Prepare Prelims 2017-Important Terms in Agriculture

  • Agricultural Credit – It is the amount of investment funds in the form of loans,  notes,  bills  of  exchange, banker’s acceptance etc. made available for agricultural production from resources outside  the  farm  
  • Interest Waiver – It is an act of removing a real or potential liability of the farmer towards the  repayment  of  interest  on  agricultural
  • Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) – It is a basic unit and smallest co-operative credit institutions in   It  works on  the  grassroots level  (gram  panchayat  and  village level).
  • Core Banking System – A core banking system is the software used to support a bank’s most common transactions. Elements of core banking include making and servicing loans, opening new accounts, processing cash deposits and withdrawals, processing payments and cheques, maintaining records for all  the  bank’s  transactions,
  • Agricultural Insurance – The agricultural insurance is meant to protect farmers, ranchers & others against either the loss of their crops due to natural disasters, such as hail, drought, and floods, or the  loss  of  revenue  due  to  declines  in  the  prices  of  agricultural
  • Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) – The PMFBY was launched on 18 February 2016. It envisages a uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for Kharif crops, and 1.5% for Rabi crops. The premium for annual commercial and horticultural crops is 5%.
  • Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited (AIC) – It was incorporated under the Indian Companies Act 1956 on 20th December, 2002. The AIC commenced its business  from  1st  April,    AIC took over the implementation of National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) which, until FY 2002-03 was implemented by General Insurance Corporation of India. In addition, AIC also transacts other  insurance  businesses directly  or  indirectly  concerning  agriculture and  its  allied activities.
  • Agricultural Extension Service – Agricultural extension is the application of scientific research and knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education. Generally, agricultural extension can be defined as  the  “delivery  of  information  inputs  to ”
  • Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) – These are agricultural extension centres created by Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and its affiliated institutions at district level to provide various types       of farm support to the agricultural sector. The first KVK was established during 1974 in Pondicherry.  KVKs provide several farm support activities like providing technology dissemination to farmers, training, awareness etc. To achieve the set objectives KVKs undertake following types of activities in the adopted villages: (1) Farm Advisory Service (2) Training programme for different categories of  people.    (3) Training programme for the extension functionaries. (4) Front Line Demonstration (Fill) (5) On  Farm  Testing (OFT).
  •  Soil Health  Card  Scheme – This scheme was launched by the government in February 2015. Under     the scheme soil cards are issued to farmers which carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of  All soil samples are tested in various soil testing labs across the country.  Thereafter       the experts analyse the strength and weaknesses (micro-nutrients deficiency) of the soil and suggest measures to deal with it. The result and suggestion are displayed in the cards.
  •   Agricultural Marketing – It is mainly the buying and selling of agricultural products. Today’s agricultural marketing has to undergo a series of exchanges or transfers from one person to another before it reaches the consumer. There are three marketing functions involved in this, e., assembling, preparation for consumption and distribution. Selling any agricultural produce depends on some couple of factors like  the  demand  of  the  product  at  that  time,  availability  of  storage, etc.
  • e-NAM – National Agriculture Market (NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural    The NAM Portal provides a single window service for all APMC related information and services. This includes commodity arrivals & prices, buy & sell trade offers, provision to respond to trade offers, among other services. While material flow (agriculture produce) continues to happen through mandis, an  online  market  reduces transaction  costs  and  information asymmetry.
  • Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) – An Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) is a marketing board established by a state APMC operate on two principles: (a) ensure that farmers are not exploited by intermediaries (or money lenders) who compel farmers        to sell their produce at the farm gate for an extremely low price and (b) all food produce should first     be brought to a market yard and then sold through auction.
  • Contract farming – It is a system of  contractual production of  agricultural raw produce by the farmer  for  procurement  by  private companies who  process and  sell it   further. 

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