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China, Supply Chain

Farmmi plans to build on its core business of high-quality agricultural products to grow into a comprehensive service provider for the agricultural industry chain.

Farmmi, Inc., an agriculture products supplier in China, has announced the establishment of Zhejiang Farmmi Agricultural Supply Chain Co., Ltd. Leveraging more than two decades of experience in China’s agriculture industry, Farmmi plans to build on its core business of high-quality agricultural products to grow into a comprehensive service provider for the agricultural industry chain. 

The Company plans to invest in companies with storage facilities which could extend the Company’s logistics network. At present, the penetration rate of the digital economy in agriculture in China is estimated to be only 8 per cent, compared with 36 per cent for industries in China as a whole. The number of rural internet users exceeded 300 million, while the number of agricultural products sold via internet or supply chain is still small.

Agricultural products require an extensive supply chain, including storage and cold chain facilities, due to the freshness and quality control required, which presents both challenges and opportunities for the agricultural supply chain. On the other hand, recent years have witnessed the rapid expansion of agriculture e-commerce.

With the expansion of supermarkets, fresh stores, agriculture e-commerce and O2O (online to offline) platforms, the integration of online and offline retail channels presents an irreversible trend. Therefore, the Company plans to expand its presence in smaller local and larger regional storage facilities, as part of its strategy to become a comprehensive service provider for the agricultural supply chain.

 

Farmmi plans to build on its core

Environment, Nature, Organic

Innovations in plant science offer solutions that can help mitigate a number of these threats to biodiversity

In concert with the theme for this year’s International Day for Biological Development (or Biodiversity Day), We’re part of the solution, CropLife Asia and its members are commemorating the day by raising the necessity of a biologically diverse planet in ensuring our sustainable future and highlighting that plant science industry is increasing ’part of the solution’ in supporting biodiversity.

At present, climate change, deforestation and human activity pose the greatest threats to biodiversity. This is particularly concerning as richness in biodiversity is key in supporting agricultural systems and food production. Innovations in plant science offer solutions that can help mitigate a number of these threats to biodiversity.

“The goals of ensuring food security and strengthening biodiversity are not mutually exclusive, and we can’t afford to fail at either,” said Dr Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director, CropLife Asia. “With the population continuing to grow in the region and globally, food productivity in Asia has to keep up to ensure an abundant supply of safe and nutritious food. At the same time, the sustainability of our food production practices is critically important to drive biodiversity conservation and preservation. When used responsibly, plant science innovations such as biotech seeds and crop protection tools help our farmers feed the world while also supporting a healthy, biodiverse plant – but they’re only part of the larger solution needed. The plant science industry remains committed to working with all food value chain stakeholders towards protecting the rich biodiversity on which we all depend.”

The use of biotechnology and crop protection products help reduce the need to convert natural habitats into farmland. Between 1996-2018, productivity gained through biotechnology saved 231 million hectares of land from ploughing and cultivation. Forests and other natural habitats can also thrive when crop protection products such as pesticides are used to control invading plants or insects that threaten native species. Biotech crops paired with herbicides also enable conservation tillage where the soil is left undisturbed thus allowing the natural biodiversity in the soil to flourish. The combined biological activity of the billions of organisms in the soil is important to crop nutrition and soil health. The crop stubble left in the field from conservation tillage improves habitat and food sources for insects, birds, and other animals. Biotech crops also help plants use water more efficiently. In the US, genetically modified cotton has helped reduce water usage by 50 per cent over the last 20 years, leaving more water for nature.

Integrated Pest Management also known as IPM is a farming system of managing pests that are designed to be sustainable, protects biodiversity and also helps create wildlife habitats around farms.

By utilising both plant science innovations and IPM, farmers not only grow more on existing farmed land but also minimize the need to expand into more biodiverse areas, preserving these lands for the benefit of future generations.

Innovations in plant science offer solutions that

Dairy, Start ups

The young trio embarked on its entrepreneurial journey in 2019 with MoooFarm, an award-winning technology start-up for dairy farmers.

Gurugram based startup MoooFarm’s Co-founders Jitesh Arora, Abhijeet Mittal, and Aashna Singh have secured a place in the most esteemed, recently announced Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list. The young trio embarked on their entrepreneurial journey in 2019 with MoooFarm, an award-winning technology start-up for dairy farmers. MoooFarm also raised $600k USD from Dutch-based accelerator Rockstart and a Dutch-based Investment firm, Navus Ventures in 2020. 

