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AgroPolicy, Finance, Trade

New proposals under existing schemes will be invited for approval of financial assistance which will have to be completed by June 30, 2021.

 

According to office Memorandum no. F. NO. 42(02)PF-II/2014 dated February 9, 2021, issued by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance; The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has informed all the exporters that Financial Assistance under APEDA’s Agriculture and Processed Food Export Promotion Scheme will be continued till June 30, 2021. Furthermore, it mentioned that new proposals under existing schemes will be invited for approval of financial assistance which will have to be completed by June 30, 2021.

The notice also issued that no funds will be released beyond the given date, in case if any scheme is not appraised and approved by then subject to any specific relaxation given by the Department of Expenditure in this regard.

APEDA’s Agriculture and Processed Food Export Promotion Scheme has been initiated by the Government of India. The primary objective of the scheme is mandated with the task of agro-industries development and export promotion of food products from the country. Under this scheme, the Government grants financial assistance to the exporters of the agricultural and processed food products

 

 

New proposals under existing schemes will be

Agrotech, Webinar

Discussions were held on the utility of nano-products like bio-synthesized nano-nutrients and nano-induced polysaccharide powder for agricultural use

The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences – Bhopal Chapter in collaboration with ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh virtually organised a National Webinar on ’Nanotechnology in Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges.’

Dr Ashok Kumar Patra, Convener, NAAS – Bhopal Chapter & Director, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal briefed about the main objectives of the webinar.


In his Lecture on ’Promise of Nano-fertilizers in agriculture’, Dr JC Tarafdar, Former Emeritus Scientist & Former Principal Scientist, ICAR-CAZRI highlighted the utilise action of nano-products like bio-synthesized nano-nutrients and nano-induced polysaccharide powder for agricultural use.

Dr Satykam Patnaik, Senior Scientist, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh delivered a Lecture on ’Toxicity of Nano-materials on soil and plant system.’

Dr Onkar Tiwari, Programme Officer, Department of Bio-Technology, highlighted the bio-safety and policy framework developed by the Government of India for handling the use of nano-materials in agriculture.
The webinar registered total participation of about 350 delegates including Directors and Researchers from the ICAR Institutes and Former Vice-Chancellors of state agricultural universities.

Discussions were held on the utility of

Agro Universities, Agrotech, Webinar

95 farmers attended the session on flower cultivation

The Directorate of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), recently organised a webinar for the members of Flower Growers Club. A total of 95 farmers attended the webinar held under the guidance of Dr Jaskarn Singh Mahal, Director of Extension Education, PAU.

Dr TS Riar, Additional Director Communication and Programme Associate Director, said commercial floriculture is gaining momentum due to the rising demand for flowers for various occasions, such as social, religious and cultural functions. In addition, flower cultivation helps in beautifying the surroundings and symbolises harmony, peace, and gaiety, he added.

Dr Ranjeet Singh, a floriculture expert and Dr Rakesh Sharda, Principal Extension Scientist (Soil and Water Engineering), explained the cultivation of marigold in the summer season and the use of fertilizers with micro-irrigation, respectively.

Ravinder Bhalooria, Programme Coordinator, while proposing a vote of thanks, said floriculture is a profitable venture and other farmers should also adopt it along with agriculture.

95 farmers attended the session on flower

Agrotech, China, Finance

The holistic agriculture risk management project is a three-year pilot initiative

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the global agribusiness company Cargill have jointly launched the Holistic Agriculture Risk Management Project, a three-year pilot initiative in Songyuan, Jilin province of China.

Cargill contributes $1 million to WFP to reduce and mitigate the risks that corn farmers face and help them achieve food security while enhancing resilience at the community level. The project aims to increase the resilience of corn farmers in the project area against shocks through the application of an innovative financial risk transfer approach of ’insurance + futures’ and promoting sustainable agriculture practice to corn cultivating.

In addition, this project will regularly provide training for local corn farmers every year on agriculture risk management to improve farmers’ livelihood and promote holistic agricultural risk management in the corn industry.

“WFP is grateful for the generous support from Cargill,” said Sixi Qu, WFP China Representative. “We have a shared vision to promote a sustainable food system by helping reduce risk and vulnerability to shocks and achieving sustainable food security. Assisting corn farmers with risk management skills and sustainable practice is an important aspect of our partnership. This contribution enables us to increase farmers’ productivity and income and make the food system more resilient through working together with both the government and private sectors.”


