04.09.2014

USA - Hail wipes out orchard, central Minnesota crops

A 10-minute hailstorm Wednesday wiped out hundreds of acres of farmland in central Minnesota, pummeling apple trees and decimating crops including zucchini and pumpkins destined for the Twin Cities.“It was a nasty hailstorm, one that I’ve never seen in my lifetime and hopefully won’t have to see again,” said Paul Nelson, who works on his father-in-law’s farm — Untiedt’s Vegetable Farm, north of Waverly. “It’s your baby. You’re just about ready to see the fruits of your labor, and then they’re gone.”The Wright County farm sells its produce to several local groceries, at the Minneapolis Farmers Market and in more than a dozen produce stands and garden centers around the metro area.Sheets of rain fell about 10 a.m. followed by “lots of hail” that left about 2 inches of white ice chunks on the ground, most about ¾ inches in size, Nelson said. “The cornfields are stripped to the stalk. Soybeans are stripped. The pumpkin fields used to be lush with green leaves, and now you can see rows of pumpkins because there isn’t a leaf that’s left. The apple orchard is basically gone. I couldn’t find one usable apple, walking from one end to the other.”Neighboring farms also were thrashed by hail, he said.Areas near Waverly saw hail as large as 1 ¼ inches in diameter, according to the National Weather Service. Later in the day, hail as large as tennis balls fell south of Lake Mille Lacs and golf-ball size hail fell as the storm moved into Siren, Wis, said Shawn DeVinny, a Weather Service forecaster.Minnesota’s apple harvest is just getting underway, Nelson said. And it’s beautiful.“Or, it was beautiful,” he said. The hail ripped through the 24-acre orchard — about 38,000 trees producing Honeycrisp, SweeTango, Zestar, Haralson, Fireside, Snowsweet and a few Keepsake apples.“The apples got all beat up. One side had about 30 holes in them. The other side looked OK. If you could turn them all over and eat the bottom side, then you would be just fine,” Nelson said. “It’s hard to get any money for half of an apple. And by the time we sold the bottom half, the top half would be so rotten that you would have plenty of penicillin to go with it.”The farm’s pumpkins likely won’t be around for Halloween. “The hail dings are deep enough that they’re probably going to rot,” Nelson said. “Sometimes they heal over, but who wants to buy a hail dinged-up pumpkin. Most customers won’t pay us for those. So it’s basically a loss.”“Most everything is gone,” Nelson said. “I’ve never seen anything this bad in 40 years of farming.”There’s little farmers can do about such devastation, he said. “In farming you have to tell yourself, there’s always next year. It’s kind of the way we’ve been trained around here.”Nelson said the farm has crop insurance but isn’t sure what the family can collect.Storms erupted again Wednesday evening after heavy rain earlier in the day caused “nuisance flooding” in some fields and roads, said Joe Calderone, senior weather service forecaster.The Weather Service reported 2.7 inches of rain fell at the St. Cloud Regional Airport on Wednesday. And in western Minnesota, the city of Glenwood reported flooded streets with more than a foot of water covering some roads. An early evening storm blew through Mora, with winds up to 70 miles per hour uprooting large trees and knocking down power poles, DeVinny said.Rain was expected to linger into Thursday morning, along with hot and muggy weather that will make it feel more like July than September, Calderone said. But a cold front sweeping across the state will bring drier weather, temperatures in the 70s and lots of sunshine that will make for a spectacular weekend.“It’s going to be really, really nice,” Calderone said.Source - http://www.startribune.com/

