Israeli Ambassador to India Shri Naor Gilon called on the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar at Krishi Bhawan on 27th January 2022. Welcoming the Ambassador, Shri Tomar congratulated him on taking over as the Ambassador of Israel to India. Shri Tomar expressed happiness on the completion of 30 years of diplomatic relations between India and Israel. The Minister expressed satisfaction at the functioning of 29 Centers of Excellence in 12 States which are producing more than 25 million vegetable plants, over 387 thousand quality fruit plants and can train more than 1.2 lakh farmers per year.

 

Union Minister Shri Tomar informed that it has been decided to convert 150 villages around the Centers of Excellence into Villages of Excellence with technical assistance from Israel, out of which 75 villages are being taken up in the first year to commemorate the 75th year of India's independence where India and Israel will work together. Shri Tomar also highlighted the various schemes that have been launched by the Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the welfare of farmers, including PM-Kisan, Agri-Infrastructure Fund, formation of 10 thousand FPOs, Schemes for promotion of organic farming, natural farming and soil health cards etc.

 

The Ambassador of Israel Shri Gilon expressed satisfaction over the functioning of the Centers of Excellence, stating that these CoEs are a great example of cooperation between the two countries. The Ambassador appreciated the working of ICAR institutes and showed interest in further collaboration with ICAR and making available the latest technologies available with Israel. He proposed the certification of CoEs to further enhance the standards and quality of services being provided to the farmers. He also invited Union Minister Shri Tomar to visit Israel. Shri Tomar appreciated the Ambassador's proposals, agreed to work on them and thanked the Ambassador and the officers from the Embassy of Israel for their cooperation.

Union Minister for M/o Food Processing Industries, Shri Pashupati Kumar Paras today released Vision Document of Capacity Building Plan of Ministry of Food Processing Industries under Mission Karmayogi in the presence of Shri Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Capacity Building Commission (CBC), Smt. Pushpa Subrahmanyam (Secretary, M/o FPI), Smt. Anita Praveen (Special Secretary, M/o FPI), Dr. Balasubramaniam (Member- HR, CBC), Shri Praveen Pardeshi (Member-Admn, CBC), Shri Minhaj Alam (Joint Secretary, M/o FPI), Dr. Chindi Vasudevappa (Director, NIFTEM, Sonepat), Dr. C. Anandharamakrishnan (Director, NIFTEM Thanjavur), Shri Hemang Jani (Secretary, CBC) and Dr. Atya Nand (Director, M/o FPI).

 

The Vision Document of Capacity Building Plan (CBP) of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries has been developed with the support of Capacity Building Commission. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is the first amongst all Ministries and Departments to develop and implement Capacity Building Plan under Mission Karmayogi.

 

The objective of the Capacity Building Plan of the Ministry is to enable employees to be more creative, proactive, professional, technology-enabled, efficient, accountable and citizen centric by providing them training in domain areas relating to Food Processing Sector. Nearly 150 employees of the Ministry will be given training to build and strengthen behavioral, functional and domain competencies.

 

Various training modules for capacity building developed by NIFTEM, Sonepat and NIFTEM, Thanjavur were also launched during the event.

 

The commerce and industry ministry has proposed a Rs 10,000-crore scheme to develop 700-odd districts of the country as export hubs which will be part of the upcoming foreign trade policy. An announcement to this effect is likely in Budget 2022-23.

 

'The contribution of the Centre will be almost Rs 10,000 crore and the rest would be done by the states. So, the scheme would have a larger outlay,' said an official, who did not wish to be identified.

 

States' contribution could be Rs 5,000-6,000 crore, according to people aware of the matter.

 

Under the 'Districts as Exports Hub' initiative, products and services with export potential have been identified in all districts of the country, including agricultural and toy clusters and products with geographical indications.

 

In the next three to five years, the government is aiming at a double-digit export growth from 500 districts of the country.

 

India's merchandise exports surged a record 38.91% year-on-year to $37.81 billion in December 2021 and amounted to $301.38 billion in the April-December period.

 

'District as Exports Hub is an initiative right now, but it doesn't have any budgetary support. A proposal has been made to the finance ministry to launch a new scheme,' said the official.

