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AgroPolicy, Transportation

The transporter has achieved the highest ever incremental freight loading of 17.54 MT in July 2021 compared to 95.18 MT in July 2020

Continuing the momentum, Indian Railways has registered stupendous freight loading performance in July 2021 by achieving yet again the highest ever freight loading in the month which has continued for the last 11 months since September 2020. Indian Railways has transported food grains of 0.43 million tonnes (7.89 per cent). 

 

 Indian Railways has achieved the highest ever incremental freight loading of 17.54 million tonnes in July 2021 (an increase of 18.43 per cent over July 2020), with total freight loading of 112.72 million tonnes as against the earlier best of 99.74 million tonnes in July 2019 and as against 95.18 million tonnes in July 2020.

 

With freight loading of 451.97 million tonnes in current fiscal 2021-22 as against 336.74 up to July 2020, Indian Railways has also achieved the highest ever cumulative incremental freight loading of 115.23 million tonnes i.e 34.22 per cent over the same period last year 2020-21.

 

In cumulative performance major growth has been registered over the same period last year in Coal 55.83 MT (37.11 per cent), Iron-ore 18.07 MT (43.88 per cent), Cement 15.01 MT (52.91 per cent) and Balance other goods 10.45 MT (38.42 per cent).

 

 

The transporter has achieved the highest ever

AgroPolicy

OMCs are regularly floating EoI to encourage the production of biodiesel

The government has taken various steps towards achieving 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol which includes allowing the use of sugarcane and food grains (maize and surplus stocks of rice with Food Corporation of India) for conversion to ethanol; administered price mechanism for procurement of ethanol under EBP Programme including the enhanced ex-mill price of ethanol year on year from ethanol supply year 2017. GST has been lowered to 5 per cent on ethanol for EBP Programme besides an amendment in Industries (Development & Regulation) Act for free movement of ethanol; interest subvention scheme for enhancement and augmentation of ethanol production capacity in the country. At present average ethanol blending percentage in petrol for the ongoing Ethanol Supply Year 2020-21 is 8 per cent, as of 26.07.2021. The information was shared by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rameswar Teli in Lok Sabha. 

 

The present percentage of blending of biodiesel in diesel is less than 0.1 per cent. The National Policy on Biofuels – 2018 prescribes the indicative target of 5 per cent blending of biodiesel in a diesel by 2030.

 

Availability of biodiesel has been low in the last few years due to the increase of price and non-availability of feedstock for biodiesel. Some biodiesel is also being marketed by agencies other than oil marketing companies (OMCs).

 

Further, to increase the supply of biodiesel in the country, OMCs are regularly floating Expression of Interest (EoI) to encourage the production of biodiesel from used cooking oil.

 

 

 

OMCs are regularly floating EoI to encourage

Agro Universities, Agrotech

According to experts, a shift from puddle transplanting to DSR saves 15-20 per cent of irrigation water

The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) have initiated a collaborative project to promote tar-wattar Direct Seeded Rice (tar-wattar DSR) in the state. The two-year NABARD sponsored project focuses on capacity building of farmers on tar-wattar DSR technique through training and demonstrating tar-wattar DSR technique at farmers’ fields in 12 districts of the state for creating awareness. The move in a way will help to up-scaling the shift toward water-saving techniques for saving precious natural resources of the state.

 

Giving details, Dr MS Bhullar, Head, Department of Agronomy, said that under the project, six training webinars on tar-wattar DSR were conducted in which more than 300 farmers participated. Farmers’ field demonstrations on ‘tar wattar DSR’ were laid on more than 200 acres in six districts viz. Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Pathankot, Ferozpur and Faridkot during the current season, he informed. 

 

Dr Bhullar said, “Tar-wattar DSR is a novel technique developed and recommended by PAU in 2020 to reduce water footprints in rice cultivation. In this technique, pre-sowing irrigation is applied and primed seed is sown in a tar-wattar field preferably using Lucky Seed Drill. A major departure from the conventional dry-DSR is delayed first irrigation which is applied at three weeks after sowing (21 days), which offers higher saving in irrigation water, lesser incidence of iron deficiency as roots go deeper, lesser weed germination, wider soil adaptability and yield/profit similar to puddle transplanted rice.” 

