27.12.2013

Collaboration to develop, commercialize stress-tolerant soybeans

Verdeca, a soybean technology joint venture between Bioceres and Arcadia Biosciences, and GDM Seeds, a leading South American soybean seed company, announced the completion of an agreement to develop and commercialize new soybean varieties based on Verdeca’s HB4 stress-tolerance technology. HB4 technology enables plants to adapt to multiple stresses and achieve higher yields. The agreement and collaboration leverage Verdeca’s technology and regulatory expertise, and GDM Seeds’ world-class soybean germplasm and breeding capabilities.Verdeca’s HB4 stress-tolerant soybeans have completed six seasons of multi-location field trials in Argentina and the United States, including two years of extensive regulatory trials. The results of these trials demonstrate that HB4 technology provides a consistent and significant yield advantage under multiple environmental stress conditions typically found in soybean production areas.Under the collaboration, GDM Seeds will develop and commercialize proprietary soybean varieties incorporating HB4 stress-tolerance technology. Integration of the HB4® trait into the GDM Seeds soybean breeding program has been in progress under an earlier research agreement.“GDM Seeds is one of the most respected names in the soybean seed industry, with a significant market share in South America, which accounts for 49% of global soybean planted area,” said Eric Rey, president and CEO of Arcadia Biosciences. “The Verdeca/GDM Seeds collaboration will create significant value for soybean growers and end markets by increasing the productivity and sustainability of the world’s most important protein crop.”“The combination of GDM Seeds’ elite germplasm with Verdeca’s proven HB4 stress-tolerance technology and regulatory capabilities creates an exciting opportunity to fundamentally change the landscape of the soybean business in South America,” said Federico Trucco, CEO of Bioceres.Grown on 112 million hectares globally, soybeans are the world’s fourth-largest crop. Nearly 44% of the world’s soybeans are grown in Argentina and Brazil. Growth in global population, combined with a growing middle-class in countries such as China and India, create an ever-increasing demand for dietary protein from soybeans.“GDM Seeds invests in breeding programs and new technologies to develop better soybean varieties and bring those varieties to farmers through its brands Don Mario and Brasmax as well as its licensing partners,” said Gerardo Bartolome, president of GDM Seeds. “The combination of our elite germplasm and an innovative technology like HB4 should give farmers a very valuable tool to help increase their productivity.”Source - http://www.agprofessional.com/

27.12.2013

MASTER GARDENER: Satsuma trees need adequate water for desert life

Q: I have an Owari Satsuma mandarin orange tree that was covered with blossoms, but no fruit. What happened? It has produced in previous years.A: For those readers not familiar with it, the Owari Satsuma is a sweet, seedless mandarin that usually matures around the end of the year. The tree tends to be on the smaller side, making it a desirable citrus tree for home gardens. It is more tolerant of cold weather than most other citrus trees, but it does not do as well in the heat of our desert. The fruit is very easy to peel and has often been referred to as the zipper-skin fruit. This old-time variety is self-fertile, so no cross-pollination is necessary.Since your Satsuma is self-fertile, we can eliminate pollination issues as the reason for its lack of crop. That leaves us with two other possible causes for the phenomenon you are observing. The first possibility is that your tree was water-stressed sometime between the time it flowered and the time the fruits reached the size of large grapes. During this period, if a citrus tree does not receive adequate water, the tree will abort any fruit it has set in order to conserve its resources.The second potential explanation can occur with many varieties of citrus but is especially common in mandarins and their relatives, including your Satsuma. The condition is referred to as “alternate-bearing” and describes the production of many fruits one year followed by the production of a small number of fruits, or even no fruit, the next year. Typically, the individual fruits of the large fruit-set year are quite small in size, and the individual fruits of the small fruit-set year are larger in size. Efforts to minimize this behavior focus on thinning fruit on the large crop years and making sure all the old fruit is removed from the tree by summer. Alternate-bearing is a problem to commercial citrus growers too, not just home gardeners, and citrus breeders always strive to produce varieties that are not alternate-bearing.As long as your tree is receiving good basic garden care and you try to address the two possible causes that I’ve described, you are likely to have a good crop next year and in years to come.Q: My Boston fern looked fine all summer and fall but now it looks shabby. What can I do?A: The winter months bring reduced light and lower humidity. Boston ferns do poorly under these conditions. Try to find a brighter location for your plant to spend the rest of the winter. Keep the soil moist and mist the plant lightly every day. A liquid fertilizer should be applied once a month at half-strength. When spring comes, you can return your plant to its former location.Source - http://www.pe.com/

