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Growing stress on the food supply chain due to exponentially increasing population etc are some of the leading factors

The Global Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture Market is estimated to grow from $893.43 million in 2019 to $8342.37 million in 2030 with a CAGR of 22.52 per cent. Factors such as growing stress on the food supply chain due to exponentially increasing population, rising implementation of the Internet of Things in the agricultural sector, improving the standard of living, growing focus on enhanced crop monitoring, and increased demand for higher agricultural yield, are driving growth in the artificial intelligence market.

Moreover, limited land for agriculture coupled with supportive government policies to encourage the use of AI technologies is anticipated to fuel the market growth. Nonetheless, insufficient knowledge of high technology machine learning solutions in agriculture can hamper the growth of artificial intelligence in the agriculture market. However, the increased use of drones in farms is expected to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence in the agriculture market.

“Growing global demand for food, farmers need to increase crop production either by increasing the amount of agricultural land or by adopting advanced agricultural methods such as precision farming”, said a lead analyst at Fatpos Global.

Growing stress on the food supply chain

FCV crop size has witnessed a sharp drop of 39% from 316 million kg per annum to 194 million kg per annum between 2013-14 to 2021-22 due to high taxes on legal cigarettes. 

Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA), flagged the issue with relates to the consumption price of legal cigarettes in India that has reached the maximum limit to a level where the purchasing capacity of consumers can absorb against the backdrop of cheaper and fast-growing illicit cigarettes and alternatives. It also stated that any further increase in taxes would lead to a severe reduction in flue-cured Virginia (FCV) cultivation and impact the livelihoods of farmers.

The increase has resulted in shrinkage of FCV crop size by a sharp 39 per cent from 316 million kg per annum to 194 million kg per annum between 2013-14 to 2021-22. The FCV cultivation acreage in India has also witnessed a huge drop from 2,21,385 hectares in 2013-14 to 1,22,257 hectares in 2020-21 leading to 35 million man-days of employment loss.

Pointing to the plight of FCV tobacco farmers, Gadde Seshagiri Rao, Ex-Vice Chairman, Tobacco Board & Vice President, FAIFA stated, “The above situation is stressing the farm community as consumers shift to smuggled cigarettes that do not use domestic tobacco. Given that India has a huge and widespread dependence on the tobacco crop for livelihood, the government must act reasonably and responsibly to bring price parity between cigarettes and other forms of tobacco to check the illicit cigarettes market.”

FAIFA also highlighted that the tobacco farmers in the country are suffering due to the actions of vested groups that are advocating high taxes on FCV tobacco under the garb of achieving the government’s tobacco control goals. These groups are bombarding the policymakers with misleading data and flawed research reports that present a skewed picture of the illegal cigarette trade in India to downplay the severity of the illegal cigarette trade in the country.

Javare Gowda, President, FAIFA stated, “It is noteworthy to know that a recently released report by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) states that one of the largest global cigarettes MNC as part of its market expansion strategy has been using smuggling as one of the distribution channels to increase their market penetration.”

Murali Babu, General Secretary, FAIFA, commented, “ It is high time that the government takes an all-en-compassioning approach to meet its tobacco control goals so that the interests of FCV tobacco farmers are also protected.”

Yashwanth, National Spokesperson, Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) stated, “The government needs to embrace an integrated approach to tobacco control in India given tobacco industry’s substantial contribution to the country’s GDP and livelihood dependence on tobacco farming.”

FCV crop size has witnessed a sharp

Pledges $1M for underserved students who wish to pursue a broad set of agricultural interests

Chobani announced an expansion of its scholars programme, adding a pledge of $1 million dollars and a focus on supporting historically underserved students who wish to pursue a broad set of agricultural interests. The programme has helped dozens of university students pursue their ambitions in the dairy industry. That mission now includes creating a more equitable future in agriculture.

Through its partnerships with Cornell University and the University of Idaho, the Chobani Scholars Program will offer eight $20,000 scholarships ($5,000 each year) over five years to historically underserved students interested in studying agriculture, dairy, food science, and/or food entrepreneurship. Chobani will also provide $20,000 of annual funding to each of the universities during the same time period to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training and education. Chobani Scholars will have an opportunity to intern with Chobani during their college careers. In prior years the programme was limited to students from a dairy background who were pursuing a career in dairy.

