The Agrihub, the first agriculture-specific online discovery platform, was launched here on Monday. The platform, launched at the Agri Horti Tech International Exhibition, provides authentic product information on the best brands in conventional and hi-tech agriculture and connects companies or brands, distributors and retailers to cater to the needs of farmers in India.
Sidharth Kumar, co-founder of TheAgrihub, said: “One of the leading causes of inefficiency in farming is the lack of proper knowledge and access to correct resources. We, as urban customer, have option to select things we need from five various platforms but farmers, who feed the world, do not have a single website from where they can get authentic information. With this platform, TheAgrihub has a vision to expose its users to the best of global technologies enabling the growth of farmer as well as agriculture as a whole.”
“The objective of TheAgrihub is to bring agricultural products sourcing for B2B and B2C on fingertips, help them track innovations or products and also find suppliers next door to facilitate educated decisions on purchase. ‘If you are in the field of agriculture, you have to be on TheAgrihub platform’ is what our team wishes to promote.”
The platform has already signed up with over 3,600 hi-tech agricultural farmers and many prominent brands. Seeds and plants of fruits, flowers and vegetables, irrigation products, fertilisers and plant protection products, farm tools and equipment, polyhouse are some of the products listed on the platform.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Telangana / by Express News Service / April 26th, 2016
When Narayan Murthy came to India from the United States, he didn’t know that he would end up retracing his roots, in a journey that would last forever.
A management consultant by profession, he is the founder of GoodSeeds, an organisation that sells organic food and home products. And it doesn’t end there.
Narayan works closely with farmers across the region to help them find a platform where they can find buyers and connect with other farmers for better reach and productivity.
Says Narayan, “I left India in 1992 and went to the US for higher studies and a job. I completed an MBA from Booth School of Business, Chicago, after which I started working as a management consultant. I was earning quite a decent package and monetarily I was very sound. But there was a voice in my head which kept on telling me that this is not what I wanted to do. But I didn’t know what it was that I was looking for.” That’s when he decided to come back to India and spend a few years here, “I came back and after a year or so, I realised that it was my roots that I had been missing.”
Narayan Murthy, founder of GoodSeeds, which sells organic food and home products
Originally from Chennai, Hyderabad is now his home. But how did he land up here? He answers with a chuckle, “I got a job here in Microsoft as a strategic planner in 2008. Now this city is my home.”
It so happened that one day his friend complained about how good organic food is not available in Hyderabad. Since Narayan was already wondering what to do with himself, the idea appealed to him. Thus was born GoodSeeds in the year 2012. “The name came about because it was about sowing good ideas about what we eat, drink, who we live with and where we live,” adds Narayan. Sort of an eco-friendly contribution to society.
While the company sells a variety of organic items ranging from organic baby food and organic fruits to organic personal care products, farmers often come to them to gain market connections, “Many farmers get in touch with me. I connect them to the market and customers who choose to buy organic products. This way they are able to connect to other farmers as well. We also help them get access to seed banks, so that they can expand their crop portfolios,” informs Narayan.
He goes with farmers to different areas like Yadagirigutta, Anantapur, outskirts of Mysuru and Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu) for advise and to network. As a result of his efforts, farmers are coming closer and becoming part of co-operatives. Narayan adds further, “It’s beneficial that small farmers become part of small co-operatives. For example at Timbaktu, Anantapur there’s a small co-operative of 40 farmers. A farmer can’t do everything alone. If he tries everything and it goes wrong then unfortunately it will be him who will starve. These days people give their lands to farmers on lease to grow crops. In return, the farmers are paid on a monthly basis. So, even if there’s a drought, farmers will get their money and manage to keep their respect intact, as well.”
They also encourage things like the Sunday organic bazaar held at Saptaparni, Lamakaan, Our Sacred Space and Goethe Zentrum, where farmers sell everything from organic fruit to staples like rice. It’s probably not as fancy as the farmers’ markets in the US, but hey, with people like him around — it may become a reality sooner than you think!
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Edex / by Saima Afreen / April 25th, 2016
Steeped in history:The entrance of Gandhari Vanam in Adilabad district – Photos: S. Harpal Singh
Gandhari Vanam in Mancherial town will soon have a museum showcasing millions of years of biodiversity of Adilabad.
Gandhari Vanam, a nature park near Mancherial town in Adilabad, is where you can go millions of years back in time. The 174-million-year-old tree fossils to be exhibited in a section of the soon to come up facility will help you visualise what the district must have looked like back then.
