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E-commerce, Seeds, Trade

 The deal aims to accelerate the commercialization of its hemp-related breeding platform  

 
 
 
 
 

Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. announced it has completed the purchase of Oregon-based Industrial Seed Innovations (ISI) specializing in organically grown, high CBD feminized hemp seed and seedlings.

With this acquisition, ISI’s portfolio of strong performing, federally compliant hemp varieties have become part of Arcadia’s GoodHemp line of hemp seeds, transplants and extracts. ISI’s popular Umpqua and Rogue seed varieties each bring unique and highly desirable characteristics to further differentiate Arcadia’s GoodHemp catalog.

“We are carefully designing our seed portfolio to respond to the unique challenges hemp growers face across the U.S. based on climate, geography and both state and federal regulations,” Arcadia CEO Matt Plavan says. “With these new varieties, we will have an even more robust catalog of seed solutions, as well as the field knowledge of ISI’s talented team.”

The deal solidifies Arcadia’s plans to accelerate the commercialization of its hemp-related breeding platform and establish a research and development facility in the Pacific Northwest, a key hemp production area.

In order to service existing ISI customers and Arcadia’s growing cohort of elite hemp cultivators, the company has deployed a multigenerational team of five regional GoodHemp sales agronomists to support existing growers and expand Arcadia’s seed offerings to new territories. This includes states with recent USDA-approved hemp plans including Florida, Arizona, Minnesota, Texas and Mississippi.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 The deal aims to accelerate the commercialization

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Cold Storage, Supply Chain

27 projects approved under Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana

 
 
 
In the recently concluded Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee (IMAC) held between August 21 and 31,  2020, 27 projects under the Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value addition infrastructure of Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) had got approved across 11 states.
 
The 27 new integrated cold chain projects would help leverage a total investment of 743 crores for the creation of modern, innovative infrastructure and effective cold chain facilities for the food processing sector across the nation.
 
With a grant-in-aid of 208 crores, these project will help increase efficiency and sustainability in India’s food supply chain.
 
 Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries who chaired the meeting said that new integrated cold chain projects were likely to generate direct and indirect employment for 16,200 and would likely benefit 2,57,904 farmers. 
 
The projects were approved across the states of Andhra Pradesh (7), Bihar(1), Gujarat(2), Haryana(4), Karnataka(3), Kerala(1), MP(1), Punjab(1), Rajasthan(2), Tamil Nadu(4) and Uttar Pradesh(1).
 
 In addition, 85 Cold Chain Projects were considered for financial assistance throughout the country.
 
Under the Central Sector Scheme of Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure, the Ministry provides financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid at the rate of 35 percent for general areas and the rate of 50 percent for North-Eastern States, Himalayan States, ITDP Areas, and Islands for storage and transport infrastructure. 
 
 

27 projects approved under Pradhan Mantri Kisan

Finance, India

India’s rabi production in the 2019-20 crop year is estimated to be around 149.60 million tonnes

Amid the GDP performance of all sectors, agriculture has achieved a bright spot by clocking a growth rate of 3.4 per cent at constant prices in the first quarter of 2020-21.

The growth, driven largely by a bumper rabi harvest and facilitated by relaxation in lockdown may not have resulted in a big rise in income for a section of farmers. Evidence for this is gross value added (GVA) at current prices for agriculture and allied sectors rising 5.7 per cent in Q1 of 2020-21 against 8.6 per cent in the same quarter last year.

This further translates into an agricultural inflation rate of 2.3 per cent in Q1 2020-21, down from 5.6 per cent in the first quarter of the last financial year. This was among the lowest increases in inflation in agriculture items in more than a year.

According to some experts, inflation was down largely due to a dip in prices of items in allied sectors, which include horticulture, livestock, fisheries, and dairy.

Although prices of core crops remained largely steady during the lockdown months of April to June, mainly due to strong government procurement, prices of horticulture produce, namely vegetables, and livestock items such as eggs, meat, and milk dropped sharply at the producers’ level due to disruption in supplies from mandis to consumers and unfounded rumors about the virus spreading to protein food.

India’s rabi production in the 2019-20 crop year is estimated to be around 149.60 million tonnes, 4.10 per cent more than the previous year. Of that, wheat output is estimated at a record 106.21 million tonnes.

