" I heard it through the AgLine"

January 4, 2011

 

 

·       Texas growers evaluate alternative crops

·       Columbian flowers feeling a US drought

·       Sunn hemp evaluated as possible biofuel

·       Online game helps kids learn about food

 

 

Texas growers evaluate alternative crops

 

(AgriLife Today) BRYAN – Alternative crops could add potential income to an existing portfolio of commodities produced by Texas farmers, according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service expert.

 

Dr. Rob Duncan, AgriLife Extension small grains specialist, says that crops such as canola and sunflower are receiving more attention by farmers. These represent alternative crops that can be incorporated into a traditional crop portfolio of cotton, corn and sorghum, he said.

 

Flax and camelina are also getting some attention, but to a lesser extent, he said.

 

“Sunflower is a crop that both Texas AgriLife Research and Texas AgriLife Extension Service are doing lots of work (on),” he said. “Farmers who are incorporating this into their crop rotation are seeing some positive economic benefits.”

 

Castor was another crop that Duncan discussed and one that is in high demand for manufacturing various products such as specialty lubricants and plastics.

 

“We currently import 100 percent of our castor oil. This is a market we could definitely take advantage of in Texas,” he said.

 

Currently, India supplies a majority of castor to the global market. Prices varied from $1.20 a pound to $1.40 a pound over the last year. Earlier this year at the Tri-County Crops Tour, Dr. Travis Miller, AgriLife Extension program leader and associate department head for the department of soil and crop sciences at Texas A&M University, said during a period from 1938-1972, Texas averaged about 70,000 acres of castor in production.

 

 “Prices got low and the crop disappeared,” Miller said.

 

However, the oil that comes from castor is used in many industrial products and “currently all of this important feedstock is imported,” he said.

 

“This price is much higher than normal and reflects inflated prices in many commodities,” Miller said. “The income potential is there due to premium paid for castor oil by industries worldwide. With sufficient water and good management, a farmer in the Texas High Plains region could produce 2,000 (pounds) to as much as 5,000 pounds (per acre), with an oil content of approximately 50 percent. Average irrigated yields of 2,000 to 2,500 pounds per acre would be expected.

 

 “This could be an additional revenue stream for Texas farmers, but we still have a lot of things that need to be worked out with regards to best management practices.”

 

Duncan said castor is quite productive on marginal land and has a “very valuable fatty acid profile.”

 

Both agencies are looking to develop best management practices for castor, reducing the ricin content as well as mechanizing production, Duncan said.

 

A successful castor industry will require a business plan to isolate castor seed, using a number of strategies to insure it remains only in industrial oil handling and marketing channels, Miller said.

 

“We are also looking at irrigation and weed management studies,” according to Duncan.

 

One project looked at castor as a volunteer weed, Duncan said. Castor can contaminate grain crops if not properly managed.

 

 “We need to make sure that we have management options so that castor contamination is a non-issue.”

 

 The research involved treating castor at both the two-leaf and four-leaf stage with varying amounts of 2,4-D, Clarity, Ignite and Roundup.

 

 In all, approximately seven different herbicides were found to be effective in both pre- and post-emergence control of castor, Duncan said.

 

Producers can learn more about alternative crop production online at http://varietytesting.tamu.edu/oilseed .

 

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Columbian flowers feeling a US drought

 

(Knowledge@Warton) – Most Americans purchase roses only once or twice a year. But do they ever think about where these roses come from? Do they ever consider what it takes to get them to their local market just in time for their purchase?

 

The flower industry is dominated by only a few major countries: 83% of the world's cut flowers come from Holland (40% of production value), Colombia, Ecuador and Kenya; and 73% of the cut-flower production is imported by Germany, the U.K., the U.S., Holland and France.

 

Chances are that the roses purchased for Valentine's Day or Mother's Day came from Colombia. According to Asocolflores, the Colombian Association of Flower Exporters, three out of every four flowers sold in the U.S. are grown in Colombia, making it the number one exporter of flowers to the U.S. Flowers are also Colombia's second leading agriculture export, distributed to 89 countries, making the country the number two exporter worldwide. Together, the industry accounts for the second-leading agriculture export in Colombia. Similar to the coffee industry, Colombian flower producers are part of growers associations. Currently, the firms are split between two organizations. Asocolflores represents the large exporters, while Fedeflores represents the medium- to small-sized Colombian-owned farms.

 

Colombian flower farms have leveraged the country's natural climate, favorable economic conditions (including exchange-rate advantages) and proximity to the U.S. to develop the American consumer market into its largest importer. What is not well-known, however, is that this relationship between Colombia and the U.S. in the production and sale of flowers began more than 40 years ago. It has facilitated both the growth of the Colombian flower industry and the broader development of the Colombian economy. Have the Colombian flower farms outgrown their exclusive and dependent relationship with the U.S. consumer market or does the industry still have room to grow and expand the flower demands there?

