Agriculture Current Affair 10 August 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants farmers to slash use of urea

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged farmers to significantly cut their use of urea to boost income and soil health, and said his government was constantly striving to prop up rural India with steps such as the ₹1 lakh crore agriculture infrastructure fund, for which he launched the financing facility on Sunday.

Modi also released ₹17,000 crore to the bank accounts of 85 million farmers as the next instalment of the PM-Kisan scheme vai videoconferencing. With this, the scheme has provided over ₹90,000 crore in the hands of more than 100 million farmers since its launch in December 2018.

Transport Ministry proposes to defer emission norms for tractors

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has proposed to defer the time for implementing the next stage of emission norms for tractors by one year to October 1, 2021. This follows the request of the Agriculture Ministry, tractor manufacturers, and agriculture associations.

Also, for construction equipment vehicles, the next phase of emission norms are proposed to be applicable with effect from Apr 1, 2021, providing a deferment of six months.

Ministry of Agriculture asks States and agencies to be vigilant about suspicious seed parcels

Following the BusinessLine story about National Seed Association of India (NSAI) asking the Centre to put its agencies on high alert against Chinese seeds penetrating into Indian fields, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has issued an office memorandum on the matter. Stating that unsolicited seed parcels can be a threat to India’s bio-diversity, the Ministry has asked State Agriculture Departments, agriculture universities, seed associations, certification agencies, seed corporations and the ICAR to be vigilant about suspicious seed parcels.