Agritech firm AgNext Technologies partners with NAFED
Agritech firm AgNext Technologies has partnered with NAFED to digitise quality assessment for Arunachal Pradesh’s organic kiwis. These organic kiwis were launched in New Delhi last week by Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture Marketing Board (APAMB) along with NAFED as the marketing partner, under the national ‘One district One Product’ scheme.
Through its quality monitoring platform ‘Qualix’, AgNext also enabled deep-tech based comprehensive traceability. Using QR code mapping, the end-consumers can trace all the steps in the supply chain down to the origin.
Speaking on this partnership, AgNext’s CEO & Founder, Taranjeet Singh Bhamra said, “It is an honour to work with NAFED on India’s first AI-based initiative to bring complete quality and traceability management solutions for Arunachal’s renowned kiwi trade. Till date, over 6000 kgs of kiwi has been assessed and moved through our ‘Qualix’ platform, with proven benefits for the farmers, NAFED and the end-consumers. The impact of facilitating quality-based and traceability-enabled trade for kiwis will not only improve domestic demand, but also help in boosting export potential of the fruit.”
MSP to continue, committee formed to make it more effective and transparent: Tomar
Union Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday said Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops would continue and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set up a committee to make the mechanism more effective and transparent.
Queried on the shortage of fertilisers in the country, the minister said farmers were getting it in full quantity and would continue to do so.
“The MSP for crops was already there, and will be there in the days to come. Besides, to make it more effective and transparent, the prime minister has constituted a committee,” he told reporters here.
Modi’s farm reform reversal to deter investment in India’s agriculture
India’s repeal of agriculture laws aimed at deregulating produce markets will starve its vast farm sector of much-needed private investment and saddle the government with budget-sapping subsidies for years, economists said.
Late last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government introduced three laws meant to open up agriculture markets to companies and attract private investment, triggering India’s longest-running protest by farmers who said the reforms would allow corporations to exploit them.
With an eye on a critical election in populous Uttar Pradesh state early next year, Modi agreed to rescind the laws in November, hoping to smooth relations with the powerful farm lobby which sustains nearly half the country’s 1.3 billion people and accounts for about 15% of the $2.7 trillion economy.
