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AgroPolicy, Dairy

IDF Dairy Innovation Awards will be held on September 12

International Dairy Federation (IDF) World Dairy Summit 2022, the most coveted event of the dairy sector, will be organised in India’s New Delhi-NCR from September 12-15, 2022 in which dairy stakeholders from all over the world would participate. This was informed at a curtain raiser event in New Delhi.

Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Dr Sanjeev Balyan expressed his delight over India hosting the World Dairy Summit after 48 years. Furthermore, Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, said the World Dairy Summit is the first physical summit post-Covid by the International Dairy Federation.

“We will get the benefit of the experience of the International Dairy Federation and the world leaders on dairy who will come to India and the country will benefit by learning from them what they do for the dairy sector and it will also be a great opportunity for India to showcase its achievement in the dairy sector,” added Shri Chaturvedi, who is also the Chairman of the IDF-Indian National Committee.

Piercristiano Brazzale, the President of the International Dairy Federation (IDF), “IDF cares about all the dairy chain and we give all science-based support to the dairy sector. The summit this year will witness the participation of technicians and experts from across the world.”

“I want to announce the new IDF Dairy Innovation Awards. The awards will be given on September 12 – the first day of the World Dairy Summit 2022. We will give the awards in 12 categories. You will find all the details on our website i.e. https://idfwds2022.com, and you can also register till the 1st of July,” he added.

Caroline Emond, Director General, IDF, said the World Dairy Summit will be a great opportunity for dairy farmers, leaders, experts, scientists, professionals and academics to connect and get inspired. “India’s success story will be shared with the world through the World Dairy Summit where we can see how dairy is an engine of development and women empowerment in India.”

Meenesh Shah, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board and the Member Secretary of the Indian National Committee of IDF, said the dairy sector is the most important sector to boost the rural economy of India as it provides livelihood opportunities to about eight crore farmers that is why World Dairy Summit is significant to the stakeholders in India.
Not only the farmers but even the landless farmers are linked with dairy. Milk is an important means of livelihood in our country, Shah said.

Shah, who is also the member secretary of the IDF Indian National Committee, informed that the theme for the summit is “livelihood and nutrition” as the farmers in our country derive a livelihood from animal husbandry and dairying activities.”

Shah mentioned, “After the inauguration on the first day of the World Dairy Summit, we will have a special session for the farmers as farmers are our focus area.”

IDF Dairy Innovation Awards will be held

Acquaculture, AgroPolicy, Horticulture, Schemes - NABARD, Sustainability

The families will be largely benefitted from fish farming, horticulture and vegetable cultivation

Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein recently launched the ‘Integrated Tribal Development Project’ for Lohit district under Tribal Development Fund supported by NABARD, Itanagar Regional Office, at Medo under Wakro circle in the district.

The intervention will directly benefit 200 tribal families by enhancing their livelihood through fish farming, horticulture and vegetable cultivation as an alternative means of livelihood and will be implemented in Tezu, Wakro and Sunpura blocks of Lohit district.

NABARD General Manager Partho Saha informed that the project envisages orchard-based livelihood to the farmers through horticulture plantation and maintenance, soil and moisture conservation, water resource development, training and capacity building of farmers, women development, health and sanitation, etc.

The NABARD-back project, to be implemented by ‘Kalong-Kapili’, will benefit 200 families from Wakro, Sunpura and Tezu blocks of the district and each beneficiary will be provided with 1000 fish seeds, 100 areca nut, 50 banana and 20 Assam lemon saplings.

District Agriculture Officer Nyokliam Sumnyan and NABARD District Development Manager (DDM) Nitya Mili and Kalong-Kapili director Jyotish Talukdar were present on the occasion.

The Dy CM also distributed fish seeds, areca nut and Assam lemon saplings to the beneficiaries on the occasion.

The families will be largely benefitted from

Agro Universities, Agrotech, Organic

The cooperation will aid in the creation of facilities for the exchange of scientists, technologies and experts

The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in agricultural research and education in the field of organic and natural farming. Dr Charanjit Singh Aulakh, Principal Agronomist, School of Organic Farming, PAU, and Dr Amritbir Singh Riar and Dr Monika Messmer from the FiBL signed the agreement.

