MADRID, August 5, 2008 (AFP) - The abrupt slowdown in Spain's once-booming property sector will lead to a rise in the number of Spaniards who will cross over into France to pick grapes this year, a Spanish union predicted Tuesday.

OSLO, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - Hundreds of farmers demonstrated in Oslo Thursday against a proposal at a WTO meeting to reduce duties on agricultural imports to Europe, claiming the move would put 40,000 farmers out of work in Norway alone.

KABUL, June 9, 2008 (AFP) - Afghanistan's agriculture and livestock production will drop this year, further exacerbating food shortages in the destitute nation, the UN food agency said Monday.

Agriculture accounts for 53 percent of gross domestic product and employs 66 percent of the workforce, Food and Agriculture Organisation representative Teskete Teskie told reporters.

SHAMHUGANJ, June 7, 2008 (AFP) - Traditional rural games are being revived in Bangladesh with a television show in which farmers compete to show off their skill sowing seeds, raft racing and climbing oiled banana trees.

LONDON, June 5, 2008 (AFP) - The chief scientific advisor to the British government on Thursday called for a 'new and greener revolution' in agriculture to combat a global food crisis.

PARIS, June 5, 2008 (AFP) - The United States is ready to speed up work on world trade liberalisation talks in the hope of bringing the negotiations to a close by the end of this year, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said Thursday.

'We really do feel a sense of urgency,' Schwab told a press conference here.

ROME, June 4, 2008 (AFP) - The Islamic Development Bank will donate 1.5 billion dollars (970 million euros) to support farming in the developing world, the head of the Food and Agricultural Organization said Wednesday.

The director of the Islamic Development Bank Mohamed Ali announced the donation in a letter, FAO chief Jacques Diouf told reporters.

DUBLIN, June 3, 2008 (AFP) - Prime Minister Brian Cowen's battle to secure a 'yes' vote in Ireland's crunch referendum on the EU reform treaty next week got a major boost Tuesday when the biggest farmers' group agreed to back it.

DUBLIN, June 3, 2008 (AFP) - Irish farmers hesitating over whether to back a key EU reform treaty were offered an olive branch Tuesday by Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is battling to secure a 'Yes' vote in next week's referendum.

THE HAGUE, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - A Dutch court ordered milk farmers on Monday to stop a factory blockade as the country's second largest producer warned of empty supermarket shelves from the ongoing action against low milk prices.