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Acquaculture, Dairy, Foodgrains, Industry Reports / Analysis, Live Stock, Poultry, Pulses, World

Global crop production growth will mainly be driven by continued progress in plant breeding and a transition to more intensive production systems.

Global agricultural and food production are projected to continue to increase over the next ten years, but at a slower pace of growth than the previous decade due to demographic trends, according to a report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2023-2032 is the key global reference for medium-term prospects for agricultural commodity markets. While uncertainty has risen due to geopolitical tensions, adverse climate trends, animal and plant diseases and increased price volatility for key agricultural inputs, global production of crops, livestock products and fish are projected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.1 percent during the period, half the pace recorded in the decade ending in 2015. Total food consumption is expected to rise by 1.3 percent per annum to 2032, indicating an increase in the share of agricultural commodities used as food.

These projections assume a fast recovery from recent inflationary pressures, normal weather conditions, no major policy changes and on-trend evolution in consumer preferences. The possibility that inflationary pressures remain persistent poses downside risks to global food demand and production.

Global crop production growth will mainly be driven by continued progress in plant breeding and a transition to more intensive production systems. Yield improvements are projected to account for 79 percent of global crop production growth, cropland expansion for 15 percent, and higher cropping intensity for 6 percent over the Outlook period.

“The broad trends outlined in this report are heading in the right direction, but need to be accelerated,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said. “Promoting a faster shift to sustainable agrifood systems will bring many benefits and help usher in better lives for all, leaving no one behind.”

Global crop production growth will mainly be

Climate, Company News, Dairy, Live Stock, World

The groundbreaking methodology will help beef producers better understand the impact of feed supplements, enabling projects to measure and quantify the reduction of methane emissions

Cargill partnered with TREES Consulting to develop a Gold Standard-approved beef methodology that offers the global beef industry a framework for measuring methane emissions reduction using feed supplements incorporated into beef cattle diets, such as SilvAir. Gold Standard’s certification process allows climate and sustainable development initiatives to quantify, manage and maximise the impacts toward climate security. It requires a verifiable impact toward three or more of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The new beef methodology defines a set of parameters that beef producers can adopt to quantify reductions in methane emissions, a greenhouse gas (GHG) that is derived from enteric fermentation (digestion process) in cattle through eructation (burping), as well as from manure handling. The new methodology is now available for beef producers worldwide to quantify, audit and verify methane reductions, enabling them to register their GHG mitigation project for Gold Standard certification. Gold Standard’s Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) can be traded in carbon markets, allowing credit purchasers to directly support the projects.  These efforts can also be recognised in corporate value chains, whereby beef producers and food companies account for the reduction in supply chain GHG emissions, which contributes to their Scope 3 targets.  

As a leader in animal agriculture and the beef supply chain, Cargill is in an ideal position to support its network of beef producers with the resources and innovation they will need to meet sustainability challenges. Through its Reach4Reduction program, Cargill is taking a holistic approach to methane reduction by uncovering the potential of feed management and nutrition to do more with less, helping to ensure food security while protecting the planet. Although methane emissions from the enteric fermentation of cattle are a regular occurrence, Cargill recognises the opportunity to reduce methane’s intensity through its global animal nutrition business.

“We know that the industry is looking for more accurate tools to measure methane reduction,” said Joanne Sharpe, Cargill’s global ruminant sustainability lead. “As producers look at their current levels of production efficiency and work toward sustainability goals, we are committed to finding ways to ensure they can be recognised and rewarded for their efforts. As part of our methane reduction priorities, this methodology is a key step toward opening new possibilities to reduce GHG emissions in the beef supply chain.”

“Changing agricultural practice can help reduce methane emissions, and this new methodology provides beef producers with a way to reliably measure the impact of those changes,” said Margaret Kim, CEO, of Gold Standard. “Cargill’s support is helping pave the way for the animal agriculture industry to reduce methane emissions and complements Gold Standard’s other efforts to reduce the impact of agriculture on our planet – such as our recently published methodology which reduces the methane emitted by rice production”.

In practice, projects using the new methodology establish a baseline for emissions during business-as-usual” activities for at least three continuous years. The cattle given feed supplements must be identified and tracked throughout the project. The project crediting period is set at five years and can be renewed for an additional five years, excluding the baseline years.

The groundbreaking methodology will help beef producers

Agro Universities, India, Nature, R&D, Sustainability

Farmer Scientist earns Rs 25,000 – 50,000 per month from A-grade NF farming during the course itself from the first year.

