Around Rs 7159 crore paid to 3.22 lakh farmers farmers for procurement of paddy on MSP

On an average  Rs 2.22 lakh is given to paddy farmers in government procurement so far

Posted on Oct 12

With the commencement of Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21, Government continues to procure Kharif 2020-21 crops at its MSP from farmers as per its existing MSP Schemes as was done in previous seasons.

Paddy Procurement for Kharif 2020-21 has gained momentum with an increase in the quantum of procurement in procuring States and start of purchase in some new States. Food Corporation of India along with other Government agencies has, upto 10.10.2020, procured over 37.92 LMT Paddy with a total MSP outflow of ₹7159.39 Crores to more than 3.22 Lac farmers.

Further, based on the proposal from the States, approval was accorded for procurement of 30.70 LMT of Pulse and Oilseeds for Kharif Marketing Season 2020 for the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Further, sanction for procurement of 1.23 LMT of Copra (the perennial crop) for the State of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala was also given. For other States/UTs approval will also be accorded on receipt of proposals for the procurement of Pulses, Oilseeds and Copra under Price Support Scheme (PSS) so that procurement of FAQ grade of these crops can be made at notified MSP for the year 2020-21 directly from the registered farmers if the market rate goes below MSP during the notified harvesting period in the respective States/UTs by the Central Nodal Agencies through State nominated procuring agencies.

Up to 10.10.2020, the Government through its Nodal Agencies has procured 459.60 MT of Moong having MSP value of Rs. 3.33 crores benefitting 326 farmers in Tamil Nadu and Haryana. Similarly, 5089 MT of copra having MSP value of Rs. 52.40 crore has been procured benefitting 3961 farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In respect of Copra and Urad, rates are ruling at or above MSP in most of the major producing States. The respective State/UTs Governments are making necessary arrangements for the commencement of procurement from the date as decided by the respective States based on the arrivals in respect of Moong and other Kharif Pulses and Oilseeds.

The Procurement of seed cotton (Kapas) during Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21 has started from 1st October 2020 and cumulative procurement as on 10th October 2020 by Cotton Corporation of India has reached a quantity of 24863 bales under MSP for a value of Rs 7545 lakh benefitting 5252 farmers. Around Rs 1,082 crore paid to 41,084 farmers for procurement of paddy on MSP

Cotton procurement for Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21 on MSP has also started

Posted On: 04 OCT

Paddy procurement for 2020-21 has commenced across the procuring States. As on 03.10.2020, cumulative procurement of Paddy in KMS 2020-21 is 5,73,339 MT. The total number of farmers benefited are 41,084 and total MSP outflow so far, is approximately Rs 1,082.464 crore.

The Procurement of seed cotton (Kapas) during Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21 has started from 1st October, 2020. As on 3-10-2020, Cotton Corporation of India has procured a cumulative quantity of 147 bales under MSP for a value of Rs.40.80 Lakh benefitting 29 farmers.

Paddy procurement progressing smoothly in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh

The Farmer's agitation appears to be fizzling out as farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh coming forward in large numbers to sell their produce in farmer's Mandis fetching good price for their produce.
October 3
The Paddy procurement for 2020-21 is progressing smoothly and has commenced so far in 3 states viz. Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. As on 02.10.2020, cumulative procurement of Paddy in KMS 2020-21 is 3,65,170 MT. The total no of farmers benefited are 28,715 and total MSP outflow is Rs 689.44 crore. The pace of paddy procurement is going to pick up in a week’s time.
There is no MSP purchase of cotton on 2nd October 2020 and being a National holiday, no FAQ grade arrivals in market yards.

Thanks to AgriBill protest, Centre is showing large heart to procure paddy from Haryana and Punjab, 1.04 Lakh  Metric Tonnes procurement worth Rs 197 crore in just five days from 8057 farmers.

From October 1 it starts in all paddy growing states. The farmer's agitation paid farmers, the government appears to be in the back foot.

October 1

The arrival of Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21 has just begun and the Government continues to procure Kharif 2020-21 crops at MSP from farmers as per its existing MSP Schemes as done in previous seasons.

The procurement of Paddy during KMS 2020-21 has started from 26th September, 2020 in Haryana and Punjab. Upto 30.09.2020, the Paddy Procurement of 13,412 MT in Haryana and 91,005 MT in Punjab totaling 1,04,417 MT having MSP value of Rs.197 crore at MSP of Rs 1888 per quintal has been done from 8059 farmers of Haryana and Punjab.

