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MoP along with FACT’s prime product FACTAMFOS is a preferred fertilizer combination by the farmers of South India

The Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) has recently received the third Muriate of Potash (MoP) ship at Tuticorin port in Tamil Nadu. Bagging of the 27500 MT product is in progress.  

With this shipment, the total MoP import for the year reached 82000 MT. FACT a PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers had placed orders for import of three shipments of MoP.

MoP along with FACT’s prime product FACTAMFOS is a preferred fertilizer combination by the farmers of South India. 

The company is planning for two more parcels during this year. Earlier the company has imported two shipments of MoP and one parcel of NPK (16:16:16) to meet the demand of farmers during Kharif.

FACT one of the first large-scale fertilizer manufacturers of the country is maintaining good performance in the manufacturing & marketing of fertilizers during the year.

MoP along with FACT’s prime product FACTAMFOS

More than 200 farmers participated in the program

Farmers’-Scientists’ Forum and Rabi Crops Mela was virtually organized by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Jalna-II, Maharashtra on October 20, 2020. Dr Lakhan Singh, Director,  Indian Council of Agricultural Research -Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ICAR-ATARI), emphasized on the need to develop the newly created KVK as a model KVK.He said that this can be made possible by creating functional demonstration units, making instructional farm examples, demonstrating latest technologies to be used in the varied agro-ecologies of the district and building strong relationships with other organizations.

He stressed on the need to focus on doubling the farmers’ income, crop diversification, post-harvest processing, value-addition, drought mitigation technologies and skill development.

The need to adopt BBF technology for chickpea cultivation, management practices to be followed in cotton cultivation, planning for the Rabi crops and focusing more on water harvesting and creating a water budget to stop excess exploitation of natural resources were the other aspects presented during the program. Over 200 farmers participated in the program.

More than 200 farmers participated in the

 The Funds will be used in capacity building, technology development and geographic expansion

 

 Jaipur based Freshokartz Agri Products Pvt. Limited, a premier Agri-tech startup has received INR 10 Crore ($1.4 Million) pre-series A funding from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) and AWE (Achieving Women Equity) Funds to finance its rapid technology rollout while scaling its operations as a provider of premier technology-enabled Omni channel supply chain optimizing solutions along with agronomy advisory and output linkages.

Freshokartz will be using these funds for expansion within Rajasthan and other nearby states like Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh and other northern states of India. The Funds will be used in capacity building, Tech development and geographic expansion

Speaking on the success of Freshokartz latest round of funding, Rajendra Lora, Founder said, “Our company has witnessed significant growth even during COVID-19 crisis, which is driven by our team’s differentiated understanding of India’s agricultural supply chain, its markets and its participants given our personal farming backgrounds. This helps us execute effectively as an effective and integrated agriculture supply chain company. Getting RVCF and AWE Funds’ investment support will help expand and consolidate our footprint not only in Rajasthan but also in neighbouring states.”

Gaurav Chowdhry, Vice President, RVCF said, “It is pertinent for us to look at startups which can sustain in these challenging times by differentiation and innovation. By focusing on farmer’s multitude of farming needs, Freshokartz is providing full stack solutions for better farm outcomes. The team has strong execution capabilities and expect to see significant growth in the coming years. We are happy to partner with Freshokartz in the journey.”

Seema Chaturvedi, Founder & Managing Partner of AWE Funds observed, “At AWE Funds, given our team’s deep agri expertise, we believe that the agri-tech industry is poised for rapid growth. Furthermore, we found FAPL’s focus on appropriate and adaptable farmer-centric technology especially on the downstream input side of the supply chain to be a very compelling investment thesis. Added to the fact that the main beneficiaries are marginal farmers of whom 70 per cent are women, this investment is very aligned with our gender lens focused investment mandate in Achieving Women Equity.”

Freshokartz is operating 40 physical centers in Rajasthan and working with more than 90,000 farmers. Freshokartz has target to reach 1 Million farmers in next 12-15 months. Freshokartz is working with more than 100 Agri Inputs companies including UPL, Chambal Fertilizers to provide best Agri inputs to farmer’s doorsteps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Funds will be used in capacity

The nine new maize lines are valuable for breeders seeking drought tolerance

 

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) announced the release of a new category of maize inbred lines called CIMMYT Maize Genetic Resource Lines (CMGRL). The CMGRLs are derived from crosses between elite CIMMYT lines and landrace accessions, populations or synthetics from the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank.

 

Although high standards of yield and agronomic performance are applied in their selection, CMGRLs are not intended to be used directly in commercial hybrids but rather by breeders as sources of novel alleles for traits of economic importance. These lines should also be of interest to maize researchers who are not breeders but are studying the underlying genetic mechanisms of abiotic and biotic traits.

