¿Cómo evitar llevar al fracaso un negocio?
Emprender un negocio no es fácil, cada día hay más competencia y el mercado se vuelve más exigente, ante esto se deben tomar en cuenta diversos factores que pueden poner en riesgo el crecimiento de la empresa, entonces ¿qué aspectos se deben evitar para que un negocio no fracase?
A continuación le presentamos varios tips que debe evitar para que su empresa no fracase:
- Generación de deudas. Estar consciente de que al inicio del negocio no habrá ganancias, por lo que resulta importante no generar demasiadas deudas, pues así no se entorpece el crecimiento del negocio y las ganancias son perceptibles.
- Atender a un solo cliente. Lo ideal no es tener un solo cliente “satisfecho”, sino una amplia cartera. Esto ofrece mayor entrada de capital, más consumo y obliga a la empresa a generar crecimiento.
- Descuidar al cliente y la calidad de los productos o servicios. La mejor atención que se le puede brindar a un cliente es a través del seguimiento de sus necesidades, conocer sus opiniones y brindarle productos o servicios que satisfagan sus requerimientos.
- No evolucionar. El mantenerse a la vanguardia hace la diferencia en un negocio. Se debe mantener la competencia en el mercado y evitar el rezago.
- Falta de un plan y visión. Cuando no se tiene un plan de los objetivos de la empresa, el fracaso llega más rápido. La planeación adecuada implica alcanzarlos y mantener el crecimiento del negocio.
- Falta de inversión. En ocasiones, cuando el negocio va generando ganancias, ya no se busca invertir, sino el ganar dinero. Invertir en la ampliación del negocio es un riesgo aconsejable que se debe correr para su crecimiento.
- Familiares y amigos en el equipo de trabajo. No es aconsejable que sólo sean amigos o familiares los que laboren en el negocio. Hay que optar por aquellos que en verdad tengan las habilidades, conocimientos y capacidades para poder realizar un buen trabajo.
- Deslindarse por completo del negocio. Dejar en manos de los colaboradores el negocio y sólo disfrutar de las ganancias, no es recomendable, pero si involucrarse atendiendo, supervisando y siendo parte de éste.
- Falta de comunicación entre el quipo de trabajo. La comunicación debe ser fluida en todo momento, al comunicar las ideas y proyectos se genera confianza y mejora el ambiente así como la productividad.
- Falta de políticas para el personal. Es necesario dar a conocer e implementar los lineamientos y políticas al personal a partir de la contratación.
Es necesario reconocer los factores negativos que pueden llevar al fracaso un negocio y posteriormente buscar las mejoras. Se deben desarrollar estrategias que lleven al crecimiento el nuevo negocio para generar beneficios, tanto para los clientes, como para la empresa y sus trabajadores.
Agro en México se vuelve obsoleto y viejo
A pesar de que la mecanización agrícola es un factor indispensable para incrementar la productividad del campo de cualquier país, en el caso mexicano su implementación se dificulta dado que las extensiones de tierra están fragmentadas y la mayoría de los agricultores produce para el autoconsumo, por consecuencia sus principales herramientas son manuales, de tracción de animal o una combinación de ambas, donde la maquinaria principal es el tractor.
Uno de los grandes contrastes en nuestro país es que el 60 por ciento de los agricultores siembre para el autoconsumo, 20 por ciento está en transición, es decir, están desarrollados y producen excedentes para elmercado y el restante 20 por ciento participa en la agricultura comercial.
Motocultor, una opción
Una opción para la realidad del agro en México son los motocultores, máquinas de un solo eje con ruedas que son manejadas por una persona a pie y que tienen un costo que se ubica en un rango de entre 23 mil y 48 mil pesos.
Cada motocultor está equipado con diversos implementos agrícolas como vagón, arado, rastra, sistema para riego, segadora, instrumento de fumigación, desgranadora y sembradora, según las necesidades del agricultor.
En México, usualmente las pequeñas parcelas no justifican la adquisición de un tractor porque no resulta rentable, en cambio, el motocultor no sólo resulta fácil de maniobrar en un espacio pequeño, sino que su rentabilidad está asegurada en pequeñas explotaciones de tierra, donde el volumen del trabajo está acorde con la inversión.
En el estado de Puebla el gobierno estatal ha apoyado a casi siete mil pequeños productores de cultivos de granos y hortalizas de temporal con menos de 10 mil hectáreas.
El universo del tractor
Actualmente existen en nuestro país 238 mil 830 tractores en servicio, según datos de la FAO, sin embargo, de acuerdo con la Secretaria de Agricultura, el 54 por ciento de las unidades rebasó su vida útil, que es de 15 años.
Para un mejor aprovechamiento de la tierra se requiere otro tipo de maquinarias además del tractor, tal es el caso de sembradora, fertilizadora, fumigadora o aspersora para disolver fertilizantes o insecticidas para plagas, entre otros.
De acuerdo con especialistas, para que sea rentable adquirir un tractor mediano es necesario contar con una superficie de tierra de por lo menos 25 hectáreas, pero desafortunadamente en México, las propiedades agrícolas son en promedio pequeñas.
El 30 por ciento de los productores posee menos de dos hectáreas y el 24 por ciento entre 2 y 5 hectáreas, ello, significa que para el 50 por ciento de los propietarios no es rentable adquirir uno.
Carlos Salazar Arriaga, presidente de la Confederación Nacional de Productores Agrícolas de Maíz (CNPAM), refirió que algunos estados sólo apoyan con algún porcentaje del valor del tractor y algún implemento como arado o rastra, el primero es un equipo agrícola para hacer surcos en la tierra y el segundo sirve para desmenuzar las partes de la tierra removida por el arado.
“La mayor parte de los agricultores produce de manera manual, principalmente con tracción de animales, mientras que los segundos rentan maquinaria agrícola, lo que eleva sus costos de producción”, aseguró.
El líder agrícola citó como ejemplo que en el caso de preparar la tierra para la siembra de maíz se requiere de ocho jornaleros por hectárea, a quienes se les paga 140 pesos a cada uno, lo que representa una inversión de mil 120 pesos por hectárea, en cambio, con el uso de maquinaria agrícola el costo se reduce a 700 pesos por hectárea.
En conclusión, la mecanización del campo en México es más compleja y requiere más que el uso de tractores.
http://www.vanguardia.com.mx/agroenmexicosevuelveobsoletoyviejo-1259878.html
Uno de los grandes contrastes en nuestro país es que el 60 por ciento de los agricultores siembre para el autoconsumo, 20 por ciento está en transición, es decir, están desarrollados y producen excedentes para elmercado y el restante 20 por ciento participa en la agricultura comercial.
Motocultor, una opción
Una opción para la realidad del agro en México son los motocultores, máquinas de un solo eje con ruedas que son manejadas por una persona a pie y que tienen un costo que se ubica en un rango de entre 23 mil y 48 mil pesos.
