No-nonsense, no-frills news stories from around the world
EarthRenew Inc, a Canadian fertilizer company supporting regenerative agriculture practices, today published positive results from its previously announced field trial collaboration between the company’s subsidiary, Replenish Nutrients, Lethbridge College, and Biome Makers. The company says its product Rebuilder showed in trials to boost the production of healthier potatoes free from common defects.
HZPC says in a recent news article that the company’s growers know it better than anyone: a healthy soil is crucial for good potato growing. But a healthy soil offers more. It contributes to all the main pillars of HZPC in the field of sustainability. The talk HZPC had with grower Pieter Klaas Westerhuis from Usquert in Groningen, the Netherlands confirms this: “We don’t want to leave any problems behind for the next generation to solve”.
Adrian Saenz presented last week during the Potato Business Summit, held in conjunction with Potato Expo 2022. Saenz is currently the Division Business Manager for the John Deere Agricultural & Turf Division within Deere. During his presentation, titled “Ag Technology Outlook”, Adrian Saenz highlighted the importance – and abundance – of data that modern commercial farmers are able to gather via technological means nowadays.
Organised by Scotland’s Rural College, the 23nd annual conference of the SAC Association of Potato Producers (SACAPP) will take place on Wednesday January 26, 2022. The conference will be virtual only due to COVID restrictions, according to the organisers. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Finding a new direction for the potato industry’.
The global potato market is tight on supply and farm-level spud prices for Idaho farmers are up substantially. But so are farm input costs and, with prices for other Idaho crops also up significantly, many Idaho potato farmers may be faced with some tough planting decisions in 2022, writes Sean Ellis of the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation.
Today, Decco U.S. Post-Harvest, Inc. the post-harvest affiliate of UPL Limited, announces the launch of Decco DMN Aerosol at the 2022 Potato Expo in Anaheim. Decco adds the new EPA-registered product to its growing potato storage portfolio available across North America.
“As a conservation farmer, the practices we use on our farm are allowing us to ‘kidnap carbon’ from the atmosphere and store it in our soil. This makes me a better farmer. The practice of carbon farming supports my efforts to grow more food and help the environment at the same time,” writes Andre-Figueiredo Dobashi in this article published by Global Farmer Network. The article is titled “I’m a conservation farmer who kidnaps carbon for good”.
Bayer, Bushel and Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently unveiled Project Carbonview. It is to enable farmers to report, analyze and better assess their end-to-end supply chain carbon footprint. Bayer says that it is a first-of-its-kind technology solution that will help farmers in the United States drive more sustainable supply chains and mitigate the impact agriculture has on the environment by aggregating the carbon footprint of end products.
New, independently-run market research has revealed that growers are committed to growing potatoes in the future, despite the identified challenges of crop protection losses and increased disease and pest pressures. In addition to fungicides and tuber treatments, BASF will be bringing to market a pre-emergence herbicide and a biological for wireworm damage.
A new practical guide to assessing soil carbon promises to answer British farmers’ key questions at a time when many are looking to understand their soil health. The guide lists and answers key questions for robust on-farm monitoring of soil carbon and associated indicators of soil health.
Due to the success of implementing and reporting on marketing activities in previous years, Potatoes USA’s Market Access Program (MAP) funding from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) increased for the 2022-2023 marketing year. According to a study in 2016, MAP provides $28 in export gains per $1 spent by the government and industry on international market development.
Canadian growers harvested a record potato crop in 2021, as production rose 18.2% year over year to 123.1 million hundredweight, on account of increases in both seeded area and yield, according to a report released by Statistics Canada today. Alberta reported the highest average yield across Canada, followed by New Brunswick (+47.4% to 350.0 hundredweight per acre) and Prince Edward Island (+33.0% to 334.4 hundredweight per acre).
Speaking at BP2021, Eric Anderson, of Scottish Agronomy, warned growers in the Scottish seed potato sector about the challenges presented in 2021 – emphasising that minimising the handling and damage of the seed in grading pre-treatment is always important.
Mike Abram presents an insightful review of three popular so-called whole-farm carbon calculators in an article for Farmers Weekly in the UK . A few farmers tested the overall scope and structure of the calculators, all of which cover arable and livestock enterprises. The tools assessed were: Farm Carbon Toolkit, Agrecalc, and the Cool Farm Tool.
Farming has been recognised for the key role it can play in helping the UK meet its net zero emissions target by 2050, with individual farmers being encouraged to do their bit. There’s no magic bullet or one-size-fits-all approach, say experts, who highlight that we will need a multitude of different options to both reduce emissions and capture or store carbon in soils and woodlands.
A global shortage of nitrogen fertilizer is driving prices to record levels, prompting North America’s farmers to delay purchases and raising the risk of a spring scramble to apply the crop nutrient before planting season, according to a report by The Guardian. Global nitrogen fertilizer sales were worth $53bn in 2020, and prices are at least 80% higher so far this year, according to Argus Media.
The cost price for the cultivation of ware potatoes has risen explosively, so contract prices have to rise sharply. The costs are approaching 10,000 euros per hectare, according to a report by Fenneke Wiepkema for the Dutch publication Akkerwijzer. Contract prices must therefore rise by at least 5 cents per kg in order to be of interest for growers, says the Dutch Arable Farming Union (NAV).
A global shortage of fertilisers is driving up food prices and leaving poorer countries facing crisis, says the boss of a major fertiliser firm. Svein Tore Holsether, chief executive of Yara International, told the BBC higher gas prices were pushing up fertiliser costs and affecting food prices worldwide.
A blue, potato-shaped sensor for in-store monitoring of potato crops and an app that estimates your potential crop yield from a photo and a blue mat have been launched by Metos UK at the recent British Potato event. Inside the blue tuber-shaped SolAntenna are sensors to measure and track temperature, humidity and CO2 levels in store.
It’s clearly understood that improved farm productivity is good for business and more recently, for carbon. But the challenge has always been how to measure the cost of producing a particular crop with regards to carbon. Hutchinsons’ new Omnia Carbon cost of production tool has been designed to tackle just this,
While potato farmers in the Columbia Basin could call on all the water they needed during this year’s drought, the heat still posed risks and has left its mark on this year’s potato crop. “Yield is down, and quality is also down,” said Adam Weber of Weber Farms near Quincy. He said the heat was to blame for the drop in yields and quality. “It’s 10% down, though it varies with varieties,” he said.
Fera (Fera Science Ltd) is pleased to announce that it has been named a finalist for the Potato Review’s National Potato Industry Awards under the category of Innovation. This year’s submission focusses on the work that the in-house Nematology team have done to develop a new commercial test that can provide valuable management information on soil health and the wider cropping system.
After a very wet summer in Europe, slow and difficult harvesting conditions were experienced in Belgium, Holland and Germany during the 2021 cropping season. Depending on countries and sub regions, gross yields were mostly average to good, but net yields will be lower due to a considerable amount of losses in fields and in storage. Production cost have gone up for farmers.
