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Agro Universities, Environment

Discussions were held on to minimise crop loss from extreme weather conditions and sustainability in farmers’ income

The virtual second annual review meeting for the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) of District Agro-Meteorology Units (DAMUs) under the ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Zone – XI was recently organised.

 

Dr Randhir Singh, ADG (Agricultural Extension), ICAR and Dr Venkatasubramanian, Director, ICAR-ATARI, Zone – XI stated that the impact of DAMUs is well recognised in changing the farmers’ lives through minimising the crop loss from extreme weather conditions and sustainability in farmers’ income.

 

Dr KK Singh, Head, IMD, New Delhi outlined utilising the micro-level information available with KSNDMC in Karnataka to integrate the Agro Advisory Bulletins. He also underlined the conducting of need-based Capacity Development Programmes to empower the KVKS.

 

The Experts from IMD, ICAR and State Agricultural Universities along with the Heads of KVKs of Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep Islands and Subject Matter Specialists (Agromet) of DAMU implementing KVKs of ICAR-ATARI, Bengaluru, Karnataka attended the meeting.

Discussions were held on to minimise crop

Agrotech, Machinery – Post-harvesting

The machines were provided under CCI’s CSR activity

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has distributed 5543 kapas plucker machines valuing around Rs 4 crores to 5543 marginal and small farmers in all the cotton-growing states (including aspirational districts) under corporate social responsibility (CSR).

 

Most of the cotton in India is manually picked which is a labour-intensive operation. Unlike other major cotton-producing countries like the US, Australia etc, fully mechanised harvesting by big machines are not successful in India due to small landholdings of cotton farmers in India, sowing/picking pattern (three to four picking) and different climatic condition in different states. Therefore, a handheld kapas plucker machine is one of the options to bring down the cost for the farmers and a remedy for contamination at the farm level due to manual picking.

 

Handheld kapas plucker machine is a lightweight (about 600 gram) machine that has a pair of rollers inside having small edged teeth on their outer periphery and is operated by a lightweight 12 volt. Cotton gets entangled with the rollers and is collected directly into a collection bag attached to it. The design of the machine makes it easy to operate in the field and affordable i.e. at a nominal cost of Rs 8000 per machine (approx.).

 

 

 

The machines were provided under CCI’s CSR

AgroPolicy, R&D

Narendra Singh Tomar assured Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation to look into the proposal for establishing a testing lab in Gujarat

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar launched Amul Honey, a product of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) under active cooperation with the National Bee Board (NBB). The product was launched virtually in the presence of the Union Minister for Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairying Parshottam Rupala. 

 

Addressing the launching event, Tomar emphasised the importance of National Beekeeping and Honey Mission in increasing the income of small farmers, which is being implemented in the country for doubling the income of farmers/beekeepers through beekeeping with the budgetary allocation of Rs 500 crores.

 

Speaking on the occasion, he expressed that the quality of honey is a major concern in the country for which five large scale regional honey testing labs and 100 mini honey testing labs are being set up all over the country. 

 

Appreciating efforts made by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Tomar said Amul has not only set up a milestone in the direction of the White Revolution but it also expanded in the milk processing sector and established itself as a global brand. The minister also assured GMMF that the agriculture ministry will look into the proposal for establishing a testing lab in Gujarat.

 

Rupala said promoting beekeeping and selling honey through cooperatives will give a boost to the rural economy. He also encouraged farmers/beekeepers that along with honey, they can also produce additional by-products of beekeeping, viz.; beeswax, pollen, royal jelly, as these products have high demand and better prices in Indian and international markets.

 

Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, A&FW said that after implementation of the National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM), the whole scenario of beekeeping in the country has changed and thrust is being given on assuring the quality of honey, aggregation of beekeepers, providing infrastructural facilities including honey testing labs, Madhukranti portal to stop adulteration in honey production.

 

Dr RS Sodhi, MD, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation mentioned that Dairy Cooperatives and their infrastructural facilities can be simultaneously used for honey production through their established set up of 84 dairy plants over all the country.

 

Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Kailash Choudhary, Sushri Shobha Karandlaje, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry Atul Chaturvedi along with senior officials of the MoAF and MoAHFD were present at the occasion. Shamalbhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF, Valamjibhai Humbal, Vice Chairman, GCMMF, Shankar Chaudhary, Chairman, Banas Dairy joined virtually from Gujarat.

