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Agrotech, Seeds

ICRISAT’s genebank houses more than 129,000 accessions and has the world’s largest collections of pearl millet, sorghum, groundnut, chickpea, pigeon pea and small millets

ICRISAT’s genebank has begun sending copies of its large germplasm collection to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) as a backup, commonly referred to as first-level safety duplication. The first batch of 20,000 accessions of both sorghum and pearl millet was sent on December 27.

“I am pleased to note that this timely exercise has started with a large number of sorghum and millet accessions,” said Dr Jacqueline Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT. “The genebank has already safety duplicated more than 90 per cent of its collections in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.”

ICRISAT’s genebank houses more than 129,000 accessions and has the world’s largest collections of pearl millet, sorghum, groundnut, chickpea, pigeon pea and small millets.

“ICRISAT’s genebank is a treasure trove of traits and has helped breeders across the world improve both productivity and resilience of dryland crops. That apart, the genebank has helped restore many traditional varieties, also called landraces,” said Dr Rajeev Varshney, Research Program Director-Accelerated Crop Improvement at ICRISAT, to underscore the importance of conservation and duplication of germplasm resources.

Dr Kuldeep Singh, Head of the genebank at ICRISAT. Multi-level duplications are mandated by the Crop Trust, which supports and funds CGIAR genebanks through the Genebank Platform. Many genebanks across the world duplicate their germplasm in other genebanks.

“In the first batch, we sent 15,000 accessions of sorghum and 5,000 accessions of pearl millet. The second batch is being prepared to be sent to IITA by end of January next year,” Dr Singh informed.

ICRISAT’s genebank houses more than 129,000 accessions

Agro chems – Chemicals

The company held 99 per cent of the equity share capital of Excel Crop Care (Europe) NV

Sumitomo Chemicals India has informed that it is in the process of voluntary winding up of Excel Crop Care (Europe) NV, Belgium, an unlisted subsidiary of the company. The said subsidiary now stands wound up and closed.

The company held 99 per cent of the equity share capital of Excel Crop Care (Europe) NV. The subsidiary was not a material subsidiary and was a solvent company not having financial liabilities on its balance sheet.
The subsidiary had not been having business / commercial activities/sales turnover/profits for the past several years.

The winding-up and closure of Excel Crop Care (Europe) NV is not likely to impact the business, commercial activities, financial position and financial statements of the company/group in any material manner.

The company held 99 per cent of

Agrotech, Start ups

Experts emphaise on how innovations played a key role in green and white revolution

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General, ICAR, Government of India emphasised that nurturing agri innovations is imperative for agricultural development. Innovations played a key role in green and white revolution.

Addressing the 4th edition of ‘FICCI Agri Startup Summit & Awards’, Dr Mohapatra said, “The evolving technologies and agri innovations are to be mainstreamed and deployed in the fields.” Dr Mohaptra mentioned that there has to be efficiency, climate resilience and high productivity with quality and we need more and more players to be part of it.

Neelkamal Darbari, MD, Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), Government of India said that the timing is apt to leverage technologies for the small and marginal farmers. The government has already launched the e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) which is a pan-India electronic trading portal that networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.

TR Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee & Group President, TAFE Ltd said that FICCI Awards for agriculture start-up has emerged as a leading platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their potential.

Vivek Chandra, CEO, Global Branded Business, LT Foods, said that agri start-ups will play a crucial role in bringing in the required technology and innovation needed to meet the increasing demand for food as the world population grows.

Ashok Varma, Partner, PwC said that at present, there are more than 700 AgriTech start-ups in India that are developing customised solutions and products to make the agricultural value chain more profitable and remunerative. With an impressive inflow of funding, more than 48 per cent of AgriTech CEOs in the country believe that they will have the next AgriTech unicorn within a three-year time frame.

Amit Mundawala, MD and Co-founder, Star Agribazaar Technology highlighted that Agritech companies can play important role in enhancing farmers’ income. This can be achieved if we have a proper database of all the parameters needed in remote sensing resulting in accurate farmer advisory services which will, in turn, increase the yield, reduce the input cost, and make the proposition win-win for all stakeholders.

