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Company News, Europe, Sustainability

Green Deal to focus on sustainable food security

Bayer has announced the official kick-off of the LifeHub Monheim, a future partnership-focused facility located on the campus of Bayer’s global Crop Science Division headquarters in Monheim, Germany.

As the newest addition to Bayer’s global LifeHub network, LifeHub Monheim will bring together innovators, entrepreneurs, and scientists from all over Europe to share knowledge, experience and resources that will help enable sustainable food security for the world’s growing population.

LifeHub Monheim will work with leading innovators from the European open innovation ecosystem, providing expertise and resources for partners of all sizes.

“Building a community of innovators starts by bringing people together, and that’s what LifeHub Monheim is all about,” said Axel Trautwein, Head of Regulatory Science at Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “From decision makers and financial resources to scientists, the Bayer LifeHubs around the world make connections and pair resources and expertise with those that need them. We’re excited to be showing so clearly our commitment to the growing innovation ecosystem of Germany and can’t wait to see what we discover together.”

Green Deal to focus on sustainable food

Agrotech, India

To promote academic and research co-operation

Dilip Ghosh, Director, ICAR-CCRI, Nagpur and J P Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology-Jammu sign a MOU on at Chatha, Jammu on behalf on their respective institutes. 

The aim is to promote academic and research co-operation between the two organisations in the area of Citriculture. This will have huge impact on citrus cultivation in this region in years to  come.

To promote academic and research co-operationDilip

India

To benefit 30 women beneficiaries 

ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore has extended support in a cluster basis to develop an ornamental fish village by adopting 30 women beneficiaries in its on-going SCSP programme at Dhanyaganga Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sargachi. 

The effort by the ICAR-CIFRI in collaboration with the Ramakrishna Mission and newly established KVK, in its adopted village could enhance the visibility of the various programmes implemented in the village targeting to doubling farmer’s income.

Head of the Ramakrishna Mission, Sargachi, Biswamayananda Maharaj stressed upon women empowerment and encouraged them to come forward to show their interest for the wellbeing of their family by contributing from a tiny scale from the begin to a large scale with a span of two to three years that will build up a greater scope in the ornamental fish farming in the country as Bengal leads the ornamental fish farming from the front.

All aspects of ornamental fish farming particularly handling of live-bearers was explained to the women beneficiaries with a video prepared by the institute and live demonstration was conducted and inputs were distributed for the beneficiaries.

To benefit 30 women beneficiaries ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries

India

Ministers express satisfaction at the friendly and close bilateral relations between the two countries

Lemogang Kwape, visiting Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation of Botswana, held a meeting with the Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in New Delhi to discuss the issues of cooperation between the two countries in Agriculture and Allied sectors.

Both the ministers put emphasis on promoting the cultivation of nutri-cereals on a large scale in view of their nutritious value and significance. Tomar informed that India is gearing up to celebrate the International Year of Millets on a global scale.

Both sides also discussed the issues of market access for their agricultural products and assured each other of resolving the issues at the earliest. 

Ministers express satisfaction at the friendly and

Company News, North America

This adds to an existing 22,500 acres of directly operated pistachio and citrus orchards located throughout California

Manulife Investment Management announces two agricultural acquisitions totalling more than 1,400 acres in Fresno County, California.

The orchards are favourably located in California’s Central Valley, a key US agricultural and tree nut production region, with high-quality water rights. The acquired properties add to an existing 22,500 acres of directly operated pistachio and citrus orchards located throughout California, providing an opportunity to benefit from economies of scale in the region.

“We are proud to add these high-quality orchards to our permanent crop portfolio, managed by our experienced direct-operation team of agricultural professionals, for the benefit of our investors,” said Oliver Williams, global head of agriculture investments, Manulife Investment Management. “We believe that orchards, as a nature-based solution, can provide both economic returns to our investor clients along with social and environmental benefits. Producing healthy, nutritious food while responsibly managing these natural resources can also contribute positively to vibrant rural communities, such as the ones surrounding these investments.”   

This adds to an existing 22,500 acres

Company News, India, Sustainability

Several promotional and informational initiatives planned to kickstart new decade of operations in India

LEMKENIndia Agro Equipment Pvt Ltd, the industry leader for futuristic & advanced Agri solutions, has announces the tenth anniversary of the company’s founding in India with the presence of LEMKEN Owner Nicola Lemken, Anthony Van der ley, Global CEO and Sanjay Kapoor – LEMKEN India CEO & Director.

In celebration of embarking on its second decade of business, LEMKEN India unveils a new Product portfolio with the launch of a new product Rotary Tiller machine, which reflects the company’s future strategic direction, mission, and goals in presence of their top Suppliers, Dealers, Corporate Business partners. 

The company will also be executing several promotional and informational initiatives throughout this month in support of the tenth anniversary. 