Cada motocultor está equipado con diversos implementos agrícolas como vagón, arado, rastra, sistema para riego, segadora, instrumento de fumigación, desgranadora y sembradora, según las necesidades del agricultor.
En México, usualmente las pequeñas parcelas no justifican la adquisición de un tractor porque no resulta rentable, en cambio, el motocultor no sólo resulta fácil de maniobrar en un espacio pequeño, sino que su rentabilidad está asegurada en pequeñas explotaciones de tierra, donde el volumen del trabajo está acorde con la inversión.
En el estado de Puebla el gobierno estatal ha apoyado a casi siete mil pequeños productores de cultivos de granos y hortalizas de temporal con menos de 10 mil hectáreas.
El universo del tractor
Actualmente existen en nuestro país 238 mil 830 tractores en servicio, según datos de la FAO, sin embargo, de acuerdo con la Secretaria de Agricultura, el 54 por ciento de las unidades rebasó su vida útil, que es de 15 años.
Para un mejor aprovechamiento de la tierra se requiere otro tipo de maquinarias además del tractor, tal es el caso de sembradora, fertilizadora, fumigadora o aspersora para disolver fertilizantes o insecticidas para plagas, entre otros.
De acuerdo con especialistas, para que sea rentable adquirir un tractor mediano es necesario contar con una superficie de tierra de por lo menos 25 hectáreas, pero desafortunadamente en México, las propiedades agrícolas son en promedio pequeñas.
El 30 por ciento de los productores posee menos de dos hectáreas y el 24 por ciento entre 2 y 5 hectáreas, ello, significa que para el 50 por ciento de los propietarios no es rentable adquirir uno.
Carlos Salazar Arriaga, presidente de la Confederación Nacional de Productores Agrícolas de Maíz (CNPAM), refirió que algunos estados sólo apoyan con algún porcentaje del valor del tractor y algún implemento como arado o rastra, el primero es un equipo agrícola para hacer surcos en la tierra y el segundo sirve para desmenuzar las partes de la tierra removida por el arado.
“La mayor parte de los agricultores produce de manera manual, principalmente con tracción de animales, mientras que los segundos rentan maquinaria agrícola, lo que eleva sus costos de producción”, aseguró.
El líder agrícola citó como ejemplo que en el caso de preparar la tierra para la siembra de maíz se requiere de ocho jornaleros por hectárea, a quienes se les paga 140 pesos a cada uno, lo que representa una inversión de mil 120 pesos por hectárea, en cambio, con el uso de maquinaria agrícola el costo se reduce a 700 pesos por hectárea.
En conclusión, la mecanización del campo en México es más compleja y requiere más que el uso de tractores.
http://www.vanguardia.com.mx/agroenmexicosevuelveobsoletoyviejo-1259878.html
How A Sunflower Gene Crossed The Line From Weed To Crop
I'm rounding out The Salt's impromptu Pest Resistance Week (which started with stories about weeds and corn rootworms) with a little-known tale that may scramble your mental categories. You've heard about herbicide-resistant weeds (which farmers hate) and herbicide-resistant crops like Roundup Ready soybeans or corn (which farmers like). But here's a case — the only one I know of — in which a weed helped create a herbicide-resistant crop. The story begins in 1996, in a soybean field in Kansas. The soybeans in this field were able to tolerate a class of weedkillers known as "ALS inhibitors." This line of soybeans had been created through "mutation breeding." This technique involves exposing thousands of seeds to chemicals that cause genetic mutations. One of those mutations allowed the resulting soybean plant to withstand the herbicides. (Similar kinds of herbicide-tolerant wheat, rice, and other crops have been created using the same method.) Among the soybeans in this Kansas field, however, a few weeds also survived after the farmers sprayed their herbicide. The weeds were native sunflowers, wild relatives of the sunflowers that farmers grow as a crop. (As I reported a few months ago, sunflowers are one of a very small handful of crops that originated in our part of the world.) The farmer contacted Kassim Al-Khatib, who was then a weed expert at Kansas State University. Al-Khatib collected some of the surviving weeds from this field, did some tests on them, and confirmed that these sunflowers were indeed resistant to ALS inhibitor herbicides. A few months later, through a chance encounter at a scientific meeting, word of this discovery reached Jerry Miller, a sunflower breeder at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sunflower Research Unit in Fargo, N.D. "I couldn't believe it. I called Kassim right away," recalls Miller. He saw the possibility of a herbicide-tolerant commercial sunflower created through traditional breeding, avoiding controversies over genetic engineering. Miller did manage to create such a sunflower — although it took some heroic efforts to get the wild and cultivated sunflowers to exchange pollen and produce viable offspring. When Miller finally had some herbicide-tolerant offspring in hand, he broke the news to a big meeting of sunflower growers. He told the farmers that, very soon, they might be able to spray ALS inhibiting herbicides right over their sunflowers, killing a host of problematic weeds without harming their crop. "The room got completely quiet," he recalls. Today, commercial sunflowers from North Dakota to Turkey contain this genetic trait, and many sunflower growers rely heavily on ALS inhibitors to control their weeds. What's the lesson from this tale? For one thing, that it doesn't take genetic engineering to create resistance to a herbicide — whether in a weed or a crop. Probably more important, it's a reminder that our food crops are descended from plants that once grew wild, and the line that separates a despised weed from a valuable crop is sometimes a very fuzzy one. It's a boundary porous enough for genes to find their way through.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/03/12/148312077/how-a-sunflower-gene-crossed-the-line-from-weed-to-crop
New online app tracks, manages insect data in crop fields
A new online application developed and launched by Spensa Technologies Inc. will help growers and pesticide consultants electronically track the number of insects in their crop fields so they can better control crop damage caused by insects and improve the use of insecticides.
MyTraps.com, launched in March 2012, enables growers and consultants to electronically manage insect data and pesticide records on a secure website by entering the data into the site through a Web browser or smart phone.
"In the U.S. in 2010, crop growers lost $20 billion to insect damage and spent $4.5 billion on insecticides," said Johnny Park, president and CEO of Spensa and a Purdue research assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering. "Insect population data is fundamental to any pest management program. Most of the time, data is collected on sheets of paper by walking around the fields and checking insect traps. MyTraps.com provides tools to make the insect data collection easier and to make better pest management decisions."
The program is available as an online subscription service.