04.09.2014

Africa - Ghana: Farmers want gov’t support to combat fruit-flies

Mango farmers at Somanya, capital of the Yilo Krobo District in the Eastern Region, are calling for government support in combating fruit-flies on their farms.Detected in Ghana from February 2005, the flies attack several commercially produced fruit and vegetables -- with mango as one of the preferred hosts. Other host-crops include citrus, banana, papaya, water-melon, tomatoes, garden-eggs, Indian almond, and cashew.Fudu Baba Nkyem, Farm Manager at Hydrotech Farms and Trading -- a mango grower and livestock company -- said without government’s support mango exports could be curtailed or even banned if flies are found in fruit exported to the international market.Ghana among other sub-Saharan countries has been bracketed as a fruit-fly endemic zone, making it very difficult for fruit like mango from the country to penetrate international markets including Europe, USA and South Africa.Mango production is gradually becoming an alternative livelihood source for many in the country, but it appears the farmers are not getting value for money as they are losing the battle against fruit-flies on their farms.Mr. Nkyem called for either a mass-spraying activity or special chemicals or methods to combat the flies and stop them destroying their fruits. “We want government to come in with a mass-spraying team or special chemical or method -- not our insecticides or traps – that can control the flies. I can only catch a few flies with my traps, and that is even because we are in an association and our farm is certified,” he said.He noted that several small farmers do not know much about the havoc the flies can cause and are uninterested in preventing them, which poses a threat to farms like his.He said government can easily intervene through several measures, citing the example of how pawpaw farmers were trying to combat Mealybugs to no avail until government came in and introduced insects that ate all the Mealybugs.He said currently the only ways they are using to control the pest are protein baits and traps. “But we cannot be doing this all the time; we want government to come in and help us or else we cannot export the mangoes any longer,” he said.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

04.09.2014

USA - Flooding causes $35 million in crop losses for Arkansas farmers in 10 counties

A University of Arkansas study finds flooding that began in late June will lead to millions of dollars in lost crop value for Arkansas farmers.Farmers in 10 Arkansas counties are expected to lose more than $35 million in crop value, though the full extent won't be known until after harvest.The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service study found flooding hit soybean crops the hardest, with $28.4 million in losses for farmers. Rice farmers also suffered $5.6 million in losses. Other crops affected include corn, sorghum and winter wheat.Monroe, Poinsett and Woodruff counties were the most affected, with $4.5 million in losses. The other counties affected by flooding are Crittenden, Cross, Prairie, St. Francis, Craighead, Jackson and Lee."It's going to put (farmers) behind the eight ball. It'll take them a couple years to recover from it," said Van Banks, cooperative extension agent staff chairman for Monroe County. "Some (crops) survived; some didn't. There wasn't much rhyme or reason as to what survived and what didn't.But this summer's flooding did not damage crops as much as it did three years ago, when floods cost farmers $335 million.The flooding also won't hurt the state's agricultural production overall. In 2013, Arkansas farmers produced $1.84 million worth of soybeans, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agriculture Statistics Service.This year's soybean losses are about 1.5 percent of last year's total.Source - http://www.therepublic.com/

04.09.2014

USA - California’s drought wipes out nearly one quarter of state’s $5 billion rice crop

California’s drought has wiped out nearly a quarter of the state’s $5 billion rice crop.California is the sole source of sushi rice in America and it is one of the largest producers of rice as a whole. About 97 percent of that crop is grown in Sacramento alone. The industry provides about 25,000 jobs.Harvest season is lighter this year after farmers weren’t able to plant as much with this year’s drought.Almost one-third of the fields at Dewit Farms in Yolo County that were supposed to grow rice have left to dry up.“It’s tough,” said Mike Dewit. “I could be growing a crop here and it’s nothing but a dry field.”The second-generation rice farmer has been forced to let 30 percent of his rice fields in the Yolo basin go to waste because there isn’t enough water.“My dad’s been doing this for 40 years, and not even in the big drought of [1976-77] did he experience this,” he said.Jim Morris with the California Rice Commission says the entire local rice industry is in a similar boat.“We anticipate about 420,000 acres of rice has been planted and will be harvested this fall, and that’s down about 25 percent from last year’s crop,” he said. “The impacts are great not only for the farmers but for the rural communities and also for the wildlife that depend on rice fields.”With less rice being planted, fewer farm workers are needed.“We didn’t rent another tractor this year to help us get the crop in,” Dewit said. “Unfortunately we had to lay off a few operators that had been with us for awhile because we just didn’t have the acreage to plant.”With business drying up, merchants could be forced to turn elsewhere for their rice if the rain doesn’t return.“We are hoping with the lack of rice maybe the price increases, we don’t know that. But the question is will an increase in price offset the loss in acre,” he said.Source - http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/

