Biggest Farm Groups Oppose Extension of Agriculture Law

By Derek Wallbank

The two largest U.S. farm groups have come out against a proposed one-year extension of an agriculture-policy law that expires in September, saying producers of the nation’s crops and livestock need more certainty, especially amid a record drought.

House Republican leaders last week proposed the an extension, tying the measure to a provision that would revive drought-relief measures for ranchers that expired a year ago. Unlike growers of major crops such as corn and soybeans, livestock and poultry producers aren’t covered by government insurance programs. The House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the bill tomorrow, just days before Congress leaves Washington for its August recess.

“As the drought wreaks havoc across the nation, our farmers and livestock producers are looking for relief and certainty,” Roger Johnson, the president of the National Farmers Union, said today in a statement. A one-year extension would mean beginning the process of writing a farm bill again in January, when lawmakers elected in November take office, he said.

The group would support an extension only if it leads to a House-Senate conference on a full five-year bill before current law expires, Johnson said.

The American Farm Bureau Federation said today that it would continue to push for the passage of a five-year bill this year. The group is the biggest farm group, followed by the National Farmers Union.

Five-Year Bill

“AFBF believes the priority is passage of a new five-year farm bill,” Mary Kay Thatcher, senior director of congressional relations for the Farm Bureau, said in an e-mail. “This approach is not being presented as a vehicle to get the respective full Senate and House committee versions of the farm bill in conference, and therefore does not appear to be getting us any closer to completing the new farm bill.”

The one-year bill “does nothing” for hog or poultry producers and little for the dairy industry, Thatcher said. Disaster-relief provisions in the extension legislation also are in the Senate and House five-year bills.

The current agriculture-policy law was passed in 2008, authorizing spending for all U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, including nutrition and conservation initiatives and subsidies, through Sept. 30. The Senate passed a replacement bill in June, while the House Agriculture Committee approved its version on July 12. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, never scheduled a vote on the measure.

To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Enoch in Washington at denoch@bloomberg.net; Derek Wallbank in Washington at dwallbank@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Geimann at sgeimann@bloomberg.net

Thousands in Haiti show up for Carnival-like festival in capital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Thousands of revelers have poured into the downtown area of Haiti's capital to kick off a three-day festival called the "Carnival of Flowers."

The Haitian government held the main Carnival celebrations this year in the countryside, in large part because a public plaza in Port-au-Prince still housed thousands of people displaced by the 2010 earthquake.

It was the first time in memory Carnival was held outside Haiti's capital.

The administration of President Michel Martelly wanted to hold Sunday's celebration to mark the clearing of the park-turned-settlement and also let people in Port-au-Prince enjoy their own Carnival.

Some critics have questioned the wisdom of spending about $1.6 million on the event.

The government says that the celebration will boost morale and provide jobs.

Dead cattle, devastation left in wake of Western fires

The fires are dealing a huge blow to the economically fragile livestock industry

BY MATTHEW BROWN AND JEFF BARNARD

The Associated Press

VOLBORG, Mont. — Cecil and Delores Kolka thought they escaped the worst of the Ash Creek Fire when the 390-square-mile blaze spared their home and several pastures as it ripped through the couple’s Montana cattle ranch.

But when the family went to round up their livestock they encountered carnage — the charred and bloated bodies of an estimated 400 cows and calves killed as the fire torched a series of narrow, thickly forested draws on the nearby Custer National Forest.

Some surviving animals were burned so badly that their hides were peeling. The worst off were shot in mercy killings. Others now limp by on burnt hooves, and less than half the family’s herd remains.

“Before we found our cattle we said at least we’ve got our homes and are all safe,” Delores Kolka said. “In truth, we would have rather lost everything here except our cattle.”

Across the West, major wildfires are wreaking havoc this summer on the region’s economically fragile livestock industry. In areas such as remote Powder River County, Mont., ranchers said they could be grappling with the devastation for years to come.

Hay is in short supply. Hundreds of miles of fence and numerous corrals and water tanks must be rebuilt. Thousands of head of displaced livestock are being shipped to temporary pastures.

Similar scenes are playing out in Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho. Including Montana, the value of the six states’ cattle industries approaches $9 billion annually.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of grazing land have burned so far — with months to go in the annual fire season.

The number of fires and total acreage burned in the West this summer is roughly within range of the past decade’s average. What’s different is where those fires are burning, as major blazes erupt on grasslands and brush where livestock can be more prevalent, said Jennifer Smith with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

And that’s all set against a backdrop of a crushing drought that has set in for much of the region. If the dry conditions persist, the recovery of burned areas could stall, forcing cattle owners to sell their animals or seek more lasting alternatives to the private pastures and public lands they’ve run livestock on for generations.

Perhaps 200 cattle have been killed in Wyoming and about 225 in Oregon, ranchers and officials in those states said. The numbers are growing as cattle die from injuries, illness and stress.

