Agriculture

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Agribusiness

Agribusiness refers to the business of farming, although, oddly, the term is not often used in correlation with actual farms. Instead, agribusiness most commonly means an agriculturally related business that supplies farm inputs, such as farm machinery and seed supply.

Agribusiness also is used to describe businesses that are involved in the marketing of farm products, such as warehouses, wholesalers, processors, retailers, and more. The use of the term agribusiness by critics of corporate farming has created an atmosphere of negativity around the term, although the true definition provides a nice shorthand way of saying business is related to agriculture.

Agribusiness has come to be synonymous with large corporations and companies that produce environmentally questionable, non-organic products while ensuring that smaller, potentially sustainable farms fail to turn a profit.

Understanding Agribusiness

Agribusiness treats the different aspects of raising agricultural products as an integrated system. Farmers raise animals and harvest fruits and vegetables with the help of sophisticated harvesting techniques, including the use of GPS to direct harvesting operations. Manufacturers develop increasingly efficient machines that can drive themselves. Processing plants determine the best way to clean and package livestock for shipping. While each subset of the industry is unlikely to interact directly with the consumer, each is focused on operating efficiently to keep prices reasonable.

Market forces have a significant impact on the agribusiness sector. Changes in consumer taste alter what products are grown and raised. For example, a shift in consumer tastes away from red meat may cause demand — and therefore prices — for beef to fall, while increased demand for products may shift the mix of fruits and vegetables that farmers raise. Businesses unable to rapidly change by domestic demand may look to export their products abroad, but if that fails they may not be able to compete and remain in business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Agribusiness is a combination of the words “agriculture” and “business” and refers to any business related to agricultural production

Companies in this industry encompass all aspects of food production

Climate change has placed intensifying pressure on many companies in the agribusiness industry

Countries with farming industries face consistent pressures from global competition. Products such as wheat, corn, and soybeans tend to be similar in different locations, making them commodities. Remaining competitive requires agribusinesses to operate more efficiently, which can require investments in new technologies, new ways of fertilizing and watering crops and new ways of connecting to the global market. Global prices of agricultural products may change rapidly, making production planning a complicated activity. Farmers may also face a reduction in usable land as suburban and urban areas expand into their regions.

Use of New Technology in Agribusiness

The use of new technology is vital to remain competitive in the global agribusiness sector. Farmers need to reduce crop costs and increase yield per square acre to remain competitive. New drone technology is at the cutting edge of the industry. These techniques, including soil and field analysis, planting and crop monitoring, will be key to improving crop yields and moving the agribusiness sector forward. Key areas of concern for the use of drone technology remain the safety of drone operations, privacy issues, and insurance-coverage questions.

Agribusiness Companies Example

Monsanto Company, which manufactures the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) and various Roundup Ready genetically modified seeds, is another example of an agribusiness company.

Dow AgroSciences LLC (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company), makes pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, in addition to marketing seeds.

Deere & Company, which makes John Deere equipment, maybe one of the best-known examples of a classic agribusiness company. The firm doesn’t own farms or produce food products, but nearly every farmer owns a John Deere tractor, baler, or some other piece of the quintessential green and gold farm equipment.

Archer Daniels Midland Company, or ADM, processes oil seeds like canola and soy, processes corn into ingredients such as corn syrup, dextrose, and starch, and transports crops both nationally and internationally.

The term agribusiness generally isn’t used to refer to actual farms, although Smithfield Foods Inc., the largest U.S. producer of pork, owns and runs its farms. Smithfield is owned by Chinese company WH Group (formerly Shuanghui International), which now is the largest pork producer in the world and the largest meat producer in China.

It’s possible to major in agribusiness in a variety of different colleges and universities across the U.S., ranging from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., to Iowa State University. Degrees focus on the economics of farm management and the science of agricultural management.

Agribusiness Versus Organic Farming

In the United States, you’ll normally hear the term agribusiness used in contrast to organic agricultural businesses. For example, many people when talking about large-scale commercial agricultural operations will use the term agribusiness, but you won’t hear the term used concerning small-scale, organic farms.

Small family farms, smaller organic agriculture companies, and organic farmers often feel they have to compete with giant agribusiness companies when looking to gain a place in the agricultural marketplace. There’s a persistent feeling among family farmers that they’re an endangered species, due to the impact of agribusiness and corporate farms.

However, small organic farms often use agribusiness products like John Deere tractors. Also, small organic farms aren’t necessarily competing with larger, corporate-owned farms for the same market. For example, a customer who prefers to buy pastured pork (perhaps because it’s humanely produced and because it has a higher level of beneficial nutrients) is unlikely to view conventionally produced, store-bought pork as an acceptable substitute.

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Top 10 Wheat Producing Countries

Wheat is one of the most important crops to humankind as it is a staple of many diets around the world. China produces more wheat than any other country, followed by India, Russia, and the United States. Here is an overview of the world’s top ten wheat-producing countries (FAOSTAT).

10. Germany (24,481,600 Tonnes)

In the Europe Union Germany is one of the largest grain producer, and as such its farming practices are monitored by European Union (E.U) market management and affected by E.U. rules and regulations. Winter wheat is cultivated throughout the country, If normal climatic conditions prevail, the crop is planted in October and harvested in August the following year. According to estimates, the flour mills of Germany process 24 million tonnes of wheat each year.

9. Ukraine (26,208,980 Tonnes)

Wheat is grown all across the Ukraine, with the majority of yields being contributed by the central and south-central regions of the country. The crop is planted in the fall season and harvested between July and August the following year. Once popularly referred to as “the breadbasket of Europe”, the Ukraine predominately produces the hard, red variant of winter wheat which is used in breadmaking. An increase in wheat production between 2013 and 2014 led to a 41% increase in the export of this crop from the Ukraine in 2014.

8. Pakistan (26,674,000 Tonnes)

Wheat in Pakistan acts as the leading food grain, and a staple food in the diets of the Pakistani people. The area cultivated from wheat cultivation increased by 4.4% between 2013 and 2014. Wheat is cultivated in all parts of Pakistan, with maximum yields being obtained from the Punjab and Sindh provinces.

7. Canada (29,984,200 Tonnes)

Wheat is the most important crop grown in Canada, and several varieties of wheat are cultivated here. These include winter wheat, dark northern spring wheat (DNS wheat), and durum wheat. The wheat grains are used for several purposes, such as generating flour for the bakery industry and for use as feed for livestock. Saskatchewan is the topmost DNA and durum wheat producing region in Canada (55% of total DNS wheat and 76% of durum produced here), followed by Alberta (26% of DNS wheat production and 18% of durum). Ontario, meanwhile, accounts for 82% of total winter wheat production in Canada.

