27th July (Monday), 2015Daily Exclusive ORYZA Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

IRRI Trustees announce next director general

 
Matthew Morell, IRRI deputy director general for research, will succeed Robert Zeigler as director general of the world’s premier research center on rice starting December 2015.

Dear friends,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), I take great pleasure in announcing the appointment of Dr. Matthew Morell as the next Director General of the Institute. Dr. Morell will take up the position in mid-December 2015.Dr. Morell is currently IRRI’s Deputy Director General for Research (DDG-R), a position he has held since February 2014. As DDG-R, Dr. Morell has provided and continues to provide effective strategic leadership to the Institute’s scientific portfolio.

Dr. Morell brings to IRRI decades of experience driven by a passion for scientific excellence, an understanding of private-public partnerships, a tested understanding of identifiable patent outcomes and protection of intellectual property, and a sound capacity for stakeholder engagement. He has a solid track record in identifying, protecting, and managing intellectual property, as well as in establishing a means for strong compliance with the requirements of gene technology regulations, genetic modification stewardship, and occupational health and safety legislation.Prior to his coming to IRRI, Dr. Morell worked with CSIRO, where he served for 16 years.

Dr. Morell holds a Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry from the University of Sydney. He did postdoctoral studies at the University of Michigan and the University of California Davis and served as research fellow at the Australian National University.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Morell on his appointment as IRRI’s next Director General.

I also take this opportunity to thank our Director General, Dr. Robert Zeigler, who is retiring after a decade of inspired and steadfast leadership. We wish him all the best!

(Sgd.) Emerlinda Roman
Chair
IRRI Board of Trustees

Scientists create starchier, low-methane rice

By Mariette Le Roux ,AFP
July 25, 2015, 12:02 am TWN

PARIS -- Scientists said Wednesday they had created a rice variety with starchier grains that emits less methane, a step towards the twin goals of feeding more people and curbing global warming.The cultivation of rice, a staple starch for billions of people, is also mankind's major emitter of methane, a potent climate-altering gas.Methane lives for a shorter time in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2), the most abundant greenhouse gas, but traps far more heat radiated from Earth's surface.

Every year, rice paddies pump out 25 to 100 million tonnes of methane — the second-most important greenhouse gas at about 16 percent.This means a high risk for the planet as rice cultivation expands to feed a growing population, said the paper, published in the journal Nature."There is an urgent need to establish sustainable technologies for increasing rice production while reducing methane fluxes from rice paddies," wrote the team led by Chuanxin Sun of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.Already in 2002, scientists reported that the more grain carried by rice plants, the less methane they emitted.

The leaves and stems of rice plants take up CO2, which is transformed through photosynthesis into sugars that are used to produce starch in the shoots, roots and grains.Carbon released from dead plants, or directly into the soil via the roots, is transformed by microorganisms into methane, which can escape into the atmosphere.Larger, starchier rice grains mean there is less carbon transferred to the soil to be turned into methane.But attempts to reduce emissions from paddies have focused on changes in farming practices, which can be onerous and expensive.

Groundbreaking Work

Tackling the problem differently, a team from China, the United States and Sweden added a barley gene to a conventional rice cultivar to create a variety dubbed SUSIBA2."Three-year field trials in China demonstrated that the cultivation of SUSIBA2 rice was associated with a significant reduction in methane emissions," said the study."SUSIBA2 rice offers a sustainable means of providing increased starch content for food production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice cultivation."In a comment also carried by Nature, Paul Bodelier of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology described the research as "groundbreaking," but cautioned it also raised several "biological and ethics concerns.

""In addition to the general questions surrounding the use of genetically modified crops for human consumption, and how access to seed for such crops is controlled, we do not yet have a clear picture of how this modification affects rice plants' survival and general function," said Bodelier.Long-term measurements of methane emissions would be needed to calculate the crop's potential overall impact on greenhouse gas reduction efforts, he wrote.Also, the reduction of carbon in soil may have unknown consequences for other types of microorganisms that could aid or harm the plants.All said, the work should spur scientists worldwide "to conduct experiments to verify whether this variety will enable more sustainable cultivation of the crop that feeds half the human population," said Bodelier.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/life/environment/2015/07/25/441537/Scientists-create.htm

 

On-going rains to hinder rice exports

By Our Correspondent

Published: July 25, 2015

REAP Chairman Rafique Suleman also held the government responsible for the declining exports. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Recent rains may adversely affect the rice crop and result in a further drop in exports, stated the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP).

“Pakistan’s rice exports have already come down from $2 billion to $1.85 billion, and it is feared that this figure may further decline due to the on-going monsoon rains in the country,” said REAP Chairman Rafique Suleman.On another note, Suleman also held the government responsible for the declining exports as it is doing very little to support research and development (R&D) in the sector.“Different rice producing governments are focusing on their R&D including our neighbours like India and Bangladesh. On the other hand, here, authorities are approving housing schemes on the land of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad,” he said.

He called the agriculture sector the backbone of the Pakistani economy, and stressed prime research centres to work actively with full state-of-the-art technologies so that exports may be increased and maximum foreign exchange earned.

He said such actions would prove detrimental for national agriculture and put the country back many decades back and affect not only productivity but exports as well.“For years, the government has been giving mnimum attention to the sector and not providing due funds,” noted Suleman, adding that many international research institutes were located inside the NARC Campus and its closure or relocation would affect Pakistan’s credibility throughout the world.REAP urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Minister for Commerce, Minister for National Food Security and Research to give priority to food security in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2015.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/926040/on-going-rains-to-hinder-rice-exports/

How A New Type Of Rice Can Fight Global Warming

After three years of field trials in China, a group of international scientists have developed a new type of genetically modified rice that could boost food sustainability without adding to global warming. While some experts hail the findings as an important breakthough, it seems likely to add new fuel to the heated debate over genetically modified (GM) foods.Today, rice paddies are one of the largest sources of atmospheric methane, the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Methane is thought to be responsible for one-fifth of the global warming effect.The new plant – equipped with DNA from barley – emits as little as 1% of the methane,according to Science Magazine. What’s more, the new rice may also boost food security as it produces significantly higher yield per plant.

Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

Timothy Searchinger, a research scholar at Princeton University who wasn’t involved in the study, described the results as “extraordinary” in the magazine’s report.The new rice was created by a group led by Chuanxin Sun, a plant biochemist at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, in collaboration with Chinese and American scientists. The results came after a three-year field trial in China.These new results represent “the first example, to our knowledge, of such a rice,” the team of scientists said in its report. “Approaches to increase rice productivity and reduce methane emissions as seen in SUSIBA2 rice may be particularly beneficial in a future climate with rising temperatures resulting in increased methane emissions from paddies.”

