Summary of newspapers of the previous day – 12. 08. 2008

Czech agriculture is on European top, however, it does not attract young people

This year´s harvest means for Czech farmers higher earnings not only thanks to big harvest but also generally higher buy-out prices. A successful season could help farmers to overcome some problems which worries the Czech agriculture already for a long time. In last five years the branch came through a significant transformation, although according to specialists all Czech agriculture belongs in frame of Central-Bohemian region to the top, it does not attract young Czech people. The president of Agrarian Chamber Jan Veleba warned against a crisis some time ago which threatens Czech agriculture due to a lack of young people in the branch.

Demand for milk products increases

According to the newest prognosis of American Ministry of Agriculture the global milk production should increase by 2,1 % this year. The biggest increase in production is expected in India, China, the USA, Brazil and Argentina. LPD – After an intense rise in prices of milk products in Germany last year thanks to unsaturated global market a fall follows again for the present, however, in the world-wide scale a tendency of high supply and demand persists. Despite the fact according to the newest prognoses of American Ministry of Agriculture the global milk production should increase by 2,1 % this year compared to the last one.

Modified corn is cheaper, farmers exult

Not only hectare yields higher by about a fifth but also a substantial reduction of production costs. Such is growing of genetically modified (GMO) corn in practice. It is grown in the CR on acreage five thousand hectares and areas sown with GMO corn multiply annually in the CR. “In GMO corn production I see a way to cheapen and at the same improve the quality of our production”, a main agronomist of ZD Mořina Štěpán Čížek introduces. According to his data the cooperative grows this plant on area 500 hectares and it is the biggest producer of modified corn in the Czech Republic.

Farmers have harvested already 70 pct

Farmers have already harvested cereals from more than two thirds of fields. An average yields is meantime by about fifth higher against the last year. It results from statistics which were published on internet sites by the Ministry of Agriculture. Yields increased year-on-year despite the fact that this year´s harvest owing to unfavourable weather had roughly three-week delay and in some regions cereals was damaged by heavy rains and storms. Moreover, the areas under basic cereals according to the Czech Statistic Office compared to the last year were smaller by 21 000 hectares. Till this time farmers have harvested cereals from 994 402 hectares; from the total harvest area of fields 1,435 million hectares.