Connect with:
Sunday / May 19. 2024

logo
mobile-logo
HomePosts Tagged "sustainability"
Agro chems – Fertilizers, Opinions, Sustainability

By Naresh Deshmukh, Crop Nutrition Business – Chief Operating Officer, Mahadhan AgriTech Ltd

Effective resource utilisation is essential for ensuring food security, conserving natural resources, and mitigating the environmental impact of agriculture. Therefore, sustainable agriculture is the need of the hour as it strikes a harmonious balance between agricultural productivity and the responsible use of natural resources. This can motivate farmers to adopt more nutrient-responsible approaches, ultimately leading to a more sustainable and efficient agricultural future.

Agriculture holds undeniable importance in numerous nations, serving as a vital sector that furnishes both food and essential raw materials for diverse industries. It also plays a significant role in the global economy. Within the context of India, the agricultural sector takes on paramount significance, contributing approximately 17 per cent to the nation’s overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and serving as the primary source of livelihood for over 60 per cent  of its population.

Resource utilisation in agriculture encompasses the efficient and responsible deployment of various resources, including land, water, mineral fertilisers, energy, labour, and more, to foster sustainable and productive farming practices. Effective resource utilisation is essential for ensuring food security, conserving natural resources, and mitigating the environmental impact of agriculture. Therefore, the primary goal of sustainable agriculture is to strike a harmonious balance between agricultural productivity and the responsible use of natural resources, mainly soil and water, to safeguard long-term soil health for sustained productivity. Sustainable practices aim to address a spectrum of challenges prevalent in Indian agriculture including soil degradation and water scarcity, by implementing more resilient and climate-change-ready farming practices. The adoption of these practices can significantly contribute to the development of a more sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural sector in India.

To read more click on: https://agrospectrumindia.com/e-magazine

By Naresh Deshmukh, Crop Nutrition Business –

Collaborations, Company News, Europe, Logistics, Sustainability, Transportation

Commercially viable long-term offtake agreement for annual volumes of 500KT to enable low carbon operations for the first 12 large methanol-enabled Maersk vessels on order.

The offtake agreement between A.P. Moller – Maersk and Chinese developer Goldwind, a global leader in clean energy, reaches into the next decade and marks the first large scale green methanol offtake agreement for the global shipping industry.

This deal is a milestone for Maersk as it enables us to significantly reduce our emissions footprint in this decade and stay aligned with the 1.5-degree Celsius trajectory as set out in the Paris Agreement, ensuring continued supply of low carbon shipping services to our customers in the second half of this decade. The volumes combine a mix of green bio-methanol and e-methanol, all produced utilising wind energy at a new production facility in Hinggan League, Northeast China, around 1000km northeast of Beijing. Production is expected to begin in 2026. Following this signed offtake agreement, Goldwind expects to confirm a final investment decision for the facility by the end of the year.

A.P. Moller – Maersk will take delivery of its first large ocean-going methanol-enabled vessel (16,000 TEU) in the first quarter of 2024 and is diligently working on sourcing solutions with a broad range of global partners for the entire vessel series being delivered in 2024-25.

Rabab Raafat Boulos, Chief Infrastructure Officer at A.P. Moller – Maersk said, “A.P. Moller – Maersk aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 across its business. The deal significantly de-risks the initial stages of Maersk’s net-zero journey and supports expectations for a competitive green methanol market towards 2030. The record-high volumes can annually propel more than half the methanol-enabled capacity Maersk currently has on order.”

“Goldwind respects Maersk as a pioneer in the field of maritime green fuel and we are excited to jointly promote the green transition with Maersk. With this project, Goldwind will continue to explore the innovative application of new technologies, pursue the organic combination of green electricity and green fuel production, and optimize the production process of green methanol. Goldwind is committed to collaborating with companies involved in the green methanol industry, with the aim to make green methanol one of the most important and economically feasible clean maritime fuels in the future”, said Wu Gang, Chairman, Goldwind

Rabab Raafat Boulos also mentioned that we are encouraged by the agreement because its scale and price confirm our view that green methanol currently is the most viable low-emission solution for ocean shipping that can make a significant impact in this decade. The deal is a testament to the momentum and vast efforts we see among ambitious developers driving projects forward across geographies, however, we still have a long way to go in ensuring a global green fuels market that can enable the decarbonisation of global shipping.

