Even as farmers are protesting against the new farm laws, the leaders of India Inc. believes that the recent reforms are part of a more extensive set of coordinated and comprehensive initiatives that have been taken by the government, focused on the input side, introducing risk mitigation measures, reducing post-harvest losses, and augmenting market and income opportunities for farmers. Industry body CII believes the Agriculture Marketing reforms indeed herald a new era for agriculture and have taken care of many long-standing reform agendas.

“Given the need of the hour, the progressive agri marketing reforms aimed towards ‘Moving to One Nation, One Market’ are a significant step that will enable better access to markets, catalyze the creation of primary ...

Indian agriculture suffers from several fundamental shortcomings. First, the extreme level of fragmentation of holdings is debilitating. The second is the inability to scientifically estimate economic and social value of inputs and the inability to calibrate choice of crops and pricing of produce. The third is the excessive usage of nitrogenous fertilizers. The fourth is the lack of mechanization and technology. The fourth is the poor agricultural infrastructure in terms of storage, warehousing, cold-chains etc. The fifth is the ineffective marketing framework and lack of facility available to farmers to trade their produce freely. The sixth is the lack of dissemination about best practices and the lack of effective risk-management. Lastly, and most importantly is the inability ...

The farmers protest at the national capital borders demanding a repeal of three new farm laws is now in its third week. But any resolution to the deadlock between the farmers and the Narendra Modi government is still not in sight.

As tension continues to persist, ThePrint’s editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta noted the six tough realities of farming and its economics in India, and the five dangerous myths surrounding it, in episode 640 of Cut The Clutter.

According to Gupta, these realities are: the farmer is always right; agricultural GDP is about one-fourth its impact on politics; farming is a low-yield business (about 60 per cent of Indian families depend on farming, about 45 per cent ...

Recent Agriculture reforms will improve market access and increase income opportunities for farmers, according to CII. It will catalyse private investment and modernize supply chains. The recent reforms, are part of larger set of coordinated and comprehensive initiatives that have been taken by the government, focused on the input side, introducing risk mitigation measures, reducing post-harvest losses and augmenting market and income opportunities for farmers. CII believes the Agriculture Marketing reforms, certainly herald a new era for agriculture and have taken care of a lot of the long-standing reform agenda. The reforms will create the right enabling environment for market and investment led agricultural growth, and increased income generation opportunities for farmers. The reforms ...

In tackling agri-crises, these core Green Revolution States must shift to high value crops and promote non-farm activities

“Government of Assam gave special thrust to the Agriculture sector by announcing a slew of incentives for setting up of rice clusters, mills and cold storages,” said Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the Annual Session & AGM of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) here on Monday. Mr Sonowal further informed that Aatma Nirbhar Bharat will be fulfilled only when Assam becomes self-sufficient. Through the implementation of Act East Policy, the local youths of the state will get huge opportunity to strengthen Assam’s economy by increasing trade and business activities in the region. He also said that with financial outlay of Rs. 20 lakh crore during the lockdown period helped the MSME sector ...

India’s farm distress has now reached a new flashpoint with hundreds of thousands of farmers protesting around the national capital against the three farm bills. Any impartial observer who understands India’s farming distress would normally agree that Indian farmers require solutions to their fundamental problems and not any grandiose reforms.

Economic reforms and the opening of agriculture to the global market over the last three decades have made small farmers vulnerable to unusual changes and fluctuations.

Ever thought of the cost of exporting basmati rice if the price were to be measured in terms of water? If we were to consider the virtual export of water, then in 2014-15, when India exported 37.1 lakh tonnes of basmati rice, it also exported 10 trillion litres of water which was used to cultivate the rice — from preparing the land for cultivation to the post-harvest processing of the rice. With water availability becoming increasingly scarce, this indirect export of water is adding to the burden domestically.

Now, with the yield being stagnated, soil degradation with repeatedly cultivating the same crop and atmospheric pollution (from stubble burning), and most importantly, the excessive use of water ...

