Agriculture Current Affair 4 August 2020

Poultry farmers seek ₹20,000 cr after virus scare

India’s poultry industry is in dire need of cash after prices slumped earlier this year on speculation fanned by social media that chickens could spread the coronavirus, according to one of the nation’s top producers.

Chicken prices at the farm gate plummeted as much as 70 per cent in March from January, forcing farmers to cull large numbers and causing huge losses, said Suresh Chitturi, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Srinivasa Farms Pvt Ltd. Prices have now recovered to just above production costs, but banks are still not willing to lend, he said in a phone interview.

NSAI asks Centre to watch out for Chinese ‘seed terrorism’

The National Seed Association of India (NSAI) wants the Centre to put its agencies on high alert against Chinese seeds penetrating into Indian fields. It has asked the government to have in place adequate plans to deal with the ‘seed terrorism’.

While the NSAI has not found any Chinese seeds in the Indian market to date, it has issued an alert on the basis of an International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) warning on the entry of suspicious seeds in the Indian market.

Nafed procures 95,000 tonnes of onion to create buffer stock

National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) on Sunday said it had procured 95,000 tonnes of onion directly from farmers at prevailing rates for creating a buffer stock on behalf of the government.

Last year, Nafed had purchased a total of 57,000 tonnes of onion from the 2018-19 Rabi (winter) crop under the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF). The target this time is to buy 1 lakh tonnes of essential kitchen staple from the major producing states.