Under this agreement, the cooperation shall be implemented by establishing mutual relations between the research and extension streams of both the organisations, and the creation of facilities for the exchange of scientists, technologies and experts. Both the institutions shall strive to get international funding to execute joint research projects in the field of sustainable and organic agriculture.

Sarvjit Singh, Vice-Chancellor; Dr Shammi Kapoor, Registrar; Dr AS Dhatt Director of Research and Dr SS Walia, Director, School of Organic Farming congratulated Dr Aulakh and his team and wished them success in further strengthening the national and international collaborations.

The cooperation will aid in the creation

Acquaculture, Agri Genomics, Agro Universities

The whole-genome information of an aquaculture species has potential applications in the genomic selection and breeding of fish for sustainable production and improvement in the desirable traits like disease resistance

In a major achievement, the ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai’s Scientists have sequenced and assembled the whole genome of the Grey Mullet – Mugil cephalus. The whole-genome information of an aquaculture species has potential applications in the genomic selection and breeding of fish for sustainable production and improvement in the desirable traits like disease resistance, growth and development. The Mugil cephalus is commonly distributed across the world and mostly inhabits the inshore sea, estuaries and brackish water areas. The fish is of commercial value to the global fisheries and aquaculture, there is also high demand for mullet roe.

The whole-genome sequence of Mugil cephalus is a major landmark and this very high-quality genome assembly at the contig-level contained 848 contigs with N50 length of 20.15 Mb. At scaffold level, the assembly is 644 Mb in length in 583 scaffolds with N50 of 28.32 Mb. The fish genome contains 27,269 protein-coding genes.

The whole-genome sequence assembly generated for the first time for Mugil cephalus can be used as a reference genome for the family Mugilidae. The high-quality, chromosome-level genome assembly along with the predicted protein sequences would help to gain further insights into desirable traits through gene expression studies. The whole-genome assembly would provide the baseline information needed to implement genetic improvement programmes for this commercially important fish species in future.

The institute’s science team involved in the fish genome assembly were Dr MS Shekhar, Dr Vinaya Kumar Katneni, Dr Ashok Kumar Jangam, Dr Raymond Jani Angel, Dr Krishna Sukumaran and Dr M Kailasam. The Genome Sequencing Project was financially supported by the ICAR-Consortium Research Platform on Genomics and coordinated by Dr Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR.

The whole-genome information of an aquaculture species

Agrotech, Interaction

RICH has been scouting for innovations in the agriculture sector and prepared a compendium with a list of start-ups and companies using emerging technologies to solve agriculture problems. Rashmi Pimpale, CEO, RICH reveals more about the initiatives in interaction with Agro Spectrum India

What will be the latest innovations in the agriculture sector from RICH?

Launched in 2017 by the Government of Telangana, Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad aims to solve complex local and national challenges by facilitating collaborative networks between diverse stakeholders of the research and innovation space. In 2021, RICH was appointed to lead the Science and Technology Cluster for Hyderabad under an initiative spearheaded by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India.

While RICH does not develop innovations by itself, its mandate is to act as an advisory platform for start-ups. However, we have supported innovators, start-ups, and researchers working on solving farming challenges. By fostering collaborations between various entities in the agriculture sector, we have tried to create a supportive ecosystem for innovators in the agri-tech space.

RICH has been scouting for innovations in the agriculture sector and prepared a compendium with a list of start-ups and companies using emerging technologies to solve agriculture problems. The compendium was submitted to the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA). In one of our latest projects with AgHub, the agri-innovation hub of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), we screened the compendium with the professors of PJTSAU to shortlist 21 emerging technology companies. We selected ten start-ups with impactful solutions for the first cohort. While our role was mainly to identify start-ups, PJTSAU’s role was to support them in conducting the field pilots for their technologies. So far, eight out of the ten shortlisted start-ups have completed their field trials, and we have been closely monitoring these pilots.

