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Agro Universities, R&D

A total of 180 banana varieties were displayed in the conference which saw participation over 500 delegates including banana researchers from 12 countries 

The ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli; Society for Promotion of Horticulture, Bangalore and Alliance Bioversity International-CIAT jointly organized the International Conference on Banana 2020 – “Innovations in Sustainable Production and Value Chain Management in Banana” at Trichy from 22nd  to 25th  February, 2020. 

The Chief Guest, Dr A.K. Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticultural Science), ICAR highlighted the significant contribution of horticultural sector in general and banana in particular to the national GDP. He stressed on addressing the emerging problems like TR 4 on priority basis as these have a potential to wreak havoc on Indian banana farmers. He emphasized on the need to introduce polyclonal cultivation rather growing only one banana variety that is highly susceptible to TR 4 wilt disease. 

Dr Alagusundaram, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Engineering), ICAR stressed on the need to reduce the post-harvest loss by adopting the better harvesting, handling, transport, packaging and cold chain management. He also emphasized on the value-addition and use of IoT in the value chain of banana.

Sivarasu, Collector, Tiruchirappalli District inaugurated a Banana Expo showcasing the vast diversity of bananas in the country and other banana related enterprises. Sumathi Ramachandran, Post Master General, Trichy released a special postage cover marking the Silver Jubilee Year of establishment of the ICAR-NRCB during the occasion.

Earlier, Dr. S. Uma, Director, ICAR-NRCB briefed about the conference.  The senior officials of ICAR and State Agricultural Universities were also present during the occasion.

The dignitaries also released the various publications including the “Souvenir on ICB – 2020”, a Book on “Banana and Plantains” and Mobile Apps on “Banana information, its cultivation, export and value-addition, and pest and disease management”. An ELISA Kit developed under the ICAR-CRP on Vaccine and Diagnostic and a liquid formulation of banana Sakthi (a micro-nutrients mix) was also released during the occasion.

Over 500 delegates including banana researchers from 12 countries participated in the event.  Around 45 people including 20 plant quarantine officials, scientists and students participated in the “Training on Foc TR 4” conducted by the ICAR-NRCB in collaboration with the Alliance Bioversity during the occasion.

 A total of 180 banana varieties and 60 stalls related to banana industry were visited by more than 15,000 farmers, students and visitors during the event.

 

 

 

 

A total of 180 banana varieties were

Agro Universities, Foodgrains, R&D

The MoU aims at carrying out joint research and development projects, where HHU will learn from the vast experience of ICAR. In return, HHU will make its knowledge and technology available to ICAR.

Each year, bacterial and fungal diseases in rice lead to devastating losses for Asia’s agricultural sector. Researchers working with Prof. Dr. Wolf B. Frommer at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi plan to work together closely in this area. They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the aim of protecting in particular smallholder farmers in India from rice diseases and their consequences. 

A large proportion of India’s farmers live from growing rice, and 70% of them have farms that average smaller than 0.4 hectares – that’s roughly half the size of a football field. Even a single infection can directly endanger their livelihood. Also, in many parts of Asia diseases like bacterial blight in rice are countered by spraying antibiotics and extremely dangerous pesticides that are not approved here in Europe. This means that we urgently need efficient solutions to safeguard the livelihood and the health of the farmers in India.

 Prof. Dr. Wolf B. Frommer’s working group at HHU has been researching for years on strategies and measures to combat such plant diseases. Together with researchers from the Philippines, Colombia, France and the US, they have found ways to overcome at least one of the diseases, bacterial blight in rice, efficiently and without the use of pesticides.

 Now these researchers want to make their tools accessible to researchers in Asia and Africa in particular. They also want to help countries dependent on rice-growing by making their resistant rice varieties available to smallholder farmers.

 The Memorandum of Understanding that has now been signed opens up new avenues for applying these findings in India too, a country where huge swathes of land are affected by the disease. Researchers in India are world leaders in resistance research and in developing resistant rice varieties. The methods and materials developed in India complement the findings from HHU’s research to date. The new partner, ICAR, pools India’s research and development competency in relation to rice. It is an independent organization within the Indian Ministry for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, headquartered in New Delhi. The organization encompasses 101 research institutes and 71 agricultural universities. 

HHU and ICAR have agreed to carry out joint research and development projects, where HHU will learn from the vast experience of ICAR. In return, HHU will make its knowledge and technology available to ICAR. 

