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WASHINGTON (AFP) - A simple and cheap technique of applying fertilizer in small doses at the right time can double wheat crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa and feed millions of people, agronomists said in a report. < > He said they are shown that only six grams of fertilizer per plant is enough, and that small holes dug in the dry ground and filled with manure before the rainy season will hold water for a longer time. When it starts to rain, a micro-dosis of fertilizer and a plant are placed in each hole so roots can spread quickly an...

THOUSANDS of Chinese farmers face ruin because their water has been cut off to guarantee supplies to the Olympics in Beijing, and officials are now trying to cover up a grotesque scandal of blunders, lies and repression. In the capital, foreign dignitaries have admired millions of flowers in bloom, lush, well-watered greens around its famous sights. Just 90 minutes south by train, peasants are hacking at the dry earth as their crops wilt, their money runs out and the work of generations gives way to despair, debt and, in a few cases, suicide. The water scandal is a parable of...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Wisconsin's apple crop will be slightly smaller this year than in recent years due to poor weather in parts of the state.</p> <p>The National Agricultural Statistics Service predicts Wisconsin will produce 55 million pounds of apples, about 7 percent less than last year.</p>

Q. WHEN YOU GAVE A RECENT SPEECH AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ADVOCATING GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS, SOMEONE SITTING NEAR ME SAID, “OH GREAT, OUR STATE DEPARTMENT IS PUSHING G.M. FOOD. SHE’S THE AMBASSADOR FROM MONSANTO.” WHAT’S YOUR RESPONSE? A. How do I answer him? My answer is: There’s almost no food that isn’t genetically modified. Genetic modification is the basis of all evolution. Things change because our planet is subjected to a lot of radiation, which causes DNA damage, which gets repaired, but results in mutations, which create a ready mixture of plants that people can choose from to improve agriculture. In...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Wastewater is widely used to irrigate urban agricultural land in developing countries, a practice that has both advantages and disadvantages, a 53-city study presented at a water conference in Stockholm showed Monday. Wastewater agriculture contributes importantly to urban food supplies and helps provide a livelihood for the poor, but can also lead to health risks for consumers, particularly for vegetables consumed uncooked, the report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said.

The national highway passing Kolar, 70km from Bangalore, has seen a lot of red on its surface for years now. The colour-coated stretch is the result of tomatoes dumped by farmers protesting a price crash. This week, too, the disgruntled lot threw their crop on the highway after the prices fell from Rs 80 per kilogram to Rs 15-25 a kg. An appeal had earlier been made to the government to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre to tomato growers. The farmers’ action blocked the highway for hours this week. After their unique protest ended, the crushed tomatoes...

Springfield, IL (AHN) - This year's just-ended Illinois State Fair and New York's Dutchess County Fair that opens Tuesday are among state and county fairs going on around the country this month with a focus on becoming greener.Illinois State Fair officials gave out a green vendor award this year to a donut stand that switched from petroleum-based Styrofoam to serve its food on to renewable paper products. Last year fair officials there began setting up recycling bins for plastic bottles, but critics say they are still scarcer than trash cans and hard to find at this year's fair. Fairs have...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Up to 12.3 billion bushels of corn are expected to be harvested this season in the U.S., despite the recent Mississippi flooding which inundated many farms in the Midwest. With 600 million extra bushels for the summer harvest, it will be the second-highest corn yield on record, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Prior to the confirmation of the bountiful harvest, there were fears the Midwest flooding could lead to food shortages and major economic losses for American farmers. Before perfect weather was enjoyed by farmers recently, corn future prices rose to $8 per bushel. On...

Acid rain from atmospheric pollution can reduce methane emissions from rice paddies by up to 24 per cent according to research led by Dr Vincent Gauci of The Open University. This is potentially a beneficial side effect of the high pollution levels China - the world’s largest producer of rice - is often associated with. Methane is 21 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. “The reduction in pollution happens during a stage of the lifecycle when the rice plant is producing grain. This period is normally associated with around half of all methane emissions from rice...