Commercially viable long-term offtake agreement for annual

Award, Company News, Sustainability

The BIG Sustainability Awards honour those people, teams and organisations who have made sustainability an integral part of their business practice

The Business Intelligence Group (BIG) named Cargill the recipient of the Sustainability Leadership Award and Sustainability Service of the Year in its 2023 Sustainability Awards program. The BIG Sustainability Awards honour those people, teams and organisations who have made sustainability an integral part of their business practice or overall mission.

Cargill knows agriculture plays a vital role in addressing global challenges like climate change and food insecurity. However, that is only possible when sustainable solutions are economically viable for the producers who work hard every day to feed the world. Cargill brings together farmers, industry, academics, NGOs, and policymakers to create a sustainable agricultural sector. Through concrete actions, use of technology and innovation, and meaningful investments Cargill is able to deliver impact at scale globally.

The company received awards and recognition in several of the 2023 BIG Sustainability Awards categories: 

Sustainability Leadership Award – Winner for its overall organisational impact 

Service of the Year – Winner, specifically recognising Cargill RegenConnect

Initiative of the Year – Finalist for its work supporting farmer livelihoods

“We are honoured to receive this recognition from BIG,” said Pilar Cruz, Cargill’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “When it comes to urgent challenges facing people and the planet, Cargill’s connections across the food system give us the opportunity – and responsibility – to deliver meaningful solutions. The problem-solving potential of agriculture is essential to nourishing people, supporting the livelihoods of farmers and food workers, and unlocking a more resilient and sustainable food system for generations to come.”

“We are proud to reward and recognise Cargill for their sustainability efforts,” said Maria Jimenez, Chief Nominations Officer, Business Intelligence Group. “It was clear to our judges that their vision and strategy will continue to deliver results toward a cleaner, more sustainable world.

The BIG Sustainability Awards honour those people, teams

North America, Supply Chain, Sustainability

Additional field tests of these transgenic soyabean plants are being conducted this year, with results expected in early 2023

For the first time, Realising Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) researchers have proven that multi-gene bioengineering of photosynthesis increases the yield of a major food crop in field trials. After more than a decade of working toward this goal, a collaborative team led by the University of Illinois has transgenically altered soyabean plants to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis, resulting in greater yields without loss of quality.

Results of this magnitude couldn’t come at a more crucial time. The most recent UN report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022, found that in 2021 nearly 10 per cent of the world population was hungry, a situation that has been steadily worsening over the last few years and eclipsing all other threats to global health in scale. According to UNICEF, by 2030, more than 660 million people are expected to face food scarcity and malnutrition. Two of the major causes of this are inefficient food supply chains (access to food) and harsher growing conditions for crops due to climate change. Improving access to food and improving the sustainability of food crops in impoverished areas are the key goals of this study and the RIPE project.

RIPE, is an international research project that aims to increase global food production by improving photosynthetic efficiency in food crops for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, and U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

“The number of people affected by food insufficiency continues to grow, and projections clearly show that there needs to be a change at the food supply level to change the trajectory,” said Amanda De Souza, RIPE project research scientist, and lead author. “Our research shows an effective way to contribute to food security for the people who need it most while avoiding more land being put into production. Improving photosynthesis is a major opportunity to gain the needed jump in yield potential.”

Additional field tests of these transgenic soyabean plants are being conducted this year, with results expected in early 2023.

Additional field tests of these transgenic soyabean

Agro chems – Chemicals, Company News, Environment, India, Sustainability

The award compliments Rallis India’s model approach toward promoting sustainable and green practices

Rallis India was conferred with the FICCI Chemicals and Petrochemicals Award for ‘Sustainability- Best Green Process’ at India Chemical 2022 jointly organised by FICCI and Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Government of India.

Out of the 14 distinctive award categories, Rallis India was presented with “Sustainability- Best Green Process” for its WOW! Wealth Out of Waste; Metribuzin Project. The award compliments Rallis India’s model approach toward promoting sustainable and green practices.