In remote southeastern Oregon, ranchers Rich and Jeanette Yturriondobeitia lost a third of their 300-head cow-calf operation. Rich Yturriondobeitia had to shoot six cows at one watering trough.

“I can talk about it now and not cry,” said Jeanette. “My husband still can’t talk about it. The cattle, oh crud we even had some of them named.”

She said her husband “found a bunch of them that tried to outrun the fire and couldn’t. He won’t let me go see it. It was pretty bad.”

In Montana, as the Ash Creek fire approached earlier this month, Cecil Kolka and others cut barbed-wire fences and opened gates to give livestock a chance to escape over rock-strewn ridgelines that dominate the landscape.

How so many cattle were killed remains uncertain. Several dead deer and a dead coyote found among the burned cattle suggest the fire simply outran them.

Like others, the Kolkas said they likely won’t know the full extent of their losses for months.

“We’re still finding dead ones, and we haven’t been able to account for quite a few of them,” Cecil Kolka said as he drove through the sprawling ranch he runs with his son and daughter-in-law, Dean and Jill Kolka.

Near a water tank where surviving animals were taken to recover, calves with burnt hooves limped painfully through the mud. Numerous cows had blackened teats on their udders. One mother cow stood vigil over a dying calf that could barely lift its head. Kolka said the animal likely would have to be put down.

The overall fatalities are tiny compared to 30 million beef cattle nationwide. That means the fires will have minimal effect on beef prices, which already were high due to a drought-related spike in feed costs and demand from export markets, said Dave Bohnert with the Oregon State University Extension Service.

But within rural economies, the impacts are magnified.

Oregon’s Harney County, for example, is wide open country where some ranchers drive 120 miles for groceries. Its 71,000 cattle outnumber the people nearly 10 to one.

Though not one house there was lost to the 870-square-mile Long Draw Fire, it destroyed the food for tens of thousands of cattle, and left half a dozen ranching families wondering if they will be able to send their kids to college or even stay on the land they love.

Some ranchers say the federal government didn’t do enough to stop the spread of fires that have burned more than 3,000 square miles of range and forest in the West so far this summer. They contend that restrictions on logging and grazing allowed too much fuel to accumulate in forests and on the prairies, and that limits on road construction hindered access to fire areas.

Environmentalists cite warming temperatures due to climate change as a major culprit. They also argue grazing spreads non-native plants that are quick to burn.

Regardless, the most immediate problem for ranchers who saved their cattle is how to feed them.

The drought already has driven up hay and corn prices. Pasture is at a premium. And emergency grazing lands released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture can be hundreds of miles away, leaving ranchers wondering how they could ever pay shipping costs.

A Wyoming fire that burned through 153 square miles of remote pine forest and meadows in Medicine Bow National Forest displaced as many as 10,000 cattle.

Meanwhile, disaster programs ranchers normally look to are not available until Congress enacts a new Farm Bill.

“What it does for so many is turn an already slim profit margin into a negative margin,” said Wyatt Prescott, executive director of the Idaho Cattle Association.

Ranchers depend heavily on federal grazing allotments, which sell for $1.35 for the right to graze a cow and her calf for a month. But after the ranchers foot the bill for fences and water improvements, the cost is more like $30, said Stacy Davies, manager of the Roaring Springs Ranch outside Frenchglen, Ore.

That is a fraction of the cost of feeding a cow on hay, which runs around $90 to $100 a month since the drought has driven up hay prices, he added.

Ranchers won’t be able to graze burned allotments for two years after they burn, unless federal policy changes.

Next door to the Kolka ranch, Marian Hanson says the fire destroyed up to 85 percent of the grazing land on ranches she runs with her daughter and grandson. She has transferred several hundred cattle to locations scattered across Montana.

Her grown grandsons, Blaine and Bob, have been spending their days pulling up burned fence posts, coiling ruined barbed wire and sawing down burned trees.

“There’s not enough here for cows to eat,” Bob Hanson said as he worked in a stand of blackened pine trees. “We lost a bunch of buildings, too, but it ain’t nothing like Cecil and Dean (Kolka). That’s heartbreaking.”

Kenya's Mumias sugar plans to raise $400 million for new plant

Kenya's biggest sugar producer, Mumias Sugar plans to raise $400 million for a new plant and cane plantation aimed at doubling profit in three years, its chief executive said on Friday. 

Peter Kebati said Mumias had yet to structure the deal for its plan to produce 200,000 tonnes of sugar a year in Kenya's coastal region, where cane matures more quickly than in the west, where it currently produces 250,000 tonnes a year. 

"We are thinking it will be something like, 50-70 percent debt and 30 percent equity," Kebati told Reuters, adding that there was interest from development finance institutions and other foreign investors. He said raising equity would wait until after next year's election, widely seen as a possible flashpoint. 

