Agriculture Current Affair 15 August 2020

Self-reliant farmers key to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ mission: PM

Highlighting key agricultural reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said farm trade has been freed up from all restrictions, enabling farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

By drawing parallels with soap or cloth manufacturers who were able to sell their products anywhere at will, Modi said even after over seven decades of Independence, farmers did not enjoy the freedom to trade their commodities beyond local mandis.

Kharif sowing crosses 100 million hectares

Buoyed by a significant 14 per cent increase in planting of oilseeds and rice, the total area under kharif crops so far crossed 1,000 lakh hectares (lh) already and is all set to clock a new record in total cropped area.

Kharif sowing data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday said a total of 1,016 lh has been planted so far, nearly 9 per cent more than 936 lh sown in the corresponding week last year.

Amul adopts digital tracking, monitoring systems for artificial insemination

In an important milestone for the dairy sector for adoption of digital technologies, Amul Dairy has implemented digitization of artificial insemination of cattle.

After successful operational initial results at the Kaira District Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union (Amul Dairy), all the 1,200 village level milk producer societies of Amul Dairy milkshed area have been covered under digitalization. Amul Dairy become India’s first cooperative to adopt digital tracking, monitoring system for artificial insemination processes.