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Agro Universities

Farmers were sentisised on fall armyworm invasion, identify the damage needful curative action

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ropar under Directorate of Extension Education and ICAR ATARI Zone-1, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana organised a farmers’ awareness camp at village Jhandian-Kalan for the management of fall armyworm in maize.

Dr GS Makkar, Deputy Director, KVK Ropar apprised that the camp was a part of KVK’s campaign on sensitising farmers to be wary of fall armyworm invasion. 45 farmers from different villages participated in the programme. While sharing the details, Dr Makkar added that fall armyworm has become the problem of plenty and timely identification of damage and needful curative action are must for harvesting good returns. “Careful scouting of maize crop throughout the growing season is highly important”, he added.

Dr Pawan Kumar discussed that the larvae vary from greenish-brown, light brown or light grey. Female lays eggs in groups of 100-150 eggs on the lower or upper surface of the leaves. Young larvae feed by scraping the leaf surface and later causing damage to the central whorl leaves where a large amount of faecal matter can be seen. The damage starts in patches, spreads rapidly in the entire field if not monitored carefully and managed timely. Farmers were also advised to follow recommended chemical control measures with needful precautions.

Ankurdeep Preeti shared information on the role of agroforestry in promoting the diversity of natural enemy fauna. The programme ended with field visits to nearby maize fields.

Farmers were sentisised on fall armyworm invasion,

Agro Universities, Machinery – Post-harvesting

The unique thresher depods and separates the green peas from the crop

The Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana has entered into an important memorandum of undertaking (MoU) with Sokhi Manufacturing Company, Samrala, Punjab for the refinement, modification and promotion of the ’Portable Green pea Thresher-cum-Depodder.’

 

Dr Navtej Singh Bains, Director of Research, PAU and S Hardam Singh, Director, Sokhi Manufacturing Company, Samrala, Punjab signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations. Dr GS Manes, Additional Director of Research (FM&BE), informed that the ’Portable Green Pea Thresher-cum-Depodder’ is a unique thresher that threshes, depods and separates the green peas from the crop. 

 

Dr Ajmer Singh Dhatt, Additional Director of Research (Horticulture) emphasised that this machine will mechanise the threshing of pea crop, therefore, will increase the area under the pea crop, which will encourage the cultivation of pea crop for diversification of agriculture in Punjab. 

 

Dr Mahesh Narang, Head, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering reported that the pea thresher has a throughput capacity of 4.0 t/h and output capacity of green pea about 1.0 t/h. Dr Ashok Kumar, Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology congratulated the Head and team of scientists Dr Rajesh Goyal and Dr Manpreet Singh Dr GS Mangat, Additional Director of Research (NRM), PAU and Dr Amarjeet Kaur( Associate Director Technology Marketing & Intellectual Property Right cell were also present on the occasion.

The unique thresher depods and separates the

Machinery - Pre-harvesting, Webinar

Discussions will be held on the expected production of pulses, government perspective, export import etc

India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) will organise Kharif sowing overview webinar under the aegis of the IPGA Knowledge Series. The webinar will be held on August 27, 2021, at 5 pm.
 
Dr SK Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India will present an overview of the government’s perspective about Kharif sowing and expected production of pulses. Nirav Desai, Director – GGN Research will present an overview of the trade’s perspective about Kharif sowing and expected production of pulses. Dr D S Pai, Head – Climate Research and Services, Indian Meteorological Dept will talk about the performance of the monsoons so far and what the near future holds in terms of weather conditions.   

                            
B Krishnamurthy, MD, 4P International will speak about the prospects of the forthcoming Urad crop in terms of carry-forward stocks, quantities imported last year, sowing and acreage and expected production this year. Nitin Kalantry, CEO, Kalantry Food Products will speak about the prospects of the forthcoming Tur crop in terms of carry-forward stocks, quantities imported last year, sowing and acreage and expected production this year. Punit Bachhawat, MD, Prakash Agro Mills will speak about the prospects of the forthcoming Moong crop in terms of carry-forward stocks, quantities imported last year, sowing and acreage and expected production this year.

