Recent Current Affairs related to Agriculture

The Geographical Indications Registry (GIR) has granted the Geographical Indication (GI) tag to Unjha Cumin and Fennel from the Unjha region of Gujarat.

With this, the total number of GI-tagged agricultural products from Gujarat has increased to 6.

The PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), launched in 2015, has completed 10 years of advancing irrigation-led agricultural transformation in India. The scheme comprises 4 main components: Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), Har Khet Ko Pani (HKKP), Watershed Development Component (WDC), and Per Drop More Crop (PDMC).

As of August 2025, the PMKSY has benefited over 27 million farmers and created or restored irrigation potential across 24.61 million hectares (ha), supported by a budgetary allocation of ₹64,407 crore. Since the inception of the PDMC component, 110.92 lakh ha of land have been brought under micro-irrigation.

Union Minister Amit Shah has launched four initiatives to expand governance and assistance for farmers in New Delhi. The 'DRISHTI' portal was introduced as a dedicated tracking system to streamline the real-time inventory management of pulses and oilseeds.

The digital e-auction platform 'NAFEX.in' of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) was launched to connect farmers directly with buyers to eliminate middlemen, ensuring transparent bidding and direct payments to the bank accounts of farmers within 48 hours.

The 'NAFED-KALYAN' scholarship was launched as a social welfare initiative that allocates 1% of the profits of NAFED to fund the higher education and career development of the children of farmers. Additionally, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) portal was launched to strengthen internal digital governance and increase overall operational efficiency.

The RBI has directed banks to exempt agricultural and allied sector loans up to ₹2 lakh per borrower from collateral security and margin requirements under the updated guidelines of the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme.

Furthermore, the voluntary pledge of gold and silver as collateral for agricultural loans up to the collateral-free limit of ₹2 lakh will not be considered a violation of the guidelines on collateral-free lending.

The World Bank has approved a loan of ₹4,000 crore for the “Jal Sanrakshit Haryana” (Water Secure Haryana) project, which has an outlay of ₹5,714 crore. The project aims to resolve the groundwater crisis and ensure water sustainability in the state.

It will be implemented in phases over a 6-year period (2026-2032) and will cover 15 clusters across 48.94 lakh acres.

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), has reconstituted the Expert Committee on Agrobiodiversity for a tenure of 1 year.

Dr PL Gautam has been appointed as the Chair of the committee, and Dr Trilochan Mohapatra has been appointed as the Co-Chair.

According to the ‘Second Advance Estimates of Horticulture Crops for 2025-26’ released by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), the total horticulture production is projected at 3,777.76 lakh tonnes (LT) across an area of 301.51 lakh hectares (ha). This indicates a 1.90% rise in production and a 0.05% increase in area compared to 2024–25.

Fruit production is estimated at 1,214.75 LT, reflecting an increase of 3.25%. Vegetable production is projected at 2,210 LT (a 1.47% growth) across an area of 118.79 lakh ha, which is an increase of 0.75%. Onion production is estimated to remain stable at 307.37 LT, while the area under cultivation is expected to rise by 2.31% to 20.14 lakh ha.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has chaired the 16th BRICS Agriculture Ministers' Meeting in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Held under India’s 2026 BRICS Chairship, this was the first-ever BRICS agricultural summit to include both Member and Partner Countries.

The BRICS Agriculture Working Group identified 4 priorities: Food Security and Nutrition (focusing on smallholder farmers, women, and youth), Agricultural Trade, Regenerative Farming (promoting climate-resilient practices), and Investment and Innovation.

The summit concluded with the adoption of the ‘Indore Declaration’, which emphasises a farmer-centric global food system and rejects unilateral trade restrictions that threaten food security.

To implement the declaration, the member nations established 5 institutional networks: the BRICS Network of Centres of Excellence on Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture (coordinated by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming System Research (IIFSR), Modipuram), Network on Digital Agriculture (coordinated by the IIT Delhi), BRICS Agro-Inputs, Genetic Resources, and Information Network (BRICS AGRIN Framework), Knowledge-to-Action Hub (by strengthening the BRICS Agricultural Research Platform (BARP)), and the Global Forum on Farmers' Rights in Seed Systems.

