Financial Express

The Andhra Pradesh government is setting up 11,158 Rythu Bharosa centres with digital kiosks for integrating agriculture inputs and advisories, to assist farmers. These centres, which will be set up in a phased manner by June, are virtual shops for large retailers and other bulk buyers to take orders from farmers and will have model products on display.

Besides, the state government will create new bank accounts for some 56 lakh farmers and issue 1.12 crore credit/debit cards to them by the next kharif season to enable them to avail crop loans and other government benefits.

New Indian Express

Asserting that India was proud of its farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the government was continuously taking steps to ensure the interests of those “who feed the entire country” were protected.

He also said his government was committed to protect the rights of these ‘anndataas’ (food providers). “India is proud of its food providers. The government is committed to protect the rights of those who feed the entire country, and is taking steps to take care of their interests,” Modi tweeted.

Deshabhimani

In a bid to ensure food security and employment generation, Kerala today announced a Rs. 3,000 crores package for the revival of the agriculture sector. Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan announced that the government plans to spend Rs. 3,000 crores in the next one year to boost food production and revive agriculture. Out of this, Rs. 1,500 crores will be raised from the plan allocation of LSG bodies and various departments and the remaining Rs. 1,500 crores will be provided as loans from NABARD and the Co-operative Sector. The agriculture department has come up with a massive programme to use the fallow land for farming from next month. The project will be implemented in all LSG bodies by ...

Financial Express

The farm and allied sector will likely remain somwhat insulated from the damaging impact of the pandemic and grow at 3% in FY21, contributing about 50 basis points to the country’s economic growth, Niti Aayog member (agriculture) Ramesh Chand said on Wednesday.

Decent expansion of the farm sector will partly soften the blow to the economy, which is ravaged by the Covid-19 outbreak and is widely expected to experience sharply negative growth in the current fiscal.

Indian Express

“Gaadi kab chalega? Hum ko ghar jaana hai (When will trains run? We want to go home),” says 20-year old Ashish Kumar, of Puraini village in Saharsa’s Bihar, currently stuck in Mohali.

This is not Ashish’s first time in Punjab – he has been to the state twice earlier, to harvest wheat and then stay back for paddy transplantation. However, this time, he does not want to stay.

Ashish is part of a group of 12-odd farm labourers from Saharasa district harvesting wheat in the fields of Chappar Chiri. They are working in the shadow of the Chappar Chiri war memorial – built to commemorate the fierce battle between Sikh and Mughal armies in May 1710, when ...

Times Of India

Asserting that India was proud of its farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the government was continuously taking steps to ensure the interests of those “who feed the entire country” were protected. He also said his government was committed to protect the rights of these ‘anndataas’ (food providers). “India is proud of its food providers. The government is committed to protect the rights of those who feed the entire country, and is taking steps to take care of their interests,” Modi tweeted.

Economic Times

The country’s farm sector is functioning smoothly despite COVID-19 lockdown and there will not be much impact on its growth in the current fiscal unlike other sectors, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Wednesday.

Agriculture and allied sector’s growth stood at 3.7 per cent during the 2019-20 fiscal.

Financial Express

Even as most of the economic activities are at standstill amid the nationwide lockdown, the agriculture sector is at the rescue of the Indian economy. The Agri sector is mostly unaffected from the lockdown and is expected to grow by 3 per cent this year. It is estimated that the sector alone will give over 0.5 per cent growth to the overall economy, said NITI Aayog member and agricultural policy expert Ramesh Chand in a press conference today. He also highlighted five key reasons why the Agri sector will show a bumper growth this year.

Hindustan Times

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar briefed the media on Wednesday. During the press conference, the minister said that farmers across the nation have benefitted a great deal through Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme during the coronavirus lockdown.

Tomar said that the Department of Agriculture has transferred Rs 17,986 crore to farmers since March 24.

The minister also emphasised the significance of “Kisan Rath” App which was launched amid the coronavirus lockdown on April 17 to help farmers and traders identify the right mode of transportation for movement of farm produce.

Indian Express

COVID-19 has opened a window of opportunity to wean away farmers in Punjab and Haryana from growing rice to less water-guzzling crops such as cotton and maize.

The driver: Uncertainty over the availability of an estimated 1 million labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who undertake the bulk of the paddy transplanting that begins from mid-June. That, plus the lack of mechanical transplanting options, in contrast to the ubiquitous combines used for both paddy and wheat harvesting, means fewer farmers are likely to take up rice cultivation in the coming kharif season.

First Post

The last five days have been chaotic for farmers in the small town of Pathri in Maharashtra’s Parbhani district. Four hours, from 7 am to 11 am, see a deluge of farmers frantically lining up to sell their harvested cotton to the local traders.

Gajanan Ghumbare, a farmer with 10 acres of land where he grows cotton, says, “The procurement of cotton began last week for the first time since lockdown. 60 quintals of stock is lying in my farmland since the harvest in January. Farmers are panicking at the thought of being unable to sell their crop.”

News Click

The Novel Coronavirus crisis has seeded a deep rot within the globalised industrial system. The corporatist Mecca, Wall Street, is deserted as shares and stocks plummet. The ILO predicts that over 25 million jobs will be lost globally, much higher than 2008 recession which cost 22 million jobs. Meanwhile, another report says over 400 million or 40 crore workers may sink into poverty in India.