Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Green shoots for the futureedit
The golden age of Indian agriculture may finally have begun. The Rs 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, launched on August 9, will support farmers, primary agricultural credit societies, farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) and agri entrepreneurs in building community farming assets and post-harvest infrastructure. These assets will enable farmers to get greater value for their produce as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage, increase processing and add value. About 85 million farmers are already getting investment support (six tranches have been disbursed) under the PM-Kisan scheme. India exports over $35 billion worth of agricultural products annually.
Efforts on to bring down power purchase costs: Energy Secretaryedit
The Energy Department is striving to bring down the power purchase cost by closely monitoring the generating units, even as the distribution companies (Discoms) explore ways to contribute to the goal.
Facts Box: India ranks first in Organic Farmingedit
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare recently announced that India ranks first in Organic Farming. Also, India ranks ninth in terms of areas under Organic Farming.
HighlightsSikkim was the first state in the world to become completely organic. The other states that have similar targets include Uttarakhand and Tripura.
Measures by India to boost Organic FarmingIndia has launched two schemes to assist farmers in adopting organic farming. Also, the Agro-Export Policy, 2018 gave simultaneous thrusts to organic farming. The schemes are as follows
Mission Organic Value Chain Development for the North East Region Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana Organic ExportsThe main Organic Exports from India include sesame, flax seeds, soya bean, medicinal plants, tea, ...
Strong, self-reliant India stands for greater good of world: PM Modiedit
A strong, confident and “aatmanirbhar” (self-reliant) India is essential not just for itself, but for the sake of larger global good, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday in the course of a wide-ranging speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort to mark India’s 74th Independence Day.
His 86-minute long speech also focused on the two other issues most Indians are worried about now — the coronavirus pandemic (where Modi said his government has a plan ready to distribute a vaccine once it is found) and China (where, without naming the country, he referred to the country’s resolve to defend its sovereignty). And like some of previous speeches on Independence Day, this one too had a target ...
Is This How You Are Doubling Farmers’ Income, Mr Modi?edit
Addressing a farmers’ rally in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, in 2016, Prime Minister Modi had announced that he wanted to double farmers’ incomes by 2022. Before that, he had addressed several farmers’ rallies in other states, in an attempt to assuage the unrest roiling the farmers after two successive years of drought, a botched attempt to get a draconian land acquisition law passed, and a wave of farmers’ protests. So, this announcement was meant to be a brahmastra, a mantra that would reassure the farmers once and for all.
Telangana Government to provide international marketing facility for agriculture produce: Vinod Kumaredit
Telangana State Planning Board vice chairman B Vinod Kumar on Sunday said that the government is planning to provide marketing to the agricultural produce, of which production has increases in the State thanks to the availability of water. The Planning Board vice chairman was speaking in the webinar on ‘International Business and Economic Development post COVID19’. He said that the State is becoming greener with the long-sighted view of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who designed and executed projects like Kaleshwaram and others. Because of availability of water, the agriculture production has gone up in the State. He said that the government is striving for an international marketing facility to the agricultural produce for the crops like ...
New agriculture infrastructure fund is a major step forward. Policymakers must have stable policies for themedit
On August 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Rs 1 lakh crore Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) to be used over the next four years. This fund will be used to build post-harvest storage and processing facilities, largely anchored at the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), but can also be availed by individual entrepreneurs. The fund will also be used to provide loans, at concessional rates, to FPOs and other entrepreneurs through primary agriculture credit societies (PACs). NABARD will steer this initiative in association with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The implication of this for the Central government budget is not going to be more than Rs 5,000 crore over four years in terms of interest subvention subsidy. The creation ...
PM hails country’s agriculture sectoredit
On the occasion of the country’s 74th Independence Day on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country needed to replicate the “self-reliance” of the country in agriculture in other sectors of the economy, underscoring the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” campaign.
The prime minister said his government had freed the country’s agriculture sector by abolishing archaic regulations, which will help to increase famers’ income. “The last few years have seen pioneering changes and futuristic reforms in agriculture. Farmers now have access to more markets, better financial support,” the PM said.
Dairy Farming
All 45 spots for green belts are encroached upon in Dairy Complexedit
It is the apathetic municipal corporation to blame for the lack of green belts in Dairy Complex on Hambran Road. For, almost all of the public parks in the area are under encroachment — a fact that came to the fore during a survey conducted by the civic officials on the directions of the local bodies department chief vigilance officer.
During the scrutiny, the officials found that the places earmarked for developing public parks were encroached upon by dairy owners. The survey highlights the negligence of the civic officials, who had been claiming that there was hardly any space for developing green belts.
Stubble Burning
Delhi pollution: Punjab, Haryana to bank on more machines, biomass plants to reduce stubble burningedit
The Punjab and Haryana governments have submitted to a Supreme Court-mandated panel their action plan to check stubble burning — a major contributor to extreme levels of air pollution that choke the national capital in winters.
The states have proposed setting up more custom hiring centres (CHCs) to give farm machinery on rental basis to farmers who cannot afford to purchase the high-end equipment for crop residue management and supplying more balers — a machine used to compress stubble into compact bales.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board, stubble burning contributed significantly to air pollution in Delhi last year with the share of farm fire smoke in particulate matter peaking to 44 per cent in November.