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The company has announced a full commercial roll-out in Bangladesh

Bayer has launched GeoPotato, a geodata-driven early warning system for late blight in potatoes, and has entered a full commercial roll-out in Bangladesh. It could potentially reach as many as 1 million smallholder farmers in the coming years.

Devised by Wageningen Plant Research, Terrasphere, mPower, Bayer and governmental institutions, GeoPotato’s cutting-edge technology employs a sophisticated risk assessment algorithm evaluating many factors impacting crop development on the field– including satellite data, weather forecasts, disease cycles and crop biomass growth – to assess key risk factors for late blight development (susceptible host, conducive environment and pathogen presence) on a highly localised basis.

When it predicts a disease outbreak, it sends farmers an early alert via SMS or voicemail, three days before the outbreak is forecasted to occur. It also advises which fungicidal product would be most effective to help growers take action in a fast and efficient manner.

After running trials for the last five seasons, GeoPotato was launched publicly in November 2021. To maximise its impact, project partners have reached out to more than 50,000 farmers in key potato-producing areas. Ultimately, they intend to expand it to all of Bangladesh, as well as parts of India, reaching more than 1 million farmers and making a significant step toward Bayer’s commitment to empower 100 million smallholder farmers by 2030.

The company has announced a full commercial

Announced its commitment to become net-zero by 2030 in addition to defining a target to mobilise up to 1 billion credits within the next five years

EKI Energy Services Ltd (EKIESL) announced its strategic plans in preparation for COP27. Charting a new roadmap for the financial year 2022-23 to gear up its continued focus on climate action, EKI unveiled a new brand identity and new brand positioning of ‘Steering the planet to net-zero’. The company also announced its commitment to become net-zero by 2030 in addition to defining a target to mobilise up to 1 billion credits within the next five years (by 2027).

The new identity highlights that brand EKI is gearing up to take the role of being a major contributor to climate action as it navigates the world to a greener tomorrow. The new logo reflects the vision by combining the green and blue colours of the planet with a leaf at its heart to symbolise its efforts for the restoration of nature across the globe. With its net-zero commitment, the company will take climate action in India to newer heights by enabling the country to fast-track its stride to its net-zero commitment by the year 2070.

The company’s definitive target to contribute 1 billion credits by 2027 will play a significant role to meet the world’s requirement of 58 billion credits per year to enable temperature capping, which is an urgent and critical measure to save the planet.

Manish Dabkara, CMD & CEO, EKI Energy Services said, “With a deep passion for climate change, we have driven targeted efforts in the last 6 months since COP26. As we plan for this financial year and gear up for COP27 which is about six months from now, we want to accelerate climate action to full throttle and step up our strategic efforts manifold. Our renewed commitments will enable us to take greater charge of steering the planet to net-zero even as we create history by becoming a service provider who leads by example to inspire a million others in this quest.”

Announced its commitment to become net-zero by 2030 in

The MoA will aid in tech transfer for the production of acid lime nutri-jelly

The ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur, Maharashtra signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Ashok Agro, Nagpur as an Incubatee for the Production of Acid Lime Nutri-Jelly under the National Agricultural Innovation Project of ICAR, New Delhi.

Dr Dilip Ghosh, Director, ICAR-CCRI, Nagpur stated that the Agreement will promote the viable agriculture-based enterprises and generate employment opportunities for the Incubatees trained in its ABI Centre. He underlined that the Incubatee – Sumit Gulabrao Tate, a BPL and Divyang Registered with DIPP / MSME is a Start-Up Entrepreneur.

The technology developed by Shri Venkatraman Bansode, Scientist (Food Technology) and Dr Dinesh Kumar, Principal Scientist (Horticulture), ICAR-CCRI, Nagpur can prove to be a source of secondary income to the farmers and Start-Ups as they can set a micro-industry using the technology.

The MoA is aimed to facilitate close cooperation between both parties and create a small platform for uplifting the weaker sections of the society.

The MoA will aid in tech transfer

Programmes will be organised at the regional level for farmers

Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare will organise the ‘Kisan Bhagidari, Prathmikta Hamari’ campaign from April 25 to 30, 2022 under ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ in association with various other ministries/ departments, Government of India. During the campaign, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare will organise countrywide programmes at the regional level for farmers.

The Department of Agriculture Research and Education will organise a Krishi Mela at each Krishi Vigyan Kendra and a field exhibition on natural farming. Union Agriculture Minister will launch a country-wide workshop on crop insurance organised by the common service centre (CSC).

