Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
The Green Revolution was a path-breaking initiative in Indian history — not only was it strongly linked to India’s storied agrarian tradition, but it also made agriculture a significant contributor to the Indian economy. Apart from introducing high-yielding seed varieties, irrigation and water management solutions to reduce the dependence on monsoon, the Green Revolution of the 1960s revitalised industrial farming by introducing farm machinery and related technologies for the first time. According to the data available with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the Green Revolution resulted in a record grain output of 131 Mn tonnes in 1978-79. “This established India as one of the world’s biggest agricultural producers. Yield per unit of farmland improved by more than 30% between 1947 and 1979,” TERI says.edit
The Indian Express – Online
Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) might be a common sight at weddings in India, but their use cases go beyond videography. Drones hold a lot of promise in several sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, mining, construction, conservation, etc, given their varied use cases. According to an industry report, the market for UAVs in India is expected to touch $885.7 million by 2021. Considering the projected growth there will be a need to produce drones dedicated to different sectors creating opportunities for local manufacturers.
Recently, Dassault Systemes hosted a virtual hackathon titled ‘Drone-a-thon: Propelling Sustainability’, which is aimed at helping students, entrepreneurs, start- ups create the next-generation of drones powered by the company’s 3DExperience platform. ...
Haryana: Verve Renewables to collect 1.5 lakh tonnes farm waste for power generationedit
Energy Infra Post – Online
Verve Renewables on Tuesday said it has pledged to collect 1,50,000 metric tonnes (MT) of agricultural waste for power generation by power plants in Haryana. Currently, the company is collecting bales of paddy straw from over 50,000 acres of land in Punjab and Haryana, and supplies them to the 25 MW co-generation power plant at Naraingarh Sugar Mill to fire boilers.
“Verve Renewables has pledged to collect 1,50,000 MT of agriculture waste for power generation by power plants,” a company statement said.
The Naraingarh Sugar Mills co-generation plant with the expertise of Verve Renewables has the potential to utilise paddy straw generated from upwards of 75,000 acres of land for power generation and thus contribute ...
FaaS Startups Make Farming Profitable But What Has Stunted Their Growth?edit
Inc42 – Online
For 52-year-old Shailendra Singh, a small farmer residing in the Keshouri village in Bihar’s Nawada district, the biggest challenge in his profession was uncertainty. Not just uncertain weather conditions that could impact his crops but something as essential as getting a tractor on time before it would be too late to plough.
Singh had been saving a little money every year but not enough to fund a tractor. Finding the workforce to operate the machine was also an expensive and tedious affair. So, he had to depend on local agents to rent one, along with operators. The downside: There was never a guarantee that the tractor would reach his farm on time. “Two years ago, I got ...
Most imported pesticides not made in India; hike in import duty to hit farmers: Dhanuka Agritechedit
Outlook – Online
Most of the imported pesticides like Cartap Hydrochloride are not manufactured in India and any move to increase customs duty on them will make these products costlier for domestic farmers, Dhanuka Agritech Chairman R G Agarwal said on Wednesday.
Speaking to PTI, he said new and effective pesticide molecules developed elsewhere in the world should be made available to Indian farmers at a cheaper rate rather than forcing them to use outdated pesticides, which are banned in other nations but still being used in the country.
Dhanuka Agritech (NSE:DHANUKA) Knows How to Allocate Capitaledit
Simply Wall St. – Online
What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? Amongst other things, we’ll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company’s amount of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. With that in mind, the ROCE of Dhanuka Agritech (NSE:DHANUKA) looks attractive right now, so lets see what the trend of returns can tell us.
Technology in Agriculture
Introducing The Latest Inc42 Plus Playbook – Farming 3.0: India’s Mission Agritechedit
Inc42 – Online
The Green Revolution was a path-breaking initiative in Indian history — not only was it strongly linked to India’s storied agrarian tradition, but it also made agriculture a significant contributor to the Indian economy.
Apart from introducing high-yielding seed varieties, irrigation and water management solutions to reduce the dependence on monsoon, the Green Revolution of the 1960s revitalised industrial farming by introducing farm machinery and related technologies for the first time.
