Farm Sector

Budget has enabling proposals

Indian agriculture has performed well but the sector needs "re-orientation" in the backdrop of certain challenges like adverse impacts of climate change, rising input cost, etc, the Economic Survey for 2022-23 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday said. The other challenges are fragmented landholdings, sub-optimal farm mechanisation, low productivity, disguised unemployment, rising input costs, etc. "While Indian agriculture has performed well, the sector needs re-orientation in the backdrop of certain challenges...," it said. Stating that the performance of the agriculture sector remains critical to growth and employment in the country, the Survey said investment in the sector must be encouraged through an affordable, timely and inclusive approach to credit delivery. It may be noted that more than 75 per cent of rural female workers are employed in the agriculture sector. This implies a need to upskill and create employment for women in agriculture-related sectors such as food ...

Agriculture Infra Fund (AIF) is a financing facility launched on 8th July 2020 for creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farm assets

The NITI Aayog is working on this project with other stakeholder ministries and has developed several indices to rank states annually on measurable parameters

At current prices, growth estimated at 12.5%, which is among the best in recent times

Absence of updated numbers raises some questions on non-crop estimates

Gross value added (GVA) for agriculture, forestry and fishing during the comparable period of last year was 3.2 per cent

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday urged the member countries of BIMSTEC to work together for development of a comprehensive regional strategy to strengthen cooperation for transformation of farm sector. India hosted the second Agriculture Ministerial-level meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) here under the chairmanship of Tomar, an official statement said. Agriculture ministers of Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand participated in the meeting. BIMSTEC was established in 1997. It includes five countries of South Asia -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and two countries of South-East Asia -- Myanmar and Thailand. Addressing the meeting virtually, Tomar urged the "member countries to cooperate in developing a comprehensive regional strategy to strengthen cooperation for the transformation of agriculture." He emphasised on the importance of millet as a ...

The government on Sunday said established procedures have been fully followed while provisionally approving nano urea based on encouraging field results and feedback from farm scientists at ICAR and state universities. In June 2021, cooperative IFFCO launched nano urea in liquid form as an alternative to conventional urea. It has set up manufacturing plants to produce nano urea and is also selling in the market. In a statement, the Chemicals and Fertilisers Ministry said: "It is clarified that the established and existing procedure for registration of any fertiliser for notification as per Fertiliser Control Order (FCO), 1985 has been fully accounted for". The process has not been fast-tracked, the ministry asserted. Nano Urea has been notified provisionally under the FCO based on the existing procedure for introduction of fertilisers under FCO, 1985, which requires data from only two seasons, it added. "Nano Urea has been provisionally notified under FCO based on encouraging resu

Growth at current prices which touched a high of 17.4 per cent mainly due to sharp spikes in almost all farm commodities in the first quarter of the 2022-23 financial year.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved interest subvention of 1.5 per cent on short-term agriculture loans of up to Rs 3 lakh for all financial institutions, a move aimed at ensuring adequate credit flow in the farm sector. The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved restoring interest subvention on short-term agriculture loans of 1.5 per cent for all financial institutions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said. The 1.5 per cent interest subvention will be provided to lending institutions (public and private sector banks, small finance banks, regional rural banks, cooperative banks and computerised Primary Agriculture Credit Societies) for the financial year 2022-23 to 2024-25 for providing short-term agri loans of up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers. "This increase in Interest Subvention support requires additional budgetary provisions of Rs 34,856 crore for the period of 2022-23 to 2024-25 under the scheme," an official statement said. The incre

Prime Minister Modi made a strong case for modernising agriculture, animal husbandry and food processing to help the country become self-sufficient and a global leader in the agriculture sector

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a strong case for modernising the farm sector by using technology so that India can become self-sufficient and a global leader in the agriculture sector. Addressing the meeting of the Governing Council of the Niti Aayog, he said the rapid urbanisation can become India's strength instead of weakness by leveraging technology to ensure ease of living, transparent service delivery, and improvement in the quality of life. He said that India should become self-sufficient in the production of edible oil. The Prime Minister also spoke about the upcoming India's presidency of the G-20 in 2023. G-20 is a grouping of developed and developing nations. He asked the states to set up dedicated teams for G-20 with a view to deriving maximum possible benefit from the initiative. This was the first physical meeting of the Governing Council since the onset of the pandemic, with the 2021 meeting held via video conferencing. The meeting was attended by 23 c

Manoj Sinha said work on the framework is ongoing, private players are encouraged to share their inputs

Under SHC scheme, a soil health card contains soil health indicators and descriptive concepts based on farmers' knowledge of local natural resources and practical experience

Any growth between 3.5 and 4 per cent for the farm sector is considered above the long-term trend line

Raw material/freight costs will however weigh on its near term margins

More than 1 crore farmers and stakeholders are expected to participate in the campaign through direct (offline) and virtual (online) medium across the country

Farm sector growth to be around 3% in FY22; can improve in FY23 if monsoon, other conditions are favourable: Niti member Ramesh Chand

This is despite a bumper kharif harvest, and is largely due to the effect of a higher base