Connect with:
Thursday / March 13. 2025

logo
mobile-logo
Home2022 (Page 66)
Agro chems – Chemicals, Agro chems – Fertilizers, Agro chems – Pesticides, Company News

Three insecticides, one herbicide and one fungicide were added to the portfolio

Coromandel International has introduced five new products in its crop protection range: three insecticides, one herbicide and one fungicide into their portfolio. The meeting was attended by 200 dealers along with 50 employees. 

OFFICER is a new generation selective herbicide. It is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide that controls almost all categories of weeds in paddy. ORTAIN SUPER is a combination insecticide for paddy, has a dual mode of action for resistance management and provides effective control over both lepidopteran and sucking pests. PHENDAL PLUS insecticide for paddy prevent resistance development with its dual mode of action and has a knockdown effect causing faster kill of target pests. CANISTER is a broad-spectrum insecticide for chilli having effective control on mites, whiteflies and thrips, has control in all stages of mite’s lifecycle and has a long residual action that results in long-duration control. PROP – PLUS is a combination of two highly systemic triazole fungicides resulting in two different modes of action that help in resistance management for paddy, offer effective disease control, has less foam formation and have good rain fastness.

Sameer Goel, MD, Coromandel International said, “Coromandel will continue to develop innovative products in Nutrition and Crop Protection segments to serve the farming community.”

Three insecticides, one herbicide and one fungicide

Agro chems – Chemicals, Agro chems – Fertilizers, Agro chems – Pesticides, Agrotech, Nature, Sustainability

The purpose of the awards is to address the pressing need to develop alternatives to chemical crop protection in sustainable food production

The World BioProtection Forum (WBF) hosted the 2nd Annual World BioProtection Summit and Awards 2022 at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham (UK), to address the pressing need to develop alternatives to chemical crop protection in sustainable food production.

The winners are:

  • Best Bioinsecticide Product – Cearitis for PIRA, an autonomous device that diffuses a natural attractant to trap fruit flies outside of olive orchards.
  • Best Biofungicide Product – Biotalys for Evoca, and Oro Agri for PREV-AM®.
  • Best Biochemical Product – STK Bio-Ag Technologies for REGEV, the first ‘hybrid’ foliar fungicide.
  • Best Biostimulant Product – FMC Corporation for Accudo, a versatile microbial biostimulant, and Sri Bio for IndiRoots, a unique granular formulation of multi-microbial plant stimulants.
  • Best Biofertiliser Product – Tradecorp, for Phós’UP, a new biofertiliser coming to the market this year.
  • Best Innovative Research Project of the Year –International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for Aflasafe, a solution to the problem of aflatoxin contamination in agricultural produce.
  • Industry Collaboration of the Year – UPL and Zespri Kiwifruit who worked together on a new product called Aureo Gold.
  • Biotech Start-up Business of The Year – Botanical Solutions Inc (BSI).
  • Best Young Entrepreneur Award – Dr Fatma Kaplan, Founder and CEO of Pheronym.
  • Outstanding Achievement Award – Dr Willem Ravensberg, Corporate Sr Regulatory and Governmental Affairs Manager, Koppert Biological Systems.

The purpose of the awards is to

Agro Universities, Live Stock

The researchers found that combined and coordinated use of Forest Rangers and drones were a good way to protect wildlife from poaching

Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Harvard University researchers have developed a novel Machine Learning algorithm named ‘CombSGPO’ (Combined Security Game Policy Optimisation) that can help in saving wildlife from poaching.

The researchers found that combined and coordinated use of Forest Rangers and drones were a good way to protect wildlife from poaching. As the resources (Rangers and drones) are limited, the researchers developed this algorithm which provides a good strategy to protect wildlife with the resources available. This new algorithm provides highly efficient strategies that are more scalable than the earlier ones created for the same purpose.

The algorithm works by handling resource allocation and strategising patrolling after the extent of resources available had been identified. For this task, it utilises data on the animal population in the conserved area and assumes that poachers are aware about the patrolling being done at various sites.

Prof Balaraman Ravindran, Mindtree Faculty Fellow and Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras, and the Head of Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBCDSAI), IIT Madras, collaborated with Prof Milind Tambe’s Research Group – Teamcore – at Harvard University, US, to carry out this study.

The work has been peer-reviewed and was well received at the 20th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. 

Prof Balaraman Ravindran, Head, Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBCDSAI), IIT Madras, said, “The work was motivated by the need to perform strategic resource allocation and patrolling in green security domains to prevent illegal activities such as wildlife poaching, illegal logging and illegal fishing. The resources we consider are human patrollers (forest rangers) and surveillance drones, which have object detectors mounted on them for animals and poachers and can perform strategic signalling and communicate with each other as well as the human patrollers.”

