Is this a price blip? No.
A food shortage? Not that either. Farmers
across the world produced a record 2.3 billion
tonnes of grain in 2007, up 4% on the previous
year. Since 1961, the world’s cereal
output has tripled, while the population has
doubled. Stocks are at their lowest level
in 30 years, it’s true, but the bottomline
is that there is enough food produced in the
world to feed the population.
Yet the price of wheat has
gone up by 130% over the last year. Rice has
doubled in price in Asia in the first three
months of 2008 alone. For most of 2007 the
spiralling cost of cooking oil, fruit and
vegetables, as well as of dairy and meat,
led to a fall in the consumption of these
items.
Now that the world has been
through the wringer, what lies ahead? The
answer to that depends on a whole host of
factors affecting demand and supply. Take
demand. If rapid global economic growth continues,
particularly in developing countries, it will
continue to push up food prices through increases
in food demand.
If petroleum prices continue
to rise, there will be greater demand for
biofuels. But in USDA’s 10-year agricultural
projections, global growth in biofuels production
begins to slow in the next several years and
production from grains and oilseeds flattens
out in the next half decade.
The billion-dollar question
is how will the world’s farms respond
to this demand stimulus. Farming has become
an increasingly expensive business. Continued
increases in production costs, especially
higher costs for fertiliser, fuel, and seeds
could cause farmers without access to credit
to plant less than they otherwise would have,
or to shift to crops requiring fewer inputs.
While additional cropland
can certainly be brought under the plough,
it may be fertile enough to grow a large amount
of extra food. Bringing more land under cultivation
would worsen water shortages that are already
impacting yields. With land already been bid
away by infrastructure projects and urbanisation,
arable land is at a premium globally.
To take advantage of higher food prices, some
countries may adopt the use of biotechnology,
especially genetically modified seed for crops.
It is also likely that future research in
seeds will focus more on yield-enhancing varieties
rather than cost-reducing innovations.
Research in agriculture could
accelerate gains. According to the Manila-based
IRRI, neglect of investment in agricultural
technology, infrastructure, and extension
programs is to blame for the tepid growth
in the supply of rice. The highest yield countries
are New Zealand for wheat and Egypt for rice.
If the yields in major producing countries
that are below the world average could be
increased at least to the world average, global
production of wheat would rise by about 7%,
and rice by 23%.
But the biggest risk to agriculture
may well come from climate change. No one
yet knows how climate change will affect agricultural
production. It’s still guesswork how
will it change temperatures, precipitation,
the length of growing seasons, and variability
of yields.
It may be tough to predict
how, and under what circumstances, will climate
change increase and/or reduce production.
In affected regions, it may not be easy to
get farmers to shift to other crops, to adopt
new cropping patterns, and to adjust production
practices to the new environment.
In the short term, the
world can simply not bear another patch of
bad weather. With such low world stocks of
food commodities, food prices are vulnerable
to a production shortfall in one or more major
production areas. If a significant shortfall
occurs this year due to weather or disease,
food prices might continue to rise sharply
from the current high level. With countries
erecting new trade barriers, it may no longer
be easy for importing countries to buy food
off the shelf.
Potential in horticulture
remains untapped: Pawar
NEW DELHI: Emphasising the
need for stimulating private investment in
the horticulture sector, the central government
has urged private sector and government agencies
to work together to tap the “huge potential”
in the sector.
Despite huge “production
strength,” India had only 1.4 per cent
of the total global market, with issues like
traceability, market access and global standardisation
being the major constraints.
Addressing a Fruit and Vegetable
Summit organised by the Ministry of Agriculture
and the Confederation of the Indian Industry
here on Monday, Union Agriculture and Food
Minister Sharad Pawar bemoaned the slow pace
of development of fruit and vegetable business.
On one hand there were not enough value-adding
linkages to the national missions, on the
other the emerging fruit and vegetable value
chains had remained sporadic in nature and
were unable to face global competition.
Mr Pawar said that the stress
on crop diversification in the last few years
had led to horticultural production rising
to 185.2 tonnes from 19.3 million hectare
area. However, the sector remained constrained
by widespread fragmentation in the supply
chain, low productivity levels, and huge post
harvest losses arising out of inadequate storage,
cold chain and transport infrastructure, logistics
and supply chain management.
As a result of these problems,
there was very little value addition, for
example, in the area of exports and food processing.
