News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS A long article in the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Ahram this week pointed out that for most Egyptians, little or nothing has changed since the revolution. Those who were in the streets chanting "bread, bread, bread" back in 2011 are still crying for bread. According to Al Ahram, the slogan for the 2011 uprising was "bread, freedom, dignity"; and with "bread" the first word on that short list, you know how important it is. The price of the local baladi (village) flat bread has remained stable since the 1980s, but the government subsidy for bread, wheat and flour has steadily increased. Today it seems it is becoming more difficult to find a supply of subsidized bread, while the lines at bakeries get longer and lo...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Key Takeaways: Argentina is on pace for a record corn crop and record exports in the current marketing year, with abundant supplies likely to keep the country highly competitive in global export markets. Argentina’s record exportable surplus is allowing it to offer highly competitive pri...
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.