Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (r) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin arrive at a press conference after their meeting in Sochi on Sept. 4, 2023. (Photo: Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters)

Turkey’s Erdogan says Black Sea grain deal can be restored soon

UN seeks to bring Russia back into deal

Moscow | Reuters — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday that it would soon be possible to revive the grain deal that the United Nations says helped to ease a food crisis by getting Ukrainian grain to market. Russia quit the deal in July — a year after […] Read more

Liberia-flagged bulker K Sukret, carrying grain under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, waits for inspection in the southern anchorage of Istanbul on May 17, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Mehmet Emin Caliskan)

Putin to meet Erdogan amid push to revive grain deal

Turkey, UN seek to revive grain deal; Russia discussing separate plan

Moscow | Reuters — Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as Ankara and the United Nations seek to revive a Ukraine grain export deal that helped ease a global food crisis. Russia quit the deal in July — a year after […] Read more


Workers repair the roof of a farm building that was damaged by a mortar in the village of Malaya Rohan, in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, April 9, 2022.

Opinion: War is expensive both on and off the battlefield

Big financial costs, big human costs, but also big agribusiness profits

Reading Time: 2 minutes Union general William T. Sherman once famously said, “War is hell.” However you describe it, war is expensive. For some, it’s extremely profitable, too. Shooting wars aren’t the only type of warfare that are costly, deadly and often without a winner. In January 2022, the International Monetary Fund estimated the total cost of the COVID-19 […] Read more

Spring wheat with Lalrise Start SC applied with seed treatment, right, versus seed treatment alone on the left, in Western Canada, in May 2022.

New seed treatment designed to boost cereal crops

Product centred on enhancing phosphorus solubility and improving early vigour

Reading Time: 2 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Boosting nitrogen use to reduce nitrogen-based fertilizer applications, has been a feature of several products in the past five years. Lalrise Start SC liquid inoculant aims to improve another key nutrient. The seed treatment designed to enhance phosphorus solubility has received full commercial registration and will be available in spring 2024 for […] Read more


Vessels are seen as they await inspection under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the UN and Turkey, in the southern anchorage of the Bosphorus at Istanbul on Dec. 11, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/Yoruk Isik)

Russia says will have talks with Turkey about alternative to Black Sea deal

Plan calls for Qatar's support to move Russian grain

Reuters — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan will discuss a proposal by Moscow for an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal when they meet this week, Lavrov’s ministry said Wednesday. Under the plan, Russia would send a million tons of grain to Turkey at a discounted price, with financial […] Read more

Law to boost soil health back on EU agenda

Law to boost soil health back on EU agenda

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters – The European Commission has proposed what would be the EU’s first law to improve soil health. The proposal, made July 5 as the EU faces a political backlash against other green policies, follows an initial attempt by the Commission to introduce soil health legislation in 2006, which a minority of countries, including Germany […] Read more


Emissions reduction needs a lifeline

Emissions reduction needs a lifeline

Canadian farmers can’t extract added production costs from global markets

Reading Time: 3 minutes Nobody likes to change, especially not when they’re comfortable and things are going well. But that attitude can lead to complacency and inertia as the world passes by. This is the delicate balance that farmers are being asked to strike, with little evidence that it’s going to pay them dividends of any kind. The issue […] Read more

The fertilizer sector has seen a turbulent couple of years.

Fertilizer price plateau

The fertilizer price reprieve is likely drawing to an end

Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Fertilizer prices have mostly hit a plateau and will likely start to creep up again, says one analyst. “Farmers would be incentivized to get the product that they need for the coming 12 months probably sooner rather than later if they want to make use of the bottom of the market,” said […] Read more


A Nutrien advisor speaks with a farmer.

Cautious carbon optimism

While carbon offsets could be a boon for producers, experts warn the market is a volatile space with many risks to consider

Reading Time: 5 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – The message may go something like this: farmers live in a carbon-priced world and it’s time they started making that a positive, not a negative. Sign this contract, plant a cover crop and, based on the resulting carbon offsets, make a little money off some corporation’s environmental goals. But the landscape around […] Read more