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AgroPolicy, R&D, Seeds

The varieties are tolerant to diseases, insects, pests, drought, salinity, and flooding, early maturing and amenable to mechanical harvesting

The Government of India has given special attention to providing an impetus for growth and employment in the farming sector. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a recently held press conference has mentioned the release of climate-resilient special traits varieties. A total of 21 varieties of rice, peas, millet, maize, soybean, quinoa, buckwheat, winged bean, pigeon pea and sorghum will be dedicated to the nation, according to the FM.

 

The earlier focus on developing higher yield crop varieties lacked attention towards nutrition, climate resilience and other traits. In these varieties, the concentration of important nutrients was far below the required level, and they were susceptible to biotic and abiotic stresses. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed bio-fortified crop varieties having high nutrients like protein, iron, zinc, vitamin-A. These varieties are tolerant to diseases, insects, pests, drought, salinity, and flooding, early maturing and amenable to mechanical harvesting also developed. 

The varieties are tolerant to diseases, insects,

AgroPolicy, Finance, Schemes - Govt

A total of Rs 77.45 crore will be provided NERAMAC

North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation (NERAMAC) was mentioned by Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman at the recently held press conference on the relief packages due to COVID-19. The FM announced a revival package of Rs 77.45 crore that will be provided NERAMAC.

 

NERAMAC was established in 1982 to support farmers of North-East in getting remunerative prices of agri-horticulture produces. It aims to enhance agricultural, procurement, processing and marketing infrastructure in North-East. 75 Farmer Producer Organisations/Farmer Producer Companies are registered with NERAMAC. It has facilitated the registration of 13 Geographical Indicator (GI) crops of North-East. The company has prepared a business plan to give 10-15 per cent higher prices to farmers by-passing middlemen/agents. It also proposes to set up North-Eastern Centre for Organic Cultivation, facilitating equity finance to entrepreneurs. 

 

 

 

A total of Rs 77.45 crore will

AgroPolicy, Finance, Schemes - Govt

The existing NBS subsidy was Rs 27,500 crore in FY 2020-21 which has been increased to Rs 42,275 crore in FY 2021-22

Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announced a slew of measures to provide relief to diverse sectors affected by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures announced also aim to prepare the health systems for emergency response and provide the impetus for growth and employment. Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur; Finance Secretary Dr TV Somanathan; Secretary, DFS, Debashish Panda and Secretary, Revenue, Tarun Bajaj were present during the announcement of the relief package.

 

Sitharaman announced an additional subsidy to farmers for DAP and P&K fertilisers. The existing NBS subsidy was Rs 27,500 crore in FY 2020-21 which has been increased to Rs 42,275 crore in FY 2021-22. Thus, the farmers will benefit by an additional amount of Rs 14,775 crore. This includes Rs 9,125 crore additional subsidy for DAP and Rs 5,650 crore additional subsidy for NPK based complex fertiliser.

 

The existing NBS subsidy was Rs 27,500

R&D, Seeds

Through this collaboration, both companies will be engaged to precisely modify soybean genes to obtain elite varieties with a novel crop management system. 

Argentina based Bioheuris, an agbiotech start-up that uses synthetic biology and gene editing for improved crop management, and GDM, a leading global soybeans genetics powerhouse, today announced a collaboration agreement to develop high yielding varieties using gene editing technology. Through this collaboration, both companies will be engaged to precisely modify soybean genes to obtain elite varieties with a novel crop management system.

“Two months ago, we filed a provisional patent in the US to cover crop genes optimized with the use of our novel protein evolution technology HeurikTM. Bioheuris’ miniaturized high-throughput approach is able to mimic in a few weeks in the lab what it would take hundreds of acres and years of field trials to accomplish,” said Lucas Lieber, CEO and co-founder of Bioheuris. “Partnering with GDM to improve elite soybeans is an important step towards bringing farmers access to more integrated crop protection solutions on high yielding varieties.”

Bioheuris is an Argentine-born biotechnology company committed to developing sustainable weed management systems in corn, soybeans, cotton, rice, sorghum, and alfalfa.

Over the last 40 years, GDM has been using cutting edge technology to improve soybean varieties, with a focus on constant innovation and state-of-the-art breeding programs in more than 15 countries. Today, more than one third of the world’s soybean production is made using GDM genetics.

