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Agro chems – Fertilizers, E-commerce, Middle East countries

The agreed selling price in the contract is $280 per ton CIFFO Indian ports 

Israel-based ICL, a leading global specialty minerals and specialty chemicals company, has announced that it has signed a contract with Indian Potash Limited (IPL), India’s largest importer of potash, to supply an aggregate 600,000 metric tons of potash – with mutual options for an additional 50,000 metric tons – to be supplied through December 2021. The agreed selling price in the contract is $280 per ton CIFFO Indian ports, $50 per tonne above the previous contract. The contract is part of the five-year supply agreement signed in 2018 between ICL and IPL. 

“The contract we have signed in India, one of ICL’s strategic markets, is part of the five-year supply agreement we signed in 2018 with IPL. This contract further testifies to the leading position ICL has in this market and reflects the growing positive momentum in the fertiliser market globally. Favourable weather conditions, an increase in planted areas, and tight supply are contributing to solid global demand for potash,” said ICL’s EVP Chief Commercial Officer, Eli Amon.

The agreed selling price in the contract

Agro Universities, R&D, Water

Around 14 country experts from 7 member states of SAARC namely – India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan participated in the meeting 

A Virtual Regional Consultation Meeting on ’Advanced Water Management Options for Sustainable Crop Production in South Asia’ was organised by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Agriculture Council (SAC), Dhaka from April 5 to 6, 2021. The ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar, Odisha acted as the Technical Partner of the Meeting.

The Special Guest of the inaugural session, Dr Suresh Kumar Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), ICAR emphasized the need to strengthen the research efforts on canal automation, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater, crop diversification in water-scarce areas, IoT based micro-irrigation system and evolving techniques to reduce the greenhouse gas emission and water and energy footprints.

Earlier, Dr . Md. Baktear Hossian, Director, SAC and Dr Sreekanth Attaluri, Senior Programme Specialist (Crops) & Coordinator, SAC delivered the welcome addresses. The ICAR nominated Dr A. Mishra, Director, ICAR-IIWM and Dr P.S. Brahmanand, Principal Scientist, ICAR-IIWM as Experts to represent India in the meeting.

Around 14 Country Experts from 7 Member States of SAARC namely – India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan participated in the meeting.

Around 14 country experts from 7 member

E-commerce, Finance, Start ups

The partnership aims to target 25 million farmers through its products 

The Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited has joined hands with Gramcover, a rural insurtech startup to collectively enhance rural insurance penetration. By utilising the expertise of Gramcover in the rural insurtech space, this partnership aims to target 25 million farmers across the aspirational districts.

 AICIL and Gramcover will work together on market research to identify and develop need-based rural insurance products to protect the livelihood of the farmers against all insurable risks, thereby extending comprehensive insurance coverage in rural parts of India.

Under this MoU, Gramcover will work on Market research and identification of widely grown crops and need-based rural insurance products. It will also work on the feasibility report to assess the suitability, requirement, and affordability of insurance products in each aspirational district. Gramcover will explore marketing and distribution channels in each aspirational district and Integration of the underwriting process and claim settlement protocols i.e. from Market requirements to Issuance of Policies to Claim Settlement.

With Gramcover, Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited will work on the Development of need-based rural insurance products and streamline the underwriting process and channel Partner App. It will integrate the underwriting process and claim settlement protocols from Market requirements to the issuance of policies to claim settlement. AICIL will also improve the claim payment turnaround time and develop underwriting and claim settlement protocols to ensure adequate capture of risk, ease of sale and quick settlement of claims.

 On the partnership, Jatin Singh, MD and Founder of Gramcover said, “There is a need to vastly expand rural insurance as there is minimal coverage in rural India. The insurance products of rural India lack diversity and therefore the number of people covered under these products gets reduced. This is the final frontier of financial inclusion and we think through our effort, due to Gramcover’s reach and AICs catchment, we will reach 25 million farmers.”