Narendra Singh Tomar assured Gujarat Cooperative Milk

Agro Universities, AgroPolicy, Dairy

The first programme under the project was organised on ‘Value Added Dairy products’ for women SHG groups at the Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar

In an endeavour to empower rural women and make them financially independent, the National Commission for Women has launched a country-wide training and capacity building programme for women in dairy farming. The commission is collaborating with agricultural universities across India to identify and train women associated with dairy farming and allied activities in different aspects such as value addition, quality enhancement, packaging and marketing of dairy products among others.

 

The first programme under the project was organised on ‘Value Added Dairy products’ for women SHG groups at the Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana in association with Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission. 

 

Launching the project, NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma said that financial independence is key to women empowerment. She said women in rural India are involved in every part of dairy farming yet they have been unable to attain financial independence. NCW, through its project, aims to empower women and help them achieve financial independence by training them in the quality enhancement of dairy products, its value addition, packaging and increasing the shelf life and marketing of their products.

 

NCW aims to help women farmers and Self Help Groups through scientific training and a series of practical ideas to effectively conduct extension activities in the dairy farming sector. The commission will provide training to women for enhancing their business and encouraging them towards entrepreneurship. NCW will also select trainers who will further train women entrepreneurs, women-run milk-cooperative societies, women self-help groups etc. NCW aims to create a sustainable and replicable district level model in the dairy sector which can be further adopted in the dairy farming regions of the country. The project aims to harness the immense potential in villages in creating and marketing dairy products and empowering women along the process to achieve financial independence.

The first programme under the project was

AgroPolicy, IT, R&D

M Venkaiah Naidu suggests industry and developers to work towards solutions for precision agriculture to ensure quality farm output

The Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu called for tapping the potential of revolutionary technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver benefits to the people and enhance the quality of life. In this regard, Naidu urged educational institutions, researchers, and developers to come out with practical AI solutions in the fields of agriculture, health, and education.

 

Enumerating possible applications for AI, Naidu suggested industry and developers work towards solutions for precision agriculture to ensure quality farm output, to bring about efficient grading of the produce, and to enable better price discovery for farmers. He also suggested exploring AI-based smart solutions in health such as remote diagnosis, and automatic translation of English texts to Indian languages in education. 

 

Addressing a gathering at IIT Jodhpur after laying the foundation of a fabrication laboratory for Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), Naidu remarked that technologies like AI and AIoT have been revolutionising many sectors of the global economy in the last decade. He said that the ultimate aim of science and technology is to transform the lives of the people. “That should be the aim for the development of AI too”, he added.

 

Observing that water is a scarce commodity in Rajasthan, he called for more collaborative efforts in water management and rainwater harvesting to mitigate the water crisis in the region. 

 

M Venkaiah Naidu suggests industry and developers

Agro chems – Pesticides, Agro Universities, AgroPolicy, Environment

Launches the newly constructed campus of the National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Raipur

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation 35 crop varieties with special traits through video conference. The PM dedicated the newly constructed campus of the National Institute of Biotic Stress Management Raipur. On this occasion, the Prime Minister also distributed the Green Campus Award to Agricultural Universities. He interacted with farmers who use innovative methods and addressed the gathering.

 

“Our focus is very high on more nutritious seeds, adapted to new conditions, especially in changing climates,’’ said the Prime Minister.

 

The Prime Minister stressed that whenever farmers and agriculture get a safety net, their growth becomes rapid. He informed that 11 crores soil health cards were issued for the protection of the land. The Prime Minister listed the farmer-friendly initiatives of the Government such as campaigns to complete about 100 pending irrigation projects for providing water security to the farmers, providing new varieties of seeds to farmers to protect crops from diseases thus getting a higher yield. He added that along with increasing the MSP, the procurement process was also improved so that more and more farmers can get the benefit. More than 430 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has been procured in the Rabi season and farmers have been paid more than 85 thousand crore rupees. Wheat procurement centres were increased more than three times during the pandemic.

 

The Prime Minister remarked that due to climate change, new types of pests, new diseases, epidemics are emerging, because of this, there is a big threat to the health of humans and livestock and crops are also being affected. Intensive continued research on these aspects is necessary. 

 

Launches the newly constructed campus of the

Agrotech

Data was collected at multiple stages of corn growth and development

Plant Response has announced new data demonstrating corn growers can realise economic returns prior to harvest and specialty growers can protect plants from abiotic stress.

