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Home2021February (Page 9)
Foodgrains, Pulses, Webinar

Virtual seminar will feature close to 45 National and International speakers.

 India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry, is all set to host the 3rd National Pulses Seminar on February 10 & 11, 2021. The seminar will be coinciding with the 5th World Pulses Day which will be celebrated on February 10. With initiatives like the National Pulses Seminar, The Knowledge Series and The Pulses Conclave, IPGA has established itself as India’s leading think tank and knowledge hub in the pulses sector.

The keynote address of the seminar will be delivered by Raosaheb Patil Danve, Hon. Minister of State, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Govt. of India. The National Pulses Seminar will feature close to 45 National and International Speakers, each of them an acknowledged domain expert in his/her field.

The speakers include prominent personalities like Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary – Dept. of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Leela Nandan, Secretary – Dept. of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; Adv. Vijay Sardana, Agri-Food Value Chain and Trade Policy Expert; Sunil Kumar Singh, Additional Managing Director, NAFED; Yogesh Thorat, Managing Director – MAHA Farmer Producer Company Ltd; to name a few.

The seminar will be hosted virtually (online), and registration is free of cost. The link to register for the seminar is https://forms.gle/W2MEsdWaHHwzavam7.

The seminar is free of cost for all participants. IPGA, keeping in mind the convenience of participating delegates has arranged a live English – Hindi – English translation service.

Apart from its members and stakeholders, IPGA has invited over 1,500 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and 110 Agricultural Universities from across the country to participate in the seminar.

 

 

 

Virtual seminar will feature close to 45

Agro chems ā€“ Chemicals, Agro chems ā€“ Fertilizers, Finance

DFPCL has registered a remarkable growth in EBITDA of 100% y-o-y and PAT of over 190% y-o-y for the quarter.Ā 

 Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals announced the financial results for nine months FY21.Total Operating EBITDA increased by 100% y-o-y to Rs. 217 Cr in Q3 FY21 and increased 98% y-o-y to Rs. 682 Cr in 9M FY21. EBITDA margin expanded by 529 bps to 15% in Q3 FY21 and expanded by 595 bps to 16.1% in 9M FY21. PAT grew by 193% y-o-y to Rs. 89 Cr in Q3 FY21 and increased 337% y-o-y to Rs. 291 Cr in 9M FY21. PAT margin expanded by 350 bps to 6.1% in Q3 FY21 and expanded by ~491 bps to 6.8% in 9M FY21.

Commenting on the performance,  Sailesh C. Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director, Deepak Fertilisers And Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, said, “It gives me great pleasure to share with you that DFPCL has registered a remarkable growth in EBITDA of 100% y-o-y and PAT of over 190% y-o-y for the quarter. DFPCL demonstrated robust growth across all three key business segments. Tremendous focus on improving operational efficiencies, stringent cost optimisation initiatives whilst integrating technologies and innovations into daily operations during this unprecedented COVID phase have led to this stellar business performance.

The overall performance of the IC business in Q3 FY21 significantly improved year on year; primarily driven by the robust demand for Nitric Acid. A similar trend is seen even in the exports markets which favoured us in improving our business margins and overall growth for the quarter. Our Dahej plant achieved 100% utilization capacity.

Fertiliser business delivered its fifth consecutive profitable quarter in Q3 FY21. We sold around 3.2 lakh MT of Smartek product during the year till December end which is over 120% growth over same period last year.

 Finance cost reduced significantly by 29% y-o-y in Q3 FY21 and 24% y-o-y in 9M FY21. Reduction in finance cost was primarily driven by significant efforts towards improving collections and better working capital management, thereby reducing the short-term borrowings.

 

DFPCL has registered a remarkable growth in

E-commerce, Finance

For the third quarter ended December 31, 2020, company reported consolidated total income* and consolidated profit before tax* of Rs.1, 536crore and Rs.87crore, respectively.

Godrej Agrovet Limited has reported its financial performance for the third quarter and nine month ended December 31, 2020, of the financial year 2020-21.

For the third quarter ended December 31, 2020, company reported consolidated total income* and consolidated profit before tax* of Rs.1, 536crore and Rs.87 crore, respectively. Profit before tax represents year-on-year growth of 28.4% for the quarter, despite a 14.3% year-on-year decline in total income.

For the nine months ended December 31, 2020, company reported consolidated total income* and consolidated profit before tax* of Rs.4, 821crore and Rs.367crore, respectively. Consolidated Profit before tax represents a healthy year-on-year growth of 39.8%, despite a 10.2% year-on-year decline in total income.

