Tuesday 28 February 2012

Improved grain resource online

The U.S. Grains Council, which develops export markets for U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products, has launched a significantly enhanced website at grains.org.

The website, a component of the Council’s branding and communications initiative, presents the latest news and data relating to the U.S. and global grain trade. The site includes charts that present current FOB reference prices and market spreads for several commodities at port, as well as top U.S. export customers and additional information that is helpful for foreign buyers and those monitoring grain markets and exports.

“The U.S. Grains Council gathers a significant amount of information every week, and this new website helps us present that information to members and interested parties in a more timely and more organized fashion,” said Don Fast, USGC vice chairman and barley farmer from Glasgow, Mont. “We also highlight key issues and policy positions taken by the Council to make it clear what the Council and its members believe —  that open, liberalized trade of all goods and services is vital to the prosperity of the world economy.”

Included on the site are details from each of the Council’s 10 foreign offices, as well as a market overview, supply and demand information and market growth potential for more than 25 countries.

Work enables billion dollar industry

Olive Castle was a Mathematician who joined the NZ Dairy Board in the 1940s, who worked largely behind the scenes but whose work enabled a scheme which has generated billions of dollars to the New Zealand dairy industry and the country’s economy. 


Her contribution is recorded in a book that will be launched by dairy farmer cooperative, LIC, in Hamilton on 14 March 2012.

Author of ‘The Billion Dollar Scheme’ and LIC Communications Manager, Clare Bayly, said that acknowledging Olive’s contribution was a very important component of the book.

“We had to make this happen.  Olive was a ‘creature of the times’, a woman working in a male environment, a conceptual thinker who worked behind the scenes and solved a dilemma which enabled dairy sires to be accurately evaluated.

“Colleagues recall that she never sought the limelight however and, whereas today, she would seek to have her work published, in those days she ‘just got on’ with the next task at hand.  It therefore became important, when putting this book together, to ensure that her contribution was acknowledged, to avoid it fading into the mists of time.”


Bayly said The Billion Dollar Scheme is dedicated to five very special people who devoted their lives to improving the profitability and sustainability of dairy farming and whose work enabled the LIC Sire Proving Scheme. Those people are Olive Castle, Sir Arthur Ward OBE, Dr Patrick Shannon QSO, Jeff Stichbury and Harvey Tempero.

Monday 27 February 2012

New vet drug standards to combat fakes

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Federation for Animal Health (IFAH) are working to establish the first published pharmaceutical standards for medicines used in treating Animal African Trypanosomosis, commonly known as Nagana.

Transmitted by the bite of the tsetse fly and other blood-sucking insects, Nagana is a fatal animal disease capable of decimating the herds that African smallholders depend on for their livelihoods and which worldwide is estimated as causing economic losses of up to $4.5 billion each year.

"The use of substandard drugs to treat Nagana not only leaves farm animals inadequately protected from the disease, but also permits the evolution of tougher, drug-resistant strains when insufficient doses are used," said FAO chief veterinary officer Juan Lubroth, who heads the UN agency's Animal Health Service. "And it can pose a threat to human health if harmful chemical residues accumulate in meat or dairy products that enter the food chain."

According to IFAH estimates, the value of the official market for veterinary drugs in Africa runs around $400 million a year. The trade in sub-standard and non-registered drugs is just as large and estimated worth $400 million in addition to legitimate, over-the-table sales.

To tackle the problem, FAO and IFAH have submitted an application to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to formally register the first pharmaceutical standards for the manufacture and proper use of two drugs that kill the parasites that cause the disease.

These standards, called monographs in the pharmaceutical industry, will define the acceptable physiochemical make-up of the drugs, the proper dosages of their active ingredients, and the allowable levels of impurities they can contain. The standards will provide a basis for evaluating the quality of animal medicines and serve as a measure against which national authorities can test for regulatory compliance.

Empowering national animal health authorities

The standard-setting process is expected to be finalized later this spring. Meanwhile, FAO and its partners are moving ahead with efforts aimed at helping animal health authorities put them to good use once they come online.

By April 2012, two laboratories in sub-Saharan Africa will have been selected to carry out tests for quality control and verification of the two standard drugs developed by FAO, IFAH and a group of partner organizations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) and the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom. The effort will also include training for laboratory staff.

