Weather
Weather office forecasts normal monsoon this year for a country where rains decide status of an exporter or im-porter of farm goods and where fortunes of both farmers and political parties swing with tide. Pre-monsoon showers have hit Kerala in the past two days with conditions favorable for the onset of the monsoon. “If monsoon is normal, 3.4 per cent growth rate is achievable in the agriculture sector this fiscal. The forecast of a normal monsoon has spread cheer among fer-tilizer companies which are expecting to make good this season.
Wheat
The Punjab Government has sought a minimum support price of Rs 1,855 per quintal for wheat in Rabi season 2013-14 from Centre.
The Centre had allowed wheat export of 5 million tons for 2011-12 crop from its godowns through private traders in a bid to ease the storage burden.
58.80 lakh tons of wheat has arrived so far in Haryana during the current procurement season.
State Trading Corporation (STC) gets the highest bid at $304.5per tons in wheat export tender. In a separate tender to export 40,000 tons of wheat from the east coast, STC received the highest bid at $302 per tons, sources said.
Rice
Area under rice has fallen by 5.14 per cent to 2.4 lakh hectares so far this year against 2.53 lakh hecatre in the year-ago period.
Over 56.17 lakh tons of wheat has so far arrived in the mandis of Haryana during the current procurement season.
Komal King and Komal– 101 are the two research paddy varie-ties which have gained popularity in the rice growing regions of India, due to its high yield capacity and ability to grow in all seasons and withstand drought.. The seed has also gained im-mense reputation for its high tolerance against blast disease that is responsible in eradicating 1/3rd of all paddy productions in India.