Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Watch | Is COP26, Climate Change and 1.5°C Target Possible Without Improving Agriculture?edit
The Wire – Online
This episode of ‘Krishi Ki Baat’ brings two experts environmentalist Vandana Shiva and former foreign secretary and Indian COP negotiator Shyam Saran to comment on the developments at COP26. As the dust settles on the COP26 resolutions signed at Glasgow. This episode of ‘Krishi Ki Baat’ brings two experts environmentalist Vandana Shiva and former foreign secretary and Indian COP negotiator Shyam Saran to comment on these developments. Saran sets the tone of the discussion by explaining COP26 and what it means for us. Then Vandana Shiva links COP26 to opportunities missed in agriculture and also discusses the threats.
Supporting agriculture the smart wayedit
Financial Express – Online
Several countries, especially the G-20, support their agriculture. Research evidence tells us that the best way to support agriculture in a sustainable and competitive manner is to invest in agri-R&D, agricultural-extension systems, and connect farmers to lucrative markets, domestic and external, by building efficient value-chains. Giving farmers their right to choose best technologies and best markets is fundamental to robust functioning of agri-systems and augmenting farmers’ incomes. But in a democratic system, policies are not always framed on scientific basis. They are often influenced by various lobbies, including politicians who, at election times, offer freebies like free electricity, farm loan waivers as ‘doles for votes’. This short-sightedness results in sub-optimal or even irrational policy ...
Paddy in India
Traditional paddy varieties save farmeredit
The New Indian Express – Online
His crops stand proud and tall —over seven feet high. And yes, it escaped inundation caused by the monsoon rains. At the time when farmers across the delta districts were struggling to salvage their crops, this 55-year-old humble cultivator from Melanallur village in Mayiladuthurai district has managed to beat all odds. Data records that over 5,000 hectares in Mayiladuthurai were submerged in the heavy rains during the last month. However, G Jayakumar’s crops stand seven feet tall. The secret to it, he shares, is cultivating traditional varieties like Kichadi Samba, Mappilai Samba and Karuppukavani through organic methods. It grows twice as fast as hybrid and lab-made varieties, he claims. The survival also ...
Paddy sale above fixed yield: 30K farmer accounts under lens in Punjabedit
Hindustan Times – Online
Around 30,000 farmers’ accounts in Punjab are under the scanner of the food and civil supplies for purportedly booking paddy for sale to the state’s procurement agencies higher than the average per acre yield of 34 quintal fixed by the department. The kharif (paddy) procurement ended on November 30, and after that the state’s four procurement agencies — Pungrain, Punsup, Markfed and warehousing corporation — besides the food department and Mandi board, which manages the grain market operations, are busy settling the accounts. For the first time in the state, paddy stocks were procured by fixing the per acre yield, as the Centre has made it mandatory to link crop payment with land records. Initially, ...
Blight-resistant paddy a rage among farmersedit
The Times of India – Online
RNR 15048, a fine-grain blast resistant paddy variety, which was introduced by the Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad, through Chamarajanagar Krishi Vignan Kendra(KVK), has become popular among rice cultivators in Chamarajanagar, given its good yield. Paddy growers of the region often used to suffer losses in recent years, due to perennial blast disease in both the kharif and rabi seasons, from cultivating other varieties of paddy, but this year, over hundreds of farmers in Chamarajanagar district, who have been growing the RNR 15048 rice, are cheering, due to a bumper crop, despite adverse climate like heavy rain, that lashed the district in the last few months. Chamarajanagar KVK has introduced this variety ...