The collaboration includes an exchange programme for students and scientists that is already in operation. Research findings will be published jointly, and agreement has also been reached on how the research findings will be marketed to benefit smallholder farmers in India. Prof. Frommer had this to say: “For me and my colleagues, this collaboration is a significant step that will hopefully allow us to attempt – together with the scientists and growers at ICAR – to use fundamental discoveries to help smallholder farmers in India.”

 HHU President Prof. Dr. Anja Steinbeck, who signed the Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of HHU on 26 February 2020, said: “This collaboration is a significant milestone for our university. It opens the door to a close working relationship. It will see us merge competencies in order to tackle essential challenges. I am happy to know that HHU researchers can make an important contribution to providing practical help to India’s population.”

The MoU aims at carrying

Agro chems – Fertilizers, E-commerce, R&D, Trade

The project, estimated to gulp $2 billion, is the largest granulated urea fertilizer complex in the world, with its three million tonnes per annum capacity.  

Dangote Fertilizer Limited has begun countdown to the inauguration of its $2 billion Granulated Urea Fertilizer complex, with several critical sections of the plant going through various stages of pre-commissioning and test-run.

 With a capacity of three million tonnes per annum, the plant complex located in the Dangote Free Zone, has been classified as the biggest project in the entire fertilizer industry history in the world. Saipem of Italy is the Engineering, Procurement and Supervision (EP) Contractor for the project, while Tata Consulting Engineers, India, is the Project Management Consultants (PMC). 

According to a recent statement by the company, virtually all the section of the plant such as Central Control Room, Ammonia and Urea Bulk Storage, Cooling Tower, Power Generator Plant, Granulation Plant, have been completed and are going through pre-testing.

Already, Dangote Fertilizer has started receiving gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) under the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement to supply 70 million standard cubic feet per day (Scf/d) of natural gas to Dangote Fertilizer Limited.

The statement added that the project, which will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs in construction and related fields, will provide a major boost to the agricultural sector by significantly reducing the importation of fertilizer in Nigeria and ultimately removing the need for imports when the plant is in full production. 

The Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development and Capital Projects, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, said Nigeria would be able to save $500 million from import substitution and provide $400 million from exports of products from the fertilizer plant. 

“The supply of fertilizer from the plant will be enough for the Nigerian market and neighboring countries.I am happy that by the time our plant is fully commissioned, the country will become self-sufficient in fertilizer production and even have the capacity to export the products to other African countries. Right now, farmers are forced to utilize whatever fertilizer that is available as they have no choice; but we need to know that the fertilizer that will work in one state may not be suitable in another state, as they may not have the same soil type and composition. The same fertilizer you use for sorghum may not be the fertilizer you will use for sugar cane,” Edwin explained.

 

He stated that the project, which is estimated to gulp $2 billion, is the largest granulated urea fertilizer complex in the world, with its three million tonnes per annum capacity.

 

According to him, the fertilizer complex, which is sited on 500 hectares of land, has the capacity to expand as it is only occupying a small fraction of the allotted portion of land.

 

Edwin added: “The management of the complex is confident that the fertilizer business will deliver reasonable profit to the company and its shareholders as it is projected that population growth and the need for food production will jack up the consumption of urea fertilizer beginning from 2020 when production of the production would have commenced in earnest.

 

“The current consumption of urea estimated at a dismal 700,000 tonnes per annum by Nigerian farmers is said to be due to very poor usage and is believed to be the cause of poor product yield, which threatens food security in the country.

 

“By 2020, Nigerian population is projected to increase to about 207 million, which would lead to increased food production. Estimates points out that around five million tonnes of fertilizers are required per year in Nigeria in the next five to seven years bifurcated into 3.5 million tonnes of urea and 1.5 million tonnes of NPK while current production levels in Nigeria are at 1.6 million tonnes by 2019.

The project, estimated to gulp $2 billion,

Agro chems – Pesticides, E-commerce, R&D

ADAMA will provide best-in-class herbicides to deliver effective weed control. 

 

S&W Seed Company (NASDAQ: SANW) and ADAMA announced their intent to collaborate on the development of a new sorghum herbicide-tolerant system. This collaboration is expected to bring innovation to sorghum growers and improve weed control and yields. 

