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 report, Climate Risks to Nine Key Commodities: Protecting People and Prosperity, published. The report, which analysed nine …
Syngenta and Bayer, top producers of the pesticides blamed for a sharp fall in bee populations around the world, have proposed a plan to support bee health to try to forestall a European Union ban on the products. EU governments failed this month to agree a ban on three widely …
For the first time in Andhra Pradesh, an exclusive action plan for agriculture envisaging an outlay of Rs 25,962 crore was presented in the state Legislative Assembly by agriculture minister, Kanna Lakshmi Narayana, on Monday. The 2013-14 outlay for agriculture includes plan component of Rs 17,694.71 crore and non-plan component …
The government plans to revive cultivation of crops that make Punjab’s iconic “makki ki roti and sarson ka saag” -- maize and mustard --along with horticulture and fodder to breathe life into the stressed soil and the rapidly depleting water table in the green revolution state. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh …
With the Centre allocating Rs 500 crore for crop diversification, the ball is now in Punjab's court. The state government needs to decide on the steps to be taken in this regard. Sources said the Group of Ministers (GoM) set up by the Central Government to deal with agriculture-related problems …
China, the world's largest food consumer, led developing countries in growing biotech crops last year, according to a report by an industry organization. The country was the world's sixth-largest grower of biotech crops in 2012, the same as a year ago, the report by the International Service for the Acquisition …
Rapid cropland expansion is the main cause of biodiversity loss in tropical countries, a study by UNEP's (the UN Environment Programme) World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative has found. The study, published in PLOS ONE last month (9 January), highlights maize and soybean as the most expansive …
Dolpa, Humla, Bajura, Bajhang, and Darchula districts are likely to experience a deteriorating food security situation, according to a report. The twenty-five Village Development Committees (VDCs) of Dailekh and Rukum that are currently under Phase II require close monitoring as the situation might further deteriorate to Phase III — highly …
Global acreage under biotech or genetically modified (GM) crops continued to expand in 2012, but the pace was a bit slow than previous year. Interestingly, for the first time since the introduction of these crops in 1996, the developing countries now have more area under GM crops compared to their …
Corn ethanol would get a larger share of the U.S. gasoline market under a government proposal on Thursday while ranchers, environmentalists and the oil industry aim to kill the renewable fuels mandate altogether. The Obama administration proposed a 9 percent increase in the so-called renewable fuels standard from 2012, in …
The unrelenting drought gripping key farming states in the U.S. Plains shows no signs of abating, and it will take a deluge of snow or rain to restore critical moisture to farmland before spring planting of new crops, a climate expert said on Thursday. "It's not a pretty picture," said …
Greenpeace India demands the Union Minister for Environment and Forest, Jayanthi Natarajan, under whom sits the GEAC, to stop all open releases of GM crops, including those for field trials Press release - January 29, 2013 New Delhi: Jan 29, 2013: In a startling development an independent scientific analysis released …
This independent scientific analysis released by Greenpeace India exposes major flaws in the Genetically Modified (GM) corn biosafety assessment process by the regulatory bodies in India. An independent scientific analysis released by Greenpeace India exposes major flaws in the Genetically Modified (GM) corn biosafety assessment process by the regulatory bodies …
Three widely-used pesticides made by Switzerland's Syngenta and Germany's Bayer pose an acute risk to honeybees, the European Union's food safety watchdog said on Wednesday, but stopped short of linking them to bee colony collapse. Fears over the effects on bees of neonicotinoid insecticides - among the most commonly used …
The European Union on Tuesday took the debate about genetically modified crops to the public with a survey asking citizens to share their thoughts on organic farming. The bloc's 500 million consumers are invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire on the European Commission's Agriculture and Rural Development website The …
Campaigners say the conclusion by the European Food Safety Authority is a 'death knell' for neonicotinoid pesticides The world's most widely used insecticide has for the first time been officially labelled an "unacceptable" danger to bees feeding on flowering crops. Environmental campaigners say the conclusion, by Europe's leading food safety …
Harvests will fall dramatically during severe heatwaves, predicted to become many times more likely in coming decades The world's food crisis, where 1 billion people are already going hungry and a further 2 billion people will be affected by 2050, is set to worsen as increasing heatwaves reverse the rising …
Across the world, countries are turning their backs on GM crops; perhaps the coalition in the UK could learn something from them Britain wants GM food to be grown commercially. After years of encouraging developing countries in Africa and elsewhere to grow them, but unable to allow its own farmers …
High temperatures are associated with reduced crop yields and predictions for future warming have raised concerns regarding future productivity and food security. However, the extent to which adaptation can mitigate such heat-related losses remains unclear. Here we empirically demonstrate how maize is locally adapted to hot temperatures across US counties.
Recent studies concerning the possible relationship between climate trends and the risks of violent conflict have yielded contradictory results, partly because of choices of conflict measures and modeling design. In this study, we examine climate–conflict relationships using a geographically disaggregated approach. We consider the effects of climate change to be …
Phytolith occluded carbon (PhytOC) which is stable in the soil environment is considered to be an important fraction of soil organic carbon and substantially contributes to the terrestrial carbon sequestration for long periods (millennia). Phytoliths are silica bodies produced by plants as a result of biomineralization process. During this process, …
