Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
FMC Corporation Ropes In Ravi Annavarapu as President Of Its India Businessedit
BW People – Online
FMC Corporation today announced the appointment of Ravi Annavarapu as the new president of FMC India, effective July 1, 2021. Annavarapu will be responsible for the company’s business strategy and performance in India. He will succeed Pramod Thota, who is taking on the role of president of FMC U.S.A. Annavarapu will report to Bethwyn Todd, FMC vice president and president of FMC Asia Pacific. “Ravi is a proven team leader with an in-depth knowledge of the crop protection industry and has a strong understanding of the local market and customer needs,” said Todd. “I am confident that under Ravi’s leadership, FMC will continue to serve India’s agriculture sector by bringing innovative technologies, developed through localized ...
Telangana sets new record in paddy procurement in Kharif-Rabi seasonsedit
Deccan Chronicle – Online
The Telangana state government said it had set a new record by directly purchasing the highest-ever 1.4 crore metric tonnes (MT) of paddy from farmers in the recent kharif and rabi seasons. The rabi procurement season for the year has just concluded. The food grain purchases by the state have increased by 576 per cent in the seven years since the formation of Telangana state in June 2014, the government said. TS Civil Supplies Corporation (TSCSC) chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy released the details of kharif and rabi procurement for the season. At a media briefing, Reddy said the largescale irrigation facilities created by the government like the Kaleshwaram project, the TRS government’s schemes like Rythu ...
‘Reduce paddy, save Pb’ campaign propagates permaculture to save groundwateredit
The Times Of India – Online
Launching Agriculture and Environment Centre (AEC), a group of Sikh activists have taken the initiative to carry out ‘jal chetna yatra’ (water awareness march) under ‘jhona ghatao Punjab bachao’ (reduce paddy, save Punjab) from June 7 to motivate people not only to reduce area under paddy and diversify, but also to turn to agro-forestry and planting small forests of traditional trees in parts of their lands to increase the forest cover in the state.
How Indo-Israel Centers of Excellence in Agriculture Promise to Change Face of Farming in Indiaedit
Krishi Jagran – Online
June 16, 2021 was a beautiful day for the state of Karnataka, as the Union Minister for Agriculture, Narendra Singh Tomar, unveiled three Centers of Excellence in the state. Out of the three centers, one is located in Kolar for mangoes, the second one is located in Bagalkot for pomegranates, and the third one is located in Dharwad for vegetables. The inaugural ceremony also saw the esteemed presence of Chief Minister of Karnataka B. S. Yediyurappa and Deputy Chief Ministers Govid M. Karjol, along with Horticulture Minister N. Shankar through video conferencing.
Santals of Bengal Go Back to Their Roots, Champion Agriculture that Nurtures Ecosystemsedit
News18 – Online
Rabindranath Tagore held the Santal tribes in special regard for their unique way of life in which they combined farming with poetry, music and dance. Spread all across rural West Bengal, the Santals often own tiny pieces of land but largely work as daily wage labourers in rice fields. In one of their old traditional songs, ‘Har har dharti rima baha bagan; Baha bagan rima hunar Baha’, the Santalis celebrate the green earth teeming with incredible diversity. But with the widespread adoption of modern agricultural practices, often wasteful and harmful, much of this biodiversity got lost.
Budget
Tamil Nadu announces Rs 61.09 crore paddy cultivation package for farmersedit
The Economic Times – Online
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday announced a Rs 61.09 crore Kuruvai paddy cultivation package for more than two lakh delta farmers aiming to bring additional area under this short-term crop. The scheme, benefitting 2,07,259 farmers of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai and Thiruvarur districts besides those in Cuddalore, Ariyalur and Tiruchirappalli districts, will enhance the acreage beyond the targeted 3.5 lakh acres this season.
