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North America, Supply Chain

The partnership supports Benson Hill’s plans to scale soybean production

Benson Hill, a food tech company unlocking nature’s genetic diversity with its leading food innovation engine based in the US, has announced a collaboration with family-owned Rose Acre Farms to optimize its soybean processing capacity in Seymour, Indiana, and build out the supply chain for Benson Hill’s high-protein, high-oleic, low anti-nutrient soybeans.

This collaboration will allow local growers to tap into price premiums for food- and feed-grade identity-preserved, non-GMO soybeans, and support Benson Hill as it meets growing demand for high-protein animal feed and plant protein ingredients for plant-based foods. The new collaboration will also support jobs in the area and boost the local economy.

Benson Hill has partnered with growers to contract more than 30,000 acres of premium soybeans this growing season, including significant acreage in Indiana. To minimize cost and the carbon footprint of transportation, Benson Hill sought out Rose Acre Farms as a partner to develop a processing facility in close radius to its grower partners.

Benson Hill provides its cutting-edge soybean food and feed-grade seed varieties through its Benson Hill Seeds division. The food tech company plans to fully commercialize a line of Ultra-High Protein soybean varieties in 2021. For growers and for buyers, Benson Hill’s soybean product line combines superior nutritional qualities and oil content with highly competitive yields, offering benefits from seed-to-shelf.

The partnership supports Benson Hill’s plans to

Seeds

Snapper Seed Production would fulfill the domestic demand for marine finfish

M Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India has recently released the John’s Snapper Seed Production Technology and dedicated the Snapper Seeds in a function organized at the Visakhapatnam Regional Centre of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi on 7th December 2020. He handed-over the Snapper Seeds to two Progressive Fish Farmers hailing from the region.

In his address, Naidu accentuated that the Snapper Seed Production and Subsequent Mariculture in Cages would fulfill the domestic demand of marine finfish as the cheap and best source of animal protein. Being a rich source of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, the Snapper’s consumption will improve the general well-being of the country’s vast population and its farming would be lucrative for fish farmers. He emphasized that the existing gap prevalent in the country between demand and supply can only be bridged by marine cage farming and there is a need to further diversify the species mix.

Snappers are in high demand globally and are much sought after in India with the farm-gate price of this fish is Rs 400/kg. It is an excellent species for mariculture owing to its fast growth rate, efficient feed conversions, fantastic meat quality and superior consumer preference. John’s snapper seeds globally have only been produced in Singapore with limited success. Keeping this in view, ICAR-CMFRI at Visakhapatnam Regional Centre started developing broodstock a year and a half back.

The fishes matured and were induced to spawn in the beginning of this year. Thereafter, continuous seed production has been achieved. This is the first instance in the country that snapper seeds have been produced. With the production of snapper seeds on a consistent basis, Indian mariculture is poised for a new surge with exponential increase in mariculture finfish production.

Snapper Seed Production would fulfill the domestic

R&D, Singapore

Raman leaf-clip sensor, a portable device would allow rapid diagnosis of nutrition deficiency in plants, enabling farmers to maximise crop yield in a sustainable way

Researchers from the Disruptive & Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) of Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore and Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) have designed a portable optical sensor that can monitor whether a plant is under stress. The device offers farmers and plant scientists a new tool for early diagnosis and real-time monitoring of plant health in field conditions.

Precision agriculture is an important strategy for tackling growing food insecurity through sustainable farming practices, but it requires new technologies for rapid diagnosis of plant stresses before the onset of visible symptoms and subsequent yield loss. SMART’s new portable Raman leaf-clip sensor is a useful tool in precision agriculture allowing early diagnosis of nitrogen deficiency in plants, which can be linked to premature leaf deterioration and loss of yield.

In a paper titled “Portable Raman leaf-clip sensor for rapid detection of plant stress” published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports, SMART DiSTAP and TLL scientists explain how they designed, constructed, and tested the leaf clip that allows the optical sensor to probe the leaf chemistry and establish the stress state.

“Our findings showed that in vivo measurements using the portable leaf-clip Raman sensor under full-light growth conditions were consistent with measurements obtained with a benchtop Raman spectrometer on leaf-sections under laboratory conditions,” says MIT Professor Rajeev Ram, co-Lead author of the paper and Principal Investigator at DiSTAP. “We demonstrated that early diagnosis of nitrogen deficiency – a critical nutrient and the most important component of fertilizers – in living plants is possible with the portable sensor.”