27.12.2013

Fall gypsum improves soil for next crop

Farmers who apply gypsum to their fields in the fall can increase sulfur and calcium in their soils for their next crop, an Ohio State University scientist explains.Warren Dick, a soil biochemist in the university’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, says in a recent paper that applying flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum to crop fields in the fall after harvest can result in improved soils that lead to higher yields.Gypsum is an abundant byproduct from coal-burning power plants, said Dick, who holds an appointment with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, the research arm of the college.“Growers typically apply gypsum in the fall after harvest,” he said. “When the gypsum is applied to soils low in available sulfur or with poor physical properties, improved crop vigor and increased yields for corn, soybeans, alfalfa and wheat are commonly observed during the next growing season.“Growers need to be aware, however, that the benefits are not always immediate, as time is needed for the reactions in soil to take place. As rain droplets contact gypsum-treated soil, the gypsum particles dissolve and begin to move slowly into the soil profile.”FGD gypsum is powdery, resembles flour and generally can be applied using conventional farm spreaders designed for spreading ag-lime and/or litter. Growers apply it to soils for several reasons, Dick said, including supplying sulfur when the element is limiting crop yields, and improving soil chemical and physical conditions.According to Dick’s research, sufficient sulfur from gypsum, applied at rates of 0.5 to 2 tons per acre commonly used by producers, remains present in the upper soil profile for several years after application.“Gypsum is also used to improve soils high in sodium and in some cases magnesium, as such soils can become dense or crust,” he said. “Adding gypsum to these soils will improve water infiltration and aeration.”A typical application rate is 1 or 2 two tons per acre every 1-2 or three years, Dick said. A growing number of farmer co-ops sell it. When applying gypsum to soils, there are several factors growers need to consider, he said, including:- Gypsum doesn’t dissolve all at once or move though all soils at the same rate. Its solubility is impacted by the source, particle size distribution and the environment surrounding the material once it is applied.- Gypsum movement into the soil profile is also influenced by soil texture, amount of organic matter, surface soil structure, residue, compaction, soil moisture condition, and the timing and volume of rainfall.- Crop nutrient needs vary depending on the type of plant, but most agricultural crops require 30-70 pounds per acre of applied sulfur. Most producers add more than this amount to their soil when applying gypsum.- Plants can use sulfur only in the sulfate form, the form supplied by gypsum.- Fall applications of gypsum to tight clay soils at recommended rates can be expected to provide adequate sulfate-sulfur and calcium to the following spring-planted crop. Over time, improvements to soil structure can also be achieved.- Gypsum contributes to a variety of improvements to soil quality beyond fertility, including increased water infiltration and reduced losses of topsoil and nutrients.Source - http://www.porknetwork.com/

26.12.2013

USA - SD lawmakers press farm bill, help for ranchers

Negotiating and implementing Congress' multibillion-dollar farm bill so that it helps South Dakota, including ranchers who suffered heavy losses during October's blizzard, will be the first order of business in 2014, the state's congressional members say.The House and Senate has each approved a version of the five-year, roughly $500 billion bill, but there are major differences between the two regarding crop subsidies and how much to cut food stamp programs. A new farm bill also would restore emergency protections for livestock producers, a key element for the state.Lawmakers hope to work out a compromise by early next year, which would mark the first a farm bill has been approved since a 2008 deal. That deal expired in 2012 but was extended until September 2013."The immediate priority for 2014 is to get it passed," Republican Sen. John Thune said. "But part of passing it, and with any major bill, is implementing it. We want to make sure it works, the commodity title, the safety net reforms and everything we're fighting to get in it."The emergency protections for livestock producers would potentially bring relief to South Dakota ranchers who lost between 15,000 and 30,000 cattle when an early-season blizzard swept through part of the state in October."Disaster assistance will help a lot," Thune said. "There's been a lot of suffering in the state."Source - http://www.newstimes.com/

