As advised earlier this week, your Board has engaged with both Olam and the potential new investor in an effort to reach a conclusion in the best interests of all shareholders.
Olam increased its bid to 70 New Zealand cents a share from 55 cents, valuing NZ Farming at NZ$171 million ($893 million), according to a filing with the New Zealand stock exchange. The new offer beats a 60 cents-a-share bid plan announced last week by Union Agriculture Corp., a Uruguayan landowner.
ACC has 17.2 million shares or a 7% stake, it said in a filing to the stock exchange. Olam today raised its offer to 70 New Zealand cents a share from 55 cents.
Olam increased its bid to 70 New Zealand cents a share from 55 cents, valuing NZ Farming at NZ$171 million ($164.2 million), according to a filing with the New Zealand stock exchange. The new offer beats a 60 cents-a-share bid plan announced last week by Union Agriculture Corp., a Uruguayan landowner.
Olam (O32.SG) +1.2% at $2.63 following latest expansion via NZ$109.6 million ($107.2 million) purchase of rest of 18.45%-owned NZ Farming Systems Uruguay (NZS.SG) it doesn’t already own, according to Dow Jones.
Company, NZFSU’s largest investor, already has pledge from second largest shareholder, PGG Wrightson (PGW.NZ), to sell its 11.5% stake.
Olam International, a Singapore-based commodity producer and trader, plans to make an offer for all the shares in NZ Farming Systems Uruguay Ltd. it doesn’t already own.
Olam is offering 55 New Zealand cents a share, valuing NZ Farming at NZ$134 million ($93 million), according to a filing with the New Zealand stock exchange. NZ Farming, which is based in New Zealand and owns dairy farms in South America, traded at 41 cents on July 16.
A crop-killing fungus is spreading out of Africa towards the world’s great wheat-growing areas
IT IS sometimes called the “polio of agriculture”: a terrifying but almost forgotten disease. Wheat rust is not just back after a 50-year absence, but spreading in new and scary forms. In some ways it is worse than child-crippling polio, still lingering in parts of Nigeria. Wheat rust has spread silently and speedily by 5,000 miles in a decade. It is now camped at the gates of one of the world’s breadbaskets, Punjab. In June scientists announced the discovery of two new strains in South Africa, the most important food producer yet infected. …
Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday will unveil grants totaling 120 million dollars to promote dynamic, home-grown, sustainable agriculture in Africa and India. The grants, which will be made by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation working together with
The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno.
by Sara Luckow, TMC MediaWire Blogger Americans have picked up some interesting habits thanks to the Great Recession. Online dating is on the rise because…
Katine’s 18 farmers groups offered money to help cope with drought and food shortages affecting north-east Uganda
Katine farmers are being encouraged to apply for funds to support income generating ideas to improve livelihoods in the sub-county.
The African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), which is implementing a three-year development project in the sub-county, with assistance from Farm-Africa, has put up UShs 18m (around US$8,700) to fund proposals submitted by the 18 farmers groups.
The move follows a drought in the region that has left crops destroyed and many families in dire need.
At the beginning of the season, the farmers groups, which cover around 540 households, were given seeds under the project’s livelihoods component. But erratic rainfalls have not produced the intended harvest.
Livelihoods project assistant David Ogwang says climate change had proved that it was “dangerous” to rely on giving farmers seeds. “We want to supply farmers with inputs as well as provide them with alternative income generating activities. That is why we have asked the farmers to submit their proposals stating the kind of enterprises they would want to run,” he said.
Each group has been allocated UShs 1m and has been invited to propose ways in which it could be spent. Amref is advising farmers on which enterprise to choose, according to the ability of each group to manage it, and will evaluate each proposal. Farmers will not be given the money directly. Amref will conduct any procurement involved.
The scheme will start off with affordable ventures, such as supporting farmers to buy hens, or goats. It would not run to the purchase of cattle. Ogwang says Amref would not consider such expensive ideas until it was sure the farmers were capable of taking care of the animals. Katine has no veterinary services, although the project has trained some animal health workers to help bridge the gap.