 Dhyanesh Bhatt, Co-founder and CEO of Gramcover stated, “We should be able to create significant impact in the coming years as we bring various rural relevant product like Parametric insurance, price insurance, livestock insurance etc to the rural customer at scale in a sustainable manner, thus increasing their financial resilience.”

 

 

 

 

The partnership aims to target 25 million

Agrotech, Seeds

The program enables hemp farmers to have access to affordable, high-cannabidiol (CBD) hemp genetics without the upfront cost of purchasing seeds prior to planting,

EcoGen Biosciences, a  leading vertically integrated manufacturer and supplier of hemp-derived specialty ingredients, proprietary formulations, and private-label finished products in the United States, today introduced the EcoGen “Plant Now, Pay Later” program. The Plant Now, Pay Later program enables hemp farmers to have access to affordable, high-cannabidiol (CBD) hemp genetics without the upfront cost of purchasing seeds prior to planting, which mitigates many of the risks farmers’ face, such as depleting their capital upfront.

The program gives them the latitude to invest more into their farming operations pre-harvest. Through the program, hemp farmers are offered competitively scaled rates on EcoGen’s exclusive hemp genetics.

Participating clients have the option to:

  • Purchase seeds at a discounted price if paid for upfront.
  • Purchase seeds at a standardized price if paid by the end of December 2021 (after harvest).
  • Pay back the purchase price of seeds in qualified biomass after harvest.
  • The Plant Now, Pay Later program provides hemp farmers with the opportunity to focus financial resources on growing and processing without the financial burden often required to acquire seeds for hemp cultivation.

Garrett Bain, President of EcoGen and Chief Commercial Officer of Kadenwood, LLC. said, “As a fully integrated hemp company, with operations in genetics, cultivation, extraction, refinement, and finished goods, EcoGen has a unique opportunity to mitigate risks for fellow hemp industry members. We understand and appreciate that farmers rely on our specialized genetics in order to successfully grow first-rate, sellable crops. We believe in our genetics so much so that we are willing to take the risk on the front end, let our farmers grow with our seeds and either pay after harvest or provide the biomass as payment for the cost of the seeds”.

The program enables hemp farmers to have

AgroPolicy, Agrotech

It aims to increase the income of farmers, employment generation and increase in honey exports 

For marketing support to the honey FPOs, NAFED has developed 14-15 Honey Corners, one each in 5 NAFED Bazaar at Ashram, New Moti Bagh and East of Kailash, Panchkula and Mussoorie in their Bazaar/Retail Stores. More Honey Corners will be developed by NAFED in most of the upcoming major 200 NAFED Stores to promote market support for honey and other beehive products. Online marketing options will be explored to provide a platform for marketing and promotion of Honey supplied by the FPOs.

 Keeping in view the importance of beekeeping, a new Central Sector Scheme entitled National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM) was approved by Government of India for Rs. 500.00 crores allotted under Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Announcement for overall promotion and development of scientific beekeeping & to achieve the goal of “Sweet Revolution”. NBHM is implemented through National Bee Board (NBB). The scheme has three Mini Missions (MM-I, II & III) under which main thrust is given on awareness, capacity building/trainings, focus on women empowerment through beekeeping, setting up of requisite infrastructural facilities, viz.; Integrated Beekeeping Development Centres (IBDCs), Honeybees Disease Diagnostic Labs, Setting up of/upgradation of Honey Testing labs, Beekeeping Equipment Manufacturing Units, Custom Hiring Centres, Api therapy Centres, Development of Quality Nucleus Stock Centres & Bee Breeders, etc., Digitization/online  registration, etc. under MM-I, processing, value addition, market support, etc. under MM-II and R&D under MM-III.

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has been making efforts to address issues relating to quality of honey through setting up of quality testing labs and online registration/ developing traceability system for source of Honey & other beehive products under NBHM.

It aims to increase the income of

IT, Start ups

 uStores allow farmers to get an Unnati account created, enable them to access high quality, branded Agri inputs 

Unnati, a fintech-driven agriculture ecosystem, has expanded to more than 11000 uStores to enable farmers to avail a completely digital experience for all their farming needs.