To extend this research for application in domains such as security, search and rescue and aerial mapping for agriculture among others, the team is trying to perform sample-efficient multi-agent reinforcement learning to learn with the least amount of data since data collection is costly in a real-world scenario.

The researchers found that combined and coordinated

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Start ups, Sustainability

Guwahati Declaration encourages advancement in discoveries through sustainable routes

Guwahati Declaration was recently unveiled by Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, Entrepreneurship and Skill Development and Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of Assam during the recently held North East Research Conclave (NERC) 2022 at IIT Guwahati.

The Guwahati Declaration launched at the valedictory function of the conclave by Lok Ranjan, Secretary, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER), in the presence of Kailash Karthik, Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup is intended to create a set of guidelines, through which individual, as well as a collective responsibility to promote and encourage innovation at the grass-root level and strive to stimulate and execute indigenisation and entrepreneurship, can be taken up. It also encourages advancement in discoveries through sustainable routes.

At least 100 start-ups are expected to be incubated with around 100 doctoral students to be added within the next three years. The ecosystem support necessary for these developments will be provided for achieving their success. 

Under this declaration, a framework to achieve holistic and converging objectives and build targeted mission-mode collaborative efforts will be initiated. Progress on ten broad thrust areas will be initiated that would lead to sustainable socio-economic development, efficient bio-resources utilisation, automation of indigenous tools and technology, disaster management, and climate change aspects. 

These broad working areas include: 

1. Biomedical and environmental devices development and testing

2. Food processing technology

3. Advanced functional materials and biomaterials

4. Drug discovery from natural resources

5. Drone technology development and application

6. High altitude waste management

7. Fossil fuel and alternative energy utilisation and devices

8. Geo-spatial technology

9. Livelihood projects

10. Automation in agriculture, sericulture, pisciculture

The declaration requires individuals and institutions to build upon their strengths and expertise for promoting and nurturing innovation at the grass-root level, engaging individuals from an early level to inculcate the values of innovative thinking and collective growth. 

Institutes and universities across the northeast region and nation will have to be intertwined with various state and central government ministries, PSUs and industries and create a knowledge centre, facilitating the declaration objectives. 

Guwahati Declaration encourages advancement in discoveries through

Agro chems – Chemicals, Finance

Profit After Tax also registered a robust growth of 51 % YoY at ₹ 38.16 Crores in comparison to ₹ 25.28 Crores reported in Q4 FY21

Best Agrolife Ltd has announced its financial results for Q4 FY22 in its Board of Directors meeting. The fastest-growing agrochemical company in India has reported robust financial results for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022 and for the full financial year 2021-22.

Commenting on the results, Managing Director of Best Agrolife Ltd (BAL), Vimal Alawadhi said, “Other than grabbing the registration for the indigenous manufacturing of a number of crucial technicals and pesticides we also bagged two major patents namely Ronfen and Shot Down. We registered remarkable income growth this year, and we closed it with good business momentum. We also started operations in our subsidiary Seedlings India Pvt Ltd plant and our acquired J&K-based unit Agrico which will definitely push the formulation segment and increase the brand business significantly. Overall, the company is in a strong position to utilize the future opportunities and is looking forward to explore the markets outside India in order to expand our global footprints. ”

“The company expects this trend to continue in FY2023. Our R&D team is coming up with a number of innovative and niche chemistry-led products in the coming year thus creating an extremely strong pipeline of business. Our newly launched high-precision products namely Ronfen, Warden, Reveal, Tombo, and Axeman will not only act as real differentiators from conventional crop solutions for farmers but create value for all our stakeholders by increasing the revenue significantly. With our focus on niche products, we are targeting a growth of around 30 per cent and an EBITA of more than 20 per cent in the coming year,”Vimal Alawadhi added further.

Consolidated Key Highlights-Q4 FY 22

The company recorded revenue of ₹ 309.35 Crores for the quarter ended 31 March 2022, a growth of 48.6 per cent YoY as against ₹ 208.13 Crores in Q4 FY21

EBITDA at ₹ 62.1 Crores grew significantly by 68.1% YoY as against ₹ 36.95 Crores in Q4 FY21; EBITDA margin for the quarter was at 20.07 per cent.

