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AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Start ups

The incubation centers aims to promote start-ups and innovators in agriculture and allied sectors. 

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated two incubation centres at Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV) Raipur to promote start-ups and innovators in agriculture and allied sectors.

While virtually inaugurating Biotech Incubation Centre and Agri-Business Incubation and Production Centre to mark the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Baghel said every university in the state should establish incubation and manufacturing hubs to promote new business ideas.

The incubation centres will provide infrastructure, technology, financial and business networking assistance to budding innovators and entrepreneurs in the agri-biotechnology and agriculture sector, a public relations officer of the IGKV said. 

The chief minister also laid the foundation stone for a new building of the biotech incubation centre, which is a part of the biotechnology park, a joint project of IGKV Raipur and state Agriculture department, he said. The project will be completed in two phases.

 In the first phase, the new building of the incubation centre will be set up at a cost of Rs 30 crore in the university campus in the next two years, where 23 companies will be provided facilities for their offices and labs. Startups related to agri-biotech, healthcare biotech and food processing will be given preference there, he said.

 In the second phase of the project, a ’’business enterprises zone’’ will be developed on 9.59 hectare land in Mungi village in Arang area of Raipur district, where 23 companies will be provided research, technical and infrastructure facilities. At present, 94 entrepreneurs are being trained at the agri-business incubation centre, while 24 companies have already set up offices there”, he added.

The incubation centers aims to promote start-ups

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Finance, Water

By Randhir Chauhan, Managing Director, Netafim India and Senior Vice President, Netafim Ltd 

The Indian agriculture sector accounts for close to 16 percent of the country’s GDP, uses nearly half the available land, consumes around 80 percent of the freshwater resources, and engages almost 50 percent of the country’s workforce. Approximately 70 percent of the rural households still depend primarily on agriculture, with close to 80 percent of farmers being small and marginal. Even though the recent COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges for most sectors of the Indian economy, agriculture and allied activities demonstrated extraordinary resilience. The available statistics amplify the potential of India’s agriculture sector to aid fiscal growth. However, adherence to a traditional approach and unscientific farming methods still loom large over the agricultural space. The forthcoming budget, thus, is a window for the policymakers to actively identify and poise volumetric targets with sustainability while moving up the value chain to enhance farmer and national income.

Improvement in agricultural productivity through micro-irrigation

As of 2020, out of the 141 million hectares of cultivated land, 51 per cent of the land is under irrigation and within this only about 16 per cent (11 million hectares) have access to modern irrigation technology. The government data suggest that in the year 2019-20, only 11.72 lakh hectare has been covered under micro-irrigation.  The current target is to popularize the use of micro-irrigation technology by covering additional 10 million hectares of land in 5 years. To achieve this ambitious target and contribute towards making Indian agriculture self-reliant, it becomes imperative that the government emplaces a mechanism to ensure the smooth flow of funds, thereby ensuring their adequate utilization by the end beneficiary.

 Special budgetary assistance for Micro Irrigation to State Government to overcome COVID impact

The financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has left many states across the country to slash the budget for micro-irrigation. The policymakers should consider supporting the states through an additional corpus of funds either by direct special assistance program or increasing the existing Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) set up under NABARD to facilitate the states in mobilizing resources for expanding coverage of micro-irrigation.

 Process streamlining measures in irrigation subsidy

The delays in the disbursal of micro-irrigation subsidies under the PMKSY program are hampering its progress. Online portal for an end-to-end process execution and visibility, transparency in the process for fund disbursement, ensuring checkpoints at various stages and adherence to timelines would bring the efficiency in subsidy disbursal and support farmers to be debt-free in a faster way. SOPs to map the district-wise annual progress and penetration of micro-irrigation would act as an instrumental measure. Water budgeting for the entire village could be created under the model village program and executing District Irrigation Plans (DIP) to push PMKSY goals at the district level would work in advantage. The installation of micro-irrigation could be geo-tagged to get real-time data annually. All these measures would assist to ensure faster transmission of funds to the beneficiaries.

Providing infrastructure status to the Micro-irrigation industry

Infrastructure status would help the micro-irrigation manufacturer (95% of which comes under MSME) in reduced operating costs, thereby accelerating the industry growth as well as bring the equipment cost down for the farmer community.