Discussions will be held on the expected

Agrotech, Environment

Bayer Crop Science will provide the seeds of the Delisher cherry plum tomato for cultivation

Bayer Crop Science will partner with Pinduoduo for its annual Smart Agriculture Competition. Tomato has been chosen for this year’s competition. For the competition, Bayer Crop Science will provide the seeds of the Delisher cherry plum tomato for cultivation. The company will also offer its crop protection expertise, environmental monitoring and disease management.

 

To be held till March 2022, teams from around the globe will take part in the Smart Agriculture Competition to develop ’one-click planting’ models for growing tomatoes, using nutrition science, algorithms, sensor technology and intelligent greenhouses. The objective is to boost the yield and nutritional content of tomatoes while ensuring the process is cost-effective and environmentally sustainable.

 

As China’s largest agriculture platform, Pinduoduo spearheaded the creation of the Smart Agriculture Competition as a way to gather the top minds in agronomy and computer science to develop technology that can help smallholder farmers and spur agricultural modernisation.

 

Pinduoduo is organising the competition together with the China Agricultural University and Zhejiang University. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Wageningen University & Research are serving as technical advisers.

 

“Through the Smart Agriculture Competition, we hope to interest more young scientific talent in agriculture so that they can apply their talents to helping farmers,” said Andre Zhu, Senior VP, Pinduoduo. 

Bayer Crop Science will provide the seeds

Start ups

Building crop residue based products

Inception– 2017

Location– Pune

Domain– Crop waste management

Founders– Shubham Singh and Dr Himansha Singh

Total team strength– 10 full-time members and supported by 2 part-time members

Total funds raised– Rs 1.1 crore

Investors/ Mentors– Techstars, other awards and grants; Incubation at Venture Centre, Pune

Revenue generated since inception– NA

 

Key Highlights-

  1. Working towards crop waste management by providing additional revenue to the farmers
  2. Making packaging products from an innovative process which ensures less water consumption and Zero Level Discharge
  3. Craste engineered boards are best substitute to wood for the furniture and construction industry
  4. Tree Free, crop waste-based boards help to future proof the global shortage of wood
  5. The formaldehyde-free adhesive used in Craste panel boards lets our customers breathe cleaner air without poisonous fumes

 

Founder Speaks-

“We are setting up our pilot plant for Craste engineered boards and we plan on building strategic alliances to ensure that our engineered boards are adopted widely in the construction and furniture industry.  We are overwhelmed by the interest received from the market and we intend to scale up at the earliest to meet demands from our international clients as well.”

– Shubham Singh, Founder, Craste, Pune

 

 

Building crop residue based productsInception- 2017 Location- Pune Domain-

Finance, Seeds

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on logistics

S&W Seed Company has announced certain unaudited preliminary financial results for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. Preliminary core revenue for fiscal 2021 is expected to be approximately $69.8 million, compared to core revenue for fiscal 2020 of $59.9 million, an expected increase of approximately 16.5 per cent. Preliminary total revenue for fiscal 2021 is expected to be approximately $84.0 million, compared to total revenue for fiscal 2020 of $79.6 million, an expected increase of approximately 5.5 per cent.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on logistics, as experienced in several industries across the globe, contributing to delayed shipments to the company’s customers and also increasing its costs of goods sold.

Approximately $5.0 million of revenue that the company expected to recognise in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 is instead expected to be recognized in the first quarter of fiscal 2022. The company expects gross profit margins to be approximately 16.3 per cent for fiscal 2021, with an estimated impact of approximately $1.5 million from increased shipping and transportation costs. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2021 is expected to be in a range of $13.0 to $13.2 million.

S&W Seed Company has not finalised its financial statements for the fourth quarter or a full year of fiscal 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant negative

Agrotech

Dr Bhanwala will mentor and advise Arya as it scales/develops and reimagines the ecosystem

Arya, a leading agritech player, has appointed Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala as a Non-Executive Independent Director of the company. Dr Bhanwala will mentor and advise Arya as it scales/develops and reimagines the ecosystem through a comprehensive portfolio of agri services powered by its platform Arya.ag. 

 

Between 2013 and 2020, Dr Bhanwala was chairman of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), which oversees all aspects of agricultural credit as well as the supervision of regional rural banks and cooperative banks. Before that, he was the Chairman and Managing Director of India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL). He had begun his career at Nabard and worked there for almost three decades.

 

Since leaving Nabard in 2020, Dr Bhanwala is serving as Executive Chairman of Capital India Finance, a non-banking financial company and is also an adviser to agritech venture capital firm, Omnivore. 

 

“We believe that his deep understanding of India’s agricultural landscape will be an asset to us as we build equitable agro value chains assuring inclusive growth and greater transparency, said Prasanna Rao, Co founder and Managing Director, Arya.

 

Dr Bhanwala said, “Arya has been working at the farmgate to strengthen agriculture value chains through its integrated range of services. I am happy to be a part of this dynamic team as they create more technology-enabled, viable options for enhancing the market power of smallholders and their organisations.”

 

Dr Bhanwala will mentor and advise Arya

Agrotech, Start ups, Sustainable Energy

Announces three top submissions for working designs in motor drive solutions for solar pumps

Infineon Technologies recently concluded the ’Infineon Solar Pump Motor Drive Design Challenge 2021’, with the announcement of three top submissions for working designs in motor drive solutions for solar pumps. Organised in collaboration with Invest India; and in partnership with Avnet India, the challenge sought a viable solution for solar pump motor drives to enable local manufacturers in India to reduce overall dependency on imports, and support the domestic solar pump ecosystem.

 

After several preliminary rounds later, Infineon selected ten finalists from over 300 start-up applications. Young entrepreneurs from across the country submitted their solutions to a jury whose members included technology experts from Infineon.

 

The challenge aimed to support the Government of India’s countrywide ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, ‘Make In India’ and ‘PM-KUSUM’ initiatives, by making life easier and greener with microelectronics from Infineon.

 

Konmos Technology won the challenge, Sunmint Energy secured the first runner-up spot and Ether Energy secured the second runner-up spot. The winning teams were awarded electronics gadgets worth a total of up to Rs 8 lakh. Alongside, the winning team was also offered an opportunity to further build on their solution as part of a pilot project with the challenge industry partners, Amber Enterprises and Virtual Forest, with funding of up to Rs 5 lakh.

 

Vivek Mahajan, VP and Division Head for Industrial Power Control, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific said, “This initiative is aimed at bridging the gap between the real and the digital world, by bringing together techies and the business experts on the same platform and build a viable, marketable solution which will support the Indian solar pump industry.”

 

Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Invest India said “This challenge comes at an opportune time, as India is working at unprecedented speed to accomplish the SDGs, especially in renewable energy & sustainable development.”

Announces three top submissions for working designs

Agro Universities, Organic, Webinar

Discussions were held on organic manures and vermicomposting for improving soil fertility

The Skill Development Centre under the aegis of the Directorate of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, recently organised a five-day online training on organic farming. 31 farmers and farm women participated in the training.

 

Dr Kuldeep Singh, Associate Director, Skill Development, explained the importance of organic farming. Dr Rupinder Kaur, Course Coordinator said that the training in the troubled pandemic times is a knowledge booster for the farmers and farm women to increase their working skills.

 

Dr CS Aulakh, Director, School of Organic Farming, PAU, Ludhiana thoroughly explained Organic farming standards and certification. Dr AS Sidhu (Technical Coordinator) explained about the organic cultivation of field crops. Dr Neeraj Rani explained about organic manures and vermicomposting for improving soil fertility.

 

Dr Jupinder Kaur explained the role of bio-fertilizers in improving soil health. Dr Subhash Singh shed light on insect-pest management in organic farming, Dr Manmohan Dhakal informed disease management practices, while Dr SS Walia introduced the organic integrated farming system. Dr Manisha Thakur and Dr Kuldeep Singh Bhullar explained about organic farming of vegetable and fruit plants respectively. 

 

Cultivation of aromatic and medicinal plants was discussed by Dr Rajinder Kumar, while Dr Khushdeep Singh Dharni gave tips on marketing strategies for organic products.

 

Dr Lavleesh Garg explained about the ‘UDDAM’ & ‘UDDAN’ programme of Punjab Agribusiness Incubator (PABI) project. He further stressed that the Skill Development Centre; PAU will organise more online training for farmers and farm women shortly.

 

Dr Rupinder Kaur proposed the vote of thanks and urged the participants to utilize the training knowledge in their general life and also in their profession.

 

 

Discussions were held on organic manures and

Agro Universities, Live Stock, Sustainable Energy

According to the panellists, the region has a huge potential for crop and livestock production

The ICAR-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar recently organised the meeting of the task force committee on ’Strategies for Agricultural Development in Middle Gangetic Plains.’

