Tag Archives: alternative
Nigeria: Can Bamboo Address Deforestation and Erosion in Nigeria?
BY ALEX ABUTU, 21 AUGUST 2013 Every year, according to statistics from the Centre for International Forestry Research, Africa loses forest cover equal to the size of Switzerland and Nigeria alone is estimated to lose about 350,000 – 4000,000 ha of its forest reserve annually and this is regarded as one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. As the trees across the country vanish, the land dries; the soil erodes and becomes barren leading to low agricultural yield, alarming desert encroachment, desertification and uncontrollable erosion. Experts at a recent meeting on the state of the nation’s forest identified firewood and charcoal as the leading drivers of deforestation but the country lacked alternatives to firewood and charcoal which have become the energy sources for middle class and low income Nigerians especially those in the rural areas. A lot of propositions have been advanced as options government should consider in addressing the drivers of deforestation and this include the need to articulate policy framework that address the out-dated forest laws in operations in the country, better mechanism for the implementation/enforcement of best forest management practices, reduce firewood and charcoal consumption and forest tenure system for local communities. However, Mr Badru Ola Muyideen of the forest department of the Federal Ministry of Environment is of the view that the introduction and massive cultivation of bamboo remained Nigeria’s best option to reduce deforestation, address desertification as well as cushion the impact of climate change on Nigeria. According to him, bamboo can serve as firewood and can be burnt as charcoal. “This way we don’t have to cut down trees which take forever to grow but we can harvest bamboo yearly and use it as we want.” Bamboo is a common plant which the country is currently not exploiting in the quest to address the mirage of environmental challenges confronting the country. Bamboo is a tribe of flowering perennial evergreen plant in the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. In bamboos, the internodal regions of the stem are hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross section are scattered throughout the stem instead of in a cylindrical arrangement. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, even of palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering. Bamboos are some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Sun-Saharan Africa, being used for building materials, as a food source, and as a versatile raw product. Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, with reported growth rates of 100 cm (39 in) in 24 hours. However, the growth rate is dependent on local soil and climatic conditions, as well as species, and a more typical growth rate for many commonly cultivated bamboos in temperate climates is in the range of 3-10 centimetres per day during the growing period. Some of the largest timber bamboo can grow over 30 m (98 ft) tall, and be as large as 15-20 cm in diameter. However, the size range for mature bamboo is species dependent, with the smallest bamboos reaching only several inches high at maturity. A typical height range that would cover many of the common bamboos grown in the United States is 15-40 feet, depending on species. Bamboo is a kind of grass which explains the speed of growth. This means that there’s lots of it, and when it’s harvested it grows itself back again quickly enough not to leave a dent in the eco-system. Unlike all trees, individual bamboo stems, or culms, emerge from the ground at their full diameter and grow to their full height in a single growing season of three to four months. During these several months, each new shoot grows vertically into a culm with no branching out until the majority of the mature height is reached. Here in Nigeria conscious effort have not been paid to the importance or relevance of bamboo in addressing erosion, desertification nor deforestation. Nigerians still rely heavily on hardwood as source of energy and this according to medical experts is dangerous. It is a women and children’s job to collect firewood and as the demand increases so they have to walk farther distances to find. Most of the firewood cooking is done indoors resulting in air pollution which kills over a million Nigerian women and children annually according to the Bureau of Statistics. Dr Samuel Ike, conservationist said that Nigeria can solve most of the environmental challenges it is facing with the introduction of bamboo into the affroestation programme. “You cut down a hard tree and it takes decades to grow back but cut down a bamboo and before you know it has grown back. Unlike hardwood, bamboo is renewable and regrows after harvesting just as grass regrows after cutting,” he said. According to him, the bamboo roots have the potentials to grab onto the soil and hold it fast, “plant bamboo on a steep slope or riverbank and it prevents mudslides and