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Company News, People

Mike served as Executive Vice President and CEO, Nutrien Ag Solutions.

UPL, a leader in global food systems and sustainable agriculture technologies, has announced that it is appointing Mike Frank as President and Chief Operating Officer UPL Crop Protection. Mike brings deep industry knowledge and extraordinary ‘end-to-end’ expertise, gleaned from his years at Monsanto and most recently at Nutrien, where he served as Executive Vice President and CEO, Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Jai Shroff, Group CEO of UPL, said, “Agriculture is one of the only systems on the planet that has the ability to reshape and reverse the effects of climate change. Mike’s global perspective, entrepreneurial style and hands-on approach, coupled with a deep understanding of global food security challenges and driving passion for environmental and economic sustainability, makes him an excellent cultural fit to take UPL to the next level.”

Mike Frank said, “I’m very impressed with UPL’s leadership in sustainability and the OpenAg ‘Reimagining Sustainability’ platform, which takes a unique approach at bringing together the various stakeholders in the food and agriculture ecosystem, focusing on helping farmers, advancing new and more sustainable technologies and feeding a growing planet. It’s an honour to join this dynamic team.”

UPL Group is re-imagining sustainability across the breadth of its operations, powered by its OpenAg purpose to create sustainable growth for all.

Mike served as Executive Vice President and

Interaction, Webinar

The webinar will provide a comprehensive overview from the perspective of government, trade and policy

India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry will be hosting its first webinar of 2022 on Rabi Outlook and Kharif Production 2022 under the aegis of ‘THE IPGA KNOWLEDGE SERIES’ at 5 pm on January 28, 2022. The webinar will provide a comprehensive overview from the perspective of government, trade and policy. The speakers will cover a wide range of topics including carry-forward stocks, price forecasts, impact of weather and expected production etc.

The webinar will be addressed by a panel of stalwarts, eminent government officials and industry experts like Dr SK Malhotra – Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Dr Shiv Sewak, Principal Scientist and Director Incharge, Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR), VN Saroja – Chief Strategy Advisor, Agriwatch and Nirav Desai – Partner, GGN Research who will provide invaluable insights on their respective subjects and sectors.

The webinar will provide a comprehensive overview

AgroPolicy, Bee keeping

More than 600 participants from various divisions participated in the conference

National Bee Board (NBB) recently organised a national conference on bee keeping sector in collaboration with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) & National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). More than 600 participants from government as well as the private sector, State Agricultural Universities (SAUs)/ Central Agricultural Universities (CAUs), Beekeepers and other stakeholders involved in beekeeping occupation, etc. attended the conference.

During the conference, Dr Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India spoke on National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM), a central sector scheme launched by the Government of India for the overall promotion and development of scientific beekeeping in the country. The implementation of NBHM will be proven a huge step in achieving the ‘Sweet Revolution’ in the country.

Likhi expressed that NBHM will help in filling gaps in infrastructural facilities for honey and linking marginal beekeepers in an organised way for dealing with adulteration in honey. NBB has launched Madhukranti Portal for traceability of honey and& other beehive products viz.; bee pollen, bee wax, bee venom, propolis, etc. NBHM has the aim to create a network of honey testing labs covering all parts of the country and for this 100 FPOs of beekeepers will be proved as the centre.

Dr NK Patle, Additional Commissioner (Horti.) and Executive Director (NBB) emphasized on implementation of the NBHM scheme effectively all over the country and to provide factual benefits to beekeepers and other stakeholders associated with beekeeping occupation.

Dr Balraj Singh, Coordinator, AICRP on Honey Bee & Pollinator, ICAR, New Delhi, mentioned that currently there are 25 AICRP centres in the country, which are actively involved in research in beekeeping/ pollination. ICAR is on the way to creating Pollinator Gardens under AICRP centres across India. The first such type of Pollinator Garden has been established at Govind Bhallabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand.

Dr Arjun Singh Saini, Director General (Horticulture) spoke on the status and strategy for implementation of the Madhukranti Portal in Haryana. He informed that about 816 beekeepers with 1,29,652 honeybee colonies are registered on Madhukranti Portal from Haryana State.

