Category Archives: HortNews

Kent shopkeeper fined for selling rotten fruit

A Kentish shopkeeper has been fined for selling rotten fruit and vegetables after an inspection by the Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate (HMI).

Ishtiaq Ahmed, proprietor of the Garden of England store in Canterbury was sentenced at Canterbury Magistrates Court on 23 November 2015. An HMI investigation in April found nine breaches of EU marketing rules for fresh produce quality and labelling, including apples and lemons which failed to meet the lowest marketable standards permitted.

Rural Payments Agency Operations Director Paul Caldwell commented, “Prosecution is only used as a last resort and we will always try to get businesses complying with the marketing standards through advice and guidance and, where possible, with the full cooperation and support from the business itself.”

Mr Ahmed pleaded guilty and was fined £1,305 for the offences, £2,871.42 for the prosecution’s costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

Photo Credit: Gov.uk

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Cucumber growers struggling

Reports that the UK cucumber sector is at the ‘brink of extinction’ may be melodramatic, but industry representatives agree that further contraction will be seen if the market does not pick up.

Cucumbers were one crop highlighted as being particularly at threat in the NFU’s recent Catalyst Revisited report after UK production fell below 100 ha for the first time. The average retail price of cucumbers has, like other produce, fallen by around 50% over recent months.

In turn this has devalued the crop. “Every other supermarket jumped on the bandwagon and 50p now is the most you can get,” Derek Hargreaves, technical officer at the Cucumber Growers Association (CGA) told one website. “Go back a few years and cucumbers cost anywhere between 80p to £1.20. If they were worth 80p four years ago, by rights, it should be 85p now.”

With few commercial cucumber growers left around the Humber, the Lea Valley now produces 75% of the crop. While there are signs of investment in new glass, none of it so far is earmarked for cucumber production.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The post Cucumber growers struggling appeared first on Hort News on 27 November 2015.

WIYBY will advise on water pollution risk

The Voluntary Initiative (VI) is calling on farmers and growers to use the Environment Agency’s What’s in Your Backyard website (www.wiyby.co.uk) to help assess the risk of water pollution from agrochemicals and manage key products appropriately.

‘Farmers, agronomists and operators need to know where their land drains to, if they want to continue to use pesticides to control weeds and slugs,’ said the VI in a statement. Although primarily targeted at winter cereals and oilseed rape, the use of metaldehyde for slug control has implications for vegetable growers.

“Not every field drains to a drinking water source but pesticide use in those that do really matters,” explained the VI’s Patrick Goldsworthy. “The first step for farmers and growers is to find out whether any of the land they manage is in a Drinking Water Safeguard Zone and if there are any pesticide issues in that Safeguard Zone. [If] there are concerns about pesticide issues then they should discuss with their agronomist what they can do to help reduce the risk of any pesticides they use reaching water, be that surface or ground water.”

For more information visit www.voluntaryinitiative.org.uk.

The post WIYBY will advise on water pollution risk appeared first on Hort News on 24 November 2015.

Warm autumn bringing forward UK asparagus

A field of asparagus in Evesham is reportedly sprouting five months early due to the warm autumn weather.

According to newspaper reports, a single 600g bundle, which was grown by Mark Meadows, was sold for £24 at Evesham Auctions last Thursday (19 November) with the money raised going to charity. It was brought by farm shop owner Chris Groves who said he would share it with his wife.

He added, “All the old boys at the market, who have been growing asparagus in the Vale for decades all agreed it was the latest they had ever heard of. When it was brought to market everyone gathered around and agreed it had never been known.”

It is believed the plants had sprouted due to the recent mild weather, making it the earliest, or latest, crop recorded in the UK.

Photo Credit: Picserver

The post Warm autumn bringing forward UK asparagus appeared first on Hort News on 24 November 2015.

New farming app aims to put farm in your pocket

A new mobile phone app aims to put “Your farm in your pocket,” according to Fieldmargin co-founder Rob Carter.

The idea for the system grew out of frustration at the number of different sources of notes and data being used around the farm, from agronomists to tractor drivers and others. Some was electronic and some was on scraps of paper. The new system allows information to be recorded in real time and accessed across the farm.

“For example an agronomist can use their phone to record and locate a note while crop walking and you can go and see exactly what they are talking about,” comments Rob.

“We’ve been developing Fieldmargin since 2013. Although Fieldmargin the Crop Recorder is complete and several farms use it as their sole crop recording software we still think that we can make it better,” he adds. The company is now looking for growers and farmers to help test the new mobile platform and develop potential features. For more information visit www.fieldmargin.com.

Photo Credit: fieldmargin

The post New farming app aims to put farm in your pocket appeared first on Hort News on 24 November 2015.

RFID start-up for farmers wants to expand

A new agri-tech startup aims to give farmers and growers the ability to attach data to any part of their farming business, from fields and machines, right down to individual animals, pickers or plants.

