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Mechanized centralized kitchen constructed to serve healthy and hygienic meals. Over 30,000 children will be benefited from the mid-day meals initiative.

Jalna, Maharashtra: Governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari recently inaugurated the ‘Padma Bhushan Dr Badrinarayan Barwale Centralized Kitchen’ at the Golden Jubilee School campus in Maharashtra’s Jalna district.

 The Honorable Governor served Teethi Bhoj to all the school children present to mark the celebration.  Sangitaji Gorantyal, Nagararadhyaksha of Jalna and over 100 children and representatives from Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (I) Pvt. Ltd. (MMB) and Annamrita Foundation were also present at the occasion. Rajeshji Tope, Honorable Minister of Public Health and Family Welfare and Raosahebji Danve, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution shared their congratulatory video messages. 

Spread across an acre of land, the ‘Padma Bhushan Dr Badrinarayan Barwale Centralized Kitchen’ has a capacity to serve mid-day meals to over 50,000 children and adheres to food safety standards and ISO compliances. The kitchen is automated with a mechanical conveyor, automated hopper, cooking cauldrons, idly unit, and vegetable cutting equipment thereby ensuring hygiene and safety during the entire cooking process. The kitchen will also house a food testing lab to ensure safe raw material usage and nutritious food to the children. 

Speaking at the occasion Rajendra Barwale, Chairman, Mahyco said, “For over 50 years, Mahyco has been collaborating and working for the welfare of the community and we are extremely pleased and humbled to be associated with the great work of Annamrita Foundation. This effort would provide nutritious mid-day meals to thousands of school children in Jalna district and would help alleviate malnourishment in the region.”

 As a part of the ‘School Nutrition Project’, the ‘Padma Bhushan Dr Badrinarayan Barwale Centralized Kitchen’ aims to serve healthy and balanced meals to children who have limited or no access to food and lack awareness on the importance of the same in their daily diet. The ‘School Nutrition Project’ is a two-pronged effort that addresses on one hand the challenges of malnutrition and classroom hunger, while on the other hand, helps educate underprivileged children thereby reducing dropouts, illiteracy and poverty.

Dr Radha Krishna Das, Advisor, Annamrita Foundation, Maharashtra said, “Our aim is to provide children with a versatile wholesome menu and a Teethi Bhoj (Paneer dish once a month) which they really look forward to. We thank MMB, Golden Jubilee Education Society as well as the local representatives and administration for their support.”

Mechanized centralized kitchen constructed to serve healthy

Logistics, Supply Chain, Warehousing

The firm aims to build a large platform of grain storage sites that can help FCI and the private sector to make grain storage more efficient 

Coimbatore based Agritech and logistics firm Leap India Food and Logistics Pvt. Ltd. had recently announced that it has raised INR. 164 crore in Series B funding from the Danish SDG Investment Fund and Neev Fund. Leap India said in a statement that the Danish SDG Investment fund is a fund that is managed by Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU). 

The startup plans to connect grain supply chain from farm to business, and also to transform itself into a robust Agri-Silos and Logistics platform. Leap India would look forward to utilizing these funds towards a tangible future growth.

 Leap India promoters have said that SDG Fund’s investment, along with round two of investment from the Neev Fund that would be backed by the UK Government’s Department of International Development (DFID) and State Bank of India. This would allow people to expand and reach a critical size, and also team up with strong, foreign institutional investors.

 The founders state that the aim of Leap is to build a large platform of grain storage sites. This can help FCI and also the private sector to make grain storage more efficient with the use of technology and modern storage infrastructure. 

Investors both from Neev Fund and IFU said that they are addressing one of India’s most pressing challenges, to improve food storage efficiency and reduce undernourishment. They even said that this fructifies the investors’ fidelity to the Sustainable Development Goals of poverty alleviation by doubling farmer income through food security in India.

 

The firm aims to build a large

Dairy, E-commerce, Live Stock, Trade

Goodmylk aims to utilize this funding to further expand their distribution capabilities, create new institutional partnerships

Goodmylk, a Bangalore-based vegan milk brand in India, has raised INR 3 crore in their second seed round from some of the most prolific investors in the plant-based space. They welcome to their cap table deeply mission-aligned investors Elisa Khong, Sandeep Singh, Ginni International Ltd and their very first VC partner – VegInvest, whose investments include JUST, Rebellious foods, Veggie Grill, Nutpods, and other prominent companies in this space. 