Commenting on the performance,  B. S. Yadav, Managing Director, Godrej Agrovet Limited, said, “I am pleased to share that Godrej Agrovet had another quarter of strong performance. Our consolidated profit before tax grew by 28.4% and 39.8%, respectively, in the third quarter and the first nine months of the financial year 2020-21. This is despite a decrease of 14.3% and 10.2%, respectively, in the total income during the third quarter and first nine months.”

Segment-wise, most of the segments have seen an increase in profitability in the first nine months compared to the previous year. Animal feed segment results grew by 11.2% year-on-year, despite 16.5% and 19.1% decline in volumes and sales. Consolidated revenues and segment results in crop protection segment grew by 3.3% and 6.5%, respectively, as Astec LifeSciences posted robust performance in the first half. Our poultry and processed foods focused subsidiary, Godrej Tyson has reported 15.5% revenue growth with EBITDA of Rs.41.1crore compared to a loss in the previous year. Low procurement prices benefit Creamline Dairy and EBITDA has grown by 16.8% in the nine month, despite a 17.5% revenue decline. However, vegetable oil segment was impacted by white-fly attack which lowered FFB arrival and oil content in the fruit. Therefore, segment result declined by 7.8% in the first nine months.

In the recent budget, measures announced for the agriculture sector continue to focus on increasing farmerā€™s income and on increasing their access to credit. Government also increased custom duty and cess on import of shrimp feed and crude palm oil which is expected to increase domestic production. We believe that these announcement along with earlier measures implemented by Government to boost agriculture sector will encourage more private sector participation in the sector and will help increase income for the farmer. 

For the third quarter ended December 31,

Agro chems ā€“ Fertilizers, Agro Universities

The meeting aims at making the farmers aware about the safety of farm products and use of biofertilisers.Ā 

The ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad organized the ā€™Meeting on Management of Farm Produce and Biofertilisersā€™ at Mallampet Village of Kotipally Mandal, Mancherial District, Telangana.

The main objective of the meeting was to make the farmers aware about the safety of farm products and use of biofertilisers.

The Chief Guest, Balka Suman, MLA, Chennur Constituency, Telangana applauded the ICAR’s efforts. He appreciated the scientific approach in implementing the Sub Plan. Suman also distributed 1,000 tarpaulins and packets of PSB, Azospirillum and Azotobacter biofertilizers during the occasion.

 The Guest of Honour, P. Satish Kumar, MLC, Adilabad, Telangana applauded the Institutes’ efforts. Dr Mohammed Osman, Head, PME Cell, ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad and Dr Ravindra Chary, Project Coordinator, All India Coordinated Research Project on Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad outlined the process for providing the farmers with both technology and awareness backstopping in crops, horticulture, animal husbandry, poultry and off-farm employment, especially, for the farm women.

The meeting aims at making the farmers

Agrotech, Finance, Start ups

The company tracks different parameters like high temperature, low temperature, high relative humidity, low relative humidity, high rainfall, low rainfall and high wind speed. Ā 

Solving for the century-old problem, Insurtech startup, Gramcover has introduced ‘Parametric Insurance’ to provide protection for crops against weather vagaries in conjunction with crop insurance companies. The insurance cover has been created for insurance in states like Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and a few others. A large part of the gross cropped area, 65 per cent is uninsured and in general insurance, access is a challenge for non-loanee farmers who donā€™t have automatic access to the government-run insurance programmes. 

In the last few months, Gramcover has worked with multiple demand-side partners and insurance companies to create weather-based Parametric Insurance not only for farmers but also for warehouse capacity creators, which is an industry first. The insurance programme entails tracking of various parameters through automated weather stations and/or IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) gridded data or remote sensing devices. Basis on these parameters a crop specific index is derived and the most suitable insurance product is created for a specific crop. For proposals at scale, an automated Weather Stations (AWS) based data point is more reliable whereas for relatively smaller proposals, the gridded data makes more sense. Gramcover works on both rural retail and B2B2C models for insurance distribution. In both cases, Gramcover leverages its partnerships with its point of sale partners and / or the rural organization to bring customized insurance access to farmers.

The traditional crop insurance programmes are based on the assessment of crop yield, making it a time consuming exercise and delays the claim settlement. This parametric insurance provides quicker and transparent claim settlements based on the deviation in the weather parameters from pre-agreed values. With the help of a robust and granular weather data network, this insurance is minimising the risk and turnaround time. 