A disease with major impacts

Nagana affects cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, camels, horses and donkeys — animals which are vital to the incomes and food security of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa and elsewhere.

In cattle, it causes direct economic losses due to  animal deaths estimated at more than $1.2 billion every year, while its wider costs  — in terms of reduced output of milk and dairy products, abortions of unborn calves, and lost fertility resulting in reduced agricultural productivity — are estimated at some $4.5 billion every year.

Saturday 25 February 2012

Record US corn crop equals lower prices says USDA

The U.S. is on track for a record 14.27 billion bushels of corn and 3.25 billion bushels of soybeans in the 2012-13 year, with the effect being lower prices for corn, soybeans and wheat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.


The output projections are above the USDA's baseline forecasts issued this month, which projected corn output of 14.235 billion bushels and soybean output of 3.215 billion bushels in the year from September 2012 to August 2013. In the 2011-12 marketing year, corn output was 12.358 billion bushels and soybean production was 3.056 billion bushels.
Farmers are likely to plant so much corn this year--about 94 million acres, the most since 1944--that production will sharply overshoot demand, pushing up stocks and pulling down prices, the USDA says. Recent high corn prices have also made farmers more likely than usual to plant that crop instead of soy in the next year. 
Another global staple, rice, is also being grown in increasing volumes, the International Grains Council saysGlobal rice inventories should rise for the seventh consecutive year to a nine-year high of 99.3 million tons in 2011-12, up 4% compared with the previous year, as major exporting countries, especially Thailand, are maintaining larger inventories. (The IGC tabulates its data over an aggregate marketing year covering all major producing and trading countries).
It revised upward its forecast for Thailand's rice stocks at the end of 2012 by 4% to 7.7 million tons, up 43% on year. Thailand's exports have been falling sharply in recent months, after the government started purchasing unmilled rice from farmers at prices that are higher than most export prices from competing countries. The IGC lowered its 2012 rice export forecast for Thailand by 7% to 6.7 million tons, down 37% year on year. 
India's rice stocks will likely total 21 million tons by end-September, up 5.5% on year, the IGC said.
Record global rice output of 463 million tons, up 3% on year, is helping to push prices higher, the IGC said.
"Exceptional production in India and China will more than offset the fall in Brazilian and U.S. output," it said, putting China's rice output in 2012 at 140.5 million tons, up 2.5% on year.
India's government has forecast rice output in 2011-12 at a record 102.8 million tons, a 7% increase from last year. Inventories are more than comfortable, as the government had a stockpile of 31.8 million tons rice at the beginning of this month--more than double the country's mandatory minimum buffer requirement and almost equal to the total global annual trade in rice. 

Asian affluence to impact US farming

The sophisticated food demands of newly affluent consumers in China and other developing nations are likely to cause major change in U.S. farming and food production, Asian food policy and world trade, according to Food 2040, a new study of emerging food trends in Asia by the U.S. Grains Council (USGC).

USGC President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas C. Dorr presented a preview of Food 2040 today at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual Agricultural Outlook Forum.

“Growing affluence in China could change people’s diets and the global food system. Consumers will expect more choice, quality, convenience and safety in their food purchases,” Dorr said.

Food 2040 also reveals important implications for agricultural trade policy between the United States and Asian nations. “We are seeing China become more open to acceptance of new technology, such as agricultural biotechnology, which can help meet the needs of the Asian middle class in a sustainable manner through trade,” Dorr said.

U.S. attitudes about feeding the world are likely to change too. “Many of the agribusinesses and agricultural organizations that comprise the U.S. Grains Council are starting to review possibilities for meeting the needs and capturing the economic value that ascendency of the Asian middle class represents,” said USGC Chairman Dr. Wendell Shauman, an Illinois corn farmer and member of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board. “Working together with trading partners around the world to understand emerging trends, we can use a convergence of science, technology and policy reform to meet changing food demands and capture the economic potential of new Asian consumers.”

Information and support for smallholders

Improving agricultural data systems and boosting support to smallholder farmers in the fight against hunger emerged as key topics during discussions between Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, this week at FAO headquarters.

The philanthropist and digital technology icon met with the head of the UN agency, discussing ways to improve FAO's data collection systems and to develop a public, multi-agency scorecard to better measure the progress of hunger reduction. They also talked about how to boost sustainable productivity and market opportunities for smallholder farmers, who make up the bulk of the world's poor.

