The Times of India

Taking a step forward in the technological evolution of agriculture, now apps are providing real time solutions for crop disease. All a farmer needs to do is click a photo of his plant and upload on an app, where a crop’s health is diagnosed and advice on treatment is provided real time. About 4,91,811 users of Uzhavan App, launched by Tamil Nadu agricultural ministry in February to educate farmers about soil quality, seeds and fertilizers, will benefit from this tech. “We are conducting a pilot run with an Artificial Intelligence-based tool on the existing Uzhavan app that will enable better crop surveillance,” says Santosh K Misra, commissioner of Tamil Nadu e-Governance (TNeGA).

The Hans India

The Conclave will serve as a platform to showcase a wide array of budding entrepreneurs, rural innovators and aspiring startups to demonstrate their design ideas, innovations, technologies, pitch, and get an opportunity to receive learning and mentoring support and get connected with potential funding and network support. Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Rural Development, Panchayat Raj, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare will be attending as the chief and inaugurate the two-day conclave.

Krishii Jagran

According to the first advance estimate released by the agriculture ministry, production of rice is estimated at 100.35 million tonnes and pulses output is estimated at 8.23 million tonnes. In the previous Kharif season, the pulses production was estimated at 8.59 million tonnes. A senior agriculture department official said that “The assessment of production of various crops is based on the feedback that is received from States & validated with information available from other sources. The production figures will differ as there is lot of time left for harvest”.

The Indian Express

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impassioned appeal for the reduction in the use of chemicals in agriculture. Though, in time, the PM will realise it is easier to announce new approaches than to get the agriculture system to embrace the appeal. This does not have to be. Public policy and allocation of funds can play a critical role and change the trajectory. The biggest threat to India is climate change. Many civilisations disappeared and empires have collapsed due to shifting rainfall patterns or prolonged drought.

The Indian Express

As many as nine states have reported a decline in banks’ credit outstanding to agriculture and allied activities during the financial year ended March 2019, despite a rise in the overall credit offtake to the sector across the country. Though the overall agri credit outstanding rose from Rs 13.69 lakh crore in March 2018 to Rs 15.29 lakh crore in March 2019, it was largely boosted by a huge rise in credit flow of over Rs 97,278 crore to Maharashtra which topped the list, according to figures provided by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The Indian Express

THE PUNJAB government has asked agriculture offices across all 22 districts to register 150 farmers each for ‘zero budget natural farming’ to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, after getting a letter from the Centre on the same. Farmers however say that to implement ‘zero budget farming’, they need a lot of financial support from the government because yield would go down drastically in the initial years.

Devdiscourse   The Daily Pioneer

To effectively curb the menace of stubble burning during post paddy harvesting season in the State, Punjab Agriculture Department on Tuesday ordered to impound the combine harvester machines functioning without Super Straw Management System (SMS). The state Agriculture secretary Kahan Singh Pannu has urged the combine harvester operators to fit the Super SMS on their machines. Pannu also issued directions to all Deputy Commissioners to depute adequate staff of Transport, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and other concerned departments for ensuring the strictly implementation of these instructions.

The Times of India  Zee Business  All India Radio

Farmers across the country can now hire tractor and other farm machineries through a multi-lingual mobile app called ‘CHC-Farm Machinery’ which was launched by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday. Tomar also launched another mobile app ‘Krishi Kisan’ to help farmers take benefit of field demonstration of new farm technologies, seed hubs and weather advisories.

The Economic Times

Stubble burning may hinder farm grants in paddy-producing states like Punjab and Haryana this year as the governments have gone on a major drive to check air pollution. In poll-bound Haryana, students of NCC and NSS have lined up a campaign against stubble burning in the upcoming paddy harvesting season and about a dozen departments in Punjab have been pressed to desist setting crop residues on fire.