The Tribune

Farmer Darbara Singh from Moolewala village and Nirmal Singh from Gharangna village in Mansa district are perfect examples for paddy cultivators to emulate as they have been managing paddy stubble without burning it for the past four to five years. Agriculture Development Officer Harvinder Singh Sidhu motivated him to give up burning of paddy stubble and minimize the use of pesticides on paddy. Before taking up sowing paddy with Happy Seeder, Darbara did an experiment with other agriculture implements to manage paddy stubble.

The Indian Wire

The ministries of Earth Sciences and Agriculture have launched ‘Meghdoot‘, a mobile application to provide location, and crop and livestock-specific weather -based agro advisors to farmers in local languages. The step has been taken in order to accelerate the Digital India initiative, and make farmers technology friendly.

Odisha TV

As per the data provided by the State Agriculture Minister in Odisha Assembly, enrollment of a total of 4,80,509 farmers was done for the Kharif season. Meanwhile, there are reports that the total acreage of insured land has topped the total acreage of actual agricultural land at some places because several members of a single family have insured the same piece of land. For instance, a farmer of Nuapada, Chudamani Putel has a total of 6.176 hectare of land but 20.884 hectare of land has been insured in his name.

Odisha TV

Following reports of Fall Armyworm (FAW) infestation in acres of maize cultivation in Sundergarh, the hitherto unseen insect has now started infesting maize crops in several regions of Kalahandi district. After receiving complaints from maize cultivators in Narla and Golmunda about the damage caused to their crops by some unknown bugs, the Agriculture department officials visited the blocks for inspection.

Krishi Jagran

The adoption of digital technologies in agriculture is on an upswing today and is changing the way farmers and agri-businesses manage their crops.  Use of digital technologies can help modernise agricultural production practices, leading to more uniform annual returns for farmers, reduced risk of crop failure and better yields.  Some of the major digital technologies in precision farming include mobile applications to collect the ground truth data and combining it with the satellite / remote sensing, GIS and on the ground sensors data which can be analyzed using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.  Some of the applications of these technologies include farm management, crop health monitoring (mostly based on NDVI – normalised difference vegetation index), yield monitoring and forecasting, detection of diseases, pests or weeds, weather forecast, irrigation planning and soil quality testing. 

The Times of India

The Indian state of Sikkim is now the world’s first 100 per cent organic state. The state won the prestigious Future Policy Gold Award from the UN Food and Agriculture (FAO), after beating 51 nominations from around the world. Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling received the coveted award.

Down to Earth

Modern agriculture is driven by continuous improvements in digital tools and data as well as collaborations among farmers and researchers across the public and private sectors. During the Green Revolution in the 1960s, India could achieve self-sufficiency in food grain production by using modern methods of agriculture like better quality of seeds, proper irrigation, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. As time passed, more technological advances appeared in agriculture. The tractor was introduced, followed by new tillage and harvesting equipment, irrigation and air seeding technology, all leading to higher yields and improved quality of the food and fibre that was grown.