“Bioheuris’ mission aligns with GDM’s vision of developing the best varieties to improve agricultural productivity and address farmer needs to face the increasing market demands to feed the growing population” said Manuel Mihura, Strategy and New Business Director for GDM. “The synergy of both companies creates an exciting opportunity to dramatically accelerate soybean breeding and provide growers, seed multipliers, and the seed industry more options to increase productivity and face market demands.”

 

Through this collaboration, both companies will be

Agro Universities, Agrotech, Seeds

The MoU was signed for a non-exclusive Licensing of Rapeseed-Mustard Hybrid – NRCHB-506

The ICAR-Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research, Bharatpur, Rajasthan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with  Advanta/UPL Limited, Hyderabad for the non-exclusive Licensing of Rapeseed-Mustard Hybrid – NRCHB-506.

Dr PK Rai, Director, ICAR-DRMR, Bharatpur, and Dr Shailesh Kumar, Representative, UPL Limited took part in the MoU on the behalf of their respective organisations.

Dr PK Rai stressed that the commercialisation of high-yielding new varieties/hybrids shall help in bringing more areas under the improved and promising varieties/hybrids that can help to enhance the production and productivity of oilseed especially rapeseed-mustard in the country.
The officials of both the organisations were present during the occasion.

UPL, formerly United Phosphorus Limited, is an Indian multinational company that manufactures and markets agrochemicals, industrial chemicals, chemical intermediates, and speciality chemicals, and also offers crop protection solutions.

The MoU was signed for a non-exclusive

Agro chems – Pesticides, Agro Universities, Agrotech

Timely control measures should be adopted to thwart the pests

Maize experts of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have cautioned farmers against the attack of fall armyworm (FAW) pests on maize. Dr Surinder Sandhu, in Incharge, Maize Section, has advised the farmers to remain vigilant and survey their fields thoroughly.

She said, “In Punjab, the sowing of Kharif maize is in full swing in the districts of Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar, Ropar, Jalandhar and Pathankot. The crop is sown from the last week of May to the end of June. So, most of the crop, presently in younger stage, is vulnerable to the attack of FAW.”

The incidence of this pest has been observed in different areas of Punjab, she disclosed while urging the farmers not to panic as this serious pest can be managed by adopting timely control measures.

Referring to its symptoms, she explained: “Larva of FAW has white-coloured inverted Y-shaped mark on the head and four spots in a square pattern at the rear end. The central whorl leaves of damaged plants have big holes and a lot of excreta.” Farmer can easily identify this pest to follow its control measures, she added. Dr Sandhu emphasised sowing the grain crop by the end of June only and prefer to sow the fodder maize not later than mid-August to reduce spread.
 
Dr Jawala Jindal, Senior Entomologist (Maize), said, “To control this pest, spray Coragen 18.5 SC (chlorantraniliprole) @0.4 ml/litre or Delegate 11.7 SC (spinetoram) @0.5 ml/litre or Missile 5 SG (emamectin benzoate) @0.4 g/ litre using 120 -200 litres of water per acre depending upon the crop stage.” For effective control, direct the nozzle towards the whorl, he added.

Dr Harpeet Cheema, Senior Entomologist (Forage), elaborated that for fodder maize, Coragen needs to be sprayed and ensure a waiting period of 21 days before feeding to animals. Prefer mixed cropping of fodder maize with bajra/cowpea/sorghum and use recommended seed rate (30 kg/acre) by following the line sowing method rather than broadcasting. Apart from this, the collection of easily visible egg masses on the upper surface of leaves is also effective.
 

 

Timely control measures should be adopted to

Environment, Water

The new initiative builds on the company’s 2017 commitment to certify all of its Waters sites by the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) by 2025

Nestlé Waters will expand its current efforts to manage water sustainably and increase its collaboration with partners to identify and support local solutions. These solutions are designed to help regenerate the ecosystems in the areas around each of Nestlé Waters’ 48 sites. As of 2025, Nestle Waters will help nature retain more water than the business uses in its operations.

 

The new initiative builds on the company’s 2017 commitment to certify all of its Waters sites by the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) by 2025.

 

Nestlé will use its expertise to advance the regeneration of local water cycles through the implementation of more than 100 projects for its 48 sites by 2025. These new, measurable actions will support better water management and infrastructure. Some project examples include:

  • Buxton– Land conservation (protecting land from development) and natural flood management interventions in Derbyshire, UK
  • Vittel– River restoration and renaturation projects in Vosges, France
  • Nestlé Pure Life– Support for farmers to use drip irrigation in Sheikhupura, Pakistan
  • Nestlé Pure Life– The delivery of water treatment, filtration and pipeline infrastructure for the municipal water supply in Benha, Egypt

Nestlé’s work will be tailored to individual locations, needs and issues and will take a broader approach, going beyond its operations. The company will work with local water users, communities, partners and global experts to identify, develop and progress projects specific to those challenges.

