During celebrations 85th ICAR Foundation Day, Hon’ble President of India launched on 16.07.2013 a SMS Portal for Farmers created by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Government of India Officers, Scientists and Experts of Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Indian Council of Agriculture Research, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries, India Meteorological Department and Food grain Procurement Agencies will use this portal for disseminating relevant information, giving topical & seasonal advisories and providing services through SMSs to farmers in language of the State. The State Governments and their field formations down to the Block level (including State Agriculture Universities and KVKs) also have come forward in a big way to use this integrated Portal. Considering availability of more than 33 crore mobile connections in the rural area, Kisaan SMS Portal is likely to be very useful to farmers and all other stake-holders as timely and relevant information will be provided to farmers in their own language. The SMSs will get transmitted only to the farmers within the territorial jurisdiction of an officer, scientist or experts for the crops or agricultural practice that such a farmer might have opted for. Search facility (by text and by topic) for going through previous advisories has also been created to avoid duplication and contradiction in advisories.

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Acting on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, the Government has fixed Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for the Agricultural Year (July-June) 2013-14. MSP for Rice and Wheat have been increased to Rs 1310 and Rs 1350 per quintal.

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In compliance of one of the recommendation/suggestion of the Evaluation Report of Pilot WBCIS, a Committee has been constituted to draft the guidelines for setting up Automatic Waether Stations (AWSs) and Automatic Rain Gauge (ARGs) & their accreditation, standardization, validation and quality management of weather data. The Committee has submitted draft report covering following aspects:

• AWS equipment standards
• AWS installation standards & maintenance standards and
• Guidelines for 3rd party accreditation and data certification services.

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Bringing the green revolution to eastern India has been a remarkable success. Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal have substantially increased their contribution to rice production. Therefore, support the Eastern Indian States has been extended with an allocation of 1000 crore in 2013-14.

The original Green Revolution States face the problem of stagnating yields and over-exploitation of water resources. The answer lies in crop diversification. Hence, in the recent Union Budget, a sum of 500 crore has been provided to start a programme of crop diversification that would promote technological innovation and encourage farmers to choose crop alternatives.

Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO), including Farmer Producer Companies (FPC), have emerged as aggregators of farm produce and link farmers directly to markets. To signal our support to them, the Government has decided to provide matching equity grants to registered FPOs upto a maximum of 10 lakh per FPO to enable them to leverage working capital from financial institutions. A sum of ₨ 50 crore has been earmarked for this purpose. Besides this, a Credit Guarantee Fund will also be created in the Small Farmers’ Agri Business Corporation with an initial corpus of ₨ 100 crore.

To save domestic oilseed growers in view of enhanced import shipments due to slump in international prices, the Government has decided to impose a Duty @2.5% on crude Soyabean and Palm Oil.

First Semi Annual Medium Term Agricultural Outlook and Situation Analysis Report

• Quarter-1: End of June-2012
• Quarter-2: End of Sep - 2012
• Quarter-3: End of Dec 2012

A pilot programme on Nutri-Farms for introducing new crop varieties that are rich in micro-nutrients such as iron-rich bajra, protein-rich maize and zinc-rich wheat, is being launched. A sum of upto ₨ 200 crore has been earmarked to start the pilots. It is hoped that agri businesses and farmers will come together to start a sufficient number of pilots in the districts, most affected by malnutrition.

Department of Agriculture and Cooperation Intends to Install CCTV camera Including PTZ camera, Bullet Camera and Dome camera CCTV in the Krishi Bhawan.Before the tender is floated it is proposed to have a presentation from the renowned service providers/authorized dealers on the subject on 27-03-2014 at 3.00 P.M at Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Hall, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi.

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The Cabinet has approved the National Agroforestry Policy 2014 on 6th February, 2014 and laid on the table of both Houses of Parliament .

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National Conference on Agriculture for Kharif Campaign 2014 is scheduled to be held on 26th and 27th February 2014 at NASC Complex,New Delhi.

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Central fertiliser Committee in its 43rd meeting held on 20-12-2013 discussed the issue of removal of DAP lite from the Fertiliser ( Control) Order,1985 and decided that the comments of all the Stake holders may also be obtained the comments may be sent within 15 days on the e mail-ID: mailhpsingh@yahoo.co.in.

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The National Food Security Mission (NFSM) during the 12th Five Year Plan will have five components (i) NFSM- Rice; (ii) NFSM-Wheat; (iii) NFSM-Pulses, (iv) NFSM-Coarse cereals and (v) NFSM-Commercial Crops with the Objective in Increasing production of rice, wheat, pulses and coarse cereals through area expansion and productivity enhancement in a sustainable manner in the identified districts of the country.

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The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presented the Krishi Karman Awards 2012-13 to State Governments and Farmers for exemplary performance in increasing food grain production, at the inauguration of the World Congress on Agroforestry- 2014, in New Delhi on February 10, 2014.

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Administrative instructions for implementation of NCIP were issued vide letter dated 01 November 2013.The detailed Operational Guidelines are enclosed for implementation of the components(ie MNAIS, WBCIS & CPIS) of the NCIP.

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India has taken enormous strides towards achieving food & nutritional security in the country. Over the last few decades, food-grain productionhas surpassed population growth. It registered a fivefold increase during a period when population grew by three times.This growth in agriculture ensures not only food and nutritional security for the people, but also equitable distribution of income. Agriculture and allied sectors are thus critical for inclusive growth.

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National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture(NMSA) architecture has been designed by converging, consolidating and subsuming all ongoing as well as newly proposed activities/programmes related to sustainable agriculture with a special emphasis on soil & water conservation, water use efficiency, soil health management and rainfed area development.

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