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Home2020October (Page 7)
Agrotech, E-commerce

Every fruit to have a QR code tracing the farmer, source and journey of the fruit 

INI Farms, India’s leading farm to home ag-tech fruit brand announced its entry into e-commerce through the launch of its website, ‘Kimaye.com’. The company will now deliver its range of fresh fruit products directly from the farm to the consumer’s doorsteps across pin codes in Mumbai. Kimaye is also offering free shipping and same-day delivery services for its products. 

The company offers a product range that includes fresh fruits such as Pomegranates, Bananas, Blueberries, Kiwis, Grapes, Apples, Pears, as well as ready-to-eat fresh cuts range and fruit combos. All Kimaye products go through multiple quality checks that adhere to global standards, integrated into a contamination-free supply chain that ensures minimum handling and maximum hygiene. Each Kimaye fruit also carries a dynamic QR code sticker that consumers can scan with their smartphones, allowing them to track the product from farm to home, enabling 100 per cent  transparency for the products.

Speaking on the launch of Kimaye’s online platform, Pankaj Khandelwal, Chairman and Managing Director, INI Farms said “We are delighted to foray into e-commerce with Kimaye’s dedicated online platform. Given the situation we are in today, people are increasingly becoming conscious of their health and the safety of the food they consume.  At INI Farms, our aim is to provide fruits that meet international safety standards to the customers in India, now from the comfort of their homes. We believe in being transparent about our best practices at every stage of growing, sourcing, packaging, and delivery, to ensure that we continue to build our customer’s trust in Kimaye fruits.”

INI Farms will continue to grow its footprint in India through expansion of its e-commerce operations in more cities and pin codes in the coming months, as well as increase its product portfolio. 

Recently, INI Farms rolled out a QR code based origin traceability feature for all its fruits in the international and domestic market under the technology program called “FruitRoute”.

The company follows the most stringent global environmental and health norms such as Global G.A.P, by controlling use of pesticides and chemicals, making it among the most reliable and consistent suppliers of good quality bananas and pomegranates from India.

 

 

Every fruit to have a QR code

Agro Universities, Organic, R&D

It has been developed with the funding support from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt of India

A pilot ‘Aquaponics facility’ developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary University (GADVASU), Ludhiana was inaugurated by Sanjay Dhotre, Union Minister of State for Education, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Indiavirtually from C-DAC, Mohali. Dhotre suggested that many more such projects should be taken up to rapidly percolate such technologies in the masses.

The state-of-the-art facility, that is the first of its kind in region, is equipped with advanced sensors for monitoring and automated controls. It has been developed with the funding support from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt of India. Speaking on the occasion, Dr P K Khosla, Executive Director, C-DAC, Mohali informed the facility is nearly 100 per cent organic, need much less land for a give yield of crop, consumes 90 per cent less water, the fish and plants so grown are more nutritious.

Dr Hemant Darbari, Director General, C-DAC informed about various activities of C-DAC in the area of agriculture and appreciated the efforts by C-DAC, Mohali. Jyoti Arora, Special Secretary, Finance Adviser, Ministry of Electronics and IT, Govt of India, talked about the importance of agriculture in Indian economy and the need for the technology to further work for up-lifting the agriculture. Arora who was Guest of Honour stated that the aspirational rural youth will be drawn in main stream with help of this technology and agri-economy will get a boost.

Speaking on the occasion Dr Inderjeet Singh, Vice Chancellor, GADVASU University mentioned that demand for fishes and such crops is increasing rapidly in urban areas and this type of systems should be very helpful in increasing the farmer’s income, especially in non-coastal areas.

It has been developed with the funding

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Australia, India, Water

To help achieve water security for agricultural activities

The Union Cabinet on October 14, 2020, approved a MoU between India and Australia for collaboration in capacity building, research and development and making impact for sustainable groundwater management.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister,  Narendra Modi was apprised of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga rejuvenation, India and Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustaining Groundwater use through village-level intervention (MARVI) PARTNERS, Australia in  October, 2019, according to a press release.