While the study mainly looked at measuring nitrogen levels in plants, the device can also be used to detect levels of other plant stress phenotypes such as drought, heat and cold stress, saline stress, and light stress. The wide range of plant stressors that can be detected by these leaf-clip Raman probes and their simplicity and speed makes them ideal for field use by farmers to ensure crop health.

While we have focused on the early and specific diagnosis of nitrogen deficiency using the leaf-clip sensor, we were able to measure peaks from other metabolites that are also clearly observed in popular vegetables such as Kailan, Lettuce, Choy Sum, Pak Choi, and Spinach,” says Dr. Chung Hao Huang, co-first author of the paper and Postdoctoral Fellow at TLL.

The team believes their findings can aid farmers to maximise crop yield, while ensuring minimal negative impacts on the environment, including minimising pollution of aquatic ecosystems by reducing nitrogen runoff and infiltration into the water table.

“The sensor was demonstrated on multiple vegetable varieties and supports the effort to produce nutritious, low-cost vegetables as part of the Singapore 30 by 30 initiative,” says Professor Nam-Hai Chua, co-Lead Principal Investigator at DiSTAP, Deputy Chairman at TLL and co-Lead author of the study. “Extension of this work to a wider variety of crops may contribute globally to improved crop yields, greater climate resiliency, and mitigation of environmental pollution through reduced fertilizer use.”

The portable Raman system was designed in collaboration with local company Technospex Pte Ltd. The leaf-clip Raman sensor consists of a 3D printed clip that is built around a fiber-based Raman probe assembly.

Dr. Shilpi Gupta, Postdoctoral Associate at DiSTAP, was co-first author of the paper and Dr. Gajendra Pratap Singh, Scientific Director at DiSTAP, also co-authored the article.

The research was carried out by SMART and supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.

Raman leaf-clip sensor, a portable device would

Agro chems – Fertilizers

Yara aim to capture opportunities within shipping, agriculture and industrial applications

Yara, a global firm specializing in agricultural products and environmental protection agents, has announced plans for 500,000 tonnes per annum green ammonia production in Norway, powering emission-free shipping fuels and decarbonized food solutions. At its ESG investor seminar, Yara sets out plans to broaden its core as a leading food solutions company, enable the hydrogen economy, and drive sustainable performance.

Building on its long experience and leading position within global ammonia production, logistics and trade, Yara aim to capture opportunities within shipping, agriculture and industrial applications, in a market expected to grow by 60 percent over the next two decades. Against this backdrop, Yara announces plans to fully electrify its ammonia plant in Porsgrunn, Norway with the potential to cut 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum, equivalent to the emissions from 300,000 passenger cars.

To make its vision of zero-emission ammonia production in Norway a reality, Yara is seeking partners and government support. If the required public co-funding and regulatory framework is in place, the project could be operational in 2026. The project would eliminate one of Norway’s largest static CO2 sources and would be a major contributor for Norway to reach its Paris agreement commitments. Yara aims to fully remove CO2 emissions from its Porsgrunn ammonia production and thereby produce emission-free fuel for shipping, carbon-free fertilizer and ammonia for industrial applications.

Among several growths and improvement initiatives, Yara outlines a transformation of its commercial business models, sales channels, and offerings, targeting revenue growth from new online services, outcome-based models and carbon market digital services, with an ambition to add USD 300-600 million new EBITDA by 2025 on top of existing initiatives.

Yara is targeting a 30% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030, and is committing to establishing Science-Based Targets, based on an industry-shaping collaboration with Nutrien and WBCSD, and supporting a Sectoral Decarbonization Approach analysis for the nitrogen fertilizer industry.

 

Yara aim to capture opportunities within shipping,

Agro Universities, India, Nature, Thailand

The institute’s excellent contribution in ‘Soil health awareness’ in 2019 was recognized

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Institute of Soil Science (ICAR-IISS), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, has been awarded the prestigious King Bhumibol World Soil Day 2020 Award by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) on its World Soil Day 2020 function.

This international recognition is in view of excellent contribution in ‘Soil health awareness’ remarkably done by the Institute during last year. The Institute has organised several programmes with great fervour and enthusiasm in the school and Institute’s premises as well as in the farming community in the villages.