"Once someone has subscribed to MyTraps.com, they can input the insect data and the online software program will create insect population line graphs so growers or consultants can target their insecticide use where needed and reduce usage in areas where the insect populations are not as high," Park said. "Another important feature is that the program provides aerial field images taken from satellite cameras and places the insect data over the image of the fields so growers can see the insect population data on photographs of the fields."
click image to zoom
The online application Mytrap.com shows the insect data collected in agricultural fields and an aerial map of the fields so growers and pesticide consultants can electronically manage insect numbers and better control crop damage due to insects. (Purdue Research Park image)The online application Mytrap.com shows the insect data collected in agricultural fields and an aerial map of the fields so growers and pesticide consultants can electronically manage insect numbers and better control crop damage due to insects. (Purdue Research Park image)
The online application Mytrap.com shows the insect data collected in agricultural fields and an aerial map of the fields so growers and pesticide consultants can electronically manage insect numbers and better control crop damage due to insects. (Purdue Research Park image)The online application Mytrap.com shows the insect data collected in agricultural fields and an aerial map of the fields so growers and pesticide consultants can electronically manage insect numbers and better control crop damage due to insects. (Purdue Research Park image)
The online application can be used to collect insect data affecting any type of crops including corn, green beans, soybeans, apples, oranges, pears and grapes. It also will store data over time so growers can identify insect trends and access their pesticide data online and analyze past data while planning for future crops.
"The website tracks and manages insect populations in fields," said Ben Brame, president of Allegro Dynamics LLC, a software design company that is partnering with Spensa in the creation of MyTraps.com. "We display the insect populations on an aerial map as a visual aid to document insect increases and decreases in crop fields. Over time, growers will be able to track this information annually so they will have years of data available to them."
For more information, visit Spensa Technologies at http://www.spensatech.com/
Spensa Technologies and Allegro Dynamics are companies based in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette.
Spensa also is commercializing the Z-Trap, which automatically detects the number of target insects captured by the trap and sends the data wirelessly to the grower's mobile phone or computer. The technology is being used to collect data on codling moths, Oriental fruit moths and leaf rollers in apple orchards, but will eventually be used to collect insect data from other types of crops.
Park said that Spensa is in pre-production of 75 Z-Traps and will carry out large-scale field experiments and evaluations during the 2012 growing season with an expected launch of the Z-Trap in 2013.
Holding the tick line
A STRIP of barbed wire and a few timber palings scattered on the ground is all that officially separates tick-free and infected country at Boondooma, north of Wondai.
In what is becoming a familiar story in rural Queensland, a handful of producers are being forced to shoulder increased time and financial costs to maintain the integrity of the tick line amid growing State Government biosecurity service cut backs.
The Boondooma region has not had a locally-based stock inspector for more than two years.
Two other frontline biosecurity officers in the region were among 21 workers across the state to accept voluntary separation packages by the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) last year.
It has not yet been announced if they will be replaced as stock inspectors for the area.
Government cut backs have also seen the operating times at the Boondooma Clearing Facility drastically reduced in recent months to nine hours per week.
Needless to say, there is growing concern among producers over the State Government’s commitment to reducing the spread of the external parasite.
Complacency is a costly exercise - in northern Australia, predominantly Queensland, livestock losses due to ticks amount to more than $200 million each year.
Tired of ongoing Biosecurity Queensland cut backs and bureaucratic bungling threatening the integrity of the tick line they worked hard to initiate, producers from across the region have joined forces to drive a grassroots campaign to demand urgent government action.
The groups have called for whoever wins government at the weekend to commit to resuming government responsibility as the legal authority in maintaining the integrity of the tick line through increased service funding and enforcing penalties for those who breach the rules.
However, it is the repairing the official placement of the line which many producers believe needs immediate attention.
About two decades ago, a concerted landholder-led eradication program saw 1100 properties in the South Burnett become tick free and the line officially moved northwards.
El riego por goteo enterrado en caña de azúcar incrementa la productividad y la sacarosa
La aplicación de tecnología de goteo en los cultivos fue muy exitosa en diferentes regiones del mundo y es técnicamente posible y económicamente viable bajo un gran rango de medios ambientes y cultivos, incluyendo el de caña de azúcar, aseguróGustavo Aguilar, de la empresa Irrigaciones Norte SRL.
En diferentes ensayos realizados en variadas zonas productoras de cañaverales del mundo y en Tucumán, se comprobó que el goteo incrementó la producción en el cultivo de caña de azúcar. También mejora notablemente la brotación en primavera, seca en Tucumán, ademas de incrementar la sacarosa.
La tecnología de riego por goteo también permite notables ahorros de agua, fertilizantes, trabajo y energía requerida para bombear el agua. Ademas, está probado que el goteo permitió que el cultivo de caña pudiera expandirse a regiones marginales, donde precisamente la falta de agua es la que restringe su cultivo.
En estas zonas las fuentes de agua son los pozos, por lo que con el riego por goteo la eficiencia del uso el agua es del 95-98%, lo que redunda en que las inversiones realizadas en el pozo sean cubiertas rápidamente por los incrementos de productividad del cañaveral.
Además, el uso de la fertirrigación permitió no sólo ahorrar fertilizante, sino que la fertilización, en sí, sea más eficiente y que estén los nutrientes solo al alcance de la cepa, mejorando los resultados.
El éxito de los proyectos de caña dependen de ciertos factores cruciales: buenas prácticas de agricultura como la adecuada preparación del terreno, la selección más adecuada de variedades para el riego y la fertilización, tiempo para la plantación, material para cultivo de calidad, componentes del sistema y del diseño de riego de goteo de calidad y cosecha oportuna, precisó Aguilar.
Los ensayos en nuestra provincia comenzaron en 1995, en un campo cañero de Otto Gramajo, con muy buenos resultados, por lo que en 2002 se implantó el sistema de goteo enterrado en una plantación comercial. Con los buenos resultados obtenidos, el uso de este sistema de riego fue extendiéndose en la provincia.
"En lo que respeta a la duración de los equipos, experiencias en Brasil confirman que si se realiza una renovación de la plantación con ciertos cuidados, el equipo, incluidos los laterales de riego bajo la cepa, pueden durar hasta tres renovaciones", explicó el técnico.
Todos estos beneficios del goteo subterráneo en caña de azúcar serán analizados en una reunión que se desarrollará el 25 de abril -a partir de las 8:30- en la Sociedad Rural de Tucumán, con la disertación de Michi Uner, ingeniero agrónomo de la firma Netafim, quien desarrolló este sistema y verificó todas las ventajas astronómicas de dicho sistema en caña de azúcar.
http://www.lagaceta.com.ar/nota/484857/Rural/El-riego-por-goteo-enterrado-cana-azucar-incrementa-productividad-sacarosa.html
En diferentes ensayos realizados en variadas zonas productoras de cañaverales del mundo y en Tucumán, se comprobó que el goteo incrementó la producción en el cultivo de caña de azúcar. También mejora notablemente la brotación en primavera, seca en Tucumán, ademas de incrementar la sacarosa.
La tecnología de riego por goteo también permite notables ahorros de agua, fertilizantes, trabajo y energía requerida para bombear el agua. Ademas, está probado que el goteo permitió que el cultivo de caña pudiera expandirse a regiones marginales, donde precisamente la falta de agua es la que restringe su cultivo.
