ANI News

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday inaugurated Rural Investors and Start-up Conclave (RISC) 2019 here. During his address, the minister stated that villages and agriculture were crucial for the economic advancement of India. “India is a land of villages where agriculture is the primary source of livelihood. If agriculture advances, the village and the nation also advance,” he stated. Emphasising on the need for start-ups in rural areas, the minister stated that it was crucial for start-ups to emerge in order to cater to the future employment needs of the country.

The Times of India 

: So far, the government had doled out subsidies for more than 38,000 stubble management machines across Punjab. But the farmers are yet to give up the practice: more than 215 cases of crop residue fires have been reported in the last week. The data being collected by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) using satellite imagery and remote sensing devices has revealed that the farmers who had sown early varieties of paddy, have already harvested the crop and have started setting the leftovers on fire to clear the fields for the next crop.

PTC News

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that dairy products are kept out of the purview of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations. Amid apprehensions of inclusion of such products in the negotiation ambit, the Chief Minister has said any such move would have serious adverse effect on the economic interests of farmers.

Down To Earth

Nasa satellite images recorded scores of farm fires across Punjab and Haryana in the last seven days, indicating that the stubble burning season has started in the two states. Several red dots, indicating stubble burning activity, were seen in the images, especially over the districts of Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab, and Karnal, Kurukshetra and Ambala in Haryana. Some places in neighbouring western Uttar Pradesh also showed the dots. While the fires intensified till September 25, they seemed to have decreased in the last 48 hours. In Punjab, the state pollution control department has recorded 100 such incidents in the last two days, mostly from Amritsar and Tarn Taran district.

The Free Press Journal

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 Economic Times

Inching closer to last year’s acreage, crop planting in this Kharif season looks healthy. Excessive rains and floods in 12 states are unlikely to impact the overall food grains output. Minister of State for agriculture Parshottam Rupala said that excessive rains would not impact the production. This is being reflected in the first advance estimate released by agriculture ministry early this week, which forecasts food grains production of 140.57 million tonnes – 0.8 percent down from the total output estimated in 2018-19 season.

Business Today

Decoding Slowdown: Studies show that Indian farmers have been short-changed by Rs 45 lakh crore of income during 2000-2016 due to complex market regulations and restrictive trade policies and that credit flows to agriculture is being used for non-agricultural purposes.