 

Dr RC Srivastava, Vice-Chancellor, Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar emphasised that the Middle Gangetic plains have rich natural and human resources. He urged the scientists for gathering information related to the effect of milk productivity of the milch animals due to flood.

 

Dr Bijendra Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Acharya Narendradev University of Agriculture & Technology, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh stressed the use of solar energy, protected cultivation and early season crop cultivars for fetching higher returns.

 

Dr Rameshwar Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna accentuated social inclusion, gender empowerment and suitable developmental models for more infusion of technology for both the public and private investments.

 

Dr Arun Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Bihar Agriculture University, Sabour, Bihar emphasised the promotion of Resource Conservation Technologies, efficient use of wetland through scientific cultivation of Makhana, water chestnut, lotus and fish and micro-irrigation for high-value crops.

 

Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr Ujjwal Kumar, Director, ICAR-RCER, Patna, Bihar outlined the scope of the meeting. Dr Kumar emphasised that the Middle Indo-Gangetic Plains (MIGP) covers 66 districts of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh with a total geographical area of 18.07 m ha which is around 5.5 per cent of the total area of India. He accentuated the great potential of the Middle Gangetic Plains for crop and livestock production.

 

The meeting was aimed at suggesting suitable strategies for the identification of constraints and research priorities, extension mechanisms and institutional linkages for the overall agricultural development in the Middle Gangetic Plains including Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh.The senior officials of ICAR Institutes and state agricultural universities also virtually participated in the meeting.

 

 

According to the panellists, the region has

AgroPolicy, Sustainable Energy

Wide publicity and awareness of the PM-KUSUM Scheme will help in agricultural activities

The Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh has reviewed the progress of implementation of PM-KUSUM and Rooftop Solar Programme Phase-II with States/UTs and discussed the issues in the implementation of these schemes.

 

Singh emphasised the importance of the PM-KUSUM Scheme for the farmers providing them day-time reliable source of power for irrigation activities and also increasing the income. He also stressed wide publicity and awareness of the PM-KUSUM Scheme so that every farmer know the provisions and take benefit under the scheme. He also discussed with senior officers from States/ UTs about the feeder level solarisation component of the PM-KUSUM Scheme, which would help in reducing the electricity subsidy, being given for the agriculture sector, to a large extent and assured that all possible support will be provided to the States/ UTs in implementation of this scheme.

 

On the implementation of Rooftop Solar Programme Ph-II, the minister re-emphasised the need for wide publicity and awareness about the Scheme taking it to every household, as installation of rooftop solar will bring down the electricity consumption of the households and save electricity expenditure.

 

He stated that the joint efforts of Central and states will help in the successful implementation of these schemes and achieving the renewable energy targets of the country. 

 

Wide publicity and awareness of the PM-KUSUM

AgroPolicy, Oilseeds

Neramac will ensure remunerative prices to the farmers and provide better farming facilities and training to the farmers of the North Eastern Region

The revival of North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC) will ensure remunerative prices to the farmers and provide better farming facilities and training to the farmers of the North Eastern Region. This information was shared by G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).

 

Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister has approved a revival package of Rs 77.45 crore (Rs 17 crore towards fund based support and Rs 60.45 crore towards non-fund based support) for the revival of NERAMAC, a central Public Section Enterprises under the administrative control of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Regional (MDoNER).

 

Reddy added, “The government has identified the North-Eastern region as a special focus area as the target set for the North East in the next five years is more than 50 per cent of the overall target of 6.5 lakh hectares set for the entire nation.”

 

The minister also highlighted the existing experience of states such as Mizoram in the North-eastern region that is ranked among the top five cultivators of oil palm in the country. “Farmers of states such as Mizoram already have significant oil palm cultivation experience and we can leverage their expertise in the rest of the North-Eastern states,” he said.

Neramac will ensure remunerative prices to the

AgroPolicy, Trade

Farmers likely to be benefitted from the move

Government of India is taking proactive measures to boost the export of surplus sugar and diversion of sugar to ethanol to ensure timely payment of cane dues of sugarcane farmers and to boost the agricultural economy. The government has been encouraging sugar mills to divert surplus sugar to ethanol and has been providing financial assistance to sugar mills to facilitate the export of sugar, thereby improving their liquidity, enabling the farmers to make timely payments of cane price dues of sugarcane farmers. 

