Agriculture Current Affair 13 December 2022

Paddy procurement for central pool up 13% at 38 million tonnes till December 11

Procurement of paddy for the central pool in the ongoing 2022-23 kharif marketing season was 13% higher at 38.06 million tonnes as on December 11, compared with 33.62 million tonnes a year earlier, according to latest data from Food Corporation of India (FCI).

The data indicates that this year, the government is actively procuring paddy to fill up its stocks, said Tarun Satsangi, assistant general manager at Origo Commodities, which focuses on commodity supply chain, post-harvest management, trade and finance.

Trade sources believe this year the government’s paddy stocks would be 5% higher than last year, touching 80 mt.

While procurement from Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu increased this season from the previous one, it was lower in Uttar Pradesh, one of the top producers of the grain. Till December 11, UP’s contribution was 20.02 million tonnes against 23.77 million tonnes a year earlier.

Inorganic fertiliser manufacture requires prior environmental clearance, says NGT

EIA notification imposes certain restrictions and prohibitions on new projects or activities, unless prior environmental clearance has been obtained

The National Green Tribunal has clarified that the manufacture or production of inorganic fertilisers required environmental clearance and added that such chemicals were covered under the Environmental Impact Assessment notification of 2006.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification imposes certain restrictions and prohibitions on new projects or activities or the expansion or modernisation of existing projects, unless prior environmental clearance has been obtained.

The tribunal observed that merely because an erroneous stand regarding inorganic chemicals was taken by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in an earlier case, it could not be grounds to accept the petitioner’s contentions.

The NGT was hearing a petition filed by a private company for clarification that its products — Potassium thiosulfate and Calcium, classified as liquid fertilisers — did not fall under the notification.

Bangladesh seeks 5,00,000 tonnes of parboiled rice from India on G2G basis

Dhaka has approached three more nations but Indian cereal most competitive

Bangladesh has approached India to source at least 0.5 million tonnes (mt) of parboiled rice on a government-to-government (G2G) basis for distribution through ration shops.

India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh has been approached by the Sheikh Hasina Wajed government for the supply, even as Dhaka has floated two tenders of 50,000 tonnes each to import parboiled rice, trade sources said.

The tenders floated on December 6 and 12 will close on December 21 and December 17, respectively.

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