PHL in the News 
September 22, 2011 Update

The following items have appeared recently in newspapers, blogs, on websites and other media regarding PHL and might be of interest to affiliates of the ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss.

 

Conferences

• International Conference on Agricultural, Biosystems, Biotechnology and Biological Engineering
  ICABBBE will be held on October 26-28, 2011. The 7th International Conference on Agricultural, Biosystems, Biotechnology and Biological Engineering aims to bring together academic scientists, leading engineers, industry researchers and scholar students to exchange and share their experiences and research results and discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted.

 

• Registration is now open for the Chatham House conference "Food Security 2011: Transforming the Food Production System"
  The conference will run from December 14-15, 2011. It will address questions including:  How can political and economic barriers to change be overcome? What transformative business models and partnerships between the public and private sectors work? What needs to happen to ensure that the opportunities presented by investments in agriculture and R&D are maximized?

Papers

• Deutsche Bahn Research recently produced a paper on "Mitigating climate change through agriculture," with the reduction of postharvest losses as a possible outcome of efforts.

• Call for papers for "Under Western Skies 2: Environment, Community, and Culture in North America" with a focus on agriculture, food, and food security.

 

India

• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) is under scrutiny for the past two decades of work as the Committee on Agriculture recently published a document in which it detailed the shortcomings of the food processing industry. This included a lack of information and data which has been the particular jurisdiction of the MoFPI, as well as 164 possible applications of information that would significantly cut postharvest losses.

• The recent two-day National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2011 has led to the outcome that 245 million tons of Rabi as needing to be produced for the next season, as well as a focus on location-specific high yielding crop varieties. "The conference advised the States to specially concentrate on critical areas such as availability of credit to farmers, soil testing/soil health cards, control of pest and diseases and the special schemes such as "Bringing Green Revolution in the Eastern States" scheme on millet, rainfed areas, fodder, vegetables, pulses and oilseeds to achieve the targeted production."

Asia

• The Pangasinan province of the Philippines is building a rice processing complex with funding aid from the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), as well as federal and local departments. This project will affect 8,000 to 10,000 Filipino rice farmers, and is expected to cut current postharvest losses from the 20-25% range to 5%.

 

• North Korea is facing a shortfall of 700,000 metric tons of food this year due to summer floods and a harsh winter, a drop in aid and trade, and rise in food prices. South Korea is seen as a crucial factor in helping its northern brother, but policy continues to keep the amount of aid and help at a low level.