An increase in the export of rapeseed meal and the revival of the export of soyabean meal helped India to register a growth of 167 per cent in the overall exports of oilmeals during January. The overall exports of oilmeals recorded a growth of 69.6 per cent during the first 10 months of FY23.

 

Data available with Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) of India showed that India exported 4.72 lakh tonnes (lt) of oilmeals in January 2023 against 1.76 lt in January 2022. India’s export of oilmeals increased to 32.97 lt during April-January of 2022-23 from 19.44 lt in the corresponding period of 2021-22.

 

BV Mehta, Executive Director of SEA of India, said the export of rapeseed meal has set a new record in the first 10 months of 2022-23, and broke the earlier highest record export of 12.48 lt in 2011-12. India exported 19.10 lt of rapeseed meal during April-January of 2022-23 against 7.29 lt in the corresponding period of 2021-22, recording a growth of 161.73 per cent.

 

He said India is the most competitive supplier of rapeseed meal to South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and other Far East countries at $250 a tonne FOB India, while rapeseed meal (Hamburg ex-mill) is quoted at $428 a tonne.

 

He said the better realisation from rapeseed (mustard) oil and export of rapeseed meal not only supported domestic price of mustard seed, but also encouraged larger sowing area under mustard crop.

 

Soyameal

Export of soyabean meal from India increased to 5.57 lt during April-January of 2022-23 from 3.15 lt in the corresponding period of 2021-22, recording a growth of 77 per cent.

 

Mehta said the fall in the local soyabean price to level of ?4700 a quintal from the highest level of ?7640 a quintal in April 2022 encouraged larger crushing of the crop and better price parity. This made export of soyabean meal attractive.

 

As on February 17, Argentina soyabean meal price (ex-Rotterdam) was quoted at $619 a tonne while Indian soyabean meal (ex-Kandla) was quoted at $585 a tonne. The major consumers of Indian soyabean meal are South East Asian countries. India has a logistic advantage and also can supply in small lots, he said.

 

Being non-GMO, Indian soyabean meal has an advantage. It is being preferred by certain European countries and the US. He said the rupee depreciation is also pushing the overall export.

 

All these factors helped India to revive the export of soyabean meal from the new crop. Giving details of the last three months export figures, he said India shipped 3.95 lt of soyabean meal during November-January of 2022-23 against 1.38 lt in the corresponding period of the previous year, recording a growth of 184.9 per cent.

 

Export destinations

South Korea imported 8.06 lt of oilmeals from India during the first 10 months of 2022-23 (5.09 lt during April-January of 2021-22). This included 5.51 lt of rapeseed meal, 2.24 lt of castorseed meal, and 30,687 tonnes of soyabean meal.

 

India exported 7.52 lt of oilmeals to Vietnam during April-January of 2022-23 (4.78 lt). This included 3.37lt of ricebran extraction, 2.18 lt of rapeseed meal, 1.91 lt of soyabean meal, and 5,009 tonnes of groundnut meal.

 

Thailand imported 6.26 lt of oilmeals from India during the first 10 months of 2022-23 (1.44 lt). This included 5.98 lt of rapeseed meal, 21,261 tonnes of soyabean meal, 4,038 tonnes of groundnut meal, 1,794 tonnes of ricebran extraction, and 798 tonnes of castorseed meal.

 

India exported 3.60 lt of oilmeals to Bangladesh during April-January of 2022-23 (2.90 lt). This included 76,751 tonnes of ricebran extractions, 2.44 lt of rapeseed meal, and 39,214 tonnes of soyabean meal.

 

Taiwan imported 1.15 lt of oilmeals from India during the first 10 months of 2022-23 (78,167 tonnes). This included 69,029 tonnes of castorseed meal, 36,267 tonnes of rapeseed meal, 7,180 tonnes of groundnut meal, and 2,670 tonnes of soyabean meal.

Nayanan C.C. has taken a unique approach to farming and is making headlines with his tambo artwork. The paddy fields of Alappuzha, a district in the southern state of Kerala, come to life every year during the 'puncha' or first crop season. Vast stretches of green fields blanket the region as farmers work tirelessly to grow rice.

 

Nayanan C.C. is a Health department employee and paddy farmer from Thirumala ward in Alappuzha municipality. He has turned a small portion of his 110-acre Kombankuzhy pada sekharam (paddy field) into a canvas to promote organic farming and popularize traditional and medicinal rice varieties. His latest creation is a rice paddy artwork featuring the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, made by planting different colored varieties of rice in an intricate pattern.