Aligning different schemes together for exponential benefit – Solar and Micro-irrigation, Agriculture alongside Solar installations, and others

Focus on renewable energy like solar will not only ensure energy security especially in agriculture and the rural landscape but also address environmental concerns. Making farmers energy-sufficient would also reduce burden on government energy subsidy bill. Solar installation-friendly agriculture would help farmers with reduced operational costs, boost land utilization and improve overall income. Additionally, making micro-irrigation mandatory for subsidized solar installations at individual farms would lead to faster adaption of the modern farming techniques.

Diversification programs to increase productivity and value in different crops like oilseeds, oil palm and rice with a special focus. 12 percent of the cropped area under Fruits & Vegetables (F&V) leads to 24 percent in value terms, in contrast to 13 percent area under oilseeds which gives only 6 percent in value terms because of lack of scalability. Addressing the domestic demand of edible oils, it is inevitable to promote domestic oilseeds and oil palm cultivation with higher productivity measures. Similarly, rice which has been the major crop both in terms of area coverage and water usage can be disrupted through drip technology intervention which can improve yield, save water and reduce carbon emissions. Drip irrigation adoption also facilitates crop diversification thus making a direct impact on farmer incomes. Incentivization of cultivation of such crops and accentuating the same with precision technology like micro-irrigation can lead to both income gains for farmers and self-sustenance for India.

Focus on creating infrastructures to support innovation and digitalization in Agriculture

Special focus and fund allocation in the upcoming budget for infrastructure in rural areas would support the digitalization of agriculture and put the agriculture sector on the fast track. Currently, India is spending less than 1 per cent of Agri GDP in R&D. An Agri innovation fund, which supports ag-tech solutions, start-ups and digitalization at different levels of the Agri value chain, can transform the agriculture economy in the future

 Interest subsidy on agriculture for long term loans

Access to credit remains one of the critical elements in a sustainable and more importantly a growing ecosystem. Interest subsidy on agriculture for long term loans to help farmers with long-term investment on farming and micro-irrigation equipment, or infrastructure creation related to farming can goes a long way in building a sustainable development model in agriculture. Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for adopting micro irrigation similar to CGTMSE for MSMEs will be helpful where initial support can be provided by the government.

By Randhir Chauhan, Managing Director, Netafim India

Agrotech, Singapore

CropLife Asia advocates a safe, secure food supply, and our vision is food security enabled by innovative agriculture

With the recent launch of the United Nations (UN) ’Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition’, Singapore based CropLife Asia released a statement urging more partnership and agricultural technology adoption across the region to help ensure an abundant and accessible supply of safe, nutritious food for all.

CropLife Asia is a non-profit society and the regional organization of CropLife International, the voice of the global plant science industry. It advocates a safe, secure food supply, and our vision is food security enabled by innovative agriculture

“Today’s report confirms a sadly familiar refrain for Asia: our region is failing to deliver food security for far too many – particularly among mothers, children and the more vulnerable parts of society,” said Dr. Siang Hee Tan, CropLife Asia Executive Director.

“The new data shared today is troubling and simply unacceptable. Nearly two billion people in Asia cannot afford a healthy diet. Meanwhile, two-thirds of our region’s children suffer from wasting; and 14 countries in Asia have a prevalence of stunting with children exceeding 30 per cent.

“Ensuring a healthy start for our region’s children is crucial. We owe it to this generation and those that will follow to put aside differences and work together to address Asia’s growing food crisis. From farm to fork, greater cooperation and collaboration across the region’s food supply chain is critically important in helping realize positive nutritional outcomes.

“The innovative technologies of the plant science industry have a key role to play, but it’s only one part of the solution. Making certain an ample supply of affordable and nutritious food reaches those who need it most is not a government, civil society or private sector responsibility – it’s all our responsibility.”

 

CropLife Asia advocates a safe, secure food

Oilseeds, R&D

Yield10 plans to extract the PHA bioplastic from the Camelina seed for product prototyping, sampling and business development. 

Yield10 Bioscience, Inc, an agricultural bioscience company has announced successful field testing of prototype lines of the oilseed Camelina sativa, that have been programed to produce PHA bioplastics directly in seed.

