Crop yields are projected to decrease under future climate conditions, and recent research suggests that yields have already been impacted. However, current impacts on a diversity of crops subnationally and implications for food security remains unclear. Here, we constructed linear regression relationships using weather and reported crop data to assess …
The debate on the relative benefits of conventional and organic farming systems has in recent time gained significant interest. So far, global agricultural development has focused on increased productivity rather than on a holistic natural resource management for food security. Thus, developing more sustainable farming practices on a large scale …
Harvest of Soya bean, a source of edible oil, has started in northern districts including Gaibandha under Rangpur division during the current Kharip-2 season expecting desired output against the crop. Concerned sources said a total of 700 bighas of land of 1,100 farmers in eight northern districts of Rangpur district …
Cracks are widening in Indonesia's policy to become self-sufficient in staple foods after the president signalled it made little commercial sense to grow all the country's needs in soybeans. Such a shift would boost imports of the meat substitute and deal another blow to Indonesia's goal, set after global food …
The farm suicides in Vidarbha seem to be again on the rise after some time. With three more deaths in the last 24 hours, the toll for the current year since January has gone up to 671, claimed Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, a farmers advocacy group tracking the situation for …
Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena ordered the private company who supplied low quality soya bean seeds to pay compensations to farmers who lost their harvest. The soya bean farming community in the Galenbindunuwewa area urged the government to provide immediate relief for them over the loss of cultivation due to …
A group of U.S. farmers, seed companies and others challenging patents on genetically altered crops held by biotech seed giant Monsanto Co. on Thursday appealed their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The group, made up of 73 organic and conventional family farmers, seed companies and public advocacy interests, sued …
The authors analyze the relationship between food security and trade, focusing on food importers’ exposure to sudden market failures from relying on a narrow range of international suppliers. They compute a bilateral import penetration index (BIPI), which gauges the degree to which a country depends on another for food imports. …
With all eyes set on the Supreme Court to resolve the controversial issue of GM food crops in India, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday appealed to all stakeholders, including activists and policy makers, to take a "sensible approach" so that it could solve the problem of food security in …
As Madhya Pradesh takes lead in the country in terms of agriculture growth rate at an impressive 14%, the state would do well to address the problem of fake pesticides, scientists, policy makers and agriculture experts said. The issue has come into sharper focus after recently Food & Agricultural Organisation …
Campaigners against genetically modified (GM) crops yesterday filed a writ petition with the High Court against a government move to release Bt brinjal, a GM crop, for the first time in the country. The court is likely to hear the writ today, lawyers concerned said. The writ was filed by …
Campaigners against genetically modified crops have served a legal notice to government asking it to refrain from commercial release of Bt brinjal, a GM crop, in Bangladesh. On behalf of Farida Akhter, an organizer of Naya Krishi Andolon, and other anti-GM activists, a lawyer served the notice to Secretary of …
The Anuradhapura District is being transformed in to a soya cultivation promotion zone. The government has allocated Rs 76,986 million to expand the soya cultivation during the Yala season in the district. According to sources, it has been targeted to distribute 651,700 kilograms of soya seeds in the district including …
After almost a decade, the Jharkhand state seed subcommittee released nine high-yielding varieties of rice, groundnut, soya bean, sugarcane and chickpea crops, following a notification by the Government of India last month. These are resistant towards major diseases and pests. The release got a final nod from the committee chaired …
The Centre on Friday revised its foodgrains production estimate upwards by 5.22 million tonnes for 2012-13 over earlier expectation on account of higher output of rice, wheat and coarse cereals. The total foodgrains output is now estimated at 255.36 million tonnes with wheat production pegged at 93.62 million tonnes and …
Using an empirical model, this study provides some insights into the functioning of the oilseed-biodiesel-diesel market complex in a large country that determines the biodiesel price, reflecting market equilibrium changes resulting from volatility in the crude oil price. Oilseed crushing produces joint products—oil and meal—and this weakens the link between …
Rising foreign demand for beef and soybeans will tempt Brazil to clear more of the Amazon rainforest, in a reversal of recent success in slowing forest losses, a study said on Thursday. About 30 per cent of deforestation in Brazil in the decade to 2010 was due to farmers and …
The biotechnology industry's annual report "Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops: 2012" by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), which hailed biotechnology as the "fastest adopted crop technology" is facing emerging contentions that it has misrepresented and drastically overestimated its figures. South Africa's genetically modified (GM) …
This study presents the findings of research into the global socio-economic and environmental impact of genetically modified (GM) crops in the sixteen years since they were first commercially planted on a significant area. It focuses on the farm level economic effects, the production effects, the environmental impact resulting from changes …
Crop-friendly snowfall will be moving from the Northern Plains into the central and eastern Midwest overnight Monday and Tuesday, leaving up to an additional six to eight inches of snow, an agricultural meteorologist said on Monday. "Most of it will come tomorrow and cover northern Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky eastward," …
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 …