26.12.2013

Africa - Maize farmers in Kenya to get new method to counter Maize Lethal Necrosis

A new method to manage the Maize Lethal Necrosis disease will be rolled out by Bayer East Africa Company (BEAC) ahead of next year’s planting season. The method has been developed by BEAC agronomists and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute ( Kari) to manage the disease that has affected maize production in the country. BEAC head of Crop Science, Gikunda Iracha said the method will first be launched in Trans-Nzoia and Uasin Gishu counties and later extended to other maize growing areas in Kenya. FARMERS’ TRAINING Mr Iracha said farmers will be trained on pre-plant and post-harvest conditions.“We shall train farmers on how best to manage the Maize Lethal Necrosis disease as we gear for next year’s planting season,’’ he noted. According to Iracha farmers should plant seeds treated with Gaucho chemicals and spray the young crop with another chemical known as Thunder Nativo. Production of maize as a staple food in Kenya has reduced considerably following the emergence of the disease five years ago, prompting scientists to look for a solution. Early this year, Kari, Ministry of Agriculture and Kenya Seed Company advised farmers to rotate their crop or leave their farms fallow for some time to suppress the disease but the method has not worked for lack of a suitable crop to replace maize as a staple food.Source - http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/

26.12.2013

Snow a positive for wheat crop

Wheat is tough. It will work hard to produce a crop even whether dealing with extreme drought conditions like 2011 and 2012 or when covered with snow and ice that prevents the sun from reaching the plant.The area got a lot of moisture this year and the wheat crop looks good whether it was the earliest planted or some of the last. The last planting is not as far along but it is still just as resilient.While this is a living plant, it is very tolerant of the cold. While it might seem that snow or ice would harm the plant, it in fact protects it from cold temperatures that can damage the wheat."Any time you get that insulation from the cold, it does a world of good," said Mark Ploger, Pratt County Extension Agent.In fact the snow and ice acts as such a good insulator that that it is more of a help to the later planted wheat that may not have had as much time to develop a big root system like the earlier planted wheat.The snow and ice that fell in the area recently hit from four to five inches. The wind was not a factor so the snow and ice stayed where it fell and provided an even covering on the wheat fields.Wheat gets its toughness during a "vernalization period" that helps the wheat acclimate to changes in the weather, particularly during the temperature changes in the late fall and early winter, Ploger said.Kansas will frequently have several days of unusually warm weather followed by unusually cold temperatures for several days.This is a hardening process that gives it the name hard red winter wheat. This category of wheat is grown from Nebraska to the south.Hard wheat is planted in the fall then goes dormant. It can stand temperatures that get to 10 below zero.For the colder climates further north, where temperatures get down to 40 to 50 degrees below zero, farmers choose to plant soft wheat in the spring and avoid the extreme cold temperatures.But in Kansas, hard wheat is the category of choice and all across the state and around Pratt County, the wheat crop is looking good.The ample moisture allowed the wheat to produce a good root system and grow enough to even provide wheat pasture, something that hadn't happened for a couple of years because of the drought.Source - http://www.pratttribune.com/