IGGAARL, also referred as Academy, is a collaborative institution set up by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, India with support from the Government of Germany has launched a four-year Farmer Scientist Course (FSC) in Natural Farming. A first of its kind in the world, the course builds a practicing natural farmer to become a participatory Farmer Scientist, a model farmer, a participatory learning facilitator, an entrepreneur and a climate-resilient village developer. It meets the knowledge gaps in agroecology and builds capacities of NF domain with 1,000 Farmer Scientists graduating every year. Apart from building knowledge-skills-tools for A-grade natural farming, FSC imparts technical, research and experiential knowledge and skills on science, value chains, community, ecology, and leadership. Farmer Scientist earns Rs 25,000 – 50,000 per month from A-grade NF farming during the course itself from the first year.

Intake in FSC is about 1,000 per batch. The instruction is in 25 Research and Learning Centres in districts. Initially, these students would come from AP and gradually, FSC expects to start enrolling students from outside AP.

Iris Harder, Principal Portfolio Manager, Natural Resources & Climate – Asia, KfW Development Bank, said, “We are proud to cooperate with IGGAARL and its launch of the Farmer Scientist course. A combination of theory and practice is important. Underlying Natural Farming is knowledge-intensive and knowledge is the only resource that will increase only when it is shared.”

Recently, the FSC has been launched at Pulivendula, Andhra Pradesh, India, by Kakani Govardhan Reddy, the Minister for Agriculture & Cooperation and Food Processing, Government of Andhra Pradesh. Addressing the Farmer Scientist students, Kakani Govardhan Reddy said, “APCNF is the largest agroecology programme in the country. It requires best practitioners with a curious mind, conceptual clarity, and learning facilitation abilities to scale up NF. The Farmer Scientist graduates of the FSC course will contribute to NF Global movement at local levels.” Further, he indicated their plan to give all the students of this batch a modest monthly living stipend during the entire 4-year period, as a token of recognition of them being the first batch of pioneers; first-timers in the world.

Vijay Kumar Thallam, the Executive Vice Chairman of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS) said, “What we have learnt in the past 7 years is that through the adoption of Natural Farming, it is possible for a small or marginal farmer to earn Rs. 50,000 per month from one-acre land, and Rs 10,000 per month from a 0.2 acre anytime money kitchen garden.”  

In a virtual address to the gathering, Dr Pavan Sukhdev, the Founder-CEO of GIST Impact informed that their recent study concluded that farmers using natural inputs achieved equal or higher yields up to 11 per cent compared to other farmer systems and the net incomes averaged 49 per cent and witnessed more women participation in the workforce. He feels the Farmer Scientist course launched today contributes immensely to strengthening ongoing work and influencing policies.

Farmer Scientist earns Rs 25,000 - 50,000

AgroPolicy, Animal Health, Finance, India, Live Stock, Schemes - Govt

Scheme to act as a key enabler and risk mitigation measure for lending institutions and enabling collateral free funding to livestock sector.

Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing the Credit Guarantee Scheme under Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) to strengthen credit delivery system and facilitate smooth flow of credit to the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) engaged in Livestock sector without hassles of collateral security. For operationalizing the scheme, DAHD has established a Credit Guarantee fund Trust of Rs 750.00 crores, which will provide credit guarantee coverage up to 25 per cent of the credit facilities extended to the MSMEs by the eligible lending institutions.

The credit guarantee scheme facilitates access to finance for un-served and under-served livestock sector, making availability of financial assistance from lenders to mainly first-generation entrepreneurs and under privileged section of society, who lack collateral security for supporting their ventures.

The main objective of the Credit Guarantee Scheme is that the lender should give importance to project viability and secure the credit facility purely on the basis primary security of the assets financed.

The establishment of credit guarantee fund trust was approved under the Prime Minister’s AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan stimulus package of Rs.15000 crores“ Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund” (AHIDF) for incentivizing investments by individual entrepreneurs, private companies, MSMEs, Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) and Section 8 companies to establish (i) the dairy processing and value addition infrastructure, (ii) meat processing and value addition infrastructure, (iii) Animal Feed Plant, (iv) Breed Improvement technology and Breed Multiplication Farm (v) Animal Waste to Wealth Management (Agri Waste Management) and (vi) Setting up of Veterinary Vaccine and Drugs Manufacturing facilities.

