Pulses, soybean, cotton still laggards; monsoon deficit in 40% of 717 districts
Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal will chair the conference
The consumer affairs ministry has asked the agriculture ministry to give more incentive and impetus to kharif onion during the festival period in the winter season to avoid any spike in prices, a top government official said on Friday. Normally, onion prices shoot up during the winter season, as stored rabi onion gets exhausted and fresh kharif onion cannot be stored. Currently, the sowing of kharif onion is underway. Briefing media, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said the kharif onion plays a critical role during the festival period in winter. "To ensure availability during that time, we have requested the agriculture ministry to give more incentive and impetus to kharif onions. This point was emphasised in the meeting of the cabinet secretary yesterday," Kumar said. The country's onion production is estimated at 319 lakh tonne in the ongoing 2023 calendar year, slightly lower than 324 lakh tonne in the previous year, he said. Onion is produced in two seasons -- ra
The key factor would be timeliness, spread and distribution of monsoon rains even if the total quantum of showers is less than normal
The government raised the cotton purchase price by nearly 9% to 6,620 rupees per 100 kg, also the highest increase in five years
Hike for other crops between 5% and 10%
Centre likely to spend Rs 1.08 trn overall on subsidy this Kharif season
Cereals, millets most resilient
Single superphosphate to be included in 'One Nation, One Fertiliser' scheme in the next few months
This acreage was, however, 1.13 per cent more than the normal area in which paddy is planted
The deficit in paddy sowing has reduced to 4.52 per cent at 399.03 lakh hectares so far in the ongoing kharif season on revival of rains in some states, but it is badly affected in Jharkhand, according to agriculture ministry data released on Friday. Paddy sowing in Jharkhand has halved to 8.25 lakh hectares so far this kharif season, compared to 17.62 lakh hectares in the year-ago period, the data showed. Paddy is the main kharif crop, sowing of which begins with the onset of southwest monsoon from June. Paddy sowing is now almost over as the crop will be harvested from October. About 80 per cent of India's total production comes from this season. The government expects 6-7 million fall in kharif rice production based on the crop condition till last week. According to the ministry data, there was 12.39 per cent lag in paddy sowing till August 12 of this kharif season. However, the deficit in paddy coverage has reduced to 4.52 per cent at 399.03 lakh hectares now when compared to
The Centre has clamped export curbs on several paddy varieties as it feels that total production might drop by 10-12 million tonnes due to delayed sowing.
Moreover, West Bengal has begun to receive normal rains and is a positive sign amidst dip in sowing activity
With deficient rains across Uttar Pradesh in this monsoon, farmers are staring at difficult days ahead fearing a sharp decline in their Kharif produce
While the govt has introduced windfall tax and export curbs to arrest runaway prices, a lot depends on how the monsoon pans out this season
Shortfall in rains, which was over 40% till June 10, narrowed to 4% by June 24 largely due to a massive downpour in the East and North-East
The actual pick-up in sowing will happen once the monsoon becomes active over Central and Western India
Prices of onion remained substantially stable during 2021-22 due to effective market intervention through the Price Stabilisation Fund, the Ministry statement said
The Centre estimates onion production in the kharif season to be around 4.38 million tonnes
Any production drop could push inflation concerns