 

Under the initiative, an institutional mechanism has been set up in each district in the form of District Export Promotion Committees, whose primary function is to prepare and act on district specific export action plans in collaboration with all the relevant stakeholders from the Centre, state and district levels.

 

Besides developing a database of all potential exporters in each district, work is also on to build an interface with the Indian Missions abroad to provide them access to exporters in each district for them to market outside India and find potential buyers.

 

The Centre also plans to assist states and UTs to prepare an annual 'Export Ranking Index' of districts in the respective state to rank each district on its export competitiveness.

 

Industry executives said the launch of the scheme is timely given the upcoming crucial elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Uttar Pradesh had implemented One District, One Product programme across its 75 districts. 'UP has a large number of districts and such a boost will support agricultural exports from the state and the entire country,' said an industry executive, who did not wish to be identified.

Ahead of the India-Central Asia summit on Thursday, India and Uzbekistan have fast-tracked talks for a bilateral trade pact, the first for India in that region.

 

The first round of joint working group meetings with Uzbekistan was held in the first week of January and the inter-governmental commission on trade is also scheduled this month.

 

'A trade pact with Uzbekistan is of strategic importance, especially after the political changes in Afghanistan,' said an official, who did not wish to be identified.

 

India and Uzbekistan had signed a joint statement in September 2019 to carry out a joint feasibility study for entering into negotiations for a preferential trade agreement (PTA).

 

The proposed PTA will contribute to fast-tracking India’s connectivity to the landlocked region and vice versa. Smoother connectivity will also enable India to boost PTA, said an expert on Central Asia. The PTA with Uzbekistan will also enable India to tap into the markets of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

 

The Indo-Uzbek PTA is also expected to contribute to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the Eurasian Economic Union. Talks between India-Eurasian Economic Union have gained momentum and negotiations are expected to be held in the near future. The proposed India-Uzbek PTA and FTA between India and Eurasian Economic Union is politically significant, raising India’s stakes in the region. Russia has thrown its weight behind India’s moves to increase presence in Central Asia and Eurasia.

 

In April-November 2021, India’s exports to Uzbekistan amounted to $176.22 million, led by pharmaceuticals, mechanical equipment, vehicle parts, services, optical instruments and equipment. India’s imports from Uzbekistan, at $14.58 million during the period, consisted largely of fruit and vegetable products, services, fertilisers, juice products and extracts, and lubricants.

 

The official said India is keen to export goods worth $500 billion next year, which is why it is scouting for new markets through trade agreements.

 

Notable Indian investments in Uzbekistan by Indian companies include those in the field of pharmaceuticals, amusement parks, automobile components and hospitality industry. Indian firms like GMR have expressed interest in investment in airports, development of the air corridor and Navoi cargo complex in Uzbekistan. Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital has expressed interest in setting up a specialty hospital, according to a note of the external affairs ministry.

 

In October 2019, Amity University and Sharda University opened campuses in Tashkent and Andijan respectively. Indian institutions like iCreate are actively cooperating with Uzbek counterparts for promoting the startup ecosystem in Uzbekistan and training entrepreneurs in setting up incubators.

 

Dev IT has entered into bilateral cooperation in field research, technologies, startups and innovations with budding Uzbek partners. NTPC is also participating in various tenders, including solar PV power plants and consultancy assignments for gas projects in Uzbekistan.

 

Meanwhile, India and Uzbekistan are in talks for a bilateral investment treaty.

The food authority has issued a draft for amending the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations related to salt, ‘Atta (wheat flour and resultant wheat flour), millets and papad.

 

Low Sodium Salt, the draft says, means crystalline solid material with reduced sodium content obtained from evaporation of natural brines (sea/subsoil or lake brines) by replacement of sodium chloride with potassium chloride as per the permitted levels with moisture not more than 1%, and 60-75% sodium chloride by weight on dry basis.

 

For Refined Iodized Salt, the parameters are set at 1% moisture, 98% sodium chloride, max 0.15% alkalinity as Na2Co3 and pH range of 6.0-7.5.

 

Meanwhile, according to the draft, Wheat Flour (Atta) means the product obtained exclusively by milling or grinding of clean wheat, and Resultant Wheat Flour (Resultant Atta) means the product obtained by blending of various fractions in roller mills after separating semolina and/or maida during the processing of wheat.