The holistic agriculture risk management project is

AgroPolicy, Supply Chain

The amendment attempts to take forward the reform process envisaged under Section 12 of the Act, through improving transparency of operations of the Targeted Public Distribution System under NFSA

The Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD) has issued a notification recently to ensure right quantity to beneficiaries in distribution of subsidised foodgrains as per their entitlement under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.

The notification mentions that to incentivise states who are judiciously operating their ePoS devices and can generate savings from the additional margin of Rs 17.00 per quintal provided to them, and to take forward the reform process for improving transparency in operations of the Targeted Public Distribution System under NFSA, Rule 7 in sub-rule (2) of Food security (Assistance to State Government Rules) 2015 has been amended with effect from 18th June, 2021 so that any savings if accrued by any State/Union Territory from the additional margin provided towards the cost of purchase, operation and maintenance of the point of sale device, its running expenses and incentive for its use. It can henceforth be utilised for purchase, operations and maintenance of electronic weighing scales and their integration with the point of sale devices. This would encourage other states to generate savings through judicious use of ePoS devices.

The amendment is an attempt to take forward the reform process envisaged under Section 12 of the Act, through improving transparency of operations of the Targeted Public Distribution System under NFSA. While distribution through ePoS devices ensures that subsidised foodgrains are provided to the rightful beneficiary through biometric authentication, integration of ePoS devices with electronic weighing scales would ensure that the beneficiary is given the right quantity of foodgrains by the Fair Price Shop dealer as per his entitlement.

It may be noted that the National Food Security Act provides for reforms in the Targeted Public Distribution System through application of information and communication technology tools including end-to-end computerization to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all levels, and to prevent diversion and leveraging ’Aadhaar’ for unique identification, with biometric information of entitled beneficiaries for proper targeting of benefits under the Act.

Food security (Assistance to State Government Rules) 2015 that was notified in August 2015, provides for additional margin to Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealers for sale through electronic point of sale devices (ePoS) as an incentive to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all levels. Accordingly, the scheme ’Assistance to State agencies for intra-State movement of foodgrains and FPS dealers margin under NFSA’ provides for additional Margin of Rs 17.00 per quintal to all state governments/ union territories towards the cost of purchase, operation and maintenance of the point of sale device, its running expenses and incentive for its use. The additional margin is payable for the fair price shop which has installed a point-of-sale device and shall be limited to the transactions made through it.

The amendment attempts to take forward the

Agrotech, Warehousing

The company is also encouraging 1,500 employees on its rolls across India to get vaccinated

Sohan Lal Commodity Management (SLCM) Group recently organised a COVID-19 vaccination drive at its New Delhi headquarters. Around 140 personnel took part in the initiative at the company’s corporate headquarters and other offices in the national capital. The vaccine was administered by medical staff from Primus Super Speciality Hospital in Chanakyapuri.

 

Sandeep Sabharwal, CEO, SLCM, said, “We decided to organise the drive to facilitate the vaccination of all employees working at the head office and other locations in the Delhi NCR. I am satisfied to note that the initiative has received an overwhelming response from our co-workers.”

 

In addition, SLCM Group is also encouraging 1,500 employees on its rolls across India to get themselves vaccinated in the best interest of their own as well as families’ safety. The amount is reimbursed to the employee upon submission of the hospital receipt.

 

The company is also encouraging 1,500 employees

R&D, Webinar

Participants talked about the current status and future perspectives of soybean cultivation

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore, Madhya Pradesh organised an international webinar on “Genetic management of Asian soybean rust: Current Status and Future Perspectives” on June 18, 2021.

Dr RR Hanchinal, Former Chairperson, PPVP&FR stressed on the need for more collaborative efforts to insulate soybean from major diseases.

Dr SK Rao, Vice-Chancellor, RVSKVV, Gwalior stated that there being no alternative to Soybean crop for the farmers in Central India, the multiple disease-resistant Soybean varieties are the need of the hour.

Dr S Rajendra Prasad, Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru stressed on the idea of the incorporation of biological control of diseases using microbial agents.

Dr Naoki Yamanaka, Senior Researcher, Japan International Research Centre for Agriculture Sciences (JIRCAS), Japan delivered a talk on “Studies on Asian Soybean Rust in JIRCAS”. Dr Yamanaka outlined the import of >90 per cent of Soybean requirement by Japan. He regarded the genetic management of Soybean Rust as a most economical and ecologically safe way.

