Connect with:
Monday / December 23. 2024

logo
mobile-logo
Home2021May (Page 5)
Agrotech, Start ups

Affordable precision farming technologies will play a pivotal role in building sustainability in agriculture. Farmers can reap the benefits of actionable insights from rich data on weather, nutrients, moisture, and crop health.

   We are living through an inflexion point in India’s agricultural technology (agritech) sector. From less than 50 companies in 2013, India is now home to more than 1,000 agritech startups working to transform the sector. This is also reflected in the investment landscape, where capital inflows into the sector between 2010 and 2019 stood at $1.9 billion, of which $1.7 billion came between 2014 and 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has actually accelerated the adoption of agritech by Indian farmers and agribusiness intermediaries, shifting them from informal markets to the digital ecosystem. When traditional markets fell apart during the lockdowns, farmers, traders, and rural retailers turned to agritech startups for solutions. Not only did they receive critical support, but they also experienced a better way of doing business in the long term. It is certainly an exciting time to be in this dynamic sector, as it holds tremendous opportunities in the coming years.

Ten years ago, the sector was little more than a twinkle in the sky. Investing in agritech was considered lunacy. Then, in 2015, the business-to-consumer (B2C) startup sector glutted itself with funding and competing business models. Investors refocused on business-to-business (B2B) opportunities, especially those related to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and agritech came under the scanner. Initially, most of the VC investments in agritech were focused on farm-to-consumer brands, B2B Agri marketplaces, and rural fintech for farmers.

In the last few years, rapid advancement in underlying technologies like mobile internet and rural smartphone penetration has provided the digital backbone to scale both business-to-farmer (B2F) and business-to-business-to-farmer (B2B2F) models. An increasing number of farmers are now able to use digital platforms to improve their yields, lower their operating costs, and ensure their produce gets the right market value. These trends have helped catalyse a supportive agritech ecosystem with participation from accelerators, strategic corporates, and VCs at every stage.

In 2020, we explored what agritech will look like in a decade. Our report, ‘Future of Indian Agriculture & Food Systems: Vision 2030’ details our findings, their implications, likely scenarios, and a bold vision for the sector. Here, drawing from our detailed work, we have analysed emerging areas among agritech innovations and the factors supporting them.

A growing digital ecosystem

Smallholder farmers are critically important for the global food supply and India is home to 130 million of them. Increasingly, we are seeing startups focused on solving challenges faced by this segment, including farmer profitability, resilience, and sustainability.  B2B Agri marketplaces and farmer platforms are two clear areas where we can expect to see more growth and innovation in the next few years.

B2B Agri marketplaces existed alongside traditional systems in the pre-pandemic years. Then, as the lockdowns froze the latter, farmers, traders, and retailers adapted to the situation and switched to digital platforms from the safety of their homes. This was greatly aided by the advent of low-cost data solutions in the country boosting smartphone penetration in rural India. In the coming years, we will see more digital marketplaces across various agricultural sub-sectors including khet-to-kirana, agri-inputs, and even the sale of livestock.

Startups working on full-stack farmer platforms are bringing together agronomy services, input supply, fintech solutions, and market linkages under the same umbrella. This is helping develop multidimensional engagement with farmers, which in turn creates rich data to improve the predictive powers of machine learning models.

Government-supported interventions    

Governmental support in this behemoth sector plays an important role to usher in capital. This year, the Union Budget 2021 steered our attention to the white spaces in Indian agriculture that require interventions. The government announced increased credit flows to animal husbandry, dairy, and fisheries, including building modern fishing harbors and fish landing centers. While the budget highlighted only three sub-sectors of agriculture, it underlined the importance of looking beyond horticulture and cereals.

Consolidation of fragmented landholdings has been a challenging area for the government. However, it is what the future holds for achieving economies of scale for smallholders. Between 2010 and 2020, India built its foundational digital identity via the India Stack. The next ten years will focus on building upon that to create a robust AgriStack with a multi-layered agricultural information system. This will be one of the most impactful interventions in the future that will catalyse the overall efficacy of other innovations in agriculture. 