S&W will provide new herbicide tolerance traits developed using its advanced research and technology platform, and also provide high-performance seed. ADAMA will provide best-in-class herbicides to deliver effective weed control. The scope of the agreement includes ACCase tolerance traits and ACCase inhibitor herbicides. 

The new Double Team™ ACCase tolerance trait was developed by S&W in collaboration with the United Sorghum Checkoff program using traditional breeding non-GMO tissue culture. 

“Historically, sorghum has lagged behind other major crops like corn, soybeans, and cotton in the application of novel technologies,” said Dr Don Panter, Executive V.P., S&W. “However, we look at sorghum as one of our key product lines and have prioritized our R&D efforts to bring this traditional breeding, non-GMO technology to U.S. sorghum growers in what we believe is record time. We plan to bring a broad spectrum of Double Team™ sorghum hybrids to the marketplace through our Sorghum Partners® brand, and by offering top-tier seed companies licenses to the Double Team™ system. We are very pleased to have an experienced global partner, ADAMA, to develop weed control systems and to support stewardship and grower education with us.” 

Dr. Steve Calhoun, V.P., R&D, S&W, speaking about the development and future of hybrids, echoed these sentiments. “We believe this new herbicide tolerance technology will not only benefit current sorghum producers in weed control, but also bring sorghum back to water-limited acres where it is much more profitable than other crops like corn,” Calhoun said. “Our R&D team is committed to genetic improvement of sorghum, and in particular, to delivering this powerful innovation to sorghum producers.” 

Jake Brodsgaard, CEO of ADAMA USA, views this collaboration as perfectly aligned with the mission of ADAMA. “At ADAMA, we are driven by listening and providing growers simple, straightforward solutions,” Brodsgaard said. “This collaboration between ADAMA and S&W will provide the first full-spectrum grass control option for sorghum growers. This new cropping solution is expected to simplify crop management by providing sorghum growers with an effective and convenient weed management system to get the most from every production acre.” 

Extensive field trials are planned for 2020 to verify further hybrid performance and crop selectivity, and also to fine-tune the use of the Double Team™ sorghum cropping solution herbicides in an overall weed control system. Regulatory trials are also underway to obtain global approval for the trait and herbicide to facilitate grain export.

 Both companies intend to provide a complete weed stewardship management system fully supported by a team of sales and technical service representatives to make a positive impact on today’s farmers and provide long-term sustainability.

 While the Double Team™ sorghum cropping solution herbicide tolerance system is currently pending regulatory approval by the EPA, it is expected to be commercially available in limited quantities in the spring of 2021.

ADAMA will provide best-in-class herbicides to deliver

Country, E-commerce, North America, R&D

It replaces manual spreadsheets by combining in near real-time, a farm’s multiple sources of operational data with estimated revenue and cost data, helping farmers reach decisions easier and faster. 

 

 

Granular, the world’s leading farm management software platform, announces Granular Insights, an easy to use, free digital tool that delivers a clearer view of field-level profitability with close to zero effort.

Up until now, farmers have had to stitch together disparate data sources by laboriously creating – then updating – spreadsheets to figure out field-by-field profitability. With Granular Insights, farmers have a new tool in their toolbox that delivers a more accurate look at their bottom line with the press of a few buttons.

For example, farmers now can analyze the ROI of seed decisions, better visualize field performance and harvest moisture levels through map layers, as well as see side-by-side comparisons of field financials. Plus, farmers can easily invite team members and trusted advisors to view and collaborate on their operational decisions.

“We couldn’t have asked for a simpler process,” said Adam Edwards of Edwards Farms in Virden, Illinois. “We link John Deere Operations Center and Granular Insights, and can easily see our real-time profit estimates by acre, seed, hybrid, or percent harvested. This tool has really helped us make decisions on hybrids for 2020 planting. And the detailed reports make our annual crop insurance reporting much easier. Granular Insights helps us manage our data more efficiently.”

The average corn and soybean farm in the United States generates more than 2,500 data records during a typical 10-month growing season. Most farmers don’t track actual field-level productivity in season, finding it too time-consuming to stitch together invoices, scale data, contracts, land boundaries, tasks and field operations, costing them profits.

 

By seamlessly combining in near real-time, data from John Deere Operations Center and uploads from more than 10 other manufacturers in a few clicks, Granular Insights digital tool puts siloed machine data to work, saving farmers up to three week  worth of man hours of data entry per year.

