13-Mar-2020: Imparting new technologies to farmers through electronic media

DAC&FW is educating farmers through following use of electronic media as follows :-

  1. Kisan Suvidha mobile app facilitates 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.
  2. Crop related advisories are regularly sent to the registered farmers through SMSs on mKisan Portal (www.mkisan.gov.in).
  3. The Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) has compiled more than 100 mobile apps developed by ICAR, State Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in the areas of crops, horticulture, veterinary, dairy, poultry, fisheries, natural resources management and integrated subjects.
  4. Awareness/ education is being created among farmers through various electronic mass media mediums like DD Kisan Channel, Doordarshan, All India Radio etc.
  5. Apart from the above, Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube are being used to educate farmers, across the country.

The Government is implementing the following schemes aimed at imparting training to farmers in the agriculture and allied sectors:-

  1. A Centrally Sponsored Scheme on ‘Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms’ popularly known as Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) Scheme is under implementation in 691 districts of 28 States & 5 UTs of the country. The extension activities under ATMA, inter-alia, include Farmers’ Training. During the year, 2018-19, 19.18 lakh farmers availed training benefits under ATMA.
  2. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with its network of 717 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) has mandate of technology assessment, demonstration and capacity development of farmers. KVKs are imparting training to farmers for getting higher agricultural production and income. During the year 2018-19, 13.51 lakh farmers were trained by KVKs in various thematic areas.
  3. Four Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes (FMTTIs) located at Budni (MP), Hissar (Haryana), Anantapur (AP) and Biswanath Chariali (Assam) are engaged in imparting training to various categories of trainees including farmers, in the field of Farm Mechanization. During the year 2018-19, these Institutes have trained 9905 candidates.
  4. National Food Security Mission (NFSM) is being implemented in identified districts of 28 States and 2 UTs viz. Ladakh and J&K of the country to increase the production and productivity of rice, wheat, pulses, coarse cereals and nutri- cereals (millets) through area expansion and productivity enhancement. During the year 2018-19, 3,42,188 number of farmers were trained.
  5. Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme is being implemented for holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa and bamboo. All States and UTs are covered under MIDH. During 2018-19, 1,91,086 number of farmers were trained.
  6. In addition to the above, training of farmers is an inbuilt component under Sub-Mission on Plan Protection & Plant Quarantine. Farmer Field Schools are conducted for promoting Integrated Pest Management among farmers. During the year 2018-19, 712 FFSs were organized under the scheme.

26-Feb-2020: MIEWS portal would help in planning and timely intervention for price stabilisation

Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, launched the– Market Intelligence and Early Warning System (MIEWS) Web Portal here today. The portal can be accessed at http://miews.nafed-india.com.

Addressing the media during the event, the Minister said that the MIEWS Dashboard and Portal is a ‘first-of-its-kind’ platform for ‘real time monitoring’ of prices of tomato, onion and potato (TOP) and for simultaneously generating alerts for intervention under the terms of the Operation Greens(OG) scheme. The portal would disseminate all relevant information related to TOP crops such as Prices and Arrivals, Area, Yield and Production, Imports and Exports, Crop Calendars, Crop Agronomy, etc in an easy to use visual format.

As per the terms of the OG Scheme, during a glut situation, evacuation of surplus production from producing areas to consumption centres will be undertaken as determined by the following:

      1. When the prices fall below preceding 3 years’ average market price at the time of harvest;
      2. When the prices fall more than 50% compared to last year’s market price at the time of harvest;
      3. When the prices fall less than the benchmark, if any, fixed by the State / Central Government for a specified period.

The Minister said that the MIEWS system is designed to provide advisories to farmers to avoid cyclical production as well as an early warning in situations of gluts. For decision makers, the MIEWS system will help in

      1. monitoring of supply situation for timely market intervention,
      2. assist in rapid response in times of glut to move produce from glut regions to deficit/consuming regions and
      3. providing inputs for export/import decision making.

The salient features of the MIEWS portal include:

      1. A dashboard that would indicate low price and high price alerts as well as price forecasts for 3 month forward
      2. Prices and arrivals of TOP crops across the country including interactive charts and comparisons with previous seasons
      3. Area, Yield and Production of TOP crops
      4. Crop Agronomy and Trade Profile of each of the TOP crops
      5. Regular and special reports on the market situation of the TOP crops. The portal will have public and private sections into which the aforementioned features would be divided. Sections like Prices and arrivals, Area, yield and production, Crop Agronomy and Trade Profile would be accessible to the public while the regular and special market intelligence reports and price forecasts would be accessible only to the policy makers.

This portal is a novel initiative of MoFPI leveraging IT tools and furthering the goals of Digital India. Previously, the Ministry has been credited for streamlining the entire project application, implementation & evaluation process online through its Sampada portal & Dashboard. MoFPI has recently received accolades from the, Ministry of Personnel, Public grievances & Pensions, Government of India for effectively implementing e-Office.

The initiative of MoFPI is expected to leverage the strengths of IT in real time monitoring and timely responding to any exigency on account of supply side irregularity or constraints in respect of these three crops. If successful, this model can be further expanded and emulated by other concerned departments/Ministries of Government of India.

OPERATION GREENS SCHEME: In the budget speech of Union Budget 2018-19, a new Scheme “Operation Greens” was announced on the line of “Operation Flood”, with an outlay of Rs.500 crores to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management. Accordingly, the Ministry has formulated a scheme for integrated development of Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) value chain. For more details on the scheme, click here

17-Feb-2020: Government of India has unveiled a programme to research on ‘indigenous’ cows.

The initiative is called SUTRA PIC or Scientific Utilisation Through Research Augmentation-Prime Products from Indigenous Cows. Scientific research will be carried out milk products derived from Indian indigenous cows.

It has five themes:

  1. Uniqueness of Indigenous Cows,
  2. Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Medicine & Health,
  3. Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Agricultural Applications,
  4. Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Food & Nutrition and
  5. Prime-products from indigenous cows-based utility items.

Bodies involved: To be funded by multiple scientific ministries, the initiative is led by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Researchers from academic organisations as well as NGOs active in India were invited to apply for funding.

  1. Apiary on Wheels
  2. Custom Hiring Centres (CHC)
  3. Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme
  4. Participatory Guarantee Scheme (PGS)
  5. National Animal Disease Control Programme (NACDP)
  6. Mukhya Mantri Krishi Aashirwad Yojana