PBT was at ₹ 49.33 Crores, a growth of 42.4 % YoY over ₹34.65 Crores reported in the corresponding quarter previous year

PBT also registered a robust growth of 51 % YoY at ₹ 38.16 Crores in comparison to ₹ 25.28 Crores reported in Q4 FY21

Consolidated Key Highlights- FY 22

The company recorded revenue of ₹ 1210.79 Crores in FY22, a growth of 33.7 per cent as against ₹ 905.45 Crores in  FY21

EBITDA at ₹ 165.81 Crores grew significantly by 224 per cent as against ₹ 51.18 Crores in FY21; EBITDA margin for FY22 was at 13.69 per cent with respect to 5.65 per cent in FY21.

Profit After Tax also registered a robust

Agrotech, Company News, Finance, Seeds, Vegetables

Bayer will work toward increasing the sustainable productivity for 100 million smallholder farmers through empowerment and access to agricultural products and expertise by 2030.

Joining like-minded companies in the private sector, Bayer has signed the Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge with a 160 million U.S. dollar commitment dedicated to help end global hunger. The Pledge recognizes the need for governments and the private sector to work together to end food scarcity. Companies taking the pledge commit to investing money, resources and expertise in areas of concern within regions where they do business. Bayer’s commitment will go toward communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

“At Bayer, where we work every day toward realizing our vision of Health for all, Hunger for none, it’s agonizing to know that one in every 10 people worldwide goes to bed hungry,” said Rodrigo Santos, Member of the Board of Bayer AG and President of the company’s Crop Science Division who will outline Bayer’s commitment during a panel discussion in the Sustainable Development Goals tent at The World Economic Forum in Davos. “This crisis affects us all and needs the support of everyone to solve it. Our pledge further puts into practice Bayer’s commitment to help end hunger through alignment of our investments and business operations to achieve this goal.”

As a global leader in agriculture dedicated to advancing sustainable farming for the benefit of growers, consumers, and the planet, Bayer drives its Zero Hunger Pledge commitments on multiple levels. This includes helping smallholder farmer’s access seeds which contain the latest technology, educating communities on sustainable agricultural practices, providing growers with farming solutions, and introducing smallholder farmers to new income-generating opportunities.

More than half of Bayer’s investment to be in vegetable seeds and R&D to support smallholder farmers.Through Bayer’s Vegetable Seeds business, these farmers will receive improved varieties of quality seeds critical to local diets like okra and bitter gourd. They will also gain access to innovative farming solutions, designed to reduce field and post-harvest losses, such as in the Ansal tomato. This variety provides longer shelf life and fruit firmness which is already helping to decrease losses in India from about 30 percent to less than 10 percent. Donating vegetable seeds to nonprofit organizations is also part of the commitment, to help combat hunger and promote the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Bayer will work toward increasing the sustainable

Agro Universities, Sustainability, Water

Various schemes and subsidiaries of the department of soil conservation related to drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation were discussed

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Ludhiana under the aegis of the Directorate of Extension Education, PAU & ICAR ATARI Zone-1 recently organised a seminar on water conservation through adoption of various resource conservation technologies on May 24, 2022.

The programme was organised under the guidance of Dr Ashok Kumar, Director of Extension Education, PAU, Ludhiana to sensitise farmers for saving water. “Little effort goes a long way and we as a progressive community must learn from other communities in world already facing severe water scarcity,” he added.

Dr GS Makkar, Deputy Director (Trg), KVK Ludhiana apprised that about 40 farmers, officers from Department of Soil Conservation and representatives of Jain Irrigation participated in the seminar for deliberations on micro irrigation technology and direct seeded rice. Dr Makkar added that KVK Samrala is organising a series of programmes on water conservation to give a clear and loud message to all stakeholder on saving water. He informed that KVK has drip irrigation system installed on 3.5 acres and recently sprinkler irrigation system is installed on two acres.

Er Lovepreet Singh, SCO, Samrala discussed various schemes and subsidiaries of the department of soil conservation related to drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. He stressed on active adoption of drip irrigation technology to save the vital natural resource.

Rajat Chowdary and Jagdish Kumar from Jain irrigation system discussed the concept, design and installation of micro irrigation system i.e. drip irrigation and micro sprinkler system at farmer’s field.

Dr Harshneet Singh, Assistant Professor (Soil Sci.) emphasised the need of soil testing before going for DSR in their field. He also discussed the detailed agronomic practices for DSR with special emphasis on the management of weeds and iron deficiency.

Er Karun Sharma, Assistant Professor, FM&PE discussed the scope of modification of zero till drill/ happy seeder for direct seeding of rice where the farmers don’t have access to the lucky seed drill.

Field demonstration on working of sprinkler irrigation, maintenance of its assembly, distribution of literature on micro irrigation system, direct seeded rice and soil testing were the main attractions of the programme. 

