Wednesday, July 29, 2015

28th July (Tuesday), 2015 Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

Rice Federation to Get $450,000 From Ministry


BY KANG SOTHEAR | JULY 28, 2015
The Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday to receive $450,000 in financial support from the government to increase Cambodia’s rice exports, according to a federation official.Hun Lak, vice president of the CRF, which aims to link farmers, millers and exporters, said the Finance Ministry would assist the federation through the Commerce Ministry with a one-time capital infusion.

“This is a seed capital…to support those who are involved in the rice sector,” he said.“The capital will be used for…market development such as participating in overseas exhibitions, joining government-to-government discussions and human resources development.”Mr. Lak added that the funds would be sent to the CRF after the ministry receives a comprehensive plan for its use.Commerce Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.The government had set a goal to export 1 million tons of milled rice this year, but has admitted that it is likely to fall well short of that figure, and now plans to export about 600,000 tons of rice this year.

https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/rice-federation-to-get-450000-from-ministry-89665/


Scientists Create New Rice Variety
Submitted by Diana Bretting on Tue, 07/28/2015 - 11:25
Description: Scientists Create New Rice Variety
Nowadays getting permission to grow rice is equal to an uphill battle, but scientists have recently created a new variety by transferring a barley gene into a rice planet. One of the major advantages of this genetically modified variety is it produces considerably less methane gas.The research on the rice variety was published in the journal Nature. As per some scientists, reducing methane emissions that occur in flooded rice paddies as methane-producing bacteria thriving on the carbohydrates secreted by rice roots in the oxygen-free soils is a big concern.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.
But the transfer of barley gene into a rice planet during this study resulted in rice with smaller root systems and starchier grain, and the methane produced was 10% of the methane produced in growing conventional rice.Lead author of the Journal report is Chuanxin Sun, a plant biologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, said it was thought that such a research might come from another major rice producing area, but it has occurred in China.Researchers for the study conducted field trials in China for three years. This newly developed rice variety can boost food sustainability without adding to global warming.Some experts are considering the findings of the study as an important breakthrough in the field of genetically modified foods.
http://perfscience.com/content/2142317-scientists-create-new-rice-variety#sthash.Y3KgtArN.dpuf

Genetically modified rice makes more food, less greenhouse gas

A 50 percent boost in rice, with methane dropping by 90 percent.

by Scott K. Johnson - Jul 28, 2015 8:33am PDT

Description: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/rice_paddy_feng_wang-640x482.jpgFeng Wang
When it comes to major anthropogenic sources of methane (an important greenhouse gas), livestock and leaky natural gas wells and pipelines might come to mind. However, rice cultivation is also among the largest sources. Microbes in wetlands, where water saturation leads to low-oxygen conditions, produce most of the world’s methane, and rice paddies are essentially human-controlled wetlands.Down in the warm muck of a rice paddy, the roots of the rice plant release some organic compounds, and they eventually die off and decay themselves, providing the food that microbes turn into methane. Researchers are working on ways to limit that methane production, but this will always be a secondary concern for farmers. Yields rule the day, especially as demand is growing. But a 2002 study hinted at a win-win: increase above-ground growth at the expense of below-ground growth, and yield goes up while methane production goes down.
A great idea, but how to make it happen? A group of researchers led by Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences researchers Jun Su, Changquan Hu, and Xia Yan have used a gene from barley to create a genetically modified rice plant that does just that.The barley gene causes the plant to put more energy into above-ground growth, including the seeds. Having inserted the gene into a couple rice cultivars, the researchers planted trials in several areas of China with varying climates to see the results. Compared to a common cultivar grown as a baseline, the genetically modified plants produced substantially less methane—90 to 99 percent less, depending on the growth stage.
To see what was happening, the researchers tracked the growth of the rice, as well as the activity of genes in various parts of the plants. The genetically modified plants had stronger flower clusters that produced more seeds, meaning a greater yield of rice per plant—close to 50 more percent by weight. And the starch content of those grains of rice was about 10 percent higher. In total, above-ground weight increased by about 30 percent, while below-ground weight decreased by 35 percent.Meanwhile, the abundance of methane-producing microbes living on the plants’ roots decreased by half or more, apparently starved of food.
Measurements of gene expression confirmed that the barley gene was busy in the seeds and stems of the modified plants. The gene boosted the conversion of sugars to starch, maintaining a greedy demand for sugars in those parts that left less for the roots.In an article accompanying the paper in Nature, Netherlands Institute of Microbial Ecology researcherPaul Bodelier celebrated the study but cautioned that further trials will be necessary to make sure this crop would be ready for long-term, widespread use. Since the microbial community around the plant’s roots changes, there could potentially be knock-on effects that reduce the plant’s disease resistance or require greater fertilizer use, for example.
Barring major trade-offs, a variety of rice that produces more food while releasing less methane into the atmosphere would obviously be a boon
http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/07/genetically-modified-rice-makes-more-food-less-greenhouse-gas/

