China Agriculture View

BEIJING – A drought in China’s northeast, the country’s main soy producing region, has been very serious but a late harvest and rainfall in the next month should eliminate any risk of crop failure, Vice-Minister for Agriculture Niu Dun said on Monday.

“We’ve already taken active measures to rectify the situation, including emergency irrigation,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Beijing. “There is still time. The situation is serious, but if there is rain and if the harvest is later, I believe there won’t be a crop failure.”

“We’re adopting techological measures – artificial rain, irrigation – and are also considering replanting and adjusting the mix (of crops).”

Reuters

For thousands of years, farmers cleared land by burning forests and moved to a new area. Farmers who used “slash and burn” methods of clearing forests to grow crops.But  the harm of this agricultural method to the environment has been ignored for a long time. The harmful chemical substances and gas will come with the burning forest.

Massive burning of forests for agriculture may have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide enough to alter global climate and usher in a warming trend that continues today, according to a new study that appears online Aug. 17 in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

Scientific consensus is that global warming results from an atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide. Of the carbon dioxide that we humans contribute, roughly two-thirds is from the burning of fossil fuels and one-third is from the burning of biomass, such as forests, grasslands and agricultural crops.

No matter how large the effect of burning crops, I think we need take a better way to dispose the crops which is useless. Today, some of the agricultural machine can do it well.

Eggpant is a very common vegetable which is eaten in summer by Chinese. A kind of Chinese eggplant with light purple in color and has a long, thin shape similar to a zucchini is welcomed by chinese.Chinese eggplant can be grilled whole, chopped for stir-fries, or sliced and baked in casseroles.

How to choose the best eggplant? Skin that is shiny and smooth and doesn’t have bruises or blemishes. It should be heavy for its size, but avoid those that are overgrown; they can taste bitter and spongy.

Storage:Use them within a day or two of purchasing or picking. For longer storage, wrap in a paper towel, place in a plastic bag, and store in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator for 4 or 5 days. Eggplants are sensitive to the ethylene gas given off by apples and potatoes, so don’t store them together.

A typical and best cooking eggplant is in Garlic Sauce Recipe. The cooking method is so comfotable and easy that you can pick up soon. You can go to visit here to learn it.

China, the world’s leading exporter of marine fish products, needs to adapt its fisheries if it is to meet new EU regulations to combat illegal fishing, according to a report released on Monday.

Under the legislation which comes into force in January 2010, all fish materials imported into the European Union will have to be accompanied by catch certificates validated by the nation under whose flag the fishing vessel sails.

The move is aimed at combating illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said in its report titled “Understanding China’s Fish Trade and Traceability.”

“The ability of China, as the leading exporter of marine fish products and the world’s fastest growing major economy, to meet such requirements is regarded as vital in the process to curb IUU fishing worldwide,” TRAFFIC said.

The report funded by the British government examines whether the systems used by Chinese fisheries to trace the origins of catches will be able to cope with the new EU requirements.

“By illuminating the role China plays in fish reprocessing, the report highlights the extent to which China must be involved in solutions to the problems of overfishing and IUU catches,” the report’s author Shelley Clarke said.

China’s fish processing industry has grown rapidly from 2.8 million tonnes in 1993 to 9.3 million tonnes in 2006, TRAFFIC said, with about 9,000 reprocessing plants in operation.

Despite the statistics, a lack of publicly available data has resulted in misperceptions about China’s reprocessing industry.

TRAFFIC cited a recent US government report which appeared “to have been motivated by a desire to explore a booming market for US seafood in China, only to conclude that more than 90 percent of US seafood exports to China are re-exported by China for consumption elsewhere, often back to the US.”

Customs systems in China and some importing countries lack the detail to determine the quantities of species of fish being reprocessed and usually do not check whether fish imports are properly classified, the report found.

Tracing catches was complicated by the fact that fish may legally change hands several times while in China, it said.

The report recommended China streamline its monitoring systems into a single, integrated system and develop formal requirements to certify and document catches.

It also recommended additional help from the EU and others to help China comply with the new legislation and to provide intelligence for fisheries enforcement in countries which may be the source of imported illegal and unregulated fish into China.

eggplant

Eggplant is a kind of  common vegetables in China and most other  countries. I think the name of eggplant is comes from the shape it is. A kind of eggplant is elliptical and looks like the eggs. But today, the eggpalnt has many of breeds with different shapes. Eggplant is a cold-sensitive vegetable that requires a long warm season for best yields.Eggplants are slightly larger plants than peppers and are spaced slightly farther apart. Eggplant requires careful attention for a good harvest.

