Romanian irrigation rehabilitation and Reform project

Romania Irrigation Rehabilitation and Reform Project, launched in 2003, aims to achieve more economic and equitable use of irrigation water for agricultural production through changes in farmers' and related institutions’ behavior, while increasing agricultural productivity in the project area.  Project benefits include increased agricultural production and higher incomes for farmers because of improved irrigation services; increased social cohesion through community-based management of irrigation systems; and reduced agriculture related pollution through improved environmental management and reduction of seepage losses.  The rehabilitation of the main schemes would directly benefit approximately 40,000 farming families and workers in agricultural associations. Published March 2010. 8 minutes video-documentary link here: http://lnweb90.worldbank.org/ecaim/multimedialib.nsf/country/Romania?opendocument&did=8E201A17B1A903A8852576F6004D2EAF ...
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Ukraine’s agriculture companies – golden eggs or rotten potatoes?

May 14, 2010 By Roman Olearchyk Via: www.ft.com Even in Europe’s most depressed large economy, there are a few shafts of commercial light. Ukraine, where gross domestic product fell last year by a whopping 15 per cent, is witnessing a flurry of investment into its promising agricultural sector. Businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk is mulling whether to take his farming company - Ukrlandfarming - public after this month sealing a $1bn valuation for Avangardco Investments. Egg producer Avangardco - which Bakhmatyuk owns - listed a 22 per cent stake on the London Stock Exchange. Now investment bankers in Kiev said Cyprus-registered Ukrlandfarming could raise $50-80mn via an IPO on London’s AIM this year. A handful of Ukrainian agribusiness companies have gone public on European exchanges in recent years, including sunflower oil producer Kernel, as well as farming companies Landkom and Mriya Agro. But apart from large-scale investments brought in by multinational agribusiness giants, including Cargill and ADM, the inflow of investment into promising domestically-owned companies is only starting...
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Hot 100: Britain’s mega-growth companies

Via: http://realbusiness.co.uk/hot_100_2010/the_hot_100_2010_rankings_list Real Business ranking of this year's fastest growing private companies. Size does matter here. From bomb-disposal firms and online retailers to fresh-fish suppliers and recruitment companies, here is the 2010 list of mega-growth businesses: http://media.caspianpublishing.co.uk/document/bf20291c62ab28769a8da9767f146afc.pdf In the top 20, on 13 there is an agricultural UK company: Dunns (Long Sutton) -Dunns is a privately owned major independant UK Seed  company which also specializes in premium quality edible Peas and Beans. ...
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How to do business in China

By Don Joe Source: http://realbusiness.co.uk/don_joe/how_to_do_business_in_china The easiest way to make people think you’re smart is to talk about China. Discussing the global economy?... and then there’s China. Discussing Western philosophy?... and then there’s China. There’s some unwritten dinner-party law that everyone has to have an opinion on China. To save you from having to read Confucius and improving your maths, here are my basic principles of what you need to know to do business in China: 1. If someone offers you a delicacy, politely refuse citing an allergy. When something is a delicacy, it means that local people don’t eat it most of the time. There is a reason that Kentucky Fried Chicken is more popular than Kentucky Fried Jellyfish, KF Insect and KF Mystery Meat. No-one gets offended...
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Every day is Earth Day for ag

Author: JACQUI FATKA 04 May, 2010 10:58 AM Via:http://fw.farmonline.com.au FOR more than 40 years, Earth Day has brought attention to preserving the environment, and it's often said that "every day is Earth Day for farmers." To a farmer, Earth Day is much more than recycling a plastic bottle. Farmers make their living from the land; it is their life blood. US National Association of Wheat Growers secretary-treasurer Bing Von Bergen said the number-one priority as agriculturists is to manage the land to make it produce the most it can while still maintaining the land and not harming it by overproducing on it. This is done through putting nutrients back into the ground, rotating crops and reducing the number of passes over the field. Von Bergen noted that his father and grandfather were both sustainable agriculturists, and the reason he's still able to farm on his land is because of that. He one day hopes...
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The World Bank in the hot seat

Source: http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=64 Against the grain | 4 May 2010 The World Bank in the hot seat GRAIN A curious thing happened last week. A lot of people were under the impression that the World Bank was going to release its long-awaited study on global land grabs at its annual land conference in Washington DC on 26 April 2010. This is what GRAIN was told. It's what many journalists were told. And it's what those involved in producing the study expected. But it didn't happen. Instead, the Bank gave another powerpoint presentation summarising what the study will show, reiterated its proposed seven principles for "socially responsible" land grabs and unveiled its new business-to-business website – a kind of internet dating service to match up corporate land grabbers and government land givers. This is not the first time that this study has been delayed. Indeed, ...
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Romania 2010 – a gate to the agribusiness future

I am pleased to tell you that in June this year, on the 17th and 18th, in fact, I am organising a conference on the agribusiness potential of Romania. Since joining the EU in 2007, Romania has accelerated its economic progress and is in a superbe geographical location to link Europe to the growing markets in the Middle East and Asia, Western Europe or worldwide. Romania is going to be revealed from many different angles of its agricultural potential with eminent Romanian speakers such as ex-Minister of Agriculture, Dr Valeriu Tabara and University professor Dr Mihai Berca. We will also look at the financial and legal structures needed to succeed in business in Romania based on contributions from professional institutions, specialists of agricultural sectors, agri-traders etc. We will also be able to listen and question business-men who are already active in this type of enterprise and happy to share their experience with us. A field trip to one or two farms and...
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US agriculture faces ‘colliding’ forces

By ROD SMITH Source: www.farmonline.com.au US PORK producers are ending what has possibly been their worst-ever economic period, having experienced huge losses for 30 months because of a combination of factors - most of which have been beyond their control. In response, the National Pork Board has developed and launched a new strategic plan to advertise and promote pork, conduct industry research and provide consumer and producer information (Feedstuffs, March 29). In that plan, the board outlined a number of challenges and opportunities for the pork sector that also are just as applicable to all of US agriculture. American agriculture has entered a new time in which production has not only changed dramatically but will continue to change rapidly, if not abruptly, according to the plan. "At the very highest level," a number of macro forces are contributing to "a new world order for US agriculture," several of which "are colliding at the...
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