The Institute celebrated Agriculture Education Day with a theme to create soil health awareness amongst the students and an exposure visit-cum-expert session on “Soil health for sustaining soil productivity” was organized. The scientist briefed key points on the importance of ‘Agriculture Education Day’, agricultural sciences, soil science, importance of soil health and its management for achieving higher crop productivity and soil sustenance. During this event the students participated enthusiastically and acquired awareness related to soil health.

A massive awareness campaign for preserving ‘SOIL – Our Mother Earth’ was organised to commemorate World Soil Day. A farmer-scientist interaction meet was conducted at village Parawalia Sadak, where the renowned Soil Scientists from different parts of India participated.

The institute’s excellent contribution in ‘Soil health

World

The transaction includes all Sunterra product lines

US-based Profile Products, the world’s leading provider of environmentally sound, site-specific solutions for horticultural production, erosion control and vegetation establishment, soil modification, and sports turf, the manufacturer of Hydrafiber horticulture substrates and other leading soil and vegetation management solutions, recently announced the acquisition of Canada based Sunterra Horticulture, a major producer of professional-grade sphagnum peat moss.

The transaction includes all Sunterra product lines, as well as the company’s state-of-the-art facilities in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. All Sunterra employees will also join the Profile’s team.

The investment combines the industry-leading experience of both companies and expands Profile’s horticultural product line to provide growers and blenders with a consistent and reliable supply of critical raw materials needed for their soil and media programs.

The new products augment Profile’s rapidly growing horticulture line, including HydraFiber, the most advanced engineered substrate for consistency, porosity and water availability. The acquisition will allow Profile to further enhance its strategic partnership with growers who choose to make their own mixes and blenders looking for a supply chain partner they can rely on for high-quality raw materials.

Sunterra joins Profile’s extensive global portfolio, which also includes proven technologies for erosion control, landscaping, sports field conditioning, and golf course construction and maintenance. The transaction closed on December 1, 2020. Financial details were not disclosed.

The transaction includes all Sunterra product linesUS-based

Agro Universities, R&D, Webinar

The training program is being held from December 1 to 21, 2020

The ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, in collaboration with the National Agriculture Development Cooperative Ltd. (NADCL), Baramulla, Jammu & Kashmir, has organized a 21-day ‘Virtual Advanced National Training Programme on Recent Scientific Interventions and Practices of Sugarcane Breeding, Production and Utilization for Doubling Farmers’ Income’ from December 1 to 21, 2020.

Dr Tilak Raj Sharma, Deputy Director General (Crop Science), ICAR commended the Institute’s contribution for its ‘Co’ varieties grown in over 78 per cent of sugarcane area in the country. He emphasized on the need for broadening the genetic base and micro-propagation for producing healthy planting materials to prevent the genetic vulnerability of sugarcane to pests and diseases.

Dr Bakshi Ram, Director, ICAR-SBI, Coimbatore, highlighted the varietal contribution made by the Institute in developing over 3,200 ‘Co canes’ during 108 years of breeding. He also stressed on the need for sustainable development of improved varieties coupled with adopting mechanization to meet the sugar and ethanol demand in the country.

Prof M P Thakur, Director of Instruction and Controller of Examinations, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur lauded the Institute for varietal contribution, particularly, ‘Co 0238’ benefiting the farmers and millers. He stressed on water saving sugarcane agriculture through drip irrigation.

A total of 141 participants representing the Agricultural Universities, Veterinary Universities, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and other Institutes from 18 States and 2 Union Territories are virtually participating in the training programme.

 

The training program is being held from

Finance, India, Machinery - Pre-harvesting, Machinery – Post-harvesting

Leads Industry Growth with 11,478 Domestic Sales in November 2020

Sonalika Tractors, one of India’s leading tractor manufacturers and the No.1 Exports brand in the country, is thankful to the farmers across the globe for their trust and confidence shown month on month during FY’21 in the company’s technologically advanced, customised product portfolio.

The undaunted support of farmers during the pre-season as well as during the festival season has powered the company to clock an extraordinary 71 per cent Domestic growth in November, 2020 to sell 11,478 tractors, surpassing the est. industry growth of around 49 per cent. Cumulatively, Sonalika has, overall, recorded 92,913 tractors sales (Domestic + Exports) in FY’21 YTD (April- Nov’20).