 

A shift from puddle transplanting to DSR saves 15-20 per cent of irrigation water, offers 10-15 per cent of higher ground-water recharge, saves labour and provides 250 kg/ha higher wheat grain yield, he said.

According to experts, a shift from puddle

Agro Universities, Packaging & Labelling

Discussions were held on packaging of pears

The Food Industry Business Incubation Centre (FIBIC), Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), recently provided training and incubation facilities for processing and packaging of pear into preserve (murabba). The training was held at Algon Kalan village in Tarn Taran district.

 

Dr Poonam A Sachdev, Principal Food Technologist (Vegetable)-cum-Head, Department of Food Science and Technology, PAU, highlighted the importance of value addition of pear, which is a perishable crop and processing is required to reduce its wastage and fetch remunerative prices to the growers.

 

“Pear is largely grown in Punjab and considered to be a good source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre. Because of its low flavour profile, the fruit is not utilised for processing except for blending of juices,” she observed.

 

Keeping in view the importance of processing, specialised training was organised where the processing of pear into preserve was conducted, she informed.

 

Discussions were held on packaging of pears

AgroPolicy, Pulses

Creates awareness among farmers for millets

The government, under the Sub Mission on National Food Security Mission (NFSM)- Nutri Cereals is creating awareness among farmers for nutri cereals (millets) such as ragi, sorghum, bajra and small millets through demonstration and training. This information was given by Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar in Lok Sabha. 

 

Under NFSM–Nutri Cereals, incentives are provided to the farmers, through the state governments, on crop production and protection technologies, cropping system based demonstrations, production & distribution of seeds of newly released varieties/ hybrids, Integrated nutrient and pest Management techniques, improved farm implements/tools/ resource conservation machinery, water-saving devices, capacity building of farmers through training during the cropping season, organising events/workshops, distribution of seed mini kits, publicity through print and electronic media etc. The interventions such as the formation of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) for Nutri Cereals, setting up Centers of Excellence (CoE) and seed hubs for Nutri Cereals have also been supported under NFSM.

 

The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare also provides support to the states under a centrally sponsored scheme ’Support to State Extension Programme for Extension Reforms,’ different extension activities like farmers’ training, exposure visits, demonstrations, kisan meals, Kisan Ghostie, farmers – scientists – interaction, mobilisation of farmers interest groups and setting up of farm schools in the field of awardee / progressive farmers are implementation to promote modern agriculture technologies including millets cultivation. 

 

Further, the states can promote nutri cereals (millets) under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER).

 

Under All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on small millets, sorghum and pearl millet, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) provide support to 45 collaborating centres located in different State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and ICAR Institutes for the development of new varieties/hybrids of nutri cereals (millets).

Creates awareness among farmers for millets The

Acquaculture, AgroPolicy

An analytical report on the fluctuation of the price of fish products will be uploaded to the NFDB website every week

The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying through the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) is implementing a Fish Market Price Information System (FMPIS) for collecting price details of different commercially important fish species from different fish markets. Based on these details, an analytical report is uploaded to the NFDB website every week. 

 

The information was given by the Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Parshottam Rupala in the Loksabha.

 

The move will aim to promote the trading of commercially important fish species. FMPIS facilitates better marketability (fisher/seller) and accessibility (consumer/buyer). 

 

Fish is a perishable item and the price of fish products is market-driven and dependent on several factors like demand, the arrival of fish in the market, fish size, species, type, season, accessibility, consumption pattern and region etc. 

 

An analytical report on the fluctuation of

AgroPolicy, Environment

The agromet advisories will help farmers to decide on day-to-day agricultural operations, which can further optimise the application of input resources at the farm level during extreme weathers

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 said that India Meteorological Department (IMD) has undertaken installation of Agro-Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) to provide exact weather forecast to the people, especially the farmers. 

 

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, he said, the installation was done at District Agromet Units (DAMUs) located in the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) network. The Minister said Agro-AWS is being installed at 200 DAMUs to augment block-level Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) under Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) scheme. 

 

Weather-based operational AAS viz. GKMS scheme, rendered by IMD jointly with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and state agricultural universities, is a step towards weather-based crop and livestock management strategies and operations for the benefit of the farming community in the country. Under the scheme, medium-range weather forecast at district and block level is generated and based on the forecast, Agromet Advisories are prepared and communicated by the Agromet Field Units (AMFUs) co-located with state agricultural universities, and DAMUs at KVKs to the farmers every Tuesday and Friday.

