Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has announced Headline Inflation for the year ending October 2015 has increased to 8.8% compared to 7.2% recorded the year ending September 2015.
Source: Uganda Inflation Rises Above Eight Percent – allAfrica.com
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has announced Headline Inflation for the year ending October 2015 has increased to 8.8% compared to 7.2% recorded the year ending September 2015.
Source: Uganda Inflation Rises Above Eight Percent – allAfrica.com
Posted in Agribusiness
Tagged africa, agribusiness, agricultural economics, agriculture, allafrica, ubos, Uganda
We would like to share this interesting article we found on the World Economic Website about how irrigation could affect climates…do not miss it and give us your opinion about it.
http://agenda.weforum.org/2015/09/how-does-irrigation-affect-climates/
Posted in Agribusiness
Tagged agribusiness, agriculture, Arid climates, climates, Irrigation
Questions of an expert for a good Business Plan
http://www.fwi.co.uk/business/8-business-plan-questions-answered-by-farm-finance-expert.htm
via Farmers Weekly http://www.fwi.co.uk
We do not want any of you to miss this interesting post we just found… How tablets and mobile devices with plant clinics can be helpful to improve crops. http://www.hivisasa.com/machakos/agriculture/151566/sponsored-plant-clinics-help-improve-yields-machakos
Posted in Agribusiness, agroeconomics, Kenya
Tagged africa, agribusiness, agriculture, agrotechnology, modern agriculture
Today we´d like to share with all you this very interesting article we just found on the Agriculture Worldwatch Blog. It tries to make us aware of how important is to know what our body needs to stay healthy and how and where to find it…
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/reconnecting-people-with-local-farms-and-sustainable-foods-globally/
A very comprehensive and realistic SWOT Analysis has been carried out and published by the Montlpellier Panel, a group of reputed experts on agriculture, trade, sustainability and global development. The Panel is working together to make recommendations to enable better European government support of national and regional agricultural development and food security priorities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Let´s have a look to their findings:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
• A lack of coherent, cross-ministerial policies and leadership on agriculture
• Poor incentives for small business investment
• Access to input and output markets is often weak
• Average cereal yields are only one ton per hectare
• The predominant rainfed agriculture is vulnerable to unreliable and unpredictable rainfall
• Total agricultural R&D spending in Africa grew at only 1.9% between 2000 and 2008, although there is wide variability between countries
• African soils are heavily degraded and depleted of nutrients
• Tenure over more than 90% of land remains outside the formal legal system in Africa and is therefore at risk of dispossession.
• Agricultural mechanisation is poorly developed
Opportunities:
Threats:
Definitely, any plan to tackle the problem of food production in Africa cannot be simplistic, but to include actions from a very broad number of areas simultaneously. However, I would like to highlight a very clear conclusion derived from this analysis -in alignment with other similar reports-, and this is how important is for the future of a successful growth of agriculture in Africa the extensive implementation of those technologies of irrigation, crop protection and climate control, like greenhouses, which could be denominated as “modern” in the african context, though are long time existing in other parts of the world.
We don´t have to invent the wheel, we don´t have to test, but simply to transfer technology and know-how that are easily available and which results are predictably.
It may sound awkward at first glance, but serious research are being carried out around the changes of the magnetic fields of the Earth and findings lead to a potential link with climate change. If so, no need to say that it would affect agriculture too.
The origin of these investigations are on the interest to predict the changes on the North-South magnetic axis with the time. We know since long ago that the North magnetic pole doesn´t coincide with the geographic North pole, because the magnetic one changes continuously. This variation (magnetic declination) is very small, but it´s still sufficient to have to be considered in maps, charts, navigational methods and instruments. Even in the GPS era, the magnetic compass is still an essential tool in ships, planes and for many travelers.
We also know, that the mentioned variation isn´t stable. The changes can be predicted for short periods of time (well, some years, actually), but the change is capricious: it doesn´t match with a fix pattern. So it cannot be predicted for longer term periods. The reasons? The number one leads to the Earth nucleus, an apparently unstable “ambient” that determines heavily the magnetic fields of our planet.
Now, some researches carried out by analyzing the orientation of magnetic particles contained in samples of soil extracted from certain locations, revealed that the magnetic poles of the planet have changed their position so much in the past, that they even were on opposite positions to where them are now.
Yet it´s true that it took many thousand years “the travel”, it is also true that scientists are finding some acceleration in the changes in the last years.
The correlation between the trace of temperature evolution, obtained from glacier age samples, and that of the magnetic fields variation, is well studied and unveils that big changes in climate -like desertifications and glaciations- are always linked. It´s a proven fact.
And what is the connection of Earth magnetic field with climate?
It´s not yet clear which one causes changes in the other.
Well, on one side, the magnetic fields act as a shield protecting the Earth surface from the “impact” of high energy particles which may cause some disruption in elements such as the electric power grid, problems in air communications, and reduction of the life of geostationary satellites -like those governing the GPS system-, among others. But another effect of these particles reaching the surface of the planet, either ground or oceans, is heat transfer and, thus, temperature change, so its variations activate a chain reaction in the complex climate mechanism.
On a different line, some scientist refer to the solar particles affecting what they call “cloud seeds” -other particles which act as aggregators of vapor molecules and start up cloud formation-; so, the variation in the magnetic shield would influence the amount of clouds in the atmosphere.
Other theory is that changes in the heating of the core of the planet and the transmission of heat through the mantle and its layers, cause climate change and, obviously, in the magnetic fields too.
Maybe at the end of the day, men and modernity may not be the real reason -or at least not completely- of the alleged global warming that we are experiencing.
PD: Shall we have to use a compass to predict the weather tomorrow?
Dear all,
Find below some key figures that help to figure out in our minds a broad picture of essential facts of world agriculture.
So, did you know that…
(Source: FAO)
To me, all the above mentioned clearly shows:
What do you think?
Our civilization faces a great challenge: for the next 40 years we have to double the food output from our farms if we want the expected 9 billion people living then to be properly fed.
If that was not challenging enough, let´s add the restricted availability of the key ingredient: water. Not only an issue of quantity, but of the environmental impact that would cause having to double the volume of water that we currently use in agriculture.
Conclusion: we need to produce more (a lot more) with less (water among other inputs).
Obviously, this is a very simplistic and partially focused introduction of a much more complex subject. But this is enough to highlight the great relevance that should play the two means of production that we discuss on this post:
Irrigation systems must become an indispensable and omnipresent actor in farms all across locations, like Africa and other underdeveloped regions, as much as it is today in the most advanced agricultural regions, like Europe and North America.
Rain-fed crops are no longer an option for the assurance of food supply to 9 billion people. Irrigating crops by traditional inundation practice, isn´t either a sustainable option. Only systems like drip irrigation and spray are seen as a viable alternative that can ensure a great increase in output production while preserving the natural reserves of water.
Efficiency of existing irrigation systems is big, but it´s expected that most evolved systems, like hydroponics, only implanted in the western world, do expand their presence and become the standard in those regions where today rain is the first irrigation system. With systems that require an extraction of water equivalent only to that the plants incorporate to their cells, plus the loses on evapotranspiration, we ensure that only the strictly necessary water is used. Efficiency at top level.
Greenhouses provide a big range of advantages to horticulture. Yet cereal crops are excluded, there´s still a big stake of the food diet that can be grown under protected environment.
The protection from weather and pest risks, provides outstanding conditions to multiply the yield of all crops by several times the standard in outdoor conditions in the same surface; crops can be grown during a longer period of the year (even the whole of it in some cases); the losses of production due to quality damages are minimized; the demand of inputs like water, fertilizers and agrochemicals is lower per kg of product obtained; the use of pesticides can be minimized or eradicated much more easily than in outdoor crops.
Add to all that the possibility to modify and control the interior climate conditions according to each crop, and the output is boosted.
The combination of Greenhouses and modern Irrigation Systems represent a mix of highest efficiency, and as such, them should play a significant role in the development of a new model of sustainable agriculture in those regions of the planet, where current practices are completely unviable to ensure food supply in the coming decades.
We are not facing a problem of having to solve a technological challenge; the existing technology is good enough and still evolves and improves day by day. What we face is a double challenge:
This is the video launched by AGROLUTION http://www.agrolution.com to introduce the range of services that provides for the development of agribusiness in Africa.
Posted in Agribusiness
Tagged africa, agribusiness, agriculture, Agronomy, Arid climates, Business Opportunities, Food Production, food security, Greenhouses, Irrigation, Learning, Management, Packing, Technology, Water