The question over whether the country’s “policy of grain self-sufficiency will be sustainable” was raised by the rise in corn and soybean imports, as “demand rises and agricultural land shrinks under the advance of cities.”

Chinese local market has seen record levels of wholesale corn prices, and industrial officials forecast the government would “import at least 1 million tons of the grain this year, up from just 50,000 tons in 2008-09 and the highest since crop failure in 1994-95.”

Meanwhile, “China’s rice imports have also been higher than usual this year, with big purchases in Vietnam and elsewhere.”

The country has faced “apocalyptic warnings that its increasing demand would lead to food shortage worldwide ever since it began economic reforms 30 years ago.” However, these warnings have “turned out to be wide of the mark.”

But the country still has to “feed its population with limited fertile land, scarce water and relatively basic agricultural technologies.” Its government considers “grain self-sufficiency a matter of national security and has responded to the challenges of boosting supplies by plowing a record amount of money into agriculture.”

Chinese people’s dietary shift is one key reason driving the rising corn and soybean imports this year. People are “eating more meat and less rice. In spite of rising family incomes, absolute rice demand in China is basically at the same level this year as it was 10 years ago, according to the US Department of Agriculture.”

Another reason is that “consumption of key feed stocks such as corn and soybeans used to fatten livestock has jumped, with soybean consumption doubling in the past 10 years.”

Many believe that “China will be mostly self-sufficient in future, especially if agricultural policies succeed in increasing crop yields.” China Daily

Livestock agriculture produces more greenhouse gas emissions than every train, truck, car and aeroplane put together. The resources consumed by one average omnivore in pursuit of animal protein would nourish as many as 10 vegetarians (there’s lots of argument about this stat – some would put the ratio higher). So, shift people’s diets and the planet can support more people – in fact, it will quite easily deal with the 9.2 billion at which population is currently forecast to peak in about 40 years’ time, even with the threat to agriculture that climate change poses.

If the omnivores you convert are the usual guzzlers of cheap industrial meat that populate the rich world, all the better. Because production of their protein is particularly demanding on fossil fuels – for fertiliser, processing, transport and so on.

So, it’s better for the planet if you’re a vegetarian, right? You don’t have to be a vegan fundamentalist (before the climate change deniers start venting) to hold this view: Lord Stern, former chief economist at the World Bank and a pretty mainstream figure who now advises the British government on climate change, told the Times in October: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.” And what is Stern diet? “Not strict vegetarian,” apparently.

Therein are the makings of a defence for meat eating. Clearly vegetarians who eat soya, chickpeas, lentils, rice and other imported foods are not as green as a Fife dieter eating locally grown turnips, kale and oats. Ask a preachy vegetarian to audit their food sourcing and they may not come out much cleaner than what Safran Foer calls a “selective omnivore”.

It is argued that the average rich world vegetarian may not consume much less of the planet’s resources than the average moderate omnivore: a report last week for the Worldwide Fund for Nature (download pdf) on the impact of food production pointed out that highly processed vegetarian meat substitutes or foods made of imported soya (as in tofu) might actually use more arable land and resources than their beef or dairy equivalents. Deforestation in the developing world to grow cheap soya for human and animal feed is a major issue in climate change.

Fish-eating – which Safran Foer stated in Tuesday’s Guardian is as, if not more, cruel than meat eating – may not be a much greener option either. Already 50% of the fish and shellfish eaten globally is produced by aquaculture, much of it intensive and ecologically often dodgy – for instance in the tropical prawn industry. Farming carnivores like salmon is fairly disastrous ecologically, and involves a similar waste of food resources to meat – it takes 3-5kg of other fish to produce 1kg of salmon.

But as a committed carnivore I have to acknowledge that if I want my grandchildren ever to enjoy a perfect entrecôte steak I must address my habits now: all this nonchalant animal protein-munching cannot go on. Meat in the developed world needs to be seen as more of a luxury and less of a staple.