 

“The scrutiny of product performance in-season is increasing with biologicals and we are committed to sharing how farmers can observe the difference Plant Response makes. The field test results on BioPath and a new peer-reviewed paper on the active ingredient in PRB9 show how value can be demonstrated on-farm before harvest and how it can be quantified,” said Jeff Wheeler, Chief Commercial Officer, Plant Response.

 

The field-testing programme executed with BioPath, a microbial inoculant containing bioactive plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), measured nutrient uptake and significant differences were observed, according to John Kruse, Senior VP of agronomy, Plant Response.

 

Conducting tests across the Midwest using commercial-scale field trials with farmer partners provides applicability beyond smaller scale tests. Data were collected at multiple stages of corn growth and development.

Data was collected at multiple stages of

Agro Universities, Agrotech

Farmers were told to adopt available machinery for the cultivation of potatoes

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kapurthala under the aegis of the Director of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and as per the direction of the Director, ICAR-ATARI, Ludhiana organised an awareness programme cum workshop on ’Capacity Building Program for FPOs’ and Farmers for Vegetable Based Export Oriented Agri Supply Chain’ in collaboration with APEDA. 

 

Dr GPS Sodhi, Additional Director of Extension Education, PAU, Ludhiana highlighted the significance of conservation of natural resources as well as motivated the farmers for diversified farming. Dr Satbir Singh, Deputy Director (Trg.) KVK Kapurthala welcomed the representatives of different departments, farmers, farm women and online participants. Dr Rakesh Sharda, Principal Scientist, PAU, Ludhiana emphasised adopting drip irrigation in potatoes. Dr Satpal Sharma PAU, Ludhiana delivered an online lecture on the production technology of potatoes. 

 

Dr Jugraj Singh, Senior Scientist, PAU, Ludhiana motivated the farmers to adopt available machinery for the cultivation of potatoes. Dr Ravinder Singh Chandi, PAU, Ludhiana delivered a lecture on different plant protection measures for the potato crop. Dr Lal Bahadur, Deputy Director Horticulture, Kapurthala made aware the farmers regarding different department schemes for vegetable growers. Dr Damandeep Singh, HDO, Jalandhar, highlighted the recent advances in potato cultivation. Dr Amandeep Kaur informed the farmers about newly recommended varieties of vegetables. Dr Amit Salaria motivated the farmers about organic farming. Dr Gobinder Singh while conducting stage stressed the importance of soil testing. 

 

Dr Bindu, Avneet Kaur, Dr Sumna Kumari, Dr Anuradha, Dr Anusha Reddy, Dr Navdeep Singh and S Sawaran Singh Chandi, S Resham Singh Chandi, S Devinder Veer Singh Chahal, President, Potato Farmers Association, Kapurthala were also present. More than 300 farmers attended the programme physically as well as virtually. At the end of the programme, Dr Pardeep Kumar, SM, FASC, Kapurthala proposed a vote of thanks to all the experts of different departments, farmers and farm women.

Farmers were told to adopt available machinery

AgroPolicy, Environment, Sustainable Energy

The MoU will help reduce in the burning of agriculture residues, remunerative income to farmers

Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to establish waste to energy plant in Delhi to convert municipal solid waste into Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) for use as fuel for running vehicles. The MoU was signed in the presence of Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs, Anil Baijal, Lt Governor, Delhi, Rameswar Teli, Union Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Labour & Employment, Tarun Kapoor, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mukesh Suryan, Mayor, SDMC, Gyanesh Bharti, Commissioner, SDMC, AK Jana, MD, IGL, Amit Garg, Director (Commercial) and other senior officials from the ministry, SDMC and IGL.

The agreement was signed as a part of the extension of SATAT initiative of the government under a synchronisation scheme. The Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme envisages the setting up of 5000 CBG plants by 2023-24 with a production target of 15 MMTPA, facilitating the creation of new employment opportunities and enhancing farmers’ income. By using municipal solid waste as input, this initiative involves a multi-pronged approach to reduce municipal waste on one hand and produce clean energy on the other in a sustainable manner.

As a part of the MoU, SDMC shall provide a designated area at the identified site in Hastsal in West Zone to IGL for setting up biogas plant and CBG Station. SDMC shall also be providing an assured regular supply of segregated biodegradable waste (approx. 100 TPD) to IGL for running the proposed CBG plant.


The expected production of CBG from this plant is expected to be approx. 4000 kg per day. However, this volume of CBG generated would not be sufficient to cater to expected vehicular demand under CNG. The residual bio-manure/organic slurry will be further value addition and shall be sold in the market.