NEW MILFORD — New residents of New Milford, be warned: If you move next to a farm, you're just going to have live with the noise and smells. That's the law. In an unusual demonstration of support for the rights of farmers in a town that has allowed developers to gobble up much of its open space, New Milford has passed an ordinance that basically tells homeowners their complaints about normal farm activity will fall on skeptical ears. "No present or future agricultural operations ... shall become or be considered a nuisance," the ordinance declares, as long as the farm...

A handsome new book by Amy Goldman jump-started memories of my family saving seeds from our beloved yellow oxheart tomatoes through fall and winter for spring planting. This was our heirloom tomato, although we did not think of it as such. In reading Miss Goldman's "The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table" (Bloomsbury), I learned that one woman, who was involved with preserving a strain her ancestors had brought when they emigrated from Germany, still puts sugar on her sliced tomatoes. I remember my grandmother doing this, although she also added a few drops of vinegar on the slices of...

It used to be that marijuana came to the Bay Area from the legendary back country of Humboldt County or the desert fields beyond Tijuana. Now the fields are in the Bay Area, and everywhere else in the state. Marijuana is one of the top cash crops in California, NBC Bay Area's Mike Luery reported. Many of the fields are located next to popular trails and in the middle of state parks. A fierce battle is being waged in our own back yard to remove the pot groves. They are hidden in brush so thick that specially trained officers must...

ALMOST ten years ago, a jury acquitted Lord Melchett, a British aristocrat who headed Greenpeace, of the wilful destruction of a field of genetically modified (GM) crops in Norfolk. Though police caught Lord Melchett and 27 other activists in the field, the jury was unwilling to convict. Talk of “Frankenfood” and “genetic pollution” sowed popular fear of GM crops. Ten years on and anti-GM activists are still at it: in June, unknown vandals destroyed a field of genetically modified potatoes near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. If they are ever caught, they may find themselves in for rougher treatment than their forerunners:...

Ideas Planted in Darwin's Time In the nineteenth century, scientists were already observing that plant roots naturally seek out the wetter regions in soil. Although the phenomenon is well documented, scientists until recently had no clue as to how the mechanism worked, or how to make it better. New insights from the Tel Aviv University study could lead to plants that are super water seekers, say researchers.

THE latest round of global agricultural trade negotiations that began seven years ago in Doha, Qatar, collapsed in acrimony this week in Geneva. While India and China are getting the blame for refusing to reduce import tariffs and farm subsidies, you can assume that trade officials in Europe and the United States are breathing a sigh of relief that they aren’t going to have to limit their own protectionism... --snip-- First, they are transparent election-cycle harvests for farm-state politicians, who have small constituencies but exercise outsized national political clout. Second, because such special-interest legislation wins little broad public support, its...

POTATO crisps—or chips, to those ignorant of the pleasures of a bag of real chips, with lashings of salt and vinegar, after a night in the pub—are the world’s most-nibbled snacks. But that may change if a bizarre, new disease becomes widespread. “Zebra chip”, as this disease is known, causes crisps to develop stripes, and growers and crisp-makers alike are worried. The pattern renders chipping potatoes unsaleable and some farmers have lost much of their crop as a result. Zebra chip was first noticed in Mexico, in 1994. By 2000 it had spread to Texas. It has subsequently appeared in...

Varroa on bee pupae One of the biggest world wide threats to honey bees, the varroa mite, could soon be about to meet its nemesis. Researchers at the University of Warwick are examining naturally occurring fungi that kill the varroa mite. They are also exploring a range of ways to deliver the killer fungus throughout the hives from bee fungal foot baths to powder sprays. It well known that bees world wide are suffering serious declines and one of the causes of that decline is the varroa mite, Varroa destructor. Varroa mites feed on the circulatory fluid of honey bee...

