Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Centre criticised for paltry paddy MSP hikeedit
A day after Centre raised the minimum support price (MSP) on paddy by `200 per quintal, senior BJD leader and Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy on Thursday criticised the paltry hike.Alleging that the Prime Minister and Union Agriculture Minister have betrayed the farmers, Maharathy told mediapersons here on Thursday that the Centre has to explain on what basis it has fixed the production cost of paddy.
Agri Dept collaborates with FES for tech trainingedit
Department of Agriculture and Farmer’s Empowerment has signed an MoU with Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) to provide technical training on assessing land capability and crop water budgeting in all districts. The MoU was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.Speaking on the occasion Naveen stressed on the need for restoring common land and water bodies through promotion of ecologically sound agricultural practices and water management.
Mobile app to help farmersedit
Bihar Agriculture University, Sabour (Bhagalpur), has come up with a mobile app called Bihar Krishi App, which can be downloaded from Playstore on one’s smartphone.
The app helps farmers in several manners, including crop management, horticulture, opportunities in agriculture sector, weather related information, advice of experts on questions asked by farmers and even specific information about the quality of soil one is practising farming and use of fertilisers needed for the given soil.
Agriculture key to conflict prevention, says FAO chiefedit
Paris, July 5 (IANS/AKI) Agriculture plays a vital role in averting conflict and promoting lasting peace, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation chief Jose Graziano da Silva said on Thursday, stressing how warfare worsens global hunger.
Modi’s bonanza to Indian farmers hampered by funds, storageedit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pre-election gambit to sharply hike state-mandated prices for summer crops, including rice, may mean little to millions of farmers, as the government lacks the storage and funds needed to buy most of the produce.
Modi Government’s ‘Historic’ MSP Hike Is Nothing More Than a Band-Aid for Farmersedit
The Narendra Modi government recently approved the decision to hike the minimum support price (MSP) for the kharif marketing season for 2018-19.
The MSP for paddy has been increased by Rs 200 per quintal, and the MSP has gone up for other crops too. The minister ...
Explained: The increase in minimum support prices for 14 crops and what it means for farmersedit
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Tuesday announced an increase in minimum support prices for 14 crops grown in the kharif (summer) season, including paddy, cotton, soyabean, pulses and millets.
In a press release, the Ministry of Agriculture called this a “paradigm shift” and a “historic” decision. The announcement also marked the fulfilment of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget declaration this year to increase minimum support prices to 50% above the cost of production. According to the agriculture ministry, this increase in prices would be a step towards helping farmers double their incomes by 2022 – a promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reiterated numerous times in the last four years.
Chant Mantra For Better Yield: Goa Agriculture Minister To Farmersedit
Goa Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai has urged farmers of his state to chant mantra for better yield.He said that the state’s paddy yield would increase if its farmers chanted vedic mantra in their fields and adopted “cosmic farming” techniques.
OECD-Icrier report: Gross farm revenue reduced over 6% per year during 2014-16edit
India’s food and agriculture policies have an aggregate effect of reducing gross farm revenues, a new OECD-Icrier report has said, and estimated that during 2014-16, the reduction was over 6 per cent a year. Even as farmers got large subsidies for inputs like fertilisers, power and irrigation, low market prices for their produce — which are below global levels — resulted in overall negative producer support, the report highlighted, and reckoned that for 2000-16, overall producer support estimate was around —14 per cent on average.
Carbon from stubble burning spreading to air in all parts of India: NASA scientistedit
It is high time to stop crop residue burning (CRB) which is practised in the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab during the post-harvest season, according to senior NASA scientist Sudipta Sarkar who, along with two other associates in the US and India, recently concluded a study on how CRB increases pollution levels in the rest of the country.
Stubble burning in north India pollutes central and southern states too, says NASA studyedit
Pollution from burning agricultural waste or crop residue by farmers in the north-western states of India not only impacts air quality in Delhi and the neighbouring areas but also affects central and southern Indian states and the eastern parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), a new study has revealed.
‘Pro-consumer policy bias has hit farmers’edit
Government policies skewed in favour of consumers have resulted in farmers losing an average of 14 per cent a year for nearly two decades, says a report released on Thursday.Indian consumers, on the other hand, have been paying, on an average, 25 per cent less on all commodities, showed the report, prepared jointly by experts from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Indian Council for Research on International Economic Research (ICRIER).
Government working on institutional mechanism to deal with agricultural export issues: Rita Teaotiaedit
As India aims to double its farm exports by 2022, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia today said the government is working on an institutional mechanism to deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues hampering agricultural shipments.
India should take new bold reforms in agri-food sector: OECD-ICRIER reportedit
Stating that India’s agro-food sector is at a critical juncture, facing multiple challenges, a new OECD-ICRIER report suggested to the government to launch new bold policy initiatives and accelerate existing reforms to achieve higher agriculture growth and ensure better income to farmers.