Flower power for the win
Watching someone chop cauliflower
might hardly sound interesting, but with a friend of my father’s it was. His
family was orthodox Jain, which meant, he told us, that they had to be
particularly careful with cauliflower in case the fleshy heads hid tiny insects
that could be killed during cooking.So he would sit with a small knife
dissecting the cauliflower with all the finesse of a surgeon, reducing it to a
pile of tiny florets and diced stalks within which no insect could lurk. The
reward for this patience was that the fragments cooked instantly; just a brief
toss in the pan with hot oil, spices and salt, and they were done, 
without losing an
essential freshness.
without losing an
essential freshness.Nothing could be further from Jain cooking than the currently trendy Paleo diet. It argues we should eat like our cavemen ancestors since our bodies evolved for their hunter-gatherer lifestyle; it is the foods of farming that followed which are unnatural and cause obesity and sickness. So reduce or eliminate grains, legumes and dairy (all Jain staples), and eat lots of meat, nuts and non-starchy vegetables.Debating this theory is not the point here. Like all diets it probably works to some extent simply by making people conscious of what they eat — paying large sums of money to dietitians is an even more effective way to do this — so they restrain themselves, at least until they get bored and the diet is forgotten.
But the one useful thing diets do
is make you aware of new ways to use ingredients. I think many people who have
tried and abandoned diets retain at least a few recipes that they find good
enough to keep making. With Paleo one which is proving popular is
cauliflower rice, a substitute for grains made by grating raw cauliflower (or
pulsing briefly in a mixie) into morsels about the size of
cooked basmati rice and then steaming or braising them briefly till
just cooked.Because cauliflower is firm they hold their shape, but still become
soft and yielding, just like rice. It isn’t quite the same — they are chewier
and lack the starchy satisfaction of rice, yet at quick glance a pile of
cauliflower rice can look and feel a lot like poha.
Tint it with turmeric and cook with onions,
nuts and chopped greens and you can fool people into thinking it’s a
healthy pulao, especially if you cheat and throw in some brown rice
or bulghur wheat.This is also useful (without wheat) for
gluten-intolerant people, but what I really like about cauliflower rice is that
it doesn’t feel like diet food at all. You can serve it at a fancy meal as an
accompaniment to other dishes or eat it every day and feel happily, and
healthily, replete. You could feel, in fact, much as I would after eating that
essentially similar Jain dish: happy at how the simplest techniques
can yield such great results — and even find common ground between Paleo and Jain cooking!
(Fascinating nuggets from epicurean history)
(Fascinating nuggets from epicurean history)
DISCLAIMER
: Views expressed above are the author's own.
SunRice furthers Northern pledge
21 May, 2015 03:00 AM
The
field day included a tour of Allan Milan’s rice crop. Allan is pictured with
SunRice’s Brandon Mill Manager Steven Rogers. 
SUNRICE hosted another
successful Rice Field Day in Brandon for 60 local farmers, suppliers and other
members of the agribusiness community on May 14.The event was a follow up to
two previous field days and this time participants had the chance to meet and
hear from SunRice CEO Rob Gordon during a series of presentations preceding the
field day component.Mr Gordon’s presentation explained to growers SunRice’s
commitment to building a sustainable rice industry in north Queensland. He
outlined the company’s state-of-the-art operations and infrastructure and also
its unique and innovative marketing capabilities. “SunRice sees exciting potential in north Queensland and the
opportunity to increase production significantly over the coming years. Mr
Gordon said.
“There is strong international demand for clean and
green Australian rice and we need Queensland growers to help us meet this
demand,” he said.“We are committed to growing the north Queensland rice
industry and events like this one are an important way for us to add value and
provide assistance and advice to growers looking to grow rice.”Attendees at the
presentation component enjoyed a technical presentation from SunRice’s Brandon
Mill Manager Steven Rogers about how to grow rice, and a presentation from Rice
Research Australia’s Manager Russell Ford on the latest in rice research and
development including suitable varieties for Queensland conditions and variety
development underway for Northern Australia.
Another highlight of the event was the afternoon tour
of four local farms near Brandon who have started growing rice. These growers –
Lawrence Pavone, Alan Milan, Ross Pirrone and Ben Nielson – were able to show
first-hand how they had integrated rice into their farming systems.Since the
acquisition of Blue Ribbon Rice Group’s assets was completed in late 2014,
SunRice has made significant capital improvements to the Brandon Mill including
purchase of a new huller and colour sorter. In addition, the response from
local growers has been extremely positive with a successful Queensland rice
harvest in the C14 dry season and an even larger crop expected from the C15 wet
season crop
http://www.northqueenslandregister.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/sunrice-furthers-northern-pledge/2732689.aspx
Balance
of rice supply and demand key to food security'
PETCHANET PRATRUANGKRAI
THE NATION May 21, 2015 1:00 am
COOPERATION
among rice-producing and -importing nations is crucial to ensuring global food
security as the world is challenged by a rapidly rising population, climate
change, low-quality soil and reduced water sources for growing cereal crops,
the "Thailand Rice Convention" heard yesterday.At the convention,
held in Bangkok and chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, speakers said
the world needed to cooperate in balancing supply and demand, so that neither
farmers nor consumers suffered from imbalances or fluctuating rice
prices.Prayut said that as the world's leading rice producer, Thailand did not
want to see skyrocketing prices, as they would hurt both consumers and farmers
in the long run.
The
key to ensuring global food security and making rice-producing countries like
Thailand and others in Asean happy is to cooperate in balancing supply and
demand, so that rice prices are stable, he stressed.The world is being
challenged by its rising population and higher rice consumption, he said,
adding that the rice market had expanded to all regions of the globe, no longer
limited largely to Asia as it was increasingly recognised as a high-nutrition
cereal."Already, more than 3 billion people consume rice as their staple
food, causing many countries to turn their attention to developing rice
varieties and optimising the capacity of rice cultivation and trade.
The next 20 years
"In the next 20
years, the world's population will increase by 20 per cent, and that implies
more rice consumption. Therefore, every nation should cooperate more in the
form of research and development in rice production and trading," said the
prime minister.Within Asean, Thailand will strive to forge closer cooperation
to ensure stable rice prices in the world market, while farmers will get stable
and better incomes in the long run, he said.To promote rice-industry growth,
Prayut said the government would focus on promoting the production of quality
rice, at a higher volume, and with less intervention in the market.The
government aims to increase the yield for Thai rice by 25 per cent in the next
five years, while lowering production costs by 20 per cent over the same
period, he said.
Prayut
said the focus on non-chemical rice production, and on premium rice grains and
varieties, would be promoted in the Kingdom.Jeremy Zwinger, president and chief
executive officer of The Rice Trader industry report in the US, said every
nation needed to be more concerned about food security because of rising
population numbers, as well as reduced sources of water for the cultivation of
crops."Food is critical. The world should focus on adopting high
technology to produce more rice grains, and increase supply of rice to ensure
price stability," he said.Zwinger said global rice trading now took place
in a highly competitive environment, especially in Asia, where most of the
major supply nations are located.
Along
with lower oil prices, high stockpiles of rice in Thailand have caused a fall
in prices in recent times, although they could fluctuate and increase in the
future as fuel prices rise, rice stocks decline in many countries, and exchange
rates fluctuate, he told the convention.Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary
president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the key for sustainable
development of the Thai industry was to introduce zoning for rice cultivation,
while no government should intervene in the trading mechanism.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Balance-of-rice-supply-and-demand-key-to-food-secu-30260563.html
Philippines, Indonesia to buy more rice on El Nino fears
MANILA,
May 21, 2015:
Philippine president Benigno
Aquino has approved a proposal to import more rice this year, government
sources said, in a move to avert a potential spike in food price inflation due
to forecast El Nino affected dry weather conditions.Fresh buying by the
Philippines, one of the world’s biggest rice importers, could help support rice
export prices in Asia, which have fallen in recent months because of weak
demand.The final terms of the increased imports, which normally specify the
amount and variety, are still subject to approval by the National Food
Authority Council headed by food security chief Francis Pangilinan, the two
sources said.
The Philippine government last
week revised down its estimate of first-half domestic rice production, with dry
weather already affecting more than half of the country’s 81 provinces.The sources
declined to disclose the volume of additional imports, although industry
sources have said the Philippines may buy up to 310,000 tonnes more this year,
with shipments expected before the lean harvest season starting July.The
Southeast Asian nation recently bought 500,000 tonnes via
government-to-government deals with key sellers Vietnam and Thailand, and
regional supplies remain abundant.Thailand, the world’s second-biggest rice
exporter after India, has said its plans to sell two million tonnes of rice
over the next two months from stockpiles built up under the previous
administration’s failed buying programme.
In Vietnam, the world’s
third-largest exporter where prices have weakened this week on a lack of buying
demand, a new crop harvest will begin from around late June, traders said.A
dramatic rise in retail rice prices in the Philippines last year after damage
to supply chains from Super Typhoon Haiyan pushed food price inflation to the
highest in more than five years.Economic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan
said in March that the government must guard against future food price spikes,
which had driven up the country’s poverty rate.The El Nino phenomenon, a
warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific, can lead to scorching
weather across Asia and east Africa and is almost certain to last through the
northern hemisphere summer, the US weather forecaster has said.A significant El
Nino would put the Philippines’ headline inflation well over the 2-4% target by
2016, which could put the central bank under pressure to raise interest rates
sooner than expected, HSBC economists said this month.
Indonesia’s president could also
be forced to backtrack on promises to curb rice imports, with analysts saying
the country may ship in as much as 1.6 million tonnes of the staple grain this
year due to soaring prices at home and the threat of a strong El Nino.Since
coming to power in October, president Joko Widodo has been aggressively
pursuing self-sufficiency in various foods as part of an increasingly nationalistic
approach to protecting farmers, reducing state imports of rice in a country
where private buying from overseas has been largely banned for decades.But
rather than risk a spike in food inflation that could prompt social unrest,
some analysts predict the country will import volumes of rice way higher than
the 1.1 million tonnes estimated for last year, maintaining its position as one
of the world’s top buyers of overseas grain.
http://www.therakyatpost.com/business/2015/05/21/philippines-indonesia-to-buy-more-rice-on-el-nino-fears/
Philippines to import extra rice as El Nino
bites - sources
Reuters
Posted at 05/21/2015 2:22 PM | Updated as of 05/22/2015 12:26 PM
MANILA - President Benigno Aquino has approved a proposal to
import more rice this year, government sources said, in a move to avert a
potential spike in food price inflation due to forecast El Nino affected dry
weather conditions.Fresh buying by the Philippines, one of the world's biggest
rice importers, could help support rice export prices in Asia, which have
fallen in recent months because of weak demand.The final terms of the increased
imports, which normally specify the amount and variety, are still subject to
approval by the National Food Authority (NFA) Council headed by Food Security Chief
Francis Pangilinan, the two sources said.The Philippine government last week
revised down its estimate of first-half domestic rice production, with dry
weather already affecting more than half of the country's 81 provinces.
The sources declined to disclose the volume of additional
imports, although industry sources have said the Philippines may buy up to
310,000 tonnes more this year, with shipments expected before the lean harvest
season starting July.The Southeast Asian nation recently bought 500,000 tonnes
via government-to-government deals with key sellers Vietnam and Thailand, and
regional supplies remain abundant.Thailand, the world's second-biggest rice
exporter after India, has said its plans to sell 2 million tonnes of rice over
the next two months from stockpiles built up under the previous
administration's failed buying program.In Vietnam, the world's third-largest
exporter where prices have weakened this week on a lack of buying demand, a new
crop harvest will begin from around late June, traders said.
