Crop insurance Pilot project to take off soon
The Centre has decided to implement a pilot crop insurance scheme entitled the Farm Income Insurance Programme for food grains, this rabi season. The Agriculture Ministry has asked all states to come up with an action plan for a two-fold hike in food production within the next 10 years. This would form a part of the Government’s strategy to double food grain production by 2012. 

Although the exact size of the financial burden of the new scheme is yet to be divulged, the core Ministry has been maintaining that its own calculations indicate a tab that may be lesser than what is incurred by the Government in procuring food grains annually from key states.

India signs pact with FAO to aid apple production
To boost apple production in the country, the Union Agriculture Ministry signed an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The project, to be undertaken in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, aims to arrest the decline in apple production.

The 18-month long project, with a budget of $3,60,000, will be funded from FAO’s technical co-operation programme. 

Plantation sector woes to Continue, outputs dip
The spices and tea growers would continue to be under pressure owing to factors like declining exports and stagnant prices. This was brought out in a paper released at the 110th annual conference of the United Planters’ Association of South India (Upasi).

“Higher production cost, rising wages, falling exports and price realisation and increased taxation are responsible for driving tea producers into the red,” said Ullas Menon, Secretary-General, Upasi. The same tale of woe is repeated on the spice plantation front.

The cardamom production dropped by almost 21 per cent in 2002-03 to an aggregate 9,000 tonnes, down from the previous year’s 11,365 tonnes. Export earnings are also down to Rs 37.60 crore (from Rs 55.86 crore for the previous year).

Pepper has also suffered a sharp decline in production to 62,000 tonnes in 2002 from a high of 80,000 tonnes in 2001, a fall of 22.5 per cent. Earnings slumped to Rs 166 crore in 2002 from Rs 212 crore in 2001.

New rice variety RELEASED  for drought conditions
An improved drought-tolerant variety of rice with long bold white grains and field tolerance to leaf folder and stem borer pests has been developed by scientists at the Agricultural Research Station (ARS) in Tamil Nadu.

The high yielding variety christened ‘PMK (R) 3’ was recently released for commercial cultivation by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore.

The new variety is a cross derivative pedigree of UPLRI 7 and CO 43. The female parent UPLRI 7 is a variety suited for drought conditions and the male parent CO 43 was selected for its high yield and adaptability to saline conditions. Highly drought-tolerant, the new variety recorded a mean grain yield of 2,850 kg per hectare in 108 days in the on-station demonstration trials at the ARS. In the multi-location trials conducted at different research centres of TNAU, the variety registered an average grain yield of 2,280 kg per hectare.

MSP likely to be increased for oilseeds and pulses
In order to boost diversification and reduce import dependance in oilseeds and pulses, the Government is planning to announce a substantial hike in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for both the commodities, it has been reported. It is also a strategy to lure farmers towards sowing these crops instead of wheat in the current rabi season.

The support price for pulses and oilseeds may go up by an average Rs 180-200 per quintal over the existing support prices. The support price for gram is likely to be hiked by Rs 180 and may shoot up to Rs 1,400 per quintal from the current Rs 1,220. The support for masoor is also likely to increase by about Rs 170 per quintal. A hike of Rs 270 per quintal is in the offing for mustard, bringing up the existing minimum support price to Rs 1,600 per quintal from Rs 1,330.

Ranjana Kumar to join as NABARD’s chairperson
The Chairperson and Managing Director of the Indian Bank, Ranjana Kumar, will be taking over as Chief of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).

The post of Chairperson at Nabard has been lying vacant since the tenure of YC Nanda ended 3 months back, as also that of the Managing Director, which is yet to be filled even after 8 months.

Pak tea buyers interested in buying more from india
A delegation from the Pakistan Tea Association (PTA) was in India to explore the possibility of importing tea from South India. Led by Saeed Ahmed Khawaja, Chairman of PTA, the nine-member delegation held discussions with members of Upasi for the import of tea. Despite logistics and cost advantages, Mr Khawaja admitted that Pakistan imported very little tea directly from India owing to a high import duty of 52 per cent.

Every year, Pakistan imports nearly 110 million kg of tea from Africa and South Asia. The balance tea is supplied by Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). India exports only about 3 million kg to Pakistan because of the high import tariffs and other duties. Members of the delegation also said that the absence of FTA between India and Pakistan was hampering import of Indian tea.

Karnataka takes steps to curb farmer suicides
Alarmed by the increasing number of farmer suicides in Karnataka the State Government is planning to send teams of experts into the countryside to stop farmers from killing themselves. In the past 3 months Karnataka’s farming community has been rocked by more than 70 suicides, most of them blamed on debt and drought.

The agenda of the health and agriculture officials will primarily be to meet the state’s farmers and reassure them. The Government has also announced a Rs 8.5 billion-relief package, which includes funds for seed subsidies, power bills and the waiver of interest rates on loans.

Government to equalise selling price of wheat
The Government is planning to sell wheat to exporters selling wheat- based value added products at the same price, as offered to the exporters of raw wheat to remove discriminatory treatment given to the former.

Under the present policy, the wheat-product exporters have to pay Rs 500 extra per tonne for wheat allocation compared to the price paid by wheat exporters.

Further, the wheat exporters receive their supplies at port-rail head, while the wheat-products exporters have to lift their requirement from the FCI (Food Corporation of India) depot and take it to the flour mill and again from flour mill to the port, involving a transport cost of Rs 450 to Rs 500 a tonne. Thus, the total cost goes up by Rs 950 to Rs 1,000 a tonne compared to their overseas competitors.

Farmers demand a vanilla export zone in kerala
The Infam (Indian Farmers Movement) has put forward a proposal to the Union Agricultural Ministry for setting up an agro-export zone for vanilla in Muvattupuzha, Kerala, to help the farmers to market their produce in an efficient and organised manner.

The organisation said that, “The Government should identify product specific agro-export zones to provide services to the farmers like post-harvest treatments, processing packaging and storage. The Spices Board headquartered in Kerala could identify such zones in the country for the different spices”.

The agro-export zone suggested for vanilla could make use of the wholesale agricultural produce marketing centre at Muvattupuzha, developed with assistance from the European Union.

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