Agroinsurance

Roundup of key soybean diseases from 2013 season

The soybean diseases of most concern this year in Wisconsin were white mold (also known as Sclerotinia stem rot or SSR) and Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS), according to UW-Madison plant pathologist Damon Smith. In terms of the most acres affected, this pair led the way, with white mold most prevalent in southern Wisconsin. Northerly counties experienced more drought.Septoria leaf spot (otherwise known as brown spot) showed up this year, which was kind of unusual, Smith says. Some viruses also appeared in 2013. Soybean vein necrosis disease (SVND), a recent discovery in Wisconsin, was previously reported on in Agri-View, and tobacco streak virus was picked up late in the season by the industry. Smith says SVND appears to be present in 10 percent of acres in the state, gaining a little larger foothold than it had last year.SDS, according to Smith (who addressed soybean diseases recently at the UW-Extension Pest Management Update meetings), is reported throughout most soybean growing areas in the U.S. It was first documented in Wisconsin in 2005 and has become more common and severe since then. It’s most severe when soybeans are planted into cool wet soils and when mid-summer rains saturate the soil.The first noticeable symptoms of SDS are yellow blotches that form between the veins of the leaflets (while veins stay green). They expand, and the tissue later turns brown and dies. Soon after, entire leaflets shrivel and die. Leaflets will also drop off, leaving petioles attached. Taproots and below-ground portions of the stems of plants with SDS when split open, show no internal stem discoloration. In plants with advanced foliar symptoms of SDS, small, light blue patches form on taproots and stems below the soil line. These are spore masses of the fungus that causes this disease.Smith says once symptoms are evident, yield loss is inevitable, and can range from not much all the way up to 100 percent, depending on variety grown, growth stage at time of infection and whether SCN is present in a field (See related story this week on SDS and SCN.). If SDS occurs at flowering, yield loss can be substantial. When SCN is also present, the combined damage from both is substantially more than the sum of the damage expected from the two individual diseases.SDS is a soil-borne fungus (Fusarium virguliforme), which overwinters in soil, crop residue and the cysts of SCN. It infects soybean roots, possibly as early as one week after crop emergence. It does not invade leaves, flowers, pods or seeds, but does produce toxins in the roots that move to the leaves, causing the SDS foliar symptoms.The disturbing thing is that SDS cannot be controlled once plants are infected. Foliar fungicides and fungicide seed treatments have no effect on the disease. Use SDS-resistant varieties, which might be somewhat difficult to find, in suitable maturity groups. Rotating to other crops does not appear to significantly impact SDS either, and corn has been shown to harbor this pathogen.Smith says foliar symptoms of SDS can be confused with leaf symptoms of brown stem rot (BSR). However, internal stems generally appear normal with SDS, versus BSR that has brown discoloration of the root pitch, especially at and between nodes near the soil line.In addition, SDS is usually seen at R3 to R4, while BSR turns up at R5 to R6. According to Smith, BSR also cannot be controlled once plants have been infected. Foliar fungicides and fungicides seed treatments have no effect on this one either. Use crop rotations of two to three years away from soybeans for BSR, as well as tillage that incorporates residue. Keep fertility up, and grow varieties with BSR resistance.White mold is, unfortunately, all too familiar to growers. Smith reports that this year, it was worse in soybeans planted later (i.e. early June). Earlier planted soybeans flowered during hot, dry weather and escaped. As noted, it was more of a problem in southern Wisconsin (which got more rain) this year, than in the northern portion of the state.White mold is caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorium, which thrives in cool, humid conditions. For every 1 percent increment of plant mortality at R6 or R7, yield loss is a quarter to a half bushel per acre, Smith reports.Management is a function of field history (keep good records of field history and disease incidence), variety selection, increasing row width and reducing plant population, crop rotation (though one year is not enough as survival structures can last up to 10 years), and chemical and/or biological control. Where irrigation is used, reduce the frequency during flowering. Use cover crops to reduce inoculums density.Smith says fungicides may be warranted in fields with a history of white mold and where risk is high. They should be applied at R1 for best results. Timing is important, and applying after R3 is ineffective.Septoria leaf spot (or brown spot) was in soybean fields, too, this year. The Septoria fungus is common in soybean residue and is spread by splashing rain. Infection occurs as early as V2 on lower leaves. Under warm, wet weather, the disease may move up through the plant. Late in the growing season, infected leaves turn rusty brown or yellow and drop prematurely. The spread of the fungus is usually halted during hot, dry weather.Septoria leaf spot does not usually affect soybean productivity in Wisconsin. In some years it can cause premature defoliation, which can be confused with normal maturity. Yield loss occurs most often in high- yield environments and is related to timing and rate of defoliation. Disease severity at the R6 growth stage is predictive of yield. Severe brown spot results in smaller seed size.Look for irregular, dark brown spots on both upper and lower leaf surfaces. Adjacent lesions frequently merge to form irregularly shaped blotches. Leaves become rusty brown. Symptoms of Septoria leaf spot can also develop on stems and pods of plants approaching maturity.Smith says tobacco streak virus was a possible cause of “green stem syndrome” in 2013. It results in bud proliferation and underdeveloped pods. He says there will be a lot of pods all at the terminal end of the plant with not a lot down the stem. Not much is understood about this disease in soybeans, according to Smith. It’s possibly transmitted by thrips. The other virus that is a newcomer to Wisconsin is soybean vein necrosis disease. Plants exhibit vein clearing (lighter vein color) and yellowing, as well as mosaic patterns (blotchy light and dark areas) on affected leaves. Initially, symptoms develop around the veins of leaves and eventually expand outward. As the disease progresses, vein and leaf browning and death occur.This is a tospovirus and belongs to a group of common vegetable viruses, including tomato spotted wilt virus and viruses on iris and impatiens. This one also appears to be thrips related. State soybean checkoff funds are being utilized to look closer at SVND. Thrips on soybeans will be captured again next year.Source - http://www.agriview.com/