FOOD INFLATION IN FOCUS
A dramatic rise in retail rice prices in the Philippines last
year after damage to supply chains from Super Typhoon Haiyan pushed food price
inflation to the highest in more than five years.Economic Planning Secretary
Arsenio Balisacan said in March that the government must guard against future
food price spikes, which had driven up the country's poverty rate.
The El Nino phenomenon, a warming of sea-surface temperatures in
the Pacific, can lead to scorching weather across Asia and east Africa and is
almost certain to last through the Northern Hemisphere summer, the U.S. weather
forecaster has said.A significant El Nino would put the Philippines' headline
inflation well over the 2-4 percent target by 2016, which could put the central
bank under pressure to raise interest rates sooner than expected, HSBC
economists said this month."We now expect two rate hikes in 1Q and 2Q
(next year), but food inflation risks could bring this into late 2015,"
HSBC said.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/05/21/15/philippines-import-extra-rice-el-nino-bites-sources
Extension
workers train on climate change-resilient strategies in agriculture
May 21, 2015
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, May 21, 2014 (PIA) - With its continuous
effort to promote sustainable agriculture amidst challenges brought about by
climate change, the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office 10 (DA-RFO
10) conducted a training for the Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs) handling
rice and corn on May 12-14, 2015.The activity which was attended by around 30
AEWs from the municipalities of Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro City aimed
to enhance the capabilities of the AEWs and strengthen their information
dissemination and extension activities at the grassroots level.Experts coming
from the Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI), Philippine Rice Research Institute
(PhilRice), Philippine Crops Insurance Corporation and the Northern Mindanao
Agricultural Crops and Livestock Research Complex (DA-NMACLRC) have imparted
relevant information which are essential in the promotion of climate-smart
agriculture in order to build climate-resilient farming communities in their
respective areas.Topics tackled include: the contribution, effects and impact
of agricultural activities on climate change; mitigating and adaptation
measures for climate change; climate change resilient strategy through enhanced
farmers’ field schools (FFS); Prevention, Avoidance, Monitoring and Suppression
(PAMS) as pest management strategy; weather index based on crop damage
assessment; and rice crop manager and other management strategies.Moreover, the
AEWs have also learned about technical report writing which is relevant in the
enhancement of their report writing skills as most of them are FFS
facilitators. With the conduct of the training, the DA is expecting that the
local agriculture offices through the trained AEWs will be able to extend the
information to the farmer-clienteles and encourage them to adopt efficient and
appropriate technologies. The training was also previously conducted for the
AEWs in Camiguin and Misamis Occidental, while the next leg will be conducted
in June 2015 for the AEWs of Lanao del Norte and Bukidnon. (Vanessa Mae S.
Siano, DA-RAFIS 10/PIA 10)
APEDA
India News
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on: 21-05-2015
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Pacific trade pact is a good deal
for rice farmers, waterfowl
Long-billed dowitchers
forage in a rice field in Meridian last September. Increased rice exports under
a proposed Pacific trade deal could also benefit migrating waterfowl, some say. | Randall Benton Sacramento Bee file
There has been a lot of press about
the Trans-Pacific Partnership leading
up to a possible vote this week on “fast-track” authority for the
Obama administration to negotiate a final deal.Some proponents laud it as the
future of Pacific Rim trade. Some decry it as a further erosion of American
jobs and the environment.
Mark Biddlecomb
What does it practically mean for
the Sacramento region?
The agriculture and food sector is
one of our top economic drivers, supporting nearly 40,000 jobs and $3.5 billion
a year in economic input. The value of crop production grew to $2.15 billion in
2013; it is the one sector showing strong growth throughout the recession and
contributing positively to the nation’s trade balance.Agriculture was the
second biggest export sector for our region in 2014; combined with
agriculture-related products and machinery, it provided $1.4 billion in total
exports.
Because of our region’s location,
we are uniquely situated to capitalize on the demand for exports to Asia, and
to bolster our North and South American trade opportunities.In the case of our
valley’s iconic crop – rice – the Pacific trade agreement will expand markets
for the next generation of farmers. Today our best export market for rice is
Japan. The TPP promises to expand that trade and improve the bottom line for
family farms battered by the drought.Expanding the rice market could be good
for wildlife, too. The 4 million to 6 million waterfowl that call the Central
Valley home in the winter rely heavily on flooded rice fields for food. Upward
of 60 percent of the diet of ducks and geese comes from rice fields that farmers
flood after harvest.
Family farms and waterfowl both
benefit from increased production the following spring. Farmers have taken care
of their rice straw and waterfowl return to their northern breeding grounds in
great shape due to the plentiful food resources farmers have provided. It’s a
win for both.A legitimate question often raised is the effect of exporting
water as a byproduct of trade. Would the TPP simply allow for more export of
our region’s water in the form of raw agricultural products?
While it may seem to be the case,
increased exports will actually keep more of the water in the Valley. During
drought, there is increased movement of water from the Sacramento region to
meet the demands of urban users and of farmers in other regions. In the long-term,
however, economics will play an ever-increasing role.Strong demand for rice,
wheat, tomatoes and other crops grown in the Sacramento Valley ensures that
farmers will continue to grow those crops and that our region and the plethora
of wildlife that utilize them, continue to enjoy the water that irrigates those
fields.For our region, the TPP will improve our economic opportunities and
continue to build one of our key regional advantages – agriculture – while at
the same time supporting our environment.
Mark Biddlecomb is Western region director for Ducks Unlimited.
Tim Johnson is president and CEO of the California Rice Commission. Bill
Mueller is CEO of Valley Vision
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article21515271.html#storylink=cpy
Turnaround Tuesday’ taking toll on technical trading: Part I
May
20, 2015 | Delta
Farm Press
Scott Stiles says timing is
everything, and, if he could have his druthers, he would rather have given the
talk he gave the Agricultural Council of Arkansas’ board of directors on May 19
a day earlier.“This is officially turnaround Tuesday,” said Stiles, an
agricultural economist for the University of Arkansas Extension Service who is
based in Jonesboro. “This last time I looked at the markets today September
rice was down 11, December corn down seven, November beans down 12.“That’s
below a key support. If they’re down 12 that means they’re trading at 9.23 so
you really, really need to pay attention to where November beans close today if
you’re not hedged or priced. Wheat has backed off its highs, and it’s down 15
cents on the July contract.”Stiles was apologetic, saying he wished he could
have given the presentation on May, May 18, when cotton and grains futures had
all moved higher because of a rally that began the previous week following
USDA’s release of the May 12 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates or
WASDE report.By Tuesday, May 19, the cotton and grains futures markets in New York
and Chicago had given back most of those gains, costing farmers who haven’t
priced their crops millions of dollars in potential returns at harvest. “This
is how marketing will have to be done over the next few years, but especially
for this year,” said Stiles. “It’s going to be very labor intensive. You
understand that this is how we’re going to market – we’re going to sell
rallies.”
70-cent rally
He used wheat as an example.
After May 5, when the wheat market bottomed, the July contract put on a 70-cent
rally. “When the market hands you 70 cents on a 6-bushel yield, or $42 a
bushel, you have to take that off the table,” said Stiles. That’s how marketing
has to be done. You have to sell the rally, sell the rally, sell the rally.
That’s your three-step marketing plan.”Market watchers sometimes forget the
impact a bullish move in one crop can have on others. The rally in new crop
wheat had the effect of pulling rice, soybeans, corn and cotton somewhat higher
during what some might call the spring rally.“You had this confluence of
weather news that came together,” said Stiles.
“The knee-jerk reaction in the
grain market was this was a fund liquidation, and that’s partly true. The funds
have a record net short position in corn, wheat and soybeans. Last week you saw
that 15,000 short contracts were liquidated in wheat.”Driving that move was
unusually cold weather in the Dakotas that could cause some replanting of the
corn, soybeans and wheat crops in the upper Midwest. At the same time, growers
have received too much rain leading to quality concerns in the hard red winter
wheat areas of the Plains and even now in the soft red winter wheat areas of
the Mid-South and Midwest.
Climatologists seem to be agreed
that an El Nino weather phenomenon will occur in full force in September, which
could lead to disastrous weather conditions in Australia, India and in other
key markets. Australia is the fourth largest wheat exporters, and India has
been playing an increasingly larger role in the cotton, rice and wheat
markets.“So you have some weather events that could converge, and then you have
to look at the technicals,” says Stiles. “The technicians look at the red line
(on a wheat futures chart he displayed). It’s a 100-day moving average, and
they said that if the market can close above this 100-day moving average then
we’ll move on to that April double-top around $5.42. It didn’t happen, and
today you’re seeing the market pull back and correct.”
No fundamental changes
Did the fundamentals change in
any of those markets? “Absolutely not,” said Stiles. “There are very few
bullish cards in the deck this year when you look at the global fundamentals
situation. Wheat, for example, has record-high ending stocks of 201 million
metric tons, the highest since 2009. You had record production in the world
last year.”U.S. exports, as a result, are expected to decline from 32 million
metric tons to 23.4 million metric tons because of a combination of the wheat
surplus around the world and the strength of the U.S. dollar compared to other
currencies.
“The U.S. is a residual
supplier,” he said. “We export a lot of wheat when there’s a failure somewhere
else in the world or the dollar is weak compared to other currencies.”Stiles
suggested growers mark June 30, the date the USDA National Agricultural
Statistics Service Acreage Report will be released, on their calendars and plan
to have a major portion of their expected 2015 production hedged.In the March
31 Prospective Planting Report released by USDA, the average of trade estimates
was 1.5 million acres above the USDA forecast of 84.6 million acres for the
2015 soybean crop. If achieved, the 84.6 million acres would be a record for
the U.S.Informa Economics, the Memphis, Tenn.-based economic forecasting firm,
has released a new estimate that is 2.5 million acres above the USDA NASS March
31 Planting Intentions Report figure of 84.6 million.
“Informa is well-respected. They
survey growers, they survey lenders, they survey agribusiness, and someone is
telling them there’s more bean acreage out there,” said Stiles. “It would be a
nuclear bomb in the soybean markets. If it’s 87 million acres, that would take
the carryover estimate from the current 500 million bushels to 600 million, and
that gets us back to the 2009-10 lows of $7.86 per bushel.”For more on the
March 31 Prospective Plantings Report,
http://deltafarmpress.com/rice/turnaround-tuesday-taking-toll-technical-trading-part-i
Rice keeps US, Japan from signing the TPP
The
Trans-Pacific Partnership – a free trade deal between the United States,
Canada, and 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region that’s been under
negotiation for nearly a decade – is stuck… over rice.Whether to allow more
rice imports into Japan is among the few issues that have kept Washington and
Tokyo from concluding trade talks, reports The Wall Street Journal.Rice is a
top obstacle for the Japanese, even though it’s less than 1% of the $200bn in
annual trade between Japan and the United States.
Each
year, Japan imports 770,000 tonnes of rice tariff-free, or about 10% of its
annual consumption, under a 1995 World Trade Organization quota agreement,
reports The Wall Street Journal. Also, of the total amount of rice imported,
Japan allows up to 100,000 tonnes to reach consumers. The rest is not allowed
to enter the market. It is actually purchased by the government and sold as
animal feed at a fraction of the original cost or re-exported as food aid.“Only
small amount of [American] rice reaches Japanese consumers identified as US
rice, despite industry research showing Japanese consumers would buy US high
quality rice if it were more readily available,” the Office of the US Trade
Representative said in its 2015 report on foreign trade barriers.
