US launches new mobile project for farmers, fishermen in KPK

The United States, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), launched a new pilot project to introduce mobile enabled advisory and financial services for peach and potato farmers and fishermen in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
As a result of this project, over 1,700 small and medium sized farms and 15,000 people in Swat will gain access to mobile banking.  With information and financing more readily available, farmers can learn practices to increase their crop yields, gain increased access to markets, and conduct efficient and safe financial transactions. “This pilot initiative will provide a platform to establish the basis and modalities for the promotion of mobile enabled advisory and financial services in the agriculture sector, starting with the peach, potato and fisheries sectors of Swat,” said USAID’s Mission Director Gregory Gottlieb at the Islamabad event.  “As the economic return from offering these services to remote farmers is calculated, it will promote the sustainability of continued support for farmers that can potentially lead to a reduction in wastage and higher prices and an increase in access to new markets,” he added.
Shahi Rome, a peach farmer from Swat said, “We need weather updates in order to be informed about possible rain or hail storms so we can decide in time when to spray and irrigate. Through timely information my efforts and investment will not be wasted.” Working in partnership with USAID through its Firms Project, the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will provide advisory and market information, and Telenor Pakistan – one of the largest telecom service providers in Pakistan – will provide technological assistance for the mobile service. USAID Mission Director Gregory Gottlieb,
Minister for Agriculture and Information Technology, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shahram Khan Tarrakai, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Syed Ismail Shah and Director and Head of Products & Financial Services, Telenor Pakistan, Khurram Malik attended the launch of the pilot project and spoke at the event.
The initial phase of the project will test the commercial viability of private sector enterprises, including multinational corporations, to launch similar services in other sectors and regions of Pakistan. USAID’s Firms Project is part of a comprehensive US economic growth assistance programme which includes expanding irrigation by 200,000 acres to spur farming near Gomal Zam and Satpara Dams, and increasing the incomes of 250,000 farmers and female agricultural workers through training and increased access to market networks, which allows them to earn more for the crops that they grow.

Source: The Nation

MODERN AGRICULTURE-HOW TO PROCEED

Ali Ahsan Bajwa, Dr. Muhammad Farooq, Usman Zulfiqar

Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040.Pakistan
http://www.agrinfobank.com 

I guess change is the only constant in world. Everything has to change with time sooner or later. Agriculture is one of the most important and old occupations. People used to grow crops and rear animals to meet their food and accommodation requirements since ancient times. These requirements have climbed enormously with the passage of time. Agriculture has changed and is still changing with modern trends of time. Modern agriculture is quite different from conventional one. Previously lands were disturbed with bullocks and seeds were dispersed by hands. A person used to grow grains and grasses on small piece of land by adding dunghill of his domestic animals to feed his family and the same animals. Milk, meat and eggs were available at the cost on-farm produced grains and forage. Groundwater was sweet enough to drink, to bath and to grow crops and vegetables. Yields far below than present levels, were sufficient to feed farming community and to earn necessary money through give and take trading system. Lands were blackish with maximum organic matter and crop produce was pure and healthy. Incidence of diseases in plants and animals were not as much frequent and severe as now. Meanwhile, people were contended with lesser income and profits. Environment was safe due to the absence of agro-chemicals, synthetic fertilizers, growth regulators, heavy machinery, industry and luxury. This was the story of old agriculture which is not prevalent anymore because of elevated levels of population, increased urbanization, industrialization, commercialization, rising desire for money and eagerness for so-called “modernization”.