East Africa's biggest economy produces about 500,000 of the 850,000 tonnes a year of sugar that it consumes, importing most of the rest from east and southern Africa. Kebati saw demand rising to 1 million tonnes a year in 2015. Mumias said costs would be 30 percent lower through larger scale production at its planned new project via the Tana and Athi River Development Authority in the coastal region, where cane matures in 10-12 months compared to 18-20 in western Kenya. 

It plans a plantation of 16,000 hectares with about 4,000 large-scale outgrowers. It currently has 104,000 farmers with an average of 1 hectare each. "That should see our bottom line go up significantly, double our profits around 2015," he said. 

Favourable weather should lift profits for the year to the end of June, he said. First half profits rose by 4.5 percent to 1.3 billion shillings ($15 million), while revenue fell 5 percent to just under 7 billion shillings. Its share price has gained 31 percent in the year to date. Kebati said the quantity of cane crushed was seen rising 20 percent to 2.4 million tonnes in the 2012/2013 (July-June) financial year. 

Copyright Reuters, 2012

Thailand to import 30,000 tonnes of crude palm oil

Thailand plans to import 30,000 tonnes of crude palm oil from now to end-August to prevent a shortage of cooking oil as unfavourable weather in recent months has cut domestic supply, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said on Friday. 

Thailand had authorised total crude palm oil imports of 40,000 tonnes in April after dry weather in a major palm-growing area in the country's south cut output, but had scrapped the plan a month later after bringing in just 10,000 tonnes as the weather improved and farmers demanded a halt to purchases. 

But Thailand needs to turn to overseas purchases now as the country's palm oil stocks have dropped to 130,000 tonnes, from a more normal 200,000 tonnes, Apichart Jongsakul, head of the ministry's Office of the Agriculture Economy, told reporters. "Overall domestic crude palm stocks fell below the appropriate level so we need to import from neighbouring countries to prevent a possible shortage," the official said. Thailand is broadly self-sufficient in palm oil, widely used for cooking and as biodiesel fuel, but the government has allowed limited imports from Malaysia in recent years to make up for a domestic supply shortfall. 

It bought 30,000 tonnes from Malaysia, the world's second largest producer of palm oil after Indonesia, early in 2011. Thailand was forecast to produce around 1.75 million tonnes of palm oil in 2012, up slightly from 1.65 in the previous year, according to Agriculture Ministry data. Around 63 percent of the output is due to be consumed by the food sector and the rest used by the biofuel sector. 

Dry weather hits Argentine wheat crop

Dry weather in some wheat-growing areas in Argentina has begun to affect the 2012/13 crop, which farmers have yet to finish planting, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday in its weekly crop progress report. 

The country is the world's No 6 wheat exporter and the top supplier to neighbouring Brazil. The government expects farmers to seed 3.8 million hectares with the grain this season, down from 4.6 million hectares last season. 

The ministry cited dry conditions in some northern areas of Buenos Aires, the province in which more than half the wheat crop is produced, and in southern Cordoba province, the No 3 wheat region. By Thursday, farmers had planted 88 percent of the forecast wheat area, advancing 9 percentage points from a week earlier, but lagging last season's pace by 4 points. 

The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange forecasts Argentine growers will plant 3.6 million hectares of wheat, down 22 percent from the 2011/12 crop year. The US Department of Agriculture forecasts Argentine wheat production of 12.0 million tonnes in 2012/13, down from 14.5 million tonnes last season. Farmers finished harvesting Argentina's 2011/12 soya crop in the last week with production estimated at 40.1 million tonnes. 

Livestock producers facing big challenges from lengthy drought

By Nat Williams 

Agri News Online

FAIRFIELD, Ill. — Illinois livestock producers scrambling to come up with rations are finding their options limited. 

Pastures are brown in many areas, and the lucky producers who have extra hay have likely found buyers for it. Teresa Steckler, a University of Illinois Extension livestock educator, discussed choices last week at a drought recovery meeting here. 

“I can’t tell you how many phone calls I’ve received from guys saying, ‘How can I have a cheaper ration to get my cows through?’ Well, I don’t think there’s such a thing as a cheap ration because everybody’s going to be fighting for the same recourses,” Steckler said. “We don’t have any hay. The people who do have hay are already sold out. For big rounds, some guys are paying $65. It’s hard to justify those numbers.” 

With hay hard to come by, producers are being forced to feed corn and other plants. Steckler cautioned that stressed corn could do more harm than good, in some cases. The Centralia Animal Disease Laboratory recently reported that of 100 corn plant samples, only 15 percent was considered safe to feed all animals. Thirty percent was deemed to be unsuitable for pregnant cows, and the remainder OK only if combined with other feeds. 

She added that farmers who put their cattle out to graze on corn plants should first feed them some hay. 

