Can GM rice fill the world’s shortfall?

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Genetically modified (GM) crops are not the only answer to Asia’s looming food deficit, but multinational crop technology company Syngenta argues that they must be part of the mix. Syngenta made the case for GM technology to journalists in Bangkok two weeks ago, as part of a broader effort to open Asian government doors that have so far remained closed to genetically modified food crops. Among the Asian nations, only India and China and The Philippines have embraced the technology, with India planting around 7.6 million hectares of cotton in 2009. The Philippines is the only Asian country to date to introduce a GM grain crop, planting about 400,000ha of maize in 2008. Syngenta believes it is time for the barriers against GM to come down, so that biotechnology companies can confidently invest in GM research ahead of the looming food crisis. “Given the projected increase in population and with less land and water available, we will need all available agricultural technologies, including biotechnology,...
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GM crops not just for rich farmers

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
ONE of the most common criticisms of GM technology is that it's major incarnation in the form of herbicide resistant traits is only of benefit to relatively well-off first-world farmers and is of little benefit to poor growers in the third-world - a misconception, according to Monsanto’s director of research Harvey Glick. Dr Glick said GM technology would play a large role in assisting the billions of subsistence and low-income farmers worldwide who eke out a living from less than five acres (2.1ha), and by doing so, assist international food security. Dr Glick said both first generation traits, such as herbicide resistance, and traits close to being rolled out, such as drought tolerance and nitrogen efficiency, would aid poor farmers. "We see biotechnology as a means to increase yields and a way to reduce crop inputs," he said. "Farmers will be able to replace chemical use with GM traits, while the benefits of drought tolerance and nitrogen efficiency are self-explanatory." Dr Glick said he had...
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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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