Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Government allows Hyderabad’s ICRISAT conditional usage of drones for agricultural researchedit
Economic Times – Online
The government today said that they have, in a rst, granted a crop research institute to use drones for research.
“(The) Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have granted conditional exemption to the International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, Telangana for the deployment of drones for agricultural research activities,” the government said in a statement.
This approval is part of a bigger endeavour of the government to maximise use of drones to conduct various jobs across the country, especially rural India.
Stubble Burning
Paddy yield hits all-time high in Punjab, but raises concernsedit
Hindustan Times – Online
As Punjab is heading towards an all-time high production of paddy this kharif season, experts welcomed the resultant higher income for farmers, but also raised concern over its long-term impact.
According to experts, increase in production means efforts for diversification will take a hit, as more farmers will shift back to growing paddy that offers an assured income by way of minimum support price.
As per the crop cutting experiments conducted by the state agriculture directorate, there’s an increase of 10.5% in the paddy yield. “It is expected to break the previous record of 2017, when a total of 199.65 lakh tonne paddy was produced (including basmati),” said director agriculture Rajesh Vashisht. Non-basmati varieties production in ...
Tractor industry
Escorts plans to raise annual tractor production capacity to 1.8 lakh unitsedit
Manufacturing Today India – Online
Farm equipment and engineering major Escorts 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 ...
Tractor exports dip 5.5% as companies focus on booming domestic marketedit
The Times of India – Online
With robust domestic demand for tractors, manufacturers have deprioritised exports and are focussing production on home demand instead. As a result tractor exports are down 5.5% YoY in the April-October period from 44,946 units last year to 42,496 units this year, data from Tractor Manufacturers Association (TMA) showed. Tractor marketers say export focus will return from January-February 2021 onwards once the festival demand at home has already been adequately met.
“Right now there is too much domestic order backlog to cover leading into the festival season. We have not seen this kind of domestic demand in 10 years so we have no choice but to move every tractor we produce into the domestic ...