Consumer-driven trends

The pandemic has sharply driven up the consumer demand for traceable and nutritious produce. This has led to an increase in demand for ‘farm-to-consumer’ (F2C) brands that can assure quality and provide legitimate traceability back to the source. Lockdowns have proven to be a strong catalyst as more people are shifting to online ordering. This has created ample scope for F2C brands to disrupt traditional distribution channels.

Managing the impact of climate change

Agriculture is one of the main perpetrators of climate change and also deeply suffers from its ill effects. Degradation of soil fertility, depleting water tables, increased risk of pests, and pathogens from monocropping, are only a few of the dire challenges farmers are grappling with. However, we are witnessing a steady rise of startups with sustainability at the core of their business.

Affordable precision farming technologies will play a pivotal role in building sustainability in agriculture. Farmers can reap the benefits of actionable insights from rich data on weather, nutrients, moisture, and crop health. This will take the guesswork out of farming and ensure optimal use of resources, including the reduction of agrochemicals and water.

Farm automation for smallholder farmers, albeit a nascent area, for now, will grow steadily. Autonomous and semi-autonomous farm robotics will solve the problem of dwindling labour force, helping to lower the resource footprint for farmers and reduce the overall drudgery of farm work.

By 2025, India will need to produce an estimated 300 million tonnes of food to feed its population which would require a whopping 45 million tonnes of fertiliser! Fortunately, collective efforts by various stakeholders in climate change management are paving the way to create resilient, high yielding varieties of crops while significantly reducing input requirements.

Finally, as we are moving to a more animal protein-intensive future, the aim will be to do so with humaneness and environmental sustainability in mind. To achieve that we will be seeing more interventions in animal breeding, sustainable smart feed and care, and developments in alternative proteins.

Feeding 10 billion

The narrative of Indian farmers desiring a better life for their progeny away from agriculture, needs to be altered. For that to happen, agriculture must become a steady and profitable trade for India’s 130 million farmers and their families. Agritech entrepreneurs will be part of that solution, leveraging innovation, technology, and persistence to reinvent agriculture and food systems.

 

Affordable precision farming technologies will play a

R&D, Seeds

Inari’s novel predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing technology with Beck’s established corn research and breeding program will increase product testing capabilities 

Inari, the SEEDesign ™ Company, and Beck’s, the largest family-owned, retail seed company and the third largest seed brand in the United States, have announced a business and R&D collaboration – reinforcing their respective missions to provide more diverse, sustainable and competitive choices for farmers. The combination of Inari’s novel predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing technology with Beck’s established corn research and breeding program will increase product testing capabilities and expand both companies’ capacity for innovation.

Since its inception in 2016, Inari has made significant progress in delivering scientific breakthroughs through its SEEDesign™ platform. Much like the software and the hardware of a computer, this platform has a two-step approach. The software is its predictive design capabilities, which create a deep understanding of the plant genome, enabled through artificial intelligence and used to predict plant behavioural outcomes to improve performance. That software is then used to create a blueprint for the hardware – Inari’s powerful combination of gene editing tools developed to make the desired changes in the plant, unlocking unprecedented yield potential and product performance possibilities much faster than traditional breeding methods.

“Pushing the boundaries of what is possible and addressing the current and future challenges facing farmers requires innovation and collaboration,” said Ponsi Trivisvavet, chief executive officer at Inari. “We are committed to partnering with industry leaders like Beck’s in order to expand product development using our predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing technologies.”

“We are fully invested in continued research and development, and by partnering with Inari, we have a unique opportunity to be a part of their cutting-edge multiplexing platform,” said Scott Beck, president of Beck’s. “We see the benefits of gene editing and how important it is for farmers to have access to greater diversity in the products they rely on for their livelihood.”

Inari’s novel predictive design and advanced multiplex

Agrotech, Dairy

EESL will conceptualize, propose and design technically sound alternate energy generation solutions for dairy plants in the dairy cooperative sector across the country

With a view to promote efficient renewable technologies in the dairy industry, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) during a virtual ceremony at NDDB, Anand.  Meenesh Shah, Executive Director, NDDB and Venkatesh Dwivedi, Director, Projects, EESL signed the MoU in presence of Varsha Joshi, Joint Secretary (Dairy Development), Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Govt of India and Chairman, NDDB and Saurabh Kumar, Executive Vice Chairman, EESL.