Hemendra Mathur, Chairman, FICCI Task Force on Agri Start-ups & Technology & Venture Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund said that Indian AgriTech is entering its third phase, which will be driven by increasing farmer adoption of new-age innovations and a significant degree of consolidation in the start-up space.

The 4th edition of FICCI Agri Start-up Awards was announced during the event along with the release of FICCI-PwC Knowledge report “Agri start-ups – Fostering collaboration to bring paradigm shifts in Indian agriculture’ and publication on Agri Start-ups by FICCI Task Force members. PwC was the knowledge partner for this event.

Experts emphaise on how innovations played a

AgroPolicy, Dairy, Live Stock, Trade

Indian mangoes and pomegranate get market access in US

In pursuant to the 12th India – USA TPF meeting held on November 23, 2021 Department of Agriculture and farmer’s welfare (DAC&FW) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have signed a framework agreement for implementing the 2 Vs 2 Agri market access issues i.e inspection/oversight transfer for Indian mangoes and pomegranate and market access for pomegranate arils from India and market access for US cherries and US Alfalfa hay.

Mango and pomegranate exports will start from January – February 2022 and pomegranate aril exports from April 2022. Exports of Alfalfa hay and cherries from the US will begin in April 2022.

In addition, based on the ministerial discussions, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) also conveyed its readiness to provide market access for US pork and requested the US side to share a signed copy of the final sanitary certificate for finalising the same.

Indian mangoes and pomegranate get market access

Bee keeping

The mobile van has been designed in-house by KVIC at its multi-disciplinary training centre, Panjokehra, for Rs 15 lakh

Chairman KVIC Vinai Kumar Saxena launched the country’s first mobile honey processing van at Village Sirora in Ghaziabad, UP. The mobile van has been designed in-house by KVIC at its Multi-disciplinary Training Centre, Panjokehra, for Rs 15 lakh. This mobile honey processing unit can process up to 300 kg of honey in eight hours. The van is also equipped with a testing laboratory, that would instantly examine the quality of honey.

The van will process beekeepers’ honey at their doorsteps and thus save them the hassle and the cost of taking the honey to processing plants in far off cities for processing. While this will make beekeeping a more profitable business for small beekeepers; this will also maintain purity and the highest quality standards of honey.

The mobile van has been designed in-house

Agro Universities, R&D

The new variety produced 23.13 per cent higher yield than the national check in three-year trials

TDRG 59, a high-yielding variety of pigeon pea resistant to Fusarium wilt and sterility mosaic diseases, has been identified for cultivation in India’s south zone. The new variety produced 23.13 per cent higher yield than the national check in three-year trials conducted by the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on pigeon pea.

Developed by ICRISAT and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University’s (PJTSAU) Agricultural Research Station in Tandur, TDRG 59 was identified by AICRP in June 2021. Also known as ICPL 99050, the variety produced an average yield of 1719 kg/ha or 23.13 per cent higher than ICPL 8863 (national check) and 26.21 per cent higher than CO 8 (local check) in multi-location trials. The fungal disease Fusarium wilt and the viral disease caused by the sterility mosaic virus are two diseases that significantly lower pigeon pea yields. ICRISAT developed the line which was taken up for testing and evaluation by the research station.

“After nine years in the making, TDRG 59 is ready for release. It is a medium-duration variety and matures within 170 days. The variety will become available to farmers after the Central Varietal Release Committee (CVRC) notifies it,” said Dr Rachit Saxena, Senior Scientist, Applied Genomics, ICRISAT. The south zone for pigeon pea cultivation covers the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Bheema, a pigeon pea variety that resulted from ICRISAT’s collaboration with the University of Agricultural Sciences Raichur’s Zonal Agricultural Research Station (ZARS) in Kalaburagi (Karnataka state) was among the recent varieties notified by the CVRC. Bheema was identified for release in India’s central zone covering the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. Bheema matures in 165 days and has high resistance to Fusarium wilt and sterility mosaic virus.