Possible areas of cooperation include improving agricultural statistics, the use of communication and information technologies to benefit agriculture as a whole, and small-scale farmers in particular, in addition to supporting the development of a scorecard system.

During the meeting, Graziano da Silva presented Gates with a permanent building pass to FAO, in a symbolic gesture of FAO's commitment to working closer with the private sector and civil society.

Information innovation and cooperation

Graziano da Silva highlighted the value of innovative partnerships and of increasing South-South Cooperation to support smallholder producers.

Emphasizing the foundation's commitment to supporting small-scale farming, Gates addressed the need to make sure the benefits of the digital revolution and scientific innovations reach poor farmers worldwide and are better used in gathering and analyzing data.

FAO has also long advocated the need for greater access to information, innovation and cooperation to reduce hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty through agriculture. In the meeting, the value of information technology to help small farmers obtain market information, link them to new and existing markets, and improve their productivity and business decision-making was also highlighted.

Before meeting at FAO, Gates discussed agriculture and sustainable poverty reduction during a question-and-answer session at the 35th Session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). He said that the world had the opportunity and the obligation to imagine a different future.

"This future will begin with another revolution in agricultural productivity. Sustainable yield increases will lead to a better living for farm families; they will also make food more accessible and cheaper for the growing number of poor families living in cities. In short, more productive small farmers are the key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals on hunger and poverty. If you care about the poorest, you care about agriculture," said Gates.

Thursday 23 February 2012

NZ gets free pasture management tool

Pasture management, quality and quantity, has direct links to productivity and with grass being the cheapest form of food, farmers need to be sure they are making the most of their supply, says a New Zealand company.


LIC’s general manager of Farm Systems Rob Ford say, “If you get that wrong, then your production will be suffering as a consequence." 

“Often the most successful farmers, with the highest production, are the ones who are paying careful attention to how their pasture is tracking too.”

And a new addition to the dairy farmer coop’s herd recording software, MINDA, makes it simple, Rob said, with the launch of LIC’s new pasture management tool on 21 February.

Known as MINDA Land & Feed Basic, the new feature is free for MINDA customers, with a simple tool for farmers to record their grass covers and create a feed wedge.

A feed wedge gives a farmer a clear picture of their feed supply, and allows them to see what likely changes may be ahead, Rob said.

“They just need to add data from the last farm walk, and MINDA does the rest avoiding all the time normally taken to collate and interpret the data.

“They can quickly see how each of their paddocks are tracking, from shortest to longest, all compared to pre and post grazing targets.

“Then they can use this information to make decisions about which paddocks to graze next, harvesting silage, re-grassing, applying nitrogen, purchasing or feeding supplement and culling cows or increasing numbers.”

MINDA Land & Feed Basic is the first of a suite of pasture management tools coming to MINDA, as the traditional herd management software moves to be a full farm management system.

Rob said the majority of New Zealand dairy farmers use MINDA to improve their herd’s performance, so it is a logical extension to provide farmers with tools to make it easier and more efficient to monitor their grass growth in MINDA too.

“Farmers want to manage every aspect of their farm operations; they trust MINDA to manage their herd records – now it does their land as well.

“This is just the first step for pasture management tools in MINDA, and it is an opportunity to give it a go, see how easy it is, and what value it can add, especially with both animal and land information in one whole farm management system,” Rob said.

A ‘Pro’ version will follow later this year with more enhanced tools for planning, forecasting and feed budgeting.

MINDA Land & Feed joins another recent addition to MINDA - MINDA Milk - on the new web-based platform at www.minda.co.nz.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Fast track into 'the zone'

