Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Shift to alternative crops: KTR tells farmersedit
Telangana Today – Online
Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K T Rama Rao urged farmers to cultivate alternative crops instead of paddy. Since the Union government had refused to procure common variety of paddy, it was necessary to shift to crops other than paddy from the next Yasangi season, he said. “Farmers can earn more with less work if they cultivate alternative crops such as oil palm, groundnut, sunflower, redgram and others. Public representatives and agriculture officials should motivate farmers to go in for other crops,” Rama Rao said, participating in the 2021-22 Yasangi crop shifting awareness programme in Sircilla on Monday.
Pandemic helps agritechs get bumper fundingedit
Fortune India – Online
Covid-19 seems to have unleashed the potential of agritech start-ups by making farmers aware about the need for technology as they became more open to innovation and digitisation. Between January and August this year, agritech startups in India raised $426 million, across 38 deals, over three times more than the same period last year, according to data from analytics firm Tracxn. They had attracted $127 million in January-August 2020. This includes seed, early and late stage deals. “India’s agriculture sector has shown resilience in the face of the pandemic. It has piqued investor interest. With singular digital access to farmers, significant reforms and exceptional government support, agritech has empowered rural India by increasing income levels ...
Dairy Farming
India must shed obsession with ‘marginal farmers’. Their future lies outside farms — in dairy, poultry, food retailedit
The Indian Express – Online
An average so-called agricultural household earned a total monthly income of Rs 10,218 during 2018-19 (July-June), of which net receipts from crop production (Rs 3,798) and farming of animals (Rs 1,582) together contributed hardly 53 per cent. The single-largest income source was actually wages/salary, at Rs 4,063. The average farmer, in other words, was more a wage labourer than a seller of produce from his/her land. Out of the country’s estimated 93.09 million agricultural households, over 70 per cent possessed less than one hectare land. It shouldn’t surprise, then, that wages generate up to 60 per cent of their incomes. But the share of agriculture — crop production plus animal husbandry — to total ...
Technology in Agriculture
Big Tech forays into India’s impoverished farms. Will it help?edit
Hindustan Times – Online
Global tech giants and homegrown start-ups have set their sights deep into India’s impoverished farm economy. They believe the sector can offer opportunities worth billions at a time when the Modi government is wagering big on private investment to transform the country’s agriculture sector. This technology thrust however runs parallel to year-long protests by farmers’ groups against a move to liberalise the agriculture sector through three federal laws. The farmers allege the laws will expose them to exploitation by big corporations and gradually wean them off long-standing state support. Nearly half the population depends on farm incomes. The agriculture ministry last week signed a slew of agreements with tech firms, including with three American giants, ...
Vice President calls for modernising agriculture to boost farmers’ incomeedit
Hindustan Times – Online
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has called for modernisation of agriculture to boost rural economy. Speaking at an event in Gurugram on Sunday, Naidu said, “Building on our past experiences, we must regularly revisit and renew our strategies on agriculture and rural development and introduce new technologies as part of our efforts to build a self-reliant India.” He said agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy and the country cannot progress if the villages remain underdeveloped. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58% of India’s population, according to a report by IBEF.
Big Data roped in to transform India’s agricultureedit
Money Control – Online
A project has been launched in which data dealing with every aspect of farming and reaching the produce to the consumers will be collected and put together, analysed, patterns drawn and lessons learnt. After using big data to take the industrial and services sectors forward, the government has now set out on a similar long journey to transform its agricultural sector – the entire space between farm and fork. And it is doing this the way it knows best, by using the expertise available with the corporate sector.
Govt. Policies
PMFBY: Why Farmers Are Unhappy With PM Fasal Bima Yojanaedit
Krishi Jagran – Online
Despite the fact that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has been implemented across the country since 2016-17, farmers in Kodagu, Karnataka are not happy about it. In the district, perennial crops are prioritized. In addition to paddy cultivation, the producers rely on coffee, cardamom, and pepper for livelihood. Maize is produced by farmers in Kushalnagar, Koodige, Hebbale, Aluru-Siddapura, and Shirangala. The PMFBY only applies to paddy and maize. As a result, the plan does not provide much benefit to the farmers. Also many people are unwilling to pay the insurance premium after assessing the loss and profit.
Monsoon + Indian Agriculture
Volatile weather may hit pulses yield, drag kharif output downedit
Financial Express – Online
Even though the government is confident of having another record year of Kharif foodgrain on the back of higher acreage under pulses, there could be a decline in the production of pulses. Farmers in Madhya Pradesh are battling a dry weather while surplus rains in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Karnataka during the first fortnight of this month have inundated fields in many areas, potentially lowering yields. Foodgrain production may cross 150 million tonne (MT) in the kharif season of 2021-22 crop year (July-June) due to good rains, agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal had said on September 13. The country’s kharif foodgrain output was recorded 149.56 MT last year comprising 140.87 MT of rice and other cereals and ...
Stubble Burning
On air pollution, Indian cities must do moreedit
Hindustan Times – Online
In 2019, the government launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which mandates designing and implementing city-specific air pollution mitigation action plans. However, a 2020 Council on Energy, Environment and Water and Urban Emissions analysis of 102 city plans on legal frameworks, sectoral reduction targets, the cost-effectiveness of proposed measures, and a delineation of responsibilities among implementing agencies, identified several problems. City-level clean air plans stand as a collection of measures without specified goals, and apart from Delhi, no other plan has a legal mandate for implementation. Moreover, many plans did not have timelines; none had a regional coordination mechanism; and over 40% of the points listed fall under the purview of multiple agencies. Clean ...
Centre yet to give time for meeting on stubble burning, bio-decomposer: Raiedit
Business Standard – Online
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Monday said his central counterpart is yet to give time for a meeting on the use of Pusa bio-decomposer, a microbial solution to turn stubble into manure, in states surrounding the capital and other pollution-related issues. The Delhi government has been pressing the Centre to direct states to use the solution to decompose crop residue and prevent stubble burning which is one of the major reasons behind high levels of air pollution in the capital in October-November.
Tractor industry
VST Tillers Tractors launches new power tiller and range of brush cuttersedit
Business Standard – Online
VST Tillers Tractors has launched a new power tiller – VST 95 DI Ignito on 17 September 2021 for the domestic market. The company also launched brush cutters – VST 226 LD, VST 234 MD, and VST 242 HD on 17 September 2021 for the domestic market. VST has launched these products for the benefit of the farming community after encouraging results from the extensive field trials. The 95 DI Ignito Power Tiller is particularly suitable for applications like bund formation, earthing up & de-weeding and puddling.