Domestic News
Call to reduce subsidies on agri products
Centre Clears Plan For Farmers
Call centres, TV & radio slots for farmers from Jan 21
Fruity harvest - it's raining kinus in Punjab
Distance Learning Training Courses by IIAA
Rural fund to focus on co-op banks' recast
Nabard cuts rates on rural credit
State agriculture ministers to discuss marketing reforms
BT Cotton Cultivation To Triple In '03
Iraq to resume wheat imports from India soon
Call to reduce subsidies on agri products
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is urging for correction in the excessively high minimum support prices for agricultural products, which otherwise is distorting the resource allocation in the agricultural sector.
The central bank further pointed out that in view of the relatively high level of food security, the climate is now right for further policy reforms in agriculture.
In its Report on Currency and Finance released today, RBI urged for reduction in various subsidies in order to provide a significant dividend for the country and thereby enable higher public investment where it is most required, especially in the agricultural sector. "To reap fruits of opening up of the economy, enabling conditions need to be created and decisive actions need to be taken to promote agricultural diversification and active investment in rural infrastructure," stated RBI in its report.
Courtesy: Business Standard, 29th Jan '04
(Website : www.business-standard.com)
Centre Clears Plan For Farmers
To woo the farming community, the Centre decided to set up National Commission for Farmers. Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma said that the commission would cover issues like disbursal of farm loans, rate of interest charged and implementation of crop insurance schemes.
The Cabinet also cleared a new food grain policy that would allow private traders to directly procure and export wheat and rice. It allowed private exporters to procure food grain from the open market in a bid to ensure remunerative prices to farmers for their produce. The ministries of Commerce and Food and Consumer Affairs would prepare and operate a monitoring scheme to prevent scarcity of food grain within the country.
The Cabinet also permitted payment of WTO compatible costs to all exports of foodgrain and their products. It also decided to set up National Commission for Farmers to review the status of Indian agriculture and assess the conditions of farmers.
Courtesy: The Tribune, 20th Jan '04
(Website : www.tribuneindia.com)
Call centres, TV & radio slots for farmers from Jan 21
The Union Cabinet formally approved the agriculture ministry's proposal for launching a TV and radio channel on agriculture for dissemination of farming technology along with setting up of 'kisan' call centres to answer farmers' queries in local languages. Both will be inaugurated by Prime Minster Atal Bihari Vajpayee on January 21.
The proposed call centres would initially operate through toll-free telephones bearing the number 1551 from eight selected locations covering all states and regional languages. To be manned by agriculture graduates, these centres would function at three levels.
The call centres would be located at Mumbai, Kanpur, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Delhi and Kolkata. Each centre would cover more than one state.
Agriculture minister Rajnath Singh said the Kisan channel would be transmitted from Doordarshan, cable-satellite channels of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and FM radio stations.
Doordarshan would telecast one-hour programmes daily six days a week. IGNOU would transmit one-hour programmes four times every day.
The 96 FM radio stations which covered rural areas would start broadcasting one-hour agricultural programmes on all days of the week from next month, Singh said.
Courtesy: Business Standard, 16th Jan '04
(Website : www.business-standard.com)
Fruity harvest - it's raining kinus in Punjab
The state is headed for another bumper crop of kinu, which rivals oranges in taste and colour. Punjab is now the number one producer of kinus in India. Out of the 878,000 tonnes of fruit production in the state, kinu accounted for over 227,000 tonnes last year.
This fruit alone accounted for over 90 percent of the production of all citrus fruits in the state.
In 2003, 2,100 hectares of agricultural land was brought under kinu production. This year, kinu plants will cover another 2,500 hectares. Around 46 percent of the total land under fruit production in Punjab is already growing kinu.
Courtesy: www.newkerala.com, 16th Jan '04
(Website : www.newkerala.com)
Distance Learning Training Courses by IIAA
International Institute of Agroinformatics & Agromanagement, Meerut has been set up as a research, development and academic centre. The institute is offering a Distance Learning Training Courses in the area of Agroinformatics (Agriculture Information Technology), Agromanagement (Agro Management) and Organic Farming. These courses are advantageous for Agriculture Students and professionals.
