Media Monitor
Monsoon + Indian Agriculture
Rain brings cheer to wheat growersedit
The Tribune – Online
Light rains and thundershowers at most places in the state on Sunday brought cheer to farmers, especially wheat growers who had sown their crop without burning paddy straw. It is also beneficial for those who are preparing to sow wheat and other rabi crops.
Moreover, air pollution levels are also likely to fall after the state witnessed thousands of incidents of burning the paddy straw during the current harvesting season.
Dr Jaswinder Singh Brar, plant protection officer, Moga, said the widespread rain was expected to boost wheat crop sowing this season. An expected drop in the minimum temperature during November would help the temperature-sensitive wheat crop, which needed cold conditions to thrive.
Stubble Burning
Delhi’s air quality turns ‘severe’ on Diwali; firecrackers, stubble burning make pollution worseedit
Firstpost – Online
Delhi’s air quality turned “severe” on Saturday with stubble burning accounting for 32 percent of Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution and firecracker emissions making the situation even worse.
A layer of haze lingered over Delhi-NCR at night as people continued bursting firecrackers despite a ban, and calm winds allowing accumulation of pollutants.
The level of PM2.5 – which is about three percent the diameter of a human hair and can lead to premature deaths from heart and lung diseases – was 331 microgram per cubic metre (µg/m3) in Delhi-NCR at 10 pm, above the emergency threshold of 300 µg/m3.
Tractor industry
Escorts plans to raise annual tractor production capacity to 1.8 lakh unitsedit
ETAuto.com – Online
Farm equipment and engineering major Escorts Ltd is planning to increase its overall tractor production capacity to 1.8 lakh units annually to meet the current robust demand for which it will be investing Rs 100 crore in the remaining part of the fiscal, according to a senior company official. The company, which currently has an annual capacity of 1.2 lakh units, expects the overall tractor industry to grow in low double digits this fiscal as against low single digit projected earlier.
“We are already growing above pre-COVID-19 levels…Both at capacity utilisation and sales we are above pre-COVID-19 levels…Our stated capacity is around 10,000 tractors per month but we are going beyond the capacity and are trying to stretch as much as we ...