In India less than 2 per cent of the fruits
and vegetables produced were processed, as
against 65 per cent in the U.S., 70 per cent
in Brazil, 78 per cent in the Philippines,
80 per cent in South Africa and 83 per cent
in Malaysia.
Due to rapid expansion of
internal and external market and processing
industries, it was essential to develop such
techniques that reduced post harvest losses,
added value and improved the quality of the
product. The Minister called for adoption
of modern technology and making use of the
provisions under the National Horticulture
Mission, the Indian Council of Agriculture
Research and the State Agriculture Universities
to rejuvenate the sector.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/13/stories/2008051353961000.htm
Science & Technology
Ministry launches new meteorological service
for farmers
NEW DELHI: The agriculture
productivity in the country could be in for
some significant improvement, with the Union
Science and Technology Ministry on Wednesday
launching a new agro-meteorological advisory
service, which promises to offer more precise
advice to farmers.
So far, the agro-met advisory
service was operating at the level of agro-climatic
zones. Now, it will operate at a smaller scale.
From now on, it will offer district-wise advisories.
Considerable variations
The change-over is significant
considering that within the agro-climatic
zones, there are not only considerable variations
in the weather condition, but also variations
in terms of cropping system, farm operations
and soil conditions.
Launching the new system,
Science and Technology Minister, Kapil Sibal,
said that while the headquarters of the India
Meteorological Department here would generate
the necessary weather forecast up to five
days using the weather models of Indian and
foreign agencies, the agro met field units
located in State agriculture universities,
institutes of the Indian Council of Agriculture
Research and other such centres would prepare
the advisories.
The advisories would be disseminated
to the farmers through various media, including
private television channels, FM radios and
NGOs at the grassroots level, apart from All
India Radio, Doordarshan, newspapers, District
Agriculture Offices and the web sites of IMD
and SAUs.
The scope, accuracy and the
outreach of the system, Mr. Sibal said, would
be continuously enhanced as and when newer
products, technologies and scientific inputs
were available.
Boost expected
The launch of a new satellite,
INSAT-3D, next year, is expected to give it
a major boost.
IMD, he noted, is also in
the process of setting up more automatic rain
gauges, automatic weather stations and Doppler
weather radars.
Once they become operational,
there will be further improvement in the capability
for weather forecast and consequently better
advisories.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/05/stories/2008060554801300.htm
Hulse honoured for
contributions to Indian agriculture
Toronto (PTI): The Indo-Canadian
community on Sunday honoured leading biochemist
Joseph H. Hulse for his contributions to Indian
agriculture and uplifting tribal women and
children in India. Prof. Hulse, one of the
world's leading experts in biotechnology,
was honoured by the Indian government with
the Padma Shri award in New Delhi last month.
"It is a great honour
for a Canadian citizen to receive this prestigious
honour," said Prof. Hulse, who established
the International Food Technology Training
and Research Centre at the Central Food Technology
Research Institute (CFTRI) Mysore more than
five decade.
A former scientific advisor
to the UN Secretary General, Prof. Hulse has
played a catalytic role in inspiring a cooperative
programme that brings together several Indian
NGOs, industries and the CFTRI. He said he
would be expanding the programme to Tamil
Nadu and Kerala.
Prof. Hulse is now a visiting
professor at the CFTRI and at the M.S. Swaminathan
Research Foundation in Tamil Nadu. A number
of representatives of the Indo-Canadian Associations
attended the function. R L Narayan, Indian
High Commissioner to Canada, praised the efforts
and contributions of Prof Hulse in alleviating
chronic malnutrition among tribal women and
children in Karnataka.
Mukesh Gupta, senior executive
with the Tata group in Ottawa, informed that
since Prof. Hulse first visited India in 1962
to represent Canada for the establishment
of research centre, he has travelled to India
some 68 times to help with various food-related
projects. In 2006, Prof. Hulse was elected
Fellow for Life of India's National Academy
of Sciences.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200806081864.htm
Haryana to set up
bio-technology centre
Haryana Horticulture Department has decided
to start a Horticulture Bio-Technology Centre
near in Karnal at a cost of Rs 10 lakh to
produce tissue Culture Plants. While stating
this here today, the Agriculture Minister,
Harmohinder Singh Chatha said that the Centre
would be set up to keep pace with the modern
science. Horticulture Bio-Technology Centre
would produce Tissue Culture of horticulture
crops of Banana, Potato Micro tubers, cutting
of flowers crops and other horticultural crops.