A disappearing world beneath our feet

As Midwestern farm fields take a long winter’s nap, evidence is piling up that even when the temperature’s above freezing, all that soil is basically in a bit of a stupor—so devoid of microbial life that it can’t even produce a decent crop without getting a hit of chemical inputs.The latest proof of this came in November when the journal Science published a University of Colorado paper quantifying what many farmers and conservationists have long suspected: when we converted tens of millions of acres of tallgrass prairie to annual row crops, it wasn’t just the surface that was denuded of diversity. The incredible soil microbial diversity that once dominated the subsurface of native prairie areas has been “almost completely eradicated” by decades of monocultural row crop agriculture, according to the paper, which includes contributions from scientists based at some of the nation’s most prestigious research institutions, including the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Argonne National Laboratory.The paper bases its groundbreaking (pardon the pun) conclusions on how much of a certain bacterial group called Verrucomicrobia is present in the soil. Although little-studied, it turns out Verrucomicrobia dominate many prairie soils, making them a prime indicator of a rich ecological basement.To take into account varying climate conditions, scientists sampled 31 native prairie sites—mostly cemeteries and nature preserves—from the Dakotas and Minnesota down through Iowa and as far south as Texas. They then compared the presence of Verrucomicrobia in the prairie samples to those taken from cultivated soils. It was a “before and after” contrast of the most striking variety—like walking through a factory after all the machinery, workers and energy inputs have been stripped out, leaving an empty, echoey building. “…the soils currently found throughout the region bear little resemblance to their pre-agricultural state,” concluded the researchers.That’s bad news. As two South African scientists—Mary Scholes and Robert Scholes—writing in that same issue of Science warn, “An intact, self-restoring soil ecosystem is essential, especially in times of climate stress.”And this isn’t just a problem in America’s grasslands. More than 46 percent of the world’s soil is suffering from noticeable productivity declines and partially destroyed biological functions, according to the International Soil Reference and Information Centre. As the University of Colorado paper shows, this is not just a Third World problem. “We have forgotten the lesson of the Dust Bowl: Even in advanced economies, human well-being depends on looking after the soil,” write South Africa’s Scholes and Scholes.A dead soil is anything but self-restoring and resilient. We’ve been able to cover up soil’s lack of life with plenty of chemical inputs, and we all know what the unintended consequences of that have been. More chemicals results in less microbial life, which means more chemicals are needed to retain yields—a vicious cycle if there ever was one. And whenever chemical inputs are increased, it’s inevitable that some of those chemicals will find a way to become pollutants in the wider ecosystem—much like nitrogen fertilizer has here in Minnesota.On the other hand, it’s exciting to see what happens when soil is allowed to become more self-reliant. I recall sitting in the office of soil microbiologist Kristine Nichols as she showed me microscopic images of soil aggregates, groups of soil particles that bind to each other. As she explained it, healthy microorganisms can do something called “habitat engineering,” which has huge implications for allowing soil to cook up its own fertility and make efficient use of available moisture. It also has erosion reduction implications—soils with more organic matter feed themselves, and extra “food” goes into developing a waxy glue that holds aggregates together, creating a habitat where water can’t build up the kind of explosive pressure that sends particles off a field and into our water.“They’ve actually engineered an environment that’s safe, that has food and has the ability to produce carbon to self-perpetuate,” Nichols explained to me. “The more of these aggregates there are, and the larger they are, the less susceptible to erosion the soil is. We’ve found management can impact this.”She isn’t speaking theoretically. The scientist’s USDA office is just a few miles from Burleigh County, in south-central North Dakota. As we’ve described in this blog previously, farmers, conservationists and scientists are working together to build the kind of soil health that’s resilient—biologically and economically.Just as we will probably never see a return of a landscape dominated by tallgrass prairie, it’s doubtful we will experience in our lifetimes Midwestern soils buzzing with the fully-functioning biology that was around pre-cultivation. But examples popping up in Burleigh County and elsewhere show there are practical ways to at least strike a balance between productive agriculture and healthy soil.Southeast Minnesota farmer Duane Hager is striking such a balance through a combination of cover cropping, diverse crop rotations, grazing and use of livestock manure. Over the years, Hager has learned what works and what doesn’t, and feels he’d gotten to the point where if he left some of his soils alone for a year, “they’d take care of themselves.” After all, prairie soils pretty much ate their own cooking long before we arrived on the scene, the farmer points out. That kind of confidence comes with knowing what can be controlled, and what can’t.“No matter how you farm, you are disrupting nature’s process,” Hager told me recently. “But to realize that you are disrupting the process and work with it, that’s important.”Source - http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/