erosion.” “This is the plant needed for the afforestation programme and even the Great Green Wall project where millions of trees are expected to be planted. A meeting of stakeholders on sustainable development of bamboo and rattan in Nigeria recently urged the federal government to implement a Food and Agriculture Organisation’s recommendation that each country set aside 25 per cent of its total land mass for forest conservation through the establishment of bamboo plantations. According to the stakeholders, such development would ensure that all relevant research institutes in the country work on how the country would benefit maximally from the plant. As the nation move to address flood, erosion and other environmental challenges, the inclusion of bamboo in the aforestation programme would go a long way in saving the soil and provide jobs and incomes for rural dwellers. Continue reading
Analysis – Lower Crop Prices A Pain For Deere, But Farmers Are Fine
http://s1.reutersmed…r=CBRE97E0YUC00 By James B. Kelleher CHICAGO | Thu Aug 15, 2013 1:32pm BST (Reuters) – Wall Street’s frosty reaction on Wednesday to Deere & Co’s ( DE.N ) latest quarterly earnings is no surprise given the recent sharp drop in agricultural commodity prices. Farmers buy fewer tractors and harvesters when corn and soybean prices are down. But the dramatic drops in corn and other prices over the past year are not causing a lot of pain on the farms. At least not yet. With income at records highs, farmland fetching top dollar and balance sheets strong, a drop in grain prices in the face of another record crop is hardly a sign of doom for growers. Lower prices are generating a lot of uncertainty around Deere, however. For the world’s largest maker of tractors and harvesters, as goes the price of corn, so too goes the price of the company’s shares. Deere prefers to talk about the correlation between farm cash receipts and the sales of its distinctive green and yellow equipment. And it is true that the two move up and down in tandem. But the correlation between its stock price and the price of corn on the Chicago Board of Trade is pretty high, too. That is why the last few years have been so good to Deere: Both corn prices and farm income were on a tear. For decades, corn prices hovered between $2 (£1.29) and $3 (£1.93) a bushel, but they surged as high as $8.49 a bushel during last summer’s drought. Supplies were tight, even as demand from China and other emerging markets increased along with rising corn-based ethanol use in the United States. Net farm income has doubled over the past five years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. Surging corn prices and rising production have been big factors. Farm balance sheets are strong, too. Net farm assets have risen by nearly $700 billion since 2009, according to the USDA, while net debt has gone up by just $40 billion. That is why the last few years have been so good to the top and bottom lines at Deere and its rivals in the farm equipment space, including Agco Corp ( AGCO.N ) and CNH Global NV CNH.N. Between 2009 and 2012, Deere’s farm machinery sales grew 60 percent and its diluted earnings per share jumped 270 percent. Deere continues to benefit from flush farmers. In the results released on Wednesday, Deere said its profit jumped nearly 30 percent, even though sales were only up 4 percent. The company, in a nutshell, was able to sock it to farmers price wise. But the company’s shares, which have underperformed the broader market all year long, fell as much as 3 percent following Wednesday’s report. The disconnect is all about expectations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday forecast a record corn harvest in 2013, which pushed the price down to $4.55 a bushel, near a three-year low. Now farmers – notoriously conservative – are widely expected to cut back on spending for equipment and acreage, which have also spiked in recent years. No one is expecting a catastrophic decline in the purchase of tractors, combines and other farm implements. Deere believes farmers’ cash receipts will fall 4 percent next year after a sharper 8 percent decline this year. Why would a 50 percent drop in corn prices result in a much more modest hit for farmers? Well, cash receipts are a function of both quantity and price. Corn was a lot more expensive last year, but the drought cut into yields. What’s more, farm income can include all kinds of non-crop revenue such as government payments, and crop and revenue insurance. Farmers also have lots of storage capacity, so they do not have to sell at current prices. They can store their grain instead. Add it up. Lower expected farm receipts + lower corn prices = double trouble for Deere shareholders. That is why many analysts who cover Deere, including Adam Fleck at Morningstar, expect the next few years to be tough for the company. “We’re a far cry from the farm crisis of the 1970s and 1980s,” said Fleck. “But the cold hard fact is farmers can always run a tractor one more year.” Lower corn and soybean prices, combined with the possibility of lower farmland values and higher interest rates, are coming together in a bad way for equipment manufacturers already facing several years of really difficult comparisons. Unlike farmers, Deere does not have a bin where it can store unsold farm equipment. It can’t stockpile tractors and combines and wait for the farmers to return. Deere, and perhaps its stockholders, might just have to tough this one out. (Additional reporting by Gavin Maguire.; Editing by David Greising and Andre Grenon) Continue reading
