The betel farmers of West Bengal were reeling financial distress propelled by the nationwide novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown, when super cyclone Amphan struck and made matters worse for them. West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district is well-known for betel plantation, a highly specialised commercial cropping activity. Betel farmers put in considerable efforts to adopt a suitable layout as well as financial resources, for betel plants are sensitive to soil and climatic conditions. The tropical plant requires proper maintenance of soil moisture, of soil aeration as well as sufficient humidity. These
Month: June 2020
Data | Market arrivals dip, procurement delays: How COVID-19 impacted agriculture
After the lockdown was imposed, the price of wheat dropped below the Minimum Support Price level which means that farmers were forced to sell at low prices Due to the stringent lockdown, the quantity of agricultural produce arriving in markets reduced substantially. This combined with delayed and poor procurement of farm produce forced farmers to sell at cheaper prices than expected. Both market arrivals and prices have seen a revival lately, but are still a far cry from the pre-lockdown levels.Out of the marketThe chart depicts the daily market arrivals of 302 farm products into 2,938 Indian markets in 2018 (represented by the green line), 2019 (represented by the blue line) and 2020 (represented by the red line). Market arrivals
MSP for agri crops higher than global, market price; need to find viable solution: Gadkari
He said that the country has surplus rice and wheat and there is a problem of storage of these grains. The government’s minimum support prices for agriculture crops are way higher then domestic market prices and international rates, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday as he stressed on finding alternative solutions before an “economic crisis” is created. While the government fixes the rate, called minimum support price or MSP, at which it buys crops such as wheat and paddy from farmers, it also provides a subsidy to help export sugar.“The most important problem in this sector is that (among) the international price for agriculture commodities and the market price and the MSP, there is a vast difference. Now
Move to ban 27 pesticides opposed
Proposed ban will hike costs for Indian farmers, lead to export losses, says association of pesticide manufacturers. In its battle against an ongoing locust invasion in western India, the Agriculture Ministry is now using some of the very same pesticides that it proposed to ban in a draft notification last month, pesticide manufacturers said here. They have appealed to the Centre to drop plans of the ban.Also read: India reaches out to Pakistan to fight locustsIf the Centre did not heed their plea, they said they would to go to court against the proposed ban of 27 major pesticides, which they claim would increase prices four-fold for Indian farmers, and result in business losses worth ₹16,000 crore in the
Farmers are strong, not vulnerable; they need to be given choices, says Agriculture Secretary
Option for direct marketing during the lockdown period has reduced government procurement of wheat in some States, says Agriculture Secretary. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to at least 12 States allowing direct marketing of agriculture produce, which offered greater options to farmers during the lockdown, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal says. The two new ordinances pushing agricultural marketing reform will widen choices for small farmers, he adds.Despite the lockdown, this year’s wheat harvest hit record highs, and government procurement at minimum support prices (MSP) is also higher than last year. However, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have fallen short of procurement targets. What is the reason?I was looking at a video of ITC. This year, because direct marketing was
Organic livestock farming: A revolution in the making
Ensuring a profound balance in the functionalities between the organic suppliers and the global market might just turn out to be most influential revolution the human race has ever encountered According to a recent report by organic giants FiBL and IFOAM-Organic Internationals, 186 countries of the world today are involved in organic activities. In fact, organic farmland now covers an area of more than 71.5 million hectares. This increase definitely suggests that the farmers are no longer unaware of the benefits offered by organic farming. They are
Locust attack: 40 of MP’s 55 districts hit
Temporary control camps, continuous spray of insecticides are among measures taken to control locust attack The desert locusts have spread in at least 40 of Madhya Pradesh’s 55 districts — nearly a week after they entered the state in end-May 2020. They invaded some parts of Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district as well on May 31, creating a scare among local authorities, according to officials. The Food and Agricultural Organisation had warned of their eastward spread owing to strong winds in the wake of Cyclone Amphan. “A locust swarm entered
Natural rubber sector on a sticky wicket
The market recovery of India’s natural rubber sector will fully depend on how the economy is going to rebound in the next three quarters, according to the Rubber Board.‘The market situation is very fluid now with consumption of natural rubber falling drastically. The price and market recovery of the commodity rely on how quickly the market is going to rebound, which any way is going to take next say 3 quarters,” Rubber Board executive director K.N. Raghavan told The Hindu. The total requirement of domestic tyre manufacturers for natural rubber is expected to fall to 9 lakh metric tonnes this fiscal from last year’s 11.4 lakh MTs. In this context, there’s no need for the country to import rubber,
ISMA lowers sugar production estimate, June sales may rise
Sugar production in the country during the current sugar season (October 2019 to September 2020) is expected to be 270 lakh tonnes, which will be about 60 lakh tonnes less than the previous season. In a statement on Tuesday, the Indian Sugar Mills’ Association said mills had so far produced 268.21 lakh tonnes of sugar between October and May. This is 59.32 lakh tonnes lesser than that produced during the same period last sugar season. The Association earlier estimated the current season production to be 265 lakh tonnes. However, the gur and khandsari manufacturers, mainly in U.P., stopped operations early because of the lockdown and a substantial quantity of sugarcane was diverted to the sugar mills. Hence, mills are
