Virtual Orchard: shades of SimFarm

We're not sure if it comes with an option to sell out to a real estate developer, but a new video game - Orchard - simulates the tasks and management decisions players would have to complete if they operated a working orchard with a roadstand stand.

Players must dig in to salvage their grand-uncle Fred's orchard from its horrible state of disrepair, according to a release from the game's developer. By planting and harvesting crops, constructing useful buildings that increase capabilities, hiring and managing workers, and advertising to sell products, players can return the orchard to the thriving establishment that it once was.

Additionally, players can create 20 recipes from Blackberry Pie to Strawberry Fudge by utilizing the bounty of the orchard -- including strawberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, apples and more! Baked goods can also be sold to increase profits and increase the reputation of the Orchard, allowing players to win awards and increase their trophy collection.

Majesco Entertainment Company, an innovative provider of video games, said in the release that this is its first foray into the online PC gaming market. Orchard is now widely available for download. Developed by BoomZap and co-published with Gogii Games, the simulation tasks players to manage all aspects of a growing, working farm and roadside farm stand.

Orchard is rated E for Everyone, and is now available for online download from the following sites: Playfirst, Iwin, Arcadetown, Reflexive Entertainment/Amazon, Bigfish Games, Oberon Media, GameFools, and Shockwave and will soon be available from Wildtangent, RealArcade and Boonty. Players can download Orchard for a 1-hour free trial before purchasing the game from the above sites. For additional information about Majesco's exciting line of products, please visit www.majescoentertainment.com.

Shades of SimFarm, that 1990s farming simulator that let people buy their own AgCat.

Powerful sugar: Columbia's ethanol industry evolving quickly.

Colombia’s sugarcane-based ethanol industry, after operating for only 3 years, is the second most developed in the Western Hemisphere, according to a report from USDA. Brazil's, by the way, is number one.

"Most Colombian ethanol plants are energy self-sufficient and even generate surplus power that is sold to the national electric grid," according to a summary of the report. "Colombia’s sugarcane-based ethanol production is increasing: proposed expansion projects have the potential to more than triple daily production from 277,000 million gallons in 2007 to almost 1 million gallons in 2010.

Most of the expansion is aimed at supplying the exports market, principally to the United States. "However, it is unlikely that Colombia could export ethanol anytime soon because domestic production is insufficient to meet nationwide requirements that gasoline contain a 10-percent ethanol blend," according to the summary.

Chinese pork subsidies a possibility with new regs

The Chinese government is getting deeper into the nation's hog industry in an effort to stabilize prices on a meat that has become less of a luxury and more of an expected part of the country's diet.

New regulations - and potential actions the government could take, including subsidies - are based on grain-to-hot price ratios, according to an outline from AgFeed, a U.S.-based company that supplies feeds to Chinese hog producers. Other factors that would be taken into account include the number of slaughtered sows and monthly sow inventories.

Depending on the severity of any decreases in hog prices, the Chinese government would take one or more of these steps, according to an AgFeed press release:

• Publish hog price decline warnings.
• Purchase market hogs for its strategic reserve.
• Grant subsidies to farms.
• O, adjust pork imports and exports.

"In the event of a sever drop in hog prices, hog farms in the largest hog producing areas will receive a subsidy of $15 for each gestation sow and nationally designated hog breeding farms will receive a subsidy of $15 for each breeding boar," according to the release.

"Large pork consuming areas are encouraged to sign long-term supply agreements with large hog producing areas and to set up hog production plants in large hog producing areas," the release added. "In addition, hog farms are encouraged to negotiate long-term sales contracts with slaughter houses and wholesale markets to maintain hog price stability. In addition, the government plans to strengthen pork quality inspection to ensure feed safety and to address unreasonable government taxes and fees to hog raising, transportation, slaughtering and hog sales."

Extension Vacuum Coming?

Every state has a budget crisis this year to one degree or another, and belt tightening will likely affect the ability of Extension services to keep up with their clients’ needs.

One area agronomist in a Midsouth state – who also has responsibility for a minor crop statewide – said the other day that he was told that his entire budget for the rest of the fiscal year was essentially gone. “I was told not to drive anyplace,” he said.

A memo went out to people in the Louisiana rice industry to inform them that county agents in two prime rice parishes would not be immediately replaced, and people on the list were given the names and phone numbers for alternate contacts.

