Agriculture Insurance Articles
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9 Maps that explain the World`s Forests
This post is co-authored with Dave Thau, senior developer advocate for Google Earth Engine, Google's satellite image processing platform. By the time we find out about deforestation, it’s usually too late to take action. Scientists have been studying forests for centuries, chronicling the vital importance of these ecosystems for human society. But most of us still lack timely and reliable ...
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Global Forest watch - join the movement
We know remarkably little about what is happening to forests. Businesses currently have no way of determining whether or how much the soy, palm oil, or pulp and paper they use contribute to deforestation. So companies like Unilever and Nestlé, which have committed to halting deforestation in their supply chains, are unable to measure progress toward this important goal. Concerned ...
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Global Forest Watch: dynamic new platform to protect forests worldwide
On Wed. Feb. 19, 2014, the World Resources Institute (WRI), Google, and a group of more than 40 partners launched Global Forest Watch (GFW), a dynamic online forest monitoring and alert system that empowers people everywhere to better manage forests. For the first time, Global Forest Watch unites the latest satellite technology, open data, and crowdsourcing to guarantee access to timely and ...
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Family farms can be competitive by focusing on conservation and stewardship
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports a 40 percent decline in U.S. cropland soil erosion rates from 1982 to 2007, recent trends appear to challenge this progress. Record prices for corn and soybeans have diverted acres out of conservation programs and encouraged intensive production on a wide scale. Tree lines are cleared and wet areas drained, turning 120-acre farms into ...
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2 Things You Need to Know about Indonesia`s Forest Moratorium
Indonesia’s forest moratorium, a policy aiming to protect an area the size of Japan from development, represents one of the most ambitious conservation schemes ever established in the country. But is it actually making progress in improving the forest sector? WRI’s new working paper, Indonesia’s Forest Moratorium: Impacts and Next Steps, aims to answer that question and more. ...
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Postharvest loss estimation of cut rose ( Rosa hybrida ) flower farms: economic analysis in East Shoa Zone, Ethiopia
Despite the sector’s role of sustaining economic growth, there is considerable loss in rose cut flower production due to improper postharvest handling. This study’s survey was conducted from first week of February to last week of April, 2011 in three districts of East Shoa Zone, Ethiopia for estimating farm level postharvest loss in rose cut flower production. The postharvest loss at ...
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A Business Case for Building Climate Resilience
“The business case for adaptation is improving.” These were the promising words from Daniel Dowling of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, shared during a breakout session at a recent conference called Climate Finance and Private Sector: Investing in New Opportunities. The conference was part of a week-long climate finance event held in conjunction with the opening of Green Climate Fund ...
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Boost grain preservation before production
Better grain storage would save money and feed over a billion, says Digvir S. Jayas. It deserves more attention. Annually over 2.6 billion tonnes of grains — cereals, oilseeds and pulses — are grown and then stored along the chain from producers to consumers. Most countries do not systematically report how much grain becomes unfit for human consumption during storage, but anecdotal ...
By SciDev.Net
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New high-resolution forest maps reveal world Loses 50 Soccer Fields of Trees Per Minute
A new publication in Science reveals the world is losing 50 soccer fields’ worth of forest every minute of every day! While this information is distressing, the publication of this new research is a decidedly positive development in the availability of data to support better forest management and policy. The Science paper provides the first high-resolution, global picture of annual forest ...
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Back to basics on REDD+ safeguards and finance
This briefing paper by the REDD+ Safeguards Working Group (R-SWG)1 draws on: Critical analyses by the R-SWG of the UNFCCC’s recommendations on REDD+ Safeguards and on Safeguards Information Systems (SIS), which are elaborated in detail in previous briefing papers; and Best practice case studies from the ground that R-SWG has gathered from shared learning, discussions with REDD+ ...
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“Swapping Land” to Produce Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia
Indonesia has the world’s third-largest rainforest, which is a haven for biodiversity and an economic lifeline for many rural communities. However, Indonesian forests are in rapid decline and the country regularly tops deforestation hotspots lists. The key to protecting Indonesia’s forests remains reforming its massive forestry and agriculture sectors. By giving these industries the ...
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Water, soil and nutrient losses caused by Wenchuan Earthquake: a case study in Pengzhou
Wenchuan Earthquake triggered a large number of geological hazards, dramatically stimulating soil erosion. This study was carried out in Pengzhou County, Sichuan Province. By comparison of sediment, runoff and nutrient losses in earthquake-damaged forests (EF) and unaffected forests (UF), the actual status of soil erosion after the Wenchuan Earthquake was investigated by runoff plots. Results ...
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Identifying causes of mechanical defects and critical control points in fruit supply chains: an overview of a banana supply chain
The issue of food losses is of high importance in the efforts to combat hunger, raise income and improve food security in many developing countries. Therefore, there is need to minimise food losses in agri–food supply chains. This study was conducted with the aim to identify causes of mechanical defects in banana fruit supply chain in Zimbabwe and to also establish critical control points at ...
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3 Signs of progress in curbing the illegal wood trade
The global market for wood and other forest products is changing quickly. The industry has long struggled to address the problem of illegal logging, which damages diverse and valuable forests and creates economic losses of up to $10 billion a year. In some wood-producing countries, illegal logging accounts for 50-90 percent of total production. But recent developments indicate that we may be ...
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Coming home to roost!
The Pannonian biogeographical region is one of nine regions of Europe included in the EU Habitats Directive. It stretches from south of Timisoara along the Romanian West Plain to the Hungarian.Ukranian border in the east across Hungary to the border with Austria in the west including the southern edge of the Slovak Republic and the south-east corner of the Czech Republic to the north. The full ...
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Cutting food loss and waste will benefit people and the environment, says new study on World Environment Day
One out of every four calories produced by the global agricultural system is being lost or wasted, according to new analysis. This situation poses a serious challenge to the world’s ability to reduce hunger and meet the food needs of the rapidly-expanding global population. Released on World Environment Day (WED), which this year carries the theme “Think.Eat.Save - Reduce Your ...
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Emerging REDD+ programs need additional emphasis on Land Tenure
Since 2009, more than 30 countries have submitted proposals for REDD+ readiness grants to start addressing the social, economic, and institutional factors that contribute to forest loss. Many countries have made encouraging strides in defining their plans to become “ready” for REDD+. Yet, in a new WRI analysis of 32 country proposals, we identify the need for stronger commitments and ...
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Global Grain Stocks Drop Dangerously Low as 2012 Consumption Exceeded Production
The world produced 2,241 million tons of grain in 2012, down 75 million tons or 3 percent from the 2011 record harvest. The drop was largely because of droughts that devastated several major crops—namely corn in the United States (the world’s largest crop) and wheat in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Australia. Each of these countries also is an important exporter. Global grain ...
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The need for a professional network of agricultural and biosystems engineers in Africa
Agricultural productivity in Africa remains the lowest in the world, but recent concerns about food insecurity, rising food prices and resource depletion have spurred world–wide interest about the role of African agriculture in feeding Africa and the world. Majority of world's uncultivated agricultural land is in Africa, yet the capacity to harness this resource remains limited due partly ...
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Safeguarding forests and People: A framework for designing a national system to implement REDD+ safeguards
Background Around the world, members of governments, civil society, and the private sector are grappling with how to design and implement initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by slowing, halting, and reversing forest loss. These efforts have been spurred at least in part by the agreements onlong-term cooperative action (LCA) that Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on ...
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