 

These agromet advisories help farmers to decide on day-to-day agricultural operations, which can further optimise the application of input resources at the farm level during deficient rainfall situations and extreme weather events to reduce monetary loss and maximise crop yield. IMD also monitors rainfall situations and weather aberrations and issues alerts and warnings to the farmers from time to time under the GKMS scheme. SMS-based alerts and warnings for extreme weather events along with suitable remedial measures are issued to take timely operations by the farmers. Such alerts and warnings are also shared with state department of agriculture for the effective management of calamity.

 

Agromet advisories are communicated to the farmers through multichannel dissemination systems like print and electronic media, Doordarshan, radio, Internet etc. including SMS using mobile phones through Kisan Portal launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and also through private companies under the PPP mode. At present, 43.37 million farmers in the country receive the Agromet Advisories through SMS directly. KVKs of ICAR has also given a link to the respective district-level advisory in their web portal. 

 

A mobile App viz., ‘Meghdoot’ has also been launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, to help the farmers to get the weather information including alerts and related agreement advisories specific to their districts.

The agromet advisories will help farmers to

AgroPolicy, Agrotech

The ecosystem will help the government to effectively increase the income of farmers in particular and improving the efficiency of the agriculture sector as a whole

The government is in the process of finalising ’India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)’ which will lay down a framework for Agristack. The department has commenced the work for creating Agristack in the country. Accordingly, a Task Force has been constituted and in furtherance, a Concept Paper on IDEA has already been floated for comments from the general public not only through the department’s website but also through emails especially to subject matter specialists, Agro-Industry, Farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). 

 

This information was given by Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in Lok Sabha. 

 

The IDEA would help in laying down the architecture for the Agri-stack in the country and that would serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging emerging technologies to contribute effectively in creating a better ecosystem for agriculture in India. This ecosystem shall help the government in effective planning towards increasing the income of farmers in particular and improving the efficiency of the Agriculture sector as a whole. As the first step in this direction, the government has already initiated building a federated farmers’ database that would serve as the core of the envisaged Agristack.

 

No private sector companies are involved as far as the building of the Agristack is concerned. However, leading technology/agri-tech/startUp companies were identified and invited to collaborate with the Government of India to develop Proof of Concepts (PoC) based on small portions of data from the federated Farmers’ database for certain identified areas (Districts/Village). 

 

A public call through the Department’s website has been placed inviting proposals for PoCs. MoUs purely on a pro bono basis with selected companies are being signed, for one year to develop PoCs. The PoCs will help in understanding solutions that can be built using available data and some of them, if found beneficial to the farmers will be scaled up at the national level. 

 

Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has signed an MoU with Esri India Technologies for working on a PoC in select districts/villages to develop a model for an agriculture Geo-Hub to establish a framework to collect and integrate available geospatial information with other associated information, perform spatial analytics, share results and data and deploy dynamic apps which would support estimates for policy planning, monitoring requirements and ease in decision making. 

The ecosystem will help the government to

AgroPolicy, Supply Chain

According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, no report of black marketing of tomato, onions and potatoes have been received so far

Prices of vegetables are determined by the normal market forces of demand and supply as well as production/harvest season. This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha. 

 

The prices of vegetables are also influenced by other factors such as disruptions in the supply chain, functioning of mandis, rainfall, labour, transportation etc. The Government is implementing a market information system where the prices of vegetables are collected through the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis and disseminated for its use by the farmers through the Agmarknet portal, mobile applications etc. for better price realisation.

 

The Government is implementing the scheme of ‘Operation Greens’ for integrated development of Tomato, Onion and Potato (TOP) value chain since 2018-19 to give a fair price to the farmers for green vegetables. The major objectives of the scheme inter alia include enhancing value realisation of TOP farmers; Price stabilisation for producers and consumers; reduction in post-harvest losses; increase in food processing capacities and value addition in TOP value chain by creating firm linkages with production clusters.

 

Further, the government has extended the short term price stabilisation measures from TOP to another 41 notified crops-fruits and vegetables w.e.f June 11, 2020. As of July 19, 2021, at a total subsidy of Rs 47.66 crore has been released as part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan under the Operation Greens scheme.

