Corona pandemic, farmers protests live, rabi harvest, weather, FAO

26 April 2021

• Government approves 551 new Oxygen generation plants

  551 new Oxygen generation plants will be setup in public heath facilities across different States and Union Territories across India. These plants will be setup in Government medical facilities and will supply oxygen to as many hospitals in the state as they can. Government is hoping that these plants will be setup quickly and will operational in time to fight the Corona pandemic. Meanwhile steel plants across the country have sprung into action and are supplying almost 3474 MT of LMO (Liquid Medical Oxygen) to the country per day. Steel plants produce oxygen which is used in production of Steel.

• Rabi crop harvesting at full speed

  Sugarcane harvesting across Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka is complete. Other rabi crops like wheat, mustard seeds, pulses are being harvested at a great rate across the country. 

• Navy supports Lakshadweep with Oxygen, kits and masks

  Indian Navy has sent a ship with Oxygen cylinders, detection test kits, protective equipment, masks and other items to the capital of Lakshadweep to help them fight Corona. Indian railways are doing their best to supply Oxygen tankers across the country.

• Heat wave expected across Kutch

  Heat wave is expected across Kutch in Gujarat today. While thunderstorm with lightening is expected across entire Kerala, Karnal in Haryana and parts of Tamil Nadu.

• Protesting farmers setup emergency medical service

  Protesting farmers are sanitizing themselves with sanitizer sprays and they have setup emergency medical services in case of a Corona outbreak. Despite the lockdown and curfew in Delhi the protestors continue to block the border highways.

• FAO research shows that a third of world's food is produced by small farmers

  The number of small farm holders varies from country to country, according to FAO research. These farmers produce almost 35 percent of the food produced in the world and it is mostly used up for domestic consumption.

• India allows traders to export more sugar to UK

  Indian government has allowed the traders to export 3,675 tonnes of more sugar to United Kingdom under Tariff-Rate Quota, where sugar passes through the customs at low tariffs.

• Why is farming data important?

  Farming data allows the government and industries to make appropriate policies and decisions for successfully managing farming countrywide. This data on analysis provides information as to what is lacking and what is in excess, what can be exported and what needs to be imported, which part of the country will successfully grow what, what are the right inputs and how to maximize the outputs.

• MSP has cut out the middlemen

  As procurement goes on country wide, the farmers are getting the MSP amount directly in their account. They get paid per Kg of their produce.

• Shortage of bags and labour for the procurement process in Punjab

  The government is willing to procure crops from farmers and the farmers are ready with their harvests but shortage of jute bags to load the crops into and the labour shortage has slowed down this process. Labour is required to fill the bags and load them and unload during weighing and other formalities.