AgricultureUse of organic fertiliser to be increased
Attempt to increase crop yield and curb harmful side effects of chemical fertiliser
The Ministry of Agriculture is to promote the use of organic fertiliser to help increase crop yield as well as curb harmful side effects of chemical fertilisers.
Ministry of Agriculture Additional Secretary S. Amatiyagoda said that last week Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena met with professors, medical doctors and other officials to discuss the issue of chronic kidney problems affecting a large number of people in the Rajarata area due to the use of chemical fertilisers.
Putting nature back into agriculture
FAO launches ‘Save and Grow farming model’
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) yesterday announced the launch of a major new initiative intended to produce more food for a growing world population in an environmentally sustainable way.
FAO’s call for sustainable crop production intensification, more than half a century after the Green Revolution of the 1960s, is contained in a new book, Save and Grow published by FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division.
Goldman Sachs to launch commodities index
Reuters: Goldman Sachs is to launch a commodities index with Clive Capital, the world’s largest commodity hedge fund, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing a source familiar with the product. The index will aim to minimise the risk of large losses by changing its exposure to individual commodities over time, the newspaper said, adding that Goldman has started marketing the index to its clients.
Years of work loom to save world wheat from fungus
Reuters: A devastating wheat fungus is active in 11 countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to scientists striving to develop resistant varieties before the fungus can attack fields around the globe.
Up to 90 per cent of the world’s wheat is susceptible to the strain of stem rust, called Ug99, first detected in Uganda in 1999. The oval, brick-red lesions of stem rust sap wheat plants and cut yields by 50 to 70 per cent over wide areas and can destroy entire fields.
Dubai looks to bag top spot as tea goes green
By Amal Jayasinghe
DUBAI (AFP): Exotic and organic teas are wooing tea drinkers and challenging traditional black tea’s dominance as never before, tea industry experts say, as a tea factory in Dubai bids to become the world’s largest.
The shift in global tea-drinking trends is felt at the Jebel Ali Free Zone, despite it being more than 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) from the nearest tea bushes in the lush misty mountains of South Asia and East Africa.
India allows over 100,000 tonnes of flour export to Maldives till FY14
New Delhi (PTI): The government today allowed export of over 1 lakh tonnes of wheat flour to Maldives till 2013-2014 fiscal, under the bilateral trade pact.
“Now, the quantity of wheat flour is permitted to be exported for the years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 to Maldives under the Bilateral Trade Agreement between India and the Republic of Maldives through (state-owned trading firm) MMTC,” the Director General Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification.
In 2011-12, 32,095 tonnes of wheat flour would be exported to Maldives, it said.
Expolanka upgrades lentils splitting plant with $1 m expansion
Expolanka Commodities Ltd., Expolanka Holdings’ import and entrepot trading arm, announced the upgrading of its lentils splitting plant due to an increasing demand both locally and internationally, in the first phase of its expansion drive.
The first round of expansion plans, amounting to a $ 350,000 upgrading of the plant, now gives Expolanka Commodities a fully automated lentils splitting plant.
Compulsory use of plastic crates in question
By Shezna Shums
Vegetable and fruits traders complain that the use of plastic crates increases their final cost of produce, making them impractical for small time traders.
Manning Market Podu Velenda Sangamaya Secretary Gamini Handunge said that they had met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and explained their problems and had been told that the use of plastic crates would be in effect unless civilians find it difficult to use the plastic crates, in which case their use would be discontinued.
Best green tea from Free Lanka Capital Holdings
A subsidiary company of Free Lanka Capital Holdings PLC (FLCH), Melfort Green Teas (Pvt) Ltd., one of the leading manufacturers of green tea in Sri Lanka, has made its mark around the globe as the producers of the finest quality purest green tea and has reached the position of market leader.
With green tea being widely accepted throughout the globe as a health drink with no less than 25 health benefits, Melfort Green Tea has successfully established itself in the niche market looking for a high quality product.
Czarnikow sees 10.3 mln t sugar surplus ‘11/12
- Cuts ‘10/11 deficit forecast due strong Thai output
- Sees prospect that depleted global stocks will rise
- Sees lobal sugar consumption up 2 pct in 2012
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) – Czarnikow on Friday forecast a global sugar surplus of 10.3 million tonnes in 2011/12, as growers increase plantings to take advantage of high prices, after a small deficit of 0.5 million tonnes in 2010/11.
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