Threats:

Modern agriculture in my opinion is a broad spectrum term covering all the advances being used in agriculture to enhance per unit production and per capita availability of food. It relates to the production process and marketing regimes. Modern agriculture requires heavy inputs along with mechanization to ensure maximum production. The process of crop production begins from sowing. The manipulation of soil for the provision of good environment to plants is necessary. This process of soil tillage and its intensity in modern agriculture is of key importance. It has been common practice to cultivate, shuffle and level the soil intensively at frequent basis. It is inevitable as people are trying to get more crops per year and then more production of each crop. Keeping in mind the fact that all the nutrients required to crop has to be taken up from soil, disturbance of soil becomes first priority. The same soil which was strong enough to provide essential elements to plants previously has become deficient of all. It is because of increased intensity of crops. Cropping intensity of Pakistan has increased from 25% to 150%. This much exploitation of soil has made it less fertile and less productive. People are trying to explore maximum potential and maximum crops from a unit area. Most of the time crops cultivated are exhaustive in nature. It means modern agriculture has also deviated from basic principles like planned crop rotations. There is no such involvement of restorative crops indeed. http://www.agrinfobank.com

Trend of monocropping has introduced the problems of specific weed flora development, insect-pests attacks, diseases incidence, weeds herbicide resistance, micronutrients deficiency and reduction in yield. Salient feature of modern agriculture is the maximum use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, growth regulators, soil conditioners, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, nematocides and wormicides. I refer “homicidal” as single but comprehensive word for all these. These are being added to the environment without any check just to have a quick control of problematic agents in crops. The farmer who was once reluctant to adopt these “poisons” has embraced the luxury and is blindly using all these. We are ridiculously feeding the earth with poisons to get blessings in the form of food grains, fruits and vegetables. Perhaps modern age has scratched the saying “as you sow, so shall you reap” from our greedy brains. Same dismal picture is for all natural sources like water, air, light, forests, deserts, mountains, flora, fauna and biodiversity. Modern man with its modern agriculture is playing havoc with all these beauties. Land is being degraded through accelerated erosion, salinity, waterlogging fertility loss. Ground water is no fit for irrigation because of more soluble salts and heavy metals in it. Rivers, lakes and oceans are being awarded with industrial effluents, agro-chemicals, municipal wastes and bio-excreta. Non-judicious use of farm machinery has increased fuel consumption, green house gases (GHGs) emission and soil degradation simultaneously. Oxides of N, O₂, C and S are being released through agro-ecosystem in biggest proportion which cause the haunting catastrophe of modern age, global warming. This mechano-chemical setup has induced drastic changes around the globe.

Global temperature is rising furiously, glaciers are melting and floods are coming. Rainfall patterns are changing that cause alternate flooding and drought onsets. Heat, cold, drought and submergence stresses are affecting the very same crop production due to which they prevails. Our needs have compelled us to apply the same irrational formula of production on livestock, poultry and fishery sectors. Factory-farming of meat and milk animals is also the “blessing” of modern agriculture. It is again due to increased food requirements. Animals are reared at sub-standard health conditions at commercial basis. High use of synthetic feed and regulators irrespective the animal health and requirement is done. It is an immoral way to fulfill food requirements by human-beings. Utilization of such chemicals offer sub-optimal conditions for animals and influence their health severely.

No doubt, science has gifted us modern technologies. These facilitate and provide ease, efficiency and perfection in agricultural processes. But the intensity, timing and frequency of their use make them blessing or calamity. In modern day agriculture focus is on resource exploitation, energy exploration, production enhancement and profit maximization. Food quality management, environmental protection, economic stability, moral obligations, natural resource conservation and system sustainability has been given secondary importance. This is injustice with us, coming generations and nature.