En estas zonas las fuentes de agua son los pozos, por lo que con el riego por goteo la eficiencia del uso el agua es del 95-98%, lo que redunda en que las inversiones realizadas en el pozo sean cubiertas rápidamente por los incrementos de productividad del cañaveral.
Además, el uso de la fertirrigación permitió no sólo ahorrar fertilizante, sino que la fertilización, en sí, sea más eficiente y que estén los nutrientes solo al alcance de la cepa, mejorando los resultados.
El éxito de los proyectos de caña dependen de ciertos factores cruciales: buenas prácticas de agricultura como la adecuada preparación del terreno, la selección más adecuada de variedades para el riego y la fertilización, tiempo para la plantación, material para cultivo de calidad, componentes del sistema y del diseño de riego de goteo de calidad y cosecha oportuna, precisó Aguilar.
Los ensayos en nuestra provincia comenzaron en 1995, en un campo cañero de Otto Gramajo, con muy buenos resultados, por lo que en 2002 se implantó el sistema de goteo enterrado en una plantación comercial. Con los buenos resultados obtenidos, el uso de este sistema de riego fue extendiéndose en la provincia.
"En lo que respeta a la duración de los equipos, experiencias en Brasil confirman que si se realiza una renovación de la plantación con ciertos cuidados, el equipo, incluidos los laterales de riego bajo la cepa, pueden durar hasta tres renovaciones", explicó el técnico.
Todos estos beneficios del goteo subterráneo en caña de azúcar serán analizados en una reunión que se desarrollará el 25 de abril -a partir de las 8:30- en la Sociedad Rural de Tucumán, con la disertación de Michi Uner, ingeniero agrónomo de la firma Netafim, quien desarrolló este sistema y verificó todas las ventajas astronómicas de dicho sistema en caña de azúcar.
http://www.lagaceta.com.ar/nota/484857/Rural/El-riego-por-goteo-enterrado-cana-azucar-incrementa-productividad-sacarosa.html
Rebuilding Agriculture in a War Zone
Afghanistan's Kunar Province, is a world away from the flat Midwestern Plains that Army Major Loren Adams calls home. Fresh out of vet school, Adams joined a practice in New Liberty, Iowa. By the year 2000, the then 40-year-old Adams decided to make a change. He joined the Army Reserve and soon was deployed around the world doing veterinary work.
"Our team worked with dogs, did food inspections for all the meals the military eats, and we were involved in civil affairs [working with civilians in war zones]," Adams explains.
He was the sole veterinarian with the 734th ADT that landed on Afghan soil in July 2010. Adams knew there was much to do. A previous Guard unit had begun work on vaccinating and worming animals in the area. "So I just tweaked the program, and we hired local vets and began work to educate them on the importance of vaccinations and food security," Adams says.
His daily routine varied. Adams started a rabies-prevention program that eventually vaccinated 1,400 dogs. He began speaking around the province, meeting with public health directors, veterinarians and students.
Other days found Adams conducting seminars on herd health, nutrition, surgical techniques and the importance of animal post-mortems. "We also treated thousands of animals [with vaccines and dewormers], ranging from sheep and cattle to dogs," he says.
The team's veterinary technician focused on start-up poultry businesses for Afghan women. Adams assisted her in educational seminars to teach basic animal health -- "simple veterinary techniques, how to treat for parasites and diseases," he says.
Adams found the Afghan veterinarians eager to learn, no matter where they were. One day he showed them how to neuter a dog from the back of a pickup truck.
The Iowa ADT team returned from the Kunar Province this past June. Despite the team's efforts, Adams left frustrated. "People there are so poor, they're just doing what they can to survive," he says.
But in an area mired in war, Adams still sees reason for optimism when it comes to veterinary advances. "I think back to America before automobiles, veterinarians largely took care of the horses," he says. "It wasn't that long ago that people started to recognize the importance of vaccinations, and vets began to take on a greater role in the U.S."
FARM AWAY FROM HOME
Scott Rottinghaus' 2010 crops were harvested without him. The 30-year-old farms 3,500 acres of corn and soybeans, and raises hogs, with his father and uncles outside Waterloo, Iowa.
But during this particular harvest, Rottinghaus was on the other side of the world teaching Afghans to farm. When Rottinghaus graduated from college and joined the National Guard in 2002, he never dreamed he'd combine agriculture with his military background.
The 734th ADT comprised 60 soldiers, 34 of whom were security forces. (Adams served on the team with Rottinghaus.) The unit was nicknamed the "Dirt Warriors" by their commander and trained with Iowa State University and Purdue University ag specialists.
He may have been thousands of miles from his Iowa farm, but Rottinghaus says he felt a world away when it came to farming innovations used in Afghanistan. "There are very few tractors, and they're usually lent from farm to farm in order to till the land," he says. "Everything is harvested by hand, and corn isn't planted in rows; the seed is simply scattered and then lightly tilled in."
Once there, "Our main goal was to set up demonstration farms in the districts we covered," says Rottinghaus, whose areas of expertise included production agriculture and pest management. "We showed the Afghans how to effectively grow wheat and corn to sustain themselves, and we worked with the local government officials to find land [and] set up farm plans and proper irrigation. We got a good plan set up."
Rottinghaus' team returned home in the summer of 2011. But as he goes about his daily farm chores, he says it's hard not to think about what he left behind in Afghanistan. "We made some good steps forward, but it's going to take a lot of time."
ONE LAST MISSION
U.S. Army Sergeant Major Lorn McKinzie had already put in his retirement papers. The Oklahoma native had spent his entire career as a military man—27 years, with a decade on active duty. But a job description piqued his interest.
"A job had come available with the 2-45th Agribusiness Development Team," McKinzie explains.
"I asked if I could pull my retirement letter. This was the way I wanted to go out."
The military may have been his calling, but agriculture was also in his blood. "You didn't grow up in Oklahoma if you didn't have some sort of ag background," he says. His father raised cattle, and McKinzie was brought up through the ranks of 4-H and FFA, later raising swine.
Prior to the team's deployment, they spent months preparing. Much of the training was spent with The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation of Ardmore, Okla., an organization dedicated to assisting producers and conducting research to enhance agricultural productivity worldwide. Training included vegetable and crop production, water management, livestock and grazing management practices and soil sampling.
The team also spent three weeks training with Oklahoma State University. Four graduate students from the college were assigned to the team to answer any agribusiness-related questions the team had while deployed. "They played an instrumental part in our team's success," McKinzie says.
In September 2010, the ADT set foot on Afghan soil. McKinzie's job was to create missions for his teams and attend local government meetings to get a sense of protocol. The work came with some immediate bureaucratic quagmires and learning curves. "Each ag project funded that cost more than $5,000 had to have a government contract," McKinzie says. "My soldiers were the ones who had to learn to write them. From start to end, we were also trying to teach the locals to write their own contracts to get their own approval."
