• Uniform premium: Farmers will pay uniform premium of 2 per cent for all Kharif crops and 1.5 percent for all Rabi crops.
• In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5%.
• The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and balance premium will be paid by the Government to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities.
• There is no upper limit on Government subsidy. Even if balance premium is 90%, it will be borne by the Government.
• Earlier, there was a provision of capping the premium rate which resulted in low claims being paid to farmers. This capping was done to limit Government outgo on the premium subsidy. This capping has now been removed and farmers will get claim against full sum insured without any reduction.
• The use of technology will be encouraged to a great extent. Smart phones will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers. Remote sensing will be used to reduce the number of crop cutting experiments.

• This Crop Insurance mobile app can be used to find out complete details about cover available but also to calculate the Insurance Premium for notified crops based on area, coverage amount and loan amount in case of a loanee farmer.
• It can also be used to get details of normal sum insured, extended sum insured, premium details and subsidy information of any notified crop in any notified area.

• This App has been developed with an aim to keep them abreast with crop prices around them.
• AgriMarket Mobile App can be used to get the market price of crops in the markets within 50 km of the device’s location.
• This app automatically captures the location of person using mobile GPS and fetches the market prices of crops in those markets which fall within the range of 50 km.
• There is another option to get price of any market and any crop in case person does not want to use GPS location. The prevailing prices are fetched from the Agmarknet portal.

26 November is being observed as National Milk Day (NMD) to mark birth anniversary Father of the White Revolution Dr.Verghese Kurien

About Dr.Verghese Kurien

• Verghese Kurien was born on 26 November 1921 in Calicut in then Madras Presidency of British India. He had died on September 9, 2012 in Nadiad, Gujarat. He was 90 year-old.
• Operation Flood: As a social entrepreneur he had started billion-litre idea-Operation Flood which was the world’s largest agricultural development programme.
• Operation had helped to transform India from a milk-deficit country into the world’s largest milk producer.
• Milk Co-operatives Movement: He successfully set up 30 institutions of excellence (like AMUL, GCMMF, IRMA, NDDB) which are owned, controlled by farmers and run by professionals.
• As the founding chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Dr. Kurien was pioneer in establishment and success of the Amul brand of dairy products.
• Milk powder: Under his chairmanship, Amul achieved key invention of milk powder processed from buffalo milk.
• Awards and Honours: Ramon Magsaysay Award (1963), World Food Prize (1989), Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966) and Padma Vibhushan (1999).

The Eighth edition of National Seed Congress (NSC) has begun in Hyderabad to deliberate on advanced seed development technologies and regulatory measures.

About National Seed Congress

• It is an annual event organised by Union Agriculture Minister organised in different states.
• Aim: To address farmers issues for accessing quality seeds of new varieties through an innovative seed supply system.
• This system seeks to facilitate the development of new plant varieties and the delivery of high quality seed varieties to farmers to further increase crop productivity, food Security and economic development.

• Develop an efficient and dedicated supply chain for pulses using Adani Ports’ strategically located facilities to all key consumption centres in the country.

• Drones will help to take high resolution imagery of crop assessment. It will be collated with satellite imaging and other geospatial technology to get accurate data.
  

Union government has found residues of pesticides in vegetables, fruits, milk and other food items collected from various retail and wholesale outlets across the country.

• These harmful residues of unapproved pesticides were found in 12.50 per cent of the 20,618 samples collected nationally as part of the central scheme Monitoring of Pesticide Residues.
• Samples collected from organic outlets were also found having residues of pesticides.
• The residues of pesticides above MRL (maximum residue limit) were found in 543 samples (2.6 per cent). The MRL is being prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
• In 1,180 vegetables sample, non-approved pesticides residues pesticides such as bifenthrin, triazofos, acephate, metalaxyl acetamiprid and malathion were detected
• In 225 fruit samples, non-approved pesticides such as acephate, acetamiprid, carbosulfan, cypermethrin, profenofos, quinalphos and metalaxyl were found.
• In 43 pulses samples, residues of non-approved pesticides especially of profenophos, hexaconazole and metalaxyl were found.
• In 30 rice samples, residues of triazofos, metalaxyl, carbaryl and acephate were detected.

India and Cambodia have signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to boost bilateral cooperation in the field of Tourism and another related to umbrella projects under Mekong Ganga Cooperation initiative.

• 2 projects in Health care.