While
Japan has agreed to ease restrictions on beef and pork, it has rejected to do
the same with rice. The government reportedly fears a backlash from the
country’s 3.3 million rice growers, trade officials say.“Even a small import
increase of 10,000 tonnes or 20,000 tonnes could have a big impact on the rice
market,” said Akira Banzai, head of Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, a powerful
farm lobby, was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.
PH to import extra 500,000 MT
rice
May 21, 2015 9:48 pm
The inter-agency National Food
Authority (NFA) Council has approved importation of another 500,000 metric tons
of rice this year on expectations that local palay (unhusked rice) production
will fall short of target, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on
Thursday.In an interview, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala disclosed that
Manila plans to import 250,000 MT to serve as buffer stock during the so-called
lean season (June-September), while delivery of the remaining 250,000 MT still
has to be decided by the NFA.The state-run grains agency is required by law to
have at least 15-day buffer stock at any given time, and 30-day buffer stock
during lean months.
Once completed, the new round of
imports will bring total rice shipments to the Philippines to 1.3 million
metric tons for this year.In February this year, Manila imported a total of
500,000 MT of rice through a government-to-government deal with Thailand and
Vietnam.The NFA also allowed entry of about 300,000 MT of rice under the
minimum access volume commitment under the World Trade Organization.In 2014,
the Philippines’ rice importation reached over 1.7 million MT, the biggest
under the Aquino administration, and closer to the 2009 level of 1.8 million
MT.“Based on projections, we will unlikely hit our target of 20.08 million MT
of rice by end of the year.
So the council has agreed to
import to fill the possible gap in our rice requirement,” Alcala said.Despite
another expected record year for the palay sector, the DA chief admitted that
the rice self-sufficiency goals remained elusive because of shortfalls in
irrigation and other government interventions.“By end of this year, our
sufficiency level will be around 96-97 percent with more than 19 million MT of
rice to be produced this year. This is roughly the same level last year,” he
said.The Bureau of Agricutlural Statistics said palay production reached 4.367
million MT in January-March 2015, higher by 1.41 percent from 4.306 million MT
a year ago.The positive growth was largely attributed to expansion in harvest
areas and improvement in yields of irrigated palay.
Forecasts on standing crops of
palay indicate lower production in the second quarter of 2015 that may bring
about reduction in outputs for the staple crop in the first half of 2015.The
NFA attributed the lower projected output to effects of a dry spell on some
crops.The April-June 2015 forecasts on standing crops indicate palay production
of 3.90 million MT, 4.21 percent below the 4.07 million MT output in 2014,
while the total first half production may reach 8.27 million MT, 1.32 percent
below the 8.38 million MT output in 2014
http://www.manilatimes.net/ph-to-import-extra-500000-mt-rice/185419/
Happiness Eludes Divided Thailand as Farmers Struggle
7:44 PM PDT
May 20, 2015
May 20, 2015
Sakhon Sutasaeng points at posters of former Thai prime
ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra at his house in Khon Kaen province.
Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg
There’s not much sign of
Thailand’s yearlong military rule in Sakhon Sutasaeng’s home in the
rice-growing northeast region of Isan.In the traditional thatched sala outside
his house, beside a sign that says “Defend Democracy,” hangs a portrait of
Thaksin Shinawatra, deposed by a 2006 coup. Inside, on a bookshelf, are photos
of Thaksin’s sister Yingluck, whose government was toppled by the military last
May.“We’re waiting for the election next year,” said Sakhon, 66, a retired
agriculture ministry official. Like many people in the region, he still
supports the political movement known as the Red Shirts, who backed Thaksin and
his sister. “If nothing happens we are ready to fight to have an election. We
have more Red Shirts than the military has soldiers.”The junta seized power
with a promise to bridge a decade of political schism in the country, root out
corruption and bring happiness. Coup leader-turned-Prime Minister Prayuth
Chan-Ocha said he’ll return the country to democracy next year if there is no
dissent and a new constitution is put in place.Interviews with rice farmers in
Isan, a bastion of support for the parties of the Shinawatras, and rubber planters
in the south, a stronghold of their opponents, show that divisions in the
country are as wide as ever and trouble may be brewing if the government fails
to boost the economy and keep its promise to hold elections.
Rejigging
Constitution
“Whatever rejigging the
constitution drafters might do to reformulate the electorate, the stark fact is
that farmers make up at least half of voters,” said David Streckfuss, a
Thailand scholar based in Isan. “The military government can’t expect to win
the day with just its charm. There’s not much in the present draft constitution
that would be attractive to the average farmer in the northeast.”Since taking
over, the junta has had its work cut out. As well as quelling protests, it has
faced a global commodities slump, increasing competition from neighboring
countries and slowing demand from China. Consumer confidence fell in April to
its lowest level in almost a year, and the baht is Asia’s worst-performing
major currency so far this quarter.Output at Thailand’s factories has declined
every month but one since March 2013. Economic growth last quarter was probably
about half the pace of Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.At the heart of
Thailand’s political troubles is rice, the country’s staple food and among its
biggest export earners. Agriculture employs almost half of the nation’s
workers.
Buying Votes?
Yingluck’s party won an election
in 2011 in part by appealing to rice farmers with a plan to boost rural incomes
by buying their crops at above-market rates. Her government also bought rubber
directly from farmers. Her opponents said the programs encouraged corruption
and were a form of vote buying.The cost of the rice program has risen to 536
billion baht ($16 billion) according to the junta. Rice subsidies by successive
governments over the past 10 years have cost 700 billion baht, according to
estimates from the Ministry of Finance.After the coup, Yingluck was
retroactively impeached by the junta’s legislature and banned from politics for
five years for failing to stem losses from the subsidy. On Tuesday she was in
court again, pleading not guilty to negligence charges in a criminal trial that could see her
spend up to 10 years in prison.
Rice Reforms
Thaksin, who pursued a similar
rice-purchase program, fled Thailand after being convicted by a
military-appointed court of corruption and abuse of power.Prime Minister
Prayuth said the government is restructuring the rice industry by reducing planting for a second harvest, encouraging the
production of higher-quality rice and helping farmers to improve yields and
reduce costs. Some farmers have also been barred from irrigating crops this
year because of concern about water shortages.Farmers in Isan aren’t happy with
the loss of their second harvest, which they say is more profitable than the
first. They say there is plenty of water if only the government would release
it from dams. Isan is Thailand’s poorest and biggest region, an area larger
than Greece where more than half the agricultural land is devoted to rice.Sovit
Phoma, 52, head of Dok Kra Jiew village in the region, said the loss of a
second crop has slashed the village’s combined annual earnings from rice by
two-thirds, to about 4 million baht. He said the stable prices under Thaksin
had allowed poor farmers to plan their lives, to borrow money and invest in
their future.“He gave me control over my life,” said Sovit, who took out loans
that allowed him to send his two children to university. “He made rice farming
a business.”
Debt Struggle
Critics say the subsidies drained
government resources. State stockpiles of the grain have risen to 16 million
metric tons, from about 2 million tons before the government began paying
guaranteed prices in October 2011.Laongsri Phoma, a 46-year-old rice farmer in
Isan, said the subsidies flowed back into the economy.“If we have money it
means the economy will grow,” she said. “If we don’t have money, how can people
sell things? Who’s going to be their customers, because we’re the majority of
customers in the country.”Without their second crop, many farmers in the area
say they’re struggling to pay off debts. Apinam Nawan, 47, a rice farmer who
also breeds crickets for eating, said most families have debts of 300,000 baht
or more and are surviving on money sent from family members working in
factories in the cities. “We are going deeper into debt. It’s hopeless.”
Losing
Patience
It isn’t just the rice farmers of
Isan, who are struggling.Even in the rubber plantations of the south, a
cornerstone of support for Thaksin’s opponents, some farmers are losing
patience with the junta. Prices of latex, the sap from the rubber tree, have
fallen by as much as 65 percent from their peak in early 2011 and by about 14
percent since the coup, as demand from China waned.“The government doesn’t
support price distortion,” Prayuth said Wednesday in a speech at a rice
industry conference in Nonthaburi on Bangkok’s outskirts. “Setting product
prices too high, both for rice and rubber, shouldn’t be done.”Still, the junta
began buying rubber at subsidized prices earlier this year after 5,000 farmers
in the south threatened to defy martial law and hold protests. The state’s
rubber stockpile has increased by 70 percent to 340,000 tons since the coup.
‘Broken
Promise’
Manoon Sooksrisang, 43, a rubber
farmer in Songkhla province, said he gets 10,500 baht to 12,000 baht a month
now versus 30,000 baht to 45,000 baht before. Manoon joined the protests in
Bangkok against Yingluck’s government that eventually led to the military
takeover after protest leaders said getting rid of her would lead to higher
rubber prices. Now, he says he and his friends feel betrayed.“It’s like a
broken promise,” he said. “They don’t care about us at all.”The protests were
led by former members of the Democrat party, who have their stronghold in
southern Thailand. The Democrats have become natural allies for the traditional
power brokers -- civil servants, army officers and royalists in Bangkok -- who
felt threatened by the rise of the Shinawatra political machine.Most farmers
interviewed in the south are upset about the drop in income but still support
the military government, arguing that they have at least restored order and
should be given more time to fix the country’s problems.
Interim
Charter
The government is responding by
boosting spending. Lawmakers proposed a fiscal 2016 budget today that would see
the highest proportion of investment in seven years, largely by upgrading
Thailand’s aging rail network. Of the 543.6 billion baht proposed for
investment, 297 billion baht would be for outside Bangkok.Lawmakers will also
soon consider changes to the interim constitution to allow a referendum to be
held on a permanent charter. If rejected, the charter-drafting process would
start again, further delaying the return of democracy.“Elections coming back to
the people is a good thing, but we have to look into whether it is the right
time,” said Suwichan Ruttiwul, 50, who sells rubber sheets in the town of
Khlong Ngae. He blames Thaksin for the division in the country.“If there’s an
election now there will be chaos,” agreed Nataworn Jantarit, 46, another rubber
farmer and latex seller. “Election or not, the main issue is money. It’s
simple. It’s the farmer’s stomach.”
Returning Happiness?
Meantime, Prayuth appears on TV
almost every Friday evening on all major networks in a program called
“Returning Happiness to the People.” In monologues that can last an hour and a
half, he offers advice on everything from how to reduce household debt to tips
on cultivating orchids and strawberries.He penned a song, “Return Happiness to
Thailand,” which plays each night after the national anthem and appears when
people try to access websites banned by the junta.In Isan, villagers said they
are they are fed up with the weekly broadcasts.“The best business would be selling
TVs since so many people are breaking theirs when they see Prayuth’s face,”
joked Suchart Busrakham, 49, a farmer who borrowed money to buy a truck. He had
planned to sell straw mats in surrounding villages, but with the drop in rice
prices and consumer spending he’s fallen behind on repayments and now ferries
schoolchildren to make ends meet.“You can’t command people to be united,” he
said. “We want our democracy back.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-21/happiness-eludes-thailand-s-divided-regions-as-farmers-struggle
GMO Scientists Could Save the World From Hunger, If We Let Them
BY TOM PARRETT / MAY 21, 2015 6:18 AM EDT
A Nebraska Cornhusker frets as he surveys his drought-stunted
crop. A Nigerian yam farmer digs up shrunken tubers. A Costa Rican coffee baron
lays off hundreds of workers because a fungus has spoiled his harvest. I
planted cherry trees in upstate New York last spring. One summer morning, they
were denuded by Japanese beetles.Such disasters are increasingly 
common on a planet buffeted by climate change and worldwide
commerce, where heat burns crops, soil has been ruined by over-farming and
drought, and bugs ride across oceans to feast on defenseless plants.