Irish researchers discover simple solution to worrying levels of arsenic in our rice

Rab Kassie Sheeran

PUBLISHED28/07/2015 | 19:02

"Rice is by far our dominant source of inorganic arsenic," says a professor at Queen’s University Belfast.Too much arsenic is associated with a range of health problems including, at worst, bladder and lung cancer. Description: Queen’s University in BelfastRice is the only major crop grown under flooded conditions. It is this flooding that releases inorganic arsenic, normally locked up in soil minerals, which is then absorbed by the plant.Washing and boiling rice in a pan will not remove the toxin; this only re-infuses it after the water has evaporated.Research done at Queen’s concluded that by cooking rice in the filter of a coffee percolator could reduce the arsenic content greatly. Scientists reported that it took 20 minutes to cook white rice and 40 minutes to cook brown rice by this method.Researchers at Queen’s are currently developing rice percolator cookers more suited to preparing rice.The UK’s Food Standards Agency states children under 4 and half years old shouldn’t be fed rice milk as an alternative.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irish-researchers-discover-simple-solution-to-worrying-levels-of-arsenic-in-our-rice-31411167.html

Nigeria spends $2.4bn on rice importation in 3 years – Emefiele

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday said the Federal Government spent $2.41 billion on rice importation between January 2012 and May 2015.Mr. Emefiele made this known at a stakeholders’ meeting with officials of Paddy Rice Producing states and Rice Value chain investors in Abuja.He said the bank’s decision to ban foreign exchange for importation of rice; fish and other items would not be reversed.
He said the apex bank has no plans to reverse the ban, adding that the reason for inclusion of rice in the exclusion list was not far-fetched.He said, “Figures available with the CBN show that from the period January 2012 to May 2015, the country had spent over 2.41bn dollars on importation of this commodity.“Unfortunately, this trend has resulted in huge unsold stock of paddy rice cultivated by our farmers and low operating capacities of many integrated rice mills in Nigeria.”Mr. Emefiele said the CBN, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, would come up with a comprehensive financing model to support rice millers and other investors in the sector.He said the bank decided to intervene in the sector through funding and other packages because the country would not achieve its true potentials if it imported everything it could produce locally.
He said, “the bank will make funds more accessible to farmers through some of its funding programme such as the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme and the N220bn Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development fund.“The funds will be made available to rice farmers through the Microfinance Banks at an interest rate of nine per cent and any bank that charges interest above that rate should be reported to the CBN“We appeal to the state governments to provide lands for the farmers on a large scale and we will work with them to clear some of these impediments.
“We are at a stage where we must feed ourselves and all hands are on deck to ensure this work,” he said.The CBN boss said that those that defaulted in the payment of customs duty after bringing in excess quotas of rice into the country at concessionary rates would be penalised.He said the CBN would take up the issue to the highest level in government to ensure that the money was paid.“By exceeding their import quota, these importers have flooded the market with rice that is sold below what is produced locally thus, making consumers ignore the locally produced ones.“We are going to enforce it and we will go to the highest level to enforce this to ensure that they pay and I appeal to them to go and pay,’’ he added.
The governor also assured rice producers that the bank would work closely with the Nigerian Customs Service to address the issue of smuggling.Also speaking, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi promised that everything would be done to support the CBN intervention.Mr. Bagudu spoke on behalf of the 10 major paddy rice producing states, Kebbi, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto, Ebonyi, Taraba, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Niger.He said the states had enough capacity to produce rice that would help the country attain self sufficiency as well as for export purpose.
He also assured producers that they would expand infrastructure, as well as provide the right atmosphere for people to invest in rice farming.Sonny Echow, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the ministry was making plans to intervene in rice production in the coming season.“We are proposing to the CBN to help us set up a fund for rice millers for our rice farmers.
“We will be making that recommendation to the CBN to facilitate a long term fund,” he said.Earlier, the millers stressed the need to address some of the bottlenecks affecting the increase in rice production in the country.They also listed some areas where they needed intervention to include: Investment in research, irrigation facility and stable rice policy, as well as the need to tackle issue of smuggling.Others included bigger fields, funding, access to land, establishment of more rice mills and increase in capacity of existing mills in the country among others.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/business/187406-nigeria-spends-2-4bn-on-rice-importation-in-3-years-emefiele.html