“Today’s announcement builds on our mission to help ensure opportunities for students from underserved communities with an interest in working on a farm or in agribusiness, in food science, and those who want to start a food business,” said Peter McGuinness, Chobani President and Chief Operating Officer. “We’re proud to be supporting dozens of current students in our home states of Idaho and New York, and we’re thrilled to be expanding the Chobani scholars programme.”

With the announcement, Chobani’s scholarship funding pledge will total more than $1.4 million by 2027.

Pledges $1M for underserved students who wish

Stellapps has been recognised for its innovative tech solutions in digitising

Stellapps Technologies won the ‘National Startup Award 2021’ by #StartupIndia in the Animal Husbandry sector for its effort in digitising the dairy sector in India. The dairy tech startup was honoured through a virtual ceremony in the presence of Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal. Stellapps is one of the 46 startups announced as winners of the National Startup Awards 2021 along with one incubator and one accelerator.

As a part of the award, the founders of Stellapps were commended with a cash prize of Rs 5 Lakh. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) conceived the National Startup Awards appreciating the efforts of enablers that are building innovative products or solutions and scalable enterprises, with high potential of employment generation or wealth creation, demonstrating measurable social impact.

Stellapps has been recognised for its innovative tech solutions in digitising and strengthening the dairy farming processes. With a prime focus on data acquisition and machine learning, the startup aims to digitise the dairy supply chain. The technology can be used where the yield per animal is low with inadequate traceability.

Stellapps has been recognised for its innovative

According to research, new strategies are needed to limit nitrogen and phosphorus losses from crop fields

Dairy farmers in the Northeast, Pennsylvania, US — facing a warming climate that exacerbates nutrient pollution but lengthens the growing season — can reduce the environmental impact of their operations and maximise revenues by double cropping and injecting manure into the soil, rather than broadcasting it, according to research.

A team of researchers, led by Penn State agroecologists, whose new study evaluated whole-farm production and the environmental and economic impacts of adopting these practises on a representative dairy farm in central Pennsylvania under recent historical and projected mid-century climate.

The research is important, according to Heather Karsten, associate professor of crop production/ecology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, because dairy farms — especially in the Northeast — are increasingly subject to more stringent regulations to reduce nutrient losses. With expected warmer conditions that will result in increased ammonia volatilisation from manure and more frequent and more severe storms that will cause more soluble phosphorus runoff, new strategies are needed to limit nitrogen and phosphorus losses from crop fields.

Double cropping offers the added benefit of keeping soil continuously covered by vegetation, reducing nutrient runoff, erosion and sedimentation. Winter small grains are seeded after corn for silage is harvested in September, and they germinate and grow until cold temperatures make them go dormant for the winter. They begin to grow again in late March and continue to develop until they are harvested in May, just before the corn crop is planted.

The researchers found that double-cropping increased and stabilised the farm’s feed production by providing forage from a winter rye crop with less dependency on the summer crops of corn silage and perennial cool-season grasses. Summer crops are susceptible to summer droughts, Karsten explained, which are expected to increase in this region due to warmer temperatures and increased evapotranspiration.

According to research, new strategies are needed

Launches next-generation software platform offering best-in-class agricultural analytics

EarthDaily Analytics Corp, a vertically-integrated data processing and analytics company pairing cutting-edge big data tools with proven space technologies announced the rebranding of its Geosys division to EarthDaily Agro. The company also announced the launch of a new, next-generation software platform offering best-in-class agricultural analytics service with unmatched reach, speed, quality and integration capabilities.

In addition to its role as a presenting sponsor at VISION, EarthDaily Agro hosted a virtual media roundtable to share the news and discuss how decision-makers in the AgTech industry can use the new platform to tackle some of the world’s most challenging and dynamic issues in real-time.

EarthDaily Analytics Chief Executive Officer Don Osborne said that the new name reflects the agricultural and food systems division’s essential role within the larger EDA business, with the agricultural service offering positioned to benefit from EDA’s rapid expansion and unmatched scalability and capability within the value-added geoanalytics sector.

“We’re excited because EarthDaily Agro’s dramatically strengthened service offering for our agricultural customers epitomises what’s next for our entire EarthDaily Analytics business, moving far beyond bulk images and data to incorporate our value-added geoanalytical insights and solutions into customers’ workflows in a way that helps them mitigate risk and make the best possible decisions every day,” Osborne said.

