Major current Affairs in Agriculture
Eligibility for PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme
Statistics
- First installment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme received by 3,33,14,898 farmers
- Second installment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme received by 2,89,59,068 farmers
New guideline for eligibility for PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme
- Removal of institutional land holder
- Removal of farmer families whose atleast one of the member is holding any constitutional post as present/former ministers/legislature/mayor/District Panchayat or serving or retired central/state/PSE member. Class 4 employees are included
- Retired person whose monthly pension is more than Rs 10000 are excluded
- Removal of person paying income tax in previous FY
- Removal of professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Architects,CA
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Fall Army Worm (FAW) infestion
Crop infested: Maize, Sorghum
States effected: Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar and Rajasthan
Facts and Abbreviations
- Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare: Narendra Singh Tomar
- CIPMC: Central Integrated Pest Management Centres
- DAC&FW: Department of Agriculture Coorporation and Farmer’ Welfare
- DARE: Department of Agriculture Research and Education
Weather conditions are provided to the farmers through Kisan Call Centres in 22 local languages
Benefits: Help the farmers in making better agricultural decisions like carrying out timely sowing of crops according to weather forecast
Weather information provided through:
- Kisan Call Centre
- Doordarshan
- DD Kisan
- All India Radio
- m-kisan portal
Agromet Advisory Service (AAS) scheme
Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS): Under GKMS scheme, district level weather forecast including rainfall for the next five days for all the districts is generated. Agromet Advisories are prepared in collaboration with 130 Agromet Field Units (AMFUs) and communicated to the farming community. Agromet Advisories are being disseminated through WhatsApp, SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) using Kisan Portal.
Companies involved in PPP model: IKSL, Reliance Foundation and Mahindra Samriddhi
Kisan Suvidha mobile application
Benefits: to facilitate dissemination of information to farmers on the critical parameters viz., weather; market prices; plant protection; input Dealers (Seed, Pesticide, Fertilizer) farm machinery; soil health card; cold storages & godowns, veterinary centres and diagnostic labs.
Available in 9 languages. Languages are English, Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengla and Telugu
e-NAM scheme review
Rs. 423.23 crore has been released under e-Nam scheme, between 2015-16 to 2018-19
Benefits and facilities offered to farmers:
- Finding prices of various commodities on e-NAM mobile app
- Using e-Nam mobile app for pre-registration and quick gate entry
- quality testing of the produce of the farmers before bidding
- View the entire bidding process, and getting final bidding amount via sms
- Facilities of online payment transactions for payment transfer after bid
Mandatory guidelines for integrating mandis with e-Nam app
- Provision for e-trading
- (ii) Single point levy of market fee
- (iii) Unified Single trading license for the State.
Insurance Cover for Risk-Prone Crops
Aim: To measure and quantify the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture
Research model used: Had CM3 model
How: Simulation of crops yields by projection of climate for 2020, 2050 and 2080. Temperature and rainfall pattern data were observed.
Research conducted by:
- Indian Agricultural Research Institute at New Delhi
- Central Research Institute for Dry land Agriculture at Hyderabad
- Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi
- Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore
Climate change impact studied by Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) under Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF)
Observation:
- All India mean temperature has risen in last 3 decades
- Crops and region wise pattern
- Decrease in productivity in Rice & Wheatespecially in the Indo Gangetic Plains, Maize in Mid Indo-Gangetic Plains (MIGP) & Southern Plateau (SP), Sorghum & potato in West Bengal, and Southern Plateau
- Increase in productivities in Soybean, Groundnut, Chickpea & Potato in Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh, Apple in Himachal Pradesh
Major insurance schemes of Govt of India:
- Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) – risk coverage from pre-sowing to post harvest losses against non-preventable natural risks
- Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) -indemnification for likely crop losses due to deviation in weather indices
- Insurance premium rate: 2% for Kharif crops, 1.5% for Rabi Crop and 5% for annual commercial/horticultural crops
Ban on Crop Residue Burning
NGT Ban on stubble burning to clear the fields for Rabi Crop sowing in:
- NCT of Delhi
- Rajasthan
- Punjab
- Uttar Pradesh
- Haryana
Central govt scheme for crop residual management
Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue
States: Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, UP
Funds: Rs 1150 crores (2018-19)
Funds used for:
- distribution of in-situ crop residue management machinery to the farmers on subsidy
- establishment of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) of in-situ crop residue management machinery
- undertaking Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities
Technology for Crop Damage Assessment
Research: to carry out pilot studies for Optimization of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) in various States
Research done by: Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) under Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare
Objective: reducing the number of CCEs required for insurance unit level for yield estimation
Research done through: Satellite data, Artificial Intelligence, Modeling tools
Modernization of Technology to Double the Income of Farmers
- Using modern technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Block chain Technology, Internet of Things in rural and agriculture sector.
- Kisan Suvidha mobile application to facilitate dissemination of information to farmers
- more than 100 mobile apps developed by ICAR for agriculture and livestock management
- mKisan Portal: sending advisories on various crop related matter to the registered farmers through SMSs
- e-National Agriculture Market: online trading platform
- Infrastructure for improve/create scientific storage capacity for storing farm produce, processed farm produce and to reduce post-harvest storage loss
- Soil Health Card Scheme: Checking nutrient status of soil, every 2 years
- Setting up 713 Krishi Vigyan Kendras and 684 Agricultural Technology Management Agencies at district level for dissemination of technologies among farm community.
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Agricultural Production in The Country
Total foodgrain production in the country: 285.01 tonnes (2017-18)
Schemes for improving productivity
- National Food Security Mission (NFSM)
- Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)
- Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI)
- National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)
- Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana
- Soil Health Card
Organic Farming in India
Total Registered farmers in organic farming:
- Participatory Guarantee System (PGS India): 4, 53,622 farmers
- TraceNet under third party certification: 11, 47,401 farmers
Schemes for promoting organic farming under:
- Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East region (MOVCDNER)
- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)
- Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)
- Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)
- Network Project on Organic Farming under ICAR
- Third party certification of organic farming is promoted by Agriculture Processed Food and Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce
Major State level brands:
- MP : Made in Mandla
- Uttarakhand: Organic Uttarakhand
- TN: Tamil Nadu Organic Product (TOP)
- Maharashtra: Sahi organic, Nasik Organic & Gadchirrolia Organic Farming
- Jharkhand: Jaivik Jharkhand , from the land of Jharkhand
- Chattisgarh: Aadim brand of Bhoomi Gadi FPO, Bastar Naturals
- Punjab: Five Rivers
- Tripura: Tripureshwari Fresh
Pension scheme for farmers
Benefits: minimum fixed pension of Rs 3000 per month on attaining age of 60 years
How: Beneficiary is required to contribute Rs. 100 per month at median entry age of 29 years. Central government shall also contribute to the Pension Fund in equal amount.
Age criteria: age group of 18-40 years
Fund managed by : LIC
3rd Advance Estimates of production of major crops for 2018-19
Released by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare
Major estimates:
- Total Foodgrains –283.37 million tonnes.
- Rice – 115.63 million tonnes. (record)
- Wheat – 101.20 million tonnes (record)
- Total Oilseeds –31.42 million tonnes
- Cotton – 27.59 million bales (of 170 kg each)
- Sugarcane– 400.37 million tonnes (record)