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Crops
Arysta LifeScience launches plant nutrient product portfolio
Aussie biotech innovator partners with Indian farming giant
ARYSTA LIFESCIENCE HAS launched a unique portfolio of plant nutrient products in Thailand, making it among the first multi-national corporations to launch a comprehensive set of such products in the country. The launch follows two years of research and field trials with growers of rice and horticultural crops in Thailand. The new portfolio includes four products from the Arysta LifeScience acquisition of Grupo Bioquímico Mexicano (GBM) in 2007, namely: Biozyme, a complex of phytohormone, used to help flowering, fruit setting and fighting abiotic stess during the critical period in tomatoes and strawberries; Foltron Plus, a balance of humic acid, folcystein and various foliar fertilizers, to help boost yields in rice, tomato and cucumber; and Pilatus and K-Tionic, which help plants, such as rice, develop strong root systems. A fifth product, INCA, rounds out the company’s plant nutrient portfolio. INCA is a proprietary product that was first developed by Plant Impact and will be marketed in Thailand by Arysta LifeScience under an exclusive distribution and marketing agreement. INCA is a calcium delivery system that moves calcium at a cellular level, giving greater calcium penetration to plants where needed. It reduces the risk of calcium disorders by helping to control stress and by building healthier cells. INCA has been shown to increase yields, enhance crop quality and improve shelf life, especially for root crops such as potatoes and Chinese radish. Field trials have demonstrated consistent yield improvement of 10-30 percent on those crops.
POLYGENOMX LTD (PGX) recently announced that it’s newly incorporated sister company PolyGenomX India has signed a deal within its first week of operating. The deal with one of India’s largest enterprises, the Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative (IFFDC), is to trial its Jatropha is a leading candidate to satisfy the growing global demand for polygenomic Jatropha (Jatropha clean, renewable aircraft biofuel curcas pgx) for determining the best performing lines to provide India with on-going energy sources. Plans for future trials include polygenomic Paulownia. Jatropha is one of the leading candidates to satisfy the rapidly growing global demand for clean, renewable aircraft biofuel, and PGX has developed a fast-growing and high yielding variety of this plant. Interestingly, polygenomics are the product of a proprietary but natural process and therefore are not GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), according to the company. Identified by their unique genetic fingerprint, these “super plants” are subject to royalty. While the 2012 pilot study will cover just 50ha, the first stage of the IFFDC project scheduled for 2013 is expected to extend over 1,000 ha requiring more than 1 million plants. To date IFFDC has converted more than 26,900ha of wastelands into sustainable multipurpose forests.
Record Cotton crop signals declining prices THE COMBINATION OF a record cotton crop and falling consumption will expand global stockpiles by the most since 2005, driving further declines in the price of this year's worst performing commodity. Harvests will increase 7.5 per cent to 123.89 million 480-pound bales (27 million tonne) in the 12 months ending in July, as demand drops to a three-year low of 114.27 million bales, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates. Prices may decline 15 per cent to 77 cents a pound on ICE Futures US in New York by the end of next year, from 90.91 cents now, based on the median of 12 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. “It's a double whammy,” said James Dailey, Output is rising from Australia to China to India, more than compensating for a US decline
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who manages US$215 million of assets at TEAM Financial Management in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “Cotton is facing the worst-case nightmare for a commodity, where you have a glut in physical production combined with weakening demand.” Cotton fell 59 per cent since reaching an alltime high of US$2.197 in March as investors bet that prices would curb demand and encourage supply. Output is rising from Australia to China to India, more than compensating for a US decline caused by the worst crop conditions since the dust bowl era of the 1930s. Economic growth is forecast by the IMF to slow next year from Europe to China to the Middle East, potentially curbing the consumption of commodities. This year's 37 per cent decline in prices means cotton fell the most among 24 commodities in the Standard & Poor's GSCI gauge, which advanced 4.1 per cent. The fiber rose the most in 2010, adding 92 per cent. The MSCI AllCountry World Index of equities dropped 9.1 per cent since the end of December and Treasuries returned 9.1 per cent, a Bank of America Corp index shows.
China's harvest, the biggest of any nation, is expanding for the first time in four years, the USDA estimates. Output in Australia may rise as much as 25 per cent to a record as water supply improves, Adam Kay, chief executive officer of Cotton Australia, a Mascot, New South Wales-based producer's group, said in a recent interview. Exports from India, the second-biggest shipper, may climb 14 per cent, said BA Patel, the country's joint textiles commissioner. The USDA cut its global demand forecast five times in the past six months, on expectations that global growth is slowing. Consumption contracted more than 11 per cent in 2009, the most in at least a half century, during the worst global slump since the Great Depression. Economists don't expect a repeat next year, with the IMF predicting global growth of 4 per cent, unchanged from 2011. China, the biggest cotton consumer, will expand 9 per cent, and India, the secondlargest, 7.5 per cent, the Washington-based group estimates. The price slump since March may spur purchases by textile makers after signs of improving consumer demand. US retail sales jumped to a record US$52.4 billion during the four-day Thanksgiving weekend through November 27, according to the National Retail Federation.
FAR EASTERN AGRICULTURE Issue Six 2011