No Khat For You
In 2014 the UK banned khat, the stimulant stems and leaves of the tree Catha edulis. In Kenya, it is more commonly known as miraa or veve.
Category: Agriculture
Did the UK Forget that it Can’t Feed Itself?
The situation created by the British vote to leave the European Union is momentous for UK food. It is on a par with the Repeal of the Corn Laws of 1846 when Britain decided its Empire could feed it, not its own farmers.
What’s not to Like about Potash?
We are on the precipice of a food fight among 7 billion people, and potash will be right at the center of it. If you can add 200,000 people every day to the global population and account for a significant loss of farmland at the same time, you can begin to understand the dire food situation facing the planet. This is why potash is so important: It’s the fundamental element that everyone takes for granted, despite the fact that a projected 7.7 billion lives will depend upon it by 2020.
Selectively Opting Out of GM Crops
In the US, farmers have been cultivating crops with genetically engineered traits since the 1990s and their use – and consumption – is widespread. That’s not the case in Europe. In fact, a directive passed by the European Parliament in April 2015 gave Member States (MS) freedom to decide for themselves whether to cultivate GMOs in their territory.
Under the new directive, by October over half of the European countries have now opted out of GM crop cultivation.
However, what exactly have they opted out of, and why?
Genetically Modify It and They Will Come…Right?
I harvested potatoes the other day. Each plant had two to three kilos of potatoes beautifully arranged just under the foliage. However, if you believe this is natural, you are mistaken. Like all modern crops, they are genetic variants selected by our ancestors and improved by modern breeders. Breeding always involves changing genes. Most overlook genetic modification (GM). The combination of whole gene families by grafting gets even less attention.
Can Ugandan Slaughterhouses Become Model for Green Industry?
Like many East African nations, Uganda has made huge strides in recent years by developing and expanding its agricultural processing facilities. This is part of a plan to enhance the value of existing farming operations by offering critical support services to farmers, such as storage, processing, and shipping. This approach has shown remarkable success in expanding Uganda’s GDP, but it has also led to the unfortunate byproducts of industrialization: energy consumption, pollution, and biological waste.
Europe’s ‘Sacred Cow’: Should The Common Agricultural Policy Be Culled?
Despite recent cuts in Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, the CAP still consumes 38 percent of the EU budget and sustains a romantic vision of agriculture that is out of kilter with the highly technological requirements of modern farming.
Europe’s controversial €50 billion Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is sustained by absurdly romantic illusions about farming, says Dr Sean Rickard, a former chief economist of the U.K.’s National Farmers Union.
Agriculture Statistics
Agriculture Statistics is of prime importance as far as the Agriculture Industry is concerned. Agriculture Statistics ascertain the crop production, crop yield, qualities of the crops produced.
Agriculture Statistics also furnish information about the different operations and the different methods which can be adopted for improving the crop output.
In some countries, Agriculture Industry makes up the major segment of economy. The entire population of that country in some way or the other depends on Agriculture.
