13.08.2014

India - Monsoon Rain at Five-Year Low May Cut Farm Output

Monsoon rainfall in India will be the weakest since 2009 this year, potentially cutting farm output and accelerating the highest inflation among Asia’s biggest economies.Rains will be 87 percent of a 50-year average of 89 centimeters (35 inches) in the June-September period, less than the 93 percent predicted in June, Jitendra Singh, minister for Earth Sciences, told reporters. Showers have been 17 percent below the average since the start of the season, the India Meteorological Department estimates.Planting of crops from rice to soybeans and lentils were delayed this year as about 90 percent of India received below normal rainfall in June. An estimated 833 million people out of the 1.2 billion population depend on agriculture for their livelihood and the sector accounts for 14 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.“Any kind of crop failure would lead to higher prices and inflation would come under pressure,” Madan Sabnavis, an economist at Credit Analysis & Research Ltd., said by phone from Mumbai. “Lower rains will affect crop output and at the end of the season there will be a shortfall in specific commodities such as oilseeds and lentils.”The Reserve Bank of India left interest rates unchanged at 8 percent for a third straight meeting last week, citing upside risks to its target to lower consumer-price inflation to 6 percent by January 2016. The index rose 7.96 percent in July from a year earlier, the Statistics Ministry said.Late RevivalA revival in the monsoon since the middle of July may not help mitigate damage to crops from a dry start to the planting season, Sabnavis said. The monsoon accounts for more than 70 percent of annual rainfall and waters about half of India’s farmlands. The area under monsoon crops fell 9 percent to 80.3 million hectares as of Aug. 8, Agriculture Ministry estimates.No drought-like conditions have been reported anywhere and showers in August and September will be better at 95 percent of the average, Singh said.Rainfall in northwest India, the main grain and sugar cane growing areas, will be 76 percent of the average, Singh said. The central region, the biggest soybean producing areas, will receive 89 percent of the average precipitation, while it’s seen at 93 percent of average in east and north east India and 87 percent in the south, he said.Imports of edible oil and lentils may climb next season, pushing prices higher, Sabnavis said. India imports more than 50 percent of its annual cooking oil requirement and 25 percent of the lentils consumption, he said.Rainfall was 22 percent below normal in 2009, reducing food-grain output and more than doubling inflation from the previous year, official data show.Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/

12.08.2014

Canada - Alberta farmers assess damages in aftermath of hailstorms

By the height of last Thursday’s storm, when the hailstones pummeling her farm were the size of tennis balls, Elna Edgar knew she should brace for the worst.Four days later, you can still hear the shock in the Innisfail-area vegetable grower’s voice as she describes watching an entire uninsured crop of peas and beans — a whole season’s worth of work — destroyed in a matter of minutes.“It’s like your boss walking into your office after you’ve been working hard all year and saying, ‘we’ve decided not to pay you this year.’ It’s so heartbreaking, and we feel so helpless,” Edgar said.Farmers from Airdrie to Rocky Mountain House are dealing with similar situations this week in the aftermath of a swath of severe storms that left destruction in their wake.Olds-area farmer Jeff Nielsen estimated up to 50 per cent of his crop has been damaged. While he had crop insurance, he predicts any payout he receives will cover his input costs only.“My barley was getting pretty mature, but you pull back all of the stalks and you can see a lot of the kernels lying on the ground now,” Nielsen said. “It’s part of farming, I guess. There’s nothing you can do about it.”Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) — a crown corporation that provides crop insurance to producers — has received 172 claims already and expects that number to increase by Tuesday’s deadline. Program co-ordinator Jackie Sanden said Thursday’s weather phenomenon was unusual, both because of the large size of the hailstones and because the storm system seemed to swirl around, hitting some properties three times in the course of an hour.“There are fields where the hail went through where you would swear a herd of cows grazed it off or they’d already taken the combine through. It’s just mashed right to the ground — there’s nothing left,” said AFSC program co-ordinator Jackie Sanden.Alberta gets more hail than anywhere else in Canada, due to the presence of the Rocky Mountains and their role in thunderstorm formation. The nickname “Hail Alley” refers to an area stretching from south of Calgary to north of Red Deer and west of Highway 2 into the foothills.But the last eight years have produced record levels of damage to crops, Sanden said, with 2012 being the biggest claim year in the AFSC’s 77-year history as a provincial hail insurer. That year, $445.6 million was paid out on more than 8,400 claims. The second worst year on record was 2008, while 2013 ranked third with more than $257 million in crop damages paid out on more than 6,400 claims.Neilsen said he never used to think of his farm being particularly hail-prone, but he was hard-hit in 2012 too and got walloped by a July hailstorm earlier this year.“I used to always think hail followed certain paths, but in 2012 it found a new path and then again this year it’s finding new paths. Maybe our weather patterns are slowly changing on us,” Neilsen said.Edgar echoed that sentiment — adding that in addition to the vegetables, the hail damaged the majority of the buildings on the farm and tore the leaves from the trees.“Hail is a fact of life, we understand that,” she said. “But my mother’s 80 years old and has been farming her whole life and she’s never seen anything like this.”Edgar added she hopes customers will stay loyal to Edgar Farms and the co-operative, Innisfail Growers, that they are part of.“People tell me I’ve got the best-tasting peas. Well, they’re just not going to be there this year,” she said. “But we still need people to come and support us with what we do have at the (Calgary Farmers Market) booth, because we still need to pay the rent there. The whole thing has just been devastating.”Source - http://www.calgaryherald.com/