“Sustainability has been the nucleus of our strategy and the successful initiation of WOW! Wealth Out of Waste’ Metribuzin Project has further strengthened our vision of creating a sustainable commercial ecosystem. Recognitions like these motivate us to continuously improve our environmental profile to help create a better world.” said Sanjiv Lal, Managing Director, Rallis India.

The award compliments Rallis India’s model approach

Environment, India, Interaction, Sustainability, World

The FAO conference focuses on increasing crop yields with less environmental impact

The need for innovative approaches to agriculture that make crop production efficient and resilient to shocks and disruptions came under the spotlight at the opening of the first Global Conference on Sustainable Plant Production organised by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Under the theme Innovation, Efficiency and Resilience, the hybrid event held at the FAO headquarters will focus on how to sustainably produce more food, with less of an environmental impact and ways to strengthen local and diversified communities’ agrifood systems. 

The conference which runs from November 2-4, comes at a time when global demand for food, feed, fuel and fibre is increasing, with estimates that the world will need 50 per cent of food by 2050 to feed the increasing global population. Currently, some 8.28 million people face hunger and a third of the world’s population – 2.3 billion people – do not have access to adequate food.

In his opening remarks, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu called for the need to speed up action in addressing these issues.

“Current agricultural practices are unsustainable. Investment is urgently needed. They are putting pressure on the environment and on our finite natural resources, including biodiversity, land and water,” he said, noting how to land the conversion from natural ecosystems to agriculture is contributing extensively to deforestation, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions, this in a context where the threats from plant pests and diseases are increasing and are compounded by the effects of the climate crisis.

“We cannot continue ‘business as usual need to get on a technology ivenainable track. That’s the only solution. Tomorrow’s agriculture will need to produce more food with a lower environmental footprint – this means producing more with less. And also, we need to produce more diversity and more quantity in situ,” Qu said.

“Science-based sustainable plant production can enable this,” he added. The Conference brings together FAO Members, farmers, scientists, development agencies, policymakers civil society and private sector representatives to discuss farmer-centric agricultural practices that produce more while considering ways to mitigate the impact of climate change and geopolitical disruptions among other issues.

Discussions will focus on ways in which to achieve food security by using the right seeds, diverse and adaptable food cropping systems and efficient management of natural resources. Pest management, ad mechanization and digitalization will also feature in the sessions.

This conference aims to raise awareness about the contribution of sustainable plant production to attain the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals at the regional and national levels and demonstrate ways in which FAO can lead members in this direction.

The FAO conference focuses on increasing crop

Agrotech, Company News, Middle East countries, Sustainability

One of only 54 global companies to make the World list of ‘Doing well by doing good’

AeroFarms, a Certified B Corporation and the pioneer in vertical farming, is announced as a Change The World Company by Fortune. The list recognises innovative companies that have made an important social or environmental impact through their profit-making strategy and operations this year.  

It continues to increase consumer availability of AeroFarms flavourful, delicious and sustainably grown leafy greens and microgreens while also scaling farming operations and transforming the agriculture industry. This year, AeroFarms opened two indoor vertical farms: the world’s largest aeroponic smart farm in Danville, Virginia and the world’s largest Research and Development farm in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Both farms scale the company’s mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity and advance the agriculture industry forward.

“This Change The World honour reinforces AeroFarms’ award-winning legacy to build and scale our business as a force for good,” says David Rosenberg, AeroFarms CEO and Co-Founder. “We have been transforming agriculture with people and planet in mind, using the latest breakthroughs in indoor vertical farming, artificial intelligence and plant biology to fix our broken food system and this award is a testament to our team’s commitment to our broader mission.”

One of only 54 global companies to

Agro chems – Fertilizers, Agrotech, India, Sustainability

To enhance crop and soil specific fertiliser systems and improvements to nutrient use efficiency, balanced soil nutrition

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a $30 million loan with Smartchem Technologies Limited (STL) to finance capital expenditure and research and development of enhanced-efficiency specialty fertilisers as well as investments to promote energy efficiency, health, and safety.

In addition, an accompanying technical assistance grant will focus on improving the climate resilience of up to 4,000 smallholder farmers through building their soil management and financial literacy skills.