It replaces manual spreadsheets by combining in

Acts & Schemes – Centre, E-commerce, R&D

The portal would disseminate all relevant information related to TOP crops such as prices and arrivals, area, yield and production, imports and exports, crop calendars and crop agronomy, in an easy-to-use visual format.

Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal  recently  launched a portal that will forecast wholesale prices of three key vegetables – tomato, onion and potato (TOP) – for three months and enable the government to monitor the supply situation for timely market interventions in case of a price crash during a glut.

The Minister said that the Market Intelligence and Early Warning System (MIEWS) is designed to provide advisories to farmers to avoid cyclical production as well as an early warning in a glut situation. She said the portal will enable the government come up with a rapid response in times of glut and move products to deficit regions. It will also help provide inputs for export and import decisions.

Alerts from the portal will help the government make timely market intervention under the Central scheme ‘Operation Greens’ by providing subsidy to farmers for storage and transportation of the produce from surplus markets to consuming market, she added. 

The portal would disseminate all relevant information related to TOP crops such as prices and arrivals, area, yield and production, imports and exports, crop calendars and crop agronomy, in an easy-to-use visual format.

The alerts will be triggered when prices of these three perishable commodities fall to a three-year low at the time of harvest or when the price fall is more than 50 per cent compared with the year ago period or when the rate falls lower than the benchmark fixed by Centre/State government for a specified period, an official statement added.

The portal would disseminate all relevant information

E-commerce, R&D, Trade

Cotton Corporation of India is providing cotton with better quality parameters in terms of less moisture, less trash & better grade than cotton available in the market.

 

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) launched its own cotton brand ‘Hira’ in Mumbai. CCI felt the need for a brand to assure the consumers of a good & reliable quality input for spinning & further value addition. 

CCI, being the single largest cotton trading company in the country (under the ministry of textiles), has taken numerous initiatives to improve the quality of Indian cotton. As a result of these initiatives, Cotton Corporation of India is providing cotton with better quality parameters in terms of less moisture, less trash & better grade than cotton available in the market. 

Hira would assure its valuable consumers the best quality cotton with the benefits of minimal trash (below 1.7 percent); low moisture (below 8 percent); best grade (Rd 78 plus); optimal mic (3.8-4.2) & strength (29 g/tex plus), resulting in better realization of value. This will also help Indian cotton in obtaining international recognition by establishing a premium brand, CMD of CCI, Dr P Alli Rani said.

 Hira with absolute reliability. Hira is an acronym for ‘High in Reliable Attributes’, said Dr Rani adding that she worked very hard to change the Indian quality parameters under procurement by Cotton Corporation of India and at present, it is the best quality at par with the international standards.

 Suresh Kotak, Industry veteran said that the CCI was established to support farmers of India and to give quality & quantity to the textile industries.

President of CAI, Atul Ganatra said that government agencies such as CCI and Maharashtra Federation could procure 100 lakh plus bales under MSP operations this season & there is no doubt that the quality of CCI is very good. Now the trade & textile industry is waiting for a reasonable price of CCI’s sale that is yet to start.

Cotton Corporation of India is providing cotton

E-commerce, R&D, Seeds

To help farmers minimize risk and maximize potential return on investment despite these curveballs, Syngenta is releasing 11 new NK corn hybrids and 21 new NK soybean varieties for the 2021 growing season. 

Backed by the extensive research and development capabilities of Syngenta, NK breeders tapped into data, analytics and agronomic expertise to bring these products to market.

“Because of the ongoing challenges faced by farmers, it’s necessary that we constantly look ahead for ways to accommodate their needs and mitigate risk,” says Quinn Showalter, NK head of sales. “By combining the latest in seed technology with top-of-the-line genetics, NK is able to continue to add products to our lineup that we know will withstand some of the toughest conditions.”

 Elite corn genetics to help meet agronomic needs

The reinvigorated NK corn portfolio offers high-yielding performance protected by industry-leading traits, helping farmers maximize their whole-farm ROI potential. Bred from one of the industry’s largest and most diverse germplasm pools and equipped with industry-leading Agrisure traits, NK hybrids fit the unique challenges of farms across the U.S.

