Agriculture Current Affair 29 May 2022

Fasal signs MoU with IMD for research collaboration

Agritech firm Fasal has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for a research collaboration.

As part of the agreement, Fasal and IMD will work closely on exchange of hourly short-range models for rainfall probability, rainfall amount, temperature, and humidity using historic Internet of Things (IoT) data and hourly forecast data, as well as precipitation nowcasting models, the company said.

The regions that are in the purview of this agreement for R&D include: five districts in Karnataka, five districts in Maharashtra, one district in Telangana and two districts in Andhra Pradesh.

Government’s wheat procurement down by 53% to 182 lakh tonnes in 2022-23

The government’s wheat procurement fell by 53 per cent to 182 lakh tonnes so far in the current 2022-23 marketing year compared to the year-ago period on aggressive buying by private players for export purposes, according to official sources. The rabi marketing year runs from April to March but the bulk of procurement ends by June. An all-time high of 433.44 lakh tonnes of wheat was procured in the previous marketing year.

State-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies undertake procurement at the minimum support price to meet the requirement under the public distribution system (PDS) and other welfare schemes.

The wheat procurement target has been revised downward to 195 lakh tonnes for the current year from the earlier 444 lakh tonnes due to a fall in wheat output and increased exports.

India for 25 years exemption from subsidy cuts for developing nations not into distant water fishing

India in a WTO meeting has highlighted that developing countries not engaged in distant water fishing should be completely exempted from overfishing subsidy prohibitions for at least 25 years as the sector is still at a nascent stage, an official source said. This time period will also provide policy space to developing countries to come at par with developed nations, the source added.

Fishing beyond 200 nautical miles from the seashores of a country is termed distant water fishing.

The issue is part of a proposed agreement by WTO members on curbing harmful fisheries subsidies.