Letter from the Executive Director, Agribusinesses Volume 01 Issue 16 September 2013

Revitalizing Mechanization through Versatile Multi-Crop Planter (VMP)Mechanization has been the feature of agriculture in the last decade in Bangladesh. There has been a notable increase in the use of different tractors and power tillers. Besides, the practices such as direct sowing, zero-tillage or minimum tillage and the establishment of cover crops has been revolutionary in protecting organic matter, soil moisture and soil fertility. Besides, significant increase is being observed in the use of seeding, weeding and threshing agro-machineries.

ACI Motors Ltd. has revitalized the process of mechanization through the introduction of Versatile Multi-Crop Planter (VMP). ACI Motors Ltd. is the first company to bring the technology in Bangladesh. Through the technology, cultivation and sowing of seeds are possible simultaneously. The planter fits with any kind of power tiller of 12-16 horse power. Since sowing of seed and implying of fertilizer can be done at a time, the productivity increases. The machine can easily measure the distance between columns. It can also determine the quantity of fertilizer and seed implied in the cultivation process. Most importantly the planter is not expensive and easy to fix.

Versatile multi-crop planter helps farmers to reduce cost of by saving the excessive use of seed, fertilizer and most importantly, time. It takes only two hours and 2.5 liters of fuel in sowing and cultivating 33 decimal of land simultaneously. The planter will help to provide the cultivation suited to land and crop. The work rate of the farmers will increase as well since cultivation, sowing of seeds and implying fertilizer can be done at a time.

The machine can be used with strip tillage, single pass shallow tillage, zero tillage, bed planting and conventional tillage. Cropping of paddy, wheat, maize, soya bean, jute, different types of pulses etc is possible by using the planter.

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Business Stories

EDITORIAL BOARD

Advisory EditorsProf. Lutfur RahmanAdviser, ACI Agribusinesses

EditorM. Saifullah,Head of Strategy

MembersYusuf Alam,Assistant Product Manager,ACI Fertilizer

Mohammad Mizanur Rahaman,Assistant Product Manager,ACI Seed

Dr. Md. Mostafa AlamSales and Marketing ManagerVaccine

Md. Shiful AlamCoordination Officer ACI Motors

Md. Mustafizur Rahman KhanManager, Export and ImportACI Cropex

Dr. AkhterHead of PDS, ACI Seed

Assistant EditorAdeeba RaihanBusiness Information AnalystACI Agribusinesses

Ehsanul KarimAgribusiness ExecutiveACI Agribusinesses

Hammim HasanBusiness Information AnalystACI Agribusinesses

CONTENTS

A g r i - t e c h & C o m m u n i c a t i o n 6

B u s i n e s s S t o r i e s 2

ACI Seed commits to dealer and retailer training programIn August, ACI Seed held three dealer trainings in Comilla, Dhaka and Khulna. The dealers were trained on new varieties, key features of the varieties and plant protection etc. Besides, discussions were held about the sales, collections, over dues, etc. Existing planning for rice and vegetables sales and future plans of the coming year were also discussed in the meeting.Another retailer training was held in Meherpur by ACI Seed on maize. The farmers were given a heads up on timely sowing of maize seed and reaping of maize. The farmers were also educated on how to dry the maize seed to reap a proper harvest.

ACI Seed holds meetings with nursery owners for promoting vegetable productsegetable nursery business is running very well in some particular areas of the country, such as Abdulpur, Jessore; Mohasthangor, Bogra; Rampal, Munshigonj; Shomsernogor, Comilla; Kuderpar, Norshindi, etc. Sapling production has come up as a specialized SME in these areas. In light of this, ACI Seed has undertaken a linkage campaign with nursery owners to promote its vegetable varieties and to increase seed sale. In August 2013, it has conducted such 5 linkage campaigns and distributed 2.17kg of sample seed of 7 varieties of 5 vegetable crops. The varieties were Advanta 1303 and Tropical 33 in cabbage; BS 671 and Advanta 403 in cauliflower; 1777 in chilli; Marshal Super in bottle gourd and Gadagari Super in tomato.

The nursery owners are also linked with a good number of commercial farmers across the country. So, it is a very good trade channel in the industry. Understanding the importance, Dr. Shafiqul Aktar, Business Manager of ACI Seed; emphasized that ACI will pay more focus in this area.

