NDTV

The agriculture ministry aims to increase foodgrain production by 6.35 million tonnes to record 298.3 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year riding high on hopes of normal monsoon.

The foodgrain output in the 2019-20 crop year (July-June) is estimated at an all-time high 291.95 million tonnes, as per the second advance estimates released by the ministry in February.

“IMD has forecast the June to September southwest monsoon rainfall over the country as a whole is likely to be normal. This augurs well for rain-fed kharif crops,” Agriculture Commissioner SK Malhota said at a national level video conference organised to plan for sowing of kharif (summer) crops.

The Wire

In recent decades, the world has become more interconnected than ever before. An unprecedented movement of goods, money and information across great distances has been celebrated as the triumph of globalisation. But there is also a dark underbelly to these networked flows on a grand scale.

The rapacious nature of contemporary economic growth and consumption has meant the dilution of workers rights, a sharp increase in economic inequality and the destruction of ecosystems across the globe. At the same time, many countries have come to suffer from the pernicious political implications of dense connectivity offered by social media and the internet.

The Print

 Chandra Pal Singh, a 48-year-old small farmer with three acres of farmland in Firozabad’s Usaini village, is harvesting what’s left of his wheat crop with his two sons and wife. Most of his crop was destroyed by stray cattle, and he says the family is left with just Rs 1,500 to survive, as his sons, who used to work at a local brick kiln, have lost their jobs under the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

Singh has to finish cutting the remaining wheat, so that he can go and sell it with his other produce, bottle gourd, in neighbouring villages, as transporting it to the local mandi (wholesale market) is costly and time-consuming. Under the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread ...

Times Of India

With the beginning of wheat harvesting season in Haryana, the state authorities have also started the process to contain stubble burning, as burning of paddy residue had become a major source of air pollution last year. The incidents of wheat stubble burning is being monitored by Haryana Space Application Centre (HARSAC) and other district-level committees, comprising officials from the agriculture and revenue departments.

Times Of India

Purchase of wheat started across 5,500 purchase centres across the state on Wednesday. This year, the government has set a minimum supply price at Rs 1,925 per quintal and a target of 55 lakh tonnes of wheat purchase. On Wednesday, around 6,000 tonnes of wheat was picked up at the wheat purchase centres through more than 615 farmers. Principal secretary, agriculture, Devesh Chaturvedi said that several concessions had been made for farmers to enable them to bring their produce to the purchase centres, while also allowing for buyers to purchase directly from the fields. “As against the lockdown rules, farmers have been given permission to travel and up to four people can travel in one vehicle,” he said.

The Better India

Every year, Unnikrishnan Vadakkumchery, a Thrissur-based organic farmer, generates nearly 40 tonnes of fresh vegetables from a plot of land which barely measures 1.5 acres. His cutting-edge farming methods and innovative ideas have made this possible.

In fact, in 2016, he was awarded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for this bumper harvest on a small plot.

It is thus nearly impossible to believe that until a few years ago, the same person was a novice in farming and was more invested in his computer repairing business.

Tribune India

Tonnes of foodgrain has been moved from grain producing northern India to part of the country which need to provide grain to the poor and needy during this lockdown period.

As the lockdown commenced on March 24 the first task was to provide foodgrain for 80 crore citizens under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

The Northern Railways has despatched 15.75 Lakh Tonnes of foodgrains which is 137 per cent higher than last year. It has lifted 53 per cent of foodgrain during the lockdown period, a big chunk of it from Punjab and Haryana.

The News Minute

Around this time every year, pushcarts bearing juicy watermelons and muskmelons line every corner of Chennai city. Now, with the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown in place across the country, this sign of summer has been missing. Meanwhile, the scene in the farming fields is heartbreaking.

Farmers in Chengalpattu and Kanchipuram districts who grow these melons are facing a tough time with reducing demand. “A lot of these fruits go to the juice making industry – restaurants, juice shops, tea shops, and the likes. But now with the lockdown, farmers are unable to move their produce. They are now abandoning full-grown fruits in their fields,” says Alladi Mahadevan, an organic farmer from the region.