This round follows their INR 2.5 crore raise announced in January 2018, bringing their total funding to INR 5.5+ crore to date. Goodmylk aims to utilize this funding to further expand their distribution capabilities, create new institutional partnerships (they recently announced their collaboration with nationwide coffee chain Blue Tokai), and invest into making path breaking products that are fully plant-based, functional and accessible. 

The brand currently makes award-winning products like their cashew-oat mylk, peanut curd, a fully plant-based butter that melts and mayonnaise. Their products are available for purchase online and ship across India.

 

 

 

 

 

Goodmylk aims to utilize this funding to

E-commerce, Foodgrains, Trade

As per the report of Drip Capital, rice exports for FY20 expected to fall due to geo-political situations, tighter trade norms and higher MSP on the commodity by government.

US-based trade finance company Drip Capital has released a report detailing the state of India’s rice exports. Chalking out detailed insights from proprietary data and on-ground conversations with exporters, the report analyses the country’s rice shipments, with Basmati rice occupying a major share.

Rice contributes to over 2% of overall exports within the Indian export basket

Within the Indian export basket, rice contributes to over 2% of overall exports. The sector reported a CAGR of 14% between FY2010 to FY2019. However, rice exports this year have seen a decline across the globe with a major dip coming from the Middle East due to heightened geopolitical tensions. A resulting fall in prices has further aggravated the sector’s woes. 

Rice exports have grown at a CAGR of nearly 14% between FY10-19

Haryana is the top Basmati rice exporting state in the country with a CAGR of 3% between FY16-19, shipping US$2,410 million in FY19 alone. Gujarat is second with shipments of US$1,106 million in FY19; however, Gujarat has posted an impressive CAGR of 47% over FY16-19. Other major contributing states are Delhi, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Rice being a Kharif crop (August – November) shows a clear seasonal pattern in exports as well. The four months post-harvest (December – March) see over 40% of annual exports as compared to the rest of the year. The current year’s (FY19-20) rice exports have also been trending much below previous years’ performance.

 Pushkar Mukewar, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Drip Capital said, “YTD exports so far are looking bleak with Iran, the biggest export market, seeing a 22% fall in shipments.  Other export markets like the UAE (33%), Nepal (23%), Yemen (2%), Senegal (90%) and Bangladesh (94%) have also seen a fall in rice shipments from India. On the other hand, exports to certain nations broke from the trend to post growth, such as Saudi Arabia (4%), Iraq (10%), Benin (8%) and the USA (4%).”

 

About Drip Capital

 Drip Capital is a California- and India-headquartered fintech company, focused on solving the working capital problem for SME exporters using technology. The company was founded by Pushkar Mukewar and Neil Kothari, both roommates at Wharton. The 120-member team now comprises of engineers, data scientists and trade finance veterans across offices in Palo Alto, Mexico City, and three offices in India – Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. 

Drip has strategic partnerships with a number of key export promotion organizations, including FIEO (Federation of Indian Export Organizations) and EEPC (Engineering Export Promotion Council). Drip’s working capital offering to exporters is a credit line, which ranges from US$100 thousand to US$2.5 million, depending on the exporter’s size and requirement.

 

 

 

 

As per the report of Drip Capital,

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Agrotech, Cold Storage, R&D, Supply Chain

MoFPI is focusing on building cold chain infrastructure across the country, for seamless transfer of perishables from production to consumption areas, through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) 

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) along with the central government has sanctioned 39 mega food parks and 298 integrated cold chain projects throughout the country, said Rameswar Teli, minister of state for Food Processing Industries, in a reply in the Lok Sabha. As per reports, the government is trying to fill in the gaps across the value chain and establishing the cold chain grid through this new sanction. 

Moreover, MoFPI is focusing on building cold chain infrastructure across the country, for seamless transfer of perishables from production to consumption areas, through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY), he said.

  Components of the PMKSY

The component of the schemes includes integrated cold chain and value addition infrastructure, mega food parks, creation of backward and forward linkages, creation and expansion of food processing and preservation capacities, agro-processing clusters and operation greens.