Food is responsible for 30% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions (according to the new WWF report) and a large proportion of that is from livestock farming. The average Briton eats 50g of animal protein a day: a chicken breast or a lamb chop. That’s much less than countries like the United States, but it is still 25-50% more than the average person needs for healthy nutrition. The main reason that world food production must rise by 50% in the next 50 years (the UN FAO’s projection) is not the increase in population, but the increase in meat eating as poorer countries develop.

Which is why I am trying to embrace the ‘drop meat once a week’ notion. One day off the red stuff? Not so great a hardship, really. And if you eat local meat, sustainably produced, rather than Brazilian rainforest fed burgers, that will help. Also, I don’t want to see livestock farming disappear – it shaped the countryside we know.

Or you could simply have fewer children – the most planet-unfriendly thing you can possibly do is produce more animal-gobbling, methane-emitting, fossil fuel squanderers. The only other carnivore option is to eat the dog and then the goldfish. After that, it’s roadkill only. The Guardian

However, that era is a long way back for the Philippines, among the top five coffee exporters in the world in the 1880s after Spanish friars brought beans with them to their colonial outpost.

The Philippine Coffee Board, an industry group spearheading the revival attempt, knows the country can not compete with the likes of current regional exporting giants Indonesia and Vietnam in volume.

So they are aiming for niche markets and targeting the fast-growing number of young Filipinos who crowd cafes across the country of 93 million people.

“We have a lot of exotic coffees and that is the way to present our products,” said Josefina Reyes, director of the board.

Coffee board co-chairman Pacita Juan said the Philippines had long had a thriving coffee-drinking culture with a populace that favoured coffee over tea, and this was becoming stronger as society modernized.

“People are drinking more coffee with the change in lifestyles. People are working 24-7 in call centers so there is more opportunity to drink coffee. Even hotels are serving better coffee instead of just instant coffee,” she told AFP.

The Coffee Board is promoting “Kape Isla,” which loosely translates to “Island Coffee” and is a trademark to distinguish specialty coffees grown in the Philippines.

It is also helping entrepreneurs set up small coffee shops across the country where they can offer their own regional blends.

In this way, they can compete with the global giants such as Starbucks, whose local outlets sell specialty coffees generally only from Africa and South America. The Daily Tribune

Huang Dafang, director of Biotechnology Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said Friday that the genetically-modified crops are of great significance to the sustainable development of agriculture and China’s competitiveness in global arena.

“It could help increase the output to ease the food supply strain caused by the shrinking of farmland,” Huang said.

“We are technically advantageous in hybrid rice planting. The genetically-modified technology could ensure China’s superiority in food production.”

China, a populous country with 1.3 billion people, has put the food security on high agenda in its national development planning.

China’s central authorities issued a document on January 31, which calls for pushing forward the industrialization of genetically-modified crops on the basis of scientific appraisal and management in accordance with law.

However, people are concerned with the safety of genetically-modified food.

Wu Yongning, a food safety specialist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said current studies have not proved genetically-modified food harmful to human health.

Wu said that genetically-modified food have to pass scrupulous testing in order to get on shelves, including laboratory and field studies, toxicity and allergy tests.

Besides, health administrations will establish a system to monitor and report adverse effects, said Wu.

“I am not ruling out all possible risks, but those risks of genetically-modified food are no greater than that of traditional ones, given the heavy use of pesticide in growing traditional food,” he said.

Huang Dafang said the genetically-modified food are less vulnerable to insects and diseases, and as a result, fewer pesticide is needed in growing them, which is safer to human beings and the environment.

According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application (ISAAA), about 224,000 tons of pesticide was saved during the decade between 1996 to 2006, thanks to the expansion of genetically-modified planting.

Besides, the reduced workload to pesticide the crops will help ease the labor shortfall in China’s countryside resulted from large population of migrant workers, said Huang. China Daily

But the drawbacks are that it is the result of genetic engineering, and no one is saying what it actually tastes like.

The researchers believe the same process could be applied to other fruits, including bananas and mangoes.

However, the need for extensive safety testing means it will be years before the GM fruits could go on sale in British supermarkets, if ever.

