Project at GCSC promotes local agriculture

Ponce de Leon made a special appearance at Gulf Coast State College on Monday morning for his post as governor of the Ponce Plantation project.

The project coincides with the 500th anniversary of Florida’s discovery in 1513; acreage on the college’s property facing U.S. 98 will be planted according to how and what his farm would have looked like.

Dr. Jim Kerley, president of GCSC, made the appearance as Ponce de Leon for the announcement and said he believes this is the only project of its nature in the state.

“Agriculture is not promoted that much here,” Kerley said. “My understanding is we’ve fallen off the list as far as production goes. My understanding is we’re last in Florida, so this is our way of getting attention. Maybe more people will start growing gardens.”

The 10-month project’s estimated cost, $2,000, was presented by Bay County Soil and Water Conservation District’s vice chairman John McMurray. He said the money came from three districts: Bay County Soil and Water Conservation District, Orange Hill Soil and Water Conservation District in Chipley and the Three RiversResource Conservation and Development in Milton.

“For years, we’ve handled farming stuff; as you heard today, farming in Bay County is pretty much done,” McMurray said. “This is a great thing; maybe we can get a few gardeners started or plant some sugar cane. We want people to understand the farming.”

Waterfront Markets Inc. coordinator Ronnie Barnes, one of the project’s organizers, said they’re aiming to be as authentic with planting as they can. With such intense effort being put into the project, they want it as visible as possible so more people can see it.

“There will be segmenting of sugar cane next and of the cassava; we’ve got to get those into the ground quickly because they have the longest growing cycle,” Barnes said. “Dr. Linda Fitzhugh, biology professor, will be leading biology students and any other students that want to be involved, through planting and cultivating.”

She said there would be many more events on campus throughout the year.

Cassava, a woody shrub also known as yucca, is one of the cropsPonce cultivated on his farm and harvested for production in his bakery on the estate. Girls Inc. will be harvesting sunflowers and learning entrepreneurship by selling them to the public.

“We re-creating Ponce’s bakery … and we’re going to show people how to produce the bread from the cassava plant,” Barnes said.

The ground already has been tilled and sunflower seeds were planted after the announcement. Other plants on the schedule are all drought-resistant crops; sweet potatoes, maize, beans, and ornamental annual flowers. Other additions to the demo plantation will be information signs, kiosks and off the grid lighting for evening walks through the garden.

Original Article Here

Plant botanical names

Plants receive their botanical names in order to be officially classified and organised in terms of family, genus and species.

Latin is most commonly used when designating a plant’s botanical name. Historically, this was due to the fact that Latin was an internationally recognised language and was even taught in schools. There are also a number of plants with Greek botanical names as this culture also established a classification system for naming plants.

The botanical name of a plant may be defined by the family group it belongs to, by individual physical features, or sometimes named after its discoverer.

Did you know?

• Plants can also be named after someone other than its discoverer, such as the Nepenthes attenboroughii, which is a giant pitcher plant that was discovered by three men in the Philippines and named after the broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
• The very first ‘plants’ on Earth were cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, that was discovered to have lived around 3.5 billion years ago.
• There are 298,900 accepted species of plant in the world today, with 263,925 ‘unresolved’, which means they have yet to be classified.

Original Article Here

Williamson, Kirby excited about new committee assignments

By Robbie Schwartz

Committee assignments were doled out last week for the 2013 state legislative session.

In the House of Representatives, state Rep. Bruce Williamson, R-Monroe, sees a lot of opportunity to have an impact with assignments not only on the Banks and Banking as well as Governmental Affairs committees but more importantly the Insurance and Ways and Means committees.

“All of them give me an opportunity to help the families and businesses of Walton County, but I am particularly pleased to be able to serve on both the Insurance and Ways and Means committees,” Williamson said. “Serving directly on the Insurance Committee will allow Walton County citizens to have a louder voice in the healthcare debate, especially when it comes to helping stop the job-killing provisions of Obamacare. Additionally, all tax bills originate in the Ways and Means Committee. By having a seat on the influential committee, I can better advocate for a fairer, simpler tax structure in Georgia.

“The expanded responsibility of serving on these committees means a lot more hours of work this session, but this is work that I very much look forward to tackling.”

Williamson, who comes from a banking background, was also named vice chairman of the Banks and Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction over financial institutions, real property finance and corporate securities law. He will also serve on the Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees legislation concerning the operations and management of state, county and municipal government with jurisdiction also over state election law.

State Rep. Tom Kirby, R-Loganville, will continue serving on the three committees he was assigned to for the final 10 legislative days of last year’s session after winning a special called meeting for the District 114 seat.

