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Logistics

Fazil mango variety was sourced from Malda district of West Bengal

A consignment of Geographical Identification (GI) certified Fazil mango variety sourced from the Malda district of West Bengal was exported to Bahrain. The consignment of Fazil mango was exported by APEDA registered DM enterprises, Kolkata and imported by Al Jazira Group, Bahrain.

The shipment to Bahrain comes a few days after APEDA organised a mango promotion programme at Doha, Qatar where nine varieties of mangoes including GI certified from West Bengal & Uttar Pradesh were displayed at the stores of importer Family Food Centre.

The nine varieties which were exported includes GI certified Khirsapati (Malda, West Bengal), Lakkhanbhog (Malda, West Bengal), Fazli (Malda, West Bengal), Dusshheri (Malihabad, Uttar Pradesh) and Amrapali and Chausa (Malda, West Bengal) and Langda (Nadiya, West Bengal).

The varieties of mangoes were sold through 13 stores of the group in Bahrain. The mangoes were sourced from farmers in Bengal and Bihar by APEDA registered exporters.

APEDA has been conducting virtual buyer-seller meets and festivals to promote mango exports. It recently organised a mango festival in Berlin, Germany.

 

Fazil mango variety was sourced from Malda

Agrotech, IT

’India Cropland Data Layer’ datasets will be available at SatSure Sparta’s data platform exclusively from July 15, 2021

SatSure, a decision intelligence company based in Bengaluru and Switzerland-based St Gallen (Switzerland), have launched two new patent-pending data products to address the challenges around soil moisture and crop monitoring at scale. The farm-level soil moisture and the ’India Cropland Data Layer’ datasets will be available on its data platform SatSure Sparta exclusively from July 15, 2021, for visualisations, download and API based consumption, along with its freemium datasets on vegetation, land, water change detection and climate data categories.

Prateep Basu, Founder and CEO, SatSure said, “At SatSure, we believe in innovating as per the market’s needs rather than pushing technology to the market. While there are other soil moisture products offered by a few firms globally, what we have done is created a high spatial resolution daily soil moisture product using a combination of publicly available satellites, which is unique and as good as having an IoT device on every farm.”

Rashmit Singh Sukhmani, Co-founder and CTO, SatSure, added, “Both the products bring forth our team’s expertise in satellite data analytics and AI/ML. Just like SatSure Cygnus, where we are providing high-frequency optical satellite data by overcoming the visibility issues of cloud cover, especially during the monsoon season, through the India Cropland data layer, we are addressing another critical issue of satellite-based crop monitoring, and it is an essential data input for remote sensing and GIS analysts who perform crop classification using satellite images. Trained with more than half a million annotated datasets across different states, it significantly enhances crop classification accuracy, and it has been built using three years of openly available Sentinel-2 imagery from the European Space Agency.”
 

’India Cropland Data Layer’ datasets will

Agrotech, Cold Storage, Finance

The fund will be used to scale-up manufacturing and grow operations internationally ahead of initial market launch in 2022

Aleph Farms, the cultivated meat company growing steaks directly from non-genetically modified animal cells, has announced the completion of a $105 million Series B funding round. The funding round was led by the Growth Fund of L Catterton, the largest global consumer-focused private equity firm, and DisruptAD, one of the largest venture platforms in the Middle East. It also saw participation from Skyviews Life Science, as well as a consortium of leading global food and meat companies including Thai Union, BRF, and CJ CheilJedang. Additionally, existing investors, including VisVires New Protein, Strauss Group, Cargill, Peregrine Ventures, and CPT Capital, participated in the Series B funding round. To date, the company has raised more than $118 million.

The company will use this latest round of investment to execute its plans for large scale global commercialisation and portfolio expansion into new types of animal protein. Its near-term milestones include scaling-up manufacturing, growing operations internationally, and expanding the product lines and technology platform ahead of an initial market launch in 2022.

Aleph Farms is the first company to grow steaks directly from the cells of cows, and have revealed not only the world’s first cell-cultured thin-cut steak in 2018, but also the world’s first cell-cultured ribeye earlier this year.