 

An Interdependent Relationship

 

Since the flower industry's inception, Colombia and the U.S. have had a robust and almost symbiotic bond. David Cheever, an American university student, wrote an academic research paper that identified the key local characteristics necessary for industry development: ideal climate and land, low-cost labor, suitable transportation and proximity to the U.S. market. His analysis sparked the initiation of the Colombian floriculture industry. In 1969, he and three others put his ideas into practice by launching Colombia's first multinational flower company, Floramerica. Other entrepreneurs followed their lead and entered the new market, investing significant amounts of money into the capital-intensive industry.

 

Many years later, in the early 1990s, the Colombian flower industry became a primary focus in the trade negotiations between the U.S. and Colombia. The ATPA (Andean Trade Preference Act), first passed in 1991, used economic and trade incentives as a key tool to help four Andean countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia) combat drug production within their borders. To encourage exports and increase production, the pact eliminated tariff duties on key products, including cut flowers. In 2002, the trade agreement, now called ATPDEA (Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act), was renewed and expanded further so that, today, cut flowers are Colombia's second-largest category of U.S. imports under the act.

 

The U.S. has also given direct aid to Colombia, leveraging the flower industry to promote and distribute social aid. In the past, Colombia has received funding from sources such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As a result, today this sector is responsible for an estimated 172,000 jobs, of which 92,000 are associated directly with floriculture. This sector is also the largest employer of women in rural areas, with women comprising 65%. The "corporate responsibility" the industry has been able to implement includes childcare centers, subsidized meals and continuing education. According to Mónica Morena, an operations manager at C.I. Flores Ipanema Ltda., outside of Bogota, all the employees are provided with a daily breakfast of agua de panela (sugar water) and bread, a subsidized lunch of 4,000 pesos (~US$2.20), and free transportation to and from the farm. For an additional cost, they also have access to child care and continuing education (elementary and secondary).

 

The U.S.-Colombia relationship within the flower industry is not one-sided, however. Both countries have benefited economically through this arrangement. For example, about 150 flower importer-distributor companies alone have been founded within the U.S., mostly in and around the Miami area. Cut flowers have also become Miami International Airport's most important cargo item, while Bogota's international airport handles 200,000 tons of flower-related air freight annually. Freight costs paid to U.S.- and Colombian-based airlines represent approximately US$200 million per year. From the U.S.-based importers to the brokers, truckers, wholesalers and floral retailers, the industry is the source of US$7 billion of added value for the U.S.

 

Current Challenges for the Industry

 

The flower industry faces several challenges within the sector. First is an oversupply of flowers with an unmatched sales demand. In recent years, flower production has expanded as a result of the increase in the amount of lands being cultivated and the more advanced technologies used in the different types of production. These factors allow for growth in production efficiency, which, consequently, increases the supply. However, flower demand does not follow this same trend. The industry is highly dependent on the U.S. consumer market, which receives 80% of Colombia's flower exports. This high level of sales exclusivity and key characteristics of the U.S. market itself contribute to the issues related to excess supply. The U.S. has a relatively low per capita annual consumption of flowers (US$29).

 

In addition, the seasonality of sales within the U.S. presents challenges in supplying for the two peak days of the year: Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. As Morena notes, "In order to meet Mother's Day and Valentine's Day demand levels, we have to significantly increase flower production, time the cultivation of the roses perfectly and bring on about 1,000 additional seasonal employees." In Colombia, flowers may be produced year-round, making the supply constant. However, the demand for flowers in the U.S. is extremely seasonal. This creates an awkward mismatch between the traditional microeconomic factors.

 

Another market factor that affects Colombia's flower business is the distribution channel. More than 50% of the flower market in the U.S., for example, is concentrated in supermarkets. This figure has been increasing year after year, forcing producers to conform to supermarket standards and pricing. As a result of preferences for high-quality flowers at lower prices, producer margins have been reduced. Adding additional pressure, the value of the Colombian peso has risen against the U.S. dollar, reducing profit margins even further. With an economic recession, decreased margins and an appreciation of the peso, does it still make sense for Colombia to concentrate almost entirely on one market?

 

Given these concerns, the floriculture industry in Colombia must consider several alternatives in order to maintain and ideally increase its global market share. One option is to grow U.S. sales through a focus on expanding demand -- in other words, "expanding the pie." This strategy would utilize a marketing campaign promoting flower purchases throughout the year rather than only for specific holidays. The campaign would strive to increase Americans' per capita consumption to a level similar to that of Europeans. Asocolflores has already identified this option as a key strategic objective for its group. This approach, however, still leaves Colombia susceptible to the risks of single-market dependency and exchange-rate fluctuations.

 

A second alternative for Colombian businesses to explore would be expansion outside the U.S. With its growing middle class and obvious proximity, the broader Latin American market could provide additional consumers to absorb the excess supply. Currently, Colombian producers export US$2.9 million to Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay) and another US$2.9 million to Central America and the Caribbean. However, countries such as Mexico and Brazil produce enough flowers to meet their own domestic demands, and Ecuador itself is a global exporter of flowers and in direct competition with Colombia. It is, thus, unclear whether this market could, indeed, provide sufficient growth potential.

