" I heard it through the AgLine"

February 19, 2010

 

 

·        Seed giants plan projects to aid Africa

·        Cuba’s new revolution is all about green

·        French beekeepers issue pesticide warning

·        Syngenta named a most innovative company

·        WAE attendees vote and the winner is …

 

 

Seed giants plan projects to aid Africa

 

(DesMoinesRegister.com) – Pioneer Hi-Bred will follow archrival Monsanto Co. in offering biotech seeds to poor farmers in Africa.

 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is helping pay for the Johnston company's $19.5 million project along with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Pioneer announced this week.

 

Some critics see the Pioneer and Monsanto projects as public relations moves to win global acceptance of their biotech seeds.

 

But experts say the genetically modified seeds can boost global food production, which needs to double by 2050 to meet the needs of growing populations in Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

 

Corn is a staple food throughout eastern and southern Africa, but yields are typically only a fraction of what they are in the United States because of poor soils, insufficient rainfall and farmers' lack of access to fertilizer, insecticides and high-quality seeds, experts say.

 

The purpose of the Pioneer project is to increase corn yields by 50 percent over the average now reached by African varieties, said Paul Schickler, president of Pioneer, which is a unit of DuPont.

 

"If you look at the issues the world faces, we've got a tremendous need for increasing productivity," Schickler said in an interview.

 

Pioneer will work with scientists in Africa to develop corn varieties over the next decade that will produce bigger crops with less nitrogen fertilizer, which is too expensive for poor farmers.

 

Monsanto is two years into a similar project aimed at developing corn varieties that will be resistant to drought.

 

The two projects represent a shift in focus for the biotech giants, which have struggled to win acceptance in Africa for their genetically altered seeds.

 

The seeds developed through the Pioneer and Monsanto projects are to be provided to poor farmers free of the royalties that are built into the price farmers in the United States pay when they buy a bag of seed.

 

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant, who was in Des Moines visiting the company's central Iowa operations, said the Pioneer announcement was reason to celebrate. He said Monsanto would be interested in paying Pioneer for use of the nitrogen-intensive traits if they prove successful.

 

He said African farmers deserve seed advances that have helped Iowa growers boost yields.

 

"My dream is that we launch drought tolerance in central Iowa on the same day we launch in Nairobi," Grant said. "It's the democratization of technology."

 

Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft, highlighted the Monsanto project, without mentioning the company by name, in a speech at the annual World Food Prize symposium last fall in Des Moines.

 

Monsanto has been testing its drought-tolerant corn in South Africa and hopes to begin field trials in Kenya and Uganda this year. Monsanto hopes to have its drought-tolerant seeds to small-scale farmers in Africa by 2016, four years after the projected release of a commercial variety in the United States.

 

Pioneer's nitrogen-efficiency trait, or genetic characteristic, is still in the early stages of development. There is no timetable yet for releasing it to commercial farmers.

 

Pioneer officials say they approached the Gates foundation a couple of years ago about funding a project for poor farmers. The project's goal is to develop first the improved conventional, or nongenetically altered, African varieties through molecular breeding techniques. Scientists will introduce the foreign genetic material toward the end of this decade, Schickler said. The first conventionally bred varieties could be available within four years, according to Pioneer.

 

Molecular markers, used to identify different genetic varieties, allow scientist to more precisely identify important genes in the plants.

 

A U.S. critic of agricultural biotechnology, Margaret Mellon of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the companies may be trying to improve the global image of genetically modified foods, which have met resistance in Europe, Africa and other areas.

 

The companies appear to want to "enhance some sense that the technology is needed because it produces better" than conventional crop breeding, she said.

 

South Africa is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa that allows commercial production of a biotech food crop.

 

Improving the nitrogen efficiency of crops would allow crops to grow better in poor soils or mean that farmers could use less fertilizer, which can wash off fields and pollute streams and rivers. Nitrogen runoff from fields in Iowa has been linked to a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

 

In Africa, many poor farmers use little or no fertilizer already because of its cost.

 

"African maize farmers must deal with drought, weeds and pests, but their problems start with degraded, nutrient-starved soils and their inability to purchase enough nitrogen fertilizer," said Wilfred Mwangi, associate director of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center's corn breeding program in Kenya.

 

Pioneer and Monsanto are working with scientists at Mwangi's research center, which has long been associated with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug.

 

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Cuba’s new revolution is all about green

 

(abc NEWS) – The government of Cuba, chronically poor and forced to import most of its food, is fighting back by going green. It is surrounding its urban areas with thousands of organic farms, as part of a five-year plan under President Raul Castro to make the country's food supply low-cost and environmentally-friendly.

 

The plan calls for farmers to grow fruits and vegetables, and raise some livestock, in four-mile rings around 150 cities and towns.

 

Bulk foods such as rice, beans, pork and plantains will still be produced mainly by state farms and cooperatives farther from urban areas, as will food for the capital, Havana.

 

The other day, as the sun same up over the beltway surrounding Camaguey, Cuba's third largest city, men and women were plowing fields with oxen, building protective coverings for crops, hoeing the earth and putting up fencing. The Camaguey area is being used as the pilot project for the new plan.

