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Agro Universities, IT

33 delegates from all over the world attended the certificate course

Chamber for Advancement of Small & Medium Businesses (CASMB) in association with NAHEP, Marathwada Agricultural University (MAU) Parbhani conducted a two-week Virtual Certificate Course on Food Processing & Automation.

The course focussed on faculty development and knowledge building for PG students, PhD students and faculty. Speakers from all over the world were invited and they covered topics such as AI, Machine Learning, Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0 in the food industry among others.

The course was inaugurated by Chief Guest Prof Smita Lele, Emeritus Professor Institute of Chemical Technology, she spoke about how technology has evolved in past decades and there will be a competition between man and machine. She encouraged attendees to learn and apply the latest technology in their day-to-day and work life. 33 delegates from all over the world attended the certificate course.

The objective of the certificate course was to provide knowledge of advanced food processing and automation technologies, impart knowledge  about  the  global food processing scenario and value addition in food processing industries, generate understanding about global food safety and quality standards, expose the participants to advanced processing, packaging  methods,  marketing  strategies  and export systems and encourage  the  participants to establishing processing units.

33 delegates from all over the world

AgroPolicy, Warehousing

The primary objective of this scheme is to provide modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market

Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Pashupati Kumar Paras said that efforts are on for early completion of 19 mega food parks in the country, which are under various stages of implementation. He said that the primary objective of this scheme is to provide modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market. 

 

The ministry has accorded final approval to 38 mega food parks and in-principle approval to three mega food parks in the country. Out of these, 22 mega food park projects have been made operational. The interaction also had Secretary, Food Processing Industries Pushpa Subramanyam accompanied the minister during the formal tour and interaction.

 

The minister said that efforts are also on to boost value addition in 22 perishables like mango, banana, apple, pineapple, carrot, cauliflower, beans etc identified by the ministry to supplement the income of farmers. According to him, the government has announced the expansion of the scope of the ’Operation Greens Scheme’ from tomato, onion and potato (TOP) to 22 perishable products, in the budget speech for 2021-2022. Paras said that there is huge scope for mini food parks in North Eastern Region and North Bihar.

 

Paras said that he will be visiting Bihar on the 20th of this month and will conduct an on-the-spot assessment of the mega food park at Mansi in Khagaria district of Bihar, which he said is 70 per cent complete. The minister will also meet Bihar’s industry minister Shahnawaz Hussain to assess the progress of the mega food park at Motipur block of Muzaffarpur district, approved by the Centre in April this year.

The primary objective of this scheme is

Acts & Schemes – Centre, R&D

Permission granted to Bayer CS, Mahindra & Mahindra and TAFE for drone based agricultural research and precision spraying to prevent crop diseases.  

 

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have granted conditional exemption from Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2021 to 10 organizations. The organisations includes Bayer Crop Science, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and TAFE (Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited) for drone based agricultural research and precision spraying to prevent crop diseases.  

In total, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has granted drone use permission to 10 organizations – Government of Karnataka; National Health Mission, Mumbai; Gangtok Smart City Development; Steel Authority of India, IISCO Steel Plant, Burnpur, West Bengal; Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy, Hyderabad, Telangana; Blue Ray Aviation, Gujarat; Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, Chennai; Mahindra & Mahindra, Mumbai, Maharashtra; Bayer Crop Science, Mumbai, Maharashtra; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune at 5 locations – IITM Bhopal; NDA, Pune; Karad Airport; Osmanabad Airport; and Mohammed Airfield, Farrukhabad. 

 

These exemptions are valid for a period of one year from the date of approval or until further orders, whichever is earlier and shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the SOP issued by DGCA.

Organizations where government has granted drone permission:

  1. Government of Karnataka – Drone based aerial survey for creating urban property ownership records in Bengaluru

 

  1. National Health Mission, Mumbai – Conducting experimental BVLOS drone flights to deliver essential healthcare items in tribal areas of Jawhar in Palghar district of Maharashtra

 

  1. Gangtok Smart City Development – Drone based aerial survey for Smart City project

 

  1. Steel Authority of India, IISCO Steel Plant, Burnpur, West Bengal – Conducting perimeter surveillance of the plant

 

  1. Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy, Hyderabad, Telangana – Conducting remote pilot training using drones

 

  1. Blue Ray Aviation, Gujarat – Conducting remote pilot training using drones

 

  1. Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, Chennai – Conducting drone based aerial spraying to assess crop health and prevent crop disease

 

  1. Mahindra & Mahindra, Mumbai – Conducting drone based agricultural trials and precision spraying on paddy & hot pepper crop in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

 

  1. Bayer Crop Science, Mumbai, Maharashtra – Conducting drone based agricultural research activities and agricultural spraying

 

  1. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune – Atmospheric research at these 5 locations – IITM Bhopal; NDA, Pune; Karad Airport; Osmanabad Airport; and Mohammed Airfield, Farrukhabad

 