12.08.2014

USA - Update begins for PLC and ARC crop programs

By now, most farmers who participate in federal commodity crop programs should have received a letter from their county Farm Service Agency office regarding their planted acreage of those crops in recent years and their update choices under the federal Farm Bill for the next 5 years.In conjunction with the sending of the letter, University of Wisconsin Extension Service agricultural economist Paul Mitchell has issued an advisory indicating the importance of responding to the letter and outlining the three options that farmers have for taking part in the commodity programs included in the new Farm Bill.A first step to signupThe letter, which Mitchell describes as "the first step" for commodity program enrollment under the new legislation, applies to eligible farmers who report their current base acres and payment yields along with the history of acres that were planted or considered planted during 2009-2012, he explained.What the eligible farmers need to do is to check the accuracy of that information and to begin assembling their crop production records in preparation for the commodity crop program signup that is anticipated during the coming winter, Mitchell pointed out. He noted that this information will affect the options they have for that program and the level of potential payments under those programs.This first step in the process gives farmers the opportunity to update their base acres and commodity program crop yields, Mitchell observed. Once the update is completed, farmers can sign up for one of the new programs, he said.Choice of optionsAlthough not greatly different from previous commodity crop programs, there is new terminology for what's available under the new Farm Bill, Mitchell indicated. The named options are Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC), which is offered on either a whole farm or county level crop by crop basis, and Price Loss Coverage (PLC).The final program details for those programs and a signup date (likely during the winter) have not yet been announced, Mitchell reported. What's known, however, is that PLC is virtually the same as the previous counter-cyclical programs but with higher target prices and that the choice that farmers make among the three options will be in place at least through 2018, he remarked.Extension Service agricultural economists in other states, particularly those with large shares of rented cropland, point out that the new signup should stimulate good communication between the farmer tenants and the landlords, some of whom might not be very aware of the program changes. They note that tenants sometimes don't share their yield data and that rental rates might also be at stake.Crop acre allocationsThe new Farm Bill allows farmers who are enrolled in the programs overseen the Farm Service Agency (FSA) to shift the mix of their base acres to match the crops that they planted in 2009-12 but not to increase their total base acres, Mitchell explained. Because of the record high prices for corn and soybeans during recent years, it's likely that many farmers grew more acres of those crops than is indicated in their current base acre allocations, he observed.What farmers should do after receiving the letter is to confirm that the numbers indicated in the FSA report match what they what they actually planted during 2009-12 because the historical acres will define their options for updating their base acres, Mitchell advised. They should also check if the number of acres indicated in the letter match what they have planted as base acres and for which they have obtained direct payments, he added.Any discrepancies with the FSA data can be corrected once the dates for the updating are announced, Mitchell continued. While farmers will not be required to update their base acre crop mix, it might be beneficial in many cases to provide an update because the crops associated with their base acres will define their payments for PLC or either type of ARC, he suggested.Options on payment yieldsAnother provision of the new Farm Bill allows farmers to update their payment yields, Mitchell pointed out. They could elect a payment yield rate of 90 percent of the farm average yield per planted or considered planted acre during the years 2008-12, he explained.Farmers who have now have higher payment yields than their current payment yields will likely want to make an update, Mitchell observed. That's because the higher payment yields will boost their options under the new Farm Bill commodity support programs, he stated.Establishing higher payment yields will increase both the PLC payments when such payments are triggered and the ARC individual farm guarantee and even make the latter more likely to be triggered, Mitchell remarked. He noted, however, that payment yields will not be tied to the county ARC program option because those payments are triggered only by county yields and national prices.An additional reason to update payment yields is the probability that it will be several years before another opportunity for such updating arises, Mitchell indicated. He predicted that any new commodity support programs in future Farm Bills will use similar criteria to determine those payments.Upcoming activitiesAlthough the current FSA letter does not include any information on crop production, farmers should assemble their 2008-12 production records in order to be prepared for the new signup dates and deadlines, Mitchell suggested. In most cases, he expects that crop insurance records will suffice but he cautions that the FSA has the final decision on what will be accepted as production records.The updating of base acres and crop yields is likely to be the first experience that most farmers have with the provisions of the new Farm Bill but the legislation also include several other new programs and options, Mitchell observed.One of them, available in some Wisconsin counties, is the new crop insurance supplemental coverage option for growers of winter wheat. The first sales closing date for that option is Sept. 30.Another new offering is the Margin Protection Program for milk production, for which signups will taken starting on September 2. Information programs on that new insurance program are being organized by Extension Service offices around the state in the coming weeks.Source - http://www.wisfarmer.com/

