Farmers

BRICS nations propose new networks for agro-inputs, digital farming and genetic resources to strengthen agricultural cooperation and promote climate-resilient farming

Agriculture and allied activities' GVA growth slowed from 4.4 per cent a year ago, while experts expect full-year FY27 growth at around 3.5-4 per cent

The Department has also worked to integrate iFMS with farmer, land and crop databases

Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan says ministry teams are examining the gap between prices received by farmers and those paid by consumers for onions

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday asked states to achieve 100 per cent saturation under the Digital Agriculture Mission and the Pulses Self-Reliance Mission, stressing that scheme benefits must reflect "in the fields and farmers' pockets", not merely in official reports. Addressing a national conference at Pusa, Chouhan said state governments that executed the schemes with seriousness exceeded 100 per cent of their targets, while others lagged. He asked all states to work within committed timelines. The minister said the Farmer ID, under which payments are credited directly to farmers' bank accounts, is a key transparency measure. Citing Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, he said the Centre had already released funds to generate Farmer IDs and conduct camps, but cautioned that meeting the one-month turnaround for IDs would require camps to run without fund diversion. According to data shared at the conference, 10.41 crore Farmer IDs have been generated so far

Chouhan said that integrated farming systems and models based on local resources should be developed to enhance farmers' incomes, urging officials to set clear goals and implement concrete roadmaps

Driven by on-demand models, startups and government programmes are making the tech accessible and affordable for farmers

The Centre's oil palm mission achieved 42% of its 650,000 hectare target by 2025-26, while the government ruled out higher financial assistance under the programme

BBSM raises concerns over Draft Seeds Bill 2025, warning it may impact farmers' seed rights and biodiversity, while experts seek a permanent ban on paraquat

Facing severe climate uncertainties, including the anticipated Super El Nino phenomenon, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday rolled out a series of climate-resilient initiatives in its Agriculture budget 2026-27, featuring a carbon trading scheme for farmers and a multi-year soil restoration drive. Presenting the budget, Tamil Nadu Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare R Vinoth allocated Rs 60 lakh to launch demonstration projects across 2,000 acres and develop monitoring and verification protocols for carbon trading. Under the scheme, farmers will be enabled to earn supplementary income through carbon credits by adopting existing sustainable cultivation methods, specifically emission-reducing practices such as Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) and Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) irrigation techniques. These established cultivation practices are estimated to cut greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 50 per cent while promoting carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, the .

Agriculture minister says ethanol policy should strengthen energy security while ensuring remunerative prices for farmers and equitable treatment of all feedstock crops

Farmer leader from Punjab, Sarwan Singh Pandher, on Tuesday morning slammed the Haryana government for barricading the Shambhu border point to prevent them from heading towards Delhi to participate in the Kisan Mahapanchayat against the proposed India-US trade deal. Heavy police deployment was made at the Shambhu border point between Punjab and Haryana, with barricades erected and cemented blocks placed at the bridge over Ghaggar river. A day-long "Kisan Mahapanchayat" has been planned against the proposed India-US trade deal at Delhi's Kisan Ghat under the banner of "Desh Bachao Morcha". Farmer leaders had earlier said that participants from several places, including Punjab and Haryana, would take part in the Mahapanchayat. Farmers from several places in Punjab have planned to move towards Delhi in buses. Pandher said farmers wanted to proceed peacefully to Delhi, but the Haryana government was stopping them at the Shambhu border. Speaking to reporters in Fatehgarh Sahib, Pandhe

An onion-growers' body on Saturday urged the Maharashtra government to show the same urgency for rain-affected farmers as it does for traffic disruptions like the recent Mumbai-Pune expressway landslide. The Maharashtra State Onion Growers' Association president Bharat Dighole stated that while inconvenience caused to commuters during heavy rains got immediate attention, the financial losses suffered by farmers due to recurring natural calamities and crashing crop prices are rarely met with equal concern. "When traffic comes to a standstill in cities for a few hours, the entire state's attention is drawn to it. But when excessive rains, hailstorms, unseasonal showers, floods or drought destroy farmers' crops, the same amount of concern is rarely seen," Dighole noted in a statement. He pointed out that farmers battle crop diseases, erratic weather, price crashes and transport bottlenecks, often suffering losses worth lakhs of rupees in a single day, yet continue farming with ...

Majji Satyam has been watching the sky since May. The 52-year-old farmer from JR Puram village in Andhra Pradesh's Srikakulam district has five acres, two borewells, and a lifetime of growing paddy the way his father did raise seedlings in a nursery, transplant them into flooded fields and keep the water standing until harvest. This kharif season, backed by years of training from the family-owned trust Dr Reddy's Foundation, one of the beneficiaries of CSR funds of pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories, he is trying something different. "Last year, rains had arrived in May itself. This year it has not yet come. I have heard that the rainfall will be less due to El Nino," Satyam told PTI. "So I have decided to try DSR." DSR Direct Seeded Rice skips the nursery entirely. Seeds go straight into the field. No transplantation, no waterlogging, no standing puddles. For a farmer staring down a lean monsoon, it is an attractive proposition. Satyam is not alone. Across Srikakulam and .

Country must create efficient farm markets and replace subsidies with direct income transfers, the NITI Aayog vice chairman said

The Chhattisgarh cabinet on Tuesday approved the listing of state-run Chhattisgarh State Power Transmission Company (CSPTCL) on the stock exchange through an IPO to encourage farmers to shift from paddy cultivation to alternative Kharif crops, officials said. Several decisions were taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai at Mahanadi Mantralaya Bhawan in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar. The cabinet nod for CSPTCL's listing through an Initial Public Offering is expected to provide citizens and investors an opportunity to participate in the company's growth journey while strengthening its financial capacity and transparency, a government official said. The cabinet authorised the company's board of directors to complete the necessary procedures related to the proposed listing, he said. The government also approved a revamped version of the Krishak Unnati Yojana for the kharif season of 2026. Under the new framework, farmers cultivating pulses, oilseeds, maize, kodo

India imports a large quantity of urea and di-ammonium phosphate to meet local demand. Total domestic production of fertilisers, including urea

The Centre’s proposed changes to the Sugarcane Control Order have sparked concern among farmers and small jaggery makers in western Uttar Pradesh.

According to the state government, sugarcane farmers have received payments of about ₹3.27 trillion between 2017 and 2026

Maharashtra onion farmers have urged the Centre to announce a special Rs 10,000 crore revival package, claiming that repeated export curbs, natural calamities and price crashes have pushed them into a severe financial crisis. Bharat Dighole, founder-president of the Maharashtra State Onion Growers Farmers Association, said that farmers have suffered huge losses over the years due to what he termed flawed export policies, spurious seeds, storage losses and other factors. He said the Centre's decisions to impose export bans in 2019, 2020 and 2023-24, levy a 40 per cent export duty and fix minimum export prices of $850 and $550 per tonne at different periods hit onion farmers hard. The central government's move to release buffer onion stock through NAFED and NCCF at lower rates in the domestic market adversely affected prices of the kitchen staple and caused substantial financial losses to farmers, he said in a statement. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India