By;  Brandon Willis, Risk Management Agency Administrator Farming is in my blood, and I’m proud of that. I grew up on my family’s sheep ranch in northern Utah and managed our raspberry farm before coming to USDA. For the past three years, as Administrator for the Department’s Risk Management Agency (RMA), I’ve sat across the table […]

An interesting FAO GLOBEFISH study, GLOBEFISH report: The role of women in the seafood industry was released last May. Women are essential contributors to the seafood industry, including primary activities, secondary industries and service related to fisheries and aquaculture. At the global scale, estimates illustrate that every one seafood worker out of two is a

Leafy, tree-lined streets aren’t just good for property values; they may also be good for your health, according to a new report. After analyzing two sets of data from the city of Toronto, researchers report that adding just 10 trees to a single city block could improve how healthy a person feels as much as

Drought, especially prolonged or severe drought, can be a major stress in forest ecosystems.  Drought can kill trees directly or indirectly through insect attack or wildfire. Both of which are more likely to occur during drought. Tree mortality impacts most of the ecosystem services provided by forests, including the amount of wood that grows, how

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in order to promote investments in agriculture and horticulture sectors of the Punjab province. “Through this partnership both the sides will work together in promoting investment and creating jobs in livestock,

Wheat farmers cautioned about rust disease

Agriculture scientists can improve cotton yield through the use of bio-technology in breeding programmes of cotton, said Dr Aslam Bhutti, Regulatory Scientist BASF America. Addressing a seminar on “Genetics Changes in Cotton and Needs of 21th Century” organized by Evyol and Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI) jointly, here, he said that Pakistan could be brought

Penguin swims 5,000 miles every year for the reunion with the man who saved his life. It’s the story of a South American Magellanic penguin who swims 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life. Retired bricklayer and part-time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, who lives in an

A new degradable plastic film that is less than the width of a human hair is helping to regenerate native trees and establish high-value crops. Professor Peter Halley and QUT’s Emeritus Professor Graeme George with the award. The new technology, developed by a team in partnership with the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Polymers, with

Global warming could occur more quickly than expected, according to a new model by University of Queensland and Griffith University researchers. The model is the first to include ‘energy use per person’ as a predictive factor rather than focusing solely on economies or populations.  It forecasts that population and economic growth combined with rising energy use per person could