India’s rabi production in the 2019-20 crop

Animal Health, Dairy

The program aims at vaccinating over 24,000 livestock

The department of animal husbandry has recently launched the National Animal-Disease Control Programme (NADCP) for the eradication of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in livestock at Dhanas village, Chandigarh. 

The program aims to control livestock ailments by 2025 and eradicate these by 2030. It further aims at vaccinating over 24,000 livestock, including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs, against the FMD. Moreover, it aims at vaccinating all-female bovine calves against brucellosis disease in the city free of cost.

Tejdeep Singh Saini, Director, Animal Husbandry, while launching the scheme, said the prevalence of animal diseases was a serious impediment to the growth of the livestock sector. He added, “The effort will result in better productivity and acceptability of animal product world over. At present, the program will be undertaken following the Covid-19 guidelines”.

Therefore, now the department hopes that and intensified campaign against FMD and brucellosis will help to accomplish the mission of doubling dairy farmers’ income.

 

 

The program aims at vaccinating over 24,000

Dairy, World

Becomes the first Indian dairy firm to make a place in the global top 20 list at position 16, exhibiting a turnover of $5.5B in the FY19-20.

Dutch multinational company Rabobank’s annual listing of the Global Dairy Top 20 companies by turnover highlights the strategic movements within one of the world’s most valuable food sectors.

Amul, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), has become the first Indian dairy firm to make a place in the global top 20 list at position 16, exhibiting a turnover of $5.5B in the FY19-20.

Meanwhile, Swiss firm Nestle tops the list with a turnover of $22.1B in the FY19-20, followed by French firm Lactalis.

“Exchange rate fluctuations, modest commodity price appreciation, below-trend increases in milk production in key exporting countries, and limited organic growth in major dairy categories contributed to relatively modest gains in the combined turnover of the Global Dairy Top 20,” according to Mary Ledman – Dairy Global Strategist.

Expressing delight on this achievement, R S Sodhi, MD, Amul said, “For all this tremendous growth, credit also goes to Government of Gujarat, CMO and Vijay Rupani for supporting 36 lacs farmers during difficult times by giving timely export incentives and Infrastructure funding.”

Becomes the first Indian dairy firm to

Agro chems – Chemicals, Finance

The consolidated net profit in Q1FY21 came in at Rs 5.59 crore, which rose by 293.66 per cent, as compared to Q1FY20, when it reported a profit of Rs 1.42 crore

Nagarjuna Agrichem (NACL), a Nagarjuna Group company  announced its Q1FY21 results on Aug 26, 2020. The company reported consolidated net sales of Rs 252.02 crore in Q1FY21, which rose by 31.95 per cent YoY from Rs 190.99 crore in Q1FY20.

The company posted EBITDA of Rs 18.16 crore in Q1FY21 that rose by 139.58 per cent YoY. For Q1FY20, it had posted EBITDA of Rs 7.58 crore. EBITDA margin as of Q1FY21 was at 7.21 per cent that rose by 3.24 per cent YoY. EBITDA margin for Q1FY20 was 3.97 per cent.

The consolidated net profit in Q1FY21 came in at Rs 5.59 crore, which rose by 293.66 per cent, as compared to Q1FY20, when it reported a profit of Rs 1.42 crore. The net profit margin in Q1FY21 came in at 2.22 per cent, which rose by 1.48 per cent YoY. The net profit margin for Q1FY20 was 0.74 per cent.

The consolidated net profit in Q1FY21 came

Agro Universities

Covered aspects of geospatial abiotic stress characterization and management

 

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati, Maharashtra organized a National Webinar on ’Abiotic Stress in Agriculture: Geospatial Characterization and Management Options’ on August 27, 2020.

Aimed at exploring the methodologies, building awareness, learning lessons and impart knowledge on the geospatial abiotic stress characterization and management, the webinar was attended by more than 370 participants.

Highlighting the importance of abiotic stress in agriculture, Dr Himanshu Pathak, Director, ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati, Maharashtra  spoke on approaches to manage it and the objectives of the National Webinar. He also emphasized on the multi-institutional collaboration for knowledge integration and development of the Abiotic Stress Information system.