“Bred to meet farmers’ local needs, the new NK hybrids are more competitive than ever, with strong agronomic packages driving winning yields,” says Joe Bollman, NK corn product manager. “Ongoing innovation is allowing us to develop hybrids that can match any environment and combat any conditions – which, as last year reminded everyone, could be both expected and unexpected.”

The new hybrids build on another strong season for NK corn. Despite the record-breaking environmental challenges of 2019, NK hybrids outperformed key competitors in the Corn Belt and beyond. 

Expansive soybean trait portfolio offers more choice

The new varieties join a lineup of consistently high-yielding varieties equipped with today’s most in-demand herbicide technology choices. The NK soybean portfolio offers the industry’s broadest choice of herbicide traits to manage tough-to-control weeds, including Enlist E3 soybeans, Roundup Ready 2 Xtend and LibertyLink GT27.

This is made possible by a state-of-the-art trait conversion capability that enables Syngenta to bring the latest, most desirable trait packages to market with the newest genetics. Combine these trait offerings with more than 50 years of breeding experience, and NK is able to offer farmers products that protect soybean yield potential in even the toughest of environments.

“We’re investing directly into our breeding program so that we can deliver products that keep up with and answer farmers’ needs,” says Eric Miller, NK soybean product manager. “By setting the standard for soybean trait choice, the new NK varieties will help farmers minimize risk and maximize yield potential no matter their location.” 

Value beyond seed

NK is accelerating innovation to address the increasing challenges for farmers and the environment by delivering unique opportunities that add value beyond seed.

One such offering is Enogen corn, available through NK retailers in select locations. These unique hybrids add benefits for farmers marketing grain to ethanol plants or producing grain or silage for livestock feed.

Another is the NK Seed Analyzer, a tool that taps into decades of data to provide unbiased, field-specific recommendations. The adaptability of the platform allows retailers and farmers to proactively plan for weather volatility, soil variability and planting specifications by seeing actual results from numerous sources.

 

                                                                                                                    (Inputs-seedworld.com)

To help farmers minimize risk and maximize

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Nature, Water

U P Singh was speaking at the national summit on ‘Investing in Future through Sustainable Water Use Management in Agriculture’, organized by FICCI.

 NEW DELHI: U P Singh, Secretary, Department of Water Resources, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India today said that water security in agriculture is a local problem and requires de-centralized solutions. 

Speaking at the national summit on ‘Investing in Future Through Sustainable Water Use Management in Agriculture’, organized by FICCI, Singh said that currently we use 90 percent of fresh water in agriculture and irrigation. “Without improving the water use efficiency in agriculture, all efforts of water use elsewhere will not be meaningful,” he added.

 Singh said that we need to change our mindset and give emphasis on water productivity rather than just land productivity. He added that we must focus on water footprints, like carbon footprints, and urged the industry to play more active role in the overall development of the sector. 

Emphasizing on the need of water conservation in agriculture, Singh said that we need to adopt water recycle, and re-use policy in agriculture sector which has provisions for mandates and incentivisation. “The more water we consume, more wastewater is generated. Many states have already started adopting this policy. You need to either mandate people or incentivize people. This kind of policy will have both mandating certain use and providing incentives,” he added. 

Singh while highlighting the environment concerns said that we must also consider revisiting the current government procurement policy which mainly focuses on wheat and rice. It is important that states and farmers must be incentivized for other crops as well. “Today, we don’t grow crops based on water endowment & topography of that particular area. 

 Alka Bhargava, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Govt of India said that improved productivity is key to sustainability. “We have started adopting AI and other technologies to check soil moisture and cropping patterns. We are also looking at the use of grey water in agriculture to reduce dependence on ground water,” she added. 

 T R Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee and Group President, TAFE Ltd said the government should draft a policy on creating an Agriculture Council so that Centre, state and various ministries work for the betterment of the sector.

 Dr Ajai Kumar, Head-South Asia, Govt and Industry Affairs, Corteva Agriscience said all stakeholders including agriculture industry, policy-makers and regulators need to align while keeping farmers at its center in making agriculture ‘Climate Positive.’ 

Dr A K Padhee, Director, Country Relations and Business Affairs, New Delhi, ICRISAT said that conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, including water, demands priority action in the policy agenda.

 FICCI-PwC report on ‘Plugging India’s agri-water gap: Sustainable and innovative approaches’ was released during the event. 

