Agroinsurance

USA - Farmers turning to crop insurance due to drought

Hot and very windy weather this week is only making matters worse for Kansas farmers.Bob White has been farming for more than 40 years in Sumner County which means he's been through many trials and tribulations. This is one of those years.White says, "We're going to be in the 90's with this terrible wind the next couple of days. That's just going to draw more moisture out of these plants which means it's not going into the seed to help it fill."White is also a crop insurance agent so he's hearing from clients with drought stressed fields."We've had the adjustors in. We've been filing claims on a pretty regular basis. We've had the adjustors in and looked and done some appraisals. Some of the fields aren't worth going forward with."He says some farmers will hay or graze abandoned wheat fields in accordance with their policy.White says with the persistence of the drought farmers will be reluctant to plant a row crop in place of any abandoned wheat unless a lot of rain comes quickly."It's going to be a short year for all the farmers. And this right here equates to our pay check and it's going to be a small one."White says crop insurance doesn't replace a good harvest, it just helps a farmer get enough to survive until the next growing season.Source - http://www.kake.com/

India - Cold destroys 30% apple crop in Kullu

Cold weather throughout April has destroyed at least 30% apple crop in Kullu district, an official said. Unusual extreme cold conditions killed pollinating agents and resulted in poor crop setting.High hills of Himachal experienced moderate snowfall on most of the days in April and May and caused sharp drop in temperature. Pollination agents like bees, butterflies and flies which carry pollen from flower to flower died of cold and affected fruit setting in many areas. Hailstorms in many parts of Kullu also destroyed apple crop.Horticulture deputy director B C Rana said cold climate destroyed about 20 to 30% crop in the district. "Cold proved fatal for pollinating agents. Snowfall on hills created micro-climates in many regions and tender flowers withered eventually," he added. Rana said that damage to crop by hailstorms is being assessed.Total area under apple cultivation in Kullu district is 24,000 hectares. Some fruit growers are reporting good crops while most of them are reporting less crop compared to last year.Kullu fruit growers' association president Mahender Upadhyay said he has received feedback of average crop from most parts of the district. "Cold has mostly destroyed apple in lower regions where blooming season came first. In upper regions many growers are reporting average crop," he added.Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

Coffee Rust Threatening Crop from Latin America

It's called coffee rust, a fungus that is devastating some of the best Arabica coffee bean crops in Latin American and the Caribbean.Coffee growers in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica have been hit the hardest."This is a disease that has been around for a long time, we believe that hotter and dryer growing conditions related to a changing climate is making it more prevalent," says Rajiv Shah, the chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development."In its worse form, it actually destroys the trees and prevents future years from having agricultural output on those farms."Many of the high end coffee beans are grown on small farms by farmers who can't afford fungicides and lack the special training that's needed to avoid contamination. Researchers say that coffee production in the affected areas will decrease by 15 to 40 percent in the coming years, severely impacting families."Millions of kids would go hungry. Economies throughout the region would face significant strife and the loss of the basic economic activity that supports 20 - 30 percent of their populations."Large U.S. coffee companies like Starbucks have been able to secure enough supplies to avoid price increases. But it's the smaller boutique coffee houses that are so popular with coffee connoisseurs that may have to increase their prices, if they do not get the fungus under control.Monday, the U.S. government will announce a $ 5 million partnership with Texas A&M University's World Coffee Research Center in an effort to keep the fungus from spreading and the coffee industry in Latin America, from rusting away.Source - http://www.ozarksfirst.com/

USA - Resources available for reducing impacts of the 2014 cool, wet spring and planting delays

During spring 2014, weather-related planting delays created serious challenges for field crop producers throughout Michigan. Resources are available to help farmers address the challenges of a cool, wet spring and delayed planting.The cool, wet spring and subsequent planting delays have created significant challenges for Michigan field crop and forage crop producers. The adverse effects of this year’s weather can be minimized by adjusting management practices and making informed decisions. Because of this, Michigan State University Extension has created an online compilation of resource materials that producers can use to address the challenges created by this spring’s weather.The pest and crop management information will include topics such as: reducing sidewall compaction, improving soybean emergence in soils prone to crusting, monitoring and managing soybean diseases, delayed post-emergence herbicide applications, corn hybrid maturity decisions, assessing wheat stands, assessing and managing winter-killed alfalfa stands, and recommendations for late-planted soybeans.The resource page also contains information that will help producers analyze their options should the cool, wet weather persist, e.g., plant corn late, switch from corn to an alternative crop, and crop insurance implications. These decisions are complicated and will differ from farm to farm. Possible scenarios and considerations for making these decisions are covered.Source - http://msue.anr.msu.edu/

USA - Dry, warm winter expected to impact annual East Contra Costa U-Pick season

Cherry lovers from around the Bay Area who annually flock to the orchards here for the U-pick season better hurry this year because the dry, warm winter has resulted in pickings that are slimmer than usual. Those who wait much past Memorial Day might be out of luck.And how the adverse weather conditions will affect yields -- and prices -- for the rest of the summer's crops remains anybody's guess.The U-pick cherry season typically heats up over Memorial Day weekend, with an onslaught of do-it-yourselfers who descend on the dozens of Brentwood-area orchards.But after a winter that lacked much of the rain and fog needed to keep temperatures down, cherry crops around the state are lighter, said Len Del Chiaro, who operates two U-pick cherry businesses in the area.Cherry lovers from around the Bay Area who annually flock to the orchards here for the U-pick season better hurry this year because the dry, warm winter has resulted in pickings that are slimmer than usual. Those who wait much past Memorial Day might be out of luck.And how the adverse weather conditions will affect yields -- and prices -- for the rest of the summer's crops remains anybody's guess.The U-pick cherry season typically heats up over Memorial Day weekend, with an onslaught of do-it-yourselfers who descend on the dozens of Brentwood-area orchards.But after a winter that lacked much of the rain and fog needed to keep temperatures down, cherry crops around the state are lighter, said Len Del Chiaro, who operates two U-pick cherry businesses in the area.The dozens of farms in the area sell far more than Bings, Utah Giants and Lapins, and how other crops will fare this summer depends on the quantity and quality of the water available.The rainfall average in East Contra County totaled 7.31 inches at the end of April, 62 percent of the norm at that point in the season, according to the Contra Costa County Flood Control District. Growers in other parts of the Bay Area -- from Santa Cruz to San Mateo to Sonoma County -- are contending with similar shortages.Brentwood orchard owner Ron Enos normally relies solely on the rain he gets from December to March in tending to the lettuce, chard, kale, beets and broccoli that he also sells to U-pick customers.This year, however, he had to irrigate throughout that period as well.Aside from the additional cost this represents to growers -- and, in turn, their customers -- no one knows for sure how much water will be coming down the pipes in the future.The state Water Resources Control Board in January issued a rare alert -- the first since 1977 -- announcing that it might have to reduce or even cut off irrigation districts' supply.The agency is poised to start limiting water to those with lower-priority claims to the allocations they receive, and it's planning to extend the cutbacks to districts that have first dibs sometime during the first two weeks of June.East Contra Costa and Byron Bethany irrigation districts, which together serve most of the region's growers, are among those in that second group.And that has many of their customers worried.Fruit crops need water from spring to fall; those that don't get enough won't produce as much the following year, said Janet Caprile, farm adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Contra Costa County.Vegetables such as sweet corn -- East County's biggest crop and a favorite at farmers markets around the region -- also would be affected, she said.Smaller yields translate into higher prices not only locally but throughout the state, which, because it provides a huge percentage of the country's fruits and vegetables, also would result in the cost of produce increasing nationally, Caprile said.A complete stoppage would hurt many farmers such as Enos, who don't have access to well water."If it does happen, it'll close me down," he said.Aside from concerns about their irrigation water drying up, growers are keenly aware that whatever they do receive might be compromised this year.East County's irrigation districts pull their supply from the Delta, and with much less of the Sierra snowmelt flowing into the San Joaquin River, there isn't as much freshwater to push back what courses in from the ocean.Too much salinity will affect the yield -- even the survivability -- of crops such as green beans, which are particularly sensitive to concentrations of salt, Enos said.As questions about water conditions linger, about the only certainty farmers have is that the outcome of this year's harvests is out of their hands."There's nothing you can do," Del Chiaro said. "What happens, happens."Source - http://www.mercurynews.com/

USA - Winter’s sub-zero temperatures hurt peach crop

Sub-zero temperatures during winter have badly hurt Ohio’s peach crop. Peach trees that normally would be blooming are showing no signs of that at many Ohio orchards.Bill Dodd, president of the Ohio Fruit Growers Marketing Association, said peach farmers brought sample buds to a February meeting, and each one was dead.Orchard owner Marshall Branstool blames winter weather that swung temperatures from above freezing to below zero within days. He said buds on his 5,000-plus peach trees at Branstool Orchards in Utica started turned black instead of green. That means he doesn’t have peaches to sell and will rely on insurance to cover part of that financial hit.“Peaches are our bread and butter,” he said. “But you gotta put on your big-boy pants and deal with it. The weather is out of our control.”He is considering trying to buy peaches from a grower in Pennsylvania if they’re available, but that’s no sure thing. Pennsylvania is among several other states whose peach crops were harmed by the cold.Source - http://www.starbeacon.com/

