Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Agribusiness becomes ‘COVID-proof’ sectoredit
The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has severely hampered the global economy. However, there are a few sectors that were spared by the wrath of COVID-19 namely the pharmaceutical sector, consumer goods sector, and agricultural sector.
Agriculture and allied industries have recorded positive profit numbers for June during FY20-21. Factors like the early onset of monsoon, 19 per cent higher Kharif sowing, and agricultural inputs being an essential commodity, these companies carried out their operations during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
IMD’s monsoon heavy rain forecast accuracy has improved to 70% in three yearsedit
All four measures of weather forecast accuracy used to predict monsoon by India Meteorological Department (IMD) have shown a marked improvement over the past three years, while the probability of detection (POD) to forecast heavy rainfall has made significant progress, said M Rajeevan, secretary, Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) at an Indian Meteorological Society lecture on Wednesday.
POD accuracy went up from 45% from 2002-16 to 70% in 2017-19, the MoES secretary cited to buttress the IMD’s feat.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes POD to be the number of hits in forecast divided by the total number of events observed.
Kharif 2020: Good rains, distribution boost prospects; crop shifting rampantedit
Prospects of a bumper summer crop seem brighter as the sowing activity is fast drawing to a close in most regions of relevance in the country’s agriculture map. While the monsoon rains overall have so far been marginally above normal (long period average), the distribution pattern hasn’t played spoilsport either, with the key regions receiving adequate precipitation or only marginal deficiency. Some of the rain-deficient regions turned out to be amply irrigated ones, allaying the worries, if any, even further.
In Amravati division only 44% crop loan disbursementedit
Despite warnings from the government to take action against banks for negligence in disbursement of crop loans, the pace of disbursement of crop loans has not increased this year. With the kharif season halfway through, only 44 per cent loans have been disbursed in Amravati division. In this crisis of the corona, the farmers are likely to fall into the trap of moneylenders.
Why farmers are not cheering their exceptional feat this kharif seasonedit
It is a piece of news that everybody would love to cheer about, except those who made this possible.
The current kharif season is exceptional. In comparison to last year, over eight million more hectares of farms are under cultivation this season.
There are more people engaged in cultivation now due to the huge reverse migration of workers after the countrywide lockdown over the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Most of them are those who had quit farming.
All types of crops have reported an increase in acreage. But the increase in acreage of rice — the staple crop in kharif that sustains the maximum number of farmers — is the highest in the last five years. The monsoon is expected ...
India faces protracted slowdown as coranavirus clouds rural revivaledit
India is staring at a protracted slowdown as coronavirus cases reach its countryside, with signs of recovery in the rural economy hailed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “at best a mitigating factor”, government officials and analysts said.
The world’s No.5 economy reports first-quarter GDP data on August 31 and, according to a Reuters poll, it is likely to have contracted 20% over April-June. It is forecast to shrink 5.1% in the year to March 2021, the weakest since 1979.
Nearly half of India’s 1.38 billion population rely on agriculture to survive, with the sector accounting for 15% of its economic output.
Punjab Minister Seeks Bonus For Sugarcane Cultivatorsedit
Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Wednesday said that there had been “meagre” hike in Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane announced by the central government. In a release, he said the Union Government should announce bonus at the rate of Rs 70 per quintal in addition to the already announced price to save the sugarcane cultivators “already reeling under the burden of inflated costs during COVID-19 pandemic”. He said bonus must be credited directly into the accounts of the farmers. “States like Punjab having less recovery rate have also been discriminated against with the Union Government fixing Rs 270.75 per quintal price based on 9.5 per cent recovery,” he said. The minister said that ...
Simplified – The vision of the Indian Government & the RBIedit
The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) would soon release a white paper on whether cloud seeding is a viable technology to trigger rainfall, M Rajeevan, secretary, MoES, said during a lecture organised by the Indian Meteorological Society on Wednesday.
The drought-prone states such as Karnataka and Maharashtra had tried cloud seeding with large investments in the past.
Delhi, too, had toyed with the concept in 2018 to deal with deadly November smog, but never got around to get it implemented.
Delhi-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has concluded its two-year experiment on cloud seeding and has drafted a report.
A team of IITM scientists conducted airborne experiments with two aircraft missions over Solapur in Maharashtra. ...
CARE: India’s GDP to drop by 20% in Q1FY21; Agri sector to stand outedit
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is set to announce India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first quarter ending June 2020 (QFY21) by August 31, 2020. All eyes will be on the performance as the GDP data will reflect the adverse impact of Covid-19. Due to the pandemic, the country entered into a nationwide lockdown with some businesses at standstill and some opting ‘work from home’ option. The lockdown continued for a whole April and May month before unlock-1 was imposed from June this year.