Dr Devinder Tiwari, Assistant Professor (Ext. Edu.) motivated farmers to come up for this noble cause and proposed a vote of thank to activate participation of all participants.

Various schemes and subsidiaries of the department

Agro Universities, Start ups

Activities of a-IDEA in promoting the start-ups in the rural sector were underlined

The a-IDEA, TBI of ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad recently organised the Demo Day under Agri Udaan 4.0.

Dr Ch Srinivasa Rao, Director, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad applauded the activities of the a-IDEA and highlighted the different policy papers published by the Academy for the benefits of FPOs, Entrepreneurs, etc.

Dr G Venkateshwarlu, Joint Director, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad underlined the activities of a-IDEA in promoting the start-ups in the rural sector and enhancing the competency of start-ups through effective technical & business mentoring.

S Somasundaram, DGM, NABARD, Mumbai, Maharashtra apprised about the support provided by the NABARD to a-IDEA in strengthening the start-ups through the accelerator programme and seed fund support.
A total of 10 start-ups and 25 investors from the different parts of the country participated in the programme.

Activities of a-IDEA in promoting the start-ups

Agro Universities, R&D

The partnership will facilitate a close cooperation between both the organisations and would be a milestone in producing disease-free quality planting material of citrus in the country

The ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur, Maharashtra signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Jai Hind Nursery, Bhiwadi, Alwar District, Rajasthan for containerised nursery propagation technique to produce the disease-free citrus planting material.

Dr Dilip Ghosh, Director, ICAR-CCRI, Nagpur and Anil Kumar, Managing Director, Jai Hind Nursery signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations.

Dr Ghosh stated that the partnership is aimed at facilitating a close cooperation between both the organisations and would be a milestone in the area of production of the disease-free quality planting material of citrus in the country.

The institute has standardised the protocol for the containerised nursery production system for citrus. Considering the demand of about 20 million plants of the various commercial citrus cultivars in the country for new plantation and replanting of gaps within an existing orchard, the institute is promoting the nursery production through the PPP mode.

The partnership will facilitate a close cooperation

AgroPolicy, Sugar industry, Supply Chain, Trade

Govt will allow sugar exports upto 100 LMT

The government has decided to allow export of sugar upto 100 LMT with a view to maintain the domestic availability and price stability during the sugar season 2021-22 (October-September). As per the order issued by DGFT, with effect from June 1, 2022 till October 31, 2022, or till further order, whichever is earlier, the export of the sugar will be allowed with specific permission of the Directorate of Sugar, Department of Food & Public Distribution. 

The decision came in the light of record exports of the sugar. In sugar seasons 2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20, only about 6.2 LMT, 38 LMT & 59.60 LMT of sugar was exported. In sugar season 2020-21 against target of 60 LMT about 70 LMT have been exported. In the current sugar season 2021-22, contracts for export of about 90 LMT have been signed, about 82 LMT sugar has been dispatched from sugar mills for export and approx. 78 LMT have been exported. Export of sugar in current sugar season 2021-22 is the historically highest. 

The decision will ensure that the closing stock of sugar at the end of sugar season (September 30, 2022) remains 60-65 LMT which is two to three months stocks (monthly requirement is around 24 LMT in those months) required for domestic use. Crushing in new season starts in last week of October in Karnataka and in last week of October to November in Maharashtra and in November in Uttar Pradesh. So generally, up to Nov, supply of sugar takes place from previous year stock.

Govt will allow sugar exports upto 100

AgroPolicy, Seeds, Sustainability

Discussions were held on the need for cooperation of the state governments and the Centre so that awareness is raised among farmers across the country

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar presided over a national webinar on ‘Seed Chain Development.’ Tomar said the state governments, in consultation with the Central Government, should prepare a roadmap for 10-15 years for the benefit of farmers. He said it should be ensured that the farmers get timely supply of good quality seeds. State governments should strictly curb black marketing and those selling fake seeds.

Tomar said, “Availability of good seeds for farming increases production and productivity, resulting in higher income for farmers and raising the share of agriculture in GDP besides benefitting our agriculture and the nation’s economy. Planning should be done for adequate supply of seeds of crops like pulses-oilseeds, cotton etc.”

Tomar said that the cooperation of the state governments is also necessary for seed traceability, so that awareness is raised among farmers across the country and they can take rightful decision regarding the seeds for their plantation as per the requirement.

Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shobha Karandlaje said it should be ensured that the varieties of seeds developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research reach the farmers at the grassroots level. Along with this, the states should work in a planned manner at the district level on all aspects related to the agriculture sector, so that the farmers do not face any problem.