So far, most of the farmers’ proposals have been for funding for animals.
“We have nothing; all our crops have been destroyed by the drought. That is why we, as Ajobi farmers, are changing to sheep rearing. You know, the problem is that the project over emphasised farm inputs without considering the factor of climate. In farming there are two things with crops; you either lose or gain, but it’s not the case with rearing animals,” said Charles Otuba, the group’s vice-chairman.
Members of the Olwelai farmers group have applied for money to rear goats.
Olocoi’s farmers group wants to use the money to enhance its village savings and loans association (VSLA). The group’s chairman, Cornelius Onaba, says the decision to zero in on VSLAs follows a consensus that this could accelerate living standards more quickly.
“Each group is supposed to get UShs 1m to run enterprises of their choice, but this money is too little to cover all the 30 members of a [VSLA] group. So what we have agreed in our proposal is that we support our VSLA such that members are able to borrow money and use it to run their business. We also agreed that each member who borrows that money will have to pay certain interest. In this way we believe that the money would help us, rather than using it to buy goats,” Onaba said.
Whether Onaba’s plan is approved, however, is unclear. While Amref is interested in enhancing VSLAs, which are run in Katine by Care International and local NGO Uweso, the rules around these associations may not allow for extra money to be added.
With announcements on agriculture expected from the G8 today, Farm-Africa’s new chairman, Martin Evans, tells Liz Ford what Africa’s subsistence farmers really need
Asked what he would like the G8 to do for African farmers this week, the new chairman of Farm-Africa, Martin Evans, doesn’t hesitate to offer a list. Top of that list is money for research into new disease-resistant seed varieties, improved animal healthcare, particularly in those areas vulnerable to climate change, and help for farmers to access new technology and markets.
“What we’d like to see is basically the same thing as African farmers. We need to look at what they want and how the G8 can help supply these things,” says the agricultural economist.
“Money from the G8 that is put into agriculture research systems can have huge benefits. Fund additional research into improved seeds and animal disease prevention and you will offer a safeguard for years ahead. If they [G8] are really paying for agriculture, let’s see some money go into research.”
Farm-Africa is working with the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) on improving livelihoods in Katine, north-east Uganda, as part of the Guardian’s three-year development project in the region.
Working with 18 farmers groups in the rural sub-county, the project has seen the introduction of new disease-resistant, high-yielding cassava, which has just produced its first harvest, and plans are underway to build a storage centre for crops, which will allow farmers to sell in bulk and hopefully get a better deal. Mobile phones are increasingly being used by farmers to find the best place to sell their goods.
After more than 20 years of neglect from the international community, the world food crisis has pushed agriculture if not to the top, then certainly high up on to the G8 agenda this year, which could mean real benefits for farmers. Today a new initiative to fund farming and to tackle global hunger are due to be announced by leaders meeting in Italy, which reportedly could entail an investment of $12bn over the next three years.
The UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) has already laid out its commitment to revitalising agriculture and improving food security in its white paper, published on Monday. What it promises is not dissimilar to Evans’ wishlist. The paper, Building our Common Future, talks about helping subsistence farmers to get seeds and fertilisers, credit and access to markets, and of supporting agricultural research. It mentions “doubling agricultural production in Africa over the next 20 years” and calls on the international community to deliver the $20bn of new funding for food and agriculture promised last year (perhaps an inauspicious sign for any further cash pledges).
“We are just waking up to the fact that agriculture has been neglected and we’re seeing the impact of that. It’s absolutely true that the volume of aid and financial flows going into agriculture has been in decline over the last two decades,” says Evans, who took over as chairman this week.
The wake up call was triggered by the spike in food prices in 2007-08. Although prices for staple crops have now stabilised, DfID is still predicting long-term problems in producing and procuring food for nearly 1 billion people. The alarming rise in food prices coincided with the publication of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2008, which for the first time in more than 25 years focused on agriculture. The report said agriculture was “a vital development tool” for achieving the Millennium Development Goal to halve poverty by 2015. “The World Development Report refocused everyone’s attention,” says Evans.