Suggested solutions:

My knowledge is poor, my abilities are fragile, my intellect is faint and my experience is small but my sense of realization of this matter is bigger than me. That realization is key for thinking about solution. Being an agrarian I have some simple but pragmatic points that can help in this regard:

• Immediate adoption of resource conservation technologies
• Start moving towards conservation agriculture slowly but surely
• Adopt sustainable measures in farming
• Proper but minimum use of agro-chemicals along with mechanical, manual and cultural approaches to control agricultural pests may help a lot
• Ecological options like cover crops, intercropping and true crop rotations must be considered
• Agricultural lands should not be devoted for industry or urban settlements
• Water bodies must be protected and addition of drain’s water, industrial effluents and municipal wastes should be strictly banned
• Agro-forestry should be promoted to enhance sustainability and biodiversity
• Use of natural products, manures and amendments should be encouraged
• Integrated approaches must be adopted. As we can neither reduce our population nor leave modern agriculture but decrease in use of harmful technologies and increase in use of natural options is possible. So, integrated weed management (IWM), integrated pest management (IPM), integrated disease management (IDM) and integrated nutrient management (INM) can make modern agriculture safe and suitable.
• Proper policy making and then fair implementation is very much necessary
• Action plans should be developed by research organizations, extension wing and educational institutes to discourage harmful practices of modern agriculture
• Awareness must be provoked in farming communities in this regard
• Influence of low standard pesticide companies in rural areas must be restricted
• Focused and comprehensive research is much needed to develop resource efficient techniques, to frame sustainable practices, to modify cropping schemes and cropping rotations, to improve farming systems and to reinforce natural phenomena
• Improved cultural practices (ICPs), recommended crop husbandry practices (RCHCs), on-farm management practices (OMPs) and good agricultural practices (GAPs) are collectively key to success and must be adopted
• Consistent efforts with logical modifications are pre-requisite for a better production system http://www.agrinfobank.com

Modern agriculture is not a bad thing at all and we cannot shift towards the agriculture of our fathers. But some poor management is governing us to the destruction which we can stop easily by adopting above mentioned rules. It could be a safe agriculture within the same resources, conditions and requirement just through better management. It is need of the hour to regulate our farming practices once again for secure future of us and our coming generations. I believe it’s the time to take these issues seriously and to make our mind for certain changes. A crucial initiative in this regard is required somewhere from government, research organizations or farming community. Someone has to break the ice and to embark upon the expedition of reform. Changing political and organizational setups will not help unless or until we decide to move with this enlightened vision.

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Public Works: Vertical Farming

By Patrick Metzger

A new breed of urban farm visionaries says "Go big, or go home."

You’ve likely heard of the 100 mile diet: sourcing all your food from farmers within 100 miles of home. But what if you could keep the kids in comestibles from a farm a couple of subway stops away?

In recent years, awareness of the health and environmental benefits of locally-grown food has spiked, with commensurate increase in demand. Meanwhile, the relentless press of humanity continues to chew up Ontario farmland like a swarm of bipedal locusts, replacing crops with fibreboard townhouses and strip mall 7-11s, while the ghost of Tom Malthus nods with grim satisfaction.

To help supply meet demand, there’s a growing interest in urban farming, both here and around the world. Toronto already boasts more than two hundred community gardens which help supply inexpensive, nutritious food to Torontonians, while also teaching old-school skills to those tilling their hobbit-sized fields.

Still, the output of community gardens is necessarily small. Available land is limited, production is labour-intensive, and distribution is logistically challenging. But what if we could figure out urban food production on an industrial scale? What if we had downtown farms that could feed not just a few households, but whole neighbourhoods?

Welcome to the vertical farm.

A few years back Gordon Graff, a University of Waterloo architecture grad student, proposed a towering urban farm for downtown Toronto. The boldness and novelty of the idea grabbed headlines, but the $1.5 billion price tag failed to attract developer interest.

However, high-rise farming is moving forward elsewhere. Alterrus has begun construction on a 5,700 square foot hydroponic facility atop a parking garage, which will grow leafy green vegetables in a “vertical growing system.” Besides being more efficient space-wise than single-level farms, the company claims their technology produces higher crop yields and uses fewer resources than conventional field agriculture.

On a larger scale, Plantagon, a Swedish company majority-owned by the Onondaga Nation in New York state, has broken ground on their first vertical greenhouse in Linköping, Sweden. Expected to be in production by 2014, the 57 metre (approximately 15 storey) structure (pictured at right) not only grows green, but will use waste CO2 and other outputs from nearby industrial facilities to run the operation.

