Explore Business Standard
Goa's latest paddy seed variety, which offers improved resilience against salinity, waterlogging, and crop lodging, is likely to be released for large-scale cultivation in the Kharif season 2026, state Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik has said. In a written reply in the legislative assembly on Friday, Naik said that the new variety is currently in its second year of on-farm trials and has already shown promising results in demonstration plots under the Minikit Programme. He was responding to a question by independent MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco. According to the data furnished by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Goa Dhan-5 was developed to build on the performance of earlier salt-tolerant varieties Goa Dhan-1 and Dhan-2 released in 2017, and Dhan-3 and Dhan-4 released in 2019, the minister said. Naik said that while the first four Dhan varieties are tolerant to saline conditions, Goa Dhan-5 stands out for its added resistance to waterlogging and complete or partial ...
India's rice production is likely to touch a record 119.93 million tonne (MT) in the 2024-25 kharif season on good monsoon, according to the agriculture ministry's first advance estimate released on Tuesday. The record estimate comes amid surplus stocks in government godowns. Rice production is projected 6.67 million tonne higher than the previous year's kharif season. The harvesting of the main kharif crop is underway across the country. Among coarse cereals, maize output is estimated at an all-time high of 24.54 MT for the 2024-25 kharif season (July-June), up from 22.24 MT last year. While jowar production is estimated higher at 2.19 MT, bajra output is likely to decline to 9.37 MT. Total coarse cereals production is pegged lower at 37.81 MT against 56.93 million tonne in the year-ago period. The ministry estimates total foodgrain production at 164.70 MT for the 2024-25 kharif season, higher than 155.76 MT last year. Pulses output is expected to remain almost flat at 6.95 MT
Soybean production in the country has increased by about 6 per cent to nearly 126 lakh tonnes in the current kharif season due to favourable weather conditions, an organisation of the crop processors said on Tuesday. Its acreage remained almost the same as last season, the trade body said. During the last kharif season, the average productivity of soybean per hectare in the country was 1,002 kg, while this time it has increased to 1,063 kg, Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA) Executive Director D N Pathak told PTI. "This time the distribution of monsoon rains in the major soybean producing areas of the country was good, which boosted the crop yield. The adoption of advanced methods of farming by cultivators and increased the crop yield," he said. After the sowing of soybean during the kharif season of 2023, there was a severe lack of moisture in the fields due to lack of rain for three weeks in the major soybean producing areas in August, as a result the crop productivit
The procurement of paddy and maize at the support price from farmers will begin in Chhattisgarh from November 1in the ongoing Kharif season, according to officials. Notably, the procurement drive will coincide with the assembly elections due this year-end. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had announced earlier that 20 quintals of paddy per acre and 10 quintals of maize per acre will be procured from farmers. The policy for the 'procurement and custom milling of paddy and maize at the support price' was finalized during the Cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister on Tuesday at his official residence here. While the paddy procurement drive will be carried out from November 1 to January 31, 2024, the maize procurement will continue from November 1 to February 28, said a public relations department official. The cabinet has also decided to extend the validity of the government guarantee (amount of Rs 14, 700 crore) to the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Marketing Federation for padd
A 6-7 million tonnes shortfall in rice production due to a fall in paddy sowing area is likely to keep rice prices at elevated levels, adding to the inflationary pressure that the slowing economy is already grappling with. Elevated food prices, including that of cereals, had led to retail inflation reversing a three-month declining trend, to touch 7 per cent in August. Similarly, the wholesale price inflation, which declined to 11-month low, also showed price pressures from cereals resulting from wheat output being impacted by severe heat waves in some parts of the country. In addition to this, expectation of a lower paddy output - conservative by government estimates and higher if outside experts are to be believed - will keep inflationary expectations higher, experts and analysts believe. Erratic June-September rainfall and delayed withdrawal of South-West monsoon rains have added to concerns over paddy crop. India's rice production during the 2021-22 crop year, ended June, stoo