Dr Giriraj Amarnath, Research Group Leader, Water Risks to Development and Resilience, International Water Management Institute emphasized on geospatial techniques to understand the climate risks in promoting agricultural risks solutions. Dr Pradip Dey, Project Coordinator, ICAR-AICRP STCR also stressed on geospatial approach for development of soil fertility mapping for precision farming.
Various facets of digital augmentation were discussed to accelerate the holistic management at systems level in agriculture to reduce/avoid stress and stressors.

 

Covered aspects of geospatial abiotic stress characterization

IT, North America, R&D

Machine learning system detects disease 95% of the time

Researchers at the University of Florida (UF) are deploying smart technology against powdery mildew, a notorious plant disease that reduces yields. In a new study, scientists used a sensing system attached to drones to collect spectral data of powdery mildew on summer squash in the fields and labs of the UF and Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee, in Collier County, Florida.

“The ideal environment for powdery mildew to infect is humid weather, high-density planting and shade,” said Yiannis Ampatzidis, a UF/IFAS Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering as well as co-author of the study recently published in the journal Biosystems Engineering.

The main symptoms of powdery mildew are white spots or patches, usually on the leaves. Diagnosing powdery mildew in early infection stages is difficult because of symptoms on lower, more mature leaves that are often covered by other leaves.

Ampatzidis said that researchers used machine learning  that can ’learn’ from spectral data to detect powdery mildew. The data came from drones and ground-based sensing systems. The trained machine-learning model identified powdery mildew in different disease development stages. The machine-learning system builds a mathematical model to detect powdery mildew without being programmed by a human to follow specific steps. Scientists detected powdery mildew about 95 percent of the time. Even without visible symptoms of the disease, the technology showed researchers the disease 82 to 89 percent of the time.

Machine learning system detects disease 95% of

Agro Universities, Nature, R&D, Sustainable Energy

 It will be used in agricultural activities like high capacity pumps, e-Tractors and e-power tillers.  

 CSIR-CMERI has developed the World’s largest solar tree, which is installed at CSIR-CMERI Residential Colony, Durgapur. Prof. Dr Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, while elaborating about the technology stated that, “The installed capacity of the Solar Tree is above 11.5 kWp. It has the annual capacity to generate 12,000-14,000 units of Clean and Green Power”.

The Solar Tree has been designed in a manner to ensure maximum exposure of each Solar PV Panel to Sunlight and also creation of the least amount of shadow area beneath. There are a total of 35 Solar PV Panels in each tree with a capacity of 330 wp each. The inclination of the arms holding the Solar PV Panels are flexible and can be adjusted as per requirement, this feature is not available in Roof-Mounted Solar facilities. The energy generation data can be monitored either real-time or on a daily basis.

Prof.(Dr.) Harish Hirani explained, “The CSIR-CMERI developed Solar Tree besides being the World’s Largest Solar Tree also has certain customizable features for application at diverse sites. The Solar Trees were designed in a manner to ensure minimum Shadow Area, thus potentially making these solar trees available for widespread usage in agricultural activities such as High Capacity Pumps, e-Tractors and e-power tillers.

These solar trees can be aligned with Agriculture for substituting price-volatile fossil fuels. Each Solar Tree has the potential to save 10-12 tons of CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere as Greenhouse Gases when compared with fossil fuel fired energy generation.Besides, the surplus generated power can be fed into an Energy Grid.

This Agricultural Model can provide a consistent economic return and help the farmers counter the effects of the uncertain variations in Agriculture related activities, thus, making farming an Economic and Energy Sustainable practice. Each Solar Tree will cost Rs 7.5 lakhs and the interested MSMEs can align their Business Model with the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evem Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) Scheme for farmers, for developing a Renewable Energy based Energy Grid.

The solar tree has the capability to incorporate IOT based features, i.e. round-the-clock CCTV surveillance in agricultural fields, real-time humidity, wind speed, rainfall prediction and soil analytics sensors.

 It will be used in agricultural activities

Acquaculture, R&D

Lab is equipped with advanced testing instruments  to analyse antibiotic residues, heavy-metals in seafood samples 

The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has opened a quality control laboratory here to facilitate tests for seafood processors and exporters to confirm product safety as per international regulatory requirements, the central agency said.