Dr Nita Khandekar, Director, ICAR-IISR, Indore said that for improving the Soybean rust resistance in Indian Soybean varieties, the scientists in India will make efforts to use the resistant genetic material developed by the JIRCAS through a collaborative project.

Participants talked about the current status and

Agrotech

Yellow Gold 48 has a thicker rind compared to the red watermelon variety, enabling a longer shelf-life and reducing potential losses from damage during transportation from farms to markets

Bayer has launched a yellow watermelon variety in the Indian market and is known as ‘Yellow Gold 48,’ under its Seminis brand of high-yielding vegetable seeds. The unique yellow watermelon has been developed from superior germplasm as part of Bayer’s global R&D efforts. The yellow watermelon variety has been commercially introduced in India following two years of local trials. With ‘Yellow Gold 48’, watermelon growers can benefit from enhanced yield potential, better disease and pest tolerance, and higher returns. For consumers used to the red variety of watermelons, the yellow variety is sure to provide a sensory delight and greater choice.

 

Besides the novel yellow-coloured flesh, Bayer’s yellow watermelon offers a distinct, sweet flavour. It has a thicker rind compared to the red watermelon variety, enabling a longer shelf-life and reducing potential losses from damage during transportation from farms to markets. The ‘Yellow Gold 48’ variety is best suited for cultivation from ­­­October to February and for harvest from April onwards. The yellow watermelon will be available in the market until mid-July.

 

Speaking about the new yellow watermelon, KE Muthu, Head of Bayer Vegetable Seeds, South Asia, said, “Yellow Gold 48 with its high yield and income potential will empower watermelon growers to diversify into new categories and meet the growing demand for exotic fruits. We are also creating market linkages for yellow watermelon growers by connecting them directly to large buyers and food retail stores.” 

 

Currently, Bayer’s yellow watermelon is available at a price range of Rs 10 per kg in local fruit markets and select modern retail stores in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The fruit carries an external peelable sticker with the Bayer and ‘Seminis Yellow Gold 48’ logos for clear differentiation and authentication.

 

Bayer offers a total of five varieties of watermelons in India under the Seminis brand. Another new launch from Bayer in 2021 includes the ‘Crimson B32’ red watermelon variety which comes with fewer seeds and an oblong shape. 

Yellow Gold 48 has a thicker rind

Agro Universities, AgroPolicy, Webinar

According to the panelists, maize plays a vital role in crop diversification

The Department of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), recently organised an online webinar on ’Successful Cultivation of Kharif Maize’ under the aegis of the Directorate of Extension Education in which as many as 85 farmers, scientists, and officers of development departments participated.
 
Dr Kuldeep Singh, Head, Department of Extension Education oriented the participants about the need and importance of crop diversification to save our natural resources. He called upon to shift the area from paddy to maize as there are many high yielding hybrids of maize were available and PMH 13 was the newest in the list released by PAU.
 
Dr Surinder Kaur, in the Incharge Maize section, threw light on different varieties of Maize viz. JC 4, JC 12, and hybrid PMH 13 developed by Punjab Agricultural University. She also advised the farmers to adopt organic farming in Maize for doubling their income.
 
Dr Mahesh Kumar, Senior Agronomist (Maize) explained the various agronomic practices like field preparation, sowing time, seed rate, irrigation, and weed control for successful maize cultivation in detail.
 
Dr Lakhwinder Kaur, Extension Scientist told the farmers that maize crops play a vital role in crop diversification. She also informed the farmers that maize is the source of nutrition as well as photochemical compounds which help in preventing chronic diseases.
 
Dr Jagdeep Kaur, Asstt Prof (Plant Protection), KVK Samrala imparted knowledge about various insect pests of maize and their control measures. She also informed about the diseases of maize and their control measures.

According to the panelists, maize plays a

Agrotech, Finance

The transaction will be funded with available cash on hand from CNH Industrial.

CNH Industrial (CNHI) has entered into an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the capital stock of Raven Industries, a US-based leader in precision agriculture technology. The transaction will be funded with available cash on hand from CNH Industrial. Closing is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including approval of Raven shareholders and receipt of regulatory approvals.

The acquisition builds upon a long partnership between the two companies and will further enhance CNH Industrial’s position in the global agriculture equipment market by adding strong innovation capabilities in autonomous and precision agriculture technology.

“Precision agriculture and autonomy are critical components of our strategy to help our agricultural customers reach the next level of productivity and to unlock the true potential of their operations,” said Scott Wine, CEO, CNH Industrial. “Raven has been a pioneer in precision agriculture for decades, and their deep product experience, customer-driven software expertise and engineering acumen offer a significant boost to our capabilities. This acquisition emphasises our commitment to enhancing our precision farming portfolio and aligns with our digital transformation strategy. The combination of Raven’s technologies and CNH Industrial’s strong current and new product portfolio will provide our customers with the novel, connected technologies, allowing them to be more productive and efficient.”

CNH Industrial does not expect the proposed acquisition will have any impact on its guidance for 2021. The acquisition is expected to be funded with Group consolidated cash1 not affecting third-party debt of industrial activities.

The transaction will be funded with available

Agrotech, IT, Start ups

Unnati is giving farmers access to Satyukt’s Sat2Farm platform for purposes like soil testing, leveraging localized weather information

 

 Underlining its vision to transform the existing farming operations in India, Unnati, a FinTech-driven agriculture ecosystem has joined forces with Satyukt, an innovative satellite data analytics company to help farmers enhance their productivity and promote the best farming practices using satellite technology. As part of this collaboration, the forward-looking company is giving farmers access to Satyukt’s Sat2Farm platform for purposes like soil testing, leveraging localized weather information, estimating soil moisture, providing irrigation advisory, analysing crop growth, among others in real-time.

The platform is backed by Satyukt’s proprietary algorithm and will provide farmers with highly personalized recommendations for crop nutrition, use of particular plant protection remedies, and everything relevant to ensure a farm’s robust health and productivity. Simply put, it will enable farmers to monitor their farms remotely and take remedial actions in real-time. The platform will be leveraging multiple factors to make this possible. These include over 100 satellite-based indices and crop variables, and tracking on-ground farm data, among others. More than 2.75 lac farmers will be able to access this solution in association with over 15000 uStores across India.

Satyukt is a Bengaluru-based satellite remote sensing data analytics company leveraging satellite remote sensing data to provide farm scale crop analytics to the farmers. Sat2farm, a platform developed by Satyukt helps farmers minimize their input cost while increasing the crop productivity and crop water productivity.

Unnati and Satyukt will work jointly to develop the farming protocols and use data generated jointly by both the platforms to have the most relevant recommendations to the farmers. Sumeet Saraf founder Equity 360 has advised Unnati and Satyukt on facilitating the engagement.

Amit Sinha co-founder Unnati said, “We are delighted to join hands with an innovative player like Satyukt. We are certain that this partnership will augment our existing tech offerings, equip farmers with satellite technology-based solutions and transform their overall farming journey like never before. We look forward to this collaboration and hope to bring more players to our portfolio in order to deliver innovative farming practices to Indian farmers.”

Dr Sat founder, Satyukt, said, “We have always kept innovation at the core of our operations and developed best-in-class data-backed and physically scalable algorithms to give farmers access to a deeper and clearer picture of their farm, and accordingly address problems with technology. We are happy to partner with Unnati and are excited to take this new growth journey to amazing heights. We are sure that together we can change the face of Indian farming by developing and delivering the right technologies to the farmer fraternity across the country.”

 

 

Unnati is giving farmers access to Satyukt’s Sat2Farm

Environment, Interaction, Water

The virtual summit will bring policymakers and major stakeholders to deliberate and discuss the length and future of hydrogen in the energy mix

A two-day summit on green hydrogen initiatives will be held from June 22, 2021, involving the BRICS nations. The event offers a platform to share their respective green hydrogen initiatives and views on how to take it to the next level in their own countries. The online event will be held via a video conference and will conclude on June 23.

The event will be anchored by NTPC, a Maharatna CPSU under the Ministry of Power. The virtual summit will bring the policymakers and major stakeholders from the BRICS nations deliberating and discussing at length the future of hydrogen in the energy mix.

On day one, representatives from each country would be sharing respective initiatives undertaken by their countries on the utilisation of hydrogen and their plans. The speakers will also share the relevance of different technologies developed on hydrogen and its priorities for their country.

