Agriculture Current Affair 24 July 2020

PM Kisan beneficiaries: FinMin notifies norms to share info about taxpayers

In order to ensure exclusion of non-eligible beneficiaries of PM Kisan scheme, the Finance Ministry has notified norms under the Income Tax Act to share information about income tax assessee.

Normally, the Income Tax Department does not share information about individual assessee, however, there is one section of the Income Tax Act, 1961 that enables exceptions. It has allowed the Joint Secretary (Farmers Welfare) in the Department of Agriculture, Coooperation and Farmers Welfare in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to get information regarding income tax assessees for identifying the eligible beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN Yojana, according to a notification issued by the Finance Ministry.

India eyes 40% value addition in milk by 2025

Even as India has set its eyes on doubling milk processing capacities to 108 million tonnes by 2025, the extent of value addition in milk is targeted to increase from 23 per cent currently to 40 per cent as industry looks to bring in more product and food technology innovations in dairy sector.

Addressing a FICCI webinar on ‘Development of Indian Dairy Sector’, Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India, stated that India’s dairy sector is one of the fastest growing in the world.

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture should be the new normal in Covid era farming, says Kerala Agriculture Minister

Kerala Agriculture Minister VS Sunil Kumar has recommended adopting nutritious-sensitive agriculture practices in the State as a new normal in Covid era farming.

Designing such agricultural strategies will minimise the risks and maximise the benefits of nutrition and health across the entire value chain right from production to consumption, he said.