Of course, helping farmers involves more than handing out seeds and discussing how new technologies can increase yields – it’s about making farming viable. “Food security is more than growing more food in your own backyard, it’s more of everything. Food security is about making farming more productive and more profitable. You need to improve access to markets. [Subsistence farmers] really don’t have good access to markets. You need investment in roads and communication technology to ensure trading conditions are right. Some money can usefully and sensibly be put into basic things like that.”
He adds: “It’s very difficult for poor people to amass any savings, so we can help them a lot by giving a bit of capital. I’m not suggesting that things are handed out on a plate. But we need to help to create the conditions that make things accessible and ensure farmers are encouraged and convinced that benefits outweigh the risks, and to take an entrepreneurial approach to things. It’s not about us turning up in our 4x4s, dumping things and leaving, it’s about working with farmers to identify problems and come up with plans. It’s very much about people helping themselves.”
He adds that farmers, the majority of whom are women, need educating on new technologies, such as how to conserve water and better irrigate land. But they also need to be convinced these new ideas are going to work. In Katine demonstration farms were set up to allow villagers to do just that.
But with any new money promised by the international community comes the question of how it will get to farmers. Evans admits implementation is the hard bit, but that’s where NGOs like Farm-Africa step in. Donors are increasingly channelling aid through governments, but there has also been an increase in cash filtered through NGOs in recent years. “Assuming money is allocated by the G8, we hope a lot of it will come the way of good NGOs. We can do things neither governments or the commercial sector can do. But we need both.”
Looking to the future, Evans, who has more than 35 years experience working in agriculture, rural development and agribusiness, would like Farm-Africa to explore how large-scale business can benefit smallholder farmers, with whom the charity works throughout east Africa. “There are good examples where large-scale business can connect with small farmers by buying their products under contract, processing them for them and providing advice and seeds and technical support,” he says. “We can’t do these for all crops in all places, but I would like to see Farm-Africa exploring more opportunities for merging large scale agriculture and business to benefit small groups.”
“Like it or not, large-scale business is a fact. It can be a threat, but can also be a great way to look to see how Farm-Africa can open up these opportunities for the benefit of small farmers.”
Highlight of the agricultural calendar to close after 170 years because of falling numbers and competition from other events
The bulls bellowed and the homemade cakes looked as good as ever, but farmers at the Royal Show were taking final souvenir photos of Stoneleigh Abbey and making their goodbyes.
After 170 years of demonstrating everything from steam-ploughing to ornamental caps for hayricks, the premier agricultural event in the country is ending its traditional annual gathering in Shakespeare country.
High stand rentals, delays in prize money and competition from other, similar events have all been blamed for an accumulated loss of £1.25m over the last five years.
In spite of its distinguished status, the show has been overtaken by the Royal Welsh, the Great Yorkshire and other shows that have supplemented farm animals and produce with garden centres, barbecue equipment sales and anything vaguely – or even hardly at all – country related.
“Perhaps they’ve concentrated too much on the agricultural side,” said one cattle farmer, Bernard Llewellyn, who has been loyal to Stoneleigh for more than 20 years. “People need to be entertained and I think perhaps that’s the weakness of this show. It’s one of the saddest days of my life, but we have to move on.”
The show, which has been interrupted only by the two world wars and animal disease outbreaks, began as an attempt to move on, when farmers were reluctant to accept reforms after the Napoleonic wars. Minute books of the Royal Agricultural Society describe strategies to convince the conservative countryside to accept what opponents called “newfangled nonsense”, such as mechanisation.
“Things continue to change,” said Denis Chamberlain, marketing director of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (Rase), which is promoting this year’s show as the “best ever”.
“In the 1980s, when probably a quarter of a million people came through the showground on the four days that it’s run, there were 130,000-140,000 farmers in the UK, actually owning farms and managing and tenanting farms; today that’s probably back down to 50,000 or 60,000.
