Outlook

India can enhance its food production, and improve its environmental footprint by reducing its reliance on rice, and planting crops such as sorghum and millets, according to a study.

The researchers, including those from the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of Public Health in Delhi, said the country has tripled its cereal production over the past 50 years, with rice contributing almost half of this produce.

In their study, published in the journal PNAS, they said that rice does not offer the nutritional benefits of some other cereals, such as sorghum and millets, and added that the staple crop is grown in areas that are not necessarily suited to rice production.

Agri Business Global

Indian farmer organizations on Tuesday urged the Finance Ministry to enhance market access besides taking steps to accelerate investment in the farm sector, reports The Hindu BusinessLine. Representatives of these organizations, office bearers of farmers co-operatives and companies engaged in the farm sector, and experts met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for a pre-Budget consultation. The meeting was also attended by stakeholders from the agro-processing industry.

Outlook India

Seed-to-market initiative by BPC to strengthen India’s agri value chain management system and resolve farmers’ woes with access to complete Agri ecosystem including finance and insurance Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India (NewsVoir) In a bid to resolve farmer woes and create supply chain efficiency in agriculture, global fintech solution provider BPC has launched Safal Fasal (www.safalfasalonline.in), a digital platform that gives small and marginal farmers greater access to finance, technology, markets, and risk-management tools.

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If Indian farmers grew a greater variety of staple cereal crops, it would deliver substantial wins for citizens’ health and the environment, finds a new study.

Published in PNAS, the research shows that if India replaced some of its predominant rice crop with other grains like sorghum, finger, and pearl millet, it would slash the energy use of national cereal production by up to 12%, water-use by almost a quarter, and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 13%. The greater diversity of grains would also boost protein availability by between 1% and 5% in people’s diets, and iron by up to 49%.