Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
First rain and hail, now lockdown — mango farmers set to lose 70-80% of their incomeedit
Mango farmers across the country stand to lose almost all their income this year because of three factors they had no control over — unseasonal rains, hailstorms, and the Covid-19 lockdown.
The unseasonal downpours starting last November affected the development of flowers in mango trees, delaying the production of the fruit. Then, hailstorms between December and February damaged orchards, before the lockdown, which began on 25 March, disrupted the trade of every variety of mango.
Punjab: Rains cause loss in lustre of wheat crop in mandisedit
Heavy rains in many areas of Barnala, Bathinda and Mansa districts in the Malwa region on Sunday evening caused damage to wheat kept in the mandis. Heaps of wheat partially covered with tarpaulin sheet got soaked, raising the moisture content and causing lustre loss, said farmers and commission agents.
Almost 90 lakh MT wheat has been procured in Punjab, whereas 135 lakh MT is expected to reach the mandis in the days to come.Farmers under no compulsion to sell crops at Mandis says Madhya Pradesh CMedit
Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that farmers will no longer have to go to Mandi to sell their crops. He informed that arrangements have been made for direct purchase of produce from the farmer through private mandi, e-trading and traders. This is proving beneficial to farmers. Shri Chouhan said that amendments will be made in other rules and procedures if necessary for the welfare of farmers. Shri Chouhan gave this information during a discussion with farmers in Mantralaya through audio bridge.
Chief Minister Shri Chouhan informed that arrangements have been made to provide employment to workers in wheat procurement and other schemes including MNREGA as per the guidelines of the Government of India. He has ...
Haryana bans paddy cultivation on panchayat land in 8 blocksedit
In an attempt to arrest the water table decline, the Haryana government has banned the cultivation of paddy on panchayat land ahead of the sowing season.
These eight blocks include Assandh in Karnal district, Pundri in Kaithal district, Radaur in Yamunanagar district, Ambala-I and Saha in Ambala district, Thanesar in Kurukshetra district, Narwana in Jind district and Gannaur in Sonepat district.
The government has issued directions to the deputy commissioners concerned to ensure that the panchayat land lease out to farmers is not used for cultivating paddy in the coming season.
As per the officials in the state agriculture department, the move will help the government achieve its target of diversifying around 1 lakh hectares of land, ...
Agriculture an exception, fertiliser sales jump 45% in April despite lockdownedit
Auto companies posted zero domestic sales of cars and two-wheelers in April, as manufacturing plants and dealer showrooms remained closed due to the nationwide lockdown. The same month, however, saw retail sales of fertiliser zoom by 45.1 per cent year-on-year.
Data from the Department of Fertilisers shows all-India nutrient sales at 20.56 lakh tonnes (lt) in April 2020, as against 14.17 lt in April 2019 and 12.96 lt in April 2018. The annual sales growth in April was 36.2 per cent for urea (10.95 lt versus 8.04 lt in April 2019), 71.7 per cent for di-ammonium phosphate (2.97 lt versus 1.73 lt), 81.4 per cent for nitrogen-phosphorous-potash-sulphur complex fertilisers (3.9 lt versus 2.15 lt), 43 per cent ...
After initial lull, Punjab farmers start setting fields on fire: 77 incidents of wheat stubble burning in Punjab so faredit
After a brief lull, wheat stubble burning has started in Punjab during the ongoing wheat harvesting season. Till Saturday, around 77 incidents of stubble burning were recorded by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), Ludhiana. Last year till May 2, this number was more than double at 162 incidents.
Farmer outfits and Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) had appealed to farmers to avoid stubble burning amid COVID-19 crisis this year.
But data sourced from the PRSC showed that a maximum of 13 cases of stubble burning were recorded in Bathinda district, followed by Sangrur (8) and Mansa (7). Six incidents each were recorded in Barnala, Ferozpur, Kapurthala, and Mukatsar Sahib districts. Four field fires were recorded in Amritsar and ...
Lockdown deepens sugarcane farmers crisisedit
Sugarcane farmers are among those badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wake of the imposition of lockdown, the delay in settlement of dues from the cooperative sugar mills, the shortage in labour to harvest the crop and the difficulty in procurement of crop loans from banks, have hit them hard. Despite a good demand for sugarcane, the current crisis has discouraged them from cultivating the crop for the next season, say farmers.