 These schemes aim at arresting post-harvest losses of horticulture and non-horticulture produce by encouraging the creation of cold storages/ primary processing/ and transportation facilities across the country.a

MoFPI is focusing on building cold chain

AgroPolicy, Agrotech

The book edited by Sanjay Kaul, Chairman, NCML covers four broad themes – the present commodity space, the recent initiatives in technology and innovation in agriculture, the new emerging areas and the critical theme of managing commodity risk.  

 The NCML (National Collateral Management Services Limited) released the 11th Edition of the India Commodity Year Book 2020. The guest of honor was Ramesh Chand, NITI AYOG, Government of India. He unveiled the book in presence of Sanjeev Kumar Chadha, MD, Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and other eminent dignitaries.

This book included major topics like increasing farmer’s income, remote sensing, GIS applications in agriculture, transforming the agriculture supply chain through technology and innovation, organic farming in India and the state of agritech starts ups in the country. Another critical subject on which the book sheds light is Managing Commodity risk-which talks about both the pre as well as post harvest risks faced by farming community and mitigating factors present in the country.

 Prof Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog, said that Indian agriculture sector faces issues in customized technology and implementation of the policy reforms at ground level, especially at the state level.Speaking at ‘Release of India Commodity Year Book 2020 & Discussion on Union Budget Announcements for Agriculture Sector’, Prof Chand said, “Technology is the prime mover and India is facing serious problems both in terms of technology and policy reforms.” He further added that at the state level various laws like Model APLM Act, Model Agricultural Land leasing Act and contract farming needs to be further pushed. 

He further said that the states should be encouraged to play an active role in the overall growth of the agriculture sector and emphasized on the need for private sector to come forward.

 “We need to give the right role to right people and institutions. Market and the private people are the right people to pay competitive prices to farmers and we should remove hurdles which come in the way of the market,” said Prof Chand.

He said that private sector should play their due role and market should play its due role in agriculture sector. “Most of the problems of agriculture sector are not inherent to agriculture in India but due to the reason of not changing the regulations which needs to change from time to time,” said Prof Chand.

 He said that for the first time the 15th Finance Commission has included a provision to give performance linked grants to states to undertake some agricultural reform. “The Commission has included reform in agriculture sector among the top 5 areas for which next year states will be provided with incentives,” said Prof Chand. 

He added that agriculture sector is witnessing the growth but with an increase in cost of production and it is one of the reasons why we are losing on export competitiveness. “When you increase the yield average cost of production increases and when this increase, obviously farmers will start asking for higher and higher prices. This factor has started affecting the Indian agriculture sector,” Prof Chand said. 

T R Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee & Group President, TAFE Ltd said that in order to meet the requirements of increasing population, we need to produce more and reduce the wastage. “If we can save what we have and the need to produce higher will also start coming down.”

Siraj Chaudhry, Co-Chair, FICCI National Agriculture Committee and MD & CEO, NCML said that in India the problems are different at different parts of the country and the solutions cannot be one or few changes. “Every regions problem needs to be addressed differently,” said Chaudhry. 

 

 

The book edited by Sanjay Kaul, Chairman,

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Live Stock

Insurance Foundation of India organized a daylong Seminar on” Risk Mapping and Analysis of Cattle Insurance Portfolio for Improving the Cattle Insurance Penetration in India” prepared by National Insurance Academy, Pune . 

 Seminar was released for the benefit of the farming community who are interested to know more on the livestock insurance. 

The programme was so conceived that the complete knowledge on the issues related to the livestock were discussed and also replied to the questions by the delegates. The programme was moderated by Babeeta Sharma, Secretary, BFSI Committee of PHD, The theme address was disclosed by S K Sethi, Founder & CEO, Insurance Foundation of India with Banna Ram Meena, Chairman of Saras Dairy, Alwar, whose suggestions may be helpful to the Government to come out with the concrete policy on Livestock Insurance. 

Dr O P Chaudhary, Joint Secretary, National Livestock Mission and Chairman, Animal Welfare Board of India presented the Government point of view towards the livestock Insurance. Dr Balla Swamy, General Manager, New India Assurance Company Limited also presented the companies policies towards the livestock.