Currently the maize genetic resources breeding team has projects in drought tolerance, heat tolerance, tar spot complex (TSC) disease resistance and in the development of lines and hybrids with blue kernel colour. For all of these projects, the best lines identified for a given trait objective will be recombined to produce open-pollinated varieties that will be made available to the public.

 

The inaugural class of CMGRLs includes five subtropical adapted lines for tolerance to drought during flowering and grain-fill and four tropical adapted lines for TSC resistance. Both phenotypic and genotypic data will be published online for all CMGRL releases. CIMMYT will periodically release CMGRLs as superior lines are identified for economically important abiotic and biotic stresses as well as end-use traits.

Source- CIMMYT 

The nine new maize lines are valuable

XtendiMax® herbicide with VaporGrip® Technology, is an important weed-control tool for growers 

 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new 5-year registration for XtendiMax® herbicide with VaporGrip® Technology, an important weed-control tool for many U.S. growers. The EPA stated that “With this decision, farmers now have the certainty they need to make plans for their 2021 growing season. After reviewing substantial amounts of new information, conducting scientific assessments based on the best available science, and carefully considering input from stakeholders we have reached a resolution that is good for our farmers and our environment.”

 

“We welcome the EPA’s science-based review and registration decision providing growers access to this important tool,” said Lisa Safarian, President of Bayer Crop Science North America. “Growers need options, and we are proud of our role in bringing innovations like XtendiMax herbicide forward to help growers safely and successfully protect their crops from tough-to-control weeds.”

 

The new EPA-approved product label for XtendiMax herbicide includes some changes to further ensure growers can use the product successfully. The EPA stated “To manage off-site movement of dicamba, EPA’s 2020 registration features important control measures, including:

  • Requiring an approved [volatility reduction] buffering agent (also called a Volatility Reduction Agent or VRA) be tank mixed with OTT dicamba products prior to all applications to control volatility.
  • Requiring a downwind buffer of 240 feet and 310 feet in areas where listed species are located.
  • Prohibiting OTT application of dicamba on soybeans after June 30 and cotton after July 30.
  • Simplifying the label and use directions so that growers can more easily determine when and how.

 

XtendiMax® herbicide with VaporGrip® Technology, is an

The webinar will cover production, stock availability, expected imports as well as a price outlook of lentils in India, Canada and Australia. 

India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) has organised a webinar Lentils on November 06, 2020. The IPGA KNOWLEDGE SERIES is a series of webinars / virtual meetings on subjects that are of critical interest to the pulses sector in India and world at large.

The panellists for the webinar are eminent speakers like Sunil Kumar Singh, Additional Managing Director – NAFED, Dr S K Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, Rakesh Khemka, Managing Director – Uma Exports, Rav Kapoor, CEO and Director – ETG Commodities Inc., Canada and Peter Wilson, Managing Director – Wilson International Trade, Australia. The webinar will be moderated by Anurag Tulshan, Managing Director – Esarco Exim Pvt. Ltd and IPGA’s East Zone Convenor. 

While Dr.Malhotra will share the perspective of the Government with respect to the production of the forthcoming Lentils crop, Khemka will present a perspective of the trade with respect to the production, stock availability, expected imports as well as a price outlook.  Sunil Kumar Singh will be speaking about NAFED’s plans for procurement and distribution of the forthcoming Lentils crop as well as the overall situation on Lentils stocks in the country. Rav Kapoor and Wilson will present the lentils outlook for Canada and Australia respectively about production, stock availability, expected exports as well as price outlook.

The webinar will cover production, stock availability,

Camellia synesis, citrus fruits and orange peels, berries, ginkgo biloba, parsley, pulses, tea, sea buckthorn and onions are used for making psychoactive drugs

 

 

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati researcher has developed a low-cost membrane technology to produce psychoactive drugs and anti-aging compounds from wide range of agricultural resources like camellia sinensis, citrus fruits and peels especially orange peels, berries, ginkgo biloba, parsley, pulses, tea, sea buckthorn and onions.

 

The technology is patented and developed by Prof. Mihir Kumar Purkait, Head, Centre for the Environment, and Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati along with his M Tech student V L Dhadge. The low-cost technology doesn’t use any organic solvents.

 

The health-related benefits of psychoactive drugs (caffeine) and anti-aging compounds (flavonoids) attributed to stimulating detoxification of enzyme activity and inhibition of cell invasion and angiogenesis. Because of medicinal applications, flavonoid components have gained popularity as ingredients in pharmaceutical industry. These are also found in smaller amount in bamboo leaves, grapes, apples, and other natural sources.

