Landmark acquisition to strengthen category of nutrient use efficiency products: Verdesian Life Sciences announced that it has acquired Cytozyme Laboratories, Inc. which will help in firming its position as The Nutrient Use Efficiency People. The acquisition helps in strengthening Verdesian portfolio of nutrient use efficiency technologies. This innovative new range of treatments will help in increasing yield of crops, building sustainability by augmenting soil health, stimulating seedlings and optimising plant performance
Read More

Microsoft Corp signs MOU with Government to provide post-harvest management solutions: The use of bio-capsules will help to reduce the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in addition to improving soil quality and environmental conditions,. The patent was issued for the method after detailed examination and analysis of the technology developed by the scientists of Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR). IISR Bio-capsule is the first encapsulated bio fertilizer. The patented product is used for cultivation of spices, vegetables and other crops
Read More

Nutrition rich super wheat varieties developed at SHUATS: Two semi dwarf, high yielding varieties, SHIATS-W6 and SHUATS-W10, that are sugar free, high in nutrition with high protein, zinc, iron, fiber contents, that use less water and are resistant to extreme Indian weather conditions were developed by a scientist at Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Science (SHUATS). UP state Variety Release Committee has also formally released these two varieties for cultivation.
Read More

Covid-19 Pandemic boosts vertical farming industry: As the pandemic is affecting people’s health, vertical farming companies are using measures to ensure that the crops are growing safely. Also, the development of hydroponics and aquaponics has boosted the food security level. Through their automated farms, vertical farming companies are capable to flex their supply chain and are thriving in these testing times.
Read More

DNA of lettuce unravelled: The Journey from weed to table vegetable: Wageningen University & Research and the Chinese BGI carried out DNA analysis of 445 types of lettuce and is published in Nature Genetics. The study indicates that modern varieties of cultivated lettuces mostly resemble their wild predecessor Lactuca serriola from the Caucasus and the first cultivated lettuces must have been grown for seed and used for oil. Determining the DNA order of the material, in collections of Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN), a part of WUR, will help science to trace the traits hidden until now, in thousands of varieties and wild populations of lettuce and other crops. This opens up the door for faster and more effective breeding of more resilient food crops
Read More

New patent for identification and detection of polymorphisms to enable streamlined and multiplex library preparation for sequencing: USPTO granted to KeyGene U.S. Patent No. 10,978,175 entitled “Strategies for high throughput identification and detection of polymorphisms, which covers a synthetic double-stranded adapter comprising a 3’-T overhang and an identifier sequence. These adapters find application in many workflows of Next Generation Sequencing methods, having a wide reach in medical and agricultural research and diagnostics, including scoring SNP markers linked to valuable traits in crops and animals as well as for detection of specific mutations associated with human diseases.
Read More

Wild barley accessions from Jordan exhibits high level of stem rust resistance: A recent study from the University of Minnesota has made advances in identifying resistance in barley to Ug99 races. A significant discovery found that a single dominant gene, Rpg7 was responsible for the high levels of resistance against stem rust. This gene will be a valuable addition to breeding programs.
Read More

Record prices for mustard produce cheering the growers: Farmers hold back the produce expecting further rise in rates and the price hike is attributed to rising edible oil demand, global price trends, speculation on the commodity exchanges and lower arrivals in the markets.
Read More

Govt. expects rise in fertilizer consumption by 10% this year: Following a bumper harvest of rabi crop it is expected that there would be 10% rise in fertilizer consumption this year as farmers are planting more for the next season. The fertilizer consumption including urea has been assessed at 35.12 million tonnes with urea at 17.75 million tonnes, DAP at 6.51 million tonnes, MoP at 2.02 million tonnes, NPK at 6.19 million tonnes and SSP at 2.64 million tonnes.
Read More

Kamatan acquired by Samunnati in an all stock deal: Kamatan, a logistics and supply chain company focusing on building agri chain solutions for small farmers across the country was completely acquired by Chennai-based Samunnati, a non-banking financial and value chain startup focused in a share swap deal. Samunnati plans to increase its outreach to new farmer producer organisations (FPOs), small traders, farmer aggregators, and agri SMEs across the country leveraging this acquisition.
Read More

Covid disruptions raises concern amongst seed companies before the start of sowing period: May-June are the critical months for the seed companies which procure the seeds from the farmers, situated mostly in the south, and distribute them across the country ahead of sowing season. Due to the current rising Covid cases, manpower has been hampered and the curbs on movement will further hamper impact the seed industry. Seed renewal delays are also a concern and so, NSAI has requested the State governments to approve the hybrids and give licenses for the season via video conferencing.
Read More

India’s first digital soil map promises to boost agriculture: The soil map created by IIT Kharagpur along with other institutes, is a digitally accessible resource that allows the prediction of soil properties even when field data is not available. The data is based on the collective data accumulated over the past three decades. It combines field and laboratory data with geographical and environmental information, and eventually uses mathematical modelling tools to infer soil properties for a location.
Read More

Another Nano Urea Plant now in Phulpur IFFCO: Field reports on the efficacy of nano range of fertilizers were encouraging and stimulated IFFCO to set up another Nano Urea Plant, now in Phulpur for which the Bhoomi poojan was completed virtually. The first nano plant was set up at Kalol and IFFCO is gearing up to launch the Nano range commercially from this year.
Read More