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Thursday / November 7. 2024
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A dedicated food security programme for producing and importing countries in Africa, India, and Latin America

UPL Ltd. a global provider of sustainable agricultural solutions will support a renewed commitment to strengthening developing world food production, storage, and supply chains with a ‘food security’ programme.

The agreement was reached at the inaugural Earthna Summit in Doha, Qatar, with the governments of Zambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and The Gambia alongside the Commonwealth Secretariat. The sessions were also attended by representatives from Qatar Foundation’s (QF’s) Earthna Centre for a Sustainable Future, AGRA, United Nations Development Programme, CGIAR, Chatham House, EMBRAPA, and the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak.

The Summit aimed to build new sustainability pathways for hot and arid environments as part of global efforts to address the moderate or severe food insecurity faced by one-in-four people globally. The summit sought to align South-South efforts and create a dedicated food security programme for producing and importing countries in Africa, India, and Latin America.

UPL contributed to the creation of this ‘food security’ programme through the open plenary session and closed-door technical discussions, in which experts agreed to explore a new working methodology for food security. This included ensuring the development of farmer resilience, capacity building and creating demonstration plots for climate-resilient crops.

Jai Shroff, Group CEO of UPL Ltd., said, “Our contention is clear: no one has food security until everyone has food security. And the key to security is farmer resilience. The results of our discussions in Doha show that there is a new urgency to address food security and new energy among developing world nations to agree on approaches that will deliver real results. We look forward to announcing our roadmap with Earthna and to developing initial projects across Africa as part of our Reimagining Sustainability mission and OpenAg commitment to collaboration.”

Gonzalo Castro de la Mata, Executive Director of Earth, said, “It is essential that the global community works together to encourage and enable self-sufficiency at national and international levels. I am delighted that at the Earthna Summit 2023, heads of state, QF’s Earthna and other partners have come together and committed to a new collaborative approach to enhance food security. I am confident that this programme will lead to lasting and impactful action, and make a significant contribution to these countries’ fight against climate change.”

A technical white paper will be prepared for the launch of pilot programmes in Zambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and The Gambia.

A dedicated food security programme for producing

UNDP will provide responsive, demand-driven technical assistance for effective implementation of agriculture credit and crop insurance

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) wherein UNDP will provide technical support for Centre’s aspirational Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) scheme & Kisan Credit Card – Modified Interest Subvention Scheme.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Union Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar by CEO-PMFBY Ritesh Chauhan and UNDP Resident Representative Shoko Noda. Under the MoU, UNDP will leverage its expertise in systems and global know-how for supporting the Ministry of Agriculture in the implementation of combined agriculture credit and crop insurance. Union Minister of Agriculture for State Kailash Chaudhary and Secretary, Agriculture, Manoj Ahuja also witnessed the signing ceremony.

As per the MoU, UNDP will provide responsive, demand-driven technical assistance for effective implementation of agriculture credit and crop insurance, as well as providing capacity development and Information, Education & Communication (IEC) support to existing national and state institutions, keeping in mind the interest of small and marginal farmers, women farmers, sharecroppers, tenant and non-loanee farmers.

On this strategic partnership with UNDP, Tomar said, “Technical assistance provided by UNDP in the last four years has yielded good results. I am sure that through this partnership, we will obtain even better results in the implementation of crop insurance and agricultural credit schemes.”

UNDP will provide responsive, demand-driven technical assistance

The scientists have developed a user-friendly, simple device – Soil Moisture Indicator

A team of scientists from ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu recently received the TERI-IWA-UNDP Water Sustainability Award – 2021 (WINNER).

The award was conferred by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in partnership with the International Water Association (IWA) and UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) to recognize the exceptional efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to water.

The scientists including Dr K Hari, Dr D Puthira Prathap, Dr P Murali, Dr A Rameshsundar, Dr B Singaravelu and Dr Bakshi Ram received the Award in the Category of “Excellence in Water Use Efficiency in the Agricultural Sector” from Bharat Lal, Secretary, Lokpal of India; Shoko Noda, UNDP Resident Representative in India, UNDP and Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI on the occasion the World Water Day – 2022 during the event organised at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

The scientists have developed a user-friendly, simple device – “Soil Moisture Indicator (SMI)” employing the participatory action research approach which helps the farmers in assessing the soil moisture levels while scheduling irrigations, thus, ensuring considerable saving of the irrigation water. The SMI usage was found to conserve the water resources, increase farm profits and save electricity and labour, thereby, leading towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Dr G Hemaprabha, Director, ICAR-SBI, Coimbatore underlined the successful testing of the SMI Device in the sugarcane farmers’ fields of the three agro-climatic regions in Tamil Nadu before its launch. She stated that the device’s utility in the conservation of water resources had been successfully demonstrated in many other crops besides sugarcane across the country. 

Dr Hemaprabha said that the Institute has given the licence to 19 firms from the States / Union Territories of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana for the commercial production of SMI.

The scientists have developed a user-friendly, simple