Agriculture - Current Affairs for July, 2015

The Hyderabad-headquartered ICRISAT launched the Green Phablet, priced about ?18,600, for farmers in Telangana. The institute would maintain servers to safe keep the information. And even if the users lose their device, they could get back the information in no time.

National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) launched a mobile application that will recommend a balanced diet for cows and buffaloes. It will help boost dairy farmers' income by raising milk yield and cutting feed cost.

The direction has been given against the backdrop of government expressing concern over adverse impact of any reduction in direct credit, given the adverse weather conditions. To increase direct lending to agriculture, the RBI in April 2015 revised the target for direct lending to small and marginal farmers under priority sector norms to 7 percent for 2015-16 and to 8 percent for 2016-17.

Crops sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry reveals that the total area of over 563 lakh hectare has been covered till date as against 346 lakh hectare at this time last year. Rice has been sown in over 132-lakh hectare, which is about six-lakh hectare more than last year. About 56 lakh hectare area has been covered under the cultivation of pulses which is more than double of the sown area under the crop last year.

The state - run National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, NABARD has set a target of providing 30,000 crore rupees as credit to farmers for irrigation over the next three years. This funding will be in addition to the government’s recent announcement of providing 50,000 crore rupees of loans to farmers over the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana.

Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Agriculture Minister launched 3 web portals viz. Soil Health Card portal, Fertiliser Quality Control System portal and Participatory Guarantee System – India portal. Under the scheme, Soil Health Card portal has been developed for registration of soil samples, recording test results of soil samples and generation of Soil Health Card (SHC) along with Fertilizer Recommendations.

Fertilizer Quality Control System (FQCS) is a web based and configurable workflow application developed by NIC for processing of sample collection, testing and generation of analysis reports. Participatory Guarantee System is a process of certifying organic products which ensures agriculture production process in accordance with the standards laid down for organic products and that desired quality has been maintained.

It was organized at NASC Complex, Pusa, New Delhi. The Conference was inaugurated by Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture and also addressed by Shri M.K. Kundariya, Minister of State for Agriculture.

If quality of wheat is affected due to unseasonal rains or any other reason, relaxation in the norms is considered. Centre has asked Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh governments to test samples of wheat jointly with FCI immediately on its arrival so that relaxation in quality norms can be considered for procurement. Quality norms for procurement of wheat during current Rabi season have already been relaxed in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Government relaxes norms for food grain procurement time to time in view of interest of farmers.