 Dr Steward Doss, Faculty Member, National Insurance Academy and Dharmendra kumar Sharma, Consultant Rural Insurance, Haryana State Government and Anupama Rathore, Actuarial Analyst, MistEO India Private Limited, Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala presented the information related to the Livestock Insurance. 

Dr Arun Jain, FIII, Deputy General Manager, New India Assurance Company Limited also apprised the delegate in very simple language about the issues pertaining to the Livestock Insurance. Vinod Jain, Chairman, BSFI Committee, PHD Chamber summarized the complete idea of the Livestock Insurance in the beginning of the Seminar.

Points covered in the Seminar were – Livestock Risk – Should Insurance be made mandatory? Quality of animals can be improved with investment through loans; Investment & improvement of Veterinary infrastructure is needed in a big way to support the farmers; Product innovation needed in Insurance; What can we learn from other countries?;Availability of Cheaper, sufficient loans is essential for growth of this part of our economy. 

The number of farmers having 2-10 animals attended the seminar to get aware themselves about the issues pertaining to the Livestock Insurance.

 

Insurance Foundation of India organized a daylong

Acts & Schemes – Centre, E-commerce

MoU aims to provide technical support to the food industries in the North East region. It will benefit the farmers, producers and entrepreneurs.   

 A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed by Central Food Technological Research Institute, CSIR−CFTRI, Mysuru with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) to set up a Liaison Office in Guwahati, Assam to provide technical support to the food industries in the North East region. It will benefit the farmers, producers and entrepreneurs.  

 APEDA has undertaken many promotional activities recently to bring the North East states of India on to the export map. In 2019 five international buyer seller meets were organized by APEDA in Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim to showcase the potential of agriculture/ horticulture and processed food products including organic produce to open the export window from the North Eastern States. 

Capacity building is another such area where APEDA is keenly focusing to hand-hold the new exporters from the North East region. Recently, APEDA organized an exposure visit in Maharashtra, considered as one of the major export hubs, to acquaint the exporters and state officials from Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland on export oriented farming, pack house and modern food processing units.

 APEDA has also organized specific outreach programmes and training on export process for the stakeholders from the North East region. North East region has tremendous potential in converting large areas into organic certification for which training on the requirements of the National Programme on Organic Production (NPOP) have been imparted to the North East states to create awareness on the vast potential of organic agriculture and exports. 

North Eastern Region has immense opportunities for food processing and other agri-business that can contribute to the economic upliftment of the region and create facilities for startups. It is expected that the liaison office of CSIR-CFTRI will strengthen the food processing sector in the North East and will have multiplying effect on the export of traditional and processed food products from the region.

MoU aims to provide technical support to

Dairy, E-commerce, Trade

 Perfect Day, a global leader in the research, development and production of flora-based dairy, announced the closing of $140 million Series C funding round led by Temasek with substantial involvement from past investors.

This third round of funding will help accelerate Perfect Day’s business growth—including expanding its production capacity, going deeper with partner opportunities and extending its product portfolio—to further its commitment to bringing consumers the dairy products they know and love, completely animal-free.

 “In 2019, we showed that our manufacturing process works robustly at commercial scale,” said Ryan Pandya, CEO and co-founder of Perfect Day. “We were able to demonstrate with our ice cream launch—which sold out in a single day—that flora-based protein delivers on the dairy experience, and that people are excited about what we’re doing. Our focus in 2020 will be manufacturing and commercializing the protein in multiple continents, through multiple partnerships spanning different dairy product categories,” the Indian American added.

The company plans to announce its first commercial partnerships early in 2020. Energized by the company entering commercial production, and by the successful limited-edition ice cream launch in July, both Temasek and Horizons Ventures—who led Perfect Day’s Series B funding earlier this year—have returned to support the company’s growth, alongside past investors. This round brings Perfect Day’s cumulative funding to over $200 million.

 

 Perfect Day, a global leader in the

E-commerce, Trade

The acquisition of Needle Rock Farms includes 240 acres of farmland, water rights, all farm equipment, barns, greenhouses and irrigation system  The acquisition of Needle Rock Farms includes 240 acres of farmland, water rights, all farm equipment, barns, greenhouses and irrigation system.