 

All projects will be measurable, using the World Resources Institute’s Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA) methodology. Using this methodology, a newly created external panel will review the relevance and sustainability of the projects and give feedback on whether they are helping to address the local challenges and opportunities. Nestlé Waters will provide full transparency on the water usage at each of its sites and on what its projects contribute to the area.

The new initiative builds on the company’s

Agrotech, Environment, R&D

It recognizes the pivotal role growers and their land can play in helping to create lasting, positive environmental impacts.

Agrochemical major, Bayer announced the European launch of its global Carbon Initiative. The main goal is the decarbonisation of the food value chain focusing on farmers’ activities for a more resilient and sustainable food system. It brings together farmers and food value chain players to explore future reward structures for farmers implementing new carbon reduction practices and thus contributing to the Green Deal objectives of the European Commission. The new European Carbon Program recognizes the pivotal role growers and their land can play in helping to create lasting, positive environmental impacts and is an integral part of Bayer’s sustainability commitments specifically aimed at reducing field greenhouse gas (GHG) emission by 30% in 2030. 

 Lionnel Alexandre, Carbon Business Venture Lead for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Bayer Crop Science said, “The main idea is to reward growers for adopting climate-smart farming practices like using cover crops, tillage reduction, crop rotations and precision nitrogen application. These activities sequester carbon in the soil while improving soil health, resilience and productivity as well as limit emissions.”

 To support these operations, Bayer will develop a digital tool which will allow farmers to claim rewards based on accurate and verified data. It will be compliant with current data privacy standards and will be reliable and simple to operate for every farmer. This digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) solution builds on Bayer’s industry-leading digital farming platform Climate FieldViewTM. 

The 27 participating farmers from seven countries are collectively contributing about 500 hectares of land from their farms based in France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Germany as well as Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Central to the European Carbon Program is the practice of co-creation: farmers, Bayer experts and food value chain players work together in a carbon farming lab where they can jointly test activities and generate learnings. Discussions with several food processors and retailers are ongoing, and they are expected to join the Carbon Program by the end of the year. 

Alexandre Teillet, Head of New Business Models at Bayer Crop Science for Europe, Middle East and Africa, summed up: “Our vision is that in the future, food retailers or food processors will be able to work with confidence on effective carbon emission reduction projects involving their partner farms from their specific supply chains. At the same time, farmers, as primary producers of a stable and longer food value chain, shall be rewarded in a transparent and fair way – for their effective carbon emission reductions conducted through their farming practices everywhere in the world.”

 

It recognizes the pivotal role growers and

Agrotech

NEOGEN, the global leader in animal genomics, first entered into a partnership with Gencove in January 2020

NEOGEN Corporation announced recently that they have extended their strategic partnership with genomics software company Gencove Inc to continue providing robust and innovative animal genomic testing.

NEOGEN, the global leader in animal genomics, first entered into a partnership with Gencove in January 2020 and has since developed innovative solutions that offer the complete sequencing of entire breeding populations and provide in-depth analysis at high value to the customer. 

“We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with Gencove and continue working together to develop innovative animal genomics solutions,” said Marylinn Munson, NEOGEN’s Vice President of Genomics. “The continuation of this agreement demonstrates our dedication to providing cutting-edge genomics services that provide valuable information, analysis, and exclusive benefits to agricultural professionals around the world.”

The multi-year global agreement allows NEOGEN to offer their next-generation SkimSeek low-pass sequencing technology to customers across the agricultural community, including those in the bovine, canine, poultry, and swine industries. Utilizing Gencove’s unique sequence imputation platform, NEOGEN can deliver increased genomics data with enhanced accuracy and flexibility, allowing customers to make more educated breeding decisions.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with NEOGEN to continue providing software services for their SkimSeek product offering,” says Joe Pickrell, Gencove’s CEO and co-founder. “The combination of Gencove’s informatics and NEOGEN’s operational excellence and global reach allows us to make sequence level information routinely available to customers on a global basis.”

