University don invents yam tubers growth regulators

NaijaAgroNet

A senior lecturer, Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, at the University of Ibadan (UI) Dr. Monrufat Balogun, has invented a technology for the production of Dormancy-Controlled Yam Seed Tubers reports NaijaAgroNet.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the technology is not a genetic modification and had no zero detection of plant-growth regulator, which would ensure increased availability of yam seedlings to all yam farmers to allow them, cultivate yams for more than one cycle.

"We want to see how yams can be grown anytime in the year and not necessarily only at the season.This technology would yield more income for farmers,” she said.

The expert speaking on assurance of the technology to the growth of the agricultural sector also said the research started in November 2014 and took two years to perfect it.

“We soak the tubers in some substances that are called ‘Growth Regulators’. After this, we check whether there is difference in sprouting between the ones soaked and the ones not soaked. After checking the tubers at the lab we found out that zero amounts of the substances were detected, so it is safe and people should not fear.” Balogun said.

She also said they are planning on training all stakeholders in yam production and consumption on this new technology.

The invention, NaijaAgroNet learnt, was in collaboration with Prof. Wayne Curtis of the Pennsylvania State University, under the United States National Academies-partnership for Enhanced Engagement in Research, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and would be fully out by 2016.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE/Ed, Ops.

 
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Climate change mars coffee production in Tanzania

 NaijaAgroNet

Farmers in Tanzania have abandoned the production of coffee and cotton due  mainly to changes in local climate and resorted to the planting of more lucrative vegetables and flowers as temperatures rise and rainfall becomes less predictable, reports NaijaAgroNet

Ludovick Meela, a farmer from Tanzania’s northern Kilimanjaro region told reporters that “Coffee beans are no longer as profitable, as my harvests keep on falling, I need fast-growing crops I can sell for a quick income,” he stated.

"When my children were growing up, coffee was everything to me," he told journalists "I got a lot of income from it, which enabled me to gain economically, but all that is history." 

Information reaching NaijaAgroNet showed that in Tanzania, scientists have attributed the drop in arabica coffee yields to a rise in nighttime temperatures in recent decades.

The strain to Tanzania’s cash crops is the latest sign that climate change is altering how and where food is produced around the world.

In Honduras, banana farmers are seeing yields decline amid fierce cold snaps and erratic rain patterns. India’s wheat and rice crops are suffering from hotter weather, and in the U.S. West, enduring drought has caused the beef-cattle herd to shrink to its lowest level in more than 60 years, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

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Emulate President Jammeh, Gambian farmers tasks African leaders

 NaijaAgroNet

The President of the National Farmers Platform of The Gambia (NFPG), Alagie Bassi Mboge has charged African leaders to emulate President Yahya  Jammeh's footstep in boosting agricultural production and productivity, reports NaijaAgroNet .

Mboge made this call in an interview with news men in The Gambia, saying that the ongoing presidential tour to meet with farmers across the country is a clear demonstration that President Jammeh is taking the lead to ensuring that decades of importation of rice become a thing of the past in the country.

He described Jammeh as a president with a difference whose ambition is to ensure that not only The Gambia becomes food self-sufficient, but also the whole of Africa.

Mr. Mboge also commended the President for the laudable initiative of meeting farmers, and discussing with them the way forward in addressing some of their key concerns regarding the attainment of Vision 2016, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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World cereal production may decline----FAO

NaijaAgroNet

Indications are that world cereal production may decline by  1.5 per cent from what it was  last year due mainly to the reduced acreage planted with maize, even though the effect will be mitigated by "exceptionally high" levels of existing stocks, according to the latest forecasts in FAO's biannual Food Report published May 7, 2015, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO's first forecast for global cereal production in 2015, assuming normal weather conditions for the remainder of the season, amounts to 2.509 billion tonnes, a bit down from last year's record but nearly 5 per cent above the average of the past five years.  

The report, NaijaAgroNet further gathered, stated that the modest decline in output would require running inventories down by around 3 per cent in the new season (2015/16), with faster drawdowns for coarse grains and rice than for wheat

"The world food import bill is forecast to reach a five-year low in 2015", the report say, mainly driven by a decline in international prices, low freight rates and a strong US dollar. Import volumes of the various food components of the bill were little changed or even rising. Low income countries are also expected to benefit from lower import bills. 

Several years of solid harvests and stockpiling mean most basic food commodities are in surplus. As a result, the projected drop in cereals output is not expected to impact availability of food for consumption.

Dairy production trends are poised for further steady growth of around two percent in 2015, with lower international prices buoying imports in Africa. The abolition of the European Union's milk quota system is likely to boost output and was one of the main drivers of the 6.7 percent monthly drop in the Dairy Price Index, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ ED,OPs

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Geothermal energy saves cost for sustainable food production

NaijaAgroNet

Geothermal energy which is the heat energy radiating from the earth’s core  has been  discovered to provide  unique opportunities for cost efficient, sustainable food production and processing in developing countries,  according to  information released by FAO and made available to NaijaAgroNet .

