Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Indian economy in corona time: Agriculture only bright spotedit
India is an agricultural country: Kids of 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s grew up reading this one sentence in school textbooks until LPG (liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation) changed the complexion of Indian economy. Services became the king of economy and industries started pulling out workers from the fields.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in India — as part of global pandemic — shut down offices of the gloating services sector and closed factories. But crops standing in fields kept growing, and farmers continued to tend them. Covid-19 has essentially and largely remained an urban outbreak in India till now.
Green recovery can revive coronavirus-hit economies, tackle climate change: Studyedit
Massive programmes of green public investment would be the most cost-effective way both to revive virus-hit economies and strike a decisive blow against climate change, top U.S. and British economists said in a study published on Tuesday.
With co-authors including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz from Columbia University and prominent British climate expert Lord Nicholas Stern, the findings are likely to fuel calls for “green recoveries” gathering momentum around the world.
“The Covid-19 crisis could mark a turning point in progress on climate change,” the authors wrote, adding that much would depend on policy choices made in the next six months.
Govt Focuses on Policy to include Small, Marginal Farmers into Institutional Credit Systemedit
Maharashtra’s Agriculture Minister Dadasaheb Bhuse has advised the district agriculture centers to come up with a Kharif plan to provide farmers easy access to seeds and fertilizers. While policies are been made regarding it, some officials working with farmers in the underdeveloped regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada have given a serious thought about the financially-weaker, small and marginal farmers. Many small and marginal farmers have been forced to take up daily wage labor during the lockdown to earn a livelihood. Bringing such farmers back into the institutional credit system is the government’s concern.
‘Subsidy raj’ hitting agri sector: Studyedit
Average monthly income of a farmer in rural UP is not even half of the salary of a class IV employee in the urban area. If the state wants to strengthen the agriculture sector, it should do away with the ‘subsidy raj’ immediately and start ensuring adequate power, irrigation and storage facilities to farmers, says a study conducted by Lucknow’s Giri Institute of Development Studies.
Karnataka to request Centre to permit labour for paddy cultivation under MNREGA schemeedit
Karnataka will write to the centre seeking inclusion of labour for cultivation of paddy as an activity under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. This move will benefit youths who have reverse migrated to the rural areas due to Covid-19 crisis, minister for agriculture B C Patil said. This will ensure that the youth are gainfully employed and agriculture as an activity helps sustain the rural economy, he said.
Extend climate smart agriculture programme to all districts: Bihar CMedit
Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday asked the agriculture department officials to extend the state government’s climate smart agriculture programme (CMAP) to all the 38 districts. The CMAP was launched last year in 8 districts on a pilot basis as part of the ‘Jal-Jivan-Hariyali Abhiyan’. While reviewing different schemes of agriculture, cooperative, food and consumer protection departments through videoconferencing, Nitish asked the officials to give special emphasis on CMAP expansion in the current financial year.
Covid-19 won’t be able to damage Indian agriculture: Narendra S Tomaredit
Union agriculture & rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar spoke to Saubhadra Chatterji and Zia Haq about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the farm sector, labour shortage during the harvest season, benefits given to farmers and farm labourers, and allocations of jobs under the rural employment guarantee scheme. Edited excerpts:
You have held a meeting with state rural and agricultural ministers. What are the main demands of the states? The Narendra Modi government’s priority is to protect farmers, rural India, and poor people from the pandemic. We have discussed issues related to farming operations and harvesting, agriculture market and mandi operations, procurement at MSP (minimum support price), provision of seeds and fertilizers, and logistics and movement of agriculture/horticulture produce. As ...
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Fruit for thought! Lockdown has forced farmers into shock sales — and debtedit
Avinash Nathu Patil, 37, counts himself lucky. A resident of Shingadi village in Jagaon’s Raver taluka, he has been growing bananas since 2008. With high-yielding tissue cultured saplings from Jain Irrigation, nurtured with water-soluble nutrients supplied with precision through drip irrigation pipes, he has built a profitable business. Last year, late rains compelled him to plant late. His fruit bunches, which are normally plucked in April, will be harvested in late May.