NEOGEN, the global leader in animal genomics,

Acquaculture, Agro Universities

A portable FRP Carp Hatchery is being installed in order to create a self-sufficiency of fish seed production

The ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA), Bhubaneswar, Odisha has joined hands with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Bali Nature Life Society, an NGO as the technical partner, to help increase the livelihood of farmers at Kumirmari, Gosaba, South 24 Parganas, Sundarbans, West Bengal. Discovery Inc has been providing funding support for the work.

Farming is the main source of livelihood for the people living in the Delta; however, the soil’s salinity level does not allow intensive cultivation of the crops. This leads the people to depend on river, forest and non-timber forest products (crab collection, honey collection, fish farming, etc.) to earn a livelihood. At times they have to put their lives at risk and fall prey to Royal Bengal Tiger and also crocodiles.

Dr SK Swain, Director, ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar outlined the initiation of scientific fish farming in freshwater ponds to provide an alternative source of income for the community who have been struggling for their livelihoods.

The adopted ponds were stocked with 15 Kg Indian Major Carp Advance fingerings and beneficiaries are trained on post-stocking management measures. The application of lime and pellet feed was also demonstrated by a team of institutes’ scientists. The fish attained an average growth of about 55 to 65 gms in two months. A portable FRP Carp Hatchery is being installed in order to create a self-sufficiency of fish seed production.

The initiative intends to benefit 50 scheduled caste women representing five self-help groups namely – Annadata, Bagna, Golap, Priyajan and Shristi.

A portable FRP Carp Hatchery is being

Acquaculture, IT, Start ups

With Machine Learning algorithm, Aquaconnect is able to decode the information given by farmers and provide advisory at a mass scale

 

Chennai based leading Fish and Shrimp farming start-up Aquaconnect has launched ‘Pond Diary’ a first of its kind feature to help farmers in maintaining a log of their farm activities on the Aquaconnect application. AI and ML technologies will enable Aquaconnect to decode the collective intelligence and issue a mass advisory to all farmers.  A simple innovation coupled with a smart chatbot will enable 44,000 farmers to manage their farms better. 

The ’Pond Dairy’ feature captures farmers’ culture production data starting from seeds stocked, water quality reports, daily feed quantity, weekly growth, animal signs, expense bills, farm infrastructure details, license, govt records and more. Pond Diary is the first step towards capturing pond production data in a simple way and bringing precision in aqua farming with collective intelligence. It is an open-ended diary platform, wherein the farmers can write anything about their farm in any multimedia format. With their Machine Learning algorithm, Aquaconnect is able to decode the information given by farmers and provide advisory at a mass scale. The Pond Diary feature has WhatsApp like interface which is very user friendly and familiar with the farmers.

 “Aqua Farmers are deprived of simple technology tools that can make a big impact on their productivity and efficiency. We are very confident about the launch of the new feature and it helps in solving the woes of the farmers which result in low productivity. We will encourage farmers to adopt the tool and educate them digitally. And we shall be having manual remote intervention in the form of an integrated chatbot.” 

“Partial information we can get from the farmer but since it is all self-fed info, we also need automated validation. Our focus is to decode & understand what every farmer writes every day. That is when we are using ML to decode and provide input advisory based on what he has given us. So that is how we aim to provide advisory at a mass scale on our technology.” said Rajamanohar Somasundaram, Founder and CEO, Aquaconnect.

 

The data-driven approach helps farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices in every culture operation and improves productivity & better disease management with higher profits.  Through this automated advisory, farmers are able to access technical advisory for their pond instantly and more conveniently which further reduces dependency on technicians for any farm support.

 

The company will also introduce interactivity, notification reminders and collaboration to its new feature in the next three months. The data will also help farmers to access formal finance from banks, have better risk mitigation with insurance and access to market linkage for their harvest produce which is not available in the present formal credit system for farmers. Aquaconnect is targeting to reach 4 lakh farmers to realize the benefit of the application.

With Machine Learning algorithm, Aquaconnect is able

AgroPolicy, Oilseeds

Due to the lack of suitable food-grade speciality soybeans, food processors are forced to shut down 

 

 

 The Soy Food Promotion and Welfare Association (SFPWA), an organisation representing soybean food processing industries, has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the processing industry to import 50,000 tonnes of food speciality soybeans from the US duty-free.

K Sarat Chandra Kumar, President, Soy Food Promotion and Welfare Association in a plea mentioned that the beans could be allowed into the country at ’zero’ duty under tariff-rate quota since food speciality soybeans are not grown in the country.