“The new rice sounds like a win-win for good yields and reduced climate impact,” Paul West, lead scientist for the Global Landscapes Initiative at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, told the Christian Science Monitor.Still, many questions remain. Chuanxin Sun acknowledged that much work needs to be done to see if it holds up in realistic field trials. The findings also come with ethical issues to be addressed as people are concerned whether genetically modified crops are safe for human consumption.“Right now, Chinese society is very sensitive” to concerns about GM food, Sun said. China, the world’s largest producer of rice, hasn’t allowed a single genetically modified rice variety into its fields, he added

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jnylander/2015/07/27/how-a-new-type-of-rice-can-fight-global-warming/

Much needed: Iranian delegation to visit Pakistan next month

By Peer Muhammad

Published: July 26, 2015

There is a Preferential Trade Agreement between Iran and Pakistan that can be converted into Free Trade Agreement after the ban is formally lifted. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: 

A delegation from Iran will arrive in Pakistan next month to address bottlenecks in the way of trade and investment between the two countries and explore opportunities under the new scenario following the nuclear deal by Iran and six major world powers.

A senior officer in the Ministry of Commerce told The Express Tribunethat an official delegation will arrive in Islamabad in the first week of August to explore opportunities.Iran has recently agreed with world powers to curb its nuclear programme. In return, economic sanctions placed on the country that have hindered its trade relations will likely be lifted following an inspection of its compliance with the agreement.The Iranian delegation will meet Commerce Minister Khuram Dastgir, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to discuss issues of mutual importance.

“We will discuss the issues under the new scenario in the region as trade and commerce opportunities can be exploited after the sanction lift by the international community following the nuclear deal,” said a senior officer of Ministry of Commerce.Earlier in April this year, Dastgir had headed a delegation to Iran and both sides had agreed to formulate a five-year facilitation plan to increase bilateral trade from the current level of $1 billion to $5 billion.

“There is a Preferential Trade Agreement between Iran and Pakistan, it can be converted into Free Trade Agreement after the ban is formally lifted,” said the officer.“We had already agreed to form a working group to devise a substantial widening of the 2006 Pak-Iran Preferential Trade Agreement.”

The two sides also reiterated the need for joint investments in agro-food processing and infrastructure, particularly in the field of establishing an effective rail, road and sea links between the two countries.Presently, Pakistan exports rice, kinnows, potatoes and meat, edible meat offal; edible fruits, nuts, melons, cotton, melons; cotton; paper and paperboard, and articles of pulp to Iran while imports chemicals, plastic products, bitumen, paraffin, iron scrap and many other chemicals and machinery related products.

The sanctions on Iran as well as indirect/informal trade, smuggling, non-availability of banking channels, custom duties, non-operational system of barter trade, transportation-related issues are hindering the volume of bilateral trade.The officer said that there exist a lot of potential to increase the volume of bilateral trade by curtailing smuggling and increasing direct trade. “We hope that now the volume of trade can be substantially increased after streamlining the payment mechanism once the ban is lifted by the international community,” noted the officer.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2015

http://tribune.com.pk/story/926466/much-needed-iranian-delegation-to-visit-pakistan-next-month/

REAP CONDEMNS HOUSING PROJECT ON NARC LAND

Sunday, July 26, 2015 - Lahore—Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has urged the federal government not to replace National 

Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad with a housing scheme. Rafique Suleman, Chairman REAP showing concern over heavy rains said rains and floods may affect the rice crop resulting in lower rice export of the country.He said the country has already missed last year’s export target due to lack of research and development. Pakistan’s rice export target of $2 billion could not be achieved in FY15 as overall exports from Pakistan crossed $1.85 billion at the end of the last fiscal year. Chairman REAP said the governments across the world focus on their research and development work and our neighbouring countries, such as India, Bangladesh are also spending huge amounts of money on R&D work for new seeds of rice as well as other agricultural commodities. On the other hand, in Pakistan, the authorities are trying to approvehousing scheme on the land of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad, REAP strongly protests against this project, he added. 

He said agricultural sector is the backbone of our economy and the prime research centre must be working actively besides having fully equipped state of the art technologies. It is the need of the hour to take appropriate steps for agricultural sector boost, so that exports of agri commodities may be increased and maximum foreign exchange could be fetched for the growth of the country’s economy. He said that NARC conversion into a housing scheme would be detrimental for thenational agriculture and take country decades back. It will not only affect our productivity but our exports too, he added. 

Many international research institutes are also located in the same campus and their closure or relocation will badly affect our credibility throughout the world. In fact, for years, the government has been giving least priority to agricultural researchand does not p release any resources, Rafique said. The Chairman REAP appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Ministerfor Commerce and Minister for National Food Security & Research not to replace NARC with housing society. Theagricultural research centres of various countries of the world are located in their capital cities, such as Indian Council forAgricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Dhaka and Nepal Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Kathmandu, he maintained.—Agencies

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=269018

REAP urges government not to turn NARC land into housing scheme

July 25, 2015

RECORDER REPORT

Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has urged the federal government not to replace National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad with a housing scheme. Rafique Suleman, Chairman REAP showing concern over heavy rains said rains and floods may affect the rice crop resulting in lower rice export of the country. He said the country has already missed last year's export target due to lack of research and development. Pakistan's rice export target of $2 billion could not be achieved in FY15 as overall exports from Pakistan crossed $1.85 billion at the end of the last fiscal year. Chairman REAP said the governments across the world focus on their research and development work and our neighbouring countries, such as India, Bangladesh are also spending huge amounts of money on R&D work for new seeds of rice as well as other agricultural commodities.

On the other hand, in Pakistan, the authorities are trying to approve housing scheme on the land of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad.... REAP strongly protests against this project, he added. He said agricultural sector is the backbone of our economy and the prime research centre must be working actively besides having fully equipped state of the art technologies. It is the need of the hour to take appropriate steps for agricultural sector boost, so that exports of agri commodities may be increased and maximum foreign exchange could be fetched for the growth of the country's economy. He said that NARC conversion into a housing scheme would be detrimental for the national agriculture and take country decades back. It will not only affect our productivity but our exports too, he added. Many international research institutes are also located in the same campus and their closure or relocation will badly affect our credibility throughout the world. In fact, for years, the government has been giving least priority to agricultural research and does not p release any resources, Rafique said. 