Dhyanesh Bhatt, CEO and Co- founder of Gramcover says, “Parametric insurance can add great value to Indian agriculture since 52% of it is rain fed. This product will have a direct impact in terms of protecting him/her from vagaries of weather and its consequent impact.” 

The insurance is customisable based on the crop season and crop type. The company tracks different parameters like high temperature, low temperature, high relative humidity, low relative humidity, high rainfall, low rainfall, high wind speed and more.

The company tracks different parameters like high

AgroPolicy, Trade

This would promote the creation of infrastructure and value addition for horticulture products

Commerce Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Dr Anup Wadhawan recently said that the Budget for 2021-22 extensively and comprehensively envisages several initiatives and areas of focus, aimed at enhancing India’s overall competitiveness and manufacturing capacities, which would enable growth, diversification and technological enhancement of India’s exports.

Briefing the media on the Budget 2021-22 initiatives, he said that one primary area of focus is the creation of a robust infrastructure, logistics and utilities environment for the manufacturing sector. 

He said that further steps like substantial investments in the development of modern fishing harbours and fish landing centres will be made in five major fishing harbours at Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Petuaghat, along with a multipurpose Seaweed Park in Tamil Nadu, are proposed.

Dr Wadhawan said that for the promotion of exports from the agriculture sector, the “Operation Green” scheme of Ministry of Food Processing Industry, which is presently limited to onion, potatoes and tomatoes, has been increased to 22 perishable items. This would promote creation of infrastructure and value addition for horticulture products. Also, the Budget allocation for the schemes such as Agriculture Export Policy (AEP) and Transport and Marketing Assistance (TMA) has been enhanced, which will help in the implementation of AEP in States and boost agriculture exports.

This would promote the creation of infrastructure

AgroPolicy

Cereals have a share of 48.61% in the total exports under the APEDA basket

The 1stProduct Committee meeting for Floriculture, Seeds and Cereals  was held on February 3, 2021 and was Chaired by Dr M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA.   The meeting was joined by the Dr Shatrughan Pandey, APEDA Authority Member, Chetan Singh, APEDA Authority Member, Dr CharuduttaDgambarroMayee, APEDA Authority Member and Senior Officers of APEDA.

The Committee deliberated on the issues related to export promotion of Cereal Products, Floriculture and Seeds and specifically on Non Basmati Rice and Millets, the Nutri Cereals.

Basmati rice exports grew by 5.31% to Rs 22,038 crore while the non-Basmati segment witnessed a spike in exports by 122.61% to Rs 22,856 crore. Wheat exports rose by 456% to Rs 1,870 crore, while exports of other cereals like millet and maize grew by 177% to Rs 3,067 crore. Cereals have a share of 48.61% in the total exports under the APEDA basket.  Overall exports of Cereal Products from the country continue to do well.

Considering the potential of increasing exports of Rice (Basmati Rice and Non Basmati Rice, Millets and Millet products Floriculture and Seed, APEDA is closely interacting with Trade and preparing a perspective Action Plan for increasing export of  Cereal Products, Floriculture and Seeds for a period five years i.e. 2021-2026 to enable all concerned stakeholders for taking necessary action in a time bound manner for achieving the target.

 

Cereals have a share of 48.61% in

Agrotech

Funding for the round was led by Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund.

Pairwise announced the closing of its $90 million Series B funding round, signaling a new frontier in healthy, sustainable food innovation. Funding for the round was led by Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund (Pontifax AgTech), a pioneering growth capital investor in food and agriculture technology, and an existing investor Deerfield Management Company (Deerfield), an investment firm dedicated to advancing healthcare through investment, information and philanthropy. Also joining the Series B round are new investor Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, and existing investor Leaps by Bayer, which invests in paradigm-shifting advances in the life sciences sector, including agriculture and health.

Through the company’s unique use of CRISPR technology, Pairwise will help build a healthier world by introducing better fruits and vegetables with improved taste, enhanced convenience, increased shelf life, improved yield, simplified harvesting, or lengthened season availability.

As a leading mission-driven food tech company, Pairwise is using its cutting-edge technology to break down barriers to increase the consumption of fresh produce. To address challenges with inconsistent flavor, seeds, shelf life, year-round availability, and snackability, Pairwise will bring to the produce aisle new varieties of nutritious fruits and vegetables that consumers will love to eat, and will help to minimize waste. Pairwise believes the use of technology offers a transformative opportunity to open a new horizon for the $66 billion US retail produce market, and is currently developing new types of leafy greens, berries, and cherries. Its first product is expected in 2022. 

 

Funding for the round was led by

R&D

This research has implications for designing entirely new plants that are optimised for specific functions.