Chinese Fragrance More Precious Than Gold
By Wang Jie ( Shanghai Daily ) 08:12, August 19, 2013 Many rich Chinese are buying luxury brands of famous designer perfumes, but the ultimate luxury fragrance — one far costly than gold — is agarwood or chen xiang (沉香), an ancient Oriental fragrance. Increasingly Chinese are rediscovering their appreciation for agarwood, which played a role as incense and oil in religious rituals throughout Asia and the Middle East. The deeply aromatic fragrance is considered an aid to meditation and was very popular in ancient China. Pieces of natural wood and fragrant carvings are sought by collectors. Incense and essential oil are precious. Whenever it is burned, heated or simply placed at room temperature, it gives off a pleasant aroma — from subtle to intense. What could be more luxurious than simply burning a piece of high-quality chen xiang that costs 10,000 yuan (US$1,629) per gram of highest quality and savoring the fragrance. And then it’s gone, up in smoke. But worth it, many people say. Arguably the most costly fragrance in the world is complex, layered and difficult to describe. It is sweet, rich and deep but balanced. It’s also called earthy, smoky and sweet — deeply pleasing. For most people, chen xiang (literally “wood with mellow fragrance”) is just a piece of rotten wood. It literally is rotten. Agarwood is a dark resinous heartwood that forms in aquilaria and gyrinops trees when they become infected with a particular fungus. Before infection, the heartwood is relative pale in color, but the tree produces a dark aromatic resin in response to the attack. It is this resinous wood that is valued in many cultures. The trees are large evergreens native to Southeast Asia, but most have been cut down and now trees are commercially raised and infected with fungus in a long process. The best and most expensive chen xiang is natural and old, and some areas produce better wood than others. Although commercial agarwood has an alluring fragrance, there’s nothing like the real thing. The cost is so high because trees in nature are scarce, and the commercial farming and processing is costly. Throughout the region, locals hunt for old wood and may happen upon buried pieces that they treat like gold. Trees grow in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and India. Only very small amount is produced. For chen xiang collector Wang Yinan, this is the ultimate luxury, without parallel. “The reason is clear. If you buy a house, antique or jewelry, they remain as concrete items,” he says. “But chen xiang is different. It is burned for its fragrance, the fleeting moment of enjoyment. Nothing is left, but the fragrance, the temporary fragrance. Isn’t this the most luxurious thing on the world?” Wang, a famous TV host, is director of the National Chen Xiang Research Association. In ancient times, chen xiang could only be appreciated by imperial families and high-ranking nobles. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a tonic, diuretic, stimulant and aphrodisiac. It was used to treat heart pain, stomach pain, fatigue, stress and anxiety. Today the price of a piece of high-quality chen xiang can reach several million yuan. At 10,000 yuan per gram, it is 35 times the price of gold which now costs 260 yuan per gram. Some is carved into artwork. As such, it’s coveted. “I always say that if you want to start collecting something, the best way is to study and learn,” Wang says. “Today the antiques field is chaotic, filled with traps and fakes and chen xiang is no exception — even worse. I would say that 90 percent of the chen xiang in the market is faked or artificially/commercially produced.” An educated nose is the best guide to authenticity, Wang says. “Because there is no physical way to judge the authenticity of real chen xiang, the only reliable tool is your nose,” he says. “I’m not opposed to commercially produced chen xiang, but the fragrance is a thousand miles away from original one, which could only be distinguished by the nose.” Wang once visited Vietnam to see how chen xiang is discovered. “It was a magical journey. Locals searched along the river and suddenly they spotted something in the mid. After washing and cleaning, it turned out to be chen xiang, an ordinary-looking piece of wood or enormous value,” he recalls. “I am enamored of chen xiang not only because of its profound fragrance but also because the fragrance envelops everyone, rich and poor, and it lingers. But when it’s burned, it’s gone, it’s a memory,” Wang says. Continue reading
