|
|
|
New flood-tolerant rice could help farmers and environment Agnet | Robin Hindery | November 30, 2006 Inside a greenhouse on the University of California, Davis campus, a group of rice plants is defying conventional farming wisdom and thriving in a formerly life-threatening environment - under water. The story says that a new variety of flood-tolerant rice soon could make its way from the lab to the field, offering California rice farmers and environmental advocates a potential weapon against both crop-ravaging weeds and water pollution. The new plants could benefit the state's rice industry. Dryland Agriculture book takes a world view Agnet | November 28, 2006 Growing competition for diminishing fresh water supplies worldwide, coupled with an expanding population, will drive demand for improved dryland agriculture technology. To capture what is being done in the realm of dryland agriculture and where research is needed, Dr. Bill Payne of Amarillo, Experiment Station plant physiologist, joined forces with more than 50 other contributors to write the second edition of Dryland Agriculture. "Agriculture has changed tremendously, as have its priorities, in the past 20 years," Payne said. Greater understanding of the important differences and commonalities of different dryland farming systems is important because of the growing importance of dryland agriculture and the fact that global food supply is increasingly interconnected. Topics covered by the book include soil conservation, crop choices and rotation, soil fertility, pest management, mixed crop-livestock systems and research issues such as weather variability, erosion, crop diversity, tillage, and nutrient and soil organic matter. Australian drought may help wineries by reducing wine glut Internatinal Herald Tribune| November 24, 2006 Australian Wine & Brandy, which regulates and markets the country's 2.8 billion Australian dollar, or $2.17 billion, wine export industry, on Friday slashed its estimate for excess wine stocks by more than half. Water restrictions imposed because of the drought and frosts in the southern grape-growing regions were eating into production and stockpiles that have built up in the past two years, the organization said. Statistics Canada: Releases Statistics Canada | November 24, 2006 Realized net income for Canadian farmers fell in 2005 to its lowest level since 2003, following two years of drought and more than two years of battling trade restrictions because of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Realized net income, the difference between a farmer's cash receipts and operating expenses minus depreciation, plus income in kind, declined 14.2% to $1.9 billion. This figure was 16.4% below the previous five-year average (2000 to 2004). Farmers want pay for care of environment Agnet | Philip Hopkins | November 21, 2006 Australian farmers want to be paid for the environmental work they do on their properties and are pushing for policies to manage droughts. Climate change hits hard in the Australian outback CS Monitor | Nick Squires | November 20, 2006 The once mighty Darling River, Australia's longest waterway, is dwindling by the day beneath a blazing blue sky, its sluggish waters an unhealthy shade of pea-green. The Darling is the lifeblood of Bourke, one of Australia's most celebrated outback towns. Located in the parched west of New South Wales state, the expression "back o' Bourke" is understood by all Australians to mean in the middle of nowhere. But the town's legendary resilience has been pushed to a breaking point by six years of drought, the worst "big dry" since the British settlement of Australia in 1788. Farmers are selling their properties, and those that remain on the land are struggling to survive financially. Tomatoes against drought Agnet | Roberto A. Gaxiola | November 14, 2006 Without water there is no life, but even in deserts, where water is rarely available, life is possible. How? A research team in Connecticut asked the same question in their quest to produce a drought resistant tomatoes. Kenya: Thousands Affected By Floods in Coast, Northeast Regions All Africa.com | November 13, 2006 Thousands of Kenyans have been affected or displaced by flooding in the Coast and Northeastern Provinces and will need assistance for several months because continuing heavy rains across the country have destroyed their farmlands. Nomads to be first people wiped out by climate change Mail and Guardian Online | November 12, 2006 They are dubbed the "climate canaries" -- the people destined to become the first victims of world climate change. And as government ministers sit down in Nairobi at this weekend's United Nations Climate Conference, the people most likely to be wiped out by devastating global warming will be only a few hundred