USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture invests over $7 million in big data, artificial intelligence, and other cyberinformatics research

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded 12 grants totaling over $7 million to initiate research on big data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive technologies needed to keep U.S. agriculture…

Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs: Paraquat sales banned in China

On 25th September, 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice on the strengthened regulations related to paraquat-related businesses. The notice stipulates that only paraquat manufacturers with a paraquat technical…

US EPA takes next step in review process for insecticide chlorpyrifos, making draft risk assessments available

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking an important step in the Agency’s review of chlorpyrifos. Meeting an important commitment made in the Agency’s July 2019 response to the related petition denial, EPA has released…

Global trade in food and agricultural products more than doubles in last two decades

Global agri-food trade has more than doubled since 1995, amounting to $1.5 trillion in 2018, with emerging and developing countries' exports on the rise and accounting for over one-third of the world's total, according to a new report issued…

The output of China’s chemical pesticide technical production from Jan to Jul went down by 6.5%

According to CISource, in July 2020, the production output of China’s chemical pesticide technical was 170,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%. From January to July 2020, the national output of chemical pesticide technical was 1.228…

‘Foreign pest’ threat to tapioca crops in south India

Even as the Covid19 pandemic has battered the health and economy of the country, entomologists are alarmed at the “unauthorised introduction” of foreign invasive pests, which are destroying Indian crops and causing untold misery to our hapless…

US EPA rules traizine herbicides are safe

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Friday announced a long-awaited interim decision regarding the reregistration of the triazines: atrazine, propazine, and simazine. After years of research and public comments from the agriculture…

Brazil Anvisa maintains the decision to ban paraquat

By three votes to two, the Brazilian national health surveillance agency (Anvisa) maintained the decision to ban the active ingredient paraquat in Brazil, scheduled to come into force as of September 22, 2020, according to the rules of the Collegiate…

Crop planting rises 5.7% to a new record of 110.45 million hectares in India, bumper harvest likely

Crop planting has expanded to a new record of 110.45 million hectares, rising 5.7% over last year and setting the stage for another bumper harvest. Crop area is likely to increase further as rice planting is still continuing, although at…