Pankaj Prasad, Additional Managing Director and Unnikrishnan, General Manager from NAFED informed that NAFED is creating 65 clusters/ Farmers Producers Organisations (FPOs) of beekeepers/ Honey Processors. These 65 FPOs will be part of the honey corridor linking northwest to north-eastern regions.

Abhijit Bhattacharya, NDDB stated that NDDB has an approach of creating Honey FPOs in the line of Dairy Cooperatives for getting the benefit of infrastructural facilities available with Dairy Cooperatives/ Milk Unions.
Seema Bhatnagar, General Manager, TRIFED informed that TRIFED is already involved in promoting beekeeping in tribal parts of the country and procuring wild honey and has also exported to various countries honey worth Rs 115 lakhs during 2020-21.

A brief process of registration on the Madhukranti Portal was also demonstrated to participants/ beekeepers of this conference by Jai Prakash, Senior Manager, Indian Bank. Registration with Madhukranti Portal will help the beekeepers during the migration of bee colonies and also get insurance.

More than 600 participants from various divisions

Agro chems – Pesticides

The WBF has mustered its industry network to lobby the UK’s HSE on regulatory reform for biopesticides, with the publication of an open letter in this month’s official journal of the Society of Chemical Industry

The World BioProtection Forum (WBF) has taken the sector initiative to garner support from 30 leaders representing both academia and the bioprotection industry, who have together co-signed an open letter to the UK’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

The WBF and its broad network of supporters across the world see a positive opportunity, now that the UK can formulate its own regulations post-Brexit. British regulators are well placed to help devise and implement positive, forward-looking reforms. There is huge opportunity to bring in changes that enable environmentally favourable bioprotection products to be brought to market more quickly – thereby ensuring business viability and enabling the benefits of this green industrial sector to be obtained. It is hoped that a better and more tailored system can combine the necessary rigours of regulatory testing with a more appropriate evaluation system that is better suited to biological products, rather than subjecting biologicals to an evaluation process designed for chemicals.

The spread of co-signatories includes representatives from commercial entities such as Bioline Agrosciences (UK), Bionema (UK), Bioworks (USA), BTU-Center (Ukraine), Chestnut Bio (USA), Croda Europe (UK), Ecolibrium Biologicals (New Zealand), Eden Research (UK), e-nema (Germany), Farma-Chem (Greece), FluxTech (Romania), Gowan Company (USA), Lisk & Jones (UK), International Pheromone Systems (UK), Marrone Bio Innovations (USA), Koppert Biological Systems (The Netherlands), Oro Agri (The Netherlands), Russell Bio Solutions (UK), Russell IPM (UK) and Valto (The Netherlands), as well as several reputated academic institutions and non-profit organisations. Together, these organisations offer a powerful representation of the world bioprotection industry, and they call on the UK Government to take advantage of a unique opportunity to meaningfully support AgriTech as an economically and environmentally valuable sector.

The WBF has mustered its industry network

Agro chems – Pesticides, Horticulture

The move will help to combat increasing resistance and a wide range of insects and pests across horticulture

Syngenta Crop Protection has acquired two next generation bioinsecticides, NemaTrident and UniSpore, to combat increasing resistance and a wide range of insects and pests across horticulture and ornamentals, turf amenity and forestry, giving customers even greater choice.

Syngenta Crop Protection is acquiring the patents and trademarks for both NemaTrident and UniSpore, and the UniSpore registration dossier, and will have full global development and commercialisation rights for the assets. This is an important step in building a world-leading biologicals portfolio in Syngenta Professional Solutions, and opens the opportunity for expansion in biocontrol solutions for crop protection.

UniSpore is an innovation based on a naturally occurring microorganism (insect pathogenic fungus). It offers an exciting solution for vine weevil control in ornamentals, where growers across Europe have limited insecticide options. It is currently in the early registration process.

NemaTrident, a patented, insect pathogenic nematode solution, is an important addition to Syngenta Professional Solutions’ Turf portfolio and is particularly effective against leather jackets and other pests. The tri-component solution incorporates Nemaspreader, a biocompatible surfactant, that delivers market-leading efficacy. Already available to customers, NemaTrident is also used in horticulture and forestry to control several damaging insects.

Syngenta and Bionema have regular communications regarding novel formulations and new technologies.

The move will help to combat increasing

Agro Universities

Representatives from 16 companies participated in the meet

The ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi recently organised the “Academia-Industry Biotechnology Meet”.

Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) along with Dr Tilak Raj Sharma, Deputy Director General (Crop Science), ICAR and Dr DK Yadava, ADG (Seeds), ICAR graced the meet.

Earlier, delivering the welcome address, Dr AK Shasany, Director, ICAR-NIPB, New Delhi underlined the Institute’s salient achievements to give an idea of the areas of research and products in hand and others which are likely to be available in future.

The Scientific Staff of ICAR-NIPB, New Delhi and representatives from 16 companies (all across the country and involved in the area of agricultural biotechnology) participated in the meet.

Representatives from 16 companies participated in the

AgroPolicy, People

The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year

Government of India has announced the Padma Awards 2022. The Padma Shree award will be given to Sosamma Iype from Kerala for animal husbandry, Amai Mahalinga Naik from Karnakata and Seth Pal Singh from Uttar Pradesh for agriculture. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.

The awards are announced on the occasion

Finance, Interaction, Opinions

A separate fund needs to be earmarked for R&D in the field of remote sensing, UAV for crop yield estimation and crop claim management and state technical units to be earmarked funds for the purpose. We expect a subsidy of 50 per cent or 10 lakhs whichever is less for buying drones and their accessories to be used for agri research to both research units and private sector agritech companies. The crop insurance premium needs to be subsidised to Rs 10 for all farmers (farmers share the rest premium to be paid by the central government and state government in the ratio of 70:30) with landholding less than one hectare with compulsory coverage by all banks and FIs. All insured farmlands by banks should be geotagged and Aadhaar linked. The banks are to be paid an additional 2 per cent of the premium over and above 4 per cent being paid by the insurers.

A separate fund needs to be earmarked

Agro chems – Fertilizers

The Company was first recognised for this achievement in 2019.

The International Fertiliser Association (IFA) has confirmed PhosAgro’s status as an Industry Stewardship Champion for its responsible and sustainable approach to production. The Company was first recognised for this achievement in 2019.

The IFA’s Industry Stewardship Champion label is granted to companies that are IFA Protect & Sustain certified and actively participate in all IFA benchmarks on Safety Performance, Environmental Performance, and Energy Efficiency & CO2 Emissions. This Award highlights their commitment to continuous improvement, transparency, and the use of the best available techniques in the areas of energy efficiency and resource conservation, occupational health and safety, and environmental protection, and it attests to the fact that industry champions have best corporate policies in place in these areas.

“Ensuring industrial safety, safeguarding occupational health and creating comfortable working conditions for our employees remain priorities for the Company,” said Andrey Guryev, CEO of PhosAgro, commenting on the IFA decision.

The Company was first recognised for this

Bee keeping

NBHM has the aim to create a network of honey testing labs covering all parts of the country and for this 100 FPOs of beekeepers will be proved as the centre.

National Bee Board (NBB) has organised a National Conference on Beekeeping Sector in collaboration with National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED), Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) & National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) on January 24, 2022. More than 600 participants from Government as well as the private sector, State Agricultural Universities (SAUs)/Central Agricultural Universities (CAUs), Beekeepers and other stakeholders involved in beekeeping occupation, etc attended the conference.

During the conference Dr Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India spoke on National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM), a central sector scheme launched by Government of India for overall promotion & development of scientific beekeeping in the country.

Likhi expressed that NBHM will help in filling gaps in infrastructural facilities for honey and linking marginal beekeepers in an organised way for dealing with adulteration in honey. NBHM has the aim to create a network of honey testing labs covering all parts of the country and for this 100 FPOs of beekeepers will be proved as the centre. He suggested including honey FPO beekeeping society/cooperative/firms for better sustainability in the honey sector.

NBHM has the aim to create a

Finance

The funding brings total equity investment to $25 million

The Green Coffee Company (GCC), a Legacy Group portfolio company, fully funded its Series B funding round, which the company recently upsized by $3.5 million due to high demand to $13.2 million. There are currently over 220 individual investors in the business with its accredited investor base rapidly accelerating.

As the Green Coffee company looks towards the future, the focus will be on solidifying its position as the #1 largest coffee producer in all of Colombia. The path to a successful exit for the company has become more clear as it has navigated through this capital raise. The GCC used this investment to double its farms to 4,700 acres – becoming the #2 largest coffee producer in Colombia – and to become the most technologically-advanced coffee producer in Colombia and, we believe, globally.

