Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Four states gear up to resist ‘anti-farmer’ billsedit
Shortly after the nationwide farmers protest on September 25, Maharashtra government said that it would not allow the three agriculture Bills – the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill – to be implemented, said a Rediff report. On the day of the protest, Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar said in Pune that the NCP and other parties are opposed to the new bills. He added that a dharna agitation will be held on October 2 in the state.
Days after Parliament passed the three agriculture-related ordinances to regulate out-of-mandi transactions and provide ...
Sugarcane Trash as Biomass Resourceedit
Sugarcane trash (or cane trash) is an excellent biomass resource in sugar-producing countries worldwide. The amount of cane trash produced depends on the plant variety, age of the crop at harvest and soil and weather conditions. Typically it represents about 15% of the total above ground biomass at harvest which is equivalent to about 10-15 tons per hectare of dry matter. During the harvesting operation around 70-80% of the cane trash is left in the field with 20-30% taken to the mill together with the sugarcane stalks as extraneous matter.
‘Farm Bills will create new markets, opportunities for farmers’edit
In the post-Independence era, the first reforms in agriculture marketing were initiated in the 1960s and 1970s, when the states enacted Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulations) Act, or APMC Act. The organised APMC markets came into existence so that the farmers in their vicinity could bring in their produce for sale. APMC markets were to have physical auctions to ensure transparent price discovery.
Farm bills: Centre ‘pushing’ 75 crore Indians dependent on agriculture to uncertaintyedit
Stating that the three farm bills passed in Parliament are “against farmers and food security for all”, and urging the President of India not endorse them, the civil rights organization Right to Food Campaign has said that they seek to reduce the state’s role in procurement of foodgrains, even as opening up markets for corporate interests without any protective regulation. In a statement, the top NGO states, “It is also unacceptable that no dialogue has been done with any of the state governments before introducing the bills and they have been passed in the Parliament although the Constitution of India lists agriculture as a state subject.”
Agritech Startups On The New Models, Opportunities In The Wake Of The Farm Reform Billsedit
While India’s recent agriculture reform bills have attracted plenty of controversy and protests from farmers across the country, there’s undoubtedly a ray of hope that the market would open up and increase agriculture income at the bottom of the chain i.e. at the farm level.
Even as the bills — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill — await the final go-ahead from the President, there are questions about whether they will improve market access for farmers and whether it will tackle the problem of hoarding of agri commodities by large farmers to drive up prices and ...
MSP procurement of kharif paddy begins immediately in Punjab and Haryana: Centreedit
The Centre on Saturday announced commencement of paddy procurement at the minimum support price (MSP) with immediate effect in Punjab and Haryana in the wake of early arrival of the kharif crop in these two states.
Otherwise, paddy procurement for the 2020-21 kharif (summer) marketing season is scheduled to begin from October 1 in all the key growing states, it said.
Centre advances paddy procurement in Haryana, Punjabedit
Amid mass farmer agitations in Punjab and Haryana, the Centre has advanced kharif paddy procurement, allowing operations to begin on Saturday, September 26, instead of the scheduled date of October 1.
According to the Food Ministry, the change is due to the early arrival of paddy in these States. Both states have announced that procurement will begin from Sunday.
The harvest season has already begun in many parts of northwest India, and even as most farmer groups agitate against the farm bills, community leaders said crop stubble burning may continue this year too, saying subsidies on straw management machinery is not enough for small farmers to switch to machines. Satellite images released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) have shown an increasing number of stubble burning incidents in Punjab over the past five days, especially in Amritsar district. Nasa also warned that with plumes of smoke being seen over Delhi, the city’s air quality may also deteriorate in the coming weeks. Delhi government data shows that stubble burning accounted for 44% of the city’s air pollution last year.edit
Amid farmer discontent in Punjab and Haryana over reformist farm sector bills cleared by Parliament, the Modi government has announced early procurement operations for paddy/rice from the two states at Minimum Support Price (MSP).
This year’s Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) for paddy is scheduled to commence in all the procuring States from October 1 and State Procuring Agencies including the Food Corporation of India (FCI) are ready for smoothly undertaking procurement operations.