Choose the best time to grow eggplant
Eggplant is best started from transplants. Select plants in cell packs or individual containers. It is important to get the plants off to a proper start. Do not plant too early. Transplant after the soil has warmed and the danger of frost has passed.

Spacing and Depth
Set standard-size varieties 18 to 24 inches apart; compact and dwarf kinds can be a little closer together. Stake tall varieties to keep the fruits off the ground.

How to care the eggplant
Place a paper collar around each stem to deter cutworms, and add floating row covers or cloches to protect new plants from cold, wind and insects.Given sufficient moisture and fertility, eggplant thrives in the heat of summer.

Harvest
Your eggplants will taste best when young. Start harvesting when the fruits reach 1/3 their full growth. They are ready once the skins turn glossy. Once the outside skin turns dull they are past their prime and will contain lots of seeds. Cut the stems with a sharp knife to prevent damage to the vine.Remember to pick the ripe eggplant timely, or the eggplant is not tasted well and at the same time the new born eggplants have not enough nutrition.

Enjoy Your Fruit:
To prepare eggplants for cooking, sprinkle cut slices with salt and allow the juices that form to drain away in a colander. After 30 minutes or so, rinse well and pat dry. The eggplants will be less bitter and easier to cook.

Though there are much argue about organic food, I think the food with low-chemical and pesticide is more believable. In China, the organic food movement is growing steadily.It’s a battle in a country of recurring food scares, loosely enforced regulations and skepticism about paying more for produce that looks the same as regular market fare.

An oasis in a Beijing suburb, the organic farm’s modest 6 acres boast pepper and tomato plants, fields of corn and wheat, and sunflower patches that pop up in between. Two rotund cows chomp on grasses; under a grove of fruit trees, three young pigs slurp water.

Restaurateur and environmentalist Lejen Chen started Green Cow with her husband in 2004, fearful of the pesticides, chemical fertilizers and sewage sludge used in the cultivation of most domestic produce.

The problem, she says, is making sure that farmers stick to those standards, and ensuring that there are enough authorities to adequately monitor producers who claim their food is organic — a tall order in a country where toxic, heavy-metal-filled sewage sludge is the cheapest, most easily accessible fertilizer around.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture certifies organic products, and its popular “Green Food” label, which designates food produced with restricted amounts of agricultural chemicals, can be seen on products such as fruit, noodles, tea and even beer. The ministry also labels genetically modified food, something the United States does not do.

Although shoppers’ enthusiasm may run high, organic agriculture will need to expand, and become more accessible, before being embraced by the skeptical penny-pincher.

Read More >>

Prices of agricultural products in 36 Chinese large and medium-sized cities rose 0.5 percent this week from Aug. 3, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Wednesday.

Thirty-one out of 57 kinds of farm produce saw week-on-week price increases while the prices of 18 types saw a drop, said a report on the MOC website.

Vegetable prices climbed 4.5 percent week on week due to a decrease in supplies caused by rainstorms, while egg prices rose 0.7 percent from a week earlier.

The wholesale prices of pork, beef and mutton edged up 1.9 percent, 0.5 percent and 0.1 percent, the MOC said.

Source:Xinhua

tomato

The tomato is actually a fruit even though most people think of it as a vegetable.Tomato can be cooked as a course or a soup, and both are very delicious. Even you can eat it as a fruit that you just need to wash the tomato and eat it. If you can grow a tomato plant yourself, it must be more interesting. Tomato plants are easy to grow if you take care of them. There are many steps you can take to make sure your tomato plants grow strong and healthy, and produce ample fruit.

1. You can plant grape using young seedling.The most economical way to protect yong seedling is by using plastic soda bottles. This will protect your seedling from high wind and help keep the soil and plant warm during cool spells.

2.Warmth:To reduce transplant shock and retain warmth, use Wall O’ Water plant protectors at planting time. These devices will protect the plants from early cold spells and the drying effects of wind.

3.Light:Place the young plants only a couple of inches from florescent grow lights. Plant your tomatoes outside in the sunniest part of your vegetable plot.

4.Support:For maximum tomato yields always stake or cage your plants. Emerging fruits will benefit from improved air circulation and less ground pest problems.

5.Water:Water your plants at least once a day, in the early morning or late afternoon. Do not water them at night, as this will encourage pests and disease.

6.Growing:Get the biggest yields by helping your plants grow to their full potential.The last thing is to wait for the ripeness of the tomato, and enjoy your fruit of hard work.