12.08.2014

USA - Weather damages blueberries, apple trees at local fruit farm

Poor growing weather this year is apparently the cause of the local J.Q. Fruit Farm and Orchard having an approximately 75 percent drop in saleable blueberries and losing more than 25 of its mature apple trees to a blight.Dan and Carol Whitcomb own the business north of Princeton city limits. Besides raspberries, it has 6 acres of blueberry plants and a little more than 4 acres of apple trees. The Whitcombs rely on the business for much of their livelihood.Carol Whitcomb talked about their situation last week.“It wasn’t just the wetness, but the long winter that affected the blueberries,” she began. The extended cold spring caused an absence of blueberries on the upper portions of the blueberry plants, where the snow wasn’t providing insulation, she said.The cooler nights during much of the summer so far this year have not been good for ripening the blueberries, and nights are when a lot of the ripening process occurs, she explained. Carol Whitcomb mentioned a radio weather broadcaster stating there had been a “polar vortex” in mid-July this year that brought cooler than normal temperatures for that time of year.The Whitcombs are longtime members of the Princeton-Zimmerman Farmers Market Association, and Carol Whitcomb said she has talked to other members and found that some have had an extra fuel expense heating greenhouses in the spring when the weather continued cool.“The weather affected a lot of people,” she said.Carol Whitcomb noted that their raspberry crop is good this year, but also said that good fortune will not be enough to make up for their loss in the blueberry and the apple crops.She mentioned two other downsides because of the weather’s effect this year on their business: They did not have enough blueberries to sell to their wholesale customers, and they had to let some employees go early this year. Whitcomb called it a “trickle-down effect.”Each growing year is different in Minnesota and “this year is more extreme,” she added. She characterized the year as being one of the worst she has known for growers. “We’ve had some years of no blueberries, but at least we had a decent crop of apples,” she said.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

12.08.2014

Turkey - Farmers' concerns mount with poor harvests

Turkey has been affected by drought, heavy rain and frost this year and it was the farmers and their crops that were most affected.A report by the Turkish Union of Agricultural Chambers (TZOB) reveals that agricultural yields have dropped significantly in some regions and some major wetlands have dried out. Due to the drought, trees in Malatya, the home of Turkey's apricot crop, failed to produce fruit. Olive trees did not blossom because of heavy rain in Gemlik and wheat yields were low in Ankara because of drought. The Meke Gölü crater lake, a crucial wetland area in Konya, went dry and farmers were unable to irrigate their fields. Agricultural production declined by 20 to 80 percent in some regions, including Yozgat, Manisa, Mersin, Eskişehir, Kırıkkale, Çorum, Kayseri, Samsun and Amasya. Farmers say that the damage has made them desperate. They say that postponing paying their debts is not a solution; instead, they expect systematized and lasting answers.TZOB President Şemsi Bayraktar notes that nobody is discussing the ongoing agricultural problems and that the farmers are being abandoned. He further says: “The frost in March was detrimental to the agricultural crop nationwide. Fruit production was badly affected by this frost. We experienced a 90 percent decline in production. The prices are well above seasonal averages and our farmers are experiencing great difficulties. These are pretty important problems. We need to offer solutions, but the only thing we are discussing is the presidential election.”‘Only 4 trees out of 700 produced fruit'Until now, Malatya has provided 20 percent of the world's apricots. However, 95 percent of the apricot trees were affected by a severe frost on the night of March 30 and then by subsequent drought. The total production dramatically declined from 428,310 tons in 2013 to just 30,250 tons. Mahmud Özdemir, who has been producing apricots since 1972, has 700 apricot trees in his field. Özdemir usually harvests 150 kilos of apricots from each tree, but this year only four of the 700 trees produced fruit following the frost and drought. Özdemir added that the Agricultural Insurance Pool (TARSİM) is not helping solve their problems.Some still believe that Malatya's future depends on apricots, and Tamer Demirel, an agricultural engineer, says that new infrastructure should be put in place. “We need dams for irrigation and we have been saying this, but nobody listens to us,” he says. Farmers recall that the frost on March 30 was the worst they had seen. Then the amount of water in Malatya's dams declined during the drought and major wetlands ran dry. Rural areas also experienced a shortage of potable water. Residents have been blocking roads to protest the shortages and farmers irrigate the fields by breaking sewage pipes. The farmers who rely on this option are desperate, they have no other choice.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

12.08.2014

India - Consider implementation of individual agri insurance scheme

The Madras High Court today directed Tamil Nadu government to examine whether it could introduce individual agricultural insurance scheme for farmers and inform its decision within two months.The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sathyanarayanan, while disposing of a PIL by M Appavu, a former MLA, said "we are of the view that the suggestion be examined and a decision taken on it be informed to the court within two months from today and it should be communicated to the petitioner within a week thereafter."Appavu submitted that due to the loss and damages caused to farmers they were not able to repay agricultural loans and a survey showed that since 1995 to 2010 a total of 2,56,913 farmers have committed suicide in the country due to loss in cultivation.The survey and research reports clearly showed that the suicides are due to the increase in fertilizer price, hike in wages, the petitioner submitted.Mere waiving of agricultural loans alone will not be a permanent solution, he contended, stating the present National Agricultural Insurance Scheme is a "disappointing one" as there is no real benefit to farmers under the scheme.An individual crop insurance scheme can be implemented to all agriculturalists covering all crops, the petitioner maintained, adding he had already made a detailed representation in this regard to the state government.He said he was moving the court as there was no response from the government for his representation.Source - http://www.business-standard.com/