Agronomists have been working on these problems for years, but the rapid
population growth of humans makes overcoming these challenges increasingly
urgent. If we can’t feed the world, it will eventually feed on us.
common on a planet buffeted by climate change and worldwide
commerce, where heat burns crops, soil has been ruined by over-farming and
drought, and bugs ride across oceans to feast on defenseless plants.
Agronomists have been working on these problems for years, but the rapid
population growth of humans makes overcoming these challenges increasingly
urgent. If we can’t feed the world, it will eventually feed on us.
Anti-Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)
activists symbolically tear out sunflower plants in a field in Feyzin, near
Lyon, July 30, 2011.
ROBERT PRATTA/REUTERS
The
United Nations and experts say global food production will have to double by
2050, at which point the world population is expected to have grown from 7
billion today to well beyond 9 billion. That’s just 35 years away, and there
will be no new arable land then. In fact, there probably will be less. For
example, 73 million acres of arable land in the U.S. were lost between 2002 and
2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); more was
certainly made fallow during the last several years of severe drought. Looking
ahead, growing conditions will only get harsher.
The
solution, though, appears to be on the way: In 2012, a new tool was invented
that revolutionizes how scientists can examine—and manipulate—plant genetic
processes. It’s called CRISPR-Cas9, and unlike its predecessors in the world of
genetic modification, it is highly specific, allowing scientists to zero in on
a single gene and turn it on or off, remove it or exchange it for a different
gene. Early signs suggest this tool will be an F-16 jet fighter compared with
the Stone Age spear of grafting, the traditional, painstaking means of breeding
a new plant hybrid. Biologists and geneticists are confident it can help them
build a second Green Revolution—if we’ll let them.
Citrus affected by 'greening,'
an insect-borne bacterial disease, is shown as Larry Hardie, a grove manager
for Barnes Citrus, Inc., holds a malformed star ruby grapefruit in a grove in
Vero Beach, Florida December 1, 2010. JOE
SKIPPER/REUTERS
“We now have a very easy, very fast and very efficient technique
for rewriting the genome,” said one
of its inventors, Jennifer Doudna of
the University of California, Berkeley, when the Innovative Genomics Initiative
was launched in 2014. “[It] allows us to do experiments that have been
impossible before.” The speed and simplicity of CRISPR have momentous
implications for agriculture: The process could lead to plants that can withstand
what an increasingly overheated nature has in store. It could also result in a
more nutritious yield, from less plant. Researchers have glommed on to
it—they’ve already published more than 150 related scientific papers, and the publication rate is
accelerating. “It’s tough to keep up with all the papers that are coming out,”
says Joyce Van Eck, who runs a lab focused on the study of genetics-based crop
improvement at Cornell University’s Boyce Thompson Institute.
“The field is exploding.”CRISPR stands
for—brace yourself—Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.
The name comes from a trick that bacteria use to protect themselves from lethal
viruses and phages, little cellular saboteurs. The “palindromic repeats” (gene
sequences that read the same from either end) are immune response elements,
genetic code the bacteria copy and incorporate from invading viruses so that,
if they return, they can be easily identified. It’s a bit like posting an FBI
wanted poster or splashing enemy soldiers with glow-in-the-dark paint.The
technique requires two accomplices: molecules called guide RNA and a protein
from a class labeled Cas.
The most effective one
found so far is Cas9. RNA has long been known to be the vehicle DNA needs to
convey its message. In a cell, Cas9 prepares the chemical environment around a
DNA molecule for interaction, then spurs RNA to find the selected section of
DNA. Once it does, the RNA will guide the Cas9 into the DNA, where the Cas9
unzips DNA’s double helix and does one of three things, depending on the
chemical instructions scientists provide: It blunts this section’s ability to
work, stimulates it to go to work or excises selected genes. Then the cell’s
repair crew zips the DNA back up.The process can easily modify plant DNA
without changing the plant’s essence—except to make it tastier, more
nutritious, quicker to market, easier to ship, machine-pickable, less needy of
water and/or able to flourish in a heat wave. And we can do it for big
companies and small, the world at large and isolated communities.
Farmers tend to a maize field
where they plant GMO crops, in Bonkhorstspruit, South Africa. JONAS
BENDIKSEN/MAGNUM
In the old days, relying on hit-or-miss natural processes to breed
plants took many years. Norman Borlaug, father of the first Green Revolution—a
hugely successful effort to improve food-crop productivity in poor countries
that began in the 1940s and eventually doubled or even quadrupled what many
plants could produce—needed almost two decades to create a better wheat
variety. With CRISPR-Cas9, we can compress that development cycle to a few days
or weeks.
This is partly because we can now process, store and compare vast
quantities of genetic data quickly and cheaply. The upshot for scientists has
been the rapid growth in knowledge of cell chemistry and genes, and most
important, our ballooning database of many species’ genomes.Ideally, we would
know everything about the genome of all our favorite produce staples, down to
the placement of every single gene. And this cataloging is happening with
astonishing speed. Researchers at the University of Kansas have sequenced the
first and toughest of wheat’s 20
chromosomes—and that one chromosome is far more complex than the entire rice
genome. They say they’ll be able to do the next 19 in three years. The result
will be complete knowledge of the genome of the world’s third-most cultivated
crop, the one with the most protein and arguably the grain that is most
versatile as a food and cooking source.
Genetic scientists are
currently attempting to sequence all of wheat's 20 chromosomes. Once they do,
they'll be able to use CRISPR to make the crop hardier and more nutritious. JONATHAN
GREGSON/GETTY
Then, the amazing flexibility of CRISPR-Cas9 can be brought to
bear. The idea is to use the process to replace a segment of a plant’s genetic
sequence entirely, a bit like exchanging a chunk of Lego blocks, to improve
specific plant behavior. Imagine a wheat strain that thrives at the edge of a
salt marsh in tropical Ecuador. Compared with Iowa’s amber waves of grain, it’s
a runt that produces small, bitter kernels. But by adding bits of the
Ecuadorian genome to the American variety, scientists make a strain that is
more salt-tolerant and still provides a big yield. Both dry, salty Ecuador and
dry, salty America would gain a better plant.It’s critical to note this has
nothing to do with creating a new species. CRISPR-Cas9 is a tool that helps us
adapt plants to new environments by fine-tuning their own genetic traits, using
their own genes from plants they’d naturally breed with, such as their wild
versions. As the tool targets a tiny segment of a plant’s DNA, the plant stays
the same species—technically, even the same genotype. As scientists see it, the
technology respects a plant species for its evolutionary capacity to thrive
over eons, while helping it evolve more quickly to adjust to today’s
environment. We are only putting our foot to the accelerator of natural plant
processes.
Beautiful Tomatoes
Caution and guidelines are certainly called for. The early results
of CRISPR-Cas9 tests have not been completely predictable. A published number
is up to an 80 percent success rate, high for experimental stuff but not high
enough for commercial applications. What can happen is “off-target DNA
interactions,” where “you accidentally modify a very similar sequence elsewhere
in the genome,” says Cornell’s Van Eck. This was also a big problem in earlier
genetic engineering technologies, which basically flooded a plant’s genome with
compounds, trusting that some would stick. CRISPR-Cas9 is comparatively
precise, but some scientists remain cautious. The technology could and probably
will get better; different versions of CRISPR-Cas9 could be developed, or
scientists could find a new enzyme that does what CRISPR-Cas9 does more
precisely.
In the Van Eck laboratory at
Cornell University, scientists have already applied a number of genetic
engineering strategies to two major crops: tomatoes and potatoes. HENRIK
SORENSEN/GETTY
On the other hand, Van Eck and her colleagues have proved that
what they already have works beautifully with the tomato, a plant that’s become
“a model species, like the white rat in animal studies,” she says. Soon she and
others in the field will be working to improve the tomato’s hardiness and
disease resistance, with results that will come with what she terms
“drummer-like precision”—the exactitude of, say, Elvin Jones or Charlie
Watts—“because we can go in and target exactly the areas we want.” Other early
advances include a new version of rice that
is more adaptable and has the ability to photosynthesize faster and more
efficiently. That portends a future where, thanks to CRISPR-Cas9, scientists
are at the rice control console, able to consider the available inputs—water,
soil nutrients, temperature—and make adjustments to better control the outputs:
productivity, nutritional value, resilience. All that’s needed is for consumers
to buy in.
Suspicions Trump Science
Biotech crops are already well-established around the world. The
U.S. has approved about 100 genetically modified plants for use in agriculture.
Virtually all cotton in India, a vital economic staple for the country, is GM,
as is 90 percent of cotton grown in China. Four out of every five harvested
soybeans on earth are genetically modified. Corn worldwide is 35 percent
genetically modified. Bangladesh is considering a GM eggplant that could double
its harvest by protecting it from worms. Food writer Mark Bittman recently
pointed out that we’ve been happily eating harmless genetically modified,
virus-resistant papayas for years, and that’s Mr. Natural talking.But some
countries are balking.
Mexico, where maize was first domesticated, must now
import it to meet local demand because activists there will not allow
genetically modified organism hybrids. Mexico’s maize growers get yields 38
percent lower than the world average and three times below the U.S., where 90
percent of the maize crop is an insect-resistant GMO hybrid. Mexico’s fields
are beset by such crop ravishers as the corn earworm, black cutworm and fall
armyworm, which cost the country up to half its crops and incite farmers to
spray their land with thousands of tons of chemical insecticides.The European
Union has approved just one genetically modified crop, a type of maize used for
animal feed.
The reasons are political and bureaucratic: A majority of member
countries must approve a biotech plant, and anti-GMO sentiment runs strong in
places where phrases like naturel and natürliche are more about what’s
been done for centuries than what it actually means for something to exist in
or be caused by nature.This
genetic work has not just found detractors but also aroused fierce partisans.
Take Golden Rice, for example. It’s basic rice, but modified to
produce its own vitamin A, potentially saving up to 2.8 million children a year
from blindness and a million of them from death. Yet it sits in labs, unused.
The notion of GMOs has spooked environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which
has resisted GMOs with violent action, including destroying an experimental
Golden Rice field last year in the Philippines. This despite the fact that Golden Rice is being offered to the world by a
nonprofit, with no commercial stipulations, and is likely to save many
lives.The scientific consensus for the safety of GMOs is overwhelming. A
recent Pew poll found that 88 percent of U.S.
scientists think GMO technology is harmless. By contrast, only 33 percent of
civilians agreed.
A recent 7-1 U.S. Supreme Court decision concurred that genetically modified
alfalfa is safe. The USDA, after arduous review, has allowed genetically
modified sugar beets. Several independent studies so far have tested the
effects of varieties of genetically modified crops on animals. In 2012, a meta-analysis of
12 long-term studies and 12 multigenerational studies was published in Food and Chemical Toxicology; it
concluded “that GM plants are nutritionally equivalent to their non-GM
counterparts and can be safely used in food and feed.” And according to the
independent organization Biofortified, more than a hundred such studies have
been performed, with no harmful results found.
GM potato seedlings are grown
in test tubes at the National Center for Plant Genome Research in New Delhi.
Biologists and geneticists are confident that the gene-editing CRISPR
technology can help them build a second Green Revolution—if we’ll let them.