Plantagon also says that their technology needs only five per cent of the water necessary for crops grown using traditional methods, and being indoors, doesn’t require the use of pesticides.

The Swedish installation is essentially a pilot. Ultimately, Plantagon aspires to building greenhouse skyscrapers that can feed thousands.

But urban industrial farming isn’t all visioneering and pie in the sky. A test farm has been up and running in South Korea since 2011. A larger working vertical farm has been operating since last year in Singapore, and now produces and sells half a ton of vegetables per day.

The idea has its detractors. Skeptics argue the whole idea is unscalable, and that large vertical farms would be insatiable consumers of energy to keep the plants lit, healthy, and harvested—the Plantagon greenhouse will be powered by a diesel generator, surprising for a notionally green installation. They also point to the limited types of crop that can practically be grown in vertical facilities, and to the human labour needed to substitute for machines used on conventional farms.

High rise factory farming may be less bucolic and more Bladerunner than we’d prefer. But with the population of the GTA expected to rise to 9.3 million people by 2036 (and that of the planet to a staggering 9 billion) and urbanization, climate change, and other human folly shrinking existing cropland, Cityplaces full of spinach may be the only thing standing between us and Soylent Green.

 

Source: TorontoIs

 

A. M. Awan
(Author)

About Admin Author:

A M Awan Currently working as Marketing Executive at Oasis Agro Industries Pakistan, and hobbies to read about agriculture, share latest information with others

Mushroom Farming: The Fungal Goldmine

By Muhammad Zeeshan Farid & Dr Amjad Farooq

A global trend in agriculture has been a shift away from simple systems that rely on traditional crops, to those that increasingly seek new varieties of plants that cater to advanced dietary needs. To this end, scientists and growers have recommended several new crops that can augment the spectrum of agricultural produce.

Mushrooms, known locally as “khumbi”, are among this emerging cropping system. Mushrooms are essentially fungi, a group of organisms distinct from plants, animals and bacteria. They convert inedible plant waste into palatable food, which is savoured due to its biting texture and flavour. They form a complete diet as mushrooms contain essential vitamins and minerals, and are the best substitute for protein. They also contain traces of carbohydrates and fat.

Dr Amjad Farooq works as an assistant professor at the Department of Horticulture of the PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi. He explains that, according to estimates, there are more than 1,500 types of mushrooms found on planet earth – some of them are edible, but others are poisonous. The four most popular types are the button or European mushroom, the Japanese mushroom, the Chinese mushroom and the oyster mushroom. The best quality mushrooms available in Pakistan are the oyster mushroom, the white mushroom, the golden oyster mushroom, the phoenix (grey) oyster mushroom and the pink oyster mushroom. These strains grow all over the country, and are available usually after the monsoon season.

Mushrooms can be cultivated between October and March. Cultivation does not require land and can be grown in small houses and huts as a part-time activity. Mushroom cultivation does not require full time-labour, and all family members can look after different operations easily. There are two modes of propagation for a mushroom crop: open-air field cultivation and controlled cultivation.

After seven days of cultivation, small pin-like heads emerge from the mushroom, which turn into more mushrooms after three to five days. Branches which grow five to seven inches long, called flushes, are removed from the plants and dried. These can be used in cooking, or can be sold in the market. Flushes keep regenerating from the plant after every ten days of the removal of old ones: the cycle is very short, and as a result, highly productive.

“A single flush or branch of mushroom can yield more than half a kilogramme (kg) of edible food after each week for three months,” says Dr Muhammad Nadeem, from the Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF).

Thus, 100 beds of mushroom can yield more than 120kg of mushrooms a week. At the rate of Rs150 per kg, they can generate a lump sum profit of Rs18,000 a week, or Rs72,000 in a month. Dr Nadeem says the “production of mushrooms touches approximately 1.5 million tons in the world, while about 90 tons of mushrooms are exported to Europe from Pakistan every year.”