04.09.2014

India - Haryana and Punjab reel under drought

The states of Punjab and Haryana, which make a major contribution to the grain procurement for the public distribution system in India, are reeling under severe drought.Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced on Tuesday that the entire state had been declared as "drought-affected" for Kharif 2014 and a special girdawari (assessment) had been ordered to assess the loss caused due to the continued dry spell.An official spokesperson said according to the data collected from the India Meteorological Department for the period from June 1 to August 31, Haryana continued to experience a more than 65 per cent rainfall deficit. Eighteen out of 21 districts in the state have received less than 50 per cent rainfall.The spokesperson said out of the special package sought from the central government, Rs 1,191.79 crore had been demanded to compensate the state power utilities which had been consistently maintaining an eight-hour supply for the agriculture tube wells for meeting the irrigation needs of farmers and saving the crops. Notwithstanding that, power was being sourced at a very high rate.He said the state government had also proposed Rs 1,047.71 crore to offset the interest burden on the farmers on account of deferment and conversion of short term crop loans, advanced by the cooperative sector banks, to medium term loans in these difficult times. An enhanced provision of Rs 293.30 crore had been sought under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Integrated Watershed Management Programme to provide additional wage employment and creation of water harvesting structures in the rural areas of the state.In Punjab, the deficit rainfall would put an additional burden of Rs 79 crore on farmers, said an official.The escalating cost of agriculture and decreasing returns has put small farmers in a Catch-22 situation. The small farmers might not be able to sustain if the state government does not compensate the increase in cost, said Jagtar Singh Brar, a farmer from Bathinda.Source - http://www.business-standard.com/

04.09.2014

USA - Harsh Winters Taking a Huge Toll on the Grape Crop

The harsh weather that we had this past winter is impacting the grape crop for wineries on the Old Mission Peninsula.Only 50 percent of the crop was able to be salvaged from the cold winter this year and it will affect some varieties of wine more than others, but you won't see the changes until next year."After the winter we had, we didn't know if we were going to have any crop at all," said Mark Johnson, Vintner at Chateau Chantal.Last winter may be a fading memory, but it's still taking toll on the wine grapes on Old Mission and growers were only able to save half of this year's crop."When it gets below zero, you start seeing some problems," said Sean O'Keefe, Vice President of Chateau Grand Traverse. "A lot of the fruiting buds were damaged beyond repair," said O'Keefe.The weather that came in the following seasons didn't help either."On top of the late spring, we had a pretty cool summer and we're seeing everything about two weeks behind in ripening," said O'Keefe.The loss of crop affects some varieties of wine more than others."You're not gonna see very many reds this year, in this region, it's gonna be mostly riesling, there's some pinot noir a little bit of red, chardonnay, some pinot blanc, very little pinot grie, no merlot, no cab franc," said O'Keefe.Although, you won't see these changes until next year, since it takes at least a year to make the wine...and the crop loss means profit margins might be squeezed."You still have to do the same labor, tractors are going through, the sprays and everything else that you would have a normal year but you have less yield to spread those costs over, so that's going to be a problem," said O'Keefe.But they're trying to look on the bright side and they say that less quantity, means better quality."I think the chance of us getting a really good quality is much greater with a half of crop," said Johnson. "So you got to look at it positively, we'll have some really beautiful fruit, we just won't have that much of it," said O'Keefe.Source - http://www.9and10news.com/

04.09.2014

USA - Farmers seek solutions to invasive berry pest

A new invasive insect has devastated northeastern berry crops, and growers are working with Cornell University plant experts to develop strategies to fight it.Binghamton apple grower Dave Johnson tells The Ithaca Journal that the Asian spotted wing fruit fly arrived on the West Coast in 2010 and spread eastward so fast that growers didn’t have time to come up with a battle plan.Watkins Glen apple grower Rick Reisinger said, “It was pretty shocking. At first, I just thought it was drought.”In just two growing seasons, the fly has put at risk $325 million worth of small fruit in New York. Statewide, Cornell University estimated the damage to commercial berry growers at $7 million in 2012.Cornell’s Integrated Pest Management program recently received a $170,000 grant to hire field technicians and provide growers with information on controlling the invasive insects.Some growers are using netting over their crops to keep the fruit flies off, but others say that method is too expensive. Insecticide sprays are being tested with limited success. Cornell also is working with growers to set up trap-and-kill stations, which lure the pests to a screened area where they’re destroyed.The most effective safeguards are labour intensive: regularly watering the plants, washing the berries thoroughly and picking the fruit just as it ripens and refrigerating immediately.Cornell’s Peter Jentsch said growers also can use raspberry bushes as a line of defence, treating them with safe insecticides to prevent early infestation and keep the insects from migrating to nearby blueberry bushes as the season progresses.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

04.09.2014

Livestock insurance and public-private partnership to be discussed in October 2014, Istanbul