The most used services of the app include E-dairy Mitra, MoooFarm Saba and the Cattle Trading platform. Through the E-dairy Mitra service, the farmers can connect with qualified expert veterinarians and get all their queries resolved at a minimal price. MoooFarm Saba is an online farmer community for dairy farmers where they can access knowledge content, peer support and receive tips from experts. The cattle trading platform allows farmers to sale/purchase cattle without any hassle. Farmers have access to databases of various breeds of Cows and Buffaloes and accordingly, take result-oriented decisions for increasing farm economics rather than depending on a limited area for buying or selling their cattle. 

“We had not anticipated the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia feature, it took all of us by surprise. However, more than us this is a win for our farmer partners who helped showed faith in our services and continued to avail them. Also, one of the most essential ingredient of our success is the hard-working MoooFarm team who work day in and day out to make farmers’ lives prosperous,” shares Abhijeet Mittal, Co-founder, MoooFarm.

MoooFarm’s brand values align with four Sustainable Development Goals: zero hunger, gender equality, responsible consumption, and production and climate action.

 

 

 

The young trio embarked on its entrepreneurial

Agro chems – Chemicals, Finance

Company has signed contracts amounting to Rs 540 crore from two renowned multinational companies dealing in the fields of life sciences chemicals

 

Anupam Rasayan recently announced that the company has bagged orders worth Rs 540 crore from two multinational companies for supplying speciality chemicals.

“Anupam Rasayan has received and signed contracts amounting to Rs 540 crore from two renowned multinational companies dealing in the fields of life sciences chemicals,” Anupam Rasayan said in a regulatory filing.

The tenure of the contract is for five years where life sciences related specialty chemicals will be provided to them by the company, the company added.

Anand Desai, Managing Director of Anupam Rasayan said, “These new orders will bolster its growth prospects and allow it to diversify its product offering. Additionally, we will produce the materials needed for these two contracts in our current multipurpose facilities, which will aid in the ramp-up of newly constructed capacity. The recently completed capex is a significant step forward in our goal to further strengthen our global footprint”.

Anupam Rasayan mentioned that it is currently manufacturing products for over 53 domestic and international customers.

Company has signed contracts amounting to Rs

Live Stock, Poultry

Birds need proper care as excessive heat may lead to deaths

Summers hit us hard and birds are no exception to the heat. Birds do not have sweat glands and have their heat managing mechanisms. In general, chickens can withstand the thermoneutral zone of 18 to 28° C. High temperatures above 29°C leads to heat stress. Body temperature for a domestic fowl is between 40°C and 41.7°C. Since the bird’s metabolism is strong, it must be able to lose heat, which it does by radiation, conduction and water evaporation. But, as the bird grows in size, this ratio shifts and radiation of heat through the skin may not be enough to hold the temperature down for the hefty three kg broiler. Hot weather can have a severe impact on poultry performance and heat stress is a major concern during summer. 

Heat stress 

Birds are ‘heat stressed’ if they have difficulty achieving a balance between body heat production and body heat loss. This can occur at all ages and in all types of poultry.

In the thermoneutral zone, birds can lose heat at a controlled rate using normal behaviour. There is no heat stress and body temperature is held constant. When conditions like the upper critical temperature exceed, birds lose heat actively by panting. Panting is a normal response to heat and is not initially considered welfare.

But as temperatures increase, the rate of panting increases. If heat production becomes greater than ‘maximum heat loss’ either in intensity (acute heat stress) or over long periods (chronic heat stress), birds may die. The body temperature of the broiler must remain very close to 41°C (106°F). If the body temperature rises more than 40°C above this, the bird will die.

 

Steps to be taken in keeping chickens and feed-in moderate temperature:

Arrangement of roof and side mesh

    • Spread the grass/agro waste/thatches/asbestos of about three inches thickness on the roof to lower the temperature from 5°F to 9°F inside the shed.
    • Whitewash the tiles to reduce the temperature to 9°F with 25 litre of water + 10 kg limestone + 2 kg cement

 Fogger and sprinkler

    • Use sprinklers often. Separate 200-litre tank /10000 litre for single-use fogger.
    • M4 model for every 5 feet (1 line of sprinkler for 20 feet width shed) or could use a fogger.