We are collaborating with the Dept. of Agriculture and the Emerging Technology Wing, Dept. of ITE&C, Govt. of Telangana, to implement a project titled “Emerging Technologies for Agricultural development”. The project is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India, under the National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGPA). As part of the implementation plan, we will demonstrate solutions using emerging technology to solve five farming challenges: crop monitoring, irrigation management, nutrient management, farm automation, and traceability. We have already started working with two start-ups, KrishiTantra and Aquastride, to demonstrate the on-ground deployability of nutrient management and irrigation management. Both the start-ups have completed their field pilots in the Maheshwaram Mandal block, Rangareddy district, Telangana and are ready for further deployment across the state.

How do you plan to create sustainable impact by developing indigenous solutions for the agri sector?

India has different agricultural ecosystems depending on the region, soil parameters, water availability, etc. One solution does not solve the challenges farmers face in all areas. Hence, traditional knowledge and indigenous solutions are required to find sustainable solutions to farming problems, one region at a time.

We continually partner with other organisations to work on indigenous solutions in the agriculture sector. Recently, we have started working with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in their Data for Policy project to develop data-driven climate-resilience policies in Telangana. To find solutions relevant to the agriculture space in the state, we are conducting field studies to understand the farmer’s issues, identify indigenous climate-resilient practices, and scale localised solutions with the potential to create a more considerable impact. We believe grassroots innovations have a higher potential to create a sustainable solution.

RICH has also initiated efforts to address the issues of dryland agriculture systems through dialogue with a wide spectrum of stakeholders and community outreach programmes.

RICH is spearheading the conversation around dryland agriculture. Tell us more about the initiative. 

India’s 68 per cent cultivated area is drylands, supporting 40% of farmers. It produces 44 per cent of our food requirements. In Telangana, 25.29 lakh hectares out of 53.15 lakh hectares of gross cropped area is irrigated. The rest are rainfed areas making dryland agriculture a prime focus for RICH.

Some of the significant challenges dryland farmers face are low yields and crop losses due to poor resilience to climate change, which has drastically affected this food system in the region. As part of our initiatives on dryland farming, we submitted a paper titled ‘Dryland Food Systems in Telangana’ at a Pre-Summit event for the United Nations Food Systems Summit. In this paper, we highlighted the challenges farmers face in India’s dryland agricultural ecosystem.

Before submitting the paper, we convened an online dialogue on the topic with relevant stakeholders, including those from the State and Central Government, researchers, farmers, innovators, and others. 

During this discussion, we identified the following challenges in the dryland ecosystems of Telangana:

• Irrigation Water supply: Farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture. In the absence of rainfall, it is essential to strategize for other possible irrigation methods.

• Genetic erosion: Farmers are experiencing an increased loss of local crop varieties.

• Local seed systems: Communities have weak storage systems and fail to preserve local seeds.

• Subsidies for locally cultivated seeds: Farmers purchase seeds every cropping season from the government at subsidised rates. There is a need to support local seed systems by extending subsidies to local seeds.

• Increase in pest population: Dryland crops are increasingly infested by pests and diseases. Mono-cropping has contributed to this surge.

• Lack of marketing infrastructure: Farmers need platforms to sell their produce in their villages and neighbouring areas.

• Loss of soil fertility, soil degradation, and crop loss due to climate change (rainfall pattern has changed).

• Crops like cotton and soya have replaced millet, pulses (black gram, green gram), and oilseeds (safflower, Niger).

• Government subsidies don’t reach the last mile.

• Less price realisation as the farmers sell their produce to local traders.

• Lack of investments with FPOs and dryland farmer groups for bulk marketing.

We have recorded feedback and suggestions from participants, and we are working on them by identifying start-ups that use technology to solve problems in dryland farming. Our objective is to help foster research and innovation that can solve these issues and create an impact.

We are working on a similar project with the Atal Community Innovation Centre of the Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (ACIC–CBIT), Hyderabad. As a part of this project, we conducted a Community Outreach Programme in the dryland regions of Telangana and identified 19 major problems faced by farmers in this region. We jointly organise events like hackathons to promote grassroots and student innovators working on feasible engineering solutions to solve pressing farming issues.