Rice Producers Group urges conclusion to negotiations with China

 

The group, representing rice farmers in all six rice states covering close to 90 percent of the U.S. rice crop, offered guidance to U.S. negotiators to help them finalize a deal that would be acceptable and manageable to the U.S. industry.


By USA Rice Federation
Posted Jul. 28, 2015 at 9:25 AM 
DALLAS, TEXAS —
At a meeting earlier this month the USA Rice Producers' Group unanimously passed a motion urging the conclusion of negotiations between the United States and China to establish a phytosanitary agreement that would pave the way for U.S. rice to be exported to China.The group, representing rice farmers in all six rice states covering close to 90 percent of the U.S. rice crop, offered guidance to U.S. negotiators to help them finalize a deal that would be acceptable and manageable to the U.S. industry.
The negotiations, between USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and their Chinese counterparts (AQSIQ), have dragged on for years and hit snags recently when the Chinese made demands the U.S. industry felt were not based on sound science."The Chinese are demanding our industry set traps for insects that do not exist in the United States, and that we set a totally unreasonable number of traps per square foot of storage space," said John Owen, a Louisiana rice farmer and chairman of the USA Rice Producers' Group.The USA Rice Millers' Association, whose members would be responsible for the trapping, agreed with the producers."We're not opposed to trapping, but, any agreement needs to meet reasonable standards that are consistent with international trade agreement precedents and be based on quantifiable, scientific data consistent with previous USDA/APHIS procedures," said Chris Crutchfield, a California miller and chairman of the USA Rice Millers' Association.

Chinese negotiators are also demanding very specific package labeling that is both unprecedented and many felt unfeasible."The labeling requirements are not appropriate for inclusion in a phytosanitary protocol at all," said Dick Ottis, chairman of the USA Rice Merchants' Association.The three organizations came together under the industry's national organization, USA Rice, to adopt the joint resolution.Dow Brantley, an Arkansas rice farmer and chairman of USA Rice, was pleased with the industry's unity and strong statement that both supports, and guides, U.S. negotiators."There's no question we'd like to participate in the Chinese market, but these ever-evolving demands being made by the Chinese government were making it ever-less likely we were going to actually gain access to the market," Brantley said.  "We appreciate the efforts of the U.S. negotiators on our behalf, and are happy to provide input as a united industry.