Addressing the webinar, the Union Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja said that arrangements should be made to provide quality seeds to the farmers right down to the Panchayat level, while awareness should be raised among the farmers about testing of seed quality. 

Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Abhilaksh Likhi and other senior officers were present in the programme. Senior officials of the Agriculture Department of the states and the representatives of the seed corporations of the centre and the states joined the webinar virtually. The webinar was conducted by Ashwini Kumar, Joint Secretary (Seeds). He informed that the government is working for setting up seed testing laboratories at the panchayat level.

Discussions were held on the need for

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

STEYR won in the Product Design category for its new Terrus CVT tractor, produced at the brand’s St Valentin manufacturing facility

STEYR, a regional agricultural tractor brand of CNH Industrial, won the iF DESIGN AWARD for its Terrus CVT Tractor, the latest in a series of accolades for this machine. 

Founded in 1953, iF Design has become a global symbol of excellence in design and its annual awards are highly esteemed. The iF seal is granted to products that blend innovative style and aesthetics with enhanced functionality to benefit customers while raising the profile of the design community. 

STEYR won in the Product Design category for its new Terrus CVT tractor, produced at the brand’s St Valentin manufacturing facility. It is a perfect combination of function and form, blending a bold and rugged exterior design with a premium interior focused on operator comfort and ergonomics. The cab has been restructured to create a better working environment and now serves as a ‘command centre’ in which style has a purpose. The design of the controls makes tractor operation more intuitive, efficient, and productive. 

The iF DESIGN AWARD is further recognition of the outstanding work carried out by the CNH Industrial Design team in creating machines that blend customer- focussed style with product quality, capability, efficiency, and sustainability. 

STEYR won in the Product Design category

Company News

ZOATIN is the first product launched as part of UPL’s partnership with global bioscience company Chr Hansen to develop microbial biosolutions that will help growers around the world fight pests and diseases

UPL, a global provider of sustainable agriculture solutions, has announced the launch of ZOATIN, a new biosolution that effectively facilitates plant uptake and utilisation of phosphorus to improve crop health and yield. ZOATIN is the first product launched as part of UPL’s partnership with global bioscience company Chr Hansen to develop microbial biosolutions that will help growers around the world fight pests and diseases, and sustainably improve crop quality and yields.

ZOATIN is a bacterial-based technology that works by solubilising otherwise unavailable forms of phosphorous in the soil to improve the ability of crops to take up and utilise the nutrient for maximum yield and improved crop health. Extensive trials have shown that the application of ZOATIN directly contributes to optimal root development and improved crop resilience against biotic and abiotic stresses such as drought, while also increasing water use efficiency.

ZOATIN is part of the comprehensive portfolio of biosolutions housed by UPL’s Natural Plant Protection (NPP). It can be applied to a range of crops including maize, rice, potatoes, pulses and a variety of vegetables using in-furrow, seedling drench or drip irrigation application at the time of seeding.

Mike Frank, President and COO, UPL, said, “ZOATIN has proven to effectively grow healthier crops, it also provides environmental benefits by ensuring phosphate fertilisers are used more efficiently by crops, thus reducing nutrient waste. This can help to reduce the adverse impacts that phosphate fertilisers can have on water sources.”

The collaboration between UPL and Chr Hansen was first announced in October 2021. Through the partnership, UPL is using its global presence to undertake research and identify opportunities and product concepts to address farmers’ needs.

ZOATIN is the first product launched as

Agrotech, China, Company News

Yunnan will purchase 20,000 metric tonnes of Origin’s nutritionally enhanced corn

Beijing-headquartered Origin Agritech, an agriculture technology company, announced recently that the company and Yunnan Feeding Company have entered into a supply agreement, under which Yunnan will purchase 20,000 metric tonnes of Origin’s nutritionally enhanced corn (NEC).

Pricing will be based on the prevailing price of corn at the time of delivery but based on current market prices the deal would be valued at RMB3100 per metric ton, or RMB62 million in total ($9.2 million).

Origin had previously announced 50,000 metric ton supply agreement back in April of this year. The approximate combined value of the two orders is RMB217mm ($32 million). This backlog of orders does not include any impact from the previously announced collaboration with BaoDao Feed.

“It is quite gratifying to see the feedstock industry’s excitement and demand for our new corn variety, NEC,” said Dr Gengchen Han, Origin Agritech’s Chairman. “We are focussed on operations and ramping up production to catch up with the quickly increasing demand.”

Yunnan will purchase 20,000 metric tonnes of Origin's