6. Australia (31,818,744 Tonnes)

Wheat is one of the major winter crops grown in Australia. Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland are the top wheat producing states on the continent. The crop is sown in the autumn months and harvested in the spring or winter, depending on the environmental conditions. Western Australia is the largest exporter of wheat, especially to those countries in Asia and the Middle East, generating earnings of around $2 billion annually from such sales. For the past 30 years, there has been a constant 1% annual rise in Western Australia‘s wheat production. The east coast of Australia, on the other hand, produces wheat that is meant for domestic consumption and feedstock.

5. France (36,924,938 Tonnes)

France is the largest producer of wheat in Europe, with this crop being cultivated throughout the country. It is cultivated to the greatest extent in the northern regions of France. Winter wheat is the main variety of wheat grown in this country, and is planted in the autumn season and harvested in August of the following year.

4. United States (47,370,880 Tonnes)

Wheat, the principal cereal grain of the United States, is grown all over the country. Around 47 million tonnes of wheat are produced in the USA, which ranks fourth in the world in terms of quantity of wheat produced, and ranking often switching in recent years between the US and Russia, currently in 3rd place. As per the classification by the USDA, there are eight varieties of wheat grown in the country. Namely, the most important of these are durum wheat (such as for making pasta), hard red winter wheat, hard red spring wheat, soft white wheat, and hard white wheat. 70-80% of the wheat produced in the USA belongs to the category of winter wheat (often used in bread making due to its high gluten content). 50% of the country’s wheat is exported, generating an annual export revenue of $9 billion.

3. Russia (85,863,132 Tonnes)

Russia is the third largest wheat producer in the world and was among the top five wheat exporting countries in the world in all years between 2006 and 2011. Winter wheat is the primary variety of wheat grown in the country. The crop is mostly raised in the western parts of Russia surrounding Moscow. The crop is planted between August and the first week of October, and harvested between July and August the following year.

2. India (98,510,000 Tonnes)

Wheat is the second most important cultivated food crop in India (after rice), and feeds hundreds of millions of Indians on a daily basis. It is an especially important staple food in the northern and northwestern states of the country, such as near the Pakistani border. India accounts for about 8.7% of the total wheat production in the world, and 13% of all cultivated land in India is dedicated to cultivation of this crop. In India, the introduction of the “Green Revolution” plan led to a massive increase in wheat production, with a doubling of national wheat yields seen within the single decade between 1960 and 1970.

1. China (134,340,630 tonnes)

As the world’s largest producer of wheat, China plays an important role in shaping grain market dynamics across the world. Around 126 million metric tons of wheat are produced by the country per year, on a land area of 24 million hectares (comparable to the size of the entire country of Algeria). Wheat serves as one of the staple foods of the Chinese population, accounting for 40% of the grain consumption in this country.

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My First Blog Post

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— Oscar Wilde.

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FOOD SECURITY

Food Security; How Global warming, water and other crisis affect Food Security

Main Document

Food security is defined as the availability of food and one’s access to it. A household is considered food secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Stages of food insecurity range from food secure situations to full-scale famine. The World Food Summit defined it as “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.

Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people’s dietary needs as well as their food preferences. Household food security exists when all members, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security incorporates a measure of resilience to future disruption or unavailability of critical food supply due to various risk factors including droughts, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars.

Food stability: Refers to the ability to obtain food over time.
Food access: Refers to the affordability and allocation of food, as well as the preferences of individuals and households.
Food availability: Relates to the supply of food through production, distribution, and exchange.

What is Food Security

Two common definitions of food security come from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. (FAO)
Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum, (USDA):
- The ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods
- An assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies).

In 2006 it was reported that globally, the number of people who are overweight has surpassed the number who are undernourished – the world had more than one billion people who were overweight, and an estimated 800 million who were undernourished. Worldwide around 852 million people are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty, while up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty. 17,000 children die of hunger and malnutrition related diseases every day, which equals 6 million children who die of hunger every year.

In the United States of America there are approximately 2,000,000 farmers, less than 1% of the population. A direct relationship exists between food consumption levels and poverty. Families with the financial resources to escape extreme poverty rarely suffer from chronic hunger; while poor families not only suffer the most from chronic hunger, but are also the segment of the population most at risk during food shortages and famines.

Things affecting food security today include:

Global Water Crisis – Water table reserves are falling in many countries (including Northern China, the US, and India) due to widespread over-pumping and irrigation.
Climate Change – Rising global temperatures are beginning to have a ripple effect on crop yields, forest resources, water supplies and altering the balance of nature.
Land Degradation – Intensive farming leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields.

Genetically Modified (GM) Food and Food Security

Will genetically modified foods be the answer to a crisis in food security? At present little is known on the consequences and future safety aspects of GM foods. The movement of genes from GM plants into conventional crops in the wild (out-crossing), as well as the mixing of crops derived from conventional seeds with those grown using GM crops, may have an indirect effect on food safety and food security. This risk is real, as was shown when traces of a maize type which was only approved for feed use appeared in maize products for human consumption in the United States of America.

Far from focusing on the needs of the poor in developing countries, GM crop development is driven by the commercial interests of US and European companies. The major GM crops currently grown – soya, oilseed rape, cotton and maize – are designed to support the food and textile industries of the developed world. There is currently little GM research and development by private companies on staple food crops vital to developing countries.

“Terminator” seeds are modified to produce sterile seeds. This prevents farmers from saving seeds to plant the following season. 1.4 billion people, mainly poor farmers in developing countries, depend on saved seed. Farmers are then forced to buy new seeds every year from the biotech companies. Despite universal condemnation from farmers’ movements all over the world, the technology is still being developed today.

Food security is not just a poverty issue; it is a much larger issue that involves the whole food system and affects every one of us in some way. Issues such as whether households get enough food, how it is distributed within the household and whether that food fulfills the nutrition needs of all members of the household show that food security is clearly linked to health.

Global Food Security must exist to meet the challenge of providing the world’s growing population with a sustainable, secure supply of good quality food.

Food insecurity is measured in the United States by questions in the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.
Diseases affecting livestock or crops can have devastating effects on food availability especially if there are no contingency plans in place.
The approach known as food sovereignty views the business practices of multinational corporations as a form of neocolonialism.
FAO reported that almost 870 million people were chronically undernourished in the years 2010-2012.
The United States Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”
The 1996 World Summit on Food Security declared that “food should not be used as an instrument for political and economic pressure”.
842 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. This number has fallen by 17 percent since 1990.
One out of six children – roughly 100 million – in developing countries is underweight.
Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year.
The vast majority of hungry people (827 million) live in developing countries, where 14.3 percent of the population is undernourished.
If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million.
Asia has the largest number of hungry people (over 500 million) but Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence (24.8 percent of population).
66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.
WFP calculates that US$3.2 billion is needed per year to reach all 66 million hungry school-age children.
One in four of the world’s children are stunted. In developing countries, the proportion can rise to one in three
80 percent of the world’s stunted children live in just 20 countries.

