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Calgary greenhouse to be built this spring to extend growing season

The city of Calgary has a short growing season with its unpredictable climate, but a new year-round greenhouse being built this spring hopes to change that with a community-based food system. Highfield Farm, located in southeast Calgary, received $277,000 in funding through the Local Food Infrastructure…

Belize: Ministry of Agriculture busy helping with backyard gardens, greenhouses

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security, and Enterprise (MAFSE) has been quite busy lately helping with backyard gardens and greenhouses in the Belize District. “The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security, and Enterprise is happy and proud to assist community organizations like Days of Healing on…

Albanian vegetable exports down

In Albania, vegetables are the most exported product among food stuffs, seeing a rapid growth in recent years as a result of investments in greenhouses and increased acreages. From 2010 to 2021,…

Photo: Agriculture ministry

Cambodia: Public-private Agriculture 4.0 greenhouse deal struck

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with three companies geared towards the production of a minimum of 400 tons of additional vegetables per year to supply the domestic market and ship abroad. The signatory companies of the MoU,…

Lettuce ice means higher January markets likely

Cold temperatures in the California and Arizona desert growing regions have caused issues with lettuce that are likely to impact the market come early 2022. Mark Shaw, vice-president of operations for Salinas, CA-based Markon Cooperative, says widespread lettuce ice started developing Thursday, December…

South Africa: A rooftop hops farm in the city

Khaya Maloney grows hops using a hydroponics system under cover on 300m2 of space on a rooftop on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The space is leased to him. Using this set up, he can produce four harvests a year, instead of the single harvest that traditional hops growers achieve. While Maloney…

Image: Ashley Kay Mauer

Underground gardens: electricity-effective and earth-friendly increasing practices

Colorado is blessed with all 4 seasons distinctly. Regrettably, for farmers and gardeners, this usually means a shorter growing season when the snow and frost sets in and sends crops to their deaths or into hibernation for the wintertime. Greenhouses had been invented to prolong the developing year in…

New narrow spraying machine with a large wingspan

A large grower of tomato plants was looking for a solution for the automatic spraying of its client's plants. The machine had to be suitable for an ebb and flood irrigation floor, narrow enough to be able to drive through the plants and high enough to also be able to treat the higher crops. Micothon,…

"Our facility can be customized based on your needs and type of crop"

Setting up vertical farms in easily movable containers measuring 20-40 feet. This is the idea of Daniele Bertocchi, agronomist and Greatit. "The current situation has driven up the cost of unused containers too, but they are still financially sustainable if compared to other solutions. Bluntly put, we…

Swiss crop electrophysiology specialist is a registered B Corporation

The ‘Fitbit of plants’, Vivent’s PhytlSigns device has been certified as a B Corp – a Certified Benefit Corporation – after meeting rigorous social and environmental standards which represent its commitment to do business in a meaningful way, by pursuing purpose as well as profit. "Vivent’s technology…

Calls for proposals to promote European agri-food products launched

Yesterday, the European Commission launched the 2022 calls for proposals for European agri-food promotion programs, in the EU and abroad. Similarly to 2021, this year puts a special focus on the promotion of products and methods that support more directly the European Green Deal objectives. This includes…

Two Australian family brands partner together to celebrate loved Aussie produce in pickled form

Aussie-grown Perfection Fresh has been around for over 43 years, since 1978 they’ve been supplying premium, Australian-grown fresh produce including the much-loved Qukes® Baby Cucumbers. Three Three's established in 1919, is a 5th generation, family-run Australian business. They supply and manufacture a…

Growing old style tasty tomatoes with new technologies

Rioja is renowned as the land of some of the best wines in the world. At the same time, next to vineyards, other crops such as traditional tomatoes are grown using modern techniques like hydroponics in high-tech greenhouses Marcos and Álvaro Pérez brothers studied agricultural engineering, but instead of…

Whitefly prevention with liquid nutritional plant enhancer

Whiteflies are a major threat in greenhouses. For feeding, they directly harm plants by perforating leaves, and indirectly they can transmit viruses and create an optimal feeding ground for molds. The flies quickly develop resistance against pesticide chemicals, which may also affect the natural…

Giant capsicums appearing in Australian supermarkets

In the fruit and veg section of your local Coles and Woolies, you might notice that currently, capsicums are enormous. These mega-capsicums can be as much as three times the…

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Bulgaria: Greenhouse vegetables prices might jump in spring

Greenhouse vegetable prices are expected to rise in spring due to higher electricity and gas prices. Vegetable producer Ivaylo Peshev, coming from Kresna, said that the overhead costs for his greenhouse have risen several times. The prices of the raw materials he uses for his production have also…

USDA

'US consumers see impact of shipping backlogs and high truck rates when they do their shopping'

Shipping port backlogs continue to be a key factor in supply chain challenges nationwide. West coast ports remain an ongoing problem, with over 90 ships awaiting berthing spots at the Port of Los Angeles. The average waiting time for a vessel within 40 nautical miles of the Port of Los Angeles is 3.5…

India among largest exporters of cucumbers and gherkins

Indian exports have crossed the $200 million mark regarding pickled cucumbers, which is globally referred as gherkins or cornichons, in the last financial year. This means…