 Ceiling fan and curtain management

    • Ceiling fans are placed at the top of the roof within the shed to reduce the temperature up to 9° F (Every 150 sq. ft/fan, Height 6 feet from the floor]
    • Fix the curtains with a gap of 1 to 1.5 feet from the top mesh for good and free air circulation in brooding time and maintain a temperature of 90°F.

 Free land growing

    • A part of the birds (1/3rd of the birds] are allowed into the free land growing area.

 Feed management:

Give fresh feed from 22nd to 28th day. Feed Control: 

    • from 12 pm to 4 pm.
    • From 29th day onwards Feed Control: from 9 am to 5 pm.
    • For weak birds, mix the liver tonic, vitamins, growth promoters with the feed during cool hours.

 Water management and motivator

    • Cover the main water tank with a thatched roof, whitewash, clean it and monitor periodically. The water in the drinker must be maintained at 2/3rd level and pH of 5.5 to 6.5.
    • Giver amla, lemon juice, buttermilk, green gram, vetiver with nanari and electrol for the first three days, monitor their heat after attaining 1kg weight.

 Medication and other measures during summer

    • Based on body weight the antibiotics like paracetamol can be given to reduce temperature.
    • Growing trees on both sides of the shed would reduce temperature. Spray acetic acid @1-2ml/lit of water.

Birds need proper care as excessive heat

Dairy, Packaging & Labelling

LACTEL is the first dairy brand, in collaboration with INEOS, to explore a solution for UHT milk bottles produced with recycled material.

INEOS O&P EUROPE is making a significant investment to develop a comprehensive portfolio of circular solutions for the packaging industry. The collaboration with LACTEL is yet another major milestone in this direction. 

LACTEL is the first dairy brand, in collaboration with INEOS, to explore a solution for UHT milk bottles produced with circular polyethylene, derived from post-consumer recycled material.

“This trial production of 140,000 milk bottles, based on HDPE from advanced recycling technology, is a world first and a major step forward for Lactel towards a circular economy.” 

“This new innovative product will be used in the Montauban production plant for an initial production run. At Lactel we are extremely excited to bring this new environmental innovation to our iconic milk bottles”, explains Anne Charles-Pinault – Lactel France General Manager.

After an independent certification process, initiated several months ago, Lactel’s Montauban plant has been successfully RSB certified this April 2021. The milk bottles produced in this way are compliant with food safety regulations and are fully recyclable.

LACTEL is the first dairy brand, in

Logistics, Start ups

Aims to target 25000 buyers and sellers across Maharashtra and UP 

 

 

 The agritech B2B marketplace Bijak that connects sellers and buyers PAN India has launched logistics services in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh with an aim to provide easy trading of commodities across the country. The agri-traders of these states can avail this service directly through the Bijak application for interstate and intrastate trading. The service ensures affordable and timely dispatch of the commodities.

With the launch of its new service, Bijak aims to target 25,000 traders in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Bijak is currently present in 27 states and 916 regions and trades over 110 commodities through its platform. The motive of Bijak is to bring flexibility, convenience, cost-effectiveness and market linkages to all sellers and buyers in the agri supply chain. Aligning to the company’s vision, Bijak has taken a step forward to facilitate transparent trading and offer services such as credit, payments/escrow, and logistics.

Bijak strives to provide transparency and trust in the trading system along with multiple trading options, fair pricing and an efficient and barrier-free agricultural market linkage. Bijak has created an online marketplace/network of verified agri-traders through its proprietary rating tool that addresses the trust deficit between, and enhances the accountability of, all stakeholders – including LAs and farmers – by providing access to more trustworthy buyers and sellers. Bijak also acts as an e-ledger for suppliers and buyers, maintaining the transaction history for both.

Nikhil Tripathi, Co-founder of Bijak said, “We have observed a gap in last mile deliveries among our traders. We believe that with our new initiative we will be able to provide them long term solutions to their emerging needs of logistics and as the world revives to the normal. Bijak uses a network of logistics providers across the country to fetch the best rate which is 10% cheaper than other logistics services.”

The company collaborates with all the existing players in the value chain including Agricultural Produce Market Committee traders, institutional buyers, and other agritech start-ups. Bijak is bridging the gap between the local aggregators and commission agents through technology and brings transparency in the value chain.