The team's missions varied from week to week. One day they might work with the local beekeepers' association. Another day might find them at a tree nursery, meeting with district subgovernors, checking on current contracts or teaching locals about soil conservation.
One of the team's biggest goals was education, McKinzie says. "We focused on getting agriculture back into the local schools at an early stage and then linking them to the universities.
"We can teach 40 kids in a school how to set up a poultry business by giving the school chickens, coops and feeders," he continues. "Unfortunately, if we give students the items to take home, the Taliban can take those things away. What they can't take away is the knowledge we've given those students."
They also distributed 60,000 saplings in the spring to help with soil conservation, 72 metric tons of wheat seed and 72 metric tons of urea for 2011's winter wheat crop.
Irrigation is another challenge the team tackled. "The water source depends on how heavy their winters are," McKinzie says. "They have some methods to catch water runoff from snow melt, but it's very limited." The team worked in conjunction with USDA to build check dams and holding ponds.
At the end of deployment, the team had awarded 42 government contracts, and ag education was being added into school curricula at least one hour a day.
A month and a half before the team's August 2011 return, McKinzie was in a helicopter flying to Kabul. As he watched the landscape below, "I noticed that over a lot of other areas, there was so much brown and lots of bare soil," he says. The provinces where the Oklahoma National Guard had been were in sharp contrast to those neutral tones. "It was bright green," he says. "I think we had a huge impact on wheat production, distribution of trees and soil conservation.
"There's still tons to be done, though," adds McKinzie, who's now a civilian, "but I'm proud
of what we've done; I think we well surpassed the goals we set."
Editor's Note: Since 2008, the National Guard has sent Agribusiness Development Teams (ADT) to Afghanistan. It's a dangerous job in a country whose landscape has been scarred by war, ravaged by drought and famine, and overrun with poverty and political corruption. Improvised explosive devices are a constant threat, and the sound of gunfire echoes in the not-so-distant hills. There are also other, more basic challenges to contend with: lack of proper irrigation, no electricity grid, poor education and outdated farming practices.
New fungicide active cleared for crop leaf diseases
Cereal, corn, soy and pulse growers have a new active fungicide ingredient to throw at "key" leaf diseases in those crops.
The crop protection wing of DuPont Canada has picked up federal approval for registration of Acapela, whose new active ingredient, picoxystrobin, comes from the Group 11 (strobilurin) class of fungicides.
The product's approval from Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency covers its use against "an impressive list of foliar diseases" and for suppression of white mould in soybeans.
The new product has "unique movement properties that differentiate it from other fungicides," Dave Kloppenburg, the company's fungicide launch manager, said in a release last week. "It moves across the waxy layer of the leaf surface and systemically within leaf tissues."
In cereal crops, DuPont said, Acapela is meant to protect the two to three upper leaves of the plant -- including the flag leaf, whose health is "critical" for reaching higher yields -- against plant ailments such as leaf rust, powdery mildew, septoria leaf blotch and tan spot.
In pulses such as lentils and field peas, Acapela is to be billed as a "powerful new tool for control of major diseases such as mycosphaerella blight."
A product label for Acapela wasn't immediately available this week, but the company said in a research update last year that it would submit Acapela for registration for use also on canola -- a crop not mentioned in last Thursday's release.
The research update said DuPont would file for Acapela's use at a formulation of 250 grams per litre.
Plan now for next winter’s beef pasture feeding
As the growing season approaches, the timing is right for planning next winter’s beef feeding program.
“The bottom line when raising beef cattle is to treat the whole farm as a pasture resource,” said Jeff Duchene, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Central Minnesota regional grazing specialist. “I want to challenge all of you to look at your current pasture management and winter feeding programs.
“Can you improve pasture production through better grazing management practices? Can you graze animals on lands that are also used for crop production? Think about how you can develop a farm management plan where the livestock and cropping systems are incorporated together.”
Duchene encourages producers to graze beef on corn, small grain and soybean stubble as low cost roughage sources. He appreciates winter pastures stockpiled with grass – or placement of bales to improve fertility. He likes cover crops of ryegrass, turnips or clover planted after wheat for cattle to graze in the fall.
In 2012, he encourages producers to document days of grazing by month and year.
“How many days of grazing does the herd average in a year? Feeding constitutes the highest production costs in a beef cow/calf operation,” he said. “So, the more days that animals can harvest their own forage, the lower the production costs.”
Successful adaptation of winter grazing practices reduces feeding costs and can improve the farm’s environment and productivity.
Beef producers can lower their expenses by using trees or windbreaks for winter shelter.
Duchene suggests that livestock can travel farther for water in the winter.
“I would let them go half a mile in the winter,” he said. “They will eat a little bit of snow. You can string a temporary fence, make a lane, and walk them back up to water.”
To maximize the use of available resources, Duchene encourages beef producers to look to the NRCS for technical and/or financial assistance.
The NRCS can offer assistance setting up year-round grazing and pasture systems including placement, fencing, water and seeding.
Programs, like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, offer financial incentives to help producers set up rotational grazing systems and more.
A managed rotational grazing system allows for the greatest pasture production potential during the growing season.
Beef producers can also use some of the same techniques during the winter to improve pasture productivity.
“You can still overgraze a dormant plant, so stubble heights and good forage management principles need to be maintained over the winter,” he said.
One strategy that can improve a pasture or field includes bale placement through the winter months.
He suggests placing big round bales of hay on frozen pastures or cropland once fall rain showers have passed. With electric fencing, the cattle are given access to enough bales for the desired length of the feeding period. Turning the bale on its end allows for easier removal of twine, and it keeps the cattle from rolling the bale.
The electric fencing needs to be adequate to keep the cattle from breaking into the other bales.
Duchene says it’s okay if cattle waste some of the baled hay. The feeding area is moved throughout the pasture region to spread out the manure and fertility.
“This bale is just a big pile of fertilizer,” he said. “The cow is pretty inefficient about taking that bale and converting it to growth. Most of it comes right back out.
“What they don’t eat will eventually break down and act as a slow release fertilizer.”
In the spring, the pasture is dragged with an I-beam or harrow to break up thatch. The first growth coming through the feeding area will likely include weeds – dandelion, burdock and lambs quarters.
With adequate rest and good grazing management, perennial cool season grasses should recover and thrive in the manure-rich environment.
Duchene says the technique is not designed for native or warm season grass pastures. He also reminds producers to fence off wetlands and creeks to keep the nutrients within the soil profile.
With good moisture available early in the growing season in 2010 and 2011, the grass response has been tremendous.
In an ideal situation, a cattle producer would rotate the pastures where they feed beef cattle each winter.