Oyster mushrooms currently sell for around $6 a pound in the US. A growing area of around 200 square feet can produce 800 pounds per crop; or 5,000 pounds of mushrooms per year. This is worth almost $30,000 at current prices. It’s clear that growing oyster mushrooms for profit is a great way to make some extra cash.

However, it should be kept in mind that, given the large variety of poisonous strains of mushrooms, spawn should be developed only under the supervision of experts. It is available at the UAF, the National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute and other government research stations.

Farmers who wish to cultivate mushrooms should book spawn well before the cultivation season, because it may not be readily available during the peak demand period. The UAF laboratory has developed some thermo-tolerant strains of the most widely grown button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) and the oyster mushroom (Pleurotus cystidiosus).

As basic training is required for profitable mushroom cultivation, the Continuing Education Department of the UAF offers a short course suited for farmers. Furthermore, the UAF’s Mushroom Lab can be contacted for guidance and information, and it can give proper suggestions and recommendations to those willing to invest in this lucrative business.

Source: The express tribune

Published on: 10/01/2012

What Is Agribusiness?

In short, agribusiness is the business of farming. However, the word is a loaded term, especially among critics of corporate farming. For people who view large-scale commercial farming negatively, agribusiness is the antithesis of traditional small-scale family farms. For people involved in it, of course, the word is simply a convenient shorthand for saying that one is in the business of agriculture.

Agribusiness includes the production, processing, and supply of agricultural goods that range from lettuce to corn syrup. Companies may focus on things like cut flowers, fresh vegetables, or byproducts of farming such as fuels derived from farm waste. Agribusiness also encompasses farming equipment, machinery, chemicals, suppliers, and personnel. Several large companies control the bulk of the share of business, especially in the United States; this has been a cause for criticism among people who are concerned about monopolies and price fixing.

Several things characterize agribusiness, differentiating it very distinctively from family farming. The first is the scale, which is typically quite large. The second is considerable vertical and horizontal integration. For example, a company might own a facility that processes frozen vegetables, along with a controlling share in farms which produce these vegetables and companies which provide personnel to harvest and transport them. Agribusiness is also distinguished by being run like a true business, with administrators rather than farmers at the helm of companies in the agriculture business.

This highly efficient and streamlined organization allows agribusiness to keep food costs low. This is an important priority for many consumers and governments, who also appreciate its standardization, which is in theory supposed to limit the possibility of food borne contamination and other issues with the food supply.

The rise of agribusiness began in the 20th century, when citizens of countries in the developed world began flocking to their cities, leaving a shrinking population of farmers struggling to meet the demand for food. Over time, agricultural companies arose, using their size and business experience as leverage to create a highly efficient system of farming and transporting agricultural goods. One major criticism of agribusiness is that it has been too successful, driving down price points and forcing small farms out of business as they cannot compete with big firms.

Critics have also expressed concerns about a heavy focus on chemicals to control problems which arise on farms. Pesticides, herbicides, and a variety of pharmaceuticals are all often a big part of agribusiness, for example. It also distances people from the source of their food, as any glance at the produce section at a major market will confirm; rather than meeting food producers, people can purchase grapes from Chile, peppers from Africa, and rice from China.

The Modern Face Of Farming In The UK

John Hutchinson
LPS Special Correspondent

FEW nations have seen such enormous changes in their farming industry as the United Kingdom. Recent decades have not only brought farmers more than their fair share of drought and flood but also powerful new pressures on their livelihoods that their grandfathers, 50 years ago, could never have imagined.

These pressures are generated by the modern world’s economic, environmental and consumer forces that have changed the face of the entire agriculture and food-production industry in the UK.