One of the key features of the AHIDF scheme is the establishment of a Credit Guarantee Fund Trust of Rs. 750.00 Crores. DAHD has formed a trust with NABSanrakshan Trustee Company Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of NABARD for the establishment of a Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for extending the credit guarantee to Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises under AHIDF scheme. This fund trust established in March 2021 is the Nation’s first ever fund trust under Credit guarantee scheme of AHIDF in the agriculture and Animal Husbandry sector and is a path-breaking initiative taken by DAHD which would exponentially increase the number of MSME units getting benefits of AHIDF scheme and strengthen the ecosystem for the collateral-free credit from the banks.

The credit guarantee portal has been developed as a rule based B2B portal and implemented the enrolment of eligible lending institutions under Credit Guarantee Scheme, issuance/renewal of credit guarantee Cover and settlement of claims.

Notably, the initiative of credit guarantee scheme taken by DAHD is expected to greatly increase the participation of MSMEs engaged in livestock sector leading to increased flow of credit to the sector and strengthen the MSMEs to boost the overall rural economy through strengthening the Livestock sector which is of one of the most potential sectors seeking development.

Scheme to act as a key enabler

Agrotech, Company News, Sustainability, World

The new program equips the almond cooperative’s growers with resources and incentives to implement climate-smart practices in their orchards

Blue Diamond Growers launched its USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Grant Program with its 3,000 grower-owners. The program is a major step in expanding the use of climate-smart practices in almond orchards.

The initial launch of the Blue Diamond USDA Climate-Smart Grant Program offers almond growers no-cost seed and a financial incentive for implementing cover crops and/or conservation cover on their land. These practices will not only work towards sequestering carbon but will also enhance the biodiversity of orchards while improving soil health. As part of the program, growers will work with civil society technical partners, Pollinator Partnership and Project Apis m. to implement these practices.

“This is an exciting and unique opportunity for growers outside of the traditional federal, state, and local resources that are typically available to them,” said Dan Sonke, Sr. Director of Sustainability at Blue Diamond Growers. “We know that cost and technical barriers are the largest hurdles to overcome when implementing climate-smart practices. This project provides resources to accelerate our grower-owners’ advances in soil health, biodiversity, and climate-smart agriculture.”

The program will also work to identify almond-specific methods for quantifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of implementing climate-smart practices and will explore market-based mechanisms to reward growers for their stewardship work.

The USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Grant Program further extends Blue Diamond’s current Orchard Stewardship Incentive Program (OSIP). OSIP currently has more than 50 per cent of Blue Diamond’s acreage enrolled, the largest amount of almond acreage in the world participating in a sustainability program, with over 15 per cent of Blue Diamond’s acreage being Bee Friendly Farming (B.F.F.) certified.

“Not only does this program benefit growers, but food companies and retailers as well,” continued Sonke. “Customers can partner with Blue Diamond to support the use of climate-smart practices which benefit the climate, soil health, and orchard biodiversity, and thereby procure almonds with a measured GHG reduction quantification that helps meet their own climate and sustainability targets.”

The new program equips the almond cooperative's

Australia, Horticulture, Supply Chain, Trade

This is great news for the Australian avocado industry as it has been working hard to increase exports to overseas markets

Avocados Australia has announced that 10 trial shipments of Australian avocados were successfully received by Indian officials. Australian Hass avocado growers will be able to proceed to the next step towards export to India. This is great news for the Australian avocado industry as it has been working hard to increase exports to overseas markets. Peak industry body Avocados Australia welcomes the news and is very pleased that the thorough process adopted by all the participants involved with all ten shipments resulted in this excellent outcome.

“I would like to thank The Avolution, Costa Group, Simpson Farms and Dons Fort Packing for participating in the ten trial shipments and for their professionalism in the way they approached the process,” said John Tyas, CEO of Avocados Australia. “Our access to India rested on the success of these ten trial shipments so we are very grateful that the process went smoothly, more steps are ahead of us but we are closer to our end goal,” he said.

“I would also like to thank Hort Innovation, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Austrade, Kiran Karamil our Indian Agricultural Counsellor and Joe Siana from the Australian Horticultural Exporters’ and Importers’ Association,” he said.

This is great news for the Australian

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, Company News, India, Oilseeds

 It will help cater captive needs originating from the company’s oil palm work in the southern states along with demand from other crude palm oil players in the region.

Godrej Agrovet’s (GAVL) Oil Palm business has announced that the company has been allotted potential area of 47,000 Acre in Sangareddy District of Telangana. Allocated by Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (Horti. & Seri.), Government of Telangana, the allotted area will be utilized by the company to expand cultivation of Oil Palm and set up Oil Palm processing units.

