Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Iran has announced plans to increase the area for wheat planting by 500,000 hectares to 2.25 million hectares. The increased planting may allow the wheat crop to reach 5.2 million MT, assuming good rainfall. Iran is still expected to have to import close to 5 MMT of wheat. Barley planting will be on 1.25 million hectares. Critics in Pakistan are saying that the country is lagging far behind in the use of advanced technology, like GMO, in agriculture. GM maize trials in the country showed yield increases that range from 10 to 45 percent. The government says that it is able to support the use of GM cotton but will have to do more research before adopting GM maize as maize enters the...
Kiwengwa/Pongwe Forest Reserve Kiwengwa/Pongwe Forest Reserve is located on the northeast coast of Unguja, 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the Town. The reserve is an important biodiversity spot in the coral rag zone. The forest reserve is rich both in faunal and floral species. The faunal species r...
Fabiana is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, native to dry slopes in western South America.[1] They are evergreen shrubs or subshrubs,[1] with needle-like leaves and profuse tiny tubular flowers in summer. The common name is false heath because the leaves superficially resem...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.