Agriculture

In the first week of e-auction, quantities ranging from of 100 to 499 million tonnes attracted maximum demand. After this, the demand was for quantities of 500-1,000 million tonnes, followed by that of 50-100 million tonnes, thus indicating that small and medium flour millers and traders actively participated in the auction.

This has enabled the agriculture and allied activities sector to contribute significantly towards the country's overall growth, development and food security, said the Economic Survey 2022-23 tabled in Parliament by Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday. Further in recent years the country has emerged as the net exporter of agricultural products,

"Farmers are and should be the centre of focus in all discussions, as they are the important stakeholders. Farmers are always confused by the various and frequent changes in the market on what will be the value for their harvest. We need to bring in significant transparency for them so that farmers can plan their livelihoods,

According to the provisional data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) on Wednesday, the overall export of Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) products increased to $13,771 million in April-September 2022 from $11,056 million over the same period of the last fiscal.

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, recently said the administration is constantly working to improve a lot of the nation's small farmers. The minister informed that the government has started the work of creating 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO), for which Rs 6,865 crore is being spent.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, said on Saturday that the country spends Rs 15 lakh crore per year for import of petroleum products, hence there is a need to diversify the agriculture sector towards energy and power sectors. Addressing the felicitation programme of National Cogeneration Awards 2022 in Mumbai, Gadkari exhorted the industry of the crucial need to focus on alternative fuels with the help of futuristic technologies.

Officials said that nearly 300 events will be organised under the plan in the current year for boosting exports. The APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) has planned to create awareness among stakeholders of food export by highlighting its impact on human life through various online platforms, including social media platforms.

As per the provisional data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), the overall export of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) products increased to $7,408 million in April-June 2022 from $5,663 million over the same period of the last fiscal. The export target for April-June 2022-23 was fixed at $5,890 million.

Aiming to protect interest of sugarcane farmers, the CCEA has also decided that there would not be any deduction in case of sugar mills where recovery is below 9.5 per cent. Such farmers are likely to get Rs 282.125 per quintal for sugarcane in 2022-23 as against Rs 275.50 per quintal in current sugar season 2021-22.

Rice is sown over 8.73 lakh Ha, compared to 12.52 lakh Ha in 2021, which is 3.80 lakh Ha less (minus 30.32 per cent). Pulses have been sown over 4.39 lakh Ha, compared to 4.74 lakh Ha in 2021, which is 0.35 lakh Ha less (minus 7.43 per cent), among them, Urad has witnessed the least sowing with 0.53 lakh Ha this year compared to 0.73 lakh Ha last year (minus 27.95 per cent).