PHA are natural polymers, prevalent in nature and fully biodegradable in the environment. Currently produced by fermentation of engineered microbes, PHA polymers also have applications in water treatment where they act as a zero-waste solution to nitrate pollution and as animal feed ingredients. Yield10 has a long history with and deep knowledge of PHAs and it believes that direct production of PHA in seed as a co-product with oil and protein meal has the potential to enable production of PHA bioplastics on an agricultural scale at costs in line with commodity vegetable oils to drive large-scale adoption in the plastics markets. PHA bioplastics could ultimately be used to manufacture a wide range of fully biodegradable consumer products.

The prototype plants tested in these studies were programed with microbial genes based on a recent patent filed for new technology developed by Yield10 researchers to produce Camelina seed containing high levels of PHA bioplastic suitable for field production. All engineered PHA Camelina lines tested produced PHA in the seed. The levels of PHA produced in seed at the two different locations were consistent and measured up to 6 percent PHA of mature seed weight depending on the plant line tested, demonstrating proof-of-concept for field production of PHA in Camelina sativa using the new technology.

Based on these results, Yield10 has selected two PHA Camelina lines for larger scale field testing in 2021, pending the issuance of permits in the U.S. In addition to generating more data, Yield10 plans to determine the suitability of the lines for initial commercial activities. Each PHA application area has different price points and scale requirements, and will have different PHA content requirements for commercial launch. Based on this, Yield10 believes that PHA content in the range of 5 to 20 percent of mature seed weight in Camelina would address the range of target applications. Yield10 plans to extract the PHA bioplastic from the Camelina seed for product prototyping, sampling and business development.

 “Our development of Camelina as a new platform crop to produce proprietary products is aligned with global trends to a low carbon economy. These include innovations in cash relay and cover crops for growers to reduce the environmental impact of commodity agriculture and the production of carbon negative products for food, fuel and plastics,” said Oliver Peoples, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Yield10 Bioscience.

Yield10 plans to extract the PHA bioplastic

World

The company intends to divest cannabis subsidiaries in Canada.

US-based Pyxus International, Inc. (Pyxus) a global value-added agricultural company, announced recently, after a strategic review by the Boards of Directors of Pyxus and certain subsidiaries, that it intends to divest its cannabis business in order to focus on its more profitable tobacco and e-liquid businesses. In addition, the Company has taken action to restructure its industrial hemp and CBD operations to minimize financial investment in that business.

“Our strategic decision to exit cash flow negative cannabinoid operations will allow us to reduce corporate SG&A and sharpen our focus on growing our more profitable tobacco and e-liquid businesses such that these complementary businesses can fully leverage Pyxus’ 145-year heritage and existing relationships,” said Pieter Sikkel, President and CEO of Pyxus International.

In connection with the plan, the Company’s three Canadian cannabis subsidiaries, FIGR Brands, Inc., Canada’s Island Garden Inc. (FIGR East), and FIGR Norfolk, Inc. (FIGR) filed for and received protection from their creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). FTI Consulting Canada Inc. has been appointed as the Court-appointed monitor (FTI) of the Applicants.  

As part of its filing under the CCAA, FIGR has obtained a Debtor in Possession (DIP) loan facility from another Pyxus subsidiary to support FIGR and fund its operations through the CCAA proceedings. 

During the CCAA proceedings, it is expected that ordinary course obligations to employees and key suppliers of goods and services subsequent to the filing date will continue to be met. FIGR intends to seek approval of a sale process to be conducted by the Monitor in the near future. 

The company intends to divest cannabis subsidiaries

Agro chems – Pesticides, R&D

Researchers urge UK to keep EU ban on the pesticide

Two studies by scientists at Bristol’s Schools of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience and Biological Sciences have recently shown that these insecticides affect the amount of sleep taken by both bumblebees and fruit flies, which may help us understand why insect pollinators are vanishing from the wild.

Dr Kiah Tasman, Teaching Associate in the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience and lead author of the studies, said: “The neonicotinoids we tested had a big effect on the amount of sleep taken by both flies and bees. If an insect was exposed to a similar amount as it might experience on a farm where the pesticide had been applied, it slept less, and its daily behavioral rhythms were knocked out of synch with the normal 24-hour cycle of day and night.”

The fruit fly study published on 21 January in Scientific Reports, allowed the researchers to study the impact of pesticides on the insect brain.

Dr James Hodge, Associate Professor in Neuroscience in the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience and senior author for the study, added: “Being able to tell time is important for knowing when to be awake and forage, and it looked like these drugged insects were unable to sleep. We know quality sleep is important for insects, just as it is for humans, for their health and forming lasting memories.”

