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Inputs, Uncategorized

North America held the highest share in 2020, contributing to nearly two-fifths of the total market

According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global autonomous tractors market generated $1.56 billion in 2020, is projected to reach $11.58 billion by 2030, manifesting a CAGR of 20.9 per cent from 2021 to 2030. The report offers an extensive analysis of changing market trends, value chain, top segments, top investment pockets, regional scenarios, and competitive landscape.

Rise in income, enhanced productivity, growing demand for food, and encouraging government initiatives drive the growth of the global autonomous tractors market. However, lack of awareness, technology integration among farmers, and high initial investment and maintenance costs hinders the market growth. On the other hand, introduction of drones in agriculture and growing technological advancements create new opportunities in the coming years.

The report offers detailed segmentation of the global autonomous tractors market based on component, application, and region.

By component, the GPS segment contributed to the highest share in 2020, accounting for nearly one-third of the total market share, and is expected to maintain its lead during the forecast period. However, the vision system segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR of 21.7 per cent from 2021 to 2030.

By type, the tillage segment accounted for the largest market share, contributing to more than one-fourth of the global autonomous tractors market in 2020. However, the seed sowing segment is expected to portray the largest CAGR of 21.7 per cent from 2021 to 2030.

By region, North America held the highest share in 2020, contributing to nearly two-fifths of the total market. However, Asia-Pacific is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 22.7 per cent during the forecast period.

North America held the highest share in

Finance, Start ups

Arya.ag targets Rs 1000 crore loan disbursal in FY23 under its Insta-Loan product

Arya.ag, India’s largest integrated grain commerce platform,has announced first-of-its-kind single click Agri Insta-Loan for the farming community across India.  Arya.ag’s Insta-Loan will enable immediate and easy access to loans to users on its digital platform. With this revolutionary launch, a farmer can avail a loan instantly against her stored commodity at her discretion & choice from the comfort and convenience of her home.

The integrated digital platform leverages the best of capabilities of AI, ML, IoT and overall new-age digital technologies, to convert each bag of farm produce stored in Arya.ag’s digitally enabled warehouse into an electronic balance.  An automated decisioning engine on Arya.ag offers finance against this electronic balance in a few clicks. Seamless and smooth access to loans empowers small farmers as they can fend off any distress sale scenarios after harvest.

With immediate access to finance, smallholder farmers and other stakeholders in the value chain can tide over any liquidity requirements. This shall empower farmers to optimise the value of their farm produce.

An earlier appeared RBI report pegs that just about 40 percent of Indian farmers are covered by formal credit. Arya.ag’s Insta-Loan will address the pertinent problem of lack of adequate access to finance faced by Indian farmers.

Chattanathan Devarajan, Arya.ag’s co-founder, said, “The scope of agritech players in enhancing the agri-chain ecosystem in India is enormous. At Arya.ag our focus is to empower the country’s farmers by maximizing the value of their farm produce. We enable this through an end-to-end integrated, full stack solution spanning digitally enabled warehouses, embedded finance and commerce solutions, all delivered using our tech-led digital platform. Our latest offering, Insta-Loan, is designed to comprehensively provide farmers instant access to loans.”

Arya.ag targets Rs 1000 crore loan disbursal

Agrotech, Middle East countries, R&D

The companies will collaborate in a first-of-its-kind joint study, combining PlantArcBio’s RNAi technology with the unique lipid-based RNA delivery technology developed by Prof. Dan Peer.

PlantArcBio Ltd., an ag-biotech company engaged in research and development in the field of gene discovery and biological components for improving plant traits, intended primarily for use in the global agricultural industry, and Ramot, the Technology Transfer Company of Tel Aviv University, signed a collaboration agreement. The companies will collaborate in a first-of-its-kind joint study, combining PlantArcBio’s RNAi technology with the unique lipid-based RNA delivery technology developed by Prof. Dan Peer. Prof Peer is TAU’s Vice President for R&D , and a pioneer using RNA to manipulate cells in cancer and other immune related diseases. The ultimate goal of the collaboration is to develop a range of RNAi-based products for agricultural uses.

RNAi technology enables a temporary external disruption of RNA molecules, diminishing the amount of mRNA, and thus temporarily reducing the expression of specific genes, without modifying or genetically engineering the organism’s DNA. PlantArcBio signed four agreements for development and commercialization in this field, including insect and pest control and crop improvement products. The company’s strategic partners include ICL, Gadot-Agro, TMG and Seach Medical. To the best of its knowledge, PlantArcBio is one of the world’s leaders and pioneers in developing RNAi-based products for agriculture.