Brazil in search of new banana varieties resistant to Panama disease

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply stated that the measures taken to prevent the entry of the Panama disease, a new type of fungus, into Brazil should suffice. The disease is causing the banana plantations in Asia and Africa to lose billions of dollars. However, according to Alexei Dianese, researcher from Embrapa Cerredos, it is only a matter of time before the pest arrives in the Americas.Dianese stated that they had reasons to worry. According to him, the fungus could destroy a banana plantation in a few months. Once it reaches the ground it penetrated the roots and makes them rot, then, as the leaves no longer get nutrients, the plant dies."It depends on the location and the variety of the plants. It might take longer if the soil is well drained. For example, the apple banana variety, which is extremely susceptible to the Panama disease, developed the typical symptoms of the Panama disease in their second year, when the plants were 1.80 meters tall, then, they died," he explained.Embrapa is betting on developing new varieties resistant to the disease via genetic improvements. Two years ago, Embrapa, in collaboration with universities of the countries where the disease has already spread, started an investigation. According to the Dianese, the prata and apple varieties, which account for 70% of Brazilian production, are the most susceptible varieties to this disease.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

Pakistan - Wet weather pattern permeates through dry summer months

The unusual weather pattern attributed to El-Nino factor by the weather pundits, continues to pervade through the typically dry and hot summer months of Islamabad.The humid weather conditions and overcast skies in the federalcapital have been the cause of intermittent clouds outburst through the often sultry and arid month of May, elongating the sprouting season of fruit saplings, summer vegetables, besides delaying floral decay.These overcast conditions have not only taken the weather experts aback with their wobbly pattern, but also brought relief to the residents of the federal capital and the adjacent Rawalpindi by shutting the strong, piercing and blazing streaks of summer Sun with setting of the summer season.The normal day temperature on Sunday dipped down after another spell of moderate downpour, and was recorded hovering below 30 degree Celsius, reminiscent of the post-spring like conditions, suitable for the vegetation and fruit-bearing trees to multiply and increase the ripened yield.“Surely the prevailing conditions add to moisture in the dried out soil in the Potohar region, having impacts upon the tomato like crops to bear more and more, besides increasing size of the fruit,” Mazhar Janjua, an agriculturalist running a private nursery, opined.But such a scenario proving boon for residents, turned out to be bane for the farmers’ community who were ready to reap the fruits of their labour in the form of matured wheat crop.“We have just harvested our wheat yield and stored it in the open field under traditional storage method but the strong gales associated with continuous showers on days in and days out , are not going well with our plans,” a worried and weary looking land owner, Tabbasum Ghulam, who owned fertile chunks of land in Sihala area commented with his nervous eyes fixed on black cumulus clouds shrouding the nearby hills.However, at the same fleeting moment of his concerns, he struck a note of optimism that the rainy spells would boost the growth of a variety of summer vegetables ranging from bitter, sweet gourd to tinda (Indian round gourd) and okara (lady finger).This simpatico relationship between weather and flora also adds some flickering and tantalizing colours to a number of late sprouting flowers like petunia, dahlia, freesia, day lilies, cosmos, pansy and roses etc.A mushroom of plants nurseries on the Islamabad Highway which offer large varieties of fruit saplings, herbs, shrubs, vines, climbers and flowers at affordable prices, are also witnessing an increase in number of buyers.The unexpected seasonal activity in these days, has added to a surge in number of our customers, mainly among them seeking fruit saplings of orange, lemons, grape wines, apple, apricot etc, a young curator at Mardan nursery farm added.The late blooming petunia giants, red and blue stars, Pakistani dahlia, red, purple and yellow freesia and rose climbers also reminds professor Sajjad Khattak about great romantic English poet John Keats’ Ode to Spring in which he compared late spring conditions with a damsel carrying post-spring loads in the midst of fields, laden with full blown fruits and flowers of hazel nuts, gourds and apples.Source - http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/

