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Machinery – Post-harvesting

Sonalika Tractors has already administered over 5,400 vaccines & counting at April’21 at its Hoshiarpur facility.

As a responsible corporate entity, Sonalika Tractors has already taken the full responsibility to arrange and bear expenses related to COVID-19 vaccination of its entire workforce including Pan India employees, channel partners and their teams. It is of utmost priority at Sonalika Tractors to safeguard its family from the pandemic and support India fight back to challenge COVID-19 wave.

Sonalika Tractors has already administered over 5,400 vaccines & counting at April’21 at its Hoshiarpur facility. The vaccination drive will continue at the plant and also at Pan India level in May’21 until the 100% of Sonalika employees and channel partners as well as their teams will be fully vaccinated. Moreover, Sonalika’s teams remain fully committed to develop robust quality products for the farmers across the globe and support them with our superior quality service for maximum uptime of our advanced technology powered products. Overall, Sonalika has sold overall 9,130 tractors in April’21 and has registered a staggering 851% domestic growth, thereby beating industry growth of est. 436% by a significant margin.

Sharing his thoughts on the tough prevailing conditions, Mr. Raman Mittal, Executive Director, Sonalika Group, said, “India is witnessing one of the worst times in its history and it is time that we all join hands together to support our country rise up again. Today, everyone’s health is of prime importance and vaccination would help to win the war against the current challenging situation, where sales stands today to be secondary.”

“All expenses related to this vaccination drive to cover 100% workforce will be taken care by Sonalika. Even during the pandemic times last year, Sonalika Tractors had pioneered various initiatives which powered the company to emerge as the fastest growing tractor brand in the industry in FY’21, surpassing annual industry growth.”

Sonalika Tractors has already administered over 5,400

AgroPolicy, Foodgrains

Around 28.80 Lakh Wheat farmers benefitted from the ongoing RMS procurement Operations 

 In the ongoing Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2021-22, Government of India is continuing to procure Rabi crops at MSP from farmers as per existing Price Support Scheme .About 28.80 Lakh Wheat farmers have already been benefitted from the ongoing RMS procurement Operations.

About Rs17, 495 Crore has already been transferred directly into Punjab farmers’ account during ongoing RMS 2021-22. This is for the first time that the farmers of Punjab have started receiving payments directly into their bank accounts against sale of their Wheat crop.

Wheat procurement is going on at brisk pace in the procuring States/UTs of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and other States with purchase of over 292.52 LMT upto 02nd May 2021. This is an increase of approx. 70 per cent against the last year corresponding purchase of 171.53 LMT.

Out of the total purchase of 292.52 LMT wheat, major contribution has been made by Punjab- 114.76 LMT (39.23 per cent ), Haryana- 80.55 LMT (27.53 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh -73.76 LMT (25.21 per cent ) upto 02nd May 2021.

About Rs 17,495 crore in Punjab and around Rs 9268.24 crore in Haryana has been transferred directly into farmers’ account corresponding to procurement up to 30th April 2021.

This year, a new chapter has been added in the history of public procurement when Haryana and Punjab also switched from indirect payment of MSP to direct online transfer of benefits to farmers’ bank account by all the procuring agencies as per direction of GOI, which is being rejoiced by the farmers of Punjab/Haryana as for the first time they are receiving direct benefits against sale of their hard toiled crops without any delay and cuts under “One Nation, One MSP, One DBT”.

Around 28.80 Lakh Wheat farmers benefitted from

E-commerce, Finance, Machinery – Post-harvesting

Total tractor sales (Domestic + Exports) during April 2021 were at 27523 units, as against 4772 units for the same period last year  

 

 Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.’s Farm Equipment Sector (FES), a part of the USD 19.4 billion Mahindra Group, recently announced its tractor sales numbers for April 2021. Domestic sales in April 2021 were at 26130 units, as against 4716 units during April 2020. Total tractor sales (Domestic + Exports) during April 2021 were at 27523 units, as against 4772 units for the same period last year. Exports for the month stood at 1393 units. 