Apart from India, are you working with any other countries on the dryland agriculture initiative?

Our focus area lies in India, but we have reached out to Rwanda in Africa through the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). FICCI has implemented the India-Rwanda Innovation Growth Programme (IRIGP). RICH played the role of a technical agency to identify, mentor, and support Rwandan start-ups in the agriculture space. In a capacity-building workshop conducted by FICCI in Kigali for the Rwandan and Indian start-ups, our Food & Agri Director, Bhubesh Kumar, extended his expertise to eleven agro-companies from Rwanda and mentored a few working on dryland farming problems in India and Rwanda.

How will this initiative help farmers in the long run?

RICH has a focussed approach in identifying innovators and supporting their simple yet effective solutions. We look for grassroots innovators and start-ups who have worked on-ground to identify the challenges a farmer faces before developing any solution instead of companies who devise a solution first and then try to solve a problem using it. The RICH team interacted with the farmers to understand their challenges they face and find solutions for those.  

We emphasise a product’s usability, feasibility, and affordability before extending our support to scale it from lab to market. Through this approach, we have supported relevant innovations that show higher impact. For instance, we identified a dryer developed by a start-up in one of our community projects with ACIC-CBIT. The dryer was optimal for multiple crops and easy to use for farmers.

What will be your funding mechanism for these types of initiatives?

We are not a funding agency for start-ups but foster collaborations between start-ups and relevant organisations. It means we connect start-ups with different organisations based on their needs. If a start-up requires funding, we connect them with suitable incubators or venture capitalists. However, we help start-ups by facilitating business partnerships. For instance, Bio-prime is a start-up supported by RICH. We facilitated business partnership with Delta Agrigenetics, which helped them increase their sales by 45 per cent in two years. This growth has helped them pitch and bag a VC funding from Omnivore Capital.

What will be your future collaborations in the pipeline? 

We are working on a few programmes in the agriculture space. The two significant projects we would want to highlight are:

1. We have recently signed an MoU with Evergreen Energy Enterprises Inc. (EEE) to help develop and deploy an integrated emerging technology-based farm service platform- “Smart Crop” to cultivate oil palm in Telangana under the National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP). This platform enables enrolling farmers, supplying quality seedlings, testing soil quality, automating irrigation, monitoring crops using drones, smoothing the harvesting process, and many more.

2. We have collaborated with the Emerging Technologies Wing and the World Economic Forum to scale up emerging technologies identified under the AI4AI project. We are also working with the Dept of Agriculture, Govt of Telangana, to scale up the technologies successfully demonstrated under the NeGPA project among Telangana farmers.

Sanjiv Das

sanjiv.das@mmactiv.com

RICH has been scouting for innovations in

Agrotech

The global agricultural drones’ market is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2019 to $10.5 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 31.4 per cent during the forecast period 2020-2027

As per the report published by Fior Markets, the global agricultural drones’ market is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2019 to $10.5 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 31.4 per cent during the forecast period 2020-2027. The North America region stands as a promising market for agricultural drones and is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of during the forecast period. It is also the largest market for agricultural drones. This is due to the high purchasing power and readiness in technological adoption of consumers in that region. North America is the fastest-growing, but South America has the highest potential for growth. 

Key players in the global agriculture drones’ market are Israel Aerospace Industries, Yamaha Motor, Delair, AeroVironment, PrecisionHawk, Trimble Navigation, AgEagle Aerial Systems, Microdrones GmbH, Agribotix LLC American Robotics, AgEagle Aerial Systems, URSULA Agriculture, Sentera, Parrot SA, SZ DJI Technology, and AutoCopter Corp among others. Key companies are mainly focusing on developing new products, forming partnerships, and joint ventures to gain significant market share in the global agriculture drone’s market.

The key driver of the global agricultural drones’ market is increased agricultural output. Higher crop yields and a better understanding of precision farming are raising demand for these drones.