A multi-investigator effort led by scientists from the Salk Institute has recently reported new findings about the plantā€™s genome that explain how itā€™s able to grow so fast. The research, published in the February 2021 issue of Genome Research, will help scientists to understand how plants make trade-offs between growth and other functions, such as putting down roots and defending themselves from pests. This research has implications for designing entirely new plants that are optimized for specific functions, such as increased carbon storage to help address climate change.

“A lot of advancement in science has been made thanks to organisms that are really simple, like yeast, bacteria and worms,” says Todd Michael, first author of the paper and a research professor in Salkā€™s Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory. “The idea here is that we can use an absolutely minimal plant like Wolffia to understand the fundamental workings of what makes a plant a plant.”

Wolffia, also known as duckweed, is the fastest-growing plant known and is found growing in fresh water on every continent except Antarctica, looks like tiny floating green seeds, with each plant only the size of a pinhead. It has no roots and only a single fused stem-leaf structure called a frond. It reproduces similar to yeast, when a daughter plant buds off from the mother.

To understand what adaptations in Wolffiaā€™s genome account for its rapid growth, the researchers grew the plants under light/dark cycles, then analyzed them to determine which genes were active at different times of the day.

The researchers also found that genes associated with other important elements of behavior in plants, such as defense mechanisms and root growth, are not present. “This plant has shed most of the genes that it doesnā€™t need,” Michael adds.

This research has implications for designing entirely

Agrotech, Trade

It aimed at giving accessibility to farmers and farmer producer groups for better price realisation for their produce.Ā 

With the approaching harvest season of the golden spice, turmeric, Spices Board conducted a virtual Buyer Seller Meet (BSM) to strengthen market linkages and promoting exports. A total of 122 participants were part of this interactive event. The BSM aimed at giving accessibility to farmers and farmer producer groups for better price realisation for their produce.

The immunity boosting properties of turmeric have played a key role in boosting the demand of the spice during the COVID 19 pandemic situation, which in turn contributed to a significant growth of 42 per cent in quantity (99,000 MT) and 35 per cent in value. Rs. 85,810 lakhs of turmeric exports has beeb recorded during the first half of the current financial year (April-September 2020).

Inaugurating the BSM, Arvind Dharmapuri, MP Nizamabad, observed that the region is known for cultivation of turmeric and there is scope for enhancing exports from the region by focusing on processing and value addition in the crop as the spice is known for its health properties.

Turmeric is mainly grown in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala,Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal and the North Eastern states. Telangana is the largest producer of the spice in the country in which four districts viz. Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Adilabad account for around 90 per cent of the production of turmeric in the State.

Apart from giving extension support, conducting activities for post-harvest improvement and export promotion, and bringing together stakeholders on synergistic platforms, Spices Board has constituted a Turmeric Task Force Committee (TTFC) to augment collaborative efforts by various stakeholders for effectively tapping the full commercial prospects of Turmeric. The Committee has conducted three meetings so far and has addressed issues on purity of seed material, post-harvest practices and so on for assuring clean and quality spices from the region.

 

 

It aimed at giving accessibility to farmers

Agro Universities, Agrotech, Oilseeds

Field workshop focuses on ā€œTechno-management options to control Orobanche in mustard-a pilot studyā€.

A field workshop on ā€™Techno-management options to control Orobanche in mustard-a pilot studyā€™ was jointly organized by Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT), Gurugram, Haryana and the ICAR-Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research (ICAR-DRMR), Bharatpur at village Gurda Nandi in the Bharatpur district.

The workshop was held at the project site and attended by the Scientists from IPFT, Gurugram and the ICAR-DRMR, Bharatpur as well as by the 50 mustard growing farmers whose crop is affected by Orobanche.

Orobanche a serious hidden parasitic weed in mustard cause severe yield loss to the extent of up to 50 pe cent  and there is no absolute control measures developed so far, said Dr. P.K. Rai, Director, ICAR-DRMR, Bharatpur. He explained the mechanism of parasitism of Orobanche in mustard, its chemistry of attachment and bio-physical behaviour. The work initiated on innovative herbicide formulation and field testing showed good insights about the Orobanche management and will come out with fruitful results in the coming years, said Dr. Jitendra Kumar, Director, IPFT, Gurugram. He apprised that a joint project is launched by the Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT), Gurugram, Haryana and the ICAR-Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research, Bharatpur under the able guidance of Sh. Kashi Nath Jha, Joint Secretary, Dept. of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, New Delhi.