The Chairman REAP appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Minister for Commerce and Minister for National Food Security & Research not to replace NARC with housing society. The agricultural research centres of various countries of the world are located in their capital cities, such as Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Dhaka and Nepal Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Kathmandu, he maintained. 

http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1210521/

Aromatic rice exporters may get more time

12:00 AM, July 26, 2015 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:06 AM, July 26, 2015

Sohel Parvez

The government is likely to extend the time for aromatic rice exports by one year, a senior official of the commerce ministry said yesterday.“We are working on it. We expect to issue a notice within a month,” said the official, seeking to remain unnamed.The ministry plans to extend time after the validity of scented rice export expired on June 30.On June 17 last year, the government extended time for aromatic rice export for fiscal 2014-15 but maintained a ban on exports of parboiled rice to keep the prices of the staple stable on the domestic market.Many exporters have already applied to the commerce ministry for extension of time to ship aromatic rice, which is popular among Bangladeshis living abroad, along with South Asians residing in Europe, America, Australia and the Middle East.

Some exporters said the delay in the government's decision has forced them to either cancel orders or keep the shipments pending. “We are losing business. The delay in decision is creating a gap in the export market, which our competitors in India and Pakistan will take up,” said Khurshid Ahmad Farhad, assistant general manager-in-charge of export at Square Food and Beverage Ltd, a member of Square Group.Square exported about 300 tonnes of aromatic rice under its brand in fiscal 2014-15, up from about 250 tonnes a year earlier, according to Farhad. Aromatic rice export resumed in mid-2012 after a three-year ban, imposed on all sorts of rice in November 2008 to boost supply and keep the prices stable in the local market.

There were also allegations that parboiled rice was exported in the name of the aromatic variety. Md Mizanur Rahman, chief of exports at Pran, said the past ban had affected Bangladesh's export markets for aromatic rice. “Our markets would have been bigger had there been no ban -- we had to regain the market.”Pran, a leading food processor and exporter, shipped 2,500 tonnes of scented rice in fiscal 2014-15, up 38.89 percent year-on-year, according to the official. The company aims to export 3,000 tonnes this fiscal year.Currently, it has export orders for nearly 200 tonnes of rice, but it cannot start shipping until the extension comes through.“We are waiting for permission,” said Rahman, who believes that the demand for Bangladesh's scented rice will grow because of its better flavour than Basmati, exported mainly from Pakistan and India.Exporters fetched $7.34 million last fiscal year, up 51 percent year-on-year, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau

http://www.thedailystar.net/business/aromatic-rice-exporters-may-get-more-time-116740

Unlocking rice immune system will benefit humanity: Scientists

IANS | Jul 25, 2015, 01.37PM IST

The team discovered that a bacterial protein called "RaxX" activates a specific rice immune receptor protein named "XA21".

WASHINGTON: Rice is a staple food for half of the world's population. To protect it against deadly pathogens, a team of researchers has identified a bacterial signal that, when recognised by rice plants, enables them resist a devastating blight disease.The team discovered that a bacterial protein called "RaxX" activates a specific rice immune receptor protein named "XA21".This activation triggers an immune response against Xanthomonas oryzaepv.oryzae (Xoo), a pathogen that causes bacterial blight, a serious disease of rice crops.

"Our results show that 'RaxX' - a small, previously undescribed bacterial protein - is required for activation of immunity to Xoo," said Pamela Ronald, plant geneticist for the US Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and the University of California (UC) Davis.XA21 can detect RaxX and quickly mobilise its defenses to mount a potent immune response against Xoo."Rice plants that do not carry the XA21 immune receptor or other related immune receptors are virtually defenseless against bacterial blight," Ronald added in a paper that appeared in the journal Science Advances.Pathogens of grass-type biofuel crops that would reduce the yield of fuel-producing biomass likely use similar infection mechanisms to Xoo."Having identified the activator of XA21, we will be able to study the rice immune system in far greater detail than ever before. This might help in the future engineering of more disease-resistant grass-type biofuel crops," explained Benjamin Schwessinger, a grass geneticist with JBEI.

Most plants and many animals can only defend themselves against a given disease if they carry specialised immune receptors that sense the invading pathogen behind the disease.Rice is also a model plant for perennial grasses which are prime feedstock candidates for the production of clean, green and renewable cellulosic biofuels.Just as bacterial blight poses a major threat to rice crops, bacterial infections of grass-type fuel plants could present major problems for the future production of advanced biofuels.In addition to its implications for future grass-type biofuel feedstocks, unlocking the rice immune system also holds important implications for the worldwide supply of rice, the authors concluded

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Unlocking-rice-immune-system-will-benefit-humanity-Scientists/articleshow/48213814.cms

Rice security or self-sufficiency?

By: Roehlano M. Briones and Gary B. Olivar

Philippine Daily Inquirer

01:33 AM July 26th, 2015

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

WITH over two million rural households depending on rice farming, the Filipino dream of self-sufficiency in rice exerts a powerful hold on vote-hungry politicians as well as the popular imagination.This dream was again revived by the Aquino administration in 2010 as a performance objective through its Food Self-Sufficiency Program (FSSP), which targeted total self-sufficiency (zero rice imports) by either 2013 or 2016.But was this dream ever realistic at all to begin with? History says no. (See Table 1.)

Previously, average annual growth in palay production exceeded 6 percent only once, in the mid-’80s, due almost entirely to the high-yield new varieties from the “Green Revolution” hatched in Los Baños, Laguna. But since 1994, the historical average has only been 3.2 percent, or half the FSSP target of 6.3 percent growth a year.

Wide gap

The gap is especially wide for irrigated palay, where FSSP hopes to increase the rice-planted area by an ambitious 4.1 percent a year through new or rehabilitated irrigation systems. One has to ask if this will ever match the natural advantages of, say, Vietnam and Thailand, the biggest rice exporters in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), whose large and fertile plains are watered by the great Mekong River delta. The historical record with our irrigated palay area is only halfway to the target.

The view through the windshield confirms the perspective from the rear mirror. Figure 1 shows a range of projections of annual rice imports by the Philippines (in thousand metric tons), based on the Arkansas Global Rice Model developed by Eric Wailes, professor at the University of Arkansas, from the experience of 40 rice-exporting and -importing countries.The midpoint of the projections (the mean) tells us that we will still be importing rice every year till 2022. And below the lower boundary of the range, there is only a 10 percent likelihood that we will become self-sufficient by 2015 and begin enjoying “negative imports” (i.e. exports) thereafter. In fact, the government has already projected nearly 100,000 MT of rice imports by the middle of this year.

