Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
India to export wheat to Afghanistan and Lebanonedit
India will be exporting around one lakh tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan and Lebanon under government to government (G2G) arrangement. The country is expecting a record wheat production of 106.21 million tonne this year – 2.61 million tonnes more last year’s out put.
“Nafed has been asked to export 50,000 tonnes to Afghanistan and 40,000 tonnes to Lebanon through diplomatic route,” said a senior agriculture department official.
Below average MGNREGA show, lower agri prices adding to rural distressedit
Below-par performance of a guaranteed jobs programme, consistently low crop prices and a slowdown in construction that employs surplus farm hands may combine to dent the positive impact of the Centre’s cash transfer and targeted welfare schemes for rural wage earners, for whom the impact of the Covid-19-induced lockdown could be rather acute.
COVID-19 in Rural India-VIII: Unable to Sell Harvested Crops, Bengal Farmers Stare at Indebtednessedit
Gopinathpur, Krishnapur and Sarpalehana villages are located in three different agro-ecological zones of the state of West Bengal. The extent of irrigation availability, and thus the intensity with which land can be cultivated, varies across these regions. Gopinathpur is in the Kotulpur block of the Bankura region, which is agriculturally one of the most developed regions in West Bengal. On the other hand, Krishnapur in Nadia district is in a region that has seen considerable growth in agriculture because of the expansion of groundwater irrigation. This is also a region where considerable inter-state and international out-migration takes place. On the other hand, brick kilns in the region draw migrants from the western districts of West Bengal and ...
Amid curfew, Punjab gears up for Asia’s biggest wheat procurement operationedit
Facing a mammoth challenge to conduct Asia’s largest wheat procurement opeeration amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Punjab government is preparing for the first ever procurement by following social distancing norms.
The agriculture state, preparing to procure a bumper yield of 135 lakh metric tonnes, worth Rs 26,000 crore, is working on a model to ensure that the disease does not spread among farmers and villages.
The harvesting and procurement of wheat in Punjab is scheduled to begin on April 15.
State plans to deploy 14,850 machines to harvest paddyedit
With labour shortage staring rabi paddy harvesting season badly in the wake of the lockdown being implemented to contain the spread of coronavirus, the State government is planning to overcome related problems, particularly shortage of farmhands in harvesting the paddy cultivated on a record 15.77 lakh hectares this rabi season with the help of harvesters.
Every grain will be procured, Centre assures farmersedit
The Centre on Friday assured that not a single grain produced by farmers would be left without being procured in the country during the Covid-19 crisis. The assurance came from Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar who said the procurement of wheat would begin during April 15-20 and states had already been advised to stagger procurement, increase number of procurement centres and issue tokens to farmers in order to prevent large congregation at mandis once procurement starts. Addressing his first media briefing through video conference during the lockdown period, Tomar said procurement would be carried out in three phases and completed by June end.
Govt disburses Rs 15,841 cr to 7.92 cr farmers under PM-KISAN during lockdownedit
The government has disbursed the first instalment of Rs 15,841 crore to 7.92 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme, since March 24, the day lockdown was announced to curb COVID-19.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, the Centre transfers an amount of Rs 6,000 per year, in three equal instalments, directly into the bank accounts of farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria relating to higher income status.
COVID-19 is yet another call to humankind to mend its ways or perishedit
The activities of homo-sapiens are often toxic. They interfere in nature’s design to sustain life. We are predators destroying the veritable life cycle of nature of which homo-sapiens are a very small part. The viruses that we have had to combat: MERS-COV, SARS COV 2 in the past are a warning to us. We must mend our ways or perish. That is the message.
COVID-19 has already taken over 50,000 lives globally. This number will increase. While we await the vaccine, the availability of which is reportedly 12-18 months down the road, we will have to take preventative measures to limit, as much as possible, loss of more human lives.