“The highest concentrates of nitrates are going to be in the lower third of the stalk,” Steckler said. “If you’re going to top it, top it as high as you can; the leaves are going to contain the least amount. You can go put your cattle out on that, but you’ve got to be very judicious on how you feed your cattle. Don’t throw them out there if they’re starving. 

“Make them eat some hay. Then only allow them a certain amount of that field. Don’t force them to eat those stalks; you’ll kill your cattle. If they’re pregnant, don’t force them to eat those stalks if not tested. That feed does not get enough oxygen, and she’ll slough that fetus, because that fetus has a high oxygen requirement.” 

Baling corn may not be the best option. 

“If you let that corn stand out there and you bale it, you are actually concentrating the nitrates,” Steckler said. “I do not advise you to do that, especially if you don’t have it tested. If you do ensile it, it will reduce it anywhere from 25 to 40 percent. However, with the extreme weather this year, you probably need to add an inoculant. The reason is, you probably don’t have enough bacterial action going on to cause the fermentation process. 

“You can adapt cattle to higher nitrate concentrations, but you have to be careful. Get your corn tested, see what nitrate levels are, then figure out what you can and can’t do with that field. If you put a heavy nitrate load on you give a cow a normal ration, you’ll kill her on that. So be very careful.” 

Producers with soybeans that are doing poorly may consider baling them. Steckler stressed whether the plan is to bale corn or soybeans, they should check with their crop insurance provider to make sure it can be baled. 

Those who plan to test their crops for use as forage or hay should take care to send the whole plants to the laboratory, not just the leaves. 

Also, she noted that livestock producers with cattle on pasture should check to see if there are wild cherry trees that are dropping a lot of leaves. The dry leaves have a high concentration of prussic acid, a toxin. Grain sorghum, sudan sorghum and sudangrass also can have high prussic acid concentrations. 

Another consideration is water supply, especially ponds. 

“If you have high nitrates in your feed and high nitrates in your water, that is a cumulative effect — you can kill your cattle,” Steckler said. “If you suspect you have any issues with your water, especially in a pond situation, you may want to get it tested. 

“Also, since we had such high, prolonged temperatures, you can get algae blooms. I’ve seen two ponds in southern Illinois that had scum across their pond; that’s from an algae bloom. If you go out there and drink any of that, it could potentially kill you. It could kill your cattle.”

More than 1,000 turtles slowly escape captivity

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. - More than 1,000 turtles made a slow-speed escape from their turtle farm in northwest Georgia.

Turtle farmer David Driver tells sheriff's officials he suspects vandals might be to blame for tearing down fences around his turtle ponds in Summerville.

Authorities say that allowed the turtles — including snappers, Eastern paints and yellow-bellied sliders — to leave the farm and make a beeline to nearby ponds and creeks.

Driver tells The Chattanooga Times Free Press (http://bit.ly/P62h4w) that about 1,600 of the 2,200 turtles escaped. He says his business involves selling some turtles to pet-growing operations and others to China.

Sheriff's officials are continuing to search for the turtles.

Summerville, known more as the home of folk artist Howard Finster than it is for turtles, is about 90 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Will India help the world banish the scourge of hunger?

The world is turning into a strange place of paradoxes. On the one hand, there are an estimated one billion (100 crore) people - representing 14 per cent of the global population of seven billion – undernourished, while on the other, millions suffer from chronic diseases due to excess food consumption.

On the one hand, is the issue of affordability and accessibility to food for the poor and on the other, humongous subsidies and wastage.

Global demand for farm products

Global demand for agricultural products is growing and food prices are rising; and yet, roughly a third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Food inflation hits the poor the hardest and dilutes their already low level of nutritional intake. For most of 2011, global food prices and food price volatility remained high. Droughts, floods and earthquake threatened food security for the poor and increased hunger and malnutrition in the areas hit by these natural disasters. Yet, 2011 saw significant gains in support of agriculture, food and nutrition security, and global poverty reduction. Agriculture moved to the forefront of the international development agenda, and investments in the sector rose. Emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India as well as private sector and philanthropic organisations also increased their voice in the global food system through global platform such as the G20 meetings and the World Economic Forum. According to International Food Policy Research Institute, looming large for 2012 will be continued high and volatile food prices, increased oil prices, threat of extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change (such as drought in Sahel) and financial crisis in the US and Europe.

These will combine to affect the food and nutrition security of the poor and hungry. Concrete actions that will help improve food policy decisions and actions in 2012 and beyond include: forging a broad intersectoral coalition to address issues relating to agriculture, food, nutrition and health via G8 and G20 meetings; enhancing the key role of agriculture in economic, social and environmental sustainability via Rio+20; ensuring that water, land and energy are used efficiently in food production and that poor people have access to them; and creating and strengthening institutions and capacities for country-led development strategies. That said, newer challenges are coming to the fore. Land constraints (especially in Asia), water shortage and climate change are new threats that countries have to face.