The joint study will examine the efficacy of PlantArcBio’s RNAi technology for agriculture, combined with Prof. Peer’s RNA delivery based on unique lipid molecules. Specifically, the research will focus on testing the joint technology’s contribution to the stability of RNAi-based products and their ability to penetrate plants and insects. Research will be carried out both at PlantArcBio’s Laboratories and at Prof. Dan Peer’s Laboratory of Precision Nano Medicine at Tel Aviv University.

The companies will collaborate in a first-of-its-kind

Agro Universities, R&D

Data from of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCE) is used by the governments for planning agricultural schemes, policies and programmes

 Researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) used high-spatial resolution satellite derived data to assess optimal numbers of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) that can be undertaken to improve crop yield estimations.

The CCE is an assessment method deployed by governments to assess crop yield in a region. Produce from the CCE are then tested on various parameters such as biomass weight, grain weight, moisture, crop management practices and other indicative factors for crop yield estimations.

Data from CCE is used by the governments for planning agricultural schemes, policies and programmes. It also helps insurance companies and financial institutions with all the inputs they need before offering loans or insurance coverage in case of poor harvest or crop failure.

Moving forward, the government of India plans to optimize CCEs using different technologies including satellite derived metrics on crop performance and spatial variability to guide the selection and number of ground data sites. The idea is to develop technology-driven approaches for direct yield estimation at gram panchayat level.

As part of a pilot project undertaken by ICRISAT in partnership with Mahalonobis National Crop Forecasting Center (ministry of agriculture, India) between June, 2019 and February 2020, researchers assessed four crops – groundnut, chickpea, rice and maize in five districts spread across three states (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha). Objective of the study was to assess CCEs using spatial statistical optimising technique for major crops of kharif season in the districts.

Based on the spatial data using Sentinel-2 satellite, the researchers conducted CCEs. As a part of the analysis, researchers identified few mandals in Krishna, Anantapur and Kurnool districts in Andhra Pradesh, Puri district in Odisha and Mahbubnagar in Telangana to test the methodology.

Data from of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCE)

Agro chems – Fertilizers, Inputs

The plant will be capable of producing various grades of NPKs as per requirement. The company is taking up the project on LSTK basis and the project is scheduled to be completed by mid-2023.

The Fertilizers And Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), Kochi is expanding its NPK Fertilizer capacity. FACT, a Government of India Enterprise, is one of the first large scale fertilizer companies in India. The NPK Plant is being built within FACT’s existing manufacturing facility of Cochin Division (CD) at Ambalam Edu, Ernakulam district of Kerala state.

 Nuberg EPC, the leading Indian Global EPC and turnkey project Management Company announced that it has been selected for the construction of the brown field 1650 TPD NPK Plant at FACT-Cochin Division on EPC-LSTK basis, thereby enhancing the total production capacity to 3,650 TPD of complex fertilizer.

Nuberg EPC shall be executing this project based on Pre-Neutralizer with Pipe Reactor (PN+PR) technology licensed from INCRO S.A. (Spain). The plant will be capable of producing various grades of NPKs as per requirement. The company is taking up the project on LSTK basis and the project is scheduled to be completed by mid-2023

 A. K. Tyagi, CMD, Nuberg Engineering Ltd., commented, “We are thankful to the Government of India and the Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd. (FACT) for entrusting another turnkey project to our engineering capabilities and EPC services and solutions. We are excited about this project because it gives us an opportunity to associate with Government’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan”. The project also demonstrates the strategic importance of Nuberg EPC’s presence in India. This project serves as a prime example of the successful combination of Nuberg EPC’s global expertise and local knowledge to offer a complete turnkey solution.

The plant will be capable of producing

Agrotech, Company News

 The Andersons will act as counterparty to Indigo’s remaining legacy grain contracts, helping to complete Indigo’s evolution from a digital merchant to digital merchandising application provider.

 Indigo Agriculture, the ag industry’s independent technology platform provider, and The Andersons, Inc., a diversified company leveraging enduring relationships and deep market expertise to add value across the ag supply chain, announced that The Andersons will act as counterparty to Indigo’s remaining legacy grain contracts, helping to complete Indigo’s evolution from a digital merchant to digital merchandising application provider.