"If you grow organic spinach you are onto a winner"

While growers always like to get some rain, sometimes you can get a bit too much, but rain is mostly seen as a blessing in a country like Australia, which can experience extremely high summer temperatures.  "The weather has been quite good for the last six months but we did have an unusually wet spring," explains…

The 10 hottest chili peppers in the world

COOLthelifestyle has published a ranking of the 10 hottest chili peppers in the world according to the Scoville scale, which determines the pungency level of hot peppers…

“Harnessing geothermal resources can provide a steady stream of energy in all seasons"

On 17 January, the drilling rig will grind into action in Lavey-les-Bains. With plans going ahead to drill down to a maximum depth up to 3,000 meters, the water-source…

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Different organic fertilization systems modify tomato quality

The valorization of vegetal waste as a source of crop nutrients constitutes a circular strategy to improve the sustainability of intensive horticultural production systems. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of organic amendments derived from vegetal residues on the yield and quality…

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UK puts new gene editing rules into practice

New legislation will be put in place to cut unnecessary red tape for gene editing, helping our farmers to grow more resistant, nutritious and productive crops. The rule changes, will mean that scientists across England will be able to undertake plant-based research and development, using genetic…

"Green shoots of Spring need green packaging options"

With Spring almost here the packaging manufacturer’s in-house design team are constantly developing new packaging formats and have added a variety of new packs to their ‘ready-to-post’ and plug Plantpac range over the last 12 months to help see their customers through what they envisage will be another…

Substrate company works with NGOs to kick-start better life for Philippine coconut growers

Long before incorporating a new structure in the Philippines, substrate company Biogrow was already looking at how they could organize it as a sustainable development program, capitalizing on the experience and impact they had in Sri Lanka or India. "The production of high-quality coconut husk-based…

Modiform now sells only circular thermoformed pots

Modiform is stopping its sales of non-circular thermoformed pots and in doing so closes the polypropylene (PP) material loop. The renewed product range consists exclusively of circular pots. These pots are recyclable, as the material used is recognized and separated when disposed of with household waste.…

Calling an ambulance for moldy tomatoes: please don't

"My neighbor came here and she gave me a sandwich, cheese, and tomato. Anyway, I feel quite sick now. I looked at the tomatoes and there's mildew on them."  This is the actual transcription…

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Vertical farming: A sustainable future?

Data Bridge Market Research (DBMR) has organized a conference on Vertical Farming 2022 with a focus on the wide range of changes that are needed in the food supply chains and global infrastructure. Collaboration between industries and successful integration of agricultural innovations are essential to…

Research on urban gardening (RUG) 2022 virtual field day

This virtual field day hosted by University of Florida and colleagues at the RUG Consortium will provide greenhouse growers with principles to ensure consumer success and satisfaction. Gain tips to produce great plants for the booming urban gardening market in 2022. Learn what quality attributes are…

Lidl gives green light to LEAF Mar­que on UK fresh produce

Lidl GB will be taking the environmental standards of its fresh produce suppliers to the next level of sustainability excellence through the LEAF Marque environmental assurance scheme. The move will see its entire British fresh produce supplier base achieving LEAF Marque certification by the end of 2023.…

Dax Melmer / Windsor Star

CAN: Growers cry foul as health unit halts inflow of temporary foreign workers

A local health unit's decision to prohibit farms from bringing temporary foreign workers to Windsor-Essex for three weeks has area growers crying foul. In response to a “significant” number of COVID-19 outbreaks at county farms, the health unit on Wednesday released a new letter of instruction ordering…

Aelius LED launches new LED series

The Canadian-based company, Aelius LED has developed a new 20 Watt LED series, providing growers with an easily interchangeable system that responds to the specific growing…

New Ultrafiltration system for Pure Harvest Smart Farms

At the end of 2021, Pure Harvest Smart Farms commissioned its new greenhouses in Saudi Arabia. Growing in Saudi Arabia means that water management is of high importance. For the new greenhouses, Dutch company Mienis Water supplied the water treatment systems. This involves a Reverse Osmosis with a…

Effects of calcium sulfate whiskers on the mechanical properties and light transmittance of greenhouse films

Calcium sulfate whisker (CSW) is a kind of fiber crystal material with high orientation structure. The major goal of this research is to study the changes of mechanical…

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State of agriculture and food: Stable trends in the agricultural sector

This is one of the many facts in the Staat van Landbouw en Voedsel (State of Agriculture and Food) report produced by Wageningen University & Research and Statistics Netherlands at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. The aim of this survey is to offer a broad overview of…

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Occurrence of a novel strain of watermelon mosaic virus infecting pumpkins in Kenya

The Potyvirus Moroccan watermelon mosaic virus (MWMV) naturally infects and severely threatens production of cucurbits and papaya. This study identified and characterized MWMV isolated from pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) intercropped with MWMV-infected papaya plants through next-generation sequencing (NGS)…

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Broccoli to help anti-cancer treatments

Broccoli may contain advantages beyond nutrition. A molecule found in broccoli, cabbage and other similar foods, digests down into DIM, a compound with brighter benefits than the name implies, such as inducing cell death in brceast, prostate and colon cancer. Now, researchers are beginning to understand…