New Indian Express

With the onset of monsoon in the state, Kharif crop cultivation is steadily picking up momentum. The cultivation target for all crops (food grains, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane and other crops) in Kharif season has been set at 39.59 lakh hectares as against the normal crop acreage of 37.54 lakh hectares.

Farmers are hopeful of reaping another bumper crop yield this season with the met department predicting a normal monsoon this year. All the major reservoirs in the State are holding 337.58 TMC of water as of June 3 as against 196.76 TMC on the same day last year. Hence, the State may not face any irrigation water problem during Kharif.

Financial Express

Let us start with some good news on the economic front. During the first year (FY20) of the second term of the Narendra Modi government, gross value added (GVA) in the ‘agriculture and allied’ sector registered a growth of 4%. This is commendable, especially when juxtaposed with the overall GVA growth for the country’s economy clocking 3.9%, and overall GDP (including net taxes) clocking 4.2%. And even in FY21, when the impact of Covid-19 will be on full display, and when the overall GDP of the economy may register a negative growth of as high as minus 5%, agriculture may still surprise with a positive growth of 2.5%, as per CRISIL’s recent forecast.

Zee News

The farmers in India have shown a lot of courage and they emerged as corona warriors said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar at India’s DNA E-Conclave.

Farmers are at the center of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s decisions, claimed Tomar. The government has taken appropriate measures and policies that have made the life of the farmer much easier than before.

The Dispatch

If wishes were horses “one India one farm market” would have flown under then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee 20 years ago. This time round, Narendra Modi government’s move is good but it’s not going to be easy. The changes in the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) and attempt to bypass the APMC under State governments through The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (promotion of and facilitation) Ordinance 2020 does have pros and cons.

New Indian Express

Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE) has cultivated one lakh acres of land for free over  60 days during the current cropping season in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The initiative was aimed at mitigating the impact of the pandemic on operations of small and marginal farmers during the critical rabi harvest and kharif sowing season, the company said.

First Post

Mukhtar Halgare, 50, has a dark analogy to describe the issuance of crop loans. “A glass of water when you are thirsty is more meaningful than a tanker after you are dead,” he says, “We are farmers, and farming is a time-bound profession. We need crop loans to prepare for the Kharif season that begins in mid-June. The sowing process is just days away, but the bank isn’t releasing the loan.”

Tribune India

On June 3, the Union Government approved three ordinances focusing on agricultural marketing reforms and development of post-harvest infrastructure in order to facilitate better prices for farmers. Farmers across the country were expecting relief measures to mitigate the economic hardships faced by them amid the Covid-19 lockdown and thereafter. No short-term financial support was provided for the farmers to offset the losses incurred due to compression of demand. The message seemed to be: don’t worry about the present, you have a golden future.

Indian Express

Let us start with some good news on the economic front. During the first year (2019-20) of the second term of the Narendra Modi government, gross value added (GVA) in agriculture and allied sectors registered a growth of 4 per cent. This is commendable, especially when juxtaposed with the growth of overall GVA of the economy at 3.9 per cent, and overall GDP (including net taxes) at 4.2 per cent. And even in 2020-21, when the impact of COVID-19 will be on full display, and when the GDP may register a negative growth of as high as -5 per cent, agriculture may still surprise with a positive growth of 2.5 per cent, as per CRISIL’s recent forecast.

Money Control

Even as COVID-19 has hit all sectors of the economy, India’s agriculture sector is a point of hope, which experts believe, has been relatively less affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

With the prospects of a normal monsoon, this hope is bolstered now. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its second and detailed forecast said monsoon this year is likely to be ‘normal’ at 102 percent of the long-period average (LPA) with a model error of (+/-) 4 percent.