We’re hearing similar stories from other states. One Extension specialist who works in a crop that may gain acres said that he lacks the time and resources to work with all the farmers who've decided to either grow that crop for the first time or who are coming back to it after dropping it from their crop mixes several years ago.

"People with no experience want me to give them what amount to private short courses over the phone or in person, while growers who dropped the crop several year ago are asking for all kinds of information about what's changed since they last time they were involved with it," the consultant said while we were visiting at a meeting last fall. "We have limited resources now and more things on our plate as positions go unfilled. We're trying to direct people to our web resources, and in a lot of cases I'm strongly encouraging new or returning farmers to hire a crop consultant."

For agriculture, the next side effect from state budget shortfalls will likely be a push for increased taxes or fees on inputs, equipment, licenses and other direct or indirect operating costs.

For example: the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) warned its members in its e-letter this week that they can expect to see bills introduced in legislatures that address “fee and tax increases, budget cuts and government service reductions” on virtually every industry and profession, including the seed business.

“The future in the states will be interesting as history has proven that state legislatures can be very creative when their budget ‘backs’ are against the wall,” ASTA’s newsletter noted.

As as example, the report pointed to a push in New York’s legislature to create a seed license process that would assess 25 cents per $100 of a company’s gross annual volume sales of seed. If passed as it now stands, that would be among the highest such fee structure among states that charge that licensing fee, the report added.

While these kinds of fees aren’t directly charged to farmers, they get passed along to the field, in whole or part, by seed companies.

Soybeans For Afghanistan: California group making inroads in enhancing nation's nutrition

Afghanistan is gaining a taste for soybeans – both as a milk substitute and a flour supplement – thanks to a small California-based group, Nutrition and Education International (NEI). In November, NEI announced the opening of the fourth soymilk processing plant in the country. The organization also has been working with local bakeries to incorporate soy flour into traditional breads.

NEI’s long-term goal is to encourage Afghan farmers to grow soybeans to give the country a degree of self sufficiency in terms of protein. Technical help has come from the University of Southern Illinois in the effort to introduce soybean production to the country’s farmers and put together agronomic recommendations.

“Afghanistan seems to be falling off the radar of media coverage and global interest,” admits Steven Kwon, who launched NEI as a vehicle for improving nutritional health in the country. “However, this does not mean that life has drastically improved. Malnutrition remains a real and serious problem, and its effects are most evident in the health of women and children. Afghanistan still has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates – 1 in 50. Infant mortality is 1 in 7. For children under 5 years old, the mortality rate 1 in 4. Obviously, the country still needs help.”

Malnutrition is synonymous with protein deficiency, says Kwon, a native of Korea who worked 22 years for Nestle as a nutrition researcher before retiring as its Principal Nutrition Researcher in the U.S.

Since soy is a high-protein, cost-effective crop, NEI developed a soy nutrition initiative for the country in 2003. Soybeans were never grown by farmers in Afghanistan on any large scale before NEI introduced the crop, and NEI had to test the crop’s adaptability to Afghan soil and climate conditions in 2004 and 2005. Seed for the program were donated by Stine Seed Company in Adel, Iowa.

Successful results led the Afghan government to adopt NEI’s soy industry development program as a national project. Between 2006 and 2008, approximately 5,000 Afghan farmers in 15 provinces grew and harvested soybeans for the first time.

Those initial crops provided raw beans that could be processed for the introduction of soy into the Afghan diet. NEI initially launched a soymilk feeding program during 2005 in Badakshan, which Kwon describes as the poorest province in the nation. It has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, he noted.

A second facility opened in Herat province in 2006, in close-collaboration with the nation’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), then the third soymilk plant opened in Kabul’s Darulaman area last April. The fourth and most recent soymilk facility also opened in the Kabul area in November.

A soy flour plant also has been opened in Kabul, and a pilot program began distributing the product to area bakeries for incorporation into traditional naen bread. The naen bread produced in the program carries 10% soy flour and 10% wheat flour.

This year, NEI plans to establish a Soy Nutrition R&D Center at Kabul Medical University. “The idea is to promote soy nutrition among the general public and equip Afghan youth to eradicate malnutrition among their women and children.,” Kwon says.

About 80% of NEI’s funding has come from private donations and religious organizations in the U.S., Canada and Korea, according to one of Kwon’s associates.

A donation link can be found on NEI’s web site.