12.08.2014

Record drought hits Costa Rica, Central America’s crops and cattle

Central American agriculture ministers held a videoconference on August 7 to seek coordinated actions to cope with a major drought that has hit the region.The drought has killed thousands of cattle, dried up crops and forced cities to ration electricity.Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala have declared emergencies in the worst-affected areas to speed up aid delivery. El Salvador and Nicaragua have opened special funds to help farmers.The current drought in Costa Rica is the worst in 75 years, according to the National Meteorological Institute (IMN). Especially hard-hit is Costa Rican’s northern Guanacaste province.Meanwhile, in northern Nicaragua, vultures are eating the carcasses of cows that are dropping dead in dried out pastures.The lack of rain has been blamed on the probable arrival of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is characterized by unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures that can trigger droughts.The drought has swept across a region known as “the dry corridor,” which covers nearly a third of Central America, where 10 million people live, according to a 2013 study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.Nicaragua’s government says the country is enduring its worst drought since 1976.The first harvest, which takes place between May and August, has yielded nothing, according to Nicaragua’s national farmers and ranchers union. Some 2,500 cattle have died and 700,000 more are in critical health as they roam dry pastures.Honduras’ rainy season is usually from May to November, but not this year. The drought has decimated 70 percent of corn crops and 45 percent of beans, affecting 72,000 families.The Honduran state energy company said it was rationing power for up to four hours a day in several cities because of low water levels in dams that power hydro-electric plants.El Salvador has lost one-tenth of its corn harvest. Guatemala estimates agricultural losses amount to US$45 million, affecting 120,000 families.Costa Rica’s livestock and crop farmers have suffered losses totaling US$24 million.Source - http://insidecostarica.com/

11.08.2014

Philippines - Public private partnerships key to ensuring food security

Known as the world’s rice bowl, Southeast Asia faces mounting food security challenges because of increasing urbanisation and a growing population amidst decreasing natural resources and climate change. The key to ensuring that the region’s agriculture and aquaculture sectors produce enough food lies in public-private partnerships, said experts at the recently-held Responsible Business Forum on Food and Agriculture in Manila.Speaking at the closing session, Bruce Tolentino, deputy director general for communication and partnerships of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), reworked an old proverb, “Man does not live by rice alone”, to describe how there are other factors, such as innovation, which will impact how the world will feed a global population of 9 billion by 2050.According to Secretary Francis Pangilinan, Presidential Adviser for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization in the Philippines, it is important for various stakeholders to collaborate, especially if the region is to address the need for sustainable agriculture and aquaculture.Delivering the opening address at the two-day forum on 14 July, he told about 200 attendees from the government, private sector, international organisations and cooperatives that the region has to “act quickly” on this “very unsexy yet urgent issue”.To do so, the region needs stronger public-private partnerships (PPPs), he emphasised. PPPs, in which a business and the government invest in a project together to provide a public service, can increase the scale of assistance to citizens. As such, collaboration and action between the public and private sectors could spur inclusive and sustainable economic growth, he noted.Specifically, PPPs could focus and deliver on six key areas in the sector of food and agriculture, he added. These are based on the recommendations from the Agriculture and Fisheries 2025 summit he convened among industry players in 2011 during his last term as senator. They are:- PPPs must put an end to the smuggling of agricultural products.- PPPs must make credit and credit support more accessible to industry players, particularly to small private investors.- PPPs must allow for technology transfer and capacity building, especially for small private investors in agriculture and fisheries. Agri-enterprises oftentimes fail because these investors lack expertise, technology and access to the latest research and development.- PPPs should make the market for fertilisers, seeds and other agricultural and fisheries inputs more effective by reviewing government subsidies or by assessing how lower prices or better product variety can be achieved.- PPPs should also systematically eliminate inefficiencies in the outputs of agriculture and fisheries, such as improving production cycles or reviewing the local taxes and fees imposed on the output.- The government should review its public investments and increase support for irrigation, crop insurance, market intelligence and development, infrastructure and others.“The needs are many and the government resources and capabilities are limited, so choices must be made’,” said the Secretary. But with PPPs, adequate funding and organizational resources can help implement these decisions, he pointed out. He did not cite specific projects or PPPs undertaken by the Philippine government.Neil Fraser of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock agreed, saying that strong PPPs will help the industry to achieve the goal of producing more with less.The need for such a strong cooperation between the public and private sectors, however, reflects a system-wide problem in the industry, Lory Tan, vice-chairman and president of WWF-Philippines pointed out. He noted the many gaps and shortcomings in the industry, whether in land use or appropriation policies or the use of outdated aquaculture methods such as fish pens. The different stakeholders should break silos and work together to produce multi-faceted solutions, he said.From the production to the consumption of food, improvements need to happen soon, warned Jason Clay, senior vice-president for markets and food of WWF-US. For example, the production of beef takes up 60 per cent of land used for agriculture worldwide, while only providing 1.3 per cent of the calories consumed globally. On the other hand, for every three calories of food produced, one calorie is wasted. The sector has to look into productivity and efficiency alongside consumption and waste, he said.In addition, the market dynamics of food supply and demand has a correlation to high food prices and social unrest, such that if food prices rise above a certain threshold that people cannot afford to eat, then anarchy is the result. “Food security is national security,” Clay stressed.Sec. Pangilinan noted that the private sector “has the deepest pockets” to invest in agriculture and PPPs could direct funds and resources to farmers and fisher folk that will help them improve their yield and income, which in turn, puts food on their table.“Beyond the narrow definition of public-private partnership as projects where the public and private sectors jointly invest, we must embrace a wider definition of PPPs as the public sector facilitating and supporting private investments in agriculture and fisheries, particularly private sector investments of the poor and marginalised,” he said.Businesses are in the best position to drive sustainability practices with their scale and market reach. Clay explained that firms could promote sustainability in a way that moves it from niche to norm, adding that the industry should “reward the best and move the rest”.This means if more companies commit to higher sustainability standards, the average business performance of that industry will be raised. He cited Unilever and the Consumer Goods Forum as organizations commited to doing this.Unilever – having recognised that agriculture and forest conversion are the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, as well as major drivers of deforestation – has pledged to eliminate deforestation and source all its agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020. Similarly, CGF, a coalition of consumer goods manufacturers and retailers for better business practices, is working towards zero net deforestation by 2020 through the responsible sourcing of palm oil, paper, soy and beef.Ireland too has made its own commitment that all its food and drink exports will be 100 per cent certified as sustainable by 2016, added Clay. The country’s food board, Bord Bia, is working with farms to audit their operations.Bindu Lohani, Asian Development Bank vice-president for knowledge management and sustainable development, also highlighted that innovative partnerships are needed to advance food security. With most Asians living in cities by 2030, who will be the farmers? He asked. A new type of business in agriculture must be designed, in which the farmer becomes the CEO, he suggested.In the Philippines, Monsanto is set to give the power of information directly to farmers through a mobile platform called Farmers First, which they are currently developing for a launch mid-next year.Sandro Rissi, Monsanto Philippines CEO, told Eco-Business that farmers – about 6,000 nationwide have signed up – will be able to receive free text messages that will help them to decide “when to plant, how to use, who to sell, when to sell”, among other tips and data, depending where they are since such advice should be specific to location. The farmers will also be able to send messages to the system so it is a two-way communication that enhances productivity, Rissi said.The challenge, WWF-Philippines’ Tan emphasised though, “is not simply to produce more, but rather, to figure out how to sustainably produce more with less – under complex and highly variable conditions fraught with risk”. Governance, he mentioned, is the main driver for sustainable development noted by different Philippine cities in a survey they conducted.He said: “Governance is not government, it is you and I. Democracy is not merely freedom, but participation.”Source - http://www.eco-business.com/

