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R&D, Webinar

To showcase science and innovation crucial to improving global food systems

The World Food Prize Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium has commenced from October 12, 2020. The five day virtual event is one of the world’s premier conferences on global agriculture. Held each October in conjunction with the presentation of the World Food Prize, the ’Borlaug Dialogue’ is a three-day symposium that brings together international experts, policy leaders, business executives and farmers to address cutting-edge issues in global food security and nutrition.

This year’s theme, ’Breaking new ground: Building resilience today for improved global food systems tomorrow,’ recognizes the urgent need for equity, sustainability and improved nutrition in our food systems.Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) science and innovation are crucial to improving global food systems. This is underscored by the selection of CGIAR alumnus Dr Rattan Lal as the 2020 World Food Prize Laureate. Dr Lal has spent 18 years at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a CGIAR Research Center, where he spearheaded research demonstrating that soil organic matter and carbon are crucial to sustaining and enhancing the quantity and quality of food production.

CGIAR will take part in several high-level roundtables and side events this year, focusing on the contribution of CGIAR science and innovation to building food systems that are resilient and sustainable, and meet the food and nutrition needs of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

To showcase science and innovation crucial

Agro chems – Chemicals, Finance

Due to non-cash-effective impairments and provisions for restructuring, below analyst consensus 

 

 

 

BASF has released preliminary figures for the third quarter of 2020. Sales declined by 5% in the third quarter of 2020 to €13,812 million (Q3 2019: €14,556 million). This was mainly driven by negative currency effects.

 

The BASF Group’s operating business performed better than expected in the third quarter of 2020. EBIT before special items amounted to an expected €581 million, above analyst consensus but below the figure for the prior-year quarter (Q3 2019: €1,056 million). Compared with the second quarter of 2020, EBIT before special items rose by €355 million in the third quarter of 2020 (Q2 2020: €226 million). 

The Surface Technologies, Materials, Industrial Solutions and Chemicals segments exceeded average analyst estimates for EBIT before special items in the third quarter of 2020. EBIT before special items was on a level with analyst estimates in the Agricultural Solutions segment, but fell short of analyst estimates in the Nutrition & Care segment. The EBIT before special items of other was more negative than analysts expected.

 

The year-on-year decrease in the BASF Group’s EBIT before special items was primarily due to the continued weak earnings contributions from the upstream Chemicals and Materials segments due to ongoing high pressure on margins. The Nutrition & Care, Agricultural Solutions and Industrial Solutions segments and other also recorded lower earnings compared with the prior-year quarter. EBIT before special items in the Surface Technologies segment was almost on a level with the prior-year period. 

The BASF Group’s EBIT amounted to an expected minus €2,637 million in the third quarter of 2020 due to non-cash-effective impairments and provisions for restructuring, below analyst consensus and the figure for the prior-year quarter (Q3 2019: €1,336 million). Impairment tests identified fixed asset impairments of €2.8 billion due to considerably weaker macroeconomic developments as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. The impairments were largely the result of weaker demand from the automotive and aviation industries, which impacted the Surface Technologies segment in particular, and a continued oversupply of basic chemicals, which put pressure on margins in the Chemicals and Materials segments. In addition, impairments were recognized in the Agricultural Solutions segment as part of measures to streamline the production network.

Due to non-cash-effective impairments and provisions for

Agro Universities, R&D, Water

It is highly cost-effective and has a distinctive edge over resource intensive conventional technologies. 

 The Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI) have formally released their innovative technology ‘Jalopchar’ and an e-book that covers the journey of the technology from ‘lab to land’ and details about the scope and nationwide implementation. The technology has been recommended for national level adoption and implementation by the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and for extension to 400+ Indian cities by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India.

As a result, the developed technology is being supported as a country wide applicable model under the Government of India’s flagship Swachhtta Action Plan Program (SAP) and is also being replicated across country by both public and private stakeholders in consultancy mode.

It has even been selected as a good practice example under the “Safe Use of Wastewater in Agriculture” initiative of the United Nations and as an innovation in Indian Agriculture by the National Skills Foundation of India.The technology bagged the prestigious civilian SKOCH (Platinum) Award under Transformational Innovation Category in 2017.