Highlights of the report: 

  • Creating a sustainable ecosystem for hydro-economic models 
  • Managing water as an economic good to ensure water efficiency and sustainability
  • Need to have a long-term and futuristic approach, adapting smart and climate-resilient agricultural practices for water-deficient and water-abundant regions
  • Government to consider promoting irrigation industry to capitalize on water use efficiency by bringing it under the infrastructure category
  • Accelerating innovation in water conservation to sustain current and future water demand
  • Need for robust policy framework and institutional structure
  •  .   Promote water productivity and water security in the country
  • Current situation demands innovation in financing irrigation infrastructure for prudent economics and judicious water usage. 
  • Water scarcity in agriculture calls for National Integrated Agriculture Water Policy

U P Singh was speaking at the

Agrotech, Dairy, Start ups, Trade

Over 50 plus Milk brands across India have partnered with Mr. Milkman 

 

 

   Mr. Milkman, the fastest growing dairy tech start-up forays into the Bangalore market through its partnership with prominent dairy players and milk brands namely; Akshayakalpa, HappyMilk, Mathruka, Farm Fresh Organic and Olemoo.

 This association enables the partners to manage their orders and smoothly manage their delivery services. Today, over 50+ Milk brands/Dairies across India track, sales prediction, reverse logistics of crates, accounting, and last mile delivery through the platform.

The partnership will operate on a revenue-sharing model where Mr. Milkman will provide their SaaS platform to the partners who will head the logistics of their dairy business, such as production and delivery in Bengaluru.

Mr. Milkman’s well-integrated technology will empower its partners with automated processes, enabling them to track subscriptions, revenue, sales growth, payments and customer consumption patterns. Additionally, the real-time data-driven analytical dashboard will capacitate partners to create distribution channel hubs, managing their transportation and end-customer delivery.

Furthermore, the delivery application offers features such as order tracking & delivery, inventory management, and reverse logistics for glass bottles. This allows the delivery person to know how much milk to carry and how much to deliver. 

The other prominent dairies that have partnered include, MilkMantra, Healthways, Gyan Dairy, Whyte Farms, Binsar Farms Creamery, Mr.Dairy, Mr.Milk, PureMilk, Diya Farms, Go4Life, Happymoo, etc. for hassle-free operations and smooth delivery.

 

Samarth Setia, CEO and Co-Founder, Mr. Milkman, commented, “We are delighted to enter Bengaluru and associate with some of the finest quality dairy brands. Our objective is to improve operational and delivery efficiency for all our partners and enable consumers to subscribe to premium quality unadulterated milk. Understanding their business, we aim to ensure execution of operations in a smoother and more organized manner to help them manage their growth goals”.

 

 

 Shashi Kumar, Founder, Akshayakalpa, said, “The dairy sector in India is vast, for every business to grow; there has to be a rapid escalation in production. In order to focus on our growth, we require a partner to help us improve logistics and make our operations more efficient, and this association certainly ensures that. Our partnership will guarantee smoother logistics while we accumulate our efforts in providing the best services to our customers”.

Anuradha Pranesh, Founder, Mathruka said, “Consumers should be able to order and get delivery of Mathruka’s farm fresh organic and healthy milk smoothly with least challenges, and also be able to track their payments and order other products. The partnership with Mr. Milkman will help our consumers get easy access and help Mathruka to provide better service to consumers”

 

About Mr. Milkman

Mr. Milkman is a Dairy Tech Start-up working towards enabling the dairy industry. Founded in 2017 by Samarth Setia, Mr. Milkman works with leading dairies to manage their customer base.

Mr. Milkman not only provides dairies with a way to manage their customer subscriptions and deliveries but also helps them manage their entire business – right from the farm to their customers’ glass through its platform.

The platform enables its customers to track sales and customer consumption patterns by providing real-time data-driven analytics. This data helps dairies manage demand, sales forecasting and distribution. The platform also helps to create offline distribution channel hubs and manage transportation and end-customer delivery.

With data security, transparency in approach and analytical inputs, dairies can now focus on production and growth while Mr. Milkman takes care of the entire supply chain management through a cloud-based platform.

 

Some of the organizations Mr. Milkman has associated are, MilkMantra, Healthways, Gyan Dairy, Whyte Farms, Binsar Farms Creamery, Mr.Dairy, Mr.Milk, PureMilkDiya Farms, Go4Life, Happymoo, etc. to name a few.

