Agriculture TNT

Will farmers be driving Ferraris in ten years? That’s what Jim Rogers, the immortal billionaire investor who founded the Quantum fund, thinks. We’ll have to wait and see if that turns out to be true, but his sentiment is based upon a few key factors that continue to put upward pressure on the prices of agricultural goods.

3 Factors That Could Effect Agriculture Stock Prices

1.) Emerging Market Demand

Emerging-market economies like China and India are growing by leaps and bounds, enriching the citizens of those countries and creating more demand for higher-end food products. But due to a combination of rolling demand and massive populations, these countries lack the infrastructure and production capacities to satisfy that ‘hunger’. China, for example, is home to 22% of the world’s population but just 7% of its arable land. So in order to fill the gap, these countries will need to enlarge their imports, which stand to be a boon for long-term gains in the agriculture stocks industry.

2.) Inflation Hedge

With the Dollar collapsing at a fast pace, investors continue to flock to companies that trade in ‘hard assets’, and the agricultural stocks complex definitely qualifies. Although corn, beans and wheat are down sharply from last year, prices have recently begun to rebound and move higher. Hard assets are currency neutral and will continue to be a great investment destination for anyone alarmed about the ruining of paper currencies.

3.) Global Weather Volatility

Farmers live in a shaky world. One season, they spend months praying for rain to nourish their crop; then in the next season, the crop gets wiped out because of too much rain. Just this summer, sugar prices soared to a new 28-year high after a drought killed production in India. Ag producers need just the right balance of rain, sunshine and nutrients to produce the desired yield, something that consistently effects production and, in turn, prices.

Now that we have a essential understanding of the underlying essentials affecting prices and consumption in agriculture, let’s go ahead and take a look at some companies that appear to be well positioned to profit from the trend.

4 Agriculture Stocks

The Anderson’s, Inc. (ANDE – Analyst Report) is an agriculture producer and transporter in the U.S. The company’s share price took a hit last year but has since bounced back nicely as the economy and its estimates have recovered. With the current-year Zacks Consensus Estimate pegged at $2.22, this Zacks #1 Rank stock offers some value with a P/E of 15X. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for agriculture stocks next year is bullish, projecting 27% earnings growth for this agriculture stock.

China Green Agriculture, Inc. (CGA – Snapshot Report) operates as a fertilizer producer out of China. Shares posted big gains this year as China’s economy has remained hot (recently reporting GDP growth of 8.9%). Next year’s agriculture stocks growth projection for the company is a bullish 57%.

Zhongpin Inc. (HOGS) has posted huge agriculture stocks gains in 2009, with its share price more than doubling after bottoming out just above $7 in early March. The Chinese-based agriculture producer and Zacks #1 Rank stock offers big value in a very bullish environment, trading at just 10X projected current-year earnings, with a solid 18% next-year growth projection to boot.

Deere Co. (DE – Analyst Report) builds and manufactures farming machines and equipment. Farmers will be seeking to upgrade their equipment if they’re raking in big bucks, and that will provide shares of DE with a very nice boost. As it stands, the company’s share price is down from its peak in early 2008, but has begun to rebound on a nice earnings beat last quarter and rising agriculture stocks estimates.

Agriculture Stocks Conclusion

When you take a composite view of the agricultural stocks landscape, it’s easy to see that there are a number of macro-level trends that could produce long-term growth prospects. It’s a great way to round out your portfolio and give you a chance to outperform the averages over the long haul.

Australia is a main agricultural producer, and because of to its vast measurement and varying climates, there are many various primary industries, ranging from livestock, cropping and the fishing industry. As nicely as the work and income created from these industries there is also the numerous companies that are supported by agriculture in the provide of necessary devices, such as tractors, ploughs, fencing tools, fishing boats, shearing gear, bird netting, fertilisers and milking machines. Agriculture also impacts other industries, these as transport and the meals and garments industries.

Dairy/p>

The dairy business is one of Australia’s major rural industries. It is estimated that around forty,000 people are employed on dairy farms and in production crops. Work are more produced in transport and distribution, and research and growth tasks. It is a well established market located in the temperate and some subtropical locations of Australia. The bulk of dairy farms are located in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and are accountable for the provide of milk that goes into the manufacture of many distinct dairy goods these kinds of as butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, powdered milk, ice cream, as nicely as the milk we consume.

Beef

One more major agricultural market in Australia the beef sector is very varied, ranging from scaled-down farms in the south-east of Australia wherever there are higher stocking rates per acre because of to a higher rainfall and more fertile soils, to the significant scale cattle stations covering hundreds of hundreds of acres. The extremely very first beef cattle arrived in 1788 with the very first European Settlers, a total of only 6 head of cattle. This figure has escalated to more than 20 million head nowadays. Beef has grow to be one of Australia’s profitable export industries, with above sixty% heading overseas.

Crops

The primary crops in Australia include wheat, vegetables, fruit, cotton, sugarcane, barley, canola, oats and rice. Wheat is the most significant grain crop in Australia and about eighty% of it is exported, which tends to make Australia the fourth most significant exporter following the United States, Canada and the European Union. There are about 25,000 farms in Australia that grow wheat as their major crop. It is milled into flour and used in a diverse range of food goods.

