Ministry of Science & Technology
06-August, 2017 19:09 IST
Inauguration of National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute – Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (NABI-CIAB) Campus by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology & Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest & Climate Change
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology & Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest & Climate Change inaugurated the new Administrative and Research Buildings of two national institutes under the administrative control of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India namely National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI) and Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB) in Sector 81, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (Mohali), Punjab today. Dr. K. Vijay Raghavan, Secretary, DBT, Prof. Arun Kumar Grover, Vice Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Dr. T.R. Sharma, Executive Director, NABI, Dr. Rajender Singh Sangwan, Chief Executive Officer, CIAB and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister expressed his pleasure in dedicating both the institutes to the nation, and emphasized the need for quality research work and output with optimal utilization of state-of-art equipment and infrastructure that can reach common man in a form that can be easily perceived in proper perspective. He encouraged scientists/students to exploit the biotechnological tools to address the problems related to quality of food and malnutrition with full enthusiasm and zeal getting inspiration from the legacy and contributions of champions in the field of science and technology. He urged both the institutes to address the problems of hunger & malnutrition and to bring nutritional revolution in the country through biotechnology research and innovation for Food and Nutrition Security. Dr. Harsh Vardhan also said that young researchers and students should aim big and work hard to achieve their goals with sustained efforts.
Interacting with the faculty, Dr. Harsh Vardhan emphasized the need for doing new innovations that have an immediate societal impact with the common man as the target. He counseled researchers to shift from routine to out of the box thinking and to dream big to translate their efforts to greater innovations. He also said there should be a method for scientists to work to set timeframes to achieve their targets.
NABI is the first Agri-Food and Nutritional based Biotechnology Institute, which has been set up by the Dept. of Biotechnology in the Knowledge City, Sector 81, Mohali. CIAB has been set up adjacent to NABI and is the first institute dedicated to generation of secondary agriculture bioproducts through value addition to unutilized and underutilized biomass. Both the institutes area part of agri-food cluster in the Knowledge City, Mohali along with its neighboring institutes, like; IISER, ISB, INST and Biotech Park. The campus comprises of laboratory buildings, 15 acres of land for field experiments, a large glass house, transgenic net houses, office area, housing, guest house, research scholar hostel, utilities and other requisite services. Total entire area of the campus is 50 acres. The building complex of CIAB has a total floor space of 77000 square feet built at a cost of Rs Forty three crores whereas NABI has a total floor space of 3,17,500 square feet built at a cost of Rs one hundred and thirty five crores.
The institutes apart from providing quality research in the field of agricultural biotechnology and bio processing also provide innovative technologies in the field of food processing.. Under reach to community program NABI is playing an important role in conducting motivational course to the students of local schools to increase their awareness in life sciences. Their products of nutritionally rich crops and processing of crop residues in useful products will be provided to the local farming communities to increase their income.The industry ready specialized products like high anthocyanin have already been taken by local industries under specific MOU. They are acting as nodal agencies for local organization in the areas Agri food and nutritional biotechnolgy.
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The Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurating the new Administrative and Research Building of National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), in Mohali, Punjab on August 06, 2017.
The Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurating the Administrative and Research Building of Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB), in Mohali, Punjab on August 06, 2017. The Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan and other dignitaries are also seen.
The Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan releasing the publication at the inauguration of the Administrative and Research Buildings of National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI) and Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB), in Mohali, Punjab on August 06, 2017.
The Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan planting a sapling, at the inauguration of the Administrative and Research Buildings of National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI) and Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (CIAB), in Mohali, Punjab on August 06, 2017. The Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan and other dignitaries are also seen.
Ministry of Agriculture
08-August, 2017 17:43 IST
Roadmap for Next Three Years for Evergreen Revolution
The NITI Aayog has drafted the three years action plan for all the sectors including agriculture. The details of the action plan may be obtained from the link
http://niti.gov.in. The action plan on agriculture deals with remunerative prices for farmers and raising productivity.
Strategy chalked out for increase in production of pulses, use of wasteland, seed village programme and model contract farming are as below:-
Increase in production of Pulses
National Food Security Mission (NFSM-Pulses) is being implemented in 638 districts of 29 States in the country. The interventions covered under NFSM-Pulses include cluster demonstrations on improved package of practices, demonstrations on cropping system, distribution of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs), INM, IPM, resource conservation technologies/tools, efficient water application tools and cropping system based training for increasing production and productivity of pulses.
Under this scheme, new initiatives have been taken up during 2016-17 i.e., creation of seed hubs, breeder seed production, minikit distribution, cluster frontline demonstrations etc.
Use of wasteland
PMKSY is principally for development of rainfed portions of net cultivated & culturable wastelands.