 

It is highly cost-effective and has a

Start ups, World

Two teams will continue to compete for 100000 euro prize at the Food

 

With the aim to promote a sustainable food system, the Helsinki-based FAN Nordic Hub one of six accelerators in the European EIT Food Accelerator Network (FAN), The hub completed a four-month acceleration program with ten Nordic startups recently. “Leading the Nordic FAN program has been an eye-opening experience for us. It has shown us the huge potential of startups and given us a great opportunity to help them on their journey to success,” said Mirva Lampinen, Co-Creation Manager of VTT and EIT FAN Nordic Hub leader.

The judges selected two teams, eniferBio from Finland and Mycorena from Sweden, to participate in the European EIT Food Venture Summit to compete for three 100 000 euro prizes with teams from other accelerators. eniferBio’s technology allows biorefineries to profitably convert their underutilized dilute side streams into valuable protein leveraging the Pekilo single-cell mycoprotein, which can be used e.g. as a fish feed ingredient. Mycorena’s product Promyc is a fungi-based mycoprotein with excellent nutritional quality and prolific culinary benefits.

“We are happy for eniferBio and Mycorena and proud of all the skillful, innovative and hard-working teams at FAN Nordic Hub,” said Paolo Borella, the Program Manager of FAN Nordic Hub.

 

Two teams will continue to compete for

Cold Storage, Supply Chain

The overall CS RE stock of in the country is estimated to reach 1,400 – 1,500 million sq. ft. by 2023. 

 CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd., India’s leading real estate consulting firm, has released its comprehensive findings on the Cold Storage (CS) segment in the country and the factors which would lead to its robust growth. The findings by CBRE stated that the CS segment in India is expected to witness significant growth over the next few years on the back of a strong consumer and industrial base. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, the demand for CS is also being further fuelled by a wider Omni-channel distribution of F&G across tier I and tier II cities in the country. 

Further, the cold chain network would also play a vital role in reducing the loss of the produce and improving CS efficiencies. States including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana and Karnataka accounted for 91% of the total CS capacity in India in 2019. The overall CS RE stock of in the country is estimated to reach 1,400 – 1,500 million sq. ft. by 2023. 

Anshuman Magazine, Chairman, India & South East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE said, “CS facilities play an integral role in improving the shelf life of products and are an important enabler for several industries working across fresh food production and delivery; along with healthcare and other products such as flowers and chemicals. Considering the potential of the CS segment in the country, we expect that consumer/industry-led factors in India would continue to attract the interest of leading players in the coming years.”

 Abhinav Joshi, Head of Research, CBRE India, further added, “Increasing urbanization and a rise in retail food processing have been accelerating the demand for products that need efficient CS facilities. Local grocery and departmental stores are also becoming smarter and developing innovative ways to deliver food, thus expanding the market for OFD services and consequently CS facilities.

Growth drivers of the Indian CS segment

The growing preference for healthier food without preservatives by the young and working-age population would boost the need for CS facilities. Additionally, traditional preferences in India have always been higher for fresh produce, thereby further driving the need for setting up CS facilities closer to residential areas

The emergence of the ‘cloud kitchen’ concept is also likely to boost demand for CS facilities.

The size of the online F&G retail industry is likely to quadruple by 2022; and the size of the dairy industry is likely to more than double by 2023.

Government initiatives to reduce post-harvest waste, encourage investment and improve logistics efficiencies are also expected to boost the overall CS capacity, value and RE stock.

The projected growth of F&G, online F&G, dairy, food processing and pharma industries over the next few years is thus likely to drive demand for CS and reduce product wastage. CS facilities are also integral for promotion of the rural economy as they would link the marketplaces across all locations.

 

 

The overall CS RE stock of in

Agro chems – Pesticides, Agro Universities, R&D

NRCSS – IPFT has developed new Aqueous Suspension formulation technology of bio-pesticide based on entomo-pathogenic fungus 

The Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT) in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre on Seed Spices (NRCSS) has developed a new bio-pesticide formulation that helps in controlling various insects in seed spice crops like fenugreek, cumin, and coriander. 

IPFT, which is under the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, in collaboration with ICAR-NRCSS, Ajmer, Rajasthan has successfully developed new Aqueous Suspension formulation technology of bio-pesticide based on entomo-pathogenic fungus Verticillium lecanii, an official statement said.

“This bio-pesticide formulation has been found very effective in controlling various insects in seed spice crops (fenugreek, cumin, and coriander),” IPFT Director Jitendra Kumar said.

 

The formulation has good shelf life and is safe for environment. Patent application for the formulation has been filed.

According to a statement provided by IPFT, the seed spices crops suffer major losses due to various insects.