Aims to target 25000 buyers and sellers

R&D, Sustainable Energy

Netherlands-based Circular Biobased Delta has approved Praj’s Bio-bitumen samples processed from Purified Lignin, as a part of their flagship CHAPLIN program

 Praj Industries India’s most accomplished industrial biotech company has achieved yet another milestone by developing innovative technology to produce Bio-bitumen based on lignin. The Netherlands-based Circular Biobased Delta, one of Europe’s premier consortia to promote bioeconomy, has approved Praj’s Bio-bitumen samples processed from Purified Lignin, as a part of their flagship CHAPLIN program.

Lignin is one of the co-products resulting from the 2 nd generation Ethanol plants, paper making and also from Compressed Bio-Gas plants. Bitumen is a black viscous mixture of hydrocarbons produced by fractionation of crude oil and has wide applications in road construction and roofing as binder.

Praj has now developed a proprietary process (under patenting) to convert the crude lignin into Bio-bitumen which has potential to replace this fossil based bitumen and offer eco-friendly green bitumen. The binding and viscoelastic property of Bio-bitumen makes it useful for applications in asphalt.

Circular Biobased Delta (CBBD) facilitates cooperation between knowledge centres, public authorities and industry to grow usage of biomass as a raw material in the chemical, construction and packaging industries. Under its flagship program CHAPLIN, it aims at stimulating the development and commercialization of Bio-bitumen as binder for use in asphalt so as to improve the greening approach in road construction while reducing CO2 intensity.

Praj had provided Bio-bitumen samples processed from Rice and Wheat Straw as feedstock in their 2G Biorefinery Demo plant in India to CBBD for testing and evaluation. After thorough evaluation and studies in their advanced laboratories, CBBD has approved Praj’s Bio-bitumen sample for scale up in Asphalt on a Dutch test strip on the road.

Dr Pramod Chaudhari, Founder Chairman of Praj said, “We are delighted to receive certificate of approval from Circular Biobased Delta for Bio-bitumen samples produced by deploying our proprietary process technology. We understand that Praj is the first Asian company to have developed Bio-bitumen that has the potential to partially replace bitumen from fossil resources. Bio-bitumen is poised to play a significant role as road construction material while curbing CO2 emissions and boosting Bioeconomy. This reaffirms our strong belief in innovation and technology leadership in the industrial biotech space globally.”

Netherlands-based Circular Biobased Delta has approved Praj’s

Agrotech, Finance

Terviva expects to close an additional $24M in equity and debt capital this quarter, for a total of $78M in capital to drive its expansion.

Terviva, a food and agriculture company, announced that it has raised $54 million in equity capital to commercialise its highly-sustainable, new-to-market culinary oil and plant protein. Terviva expects to close an additional $24M in equity and debt capital this quarter, for a total of $78M in capital to drive its expansion.

This latest financing round was led by prominent investors in sustainable food and agriculture, including Astera Institute (led by Jed McCaleb), Evans Properties, Trustbridge Partners, The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust, Ron Edwards (co-founder SoBe and Blue Buffalo Pet Food), Landis Becker Young and Brace Young (Chair of Social Finance), Mark Tercek (former CEO of The Nature Conservancy), Bryan Meehan (Executive Chair, Blue Bottle Coffee), Brent Magid (CEO of Magid, a leading global consulting firm) and Howard Fischer (Founder of Gratitude Railroad).

Concurrent with this financing, Terviva is embarking on a new collaboration with Danone, a global leader in plant-based products, essential dairy, waters and specialized nutrition. Danone and Terviva are working to develop new food products that utilise pongamia oil and plant protein. The collaboration illustrates the shared vision of Danone and Terviva to improve the environmental outcomes of the food system by supporting regenerative farming practices that improve soil health, water quality and biodiversity, while also improving social and market outcomes.

Supporting this partnership is MISTA, a San Francisco based global innovation platform. MISTA’s purpose is to transform the global food system to meet the needs of the future by leveraging collaborations between the largest food, ingredient, and technology players with the most innovative, early-stage companies in the world.

Terviva expects to close an additional $24M

Agro chems – Pesticides, Agrotech

Streamlining the regulatory process for these products in the UK and the EU would enable the authorities’ own deadlines of 12–22 months to be met and would allow the green biopesticide industry to fill the growing gaps in the pest control market. 