Ukraine - Agrarian Fund paid UAH 10.7 Ml for grain in advance

The Agrarian Fund of Ukraine made a total of UAH 10.7 Ml of advance payments to contractors, the website of the Ukrainian Agrarian Insurance Company says. According to the report, the first advance payments for 2014-crop grain under exchange agreements were made on the conditions of a pre-insurance survey of winter crops by insurance companies and a confirmed insurance fee payment by growers. The report says that on November 25, 2013 the Agrarian Fund obtained the first crop survey reports confirming the acceptance of 4 Th ha of winter crops for insurance.Source - http://www.blackseagrain.net/

USA - Tama County is among 44 in the state declared drought disaster areas

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 44 counties in Iowa as primary natural disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought.Tama County along with Marshall, Poweshiek and Jasper in central Iowa are among those listed.In addition, counties including Benton, Black Hawk and Grundy which are contiguous also are named as qualified for aid.All counties listed were designated natural disaster areas on Dec. 11, 2013, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity. Source - http://www.tamatoledonews.com/

India - Controlling fruit fly menace in bitter gourd

Cucurbit fruit fly is the most destructive pest of bitter gourd throughout the country. The pest attacks other cucurbitaceous vegetables such as bottle gourd, cucumber, tinda, pumpkin, gherkin, etc.Adult fly punctures the early tender fruit tissues and lays its eggs. The infestation often reaches cent per cent leading to complete loss of the crop. The maggots feed on the contents of fruits and cause premature dropping of fruits.Entry pointInfested fruits can be identified by the presence of brown resinous juice which oozes out of the punctures made by the flies. The punctures serve as entry for various bacteria and fungi and as the result of the infection, fruits start rotting, get distorted, malformed and fall prematurely.The fly breeds throughout the year. Females thrust around 50 eggs as groups into tender fruits. The eggs hatch in 1-9 days and the maggots bore into the pulp forming galleries.Seven days old pale white mature larvae come out of the rotten fruits and bury themselves about 5cm deep into the soil and pupate. Barrel shaped brown puparium emerge as adult flies in two weeks.Adult flies are reddish brown in colour. They feed on honey dew and juices of ripe injured fruits.There are several generations in a year. The population of the pest is low in hot dry conditions and high during rainy season.Control measures:— Grow fruit fly tolerant bitter gourd varieties.— Collect and destroy infested fruits such as fallen, deformed and stunted fruits.— Frequently rake up or plough the soil to expose pupae to their natural enemies and detrimental weather.— Grow maize as border crop as the flies have the habit of resting on such tall plants. Maize alone can be sprayed with insecticides.— Use ribbed gourd as trap crop and apply carbaryl 0.15 per cent or malathion 0.1 per cent on congregating adult flies on the under surface of leaves.— Apply bait containing 50ml of malathion + 0.5kg of gur/sugar in 50 litre of water and it may be repeated at weekly interval if the attack is serious.— Use traps citronella oil, eucalyptus oil, vinegar(acetic acid) and lactic acid to trap flies.Source - http://www.thehindu.com/

