Agriculture Current Affair 28 February 2022

Govt pegs wheat procurement at record 444 lakh tonnes in 2022-23 mkt year

The government has estimated procurement of a record 444 lakh tonnes of wheat in the 2022-23 marketing year starting April. According to an official statement, Union Food Secretary chaired a meeting of state food secretaries and Food Corporation of India (FCI) through video conference to discuss the procurement arrangements for ensuing Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2022-23 and Rabi crop of Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2021-22.

The rabi marketing season (RMS) runs from April to March. The 2021-22 Kharif Marketing Season started in October 2021 and will run till September this year.

“A quantity of 444 lakh tonnes of wheat has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming RMS 2022-23, which is more than procurement estimate of previous year RMS 2021-22,” the statement said.

Maharashtra launches it’s own Agriculture Export Policy; seeks consistency in centre’s export policy to promote state’s agri exports

The Government of Maharashtra launched the state’s Agriculture Export Policy (AEP) on Friday, which will focus on export promotion of 21 agricultural commodities.

The Government of India had unveiled its Agriculture Export Policy in December 2018, directing the state governments to draft their own policy. Accordingly, the state government had constituted a committee in May 2019 to draft the policy.

Addressing stakeholders of the agriculture export chain, Anoop Kumar, chief secretary (Co-operation and Marketing), Maharashtra, said “We have to focus on exports as it can help increase the net income of farmers by about 40% to 45%. The domestic market has limited capacity to give remunerative returns to farmers.”

Allow 40 lakh bales duty free import of cotton to avoid job losses due to cotton shortage: SIMA

Cotton being an agricultural and seasonal commodity, over 90 per cent of the cotton arrives the market during December to March every cotton season. “Owing to working capital constraint and high cost of funding, the spinning mills normally maintain two to three months’ stock after the season and procure the balance cotton from open market during July to October.

The country has been so far producing surplus cotton and exporting the same to different countries, especially Bangladesh. But during the current season, owing to substantial increase in demand and export of around 50 lakh bales, the country is likely to face 30 to 40 lakh bales cotton shortage,” said Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) in a release.

The millers said that unprecedented increase in domestic cotton price from the level of Rs 135 per kg (Feb 2021) to Rs 219per kg (Feb 2022) in one year, an increase of around 65 per cent, is greatly affecting the exporters to meet their export commitments.