WAUSAU, WI -- The torrential rain and flooding that hit southern Wisconsin this summer, destroying tens of millions of dollars worth of farm crops, had a least one silver lining -- soil erosion was not a major problem, farm experts say."We found the fields that had conservation tillage and residue management no-till surprisingly have very little damage," said Don Baloun, a farm conservationist for the U.S. Agriculture Department's Natural Resource Conservation Service in Madison. "What happened is the crop that was planted is a complete loss."Added Susan Butler, a conservation specialist for USDA's Farm Service Agency in Wisconsin, "We expected...

For years, cheap imported garlic has been cutting into the bottom line of Gilroy's signature crop. Now one entrepreneur has come to the Garlic Capital of the World to grow the key ingredient in tequila, agave. Grower Frank Leal has made an award-winning winery business in the hills above Hollister. Planting 10 acres of blue agaves, he has set his sights on being the first to bottle California's take on tequila. Our video report has more (Link)

Advocates claim that ethanol mandates and subsidies protect our planet, enhance U.S. security, and ease our pain at the pump. In fact, ethanol policy hurts all Americans except for the tiny slice of the population that grows corn or distills it into ethanol. What is ethanol? Basically, in the United States, it is moonshine derived from the starch in corn. You can drink it. Rowdy collegians have been known to mix 1 part ethanol with 40 parts fruit juice to make huge vats of punch for parties. The law does not allow you to drink and drive, but it now...

Daniel Skotnick agriculture advisor, and Abdullah Al Asoum, economic bi-lingual, bi-cultural advisor with embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team Baghdad-5, speak with a farmer in Abernisha Village, northwest of Baghdad, July 13. Two tons of hybrid maize seed were donated to help rebuild Iraq’s agriculture and infrastructure. Photo by Pfc. Lyndsey Dransfield. CAMP TAJI — The Fertile Crescent portion of Iraq is notorious for its strong agricultural heritage throughout history. It has long blessed residents and their livestock with a plethora food.Unfortunately, in recent history investments and resources were diverted away from farming and food production, leaving Iraq's agricultural resources in utter...

2008 Corn & Soybean Yield Expectations In Midwest Study URBANA, Ill. - A new study by University of Illinois agricultural economists projects that average 2008 corn yields could be reduced by 2.9 bushels per acre in Illinois, 3.5 bushels in Indiana, and 6.3 bushels in Iowa due to later-than-normal planting and above-normal precipitation in May. Soybean yields may be down 1.1 bushels, 0.4 bushels, and 1.0 bushels per acre, respectively, in those same states for the same reasons.

Tastiota, Mexico-A few miles inland from the Sea of Cortez, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactus, neat rows of emerald plants are sprouting from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from_a_man-made_canal. And if you believe the American who is farming it, this incongruous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming. He is Carl Hodges, a Tucson-based atmospheric physicist who has spent most of his 71 years figuring out how humans can feed themselves in places where good soil and fresh water...

Could growing fresh vegetables help save crumbling inner cities around the world and tackle hunger? ___ That is the ambitious aim of a charity called Urban Farming, which has its headquarters in Detroit, the capital of the US's wilting car industry. The idea is very simple: turn wasteland into free vegetable gardens and feed the poor people who live nearby. Motown has lost more than a million residents since its heyday in the 1950s and it is common to see downtown residential streets with just a few houses left standing. Taja Sevelle saw the hundreds of hectares of vacant land...

USDA to report acreage; analysts warn of $10 corn and possible supply crisisSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Recent Midwest flooding may have damaged millions of acres of corn crops, analysts expect the U.S. Department of Agriculture to say in its crop acreage report slated for release Monday. The loss of acreage could slash U.S. corn production and push the 2009 season's year-end stocks to the lowest level since just after World War II, analysts said. And the real damage is likely to be even worse than what Monday's 8:30 a.m. EDT report will show, as it's still too early to evaluate...