Of course, the probability of success is only one reason to do anything and not even the most important reason at that.

The more important questions are these:

Will this action be worth it?

Will the benefits outweigh the costs?

Will those net benefits conform with and maybe even reinforce other things that are also considered important?

Not worthwhile if costly

Self-sufficiency in rice is worthwhile to the rice-consuming majority only to the extent that it provides real rice security: sufficient rice supply at affordable and stable prices.Second, it is worthwhile to the rice-producing minority to the extent that it sustains its livelihood, assuming that rice farming is, in fact, the best alternative open to it. And there are—as with everything else—all sorts of costs to think about.

Consider a neighborhood block with 20 families. They all love pan de sal for breakfast. One family, headed by Mang Panadero, bakes pan de sal in an old-fashioned pugon. Every morning he sells it to the other 19 families for P150 a dozen.

One day a Vietnamese bakery opens for business down the road. With the latest in baking technology, they can sell exactly the same quality of pan de sal, but for only P100 a dozen. What should the neighborhood do?

Status quo: The other families love Mang Panadero, so they continue to buy his pan de sal even at a premium of P50 a dozen, or 50 percent. That premium, paid by 19 families, totals a tidy sum of P950 received by Panadero every day. Economists regard it as addition to “producer surplus.”Better alternative: Money is tight, so the 19 families shift their business instead to the Vietnamese newcomer and collectively save P950 a day. Now that it is savings, this amount can be added to “consumer surplus.”

With those savings, the families can choose to buy more than one dozen pan de sal a day, or butter and eggs to go with the bread. The added consumer surplus is now stimulating additional demand for pan de sal and other goods from the bakery, the neighborhood grocery and other producers.

Since the families do still love Mang Panadero, they could set aside, say, P100 a day from their savings as a charity fund for his family. With that money, at least his family can continue to buy pan de sal at the same low price as their neighbors.Mang Panadero now faces the challenge of modernizing his pugon, or looking for other customers outside the neighborhood, if he wants to stay in the pan de sal business. Alternatively, he could start making something else that his neighborhood wants to buy but is not yet available. What about pan de coco? Maybe his neighbors will even agree to pitch in more money to help him transition to a new livelihood.

The simple illustration above can be transferred to the country’s rice sector. (See Table 2.)

Over the four years from 2006 to 2009, the country incurred an average economic cost (a negative net surplus) of P6.7 billion a year from its rice policies. This increased by three times to P20.17 billion a year from 2010 to 2012, when the Aquino administration launched its FSSP.

Causes of welfare cost

This economic welfare cost was caused by the following:

Price difference between locally grown and imported rice. In 2012, the average price of local rice was about 50 percent more expensive than Vietnamese rice.Lower rice consumption due to high prices of locally grown rice. This is especially true for the poor, whose food budgets are more limited.

Quantitative restriction on rice imports under a special treatment that the Philippines has enjoyed from the World Trade Organization since 1994. Among other things, this reduces tariff revenues that might otherwise be collected from unrestricted imports.Net costs of FSSP, estimated at over P50 billion over the program’s six-year life even if it achieves its self-sufficiency targets.

Cost of National Food Authority’s (NFA) price support, such as its mandate during lean harvest times to buy palay at above market (high palay procurement price paid to farmers) and sell rice at below market (low official release price charged to consumers).

To its credit, the Department of Agriculture is now saying that it never targeted total self-sufficiency in rice, only “optimum sufficiency.” Malaysia, for example, only targets 80-percent self-sufficiency.

We hope this rethinking by government leads to a repurposing of FSSP: away from the questionable objective of zero imports toward a more realistic objective of simply improving the productivity of our rice farmers to make them more competitive within unrestricted Asean and global markets.

Rice security via trade

Ironically, the Asean region is home to two of the world’s largest rice importers (the Philippines and Indonesia) as well as two of the largest rice exporters (Thailand and Vietnam). The difference in per capita rice production (kilograms per person) between the two groups has been inexorably widening since the early ’90s. (See Figure 2.)

It makes sense for the region’s rice exporters to be selling more and more to its rice importers over time. And yet the Asean region as a whole has been exporting more of its rice to the rest of the world than to each other since 1980. (See Figure 3.)

Clearly, much remains to be done in order to deepen and stabilize the rice trade between the region’s rice exporters and importers:

Exporters must be able to rely upon importers’ long-term purchase commitments so that they can invest in the necessary production capacity.

Importers must be given guaranteed access to export supplies even during episodes of global market volatility.Broader and more transparent trading arrangements will lead to wider sharing of market information, reducing the uncertainty and miscalculations that are the real cause of price volatility.The sharp global rice price hike in 2008, for example, could have been avoided if Vietnamese rice traders had not hedged against higher export prices by sitting on their rice stocks, prompting the Philippines to counterhedge by buying excessive amounts of rice abroad.

In the long run, greater rice trade will encourage the emergence of new rice exporters, such as Myanmar and Cambodia, which share the natural advantages of their bigger neighbors in Indochina.

The instinct to protect one’s rice sector is almost visceral and not just in the Philippines. Rice (followed by sugar) is mentioned most often on the short lists of tariffable (and almost always agricultural) items that Asean members are allowed to exempt from intraregional free trade. Any progress made toward opening up and deepening regional rice trade can only be a collective achievement.

Repurposing NFA

As the region opens up its rice trade, the Philippines must make difficult choices about the different ways its rice farmers have been protected by government. In particular, the country’s grain agency, the NFA, must decide whether it should continue to play two roles from among its multiple mandates:

Should the NFA continue to be the country’s sole authorized importer of rice?

Should the NFA continue to provide price support—whether to rice farmers or rice consumers—that piles on ever larger amounts of subsidies and debt?

The first one is a command-and-control role that rarely does well in a market-driven economy. Consider that the NFA and its Vietnamese counterpart, Vinafood 2, together account for about half of the region’s rice trade. Any miscalculation by one or the other, or both, tends to be magnified and prolonged, as in 2008.

Open market

By comparison, in a truly open market, the dynamic interaction between many private importers and many sellers converges into an equilibrium price that truly reflects the underlying scarcity of rice. This continuous exchange of information among many players also stabilizes the price and minimizes its volatility over time.This in turn allows those players to make reasonable and long-term commitments and investments.

The same market pricing dynamic applies to the local production and distribution of rice. As subsidies are phased out, the NFA can also seek a “financial restart” by shifting the burden of its accumulated debt over to government.

