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October 27, 2011
· Natives top honeybees as pollination champs
· Extended-life rice could quadruple yields
· DuPont fattens up down on the farm
· Stronger oversight for cantaloupe industry
· Industry decides which ingredients are safe
Natives top honeybees as pollination champs
(Cornell University via PhysOrg.com) -- The honeybee has hogged the pollination spotlight for centuries, but native bees are now getting their fair share of buzz: They are two to three times better pollinators than honeybees, are more plentiful than previously thought and not as prone to the headline-catching colony collapse disorder that has decimated honeybee populations, says Cornell entomology professor Bryan Danforth.
He is one of a dozen researchers across the Northeast involved in a five-year, $3.3 million project to study whether the pathogens, viruses and fungi that are harming the honeybee also affect native bee species. The grant, led by Anne Averill of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, will also investigate how native bee abundance and diversity are influenced by the size, pesticide use, landscape and crop diversity on farms.
Danforth is also the lead researcher on a four-year,
$450,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agriculture and Food
Research Initiative that will fund research on native bee species abundance in
His findings so far are "very good news" for
"An individual visit by a native bee is actually worth far more than an individual visit by a honeybee," Danforth added. "Honeybees are more interested in the nectar. They don't really want the pollen if they can avoid it. The wild, native bees are mostly pollen collectors. They are collecting the pollen to take back to their nests."
They are also more plentiful than once thought. In 25
surveyed orchards near
Honeybees are considered valuable because, unlike most
native species, they can be moved from farm to farm. For example, honeybees are
critical in pollinating
However, the mobility of the honeybee has exposed it to a wide variety of pathogens and stresses, which likely contribute to colony collapse disorder, he said.
There are more than 20,000 bee species in the world,
including roughly 450 in
"In the past, the attitude has always been, 'Well, you have the crop, and you have the honeybee, and that's all you really need.' But nobody has ever bothered to ask, well what about all these other bees that are out there?" Danforth said. "The role of native bees in crop pollination has been largely unappreciated -- until colony collapse disorder created a crisis."
Extended-life rice could quadruple yields
The cultivation method for the multi-crop rice also produces less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional paddy farming, in which plants produce only one harvest, and makes them more resilient to excessive rainfall.
Abed Chaudhury, a genetics expert who has worked with the Australian National Rice Research Institute for the past 20 years, describes the approach - developed in consultation with farmers - as “second life” or “extended life”, and will soon apply to the Bangladeshi authorities for seed certification.
"My target is to transform the annual plant into perennial plant. It saves costs as well as giving high yield," he told AlertNet.
Rice plants usually produce only one crop. After the paddy ripens, farmers harvest the rice, cutting the plant down to a height of around 10 cm and leaving it to rot into the ground.
But if farmers adopt Chaudhury's cutting-edge varieties and techniques, they could harvest rice three times from the same plant in one year. Early tests suggest yields could be more than quadrupled at a very low cost.
According to the scientist, a rice plant normally produces 65 sheaves, or clusters of grains, of which around 40 are mature at first harvest. The rest are wasted when the plant is cut down.
In the initial 130-day growing period, the new paddy varieties grow 85 cm to 1 m tall, as do most other rice types. But when farmers come to harvest the first crop, they leave 35-40 cm in the ground, and apply around half the amount of fertiliser again. The immature sheaves continue growing, and can be harvested in 50-55 days.
On a demonstration field in
TEST YIELDS QUADRUPLE
With the first crop, Chaudhury and his colleagues harvested 6.4 tonnes of paddy from one hectare of land. They then spread urea fertiliser on the field, and left the immature sheaves to ripen, harvesting some 3 tonnes of paddy. More fertiliser was applied to the remaining sheaves, and a further 3 tonnes of rice are expected.
Yields from traditional paddy varieties are around 3 tonnes a hectare. But the new plants are projected to produce more than 12 tonnes of paddy from the same land area, at comparatively low costs.
"The spending on the second and third (crops) is very minimal,” said Abbas Ali, a farmer in Hazipara village in Moulavibazar district. “You have to spread a very tiny volume of fertiliser only. You do not need to plough the land."
He is growing the new rice on five acres of land, and is now waiting to cut the paddy a second time. So far he’s very happy with the experiment. "I will continue to grow this variety of paddy since it is very profitable due to low cost and high yield,” he said.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
Ferdous Bappi, manager of Chaudhury's project in Moulavibazar, said the new rice types are neither hybrid nor genetically modified, and are similar to traditional varieties developed by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. The team’s research has not revealed any other varieties with similar characteristics, he added.
Of 10 varieties the project has bred, four have proved suitable for the “extended life” method. “Now we want to spread the method, as well as the varieties, across the country,” said Bappi. “Many people from different parts of the country have already contacted us."
The farming method has environmental benefits, and could contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation, he added. Rice produces substantial amounts of methane due to its semi-aquatic nature and tilling releases it from the land.
"If you follow the 'extended life' method you do not need to plough the land, and there is no chance of greenhouse gas emissions," Bappi explained.
The farming technique also makes the plants more resilient to excessive flooding. Usually, young paddy plants are 15 cm high when transplanted into the land, meaning they rot if submerged in too much rainwater for too long.
"Since, in our method, the crop is harvested keeping 35 cm of the paddy plant in the land, during the second and third sessions, there is no chance of them being swamped or rotten," Bappi said.
DuPont fattens up down on the farm
(Forbes.com) – DuPont has continued to invest in its growth despite global macro uncertainties increasing in recent months.
Dupont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred subsidiary recently announced the start-up of a new seed research facility on Wednesday, last week, in line with the company’s expectation of continued growth in agriculture industry because of the growing world population.
Agriculture and nutrition based products division contributes more than 30 percent of DuPont’s stock value, as per our estimate.
