Kashmir News Service – Online

As per Agriculture department  officials, lakhs of  kanals of agriculture land has been converted for commercial and other purposes in Kashmir over the years. The provisions of J&K Land Revenue Act 1996 prohibit the conversion of paddy or vegetable land into any other use. Besides violation of laws, the construction of residential and commercial buildings on agricultural land is violation of the master plan. The High Court had pulled up the state government several times and directed the authorities to ensure that no conversion of agricultural land is allowed for commercial, residential and industrial purposes. Agriculture is the prime source of the state income as around 70 percent of the population is directly or indirectly ...

The Conversation – Online

Global food supply chains proved brittle during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading for calls to boost the resilience of global food supply chains through improved efficiency in production, distribution and consumption of nutritious food. How could technologies like blockchain that provide data to producers, distributors and consumers be part of the solution?

Big data applications may present opportunities to address inefficiencies from farm to table and improve global food security.

Blockchain, a linked decentralized database that stores auditable data throughout entire supply chains, may change the game for food producers across the globe.

Tribune India – Online

Punjab Agricultural University VC Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon laid the foundation stone of an agro-processing centre on the campus. Dr Dhillon said PAU intends to establish a modern Agro Processing Center (APC). Every grain produced must be exposed to all possible avenues for its profitable end use. The loss of even single grain during post-harvest is an offence against the efforts of producers, he said. The farming community must come up with agro based products at production catchment to meet the consumer demand for quality products, he stressed. Dr Dhillon said proposed agro-processing centre will act as a benchmark for the rural youth and progressive farmers of the state. Dr Jaskarn Singh, Director, Extension Education, has ...

The Hindu Business Line – Online

Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director, ITC Ltd, on Sunday said that agriculture and wood-based industry would be important lifelines of the Indian economy, given the challenges of livelihood and job losses.

While agriculture is an integral part of our economy, however, the sector is confronted with several challenges.

“We have serious challenges of sustainability in the sector because India is a water-stressed country. There are also challenges of productivity, farm income and sustainability, but we also have an opportunity because India has the largest arable land in the world. But we have a small share in the global trade in the world, so there is tremendous opportunity,” said Puri at a webinar on ...

The Tribune – Online

Last year, Parliament enacted the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020. It is supposed to empower farmers to get engaged with upgraded value chain partners in a fair, transparent, mutually agreeable and remunerative manner to enhance their income by reducing marketing risks. It is assumed that the private sector will directly enter into contracts with the farmers, ensure better prices, encourage diversification to high value crops and raise farmers’ incomes substantially.

The passage of this Act has generated intensive discussions. The supporters claim that contract farming has been successfully going on since long in Punjab, and this Act will give further fillip to it. Others are of the view ...

The Indian Express – Online

WHILE THE Centre and many economists have claimed that the farm laws will not only help enhance the income of farmers, but also reduce the population dependent on the agriculture sector by migrating them from rural to urban areas, experts on food and agriculture say there is not a single example in the world to support this theory.

They further said that the guaranteed income to farmers for their produce is the only way out of the crisis.

Experts said that the Centre and a large number of economists are mainly offering three solutions to enhance the income of farmers — one, to decrease population depending on agriculture or decrease the number of farmers; second, ...

Bloomberg Quint – Online

Growth in credit to the agriculture sector rose to a four-year high in FY21, according to the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India. This, as a strong monsoon helped the farm sector remain relatively immune from the Covid-19 pandemic and the ecosystem around the farm sector continued to develop. As of February 2021, outstanding credit to agriculture and allied activities grew 10.2% year-on-year to Rs 12.74 lakh crore, almost doubling from the 5.8% year-on-year growth recorded in February 2020, data from the RBI’s monetary policy report published on April 1 showed.