The MoU has been signed to promote cooperation in surface and groundwater training, education and research to achieve water security for agricultural, urban, industrial and environmental purposes.

 

To help achieve water security for agricultural

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Dairy, India

To improve livelihood and economy of mountainous border areas

To promote dairying and rural livelihoods in the Union Territory of Ladakh, the National Dairy Development Board’s (NDDB)  and Union Territory Administration of Ladakh signed an MoU on October 6, 2020, for conducting a benchmark survey in the newly formed UT. NDDB’s dairy potential survey will help prepare a road map to boost dairying in the UT and will help in enhancing income of the rural population in the mountainous border areas.

Dilip Rath, Chairman, NDDB said that NDDB is happy to support the efforts of the UT Administration who have taken initiative for dairy development in the interest of milk producers in particular and the cooperative movement in general in Ladakh region. He further said that the Dairy Board has also offered managerial and technical support to promote producer-owned institutions that remain true to cooperative values.

NDDB proposes to enumerate all the households present in the identified villages irrespective of their dairy animal holding status. NDDB officials would train the nominated coordinators in the Leh and Kargil districts. These coordinators in turn will identify village investigators to be involved in survey, monitoring & supervision of fieldwork.

After completion of the field work over next two months, NDDB will prepare a roadmap for dairy development in the UT region taking into consideration crucial aspects like climatic conditions, suitability of breeds, animal health & AI support, feed & fodder availability,

To improve livelihood and economy of mountainous

Agro chems – Chemicals

Government & agrochemical industry leaders deliberate on agrochemicals

CropLife India a leading association of 15 R&D driven crop science companies recently organized its 40th Annual General Meeting, which witnessed the congregation of Minister of State for Agriculture, senior Government officials, experts and industry experts on the cause of supporting the farmer.

The Open House- Virtual Conference, included an Inaugural Session, “Policy level changes required to make Agrochemicals, a Champion sector”; a Panel Discussion on “Policy & Regulatory Roadmap for Agrochemicals Sector” and a Valedictory Session.

Parshottambhai Rupala, Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, shared that “India considers agro-chemical as a champion sector and is all set and open to align this sector with best international practices and regulatory reforms; by reducing registration timelines of crop protection products”.

CropLife India members elected the new office bearers: Dr K C Ravi, Chief Sustainability Officer, Syngenta India Ltd. as Chairman and Sanjiv Lal, MD & CEO, Rallis India and Anil Kakkar, Vice President – Sales & Marketing, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd. as Vice-Chairmen of the Board of Directors for CropLife India; during the Annual General Meeting.

 

 

Government & agrochemical industry leaders deliberate on

Agrotech, E-commerce

It will facilitate direct and indirect employments in UP

 PepsiCo is planning to setting up a potato chips production unit in Uttar Pradesh with an investment of Rs 814 crore, said company in statement.

The greenfield (new) unit is being set up in Kosi, Mathura, on 35 acres of land provided by the UP State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA), said an official statement .

It also added that the unit, is expected to start commercial production by middle of the FY 2021. It will facilitate direct and indirect employments

PepsiCo India Chairman Ahmed El Sheikh said the initial investment in this project was pegged at Rs 500 crore which has been revised to Rs 814 crore.

The raw material (potato) needed for production will be procured through local sources, the statement said.

Infrastructure and Industrial Developmental Commissioner Alok Tandon said, ’An MoU (memorandum of understanding) was signed by PepsiCo to set up this project with a proposed investment of Rs 500 crore at UP Investors Summit 2018.’ He further said that as a result of the MoU tracking, land allocation and labour-related reforms, a transparent investment system is being established in the state to suit the industries. As a result of this, PepsiCo has increased its investment from Rs 500 crore to Rs 814 crore.”