Agricultural insurance issues is going to be discussed at the International Conference "Agricultural Insurance, Reinsurance & Brokerage in CIS, Europe & Asia", October 6-8, 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey. Conference Agenda covers topics on high-value crop insurance, livestock insurance and national insurance programs development with PPP mechanisms applied.World’s top experts will discuss the importance of historical data use and its analysis for agricultural insurance programs development and actuarial calculation methodologies. Many international experts from leading reinsurance and insurance companies will present on methods and approaches to insurance tariffs calculations.Nowadays, a number of countries considering national agricultural insurance system reformation and development is raising significantly. Reinsurance and insurance industry representatives, brokers and insurance consultants from USA, Canada, Brazil and Turkey territories will share their experience on PPP programs development widely. These issues are of a specific importance for new national programs development in Caucasus countries, Eastern and Central Europe.Most of the speakers and topics included in the Conference Agenda have already been confirmed. Details are available at the official Conference website – www.agroinsconf.com. The Agenda is still going to be updated within next few days with several topics and speakers, who have recently confirmed their participation.Leading international experts from over 15 countries have already confirmed their Conference participation. 104 delegates from 22 countries attended the 2013 Conference, who represented 74 companies worldwide. The majority of Conference participants come from reinsurance and insurance industry, broker firms, banks, agricultural production holdings and international insurance consultants.Official web-site: www.agroinsconf.comPlace for venue: InterContinental Istanbul, TurkeyDates: October 6-8, 2014Conference Organizers:AgroInsurance International LLC. - www.AgroInsurance.comConference Manager:Ian V. ShynkarenkoContact phone: +380 98 539 3335Contact e-mail: info@agroinsconf.comSource - www.agroinsurance.com

03.09.2014

China - Protect farmers against droughts

Low rainfall and scorching heat in recent months have caused severe drought in a number of China's major crop producing regions, some of which are facing the worst drought in over half a century. Concerns about China's food security dominate discussions on the drought, but a more likely threat is the drought's negative impact on the incomes of farmers, especially poor smallholders.According to recent news reports, severe drought has hit about a dozen provinces and regions in North China and the northeast plains. For example, rainfall levels in Henan province are reported to be about 60 percent of the past two decades' average, the lowest since 1951. This is serious because Henan accounts for 10 percent of China's cereal production, including a quarter of wheat and 9 percent of corn production. Local officials estimate that recent drought conditions are responsible for economic losses of up to 7.3 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), with 97 percent of these losses suffered by the agricultural sector.Severe drought has also been reported in Northeast China's Liaoning province and North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which produce about 7 and 9 percent of China's corn. According to the Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, severe drought has affected about 5 million hectares of farmland and left 1.6 million people without adequate water supply.The Chinese government has a number of policy options to mitigate the possible threat to food security and lessen the damage to farmers' livelihoods in the short and long term. China has large corn stocks that can be released to the market. According to Food and Agriculture Organization estimates, China's corn stocks this year are 27 percent higher than the 2011-2013 average. The government bought these grains above market prices as part of its growing portfolio of interventions to protect and provide support to farmers.Increasingly integrated international markets and trade channels are also an effective and efficient tool to offset drought-related agricultural production and supply shocks. The United States recently announced that it expects record corn and soybean harvests in the coming months. As a result, international prices of US corn fell to their lowest levels since August 2010, with current prices nearly half of their peak 2011 levels; international soybean prices too have fallen in recent weeks. China can thus benefit from the US bumper harvest to fill the gap between domestic agricultural supply and demand through imports.In the long term, China can take advantage of its comparative advantage in labor-intensive and high value agricultural products by shifting its exports toward fruits, vegetables and aquatic products, while importing more land-and water-intensive products such as cereals and vegetable oils. Such a shift requires appropriate tools and infrastructure to provide farmers with market information, training and financial services, especially focusing on smallholder farmers.Low-income households in rural areas have a small asset base, so shocks like droughts deliver a disproportionately harder blow to their livelihoods than urban households. In the short term, income support policies are needed to protect drought-affected smallholder farmers who are unable to access mainstream social safety networks. Such schemes need to be carefully designed, and the managing officials should be monitored and held accountable for lapses. Also, short-term social safety nets should be linked to efforts that promote long-term asset and capacity building of farmers.Resilience strategies are needed in the long term to help farmers deal with extreme weather conditions such as floods and droughts, including adjusting sowing dates and introducing drought- or flood-resilient crops. Improving infrastructure such as irrigation systems, pumps, storm drains, rainwater collection centers and emergency shelters will increase community resilience to extreme weather events. Crop insurance programs, too, should be strengthened through yield or weather indices to help reduce the impact of natural disasters on rural people's incomes.Moreover, the government needs to accelerate inter-ministerial integration to pool resources and information to provide a coherent, well-informed and cohesive disaster early warning system and response. Given China's booming non-farm sectors, some smallholder farmers should be supported in shifting from agriculture to non-farm sectors (both rural and urban), while others could be helped to realize their potential to undertake profitable commercial activities in agriculture.Extreme weather events such as droughts are becoming more the norm than the exception because of climate change. Transparent, accountable and well-defined disaster management policies and institutional channels are needed to help cushion the short-term impacts of natural disasters as well as to improve access to productive resources that offer long-term opportunities to build resilience among the most vulnerable groups.Source - http://www.ecns.cn/