Philippines - Gov’t allots P1.8 billion for crop insurance premium subsidies

“This is the biggest amount that the national government has set aside for premium subsidy in the history of PCIC,” PCIC Senior Vice-President Norman R. Cajucom told BusinessWorld.He said they are aiming to cover P38 billion worth of farm investments this year and subsidize the premium contributions of 1.1 million farmers.Of the allotted amount, P1.18 billion will provide full subsidy to farmers in the 20 poorest provinces in the country. These are Abra, Agusan del Sur, Camarines Sur, Davao Oriental, Eastern Samar, Ifugao, Kalinga, Masbate, Mountain Province, North Cotabato, Northern Samar, Romblon, Samar, Siquijor, Sultan Kudarat, Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Sarangani, and Apayao. “For areas not included in the 20 poorest of the poor, we also allocated P183 million for rice and corn programs. The premium subsidy is 55% and each farmer beneficiary puts up 45%,”he added.PCIC President Jovy C. Bernabe said P165 million will go to the three Samar provinces and P50 million to Leyte and Biliran provinces. Some 70,000 farmers in Eastern Visayas are expected to benefit from free insurance.“After the series of natural disasters in the past two years, we expect that more people will seek protection for their investments. It is now easier for us to convince farmers to participate in crop insurance because they’ve seen the negative impact of calamities,” Mr. Bernabe said.The Department of Agriculture has also set aside P322 million for rice and corn insurance programs nationwide. The government targets to have 25% of rice and corn farmers insured by 2016, or double the current 12%.The PCIC last year paid P540 million to about 50,000 insured farmers nationwide for losses caused by natural calamities, accidents, and pests and disease infestations.Source - http://www.bworldonline.com/

First African parametric catastrophe insurance pool launches

The first catastrophe insurance pool for African nations has been launched today by African Risk Capacity (ARC), a specialised agency set-up by the African Union to help member states become more resilient to extreme weather events and to protect food insecure populations.The catastrophe insurance pool has been established to enable parametric insurance policies to be sold to African countries, providing them with post-disaster event financing which is predictable and has a rapid payout mechanism due to the parametric nature of the policies.The ARC Agency has created a specialist hybrid mutual insurance company, ARC Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd), which is initially domiciled in Bermuda. ARC Insurance will issue parametric disaster insurance policies to a group of African governments, starting with Kenya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal. The initial capital behind the insurer has been provided by Germany and the United Kingdom, who are also founding members of the mutual.To begin with ARC has issued parametric insurance policies with a value of approximately $135m. The policies will cover drought and each has been tailored to meet the needs of the covered African country. In addition to its own capital, ARC Ltd has secured reinsurance capacity totaling $55 million the international reinsurance and weather risk markets in order to cover the parametric risks it is taking on from the participating countries.By pooling the risks from the group of African countries it enables the reinsurance protection to be secured at a cheaper cost, making the whole project feasible. By pooling risk across countries within a region, the reinsurance market will typically give a better price than reinsuring the countries individually.It’s interesting that there is an element of weather risk cover included. We could make an educated guess as to who may be involved on the other side of that portion of the reinsurance cover. Using weather risk transfer products to provide some of the hedging makes sense as the covered peril is drought risks. There are markets which can provide this cover more cheaply than traditional reinsurers which may have helped to keep the costs of risk transfer down.“The creation of the first ever African catastrophe insurance pool is a transformative moment in our efforts to take ownership and use aid more effectively. It is an unprecedented way of organising ourselves with our partners, with Africa taking the lead – taking our collective destiny into our own hands, rather than relying on the international community for bailouts,” commented Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair of the ARC Agency Board and Nigeria’s Minister of Finance.The ARC catastrophe insurance pool aims to help governments’ in Africa to reduce their reliance on external aid in the event of natural catastrophes. At the moment international assistance is secured through an appeals system and then allocated on a largely ad hoc basis after a disaster strikes. As a result, African governments affected by disasters can be forced to reallocate funds from essential development projects to crisis responses, which can create funding problems in other areas of their economies and negatively affect GDP.Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, Henry Rotich, explained; “Droughts undermine our hard-won development gains, just as Africa is beginning to realise its vast potential. ARC will help us build resilience among vulnerable populations, protect our agriculture investments, thereby increasing productivity, as well as promoting fiscal stability by preventing budget dislocation in a crisis.”“I’m proud to have overseen the establishment of ARC Ltd, and am pleased to acknowledge the financial support of US $200 million by the UK and German governments through DFID and KfW respectively,” noted Chairman of the Company Board of Directors and former head of the International Finance Corporation, Dr. Lars Thunell. “ARC Ltd’s insurance programme goes a step further than previous sovereign risk pools thanks to its close ties with ARC Agency. Through the development of contingency plans linked to rapid payouts under the parametric insurance policy, the benefits of ex ante sovereign risk financing will flow directly to the most affected food insecure populations.”ARC Ltd utilises a new software application called Africa RiskView developed by the UN World Food Programme to estimate crop losses and drought response costs before a season begins and as it progresses, triggering insurance payouts at or before harvest time if the rains have been poor. A cost-benefit analysis performed by ARC Ltd estimates that spending one dollar on early intervention through parametric insurance from ARC could ultimately reduce the potential economic impact by as much as four and a half dollars.The launch of the risk pool is timely given recent global warnings about the adverse consequences of a changing climate and the potential impact on continental Africa, as Dr Richard Wilcox, Director General of the ARC Agency noted; “ARC is a critical instrument for countries to manage their risks as they experience the consequences of climate change.”“ARC is a breakthrough in disaster risk management in Africa, a win-win for governments and their partners alike. By putting their political legitimacy and technical skills together, the African Union and WFP have created a game-changer,” added Nobel Laureate Professor Robert Shiller.The drought protection provided through ARC is likely the starting point for this project and we could see additional covers become available in the future. As these catastrophe insurance pooling facilities emerge in developing economies it brings new risks to the international reinsurance market and also educates emerging economies in the benefits of risk transfer and reinsurance. As a result these efforts should be supported as one day they could result in more diversifying risks becoming available to reinsurers and the capital markets.Source - http://www.artemis.bm/

