Agriculture Current Affair 18 July 2022

Tomato prices drop by 60% in a month

Tomato prices, which had touched ₹100 per kg in June, have dropped by 60% to ₹40 per kg but the prices of potatoes, the most common vegetable on Indian platters, remain firm with prices of good quality potatoes rising 2% in July as demand from South India has increased.

According to government figures, inflation for potato and tomato rose 23.86% and 158.78%, respectively, in June. The inflation on account of tomato is likely to cool off in July due to a significant drop in prices.

“The unusual heatwave that had impacted the tomato crop across the country isn’t there anymore. There has been rains and production has gone up. Supply is robust from places like Shimla and Kolar, Bagepalli, Chintamani districts of Karnataka and Madanepalle of Andhra. This brought down prices in July,” said Ashok Kaushik, president, Tomato Traders Association of Azadpur mandi, the largest in Asia.

Horticulture output may grow 2% this year

The horticulture production in 2021-22 is estimated to be 341.63 million tonnes (mt), an increase of about 7.03 mt (rise of 2.10%) over 2020-21, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, on account of increase in production of fruits, vegetables and honey. However, a fall is expected in the production of spices, flowers, aromatics and medicinal plants.

Paddy acreage down 17% so far in kharif season, says official data

The area under coverage for paddy is down 17.4 per cent so far in the ongoing kharif sowing season while acreage of pulses, coarse cereals and oilseeds are higher by 7-9 per cent. As per the Ministry of Agriculture data till July 15, the paddy sowing has reached 128.50 Lakh Hectares (LH) so far this kharif season as against 155.53 LH in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Paddy acreage has improved in the last one week as sowing was down 24 per cent as on July 8. The rains this month will be crucial to compensate the fall in acreage of paddy.

However, the area under coverage for pulses has increased by 9 per cent to 72.66 LH from 66.69 LH during the period under review.

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