The laboratory is equipped with advanced testing instruments to analyse antibiotic residues, heavy-metals, such as cadmium, lead, mercury and arsenic in seafood samples and histamine in fish like tuna and mackerel, it said in a release.

The laboratory has begun efforts to secure accreditation by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and the Export Inspection Council (EIC), the MPEDA said.The laboratory was inaugurated by MPEDA Chairman K S Srinivas through video conferencing.

Gujarat has relatively low instances of antibiotic residue in seafood exports, yet a number of cephalopod consignments are rejected overseas due to the presence of heavy metals, mainly cadmium.

This prompted MPEDA, under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, to set up a QC lab in Porbandar to test seafood samples, Srinivas said.

According to the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Gujarat comes second only to Tamil Nadu in marine fish landings, contributing 7.49 lakh tonnes in 2019, said the release.

Gujarat also produced 73,842 tonnes of shrimps farmed on 9,709 hectares land, and 1,890 MT of scampi in 2019, it said.

Gujarat exported 27,9750 MT of seafood worth Rs 5,019.49 crore (USD 716.25 million) during FY 2019-20, with major export items being frozen fin fish, frozen cephalopods, dried items and frozen shrimp in terms of quantity, and fish in terms of value. Gujarat’’s major markets for seafood exports are China, European Union, South-East Asia, Japan and the US. The state is also a major exporter of surimi primarily to Japan. 

Lab is equipped with advanced testing instruments 

E-commerce, R&D, Seeds

It will shed light on the longevity of seeds of 13 globally important crops.   

 
A unique 100-year experiment launches at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The experiment, the first of its kind, is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food and involves partners from all over the world. It will shed light on the longevity of seeds of 13 globally important crops. 

Results will be published throughout the course of the project, providing valuable knowledge that will help ensure optimal seed conservation in the Seed Vault and indeed genebanks in general. As recognized by SDG 2.5, this is a key step in safeguarding the foundation of our food system for future generations, and ensuring food and nutritional security.

“The experiment is one of a kind,” says Åsmund Asdal, Seed Vault Coordinator at NordGen. “It will provide future generations with knowledge of how quickly, or slowly, seeds die, and therefore how often they need to be regenerated.”

The first experimental seed samples, from the genebank at IPK Gatersleben in Germany, will be brought today to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. They consist of barley, pea, wheat and lettuce. Over the next 2-3 years, seeds from nine additional crops will be sent to Svalbard by genebanks in Thailand, India, Portugal, Brazil and Sweden for the study. These seeds will be tested in 2030, and every decade thereafter, until 2120. 

Seeds are stored in the Seed Vault at a temperature of –18°C and each sample is sealed in a small packet of 400 seeds. 

So How Long Can Seeds Stay Alive?

This experiment seeks to answer that question and inform future best practices for seed regeneration, one of the most important processes in a genebank. 

Seed longevity is one of the core concerns of long-term seed conservation. Well dried and frozen seeds from many important food crops are generally thought to be able to stay alive for a very long time: centuries, perhaps even a thousand years in some cases. But these estimates mainly come from extrapolation from what are called “rapid aging” experiments.  Actual information on how long seeds can maintain their germination ability during storage under optimal conditions is needed, to validate the theory.

Genebanks test seeds in their collections regularly, to be able to regenerate seeds in time and keep the genetic resources viable and available for research and plant breeding. If genebank technicians can identify seeds that are no longer sufficiently viable in time, they can regenerate the seeds and keep their collections safe. 

“The most extraordinary aspect of this project is that it will go on for 100 years,” says Asdal about what most excites him about the project. “It is unique in that we will investigate the longevity of these seeds in real time. We will probably already see in 20-30 years differences between varieties and learn more about the importance of initial seed quality for long-term conservation.”

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a backup facility for the world’s crop diversity. Since its opening in 2008, genebanks all over the world have brought seed samples of the world’s most important food crops for permanent safeguarding to the Seed Vault. In February 2020, the Seed Vault crossed the threshold of 1 million seed samples from 87 different institutes and organizations. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

It will shed light on the longevity