ICRISAT and ZARS-Kalaburagi are also using genomics to improve pigeon pea in a first-of-its-kind effort for this crop. Three advanced breeding lines (NAM88, NAM92 and NAM151) that were developed by ICRISAT through a technique called Nested Association Mapping (NAM) were evaluated for two years by ZARS at Kalaburagi. Subsequently, they were picked up for AICRP’s Initial Varietal Trails (IVT) in 2021.

“These lines were found to have high yield potential, good seed size and adaptation. The three lines have the potential to fulfill the need for good cultivars in early (NAM88) and mid-early (NAM92 and NAM151) maturity groups,” said Dr Rajeev Varshney, Research Program Director for Accelerated Crop Improvement, ICRISAT.

The new variety produced 23.13 per cent

R&D, Seeds

Apomixis, enables plants with a desirable combination of traits to produce many offspring with the same desirable combination of genes as the mother plant

Researchers from KeyGene and Wageningen University & Research (WUR), in collaboration with colleagues from Japan and New Zealand, have discovered a gene that will make it possible to produce seeds from crops that are genetically identical to the mother plant and that do not need pollination. 

This phenomenon, called apomixis, enables plants with a desirable combination of traits to produce many offspring with the same desirable combination of genes as the mother plant. Together with researchers from the Japanese breeding company Takii and New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research and Lincoln University, the KeyGene and WUR researchers explain in Nature Genetics magazine how the gene works and the way it influenced the work of the ‘father of genetics’ Gregor Mendel. The discovery is expected to lead to major innovations in plant breeding over the coming years.

The gene found has been given the name PAR, shortened from parthenogenesis, the process whereby egg cells grow into plant embryos without fertilisation of the egg cells. The discovery marks a definitive breakthrough and crowns the research team’s work that started at KeyGene over 15 years ago.

Apomixis is seen as the holy grail of agriculture. Because apomictic plants produce ‘clonal’ seeds from the mother plant, the process allows uniquely superior combinations of a plant’s traits to be captured in one fell swoop. Apomixis can therefore accelerate the breeding of innovative crops, make seed production less costly and bring the advantages of hybrid breeding to a lot more of the world’s crop species.

Apomixis, enables plants with a desirable combination

Agro Universities, R&D

 Collaboration will make available micronutrient-rich varieties, high-quality seed and related technologies to the farming communities and consumers

ICRISAT and HarvestPlus signed an agreement for scientific and technical collaboration between the two global organizations. Arun Baral, CEO, HarvestPlus, and Dr Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT, signed the Memorandum of Understanding, which is made and entered into by IFPRI on behalf of its HarvestPlus Program.

 On the occasion, Dr Hughes said, “ICRISAT and HarvestPlus will work together more closely, making available micronutrient-rich varieties, high-quality seed and related technologies to the farming communities and consumers. This will contribute to eliminating micronutrient malnutrition in the drylands.”

Baral asserted, “Mainstreaming nutritional traits in crop development is a key element in scaling up biofortification globally to help end the epidemic of hidden hunger. HarvestPlus looks forward to partnering and working hand in hand with ICRISAT to ensure that the benefits of nutrient-rich staple crops extend to farming families in dryland communities.”

Dr Arvind Kumar, Deputy Director General – Research, ICRISAT, said, “Under this agreement, HarvestPlus and ICRISAT will join forces to advance mainstreaming and scaling up of nutritional traits by ensuring adequate resources for this critical work to help smallholder farmers access to essential nutrition.”

Promote nutrition research in crop development on ICRISAT mandate crops in Asia and Africa

Jointly advocate biofortification at the international level

Mobilize resources for mainstreaming and targeted breeding of nutritional traits in crop breeding programs

Support public and private sector institutions for mainstreaming nutrient traits into their crop development programs

Promote research on enhancing nutrient bioavailability, retention, anti-nutrients, processing, etc.

