Crop Production
Citrus tree disease spreads to Texas
Jan 18, 2012 14:12 EST
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Agriculture inspectors in Texas have detected the plant disease known as citrus greening, bringing to five the number of states where the tree-damaging disease has been confirmed, state and federal officials said on Wednesday.
I. Coast president says cocoa reforms nearly ready
Jan 17, 2012 11:43 EST
Reform of the cocoa industry in world leader Ivory Coast should be implemented by the end of this month, President Alassane Ouattara said Tuesday, with measures to end child labour high on the agenda.
Big Corn, Big Sugar in bitter US row on sweetener
Dec 17, 2011 13:32 EST
Big Corn and Big Sugar are locked in a legal and public relations fight in the US over a plan to change the name of a corn-based sweetener that has gotten a bad name.
Rice Institute calls for cuts in pesticide use
Dec 16, 2011 03:32 EST
Rice farmers should cut the use of pesticides that kill the natural predators of the planthopper, one of the most destructive pests of the key crop, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has said.
Buffett tips his farmer son as next Berkshire chair
Dec 09, 2011 15:00 EST
Mega-billionaire Warren Buffett says his son, a corn farmer, would be a good replacement for him as chairman of his $245 billion investment giant Berkshire Hathaway.
Palm planters blamed for decline of Borneo monkey
Dec 07, 2011 02:14 EST
Expanding palm-oil plantations in Malaysian Borneo are rapidly eating into the habitat of the rare proboscis monkey and causing its numbers to decline sharply, officials warned Wednesday.
Canadian professor mistakenly named Italian minister
Dec 03, 2011 14:15 EST
In the shakeup of Italian politics, a Canadian agronomy professor was mistakenly recruited to be Italy's next junior minister for agriculture, he revealed Saturday.
Bayer CropScience targets non-GMO wheat traits
Nov 29, 2011 03:07 EST
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Bayer's CropScience unit plans to develop new heat- and drought-resistant wheat traits over the next decade without the use of genetic modification, a top executive said on Tuesday.
Myanmar faces uphill task to revive rice sector
Nov 29, 2011 02:50 EST
YANGON (Reuters) - In the first half of the 20th century, when it was known as Burma in Britain's eastern empire, Myanmar and its lush Irrawaddy delta were celebrated as the "rice bowl of Asia," leading the world in rice exports.
French court annuls ban on Monsanto GM crops
Nov 28, 2011 16:10 EST
France's top administrative court on Monday overturned a government order banning French farmers from planting genetically modified crops from the US agriculture giant Monsanto.
Nestle to work with FLA against child cocoa labor
Nov 28, 2011 13:25 EST
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Nestle <NESN.VX> <NTLC.CI> will partner with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to investigate whether children are working on cocoa farms which supply its factories in Ivory Coast, it said in a statement on Monday.
Erratic rains threaten southern Africa food output
Nov 24, 2011 09:12 EST
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Rainfall patterns in southern Africa are becoming erratic as climate change takes its toll, threatening long-term production of staple and cash crops in the region.
Is U.S. farm boom sitting on an ethanol bubble?
Nov 20, 2011 14:37 EST
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Grain farmers in the Midwest may want to pinch themselves.
Japan bans Fukushima rice for radiation
Nov 17, 2011 06:36 EST
Japan on Thursday announced its first ban on rice produced near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant after samples showed radioactive contamination well above legal limits.
EU biofuel target seen driving species loss: study
Nov 16, 2011 12:57 EST
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A European Union target to promote the use of biofuels will accelerate global species loss because it encourages the conversion of pasture, savanna and forests into new cropland, EU scientists have warned.
Cashing in on Egypt's black cloud
Nov 09, 2011 09:14 EST
CAIRO (Reuters)- After the rice harvest each autumn, Egyptians take a deep breath and brace for the "black cloud," a thick layer of smog from burning rice straw that spreads across Cairo and the Nile valley for several weeks.
Mixed grape harvest for winemakers around the globe
Nov 08, 2011 14:54 EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Winemakers around the globe are encountering a mixed 2011 grape harvest with those north of the equator facing challenges, while their southern neighbors have plentiful grapes of good quality.
ADM Q1 profit squeezed by high corn costs
Nov 01, 2011 08:37 EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. agricultural processor Archer Daniels Midland Co <ADM.N> said on Tuesday quarterly net earnings rose from a year ago, but its profits were squeezed by high corn costs and tight oilseed processing margins.
Reformist Japan farmers urge free trade to spur change
Oct 27, 2011 01:27 EDT
MIKAWA, Japan (Reuters) - Like other farmers on this fertile, coastal plain in northeast Japan, where patchwork rice fields stretch to the mountains beyond, Kazushi Saito knows firsthand that the nation's shrinking agricultural sector is in dire straits.
Canadian Wheat Board sues to save its monopoly
Oct 26, 2011 15:08 EDT
The Canadian Wheat Board sued the government on Wednesday to try to stop its plan to end the marketing group's grain cartel, which accounts for 10 percent of global wheat sales.