With more and cheaper imports, “economic surplus” will return to our consumers from our farmers. Some of that surplus can be recycled back to the farmers, e.g. by using some of the additional tariff revenues from higher imports to fund a conditional-cash-transfer program for the neediest farmers, or to help finance the redirection of their activity and resources toward nonrice, higher-value and perhaps, exportable crops.

Smaller NFA role

This leaves the NFA with a potentially smaller set of restricted roles:

Maintain buffer rice stocks (both imported and locally grown) in support of domestic disaster response and poverty alleviation.Provide logistical services in remote areas with poorly developed supply chains, while pursuing market upgrading in other areas (e.g. by establishing negotiable warehouse receipts).Other regulatory oversight, e.g. monitor rice purchase agreements, enforce rice grades and standards, and license legitimate rice importers (without applying import ceilings).

In short, “rice security through self-sufficiency” is a false mantra. The proper policy choices are to seek rice security on behalf of the majority of consumers; rely on open trade with our rice-exporting neighbors to deliver most of that security; maintain buffer stocks against the unexpected; and support our rice farmers with direct livelihood assistance as well as long-term productivity improvement through technology and extension programs.

(Roehlano M. Briones, Ph.D., is a senior research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. Gary Olivar is a banking and political consultant. They wish to acknowledge valuable research insights from Ramon Clarete, Ph.D., former dean of the University of the Philippines School of Economics. All three are fellows of Foundation for Economic Freedom, an advocacy for free-market reforms supported by good governance.)

http://opinion.inquirer.net/87039/rice-security-or-self-sufficiency

 

 

 

Philippines to import more rice as El Nino worry persists

July 26, 2015

RECORDER REPORT

The Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers, could ship in more to boost buffer stocks and keep local prices stable because of an El Nino dry weather pattern now forecast to last until next year, potentially hurting the local harvest. "The economic managers have indicated that they are reassessing the rice supply-demand conditions for the rest of the year (to see) if there is a need to do another importation," Zeno Ronald Abenoja, director at the Department of Economic Research of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said on Thursday.

The central bank is represented in the National Food Authority Council (NFA), which approves rice imports. Purchases this year have reached 750,000 tonnes - 550,000 tonnes from Vietnam and the rest from Thailand. The NFA has permission from President Benigno Aquino to import an additional 250,000 tonnes if drought conditions worsen and hurt local rice production. Timely imports of the staple have prevented a repeat of last year's spike in rice prices caused by damage to supply chains from Super Typhoon Haiyan in late 2013.

Food prices have a weighting of 39 percent in the consumer price index. Central bank Governor Amando Tetangco, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, said he saw no need to alter monetary policy settings for now but cited the potential threat of an extended El Nino as one of the reasons to be careful. Inflation is expected to inch up later in the year, after slowing to a two-decade low in June, due to the potential impact of the worsening dry spell and possible adjustments to electricity prices. Latest government data shows local rice prices have fallen around 5 percent from a year earlier.

 The expectation now is for the domestic harvest to be "lean" in the third quarter before rebounding in the final three months, Abenoja said. The Philippines' weather bureau forecasts a "moderate" El Nino that is likely to intensify and last until early next year. Private rice traders have also been given permission to import 805,200 tonnes of rice with a tariff of 35 percent, although so far they have applied to ship in only about 300,000 tonnes. 

http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1210908/

Rice bug menace haunts Nalgonda villagers

Visit Siem Rap 

T. KARNAKAR REDDY

A woman removing bugs from rice in Nalgonda district.

Rice bugs (red flour beetle and rice weevil) are making life miserable for the villagers living in the surroundings of rice godowns in district.Since these bugs in godowns live by feeding food grains like rice, lentils, wheat and others, they are also invading the nearby houses, particularly during the evenings.As the district is famous for paddy production and paraboiled rice mills, a huge quantity of paddy is milled here. While the district alone produces 7 lakh to 10 lakh metric tonnes of paddy every season, the millers too purchase rice from other districts and bring it here for milling. Apart from that, these godowns also house rice to be supplied to Food Corporation of India and to be distributed through the Civil Supplies Department to white ration card holders.A week ago, villagers of Shilarmiyagudem and Kothagudem villagers staged a protest near Thipparthy, accusing the godown owners of taking no measures to control the bugs.

Speaking to The Hindu , Sk Usenbi, said spraying of chemicals and covering the rice bags with tarpaulins would control the menace to a great extent but the godown owners did not act so far despite lodging several complaints.It is not only the case of these two villages, a host of villages around Miryalaguda have also lodged complaints with the Revenue Divisional Officer in Miryalagda seeking action against these erring managements of the godowns.The villagers living near Bhongir and Bibinagar have also submitted representations to Bhongir Revenue Divisional Officer and sought action against the owners.Another woman from Kothegudem village, Gugulothu Sujatha, said they always have to keep their doors and windows closed during the nights fearing the bugs.

Official blames

godown owners

Kishan Rao, Revenue Divisional Officer of Miryalaguda, observed that there is a visible negligence on part of godown owners since they did not cover the windows of godowns and fails to spray chemicals in regular intervals.“I have written to the District Civil Supplies Manager seeking action against them. I have also instructed the local Tehsildars to inspect these godowns and prepare a report on violations,” Mr. Rao said.However, he agreed that the villagers are suffering from rice bug menace.

A week ago, villagers staged a protest near Thipparthy, accusing godown owners of taking no measures to control the problem

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/rice-bug-menace-haunts-nalgonda-villagers/article7466519.ece

Granger to address rice conference

Amid rising concerns over the rice industry with the looming end of a lucrative Venezuelan deal, President David Granger is on Monday expected to address paddy farmers and rice millers on the way forward.The Government Information Agency (GINA) said the President is scheduled to deliver the feature address at the opening of the National Rice Industry Conference, to be held at the Arthur Chung International Convention Centre, at Liliendaal. He is also expected to outline the new government’s plan for the rice industry.

GINA said that the conference will be held under the…to continue reading this article, http://www.stabroeknews.com/2015/news/stories/07/25/granger-to-address-rice-conference-2/

Pilgrims our guests’

STAFF REPORTER

It was a mega serving of about one lakh pilgrims a day during the 12-day Godavari Maha Pushkaram-2015. From breakfast to dinner, delicious and hygienic food was served to the pilgrims every day by over half a dozen service organisations. Pilgrims coming from distant places to take a holy dip in the Vasishta Godavari during the Pushkaralu were served breakfast, lunch and snacks from morning to evening by different organisations.