 

 

 

 

Today, the company is working with farmers in and around Tiptur, Karnataka and grooming them to be entrepreneurs by transforming their farming operations from livelihood focused to wealth creation opportunity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over 50 plus Milk brands across India

Agrotech, R&D

The conference will focus on the importance and need for traceability solutions in the agriculture and food supply chain

SourceTrace, a global Agritech company will host India’s first conference on traceability in agriculture in collaboration with Thinkag. The event will be held at The Le Meridien Hotel, New Delhi on 5th March 2020.  The event is going to welcome around 60 industry leaders from the food and agriculture sector across the country.         

 In order to achieve better crop yielding and to increase profitability, employing technology has become an important factor in agriculture. At the same time, ensuring food safety and sustainability is also a grave concern in today’s time. Technologies like traceability could help in keeping a check on the safety and security of the products and building a niche for products originating from India. With Tracecon, discussions over traceability and its impact in promoting trade and sustainability along with food security and safety will be at the center stage.  

 Venkat Maroju, CEO, SourceTrace says,  “From food safety to farmer income to promotion of exports, traceability can play a significant role across the agricultural and food spectrum in India. Budget 2020 also focused on using technology to develop agriculture, and the commitment to double farmer income by 2022 can only be achieved through the use of technology.  SourceTrace in collaboration with Thinkag has taken this initiative to discuss the importance and need for traceability solutions in the agriculture and food supply chain. We look forward to its wider adoption by the industry in the near future.”

The conference will focus on the importance

Acquaculture, Agro Universities

The various farmer-friendly publications by ICAR-CIBA in the vernacular languages were released during the occasion.

The ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai in collaboration with the Society of Coastal Aquaculture and Fisheries (SCAFi) and Navsari Agricultural University (NAU), Gujarat organized the “Brackishwater Aquaculture Farmers’ Conclave – 2020 (BAFAC-2020)” at Surat, Gujarat from 19th to 20th February, 2020. 

The Chief Guest,  Anup Kumar, I.A.S., Secretary, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Agricultural Marketing, Government of Maharashtra lauded the ICAR-CIBA’s efforts to organize the Farmer’s Conclave in the West Coast.

 In his address, N.F. Patel, Department of Fisheries, Government of Gujarat recalled the decision of the Gujarat Fisheries Minister for allocating 7.5 ha of farm land at Matwad, Navsari to the NGRC of ICAR-CIBA to conduct the research and trials for the development of technologies suitable for the West Coast.

 Dr Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR highlighted the brackishwater aquaculture’s potential in the country and benefits the farmers can reap in on a sustainable mode. He outlined the sector’s remarkable growth, where the farmers’ income in brackishwater sector has been multiplied over 3 times since 2010. Dr Jena also stressed on the need of a sustainable approach to keep the growth trajectory. 

Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr K.K. Vijayan, Director, ICAR-CIBA and President, SCAFi & Convener, BAFAC-2020 articulated the significance of BAFAC-2020 and its main purpose. He also outlined the development of brackishwater aquaculture sector with special reference to the shrimp farming and the way forward for its sustainability. Dr Vijayan also assured the stakeholders about the extending of the technological and capacity building support on “partnership mode” by the Institute to the programmes initiated on the west coast by the respective state governments for developing the brackishwater aquaculture.

 The various farmer-friendly publications by ICAR-CIBA in the vernacular languages were released during the occasion. Around 70 farmers of the region were distributed the Soil and Water Health Cards based on respective farm samples. Dr Jena also handed-over a cheque for Rs. 5,00,000; an income generated by the Om Sai Women Self Help Group, Matwad, Navsari, Gujarat by taking up the Nursery rearing of finfishes with the facilitation of Navsari Gujarat Research Center of ICAR-CIBA. 

About 900 brackishwater farmers representing all the coastal states covering both East and West coasts of India from West Bengal to Gujarat and Inland states like Haryana Punjab and Rajasthan attended the programme.

The various farmer-friendly publications by ICAR-CIBA

Agrotech, Seeds, World

An Arctic “doomsday vault” was set to receive 60,000 samples of seeds from around the world as the biggest global crop reserve stocks up for a global catastrophe. 

 

 

The seeds are to be deposited in the vault inside a mountain near Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen Island in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, about 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole.