Steeped in history: Mancherial Divisional Forest Officer B. Prabhakar observing a Jurassic-era tree fossil at the nature park.– Photos: S. Harpal Singh
“That was the time when the giant dinosaurs roamed here, thriving on these coniferous trees. The Pranahita-Godavari valley of upper Gondwana is unique as it has preserved many of nature’s components from the era in its 3,000-metre thick sediments deposited over a period of 200 million years,” said Mancherial Divisional Forest Officer B. Prabhakar, pointing out the uniqueness of the nature park being developed by the Telangana Forest Department at a cost of Rs. 3.6 crore.
The park, located on the Mancherial-Mandamarri main road on the fringes of the coal town, is named Gandhari Vanam as the Gandhari fort is located close to it. It is a 350-acre facility divided into three parts.
“A 20-acre plot on the left side of the road (coming from Mancherial) has been developed as a picnic spot with ornamental plants, apart from a host of things. At least 500 visitors come here on weekends,” the DFO said.
The second 50-acre enclosure will become a good forest, and the department has plans to make it a deer park and an aviary in the near future. The third section, and the most important one, is the 280-acre facility on the other side of the road. It is like a repository and museum of the huge local biodiversity in terms of vegetation.
“Adilabad forests at one time had boasted of at least 500 types of trees, and we are planting many of these, which, for the sake of awareness and convenience, have been segregated into a few sections. For instance, we will have a medicinal plant section with 250 species, and others which will have trees linked with horoscope and nine planets,” Mr. Prabhakar disclosed.
For nature enthusiasts, Gandhari Vanam also has a walking track, while a boating facility and a couple of check dams are coming up. The authorities have also put up boards with information regarding the given sections, trees and fossils for the benefit of people. “We have designed the park to be educative too. People should know about nature, what it was and what it should be,” the DFO said.
The 280-acre facility is like a repository and museum of the biodiversity in terms of vegetation
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by S. Harpal Singh / Mancherial (Adilabad District) / April 25th, 2016
File photo of the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington. / Reuters
Legendary diamonds mined by the Qutub Shahis are on display in Washington, Paris and Moscow.
It is not just Kohinoor; nine other famous diamonds left the shores of India and these are now displayed in museums in Washington, Moscow, Paris and Istanbul, besides forming a part of the Iranian crown jewels.
The precious nine, all categorised as legendary diamonds and mined by the Qutub Shahis of the Deccan, are the Hope Diamond, Hortensia, Darya-i-Noor, Noor-ul-Ain, Orlov (also called Orlof), Regent, Sancy, Shah Diamond and Spoonmaker’s, says V. Madhavan, who worked as a Professor of Geology in the Kakatiya University.
While the 45.5 carat Hope diamond is currently on display at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, the 190 carat Orlov diamond, a bluish-green gem, is now part of Moscow’s Diamond Treasury.
On the other hand, the 140.6 carat Regent, 55.2 carat Sancy and 20 carat Hortensia are now at the Louvre museum in Paris.
Two pink diamonds, the 182 carat Darya-i-Noor and 60 carat Noor-ul-Ain are part of the Iranian crown jewels while the 88.7 carat Shah Diamond and 86 carat Spoonmaker’s are housed in the Diamond Fund of the Kremlin and Topkapi Palace in Istanbul respectively.
Origins a mystery
Prof. Madhavan, who has studied diamond mining for nearly six decades, says that by all historical accounts, the Kohinoor was mined by the Kakatiyas when Rani Rudrama Devi headed the kingdom, its headquarters in present day Warangal.
Kohinoor’s exact vintage, right from its discovery, continues to be a mystery. However, “There is a general consensus among historians that it was found at Kolluru in the late 13th century in present day Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh,” he said adding that Kolluru was part of the Kakatiya kingdom.
Former Professor of History at the University of Hyderabad, V. Ramakrishna, said the Manual of “Kistna District in the Presidency of Madras”, written by Gordon Mackenzie and published in 1883, also indicated that the Kohinoor was found in Kolluru, then part of Krishna district.
Pages 244-247 refer to diamond mining in the district in general and the Kohinoor in particular. The manual however, says that the gem was mined by Qutub Shahis and not the Kakatiyas.
Another book, A Study of the History and Culture of Andhras, by noted historian K. Satyanarayana and published in 1982, also speaks of the Kohinoor being found in Kolluru.
According to Prof. Madhavan, India was the only producer of diamonds in the world till 1725 AD when they were mined in Brazil. Later in 1870, diamonds were explored in South Africa. Marco Polo, who visited India in the 13th century, talks in his travelogue of an inland kingdom ruled by a queen (Rudrama Devi)… “which produced all the diamonds in the world”.
