Govt. should announce legally backed minimum procurement price for food crops, says Prakash Kammaradi

Spread the love       The government should announce legally backed minimum procurement price for food crops and the Congress and the BJP, two major political parties contesting the Lok Sabha elections, should make their commitment on the same clear, former Chairman of Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission Prakash Kammaradi said here on Saturday, April 20. Addressing presspersons, he said that there are...

India’s FY24 pulses imports hit 6-year high as red lentil purchases jump

Spread the love       India’s pulses imports in fiscal 2024 surged 84% year-on-year to their highest level in six years after lower production prompted India to allow duty-free imports of red lentils and yellow peas, government and industry officials said on Thursday. Higher imports by India, the world’s biggest importer, producer and consumer of protein-rich pulses, have been supporting global prices...

Innovations in traditional methods revolutionising farming in Rajasthan’s parched Shekhawati

Spread the love       Neat rows of vegetable and fruit plants in a portion of the 4.50-hectare agricultural land, a 3.3-KV solar power panel running pumps and other electrical appliances, slim polyethylene hoses for drip irrigation, and uniformly spaced trees form part of some innovative practices adopted by farmer Bhanwar Lal Meel at Lalasi village in Rajasthan’s Sikar district. Mr. Meel,...

Onion traders cry foul over underpriced exports to UAE

Spread the love       Amid an extended ban on onion exports, farmers and traders are miffed that some shipments allowed by the government to markets like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been sold at a pittance, even as global prices have soared, yielding windfall profits for selected importers. An Indian farmer is being paid just ₹12 to ₹15 rupees for...

Centre aims seven-fold jump in wheat procurement from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar this year

Spread the love       Amid the heat of the ongoing Lok Sabha electioneering, the Centre has announced plans to significantly increase wheat purchase from non-traditional States of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar and set a target of seven-fold jump in procurement to 50 lakh tonnes in the ongoing 2024-25 marketing year. Further, even as the ban on outbound shipments of wheat...

Guaranteed MSP is an ethical imperative

Spread the love      As the general elections draw closer, agrarian concerns have once again taken centre stage. Farmers from the heartland of the Green Revolution have travelled to the border of the capital to not only voice their distress, but also to shape the electoral discourse. The ruling dispensation, sensing adverse electoral implications, attempted to reach out to the farmers. It...

Centre estimates dip in onion, potato production this year

Spread the love      Fruit and vegetable production in the country can touch 355.25 million tonnes (MT) in 2023-24, according to the first advanced estimates of area and production of horticultural crops released by the Union Agriculture Ministry on Thursday. The area of production will be 28.77 million hectares. The final estimates for 2022-23 stand at 355.48 MT in 28.44 million hectares....

Wheat, rapeseed crops ravaged by rain days before harvesting

Spread the love       Untimely rainfall and hailstorms have battered winter-sown crops, including wheat, rapeseed, and chickpeas, delaying harvesting, industry and government officials told Reuters. Adverse weather could limit growth in wheat production and complicate the government’s efforts to build stocks. This year’s wheat harvest is critical for India, the world’s biggest producer of the grain after China. Hot and unseasonably...

Should Minimum Support Price be legalised?

Spread the love      On February 13, groups of farmers began a march to New Delhi, to press for fulfilment of their demands, which include a legal guarantee for purchasing crops at Minimum Support Price (MSP) and India’s withdrawal from the World Trade Organization (WTO) which, they allege, places pressure on the Centre for drafting policies for procurement and MSP. While the...

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