The well-known Geosys brand will live on as the name of EarthDaily Agro’s next-generation software platform — a platform that is easier to use and offers more flexibility, faster speed and greater scale — to provide more customers with more data in more markets in agriculture. The new platform will be rolled out over the course of the first quarter 2022.

Launches next-generation software platform offering best-in-class agricultural

The partnership will focus on to increase organic, regenerative farming

Daily Harvest announced a multi-year partnership with American Farmland Trust (AFT) and California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) to support historically underserved farming communities in California. Together they will work to improve farm viability in the region and expand the acreage of farmland, adopting organic and regenerative farming practices.

The partnership will enable the organisations to continue to advance organic agriculture, promote environmentally sound farming practices, and increase access to organically grown fruits and vegetables, all while centering on equity in the farming community. This commitment toward supporting historically underserved farmers and addressing service gaps will further improve human and planetary health.

Together, Daily Harvest, CCOF and AFT will develop a suite of services, including tailored technical and financial resources for farmers who have lacked access, and support as many farmers as possible in the transition to organic production. By providing educational programming and offering financial assistance, the three organisations will help to address service gaps and meet farmers’ needs. The shared goal to scale up regenerative agriculture within the US farming community can lead to more profitable and sustainable farm operations that are better for humans and the planet.

Together the organisations will equip farmers with the tools needed to be successful in their transition, leading to more organic and regenerative food in the fields and on our plates. Throughout the partnership, Daily Harvest will consider participants as future supply chain partners.

The partnership will focus on to increase

Archive is a powerful pre-mix fungicide that will help growers combat the major storage pathogens

Syngenta has launched Archive, a post-harvest fungicide that preserves the quality of potatoes. “Archive is a powerful pre-mix fungicide that will help growers combat the major storage pathogens that threaten their crop,” says Heather Ambuehl, postharvest lead at Syngenta. 

The broad-spectrum fungicide, now registered for use in potatoes, combines two unique modes of action for more broad-spectrum disease control and built-in resistance management. Fludioxonil and azoxystrobin fungicides deliver proven, robust protection against silver scurf and Fusarium dry rot diseases — pathogens that are of particular concern while potatoes are in storage.

Fludioxonil (FRAC Group 12) is a phenylpyrrole fungicide that provides proven control of some of the most difficult-to-treat storage diseases, such as Fusarium dry rot. Azoxystrobin, a Qol fungicide (FRAC 11), effective against all four classes of fungi, brings another mode of action against Fusarium, and provides control of silver scurf.

Archive is a powerful pre-mix fungicide that

The MoU is aimed at executing inter-organisational collaborative engagements to promote and facilitate the Students’ training and research

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil & Water Conservation, Research Centre, Kota, Rajasthan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Career Point University, Kota, Rajasthan.

Dr Ashok Kumar, Head, ICAR-IISWC, Research Centre, Kota and Dr SK Trivedi, Dean, College of Agriculture Sciences, Career Point University, Kota signed the MoU on the behalf of their respective organisations.
Prof (Dr) TR Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, Career Point University, Kota along with the senior officials of both the organisations were also present during the occasion.

The MoU is aimed at executing inter-organisational collaborative engagements to promote and facilitate the Students’ training and research.

The MoU is aimed at executing inter-organisational

A day-long workshop was recently organised by the Confederation of NGOs of Rural India on FPOs where experts deliberated on potentially viable and efficient ways for farmers upliftment

A day-long workshop was recently organised by the Confederation of NGOs of Rural India (CNRI) on FPOs. The workshop was supported by Dhanuka Agritech; Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA); Central for Political Studies, JNU and Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management (Vamnicom).

Small Farmers’ Agri-business Consortium (SFAC) has informed that more than 50 per cent Farmers’ Producer Organisation (FPOs) promoted by SFAC under various government programmes are potentially viable and efficient while some others are in nascent stages of development. It is expected that given the right ecosystem support, especially infusion of capital in agri-infrastructure through credit mobilisation from banks and NBFCs, they could be a real game-changer and contribute to increasing the income of member farmers substantially.

