Agriculture/GSIII
NITI Aayog organises knowledge sharing workshop on Natural Farming

What's the NEWS

• A national workshop on Natural Farming was organized by Agriculture vertical, NITI Aayog involving Krishi Vigyan Kendras across India
• An exclusive website on natural farming developed by NITI Aayog was launched
• The website covers information regarding natural farming including coverage of the practice in India, various schemes and initiatives by Central and State Governments
• More than 1000 participants including State Government and KVK officials, researchers from ICAR and Agriculture Universities and farmers have attended the workshop virtually fromacross the country.

Natural Farming

• It is a chemical-free alias traditional farming method.
• It is considered as agroecology based diversified farming system which integrates crops, trees and livestock with functional biodiversity.
• In India, Natural farming is promoted as Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati Programme (BPKP) under centrally sponsored scheme- Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).
• BPKP is aimed at promoting traditional indigenous practices which reduces externally purchased inputs.
• It is largely based on on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on biomass mulching, use of on-farm cow dung-urine formulations; periodic soil aeration and exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs.

• Shift to natural farming from chemical farming resulted inconsiderable reduction in cost of cultivation, improvement in the soil health and better yield.
• Lesser input requirement and reduced labour cost.
• Natural farming will reduce dependency on purchased inputs and will help to ease smallholder farmers from credits burden.

• Prime Minister will inaugurate InFinity Forum, a thought leadership Forum on FinTech, on 3rd December, 2021

• The event is being hosted by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), under the aegis of Government of India in collaboration with GIFT City and Bloomberg
• Indonesia, South Africa and the U.K. are partner countries in the first edition of the Forum.
• InFinity Forum will bring together the leading minds of the world in policy, business, and technology to discuss and come up with actionable insight into how technology and innovation can be leveraged by the FinTech industry for inclusive growth and serving humanity at large.
• The agenda of the Forum will focus on the theme of 'Beyond'; with various sub themes including FinTech beyond boundaries
• The forum will witness participation from over 70 countries

• The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), headquartered at GIFT City, Gandhinagar Gujarat, has been established under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019.
• It works as a unified authority for the development and regulation of financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in India.
• At present, the GIFT IFSC is the maiden international financial services centre in India.

• Barbados has become a republic, replacing the British monarch as its head of state and severing its last remaining colonial bonds nearly 400 years after the first English ships arrived at the Caribbean island.
• Barbados, which is said to have been made a ‘slave society' by the British, first became an English colony when a ship arrived at the Caribbean in 1625. On November 30, 1966, Barbados gained its independence.
• The Caribbean island nation removed Queen Elizabeth II as the head of the state in a ceremony attended by Prince Charles.
• Barbados, however, will continue to be one of the 54 Commonwealth nations.
• Dame Sandra Prunella Mason, who was selected to become the first president of Barbados last month, took over as the President of the country.
• There are no plans to change the flags, coat of arms, national pledge or national anthem. However, the terms "royal" and "crown" would be dropped from all official references.
• Hence, Royal Barbados Police Force will become Barbados Police Force and crown lands would become state lands.

• The Indian Army's ambitious plan for modernisation of the Army Base Workshops (ABWs) and implementation of ‘Government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO)' model is "delayed" and the original timeline for implementing the system lapsed in December 2019, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in its report tabled in the Parliament.

• The implementation of GOCO model is fraught with risks and operational challenges as identified by the Headquarters Base Workshop Group.
• 385 out of the 1,077 affected civilian manpower of closed stations/static workshops are lying idle and the same situation may arise in ABWs, if these issues are not addressed while implementing the GOCO Model.
• ABWs carry out repairs and overhaul of weapons, vehicles and equipment of the Army.
• The GOCO model was meant to modernise the workshops as well free up Army personnel from maintenance work.
• Audit recommends that the Ministry of Defence formulate a strategy to mitigate all risks, including deployment of existing manpower, relating to GOCO implementation.

What's the need of NMEO-OP

• During the year 2020-21, India imported 133.5 lakh tonnes of edible oil, out of which the share of palm oil was around 56 %.

• The National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) has been launched with the aim to augment the availability of edible oil in the country by harnessing area expansion, increasing crude palm oil production with the aim to reduce the import burden.
• The salient features of NMEO-Oil palm include assistance for planting material, inputs for intercropping upto gestation period of 4 years and for maintenance, establishment of seed gardens, nurseries, micro irrigation, bore well/pumpset/water harvesting structure, vermi compost units, solar pumps, harvesting tools, custom hiring centre cum harvester Groups, farmers and officers training, and for replanting of old oil palm gardens etc.
• The Reassessment Committee of ICAR- Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR) 2020 has assessed around 28 lakh hectares potential for oil palm cultivation.
• While assessing the potential area, ICAR-IIOPR considered all the environmental and bio diversity parameters and recommended its cultivation in selected districts and states.
• Annual edible oilseeds viz; soybean, rapeseed and mustard, groundnut, sesame, sunflower, safflower and niger are also grown in the country.
• Potential districts for these crops have been identified on the basis of land suitability and average yield.
• As per ICAR-IIOPR, oil palm requires less water compared to crops like rice, banana and sugarcane for its optimum cultivation.
• Under the Mission emphasis has been given to promote micro irrigation and water conservation in oil palm for efficient water management and judicious use of water.

• National Productivity Council (NPC) carried out a study on ‘Soil Testing Infrastructure for Faster Delivery of Soil Health Card in India' in 2017.
• In the study it was found that application of fertilizer and micronutrients based on Soil Health Card (SHC) recommendations resulted in 8-10% of savings and overall increase in the yield of crops to the tune of 5-6% reported by adopting the SHC recommendations.
• National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad conducted an impact study of Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme (November 2017).
• The major findings were that there is some reduction in fertilizer use, especially Nitrogen and increase in bio-fertilizers and other micro-nutrients use.
• Overall, paddy farmers reduced use of urea by 9%, Di Ammonium Phosphate (DAP)/ Single Super Phosphate (SSP) by 7%, but increased use of Potassium by 20%.
• This is a healthy sign of moving towards balanced use of fertilizers.
• The States have not reported any challenges faced by them while implementing the scheme.
• Soil Health Card Scheme has been implemented in all parts of the country including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

• The Government has approved a pilot project for Hybrid seed mini kits distribution of Mustard through National Seeds Corporation (NSC)during Rabi-2021-22 under National Food Security Mission-Oilseeds (NFSM-OS).
• Hybrid Mustard seed mini kits have been distributed to major Mustard growing States, such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat.
• The state of Andhra Pradesh has not been included for this pilot project since the climatic conditions in the state are not suitable for this crop.

• This Ministry has launched a component called "Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development" under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY-RAFTAAR) in 2018-19 with objective to promote innovation and agri-entrepreneurship by providing financial support and nurturing the incubation ecosystem.
• This Ministry has appointed five Knowledge Partners (KPs) as Centre of Excellence and twenty four RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) from across the country for implementation of this programme.
• Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat is one of the R-ABIs under "Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development" to promote agriculture startups in Gujarat.
• Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development" programme of this Ministry is basically meant for promotion of agri-startups.
• Various provisions regarding startups are governed by norms laid down by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
• Start-ups of agriculture and allied sectors in areas such as agricultural logistics, value & supply chain management, online/virtual platform, organic farming & services etc. are supported under "Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development" programme of this Ministry.
• 646 start-ups in the agriculture and allied sectors have been selected under "Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development" for funding of a sum of Rs. 69.92 crore in installments and Rs. 33.94 crore has been released to respective KPs and RABIs for funding these start-ups.

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