 

These products need to comply with the parameters including not more than 13.0 % moisture by mass, not less than 7% gluten on dry mass basis, not less than 2.5% crude fibre and not less than 98% granularity by mass.

 

Also, the draft proposes that all the millets to come under one heading number 23-Millets of these regulations.  The millets include (i) Amaranthus (Chaulai/Rajgira)-Amaranthuscaudatus, A. cruentus, A. hypochondriacus (ii) Barnyard Millet (Samakechawal/Sanwa/Jhangora)-Echinochloa crus-galli, E. colona (iii) Brown top (Korale)-Urochloaramosa (iv) Buckwheat (Kuttu)-Fagopyrumesculentum (v) Crab finger (Sikiya)-Digitariasanguinalis (vi) Finger Millet (Ragi/Mandua)-Eleusinecoracana (vii) Fonio (Acha)-Digitariaexilis (White fonio); D. iburua (Black fonio) (viii) Foxtail Millet (Kangni/Kakun)-Setariaitalica (ix) Job's tears (Adlay) - Coixlachryma-jobi (x) Kodo Millet (Kodo)-Paspalumscorbiculatum (xi) Little Millet (Kutki)-Panicumsumatrense (xii) Pearl Millet (Bajra)-Pennisetumglaucum, Pennisetumamericanum, Pennisetumtyphyoideum (xiii) Proso Millet (Cheena)-Panicummiliaceum (xiv) Sorghum (Jowar)-Sorghum bicolor  and (xv) Teff (Lovegrass)-Eargrostistef.

 

The standard under these regulations applies to the whole or dehulled millets.

 

Further, the FSSAI proposes to include standards for Papad.  According to the draft, papad/papadum means a product, obtained from a blend of cereal flour, millet flour, pulse flour, processed soya flour, fruits and vegetables, vegetable juices, edible vegetable oils, and/or spices either singly or in combination.

 

The papad should be labelled according to the major ingredient such as in case potato/banana/jack fruit/sweet potato/tapioca is the major ingredient, it should be prefixed before ‘Papad’ on the label.

 

The parameters include, not more than 11% moisture, 0.2% alcoholic acidity –with 90% alcohol expressed as H2SO4.

Higher prices of Indian onions could impact exports. Between April and November 2021, exports have been in the range of the 10.55 lakh tonne, according to senior horticulture officials. Onion exports in the 2020-21 season were 15.75 lakh tonne, despite the pandemic situation.

 

Ajit Shah, president, Horticulture Produce Exporters Association, pointed out that the Indian onion is quoted higher in the export market and, therefore, exports have been affected.

 

Onion supplies from Pakistan are quoted at $300 a tonne whereas the Indian stock is quoting at $500, he said. Moreover, the kharif crop was damaged due to heavy rains across onion-growing states, affecting the quality of the bulb, and thus, impacting onion shipments from the country.

 

Onion prices have been on the higher side despite good arrivals. On Thursday, market arrivals at Lasalgaon, the country’s largest wholesale market for onion, were 17,000 quintals with modal prices touching Rs 2,100 per quintal. Prices were Rs 2,250 per quintal on Tuesday.

 

Normally, onions are exported throughout the year, but the rabi crop, which is sown in December- January and harvested post-March comprises majority of the export basket due to lower moisture content and longer shelf life of the bulb.

 

Shah said that with the new crop expected to hit the market in the next fortnight, prices are likely to come down and India could then become competitive in the export market. So far, since the Indian onion has been more expensive, importing countries have been looking to Pakistan and Iran.

 

The late kharif onion will soon be harvested and the rabi onion should be ready for harvesting March onwards, traders said, adding that there is no cause for worry as onion production is expected to be good.

 

Govind Hande, technical officer, exports, Maharashtra Horticulture Department, said that the last couple of seasons have been bad both for the farmer and exporter due to incessant rains but exports should begin to pick up from February onwards.

 

India exported 15.88 lakh tonne in the 2017-18 season, 21.82 lakh tonne in the 2018-19 season, 18.49 lakh tonne in the 2019-20 and 15.75 lakh tonne in 2020-21. In FY21, India exported $378 million worth of onions, 15% higher than the previous year.

