Page 24 - Agriculture

Red Sanders removed from CITES Review of Significant Trade: Bhupendra Yadav

The CITES RST process enables disciplinary action in the form of trade suspensions directed at countries that do not meet their obligations

Agrochemical firm Best Agrolife Q2 net profit falls 27 pc to Rs 95 crore

Agrochemical firm Best Agrolife on Wednesday reported a 27 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 95 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal year. Its net profit stood at Rs 130 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations rose 16 per cent to Rs 811 crore during the July-September period of this fiscal year from Rs 700 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, the company said in a statement. "Despite the challenging external environment, we have maintained a strong growth trajectory, with revenue from operations surging by 32 per cent sequentially to reach Rs 811 crore," Vimal Kumar, Managing Director of Best Agrolife Ltd, said. The company's profit margins remain resilient, driven by an improved product mix, he said. "The consistent demand for our products has shielded us from pricing pressures that generic agrochemicals are grappling with," Kumar said. Notwithstanding the industry's anticipated challenges in the forthcoming quarters, h

Farmers breathe sigh of relief as basmati prices increase

In India basmati production is estimated to be around 8-9 million tonnes of which more than half is exported annually

El Nino may not influence Indian monsoon much in 2024 season, says IMD

El Nino - the warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean near South America - is associated with weaker monsoon winds and drier conditions in India

Solving intermittency of renewables

Emphasise the path to discovery, not a design

Stubble to become a source of income, employment instead of pollution in UP

The Yogi government has set a target to establish biogas plants in every tehsil, some of which will soon become operational

Dispute settlement reform, agri, e-commerce discussed at 2-day WTO meet

Issues like dispute settlement reform, agriculture, fisheries subsidies and moratorium on customs duties on e-commerce trade figured in the two-day meeting of senior officials of WTO members in Geneva. The meeting concluded on October 24. From India, senior officials, including Additional Secretary in the commerce ministry Peeyush Kumar, participated in the deliberations. According to the chairperson's summary of the meeting, senior officials strongly supported the ongoing informal process on dispute settlement (DS) reform being carried out in Geneva by technical experts. This summary was prepared by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and General Council Chairperson Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme from Botswana. In expressing their political support for DS reform work, senior officials emphasised on the need to focus on addressing the DS challenges with a sense of urgency; and to take into account the dispute settlement interests of all member countries of the World Trade Organisat

Nano urea will help farmers switch to natural farming, says Amit Shah

The nano urea and nano DAP introduced by IFFCO will help farmers adopt natural farming without compromising on production, Union cooperation minister Amit Shah has said. He was speaking after inaugurating a nano DAP (diammonium phosphate liquid ) manufacturing plant at the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited's (IFFCO) unit at Kalol in Gujarat's Gandhinagar district on Tuesday. It is the world's first such plant, IFFCO said in a statement. When a list of the biggest experiments in the field of agriculture will be prepared ten years from now, I can say with certainty that IFFCO's nano urea and nano DAP will find a place in it," he said. The need of the hour was to reduce the use of urea and move towards natural farming, the Union minister added. If you want to move towards natural farming without reducing the production for three years (period needed to prepare the soil for such farming), then use nano urea and nano DAP, Shah said. Nano urea does not percolate into the gro

Agri clusters among trade body demands ahead of Rajasthan Assembly polls

At present, 18,000 Megawatt (Mw) of energy is produced through renewable energy in Rajasthan, whereas the state can produce up to 100,000 Mw

Indian wheat prices at 8-month high on festival demand, tight supply

Wheat prices in New Delhi jumped by 1.6% on Tuesday to 27,390 rupees ($329) per metric ton, the highest since Feb. 10. Prices have surged by nearly 22% over the past six months

Bumper paddy crop in Kashmir even as land under paddy cultivation falls

Kashmir has witnessed a bumper rice crop this year even after the land under paddy cultivation decreased by nearly 10 per cent over the past few years. Farmers and officials of the agriculture department were also worried about the paddy yield this year, due to incessant rains and cold weather during the sowing season in May-June this year. "In the month of March, April and May there were heavy rains because of which we were also fearing about the fate of staple food crop (paddy) but simultaneously we tried our best and also did sowing a second time," Director Agriculture Mohammad Iqbal Chaudhary said. Chaudhary said the department launched a campaign for transplanting seedlings even in June. "... more than 5 to 10 per cent extra productivity per hectare is expected as more than 90 per cent crop has already been harvested," he added. The director said the bumper crop has boosted the morale of farmers, as the rate of rice in the local market has crossed Rs 50 per kilogram. "We are

Govt maintains basmati rice floor price as grain export curbs continue

India imposed a $1,200 per ton minimum export price (MEP) on basmati rice shipments in August to calm local prices ahead of key state elections