Panacea Life Sciences, Inc. is pleased to announce its acquisition of Needle Rock Farms (NRF), located in the town of Crawford on the western slope of Colorado. Adam and Julia Desmond founded Needle Rock Farms CBD in 2016 and have been growing quality, Colorado hemp for the past five years. Panacea’s procurement includes 240 acres of farmland, water rights, all the farm equipment, barns, greenhouses, and irrigation system. The purchase also includes the 2019 hemp grow cycle. With NRF’s state-of-the-art outdoor grow facility and use of only mountain spring water from onsite springs and creeks, it embodies the true spirit of Colorado.

 The Desmonds are excited for this new opportunity as “the expansion with Panacea and this partnership emphasizes each company’s commitment to complete vertical integration within the CBD industry, and it allows Panacea to have a chain of custody from seed to end products through the entire process.” Panacea’s ability to manage the entire supply chain is important not only to the two companies but to Panacea customers, contract manufacturing partners and key distribution partners such as Charkit. As a leading provider of raw materials and ingredients to the personal care space, Charkit vetted numerous CBD companies and selected Panacea Life Sciences as its exclusive provider due to the company’s commitment to quality, innovation, and complete transparency of the supply chain.

 The acquisition purchase price was a combination of cash and stock. The farm is slated to achieve its organic certification in 2020. The plans for Panacea’s hemp farm in 2020 include seed development, experiments with different strains, and leveraging the intellectual capital of our investment partner, 22nd Century (XXII).

XXII was granted an exclusive sublicense in the United States and a co-exclusive sublicense in the remainder of the world, excluding Canada, to patents and patent applications relating to the cannabis plant that are required for the production of cannabinoids, the major active ingredients in the cannabis plant. 

Leslie Buttorff, CEO of Panacea commented that “Panacea plans to use the XXII strains in the 2020 and 2021 grow cycles. We are excited to add Needle Rock Farms to our capabilities and it adds to our full seed to sale capabilities. With the addition of the farm, we are no longer dependent on other farmers to meet the needs of our brand of consumer products.”

 About Panacea Life Sciences, Inc.

Panacea Life Sciences, a woman-owned and woman-led company, is dedicated to developing and producing the highest-quality, medically-relevant, legal, THC-free, hemp-derived cannabinoid products for consumers and pets from our 51,000 square foot, state-of-the-art cGMP extraction, manufacturing, testing and fulfillment center located in Golden, Colorado. Panacea operates in every segment of the CBD product value chain, from cultivation to finished goods, with stringent testing protocols employed at every stage of the supply chain from seed-to-sale.

 

 

 

The acquisition of Needle Rock Farms includes

E-commerce, Supply Chain

Through the pilot with the Fair Labor Association (FLA), Syngenta was able to improve wages at seeds field production growing areas in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. 

Syngenta recently highlighted the release of a report from the Fair Labor Association, Seeds of Change. The report marks the culmination of a three-year pilot project commissioned by Syngenta to improve wages in India’s agricultural industry.

Through the pilot with the Fair Labor Association (FLA), Syngenta was able to improve wages at seeds field production growing areas in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The report details Syngenta’s six-step action plan to address the issue of low prevailing wages in India. Actions included conducting an internal review of procurement prices and calculations, increasing awareness among internal and external stakeholders, and strengthening wage documentation.

Syngenta’s Good Growth Plan demonstrates the company’s commitment to look after every worker, striving for fair labor conditions across the entire supply chain network. 

“Our partnership with the FLA is a critical enabler of ensuring we take care of the safety and human rights of every worker in our supply chain,” said Bill Tomlinson, Head of Global Seeds Production & Supply. “Our efforts for fair labor conditions extend across the world, and we hold our suppliers and partners accountable to high standards of health, safety, environmental and working conditions.”

 In addition, the project highlighted the importance of needing an industrywide approach to make a bigger impact than a single company acting alone. 

“This report underscores the urgent need for collective action to lift agriculture workers in India out of poverty. No company can achieve this alone,” said Sharon Waxman, President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association. “Governments must create a legal framework to require wages that are above the poverty line, and companies need to work together – even in the absence of government leadership – to provide those wages. Only then can we lift millions of agriculture workers in India and around the world out of poverty.” 

