-The Indian Express Schemes to ensure that Farmers get fair returns will come a croppper unless trade and tariffs are synced with minimum support prices. With farm prices of several commodities falling way below their minimum support prices (MSPs) in 2016-17 and 2017-18, Farmers have been under increasing stress. The Centre and several state governments are searching for ways and means to support Farmers. In his recent address (Mann ki Baat), the...

-The Hindu Business Line Urge growers to stay away from illegal Bt3 seeds Hyderabad: With the kharif season fast approaching, the Telangana government and Farmers’ union have launched independent campaigns to discourage people from illegal bio-tech cotton seeds or Roundup Ready Flex seeds. The third generation seed technology developed by Monsanto gives cotton plants protection against glyphosate, which is sprayed to kill the weed. Though the technology doesn’t have permissions in the country,...

-The Economic Times Chandigarh: The ongoing procurement of mustard at a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 4,000 per quintal in Haryana is hurtled by a lack in the number of collection centres. Farmers are selling the produce to traders at Rs 3,700-3,800 per quintal in the state as the logistic costs are too high to reach the collection centres in many districts in the state. Most of the Farmers have sold...

-The Times of India Thiruvananthapuram: The efforts of district NREGA cell to recreate assets to deal with possible drought situation have produced good results in some of the rural panchayats in the district.   Construction of farm ponds which was extensively carried out under employment guarantee scheme has gifted the district with over 2,000 farm ponds in areas where agriculture is the predominant occupation. The move also triggered a shift from the usual...

-The Indian Express The last two years have seen some progress in expediting completion of unfinished major and minor canal projects. Pune: Sustained efforts over the last two years to improve irrigation access for Farmers in India seem to have begun showing results, at least in terms of creation of physical infrastructure. The Narendra Modi government had, in 2016, embarked on a mission to complete all unfinished major and medium irrigation projects – some...