Agriculture Current Affair 20 June 2022

At 137 lakh tonnes, Maharashtra sees its all-time high sugar production

Maharashtra has set a record for itself by producing 137.28 lakh tonnes of sugar in 2021-22, which is nearly 31 lakh tonnes more than the previous year, a senior official said on Thursday.

The state also broke another record of crushing 1,320.31 lakh tonnes of sugarcane this year, he said.

“The state has produced 137.28 lakh tonnes of sugar this year, which is 30.88 lakh tonnes more than the previous year. With this, the crushing season in the state has now ended,” state Sugar Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad told.

Poor monsoon could spell disaster for India’s agriculture-based economy, say experts

Already reeling under the after-effects of tormenting heatwaves, India cannot afford to have a poor monsoon which could spell disaster for its agriculture-based economy, experts have said, hoping a revival of monsoon rains will ease food inflation and ensure food security.

The monsoon accounts for around 70 per cent of the country’s annual rainfall and irrigates 60 per cent of its net sown area. Nearly half of the population depends on agriculture directly or indirectly.

A bad monsoon invariably means bad crop production and inflation.

SC stays Bombay HC order asking insurance firm to compensate farmers for crop loss under PMFBY

The Supreme Court has stayed a Bombay High Court order which had asked Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Ltd. to compensate over 3.5 lakh farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) for loss of soya bean crop due to heavy rainfall in 2020. A Supreme Court vacation bench comprising justices J K Maheshwari and Hima Kohli, however, asked the insurance company to deposit Rs 200 crore with its registry within a period of six weeks from June 16.

In a major relief to soya bean farmers of Osmanabad district of Maharashtra who had suffered crop loss due to heavy rainfall in the Kharif season of 2020, the Bombay High Court circuit bench in Aurangabad recently directed the insurance company to compensate them.

The insurance firm was represented in the Supreme Court by senior advocate Vivek Tankha and other lawyers including Tanvi Dubey.

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