FREDRIK
RENANDER/REDUX
Anti-GMO activists tend to cite two scientific studies, which both
involve rats, GM corn and the pesticide Roundup. Both were undertaken by French
scientist Gilles-Éric Séralini and
found that the rats fed the GM corn were more likely to die prematurely than a
control group. But the journal that originally accepted the studies, Food and Chemical Toxicology,
withdrew them, and every major scientific and food-safety organization in
Europe has condemned them. Among the problems with the studies was that the
strain of rats used in the test are cancer-prone—80 percent routinely develop
tumors. “All we are seeing in these results is due to random variation in a
poorly controlled experiment,” Ian Musgrave, of the University of Adelaide, in
South Australia, told Forbes when the studies were
retracted.Chances are, you’ve heard of Roundup (active ingredient: glyphosate).
That’s because it’s the second in the supposed double punch that
agrochemical company Monsanto has allegedly been throwing for years to create a
cycle of financial dependence among farmers worldwide. Monsanto produces
Roundup. Since 1996, it has also produced Roundup Ready crops, including soy,
corn and alfalfa, all genetically modified to be resistant to the
herbicide—which means it can be used on fields to get rid of encroaching plant
life without harming the crops. That’s great for farmers. But these Roundup
Ready seeds have a dark side: farmers who buy them sign an agreement saying
they will not buy save any seeds from the resulting crop.
In other words, they have to buy new seeds every year from
Monsanto. This has all been incredibly lucrative for the company; it
currently has a third of the $40 billion global seed business. The
Monsanto/Roundup controversy continues to inflame passions: Among the many
concerns that have been raised is the possibility that genetically modified DNA
from the Roundup Ready plants might be contaminating non-GMO food supplies.
Then there’s the fact that glyphosate might be a health hazard—the World Health
Organization says it is a probable carcinogen.Meanwhile, “No GMO” is now being
embraced by consumer brands; the ascendant “fast-casual” chain Chipotle posts
just such a sign in its restaurants. It makes sense: If over two-thirds of
Americans think GMOs are unhealthy, declaring yourself GMO-free is a lucrative
proposition. Local governments are also weighing in. Vermont now demands that
all GMO foods sold there be labeled as such. Two rural counties in Oregon have
banned GMO crops within their borders.
There have been a number of
efforts in recent years to get state governments to require labeling all GMO
products. Proponents claim that even if GMOs are safe, consumers should know
what they're buying. CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS/REUTERS
Yet despite the conventional wisdom, startup money for
GMO development in the U.S. and elsewhere is flowing like it’s coming out of a
fire hose, first for biomedical applications, from venture capitalists as well
as traditional pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Celgene and
Novartis. U.S. startups include Caribou Biosciences, Editas,
Intellia Therapeutics, CRISPR Therapeutics and CRISPR-Plant.In China, where
rural populations react to GMOs with dread and anger, the only genetically
modified crop currently grown is Bittman’s papaya. But China’s mighty science establishment has thrown its weight behind genetic
work, with 400 labs and 30,000 researchers. Labs there have already sequenced
the genes of 3,000 varieties of rice, in preparation for matching them against
one another to find the best traits for nutrition, yield and resistance to
environmental stressors. One result someday soon will be what researchers have
dubbed “green super rice.” Even if the Chinese government can’t sell
genetically modified crops to its own people, there’s a good chance the poor
populations of Southeast Asia, Africa and India will welcome the
nourishment. Gengyun Zhang, head of life sciences for BGI, China’s
giant state-sponsored genetic engineering center, recently said, “With today’s
technology, I have no doubt that we can feed the world.”Correction:
This article originally incorrectly stated that today's world population is 2
billion. It is 7 billion. It also incorrectly suggested that "Bt"
stands for "biotech." "Bt" actually stands for bacillus
thuringiensis, a bacterium whose genes are often used in the
development of genetically modified crops. It also incorrectly stated that
Roundup Ready seeds are sterile.
Daily Nexus
El Niño 2015 Could Make Food More Expensive,
Especially Coffee, Chocolate And Rice, Experts Warn
By Elizabeth
Whitman on May 21 2015 9:16 AM EDT
The prices of coffee, chocolate, sugar and other staples are
likely to rise this year with the advent of El Niño, a weather event with
global consequences, scientists have warned. As the phenomenon sets in
this year, some have predicted that the prices of some foods could as much as double.During an El Niño event, waters in the Equatorial
Pacific Ocean become unusually warm as trade winds die down, disrupting weather
patterns around the world. Heavy rains and flooding in the southern U.S. and
parts of Latin America, along with droughts in Australia and Asia, are among
its repercussions. It's
not to be confused with its counterpart La Niña, where the same waters of the
Pacific are abnormally cold.This year, the El Niño event could be anywhere from
moderate to strong, scientists predict.
As rice farmers in the southern Philippines and soybean growers in
India pray for more rain in what promises to be a
relative dry monsoon season, the southern U.S. is already bracing for heavy
rains, withdownpours drenching the
state of Texas. The price of coffee could increase by 107 percent, while
soya beans could rise by nearly 37 percent, the Times reported, although others said the average increase in
such staples typically ranged from 5 to 10 percent during El Niño, the BBC reported. Banana,
sugarcane and cocoa crops could also be affected."Most El
Niños historically have had a global impact on food prices," Nick
Klingaman, a climate researcher at the University of Reading, told the BBC.
If the phenomenon is strong this year, it could "disrupt global
food markets," he added.The National Weather Service, which issued an El
Niño advisory in March, has said the
phenomenon is 90 percent likely to last through the summer of 2015 and at least
80 percent likely to continue through the end of the year.In 2009, El Niño led
to a devastating drought in India and destroyed crop production throughout
Asia, leading to a spike in food prices, Reuters reported.
USA
Rice, Dow AgroSciences Team Up on Rice Month Scholarships; $8,500 in Awards
Available
2014 Grand Prize Winner
Nicholas Schafer
INDIANAPOLIS,
IN -- Dow AgroSciences continues its commitment to the agriculture industry by
sponsoring the USA Rice Federation National Rice Month Scholarship Program,
expanding the opportunity from students in U.S.-rice producing counties to
students in all U.S. rice-producing states.High school graduates in the 2015-16
school year are encouraged to apply for scholarships totaling $8,500. To apply,
students must create a promotional program that highlights U.S.-grown rice for
National Rice Month in September. Applicants can submit a synopsis of their
promotion in a variety of ways, including in video format, which will be
accepted this year for the first time.
The
scholarship program is now open to students who live in any county in Arkansas,
California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. Three scholarships
will be awarded based on the originality and effectiveness of the winning
entries. "We are thrilled Dow AgroSciences is supporting this scholarship
program for the sixth year in a row and opening up the opportunity to all youth
in rice-producing states," says Darla Huff, rice product manager, Dow
AgroSciences. "Supporting our youth and educating the public about
agriculture is integral to the success of the rice industry.
"
Because the scholarship emphasizes education, the students' efforts also help
build awareness of the valuable contributions the rice industry makes to this
country's economy, Huff says. Nicholas Schafer, a high school senior from
Carlisle, Arkansas, was the grand-prize scholarship winner in 2014 for his
promotion titled "Do you Know Where Your Rice Comes From?" The
promotion educated children from his community about the origin of their food
and the intricacies of farming. "They need to understand all the hard work
put into growing rice," Schafer says.
"It's not just something you get from a
grocery store. There's a lot behind it, and they need to understand the
importance of where it comes from." Promotions must be executed in
September, and applications must be submitted by Oct. 15, 2015. Scholarship
forms and additional guidelines are available at the USA Rice Federation
website. "The USA Rice Federation is proud to once again partner with Dow
AgroSciences, which funds these three scholarship awards, to support the rice
industry and education of our youth," says Betsy Ward, president and CEO
of the USA Rice Federation. "Students who participate do an excellent job
promoting the importance of U.S.-grown rice and its role in their home states.
"
The grand-prize winner will receive a $4,000 scholarship and a trip with a
chaperone this December to the award ceremony at the 2015 USA Rice Outlook
Conference in New Orleans. The second-place winner will receive a $3,000
scholarship, and the third-place winner will receive a $1,500 scholarship.
Contact: Amy Doane (703) 236-1454
|
Weekly Rice Sales, Exports Reported
|
|
WASHINGTON, DC -- Net rice sales of 10,900 MT for 2014/2015 were
down 47 percent from the previous week and 83 percent from the prior
four-week average, according to today's Export Sales Highlights report. Increases were reported for
Honduras (7,400 MT), Canada (2,600 MT), Jordan (1,300 MT), unknown
destinations (600 MT), and Lebanon (200 MT). Decreases were reported for
Ghana (1,200 MT), Mexico (900 MT), and Colombia (200 MT). Exports of 86,400 MT were up 50
percent from the previous week and 27 percent from the prior four-week
average. The primary destinations were Mexico (22,400 MT), South Korea
(22,000 MT), Haiti (20,600 MT), Japan (13,100 MT), and Canada (3,000 MT).This
summary is based on reports from exporters from the period May 8-14.
|
|
CME
Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures
|
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|
CME Group (Prelim): Closing Rough Rice Futures for May 21
|
Update: AR Department of Agriculture
Waiting for Audit Results of $15M in Out-of-State Account
05/11/2015
05:59 PM
05/20/2015
07:17 PM
Update
(May 20):LITTLE ROCK, AR - In an update to a KARK4 investigation, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture is watching and waiting for results from state auditors on $15 million dollars in state funds that were transferred to a nonprofit account out of state. Earlier this month we highlighted that the Rice Research and Promotion Board had voted to move the funds to the Rice Foundation for investment and never reported the funds to state financial officials.
Agriculture secretary Wes Ward, says he's heard from
many farmers about the issue and discussions have raised the question of if the
department should be overseeing those funds instead. "If there's nothing wrong in the
programs, it may be okay to stay there. But there are a number of questions
that need to be answered, and we look forward to seeing the results of that
audit," Ward says.The funds are required to be used for rice research
funding. Despite the millions not being disclosed to state officials, it
appears that for the most part that money has been spent on research. About $10
million is still sitting in that out of state account.
Original Story (May 11):
Original Story (May 11):
LITTLE ROCK, AR - A state senator's inquiry into a fund available to a state board prompted a 2-month long investigation by KARK 4 News. What we found was about $15 million dollars that had been held in an out of state bank account by a private nonprofit that many state officials were unaware even existed. John Alter is no stranger to the frustrations of farming, with decades of experience fighting Mother Nature and the commodity markets. "My job is to feed my family and sell my product at the best price I can," Alter said. But the frustrations of bureaucracy, he said he came to know during seven years on the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board. "I made several attempts to bring about change on the board," he said. "But I couldn't get anywhere.
" In the interest of full disclosure, Alter
is a member of the Arkansas
Rice Grower's Association, which has often been at odds with the
Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board because the association says members
of the board often deny funding requests from them for legitimate promotion
opportunities, while opting to give millions of dollars tothe promotional arm of the
USA Rice Federation.
What is the Rice Research and Promotion
board?
The
Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board is made up of nine members appointed
by the governor butrecommended by rice industry interest organizations,
including Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation and Riceland, among others. Alter
represented independent rice mills while on the board, though he's also a
farmer in DeWitt, Arkansas. By law, the board's resident agent or
administrator can fall under the Arkansas Farm Bureau. ACA
2-20-505 says, "the
resident agent of the board shall be the executive vice president, Arkansas
Farm Bureau Federation, or his or her designee." Brandy Carroll, an
employee of Arkansas Farm Bureau, serves as the administrator of the board.
