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Finance, Machinery - Pre-harvesting

Sonalika has registered 1 lakh tractor sales in just 9 months of April-Dec’20 period 

 

 In line with the magnificent performance registered throughout the year 2020, Sonalika Tractors has started the New Year 2021 with an unparalleled achievement. Sonalika has once again registered a dominant performance to clock 1 lakh tractor sales in just 9 months of April-Dec’20 period. Sonalika has grown by a staggering 33.3% during the year, which is around 3X the industry growth of 12 per cent and has surpassed its entire FY’20 sales in just 9 months of FY’21. Overall, the company has registered its highest ever December sales of 11,540 tractors and highest ever market share of 16.1 per cent. 

Sonalika Tractors has been selling more than one lakh tractors annually over the last three years and registering similar sales volume in 9 months denotes company’s exemplary performance. Despite the pandemic hit year, Sonalika introduced 5 new premium tractors in 2020 including Tiger, Sikander DLX, Mahabali and Chhatrapati that has been lately joined by the company’s new technology marvel in Tiger Electric.

Raman Mittal, Executive Director, Sonalika Group, said, “This is momentous occasion as we have taken just three quarters to accomplish what was being achieved annually over the last three years. We have surpassed our entire FY’20 sales to sell over 1 lakh tractors in just 9 months of FY’21, while recording 33.3 per cent growth, which is 3X the industry growth of 12 per cent. Alongside, we have registered our highest ever December sales of 11,540 tractors and highest ever market share of 16.1 per cent. No external hardships like the pandemic, unfavourable factors can deter our passion to develop and offer customised, high quality products to farmers globally. We have set our standards high with a mission to touch one lakh tractor sales in every six months and achieved 50 per cent of it this year despite a challenging one the entire automotive fraternity.”

 

 

 

 

Sonalika has registered 1 lakh tractor sales

Agro Universities, Cold Storage, R&D, Supply Chain

This model refrigeration units operate with solid adsorption-based refrigeration system powered by farm waste and biomass  

 With the generation of huge agricultural biomass and being the energy starving nation, New Leaf (off-grid refrigeration), came out with the novel and innovative refrigeration technology for Indian agri supply chain and established one such unit in the premises of Thottiyam Banana Growers’ Association with the financial assistance of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (GEE-BEE-UNIDO). The unit was inaugurated by Dr S. Uma, Director, ICAR- NRCB and commissioned to the federation from 4th Dec, 2020.

Ravichandran Purushotaman, President, Danfoss, India and Anurag Agarwal, New leaf Dynamics, New Delhi also attended the function.A.P. Karuppaiah, President, TNBGF, Mr. G. Ajeethan, Director, TNBGF and other directors and functionaries and farmers also attended the function. Dr. V. Kumar, Dr. C. Karpagam and Dr. P. Suresh Kumar, experts from ICAR- NRC Banana also participated in the programme.

Generally, cooling stations in India are usually powered by an electrical energy or run using diesel engine. At least 2 litres of diesel or 5-6 units of electricity are required to operate 4 tons refrigerated room for one hour. With the shortage of petroleum energy, high fuel cost and the high energy requirement to bring down the temperature in the cold room, the use of those conventional technologies often fail to sustain the business. This model refrigeration units operate with solid adsorption-based refrigeration system powered by farm waste and biomass. This will establish end-to-end cold chain infrastructure for enhancing the shelf life of the commodities like banana. It emits no smoke due to its efficient blower-based combustion using gasification principles and thus emit no carbon into the environment, the company claims. The team also visited the integrated pack house facility established at Thottiyam after the function.

This model refrigeration units operate with solid

Supply Chain, Warehousing

Company have completed its first market linkage transaction with Sheetala Mata Prerna Producer Group, Uttar Pradesh 

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM) and Arya, have signed on a three-way partnership to empower women in the agribusiness value chain and enhance their voice in financial decision making and the ability to drive collective action.

Through this initiative, they have completed their first market linkage transaction with Sheetala Mata Prerna Producer Group, an FPO based out of Arajiline village in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh which sold 251 quintals of paddy to Maa Mundeshwari Mini Rice Mills.

This deemed as a profitable transaction for the FPO as post making all the payments, the FPO made Rs 10,000 as profit in the arrangement, that too post giving 15% higher price to farmers as a contribution to earnings at the price level. Enabling high returns for the farmers, this initiative helped farmers earn 20 per cent more than their existing practice.

Notwithstanding the procedural hiccups, this partnership instead provided an innovative mechanism to leverage credit limits of existing processors to support them in financing the aforesaid FPO to buy produce from farmers. This can even be beneficial to FPOs with modest working capital to value chain activities.

Empowering the farmers, this scheme facilitated procurement of variety which has better market acceptability, which in turn has a potential to be an alternative for the much discussed MSP purchase program.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of building resilient farming communities. Through this multilateral-public-private partnership, farmers and FPOs are getting benefitted gravely as it helps in bridging the demand-supply gap, enabling farm level value addition, reducing food loss and waste and controlling price volatility.