Researchers in India lengthened the life of tomatoes by ‘turning off’ genes linked to the production of ripening enzymes.

This increased firmness and stopped the tomatoes going soft for up to 45 days, according to a report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers, from the National Institute of Plant Genomic Research in New Delhi, said the breakthrough could prove a boon for farmers who lose up to 40 per cent of their fruit to over-ripening.

Dr Asis Datta said: ‘Overall, the results demonstrate a substantial improvement in shelf life.

‘The engineering of plants provides a strategy for crop improvement that can be extended to other important fruit crops.’ The banana, mango and papaya all have a genetic make-up which could be manipulated in this way, Dr Datta added.

But Pete Riley, from the campaign group GM Freeze, said: ‘The majority of the public are very skeptical about the benefits of GM foods and I don’t think that this will do anything to persuade them.

‘We have survived for millennia without needing to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.’

He added that although the GM tomatoes might appear to be fresh for a month and a half, their vitamin content could decline, making them less nutritious than normal varieties.

The researchers in India are not the first to try to use genetics to create healthier or more appealing food. British scientists have created purple tomatoes rich in the antioxidants said to keep cancer at bay.

U.S. scientists have bred pigs whose fat is high in the omega-3 fatty acids thought to combat heart disease. By Fiona Macrae, The Daily Mail

He was speaking after inaugurating the free check up camp for unyielding  cows, on Saturday, at Yadarur village, organised by the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department.
He also informed that the department is supporting the feed and health of the cattle. It has also distributed seeds to grow greens for cattle feed and invited beneficiaries to utilise the facilities.

Veterinary doctors Dr R Nagabhushan Reddy, Dr Prem Kumar, Dr Manjunath Reddy, Dr Beerappa, senior veterinary examiner M Ramakrishna participated.  As many as 116 unyielding cows were treated at the camp. Also 438 sheep and 219 goats were administered de-worming medicine.  Lectures were also delivered to farmers. Deccan Herald

The world will have to increase food output by 70 percent and invest $83-billion annually in developing countries by mid-century, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation said earlier this month. “The problem is such an acute one, doing that sustainably without eroding soil, overusing fertilisers is an enormous challenge,” said the chair of the Royal Society report, Cambridge University’s David Baulcombe.

“There isn’t a lot more land to use,” he told Reuters. “And from the point of expense and using fossil fuels, we want to use less fertiliser.” “The food supply problem is likely to come to a head 10, 20, 30 years from now,” he said, adding this didn’t leave much time given the research lead time to develop new crops.

The answer would be a range of approaches from hi-tech genetically modified crops to low-tech management approaches such as sowing grass around maize to divert pests, as well as preserving the diversity of natural, wild crop varieties.

Farming indirectly, including deforestation, accounts for a third of greenhouse gases, say scientists, underlining the problem of increasing production simply by clearing more land or using more fertilisers, the biggest source of a powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

Britain had to invest an extra 50 to 100 million pounds annually in research to boost innovation in a sector which had lost allure following food over-supply in Europe, the report said. A combination of changing diets, growing population, demand for farmland for biofuels and high energy prices have stoked food prices and renewed interest in agriculture.
Wednesday’s report invoked the successes of the Green Revolution of the 1960s, but aimed for a more sustainable approach. That revolution had more than doubled food output over 30 years but had also degraded soils in some cases. The world must develop over the next 16 years through genetic modification and conventional breeding varieties of crops resistant to disease, drought, salinity, heat and toxic heavy metals, the report said.

Progress in DNA-sequencing had made more plant genes available for engineering, improving the predictability of results in a “second generation” GM approach. “We’re looking at a different base than 10 years ago,” said Baulcombe. A combination of the food crisis and the global economic downturn has pushed more than one billion people into hunger in 2009, UN agencies said last week, confirming a grim forecast released earlier this year.