The company’s mission is to create more resilient, equitable and sustainable global food systems through a collaborative global platform for local cultivated meat production independent of the availability of local natural resources such as arable land, water, and under any climate.

 

The fund will be used to scale-up

Agrotech

The last date to submit the application is August 31, 2021

2021 marks the 11th year of the Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation Award. The Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation Award is an annual award of ₹100,000 given to an individual or an organisation for a prototyped innovation or a commercialised product or service. The innovation must address the problems faced by the disadvantaged resource-poor people in India and offer an original and implementable solution.

Applications are invited in the field of energy, education, agriculture finance, healthcare, water and sanitation.

Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation Award was instituted by Dr RA Mashelkar in 2011, under the aegis of International Longevity Centre – India. The aim is to recognise and reward innovators who develop solutions for the excluded members of society. The award is named after Dr Mashelkar’s late mother.

For over a decade, the award has been instrumental in recognising and rewarding impressive high-technology solutions made available at astoundingly low costs to the masses. The jury for this prestigious award comprises of distinguished personalities and eminent leaders from the areas of science and technology, healthcare, innovation, social work and business.

The last date to submit the application is August 31.

The last date to submit the application

Supply Chain, Warehousing

The contract involves the management of over 322,000 metric tonnes (MT) of primarily wheat, paddy and other notified agricultural commodities 

 

 

 The New Delhi-headquartered agri technology and warehousing solutions conglomerate, Sohan Lal Commodity Management (SLCM), has received a record contract as a service provider for the Preservation, Management and Security (PMS) of food grain stock from the State Government of Madhya Pradesh.

The contract involving the management of over 322,000 metric tonnes (MT) of primarily wheat, paddy and other notified agricultural commodities on behalf of the Madhya Pradesh Warehousing & Logistics Corp. (MPWLC) is for two years. Based on SLCM’s performance, the PMS contract can be extended by another year at the discretion of MPWLC. 

SLCM will be providing PMS services at 11 locations in the districts of Sheopur, Bhind, Shivpuri, Guna, Ashok Nagar and Datia in the Gwalior Zone of the central Indian state. 

Speaking on the award, Sandeep Sabharwal, Chief Executive Officer, SLCM Group, observed, “Quite like the yeoman service performed by the nation’s corona warriors, agriculture workers and people engaged in agricultural warehousing and supply chain management at our group companies have worked doggedly in the past 17 months to ensure a disruption-free movement and safety of the produce by facilitating its seamless storage, transportation and warehousing. The MPWLC contract is yet another endorsement of our ability to deliver not only cost-effective but also technologically advanced warehousing solutions to the nation. We are grateful to the country’s second-largest state for the trust placed in us.”

Salman Ullah Khan, Chief Business Officer, SLCM, said, “Based on our technical merits, experience and competitive commercials, we have been awarded a PMS assignment by MPWLC for management of agricultural commodities in Madhya Pradesh. We are thankful to MPWLC for reposing their confidence in our abilities and are hopeful that with our operational capability coupled with round-the-clock digital vigilance and real-time update of on-field activities, we shall manage commodities efficiently. Our solutions incorporating the latest digital technologies will enable the state government to not only ensure the quality of the stored commodities but also help minimise post-harvest losses.” 

SLCM will be executing this open CAP contract using its AgriSuraksha solution that incorporates the latest cutting-edge internet-based surveillance technology, enabling monitoring as well as interaction with the personnel at the site. This enables 24×7 monitoring of produce in faraway locations from the command and control centre at the group’s corporate headquarters in New Delhi, personal computers, or handheld devices like laptops, tablets and mobile phones in real-time.

 

 

 

The contract involves the management of over

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Interaction, Supply Chain

Discussions were held on the need for resilient agriculture to tackle future uncertainties

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) recently organised a webinar on ’Risk Management in Indian Agriculture’ ensuring secure livelihood for farmers. Dr Suresh Kumar Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Government of India said, “We need to promote integrated waste management systems, green chemistry, bio solutions, and pesticides, which will help to produce safe food. The government will start with certifications and multi-levels safety standards that will ensure safe food production and consumption. We recommend farmers to choose high yield crops like oilseeds, pulses, millets, etc.”