The uStore network of more than 11000 digitally enabled retail points is one of the largest networks of its kind in India that, together, have a reach of more than 4 Mn farmers across the key crop areas of Sugarcane, Maize, Paddy, Wheat, Cotton, Mustard and Pulses in the states of UP, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, MP and Maharashtra. Unnati is partnering with the local small and micro business owners to digitize their business and providing them with tools to better serve the needs of the farmers.

uStore business partners use the platform to engage with farmers, provide them GST invoices, avail and offer credit facilities to their farmer network, manage inventory, purchase and expenses of the store, GST filing etc. uStores also get access to the brand relationships and engagement that Unnati which helps them to engage with the farmers with more knowledge based services. Active uStore partners have seen increase of more than 25 per cent of business after associating with Unnati and increase stickiness of the farmer relationship with them.

Offering a wide array of benefits, the uStores allow farmers to get an Unnati account created, enable them to access farming knowledge and support, and high quality, branded Agri inputs at stable rates better than the market price. The stores also provide farmers the ability to sell farm output at good prices and have their bank accounts credited instantly.

Farmers can even purchase Unnati’s recently launched cards from the uStores and begin tracking and engaging their farming requirements. With complete transparency and end-to-end, real-time updates for all transactions, the uStores make for a seamless online Agri input buying and produce selling experience for farmers.

Having already impacted the lives of more than 2.75 lakh farmers through the stores, Unnati will be investing USD 10 million over the next 1 year to expand its network and educate and train staff on the completely branded stores. Currently present in 4 states, the up-and-coming platform aims to launch 1 lakh uStores across the country, scale its operations to all major states, and touch the lives of 1 million farmers through its tech-led Agri services by the end of the year.

 

 

 uStores allow farmers to get an Unnati

Animal Health, Live Stock, R&D

The two Vaccines are the first to be developed indigenously in the country

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh transferred the Technology – CSF & Sheep Pox Vaccines to M/s Hester Biosciences through Agrinnovate India Limited in a ceremony.

In his address, Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) congratulated the team, ICAR-IVRI for moving in the direction of providing the country with two important Vaccines at a cheaper price and longer immunity. Dr. Mohapatra applauded the Agrinnovate India for commercializing around 150 technologies during 2021 and fetching a gross realization of over Rs. 4 Crores. He emphasized that due to the cheaper prices of the Vaccines, a greater return can be achieved with lesser investment which will enable production enhancement in animals. He also urged for looking out the ways for supplying the indigenous vaccines to other countries as well. 

Dr. Bhupendra Nath Tripathi, Deputy Director General (Animal Science), ICAR regarded the Vaccines to be a great problem-solver for the farmers or people involved in animal husbandry practices

Rajeev Gandhi, C.E.O., M/s Hester Biosciences regarded the transfer of technologies as a historical event. He emphasized that the two Vaccines are the first indigenous Vaccines to be developed in the country. He stressed that the Vaccines will be a game-changer for the Swine-rearing people.

The Classical Swine Fever (CSF) is an important disease of pigs that causes 100 per cent mortality. In India, the disease is controlled by a lapinized CSF vaccine (Weybridge Strain, U.K.) produced by killing large numbers of rabbits. To avoid this, the ICAR-IVRI earlier developed a Cell Culture CSF Vaccine using the Lapinized Vaccine Virus from foreign strain.

The Indigenous CSF Cell Culture Vaccine (IVRI-CSF-BS) developed by using an Indian field isolates has a huge export potential. Costing around less than Rs 2/- per dose as against Rs. 15 to Rs. 25/- of Lapinized CSF Vaccine, the high titre vaccine would be the most economical CSF Cell Culture Vaccine. The vaccine has been extensively tested for safety and potency. The vaccine has been found to induce protective immunity from day 14 of the Vaccination till 18 Months.

Indigenous Live Attenuated Sheep Pox Vaccine

Sheep pox is a severe viral disease in sheep which is economically important in small ruminants. A live attenuated Sheep Pox Vaccine using indigenous strain was developed by the Institute for preventive vaccination in the sheep population.

