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Agro Universities, China, IT

The collaboration will help to promote innovation in automation and precision technologies to increase efficiency in agriculture

Wageningen University and Research (WUR) of the Netherlands will work with Pinduoduo, China’s largest agriculture platform, on the 2021 Smart Agriculture Competition, helping to promote innovation in automation and precision technologies to increase efficiency in agriculture. 

 

The Smart Agriculture Competition, which runs from August 2021 to March 2022, will draw teams from around the globe to remotely grow tomatoes, combining agronomic knowledge with precision technology such as greenhouse automation, sensors and algorithms. The objective is to develop efficient techniques to grow tomatoes with high yield and nutritional quality at a low cost while using an environmentally sustainable approach.

 

Dr Silke Hemming, head of the Greenhouse Technology research team from WUR, will be one of the judges at the Smart Agriculture Competition. She will review submissions during the competition, provide technical support to participants and share best practices from the Netherlands.

 

Teams that reach the finals will be assigned a 96-square-meter stand-alone smart greenhouse, to cultivate the tomatoes and verify the results of their growth models. The participating teams can independently control the greenhouse facilities, including ventilation, shading screens, water, lighting and fertilizer systems. Cameras will also allow teams to monitor and obtain real-time growth parameters.

 

WUR will host workshops on greenhouse horticulture and future trends in intelligent agriculture. Specifically, WUR professors will share topics such as the digital transformation of the Netherlands’ agriculture supply chain, tech-empowered greenhouse horticulture, tomato postharvest quality prediction, and biological control strategies in the greenhouse. The workshops will take the form of an intensive boot camp with 1-2 days of training, combining both online and offline support.

 

Final scores in this year’s competition will be judged on the quality, yield, efficiency of energy consumption, the deployed algorithm strategy and commercial viability. The winning team will receive 450,000 yuan ($69,500) from a total prize pool of over 1 million yuan. Other rewards include funding from the Pinduoduo Agritech Research Fund and collaboration opportunities with competition partners.

The collaboration will help to promote innovation

IT, Warehousing

The creation of warehousing facilities at the block level is also notable

Sohan Lal Commodity Management (SLCM) Group has welcomed the 25-year roadmap laid down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the country’s all-around development in his public address on India’s 75th Independence Day. SLCM has also welcomed the government’s proposal to enhance the views and expertise of scientists to modernise the nation’s agriculture sector.
 
According to SLCM, the creation of warehousing facilities at the block level is notable. The initiative will go a long way to not only ensure proper storage facilities for agri commodities but also help curb wastage significantly.
 
Sandeep Sabharwal, CEO, SLCM, “We have successfully implemented solutions like AgriReach and AgriSuraksha that are embedded in technologies like the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). In a country like India where post-harvest losses are pegged at nearly 10 per cent, the solutions have helped in not only substantially reducing wastage of agri commodities to 0.5 per cent irrespective of infrastructure, crop or geographic location but also helped in significantly curtailing pilferage.”

The creation of warehousing facilities at the

Dairy, IT

The company performs 27 tests based on FSSAI legal standards of milk and milk products

Telangana-based dairy brand Sid’s Farm has launched an app in Hyderabad for natural milk and dairy essentials. Consumers can order from the comfort of home; cow milk, buffalo milk, ghee, butter, paneer, cow curd, and buffalo curd. The users can download the APP from Playstore on android & IOS.  

 

Kishore Indukuri, Founder – Sids Farm said, “We have seen a metamorphosis in the consumer behaviour and patterns who are adapting to an entirely new way of living. Moreover, the pandemic has made life convenient, and consumers are also seeking more comfort in ordering online or using the app.”

 

The company provides the consumers with milk that has no hormones, preservatives and antibiotics. The brand already has a presence in 100 stores across the regions & e-commerce platforms like Bigbasket, Amazon, Flipkart. 

 

The company performs 27 tests based on FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India), legal standards of milk and milk products. The milk daily undergoes physical testing, chemical testing, and microbiological testing. These tests rule out any common additives used in the market such as fat and solids-not-fat (SNF), urea, sugar, maltodextrin, antibiotics, ammonium compounds, pesticides, toxic chemicals, and bacterial contamination.