Wool

With Australia’s relatively mild climate it is suited to sheep and the manufacturing of wool. Wool growing qualities are discovered in the north of Queensland, proper by means of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, about to the mid-north of Western Australia, as nicely as in Tasmania. Flocks variety in numbers from a number of hundred to as many as one hundred,000 or more. There are a variety of breeds identified in Australia these days with different sheep getting utilized for meat and other people becoming wool producers, although it is the Australian Merino that has had an overpowering influence on the Australian wool sector. Merinos have very hefty fleeces that make a good, high high quality wool, a good deal of which is exported. At present there are about 72 million sheep in Australia.

Seafood

Because of Australia’s geographical isolation from other continents and its array of climatic zones, the variety and cleanliness of marine life is exceptional, meaning Australia can export a broad variety of seafood to the rest of the world. The fishing market is the fifth most rewarding in Australia after beef, wool, wheat and dairy. Australia is also the world’s greatest producer of abalone and rock lobster.
fiber optic tools

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation global food prices have risen by an average of 83% overall in the last decade.

That’s just one statistic from this week’s crop of news reports on climate change, global warming and food production.

Here’s another: global greenhouse gas emissions since the 1850s would have been a third greater without the 1960s Green Revolution, according to the researchers in the US.

Neither of these findings is likely to bring much comfort to the millions of people currently struggling with the effects of this year’s unprecedented rainfall in Pakistan and China, which has displaced at least 20 million people in the two countries, flooded out of their homes, their work and all they own, including crops, seeds and livestock.

Nor will it be of comfort to the Russians, facing their hottest ever summer, with wild fires circling Moscow and risking the loss of at least a third, possibly more, of the country’s wheat crop – due for harvest in September and October but already triggering price speculation on the commodities markets because Russia is the world’s third largest supplier of wheat.

In addition 16 countries have recorded record temperatures this year (2010) and there are severe droughts, leading to starvation in Niger and parts of the Sahel region of Africa.

At the same time US researchers have also found that rice yields are declining in the six main Asian rice producing countries, which they ascribe to global warming and the resulting rise in night-time temperatures. Yields have dropped between 10% and 20% over the last 25 years in some places.

In the face of all this it is hard to tolerate the persistent wrangling between countries in the ongoing discussions ahead of the next meeting in Cancun, Mexico, due in November. Following the disappointing outcome of the last summit in Copenhagen, it’s now being said that the talks have in fact gone backwards.

Even without the mounting evidence of the devastating effects of climate change on weather patterns, and by extension agricultural production, a vast increase in food production is going to be needed to supply the projected global population growth and make some inroads into the scandal that a billion people on the planet are malnourished if not starving.

So what happened in the last “green” revolution and what chance is there of another one?

The 1960s green revolution increased crop yields and cut hunger dramatically in places like South Asia and Latin America by putting more land into cultivation and by using higher yielding varieties of rice, maize and other crops. The result for India, for example, was transformation from a food importer in need of emergency help from time to time to a major food exporter.

Twice as much land as is currently used would have been needed to feed the growing global population at current levels, according to the US researchers. The green revolution used a combination of intensive farming techniques and chemical fertilisers as well as the higher-yield varieties to avoid that.

However, as we now know, there were longer term implications to this method of farming – in the effects of chemical fertilisers on the soil, the environment, insects, plants, animals and sometimes human health.

Lessons have been learned and at least the language has changed. The talk now is all about sustainable farming, natural, healthier foods and a new range of low-chem agricultural products, including biopesticides, biofungicides and yield enhancers, coming from the Biopesticides Researchers that do less harm to the land.

These low-chem products are only part of the mix. There is also the technique of genetic modification although there are many people who are very wary of the unknown pandora’s box this might open.

Changing diet patterns towards eating more meat as the BRIC countries become more prosperous and develop a larger, urban middle class are another factor. Meat production is generally regarded as an inefficient use of land and water, so persuading people to eat less of it, while it would have an effect on the emission of greenhouse gases, might be a tall order in some parts of the world.

Plainly there’s a limited amount of land available for agricultural expansion, not to mention the production of biofuels. Increasingly extreme weather won’t help.

In addition therefore reaching global agreement on efforts to curb emissions in a way that is accepted as fair by all countries is another key to achieving some kind of sense on global warming, climate change and food production. It’s to be hoped that the pessimistic predictions for Mexico in November prove not to be true, since all our futures depend on it.

Copyright (c) 2010 Alison Withers

Low carbon economic is an economic model which based on low energy consumption, low discharge. Develop low-carbon economic is the requirement of deal with the relationship of economic develop and environment protection and achieve the sustainable development.

From the present, the research view of low-carbon economic development is main focus on industrialization and urbanization and focus on solve the environment problem which aroused by industry high discharge and high energy consumption, while to the basic industry of national economy, that is the urgency and importance of low-carbon economic is not enough. Low-carbon Agriculture is the ecological civilization road of agriculture development, the main characteristic is to reduce agricultures rely to fossil energy and go a new road of organic, ecological and efficient agriculture. To be accompanied by the development of chemical agriculture, petroleum agriculture, mechanical agriculture and the improvement of peoples life style, the energy consumption of agriculture and country increase rapidly, agriculture has become the important greenhouse gases resource. Under this background how to change agriculture developing way and how to walk a road of low-carbon should be an important task.

