Orrisa Diary

The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Government of India is taking several measures to facilitate the farmers and farming activities at field level during the lock down period. The updated status is given below:

To ensure supply of seeds to the States under National Food Security Mission, the subsidy pertaining to seeds under the scheme shall be for varieties less than 10 years. It has also been decided to allow Truthful Label seeds for subsidy component for the North East, Hilly regions and the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir only, for all crops under NFSM. Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme during the lockdown period from 24.3.2020, about 8.31 crore farmer families ...

Times of India

Industry body CII on Monday said that harvesting of rabi (winter) crops has been impacted due to labour shortages and logistics issues and suggested the government to leverage Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) for imparting training to farmers about health and hygiene. “The agri and food supply chains are vulnerable to massive disruptions which can further impact availability and prices, hence proactive measures for safety and health of farmers and workers are required at both the farm as well as mandi level,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII.

Economic Times

The union agriculture ministry has started an All India Agri Transport Call Centre for coordination between states for inter-state movement of perishables – vegetables and Fruits, Agri Inputs like seeds, pesticides and fertilizer etc. The Call Centre can be accessible from any mobile or landline phones.

This will facilitate inter state transportation of fruits and vegetables. Truck drivers, traders, retailers, transporters or any other stakeholders who are facing problems in inter-state movement of above commodities, may seek help by calling at the Call Centre.

Economic Times

Local governments across several states are procuring fruits and vegetables directly from farms to ease rural distress and provide essential supplies to customers.

In the absence of trading and market auctions, the farmers are finding it difficult to sell their produce, resulting in the piling up of vegetables and fruits at several places.

Kerala government has actively reached out to farmers and consumers and has announced a Rs 20,000 crore relief package, including free distribution of essentials to the people.

Economic Times

The government plans to expand the coverage of digital agriculture market – e-NAM – to 1000 mandis. Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government will add 415 mandis to e-NAM platform to expand its coverage form existing 585 mandis.

“e-NAM is an innovative initiative in agricultural marketing to enhance farmers accessibility digitally to multiple number of markets & buyers and to bring transparency in trade transactions with the intent to improve price discovery mechanism, quality commensurate price realization and also to develop the concept of One Nation One Market for agriculture produce,” he said.

Telangana Today

Finance Minister, T Harish Rao has said they were expecting 10,500 metric tonnes of Bengal Gram harvest in Sanagreddy district this season.

The Minister, who inaugurated a paddy procurement centre in Jogipet on Monday, has said that Telangana government has decided to purchase the entire Bengal gram crop in Telangana though the Centre had permitted them to procure just 25 per cent of the crop.He has further said that they were going to open 93 paddy procurement centres across Sanagreddy district expecting 43,300 metric tonnes of paddy harvest this Yasangi.

Insights On India

Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, – different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.