Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Pokkali farming: Paddy farmers at Chellanam fighting for survivaledit
The Times Of India – Online
For a handful of paddy farmers in Chellanam panchayat, the future of their vocation looks rather bleak. The area is famous for its pokkali farming where the crop alternates between rice and shrimp. However, with the saltwater intrusion into their farmlands, these paddy farmers have to go through an annual fight with the fish farming groups that control the management of the Maruvakkad padashekaram here. Every year, these few farmers led by the pokkali samrakshana samithi run from pillar to post seeking district administration’s help in getting the land released for paddy cultivation.
K’taka govt aims to double farmers’ income: CMedit
Hindustan Times – Online
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said that the state government will form two committees and a second directorate for agriculture to supplement efforts in fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of doubling farmers’ income. The Karnataka government has set itself a deadline between 2023-24 to achieve this feat by implementing the new changes and schemes. “Karnataka is taking a lot of interest in this and wants to be the first to achieve doubling farmers’ income,” Bommai said. He added that the state will set up two committees, one involving farmers, and the other with the help of agricultural universities to help implement the programmes.
Dams and Indian Agriculture
See agri growth in 2.5-3.5% range but reservoir levels remain a key monitorable: CRISILedit
CNBC TV18 – Online
The Indian monsoon has turned out to be less than normal as we know the cumulative rainfall from June to August has seen a deficiency of 9 percent on an all India basis, but several states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Kerala, and Odisha are hugely deficient, according to the IMD. To discuss the impact that this would have on the economy, CNBC-TV18 spoke to DK Joshi, chief economist at CRISIL. According to Joshi, though the cumulative deficiency is 9 percent, that doesn’t necessarily mean that agriculture is going to be hit.
Technology in Agriculture
Agritech robotics startup TartanSense raises $5 mn in Series-A fundingedit
Business Standard – Online
Agritech robotics startup TartanSense has raised $5 million in Series A funding in a round led by FMC Ventures and Omnivore, with participation from existing investor Blume Ventures. This brings the total funds raised by the company to $7 million, after it raised $2 million in a seed round in March 2019. TartanSense builds small agricultural robots, equipped with AI-assisted computer vision, to help small farms reduce expenses and improve incomes.
Monsoon + Indian Agriculture
India sees deficient rainfall; experts assess impact on agri outputedit
CNBC TV18 – Online
Rainfall has been below normal this year. The all-India deficiency is 9 percent but that is only on an average basis. States like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Kerala, and Odisha have been classified as deficient in the range of 29 percent to 59 percent. Even more worrying is that the monsoon is weakening in the month of August, which is a very crucial month in terms of water requirement for the crops. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), for Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the deficiency is almost 100 percent while for states like Kerala, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, West UP, Chattishgarh, MP, Odisha, the deficiency ranges from minus 30 percent to minus 60 percent. ...
Stubble Burning
UPL’s nurture.farm introduces new sustainable agriculture measureedit
Business Standard – Online
To provide PUSA decomposer spray services to end stubble burning practices. nurture.farm, an integrated technology-led solutions provider for sustainable agriculture globally and a part of the OpenAg network of UPL, today announced their program to end stubble burning practices in the states of Punjab and Haryana by replacing the matchstick with a spray service for the PUSA decomposer, a bioenzyme developed by the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI). It decomposes the stubble within 20-25 days after spraying and turns it into manure, further improving the soil quality. The company has signed up over 5,00,000 acres in this program and onboarded more than 25,000 farmers who will be availing this sustainable agriculture practice free of cost.
Stubble burning cases to be dropped: CM Yogi Adityanathedit
The Indian Express – Online
Calling it a major relief to the farmers, the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday announced to withdraw the cases filed against farmers due to the stubble burning and waived the fine imposed on them. Making the announcement following his interaction with farmers, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also instructed officials not to disconnect the power supply to a “single farmer” due to arrears in their electricity bills. The chief minister said that a one-time settlement scheme will be introduced for farmers so that they do not have to pay interest or penalty on the pending electricity bills. “The government will withdraw the cases registered against the farmers due to stubble burning and the decision will ...