26.12.2013

USA - Technology Needed for Poor Farmers

Farmers in the United States are able to employ the world’s best technologies to make them the most productive agricultural producers in the world. However, small farmers in poor countries are also in need of technologies that can help them be more successful. Pierre Ferrari is the CEO of Heifer Project International.“What is the appropriate technology for farmers in the mountains of Nepal or the semi-desert areas of Registan? And there is a technology that’s appropriate, and we need to make the investments to find the right technologies for those farmers as opposed to the right technologies for soybean farmers in Brazil. An enormous amount of research has been done for the soy farmer in Brazil.”Ferrari contends that very little has been done in the way of developing technologies for small farmers in poor countries.“They need technology just as much. In fact, they need it more because they live in areas that are so fragile and so complicated. Soil conditions and climatic microclimate conditions change within the space of twenty miles in these places. The soil quality in Africa on the average is not good. How do we do it? What’s the technology to actually improve productivity out of these very poor soils?”Craig Nessler is the director of Texas A&M Agrilife Research maintains that there are places in Texas that simulate climates of many locations around the world.“What do we want to do? Do we want to help people feed themselves or do we want to send troops into an area where people are starving and fighting with one another? I submit that agriculture is a good method for world peace, and that’s why we work in various countries to help them to help themselves.”Genetics will play a big role in solving these problems.“What we’re planning on doing, for example with water use efficiency, that is to make plants more drought resistant, is to crosswalk. We intend to go from one crop to another crop to another crop, because the genes that are involved in water use are going to likely be similar in most of the plants.”Source - http://www.kbtx.com/

26.12.2013

Africa - Buhera farmers take up conservation farming

More than 12 000 farmers in the drought prone Buhera South this year took up conservation farming, amid expectations of yielding better harvests.More than half of the farmers said they took up the concept after seeing positive aspects of the programme on counterparts who took it up last season.Buhera South’s major characteristic is low and highly variable rainfall that makes it unsuitable for crop production under conventional farming methods that disturbs the soil.Most households in the constituency are into conservation farming and several have taken advantage of training workshops and field days by NGO Goal Zimbabwe to enhance their knowledge about concept.In separate interview during the tour of the pilot projects on last Thursday, farmers who used this method last year said they realised adequate yields while colleagues who resisted change had little to talk about in terms of yields.They have since increased the area planted this year, while their colleagues, who developed cold feet last year, have joined in after noticing the difference.Speaking at a field visit at Mr Peter Musendeki’s plot of Ward 32, under Chief Nyashanu’s area, Goal Zimbabwe crop production specialist Mr Tichaona Gadzikwa said farmers need to explore new farming ways to preserve crop moisture.The field visit was organized for the Provincial Administrator Mr Fungai Mbetsa, journalists, provincial heads of agro-related Government departments and local farmers by the NGO. Mr Gadzikwa explained that conservation farming is any system or practice which aims to conserve soil and water by using surface cover or mulch to minimise runoff and erosion and improve the conditions for plant growth.Source - http://www.manicapost.com/