We believe that this new research facility will help the company expand its market share in agriculture and nutrition based products over the medium term through increased product offering, providing upside to the stock. DuPont competes with other major chemical & agricultural companies such as Dow Chemicals, 3M, Monsanto, Syngenta and BASF.
Our current price estimate for DuPont stands at $58.45, which is about 30% above its current market price.
In the middle of last week, DuPont’s CEO Ellen Kullman, reaffirmed her belief that the agriculture industry will be one of the key growth drivers for the company as world population expands by 30 percent and food needs double by 2050. This will help sustain steady growth in global agricultural products market over our forecast horizon.
DuPont has continued to invest in its growth despite global macro uncertainties increasing in recent months.
Dupont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred subsidiary recently announced the start-up of a new seed research facility on Wednesday, last week, in line with the company’s expectation of continued growth in agriculture industry because of the growing world population.
We believe that this new research facility will help the company expand its market share in agriculture and nutrition based products over the medium term through increased product offering, providing upside to the stock. DuPont competes with other major chemical & agricultural companies such as Dow Chemicals, 3M, Monsanto, Syngenta and BASF.
In the middle of last week, DuPont’s CEO Ellen Kullman, reaffirmed her belief that the agriculture industry will be one of the key growth drivers for the company as world population expands by 30 percent and food needs double by 2050. This will help sustain steady growth in global agricultural products market over our forecast horizon.
Last month, DuPont announced at the Credit Suisse Chemicals & Ag Conference that its seed business, Pioneer Hi-Bred, added market share in the North American corn and soybean markets. DuPont also received approvals for new products, Optimum AcreMax and Optimum AcreMax Xtra, which will expand the company’s offerings of new insect protection solutions for farmers.
We believe that DuPont’s investment in the new seed research
center in
Stronger oversight for cantaloupe industry
(denverpost.com)
–
State Agriculture Commissioner John Salazar said the measures — now under discussion with farmers and agriculture experts — could help right the melon business after 28 deaths from Jensen Farms cantaloupes.
Salazar acknowledged, though, that the state does not have new resources to fund such a certification program. A new system would rely on budget shifts or payments from the farms themselves, as other industries currently do.
"We have to do something to give not only growers confidence but consumers confidence," Salazar said. "There's a lot of damage that's been done, and we need to prevent this from ever happening again if possible."
The fixes under discussion include:
• A "Colorado Proud" label, or even one specific to the Rocky Ford area, could be used by farmers who meet certain criteria.
• Standards to earn the label would include undergoing
safety training created by
• CSU extension facilities in southeastern
Michael Hirakata of Hirakata Farms, another large cantaloupe grower, welcomed the concepts and said farms would band together to make them work. Specific steps will reassure consumers and help farmers, he said.
"We've just got to come up with concrete guidelines of
step 1 through 10 that you need to take,"
"What it's going to cost us is minimal compared to the cost of life," he said.
CSU specialists, meanwhile, are researching a more defined set of growing and handling guidelines for cantaloupe that would standardize methods currently spread over a wide range in many states.
FDA investigators said last week the deadly listeria was traced to a Jensen shed, including on and around a machine intended for potatoes. A private audit commissioned by Jensen noted but failed to red-flag potentially dangerous changes in methods, including lack of the usual chlorine wash and no pre-cooling.
Salazar and other state officials said the state has no inspection rights or oversight of cantaloupe growing. Extension experts such as CSU's Mike Bartolo advise many crop growers on methods and economics but have no regulatory power over farms, they said.
Bartolo said he had been to the Jensen farm in other years, but not this year, when it significantly changed the process. Major growers don't regularly seek advice on changes, he said, instead conferring with distributors or crop specialists.
"Our role is in the general production end of it, how to produce more and better cantaloupe," Bartolo said.
Salazar said Bartolo's offices and a lab in southeastern
Salazar said the farmers group could welcome Jensen, the
largest grower in
As a
He said the act's expansion of inspections and other measures was underfunded then and is in even more danger now from budget cuts.
Industry decides which ingredients are safe
(AP)
Since the early 1960’s, private companies and industry trade associations have determined at least 3,000 ingredients are safe, with no federal scrutiny, the study found. The ingredients include everything from artificially synthesized chemicals used in chewing gum to grape seed extract used in cheese and instant coffee.
The peer-reviewed report published in the Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety journal draws on research funded by the Pew Health Group, the health and consumer safety arm of the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association says the industry only classifies ingredients as safe after a battery of rigorous biological tests, but agrees that more transparency in the vetting process would help build consumer confidence.
“The system is less transparent than it should be so we’re looking to open that dialogue,” said Leon Bruner, the association’s chief science officer, who agreed the study’s estimates were reasonable. “We are completely comfortable with increasingly the transparency or the visibility of ingredients that go through the process.”
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act makes manufacturers responsible for ensuring food ingredients are safe. Companies can classify an ingredient as “generally recognized as safe” for use in a specific product but aren’t required to tell the Food and Drug Administration about what they find.
Some do, through a voluntary notification program that gives the FDA a chance to review the findings.
Officials have said in the past that if a company markets a food or beverage the agency believes is unsafe, the government can always issue warning letters or seize the product.
“We don’t know the names of a lot of these chemicals because the companies have never told FDA or the public about them,” said Erik Olson, Pew Health Group’s director of food and consumer safety programs and one of the study’s authors. “Often there is not publicly available data on the potential health impacts because FDA has never evaluated them.”
FDA Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor said Wednesday the study raised important issues concerning public access to information about ingredient safety.
“Transparency in decision-making is a high priority for FDA,
and FDA considers it timely to explore whether the statutory and regulatory
framework for food additives adequately addresses today’s need for
transparency,”
End Transmission