The developed Vaccine uses indigenous Sheep Pox Virus Strain [SPPV Srin 38/00] and is adapted to grow in the Vero cell line which makes the Vaccine production to be easily scalable. The Vaccine is innocuous, safe, potent, and immunogenic [efficacious] for sheep aged more than six months of age. It has been evaluated both in-house and field. It protects the Vaccinated animals for a period of 40 months.

The two Vaccines are the first to

AgroPolicy, IT

The portal enables consumers to know the source of honey and assure quality of the products

 Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar launched “Madhukranti’ and Honey Corners of NAFED today in New Delhi. ‘Madhukranti is an initiative of National Bee Board (NBB), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM). This portal is being developed for online registration to achieve traceability source of Honey and other beehive products on a digital platform. The technical and banking partner for development of this digital platform is Indian Bank. A MoU between NBB and Indian Bank was signed for this project.

Addressing the launching ceremony Tomar said Honey Mission will lead to increase in income of farmers, employment generation and increase in exports. Sweet Revolution should spread all over the country and Indian honey should meet global standards, he added.

Necessary functionalities are being developed on the Portal to create a database of all stakeholders involved in Honey and other hive products’ production, sales and marketing chain. On-line Registration of beekeepers is being launched today in first phase, followed by registration of other stake-holders in Honey Trade. All sales transactions in Honey trading in country shall be captured through a mobile app in second phase to achieve desired results in the area of Honey source traceability.

Online registration/ traceability system for source of Honey & other beehive products will help in checking the quality & source of adulteration of honey. The system will also enable consumers/public to know the source of honey and assure quality of the products.

 

The portal enables consumers to know the

AgroPolicy, Animal Health, Live Stock, R&D

It will identify potential medicinal plant species used in veterinary medicine and provide their standards, training and awareness program on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) 

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of AYUSH and Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), today for research on new formulations in quality drugs for veterinary science through medicinal herbs. The initiative involves capacity building in related areas through training, exploring marketing possibilities for herbal veterinary medicines on a sustainable basis and providing for services including cultivation, preservation and conservation of medicinal plants.

The MoU was signed by Dr J.L.N. Sastry, Chief Executive Officer, National Medicinal Plants Board, Ministry of AYUSH and Upamanyu Basu, Joint Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying in presence of Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH and Shri Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying.

The Ministry of AYUSH will support Department of Animal Husbandry for  developing curriculum and courses for AYUSH herbal veterinary education programs, identifying potential medicinal plant species used in veterinary medicine and provide their standards, training and awareness program on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Good Field Collection Practices (GFCPs) etc., development of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) for manufacturing of AYUSH/herbal veterinary medicines, skill development and capacity building, facilitate and render financial assistance for plantations and nursery development for medicinal plants, facilitate standardizing norms for medicinal plants, assist establishing research and testing centers as per scope of the Scheme.

The Department of Animal Husbandry will support Ministry of AYUSH for its expert technical opinion for essentiality, desirability and feasibility with respect to Ayurvedic medicines.  The Department will  create awareness with support of NDDB among dairy farmers and agro-farmers about utilization and importance of herbal veterinary medicine and cultivation of medicinal herbs, develop course curriculum for Ayurveda and its allied subjects in veterinary medicine, identify list of priority livestock and poultry diseases of economic importance with respect to research activity or application of veterinary Ayurveda and allied streams, support farmers for undertaking cultivation and conservation of medicinal plants and related activities, support identify opportunities for scientific and technological collaboration to research institute (Veterinary Colleges and ICAR research institutes).

 

It will identify potential medicinal plant species

Agro Universities, R&D, Seeds

PAU’s Bt 1 is the first Bt cotton variety of India developed in public sector with inbuilt resistance against bollworms

The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) entered into agreement with Sri Ganganagar based seed company, IFSA Seeds (P) LTD for the commercialisation of Bt cotton variety PAU Bt 1. The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed by Dr Navtej Singh Bains, Director of Research, PAU and Sukhwinder Bishnoi of IFSA Seeds (P) LTD. 

