The Times of India

Dr SS Ray, director of the National Crop Forecasting Centre in New Delhi, focused on the role of big data in agriculture and its implications for central and state government schemes in India, including applications in crop disease, pests, and insurance.

The Times of India

With paddy harvesting about to start, farmers are not satisfied with the costly machinery they are being asked to use for managing crop residue. Several farmers, who had come here on Thursday to the Kisan Mela organized by the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) Ludhiana, complained to vice-chancellor (VC) Baldev Singh Dhillon about the machines, especially the Happy Seeder, not being as efficient as desired.

The Times of India

Former director of the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) Kota Harinarayana on Thursday predicted that the advent of artificial intelligence, machine learning and drones would transform the agriculture and horticulture sectors in the foreseeable future. “Extensive use of technology in these sectors will have a positive impact on our economy,” said Harinarayana.

The Sangai Express

A 3 day awareness programme on “Agricultural Marketing”,  jointly organised by Manipur Small Farmers Agri-business Consortium (MSFAC) and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Imphal. Stating that the vision of Indian Government to double farmers income by 2022 will be hard to achieve without proper knowledge of agriculture marketing, he added that the programme is being organised to impart the required knowledge to the farmers to improve their living standard.

The Times Of India  Devdiscourse

Artificial Intelligence and big data are going to be a “game changer” in the agriculture sector, and the government is aiming to collate about 80 per cent of such data by 2020, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Aggarwal said on Thursday. The government realised to leverage the data of farmers while rolling out the PM-KISAN scheme under which Rs 6,000 is paid annually directly to the farmers as income support, he said. The data will help in framing the right policy and converge some projects in order to achieve the targeted development of farmers and the overall sector

The Financial Express

As per the Economic Survey 2019, the share of private investment in gross capital formation in agriculture and allied sectors has declined from 88% in 2013-14 to 82.67% in 2016-17. Of the total private investment, 79.1% is by farmers, and private corporate investment accounts for only 2.3% of total investments. The high-powered committee on transforming agriculture has also highlighted the importance of private investment in agriculture. Hence, efforts must be made for consolidation and streaming investment measures to tap in private players.

The Indian Express

In a letter to the Union minister on Thursday, Reddy said that the consumption of various fertilisers in the State during the Kharif and Rabi seasons was about 30 lakh tonnes. “It is likely to go up further with the completion of ongoing projects,” he said. Reddy said the about 85 per cent of the fertiliser stocks were received by the State through 14 of the Railways’ rake points. The remaining 15 per cent is received through roads. The agriculture minister said some locations such as Bhupalpally, Mulugu,  Jangaon, Asifabad, Medak, Sangareddy, Siddipet and Nirmal were not catered to by the current rake points.

The Economic Times

National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned around 3,520 projects worth Rs 7,019.47 crore for the state till March 31 2019 . The projects covers three sectors – agriculture and related sector, Social sectors and Rural connectivity. Cumulatively, the loan disbursed to Government of Assam by NABARD stood at Rs 4877.67 crore up to March 31, 2019. Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) projects have covered a wide range of sectors all over the state comprising of rural connectivity, minor irrigation, flood control, soil conservation, dairy development, animal husbandry infrastructure, fisheries.