Dr Sean Rands, Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences and co-author, explained: “Bees and flies have similar structures in their brains, and this suggests one reason why these drugs are so bad for bees is they stop the bees from sleeping properly and then being able to learn where food is in their environment.

 

Researchers urge UK to keep EU ban

Agrotech, Machinery – Post-harvesting

The certificate was granted by Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Budni for Escorts’ electric tractor in the 21-30 HP category.  

Escorts Ltd, India’s leading engineering conglomerate, Agri machinery Division (EAM) has announced that the company has received Central Motors vehicles rules, 1989 (CMVR) certification in India for the electric tractor from Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Budni.

Escorts limited is the first and the only company to receive the CMVR certificate in India for the Electric Tractor. The certificate was granted by Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Budni for Escorts’ electric tractor in the 21-30 HP category. 

The company has been exporting its electric tractors since 2019 and now plans to launch the same in India. Three years ago, in 2017, we had showcased futuristic and eco-friendly electric tractor concept in variants of Mechanical & Hydrostatic power transmission platform for sustainable and green agriculture. We started export of these tractors in 2019 and now with this certification, will be launching in domestic market too. The launch and other details will be shared soon, said the company in the release.

 

 

 

The certificate was granted by Central Farm

Agro chems – Chemicals, AgroPolicy

CMDs of stakeholder PSUs agreed to expedite their internal process on the Namrup project.

A meeting was held on January 21, 2021, under the chairmanship of DV Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers regarding the upcoming 12.7 lakh MMTPA capacity urea plant at Namrup. The meeting was attended by Rameshwar Teli, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Finance Minister of Assam, Chandra Mohan Patowary, Minister of Industries & Commerce of Assam, RK Chaturvedi, Secretary (Fertilisers), Dharam Pal, Additional Secretary (Fertilisers), Shri Sushil Chandra Mishra, CMD (OIL), S Mudgerikar, CMD (RCF), Asim Kumar Ghosh, CMD (BVFCL), Nirlep Singh Rai, Director (NFL) and others.

Gowda said that bringing development in the North East region is a priority of the present Government under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. It is therefore imperative to expedite the process of setting up of a new state of art urea unit at Namrup in line with the vision of the Prime Minister to attain self-sufficiency in urea production. The urea unit will be able not only to cater demands of local farmers for fertilizers but surplus if any could also to be exported to neighboring countries in South Asia. He impressed upon the CMDs of stakeholder PSUs to conclude their internal process regarding this project at the earliest.

Biswas conveyed that the Government of Assam is ready to extend all kinds of support to the Namrup project, including financial support to the best extent possible.

CMDs of stakeholder PSUs agreed to expedite their internal process on the Namrup project.

CMDs of stakeholder PSUs agreed to expedite

Live Stock, Poultry

Hester Bioscience’s technical team has been assisting the poultry industry by improving the biosecurity and general health condition of poultry to ward off the disease. 

Ahmedabad based Hester Biosciences announced that Hester’s revenues have not got impacted in this current Bird Flu situation prevailing in India. The company continues to grow as per our forecasted growth plans. Hester Biosciences is one of India’s leading animal healthcare companies and are the second largest poultry vaccine manufacturer in the country.

There have been Bird Flu outbreaks across India. The spread of Bird Flu has been mainly through migratory wild birds. In the winter months, wild birds migrate to the tropical areas, India being in the tropics.

These birds may have been infected with Bird Flu. They carry the disease along their travel path and infect other birds in the journey. No country has control over the movements of the migratory wild birds or on their spreading of any disease including Bird Flu disease.

These migratory wild birds first infect other wild birds in those geographies which then locally spread the disease. Bird Flu could then spread in organized poultry as well as backyard poultry. The Indian Government’s policy towards controlling Bird Flu in poultry is by stamping out the infected poultry population.

While there have been Bird Flu outbreaks in organized poultries in India, Hester Biosciences’s technical team has been assisting the poultry industry by improving the biosecurity and general health condition of poultry to ward off the disease.

 

 

Hester Bioscience’s technical team has been assisting

E-commerce, Live Stock

With its foray into these 7 new markets, Licious aims at unlocking the huge business opportunity in the fresh meat and seafood segment.