Dr KS Thind, former Additional Director of Research (Crop Improvement), said PAU Bt 1 is the first Bt cotton variety of India developed in public sector with inbuilt resistance against bollworms.

Highlighting the salient characteristics of the variety PAU Bt 1, Dr Paramjit Singh, Director-cum-Principal Cotton Breeder, PAU Regional Research Station, Bathinda said its average seed cotton yield is 2,812 kg/ha. It has bigger boll size of 4.3 g and ginning out turn is 41.4 per cent. It exhibited superior fibre properties with 28.2 mm 2.5 per cent span length, 28.6 g/tex bundle strength and 4.5 µg/inch micronaire value. 

Dr Pankaj Rathore, Director-cum-Principal Cotton Breeder, PAU Regional Research Station, Faridkot and Dr Dharminder Pathak, Principal Plant Breeder, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, were also present on the occasion.

PAU’s Bt 1 is the first Bt

Agro chems – Pesticides, R&D

This collaboration aims to provide farmers with new solutions to combat invasive pests and evolving resistance challenges.

 Corteva Agriscience, a leading pure-play agriculture company, and Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. the organism company, announced that they have entered into a multi-year agreement to apply the power of synthetic biology to design innovative crop protection technologies. This collaboration combines Corteva’s deep knowledge of natural product discovery and agricultural expertise with Ginkgo’s extensive cell engineering platform and DNA codebase to explore the next generation of naturally-inspired sustainable solutions. Ultimately, this collaboration aims to provide farmers with new solutions to combat invasive pests and evolving resistance challenges. 

 Novel natural products and their inspired analogs have tremendous potential to provide sustainable options for farmers to protect crop yield. By working with Ginkgo, Corteva will accelerate the discovery and optimization of complex natural products through synthetic biology.

 “Sustainable food and agriculture systems are critical to the growing population,” said Sam Eathington, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Corteva Agriscience. “As leaders in natural product development, we are committed to solving the challenges facing farmers sustainably through innovation. We are excited to collaborate with Ginkgo Bioworks to discover, optimize and scale groundbreaking, naturally-inspired crop protection solutions.” 

Companies across numerous industries use Ginkgo’s cell programming platform to find better, more sustainable ways to create products, including food ingredients, fragrances, cosmetics, medicines, and more. By enabling the design of organisms that can produce valuable biological products, Ginkgo helps accelerate the development of innovative, bio-based solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. 

“At Ginkgo, we fundamentally believe that biology is the best technology on the planet because it can move more rapidly and efficiently than traditional approaches with less impact on the environment,” said Jason Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. 

This collaboration aims to provide farmers with

Agro chems – Chemicals, AgroPolicy

The demand for chemicals is expected to expand by 9 per cent per annum by 2025. 

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers D.V. Sadananda Gowda virtually addressed the National Dialogue on Manufacturing Excellence and Innovation for Competitiveness and Sustainability of Chemicals Manufacturing in New Delhi, recently. Secretary, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Yogendra Tripathi; Additional Secretary (Chemicals), Samir Kumar Biswas; Director General, Indian Chemical Council,  H. S. Karangle; CMD, HIL India Ltd, Dr S.P. Mohanty; Regional Representative of UNIDO in India, Dr. Rene Van Berkel and senior officials of the Ministry were present on the occasion.

 Speaking on the occasion, Gowda said that the Chemicals and Petrochemicals sector will play an important role in achieving the goal of 5 trillion-dollar economy. The Minister informed that the Indian chemicals industry stood at 178 billion dollar in 2019 and is expected to reach 304 billion dollar by 2025 and the demand for chemicals is expected to expand by 9 per cent per annum by 2025. Achieving the industry’s ambitious growth targets will require a combination of policy intervention, company-level initiatives, industry-academic partnerships, wise investments, and greater international access, he added. The minister hoped that United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) will support domestic industry with international best practices and policy and technical assistance. 