Further, based on the proposal from the States, approval has been accorded for procurement of 14.09 LMT of Pulse and Oilseeds for Kharif Marketing Season 2020 for the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Haryana and 1.23 LMT of Copra (the perennial crop) for the State of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala . For other States/UTs approval will also be accorded on receipt of proposals for procurement of Pulses, Oilseeds and Copra under Price Support Scheme (PSS) so that procurement of FAQ grade of these crops can be made at notified MSP for the year 2020-21 directly from the registered farmers, if the market rate goes below MSP during the notified harvesting period in the respective States/UTs by the Central Nodal Agencies through State nominated procuring agencies.

Upto 29.09.2020, the Government through its Nodal Agencies has procured 46.35 MT of Moong having MSP value of Rs.33 lakhs benefitting 48 farmers in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, 5089 MT of copra having MSP value of Rs. 52.40 crore has been procured benefitting 3961 farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu against the sanctioned quantity of 1.23 LMT for the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The procurement of Cotton for the season 2020-21 commences from today and Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is starting purchase of FAQ grade Cotton from today onwards.

September 30

Procurement of paddy has started in full swing and is showing encouraging results in Punjab and Haryana procuring more than 44,809 Metric Tonnes (MT) of Paddy from Punjab and Haryana alone claimed Union Agriculture Ministry here on Wednesday.

The procurement of Paddy had started in Haryana and Punjab from September 26, in wake of the early arrival of crop in the Mandis and in the past four days Paddy Procurement of 3,506 MT in Haryana and 41,303 MT in Punjab having MSP value of Rs.84.60 crore at MSP (Minimum Support Price) of Rs 1888 per quintal has been done from 2950 farmers of Haryana and Punjab, The Ministry said.

The procurement of Paddy would start from Thursday in all paddy growing states and the arrival of Kharif 2020-21 has just begun. “The Government continues to procure Kharif 2020-21 crops at MSP from farmers as per its existing MSP Schemes as done in previous seasons,” the Ministry said.

Based on the proposal from the States, approval accorded for procurement of 14.09 LMT (lakh NT) of Pulse and oilseeds for Kharif Marketing Season 2020 for the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Haryana. For other States and UTs approval will also be accorded on receipt of a proposal for Kharif Pulses and oilseeds and procurement of FAQ grade will be made as per Price Support Scheme (PSS), if the market rate goes below its MSP during the notified harvesting period, the ministry said.

The Government has also procured non-paddy crops. “Up to Tuesday through its Nodal Agencies has procured 46.35 MT of Moong having MSP value of Rs.33 lakhs benefitting 48 farmers in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, 5089 MT of copra (the perennial crop) having MSP value of Rs. 52.40 crore has been procured benefitting 3961 farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu against the sanctioned quantity of 1.23LMT for the Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala,” said a senior officer of the Agriculture Ministry.

The procurement of Cotton for the season 2020-21 shall commence from October 1 and Cotton Corporation of India, it added.

Ends.

Indian scientists develop Affordable Solar Powered Battery based Sprayers to tackle Water Crisis in Agriculture

Water is a precious resource and water scarcity is looming large over the entire Nation. Agriculture, which consumes around 70% of Water, for irrigation purpose, is the most vulnerable sector of the Economy owing to this crisis. To address this issue there has been discussion on implementing solar pump in almost every farmland.

Apart from solar pumps, CSIR-CMERI is working on methods to reduce water consumption required for irrigation. Initially, Drip irrigation was considered but later it was realised that Drip irrigation is not affordable for marginal to small farmers, who are the major stakeholders in Indian Agrarian scenario. Those farmers use manual sprayers costing a few thousand rupees.

As per the available knowledge, pesticides play a very big role in increasing crop productivity, but a large amount of pesticide sprays is wasted due to lack of appropriate machinery, and soil, water and air become polluted. Due to such harmful effects of pesticides, there is an increasing pressure to reduce their use and make their spraying more efficient. To make efficient sprayer, there is a need to understand the science of surface tension, viscosity, wettability, air drag, dynamic pressure, particle size, etc. CSIR-CMERI developed two variants of battery-operated spray systems one for “marginal farmers” and others for “small farmers”. Backpack Sprayer, having a capacity of 5 litres, is made for “marginal farmers”, while the Compact Trolley Sprayer having a capacity of 10 litres, is made for “small farmers”. These sprayers are equipped with two separate tanks, flow control and pressure regulator to handle different water requirements of the crops, target/site-specific irrigation, maintaining appropriate dilution of pesticide/fungicide to control the pest (on foliage, under the leaves, at root zone etc.), creating water-based micro-roughness of leaf surface, maintaining soil moisture levels in a narrow range, and weed control. The systems functions on Solar-Powered batteries, thus enabling its usage even in energy and power deprived agricultural regions of the Nation, thus reducing dependence on price volatile fossil fuels. The sprayers are simple to develop, easy to learn and implement, therefore will help to overcome the water crisis faced by Indian farmers.

