Aid Overhaul Former USAID administrator Brian Atwood, who now leads the OECD's umbrella Development Assistance Committee, says that 30 percent of the world's annual $130 billion in foreign aid may be wasted. He called for cash aid in lieu of commodities, an end to the Jones Act, ethanol, subsidies for crop production and improved coordination by donors. Edward Clay of the Overseas Development Institute says that renegotiation of the Food Aid Convention should be completed soon. Most food aid is committed to emergencies, and cash-based aid has increased as a methodology, but overall donor support for food aid has declined. (e.g. Presumably, the loss of direct income benefit from commodity aid causes a drop in public support for cash aid f...
What You Need to Know Today: Declining crop conditions ratings and shaky results from the Pro Farmer crop tour sent grains sharply higher on Tuesday. The Pro Farmer tour in Ohio pegged the state yield at 180.18 BPA, about 5.5 BPA below the tour’s 2025 estimate. Similarly, the Pro Farmer...
Based on a Depression-era statute, President Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion of exports to the U.S., or about 5.2 percent of the $383 billion worth of goods the U.S. imported from Canada in 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Of that total, about $39.3 billion was agricu...
Key Takeaways: Brazil’s growing role in global agriculture is accompanied by a major vulnerability: the country imports approximately 88 percent of its fertilizer needs. High natural gas costs and development challenges have limited domestic nitrogen and potash production despite Brazil&...
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.