A Discourse on agro-ecological and livestock practices would be held under DAY-NRLM along with the Ministry of Rural Development. During the week a webinar on One District One Product (ODOP) would be held by the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Food Processing Industries. A National Atma Nirbhar Bharat Conclave of 75 selected farmers and entrepreneurs would also be held.

During the week Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying will organise One District One Product based workshops, webinars and awareness programmes about various schemes of the Departments.

More than one crore farmers and stakeholders are expected to participate in the said campaign through direct (offline) and virtual (online) medium across the country.

The milestones of agriculture development in 75 years of Indian Independence will be highlighted during the said campaign.

Programmes will be organised at the regional

To connect to half a million farmers

Bengaluru-based leading digital aggregator in Agritech space, Ergos The Grain Bank, aims to further expand the footprint to 650 locations with revenue growth of upto Rs 1,800-2,000 crore by 2023-24. Ergos The Grain Bank has scaled across 26 districts in Bihar, 10 districts in Karnataka and 17 districts in Maharashtra with over 1,45,000 farmers actively engaging on the technology-based platform. They are adding 400-450 new farmers every day on its tech platform. After huge success in Bihar, the company aims to strengthen its presence in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and enter few new agriculturally rich states in the country.

Ergos, CTO, Umesh Gowda, said, “Grain digitalisation is building a scalable, mobile-first technical platform where Ergos intervenes in the entire life cycle of the farmer using technology. We are also gearing towards monitoring the crops through satellite images, provide soil-based crop and input advisory, and produce-market connect, everything in real time, through Smart-Price-Engine.”

Grain bank enables farmers to convert their grains into tradable digital assets, avail credit like overdraft facility against those assets through partner Banks and NBFCs in few minutes, and get better prices for their produce with a scope to optimise their income by 30-40 per cent in one season easily.

Kishor Jha, Founder & CEO, Ergos The Grain Bank, said, “Ergos has proven its business model in Bihar and recently entered the other key markets. With the response from the farming community and food processors, we aim to grow 3X growth Y-o-Y comfortably with a targeted revenue of Rs 1800-2000 crore by next year.”

Nearly 50 per cent of the households in the vicinity of the Ergos Grain Bank location are connected through smart phones today, indicating how out of 140 million farmers in the country, close to 70 million farmers are already using smartphones and just need a bit of handholding and assistance for the first few transactions.

Aligned with the government’s vision of Digital India and Bharat Connect that brings the rural landscape on the Internet connectivity map, Ergos aims to empower each farmer and enable them to use Grain Bank mobile app to manage their finance, where they can sell, borrow, and preserve their grains.

Ergos is constantly building the tech capability of the Grain Bank app to execute ~10,000-12,000 transactions initiated by farmers and buyers in one second which is the speed required to service 12-13 million farmers in next three to four years for executing secured transactions worth of Rs 12,000-14,000 crore for one season crop yield on Grain Bank platform and to facilitate worth Rs 4,000-5,000 crore small tickets short term farmer loan on this platform.

To connect to half a million farmersBengaluru-based

Discussions will be held on sustainable agriculture, better nutrition, health benefits, and environmental sustainability

Glostem will organise national workshop cum webinar on genome editing from June 27 to July 3, 2022. The conference will be chaired by Prof KC Bansal, Secretary, NAAS, India and Co-chaired by PROF Yiping Qi, Univ. Maryland, USA.

The seven-day online workshop will cover the basics of genome editing as investigated by researchers in different organisms including model plant species, Drosophila melanogaster,
Caenorhabditis elegans, yeast, mammalian and stem cells, and elaborate on its application for sustainable agriculture, better nutrition, health benefits, and environmental sustainability. Future developments and directions of the emerging genome editing tools and technologies will also be discussed.

The faculty for the workshop is drawn from reputed national institutes like IISc, Bangalore; NCBS, Bangalore; CSIR-IGIB, New Delhi; CSIR-CCMB, Hyderabad; IIT, Kharagpur; DBT-NABI, Mohali; DBT-NIPGR, New Delhi; IISER, Mohali; ICAR-IARI, New Delhi and ICAR-NRRI, Cuttack.

Scientists and researchers from academics and industry working in the field of plant, human, and animal biotechnology including agricultural biotechnology, plant genetics and genomics, plant breeding, crop improvement, disease resistance, stress tolerance, plant-microbe interaction, functional genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, molecular biology, pharmacogenomics, personalised medicine and synthetic biology.

Experts will elaborate on the application of Genome Editing for sustainable agriculture, better nutrition, health benefits and environmental sustainability.

