crop failure Articles

The scene plays out in India. At a reception, I met the head of Indian operations for Esso (now ExxonMobil). When I asked him how business was, he said it was great. In particular, diesel sales to fuel irrigation pumps were nearly double the previous year’s level. Why? Because farmers were pumping continuously to try to save their crops. Soon after, I met an embassy staff person, an avid ...

Feb. 12, 2014

By Earth Policy Institute

Field experiments were conducted to assess the optimum dilution of Post Methanation distillery Effluent (PME) to utilise as an organic nutrient source for growing rice and wheat crops. Dilution levels of distillery effluent significantly affected the biomass production as well as grain yield of rice and wheat crops. Levels of organic carbon and NPK were significantly higher in effluent treated ...

Oct. 1, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers

Results are summarized for the first 15 yr of an eight-site, long-term experimental network in China designed to assess the sustainability of cropping systems in environments representing 70% of Chinese cropland. Systems were wheat–maize double cropping (two crops per year) at four sites, wheat–rice double cropping, rice-based triple cropping, and wheat or maize single cropping. Without ...

Jan. 1, 2010

By Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)

Pressures from the USA and Europe have resulted in the proliferation of stronger intellectual property protection worldwide, as a condition for continued access to world markets. The failure of crops other than soybeans, cotton, maize and canola in developed countries to benefit from the major innovations in genetic modification raises questions regarding the implications of increased ...

Mar. 6, 2006

By Inderscience Publishers

Loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate variability and climate change is currently an important topic being discussed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This study investigated loss and damage from floods and droughts among rural households living near the Limpopo, Zambezi and Save rivers in Mozambique. We used a questionnaire survey ( n = ...

Oct. 25, 2013

By Inderscience Publishers

Bt-cotton seed has been effective to control the damage of bollworm in Chinese cotton production since 1999, reducing the need for pesticides and increasing incomes of Chinese farmers. Field data collected in 2004 indicates that these benefits have been eroded by increasing the use of pesticides aimed to control secondary pests. The combination of Bt-cotton seed and other forms of biological pest ...

May 19, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

A major vegetable grower in Lantokia, Fiji, using soilless culture systems began to trial Amnite A-100. His crops consisted principally of lettuce, tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, zucchinis and melons. Before the trials they had been plagued with root diseases, mosaic virus and insect attack, control of which required constant use of pesticides and ultraviolet lighting. The first trials commenced ...

May 25, 2011

By Cleveland Biotech Ltd.

In 2011 the North Bank Region of The Gambia experienced its most severe drought in 20 years. This article looks at how this drought affected households in the region, the coping measures they adopted, and residual loss and damage. In this study, ‘loss and damage’ is defined as adverse effects of climatic stressors that people have not been able to avoid through coping and adaptation (from Warner ...

Oct. 25, 2013

By Inderscience Publishers

The European honeybee, Apis mellifera, is an important pollinator of agricultural crops. Since 2006, when unexpectedly high colony losses were first reported, articles have proliferated in the popular press suggesting a range of possible causes and raising alarm over the general decline of bees. Suggested causes include pesticides, genetically modified crops, habitat fragmentation, and ...

Apr. 1, 2014

By John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Agriculture as it exists today developed over 11,000 years of rather remarkable climate stability. It has evolved to maximize production within that climate system. Now, suddenly, the climate is changing. With each passing year, the agricultural system is becoming more out of sync with the climate system. In generations past, when there was an extreme weather event, such as a monsoon failure in ...

Aug. 21, 2013

By Earth Policy Institute

What is the best way to protect vulnerable rural communities from the damaging impacts of climate change? Insurance could be an answer, but it raises a number of difficult questions. To illustrate, the New York Times recently ran a story, “Report Says a Crop Subsidy Cap ...

Jun. 7, 2012

By World Resources Institute WRI

Within an impassioned second inaugural address, President Barack Obama recently offered the following motivated remarks concerning climate change: “We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.  We will respond to the threat of climate ...

Jan. 15, 2013

By All4 Inc.

A fast-unfolding food shortage is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to record highs. Over the past half-century grain prices have spiked from time to time because of weather-related events, such as the 1972 Soviet crop failure that led to a doubling of world wheat, rice, and corn prices. The situation today is entirely different, however. The current doubling of grain prices is ...

Apr. 16, 2008

By Earth Policy Institute

For centuries environmental destruction in human history has been littered with civilizations that failed because humans exploited natural resources. Examples of over consumption of natural resources can be found from around the world — from the Incas to the Middle East. Currently, the human population is about 6 billion and will rise to 9 billion in the year 2050. That’s a growth rate of 80 ...

Sep. 1, 2007

By ABS Consulting

On January 6, 2016, a complaint was filed against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California by a coalition of U.S. beekeepers, farmers, and affiliated non-government organizations (Petitioners). The Petitioners allege that EPA has allowed “the ongoing sale and use of unregistered pesticide products” ...

Jan. 8, 2016

By Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.

Trucost research for the TEEB for Business Coalition Natural Capital at Risk finds that the environmental costs of business are costing the global economy $7.3 trillion a year (equivalent to the GDP of China) from the loss of natural resources and ecosystem services, greenhouse gas ...

Jul. 4, 2013

By Trucost Plc

No matter what our area of daily activity, it is natural and even necessary that we myopically focus on the problems and issues of the day. But it is also important to step back once in a while to consider how the situations of today fit into a longer-term context. Along that line, we are in the midst of a series of columns that goes beyond the agricultural issues and policy motivations of today, ...

Jan. 7, 2014

By National Farmers Union

By 2050, 80% of the earth’s population will live in cities and 3 billion more people will need to be fed. The simple fact is we are running out of available land to grow enough food to feed them. If we can’t grow our cities outward to find more arable land, the only solution is to grow them upwards. This may change the way we design cities forever.The problem is real and immediate. Even by most ...

Jul. 23, 2008

By GLOBE SERIES

The world’s agricultural system faces a great balancing act. To meet different human needs, by 2050 it must simultaneously produce far more food for a population expected to reach about 9.6 billion, provide economic opportunities for the hundreds of millions of rural poor who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and reduce environmental impacts, including ecosystem degradation and ...

Dec. 1, 2013

By World Resources Institute WRI

One of the toughest things for people to do is to anticipate sudden change. Typically we project the future by extrapolating from trends in the past. Much of the time this approach works well. But sometimes it fails spectacularly, and people are simply blindsided by events such as today’s economic crisis. For most of us, the idea that civilization itself could disintegrate probably seems ...

Apr. 27, 2009

By Earth Policy Institute