10.07.2014

USA - Farm bill shows ‘functionality’

Under the new farm bill, the direct payment system was eliminated. Under that system farmers paid the same amount no matter how much of their crops or livestock they lost.An insured payment system replaced the old one. Farmers can choose to insure their crops on the Price Loss System, where they are refunded the price of the loss based on a price set by Congress. Farmers can pick and choose what crops they want to insure for a more cost-effective plan.The other choice, called Adverse Risk Coverage, insures the entire farm but the payments are determined year-to-year by the yields of farms averaged across the state, not a set price like the PLC option.President Barack Obama signed the $956 billion farm bill last February with support from both parties.Bernard, an agriculture policy analyst, said farmers have to make an educated decision between the PLC and ARC plans, because they will be stuck with the choice until 2018.Despite Bernard’s informative words, some local farmers are still confused on how the new farm bill will affect their work and lives.Rob Humphries, co-owner of Wild Rose Farms and a host ofCorn Strategies 2014, said, “there’s a lot up in the air about the new farm bill that us as producers don’t have a full understanding of yet.”“We’ve been worried about production on the farm here all spring,” Humphries said. “We’re going to have to readjust some of those things with the farm agency. We’re going to have to get busy on that before this fall.”Brimfield farmer Grant Strom said crop insurance is the biggest factor coming out of the farm bill, so farmers are able to protect themselves if they have a bad season.However, Strom, vice president of the Knox County Farm Bureau, is unsure about the mechanics of the decision he’s going to have to make.“He (Roger) kind of reaffirmed how messed up some things in Washington are unfortunately but it’s interesting to see how things play out the rest of this year,” Strom said. “We don’t know enough about the complete focus of the bill to really be able to make proper decisions.”Bernard said the first thing farmers should know to help them make an educated decision is their cost of production.He said with that, farmers can use the online decision tools to help them figure out which option is best for them. The University of Illinois is a contributing school to these online decision tools, which Bernard said are going to be available to farmers soon.Although the new law offers a safety net to farmers, Bernard said there’s a problem in its details.According to Bernard, the data used to draft the bill and to calculate payments to farmers are based on two-year-old projections that ended up being wrong.“You find out in a big hurry that projections are fraught with peril,” Bernard said. “When we started into this process, they were using the budget baseline numbers from a year ago when they first started working on the farm bill and that gave them a different picture than what the bill is scored against once it became law.”Bernard said the discrepancy in the numbers was partially influenced by the draught in 2012.Source - http://www.galesburg.com/

10.07.2014

Canada - Crop insurance claims rapidly rise

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan is the largest producer of canola and wheat in the world, but it is currently seeing a massive number of crop insurance claims after its farms have experienced widespread flooding.According to the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp chief executive officer, Shawn Jaques, “It’s a very large area that’s impacted, so we expect to get a number of claims”. The CEO of that government owned company based within the province went on to say that “There will be a large number of producers that had their crops seeded, and it’ll be flooded out.”Jaques explained that it remains too early to be able to determine exactly how large and costly the damage to farms actually is, as farmers are only just now beginning to make their flooding claims. Parts of Saskatchewan and into the neighboring province of Manitoba are experiencing tremendous amounts of flooding after up to 8 inches of rain fell last weekend, alone.There have already been 54 Saskatchewan municipalities that have declared a state of emergency, according to the deputy commissioner of emergency management and fire safety of Saskatchewan, Colin King.Some estimates – such as those from Martell Crop Projections from Wisconsin – are predicting that there will be a 15 percent drop in wheat sowing in Saskatchewan as a result of the excessively wet weather conditions of late. LeftField Commodity Research has estimated that about 4 million acres of land throughout the Canadian prairies may now be too wet for farmers to be able to use them to plant.In Manitoba, things are also looking as though crop insurance payouts will be notable, although the size of the damage in that province is still undergoing assessment at the time of the writing of this article. It will depend on whether or not the water recedes quickly, allowing some fields to be recovered, or whether the fields will be entirely washed out.Source - http://www.liveinsurancenews.com/

09.07.2014

Bad weather causing damage in Europe

Over the past few months different hailstorms have left a trail of destruction in Europe. The harvests in various countries were affected by the bad weather. In order to get a picture of the extent of the damage, the following gives an overview of the affected areas over the last few months:SpainIn January greenhouses in Motril were under a layer of snow and hail. A month later the strawberry harvest in the Canary Islands was damaged by various hailstorms. Open ground, in particular, has been affected. Where there was once 300,000 strawberry plants in the area, there are now only 200,000. The affected area is around 40 ha.In April the Fraga region was affected with heavy rain and hailstorms in which 20 to 30 liters (per square meter) of water fell. More than 500 ha of apricots, peaches, cherries and nectarines were damaged. The entire affected area is around 600 - 800 ha.In June there were hailstorms in various regions in Spain, including Costera and Ribera. The hail caused damage to 500 hectares, affecting citrus and khaki. 70% of the harvest was damaged.In Valencia 45,000 ha were affected by hail. Eyewitnesses reported hailstones the size of golf balls. 60 - 80% of the crops were affected, in particular citrus, khaki's, melons, and watermelons.In Murcia 12,000 ha were affected by the hail, especially stone fruit, and to a lesser extent, grapes. The final damage to the fruit was not too bad due to the fact that most of the stone fruit was already harvested. Only yellow peaches and nectarines were hit. The damage to grapes was also not that bad because this harvest is protected with nets.GreeceEstimates for the Greek top fruit production in January were downgraded due to the bad weather conditions during the growing season. The apple harvest will, as expected, fall 10% and the volume of pears will decrease 26%.A hailstorm affected the Veria region in June and damaged the peach and apricot harvests. The damage is estimated (initially) around 80 to 100% of the peach crop in Veria, Meliki, Makrychori and Vergina. The affected area is 15 km long and 15 km wide. The damage falls between 40,000 to 50,000 tons, approximately 10% of total Greek production.ItalyA warning was issued in March in Italy for hail and cold, that could damage the crops. After the warm winter the crops developed further than normal. A cold front can cause a lot of damage.In April Italy had bad weather and this caused damage in various regions throughout the whole country. Kiwis, melons and watermelons, peaches and apples belong to the affected crops. Rain, hail and wind are responsible for the damage.After a period of drought, there came heavy storms and hailstorms in June throughout the country. In one of the affected areas, east of Bologna, 70 mm of rain fell in some places. Crops in open fields and in the greenhouse were damaged, including potatoes and onions, but also fruit in different stages of maturity were hit.The NetherlandsIn April and May heavy thunderstorms fell over the Betuwe, Bommelerwaard and Northeast. Hundreds of hectares of top and soft fruit were hit, but also onion and cauliflower growers reported to the insurance companies. The damage in Gelderland is estimated at 10,000 euros a hectare. A grower in Gelerland lost his entire cherry, pear and apple harvest.Central EuropeAfter floods come hailstorms which increases the damage. In Germany a loss of between 4 to 5 million euros has been reported. In Switzerland it was 2 million. As well as greenhouses, open ground vegetables were also affected by hail damage. A greenhouse company reported a loss of one and a half million euros after hail destroyed half of the roof.FranceIn June two hailstorms fell over the Ile-de-France and caused a lot of damage for the agricultural sector. The whole harvest of a few fruit and vegetable growers was lost. Damage to the hardest hit growers runs up to 500,000 euros. Greenhouses were also damaged. On top of damage to the glass, harvests under the glass are lost as well. The bad weather caused damage in orchards as well.Although it seems as if the weather is getting more extreme, much remains unclear about the link between climate change and this weather. The KNMI reports that the chance of extreme weather has increased and it is very likely that this trend will continue.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

09.07.2014

USA - Southwest canola producers have insurance options

Southwest canola producers in counties covered by the USDA Risk Management Agency winter canola crop insurance have until September 2 to buy policies.Federal crop insurance also may be available to producers in non-covered counties, but farmers have an earlier deadline, July 31, to get a signed written agreement submitted to their crop insurance representatives. Written agreements also must be submitted by September 2, 2014.Those written agreements are available from the local Farm Service Agency (FSA).Oklahoma and Texas producers may choose either the Revenue Protection Plan or the Yield Protection Plan in all counties where coverage is offered.Several counties have recently been added to the insurance eligibility list. Comanche, Cotton, Canadian, Logan and Noble Counties are now eligible for the RMA crop insurance. Oklahoma counties already eligible are Alfalfa, Blaine, Caddo, Custer, Dewey, Garfield, Grant, Kingfisher, Major and Woods counties. Wichita and Moore Counties in Texas are now eligible for RMA canola crop insurance, the RMA stated.Source - http://southwestfarmpress.com/

09.07.2014

India - Weather stations being set up to record crop damage data

To collect the data of possible crop damage in the view of delayed monsoon, weather stations are being set up across Chhattisgarh.The data, collected from the weather stations will help in assessment of crop insurance benefits to be provided to the farmers against their crop loss."The state government has already launched weather-based crop insurance scheme for the ongoing kharif season to ensure relief to farmers in the backdrop of delayed monsoon," an official statement here said today.Under the scheme, the establishment of weather stations at every 10 kms distance is underway across the state, and these stations will collect data of crop damage using ultramodern equipments, thereby helping in calculation of crop insurance benefits to farmers, it said.The Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture department Ajay Singh also took a stock of the work of weather-stations and progress in implementation of weather-based crop insurance scheme during a meeting with senior officials yesterday, it added.The officials have been instructed to give proper advice to farmers from time to time, in the backdrop of delayed monsoons.Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

09.07.2014

USA - Ohio fruit farmers feeling impact of Polar Vortex

Lynd fruit farm in Pataskala is just wrapping up their berry season. Blackberries did not make it through the cold temperatures, but blueberries, red raspberries, and black raspberries did survive.Other fruit that did not survive anywhere in Ohio were the peaches. The closest peach crop that survived is from Pennsylvania. If you go to a farmers market and buy peaches you should expect to pay about 10-20% more this year because of the reduced crop, and the fact that they will have to be shipped to Ohio.Lester Lynd said that fruit farms in Ohio do not depend on peaches because they often will freeze out. Lynd's rely heavily on apples for their primary cash crop. Lester said that there is a huge demand for Honey Crisp apples and it is hard to keep up. They planted an additional 7,000 Honey Crisp trees this year.He also said they're trying a new variety of apples, called Ever Crisp, that was just developed last year. They have a few hundred of the trees, but they are still very small trees. The new breed is a mix between Honey Crisp and Fuji, and can stay crisp in your fruit bowl for several months. Keep an eye out for those in the coming years, because he says that they will be the next big thing when it comes to apples.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

09.07.2014

Africa - Nigeria to launch crop insurance for farmers

Following the 2012 flooding which destroyed some crops and farmland leading to low productivity and loss of crops to farmers, the Federal Government is set to launch a national crop insurance for farmers.This was made known by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, in Abuja, during a workshop on water management solutions for flood recession and dry season agriculture in Nigeria.Adesina said the programme, which would start from 2015 and targeted at 10 million farmers, would insure farmers against shocks and losses from weather-related events.“Our goal is to insure no fewer than 10 million farmers. We will also design and implement a flood disaster payment policy that will protect farmers, communities and states from economic losses due to flood,” Adesina said.He also stated that water must be managed efficiently to improve production, stressing that water would be the most limiting factor affecting food production.“We must improve the efficiency with which we use water and get more grains per drop of water. To achieve this, I believe we must focus on small scale water management system, not just the large scale irrigation schemes,” he said.Adesina added that “small-scale water management systems are more cost-effective, easier to implement, reaches millions of farmers, have greater impacts on expanding food production and food security and empowers rural community.”Speaking on International Water Management Institute (IWMI) collaboration in Nigeria, Adesina said the project would be in two phases. The first phase, he explained, would focus on creating an evidence-based framework on assessing floods anda flooding patterns for decision making purposes.Source - http://tribune.com.ng/

09.07.2014

USA - Crop insurance expanded for first-time farmers

A new interim rule introduced by the U.S. Agriculture Department that provides additional crop insurance options for first-time farmers is welcome news for insurers, and the fulfillment of a promise made by the federal government back in May.“Crop insurance is critical to the ongoing success of today's farmers and ranchers and our agriculture economy. These improvements provide additional flexibility to ensure families do not lose everything due to events beyond their control,” says Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack. “We need to not only encourage new farmers to get into agriculture, we must ensure they're not wiped out in their riskiest initial seasons so they can remain in agriculture for years to come.”Insurers can now offer farmers and ranchers different levels of coverage for a variety of irrigation practices, and more importantly, exempts new farmers from paying the $300 administrative fee for catastrophic policies.The interim rule change also provides guidance on conservation compliance, enacts protections for native sod and provides for adjustments to historical yields following significant disasters.New farmers' premium support rates will increase by 10 per cent during their first five years of farming. They will also receive a greater yield adjustment when yields are below 60 per cent of the applicable transitional yield.These incentives will be available for most insurance plans in the 2015 crop year and all plans by 2016.Farmers who till native sod and plant an annual crop on that land will see reductions in their crop insurance benefits during the first four years, starting in the fall of 2014.The provision applies to acreage in all counties in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota that is greater than five acres per policy and is producing annual crops, according to a summary of the rule filed in the Federal Register.Finally, the rule states that additional flexibility for irrigated and non-irrigated enterprise units and coverage levels will be available in the spring of 2015, according to the Agriculture Department.The interim rule is making good on a promise made by the Agriculture Department back in May thatt it would be expanding the federal crop insurance program to include fruit and vegetable crops through a new pilot program. The crop insurance industry has praised that expansion, calling it a sign of the “increasingly important role of crop insurance in protecting food producers in the United States.”The Farm Bill cut spending by $23 billion over 10 years by ending direct payments to farmers for commodities and by cutting $8 billion from the food stamp program. Most of the $5 billion cut from the direct payment program was shifted into the federal crop insurance program.Source - http://www.ibamag.com/

09.07.2014

Russia - Cooler temperatures delay harvest in Middle Urals

Cooler-than-average temperatures in the Middle Urals have left many farmers with crops that are growing too slowly to harvest.Despite recent heavy rains, forage and grass crops have not reached their expected growth markers. As a result, farmers are having difficulty harvesting produce for sale or grass feed for their livestock.“Many had expected growth of grass that it will be more,” Pyotr Shestakov, the head of the Sverdlovsk Department of Agriculture said. “We orient them: do wait to [harvest]. Yes, now you get less yield of green mass, but the higher the nutritional value of food due to the timely harvesting.”Lack of warm temperatures has stunted the growth of many crops, but many agricultural experts believe thermophilic corn has been affected the most. This year’s crop of corn in the Sverdlovsk region has dwindled the greatest between planting and harvesting.In order to recuperate some of their losses, farmers have harvested the corn deemed inedible for humans and have turned it into animal feed through a process called threshing.“Corn needs warm nights, and they were not, so she has not grown,” Irbitskogo Chairman Valery Nikiforov said. “This year, some of its going to tresh.”However, Ural Research Institute for Agriculture specialist Mikhail Namayatov said there may be hope yet for a good corn harvest in the Sverdlovsk region. Namayatov said corn crops can grow quickly with just one or two days of warm weather, and such a quick and acute growth may save Ural-area farmers from having a financially fruitless summer season.“Now we only need to heat,” Namyatova said. “Moisture in the fields there will be a temperature above 25 degrees (celsius)– and everything goes into growth. Especially as with mineral fertilizers this year, our agricultural worked well, and tried to hold sitting in a short time.”Source - http://yekaterinburgnews.com/

08.07.2014

Canada - Flooding Kills Canola Crops

Blake Duchek’s farm in Saskatchewan was pummeled with as much as 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain in the span of three days last month, killing crops that were sitting in several inches to a foot of water. He estimates the losses will cost him more than C$500,000 ($468,000).“It’s a total write-off,” said Duchek, a 33-year-old farmer who estimates he’s lost as much as 35 percent of his 5,500 canola and wheat acres near Esterhazy. “It’s a big financial loss.”Widespread flooding after record rainfall is reversing expectations for a bigger crop in Canada, the world’s largest grower, after the government said last month that planting would increase 1.5 percent to 20.2 million acres. Sowings could miss that forecast by as much as 11 percent and output may tumble as much as 10 percent from last year’s all-time high of 18 million metric tons, according to Errol Anderson, the president of ProMarket Wire, a grains newsletter in Calgary.“What we thought was going to be an abundant amount of canola one year from now just won’t be there,” Anderson said in a July 4 telephone interview. Inventories before next year’s harvest “could be half of what we thought,” he said.Tighter supplies for processors could send cash prices for canola as much as C$20 a ton above Winnipeg futures in the next 12 months, Anderson estimates. That compares with a discount of about C$5 on June 27 for grain in Saskatchewan, the latest government data show. Futures for November delivery rose 0.4 percent to C$459.40 a ton yesterday ICE Futures Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Prices climbed 2.1 percent this year.Record RainThe downpour is also trimming the outlook for wheat and other grains, and as many as 6 million acres of farmland in Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan may be dead or drowned, according to Saskatoon-based Weber Commodities.Parts of the prairies received record rain since the start of the growing season, and Saskatchewan, the nation’s top wheat and canola producer, has had as much as triple the normal amount in the past month, Martell Crop Projections said in a June 26 report. Fifty-four municipalities in Saskatchewan have declared a state of emergency, Colin King, the province’s deputy commissioner of emergency management and fire safety, said July 2. Manitoba declared a provincial state of emergency on July 4.The outlook for record soybean acres in the U.S. may limit price gains, as some oilseed consumers substitute for canola. About 84.8 million soybean acres will be sown in the U.S. this year, the most ever and up 11 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Alberta CropsCanada’s canola production outside the flooded regions can also help make up for the drowned acres. The majority of crops outside the waterlogged areas are in fair to excellent condition, according to Saskatchewan’s agriculture ministry. Eighty-one percent of the canola in Alberta, Canada’s second-largest grower, is in good to excellent condition as of June 30, according to a July 4 report.This year’s crop damage comes after 2013’s record grain harvest overwhelmed the country’s rail system and made sales almost impossible. The rail backlog left as much as C$20 billion ($18 billion) of crops stuck on the prairies and prompted the government to order railways to increase grain shipments or face penalties of as much as C$100,000 per day.Storage BinsGrain bags and storage bins filled with crops left from last year’s harvest have been damaged by flood waters, said Norm Hall, a farmer and president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan. Crop and residential property losses are probably in the “millions of dollars,” he said. Canola inventories rose 55 percent to 12.6 million as of Dec. 31 from 8.1 million a year earlier, government data show.“There are some guys saying they’ve lost 30 percent of their crop,” Hall said in a July 3 telephone interview. “The bottom of the bins are generally two-to-three feet off the ground, and these bins are in four feet of water.”Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp., a government-owned company based in Melville, expects insurance payouts on crops to increase after floods wiped out acreage. It’s too early to estimate the extent of the damage as producers are just starting to call in with flooding reports, Shawn Jaques, the chief executive officer for the insurer said July 2 on a call with reporters.Rains will also damage crop yields, said Bruce Burnett, a weather and crop specialist with Winnipeg-based CWB. Acres lost for farms in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are as high as 40 percent, and five out of 14 growing areas in Saskatchewan have below-average yield potential, FarmLink Marketing Solutions said in a report July 2.“We’re looking at average to below-average production now in the entirety of western Canada,” Burnett said in a July 3 telephone interview. “We’re still trying to evaluate how much of this crop is going to be underwater for a number of days, making the plants totally die off.”Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/

08.07.2014

USA - Farmers need info to make coverage choices

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has not decided yet whether to include prevented-plant acres from 2014 for some federal farm program benefits in the 2014 through 2018 crop years.Michael Scuse, USDA Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, declined to say how the department is coming down on the issue. “Some things we’re not going to speculate on. We’re still working through the entire process,” Scuse said, in an interview at the South Dakota Governor’s Ag Summit June 27 in Deadwood, S.D.How prevented-plant is handled is a key issue for farmers to determine whether to sign up for the new programs in the farm bill — Price Loss Coverage and Agriculture Risk Coverage program. The importance of the prevent-plant decision is underlined by yet another year of significant levels of prevented and failed planting in parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana.Farm bill sign-up is a three-step process.First, farmers must update bases and yields, if they so chose.Second, they must elect their program — PLC or ARC — starting this fall and going into 2015.Step three is to enroll in a contract, sometime in 2015. Once farmers decide, they are locked into a program for the five-year life of the farm bill. Scuse noted that USDA is putting $6 million into educational efforts, with half focused on two university teams at Illinois, Missouri and Texas, but the prevented-plant decision will be central to that for farmers in this region.The PP questionSeveral U.S. senators from the Dakotas and Minnesota in early June launched a bipartisan effort to ask USDA to take prevented-plant losses into account when implementing new safety net programs created in the 2014 farm bill. But the senators asked USDA to approve prevented-plant acres in each farmer’s and county’s current year revenue calculation. They want prevented-plant included in the ARC program by using the correct current year revenue calculation.The 2014 farm bill language was silent on how prevented-plant should be calculated, but the senators suggested it was their intent to include it.They noted that including it would be consistent with calculations in the now repealed former policy — the 2008 farm bill’s Average Crop Revenue Election Program — which used prevented-plant acres in the calculations to determine safety net payment triggers.“Equitable treatment can be achieved under the individual and county level Agricultural Risk Coverage Program only if approved prevented-planting acres are used in the calculation for determining current year revenue, beginning with 2014 and for future crop years,” the senators said.“Loss of a crop due to prevented planting can be just as devastating to a farming operation as production losses due to drought, flooding,or other natural disasters,” the senators wrote in early June. “If prevented-planting acres are not properly utilized in the revenue calculation, we are concerned that the program will not provide an adequate safety net for growers.”Benchmark yieldAt the same time, the letter asked USDA to exclude prevented-planting acreage when determining the benchmark average yield per farm. This would make sure average production calculations aren’t skewed by prevented planting.The prevented-plant acres should be excluded in the crop insurance APH (Average Production History) yield data base and included in the ACRE program, for both the individual and county level benchmark yield calculations.It isn’t clear what will happen if USDA doesn’t agree with the senators on the prevented-plant policy request. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who signed the letter and was a farm bill negotiator, wasn’t immediately available for comment.Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee and a farm bill negotiator, says he doesn’t think any “technical correction bill” would be possible as a fix. “That’s out the window,” he told Agweek.Peterson says the ARC was “never something we (House leaders) were in favor of” and was put in the bill because of Senate interest. “If we had gotten our way this would not be an issue,” he says.Source - http://www.agweek.com/

08.07.2014

USA - Farmers slow to sign up for state hail insurance despite record losses in 2013

Despite suffering record crop losses to hail in 2013, Montana farmers have been slow to enroll this year in the state's hail insurance program.Farmers enrolled number slightly less than 1,500 currently, a 29 percent drop from 2013 when the state issued 2,082 hail insurance policies.The signup deadline is Aug. 15. Hail season is typically July through August, though in recent years reports of crop-damaging hail storms have spanned several months. Last year, Montana's hail insurance program paid out a record $14 million to farmers who filed claims for storms as early as May and as late as September.Girding the state insurance program from another year of big payouts, the state Hail Board bought reinsurance to cover all future claims.The decline in farmers enrolling in the program was unexpected, said Kim Falcon, given last year's crop losses and an early interest in the enrollment this year. Farmers began asking about enrollment in March.However, federally subsidized multiple peril crop insurance might explain the decline. The 2014 farm bill offers farmers the choice between insurance for multiple peril crop loss or market price decline. The maximum coverage for crop loss for federally subsidized insurance is high enough, some farmers could be thinking twice about enrolling in the state program."We have called the producers who have had policies before and just asked them what the difference was and a lot of them are saying it's the federal crop insurance," Falcon said.Source - http://insurancenewsnet.com/

08.07.2014

India - Setback to crop diversification programme

After wasting energy on promoting direct sowing of basmati rice (DSR) in the Malwa region with a view to save groundwater during the last year without much success, the Punjab agriculture department has now been finding itself far behind in realising the target of 7-lakh hectare area under cotton in the state during the current season. Cotton is the strongest alternative to paddy in the region; however, hardly any measure has been taken in the last one decade to promote the cultivation of the white gold in a big way other than introducing BT cotton seeds in 2005.According to Major Singh, assistant statistical officer with the department, initial estimates suggest that there had been a nominal increase in the area under cotton during the current season. "The area under cotton has increased from 4.46 lakh hectare in 2013-14 to 4.50 lakh hectare in 2014-15," said Major Singh.These figures are discouraging in comparison to the annual target of increase of 50,000 hectare in the area under cotton under the crop diversification programme. The area under cotton in the state was 5.73-lakh hectare in 2006-07, the highest since the launch of BT cotton in 2005.The soil in the region is more suitable for cotton. However, the department enrolled many farmers for direct sowing of basmati by offering around `4,000 per acre subsidy during the last year.Taking a U-turn, this year, the department persuaded farmers not to sow basmati as it feared decline in the prices of basmati in the coming season as several farmers have taken to the cultivation of paddy. Now basmati is also out of the list of diversification crops.Sowing of basmati and paddy is on, whereas sowing of cotton is already over.There has been 65% hike in the minimum support price of (MSP) of paddy against 35% in the MSP of cotton in the last one decade. Cotton prices largely depend on the market situation whereas paddy prices are fully controlled by the government.There has been no subsidy on the cotton seed and it makes for the major input cost. Also, there is no insurance for the crop which is susceptible to climatic conditions and farmers always have the risk of double sowing in case their first attempt is washed away by heavy storm or rain, which are normal in this season.There was a big decline in the use of pesticides to control weeds in the initial years of the launch of BT cotton in Punjab. However, the number of sprays has increased gradually in the recent years. Also, It is not surprising that Monsanto has been also lobbying for the launch of the next generation of the BT cotton, which controls the attack of weeds.Source - http://www.hindustantimes.com/

08.07.2014

Spain - More second class kakis due to hailstorms

The hailstorms that hit Valencia last week will have some impact on the quality of the kakis for the coming campaign, which will start in September. For now, just two months before the harvest, the fruit still only reaches the size of a hen's egg."The fruit affected that has not been completely ruined has been marked," says the manager of a kaki and citrus trader. "However, at many points the hailstorm has fortunately been accompanied by water, so the trees have not been damaged."It appears the storms did not reach the most important kaki production areas; as a result, no significant production losses are expected, although there will be more discarded fruit and an increase in second class volumes.Nevertheless, these losses will not be the factor pushing prices up next season, as we must take into consideration that new plantations become productive each year due to the boom in the popularity of kakis, so that should keep production volumes at similar levels to last season's. It is then more a case of demand growing faster than supply."When the 2013/2014 campaign was already finished and we had some produce available, we still had demand from foreign retail chains," says Daniel Vidal, of the company Exquisite Fruits. "For this reason, several European supermarket chains, especially the demanding German ones, want to ensure a certain volume for the coming season in anticipation of the price increases. Prospects are very good, especially for first class fruit, which should reach interesting prices."Meanwhile, the province of Valencia, like other Spanish production areas, is still on alert for hailstorms in the forthcoming weeks.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

08.07.2014

Canada - Flooding Could Hit Ag Sector Harder Than In 2011

The flooding and wet weather over the last month could be as bad as, or worse, for Manitoba's agriculture sector than the flood of 2011, according to Keystone Agricultural Producers.KAP president and East Selkirk-area farmer Doug Chorney says not only will there be millions of unseeded and abandoned acres, but yields will also be down as many fields have portions that have drowned or were not seeded."Zero bushels per acre in an affected part of the field leads to a low yield when you look at a field's overall output. It's a big hit, because we need to be productive on every acre," he says.In 2011, three million acres went unseeded, while another 500 thousand acres drowned after seeding. This time around, more of the crop is already established, notes Chorney."This year we have about a million unseeded acres, and a lot of seeded acres impacted by the overland flooding or straight rainfall accumulation," he says.As in 2011, landowners along the Assiniboine River, the Portage Diversion and around Lake Manitoba are dealing with high water levels."With the Portage Diversion being used, we're going to see more pressure put on that area around the lake," says Chorney. "It's very stressful for all these people that are close to the water."Livestock producers are also facing the possibility of a feed shortage, as forage crops and pastures are also suffering from excess moisture."I've talked to several people not in the southwest part of the province that haven't made a bale of hay. They're running out of pasture to graze because of standing water or poor pasture conditions," says Chorney. "It's affecting a huge part of agro-Manitoba."There are business risk management programs, such as crop insurance, in place to help producers, but he says an AgriRecovery disaster program will likely be required."In an event of this magnitude, an AgriRecovery program is quite often brought in to help people dealing with all of the issues coming at them. We have to have that conversation with our federal and provincial government representatives to help everyone get through this," says Chorney.Source - http://www.portageonline.com/