Change agriculture producing way. We should change the agriculture of chemical, high input, high energy consumption, low-efficiency which labels are chemical fertilizer, chemical pesticide and propagation growth regular to the agriculture of organize, ecological, low-input, low energy consumption and high-efficiency which mainly adopt organic fertilizer, biopesticide and adopt free service which supplied by natural eco-system. Form low-carbon agriculture producing method and technology structure system which traditional farming technology, cultivation method and modern science and technology combination, so we can reduce the manual work input in agriculture producing procedure, at the same time reduce the Agriculture production cost, can effective eliminate the destroy to biological diversity.

Develop organic farming. Organic agriculture is produced in accordance with the standards of organic agriculture as a mode of agricultural production. That is not used in the production process of organic synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and feed additives and other substances, do not use genetically modified organisms and their products obtained. Agriculture, organic farming emphasizes that all measures should follow the laws of nature, matter and energy recycling; protection of genetic diversity in agricultural systems, emphasizing the focus on social, economic and ecological environment of harmony, efficiency, sustainable development, stress can produce a natural, high nutrition organic food. Through with a series of sustainable developing agriculture technology, it can coordinate the relationship between farming and animal husbandry, promote ecological balance, biodiversity and sustainable use of resources and so on.

Develop ecological agriculture. Currently, most developed countries in the world to encourage the development of eco-agriculture-specific policies. Some experts predict that ecological Agriculture will become the mainstream of world agriculture and development. At present, some kinds of ecological agriculture model have been explored and a technical team of ecological agriculture has been established.

Develop pollution free agriculture. Pollution free agriculture contains two aspects: one is less application of pesticides, fertilizers, and other solid contaminants. Another is produce agriculture products with less harmful substance. Pollution-free agriculture is the essence of environmental protection and rational use of resources, to achieve the purpose of reduce pollution, input and increase output to achieve the sustainable development of agriculture.

Financial aid will come in some types and grant is probably the varieties it is possible to discover and money for college is provided by different companies and industries which will help other individuals or organizations to survive and help them to have a better life and in addition there are USDA Sustainable Agriculture grants offered. The grants are often granted by state and federal government departments to people, business and organizations and so the agriculture market may be sophisticated. The financing is going to be given by the give applications and also the funds will most likely be utilized for herb generation, instructional analysis, plant disease control and prevention of food items threats and there are a few dependable grants that must be identified on your part.

Whenever we focus on USDA Sustainable Agriculture grants, there are grants for pupils, farmers, researchers and agricultural teachers which can be found by Sustainable Agriculture Analysis Education and learning or SARE and also this is in association with NIFA. Demands proposals are authored by local divisions of SARE with diverse centers and the location is definitely the one particular deciding this; then, the grants for training and investigation is going to be granted by SARE as much as $150,000. However, the relevance for agricultural producers must be able to be demonstrated by the proposals and for more information, SARE has a website that you can visit and check out.

There is certainly yet another give program linked to the USDA Sustainable Agriculture grants like NIFA Fellowships Offer Program so that as you might have guessed, a fellowship program is supplied for predoctoral and postdoctoral individuals from the NIFA. The cash could then be utilised by the people forextension and research, or schooling however when speaking of the proposals, US gardening competitiveness, alternative biofuels, youth obesity, and food items basic safety should be dealt with from the proposals. To be eligible, the study proposals for applied or essential research tasks can be presented with the candidates along with the grant can easily be applied for from the individuals via NIFA.

The next among the reliable USDA Sustainable Government Grants News is Area of expertise Crop Research Initiative or SCRI as well as the grants are given by NIFA and USDA with the SCRI. The initiative came to be by the USDA in this article so that the extension research and activities may be supported along with the concerns in the agricultural industry can be resolved, also. Vegetation disease, breeding and pest troubles, foods danger prevention and programs enhancing the efficiency of gardening production must be integrated with the eligible tasks. The qualifications is expanded to federal colleges, universities and agenciescolleges, individuals and corporations research institutions and countrywide laboratories.

Another grant that need to be recognized by you is Importance-Extra Maker Grants (VAPG) subsidized by the USDAs section of Countryside Development and also the grants here are accessible to class gardening producers, farm cooperatives, maker companies, and impartial manufacturers. The honors can be used for the creation of advertising plans, enterprise planning and feasibility reports. However, the applicants must be considered eligible by obtaining matching funds, at least equal to the amount of the grant award and the grant funds cannot be used just for equipment renting, building construction, or existing facilities reparation.

There are more USDA Sustainable Agriculture grants that can be discovered by you if you look for them. You can just check out the websites available if you want to get the details about the grants mentioned here. You can simply contact them to ask further if you feel lack of information.

http://www.governmentgrantsnews.com/
http://www.governmentgrantsnews.com/how-to-find-grants-for-hydroponic-farming.php