"My efforts didn't seem to coincide with what was
going on," Alter said. Alter served from 2006 until he says he asked
to not be reappointed in 2013. "I believe I could make a motion that
the sun comes up in the east and it would die for lack of a second," he
said. And board minutes show that John Alter's motions veering beyond giving
money to the University of Arkansas for research projects often did fail to
receive support from the other board members. Following the last
legislative session, State Senator Garry Stubblefield had some questions about
the board, when he proposed a grain dealer regulation bill in the Senate Agriculture,
Forestry and Economic Development Committee meeting.
"I ran a bill that was concerning Turner
Grain it would have set up an indemnity fund to protect Arkansas farmers using
the check-off funds," Stubblefield said. Turner Grain, a brokering business that went belly up in late 2014,
ended up costing many Arkansas farmers tens of thousands of dollars. A number
of those farmers produced rice, and according to Stubblefield he had hoped to
use check-off money to develop a pool of funds to protect farmers left in the
lurch like those caught up in the Turner Grain scandal.
Check-off funds
Check-off funds are the annual funding available to
the board. They
began as a self-imposed assessment approved by farmers in 1985. But those were
written into law later, essentially creating a tax. They are no longer
refundable, and a referendum to reconsider the tax would have to be referred to
voters by the board that receives the money. Farmers pay 1.35 cents per
bushel of rice sold, and buyers pay 1.35 cents per bushel bought. That doesn't
sound like a great deal of money, until you consider that Arkansas often
producers around 190 million bushels or more each year.
The funds are allocated to fund research and promotion
of the Arkansas rice industry. The entities that receive the majority of
funding, generally without exception, are the University of Arkansas and the
USA Rice Council. Minutes show that these two entities were the largest
recipients of check-off funds, although occasionally the Arkansas Foundation
for Agriculture and Arkansas Farm Bureau have also received funds from the
board. The USA Rice Council is the promotional arm of the USA Rice
Federation. Its research arm is considered The Rice Foundation, according to
its website and the foundation's director.Stubblefield said in the course of analyzing
check-off funds as a source of funding for an indemnity pool for farmers, he
learned of something called TRQ funds that were rumored to be well into the
millions. Stubblefield, and others at the committee meeting in March, claims
when he asked about the TRQ funds, the meeting was instantly shut down.
"A lot of the rice farmers would like to know just
how that money is being spent and where it is kept," Stubblefield said.
" "One of the questions we asked during the meeting was about TRQ
funds, where those funds were and how much money was in the
account."According to Stubblefield, another state senator called for
immediate consideration of Stubblefield's bill, putting an end to the inquiry
and discussion. The bill failed to pass, and Sen. Stubblefield said getting
information from the board's administrator became a challenge. "I
thought information about state money would be relatively easy to get,"
Stubblefield said. "But I made repeated requests for information from the
board's administrator at Farm Bureau. And only recently received a response
when I had Senate staff send a formal inquiry," Stubblefield said the last
week of April.
What are TRQ funds?
Following the committee meeting in late March, KARK
began digging into what TRQ funds were and if they were sitting in an
out-of-state bank account as we had been told. After several information
requests from multiple sources, here is what we can confirm. In 2012, the
Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board came into a windfall that has
resulted in about $15 million dollars to spend. It appears that few people,
including many lawmakers, knew of its existence.
"The TRQ funds from Colombia have been a really
amazing opportunity for the rice industry in Arkansas," said Rice Research
and Promotion Chairman Marvin Hare.Based on a U.S. Trade Agreement with
Colombia, rice export tariffs would be reduced to zero percent by 2030. In the
meantime, certain amounts of rice could be exported at that rate, through a
certificate of trade auction process. Rice companies bid to fill the order, and
the highest bidder wins. The money generated from the auctions is then divided
between the United States and Colombia. Of the 50 percent portion the
United States receives, Arkansas typically receives roughly 50 percent of that
portion, based on rice production. A nonprofit was established to receive the
U.S. funds, called
Col-Rice, and then it distributes it to the six rice-producing
states that make up its membership.
Where did the TRQ funds go?
Arkansas received its first payment, designated to go
to the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board, in December 2012. But prior
to it ever receiving the funds, the board voted in May 2012 to allow The
Rice Foundation to hold the funds for investment purposes on behalf of the
board. The Rice Foundation is a private, nonprofit. It is not beholden to
any state officials. "This was already in place. They had a mechanism
to invest the funds. We chose to continue doing it that way," Hare
said.
The Rice Foundation already had a mechanism for
handling funds like this because United States rice-producing states had also
been the benefactors of a European Union TRQ dating back, Rice Foundation
account records show, to at least 1999. Only in
that arrangement, the trade agreement made The Rice Foundation the distributing
body for those funds to the states, where the Colombian TRQ was
slated to go to the states directly after passing through Col-Rice."They
put it into the Rice Foundation budget as a service to the Rice Research and
Promotion Board of Arkansas, they put those dollars in an investment until they
need those and decide where they are going to spend those dollars," said
The Rice Foundation director Chuck Wilson. "It's just a service we provide
for them, we don't get one red penny for doing it. We don't gain anything. We
do it as a service for them.
"The money, Wilson said, is in an account in
Virginia that the board always has access to withdraw from. The money,
according to board minutes, has been invested in CDs and money market accounts.
But further investment strategies didn't appear to be available based on
documents provided by the board's administrator. "It was the way for
the board to hold those funds and earn some interest on them," Hare said.
"Although the returns are small because they're in very low risk
instruments.
We're very prudent in that area - we don't want to lose
any of it." According to Hare, the funds are never really out of the
Rice Research and Promotion Board's control. Although, Wilson confirmed that
the board would vote to spend the money as it saw fit and alert The Rice
Foundation, which would then arrange for the funds to be distributed."The
Rice Foundation audits those funds, they provide us regular financial
statements on those funds," Hare said.
State approval?
Chairman Hare also stated that the state had approved
of the whole arrangement. "The state of Arkansas has reviewed those.
They say there's nothing wrong with them," Hare said. "They understand
why we were doing that. There's no wrongdoing and everything is open and above
board. All the minutes of the board identify the funds as being
there."When we followed up with the board administrator, asking who with
the state had approved of the process the board had used and if there was any
approval in writing, the administrator wrote back," I believe Mr. Hare was
referring to the fact that the Division of Legislative Audit conducts annual
audits of the Board's finances which includes a review of all minutes and
financial statements.
" The only problem is, the Division of
Legislative Audit confirmed that it reviews what are known as year-end CAFR
closing books from the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA). The closing book for the Rice Research and Promotion
Board, which is submitted by Brandy Carroll, haven't included any
references to the outside bank account where those funds were kept, according
to administrator of accounting at DFA, Paul Louthian.These funds have never
been included in the board's annual state audits, despite the first payment
being received in December 2012, because there is no mention of the funds being
part of its revenue stream.
"There is a section in the questionnaire that asks
specifically about commercial bank accounts, because there are state agencies
that have those," Louthian said. According to Louthian, and documents
provided by DFA in response to an FOI request, for the most recent report
of 2013 Carroll marked "no" in regard to outside bank accounts,
ignoring the "Morgan Stanley" account the board was reportedly
keeping the TRQ funds in, according to documents submitted by Carroll
to Col-Rice for IRS filings. According to Louthian, even if the funds were in a
Rice Foundation account, the relationship that the board had of distributing
the funds from that account would have required it be reported as revenue.
When we asked Louthian to clarify if the lack of
reporting would have left financial officials in the dark on the state level
not only about how the funds were used but even their existence, Louthian said,
"I think that would be safe to assume." When we asked if
individuals who prepared these reports, like Carroll, had access to training
for how to properly report revenues, Louthian confirmed that multiple training
opportunities are available through DFA and that DFA had dedicated staff
members within the office that are available to help answer questions regarding
financial reporting from the Rice Research and Promotion Board.
Since December 2012, financial records show that the
board has spent about $4.5 million of the $14.5 million it has received in TRQ
funds. But the board may not have even had the authority to spend that
money. According to the division of legislative audit, any money a state
agency receives has to have an appropriation from the legislature or a special
appropriation from DFA. According to legislative documents and DFA records, the
board has received neither in regard to TRQ funds. "I think every
person who grows rice in this state deserves to now those things, how their
money is being spent," Stubblefield said.
What comes next?
"When you get a dollar, it's no different than
state tax dollars, people need to know where it's spent. The percentages and
that it's spent correctly," State Senator Bryan King, (R) District
5.Despite all this, it appears the TRQ funds have been spent as intended, funding
research projects with the University of Arkansas. But some still wonder how
$15 million dollars in state funds were missed. "I think it's high
time the whole system be looked at," John Alter said. According to
Stubblefield, he and King have requested a full audit of the board, including
reviews of financial statements that include TRQ funds.
The Division of Legislative Audit has confirmed a
review is underway. Stubblefield has also suggested moving the rice check-off
funds and the responsibility of the board under the direction of the Arkansas
Department of Agriculture. According to Louthian at DFA, the business
process will be used in regard to this board moving forward. He is not aware of
anyone from the board arranging to meet with him or his staff members to work
out the details or clarify a plan moving forward, aside from meeting with
auditors.
Mahindra enters into strategic pact with
Mitsubishi Agriculture
by Takshak Dawda May 21, 2015
Dr Pawan Goenka, Executive
Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd announces the partnership with Mitsubishi
Heavy industries Attending the event was Harish Chavan, COO of Mahindra
Farming.Dr Pawan Goenka, Executive Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd with
Harish Chavan, COO of Mahindra Farming
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd
(MHI) of Tokyo, and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) have entered into a
strategic partnership today in the agricultural machinery field.Under the
definitive agreement signed today, Mahindra will invest US$ 25 million (approx
Rs 160 crore) for acquiring 33.33% voting stake in MHI subsidiary, Mitsubishi
Agricultural Machinery Co. Ltd. (MAM) through fresh issue of common shares and
Class A (non-voting) shares of MAM.The deal is expected to close by October 1,
2015, with the new funding to be used to increase MAM’s capital base.The
announcement was made in Mumbai by Dr Pawan Goenka, Executive Director,
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and Harish Chavan, COO of Mahindra Farming. The
agreement was signed by Kazuaki Kimura, President and CEO, MHI Machinery, Equipment
& Infrastructure, Katsumi Tottori, President, MAM and Rajesh Jejurikar,
President & Chief Executive (Farm Equipment & Two Wheeler), Mahindra
& Mahindra Ltd.Speaking on the alliance, Pawan Goenka mentioned, “We have
had a decade long association with Mitsubishi in USA where their products have
played a significant role in Mahindra USA’s success. We are now excited about
our participation through an equity route in Mitsubishi Agri-Machinery, Japan.
With this alliance we will focus on making aggressive investments in marketing
and product development and becoming a significant player in the global
agri-machinery industry.”Mitsubishi Agricultural Machinery is a full range
agri-machinery company producing and selling tractors, combine harvesters, rice
transplanters, high horsepower crawler tractors and other agri-machinery. It
had revenues of approximately US$ 408 million in 2014-15. It is Japan’s no.4
agricultural machinery manufacturer.Dr Goenka further gave details about the
agreement, “The primary purpose of this acquisition is not the Indian market,
it is the global market, which would create more opportunities for us in China,
USA and other Asean countries. However, in India, we would be focusing on paddy
farming, which would include rice transplanters.
Mitsubishi has a good record in
rice transplanters, tractors and other agricultural equipments as well.“Our
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has quoted that ‘Act East rather than Look
East’. Mahindra is now spread in China, we are strong in Korea and also in
Japan. So we are just following the directives of our PM by Acting East,"
Dr Goenka added.The new partnership will help both companies to jointly develop
products to address global opportunities in the tractor and agri-machinery
space. In addition, the partnership will enable MAM and Mahindra to improve
cost competitiveness though joint procurement and optimize the supply chain.
