Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Strengthening agriculture, building Indiaedit
Indian agriculture is now at a crossroads, miserably failing to ensure strong livelihood for 60% of its dependants. The steadily decreasing growth rate and slowly fading reforms in recent years, coupled with unprecedented climate variability, are posing a new set of challenges to feed the growing population in the coming years. The spiral of flood and droughts in key food-producing states in recent times gives a clear message to build climate-resilient farms, and thereby farmers. As the food-producing states account for a sizeable population and foodgrain production, pragmatic steps and affirmative actions are a dire necessity.
30% of PM Kisan Funding to Go Unspent as Centre Doesn’t Know How Many Farmers India Hasedit
The government will be unable to spend a large chunk of the Rs 75,000 crore allocated to be spent under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi in the 2019-20 financial year, according to agriculture ministry joint secretary Vivek Aggarwal. In an interview with The Wire, Aggarwal, who also is the CEO of PM Kisan, said that the actual spending under the programme is likely to be Rs 50,000 crore in 2019-20, implying that approximately Rs 25,000 crore, or 33% of the original allocation, will remain unutilised.
State to hold convention against RCEP pact todayedit
As part of creating a wave of protests against central government’s move to sign Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), state government is organizing a public convention against the agreement here on Monday. RCEP is a trade pact being negotiated by 16 countries. It is feared to affect detrimentally agriculture and farming sectors in Kerala and other states in the country. The convention would be an attempt to create awareness among farmers about the ill effects the RCEP agreement could bring upon agriculture and farming sector across the country in general and in states like Kerala in particular, said agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar.
Kisan Pathshala for doubling farmers’ incomesedit
The UP government’s Million Farmers’ School (MFS) programme is one such innovative effort to enhance farmers’ incomes through dissemination of agriculture-related information on technology, government schemes, and modern farming methods. MFS, also popularly known as Kisan Pathshala, is an extension programme that the government of UP initiated in 2017 with a view to encourage the use of modern farming techniques, to make farming more profitable, sustainable, and resilient. Unlike traditional extension services, MFS integrates various facets of agricultural knowledge into a packaged format, and delivers it through village-level trainings across all districts in the state.
Govt. Policies
State to hold convention against RCEP pact todayedit
As part of creating a wave of protests against central government’s move to sign Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), state government is organizing a public convention against the agreement here on Monday. RCEP is a trade pact being negotiated by 16 countries. It is feared to affect detrimentally agriculture and farming sectors in Kerala and other states in the country. The convention would be an attempt to create awareness among farmers about the ill effects the RCEP agreement could bring upon agriculture and farming sector across the country in general and in states like Kerala in particular, said agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar.