Eggplant (Brinjal) is one of the more important vegetables consumed in South Asia. It is low in nutrients but provides bulk and fiber while also being highly absorbent of flavorings. It is also subject to attack by the eggplant fruit and shoot borer, which reduces yields on a large share of the crop. Farmers in Bangladesh were allowed to plant a Bt version of brinjal starting in 2014 and a large percentage of those who have tried it continue to plant it. They say it protects the fruit while also reducing the requirement for costly and dangerous pesticides. By contrast, growers across the border in India are prohibited from using Bt brinjal. The result is that brinjal yields in Bangladesh have been reported at consistently higher leve...
Commodity markets – being composed primarily of human beings – reflect the impatience and forever forward-looking nature of humans. In the present case, this means that while the September WASDE offered some much-needed and much-desired updates, markets are now focused on that etern...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported this morning that August’s rate of inflation was 0.4 percent, holding steady at 3.4 percent for the year. That matched analysts’ pre-report expectations and was even with July’s rate of 3.4 percent. For the year, food was up 2.7 pe...
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.