G7 pledges millions to help fight Amazon fires

Yahoo – AFP, 26 August 2019

Nearly 80,000 forest fires have been detected in Brazil since the beginning
of the year, a little over half in the Amazon region

The G7 has agreed to spend $20 million (18 million euros) on the Amazon, mainly to send fire-fighting aircraft to tackle huge blazes engulfing parts of the world's biggest rainforest, the presidents of France and Chile said Monday.

The G7 club -- comprising Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- also agreed to support a medium-term reforestation plan which will be unveiled at the UN in September, France's Emmanuel Macron and Chile's Sebastian Pinera said at a summit in southwest France.

Brazil would have to agree to any reforestation plan, as would indigenous communities living in the Amazon.

The initiative was announced after G7 leaders meeting in the resort of Biarritz held talks on the environment, focusing on the record number of fires destroying chunks of the Amazon.

Macron had declared the situation in the Amazon region an "international crisis" and made it one of the summit's priorities.

He has threatened to block a huge new trade deal between the EU and Latin America unless Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change sceptic, takes serious steps to protect the forest from logging and mining.

"We must respond to the call of the forest which is burning today in the Amazon," Macron said Monday.

Nearly 80,000 forest fires have been detected in Brazil since the beginning of the year, a little over half in the massive Amazon basin.

Bolsonaro has lashed out at Macron over his criticism and suggested that NGOs could be setting the fires to embarrass him -- without giving any evidence to back the claim.

But at the weekend he finally caved in to international pressure to save a region crucial for maintaining a stable global climate, deploying two aircraft to douse fires and authorising the army to help tackle the blazes.

Speaking in Biarritz, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said new planting was needed "to preserve this universal heritage, which is absolutely essential for the well-being of the world's population."

He said the issue would be discussed during the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

GRAPHIC: Amazon fires still active pic.twitter.com/qFDteP09Vs

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 26 augustus 2019

Brazil's army fights Amazon fires after hundreds of new blazes ignite

France24 – AFP, 25 August 2019

Porto Velho (Brazil) (AFP) - Brazil on Sunday deployed two Hercules C-130 aircraft to douse fires devouring parts of the Amazon rainforest, as hundreds of new blazes were ignited ahead of nationwide protests over the destruction.

Heavy smoke covered the city of Porto Velho in the northwestern state of Rondonia where the defense ministry said the planes have started dumping thousands of liters of water, amid a global uproar over the worst fires in years.

Swathes of the remote region bordering Bolivia have been scorched by the blazes, sending thick smoke billowing into the sky and increasing air pollution across the world's largest rainforest.

Experts say increased land clearing during the months-long dry season to make way for crops or grazing has aggravated the problem this year.

"It gets worse every year -- this year, the smoke has been really serious," Deliana Amorim, 46, told AFP in Porto Velho where half a million people live.

At least seven states, including Rondonia, have requested the army's help in the Amazon, where more than 43,000 troops are based and available to combat fires, officials said.

The fires have triggered a global outcry and are a major topic of concern at the G7 meeting in Biarritz in southern France.

World leaders at the summit have agreed to help the countries affected by the fires "as fast as possible," French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday.

His remarks come amid an escalating war of words with his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, who he has accused of lying over Brazil's stance on climate change.

Bolsonaro has denounced what he calls Macron's "colonialist mentality."

Trade deal at risk

The fires threaten to torpedo a huge trade agreement between the European Union and South American countries, including Brazil, that took 20 years to negotiate.

Pope Francis on Sunday also voiced concern for the rainforest, which he described as a "vital" lung for the planet.

The latest official figures show 79,513 forest fires have been recorded in Brazil this year, the highest number of any year since 2013.

More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin, where more than 20 million people live. Some 1,130 new fires were ignited between Friday and Saturday, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

The new data come as protesters plan to take to the streets across Brazil on Sunday, after thousands held demonstrations in the country and in Europe on Friday.

GRAPHIC: Wildfires active in the Amazon. More than half of the fires are in the massive Amazon basin, where more than 20 million people live pic.twitter.com/SoDx41DWo0

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 25 augustus 2019

Brazilian Amazon deforestation surges, embattled institute says

Yahoo – AFP, August 7, 2019

.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change sceptic, has accused the
country's National Institute of Space Research of publishing misleading data
on the environment (AFP Photo/RAPHAEL ALVES)

Sao Paulo (AFP) - Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon increased 278 percent year-over-year in July, according to official data released Tuesday by a government institute embroiled in a row with President Jair Bolsonaro over the scale of the problem.

The National Institute for Space Research, known by its initials INPE, said that deforestation had cleared 870 square miles (around 2,250 square kilometers) of rainforest over the month.

The Brazilian president, a climate change sceptic, and his environment minister Ricardo Salles have previously accused the INPE of publishing misleading data, claiming the figures "don't correspond to the truth" and were damaging to the institute and the country.

Data from INPE, an institution of international repute, shows that deforestation has increased 40 percent in the last twelve months compared with the same period a year ago.

Amazon rainforest deforestation had increased 88 percent on-year in June alone.

Last week, INPE president Ricardo Galvao was sacked following disagreements with Bolsonaro over deforestation in the Amazon, fueling criticism of the president from environmental groups.

The president suggested Galvao was "in the service of some NGOs" before dismissing him on Friday.

Bolsonaro was helped in his election last year by support from the powerful agriculture lobby.

He has previously floated the idea of opening up protected rainforest areas to agriculture, a highly controversial move given the existing level of deforestation.

Bolsonaro vows to fight 'illegal deforestation' in Brazil

Yahoo – AFP, August 4, 2019

President Jair Bolsonaro has previously floated the idea of opening up protected
rainforest areas to agriculture (AFP Photo/EVARISTO SA)

Brasília (AFP) - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro vowed Saturday to combat "illegal deforestation," a day after the head of the agency that measures deforestation said he was being sacked after a row over the scale of the problem in the Amazon rainforest.

"We are going to act effectively in the fight against illegal deforestation," Bolsonaro wrote on his Facebook account, along with a video in which environment minister Ricardo Salles said the government would bring in new technology to measure deforestation with greater precision.

A day earlier, the head of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Ricardo Galvao, said he was being sacked after a row with Bolsonaro over deforestation.

Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic, claimed the INPE figures "don't correspond to the truth" and were damaging to the institute and the country.

The president has previously floated the idea of opening up protected rainforest areas to agriculture, a highly controversial move given the existing level of deforestation.

"We cannot accept sensationalism, or the disclosure of inaccurate numbers that cause great damage to Brazil's image," Bolsonaro said, reiterating comments from his row over the INPE figures.

The latest data released by INPE, an institution of international repute, shows that deforestation has increased 40 percent in the last two months compared to the same period a year ago.

On Thursday, Bolsonaro, Salles and other ministers had refuted the INPE satellite data and said the methodologies for measuring deforestation would be changed.

The government admits deforestation has increased but insists it is not as great as indicated by the agency.

The sacking of Galvao fueled criticism from environmental groups.

"Bolsonaro knows that his government is primarily responsible for the current destruction of the Amazon. The dismissal of the director of INPE is nothing more than an act of revenge against those who show the truth," said Marcio Astrini from Greenpeace.

For many years, NGOs defending the environment and the territorial rights of indigenous people have criticized the agriculture industry and major land owners for constantly trying to expand into virgin lands, including those protected by law.

Bolsonaro, though, was helped in his election last year by support from the powerful agriculture lobby.

The president suffered a blow on Thursday when the Supreme Court cancelled a decree transferring the right to demarcate indigenous lands from the National Indian Foundation to the Ministry of Agriculture, a bulwark of the agriculture industry's interests.

EU, S.America bloc reach trade deal after 20 years of talks

Yahoo – AFP, Clément ZAMPA, June 29, 2019

Mercosur countries hope to export up to 99,000 tonnes of beef to Europe a year
before they have to pay tariffs (AFP Photo/DANIEL GARCIA)

Brussels (AFP) - The European Union and South American trade bloc Mercosur sealed a blockbuster trade deal Friday, ending 20 years of talks over one of the world's largest regional commercial accords, negotiators said.