USA - Finally, stronger fight against disastrous citrus greening in offing

The urgency of Florida's citrus greening plague finally hit home in Washington as the federal government created an "emergency response framework" to propel research into curing the deadly bacterial disease. Last week's action by the U.S. Department of Agriculture comes as Florida continues to scramble to stave off this economic disaster.The estimate for the Sunshine State's 2013-2014 citrus harvest is the smallest in 24 years, and Florida growers and scientists figure 69 million citrus trees are infected with greening, which first appeared near Homestead in 2005.The incurable plague will eventually threaten the entire nation's citrus crop unless researchers are successful. Florida's $9 billion citrus industry, the country's largest, is under siege.A University of Florida study last year found citrus greening has cost the state's economy some $4.5 billion and 8,000 jobs from 2006-2012.The country cannot afford to let that economic hemorrhaging continue unabated, as we opined back in March and on other occasions.The USDA finally embraced the urgency by creating a public-private task force of various agencies, experts and others to put a coordinated and sharper focus on research.During that announcement, one high-level USDA official captured the fresh approach with an apt description: "We're treating this almost like a hurricane response." The issue should have commanded that strategy before now.Southwest Florida Congressman Vern Buchanan, a Longboat Key Republican, and Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, joined forces long ago to push for bipartisan legislation that would boost federal spending on greening research by up to $30 million a year annually over the next five years.But Congress is playing games with the Farm Bill once again and consideration has been pushed back into January.A Buchanan spokesman told this Editorial Board, though, that hopes are high this new funding for citrus greening will be part of a final Farm Bill.This is clearly a bipartisan issue that deserve attention now, lest Americans suffer higher market prices as crop yields continue to decline and the disease spreads around the country.Greening, a bacteria spread by one particular insect, causes the fruit to be misshapen and bitter and trees eventually die. Manatee County ranks 10th in the state for citrus production with more than 24,000 acres of groves and 3.1 million commercial citrus tree.Dean Mixon, the owner of Mixon Fruit Farms in Bradenton, put the plight of growers in stark terms:"You can hardly find a grove that hasn't had (greening)," he told Herald reporter Sabrina Rocco upon hearing about the USDA's new strategy. His farm is among those hit by the disease.Research and eradication efforts have been ongoing in Florida for years. The state's citrus growers have contributed more than $60 million toward the battle over the past seven years.But spraying crops with insecticide more often has proven costly mostly ineffective as has the application of more nutrients. Research is focusing on interfering with the insect's reproduction capabilities and ability to transmit the disease.A solution appears years away, although the USDA's new "emergency response framework" adds coordination to the effort and should speed up the process.Meanwhile, we hope Buchanan and Nelson find success with more research funding under the Farm Bill. This would be an additional investment in saving a vital and valuable crop.Source - http://www.bradenton.com/

New Study Offers Detailed Portrait of 'Livestock Ecosystems'

