Winery owner Rolf de Bruin was well aware of the stakes as temperatures plunged to -24 C in Lillooet, B.C., in mid-January. "It's really painful because there's nothing that you can do," said de Bruin, founder and co-owner of the 15-hectare Fort Berens Estate Winery, 250 kilometres north of Vancouver.
NIAB's Dr. Michelle Fountain explains some of the latest NIAB research on the invasive fly that changed the fruit industry.Spotted wing drosophila (SWD, Drosophila suzukii) is a small vinegar fly specialized in exploiting fruit by laying eggs in fruits that are not yet ripe, presumably reducing its competition with other species that are more adapted to laying eggs in ripe, overripe, or even rotting fruit.
The cold snap in the southern Interior earlier this winter wiped out roughly three-quarters of stone fruits likepeaches, apricots, plums and nectarines. Some growers could lose all of their crop, while most will see around 75% to 80% of their crops destroyed.
Prince Edward Island, located on the east coast of Canada is known to some as the “Potato Capital” of the world with an annual harvest of 1.45 million tonnes of potatoes. The island’s undulating topography and maritime climate, characterized by over 1,000mm of annual rainfall, harsh winter freeze-thaw cycles, and high winds, pose a threat to its sustainability.
Since its launch in 2016, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has aimed to provide Indian farmers with a simple, affordable, and comprehensive crop insurance solution.
The fresh produce industry around the world is at the forefront of experiencing the tangible effects of climate change. In regions like California, recent weather patterns have brought about unseasonably high rainfall, which goes beyond typical seasonal fluctuations.
After a year with crazy high prices, this year, the weather is putting its stamp on the carrot market." When the season started, we thought it would be a repeat of 1976, one of the driest years in decades. The seedlings grew quite well, but then it started raining cats and dogs in the summer.
Bulb onions are the world’s second biggest vegetable crop with an annual production of 100M tons. It is also one of the UK’s most important crops with around 500K tons produced in 2022, with a value of £160M.
Farmers are grappling with the most damaging incursion of fall armyworm (FAW) on record, and have likened the destruction to that caused by a bushfire."Our area was hit pretty heavily with bushfires this season and a lot of the farmers are describing this [as] identical to a bushfire," Queensland grower Cameron Rackemann said.
A mobile phone message alert system developed by the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International development charity (CABI) in 2017 is helping stallholder farmers from Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, and Zambia cut crop loss and boost incomes thanks to early SMS warnings on pest risks.
A new report says B.C.’s wine industry will have a catastrophic drop in production this year, with orchards possibly experiencing up to 99 per cent crop loss.The report says wine grape production this year is estimated at one to three per cent of typical yields, with most of that coming from the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island.
EastFruit experts draw attention to the forecast of weather for Central Asian countries, which are presently the largest onion exporters in the region: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
On February 8, the BC Cherry Association (BCCA) convened its membership for a meeting to discuss the impact of an unprecedented ‘polar vortex’ that hit all cherry-growing regions of British Columbia early in January.
Presence of cereal volunteers in oilseed rape fields and direct drilling could lead to a marked reduction in damage caused by cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB), a new study says.
Catastrophic might not even begin to describe the situation when it comes to Okanagan wineries and vineyards this year.In fact, there is a good chance there will be no grapes grown in the valley this year at all.
Grape growers in the province will recover, eventually, but are still hurting from the polar vortex a year ago, says the president of the Grape Growers Association of Nova Scotia.