 

Dr Malhotra apprised that the government has submitted a proposal to United Nations that the International Year of Millets to be observed in the year 2023. He mentioned, “This shows how we choose our crop, where to have the best combinations with minimum resources and more output. Several rural resources are being affected due to unforeseen circumstances and, some mechanism needs to be developed and implemented to ensure that the agriculture cycle doesn’t get hampered. We need to make agriculture resilient to the uncertainties of the future.”

 

He mentioned that the government is keen to increase water use efficiency to increase agriculture efficiency. More crops are being promoted so that we can invest utilisation of water; sprinklers and micro-irrigation have been installed for the same. 

 

Malhotra further added, “We have a production and national agriculture system which is evolving. Farmers are also given weather warning systems so that they are aware of any climate crisis beforehand.”

 

The webinar was followed by a panel discussion on – Mitigating Risk in Indian Agriculture which was moderated by G Chandrashekhar, Agribusiness Specialist, and Policy Commentator and witnessed the industry inputs of deliberation of Kapil Dev, Chief Business Officer, NCDEX; SK Sethi, Director, Ria Insurance Brokers; Nixon Joseph, Former President & COO, SBI Foundation and Rohit Dhanda, AVP, Capital Markets & Strategic Initiatives, Samunnati. The discussions explored the efficient ways to strategise risk management in the agriculture sector as well as touch upon the best strategies for better price discoveries to the farmers. 

 

Sanjay Aggarwal, President, PHDCCI in his presidential address discussed the noble work done by PHDCCI in constructing check dams in various parts of the nation and lauded the efforts made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare for seamless working. He deliberated about the need for risk management which will help farmers to control the various unforeseen risks factors at the same time help farmers to grow and prosper. He mentioned that there is a need for better education options for the farmers. 

 

Nand Kishore Aggarwal, Chairman-Agriculture Committee, PHDCCI while discussing the need for stringent policies for controlling food risk management, mentioned that there is a need to involve the industry and insurance for development in the sector. 

 

Saurabh Sanyal, Secretary-General, PHDCCI gave an overview about the importance of the agriculture sector in contributing towards the economy and livelihood, discussed the challenges faced and opportunities garnered by the sector amidst the pandemic, and the need for inclusion of technology to mitigate quality risks. 

 

The webinar was moderated by Saurabh Sanyal, Secretary-General, along with Dr Yogesh Srivastav, Assistant Secretary-General, PHDCCI, and was attended by many industry stalwarts across the nation. 

Discussions were held on the need for

AgroPolicy, Finance, Seeds

The framework will help to develop superior plant varieties by breeders which will benefit the farmers

The seed industry through National Seed Association of India (NSAI) and Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) reached a consensus on the commercialisation of a framework for new traits for the development of superior plant varieties which will benefit the farmers. The consensus developed through consultations and discussions among the industry players is significant, putting an end to the fears of monopoly or restricted access to the traits by the plant breeders and at the same time providing assurance to the trait developing companies of a reasonable return on their investments. The optimisation of interests of different stakeholder groups including farmers will also lead to clarity to the regulatory agencies in future to evaluate and approve the new traits or plant varieties.

 

The senior officials of the Agriculture Ministry and the regulatory authorities were briefed on the salient features of the framework by the industry associations who have further requested for making the regulatory and approval process predictable and seamless.

 

Prabhakar Rao, President, NSAI said, “This framework ensures that interests of all parties including farmers are taken care of and we are happy that the main concerns of the small and medium companies regarding monopoly of trait leading to excessive trait pricing are fully addressed. The non-discretionary access to traits on the principles of FRAND and trait value fixation by an Industry body having the presence of eminent agricultural experts will address the fears of the farmers and industry players of excessive trait pricing.”