Speaking on the occasion, Varsha Joshi conveyed that NDDB and EESL will work together to design and develop innovative business models (energy efficient solutions) for dairy cooperative institutions, which are transparent, scalable and flexible enough to seamlessly embrace different and emerging technologies in a manner that incentivises all the stakeholders. She stressed the need of propagating such technically sound and financially viable models meeting the need of electricity, steam and hot water in the dairy cooperative network.

 Saurabh Kumar suggested that the strong dairy cooperative network can economise operational costs by adopting energy efficient solutions.  Meenesh Shah said that NDDB and EESL will facilitate collaboration among various agencies for disposal of crop residues/agricultural waste and bio waste in an environment friendly, efficient and viable manner through adoption of non-conventional energy generation models.

EESL will conceptualise, propose and design technically sound alternate energy generation solutions for dairy plants in the dairy cooperative sector across the country. It will also arrange necessary technical and funding support for design, development and operation of the non-conventional energy generation models.

NDDB will extend its expertise in dairy business/dairy plant management/other such related activities to facilitate/support conceptualising, development and implementation of the alternate energy generation models. The Dairy Board will also assist in development, monitoring and evaluation of programmes leading to assessment of outcome/impact of projects.

 

EESL will conceptualize, propose and design technically

Packaging & Labelling, Trade, Transportation

The chikoos were sorted and graded from the APEDA assisted and registered packhouse facility at Kay Bee Agro International, Tapi (Gujarat) and exported by Kay Bee exports

In a major boost to exports of Geographical Indication (GI) certified products, a consignment of Dahanu Gholvad Sapota from the Palghar district of Maharashtra was shipped to the UK. GI certification of Ghovad Sapota is held by Maharashtra Rajya Chikoo Utpadak Sangh and the fruit is known for its sweet and unique taste. It is believed that the unique taste is derived from the calcium-rich soil of Gholvad village.

Currently, in the Palghar district, around 5000 hectares of land is under sapota or plantation. Out of 5000 farmers who grow Sapota, 147 farmers are authorised GI users.

The Dahanu Gholvad Sapota, sourced from the authorised GI users, were sorted and graded from the APEDA assisted and registered packhouse facility at Kay Bee Agro International, Tapi (Gujarat) and exported by Kay Bee exports.

At present, the demand in the importing countries are mainly from the ethnic population and Dr M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA said that export can increase many folds if the mainstream buyers are also targeted as Sapota can be grown throughout the year, unlike other fruits.

APEDA has been thrust on the promotion of exports of GI products. GI products with their uniqueness, intrinsic value and practically no competition from outsiders, offers good export potential.

Sapota is grown in many states- Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Karnataka is known to be the highest grower of the fruit, followed by Maharashtra. 

Earlier this month, a consignment of 2.5 metric tonnes of GI certified Banganapalli & Survarnarekha mangoes sourced from farmers in Krishna and Chittoor districts of Andhra Pradesh were exported to South Korea.

The mangoes were treated, cleaned and shipped from the APEDA supported packhouse and vapour heat treatment facilities at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh and exported by IFFCO Kisan SEZ (IKSEZ).

This was the first export consignment sent by IKSEZ, which is a subsidiary of IFFCO, a multi-state cooperative with a membership of 36,000 societies. There is a possibility of more exports of mangoes to South Korea this season. IFFCO Kisan SEZ has an agreement with Meejaim, South Korea for supplying 66 MTs of mango this season. Andhra Pradesh horticulture department also collaborated in this endeavour.

APEDA promotes exports of agricultural and processed food products by assisting the exporters under various components of its scheme such as infrastructure development, quality development and market development. In addition, APEDA also conducts international Buyer Seller Meets (BSM), Virtual trade fairs with importing countries to promote agricultural & processed food products.

Apart from this the Department of Commerce (DOC) also support exports through various schemes like Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES), Market Access Initiative (MAI) etc.

The chikoos were sorted and graded from

Agro chems – Fertilizers, AgroPolicy

Farmers to get subsidy of Rs 1200 per bag of DAP instead of Rs 500

Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on the issue of fertilizer prices. A detailed presentation was given to him on the issue of fertilizer prices. 

