Agriculture - Current Affairs for December, 2015

Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, Sh Radha Mohan Singh launched two mobile apps for the farmers here namely Crop Insurance and AgriMarket Mobile on 23rd December. The ministry has also organized Kishan Jai Vigyan week to celebrate the birth anniversaries of AB Vajpayee and Ch. Charan Singh, the former PMs of India. National e-Governance Plan in agriculture (NeGP-A) has been launched for cluster development and providing hardware at block levels.

Government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana for providing end to end solutions in irrigation supply chain and it has been formulated keeping the following schemes in mind: Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation; Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) of Department of Land Resources; and On Farm Water Management (OFWM) component of National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare. Moreover, a Farmer’s Portal with Kisan portal to serve as a one stop shop for farmers for accessing information on agricultural activities has also been launched.

As per this census, the total number of operational holdings was estimated at 138.35 million. Other finds are as follows:

1. The total operated area equalled 159.59 million hectare.
2. The average size of the holding was estimated as 1.15 hectare. The average size of holdings has shown a stable declining trend over various Agriculture Censuses since, 1970-71.
3. The Gross Cropped Area (GCA) was pegged at 193.76 million hectare.
4. AP, Karnataka, Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, UP, Punjab, and WB together account for about 78 per cent of the Gross Cropped Area in the nation.

This census is conducted every 5 years to collect information on status of agricultural holdings in the nation.