In order to obtain approval of an active substance at the EU level, an applicant must follow procedures that are not dissimilar to those for chemical pesticides (albeit slightly adapted for biological products rather than chemicals). This includes the preparation of a detailed dossier, based on extensive tests and stringent data requirements, and its subsequent review and evaluation by the relevant member state and the EFSA (now by the HSE in the UK). The evaluation of a new product should take about 12–22 months but, in reality, it typically takes up to 5 years. At least one new biopesticide product is known to have taken 15 years to gain approval. Streamlining the regulatory process for these products in the UK and the EU would enable the authorities’ own deadlines of 12–22 months to be met and would allow the green biopesticide industry to fill the growing gaps in the pest control market.

Of course, we are not the first to highlight these issues. Anyone working in the biopesticide space will almost certainly have heard this all before. However, the UK Government has just announced that a new unit is being set-up to shed EU regulations. In this political climate, post-Brexit and post-COVID, the case for regulatory reform is likely to receive a highly sympathetic and fair hearing – particularly ones governing a sector that makes for a greener environment, given the importance of the green agenda as a pillar in the Government’s industrial strategy.

“We must capitalize on recent changes in global power to push for change. We will all benefit if we manage to create a regulatory environment that nurtures and supports the bioprotection industry,” declares Dr Ansari.

Streamlining the regulatory process for these products

AgroPolicy

Kharif Strategy 2021 will bring an additional 6.37 lakh hectare area under oilseeds

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of oilseeds. Under the strategy, the Government of India has approved an ambitious plan for the free distribution of high yielding varieties of seeds to the farmers for the Kharif season 2021 in the form of mini-kits. The special Kharif programme will bring an additional 6.37 lakh hectare area under oilseeds and is likely to produce 120.26 lakh quintals of oilseeds and edible oil amounting to 24.36 lakh quintals.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar emphasised enhancing the productivity of oilseeds by increasing the availability of high yielding varieties of seeds for the farmers to use on their fields. Accordingly, the special Kharif plan was discussed in detail with the state governments in a webinar in April 2021 and also in the KharifConference on April 30, 2021.

Through these consultations, both area and productivity enhancement has been formulated for soybean and groundnut with a focus on high yielding varieties of seeds to be provided free of cost under the National Food Security Mission (Oil Seeds and Oil Palm) Mission as under;

  • Distribution of soybean seeds for intercropping for 41 districts in the six states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana and Chhattisgarh costing Rs76.03 crore and covering 1,47,500 hectare.
  • Distribution of soybean seeds for high potential districts in 73 districts of the eight states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Karnataka, UP, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat costing Rs 104 crore and 3,90,000 hectare.
  • Distribution of mini kits in 90 districts of the nine states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, UP and Bihar costing Rs 40 crore. The area to be covered will be 1,006,636 ha and the number of mini-kits will be 8,16,435.
  • The soybean seeds to be distributed will be having a yield of not less than 20 quintal/hectare. The distribution of seeds for intercropping and high potential districts will be through the state seed agencies and the seeds for the mini-kits will be through the Central seed producing agencies.
  • Distribution of 74,000 groundnut seed mini kits in the seven states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu covering costing Rs 13.03 crore for seeds not less than 22 quintal/hectare.

Kharif Strategy 2021 will bring an additional

AgroPolicy, Trade, Transportation

This was the first export consignment sent by IKSEZ, which is a subsidiary of IFFCO, a multi-state cooperative with a membership of 36,000 societies.

 

For the first time in this season, India has shipped a consignment of 2.5 Metric Tonne (MTs) of Geographical Indication (GI) certified Banganapalli & other variety Survarnarekha mangoes sourced from farmers in Krishna & Chittor districts of Andhra Pradesh.

The mangoes exported to South Korea, were treated, cleaned & shipped from the APEDA assisted and registered packhouse & vapor heat treatment facility at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh and exported by IFFCO Kisan SEZ (IKSEZ).

This was the first export consignment sent by IKSEZ, which is a subsidiary of IFFCO, a multi-state cooperative with a membership of 36,000 societies. There is possibility of more exports of mangoes to South Korea this season. IFFCO Kisan SEZ has an agreement with Meejaim, South Korea for supplying 66 MTs of mango this season. Andhra Pradesh horticulture department also collaborated in this endeavour.

