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Agrotech, Finance, Start ups

Hydenmet plans to capture a majority of the small and marginal farmers segment

Bengaluru-based start up Hydenmet, has raised $150k from angel investors through ah! Ventures Angel platform.

Hydenmet was incorporated in 2019 and won the state of Bihar as their customer in August 2019 when they developed a mobile application called ‘Indravajra’ for detection and early warning of lightning and dangerous thunderstorms.

Hydenmet plans to capture a majority of the small and marginal farmers segment, which has been ignored by all largest agritech players by creating a unique per acre per year pricing model for a range of support services offered to farmers working with Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs). Hydenmet has 3-year contracts signed with over 25 FPOs covering 50,000 acres of cultivation spread over 3 states since 2021 February. Of the 100 million acres of cultivation in India by small & marginal farmers, even if Hydenmet gets 5 per cent in the next few years, they can see revenues of Rs 2000 crores per year.

Hydenmet plans to capture a majority of

Agrotech, Company News, Finance

PBT has been registered at Rs 222 crore with a decline of 24 per cent

Rallis India, a TATA Enterprise and a leading player in the Indian agri inputs industry, announced its financial results for the quarter and the financial year ended March 31, 2022.

The company recorded consolidated revenues of Rs 508 crore in Q4, an increase of 8 per cent over the previous year (PY) of Rs 471 crore. Loss before tax (before exceptional items) was at (Rs 16) crore as compared to PY of profit before tax (before exceptional item) of Rs 10 crore and the Loss after tax (after exceptional items) was (Rs 14) crore, as compared to PY profit after tax (after exceptional item) of Rs 8 crore.

During the 12 months ending March 31, 2022 quarter, the company recorded consolidated revenues of Rs 2604 crore registering a growth of 7.2 per cent over PY of Rs 2429 crore. Profit before tax (before exceptional items) was at Rs 222 crore with a decline of 24 per cent over PY of Rs 294 crore and the profit after tax (after exceptional items) was Rs 164 crore, registering a decline of 28 per cent over PY of Rs 229 crore.

Sanjiv Lal, MD and CEO, Rallis India said, “The company delivered a resilient performance in the wake of multiple headwinds during the year. Our domestic crop care business grew at 14 per cent and exports by 6.2 per cent during the year. Our seeds business faced challenges and revenue declined by 13 per cent. Supply chain challenges continued into Q4 with availability issues for certain intermediates as well as steep cost inflation. We are focussed on minimising the disruptions to our products as much as possible. Calibrated price corrections have helped in partially neutralising the material cost inflation.”

He added, “On the positive side, predictions of normal monsoons and robust commodity prices both locally and globally are expected to have a favourable impact on Indian agriculture. Moving forward we are focused on growth despite the volatile context. On a longer-term basis, our capex plans, new product introduction plans, and demand generation investments remain on course as we believe that normalcy will be restored progressively. While doing this, we are also consistently prioritising the safety and well-being of all our employees and other stakeholders.”

PBT has been registered at Rs 222

Agro Universities, Agrotech

The project is for duration of three years

The Department of Vegetable Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, has been awarded a project entitled ‘Molecular mapping and transfer of Jassid resistance in okra‘ by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. The three-year project will be undertaken in collaboration with the School of Agricultural Biotechnology, PAU, Ludhiana. Dr Mamta Pathak, Principal Olericulturist, Department of Vegetable Science and Dr Navraj Kaur, Principal Biotechnologist, School of Agricultural Biotechnology will lead the project along with Dr Parveen Chhuneja, Dr Deepak Singla and Dr Harpal Singh Bhullar. Dr Tarsem Singh Dhillon, Head, the Department of Vegetable Science and Dr Ajmer Singh Dhatt, Director of Research, PAU, Ludhiana, congratulated the scientists for their achievement.

The project is for duration of three

Agrotech, Environment, Sustainability

BASF continues to innovate across its pipeline of seeds and traits, seed treatment, biological etc

BASF has announced its ten-year outlook on agricultural innovations that support food security for future generations while minimising the impact of farming on the climate and the environment. The company focuses on improving agricultural outcomes in major crops, like wheat, canola, soybean, corn, cotton, rice, as well as fruits and vegetables.

Within these major crops, BASF continues to innovate across its pipeline of seeds and traits, seed treatment, biological and chemical crop protection, as well as digital farming solutions and will launch major pipeline projects across all business areas over the next decade. The value of the innovation pipeline is strong, with an estimated peak sales potential of more than €7.5 billion. The importance of BASF’s products and solutions to society is growing, as the company systematically incorporates sustainability criteria into its agricultural research.

In 2021, it spent about €900 million on R&D in the Agricultural Solutions segment, representing around 11 per cent of the segment’s sales. In 2022, BASF will continue to invest in the research and development of agricultural innovations at a high level.

“Innovation in agriculture is essential to enable sustainable food production. We need to find the right balance for better yield – yield produced in ways that meet the demands of future generations, has minimal impact on the environment and helps farmers make a living,” said Dr Livio Tedeschi, President, BASF Agricultural Solutions.

BASF continues to innovate across its pipeline

Agrotech, World

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

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

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

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

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

The company has announced a full commercial

Environment, Nature, Sustainability, Uncategorized

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

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

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

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

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

Announced its commitment to become net-zero by 2030 in

Agro Universities, Agrotech

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

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

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

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

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

The MoA will aid in tech transfer

Agro Universities, AgroPolicy, Webinar

Programmes will be organised at the regional level for farmers

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

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

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

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

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

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

Programmes will be organised at the regional

Agrotech, Finance

To connect to half a million farmers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To connect to half a million farmersBengaluru-based

Agrotech, Animal Health, Environment, R&D, Sustainability

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussions will be held on sustainable agriculture,

Agro chems – Chemicals, Biofuel industry

Holds Bhoomi Poojan for Sakarwadi manufacturing facility

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

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

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

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

Holds Bhoomi Poojan for Sakarwadi manufacturing facilityManufacturer

AgroPolicy, Supply Chain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A panel discussion was organised for the

Agro Universities, Live Stock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More than 200 scientists, academicians, officers of

Sustainability

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

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

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

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

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

Summit Carbon Solutions has partnered with 32