Page 2 - Surinder Sud

Sheep and goats need meaty ideas

The domestic consumption of both mutton (sheep meat) and chevon (goat meat) is also steadily increasing despite their prices being far higher than the meat of chickens, buffaloes, and pigs

Finding the right policy for edible oil

The strategy mooted by the finance minister to attain atmanirbharta in edible oilseeds like mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower involves research on high-yielding crop varieties

Survival and growth of FPOs

The advantages of the FPOs have been borne out and quantified by a study conducted by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) in 2020-21 and 2021-22

The groundwater reality

The Assessment Report, put together by the Central Ground Water Board with inputs from states, reckons the total water recharge in 2023 to be around 449.53 billion cubic metres

Not missing either the woods or the trees

Vast untapped potential must be gainfully harnessed to achieve environmental goals and derive potential economic benefits from agro-forestry

Land leasing needs a sound law

The concept of imposing limits on land ownership and acquiring surplus land for allocation to landless people, in fact, seldom served its intended objective of equitable distribution of farmland

The unfinished job of farm mechanisation

The current level of farm mechanisation in India, reckoned officially at 47 per cent, is far lower than the 60 per cent in China and 75 per cent in Brazil

Animal husbandry: Success and constraints

Unsurprisingly, India now leads the world in milk production. In fact, it replaced the US as the world's largest milk producer way back in 1998

The growing popularity of vegan foods

Indian consumers, by and large, are cost-conscious. At present, most vegan products are priced higher than the non-vegetarian foods they are meant to replace

Incentivise eco-friendly fertilisers

Consumer demand for the products grown without the use of toxic chemicals is steadily climbing

Gender discrimination in farms

Growing rural-to-urban migration by men was leading to "feminisation" of the agriculture sector

A G20 opportunity for millets

While the requirements for plant-based food, feed, fuel, and fibre are growing rapidly, the farm sector's capacity to satisfy these needs is getting constrained

Some fodder for thought

Uptrend in milk prices can be attributed chiefly to the steadily worsening shortage and the resultant surge in the prices of fodder and feed, accounting for nearly 65% of the cost of milk production

Saving the land for better use

In India, the economic loss due to land degradation and changes in land use pattern was estimated in 2014-15 at Rs 3.17 trillion

Sinful waste that needs to be stopped

The menace of hunger or undernourishment can be mitigated to a considerable extent just by curtailing the wastage of raw food and making a better use of the left-over cooked food

The return of the millets

The research and development initiatives on millets received the much-needed impetus after 2018, which was observed as the National Year of Millets

Growing across nations and continents

According to agriculture ministry estimates, exotic fruits were grown in 2021-22 in over 2.8 million hectares. The area under such crops was almost negligible in the early 2000s

Food growers can be processors too

A higher level of processing would generate additional income for farmers and off-farm employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for rural people

Breaking ground and filling the gaps

Unfortunately, not all states are equally upbeat about agri-start-ups and the role they can play in the development of the agri-rural sector

Floriculture can flower more

The net profit from growing flowers, on per unit of land, can be 10 to 20 times higher than from most field crops