Upscale biofortified cultivars at farmers’ fields according to rules and regulations of the national agricultural research systems of identified countries.

ICRISAT and HarvestPlus have broadly agreed to carry out the following collaborative activities:

 Collaboration will make available micronutrient-rich varieties, high-quality

Packaging & Labelling, Supply Chain

The transaction is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2022

Swiss firm SIG has agreed to acquire Pactiv Evergreen’s Asia Pacific Fresh operations (Evergreen Asia) for an enterprise value of $335 million. 

For the twelve months to 31 December 2021, Evergreen Asia is expected to record revenue of around $160 million and adjusted EBITDA of around $28 million. On a proforma basis, the acquisition will represent approximately 7 per cent of Group revenue.

The transaction is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions, and will be debt-financed. The acquisition will be accretive to cash flow and earnings per share from year one.

Evergreen Asia supplies filling machines, cartons, closures and after-sales service to its customers in the fresh segment, mainly for milk, and has production facilities in China mainland, South Korea and Taiwan. They are the leading supplier in China mainland which accounts for approximately 50 per cent of its revenue. The remaining revenue is largely derived from South Korea and Taiwan where they are among the leading suppliers. The business is starting to develop in other South East Asian markets, where SIG is already well-positioned in the aseptic segment.

The acquisition will enable SIG to increase its share of wallet with existing customers and to access a new customer base. SIG plans to use its local R&D presence and innovation capabilities as well as its marketing expertise to introduce more innovative packaging formats in the fresh dairy market. 

The transaction is expected to close in

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Supply Chain

Discussions were held on horticulture, medicinal crops and natural farming

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), G Kishan Reddy recently hosted a virtual meeting to take stock of various schemes of the Government of India in the sector of the North Eastern Region (NER). Agriculture ministers of the North-Eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura discussed the issues and challenges they were facing in detail.

Union Minister of State for DoNER, BL Verma,. Ministers for Agriculture of all the eight North Eastern States accompanied by the Secretary, DoNER, Agriculture Secretaries from the NER states with senior officials also marked their presence.

Tomar in his speech quoted, “Our door is always open. I request all the state governments to come up with a proposal if you find any difficulty in any schemes related to the agriculture sector.” He said that about 9 lakh hectare land in the North East is well suited for oil palm production as it has the potential to benefit farmers at large. 

He also talked about horticulture and medicinal crops which are grown only in North-Eastern State. He said that Agriculture and Commerce Ministry are working together to tap such opportunities and to solve the logistic problems faced by the North Eastern States.

The minister urged the state governments to pay attention to natural farming.

Officials from Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Regions (MOVCDNER); National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP); Bamboo in North East Region and the mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) made presentations regarding various schemes.

Discussions were held on horticulture, medicinal crops

Cold Storage

Decco’s new Decco DMN Aerosol is the latest product to be added to its Fresh Defense portfolio for stored potatoes

Decco US Post-Harvest, the post-harvest affiliate of UPL, has announced the launch of Decco DMN Aerosol at the 2022 Potato Expo in Anaheim. Decco adds the new EPA-registered product to its growing potato storage portfolio available across North America.

Decco DMN Aerosol, as part of an overall potato storage programme, will greatly reduce sprouting and disease issues while also enhancing flesh strength, colour, and reducing bruising or soft spots while in storage. The active ingredient in Decco DMN Aerosol, 1,4-Dimethylnaphthalene, is a conventional solution used in potato storage programmes throughout the industry.

Decco DMN Aerosol helps reduce load rejection by working in conjunction with an overall potato storage programme. Decco’s new Decco DMN Aerosol is the latest product to be added to its Fresh Defense portfolio for stored potatoes.

The overall portfolio of Fresh Defense products, including Decco DMN Aerosol, creates many opportunities for Decco and parent company UPL to provide a better customer experience for the potato grower, storage applicator and processor. This week, Decco is partnering with UPL at the 2022 Potato Expo in Anaheim to showcase both Fresh Defense and Decco DMN Aerosol.