At the time of its discovery, the Kohinoor was the largest diamond in the world. But no longer. In 1905, workmen at the Premier Mines in South Africa unearthed the 3106 carats (621 grams) Cullinan diamond, which remains the largest so far. It was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, the founder of Premier Mines.
The original weight of Kohinoor was stated to be 793 carats (158.6 gm). In the 17th Century, emperor Aurangazeb wanted to reduce its size to add to its lustre.
He tasked Horenso Borgia, a Venetian lapidary with the job, but he cut the diamond down to just 186 carats and invited a heavy fine.
At present, the weight of Kohinoor, meaning mountain of light, is 105.6 carats.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / Prashanth Chintala / Hyderabad – April 23rd, 2016
Bi-coloured wonder:A mahua tree with dual coloured foliage.–Photo: S. Harpal Singh
The mahua or ippa tree can be seen on the Utnoor-Asifabad road in Adilabad
Many miss this natural wonder while zooming past on the Utnoor-Asifabad road in Adilabad, but those who do spot the colourful tree, stop to marvel at its beauty. A majestic mahua or ippa tree, located about 500 metres from Heerapur village in Utnoor mandal, towards Jainoor, is a visual delight and scientific curiosity — half the tree has red-brown leaves while the other half has green leaves.
The tree retains this dual foliage from the end of March for about a month, soon after it sheds its flowers.
Adilabad has an estimated five lakh mahua trees, mostly in the tribal belt. The mahua flowers have medicinal value and form a major non-timber forest produce for the forest dwelling Gond and Kolam tribal communities.
The tree bears two differently coloured leaves at the same time apparently because it has a dual leaf development stage. “This could be because of two different seeds joining at the time of germination but retaining individual characteristics of growth on maturity,” said a forest department official of the rare phenomenon.
The tree is about 40 years old, according to villagers. “It was a young tree when I was a child,” recalled Atram Shankar, a 40-year-old Gond farmer from Hasnapur village, about 2 km from the bi-coloured beauty.
The Forest department has taken note of the tree with the rare foliage and Forest Range Officer of Utnoor, P. Ramesh Rao and others have visited the place to document the occurrence.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by S. Harpal Singh / Adilabad – April 18th, 2016
In an effort to popularise farm pond concept, Komatireddy Pratheek Foundation dug up a farm pond at farmer Kola Bikshamaiah’s field at Kakulakondaram village of Nalgonda mandal here on Sunday.
Pratheek Foundation had started closely working with Deshpande Foundation, which has been actively working on rain water harvesting in Nizamabad and Maharastra.
CEO of Pratheek Foundation M.V. Gona Reddy said that they simply want to replicate the work of Deshpande Foundation in the district for the benefit of the farming community.
The chairman of the foundation and Nalgonda MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said they were planning to initiate several skill enhancement programmes for the youth in the district to improve their employability. “They would also concentrate on maternal health, student leadership, micro-entrepreneurship and livelihood opportunities,” he said.
Several skill enhancement programmes planned to improve employability.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by Staff Reporter / Nalgonda – April 18th, 2016
Timely returns:The water harvesting pit in the farm of S Jayapal Reddy of Kesamudram in Warangal district.–Photo: M. Murali
Farm pond dug up in Jayapal Reddy’s field three years ago begins to yield water
To spend Rs. 10 lakh to dig a farm pond is not possible to every farmer. But S Jayapal Reddy, who with a fond hope of harvesting water, went on and dug up a huge open pit.
“I have about 50 acres land here but as there was no water I embarked upon the task of getting a water harvest pit dug up in my land about three years ago. The pit is 30 feet deep and 100 feet wide.
This effort started yielding some water which is enough to irrigate about 10 acres,” he explained. He draws water with three motors for about five hours daily to wet his paddy fields. He strongly argues in favour of massive plantation and digging up water harvesting structures everywhere to conserve every drop of water.
According to him, the huge trench in his fields also helps recharge bore wells and open wells around his fields belonging to other farmers.
There were no proper rains for the past three years. As a result , he groundwater table also went down and with no irrigation water in these parts of the mandal, the farmers were finding it difficult to continue farming operations with meagre water in extreme weather conditions.
Going by the advice of scientists, many decided to opt for farm ponds, recharge pits and trenches in fields to hold little water when it rained.
“We hope to get good rains this year. But not much is being done to hold as much as possible.
Motivating others
Here we are motivating farmers to opt for farm ponds and rain water harvesting pits wherever possible,” Mr Jayapal Reddy explained.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao / Kesamudram (Warangal Dt) – April 26th, 2016
The enormous potential for promotion of apiculture (beekeeping) as a means to provide alternative income to farmers is waiting to be tapped in Aswaraopeta, the horticultural hub of Telangana.