USA - Hail insurance procedures have changed

The recent hail storm in central Montana is a good reminder that the process of purchasing a hail insurance policy, premium rates, and the coverage available to Montana producers has changed this year.Producers will be contacting the State Hail Insurance Program office by mail, fax or phone to purchase a hail insurance policy. County department of revenue offices will no longer process new policies; instead they will provide information to interested parties on how to begin the process. Forms will also be available at Montana State University Extension Offices and Conservation District Offices.Producers will be asked to fill out a worksheet to predetermine the acres they wish to insure. The form has detailed instructions. When complete, the form can be mailed or faxed to the department, or used as a reference when you contact the office by phone.In addition to new filing procedures, growers requested the option of insuring their crops at a higher rate. The dry land rate has increased to $75 per acre and $114 per acre for irrigated land as authorized by House Bill 189 and approved by the Hail Board. The previous rates were $50 and $100 respectively.The Hail Board also approved a five percent premium increase for the 2014 season after a record hail last year. For example, a producer with a 10 percent rate will pay a new rate of 10.5 percent.Source - http://www.laureloutlook.com/

India - Seeks insurance cover to cultivators,orchardists

Expressing serious concern over the damage caused to paddy saplings and apple orchards due to recent heavy hail storm across Valley, CPI (M) State Secretary Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami has reiterated his demand for introduction and implementation of Crop Insurance Scheme (CIS) in Jammu and Kashmir.In a statement, Tarigami said the scheme will save the fruit growers and agriculturists in the event of losses suffered due to natural calamities. After meeting delegations of horticulturists and agriculturists from Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam and Budgam at his residence, Tarigami urged the government to initiate and expedite assessment of losses of fruit growers and farmers, and compensate them on account of these losses suffered due to torrential rains and hail storm.He said the peasants have suffered extensive damage to their paddy sapling and apple orchards due to vagaries of weather and in such situations, the grower community looks forward for support and it becomes an obligation for the government to come to their support and succor.The CPI (M) leader said that not only the calamities affect crops, but the Crop Insurance Scheme would have covered the crops rotten due to various diseases by virtue of which the farmers in the state experience extensive financial damages every year. Tarigami assured the peasant delegations that he will surely raise their issue in coming Assembly session representing all the concerns shown by the farmers, horticulturists and agriculturists. He asked the government that it should also come up with details on steps taken to waive off the interest on the agricultural/horticultural loans in view of the damages caused to these sectors due to heavy rains and hail storm.He demanded that the government should provide details about steps taken to impose ban on the import and sale of sub-standard chemical fertilizers and pesticides; the use of which has proved very harmful to the fruit and crops.Source - http://www.risingkashmir.com/