Using the public address systems, the organisers invited the pilgrims to visit their venue to have food. West Godavari Rice Millers Association, Arya Vysya Welfare Association and West Godavari Kshatriya Parishad engaged in serving lunch with different delicacies to the visiting public, organisations like Jain Samaj and Sri Y.N. College involved in providing breakfast in the morning and snacks in the evening to the devotees. “We feel we are honoured to serve the devotees, who came from far away place to have a holy dip here,” says Ch. Sriranga Raju, president of the rice millers’ body. “They are our guests and we have to treat them with respect,” he adds.

On-going rains to hinder rice exports

By Our Correspondent

Published: July 25, 2015

REAP Chairman Rafique Suleman also held the government responsible for the declining exports. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Recent rains may adversely affect the rice crop and result in a further drop in exports, stated the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP).

“Pakistan’s rice exports have already come down from $2 billion to $1.85 billion, and it is feared that this figure may further decline due to the on-going monsoon rains in the country,” said REAP Chairman Rafique Suleman.

On another note, Suleman also held the government responsible for the declining exports as it is doing very little to support research and development (R&D) in the sector.“Different rice producing governments are focusing on their R&D including our neighbours like India and Bangladesh. On the other hand, here, authorities are approving housing schemes on the land of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad,” he said.He called the agriculture sector the backbone of the Pakistani economy, and stressed prime research centres to work actively with full state-of-the-art technologies so that exports may be increased and maximum foreign exchange earned.

He said such actions would prove detrimental for national agriculture and put the country back many decades back and affect not only productivity but exports as well.“For years, the government has been giving mnimum attention to the sector and not providing due funds,” noted Suleman, adding that many international research institutes were located inside the NARC Campus and its closure or relocation would affect Pakistan’s credibility throughout the world.REAP urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Minister for Commerce, Minister for National Food Security and Research to give priority to food security in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2015.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/926040/on-going-rains-to-hinder-rice-exports/

Rice sector wary of EU-Vietnam deal

Mon, 27 July 2015

May Kunmakara

As Vietnam and the European Union reach the final stages of negotiating a bilateral trade agreement, giving Cambodia’s neighbour zero-duty exports to the economic bloc, local rice millers and exporters have expressed concerns that the deal could hurt the Kingdom’s rice exports.Under the proposed EU-Vietnam Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (EU-V BFTA), the EU may import around 76,000 tonnes of rice, mostly husked and milled, from Vietnam at zero per cent duty, according to Oryza, an industry publication.Song Saran, president of Amru Rice (Cambodia), said he was concerned if the EU-V BFTA went ahead, as it would be a big crisis for the country’s rice industry.

“If it is materialises, Cambodia would face a big challenge to compete with Vietnam and it will lose certain market share,” Saran said.“In the short-term, it will limit growth in rice production and exports, as well as the investment needed to improve the sector,” he added.Currently, the European Union (EU) imports rice and other products duty-free from least developed countries under the Everything But Arms policy.Of the rice exports to the EU under this policy, Cambodia accounts for 22 per cent and Myanmar three per cent.If Cambodia needs to maintain or increase the 250,000 tonnes its exports to the EU, Saran said it will have to improve its production capacity and logistical services to remain competitive.

“To get more volume, we need better expanding our dryer, warehouse, and reserve funds to purchase the rice paddy during the harvest, “he said, “Farmers should improve paddy production yield and quality.”To do so, Saran said, it require the government should provide financing to boost stocks of paddy for export with low interest, building the warehouse and dryer machines, reducing cost for farmers in rice farming, accessing the direct market among farmers and rice millers, and coordinating the cost reduction on transportation among trucking companies and exporters to explore the cost effective and reduce transportation fee.According to David Vann, former senior advisor to Cambodia Rice Federation, starting this October the EU will import 10,000 tonnes of rice duty-free from Vietnam.

“That is just the start and once the 10,000 tonnes quota is achieved, they would renew and would add more tonnage subsequently.”Given the size of Cambodia’s exports to the EU – which is 60 per cent or 172,000 tonnes according to the Ministry of Agriculture – Vann said that it would be advisable to expedite diversification to other markets.Independent economist Srey Chanthy said that despite tough competition from Vietnam, Cambodia could increase focus on the niche market of fragrant rice – a variety that is not grown in Vietnam currently.“Cambodia should also double efforts to diversify to other Asian markets, like China and Malaysia, and Africa, which remains a much untapped destination,” he said. “That would drive us to be less dependent on the EU market.”

Image:A man unloads a bag of rice at an export warehouse in Phnom Penh earlier this month.Vireak Mai

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-sector-wary-eu-vietnam-deal

Express Recipes: How to make Raw Mango Rice

This one has subtle flavours - raw mango and coconut. It makes for a delicious breakfast, a nice change from Poha and upma.

 

Raw Mango Rice recipe

I love the way South Indian cuisine celebrates the humble rice – so many flavours and all so delicious – tomato rice, lemon rice, tamarind rice, mango rice etc. This one has subtle flavours – raw mango and coconut. It makes for a delicious breakfast, a nice change from Poha and upma.

Add a side of raita and you have a light and healthy complete meal.

Raw-Mango Rice (Kachchi Kairi Pulav)
Preparation Time: 5 mins | Cooking Time: 15 mins| Serves 2

Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice (you can use any long grain rice of your choice)
½ tsp ghee
1 raw mango, grated (~1 cup after grating)
5-6 curry leaves
2 tbsp peanuts
Salt to taste

Ingredients for spice mix:
1 tsp mustard seeds
¼ tsp asafoetida powder
3 dry red chilies, broken
¼ tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp grated coconut powder

Ingredients for tempering:
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp Bengal gram daal
1 dry red chili, halved
Poppadoms/ papad of your choice

Method
* Wash and soak rice in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes

* Add ghee and salt to the rice and cook (with the 2 cups of water it was soaked in) in an open sauce pan, on low flame till the water is over and rice is cooked.

* While the rice is getting cooked; grind together all the ingredients for the spice mix and half of the grated raw mango in a mortar and pestle to make a coarse paste.

* In a broad non-stick wok, heat 2 tbsps of olive oil and add all the ingredients for tempering (mustard seeds, Bengal gram daal and dried red chili)

* When the mustard seeds start to sputter, add the peanuts and curry leaves. Saute for a minute and add the remaining half grated raw mango. Mix well and cook for a couple of minutes.

* Now add the spice mix and cook for 4-5 minutes, with frequent stirring.

* Remove from heat and stir in the cooked rice – a little at a time and mix with a light hand taking care not to break or mash the rice.