25.12.2013

Bale grazing popularity continues to grow

The benefits of grazing are numerous. Grazing allows animals to feed themselves in a low stress environment, lowers human labor requirements for feeding and manure management, and, aesthetically, creates a pastoral image of the animals spread out across the landscape contently grazing at their leisure.In northern climates, these benefits are assumed to end once the fields turn white with snow. But a growing trend in the beef cow-calf industry is to continue the benefits of grazing all winter long by using the concept of bale grazing. Bale grazing has been around for decades in one form or another. Midwestern farms often practiced it once the corn stalk fodder ran out in a cornfield, others evolved into it once their cow herd grew too large to be contained in a barnyard.As a solution, they began feeding hay on adjoining pastures and crop fields that had windbreaks. With the advent of the hay round baler, it became much easier to set a supply of winter hay out for the cows to consume in locations farther from the farm buildings. Over the last 20 years this practice was refined and given a name, bale grazing. It has since been talked about in trade magazines and at educational conferences, and its popularity continues to grow.Bale grazing is the practice of spacing individual round bales of hay across a field in strategic lines looking much like a checkerboard from the sky. The entire supply of hay to be fed through the winter is set out at one time in the fall. Then, once hay feeding begins, a single strand of electric portable fence is strategically set across the field, giving the cows access to only a small portion of the bales at one time. After so many days of feeding by the cows, once the hay is cleaned up, the electric wire is re-set to feed off another portion of the bales.Once the bales are initially set in place in the late summer or fall, a tractor may not be needed to feed the cow herd for the rest of the winter. The hot wire and portable posts can be moved by hand, thus avoiding jelled fuel lines, dead batteries, snow plowing and cold weather engine wear and tear on the tractor.Bale grazing of winter hay has many benefits. As long as windbreaks are accessible, the cows prefer being outside. Even in stormy weather, when they have access to the shelter of a barn, they will tend to stay near windbreaks in the open air environment.Environmentally, when managed properly on frozen ground, bale grazing is better than feeding in a confined dirt lot area, as the manure and urine are uniformly dropped across the landscape as the cows follow the rows of hay bales across the field. Once dropped, these nutrients are absorbed by the root system of the sod that is still active under the snow. The sod field is a much better location for the nutrients to be deposited, rather than in a barn yard that has few growing plants. These concentrated barnyards with only a soil base quickly turn to mud and become a nutrient sinkhole. The nutrients leach to the subsoil before mechanical scraping captures them in the spring.Labor requirements for pasture bale grazing are less during the cold winter period, as all that is required is the fence and possible feeder ring movement. Contrary to popular belief, a pasture or hayfield on which bale grazing is practiced is not destroyed by the hoof action. When bales are set out properly across the field and feed locations are constantly moved, there is little permanent sod damage.The resulting nutrient application along with the wasted hay adds forage seeds and organic matter back to the field, rejuvenating old low yielding fields into highly productive stands after just a few years of bale grazing.All that is needed for bale grazing is a sod field with water drainage and wind protection. Temporary fencing can be installed if necessary. Water sources can be developed if travel back to a frost-proof water source is too far for the cows to walk. Electricity for pumping water and charging the fence can be improvised with solar collector panels and battery storage, so few fields are off limits for bale grazing. Even grain stubble fields can be utilized as long as thawing soil conditions are closely monitored to avoid soil compaction. Plans and guidelines for these concepts are available from Michigan State University Extension.Think your winters are too severe for bale grazing? Bale grazing is often used in most of the Canadian provinces with herds ranging up to 800 cows or more and where winters are longer and more severe than in most of the contiguous U.S.Bale graziers are innovators and have not stopped at just figuring out ways to make winter feeding less costly. Some are seeding cover crops into wheat, sorghum or corn stubble and grazing the cover crop first and then setting bales on the field to be grazed along with the cover crop regrowth later.Others take a late first cutting of hay in mid-summer, never remove the bales from the field, let the second cutting growth stockpile for winter grazing and bale graze the bales and the stockpiled regrowth that winter. This is a winter feeding system with the following benefits: Very little machinery labor as no bales are hauled; a big first cutting yield of low quality hay; a good stockpiled second cutting growth of quality forage that, combined with the hay, meets the nutritional needs of the gestating beef cow; and a field that will respond well with yield the following year as a lot of seed will be dropped as well as manure nutrients.Some bale graziers are even taking this a step further, and are not weaning their calves in the fall! They have begun letting the nursing calf stay on the cow well past seven months of age, bale grazing the cow and calf into March. They are finding the calves stay healthy, grow surprisingly well without grain and virtually self-wean by March, at which time the cows and calves are finally separated.Thin body condition cows of four or less or cows that are heavy milkers are not good candidates for this, but most other healthy cows seem to maintain body condition at acceptable levels to rebreed properly the next summer. One change these farms have made for this system to work is to move their calving date back into May and June. This allows them to calve in sequence with spring grass growth and to give the cows an approximate 60-day dry period before the next calf is born. Research will be needed to test the economics of this system, but many times the innovators lead the research.Source - http://www.agriview.com/