03.09.2014

USA - Livestock Producers Urged to Enroll in Disaster Assistance Program by Oct. 1

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is encouraging producers who have suffered eligible disaster-related losses to act to secure assistance by Sept. 30, 2014, as congressionally mandated payment reductions will take place for producers who have not acted before that date. Livestock producers that have experienced grazing losses since October 2011 and may be eligible for benefits but have not yet contacted their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office should do so as soon as possible.The Budget Control Act passed by Congress in 2011 requires USDA to implement reductions of 7.3 percent to the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) in the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, 2014. However, producers seeking LFP support who have scheduled appointments with their local FSA office before Oct. 1, even if the appointment occurs after Oct.1, will not see reductions in the amount of disaster relief they receive.USDA is encouraging producers to register, request an appointment or begin a Livestock Forage Disaster Program application with their county FSA office before Oct. 1, 2014, to lock in the current zero percent sequestration rate. As an additional aid to qualified producers applying for LFP, the Farm Service's Agency has developed an online registration that enables farmers and ranchers to put their names on an electronic list before the deadline to avoid reductions in their disaster assistance.Producers who already contacted the county office and have an appointment scheduled need do nothing more."In just four months since disaster assistance enrollments began, we've processed 240,000 applications to help farmers and ranchers who suffered losses," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Eligible producers who have not yet contacted their local FSA office should stop by or call their local FSA office, or sign up online before Oct. 1 when congressionally mandated payment reductions take effect. This will ensure they receive as much financial assistance as possible."The Livestock Indemnity Program, the Tree Assistance Program and the Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program Frost Freeze payments will also be cut by 7.3 percent on Oct. 1, 2014. Unlike the Livestock Forage Disaster Program, applications for these programs must be fully completed by Sept. 30. FSA offices will prioritize these applications, but as the full application process can take several days or more to complete, producers are encouraged to begin the application process as soon as possible.The Livestock Forage Disaster Program compensates eligible livestock producers who suffered grazing losses due to drought or fire between Oct. 1, 2011 and Dec. 31, 2014. Eligible livestock includes alpacas, beef cattle, buffalo, beefalo, dairy cattle, deer, elk, emus, equine, goats, llamas, poultry, reindeer, sheep or swine that have been or would have been grazing the eligible grazing land or pastureland. Producers forced to liquidate their livestock may also be eligible for program benefits.Additionally, the 2014 Farm Bill eliminated the risk management purchase requirement. Livestock producers are no longer required to purchase coverage under the federal crop insurance program or Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program to be eligible for Livestock Forage Disaster Program assistance.The Livestock Forage Disaster Program was made possible through the 2014 Farm Bill, which builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past five years, while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for the taxpayer. Since enactment, USDA has made significant progress to implement each provision of this critical legislation, including providing disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; strengthening risk management tools; expanding access to rural credit; funding critical research; establishing innovative public-private conservation partnerships; developing new markets for rural-made products; and investing in infrastructure, housing and community facilities to help improve quality of life in rural America.Source - http://www.usda.gov/