The global agricultural drones’ market is expected

Agro chems – Fertilizers

This strategically important visit came in the backdrop of the ongoing global fertiliser crisis

In a first of its kind initiative, a high level delegation led by Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals & Fertilisers visited Jordan from May 13-15, 2022 with the objective of securing fertilisers and raw materials, both for short and long term. This strategically important visit came in the backdrop of the ongoing global fertiliser crisis.

Dr Mandaviya stated that the Jordan visit proved to be path breaking in terms of ensuring supply of Phosphatic and Potassic fertilisers to India. MOUs were signed with Jordan Phosphate Mining Company (JPMC) for supplies of 30 LMT Rock Phosphate, 2.50 LMT DAP, 1 LMT phosphoric acid for the current year with the Indian public, cooperative and private sector companies. India has also signed a long term MOU for 5 years with Jordan for annual supplies of 2.75 LMT of MoP which will uniformly increase every year up to 3.25 LMT, he added. “These supplies will be crucial for assured fertiliser supply for the ensuing cropping seasons in India”, the Union Minister highlighted. 

The Indian delegation led by the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers visited the JPMC mines and Phosphoric Acid production facilities set up by JIFCO and Indo-Jordan Company. The delegation was warmly greeted by all the Indian engineers and labour force working in these facilities. They appreciated the visit by the Minister which has been first of its kind and will go a long way in increasing their morale while working on the foreign soil.

This strategically important visit came in the

AgroPolicy, Agrotech

Various famers across the country stated their experiences and benefits on using drones as a tool for agriculture

Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia interacted with various farmers across the country on the benefits and challenges of Kisan Drones. The interaction took place under ‘Samvaad with Scindia, an interactive programme in which minister interacted with the farmers and drone users directly.

He shared the various government policies related to drones and how farmers can benefit from them. These includes:

  1. Liberalised Drone Rules, 2021 has been notified on August 25, 2021
  2. Drone Airspace Map has been published on September 24, 2021, opening up nearly 90 per cent of Indian airspace as a green zone for drone flying up to 400 feet
  3. Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones has been notified on September 30, 2021
  4. UAS Traffic Management (UTM) Policy Framework has been published on October 24, 2021
  5. Monetary grant program for purchase of agricultural drones was announced by the Union Agriculture Ministry on January 22, 2022. 
  6. All five application forms under Drone Rules, 2021 have been made online on the DigitalSky Platform on January 26, 2022
  7. Drone certification scheme has been notified on January 6, 2022, making it easier to obtain type certificate by drone manufacturers.
  8. Drone import policy has been notified on February 9, 2022, banning import of foreign drones and freeing up import of drone components
  9. Drone (Amendment) Rules, 2022 has been notified on 11th February 2022, abolishing the requirement of a drone pilot licence. The remote pilot certificate issued by a DGCA-authorised drone school is adequate for operating drones. 
  10. Applications from drone and drone component manufacturers for PLI scheme for drones and drone components were invited between March 10 to 31, 2022. 

Various farmers across the country stated their experiences and benefits on using drones as a tool for agriculture. Farmers also asked various questions to minister related to drones. The discussion was moderated by Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary who heads the drone division at Ministry of Civil Aviation.

On the question of high fee for drone pilot training, the minister said, “The fees of a drone pilot course are currently quite high but you should not worry at all as when the number of drone schools keep increasing, the cost of training drone pilots will keep on decreasing and you will see revolution within the next three to four months as we keep increasing the number of such schools. The country definitely needs more drone pilots and it is for this reason that their certification process has been completely decentralised. So, now, the DGCA will only certify drone schools, and it is the drone school concerned which will grant certificates to pilots which will completely remove bureaucracy from this process.” In the last six months, DGCA has certified 23 schools for training drone pilots, he further added.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation had earlier this month invited second round of applications for the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme that was announced last year to boost drone manufacturing in India. The deadline for submitting the application form is 2359 hours on May 20, 2022.The final list of PLI beneficiaries is expected to be released by June 30, 2022 after detailed scrutiny of their financial results and other specified documents. 

