Business Standard

Growth in agriculture and allied activities is expected to be a subdued 2.8 per cent in 2019-20 but farmers’ woes are likely to lessen a bit, according to advance estimates from the statistics office. These activities are estimated as likely to rise by 9.8 per cent at current prices, indicating food inflation (used by many as a proxy for farmers’ income) of seven per cent, the highest since 2014-15.

The Tribune

Rain lashed most parts of Punjab, including the Malwa belt, during the past 48 hours easing out foggy weather conditions. Agriculture experts said rain at this point of time was beneficial for wheat, mustard and other rabi crops.

Moga and Ferozepur districts received an average of 8-10 mm of rainfall in various blocks during the past two days.

Orissa Diary

In view of the rainfall forecast by the IMD Meteorological Centre here for three days from January 8th, the State government has asked the district Collectors to advise farmers and paddy procurement centres to take care of the crops and harvested produce.

The Special Relief Commissioner, Pradeep Jena, has also asked to ensure that the market centres should protect the agriculture commodities.

The Hindu

Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has stated that Telangana government has been working towards the financial empowerment of the farming community.

Speaking at a meet on “value addition for income generation in agriculture” at Thrissur in Kerala on Tuesday, he explained how Telangana government had taken up interventions to help the agriculture sector overcome the crisis by completing pending irrigation projects, taking up new ones, giving input support of ₹5,000 per acre, ₹5 lakh life insurance cover, restoration of minor irrigation tanks and 24×7 free power supply, among others.

FInancial Express

After a huge spike in onion prices few months ago, followed the familiar government response of banning exports, placing import orders and tinkering with stock holding limits of traders. Such reactions by successive governments, in the last two decades, have become the norm, especially during September-December period.

In November 2019, when retail prices of onion in several places touched Rs 200 a kg, the central government took several measures such as fixing stock holding limits for the traders, ordering onion imports from Turkey and Egypt and selling subsidised stored onions through few retail channels. The government had stopped onion exports on September 30, 2019.

Times Of India

The release of water for rabi crops from Khadakwasla dam was stopped on Tuesday, about a month before the scheduled end of the rotation.

The water rotation started on December 15 and was expected to continue for 60 days until mid-February. However, water release continued for only over 21 days.

The state irrigation department has said that water will now be released from the dam based on ‘demand and supply’ principle, instead of continuous discharge. The experiment of demand-based release is expected to save more water in reservoirs thereby making the resource available during the summer months, the department has started.

The Print

If the Union Ministry of Agriculture has its way, farmers in traditional rice-producing states where groundwater levels have significantly dropped will find themselves forced to look beyond paddy.

With promotional exercises failing to effect a shift among farmers in states such as Punjab and Haryana, where heavy cultivation of water-intensive paddy has severely depleted groundwater levels, the ministry wants to enforce crop diversification by shrinking the central government’s assured quota of rice purchased from these regions, ThePrint has learnt.