Krishi Jagran – Online

Minister Amit Shah has urged that the Agricultural and Rural Development Banks (ARDBs) offer additional long-term loans to the agriculture sector. This involves funding infrastructure and irrigation projects. On Saturday, he stated that cooperative banks should concentrate on providing loans to expand the nation’s irrigated land. According to PTI, Shah stated at a national conference that the minister asked cooperative banks to consider how to manage such small farm fields with a cooperative spirit to overcome the difficulties faced by small farm holdings. “If we look back and observe the last 90 years’ journey of long-term financing through cooperatives and how it has percolated down if you check the facts, it has not grown,” Shah ...

The Indian Express – Online

THE INTRODUCTION of drones in the agriculture sector is a watershed moment for the sector, said Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer of Agri input giant Syngenta India. Interacting with The Indian Express, Sheikh said this technology would help the sector leapfrog into advanced models. Last year, the Centre allowed the usage of drones for spraying agri inputs such as pesticides, and fertilizers in the agriculture sector after prior permission from the authorities. Agri input companies have started the work of registering individual molecules which would be sprayed using drone. Maharashtra government has also announced a special subsidy for village level entrepreneurs to buy drones. Susheel Kumar, country head and managing director of ...