Speaking at a national workshop on ‘Strengthening Ecosystem of Farmers’ Producer Organizations’ Neelkamal Darbari, MD, SFAC, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Government of India said, “The government has taken up the very challenging cause of creating financial and marketing linkages for aggregation of farmers through a Central Sector scheme for creation of 10,000 FPOs across the country. The scheme is under implementation through different Implementing Agencies, which have already created more than 1770 FPOs. These FPOs have the potential to be viable entities, but the biggest challenge they are confronted with is the lack of finance from banks.”

RG Agarwal, Group Chairman, Dhanuka Agritech, expressed concern about the spurious agriculture inputs. “There is little difference in the area under cultivation between India and China, but China’s agriculture GDP is three times higher than India mainly because of quality products used in China as against India wherein a large chunk of products are spurious, resulting in lower production. It is the need of the hour to take strict action against spurious manufactures of fertilisers and pesticides,” he said.

During the workshop, Binod Anand, Secretary General, CNRI; Dr Surendra Nath Tripathi, DG, IIPA; Dr KK Tripathy, OSD, Minister of Cooperation; Arun Raste, MD & CEO, NCDEX; S Sivakumar, Group Head, ITC, Agri & IT Business; Hema Yadav, Professor & Director, VAMNICOM; Sachin Sharma, Associate Professor and Sushil Singla, Principal Resident Commissioner, Government of Himachal Pradesh among others expressed their thoughts on various issues related to farmers and FPOs.

A day-long workshop was recently organised by

The partnership will help to improve financial independence for women in Anantapur and East Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh

Heifer International, Cargill and Walmart Foundation announced the expansion of Hatching Hope: Accelerating Incomes Through Diversification into India to improve financial independence for women in the Anantapur and East Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh.

With demand for eggs and poultry meat on the rise across India, backyard poultry farming is an economically sustainable agri-business that is easy to undertake and can provide high returns in a shorter timeframe. The project offers new income-generating activities and leadership positions within farmer producer organizations (FPOs) for women, challenging the social and cultural norms that limit their financial independence.

The global Accelerating Incomes through Diversification program, launched in Mexico in August 2021, will support eight FPOs in India and 13 in Mexico with technical expertise, training and increased access to resources to add new profit-making streams to members’ agri-businesses. The programme is made possible through philanthropic investments from the Walmart Foundation and Cargill. The $2 million grant for this project from Walmart Foundation is part of its commitment made in September 2018 to invest $25 million (approximately Rs 180 crores) over five years to improve farmer livelihoods in India through the development and implementation of farm aggregation models.

The project in India builds on the work of Hatching Hope, a global initiative that aims to improve the nutrition and livelihoods of 100 million people by 2030 through the production, consumption and promotion of poultry. Hatching Hope: Accelerating Incomes Through Diversification will partner with local organisations – Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society, Grameen Vikasa Kendra and Snehakunja – over 32 months through March 2023 to introduce backyard poultry to an additional 8,918 smallholder farm businesses, leveraging Hatching Hope’s existing infrastructure and programme expertise. 

The partnership will help to improve financial

Farmers are getting additional income by selling the stubble/ biomass for conversion into torrefied/ non-torrefied biomass pellets

The Union Power Secretary recently chaired the second meeting of the Steering Committee for SAMARTH i.e. National Mission on Use of Biomass in coal-based thermal power plants. The meeting was organised to assess the status of Biomass utilisation in Thermal Power Plants in the country; SAMARTH (Sustainable Agrarian Mission on use of Agro Residue in Thermal Power Plants).

The agro-residue/ biomass earlier considered as a waste product has now begun to produce zero-carbon electricity for the citizens of the country. In turn, farmers are getting additional income by selling the stubble/ biomass for conversion into torrefied/ non-torrefied biomass pellets. For overall monitoring of the Mission and to facilitate the Mission on inter-ministerial issues/constraints, a Steering Committee under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Power (MoP) has been constituted.

Till date, approximately 59,000 metric tonnes (MT) of biomass has been cofired in thermal power plants in the country, while tenders for 12 million metric tonnes (MMT) are at different stages of process for short term & long term duration. Out of this, the biomass co-fired in the NCR region stands at 21000 MT and tenders floated in the region are about 5.50 MMT. Contracts have already been awarded for more than 11 lakh MT of biomass pellets.

Under the National Mission on Use of Biomass in Thermal Power Plants, advertisement, awareness campaigns and training activities are actively being pursued. Hoardings in public places and advertisements in popular newspapers in the northern states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have already started. More advertisement campaigns are planned in 2022 especially in the months leading up to the paddy harvesting season.

