CEOs need to accelerate their action plans to safeguard the production of commodities critical to the global population and economy as heat stress and drought risk rise around the world, according to PwC's
Saudi Arabia plans to halt wheat production by 2016 because of concerns about the desert kingdom's scarce water resources, according to a US government agency. The Saudi Arabian government has not publicly given details of the move, which comes as global cereal prices surge, driven by strong demand and lagging supply. Top-quality wheat prices for baking bread hit a high this week of $25 a bushel and have more than doubled since January.
Wheat growers have expressed disappointment over the wheat procurement price of Rs510 per 40 kg fixed by the government and expressed apprehensions that wheat might be smuggled to neighbouring countries if incentives were not offered to growers. Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said the procurement price should have been between Rs700 and Rs800 per 40 kg in view of the fact that phosphate fertiliser (DAP) was available at Rs2,500 per bag. He said: "Wheat production can be increased by over 50 million maunds if an attractive procurement price is announced because there is still time to give some inputs to the standing crop. Wheat is cultivated on around 17 million acres of land.' He said wheat had not been cultivated on around five lakh acres due to the late harvesting of sugarcane and according to Sindh secretary agriculture's figures, wheat was sown on 20 per cent less land than the fixed target, and according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, the sowing was 15 per cent less. SAB general secretary Mahmood Nawaz Shah said that imported wheat cost Rs1,050 per 40 kg and the government should have fixed the price at around Rs650 per 40kg.
The Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, and the Farm Advisory Service Scheme (FASS), Sangrur, organised a convention on "Alternative cropping systems to rice-wheat in saving of irrigation water' at Majhi village near Bhawanigarh, under the leadership of Dr Mandeep Singh, district extension specialist, Sangrur, yesterday. Dr Nachhattar Singh Malhi, director, Extension Education, PAU, was the chief guest. Dr Malhi called upon the farmers to reduce area under paddy to save Punjab from becoming a desert. He stressed on timely transplanting of paddy and cultivation of varieties especially PAU-201 and PR-118 to check receding underground water table. He suggested sowing of water-saving crops like groundnut, Bt cotton and maize etc as their irrigation requirement was less compared to paddy. He also motivated farmers to launch village-wise campaign for the eradication of weeds so that mealy bug could not harm cotton crop during the next kharif season. Dr Krishan Kumar Vashist, senior agronomist, PAU, said central Punjab with 400-800 mm rainfall and coarse textured soils was not fit for paddy cultivation. The local population was not rice eating. The alternative cropping systems to rice-wheat, therefore, could play a great role in saving water by replacing the area under paddy, he added. ADC (Development) Harnek Singh laid emphasis on kitchen gardening model and adoption of subsidiary occupations by farmers to augment farm income. Presiding over the function, Dr U.S. Walia, head, Department of Agronomy, PAU, stressed on diversification by bringing more area under pulses and oilseeds. Dr A.S. Sohi, Dr Surjeet Singh, Dr G.S. Rattan, Dr T.S. Dhillon, and Dr Jagdish Grover, deputy director, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Kherri, also spoke. The FASS and the KVK held an exhibition for the farmers.
Sri Lanka raises fuel prices: After doling out huge fuel subsidies for five months, the Sri Lankan government finally increased fuel prices on January 13. The price of petrol has increased by LKR 10
India, the world's biggest wheat producer after China, may not have to import the grain before August because the country has sufficient stockpiles, Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said. The country has imported almost 1.8 million tonnes of wheat since July to build stockpiles. Purchases in the year ending June may drop to 2 million tonnes, less than a third of the previous year, the US Department of Agriculture said on January 11.
Wheat prices may rise further because farmers in India, the world's second-biggest grower, may harvest a smaller crop after dry weather delayed planting. The crop may decline 5 per cent to as low as 72 million metric tonnes in the March-April harvest from 75.8 million tonnes a year earlier, S Pramod Kumar, president of Karnataka Roller Flour Mills Association, said yesterday. That's less than the government estimate of 74.8 million tonnes.
Investments aimed at improving agricultural adaptation to climate change inevitably favor some crops and regions over others. An analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions was conducted to identify adaptation priorities, based on statistical crop models and climate projections for 2030 from 20 general circulation models.
The Krishni–Yamuna interstream area is a micro-watershed in the Central Ganga Plain and a highly fertile track of Western Uttar Pradesh. The Sugarcane and wheat are the major crops of the area. Aquifers
some winter crops (wheat, mustard, barley and chickpea) in northwest India was evaluated on the basis of historic records and through a dynamic crop growth model, WTGROWS. The optimal date of sowing was also evaluated in view of the increase in seasonal temperature. The yield of these crops, especially wheat, already showing signs of stagnation in most places of northwest India, is most likely to be affected by temperature
One way to cut greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere may be to exploit a particular talent some plants have of locking away carbon. All we need to do is choose the right strains of crops to grow, and they will sequester carbon for us for millennia. That's the idea of two agricultural scientists in Australia, who say the trick is to grow grasses such as wheat and sorghum, which lock up large amounts of carbon in so-called plantstones, also known as phytoliths.