Climate changes

Climate change threatens more frequent drought, flooding and pest outbreaks. It is estimated that the world loses about 12 million hectares of agricultural land each year to land degradation. Experts point out that land clearing and inefficient practices make agriculture the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution on the planet, contributing to further climate change.

A set of recommendations intended for the consideration of policymakers on how to achieve food security in the face of climate change, population growth, poverty, food price spikes and degraded ecosystems has been released by scientific leaders from 13 countries. To understand the path forward, major components and drivers of the global food system were reviewed. These include role of changing diet patterns; link between poverty, natural resource degradation and low crop yields; need to address inefficiencies in the food supply chain; gaps in agricultural investment, and the patterns of globalised food trade, food production subsidies and food price volatility.

Need to integrate food security

Calling for a multi-pronged approach, the scientific leaders asserted the need to integrate food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies; significantly raise the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade; sustainability intensify agricultural production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impact of agriculture; target populations and sectors that are most vulnerable to climate change and food insecurity; reshape food access and consumption patterns to ensure basic nutritional needs are met and to foster healthy and sustainable eating habits worldwide; reduce loss and wastage in food systems particularly from infrastructure, farming practices, processing, distribution and household habits; and create comprehensive, shared, integrated information systems that encompass human and ecological dimensions. Experts are unanimous in their view that the multiple emergent challenges – food security, climate change, increased competition for energy, water, degradation of land and biodiversity – are connected in complex ways and demand an integrated management approach. They recognize that the efforts to alleviate the worst effects of climate change cannot succeed without simultaneously addressing the crises in global agriculture and food system, and empowering the world's most vulnerable populations. 

Not withstanding the above, one set of researchers point out that countries continue to rely on market-based solutions to food and resource shortage, rather than the more controversial need-based reallocation of resources. At the same time, domestic food production continues to have a lower priority in funding projects than connecting producers to export markets. Food price speculation has drawn the ire of researchers. Private investors can bet or speculate on what the price of a food commodity will be in the coming weeks or months.

It has been shown that food commodity prices are directly correlated with the number of futures contracts, or the contracts that investors sign when they bet on prices; and both spiked in 2007-2008.

Commodity speculation

To address the issue of commodity speculation, in July 2010, the US passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which has called for maximum limits on the investment of a single speculator as well as improved transparency in all speculation. However, implementation of the law has been slow and uneven, with many legal challenges delaying its having a real effect on speculation.

Ironically, while the developed world is keenly discussing agriculture and related issues, and attempting to bring about a sense of balance in the global food market especially in consumption, there is a lot India can do to contribute to striking that balance.

India is home to a very number of the world's poor and hungry.

Farm growth rates are abysmally low. There is an urgent need for resurgence in agriculture. Our success in banishing poverty and hunger through growth-oriented policies and good governance can substantially reduce the stress the global food market is currently facing.

USDA Releases Agroforestry Guide for Farmers, Woodland Owners

Handbook shows ways to better manage their lands and boost profits

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan this week released a first-of-its-kind practical agroforestry handbook that contains information to help establish, manage and market agroforestry projects that are profitable and sustainable over time. The handbook, Profitable Farms and Woodlands, includes five main agroforestry practices: alley cropping, forest farming, riparian buffer strips, silvopasture and windbreaks.

"Profitable Farms and Woodlands will help landowners make good use of their land in terms of making profits but also as land stewards," Merrigan said. "Our emphasis on agroforestry helps focus on job creation, increasing rural prosperity, support local and regional food systems, and helps to guide stewardship of working farms and forests."

Agroforestry is a unique land management approach for farms, ranches and woodlands that intentionally combines agriculture and forestry to create integrated and sustainable land-use systems.

Among the information in the book are simple explanations of how growing medicinal plants, mushrooms or cultivating bee products can help landowners become part of a multi-billion dollar industry. In Georgia, for example, a forest farmer can grow goldenseal and earn $6,500 an acre. Or an 800-log shiitake business can reap roughly $6,000 per year.

Other information focuses on responsible landownership through the use of windbreaks and riparian buffers. Riparian buffers can help a farmer save money or even earn added income because the buffers help protect water quality, improve food and cover for wildlife and fish, and can even be designed to grow profitable products such as berries, nut crops, and timber.

Each practice in the book is brought to life through success stories, including that of Frances and Will Powers of Oconee County, Ga., who faced losing their family farm but are now successful fourth-generation farmers.

Landowner focus group sessions in Birmingham, Ala., and in Atlanta led to the development of the free handbook which is a collaborative effort of a team of agroforestry specialists from the 1890 and 1862 Land Grant Universities and the USDA National Agroforestry Center, led by the 1890 Agroforestry Consortium. The Agroforestry Center is a partnership of the U.S. Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service.