 

The top exporting destinations are Bangladesh ($101 million), Malaysia ($62 million), the United Arab Emirates ($44 million) and Sri Lanka ($42 million). Indian onions have some established markets, especially in West Asian countries, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the UK, among others.

Addressing the National conference on Agriculture for Summer Campaign 2021-22 today through video-conferencing, Union Agriculture Minister, Shri Narendra Kumar Tomar said that summer crops not only provide extra income but also create employment opportunities in between Rabi and Kharif for the farmers thereby increasing crop intensity. The Government has taken new initiatives through various programmes for cultivation of summer crops such as pulses, coarse cereals, nutri-cereals, and oilseeds. Though more than half of cultivated area in summer season is under pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals, the farmers with irrigation source are growing rice and vegetables during the summer season. He highlighted that area under cultivation of zaid crops including rice has increased progressively 2.7 times from 29.71 lakh hectares in 2017-18 to 80.46 lakh hectares in 2020-21.

 

The objective of Zaid conference is to review and assess the crop performance during the preceding crop seasons and fix crop-wise targets for summer season in consultation with State Governments. The Minister assured full support to ensure supply of critical inputs and facilitate adoption of innovative technologies with a view to enhance production and productivity of the crops. The priority of government is to increase production of oilseeds and pulses where large imports are required.

 

Speaking on the new varieties developed by the ICAR, Shri Tomar said that States should use new varieties of seeds for better production of summer crops. The Minister also asked States to plan in advance for their fertilizers needs and provide estimates to the center so that fertilizer department can provide sufficient fertilizers timely. He also suggested that States should increase the use of NPK and liquid urea and reduce the dependence on DAP fertilizers.

 

Regarding training to the farmers, Agriculture Minister asked Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) to jointly conduct the essential training for the small and marginal farmers so that new technology and knowledge reach the grassroots level.

 

In spite of difficult time due to Covid, country produced 3086.47 lakh tonnes of food grains during 2020-21 (4th Advance Estimates), which will be an all-time record. Pulses and oilseed production has also achieved all time high at 257.19 and 361.01 lakh tonnes, respectively. Production of cotton is being estimated at 353.84 lakh bales with which India is set to rise to the first position in the world. On the production and productivity fronts, the horticulture sector has also outperformed conventional food grain crops.

 

Addressing the Conference, Sh. Kailash Choudhary, MoS for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare told the states that special focus is now given to increase production of oilseeds and pulses and make country self-reliant. Regarding the promotion of organic and natural farming, Shri Choudhary advised States to send proposals to certify the entire block or area as organic/natural farming block so that farmers who belong to that area need not apply for certificate individually. He also asked States to provide market for organic farmers.

 

Addressing the States Secretary, Department of Fertilizers said that adequate and timely availability of fertilizers would be ensured. He also gave estimated availability of fertilizers for Kharif 2022. The total availability of Urea is likely to be 255.28 (LMT), of DAP 81.24, of MOP 18.50, of NPKS 76.87 and of SSP 34. Secretary, DARE and DG, ICAR highlighted the latest technological advances made for cultivation of summer crops.

 

National and state wise targets for pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals were set for the summer 2021-22. Compared to 40.85 lakh hectares under these crops in 2020-21, an area of 52.72 lakh hectares will be covered during 2021-22 in the country. Pulses will cover 21.05 lakh hectares while 13.78 and 17.89 lakh hectares will be brought under oilseeds and nutri-cereals, respectively. Pulses and oilseeds will be promoted through Targeted Rice Fallow Area sub-component of NFSM and NFSM (OS&OP). These will also be supported as inter-crops in Sugarcane and Oil Palm.

 

A presentation by Joint Secretary (Crops and Oil Seeds) highlighted the rain fall situation, region wise live storage of water in major reservoirs, season wise estimated area coverage under different crops, trend and area coverage under Zaid/summer, Existing support programmes for summer crops and State wise area projected for coverage under Zaid/summer crops 2022.

 

During the conference ‘Working manual on Indian Seed Certification’ was released. Presentations on PM KISAN e-KYC and presentation on Farmers’ database were also made during the conference for the benefit of the States. 