Discussions will be held on sustainable agriculture,

Holds Bhoomi Poojan for Sakarwadi manufacturing facility

Manufacturer of ethanol-based chemicals Godavari Biorefineries Ltd (GBL) held a Bhoomi Poojan ceremony for its Sakarwadi manufacturing facility at Sakarwadi in Maharashtra. GBL also inaugurated a research laboratory for bio-chemical research and new product development. Subhash Desai, Cabinet Minister of Industries, Maharashtra, presided at the bhoomi poojan while unveiling the research laboratory to augment its pioneering work in biochemical research.

Desai, said, “The advancement in research in bio-chemicals and introductions of new green products will propel the Indian chemical industry to become a global manufacturing hub.”

Samir Somaiya, CMD, GBL said, “We are delighted that the specialty chemicals facility and our ramped up research laboratory will enable us to expand the bio-chemical industry. Our vision is to make green chemicals that reduce the impact on the environment, focus on bio-diversity and the prudent use of scarce resources. Our investments in research and development have been instrumental in our growth and are aimed at creating value as well as optimising resources and processes.”

The manufacturing facility utilises ethanol and rectified spirits and can use ethanol and rectified spirits manufactured by them to manufacture speciality chemicals including bio-ethyl acetate, MPO, 1,3 butylene glycol, crotonaldehyde and paraldehyde and commodity chemical ethyl acetate. The company is in the process of expanding its plant to expand its capacity for existing products and introduce additional ethanol based chemicals.

Holds Bhoomi Poojan for Sakarwadi manufacturing facilityManufacturer

A panel discussion was organised for the effective and holistic promotion of herbal sector in the country

Union Minister for Environment Forest and Climate Change and Labour and Employment, Bhupender Yadav attended a programme for the “Buyer-Seller Meet among Farmer Bodies, Industries and State/UT Government on challenges faced and way” which included discussion on medicinal plant cultivation and supply chain management held at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Minister of State, Ministry of Ayush and Ministry of Women & Child Development, Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai Kalubhai also attended the event. The ministers released region-specific medicinal plants booklet, poster on R&D achievements and poster on supply chain management at the event.

Yadav appreciated the views of all the experts and efforts of NMPB to bring the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) on one platform to discuss and deliberate the issues of medicinal plants.

“A training module may be prepared to educate the local people residing in the adjoining forest areas for sustainably collecting the minor forest produce,” he insisted.

The minister stressed that our ancient literature, time and method of collection and part of collection etc. of medicinal plants should be well documented in order to benefit the humanity.

Bhupender Yadav highlighted that an important issue is to know about the active component/ingredient of medicinal plants to maintain the quality which should be addressed. Since, demand and supply of medicinal plants depends on market, a meeting may be organised with the officials of State Forest Departments for effectively development of medicinal plant resources and make them available in sustainable manner, he added.

The minister also informed that an amendment on Biological Diversity Act is under process and it would be beneficial for farmers and industries.
Panel discussion on faced and way forward on medicinal plants cultivation and supply chain management along with buyer-seller meet among farmer bodies, industries and State/UT Government was organised by NMPB at Mahatama Mandir, Gujarat.

Speakers from the concerned ministries especially from Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, APEDA and Industry participated in a panel discussion and shared their views for the effective and holistic promotion of herbal sector in the country. The panel discussion was chaired by the secretary DONER who appreciated the initiative of NMPB for bringing various stakeholders at one platform for the holistic development of the sector.
The event was attended by more than 500 delegates.

To facilitate marketing of medicinal plants, more than 50 MoUs were signed between industry and farmer bodies with the concerted efforts of SMPBs and RCFCs under the guidance from NMPB.

A panel discussion was organised for the

More than 200 scientists, academicians, officers of ICAR Institutes attended the meet

The ICAR-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal, Haryana organised a virtual interface meeting for West Bengal on ‘Characterization and Documentation of Animal Genetic Resources of West Bengal: A Mission towards Zero Non-Descript Populations’ in Karnal recently.
The meet was organised under the ‘Mission towards Zero Non-Descript AnGR of India.’

Prof Chanchal Guha, Vice-Chancellor, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, West Bengal highlighted the significance of AnGR Characterization and Conservation. He also urged for the collaboration of all the related agencies in documenting AnGR in the State.

Prof Tapan Kumar Madal, Director of Research Extension and Farms, WBUAFS, West Bengal highlighted the activities carried out by the University for the Improvement and Conservation of AnGR of West Bengal.