The $3.5 million upsize to the original $9.6 million Series B was funded in just three weeks by the company’s accredited investor base. Over the past six months, the company has welcomed dozens of investors and supporters of the business to its farms in Salgar, Colombia to see its progress first-hand. The GCC has inaugurated the first of two new world-class coffee processing facilities, with the second expected to come online in Q1 2022.

The Green Coffee Company is a consolidated coffee farming operation headquartered in the US with operations based in Medellin, Colombia. The company’s innovative business model allows for complete control of the supply chain: from cultivation, through processing, to direct trade with end clients. GCC’s holistic approach to the coffee sector and commitment to best environmental practices not only establishes the long-term profitability and sustainability of the business but also improves the quality of the coffee produced on the farms.

The funding brings total equity investment to

Finance

AgroStar App will get a benefit of personal accident insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh free of cost

AgroStar has launched a personal accident insurance programme called Kisan Raksha Kavach for farmers on its app and agri-input platform. The programme will provide financial protection to the farmers against uncertainties of accidental death and disability resulting from an accident. Subject to the terms of the programme, a farmer who purchases agri inputs from the AgroStar App will get a benefit of personal accident insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh free of cost.

The group insurance programme is launched in a collaboration with Care Health Insurance and GramCover, where Care Health Insurance is the insurer of this group insurance policy and GramCover is digitally facilitating the process.

AgroStar App will get a benefit of

Company News

The collaboration will enable more than 300 farmers to directly supply the coffee products to the brand

SLAY Coffee has partnered with Arehalli Biccod Farmer Producer Organisation based out of Arehalli, Sakleshpur, Karnataka. The collaboration will enable more than 300 farmers to directly supply the coffee products to the brand and enhance the quality of their products through technology, training and quality control support.

The collaboration will ensure farmers get their due by paying a significant premium compared to the market prices for their yield. This is achieved by SLAY Coffee working directly with the farmers and eliminating the additional procurement layers in between.

Speaking on the occasion, SLAY Coffee’s Co-Founder, Chaitanya Chitta said, “This is a truly momentous occasion for us as a brand as this FPO collaboration gives us the ability to directly work with the farmers and coffee growers. As a brand, we benefit from access to some of the best coffees that the region produces which will further elevate the end experience for our customers. More importantly, it also allows us as a brand to create a positive impact within the farmer ecosystem through a variety of initiatives and investments.”

The collaboration will enable more than 300

Bee keeping, Company News, Trade

The company will also pursue other crops including avocados

Bee Vectoring Technologies International announced that the company is expanding into Peru, extending its presence into a major global blueberry market. The company will also pursue other crops including avocados. Peru is the beachhead for BVT’s entry into the South American market.

“We are currently selling commercially in the US and working through the regulatory processes of Switzerland, Europe, and Mexico. We are seeing a compelling fit in blueberries, so expansion into Peru is a logical next step,” said Ashish Malik, CEO, BVT. “Not only does Peru use bees for pollination of blueberries, but there is a great opportunity in avocados, which will be a new crop for us, for which Peru is the third-largest producer.”

BVT has begun the development work needed to enter Peru, including trial and regulatory requirements. The first step in entering the Peruvian market is to secure an import and experimental use permit, which would enable field trials of BVT’s proprietary Clonostachys rosea CR-7 microbial strain (CR-7), delivered through the company’s bee delivery system. Once the permit is secured, the company plans to run berry and avocado trials at the start of the next growing season for each crop type. The data from the trials will be used for regulatory submission.

The company has engaged an established Peru-based agriculture consultancy to lead regulatory and market development efforts. More go-to-market partnerships will be secured with local partners as the company progresses through the trial and regulatory stages of establishing its business in Peru.

Peru represents a huge market opportunity for BVT. The country is one of Latin America’s best-performing economies, led by its seasonal exports of high-value fresh fruit and vegetables, including blueberries, table grapes, avocados, and asparagus. Initially, the Company will focus on field trials of its CR-7 bio-fungicide on blueberry and avocado crops in the Peruvian market.

The company will also pursue other crops