-Down to Earth Most of the market yards had temporary sheds while several of them had permanent sheds More than a million bags of paddy lying in the open in market yards in Odisha’s Bargarh district have reportedly got damaged due to heavy rain and hailstorm, which also caused extensive damage to vegetable crops in the district. The rain started from the evening of December 28, 2021 with a spate of hailstorm in...
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The pitfalls of legalising farm support prices -A Narayanamoorthy
-The Hindu Business Line There is no guarantee farmers’ income will rise as the methodology for estimating cost of production is outdated, defective Although the farmers’ agitation that lasted over one year was finally called-off, their demand for a law guaranteeing minimum support prices (MSP) for crops is continuing. Can the MSP be legalised in a country that produces about 1,000 million tonnes of agri-commodities? If so, who will benefit from it?...
More »The seed banker: This Nuapatna farmer strives to save traditional paddy varieties -Ajit Panda
-Down to Earth Bijaya Jhankar grows nine traditional varieties of paddy that have a longer harvest duration of 130-150 days The eyes of Bijaya Jhankar twinkle as he approaches his 1.2 hectare (ha) farm for harvesting paddy. They are unlike any other varieties grown in his village Sanbaheli, which lies in the vast Sunabeda plateau of Odisha’s Nuapada district. “They yield shorter grains, take longer to mature but are of tremendous sentimental value,”...
More »Farm Laws: Is MSP guarantee really the elixir that Indian agriculture needs? -Shagun Kapil
-Down to Earth The concept is unreasonable and will be detrimental to the country’s agricultural system, feel experts On November 19, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to repeal the three farm laws, he also stated that the government would form a committee to discuss how the system of minimum support price (MSP) could be more effective. One of the key demands of the protesting farmers is that MSP is provided...
More »Why Punjab’s short-duration paddy varieties have not solved stubble burning -Vivek Mishra
-Down to Earth Promoted by the government, short-duration varieties now dominate Punjab’s paddy landscape and allow farmers enough time to clear the field without setting them on fire. Why then are straw burning incidents still on the rise? Gursimran is somewhat dejected as he oversees a combined harvesting machine working his paddy fields. “Though the yield is better than what it has been in the past two years, it is still not...
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