To save chocolate lovers from the agony of a potential candy bar shortage, McLean candy giant Mars is investing $10 million in a five-year project to develop cacao trees that fight drought, disease and poor harvests. Mars will announce today that it is partnering with IBM and the Department of Agriculture to sequence and analyze the entire cocoa genome. The team will be identifying the characteristics that make a better cacao tree. Then it plans to breed the genetically superior specimens to battle the foes that have shrunk the number of beans to make chocolate over the years.

Des Moines, IA (AHN) - The marine dead zone resulting from the Midwest flooding is expected to expand to over 10,000 square miles, according to researchers from the Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. The water in the dead zone, approximately the size of Massachusetts, does not have sufficient oxygen at depth to support marine life. Since 1990, the zone, located off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, usually covers 6,000 square miles, varying according to the flow of the Mississippi River. Its low oxygen content is caused by the presence of large algae blooms which feeds...

Extreme weather has virtually wiped out Door County’s cherry crop for this year, which not only means slim pickings in orchards that attract thousands of tourists each summer, but also a loss of an estimated 350 to 400 seasonal jobs for workers who harvest and process the iconic scarlet fruit. At a time when epic rains and flooding have wiped out berries and vegetables in other parts of the state, Door County’s loss may seem surprising because it is attributed to an opposite extreme: a three-month drought last summer, followed by a January that brought rain and wild temperature fluctuations....

Evidence of ancient farming found By Jeff Nagel - Burnaby NewsLeader June 20, 2008 A 3,600-year-old native village site uncovered during road work for the new Golden Ears Bridge is being hailed as a globally significant find that suggests aboriginal people here were CanadaÂ’s first recorded farmers. The ancient discovery has electrified archaeologists who say it may help reverse long-held notions of pre-contact natives as hunter-gatherers who didnÂ’t actively garden or otherwise manage the landscape. It also shines a new spotlight on the accelerating loss of First Nations heritage sites in the Lower Mainland to make way for new highways,...

ONCE you become accustomed to gas at $4 a gallon, brace yourself for the next shocking retail threshold: bananas reaching $1 a pound. At that price, Americans may stop thinking of bananas as a cheap staple, and then a strategy that has served the big banana companies for more than a century — enabling them to turn an exotic, tropical fruit into an everyday favorite — will begin to unravel. The immediate reasons for the price increase are the rising cost of oil and reduced supply caused by floods in Ecuador, the world’s biggest banana exporter. But something larger is...

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) wants the Federal Government's drought policy to help prepare farmers for climate change. Yesterday, the Federal Government announced the detail of how it will review the policy, which has previously defined drought as a once in 20 or 25 year event. Exceptional Circumstances (EC) support and farm exit packages will be reviewed as part of an economic assessment of drought policy. The Government has also announced a panel will look at the social effect of drought, and the weather bureau and CSIRO will report on climate change. VFF president Simon Ramsay says farms need to...

Climate Change, the Frequency of Extreme Weather and an Historic Gamble The slug of slow-moving destruction that is making its way from Iowa down the Mississippi River Valley is extraordinary by any measure. That the last flood of this magnitude occurred just 15 years ago should be cause for concern. Floods happen. Big floods happen. Epic floods happen. But they don't happen all the time. Scientists talk about the 100 Year Flood, and the 500 Year Flood. These are floods of such magnitude they could be expected to occur every 100 years, or every 500 years. Infrequently, in other words....

(SNIP) Enshayan, director of an environmental center at the University of Northern Iowa, suspects that this natural disaster wasn't really all that natural. He points out that the heavy rains fell on a landscape radically reengineered by humans. Plowed fields have replaced tallgrass prairies. Fields have been meticulously drained with underground pipes. Streams and creeks have been straightened. Most of the wetlands are gone. Flood plains have been filled and developed.

LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan, June 16, 2008 – Provincial reconstruction teams are engaged daily in large-scale projects in Afghanistan, building roads, bridges, schools and medical facilities to help the Afghan government develop its infrastructure. They also contribute small ideas that have the potential for large-scale impact. Air Force Staff Sgt. Tim Bayes, engineering noncommissioned officer in charge for the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Laghman province, demonstrates how to use a spreader he designed and built for use by Afghan farmers. Bayes is deployed from Naval Construction Training Center, Gulfport, Miss. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. James Law,...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The cast offs from snacking on cashews may help fight global warming caused by animals that belch methane. Tests in Japan have show that oil produced from the shell of the cashew nut may slash by 90 percent the methane emissions from belching cattle when mixed as an additive to feed, a spokesman for oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co said on Wednesday. The firm's research division is working with Hokkaido University on Japan's northernmost island, on the project, with the aim of launching sales within four years, the spokesman said. "We are in the process of applying...

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2008 – Iraq’s Agriculture Ministry improved its ability to protect the nation’s commercial date palm crop from deadly dubas beetles through a nationwide spraying program completed this week. Pilots and maintenance crews increased their coverage by 33 percent this year, spraying nearly 170,000 acres in six provinces. Last year, crews sprayed just more than 120,000 acres in four provinces. “Left unchecked, the dubas beetle, which bores into the tree and kills it, can seriously disrupt the production of dates in the area,” said Mike Stevens, a Baghdad 7 Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team agriculture advisor. In the 1970s,...

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Monday it planned to produce biofuels to cut high oil import bills, but dismissed fears the strategy could hit food production in a country suffering a severe drought. Some 4.5 million Ethiopians need emergency food aid due to failed rains and high food prices, reviving grim memories of the country's 1984-1985 famine, which killed more than 1 million. But the government also faces an annual fuel bill of up to $900 million, and aims to reduce that over time using biofuels. "There is no shortage of agriculture land in Ethiopia for food production,"...

In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster. American corn and soybean farmers are suffering from too much rain, while Australian wheat farmers have been plagued by drought. "The planting has gotten off to a poor start," said Bill Nelson, a Wachovia grains analyst. "The anxiety level is increasing." Randy Kron, whose family has been farming in the southwestern corner of Indiana for 135 years, should have corn more than a foot tall...

CAMP STRIKER — The Rakkasans organized a veterinary clinic at the Nasiriyah school in Owesat, May 31. “Owesat is a farming community and the animals and husbandry is a key aspect of their lives,” said 1st Lt. Edward Janis, Company A, 3rd Battalion, 187 Infantry Regiment. “Currently, they don’t have any medicine for the animals so we funded a project to sponsor a local animal doctor who has some training in the field.” The Soldiers of 3-187 Inf. Regt., 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), coordinated for Iraqi veterinarian Mohammed Helim to vaccinate livestock in the community,...

Mike Stevens, Baghdad 7 embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team agricultural adviser, shakes hands with Sayifiyah landowners as he distributes seeds, Feb. 28, at Patrol Base Whitehouse. Increased production in vegetable farming has led to lower food costs for Iraqis. Photo by Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — After nearly a year in Iraq as the last of the "surge brigades," the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, has seen the south Baghdad area transformed from insurgent stronghold to model of peace and security. The gains made in security may not hold, however, unless citizens of this area are...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Corn futures fell Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would open up 24 million conservation acres for grazing, a new tool the government is using to ease costs for livestock raisers. Corn for July delivery fell as much as 2% to $5.85 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade before settling down 0.9% at $5.92 a bushel. Late Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would allow livestock producers to use some lands normally protected by the Conservation Reserve Program to hay or forage after the primary nesting season for grass-nesting...

CHAMPAIGN — When Martin Barbre got his first look three years ago at a system that would drive his tractor for him, he didn't buy the device — or the premise that it would cut costs on his farm. "When they first came out with them and we first looked at it, it seemed like a fancy gadget," said Barbre, a 53-year-old who grows corn and soybeans in southern Illinois. But with the cost of fuel, seeds, fertilizer and just about everything else it takes to grow his crops rising fast, Barbre quickly came around after he started using the...