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (ICAR-IIOR), Hyderabad, has launched “Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra,” a WhatsApp-based AI advisory service.

The initiative aims to harness digital technology to benefit the farming community. It enables oilseed farmers across India to access free, trusted, and instant crop advisory through WhatsApp.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has facilitated the first export consignment of Geographical Indication (GI)-tagged Tezpur Litchi from Assam to Dubai.

The central government has expanded the QR code tagging initiative for Food Corporation of India foodgrain bags to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Odisha.

The initiative covers a total volume of 20 lakh tonnes of rice moved from milling units to distribution hubs. The state-wise allocation includes 10 lakh tonnes in Andhra Pradesh, 5 lakh tonnes in Telangana, and 5 lakh tonnes in Odisha.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has facilitated the first-ever commercial export of fresh mangoes from Jharkhand to the United Kingdom.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has launched the 'Khet Bachao Abhiyan' in Ramsiya village of Raisen, Madhya Pradesh.

The campaign aims to promote sustainable agriculture, improve soil health, and raise awareness regarding climate-resilient farming practices.

Union Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia and Tripura CM Dr. Manik Saha have launched the ‘Tripura Mission Queen Pineapple’ at Sanchar Bhawan in New Delhi. The initiative is a ₹236 crore convergence-led project focused on pineapple cultivation and value chain development.

The mission aims to bridge existing gaps through convergence-led investments and market-oriented interventions to enhance farmer value realization, while promoting Tripura’s GI-tagged ‘Queen Pineapple’ as its Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has released the Third Advance Estimates of Production of Major Agricultural Crops for the 2025–26 crop year. India’s total foodgrain production is estimated at a record 376.56 million tonnes (MT) for 2025–26, marking a 5.3% increase over the previous year’s production of 357.73 MT.

Rice production is estimated at a record 154.02 MT, while wheat production is projected to increase by 2.29% to reach 120.65 MT. Total oilseeds production is estimated at 43.05 MT, which includes 13.07 MT of groundnut, 12.59 MT of soyabean, and 13.76 MT of rapeseed and mustard.

Valluvan, a farmer from the Pollachi district of Tamil Nadu, has been honoured as a ‘Soil Farmer Hero’ by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN.

He has received this recognition for transforming his 11-hectare landholding into a profitable enterprise. He achieved this through the implementation of multi-crop, tree-based farming techniques, generating revenue of ₹2.5 lakh to ₹3 lakh per acre.

The 11th edition of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (QFMM) was held in New Delhi, chaired by Union Minister S Jaishankar.

Major initiatives launched include the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration (IPMSC) and the ‘Quad Initiative on Indo-Pacific Energy Security’. India will host the second edition of the ‘Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission’.

Under the Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen Agriculture (AI-ENGAGE) initiative, over $6 million in funding has been allocated to support 6 international research projects.

Additionally, the ‘Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework’ aims to mobilize up to $20 billion in investments from public and private sectors.

Union Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia has attended the 51st Statehood Day celebrations of Sikkim at Manan Kendra in Gangtok. During the event, he launched the ‘Mission Sikkim Organics’ with an outlay of ₹360 crore to strengthen organic farming and sustainable agricultural practices in the state. It is to be noted that Sikkim celebrates May 16 as its Statehood Day, marking its integration with the Union of India in 1975.

PM Narendra Modi has been conferred the prestigious FAO Agricola Medal by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The award recognises his contributions to food security, sustainable agriculture, and rural development.

It is one of the highest honours given by the FAO to individuals for their role in advancing global food security, improved nutrition, and agricultural development.

Union Minister JP Nadda and Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan have launched the ‘SEHAT Mission’ (Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation) in New Delhi. The mission is jointly launched by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW).

The initiative aims to connect agriculture, nutrition, and public health through scientific collaboration to build a framework for ‘Healthy Food, Healthy Farms and a Healthy India’.