The flow control feature of the Sprayers helps achieve multiple levels of Water/Pesticide flow thereby enhancing the flexibility and dynamicity of the coverage area as well as the intensity of the application. The Dual-Chamber design of the Sprayers helps achieve a degree of resource versatility as it allows the system to carry two variants of liquids at any particular instant. As per experiments conducted at CSIR-CMERI, the engaged farmers have informed that it helps save 75% of Water and 25% time-consumption while using the CSIR-CMERI developed sprayers. This design element might also help reduce the time consumption for Spray based Agricultural applications, as the farmer need not empty the contents of a single vessel completely before using different content.

Prof. (Dr.) Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, elaborated, “These couple of variants can bring about a revolution in the sphere of Precision Agriculture by reducing the usage of Water in Agriculture. This revolutionary technology will help in creating agricultural avenues even in arid and semi-arid regions, as the Water scarcity will no longer be feared by the farming community. The CSIR-CMERI developed sprayers provide a cost-effective socio-economic solution for both marginalised and small-scale farmers. The affordable pricing profile helps to provide opportunities to cottage and micro-industries in furthering the outreach factor of the technology widely.”

CSIR-CMERI has already developed solar tree of capacity 1 Kwp, 3 kwp, 5 kwp, 6 kwp, 7.5 kwp and 11.5 kwp,(which is now the Largest Solar Tree in the world).

	Back Pack Sprayer	Compact Trolley Sprayer
Overall Dimension	H 300mm W220mm  B 120mm	H 650mm W400mm  B 200mm
Weight	16Kg	23 kg
No of Container	2	2
Each Container Capacity	2.5Kg	5Kg
Battery life	4 to 5 hr	4 to 5 hr
Nozzle spray angle	80 degree	80 degree
Sprayer distance	1 to 1.5 m	1 to 1.5 m
Max. Flow Rate	0.7L/min	0.7L/min
Key Features	Flow regulator, Easy Switching option for the tank, Extendable hose up to 12feet, Easy Handling	Flow regulator, Easy Switching option for the tank, Extendable hose up to 12feet, Easy Handling

 

India launches a new platform for green energy trading all over India

As a first step towards Greening the Indian short term power Market, Minister of State for Power R K Singh  on Tuesday launched pan-India Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) in electricity through video conference in New Delhi.

The introduction of GTAM platform would lessen the burden on the RE-rich States and incentivize them to develop RE capacity beyond their own RPO. This would further promote RE merchant capacity addition and help in achieving RE capacity addition targets of the country, the minister said.

The GTAM platform would lead to an increase in the number of participants in the renewable energy sector. It will benefit buyers of RE through competitive prices and transparent and flexible procurement. It will also benefit RE sellers by providing access to the pan- India market, the minister said.

India has already set a target of generating 175 GW RE Capacity by 2022 is driving accelerated renewable penetration pan-India. Green Term Ahead Market contracts will allow additional avenues to the RE generators for sale of renewable energy; enable Obligated entities to procure renewable power at competitive prices to meet their Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO); and provide a platform to environmentally conscious open access to consumers and utilities to buy green power.

Ends

Key features of GTAM:

1.         Transactions through GTAM will be bilateral in nature with clear identification of corresponding buyers and sellers, there will not be any difficulty in accounting for RPO.

2.         GTAM contracts will be segregated into Solar RPO & Non-Solar RPO as RPO targets are also segregated.

3.         Further, within the two segments, GTAM contracts will have Green Intraday, Day Ahead Contingency, Daily and Weekly Contracts

a.         Green Intraday Contract & Day Ahead Contingency Contract – Bidding will take place on a 15-minute time-block wise MW basis.

b.         Daily & Weekly Contracts – Bidding will take place on MWh basis. Both buyers and sellers can submit the bid, however, the seller will provide a profile in terms of 15-minute time block-wise quantity (MW) along with the price (Rs/MWh). After the contract gets executed scheduling will take place as per the profile. In the case of multiple buyers, the profile will get allocated on a pro-rata basis.

4.         Price discovery will take place on a continuous basis i.e. price-time priority basis. Subsequently, looking at the market conditions open auction can be introduced for daily & weekly contracts.

5.         Energy scheduled through GTAM contract shall be considered as deemed RPO compliance of the buyer.

Union Power Minister also mentioned that other products to be introduced in the power market for the promotion of Renewable Energy are in the pipeline and would be introduced soon.