Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
PM urges farmers to use crops which consume less wateredit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while launching ‘Atal Bhujal scheme’ on Wednesday, appealed to the farmers to use technology which helps prevent wastage of water in Agriculture. Modi urged the farmers to grow the crops which consume less water.
Future of maize: Introduce hybrid varietiesedit
A recently released statistical information by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) shows that maize is grown on 954,000 hectares (25% of the total area of cereals), which was 758,000 ha in 1985.
In three decades of efforts, productivity has increased by around 1% every year. However, the overall demand for maize is expected to grow by 4-6% every year for the next 20 years. The major hindrance to growing more is an inefficient production system.Maize is being used for feed, food, fuel and fibre. The increasing demand for maize comes from the growing need for poultry feed. Some 80% of maize consumption in Nepal is due to poultry and animal feed. The ...
Agriculture under an invisible emergencyedit
In 2019, three weeks after the kharif harvesting season began, reports emerged that farmers are selling their produce at a price way below the minimum support price (MSP) announced by the government. Except for a few crops like paddy and maize, market prices for most of the 14 kharif crops, including moong, urad, tur, nigerseeds, bajra, jowar, ragi, cotton, soya bean and sunflower, dropped 8-37 per cent below MSP.
Technology in Agriculture
The next big opportunity in farming: Innovation in the agriculture-water sectoredit
The 1965 Green Revolution changed the face of Indian agriculture – crop yields soared with better quality seeds, access to fertilisers, farm equipment, and access to irrigation. Among these, irrigation and water are the only ones that are still not priced. Farmers became less dependent on the vagaries of the monsoon, thanks to the large-scale irrigation projects and later, an unfettered ability to dig new borewells helped. Stepwells, lakes, and other medieval hydrological structures were abandoned, their utility forgotten.