 

While explaining the process about how the technology works, Prof Mihir Kumar Purkait, said, “The developed technology is exclusively pore/particle size based pressure driven membrane separation process. The water extracts of above mentioned plants/fruits/leaves at optimum operating conditions are passed through a specially made cascade membrane units of fabricated with appropriate molecular weight cut off (MWCO) membranes capable of separating targeted flavonoids selectively. Permeate and retentive part from appropriate membrane unit is then fridge dried to get the powdered product. We have synthesized stimuli responsive smart membrane for the selective separation and purification of targeted compound from the mixture of plants or leaves or fruits extract in simple water”.

The patented membrane based green technology has enormous scope to replace existing costly organic solvent based techniques and can be used for continuation mode of operation in industrial scale.

 

Camellia synesis, citrus fruits and orange peels,

The 43rd annual general body meeting of IVPA elected the office-bearers for 2020-21

Sudhakar Rao Desai, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Emami Agrotech Ltd, has been re-elected unanimously as the President of Indian Vegetable oil Producers’ Association (IVPA). Vipin Gupta, CEO of Louis Dreyfus Commodities India Pvt Ltd, has been re-elected unopposed as the Vice-President of IVPA.The 43rd annual general body meeting of IVPA elected the office-bearers for 2020-21, the IVPA release said.

 

The team IVPA made the requisite efforts in the imposition of safeguard duty and later in bringing the RBD Palm/Palmolein into the restricted list much to the cheer of the domestic industry in line with the ‘Make in India’ policy, stated the release.

 

 The release also mentioned that IVPA worked towards suspension of the import licences and removal of the stock limits in oils. IVPA has taken up strongly the issue of zero duty imports from the SAFTA countries. This has been causing price and margin injury to the domestic industry and indirectly hurting the farming community in the domestic oilseed sector.

 

The release stated that IVPA, which has been well recognised in the policy matters, will continue to work seamlessly with the Government, other trade bodies and associations to promote, protect and safeguard the interests of the domestic vegetable oil industry.

The 43rd annual general body meeting of

As climate change intensifies, the cost to maintain crop yields will likely increase

A recent study by Stanford University, US has revealed that while yields have increased overall- likely due to new technologies and management approaches- the staple crop has become significantly more sensitive to drought conditions. The research, published on October 26 in Nature Food, uses a novel approach based on wide differences in the moisture-holding capabilities among soils.

Despite concerns about resistant weeds, climate change, and many other factors, the industry has set record yields in five of the last seven years. As climate change intensifies, however, the cost to maintain crop yields will likely increase.

Using county soil maps and satellite-based yield estimates, among other data, the researchers examined fields in the Corn Belt, a nine-state region of the Midwest that accounts for about two-thirds of US corn production.

Even within a single county, they found a wide range of soil moisture retention, with some soils able to hold twice as much water as others. As might be expected, there were generally higher yields for soils that held more water. They found yield sensitivity to soil water storage in the region increased by 55 percent on average between 1999 and 2018, with larger increases in drier states.

The results made clear soil’s ability to hold water was the primary reason for yield loss. In some cases, soil’s ability to hold an increased amount of moisture was three times more effective at increasing yields than an equivalent increase in precipitation.

A variety of factors, such as increased crop water needs due to increased plant sowing density may be at play. Despite robust corn yields, the cost of drought and global demand for corn are rising simultaneously.

As climate change intensifies, the cost to

The funding will help Origo to improve agri processes, warehousing, and accessibility to lakhs of Indian farmers 

 Agritech supply chain and trade finance firm Origo on announced that it has raised Rs 35 crore debt from Northern Arc Capital and other investors. Origo provides end-to-end agriculture supply-chain solutions such as procurement, storage, and financing. Origo group firms Origo Commodities and Origo Finance, will use the fund for securitizing the agricultural markets and streamlining the supply chain mechanism for agri produce in India, said company in statement.

Origo Commodities India (OCI) has raised Rs 15 crore from Northern Arc while Origo Finance raised Rs 20 crore for development of micro-lending avenues and agri supply chain financing.

The funding will help Origo to improve agri processes, warehousing, and accessibility to lakhs of Indian farmers who are in dire need of tech-enabled services in the country.

 Sunoor Kaul, co-founder of Origo Commodities, said, ’Through the support of Northern Arc and other financial partners, we aim to serve the agri ecosystem by providing solutions that can take care of all commodity needs for procurement, financing and warehousing.’ Origo Commodities manages assets worth Rs 8,500 crore and is present in 12 states in India.