Permission granted to Bayer CS, Mahindra &

IT, R&D

Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) infection causes severe losses in tomato yield worldwide

Scientists from DBT Autonomous Institution, National Institute of Plant Genomics Research (NIPGR) has reported an effective defence strategy deployed by a resistant tomato cultivar against ToLCNDV. It employs Sw5a (R gene) that recognises AC4 protein (viral effector) of ToLCNDV to restrict virus spread. At the transcriptional level, the sly-miR159-SlMyb33 module has been identified as governing gene expression of Sw5a. Thus, the investigators have provided mechanistic insight into slymiR159-SlMyb33–controlled Sw5a-mediated defence response in tomatoes against ToLCNDV. The findings could be translated into the development of resistance in susceptible cultivars of tomato through modern breeding or molecular approaches. The work was published in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) infection causes severe losses in tomato yield worldwide. Lack of information on resistance (R) genes against ToLCNDV has considerably retarded the pace of crop improvement against this rapidly spreading pathogen. Several attempts have been made to identify antiviral genes against ToLCNDV and related viruses. 

 

Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary DBT congratulated Dr Manoj Prasad and his team for the work which can be applied to improve the yield of tomato crops. Dr Swarup also commented that the Department of Biotechnology has taken several initiatives in agriculture biotechnology in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of doubling farmers’ income by the year 2022.

 

Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV)

AgroPolicy, R&D

The gene bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa will benefit farmers with the facilities for germplasm

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated the world’s second-largest refurbished state-of-the-art National Gene Bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa, New Delhi. 

 

Appreciating the services of visionary experts like Prof BP Pal, Prof MS Swaminathan and Prof Harbhajan Singh, Tomar said that they had laid a strong foundation for the conservation of the diversity of indigenous crops in the country. 

 

The National Gene Bank established in the year 1996 to preserve the seeds of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) for future generations can preserve about one million germplasm in the form of seeds. Presently it is protecting 4.52 lakh accessions, of which 2.7 lakh are Indian germplasm and the rest have been imported from other countries. National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources is meeting the need of in-situ and ex-situ germplasm conservation through Delhi Headquarters and 10 regional stations in the country.

 

Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Kailash Choudhary said that agri-farmers would be greatly benefited by the new gene bank with state-of-the-art facilities for germplasm.

 

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, while delivering the welcome address, explained the activities and progress of the Bureau. On this occasion, Tomar released some publications of the Bureau and launched PGR Map App. The services of Kuldeep Singh, the recently retired Director of the Bureau, for the modernisation of the gene bank, was appreciated.

 

The gene bank at the National Bureau

Agro Universities, Oilseeds

Kalinga Groundnut-101 has superior haulm quality

Odisha has officially released a new groundnut variety ‘Kalinga Groundnut-101’ as an alternative to ‘Devi’, the ruling variety after a gap of 14 years. Both the varieties are of ICRISAT origin. The new variety has a pod yield and kernel yield advantage of 12.1 per cent and 20.7 per cent respectively. Kalinga Groundnut-101 is tolerant to drought, foliar fungal diseases, late leaf spots and rust. Studies show that superior haulm quality has the potential to increase milk yield in cattle by 11 per cent.

 

Kalinga Groundnut-101 (ICGV 02266) was released by the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) at the State Varietal Release Committee (SVRC) at a recently held meeting in Bhubaneshwar. The state releases its groundnut variety after 14 years. It released Devi (ICGV 91114) in 2007, which is now a popular variety in the state.

 

Kalinga Groundnut-101 is suitable for cultivation under residual soil moisture in the post-rainy season, irrigated conditions of the summer season, and can be grown in rainfed uplands during the rainy season for Odisha. 

 

For on-farm testing, 45 ’minikit’ traits were conducted at Bargarh, Bolangir, Kalahandi and Ganjam districts of Odisha during the rainy season. In these trials, Kalinga Groundnut-101 recorded a mean pod yield of 1,726 kg/ha. The pod yield range across the 45 minikits is 1,450-2,120 kg/ha).

 

Groundnut haulms are considered valuable for livestock in Asia and Africa. Research by ICRISAT and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has confirmed that one of the most important drivers for adoption is its contribution to milk production – on-farm trials showed cattle fed on ICGV91114 fodder gave an average of 11 per cent more milk per day than those fed fodder from local cultivars. Yet another study at ILRI showed, the weight gain in sheep for different groundnut cultivars varied from 65 to 137 g/day indicating the value of groundnut fodder quality on livestock productivity.

 

Dr Janila Pasupuleti, Principal Scientist (Groundnut Breeding) and Flagship Leader of CRP-Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (CRP-GLDC) noted that the collaborative work between ICRISAT and ILRI resulted in the identification of groundnut lines with better haulm quality. The haulm quality assessment is now streamlined in breeding pipelines of ICRISAT’s mandate crops with the joint efforts of the two CRPs GLDC and livestock.

Kalinga Groundnut-101 has superior haulm quality Odisha

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