Aswaraopeta and its surrounding mandals including Dammapeta in Khammam district account for the lion’s share of horticultural crops in the entire Telangana State.
Oil palm plantations are mainly concentrated in Aswaraopeta and Dammapeta mandals. The total area under the oil palm cultivation is 30,000 acres in the district. Coconut plantations are spread in over 2,000 acres in the two mandals.
Aswaraopeta mandal encompasses a sprawling coconut seed garden, horticulture research station, and around 200 private horticulture nurseries. The mandal consisting of nurseries of diverse range of horticulture crops including coconut, oil palm, mango, and cashew is considered most suitable for beekeeping.
Availability of flower bearing plants that bloom almost throughout the year and abundant nectar to support beekeeping activity on a commercial scale make Aswaraopeta mandal the ideal place for taking up the agro-based income generation activity, notes Prabhakar, an oil palm grower of Aswaraopeta.
Beekeeping has lot of financial potential as it helps produce a wide range of bee products including honey, jelly, wax and pollen which are in huge demand in the market.
The drastic decline in honey collection in Bhadrachalam Agency has necessitated the need for promotion of apiculture to meet the burgeoning demand for honey in the open market, he points out.
Apart from honey production, beekeeping activity also aids cross pollination thereby helping in maximising the horticultural crop yield, says R Srinivasa Rao, Deputy Director, Horticulture Department, Khammam.
A proposal to provide training to some field level functionaries and horticulture farmers of the mandal on scientific methods of beekeeping at a reputed institute in the neighbouring State is under consideration, he says.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by P. Sridhar / Khammam – March 23rd, 2016
The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation that operates about 10,500 buses post its bifurcation from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State RTC, consumes an estimated 6 lakh litres of high speed diesel (HSD) to transport slightly-over 90 lakh passengers every day.
While it may initially appear as if the huge buses that occupy more than the road width across the State may be guzzling HSD, it is interesting to note that with some coordination between drivers and the backroom boys who keep the engines, the brakes and the clutch plates particularly, the corporation’s buses manage to get over 5 km per litre (KMPL) of diesel.
A feather on the TSRTC’s cap within a year of bifurcation is that it bagged two prestigious awards among the 60 State Road Transport Undertakings across the country – the highest KMPL award for mofussil services by extracting a record 5.46 KMPL in the category of a fleet strength of 4,001-10,000 buses.
It also got the runner-up award for maximum improvement of fuel efficiency in the same category for 2014-15, up from 5.41 to 5.46 KMPL, said Managing Director G.V. Ramana Rao.
When contacted, Executive Director-Engineering and Secretary to the Board, M. Ravinder said that the fuel bill per day itself works out to approximately Rs. 3 crore a day, including the 24 per cent sales tax that the corporation is forced to pay.
For the past two decades or so, even while it was the erstwhile APSRTC, there has been a consistent demand pending with the Government of India for a reduction in sales tax. Being a part of the Indian Railways, South Central Railway runs its trains by paying only 4 per cent sales tax for the HSD it consumes.
Practically every senior officer repeats this fact, wishing for a windfall every time the price of HSD is increased!
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Suresh Krishnamoorthy / Hyderabad – March 08th, 2016
City-based waste management startup Banyan Nation announced that it has bagged $800,000 in its first fund raise from Jaideep Khanna, co-founder, president and managing partner of Artha Capital Management Inc and these funds will be used to scale up its business.
According to the company, Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), Shujog and global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts have assisted in raising funds and mentoring the startup.
Banyan Nation claims to be one of the first firms in India to use technology, both at the back-end and front-end, to ensure that plastic waste is not just recycled but also ‘upcycled’.
Banyan Nation founder and chief executive officer Mani Vajipey pointed out that the startup tries to address challenges of the unorganised plastic recycling sector by offering solutions for three stages of plastic recycling business — collection, recycling and selling recycled plastic to companies.
At the front-end, it has used technology to map the network of kabadiwalas, who supply plastic waste to the company and at the back-end, it deploys technology to ensure that the waste plastic is graded, which results in recycled plastic being of superior quality.
The startup has a plastic recycling plant on the outskirts of the city that has a capacity to recycle 300 tonnes of waste plastic per month. Currently, it is processing 100 tonnes of plastic waste per month.
“We are operating in an unorganised sector and it is a low margin and high volume business. We have over 20 small and medium sized local firms that procure recycled plastic from us. Now, we are targeting players from pharma, auto and FMCG sector,” Vajipey added.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Hyderabad / by Swati Rathor / TNN / March 03rd, 2016