 

The company performs 27 tests based on

Agro chems – Pesticides, R&D

The team showed that disabling a gene that encodes the enzyme rendered the pathogen incapable of infecting the host

Led by biologists and chemists from the University of York, the international team of researchers discovered a new class of enzymes that attack pectin called LPMOs. The team also showed that disabling the gene that encodes this enzyme rendered the pathogen incapable of infecting the host.

 

The new research, published in Science, describes a family of enzymes found in a microorganism called Phytophthora infestans. The enzymes enable crop pathogens to degrade pectin- a key component of plant cell walls- thereby enabling the pathogens to break through the plant’s defences to infect the plant.

 

Phytophthora infestans is known to cause potato late blight, a devastating plant disease that led to widespread starvation in Europe and more than a million deaths in Ireland in the 1840s, in what became known as ’The Great Famine’. Plant infection continues to cause billions of dollars worth of damage to global crop production each year and continues to threaten world food security.

 

The identification of this new gene could open up new ways of protecting crops from this important group of pathogens.

 

Lead author on the report, Dr Federico Sabbadin, from the Biology Department’s Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP), at the University of York said: “These new enzymes appear to be important in all plant pathogenic oomycetes, and this discovery opens the way for potentially powerful strategies in crop protection.”

 

Professor Simon McQueen-Mason, also from CNAP, remarked that the work was “the result of interdisciplinary collaborations between biologists and chemists at York along with plant pathologists at the James Hutton Institute, and genomicists at CNRS, with invaluable molecular insights from Professor Neil Bruce (CNAP) and Professors Gideon Davies and Paul Walton in the Department of Chemistry at York.”

 

The research is part of the project New Enzymatic Virulence Factors in Phytophthora infestans, running from 2021 to 2025, and is supported with a £1m grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

 

The team showed that disabling a gene

Acquaculture, Webinar

The webinar had a special focus on shrimp aquaculture

The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying recently organised a webinar on quality seed production for brackishwater aquaculture with a special focus on shrimp aquaculture, under the chairmanship of Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.

The webinar was a part of the celebrations of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. The webinar focussed on quality seed production in the brackishwater aquaculture sector. Swain highlighted the contribution of brackishwater aquaculture towards fish production of the country and the importance of the availability of quality fish seed. He briefly discussed the objectives and targets of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and the sub-component supported under PMMSY for the development of brackishwater aquaculture in coastal states and inland saline water in the North Indian States.

In addition to Secretary, Department of Fisheries (DoF), Swain, Joint Secretary (Inland Fisheries) and Dr J Balaji, Joint Secretary (Marine Fisheries) addressed the webinar and shared their insights about the roadmap for the development of brackishwater aquaculture in the country. Other officials of the Department of Fisheries, GoI and fisheries officials of States/UTs, faculty from state agriculture universities state animal and fisheries universities, entrepreneurs, farmers and hatchery owners across the country, a representative from the aquaculture industry participated in the webinar.

Dr A Panigrahi, Principal Scientist, ICAR-Central Institute of brackishwater aquaculture made a presentation on details of quality seed required for the development of brackishwater aquaculture shrimp in particular.
 

The webinar had a special focus on

Environment, Supply Chain

Both the organisations will conduct various experiments to identify the optimal conditions for cocoa tree growth

Cargill has entered a multi-year research agreement with vertical farming pioneer and leader AeroFarms aimed at improving cocoa bean yields and developing more climate-resilient farming practices.

 

“Environmental challenges and growing demand for cocoa products are placing increased pressure on the global cocoa supply chain,” said Niels Boetje, MD, Cargill Cocoa Europe. “Through partnerships with research institutes, universities and innovative companies like AeroFarms, we are collaborating across sectors in bold experiments to bring greater productivity and resiliency to traditional cocoa farming operations. We look forward to sharing our findings with the farmer cooperatives in our cocoa supply chain to help ensure a thriving cocoa sector for generations to come.”