By now, the collard greens, kale, chard, peppers and eggplants should be in the ground, along with the carrots and corn. The latest planting season is pretty much over at Barking Cat Farm, a tiny grower in Heath, Texas, which is owned and operated by Laurie Bostic and Kim Martin, two former engineers. “You’d expect two engineers to go into farming about as much as you’d expect a cat to bark,” is their explanation for the name of their thriving micro-business, which sells its organic produce and cut flowers to Dallas restaurants and florists and direct to local consumers. And...

Members of the SoI provide security and help distribute supplies to farmers in Busayefi, April 26. Multi-National Division - Center uses CERP funds for projects like this to improve communities and show citizens how to work with their local governments. (Courtesy photo) FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — U.S. Soldiers delivered seeds and plastic to farmers in the town of Busayefi recently, in an effort to revitalize agriculture in the area 10 kilometers southeast of Baghdad.Members of the 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, attached to 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., delivered 180 kilograms of...

Retail food prices have climbed more than 4 percent in the last year, and a similar hike is projected for next year. Riots have broken out in developing countries over food shortages. Schools are being forced to change their lunch menus. Some consumers, reacting to a rise in the price of rice, have made a run on stores – prompting Costco, Sam's Club and other retailers to limit how many bags they sell to individuals. Consumers are hurting, yes, but growers of corn, wheat, rice, cotton and other crops are loving life these days. Corn has hit a record $6...

Iowa With the rapid expansion of ethanol and biodiesel production in Iowa, there are questions about possible uses for what remains after these alternative fuels leave the plant. So far, the use of ethanol by-products in animal feed has received most of the attention. But researchers at Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Services also are studying a biodiesel by-product in swine and poultry feed. Biodiesel often is made from soybean or vegetable oil, with crude glycerin the resulting by-product. This compound, which currently is used in such things as hand lotions, cosmetics and shampoo,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — Access to water, availability of equipment, training and reclaimed lands were among topics discussed in an agricultural meeting in Wasit, April 23. Brig. Gen. Edward Cardon, the Multi-National Division - Center deputy commanding general for support, met with Wasit director general of agriculture members and 20 local farmers to address issues and start the process of linking the local, provincial and national government. “This is the first step in the right direction,” said Sheikh Jamal Batik, member of the Council of Representatives. Farmers from Wasit, which was once a major agricultural area in Iraq, are...

The owners of an Arab Jassim fish farm proudly display fish from their pond. A Task Force Marne initiative to revitalize Iraq’s fish farms is in full swing throughout the Mahmudiyah Qada. DoD photo. CAMP STRIKER — A Task Force Marne initiative to revitalize Iraq’s fish farms is in full swing in the Rakkasans’ area of operations. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) began a comprehensive assessment in February of hundreds of fish farms throughout the Mahmudiyah Qada.“Fish farming was one of the top three agricultural businesses in Iraq,� said Maj. Robert Bertrand, 3rd BCT, 101st...

Seaboard Foods, a U.S. pork producing company, has announced the official start up of its subsidiary biodiesel plant – High Plains Bioenergy. The facility, located in Guymon, Okla., conducted start-up procedures in March. The first product shipment was delivered during the second week of April, according to company spokesman David Eaheart. The plant is expected to produce 30 MMgy annually, although Eaheart wasn’t sure if the plant would reach nameplate capacity by the end of this year. The project has cost Seaboard more than $40 million to date. Final cost totals have yet to be released. High Plains is colocated...

"This nation has got to eat," President Bush said in a recent speech supporting the $170 billion farm subsidy bill pending before Congress. In the new federal budget, Bush is quoted as saying that "our farmers and ranchers are the most efficient producers in the world . . . we're really good at it." Does the government really need to subsidize such an efficient industry, then? Do we need farming subsidies in order for Americans to eat? Evidence from New Zealand indicates that the answer is an emphatic no on both counts. In 1984 New Zealand's Labor government took the...