 

Dr M Ramasami, Chairman, Rasi Seeds and Chairman, FSII said, “Illegal use of unapproved technologies is fraught with dangers to the environment, to the legally operating seed industry and eventually to the farmers themselves. This framework will be very beneficial to the Indian farmers who have been waiting for new technologies for more than 10 years. The two associations believe that new technologies will improve farmers’ incomes, increase the international competitiveness of the Indian farmers and provide better quality food to the consumers. There is a huge felt need for the traits among the farmers which should be met through legal approval and commercialisation of new technologies. This framework enables such process for release of new technologies.”

 

The highlights of the commercialisation framework are:

1. An Industry Governing Body (IGB) to be formed with representatives from both the associations, an independent scientist and an independent expert to chair it. The Chair and the Scientist will take an impartial view of the matters and ensure that concerns and interests of all parties including farmers are taken care of. 

2. Some basic criteria including technical and financial capacity to handle technology and readiness to follow stewardship guidelines are identified to determine the qualifications of the seed company for giving access to the trait through an Access Agreement. 

3. The IGB determines trait value within a range of 5 to 20 per cent of the seed value and a gradual reduction in trait value over a defined period. This ensures that the technology remains affordable for the farmer while the technology developers are provided with an adequate return on their investment.

 

The framework will help to develop superior

AgroPolicy, Finance

The eligibility has now been extended to State Agencies/APMCs, National & State Federations of Cooperatives, Federations of Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) and Federations of Self Help Groups (SHGs)

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its approval to the following modifications in the Central Sector Scheme of Financing Facility under ‘Agriculture Infrastructure Fund’.

The eligibility has now been extended to State Agencies/APMCs, National & State Federations of Cooperatives, Federations of Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) and Federations of Self Help Groups (SHGs).

At present Interest subvention for a loan up to Rs 2 crore in one location is eligible under the scheme. In case, one eligible entity puts up projects in different locations then all such projects will now be eligible for interest subvention for a loan up to Rs 2 crore. However, for a private sector entity, there will be a limit of a maximum of 25 such projects. This limitation of 25 projects will not be applicable to state agencies, national and state federations of cooperatives, federations of FPOs and federation of SHGs. Location will mean the physical boundary of a village or town having a distinct LGD (Local Government Directory) code. Each of such projects should be in a location having a separate LGD code.

For APMCs, interest subvention for a loan up to Rs 2 crore will be provided for each project of different infrastructure types e.g. cold storage, sorting, grading and assaying units, silos, et within the same market yard.

The power has been delegated to the Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare to make necessary changes with regard to the addition or deletion of the beneficiary in such a manner so that the basic spirit of the scheme is not altered

The period of the financial facility has been extended from four to six years up to 2025-26 and the overall period of the scheme has been extended from 10 to 13 up to 2032-33.

The modifications in the scheme will help to achieve a multiplier effect in generating investments while ensuring that the benefits reach small and marginal farmers. APMC markets are set up to provide market linkages and create an ecosystem of post-harvest public infrastructure open to all farmers.

 

The eligibility has now been extended to

AgroPolicy

Narendra Singh Tomar welcomes Karandlaje and extended her best wishes for her future responsibilities

Shobha Karandlaje has taken over as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar welcomed Karandlaje and extended her best wishes for her future responsibilities.

Shobha expressed her gratitude to the top leadership for handing over the new responsibilities and also assured the commitment of working in the ministry. After assuming charge, Shobha also interacted with the media and other senior officials of the ministry. Senior officials of the ministry were also present on the occasion.

Narendra Singh Tomar welcomes Karandlaje and extended

Agrotech, Environment, Interaction, Sustainable Energy

Envirocare Green Award will be conferred to those who strive to protect the environment by adopting or innovating measures that help create a sustainable environment

Envirocare Green Award  2021 will be held virtually on July 16, 2021. Along the event will take place the Envirocare Green Award. The award will be conferred to those who strive to protect the environment by adopting or innovating measures that help create a sustainable environment for the present and future generations. The CSR activity initiated in 2018 appreciates and motivates professionals and organisations and motivate the citizens to think green and contribute towards a nation that is not only progressive and consciously responsible towards our mother Earth. 