The MoU shall be another step towards developing an ecosystem in the country for the production of CBG from various waste and biomass sources leading to multiple benefits like reduction of natural gas imports, reduction of GHG emission, reduction in the burning of agriculture residues, remunerative income to farmers, employment generation, effective waste management etc. The initiative is also in line with the goals of Atma Nirbhar Bharat, Swach Bharat Mission and boosting MSME sector.


The MoU will help reduce in the

Acquaculture, AgroPolicy, Trade, Webinar

The Union minister was speaking at ASSOCHAM’s Virtual Conference on Fisheries & Aquaculture

Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala recently addressed the fisheries and aquaculture industry at ASSOCHAM’s Virtual Conference on Fisheries & Aquaculture. The minister said that the best practices are being involved and executed by the Union government in the revival of the economy in this sector.

The fisheries sector has a vast domestic market to capture in India. Adding to this, the minister said, “PMMSY was launched by the Government of India last year, is now benefitting the fishers of India at large. A lot of sub-schemes are covered under PMMSY’s vast umbrella which is directly or indirectly benefitting the fishers. These schemes are aligned to double the exports, double the production of fish and hence doubling the fisher’s income.”

He further added that in the coming time not only the sector will experience an upthrust but also will generate employment for more than 50 lakh people across the nation. Towards the end, the minister assured all possible support from the Government of India to the fishers of the nation in uplifting and reviving the sector.

This discussion was held in a virtual conference, organised by the ASSOCHAM on Fisheries and Aquaculture Industry with a theme ’Strategic roadmap towards enabling Blue Revolution & Economic Growth.’

“The Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA) is also helping to revive the sector by taking various timely measures. It is the prime concern of MPEDA to provide unique solutions to the problems faced by the marine industry bodies, ensuring smooth and proper operation of the sector along with maintaining quality and implemented various programmes to meet the required concerns regarding food safety,” said KS Srinivas, Chairman, MPEDA.

Giving more technical insight about the PMMSY & other fisheries-related schemes, Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary, Department of Fisheries, said, “The strategy along with the concerted and collaborative efforts between the stakeholders and government is required to achieve ambitious targets under the scheme. These targets are Rs 1,00,000 crore fisheries export, additional 70 lakh tonnes fish production, and generation of 55 lakh employment in the years to come.”

On behalf of ASSOCHAM, Chintan Thaker, Chairman, ASSOCHAM Gujarat Council, welcomed all the esteemed guest speakers that were present from across the nation. Thaker assured the timely cooperation and support of ASSOCHAM in coming up for the revival of the sector.

Other eminent speakers of the session, representing the interest of industry bodies were Dr Manoj M Sharma, Director, Mayank Aquaculture, Amit Salunkhe, Chief Alliance Officer, Aqua Connect and Dhaval Raval, Chairman – Agriculture & Food Processing Committee, ASSOCHAM Gujarat Council along with Dr Venkatesh Iyer, Editor in Chief, The SME India as a moderator for the session.

The session was supported by NABARD and Gujarat State Biotechnology Mission and Dept of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat.

The Union minister was speaking at ASSOCHAM’s

Agrotech, Machinery - Pre-harvesting, Sustainable Energy

The pumps ensure 30 per cent higher discharge and 60 per cent more life over current offerings in the market

Kirloskar Brothers has launched a new series of time-tested Borewell Submersible Pumps—NEO Series 4-inch. The new series of borewell submersible pumps are versatile. The pumps have been designed to effectively cater to the requirements of rural, domestic and community water supply markets, including farming, buildings and construction sectors. 

 

The NEO Series 4-inch pumps are innovative in design with Sand Fighter arrangement, advanced water-cooled motor making it highly efficient (30 per cent higher discharge and 60 per cent more life) and energy-saving (60 per cent savings on electricity bills). The new range of borewell submersible pumps offer better corrosion resistance and have a longer product life while offering trouble-free performance due to better pump and motor alignment. 

 

The pumps can work in adverse conditions due to extra overloading capacity. Its compact, easy-to-repair design features include carbon plus stainless-steel thrust plate, and the FG200 Graded casting with Cathodic Electro Deposition (CED) coating makes it corrosion-resistant. The 99.9 per cent pure copper winding adds to the longer and trouble-free life of the pump. Its comparative higher stack length makes it retain original performances for a longer period. Besides, the higher engagement area reduces the chances of loose coupling. 

 

The pumps have NEMA couplings; besides, the high torque motor offers wide voltage operability in the range of 180 to 240 volts which ensures protection to the motor from burning due to high or low voltage. A novelty is the dynamically balanced rotating part that ensures lesser vibrations. 