Dr Yograj Tamang, Director, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, Government of West Bengal underlined the activities of the animal resource development.

Dr Subhransu Pan, Former Professor & Head LPM, WBUAFS, West Bengal outlined the present status of the AnGR of West Bengal and highlighted the probable Non-Descript Population to be worked on.

Earlier, welcoming the dignitaries, Dr BP Mishra, Director, ICAR-NBAGR, Karnal, Haryana outlined the priorities of the bureau for managing the native AnGR in the country.

More than 200 scientists, academicians, officers of ICAR Institutes, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences and Animal Resource Development Department, Government of West Bengal, etc., attended the meet.

More than 200 scientists, academicians, officers of

Summit Carbon Solutions has partnered with 32 ethanol plants across the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, to develop the largest carbon capture and storage project in the world

A new study shows that Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed carbon capture, transportation, and storage project will create jobs, generate new tax revenue for local communities, support local suppliers, and strengthen the Midwest regional economy. Ernst & Young, a global leader in accounting and professional services, conducted the study.

Summit Carbon Solutions has partnered with 32 ethanol plants across the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, to develop the largest carbon capture and storage project in the world. This multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project will have the capacity to capture and permanently store 12 million tons of carbon dioxide every year, while opening critical new markets for ethanol producers and bolstering the bottom line of corn growers.

“From the outset of this project, Summit Carbon Solutions has been committed to driving the future of agriculture by expanding economic opportunities for ethanol producers and by strengthening the marketplace for farmers in the Midwest,” said Jake Ketzner, Summit Carbon Solutions Vice President of Government and Public Affairs. “In addition to those benefits, the latest analysis shows the overwhelmingly positive impact of this multi-billion-dollar private investment, including the creation of thousands of new high-quality jobs, the utilisation of local suppliers and main street businesses, and tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenues that will help local communities fund our roads, hospitals, first responders, and more.”

Summit Carbon Solutions will strengthen the corn market and, by extension, positively impact the economy in all of the counties and communities across the Midwest. The report from Ernst & Young also includes county-level data showing the company’s total investment and the forecast for incremental annual property taxes generated.

Summit Carbon Solutions has partnered with 32

The research collaboration will work toward identifying scalable and affordable methods for soil quality measurement across farmland in India

Google and nurture.farm have announced a research collaboration to identify scalable and cost-effective solutions for soil quality measurement across farmland in India. The relationship aims to enable farmers with informed decisions that improve their yield and profitability in their practices across the seasons.

Combining Google’s cutting-edge AI, imaging technologies and Cloud infrastructure, and nurture.farm’s direct on-ground reach and engagement with millions of farmers in India, the two companies have outlined multiple areas of research collaboration that will enable and accelerate the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices across the country.

nurture.farm and Google have entered into a research collaboration to establish a scalable and low-cost method to measure soil health, covering soil organic carbon and other key nutrients in soil. The relationship will focus on the use of hyperspectral image analysis combined with other remote sensing and data collection methods, to accurately measure SOC and other nutrients in soil across a range of soil types and characteristics that comprise the landscape of agricultural practices in India. This method of soil testing, once established in a scalable manner, will help extend soil testing services at affordable costs to farmers across India, and guide them towards ways to improve soil health, select suitable crops, input products and operating practices, resulting in higher yields and income.

The research collaboration will work toward identifying

The pioneering solution is powered by BASF’s new active ingredient, Broflanilide in a specialised formulation

BASF has announced the launch of Exponus insecticide for farmers in India to protect their crops and boost productivity. The pioneering solution is powered by BASF’s new active ingredient, Broflanilide in a specialised formulation.

Offering a new mode of action for the control of key insect pests, Exponus gives farmers a powerful, quick & versatile tool for controlling variety of insect pests and overcome resistance to prevailing chemistries, as part of integrated pest management program. Exponus is registered for use on various largely cultivated crops under Oil seeds, Pulses & Vegetables segment to control critical insect pests such as Caterpillars & Thrips.

“Farmers in India will now benefit from our latest innovation in crop protection” said Narayan Krishnamohan, Managing Director, BASF India Limited. “Farming is the biggest job on earth. At BASF, we are dedicated to listening and working alongside farmers to understand their needs, so that we apply our expertise to help them successfully face the enormous challenge of protecting crops from pests and boosting productivity.”

With its unique mode of action, Exponus insecticide is among the first compounds in the market introduced under the new IRAC group 30 which represents a totally new class of insecticides which has no known cross-resistance with existing products in the market, making it a superior insecticide resistance management tool.

