Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

AALP Class 14 International Study Tour Mumbai, India - Thursday, February 21, 2013

Rested!  AALP Class 14 finally got to wake up from a full night’s sleep in beds that didn't flutter over land and sea, or wobble down a track.  Feeling refreshed we met with our first guide of the day, a wonderful woman who had worked with Mother Theresa, has a Masters in Social Work and who passionately loves showing visitors around her city of Mumbai. Our tour was a variety of the different religious flavours of the city.  We visited holy places of worship for: Christian, Judaism, Muslim, Jian, Hindu, Parsee, and Buddhism. Another amazing example of the cultures and contrasts of the wide range of lives being liven in Mumbai.  After an Indian buffet lunch, where many in the class reflected on how much they were enjoying and adjusting to the foods, including some wonderful desserts, we headed off with our bus driver seamlessly negotiating the cacophony, commotion and wide variety of vehicles on the city’s streets. Our afternoon visit was to the Monsanto Farm AgVisory Services call centre. We learned about Monsanto's program which has helped over 700,000 Indian farmers with crop issues and knowledge improvement. Their two-pronged approach harnesses the adoption of mobile phone technology to deliver a proactive audio newsletter containing timely crop information, as well as a call in centre where they could work through and give farmers advice on a specific crop problem. 

By the time we returned to the hotel we had all recognized Mumbai as a city of contrasts - from wealth and beauty, to poverty and despair; from goats picking through garbage on the shores of the Arabian Sea to a palm tree lined horse track.  Smells from sewage to spices to marigold garlands. All found side by side and mixed together. 

Steve Palmer, Adam Garniss – AALP Class 14 Bloggers

Views: 688

Comment

You need to be a member of Ontario Agriculture to add comments!

Join Ontario Agriculture

Comment by OntAG Admin on February 24, 2013 at 6:08pm

Comment by OntAG Admin on February 24, 2013 at 6:08pm

Comment by OntAG Admin on February 21, 2013 at 2:58pm

Some of the AALP photos at the following link

http://ontag.farms.com/photo

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

July Heat Wave Puts Midwest Corn and Soybeans Under Pressure

A major heat wave is building across the central and eastern United States, raising concerns for corn and soybean crops as July begins.

- Derecho climatology (Gaustini/Bosart): a corridor through the northern Plains/upper Midwest carries a >65% annual chance of a derecho-strength MCS, driven by northwest flow on the ridge's periphery. We must watch this region over the next 60 days. More on this below... - Cold North Atlantic: Years with the current North Atlantic cold-tongue pattern favor western troughs + heat pushing into the Midwest. Caveat: rapid warming on the south side of the cold plume means the simple composite likely understates the evolving pattern. Plus the Gulf of Alaska has been warming which could negate these impacts. See this part of the video for a deeper dive. - Modeling caution: During Summer, global models like the ECMWF and GFS are at their weakest due to coarse resolution and their inability to resolve convection. So we lean on the hi-res models like the HRRR and then ensembles for large scale anomalies. Be very careful with model forecasts to total precipitation... - National yield projection

A major heat wave is building across the central and eastern United States, raising concerns for corn and soybean crops as July begins. Nutrien’s Eric Snodgrass says producers should closely monitor high heat, overnight temperatures, derecho risk and dry pockets in key growing regions.

Swine Health Advisory Committee Sets Five Focus Areas

The Swine Health advisory committee is focused on turning strategy into action. To help advance the National Swine Health Strategy, the committee identified five focus areas that will drive action and measurable progress for U.S. pork producers. A Producer-Led Push for Swine Health Pork producers need a swine health strategy that actually works on the farm. The Swine Health advisory committee was created to make sure that happens. For the inaugural meeting in May, the advisory committee’s twenty-seven producers, veterinarians, USDA staff and packers/processors met in Des Moines and left with a clear direction: build on what’s working and accelerate action. The National Swine Health Strategy (NSHS) only succeeds if it reflects producers’ needs, and the advisory committee is responsible for ensuring it delivers. The advisory committee identified five focus areas to drive measurable progress in swine health. The Top 5 Focus Areas Driving Progress Build Industry Buy-In for the NSHS Fi

Closing the Gaps: New Research Investments Support Swine Disease Elimination

The Swine Disease Research task force recently funded new PRRSV and PEDV research projects that support National Swine Health Strategy priorities. These projects aim to close critical knowledge gaps and provide producers with practical information to support disease elimination efforts. Disease elimination doesn’t happen with a single breakthrough. It happens when the industry asks and answers the hard questions that still stand in the way. New research projects recently selected by the Swine Disease Research task force will address those hard questions. Each project aligns with the National Swine Health Strategy (NSHS) priority of eliminating endemic diseases, addresses key knowledge gaps and aims to deliver information to help producers make better herd health decisions. The latest research investments concentrate on two diseases that continue to challenge U.S. pork production: porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV).

Cereals Canada 2025 Annual Report Highlights $12.8B Exports and Global Market Strength

Cereals Canada’s 2025 Annual Report underscores strong export performance, expanding global demand, and continued investment in quality, innovation, and customer relationships.

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service