Financial Express

Ever since Atal ji began his heavenly journey, everyone has been fondly remembering him. While many applauded his personality, calling him Ajatashatru and an orator par-excellence, others lauded him for his impeccable wit and humour and profound poetic expressions. His pivotal contribution in policymaking—from laying the foundation of India’s road infrastructure (highways and rural roads) to telecom policy and the privatisation of PSUs—is rightly highlighted by others. Surprisingly, not much is written about his contribution to the agriculture sector and I want to highlight some of them.

Deccan Chronicle

While the domestic manufacturing and services sector appears to have shown robust growth during the April-June quarter, a report by SBI said that the gross value added (GVA) during Q1FY19 is likely to be pulled down by a weak agriculture sector growth.

The Wire

On August 16, the vice-chairman of Niti Aayog released NABARD’s All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey, appropriately named ‘NAFIS’, which in Urdu means decent. NABARD management has truly acted ‘NAFIS’ by commissioning this detailed survey and then publishing its finding rather quickly. The survey was conducted between January 2017 and June 2017, covering 40,327 households in 245 districts spread across 29 states. The reference period for agriculture related data was from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016 (agriculture year, AY, 2015-16).

The Economic Times

The use of agricultural residues in power plants can help reduce pollution in the Delhi-NCR region by 8 per cent by 2025, a new study has suggested.

The Times of India

The agriculture department has organised a capacity building training for director designates ofFarmers Producers Company.

Telangana Today

Cotton crop across the State bore the brunt of destruction caused by the recent heavy rains, with cotton in about five lakh acres damaged according to preliminary estimates. Other crops which suffered damage include maize, red gram, paddy and vegetables.

Business Standard

The recent survey by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), which attracted criticism for increasing the threshold of income for agricultural households, has some insights into how the rural landscape in the country has been changing.

The Pioneer

In the flood fury that has severely impacted a large section of over 19 lakh farmers in Kerala, only 46,136 have insured their crops under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) in 2017-18. The number of Kerala farmers who insured their crops is fewer than those in other States, which reflects that farmers are still unaware of the details of the PMFBY.

The Indian Express

Last year, the Maharashtra government had announced its plans to set up about 2,060 Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) across the state, in partnership with Skymet. The ambitious project – Mahavedh — is meant to supply the latest weather information, including data about rainfall, to help farmers plan cultivation schedules and the government make policy decisions pertaining to agriculture. However, barely a few days into the first monsoon since the project became functional, the State Agriculture Department had to revert to its age-old system of collecting rainfall data by using manual rain gauges, after cases of thefts and vandalism were reported from AWSs installed in rural areas, hindering data collection.