Crystal Crop Protection to acquire cotton, mustard, pearl millet and grain sorghum hybrids in India
Crystal Crop Protection, a leading R&D based crop solution company, has entered into a definitive agreement with Bayer NSE 0.43 % to acquire cotton, mustard, pearl millet and grain sorghum hybrids in India. Both organisations will work together to close the transaction by December 2021.
The business acquired by Crystal Crop Protection represents a very small portion of Bayer’s Indian and global business portfolio.
“This acquisition is a step forward to provide high performance seeds to Indian farmers for sustainable growth of Indian agriculture,” said N K Aggarwal, chairman, Crystal Crop Protection Limited. However, the company refused to disclose the cost of acquisition.
Centre’s Rs 2,000-3,000 cr scheme to digitalise PACs on anvil
The Union Cooperation Ministry is working on a new central scheme to modernise and digitalise over 97,000 primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACs) spread across the country, with a budget outlay of around Rs 2,000-3000 crore over the next five years. Primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACs) — commonly known as agri-cooperative credit societies — are village-level lending institutions based on cooperative principles. They provide short and medium term loans to rural people to meet their financial requirements.
There are about 97,961 PACs across the country, out of which viable ones are about 65,000.
“We are working on a central scheme to computeralise PACs. The aim is to ensure seamless connectivity of panchayat level PACs till headquarters,” said a senior Cooperation Ministry official.
India’s rubber output dented by heavy rains in Kerala, to lift imports
India’s natural rubber production is likely to fall sharply in October and November, as heavy rains have been disrupting tapping activity in the country’s top producing southern state of Kerala, industry officials said on Monday.
Lower production could force India, the world’s second-biggest consumer of natural rubber, to increase imports in the coming months from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, supporting global prices.
“Heavy rainfall has been disrupting rubber tapping since the last month. In October, we are expecting sharp drop in the production compared to September,” said George Valy, president of the Indian Rubber Dealers’ Federation.