Modern Agri-Technology in Farming

Innovation is more important in modern agriculture than ever before. The industry as a whole is facing huge challenges, from rising costs of supplies, a shortage of labor, and changes in consumer preferences for transparency and sustainability. There is increasing recognition from agriculture corporations that solutions are needed for these challenges. In the last 10 years, agriculture technology has seen a huge growth in investment, with $6.7 billion invested in the last 5 years and $1.9 billion in the last year alone. Major technology innovations in the space have focused around areas such as indoor vertical farming, automation and robotics, livestock technology, modern greenhouse practices, precision agriculture and artificial intelligence, and blockchain

Indoor Vertical Farming

Indoor vertical farming can increase crop yields, overcome limited land area, and even reduce farming’s impact on the environment by cutting down distance traveled in the supply chain. Indoor vertical farming can be defined as the practice of growing produce stacked one above another in a closed and controlled environment. By using growing shelves mounted vertically, it significantly reduces the amount of land space needed to grow plants compared to traditional farming methods. This type of growing is often associated with city and urban farming because of its ability to thrive in limited space. Vertical farms are unique in that some setups don’t require soil for plants to grow. Most are either hydroponic, where vegetables are grown in a nutrient-dense bowl of water, or aeroponic, where the plant roots are systematically sprayed with water and nutrients. In lieu of natural sunlight, artificial grow lights are used.

From sustainable urban growth to maximizing crop yield with reduced labor costs, the advantages of indoor vertical farming are apparent. Vertical farming can control variables such as light, humidity, and water to precisely measure year-round, increasing food production with reliable harvests. The reduced water and energy usage optimizes energy conservation — vertical farms use up to 70% less water than traditional farms. Labor is also greatly reduced by using robots to handle harvesting, planting, and logistics, solving the challenge farms face from the current labor shortage in the agriculture industry.

Farm Automation

Farm automation, often associated with “smart farming”, is technology that makes farms more efficient and automates the crop or livestock production cycle. An increasing number of companies are working on robotics innovation to develop drones, autonomous tractors, robotic harvesters, automatic watering, and seeding robots. Although these technologies are fairly new, the industry has seen an increasing number of traditional agriculture companies adopt farm automation into their processes.

New advancements in technologies ranging from robotics and drones to computer vision software have completely transformed modern agriculture. The primary goal of farm automation technology is to cover easier, mundane tasks. Some major technologies that are most commonly being utilized by farms include: harvest automation, autonomous tractors, seeding and weeding, and drones. Farm automation technology addresses major issues like a rising global population, farm labor shortages, and changing consumer preferences. The benefits of automating traditional farming processes are monumental by tackling issues from consumer preferences, labor shortages, and the environmental footprint of farming.

Livestock Farming Technology

The traditional livestock industry is a sector that is widely overlooked and under-serviced, although it is arguably the most vital. Livestock provides much needed renewable, natural resources that we rely on every day. Livestock management has traditionally been known as running the business of poultry farms, dairy farms, cattle ranches, or other livestock-related agribusinesses. Livestock managers must keep accurate financial records, supervise workers, and ensure proper care and feeding of animals. However, recent trends have proven that technology is revolutionizing the world of livestock management. New developments in the past 8-10 years have made huge improvements to the industry that make tracking and managing livestock much easier and data-driven. This technology can come in the form of nutritional technologies, genetics, digital technology, and more.

Animal genomics can be defined as the study of looking at the entire gene landscape of a living animal and how they interact with each other to influence the animal’s growth and development. Genomics help livestock producers understand the genetic risk of their herds and determine the future profitability of their livestock. By being strategic with animal selection and breeding decisions, cattle genomics allows producers to optimize profitability and yields of livestock herds.

Sensor and data technologies have huge benefits for the current livestock industry. It can improve the productivity and welfare of livestock by detecting sick animals and intelligently recognizing room for improvement. Computer vision allows us to have all sorts of unbiased data that will get summarized into meaningful, actionable insights. Data-driven decision making leads to better, more efficient, and timely decisions that will advance the productivity of livestock herds.

Modern Greenhouses

In recent decades, the Greenhouse industry has been transforming from small scale facilities used primarily for research and aesthetic purposes (i.e., botanic gardens) to significantly more large-scale facilities that compete directly with land-based conventional food production. Combined, the entire global greenhouse market currently produces nearly US $350 billion in vegetables annually, of which U.S. production comprises less than one percent.

Nowadays, in large part due to the tremendous recent improvements in growing technology, the industry is witnessing a blossoming like no time before. Greenhouses today are increasingly emerging that are large-scale, capital-infused, and urban-centered.

As the market has grown dramatically, it has also experienced clear trends in recent years. Modern greenhouses are becoming increasingly tech-heavy, using LED lights and automated control systems to perfectly tailor the growing environment. Successful greenhouse companies are scaling significantly and located their growing facilities near urban hubs to capitalize on the ever-increasing demand for local food, no matter the season. To accomplish these feats, the greenhouse industry is also becoming increasingly capital-infused, using venture funding and other sources to build out the infrastructure necessary to compete in the current market.

Precision Agriculture

Agriculture is undergoing an evolution – technology is becoming an indispensable part of every commercial farm. New precision agriculture companies are developing technologies that allow farmers to maximize yields by controlling every variable of crop farming such as moisture levels, pest stress, soil conditions, and micro-climates. By providing more accurate techniques for planting and growing crops, precision agriculture enables farmers to increase efficiency and manage costs.

Precision agriculture companies have found a huge opportunity to grow. A recent report by Grand View Research, Inc. predicts the precision agriculture market to reach $43.4 billion by 2025. The emerging new generation of farmers are attracted to faster, more flexible startups that systematically maximize crop yields.

Blockchain

Blockchain’s capability of tracking ownership records and tamper-resistance can be used to solve urgent issues such as food fraud, safety recalls, supply chain inefficiency and food traceability in the current food system. Blockchain’s unique decentralized structure ensures verified products and practices to create a market for premium products with transparency.

Food traceability has been at the center of recent food safety discussions, particularly with new advancements in blockchain applications. Due to the nature of perishable food, the food industry at whole is extremely vulnerable to making mistakes that would ultimately affect human lives. When foodborne diseases threaten public health, the first step to root-cause analysis is to track down the source of contamination and there is no tolerance for uncertainty.

Consequently, traceability is critical for the food supply chain. The current communication framework within the food ecosystem makes traceability a time-consuming task since some involved parties are still tracking information on paper. The structure of blockchain ensures that each player along the food value chain would generate and securely share data points to create an accountable and traceable system. Vast data points with labels that clarify ownership can be recorded promptly without any alteration. As a result, the record of a food item’s journey, from farm to table, is available to monitor in real-time.

