Agriculture Current Affair 15 July 2020

IFFCO records highest ever net profit of ₹1,005 crore in FY20

Fertiliser cooperative Indian Farmers’ Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) on Wednesday claimed all-time high production, sales, profit and despatches of fertilisers during FY 2019-20.

According to a statement, the fertiliser manufacturer recorded net profit of ₹1,005 crore during the period under review as against ₹842 crore during FY 2018-19. Its turnover touched ₹29,412 crore as against ₹27,852 crore. Apart from its core fertiliser business, IFFCO has also diversified into General Insurance, Rural Retail, Farm Forestry, Rural Telecom, Agrochemicals, Rural Finance, Logistics, SEZ. IFFCO has also forayed into Food Processing, Organics and small move into Nutrients for Urban Gardening also. Taking all these businesses, IFFCO’s group turnover in FY 2019-20 stood at ₹57,778 crores which was ₹50,908 in 2018-19.

Oilmeal exports dip 15% in H1 on price disparity in foreign markets

India’s oilmeal exports for first six months of the current fiscal (April-June 2020) fell 15 per cent to 579,110 tonnes as compared to 684,769 tonnes in the corresponding period last year. The fall in exports is attributed to the disparity of prices in export markets making Indian oilmeals costlier for international buyers.

As per the provisional data compiled by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), the oilmeal exports for the month of June stood at 229,230 tonnes, as compared to 228,416 tonnes in the same month last year, with marginal rise.

Agri Ministry issues new guidelines for new Farmer Producer Organisations

As per the new guidelines issued by the Agriculture Ministry, the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), which were formed under a recently-announced scheme, will be given a maximum of ₹18 lakh in the formative years, apart from an equity grant of up to ₹15 lakh and a kitty for meeting administrative expenses, including salaries of key personnel.

Each FPO, barring those in hilly areas and North-Eastern States, should have a minimum of 300 farmer members and 50 per cent of them should be small, marginal and landless tenant farmers with maximum possible representation from women farmers. The FPOs founded in hilly areas and North-Eastern States, on the other hand, can have a minimum of 100 members, the guidelines said. Such minimum membership requirement was absent in earlier FPO schemes.