 

The quaint little city, where horse-drawn wagons and bicycles outnumber cars and the 320,000 inhabitants take their time going about their daily lives, will eventually have 1,400 plots and small farms covering 130,000 acres, according to the agriculture ministry, producing 75 percent of Camaguey's food.

 

The project is modeled after the hundreds of smaller urban gardens developed under Raul Castro during the economic depression that followed the collapse of communism in Europe. Cuba's defense minister said at the time that beans were more important than cannons.

 

Only organic materials are used on the farms. The government is trying to revive soils threatened by large-scale state farming and salt from rising sea-levels.

 

"This land they gave to us, the private farmers. I have four hectares (10 acres) and now they have leased me eight more," said Camilo Mendoza, a Camaguey-area farmer with a Florida cap on his head.

 

Mendoza said he grew fruit tree saplings on his farm, but his new plot would be sown with Yuka, a root vegetable that is a Cuban favorite.

 

A few years ago a dense brush, known as Marabu, covered the area for as far as the eye could see, making it useless even for the area's traditional cattle ranching.

 

State Monopoly Eased

 

Just a few minutes from the city, Mendoza said urban residents had joined the farmers to clear the brush.

 

Authorities hope small-scale farming close to urban areas will entice city residents, laid-off from jobs in Cuba's bloated bureaucracy, back to the land. Farming in Cuba has had a labor shortage for years.

 

The plan also seeks to save on the cost of transporting goods to market, rely less on expensive and fuel-consuming machinery and ensure a greater variety of fresh produce.

 

Mendoza pointed around the fields: "Look, on this side and the other side are other plots, and over there another. Here they have given quite a bit of land and support to private farmers," he said.

 

For the first time farmers can sell part of what they produce directly to licensed street vendors and consumers at stands set up every mile or so along the beltway.

 

The communist government monopolizes the sale of farm goods and controls most of the land in Cuba.

 

Castro has made a priority of cutting imports and putting more food on Cubans' sometimes-sparse dinner tables since taking over for his ailing brother Fidel two years ago.

 

Under the sustainable agriculture project, the government is leasing fallow state lands to some 100,000 mainly-private farmers. It has decentralized decision-making. It has allowed farmers to raise prices.

 

"The suburban agriculture plan aims at the rational exploitation of land around cities and other populated areas," Rodriguez Nodal, head of the program and the man who led the widely acclaimed urban gardens' development, said at a meeting last week.

 

Nodal called for the elimination of bureaucracy so that produce reaches consumers fresh and in good condition.

 

Experts Want Markets

 

On the other side of Camaguey and a few miles up the central highway, Armando, the head of a cattle cooperative, said they were persuaded to join the plan when the state offered them more land to raise garden and root vegetables and the chance to sell some of what they produced directly to the population.

 

"In December we produced around five tons. The root vegetables we had to sell to the state, but we were free to sell the garden vegetables directly," he said, adding growing and selling vegetables was a first for his cooperative.

 

"In the case of the suburban plan there are no chemicals or anything else that can damage the environment," Armando said.

 

Plans in Cuba are made not to be broken, a local saying goes.

 

While foreign and local experts applaud the project, they are skeptical it can meet its goals without the establishment of free markets where farmers can buy their supplies and sell their produce.

 

"It will take a lot of seed. Let's see if the state can provide it on a timely basis," one man said, asking that his name not be used.

 

Castro has opened shops where farmers for the first time can buy work clothes and basics such as fencing and machetes, but fuel, seed, irrigation systems and the like are still centrally allocated.

 

Mendoza and Armando said Cuba has not moved to free markets. The state still sets prices for their produce.

 

"They are prices that benefit us, but not exaggerated, in reach of the people with little money," Armando said.

 

Few of the farmers around Camaguey were ready to commit to the suburban development scheme's long-term success. But they said they were encouraged that it was based mainly on their efforts, not state farms.

 

"For sure, there will be more food around here if you come back in a few years," quipped Mendoza. "More than that I can't say."

 

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French beekeepers issue pesticide warning

 

(Bloomberg) -- France’s beekeepers union forecast “massive” losses of bees this spring as the country’s farmers apply Bayer CropScience AG’s insecticide Proteus for the first time after the product received French approval last year.

 

“We’re very concerned,” said Sophie Dugue, a professional beekeeper and a member of the National Union of French Apiculture, or UNAF, at a press conference in Paris today. “We’ll see massive poisoning starting this spring.”

 

France is the world’s third-largest market for crop- protection products after the U.S. and Brazil, with a value of 1.9 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in 2008, according to data from Bayer. The country approved Proteus in September.

 

Dugue said beekeepers are worried because the Bayer insecticide will be sprayed on rapeseed, whose yellow flowers attract bees, while other insecticides with similar chemicals have been used to coat seeds. France is the European Union’s second-biggest producer of the oilseed crop after Germany.

 

“We’re aware of the concern of the beekeepers,” said Gilles Delanoe, a spokesman for Bayer CropScience in France. “If the product is applied according to the instructions, using good practices, it doesn’t present a risk for the bees.”