The use cases of blockchain in food go beyond ensuring food safety. It also adds value to the current market by establishing a ledger in the network and balancing market pricing. The traditional price mechanism for buying and selling relies on judgments of the involved players, rather than the information provided by the entire value chain. Giving access to data would create a holistic picture of the supply and demand. The blockchain application for trades might revolutionize traditional commodity trading and hedging as well. Blockchain enables verified transactions to be securely shared with every player in the food supply chain, creating a marketplace with immense transparency.

Artificial Intelligence

The rise of digital agriculture and its related technologies has opened a wealth of new data opportunities. Remote sensors, satellites, and UAVs can gather information 24 hours per day over an entire field. These can monitor plant health, soil condition, temperature, humidity, etc. The amount of data these sensors can generate is overwhelming, and the significance of the numbers is hidden in the avalanche of that data.

The idea is to allow farmers to gain a better understanding of the situation on the ground through advanced technology (such as remote sensing) that can tell them more about their situation than they can see with the naked eye. And not just more accurately but also more quickly than seeing it walking or driving through the fields.

Remote sensors enable algorithms to interpret a field’s environment as statistical data that can be understood and useful to farmers for decision-making. Algorithms process the data, adapting and learning based on the data received. The more inputs and statistical information collected, the better the algorithm will be at predicting a range of outcomes. And the aim is that farmers can use this artificial intelligence to achieve their goal of a better harvest through making better decisions in the field.

Top 5-BEST AGRICULTURE COMPANIES IN THE WORLD

The exponential growth of the world’s population correlates to a stark rise in the demand for food production and an unprecedented opportunity for agribusiness companies. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), global agricultural production is expected to increase at an annual rate of 1.5 per cent.

To meet this challenge, agribusiness companies are innovating. Their efforts take the form of artificial intelligence (AI) and remote sensors in the field, drones for crop monitoring, ever more potent or targeted chemical solutions and of course, the genetic modification of plants and animals.

The world’s largest agribusinesses are developing methods to feed the world’s seven billion mouths while engaging with the sensitive food politics of the 21st century. Here is a list of the top ten agribusiness companies, two of which are family-owned:

BASF

Country: Germany, Annual Revenue (2018)-US$6.8Billion, Employees: 115,490

Primarily a chemical company, this German-based conglomerate is a significant player in the agribusiness sector. BASF is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fungicides, herbicides and insecticides. Their leading chemical technology is used by golf courses, sports turf companies and in forests and greenhouses around the world.

BASF has also invested significant time and resources in researching nutrigenomics, the study of nutrients’ effects on human genes. In 2016, BASF opened a new crop protection technology centre in Limbergerhof, Germany. This state-of-the-art facility allows the company to conduct controlled product testing in actual farming conditions.

Yara International

Country: Norway, Revenue (2018): $12.9 billion, Employees: 16,757

Yara International, founded more than a century ago in 1905, is a Norwegian company that specializes in nitrogen chemicals primarily for use in agriculture.

Headquartered in Oslo, the company is involved in every step of the process, from producing and distributing nitrogen chemicals to innovating new formulas.

Syngenta AG

Country: Switzerland, Revenue (2018): $13.5 billion, Number of Employees: 28,704

Syngenta AG is a Swiss company focussed on chemical treatment production and seeds. Its chemical division, which dominates sales, has five main product lines: selective herbicides, non-selective herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and seed care. Sygenta’s seed production can be divided into three lines: corn, soya and a collection of other field crops and vegetables.

At the beginning of the decade, Syngenta entered the biofuel business when it released the corn trait Enogen, designed to reduce water and energy consumption during the process of corn’s conversion into ethanol. As of June 2018, Enogen is used at more than 30 ethanol plants around the world.

Nutrien (Formerly Agrium Inc. and PotashCorp)

Country: Canada, Revenue (2018): US$19.6 billion, Employees: 20,300

Agrium Inc. is one of the world’s leading producers and suppliers of agricultural nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphate, potash and sulphur-based fertilisers. The company was founded as Cominco Fertilizers in 1931 and changed its name to Agrium in 1995. On January 1, 2018, Agrium merged with the Canadian company PotashCorp. Together, they are the world’s largest producer of potash and second-largest producer of nitrogen fertiliser. The resulting company, Nutrien, has its headquarters in Saskatoon, Canada.

The company’s main areas of operation are North America, South America and Australia. They have 29 production facilities in North America and Trinidad, more than 1700 distribution touchpoints in North America and just under 1,600 retail outlets worldwide.

CNH Industrial NV

Country: The Netherlands, Revenue (2018): US$29.7 billion, Employees: 64,625

CNH Industrial is most well-known as a manufacturer of tractors and other agricultural equipment. It operates 12 different brands including Case and New Holland. The company is also a leading manufacturer of heavy-duty construction equipment. CNH Industrial, though founded in the Netherlands, operates out of London and their parent company, Exor, is owned by the Agnelli family.

Their global operations span 66 manufacturing plants and 54 research and development centers in 180 countries. In a move to incorporate green technology into their products, FPT Industrial unveiled the Cursor 13 NG natural gas engine in 2017, still the most powerful natural gas engine on the market today.

Amazan fires: What’s Agriculture Got to Do with It?

The climate change situation has turned the collective environmentalist stare toward the Amazon forest, where thousands of fires continue to burn the forest, blackening the skies. In this case, climate change is not the culprit, because most of the fires have been set intentionally to clear the land for agriculture practices. But by releasing the large amounts of carbon stored in the rainforest, the fires are a climate crisis of a different sort. Much care has been made about climate activists exaggerating the scope of the fires, and it is true that the prevalence of this year’s fire is only slightly above average. But the outcry stems more from the fact that Brazil’s leaders, has pledged to scale back environmental regulations in an effort to open more of the Amazon to development. And there is some evidence that locals have taken that as a sign that they can set illegal fires this year without fear of retribution. In a sense, the fires have simply made a momentary media sight, out of the longstanding issue of deforestation. Whether by fire/chainsaw, that has everything to do with agriculture. More specifically, it has to do with the global appetite for beef.

What Do People Grow in the Amazon?

There are some sustainable agricultural endeavors in the Amazon forest, such as tapping rubber trees and harvesting native foods, cattle ranching and soybean production are by far the biggest forms of agricultural land use in Amazon.

How Does this Contribute to Fires and Deforestation?

Soy fields and cow pastures require the removal of trees, of course, and the easiest way is fire method. Farmers also use fire to keep trees and shrubs from returning to their fields. But experts point out that the bigger issue is that this form of agriculture is incompatible with the Amazonian environment. The soil is thin and quickly depleted by farming and grazing practices imported from temperate climes. Yields quickly decrease after a few years, leading poor farmers to clear more land simply to survive instead to change their farming practices.

Who Are the Grileiros?