 

The portrait was created using three varieties of rice – rakthashali, black rice, and nazar bath. Rakthashali and nazar baths were used to create the subject, while black rice was used in the space surrounding the subject. The artwork is designed to be viewed from above and was created to encourage others to take up organic farming and grow traditional and medicinal rice varieties. Nayanan hopes that his work will help conserve indigenous rice types, considering their health benefits.

 

To create the artwork, Nayanan was helped by artist E.D. Reji from Wayanad in drawing the design. He planted the saplings on December 24 last year, and the harvest is planned for April. His other rice paddy artwork is an image of a snake boat created in 2021.

 

Nayanan has been doing paddy farming for several years, but he began cultivating rice varieties with medicinal properties only after he started doing research on the problems and coping strategies of cancer patients and their families in Kuttanad. This season, he is growing different varieties of paddy on 4.5 acres of leased land at Kombankuzhy pada sekharam.

 

As an external research scholar at the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Annamalai University, Nayanan's work on organic farming and conservation of indigenous rice types has been widely recognized. He believes that organic farming and the use of traditional and medicinal rice varieties will not only benefit the health of the people but also contribute to the conservation of the environment.

 

Rice paddy art is not new in Kerala. In recent years, it has gained popularity in the region as an eco-friendly and unique way to promote farming and attract tourists. The art form is a traditional method of land use that has been used in Japan and other countries for centuries. It involves creating intricate designs by planting different colored varieties of rice in a paddy field.

 

Nayanan's rice paddy artwork is an example of how traditional and modern practices can come together to promote farming, conserve indigenous rice types, and preserve the environment. His unique approach to farming has not only made him a local celebrity but also an inspiration to many others who wish to promote organic farming and conserve traditional and medicinal rice varieties.

Jordan's state grains buyer purchased about 60,000 tonnes of hard milling wheat to be sourced from optional origins in an international tender which closed on Tuesday, traders said.

 

It was bought from trading house Grain Flower at an estimated $333 a tonne c&f for shipment in the first half of July, they said.

 

Traders said these other trading houses also participated in the tender (with their estimated offers in dollars per tonne c&f): Agro Chirnogi $338, Nibulon $335, Viterra $353, Ameropa $337.50, The Andersons $340.90, Buildcom $348, Cerealcom Dolj price unavailable, Cargill $346.30 and CHS $336.40

On Monday, the Union Agriculture Ministry announced that it had set up a committee to monitor the situation arising from the increase in temperatures and its impact, if any, on the current wheat crop.

 

This comes even as cereal inflation soared to a record 16.12 per cent year-on-year in January – driven primarily by wheat and atta (flour), whose consumer prices registered an annual increase of 25.05 per cent. The situation has been rendered worse by wheat stocks in government godowns: These, at 154.44 lakh tonnes on February 1, were the lowest in six years for the same date.

 

However, a bigger source of uncertainty has to do with the wheat now in farmers’ fields, due for harvesting only in April. Last year, a spike in March temperatures singed the crop just when the grains were accumulating starch and proteins, leading to a significant drop in output as well as government procurement.

 

There are fears of a repeat this time, with both maximum and minimum temperatures already 3-5 degrees Celsius above normal in many wheat-growing areas. But whether or not March 2022 will happen again, climate change – specifically, the tendency for the early onset of summer with hardly any spring break – has definitely made India’s wheat crop vulnerable to terminal heat stress during the final grain formation and filling stages.

 

Is there a way out? One 'beat-the-heat' solution put forth by scientists at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is to advance the time of sowing.

 

Wheat is a typically a 140-145 days crop planted mostly in November – before the middle of the month in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (post the harvesting of paddy, cotton and soyabean) and the second half and beyond in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (after sugarcane and paddy). If sowing can be preponed and taken up from around October 20, the crop isn’t exposed to terminal heat, with much of the grain-filling being completed by around the third week of March. It can, then, be comfortably harvested by the month-end.

 

But the solution is easier said than done – for the simple reason that the wheat sown before early-November is also prone to premature flowering.

 

'The crop seeded in the first half of November normally takes 80-95 days to come to heading (i.e. for the ‘baali’, or earheads bearing the flowers and eventually grain, to fully emerge from the wheat tillers). But if you sow in October, heading is cut short by 10-20 days and occurs in 70-75 days. This affects yields, as the crop does not get enough time for vegetative growth (of roots, stems and leaves),' explained Rajbir Yadav, principal scientist and wheat breeder at the ICAR’s New Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).