The mangoes to South Korea were processed at A P Agros Integrated Packhouse & VHT System, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh and the unit is financially assisted by APEDA for facilitating the fresh fruits and vegetable exports from the region.

Alphonso, Kesar, Totapuri and Banganpalli are leading export varieties from India. Mango exports primarily take place in three forms: fresh mango, mango pulp, and mango slice. Mangoes are processed by the APEDA registered pack house facilities and then exported to various regions and countries including Middle East, European Union, USA, Japan and South Korea.

Nearly 400 MTs of fresh fruits & vegetables has been exported from the pack house. It caters to the southern states for export of horticulture produce for export to European Union and non-EU countries. In the current season, 30 MTs of mangoes have been exported to EU, UK Ireland, Middle East countries, etc.

In a bid to increase mangoes exports to South Korea, APEDA in collaboration with Indian embassy, Seoul and Indian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ICCK), organised a Virtual Buyer Seller Meet (VBSM). Senior officials from APEDA, Embassy of India, ICCK, exporters from India and importers from South Korea participated in the VBSM.

Due to the ongoing Covid19 pandemic, the export promotion programmes were not possible to be organized physically. APEDA took a lead to organize Virtual BSM to provide a platform to the exporters and importers of mangoes from India and South Korea.

 

This was the first export consignment sent

Finance, Machinery - Pre-harvesting

A sum up to Rs 25,000/- shall be paid by Sonalika to cover the medical expenses incurred by dealership employee due to the Covid-19 infection.

In order to keep employees optimistic even during these troubled times, Sonalika has pledged for extensive support to dealer’s employees by covering the medical expenses related to Covid-19 treatment. The company has also assured financial assistance in case of any unexpected mishappening (demise of an employee due to Covid-19), thereby offering mental support. In the initial outlay, Sonalika’s slew of measures include:

Medical Expense Assistance: A sum up to Rs 25,000/- shall be paid by Sonalika to cover the medical expenses incurred by dealership employee due to the Covid-19 infection. This is in addition to other schemes that are already in force to cover kids of dealer’s employees for medical assistance and education of up to Rs. 50000/annually.

  • Financial Assistance in case of demise of a Dealer Associate/Employee: Sonalika has assured a sum of Rs 2,00,000 that shall be paid to the deceased person’s family member. This is to assure some peace of mind to the family that suffers an unrepairable loss.

Sonalika has already been undertaking a vaccination drive for its Pan India workforce along with fully sponsored Dealer’s Employees COVID Vaccination Scheme launched in the month of April’21.

  

A sum up to Rs 25,000/- shall

AgroPolicy

Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister launches the project on the occasion of World Bee Day

On the occasion of World Bee Day and in the auspicious context of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched the project of setting up a honey testing laboratory at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi.

A regional honey quality testing laboratory will be established at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) for quality testing of honey and other products of beekeeping under the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission.

Tomar said that the production of honey is increasing in the country and its export is also going up. Efforts are also being made for good quality honey. Small and medium scale farmers should come forward to take up this work so that their income can be increased.

Rs 300 crore has been approved for the overall promotion of National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM), development of scientific beekeeping and achieving the target of ’sweet revolution’. Besides, Rs 500 crore has been allocated to NBHM by the Centre under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Campaign. A world-class state-of-the-art Honey Testing Lab has been established at National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Anand at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

Two more regional/big testing laboratories have been sanctioned with an amount of Rs 8 crore each for honey and other products of beekeeping. Aiming at the development of this sector, 13 mini/satellite district level laboratories for honey and other products of beekeeping and projects related to online registration and development of traceability sources of honey and other products and other important projects have also been approved. The Madhu Kranti portal for online registration and traceability system to track the source of honey and other bee products has also been launched two months ago.

The Union Minister mentioned that steps have also been initiated for the making of FPOs of beekeepers along with other efforts to promote scientific beekeeping. A total of 10,000 FPOs will be set up across the country.

Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Parshottam Rupala, Secretary Sanjay Agarwal, Director General of ICAR Dr Trilochan Mohapatra also expressed their views. Additional Secretary Dr Abhilaksh Likhi, Agriculture Commissioner Dr SK Malhotra, Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, IARI, ED of NBB Dr BL Saraswat and other officials of the honey mission and the farmer brothers and sisters associated with honey production joined the programme virtually.

Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister launches