Grileiro, means “land grabber” in Portuguese. These are people who go into pure forest and clear it for the purposes of claiming ownership. If you can show that you have been using the land, it is possible to gain ownership through a form of squatter’s rights, often selling the land to farmers once they have done so. This would never fly in more developed countries, but because the Amazon is such a vast and largely unpoliced frontier, and because the land registry is notoriously corrupt, Grilagem (“land grabbing”) is a common and profitable form of organized crime in Amazon.

What We Can Do?

We have to Buy local beef, and pressure the international agribusiness community to create more transparent supply chains to ensure that their beef products are not sourced in a way that contributes to deforestation anywhere in the world.

Top 10 best Fodder & Forages Crops

Berseem (Egyptian clover)

Scientific name: Trifolium alexandrinum

Rank: Species

Higher Classification Clover

Lucerne alfalfa

Scientific Name: Medicago sativa

Rank: Species

Kingdom: Plantae

Jai (Oat)

Scientific Name: Avena sativa

Family: Poaceae

Kingdom: Plantae

Pearl millet

Scientific Name: Pennisetum glaucum

Rank: Species

Higher Clissification: Fountaingrasses

Jau (barley)

Scientific Name: Hordeum vulgare

Higher Classification: Hordeum

Rank: Species

Jowar (Sorghum)

Scientific Name: Sorghum

Rank: Genus

Higher Classification: Grasses

Makka (maize)

Scientific name Zea mays L.

Higher Classification: Tripsacinae

Rank: Genus

Senji (Sweet Clover)

Scientific Name: Melilotus indicus

Rank: Species

Higher Classification: Sweet Clovers

Corn

Scientific Name: Zea

Higher Classification: Tripsacinae

Rank: Genus

Lobia (Cowpea)

Scientific Name: Vigna Unguiculata

Higher Classification: Vigna

Rank: Species

Top 5 Agribusiness Companies

Cargill, USA

Revenue: 114.7$US billion

Number of Employees: 166,000

Cargill is one of the best agribusiness company in the world. Its is an agricultural and food production giant, responsible for approximately 1/4 of American meat and grain exports. As well as their involvement in every step of the agricultural supply chain, Cargill agribusiness company is an industry leader in animal nutrition science. This company operates in 40 countries, conducting business with livestock and aquaculture farmers, feed manufacturers and distributors to provide animal nutrition through ongoing advance research. This company is also stands as one of the largest family owned companies in the United States.

DowDuPont, USA

Revenue (2018): 85.97$US billion

Number of Employees: 98,000

DowDuPont is the world’s largest chemical company in terms of total sales. The product of a merger between two of the agribusiness industry’s leading players, Dow Chemicals and Dupont, the company became a single entity on August 31st, 2017. As part of the ongoing restructuring, plans are in place to form three main branches under the parent company. These three branches include Corteva Agriscience, the agricultural division; Dow, the materials science division; and Dupont, the specialty products division. In terms of agriculture, much like the other companies on this list, their two main areas of focus are seed production and crop protection. DowDuPont’s total outreach spans more than 130 countries with seed production representing a slight majority of their business.

Archer Daniels Midland Company,USA

Revenue (2018): 64.341$ US billion

Number of Employees (2016): 32,300

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is the 3^rd ranked most influential agribusiness companies in the world today. Designated the most admired food-production company by Forbes magazine from 2009-2011, With its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, ADM has more than 270 plants and 420 crop procurement facilities, which process grains and oilseeds into food and beverage, nutraceutical, industrial and animal feed products.

Bayer AG, Germany

Revenue (2018): 46.7$ US billion

Number of Employees: 116,998

However, Bayer is also one of the world’s major players in crop science. Today, Bayer’s agro division boasts more than 35 research sites and 175 breeding sites globally. In 2016, corporate restructuring made Bayer CropScience one of three main divisions of Bayer AG, which are required to report directly to the head of the company. That same year, Bayer announced US$60 billion plans to purchase Monsanto. That deal was approved in 2018 on the condition Bayer sells its seed and herbicide businesses to BASF.

Deere & Company, USA

Revenue (2018): 38.4$US billion

Number of Employees: 74,000

The name John Deere is synonymous with tractor and field equipment. The company manufactures a vast array of agriculture equipment including tractors, combines, harvesters and cotton pickers. Their current catalogue is a testament to the companies incredible expansion from the blacksmith John Deere’s initial business repairing farm tools like pitchforks and shovels. Deere & Company also makes smaller equipment for agriculture and home care such as lawn mowers, commercial mowers, cutters and shredders, speciality tractors and front-end loaders for tractors.

CORN & BIOFUEL PRODUCTION

What is corn?

Corn (Zea mays) is a popular feedstock for Ethanol (C2H5OH) production in the USA due to its abundance and relative ease of conversion to ethyl alcohol. Corn and other high-starch grains have been converted into ethanol for thousands of years, yet only in the past century has its use as fuel greatly expanded. Conversion includes grinding, cooking with enzymes, fermentation with yeast, and distillation to remove water (H2O). For fuel Ethanol (C2H5OH),

Steps:

Molecular sieve to remove the last of the water
Denaturing to make the ethanol undrinkable.

Potential to Use as a Biofuel

Corn generated ethanol biofuel with test tubes on white background

Corn grain makes a good biofuel feedstock due to its starch (C6H10O5)n content and its comparatively easy conversion to ethanol. Infrastructure to plant, harvest, and store corn in mass quantities benefits the corn ethanol industry. Unlike sugarcane, in which squeezed sugar water can be directly fermented, corn starch must be cooked with alpha and gluco-amylase enzymes to convert the starch to simple sugars. Cellulosic feedstocks are even more recalcitrant and require time and energy to convert to simple sugars. Under the renewable fuel standard set by Congress in 2007 (RFS-2), grain-based ethanol can make up 15 billion gallons of the 36 billion gallon-per-year requirement. Corn-based ethanol production capacity in 2009 was 10.6 billion gallons. The addition of idled capacity would increase potential production to 12.5 billion gallons per year.

Corn production in the USA reached record highs in 2009 with 13.2 billion bushels from 86.5 million acres. Using the current corn-to-ethanol conversion of 2.8 gallons of ethanol from a bushel of corn, total U.S. corn production could result in approximately 37 billion gallons of ethanol, which would provide approximately 26% of our 137 billion gallon-per-year gasoline consumption (Energy Information Administration). However, using all of our corn for ethanol is neither realistic nor necessary and has not been proposed. Creating the 15 billion gallons required under the RFS-2 would call for 5.4 billion bushels or about 41% of our 2009 corn crop. Although this percentage seems rather high, one-third of the weight and 100% of the nutritional content of corn entering an ethanol dry mill biorefinery is returned to the feed market as distillers grains. These distillers grains can be used to replace corn in the diets of cattle, swine, and poultry. When this replacement is calculated into the overall consumption figures, it lowers the number to 27% of our 2009 corn crop, or only 3.6 billion bushels of corn to produce the 15 billion required gallons. Throughout history, the United States has seen a steady increase in the yields of both corn and ethanol production. It is very likely that the United States will be able to increase corn ethanol production without expanding to new acres and still have plenty of corn remaining to meet other domestic use and export demands.

