grain price Articles
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World facing huge new challenge on food front: business-as-usual not a viable option
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 ...
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Comparison of certified and farm-saved seed on yield and quality characteristics of Canola
Relatively high seed prices and low canola (Brassica napus L.) grain prices created a controversy over using farm-saved seed from hybrids. Agronomic implications of saving seed from a canola crop were investigated by planting certified seed and saved-seed of an open-pollinated and a hybrid canola cultivar at eight site-years in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada. In one series of experiments ...
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Will variable-rate nitrogen fertilization using corn canopy reflectance sensing deliver environmental benefits?
Within-field variability of corn (Zea mays L.) N need calls for development of precision fertilizer application strategies. One approach many are investigating is in-season canopy reflectance sensing. Justification for this strategy partly rests with the premise it will improve N use and reduce N loss from fields. The objective of this study was to determine the potential environmental benefits ...
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Ground-based canopy reflectance sensing for variable-rate nitrogen corn fertilization
Nitrogen available to support corn (Zea mays L.) production can be highly variable within fields. Canopy reflectance sensing for assessing crop N health has been proposed as a technology to base side-dress variable-rate N application. Objectives of this research were to evaluate the use of active-light crop-canopy reflectance sensors for assessing corn N need, and derive the N fertilizer rate ...
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The 1996 “Freedom to Farm” Farm Bill
The period of U.S. farm bills where the instruments were designed around compensation policies that used price support/supply management programs allowing farmers to remain in production during long periods of low prices—the result of four centuries of publicly-sponsored developmental policies—ended with the adoption of the 1996 Farm Bill. In some important ways, the demise of price ...
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Grain sorghum and corn comparisons: yield, economic, and environmental responses
Grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is often grown where water stress is expected. But, improved drought tolerance in corn (Zea mays L.) hybrids has resulted in increased dryland corn production in preference to grain sorghum. However, grain sorghum may still have a yield advantage over corn in drought prone environments. This study was conducted to determine if grain sorghum has either a ...
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Seedbed preparation
Timing and weather, as well as kit, are key parts of seedbed preparation on the min-till system. The search for lower establishment costs has led one Warwickshire grower to ditch the plough and opt for a min-till approach that offers the capability to direct drill too. Geoff Ashcroft looks at the system in use. The ability to direct drill cereals does hold a certain appeal, particularly when ...
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New Era of Food Scarcity Echoes Collapsed Civilizations
The world is in transition from an era of food abundance to one of scarcity. Over the last decade, world grain reserves have fallen by one third. World food prices have more than doubled, triggering a worldwide land rush and ushering in a new geopolitics of food. Food is the new oil. Land is the new gold. This new era is one of rising food prices and spreading hunger. On the demand side of the ...
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Could food shortages bring down civilization?
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 ...
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Bumper 2011 Grain Harvest Fails to Rebuild Global Stocks
The world’s farmers produced more grain in 2011 than ever before. Estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the global grain harvest coming in at 2,295 million tons, up 53 million tons from the previous record in 2009. Consumption grew by 90 million tons over the same period to 2,280 million tons. Yet with global grain production actually falling short of consumption in 7 ...
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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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Growing demand for soybeans threatens Amazon rainforest
Some 3,000 years ago, farmers in eastern China domesticated the soybean. In 1765, the first soybeans were planted in North America. Today the soybean occupies more U.S. cropland than wheat. And in Brazil, where it spread even more rapidly, the soybean is invading the Amazon rainforest. For close to two centuries after its introduction into the United States the soybean languished as a curiosity ...
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How to create resilient agriculture
Durable food security and agricultural growth depend on development strategies with resilience built in from the start, says Gordon Conway. Economic growth with resilience to environmental threats will be central to the agenda of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June this year, which aims to map out a pathway of sustainable development for the planet. The 'zero draft', ...
By SciDev.Net
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The Importance of Scales in the Agricultural & Farming Industry
Weighing scales are essential and necessary equipment required for a wide range of applications. Whether intended for personal, industrial or commercial use, they serve one important function – providing accurate weight measurements for varied loads. In the agricultural sector, scales are indispensable tools and without them, it would be almost impossible to manage farms or carry out trade! ...
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19 Things the AP Got Wrong
The Associated Press recently published an article on “the secret environmental cost of U.S. ethanol policy.” There is much in this article that is too misleading, poor or deficient analysis, over-simplistic, or poorly drawn conclusions to comment on, but here are 19 big things the AP got wrong. The article seems to put the blame on Obama the candidate and the Obama administration. ...
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Can the World Feed China?
By Lester R. Brown Overnight, China has become a leading world grain importer, set to buy a staggering 22 million tons in the 2013–14 trade year, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture projections. As recently as 2006—just eight years ago—China had a grain surplus and was exporting 10 million tons. What caused this dramatic shift? It wasn’t until 20 years ...
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