 

The latest research collaboration brings together AeroFarms’ expertise in controlled environment agriculture, with Cargill’s extensive knowledge of cocoa agronomy and production practices. Together, the two organisations will experiment with different indoor growing technologies including aeroponics and hydroponics, light, carbon dioxide, irrigation, nutrition, plant space and pruning to identify the optimal conditions for cocoa tree growth.

 

The findings will yield new insights, targeting factors such as faster tree growth and greater yields, accelerated development of varieties with enhanced pest and disease resistance, and unlocking the cocoa bean’s full flavour and colour potential. The outcomes will help secure the future supply of cocoa beans in the face of climate change.

 

“AeroFarms shares a similar vision as Cargill to nourish the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way,” said David Rosenberg, Co-Founder & CEO of AeroFarms.

 

Initial exploratory work has already begun at AeroFarms global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, and will soon expand to the company’s state-of-the-art AeroFarms AgX Research & Development indoor vertical farm in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, which is slated to open in early 2022.

 

 

 

 

Both the organisations will conduct various experiments

Agro chems – Pesticides, Start ups

The first post-COVID gathering of the WBF’s membership will enable reconnections and collaborations during a two-day programme of educational presentations, dedicated networking sessions

The BioProtection Summit and Awards (formerly known as the Biopesticide Summit and Awards) will gather stakeholders from across the biocontrol sector in the UK, including representatives from start-ups, SMEs, multinationals, leading academic institutions, research organisations, the public sector, entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors and end-users. The awards ceremony will take place on May 24–25, 2022 

 

The first post-COVID gathering of the WBF’s membership will enable reconnections and collaborations during a two-day programme of educational presentations, dedicated networking sessions, InvestorReady workshops, and the prestigious awards ceremony and dinner.  

 

Professor Shashi Sharma, President of the WBF said, “We are all looking for alternatives to an agricultural system that is no longer acceptable to humanity. The losses caused by crop pests and diseases must be managed with minimal cost to human safety and the environment. Bioprotectants can provide the solution – we just need to get them to market.”

 

Professor Zhibing Zhang FREng, Vice President, WBF said, “In the post-COVID world, we can expect new opportunities for industry and academia to work together closely, and to take on the grand challenges facing the environment and food safety. Through collaboration, we can address those challenges and make the world a much better place.” 

 

Dr Minshad Ansari, Chairman, WBF said, “A new age is dawning in AgriTech, as the BioProtection sector is finally making its mark. The sector is highly innovative, with a shared vision for industry growth. However, there has been a bottleneck in bringing new products to market due to challenges associated with product development, formulation, registration, and commercialisation. If we can connect with different stakeholders and encourage them to collaborate to overcome those challenges, we can take these technologies to the forefront of agricultural pest and disease control. There has never been a better time to pull together to realise the potential of the sector.”

The first post-COVID gathering of the WBF’s

Acquaculture, Agro Universities

Discussions were held on policy-level intervention and creating awareness among the fishermen towards Hilsa conservation

The ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata recently organised a webinar on ’Sensitization on Hilsa Fisheries Conservation and Livelihood Improvement in River Ganga’. More than 100 participants from India, Bangladesh and Myanmar attended the webinar. The webinar was organised as a part of the ’Bharat Ka Amrut Mahotsav’ to commemorate 75 Years of India’s Independence.

 

In his welcome address, Dr BK Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore briefed about the Hilsa Research and Awareness Programmes carried out at the institute since the last decade. Dr Das highlighted the impact of Farakka Barrage on the Hilsa migration, mess size regulations, over-fishing and juvenile killing that are the major challenges for Hilsa fisheries in river Ganga.

 

Dr YS Yadava, Director, Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organization (BOBPIGO), Chennai discussed the ’BOBP-IGO’s efforts towards Hilsa Fisheries conservation and sustainability: Indian perspective.’ He highlighted the Indian National Plan of Action (NPOA) for Hilsa.