 

Secretary (Agriculture) Shri Sanjay Agarwal and other senior officers from DA&FW, ICAR and officers of different State Governments participated in the National Conference through video conferencing. An interaction session was also organized with Agriculture Production Commissioners and Principal Secretaries of all the States in four groups to share the achievements, challenges and strategies to be adopted in respective states for increasing area coverage, production and productivity during summer/Zaid season in agriculture sector.

India Honey Alliance (IHA), a collaboration of the entire honey value chain across the country, is conducting 'Hive to Home 3.0' - an informative and interactive webinar where the experts will share their insights on the various Government schemes, scientific and technical information and initiatives to promote beekeeping in India.

 

This is the third webinar from IHA which will focus on bee-keeping and related issues faced by beekeepers. The virtual session is scheduled on Friday, January 28, 2022, and is open to the general public by registering on the India Honey Alliance Website.

 

Deepak Jolly, secretary general for IHA, said, 'To achieve IHA’s vision of the ‘Golden revolution' in the country, there is a dire need for increased collaboration across the value chain. Beekeeping as an industry is not much talked about and it is time that we all work together towards developing and promoting beekeeping across the country. This webinar will again bring forth valuable insights from experts towards providing solutions for issues faced by the beekeepers, the initiatives taken by Government towards promoting beekeeping and the best practices that we can adapt for the larger benefit of the industry and the beekeepers.'

 

The webinar will feature talks by eminent experts such as Scientists, representatives from Government bodies, Industry experts, Beekeepers and NGOs/ welfare bodies. The speaker panel will include Pankaj Prasad, additional MD NAFED; Dr Naveen Patle, ED-NBB; Dr Lakshmi Rao, assistant director, CBRTI; Sitaram Gupta, founder Samridhh Bharat Abhiyan; Ajay Saini, bee-keeper and entrepreneur; and will be moderated by Vinit Singh, foremost Honey aggregator from Bharatpur.

 

Namrata Khanna, director, India Honey Alliance, said, 'Working closely with all the key stakeholders across the honey industry is extremely essential towards achieving our long term vision of making Indian honey the most preferred honey in the global and the domestic market. Beekeepers are the focal point for all developmental programmes envisaged by the India Honey Alliance and they play an instrumental role in shaping the future of the honey industry in India. While our first two webinars focused on 'The Journey of Honey', from collection to processing and the testing techniques and the benefits of honey for all of us, this one will specifically focus  on beekeepers and measures to promote beekeeping.'

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi hosted the first India-Central Asia Summit in virtual format on 27 January 2022,  which was attended by Presidents of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Republic of Uzbekistan. This first India-Central Asia coincided with the 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Central Asian countries.

 

During the Summit, Prime Minister Modi and the Central Asian Leaders discussed the next steps in taking India-Central Asia relations to new heights. In a historic decision, the Leaders agreed to institutionalize the Summit mechanism by deciding to hold it every 2 years. They also agreed on regular meetings of Foreign Ministers, Trade Ministers, Culture Ministers and Secretaries of the Security Council to prepare the groundwork for the Summit meetings. An India-Central Asia Secretariat in New Delhi would be set up to support the new mechanism.

 

The Leaders discussed far-reaching proposals to further cooperation in areas of trade and connectivity, development cooperation, defence and security and, in particular, on cultural and people to people contacts. These included a Round-Table on Energy and Connectivity; Joint Working Groups at senior official level on Afghanistan and use of Chabahar Port; showcasing of Buddhist exhibitions in Central Asian countries and commissioning of an India-Central Asia dictionary of common words, joint counter-terrorism exercises, visit of 100 member youth delegation annually from Central Asian countries to India and special courses for Central Asian diplomats.

 

Prime Minister Modi also discussed the evolving situation in Afghanistan with the Central Asian leaders. The leaders reiterated their strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan with a truly representative and inclusive government. Prime Minister conveyed India’s continued commitment to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people.

 

A comprehensive Joint Declaration was adopted by the leaders that enumerates their common vision for an enduring and comprehensive India-Central Asia partnership.  

Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) set a tender on Thursday to buy an unspecified amount of wheat from global suppliers for shipment from 5-15 March and/or 16-26 March.

 

Deadline for offers is Jan. 28 and payment is at sight, it said.