 

The awards event will have three keynote speakers talking about the environment and sustainability. Dr Sarit Kumar Das from IIT Roorkee will give a lecture on Innovations in Sustainability; Karin Heinze, Specialist Journalist in Organic Sector, Germany will talk on Organic a way for Ecosystem Restoration and Arnab Deb, Sustainalytics Morning Star will speak on Sustainable Plastics.

 

AgroSpectrum is the media partner for the event.

Envirocare Green Award will be conferred to

Agrotech, Environment, Interaction, Sustainable Energy

The webinar discussed multiple aspects of transitioning from financing to social and environmental costs of transition

A webinar was jointly hosted by CUTS International and Climate Trends to discuss the emerging trends and energy transition of Rajasthan. The webinar discussed multiple aspects of transitioning from financing to social and environmental costs of transition, challenges faced by the power sector utilities and the opportunities.

The webinar was moderated by Aarti Khosla, Director, Climate Trends where discussions were held on a wide spectrum of relevant issues on the intersection of climate change, energy sector, economy, society and ecology.

“Rajasthan is emerging as a leader in the renewable energy sector and the need of the hour is to think constructively to move forward and capitalise on the huge potential of renewable energy the state” said Rohit Gupta, Managing Director, Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam.

Nigam further said, “There is a need to think of constructive ways to go forward and capitalise on the huge potential of renewable energy while addressing some of the crucial concerns of livelihoods, ecology and techno-economic well-being of the power sector.”

While addressing Rajasthan’s the bright prospects of clean energy generation, Amol Kulkarni, Director-Research, CUTS International, highlighted some critical issues including sustainable financing, inclusive outcomes, social costs, environmental footprint and cost-economics of the power utilities.

The panel collectively stressed on the need to build local capacities in order to enable the communities to become a stakeholder and not merely recipients of the outcomes of energy transition. Rajasthan can play a key leadership role in the country’s transition to a low-cost, low-emission, profitable electricity system.

Kartikeya Singh, Director – Programmes, Stichting SED Fund said, “Rajasthan has bounty of resources and has the capability to lead the energy transition by balancing the interests of consumers, coal economy stakeholders, lives and livelihoods, and the environment. And in doing so, the private sector is taking leaps by committing and announcing a shift from conventional polluting sources of energy.”

Simran Grover, CEO, Bask Research Foundation, “There has to be a changed approach towards addressing the woes of the Discoms, which are at the centre-stage of this transition. The purpose and aims of infrastructure development also needs to be accounted for in the energy transition debate.For instance, it would be unfair to blame the agricultural consumers for the excess subsidies they have because basic economic sense requires them to only pay for the marginal cost of power, as the power generation was initially set to serve the needs of industrialisation and energy access.”

Swati Dsouza, Research Lead – Climate Action, National Foundation for India, “The changed mindsets, behaviours and perceptions of stakeholders to be the key bone of contention in the prospects of a ‘just’ energy transition. The socio-economic indicators of people engaged in it should become the basis of identifying the elements of energy transition, including its timeline, framework of action and subsequently the nature of financing.”

Amit Kumar, Senior Director,Social Transformation,TERI, “The social and environmental aspects of transition should not be merely measured through the cost-lens, but also through the macro-level objectives of energy access and energy poverty. And in doing so, the clean energy transition should be pursued as a national goal with aligned and collective efforts from all the stakeholders.”

Sarthak Shukla, analyst CUTS international while concluding said that there is a need to adopt a systemic approach to ensure transparency and accountability in the way that envisaged transition from coal to renewables.

 

The webinar discussed multiple aspects of transitioning

Sustainable Energy, World

The MoU formalises a partnership between the two agencies to expand collaboration communication, education and outreach, and promoting training on agricultural practices

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau (NMF&LB) signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand joint activities supporting the agencies’ shared goal of well-managed, sustainable farms. The agreement is the first among states in EPA Region 6, which also includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

 

The MoU formalises a partnership between the two agencies to expand collaboration communication, education and outreach, and promoting training on agricultural practices that are good for business and the environment. The agencies will also work to recognise and promote examples of environmental stewardship within the agriculture community and to the general public.