Bengaluru based, Licious, India’s largest fresh meat, meat products and sea food brand, has kick-started the New Year with the announcement of the strategic expansion to 7 new cities in India. After launching in Jaipur and Coimbatore in Nov-Dec 2020, the company has extended its operations to Vijayawada, Vizag, and Kochi. Licious is also all set to enter Puducherry and Kolkata, India’s key culinary hub for meat and seafood, by early 2021.

With its foray into these 7 new markets, Licious aims at unlocking the huge business opportunity in the fresh meat and seafood segment, while adding to its roster of 7 existing markets across India. 

Elaborating on the expansion strategy, Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, Co-Founders, Licious said, “We have spent the last five years perfecting our knowledge on meat and seafood ecosystem in India- be it the supply chain, processing methods or consumer preference. Our nuanced understanding gives us the confidence to soar ahead and serve superior quality meats & an unparalleled meaty experience to more Indian consumers.”

 Adding on to the comment, the founders also said, “Be it Kolkata and its Kosha Mangsho or Kochi’s Meen Molagita Curry, there are few culinary hubs in the world that can compete with such flavour and fervour. An equally discerning and potent market exists in Jaipur, Coimbatore, Vijayawada, Vizag, and Puducherry – towns that are home to well-heeled residents and expats and cuisines that are pre-dominantly seafood- and meat- based. Despite these factors, meat lovers find it a challenge to source world-class products that deliver on freshness, hygiene, and a standardized experience, consistently. With our superior quality products, we believe Licious will not just raise the bar for quality meats and seafood but uplift the overall culinary experiences in these markets”.

 Licious’ entry into these strategic markets, including Tier II cities, highlight the brand’s commitment to elevate an industry which is still 96% unorganised. India’s meat market is valued at $40 billion, with over 73% of the country’s population being meat eaters.

 

 

 

With its foray into these 7 new

World

The two companies set up a carnivore-branded food truck in a small suburb of Tel-Aviv

Israeli Alt-Meat innovator, Redefine Meat has revealed the unprecedented success of the largest-scale public blind-tasting of Alt-Meat products targeting meat-eaters. Conducted recently with high-quality Israeli meat distributor, Best Meister, the companies launched a food truck concept named “There’s a new meat in town”. Following an overwhelming response from the public, Redefine Meat has formed a strategic partnership with Best Meister, who will distribute the company’s Alt-Meat products commercially to Israeli restaurants and high-end butchers in the first half of 2021.

The two companies set up a carnivore-branded food truck in a small suburb of Tel-Aviv (Kidron, Israel), targeting up to 200 tastings in two days. The truck boasted staple Mediterranean meat foods, cooked to order, which were in fact Alt-Meat provided by Redefine Meat. Putting the meat experience truly to the test, the meat was served with little to no condiments or extras – focusing consumer senses entirely on the Alt-Meat’s appearance, flavor and texture. Driven purely by customer satisfaction and word of mouth, over 600 visitors attended the food truck and purchased close to 1000 servings of meat – selling out in less than five hours. Upon the revelation that the meat products were plant-based, consumer feedback demonstrated overwhelmingly that the Alt-Meat products were comparable to animal meat on key metrics such as taste, texture, and mouthfeel – with over 90 per cent acceptance rate.

The success of the pilot test marks a historic moment for Redefine Meat, playing a pivotal role in the formation of a strategic partnership with Best Meister. Renowned for high-quality meat products, Best Meister will provide Redefine Meat the go-to-market infrastructure and reach to launch in the Israeli culinary sector.

The two companies set up a carnivore-branded

Agrotech, Start ups

With Subrat, the company aims to further build smarter & intelligent SAAS solutions on its platform and extend it to a global audience.

India’s leading agtech innovator AgNext, has announced the expansion of its leadership team by on boarding Dr Subrat Panda as Chief Technology Officer. With Subrat, the company aims to further build smarter & intelligent SAAS solutions on its platform and extend it to a global audience.

Prior to joining AgNext, Subrat worked with Capillary Technologies as the Head of Engineering, AI and Data Sciences. He is a B Tech graduate in Computer Science from prestigious IIT Kharagpur and PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the same institution. Subrat brings immense experience in hardware, software and artificial intelligence alike, having worked with companies like Synopsys, IBM STG, Nvidia, and Taro across his professional career.