 “This innovation reaffirms BASF’s commitment to help farmers across boundaries in managing a variety of existing & emerging pests with the lowest use rates compared to current standards. Using Exponus will help Indian farmers for effective & long duration protection against insect pests in wide variety of crops.” said Rajendra Velagala, Business Director, Agricultural Solutions, South Asia, BASF.

The pioneering solution is powered by BASF’s

Despite adverse conditions, sales activities continue to grow across US Pacific Coast 

Bee Vectoring Technologies International has announced positive progress in 2022 sales commitments from US growers. In just seven months into the fiscal year, the company has invoiced growers in the Southeast region and secured commitments in the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest – already increasing total sales year-over-year by 18 per cent.

“We’ve already increased sales year-over-year and are committed to growing them even further before each region’s blooming period,” said Ian Collinson, Sales Manager, BVT. “This includes activity for additional acres that our Pacific Coast sales team is working aggressively to secure. This region is responsible for the production of one-third of all blueberries grown in the US and we are in active discussions with some of the USA’s largest berry growers. This, in the long run, represents a bigger opportunity for us compared to the Southeast.”

These positive results have been accomplished despite a very difficult farming environment in most regions. Volatile supply costs have seen fertiliser prices double over last year in several cases, and prices of fuel and other chemical products necessary to run farming operations have increased by up to 40 per cent.

 “Farmers are being squeezed harder than ever and they have had to make tough choices on which products to invest in to help their crops thrive this year,” said Ashish Malik, CEO, BVT. “Already achieving year-over-year sales increases for BVT, with several months still to go, is a testament to the strength and efficacy of our natural precision agriculture system and proprietary Clonostachys rosea CR-7 (CR-7) biological fungicide.”

Furthermore, in Georgia, the company’s largest market last year, growers faced severe weather and hard freezes during the blueberry bloom period and this has had an impact on BVT sales as several growers have unfortunately experienced a partial or complete crop loss.

Despite adverse conditions, sales activities continue to

Total foodgrains production in the country is estimated at a record 316.06 million tonnes which are higher by 5.32 million tonne than the production of food grain during 2020-21

India’s non-basmati rice exports witnessed an astounding growth of 109 per cent from $2925 million in FY 2013-14 to $6115 million in FY 2021-22.
As per DGCIS data, India exported rice to over 150 countries across the globe in 2021-22. India exported more than $1 million to 76 countries out of the 150 countries reported in 2021-22, It indicates the diversification of India’s rice export over the years.

According to the DGCIS data, India had exported non-basmati rice worth $2015 million in 2019-20, which rose to $4799 million in 2020-21 and $6115 million in 2021-22.

Registering a growth of 27 per cent in 2021-22, an export of non-basmati rice was the top forex earner among all agri-commodities, at $6115 million.

“In collaboration with our foreign missions, we have coordinated development of logistics as well as focus on the production of quality of products, which has boosted India’s rice exports prospects,” Dr M Angamuthu, Chairman, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), said.

West African country Benin is one of the major importers of non-basmati rice from India. Other destination countries are Nepal, Bangladesh, China, Cote D’ Ivoire, Togo, Senegal, Guinea, Vietnam, Djibouti, Madagascar, Cameroon Somalia, Malaysia, Liberia UAE. etc.

In 2020-21, India shipped non-basmati rice to nine countries – Timor-Leste, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Eswatini, Myanmar and Nicaragua, where exports were carried out for the first time or earlier the shipment was smaller in volume.

India’s thrust on expanding port handling infrastructure, developing of value chain involving key stakeholders along with efforts to explore new opportunities in countries or markets for rice exports in the last couple of years have led to a huge spike in rice exports.

Notwithstanding logistical challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic, India continues to expand its rice exports footprint in the African, Asian and European Union markets, thus having the largest share in the global rice trade. The robust global demand also helped India’s growth in rice exports.

The major rice-producing states are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Assam, and Haryana.

As per Second Advance Estimates for 2021-22, the total production of Rice during 2021-22 is estimated at a record 127.93 million tonne, which is higher by 11.49 million tonnes than the last five years’ average production of 116.44 million tonne.

However, as per the second Advance Estimates for 2021-22, total foodgrains production in the country is estimated at a record 316.06 million tonnes which are higher by 5.32 million tonne than the production of food grain during 2020-21. Further, the production during 2021-22 is higher by 25.35 million tonnes than the previous five years (2016-17 to 2020-21) average production of food grains.

Total foodgrains production in the country is