“The critical mass of the industry has reduced; the numbers of businesses servicing them has reduced, and so that has reduced the size of the Royal Show.”
About 120,000 visitors are expected through the gates before the show ends on Friday evening. The Rase is planning a series of smaller, specialist events in future years and may return to its old practice of touring the country. That ended in 1963 after high winds in Newcastle upon Tyne blew down the marquees.
Failure to improve access to water in Karamoja in Uganda is likely cause widespread hunger and lead to mass migration, Oxfam International warns
Court rules in favour of government after Georgina Downs last year won case based on ‘solid evidence’ of harm from crop spraying
A landmark victory against the government over pesticide spraying was overturned today, prompting accusations of a “whitewash” from the environmental campaigner who brought the original case.
Georgina Downs, said the decision by the court of appeal to overturn the judgement was “bizarre” and a “public health scandal”. She vowed to take the fight to the House of Lords. (Read her full statement here.)
The environment department Defra, which brought the appeal, welcomed the ruling, which it said showed the government had complied with its obligations under European law.
The case turned on how exposure to pesticides sprayed onto fields to boost crop growth may affect peoples’ health.
The appeal follows a high court ruling in November that Downs, who runs the UK Pesticides Campaign, had produced “solid evidence” that people exposed to chemicals used to spray crops had suffered harm.
Reacting to the appeal victory, Hilary Benn, environment secretary, said: “In controlling pesticides, the protection of people’s health is our priority. That is why we are already working to better assess bystander exposure to pesticides so that we can continue to improve our models.”
He added: “In view of the issues raised by Georgina Downs and the new European directive, we will consult this autumn on how to give people access to farmers’ spray records, how to give residents prior notification of spraying activity, and what else should be included, for example, monitoring and training.”
The original judgment said the government had failed to comply with a European directive designed to protect rural communities from exposure to the toxins. Theruling, from Mr Justice Collins, said the environment department, Defra, needed to reassess its policy and investigate the risks to people who are exposed. Defra had argued that its approach to the regulation and control of pesticides was “reasonable, logical and lawful”.
Downs, who lives on the edge of farmland near Chichester, West Sussex, launched her campaign in 2001. She blames repeated exposure to pesticides for persistent ill health.
Responding to today’s appeal judgment, she said: “I am upset, but not as upset as if the ruling had gone against me on my own evidence.”
Downs claimed the appeal judges ignored the evidence she gathered during her campaign, and instead relied on official reports to reach their findings.
In the new ruling, Lord Justice Sullivan said that Downs “genuinely believes that her own, and her family’s health problems have been caused by the exposure to pesticide spraying.” But he said that although Downs is “a most effective campaigner” she had no formal scientific or medical qualifications.
Mr Justice Collins’s reference to “solid evidence” substituted his own evaluation for that of Defra, said Lord Justice Sullivan.
The appeal judge said the regulatory framework for pesticides required balance between the interests of the individual and the community as a whole.
The Crop Protection Association, which represents the pesticides industry, said the judgment was a victory for common sense. Dominic Dyer, chief executive, said: “Without pesticides to keep weed, pest and disease pressures in check, crop yields would fall by around a third, something we can ill afford at a time of heightened concern about food security and population growth.”
Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association, which promotes organic food grown without artificial pesticides, said: “Whatever the court of appeal says, the fact is UK regulation of pesticide spraying does not take into account the safety of schools or families living next to sprayed fields.”
The row over cow-inflicted injuries threatens a return to rural segregation – we need not wired-off paths but common sense
It goes against the grain to think of the English countryside as dangerous, rather than gently beautiful and full of natural wonders for those who keep their eyes peeled. We don’t have the poison ivy or bears that encourage Americans to stick to carefully organised trails.
But a recent ruling at Preston county court has put the wind up a lot of people. Farmer John Cameron was found liable over a cow-trampling incident which has led to the seriously injured victim, Sheila McKaskie, claiming £1m.
