Doubling Agri Exports holds the key to improving production efficiency, value chain development and increasing farm incomes. ICFA launched its 30 Member Agri Export Council to bring all key stakeholders on one platform to synergies the efforts to achieving doubling agro exports to $60 billion and more by 2022. The launch was done by the Hon’ble Vice Chair, NITI Aayog, Dr. Rajiv Kumar at the inaugural of the National Conference on Doubling Agri Exports. He was joined by the Agriculture Commissioner, Govt of India, Dr. SK Malhotra, Chairman, APEDA, Sh. Paban Borthakur, IAS and others. ICFA plans to add 20 more companies and institutions on Board and later add FPOs and farmers to connect them with export markets.
UPL has grown from strength to strength to be counted among the top global leaders in agriculture business. Dr. MJ Khan Chairman, ICFA at the World Biostimulants Congress at Barcelona visited well decorated UPL stall and met team members from around the world. What an amazing team @ UPL.
Dr. MJ Khan Chairman, ICFA at the World Biostimulants Congress at Barcelona visited AlgaeEnergy stall and met the India team present, headed by Debabrata Sarkar. Thanks AlgaeEnergy for all the courtesy.
ICFA State Council meeting took place in Lucknow chaired by Sh. Alok Ranjan, former Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh and co-chaired by Mr. TR Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Agriculture and President, Tractor Manufacturers Association. Over 55 representatives from the State Government, ICAR system, farmers bodies, development institutions and important companies, including ITC, UPL, DSCL, Bayer, DAL, TAFE, Tata Trusts etc. joined the deliberations and finalised the Strategic Action Plan for the State. State President of BKU presented the farmers agenda. Four more districts, Muzaffarnagar, Allahabad, Jalaun and Agra were finalised for launching District Agriculture Councils and pilot testing of ICFA FarmerPlus project. Organising Workshop of State Legislators on Agri Issues is the new addition to the ICFA State Work Plan.
ICFA and ICAR signed a comprehensive MoU, covering the areas of knowledge management, research and studies, agri Startups and entrepreneurship development, jointly funded research projects, industry partnerships, export technical support, technology commercialisation and farmers engagement programs among others. The MoU will be executed by jointly finalising five years work plan for India and overseas markets, mainly focused on Asian and African countries, under South-South and other cooperation agreements. The MoU was signed by the Secretary, DARE & DG-ICAR, Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra and DG, ICFA, Sh. Pravin Srivastva (IAS 1980 Batch) and extends to all divisions and institutes under ICAR. Present on the occasion were ICFA chairman, Dr. MJ Khan, Secretary & FA, ICAR, Dr. Tripathi, CEO-ICFA, Mr. Vikas Bhatia and seven Deputy DGs of ICAR; Dr. AK Singh, Dr. RC Agarwal, Dr. TR Sharma, Dr. AK Singh, Dr. J Jena, Dr. BD Tripathi and Dr. SK Chaudhary.
As the sustainability and food safety concerns become central to public policy the world over, there is massive focus on bio-agriculture, resulting into rapid pace growth of bio-inputs market. But in our country due to absence of national policy and regulations the market is flooded by spurious products. However, with the entry of large corporate, of late, the market is slowly maturing. There is need for more investment, greater focus on R&D, effective regulation and public private partnerships for technology development for the market to grow from current $2 billion to $7 billion by 2030. Today there are very few companies working on this concept. Prathista Industries, Hyderabad is one, which is doing pioneering work with the state of the art R&D facilities, built with funds by DST and the technology support by ICAR and CSIR. The company has developed over 90 glucose based plant nutrition and plant protection products. Dr MJ Khan Chairman, ICFA visited their R&D and production facilities, 100 kms from Hyderabad and held detailed discussions with the CMD, Dr. Sairam and his team on all aspects from policy to technology and trade to investment for promotion of bio agriculture in the country. The company is launching its full range of products, including nano-fertlisers at the AgroVision 2021, Dec 16-18, Lucknow.
This is one of the largest events of its kind, comprised of several associated events, such as PackExpo, LogisticsExpo etc. In the inaugural address Dr Khan highlighted the issues of food sustainability and nutrition security and stressed the importance of industry investing in futuristic technologies in production and processing, supply chain management and value chain development and food systems approach.
Dr. MJ Khan, Chairman, ICFA, Mrs. Mamta Jain, CEO, Agriculture Today Group, and Mr. Saurabh Pandey, Director, ISAB met with Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance, at her office in New Delhi to discuss issues relating to agriculture growth, boosting agro exports, funding for Agri startups, a policy for a jointly branded KCC, streamlining of education loans for the Agri sector, increased funding to ACABC Entrepreneurs and Delhi initiative on World Agriculture Forum. On every issue, the Minister expressed optimism. She also spoke on the DEVINE scheme for the North-Eastern region's agricultural sector.
Excellence and exemplary contribution to the Animal Health sector were felicitated at the first INDIA ANIMAL HEALTH SUMMIT & AWARDS 2022, hosted by ICFA & Agriculture Today Group. The awards were given by Chief Guests Sh. Acharya Devvrat, Hon'ble Governor of Gujarat, and Dr. SP SINGH BAGHEL, Hon'ble MoS for Law & Justice.
Hon’ble Union Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries, Sh. Parshottam Rupala ji yesterday inaugurated 1st INDIA ANIMAL HEALTH SUMMIT 2022, hosted by Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture and cohosted by Agriculture Today Group in New Delhi. He was joined by the Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Praveen Malik, Commissioner, Animal Husbandry, Dr. KML Pathak, Chairman, ICFA Working Group on Animal Husbandry, Dr Umesh Sharma, President, Veterinary Council of India, Dr. Dieter Schillinger, DDG, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Dr. Bhupendra N. Tripathi, DDG, Animal Science, ICAR- Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Dr. MJ Khan, Chairman, ICFA and Mrs Mamta Jain, CEO, ATG. The Minister also launched ICFA INDIA ANIMAL HEALTH FORUM. The conference was participated by several vice chancellors, State AH directors and industry CEOs. Over 21,000 veterinarians from across the country and the world joined online. The program concludes today with the presentation of INDIA ANIMAL HEALTH AWARDS 2022 by the Hon’ble Governor of Gujarat, Acharya Devvrat ji, joined by Union Minister of State for Law, Prof. SP Baghel.