The minister informed that in our country, the chemical industry occupies a pivotal position in meeting basic needs and improving quality of life as well. The chemical sector, which is knowledge- and capital-intensive, is the mainstay of industrial and agricultural development, and provides building blocks for downstream industries such as textiles, papers, paints, soaps, detergents, and pharmaceuticals, among others. The fertiliser and agrochemical industries ensure food security, and are thus vital to India’s developing and agrarian economy. Likewise, the synthetic fiber industry is crucial to providing affordable clothing, and the pharmaceutical industry gives the country’s vast population access to low-cost drugs, he added. 

The minister said that today, our domestic industry and investors are feeling much more confident and optimistic in spite of an uncertain global situation and pandemic like COVID-19.  He urged that Indian companies and chemical industries should take advantage of this opportunity and bring about structural changes in the chemical industry. The minister expressed his confidence in Indian scientists, policy makers, farmers, MSMEs and entrepreneurs and industry leaders for making India the manufacturing hub, ensuring that the country manufactures products which are ‘Made in India’ but are ‘Made for the World’.

 

The demand for chemicals is expected to

Agro chems – Fertilizers, Finance, Schemes - Govt

It will also assist HURL to complete its project in time and will increase the indigenous production of Urea.

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers D. V. Sadananda Gowda has handed over the cheque of Rs. 813.24 crores out of total amount of Rs. 1257.82 crore to MD, HURL in respect of Interest Free Loan to Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Ltd (HURL) for the revival of Gorakhpur, Sindri & Barauni projects. HURL operates environment-friendly and energy-efficient Natural Gas based new Fertiliser Complexes, spurring economic growth in eastern India. 

Speaking on the occasion the Minister emphasized that the release of Interest Free Loan to HURL will further strengthen its financial condition during COVID-19. It will also assist HURL to complete its project in time i.e. 2021 and boost the “AATMA NIRBHAR BHARAT” campaign of Government of India by increasing the indigenous production of Urea. The operationalization of above three plants, will reduce the import dependency on urea by 38.1 LMT per annum and it will save huge forex to the Exchequer. The capacity of each plant would be 12.7 LMT per annum. The Minister also informed that HURL projects will create huge opportunities of direct and indirect employment.

The Gorakhpur, Barurani & Sindri projects have achieved 89 per cent, 85.1 per cent and 86.1 per cent progress as on 28.02.2021. Once these projects are commissioned, it would increase our domestic capacity, and further self-reliance in urea production.

Government had approved Interest Free Loan (IFL) of Rs.1257.82 crore to Hindustan Urvarak and Rasayan Limited (HURL) projects situated at Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) Sindri (Jharkhand) and Barauni (Bihar) on 01.08.2018. Accordingly, a Loan Agreement was executed between Department of Fertilizers and HURL on 08.09.2020. As per approval, the total amount of the IFL is to be disbursed for 3 years of IDC

 

 

It will also assist HURL to complete

Agro Universities, R&D

The Award carries a citation and £ 1250 GBP Award money. 

For his outstanding contribution in the Jute Pest Management, Dr. B.S. Gotyal, Senior Scientist, ICAR-Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres, Barrackpore, Kolkata has been bestowed with the prestigious ’Early Career Entomologist Award’ from the Royal Entomological Society, London, United Kingdom. The Award carries a Citation and £ 1250 GBP Award money.

ICAR-CRIJAF’s Scientist Bags International Award from Royal Entomological Society, U.K.A M.Sc. and Ph.D. Degree holder from Division of Entomology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, Dr. Gotyal has been engaged in Host Plant Resistance (HPR) in Jute since the last 12 years.

Dr Gotyal has extensively worked and contributed significantly by successfully identifying the sources and mechanism of resistance against Jute Hairy Caterpillar in the Wild Species of Jute Corchorus aestuans. The identification of Jute Germplasm as a resistant source truly unfolds the practical utility of wild accession of C. aestuans (WCIN 179) in developing resistant varieties due to its cross-ability with cultivated Jute varieties.

He has also developed an Android-based Mobile App “JAF-Safe” for easy and quick dissemination of scientific information on Jute and Allied Fibres insect pests. The App is useful for Jute growers, students, extension workers, teachers and other stakeholders.

The Award carries a citation and £