Day two will witness panel discussions on ideas integrating hydrogen in the overall energy policy framework by different countries. The discussions entail financing options for the emerging green hydrogen technologies and the institutional support needed to create the requisite ecosystem for the technology to flourish.

As the world rapidly moves to decarbonise the entire energy system, hydrogen is poised to play a vital role and build on the rapid scale-up of renewable resources across the world. Hydrogen when produced by electrolysis using renewable energy is known as Green Hydrogen which has no carbon footprint. This gives Hydrogen the edge over other fuels to unlock various avenues of green usage. However, challenges lie in terms of technology, efficiency, financial viability and scaling up which the summit will aim to address.

Green hydrogen has innumerable applications. Green Chemicals like ammonia and methanol can directly be utilised in existing applications like fertilisers, mobility, power, chemicals, shipping etc. Green Hydrogen blending up to 10 per cent may be adopted in CGD networks to gain widespread acceptance.

 

The virtual summit will bring policymakers and

Finance

EBITDA was at Rs 152 crores showing a decline of 2.3 per cent, in the same quarter

Insecticides(India) Limited (IIL), announced its financial results for the fiscal quarter and full-year ending March 31, 2021.

In FY2021 YoY, the revenue from operations was at Rs 1,420 crore, registering a growth of 4.2  per cent. EBITDA was at Rs 152 crore, decline of 2.3 per cent. EBITDA margin was at 10.7 per cent compared to 11.4 per cent. The company registered a PAT of Rs 93 crore, showing a growth of 8.6 per cent. The PAT margin was at 6.5 per cent compared to 6.3 per cent. The company continued its deleveraging strategy and reduced its net debt by Rs 92 crore during the year. A total dividend of Rs 2 per share i.e. 20 per cent on face value, in Q3FY21 was announced.

In Q4 FY2021 YoY, revenue from operations was at Rs 256 crore, showing a growth of 7.1 per cent. EBITDA was at Rs 29 crore, with margins of 11.2 per cent compared to (1.0) per cent. PAT of Rs 22 crore was registered, with margins of 8.5 per cent compared to (3.1) per cent.

Rajesh Agarwal, MD, IIL said, “We have launched seven new products in FY21 for improving product mix, which has received positive response from the market and contributed Rs 27.4 crores to net sales during the year. I am also pleased to announce that Lethal Granules and Tadaaki have started substituting Thimet sales during the year and have registered annual sales of Rs. 56.5 crores and is expected to contribute good growth in the coming year. In addition, we are targeting to launch Hachiman, a patented herbicide mixture with Nissan Japan which is a part of our plan to launch five to six new value-added products during the year. Management team is fully equipped and committed to driving the growth as registration of new products, improving product mix and increasing brand business will help company to scale new heights.”

EBITDA was at Rs 152 crores showing

AgroPolicy, Agrotech

The programme intends to understand the local problems of the NER farmers and provide scientific solutions to those problems

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has issued a Special Call for North East Region as a part of its Mission Programme ’Biotech-Krishi Innovation Science Application Network (Biotech-KISAN),’ intending to understand the local problems of the NER farmers and provide scientific solutions to those problems.

 

Biotech-KISAN is a scientist-farmer partnership scheme launched in 2017 for agriculture innovation to connect science laboratories with the farmers to find out innovative solutions and technologies to be applied at farm level. Under this scheme, so far 146 Biotech-KISAN Hubs have been established covering all 15 agroclimatic zones and110 Aspirational Districts in the country. The scheme has benefitted over two lakhs farmers so far by increasing their agriculture output and income. Over 200 entrepreneurships have also been developed in rural areas. 

 

The present call specifically focuses on the North East Region as it is predominantly agrarian with 70 per cent of its workforce engaged in agriculture and allied sector for livelihood. The region produces merely 1.5 per cent of country‘s food grain and continues to be a net importer of food grains even for its domestic consumption. The NE region has untapped potential to enhance the income of the farming population by promotion of location specific crops, horticultural and plantation crops, fisheries and livestock production. 

 

The Biotech-KISAN will be implemented in the North East Region with objective of linking available innovative agriculture technologies to the farm with the small and marginal farmers, specially women farmers of the region. The hubs in NER will collaborate with the top scientific institutions across the country as well as State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) / Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) / existing state agriculture extension services / system and other Farmers’ organisations in the NER for demonstrations of technologies and training of farmers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The programme intends to understand the local