Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Khattar govt’s new scheme will discourage farmers from cultivating paddy: Congedit
Opposition Congress on Sunday hit out at the recently announced crop diversification scheme by the M L Khattar government, saying there was a conspiracy to eventually stop the procurement of paddy at Minimum Support Price (MSP) by discouraging a large number of farmers from cultivating the crop.
“Under the new autocratic order and scheme brought out by Khattar government, they now want farmers in eight different blocks which have been identified and 19 blocks in total to not cultivate paddy at all and punish the farmers by denying them MSP for paddy in case they still choose to grow this crop,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
Farmers Distress amid COVID-19 Pandemicedit
For containment of the SARS CoV-2 virus, the Indian government declared a three-week nation-wide lockdown till mid-April, which was extended further to achieve satisfactory results. To address the difficulties faced by most vulnerable sections of the society amid lockdown, the finance minister came out with an economic package worth INR 1.7 trillion. ICAR issued guidelines for harvesting and threshing of various rabi crops, while RBI granted a three-month moratorium on repayment of farm loans. But despite these measures, the farmers have to face various difficulties during this pandemic period.
Agribusiness to offer new opportunities post-COVIDedit
With all its downsides, COVID-19 may also create new opportunities in agriculture and allied sectors. Thanks to lockdown restrictions, people may be impelled to minimise dependence on other States, resulting in a paradigm shift towards the agribusiness sector.
“The production of animal protein sources like milk, egg, meat, and meat products has emerged as a potential means to address food security issues and protein malnutrition. Policies and programmes in the sector will be the thrust areas post-COVID-19. A lot of entrepreneurship opportunities exist in this sector,” says B. Sunil, professor and head, Meat Technology Centre, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU).
Will make farming profitable: KCRedit
The State government will soon come up with a comprehensive agriculture policy aiming at making agriculture profitable in the State.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao instructed the officials concerned to prepare the policy to bring changes in the thought process of farmers in order to meet the food habits of people and cultivate crops as per the market demand. He will personally soon interact with all stakeholders including farmers, farmers’ groups such as Rythu Bandhu Samithis and agriculture officials from every cluster through video conference before finalising the policy.
Amid Covid-19, Sirmaur administration encourages people to adopt organic farmingedit
In view of the nationwide lockdown and curfew imposed due to coronavirus, Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district administration has launched a unique initiative under which residents are being encouraged to use their time to grow vegetables through organic farming near their homes.
The department of agriculture and animal husbandry have put up a special stall at the historic Chaugan Maidan, Nahan, where ‘seed kits’ of various vegetables are being provided to people by volunteers of Aravalli Organisation along with vermicompost and cowdung logs.
Experts asks Telangana to implement State-regulated farmingedit
Agriculture experts suggested to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to implement a government regulated system of farming in the State for transforming subsistence farming to profitable agriculture.
The Chief Minister held a detailed review with experts here at Pragathi Bhavan on Sunday, on issues such as present system of farming in the State, identification of alternative cropping systems, regulated farming by ryots and ensuring commensurate prices for the commodities.
Punjab prepones paddy sowing, transplantationedit
In view of labour shortage, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh on Saturday announced advancement in the paddy nursery sowing and transplantation dates by 10 days. The operations will now commence on May 10 and June 10, respectively, instead of the May 20 fixed earlier by the Agriculture Department for sowing of paddy nursery and June 20 for paddy transplantation, during the current kharif season as recommended by PAU. The state has been delaying transplantation to reduce pressure on underground water.
Rajasthan: Locust army raids crops in Jodhpur’s village; farmers demand neutralisationedit
Amid the ongoing chaos due to the virus pandemic, farmers in Sirmandi village in Jodhpur are facing another threat. On Saturday, a large swarm of locusts invaded the village’s farmlands damaging crops of onion, millet, jowar, pearl and others.
The invasion has raised apprehensions in the minds of the farmers in the region. The affected farmers have demanded the administration to neutralize the flying terrorists by spraying pesticides in the area on time so that they do not have to suffer losses again.
Telangana CM Directs Officials To Prepare Agriculture Policy To Make The Sector Profitableedit
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has chaired a meeting on agricultural sector and directed the state officials to come up with a Comprehensive Agriculture Policy for the state in order to make the agricultural sector profitable and also to fulfil the food requirements of the state.