Tribune India

Rejecting allegations of favouritism being shown to certain manufacturers, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today ordered a first-of-its-kind social pre-audit of the Crop Residue Management (CRM) Scheme for supplying farm equipment on subsidy to farmers.

The social pre-audit by the Agriculture Department would nail the lies being propagated by certain vested political interests, said the Chief Minister, adding that not a single farmer had questioned the quality of the machines/equipment being supplied under the scheme. The machinery aims to ensure scientific disposal of paddy straw during the kharif season.

The Tribune

RAMANDEEP Singh, a farmer of Mard Kheda village near Sunam in Sangrur district, was foreseeing a tough time in April when the Covid-induced lockdown was in force. He was doubtful whether he would be able to harvest his crop or plant the next one in his fields. Troubled, he called officials of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Kheri village, who helped him and other farmers of the area in not only harvesting and selling their produce, but also in implementing direct seeding of rice (DSR) in the wake of labour shortage and to save depleting groundwater in his village.

Krishi Jagran

Mango (Mangifera Indica) is the most ancient among all the tropical fruits and is believed to be originated in the Indo – Burma region of Eastern Asia. India is the major mango producing country in the world with an annual production of 20.44 million tons from an area of one million hectares. Mango is eventually a tropical plant but endures wide range of temperature. It grows well under tropical and sub-tropical conditions

The Hindu Business Line

India is all set to record an all-time high wheat output of 107 million tonnes (mt ) in the current crop year of 2019-20 (July-June), 40 per cent higher than the past 10-year average, thanks to favourable weather and a supportive policy regime.

Indian Web 2

The agriculture ministry has been funding startups in the agriculture and allied sectors under central scheme Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). Under this scheme, the government has funded 12 startups already with an amount of Rs 11.85 crore.

On August 6, the ministry has made an announcement that it is planning to invest nearly 36.71 Cr in 346 agritech startups and startup working in allied sectors like agro-processing, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, farm mechanisation, waste to wealth, dairy, fisheries, among others. The selected start-ups were trained for two months at 29 agribusiness incubation centres (KPs & RABIs) spread across India.  R-ABI is RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators.

The Wire

Farmers, especially from North India, recently staged a tractor march in Ludhiana to express their anger against rising fuel prices and the three ordinances introduced by the Central government, namely The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020.

At the same time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was speaking at the Ideas Summit, on ‘Building a Better Future’, organised by US-India Business Council (USIBC), inviting American companies to come and invest in ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. The prime minister said the agricultural reforms undertaken by the government would facilitate ease of business and announced that the food processing ...