Vidarbha faces looming fertiliser crisis.
Byline: Jayashree Bhosale PUNE: Agricultural districts in Maharashtra, which have been the mainstay of largescale foodgrain supplies to retail majors such as Reliance Fresh and the Aditya Birla group's More outlets, are these days caught in a different problem that could impact their supplies - shortage of...

Food security mission hits benchmark hurdle.
Byline: Prabha Jagannathan NEW DELHI: The Centre's grandiose booster plan for agri produce, the Rs 4,883-crore National Food Security Mission (NFSM), seems to be built on a target that hardly keep pace with the projected increase in domestic demand by the end of the 11th Five Year...

Maize prices rise over 6% despite bumper crop.
Byline: Arun Iyer BANGALORE: Maize prices in local markets continue to rise having touched Rs 7,410 per tonne despite a bumper crop. Interestingly on year-on-year basis, prices are up 6.5% with traders and analysts hoping that the Centre would not ban export thanks following a bumper crop....

ASABE members measure peanuts' moisture; while still in the shell.
Making sure that U.S. peanuts are top-quality requires drying them enough to prevent growth of fungi that can seriously decrease their market value. Now, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have developed a way to determine moisture levels without destroying the peanuts' shells, or pods, as is currently done. ...

Farm exports feed American homes.
Byline: Nidhi Nath Srinivas NEW DELHI: President George Bush may be pointing fingers at the appetites of the rising Indian middle class, but selling food to the rest of the world is certainly putting dinner on the tables of a large number of Americans, at a time...

What You Need To Know now about Complying with country of origin Labeling rules.
United Fresh Produce Association (UFPA) has prepared a White Paper to assist industry members in understanding and preparing to comply with country of origin labeling (COOL) rules that are likely to go into effect in the United States in the fall of 2008. There are currently many...

Traveling tubers.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Standard potato lore has long held that the first tubers that came to Europe were from the high Andes (top), while varieties from the Chilean lowlands (middle) didn't arrive until after the devastating blights of the mid-1800s. But a new analysis of DNA from old...

Phillips Mushroom Farm recognized.
Phillips Mushroom Farm of Kennett Square, PA was recognized as the PA Preferred Member Company of the year in January at the 2008 PA Farm Show in Harrisburg. "The PA Preferred program was developed to help Pennsylvanians identify and purchase locally-grown and processed foods and goods, opening new markets...

News you can use.
A recent study in the Journal of Hepatology looked at the effects of repeated whisky binges on the livers of rats fed either choline-deprived or regular "rat chow" diets--sometimes known as Taco Bell. Choline is a naturally occurring B-complex vitamin that helps prevent the accumulation of fat in the...

Playing dinner table roulette.
After a year of major recalls of contaminated foods--peanut butter, ground beef, canned chili, and even pet food--February brought the Godzilla of all recalls. The U.S. Department of Agriculture negotiated a recall by Westland/Hall mark Meat Co. of 143 million pounds of beef (mostly from aging dairy...