Though Rice is Sri Lanka's staple food and paddy farming is the livelihood of an estimated 1.8 million families, rising temperature and heavy rains have damaged rice crop in recent months. COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has contracted to import 75,000 metric tons of non-basmati rice from India to meet its immediate requirement. The Indian Government lifted the ban on export of superior quality non-basmati rice priced over 425 dollars a tonne on October 26 after exporters protest. The ban imposed on...

Most areas need moisture to improve wheat and range conditions. Because of recent rain and mild temperatures, native range and pastures are in good condition, helping livestock remain in good to fair condition. Very windy conditions were reported with gusts up to 49 mph, but overall temperatures were milder. The calf market has started to slide because of dry conditions. Extension regional offices reported the following conditions for the past week: Central: Windy conditions prevailed this...

The permanent statues exclude many commodities, such as rice, soybeans and peanuts; set support prices much higher than current levels; and prevent new enrollment in various conservation programs. Without reauthorization, farm policy will revert to permanent statues established in 1938 and 1949 laws which are drastically different from current programs. For example, permanent law does not authorize counter-cyclical payments or decoupled direct payments and imposes acreage allotments and...

Yap attributed the high crop output to the expansion of harvested areas, the use of hybrid and certified seeds through the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) programs for rice and corn and the synchronized planting after the dry spell in the Visayas and Mindanao. Yap attributed the high crop output to the expansion of harvested areas, the use of hybrid and certified seeds through the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) programs for rice and corn and the synchronized planting after the dry spell...

Unfortunately for the good doctor, such topics are hardly as scintillating as the lurid entries posted since he made a crucial tactical error after his arrest in a prostitution sting: He offered an excuse guaranteed to catapult him from conscientious to comic, from notable to notorious. Research in the Rice laboratory involves the identification of unique determinants present on bacterial surfaces that may serve as suitable vaccine candidates to protect against infection in humans, we re...

Within the next year, China will become a net wheat importer, driving food prices up just as it's driven up other commodity prices this decade. He found the same problem in Vietnam, where rice yields have been increasing 10-15% a year, but the infrastructure for shipping it can't keep up. A rising middle class in Asia is developing a taste for meat, so crops that might go to feed people are being diverted to cows and chickens. Brazil is a kind of El Dorado for agricultural commodities...