Raman Mittal, Executive Director, Sonalika Group, said, “I am pleased to share that our strategy to offer customised farming solutions has won us the farmer’s trust in our technologically advanced products. This noteworthy trust has powered us to surpass industry growth month after month by a significant margin. Our customised tractors and implements are designed with advanced features to offer significant increase in the farmer’s productivity and thus making us the No.1 choice for farmers”.

Leads Industry Growth with 11,478 Domestic Sales

AgroPolicy

In respect of Copra and Urad, rates are ruling above MSP in most of the major producing States

In the ongoing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21, Government continues to procure Kharif 2020-21 crops at its MSP from farmers as per its existing MSP Schemes.

Paddy procurement for Kharif 2020-21 has progressed smoothly in the procuring States & UTs of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Bihar with purchase of over 336.67 LMTs of paddy up to 05.12.2020 against the last year corresponding purchase of 279.91LMT showing an increase of 20.27 % over last year. Out of the total purchase of 336.67 LMT, Punjab alone has purchased 202.77 LMT till the close of procurement season in the state on 30.11.2020 which is 60.23 % of total procurement in the country.

Further, based on the proposal from the States, approval was accorded for procurement of 45.24 LMT of Pulse and Oilseeds of Kharif Marketing Season 2020 for the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh under Price Support Scheme (PSS). 

Up to 05.12.2020, the Government through its Nodal Agencies has procured 130619.34 MT of Moong, Urad, Groundnut Pods and Soyabean having an MSP value of Rs. 702.21 Crores benefitting 74613 farmers in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan.

In respect of Copra and Urad, rates are ruling above MSP in most of the major producing States. The respective State/UTs Governments are making necessary arrangements for the commencement of procurement from the date as decided by the respective States based on the arrivals in respect of Kharif Pulses and Oilseeds.

Procurement operations of seed cotton (Kapas) under MSP are going on smoothly in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Karnataka. Till 05.12.2020 a quantity of 3832259 cotton bales valuing Rs 11084.78 Crore has been procured benefitting 750779 farmers.

 

In respect of Copra and Urad, rates

Agro Universities, R&D

The farmer duo bag Rs 5 Lakh cash prize

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi awarded two farmers – S S Paramesha for cultivating the Novel Siddu Jackfruit Tree with coppery red in color and firm flakes and Shankariah from Tumkur District, Karnataka for cultivating the Shankara Jackfruit in their respective farms. 

Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare virtually awarded both the farmers with a cheque of Rs 5 Lakh each, on the occasion of the ’Virtual Annual Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Agricultural Universities and Directors of ICAR Institutes’ organized at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi on December 5, 2020. 

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) highlighted the importance of linking biodiversity to livelihood security of the farmers.

The Novel Siddu Jackfruit has an average weight of 2.44 kg / fruit; each fruit bearing 25 to 30 bulbs. The Shankara Jackfruit weighing around 2 to 5 Kg having 60 flakes with an average flake weight of 18 grams, the fruit’s flakes are sweet, aromatic, crispy and coppery red in color. The innovative model of linking biodiversity with livelihood security will help in doubling the farmers’ income.

Paramesha is presently growing the Siddu Jackfruit plants and has distributed more than 25,000 saplings to the farmers. He has earned a gross income of Rs 22 Lacs within two years due to the consistent guidance provided by ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru.

The farmer duo bag Rs 5 Lakh

Acts & Schemes – Centre, India, Sustainable Energy

The Feeder Level Solarisation to be implemented under PM-KUSUM Scheme

Ministry of New and Renewable (MNRE), after consultation with state governments, has decided to issue Guidelines for Implementation of Feeder Level Solarisation under Component-C of PM-KUSUM Scheme. Approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs last year, the Scheme consists of three components. The Component-A includes installation of Decentralized Ground Mounted Grid Connected Renewable Power Plants, Component-B includes installation of standalone Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps and Component-C includes Solarisation of Grid-connected Agriculture Pumps.

 As per provisions of the PM-KUSUM Scheme, the grid connected agriculture pumps can be solarised with central and state subsidy of 30 per cent each and farmer’s contribution of 40 per cent. The solar capacity allowed is upto two times of the pump capacity in kW and surplus power will be purchased by DISCOM. Since this component was to be implemented on pilot mode, flexibility was given to states for using different models like net-metering, replacing pump with BLDC pump or any other innovative model as deemed fit by the states.

Based on discussions held with states it has been decided to also include feeder level solarisation under Component-C of PM-KUSUM Scheme. Accordingly, these guidelines are being issued to provide broad implementation framework for feeder level solarisation.