03.09.2014

Bangladesh - Farmers brace for huge crop loss

Transplanted Aman (T-Aman) paddy and other seasonal crops of over 150 thousands hectares of land in 19 districts are about to be damaged as these remain submerged by floodwaters for around two weeks now.If the crops are damaged, it would be a huge economic setback for thousands of farmers in those districts.Apart from T-Aman, seedbeds of Aman would also be destroyed if those remain under water for around 10 days, according to officials of Department of Agricultural Extensions (DAE).However, the DAE officials say, even if the damage has been done, it would not affect fulfilling of the crop-production target for the year 2014-15 as the floods hit the 19 districts in the beginning of the Aman season.If the submerged saplings are damaged, affected farmers would be able to re-cultivate Aman or other rice or vegetables seeds once the floodwaters are gone, said the DAE officials.“Saplings of some Aman varieties can survive even if it remains under water for eight to 10 days. Hopefully a significant portion of inundated crop lands would not be ruined,” said Md. Abbas Ali, director general of DAE. The DAE is going to start its field survey today to get the “actual picture” of the damaged crops in the ongoing floods, the DG told The Daily Star yesterday.It is possible to plant Aman saplings till the end of September and the affected farmers would have time for re-cultivation.For this season, the DAE had set a target of cultivating T-Aman in a total 52.5 lakh hectares of land in the country.“But so far, we have brought 47 lakh hectares of land under cultivation,” Abbas said.A significant portion of the croplands have been washed away by the Jamuna, Teesta, Ghagot, Padma, Meghna, Arial khan, Old Brahmaputra and Feni rivers while another large portion of the croplands is still reeling under the floodwaters.Most of these crop fields are in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Jamalpur, Bogra, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Munshiganj, Feni, Noakhali, Shariatpur, Madaripur, Sirajganj, Sylhet and Sunamganj districts, report our correspondents, quoting local agricultural officials.If the huge amount of T-Aman in the vast lands of northern districts is damaged, it would be an “extra burden” on the farmers, fighting against the natural calamity for over last two weeks.In last few months, the farmers had to spend extra money for irrigation as there had been a drought like situation, reports our Rangpur correspondent.A total of 45,772 hectares of croplands in five out of eight districts of the Rangpur Divisions have been damaged in the recent floods. Rangpur has been the worst affected region this year.Agriculture experts said if the flood situation does not improve in a day or two, the production of T-Aman would be 10 percent below the target set for the current season, said Kamal Kumar Sarker, additional director of the DAE for Rangpur Region.Many of the affected farmers said there would be a “negative” impact on the Aman production if they are not provided with the necessary assistance by the government.Asked whether the government would take any measure to compensate the affected farmers, the DAE director general said the government would help by providing them with seeds and saplings of various crops, if needed.“The DAE and other government agencies are preparing seed beds. But we would take the final decision after determining the total damages,” said the DAE DG.Apart from Aman cultivation, fish farming in flood-hit 19 districts have also been severely affected.Only in Jamalpur, 2215 ponds out of total 22095 have been washed away by floodwaters, incurring an estimated loss of Tk 4.76 crore, said the district fisheries department.“Hundreds of farmers engaged in fish farming are facing a great economic loss due to this flood as fishes and fries float away,” said Md. Abu Hanifa, assistant director, fisheries department of Jamalpur.Source - http://www.thedailystar.net/

03.09.2014

Indonesia - Frost ravages potato crops

Dozens of hectares of potato plantations in Batur district, Banjarnegara regency, Central Java, have died in just a few hours after being stricken by frost, known locally as bun upas, resulting in financial losses of up to hundreds of millions of rupiah to local farmers.Bun upas, which literally means poisonous dew, a cold, fog-like dew that attacks plantations, causing potato crops to die in mere hours. The fog turns into crystal after falling to the ground.“If the fog attacks in the morning, by the following afternoon all the plants will for sure be withered and dried out,” said Hartono, a resident of Dieng Kulon sub-district, Batur, while inspecting his field on Saturday morning.Hartono said that the cold fog was not a disease, yet farmers were more afraid of it than pests.“Pests can be anticipated and handled quickly with pesticide. But the fog cannot. There is no way to anticipate it as it is a natural phenomenon,” Hartono said.He added that bun upas usually attacked at the peak of the dry season, especially the severe ones, but that it does not occur with any regularity.“That’s why it cannot be anticipated,” he said.Another farmer, Tarmono, said that this year, the cold fog had been occurring since early August. He added that the fog normally came sometime before noon and moved from one place to another, just like fog being moved by the wind.“Bun upas has killed some two hectares of my potato plantations. I just could not save them,” Tarmono said.Banjarnegara Deputy Regent Hadi Supeno said that the local administration could not do anything about bun upas as it was an unpredictable natural phenomenon.“We do receive reports from farmers about the bun upas attacks, but we cannot do much about it,” Hadi told the Post.What the regency administration could do, according to Hadi, was remind farmers not to plant potato crops continuously to avoid bun upas, which usually arrives in July or August.“Doing so is also good for the soil, as it gives it time to rest and recover instead of producing potatoes nonstop,” said Hadi, adding that farmers had often ignored such recommendations due to economic considerations.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