 

In the last three sugar seasons 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, about 6.2 Lakh Metric Tonne (LMT), 38 LMT & 59.60 LMT of sugar has been exported. In the current sugar season 2020-21 (October – September), the government is providing assistance of Rs 6000/MT to facilitate the export of 60 LMT of sugar. Against the export target of 60 LMT, contracts of about 70 LMT have been signed, more than 60 LMT has been lifted from sugar mills and more than 55 LMT has been physically exported from the country, as of August 16, 2021.

 

Some sugar mills have also signed forward contracts for export in the ensuing sugar season 2021-22. Export of sugar has helped in maintaining demand-supply balance and stabilising domestic ex-mill prices of sugar. In order to find a permanent solution to deal with the problem of excess sugar, 

 

In the past three sugar seasons about Rs 22,000 crore revenue was generated by sugar mills/ distilleries from the sale of ethanol to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs). In the current sugar season 2020-21, about Rs 15,000 crore revenue is being generated by sugar mills from the sale of ethanol to OMCs which has helped sugarcane mills in making timely payment of cane dues of farmers.

 

Diversion of maximum sugar to ethanol and export of maximum sugar would not only help in improving the liquidity of sugar mills enabling them to make timely payment of cane dues of farmers but would also stabilise the ex-mill price of sugar in the domestic market, which in turn will further improve the revenue realisation of sugar mills and would address the problem of surplus sugar. With an increase in blending levels, dependence on imported fossil fuel will decrease and will also reduce air pollution; and it will also boost the agricultural economy.

 

Farmers likely to be benefitted from the

Agrotech, Transportation

COVID-19 distorted manufacturing activities and disrupted supply chain, thereby impacting the global agriculture drones market negatively

An increase in venture funding for the deployment of drones in the agricultural sector, surge in adoption of precision farming and rise in demand for cost reduction associated with human errors drive the growth of the global agriculture drones market. Based on offering, the hardware segment contributed to the highest share in 2020. By region, on the other hand, Asia-Pacific would cite the fastest CAGR by 2030.

According to the report published by Allied Market Research (AMR), the global agriculture drones market was estimated at 0.88 billion in 2020 and is expected to hit $5.89 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 22.4 per cent from 2021 to 2030. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the top investment pockets, top winning strategies, drivers and opportunities, market size and estimations, competitive scenario, and wavering market trends.

An increase in venture funding for the deployment of drones in the agricultural sector, the surge in adoption of precision farming, and a rise in demand for cost reduction associated with human errors drive the growth of the global agriculture drones market. On the other hand, the emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles impedes growth to some extent. However, the rise in automation across the agricultural industry is expected to create lucrative opportunities in the industry.

Implementation of partial and complete lockdown across the world due to COVID-19 gave way to distorted manufacturing activities and disrupted supply chain, thereby impacting the global agriculture drones market negatively. Nevertheless, the existing regulations are being eased off on a gradual note in the majority of countries and especially, with the mass inoculation drive on board, the market is anticipated to revive soon.

The global market is analysed across offering, component, application, and region. Based on offering, the hardware segment contributed to more than two-thirds of the total market share in 2020 and is expected to lead the trail by 2030. The same segment would also register the fastest CAGR of 22.7per cent throughout the forecast period.

Based on the component, the cameras segment accounted for more than two-fifths of the total market revenue in 2020 and is anticipated to rule the roost by 2030. The batteries segment, on the other hand, would grow at the fastest CAGR of 24.1 per cent during the forecast period.

Based on region, North America held the major share in 2020, garnering nearly two-fifths of the global agriculture drones market. Simultaneously, the market across Asia-Pacific would cite the fastest CAGR of 23.80 per cent from 2021 to 2030.

The key market players analysed in the global agriculture drones market report include AgEagle Aerial Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, Microdrones, America Robotics, DJI, Parrot Drones, PrecisionHawk, AeroVironment, Trimble and Yamaha Motor Corp. These market players have incorporated several strategies including partnership, expansion, collaboration, joint ventures, and others to brace their stand in the industry.

COVID-19 distorted manufacturing activities and disrupted supply