HT Syndication

An expert from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has appealed to farmers of the state to desist from paddy straw burning and use PAU Super Straw Management System (SMS) for its management.

GS Manes, additional director of research (farm mechanisation and bioenergy), PAU, said: “This technology can chop and spread the straw coming out of the rear of combine harvester evenly in the field for uniform straw-load in the field. This also helps in ease of straw handling, better crop emergence, and establishment. In fact, the use of PAU Super SMS is a requisite for the adoption of specialised machines for wheat sowing like Happy Seeder, Super Seeder, etc.”

Tribune Indi

As many as 385 farmers and farm women attended the webinar of PAU Kisan Club organised by the Skill Development Centre under the guidance of Dr JS Mahal, Director, Extension Education, PAU. Dr TS Riar, Associate Director, Skill Development, urged farmers to read PAU magazines such as Changi Kheti and Progressive Farming and enroll themselves as members of these magazines.

Tribune India

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi having “cleverly” passed the controversial farm ordinances and the equally divisive labour law amedments at the time of a global pandemic.

Gandhi, who was addressing his second rally in the day at Samana in Patiala, said that the new laws were brought in “believing that none of these communities will hit the roads fearing coronavirus”.

“However I assure the Modi government that farmers are already on roads and agitating. The whole idea to mislead the nation on farm ordinances has failed,” he said, also bringing in India’s standoff with China into the speech.

Rural Marketing

India is the world’s largest producer of milk and has the highest cattle population. However, according to a report published by National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP), the fodder deficit would be about 40 percent by 2025. In order to address this deficit, governments, research institutions and entrepreneurs have been trying to come up with solutions. One such solution is natural preservation of green forages and enriching them through fermentation. This process is called ensiling and the produce is called SILAGE.

Four highly educated and young entrepreneurs started Cornext Agri Products in 2015 to make Baled Silage which is the most advanced technology in silage making. They understood technology, adapted to Indian conditions and commercialised Baled Silage since ...

Rush Lane

The Government of India has passed three agricultural bills in parliament and the sector is clocking a 3.4 percent rise in Q1 2020-21. Favourable monsoons, increase in kharif sowing area and the return of farm labourers has also contributed to an increased buyer sentiment in rural markets. Mahindra commands 39 percent market share Most OEMs noted double digit growth in September 2020 over that of September 2019. Total tractor sales stood at 1,08,649 units, up 28.4 percent as against sales of 84,639 units in September 2019. At No. 1 spot was Mahindra Farm Equipment domestic sales in the past month stood at 42,361 units, up from 36,046 units sold in September 2019. Exports stood at 1,025 units ...

Indian Express

“Only 6% of Indian farmers benefit from minimum support prices (MSP)”. So widely-quoted is this figure — especially in the context of the recently-passed Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act — that it has become a factoid or even truism.

What is, isn’t counted

The apparent source of the 6% figure is the Shanta Kumar-headed High Level Committee on Restructuring of Food Corporation of India (FCI). Its report, submitted in January 2015, had noted that only 5.21 million of the country’s total estimated 90.20 million agricultural households in 2012-13 had sold paddy and wheat to any government procurement agency. In other words, less than 5.8%. The committee, in turn, based its analysis on the ...