11.08.2014

India - The real shoots of economic revival lie in agriculture

Varun Gandhi, BJP national general secretary and a Lok Sabha MPThe rains have fallen short. An agrarian crisis is seemingly upon us. The Green Revolution was supposed to take care of everything. It was supposed to reduce dependence on the fickle monsoon, increase production, boost employment, cut down rural poverty and deter urban migration. India’s agrarian population rose by nearly 50% between 1980 and 2011 and now employs half the country’s workforce. Transporting food has never been more costly. Government support remains minimal, given high weather risks and market barriers.The peasant produces what he can, but sells at a distress price in the market. The government’s minimum support prices for 27 commodities, including wheat and rice, have so far helped feed India. Ironically, this impoverishes the rural poor, leading to more debt with higher borrowing costs. Traditional farming is not economically viable anymore.India’s irrigation is inadequate; it is vulnerable to climate change, while also being energy-inefficient. Surface irrigation in India is badly managed with extensive levels of water-logging. Just 40% of actual farm area is irrigated despite more capacity. Groundwater distribution, on the other hand, is not equitable. Those with better pumps and economic clout extract disproportionately more water from groundwater aquifers. Negative externalities, like rising salt concentration, can reduce drinking water and irrigation access. Despite substantial investment and subsidies, high transactional costs prevent farmers from adopting new technologies.Drip irrigation can be the answer to our irrigation deficits. By extending the surface irrigation network and providing fiscal incentives for the adoption of drip irrigation, water coverage can be improved. Rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging initiatives can also contribute in building resilience and improved productivity while conserving energy consumption.The government does not need to be in the business of food pricing and distribution. India’s institutional mechanisms for agriculture have been good conceptually, but have failed to create tangible impacts. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) is charged with developing competitive markets in agriculture through assistance with marketing and processing. But it has not been able to tackle recent bouts of prices and market gridlock in commodities like onions, for instance. Greater access to commodity markets and futures would ease this problem. Wholesale markets should be run through a system of secret written bids which are publicly opened, protecting growers’ interests instead of being susceptible to rigging.The private sector remains befuddled by inconsistent regulation. Take warehousing, for example. The Essential Commodities Act allows the government to regulate the amount of agricultural storage that private players can maintain. With low returns, few quality standards and a long market gestation period, private interest is easily constrained. Greater government support to entrepreneurs and rationalised regulation could help boost India’s agricultural exports.The government can do more to address the problem of India’s farmland fragmentation. Innovations like farmers’ clubs and joint liability groups can help reduce risk and lower producer inputs. Contract farming should be encouraged while greater information access about practices, input costs and market prices can be provided. A long-term rural credit policy with flexibility for droughts or flooding will help encourage banking networks and reduce market distortions. Subsidies for crop insurance would address weather risk and help institutionalise the practice of insuring against price and cost volatility.Some traditional practices like crop diversification, land levelling and mulching remain relevant. Sustaining such inexpensive practices will reduce input costs, prevent erosion and enhancing soil nutrients. Agroforestry should be encouraged as it will improve resource efficiency and enable carbon sequestration. Modern practices like systemic rice intensification (SRI) and soil fertigation should be encouraged.Rural wages have gone up through the MGNREGA but that has reduced incentives to produce agricultural crops. With reduced common resources such as forests and grazing lands, it is becoming increasingly expensive to rear animals. Climate change will also affect us badly. Nearly 70% of our arable land is drought-prone, with about 12% to floods and 8% in the cyclonic zone. Any temperature rise will lead to a drop in agricultural yield. With agriculture contributing nearly 20%of India’s CO2 emissions, this is a vicious circle.India already has a dedicated entity, the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), to promote “sustainable agriculture”. While successful at identifying challenges, its failure to find and encourage innovative solutions and address inefficient agricultural practices is a cause for concern. It needs to create agricultural innovation clusters, addressing the needs of big and small farmers. With the livestock sector’s major contribution to food intake and agricultural emissions, innovations like feed quality improvement and health and reproduction management could increase productivity, build resilience, and slash emissions.We need a commercial approach to agriculture. Farmers need to be encouraged to switch to more diverse and high-value crops like fruits, while incentives are provided for new technology adoption and mechanisation. Pricing and input costs need to be market-driven, with farmers encouraged to get organised for better bargains and pricing power. The revival of the Indian economy requires agriculture to grow. Poor small farmers, who are vulnerable to the incoming drought, need to be supported, while institutional reforms are carried out. Institutional reform of the agriculture sector is urgently needed.Source - http://www.hindustantimes.com/