The agreement came after two decades of often tough negotiations between the EU and the countries of Mercosur -- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- which had repeatedly stalled because of European farmer sensitivities over the beef market.

The deal was announced as the US administration of President Donald Trump faced several bilateral disputes, including trade tensions with China and disagreements with EU countries.

"I measure my words carefully when I say that this is a historical moment," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 in Osaka.

"In the midst of international trade tensions, we are sending today a strong signal with our Mercosur partners that we stand for rules-based trade."

In a strong show of unity, all the European and Mercosur leaders also members of the G20 gathered for a joint photo, with Argentine President Mauricio Macri also hailing a "historic day."

Europe wants Mercosur countries to open their markets to EU automakers
(AFP Photo/Paul ELLIS)

European farmers concerned

The trade pact is the largest ever concluded by the EU, Juncker said in a statement released in Brussels, and would save European companies more than four billion euros ($4.5 billion) worth of trade duties every year.

It covers markets that total approximately 780 million consumers, an EU statement said.

Brazil welcomed a "historic" agreement with the EU, while Argentina called the deal "unprecedented".

The announcement of the deal, details of which were not revealed and which must be approved by the 28 EU member states, comes as leaders of the world's most powerful economies gather in Osaka, Japan, for a G20 summit.

Once implemented, it is tipped to eliminate 99 percent of agricultural and industrial tariffs on both sides and facilitate exchanges in services and government procurement, reduce technical barriers, and effect sanitary and phytosanitary measures and intellectual property.

The agreement has nonetheless raised concerns of European farmers who fear unfair competition, as well as NGOs concerned about consequences for the climate.

French President Emmanuel Macron, seen here with US counterpart Donald Trump 

at the G20 summit in Japan, had threatened to scupper the EU-Mercosur deal if 

Brazil withdrew from the Paris climate accord (AFP Photo/Jacques Witt)

Challenges to EU farmers

"Today’s agreement also presents some challenges to European farmers and the European Commission will be available to help farmers meet these challenges," the EU's agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan said in a statement.

"For this agreement to be a win-win... carefully managed quotas will ensure that there is no risk that any product will flood the EU market and thereby threaten the livelihood of EU farmers."

The 28-member EU currently accounts for about one-quarter of global gross domestic product (GDP) at 18 trillion euros ($20 trillion).

Finalisation of the talks had been complicated by French President Emmanuel Macron, who threatened to scrub the deal if Brazil withdrew from the Paris climate accord that commits signatories to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and which Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to leave.

"If Brazil leaves the Paris accord, we could not sign trade deals with them," Macron said Thursday night in Japan en route to Osaka for the G20 summit.

"The reason is simple, we are requiring our farmers to stop using pesticides... our businesses to reduce emissions. That has a competitive cost," Macron added.

Activists had urged the EU to halt the trade talks over Brazil's alleged harm to 

its rainforests and indigenous peoples (AFP Photo/Mauro Pimentel)

Cognac and Manchego cheese

Activists had urged the EU to halt the Mercosur trade talks over Brazil's alleged harm to its rainforests and indigenous peoples in order to benefit influential agribusinesses.

For Europe, the deal would mean greater access to large South American automobile markets and respect for so-called protected geographical indications such as Cognac or Manchego cheese.

The EU is also counting on the agreement to improve access to the South American market for telecommunications, transport or financial services.

Mercosur countries in return hope to export up to 99,000 tonnes of beef to Europe a year before they have to pay tariffs, alongside stronger exports of ethanol, sugar and poultry.

The EU and Mercosur exchange 88 billion euros in goods annually, with a balance very slightly in favour of the Europeans (+2.5 billion euros).

Mexico threatens to ditch US corn imports

Yahoo – AFP, Yussel GONZALEZ, March 21, 2017

Mexico imports billions of dollars' worth of corn from the US to feed its
livestock (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico has identified a potential weapon in its trade wrangle with US President Donald Trump: lucrative yellow cobs of American corn.

The Latin American nation imports billions of dollars' worth of the yellow grain from the United States to feed its livestock.

But with Trump pushing to shake up the countries' trade ties, Mexico is now threatening to buy from elsewhere.

That is worrying corn growers in some of the very same US states that voted heavily in favor of Trump: Iowa, North Dakota, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

Trump has vowed to restrict free trade with Mexico in order to protect US jobs and industry.

But with Mexico gearing up for a potential trade battle, the effect could be the opposite -- at least when it comes to corn.

"For US corn producers, Mexico is their number one export customer," Thomas Sleight, president of the US Grains Council, told AFP.

"They are concerned about maintaining excellent relationships with long standing customers that they've built over generations."

Leverage for NAFTA talks

Mexico's Agriculture Secretary Jose Calzada said Mexico is in advanced talks with two other corn producers, Brazil and Argentina.

The US grain is cheaper than those countries' corn at $198 a ton, says Juan Carlos Anaya, head of the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group, a Mexican research firm.

Brazilian corn costs $210 a ton and Argentine corn $217, Anaya said.

Buying corn from other countries would drive up the price of certain products in Mexico, he warned.

The US grain is cheaper than Brazil and Argentina's corn, at $198 a ton

(AFP Photo/Justin Sullivan)

But Mexico needs alternative sources of corn to gain leverage in trade negotiations.

Trump has vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada.

He wants new conditions that will help shift manufacturing jobs back to the United States and boost US production and exports.

Talks are expected to start this year.

"We do not know what the United States will propose," said Calzada.

"We have to act first to be sure that when we arrive at that negotiating table we are starting from a position of total strength."

One leftist opposition senator, Armando Rios Piter, has launched a legislative proposal to buy corn from Brazil and Argentina.

US "corn producers may have been fooled by Donald Trump when he said that Mexico was the only one benefiting from NAFTA," Rios told AFP.

"Now that they see what is at stake, they will have to change their minds."

US farmers concerned

Corn is Mexico's fourth-biggest import from the United States, after gasoline, diesel and natural gas.

Mexico imported $2.32 billion worth of corn in 2016 -- 10 percent more than the previous year, according to Mexican government figures.

By comparison, it imported just $17.7 million of corn from Argentina and $10 million from Brazil.

Mexico is also a major importer of US dairy products, pork, rice, wheat and soya.

Sleight said producers in five big corn-exporting US states have been lobbying lawmakers in Washington to stress how important NAFTA is for their business.

On January 23, agriculture industry leaders wrote to Trump saying that US food exports had quadrupled since NAFTA came into force in 1994.

"The sector in the US is struggling under the weight of low prices, reduced land values and rising interest rates, meaning farm profitability has declined", said analysis firm BMI Research.

"US farmers would suffer considerably from trade disruption with Mexico."

Brazilian courts freezes companies' assets in mining spill

A court has blocked the Brazilian assets of mining giants Vale and BHP Billiton to ensure they pay for damage of a deadly toxic discharge that buried villages. The spill caused Brazil's worst environmental disaster.

Deutsche Welle, 20 December 2015

A judge in Brazil's state of Minas Gerais ruled late Friday that the Brazilian assets of mining giants BHP Billiton and Vale SA be frozen after their joint venture Samarco was unable to pay for damage caused by the bursting of a dam at its iron ore mining operation.

"In 30 days, the companies should make an initial deposit of 2 billion reais ($502 million, 462 million euros) to carry out the full recovery plan," the judge ruled. Vale and BHP Billiton will be fined $37,000 a day if they fail to comply.

The dam burst last November - considered Brazil's worst ever ecological disaster - killed more than a dozen people, left hundreds homeless and polluted a 800-kilometers (500-miles) stretch of the Doce River across two states and into the Atlantic Ocean.

Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said it will take at least 10 years for the river basin to recover from the extensive mining waste that's permeated the watershed.

But despite the scale of the disaster, multinational mining giant Vale had argued its Samarco venture is an independent legal entity and wholly responsible for liability and cleanup.

Federal Judge Marcelo Aguiar Machado disagreed in his 19-page judgment: "I understand to be correct the allegation that Vale and BHP, as controllers of Samarco, can be classified as indirect polluters and as such responsible for the environmental damage caused."

Prosecutors plan to sue Vale and BHP Billiton for $5.2 billion for cleanup costs and damages relating to the disaster.

The collapse of two dams at a Brazilian mine has cut off drinking water for
 a quarter of a million people and saturated waterways downstream with dense
orange sediment that could wreck the ecosystem for years to come.

Farmers' livelihoods destroyed

A BHP spokesman said in a statement Sunday that it could not comment on the ruling as the mine company had yet to receive formal notification of the decision but made assurances it would assist with the cleanup.

"We are committed to supporting Samarco to rebuild the community and restore the environment affected by the breach of Samarco's Fundao and Santarem tailings dams, in the state of Minas Gerais," a company spokesman said.

The Australian company's share price has fallen more than 40 percent on the Australian Securities Exchange this year.

jar/sms (Reuters, AP)

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Central America tests drought-resistant 'miracle' beans

Yahoo – AFP, Carlos Mario Marquez, 1 December 2015

The CENTA-EAC bean is the product of hybridization: the combining of

naturally formed plants to form a cross-breed (AFP Photo/Marvin Recinos)

Quezaltepeque (El Salvador) (AFP) - "These beans are miraculous because they beat droughts," crowed Manuel Ceren, a farmer in El Salvador trying out a hybrid, climate change-defying crop produced by Salvadoran, Colombian and Honduran experts.

In Quezaltepeque, a village 30 kilometers north of San Salvador, Ceren and 13 other co-farmers feel fortunate to be the first testing the bean.

They proudly showed off an abundant harvest of around 0.7 of a hectare (1.7 acres) of the bean grown on the farm where they work, to the awed gaze of visitors.

Farmers in Quezaltepeque are trying out

 a hybrid, climate change-defying bean

produced by Salvadoran, Colombian and 

Honduran experts (AFP Photo/Marvin

Recinos)

"We were very careful with this initial experiment with these beans, which were hit with a 15-day drought and two storms," the 45-year-old manager of the farm, Baltazar Garcia, told AFP.

"Other people called us crazy. But today a lot of them are admiring the harvest."

The type of light red bean they are using, which is also resistant to an infection known as bean golden yellow mosaic virus, was painstakingly developed with the help of El Salvador's National Center for Agricultural and Forestry Technology (CENTA).

Dubbed CENTA-EAC, the bean is not a biotech crop designed by genetic engineers slicing up chromosomes.

Rather it is the product of hybridization: the combining of naturally formed plants to form a cross-breed.

"You could say it's the simple cross-fertilization of red bean and black bean plants in a process that in this case took five years of selecting and discarding plants until the desired variety was created," a CENTA researcher, Aldemaro Clara, explained.

A search for better crops

The Salvadoran experiment came as a prolonged drought settled on Central America this year, causing heavy crop losses across a broad swathe of land stretching from Costa Rica to Guatemala.

Because of the lack of water, 2.3 million small Central American farmers will need food aid, the UN's World Food Program has warned.

The CENTA-EAC bean is part of a decade-old effort by laboratories in the region to come up with hybrids able to survive and even prosper during the recurring droughts. With the help of farmers, it was noted that it was possible to come up with crops adapted to extreme weather conditions.

"Our mission to produce seeds resistant to climate change, which in this region means against high temperatures, long droughts and extremely heavy rainy seasons," Rolando Ventura, another CENTA researcher, said.

The whole region is working along the same lines. In Guatemala, scientists are working on the ICTA-Chorti, which will not only resist droughts but also be rich in iron.

In Nicaragua, another institute has made a variety of red bean, the INTA-Tomabu, also able to survive when water is scarce.

A farmer harvests and cleans beans of the CENTA-EAC variety at a farm in 

Quezaltepeque (AFP Photo/Marvin Recinos)

Corn, tomatoes and cacao

Candida Lazon, who is trying out that bean on her farm, said: "Here, it almost never rains. We have managed to grow the INTA-Tomabu bean by watering it just once every 12 days. I'm thrilled about this seed because it adapts to the very dry local climate."

It's not beans that are being made to "adapt" to climate change.

In Panama, one of the first countries in the region to work with types of corn resistant to changing weather, has come up with a new seed.

"In the case of corn, these seeds are compatible with higher temperatures, 35 to 36 degrees (95 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit), and drought-tolerant," said Jose Alberto Yau, deputy director for seeds at the country's IDIAP Agriculture and Fishing Research Institute.

In El Salvador, farmers already have the option of using a type of corn called CENTA-Pasaquina, but it has fallen from favor because of its perceived low yield.

Nicaragua meanwhile has a type of virus-resistant tomato seed christened INTA-Jinotega that copes with temperatures over 25 degrees centigrade.

In Costa Rica, it's cocoa -- a crop essential to the economy -- that is being looked at in the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center with hopes of coming up with a more resistant variety.

Pope visits Paraguayan slum as he wraps up South America tour

Pope Francis stopped by a shantytown on the last day of his "homecoming" trip to South America. The pontiff has used the trip to decry the human suffering that accompanies unrestricted capitalism.

Deutsche Welle, 12 July 2015

Pope Francis wrapped up his three-country tour of South America on Sunday by celebrating Mass for over 1 million faithful, including the presidents of Paraguay and Argentina, Horacio Cartes and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, respectively, at a disused air base outside of the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion.

The altar for the occasion was a colorful construction made with 32,000 ears of corn, pumpkins, coconuts, and other regional produce. In his sermon, Francis touched on what became the refrain of his South American tour, which also included stops in Ecuador and Bolivia, by calling on people and governments to turn away from "the path of selfishness, conflict, division, and superiority" and defend the rights of the poor.

The pope spent the earlier part of the day on Sunday in the Banado Norte slum in Asuncion, home to about 100,000 people living in shacks after being forced from their farms.

"Our expulsion from the countryside, the high prices of land and housing in the city, couple with low incomes…are the reasons we find ourselves in the 'Banado,'" Maria Garcia, a local organizer, told the pope, explaining that residents are hoping to gain title deeds to their homes.

The pontiff told residents he could not have left Paraguay without "spending some time with you, here on your land," drawing a wave of cheers from the crowd who came out to greet him. He prayed with residents in a chapel set up on the shantytown and encouraged them to stay united in their struggle for better living conditions.

Francis excoriates capitalism

Since becoming pope, Francis has made a point of visiting Rome's poorest neighborhoods and was well known for his visits to slums in Buenos Aires when he was archbishop of the Argentine capital.

The visit to Banada Norte brought extra attention to his call on Saturday for countries to shun unbridled capitalism and consumerism, an economic model he said exists to "sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit" and creates "the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose."

es/sms (Reuters, AP)

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"Not Your Father's New Age" - Feb 14/15, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“…  Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service. Twenty-five years ago, I discussed with you what is happening now. Back then, it was only a potential, but now it's your reality. This was not prophecy when I told you back then that there would be no Armageddon or World War Three. It was not prophecy, but a powerful potential. The entire reason for my being and the awakening of my partner was because of what you did. The victory it contains falls in the lap of the old soul, who has controlled the consciousness of the timing of it all.

Everything that has transpired during these years has been realized potential. That is to say that we see the potentials of what you might do, and report on that and only that. Much of what we see now is realized quickly. When we told you in 2012 there would be a new pope, 13 months later it happened. This was not prophecy, but rather a potential. We saw it coming because we have the overview and we knew of the anxiety of the existing pope, the health of the man, and we also knew of the potentials of a South American pope to come forward. All of these things should be a "connect the dots" for you. I come yet again, not with prophecy, but with information given with a congratulatory attitude of potential. …”

Argentina gets China's help on wind energy development

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-07-06

Wind turbines in Xinjiang, June 5. (Photo/Xinhua)

China has been playing an increasingly important role in helping Argentina modernize and improve its energy mix via boosting clean energy development led by wind power.

Arauco Wind Farm, showcase of the Sino-Argentinean wind power development endeavor, falls under jurisdiction of northern Argentina's La Rioja province, home to 40% of the South American country's olive-growing industry.

Located in the Puerta de Arauco Valley, Arauco Wind Farm was built in 2012 with 12 wind turbines capable of generating 25 megawatts of power, along with a transformer station. The wind farm was added with an extra installed capacity of 25 megawatts in 2013.

In March, La Rioja and Chinese company Hydrochina International Engineering signed a deal worth of more than US$300 million to raise Arauco Wind Farm's installed capacity by 104 more megawatts.

La Rioja "has as a strategic objective to move forward in what we are good at, 'energy sovereignty', to supply our citizens with the energy they need," said Javier Tineo, the regional official in charge of Economic Production and Development, in an interview with Xinhua.

Tineo said they hoped the wind farm would be able to generate more electricity to pump water and expand irrigated area in the agriculturally important province on completion of the expansion program with the help of the Chinese company.

By increasing output at the wind farm, "we will make the province self-sufficient and give the surplus to the national power grid," said Tineo. He added that Chinese company's contribution is the key to the next stage of development at the wind farm.

"The province's government began looking for financial and technological partners. We met with one of the most important Chinese companies (Hydrochina) and came to an agreement," recalled Tineo, who praised Yang Wanming, Chinese ambassador to Argentina, for his role in helping make the cooperation program a reality, saying the wind farm "involves friendship and cooperation from both the Chinese and Argentinean governments." According to Tineo, there is "high expectation" in Argentina that increased trade and cooperation with China will "contribute to our food production, our job creation, our conditions for producing both wind and solar energy."

"We expect to make progress with Chinese companies and the Chinese government, because we need their expertise, industry and development in the (energy) field, and their ability to develop machinery and equipment to improve our primary productivity and food industry," said Tineo, the local official from La Rioja.

Agricultural microbiology draws Chinese researchers to Argentina

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-05-02

An organic experimental farm using agricultural microbiological
technology in Beijing, Oct. 27, 2013. (File photo/CNS)

Microbiology applied to agricultural products is connecting China with Argentina, two emerging markets with complementary economies and strategic partners looking to increase bilateral exchanges.

Among the many links between Beijing and Buenos Aires, Argentine firm Rizobacter stands out. The company, which uses microbiology to boost soy output while cutting production costs, has been in business for 38 years and reports an annual turnover of US$100 million, 20% from exports.

In December, a delegation of the Academy of Sciences from China's Heilongjiang province visited the firm in Pergamino, a city located 180 km northeast of the capital Buenos Aires.

The delegation came to explore the possibility of signing an agreement for joint research and development of microbiological technologies, to improve Chinese soil and output.

"We are here to visit and get to know the Rizobacter plant," said Wang Gang, vice president of the academy.

"We are very interested in getting to know the technology being developed by this company and all of the efforts on the production of soybean, mainly related to soybeans and rhizobia," Wang added.

The Argentine company "sends products to countries like Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, the US, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and China, and has 400 employees. It is a very technological and professional company," Rizobacter CEO Ricardo Yapur said in an interview with Xinhua.

Rizobacter produces microbial, or soil, inoculants that are used to boost soybean production. The inoculants are applied to the seeds so when they germinate they can better absorb nitrogen in the air.

The method is not only highly sustainable, because unlike chemical fertilizers, it doesn't pollute the air, water or soil, and it's also cost effective, said Yapur.

The microbe costs between US$5 and US$10 per hectare, in contrast to urea fertilizer, which requires high pressure and temperatures to function, requiring burning petroleum, and costs US$150 dollars per hectare, said Yapur.

"This technology has been fully adopted in Argentina, where 90% of producers use inoculants, because the technology and the data shows it binds enough nitrogen to produce good results," he said, adding "it increases output by about 150 kg of soy."

At its plant, the company has the ability to carry out tests, quality control, and strain selection, and to experiment with different factors, such as temperature and light.

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