The resources required to raise livestock and the impacts of farm animals on environments vary dramatically depending on the animal, the type of food it provides, the kind of feed it consumes and where it lives, according to a new study that offers the most detailed portrait to date of "livestock ecosystems" in different parts of the world.The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is the newest comprehensive assessment assembled of what cows, sheep, pigs, poultry and other farm animals are eating in different parts of the world; how efficiently they convert that feed into milk, eggs and meat; and the amount of greenhouse gases they produce.The study, produced by scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), shows that animals in many parts of the developing world require far more food to produce a kilo of protein than animals in wealthy countries. It also shows that pork and poultry are being produced far more efficiently than milk and beef, and greenhouse gas emissions vary widely depending on the animal involved and the quality of its diet."There's been a lot of research focused on the challenges livestock present at the global level, but if the problems are global, the solutions are almost all local and very situation-specific," said Mario Herrero, lead author of the study who earlier this year left ILRI to take up the position of chief research scientist at CSIRO in Australia."Our goal is to provide the data needed so that the debate over the role of livestock in our diets and our environments and the search for solutions to the challenges they present can be informed by the vastly different ways people around the world raise animals," said Herrero."This very important research should provide a new foundation for addressing the sustainable development of livestock in a very resource-challenged and hungry world, where, in many areas, livestock can be crucial to food security," said Harvard University's William C. Clark, editorial board member of the Sustainability Science section at PNAS.For the last four years, Herrero has been working with scientists at ILRI and the lIASA in Austria to deconstruct livestock impacts beyond what they view as broad and incomplete representations of the livestock sector. Their findings—supplemented with 50 illustrative maps and more than 100 pages of additional data—anchor a special edition of PNAS devoted to exploring livestock-related issues and global change. Scientists say the new data fill a critical gap in research on the interactions between livestock and natural resources region by region.The initial work was funded by ILRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).By the NumbersLivestock production and dietsThe study breaks down livestock production into nine global regions—the more developed regions of Europe and Russia (1), North America (2) and Oceania (3), along with the developing regions of Southeast Asia (4), Eastern Asia (5, including China), South Asia (6), Latin America and the Caribbean (7), sub-Saharan Africa (8) and the Middle East and North Africa (9).The data reveal sharp contrasts in overall livestock production and diets. For example:- Of the 59 million tons of beef produced in the world in 2000, the vast majority came from cattle in Latin America, Europe and North America. All of sub-Saharan Africa produced only about 3 million tons of beef.- Highly intensive industrial-scale production accounts for almost all of the poultry and pork produced in Europe, North America and China. In stark contrast, between 40 to 70 per cent of all poultry and pork production in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa is produced by small-scale farmers.- Almost all of the 1.3 billion tons of grain consumed by livestock each year are fed to farm animals in Europe, North America, Eastern China and Latin America, with pork and poultry hogging the feed trough. All of the livestock in sub-Saharan Africa combined eat only about 50 million tons of grain each year, relying more on grasses and "stovers," the leaf and stalk residues of crops left in the field after harvest.Greenhouse gas emissionsScientists also sought to calculate the amount of greenhouse gases livestock are releasing into the atmosphere and to examine emissions by region, animal type and animal product. They modelled only the emissions linked directly to animals—the gases released through their digestion and manure production.Some important findings include:- South Asia, Latin America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa have the highest total regional emissions from livestock. Between the developed and developing worlds, the developing world accounts for the most emissions from livestock, including 75 per cent of emissions from cattle and other ruminants and 56 per cent from poultry and pigs.- The study found that cattle (for beef or dairy) are the biggest source of greenhouse emissions from livestock globally, accounting for 77 per cent of the total. Pork and poultry account for only 10 per cent of emissions.Analyzing Efficiency and IntensityScientists note that the most important insights and questions emerging from the new data relate to the amount of feed livestock consume to produce a kilo of protein, something known as "feed efficiency," and the amount of greenhouse gases released for every kilo of protein produced, something known as "emission intensity."Meat v. dairy, grazing animals v. poultry and porkThe study shows that ruminant animals (cows, sheep, and goats) require up to five times more feed to produce a kilo of protein in the form of meat than a kilo of protein in the form of milk."The large differences in efficiencies in the production of different livestock foods warrant considerable attention," the authors note. "Knowing these differences can help us define sustainable and culturally appropriate levels of consumption of milk, meat and eggs."The researchers also caution that livestock production in many parts of the developing world must be evaluated in the context of its "vital importance for nutritional security and incomes."The study confirmed that pigs and poultry (monogastrics) are more efficient at converting feed into protein than are cattle, sheep and goats (ruminants), and it further found that this is the case regardless of the product involved or where the animals are raised. Globally, pork produced 24 kilos of carbon per kilo of edible protein, and poultry produced only 3.7 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein—compared with anywhere from 58 to 1,000 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein from ruminant meat.The authors caution that the lower emission intensities in the pig and poultry sectors are driven largely by industrial systems, "which provide high-quality, balanced concentrate diets for animals of high genetic potential." But these systems also pose significant public health risks (with the transmission of zoonotic diseases from these animals to people) and environmental risks, notably greenhouse gases produced by the energy and transport services needed for industrial livestock production and the felling of forests to grow crops for animal feed.Feed quality in the developing worldThe study shows that the quality of an animal's diet makes a major difference in both feed efficiency and emission intensity. In arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, where the fodder available to grazing animals is of much lower quality than that in many other regions, a cow can consume up to ten times more feed—mainly in the form of rangeland grasses—to produce a kilo of protein than a cow kept in more favourable conditions.Similarly, cattle scrounging for food in the arid lands of Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan can, in the worst cases, release the equivalent of 1,000 kilos of carbon for every kilo of protein they produce. By comparison, in many parts of the US and Europe, the emission intensity is around 10 kilos of carbon per kilo of protein. Other areas with moderately high emission intensities include parts of the Amazon, Mongolia, the Andean region and South Asia."Our data allow us to see more clearly where we can work with livestock keepers to improve animal diets so they can produce more protein with better feed while simultaneously reducing emissions," said Petr Havlik, a research scholar at IIASA and a co-author of the study.Not absolute indicators of sustainabilityWhile the new data will greatly help to assess the sustainability of different livestock production systems, the authors cautioned against using any single measurement as an absolute indicator of sustainability. For example, the low livestock feed efficiencies and high greenhouse gas emission intensities in sub-Saharan Africa are determined largely by the fact that most animals in this region continue to subsist largely on vegetation inedible by humans, especially by grazing on marginal lands unfit for crop production and the stovers and other residues of plants left on croplands after harvesting."While our measurements may make a certain type of livestock production appear inefficient, that production system may be the most environmentally sustainable, as well as the most equitable way of using that particular land," said Philip Thornton, another co-author and an ILRI researcher at CCAFS."That's why this research is so important. We're providing a set of detailed, highly location-specific analyses so we can get a fuller picture of how livestock in all these different regions interact with their ecosystems and what the real trade-offs are in changing these livestock production systems in future."Source - http://www.thepoultrysite.com/