He has been named secretary of both the Human Relations and Aging Committee, which considers legislation concerning the care and needs of Georgia’s aging population, and the Industry and Labor Committee, which deals with issues surrounding labor and management relations. It also has jurisdiction on matters dealing with Worker’s Compensation and Georgia’s Worker’s Compensation Board.

The other carryover from the 2012 legislative session is serving on the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, which hears legislation that impacts Georgia’s largest economic industry, agriculture. Other areas under jurisdiction of the committee are human nutrition, consumer consumption of food and its safety aspects as well as plant industry.

Kirby said he is excited about his new assignment, serving on the Business and Development Committee, charged with drafting legislation that will enable the state’s small businesses to flourish and create more jobs.

“I think this new assignment is a great committee to be on,” Kirby said. “Here in Walton County, small businesses drive the economy and I am excited to help do whatever I can with the legislation that comes through here.

“I am also very honored to be named secretary of two committees, having served only a limited time in the House. It was unexpected and also humbling.”

Representing Walton County in the other chamber, freshman state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, was named to the Insurance and Labor, Institutions and Property and Regulated Industries and Utilities committees and will also serve as secretary on the Higher Education Committee. His latter assignment he will be serving under Walton County’s other representative, state Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, who was named chairman of the Higher Education Committee. Cowsert will also serve as secretary on the Natural Resources and Environment Committee and on the Appropriations Committee. 

Original Article Here

Hardening Plants

Hardening is the process of conditioning a plant for growth outdoors. If plants produced inside are planted outdoors without undergoing a hardening period, their growth could be severely limited. Hardening is most critical with early spring crops, when adverse climatic conditions can be expected.

Hardening is accomplished by decreasing temperature and relative humidity gradually, and reducing water. This procedure results in accumulation of carbohydrates and thickening of cell walls. A change from a soft, succulent type of growth to a firmer, harder type is desired.

The process should be started at least 2 weeks before planting in the garden. Place plants outside in a protected area on warm days, and increase the length of exposure gradually. Do not put tender plants outdoors on windy days or when temperatures are below 45°F. Even cold-hardy plants will be injured if exposed to freezing temperatures before they are hardened.

The hardening process is intended to slow plant growth; but if carried to an extreme, significant damage can occur. For example, cauliflower will produce thumb-size heads and fail to develop further if hardened too severely; cucumbers and melons will stop growing entirely.

Original Article Here

UPDATE 2-No need for panic over food prices - U.N. FAO chief

* US crop report on corn sent a "very good message"

* FAO head sees no need for rapid response forum

* Maize, soybean exporters just entering planting season

By Can Sezer

ISTANBUL, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday there was no need for panic over global food prices, with the U.S. corn crop not as weak as feared and maize and soybean exporters just beginning planting.

FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva told a conference in Istanbul he did not see a need to convene an emergency G20 forum on food prices for now.

"But this is a decision that needs to be considered from week to week. At the moment the prices are very volatile and we are following them very closely," he said.

Da Silva noted major maize and soybean exporting nations in the southern hemisphere were just beginning their planting season, meaning production was set to increase.

"This game is long run. We've just started the second part of the game," he said.

Fears of a repeat of the unrest and hunger seen in the 2007/08 food crisis emerged as the worst U.S. drought in more than half a century, and persistent dryness in other key grain-producing countries, sent corn and soybean prices to successive record highs.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday cut its forecast for the country's corn crop by less than one percent, indicating the drought may have done less damage than anticipated.

The forecast raised hopes a full-blown food emergency could be averted.

"Yesterday we had a very good message from the U.S., revising their numbers. Now the corn (price) is down," da Silva said.

U.S. corn prices were trading at around $7.71 a bushel on Thursday, down close to 10 percent from a record high of $8.49 a bushel set on August 10.

The 2007/2008 crisis added 75 million to the number of chronically hungry people in the world, according to FAO estimates. Other bodies put the increase at up to 160 million.

Several members of the Group of 20 nations (G20) had said they were considering calling a meeting of its Rapid Response Forum, set up last year to respond to abnormal market conditions.

France, which presides over the G20 agriculture body AMIS, had previously said any decision on convening the forum would be made after the Sept. 12 USDA report on grains.

Da Silva said he would meet France's agriculture minister on Monday to discuss the role of speculators in surging food prices, which has been a major French concern. He noted there was much better policy co-ordination globally to ward off a crisis than in the past.

"What happened in 2008 (was that) we didn't have any mechanism to co-ordinate policy. Now we do ... we have ministers, we have AMIS, we have protocols," he said.

"Most of the talks are informal but we are providing updated information and transparency to the markets, to avoid panic and any unilateral action."