As Abby Schlageter of vidacycle explained, the idea first came about when her parents started an olive farm in Chile and wanted a way to keep track of which trees needed attention, such as re-staking or pruning. Eventually she hit upon the idea of using RFID tags coupled with a simple phone app.

These small discs use an electromagnetic field to transfer data wirelessly with no internet required, in turn allowing data to be ‘attached’ to each location fitted with a tag. As well as tracking individual trees, the company has also developed a system for tracking harvesting output for hand-picked produce such as fruit and vegetables. Each worker is given a tag and each time they hand in what they have picked the tag identifies them and the amount harvested.

Data can be stored on the phone or tablet or uploaded for further analysis on a computer. The company is now looking to expand and is seeking two or more UK farmers to help develop the system. For more information visit tech.vidacycle.com or email abby@vidacycle.com.

Photo Credit: tech.vidacycle

The post RFID start-up for farmers wants to expand appeared first on Hort News on 24 November 2015.

Nematicide Stewardship Programme announces new training

The Nematicide Stewardship Programme (NSP) used the BP2015 event in Harrogate on the 12th November to announce a new training partnership with ARTIS.

“We are excited about the training partnership with ARTIS,” said NSP Chair, Dr Sharon Hall. “The use of Nematicides remains critical to many growers in producing a quality product and maintaining current rotations and this new partnership will deliver high quality training on a sustainable basis to the industry.”

The NSP group is a joint initiative that brings together different industry organisations and companies to ensure these vital products remain available for future use on potatoes and other key root crops.

“It’s crucial for all operators to attend,” added Dr Hall. “Industry has requested that Red Tractor Assurance incorporates a requirement into its standards specifying that all staff applying nematicides must have completed the course by March 2017.”

The winter programme of operator training workshops takes place in throughout the country and will be provided for free of charge while funding is available. Places can be booked at www.artistraining.com.

Photo Credit: AHDB Potatoes. Andy Alexander (NFU); Neil Beadle (Dupont); Sharon Hall (Potato Processors’ Association); Alan Horgan (Certis); Mark Britton (Syngenta); Sue Cowgill (AHDB Potatoes); John Keer (Richard Austin Agriculture Ltd).

The post Nematicide Stewardship Programme announces new training appeared first on Hort News on 17 November 2015.

Latest Agricultural GHG statistics show fall in total emissions

The latest edition of Agricultural Statistics and Climate Change, published by Defra and National Statistics, shows that emissions of major greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the sector have fallen.

Total estimated GHG emissions fell 19% from 1990 to 2013, with the biggest falls in carbon dioxide (31%), followed by nitrous oxide and methane which dropped 17% each. Methane accounted for the largest proportion of gases at 27 million tonnes CO2e in 2013. Total productivity rose over the same period according to the report.

However, the output of vegetables and other horticultural products fell between 1990 and 2014, although at 86.7% of the 1990 index the 2014 figure was still higher than 2012 which was the lowest period. According to the statistics the sector accounts for 10% of total GHG emissions from agriculture. ‘Improved nitrogen use efficiency in cropping systems can be achieved through improved crop nutrient management,” comment the authors.

Photo Credit: National Statistics/Defra

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EFSA says no link between glyphosate and cancer

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published its peer review of glyphosate which is part of the EU renewal process for the chemical.

Crucially it concludes that, ‘Glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans and the evidence does not support classification with regard to its carcinogenic potential.’

Nick von Westenholz, CEO of the Crop Protection Association commented, “We are pleased to see that EFSA concurs with the numerous health assessments conducted by public authorities on glyphosate over the past 40 years which have all concluded that, when used correctly, it poses no meaningful risk to human health.”

However, the Soil Association slammed the report’s findings. “Given that this review of glyphosate relies almost entirely on industry funded, unpublished studies, it would be unthinkable for the EFSA to come to any conclusion other than that glyphosate is safe to use,” said SA Policy Director Peter Melchett.

Photo Credit: EFSA

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Meurig Raymond: Farming can survive current crisis

NFU President Meurig Raymond believes that farming can survive the current crisis affecting key sectors including cereals, milk and vegetables, but that in order to do so it must utilise the very best information and technology, not only to improve productivity, but also to emphasise the importance of the sector to society as a whole.

Speaking at AgriTech East’s REAP (Realising our Economic and Agricultural Potential) Conference on Wednesday (11 November) Raymond congratulated the Government for its recently announced 25 year Food and Farming Plan and emphasised how the NFU is feeding into that process, but he also lamented the fact that UK self-sufficiency in food has now fallen to just 62 per cent.

He said that provided they were allowed to make a return, farmers were more than willing to invest in the future of their businesses. “Our top priorities must be tackling the barriers to growth and investment,” he stressed. “We need a fair, transparent and functioning supply chain.”

In conclusion Mr Raymond said that policy makers needed to recognise the long term cycles affecting farming. “I am confident that farming is going to find its rightful place in society, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride,” he added.

Photo credit: Richard Crowhurst

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