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Business Stories

ACI Fertilizer promotes their solution for Aman Rice, vegetables & banana cultivation

AVRDC visits R&D of ACI Seed

ACI Fertilizer has been carrying out major promotional activities during the present Aman season where the main crop is rice; by conducting farmers’ meeting, retailer training programs, DAE meetings throughout August. ACI Fertilizer is giving more focus on Gypsar, Sulphur 90% & Zinc as solutions for Aman Rice. Field Force conducted more than 100 result demonstrations of Sulphur 90% by replacing Sulphur 80%. The majority of the promotional activities took place in Naogaon, Natore, Faridpur, Meherpur, Satkhira, Rangpur, Kurigram, Thakurgaon, Manikgonj & Mymensingh.The business carried out timely promotion of summer vegetables that are in the harvesting stage at the moment. In this stage, farmers use different liquid products to enhance the life cycle of the plants and get higher yields. Activities such as farmers training programs, personal communication and result demonstration on vegetables by targeting liquid products – Excel Gold, Bioferti & Bumper Folon took place. The major programs were held in Tangail, Narshingdi, Comilla, Khagrachari, Pabna, Meherpur and Jessore.

Aggressive promotion was also done for SOP & GA3-80% to be used during banana cultivation, since it is a potash loving crop, which increases the sweetness of the fruit. Power (GA3-80%) plays an important role in the development process of Banana in terms of size and color. Considering the business potentiality and sustainable sales, ACI Fertilizer did promotional activities such as farmer meetings & retailer training programs on banana cultivation in Tangail, Gaibandha & Rangamati.

Dr. Roland Schafleitner, Head of Molecular Genetics of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC) visited the R&D of ACI Seed. He surveyed the facilities and had a meeting with the scientists, breeder, advisor and business manager. Dr. Ronald inspired the scientists with positive words and expressed his interest in working collaboratively with ACI.

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Business Stories

ACI Motors attempts to boost brand image by holding training programOn august 2013, ACI Motors arranged a Tractor Operator Training Program at Natore for its valued clients. Training comprised of information on product knowledge, genuine spare part’s importance, periodic maintenance, proper vehicle operation, safety etc. The campaign provided a platform to advertise new products and services. The program provided operation and maintenance training to more than 50 Tractor Operators. Emphasis was given on maintaining good relationship with clients, commission agents and tractor operators to increase sales. Information was also given on products like power tiller, reaper, combined harvester, rice transplanter and diesel engine. The promotion helped to enhance brand image through exchanging positive views, feedbacks & remarks on ACI Motors products, spare parts & services.

ACI Fertilizer initiates partnership program in Char areasChar areas of Jamuna & Tista River have high potential for crop cultivation, but due to less use of new technology and inefficient cropping techniques; the farmers suffer from low agricultural yield leading to poverty. So considering this opportunity; ACI Fertilizer has decided to initiate promotional programs with ACI Seed and Crop Care. These programs are supported by SwissContact; one of the leading international NGO’s in agriculture for transferring new technology to the farmers for increasing agriculture production. The promotional activities will take place in the char areas of Jamalpur, Sirajgonj, Bogra, Gaibandha, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Kurigram & Lalmonirhat from September 2013. Feasability studies have already taken place in Jamalpur, Bogra & Kurigram along with farmer meetings. The feedback from these meeting is extremely encouraging and this untapped market holds a lot of potential for the business.

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Business Stories

ACI Animal Health launches 8 products in August 2013

ACI Animal Health has launched 8 products last month, among which 5 are for poultry and 3 for the dairy industries. 6 of the products launched have been introduced in Bangladesh for the first time.

FRA AC 34 Dry, FRA Maxibind Dry, FRA C12 Dry, FRA Multizyme MSP Dry are bulk items which are used as feed additives. FRA AC 34 Dry is highly effective against bacterial diseases of Poultry esp. Salmonellosis, Colibacillosis, etc. On the other hand FRA C12 Dry is effective against viral diseases like Avian Influenza, Newcastle Diseases, etc. Microencapsulated and use of nano-technology makes Multizyme MSP Dry different from other enzyme preparations. All the above products are directly imported from Framelco, Netherland. Digester has been newly introduced in Bangladesh and is a perfect combination of probiotics and enzyme. This product is water soluble and used as a growth promoter for poultry.

Lactospray is a new innovative dairy product which is used as a milk replacer for calf. Nexpro is a growth promoter which can be used both for the poultry and dairy industries. This is a feed additive and directly imported from Korea as a finished product. It is a mixture of live bacteria and digestive enzymes. Hepa-amine is a liver tonic which is imported from Korea and marketed in pack sizes of 100ml & 500ml. It acts as a Hepato-active, Hepato-curative, Hepato-protective & Hepato-stimulant.

All the above products are new and helpful towards developing healthy Livestock.