Competition
M&M Chief of design Ramkripa Ananthan quitsedit
ET Auto – Online
Ramkripa Ananthan has ended her over two-decade stint with Mahindra & Mahindra as chief of design for the automotive sector, the company informed its employees in a notification. Her resignation follows a major exodus of senior and mid level executives who quit the company. Recently Hindu Businessline and Business today reported that in a major restructuring exercise, Mahindra Group has let off around 300 senior-level executives in the Automotive and Farm Equipment divisions.
Mahindra launches new range of rice transplanters for Telangana farmersedit
Telengana Today – Online
Mahindra & Mahindra’s Farm Equipment Sector, part of the $19.4 billion Mahindra Group and the world’s largest manufacturer of tractors by volumes, launched a new range of rice transplanters in Telangana. A rice transplanter is a specialised machine to transplant paddy seedlings into paddy fields, to ensure uniform transplanting, which helps to increase yield, labour and time saving as compared to manual transplanting. The new technology can help farmers overcome issues related to labour shortage especially during these difficult times.
Dairy Farming
Covid crash: Why rural Maharashtra’s dairy farmers are out on the roadsedit
News Laundry – Online
Earlier, dairy farmers would get Rs 35 on average for a litre of milk. This dropped to Rs 20 during the lockdown. In May, when the pandemic was at its peak, the rate per litre dropped further to Rs 18. In contrast, dairy farmers spend on average Rs 29 to produce one litre of milk. With no scheme to cap the price of milk, dairy farmers in the state are bearing the brunt of this loss of income by selling their cows and taking loans. The frustration has culminated in a statewide protest scheduled for today, where thousands of farmers are expected to participate.
Technology in Agriculture
It all starts with the right Seeds: Sanjiv Lal, MD & CEO, Rallis India Ltd.edit
Krishi Jagran – Online
Despite the big strides we have taken in terms of mechanisation and large-scale application of technology, agriculture as a source of livelihood remains a high-risk gamble for millions of Indian farmers. Farm output in India (as in the rest of the world) depends on a whole range of variables such as quality of land, vagaries of monsoon, access to technology, capital and markets including exports and quality of farm inputs including seeds, irrigation, nutrients and fertilizers.
Agritech startup Gramophone more than doubles its revenue in a pandemic yearedit
The Economic Times – Online
Annual revenue of agritech startup Gramophone more than doubled in a pandemic year as output of the “essential” agriculture sector surged. The coronavirus outbreak halted all but essential goods and services during the early months of 2020. That the pandemic last year was limited to only urban centres also served as a fillip to the rural economy. This reflected in the GDP data of last year, as agriculture was the only sector that recorded growth.
Monsoon + Indian Agriculture
Deficit rainfall in April, May hits cotton cultivation in Mysuruedit
The Times Of India – Online
Deficit rainfall in the pre-monsoon season – April and May – has had a devastating impact on the cultivation of cotton, which is one of the primary commercial crops in Mysuru, in the district. While the commercial crop is generally cultivated across around 47,000 hectares in Mysuru district, this number dropped by more than half in 2021, with farmers sowing cotton only across 25,340 hectares. In Mysuru, sowing activity for kharif season picks up pace in April, and pre-monsoon showers provide a much-needed fillip for farmers.
Stubble Burning
Household heating, cooking was 40% of Delhi’s PM 2.5 pollution in Dec, Janedit
Business Standard – Online
According to the study, a relatively longer stubble-burning period and unfavourable meteorological conditions were primarily responsible for Delhi’s worsening air quality in winters last year. It also said that emissions from 11 coal-fired power plants in the National Capital Region accounted for just seven per cent to the Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution on an average between October 2020 and January 2021, while vehicles contributed 14 per cent.
UP Village heads to be trained in Stubble Managementedit
Lokmat – Online
The UP government plans to train newly elected village pradhans in stubble management. State Chief Secretary, Rajendra Kumar Tiwari has directed officials to make all necessary preparations to stop the repeated incidents of stubble burning by farmers in the state, with special focus on areas where maximum cases were reported last year.