Commenting on the allocation, Balram Singh Yadav, Managing Director, GAVL said,” We are delighted to receive additional district in the fresh allotment released by the Government of Telangana. It is a testimony of GAVL’s commitment and efforts to boost oil palm plantation and promote farmer prosperity in the region. We would like to thank Government of Telangana for their support and commitment to this initiative which will benefit the farmers.”

Our expertise of more than three decades in the oil palm business has enabled us to provide variety of resources in addition to educating farmers on sustainable oil palm plantation processes. That said, some more aggression and support from state would have definitely come long way in doing its bit to reduce nation’s dependency on the oil palm imports in the coming years,” he further added.

Recently, GAVL inaugurated an edible oil refinery at Chintalapudi, Eluru district. This is GAVL’s first downstream project for value-added products in oil and fats and will help cater captive needs originating from the company’s oil palm work in the southern states along with demand from other crude palm oil players in the region.

 It will help cater captive needs originating

Company News, India, Sustainability

CNRI is the national network of non-government organisations and people’s organisations working for development effectiveness and democratic governance in India

Confederation of NGOs of Rural India (CNRI) has proposed the creation of a global forum – World Cooperative Economic Forum – to democratise the global value chain for innovative food systems amid rising concerns over inequality in the post-Covid world.

New Delhi-based CNRI is the national network of non-government organisations and people’s organisations working for development effectiveness and democratic governance in India.

Addressing the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Secretary General of CNRI Binod Anand said he comes from a country where thousands of years ago, the concept of social and solidarity economy was expressed differently.”

“It is heartening to notice India has become home for cooperative Movement and helping the civil society create – World Cooperative Economic Forum- will go a long way in developing Social and Solidarity Economy,” Binod Anand said.

Anand also strongly advocated exploring SDG bonds as a new source of capital for raising vital resources for humanitarian projects in the post-COVID world.

Anand said the world is compelled to reconsider the issue of rising inequality, which has cast doubts on the successful implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Poverty itself bears multiple definitions.

To illustrate the point, he said two successful cases from India can be highlighted here.

In the private sector, Dhanuka AgriTech’s sustainable agriculture initiative stands as a significant milestone. This initiative honours farmers with the slogan ‘India Ka Pranam Har Kisan ke Naam’ (Salutations to every farmer). It not only educates grassroots farmers about Sustainable Development Goals but also supports their efforts in practising sustainability within the Crop Protection sector, thus contributing to National Food Security.

CNRI is the national network of non-government

AgroPolicy, Foodgrains, World

India has supported the efforts of the UN Secretary-General in continuing the Black Sea Grain Initiative and hopes for an early resolution to the present impasse  

India has supported the UN’s efforts in continuing the Black Sea Grain initiative and expressed hope for an early resolution to the present impasse. India’s reaction came a day after Russia announced it was terminating the implementation of the UN-brokered deal that allowed the export of grain and related foodstuffs and fertilisers from Ukrainian ports, according to the Newsonair portal.  

Ruchira Kamboj, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador, said New Delhi is concerned about the recent developments in the region, which have not helped in securing the larger cause of peace and stability. She was addressing the UN General Assembly’s annual debate on the ‘Situation in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine’

Kamboj said India has supported the efforts of the UN Secretary-General in continuing the Black Sea Grain Initiative and hopes for an early resolution to the present impasse.  

Kamboj added India continues to remain concerned over the situation in Ukraine. The conflict has resulted in the loss of lives and misery for its people, particularly for the women, children and elderly, with millions becoming homeless and forced to take shelter in neighbouring countries. Moscow on Monday said it was terminating the implementation. 

India has supported the efforts of the

Agro chems – Pesticides, Agrotech, Company News, World

The column’s proprietary phase allows effective separation of anionic and cationic pesticides using a single column, fast conditioning, and delivers robust analysis.

Phenomenex Inc., a global leader in the research and manufacture of advanced technologies for the separation sciences, announced the launch of Luna Polar Pesticides HPLC column which features a proprietary phase that effectively separates cationic and anionic pesticides from un-derivatised food, feed, air, and water samples, fast conditioning, and delivers robust ionic pesticide analysis.

The Luna Polar Pesticides HPLC column is designed to help resolve the most common challenges food safety analysts encounter daily: robust determination of analytes due to matrices complexity and polarity, lengthy process due to the high number of injections needed for column conditioning, time-consuming sample preparation due to the need for derivatisation, and the need to use separate columns (and systems) to determine both anionic and cationic pesticides from a sample. 