According to Carlos da Silva, Senior Agribusiness Economist in FAO, “It’s an energy source that’s renewable, clean and low-cost once you’ve made the initial investment to harness it.”

Da Silva who works in FAO’s Rural Infrastructure and Agribusiness Division said that  “By using a clean energy source, you’re not only addressing cost but also the environmental impacts of food production and processing,” NaijaAgroNet reports.

Agriculture both consumes energy and emits greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Research suggests that using geothermal heating for greenhouses decreases fungus infections and cuts fuel costs by up to 80 per cent, providing significant savings to operating budgets.

In some developing economies, as much as half of all food produced is lost post-harvest – that's due in part to a lack of affordable energy for food processing, according to “Uses of Geothermal Energy in Food and Agriculture.”

“Geothermal energy for agriculture can be done even at small-scales and can significantly contribute to income generation, providing employment and improving food and nutrition security in developing countries,” adds Divine Njie, AGS Deputy Director and co-editor of the report.

Worldwide, 38 countries currently use geothermal energy for direct application in agricultural production and some 24 countries harness it to generate electricity, with Iceland, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Kenya, New Zealand and the Philippines deriving more than 10 per cent of their electricity needs from natural heat sources.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE/ED (OPs)   

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Plateau trains farmers on vegetable production

NaijaAgroNet

The Agricultural Service Training Centre(ASTC)  in Plateau state has trained some farmers in the production of improved variety of vegetables preparatory to go into double season cropping to address increasing demand of vegetables in the state. 

The General Manager of ASTC Mr. Oren Shaked, who made this known, said that the ASTC, through its greenhouse project in the state has trained some farmers on the use of improved tomato and other vegetable varieties for production through the wet season using the greenhouse style.

 Shaked confirmed to NaijaAgroNet that one can grow anything in a greenhouse and at any time of the year, noting that if tomato is grown in the greenhouse during the rainy season it can sell at a very high price because it is scarce in the market. 

He said one can also reduce to a minimum the use of chemicals in the greenhouse because the plants are protected from insects thereby requiring very little insecticide or fungicide, adding that a lot of consumers today look for organic crops that are grown without the use of fertilizer and chemicals.

“The climate under the greenhouse is being controlled, crops grown in the house are better than those grown in the open field and during the harmattan or dry season, the nights are very cold but in the greenhouses it is hot, the temperature is being controlled so you can get better crops,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that even though greenhouses provide better and improved ways of crop production especially to local irrigation farmers whose vegetables are exposed to harsh climatic conditions as well as pests and diseases, some of the farmers nevertheless see this advanced system of farming as mere fancy which is incapable of upstaging the conventional farming system. 

“We also harvest all those strawberries, cherry tomatoes that the White people harvest in their greenhouse but we don’t cover the place because you will be putting a farmer in difficulty if you ask him to go into that system because he won’t be able to afford it,” a farmer said.

*With additional report from Daily Trust          

AN/GEE

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pix: Gov David Jang of Plateau state

Thailand expands global rice supply

  

Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet

Thailand, once the world’s biggest rice exporter has added to the global supply glut as a result of rice stockpiles following government programme to buy production and the efforts of the farmers planting most crop ever.

According to the data compiled by Bloomberg from United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates and sighted by NaijaAgroNet,  the country’s 15.5 million-ton stockpile would be sufficient to cover annual imports by China, Nigeria, Iran and the next five biggest buyers in 2013-2014.

“Reserves in Thailand will increase 24 per cent to 15.5 million metric tons in 2013-2014 as global output rises 1.7 per cent to an all-time high of 476.8 million tons, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. The price of 5per cent broken Thai white rice, an Asian benchmark, will drop 12 percent to $390, about N 62,438.94 a ton by April, a five-year low,” according to the median of eight trader and analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

“Thailand spent $21.6 billion, about N 3,454,012,106,673.96 since October 2011 buying at above-market prices to shore up growers’ incomes, creating a stockpile large enough to meet annual demand from the eight biggest importers and still have grain to spare. The global supply of rice, a staple for half the world, is expanding just as farmers reap record amounts of everything from corn to wheat, driving global food costs to a three-year low.

“Thailand will spend 270 billion baht ($8.6 billion) about N 8,600,000,000.00 buying rice from the harvest that started this month, reversing an earlier plan to cut prices after farmers threatened to protest. The ruling Pheu Thai party won a majority in 2011 elections with support from poorer rural residents who make up 87 per cent of the population. Thai output will gain 4.5 per cent to 21.1 million tons in 2013-2014,” the USDA said.

“I’ve rented more land, expanding farms by more than double, to reap the benefit of good prices from selling paddy to the government. My friends also boosted plantings as we earn more, “said Uthai Thongsaensuk, a 45-year-old farmer in the north-eastern Thai province of Udon Thani.

Darren Cooper, a senior economist at the London-based International Grains Council said  the stockpiles in India, Vietnam, Thailand, the U.S. and Pakistan, the five largest shippers, will expand 6.8 per cent to a record 42.6 million tons in 2013-2014,

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