 

It will facilitate direct and indirect employments

Acquaculture, Agro Universities, R&D

The technology is the first ever in India

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI), has successfully developed seed production technology of John’s snapper (Lutjanus johnii) first ever in India. Success in captive spawning and seed production of the fish, which was carried out at the Visakhapatnam Regional Centre of ICAR-CMFRI, has set a stage for farming of John’s snapper using hatchery produced seeds. This is expected to open up enormous scope for the country’s aquaculture ventures in near future through species diversification.

The research work was initiated with wild-caught adult fishes during 2018-19 as a component of a DBT-funded project entitled ‘Developing a New Candidate Species for Mariculture: Marine Finfish John’s Snapper, Lutjanus johnii’. This is the first report of successful broodstock development, induced breeding and seed production of this snapper under confinement in the country. The price of this fish is Rs 450 per kilogram in domestic market.

The technology is the first ever in

Agro chems – Fertilizers, AgroPolicy

Gowda stressed on the need for PSUs to become self-sustainable, and said that in future, PSUs should not depend upon budgetary support from Government of India

Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, held a review  meeting with CMDs of fertilizers PSUs to take stock of performance of their PSUs as well as their preparedness for future. 

The meeting was attended by Chhabilendra Roul, Secretary (Fertilizers) and Virendra Nath Datt, CMD, National Fertilizers Limited, SC Mudgerikar, CMD, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited, Kishor Rungta, CMD, The Fertilisers And Chemicals Travancore Limited, U Saravanan, CMD, Madras Fertilizers Limited, AK Ghosh, CMD Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited and Amar Singh Rathore, CMD, FCI Aravali Gypsum and Minerals India Limited.

In his opening remarks, Gowda congratulated fertilizer PSUs for their strong contribution in making fertilizers available to farmers by keeping their manufacturing units in operation, and ensuring distribution of urea and other fertilizers across the country, despite facing various hurdles during the lockdown period. Because of efforts of domestic companies and proactiveness of officers of Department of Fertilizers, there was no shortage of urea in the country, even when demand for urea shot up due to better than expected rainfall and substantial increase in area under farming  Kharif season. 

He asked CMDs of Fertilizer PSUs to gear up for upcoming Rabi season, and ensure that farmers get fertilizers in adequate quantity in time. He directed CMDs to chalk out a common strategy to encourage cashless transaction for sale of fertilizers to reduce diversion and leakages of subsidies in line.

Gowda stressed on the need for PSUs to become self-sustainable, and said that in future, PSUs should not depend upon budgetary support from Government of India. The need of the hour is to go for diversification of product basket, development of new products such as nano-fertilizers and customised fertilizers, technology up-gradation and if necessary, through revamping of existing plants if they have to sustain in future, and compete with private sector and imported fertilizers. He added that fertilizer PSUs should also be sensitive towards environmental concerns as introduction of any environment related policies in future may disrupt their viability. 

Roul added that fertilizer PSUs should also continuously make efforts to strengthen their disaster management plan. 

Source: PIB

Gowda stressed on the need for PSUs

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Transportation

Kisan Rail Scheme gets transportation subsidy as well

Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Rural Development, Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Panchayati Raj and Food Processing Industries, on October 14, 2020, said that under Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, Operation Greens Scheme from Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) to all fruits & vegetables (TOTAL), provides 50 per cent subsidy on transport and storage of notified fruits and vegetables if prices of such fruits or vegetables are below the trigger price.

In addition to direct submission of online claim to MoFPI, the transportation subsidy would also be available under Kisan Rail Scheme under a very simplified way. Any person, including farmers can transport any notified fruits and vegetable crops through Kisan Rails. Railways would charge only 50 per cent of freight charges on these fruits and vegetables. Remaining 50 per cent of the freight charges will be provided as subsidy under Operation Greens Scheme by MoFPI to the Indian Railways. The revised Scheme Guidelines has been uploaded on the Ministry’s website on October 12, 2020.

At present Railways is operating three Kisan Rails between Devlali (Maharashtra) and Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh to Delhi, Bangalore to Delhi and plans to start fourth Kisan Rail from Nagpur and Warud Orange City in Maharashtra to Delhi.