The Pressure group Greenpeace said GM crops were a costly distraction from tackling hunger through fighting poverty and helping smallholders in developing countries sell their product. “Poverty and hunger are the same thing,” said Marco Contiero, Greenpeace’s European GM policy director, who pointed out that the world already produced enough to feed itself, if that were shared fairly and there was less waste.  By Gerard Wynn, Independent Online

Inaugurating Agri Intex, the annual agriculture exhibition organised by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, he said, “Agriculture should be recognised as a knowledge sector that would adopt high level of technology. And, this technology should be affordable to small farmers.”

Mechanisation should improve efficiency and productivity. Indigenous machinery should be designed and developed for agriculture and horticulture as it would not be possible to import all the machinery for these sectors.

With increasing income levels, the demand for different varieties of food also went up. The demand for fruits, vegetables and processed fruits was increasing. So, the country had to produce these raw materials. “We need more food, feed and fibre,” he said.

Some of the constraints in producing these were limited availability of land, less water, variability in water availability and the impact of climate change. Technology was a solution to the problems faced by the sector. The research activities taken up in universities should reach the farm. There should be a strong connect between research and farmers. Analysis of soil health, macro and micro management of water, investment in technology and infrastructure to handle the agriculture produce were all important aspects.

The urban Indian families were moving towards processed food and this segment would probably grow at a faster rate now than it had earlier. For this, the production should have definite quality standards. The food processing industry should understand the problems and needs of farmers and try to support extension activities, he said.

P. Murugesa Boopathy, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said the seed replacement rate (SRR) achieved for rice was around 60 per cent. For pulses and oil seeds the SRR achieved was low. To improve the SRR, the university had taken up seed production in 32 centres for about 175 varieties.

Sugarcane cultivation was one area where mechanisation was required. The TNAU had displayed at the Agri Intex sugarcane harvesters purchased from Thailand. The university was also concentrating more on domestic and export market intelligence. It collected the market price for 152 commodities from 13 markets in South India and published these on its website www.tnau.ac.in and www.indg.in by 1. p.m.

S.V. Balasubramaniam, Chairman of the Bannari Amman Group of Companies, said that in 2008-2009 the country received almost 23 per cent low rains. The purchasing power of people was high and population was growing. So, the food needs were also going up. “We need to encourage agriculture to meet these demands,” he said. Global warming was a major challenge, he said.

K. Ilango, president of the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, said though India was a growing economy with development in several sectors, many people were still dependent on agriculture. The Agri Intex was started in 2000 and was conducted almost every year. The focus this year was on technology.

D. Balasundaram, Chairman of Agri-Intex 2009, said the exhibition had over 200 stalls occupying nearly 2,600 sq m.

The fair would be on at the CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex till October 5. The Hindu.

The genes, called SNORKEL genes help rice grow longer stems to deal with higher water levels. Deep water rice generally produces lower yield rice plants. But the researchers report they have succeeded in introducing the genes to rice varieties that are higher yield.

According to the report, as water levels rise, accumulation of the plant hormone ethylene activates the SNORKEL genes, making stem growth more rapid. When the researchers introduced the genes into rice that does not normally survive in deep water, they were able to rescue the plants from drowning. Motoyuki Ashikari, who headed the project, said his team is hoping to use the gene on long grain rice widely used in Southeast Asia to help stabilize production in flood prone areas where rice with the flood-resistant gene is low in production-about one-third to one-quarter that of regular rice.

“Scientifically, the gene that we found is rare but a clear proof of a biological ability to adapt to a harsh environment,” he said. “Its a genetic strategy specifically to survive flooding.”

Ashikari said his team already successfully tested the gene on a Japanese ‘Japonica’ rice, and his team now plans to create a flood resistant long grain rice in three to four years for use in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Cambodia. High water levels in paddies can be a serious problem. In some areas, rains can cause water levels to rise dangerously high during the growing season and flash flooding can fully submerge plants for days or even weeks.

“The study is significant because high-yield rice varieties cannot survive extremes of inundation,” said Laurentius ACJ Voesenek, of the Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University. “The introduction of (these genes) into high-yielding varieties using advanced breeding strategies, promises to improve the quality and quantity of rice produced in marginal farmlands,” he said in a review of the paper, also published in Nature.