Commenting on the performance, Hemant Sikka, President – Farm Equipment Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, “We have sold 26130 tractors in the domestic market during April 2021 with a growth of 454 per cent over last year. High growth witnessed in April 2021 is due to low base due to nationwide lockdowns in April last year. There have been disruptions in supply chain due to localised lock downs and availability of oxygen along with dealerships in few states getting closed impacting demand momentum. All agri related fundamentals continue to remain strong, with bumper rabi crop harvest and forecast of a normal monsoon. We expect that tractor demand will bounce back as farmers start preparing their land for Kharif crops in the ensuing weeks. We continue to monitor evolving Covid situation across the states with key focus on safety of our people and partners. In the exports markets, we have sold 1393 tractors, a growth of 2388 per cent over last year and have a strong order book.”

 

Total tractor sales (Domestic + Exports) during

R&D, Seeds

Draco™ seed treatment is for partial suppression of key diseases and nematodes at the critical early stages of corn and soybean germination and seedling growth.

 Syngenta Canada Inc. adds a new biological control product to their portfolio with the introduction of Draco™ seed treatment for partial suppression of key diseases and nematodes at the critical early stages of corn and soybean germination and seedling growth. 

Draco features the bacteria Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis. In corn and soybeans, it provides partial suppression of seed rot and seedling blight caused by Rhizoctonia solani and root knot nematode. In soybeans, Draco also offers partial suppression of soybean cyst nematode.

“Syngenta is very excited to bring this new biological technology to the seed treatment market,” says Scott Ewert, head of Seedcare with Syngenta Canada. “We have a long history of providing innovative solutions to our growers and seed company partners. Draco builds on this legacy, offering additional protection for corn and soybean growers at a crucial stage in their crop’s growth cycle.”

Draco is an additional tool to be used as part of an integrated approach to improve plant stand and yield potential. It complements existing genetics and seed treatments in the market, providing a biological bacteria package for an additional mode of action against target pests.

Syngenta has partnered with a number of seed companies to plant demonstration plots this spring, ahead of making Draco commercially available for the 2022 growing season.

 

 

Draco™ seed treatment is for partial

AgroPolicy, Foodgrains, Logistics

 Sarala foods group will ship 20 containers of rice on Tuesday followed by around 500 containers over the next three months from PICT to Vietnam.

In a major boost to India’s rice exports potential especially from eastern region, a consignment has been officially flagged off from the Paradip International Cargo Terminal (PICT), Odisha to Vietnam.

This is the first time in the history of Paradip Port, non-basmati rice will be exported. Sarala foods group will ship 20 containers of rice on Tuesday followed by around 500 containers over the next three months from PICT to Vietnam.

A consignment of one of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA)’s member exporter M/s Sarala Food will be shipped to Hai Phong port, Vietnam on Tuesday.

“The rice exports through PICT would hugely boost India’s exports of non-basmati rice to south-east countries while boosting income of at least two lakh farmers from Odisha and adjoining states,” Dr M Angamuthu, Chairman APEDA, said after inaugurating flagging off ceremony.

“During the April – February period of 2020-21, the shipment of Non-Basmati Rice witnessed an impressive spike. The non-basmati rice exports were Rs 30,277 crore (4086 US$ Million) during April-February, 2021 against Rs 13,030 crore (1835 US$ Million) reported during April-February, 2020 period. The exports of Non-Basmati have witnessed a growth of 132 per cent in Rupee terms and 122 per cent Dollar terms. Non-basmati rice exports to African and Asian countries are undertaken from various ports of India such as Kakinada, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Mundra and Krishnapatnam. Paradip will soon emerge as one of the major rice-exporting port of the country”, Angamuthu added.