The Luna Polar Pesticides HPLC column’s versatile selectivity allows the separation of cationic and anionic pesticides from underivatized samples on the same column. The fully porous particle morphology of the column allows for high sample loading. Its unique selectivity provides high retention of polar analytes, fast equilibration, can be used in positive and negative modes, and offers 100 per cent aqueous and organic stability. The particles’ pore size of 100 Å has proven to be optimal for pesticide analysis, and the 8 per cent carbon load delivers a great balance of polar and nonpolar retention. 

Collaborative studies done with renowned laboratories and experienced food analysts demonstrate the robustness and versatility of Luna Polar Pesticides. Dr. Giacomo Napolitano, Lab Manager at Lifeanalytics S.r.l., stated “The Luna Polar Pesticides significantly reduced analysis time thanks to its fast re-equilibration! This column has improved our polar pesticides analyses.” 

The new Luna Polar Pesticides HPLC column is available in different sizes to fully suit analysts’ needs: 30 x 2.1mm, 50 x 2.1mm, 100 x 2.1mm, 150 x 2.1mm, and 150 x 3.0mm. The column is compatible with the SecurityGuard ULTRA cartridge for column protection.

The column's proprietary phase allows effective separation

AgroPolicy, Foodgrains, India, Trade

To ensure adequate domestic availability at reasonable prices.

In order to ensure adequate availability of Non-Basmati White Rice in the Indian market and to allay the rise in prices in the domestic market, Government of India has amended the Export Policy of above variety from ‘Free with export duty of 20 per cent’ to ‘Prohibited’ with immediate effect. The domestic prices of Rice are on an increasing trend. The retail prices have increased by 11.5 per cent over a year and 3 per cent over the past month.

Export duty of 20 per cent on non-basmati white rice was imposed on September 8 ,2022 to lower the price as well ensure availability in the domestic market.  However, the export of this variety increased from 33.66 LMT (Sept-March 2021-22) to 42.12 LMT (Sept-March 2022-23) even after imposition of 20 per cent export duty. In the current FY 2023-24 (April-June), about 15.54 LMT of this variety of rice was exported against only 11.55 LMT during FY 2022-23 (April-June), i.e., an increase by 35 per cent. This sharp increase in exports can be ascribed to high international prices due to geo-political scenario, El Nino sentiments and extreme climatic conditions in other rice producing countries, etc.

Non-Basmati White Rice constitutes about 25 per cent of total rice exported from the country.  The prohibition on export of Non-Basmati White Rice will lead to lowering of prices for the consumers in the country.

However, there is no change in Export policy of Non-Basmati Rice (Par Boiled Rice) and Basmati Rice, which forms the Bulk of Rice exports. This will ensure that the farmers continue to get the benefit of remunerative prices in the international market.

To ensure adequate domestic availability at reasonable

AgroPolicy, India, Supply Chain, Vegetables

NCCF and NAFED had commenced the procurement of tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for simultaneous disposal in major consumption centres.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has directed NCCF and NAFED to sell tomatoes at retail price of Rs.70/- per kg rate from 20th July 2023 in view of the declining trend in tomato prices. The tomatoes procured by NCCF and NAFED had been retailed, initially, at Rs.90/- per kg and then reduced to Rs.80/- per kg from 16th July 2023. The reduction to Rs.70/- kg will further benefit the consumers.

It may be recalled that on the direction of Department of Consumer Affairs, NCCF and NAFED had commenced the procurement of tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for simultaneous disposal in major consumption centres where retails prices have recorded maximum increase in last one month. The retail sale of tomatoes in Delhi-NCR had started from 14th July 2023. Till 18th July 2023 a total of 391 MT of tomato had been procured by the two agencies which are being continuously disposed of to the retail consumers in major consumption centres of Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, UP and Bihar.

NCCF and NAFED had commenced the procurement

Agro chems – Pesticides, Agrotech, Company News, Europe

Koppert’s drone distribution device won the EIMA fair innovation prize in 2022.

Italy produces more tomatoes than any other European country, so it should come as no surprise that Koppert plays an increasing role in the biological control of harmful spider mites in this important crop. Following the successful application of Spidex in greenhouse tomatoes, drones are now being used to effectively distribute this natural enemy of spider mites – the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis – over large outdoor acreages with good results.