Subrat has also authored multiple patents owing to his deep understanding of technological solutions and research prowess. At AgNext, Subrat will be focusing on structuring deeptech and aligning product lines for a global client base. Building further value added SaaS solutions on its AI enabled platform, Qualix. Subrat plans to overhaul Quality based trade using valuable SaaS solutions at all transaction nodes within agribusiness value chains.

“AgNext is truly AI at its core working with the aim to deliver best applications to transform agriculture and make a global impact. I come from an agricultural background and always aspired to go back to my roots and make a dent in the agri industry leveraging technology. My passion for AI and agriculture are now coming together in the form of AgNext. At AgNext we are working on the vision to build a world class agri tech product leveraging AI, Smart and Intelligent IoT & sensors, robust platforms all coming together in the form of deep tech IP as an outcome of this process. A very integrated approach has to be undertaken in that direction as we are building the most valuable agritech product out of India, for the world”, Subrat Panda, CTO AgNext said..

 

With Subrat, the company aims to further

Acquaculture, Live Stock, R&D

The farms in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Orissa posed the most threat to the environment

An analytical study of aquaculture farms carried out across 10 Indian states has found evidence of hazardous levels of metals, as well as severe violations of food safety, public health, and animal welfare and environmental standards. 

They studied about 250 shrimp and fish farms across 9 highest producing states and one Union Territory: fresh and brackish water farms in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Pondicherry, Orissa and West Bengal, and freshwater farms in Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam and Chattisgarh. 

Tamil Nadu had the worst water quality in fish farms, while West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry showed high-level public health hazards. The farms in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Orissa posed the most threat to the environment.

The study found fish farms having high levels of cadmium and lead contamination. Both these metals upon consumption of fish, can pass to humans and cause long term damage. 

A majority of fish farms even faced the problem of nitrogen overdose, as a result of nonexistent or negligible waste management systems, leading to low oxygen levels in the water and algae growth. It was also found that many fisheries dump their waste in nearby rivers and water bodies, thus directing the polluted water back into the system for human use. 

Moreover, the study found contamination via human defecation in some of the fish farms. In Tamil Nadu, researchers observed people bathing in and around fish farms using soaps. Waste dumps near or inside fish farms were found in Bihar and Bengal. 

The farms in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and

Agro Universities, Packaging & Labelling, R&D, Supply Chain

WayCool will invest around Rs 2 million over 3 years in this association 

WayCool Foods has signed a 3-year MoU with IIT Hyderabad (IIT-H) to develop antimicrobial food packaging material by using biopolymers. The MoU was signed and exchanged between Karthik Jayaraman, CEO, WayCool Foods and Sumohana Channappayya, Dean (R&D), IIT-H in Hyderabad.

The aim is to develop economically viable and biodegradable packaging that will retain the freshness of fruits and vegetables longer, leading to a reduction in food wastage across the supply chain by up to 20 per cent. This packing material will enhance the shelf life of mainstream fruits and vegetables such as okra, capsicum, Indian gooseberry, and guava as well as exotic produce such as strawberry and broccoli. WayCool will invest close to INR 2 million over a period of 3 years of this association.

 Vignesh Kumar Manogaran, EVP, WayCool Foods, said, “From inception, WayCool Foods has been actively working towards reducing food wastage on multiple fronts. The association with IIT Hyderabad to co-develop a sustainable alternate packaging solution further supplements our in-house R&D and Innovation efforts. The collaboration will help us work closely with the bright minds of India’s premier institutions and strengthen industry-academia linkage.”

In the drive towards creating a social impact, WayCool has a farmer engagement program, Outgrow, that engages with farmers through the entire cultivation cycle, from planning to inputs to harvesting. In the process, WayCool helps to substantially increase farmer profitability, reduce risk, and guarantees 270 days of steady income to farmers by leveraging a host of emerging technologies to measure soil health, ensure quality of inputs, capture agricultural practices, and measure output quality.

During the MoU signing, Dr Mudrika Khandelwal, The Cellulose Group (Head), IIT Hyderabad said, “Biopolymer is an environment friendly food packaging material. We are happy to collaborate with WayCool Foods to develop this unique solution to enhance product shelf-life whilst also reducing the overall carbon footprint related to food packaging. It is important to devise ways to create uncompromised innovations that meet our sustainability goals while providing customer-focused solutions.”

 

 

WayCool will invest around Rs 2 million