Various famers across the country stated their

Agrotech, Dairy, Finance, Start ups

The total investment capital is to the tune of $28 M

FoodTech startup Imagindairy, developer of animal-free milk proteins, secured an additional $15 million in its extended seed-round. The initial round in November 2021 brought in $13 million. This brings the total investment capital to $28 million, making it one of the highest-earning seed rounds in the alternative protein space.

The funding was led by Target Global and joined by the company’s existing investors Strauss Group, Emerald Technology Ventures, Green Circle Foodtech Ventures, Collaborative Fund, New Climate Ventures, and FoodSparks by PeakBridge, demonstrating a robust commitment to the company’s future progress.

“This extremely successful seed round reflects a strong vote of confidence in Imagindairy and its vision to lead the animal-free dairy industry,” enthuses Eyal Afergan, Co-Founder and CEO, Imagindairy. “This substantial injection of capital will serve to advance our ability to make true dairy alternative products a day-to-day reality.”

The funds raised in this seed round will be used to accelerate the company’s R&D efforts to launch a range of real dairy products without using animals. It also will help attract additional talent to its expanding workforce. Imagindairy is currently in dialogue with major dairy food producers seeking to diversify their product portfolios.

The total investment capital is to the

Agro Universities, Agrotech, Environment, Sustainability

The seminar registered participation by more than 500 participants

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad in collaboration with the Karnataka Agri-Professionals Association (KAPA) recently organised a National Seminar-cum-Webinar on ‘Climate Change Concerns: Challenges for Agriculture Sector and Food & Nutrition Security.’

Dr Jaqueline Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT, Patancheru, Telangana delivered the Keynote Address and Dr CL Laxmipathi Gowda, Former Deputy Director General, ICRISAT chaired the inauguration session.
Dr Ramesh Kalghatagi, President, KAPA outlined the functioning of the KAPA.

Dr Himanshu Pathak, Director, ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati, Maharashtra delivered the valedictory address on “Emerging Technologies and Innovations for Addressing Climate Change in Agriculture”.

Earlier, delivering the welcome address, Dr Vilas A. Tonapi, Director, ICAR-IIMR, Hyderabad underlined the main objective of the National Seminar-cum-Webinar.
The seminar registered participation by more than 500 participants from ICAR Institutes, ICRISAT, state agricultural universities and private sector companies from all over the country.

The seminar registered participation by more than

Agro Universities, Agrotech

Naidu stressed, the sectors need innovations and use of frontier technologies which can be disseminated through the agri-business professionals

The 4th Graduation Ceremony of Post-Graduate Diploma in Management-Agri Business Management (PGDM-ABM) Programme of ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad was recently held.

M Venkaiah Naidu, Vice-President of India warded the degrees to 144 students from four batches of the Institute. One student from each batch was also awarded with the Director’s Medal for their Outstanding Overall Performances and Gold Medal for their Best Academic Performances by the Vice-President of India. He also accentuated the country could become Aatma Nirbhar only when the agriculture sector continues to grow in the future as well. Naidu stressed, the sectors need innovations and use of frontier technologies which can be disseminated through the agri-business professionals.

The Guest of Honour, Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) commended the PGDM-ABM Programme of the Academy which not only achieved 100 per cent placement; but, also provided the quality manpower to the agri-business industry and start-ups. The academy’s contributions of capacity building of the NARS and Think-Tank Research Policy Development in Agriculture and Food Systems for the country were applauded by the Director General.

Earlier, welcoming the dignitaries, Dr Ch Srinivasa Rao, Director, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad underlined the institute’s overall achievements of skill development, education programmes, placement activities, international training and policy development covering all the sub-sectors of agriculture.

Naidu stressed, the sectors need innovations and

Acquaculture, Environment, Sustainability

Discussions were held on the importance of conservation and ranching and its impacts on the socio-economic development of the fishers of the Ganga River

G Ashok Kumar, Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India inaugurated the National Ranching Programme launched by the ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata.

The ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore launched the Programme by releasing 2 Lakhs Wild Fish Germplasm of IMC (Labeo rohita, Labeo catla and Cirrhinus mrigala) in the Ganga River at Gandhi Ghat, Barrackpore, West Bengal.

