VegetablesOrganic carrot grower Philip Draper says irrigation got this year's harvest started on time, and that machinery, storage and staff now cost far more as Ireland is left with nine commercial growers.
AgrotechThe second-generation Andela Robot Weeder treats 8 weeds a second per unit instead of 3, covers the whole field, and will drive itself fully from next season.
Nana Nikuradze, who farms one hectare in Samtredia, now composts crop residues and manure instead of burning them and aims to replace all her chemical fertiliser.
Matt England adds about 40 kg/ha of barley to his pulses; over five years, bicrops yielded 5-10% more than monocrops and improved gross margin in four of six comparisons.
OrganicAgricultural Writers SA's !Xhariep regional awards honoured an organic vegetable grower who began with five tilapia, a citrus enterprise built by 17 Sundays River Valley producers, and a Grabouw apple farmer whose packhouse throughput rose by two-thirds.
OrganicAn analysis of USDA Certified Organic Survey data by Escoffier Global ranks Vermont first on an organic 'footprint intensity' score, with nearly 17% of its farmland certified organic against about 1% nationally, while California leads with about $3.55 billion in organic sales.
OrganicFirst-year results from the Regenerative Organic Alliance and food-testing firm Edacious found 46 certified products from 13 brands measured better than USDA reference values on several nutrients, including a much lower omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in meat.
FruitsNihal Singh, a former State Bank of India chief manager, grows about 5,000 pomegranate plants in Jalore and says moving step by step from chemical to biological inputs, with drip irrigation, cut his orchard costs from about Rs 20 lakh to Rs 8-9 lakh this year.
FruitsOnly about 300 acres of quince are grown commercially in the US, but Pacific Northwest growers, cider makers and the USDA's quince collection see a niche market growing, Capital Press reports ahead of Portland's third Quince Fest.
OrganicIn a position paper on the revision of the EU organic regulation, the seed industry body asks lawmakers to drop Amendment 14, which would let the Commission set extra rules on how organic varieties are bred.
Rooftop farmingGarlic can be grown organically in pots in a garden, on a balcony or on a roof: plant cloves in October-November, mulch and water with care, and lift the bulbs at the end of summer.
CropsThe OROWS project is comparing how wheat, barley, oats and rye varieties resist or tolerate disease under organic management, giving growers without fungicides better grounds for choosing seed.
The fifth-generation farmer from Mourneabbey, organic since 2010, is one of three finalists in the female category of the EU Organic Awards to be presented in Brussels on September 23.