 

In his Paper on ’Hilsa Conservation and Livelihoods Improvement of Fishers: Case Studies from Bangladesh,’ Prof Abdul Wahab, Team Leader of Ecofish, WorldFish, Bangladesh outlined the significant results obtained through the community participation, intensive public awareness, provision of government schemes as an alternative during the ban period of Hilsa catch and strict surveillance and enforcement.

 

Dr Mike Akester, Region Director, South East Asia and the Pacific, WorldFish, Myanmar discussed the ’Fiscal reforms to finance incentive-based Hilsa Fishery Management in Myanmar.’

 

The main objectives of the webinar were to conserve Hilsa fisheries in river Ganga through policy-level intervention and create awareness among the fishermen towards Hilsa conservation.

Discussions were held on policy-level intervention and

Agro Universities, Poultry

Scientific knowledge on various aspects of poultry farming was imparted for the skill development of farmers for their economic upliftment

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Fatehgarh Sahib recently conducted a vocational training course on poultry farming at KVK premises for farmers, farm women and rural youth. Eight farmers belonging to different villages of districts Fatehgarh Sahib participated in the training course. In this training programme, scientific knowledge on various aspects of poultry farming was imparted for the skill development of farmers for their economic upliftment. Dr Jaswinder Singh, Associate Director (Training) interacted with the trainees and enlightened them about the importance of poultry farming. He encouraged the participants for adopting poultry farming as an allied business on the scientific lines.

On the first day, a pre-knowledge test was administered to check the knowledge level of trainees about poultry farming. Dr Ajay Singh, Assistant Professor (Animal Science) provided information on various aspects of poultry farming including the breeds of poultry, selection of hatchery and chicks, care and management of day-old chicks, broiler and layer birds, selection of site, housing management, water management, feed preparation, vaccination schedule and record-keeping etc.

The vocational training programme concluded with a post-knowledge test to know the gain in the knowledge level of trainees about poultry farming. A Whatsapp group was also formed to share the latest knowledge regarding poultry and animal husbandry. Overall the participants expressed good interest and share useful information regarding poultry farming.

Scientific knowledge on various aspects of poultry

AgroPolicy, China, Sustainable Energy

The BRICS Working Group meeting will endorse the Action Plan of 2021-24 for adoption in the BRICS meeting

The Ministers of Agriculture of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa recently deliberated on the theme ’BRICS Partnership for Strengthening Agro Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Security.’

 

The implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development noted that BRICS countries are well-positioned to take a leading role in helping to achieve the objectives of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals to eradicate hunger and poverty. The strong agricultural research base in BRICS countries and the need to harness and share knowledge, facilitate the transfer of technologies from lab to land to provide improved solutions for enhanced productivity, especially in the face of climate change, maintaining agrobiodiversity and ensuring sustainable use of natural resources was acknowledged. 

 

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Agriculture Research Platform has been developed by India to promote cooperation in the areas of agricultural research, extension, technology transfer, training and capacity building. The intention to make the BRICS Agriculture Research Platform functional and encourage research cooperation to improve the use and application of agricultural technologies for meeting the needs of producers and processors were also expressed. 

 

The Joint declaration of the eleventh meeting of BRICS and Action Plan for 2021-24 for agricultural cooperation of BRICS countries and BRICS Agriculture Research Platform were discussed in depth. This BRICS Working Group meeting will endorse the Action Plan of 2021-24 for adoption in the BRICS meeting. 

 

Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Abhilaskha Likhi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Alaknanda Dayal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare attended the virtual meeting of the BRICS working group held on August 12-13, 2021 at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, New Delhi.

 

 

The BRICS Working Group meeting will endorse

AgroPolicy, Trade

Apples will be showcased as part commencement of India’s 75th independence day celebration

APEDA in collaboration with Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) exported the first consignment consisting of five unique varieties of apples – Royal Delicious, Dark Baron Gala, Scarlet Spur, Red Velox & Golden Delicious to Bahrain.