This initiative is being undertaken in 12 blocks in Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Gorakhpur, Deoria of Uttar Pradesh currently that will benefit approximately close to 4000 small and marginal farmers mostly women over a period of 6 months.

 

Company have completed its first market linkage

AgroPolicy, Schemes - Govt

A total of Rs 12,000 Crores has been deposited under the 3rd tranche of the scheme.

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released the 3rd installment of PM Kisan (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) of Rs 2000 for the period December 2019 – March 2020 in Tumkur, Karnataka.  This will benefit approximately 6 crore beneficiaries and distributed Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to select farmers of Karnataka.  Prime Minister will also hand over Certificates to beneficiaries under PM Kisan from 8 States / UTs. Prime Minister also handed over the keys of Deep Sea fishing Vessels and Fishing Vessel Transponders to select farmers of Tamil Nadu.

The Prime Minister said that the land of Karnataka also witnessed a historic moment when money under the PM-Kisan scheme has been distributed directly into the personal accounts of nearly 6 Crore Farmers in the country. Prime Minister said a total of Rs 12 Thousand Crores has been deposited under the 3rd tranche of the scheme.

On the occasion, the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare,  Narendra Singh Tomar informed that a toll-free number for the beneficiaries of PM-Kisan Yojana, 155261 has been started at which the farmers will be able to know their payment status. The Minister added that a mobile application is also being developed for ease of access of PM Kisan Portal facilities for farmers.

 

A total of Rs 12,000 Crores has

AgroPolicy

Out of the total purchase of 487.92 LMT, Punjab alone has contributed 202.77 LMT

Paddy procurement for Kharif 2020-21 is continuing smoothly in the procuring States & UTs of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and West Bengal with purchase of over 487.92 LMT of paddy up to 31.12.2020. This is an increase of 24.93% against last year’s corresponding purchase of 390.56 LMT. Out of the total purchase of 487.92 LMT, Punjab alone has contributed 202.77 LMT which is 41.55% of total procurement.

Further, based on the proposal from the States, approval was accorded for procurement of 51.66 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). Further, sanction for procurement of 1.23 LMT of Copra (the perennial crop) for the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala was also given.

Up to 31.12.2020, the Government through its Nodal Agencies has procured 257425.26 MT of Moong, Urad, Groundnut Pods, and Soyabean having an MSP value of Rs 1377.69 Crores benefitting 1,38,579 farmers in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Similarly, 5089 MT of copra (the perennial crop) having MSP value of Rs 52.40 crore has been procured benefitting 3961 farmers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu up to 31.12.2020 as against the last year corresponding purchase of 293.34 MT of copra. In respect of Copra and Urad, rates are ruling above MSP in most of the major producing States.

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 31.12.2020 a quantity of 7503914 cotton bales valuing Rs 21989.94 Crore has been procured benefitting 14,69,704 farmers.

 

Out of the total purchase of 487.92

North America

Centrol launches new app to help farmers access their data

US-based Centrol Crop Consulting has successfully launched a new mobile app available on both iOS and Android to help farmers easily access technical data and all their important contacts on demand.

The app was developed in partnership with agriculture app development company, DreamCo Design.

With the Centrol Portal app, farmers across the midwest are able to access their crop reports, field data, financials, and other important files on demand. Consultant profiles are also organized with the ability to reach important contacts with a couple of taps, helping farmers save time and get in touch with their contacts in the industry quickly and easily.

Features include data retrieval of PDF, DOC, videos, and crop imagery (JPG/PNG). Search, sort, and organization of materials into various folder structures for the data, contacts organized by a group with click-to-call, and tap-to-email options, consultant bios, and more. Data is synchronized across web and app platforms allowing farmers to retrieve data in the field or in the office. Daily messages for file changes, new uploads, and important reports also trigger, alerting farmers to important notifications about their farm’s data.

Centrol launches new app to help farmers

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, IT

Agri India Hackathon is the largest virtual gathering to create dialogues and accelerate innovations.  

Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated the Virtual Agri-hackathon 2020 organised by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare in association with IARI, Pusa, New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, Narendra Singh Tomar said that Agri India Hackathon is the largest virtual gathering to create dialogues and accelerate innovations.

The 2-month long event is the first of its kind & the largest virtual event in the history of Indian agriculture. It will bring together the most important stakeholders from industry & government alongside India’s young bright minds, creative start-ups and smart innovators who will build new, fast and frugal solutions to tackle the big questions we’re facing today. 

With the launch, the application of the hackathon was made live on MyGov.in and will remain open till 20 January, 2021. The hackathon will happen in 3 elimination rounds and the final 24 winners will get a cash prize of RS 1, 00,000 along with incubation support, tech & business mentoring and various other benefits. The hackathon will accept innovations & ideas on farm mechanization, precision agriculture, supply chain & food technology, waste to wealth, green energy, etc.

