Top Stories
Monsoon rains 4% below average in week to Aug 1
According to datafrom the India Meteorological Department (IMD), monsoon rains in India were 4% below average in week to Aug 1, reports said.
Whereas, the monsoon deficit of the season till Aug 1 has narrowed to 19% of the long period average.
In July, the wettest month of the season and also the key planting month, the rains were about 13% below average.
On Tuesday took steps to cut irrigation costs and increase fodder supplies for livestock farmers. But it held off from imposing any curb on exports of agricultural products or a ban of futures trading in them.
Still, problems are far from over as two-months of the four-month long season are already over and if the monsoon does not continue to show improvement, inflationary pressures, especially food inflation, would most likely be stoked again.
In India, where agriculture and farming account for 15% of the $2tn economy, timely and sufficient rainfall is extremely crucial as 55% of the arable land depends on rains for water needs.
A drought is declared when monsoon rains are below 90% of long-term averages in the entire season. India last experienced a drought in 2009.
Results
DCM Shriram Q1 net profit up 18.8% at Rs. 309mn
DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd (DSCL) an integrated business group with extensive and growing presence across the Agriculture and Chloro-Vinyl Industry, today announced its financial results for the first quarter FY13.
Key Highlights:
Net Revenues up by 16.5% driven by Bioseed (up 45%), Sugar (up 32.5%) and Chloro-Vinyl (up 10.1%)
PBIT up by 92.3% at Rs. 130.6 Crores Vs Rs. 67.90 Crores.
Bioseed: PBIT up by 69.7% at Rs. 66.1 crores driven by growth in Revenues by 45%. The revenue growth driven by growth in Bt Cotton, Corn and Paddy in India.
Chloro-Vinyl: PBIT up by 84.4% at Rs. 73 crores driven by better margins at 26.2% as compared to 15.7%.
This was driven by improvements on cost sides and higher realizations of Chloro-Vinyl products especially Chlor-Alkali which was up by 19 %.
The Finance costs were up by 10.5% at Rs. 43.3 crores driven by higher interest costs and higher working capital borrowings.
Net Profit at Rs. 30.9 Crores as compared to Rs. 26.0 crores. Read more…
Domestic News
Centre reviews procurement and storage arrangements for Kharif Season
The Centre today reviewed procurement and storage arrangements for kharif marketing season (KMS) 2012-13 in a meeting with the States. Advance actions need to be taken for procurement for paddy and Coarse grains in producing States, particularly in decentralized procurement States and other non-traditional States to maximize procurement of paddy and Coarse grains were discussed.
FCI and State agencies were directed to identify areas with maximum paddy production in all the States and to arrange opening of adequate purchase centres and also deploy sufficient manpower. They were asked to provide district wise details of purchase centre to be open during 2012-13.
During the meeting State Food Secretaries were requested to indicate the estimated procurement of paddy and Coarse grains during KMS 2012-13 and the levy percentage proposed in their respective States.
They were also advised to finalise milling contracts in advance for the paddy to be procured. The Central Food Secretary said that FCI and State Governments should make arrangements for publicizing MSP and procurement cantres to be opened through print and audio-visual media.
The States were also asked to prepare storage plans and to convey it to the centre so that action plans could be prepared in advance to meet the deficit in storage requirements. They were advised that all payments on account of purchase by FCI from farmers should be made by account payee cheques/direct account transfer.
It was also advised to place indents for purchase of jute bags and HDPE bags in advance to Jute Commissioner’s office so that sufficient number of bags are available in time. They were also requested to furnish state-wise estimate of procurement, period of procurement and demand for rice and coarse grains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)
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International News
Academia has role in fight against hunger: Graziano da Silva
FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva challenged academics to get involved in essential and politically important research into rural poverty and the food and agriculture business as it pertains to small-scale producers, in a speech today in Lisbon to the World Congress of Rural Sociology.
"One of the great challenges we have today is to use academic knowledge to understand and improve the life of rural populations throughout the world," said Graziano da Silva. "To do so, we need to look at the reality outside of university walls."
After detailing what FAO sees as the most pressing issues in the fight against hunger and rural underdevelopment - from food insecurity, nutrient deficiencies and unsafe food to unequal competition between small-scale and large food producers - the FAO chief, a former academic and author himself, called for academics to play their part.
He singled out large-scale investments in agriculture or "land-grabbing" as a politically important area where universities could conduct research into principles for responsible agricultural investments. Such research could feed into the work of the Committee on World Food Security, the leading global forum for discussions on food security issues, he said.
How to integrate small-scale farmers into the agricultural and food chains should be another area of academic concern, he said, adding that "there is a growing concentration in the agricultural and food chain, and this has an impact on small-scale farmers."
Academics should look into the issue of governance of the food and agriculture sector, both at global and local levels, and how to achieve a fair distribution of benefits, he said.
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