Hindustan Times

The agriculture sector is critical for India from a consistent growth and food security perspective as the sector and allied activities account for approximately 55% of India’s workforce and nearly 15% of India’s GDP. Today, India has come a long way from facing severe food shortages after Independence to becoming a net exporter of food. While the agricultural sector has made considerable progress, in India, we still have a long way to go when it comes to global benchmarks. The nation-wide lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak has further exposed the vulnerabilities in our agricultural supply chain and the prevalence of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee, or APMC, model that made farmers highly dependent on mandis.

Hindustan Times

In his speech at the CII National Council, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das spoke about five dynamic shifts which are underway in the Indian economy. One of the five themes in the speech was “fortunes shifting in favour of the farm sector”. The speech cites record production of food grains, fruits and vegetables, and all-time high buffer stocks as “the most vivid silver lining in the current environment”. The speech also gives a policy direction for the future.

“Shifting the terms of trade in favour of agriculture is the key to sustaining this dynamic change and generating positive supply responses in agriculture. Experience shows that in periods when terms of trade remained favourable to agriculture, ...

Orissa Diary 

After successful implementation of Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY) from April to June 2020, the Government of India extended this scheme for another 5 months from July to November 2020. About 81 crore beneficiaries covered under National Food Security Act (NFSA) and Antyodaya Ann Yojana (AAY) are being provided 5 Kgs of Rice/wheat free of cost under this scheme. The total allocation for PMGKAY II from July to November 2020 is 200.19 LMT (91.33 LMT Wheat and 109.96 LMT rice). There has been very enthusiastic response from the state governments as well as beneficiaries to this scheme. The scheme was rolled out on 08.07.20 and till 27.07.20, a quantity of 33.40 LMT food grains (13.42 ...

Tribune India

Punjab has pipped Tamil Nadu to become the second largest tractor exporter in FY20. Maharashtra retained the top position by exporting tractors worth $186 million.

Punjab has manufacturing units of Sonalika, Mahindra & Mahindra and Preet Tractors having installed capacity of over four lakh tractors per annum. Sonalika alone has a capacity to manufacture three lakh tractors per annum.

Business Standard

After a strong start in June, the southwest monsoon reduced over some parts of the country in July, wiping off the early gains, the data from the India Meteorological Department shows.

Till July 28, India received around 425.5 millimeters of rainfall, which is just normal. Till June end, the country had received 18 per cent more rainfall than the normal, one of the best performances in recent years.

Thereafter, though East and Northeast India continued to receive good rains, which led to flooding in those parts, the showers stopped over much of Central and North India.

The Hindu

There are early signs of a V-shaped recovery in the economy in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown, driven mostly by agriculture and rural lending, as well as positive trends in FMCG, pharma and even construction, says the Confederation of Indian Industries.

However, the uncertainty of mini lockdowns and unnecessarily wide containment zones continue to affect business operations, the industry group said on Tuesday.

Financial Express

Going by the official data on mandi arrivals and prices fetched by farmers for key winter crops, rural India should have been under distress since April, but the ground situation is significantly better. This is primarily because of two reasons: as the lockdown impeded transport of goods and caused labour shortage at mandis, the bulk of government procurement of wheat, the key rabi crop in the case of which minimum support price (MSP) operations are real, has happened at ad-hoc purchase centres closer to farm gates: secondly, direct purchases of crops including wheat and pulses from farmers by food processing firms and retailers saw a big rise in recent months. In other words, the actual sales of ...

New Indian Express

With the south west monsoon playing truant, a highly erratic rainfall has cast shadow on kharif crop prospects in the State. As many as 23 districts have received deficit rainfall ranging from 20 per cent to 57 per cent in July, considered to be the most crucial month for agriculture operations like beusaning, up-rooting of seedlings and transplanting of paddy crop.

Rural Marketing

Wazir Advisors, one of India’s leading management consulting firms focused on the apparel, textiles, consumer goods and skill development sectors has launched its Agriculture, Dairy and Food Processing vertical. It expects this new division to contribute 20 percent of the company’s business over the next two years. It further announced that Ritwik Bahuguna, a seasoned professional in this space, will be leading this new practice.

The ADFP vertical will provide strategic and operational advisory and implementation assistance to private sector businesses, international donors and non-government organisations and policy advocacy services to governments. Ritwik’s team has a footprint in Asia and Africa which it will look to expand in the next few years. The focus sectors in this practice will include food processing-based ...