Consumer affairs SECY urges Brazil to grow pulses
Union consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh on Thursday emphasized the need for a partnership between India and Brazil for the import of pulses and urged businessmen and officials of Brazil to grow pulses, especially tur (pigeon pea) and urad (black gram) to cater to the demand of India’s 1.4 billion population amid falling production and growing demand.
Addressing a conference on “the future of India-Brazil relations in the agribusiness sector”, Singh said, “I, as consumer affairs secretary, need to ensure that food items are available in the country for our 1.4 billion consumers at an affordable price. There are two issues, affordability and availability, and both are interrelated. As we are predominantly a vegetarian country and as income levels are rising, the consumption of protein via pulses is also increasing.
Pro-nuclear sentiment ignites uranium opportunities
Energy-hungry industrialisation has been good for humanity, lifting vast swathes of humanity out of poverty. This process is still ongoing with developing economies also undergoing their own industrialisation and push for better living standards. As a result, electricity demand is expected to surge by 76 percent in 2050 relative to 2021.
But the world faces a crisis, as the use of cheap fossil fuels threatens disastrous consequences in the form of climate change. Fossil fuels currently supply about 85 percent of the world’s energy. The task, therefore, is to find a way to meet both the world’s current and future energy demands in ways that do not emit carbon.
India’s smaller rice crop paves way for prolonged export curbs
For the first time in eight years, India’s rice output is expected to drop this year, raising the prospect that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will extend curbs on exports of the grain to keep a lid on food prices ahead of elections.
Production in India, the world’s largest rice exporter, is under unusually intense focus after New Delhi banned exports of non-basmati white rice in July, sending global prices surging.
However, the state of the crop is hard to predict following an uneven monsoon. Output could fall as much as 8 percent from last year’s record despite an increase in area under paddy, according to various forecasts.
Saudi Arabia to continue voluntary 1 million bpd oil output cut for December
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia will continue with its voluntary oil output cut of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the year, an official source at the ministry of energy said on Sunday.
Based on the decision, Saudi Arabia’s production in December will be around 9 million bpd, the source said in a statement.
This additional voluntary cut comes to reinforce the precautionary efforts made by OPEC+ countries with the aim of supporting the stability and balance of oil markets, the source was quoted as saying in the statement.
Oil hit a 2023 high in September at near $98 a barrel for Brent crude, although it has since weakened to trade around $85 a barrel on Friday. Concerns about economic growth and demand have weighed on prices, despite support from the conflict in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia first made the voluntary cut for July as an addition to a broad supply-limiting deal first agreed by some members of OPEC+ in April.
Climate-smart cows’ could yield plenty more milk in Africa
Milk is an important source of protein for millions of people in Africa and it will be especially so in the face of a changing climate, which is threatening food security. Yet having far more cows is unsustainable and also bad for the climate.
A Solution lies in boosting the milk-producing capacity of climate-resilient native breeds.
A Team of animal scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is doing just that for subsistence farmers in Tanzania by creating a new breed of cows that produce up to 20 times the milk produced by indigenous breeds.
By Combining the milk-producing prowess of Holsteins and Jerseys with the heat-, drought-, and disease-resistance of indigenous cattle breed known as Gyrs, the scientists are seeking to create cattle capable of producing 10 liters of milk a day, well beyond the half-liter yield of indigenous cattle.
“High-yielding Girolandos (Holstein-Gyr crosses) are common in Brazil, but because of endemic diseases there, those cattle can’t be exported to most other countries,” says Matt Wheeler, a professor at the Department of Animal Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois who was an author of a new study.
India’s sugar producers hope for freedom to sell at high prices
Karnataka, one of the largest sugarcane growing States, is likely to see a near 30 percent decline in sugarcane production this season due to deficit rains. Its neighbouring State Maharashtra may have a 10-20 percent drop in cane production, again because of erratic rains, according to sugarcane growers’ associations.
China Oct iron ore imports fall on thinning margins, wider steel production cuts
China’s iron ore imports in October fell 1.8 percent from September, customs data showed on Tuesday, as narrowing steel margins, wider production cuts among steelmakers and high prices curbed buyers’ appetites.
The World’s top iron ore consumer brought in 99.39 million metric tons of the key steelmaking ingredient last month, down from 101.18 million tons imported in September, data from the country’s General Administration of Customs showed.
The Decline came as less than one-fifth of Chinese steel mills surveyed were operating at a profit by end-October, down from around one-third in late September, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.
The Capacity utilization rate among blast-furnace-based mills surveyed also dipped to 90.73 percent as of Oct. 27, down from 93.08 percent on Sept. 29, according to Mysteel data.
Still, the iron ore import volumes for October rose 4.6 percent from the same month a year earlier.