The Syngenta Seeds business currently sources from 12,000 farms in India, either directly or indirectly, and also works with 200 seeds organizers to communicate and manage relationships with farmers. Beyond India, Syngenta is actively engaged in fair labor initiatives across the world.

 

 

Through the pilot with the Fair Labor

Agro Universities, R&D

The ICAR-CPCRI, Kasaragod, is one of the 31 centers under AICRP on PHET.The award was in recognition of the outstanding contribution in the development and popularization of technologies. 

The ICAR-Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasaragod, attained the first position and received the Best Centre of the Year 2019-20 Award at the 35th annual workshop of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (AICRP on PHET) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV), Jabalpur, recently.

A press release by the institute said  that CPCRI is one of the 31 centres under AICRP on PHET. The award was in recognition of contribution in development and popularizing technologies of coconut such as coconut ice-cream, virgin coconut oil, cocoa bean-to-bite chocolate, coconut sugar during 2019-20.

The ICAR-CPCRI, Kasaragod, is one of the 31 centers under AICRP on PHET. The award was in recognition of the outstanding contribution in the development and popularization of technologies. 

The ICAR-CPCRI transferred four new technologies to five entrepreneurs and four existing technologies to 16 entrepreneurs, released five new value added products, participated in seven krishi melas, trade fairs, exhibitions, technology and machinery demonstration melas, published six research articles in international research journals and nine technical popular articles, and received one patent, the release said.

CPCRI Principal Scientist Dr M R Manikantan and CPCRI Scientist Dr R Pandiselvan received the award from JNKVV Vice Chancellor Dr P K Bisen. Dr S N Jha, ADG (Process Engineering) and Dr S K Tyagi, Project Coordinator of AICRP on PHET, were present.

 

 

The ICAR-CPCRI, Kasaragod, is one of the

E-commerce, R&D, Seeds

The company will showcase a new complete portfolio of varieties, with the goal of delivering reliable and sustainable solutions to the whole value chain.

The Syngenta Vegetable Seeds team will welcome customers and stakeholders to their stand at Fruit Logistica 2020 in Berlin, which will be held from 5th-7th February 2020. The company will showcase a new complete portfolio of varieties, with the goal of delivering reliable and sustainable solutions to the whole value chain.

Among the exciting innovations on display will be the full range of sweet pepper varieties which offer year-round supply, along with the best resistance package, and suitable for conventional or organic agriculture. The mini seedless watermelon is another innovation, a new size concept for modern family with minimal waste.

Points of key focus for Syngenta investment in sustainable plant breeding include:

Increase quality and nutrient value of food

Improve resilience to climate change

Reduce use of pesticides

Lower labor requirement

Plant-based diets can play a role in reducing carbon emissions, but to realistically deliver significant and sustainable change, the industry must further improve efficiency throughout the value chain, as well as providing vegetables that are attractive to consumers.

“Syngenta recently announced the company’s commitment to invest $2bn in innovation, specifically targeted to delivering a step change in agricultural sustainability,” said Arend Schot, Head of EAME Vegetable Seeds. 

Reduce food waste

 Schot cited the examples of Syngenta’s innovation of Easy-Broq brassica, and baby plum tomato varieties, which have significantly reduced food waste at every point of the value chain.

The new Champion cabbage product line has demonstrated greater resilience to the effects of climate change, whilst new kohlrabi club root resistant varieties enable growers to face the growing pressure for this disease and still produce high yields of quality product.

“Greater emphasis on genetic traits and plant breeding technologies to deliver sustainable solutions will help growers to improve soil health, protect natural resources and support climate smart agriculture – which is a key concern for consumers,” added Schot. 

Future labs – ‘Unlocking the future of plant breeding’

Visitors to Fruit Logistica will get the chance to attend ‘Unlocking the future of plant breeding,’ held with the International Seeds Federation (Future Labs Hall 27, Wed 5 Feb, 2pm). Dr Alexandra Brand, Syngenta Chief Sustainability Officer, will join a panel of industry specialists to explore the benefits new technologies could bring to consumers and retailers.

“Innovations in plant breeding offer one part of many solutions to the global challenge of building sustainable food systems in the face of climate change and meeting an ever-growing consumer demand for quality, healthy food,” said Dr Brand. “We look forward to engaging in positive dialogue about what this means for the food value chain and consumers.” 