Beginning with the launch of direct-to-buyer contracts as a cornerstone feature of its Market+ offer last year, Indigo has continued to demonstrate its commitment to serve as a neutral and independent partner of choice for the industry with milestones including the recently announced launch of new technology enhancements and integrated ag industry partnerships. Now, by securing The Andersons’ support for its remaining legacy grain contracts, Indigo is removing itself from the transaction flow, enabling the continued expansion of Market+ to directly connect a wider set of stakeholders across the agricultural supply chain.

“The sustainability mega-trend is driving an economic and structural transformation of all industries. Agriculture can harness these transformative forces to meaningfully improve profitability and efficiency for farmers and the rest of the supply chain – and we hope to be the neutral, independent, and quality-driven partner to help navigate this transition,” said Ron Hovsepian, CEO of Indigo Ag. “By removing itself from the business of buying grain, Indigo is proud to operate as an agnostic enabler, leveraging science and digital innovation to unlock new value for the mutual benefit of farmers and agribusiness.”

“The Andersons has a 75-year legacy working with farmers with services that go beyond marketing grain to deliver value. We are excited for the opportunity to broaden our footprint by working with these growers,” said Patrick Bowe, President and CEO of The Andersons.

 The Andersons will act as counterparty to

Agro chems – Fertilizers

Michigan Potash stands ready to support American farmers by replacing one-to-one all the potash imported from Russia with domestic production from Michigan

Michigan Potash & Salt Company, LLC (MPSC) Founder and CEO Ted Pagano has recently issued a statement on the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcement of a plan to support innovative American-made fertiliser production to address our nation’s near-total dependence on foreign imports.

Ted stated, “In the face of a global food and fertiliser crisis, I applaud the USDA and Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack’s leadership in confronting our nation’s dependency on foreign fertiliser imports. Our farmers feed the world, yet they are wholly dependent on foreign sources of critical potash nutrients while domestic supplies are available right here at home. Michigan Potash stands ready to support American farmers by replacing one-to-one all the potash imported from Russia with domestic production from Michigan.”

The company is committed to developing the US Potash Project in a safe and responsible manner that protects Michigan’s critical natural environment and waters while supporting communities across Osceola and Mecosta counties, Michigan. 

Michigan Potash stands ready to support American

Agrotech, Finance, Organic

Tencent’s investment reflects the company’s focus on sustainable innovations and support for technologies.

An Israeli-Dutch venture, Future Crops has announced a new investment round led by Tencent to accelerate growth. Future Crops is shaping the future of agriculture and our food system, making it more safe, resilient, and efficient.

Future Crops has developed advanced vertical farming from cutting-edge technology that uses a unique soil-like substrate to better reproduce the natural environment. The high-tech farm grows fresh, clean, ultra-sustainable, high quality crops at competitive price points. Researchers from Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) were an integral part of the team that developed Future Crops’ cutting-edge technology.

Future Crops had already raised over $30 million in seed funding from a private equity arm run by the Lerman Family, leaders in the American steel industry to finance the construction of their state-of-the-art facility and to build their team of experts. This is the first time Future Crops has sought investment beyond its initial round of funding.

Gary Grinspan, CEO and Co-Founder of Future Crops said, “Tencent’s investment reflects the company’s focus on sustainable innovations and support for technologies, like vertical farming, which can create clean, locally grown sustainable food while helping to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. We believe our soil-substrate-based platform is closer to nature and produces fresh, longer-lasting, higher-quality produce at improved yields, as plants grow best in soil”.

Grinspan also added that we’re already supplying fresh high-quality herbs to leading European retailers, both under private label and our own brand. Currently, we market all our produce, so this investment will allow us to expand our capacities to meet demand and continue to increase our R&D capabilities and develop proprietary technology.

“Tencent supports companies creating solutions to the world’s most critical challenges, including technologies that can feed more people using fewer resources” said Ling Ge, Chief European Representative, Tencent. “Investments in sustainable agriculture technologies, such as vertical farm systems, aligns with our mission to apply technology for good.”

Tencent’s investment reflects the company’s focus on

Agrotech

The facility will have demonstration units for mushroom production, food processing & value-addition and poultry production

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) inaugurated the Technology Demonstration Facility at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Khordha, Odisha on March 10, 2022. Ajaya Kumar Dash, Head, KVK, Khordha briefed about the new facility. The facility will have demonstration units for mushroom production, food processing & value-addition and poultry production. It will also be used for imparting the skill training to the farmers and farm women.