 

To get around the problem, IARI scientists have bred wheat varieties with what is termed 'mild vernalisation requirement' or the need for a certain minimum period of low winter temperatures for initiation of flowering. In this case, the crop, when sown in October 20-25, will come to heading only in 100-110 days. Adding another 4-5 days for pollination, it leaves a long window from mid-February for grain formation and filling.

 

Maximum temperatures should ideally be in the early-thirty degrees range during the 30-40 days when the kernels are formed, take in nutrients from the stems and leaves, and ripen after hardening and drying. The early-sown IARI varieties not only have a longer window for grain development, but also for vegetative stage growth between germination and flowering. 'By not heading early despite early sowing, the new varieties are able to accumulate more biomass along with grain weight,' Yadav pointed out. And they can beat the heat.

 

The IARI scientists have developed three varieties, all of them incorporating genes that are responsible for the mild vernalisation requirement preventing premature flowering and early heading.

 

The first, HDCSW-18, was released and officially notified in 2016. Although having a potential wheat yield of over 7 tonnes per hectare – as against 6-6.5 tonnes for existing popular varieties such HD-2967 and HD-3086 – its plants grew to 105-110 cm. Being tall, compared to 90-95 cm for normal high-yielding varieties, made them prone to lodging or bending over when their earheads were heavy with well-filled grains.

 

The second variety HD-3410, released in 2022, has higher yield potential (7.5 tonnes/hectare) with lower plant height (100-105 cm).

 

But it’s the third one, HD-3385, which looks most promising. With the same yields as HD-3410, plant height of just 95 cm and strong stems, it is least lodging-prone and most amenable for early sowing. This variety, sown this time at IARI’s trial fields on October 22, has reached pollination stage – while the emergence of the earheads is yet to start for the wheat that was planted in the normal time.

 

IARI has registered HD-3385 with the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA). It has also licenced the variety to the DCM Shriram Ltd-owned Bioseed for undertaking multi-location trials and seed multiplication. 'This is our first ever such public-private partnership experiment. By registering the variety with PPVFRA, we are ensuring full protection of our intellectual property rights,' said IARI’s director A.K. Singh.

 

The director-general of ICAR Himanshu Pathak told The Indian Express that involving the private sector in commercialisation of publicly-bred crop varieties will benefit farmers through faster adoption and diffusion of technology. 'It is also beneficial for ICAR because our institutes will earn royalty on every kg of seed sold by the licensee, which they can plough back into research. And the country gains through higher production from climate-smart varieties,' he added.

After a lull of three months since the imposition of 20% export duty on rice, India's rice exporters are witnessing a surge in demand from the global markets and international buyers are willing to pay a price of $400 per tonne, as compared to $330 per tonne before the imposition of the export duty.

 

The government had imposed the duty on September 9 last year to contain the domestic price rise. Area under kharif fell 5.62% to 38.39 million hectares in last year's season due to poor rains in some states including UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal. Buyers are absorbing the export duty, despite which Indian rice is cheaper than rice from Thailand which is commanding a price of $500 per tonne in the international market.

 

'The upswing in global demand will help India to achieve 15.5 million tonnes of non-basmati rice exports, which are only 10% lower compared to last year even though earlier it was thought exports would come down to 12-13 mt following the imposition of export duty,' said BV Krishna Rao, president, Rice Exporters Association of India.

 

On February 21, 2023, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)  signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Dubai, with Lulu Hypermarket LLC for the promotion of millets in GCC countries. The MoU was signed In the presence of Ambassador of India to UAE.

H. E. Sunjay Sudhir, Dr. M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA, Dr. Aman Puri, Consul General of India, Mr. M. A. Yusuff Ali, Chairman & Managing Director of LuLu Group International (LLC), and other officers of the Mission, CGI & APEDA, The MoU was signed by Dr. Tarun Bajaj, Director, APEDA and Mr. Saleem for Lulu group.In order to popularise millet products and value added products around the world during the International Year of Millet 2023, APEDA is collaborating with Lulu Group, an international retail hypermarket chain with locations in several countries, to promote Indian nutritional millets and value added products in West Asia.

 

This will facilitate promotional activities for millet products and allow the country to display millets and their value-added products, ready-to-eat products in international retail chains sourced from FPOs/FPCs/SC/ST/Women entrepreneurs/Start-ups/new entrepreneurs, and so on, providing these products with a platform for publicity in importing countries.

 

APEDA will assist manufacturers in sending various Millet Product samples to Lulu Hypermarkets. Lulu will make it easier to showcase various millet-based products in its hypermarkets, including Ready to Eat and Ready to Serve millet products.