Kisan Rail Scheme gets transportation subsidy as

AgroPolicy, Finance, Schemes - Govt

Farm credit exposures of all lending institutions, including NBFCs, are excluded from the scope of the resolution framework

Reserve Bank of India has recently released a set of frequently asked questions (FAQ) on the one-time loan restructuring scheme announced on August 6. The RBI clarified that the farm credit exposures of all lending institutions, including NBFCs, are excluded from the scope of the resolution framework. However, the loans to allied activities, such as dairy, fishery, animal husbandry, poultry, bee-keeping, and sericulture would be eligible for the resolution scheme.

FAQs on the resolution framework for Covid-19 related stress, released by RBI:

“Are all the farm credit as listed in Paragraph 6.1 of Master Direction FIDD.CO.PLan 1/04.09.01/2016-17 dated July 7, 2016 (as updated) ineligible under the Resolution Framework? Are the JLG loans provided to farmer households by MFIs are eligible for resolution plan under the Resolution Framework?

All the farm credit exposures of all lending institutions, including NBFCs, of the nature listed in Paragraph 6.1 of Master Direction FIDD.CO.PLan 1/04.09.01/2016-17 dated July 7, 2016 (as updated), except for loans to allied activities, viz., dairy, fishery, animal husbandry, poultry, bee-keeping and sericulture are excluded from the scope of the Resolution Framework. Subject to the above, loans given to farmer households would be eligible for resolution under the Resolution Framework if they do not meet any other conditions for exclusions listed in the Resolution Framework.”

The loan restructuring scheme announced by the RBI is aimed at giving some relief to the borrowers after the end of the moratorium. It is also expected to provide some relief to the rising NPAs in India’s banking industry.

 

Farm credit exposures of all lending institutions,

Foodgrains, R&D

The variety helps farmers in Maharashtra to double their yield

Farmers now have a wheat variety ’Aestivum’, developed by Indian scientists with significantly high yield. The chapati from the flour of this wheat also scores high on quality. This wheat variety called MACS 6478 and developed by Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, has doubled the crop yield for farmers in Karanjkhop, a village in Maharashtra.

The farmers of the village in Koregaon tehsil of Satara district in Maharashtra are now getting a yield of 45-60 quintal per hectare with the new variety as against earlier average yield ranging 25-30 quintal per hectare when they cultivated Lok 1, HD 2189 and other old varieties.

The newly developed common wheat or bread wheat, matures in 110 days and is resistant to most races of leaf and stem rust. The amber colored medium sized grain contains 14 per cent protein, 44.1 ppm zinc and 42.8 ppm iron which is higher than other cultivated varieties. A research paper on this variety has been published in ‘International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences’.

The chapati quality of flour of this wheat is excellent, having score of 8.05 with good bread quality scoring 6.93. Maharashtra State seed agency for seed multiplication, ‘Mahabeej’ is carrying out certified seed production of MACS 6478 for use by farmers.

 

The variety helps farmers in Maharashtra to

E-commerce, North America

The program transforms biological product research by providing unprecedented scale, data gathering and analysis

US-based Farmer’s Business Network, Inc. (FBN), the leading direct-to-farm ag tech platform and farmer network, has announced the launch of the FBN Biological On-Farm R&D Network, which connects developers of agricultural biological solutions directly with farmers and full-scale testing environments. This program creates a direct line to commercialization that benefits farmers, manufacturers and the environment.

Biological products look to maximize soil and plant potential, prevent disease, optimize chemical and fertilizer inputs, and drive long-term, sustainable and profitable farming practices.

FBN will connect biological developers directly with farmers through the FBN Biological R&D Network so that large-scale trials can optimize biological input programs to deliver the best return on investment for the farmer. With the aid of FBN’s data science, participating biological manufacturers will also be able to collect valuable insights on product efficacy and performance by environment.

