Times Of India

To mitigate the dwindling economy of the nation and the state owing to Covid-19 lockdown, the state government has given more emphasis on agriculture and horticulture sectors. As Manipur has been categorized as Green Zone, the government has already allowed agriculture and its allied activities in the rural areas.

Hindustan Times

To save the depleting water table and in view of the possibilities of labour shortage due to Covid-19 epidemic, Mohali’s district administration has urged farmers to opt for direct sowing of paddy in the ongoing Kharif season.

Chief agriculture officer of Mohali, Ranjit Singh Bains said that farmers should go for direct sowing in medium or heavy soil, but should avoid this technique in sandy soil. He recommends that the field should be leveled and paddy varieties PR-121, PR 122, PR-126 and PR-127 should be sown in the first fortnight of June, while Basmati varieties Pusa-1121, Pusa-1509 and Pusa-1718 should be sown in the second fortnight of June.

Direct sowing of paddy offers more advantage in the ...

The Hindu

For G. Ravichandran, a groundnut farmer from Ponnankuppam village in Villupuram district, the COVID-19 pandemic could not have come at the worst time. After harvesting around 1,000 kg of groundnut, Mr. Ravichandran could not sell his produce for over 25 days for want of a good price.

Inc42

While farmers in India are struggling to produce more while keeping costs low and margins high even before the current pandemic crisis, Indian consumers are moving in the opposite direction, searching for better-quality products at a lower cost. Striking the right balance between the two has been the weakest link in the agriculture value chain, and this is down to a range of factors such as preharvest and postharvest intelligence, logistics, storage, distribution and the weather. Thankfully, agritech startups have taken charge of each of these aspects to solve the biggest issues facing farmers in these times of crisis.

Telangana Today

Telangana State emerged as the second largest supplier of paddy to the country through Food Corporation of India (FCI) during the 2019-20 crop year. For Yasangi this year, the State is the highest contributor of paddy supplying over 35 lakh tonnes against nation-wide procurement of about 50 lakh tonnes by FCI.

Through its official Twitter handly, the FCI authorities said the Corporation procured 664.15 lakh tonnes paddy from all the States during the crop year 2019-20. Of this, Punjab contributed about 162.32 lakh tonnes and took the top spot followed by Telangana supplying about 83.97 lakh tonnes.

The Wire

Owing to the ongoing nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of novel coronavirus in India, a large section of the population, including the agricultural sector, is on the brink of a poverty crisis.

Ravinder Singh, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district, had sown wheat on six acres of land but he has been unable to sell a grain of his 50 quintal produce. “When I went to the procurement centre, they told me that the grain was damp and refused to purchase it,” he said. In the lockdown, there is no alternative for Singh to sell his crop.

Financial Express

Gujarat has taken the agriculture reform a step forward after Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh state governments allowed traders to buy the agricultural produce directly from the farmers’ fields or homes, instead of state-run mandis. Ending the monopoly of the government-run Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s Gujarat state government has allowed private entities to set up their own market committees or sub-market yards to compete and offer the competitive prices of the agricultural produce to farmers. Apart from the farmers, even the traders were restricted to their own talukas and they had to pay a cess on any transaction that happened within the marketing yard of the APMC or outside it.

Telangana Today

In a major move aimed at making agriculture a more profitable venture through scientific cultivation based on market demands, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday said the State government has decided to implement regulated farming in the State from the upcoming Vaanakalam season, beginning with paddy.

The Hindu Business Line

An unidentified virus is attacking tomato crops in large parts of Maharashtra. In the districts of Ahmednagar, Pune and Nashik, about 60 per cent of the crop has been decimated in the last 10 days.

Experts at the Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth at Rahuri, Ahmednagar, which is the local agriculture university, are studying the outbreak along with State government officials but the virus remains unidentified. The despondent farmers are now pointing fingers at seed companies — including an MNC — for allegedly selling diseased seeds.

Financial Express

The Centre has set up a separate panel under agri-export promotion body Apeda to boost shipments of rice following a meeting held by the Prime Minister on May 2, in which creation of commodity-specific boards/councils was discussed. The non-basmati exporters were demanding for a separate board since Apeda’s main focus has been only for basmati rice.

The commerce ministry was of the view that since a number of items such as buffalo meat, processed products and floriculture are handled by Apeda, creation of additional boards will dilute its role. Among all items under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda), rice and buffalo meat exports together have 60% share in terms of value.

Money Control

The coronavirus outbreak has pushed most sectors to their lowest lows but there is one segment that is clocking impressive growth, thanks to healthy underlying demand.

Fertiliser sales were up 47 percent in April, brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher has said in a report.

“Total industry volume up 47 percent to 3.7 million tonne, driven by preponement of purchase, healthy underlying demand and low base.