11.08.2014

France - Over half of cherry harvest lost

At the end of June the strong rain damaged Rousoux Plants cherry production in Berloz. Over half of the harvest has been lost as the cherries full of water exploded. “We had 60mm of rain within a few hours” says Nicolas Goffin.With no way of selling the cherries they are either left on the tree or the ground. “We must have harvested 30-40% of our total harvest”. With damaged strawberries they must sort through them at harvest and manual labour is expensive. “When all is well, depending on their status, a person costs €8-10 an hour and a good picker can do 15kg an hour, so there there is a way of earning a living. But as soon as they must start selecting, they are twice as slow and pick 2kg an hour, it is no longer possible”. Following the first small harvest the Goffins have decided to stop picking and to leave the fruits to rot on the trees. Nicolas Goffin says that “If they are not good, then it is pointless as our reputation is founded on the quality of our products”.They could invest in an anti-rain cover, but this costs around €40,000-70,000 /ha. The Goffins own about 15 ha of sweet and acid cherry orchards, so it would be a heavy investment.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

11.08.2014

Philippines - No income from coconut farming in Albay until 2016 due to typhoon Glenda

As a consequence of typhoon Glenda, coconut farmers will suffer from loss of income until next year or even up to 2016, an official of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in Albay said.Alvin Trespeces, PCA senior agriculturist, said the agency's records estimated the total loss in terms of farmers' income up to December stands at P300 million.Trespeces said all farmers tending almost 99,000 hectares of coconut farms in the province have been affected and experienced great impact on their lives until 2015 to 2016."The price of copra was good before Glenda, that was why farmers' income increased, so as the estimated total damage could reach as high as P300 million. We have to wait for several years before we can recover -- that is, if we experience no devastating typhoon during this recovery period," he added.PCA-Albay, in its initial report on July 30, said 1,728,030 coconut trees had been slightly damaged -- meaning the trees have disarranged and dropped leaves -- and these are expected to recover within three months.A total of 3,009,161 trees have been moderately damaged -- with wasted or broken fronds, and fallen matured nuts. These trees may take about six months to recover and 10 percent of the harvest nuts for the year would be lost.Heavily damaged trees reached up to 4,359,830; these trees have broken branches, twisted or broken fronds, and at least 50 percent of immature nuts have fallen. These trees may take about two to three years to recover in terms of production.Glenda also left 66,269 coconut trees totally damaged and have no chance of recovery because of broken or cracked fronds and that 100 percent of the nut production will be lost permanently.What are the remedies?Trespeces said while farmers wait for several months for the re-germination and recovery of coconut trees, the PCA will offer remedies and interventions to support their alternative livelihood."Coconut trees should recover first through growing its leaves to bear fruits, so every after typhoon, we fertilize trees that were slightly and moderately damaged," he added.The agency gives free coconut seedlings for replanting to replace totally damaged trees.It also offers inter-cropping assistance, often called cash cropping, wherein farmers can cultivate fast-growing plants like camote, corn, and other root crops from which they can earn in a short span of time.Meanwhile, Trespeces reminds the public of the limitations in cutting broken coconut trees."Since December 2013, we have a moratorium on cutting coconut trees so even if the trees have fallen, they will still have to apply for a permit," he stressed.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

11.08.2014

USA - Cotton transition assistance enrollment begins

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that farmers can enroll in the Cotton Transition Assistance Program beginning today through Oct. 7.The program, created by the 2014 Farm Bill, provides interim payments to cotton producers during the 2014 crop year until the Stacked Income Protection Plan, a new insurance product also created by the legislation, is available.Details on the plan will be released by mid-August.“The Cotton Transition Assistance Program is another milestone in USDA’s ambitious timeline for implementing the provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill,” said USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator Juan M. Garcia.“Cotton producers now have a risk management tool in place. To help us provide the best service possible, cotton producers are encouraged to schedule an appointment with their local Farm Service Agency office early in this enrollment period,” Garcia added.Cotton Transition Assistance Program, or CTAP, applications approved before Oct. 1 are subject to congressionally mandated automatic reductions of 7.2 percent for the 2014 crop year.Applications approved after Oct. 1 will be reduced by the required 7.3 percent for the 2015 crop year.The Budget Control Act of 2011 requires USDA to implement these reductions to program payments.CTAP and the Stacked Income Protection Plan were established by the 2014 Farm Bill. The USDA said the Farm Bill builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past five years, while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers.Since enactment, the USDA said, it has made progress to implement each provision of the 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.valleymorningstar.com/