 

NEO Series 4-inch pumps are available in a wide range of 40 models, with and without panels. KBL has a dedicated manufacturing plant for Borewell Submersible Pumps at Sanand, which ensures that all the pumps are tested rigorously on the performance and quality control parameters.

The pumps ensure 30 per cent higher

Environment, Nature

The marginal carbon intensity (CI) calculations for different oil fields will help producers, investors, shareholders and downstream purchasers better understand the emission attributes of the crude

S&P Global Platts, a leading independent provider of information, analytics and benchmark prices for the commodities and energy markets, has announced that commencing October 1, it will launch the first-ever daily carbon offset premiums alongside monthly carbon intensity calculations for 14 major crude fields around the world. The marginal carbon intensity (CI) calculations for different oil fields will help producers, investors, shareholders and downstream purchasers better understand the emission attributes of the crude where over time the carbon intensity of the production process can become its attribute of the crude itself, like the density of the crude and how much sulfur is included.

 

Calculating the carbon intensity of different commodities has become one of the ways the market has started to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from specific types of production. Oil produced with a lower amount of GHG emissions has a lower carbon intensity than crudes produced with higher emissions. In turn, crudes that are produced with a higher volume of GHG emissions have a higher carbon intensity. 

 

From October 1, Platts will begin publishing monthly assessments of crude oil field carbon intensity in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent (kgCO2e/boe); monthly assessments of transportation carbon intensity along one relevant route per crude in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel (KgCO2e/b); and daily assessments in $/boe and $/b respectively using the daily Platts Carbon Removal Credit (CRC) voluntary carbon credit assessment.

 

Platts’ midstream carbon intensity calculation measures the carbon intensity for one transport route per crude from the storage terminal to the most likely refining hub.

The marginal carbon intensity (CI) calculations for

Agro Universities, Agrotech

Discussions were held on how introduction of foliar spray as a customized fertiliser can act as a growth enhancer to boost the crop yield

The ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi, Kerala recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Kolkata-based Quest Bio Organics (P) for commercialising the two technologies – Growth Enhancer (Foliar spray) and Spray Dried Pet Feed Supplement developed from the shrimp shell waste.

 

The two technologies having the potential of converting the fish waste to wealth are paying their dues in the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

 

In his address, Dr Ravishankar C.N., Director, ICAR-CIFT, Kochi stated that raising the agricultural productivity per unit area of the land always remains a major challenge before Indian agriculture. In such a scenario, the introduction of foliar spray as a customised fertiliser can act as a growth enhancer to boost the crop yield and develop disease resistance in the crops. Developed from Shrimp Head Waste, the Foliar Spray contains all the vital growth elements and antimicrobial agents in a balanced proportion.

 

Highlighting the compound growth rate witnessed by the Indian Pet Feed and Feed Supplement Market over the past few decades, Dr Ravishankar emphasised that the Pet Feed Supplement developed by the Institute from shrimp head waste (rich in protein, carotenoids, PUFA and calcium) may propel the growth of Indian feed industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussions were held on how introduction of

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Environment

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh mentions about CSIR’s Aroma Mission

The Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu advised the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to reinvent itself and turn futuristic while pursuing the science of the highest order. Participating in the 80th Foundation Day celebrations of CSIR in Delhi, he wanted CSIR laboratories and institutes to address challenges that require long-term scientific and technological solutions. In particular, Naidu wanted CSIR to bestow greater attention on agricultural research and come out with innovations, techniques and solutions to address the problems faced by farmers. He cited climate change, drug resistance, pollution, epidemic and pandemic outbreaks, among the challenges that need the focus of the scientific community.

 

In his address, the 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 asked CSIR and all the science departments to explore S&T innovations needed in the next ten years to make India globally competitive. 

 

Referring to the Aroma Mission of CSIR, the minister said, it has made a difference in the lives of thousands of farmers across India and especially in Kashmir. He said, CSIR’s Aroma Mission introduced a superior variety of lavender in Kashmir, and today, a purple revolution is underway in Kashmir. He also mentioned that CSIR has introduced Heeng cultivation in India for the first time and introduced Saffron in non-traditional areas, apart from its well-known mark in the area of menthol mint.

 

Professor K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Director-General Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Dr. Shekhar Mande, Dr Anjan Ray, Head, CSIR-HRDG and senior scientists and officials of CSIR joined the event.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh mentions about