25.12.2013

Cow herd nutritional adjustments for winter

A Kansas State expert recommends that producers assess their forages, and the body condition and hair coat of each cow in the herd, as cold winter temperatures loom. A week or more of cold temperatures, particularly below freezing, can take a toll on the cow herd. A bodily response to cold stress in cattle is an increase in dry matter intake, said Dale Blasi, professor and beef cattle extension specialist for Kansas State University.Blasi recommends that cattle producers make a list of the forages they have available for the winter months, know the quality of those forages, take a look at the body condition and hair coat condition of each cow, and prepare for winter winds by providing shelters or windbreaks for the herd.Forage testing can help determine the quality of the forages producers have on hand, Blasi said. During a string of days with sub-freezing temperatures, the higher quality forages should be used to increase the herd’s caloric intake, but producers should keep in mind that, depending on the harshness of winter, increased animal requirements might continue well into spring.“Especially with those spring-calving cows, they are starting to enter into their third phase of gestation,” Blasi said. “We have to make sure we keep those pregnancies as healthy as possible.”If producers are feeding a co-product such as distillers dried grain, Blasi said, they would provide some additional protein and fat to the cows. Providing more corn to the herd is fine to a certain level.“You get too much corn into the diet, you start to impact the rumen’s ecosystem, and you start to hurt the fiber digesting capability of the lower-quality forages being consumed,” Blasi said. “My recommendation is not more than a half of a percent of the animal’s weight. So, a 1,000-lb. cow you would not feed more than 5 lbs. (of additional corn). Make sure there is adequate protein coming elsewhere so you’re not driving a protein-limiting ecosystem.”Assessing the body condition and hair coat for each cow in the herd can help producers determine how much more energy requirements are needed in the winter months. According to a Kansas State Research and Extension publication, body condition scores are numbers used to suggest the relative fatness or body condition of the beef cow. The score system ranges from one to nine, with one representing a very thin cow and nine representing an extremely fat cow. If a cow currently has a body condition score of less than five, Blasi said, she might be at a health risk for the winter. Furthermore, her low body condition might compromise the health of the calf she is carrying. The effects from a hard winter on that cow could last into the spring, as she might lack in the quality of her first milk for the calf and the ability to breed back in a timely manner.Blasi recommends that producers separate the herd by body condition scores, so the cows with less flesh can be supplemented with more nutrients. Also, younger and probably smaller females should be watched closely.“We are hopefully going through a herd rebuilding now, and a lot of folks have some optimism for the future,” Blasi said. “If at all possible, split the herd up by the age and also the body condition. Monitor, evaluate and be mindful that you can slip a lot of body condition over periods of time when it is wet, windy and cold.”All cows should have a winter coat by now, Blasi said, but when cows are wet from snow or cold rain, their coats become matted and their insulation breaks down.Prior research at Kansas State showed that the critical temperature for a cow with a summer coat or wet coat is 60 degrees Fahrenheit (60 F). It is 45 F for cows with a fall coat, 32 F for those with a winter coat and 19 F for those with a heavy winter coat.Wind chill, based on temperature and wind speed, can make cattle even more compromised, Blasi said. With temperatures at freezing and winds at more than 10 mph, cows could need a 15 to 20 percent increase in forage requirements.“The amount of hair will help those females combat the impact of wind chill,” Blasi said. “But, as she starts to shiver, an increase in maintenance requirements ensue.”While many producers have turned their cows out on grazing stocks—sorghum and corn—they have to keep in mind that many of those crop fields do not have places for the cows to keep out of the cold wind. Blasi said that a windbreak can provide up to a 70 percent reduction in wind velocity and can change the wind chill from -5 F to 7 F, a 12-degree swing.“Any kind of shelter is a tremendous step forward for helping them withstand and coast over these inclement weather events,” Blasi said.If cows are grazing stocks, producers might consider supplementing those stocks on extremely cold days, Blasi said. Producers might also want to strategize when they feed hay and any supplements.“A well-known phenomenon with feeding pregnant beef cows is that feeding them in the afternoon and evening hours has a corresponding effect on calving in daylight hours,” Blasi said. “Obviously, when we’re expecting babies coming, it’s nice to be there if the cows should need help. Feeding in the evening also increases the heat of fermentation for the cow as we see these nighttime lows.”Source - http://www.agriview.com/