11.08.2014

India - Farmers Fear Crop-loss as Land Remains Under Water

Miserable is the plight of farmers whose standing paddy and vegetable crops have been submerged due to flash flood. Thousands of farmers have been spending sleepless nights worrying over their crop-loss.Sarbeswar Pradhan of Gopinathpur village is a worried man today. Though his family escaped from flood in river Budhabalanga, the deluge did not spare his four acres of farm land. Standing paddy and vegetable crops in his land have been submerged for the last six days.“If the floodwater does not recede in a day or two, the labour and money spent to raise the crops would go in waste. Though I planted saplings twice this year, those have been damaged due to accumulation of water. Earlier, the cultivation was delayed due to weak monsoon and now the crops have been damaged due to floods,” rued Pradhan.Similar is the plight of thousands of farmers in Sadar, Remuna, Basta, Khaira, Bahanaga, Bhogarai, Baliapal, Simulia and Soro blocks of the district which have been affected by the recent flood.Official sources said paddy crops in nearly 85,076 ha have been submerged in floodwater. Besides paddy and vegetable crops, shrimp farms, fresh water fisheries and fish enclosures have been inundated.Sources said Agriculture Department authorities are aware of the grim situation and have entrusted the officials to conduct a survey and prepare a report soon.Deputy Director of Agriculture Gangadhar Pal, who toured a few villages of flood-hit Sadar, Basta and Nilagiri blocks, said there will be at least 40 per cent crop-loss this year.“The saplings, which were planted in the first phase, are likely to survive. But all the second phase plantations will be damaged. Farmers are becoming victims of natural calamities almost every year,” Pal said.Agriculture officials said it is difficult to assess the damage now as farm land in several areas are still under water. Field staff have been asked to visit affected areas and complete the survey after the flood water recedes, he added.This year, the Department had set a target to cultivate crops in 2,50,550 ha of which paddy was to be cultivated in 2,20,830 ha.However, farmers fear total crop-loss if water does not recede within a day or two. It is unlikely to happen as the sea is violent due to full moon day. “The tender paddy saplings will rot if flood water is not drained out. We have no seed left for another round of cultivation,” said farmer Prasanta Behera.Meanwhile, the Revenue Minister has asked the district administration to submit a report after assessing the damages incurred during flood. Farmers have demanded financial assistance and waiver of crop loans.In the recent floods, nearly 1.5 lakh people in 708 villages under 110 gram panchayats and seven Wards have been affected. The death toll due to floods is five.Source - http://www.newindianexpress.com/

11.08.2014

India - Kuttanad Remains Flooded, Damage in District Pegged at Rs 61.16 Crore

Despite the incessant rain taking a hiatus for the last two days, many parts of Kuttanad continue to be flooded, leaving most of the people in the affected areas at relief camps.Over 14,1,292 persons are housed at the 433 relief camps opened by the district administration. According to the authorities, the district has suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 61.16 crore so far in the rain-related disasters this season.Agricultural sector alone has suffered a loss of Rs 49.1 crore while other sectors suffered a loss of Rs 12.06 crore. The district authority has submitted a report to the Chief Minister, seeking relief to those who suffered losses. The Chief Minister had visited the district last week to evaluate the situation.In the agricultural sector, paddy cultivators suffered the most, amounting a loss of Rs 41.4 crore. Around 7,471 hectares of paddy cultivation is under flood, said Agricultural Department deputy director A G Kareem.Of this, cultivation on 4,805 hectares has been destroyed. If the flood water is evacuated from the fields, a portion of the crop can be saved and the department is striving hard to do so, he said.Around 42 paddy polders spread across 2,875 hectares under 11 Agricultural Offices in Kuttanad were destroyed owing to the breach of bunds. The Chief Minister has asked the agricultural officers to take immediate measures to reconstruct the bunds and drain the polders.Most of the crop in the polders has developed a growth of around 20 to 30 days. If the draining works will be carried out in a week, at least a portion of the crops can be saved, Kareem said.Vegetable cultivation in around 79 hectares and plantains in around 86 hectares have been lost in the flood and wind.Tuber crop cultivation in around 92 hectare also suffered loss. The loss suffered due to the destruction of houses, roads, electric poles and water authority has been pegged at Rs 12.06 crore. As many as 18 houses were destroyed and 806 houses damaged in the district.Source - http://www.newindianexpress.com/

