Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA An atlas of Global Surface Water has just been published which shows the changes in surface water supply in the last 35 years – more than 4 million satellite images were analyzed along with data from the Google Earth platform. The atlas does show a decrease in surface water in many areas much of which seems to be due to the use of water resources for crop irrigation. In some countries, major lakes from 35 years ago have totally disappeared. Lake Razzaza in Iraq is a good example of this – it was once Iraq’s largest freshwater lake but is now an almost dry, high salt level, pool of water. Turkey is eliminating the import tariff on wheat, barley, and corn...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.