miles away from their deliberations. Those people, according to research commissioned by the charity Christian Aid, will be the three million pastoralists of northern Kenya, whose way of life has sustained them for thousands of years but who now face eradication. Hundreds of thousands of these seasonal herders have already been forced to forsake their traditional culture and settle in Kenya's north eastern province following consecutive droughts that have decimated their livestock in recent years. Climate Change Threatens Agricultural Crisis Planet Ark | Gordon Bell | November 11, 2006 Immediate steps are needed to avert a potential catastrophe as climate change dries up water resources in drought affected areas, hitting poor farmers, a United Nations report said on Thursday. The vast majority of the world's malnourished people, estimated at about 830 million people, are small farmers, herders and farm labourers, pointing to devastating effects from global warning and requiring a tripling of yearly farming aid to poor countries. Higher temperatures and less rainfall will cut water to some of the world's most water-stressed areas, while water flows will become less predictable and more subject to extreme events. It recommended aid to the agricultural sector in developing countries needed to triple by 2010 to US$10 billion a year to help cope with the potential devastating effect. Great Plains wilt and worry as drought eases elsewhere USA Today | Patrick O'Driscoll | November 10, 2006 As much of the West recovers from several years of drought, severe dryness lingers on the Great Plains, playing havoc with agriculture, commerce and hydroelectricity production. The effects are widely scattered in regional pockets from Texas to the Dakotas. Winter wheat in Kansas and northern Oklahoma is in jeopardy from record warmth, wind and lack of rain. Livestock herds in Wyoming and other cattle states have shrunk because rangeland is too parched to graze. Climate Change Threatens Agricultural Crisis, UN Says Environmental News Network | Gordon Bell | November 9, 2006 Immediate steps are needed to avert a potential catastrophe as climate change dries up water resources in drought affected areas, hitting poor farmers. The vast majority of the world's malnourished people, estimated at about 830 million people, are small farmers, herders and farm labourers, pointing to devastating effects from global warming and requiring a tripling of yearly farming aid to poor countries. Aid to agriculture had also fallen rapidly in absolute and relative terms over the past decade. Reversing these trends will be critical to successful adaptation. Climate change will affect future food availability Planet Ark | November 7, 2006 Climate change will directly affect future food availability and compound the difficulties of feeding the world’s rapidly growing population, FAO said at the opening of a U.N. climate change conference yesterday in Nairobi. In an address to the conference’s scientific and technical body, Castro Paulino Camarada, FAO Representative in Kenya, stressed that greater attention must be given to the impact of climate change on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and on mitigation and adaptation measures. Plea for cotton farm's water Planet Ark | Daniel Lewis and Cosima Marriner | November 7, 2006 Western NSW mayors and irrigators are urging the Government to buy Australia's biggest irrigated cotton farm, Cubbie Station, as the most effective means of returning water to the stressed Murray-Darling Basin.Cubbie, on the Condamine-Balonne river system in south- west Queensland, can store more water than Sydney Harbour, and those downstream say it is ruining business and the environment with excessive water extraction. The Federal Government says the compulsory purchase of irrigation entitlements is not on its agenda. Cubbie says it is an environmentally sustainable operation that accounts for less than a quarter of 1 per cent of water extractions in the Murray-Darling Basin. Drought-hit Australia battles climate change Agnet | Michael Perry | November 1, 2006 Australia is already feeling the heat from climate change with a five-year drought devastating rural life, severe early season wildfires and record unseasonal temperatures. Every four days, a farmer commits suicide under the stress of failing crops, dying livestock and debt as the worst drought in 100 years bites deep into the nation's psyche and erodes economic growth. Australia's cities are also suffering, with every major centre imposing strict water usage restrictions as reservoir levels fall. Australian scientists and environmentalists say climate change is no longer a future threat and are urging Australia to sign the Kyoto Protocol aimed at lowering greenhouse gases. |
||||||||||
|
