Indo Asian Commodities

India’s agriculture sector is likely to mitigate the adverse impact on the economy hit by the coronavirus this fiscal, riding on the back of good monsoon, a Finance Ministry report said.

“With the forecast of a normal monsoon at 102 percent of the long-period average (LPA), agriculture, which contributes about 15 percent of total gross value added, is set to cushion the shock of COVID pandemic on the Indian economy in 2020-21,” says the Macroeconomic Report for July, released by the Economic Affairs Department.

Financial Express

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is banking on a recovery in rural demand to slow the economy’s first contraction in four decades. But capricious rainfall may play spoilsport. After an impressive start and good rains in June, the monsoon petered out in July, a crucial month for growth of young grain plants and oilseeds such as rice, cotton and soybeans. Economists will be closely monitoring the rainfall pattern in the coming weeks for hints about the future of the rural economy.

India’s agriculture has been the lone bright spot in the country’s shrinking economy, with the government as well as the central bank betting on rural demand to lift growth after recovering tractor sales pointed to a consumption revival. Any setback to the ...

Times Of India

Tractor sales in the country have clocked over 35% year-on-year growth in July on the back of robust agricultural activities. Top manufacturers like Mahindra & Mahindra and Sonalika have recorded about 28% and 72% growth respectively, while Escorts saw nearly 10% growth, despite supply constraints. Tractor marketers said the July figures prove that the spike seen in June was not just pent-up demand but a sentiment revival.

Market leader Mahindra recorded its highest ever July sales this year with 25,402 tractors sold (including exports) compared to 19,992 units in July 2019.

Bloomberg Quint

Tractor sales at dealerships jumped to the highest in 19 months, aided by normal monsoon and pent-up demand in India’s hinterland ahead of the sowing season, helping the sector witness a recovery

Times Of India

Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday held a meeting with a group of progressive farmers who are associated with cooperative farming models, like the Kanyaka Multipurpose Farm, Sitajakhala Milk Cooperative Committee and Pabhoi Greens at his residence and discussed the scope of agriculture, fishery, dairy farming, poultry, seed production and other allied sectors in the state.

The farmers’ group apprised the chief minister about a detailed plan for Assam to become self-reliant in production of agriculture and other allied sectors and urged him to take up long and short term plans for rapid development of those sectors, the chief minister’s office said. The CM’s office added that Sonowal has assured the farmers’ group that such long and short ...

Inventia

Amidst the pandemic, it has been observed over the past few months that the agricultural economy is going to save the day for the Indian economy. This year when economies all over the world are contracting due to the lockdown since mid-march because of the widespread of the virus. Meanwhile, India experienced that the agriculture sector expected to continue to grow. It has been seen a jump in the sales of tractors and motorcycle during the pandemic. It gave rise to many theories that have been floated about a farm economy-fuelled revival. However, many people can’t differentiate between agricultural and rural economies. Some of them think that they are the same. Which is not true!  Rural is not only agriculture.

Financial Express

Call it role reversal. Insurers used to complain of the high claim ratio under the crop insurance scheme in the initial years after its 2016 launch; now, state after state is quitting the scheme, as they find it difficult to foot the rising premium bill. A perceived tendency among insurers to admit less of farmers’ claims and the delays in settlement of claims also seem to have prompted some states to develop cold feet about the Modi government’s flagship scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

Economic Times

The economy was past the worst of the pandemic as leading indicators showed a recovery in June compared to the trough in April, however, the rising number of daily cases and intermittent lockdowns have made recovery prospects fragile, according to a government report.

“With India unlocking, the worst seems to be over as high-frequency indicators show an improvement from the unprecedented trough the economy had hit in April 2020,” said the finance ministry’s monthly economic report for July.