A limited number of hard copies of the 85-page handbook are available upon request for use in agroforestry training and landowner workshops. Contact the National Agroforestry Center for more information.

Thirsty South Asia's river rifts threaten 'water wars'

As the silver waters of the Kishanganga rush through this occupied north Kashmir valley, Indian labourers are hard at work on a hydropower project that will dam the river just before it flows across one of the world's most heavily militarised borders into Pakistan. 

The hum of excavators echoes through the pine-covered valley, clearing masses of soil and boulders, while army trucks crawl through the steep Himalayan mountain passes. 

--- Future demand for water may spark conflict 

--- Disputes over Himalayan rivers make South Asia a flashpoint 

--- India's hydropower plans upset downstream Pakistan 

The 330-MW dam is a symbol of India's growing focus on hydropower but also highlights how water is a growing source of tension with downstream Pakistan, which depends on the snow-fed Himalayan rivers for everything from drinking water to agriculture. 

Islamabad has complained to an international court that the dam in the Gurez valley, one of dozens planned by India, will affect river flows and is illegal. The court has halted any permanent work on the river for the moment, although India can still continue tunnelling and other associated projects. 

In the years since their partition from British India in 1947, land disputes have led the two nuclear-armed neighbours to two of their three wars. Water could well be the next flashpoint. 

"There is definitely potential for conflict based on water, particularly if we are looking to the year 2050, when there could be considerable water scarcity in India and Pakistan," says Michael Kugelman, South Asia Associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "Populations will continue to grow. There will be more pressure on supply. Factor in climate change and faster glacial melt ... That means much more will be at stake. So you could have a perfect storm which conceivably could be some sort of trigger." 

It's not just South Asia - water disputes are a global phenomenon, sparked by growing populations, rapid urbanisation, increased irrigation and a rising demand for alternative power such as hydroelectricity. Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq quarrel over the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. The Jordan river divides Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank. Ten African countries begrudgingly share the Nile. 

In Southeast Asia, China and Laos are building dams over the mighty Mekong, raising tensions with downstream nations. A US intelligence report in February warned fresh water supplies are unlikely to keep up with global demand by 2040, increasing political instability, hobbling economic growth and endangering world food markets. A "water war" is unlikely in the next decade, it said, but beyond that rising demand and scarcities due to climate change and poor management will increase the risk of conflict. 

MAJOR THREAT 

That threat is possibly nowhere more apparent than in South Asia, home to a fifth of humanity and rife with historical tensions, mistrust and regional rivalries. The region's three major river systems - the Indus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra - sustain India and Pakistan's breadbasket states and many of their major cities including New Delhi and Islamabad, as well as Bangladesh. 

"South Asia is symbolic of what we are seeing in terms of water stress and tensions across the world," says B.G. Verghese, author and analyst at New Delhi's Centre for Policy Research. 

The region is one of the world's most water-stressed, yet the population is adding an extra 25 million people a year - South Asia's per capita water availability has dropped by 70 percent since 1950, says the Asian Development Bank. The effect of climate change on glaciers and rainfall patterns may be crucial. "Most of the water that is used in Pakistan comes from glacial melt or the monsoon," says Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer and co-ordinator of the water programme at Lahore University of Management Sciences. 

The dry months of June-July offer a snapshot of the extreme water crisis in the region. Hospitals in New Delhi this year cancelled surgeries because they had no water to sterilise instruments, clean operating theatres or even wash hands. Swanky malls selling luxury brands were forced to switch off air conditioners and shut toilets. 

In Pakistan, the port town of Gwadar ran out of water entirely, forcing the government to send two naval water tankers. Some government flats in the garrison city of Rawalpindi have not had water for weeks, said the local press. India, as both an upper and lower riparian nation, finds itself at the centre of water disputes with its eastern and western downstream neighbours - Bangladesh and Pakistan - which accuse New Delhi of monopolising water flows. 

To the north and north-east, India fears the same of upstream China, with which it fought a brief border war in 1962. Beijing plans a series of dams over the Tsangpo river, called the Brahmaputra as it flows into eastern India. 

DAM DISPUTES 

For India, damming its Himalayan rivers is key to generating electricity, as well as managing irrigation and flood control. Hydropower is a critical part of India's energy security strategy and New Delhi plans to use part of it to reach about 40 percent of people who are currently off the grid. A severe power shortage is hitting factory output and rolling outages are routine, further stifling an economy which is growing at its slowest in years. India's plans have riled Bangladesh, which it helped gain freedom from Pakistan in 1971. Relations cooled partly over the construction of the Farakka Barrage (dam) on the Ganges River which Dhaka complained to the United Nations about in 1976. The issue remains a sore point even now. More recently, Bangladesh has opposed India's plans to dam the Teesta and Barak rivers in its remote north-east. 

