Asia facing a major rice shortage

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
However you dice the numbers, growing enough rice to feed Asia’s burgeoning population presents an enormous challenge. Rice provides 20-70 per cent of Asia’s calories. The region grows 90pc of the world’s 448 million tonnes of rice, and its 3.8 billion people in turns eats 90pc. Until 2008, a shifting balance existed that allowed most of Asia’s billions to have adequate rice, even the poor. But when rice prices shot up during the 2008 food crisis to historical highs, from which they still haven’t come down, many of Asia’s poor strained to afford their traditional staple. Food riots broke out, and the unease of governments in countries long preoccupied with food security deepened as their vulnerability to economic forces outside the region was exposed. Trends all point to that vulnerability growing. Across most of Asia, populations are climbing. The region contributes the lion’s share of the 220,000 people now added to the world each day. Farm land is being urbanised: somewhere between 2020-30, Asia’s populations will become...
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Attitudes to GM crops are changing: Glick

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
A MORE detailed understanding of just how big an issue food security will be over the next 100 years is altering the public’s perception of GM technology, according to Monsanto’s director of research Harvey Glick. He acknowledged that there had been strong consumer resistance to GM products in places such as Europe, but said he believed the tide was turning. “You look at the recent report from UK science academy, the Royal Society, and they produced a lengthy report that came out quite strongly on the need for biotechnology to meet food security needs.” He said the perception of Europe as a stronghold of anti-GM opinion was not matched by the figures. “Europe is one of the world’s leading importers of GM products, in the form of corn and soy beans, so you have to take these calls that Europe will not accept GM with some perspective.” Dr Glick said he believed food security would be one of the largest issues confronting the world in...
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Carbon absorption capacity of ecosystems under-estimated

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
ECOSYSTEMS on the land and in the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb carbon dioxide than had previously been recognised. Information from new data runs contrary to a significant body of recent research that expects the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 should start to diminish as CO2 emissions increase, letting greenhouse gas levels skyrocket. The data, however, shows the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850. That's despite emissions of carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now, according to the University of Bristol in the UK. Dr Wolfgang Knorr at the University of Bristol has found that the trend in the airborne fraction since 1850 has only been 0.7pc per decade (standard deviation of 1.4pc), which is essentially zero. The strength of the new study, published online on Nov 9 in Geophysical Research Letters, is...
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Danes invest €45 mln in Romanian agriculture

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
JD Agro Cocora, a company with Danish capital, which administers over 3,000 hectares of farm land locally, invested more than €45 million in Romania in the past three years, in an agricultural complex located in Ialomi?a County, company officials said. Of the total amount, over €8.5 mln were used for the building and equipping of the location. The company is expected to administer 6,000 hectares in 2010, with plots of land located in three counties, namely Braila, Buzau, and Ialomita. Source: Business Standard via http://www.mirzon.eu/news/february-2009/13-november-2009-2.html...
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The future Farm machinery

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
This is the week of Agritechnica, the huge indoor, seven-day farm show at Hanover, Germany. Held every-other-year the show claims to be the "The World's No. 1". Organisers say their attendance for the full run of the show should be about 300,000, as growers come to see exhibits displayed by more than 2100 companies from 45 countries. The future agri machinery - 600 HP Deutz Fahr tractor, huge sprayers with nighttime functions, 'steering by wire' John Deere tractors etc etc. Please watch the slideshow player: http://theland.farmonline.com.au/slideshowplayer.aspx?id=9598...
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Scientists develop apple that won’t rot

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Ever since somebody suggested that eating one a day kept the doctor away, the health benefits of the apple have been trumpeted by grandmothers and government ministers alike. The fruit's only drawback is its tendency to lose its glossy sheen and crunchy texture within a few days – a problem that a team of scientists in Australia now claims to have solved. For the past 20 years, researchers at Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries (QPIF), a department of the Queensland government, have been developing a new variety of apple which they claim can stay fresh for months. Its name, RS103-130, might not have quite the same ring as popular varieties such as Golden Delicious, Pink Lady or Braeburn, but the scientists have described it as "the world's best apple" thanks to its sweet taste, longevity and ability to resist disease. The apple, which is a deep red in colour, stays "crispy" for up to 14 days if kept in a fruit bowl, and...
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USA – ‘Greener’ ag land better for climate change

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
MOST land use changes occurring in the continental United States reduce vegetative cover and raise regional surface temperatures, according to a new study by scientists at Purdue University, the University of Maryland and the University of Colorado-Boulder. This map shows observation minus re-analysis trends in the continental US from 1979 to 2003. The trends are associated with land use and changes in land use. Researchers from Purdue and the universities of Colorado and Maryland conducted a study showing land use can affect surface temperatures locally and regionally. Units are in degrees Celsius per decade. Photo: Purdue University/Souleymane Fall. The study, which will appear in the Royal Meteorological Society's International Journal of Climatology, found that almost any change that makes land cover less "green" contributes to warming. However, a less obvious finding is that the conversion of any land to agricultural use results in cooling - even land that was previously forested. This suggests that local and regional strategies such as creating...
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USA – Population boom to pressure farm water supplies

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
With a projected 25 per cent and 50pc increase in United States and world populations respectively by 2050, substantial increases in freshwater use for food, fibre and fuel production, as well as municipal and residential consumption, are inevitable, according to a new publication from the Council on Agricultural Science & Technology (CAST). This increased water use will not come without consequences, and as one of the largest users of water in the US, agriculture will be affected significantly by changes in water availability and cost. An abundant, reliable supply of water to meet demands cannot be taken for granted, CAST said. To evaluate current trends, summarise key vulnerabilities and identify possible solutions to current and future challenges, CAST convened a task force of eight scientists, educators and resource analysts who have prepared the new CAST Issue Paper, Water, People & the Future: Water Availability for Agriculture in the United States. Through case studies, the new CAST publication discusses the diverse demands for water resources...
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Rural development: first wave of approvals of national/regional proposals for using funding from CAP Health Check and European Economic Recovery Plan

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
The Rural Development Committee approved a first wave of proposals from Member States/regions for using fresh European Union funding for rural development. The Member States/regions in question have proposed amendments to their Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) to make use of extra funding provided by the Health Check of the Common Agricultural Policy and the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP), agreed in November 2008. The extra funding in question totals € 4.4 billion for the EU as a whole and must be spent through RDPs in the period 2009 to 2013. Member States/regions choose the priorities on which to spend their funding from a list which includes climate change, restructuring of the dairy sector and broadband for rural areas. "The current economic and environmental situation demands action – in the countryside just as much as in our towns and cities," said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. "We have been taking determined action at European level in many ways. The...
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