Implement Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act in letter & spirit: Standing Committee on Food tells Centre
A Parliamentary Panel has asked the government to implement in “letter and spirit” the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act — one of the laws against which farmers are protesting at Delhi borders for more than 100 days now.
This panel also has members from opposition parties including Congress, TMC and AAP. These parties have been demanding repeal of all three farm laws enacted by the Centre recently.
Punjab, Bihar consume more fertiliser; Maharashtra, UP use more pesticides
Punjab and Bihar lead in the per hectare consumption of fertilisers, while Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are the major consumers of chemical pesticides. In fact, Maharashtra, along with West Bengal, also leads in the consumption of bio-pesticides.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said that the use of fertilisers and pesticide depends on several factors such as the area under cultivation, type of crop, cropping intensity, agro-climatic conditions, soil condition, weed, pests, disease situation, etc.
Telangana pegs value of paddy, cotton output at ₹57,125 crore
In a year that witnessed the ruin of an economy, the primary sector emerged as a saviour for Telangana as the Gross Value Output (GVO) from paddy and cotton the ₹57,125 crore in 2020-21.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic curtailing people’s movement and transport services, the GVO has gone up by 20.9 per cent over the previous year’s figure, as the area under cultivation of these two crops has gone up significantly.