Following the launch, Agri India Hackathon will also host speaker sessions called Agri India Meets spread across 2 months with more than 40 speakers who will discuss the present & future of agriculture.

Agri India Hackathon is the largest virtual

Agrotech, North America

Draganfly Drone will support evidence-based crop, health, planning and spatial data collection. 

 

 

 

The US Department of Agriculture has selected the use of the Draganfly Commander drones to do phenotyping and other related data collection and analysis.

The Draganfly Commander Ag-Pro model is a turn-key UAV package providing extended flight times, high level of data resolutions and accuracy and the utmost data security.

Draganfly drones are important within the agriculture industry as they support evidence-based crop, health, planning and spatial data collection. These tools and technologies can provide valuable data that can then be used to influence policies and decisions.

 “The growing use of UAVs within the US Department of Agriculture for diverse applications are fuelling the need for our drones,” said Cameron Chell, CEO of Draganfly. “Draganfly is incredibly honoured to be working with the Department of Agriculture and looking forward to serving their department on future projects.”

Draganfly is the oldest commercial drone manufacturer in North America and is credited as the world’s first small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) to save a first human life in a search and rescue operation and this drone is currently on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Draganfly Drone will support evidence-based crop, health,

Poultry, R&D

Company  has developed AI-driven software that controls customized incubation cells which affect the sex development process in chicken embryos.  

 Empire State Development and Cornell University has announced that animal science company Soos Technology of Kidron, Israel was named as the $1 million grand prize winner of round two of Grow-NY, a global food and agriculture business competition. The unprecedented competition—which focuses on strengthening the food and agriculture innovation cluster within the Central New York, Finger Lakes and Southern Tier regions of New York state—attracted more than 260 applicants worldwide this year and the top 20 finalists competed in a virtual pitch competition.

Soos Technology has developed AI-driven software that controls customized incubation cells that affect the sex development process in chicken embryos resulting in more functional female chickens that lay eggs. The patented technology mitigates the controversial practice of male-chick culling by transforming male chickens into egg-laying females using high-tech soundwaves and vibration—a non-invasive and nonchemical solution.

Soos Technology CEO Yael Alter said, “With our Grow-NY prize money, we plan to create over twenty high-paying research and engineering jobs in the next two years, by building the NY Poultry Research Hub, which will connect academic research with poultry startups and corporates, to commercialize validated research. We are thrilled to put down roots in the Grow-NY region.”

Company  has developed AI-driven software that controls

Finance, Start ups

 The company will invest on customer acquisition and building the full-stack platform for the farmers 

Indore-based Agri-tech startup Gramophone has announced that it has raised Rs 25 crore from investors, including Siana Capital, and will use the funds for customer acquisition and strengthen its platform.

The funding round led by Siana Capital.Info Edge, Asha Impact and Better Capital, all existing investors, have also participated in this round. With this funding, Gramophone has raised Rs 55 crore so far.

Founded in 2016 by IIT & IIM Ahmedabad graduates Tauseef Ahmad Khan, Nishant Vats Mahatre, Harshit Gupta and Ashish Rajan Singh, Gramophone said it has helped more than 550,000 farmers increase their income based on improved farming practices.

The platform acts as a doctor and a pharmacy to farmers, who get access to a wide range of inputs and implements, including seeds, fertilisers, nutrients, pesticides, and farming equipment.

While commenting on latest funding, Tauseef Khan, Co-Founder & CEO, Gramophone said, “We have seen strong farmer adoption with a Year to Year 15-20 per cent increase in the wallet share of the customers.”

“We will invest on customer acquisition and building the full-stack platform for the farmers to provide holistic solution for maximising farmer’s income by enhancing expertise around agronomic intelligence for input business and building capabilities to provide market linkages and access to credit to the farmers,” he added.

 The company will invest on customer acquisition

North America

Miraflora’s practices had to meet the strict standards included in the organic certification process

Driven to help people be their best naturally through the unique properties of the hemp plant, Miraflora has received USDA Organic Certification for its 160-acre farm in Boulder County, Colo.

To earn USDA certification, Miraflora’s practices had to meet the strict standards included in the organic certification process, including using cultural and biological processes that support the cycling of on-farm resources; promoting ecological balance; and conserving biodiversity. Although this is the first time the farm has earned USDA Organic Certification, it has been farmed organically for over 100 years.

Miraflora’s products are traceable from plant to product, beginning with organic Colorado-grown hemp cultivated in nutrient-rich soil with the purest water fresh from the Rocky Mountains. The Miraflora farm also partners with Red Granite Ranch, Colorado’s largest alpaca ranch, to manage and raise the alpaca that provide the organic fertilizer that’s worked into the soil. Alpaca manure has long been prized as a sustainable fertilizer by gardeners and farmers due to its multitude of benefits.

Miraflora’s top-selling hemp infusion beverage can be found in over 200 locations in Los Angeles and New York City.

Miraflora’s practices had to meet the strict