Agriculture Current Affair 14 August 2022

Tomato prices surge as rains damage crop

Kolkata: After a brief relief in July, Indian households are again witnessing a surge in tomato prices. Prices of tomato, a staple vegetable in the Indian kitchen, has shot up almost 50% from the second week of August as excessive rains have damaged the crop in Shimla, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Prices hovering around ₹40 per kg in the retail market have suddenly jumped to ₹60 per kg.

“Tomato supply to Azadpur mandi has dwindled as rains have damaged the crop. At the wholesale level, prices have appreciated from ₹20 per kg to ₹28 per kg. Prices will remain firm for some time now, till the new crop comes,” said Ashok Kaushik, president, Tomato Traders Association, Asia’s largest Mandi in Azadpur said In FY22, India had produced 20 million metric tonnes of tomato.

Rice output may drop by about 10 million tonnes in 2022-23

Rice output may drop by about 10 million tonnes in 2022-23 to 120 million tonnes because of a fall in the area the cereal is sown during the ongoing kharif season, estimate traders.

Paddy sowing in the current kharif season has been 13% less till August 5 due to rainfall deficiency in the staple grain’s main producer states.

Paddy acreage was 27.43 million hectare as on August 5, as against 31.41 million hectare a year earlier, according to data released by the agriculture ministry.

Amit Shah pitches for setting up PACS in every panchayat to boost agri-finance

Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Friday said there is a need to establish more than 2 lakh new primary agriculture credit societies (PACS) across the country to achieve the target of providing agri-finance worth Rs 10 lakh crore through cooperatives. He was addressing a national conference on rural cooperative banks organised by Ministry of Cooperation and the National Federation of State Cooperative Banks (NAFSCOB).

Shah said there are more than 95,000 PACS currently, of which only about 63,000 PACS are functional.

He noted that PACS are the soul of agriculture credit system and therefore it is necessary to strengthen the existing PACS and also expand them.

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