Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Farmer training camp organized in Ghanauliedit
Jagran – Online
Agriculture Department, District Rupnagar organized a training camp in Gurdwara Patshahi IX Ghanauli to make farmers of Ghanauli and surrounding villages aware of agriculture. Agriculture Officer Amrik Singh, Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Balwinder Kumar Agriculture Extension Officer and Harswaraj Singh Atma Scheme ATM participated during the camp. On this occasion, he made the farmers aware about the modern equipment used for agriculture, good manure, good quality seeds and yellow pudding and other diseases associated with wheat crop. He also appealed to the farmers not to set the stubble on fire. Farmer leaders Parvidar Singh Alipur, Labh Singh, former GM Punjab Roadways, Gurcharan Singh, Avtar Singh, Bhupidar Singh, Balli Alipore, Bachitar Singh and Avtar Singh Tara were present ...
Using the power and reach of social media to expand farmers’ marketsedit
CNBC TV18 – Online
The biggest benefit will come from the data that HFN collects and analyses. It will help farmers get cheaper and faster loans, insurance, quality inputs. HFN will also offer farmers’ agronomic advisory. According to Ruchit, COVID has definitely pushed farmers to adopt technology much quicker and faster than what they otherwise would have done. Even customers were adopting to technology. Mobile internet penetration and COVID have definitely helped the agriculture sector, says Ruchit and adds that the benefits to both sellers and buyers are only bound to increase.
With supportive schemes in place, farmers can reap benefits of corporate farming, writes Bhavdeep Kangedit
Free Press Journal – Online
Corporate farming, a term frequently heard in connection with the ongoing farmers’ agitation, has negative connotations and rightly so, in some cases. It conjures a vision of agriculture held hostage by big food companies, vertically and horizontally integrated from ‘farm’ to ‘fork’. In this scenario, farmers are either dispossessed or cruelly exploited by giant corporations. Will India’s contract farming law (Farmers Empowerment and Protection Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020) lead to such a scenario? Will it allow corporates undue influence over agriculture? Like most initiatives, if properly implemented, it has great potential for good but if abused, can result in oppressive practices and environmental degradation.
Only 4% of $3 bn spend targets sustainable agriedit
Fortune – Online
India spends $3 billion annually on agricultural innovation but only 4% of that is targeted towards innovations that have explicit environment and social sustainability objectives, a study conducted by consulting firm Dalberg Advisors on behalf of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification (CoSAI) has found. The study, released on October 5, says about 75 per cent of the overall $3 billion is public funding, with Union Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare accounting for more than half of the spending. State governments and other ministries contribute the other 50%. Almost all public investment is directed towards research institutes (50%) or government agencies (50%). Institutional investors contribute $500-600 million and OECD bilateral/multilateral investors about $60 million annually ...
Technology in Agriculture
The Rise of the Dronesedit
Business Today – Online
It’s no surprise, then, that the Indian government chose drones to help achieve its ambition of creating a comprehensive e-property ledger under the Svamitva (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) scheme launched in April 2020. The government plans to use thousands of drones to map roughly 660,000 villages between 2020 and 2024. That has given India’s drone industry a massive boost. It’s also an opportunity to correct a lopsided market. Until recently, homeland security accounted for nearly 70 per cent of the Indian market, according to industry sources. The rest was allowed for civil use only after exceptions by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s civil aviation regulator. ...
Govt. Policies
Book tractor, rotavator or tiller from mobile app, you can rent farming machinesedit
News18 Hindi – Online
Today agriculture cannot be imagined without machines. But buying farming equipment and machinery is also not a matter of every farmer. So there is no need to worry. You can hire machines according to the farming work. In this time of technology, you can also do the work of renting agricultural machinery from your mobile phone. Apart from this, if you have machines and machines, then you can also rent your machinery by joining this app. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India has prepared such a mobile app, through which you can get all the latest information related to farming and farm machinery like tractors, tillers, rotavators, etc. can take over. ...
Paddy in India
Govt procures 287,000 tonnes paddy; maximum from Punjab, Haryanaedit
Business Standard – Online
The government has procured 2.87 lakh tonnes of paddy so far in the first few days of the commencement of 2021-22 kharif marketing season, with maximum quantity purchased from Punjab and Haryana, the Union Food Ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry had to reschedule paddy procurement from October 3 in Punjab and Haryana due to farmers’ protest. Earlier, the procurement was postponed in these two agrarian states till October 11 in view of high moisture content in paddy crop because of unseasonal rains. “A quantity of 2,87,552 tonnes of paddy has been procured up to October 5 in 2021-22 kharif marketing season, benefiting 29,907 farmers with MSP value of Rs 563.60 crore,” the ministry said ...
Stubble Burning
Air pollution: Frame a joint responseedit
Hindustan Times – Online
The Centre and Delhi government have assured citizens that they are taking measures to tackle winter pollution. On October 5, Union environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, said that mitigation measures to control stubble burning started in July. A day earlier, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a 10-point winter action plan, including paddy straw burning and control through the Pusa Bio Decomposer, which helps the paddy stubble decompose quickly, eliminating the need for farmers to set fire to their fields after harvest. However, Mr Kejriwal added that while his government has appealed to the Centre to ensure that states use the decomposer, the Centre’s response has been tepid.
Delhi’s air quality to remain ‘severe’ from Nov 1 to 15 due to stubble burning, festival seasonedit
Times Now News – Online
Ahead of the winter season, an analysis of the Delhi government has said that the air pollution in the national capital will be at its peak between November 1 and November 15. The analysis, conducted by the Delhi government’s environment department has revealed that average PM2.5 levels between November 1 and 15 touched 285ug/m3, categorised as “severe” under regulations of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). Senior Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) officials said that in the first two weeks of November, the air in the national capital will be severely polluted due to the farm fires in Punjab and Haryana. Along with stubble burning, smoke from bursting crackers amid Diwali and unfavourable wind ...
Punjab witnesses substantial dip in stubble burning casesedit
The Times Of India – Online
The state of Punjab has witnessed a substansial dip in stubble burning cases, which has elated climate and health experts as it has a adverse effect on both. According to latest data, only 320 crop burning incidents were reported till October 6 this year, as compared to 1,533 cases reported last year during the same period. According to the data, the first crop burning case this year was reported on September 16, while 42 cases were reported on Wednesday. The maximum number of cases have been reported on September 29, when 64 incidents were recorded.
Punjab, Haryana farmers have begun burning crop stubble, show NASA satellite imagesedit
First Post – Online
Air pollution concerns have resurfaced in northern India, which typically is smothered by a blanket of smog that throws life out of gear in the winter, as farmers resume burning crop residue after harvesting the crop in Punjab and Haryana. Satellite images from the US space agency Nasa show that farmers have already begun burning crop stubble in parts of the two northern states that’s blamed for the winter-time phenomenon that holds up flights and trains and reduces road traffic to a crawl. Data from the agency’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), a key instrument on board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite, shows a gradual jump in detection of fires in farmlands ...