Adaptation and Biology:

Corn (Zea mays) originated in Central America with the first domestication, purported to be in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico. Spreading throughout the North American continent, corn became an important crop for early Americans. At its peak in 1917, 111 million acres of corn were planted in the United States (Gibson and Benson, 2002). Today corn is planted on every continent in the world except Antarctica and is grown throughout many states in the United States, ranging from southern North Dakota to Texas and eastward to New York. Corn is well adapted to growing in temperatures between 50° and 86°Fahrenheit (Hoeft et al., 2000). To produce grain, corn will use approximately 22 to 28 inches of water, which requires 12 to 20 inches of rainfall or irrigation during the growing season (Al-Kaisi, 2000; Hoeft et al., 2000; Kranz et al., 2008). Despite popular misconceptions, nearly 90% of U.S.-grown corn is fed by natural rainfall only, with no irrigation necessary. Many parts of the upper Midwest are well suited to grow corn, and this area is sometimes referred to as the Corn Belt.

Production and Agronomic detail:

Corn in the upper Midwest is seeded between March and May and harvested between September and November in most years. A majority of corn planted today has genetic resistance to some weeds, insects, and plant pathogens. Corn hybrid resistance to various pests and pathogens is a result of biotechnology and plant breeding. Biotechnology traits aid producers in the control of weeds and insects, greatly reducing the amount of pesticides entering the environment (Brookes and Barfoot, 2006). Much of the Corn Belt rotates with other crops, such as soybeans or wheat, to break weed, insect, and disease cycles as well as to reduce the cost of production. Corn responds best to highly fertile soils with supplemental fertilizer applied in most years. Fertilizer may be inorganic chemical fertilizer or manure. Major nutrients required by corn are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Inorganic nitrogen fertilizer production is very energy-intensive and as a result, nitrogen fertilizer represents nearly 30% of the energy inputs in corn production (BESS, 2009). Other major inputs include diesel fuel for tractors, transportation, irrigation, and electricity for irrigation and grain storage.

Potential Yields:

The average national corn yield was 165 bushels per acre in 2009. Corn yields have increased by approximately 2 bushels per acre each year since 1940 (NASS, 2009). This increase will likely continue into the future, with some predicting the yield trend will amplify at a greater rate due to biotechnology and advancements in breeding. Ethanol yield per acre would be 462 gallons per acre from corn yields of 165 bushels per acre. An acre of sugarcane can produce an approximate 35 ton yield, resulting in about 560 gallons of sugarcane ethanol (Hofstrand, 2009).

Production Challenges:

Corn production has been blessed with nearly 100 years of infrastructure build-up and research. Farmers have great knowledge and experience in growing corn. This infrastructure and grower intelligence make corn a natural crop for expanded uses such as ethanol. Yet high production costs and high inputs make corn a very intensive crop. Other bioenergy crops may be less intensive and require fewer inputs. The cost versus profit per acre needs to be compared, as economics is a major driver in deciding which crop is best. Growing another crop on an acre where corn could be grown carries risks that may include a new cropping system; no harvest, transport, or storage infrastructure; or no commodity market to fall back on if the biofuel market fails.

Estimated Production Costs

Production costs vary widely depending on tillage, irrigation, yield goal (soil fertility), spraying schedule, seed selection, and rotation. A sample corn budget with rain-fed, no-till, biotech seed, corn/soybean rotation, and 120 bushel yield goal would include a total cost of $211 per acre. If overhead crop insurance, land, taxes – is included, the total is $305 per acre. Production costs increase to over $600 on irrigated fields with continuous corn (Klein and Wilson, 2010).

Environmental and Sustainability Issues:

Life cycle analysis (LCA) of ethanol production from corn grain has yielded a net energy ratio of 1.2 to 1.45 (Liska et al., 2009), which represents just a 20% to 45% positive energy balance in producing ethanol from corn. A major criticism of corn ethanol has been the large amount of fossil energy used in production. Environmental issues in corn production revolve around erosion, pesticide use, and nutrient use. Pesticides and nutrients have the potential to contaminate surface and ground water. Soil erosion has led to loss of topsoil and polluted streams and river systems with silt. Continuous attention to these issues has led to improvements, yet they will remain concerns in crop production.

FOOD PRODUCTS DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING IN PAKISTAN

Produce and consumer is brought together by Food Marketing. As the marketing of a single food product can be a convoluted process involving many producers and companies. i.e, Pakistan has seen an extremely pleasing growth in the frozen foods market by ice-cream segment development. The frozen food ice cream segment’s market size enormously expanded as a result of two entrants, national and multinational companies. Product development is systematic, commercially increasing to develop products and processes satisfying the need for a known or alleged consumer need.
Four basic steps involved in the product development process, Product Strategy Development, Product Design and Development, Product Commercialisation and Product launch or Post-Launch. The vital test of product development occurs in the market and a new product can only be considered flourishing if it is a market and financial success.

Historical phases of frozen food marketing: Transportation phase, Distribution phase and the capacity of the retailers. Today foods are not anticipated to merely satisfy hunger and to endow with necessary nutrients for humans but also to prevent nutrition-related diseases and improve the physical and mental well being of the consumers. The increasing demand for such ‘functional foods’ can be explained by the increasing cost of health care, the sturdy increase in life expectancy and the desire of older people for enhanced quality of life in later years.

Product development is now indispensable to inspect the issue of what constitutes a new or innovative product. The newness of a product may be judged differently according to the needs of consumers. To mull over food product sales it is essential to look at the retail sector; this sector is characterized by intense competition and the dominant position held by supermarkets in many regions of Pakistan. There is competition not only for sales between retailers but competition between food product suppliers. Pakistan has around 200,000 stores in the urban markets. These account for 90% of the trade.
The development of the frozen food industry impacts farmers. The farmer directly benefits as he gets a better price, whether he owns a buffalo, cow or grows wheat and grains used in poultry feeds, or produces fruits and vegetables. Pakistan has abundant sources of raw material. It is the 4th dominant producer of milk and is one of the top ten producers of poultry in the world. 40% of the horticulture produce is exhausted in post-harvest losses.

STEPS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FOOD PRODUCTS

Different food products available in markets cames as a result of a careful process of designing and developing products with the goals to fulfill the demand of consumer’s needs. This process of product developments which is one of the important jobs that food scientist do.

Steps involved in food product development are:

Ideation
Prototype creation
Sensory evaluation
Pilot plant testing
Sensory evaluation and product modification
Consumer testing
Finalization of product specification
Market testing

IDEATION:

As the name suggests, this is where you come up with the idea for the new product. This is generally done by the marketing team and then communicated to the product development team. It is based on marketing research, analyzing consumer trends, and/or identifying consumer needs based on gaps in the market or weakness in current products on the market.

