Drive to attract more to farming. NFU vice-president Paul Temple said: "A life on the land in the 21st century is not just about muddy wellies and dirty finger nails. Drive to attract more to farming. Pick up a copy to see if your views have been published. The page is still readable. A PUBLICITY drive to attract young people to careers in agriculture was launched today. The National Farmers' Union wants more school-leavers to consider working on the land. This article:...

Satish Lele, Member of FICCI core group on biofuels and author of Biodiesel from Jatropha, says that since commercial production of biodiesel has not yet taken off in the country, it will be difficult to produce biodiesel for 5 per cent blending with diesel now, let alone 20 per cent by the end of 2012. Beyond petroleum While it is possible to extract biofuels from diverse crops such as sugar, corn, and maize, Indians need to focus on a biofuel programme that best suits our environment,...

Plans to allow genetically modified crops to be grown throughout Europe have been shelved amid fears of a public backlash against "Frankenstein foods" Officials were forced to drop plans to produce a penicillin-resistant GM potato after it became clear that a bloc of countries led by Austria, Greece and Luxembourg would vote against it. The European Commission has failed to find enough support for its plans to lift a nine-year-old freeze on GM crops being grown on a commercial basis....

farmers produce more food than any other country in the world and are tops in corn, soybeans, milk and cattle, according to a United Nations agriculture census. Within the next decade those older farmers will be looking for someone to take over their operations and selling millions of acres of land. At the same time, it's becoming more costly for young people to go into farming, and many of them see that they can make a better living by leaving the rural areas. Pennsylvania, Connecticut...

Thankfully, Sidwell said, many farmers took out crop insurance when they planted last fall, fearing another drought year. Anderson said he figured about 30 percent of the wheat around Garber had been cut, but he said that 30 percent represents about 70 percent of the total crop that will be harvested. The guys who have insurance will probably try to adjust out. Sidwell said farmers had sprayed to protect crops from pests and disease and that also has cost them. With test weights so low and...

Most of Africa, excluding South Africa, missed out on the green revolution of the sixties and remain sluggish in adopting biotech crops, thereby running the risk of losing out on the gene revolution. Neither plant variety protection (PVP) systems nor modern biotechnology offer miracle solutions to food insecurity and malnutrition in Africa; yet, they offer meaningful tools for enhancing food production and alleviating poverty. On the positive side, considerable efforts over the past decade...