Africa - Farmers need help for ensuring food security

Farmers in the Central African Republic need urgent assistance to prevent the food security situation in the conflict-stricken country from worsening for millions of people, FAO warned on Monday.According to the FAO-supported Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, about 1.29 million people, or more than 40 per cent of the country’s rural population, are in need of urgent assistance – nearly double the estimated level in February 2013.These numbers will increase dramatically next year if farmers are not able to prepare for the upcoming planting season, UN FAO (United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation) said.Crop production has decreased sharply this year after civil conflict that broke out in the north-east of the Central African Republic in December 2012 spread through the rest of the country.An estimated 500,000 people have fled their homes in fear and many farmers have not been able to access their fields.“Seeds have been in short supply due to looting and because people have had to eat them instead of saving them for planting,” said Dominique Burgeon, director, FAO’s emergency and rehabilitation division. “Desperate farmers have been selling tools and livestock so that they can feed their families, which leaves them without means of making an income, and raids on livestock and agricultural equipment have been widespread.”Volatile pricesA further decrease in agricultural output will severely undermine the country’s economy, according to FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS).Agriculture accounts for 53 per cent of national GDP and a major share of employment in the country, where nearly three quarters of the population live in rural areas.Agricultural exports – one of the country’s main sources of foreign exchange earnings – have dropped sharply this year, especially timber, cotton and coffee.Food prices in the country are high and volatile due to severe market disruption. Maize prices in the capital city, Bangui, rose 31 per cent between January and November 2013, while millet prices increased by 70 per cent between March and October in Ouham province, an important sorghum and millet producing area in the northwest. Access challengesDue to the challenges in reaching affected farming families, work must begin now to help them get ready for the 2014 planting seasons, FAO said.Planting of the main 2014 maize crop is due to start in early March in the centre and south of the country, while planting of sorghum and millet should start in the north of the country in May.Farmers urgently need seeds and other agricultural inputs in time for planting in March. “The recent upscaling in peacekeeping operations in the country is expected to create favourable conditions for farmers to return to their fields,” said Bukar Tijani, FAO regional representative for Africa. “This is why we need to get inputs to them urgently. Failure to assist them will bring a serious deterioration of the food security situation and a massive need for protracted food assistance.”Humanitarian response A UN-coordinated humanitarian appeal is requesting $241 million to help 1.8 million people in the Central African Republic. The food security cluster, led by FAO and the World Food Programme, is seeking $61 million to help 500,000 people.FAO is mobilising funds and personnel in time for the March planting season, including an allocation of $1.2 million from its own emergency funding mechanisms.Source - http://www.fnbnews.com/

India - Premium affordable crop insurance

Seeking a new and cheap crop insurance scheme, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said the premium rate of the proposed National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP) should be at the level of the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) to make it affordable for farmers in the state. "It is suggested that the Government of India may introduce the new scheme on crop insurance while keeping the premium rate at the level of NAIS since the poor farmers cannot buy insurance at that high cost," Patnaik said in a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Patnaik said, "It is estimated that the premium payable (under NCIP) by the farmers, will be much higher than that has been charged under NAIS." Stating that this is very important since crop loan is being advanced to the farmers at the effective interest rate of 2 per cent with subvention being provided by the state government, the Chief Minister pointed out that the NAIS was being implemented since Rabi 1999-2000, where the premium rates were charged at the rate of 2.5 per cent and 2 per cent for paddy for Khariff and Rabi respectively. Patnaik also said that the Modified National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) and Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) were implemented in Odisha on pilot basis for past five years which were not accepted by the farmers either because of high rate of premium or unattractive pay out structure. The farmers of Odisha had opposed high rate of premium under MNAIS during Khariff 2013, for which the scheme had to be withdrawn by the state government from six districts after notification.Source - http://www.business-standard.com/

Dense fog and low temperature likely to continue in North India

Dense fog is likely to continue in northern India in the days ahead, leading to a fall in temperatures, while a western disturbance is likely to bring rain and snow in Himalayan regions around Christmas time, leading to more chilly conditions, which are expected to help the wheat crop as well as fruits like apples and apricots North India has seen foggy conditions only around the last week of December in recent years, but this time, the low-visibility phase began earlier. Heavy fog engulfed northern India on Tuesday, with visibility falling below 50 metres in many cities from Amritsar to Lucknow in the morning, disrupting flight and train schedules and heralding the onset of frosty weather in the country. The minimum temperature plunged 5 to 10 degrees below normal at many places in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and parts of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, northeastern states, Maharashtra, and Odisha. Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. LS Rathore, director general, India Meteorology Department (IMD) said fog in the morning hours and current temperatures would continue for the next one week although there are no current indications of very extreme weather conditions. Northern India is expected to shiver in the days ahead as a western disturbance is likely to bring snow over some Himalayan regions around Dec 24, leading to further drop in temperature. But on the whole, the India meteorological department does not expect a major departure from normal winter conditions this season. Weather scientists said December is likely to be 1-2 degrees colder than normal, while January may see higher rain or snow in northern India, where the winter temperature often comes close to freezing point in some regions. "Winter precipitation over norteh India has inter-annual variability. In some years we receive snowfall as early as November and in other times as late as January. It is not a worrying condition," said a scientist. The minimum temperature in the capital touched 8 degree celcius and the maximum at 22 degree celcius. "Under the influence of western disturbance on December 24th snowfall in higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh will take place. It will lower the temperature further," Rathore said. Low temperature is beneficial for the standing wheat crop which is targeted to be sown on over 29 million hectares. However, potato and other vegetable crops could suffer if cold and frost condition prevailed during December and January. "Prevalent foggy weather is not harmful for the crop which in the seedling to tillering stage. Except for sugar belt in Uttar Pradesh, 80% of the area under wheat has been sown,"said Indu Sharma, head of the Directorate of wheat research Karnal. Policy makers are keeping their fingers crossed about the weather as food inflation has remained stubbornly high in the country in recent years.Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Climate Change Watch: The Banana's Days May Be Numbered As Warming Prompts Insect Infestations