 

No report of black marketing of onions and tomato have been received from the States/UTs. State governments as well as the Central government continue to exercise powers under the Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980 for preventing such practices.

 

According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs,

AgroPolicy, Trade, Transportation

West Bengal is new to taking up cultivation of this exotic fruit

A consignment of fibre and mineral-rich ‘dragon fruit’, which are sourced from farmers of Gujarat & West Bengal, have been exported for the first time to London, the UK and the Kingdom of Bahrain. In India, dragon fruit is also referred to as Kamalam.

The consignment of exotic fruit exported to London was sourced from farmers of the Kutch region and exported by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) registered packhouse in Bharuch, Gujarat, while the consignment of ‘dragon fruit’ exported to the Kingdom of Bahrain was sourced from the farmers of West Midnapore (West Bengal) and exported by APEDA registered enterprises, Kolkata.

Earlier in June 2021, a consignment of ‘dragon fruit’ that was sourced from the farmers of Tadasar village, Sangli district, Maharashtra was exported to Dubai by APEDA recognised exporter.

There are three main varieties of dragon fruit: white flesh with pink skin, red flesh with pink skin, and white flesh with yellow skin. However, the red and white flesh is typically being relished by the consumers.

At present, dragon fruit is grown mostly in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. West Bengal is new to taking up cultivation of this exotic fruit.

APEDA is making efforts to export it to other European countries to get better price realisation to the farmers of their produce.

West Bengal is new to taking up

Interaction

Speakers also emphasised the need for cloud-based network for real time irrigation

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh recently organised a virtual launching workshop of ICAR-NASF Funded Project- ’Development of Nano Sensor and its Application through Cloud-Based Network for Real-Time Irrigation to Soil and Plant.’

The Chief Guest, Dr Suresh Kumar Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), ICAR emphasised the need for nano-sensors in modern agriculture and their utilisation in irrigation scheduling. He applauded the lead and co-operating Centres for the initiative.

Dr Ashok K Patra, Director, ICAR-IISS, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh highlighted the importance of the Nano-Sensors in agriculture in the wake of “Per Drop More Crop”.

Senior officials of the various ICAR Institutes also participated in the workshop.

Speakers also emphasised the need for cloud-based

Agro chems – Fertilizers, Agrotech, R&D

IFFCO endeavours on developing highly advanced agricultural technological projects and promote precision farming and sustainable development in the country to double farmer’s income by 2022

Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) research and development unit, Nano Biotechnology Research Centre (NBRC) has signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi for research consultancy, knowledge transfer and collaborative projects.

 

IFFCO endeavours on developing highly advanced agricultural technological projects and promote precision farming and sustainable development in the country to double farmer’s income by 2022. The collaboration emphasises focussed joint research through sharing laboratories of IIT Delhi and IFFCO and providing research consultancy.

 

The MoU will broaden the scope for research and technological development in the field of agriculture. It will facilitate advanced research in the Area of Nano Technology for futuristic applications. IFFCO scientists and engineers will work with academic research faculty and scholars of IIT Delhi in addressing challenging agricultural and environmental related problems to find an innovative solution

 

Dr US Awasthi, MD, IFFCO said, “At IFFCO, we always look forward to adopting new technologies so that we can add value to the farmer at ground level. We also believe in creating sustainable innovative solutions to reduce the input cost of agriculture and farming and hence increase the income of farmers and that is the reason we were able to create the world’s first nano urea liquid at IFFCO. We are also committed to sustainable Agriculture and look for opportunities to create new solutions for sustainable farming to reduce environmental pollution.”

 

Prof V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi, welcomed this initiative, and said, “Impetus to research and innovations will help in achieving modern agriculture system, which will be beneficial for farmers of the country. IIT Delhi is happy to collaborate with IFFCO and work together on futuristic technologies of mutual interest.”

 

Prof Anurag S Rathore, Dean, Corporate Relations, IIT Delhi said, “It’s a matter of pride that this collaboration with IIT Delhi will benefit farmers immensely and look forward to some engaging work in the research areas like nanotechnology and material science, chemical engineering, agriculture technologies, environmental science and technology, rural development, data science, nano-bio interface and many more in due course of time.”    

