potato farming News
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Two experimental projects
Update on our equidistant planter! We just harvested the potatoes that we planted with our prototype equidistant planter. We are quite impressed with the results. The potatoes grew well. We also experimented with hooking one of our small diggers to a much smaller tractor than we originally thought possible. We dug the potatoes with a standard 26″ wide 3 point potato digger (US Small ...
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Irrigation method saves 50 percent of water needed for potato growth
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers have found an irrigation method that uses 50 percent less water than traditional systems to grow potatoes – an important finding for the $131 million-a-year Florida crop. The system is called “hybrid center pivot irrigation.” With this method, about two-thirds of the water used to help grow potatoes ...
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Bayer CropScience and Farm Frites jointly implement sustainable practices in European potato cultivation
Bayer CropScience and Farm Frites recently started a Food Chain Partnership initiative designed to implement sustainable agricultural practices in potato cultivation in the Netherlands and Belgium. The goal of the partnership is to support a bottom-up approach with potato farmers addressing value-adding sustainable potato-growing practices at individual farm level. This is intended to minimize ...
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Food security may be increased by new agricultural production modeling
Farmers are used to optimizing crop production on their own lands. They do soil tests to choose the right amount of fertilizers to apply, and they sometimes plant row crops on some fields while keeping others in pasture. But is it possible to optimize production across a much bigger area—say, the whole East Coast of the United States? That’s the question a team of USDA-ARS scientists ...
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UF/IFAS Finding Could Help Farmers Stop Potato, Tomato Disease
A University of Florida scientist has pinpointed Mexico as the origin of the pathogen that caused the 1840s Irish Potato Famine, a finding that may help researchers solve the $6 billion-a-year disease that continues to evolve and torment potato and tomato growers around the world. A disease called “late blight” killed most of Ireland’s potatoes, while today it costs Florida ...
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Controlled ‘reset’ for nematode-infested soil
Harmful nematodes that damage the soil can be controlled by creating an environment in which they are temporarily deprived of oxygen. Covering the soil with plastic film or a layer of water encourages anaerobic bacteria to produce fatty acids, which will kill most nematodes. “It does sometimes take a while,” says Leendert Molendijk, soil expert at Wageningen UR. Molendijk and his ...
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A day in the entomology lab: Beetles
Did you know that the average American eats 124 lbs of potatoes a year, that the potato was the first vegetable to be grown in space, and Vincent van Gogh painted four still-life canvases devoted entirely to the potato!? It’s true and protecting potatoes, which are grown in all 50 states in the U.S., is one thing AgBiome is striving to do. Part of AgBiome’s vision is to have the ...
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Rising CO2 robs crops of protein
New analysis suggests that rising CO2 levels will affect the protein content of major food crops, and indeed this may already be taking place. Experts suggest this change in the composition of the foods we eat could have consequences for human nutrition. Farmers can limit these effects by using more nitrogen-based fertilisers, but these in turn have a high environmental cost. Research ...
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Offering integrated solutions and driving partnerships to promote sustainability in potatoes
At the 9th World Potato Congress, Bayer CropScience is showcasing its latest innovations and contributions for sustainable potato production. Under the theme ‘Innovating Together for Sustainable Potatoes’ experts from the company will present recent product novelties and new approaches that underline the role of Bayer CropScience as the innovation leader in its field. The 9th World ...
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Healthy soil is essential for a biobased & circular economy
The soil is the ground beneath our feet and the growth place for biomass. For a biobased & circular economy it is crucial to preserve this ‘pantry’ storage function of the soil. This is why Wageningen University & Research is performing dedicated research into various aspects of the soil, such as nutrients and organic material, smarter cultivation systems of a larger diversity ...
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Ancient crops preserved for future generations in Arctic seed vault
Varieties of one of the world's most important staple crops will be stored for perpetuity deep in the Arctic ice today. José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is joining scientific experts and delegations from Peru, Costa Rica and Norway to witness a ceremony here this afternoon that will help to preserve these vital ...
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UF/IFAS study: Sweet potato crop shows promise as feed and fuel
As some Florida growers try to find new crops and the demand for biofuel stock increases globally, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers have found that sweet potato vines, usually thrown out during harvest, can serve well as livestock feed while the roots are an ideal source for biofuel. This could be a key finding for the agriculture industry in Florida ...
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Pepsi`s positive water initiative
When PepsiCo launched its business in India 18 years ago, it pioneered several major agricultural initiatives, partnering with thousands of farmers and Punjab Agriculture University to raise productivity and thus improve farmers' incomes and quality of life. Over the years, PepsiCo India's efforts helped more than double tomato yields, introduced “processing quality” potato varieties, initiated ...
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Produce Safety Rule to Change the Way Fresh Fruit, Vegetables Are Grown and Handled
Ever since the Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law in January 2011 and the act’s Produce Safety Rule was proposed two years later, fruit and vegetable growers have waited for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to finalize the regulations they will be expected to follow on the farm. Now that the FDA has done so — the final Produce Safety rule was printed in the ...
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