Agriculture Insurance News
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Emergency programme in Benin kick starts farm production after floods
FAO is supporting farming families in northern Benin who lost crops, livestock and fishing grounds when the Niger River overran its banks in August, just as many villagers were only barely getting back on their feet from the last floods in 2012. On his first day in Benin, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva met with President Yayi Boni, who welcomed him to the country and ...
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African countries agree to curb illegal timber trade in the Congo Basin
Governments from Africa's main timber producing countries, together with timber industry representatives and civil society organizations agreed to jointly combat illegal timber trade in the Congo Basin, FAO said today following an international wood industry meeting in Brazzaville. Covering an area of 300 million hectares, the Congo Basin harbours the world's second largest tropical forest. It ...
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Tiger growl recordings deter crop-raiding elephants
Lives could be saved and crops protected by playing sounds of growling tigers to wild elephants on their way to raid fields in India, a study reports. There have been hundreds of deaths and much crop loss in the last decade in areas where elephants come into contact with people. The study, published in the current edition of Biology Letters, looked at the night time behaviour of elephants, and ...
By SciDev.Net
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EU and FAO help six countries achieve Millennium Development Goal on hunger
Less than two years before the deadline set to achieve international development goals, the European Union (EU) and FAO step up their efforts to reduce world hunger assisting two million people in six countries with agricultural development activities worth nearly €60 million. The funding comes from a €1 billion EU initiative that aims to foster speedier progress towards the Millennium ...
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Questions and answers on the new proposal for a regulation on preventing and managing invasive alien species
What are invasive alien species (IAS)? Alien species are plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms that have been transported across ecological barriers such as mountain ranges, or oceans as a result of human intervention, and have become established in an area outside their natural range. About a quarter of these species are brought into Europe intentionally, for their beauty, usefulness or ...
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Save food campaign Asia-Pacific kicked off
Denouncing the huge amount of food that goes to waste, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Hiroyuki Konuma, announced a new initiative aimed at stopping post-harvest food losses and market-to-consumer food waste. "The Save Food Asia-Pacific Campaign seeks to raise awareness about the high levels of food losses - particularly post-harvest losses - ...
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Record-breaking $17.3 billion in crop losses last year; significant portion potentially avoidable
Report shows county-by-county analysis of impacts in the ten states with highest crop insurance losses due to extreme weather: Extreme weather forced the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) to pay out a record-breaking $17.3 billion in crop losses last year, much of which could have been prevented using water-smart strategies, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Payments made ...
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Commission-funded report blames Europe for global forest destruction
Europe leads the industrialised world in driving global deforestation, according to an independent report released today by the European Commission [1]. European consumption of goods led to a forest loss of at least nine million hectares between 1990 and 2008, an area the size of Ireland. Forests in the Amazon, South-East Asia and Africa were worst affected. Major industrialised economies, along ...
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Locust plague threatens to trigger severe food crisis in Madagascar
Madagascar is in the grips of a largely uncontrolled locust plague and risks a serious food crisis. A large-scale emergency control campaign urgently requires a minimum of $22 million in funding to start in time for the next crop planting season in September. So far, FAO emergency appeals for Madagascar remain severely underfunded. By September, FAO expects that two-thirds of the country will be ...
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Mars, Incorporated Joins BICEP and Signs Climate Declaration to Promote Climate-Focused Policies
BICEP (Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy) today announced that Mars, Incorporated has joined Ceres’ BICEP coalition to advocate for innovative climate and clean energy policies. In addition, Mars has signed BICEP's Climate Declaration, which calls upon federal policymakers to seize the American economic opportunity of addressing climate change and has been endorsed by General ...
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Senate passes half-trillion dollar farm bill
The Senate on Monday passed a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill that expands government subsidies for crop insurance, rice and peanuts while making small cuts to food stamps. The bill passed on a bipartisan 66-27 vote. The legislation, which costs almost $100 billion annually, also would eliminate subsidies that are paid to farmers whether they farm or not. All told, it would save about ...
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Italy donates €6 million to FAO for agricultural development, emergencies
Italy has announced it will contribute an additional €6 million to support FAO's strategic priorities including €1 million towards the Organization's emergency programme. The announcement came at the end of a two-day Annual Review Meeting, during which FAO and Italian officials reviewed the Italy/FAO Cooperative Programme including the results achieved by more than 50 Italy-funded ...
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Decision to restrict use of neonicotinoid-containing products will not improve bee health
Despite failing to achieve a qualified majority in the Appeal Committee, the European Commission has announced a restriction on the use of neonicotinoid-containing products on bee-attractive crops, a decision that Bayer CropScience considers disproportionate and one that distracts attention away from the real issues surrounding poor bee health. Only around half of the member states voted for the ...
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New plant protein discoveries could ease global food and fuel demands
New discoveries of the way plants transport important substances across their biological membranes to resist toxic metals and pests, increase salt and drought tolerance, control water loss and store sugar can have profound implications for increasing the supply of food and energy for our rapidly growing global population. That’s the conclusion of 12 leading plant biologists from around the ...
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WRI welcomes Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, Indonesian Ambassador to the U.S., to Board of Directors
The World Resources Institute announced today that Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the United States, has joined its Board of Directors. “We are thrilled to welcome Dino to our Board and to benefit from his extraordinary ability to understand, communicate, and influence,” said Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the World Resources Institute. ...
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EPA Region 7 to Participate at National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk Event Nov. 8 in Kansas City, Mo.
EPA Region 7 officials will be available for interviews at the annual National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Trade Talk event at the Westin Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, Nov. 8. Interview topics include regulatory updates on air and water quality programs, animal feeding operations, nutrient management and pesticides. WHAT: National Association of Farm ...
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Two new online mapping applications launched to support sustainable palm oil in Indonesia
Forest Cover Analyzer and Suitability Mapper to be used by business and government to reduce deforestation The World Resources Institute (WRI) is launching two powerful online mapping applications that offer unprecedented capabilities to support industry and government efforts to achieve more sustainable palm oil production in Indonesia. WRI developed these web tools in consultation with the ...
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Book Byte: We Can Reforest the Earth
Protecting the 10 billion acres of remaining forests on earth and replanting many of those already lost are both essential for restoring the earth’s health. Since 2000, the earth’s forest cover has shrunk by 13 million acres each year, with annual losses of 32 million acres far exceeding the regrowth of 19 million acres. Restoring the earth’s tree and grass cover protects ...
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2012 Farm Bill Passes U.S. Senate
The U.S. Senate passed the 2012 Farm Bill today, meaning the measure is a big step closer to enactment. The Farm Bill, renewed every five years, is the largest source of funding for conservation on America's working farmland, ranchland and private forestland. In addition to funding federal conservation and nutrition programs, the bill also authorizes risk management and other programs that ...
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How we can make progress on forests during Rio+20
When it comes to the fate of forests, Rio+20 and the official negotiations risk becoming a side event. Instead, the main show is playing out in countless boardrooms, communities, parliaments, and villages around the world. From Brazil to Bangladesh, Canada to Cambodia, these organizations have made dramatic progress with efforts to reverse forest decline. Of course, much remains to be done: ...
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