Achieving a USD 47 trillion economy by 2047 is not at all inconceivable for India, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday. The continuance of good governance that the country has seen over the past 8-9 years, its immense talent pool and the diasporic support the nation commands will aid the growth, the minister said.

 

Goyal, who also holds Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles stressed on the fact that the economy will be largely driven by the service export rather than merchandise export.  He said that during his address at the 17th India Digital Summit (IDS 2023) on Tuesday.

 

'Our services export largely driven by IT has grown by 20 per cent between the year 2021-22 and by March 2023 it will grow by 23% more. The IT industry will overtake merchandise exports. We are about 420 billion merchandise exports last year and 254 billion of service exports. My own estimates say that these will converge by 2030,' added Goyal.

 

As per the data of the Commerce Ministry, the estimated value of services export in April-December 2022 is $235.81 billion as compared to $184.65 billion in the year-ago period. In 2021-22, these exports touched an all-time high of $254 billion. in 2012, India exported $140 billion worth of services. Rising at an annual average growth rate of 6.9 per cent, this number nearly doubled within the first 11 months of 2022.

 

Goyal asserted that the economy will be driven due to the advancement of technology and digital advancement. 'By 2030, India should be at $ 1 trillion of merchandise export. Juxtapose this contextually with the Startup India Mission and Digital India. We have seen broadband spread to the remotest corners of the country and have 800 million smartphone users,' said he.

 

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has floated bids from 620 depots across the country to sell a total 11.72 lakh tonnes (lt) of wheat during the third round of e-auction, which is scheduled to take place on next Wednesday.

 

'For the third e-auction, bidders who have registered themselves on the e-portal of M Junction by 10:00 PM, February 17, will be allowed to participate. The last date for deposit and uploading of earnest money deposit (EMD) is February 21 and e-auction will start at 11:00 AM on February 22,' the Food Ministry said on Saturday.

 

The Ministry said a total of 12.98 lt of wheat were sold during the previous two rounds of the e-auction and as much as 8.96 lt has been lifted by the successful bidders. This, the Ministry said, resulted in the cooling down of prices of wheat and atta. A total of 25 lt has been approved for sales through e-auction, while another 5 lt has been earmarked for cooperatives and State governments to directly lift at reserve prices.

 

The government has been aggressively trying to offload as much wheat as possible in the open market through a well distribution plan with a cap of maximum 3,000 tonnes per bidder to lift through the auction, which has been scheduled on a weekly basis.

 

On February 17, the Ministry reduced reserve prices of wheat by Rs 2/kg. Accordingly, the reserve prices are Rs 2,150/quintal for fair average (FAQ) quality and Rs 2,125/quintal for Under Relaxed Specifications (URS) category in the third round of e-auction.

 

Earlier on February 10, the government had fixed the reserve prices of wheat at Rs 2,300/quintal for URS and Rs 2,350/quintal for FAQ quality, uniform all across the country, changing the previous rates which also included additional freight costs from Bhopal or Ludhiana till the depot.

According to data compiled by the vegetable oil industry body The Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA), India's overall oilmeal exports from April to December were 70% higher year on year at around 3.3 million tonnes.

 

Oilmeals are the residue left over after extracting oil from oilseeds, and they are commonly used as livestock feed. Total exports were 2.82 million tonnes in December. 

 

According to data, India's oilmeal exports were 472,438 tonnes in January, up 167 percent from 176,967 tonnes in the same month last year. It is worth noting that rapeseed meal exports have reached a new high of 1.91 million tonnes, breaking the previous high set in 2011-12.

 

Furthermore, higher rapeseed (mustard) oil prices and rapeseed meal exports not only supported the domestic price of mustard seed, but also encouraged greater mustard crop sowing area during the current rabi season.

 

Rabi crops are typically planted in October and November, with harvesting occurring between January and March, depending on the maturity of the commodity. One of the most important rabi crops is mustard.

 

The agriculture ministry forecasts mustard seed production for the current crop year (2022-23) at a record 12.81 million tonne (MT), up from 11.96 MT in the previous crop year.

 

Soyabean meal exports increased by 77% year on year to 0.55 MT in April-January 2022-23. According to officials, the drop in domestic soyabean prices to around '4,700/quintal from a high of '7,640/quintal in April 2022 encouraged greater crop crushing and better price parity.?

 

Because of logistical proximity and smaller lot sizes, India's soyameal is primarily exported to South East Asian countries. 'Indian soyabean meal has an advantage and is preferred by certain European countries and the US because it is non-GMO,' according to a SEA.