JANUARY 2018 SEEDWORLD.COM / 73 the initial Green Revolution, can spark an Evergreen Revolution and redefine the future of agriculture.” STATUSPHILIPPINES BASF inaugurated a new Rice Knowledge Center at its Agricultural Research Station in Bay, Laguna, Philippines. The new facility centralizes BASF’s global expertise in rice cultivation, and supports the delivery of enhanced agronomic and technical support to farmers seeking to increase productivity more sustainably. “Rice is the staple food of more than half the world’s population, and farmers have an extraordinary challenge to meet growing demand for rice, while minimizing the impact to the environment,” said Gustavo Palerosi Carneiro, senior vice president, Crop Protection, Asia Pacific, BASF. “The new BASF Rice Knowledge Center will enable us to share the latest technologies and best practices with growers, so that we can drive further innovation in rice production.” BASF’s global network of crop protection experts and technical representatives will be able to leverage the Rice Knowledge Center when providing training, advice and support to growers. Demonstration plots and field trials at the new center will also complement the work of BASF research sites around the region. STATUS TANZANIA The minister for agriculture, Charles Tizeba, has said that the Southern Highlands Zone regions are leading in the coun- try for supplying and selling substandard and fake maize seeds causing serious conse- quences to farmers, including low productivity of the crop. The regions on the list include Rukwa, Songwe, Mbeya, Njombe and Iringa. And, in additional to that, Tizeba directed the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) to inspect all shops that are selling agriculture inputs, including maize seeds in those regions. Equally, he directed traders who are selling agricultural inputs that when discovered selling fake maize seeds, their business licences will be revoked and their businesses shut and arraigned, insisting that the current shortage of modern maize seeds should not be taken as a loophole for the businesspeople to sell sub- standard seeds. STATUSUKRAINE LLC UkrSorgo is going to cultivate sorghum in Kherson region and build a plant for processing this crop there, the Kherson state regional admin- istration reports. “The increasingly dry climate in the steppe zone of Ukraine requires an expansion of plantings of drought-resistant and heat resistant crops. Sorghum is just one of such crops suitable for the new cli- mate conditions. Proceeding from the above, the sug- gestion to grow sorghum is assessed as economically justifiable and agronomically reasonable,” said the deputy head of the state regional administration. The UkrSorgo management expects to begin the plant construction shortly after the signature of a coop- erative agreement with the regional administration. The company actively cooper- ates with farming entities in Dnipropetrovsk region, reports UkrAgroConsult. Source: blackseagrain.net STATUS CHINA China plans to eliminate another 12 highly toxic pes- ticides from use within five years, state media reported, as the government looks to improve the safety of its farm produce. That comes amid an ongoing campaign to improve the environment and, in particular, tackle severe soil pollution. Beijing has already withdrawn 22 highly toxic pesticides from use, and it prohibits the use of any such products on fruit, vegeta- bles and tea. But it still has a number of highly toxic chemi- cals in use on other crops, where they are particularly effective in fighting under- ground pests, Zeng Yande, head of the crop management department at the agriculture ministry, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua News agency. The ministry has issued a notice banning highly toxic substances endosulfan and methyl bromide by 2019. SW