Latest news with #farmersassociation
BBC News
5 days ago
- General
- BBC News
'Farming's future in Guernsey is looking good'
Young farmers and new farming technology are some the reasons to be positive about the future of the agricultural industry in Guernsey, according to the chair of the island's farmers' Bray is part of the young generation of farmers and took over Les Jaonnets Farm in St Saviour's in 2012, after leaving the island to learn the ropes on farms in New Zealand and the said Guernsey had seen a "lot of younger farmers coming into the industry"."Here in Guernsey we've got lots of farmers' sons and daughters coming in, so the future's looking really, really good," he said. Mr Bray said there had been "some significant technological changes" including robotic milking, which made it an "interesting time" for farming. "The cows just go in on their own free will, get milked and wander back out again, so things are starting to change."Mr Bray and his wife Susie said they decided to adopt a New Zealand-style rotational grazing system, where cows move between small paddocks every 12 to 24 hours with the help of astroturf and electric change helps keep the cows healthy and improves the quality and quantity of milk, the pair said. Hidden nature Mr Bray said he believed the island's farms had become much more sustainable in recent said locally-grown maize had replaced imported soya from deforested land, which reduced the carbon footprint of feeding Bray also highlighted the non-farming land farmers looked after, with 10% made up of scrub land, hedgerows and "bracken and bramble" was cut back "suddenly you get a massive abundance of smaller wildflowers growing underneath it and that's fantastic for us to see", he maintenance work also created "access for birds and all the other wildlife that live in there", he said. Mr Bray said being on call at all times could be a "mental strain". "If an animal gets out or an animal is injured or whatever, you're on call and the buck stops with you every time," he said."[You put] everything on the line for your animals and make sure that everything you do is right for them."
Free Malaysia Today
19-06-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
SST expansion will boost local avocado industry, say farmers
Beginning July 1, the SST will extend to imported goods, including avocados, which are predominantly consumed by high-income earners. (Freepik pic) PETALING JAYA : Farmers are anticipating a sharp rise in domestic demand for locally-grown avocados as the expanded sales and service tax (SST), set to take effect on July 1, extends to cover imported varieties. Jamawi Jaafar, an adviser to a Sabah avocado farmers' association, said the move could help stabilise local avocado prices, which remain significantly lower than the imported fruit despite their comparable quality. 'If prices improve in the local market, more local farmers are likely to venture into avocado farming,' the former Kemabong assemblyman told FMT. Jamawi Jaafar. Jamawi said imported avocados currently make up 85% of the produce in the local market. 'We can still compete thanks to our lower prices,' he said, adding that there were about 5,000 acres of avocado farmland in Sabah. Currently, he said, locally-grown avocados can be purchased for between RM8 and RM10 per kg if bought directly from farms, but is likely to reach RM20 per kg in the local market. Jamawi said stable prices, coupled with ongoing government support, would boost farmers' confidence and motivate them to expand their farms, ultimately enhancing domestic production. He proposed that Putrajaya establish a board to regulate high-potential produce like avocados and durian, while providing clear direction for other crops, such as pineapples, black pepper, and oil palm. Last Sunday, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that the SST expansion on imported goods was targeted mainly at higher-income earners. Anwar, who also holds the finance portfolio, said the government's intention was to levy the tax on goods typically consumed by wealthier individuals—such as avocados and cod—so as not to add to the financial strain felt by members of the lower-income groups. On June 9, the Treasury said a 5% sales tax would be imposed on certain food items, including king crabs, salmon, cod, truffles and imported fruits beginning next month. It reiterated that local produce would continue to be exempted from sales tax. In an interview with FMT, Treasury secretary-general Johan Mahmood Merican said this was strategically aimed at bolstering local agricultural demand and strengthening food security. Separately, Joni Muhamat Yahya, an avocado farmer in Pagoh, Johor, said the 5% sales tax on imported avocados could be a boon for local farmers. Joni Muhamat Yahya. Joni, who has an eight-acre farm, suggested that the government provide specific incentives for local avocado farmers to spur the industry's growth. 'This is a good opportunity for me and other avocado farmers to expand our farms on a large scale. 'What I foresee in the future is that there will be greater demand for locally-grown avocados for use in food and beverage. The government should help us increase our production (to meet the expected increase in demand).'
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
‘It's a critical time': European farmers struggle through driest spring in a century
When drought descended on Hendrik Jan ten Cate's farm in 2018, slashing his onion yield to just 10% of a regular year, he slogged through days of heavy labour to draw water from canals and pump it to his crops. One day, overworked and anxious to extract as much as he could, Ten Cate fell into the canal and broke his arm. This year, with plants already growing but a severe dearth of rain to nourish young crops, the Dutch farmer is once again watching the weather forecast with worry. 'It's a critical time,' said Ten Cate, who grows potatoes, onions, cereals, carrots and sugar beet on a 100 hectare farm. 'Since April, the crops are in the ground, starting to grow, and now we need water every week.' Farmers across north-western Europe are waiting with bated breath for fresh rains as typically drizzly countries such as the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany suffer through what may be their driest spring in a century. A small respite is expected at the weekend but is unlikely to provide lasting relief. 'We farmers are resilient … but dry spells are always stressful,' said Sven Borchert, who runs a 1,700 hectare cereal and vegetable farm in Saxony-Anhalt and is the vice-president of the regional farmer's association. Borchert said his farm, which sits in the dry shadows of Germany's Harz mountains, benefited from good soil that held water well, but had seen half the rain it should have this year. He said he expected to get through the month without problems but worried rainfall in June would arrive too late for many other farms. 'There are questions, such as how you'll pay back the bank, that does keep you up at night,' he said. Extreme weather costs the EU about €28.3bn in lost crops and livestock per year, according to a analysis by insurance firm Howden, equal to about 6% of its total food production. More than half the losses stem from drought, according to an analysis of four major weather threats that was commissioned for the European Investment Bank (EIB) as part of the European Commission's push to quell anger among farmers last year. It found just 20-30% of the losses were insured. 'Climate-related risks are an increasing source of uncertainty for food production,' said Gelsomina Vigliotti, vice-president of the EIB. 'Mitigating these risks through insurance and de-risking mechanisms is essential to support the investments of European farmers.' Fossil fuel pollution is expected to worsen drought conditions in parts of Europe, with the Mediterranean rapidly drying up while other regions experience mixed changes. Despite some benefits to farms in northern Europe, the combination of heat and drought is projected to result in 'substantive agricultural production losses' for most European areas this century, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in a landmark review of climate science research in 2022. Ten Cate, who sits on the board of an agricultural association in the southern Netherlands, said farmers in the region were already witnessing greater weather extremes. 'The heavy rainfall is heavier and the dry period is longer, drier and more extreme,' he said. 'We also see the temperature getting higher … and the plants getting stressed.' Farmers say they are exploring ways to adapt to drought that range from increasing the organic content of their soil and planting more drought-resistant varieties of crops to investing in large-scale rainwater storage, precision farming and drip irrigation. Ten Cate said local farmers had responded to the 2018 drought by investing in mechanical tools to extract water from irrigation channels and distribute it over their fields. In the short term, though, farmers across Europe see little choice but to wait for more rain. Almost a third of the continent was under orange drought warnings by the end of April, according to the European Drought Observatory, with 0.7% in the critical red alert stage. Peter Boysen, an organic farmer in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said the grass on his farm had not yet dried out but was barely growing. He estimated he had only enough animal feed to last a couple more weeks. 'It's hard to gauge what economic consequences this will have,' he said. 'If rain comes soon, perhaps we'll see losses of 20-30%. If no rain comes, it will of course be much worse.'