* Serve with roasted papad of your choice.

Food is never just food. I believe it’s story telling, it’s conversation. It brings people together and it speaks a universal language! I love to play around in my kitchen. The thrill of being able to create something new and sharing it with others is what fuels my passion for cooking. The fact that dear husband is a foodie and an honest critique helps! I blog about my adventures in the kitchen athttp://www.myweekendkitchen.in/

http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/food-wine/express-recipes-how-to-make-raw-mango-rice/#sthash.tFuz2DGE.dpufa

Rice disease-resistance discovery closes the loop for scientific integrity

Written by Pamela Ronald

Category: California News

Published: 26 July 2015

Davis, California - When disease-resistant rice is invaded by disease-causing bacteria, a small protein produced by the bacteria betrays the invader. Upon recognizing that protein, the rice plants sense that a microbial attack is underway and are able to mount an immune response to fend off bacterial infection, reports a research team led by the University of California, Davis.Identification of the tiny protein, called RaxX, holds promise for developing more disease-resistant crop varieties and therapeutic treatments for blocking microbial infections in both plants and animals, said the researchers, who found particular satisfaction in this discovery, two years after retracting the announcement of a similar find.Results of the new study are reported July 24 in Science Advances, an open-access journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The paper is available online from the journal at http://bit.ly/1OmytAd.

Discovery unlocks clues to disease protection

In this new study, researchers discovered that the RaxX protein was present in at least eight species of the disease-causing Xanthamonas bacteria that are known to attack rice — the staple food for half of the world’s population — as well as maize, cassava, sugar cane, tomatoes, peppers, wheat, alfalfa, onions, banana and citrus.“Our research team is delighted to announce the discovery of the RaxX protein, a new class of microbial signaling molecules," said Pamela Ronald, a professor of plant pathology, who directed the study.

Ronald noted that her laboratory is currently investigating the role of RaxX during bacterial infection of rice in the absence of the immune receptor.The researchers have noticed that RaxX closely resembles a class of plant signaling factors that promote growth and modulate the immune response. They suspect that the bacteria could be mimicking these natural plant-signaling factors to inhibit the plant immune response and thereby enhance the competitiveness of the bacteria.In the long term, the researchers hope to use this information to develop new strategies to prevent infection in various crops.

New findings have special significance

Publication of the new study is particularly poignant for Ronald and lead co-authors Rory Pruitt and Benjamin Schwessinger, because it brings the research team full circle in correcting unintentional errors that led the Ronald lab in 2009 to misidentify the protein now known to be RaxX.Pruitt and Schwessinger both worked on the new study as postdoctoral scholars in the Ronald lab, and Schwessinger is now an independent research fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.

Ronald’s laboratory has been studying rice genetics and disease resistance for more than two decades and in 1995 announced that a gene called Xa21 confers resistance to the bacterial blight pathogen. Bacterial blight, one of the worst bacterial plant diseases in the world, has been found in virtually every crop species including rice.The discovery of Xa21 was widely acclaimed by the scientific community and sparked further research into other key parts of the disease-resistance puzzle. Researchers were confident that if Xa21 produced a “receptor” in the plant cell that was capable of recognizing and thwarting a bacterial invasion, there must be a complementary protein in the bacteria that triggered that immune response in the plant.In 2009 the Ronald lab announced discovery of a bacterial protein called Ax21, which their research indicated was the protein that triggers the immune response by the Xa21 plant receptor.

 A second related study, based on identification of Ax21, was published in 2011.Then in 2013, as researchers in the Ronald lab began repeating the earlier experiments in preparation for a new study, they discovered that a bacterial strain had been mislabeled in the previous work and that one of the tests used in the earlier study turned out to be quite variable. These errors had led to the misidentification of Ax21 as the bacterial protein that sparks an immune response by the Xa21 receptor in the plant cells.

After finding the errors, Ronald retracted two papers from her laboratory about this research, published in 2009 and 2011 in the journals PLOS One and Science, respectively. She chronicled the story of that process in an October 2013 Scientific American blog posting titled, “Lab Life: The Anatomy of a Retraction,” which can be found at http://bit.ly/1KdEDli.In tandem with this week’s announcement of the RaxX protein, Ronald and her laboratory colleagues have prepared a new posting for the Scientific American blog, which tells the story of the new discovery and the closure it brings in setting the scientific record straight. It is scheduled for posting on July 24, concurrent with publication of the new study in Science Advances.

Collaborators and funders

Collaborating with Ronald, Schwessinger and Pruitt on the new study were researchers from UC Davis; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; University of Tübingen, Germany; University of Texas at Austin; UC Irvine; and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India.Funding for the study was provided by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, the European Molecular Biology Association, the Human Frontiers Science Program, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India, the Welch Foundation, and Monsanto’s Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program.

UC's Global Food Initiative

UC Davis is participating in UC’s Global Food Initiative launched by UC President Janet Napolitano, harnessing the collective power of UC to help feed the world and steer it on the path to sustainability.

http://www.imperialvalleynews.com/index.php/news/california-news/4463-rice-disease-resistance-discovery-closes-the-loop-for-scientific-integrity.html

Study: GMO rice could reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Rafiq Maqbool

India Agriculture

An Indian farmer uses a pair of bulls to plough a paddy field as another prepares rice saplings for replanting during monsoon rains on the outskirts of Mumbai, Maharashtra state, India, Tuesday, July 21, 2015.

Posted: Saturday, July 25, 2015 10:09 pm

By Sasha Harris-Lovett/Los Angeles Times (TNS)

More than half of the people on the planet eat rice as a staple food. Growing rice emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas — to the tune of 25 million to 100 million metric tons of methane every year, a notable contribution to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.As the world's population grows and needs more food, the problem is likely to get worse, but genetic engineering could help, a new study reports. By transferring a barley gene into a rice plant, scientists have created a new variety of rice that produces less methane while still making highly starchy, productive seeds. The development of the new rice strain is described this week in the journal Nature.Finding a way to boost rice production while reducing methane emissions has been a goal for many years, said Chuanxin Sun, a plant biologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the lead author of the study. By engineering barley genes into the rice plant, "we demonstrated it's possible to get these two traits with this technology," he said.When rice paddies are flooded, methane-producing bacteria thrive on the carbohydrates secreted by rice roots in the oxygen-free soils. The rice plant itself acts as a conduit, transmitting methane from the soil into the atmosphere.

