Britain backs Zimbabwe to help rural farmers

Harare | Reuters — Britain has given Zimbabwe about C$92 million to help increase food production by rural farmers over the next four years, as the southern African country faces the prospect of poorer harvests this year due to inadequate rains. Once the breadbasket of the region, Zimbabwe has since 2000 struggled to feed its


World food prices fall in January, rally seen unlikely

Rome | Reuters — World food prices are unlikely to rise much from their four-year slump as long as high production, low oil prices and limited import demand continue, a senior economist for the United Nations’ food agency said Thursday. The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) global food price index fell in January, continuing



New FAO chief says food prices may ease in 2012

Jose Graziano da Silva, the Brazilian who replaced Senegal’s Jacques Diouf at the helm of the FAO at the start of 2012, said volatility in food markets was likely to continue and that, “Prices will not be going up as in the sense of the last two to three years but will also not drop

In Brief… – for Jun. 23, 2011

Ethanol vote fails:A proposal to end subsidies for the U.S. ethanol industry failed a key vote in the Senate June 14. The Senate voted 59 to 40 against limiting debate on the measure from Republican Tom Coburn that would have ended the federal ethanol tax credit and the tariff on ethanol imports before they were


The Climate Change Conundrum

ith the June 20 crop insurance past, farmers and their crop insurance agents are pulling on their galoshes to assess the W damages from yet another spring with too much water. Cattle producers are worrying about winter feed supplies as they watch flood waters inundate their hayfields. We are told this year is one for

Scientists Race To Avoid A Bitter Climate Change Harvest

Charlie Bragg gazes across his lush fields where fat lambs are grazing, his reservoirs filled with water, and issues a sigh of relief. Things are normal this year and that’s a bit unusual of late. His 7,000-acre farm near the Australian town of Cootamundra is testament to the plight facing farmers around the globe: increasingly


N. Korea Must Step Up Fight On Foot-And-Mouth — FAO

North Korea’s capacity to detect and contain outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in livestock needs significant strengthening, the UN food agency FAO and the world animal health body OIE said Mar. 24. The FAO and the OIE, which sent a joint mission in the reclusive communist state in late February-early March, said FMD cases have been

FAO Head Wants New Commodity Rules

Market deregulat ion since 1999 has fuelled speculation on commodities markets, and that needs to be corrected to curb food price volatility, the head of FAO said Feb. 3. “We have created an environment that allows pure speculation,” FAO director general Jacques Diouf told Reuters Insider. “This is something that would require the necessary corrections