 

Proteus accounts for less than 1 percent of Bayer CropScience’s sales in France, according to Delanoe.

 

France had about 1.25 million beehives in 2008, about half of them owned by professional beekeepers, and the economic value of bees’ role as pollinators in France is about 2 billion euros, UNAF said in documents handed out at the meeting.

 

Fighting Insects

 

Proteus is used to fight a “broad spectrum” of sucking and chewing insects and has been registered in more than 50 countries including the U.S. and Brazil, according to Bayer CropScience’s Web site.

 

The pesticide combines the ingredients deltamethrin and thiacloprid, a systemic neurotoxin in a chemical class called neonicotinoids that also include the active ingredients of Bayer’s Gaucho and Syngenta AG’s Cruiser insecticides.

 

“The problem with Proteus is the mix of products,” Henri Clement, the president of UNAF, told reporters. “Beekeepers have every reason to be worried about the approval of this product.”

 

According to the UNAF, Italy has banned all neonicotinoids dangerous to bees.

 

Cruiser’s active ingredient thiamethoxam doesn’t pose a risk to foraging bees or the survival of colonies when used according to label instructions, Syngenta spokesman Médard Schoenmaeckers said in an e-mailed comment.

 

“Syngenta supports thorough research on the causes of bee health problems,” Schoenmaeckers said. It monitors farmers “to ensure the safe use of thiametoxam by growers,” he said.

 

Health Problems

 

Bayer’s Gaucho causes health problems to bees despite a French ban on using the pesticide on corn and sunflowers, according to UNAF. Beekeepers are finding bees are poisoned by feeding on sunflowers and cover crops planted following a Gaucho-treated crop such as wheat, UNAF said.

 

“We need new substances that respond to the needs of farmers so they don’t have harvest losses,” Delanoe said. Bayer works “closely” with beekeepers in Germany and the U.K., “we regret that’s not the case for France,” he said.

 

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Syngenta named a most innovative company

 

(Wire Services) – Syngenta has been recognized by Fast Company magazine as one of the world's most innovative companies.

 

Syngenta was one of the select companies recognized from thousands reviewed by Fast Company magazine in its annual evaluation of "the creativity at work in the global marketplace."  Syngenta was included in Fast Company's rankings of the ten most innovative food companies, where it ranked sixth and was the only global agribusiness recognized.  The full Fast Company article can be found at www.fastcompany.com/MIC/2010.

 

Fast Company's innovation rankings are based on its editorial team's analysis of thousands of businesses across the globe.  The rankings factor in not only revenue growth and profit margins, but also take into account "creative models and progressive cultures," according to the magazine's announcement of this year's honorees.

 

Syngenta was recognized for its innovation in developing genetically modified seed and crop protection products that are helping farmers improve crop yield around the world to meet the global challenge of feeding an increasing population with reduced land and water resources while minimizing environmental impact.  To find out more about what Syngenta is doing to help farmers grow more from less, visit www.growmorefromless.com.

 

About Syngenta

 

Syngenta is one of the world's leading companies with more than 25,000 employees in over 90 countries dedicated to our purpose: Bringing plant potential to life. Through world-class science, global reach and commitment to our customers we help to increase crop productivity, protect the environment and improve health and quality of life.  For more information about us please go to www.syngenta.com.

 

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WAE attendees vote and the winner is …

 

Tulare, Calif., (AgPR) – The More than 2,000 votes were cast in the inaugural World Ag Expo Top-10 Attendees’ Choice Award and with 570 votes and an average of 4 stars per vote, Magswitch Magnets is the winner.

 

Distributed by Forney Industries, Inc., Magswitch Magnets feature the world’s most advanced switchable magnetic technology. They offer farmers and ranchers a faster, more precise and easier-to-use alternative to clamp, hold, position or lift ferrous steel for fabrication, welding, wood working projects and general repair projects.

 

The magnetic force of these light-weight magnets, which is up to five times greater than other magnet systems, holds up to 250 times their own weight. Comprised of permanent magnets, Magswitch Magnets require no batteries or electricity to operate. The user controls deployment of the magnetic force from off to on with a simple 180 degree turn of a knob.

 

World Ag Expo show management announced the Attendees’ Choice Award in January 2010 to allow attendees to determine which  Top-10 New Product was the most innovative. A five-star rating system was used to select the product that most deserved the award.  Prior to the expo, attendees voted online and during the expo votes were cast at the New Product Pavilion.

 

“Our committee selected 10 great products to receive Top-10 New Product awards, but left it to our attendees to decide which product deserved the Attendees’ Choice Award,” said Bernie Cargle, 2010 World Ag Expo Chairman. “We applaud Magswitch Tools and Forney.”

 

Planning for World Ag Expo 2011 is already in the works. The 44th annual expo, scheduled for February 8 – 10, 2011, and themed Tools for Agri-Business will once again introduce the most innovative and interesting in ag products to the global community in effort to provide solutions for farmers and ranchers looking for new technologies and solutions.

 

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