“The aim for Decco is to collaborate closely with our crop colleagues at UPL,” said Boomer Cardinale, US Marketing Director for Decco. “Under our OpenAg mission, we can truly offer farm to fork solutions across the value chain. The addition of Decco DMN Aerosol and our other Fresh Defense storage products will greatly complement the UPL potato programs offered in pre-harvest.”

Decco, in conjunction with UPL, will be exhibiting at the 2022 Potato Expo at booth #745 from January 5 to 6, 2022 at the Anaheim Convention Centre in California.

Decco's new Decco DMN Aerosol is the

People

Ozkan has had a 30-year career in agri-business leadership roles

ADAMA, a leading crop protection company, has announced the appointment of Sahin Ozkan as the new General Manager of ADAMA India.

Yossi Goldshmidt, VP India, Africa & Middle East said, “We are pleased to have someone as experienced as Ozkan, with a thorough understanding of ADAMA’s values as well as significant experience in our industry, coming to lead the team. His appointment is testimony to ADAMA’s commitment to growing people from within the company and providing global career advancement opportunities.”

“I am honoured and excited to take on the role of leading ADAMA India,” Ozkan said. “I look forward to working closely with the highly professional India team, who are committed to listening to the farmer, and delivering products and services that provide solutions to their needs.”

Ozkan joined ADAMA in 2017 as Head of Sales in Turkey and was promoted to be General Manager of Turkey in 2018. Under his leadership, ADAMA Turkey doubled its sales and significantly improved its profitability, in a challenging and volatile market. Further, Ozkan has had a 30-year career in agri-business leadership roles.

Ozkan has had a 30-year career in

Agrotech, Machinery - Pre-harvesting, Machinery – Post-harvesting

The market reached Rs 954.3 bn in 2020

Market research firm IMARC Group report titled, “Indian Agricultural Equipment Market Manufacturers: Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026,” informed that the Indian agricultural equipment market reached a value of Rs 954.3 billion in 2020. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to exhibit moderate growth during 2021-2026.

The Government of India (GoI) has been promoting agricultural equipment by undertaking various initiatives, including providing subsidies and incentives and establishing financial institutions. Furthermore, leading players are increasingly introducing advanced equipment integrated with Big Data and Internet-of-Things (IoT), such as self-driving autonomous tractors, which is contributing to the market growth.

The market reached Rs 954.3 bn in

AgroPolicy, Trade

Facilitating honey producers in accessing export markets besides availing government assistance under different schemes, quality certification and lab testing

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has been giving thrust on boosting exports through ensuring quality production and market expansion to newer countries. India at present is wholly dependent on the US to export its natural honey which accounts for more than 80 per cent of the exports.

APEDA is also facilitating honey producers in accessing export markets besides availing government assistance under different schemes, quality certification and lab testing. The body is also working to mitigate the exporters’ challenges which can be higher freight cost, limited availability of containers in peak honey export season, higher nuclear magnetic resonance test costs and inadequate export incentives.

“We are in a close collaboration with the state government, farmers and other stakeholders in the value chain to boost exports to other countries and regions such as the UK, European Union and South East Asia,” Dr M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA said.

As per the record, India so far has exported 59,999 metric tonnes (MT) of natural honey worth Rs 716 crore during 2020-21, with the US taking a major share at 44,881 MT. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bangladesh and Canada were the other top destinations for Indian honey. India started its first organised exports in the year 1996-97.

In India, North East Region and Maharashtra are the major players in honey production. Around 50per cent of the honey produced in India is consumed domestically and the rest is exported across the globe. Honey exports have huge potential and especially in the COVID19 pandemic as its consumption has gone up globally as an effective immunity booster and a healthier alternative to sugar.

The Government of India approved the allocation of Rs 500 crore for the National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) for three years (2020-21 to 2022-23).

Facilitating honey producers in accessing export markets