 

“This agreement will strengthen the partnership between EPA and the New Mexico agriculture community and expand areas of collaboration,” said Acting Regional Administrator David Gray. “Finding more common ground will bring us closer to the goal of prosperous, well-managed farms and ranches that incorporate sustainable practices and environmental stewardship.”

 

“We are excited to join this collaboration with EPA as we work to share information between organisations on how best to support economically viable and sustainable agricultural practices,” said Chad Smith, NMF&LB CEO. “Farmers and ranchers have a vested interest in the protection and improvement of water and soil resources, and this partnership will move us towards this shared goal.”

 

Under the MoU, the agencies intend to:

  • Enhance coordination and communication by holding annual meetings to discuss priorities, activities, effective approaches and opportunities to collaborate; share updates throughout the year on relevant programmes, policies and activities and coordinate on areas of common interest
  • Promote education and outreach to foster open dialogue between EPA and the agriculture community; identify success, challenges and opportunities to work together
  • Recognise agriculture environmental stewardship by developing a new programme for these efforts; highlight these achievements to the public and broader agricultural communities.

EPA and NMF&LB also plan to collaborate on an annual report highlighting collective achievements as a result of the MoU and plans for the following year.

The MoU formalises a partnership between the

Trade, Transportation

The flowers for the consignments were sourced from Nilakottai, Dindigul and Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu by APEDA

Geographical Indications (GI) certified Madurai malli and other traditional flowers such as button rose, lily, chamanthi and marigold were exported to the US and Dubai from Tamil Nadu.

 

The flowers for the consignments were sourced from Nilakottai, Dindigul and Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu by APEDA (The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) registered VanguardExports, Coimbatore.

 

The exporters of consignments were supported by professors from the floriculture department of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore in the adoption of packaging technology to increase the shelf life of the flowers. Direct contacts with the farmers to cultivate quality flowers were undertaken by the exporters and the initiative generated employment to about 130 women workers and about 30 skilled workers.

 

During 2020-2021, fresh-cut flowers jasmine flowers and bouquets (comprising of jasmine and other traditional flowers) valued at Rs 66.28 crores were exported to countries like the US, the UAE, Singapore, etc. Out of which, a value of Rs 11.84 crores were exported from the Tamil Nadu region through major airports of Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai.

 

Madurai has emerged as a major market for the malligai grown in its neighbourhood, and has evolved into the ‘jasmine capital’ of India.

 

The flowers for the consignments were sourced

Agrotech, Foodgrains

360-degree camera technology will allow users to browse the wheat and barley variety plots exhibited on the Syngenta stand at this year’s Cereals Event

Cereal growers who are not visiting variety plots in person ahead of this autumn’s planting decisions can experience a high-resolution alternative with a new, 360-degree virtual tour of its wheat and barley varieties, being launched by Syngenta.

Available on the Syngenta UK website, the immersive experience uses 360-degree camera technology to allow users to browse the wheat and barley variety plots exhibited on the Syngenta stand at this year’s Cereals Event.

Users can navigate to individual variety plots from a 360-degree panoramic view of the stand by clicking on ‘hotspots’ in front of each plot, or by clicking directly to the variety via a conventional drop-down menu.

From here, users can ‘walk’ into the plot for a closer, high-resolution inspection of the variety, as well as clicking into summary videos and information sheets that explain each variety’s key features. These include information such as the variety’s yield and quality performance, its suitability to different drilling dates and soil types, its disease resistance and its maturity.

“Choosing the correct variety lays the foundation for the rest of the cropping year,” says Syngenta marketing and communications specialist for seeds and seed care, Kimberley Baker, “and inspecting varieties in plots at various events and open days over the summer is often a key part of the variety decision-making process.

A total of 20 Syngenta varieties are featured in the 360-degree online tour. These comprise: four winter kinds of wheat, including the newest Syngenta feed wheat, SY Insitor; seven hybrid barleys, including recently-launched SY Thunderbolt; three winter malting barleys; and six spring barleys. The latter include the up-and-coming spring malting options, SY Tungsten and SY Splendor.

 

360-degree camera technology will allow users to