2. PROTOTYPE CREATION:

Once the company has a clear idea of what to make they get to work creating a prototype or “gold standard” of what the product will look and taste like. This is done in a test kitchen at the company or in an outside test kitchen facility. Testing on a kitchen-scale prevents wasting of ingredients since it will likely involve a series of trial and error to create the desired product. The prototype development process requires the expertise of a pulmonologist, that is, someone who is gifted in the culinary arts and also understands food science.

3. SENSORY EVALUATION:

Sensory evaluation involves the tasting of the product to determine its taste, texture, smell, and appearance. This is done by an in-house team during the prototype development stage. It provides valuable feedback to enable modification of the product and finalizing of the gold standard.

4. PILOT PLANT TESTING:

Following the establishment of the prototype, the product is tested on a larger scale, called a pilot. This is done to simulate commercial production and finalize product specifications. This is important since some specifications may change as you scale up the operation. For example, you may recognize that cooking a small pot of stew at home for three people may be much different than if you have to prepare the same thing for forty people coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. Cooking times and temperatures, and ratios of seasoning may change to acquire the acceptable taste you are looking for. Pilot-scale testing allows you to make the necessary corrections before scaling up any further.

5. SENSORY EVALUATION AND PRODUCT MODIFICATION:

This is done following pilot-scale testing to standardize the product. Until then, the pilot-scale process continues with the appropriate modifications until the desired specifications are met.

6. CONSUMER TESTING:

Internal sensory evaluation is a good guide but may be biased. It’s like having a great idea and sharing the idea with your close friends and family who get excited for you, not with an objective eye, but because they like you. Therefore, the target consumers should be allowed to taste the product and provide you with feedback. This can involve inviting a small focus group in (as little as eight people) to taste and discuss the attributes of the product. For example, a focus group could be celiac disease patients, pregnant women, student-athletes, etc. If the product is for a wider target market, other consumer testing methods can be employed such as sending the products to homes to be tested and conducting taste testing in public places such as supermarkets and on the streets.

7. FINALIZATION OF PRODUCT SPECIFICATION:

The feedback from consumer testing will provide valuable information that can be used to modify the product to ensure that it satisfies their expectations. According to the feedback you may have to go back to the drawing board to develop another prototype or you may just need to make further modifications at the pilot production step.

8. TEST-MARKETING:

Now that you are confident that consumers want the product and are happy with it as it is, you are ready to test the waters. This will involve scaling up the process to a commercial scale to produce products for the launch. The launch may be national or you may choose to launch on a phased basis by just focusing on one region or mini-market at a time. Being more cautious is sensible since you may still have some kinks to iron out. You will be able to get feedback on some of these based on sales performance and will be able to correct them as you progress. Be sure to have an excellent advertising campaign during the launch.

DISEASES OF WHEAT

Wheat is the most important grain crop and a staple food for more than one-third of the world population. The major area of the wheat in Pakistan lies in Punjab followed by Sindh. However, the yield per hectare is slightly higher in Sindh as compared to Punjab. It ranks first as a cereal crop in the country being followed up by rice only in acreage and production. Wheat crop is subjected to several diseases, which are responsible for reducing its overall production to a great extent because wheat plants in all stages of growth and all-natural environments are subject to various mechanical, environmental, physiologic and biological stresses that interfere with their normal growth and development. Weather, toxicants, pollutants, insects, viruses, fungi, nematodes, bacteria and weeds are primary hazards to wheat production.

The actual number of wheat diseases is unknown, nearly 200 have been reported. Over 100 infectious diseases caused by pathogens and with weeds are parasitic and transmissible from plant to plant. Amongst such diseases, about 50 are routinely important economically (Wiese, 1987). Overall, all diseases are injurious in some areas, in some years and on some plant parts. All parts of the plant are subject to disease and one or more diseases can occur on virtually every plant and in every field. All draw attention because of symptoms or signs and generate great concern because of their effects on the quality and/or quantity of plants, straw or grain.

In Pakistan, 50 diseases are reported to occur (Anonymous, 2000) and are important economically. The rusts are most destructive and also the most widely recognized diseases of wheat crop. They occur in almost all wheat-growing regions of the world, as well as all areas of Pakistan, where wheat crop is grown. The record showed that there has been a severe attack of black stem rust of wheat in 1906-1908 at Mirpurkhas, Sindh (Kamal and Moahal, 1968); yellow or stripe and orange or leaf rust of wheat in 1978 at all over wheat-growing areas of Pakistan (Anonymous, 2000).

However, the causes, symptoms, preventive and curative control measures of some important diseases of wheat, are being summarized hereunder, while for details, the selected bibliography may also help the growers, extension and research workers.

Black stem rust of wheat

Causal Organism: Puccinia graminis tritici

Symptoms: Long and narrow streaks or pustules are formed on all green parts of the plant viz: stem, leaf sheath, leaves, and ear heads. These pustules are brick red in the beginning and become black at the end of the season or when plants reach maturity. Moist and warm weather favors the development of this disease, which usually appears at the heading stage.

Perpetuation: The disease starts from wind-borne spores, which probably travel from hills to plains. The fungus completes its life cycle on barberry plants in Murree.

Control:

Cultivation of resistant varieties.
Cultivation of early sowing and early maturing varieties.
Avoiding thick sowing and heavy irrigation.
Destroying the weed plants and diseased tillers.
Avoiding heavy doses of nitrogenous fertilizers.
Judicious use of potassic fertilizer help in minimizing the susceptibility of plants.

Orange or leaf rust of wheat

Causal Organism: Puccinia recondita

Symptoms: Small pustules are formed scattered chiefly on the surface of leaves, very rare elsewhere. These pustules are orange or brown in the beginning and become black when plants reach maturity. Moist and moderate temperature (18-20c°), favor the development and spread of this disease, which appears earlier than black stem rust.

Perpetuation: As in case of black stem rust.

Control: As in case of black stem rust.

Yellow or stripe rust of wheat

Casual Organism: Puccinia striiformis

Symptoms: Very small (Smaller than in orange rust) pustules are formed in stripes on leaves and ears (and all green parts of the plants). These pustules are bright yellow in the beginning and become black, when plants reach maturity. Moist and cold weather (about 15c°) favour the disease. It is first of the three rusts that appear on wheat.

Perpetuation: As in stem rust

Control: As in stem rust.

Loose smut of wheat

Casual organisms: Ustilago tritici

Symptoms: Diseased ears are black and contain black powder of smut spores instead of grains. Initially, spores are covered by a white or silvery membrane, which burst and spores are blown away by the wind leaving behind only naked rachis. Infected ears appear somewhat earlier than the normal ones.

Perpetuation: Perpetuates from infected grains took normally.