25.12.2013

Turkish citrus production recovers

After a 2012 season with citrus production hampered by adverse weather, Turkish growers have improved their citrus output in 2013.Frost, heavy rain and strong winds affected citrus production in Turkey during the spring of 2012, according to a report by the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. That came at a bad time for the country's growers, because the bad weather affected the crop's blooming period. That made for reduced production in 2012, but a 2013 free from similar conditions resulted in a rebound in citrus production.While Turkish grapefruit production in 2012 dropped to 200,000 MT, better weather led to a 17 percent jump in production during 2013. Similarly, lemon production in 2013 reached 760,000 MT, which is 12 percent more than the previous season's production of 680,000 MT. Orange production, which was 1.6 MMT in 2012, improved by seven percent to 1.7 MMT in 2013.Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/

25.12.2013

Sudan - Gezira Scheme to Plant 400,000 Acres of Wheat for Self-Sufficiency

Gezira Scheme Farmers Union announced a plan to plant 400,000 acres of wheat crop in the scheme.Spokesman of the union, Jamal Dafallah said, in an exclusive statement to Sudan Vision, that the Minister of Agriculture and Gezira Farmers Union had met with the President of the Republic recently, where they stressed that Gezira Scheme will enter the stage of self-sufficiency in wheat crop this season .He said that the wheat crop in the Gezira Scheme has made great steps, where its cultivation reached 19, 000 acres in the previous season. Dafallah attributed the increasing of area planted with wheat to the availability of funding, water, and insurance, in addition to government support and the short period of cultivation, besides no problem in marketing.Source - http://news.sudanvisiondaily.com/

25.12.2013

India - Not Much Headway in Crop Diversification

Despite tall claims by the Agriculture Department, crop diversification in Western Odisha still remains a distant dream. Since most farmers opt for paddy cultivation, it has led to distress sale of the crop and brought the farmers at loggerheads with the district administration over procurement.There have been instances when the district administration, even after achieving its procurement target, received more stocks that arrived at the market yards.During the last rabi procurement season, while it was targeted to procure around 20 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from this part of the State, the Government ended up procuring 36 lakh metric tonnes.Although loans are being disbursed for crops other than paddy, nobody is sure how much of it is produced and consumed. For instance, lack of Government support is forcing cotton growers in South and Western parts of Odisha to opt for distress sale of their crops.Although there are market yards to sell cotton, very few buyers turn up and the prices have been varying every year. In the absence of any insurance cover or Government marketing support, farmers are left at the mercy of private traders.Under these circumstances, they cultivate paddy where they are at least assured of a minimum support price.As far as marketing is concerned, it is disorganised and inefficient which indirectly leads to low productivity. Inadequate transport facilities, lack of storage, credit linkage, market information, and lack of awareness on value addition to crops continue to be some of the major constraints.Farmer leaders said emphasis has to be laid on offering opportunities in terms of loans and creating platforms that can assure farmers sale of their produce. Besides, provision of minimum support price will encourage farmers to shift to substitution and diversification with better crops like cotton, pulses, groundnut and vegetables.Source - http://www.newindianexpress.com/

