Tuesday 20 November 2012

Sugar Cane. Barley, Soybeans & Rice snapshot

Sugar Snapshot

Barley Snapshot

Barley serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods. It is used in soups and stews, and in barley bread of various cultures.


The barley fertilizer usage is in the approximate order of  5-2-1 N-P2O5-K2O, and is less than five percent of the global fertilizer consumption.

Soybeans Snapshot

Soybeans provide oil and protein, and appear in a large variety of processed foods. Soybeans were a crucial crop in eastern Asia long before written records, and were first introduced to Europe in the early 18th century, but they did not became an important crop outside of Asia until about 1910.
Soybeans use some 3-7% of the nutrients applied to agriculture. Very roughly, in the latest years, rice received about 1% of the nitrogen fertilizer applied to crops, 2-8% of the phosphate fertilizer, and a similar percentage of potassium fertilizer.

Soybeans are one of the “biotech food” crops that have been genetically modified, and genetically modified soybeans are being used in an increasing number of products. The number of genetically modified soybeans cultivated for the commercial market in the United States grow from some 8% of all soybeans in 1997 to 93% last year.
Soybeans are a 40-50 billion US$ market, ranking in 2008 in the eight place among the agricultural commodities by value. About a third of its production is traded to others countries, being the main producer and exporter the USA, followed both in production and exports by Brazil and Argentina.

Rice Snapshot

As a cereal grain, rice is the most important staple food for a large part of the world’s population, especially in East and South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies. It is the grain with the second-highest global production, after maize. Rice uses about 15% of the nutrients applied to agriculture. Very roughly, in the latest years, rice received some 15-16% of the nitrogen fertilizer applied to crops, 12-13% of the phosphate fertilizer, and 13-14% of potassium fertilizer.

In the last forty years rice production has more than doubled. In addition, a 2010 study found that, as a result of rising temperatures and decreasing solar radiation during the later years of the 20th century, the rice yield growth rate has decreased in many parts of Asia, compared to what would have been observed had the temperature and solar radiation trends not occurred. The yield growth rate had fallen 10-20% at some locations. The study was based on records from 227 farms in Thailand, Vietnam, India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

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