 The sharp spike in rice exports especially during a phase where globally the COVID19 pandemic has disrupted supply changes many commodities, has been attributed to the government taking prompt measures to ensure exports of rice while taking all the COVID19 related safety precautions.a

“We took several measures in terms of ensuring safety and hygiene because of the operational and health challenges posed by COVID19, while ensuring that rice exports continue uninterrupted,” M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA has said.

 

 Sarala foods group will ship 20 containers

Agro chems – Chemicals, Agro chems – Fertilizers, Finance

Lower Fertilizer margin , higher RM cost and maintenance shutdowns drags down overall performance  

 Coromandel International (CRIN) reported a weak performance on the back of margin contraction in Fertilizer segment due to higher RM cost, lower volumes, and maintenance shutdowns. Price rise in complex Fertilizer, on rising phosphoric acid prices (prices have increased by 64 per cent  YoY and 26 per cent QoQ in 1QFY22), remains a key monitorable going forward. On the back of margin pressures in the Fertilizer segment on higher RM prices, we have reduced our FY22E/FY23E earnings estimates by 10 per cent/4 per cent Maintain Buy.

 Higher RM prices to weigh on near-term performance

 CRIN reported a revenue of Rs 28.6 Billion in 4Q FY21 (flat YoY; v/s our estimate of Rs 26.2billion). Fertilizer volumes declined 6 per cent YoY on lower NPK manufacturing volumes (-12 per cent YoY). However, the same was offset by a 64 per cent increase in SSP (Single Superphosphate) volumes.

The Crop Protection segment grew 17 per cent YoY to Rs 5.2 billion, while the Nutrient and Other Allied Business segment fell 3% to INR23.7b. EBIT margin contracted 430bp/100bp to 8.5 per cent /12.5 per cent in the Nutrient and Other Allied Business/Crop Protection.

EBITDA margin contracted 450bp to 9.1 per cent (v/s our estimate of 13.3%) due to a decline in gross margin. EBITDA fell 33 per cent YoY to Rs 2.6b (v/s our expectation of INR3.5b). Adjusted PAT declined 33 per cent YoY to Rs 1.6b (v/s our estimate of Rs 2.2billion).

Highlights from the management commentary

  Subsidy outstanding as on Mar’21 stood at INR5.9b (v/s INR23.2b in Mar’20). Subsidy outstanding includes INR3.3b relating to channel stock pending post acknowledgement.

 In 4QFY21, subsidy received from the government stood at INR29.4b (v/s INR1b in 4QFY20). Subsidy received in FY21 stood at INR50.4b (v/s INR24.2b in FY20).

 Crop Protection: CRIN increased focus on the domestic market in 4QFY21 with the launch of new products. Domestic margin is robust. However, it faced margin pressure on the global front, leading to slight margin contraction in 4QFY21. Also, higher freight cost and lower availability of containers added to expenses. Coromandel International 1 May 2021 2 n Capex: CRIN plans to spend INR5-6b in FY22. Several projects from FY21 have been postponed to FY22. Also, maintenance capex is pegged at Rs 1-1.2billion. Currently, the management intends to focus on backward integration of its sulphuric acid plant.

 

Lower Fertilizer margin , higher RM cost

IT, World

The online consultation is held on the engagement platform SparkBlue and ends on May 12, 2021

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have recently launched an online public consultation to obtain inputs on how the UN agencies can collaborate in key areas in the coming years.  

The consultation will feed into the operationalization of FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031 and the preparation of WFP’s Strategic Plan 2022-2026. The platform provides a space to hear from partners on concrete ways to accelerate the achievement of shared goals and common approaches towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The consultation will focus on five main themes:

  • Impact of COVID-19 on global development goals;
  • Climate and the Environment;
  • Gender Equality;
  • Strengthening Data and Innovation;
  • Inclusion and Equity, including leaving no one behind.

The online consultation is held on the engagement platform SparkBlue and ends on May 12, 2021.

FAO’s Strategic Framework 2022-2031, which will be submitted to the FAO Conference 2021 for approval, seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable, agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind. 