“LEMKEN India is proud of its ten-year track record of organic growth and sustained profitability while delivering global recognised Agri Machinery products,” said Sanjay Kapoor. “At the same time, we are forward-focused on this next decade and have significant plans to deliver substantial additional value to our Customers, Clients, Chanel Partners, Suppliers and innovation to the industry.”

LEMKEN enjoys a worldwide reputation as a visionary, sustainably operating company that makes an important contribution to profitable agriculture. A mid-sized German family company, LEMKEN applies its expertise and passion for progress since the past 241 years, delivering solutions for the challenges confronting agriculture today and tomorrow. 

The company’s product range includes tillage implements, seed drills, hoeing machines, fertiliser spreaders and smart solutions for agricultural data management. With the employee’s knowledge and commitment, in Germany as well as in 26 international subsidiaries, employees lay the foundations for farmers worldwide to operate profitably.

Several promotional and informational initiatives planned to

India, Sustainability

To leverage investments made in India in the third phase and focus on institutionalising interventions

The objective of Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) 4.0 is to transform agronomic research and extension are implemented and embedded in decision-making and policy processes, primarily in India, where CSISA has the most experience and influence. 

Phase 4.0 will leverage the investments made in India in the third phase and focus on institutionalising interventions through partnerships with the national and state agricultural systems, including on-ground strategic partnerships with civil society and the private sectors. 

According to Craufurd, Phase 4.0 will further strengthen the pathways established and scale the impact, particularly the institutional research and development capacity and strategic partnerships thus far established in India, through its seven focused work areas, including gender empowerment.

“We are confident of our strong partnership with the national systems led by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to support Indian farmers with improved yield and productivity,” said RK Malik, CSISA India coordinator. “Over the last decade, CSISA has built a strong track record for agronomy at scale that can help transform agri-research delivery systems in the region. There is also the opportunity to make CSISA outputs and products portable or useable for other stakeholders addressing food insecurity in the region in the future.”

The CSISA team hopes to continue supporting the smallholder farmers in the region to optimise yield and contribute to the region’s food security.

To leverage investments made in India in

India

Farmers honoured with certificates for their excellent work in onion cultivation

ICAR-Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research, Pune held a ‘Kisan Sangoshthi’ on commercial cultivation of onion in collaboration with the GKRDF, Varanasi and Agrimitra FPC, Mirzapur in the premises of ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi. Dr G Kalloo, Ex-DDG (Hort) ICAR and Ex-VC, JNKVV, Jabalpur, in his presidential address, stated that there is an immense scope for onion cultivation in Mirzapur. 

He put emphasis on higher yield from onion cultivation and doubling the farmer’s income by integrating it with the cultivation of other vegetables.

On this auspicious occasion a ‘Technical Folder’ as well as a Documentary Film on “Extending commercial cultivation of onion in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh: A Success Story” was released in the presence of dignitaries.

About 400 farmers including 260 women farmers from different parts of Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli, Kushinagar and Ballia districts of Uttar Pradesh and Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh participated in the programme. Select farmers were honoured with certificates for their excellent work in onion cultivation.

Farmers honoured with certificates for their excellent

Agro Universities, Dairy, India, People

To retain the post for a three-year term

The government has appointed Dr Rupinder Singh Sodhi, the Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation or GCMMF (Amul), as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management – Thanjavur (NIFTEM-T).

The appointment order for this Tamil Nadu-based institute was issued by the Union Food Processing Ministry on October 10. According to the order, Dr Sodhi will remain in this post for three years.

Dr Sodhi is the Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, Ltd., (AMUL). He has obtained his B.E. (Ag) degree from CTAE, Udaipur, India and then joined Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).  He has received Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris-Causa) from Anand Agriculture University.

Dr Sodhi has headed the Marketing and Sales function of Amul for more than two decades and has spearheaded their highly innovative and widely acclaimed marketing campaigns such as (1) Promoting milk as ‘world’s original energy drink’ and (2) ‘Eat Milk’ campaign motivating Indian youth in include dairy products in every meal and (3) Amul Doodh Peeta Hai India. He has been instrumental in launching more than 50 new products during his tenure as Managing Director in last six years. He has also spearheaded digital marketing and social media marketing innovations in Indian dairy industry to ensure that younger generation of India enhances consumption of milk and dairy products.

NIFTEM-T is an institute 55 years old. It was started in 1967 as Paddy Processing Research Centre (PPRC). It was renamed as Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology (IICPT) in February 2008.  About a decade later, it was renamed as Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) in March 2017. Its name has now been changed to NIFTEM. It offers B Tech, M Tech and PhD courses.

To retain the post for a three-year

Agrotech, Company News, Finance, India

India among 11 countries to receive investment for Regenerative Agriculture Projects

PepsiCo today announced the continuation of its global agriculture accelerator, the Positive Agriculture Outcomes (PAO) Fund, by granting funding to 14 business projects in India and 10 other countries to address some of the most intractable challenges facing agriculture today.