Add bananas to the list of things we love that are threatened by climate change.That's the takeaway from a recent Scientific American report and the conclusion of Magda González, Costa Rica's director of the agriculture ministry’s State Phytosanitary Services (SFE), which oversees the Central American nation's crop of the yellow fruit eaten around the world.Costa Rica, a large banana exporter, recently declared a national emergency after 20 percent of the nation's crop was devastated by two separate outbreaks of mealy bugs and scale insects, according to a report published last week by the Tico Times, an English-language newspaper covering Central America.“Climate change, by affecting temperature, favors the conditions under which [the insects] reproduce,” González told the paper. “I can tell you with near certainty that climate change is behind these pests,” she said.The bugs disfigure the fruit, which causes exporters to reject up to 20 percent of it for shipment and weakens the plants' overall health.According to the Tico Times report, Costa Rica in 2012 exported more than 1.2 million tons of bananas, which generated more than $800 million in revenue.According to the Scientific American report, the problem is not restricted to Costa Rico or Central America.The magazine reported that the banana-killing fungus called Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.cubense has been found in growing regions in Mozambique and Jordan and threatens to spread worldwide. Previously, the report said, the fungus was believed to be isolated to Australia and certain Asian venues.The fungus already wiped out the previous Gros Michel strain of bananas in the 1950s and now threatens that strain's successor.Source - http://www.ibtimes.com/

UK - New research to shed light on leaf spot

New research at Scotland’s Rural College is seeking to discover better ways to predict an outbreak of light leaf spot in oilseed rape crops. Light leaf spot is the number one disease threat to oilseed rape crops and can cut yields by up to a tonne per hectare. SRUC researchers will also look to pin down the best timings and treatments to manage this perennially tricky problem. The £114,000 project is funded by industry body HGCA. It will be run by SRUC in conjunction with Weather Stations, Rothamsted Research and ADAS, in order to study the spread of the disease over a range of sites and varieties.In 2005 just over £20 million of oilseed rape in the UK was lost due to LLS; in 2012 that figure was over £150 million. Like many pathogens Leaf Spot evolves constantly to try and get around the defences thrown at it. Typically it will erode between half a tonne and a tonne of yield from an infected crop. It was once considered a northern UK disease but has spread south in the last two seasons so that the SRUC crop clinic in Edinburgh has been inundated with requests to confirm the symptoms at sites right down to the south coast.Fiona Burnett, SRUC’s Crop Protection Team Leader, says: “With light leaf spot now making its presence felt both south and north of the border this research will be fundamental to enhancing growing conditions for farmers. After the project we should be able to predict possible epidemics of the disease and improve our guidance around timing of fungicide use.”Trial plots have been established in three sites in England. In Scotland SRUC will be monitoring two sites close to Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Researchers will therefore be able to assess a range of types and varieties, with different levels of resistance at different geographic locations, over the course of the three year project.While the research could help farmers better predict epidemics and better target their protection strategies Fiona is warning that, in the meantime, farmers should not become complacent.. While it looks like this year could see a lower LLS level than usual, the incidence of the disease has shot up in the last decade as established varieties have declined in resistance to this very variable pathogen, something one good year will not change.Prevention and treatment of Light Leaf Spot relies on resistant varieties, however, inevitably the disease has adapted and varieties like Cracker which were rated a nine when first introduced have now been downgraded to an eight and at some sites behave more poorly than that.The other key defence against the disease is fungicides, but some are now proving less effective against the disease than previously. Sensitivity to some of the older fungicides has declined and there are often quite large differences in sensitivity between sites and between seasons. A further difficulty is that oilseed rape is very vulnerable to the stressful effects of some fungicides. This effect can be useful to regulate the growth but in a stressed crop the effect of growth regulation can often be negative to yield.According to Fiona: “This year, with so many crops early drilled in fine conditions, growth stages are very advanced and a decision might be made in the spring to slow the growth of the crop using a treatment such as tebuconazole. However, growers have to be careful as too much could be detrimental to the crop in the long term. This makes decisions about using chemicals very hard as they need to protect the crop and check its growth without damaging it. We hope this research will make such decisions easier and so reduce yield loss in the long term.”Source - http://www.farminguk.com/