 

The online consultation is held on the

Agro Universities, R&D

A plant’s circadian clock plays an important role in regulating many of the functions that affect yield

According to a study published by Cambridge plant scientists, the genetic basis of the circadian system is well understood and there are improved genetic tools to modify it, the clock should be exploited in agriculture — a process they describe as ’chronoculture’ – to contribute to global food security.

A plant’s circadian clock plays an important role in regulating many of the functions that affect yield including flowering time, photosynthesis, and water use. The genes controlling the circadian rhythm are similar in all major crop plants – making them a potential target for crop breeders wishing to gain more control over these functions.

The simplest and easiest approach, say the scientists, would be to use knowledge of a crop’s internal clock to apply water, herbicides or pesticides at the most effective time of day or night. Low-cost technologies including drones and sensors could collect round-the-clock information about plant crop growth and health. Farmers could then receive advice about the best time to apply treatments to their specific crop, for their precise location and weather conditions.

A third potential application of chronoculture is post-harvest when plants slowly deteriorate and continue to be eaten by pests. There is good evidence that pest damage can be reduced by maintaining the internal rhythms of the harvested plants.

 

A plant’s circadian clock plays an important

AgroPolicy, Finance, Foodgrains

For FY 2021-22, Government has decided to continue the price of FCI rice to Rs 2000/quintal for the production of ethanol.

With a view to supporting the sugar sector and in the interest of sugarcane farmers, the Government of India has recently allowed the production of ethanol from B-Heavy Molasses, sugarcane juice, sugar syrup, and sugar; and encouraging sugar mills to divert excess sugarcane to ethanol. In the previous sugar season, 2019-20 about 9 LMT of sugar was diverted to ethanol.

In the current sugar season 2020-21, it is likely that more than 20 LMT of excess sugar would be diverted to ethanol. By 2025, it is targeted to divert 50-60 LMT of excess sugar to ethanol, which would solve the problem of high inventories of sugar, improve the liquidity of mills thereby help in timely payment of cane dues of farmers. In the past three sugar seasons about Rs 22,000 crore revenue was generated by sugar mills/distilleries from the sale of ethanol to OMCs.

The government has fixed the price of ethanol from maize as Rs 51.55/litre & rice available with FCI as Rs 56.87/litre for ethanol supply year 2020-21. For FY 2020-21, Government has fixed the price of FCI rice to Rs 2000/quintal for production of ethanol. For FY 2021-22, Government has decided to continue the price of FCI rice to Rs 2000/quintal for the production of ethanol.

Production of ethanol would not only facilitate diversion of excess sugar to ethanol but would also encourage farmers to diversify their crops to cultivate particularly maize which needs lesser water.

 

For FY 2021-22, Government has decided to

Agrotech, Finance, Warehousing

From Rs. 27 Crores in March’19, the company has seen a jump of 640 per cent till date. 

 Arya, India’s leading post-harvest Agritech player through its digital financial solutions company, Aryadhan has crossed the book size of Rs. 200 Crores. In its mission to create an equitable value chain in agriculture through sustainable financial & market linkages, the company has benefited farmers, FPOs and micro enterprises in smaller markets. From Rs. 27 Crores in March’19, the company has seen a jump of 640 per cent. In FY 21 Aryadhan disbursed an amount of Rs. 280 Crores.

 Availability of finance for their working capital requirements is a key challenge felt by small farmers and their organisations. This became more a difficulty during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns and migrant exodus. The second wave of the pandemic added to the difficulty. To combat this situation, Arya’s Aryadhan and its technological prowess were leveraged to facilitate seamless availability of post-harvest credit to farmers and FPOs. The result is very much visible in the business numbers of the company. 