“We’re in a race to reach the world’s 1.5-degree target and, to do our part, PepsiCo has set a range of ambitious PepsiCo Positive goals, including expanding regenerative agriculture practices and building the resilience of those in our agricultural supply chain by preparing them for a changing climate,” said Rob Meyers, Vice President of Global Sustainable Agriculture.

Launched in August 2021, the PAO Fund offers PepsiCo market teams co-investment to accelerate diverse and innovative Positive Agriculture projects. The investments are designed to ‘de-risk’ promising initiatives while accelerating the development of innovative technologies and approaches that can help scale the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices.

In 2022, the PAO Fund is making investments in projects that span a range of commodities, supply chains, time horizons and PepsiCo business units, but all are focused on either testing a new regenerative technology or approach, helping farmers build climate resilience, or developing new sustainable “landscapes”. In total, the PAO Fund is providing ongoing support to over 20 different projects around the world through grants totalling more than $7.4 million awarded in 2021 and 2022.

“With support from the PAO Fund, we’ve been able to generate much greater engagement and innovation both at the farm level and through closer collaboration with our global teams,” said Haseeb Malik, Senior Manager of Agriculture APAC, PepsiCo.

Projects from the PAO Fund’s inaugural investment are the focus of PepsiCo’s latest, four-part digital video series, “Growing Our Future.” The series looks at how PepsiCo is working with farmers in Thailand to help them adapt to climate change, how farmers in Greece are adopting more efficient irrigation systems to adapt to increased drought, and how PepsiCo is supporting research in Brazil to help potato farmers improve soil health.

For India, the series elaborates on how PepsiCo has partnered with farmers in Punjab to develop kilns that can turn their agricultural waste into fertiliser known as biochar.

In recent years, PepsiCo India’s Pep+ (Pep Positive) agenda in the supply chain of potatoes have created awareness and impact in Punjab and West Bengal, helping farmers manage paddy crop residue by ploughing back into soils and conversion of paddy straw into biochar through the process of pyrolysis. PepsiCo India is also funding the infrastructure (retort kilns) to help growers in these states.

India among 11 countries to receive investment

Biofuel industry, Company News, Finance, India

Income from operations stood at Rs 876.58 crore in Q2 FY23

Pune based Praj Industries (Praj), a globally leading process engineering company with a bouquet of sustainable solutions for Bioenergy, Energy transition has announced its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2022.

Performance Review for Q2 FY23 – Consolidated:

• Income from operations stood at Rs 876.58 crore (Q1 FY23: Rs 729.87 crore; Q2 FY22: Rs. 532.41

crore)

• PBT is at Rs 65.78 crore for the period (Q1 FY23: Rs 54.23crore; Q2 FY22: Rs 46.77 crore)

• PAT is at Rs 48.13 crore (Q1 FY23: Rs 41.26 crore; Q2 FY22: Rs 33.34)

• Order intake during the quarter Rs. 981 crores (Q1 FY23: Rs. 1094 crore; Q2 FY22: Rs. 745 crore)

Performance Review for H1 FY23 – Consolidated:

• Income from operations stood at Rs. 1606.45 crore (H1 FY22: Rs. 918.67 crore)

• PBT is at Rs. 120.01 crore for the period (H1 FY22: Rs. 76.57 crore)

• PAT is at Rs. 89.39 crore (H1 FY22: Rs 55.54 crore)

• Order intake Rs.2075 crore (H1 FY22: Rs 1406 crore)

Commenting on the company’s performance, Shishir Joshipura, CEO & MD, Praj Industries said, “Our results for the quarter are reflective of continually building favourable business environment. Global economy continued to face headwinds in form of geopolitical situation, high inflation, continued uncertainty and volatility on energy front in several parts of the world. Energy transition is creating several new opportunities for sustainable fuels and we are confident of leveraging them and deliver to our potential”.

Income from operations stood at Rs 876.58

Agrotech, Company News, India, Machinery – Post-harvesting, Sustainability

The initiative has now been operational in 11 locations and helped save 14,000 tons of crop residue from burning and reduction of approximately 22,000 tons of Carbon emissions.

CNH Industrial, a global leader in agriculture and construction equipment, celebrates five years of its “Prevention of Crop Stubble Burning/Straw Management” initiative in India. Thanks to this project Kallar Majri in Punjab has been near smoke-free for five years.

CNH Industrial congratulated the village’s farmers for opting for a sustainable solution – baling instead of burning crop stubble. Following the project’s success, this initiative has been introduced to 10 additional locations in Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.  It has raised farmers’ awareness of the benefits of baling versus burning, with more villages adopting this environment-friendly solution. Cumulatively, from 2017 – 2021, this initiative has saved approximately 14,000 tons of paddy straw from being burnt, reducing CO2 emissions by estimated 22,000 tons.

