Study: Organic Cotton Production

Study: Organic Cotton Production - Abstract: Cotton sold as .organic. must be grown according to the federal guidelines for organic crop production. Soil fertility practices that meet organic certification standards typically include crop rotation, cover cropping, animal manure additions, and use of naturally occurring rock powders. Weed management is accomplished by a combination of cultivation, flame weeding, and other cultural practices. A wide variety of insects attack cotton. Management options include trap cropping, strip cropping, and managing border vegetation to encourage high populations of native beneficials. Certain biopesticides using bacteria, viruses, and fungal insect pathogens are available as insect control tools.

We discuss specific insect management strategies for cutworm, cotton bollworm, tobacco budworm, pink bollworm, armyworm, loopers, thrips, fleahoppers, lygus bugs, aphids, whitefly, spider mite, and boll weevil. Seedling disease, soil disease, and foliar disease management is also discussed. Pre-harvest defoliation methods that meet organic certification are mostly limited to citric acid, flamers and frost. The publication concludes with sections on marketing organic cotton and the economics and profitability of organic cotton production.

By: Martin Guerena and Preston Sullivan. NCAT Agriculture Specialists. July 2003

Keywords: cotton, organic, production, management, crop, soil, fertility, crop rotation, cover cropping, manure, rock powder, cutworm, cotton bollworm, tobacco budworm, pink bollworm, armyworm, loopers, thrips, fleahoppers, lygus bugs, aphids, whitefly, spider mite, and boll weevil.

rubber price news this week, global agribusiness agriculture market

rubber price news this week, global agribusiness agriculture - Rubber futures were also inflated this week, as the market took its cues from the local spot market. The spot market was left with little arrivals last week and the onset of monsoons has also been contributing towards tightness in the market.

However, the expectations of higher produce in the coming days might be a solace for the market and might result in prices stepping back in the days to unfold. According to the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANPRC), the production is estimated to have increased 5.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2011.

The production is also estimated to rise by another 7.2 percent in the second quarter of the year, added ANRPC. Rubber futures for the most active June contract climbed above Rs.230 per Kg briefly during the final trading day of the week, and closed at Rs.227.97 per Kg on Friday, up 6.13 percent as compared to the previous week’s closing.

rubber, price, this week, global, agribusiness, agriculture, market, natural rubber producing countries, production, june, 2011, contract, trading, anprc

About Tapioca and It's Production

Tapioca and It's Production - Tapioca is basically a root starch derived from the cassava, or yuca plant. It's often used to thicken soups and sweeten the flavor of baked goods, and it makes a dandy pudding.  The cassava plant is native to South America and the West Indies, where its thick, fibrous roots are used in a variety of forms: bread flour, laundry starch, an alcoholic brew, and of course, tapioca pudding. As the Encyclopedia Britannica tells us, it was probably first harvested by the Mayans.

Tapioca is a starch extracted from the root of the plant species Manihot esculenta. This species, native to the Amazon, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela as well as the Caribbean, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, most of the West Indies, is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, bitter-cassava, manioc, "mandioca", "aipim", "macaxeira", "manioca", "boba", "yuca" (not to be confused with yucca). In India it has different names in different regions such as, "Sagudana" (literally, Sagu drops), "Sabudana"(literally, drops of soap) and "Kappa". In Vietnam, it is called bột năng. In Indonesia, it is called by malay ubi kayu or singkong.In Philippines, it is called sago.

The name tapioca is derived from the word tipi'óka, the name for this starch in Tupi. This Tupi word refers to the process by which the starch is made edible. However, as the word moved out of Brazil it came to refer to similar preparations made with other esculents.

Tapioca is a staple food in some regions and is used worldwide as a thickening agent, mainly in foods. Tapioca is gluten free, and almost completely protein free. 'Tapioca' in Britain often refers to a milk pudding thickened with arrowroot, while in Asia the sap of the Sago palm is often part of its preparation.

The cassava plant has either red or green branches with blue spindles on them. The toxin found in the root of the red-branched variant is less harmful to humans than the green-branched variety. Therefore, while the root of the red/purple-branched variant can be consumed directly, the root of the green-branched variant requires treatment to remove the toxin. Konzo (also called mantakassa) is a paralytic disease associated with several weeks of almost exclusive consumption of insufficiently processed bitter cassava.

Commercially, the starch is processed into several forms: powder, fine or coarse flakes or meal, rectangular sticks, and spherical "pearls". Pearls are the most widely available shape; sizes range from about 1mm to 8mm in diameter, with 2–3mm being the most common.

Flakes, sticks, and pearls must be soaked well before cooking, to rehydrate them; they will easily absorb water equal to twice their volume, becoming leathery and swollen. All these products traditionally are white, but sticks and pearls may be colored. The oldest and most common color is brown, but pastel colors are now available. In all its forms tapioca starch is opaque before cooking; and become translucent when cooked.

Nigeria, Brazil, and Thailand are the world's largest producers of cassava. Thailand accounts for 60% of worldwide exports.

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