ACI Cropex started contract farming at Rajbari to cultivate “Summer Tomato” for the first time this year. The first consignment of summer tomato (200 kg) has been sold at Kawranbazar wholesale point this month. The contract farmers are exhilarated to get the market linkage through ACI Cropex. Besides, through contract farming they are interested to sell other crops as well. ACI Cropex also started to collect different agricultural commodities from various sources to meet their customers’ demands. Furthermore, Cropex opted for sorting, grading & packaging to add further value and supplied it to the agro processing industry. ACI Cropex already supplied 8 MT dry chilli to Pran Group. Other agro processing industries have also shown interest to work with ACI Cropex.

ACI Cropex opting for contract farming and value addition

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Agri-tech and Communication

Rice revolution through zinc-enriched varietyBangladesh is on the cusp of launching world’s first zinc-enriched rice variety. The variety is well-suited to fight diarrhea and pneumonia-induced childhood deaths and stunting. The new variety will also be the first to mature in Aman season. The National Seed Board (NSB) is due to give its approval of the country’s pioneering biologically fortified variety.Principal scientific officer at the plant breeding division of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Dr. Md. Alamgir Hossain, acted as the mastermind behind the research. He has been committing himself in this voyage of zinc biofortification in rice since 2003. The BRRI developed the new variety with support from HarvestPlus, which is a global biofortification mission launched back in 2004 under the Washington based global agro-science coordinating body – Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Usually rice varieties cultivated in different countries have maximum zinc content of 14 to 16 parts per million (ppm) whereas the variety developed by BRRI scientists contain zinc content of 20 to 22 ppm. Another feature of the new breed is its early maturity. Crop duration from seed to seed is 110-120 days for Bina dhan-7 and Bari-dhan-33 while the maturity period of biofortified rice is 100 days. It helps to free the lands early for the farmers and cultivate potato, mustard etc. before planting Boro.Most of the people in Bangladesh are poor and unable to eat vegetables and fruits and rely on relatively inexpensive rice for their diet. In this case, the new variety can help to mitigate the zinc deficiency of the poor.

Researchers at Kansas State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) discovered and cloned a gene in wheat named PHS that prevents the plant from pre-harvest sprouting. Pre-harvest sprouting happens when significant rain causes the wheat grain to germinate before harvest and results in significant crop losses.The trait of pre-harvest sprouting of wheat is very difficult to tackle and the innovation can prove to be revolutionary to halt pre-harvest losses significantly. Identification of a PHS gene before planting the crop gives the assurance that it will be resistant to the pre-harvest sprouting. Wheat is the only major food plant not to have its genome sequenced. The genome of wheat is nearly three times the size of the human genome.Researchers were able to study sequenced segments of the common wheat genome and look for a naturally occurring resistance gene. One of the researchers commented that without the sequenced segments, finding the PHS gene would have been impossible.

PHS gene increases anticipation of fewer crop losses through preventing wheat from sprouting

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Agri-tech and Communication

ACI AgribusinessesACI Centre245 Tejgaon Industrial AreaTejgaon, Dhaka, BangladeshPhone: + 88 02 887-8603E-mail: sectoedab@aci-bd.com

ACI Agribusinesses, the leading agriculture integrator in Bangladesh,is dedicated to gaining prosperity of Bangladesh through food security. ACI Agribusinesses offers complete solutions to farmers and also educates them about the technical know-how.

www.aciagribusinesses.com bra

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A g r i b u s i n e s s e sA C ICreating Wealth for Farmers

Deep-rooting rice gene tripling yields in droughtA gene responsible for giving rice plants deeper roots can triple the yields during droughts. Some Japanese researchers made the claim in Nature Genetics. The new study conducted by the researchers showed that the Deeper Rooting 1(DRO1) gene results in roots that are nearly twice as deep as those of standard rice varieties. With deeper roots, the plant can avoid droughts and get water and nutrients from the deep soil layers. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) estimates that an additional 8-10 million tonnes of rice will be needed each year to keep rice prices affordable at around US$300 per tonne. Finding a drought-resistant variety of rice may be a key to attaining this goal, according to researchers.

Researchers at Kansas State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) discovered and cloned a gene in wheat named PHS that prevents the plant from pre-harvest sprouting. Pre-harvest sprouting happens when significant rain causes the wheat grain to germinate before harvest and results in significant crop losses.The trait of pre-harvest sprouting of wheat is very difficult to tackle and the innovation can prove to be revolutionary to halt pre-harvest losses significantly. Identification of a PHS gene before planting the crop gives the assurance that it will be resistant to the pre-harvest sprouting. Wheat is the only major food plant not to have its genome sequenced. The genome of wheat is nearly three times the size of the human genome.Researchers were able to study sequenced segments of the common wheat genome and look for a naturally occurring resistance gene. One of the researchers commented that without the sequenced segments, finding the PHS gene would have been impossible.

Mixture of rock and organic waste can prove to be a robust fertilizer