 

 

IFFCO endeavours on developing highly advanced agricultural

AgroPolicy, Sustainable Energy

The bulletin has been released to reach out to policymakers, private sector companies and development practitioners

India’s leading economic think tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) has released the first issue of their quarterly publication Agri-Food Trends and Analytics Bulletin (AF-TAB) on July 22, 2021. This issue is titled COVID- 19 and Indian Agriculture: From Crisis to Opportunities. The bulletin has been released by ICRIER’s Agriculture Policy, Sustainability and Innovations (APSI) team to reach out to policymakers, private sector companies and development practitioners. 

 

Using the findings from an ICRIER study of 2,917 migrant workers across six states — Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the lead article of the bulletin, COVID-19’s Impact on Indian Agriculture and Migrants, points out that on an average, household income of migrants fell by 85 per cent during June-August 2020. Although 63.5 per cent of the migrant workers had re-migrated to the destination areas by February 2021, the household income of the re-migrants still evidenced a contraction of 7.7 per cent relative to the pre-lock-down level.

 

India has evidenced a record production of food grains at 305.4 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year, along with a historically high procurement of wheat (43 million tonnes) and rice (57.4 million tonnes) as of June 27, 2021. Yet, 30 to 40 per cent of the CPI inflation of 6.3 per cent in June 2021 is ‘due to the inflationary pressures from the food and beverage category’ – as per the second article of the bulletin, India’s Food Inflation Imbroglio. Using the case of pulses that account for 11 per cent of the current CFPI inflation, the article deliberates whether the central government’s recent move of (re) introducing stocking limits on private trade of pulses can control inflation. 

 

Speaking about Agri-Food Trends and Analytics Bulletin (AF-TAB), Dr Deepak Mishra, Director and Chief Executive, ICRIER, said, “The pandemic has been a body-blow to this country, and we are still reeling under its threat. But it is also the time for renewal and revival. At this juncture, an evidence-based, analytical publication like this one holds the potential to inform our policymakers to rebuild a more resilient India.”

 

Elaborating on the highlights of the bulletin, Dr Ashok Gulati, Infosys Chair Professor for Agriculture, APSI and Chief Editor of AF-TAB said, “Healthy production and procurement is good news at this time when the government has doled out various (food) support schemes for the poor/vulnerable/ migrant labourers who have lost their livelihoods to the contagion…. Can we not turn around the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity for effecting our long-overdue agricultural reforms?”

 

While the articles in this issue explore the current policy environment, these also throw light on emerging private sector-led innovations that are silently changing the contours of Indian agriculture. A case study of Sahyadri FPCL, for instance, demonstrates how deepening the interface of institutions and technology can foster farmer-market linkages through the federation of farmers’ collectives or FPOs. 

 

A note on the technological innovations for food waste management refers to an ongoing APSI study, which estimated the total post-harvest loss (from grains, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, plantation crops, and spices and livestock produce) in India to be about Rs 1,30,481 crore for the year 2020-21.

 

 

The bulletin has been released to reach

Finance, North America

By 2022, Bayer Fund will double the individual donations to $5,000, up from $2,500 in previous years

Bayer Fund has recently announced the kickoff of the 2022 America’s Farmers Grow Communities programme, which has been revamped to make it even easier for farmers across the country to find and fund the organisations and institutions that keep their communities thriving. From August 2 to November 1, eligible farmers can enrol for the chance to direct a donation to a local eligible non-profit organisation, school STEM or youth agriculture programme. By 2022, Bayer Fund will double the individual donations to $5,000, up from $2,500 in previous years.

America’s Farmers initiatives have awarded more than $60 million to thousands of schools and nonprofit organisations. Since the creation of Grow Communities in 2010, farmers have played a key role in directing funds to programmes and organisations that contribute to their communities’ health and vibrancy, such as food banks, schools and agriculture programmes.

“We can’t thank our local farmers and the Grow Communities programme enough for their donation and continued support,” said Beth Burrow, Greenfield High School’s ag instructor. “As educators, we’re always looking for ways to engage our students with hands-on experiences, and that’s what we’ve been able to do thanks to Grow Communities.”

Farmers are eligible to enrol in Grow Communities if they are 21 years of age or older and are actively engaged in farming at least 250 acres of any crop.

By 2022, Bayer Fund will double the