Commenting on the partnership,
Kazuaki Kimura, President and CEO, MHI Machinery, Equipment &
Infrastructure said, “It is an honor for us at Mitsubishi to welcome Mahindra,
who are the largest tractor manufacturer globally by volumes as a partner to
Mitsubishi Agricultural Machinery. Today’s signing will only build upon the
wonderful relationship which both companies have shared for over a decade. I am
sure that the commitment and expertise of both of the companies will open a new
horizon to the business globally.”MAM has been supplying OEM tractors to
Mahindra USA (subsidiary of M&M in the US) as well as providing technical license
to Mahindra for walk-behind rice planters and new tractor in India.
http://www.autocarpro.in/news-national/mahindra-enters-strategic-partnership-mitsubishi-agricultural-machinery-8457
Scientists
Debate Harms and Benefits of GMOs
May 21st, 20155:01 am
Dr. Angelika Hilbeck. Hari Patel/Daily Nexus
Dr. Angelika Hilbeck. Hari Patel/Daily Nexus
Dr. Pamela C. Ronald. Hari Patel/Daily Nexus
UCSB Arts &
Lectures and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC) co-hosted a debate
titled “The 2015 Arthur N. Rupe Debate: The Use of Genetically Modified
Organisms in Food” at Campbell Hall Wednesday night to deliberate the harms and
benefits of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).GMOs are living organisms
whose genetic codes have been artificially manipulated through the use of
various genetic engineering techniques. UC Davis plant pathology professor
Pamela C. Ronald and Swiss Federal University senior scientific researcher in
the Institute of Integrative Biology Angelika Hilbeck debated on whether the
use of GMOs in food is safe, and the role GMOs play in world hunger and
poverty. The Chronicle of Higher Education senior reporter Paul Voosen
moderated the debate.IHC director and German and Slavic studies professor Susan
Derwin said the use of GMOs exemplifies the idea of “Anthropocene,” or human
influence on the planet.
“Humans now have the ability to manipulate nature in radical ways
and for their own ends,” Derwin said. “In the epic of the Anthropocene, as
weather becomes more extreme and as the global population grows, the
manipulation of nature promises to increase crop yields and diversify the
places where food can be grown.”According to Ronald, genetic engineering is neither
new nor dangerous and inventions such as “golden rice,” a strain of rice
supplemented with vitamin A created through genetic engineering, can be used to
combat world hunger.“After forty years of commercial use in medicine, cheeses,
wine and plants, there has not been a single instance of harm to human health
or the environment,” Ronald said. “Instead of worrying about the genes that are
in our food … we must ask if farmers and rural communities can thrive and be
sure that everyone can afford the food.
”Ronald said the public’s fear of genetic engineering is due to
misinformation, and is a major obstacle in distributing golden rice to rural
communities.“500,000 children go blind every year because of lack of vitamin
A,” Ronald said. “Half of these children will die. We have a lot of fear
mongering and what really distresses me is that it is preventing this rice from
reaching the children. It’s something we take for granted every day.”According
to Hilbeck, hunger and vitamin A deficiency in developing countries are part of
a much larger issue that genetic engineering alone cannot fix.“The kids die
because they are poor. We have to address causes of hunger and poverty,”
Hilbeck said. “If you don’t address the underlying causes for hunger and
poverty, singling out an individual issue will not help. We are helping those
kids already by giving them vitamin A pills right now.”Hilbeck said the best
solution to ending world hunger and poverty is a system that can sustain itself
for a long period of time.“We need the best solution, the most sustainable
solution — not focus on which technology that is — I personally don’t care what
technology that is,” Hilbeck said.
“I want the problem to be solved, but in a system that in itself
functions and works so we can have it run for hundreds of years.”Second-year
chemical engineering major Christopher Nyambura said shifting industrial
agriculture to a more efficient system should be the main focus.“We need to
start changing the way we farm — changing the way we grow crops, meat, all
these things, — before we start introducing GMOs,” Nyambura said. “People are
dying, people don’t have food. That’s what we need to tackle — people
getting fed and how we can do it as efficiently as possible, as best as
possible.”According to Hilbeck, debating over GMOs lead to discussions about
greater topics such as industrialized agricultures and the dangers associated
with it.“It’s about much more than GMOs,” Hilbeck said. “They stand in for a
system that requires change and if that’s what it takes — GMOs — then that’s
what it is. They trigger this debate. As long as we keep arguing, and we keep
talking respectfully to each other, listening to each other and try to
accommodate, we can move this place forward and progress.”
http://dailynexus.com/2015-05-21/scientists-debate-harms-and-benefits-of-gmos/
Indonesia could backtrack on rice imports as prices rise, El
Nino looms
JAKARTA |
Customers
check the quality of rice before buying at a wholesale rice market in East
Jakarta, Indonesia, May 20, 2015.
REUTERS/NYIMAS LAULA
Indonesia's president could be
forced to backtrack on promises to curb rice imports, with analysts saying the
country may ship in as much as 1.6 million tonnes of the staple grain this year
due to soaring prices at home and the threat of a strong El Nino. Since coming to power in October,
President Joko Widodo has been aggressively pursuing self-sufficiency in
various foods as part of an increasingly nationalistic approach to protecting
farmers, reducing state imports of rice in a country where private buying from
overseas has been largely banned for decades.
But rather than risk a spike in
food inflation that could prompt social unrest, some analysts predict the
country will import volumes of rice way higher than the 1.1 million tonnes
estimated for last year, maintaining its position as one of the world's top
buyers of overseas grain."Sometimes Indonesia's policy isn't very
rational. Right now international prices are so low and at the same time
Indonesian rice stocks are not elevated compared to levels we've seen over the
past 10 years," said Aurelia Britsch, senior commodities analyst at BMI
Research in Singapore.
While rowing back on election
pledges would likely be embarrassing for Widodo, who is already grappling with
low approval ratings, the move would be good news for key rice exporters such
as Thailand and Vietnam, buoying Thai prices that have fallen around 7 percent
in 2015.BMI's Britsch sees imports of 1.3 million to 1.6 million tonnes this
year, while Rabobank predicted 1.5 million, Barclays 1 million to 1.5 million
and the International Grains Council (IGC) 1.3 million.Chief Economics Minister
Sofyan Djalil has said the nation would probably need to import with a decision
likely by early June, while State Enterprise Minister Rini Soemarno said last
week that Widodo has given the green light for quick foreign purchases if
needed.
When Reuters contacted Widodo's
office on Thursday, Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto responded saying:
"Up until today, the decision is not to import."State rice stocks
currently stand at about 1.2 million tonnes, government officials said last
week, compared with almost 2 million tonnes around mid-2014.There is now talk
among rice traders in Vietnam that an Indonesian delegation will visit within
weeks to discuss possible purchases. An official from Indonesia's state
procurement agency, Bulog, said he did not know of such a visit.
El NINO
Just three months ago Widodo
refused to allow rice imports, but rising domestic prices as local supply fails
to meet demand, an expected pick up in appetite during the festival of Ramadan
in June and the shadow of El Nino could soon force his hand.A closely watched
forecast by Japan last week confirmed that an intensifying El Nino had set in,
with Indonesia's rice farmers threatened by the dry conditions the weather
pattern typically brings to the region.Indonesia has set and failed to meet
several food self-sufficiency targets over the past six years, but Widodo
promised to renew efforts after taking power.
High prices for the staple grain
are a burden for many Indonesians, with the U.N. food agency saying the
self-sufficiency policy has driven up local markets.Indonesian wholesale rice
prices were $0.77 per kg last month, the second-highest in the region behind
$0.79 in the Philippines, which also has self-sufficiency policies, and way
more than No.3 China at $0.64, said David Dawe, senior economist at the U.N.'s
Food and Agriculture Organisation in Bangkok.Indonesia's retail rice prices
have gained about 13 percent in the last year, and industry sources expect
further climbs of 5-7 percent around Ramadan.
"The desire for
self-sufficiency leads to higher prices if it is done through import
restrictions," said Dawe."If it is done with open trade and increased
productivity, then prices will be lower and there will be no incentive to
import."(Additional reporting by Gayatri Suroyo in Jakarta, Ho Binh Minh in Hanoi and Erik dela Cruz in Manila;
Editing by Gavin Maguire and Joseph Radford)
Indonesia Rice Update: Joko Widodo Forced to Allow Rice Imports?
21 May 2015 |Indonesia Investments
Subjects |Rice Self-Sufficiency, Rice Import, Rice Farming, Rice Consumption, Rice Production, Rice Price, EL Nino, Rice Industry, Ramadan, Idul Fitri, Joko Widodo, Rice, Inflation
Subjects |Rice Self-Sufficiency, Rice Import, Rice Farming, Rice Consumption, Rice Production, Rice Price, EL Nino, Rice Industry, Ramadan, Idul Fitri, Joko Widodo, Rice, Inflation
In order to avert a spike in
inflation and social unrest, Indonesian President Joko Widodo may feel forced
to allow around 1.5 million metric tons of rice imports in 2015 as domestic
prices of rice have been rising on sluggish local harvests. Moreover, an
intensifying El Nino is expected to cause dry weather in the months ahead hence
further jeopardizing rice productivity.
These already tough conditions will be exacerbated by seasonal Islamic
celebrations (Ramadan and Idul Fitri) that always trigger increased consumption
of food products.
During his presidential campaigns in mid-2014 and during his first seven months in office, President Widodo (often called Jokowi) emphasized that reaching food self-sufficiency would be one of his main targets. Rice self-sufficiency, in particular, is important as Indonesia has the world’s largest per capita rice consumption (about 140 kilograms of rice per person per year). As such, rice prices have a relatively large impact on the country’s inflation. When rice prices rise poverty in Indonesia can quickly increase accordingly as the poorer segments of society spend more than half of their total disposable income on food items, primarily rice.In order to support rice self-sufficiency President Widodo had previously refused to allow rice imports.
Two months ago he stated that he
forbade rice imports despite rising pressures and had already informed
Indonesian rice farmers that the government would not import this commodity
anymore, hence relying on increased domestic rice production. However, due to
narrowing rice reserves (currently only at 1.2 million tons), price pressures,
a looming strong El Nino and expected growing rice consumption in the Ramadan
and Idul Fitri period, Widodo will most likely see no other choice than to
allow rice imports to safeguard price stability. As such, Indonesia would
remain one of the globe’s largest buyers of rice. In 2014 Indonesia imported approximately
1.1 million metric tons of rice.
International rice prices are
currently low supported by Indonesia’s earlier decision not to import rice. The
international trade market for rice is remarkably shallow. According to
research conducted by the World Bank only five percent of global rice
production is traded on the international market thus implying that rice prices
are susceptible to small changes in supply and demand. Curbed demand from
Indonesia (due to the government’s initial reluctance to import rice)
contributed to easing global rice prices. In contrast, Indonesian rice prices
have been soaring due to the government’s self-sufficiency program primarily
caused by the import restrictions.
http://www.indonesia-investments.com/news/todays-headlines/indonesia-rice-update-joko-widodo-forced-to-allow-rice-imports/item5580
Rice mills seek exemption from
GST
The rice mill owners and
paddy-rice dealers in the State have appealed to the Union Government to exempt
rice from Goods and Service Tax.This was one of the resolutions passed at a
state-level meeting of the Federation of Tamil Nadu Rice Mill Owners and
Paddy-Rice Dealers Associations held here on Tuesday.Since Tamil Nadu is
deficit in paddy production and rice is a major food in the State, the Government
has not levied any tax on these so far.Rice millers and farmers need additional
power supply during the harvest season to dry the paddy and the low tension
power supply available to these units is inadequate.