Agritech in India has seen a skyrocketing growth with numerous startups emerging with new technologies and advanced methods such as data analytics, machine learning and satellite imaging, among others to cater to the needs of Indian farmers and maximize their output. India with 118.7 million farmers, accounting for more than half of the population is heavily dependent on agriculture as a primary source of income. But Indian agriculture is plagued by several problems both ma made and natural such as; unavailability of seeds, small and fragmented land-holdings, problems with Irrigation due to uncertain seasons, Scarcity of capital etc. leaving farmers helpless and with no option but to let their produce go at dirt cheap prices.

Therefore, AgriTech ...

Only about a third of the yields Indian farmers produce reaches the big markets. Those whose produce makes it there today are able to leverage post-harvest services. Everyone else is missing out.

A Noida-based startup is working with all the stakeholders — farmers, food processors, traders and financial institutions — to bridge this post-harvest services gap — and it just secured new funds to continue its journey.

Seven-year-old Arya said on Tuesday it has raised $21 million in its Series B financing round. The round was led by Quona Capital, a venture firm that focuses on fintech in emerging markets. Existing investors LGT Lightstone Aspada and Omnivore also participated in the round, while multiple unnamed lenders are providing additional ...

The debate around the economics and administration of farm laws stands frozen by politics. It is, therefore, time for politicians, administrators, economists, policymakers and other concerned citizens to examine the evolution of these laws. The three laws that have been enacted by Parliament attempt to take farmers towards harvesting economic gains; they have thus far been held back by outdated laws, manipulated markets and vested interests-driven corruption. This is aside from macro-factors, such as India moving away from food shortages into an era of surpluses.

As yesterday’s proponents of these reform ideas become today’s opponents of its laws, noise has become the currency of discourse. Confusion mars the economics of farm laws, misinformation ...

While farmers’ protest has occupied the political centre stage, India has forgotten the other part of the agricultural workforce: landless agriculture workers who also double-up as tenant farmers and sharecroppers and are officially recognised as “poorest of the poor”.

Their contribution to agricultural output is immense given the widespread absentee (farm) landlordism. One estimate suggests that they contribute up to 40% of the total output. No government policy, least of all the three new farm laws and the PM-Kisan.

Kishore Kumar Jha has seen it all in close quarters. Growing up in a household and neighborhood dependent on agriculture taught him what ails India’s farmers. Jha, however, wanted to go to the root of a particular problem that is the Achilles heel for most small and marginal farmers in India –

The farmer protests in the national capital refuse to weaken and with each passing day more and more people in the country seem to be growing curious about the wisdom behind the government’s new farm laws.

At The Indian Express, we have written several “Explained” pieces about what the news farm laws aim to do, what the current state of Indian farmers is, including those hailing from Punjab and Haryana — the two states which have opposed the farm laws the most. Incidentally, these are also the two states that benefitted the most under the previous policy regime.

Looking back there are two aspects to the current impasse.

One is the question whether these reforms will benefit the farmers or not. This ...

Declining agricultural incomes and flagging state support to agriculture are some of the key structural issues

Amidst protests by farmers over the new farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the government is committed to protect the interest of the farming community through its policies and intentions. The government has taken various initiatives to improve the income of people engaged in the farm sector, he said, adding that farmers now have options to sell their crops in mandis as well The government has taken various initiatives to improve the income of people engaged in the farm sector, he said, adding that farmers now have options to sell their crops in mandis as well as to outside parties.

The Indian private sector not only meeting the domestic needs but also establishing strong brand India globally, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi said on Friday.

The Prime Minister delivered the inaugural address at FICCI’s 93rd Annual General Meeting and Annual Convention today via video conferencing. Commitment of every citizen towards Aatmnirbhar Bharat is an example of the country’s faith in its private sector, he said.

The Prime Minister said that in life as well as governance, a confident person never hesitates in giving space to others. A strong government, backed by massive mandate exudes that confidence and dedication. A decisive government always strives to remove obstacles for others and always tries to contribute towards the society and ...

Look hard. Do you see any woman among the protesting farmers? The reason is simple — Women hardly own agricultural land.

Lakshadweep and Meghalaya are the best among all the 35 states and Union Territories at providing land rights to women; Punjab and West Bengal are the worst, according to an index created by the Bhubaneswar-based Centre for Land Governance, an arm of consultancy firm NR Management Consultants.