New Zealand - Freak storm caps Mid-Canterbury's 'mongrel' year

What's been described as a "mongrel" year weather-wise in Mid-Canterbury has been topped off by a freak hailstorm in a small town.The supercell storm yesterday afternoon has left crops ruined and widespread damage to homes and roads.The storm lasted around 40 minutes and only made a direct hit on Mayfield, 30 kilometres from Ashburton, where locals now face a big clean-up.The storm could not have come at a worse time for Mayfield farmers, many of whom are still in clean-up mode and recovering from the wind storms in September.Gale force winds of 150 kilometres per hour whipped through Canterbury causing widespread damage during the storm which swept up the country in the second week of September.And for the Mayfield crop farmers who did manage to save plantations then, many of the plantations now are left in ruin and virtually worthless."Yeah it's a rough year. We've had a couple of good years. This isn't going to be one of them," crop farmer Rab McDowell told.He said his carrot plants' stalks all had a flowerhead on them which would have set seed. But the flowerheads had all gone in the hailstorm.Mr McDowell had partial insurance. He is now waiting on assessors to see if any of the $100,000 he would have made from his crops can be salvaged.Source - http://tvnz.co.nz/

Philippines - Crop insurer estimates losses from Typhoon Haiyan at $6.8 million

Norman R. Cajucom, senior vice-president of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., said insured agricultural losses from damages caused by Typhoon Haiyan is estimated at 300 million Philippine pesos ($6.8 million).Broken down, agricultural losses in Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) alone were estimated at some P200 million while losses in other affected provinces such as Cebu and Bohol were pegged at P100 million, Mr. Cajucom said.The number of farmers affected, meanwhile, has been estimated at 10,200.Eastern Visayas, particularly the provinces of Samar and Leyte, bore the brunt of typhoon Yolanda, which battered the central Philippines last month.As of yesterday, Yolanda one of the strongest typhoons on record has left 6,057 individuals dead, while the cost of damage was pegged at P35.57 billion."Actually, we are somehow fortunate because some farmers already harvested rice and corn before the typhoon," Mr. Cajucom said.PCIC, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, said it is ready to absorb and settle all the claims of farmers affected by the typhoon. For 2013, it was given a full-year budget of P1.183 billion."We prepare even before the peak of most claims," Mr. Cajucom said, adding that PCIC has "reinsurance facility as one of its risk management measures."The National Reinsurance Corp. of the Philippines or PhilNaRe is the reinsurer for non-life assets, high-value crops and livestock, Mr. Cajucom noted.The recent calamity only underlined the need for insurance protection, especially for farmers whose means of livelihood are directly affected by climate change-related disasters, he also said."Insurance is really an effective protection from climate change.... The most efficient way to protect our farmers is by providing replacement costs through insurance," he said, also noting increasing awareness among farmers on the benefits of being insured."There is a big demand now for [insurance] products.... Before, farmers think they don’t need insurance coverage. Now, they are very much interested to be protected," Mr. Cajucom said.PCIC data showed that, as of August, the number of farmers who availed of agricultural insurance products rose 84% to 410,946 from 223,683 in the same period last year.Moreover, Mr. Cajucom said: "PCIC is currently in the process of developing innovative products to better serve farmers and fisherfolks."For instance, the insurer is pilot-testing an index-based crop insurance scheme where the estimated cost of damage will be determined using weather factors like wind speed and rainfall levels.PCIC aims to implement the new crop scheme by next year’s wet season, Mr. Cajucom said.In the 2012 World Disasters Report of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Philippines was tagged the third most disaster-prone country in the world. The country is hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year.Source - http://www.bworldonline.com/

India - National Crop Insurance Programme being Implemented from Current Rabi Season

A new central sector scheme, ‘National Crop Insurance Programme’ (NCIP) has been introduced by merging Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS), Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) and Coconut Palm Insurance Scheme (CPIS) throughout the country from Rabi 2013-14.Administrative Approval for implementing NCIP from Rabi 2013-14 has been issued on 1st November, 2013.NCIP has been introduced to provide financial support to the farmers for losses in their crop yield, to help in maintaining flow of agricultural credit, to encourage farmers to adopt progressive farming practices and higher technology in Agriculture and thereby, to help in maintaining production, employment & economic growth. Besides, farmers are also benefitted due to:- coverage of indemnity for prevented sowing/planting risk and post harvest losses (due to cyclone in coastal areas),- higher level of indemnity and more proficient basis for calculation of threshold yield,- faster settlement of claims due to provision for making 50% advance of likely claims under MNAIS component for immediate relief to the farmers, etc.To encourage the State Governments to implement the scheme at village/ village panchayat level, a provision to reimburse 50% of incremental expenses on Crop Cutting Experiments has been made in the scheme.Unit area of insurance has been reduced to the village/village panchayat level in the restructured scheme of ‘National Crop Insurance Programme’ (NCIP). Continued efforts are made to create awareness about crop insurance schemes by the implementing agencies in coordination with implementing states. The salient activities under awareness campaign, involve the publicity of features & benefits of the scheme through advertisements in leading National/local News Papers, telecast through audio-visual media, distribution of pamphlets, participation in agriculture fairs/mela/gosti, organization of workshops/trainings and SMS through Kisan Portal etc.Source - http://pib.nic.in/