Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
All eyes on agriculture: August rainfalls hit 4-decade high; Kharif crop sowing tops last year markedit
India has recorded August rainfalls at four decade high this year with the monsoon season remaining robust in 2020 despite occasional hiccups a few weeks before. “Monsoon rains continued a strong run, with rainfall in August now the strongest it has been in 44 years, according to IMD,” a report by Barclays said on Monday. The Kharif crop sowing has also crossed the average area sown mark and has also surpassed last year’s area sown. Crop sowing remains robust, and 100% of the total area normally sown has been covered to date. As of 21st August, the area sown was reported at nearly 106 million hectares which is significantly ahead of around 97.9 million hectares sown last ...
India emerges as key player in global organic marketingedit
In our series on Atmanirbhar Bharat today, we bring you a special story on Organic farming.
India has emerged as a key player in global organic marketing. Agriculture Ministry has said that India ranks first in number of organic farmers and ninth in terms of area under organic farming.
Sikkim became the first state to become fully organic and other states including Tripura and Uttarakhand have set similar targets.
North East India has traditionally been organic and the consumption of chemicals is far less than rest of the country
Rural India: A case for cautious optimism and nuanced policy mixedit
One of the major reasons EMs are forecasted to register less negative growth in 2020, vs. AEs, is the higher share of agricultural output. In India, there is optimism around agriculture, and thus rural, being the brighter spot in a contractionary growth year. The RBI Governor, in the recently released MPC meeting minutes noted rural indicators have shown a sharp revival which, if sustained, can provide support to demand going forward. In this note, we look at the current situation and the structural nuances of rural India to gauge the legitimacy of this optimism and the need for a nuanced policy approach.
India GDP Q1 data: Farm activity shows promise. Can it engineer a rebound?edit
The farm sector, which contributes around 17 percent to India’s GDP, has helped in arresting a much deeper fall in economic growth.
According to the data released by the Central Statistics Office on August 31, the agriculture sector, aided by good rains, grew 3.4 percent in the first quarter of 2020-21 against 3 percent during the same period last year.
The first quarter agricultural GDP includes production from the rabi season, which ends with harvesting in April-June. The Agriculture Ministry has pegged the output of wheat, chana and other rabi food grains 5.6 percent higher than last year.
Escorts surges 5% as tractor sales grow 80% YoY in Augustedit
Shares of Escorts gained 5 per cent to Rs 1,143 on the BSE on Tuesday after the company reported a strong 80.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in tractor sales in the month of August, 2020.
The company’s Agri Machinery Segment (EAM) sold 7,268 tractors, its highest-ever August sales. It had sold 4,035 tractors in August 2019. On month-on-month (MoM) basis, the volume was up 36.6 per cent, Escorts said in a statement.
COVID-19 Lockdown: Reverse Migration Cheers up Rural Agricultural Sectoredit
Wearing a soiled kurta-pyjama, Ajay Kumar was tending to his green fields in a rural village in Uttar Pradesh. The uncertainty of the past few months is gradually making way for hope and happiness. The lands are now green, and with a good monsoon forecast, Kumar was hopeful of a bumper harvest. “When I had returned to my village in April, we had no hope and were staring at a bleak future. So, turning to our ancestral fields seemed the only way forward for us. Two months on, we have made good progress and with good monsoon, I am looking forward to a bumper crop and good income,” Kumar said in Hindi.
Before returning to his village in ...