The index was prepared using the data on women’s operational holdings from the agriculture census of 2011, the share of adult women owning farm land from the Indian Human Development Survey of 2011-12, the share of women-headed households owning land from the Socio-economic Caste Census of 2011, and the share ...

Like all other industries, India’s agriculture sector — the biggest contributor to the nation’s GDP — was faced with huge uncertainties after the coronavirus outbreak. Things worsened after the imposition of the nationwide lockdown on March 25. Food supply chains froze, farmers struggled to purchase inputs right ahead of the harvest season, access to marketplaces and mandis was limited, agri-logistics and transport systems were broken, post-harvest loss mounted, and the cost of unsold produce pinched farmer finances. All in all, the sector was in complete disarray.

At the time of independence, Indian agriculture was an example of everything that was wrong with the economy of an “underdeveloped” country. Even when nearly three-fourths of its working population worked on its vast farmlands, served by an extensive spread of rivers and a wide range of climatic conditions, India could not produce enough food for its population. The newly independent country had to import a considerable amount of foodgrains from the “developed” countries of the First World, with the United States being the chief supplier. While the food-surplus countries of the Western world eagerly agreed to sell, or even give away food as aid, their supplies came with “conditions,” unfavourable to a nation ...

The support for agriculture producers and consumer were significantly unlike between certain set of nations, numbers published by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) showed. In its Agricultural Policy Monitoring 2020 report, the organisation noted that India was among the countries that was actually taking money out of the pockets of its farmers by setting low prices for some commodities.

The OECD estimated losses to farmers at $23 billion in 2019 after deducting any financial support payments or discounts that producers also receive. Fierce protests about opening up the system of minimum support prices (MSPs) and government-controlled wholesale markets (mandis) are currently rocking the various parts of the country.

The slew of agricultural reforms initiated by the government has led to a vigorous discussion in the media about the pros and cons of these policy changes. Most of these discussions have focused on agriculture as an activity that provides farmers with a regular source of income. The arguments have engaged mainly with the question of whether these reforms would increase these incomes, if agriculture became more commercialised.

In all these discussions however, there is one important aspect that has got largely overlooked — the role of agriculture as an informal social safety net, specifically in times of crisis.

To be clear, there are two types of safety nets that are needed in developing countries. The ...

Agriculture remains the backbone of the Indian economy, but smart and sustainable farming is not exactly our forte. Decades ago, one might have come across a family or two in every village who could accurately predict the weather, irrigation requirements or the crop yield, but that ancient knowledge had slowly died out. However, tech-driven and environmentally sound precision agriculture has taken its place globally, promising maximum productivity, minimum variables risk (read unfavourable weather conditions and fast-falling soil fertility) and minimal environmental impact.

A day after protesting farmers rejected the government’s offer for a written assurance on MSP and amend few provisions in the new farm laws, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday urged union leaders to consider the proposals and said he is ready for further discussions with them.

“The government is ready to consider with an open mind any provision in the new laws where farmers have any issues and we want to clarify all their apprehensions,” Tomar said at a press conference here.

“We kept waiting for suggestions from farmers’ leaders to address their concerns, but they are stuck on the repeal of laws,” he said, while virtually ruling out conceding to the key demand with ...

In September, India’s BJP-led central government enacted three controversial agricultural laws that critics say threaten the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers and those who rely on the agricultural sector to meet their basic needs. At a time of unprecedented, multidimensional crises in the country, both the substance of the laws and the process by which they were passed will have real ramifications for human security in India for years to come, constituting matters of existential concern for the country’s working class.

In her 2007 book “The Shock Doctrine,” Naomi Klein proposed the concept of “disaster capitalism” in reference to the tendency of governments to ram through free market policies in the wake of major crisis, ...

For decades now, India has been grappling with the issue of hunger and inadequate nutrition. Hence, it was no surprise when the Global Hunger Index, 2019, ranked India at 102 out of a list of 117 countries fighting hunger.

Economists and policymakers consider hunger an outcome of overpopulation and poverty. And while these are contributing factors, another culprit lurks in the form of dilapidated infrastructure, inadequate storage and overflowing dumpsters – the creation and improper treatment of food waste.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, almost 40% of the total food grown in India annually goes to waste. In other words, we waste close to half of what we produce. Wastage does not begin ...

During 2017-18, the central government released the model APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) and contract farming Acts to allow and promote restriction-free trade of agricultural produce, competition through multiple marketing channels, and farming under pre-agreed contracts. The Standing Committee (2018-19) noted that many states carried out partial reforms only, on a pick-and-choose basis.

To this end, the central government promulgated three Ordinances on June 5, 2020: (i) the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, (ii) the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020, and (iii) the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020. The three Ordinances together aim to increase opportunities for farmers to enter long term sale contracts, ...

Agriculture is still the primary occupation of more than half of Indian population asserting importance of this sector in various socioeconomic aspects of the country. Gross Value Added by agriculture, forestry and fishing is estimated at Rs 18.55 lakh crore (US$ 265.51 billion) in FY19 (PE). As was once said by Mahatma Gandhi that to become self-reliant, rural economy has to be developed, only then we will be able to give employment to rural youth.

India being the youngest nation in the world has massive youth resource to offer to agriculture sector but unfortunately, youth participation in agriculture is declining. India is expected to have 34.33 per cent share of youth in the total population by 2020, ...

Many prominent politicians, columnists and critics have used Bihar’s abolition of the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act to argue that the reforms proposed by the three new farm laws will be a disaster.

In episode 634 of ‘Cut The Clutter’, ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta talks about the agricultural reforms in Bihar and the growth the state registered after they were implemented.

Gupta noted that several politicians are saying the abolition of the APMC Act is bad and are calling for a rollback of the three farm laws. However, Gupta said, 17 states have already abolished or made substantive changes to the APMC Act.

These states are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Goa, ...

India and Israel held their 16th round of Foreign Office Consultations through video-conference on Monday. Talks revolved around the core areas of defence, agriculture, science and technology, education and homeland security.

Senior MEA diplomat Sanjay Bhattacharyya and Alon Ushpiz, Director General of Israel’s, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reviewed the progress of the ongoing cooperation, especially in the strategic fields of defence and security, counter-terrorism, cyber security, said a news release.

They also discussed cooperation in water and agriculture, S&T, innovation and startups, energy and academic collaboration.

Now that the central government has entered into a dialogue with the protesting farmers over new farm laws rushed through the pandemic lockdown behind their backs (and dismissing all objections raised during a brief discussion in Parliament), here are some key issues that need immediate attention.

‘Market efficiency’ is a myth  

Government officials and experts don’t fail to remind the farmers that they get huge subsidies.

Prof. Ashok Gulati, former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), wrote that Punjab farmers benefitted the most: Punjab government budgeted (for FY21) Rs 8,275 crore for free power and the central government provided Rs 5,000 crore (in FY20) for fertiliser subsidy. Taken together, he wrote, each Punjab ...

UA As the name implies, farming within the urban area. With a growing population, the land-use pattern is compelling the population to adopt this method for food security. The sustainability of UA is through the network within communities. During the past year, during the COVID period, UA has increased its importance. Besides vegetables, the domain is expanding to bee-keeping and horticulture as well. In mega-cities like Mumbai UA is creeping into peri-urban areas also. Nearly 30% of the urban population is engaged in UA  activity who are actively involved in the food for sale business. This is becoming very popular in Sub-Saharan Africa and low-income countries where food security is an issue. UA  ...

Founded in 1905, Yara is a purpose driven organisation with our mission “Responsibly feed the world and protect the planet”. Feeding the world embodies knowledge, economic empowerment and innovative ideas. Protecting the planet represents commitment to emission reduction and sustainable agricultural practices. At Yara we strongly believe that success can be celebrated only when it is achieved in the right way.

Yara today has a worldwide presence with sales to 160 countries and revenues of USD 12.90 billion in 2019.

We started our journey in India in 1993 operating a representative office managed by a small team of dedicated Yara employees. Our key role was to identify the key initiatives that we could make helping the farmers ...

Multilateral lending agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday said it has approved a USD 2.5 million (about Rs 18 crore) technical assistance to support advanced biofuel development in India.

The grant is funded from the Asia Clean Energy Fund, financed by the Government of Japan under the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility, and the Republic of Korea’s e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund.

In a statement, ADB said the technical assistance (TA) will support development of advanced bioethanol, bio-compressed natural gas, and biodiesel plants to demonstrate the best practices for suitable feedstock, efficient conversion technology, and sustainable biofuel value chain.

It will also support incorporating gender main-streaming design in the feedstock value chain to promote the ...

The Agriculture Council, for which the Assembly has given its green signal, is tasked with regulating the agriculture colleges and preventing the students from being duped by fake agriculture colleges.

Several colleges have been sprouted in the State in the last one decade and many of them did not have necessary permissions, as there was no regulating body.

Telangana State Seed and Organic Certification Authority (TSSOCA) was on Saturday presented with the Best Seed Certification Authority award in the country during the India Seed awards event held virtually.

The TSSOCA has been selected for the award jointly by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA) and seed industry. The award was presented virtually by Union Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar and Chief Executive Officer of National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) Ashok Dalawai.

A number of bank unions have expressed their solidarity with farmers protesting against recently passed agri laws and requested the government to resolve the issue at the earliest. The All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) in a statement said the government should come forward and resolve their demands in the interest of the nation and farmers.

Officer unions All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) and Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) have also requested the government to initiate meaningful dialogue to resolve the impasse by referring the bills to a select committee by a special Presidential Order.

Proponents of the three new farm laws have claimed that they will engender competition in agricultural markets and will give farmers a choice to sell wherever they like. The opponents of these laws, including many farmer groups, have forcefully argued that these policies will strangle the mandi system, spell the end of the Minimum Support Price (MSP), and lead to oligopolistic buying by large agribusinesses.

These debates, however, have remained restricted to the realm of agricultural marketing and the economics of livelihoods. They miss the fundamental reality of today’s times — that the current agrarian impasse reflects the fatigue of dominant approaches to agriculture, which assumes growth is limitless and resources are inexhaustible. Added to ...

With no sign of any agreement between the government and the protesting farmers even after the fifth round of talks on Saturday, and the next meeting scheduled for December 9, farmers are sticking to their first and major point – that the three “anti-farmer” laws passed in September be repealed. However, the government says these laws are in the interest of farmers to make them richer.

The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 are the main issue behind farmers’ protest.

Punjab’s farmers have been agitating over farm laws, braving cold nights on Delhi borders. They fear that these new laws will hit their incomes adversely. There is nothing wrong in that — every citizen not only wants to protect what s/he is earning but aspires to earn more on a sustainable basis. How do we do that is the moot question, beyond the current impasse. So far talks have remained inconclusive. Hoping that the protests remain peaceful, and a solution is found amicably, let us focus on Punjab farmers’ incomes — an issue that will stay relevant even after the protests are over.

Punjab’s stellar role in ushering the Green Revolution in the country in ...

“It is more about the changes in the ‘social contract’ between the farmers and the Union government that is the root cause of fear,” said Sukhpal Singh, professor and former chairperson, Centre for Management in Agriculture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on why farmers from Punjab and Haryana, among others, are protesting the three new farms laws passed by India’s Parliament.

The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 were passed during the monsoon session of parliament during the Covid-19 pandemic.

From supporting famed hydraulic civilizations of India, China, Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Sri Lanka, and Pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru in the ancient past, to spearheading the Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, irrigation has always played a pivotal role in the agrarian economy of Asia. Even today, Asia accounts for 70% of the world’s irrigated area, but ironically majorly depends upon the South Asian Summer Monsoon which has a critical impact on the region’s water resources, agriculture, economics and human mortality.

For example, the fortunes of India’s agricultural sector depend upon the rhythms of the southwest monsoon. Over half of the country’s net cultivable area is un-irrigated and rain-dependent. Between 55 to 60 percent of agriculture, forestry, ...

Farmers have been protesting for the past many years for remunerative MSP, fair incomes and related issues as solutions elude them.

Since 2012, in the recent past, the country has seen many long marches from Maharashtra, MP, UP, agitations in Tamilnadu and many other parts. Poll after polls it has rocked the Indian polity. The protest demands typically had been for – proper prices for farm produce, ensured income, loan waivers, high electricity bills and fuel prices, junking of pollution lobby-created bogey of scrapping of tractors and proper procurement by the government agencies. Now the pollution lobby created ordinance on stubble (parali) burning that invites jailing and a fine of Rs 1 crore has been added.

India’s agri-research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Sunday said it has bagged the prestigious ‘International King Bhumibol orld Soil Day Award’ from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for raising awareness about importance of soil health among all stakeholders.

The award was conferred to ICAR on the occasion of World Soil Day, celebrated on December 5, through a virtual function, ICAR said in a statement.

India bagged the award for ICAR’s awareness initiative undertaken in December 2019, involving participation of more than 13,000 people through a social media campaign.

The Covid times has been challenging for most sectors of Indian economy. However, one sector which demonstrated extraordinary resilience has been agriculture and allied activities. We had a record Rabi harvest and massive Kharif sowing despite a stringent lockdown during April to June this year. The food supply chain kept rolling despite a massive unexpected shock, with no shortage of essential food items across the country. Few sub-sectors and allied sectors like fisheries, poultry and floriculture got adversely impacted but they are very much on the path to recovery.

The food supply chain responded with multiple innovative models to survive the covid shock. The temporary survival tactics in the form of innovative models developed by startups and ...

Clearly, part of the problem in low-income countries is a lack of money for farmers to invest in better seeds or equipment. But there are other issues at work, too. In a new study, Jacopo Ponticelli, an associate professor of finance at Kellogg, and colleagues suggest that lack of information about agricultural technologies and practices is a major barrier. And, importantly, their research showed that offering farmers on-demand advice over the phone can help remedy this.

The researchers studied the cumulative effect of a pair of government programs in India. One funded extensive cell-phone tower construction, and the other set up call centers to answer questions from farmers about topics such as seeds, fertilizer, irrigation, and pest ...

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation said that though agriculture contributes around 14 to 16 per cent of the Indian GDP, still has a huge potential to play a key role in taking India to a $ 5 trillion economy.

Addressing the session on ‘Role of water and Agrochemicals in envisioning a globally competitive, modern, sustainable & inclusive Indian Agriculture Industry’ at the ‘9th Agrochemicals Conference’ organized by FICCI, Shekhawat said that we have started working with a profitability-centric approach in the agricultural sector with systematic reforms to make the Indian agriculture sector more successful.

About 50 farmers from rainfed areas in Neiveli village in Tiruchi district participated in off-campus training on ‘Green manure – alternate wetting and drying irrigation’ (AWDI) organised by Sugarcane Research Station, Sirugmani, at Perur on Thursday.

The training was organised under the Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation Project implemented by Water Technology Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Sugarcane Research Station, Sirugamani, in Aiyyar Sub-basin.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) is the global hot-spot of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) due to intense agricultural activities and fertilizer production there, according to researchers at The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.

The study titled “Record high levels of atmospheric ammonia over India: Spatial and temporal analyses” has also been published in the international Elsevier journal “Science of the Total Environment”.

The study by the IIT team was conducted along with researchers from Indian Institute Of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and few European researchers.

The most fundamental aspect of the market economy is the autonomy of the participants and the free flow of goods and services. Decentralised and devolved governance are a prerequisite of a market economy, so that a wide range of experiences and experiments can be undertaken in diverse settings for the best practices to emerge. They are also critical for sustaining the freedom and autonomy of farmers, traders and other stakeholders in the agriculture market.

Consider the debate over MSP. MSP has emerged as the most contentious issue in the ongoing debate over the new farm laws. Ironically, the new laws don’t mention MSP at all, and the government has been saying that it has no plan ...

There have been allegations as to why only Punjab and Haryana farmers protesting and not the farmers from rest of India? What do you have to say to that?

Any government, whenever they are challenged as the power holders, always try and condemn the movements and try to underestimate the force and the strength. It is very obvious that the Punjab and Haryana are at the forefront and there is a nucleus in these two states of the farmers movement today. But it is very clear that farmers’ organisations all over India came together as an alliance when there was a murderous attack on the farmers of Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh and that alliance now ...

National Agriculture Education Day was celebrated at Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni. Dr PK Mahajan, Director of Extension Education, gave an overview of various programmes of the university. VC Kaushal dwelt upon the role of agriculture in India and urged students to be part of the agricultural revolution. He also highlighted the role of schools in motivating students to take up agriculture as a profession. Over 75 students from St Lukes, MRA DAV and Gurukul International school attended it online. A declamation contest on “Importance and scope of agricultural education with special emphasis on horticulture and forestry” was held where Nikshubha bagged the first position, while Preetika and Varnika stood second and ...

As India completes 73 years of independence, agriculture has emerged as a mainstay of the economy. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, Indian agriculture is poised to grow by an estimated 3% in 2020-21. Shaktikanta Das, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has acknowledged that agriculture remains a “beacon of hope” at a time the economy is shrinking.

The government has announced a new agricultural policy that has drawn both supporters and detractors. Farmer protests have broken out in parts of the country. About 50,000 have marched to New Delhi from the agrarian state of Punjab, objecting to the loosening of price, storage and sales regulations that have traditionally shielded India’s farmers from the free market forces

Sonalika Tractors on Tuesday reported a 63 per cent jump in total tractor sales at 13,085 units in November over the period year-ago, driven by domestic demand.

The company had sold 8,042 tractors in November 2019, according to a statement.

“The company recorded 63 per cent overall sales (including exports) in November with 13,085 tractors as compared to 8,042 tractors sold in the same month of last year,” Sonalika Tractors.

Comparing the cereal economy with dairy sector is illogical. Despite their faults, MSP regime and FCI are relevant

There has been a considerable amount of debate and discussion on the new the farm legislation, which has raised concerns over the relevance of the Minimum

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With a huge unregulated livestock sector, India’s antibiotic use in animals is estimated to increase by 82 per cent by 2030

In his 1945 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Alexander Fleming, the developer of Penicillin, had warned, “The time may come when Penicillin (would) be bought by anyone in the shops. There is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug, make them resistant.”

Before we started using antibiotics in the 1940s, a lot of things had the possibility of turning fatal: Right from giving birth, to getting a small scratch, from undergoing a surgery to sexually transmitted infections. Antibiotics helped us stop infections ...

The government has brought Farm Reform Acts with an aim to transform the agriculture sector in the country and enhance farmers’ income. These Acts include Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.

The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 creates an ecosystem where the farmers and traders will enjoy freedom of choice of sale and purchase of agri-produce. It will also promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce outside the physical premises of markets notified under State Agricultural Produce Marketing legislations.

With climate change and reduced water availability affecting major parts of India, an efficient irrigation system is essential for the success of the agriculture sector in India, Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhwat said on Tuesday.

He said agriculture contributes around 14 to 16 per cent of India”s GDP, but it still has a huge potential to play a key role in taking the country to a USD 5 trillion economy.

Addressing a session on ”Role of water and Agrochemicals in envisioning a globally competitive, modern, sustainable & inclusive Indian Agriculture Industry” at the ”9th Agrochemicals Conference” organised by the FICCI, Shekhawat said the government has started working with a profitability-centric approach in the agricultural sector ...

The letter also condemned the “repression” of protesting farmers by tear-gassing and water cannoning them in the bitter cold and accused the BJP-led Centre and state governments in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana of unleashing “unprecedented barbarism” on the peaceful farmers wanting to reach Delhi for the protest. Track the latest updates on the farmers’ protest here The letter was signed by All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), Pragatisheel Mahila Sanghathan (PMS), All India Mahila Sanskritik Sanghatan (AIMSS) and All India Agragami Mahila Samiti (AIAMS).

The Nivar cyclone last week caused extensive damage to crops in over 6.59 lakh hectares in different districts of Andhra Pradesh, state Agriculture Minister K Kanna Babu said on Monday. Initiating a short discussion on agriculture in the Legislative Assembly on the first day of the five-day winter session, he said complete enumeration of the crop losses would be completed by December 15 and input subsidy distributed to affected farmers by December 31. “The Chief Minister conducted a review meeting this morning and directed the authorities to procure even discoloured and sprouted paddy and rescue the farmers. The Agriculture Department and allied departments are working on that,” Kanna Babu said. “There have been bountiful rains this ...

The Centre’s scheme to convert rural haats (village markets) into agricultural markets, which was meant to help small and marginal farmers who cannot access the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) markets, is now in cold storage.

Not a single haat has been converted or developed into an agricultural market under the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious project to upgrade 22,000 rural markets across the country as outlined in the 2018-19 national budget.

This information, revealed by documents obtained by The Wire under the Right to Information Act, casts doubt upon the claims made by the Centre as well as state governments of providing better agricultural markets to the nation’s farmers.

The number of female farmers surged during the 1940s, as men went off to fight in the World War II.

The Economic Survey 2017-18 says that in modern times, there is an increasing number of women in multiple roles as cultivators, entrepreneurs and labourers. Globally, there is empirical evidence that women have a decisive role in ensuring food security and preserving local agro-biodiversity. The reason being that rural women are responsible for the integrated management and use of diverse natural resources to meet the daily household needs.

In India, though women contribute significantly to farm incomes, they have long been an invisible force. At least 33% of the primary workers on farms are women, says ...

Farmers, mainly from northwest India, continued to blockade Delhi for the fifth day in a row. There is a significant trust deficit between the Centre and farmers’ representatives. It is time for wiser counsel to prevail before something snaps. The government shouldn’t back down from the farm legislations it passed in the last Parliament session. The legislation was hardly radical and promises to boost agriculture. Most states have headed in that direction over the last few years through legislative changes. Therefore, there can be no going back.

The discontent has coalesced into one primary demand, some sort of guarantee over the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism. The government has promised that MSP ...

The tribals of Nagapura, on the outskirts of Nagarahole National Park in Hunsur, will soon vie for a slice of the market for spices and agricultural and horticultural crops cultivated by them, in a move that will shore up their income.

As part of an initiative to empower them financially, the State government has conceived a blueprint to facilitate the marketing and branding of agricultural and horticultural crops, besides spices such as turmeric, ginger, and black pepper cultivated by the tribals.

German drug and agrochemicals major Bayer CropScience on Monday said it has partnered agri-input e-commerce platform BigHaat to enable last mile delivery of its seeds and crop protection products directly to doorsteps of farmers.

The partnership will support farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and focus on paddy, cotton, corn, chilli and horticulture crops, Bayer said in a statement.

Besides access to the entire range of Bayer”s agri-solutions from seed to harvest, farmers can also avail crop-specific agronomic advisory through BigHaat”s Agristore digital platform, it added.

Set up in 2015, BigHaat is one of India”s leading agri-input e-commerce platforms, providing a wide range of quality inputs including seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, nutrients, farm ...

Agriculture is the age-old occupation of India due to it being an Agrarian economy, it is a large contributor (16%) to the Gross Domestic Product of our country. Not just the Agrarian workforce, but similar to a ‘Domino Effect’, multiple other industries like retail, chemicals, e-commerce, widely rely on the output from the Agricultural Sector.

This article talks about the topical ‘Contract Farming’ debate ongoing due to recent reforms initiated by the Indian Government. It aims to provide a holistic outlook on what contract farming is and how it may be beneficial for providing a structure to the Indian Agricultural Landscape. The article also interlinks the structure required with various inputs that technology can bring ...

Consulting firm HexGn and AFC India have joined hands to promote agriculture-related entrepreneurship in India and aim to promote 1,000 agritech start-ups in the country over the next five years. AFC India Ltd (formerly Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd) is a multidisciplinary cross-functional development organisation providing consulting, advisory and implementation support for agriculture, rural development and other strategic socio-economic sectors in India. It is wholly-owned by commercial banks, NABARD and EXIM Bank.

As part of the partnership, HexGn will host a series of programmes and initiatives to increase the capabilities and skills of first-generation technology entrepreneurs in the agri-tech domain, a statement said. AFC, along with HexGn, intends to support, handhold and build a community of entrepreneurs ...