Soybean is not a staple food in India, hence, the requirement to process and serve the best optimal quality to customers is paramount. Though soya food companies have improved quality, “due to a lack of affordable, high-quality raw ingredients, we feel challenged for new growth opportunities,” he said. Kumar said that inconsistent and inferior raw soybean quality is the leading cause of dissatisfied consumers wanting better taste, texture and flavour profiles.

“Indian soybeans are oil- and meal-centric, suitable for animal utilisation. There are no food speciality soybeans grown in the country; thus the supply of the same does not exist. While all Indian beans are non-GM, they are also treated as commodity beans regardless of the end-user, be it in the food or feed industry,” he said. When soybeans are needed for food applications, Indian producers grade and select the best beans from the general lots and sell them at a premium price, he said.

But they do not qualify to satisfy the speciality food characteristics and do not match up with the quality standards and expectations for producing retail-end products. As a result, many food processors are now forced to shut down, the soy food promotion body chief said.

According to Sumit Agarwal, Vice President of the Association, due to the lack of suitable food-grade speciality soybeans, food processors are constrained. “This is limiting the business opportunities, job creation, and revenue generation,” he said.

Taking into account the requirements of the consumers and food businesses, the association has appealed to the Prime Minister, Agarwal said. The Soy Food Promotion and Welfare Association said that these soybeans that need to be imported are non-genetically modified food-grade beans grown in the US that have lower oil content, higher inherent sucrose, low oligosaccharide (raffinose and stachyose) and stable protein structures making them highly suitable for food manufacturing.

The Soy Food Promotion and Welfare Association represents over 3,000 small, medium and large-scale units across the country.

Due to the lack of suitable food-grade

AgroPolicy, Agrotech

Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers, chairs meeting with officials from the Department of Fertilizers to reduce the import of rock phosphate

Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers chaired a meeting with officials of the Department of Fertilizers and stakeholders of fertilisers industries. The meeting was held to discuss the availability of phosphatic fertilisers (DAP and NPK) and to reduce the dependence on imports.

Rock phosphate is the key raw material for DAP and NPK fertilisers and India is 90 per cent dependent on imports. Volatility in international prices affects the domestic prices of fertilisers and hinders the progress and development of the agriculture sector in the country.

Mandaviya said, “I am glad that the Department of Fertilisers is ready with an action plan to make India Aatmanirbhar in Rock Phosphate, the key raw material of DAP and NPK Fertilisers.”

An action plan was chalked out for making India Aatmanirbhar in fertiliser production through indigenous resources. Mandaviya directed to commercially exploit and ramp up the production in the existing 30 lakh MT of Phosphorite deposits which are available in Rajasthan, the central part of peninsular India, Hirapur(MP), Lalitpur(UP), Mussoorie syncline, Cuddapah basin(AP).

Discussion and planning with the Department of Mining and Geological Survey of India are going on to expedite the exploration in the potential potassic ore resources in Rajasthan’s Satpura, Bharusari and Lakhasar and Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka. All the departments are working jointly to start the mining of potential reserves as soon as possible. The action plan included the steps to minimise the import dependency of costly raw material imported from abroad and make it accessible and affordable to farmers.

Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Chemicals

AgroPolicy, Agrotech

The consignment was exported by APEDA registered Kiega EXIM from Guwahati airport to Dubai via Delhi

In a major boost to harness the export potential of agricultural and processed food products from north-eastern states, a shipment of fresh Burmese grapes referred to as ‘Leteku’ in the Assamese language has been exported to Dubai from Guwahati by the air route.

A consignment of Leteku, which contains vitamin C and Iron, was sourced and packed at a collection centre in Darang district of Assam. The consignment was exported by APEDA registered Kiega EXIM from Guwahati airport to Dubai via Delhi. APEDA has been carrying out promotional activities to bring the North-Eastern states on the agricultural and processed food products export map of India.

Recently, APEDA facilitated exports of the first consignment of ‘red rice’ to the USA from Assam. Iron-rich ‘red rice’ is grown in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, without the use of any chemical fertilizer. The rice variety is referred to as ‘Bao-dhaan’, which is an integral part of Assamese food. APEDA assisted in exports of Geographical Indications (GI) certified KajiNemu (Assam lemon) to London. So far around 40 metric tonnes of Assam Lemon has been exported.

Jackfruits sourced from the Tripura based Krishi SanyogaAgro Producer Company Ltd was exported to London. The consignment was packed at APEDA assisted pack-house facility of Salt Range Supply Chain Solution and exported by Kiega EXIM.

The consignment was exported by APEDA registered