03.09.2014

India - Poor monsoon pushes UP to brink of drought

Lakhs of farmers across the state are staring at a drought-like situation due to dismal monsoon even as kharif sowing has declined by 2.09 lakh hectares in the state, followed by paddy crop at 1.95 lakh hectares, compared to the year-earlier level.While a few districts along the Nepal border had to tackle floods, a startling 69 districts have received below normal monsoonal rains. Of these, 16 have recorded deficient rainfall (60-80 per cent), 34 have recorded highly deficient (40-60 per cent) and 19 districts have received scanty rainfall (below 40 per cent).Overall, west UP has received only 254.2 millimetres, or 42 per cent of normal rainfall while east UP has received 410.8 millimetres, or 60 per cent of average rainfall. So far, paddy sowing this year stands at about 57 lakh hectares against a target of 60.45 lakh hectares. But now, the already shrunken paddy sowing is further threatened by scanty rainfall.Barring jowar and bajra, most other kharif crops such as urad, moong, arhar (all lentils) and maize have also registered a drop in sowing.UP agriculture director A K Bishnoi said, “We are advising farmers to go for 60-day toria crop (an oilseed) to minimise losses.” Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan has instructed all DMs to take up re-boring of 100 handpumps in every development block on priority basis to meet water requirement of farmers.Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has also said that he will write to the central government for assistance in the affected areas. Meteorological department director J P Gupta said that monsoon will pick up in the next few days and light to moderate showers are expected to continue for a while.Professor Sudhir Panwar of Lucknow University, who has been associated with farmer movements since long, said it was time the government rolls out drought schemes for the paddy farmers.“The decline in paddy sowing will have little impact on the prices as stocks would be replenished through FCI reserves. However, it would be the farmer – who may have now opted for non-commercial crops – who would be bear the most impact; the state and central governments should roll out their drought schemes,” he said.Source - http://indianexpress.com/

03.09.2014

USA - Magic Valley farmers suffer big crop loss

Farmers in the Magic Valley say they are suffering an unprecedented loss of crops.One of the big staples in that area, barley, was wiped out by late summer rains. Now, county officials are asking the state for help.The 160 acres of barley here in this field south of Twin Falls was harvested last month, but the crop was ruined."This caught everyone by surprise, no one expected this," said farmer Bill Bitzenburg.Clutching one of the pieces of barley that has cost so many, so much, Bitzenburg explains how five inches of rain right before harvest ruined one of his best sellers."That's how it should be, but without the rut hairs," he said.He says the wet warm weather caused the barley to sprout, making it unusable to be used as malt for breweries."It was terrible, the timing couldn't have been worse," Bitzenburg said.The barley that Bitzenburg had hoped to sell to Coors at $13 per hundred pounds was rejected. And instead he had to sell it as cattle feed for less than half that price."I think it's going to cost us well over a hundred thousand dollars, it's a hit," he said.And he's not alone. Twin Falls County says around 500 farmers lost barley because of all the rain."We're kind of sitting here going 'wow it could be 12, 20 million (dollars),' to a smaller area like this that's a huge economic loss," said Farm Service Agency County Director Lance Phillips.Which is why they filed for a disaster declaration, hoping the state will approve emergency loans for the farmers who need it.As for Bitzenburg, he says he'll be OK, but now because so many in the area are trying to get rid of low quality barley, the price keeps dropping as he hopes for better weather next year."We were taking a hit before and now it just got even worse, when you think it can't get worse it does, so it's just bad," Bitzenburg said.As for the disaster declaration, Twin Falls hopes it will be approved in the next 60 to 90 days.Source - http://www.ktvb.com/

