Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Contract farming as a means of ushering in corporatisation in agricultureedit
The purpose of initiatives such as contract farming seems to be to create conditions that make it difficult for the small and marginal peasantry to sustain themselves and eventually force them to leave their land or sell it to rich farmers, thus consolidating and centralising the agrarian capital.
Explained Ideas: Why Punjab’s farmers oppose the new farm lawsedit
To nullify the possible impact of the three farm acts passed by the Parliament, the Punjab government passed its own bills on Tuesday. These broadly attempt to ensure continued procurement of wheat and paddy at the minimum support price (MSP), uphold the powers of the courts in dispute settlement and empower the state to regulate trade of foodgrain.
Festive season, positive farm bill to fuel tractor sales growth, says M&Medit
The world’s largest tractor manufacturer by volumes foresees a sustained growth in tractor off-take on the back of festive season along with recently introduced farm bill.
Accordingly, auto major M&M’s Farm Equipment Sector President Hemant Sikka predicts the farm bill to usher in higher income for farmers, thereby, allowing greater farm mechanisation levels.
“These reforms are positive, and we await on-ground execution of various elements of this bill to better realise its effectiveness,” he told IANS.
State farm bills: A charade meant to hoodwink farmersedit
With their eyes wide open, the Congress-ruled states are bent on creating a legislative charade in order to hoodwink farmers protesting against the Central farm laws. On Tuesday, as previously threatened, the Punjab Assembly passed a couple of legislations seeking to amend and negate some of the provisions in the recent Central farm-related laws. The government-sponsored resolutions were adopted unanimously, given the stiff competition among parties to misguide the agitating farmers. A basic understanding of the constitutional scheme of things was violated when the specially convened session adopted a resolution rejecting the Central laws.
Three Reasons Why Punjab Bills To Bypass Modi Government’s Agri Reforms Might Backfire On Capt. Amarinder, Congressedit
On Tuesday (20 October), the Capt Amarinder Singh government in Punjab passed three Bills in the State Assembly to essentially neutralise the Narendra Modi government’s agricultural reforms in the State.
Among the proposals made in the three Bills passed by the Punjab Assembly are: making purchases of rice and wheat below the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the Centre punishable, provision to levy fee on corporates purchasing outside the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) mandis (markets), and protecting landholdings of small farmers who own less than 2.5 acres of land from attachment.
Coverage
CLAAS India launches next gen of CROP TIGER TERRA TRACedit
In a trailblasing moment, CLAAS India, a 100 percent subsidiary of German agri-machinery conglomerate CLAAS KGaA, virtually launched the next generation of CROP TIGER TERRA TRAC combine harvester. With its high standards of performance and durability, CROP TIGER has built up a faithful fan following in several overseas markets. Moreover, CLAAS India recently celebrated the sales milestone of crossing 10,000 CROP TIGER harvesters.
Launching the machine, Cathrina Claas-Muehlhaeuser, the chairwoman of CLAAS Shareholders Committee, said, “CROP TIGER has been a success story for CLAAS in India, based on strong fundamentals of German engineering and local adaptation. The next generation of CROP TIGER TERRA TRAC is loaded with many new features that offer enhanced durability, performance and operator comfort.”
Govt. Policies
Political Posturing: Punjab’s anti-farm-reform laws are intended to make it seem like the Centre’s wanted to abolish MSPedit
The amendment Bills the Punjab government has passed to blunt the new central Acts that free up the farm sector are a clever gambit. By making minimum support price (MSP) part of the law and mandatory (for wheat and paddy), the new laws cement the—wholly incorrect—impression that the central government was planning to scrap the system of procuring farm output at MSPs. The MSP system is inefficient, and it distorts cropping patterns—it is responsible for the depletion of the water-table in states like Punjab—but the central government was not even considering giving it up; it is from nowhere that political parties conjured this alleged game-plan and then sought to mobilise opinion around it.
Stubble Burning
To stop stubble burning, Haryana purchases 1.75 lakh tonnes of stubble, says Dhesiedit
Stating that the State Government has set target of purchasing 8.58 lakh tonnes of the stubble during the entire season out of which about 1.75 lakh tonne of paddy stubble has been purchased by the Bio-Mass plants, Haryana Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister DS Dhesi on Wednesday said that consistent steps taken by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to manage crop residue and stubble in the last six years have resulted in gradual decline in cases of stubble burning across the State every year.
Presiding over a review meeting with the officers concerned, Dhesi said that the State Government has already made provision to allocate an amount of Rs 152 crore to provide ...
Biomass plants to buy 8.58 lakh tonne of stubble in Haryanaedit
In a bid to prevent stubble burning in Haryana, 1.75 lakh tonne of paddy stubble has been purchased by the biomass plants and 8.58 lakh tonne of the stubble is planned to be purchased during the entire season.
Sharing this season on Wednesday in a meeting ,chief principal secretary to chief minister, DS Dhesi said barely any stubble burning incident is likely to be reported this year in the state.
He said the state government has already made provision to allocate an amount of Rs 152 Crore to provide machinery for stubble management at subsidized rates of up to 80 per cent through the Custom Hiring Centres. Besides this, 50 per cent subsidy for such machines will ...
Solution To Stubble Burning Woes? ICAR Developed Microbial Consortium Can Decompose Stubble In 25 Daysedit
Initial results of the trials conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) regarding the effectiveness of a microbial consortium have suggested that if used on the paddy stubble, it can decompose within 25 days, Hindustan Times reports.
Trilochan Mohapatra the director-general (DG) of ICAR, while speaking to Hindustan Times, he explained, “There is no requirement for any manual intervention to pick up the stubble after 25 days. A microbial solution can help decompose paddy stubble within 25 days, but trials are still in progress.”