Govt offering subsidy to promote drone use in agriculture: The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has issued funding guidelines to promote precision farming technology in India by providing subsidies in purchasing, hiring, and demonstrating agriculture drones. Up to the total cost of the drones or an amount of up to Rs 10 lakh, whichever is lesser, will be granted for buying drones by Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institutes, ICAR institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, and State Agriculture Universities. The amended guidelines also allow Farmers Producers Organizations (FPO) to become eligible to receive 75 percent of the cost of drones used in field demonstrations.
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Centre proposes to increase the registration fee for chemical pesticides : To adopt and promote Natural farming, the Centre has proposed a massive increase in the registration fee for chemical pesticides. The Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee have requested feedback on the planned rise by February 2. The proposed revision includes raising the registration fees for Technical Import, Formulation Import, Technical Indigenous Manufacturing, and Formulation Indigenous Manufacturing.
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First-ever study indicates the potential of genomic selection for breeding resistance to wheat blast : Scientists carried out a first-of-its-kind study using genomic selection in wheat breeding against deadly wheat blast on more than 700 lines grown by CIMMYT partners at locations in Bangladesh and Bolivia over several crop cycles. The study indicates that marker-assisted selection and genomic selection offer viable alternatives to the slower and more expensive field screening of many thousands of wheat lines in hot-spot locations for the disease, particularly at early breeding stages. This will be beneficial in accelerating the development of blast-resistant wheat varieties.
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Crop research for vertical farms to be boosted through a new collaboration between Infarm and Wageningen University : This collaboration between Infarm (the world’s largest cloud-connected vertical farming network and) Wageningen University (leading center of excellence for agricultural research) will help to study and evaluate how to optimize production while maximizing flavour, nutrition, and yield of vertically grown hydroponic tomatoes. The study will examine the efficiency of light interception and distribution of tomatoes growing in a hydroponic farming system using an innovative 3D scanning procedure. The study involves state-of-the-art sensors and scanners to evaluate the tomatoes' growth rate, health, and nutrient content.
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ICAR-NRCSS & SBI strategic collaboration offers Spices’ Seeds online marketplace  : The National Research Center on Seed Spices (ICAR-National Research Center on Seed Spices) and SBI collaboration has enabled spice farmers can choose to order quality seeds from this online marketplace platform. The marketplace platform is also accessible through Also, this portal has also been connected to SBI's 'YONO Krishi App', which becomes hassle-free as most of the farmers possess a bank account in the bank.
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State IT department of Telangana implemented an AI enabled ecosystem for cotton farmers : Under the project, the State IT department partnered with the Wadhwani Institute of AI and deployed AI solution to farmers across 2,800 villages. The AI-based solution helped cotton farmers to identify pest attacks specifically Pink Bollworm, in the early stages and initiate corrective measures, that eventually resulted into in improving the quality of yield and eventually increase their incomes.
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