The federation appealed to the
State Government and to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission to
pass the required orders for this.The mills would pay the charges fixed by the
commission for the additional supply.The paddy dealers and mill owners also
appealed to the State to remove the market cess levied on rice.The State has
277 agricultural markets.However, rice and paddy were procured by the dealers
and mills directly from the farmers and also from States such as Karnataka,
West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, they pointed out.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/rice-mills-seek-exemption-from-gst/article7229426.ece
Balance
of rice supply and demand key to food security'
PETCHANET PRATRUANGKRAI
THE NATION May 21, 2015 1:00 am
COOPERATION
among rice-producing and -importing nations is crucial to ensuring global food
security as the world is challenged by a rapidly rising population, climate
change, low-quality soil and reduced water sources for growing cereal crops,
the "Thailand Rice Convention" heard yesterday.At the convention,
held in Bangkok and chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, speakers said
the world needed to cooperate in balancing supply and demand, so that neither
farmers nor consumers suffered from imbalances or fluctuating rice
prices.Prayut said that as the world's leading rice producer, Thailand did not
want to see skyrocketing prices, as they would hurt both consumers and farmers
in the long run.
The
key to ensuring global food security and making rice-producing countries like
Thailand and others in Asean happy is to cooperate in balancing supply and
demand, so that rice prices are stable, he stressed.The world is being
challenged by its rising population and higher rice consumption, he said,
adding that the rice market had expanded to all regions of the globe, no longer
limited largely to Asia as it was increasingly recognised as a high-nutrition
cereal."Already, more than 3 billion people consume rice as their staple
food, causing many countries to turn their attention to developing rice
varieties and optimising the capacity of rice cultivation and trade.
The next 20
years
"In
the next 20 years, the world's population will increase by 20 per cent, and
that implies more rice consumption. Therefore, every nation should cooperate
more in the form of research and development in rice production and
trading," said the prime minister.Within Asean, Thailand will strive to
forge closer cooperation to ensure stable rice prices in the world market,
while farmers will get stable and better incomes in the long run, he said.To
promote rice-industry growth, Prayut said the government would focus on
promoting the production of quality rice, at a higher volume, and with less
intervention in the market.
The
government aims to increase the yield for Thai rice by 25 per cent in the next
five years, while lowering production costs by 20 per cent over the same
period, he said.Prayut said the focus on non-chemical rice production, and on
premium rice grains and varieties, would be promoted in the Kingdom.Jeremy
Zwinger, president and chief executive officer of The Rice Trader industry
report in the US, said every nation needed to be more concerned about food
security because of rising population numbers, as well as reduced sources of
water for the cultivation of crops."Food is critical.
The
world should focus on adopting high technology to produce more rice grains, and
increase supply of rice to ensure price stability," he said.Zwinger said
global rice trading now took place in a highly competitive environment,
especially in Asia, where most of the major supply nations are located.Along
with lower oil prices, high stockpiles of rice in Thailand have caused a fall
in prices in recent times, although they could fluctuate and increase in the
future as fuel prices rise, rice stocks decline in many countries, and exchange
rates fluctuate, he told the convention.Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary
president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the key for sustainable
development of the Thai industry was to introduce zoning for rice cultivation,
while no government should intervene in the trading mechanism.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Balance-of-rice-supply-and-demand-key-to-food-secu-30260563.html#sthash.YS5MqFGl.dpuf
Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- May 21
Nagpur, May 21 Gram and tuar prices
showed weak tendency in Nagpur Agriculture
Produce and Marketing Committee
(APMC) here on poor demand from local millers amid release of
stock from stockists. Downward
trend in Madhya Pradesh pulses also affected prices in weak
trading activity, according to
sources.
* * * *
FOODGRAINS & PULSES
GRAM
* Gram mill quality and desi gram raw showed weak tendency in open
market here in
absence of buyers amid ample stock in ready position.
TUAR
* Tuar varieties ruled steady in open market here matching the demand
and supply
position.
* Major wheat varieties moved down in open market here on poor buying
support from
local traders amid poor quality arrival from producing regions like
Punjab and
Haryana.
* In Akola, Tuar - 7,200-7,500, Tuar dal - 9,900-10,300, Udid at
9,100-9,600,
Udid Mogar (clean) - 10,700-11,100, Moong - 9,000-9,200, Moong Mogar
(clean) 10,700-11,100, Gram - 4,100-4,400, Gram Super best bold -
6,000-6,200
for 100 kg.
* Rice and other commodities remained steady in open market
in poor trading activity, according to sources.
Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market
prices in rupees for 100 kg
FOODGRAINS
Available prices Previous
close
Gram Auction
3,500-4,440 3,600-4,530
Gram Pink Auction
n.a. 2,100-2,600
Tuar Auction
5,700-7,490 5,780-7,570
Moong Auction
n.a. 6,000-6,300
Udid Auction
n.a. 4,300-4,500
Masoor Auction n.a. 2,600-2,800
Gram Super Best Bold
6,300-6,500 6,300-6,500
Gram Super Best
n.a.
Gram Medium Best
6,000-6,200 6,000-6,200
Gram Dal Medium n.a. n.a.
Gram Mill Quality
5,250-5,450 5,300-5,500
Desi gram Raw
4,500-4,650 4,550-4,700
Gram Filter new
6,050-6,150 6,050-6,150
Gram Kabuli 5,100-6,900 5,100-6,900
Gram Pink
6,300-6,500 6,300-6,500
Tuar Fataka Best
10,500-10,800 10,500-10,800
Tuar Fataka Medium
10,000-10,300 10,000-10,300
Tuar Dal Best Phod 9,500-9,800 9,500-9,800
Tuar Dal Medium phod
9,000-9,350 9,000-9,350
Tuar Gavarani New
7,750-7,850 7,750-7,850
Tuar Karnataka
7,900-8,000 7,900-8,000
Tuar Black 10,700-11,000 10,700-11,000
Masoor dal best
8,100-8,300 8,100-8,300
Masoor dal medium
7,500-7,800 7,500-7,800
Masoor
n.a. n.a.
Moong Mogar bold 11,000-11,500 11,000-11,500
Moong Mogar Medium best
10,200-10,600 10,200-10,600
Moong dal Chilka
9,200-9,750 9,200-9,7050
Moong Mill quality
n.a. n.a.
Moong Chamki best
9,600-9,900 9,600-9,900
Udid Mogar Super best (100 INR/KG)
11,200-11,600 11,200-11,600
Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG)
9,900-10,600 9,900-10,600
Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG)
8,500-8,900 8,500-8,900
Batri dal (100 INR/KG)
4,300-4,500 4,300-4,500
Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg)
3,150-3,300 3,150-3,300
Watana Dal (100 INR/KG)
3,200-3,450 3,200-3,450
Watana White (100 INR/KG)
2,450-2,625 2,450-2,625
Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG)
3,700-4,800 3,600-4,800
Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG)
1,400-1,600 1,500-1,800
Wheat Mill quality(100 INR/KG)
1,500-1,600 1,800-1,900
Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG)
1,400-1,600 1,500-1,700
Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG)
2,200-2,450 2,250-2,550
Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG)
1,800-1,950 2,000-2,150
Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG)
n.a. n.a.
MP Sharbati Best (100
INR/KG) 3,100-3,700 3,200-3,750
MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG)
2,800-3,000 2,800-3,100
Wheat 147 (100 INR/KG)
1,400-1,500 1,400-1,500
Wheat Best (100 INR/KG)
2,000-2,200 2,000-2,200
Rice BPT New(100 INR/KG)
2,500-2,800 2,500-2,800
Rice BPT (100 INR/KG)
3,000-3,300 3,000-3,300
Rice Parmal (100 INR/KG)
1,600-1,800 1,600-1,800
Rice Swarna new (100 INR/KG)
2,100-2,400 2,100-2,400
Rice Swarna old (100 INR/KG)
2,500-2,700 2,500-2,700
Rice HMT new(100 INR/KG)
3,300-3,700 3,300-3,700
Rice HMT (100 INR/KG)
4,000-4,400 4,000-4,400
Rice HMT Shriram New(100 INR/KG)
4,200-4,500 4,200-4,500
Rice HMT Shriram old (100 INR/KG)
4,600-5,200
4,600-5,200
Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG)
8,000-10,000 8,000-10,000
Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 6,000-7,500 6,000-7,500
Rice Chinnor new (100 INR/KG)
4,600-5,200 4,600-5,200
Rice Chinnor (100 INR/KG)
5,600-6,000 5,600-6,000
Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG)
2,200-2,300 2,100-2,200
Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG)
2,400-2,550 2,300-2,450
WEATHER (NAGPUR)
Maximum temp. 47.0 degree Celsius
(116.6 degree Fahrenheit), minimum temp.
29.3 degree Celsius (84.7 degree
Fahrenheit)
Humidity: Highest - n.a., lowest -
n.a.
Rainfall : nil
FORECAST: Mainly clear sky. Maximum
and minimum temperature would be around and 48 and 30 degree
Celsius respectively.
Note: n.a.--not available
(For oils, transport costs are
excluded from plant delivery prices, but included in market prices.)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/05/21/nagpur-foodgrain-idINL3N0YC39320150521
Prayut spells out rice game plan
21 May 2015 at 00:30
NEWSPAPER SECTION: BUSINESS
| WRITER: PHUSADEE ARUNMAS
Prime
Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Wednesday visited Thaifex World of Food Asia,
which runs through Sunday at Impact Muang Thong Thani. (Photo by Pattanapong
Hirunard)
Thailand will focus on premium varieties and
reduce off-season farming in the face of greater global competition in
rice.Addressing the Thailand Rice Convention, Prime Minister Prayut
Chan-o-cha said the government would accelerate the restructuring of rice
production management.Plans call for designated rice-farming areas suited to
each variety, adequate production to meet market demand and a reduction in
off-season rice production to keep supply at an appropriate level.
Gen Prayut said farmland consolidation among
rice farmers would be encouraged to cut production costs.Gen Prayut: Grow,
market higher-value riceThe government will provide support for R&D, assist
in improved rice production and quality and promote production of specific rice
for niche markets.The prime minister said the state would place emphasis on
developing rice varieties with better quality, higher yields and lower cost,
while promoting the use of organic fertilisers and biofertilisers to maintain
quality standards and safety in plant food.Additionally, the government
will encourage production of high-quality local rice with outstanding
properties such as organic rice, germinated brown rice, rice burry and Khao
Leum Pua.State agencies will provide a stringent system to monitor the quality
of rice at each stage of the process and encourage mill operators to make
improvements to meet good manufacturing standards, Gen Prayut said.A one-stop
standardised inspection and quality assurance operations centre is in the works
to provide better supervision of the rice trading system and ensure each grain
of Thai rice meets the various international standards of partner countries.
To attain pricing competitiveness, improvements
in the domestic transport system will also help to ease costs.The government is
committed to promoting international cooperation, especially between Thai
exporters and major foreign trade partners, as a means of encouraging Thais to
enter new markets, especially in Asean members.Back at home, the government
plans to set up a special economic zone for adding value to rice and other
agricultural products of Thailand and neighbouring countries, with this country
acting as a hub for value-added management and distribution of products from
Asean to the world.Commerce Minister Chatchai Sarikulya said despite sluggish
global demand, the government was maintaining its forecast for rice exports of
10 million tonnes this year.
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