The world will face high food prices "in the years to come", the UN food summit said yesterday, but failed to agree how the crisis could be eased. The summit, hosted by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, was called to tackle food price rises that have triggered riots in 30 countries, but became embroiled in a bitter dispute over biofuels and export restrictions. Agricultural commodities rose on the news as traders saw no prospect of change in biofuels policies or in the use of trade restrictions by key exporters. Bad weather has also contributed to the recent price rises.

Imazethapyr, a selective herbicide belonging to imidazole group is used as pre and post emergence to control grasses and broadleaf weeds. Herbicides when applied post-emergence may also leave residues in plant material and soil, depending on the chemical structure, doses and their interaction with the soil properties.

China is buying farm lands abroad to ensure food supplies at home GURBIR SINGH GREEN PASTURES: China is eying Brazil's 1.2 billion acres of fallow land for farming (Reuters) The next step towards globalisation comes from an unexpected quarter

Use of soya products can fight malnutrition better in both rural and urban areas as, among protein-rich mushroom, spirulina, soybean and pulses, soybean has 40 per cent protein content and provides cheapest protein, says an expert. ''In Madhya Pradesh, a very large section of population in villages is living below poverty line. They are deprived of affordable nutritious food and their food is lacking protein and fat content,'' the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's former director MS Virdi said.

Blame your biofuel fixation, not India and China, Bush is told

LOGIC and empirical facts do not necessarily form a part of United States President George W. Bush's assertions. Five years ago, he went to war against Iraq to unearth weapons of mass destruction that weren't there. And now, in 2008, he blames India's burgeoning middle classes for the northward

China has banned the construction of new soyabean crushing plants, in a move designed to reduce overcapacity in the industry and check the growing market share of foreign companies in the food oil business. The announcement, by an official of the economic planning ministry in Beijing yesterday, follows the related decision late last year to restrict foreign ownership in new crushing plants to 49 per cent.

By Raphael Minder in Hong Kong, John Aglionby in Jakarta,,Amy Yee in New Delhi, and Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok For years, farmers in the remote village of Pallantikang on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi relied on middlemen to sell their produce and found themselves largely isolated from the realities of market demands and price fluctuations. But when 50 of them recently started going directly to retailers, the outcome was a jump of 80 per cent in their earnings from their rice and cassava and 40 per cent from their corn.

German Soy Fuel Blend Fails Climate Test - Greenpeace GERMANY: April 3, 2008 HAMBURG - Germany's policy of blending fossil diesel with biodiesel to combat climate change is failing because 20 percent comes from soyoil produced in countries where deforestation takes place, Greenpeace said on Wednesday. The environmental pressure group said it had tested fossil diesel sold at 46 petrol stations across Germany to determine which vegetable oils were used in compulsory biodiesel blending content.

Soyabean and wheat prices continued falling yesterday as traders chewed over the implications of the dramatic shifts in agricultural production likely across the US farming industry this year. Both soyabeans and wheat are on course for a large increase in farmland devoted to their production, while last year's rush by US farmers into corn to feed the requirements of the ethanol industry will be partially reversed.

Biotechnology proponents claim that genetically modified (GM) crops are good for consumers, farmers and the environment, and that they are growing in popularity around the world.

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