Rural fund to focus on co-op banks' recast
Part of Rs 50,000 crore corpus being created for agricultural infrastructure and rural credit fund will be used to restructure the ailing district cooperative banks. The entire corpus will be managed by Nabard.
The plan of action for the three-year Rs 50,000 crore scheme - christened Agriculture Infrastructure Credit Fund (AICF) - will be ready next week. The focus will be on export, value-added agri products and greater efficiency and productivity.
"If the farmers get the funds at the right time, transaction costs in agriculture can come down drastically. We will ensure timely disbursals of funds. The focus will be on wasteland development, minor irrigation and a host of other relevant areas. There will be a second green revolution," Nabard chairperson Ranjana Kumar said. Nabard will also emphasise on land reforms and try to improve the quality of life of farmers.
Courtesy: Business Standard, 12th Jan '04
(Website : www.business-standard.com)
Nabard cuts rates on rural credit
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has slashed interest rates on various short-term/ medium-term refinance extended by it to co-operative banks and regional rural banks (RRBs) by 25 to 75 basis points.
The rates of interest on refinance on crop loans has been reduced by 25 basis points to 5.75 per cent for co-operative banks and by 75 basis points to six per cent in the case of RRBs.
The revised rates are effective from January 1 and are applicable to the refinance outstanding from client banks as on that date as well as to drawals made thereafter.
Nabard said considering the need to boost marketing credit to farmers to enable them to obtain remunerative prices for their agricultural produce, the interest rates pertaining to this line of credit from Nabard to co-operative banks and RRBs has been slashed by 0.75 per cent.
Courtesy: Business Standard, 9th Jan '04
(Website : www.business-standard.com)
State agriculture ministers to discuss marketing reforms
A Conference of the State Agriculture Ministers is taking place in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss agricultural marketing reforms. The day-long meeting will be chaired by the Union Agricultural Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh.
In order to strengthen and develop the agricultural marketing system in the country , an Inter-Ministerial Task Force, set up by the Agriculture Ministry has suggested a road map for reforms in the sector.
Among others, the State Governments are required to amend their respective Agriculture Produce Marketing Regulation Acts to promote competitive agricultural markets in private and cooperative sectors, direct marketing and contract farming arrangements. For assisting the State Governments in implementing the suggested reforms, the Agriculture Ministry has already formulated a Model Act on Agricultural Marketing and circulated it to the State Governments and UT administrations for follow up action.
Courtesy: PIB Press Release, 6th Jan '04
(Website : www.pib.nic.in)
BT Cotton Cultivation To Triple In '03
Bt cotton cultivation is likely to increase to 1.25 lakh hectares in 2003 as against 40,000 hectares last year, according to Indian agricultural commissioner Dr CD Mayee. He said estimates showed that more than 75,000 farmers in the country would reap the benefits of Bt cotton, almost double in number than the previous year.
Still, the scope to increase the coverage of Bt
seeds is enormous as the cotton is grown over
more than 80 lakh hectares across India.
The Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy
(CMIE) in its recent report estimated an
increase in cotton yield by 50 kg per hectares
crossing the mark of 450 kg per hectares in
2002-03.
Courtesy: www.fibre2fashion.com, 29th Oct '03
(Website : www.fibre2fashion.com)
Iraq to resume wheat imports from India soon
Iraq may purchase one million tonnes of wheat from India over the next six months which will include pending import order for 600,000 tonnes for the last two years, Iraq Ministry of Trade officer in-charge Yousif M Abdul-Rahman Al-Ani said. Iraq has amended the letter of credit (LoC) to obtain wheat from other sources and has now decided to buy it directly from Indian exporters. Iraq was earlier sourcing wheat including those from India through countries like Russia, Syria and Egypt.
Courtesy: The Financial Express, 07th Oct '03
(Website : www.financialexpress.com)
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