25.12.2013

Farmers have a lot to think about these days

If the farmer you know seems a little distant at this time of year, it’s because he may have a lot of other things on his mind than Christmas shopping and drinking eggnog.The past several years have been profitable. And while the 2012 drought was a psychological downer, most grain farmers with crop insurance were able to weather that challenge.But times are changing. With gross revenue per acre expected to drop about $200 due to lower grain prices and increased costs of crop production, profitability will be calculated with red ink for many farmers in 2014, particularly those who have agreed to higher cash rent demands from land owners. While that was a choice, many farmers felt they had no choice.Management of revenue risk becomes a key element when working capital is tight, and 2014 crop insurance policies will be readily subscribed by some farmers who can’t farm without them and cut by others with tight budgets, who probably need them even more.When Congress reconvenes, an early action will be to approve the new Farm Bill, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will soon roll out a 2014 farm program that could be as complex as the last one, but deserves attention because of the financial safety net it provides.Why is a safety net needed? When federal officials foiled the plot to steal seed corn genetics when they found some Chinese crawling through Illinois and Iowa corn fields, China began rejecting U.S. corn and market prices dropped. Farmers have no way to protect themselves from such developments, and that is the reason the Farm Bill is a safety net. But signing up for the farm program will require several complex choices.As commodity prices have fallen to levels of production cost, farm operators will be spending more time with their marketing plan because they are no longer dealing with dollars of profit per bushel. Now it’s pennies. And managing risk against such price shocks as the Chinese seed caper will not be easy.However, there are other thieves entering the fields that farmers will be worried about in 2014. One of those is corn rootworm, which has outsmarted the latest technology and can survive what used to be a deadly dose of Bt toxin. The 2013 failure of some popular Bt hybrids will require more planning and strategy in 2014 to prevent a further erosion of that insect control, and subsequent yield loss.Another pest that will steal yields is Palmer amaranth, a new weed that many farmers are just learning about, but which will invade the added soybean acreage in 2014 and get a stranglehold on many fields. It has resistance to many herbicides and the ability to pass on that resistance to its half million offspring. Controlling it is a complex and expensive process.Many farmers are also concerned about the quality of corn in farm bins, which may have been put into storage wetter than usual in the fall, and may have to stay in the bin longer because of low prices. Their concerns about maintaining the quality will be weighing on many minds when the weather warms up.Better yet, a gift registration for him may be the best Christmas present for the whole family.Source - http://herald-review.com/

24.12.2013

Australia - Protect your soil: Ground cover after harvest helps combat erosion

As harvest winds down in the Mallee and planning for the 2014 cropping season gets under way, growers are being reminded to make their soil health a priority over the summer months. For today’s grain growers, the traditional “quiet time” after harvest is a thing of the past. To ensure the best start to the coming season, when the header leaves the paddock, summer weed control becomes a focus – as should maintaining soil health.According to the Mallee Catchment Management Authority (CMA), as well as being good for the environment, healthy soils are critically important to sustainable agricultural productivity, and maintaining ground cover over summer is one way to achieve this. As well as minimising wind erosion, soil organic matter has an invaluable secondary role in supporting and stabilising soil structure, increasing water retention, storing nutrients, building diversity, resilience and resistance to disease and buffering chemical behaviour.Source - http://www.sunraysiadaily.com.au/

24.12.2013

Philippines - Government doles out P15,000 to 65 Zamboanga farmers

The government gave roughly P15,031 each to 65 farmers in the Zamboanga peninsula region this year, state media reported.The Philippine News Agency (PNA) quoted the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as having provided P977,000 in calamity assistance to the farmers in Region 9. The region consists of three provinces, namely, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay.The report quoted DAR Regional Director Julita Ragandang as saying the farmer beneficiaries have suffered farm losses to floods brought about by inclement weather and storms.The news report on the PNA web site on Tuesday neither identified the source of the cash nor the farmer beneficiaries.But the report further quoted Ragandang as saying that the calamity-assistance program is being implemented in coordination with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., which provides insurance to farmers covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.The report further quoted Ragandang as saying the amounts allocated to the farmer-beneficiaries were intended to help them defray expenses in the rehabilitation of their damaged farms.The amount given to farmer-beneficiaries depended on the actual damages they incurred, the report said.Ragandang was quoted as saying that the financial assistance was handed out to farmers “on varied occasions” in November and the third week of December.Source - http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/