This sounds like fun: hooking your brain up to a 9-volt battery to achieve the Zen-like state of being 'in the zone'.
Actually the device is slightly more sophisticated than a battery, it's a research device that delivers transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Basically, electrodes send a 2-milliamp current through part of the brain, making those brain cells more excitable and responsive to inputs - a technique being used to accelerate learning. A US defence project is using it to make snipers more efficient killers more quickly. And some amateur enthusiasts have reportedly tried it on themselves with mixed results, including temporary blindness.
Some researchers are taking a less dangerous route to try and isolate then reproduce that effortless feeling of flow. NewScientist reports that Advanced Brain Monitoring in Carlsbad, California, looked at the brain waves of Olympic archers and professional golfers and found a surge in alpha waves and reduced activation of the cortex when attention was focused on the target. The critical or 'thinking' faculties shut down, attention became focused. There is no think, only do.
A kinesiologist at the University of Nevada has managed to get novices to reproduce this flow state by focusing their attention on an external point away from their body. In whatever activity the subject was being taught, they learned faster when they focused on outcomes rather than what they were doing.
These efforts to harness the brain's potential to learn more quickly could be put to all manner of exciting uses, or book titles for that matter: Become the World's Richest Poker Player in a Day; Game the Futures Markets in One Easy Step. Or perhaps more mundane uses, like producing world-saving geniuses at twice the rate and in half the time, and helping the rest of us schmucks absorb enough information to keep pace in an accelerating world.

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Food prices nearly back to 2008 peak

Global food prices continue to rise, according to The World Bank’s food price index, which increased by 15% between October 2010 and January 2011 and is only 3% below its 2008 peak.

The last six months have seen sharp increases in the global prices of wheat, maize, sugar and edible oils, with a relatively smaller increase in rice prices. Higher global wheat prices have fed into significant increases in local wheat prices in many countries.



Higher maize, sugar, and oil prices have contributed to increase the costs of various types of food, though local maize prices have largely been stable in Sub- Saharan Africa. Local rice prices have increased in line with global prices in some large rice-consuming Asian countries.

The World Bank says these food price rises create macro vulnerabilities, particularly for countries with a high share of food imports and limited fiscal space, as well as increases in poverty. Estimates of those who fall into, and move out of, poverty as a result of price rises since June 2010 show there is a net increase in extreme poverty of about 44 million people in low- and middle-income countries.

“In the immediate term,” reports the Bank, “it is important to ensure that further increases in poverty are curtailed by taking measures that calm jittery markets and by scaling up safety net and nutritional programs. Investments in raising environmentally sustainable agricultural productivity, better risk-management tools, less food intensive biofuel technologies, and climate change adaptation measures are all necessary over the medium term to mitigate the impact of expected food price volatility on the most vulnerable.”

New index to boost women's role in agriculture

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) are cooperating to develop a Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index to measure women’s roles and engagement in the agriculture sector.
Women are a primary focus of the US Government Feed the Future (FTF) Initiative – a global hunger and food security initiative that aims to reduce poverty and under-nutrition. A principal objective of FTF is to “promote inclusive agricultural sector growth”. FTF aims to improve women’s roles and engagement throughout the various areas of the agriculture sector, as it grows in both quantity and quality, and to “operationalize” that improvement by measuring change in the following domains:
·         Women’s role in household decision making around agricultural production
·         Women’s access to productive capital
·         Women’s control of income
·         Women’s individual leadership and influence in the community
·         Women’s time allocations.

The public version is expected to be available in March 2012.  (For more information on the method, see http://www.ophi.org.uk/research/multidimensional-poverty/alkire-foster-m…).

About the Index partners:

Sunday 5 February 2012

A bit more commitment please

The developed world's level of commitment shown to the future of humanity leaves something to be desired.

Philanthropist Bill Gates recently tried to remind G20 leaders at Cannes not to forget the world's poor and to resist the urge (or voter pressure) to cut aid budgets. Aid in developed countries is already less than 1% of GDP, yet as Gates points out, many aid-cynics believe that is already too much.

Complacency and bad policy making has led to constant cuts to agricultural research too. The world's seven main crops now attract just US$3 billion a year in research funding -- a pittance given the importance of those crops to human survival, and given the rapidly changing supply and demand equation. Yield growth has been outpaced by population growth, and the need for a second Green Revolution seems to have so far escaped the G20 big hitters.

Gates' annual letter makes a strong case for more aid spending [http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/2012/Pages/home-en.aspx], for redeploying the genomics tools developed in human medicine to agricultural development, and he makes a strong case for viewing aid for developing nations as necessary for humanity as whole.


"We can help poor farmers
sustainably increase their
productivity so they can feed
themselves and their families.
But that will only happen if we
prioritize agricultural innovation."
- bill gates