Kothari Industrial sets up a drone division to serve agricultural lands

Kothari Industrial Corporation Ltd, part of the DC Kothari Group, has set up a separate drone division to deploy drone technology in farmlands, the company said on Friday. Under this initiative, Kothari Industrial Corporation Ltd has planned to work out a long-term sustainable strategy to reconfigure the agricultural landscape with the use of drones. KICL is likely to invest over Rs 150 crore into the drone division over the next few years, a company statement here said. "We have now embarked on a journey that seeks to combine innovation, sustainability and a commitment to revitalising the agricultural sector," said Kothari Industrial Corporation Ltd Managing Director Jinnah Rafiq Ahmed. KICL has ventured into agricultural innovation with the introduction of a fleet of drones that have been designed to spray nano-urea in agricultural lands. Nano-urea effectively fulfills crop nitrogen requirements and increases leaf photosynthesis and root biomass, the company claimed in a ...

Sunflower seeds to capsicum: Minimum support price fire is raging

The second of a two-part series looks at the policy lacunae that keep farmers from growing other crops which cut out the need to burn stubble

Pakistan: World Bank suggests taxes on agri, real estate to infuse Rs 3 trn

The World Bank has suggested closing all tax exemptions and bringing agriculture, retail, and real estate under a tax bracket that can fetch three per cent of GDP in the cash-strapped Pakistan's kitty, media reports said on Tuesday. The people in two major areas in the provincial jurisdiction real estate and agriculture had most of the untaxed wealth, which should be taxed by the provincial governments to be able to improve services and reduce the financial burden on the centre, which was financing these services, newspaper Dawn quoted WB's Country Director Najy Benhassine and senior economist Tobias Haque as saying. The lender has projected that if agriculture income and properties tax is enforced properly then it could fetch three per cent of GDP in the tax collection on an annual basis, equivalent to slightly over Rs 3 trillion, the Dawn newspaper quoted Haque as saying. He said real estate and agriculture should yield revenue of two per cent and one per cent, respectively, of

Stubble burning: Punjab records 32 farm fires on Saturday, lowest in Oct

Punjab on Saturday recorded 32 farm fires, the lowest this month, even as the total paddy straw burning cases crossed 870, according to latest data. Punjab had recorded 71 and 62 farm fires on the same day in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Of the 32 stubble burning incidents, Amritsar reported 18 followed by four each in Tarn Taran and Kapurthala. Punjab recorded 123 cases of stubble burning on October 1, followed by 119 on October 2, 105 on October 3, 95 on October 4, 98 on October 5 and 91 on October 6, according to data from the Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre. The total cases of farm fires in the state from September 15 to October 7 have risen to 877. Punjab recorded 692 farm fires during the corresponding year-ago period, the data showed. Of the 877 farm fires, Amritsar contrubuted the majority with 537 cases, followed by 120 in Tarn Taran, 51 in Patiala, 50 in Kapurthala, 22 in Mohali and 18 in Sangrur, it showed. Paddy harvesting is underway in many areas of Punj

Govt bans use of controversial pesticide monocrotophus ahead of SC hearing

Ahead of a pivotal SC hearing, the Central govt has banned four insecticides from a list of 27, triggering mixed reactions

Arya.ag eyes to double profit, revenue increase by 70% to Rs 500 cr in FY24

Agri-tech platform Arya.ag is expecting to more than double its profit and grow the topline by around 70 per cent to Rs 500 crore this fiscal as it focuses more on sales along with expansion of its customer base. Arya.ag claims to be the largest and the only profitable agri-tech platform focused on foodgrain storage and sale. The Noida-based startup founded in 2013 by Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra and Sathyanathan Devarajan and backed by funds like Lightrock, Accion Quona Capital, Asia Impact Fund and Omnivore Partners, has a revenue of Rs 298 crore, from which it earned Rs 16 crore of net income. These funds collectively own 60 per cent of the company with a combined investment of USD 65 million. The company did not offer a break-up of either their individual holding or their investment. It also has debt investors like Rabo Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, from whom it has borrowed Rs 980 crore so far. "This year we see the numbers hitting Rs 500 crore in revenue and the net profit

MS Swaminathan, father of green revolution, cremated with state honours

Eminent farm scientist M S Swaminathan was cremated here on Saturday with government honours, marked by a police gun salute. A platoon of police personnel in ceremonial attire gave a gun salute and bugle was played marking the Tamil Nadu government's honour at a crematory here. The final rites were performed by the family members and the body was cremated at the Besant Nagar electric crematorium. Swaminathan passed away here on Thursday. He was 98.

Remembering Dr MS Swaminathan, India's Father of Green Revolution

MS Swaminathan, renowned agriculturist and the Father of Green Revolution in India passed away on 28th September, 2023 at the age of 98. Through this video, we pay tribute to the legacy of India. >