1.   As well as its own peat-cutting operations, the company is also encouraging local farmers to use mechanical excavators to exploit their own reserves.

2.   As a result, rising prices are encouraging farmers to boost their soybean acres.

3.   Like their counterparts in the United States, Mexican chefs are encouraging farmers to produce specialty items for them.

4.   Numerous states and communities have in recent years experimented with tax and zoning policies to encourage farmers at the urban edge to hang on.

5.   Sales are falling short of expectations, though, because rising prices in Japan have encouraged farmers there to raise more hogs.

6.   Scientists are encouraging farmers to place sieve-like bamboo gates in irrigation ditches to catch them before they can enter the fields.

7.   This rising demand, as well as higher world prices, could encourage farmers to plant soybeans instead of corn.

8.   This year, the government is encouraging farmers to plant as much corn as possible to replenish supplies.

9.   With pesticide use skyrocketing, the US Department of Agriculture is encouraging farmers to use integrated pest management, which encourages alternatives to pesticides.