As a result, the UK’s agricultural and food production and processing technologies have become some of the most advanced and most sought-after in the world. The downside for many farmers is the personal consequences of the inevitable contraction of an industry that once employed millions but now supports a full-time workforce of fewer than 400,000 people.

Today in England, farmers tend an impressive 80% of the country’s 130,000 square kilometres of land and yet the direct economic value of farming in the food they produce is less than 1% of the nation’s gross domestic product.

This tiny proportion hides the real and immeasurable economic value of farming in terms of the raw materials that feed the UK’s major food processing industry, the new generations of energy crops for cleaner fuels, and the enormous benefit for the UK public in the shape of attractive landscapes that provide a fertile field for the growth industry of rural tourism – a sector that today is worth more in economic terms than farming.

Increasingly, these developments are being encouraged not only by government policies in the UK but also by the farming community. Modern farms are getting bigger but profits are dropping and farm incomes are at the lowest levels since the 1930s, while more than 40,000 jobs have been lost in farming in the past two years alone.

Many UK farmers are weathering the storm by becoming more productive. In the past 18 months the total area under crops has increased by 3% to nearly four million hectares, with wheat up by 20% at nearly 1.9 million hectares. At 21 million tonnes, the UK’s wheat and barley harvest marked a 17% increase over 2001.

Cheap grain from the Ukraine has contributed to a drop in grain prices for UK farmers but the UK’s National Farmers’ Union sees a confident future.

The overall wheat market looks promising for UK suppliers, reports a National Farmers’ Union spokesman. World production levels have fallen, especially in the United States, Canada and Australia, while new markets are opening up in north Africa and Asia.

Livestock, overshadowed today by UK’s grain and horticultural sectors, saw reductions of between 2- and 5% in dairy and beef breeding herds. Horticulture, by contrast, is a vibrant and growing feature of UK agriculture, with the UK leading the way internationally in research, development and environmental stewardship. Horticulture output today is worth almost two billion pounds sterling, more than 10% of the total industry.

Farming in UK also contributes strongly to a thriving export business in foodstuffs that rose to more than 4.8 billion pounds in the first six months of 2002 alone.

Defra - the government’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - is striving to help UK farmers survive and prosper, balancing the priorities of ensuring competitively priced food for UK and overseas markets with the need for high standards of safety, environmental care, animal welfare and a sustainable, efficient food chain – while maintaining the essential character of rural communities. Government forecasts point to a 9% growth in farming income this year.

Farmers are also contributing more effectively to government environmental schemes. Direct state ownership of production farms has long since ended but more than 25,000 farmers are now involved in government initiatives and in recent years 400 flourishing farmers’ markets have opened to offer producers scope to sell direct to their customers. Nearly 80,000 farmers and growers are members of farm assurance schemes.

The UK’s leisure and tourist industry, too, is presenting new opportunities for farmers. In the past 20 years an estimated 15,000 farmers have introduced products or services for the leisure market, from big pleasure and educational parks to small-scale facilities for holidaymakers.

Meanwhile the system of state support to food producers is under review with farmers, consumers and the government increasingly anxious to ensure Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) develops as an integrated rural development policy.

Reforms to the policy get the support of UK farmers, although the industry is concerned that changes to the proposed phasing-in of farm support to new member states could affect farmers.

Farmers do not see any major competitive threat arising from the introduction of new member states into the European Union (EU), says the National Farmers’ Union. We broadly agree with the proposed EU position on agriculture in the enlargement talks.

Meanwhile another initiative for UK farmers to grasp is new scope for growing green fuels. Research shows almost one fifth of arable land could be devoted to crops for conversion into bio-fuels.

This promises to be one of the most dramatic shifts in the function of farming in recent history, says the National Farmers’ Union. It will provide new opportunities for farmers and will be excellent news for the environment. With such initiatives, UK agriculture is preparing to look ahead to a cleaner, productive and more stable future.

Source : http://www.agriworld.nl/