 

The funding will help Origo to improve

MoU could be mutually beneficial for Asian countries


The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) based in Bangkok, Thailand formalized their decadal working relationship by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 23, 2020.

The MoU intends to promote scientists exchange, capacity building of human resources, joint research, documentation of good agricultural practices and success stories of innovations and technologies that the countries in the Asia and Pacific region shall mutually benefit. Further, strategic establishment of ’Centres of Excellence’ has also been envisaged.

MoU could be mutually beneficial for Asian

The company aims to produce up to 32,000 metric tons of MCA per year, at its new plant in Gujrat 

 

 Anaven, a 50-50 joint venture of Nouryon and Atul, has received environmental clearance from the Indian authorities for the annual production of 32,000 metric tons of monochloroacetic acid (MCA) at its new plant in Gujarat. The facility is expected to supply the first MCA to the Indian market by the end of the year.

Rob Vancko, Nouryon’s Head of MCA and Chairman of Anaven, said: “Our partnership with Atul will ensure we can efficiently meet growing demand from customers in India, supporting Nouryon’s ambition to grow in targeted end markets such as agriculture, cleaning, and personal care, particularly in emerging markets.”

Sunil Lalbhai, Chairman and Managing Director of Atul said: “We are happy to receive the clearance to expand production of MCA, an essential ingredient for the growing Indian market. We are on track to complete construction and testing of the facility this year and expect to reach full production capacity in the first half of 2021.”

The facility will become the largest MCA plant in India. It will use chlorine and hydrogen manufactured by Atul to produce up to 32,000 metric tons of MCA per year, with the possibility to expand this to 60,000 metric tons per year in the future. Atul will consume a portion of the MCA directly in its own production and the remainder will be supplied to the Indian market.

Nouryon is the leading global technology player in MCA and operates plants in the Netherlands, China, and Japan.

The company aims to produce up to

Agrozen Labs is the first hemp cooperative analytical testing laboratory approved through the Seed Section of the OISC

Central Indiana’s Agrozen Life Sciences has recently announced that it is expanding business operations by launching Agrozen Labs, now a certified US Department of Agriculture (USDA) analytical hemp testing laboratory. Agrozen Labs also recently achieved Schedule I Cannabis Testing certification from the DEA and is now an approved hemp testing laboratory through the USDA’s Domestic Hemp Production Program. 

In conjunction with the USDA and DEA approvals, Agrozen Labs is the first hemp cooperative analytical testing laboratory approved through the Seed Section of the Office of Indiana State Chemist (OISC) at Purdue University.

The Agrozen Labs announcement follows word that the US Department of Agriculture has approved the Indiana State Hemp plan for commercially growing and processing hemp, a crop that is widely used to produce textiles, rope, carpet, paper, building materials, food, and more.

Hemp production in Indiana is licensed to some 280 growers who farm more than 8,900 acres of the crop.  Farmers are required to have hemp crops tested before harvest and Agrozen becomes one of only about 50 such certified testing labs in the entire country.

Agrozen Labs is the first hemp cooperative

The three new inoculants are proven to increase yields and enhance crop performance

 Univar Solutions Inc., a global chemical and ingredient distributor, announced the addition of three new Novozymes® BioAg inoculants, BioniQ®, TagTeam® BioniQ®, and Optimize® LV, to the NexusBioAg portfolio of crop biological and fertility products. NexusBioAg, a division of Univar Solutions, is the exclusive distributor of Novozymes inoculants in Canada. The addition of these innovative inoculants enhances and expands NexusBioAg’s already extensive portfolio of inoculants, micronutrients, nitrogen stabilizers, and foliar for the Canadian agricultural market. 

The three new inoculants are proven to increase yields and enhance crop performance for pulses including lentils and peas, cereals (small grains), canola and soybeans.  They result from years of collaboration with customers, research and development, and multiyear field trials conducted across Canada through the BioAdvantage Trials (BAT) program. The launch of these inoculants, solely distributed and marketed by NexusBioAg, ensures they will be on farms in time for the 2021 spring planting season across Canada.

 “Novozymes’ product innovations and proven manufacturing capabilities, combined with NexusBioAg’s dedicated sales and marketing team, demonstrates how we have strategically collaborated to bring innovation to the Canadian agricultural market, ultimately benefitting Canadian growers,” said Rob Chomyn, senior manager-biologicals at NexusBioAg. “Bringing our industry experience, significant reach, advanced logistics, and market intelligence data and analytics, together with Novozymes’ trusted and proven inoculants, – provides customers new solutions and efficiencies for their crops.”

 

The three new inoculants are proven to