“ADB’s financial assistance will help us to further improve our enhanced efficiency specialty fertiliser business including applied R&D and grass-root farmer training initiatives. It is encouraging to have our efforts towards crop and soil specific fertiliser systems and improvements to nutrient use efficiency and balanced soil nutrition, validated by international partners like ADB,” said STL Chairman and Managing Director S C Mehta. “We will continue to strive to deliver our vision of raising the yield and quality of Indian agriculture to the global best. We look forward to growing this partnership with ADB.”  

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.

To enhance crop and soil specific fertiliser

Europe, Sustainability

Partnership to further advance WFP’s smallholder farmer support programmes in Rwanda and Uganda

Novo Nordisk Foundation commits  $ 4.1 million grant to improve health, nutrition, food security and incomes for marginalised and vulnerable smallholder farming communities. The objective is to build the resilience and functionality of food systems in the most food insecure regions of both countries.

“This exciting new partnership with the Novo Nordisk Foundation will leverage WFP’s existing homegrown school feeding and smallholder farmer support programmes to create even greater impact by further investing in children’s education while building efficient food systems to ensure food is available and affordable for all.”

“Creating resilient food systems is central to WFP’s work across Eastern Africa – from emergency relief to building sustainable livelihoods,”says Michael Dunford, WFP’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa.

“We are pleased to partner with the World Food Programme and contribute to advancing its existing programmes in Rwanda and Uganda, where millions of people fail to thrive due to the global food crisis. The fact that the programmes focus on offering immediate support, and also work to build sustainable food systems for the longer term, is very well aligned with how we work at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, I’m particularly excited about the prospect of bringing nutritious meals to thousands of school-aged children, since we know that this is a good incentive for them to come to school, which forms a foundation for a bright future and a better quality of life.” Says Flemming Konradsen, Senior Vice President, Social & Humanitarian, Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Partnership to further advance WFP's smallholder farmer

Agrotech, Company News, Europe, Sustainability

The collaboration will be used in asparagus and winegrowing

Huawei and Dronetech, Austria’s largest drone service provider announce new applications resulting from their collaboration in 5G smart farming.

The two companies provided an update on their pioneer project that started last year, and introduced how their 5G and IoT technologies can advance sustainability in agriculture. They also hosted a panel made up of digitalisation and agriculture experts discussing how technology innovation, and 5G particularly, can promote sustainable farming amid rising global concerns for food security.

The two companies announce that their collaboration is entering the second phase called “Digital Sky”, where Huawei will provide cloud computing services on top of 5G and Dronetech’s drones will survey the land and objects to capture images. 

“The project of Huawei and Dronetech with drone use in asparagus and winegrowing is the first in Austria and here we want to analyse plant growth with real-time image recognition. By doing so, we want to improve the harvest, the output and the quality of the products,” said Andreas Reichhardt, Director-General of Directorate-General VI – Telecommunications, Postal Services and Mining at the Austrian Ministry of Finance. 

The collaboration will be used in asparagus

Agro chems – Chemicals, India, Sustainability

The improved Basmati rice varieties pave the way for sustaining India’s leadership in Basmati rice exports across the world

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) held the ‘Kisan Sampark Yatra’ in the rice growing region of Haryana and Punjab to obtain farmers’ feedback on the three newly released IARI Basmati varieties. IARI had distributed 1 kg per acre seeds of the newly developed disease resistant Basmati rice to farmers during the Krishi Vigya Mela held at Pusa, New Delhi earlier this year for cultivation.

Dr AK Singh, Director, IARI said farmers were advised not to sell the produce of these seeds in the market, instead provide it to other farmers so that the new varieties could multiply and be grown in larger volumes.

Basmati rice is an export commodity with annual forex earning of  INR 25,053 crores during 2021-22. Pusa Basmati rice varieties namely, Pusa Basmati 1121, Pusa Basmati 1509 and Pusa Basmati 6 occupy more than 90% of the area under Basmati rice cultivation in GI area of Basmati rice in India and account for more than 90 percent of the Basmati rice exports from India. 

Bacterial blight and blast are the most devastating diseases in Basmati rice which cause significant yield losses as well as affect the Basmati grain and cooking quality. Conventionally, these diseases are managed by use of chemicals like streptocyclin and tricyclazole.

Through concerted research, ICAR-IARI develop an improved version of these three Basmati rice varieties with inbuilt resistance to Bacterial blight and blast diseases with the aid of molecular marker assisted breeding resulting in development and release of Pusa Basmati 1847, Pusa Basmati 1885 and Pusa Basmati 1886 in 2021. The three improved Basmati rice varieties with resistance to both Bacterial blight and blast diseases, will pave the way for sustaining India’s leadership in Basmati rice exports across the world, said Dr AK Singh.

The improved Basmati rice varieties pave the

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Agrotech, India, Inputs, Sustainability

India has been advocating the values of living in harmony with nature since ancient times

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, presenting India’s point of view, addresses various sessions at the G-20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia. Tomar said that Government of India, under leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is addressing the sustainability challenges facing agriculture and food systems and several important initiatives have been taken to address these issues. He said that the Government of India is committed to the benefit of small and marginal farmers and many important schemes are being run for their welfare.

Tomar said that India will enable farmers to respond to current and future crises by improving their access to inputs, technology and markets.

India is committed to further the economic well-being of its farmers by organising small and marginal farmers into groups, promoting agri-startups and investments in agricultural infrastructure, launching the world’s largest crop insurance programme and conducting various activities like facilitating digitisation of agriculture. 

Tomar said that India is promoting millet cultivation considering millet’s tolerance towards harsh climatic conditions as well as their nutritional value. In the concluding session Tomar said that India has been advocating the values of living in harmony with nature since ancient times.

India has been advocating the values of

Sustainability

United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) has entered an agreement with the Honourable Chamber of Deputies with the support of the Embassy of India in Mexico to promote recovery, reforestation, maintenance, and beautification of an urban green area within the Parliament of Mexico

The inauguration of the Garden of Friendship takes place which represents the shared commitment between the three entities to promote sustainability and green spaces. Participants of this event included the Honourable Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Parliament of India, equivalent of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, H E Om Birla who is leading an Indian Parliamentary Delegation on an official visit to Mexico and Dip. Sergio Gutierrez Luna- President of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies who jointly inaugurated the garden.

UPL was responsible for establishing the Organic Friendship Garden – India and Mexico, providing a range of sustainable bio solutions and technologies from its Natural Plant Protection (NPP) business unit’s portfolio which supports soil health, enable water efficiency, and help the garden’s plants and biodiversity to thrive. In India, UPL has undertaken drive towards afforestation and rehabilitation of the degraded forest and common lands. It works on Sapling to Forestry model by involving local stakeholders towards increasing the forest area. Community is encouraged and trained on the upkeep of these forests and amenities which is provided by UPL.

United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) has entered an

R&D, Sustainability

The review aims to inspire future developments of non-destructive technologies for plant health diagnosis

Researchers from the Disruptive & Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, and their local collaborators from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)  as well as the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE), National University of Singapore (NUS) have published a review.

The review discusses the recent advances in non-destructive plant health monitoring, ranging from electrochemical-based arrays to nanosensors and electronic noses, and why tracking plant health is an attractive and sustainable strategy that can be used to optimise crop growth practices. The review aims to inspire future developments of non-destructive technologies for plant health diagnosis.

“In light of the increasing demand for food due to the growing global population and concern over food security, developing innovative and sustainable technologies and tools to improve crop yield and quality is timely and essential. Non-destructive plant health monitoring stands as one of the key strategies for improving crop growth practices, complementing current agricultural techniques such as crop rotation, intercropping and genetic modification,” said Dr Gajendra Pratap Singh, Principal Investigator and Senior Scientific Director at DiSTAP.

“By tapping into plants’ physiological events in real-time, non-destructive sensors enable prompt adjustment of environmental conditions to augment crop productivity while minimising resource use,” added Dr Tedrick Thomas Salim Lew, Scientist at A*STAR’s IMRE and Adjunct Assistant Professor at NUS ChBE, who was the corresponding author of the article. 

The review aims to inspire future developments of