It was discussed that the price of fertilisers is undergoing an increase due to the rising prices of phosphoric acid, ammonia etc internationally. The PM stressed that farmers should get fertilisers at old rates despite the international rise in prices. 

A historic decision was taken to increase the subsidy for DAP fertiliser from Rs 500 per bag to Rs 1200 per bag, which is an increase of 140 per cent. Thus, despite the rise in international market prices of DAP, it has been decided to continue selling it at the older price of Rs 1200 and the central government has decided to bear all the burden of price hike. The amount of subsidy per bag has never been increased so much at once.

Last year, the actual price of DAP was Rs 1,700 per bag. In which the Central Government was giving a subsidy of Rs 500 per bag. So the companies were selling fertilizer to farmers for Rs 1200 per bag. 

Recently, the international prices of phosphoric acid, ammonia etc. used in DAP have gone up by 60 per cent to 70 per cent. So the actual price of a DAP bag is now Rs 2400, which could be sold by fertilizer companies at Rs 1900 after considering a subsidy of Rs 500. With today’s decision, farmers will continue to get a DAP bag for Rs 1200. 

The PM remarked that his Government is committed to the welfare of farmers and will make all efforts to ensure that farmers do not have to face the brunt of price-rise.

The Central Government spends about Rs 80,000 crore on subsidies for chemical fertilisers every year. With the increase in subsidy in DAP, the Government of India will spend an additional Rs 14,775 crore as subsidy in the Kharif season.

 This is the second major decision in the farmers’ interest, after directly transferring Rs 20,667 crore in farmers’ account under PM-KISAN on the day of Akshay Tritiya.

Farmers to get subsidy of Rs 1200

Finance, Machinery – Post-harvesting

M-Protect Covid plan aims to safeguard new Mahindra tractor customers and their families against the eventuality of contracting COVID-19.

Mahindra & Mahindra’s Farm Equipment Sector, a part of the USD 19.4 billion Mahindra Group has rolled out ‘M–Protect Covid Plan’, a new customer-centric initiative committed to supporting Indian farmers in these testing times.

Mahindra’s M-Protect Covid plan aims to safeguard new Mahindra tractor customers and their families against the eventuality of contracting COVID-19.

Under the M–Protect Covid Plan, Mahindra will provide customers –

  • A health cover of Rs 1 lakh through a unique COVID Mediclaim policy to cover the customer in case they contract COVID-19 with home quarantine benefits.
  • Financial support by providing pre-approved loans to support medical expenses incurred during COVID-19 treatment.
  • Insuring a customers’ loan under ‘Mahindra Loan Suraksha’ in case of loss of life.
  • The M-Protect Covid Plan will be available on Mahindra’s entire range of tractors purchased in May 2021.

Commenting on the development, Hemant Sikka – President, Farm Equipment Sector, M&M Ltd., “At Mahindra we care about our customers and the community at large and have taken a series of initiatives to help those most in need to overcome the challenges related to COVID. Our new ‘M–Protect Covid Plan’ is a new initiative in that direction targeted at farmers, as we stand by them to drive positive change even in these tough times. With M-Protect we are privileged to serve and support them to reduce the impact of a COVID-related eventuality. With M-Protect we hope our farmers continue to have a healthy life.”

M-Protect Covid plan aims to safeguard new

Agro chems – Fertilizers, Seeds

Corteva Agriscience will exclusively develop and commercialize a suite of seed-applied biological products based on Pro Farm’s proprietary technology platform

Switzerland-based Corteva Agriscience estimates have recently shown that innovative seed treatments are being used on more than 10 million hectares in Europe as the company accelerates efforts to meet the growing demand for products of natural origin.

Lumidapt and Lumibio Kelta, a new type of micronutrient fertilizer seed treatment and growth promoter developed by Marrone Bio Innovations subsidiary Pro Farm Technologies, were used on the company’s flagship Pioneer brand corn, winter oilseed rape and sunflower seed products in the 2021 season.