In his inaugural address, Kumar stated that through the Arth-Ganga Initiative, the National Mission for Clean Ganga is not only trying to save the endangered species of fishes; but, also increasing the population of the native fishes to ensure sustained livelihood for the fishermen community. The importance of conservation and ranching and its impacts on the socio-economic development of the fishers of the Ganga River was highlighted by Kumar.

Dr BK Das, Director, ICAR- CIFRI, Barrackpore underlined the releasing of 20 Lakhs Wild Fish Germplasm of IMC under the Programme at 10 locations all along the Ganga River in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. During the Mass Awareness Campaign on ‘Hilsa and Dolphin Conservation’ organised as a part of the Programme, Dr Das sensitised the fishermen and made them aware about the significance of conserving the Gangetic fishes including prised Hilsa.

Discussions were held on the importance of

AgroPolicy, Allied Industry

The council will be formed under the Chairmanship of Suresh Bhai Kotak

Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has announced formation of Cotton Council of India, under Chairmanship of Suresh Bhai Kotak, a renowned veteran cotton man, with representation from Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, Commerce and Industry, Cotton Corporation of India and Cotton Research Institute. The first meeting of proposed council has been scheduled on May 28, 2022. The council will discuss, deliberate and prepare a robust action plan for bringing out a tangible improvement in this field.

The announcement came during a meeting with stakeholders from cotton value chain, held under the Chairmanship of Goyal wherein Minister of State for Textiles Darshna Jardosh, Secretary Textiles and Secretary Agriculture were also present.

In the meeting, a cross-section of views and suggestions were deliberated for softening cotton and yard prices on urgent basis, to address unprecedented price rise witnessed in the current season. It was pointed out that cotton productivity is the biggest challenge in the country, resulting thereby less cotton production despite largest area under cotton cultivation. The minister emphasised upon the need for making available better quality of seeds to improve productivity of cotton farmers.

Addressing the meeting, Goyal gave a clear and loud message to all stakeholders to resolve cotton and yarn price issue, in the spirit of collaboration rather than competition and super profiteering, without pushing government to intervene as it may have long term impact on cotton value chain.

He also emphasised the need of holding hands of cotton farmers who is the weakest part of cotton value chain, besides extending all possible support to stakeholders engaged in the backward and forward integration through out of box thinking at this critical juncture.

Pointing out that government is committed to protect the interests of cotton farmers, spinners and weavers, the minister assured to actively consider the demand of the spinning sector for exemption from import duty on those import contracts in which bills of lading is issued upto September 30, 2022 to overcome current cotton shortage and logistic issues.

Goyal also appealed to the spinning and trading community to ensure hassle free supply of cotton and yarn first to the domestic industry and only surplus cotton and yarn should be diverted for exports. He cautioned that export should not be at the cost of domestic industry which is the largest generator of employment in the country.

The council will be formed under the

Trade

The government also allowed a wheat consignment headed for Egypt, which was already under loading at the Kandla port

The government of India has announced some relaxation to its order dated May 13, 2022, issued by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Department of Commerce on restricting wheat exports. It has been decided that wherever wheat consignments have been handed over to Customs for examination and have been registered into their systems on or prior to May 13, 2022, such consignments would be allowed to be exported.

The government also allowed a wheat consignment headed for Egypt, which was already under loading at the Kandla port. This followed a request by the Egyptian government to permit the wheat cargo being loaded at the Kandla port. M/s Mera International India, the company engaged for export of the wheat to Egypt, had also given a representation for completion of loading of 61,500 MT of wheat of which 44,340 MT of wheat had already been loaded and only 17,160 MT was left to be loaded. The government decided to permit the full consignment of 61,500 MT and allowed it to sail from Kandla to Egypt.

According to this order, this restriction would not apply in cases where prior commitments have been made by private trade through Letter of Credit as well as in situations where permission is granted by the Government of India to other countries to meet their food security needs and on the requests of their governments.

The government also allowed a wheat consignment