The FBN farmer network contributes anonymous, detailed agronomic data at scale with over 260 million acre-events of real-world farm data aggregated from over 15,000 member farms in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

The FBN Biological On-Farm R&D Network will deliver a path to commercialization by providing developers with:

  • Large-scale testing on working farms across diverse geographies and production environments in the U.S. market
  • High-quality, unbiased, real-world data anonymously contributed by FBN member farms and customized analyses
  • Access to the FBN industry-leading e-commerce platform, which directly links manufacturers with farmers

The Biological On-Farm R&D Network will connect manufacturers with a large and ever-growing pool of farmers to test, refine, and demonstrate the efficacy of their products.

The program transforms biological product research by

Agro Universities

To also release commemorative coin of Rs 75 denomination to mark the 75th Anniversary of FAO

On the occasion of 75th Anniversary of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October, 16, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release a commemorative coin of Rs 75 denomination to mark the long-standing relation of India with FAO. Prime Minister will also dedicate to the nation, 17 recently developed biofortified varieties of 8 crops.

These varieties, along with other food ingredients, will transform the normal Indian thali into nutri-thali. These varieties have been developed by utilizing the local landraces and farmer’s varieties. The high zinc rice has been developed from landraces of Assam rice collected from Garo hills and those of finger millets from Gujarat collections of Dang district.

ICAR has started Nutri-Sensitive Agricultural Resources and Innovations (NARI) programme for promoting family farming linking agriculture to nutrition, nutri-smart villages for enhancing nutritional security and location specific nutrition garden models are being developed and promoted by KVKs to ensure access to locally available, healthy and diversified diet with adequate macro and micronutrients.

To also release commemorative coin of Rs

Agrotech, E-commerce

It aims to help energy traders, risk managers, data scientists, business analysts who rely on weather-prediction methods 

ZE PowerGroup Inc., (ZE) a global leader in end-to-end data management and analytics, and AccuWeather, the most trusted source of weather forecasts and warnings in the world, have announced an expanded partnership aimed at equipping data-driven organizations with weather intelligence. A partnership between ZE and AccuWeather will enable ZE to deliver a wider range of highly customized weather forecasts and other valuable updates to its customers globally. By working together, ZE and AccuWeather will provide clients with an expanded and comprehensive weather-related data reports that enable better decision making. 

ZE expects this collaboration to provide its customers with real-time weather-driven business opportunities based on the data available for current and past weather events. Organizations will also have the ability to map historical weather records and compare them to current weather conditions and trends. This can enable them to predict the potential impact of these events on business operations, create revenue projections with greater accuracy, engage in trade, and mitigate risks. The combination of weather forecasts and other market data essentially allows ZE’s clients to plan, protect, and prepare in a better way. It can be the next game-changer for organizations that rely on predictive analytics.

Energy traders, risk managers, data scientists, business analysts as well as other professionals rely on weather-prediction methods to judge the probabilities of weather events and their impact on demand forecasting and hedging. Investors in the gas and power sector also utilize these insights to predict, plan, and initiate new projects.

Derek Smith, the Director of Data Engineering at ZE PowerGroup spoke about the relationship and stated, “Thanks to this expanded partnership with AccuWeather, ZE has been able to create newly designed report offerings that provide unique insights for over 60 variables including temperature, UV index, relative humidity, visibility, precipitation levels, rain probability, hours of sun, snow, rain, and more. The reports will provide an overview of these variables based on current weather conditions, as well as 3-day hourly forecasts and 15-day daily forecasts.”

The new reports made available by ZE and AccuWeather can help businesses by providing easier access to in-depth data and critical weather insights. Introducing these variables into their planning and risk assessment can allow data-oriented organizations to pave the way for improved strategy formulation and grow their revenues.

 

“We are delighted to partner with ZE Power to bring our award-winning weather data to their dashboards for various business verticals,” said AccuWeather Senior Vice President of Business Development, Paul Lentz.

It aims to help energy traders, risk