Monica Sorribas, Marketing Leader, Europe at Corteva Agriscience said, “We are committed to relentless innovation that will help drive profitability for farmers while facilitating sustainable agriculture in line with consumer expectations and our 2030 Sustainability Goals.

The news comes as Corteva Agriscience continues building a new Center of Seed Applied Technologies (CSAT) in southwest France, with the goal of helping Europe’s farmers get their crops off to the best start and achieve a successful harvest.

CSATs act as a laboratory, testing centre and seed treatment plant, with rigorous processes in place for the discovery, formulation and real-world testing of seed-applied technologies.

Under the agreement, Corteva Agriscience will exclusively develop and commercialize a suite of seed-applied biological products based on Pro Farm’s proprietary technology platform, to give European growers the best tools available to stimulate plant growth and improve plant health, resulting in improved yields and crop quality.

 

Corteva Agriscience will exclusively develop and commercialize

Pulses, Webinar

Panelist expressed their views in a webinar on Chickpeas and Lentils organized by IPGA along with Pulse Australia and Austrade.

 

 India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry successfully co-hosted a webinar on Chickpeas and Lentils along with Pulse Australia and Austrade under the aegis of ‘THE IPGA KNOWLEDGE SERIES’.IPGA has organized this webinar as a part of the Australian Government’s Australia India Business Exchange (AIBX) program.

Panelists expressed hope that the Indian Government would revisit the Duty Structure on both pulses keeping in mind lower production and higher demand scenario prevailing in India. 

Anurag Tulshan, Managing Director – Esarco Exim and IPGA’s East Zone Convenor giving an overview of India’s Lentils scenario said, “The current supply and demand situation is tight. The government needs to come forward and make some changes with regard to the duty structure, so as to get in more cargo because going forward, from the month of July until December 2021, we are going to need to import at least 500,000 tonnes of lentils.”

The Indian overview on Lentils was presented by Anurag Tulshan, Managing Director – Esarco Exim and IPGA – East Zone Convenor and Australian overview by Nick Poutney, Director – Pulse Australia. The overview on Indian Chickpeas was presented by Nirav Desai, Managing Partner – GGN Research and Australian overview by Peter Wilson, Managing Director – Wilson International Trade. The webinar was attended by about 600 participants from across the world with majority being from India and Australia.

Saurabh Bhartia, Senior Trader, Viterra India, IPGA and GPC Executive Committee Member set the tone for the webinar in his opening remarks saying, “The share of Australian lentils in India’s import has been 10-15 percent over the last seven-eight years and almost 80-90 percent of its chickpeas’ requirements came from Australia till December 2017. However, the 66 percent import duty imposed by Government of India has made it difficult to import from Australia resulting in these imports dropping to almost zero. In 2021, all pulses in India are trading above minimum support price and government stocks have hit a low. Both show we definitely have issues in our production of pulses in the last Kharif and Rabi seasons.”

 

Panelist expressed their views in a webinar

Finance, Japan

Accelerating corporate venture capital activities to create a new business model.

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. has recently invested in SAKA NO TOCHU Co., Ltd., which sells agricultural products, as its first corporate venture capital project.

With this project, Ajinomoto, will support SAKA NO TOCHU’s business growth as a shareholder and start investigating a new business model that utilises the vegetables, specialty coffee beans, and other items sold by the company.

The e-commerce market for food products is estimated to be approximately JPY 1.8 trillion, but e-commerce accounts for only about 3 per cent of total food product sales. While this level is low, the growth rate stood at a year-on-year increase of 8 per cent in fiscal 2019, and the e-commerce market is expected to grow further in the future.

Meanwhile, interest in specialty coffees continues to rise in Japan. That market is expected to grow from JPY 35.6 billion in fiscal 2018 to JPY 49.8 billion yen in fiscal 2022.

Ajinomoto Co. will be able to investigate possibilities for providing new value and can look forward to new points of consumer contact through initiatives with SAKA NO TOCHU, which has extensive experience in the field of online sales.

For these reasons, Ajinomoto Co. decided to invest in the company. Ajinomoto Co. has set four areas for its corporate venture capital investment: Health and Well-being; Sustainable Society and the Earth; The Culture of Food, and Dining Innovation; and Evolution of Cooking.