Methane traps heat in the atmosphere with devastating efficiency: Over 20 years, it is 84 times stronger than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, according to the most recent assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Sun and his team transferred barley genes that cause high-starch production in rice grains and stems. Based on previous research that proposed that rice plants with smaller root systems could produce less methane, the researchers hoped that the genetic transfer would cause their rice plants to allocate less energy toward growing roots and more toward making robust grains.

Then they planted a handful of their genetically engineered rice plants alongside conventionally grown Nipponbare rice in the laboratory and in two field settings in China.Near the end of the growing season, in summer and fall, the researchers measured how much methane each plant emitted by covering it with a sealed plastic cylinder and using a syringe to extract the accumulated gasses in the trapped air. They also measured how much starch the plants allocated to their seeds, stems and roots, and how many methane-producing bacteria lived around the plant roots.As they suspected, the genetically engineered rice grew smaller root systems and starchier grains than conventional rice. Far fewer methane-producing bacteria hugged the roots of the new rice. And the new rice variety emitted less than 10 percent of the methane of conventional rice, they reported.

The genetically modified rice variety provides "a tremendous opportunity for more-sustainable rice cultivation," Paul Bodelier, a microbial ecologist at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, wrote in an essay that accompanied that research article.Previous techniques for reducing methane emissions from rice paddies involve alternating flooding with dry periods, said Bruce Linquist, a plant scientist at the University of California, Davis, who specializes in rice cultivation and was not involved in the study.Although these techniques can cut methane emissions in half, they also can reduce the plants' productivity. Additionally, in a lot of places where rice is grown, you can't control when rice paddies are wet or dry because irrigation is based on seasonal rains and floods, he said.

The research is too preliminary to make solid conclusions about methane emissions from the genetically engineered rice, Linquist added. More research about how much methane whole rice paddies (and not just individual plants) emit over the entire growing season is necessary, he said. In addition, the new rice plants' smaller root systems could make it difficult for the crop to uptake nutrients."It needs to be tested more in the field," he said.Even if the new rice variety does prove to reduce methane emissions on a larger scale, there are still barriers to it being grown and sold. Genetically engineered rice isn't commercially cultivated anywhere in the world, in part because of ethical and biological concerns about the spread of engineered rice pollen, experts said."There's not a market for it," Linquist said.

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/business/study-gmo-rice-could-reduce-greenhouse-gas-emissions/article_8bac75f2-3354-11e5-80f8-6f83e06ff721.html

Bacolod food establishments urged to serve brown rice

 Monday, July 27, 2015

 By CARLA N. CANET

THE City Council of Bacolod passed a resolution urging the City Agriculture Office and the City Health Office to encourage food establishments in Bacolod City to offer brown rice as part of their regular menu.Authored by Councilor Sonya Verdeflor, the resolution cited Section 15, Article II of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which provides that, “the state shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them.”Cognizant and supportive to the rice self-sufficiency program of the national government, the city of Bacolod is exploring viable means that would facilitate the attainment of the said program.

The government is desirous of improving the nutritional value of rice as a staple food. Brown rice or unpolished rice is the whole grain form of rice and is therefore nutritionally superior than white rice in terms of protein, dietary fiber, B1, B2 and B9 vitamins, and Vitamin E, minerals and antioxidants.According to some researches, brown rice or unpolished rice could help reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases, and could lower blood pressure.Brown rice or unpolished rice has higher milling recovery than white rice and therefore could help in the attainment of rice self-sufficiency.The Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) is spearheading a campaign called “Be RICEponsible” to promote better health and at the same time help in the achievement of rice self-sufficiency through the promotion of brown rice.

Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on July 27, 2015.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/local-news/2015/07/27/bacolod-food-establishments-urged-serve-brown-rice-421212

'No alternative to raising production for food security'

RANGPUR, July 26 (BSS): There is no alternative way to increase agricultural production under adverse impacts of climate change to ensure food security.Agriculture Secretary Shyamol Kanti Ghosh said this while addressing to the officials, scientists, researchers and experts of different agriculture related departments, institutions and research organisations here on Saturday as chief guest at a view sharing meeting.The meeting was arranged at the conference room of the On-Farm Research Division (OFRD) of Rangpur Station of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI). Director General of BARI Dr Rafikul Islam Mandal presided over the views-sharing meeting.Rangpur Regional Additional Director of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Mohammad Mohsin and Member of the Board of Governance of the BARI Khalilur Rahman Mandal addressed the meeting as the special guests.

Chief Scientific Officer of the OFRD of BARI from Gazipur Dr Mahbubur Rahman Khan delivered the welcome speech while its Principal Scientific Officer of the OFRD for Rangpur Station Dr Mazharul Anwar narrated the field level activities.Senior officials, scientists, researchers and experts of the DAE, Seed Certification Agency, Soil Resource Development Institute, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation, Agriculture Marketing Department, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, Bangladesh Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute, Barind Multipurpose Development Authorities, Cotton Development Board, Tazhat Agriculture Training Institute, Integrated Agriculture Productivity Project, Integrated Farm management Component, Agriculture Information Service and NGOs participated.

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/07/27/101650

حالیہ بارشوں اور سیلاب سے چاول کی ملکی برآمدات میں کمی کا خدشہ

25 جولائی 2015 (15:54)

اسلام آباد (یو این پی) حالیہ بارشوں اور سیلاب سے چاول کی ملکی برآمدات میں کمی کا خدشہ ہے۔ رائس ایکسپورٹرز ایسوسی ایشن آف پاکستان ( ریپ) کے چیئرمین رفیق سلیمان نے کہا ہے کہ چاول کی ملکی برآمدات 2 ارب ڈالر سالانہ سے کم ہو کر ایک ارب 85 کروڑ ڈالر ہوگئی ہے جبکہ حالیہ بارشوں اور سیلاب سے اس کی ملکی برآمدات میں مزید کمی کا خدشہ ہے۔ رفیق سلیمان نے کہا ہے کہ شعبہ کی ترقی اور ملکی برآمدات کے فروغ کیلئے ریسرچ اینڈ ڈویلپمنٹ کے شعبہ پر خصوصی توجہ کی ضرورت ہے انہوں نے اعلیٰ حکام سے درخواست کی کہ شعبہ میں تحقیق اور ترقی کے لئے جامع حکمت عملی مرتبہ کی جائے تاکہ ملکی برآمدات کے فروغ سے زرعی شعبہ کی ترقی کو یقینی بنایا جاسکے۔

Daily Pakistan

 

Download/View On-Line the above News in pdf format,just click the following link

27th July (Monday), 2015Daily Exclusive ORYZA Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine