Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Change in social contract between farmers and Centre is fuelling distrust, says IIM-A professoredit
Scroll – Online
“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.
Smart irrigation: How IoT-driven precision agriculture helps feed the emerging economiesedit
Dataquest – Online
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, ...
Decades of farm income crisis await policy makeoveredit
Nagaland Post – Online
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.
ICAR bags global award from FAO for creating awareness about soil healthedit
The Economic Times – Online
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.
Why A Platform Approach Is Critical To Drive Scale Of Innovations In Agricultural Supply Chain?edit
Inc42 – Online
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 ...
How an Advice Hotline Is Making Farmers in India More Productiveedit
Kellog Insight – Online
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 ...
Dairy Farming
Heritage share price might have been rigged on the bourses: Jaganedit
The Hindu – Online
Asserting that the partnership with Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) will make dairy farming a profitable business for nearly 30 lakh women, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has accused his predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu of killing cooperative dairies in the State to benefit private ones such as Sangam, Visakha and Jersey and his own Heritage Dairy.
He said the consistency with which Heritage shares traded at high prices whenever Mr. Naidu was in power made one wonder if his company, which flourished at the cost of Chittoor dairy and many small milk unions, resorted to rigging on the stock exchanges.
Monsoon + Indian Agriculture
Reducing Role of Monsoon in Farming is Important for Agrochemicals Growth: Pradip Dave, President, PMFAIedit
Krishi Jagran – Online
According to the Department of Chemicals & Fertilizers, fertilizer sales in April this year was 2.06 million tonnes, as against 1.42 million tonnes in the last April while the sale of urea grew by 36.2 percent in that month over the corresponding month last year. The rabi harvest this year also put up a good show – major states harvested 80 to 90 percent of wheat crop while paddy sowing increased by 27 percent riding on the hope of an adequate monsoon. The ‘above normal’ monsoon this year will ensure that rabi crops do not face a scarcity of water. Together, this looks like a good year for the agrochemical sector, but it also underlines the heavy ...