The DG was accompanied by Dr Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science); Dr BP Mohanty, ADG (Inland Fisheries), ICAR along with Dr SK Swain, Director, ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar and other Senior Officials of ICAR-CIFA and KVK, Khordha.

While interacting with the farmers and farm women in the Exhibition organised at the KVK, Khordha, Dr Mohapatra urged the KVK for facilitating the Self-Help Groups to improve their marketing skills and organise them to form as collectives like Farmers’ Producers’ Organisations to scale-up their operations. Underlining the Government of India’s target of creating 10,000 FPOs by 2025, the Director General emphasised that the KVKs would play a key role in mobilising the farmers and providing technical support.

During his interaction with the Scientists and Staff Members of ICAR-CIFA, he urged for focusing on the outreach & effective communication of the scientific research to the stakeholders and reorienting the research priorities for bringing out innovations that can enhance the farmers’ income.

The facility will have demonstration units for

Live Stock

The book compiled by Sahjeevan andan “APEKSHA (Expectations) PATRA” was shared by a group of Maldharis from Saurashtra & Kutch

Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Parshottam Rupala has recently addressed the Saurashtra Maldhari Sammelan, organised by Sahjeevan (Centre for Pastoralism), at Upleta in Rajkot district of Gujarat. With the theme “Fostering Pastoralism in Saurashtra- Conservation and its Sustenance”, the Sammelan deliberated upon the conservation of threatened breeds of livestock, particularly the Halari breed of Donkey (breeding tract: Jamnagar and Devbhoomi Dwarka districts of Gujarat).

The Sammelan also deliberated upon constituting an advisory committee with participation of stakeholders for collaborative efforts; need for evolving programmes and schemes with dedicated infrastructure for breeding and health care; enhancing resilient livelihood strategises with a focus on the milk economy; optimising tenurial security of the Halari donkey breeders with access to seasonal grazing and CFR rights.

Parshottam Rupala released a book ‘Pastoral Breeds of India’, compiled by Sahjeevan andan “APEKSHA (Expectations) PATRA” was shared by a group of Maldharis from Saurashtra & Kutch at the event.

A sizable number of Community representatives from community institutions, officials from Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Government of India; officials from State Animal Husbandry department, Government of Gujarat; Scientists from National Research Centre for Equines (NRCE); leading resource persons & representatives from Civil Society organisations participated in the workshop.

Interacting with the Maldharis, particularly Halari Breeders, Kahami & Bhagri Breeders and Panchali Dumma Sheep Breeders, Union Minister Rupala said that The National Livestock Mission (NLM) been designed to cover all the activities required to ensure quantitative and qualitative improvement in livestock production systems and capacity building of all stakeholders.

The book compiled by Sahjeevan andan “APEKSHA (Expectations)

Dairy, Live Stock

The company is investing $5 million to expand its INFUSE by Cargill service and the centre will serve as a regional innovation hub, supporting dairy customers throughout the Middle East, Turkey and Africa

In a move to help dairy manufacturers better respond to evolving consumer demands, Cargill Turkey has opened a state-of-the-art technical application centre and a high-tech ingredient blending production plant in Bursa, Orhangazi. The company is investing $5 million to expand its INFUSE by Cargill service and the centre will serve as a regional innovation hub, supporting dairy customers throughout the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META).

First introduced in Europe in 2020, INFUSE delivers ingredient solutions that meet new demands around nutritional balance, plant-based, and label-friendliness. It offers the ease of a blended solution that speeds up development cycles, so it can get innovations to market faster.

The Application Centre has an ability to offer solutions for the current consumer trends like calorie or fat reduction, fibre and protein enriched foods, or plant-based foods etc. Besides these emerging trends, Cargill wants to meet META dairy manufacturers’ needs like offering more affordable products to market or solving their supply chain hurdles by offering them customised easy-to-apply blends. The centre includes pilot facilities that mimic full-scale dairy processing production lines, enabling Cargill ingredient and application specialists to rapidly test ingredient solutions in real-world conditions.

Cargill Foods META Executive Committee Member & Chief Product and Marketing Officer, Cem Beysel, said that the centre will serve as a regional innovation area. Beysel added, “As Cargill, we have been trying to support food and beverage manufacturers both in Turkey and in the Middle East and Africa with our ever-expanding products and services. With this investment in Bursa Orhangazi, we will serve our customers as if this place is their own R&D centre. The Application Centre offers manufacturers texturising blends.”