“The key is to hit it and go someplace else for the next winter,” Duchene said. “If you have eight pastures, you can winter in one or two pastures, and then the next year you go to another pasture. You just pick the ones that are the lowest producing, and feed on them, taking into consideration water and shelter.”
Perspectiva del frijol para este ciclo. Por: Jorge Uriarte Macias
JORGE URIARTE MACIAS
Nací en México DF en 1967 y soy egresado de la Universidad Iberoamericana donde estudié la carrera de Administración de Empresas, así como un diplomado en comercio internacional. En 1989 mientras estudiaba la carrera, comencé a trabajar en INTERCONTINENTAL DE MEXICO SA como asistente del Gerente de Comercialización de granos. Con la llegada del TLC y la apertura gradual del mercado a las importaciones de frijol, desarrollé el mercado en México promoviendo a la empresa KBC TRADING COMPANY de Estados Unidos, para la importación de frijol comestible americano. Posteriormente negocié la Representación de otras dos empresas proveedoras de frijol JACKS BEAN COMPANY de Colorado, EUA y HENSALL DISTRICT CO-OP INC de Ontario, Canadá. En 1999 asumí la Dirección General de INTERCONTINENTAL DE MEXICO, puesto que mantengo actualmente.
INTERCONTINENTAL DE MEXICO, S.A.
Compañía establecida en la Ciudad de México en 1974, involucrada en la comercialización a nivel internacional de frijol comestible, Leche en Polvo, lenteja, alpiste y maíz palomero. A través de los años ha representado importantes firmas tales como THE PILLSBURY COMPANY, BERGER & CO, AGROPROM INC., FERRUZZI TRADING USA y THE AUSTRALIAN WHEAT BOARD. Actualmente, INTERCONTINENTAL DE MEXICO es el Representante en México de CANADIAN DAIRY COMMISSION, vendiendo Leche en Polvo Canadiense al gobierno mexicano. Asimismo, trabaja como agente de compañías americanas y canadienses tales como HENSALL DISTRICT CO-OP INC, CANPULSE INC.,JACKS BEAN COMPANY y KELLEY BEAN CO., vendiendo granos y semillas a los principales importadores mayoristas y empacadores del país.
COLABORACION SEMANAL
Finalmente la semana pasada concluyó la siembra de frijol en Estados Unidos. El viernes el USDA publicó un reporte preliminar informando que la estimación del área de siembra este año es de 1.63 millones de acres, aproximadamente 40 mil acres menos de lo que inicialmente tenían proyectado sembrar. De cualquier manera el incremento de área sembrada es de 35% con respecto al año pasado. 14 de los 18 estados productores reportan aumento en el número de acres sembrados. Entre los principales se encuentran North Dakota con 60%, Nebraska con 50%, Idaho con 37%. Colorado con 32% y Michigan con 6%. Aunque los incrementos pueden considerarse elevados, debemos tomar en cuenta que el área sembrada en el 2011 (1.2 millones de acres) fue la más baja en los últimos diez años.
En cuanto a las principales variedades que México importa cada año (pinto, negro, rosita y alubia blanca), el USDA estima un aumento en el área de siembra y producción de las 4 variedades como sigue:
Los precios del frijol americano se mantuvieron relativamente estables la semana pasada. El frijol negro Michigan se cotiza entre $48 y $51 dólares por saco de 100 libras, puesto en frontera en ferrocarril. El frijol pinto Dakota bajó un dólar por saco cotizándose en $60 a la frontera. La alubia se mantuvo en $58 dólares por saco a la frontera. Actualmente no hay inventario disponible de frijol rosita. Debido al Canada Day celebrado ayer y al día de la independencia en EUA el próximo miércoles, no se esperan cambios importantes en los precios. El mercado seguirá viendo con lupa a México y al desarrollo de la siembra, misma que al momento no cuenta con las condiciones óptimas debido a la prolongada sequía. Si se normalizan las lluvias en México este ciclo, el precio del frijol americano tenderá a la baja.
JORGE URIARTE MACIAS en Twitter: @IntercontlDeMex
Nací en México DF en 1967 y soy egresado de la Universidad Iberoamericana donde estudié la carrera de Administración de Empresas, así como un diplomado en comercio internacional. En 1989 mientras estudiaba la carrera, comencé a trabajar en INTERCONTINENTAL DE MEXICO SA como asistente del Gerente de Comercialización de granos. Con la llegada del TLC y la apertura gradual del mercado a las importaciones de frijol, desarrollé el mercado en México promoviendo a la empresa KBC TRADING COMPANY de Estados Unidos, para la importación de frijol comestible americano. Posteriormente negocié la Representación de otras dos empresas proveedoras de frijol JACKS BEAN COMPANY de Colorado, EUA y HENSALL DISTRICT CO-OP INC de Ontario, Canadá. En 1999 asumí la Dirección General de INTERCONTINENTAL DE MEXICO, puesto que mantengo actualmente.
INTERCONTINENTAL DE MEXICO, S.A.
Compañía establecida en la Ciudad de México en 1974, involucrada en la comercialización a nivel internacional de frijol comestible, Leche en Polvo, lenteja, alpiste y maíz palomero. A través de los años ha representado importantes firmas tales como THE PILLSBURY COMPANY, BERGER & CO, AGROPROM INC., FERRUZZI TRADING USA y THE AUSTRALIAN WHEAT BOARD. Actualmente, INTERCONTINENTAL DE MEXICO es el Representante en México de CANADIAN DAIRY COMMISSION, vendiendo Leche en Polvo Canadiense al gobierno mexicano. Asimismo, trabaja como agente de compañías americanas y canadienses tales como HENSALL DISTRICT CO-OP INC, CANPULSE INC.,JACKS BEAN COMPANY y KELLEY BEAN CO., vendiendo granos y semillas a los principales importadores mayoristas y empacadores del país.
COLABORACION SEMANAL
Finalmente la semana pasada concluyó la siembra de frijol en Estados Unidos. El viernes el USDA publicó un reporte preliminar informando que la estimación del área de siembra este año es de 1.63 millones de acres, aproximadamente 40 mil acres menos de lo que inicialmente tenían proyectado sembrar. De cualquier manera el incremento de área sembrada es de 35% con respecto al año pasado. 14 de los 18 estados productores reportan aumento en el número de acres sembrados. Entre los principales se encuentran North Dakota con 60%, Nebraska con 50%, Idaho con 37%. Colorado con 32% y Michigan con 6%. Aunque los incrementos pueden considerarse elevados, debemos tomar en cuenta que el área sembrada en el 2011 (1.2 millones de acres) fue la más baja en los últimos diez años.