For controlling the insects, large amounts of synthetic chemical pesticides are used in these crops, resulting in higher levels of pesticide residues in seed spices, this leads to risks for human health and environment.

“This bio-pesticides may be used as a safer alternative to chemical pesticides to minimize pesticide residue problem. Besides, it may be used as key input for crop protection from insects’ pest in organic agriculture and Integrated Pest Management,” the statement said.

Source-PTI

NRCSS - IPFT has developed new Aqueous

Agrotech, E-commerce, Start ups

Its objective is to give the entire citrus production chain an extremely simple way to obtain a number of fruits existing

Plantai, a Brazilian based startup has recently announced the launch of the very first application of the market that provides citrus crop estimates based on photos taken from a cell phone. Elaborated with Artificial Intelligence and intensively tested in the field, its objective is to give the entire citrus production chain an extremely simple, cheap, fast and uncomplicated way to obtain a number of fruits existing in a citrus tree and in an orchard.

The subjectivity, reliability, storage and analysis of information collected in the field have always been challenging elements in the history of citrus crop estimation in the world.

Plantai has created an application that does not need an Internet connection in the field for automatic counting and fruit estimation. The producer can simply take pictures with the built-in camera application of their cell phone and then open them in the Plantai app for counting and estimating. Very few photos are needed in a plot to automatically count the fruit and display the estimated results.

Because of the ease and technology used, the grower will be able to follow the evolution of the number of fruits in his orchard from the stage where the fruit is still green.

Three consecutive harvests were used to validate the statistical model of the Plantai which took into account the variety, age and size of the fruits. With the Plantai method one can make several yield maps at various times during a crop. Where the consumer has several “radiographs” of the evolution of what is most valuable in your orchard.

 

Its objective is to give the entire

AgroPolicy, Trade

Revenue from dragon fruit exports is nearly four times higher than longan and mango

Vietnamese Ambassador Pham Sanh Chau has recently urged the Indian government during a virtual seminar, “Fruits and food: New trade opportunities for Vietnam and India”, to open its market for a number of Vietnamese fruits such as longan, grapefruit, durian, and rambutan among others.

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, dragon fruit accounts for about a third of Vietnamese fruit and vegetable exports. Revenue from dragon fruit exports is nearly four times higher than longan and mango. So, the major push was for increasing the purchase of dragon fruit.

Based on data from India-based research firm, Mordor Intelligence, Vietnam, the production of the fruit, mainly in Binh Thuan, Long An, and Tien Giang provinces, is expected to grow at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 6 per cent, reaching 17,06,065.3 metric tons by 2025.

In Vietnam, the total area used for growing the dragon fruit is approximately 50,000 hectares with the white-flesh variety accounting for more than 95 per cent of production and the red-flesh variety for 4.5 per cent.

While both the countries affirmed their desire to increase bilateral trade in agricultural products, on his part. Ambassador Chau has said that the embassy would continue to optimise resources to facilitate trade and promptly remove difficulties for the two countries’ enterprises.

Revenue from dragon fruit exports is nearly

Acquaculture, Finance, Start ups

Shiok plans to use the funds to launch its minced shrimp product in 2022. 

 Aqua-Spark, the first investment fund focused on sustainable aquaculture, announced an investment in Shiok Meats (“Shiok”), the world’s first cell-based crustacean meat company based in Singapore. Shiok is the first cell-based meat company in South East Asia, and the first and only cell-based meat company working on shrimp. Their flagship product is a highly-anticipated cell-based shrimp, which offers clean, traceable alternatives to the shrimp farming industry.

 

Aqua-Spark is the lead investor in Shiok Meat’s $12.6M Series A round, which also includes investments from SEEDS Capital (the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore), Real Tech Fund (Japan), Irongrey (a Global tech investing family office based in Korea), Yellowdog Empowers Fund (South Korea), Ilshin Holdings Pte. Ltd (Singapore), Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd (Japan), Veg Invest Trust (USA), Makana Ventures (Singapore), AiiM Partners LP (USA), Beyond Impact (Europe), Kelvin Chan Siang Lin (Singapore), and Alex Payne and Nicole Brodeur (USA). The funds will contribute towards building the first-of-its-kind commercial pilot plant from which Shiok plans to launch its minced shrimp product in 2022. This puts Shiok on schedule to become the first company in the world to have a fully functioning commercial pilot plant for cell-based crustacean production.