07.07.2014

Canada - Pesticide linked to bee deaths to be restricted in Ontario

Ontario intends to become the first province to restrict the use of a controversial pesticide linked to bee deaths, requiring farmers and other commercial growers to apply for permits to plant seeds treated with neonicotinoid insecticides.The government wants to limit the blanket use of the seed treatment, while balancing the protection of insect pollinators with the needs of farmers to guard their crops and livelihoods against insects.The provincial agriculture ministry will soon begin holding meetings with farmers, beekeepers and pesticide makers with the goal of having a licensing system in place by the fall, when growers order seeds for next year.“We are committed to working with stakeholders to develop a system that targets the use of neonicotinoid-treated seed only to areas or circumstances where there is demonstrated need,” said Jeff Leal, Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.“Our intention is to work with the industry to move away from the widespread, indiscriminate use of neonicotinoid-based pesticides,” he said.“Ideally, we would have a structure in place for the 2015 planting season – that is what we are working toward.”Neonicotinoids, – neonics for short – protect seeds and plants from worms and other crop-destroying insects, and have been blamed by several studies and Health Canada for the widespread collapse in colonies of honey bees, butterflies and other pollinators.Bees are exposed to neonicotinoids in two ways: by eating the pollen, or by ingesting or carrying back to the hive the neonic-infused field dust kicked up by the tractor and planter. A University of Saskatchewan biologist found the chemicals in the province’s streams, ditches and insects, and even up the food chain in birds. To reduce the dust, neonic suppliers such as Bayer AG and Syngenta have begun supplying the seeds with a wax-based lubricant, under the direction of Health Canada. But the lubricant, combined with modified planting machines, reduces dust by only 20 per cent.The use of neonicotinoids has been banned temporarily in Europe, but are unregulated in Canada and the United States. Ontario does not have the power to ban pesticides, which are regulated by Health Canada, but the province can control or ban their sale.The connection between bee deaths and the pesticides is murky. Some studies point to parasitic mites and viruses as the more likely causes of bee deaths, in addition to winter starvation and loss of habitat. Some say insects do not absorb lethal doses of the insecticide through pollen, though beekeepers and others maintain even small amounts can weaken bees and make them susceptible to other maladies. However, beekeepers in Western Canada have not seen their colonies collapse, even though their hives feed on the flowers of canola, a crop that is treated with neonicotinoids.Most of the bee deaths have been concentrated in Ontario, a province with the warm summers best suited to growing corn, a grain used in biofuels and animal feed. Ontario grows more than 60 per cent of the country’s corn, and corn is thought to be most closely linked to the province’s bee deaths. The irregular shape and size of the seeds, combined with the compressed-air planters, make the planting process quite dusty.Beekeepers in Ontario say their winter losses have risen to as high as 50 per cent from 15 per cent before neonicotinoids became popular, and many want the pesticide banned. However, that view is not shared by all beekeepers in the province, nor the Canadian Honey Council, which represents 7,000 apiarists across the country.Rod Scarlett, executive director of the group said he welcomes a reduction in the use of neonicotinoids. But he doubts the effectiveness of a licensing system because farmers and government officials might not know at the beginning of the season where the pesticide is or isn’t needed.“We want to ensure farmers don’t suffer,” Mr. Scarlett said in an interview from his office near Edmonton.Growers of flowers, fruits and vegetables are also heavy users of the insecticide. Neonicotinoid proponents note the chemical is not absorbed by humans, and it is much more effective, cheaper and safer than the older insecticides it replaced.“Even the crop protection companies will tell you neonics kills bees. They are designed to be an insecticide,” Mr. Scarlett said. “The bigger question in the mind of the Canadian Honey Council is, what’s next? How do we mitigate the risk? If that product isn’t available for farmers to use, do they go back to organophosphates, which are far worse for mammals and insects?”Ontario is home to about 3,000 of the country’s 7,000 beekeepers. Most beekeepers know to keep their bees away from corn fields during planting. But given the prevalence of the crop, and the high density of Ontario’s farmland, this is often not possible, Mr. Scarlett said.Ontario has taken other steps to support the honey industry, providing $105 per hive to those who lose 40 per cent of their bees, and committing $1.2-million to research on pollinator health and farming methods.Source - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/