En cuanto a las principales variedades que México importa cada año (pinto, negro, rosita y alubia blanca), el USDA estima un aumento en el área de siembra y producción de las 4 variedades como sigue:
Los precios del frijol americano se mantuvieron relativamente estables la semana pasada. El frijol negro Michigan se cotiza entre $48 y $51 dólares por saco de 100 libras, puesto en frontera en ferrocarril. El frijol pinto Dakota bajó un dólar por saco cotizándose en $60 a la frontera. La alubia se mantuvo en $58 dólares por saco a la frontera. Actualmente no hay inventario disponible de frijol rosita. Debido al Canada Day celebrado ayer y al día de la independencia en EUA el próximo miércoles, no se esperan cambios importantes en los precios. El mercado seguirá viendo con lupa a México y al desarrollo de la siembra, misma que al momento no cuenta con las condiciones óptimas debido a la prolongada sequía. Si se normalizan las lluvias en México este ciclo, el precio del frijol americano tenderá a la baja.
JORGE URIARTE MACIAS en Twitter: @IntercontlDeMex
Pasture erosion control important
It’s not uncommon for Arkansas cattle farms to have streams and rivulets bisecting pastures. Unfortunately, so is streambank erosion, said Dirk Philipp, assistant professor-forages for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“Those streams can cause loss of fertile soil through bank erosion,” he said. “That means a loss of nutrients through runoff from pastures and loss of nutrients in cattle.” Cattle like to linger in streams, which can destabilize streambanks and pollute waters through urine and feces.
The University of Arkansas at Monticello formed an interdisciplinary team to address the issue.
A couple of years ago, the group began strategizing potential solutions and seeking expert advice from the National Resources Conservation Service and soil conservation districts, among others. The team, comprised of agriculture economists, foresters, water quality specialists, agronomists and soil scientists, developed a site as a model to educate landowners on solutions for keeping pastures intact while sacrificing little.
Ultimately, the best solution for preventing streambank erosion is to carefully manage how much of it is exposed to cattle. But farmers are wary of cutting off resources, said Philipp.
“Landowners are sensitive to fencing streams, so the team came up with different strategies, each featuring a unique setup and flexibility of what to implement,” he said.
Each setup has its own requirements and benefits:
•Fencing, one side of a stream
•Cattle have access to the stream, but can’t climb through it
•Minimal land intrusion, but banks still heal because animals are on one side
•Rotate animals and move fences to the other side of the stream occasionally
•Fencing, both sides of a stream
•Cattle have access only a few times each year to graze
•Fencing would cover around 60 feet on each side of the stream
•Provides a buffer zone that filters pasture runoff, if runoff occurs
•Grazing is possible during times when soil impact is minimized. Animals can “flash-graze” buffer zones to take advantage of biomass in these areas
•Enhanced habitat for wildlife due to a high canopy nearly all year
Tree buffer zone
•Several trees planted in a completely fenced section of a stream to reestablish a riparian zone, which is ideal for maintaining water quality and wildlife habitat
•Showcased section is 925 feet long
•Trees include sycamore, green ash, water oak, mulberry and red bud, among others
One area was left untreated to compare the various options, and the site continues to be maintained by researchers and undergraduates. For 2011-2012, the team received a grant from the Arkansas Water Resources Center to monitor the effects of these treatments.
“It’s already evident that streambanks can be protected with cost-effective measures such as one- and two-sided fencing,” said Philipp. “Streambanks can re-establish vegetation all by themselves.” Protecting streambanks can go a long way towards connecting regional habitats, establishing wildlife corridors along streams that benefit other people, including hunters.
The Monticello team anticipates developing the streambank protection project into a one-stop location in southeastern Arkansas, said Philipp. “There are multiple alternatives for streambank protection and riparian zone management while keeping cattle production feasible,” he said.
For more information on livestock, visit www.uaex.edu or contact your local county agent.
http://cattlemarketnews.com/2012/04/pasture-erosion-control-important/
Cloning and Embryo Transfer Legal Issues
One of the hot topics discussed during the 27th Annual University of Kentucky Conference on Equine Law, held May 3, 2012, in Lexington, was the legal implications of cloning and embryo transfer in the horse industry. While the legalities of these topics are not discussed frequently in Kentucky, the center of Thoroughbred breeding that requires live cover, they are issue becoming increasingly prevalent in the sport horse industries. During the “World of Cloning and Embryo Transfer Issues in the Equine Industry” presentation, Lewis T. Stevens, an attorney from Fort Worth, Texas, first addressed the legal issues arising from cloning. For instance, three clones of Smart Little Lena, an all-time leading cutting horse sire, are currently standing at stud. In addition, frozen semen from the original Smart Little Lena is still circulating. One of the problems with standing these clones at stud is that current DNA testing cannot distinguish the foal of a deceased stallion’s frozen semen from the foal of a live clone stallion. This becomes an issue because the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) does not permit the registration of any horse produced by the cloning process, which includes the foals of a clone. Cloning continues, however, because certain performance associations, such as the National Cutting Horse Association, allow unregistered horses and clones to participate in competitions. Stevens then discussed a current case involving cloning that is making headlines. Last month Jason Abraham, a Texas rancher who owns several Quarter Horse clones, and his related entities filed a lawsuit against the American Quarter Horse Association in federal court in Texas alleging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act as well as the Texas Business and Commerce Code. Abraham claims that breeders can use cloning to reduce genetic diseases in horses and to improve the gene pool. A number of genetic diseases, such as hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP) and hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA), greatly affect Quarter Horses, and Abraham and others claim that cloning can help alter those genes, reduce disease incidence, and clean up the gene pool. Abraham claimed that the AQHA is unfairly restricting competition, driving up horse prices and diminishing cloned horses’ value by controlling and limiting the supply of high-quality registered Quarter Horses. At the time of the conference, the AQHA had not yet answered the complaint. Shifting the focus from cloning to embryo transfer, Scott Bennett, DVM, of Equine Services in Simpsonville, Ky., provided a short background on the medical techniques used in embryo transfers and some of the litigation history behind this science. Again, this litigation centered around the AQHA, which prior to 2004 limited registration to one foal per mare per year. With embryo transfers, mares are capable of producing several foals a year and owners might have to choose which foal to register. However, in 2004, as a result of a lawsuit brought by Kay Floyd and other breeders, the AQHA changed the rule to allow for multiple foal registrations per mare per year. In that lawsuit, the court determined the one foal per mare per year rule violated antitrust laws because the AQHA was willing to register one foal out of a mare and not others, which is anticompetitive. The AQHA settled with the breeders and now allows for registration of multiple foals per year as a result of embryo transfers. Bennett went on to discuss the purpose of embryo transfer, which he says he supports. The greatest benefit he discussed is that embryo transfer allows desirable bloodlines to proliferate. Using natural birthing methods, a mare must no longer be competing to carry a foal to full term. With embryo transfers, a highly competitive mare that is still sound and competing even later in life can produce foals. This allows for the highest quality bloodlines to continue without cutting short a mare’s competitive career. Additionally, this helps successful mares that might have uterine or cervical disorders that preventing them from carrying pregnancies to continue to breed. Both Bennett and Stevens are interested to see where the Abraham lawsuit heads and how this will affect that AQHA and other breed registries. If you are new to raising horse, the Breeder’s Guide to Mare, Foal, and Stallion Care is a comprehensive guide that covers topics ranging from a mare’s reproductive cycle to problem pregnancies to the latest trends in good stallion management to common foal problems and diseases. Katherine W. Ross is an associate at the equine law firm Regard Law Group PLLC, in Lexington.
