In California, a group of University of California, Irvine scientists from UCI’s School of Biological Sciences and Department of Earth System Science won $2.7 million in federal funding to dig deeper into how soil microbes respond to drought. Their work is part of the national Genomic Science Program, a U.S. Department of Energy initiative examining […]
In Belgium, the European Commission announced help for farmers dealing with European drought conditions that is affecting crop production and animal feed. First, “farmers will be able to receive up to 70% of their direct payment and 85% of payments under rural development as of mid-October,” instead of December in order to help farmers’ cash […]
In Argentina, a drought that started on September 21 continues to wreak havoc on late-season soy and corn plantings as well as existing, growing crops. Prices on soybean and soymeal reached their highest levels since July because of the Argentina drought, especially since it is the top global supplier of soymeal livestock feed and soy […]
In India, drought impacts in major sugarcane areas such as Maharashtra will reduce ethanol production this year due to a lack of molasses for feedstock, making it unlikely that the country will achieve its blending mandate yet again. For the past four years since the E5 policy was implemented, oil marketing companies have failed to […]
In Malaysia, drought continues to impact oil palm trees, negatively impacting production and helping to boost prices this year in the biggest intra-year jump seen in six years. Palm oil production fell more than 6% in November to 1.57 million metric tons, more than the 3% estimate a Bloomberg survey of expects came up with. […]
It had been widely accepted that plants that are resistant to the hormone abscisic acid (ABA) were bad at coping with drought. This quality makes plants sensitive to drought but new studies have shown that quality could also make them cope with drought better. Scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science have discovered ABA resistant […]
In India, ethanol production is expected to slip to 2.9 billion liters this season from last year’s 3.06 billion liters due to drought impacts that have shrunk the sugarcane crop and forced mills around the country to close early. It is still higher than 2013/14’s 2.72 billion liters and 2.94 billion liters in 2012/13. The […]
No water, no crop. No crop, no sector. Simple as that. As drought again bites this year, what are scientists coming up with to develop drought-resistant strains and drought strategies? The Digest investigates. Drought’s been on the radar again this year — though the severe rainfall shortage in California and Brazil has made less headlines […]
In Brazil, despite the draught that has damaged sugarcane so far this year, the national agriculture statistics agency Conab expects ethanol production to increase 1.47% to a record of 28.37 billion liters. Ethanol production in the northeast will increase 4.53% to just over 2 billion liters. Overall sugarcane production should increase 2% to just under […]
In Brazil, ethanol mills will be the beneficiaries of $167 million worth of subsidies as the country seeks to mitigate the effects of the worst drought in five decades. The government authorized the subsidies in May, but just published a notice regarding disbursement of the funds. Companies in the northeast region will be eligible for […]
