Farmers have planted crops in a record 111.68 million hectares including 40.17 million hectares rice planting, which is 5.56% more than last year. Area under pulses has risen 4% to to 13.93 million hectares.
An official at the agriculture ministry said that the centre has categorically stated that the scheme is based on idea of direct benefit transfer to farmers’ account and “routing money through state government would be against the spirit of the scheme.”
Maharashtra-based pulsez processor Nitin Kalantry said, "Tur prices rose to Rs 90/kg during lockdown, which later corrected to Rs 82/kg. However, now they have started spiralling upward again. Pulses prices are likely to shoot up after October 5, when an uptake in demand for pulses is expected due to festival season demand." 
It said a review of procurement practices would encourage farmers to plant other crops. “The commission also recommends that open-ended procurement policy for rice and wheat should be reviewed and farmers should be incentivised to shift to oilseeds, pulses and nutri-cereals through effective procurement policy for these crops under PM-AASHA,” it said.
During the Green Revolution, farmers embraced modern technology developed by agricultural institutions, and exhibited a willingness to adapt to change. A moment has come for the farmer community to make a choice yet again. 
Average wholesale onion prices at the benchmark Pimpalgaon market in Nashik district increased from 27/kg on September 14 to 36/kg on September 22. Prices are comparatively lower in North India, with wholesale prices ranging between 12/kg and 35/kg on Tuesday. In retail, good quality onions are selling at 40-60/kg.
Rice production is likely to be 102.36 million tonnes, 0.38 million tonnes more than the previous year’s estimated production and 6.7 million tonnes higher than the previous five years’ average production of 95.66 million tonnes.
From the focus on improving the acreage under irrigation and encouraging farmers to diversify into allied activities such as dairying and beekeeping, to hikes in MSP and direct financial assistance worth thousands of crores, a series of measures have marked a fresh approach which stands out from the false, populist pronouncements made by previous governments.
To gauge the scale of what’s being done, picture the depth of the stasis: 119 million cultivators and 144 million farmhands — taken together, 10 times Australia’s population — yoked to a marketplace designed to be anti-competitive, and denied the lift in productivity that propelled urbanization from Japan and South Korea to Taiwan and China. 
Most onion traders have been established in the trade for over two decades. However, this regulated marketing system, despite its best intentions, has induced significant downsides.
A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of 31 farmer organisations held at Moga in which it was decided to make the occasion historic by not taking the support of any political party, farmer leaders said.
In a report, it also said that MSPs are an important driver of food price inflation when there is public procurement and this, along with other factors such as negative real rural wage growth, should lower food price inflation.
The bill, passed on Tuesday, was approved by the lower house last week and replaces an ordinance promulgated in June.
The price of moong and chana whose MSP was hiked by 6.3% and 4.6%, respectively, rose slightly in major wholesale markets of Mumbai, Indore and Delhi on Tuesday, said Suresh Aggarwal, president of the All India Dal Mills Association.
India’s farm equipment sales have been improving since a barren April, when all sorts of manufacturers across the country were forced to halt production and the top carmakers didn’t report any vehicle sales.
Some sections of industry have lately come to pin recovery hopes on a rural/farm revival, based mainly on factors such as rising tractor sales over the past couple of months. But agriculture is just 14% — or roughly one-seventh — of GDP and hence can't make up for the suffering of the rest of the economy. There are other reasons too.
"These visionary bills will ensure a sustainable and profitable future for the farming community," FAIFA said in a statement.
Farmers will be able to enter into agreements with food processors to grow processable varieties and sell them at assured prices. Nor will they be restricted in to whom and where they sell their produce. 
The government has raised minimum support prices (MSP) of the rabi, or winter-sown, crops by up to 6.3% and announced the new rates a month before it usually does to reassure farmers that the new laws on agriculture will not dilute MSP operations.
The new laws for agriculture will significantly benefit farmers, and have absolutely nothing to do with the system of minimum support prices (MSP), which will continue, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said.