Accelerating corporate venture capital activities to create

Agrotech, R&D, Seeds

It includes a grape tomato, pink beef, beefs and Roma-type tomatoes, offering strong Intermediate Resistance (IR) to both leaf and fruit symptoms of ToBRFV.

Bayer announced today the commercial availability of tomato varieties bred to help growers address the challenges of Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV). These include a grape tomato, pink beef, beefs and Roma-type tomatoes, offering strong Intermediate Resistance (IR) to both leaf and fruit symptoms of ToBRFV.

ToBRFV was first observed in 2014 and spread rapidly to different world areas. This viral disease impacting tomato plants represents a challenge for the industry as it can be transmitted very easily through many vectors including farming tools and equipment, workers’ hands, plants, water, soil, and people.

As an integral part of its durable resistance strategy, Bayer’s global Research and Development teams have been stacking ToBRFV resistances into the global tomato pipelines and trialling those under high disease pressure conditions around the world with the ultimate goal of developing varieties with high resistance to the virus.

In addition to current commercial offerings providing IR, Bayer has identified combinations of resistance in its pre-commercial pipeline that have the potential to produce plants and fruit that show no visible symptoms even under ToBRFV high pressure conditions. Late stage pre-commercial trials on those plant varieties are beginning now. Bayer hopes expects to make these varieties commercially available in the next 2-3 years.

“Leveraging the strength and organization of our global collaborative breeding pipelines and germplasm library, supported by our marker technology platforms, pathology programs and widespread use of rapid breeding cycles, means that this combination of resistance is already incorporated into our elite breeding lines across the world,” said J.D. Rossouw, Head of Bayer’s Vegetable Seeds R&D. “As part of our commitment to continuing development of a durable resistance strategy to ToBRFV, Bayer is layering resistances to build stronger protection for growers as well as incorporating novel sources of High Resistance from wild tomato species, and will prioritize roll out of these resistances across our global tomato pipelines to continue to build virus protection for growers.“

It includes a grape tomato, pink beef,

Agrotech, Dairy, Live Stock

The project will fast-track genetic progress in cattle and buffaloes but also for regular reproduction, reduced disease incidences and improved appearance. 

 

 

 NDDB, GCMMF and Milk Unions of Gujarat have decided to collaborate on expanding reference population for genomic selection and extend benefits of improved genetics to the farmers of Gujarat.  Meenesh Shah, Executive Director, NDDB and R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard during a virtual ceremony on 18 May 2021 at Anand. Milk Unions of Gujarat attended the MoU signing ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Shah said that genomic selection is dependent on size of reference population that are performance recorded and genotyped. Accuracy of genomic selection increases with expansion of reference population.

 Sodhi informed that GCMMF and Milk Unions of Gujarat will play a crucial role in genomic selection. Extensive artificial insemination coverage and capacity to produce semen by milk unions will also help in faster dissemination of good genetics to farmers.

NDDB, GCMMF and Milk Unions will work together to develop SOPs for recording, take up data analysis and monitor the quality of data collected. Around 1.9 lakh animals will be recorded in next five years for their milk production capacity, fat, SNF & protein content of milk, reproduction regularity of animals, disease incidence, animal’s body type, animal’s behaviour etc. Out of the recorded animals more than 80,000 animals will be genotyped and related data will help in Genomic Breeding Value estimation with more accuracy. This programme will include important breeds like Gir, Kankrej, and crossbred cows and Mehsana, Jaffarabadi, Murrah buffaloes. It is envisaged that all the bulls that enter Gujarat’s semen stations will be genomically selected ensuring genetic merit.

The project will fast-track genetic progress in cattle and buffaloes not only for their milk production potential but also for regular reproduction, reduced disease incidences and improved appearance. Apart from semen stations, farmers will also be able to use genomics for selection of heifers. Apart from central government funding through NDDB, GCMMF and Milk Unions will also invest in performance recording, genotyping and training of manpower for this programme.

 

The project will fast-track genetic progress in

Agro Universities, Agrotech, Start ups

The Programme will be followed by Five Web Shows scheduled every week on Fridays, on the various themes starting from 21st May, 21 

Dr. G.R. Chintala, Chairman, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, (NABARD) virtually launched India’s most sought after Food & Agriculture Accelerator Programme – “AGRI UDAAN 4.0”. The event organized by a-IDEA, a Technology Business Incubator of ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad focusing exclusively on Agri Start-Ups registered a total participation of 700 participants.

