Agriculture Current Affair 12 October 2022

September deluge stalls kharif harvesting, damages crops

Excessive rains this month have stalled harvests of main kharif crops like maize, paddy and soyabean and affected their quality, which will likely reduce the returns for farmers, said traders and experts. “The impact of this untimely rain will not be good for the standing crop. The quality will go down and the colour will change. The marketing edge will be lost,” said agriculture expert Devinder Sharma. It can also delay sowing for the next season, especially of wheat and potato.

Rajasthan’s Kota and Jhalawar districts, known for their maize crop, have seen crop damage of 18-19%, said Rajiv Yadav, senior vice president at commodities research firm Origo Commodities. The state’s paddy crop has suffered a loss of 6%. For soyabean, the crop damage is 15%.

Wheat prices rule higher in UP, Bihar amid shortage

Wheat prices in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest wheat-producing state, and neighbouring Bihar are ruling 4-5% higher than other wheat-producing states as they are facing a wheat shortage for the first time even as prices continue to rise across the country.

Higher wheat demand due to high capacity of flour mills, non-availability of wheat from the central government for the first time, and shipping out all the excess wheat for exports are keeping wheat prices comparatively high in eastern UP and Bihar and forcing them to import wheat from other states to run their own mills, trade insiders said.

Rising imports hit business prospects of domestically produced pepper

IPSTA President says domestic pepper prices are holding up because of festival demand in upcountry markets

Increased arrivals of imported pepper from other producing countries are reported to have hit the prospects of domestically produced commodities due to its doorstep availability at lower prices in consuming markets.

Traders pointed out that pepper rates in producing countries have started declining and are hovering in the range of $2,500-2,600/tonne in Brazil, $3,000 in Vietnam, and $5,000 in Sri Lanka. Of this, Brazilian and Vietnamese varieties are finding markets in India under mis-declaration either as cotton waste or paper waste, they alleged.

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