Informa raises US corn, soya plantings estimates

Private analytical firm Informa Economics raised its estimate of US 2012 corn plantings to 96.759 million acres (39.2 million hectares), from its previous forecast of 96.124 million, trade sources said Friday. Informa's latest figure is above the US Department of Agriculture's March 30 corn plantings forecast of 95.9 million acres, which, if confirmed, would represent the most US acres seeded to corn since 1937.

Informa also raised its US 2012 soyabean plantings estimate to 75.959 million acres, from 75.822 million in its last estimate, issued May 4. The firm's latest soyabean estimate is 2 million acres higher than USDA's March forecast of 73.9 million acres. Informa left its estimate for seedings of US spring wheat (other than durum wheat) at 13.476 million acres, unchanged from its May forecast. Informa projected US 2012 all-wheat plantings at 57.6 million acres, also unchanged from its May forecast. USDA projects US all-wheat plantings at 55.9 million acres.

Informa officials had no comment on the figures, but the firm said in a note to clients that its estimates were based on a survey conducted in late May and early June, along with an evaluation of planting developments in the first half of June. The firm noted that planting got off to an unusually early start across the US Corn Belt and progressed quickly, with few interruptions. "The rapid corn planting is believed to be a feature in the corn acreage being up 600-plus thousand acres from Informa's May estimate as planting momentum added corn acreage versus earlier expectations," the note said.

Copyright Reuters, 2012

Japanese Government to promote agriculture development in northern Ghana

The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Naoto Nikai, on Wednesday in Tamale gave the assurance that the Japanese Government would support small scale farming in the Northern part of Ghana, to increase agricultural production.

He also announced more educational scholarship packages at the undergraduate and post-graduate level for Ghanaians.

Mr. Nikai asked interested students to avail themselves of the opportunity, and said that Japan would continue to exchange research and educational experiences with Ghana.

He announced these when he paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor of the University of Development Studies (UDS), staff and Deans of the various faculties, to interact and share ideas for mutual benefits.

The visit was also to strengthen the existing research relation with the UDS and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and find out areas of further collaboration and support.

Mr. Nikai said past students, who had benefited from the Japanese scholarships had good relations in that country and kept good contact that makes further extension to be easy and possible.

The Ambassador said Japan was much aware of the numerous challenges facing the Northern part of the country and assured that most of its development assistance to Ghana would target the Northern part of the country and mentioned the Upper West as the region to benefit most.

He said as part of the G8 summit, Japan would soon roll out a five-year climate change adaptation programme to reduce the devastating effect of climate change in Northern Ghana, to increase crop yield for the small scale farmer adding that “Japan will help increase rice production for the small scale farmer”.

Professor David Millar, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the UDS, expressed worry about the increasing international ideology of Ghana about the establishment of large scale plantations as a way of reducing poverty.

He said when more resources were made available to the large scale farmer, it would deprive the small scale farmer of inputs.

Prof. Millar appealed to the international community to assist small scale farmers.**

Original Article Here

Mechanism That Gives Plants 'Balance' Discovered

By: Michigan State University   

When a plant goes into defense mode in order to protect itself against harsh weather or disease, that's good for the plant, but bad for the farmer growing the plant. Bad because when a plant acts to defend itself, it turns off its growth mechanism.

But now researchers at Michigan State University, as part of an international collaboration, have figured out how plants can make the "decision" between growth and defense, a finding that could help them strike a balance -- keep safe from harm while continuing to grow.

Writing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sheng Yang He, an MSU professor of plant biology, and his team found that the two hormones that control growth (called gibberellins) and defense (known as jasmonates) literally come together in a crisis and figure out what to do.

"What we've discovered is that some key components of growth and defense programs physically interact with each other," he said. "Communication between the two is how plants coordinate the two different situations.

We now know where one of the elusive molecular links is between growth and defense."

This is important because now that scientists know that this happens, they can work to figure out how to "uncouple" the two, He added.

"Perhaps at some point we can genetically or chemically engineer the plants so they don't talk to each other that much," He said. "This way we may be able to increase yield and defense at the same time."

In this way, He said plants are a lot like humans. We only have a certain amount of energy to use, and we have to make wise choices on how to use it.

"Plants, like people, have to learn to prioritize," he said. "You can use your energy for growth, or use it for defense, but you can't do them both at maximum level at the same time."

The work was done on two different plants: rice, a narrow-leafed plant, and Arabidopsis, which has a broader leaf. This was significant because it demonstrated that this phenomenon occurs in a variety of plants.

He was one of the lead investigators on an international team of scientists that studied the issue. Other participating institutions included the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Hunan Agricultural University, the University of Arkansas, Duke University, Yale University and Penn State University.

Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Courtesy agrihunt.com

We can make our green city

By: Sarbjit Singh Reen 

We can make our green city if we pay little bit attention towards this, more over we have pollulated atmosphere to the extent that now we need to plant trees everywhere, wherever possible and only then we can think of slowing down the climate change. In such circumstances whatever space we have, we should go for plantation. But to plant forest trees in close vicinity of houses in privately owned lands is not a good idea. In such circumstances we can go for small high density orchards (Mango) around the houses, but if space is too small then planting of grape vine seems to be the best idea. you can plant grape vine even in 3feet by 3 feet space near your porch area or near the gate or somewhere else and then let it grow up the terrace of the house and there, just fix 4inch by four inch chianlink in the area of 10feetx10feet if you have long sticks of 10 feet length, then 20 such sticks will serve the purpose and just make a mesh of it at the height of 5 feet on the terrace. This area will be shaded during summer months and will not allow your room under this area to grow hot and in winter there will be no leaves on the vine and area under it will be sunny and u can bask under it. One can easily produce at least 40 kg of excellent grapes from this much of space. Before going for such a planting it is better to consult Horticulture Development Officer of your area and also show him the space you have and take his recommendations seriously, but if terrace is covered with inclined roof as it is mostly in Kashmir then just train it along the fore wall of the house.
Do proper pit digging.
Dig out the pits in October November a month before planting and keep top soil (1 ½ ft.) to the right side of the pit and bottom (1 ½ ft.) to the left side of the pit. Allow the pit for exposure to sun at least for two weeks before filling the pits to control soil born pest and diseases.
Pit filling – fill the pits with top soil mixed with 15 kgs of Farm Yard Manure .(FYM) + 1/2 kg DAP and also add 50ml cloropyriphos in 10 lt of water to every pit. Fill the pits with the soil at least 6’’ above the ground level so that when the soil settles it will be at the ground level at planting.
Planting- Planting is done from Dec to March. Early plantation is desirable. Irrigation to newly planted vines is necessary for getting higher survival rate. Purchase the best quality vine from the market or consult Horticulture officer of your area, he will help you or sometime may arrange vine from the Govt nursery on payment if stock exists there.
Best time for planting is Dec to March, but if you find potted plants or the plants with earth ball intact then just plant them any time of the year. In cities where space is the main problem there if you plant grape vine it will serve all the purposes, it cleans air, it catches dust and even soften the hard looks of concrete which is everywhere in cities. Planting two such vines including the cost of vines, Pit digging, DAP, FYM and labour will not cost more than Rs 120. Once the vines start growing and reach the terrace then again consult your Horticulture Officer so that he tells you something about training and pruning of vine. After that just enjoy sweet grapes that in market will cost you never less than Rs 100 per kg and side by breathe in clean air and also make contributions in making your city green and clean.

Agricultural news roundup: Planting still far ahead of past springs

By: The News-Gazette

SPRINGFIELD — Corn and soybean planting continues to run way ahead of recent years, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

As of Monday, about 89 percent of the state's corn crop had been planted, and 64 percent of the crop has emerged.

That's well above the five-year average of 47 percent having been planted by that time and 18 percent having emerged.

Statewide, 21 percent of the soybean crop had been planted as of last weekend, compared with the five-year average of 7 percent.

In eastern Illinois, which includes the Champaign-Urbana and Danville areas, 97 percent of the corn crop had been planted, as had 24 percent of the soybean crop.

Sixty-two percent of reports from eastern Illinois indicated adequate moisture in the topsoil, while 17 percent indicated surplus moisture and 21 percent showed a shortage.

About 72 percent of the subsoil in eastern Illinois had adequate moisture, while 27 percent was short and 1 percent had surplus moisture.

Expectations pushing down corn prices

URBANA — Expectation of a huge corn crop is one of several factors pushing down corn prices, University of Illinois agricultural economist Darrel Good said.

In a UI news release, Good noted that futures prices for both new-crop and old-crop corn have fallen over the last eight months.

Early planting and fair weather have created expectations for good yields, he said.

"In combination with large acreage, yield expectations point to a crop well above 14 billion bushels," Good said.

At the same time, there are concerns about demand. Slow implementation of 15 percent ethanol blends has led some to expect stagnating corn consumption for that use, he said.

Also dampening expectations for consumption: the European debt crisis, a slower pace of economic growth in China and the slow pace of job creation in the United States.

"Conditions currently point to a substantial buildup of U.S. corn inventories next year and increasing expectations that prices will return to lower averages" like those from the 2007-08 to 2009-10 marketing years, he said.

Average prices received by farmers during those three years, averaged just under $4 a bushel.