Extinction risk

“As the pace of climate change and biodiversity loss increases, there is new urgency surrounding efforts to save food crops at risk of extinction,” said Stefan Schmitz, who manages the reserve as head of the Crop Trust.

“The large scope of today’s seed deposit reflects worldwide concern about the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on food production,” Schmitz added.

“But more importantly, it demonstrates a growing global commitment – from the institutions and countries that have made deposits today and indeed the world – to the conservation and use of the crop diversity that is crucial for farmers in their efforts to adapt to changing growing conditions,” he said. Common as well as wilder varieties of grains are being sent by institutions in countries as diverse as Brazil, the US, Germany, Morocco, Mali, Israel and Mongolia. 

Safeguarding biodiversity

The latest shipment will bring to around 1.05 million the number of seed varieties placed in three underground alcoves which form the vault, known also as Noah’s Ark. Aimed at safeguarding biodiversity in the face of climate change, wars and other natural and man-made disasters, the seed bank has the capacity to hold up to 4.5 million batches, or twice the number of crop varieties believed to exist in the world today.

It was launched in 2008 with financing from Norway. Its usefulness was spotlighted during Syria’s civil war when researchers were able in 2015 to retrieve from the vault duplicates of grains lost in the destruction of Aleppo. The countries and institutions that deposit seeds in the vault retain ownership over them and can retrieve them when necessary.

Hit by climate change

Paradoxically, the vault was itself hit by climate change. In 2016, water seeped into the vault’s tunnel entrance due to permafrost melting as Arctic temperatures climbed unusually high. Norway has since financed work to insulate the vault from further effects of a warming and wetter climate, which scientists say is happening two times faster in the Arctic than elsewhere.

An Arctic “doomsday vault” was set to

E-commerce, Start ups, Trade

Acquisition enhances ICL’s digital services offering and accelerates its development roadmap 

ICL (NYSE: ICL) (TASE: ICL), a leading global specialty minerals and specialty chemicals company,  recently announced  that it has acquired Growers Holdings, Inc. (’Growers’), an innovator in the field of process and data-driven farming, as ICL further enhances its digital service offering and accelerates its global development roadmap.

 Growers’ agronomic services platform enhances decision-making capabilities for farmers, agronomists and other agro-professionals by creating easily adaptable and executable data-driven recommendations. 

The Growers platform collects and structures manual and machine-generated farm data, instantly creating agile and return-focused plans for planting, fertilization and purchasing decisions that are streamed to farm machinery for effortless on-field application. Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Growers employs a team of data scientists, engineers, developers and agronomists, serving a rapidly growing customer base across the U.S. 

“The acquisition of Growers expands and strengthens our offering of agro-digital services and our capability to develop innovative solutions to generate higher agricultural yields and more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices. By combining Growers’ one-of-a-kind platform with ICL’s extensive agronomic know-how, we are accelerating our market reach and development roadmap to create an unparalleled digital service offering focused on providing agro-professionals with unique access to currently untapped and unstructured data in a simple, fast and actionable way,” said Raviv Zoller, ICL President & CEO. 

“Agriculture is an industry that impacts every person on the planet. Our belief is that there is significant opportunity to drive a more sustainable, profitable future through the better utilization of agriculture data,” said Steven Valencsin, Growers Founder and CEO. “We are very excited to be united in this mission with ICL and share a common approach to delivering value to our customers. For our customers, its business as usual, although we expect that ICL’s unique know-how and access to the Israeli technological ecosystem and its broad capabilities will allow us to deliver increasing value over time.” 

 Valencsin will remain CEO, and the company will continue to service their customers while leveraging ICL’s vast resources to continue building technological solutions that deliver value to farmers and their trusted advisors around the world. 

In addition, ICL announced today that Yoram Sadan has been appointed as the Head of ICL’s Digital Services Business, effective March 2020. Mr. Sadan is a global executive who brings significant experience in the technology and agriculture sectors, most recently with Netafim Ltd. and Siemens AG.  Sadan will report to Raviv Zoller, ICL President & CEO, and will be a member of ICL’s senior management team.

  Valencsin and Sadan will discuss thematic trends in the agricultural market, including challenges in agriculture productivity, at ICL’s upcoming investor event and will introduce the Growers platform and describe how it fits within ICL’s ongoing initiatives.

 

Acquisition enhances ICL’s digital services offering and