The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which is established in permafrost condition inside a mountain on a remote Norwegian island, is designed to store duplicates of seeds from seed collections around the globe. It will help to ensure that the genetic diversity of the world's food crops is preserved for future generations and is an important [...]
Mr. Trevor Sargent T.D. Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food today launched an official deposit of Irish agriculture seeds to the recently opened Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. The Irish deposit consists of some of the most important seeds in the reference collections of Teagasc and the Department of [...]
Whatever happened to the slogan 'Buy Irish', Guaranteed Irish and do we ever stop to think how our buys in New York,Paris or UK might affect our own local economy? The same applies to trips to the North for cheap goods while our home towns and villages suffer from lack of customers. We are all [...]
DETECTION OF POTATO BROWN ROT IN WATER SAMPLES TAKEN AT MERCHANTS' PREMISES
As part of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's ongoing testing survey for potato brown rot disease, the Department has recently detected brown rot in water samples taken at two potato merchants' premises.
Brown Rot is caused by the bacterium Ralstonia solanacearumand results in [...]
The Irish Farmers' Association has again criticised the leading supermarkets over food prices – this time over the cost of potatoes, accusing large stores of paying farmers only 20% of the retail price.
However supermarkets say farmers should not ignore the costs of running large stores.
For the past few weeks the IFA has carried out a [...]
Supermarket chains have been accused of driving potato farmers out of the business because they are underpaying them for their produce.
The Irish Farmers Association claimed some growers are getting only a fifth of the retail price for their crop.
As the farming union staged a protest in Dublin over the prices producers are receiving from supermarkets, [...]
SOME PEOPLE MAY wonder why the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is visiting Africa at a time when questions keep popping up about his inability to get a tax clearance certificate from the Irish Revenue authorities. The answer may rest in the fact that 2008 is the International Year of the Potato. And what better way [...]
This extravagant wastefulness of oil has brought us to something approaching a crunch point. Since the American invasion of Iraq, oil prices have soared, hovering around the $100 a barrel level instead of the previous $30 benchmark. Everything that relied on cheap oil has now begun to feel the pinch. The competition for resources has [...]
The agriculture and food sector has a crucial role to play in sustaining economic growth and in ensuring more balanced regional development, according to a new report published by Agri Aware.
In the report, economist Jim Power criticises the 'self-appointed champions of the consumer' who propagate the view that consumers should buy food at the lowest [...]
A leading Teagasc scientist has slammed the Government's failure to support the use of new genetically modified (GM) cereals in animal feeds.
Professor Jimmy Burke, who is head of the Crops Research Centre at Oak Park, claimed that the Government's stance on GM crop varieties was undermining the viability of whole sectors within Irish [...]