The Distribution Company (DISCOM)/Power Department will be the implementing agency for feeder level solarisation in their respective areas.

The Feeder Level Solarisation to be implemented

Supply Chain

Supply chain partners are reticent to share their internal data, which erodes trust and prevents transparency

Denver based TrackX, a SaaS-based enterprise asset management, and supply chain solution provider, and Houston-based Topl, a blockchain-based ESG technology company, are teaming up to provide a verifiable tracking and tracing solution to meet the growing demand for greater supply chain sustainability, transparency, and efficiency.

With 68% of US consumers stating that a company’s social reputation will influence their buying decisions and 41% of US consumers having a preference for products from companies that are associated with their ideals, consumer demand and industry pressure are pushing many businesses to increase and prove their sustainability and positive impact. COVID-19 concerns have exacerbated these problems driving the need for improved supply chain validation.

Meeting the three core customer needs of supply chain sustainability, transparency, and efficiency requires companies to be highly collaborative and transparent across the entire supply chain ecosystem. Despite advances in automation and data collection, obstacles remain. Supply chain partners are reticent to share their internal data, which erodes trust and prevents transparency. Often a unified and real-time view across the entire supply chain does not exist, making it difficult to find opportunities for improvement and to verify product sourcing and sustainability claims.

TrackX and Topl are coming together to solve these challenges. The integrated solution will combine Topl’s purpose-built blockchain technology with TrackX’s core enterprise asset management and supply chain optimization capabilities. Partners will be able to confidently and securely share verified event data to lower costs and increase transparency. Companies can now provide their customers and consumers with verifiable proof of origin and sustainability as well as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) claims.

Supply chain partners are reticent to share

R&D, World

NASA selected radishes because they are well understood by scientists

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins harvested radish plants growing in the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) aboard the International Space Station. She meticulously collected and wrapped in foil each of the 20 radish plants, placing them in cold storage for the return trip to Earth in 2021 on SpaceX’s 22nd commercial Resupply Services mission.

The plant experiment, called Plant Habitat-01 (PH-02), is the first time NASA has grown radishes on the orbiting laboratory. NASA selected radishes because they are well understood by scientists and reach maturity in just 27 days. These model plants are also nutritious and edible and are genetically similar to Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant related to cabbage that researchers frequently study in microgravity.

The structure of the experiment will allow NASA to identify the optimum balance of care and feeding needed to produce quality plants. While growing inside the habitat, the radishes required little maintenance from the crew.

The chamber also uses red, blue, green, and broad-spectrum white LED lights to provide a variety of light to stimulate plant growth. Sophisticated control systems deliver water, while control cameras and more than 180 sensors in the chamber allow researchers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to monitor the plant growth as well as regulate moisture levels, temperature, and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration.

The team has set up a control population of plants in the ground control plant habitat unit in the International Space Station Environmental Simulator (ISSES) chamber inside Kennedy’s Space Station Processing Facility. Radishes have been growing under nearly identical conditions in the ISSES since Nov. 17.

 

 

NASA selected radishes because they are well

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Foodgrains

Next round of parleys set for December 5

Representatives of forty Farmers’ Unions who were invited by Union Agriculture Minister for talks participated in a dialogue today at Vigyan Bhawan with Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar , Minister of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Railways and Commerce Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Prakash. Senior officials from the Agriculture Ministry and the Ministry of Food Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution also participated in the dialogue. This was the fourth round of talks which was held in a cordial and frank atmosphere. The Unions have agreed to further participate in the next meeting on December 5.

Union Agriculture Minister reiterated the Government’s commitment to the welfare of the farmers. He requested the representatives of the Unions to present their point of view and the flag the issues which they felt were contentious. The representatives of the farmers unions raised the question of the constitutional validity of the three laws. The Government side explained the constitutional provisions under which the Central Government legislated these laws. The farmers brought out issues related to the APMCs – They said that there has to be a level playing field between APMCs and Private Markets and Trade Yards. They also said that there is a need for proper registration of Trade outside APMCs.

The issue of protecting the land of farmers in the Contract Farming Act was also raised.The farmers unions also requested that the MSP system should be made legal. Regarding dispute resolution system in the new Farms Acts the unions said that there is a need for an alternate dispute resolution system. The need for registration of contract farming was also flagged.

 

Next round of parleys set for December