02.09.2014

Africa’s Smallholder Farmers Risk of “Failed Seasons” rising

Small-scale family farmers across Africa— already struggling to adapt to rapidly rising temperatures and more erratic rains—risk being overwhelmed by the pace and severity of climate change, according to the 2014 African Agriculture Status Report (AASR).The analysis, prepared by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), with contributions from several African scholars, provides the most comprehensive review to date of how climate change will affect Africa’s smallholder farmers and highlights the most promising paths to producing more food, even in the midst of very challenging growing environments.“Smallholder farmers are the mainstay of food production across sub-Saharan Africa,” said Ms. Jane Karuku, president of AGRA. “As climate change turns up the heat, the continent’s food security and its ability to generate economic growth that benefits poor Africans—most of whom are farmers—depends on our ability to adapt to more stressful conditions.”AGRA released the report at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), which has attracted nearly 1,000 scientists and representatives of businesses, governments, farmers’ organizations and civil society. The report details both the immediate ramifications and longer-term trends of Africa’s changing climate.Farmers across all regions of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) already are contending with an increase in average temperatures. Further increases of between 1.5°C and 2.5°C are expected by 2050. Scientists predict severe drying across southern Africa, while other parts of SSA are likely to become wetter, but with farmers facing more violent storms and frequent flooding.The report notes that climate change could increase the number of malnourished people in SSA by nearly 40 percent over the next 35 years—from 223 million today to 355 million by 2050. In addition, shifting climate conditions can lower the concentration of mineral nutrients like iron and zinc in the edible parts of plants, which could intensify the already acute problem of micronutrient deficiency in SSA.Climate change will affect both the average length of the growing season and rainfall variability. Altered growing conditions can also lower yields and, in certain areas, they could make it very difficult to grow basic food crops as climate shifts exceed what the crop can tolerate. For example, in East and Central Africa, the area suitable for growing common beans, valued as a source of protein and now cultivated on 7 million hectares, could decline by 25 to 80 percent. Land suitable for cultivating banana could fall by 25 percent in the Sahel and 8 percent in West Africa.Such changes are already underway. Parts of Angola, for example, became un-farmable following three years of poor rainfall and drought. Increasing dryness and droughts will also affect livestock, as happened in the 1980s and 90s, when protracted drought killed up to 60 percent of cattle herds in Niger, Botswana and Ethiopia.New research reported in the AASR also maps the regions at highest risk for more “failed seasons” as rains become more erratic. At greatest risk are the countries of southern Africa. But also threatened are Southern Sudan and a belt of farmland running from southern Côte d’Ivoire, across Ghana to Nigeria.It will be critical for smallholder farmers across Africa to adopt a range of practices and crop varieties that scientists increasingly refer to as “climate-smart agriculture” or CSA. CSA strategies seek to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes by helping farmers adapt to climate change—and thus increase the resilience of their rural communities. CSA also aims to reduce agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.Farmers across Africa are already utilizing innovations that help them cope with climate risks. They are planting drought-resistant seed varieties; participating in innovative crop and livestock insurance programs that pay out when weather conditions deteriorate; and adopting soil management techniques that help their fields retain water and mitigate runoff and erosion.Adaptation strategies also encompass strengthening land rights, particularly for women; conserving biodiversity; improving information delivery systems; mechanizing farm labor; strengthening market and weather information systems; investing in agricultural research and education; integrating formal and informal knowledge systems; and building agricultural infrastructure, such as rural roads and irrigation.“Helping smallholders adapt to climate challenges today will prepare them for even more serious challenges in the future,” said Dr. David Sarfo Ameyaw, the managing editor of the report and AGRA’s director for strategy monitoring and evaluation. “When farmers are able to employ climate-smart techniques, it makes a huge difference. Despite climate change, there is enormous potential for smallholder-led agricultural growth. But there is an urgent need to increase investments to expand climate-smart agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.”Source - http://www.africasciencenews.org/

02.09.2014

India - Cotton growers advised to save crop from rain

Punjab Agriculture Department (PAD) has advised the cotton growers to take all necessary steps for saving their crop from damages may be caused by the rains at this important juncture.In an advisory issued on Monday, a spokesman of the department said that the cotton production target during this season had been set at 10.5 million bales in the Punjab province.The spokesman urged the growers to take timely steps for saving their crop from rain. He also said that picking should be stopped during the rain and restart after cotton become completely dry. He also advised to make exit for rain water in to some lower field from the cotton field as rain water, if stands more than 24 hours in the field, may cause negative impact on the production stopping the growth of the plant. He said that water should be shifted to some nearby sugarcane or fodder field. He also said that if exit of water is not possible then it should be transferred to one corner of cotton field by digging a ditch there.The spokesman also advised the growers to consult the local agricultural experts of the department if crop sustain heavy loss because of rain.Source - http://www.brecorder.com/