Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Our farm income and nutrition challenge amid climate changeedit
Mint – Online
The Green Revolution that once helped India overcome a food crisis is reaching its limits. Its impact in rain-fed areas remains marginal. Even in irrigated areas, a typical farmer now uses 3.5 times more fertilizer than in 1970 to get the same output. Ironically, as much as 78% of this fertilizer is lost to the environment, causing soil, air and water pollution. Consequently, income growth in agriculture is the slowest among all sectors of India’s economy. Further, while input-intensive agriculture has made us calorie-secure, about 22% of adults are underweight and 38% and 59% of children under the age of five are stunted and anaemic.
Monsoon + Indian Agriculture
Kerala: Paddy farmers in trouble due to procurement delay, heavy rainsedit
The Times Of India – Online
Paddy farmers are in ruins due to the delay in procuring paddy and heavy rain of the last few weeks on the eve of harvesting. Though 50% paddy harvesting was over in the district, Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) have procured just 2,212 metric tons of paddy so far. This has forced farmers to sell paddy to private rice mills in the open market at less than Rs 10 per kg of the support price fixed by the state under the paddy procurement scheme. Supplyco procured paddy at a support price of Rs 28.72 per kg but, in the open market, the price is only Rs 16 to Rs 17 per kg.
Bearing brunt of rain, farmers in coastal Bengal stare at uncertain futureedit
Hindustan Times – Online
In May, after a very severe cyclone Yaas ravaged the coastal districts of West Bengal, 48-year-old Abani Mondol saw a glimmer of hope. Even though saline water from the rivers had gushed into his farmlands, the state government came to his help providing some varieties of paddy which were salt tolerant. Four months down the line, Mondol is again staring at an uncertain future. The extremely heavy and erratic spells of rainfall this monsoon in July and September killed all the salt-tolerant paddy crops which he was banking upon.
Stubble Burning
Measures in place to curb stubble burning, won’t let pollution increase: Khattaredit
Mint – Online
With the onset of winter, Haryana government is taking measures to check instances of stubble burning in the state, assured Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Incentives are being provided to farmers and industries too are coming forward to buy stubble this time, the Chief Minister stated, adding that air pollution will not be allowed to increase. “We have asked industries to use stubble for ethanol, energy production. This time there are fewer cases of stubble burning. At some places those who are doing it, we are taking strict action against them,” Khattar stated on Sunday.
Delhi’s air quality slips to ‘very poor’ category; stubble burning contributes 14% to polluted airedit
India Today – Online
Air quality in Delhi slipped to “very poor” category on Saturday with a steep rise in stubble burning in the last two days contributing to 14 per cent in the city’s deteriorating air, authorities said. According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ forecast body SAFAR, Delhi’s AQI slipped to a very poor category with PM 2.5 as the lead pollutant. “Favourable meteorological conditions lead to intrusion of stubble burning related air mass. With 1,572 effective fire counts as per SAFAR harmonised methodology which includes data of two ISRO satellites, the stubble burning contribution in Delhi’s air has suddenly increased to 14 per cent.