‘Koppert’s biological solution, Spidex, was originally introduced to Italian greenhouse tomato growers in the ‘90s, so it was a small step to convince them to apply the same solution to larger outdoor crops,’ says Koppert Italy’s Market and Product Development expert, Francesco Bourlot. ‘Due to the increasing pressure of spider mite in tomatoes since then, and the ban on many chemical pesticides, we started to release this natural solution via drones in the field in 2019. By the end of last year, we were applying Spidex to some 500 hectares of outdoor tomatoes with good results.’

In Italy, there are about 7000 ha of greenhouse tomatoes and 70,000 ha of tomatoes grown in open fields for processing purposes. ‘Spider mite is the main problem in many areas with the highest concentration in the processing tomato production,’ Francesco Bourlot points out.

Successful aerial and tractor application of Spidex

A key element in open field application of Spidex has been the development of aerial distribution using drones. Koppert’s drone distribution device won the EIMA fair innovation prize in 2022, and Koppert will be testing its terrestrial tractor distribution device during this year’s growing season.

‘These two outdoor application devices have opened up a huge potential for the distribution of our natural Spidex solution for outdoor tomato growers in Italy and elsewhere. Our bigger volume packaging for the agricultural market that comes out later this year, means we will be able to promote this product even better,’ Francesco Bourlot explains. ‘The new packaging will allow for even faster handling and lower prices per hectare. We are expecting an annual sales growth in biological solutions of 20 to 30% over the coming years.’

The expected growth in sales of biological products is essentially the result of increasing retail pressure for residue-free products and consumer demand for healthy food. ‘More than 90 per cent of the growers we work for are satisfied with the efficacy of Spidex and wish to continue using our natural solution for spider mites,’ Francesco Bourlot concludes. At Koppert, our partnership with nature means our biological solutions are continually in development to bring growers even better answers to agricultural challenges.

Koppert's drone distribution device won the EIMA

Agro chems – Chemicals, Agro chems – Pesticides, Agrotech, Company News, India, R&D

 New products are based on PLINAZOLIN® technology that offer effective defence against various pests.

As paddy cultivation picks up momentum with the onset of monsoon in the country, Syngenta India, a leading ag-tech company unveiled its new age plant protection solutions – Incipio and Simodis for paddy, cotton and vegetable farmers across India. These advanced products, based on the innovative PLINAZOLIN® technology, offer effective defence against various pests, ensuring improved yields and crop quality.

Based on PLINAZOLIN® technology, a new active ingredient that protects plant health with outstanding performance on a wide range of harmful pests that affect key crops, Incipio and Simodis have a very good tank mix profile and can be mixed with other fungicides if needed. PLINAZOLIN technology, provides Excellent control of multiple pests, with long-lasting effect with reduced number of sprays, a game changer for growers, offering an easier, powerful and reliable solution to protect the yield and quality.

These are developed to efficiently meet the challenges arising from climate change and pest resistance, which are responsible for major crop losses every year. Incipio, a high-end insecticide effectively combats new species of stem borers and leaf folders attack on paddy crops, while Simodis offers a reliable solution to paddy, cotton and vegetables against sucking and lepidoptera insects like butterflies and moths and is especially efficient on vegetables such as hot pepper, brinjal, cotton, ground nut, soybean and red gram.

Pests can lead to yield losses ranging from 30 to 40 per cent if not controlled effectively at the right time. High infestation rate of these pests, short duration control with existing solutions leads to increased number of applications and the overall cost. “Incipio and Simodis are our latest solutions to help solve many pest problems of our farmers. We are happy to bring alternative solution which will provide effective, longer duration control from resistant pests”, said Susheel Kumar, Country Head and Managing Director, Syngenta India.

Dr K C Ravi, Chief Sustainability Officer, Syngenta India said, “Understanding the dire need for comprehensive solutions, Syngenta India has introduced Incipio and Simodis, specifically formulated to address the unique challenges faced by paddy and vegetable growers in the country and make the country largest producer and exporter for many other vegetables.”

The new products provide broad spectrum, effective and long-lasting control against multiple pests, which, in turn helps reduce number of applications. “With the launch of our new products, we aim to provide Indian farmers with reliable and effective plant protection solutions, enabling them to boost yields, improve crop quality, save on labor cost and secure their livelihoods”, added Susheel.

As India is the second largest producer of eggplant providing key source of income for small vegetable farmers, most of its Brinjal are exported to Singapore, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Maldives.

The shoot borer & fruit borer is tough to control pests in eggplant (50-70 per cent yield loss) besides mites, jassids and thrips with growers having to spray in excess of 20 applications per season to control those pests with tank-mix different products with short spray interval to get acceptable control.

 New products are based on PLINAZOLIN® technology