 

The apples are sourced from the farmers of Himachal Pradesh and exported by APEDA registered DM Enterprises. The apples will be showcased at the apple promotion programme organised by leading retailer – Al Jajira group commencing from August 15, 2021.

 

The apple promotion programme is also being organised to familiarise consumers in Bahrain about varieties of apples in India. 

Apples will be showcased as part commencement

AgroPolicy, Dairy

IndiGau has 11,496 markers (SNPs) of more than that placed on 777K Illumina chip of the US and the UK breeds

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh released ’IndiGau’, India’s first Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) based chip for the conservation of pure varieties of indigenous cattle breeds like, Gir, Kankrej, Sahiwal, Ongole etc. 

The indigenous chip was developed by the concerted efforts of scientists of the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NAIB), Hyderabad, an autonomous institution under the aegis of the Department of Biotechnology. On this occasion, Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT, Senior scientists of NIAB and senior officials of DBT were present. 

 

Dr Jitendra Singh said that IndiGau is purely indigenous and the largest cattle chip in the world. It has 11,496 markers (SNPs) of more than that placed on 777K Illumina chip of the US and the UK breeds. 

 

Dr Swarup informed that DBT is looking forward to implementing this technology in the field with the help of other agencies like National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHDF), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) etc. To further the use of this chip in generating phenotypic and genotypic correlations, NIAB has entered into a collaborative agreement with National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).

 

NDDB has a well-organised presence in the field for the collection of phenotypic records, NIAB and NDDB complement each other to undertake this research for generating information for low-density SNP chip for any important trait detection, like high milk yield or heat tolerance etc. This will eventually help in the elite bull selection and improvement of productivity characters of Indian cattle.

 

NIAB has also entered into an MoU with private industry to generate capability within India for designing and making our SNP chips. These may be very low-density SNP chips in the beginning and slowly this technology can be further strengthened for bigger chips, making India self-reliant in this field. 

 

IndiGau has 11,496 markers (SNPs) of more

Agrotech, Sustainable Energy

The process can avoid the burning of bio-mass generated in large measure in the Indian countryside

Sentient Labs, an R&D innovation lab (incubated by KPIT Technologies with initial technical inputs) and MACS-Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), have developed the world’s first technology that generates hydrogen directly from agricultural residue for use in fuel cell-powered vehicles.
 
The hydrogen generation technology uses agricultural residue rich in cellulose and hemicellulose content – in likes of paddy, wheat, or maize residue. The process uses microbial culture for the direct generation of hydrogen from agricultural residues. It further generates methane, which is utilised for producing additional hydrogen by steam methane reformation. The process can avoid the burning of bio-mass generated in large measure in the Indian countryside and generate organic manure and CO2, which finds applications in various industries.

The process can avoid the burning of

Environment, Interaction, Sustainable Energy

The meet will aim to build an India-centric and action-oriented approach for building self-reliance in the hydrogen ecosystem and solutions

The ’International Climate Summit 2021’ (ICS 2021), an initiative by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Environment Committee, has partnered with Invest India. It is one of the world’s most awarded investment promotion agencies and a co-organiser for the hybrid event scheduled for September 3, 2021. This global summit will build a dialogue for India’s transition to clean energy with a special focus on ’Powering India’s Hydrogen Ecosystem’.

 

The summit will bring together Nobel laureates, policymakers, regulators, industry leaders, experts and scientists from across the global clean energy industry, to reach an agreement on climate change and sustainability issues. The meet will aim to build an India-centric and action-oriented approach for building self-reliance in the hydrogen ecosystem and solutions.

 

In addition, a National Hydrogen Portal www.greenhydrogen-india.com will also be launched at the International Climate Summit 2021. Envisioned to be a one-stop information source for research, production, storage, transportation and application of hydrogen, the portal will be a repository of all academic and research work, and other significant developments in the field of hydrogen; with a focus on green hydrogen.

 

The summit will position India as a leader in the field of renewable energy, specifically green hydrogen. In addition, the event will offer a platform for deliberating on India’s issues with hydrogen introduction and adoption as a preferred alternative energy source.

The meet will aim to build an