“It is one of our primary goals to foster and cultivate India’s post-harvest space with newer thought and technology, especially in the primary and secondary markets. This will enable the farmer and the farmer producer organizations to realize better values and for the micro-enterprises easy access to finance. We hope to be the largest lender in the FPC space and we believe that we have made a great beginning in this direction.  With a book of over Rs. 200 crore, we believe we are closer to the goal of becoming the largest NBFC lender in the FPC post-harvest space. COVID has brought with it unprecedented times, and we are truly grateful to various state governments for allowing and enabling us to work smoothly through the lockdowns and the curfews in our endeavor to serve farmers better.” shared D. Chattanathan, Managing Director for Aryadhan. 

Adding to it, Prasanna Rao, Co-founder & CEO, Arya said, “These are extraordinary times that we are living in that makes it more of a challenge for small-scale NBFCs to raise resources.  We are elated that we were able to achieve this feat.  Out of the total, 50% of loans have been to farmers or FPOs and the remaining half to small traders and produce aggregators. I strongly believe that the future of warehousing lies in creating storage-cum-financing solutions “closer to the farm gate” and we will continue to work in this direction.”

From Rs. 27 Crores in March’19, the

Agrotech, World

For providing holistic and innovative solutions for smallholder farmers in developing economies 

 Better Life Farming (BLF), Bayer’s multi-stakeholder global partnership model, received a commendation honour at the fifth edition of the United Nations Economic Cooperation and Integration (UNECE) International Public Private Partnerships (PPP’s) Forum as part of its 2021 Build Back Better Infrastructure Awards.

Build Back Better was also the theme for this year’s UNECE International PPP Forum, which was held virtually from April 22-26. In an unprecedented time when the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted communities globally, UNECE held a competition to find the most resilient projects that involved public-private partnerships throughout the world which put people at the heart of their operations and could help communities maintain, rebuild and move forward within a post pandemic environment. UNECE received 66 submissions from 25 countries. Each had to fulfil at least one of the following characteristics: stakeholder and community empowerment; poverty and inequalities; women’s empowerment; environmental sustainability, climate change and resilience.

BLF, which provides holistic and innovative solutions for smallholder farmers in developing economies, was selected for its stakeholder engagement supporting the enhancement of livelihoods in rural communities. Jointly, with the farming communities in Indonesia, India and Bangladesh and more than 20 local partnerships driven by its global partners – Bayer, Netafim and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the BLF model provides entrepreneurial opportunities for men and women alike, to own and operate Better Life Farming Centers. The centers, which currently reach more than 300,000 smallholders in the mentioned countries, allow farmers to purchase seeds, crop protection inputs, irrigation solutions, as well as have improved access to markets and financial solutions. The model is also backed by the local governments which support BLF’s expansion as part of their rural development strategies.

Lino Dias, Vice President of Smallholder Farming for Bayer said, “This means with an effective partnership-led business ecosystem to address rural smallholder farmers’ challenges, and by enabling them to thrive, we will be improving not only their livelihoods but also enhancing rural development.”

Better Life Farming was one of 6 projects to receive the Build Back Better commendation recognition. BLF aims to grow the number of its Centres from currently more than 640 to exceed 1,000 centres by the end of this year. To view a video outlining the Better Life Farming concept, click here. Bayer is committed to enabling 100 million smallholder farmers in low and middle income countries develop their farming potential as part of the company’s 2030 sustainability commitments.

For providing holistic and innovative solutions for

Agrotech, India, Supply Chain

It provides better access to high-quality agri-inputs and agronomic advisory to make apple farming disease and climate-resilient.

In order to facilitate the modernisation of India’s apple value chain, Bayer CropScience Limited is partnering with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH for a three-year collaborative project. Bayer and GIZ have already worked together from 2015 to 2018 in the AVID project (Apple Value Chain Interventions for Development) that was undertaken in key districts of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. Bayer and GIZ reaffirmed the cooperation for another three years, from 2021 to 2023. 

The new project will support over 5,500 apple smallholders in Himachal Pradesh with better access to high-quality agri-inputs and agronomic advisory to make apple farming disease and climate-resilient. This Public Private Partnership (PPP) between Bayer and GIZ will work on creating efficient supply chains, establishing market linkages, and bringing in value chain interventions to improve the incomes and livelihoods of apple smallholders.