On this occasion a technical bulletin and a leaflet on Orobanche management was released. In the scientist-farmer interaction, famers expressed their misery due to menace caused by Orobanche in the mustard which is a main cash crop in this region and asked for any immediate control measure.

Field workshop focuses on ā€œTechno-management options to

Agro chems ā€“ Fertilizers, Finance

Farm connect initiatives, increased operational efficiencies, smart sourcing and better working capital management contributes in growthĀ 

 Agribusiness major Coromandel International has posted a consolidated net profit of ā‚¹334 crore for the quarter ended December, which is an increase of 26% compared to the ā‚¹265 crore of the year-earlier period.

Total income at ā‚¹3,542 crore (ā‚¹3,288 crore) was higher by over 7 per cent. Managing Director Sameer Goel said continuous emphasis on superior products, farm connect initiatives, increased operational efficiencies, smart sourcing and better working capital management helped the company register a strong performance in the third quarter. Fertilizer business registered a volume growth of 8%. Excessive rainfall in some of the geographies in which the company operates led to the postponement of Rabi sowing and skipping of few applications.

“We plan to take annual turnaround of our major plants during the upcoming quarter and fast track the capital projects. With the forecast of a normal monsoon and the roll out of COVID vaccination programme in the coming months, we expect economic activities to normalise in FY-2022,” he said in a statement.

The company is setting up a large evaporator plant, to improve the availability of concentrated phosphoric acid, and a pilot liquid fertilizer plant in Visakhapatnam. It had recommissioned the sulphuric acid plant Ranipet, the release said.

Farm connect initiatives, increased operational efficiencies, smart

Agrotech, Korea, Trade

A virtual 1:1 business matchmaking event connecting Indian agri-food exporters to Korean importers with Data-Driven SolutionsĀ 

Delhi-based NODA Labs, together with the Korea Importers Association (KOIMA), will host its first ā€™SilkOne Interact from February 22-26, 2021ā€™ to connect the Indian agri-food exporters and prospective importers from Korea. SilkOne Interact is an online 1:1 business matchmaking event that connects Indian agri-food exporters and Korean importers via online videoconference. 

NODA Labs is a trade data analytics company that operates “KFoodBuyers” (www.kfoodbuyers.com), an online B2B (Business-to-Business) business service platform that provides actionable market intelligence on the Korean agri-food market and direct sales engagement services to enable international suppliers to transact directly with the Korean agri-food importers. With KFoodBuyers’ most up-to-date business intelligence of more than 54,000 active Korean agri-food importers, SilkOne Interact will be the most efficient and fastest way for Indian exporters to expand their market in Korea during this challenging COVID-19 era. 

SilkOne Interact will arrange a 1:1 online business meeting between qualified participating Indian exporters and Korean importers vetted by KOIMA, which is equipped with a professional English-Korean interpretation service. As an additional perk, NODA Labs will provide participating Indian exporters complimentary one-year access to “KFoodBuyers,” a great tool for participants to conduct research on the Korean agri-food market. 

Participating Indian exporters will be able to connect to the Korean agri-food market, the 4th largest agri-food import-dependent market that has imported 21 billion USD worth of products from overseas in 2019. Korean market would be the new market with great business opportunities for Indian exporters. NODA Labs expects that SilkOne Interact will be the meaningful first step for Indian exporters to reach Korean market during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

A virtual 1:1 business matchmaking event connecting

Dairy, Start ups

The new feeding system allows farmers and feed lot operators to identify diet deficiencies.

Boveta Nutrition is a startup thatā€™s created an innovative feed formulation for dairy farmers and beef producers that improves feed efficiency and increases milk and beef production while reducing wet waste and methane gas emissions. The company estimates its model can improve income over feed costs by 8-12 per cent. 

In addition, by implementing the Boveta Nutrition diet and reducing fibrous feed, methane can be reduced by as much as 10-40 per cent. 

The patent-pending algorithm from Boveta Nutrition is based on 30 years of research. The new feeding system allows farmers and feed lot operators to identify diet deficiencies and create a better-formulated diet, utilizing targeted proteins that meet the energy and amino acid requirements of cattle. For dairy farmers, the formulation can deliver up to a 10 per cent net gain in daily production.

Boveta Nutritionā€™s feed formulation ensures nutrients are being delivered more precisely so animals consume less feed yet maintain, or even increase, their gain. With a reduction in feed intake, less manure and methane gas are produced. In addition, once the diet has been optimized, fibrous feed can be reduced or potentially eliminated, resulting in an even greater reduction of waste and methane.

 

The new feeding system allows farmers and