Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Cashew farmers hopeful for 2020, mango farmers see bleak yearedit
While 2020 seems set to see a good cashew crop, it may not be a good year for mangoes. The blossoming of the cashew fruuit, which takes place between November and January, has been on track this year, farmers said. With cashew beans having already started to sprout in some orchards, stakeholders anticipate a bountiful season this year
Telangana leads the pack in budget for agri, allied sectors: Harishedit
Telangana is spending 30 per cent of its annual budget on agriculture and allied sectors making it as one of the most farmer-friendly States in the country. State Finance Minister T Harish Rao said this at the State Credit Seminar organized by NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) here on Thursday.
Harish Rao said that Telangana was concentrating on farming as the Chief Minister himself is a farmer. He pointed out that farming had lost its sheen down the years with consecutive governments in the combined State of Andhra Pradesh neglected the sector. “Farmer was made to depend on seeds, fertilizer, minimum support price and above all rains as there was no irrigation,” Harish said.
Focus on small, marginal farmers: Odisha Minister to banksedit
As the banking sector failed to meet priority sector lending target, specifically in agriculture and allied sectors, the State Government on Wednesday asked commercial banks to achieve their annual credit plan for doubling income of the farmers. Addressing a special session of bankers on the second day of ‘Krushi Odisha – 2020’ with the theme ‘leading farmers to profitability’, Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Arun Sahoo expressed displeasure over the apathy of banks to the farm sector which provides employment to nearly 70 per cent of the population.
Pune: In loan waiver season, farm credit dries upedit
A credit crisis seems to be brewing in the farm sector as disbursement of crop loans dips below 50 per cent for the second year in a row, experts say. Like the earlier kharif season, banks in Maharashtra have reported just 42 per cent disbursal of Rs 59,765.74 crore for the present rabi season.
In the past two-and-a-half years, Maharashtra had seen two successive farm loan waivers to help farmers get out of indebtedness. The first waiver was announced by the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in June 2017, in which pending loans totalling more than Rs 18,600 crore of at least 44 lakh accounts were waived. The second waiver was announced by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray during ...
Green Shoots: Economy Stands To Gain As Rabi Season Sowing Set For New Record On Higher Support Priceedit
Those looking for the green shoots in the economy should find the latest sowing data of the rabi (winter) crops encouraging.
A heartening feature for the Narendra Modi government, which is under pressure from the critics for slower growth in recent months, is that sowing of wheat, rice, pulses and oilseeds have already exceeded the normal area (average area under a crop in the last 10 years) under rabi.
This is the trend as on 16 January and if this continues, we could witness record rabi sowing of wheat, rice, gram (chana), rapeseed/mustard, lentils, kulthi, barley and other pulses. Sowing in some crops could continue until this month-end.
Brazil expresses willingness to import wheat, rice from Indiaedit
Brazil on January 23 expressed willingness to import items such as wheat, rice, millets, and sorghum, from India, said an official release after a meeting of ministers of the two countries. Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar held a meeting with Brazilian Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply Tereza Cristina Correa da Costa Dias to discuss various bilateral trade opportunities, interests and issues.
Focus On Farmersedit
Those in power may not yet be accepting blame for the barrage of negative news on the state of the economy, but cracks are appearing in the facade. In such tumultuous times, the finance minister began the pre-budget ritual of consultations. Having inherited a mess, she faces the challenge of very limited latitude for budgetary allocations. Her task is compounded by a bureaucratic decision-making process that is incapable of factoring the imponderabilia of actual livelihoods — one that does not even properly enumerate those committing suicide.
India Suffers Biggest Locust Attack in 25 Years, Not Fully Controlled Yetedit
With estimations saying crops were affected in more than 3.5 lakh hectares in various districts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the damage caused by locust attacks in 2019-20 is believed to be one of the worst in India.
Crops of mustard, cumin and wheat have been devastated in the two states, affecting lakhs of farmers. In Rajasthan, the worst hit districts are Jaislamer, Barmer, Jodhpur, Jalore, Hanumangarh, Ganganagar, Bikaner and Sirohi.
Locusts, which are part of the grasshopper family, are highly mobile insects that can migrate across different countries and cause extreme damage to crops.
Punjab sounds alarm as water table recedes fast in 109 administrative blocksedit
There’s bad news for Punjab. With 82% of the state’s land area witnessing a huge decline in underground water levels and 109 administrative blocks out of 138 placed in ‘over-exploited’ category, a severe water crisis looms in the ‘grain bowl of India.’
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has convened an all-party emergency meeting on Thursday to get to grips with the challenge.
Experts from the Central Ground Water Board have pointed to the massive rate of fall in subsoil water by a whopping 51 cm per year.
Data compiled by the CGWB between 2006 and 2017 point to groundwater decline up to two meters in 55% of wells, between two to four meters in 21% wells ...
Budget
It’s time to lower expectations from the economy, and not try to do too much in the Budgetedit
The problem with Budgets in recent years is not that they didn’t do enough. Rather, finance ministers have tried to do too much. This is not just with regard to tax revenue, on which the assumptions went particularly wrong last year (2018-19) and may do so again this year, but also with expenditure. For instance, this year’s central expenditure on “schemes” and projects is slated to be fully 48 per cent more than two years ago. Even if the money were available, would government departments be able to spend on that scale?
Technology in Agriculture
Agri-tech start-ups set to bloom on huge investmentsedit
Capital flows into the agri-tech start-up ecosystem are set to remain robust in the year ahead as innovations fuel digitisation of the farm sector with more farmers adopting technology solutions.
The segment is seen attracting interest from large mainstream venture capitalists such as Sequoia and Accel Partners, even as the existing players raise larger funds to invest in agri-tech, which attracted an all-time high investment of around $300 million in 2019.
“Calendar 2019 was the most active year of investing,” said Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Omnivore Venture Capital, an agri-tech investor in the country since 2011-12. Omnivore closed seven deals in the Indian agri-tech space in 2019, its highest ever, with investments totalling ₹100 crore.
Kahn ...
Govt. Policies
Odisha Government urges Centre to release pending food grain subsidyedit
As a food grain subsidy bill amounting to Rs 2872.27 crore is pending with the Centre, Odisha Government on Wednesday reiterated the demand for its immediate release to lessen the financial burden on State agencies engaged in procurement of kharif paddy.
Writing to Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan in less than one-and-half month time, Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain said paddy procurement from farmers under the decentralised procurement (DCP) system will be severely affected if the pending bill is not released immediately.