GOI has issued a new seed price control order, effective March 2016, which aims to fix the sale price of cotton seed (with GM technology) as well as control the licensing fee. This is not limited to cotton, although that is currently the only GM crop in India. Vegetable Oil Prices Crash High rapeseed/mustard oil prices affected demand over the past few months, especially during the festival season in November 2015 through early December. That led consumers to use other oils, and the rapeseed/mustard oil prices have since been following a downward trend. The new rapeseed/mustard crop is expected in February/March 2016, and that will keep prices down despite its smaller planted area and the reduction in other oilseed plantings. In addition...
Congress is moving forward with its FY 2027 spending bills, while also still working to address FY 2026 funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is still in a shutdown. The House Agriculture-FDA Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and passed its FY 2027 bill. The House bill prov...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Tunisian researchers have been able to fully sequence the genomes of two local durum wheat types that have been grown in Tunisia for generations. They say that this “could be the key to developing more climate-resistant duru...
Update for 6 April 2025: Last year, users pointed out differences between the 5-year averages reported in this app and what USDA estimates in its weekly report. The difference exists because WPI calculates average based on the last 5 years of observations for the current week. In cases where ob...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.