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 …
A federal tax credit for ethanol expired on Saturday, ending an era in which the federal government provided more than $20 billion in subsidies for use of the product. The tax break, created more than 30 years ago, had long seemed untouchable. But in the last year, during which Congress …
Farmers' representatives and agriculturists have termed the current year as the worst ever period for the agricultural sector, which witnessed steep increase in agricultural input prices, levying of General Sales Tax (GST) and decline in the prices of different crops, hampering the growth of the sector as well as denying …
Monsanto's genetically engineered, drought resistant corn is deregulated, the U.S. Agriculture Department said Thursday, clearing the variety for sale. USDA approved the variety after reviewing environmental and risk assessments, public comments and research data from Monsanto. Corn is the most widely grown U.S. crop and farmers grew 91.9 million acres …
Here’s a quick update on efforts to expand access to higher-yielding hybrid seed in Nepal. Even though the country already has lots of different varieties beyond their own traditional supplies, a recent plan to expand access to higher-yielding seed, facilitated by the United States Agency for International Development and involving …
Our ability to manage gene flow within traditional agroecosystems and their repercussions requires understanding the biology of crops, including farming practices' role in crop ecology. That these practices' effects on crop population genetics have not been quantified bespeaks lack of an appropriate analytical framework. We use a model that construes …
A pot experiment was conducted on a sandy loam soil (Typic ustochrepts) to assess the suitability of FYM in amelioration of Ni in maize on artificially contaminated soil.
Rainfall patterns in southern Africa are becoming erratic as climate change takes its toll, threatening long-term production of staple and cash crops in the region. Countries like South Africa, Zambia and Malawi have enjoyed bumper harvests of their staple maize crop in recent years, ensuring food security in a region …
A Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) research spanning over 14 years has shown considerable decline in the level of contamination in different food commodities. Conducted by the university’s Department of Entomology between 1997 and 2010, the researchers, after analysing 3,300 food samples, found that the contamination level had come down to …
Contrary to its opposition early this year to genetically modified crops, Madhya Pradesh is now taking its time to decide the fate of field trials of maize cleared recently by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The committee has recently permitted Monsanto to …
Glyphosate is a herbicide that is liable to be used in the extensive cultivation of glyphosate-tolerant cultivars. The potential accumulation of the relative effect of glyphosate on the rhizobacterial communities of glyphosate-tolerant maize has been monitored over a period of three years. Original Source
Contrary to a common belief that India’s public distribution system is irreparably dysfunctional, a nine-state survey of the pds finds that the respondents received 84-88% of their full entitlement. The implicit subsidy for households below the poverty line from pds foodgrains alone is roughly equivalent, in many states, to a …
Opponents of Monsanto's new genetically modified sweet corn are petitioning national food retailers and processors to ban the biotech corn, which is not labeled as being genetically altered from conventional corn. A coalition of health, food safety and environmental organizations said they have collected more than 264,000 petition signatures from …
Grain output is growing as farmers chase high prices, according to US government figures, suggesting food inflation pressures may abate in the months to come. Farmers would harvest 681.2m tonnes of wheat and record crops of 860.1m tonnes of corn and 461.4m tonnes of rice in the current year, the …
Floods in Pakistan have damaged at least 880,000 hectares of standing crops, including rice, maize, cotton, sugar cane, fruit orchards and vegetables, which represent about 3.7 percent of total national crop area, the United Nations' food agency said on Tuesday, citing preliminary official estimates. "Damage to the current paddy crop …
Food commodity prices are likely to stay high and volatile during the next few years because of rising demand, more frequent extreme weather and the biofuel industry, according to a report from the UN’s agriculture agencies. Rising food prices and increasing volatility have become a big political and economic problem, …
The government has taken up Integrated Agricultural Productivity Project (IAPP) for ensuring food security by boosting agricultural production through proper management. The project would be implemented in 54 upazilas in eight districts at a cost of Taka 500 crore. The principal objective of the project is to increase overall agricultural …
The rapid expansion of biofuel production has generated considerable interest within the body of empirical economic literature that has sought to understand the impact of biofuel growth on the global food economy. While the consensus within the literature is that biofuel emergence is likely to have some effect on future …
Widespread adaptation of biomass production for bioenergy may influence important biogeochemical functions in the landscape, which are mainly carried out by soil microbes. Here we explore the impact of four potential bioenergy feedstock crops (maize, switchgrass, Miscanthus X giganteus, and mixed tallgrass prairie) on nitrogen cycling microorganisms in the soil …
The United States, the breadbasket and supplier of last resort for a hungry world, has been such an amazing food producer in the last half-century that most Americans take for granted annual bounteous harvests of grain, meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables and other crops. When horrific images of drought or famine …
Lax trade restrictions and high sugar prices should allow the United States to overtake Brazil in ethanol exports during the second half of 2011, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. During the first five months of 2011 U.S. ethanol exports more than doubled from the same period last …