Innovation Award

Syngenta’s exciting YOOM™, the unique purple cocktail tomato, has been nominated for the prestigious Fruit Logistica Innovation Award (FLIA). Presented at the event, it honors outstanding innovations in the entire fruit and vegetable supply chain, from production to point of sale.

Jeremie Chabanis, Value Chain Lead EAME, said: “YOOM™ has proven to be a truly outstanding variety for its unique flavor and benefits, combined with its visually attractive purple-skinned colour. It has already been a success with growers and offers a great flavor experience for consumers. 

“Furthermore, the exciting marketing campaign and presentation has created a product with real impact for the value chain. It is a great acclaim to see it among the industry’s leading innovative products.”

The company will showcase a new complete

Pulses

The 5th edition of The Pulses Conclave will be held at Aamby Valley City, Lonavala from February 12th to 14th, 2020 

 

 

India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry has announced that the 5th edition THE PULSES CONCLAVE, their biennial global pulses conference will be held from Feb. 12th to 14th, 2020 at Amby Valley City in Lonavala, Maharashtra. IPGA expects close to 1000 trade stakeholders from India and key pulses exporting countries like USA, Australia, Canada, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, etc. to participate in The Pulses Conclave 2020 (TPC 2020). 

Raosaheb Patil Danve, Honorable Minister of State, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution shall grace The Pulses Conclave as the Chief Guest and will be joined by Guest of honor like David Marit, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Government of Saskatchewan, and Canada. The Conclave will also see the participation of senior Indian Government officials including Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India and Dr Ashok Dalwai, CEO of National Rainfed Area Authority Shri Ashish Bahuguna, Former Agriculture Secretary and Former FSSAI Chairperson; Dr. Bijaya Behara, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Dr. S K Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. 

The Pulses Conclave 2020, as a part of its agenda will not just discuss increasing domestic production and consumption but will also bring to fore other areas of the trade like Improving Processing efficiencies, increasing Consumption, Exports, Value Addition, Protein Extraction, Post-harvest Crop Management, etc.

 

Jitu Bheda, Chairman, IPGA speaking on the occasion said, “Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision is to double the farmers income by the year 2022 and a huge effort has been put into achieving the same. The result has been that India’s pulses production has steadily grown every year from around 19 million tons in 2013-14 to 23 million tons in 201-19 and the target for 2019-20 is of 26.30 million tons. IPGA’s agenda and road map going forward will be to encourage its members to take advantage of the increased domestic production, balance imports vis-à-vis the production and demand thereby ensuring that the Indian consumer does not face any availability crunch nor high retail prices.” 

Bimal Kothari, Vice Chairman, IPGA said, “At TPC 2020 IPGA’s focus will be to try and put together a roadmap that will help the Indian Pulses Trade be able to contribute to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of making India a $ 5 trillion economy. The domestic production of pulses has consistently stayed over 23 million tons in the last three years, and this has helped give a fillip to the processing sector which has now moved beyond traditional dal milling.

 

Kothari further added, “Recognizing the need of the hour, IPGA has collaborated with the Good Food (GFI) Institute for The Pulses Conclave 2020. GFI will present a one-hour session titled, Product Innovation in Pulses: Spotlight on Alternative Proteins. The session will explore key questions about stimulating the ecosystem for business and research in the country. The session will cover aspects such as Global overview of the alternative protein sector, types of products, success case studies; current global bottlenecks in product development – scientific information on indigenous crops, lack of functional ingredients for entrepreneurs, lack of processing capacity as well as challenges to be overcome for the Indian pulse industry to capitalize on this ecosystem – agricultural transformation for the growth of these value chains, lack of processing capacity and technology know-how.”

 

Kothari also said, “Pulse processors are actively engaging in developing an alternative protein sector in India which will include developing tasty, affordable and high-protein foods, making plant-protein products from pulses, developing plant-based and cell-based alternatives to meat, dairy and eggs to dramatically reduce animal suffering as well as reduce environmental strain on the planet caused by the animal agriculture sector. The growth and development in the processing sector will see the flow of domestic and foreign investments into the sector.”

 

 

The 5th edition of The Pulses Conclave