08.08.2014

USA - Rain, hail hit farms hard

Sometimes prayers for rain go unanswered, and sometimes they get answered with more vigor than crops can take.Monday and Tuesday evening, rain and hailstorms hit parts of the Klamath Basin hard, tearing into plants and flooding fields.Official reports from the National Weather Service said Klamath Falls clocked in with 0.73 inches of rain Monday and Tuesday. But farmers claim to have seen several inches fall on their fields during these severe storms.“The farmers want water, but we’d like it at a little less rate than that,” said Terry Guthrie, a potato farmer near Malin. “It’s bizarre. We’re in a drought all summer long for the last eight or nine months, and we have two storms that dump that kind of moisture on us.”A heavy tollGuthrie was one of several farmers whose crops were damaged by the storms. He said his potato fields suffered between 20 and 90 percent damage.“They flooded, pounded us with hail, everything,” Guthrie said, noting the hail defoliated his potato plants.Rob Unruh, a potato and grain farmer in the Malin area, suffered between 40 and 95 percent damage in his fields and his son’s fields, he said.“In all, 40 to 95 percent of the plant itself was damaged by hail,” Unruh said. “It strips the leaves off, it breaks the stems, it opens them up to sunlight and other diseases.”The storms also damaged crops at Unruh’s son’s grain fields.“Over 50 percent of his wheat crop is laying on the ground,” Unruh said.Scott Seus, of Tulelake, lost one onion field near Malin to the heavy storms.“I had one onion field wiped out that we’re going to end up walking away from,” he said. “The onions were just shredded. People in Malin were talking about being able to smell onions the night of the storm because the hail defoliated the onion tops.”A swath two miles wideGuthrie described the storm damaged area as a swath between Lost River High School and Malin.“It was approximately a mile or 2 miles wide and went on for 10 miles,” Unruh said.In addition to the outright hail damage to plants, Guthrie saw flooding from the sheer amount of moisture hitting the ground all at once.“There were fields down there under water, 20 to 25 acres of lakes,” Guthrie said of the areas below Bryant Mountain. “The road up toward Malin dump was cut nine feet deep on both sides, water coming off the mountain.”Mark Trotman, a Klamath Basin potato farmer, lost about 25 percent of his crop to the storm, a recoverable amount, he said. But the massive amount of precipitation cut gullies between his potato rows.“The amount of rain we got in the short amount of time, that’s a little on the unusual side. My worst field as far as rain got up to two inches in the short period; that was Monday night. And last night the same field got another 63 hundredths of an inch, according to our rain gauge,” he said on Wednesday. “Gullies washed out through the rows of potatoes. I’m not sure how to handle it at harvest. I’ll have to fill them in before I harvest somehow. Some are close to 3-foot deep.”Seus said fallowed fields showed how much water covered the area.“The rain hit hard enough that it smoothed out the ground and melted clods,” Seus said. “It smoothed out the ground in some areas and left the field slicked off.”Buckets of rainThe National Weather Service listed official rainfall at 0.73 inches in Klamath Falls, 0.17 inches at Mount Shasta and 0.39 inches in Alturas, said Charles Smith, meteorologist intern at the National Weather Service office in Medford. He also confirmed hail the size of eight-tenths of an inch in the Klamath Falls area Monday.The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (also known as CoCoRaHS) unofficial precipitation measurements listed 0.27 inches in Klamath Falls, 0.6 inches in Keno, 0.2 inches in Merrill and 0.47 inches in Bonanza on Tuesday.“I know guys that had a bucket in their yard and there was 4 to 5 inches of water after the storms went across,” Guthrie said. “There’s a strong possibility there was 3 to 4 inches of rain in those storms.”“The discomforting thing about that whole situation is the smoke being so thick you can’t see it coming,” Seus said, referencing the smoke covering the entire region from wildfires. “It’s pretty unnerving to have lighting crack over your head and rain hitting before you know the storm is coming at you.”Insurance claims“I’m standing out in my grain field with five insurance adjustors right now,” Unruh said in an interview with the Herald and News Wednesday afternoon. Unruh has seen severe rainstorms and hail storms damage his crop often enough that he has insurance for it.“It averages about every fifth year,” he said, “but I’ve never had this much of my crop damaged this severely.”Even with insurance he estimated he was losing $1,000 to $2,000 an acre.Though potato farmers don’t harvest until the end of September into October, these summer months are important to potato growth.“They’re in a critical stage right now,” Guthrie said. “This is when potatoes do their most sizing, in the last two to four weeks of growth.”For now the farmers will do everything they can to try and keep their plants alive.“The first thing we’d do this morning after the hail, we had some micro-nutrients blown on and fungicide to try to reduce disease,” Unruh said. “Keep them as healthy as you can and see what happens. Some fields do amazing after the damage and some fields just die. You don’t know until it’s finished. Until they die or you harvest the crop.”“It weakens the plant and they become susceptible to early blight and they just die off,” Guthrie said of the damaged plants.Trotman said he would be able to bring his potatoes back to health and harvest, because his damage was only about 25 percent.Seus will walk away from one onion field, but another that was damaged looks like it will survive, he said. But the rainstorms are a reminder to farmers of where they stand when it comes to nature.“You’re at Mother Nature’s mercy,” Seus said, “and every once in a while she reminds you of it.”Source - http://www.heraldandnews.com/

08.08.2014

USA - NJ stiffed as farm subsidies become corporate welfare

There are fewer cash crops and more cash cropping in America as the Garden State is getting fewer returns than other states from farm subsidy programs.New Jersey has 10,327 farms, but only 857 — or 8.3 percent — collected federal farm subsidies, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).Of $256 billion in farm subsidies from commodity, crop insurance, and disaster programs and $39 billion in conservation payments paid between 1995 and 2012, New Jersey farmers collected just $234 million.New Jersey ranks 42 among the 50 states in agricultural subsidies, with $94.4 million going to commodity subsidies, $53.3 million as crop insurance subsidies, $34.7 million for conservation, $50.6 million paid as disaster relief.Data shows that 92 percent of farms in New Jersey did not collect subsidy payments, according to the USDA.Just ten percent of New Jersey farms collected 63 percent of all the subsidies paid here, amounting to $113 million over 18 years.Environmentalists say the massive program has become a form of corporate welfare instead of a way to make food affordable.“Crop insurance costs have reached an all-time high and overwhelmingly flow to the largest and most successful farm businesses,” said Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) vice-president for government affairs.“While the top one percent of recipients haul in more than $220,000 in support per year the bottom 80 percent get only about $5,000,” said Faber. “Some very large farm businesses receive more than $1 million in insurance subsidies.”Faber said EWG’s Farm Subsidy Database documents that free-spending federal crop insurance subsidies are badly in need of reform.The organization contends that many farmers are producing food in ways that protect family farms and the environment, but federal policies are doing too little to reward good stewardship and too much to underwrite unsustainable crop and animal production by the largest and most successful agricultural businesses.Source - http://njtoday.net/