Seed Village programme
To upgrade the quality of farmer’s saved seeds financial assistance for distribution of foundation/certified seeds at 50% cost of the seeds for agricultural crops for half an acre per farmer was available up to the year 2013-14. From the year 2014-15, the financial assistance for distribution of foundation/certified seeds at 50% cost of the seeds for cereal crops and 60% for pulses, oilseeds, fodder and green manure crops for production of quality seeds is now available for one acre per farmer.
Certified Seed Production of Pulses, oilseeds, Fodder & Green Manure crops through Seed Village.
In order to enhance certified seed production of Pulses, oilseeds, Fodder & Green manure crops in the country, this component has been initiated from 2014-15. Under this component the financial assistance for distribution of foundation seeds at 75% cost of the seeds for pulses, oilseeds, fodder and green manure crops for production of Certified Seeds is available for the farmers.
The above schemes are demand driven and implemented by the States/implementing agencies for benefiting the farmers.
Model Contract Farming Act
In pursuance of announcement in the Union budget 2017-18, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has constituted a Committee on 28.02.2017 to formulate a Model Contract Farming Act for adoption by the States. This Model Act on Contract Farming would address the constraints in promoting contract farming in a holistic manner by the States.
The agriculture and allied sector road map endeavours growth of agriculture for meeting food and nutrition security of the country.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Parshottam Rupala, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, today.
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Ministry of Agriculture
08-August, 2017 17:41 IST
Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium
The Government established Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) as a Society in 1994 to facilitate agri-business ventures by catalyzing private investment through Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) Scheme in close association with financial institutions. The setting up of State level SFAC as counterpart agency of Central SFAC for agribusiness projects was part of the Scheme. The Scheme envisaged a corpus contribution from Central SFAC of Rs. 50.00 lakh to each State which establishes a State Level SFAC. So far, 21 States have received funds for Central SFAC for setting up of State SFAC.
The role of State SFACs is to aggressively promote agribusiness project development in their respective States. The main functions of SFAC are:
(i) Promotion of development of small agribusiness through VCA scheme;
(ii) Helping formation and growth of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) / Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs);
(iii) Improving availability of working capital and development of business activities of FPOs/FPCs through Equity Grant and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme;
(iv) Implementation of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Electronic Trading platform.
At present, SFAC is implementing the following schemes:
1. Agri-Business Development (ABD) through Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) and Project Development Facility (PDF).
The Scheme aims to facilitate the promotion of agri-business projects establishing backward linkages with farmers, providing assured market to their produce, thereby generating employment and enhancing farmers’ income. SFAC partnership with various PSU banks has so far helped support 1674 projects across the country, investing a total of Rs. 495.36 Crores in venture and helping to leverage Rs. 5950.76 Crores in total project investment. This has created 81396 direct employment and linked approximately 1.53 lakhs Farmers to these units.
2. Equity Grant and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Farmer Producer Companies:
The scheme has two components as given below:
(a) A grant of upto Rs. 10.00 lakh to each registered Farmer Producer Company is given to match the member equity raised by the institution. This enhances the equity base of the FPC and enable it to approach financial institutions for raising working capital. SFAC has been sanctioned Equity Grant to 127 Farmer Producer Companies amounting to Rs.7.04 Crore to enable them to leverage working capital from financial institutions.
(b) Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF) has been set up in SFAC with a corpus of Rs. 100.00 Crores. The CGF will offer a cover of 85% to loans extended by banks to Farmer Producer Companies without collateral, upto a maximum of Rs. 1.00 Crore. Under the Scheme, 21 projects in five states have been sanctioned credit guarantee of Rs. 9.31 Crore till date. State-wise details are as below:
State
Total
No. of Projects
Credit Guarantee cover Sanctioned (Rs. In lakh)
Kerala
1
63.75
Rajasthan
2
39.10
Madhya Pradesh
7
382.36
Maharashtra
1
38.25
Tamil Nadu
9
365.30
Total
21
931.26
Price Stabilisation Fund:
SFAC is one of the Central Procurement Agencies for pulses and oilseeds under Price Stabilisation Fund of Department of Consumer Affairs.
SFAC has made substantial impact in the agriculture sector. SFAC has emerged as a developmental Institution with its core aim and objective focused on increased production and productivity, value addition, provision of efficient linkages between producers and consumers. This has resulted in enhancing the yields and incomes of farmers/producers groups as well as created jobs in the rural areas.
The Government has reviewed the functioning of SFAC from time to time. Based on the review the annual action plans are formulated and associated budgets are released.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Parshottam Rupala, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, today.
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Ministry of Agriculture
08-August, 2017 17:39 IST
FDI in Agriculture
Foreign direct Investment (FDI) received in the agriculture sector during the last three years and the current year is given below:
Sl. No.
Year (Apr-Mar)
FDI Equity in (Rs crore)
1
2014-15
365.31
2
2015-16
553.14
3
2016-17
515.49
4
2017-18(Upto May, 2017)
354.77
This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri S.S. Ahluwalia, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, today.
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