Three pillars serve as the foundation for Cargill’s customer focus in META: an unwavering attention to providing on-trend solutions, a commitment to speed to market, and access to deep technical expertise and resources to create ingredient blends tailored to meet each customer’s unique needs.

“With more than 300 ingredients in our toolbox, we can quickly develop, deliver and optimize prototypes, dramatically shortening bench development time,” Beysel said.

The company is investing $5 million to expand

Start ups

AgFarm aims to revolutionise the agricultural world digitally by allowing the buyers to access and buy agro-inputs with just a few clicks

Vaman Alawadhi, a young entrepreneur with a passion to craft his own niche in the agro inputs sector, along with his partner Sandeep Chauhan has launched a Dubai based agrochemical start-up ‘AgFarm’.

AgFarm aims to revolutionise the agricultural world digitally by allowing the buyers to access and buy agro-inputs with just a few clicks. Following their vision of producing and providing high-quality agro-based products to Indian consumers the newly launched company has now opened its offices in India as well.

AgFarm will be the first agrochemical company whose products, which includes herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and plant growth regulators, will only be available on e-commerce platforms like nurture.retail, DeHaat, AgroStar, FAARMS etc at never-before attractive prices. At these platforms AgFarm will unlock the digital connections between manufacturers, retailers and dealers and will also allow them to buy the products at affordable prices with best quality assurance. Other than getting the delivery of AgFarm products at their doorstep the buyers will also get additional discounts by using digital payment modes.

Vaman Alawadhi, the Director of AgFarm, said, “It is high time to modernise the agriculture sector in India in every possible way to ensure food quality, food safety, and cost competitiveness. Today, when we are on the verge of adopting modern technologies such as IoT, AI/ML and agri-drones in farming, we should also adopt and promote digital buying and selling of agro inputs to break the vicious circle of mediators and give the dealers, retailers and farmers direct access to manufacturers, leading to fair prices and authentic products for them.”

AgFarm aims to revolutionise the agricultural world

Biostimulants, Sustainability

Yield10 is also developing PHA winter Camelina lines and advancing its research programme to increase the level and type of PHA production achievable in its Camelina plant varieties

Yield10 Bioscience, an agricultural bioscience company, announced recent advances in the development of Camelina as a platform for the production of PHA bioplastic directly in the seed. Field work completed during 2021 supports the company’s decision to begin seed scale-up of prototype PHA spring Camelina lines at acre-scale in 2022. Yield10 is also developing PHA winter Camelina lines and advancing its research programme to increase the level and type of PHA production achievable in its Camelina plant varieties.

“Camelina holds great promise as a platform crop for efficient, scalable, low-cost production of PHA bioplastics,” said Kristi Snell, Chief Science Officer, Yield10 Bioscience. “Through our research and development efforts to date, Yield10 expects to contribute significantly towards the global effort to produce biodegradable materials targeted for consumer packaging and foodservice items while also helping to reduce the amount of petroleum-based plastic waste currently polluting the world’s land and oceans. There is real momentum driving the company’s innovative pace of Camelina PHA trait development and its ultimate commercial deployment for year-round harvest using both spring and winter lines.”

Yield10 plans to breed an optimised PHA trait into the elite herbicide and disease-resistant varieties of Camelina currently advancing in its pipeline with the expectation to process PHA Camelina to achieve the integrated economics of simultaneously producing three seed products: PHA bioplastic, feedstock oil and protein animal feed. Seed-based PHA bioplastic would represent a major new market for farmers.

Yield10 is also developing PHA winter Camelina

Agrotech, Supply Chain

Ninjacart will have access to Tecxprt’s technology suite which will accelerate the digitisation within the organisation

Agri-platform Ninjacart has acquired Tecxprt, which has extensive experience integrating SaaS-based end-to-end solutions, enabling the creation of powerful networks. Ninjacart will expand the opportunities for participants to flourish both individually and collectively, thereby contributing towards the enhancement of the agri–ecosystem.

As part of the acquisition, Ninjacart will obtain direct access to Tecxprt’s technology suite, which will accelerate the digitisation within the organisation’s ecosystem. With Tecxprt’s technology-focussed solution, agri participants can digitise the operations and communicate more efficiently with their stakeholders. On the other hand, their social network software will facilitate real-time communication across the food supply chain, from farmers, resellers, retailers, consumers to supply chain participants.

Ninjacart will have access to Tecxprt's technology