Half Of The US Is In A Drought

As of May 6, 2014, half of the United States was experiencing some level of drought. Nearly 15 per cent of the nation was gripped by extreme to exceptional drought. For the Plains and the Southwest, it’s a pattern that has been persistent for much of the past several years.The map above was developed by the U.S. National Drought Monitor, a partnership of U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It depicts areas of drought in progressive shades of orange to red. It is based on measurements of climate, soil, and water conditions from more than 350 federal, state, and local observers around the country. (NASA also provides experimental measurements and models to the drought monitoring effort.)In a May 6 summary, Mark Svoboda of the National Drought Mitigation Center wrote of the Plains States:Kansas continues to set the edge of the intense drought that seems to be waking up and pushing rapidly north along with warmer temperatures…Soil moisture and groundwater levels are hurting well in front of the peak demand season, as the cumulative impacts of such an intense multi-year drought are already glaringly evident…The story is even bleaker in the southern Plains, where the heat and drought are even more pronounced and entrenched across western Oklahoma and much of Texas as well…Streamflow and groundwater levels are hurting, given the long duration and sustained intensity of this drought, which is now going on close to four years.The entire state of California is in some level of drought, much of it extreme to exceptional. Snowpack is 50 per cent of normal in many locations in the West, and Svoboda noted that a lot of snow has completely melted before it normally would.Drought has had a serious impact on fruit and vegetable agriculture in California, and news reports sounded the alarm for grains and livestock in the Plains and South Central West. At least 54 per cent of the nation’s wheat crop is affected by some level of drought, as is 30 per cent of corn, and 48 per cent of cattle.Source - http://www.businessinsider.com.au/

USA - Cotton yields off due to drought, hail

The results are in for the region’s 2013 cotton crop, and the final tally indicates yields that were dramatically impacted by a third year of continuing drought as well as untimely hail and wind storms.“It was a tough year with almost half of the planted acres abandoned by harvest,” recalls Gary Cross, Texas A&M Agri Life Extension agent for agriculture in Hale County.“The planted acres were down to begin with, and we had some very damaging hail storms in May and late July which really hurt the crop.”According to figures released by the National Agricultural Statistics Service and posted Friday by Plains Cotton Growers, Inc., Hale County farmers produced 176,400 bales of cotton in 2013 from 96,600 harvested acres for an average yield of 877 pounds per acre. The county’s producers originally planted 194,800 acres.The region’s top producing county was Floyd with 228,900 bales from 122,300 harvested acres. Yield averaged 898 pounds per acre. Floyd County farmers planted 182,000 acres, which means they were forced to abandon about a third of their crop.Lamb County, with 116,500 bales, also made the Top 10 producing counties in the region.Briscoe farmers produced 23,000 bales in 2013, Castro County had 40,200 bales and Swisher County had 74,100 bales.The lack of moisture continues to cast a large shadow across on the 2014 crop, Cross said Wednesday.“The wind and dust, along with extremely low humidity, are really hurting everyone,” Cross said. “We’ll probably see planted cotton acres down by as much as 60,000 acres because of the current conditions.”Due to strong dust storms and high winds over the past two weeks, along with the continuing drought, Cross called the current wheat crop “a disaster. Our dryland crop can be considered largely a total loss, while some of the wheat and Triticale under irrigation could be still be used for forage and fodder.”While corn is up and going, and in many areas 6 inches tall, farmers are finding it necessary to switch chemicals because dust left on the leaves from resent storms is preventing traditional foliar fertilizers to stick to the plants.“The dust and dry conditions are really causing us problems,” Cross notes. “We basically just need rain, and lots of it.”Looking at the 2013 cotton crop, the National Agricultural Statistics Service shows that High Plains growers produced about 2.44 million bales of cotton last year, a decrease from the 2.93 million 480-pound bales in the 2012 growing season and more than 220,000 bales less than the 2.67 million bales projected by NASS in its January 2014 report.Planted acreage in 2013 was down again from the previous year, totaling just more than 3.76 million acres. Unfortunately, producers brought less than half of that to harvest at 1.68 million acres, which wasn’t much more than the 1.54 million acres High Plains producers reported harvesting two crops ago in 2011, when the abandonment rate hit a record high at 66 percent. The abandonment rate from initial plantings in 2013 was 55 percent, and 44 percent in 2012.According to the final county level production estimates released Friday by NASS, the Plains Cotton Growers’ 41-county service area accounted for almost 59 percent of the 4.1 million bales of upland cotton produced in Texas last season. Statewide production was down 17 percent from 2012, although statewide average yield per acre, at 646 pounds, was up 23 pounds from last year.On a national basis, Texas growers accounted for almost 34 percent of the 12.2 million upland bales produced in the United States in 2013, maintaining their position as the No. 1 cotton producing state in the nation. Georgia was second with 2.3 million bales.Source - http://www.myplainview.com/