CNBC TV18

The Modi government is planning a big announcement for the farmers ahead of Diwali. The government can announce a hike in the minimum support price (MSP) of Rabi or winter crops on Wednesday. Sources told that the government can take a decision to announce the MSP hike for the year 2019-20 at the cabinet meet to be held on Wednesday. The hike is likely to be based on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). According to sources, the CACP has recommended the MSP of wheat at Rs 1,925 per quintal, mustard at Rs 4,425 per quintal, gram at Rs 4,825 per quintal, lentils at Rs 4,800 per quintal and safflower at Rs ...

NYOOZ

Helping farmers of 12 villages to ensure zero burning of paddy stubble, the district administration has rolled out scheme of providing balers to these villages to enable farmers make bundles of paddy straw and sell these to augment their income. Deputy Commissioner Apneet Riyait said this while interacting with sarpanches, lambardars and youth clubs of these 12 villages of the district.

The Times of India

With farm fires rising this year, the state government would be hoping that its move to give Rs 665 crore as financial help to cooperative societies and farmers for purchasing agricultural machines to curb stubble burning, would help put the brakes on the practice this time around. Even as a number of progressive farmers across the state have started sowing wheat by using machines like “happy seeder” and not setting paddy residue on fire, the number of farm fires in Punjab this year continues to be more than those in the corresponding period last year.

The India Wire

he Modi government is working on a mission mode to double the production of saffron in the Kashmir Valley, which is likely to change the fate of thousands of farmers engaged in the cultivation of this expensive spice, said agriculture scientists adding that one hectare of saffron cultivation can earn a farmer up to Rs 24-Rs 27 lakhs. Agriculture scientist Altaf Eijaj Andrabi told IANS, “saffron is cultivated only in Jammu and Kashmir, but it has a demand all over the world. India exports saffron to England, America and some Middle East countries. It sells at Rs 5 lakh per kilogram in the international market. In India it sells at about Rs 3 lakh per kg.”

The Hans India

The shortage of labours, apparently due to the majority of them taking up works under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), all most all house construction workers settled in other professions by went on migration to other areas for the lively hood is forcing the farmers of the district to adopt farm machinery.

Down to Earth

Farmers in Odisha’s Sambalpur district started an indefinite hunger strike on October 22, 2019, in front of the district collector’s office to protest against not having received their crop insurance claims. The claims, under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for crop loss during the 2018 Kharif season, were supposed to be handed to the farmers nine months ago. Farmers from 55 gram panchayats under Kuchinda sub-division of the district are participating in the hunger strike organised by the Sambalpur Zilla Krushak Surakshya Sangathan (SKZSS).

Rural Marketing

The Indian seed delivery system, comprised of formal and informal systems is currently reeling under deficiency and there is significant scope to strengthen the same as even with investments in the formal sector, about 60-65 percent of seed in use in the country is unlabelled, noted a recent ASSOCHAM-PwC joint study. The study titled, ‘Sowing the policy seeds of a flourishing agriculture sector,’ conducted by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) jointly with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also suggested that high-quality seed varieties used by tribal and hilly communities be brought into the informal seed chain with some amount of genetic purity.