The new project is part of the ‘One World No Hunger’ initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). An important element in GIZ’s approach is connecting the private sector, research institutions and local stakeholders to introduce value chain developments.

The project also seeks to collaborate with key institutions such as the Dr YS Parmar University for Horticulture and Forestry in Solan, Himachal Pradesh; the State Department of Agriculture; Government of Himachal Pradesh and HPMC (Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing And Processing Corporation Ltd.) to leverage synergies, promote knowledge sharing and technical exchange, and jointly undertake capacity-building measures.

It provides better access to high-quality agri-inputs

Agro Universities, Agrotech

More than 100 farmers and rural youths virtually attended the training program

The Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Narayangaon, Pune – II, Maharashtra recently organised a three-day Virtual Training Programme on ‘Scientific Beekeeping for the Farmers’ from April 27-29, 2021. The programme was organised in association with the National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM)- Mini Mission – I.

Dr Lakhan Singh, Director, ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra urged the farmers for making beekeeping an integral part of farming to attain higher profits on a regular basis. He also encouraged the rural youths to come forward and become beekeeping entrepreneurs.

Dr Dattatray B Gawade, SMS, Plant Protection, KVK, Narayangaon, Pune – II, Maharashtra briefed about the training course and the role of the National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM) for the overall promotion and development of scientific Beekeeping in a mission mode to achieve the goal of sweet revolution in the country by giving attention on capacity building.

The program was aimed at orienting and empowering the farmers about scientific Beekeeping. More than 100 farmers and rural youths virtually attended the training programme.

 

More than 100 farmers and rural youths

Agro Universities, Foodgrains, R&D

 It aims to harness state of the art technology to find solutions for the world’s wheat farmers and consumers. 

John Innes Centre has announced a strategic collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), for joint research, knowledge sharing, and communications to further the global effort to develop the future of wheat.

Wheat is threatened by climate change-related drought and heat as well as increased frequency and spread of pest and disease outbreaks.The new collaboration, building on a history of successful joint research achievements, aims to harness state of the art technology to find solutions for the world’s wheat farmers and consumers.

 CIMMYT Deputy Director General for Research Kevin Pixley said, “Our combined scientific strengths will enhance our impacts on farmers and consumers and ultimately contribute to global outcomes, such as the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger.”

Director of the John Innes Centre, Professor Dale Sanders commented, “Recognising and formalising this long-standing partnership will enable researchers from both institutes to focus on the future, where the sustainable development of resilient crops will benefit a great many people around the world.”

Thematic areas for collaboration

Scientists from CIMMYT and the John Innes Centre will work jointly to apply cutting edge approaches to wheat improvement, including:

  • Developing and deploying new molecular markers for yield, resilience and nutritional traits in wheat to facilitate deploying genomic breeding approaches using data on the plant’s genetic makeup to improve breeding speed and accuracy
  • Generating, sharing and exploiting the diversity of wheat genetic material produced during crossing and identified in seed banks
  • Pursuing new technologies and approaches that increase breeding efficiency to introduce improved traits into new wheat varieties
  • Developing improved technologies for rapid disease diagnostics and surveillance
  • Plans for future collaborations include establishing a new laboratory in Norwich, UK as part of the ‘Health Plants, Healthy People, Healthy Planet (HP3)’ initiative. 

An important goal of the JIC-CIMMYT collaboration is to expand the impact of the joint research breakthroughs through knowledge sharing and capacity development. Stakeholder-targeted communications will help expand the reach and impact of these activities. 

A key element of this collaboration will be deploying our innovations to geographically diverse regions and key CIMMYT partner countries that rely on smallholder wheat production for their food security and livelihoods,” said CIMMYT Global Wheat Program Director Alison Bentley.

 It aims to harness state of the