In his address, Dr. Chintala stressed on the need for fostering Start-Ups which can change the agriculture scenario in the country. The agriculture sector for its resilience during the pandemic situation due to efforts of the farmers and efficient value chain system was also highlighted in Dr. Chintala’s address. He advised the Start-Ups to be more inclusive to farmers and understand the rural ecosystem while working for the solutions. The promotion of Start-Up ecosystem in the North Eastern States was emphasized by the Chairman, NABARD.

Dr. Chintala also released the two Publications entitled “Fostering Agri Based Entrepreneurship in India” and “Agribusiness Management Education at ICAR-NAARM” during the occasion.

Highlighting the journey of AGRI UDAAN 4.0, Dr. Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Director, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad and President, a-IDEA NAARM briefed about the entrepreneurship activities of a-IDEA.

Dr. K. Srinivas, ADG (IPTM), ICAR outlined the objectives and activities planned under AGRI UDAAN 4.0 which spans from May to November, 2021.

Jayesh Ranjan, I.A.S., Principal Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Telangana emphasized on having more collaborations with the activities being taken in Telangana State. Dr Anita Gupta, Advisor & Head, NSTEDB, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India highlighted the various programmes and priorities in technology innovations under the DST.

Prof. P. Appa Rao, Vice-Chancellor, University of Hyderabad underlined the bio-technology innovations in agriculture growth and development.  R. Ramanan, Mission Director, NITI Aayog, Government of India highlighted the critical role of technology innovations in agriculture and farmer’s development.

 

 

 

 

The Programme will be followed by Five

Agrotech, IT

It aims to provide a single platform for accessing data and analytics to create more profitable and sustainable crop plans  

 

 Arva Intelligence has announced it has integrated Planet imagery into their CropForce data analytics platform. With the availability of Planet data in CropForce, growers and agricultural suppliers can now analyse fields in real time to track crop health, guide scouting, and respond quickly to potential issues.

“We are pleased to offer our clients access to Planet’s global, high-cadence satellite imagery. With CropForce, our clients can now aggregate multiple data sets, get imaging on the fly, and select an individual field or the whole operation with a click of a mouse,” says Matt Rohlik, Managing Director of Sales at Arva.

“We’ve watched Arva take predictive AI from the lab to the field and are excited to partner with them as they scale their work with leading agricultural manufacturers and suppliers,” says Zara Khan, Director of Business Development at Planet. “Together, we believe our work will promote more sustainable agriculture practices, and we’re eager to get started.”

“Our mission is to provide a single platform for accessing data and analytics to create more profitable and sustainable crop plans,” says Jay McEntire, Arva’s CEO. “Planet offers an important data layer to our AI platform and will advance our research in predicting soil carbon for our Arva Carbon Ready and Carbon Plus programs.”

It aims to provide a single platform

Agro chems – Chemicals, North America, Podcast

The series invites the brightest minds in agriculture to an open conversation about topics that affect a North American grower’s operation, livelihood and future.

UPL, a leader in global food systems, has announced the launch of a new podcast, “The Root of the Matter”. The series invites the brightest minds in agriculture to an open conversation about topics that affect a North American grower’s operation, livelihood and future.

“At UPL, we are committed to providing growers with the resources and solutions they need to build a successful operation,” says Craig Brekkas, Head of North America for UPL. “Through our OpenAg purpose, we are driving innovation and growth in agriculture by fostering collaboration and new ways of thinking. ‘The Root of the Matter’ is just one of the ways we are staying true to our vision.”

Hosted by Ken Root, a veteran farm broadcaster and agriculture expert, “The Root of the Matter” discusses some of the most pressing topics and features engaging experts in agriculture. Upcoming topics include emerging technologies in farming, resistance management, trade and market opportunities and much more. Ken, along with leading ag experts, will explore these topics and provide engaging, in-depth conversations and solutions for growers and stakeholders across North America.

 

The series invites the brightest minds in