http://cattlemarketnews.com/2012/05/cloning-and-embryo-transfer-legal-issues/
Study reveals mental benefits of consuming red meat
A recent study found women who eat the recommended amount of red meat were mentally healthier than those who were over, or under consuming red meat. The study from Deakin’s Barwon Psychiatric Research Unit studied the relationship between consumption of lamb and beef and depression and anxiety. According to Medical Xpress the results from the study involving more than 1,000 women are in the current edition of the journal Psychotherapy Psychosomatics. Associate Professor Felice Jacka said the study shows women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with a depressive or anxiety disorder when compared to those eating recommended levels of red meat. Results were consistent among a range of diets, activity levels, smoking and socioeconomic status. “We had originally thought that red meat might not be good for mental health, as studies from other countries had found red meat consumption to be associated with physical health risks, but it turns out that it actually may be quite important,” Jacka said. Jacka said depression and anxiety was also increased with higher-than-recommended consumption of red meat.
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Study-reveals-mental-benefits-of-consuming-red-meat-143693086.html
Qué son los Paneles Solares y Para Qué Sirven
Paneles Solares son aquellas placas solares o láminas colocadas en forma de láminas sobre la base dura y asegurada con marcos bien sellados o los que dentro de esa caja de vidrio están los tubos delgados de cobre o de vidrio donde los rayos solares caen para transformarse en energía eléctrica o en calor. Los primeros para generar energía eléctrica y usar los electrodomésticos y los segundos para disipar en calor y calentar el agua o para secar el aire del ambiente.
Hoy tenemos idea de lo que son los ´Paneles Solares´: Unos para generar electricidad y otros para calentar agua principalmente. Los primero son los Paneles Solares Fotovoltaicos y los segundos los Paneles Solares Térmicos. Totalmente claros por lo que el distinguido Dr. Horn en su buen razonamiento deseaba saber para qué uso requerimos un panel solar..
Tal vez encontraba confusión porque leía mensajes similares pero con usos diferentes. Es común esta entre mezcla de términos. Se dice ´panel solar´, ´módulo solar´, ´panel fotovoltaicos´, ´placa solar´, ´placa fotovoltaica´, ´colector solar´, ´paneles solares´, ´módulos fotovoltaicos´, ´terma solar´, ´calentadores de agua´, entre otros. Todos orientan al mismo mensaje el de aprovechar la energía del sol para usos distintos mayormente en los campos: Electricidad y Calor.
Para qué y cómo se usan, dónde los compro, cómo los hago? Preguntas que sí nos complican cuando estamos iniciando a comprender que los ´Paneles Solares´ son instrumentos, equipos o recursos que sirve para “ahorrar dinero”.
Conocer los paneles solares es saber cómo generar corriente eléctrica sin cables ni postes pesados y cómo calentar agua sólo con los rayos solares. Es rotundamente un regalo de la naturaleza.
Ahora sé que mencionar ´Paneles Solares´ es orientarse a un campo muy general pero que orientan principalmente a ´Paneles Solares Fotovoltaciso´ para generar energía eléctrica y a ´Paneles Solares Térmicos´ para calentar agua.
No vale la pena complicarse pero sí asegurar que sobre esta base de entendimiento es más digerible enfrentar a los Sistemas Concentradores de Rayos Solares (CSP), (CPV), Placas Solares Móviles, Torres de Concentración Solar o ´Espejos de Concentración Solar´, como se aprecia en documentos referidos a este tema
Making Farming Better in Developing Countries
The new head of a major research organization says the key to food security is to farm smarter, not to plow more land. The strains on agriculture are growing as the global population rises and emerging economies demand more types of food. “Agriculture had been neglected for several decades. We had become used to abundant and cheap food. And the world got a wake-up call in 2008, ’10, ’11 with spikes in food prices. And people realized that we have to produce an awful lot more food for a growing world population, as much as 70 percent by 2050,” said Frank Rijsberman, CEO of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, more commonly known as CGIAR. Right and wrong The world population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, an increase of 2 billion from the current level. But to feed that many people is it simply a matter of planting more seeds on more land? “No, actually, that’s the wrong way to go because basically crop yields – the amount of crop that we get per hectare has sort of plateaued. It’s no longer increasing. The only thing farmers can do is indeed plow under more land and they’re doing that at an alarming pace. They’re doing that now more rapidly than during the green revolution. But if they do that they’re going to plow under marginal lands, key environmental areas. That would be quite disastrous and not a long-term sustainable path,” he said. Rijsberman said the key is research to learn how to get greater crop output from existing agricultural land. That’s one of the main goals of CGIAR. “There’s a lot of private sector research in agriculture, but that serves primarily the big commercial farmers. We are serving the smallholder farmers – the 500 million farmers on less than two hectares – that provide most of the food in developing countries,” he said. Some of the organization’s key research programs include improving varieties of corn, wheat, rice, potatoes and yams, as well as fish and animals. A second goal is to get the latest research into the hands of smallholder farmers as quickly as possible. Information such as ways to better access markets and reduce post-harvest loses. Another is to address the issues of climate change, nutrition and gender, since women account for much if not most of the agricultural production around the world. Rijsberman said while recent spikes in food prices may not hit consumers very hard in developed countries, they can have a devastating effect in poor countries. “The poor billions in Africa, Asia and Latin America, who spend 80, 90 percent of their income on food - if the food price goes up 10, 20 percent that has an immediate impact. Those people are more vulnerable. Just the recent food price spike from 2010/11 pushed some 44-million more people into poverty. So big impact immediately felt by the most vulnerable,” he said. The CGIAR is getting ready for the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development. It begins June 20th in Rio de Janeiro. The meeting marks the 20th anniversary of the first so-called Earth Summit. Rijsberman says at the initial summit, agriculture and environment were opposing forces. He describes them now as “best friends.” At the recent Camp David G8 Summit, President Obama announced the New Alliance on Food and Nutrition Security. It calls for much greater investment and involvement by the private sector. Rijsberman said for Africa to reach its food security goals, agriculture investment would need to increase by $21 billion dollars per year. Most of that would have to come from the private sector.
http://www.voanews.com/content/decapua-food-security-agriculture-28may12/1120415.html