Plant tissue culture which
was a useful tool for the rapid production
of many genetically identical plants using
relatively small amounts of space, supplies
and time would be extensively used for giving
a major fillip to horticultural activities
in the state.
The Centre would also cater
to introduce the concept of DNA finger printing
and popularizing the virus indexing technology.
The Minister said that the
Department would also spend a sum of Rs 92
lakh for popularisation and extension of latest
technologies in Horticulture.
Shows, seminars and field
days would be organised throughout the state
to create awareness about latest technologies
and to motivate farmers to adopt these practices
in the cultivation of their horticultural
crops.
Training and visits of Field
Staff and the farmers would also be organised
within and outside the state.
Furthermore production of
quality planting material by bio technology
especially through tissue culture would be
given impetus. Similarly, good quality plants
and seeds would be made available at subsidised
rates, he added.
Source: http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=39706
Govt to promote date
palm cultivation
JAIPUR: After olive plantation,
the horticulture department is going in a
big way to promote date palm cultivation in
the arid desert regions of north-western Rajasthan.
“Initially, the cultivation of date
palms will be taken up in Bikaner, Jaisalmer,
Jodhpur and Barmer and later in other districts,”
said agriculture minister Prabhulal Saini.
“The horticulture department
will establish modern high-tech date palm
farms, producing high quality plants for both
national and international market. The date
plantation developed under the project will
work as a centre of know-how and good agriculture
practice of palm production and dissemination
centre of pre and post harvest technology,”
he said. “It has been decided to import
secondary hardened tissue culture raised plants
suitable for ready transplanting in the field.
Accordingly, international bid was invited
for import of different varieties of date
palm and their management on government farm
for a minimum of 100 hectares on a pro rata
basis and initially upto 130 hec-tares for
a period of four years,” he said.
The state has the biggest
arid zone in the country, constituting nearly
61 % of the total land. The moderate winter
temperature and a long, hot and dry summer
are favourable for its cultivation, he said.
However, the state could not succeed in the
cultivation of date palm earlier due to non-availability
of quality planting materials. A date palm
plant can produce only 10 to 20 off shoots
of 8 to 15 kg size during its fourth and tenth
year of life and none thereafter. Absence
of fast multiplication technique is a major
bottle neck in the extension of area under
its plantation.
Deputy director, horticulture,
Sitaram Jat said: “Date Palm has been
proved to be a valuable plant in combating
desertification. It creates a unique microclimate,
which allows other plant species to survive
in the mottled sunshine that penetrates through
the canopy of the date palms. This shade house
effect reduces evapotranspiration rates and
increases humidity, which facilitates a secondary
food production system by introducing other
plant species”.
The global production of dates
fruit is about 5.4 mn metric tonnes per year.
The five largest producers are Egypt, Iran,
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, & Iraq. Approximately,
93% of dates harvested in the country are
consumed within.
Date palm is a traditional
crop and in recent decades, has gained acceptance
in 40 countries including US, South Africa,
and more recently, Australia. Major importers
are India, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan
and Malaysia.
Date fruits have iron, potassium
and calcium content. They are highly delicious
and are a rich source of sugar (70-75%). One
kg of fresh fruits of date palm gives about
3,000 calories of energy.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jaipur/Govt_to_promote_date_palm_cultivation/articleshow/3124938.cms
Canada, India launch
joint technology, science initiatives
OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada
and India on Sunday launched ten 17-million-dollar
joint initiatives as part of a 2005 scientific
and technological cooperation agreement.
"These joint projects
will enhance the collaboration between our
scientists and commercialize their discoveries,"
said David Emerson, Canada's minister of foreign
affairs and international trade.
He made the announcement with
India's visiting Union Minister of Science
and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal.
Eight of the joint initiatives
deal with research; two establish partnerships.
Total funding for all ten is 17 million dollars.
One project will study the
use of biomimetic material to integrate and
repair the cornea of the eye. Another will
create a common modelling and simulation tool
to test multiple aircraft and air-related
equipment for a new generation of regional
aircraft.
There is also a joint project
to study the use of biofuels in aircraft gas
turbine engines made from Canadian and Indian
feedstocks.
Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gBrtlXDtWEoVYW2TK6IY93CcNKLw
