Safety net measures for the European dairy, fruit and vegetables sectors will be extended into 2016. The European Commission is currently finalising the last details with a view to formally adopting the relevant legal decisions in the coming weeks as a matter of formality. The European Commission is aware of the challenges faced by European producers and to support them. For the fruit and ...
A study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has linked the spraying of three neonicotinoid pesticides to harmful effects on bees, increasing the pressure on the European Commission to expand a current EU-wide ban to all uses and crops, said Greenpeace. EFSA assessed the safety of pesticides thiamethoxam (produced by Syngenta), clothianidin and imidacloprid (both produced by Bayer) ...
Florida has nearly 70 million citrus trees on more than 531,500 acres. Now imagine trying to figure out what pesticide to spray on each of those trees to keep them safe from citrus greening. University of Florida researcher James Tansey says the answer is as close as your Android smartphone with a new app developed with ZedX, an information technologies company based in Pennsylvania. The ...
In one of the first schemes of its kind in Europe, Hanovia ultraviolet (UV) technology is being used to treat municipal effluent for irrigating crops in the arid Murcia region of Spain. Murcia has a unique microclimate which allows fruit and vegetables to be grown all year round, giving the area its popular name ‘the vegetable garden of Europe’. Because of its unusual geography, however, the ...
Staff at the Environment Agency will be provided with locally produced fruit next week (13 to 17 October) as part of Health and Safety Week. Home grown apples and pears from M A Manning and Son in Willingham will be given to staff in Bedford, Huntingdon, Ely and Kings Lynn, as part of the week, aimed at raising awareness and providing information and practical advice on health and safety ...
Despite the continued importance of multinational companies in the global trade of bananas, their involvement in banana production has fallen dramatically over the past three decades, shifting their sphere of action to favor other areas in the sector and opening the door to opportunities for other companies. This view of the changing nature of the global ...
TruLite Industries, LLC is at it again, introducing their line of commercial LED grow lights through TruLiteLED.com. TruLite, known for bringing innovative products to the commercial greenhouse marketplace, is positioned to permanently alter how produce is grown on a large scale while showing grow operation owners how to increase revenue by 35% or more. TruLite LED ...
Most people are familiar with tree-planting as a way to offset carbon emissions. However, while the focus has been on reforestation and preventing deforestation, there has been little emphasis on how the world's tropical forests, managed for production purposes, will actually be able to adapt to the changing climate. According to a new study, there is an urgent need to put measures in place to ...
China has its sights set on exporting its fruit to the United States. And that's OK with growers in Washington, who harvest the bulk of America's apple crop. Having the world's No. 1 apple producer as a competitor may seem counterintuitive, but growers say opening U.S. borders to Chinese apples means American farmers should in turn be able to get a foothold in the country's lucrative and growing ...
We need to know more about how smallholder agroforestry can help farmers adapt to climate change, write James Roshetko and Rodel Lasco. Much is known about agroforestry — the mixing of tree species with crops and livestock to enrich farmers' livelihoods. But less is known about how it can help farmers adapt to climate change. This gap in our knowledge is increasingly ...
A leading US filtration specialist has developed a new product which could help to combat the severe water shortage that is blighting the South-West. California is currently suffering through one of the worst droughts in the past century, threatening the state’s massive agricultural sector. Porvair Filtration Group Inc.’s Sinterflo® MC metal mesh composite product line - ...
The weather in the Mid-South region causes intense pest pressure for row-crop farmers. To maintain yields, farmers in this area must treat numerous insect pests, more so than farmers in other areas of the country, according to Mississippi Extension entomologist Angus Catchot, Ph.D. In a new Focus on Soybean webcast, Catchot outlines ...
At an event today in Washington D.C., Walmart, the nation's largest grocer, today unveiled a comprehensive effort to provide its customers with healthier and more affordable food choices. The company was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama as it outlined the five key elements of the program including: Reformulating thousands of everyday packaged food items by 2015 by reducing ...
FAO today urged countries to improve data gathering and research to promote the conservation and sustainable management of the world's forest genetic resources, which are coming under increasing pressure. According to the first-ever edition of The State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources report, half of the forest species reported as regularly ...
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vrk8rt/global_fungicides) has announced the addition of the "Global Fungicides Industry 2012-2017: Trends, Profit, and Forecast Analysis" report to their offering. ...
With the exception of energy consumption, where there is still much to be done, the Dutch are global leaders in greenhouse horticulture. The quality is high, and nowhere else is the use of water and pesticides so low. Even so, demand for innovation, sustainable production and healthy fruit and vegetables and high-quality flowers remains high. One innovation that would really help in this is the ...
The ABB solution controls the irrigation system for 10,700 plots of land in a 210 square-kilometer belt of prime agricultural land in the Zujar Canal region of western Spain, where local farmers grow sweet corn, tomatoes, olives, rice and a variety of other fruits and vegetables. Prior to ABB’s involvement, many farmers had to drive up to 40 kilometers to irrigate their land. They had to open ...
Around the globe, forests are found to be undergoing strong changes due to human influence already today. Degradation of woods due to man-made climate change cannot be ruled out for the future, a Special Feature to be published next week in the Journal of Ecology, led by a team of scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), now shows. To understand and improve the ...
As part of an ongoing educational outreach effort, Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI) today sponsored a Biopesticide Roundtable at the University of California, Davis, examining the importance of biopesticides as effective tools in integrated pest management (IPM) programs. The interactive roundtable, hosted by the Association of Applied IPM Ecologists, featured university and ...
Agricultural land use presents a number of environmental challenges, which the European Commission is committed to addressing through a range of agri-environmental policies. A new study points to the importance of aligning agri-environmental policies with farmers’ needs and operations. Using the case of land clearing in Finland, the research underlines the importance of incorporating input ...