 

Farther away, Europe presents another potential market in which to expand since, currently, only 3% of flowers purchased there have Colombian origins. In addition, Europeans' per capita consumption of flowers is much higher than that of Americans -- on average, the Swiss spend €77 (US$112) on cut flowers per year (versus the €20 (US$29 spent by Americans). Colombian producers have two primary options when entering the European market. They can ship the flowers directly from Colombia, or consider the multinational route and establish a production presence in Kenya. The former would help alleviate excess supply issues but add additional challenges related to distance and the perishability of the cut flowers. The latter would improve the physical proximity but present new challenges related to cultural differences, political instability and language barriers. Neither option addresses the challenge of distribution channels moving from primarily florist-based sales to supermarket-based sales. The bottom line is that, with Holland already dominating the European market with 67% of the market share, it is uncertain whether Colombia would be able to become a dominant player there.

 

In addition to expanding consumer demand, Colombian flower producers also have the potential option of reducing production costs and increasing process automation in order to improve profit margins with or without an increase in revenue. The floriculture industry, regardless of the production country, is highly dependent on manual labor. Automation and technological advances would obviously reduce expenses. In addition, improving transportation infrastructure and production technology would provide producers with increased control over their supply production and delivery and help to improve efficiency within each of these processes.

 

Reducing costs through automation, however, opens producers up to new issues related primarily to the risk of operational losses. As explained by one of the trolistas (the men who transport the flowers between the greenhouse and postharvest operations) at the Colombian rose farm, C.I. Flores Ipanema Ltda., "the moment a rose touches the ground, it is no longer suitable for sale, destroying the entire value of that flower." Unlike an automated trolley, which Ipanema did try to implement at one time, a human being has the ability to not only control the flow of transported flowers, but also use additional care and judgment to ensure that the flowers arrive safely at their predefined destinations. Thus, given the fragile nature of their product, flower producers must find a delicate balance between automation and manual labor so that both operational expenses and operational losses are minimized.

 

As the global floriculture industry becomes more and more competitive, Colombia's producers must find ways to adapt. Relying on an intimate knowledge of the industry, high-quality flower production and future technological advances to help them navigate through the current challenges that threaten their survival are just some of the tools to be engaged. Each firm will have to explore its strengths, weaknesses and specific cultures to determine which path forward provides the most growth potential. All the possible alternatives present clear advantages and disadvantages. The only option currently not on the table for the Colombian floriculture industry is to simply stand still.

 

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Sunn hemp evaluated as possible biofuel

 

(USDA-ARS) – Work by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggests that farmers in the Southeast could use the tropical legume sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) in their crop rotations by harvesting the fast-growing annual for biofuel. The study, which was conducted by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Florence, S.C., supports the USDA priority of finding new sources of bioenergy. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency.

 

ARS agricultural engineer Keri Cantrell, agronomist Philip Bauer, and environmental engineer Kyoung Ro all work at the ARS Coastal Plains Soil, Water, and Plant Research Center in Florence. They compared the energy content of sunn hemp with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), another common regional summer cover crop, in 2004 and 2006.

 

Both crops were grown in experimental plots near Florence and were harvested on the same day three times in each study year. The last harvest for both years was conducted right after the first killing freeze of the season. The scientists measured potential energy production of both feedstocks via direct combustion. This provided the feedstocks' higher heating value (HHV), which indicates how much energy is released via combustion.

 

In 2004, when there was ample rainfall, the resulting sunn hemp biomass yield totaled more than 4.5 tons per acre. This is equivalent to 82.4 gigajoules of energy per acre, close to the energy contained in 620 gallons of gasoline and well in the ballpark of other bioenergy crops, which have yields of anywhere from 30 to 150 gigajoules per acre.

 

The HHV for sunn hemp biomass exceeded the HHV for switchgrass, bermudagrass, reed canarygrass and alfalfa. Although reduced rainfall resulted in lower hemp biomass yields in 2006, sunn hemp's HHV for both study years was 4 to 5 percent greater than the HHV of cowpeas.

 

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Online game helps kids learn about food

 

(Wire Services) -- “Fact or Fairy Tale” is the newest addition to the popular agricultural gaming site www.MyAmericanFarm.org, and helps students in kindergarten through second grade learn valuable science lessons.

 

The fun and fast-paced trivia-like game allows kids to help a character named Jacob Justthefacts discover the truth about where their food, fiber and fuel are produced.

 

As they play, students are encouraged to continue helping Jacob uncover the truth by evaluating which statements are facts or fairy tales. After answering enough questions, participants are rewarded with a new stamp to add to their Passport for Sustainability - the tool that helps youth keep track of their journey through the various My American Farm online games.

 

 The new game is one of 15 games that will be featured at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) annual meeting, Jan. 8-11, 2012, in Honolulu.

 

 The My American Farm educational gaming resource is a special project of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture. The site and resources are made possible through the support of title sponsor, Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business.

 

 To take advantage of the free My American Farm resources, games and activities, visit www.MyAmericanFarm.org

 

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