But India's hydropower plans are most worrying for Pakistan. Water has long been a source of stress between the two countries. The line that divided them in 1947 also cleaved the province of Punjab, literally the land of five rivers - the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum, all tributaries of the Indus - breaking up millenniums-old irrigation systems. 

India's latest hydro plans have fanned new tensions. "Pakistan is extremely worried that India is planning to build a whole sequence of projects on both the Chenab and Jhelum rivers ... and the extent to which India then becomes capable of controlling water flows," says Feisal Naqvi, a lawyer who works on water issues. 

In recent years, political rhetoric over water has been on the rise in Islamabad, and militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba have sought to use the issue to whip up anti-India sentiments - accusing New Delhi of "stealing water". India brushes off such fears as paranoia and argues the dams won't consume or store water but just delay flows, in line with a 1960 treaty that governs the sharing of Indus waters between the two countries. 

SINK OR SWIM 

South Asia's water woes may have little to do with cross-border disputes, however. Shortages appear to be rooted in wasteful and inefficient water management practices, with India and Pakistan the worst culprits, experts say. 

"All these countries are badly managing their water resources, yet they are experts in blaming other countries outside," says Sundeep Waslekar, president of Strategic Foresight Group, a Mumbai-based think-tank. 

Jordan again tenders to buy wheat

Jordan's state grains buyer has again issued an international tender to purchase 100,000 tonnes of wheat, European traders said on Monday. 

Closing date is Wednesday, July 25. Jordan on Thursday bought 100,000 tonnes. 

Jordan is the among countries facing a major increase in costs as the worst drought in a quarter of a century in the US Midwest and harvest problems in the Black Sea region cause a dramatic surge in world grain prices. 

The tender sought a range of shipment options, traders said. Offers were sought for 50,000 tonne consignments for shipment between October 16-31, between November 1-15, November 16-30 and December 1-15, they said. 

Fishermen told to pay £1.2m for black fish landings

A total of 10 fishing skippers have been ordered to pay almost £1.2m, after admitting their involvement in a so-called black fish operation.

The group previously pled guilty to the illegal landing of undeclared catches at two processors, Fresh Catch and Alexander Buchan.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, they were were given fines and confiscation orders totalling £1,194,447.

The offences were committed between 2002 and 2005.

Following the court hearing, prosecutors said the skippers had used devious methods to try to evade fishing quota restrictions in the scam - said to be worth about £23m - with no respect for the consequences.

Those dealt with in court were:

• John Smith, 37, the Alert: confiscation order of £150,000 and fine of £40,000.
• James Smith, 54, the Alert: confiscation order of £30,000 and fine of £10,000.
• Allan Simpson, 43, the Christina S: confiscation order of £361,621.
• Ernest Simpson, 65, the Christina S: confiscation order of £362,826.
• Ian Buchan, 55, the Quantus: fine of £100,000.
• James Duthie, 55, the Sunbeam: fine of £35,000.
• Oswald McRonald, 64, the Quantus: fine of £12,000.
• John MacLeod, 57, the Prowess and the Charisma: fine of £50,000.
• Michael MacLeod, 33, the Prowess: fine of £8,000.
• Stephen Bellany, 49, the Unity: fine of £35,000.

Judge Lord Turnbull said he took into account that, in each case, no attempt was made to disguise the actual income acquired and tax was paid.

He also noted the fishermen regretted their involvement and the embarrassment brought to them and their families.

Lindsey Miller, head of the Crown Office serious and organised crime division, said: "These individuals used incredibly complex and devious methods to under declare their fish landings.

"They had no regard for the law or for the consequences such large scale overfishing would have on fish stocks, the environment or the hard working fishermen trying to make an honest living in the industry."

Grampian Police Det Supt Gordon Gibson, who led the police investigation into the case, added: "This is another example of individuals amassing huge sums of money by their serious and organised criminal acts.

"Make no mistake - these men made a conscious decision to commit these crimes and to continue to do so over a protracted period."

Allan and Ernest Simpson will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh in September, while proceedings against Fresh Catch have also been continued until that time.

Six of the fishermen who were fined have already been handed confiscation orders of more than £1.3m million between them.

Earlier this month, Shetland Catch was hit with a £1.5m confiscation order and fined £150,000, after the Lerwick company admitted assisting vessel skippers in making undeclared landings.

The convictions were the result of a seven-year investigation, Operation Trawler, launched to investigate suspicious about the widespread illegal landing of fish within the pelagic fleet.

Pakistan starts to speed up wheat sales

About 40,000 tonnes of Pakistani wheat has been sold in the last two weeks to buyers in countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and East Africa, traders said on Monday. 

The deals show Pakistan is starting to speed up wheat sales following a slow start to its export season which starts around late May. Prices ranged between $292 and $312 a tonne fob, traders said. 