According to the data available with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the Green Revolution resulted in a record grain output of 131 Mn tonnes in 1978-79. “This established India as one of the world’s biggest agricultural producers. Yield per unit of farmland improved by more than 30% ...
Pune based agritech company becomes first Indian member of global GAPedit
The Statesman – Online
FarmERP has joined hands with The Global G.A.P., becoming the member of this worldwide renowned organization that is a trademark, along with being a set of standards for Good Agricultural Practices (G.A.P.).
Back in 2001, at a time when there was little to no connection between agriculture and technology, a Pune-based startup, Shivrai Technologies, founded by technology entrepreneurs Sanjay Borkar and Santosh Shinde, developed the FarmERP platform that began to bridge the gap between these two industries.
Today, FarmERP is not only a pioneer in the AgriTech industry, but it is also the leading solutions provider to various industries spanning the entire Agricultural Value Chain.
Monsoon + Indian Agriculture
Bountiful monsoon rains set to boost India’s agriculture growthedit
The Print – Online
India’s farm sector growth will likely be the highest in three years as better-than-normal rain helped farmers to boost output of crops, including rice, sugar cane and soybeans.
Agriculture growth in the year that began in April will surpass the 4% level achieved in 2019-20, said Atul Chaturvedi, president of the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India. That would be the highest since 2017-18 when the sector grew by 5.9%, according to government data.
“With good rains and good monsoon, the harvesting has taken place brilliantly, and consumption as far as the rural sector is concerned has also increased,” Chaturvedi, who is also the executive chairman of India’s top refiner Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd., said ...
Stubble Burning
Farmers fined for burning stubble, activists dump garbage in tehsildar office campusedit
Outlook – Online
Yet another farmer was imposed a fine for allegedly burning stubble in the field amid growing resentment against the air-pollution control measure that saw BKU activists dumping harvest residues in the office campus of a revenue official in Khatauli near here. Ashok Kumar, a farmer from Sikandarpur village in Muzaffarnagar district was imposed a fine of Rs 2,500 on Tuesday, said Additional District Magistrate Amit Singh. Kumar was the 38th farmer in the district who was imposed the fine for burning stubble, said Singh adding 37 others were fined earlier — some of them for burning stubble to clear the field, others for burning garbage or doing it to get relief from cold. A total of Rs ...
UP’s new bio-fuel policy to reduce pollution due to stubble burningedit
Hindustan Times – Online
The Uttar Pradesh government is ready with a new bio-fuel policy which is being seen as a significant move to deal effectively with the environmental crisis arising out of stubble burning by farmers in the state.
The proposed policy seeks to promote and incentivise setting up of power generation plants based on paddy straws and also makes it mandatory for state-owned thermal stations to use agricultural residue as raw material with coal to fire the power plants.
“The draft policy titled Uttar Pradesh Bio-Fuel Policy-2020 is ready and will soon be put before the cabinet for approval before the final policy is rolled out to effectively manage crop residues/stubble, among other things, in the state,” said ...
Stubble burning: Maximum cases in Punjab; anger over farm bills among major reasonsedit
National Herald – Online
Punjab has recorded around 74,000 incidents of stubble burning this season, the maximum in four years, with experts saying anger over farm bills and the government not paying the Supreme Court-ordered financial incentive to farmers could be among the reasons for the spike in farm fires.
According to data released by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, the state recorded 73,883 incidents of stubble burning between September 21 and November 14, which is the highest since 2016.
Punjab had reported 51,048 cases of stubble burning in the corresponding period last year and 46,559 such incidents in 2018. The number of farm fires was 43,149 in the state during the same period in 2017.
Working on long-term solution to stubble burning: Air commissionedit
Hindustan Times – Online
Instead of a piecemeal approach, the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) is consulting north-western states to find out a workable, long-term solution to the problem of stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and other places, which leads to an air emergency in Delhi-NCR every year, MM Kutty, chairperson of the newly formed body has said.
A combination of extremely high number of stubble fires in Punjab, low to calm winds in the region and subsidence of air had led to Delhi recording “severe” air quality for six days consecutively since November 5 this month. At present, the contribution of stubble fires to Delhi’s PM 2.5 load is negligible but ...