Raunak Varma, Managing Director and Country Head, CNH Industrial, India and SAARC said, “It’s a source of pride for us at CNH Industrial to celebrate this milestone at Kallar Majri. I am thankful to all our partners and the village’s farmers for being a strong pillar of support. As a responsible organization, sustainability is one of the key drivers of our company’s purpose, together with innovation and productivity. It continues to drive the decisions we make to create value for our customers, stakeholders, and our business.”

“As a global sustainability leader, we believe in creating ecological solutions for our planet. This initiative offers us a platform to support our farmers and help in improving the environment for the communities in which we operate”, he added.

The initiative has now been operational in

Agro chems – Chemicals, Company News, Finance, Inputs, Seeds

Company records 31 per cent growth in the Crop Care business and 12 per cent growth in Seeds in Q2 FY 22-23

Rallis India Limited, a TATA Enterprise and a leading player in the Indian Agri inputs industry announced its financial results for the second quarter of the financial year ending 30 Sep 2022.

Announcing the results, Sanjiv Lal, Managing Director, and CEO, Rallis India said, “Our Q2 revenues grew more than 31 per cent over last year on the back of 31 per cent growth in the Crop Care business and 12 per cent growth in Seeds.

Within our Crop Care, exports grew by 67 per cent and the domestic formulation business grew by 13 per cent growth. Despite the uneven distribution of monsoon, domestic business leveraged our geographic and portfolio diversity to achieve growth. While margins were satisfactory in the domestic business, international business margins were lower compared to Q2 of the previous financial year. Going forward, we continue to remain focused on our long-term growth plans of new product introduction and capital investment”.

The Company recorded revenues of Rs 951 Crore for the quarter ending September 30, 2022, an increase of 31 per cent over PY of Rs 728 Crore Profit before tax (before exceptional items) was at Rs 95 Crore as compared to PY of profit before tax (before exceptional items) of Rs 76 Crore and the Profit after tax (after exceptional items) was Rs71 Crore as compared to PY profit after tax (after exceptional item) of Rs 56 Crore

Key Highlights – H1

The Company recorded revenues of Rs1814 Cr for the period ended September 30, 2022, an increase of 24 per cent over PY of Rs 1468 Crore Profit before tax (before exceptional items) was at Rs 186 Crore as compared to PY of profit before tax (before exceptional items) of ₹186 Cr and the Profit after tax (after exceptional items) was Rs 139 Crore, as compared to PY profit after tax (after exceptional item) of Rs 139 Crore.

Company records 31 per cent growth in

AgroPolicy, Foodgrains, India, Oilseeds, Pulses

The absolute highest increase in MSP has been approved for lentil (Masur) at Rs 500 per quintal followed by rapeseed and mustard at Rs 400 per quintal.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Narendra Modi, Prime Minister has approved the increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for all mandated Rabi Crops for Marketing Season 2023-24.

Government has increased the MSP of Rabi Crops for Marketing Season 2023-24, to ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce.  The absolute highest increase in MSP has been approved for lentil (Masur) at Rs 500 per quintal followed by rapeseed and mustard at Rs.400 per quintal.  For safflower, an increase of Rs.209 per quintal has been approved.  For wheat, gram and barley an increase of Rs110 per quintal, Rs 100 per quintal respectively has been approved.

The increase in MSP for Rabi Crops for Marketing Season 2023-24 is in line with the Union Budget 2018-19 announcement of fixing the MSP at a level of at lease 1.5 times of the All-India weighted average Cost of Production, aiming at reasonably fair remuneration for the farmers.  The maximum rate of return is 104 percent for rapeseed & mustard, followed by 100 percent for wheat, 85 per cent for lentil; 66 per cent for gram; 60 per cent for barley; and 50 per cent for safflower.

From the year 2014-15, there has been a renewed focus on increasing the production of oilseeds and pulses.  The efforts have yielded good results.  Oilseeds production has increased from 27.51 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 37.70 million tonnes in 2021-22 (4th advance estimates).  Pulses production has shown similar increasing trend.  The ‘Seed Mini kits programme’ is a major tool for introducing new varieties of seeds in the farmers’ fields and is instrumental for increasing the seed replacement rate.

The productivity of pulses and oilseeds have increased substantially since 2014-15.  In case of pulses productivity has been increased from 728 kg/ha (2014-15) to 892 kg/ha (4th Advance estimates, 2021-22) i.e., 22.53 per cent increase.  Similarly, in oilseed crops productivity has been increased from 1075 kg/ha (2014-15) to 1292 kg/ha (4th Advance estimates, 2021-22).

The absolute highest increase in MSP has