A lifetime’s reporting has left me wary of commenting on any judgment unless I was in court. Cases are so individual that the notion of a binding precedent – which is the worry aired about this one – seldom holds water.
Another lifelong habit, trespassing carefully, has also taught me not to generalise about landowners and ramblers, except to say that it is good for them to meet.
An example of this is the farmland in the Vale of Mowbray, which I got to know when compiling a guide to the Coast-to-Coast Walk. Unexpectedly, considering that the path traverses wilderness in the Lake District, Pennines and North York Moors, it is the section that demands the most careful navigation.
The slight roll in the land means that a succession of farms rise and fall as you go, appearing and disappearing like ships on a swell. As you make for each in turn, you cannot help but see how each field is used and imagine yourself in the farmer’s place.
You will probably meet at least one person earning their living from the land; and at Stanhowe there is even a discreet signboard in a hedge explaining how the farm works, complete (when I passed by) with a ballpoint pen for suggestions and the farmer’s mobile phone number. Very sensible, when up to 10,000 people a year are crossing working land.
Very different, too, from the situation when the path’s pioneer Alfred Wainwright (no relation) came this way in 1971-72. Mutual suspicion meant that no fewer then eight miles had to be plodded along roads in this section. Wainwright was big and determined, but he didn’t want to confront bulls and barbed wire. Today, thanks to patient work by landowners, walkers and North Yorkshire county council, the whole 23 miles between Richmond and Ingleby Cross is on footpaths.
A return to rural segregation is the danger behind the cow controversy, if people are panicked by Preston (where the farmer is appealing against the judgment) or the recent well-publicised cow attacks on David Blunkett and a vet out with her dogs on the Pennine Way in Wensleydale, where tragically she was killed. In eight years, there have been 19 deaths and 481 injuries caused by cows, including farmworkers. Enough to warrant more education and discussion like this; but not to lead to wired-off paths (there is a ghastly example between Robin Hood’s Bay and Boggle Hole on the Yorkshire coast) or a rash of permanent warning notices without the discretion shown at Stanhowe.
Liability fears and lawyers are the only dangers that have really increased, in this as in so many other, metaphorical, fields. Dogs are an issue but simply one of responsible ownership (personally, I wish that pets of all kinds didn’t exist, but they do, and most of them have lessons to teach about animal care, the natural world and the unreality of Peter Rabbit).
Tread softly, said Yeats; walk cheerfully over the world, said George Fox. Be reasonable, says common law. Farmers will seldom put cows or horses with young calves or foals in a footpath field if they have an alternative; when they do, they would be well advised to put up a temporary warning notice.
For their part, walkers in doubt (large parties, with children or dogs or just nervous) should detour or knock on the farm door and ask for advice. That is the kind of thing a court considers on the very rare occasions when things go so far.
Failure to improve access to water in Karamoja in Uganda is likely cause widespread hunger and lead to mass migration, Oxfam International warns
Cost of crop failure soars as weather disasters become more frequent and severe
China faces an increase in weather disasters which will threaten crops and economic growth, the country’s most senior forecaster has warned.
He Lifu, of the National Meteorological Centre, told the China Daily newspaper that events such as droughts, floods and storms had become more frequent and severe since the 1990s and the trend was likely to continue.
“Extreme weather will be more frequent in the future due to the instability of the atmosphere, and global warming might be the indirect cause,” the forecaster told the English-language paper. He said his agency responded to 16 emergencies last year, the most since its foundation in 1949.
The annual economic cost of extreme weather has soared from 176.2bn yuan (£15.6bn) on average in the 1990s to 244bn yuan (£21.5bn) between 2004 and last year, according to ministry of civil affairs figures cited by the paper.
Farmers are resorting to their own measures to avoid losses. Wheat producers in Henan, Shandong and Hebei fired chemical pellets into the clouds this month to prevent hail and heavy rain from damaging their harvest.
The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has also warned that drought has become more frequent since the 1990s, causing more crop failures.
