A new flower AI tool that counts blooms on a tree from a standard camera image could turn tables on accurate yield prediction. Relying only on a common phone’s camera to capture a petal’s angles, textures and sizes, this nameless AI counts even hidden flowers. The tool is a collaboration of the National Robotarium of the UK, two...
Ghana’s cocoa supplies for the 2024-25 season could rebound and pressure international futures prices that hit $10,782 on June 18, 2024. On June 18, Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) forecast a production rebound to 700,000 tonnes from October 2024, onward. The board cited good weather conditions for the upward supplies, which will redeem poor averages of 500,000 tonnes...
This Iranian wheat summer, the government has rewarded farmers with purchases of 4.4 million tonnes of wheat since April 2024. The Tehran Times reported on June 17, 2024 that 2024 purchases are 200,000 tonnes above those of the April-June 2023 phase. Under a national plan that guarantees buyouts from local wheat growers, the state has already utilized...
The 2024 Scotland salmon season has recorded its highest four-month growth since 2019 with a 36% leap, year-on-year. According to Salmon Scotland in its review of HM Revenue and Custom information, salmon exports reached £250 million between January and April 2024. This was £65 million more than in the corresponding first four months of 2023. Meanwhile, yearly salmon shipments...
A fortnight after the beginning of India’s monsoon, the metrological department reports 20% rain shortfall from June 1 but this won’t affect paddy areas in the south. The weatherman warns that the shortfall is temporary and there is still time for the predicted above-normal monsoon rain. There is one exception however, the south, where rain increased by 17%...
Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance reports phenomenal growth in fruit and spice exports in Quarter 1, 2024. According to Majalah Hortus on June 17, 2024, fruit exports reached $262.44 million (4.302 trillion IDR) from January to March 2024, a 65.37% yearly increase. Similarly, spice exports increased to $178.47 million (2.926 trillion IDR), 13.58% above the January-March 2023 postings....
A year into its trial cultivation which began in mid-2023, Guyana’s millet production is now classified “surplus” for domestic utility. The government achieved this target through the Tacama Mega Farm whose 1,300 acres under millet strand a natural watershed. Plans to expand the above acreage to new areas are already underway, per a Guyana Chronicle report of June 16, 2024. Key...
The rain-delayed Oklahoma wheat harvest is recording high quality yields of 60-61 pounds a bushel near its completion. This is despite an early reduction in test weights to between 57 and 59 a bushel, especially in southwest Oklahoma. As the harvest continues however, weights will average 60 pounds a bushel since the lesser weights occurred before the...
As the Oregon strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) season ends, you-pick services are intense with pickers buying the fruits from $1.85 per pound. In the spirit of the times, the Salem Statesman Journal on June 13, 2024 reported various offers for you-pickers in the strawberry-rich Willamette Valley. Most consumer self-picked and frozen strawberry offers are at the price range of between $1.85...
As East Africa’s finance ministers read budgets on June 13, agricultural budgets in Kenya and Uganda decreased by differing margins. Kenya’s agricultural kitty dipped by 0.2% to 84.9 billion shillings ($656.871 million) for the 2024-25 period. In retrospect, the budget for the 2023-24 financial year had been higher at 98.1 billion shillings ($758.999 million). This is even as...