 

While commenting on investment, Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz, co-founders of Aqua-Spark said, “While we’ve invested in a number of technologies working to make shrimp farming more efficient, healthier, and less polluting, Shiok is the first company in our portfolio to focus on shrimp production.  We are excited to help shape this novel and innovative industry, which we expect to have a huge impact on the future of seafood, while continuing to support sustainable aquaculture operations, inputs, and innovations across the value chain.”

 

The shrimp market is a $50 billion market globally with Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and India being the major producers of shrimp. While there are many farms and technologies improving shrimp farming, there is still work to be done. Much of what is currently on the market is raised in crowded factories/farms and treated with antibiotics, chemicals, and hormones. Conventional production processes often contribute to overfishing, excessive bycatch, misrepresentation, and mislabelling as well as contamination with effluents, heavy metals, and micro plastics. This form of production is unsustainable and the sector strain will only increase as the population grows. Shiok is addressing this need and disrupting crustacean production to ensure people can eat clean shrimp, crab and lobster from a safe source.

Shiok Meats was founded in August 2018 by two stem cell scientists, Dr. Sandhya Sriram and Dr. Ka Yi Ling, with over 20 years of combined experience in the muscle, fat, and stem cell biology fields. Shiok’s mission is to produce clean, healthy, cruelty-free seafood. Their cell-based production process is non-GMO and chemical and antibiotic-free.

 

Dr. Sandhya Sriram, CEO and co-founder of Shiok Meats said, “We are extremely excited to work in partnership with Aqua-Spark as we develop cell-based seafood and meats that are contributing towards a cleaner and healthier seafood industry and solving for the inefficiencies around global protein production.”

 

The output of Shiok’s pilot plant will be frozen cell-based shrimp meat for dumplings and other shrimp-based dishes. Beyond cell-based shrimp, Shiok plans to launch shrimp flavouring paste and powder, fully-formed 3D shrimp, and cell-based lobster and crab products in the coming years.

 

Shiok plans to use the funds to

Acts & Schemes – Centre, AgroPolicy, Middle East countries

It will give farmers more options to sell their produce and earn maximum profits

India’s latest agricultural reform legislations will empower farmers and give them more options to sell their produce and earn maximum profits, Ron Malka, Israeli envoy to India has said, citing his country’s experience.

He said the Indian farmers would realise the real benefits of these reform measures once ‘’the dust settles”.

Asserting that collaboration in the agriculture sector is one of the main ‘glues’ that bind the Indo-Israel partnership, Malka said the new farm laws can further deepen ties as India can adopt Israel’s technology of using digital platforms to connect farmers directly with consumers.

“In Israel, there are no middlemen. There is full transparency and farmers are connected to customers. This is working very efficiently with very advanced digital platforms,” Malka said.

“Once the Indian market is open and every farmer can sell to anyone they want…they can adopt these platforms (developed by Israel) by making necessary adjustments for local market conditions,” he said.

In the first phase, this kind of system gives farmers the ability to get what they deserve and in the second phase, it becomes a very efficient and powerful planning tool that helps in the supply-demand coordination, Malka said.

Asked about his views on how these legislations can empower farmers in India, the Israeli envoy said, “Yes, I believe that (these measures will help farmers). The efficiency of the agriculture sector as a whole (will increase). The consumers are also going to enjoy better crops.”

 

It will give farmers more options to

Acts & Schemes – Centre

Farmers in Punjab have been demanding that these three laws be repealed

Punjab’s farmers’ organisations, who have been protesting against the new farm laws, the Centre has once again invited them for talks on the issue on October 14.

A decision on whether to accept the invitation will be taken at a meeting in Jalandhar on October 13, they said.

The farmers’ organisations, whose agitation against the farm laws has disrupted rail traffic and severely impacted coal supply for thermal power plants in Punjab, had rejected the Union agriculture department’s invitation to participate in a ‘conference to address their concerns’ on October 8.

“We have received an invitation for a meeting on October 14,” said Jagmohan Singh, General Secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda).

“Though the invite has come from the agriculture secretary, it mentions that the central government wants to talk to farmers,” Singh said.

“All farmers’ organisations will decide whether to go to Delhi for talks in a meeting slated for October 13 in Jalandhar,” Singh added.

Farmers in Punjab have been demanding that these three laws be repealed.

They have been holding a ’rail roko’ agitation against the ‘anti-farmer’ laws, with protesters squatting on railway tracks at various places in the state since September 24.

Farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws will destroy the minimum support price mechanism, end Agricultural Produce Market Committees and allow corporates to arm-twist them.

The government, however, has been saying that these laws, which were passed by Parliament recently amid a vociferous Opposition protest, will raise farmers’ income, free them from the clutches of the middleman and usher in new technology in farming.

 

Farmers in Punjab have been demanding that

E-commerce, Finance, Start ups

Chiratae Ventures led the Series A round with an investment of Rs 23.5 crore, while Aavishkaar Capital invested Rs 15 crore 

 Agri-tech start up Ergos Business Solutions has announced that it has raised Rs 38.5 crore in Series A round with fresh investment from Chiratae Ventures and Aavishkaar Capital.

Chiratae Ventures led the Series A round with an investment of Rs 23.5 crore, while Aavishkaar Capital, the impact investing arm of Aavishkaar Group, invested an additional Rs 15 crore, the company said in a statement.

 “The equity round is expected to be a Rs 80 crore raise with another institutional investor set to join the round,” the statement said.

 

Kishor Jha, founder & CEO, Ergos said, “The Company is building Ergos Grainbank to serve small and marginal farmers by leveraging technology and data science to disrupt the way farmers deal with their produce. 

 Jha also added that we are extremely excited to have Chiratae on board; and along with the continued support from Aavishkaar Capital, we intend to rapidly scale our geographic footprint and remain focussed to service farmers directly at farmgate at over 2,000 Grainbank locations over the next few years

Founded by Jha and Praveen Kumar from Bihar, Ergos has been working on a farm-gate based Grainbank model that they have piloted in multiple districts of Bihar.

 

The model enables farmers to digitise their food grains and also provides them with doorstep access to end-to-end post-harvest supply chain solutions by leveraging a technology platform to ensure seamless service delivery. 

The Ergos tech platform operates like a bank and offers storage, digitisation, credit and liquidation facility to farmers through the single platform.

 “Ergos is bridging the large gap between the selling price of produce and the realisation of farmers at the farm-gate by using technology to facilitate credit and market linkages to the grains stored with it,” Chiratae Ventures founder and managing director TCM Sundaram said. 

“This opportunity is massive and Ergos is expected to capitalise on its early lead to become a market leader,” Sundaram added.

 

Chiratae Ventures led the Series A round

Europe, Poultry, Start ups

To improve global food security and sustainability

 Paris based Ÿnsect, a global leader in natural insect protein and fertilizer production has received total financing of  $425 million, more than the total amount raised by the entire insect protein sector globally. The capital will allow the company to complete the largest insect farm in the world, now under construction north of Paris, France. It is a negative carbon project, poised to grow its product lines and expand into North America.

The new funding comes from Astanor Ventures (Series C lead investor), LA-based Upfront Ventures, Robert Downey Jr’s FootPrint Coalition, Happiness Capital, Supernova Invest and Armat Group.


A growing global population have increased demand for protein and plants worldwide, for human consumption and as a food source for fish, poultry, pigs and livestock. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, consumption of animal proteins will grow by 52 per cent between 2007 and 2030, posing a serious risk for the world’s fragile ecosystems.

To address this problem, Ÿnsect has created a patented process for cultivating Molitor mealworm to produce highly digestible protein and fertilizer products. These products sustainably replace animal proteins consumed in the supply chain by fish and livestock farms, in pet food, and fertilizers.

To improve global food security and sustainability

Acquaculture, Agro Universities, Start ups

Part of the Institutes entreprneurship boost initiative

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIBA) Chennai signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the start-up  Canares Aquaculture which is owned by the Fisheries Sciences Graduates.

The event coincided with the launching of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the occasion, Dr K K Vijayan, Director, ICAR-CIBA, Chennai appreciated the enthusiasm and courage of youth turning into entrepreneurs and also creating livelihood opportunities for the rural population in the coastal region of Karnataka.

Dr M Kailasam, Head, Fish Culture Division & Team Leader of the Finfish Hatchery Technology Development assured hand holding to the upcoming entrepreneurs. The Graduates started their venture using the seabass larvae from the ICAR-CIBA hatchery and succeeded in rearing with good survival upto 70 per cent and growth in the nursery stage. They sold the fingerlings to the farmers of Mangalore, Karnataka with an impressive profit.

Part of the Institutes entreprneurship boost initiativeThe