Control:

(1) Cultivation of resistant varieties.

(2) To rogue out and destroy the diseased ears.

(3) Use the seed obtained from a healthy crop.

(4) In case the healthy seed is not available, treat the seed as:

(a) Solar energy method:

Soak the seed for 4-5 hours in ordinary water, in the month of May-June or July on a hot day, when the temperature becomes high, dry it in a thin layer (of about 3 inches) from 8 to 12 noon and kept it for planting.

(b) Tapke’s method:

Direct soaking of seed in hot water at 48°c for one hour and fifty minutes. Cool and dry before planting.

(c) Hot water treatment:

Initially, soak the seed in ordinary water for about 4 hours, then dip in hot water at 52°c for 10 minutes. After that cool and dry it in shade before planting.

(d) Anaerobic seed treatment:

The seed may soak for 6 hours in the water, drain, place in an airtight container for 30 hours at 28°c, dry and use for planting.

(e) Chemical seed treatment:

Treat the seed before sowing by using seed dressing fungicides vis: Vitavax, Benlate, Baytan, Topsin, etc. at the rate of 2 g/kg seed.

Flag smut or leat smut of wheat

Causal organism: Urocystis tritici

Symptoms: Long dark streaks parallel to the veins appear on leaf blades and become swollen, turn black, rupture and expose black powder with age. The affected leaves wither, twist and drop with result in the death of the whole plant. It may also appear on the sheaths and occur sometimes on the stem and very rarely on the ears. In case of severe infection, every shoot of the plant becomes infected. Very frequently, the ears are replaced by a twisted mass of leaves, do not bear any grain, but if the grain is formed, it is always much shriveled and useless.

Perpetuation: The disease is perpetuated through seed-borne and/or soil-borne spores, which can survive in the soil for up to three years.

Control:

(1) Cultivation of resistant varieties.

(2) Early planting.

(3) Using the wet method of sowing i.e. irrigating just after sowing.

(4) Crop rotation.

(5) Use of healthy seeds obtained from healthy crops and sowing in healthy soil.

(6) Green manuring with guar reduces the incidence.

(7) Rogue out and burn the infected plants.

(8) Chemical seed treatment, as recommended previously.

Old or complete bunt or stinking smut of wheat

Causal organism:- Tilletia foetida or T. caries or T. tritici

Symptoms: Diseased ears are darker in colour and contain defected grains, which are found to be filled with black powder of scores, on crushing, give out bad smell like that of rotten fish. The diseased plants are sometimes stunted in growth. All the grains of an ear become infected and get very much reduced in size.

Perpetuation: Primarily is seed-borne, but is also soil-borne.

Control:

(1) Cultivation of resistant varieties.

(2) Use of healthy seed in healthy soils.

(3) Prefer early planting, using the wet method of sowing (irrigation just after sowing).

(4) Rogue out and burn the infected ears before harvesting and/or threshing.

(5) Treat the seed with seed dressing fungicides as recommended for loose smut of wheat.

New or partial bunt or karnal bunt of wheat

Causal organism: Tilletia indica

Symptoms: When the grains ripen, the diseased spikelets are more open, the outer glumes spread out giving enough space and bunted grains become visible. Only individual grains are infected and are also partially affected, generally at the tips of grains. The prepared flour is of dark colour and gives out fowl smell.

Perpetuation: Soil-Borne spores causes infection through wind at flowering stage.

Control:

(1) Cultivation of wheat varieties resistant to disease or to lodging.

(2) Collection and burning of infected earheads.

(3) Avoiding threshing a diseased crop in field.

(4) Time of sowing and long range crop rotation can reduce incidence.

(5) Avoiding heavy manuring and heavy irrigation.

Ear cockle or tundo of wheat

Causal organism: It is caused by the nematode Angullulina tritici. Sometimes, a bacterium corynebacterium tritici is also associated with nematode, therefore the disease also named as yellowing rot.

Symptoms: Leaves become rolled, wrinkled, turn yellow and die. Stems are twisted, heads are distorted, yellowish, gummy and sticky, spikelets are rotting, grains are replaced by hard, small, light brown to dark coloured nematode galls. Affected plants are shorter and grains are very much lighter in weight.

Perpetuation: Nematode can remain dormant in the grains having galls over a period of more than 10 years and are capable to cause.

Control:

(1) Use of healthy seed (free from galls).

(2) Separate out the galls by winnowing and sieving.

(3) The seeds can be freed from galls by floating in ordinary water or 20% common salt solution, but salt should be removed/wrshed out with water, and seed dried before sowing.

Foot rot, leaf spot and black complex

Causal organism: Helminthosporium sativum

Symptoms: Foot rot disease make its appearance in seedling stage, either the seeds rot in the soil or seedlings show rotting of roots and brown spots develop on the lower parts of the stem. The affected seedlings ultimately die and result in thinning of the crop. In the adult crop, the disease known as leaf spots, because it appears on the lower leaves forming oval to oblong spots. Such spots enlarge and ultimately affected leaves turn brown. If the plants either do not develop grains or the grains produced are shrivelled and sometimes have black tips, it termed as Black point complex.

It is also pertinent to mention here that Alternaria, Fusarium, Curvularia, Stemphylium and Penicilium species were also isolated from the black tips of the grains.

Perpetuation: The disease causing fungus Helminthsporium satvum perpetuates through seed borne or soil borne infection, present in the diseased seeds or plant debris lying in the field.

Control:

(1) Sowing healthy seed obtained from healthy crop.

(2) Application of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizer or farm yard manure in places where severe infections occur.

(3) When the disease make its apperarance, apply irrigation immediately to the crop.

(4) Carryout late sowing.

(5) Chemical seed treatment as mentioned before.

Septoria leaf spots

Causal organism: Septoria tritici

Symptoms: The affected leaves show yellow patches from a distance, but on close examination, the diseased leaves show the presence of small black dot-like structures (fruiting bodies of the causal fungus). Sometimes this disease appears in combination with rusts of wheat.

Perpetuation: The disease perpetuates through diseased plant portions lying in the field or from diseased wheat straw bits mixed with the seeds.

Control:

(1) Cultivation of resistant varieties.

(2) Burn crop residues or bury the diseased plant debris by plowing it into the field, after harvesting.

Selected bibliogaphy

Anonymous, 2000. Wheat rust. (in Urdu). CDRI, TARC, Karachi 75270.

Hafeez, A. 1986. Plant Disease. PARC, Islamabad.

Kamal, M. and S.M. Moghal. 1968. Studies on Plant Diseases of South West Pakistan. ARI, TandoJam.

Pandey, B.P. 1992. A test Book of Plant Pathology-Pathogen and Plant Diseases.

Wiese, M.V. 1987. Compendium of Wheat Diseases. The American Phytopathological Society.

The author is Asstt. Professor (Plant Pathology) Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam