Vietnamese authorities have traced an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease among cattle in northern Yen Bai province to 120 infected buffalo that were donated to poor farmers, an animal health official said Monday.

The French presidency of the European Union said Friday there would be no delay to a planned ban by 2012 of the tiny "battery" cages used by many producers for laying hens.

Manila - The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said Tuesday it has received a donation of 500,000 dollars worth of materials that would boost research for cheaper and high-yielding rice varieties

Up to a few days the blocked money under SAPARD will be freed, said the Executive Director of the State Agriculture Fund Dimitar Tadarakov, cited by the Bulgarian National Television.

He announced that on Friday ended a serious audit of the European Commission, which showed that the agency SAPARD had respected procedures and well allocated the money for farming.

Bulgarian cellars took 40 awards at the ended International Wine Fair in London. This is the best achievement for the last years, Deutsche Welle reported.

Romania has authorized the problems in the timely distribution of direct payments from the European Union intended for Romanian farmers, said for Reuters Gergelas Dan, director of the Romanian Agency for payments in agriculture.

One new company hopes that can make drivers brew ethanol in the comforts of their homes which will not influence food prices. The company is called E-Fuel and it has produced the clever MicroFueler machine to brew ethanol fuel for cars.