon to stabilise before taking up full-fledged sowing. A senior secretary in the ministry of agriculture said, “The climate change leading to new rainfall patterns are a serious cause of concern. We expect the monsoon to stabilise by June end or first week of July.”

The Asian Age

The policy of doubling farmers income by FY 2022-23 is primarily about acquiring abilities of doubling farmers income in a remarkable short period and maintaining that strides for fairly long period of time . A few however argue that accomplishment of the goal is subject to achieving more than five times the average agricultural growth rate witnessed in the last two decades.

The Hindu

Venkatesh N. Hubballi, Director of Directorate of Cashewnut and Cocoa Development (DCCD), Kochi, on Monday suggested that the Directorate of Cashew Research (DCR), Puttur, adopt a village a year to promote cashewnut cultivation.

The Times of India

Some claim India won’t be able to feed itself without the government playing a hands-on role in agriculture. But countries like New Zealand and Australia with liberalised agriculture have become more productive. Each Australian farmer produces enough to feed 600 people, 150 at home and 450 overseas. Liberalisation of agriculture in 1991 in India could well have made us a middle-income nation by now. Instead, our small farmers remain under chronic stress.

The Hindu

Members of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and students of the College of Agriculture on Monday staged a demonstration outside the college, at VC Farm Zonal Agricultural Research Station, on the outskirts of the town. They were opposing the State government’s move to allow private agricultural institutions in Karnataka.