Continuing with the market development efforts and encouraging budding entrepreneurs, the National Mission has conducted two farmers’ training and awareness programmes held at Faridabad, Haryana and Nangal, Punjab recently. Both programmes witnessed active participation by the farmers wherein the farmers were sensitised on the negative impact of crop residue burning on the soil productivity and avenues to supplement their income by participating in the value chain of biomass co-firing in TPPs. Another two programmes were held at NPTI Badarpur and NPTI Nagpur for pellet manufactures.

Pellet vendors were apprised of the latest technologies in the palletisation process and the issues and challenges faced by them in venturing into this relatively new field were gathered and assessed. The Mission has been actively pursuing the issues raised by vendors in the Executive and Steering committee meetings held with the government across Ministries and such programmes will be continued in future. The proposed website of the Mission was reviewed and would be launched shortly with a new logo for SAMARTH.

Farmers are getting additional income by selling

The MoA was signed for the commercialisation of technology of tractor operated Mat Type Nursery Seeder

The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Sardar Gurdeep Singh, son of Sardar Surjit Singh of Rajarh Agricultural Works, Ludhiana Road, Mullanpur Dakha, for the commercialisation of technology of tractor operated Mat Type Nursery Seeder.

The Director of Research, Dr Ajmer Singh Dhatt and Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr Ashok Kumar congratulated the scientists who worked in developing the machine.

Dr Gursahib Singh Manes, Additional Director of Research (Farm Mechanization and Bioenergy), in his speech, talked about the mechanical paddy transplanters, which make use of the mat type nursery for transplanting paddy seedlings. Tractor operated seeder for mat type paddy nursery is a tractor-drawn of 35-40 HP, PTO operated machine, that accomplishes all the operations in one go, he added.

“The machine lays the polythene sheet and prepares one-meter-wide soil bed with simultaneous uniform seed placement and covers it with soil”, he added.

The HOD of the Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Dr Mahesh Kumar Narang spoke about the machine and its contribution in saving of cost by 64.3-67.9 per cent and labour by 93.8-94 per cent as compared to the conventional manual method of mat type nursery sowing. Stating that the technology will address the problem of labour scarcity during the peak season, he disclosed that in a single day, the machine can sow mat type nursery which is sufficient for transplantation in 150-200 acres paddy field area.

Dr Sandeep Kapoor, Comptroller and Dr Amarjeet Kaur, Director, Technology Marketing and IPR cell, PAU said the new machine will help in increasing the area under mechanical paddy transplanting.

The MoA was signed for the commercialisation

Hopes that the upcoming budget will prioritise R&D incentivisation in agriculture besides an increase in rural infrastructure

Agri expects have shared their pre-budget wishlist. Amit Sinha, Co-Founder, Unnati, expects the government to keep farmer upliftment, alongside rural growth and development as their topmost priority. An increase in investments of rural infrastructure, MSME development, digitisation of the agri-ecosystem, and farmer productivity prioritisation of Agritech to fund early-stage start-ups that are disrupting the agricultural economy also need to be focussed on, according to him.

Sinha adds, “Some additional focus areas could be the allocation of funds for increased digitalisation in the agricultural ecosystem, the promotion of collaboration between district governance and Agritech startups to bring innovative solutions to the farmers’ market, providing subsidies or cutbacks on taxes to farmers who opt for Agritech products. Easy access to capital, tax relaxation, and interest subvention to encourage FPO setups will allow the agritech industry to grow quickly and will help FPOs to gain traction in this new era.

He also mentions financial support to farmers, extensions to important government schemes like Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, PM-Kisan Scheme, etc., the government will need to turn their attention to.

According to Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, CEO & Founder,, 2021 was a good year for the agritech sector, which flourished with strong investments and greater adoption of technologies in the market. Bhamra hopes that the upcoming budget will prioritise R&D incentivisation in agriculture, along with the supportive impetus to allow agritech businesses, particularly start-ups, to scale domestically at a greater pace.The emerging agritech ecosystem also requires a focus on infrastructure development and governance frameworks to spur more innovation in the sector. Fiscal considerations can be beneficial to facilitate the growth of the Indian agritech sector in 2022, is what he has to say.

Hopes that the upcoming budget will prioritise