General Studies Paper 3 Context: India is one of the largest consumers of vegetable oils in the world, with a rapidly growing population and increasing demand for edible oils. However, the country's domestic production of oilseeds has not kept pace with this demand, leading to a heavy dependence on imports. India imports vegetable oil worth more than USD 14 billion to meet chronic domestic shortages, but it intends to boost domestic production and reduce reliance on imports by increasing domestic production. In the near future, it is necessary for the country to develop significant self-sufficiency, but for the time being, imports are....Read More

General Studies Paper 3 Context: The  agriculture sector  in India has experienced buoyant growth in the past two years. India’s agricultural exports are poised to scale a new peak in the financial year ending March 31, 2023. But so are imports, bringing down the overall farm trade surplus. What are the Agri-Stats? The value of farm exports in April-December 2022 was 7.9% higher(USD 39 Billion) than the USD 36.2 bn for the corresponding period of the previous year. However,imports have grown 15.4% (USD 27.8 bn) in Apr-Dec 2022, over the USD 24.1 bn for Apr-Dec 2021. As a result, there has been a further....Read More

General Studies Paper 3 The agriculture sector plays a significant role in carbon trading because it has the potential to both emit and sequester carbon the process of storing carbon in vegetation and soil).Agricultural activities such as tilling, fertilizer use, and livestock production can release greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. On the other hand, practices such as agroforestry, conservation tillage, and soil carbon sequestration can remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil. India updated its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in August 2022. The updated NDC includes....Read More

General Studies Paper 3 Context According to Solvent Extractor’s Association (SEA) of India, a sharp rise in the import of refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm oil is hurting the domestic oil refining industry. Reasons for the rise in imports of RBD palm oil Import duty difference of only 7.5% between CPO (crude palm oil) and refined oil, encouraging the import of refined oil as compared to the CPO. Cutthroat competition: Malaysian and Indonesian exporters of RBD palm oil enjoy advantage (taxes) of $60 over CPO and hence they discount palmolein benefiting their refiners. Consequences of the rise in imports of....Read More

General Studies Paper 3 Under the Honey Mission, 1 lakh and 75 thousand bee boxes have been distributed so far by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) after providing beekeeping training to 17 thousand 500 beneficiaries across the country. As per the National Horticulture Board (NHB), Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka were the top ten honey-producing states in 2021-22. What is Honey Mission? It was launched in 2017 in line with the ‘Sweet Revolution’. Under the mission, the KVIC under Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises provides the farmers or beekeepers – Practical training about the examination....Read More

General Studies Paper 3 Why in News? India has shared the vision to make International Year of Millets 2023 a ‘People’s Movement’ alongside positioning India as the ‘Global Hub for Millets’. What is International Year of Millets? About: India's proposal to observe an International Year of Millets in 2023 was approved by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)in 2018 and the United Nations General Assembly has declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. This was adopted by a United Nations Resolution for which India took the lead and was supported by over 70 nations. Objectives: Awareness of the contribution of millet to....Read More

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3 Why in News? Farmers in Madhya Pradesh who follow regenerative farming methods find that they reduce the need for frequent irrigation, which conserves water and energy. What is Regenerative Agriculture? Background: The Green Revolution of the 1960s pulled India from the brink of starvation, but the revolution also made India the world’s biggest extractor of groundwater. According to the UN’s World Water Development Report, 2022, India extracts 251 cubic km or more than a quarter of the world’s groundwater withdrawal each year; 90 % of this water is used for agriculture. Currently, there is severe and widespread deficiency of....Read More

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3 Why in News? As many as 13 farmers known for innovative farming were felicitated to mark Kisan Diwas or National Farmers Day on 23rd December, 2022. The Kisan Diwas is observed across the country to celebrate the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the former Prime Minister of India. What are the Key Facts about Chaudhary Charan Singh? He was born in 1902 at Noorpur in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh and was the Prime Minister of India from 28th July 1979 to 14th January 1980. Being a proponent of rural and agricultural development, he made continuous efforts for keeping agriculture at....Read More

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3 Why in News? Recently, the government of India has taken various initiatives related to Agriculture by using Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). IoT is a computing concept that describes the idea of everyday physical objects being connected to the internet and being able to identify themselves to other devices. What is the Need for IoT and AI in the Agriculture Sector? Even as agriculture remains a priority sector accounting for the livelihoods of around 58 % of the country's population, adoption of technology in the sector is at a transitory juncture and faces several challenges across the value....Read More

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3  The Department has commenced the work for creating Agristack in the country. In order to create Agristack, the department has finalized the core concept of “India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)” which lays down a framework for Agristack. For this, a Task Force was constituted and in furtherance, a concept paper on IDEA was prepared and comments were invited from subject experts, farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and general public. Agristack is a federated structure and ownership of data is with the States only. Access to federated Farmers’ database is with Government only. No private....Read More