According to the China Daily, the headquarters figures show that annual grain loss caused by drought has averaged 37.3m tonnes since 2000 – almost twice the level in the 1980s – while the annual average proportion of damaged crops has risen to 59.3%, compared with 48% in the 1990s.
Sun Jisong, the chief forecaster at the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, cautioned that part of the apparent increase in extreme weather might be due to more advanced observation techniques and improved recording.
He added that dealing with the rise would require reduced consumption of energy and resources to tackle the causes and improve forecasting and defences.
Last month, the annual Red Cross report said that a rise in weather-related disasters worldwide over the last decade – from around 200 a year in the 1990s to around 350 – was continuing. Its secretary general, Bekele Geleta, warned that extreme-weather events would become more frequent and more severe.
Field notes for the cow crisis
The row over cow-inflicted injuries threatens a return to rural segregation – we need not wired-off paths but common sense
It goes against the grain to think of the English countryside as dangerous, rather than gently beautiful and full of natural wonders for those who keep their eyes peeled. We don’t have the poison ivy or bears that encourage Americans to stick to carefully organised trails.
But a recent ruling at Preston county court has put the wind up a lot of people. Farmer John Cameron was found liable over a cow-trampling incident which has led to the seriously injured victim, Sheila McKaskie, claiming £1m.
A lifetime’s reporting has left me wary of commenting on any judgment unless I was in court. Cases are so individual that the notion of a binding precedent – which is the worry aired about this one – seldom holds water.
Another lifelong habit, trespassing carefully, has also taught me not to generalise about landowners and ramblers, except to say that it is good for them to meet.
An example of this is the farmland in the Vale of Mowbray, which I got to know when compiling a guide to the Coast-to-Coast Walk. Unexpectedly, considering that the path traverses wilderness in the Lake District, Pennines and North York Moors, it is the section that demands the most careful navigation.
The slight roll in the land means that a succession of farms rise and fall as you go, appearing and disappearing like ships on a swell. As you make for each in turn, you cannot help but see how each field is used and imagine yourself in the farmer’s place.
You will probably meet at least one person earning their living from the land; and at Stanhowe there is even a discreet signboard in a hedge explaining how the farm works, complete (when I passed by) with a ballpoint pen for suggestions and the farmer’s mobile phone number. Very sensible, when up to 10,000 people a year are crossing working land.
Very different, too, from the situation when the path’s pioneer Alfred Wainwright (no relation) came this way in 1971-72. Mutual suspicion meant that no fewer then eight miles had to be plodded along roads in this section. Wainwright was big and determined, but he didn’t want to confront bulls and barbed wire. Today, thanks to patient work by landowners, walkers and North Yorkshire county council, the whole 23 miles between Richmond and Ingleby Cross is on footpaths.
A return to rural segregation is the danger behind the cow controversy, if people are panicked by Preston (where the farmer is appealing against the judgment) or the recent well-publicised cow attacks on David Blunkett and a vet out with her dogs on the Pennine Way in Wensleydale, where tragically she was killed. In eight years, there have been 19 deaths and 481 injuries caused by cows, including farmworkers. Enough to warrant more education and discussion like this; but not to lead to wired-off paths (there is a ghastly example between Robin Hood’s Bay and Boggle Hole on the Yorkshire coast) or a rash of permanent warning notices without the discretion shown at Stanhowe.
Liability fears and lawyers are the only dangers that have really increased, in this as in so many other, metaphorical, fields. Dogs are an issue but simply one of responsible ownership (personally, I wish that pets of all kinds didn’t exist, but they do, and most of them have lessons to teach about animal care, the natural world and the unreality of Peter Rabbit).
Tread softly, said Yeats; walk cheerfully over the world, said George Fox. Be reasonable, says common law. Farmers will seldom put cows or horses with young calves or foals in a footpath field if they have an alternative; when they do, they would be well advised to put up a temporary warning notice.
For their part, walkers in doubt (large parties, with children or dogs or just nervous) should detour or knock on the farm door and ask for advice. That is the kind of thing a court considers on the very rare occasions when things go so far.