The wheat was largely for shipment in containers although there was also unconfirmed market talk a European trading house had booked a 45,000-tonne shipment using a bulk carrier, traders said. Pakistani export wheat prices rose to $312 a tonne fob late last week from $295 previously as international markets rose on concern about the drought in the US Midwest and export demand was strong, traders said. Export wheat prices had fallen to $307-$308 a tonne fob Pakistani ports on Monday for breakbulk (containerised) cargo with pressure coming from cheaper supplies from India, traders said. 

"Pakistan''s wheat exports have been slow to start this year as internal demand from flour mills is strong," another European trader said. "The latest sales bring the total so far this season from late May to about 115,000 tonnes." Last year Pakistan sold nearly 1.8 million tonnes between May and June before rising competition from Black Sea region harvests cut shipments. Traders did not believe that Pakistan had made significant private-sector wheat sales to neighbouring Iran, which has been seeking more grain supplies in the face of western sanctions. The problem with the Iranian business is the fungal disease karnal bunt present in Pakistani wheat which Iran wishes to prevent spreading to its country, traders said. 

Argentina will plant 22 percent less wheat this season

Argentina will plant 22 percent less wheat this season than it did in the previous crop year, a key local exchange said on Thursday, feeding a world rally in grains prices sparked by dry and hot US farm weather. 

Argentina is the world's No 6 wheat exporter and the top supplier to neighbouring Brazil. With Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures already at four-year highs, a shortfall in global wheat seedings and output could boost prices further. 

Growers in the South American country are expected to sow 3.6 million hectares with 2012/13 wheat, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said, trimming its previous estimate by 100,000 hectares and warning of a 22 percent slump from last season. The forecast, made in the exchange's weekly crop report, was in line with an estimate issued by the Rosario exchange on Wednesday and comes at a time of soaring world grains prices provoked by a drought in the US farm belt. 

The US Department of Agriculture forecasts Argentine wheat production of 12.0 million tonnes in 2012/13, down from 14.5 million tonnes in the prior crop year. Argentine wheat is planted from June through August, during the Southern Hemisphere winter, and is harvested from November through January. But many farmers are shifting toward growing barley to avoid government-imposed wheat export limits. They say the curbs, meant to ensure ample domestic food supplies, hurt profits by reducing competition among buyers. 

Over the last seven days, growers finished sowing fields in areas including north-central Cordoba province and north-central Santa Fe, the Buenos Aires exchange said. "These areas have seen serious reductions in wheat planting this season," the report said. "These reductions are irreversible (for this crop year) because the recommended period for planting in these areas has passed." 

The United Nations expects global food demand to double by 2050 as the world population hits 9 billion. Argentina, whose Pampas grains belt is bigger than France, will be key to feeding an increasingly hungry world despite the farm sector's complaints about the state-centric policies of President Cristina Fernandez. 

The sector is a key source of tax revenue as the government tries to dodge the financial fallout from Europe's debt crisis and a slowdown in demand from its main trade partner, Brazil. Argentina's Agriculture Ministry held its outlook for 2012/13 wheat plantings at 3.8 million hectares on Thursday. Argentina is also the world's No 3 soyabean exporter and No 2 supplier of corn after the United States. 

Early-season expectations for a bumper crop in the 2011/12 season were dashed by a drought that hit the Pampas in the December-January dog days of the Argentine summer, just as crops were entering their most delicate flowering stages. Argentina's 2011/12 corn output will be 21.0 million tonnes, the Agriculture Ministry said, up from its previous estimate of 20.1 million. The new forecast is still well under the 23.0 million tonnes of Argentine corn collected in 2010/11. 

Global tea production falls in first five months of 2012

KOLKATA: Led by India, the global black tea production in the first five months of current calendar has fallen by 64.29 million kg over the same period of 2011, according to Indian tea trade. 

The global black tea production has dropped to 575.45 mkg from 639.74 mkg last year. ""There is a drop in production in most of the tea producing nations. But India has been worst hit. Till May, tea production was down by 11.5%. In June and July, the production has not shown much improvement,"" said Mr Azam Monem, director of McLeod Russel India Ltd (MRIL). 

The highest shortfall of 27.79 mkg has occurred in India with production dipping to 215.82 mkg. North India has lost 17.93 mkg to produce 128.81 mkg and South India, 9.86 mkg to produce 87.01 mkg. 

The second highest loss of 21.53 mkg has occurred in Kenya where production has totalled 127.98 mkg. Uganda lost 8.86 mkg to total 12.65 mkg and Sri Lanka 5.29 mkg to total 135.63 mkg. 

Only Bangladesh (0.94 mkg) and Indonesia (0.70 mkg) have posted a marginal increase. 

All other producing countries have recorded a lower production attributing adverse weather as the principal cause. Mr Monem said that most countries will not be able to recoup the loss in coming months which means the global tea shortfall may hover around 60-65 mn kg in the current year.

The Economic Times