"Brantley said the market has great potential for the U.S. industry, and that his group has been working for years to establish trade relationships and line up customers for the day the phytosanitary deal is complete.  However, he says if the final deal is based on unreasonable, unscientific demands that can never be truly satisfied, there's little point to agreeing."The notion that you can agree to something with the Chinese government now and fix it later is very naïve," he said.  "Once the ink dries on that deal, the Chinese are going to hold us to it, so it needs to be a deal we all can live with today and that actually allows us to start sending our rice over there."

http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/article/20150728/NEWS/150729646

Customs seal 4 major rice importing firms over N23.6 bn debt

By NAN on July 28, 2015

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday sealed the warehouses and business premises of four major rice importing firms over N23.6 billion unpaid rice duty and levies.The Public Relations Officer of NCS, Mr Wale Adeniyi, told a news conference in Lagos that the service would also not allow discharge of the companies’ imports in any of the nation’s ports.The companies are Olam (Amuwo, Lagos), Stallion/Popular Foods/Masco Agro (Iganmu, Lagos) Ebony Agro (Wuse, Abuja) and Conti Agro (Victoria Island, Lagos).Adeniyi said that altogether the companies had imported a combined excess of 750,253, 03 tonnes of rice, for which the service expected payment of extant duty and levies.
Description: Customs arrest 4 ChineseThe customs spokesman said the service had written the affected companies severally to notify them of their duty liability at normal rate if they exceeded their quotas.“Similarly, we published many notices in national newspapers, including where affected importers were mentioned with outstanding payments,’’ Adeniyi said.He explained that the importers were the beneficiaries of 2014 Rice Import Quota Policy, which specified a preferential duty rate of 10 per cent and levy of 20 per cent for their imports.

“The importers and their sister or associated companies have been blocked from the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS), thus denying them access to make declarations.“All these will be done preparatory to instituting full legal proceeding to compel them (importers) to pay what they owe Nigeria, when the courts are back from recess,’’ the customs spokesman said.Adeniyi said the service had issued several ultimatum to the companies to pay the outstanding charges against them, adding that “today, we are no longer issuing ultimatum’’.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Rice Import Quota Policy was meant to fill a national sufficiency gap which needed to be met in line with quotas allotted to the beneficiaries. NAN also reports that the beneficiaries were rice millers who have invested in the sector and created employment in the value chain.The policy states that the quantity imported in excess of approved quotas will be subjected to the extant rate of 10 per cent duty and 60 per cent levy.

News from USA Rice Daily
Tulane Opens $1 Million "Nitrogen Reduction Challenge"       
Probably reduced nitrogen in that Green Wave

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- Tulane University has announced the next phase of the "Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge," an international competition that will award $1 million to the entrepreneur, researcher, or inventor with the best plan to reduce the amount of nutrients entering the world's lakes, rivers, and oceans through storm water runoff and ultimately reduce the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hypoxia is oxygen-deprived water that causes massive fish kills and annual "dead zones" in waters throughout the world.  The goal of the prize is to help identify and nurture the most innovative and adaptable technologies that will lead to positive environmental outcomes.
 Individuals and others with nitrogen-reducing ideas should register for the Challenge by visiting http://tulane.edu/tulaneprize/waterprize/ no later than September 15, and submit a one page proposal.  Those submitting the most viable proposals will be invited to create a 20-page technical explanation, including descriptions of their team, resources, and capacity for implementation.
An advisory committee of scientists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, farmers, and other national experts will select five finalists from these entries.  These finalists will test their proposals on working farms during the 2016 growing season.

Contact:  Robbie Kroger (228) 396-0486

ME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures   
CME Group (Prelim):  Closing Rough Rice Futures for July 28
Month
Price
Net Change

September 2015
$10.980
+ $0.020
November 2015
$11.245
+ $0.020
January 2016
$11.515
+ $0.020
March 2016
$11.715
+ $0.020
May 2016
$11.900
+ $0.020
July 2016
$11.900
+ $0.020
September 2016
$11.910
+ $0.020

APEDA India News
International Benchmark Price
Price on: 27-07-2015
Product
Benchmark Indicators Name
Price
Garlic
1
Chinese first grade granules, CFR NW Europe (USD/t)
2100
2
Chinese Grade A dehydrated flakes, CFR NW Europe (USD/t)
2000
3
Chinese powdered, CFR NW Europe (USD/t)
1800
Ginger
1
Chinese sliced, CIF NW Europe (USD/t)
4600
2
Chinese whole, CIF NW Europe (USD/t)
5100
3
Indian Cochin, CIF NW Europe (USD/t)
3000
Guar Gum Powder
1
Indian 100 mesh 3500 cps, FOB Kandla (USD/t)
4470
2
Indian 200 mesh 3500 cps basis, FOB Kandla (USD/t)
1890
3
Indian 200 mesh 5000 cps, FOB Kandla (USD/t)
2990
Source:agra-net
For more info
Market Watch
Commodity-wise, Market-wise Daily Price on 27-07-2015
Domestic Prices
Unit Price : Rs per Qty
Product
Market Center
Variety
Min Price
Max Price
Rice
1
Jhagadiya (Gujarat)
Other
1990
3100
2
Cachar (Assam)
Other
2000
2500
3
Bonai (Orissa)
Other
2200
2400
Wheat
1
Amod (Gujarat)
Other
1600
1800
2
Bonai (Orissa)
Other
1450
1600
3
Bolpur (West Bengal)
Other
1390
1490
Mousambi
1
Aroor (Kerala)
Other
3200
3400
2
Sirhind (Punjab)
Other
2000
3500
3
Mechua (West Bengal)
Other
2100
2600
Brinjal
1
Bargarh (Orissa)
Other
1200
1400
2
Aroor (Kerala)
Other
2800
3000
3
Sirhind (Punjab)
Other
1300
1500
Source:agra-net
For more info
Egg
Rs per 100 No
Price on 27-07-2015
Product
Market Center
Price
1
Pune
345
2
Nagapur
332
3
Namakkal
330
Source: e2necc.com
Other International Prices
Unit Price : US$ per package
Price on 24-07-2015
Product
Market Center
Origin
Variety
Low
High
Onions Dry
Package: 50 lb sacks
1
Atlanta
Colorado
Yellow
25
26
2
Chicago
California
Yellow
20
22
3
Detroit
Mexico
Yellow
23
23.50
Carrots
Package: 20 1-lb film bags
1
Atlanta
California
Baby Peeled
18
20.50
2
Chicago
California
Baby Peeled
17
17
3
Dallas
Arizona
Baby Peeled
18
18
Apples
Package: cartons tray pack
1
Atlanta
Virginia 
Red Delicious
19
19
2
Baltimore
Washington 
Red Delicious
22
24
3
Dallas
Washington
Red Delicious
18
19.75
Source:USDA


Forecasting the Weather From a Bowl of Rice

Jul 28, 2015
Saori Kako at Panasonic’s rice-cooker factory in Kobe, Japan.
 Takashi Mochizuki/The Wall Street Journal
Description: http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-JP071_panari_G_20150728043142.jpgSaori Kako, a rice-cooker developer at Panasonic 6752.TO -1.05% Corp., knows the taste, texture and appearance of rice so well she can tell what the weather is like just by looking at a steaming bowlful.“When rice comes out fluffy, I know it’s sunny,” she said, revealing one of her weather indicators.Ms. Kako has been eating at least seven bowls of rice a day since she joined the Osaka-based company in 1992 in the quest for the perfect combination of flavor and feel.She is one of Panasonic’s “rice ladies”–tasters of rice who have dedicated themselves to developing a deep knowledge of Japan’s many rice varieties and the subtle effects of cooking methods on texture and flavor. Most of Japan’s appliance makers have rice-tasting staff.
Their expertise is needed to develop the sophisticated functionality of the latest rice cookers that are becoming increasingly popular not just among Japanese consumers but also among visitors to Japan.The pickup in demand for Japanese rice cookers is particularly strong in Asia, helped by a much weaker yen, a burgeoning number of foreign tourists to Japan and word-of-mouth recommendation. Japanese appliance makers are responding to this demand by ratcheting up their efforts to cater for specific consumer needs.At Panasonic, for example, rice cookers for Chinese customers have a porridge setting and a quick-cooking mode to better serve local cooking habits, while those aimed at Southeast Asian buyers are more focused on basics to keep prices down.
 Tech-minded Japanese consumers are offered cookers they can operate with their smartphones.Japan’s farming ministry says the nation has several hundred kinds of rice, many of them with fancy names such as “Love at First Sight” or “Seven Stars.” They all have different characteristics from size and flavor to moisture retention. Change the soil or the location and the taste will change again, experts say.To help nurture experts who can distinguish between the many varieties, a Japanese rice industry association runs a qualification system that has certified 3,000 people as rice masters.
 Of these, 400 have the highest, five-star master rating.In more practical terms, Ms. Kako’s job is to find the best cooking method for each of variety of rice by adjusting the heating time, temperature and steaming duration.Panasonic’s rice cookers for Japanese consumers come with a “takiwake” function enabling users to adjust steaming patterns to best fit the rice being cooked, using software that Ms. Kako has developed.While she can figure out the optimal cooking method for each type of rice, she says her knack of predicting the weather from a mouthful of rice is more of a mystery. She even clambered up a mountain once to test whether atmospheric pressure was the key factor. It wasn’t, she said.“I still don’t know exactly how I can do that,” Ms. Kako said.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/07/28/forecasting-the-weather-from-a-bowl-of-rice/?utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+July+28%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email

Sunrice eyes Iran after Middle East sales surge

Date July 28, 2015

Sunrice chief executive Rob Gordon see opportunities in the Middle East, including Iran. Photo: Louie Douvis
The newly minted US-Iran nuclear deal will deliver an "avalanche of trade" for Western businesses, predicts the boss of Australian agricultural giant Sunrice.Sunrice's sales to the Middle East have already surged 41 per cent to $141 million in the past 12 months, and chief executive Rob Gordon  expects more growth to come as sales extend to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and even strife-torn Syria."The branded rice market across the Middle East in 2012 was worth $4 billion. And in 2017 we anticipate it will be worth $8 billion," Mr  Gordon said.

Consumer support includes a Sunrice recipe website in Arabic. Photo: Supplied
"We were obviously unable to supply that market fully when we were in the midst of our drought. But since we have had Australian rice to sell again we have re-established ourselves as the market leader."
Description: Branded player: Sunrice's sales to the Middle East have surged 41 per cent to $141 million in the past year.Description: Consumer support includes a Sunrice recipe website in Arabic.Description: Sunrice chief executive Rob Gordon see opportunities in the Middle East, including Iran.Sunrice, Australia's last grain export monopoly, has almost doubled its market share in Saudi Arabia and Jordan to 60 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.Mr Gordon said the company had also sold rice "pretty much throughout" the Syrian civil war and has begun investigating Iran, which struck a deal with the US and five other world powers last month to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of trade sanctions.

Branded player: Sunrice's sales to the Middle East have surged 41 per cent to $141 million in the past year. Photo: Supplied
Mr Gordon said the agreement presented a significant opportunity for Western businesses, considering Iran's population of almost 80 million."This deal on the nuclear issue I think is likely to open up an avalanche of trade with Iran," he said. "We have done a few initial market soundings."I'm not flagging that we have got firm plans. I'm just saying … that it's a potential market for a lot of Western companies in the next year or two."Sunrice has increased its exposure to the Middle East, where it has had a presence for more than 30 years, by spending more on marketing its product as a brand rather than a commodity.This has meant sponsoring cooking shows and television personalities, as well as launching a recipe website in Arabic.
Mr Gordon said becoming a branded player in the region rather than a commodity exporter set Sunrice apart from its competitors in California and Egypt."They are not doing any work to inform the consumer on how to use the product or to inspire creativity."What we are doing is providing a total solution for the consumer, as opposed to the Californians, who are effectively taking a commodity, sticking it in a bag, putting a brand on it and flogging it in the supermarkets."We have done a lot of research in market to find out what motivates consumers in the Middle East, and particularly the main grocery buyer. They love creativity and a lot of their culture and family life revolves around meal times – celebrating being together and food being part of that."Sunrice has launched an Indian-grown basmati rice in the region under its Sun White brand, and is planning to introduce more products, including its rice chips.
"This is all part of our strategy of doing a lot of our thinking here and when we find a winner, rolling it out quite rapidly through our distribution networks in the Middle East, through the Pacific and … into Asia."Mr Gordon said the company's plan to list on the ASX would accelerate its Middle East expansion.Sunrice is seeking feedback from its farmer shareholders to craft its shift from the smaller National Stock Exchange to the ASX.It most likely will take a form similar to Australia's biggest milk processor, Murray Goulburn, which listed a non-voting unit trust this month to maintain 100 per cent farmer control.But Mr Gordon said the company wasn't in a rush to list on the ASX, saying it had enough balance sheet firepower to fuel its international growth plans."While we have got balance sheet capacity today because we have paid down close to $100 million of debt in the last couple of years, if we start pulling off these initiatives and accelerating them then we will need to get external sources of capital," he said."And the best place to get that is the ASX."

High nighttime temperatures a concern for rice producers

Jul 28, 2015Forrest Laws | Delta Farm Press
 “The overwhelming concern at this point has to do with the daytime and nighttime temperatures,” Dr. Hardke said. “We have had an unfortunate run of nighttime temperatures that are remaining at or above 75 degrees at night, and we know from a decade of research that that can have a significant impact on grain quality, primarily related to chalkiness.”

Delta Farm Press
Description: http://deltafarmpress.com/site-files/deltafarmpress.com/files/imagecache/medium_img/uploads/2015/07/ricejune2012dfp_0.jpgThe Arkansas rice crop is making good progress, especially if you consider what it endured at the beginning of the 2015 season, says Jarrod Hardke, Extension rice specialist with the University of Arkansas.But weather continues to be a major factor, particularly the high nighttime temperatures that have been occurring in the state’s rice-growing areas and much of the Mid-South Rice Belt. Dr. Hardke spoke on the current agronomic outlook for the Arkansas rice crop during the University of Arkansas’ Food and Agribusiness Webinar on July 22.“The overwhelming concern at this point has to do with the daytime and nighttime temperatures,” Dr. Hardke said.
“We have had an unfortunate run of nighttime temperatures that are remaining at or above 75 degrees at night, and we know from a decade of research that that can have a significant impact on grain quality, primarily related to chalkiness.”Looking back at the two most recent problematic years from the standpoint of grain quality – 2010 and 2011 – Arkansas’ nighttime temperatures did not get below 75 degrees for a period of 25 to 30 days spanning across July and early August. “Those are the types of conditions we’re looking at for the moment, and we hope we can get out of because we don’t want to have similar grain quality as in those years,” he said.
“In addition, we also had problems with bacterial panicle blight in those years, which we may be at risk from especially for the part of our crop that was pushed into a later-planted window.”Some of Arkansas’ rice crop was not planted until June due to the incessant rains that fell across the state in April and May. June plantings appear to increase the risk of bacterial panicle blight.On a more positive note, he said some of the newer varieties being grown in the state currently do not appear to be as susceptible to bacterial panicle blight as varieties that were being grown in 2010 and 2011.
“In 60 percent of the acreage being grown in Arkansas this year, the cultivars would be rated moderately susceptible or better to bacterial panicle blight,” he noted. “When I say better, I mean moderately susceptible to resistant. In 2010 and 2011, that number was only about as high as 40 percent.“So we’re in a little safer area than we were then if we do have some issues with it,” says Hardke.Incidences of other traditional rice diseases – sheath blight and leaf blast – appear to have gone down because of the higher temperatures. “That is one bonus for this time of year,” he said. “But if I’m also talking about bacterial panicle blight, it doesn’t make people feel that much better about things.”Hardke says he feels comfortable with USDA’s projection of 1.39 million planted acres for Arkansas’ 2015 rice crop.
 “I had thought initially our medium grain acreage might be slightly higher than the 240,000 in the June USDA Acreage Report, but that is, in fact, close to the numbers I have at this time.”Farmers still have a “long way to go to make this crop,” said Hardke. “We do have problems with grass escapes that are being cleaned up and some that are beyond the point of being cleaned up. My concern is that if we have fall weather with high winds and a lot of grass escapes like these that they will start to lodge the rice.”And growers are not likely to repeat the record yields of the last three years, he said. “I think we will probably be in the upper 150s (bushels per acres) is where I feel comfortable at this point. That would be down from the 168-bushel average of the last two years. 2015 has certainly been a much tougher year than the last two, particularly in getting it planted this spring.”
http://deltafarmpress.com/rice/high-nighttime-temperatures-concern-rice-producers?utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+July+28%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email

USDA economist predicts improving stocks situation for rice

Jul 27, 2015Forrest Laws | Delta Farm Press
But it’s the numbers in the “background” that could be a sign of better times. Examples: total supplies in the 2015-16 marketing year are expected to decline for a second consecutive year due to a smaller carry-in from the 2014-15 year, and the markets are expected to see the largest consumption and residual use on record (up 1 percent from 2014-15).

U.S. rice producers could be seeing a small beam of light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to world rice supplies. But it may be too early to get your hopes up concerning the possibility of higher rice prices.USDA is projecting record 2015-16 global rice production of 480.3 million tons (milled basis), which would be up 1 percent above 2014-15, according to Nathan Childs, senior agricultural economist with USDA’s Economic Research Service.But it’s the numbers in the “background” that could be a sign of better times.
Examples: total supplies in the 2015-16 marketing year are expected to decline for a second consecutive year due to a smaller carry-in from the 2014-15 year, and the markets are expected to see the largest consumption and residual use on record (up 1 percent from 2014-15).Dr. Childs reported those numbers during the latest in the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Food & Agribusiness Webinar Series. To watch a video of Dr. Childs’ presentation, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYXvUl96IxQ&t=2m24s.
U.S. rice producers are expected to harvest 152.5 million hundredweight of rice in 2015. That is down 9.5 million cwt from earlier estimates and lower than 2014’s production, according to Dr. Childs. But it is still 13.8 million cwt above the previous four-year average of 138.7 million hundredweight.
http://deltafarmpress.com/rice/usda-economist-predicts-improving-stocks-situation-rice?utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+July+28%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email

Description: Disease-resistant rice plants, depicted at left, recognize the newly identified RaxX protein in the invading bacteria and can fend off the attack, while non-resistant rice plants cannot recognize the disease-causing bacteria and fall victim to it.   Rice disease-resistance discovery closes the loop for scientific integrity

By University of California, Davis July 28, 2015 | 12:35 pm EDT
Disease-resistant rice plants, depicted at left, recognize the newly identified RaxX protein in the invading bacteria and can fend off the attack, while non-resistant rice plants cannot recognize the disease-causing bacteria and fall victim to it.

Photo by Kelsey Wood/UC Davis graphic

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.agprofessional.com/news/rice-disease-resistance-discovery-closes-loop-scientific-integrity

GMO Rice Can Fight Global Warming

AUTHOR JOHN DOWMAN PUBLISHED JULY 28, 2015
Genetically formed rice that often borrows just one gene from just about may stunningly scale down methane rays among the situation, simultaneously docile as much as 50 % more cereal grain for a world’s inhabitants, new research suggests. nfortunately, because this is genetically-modified (GM) rice, the learned group expects an uphill battle getting permission for the commercial farming of this new, “greener” rice.Rice is considered very important to one’s table. Methane is thought to be responsible for one-fifth of the global warming effect.It is also agricultural commodity with third-highest worldwide production.
Description: GMO Rice Can Fight Global WarmingThis new variety emitted less methane and grew starchier seeds compared to ordinary rice. As per some scientists, reducing methane emissions that occur in flooded rice paddies as methane-producing bacteria thriving on the carbohydrates secreted by rice roots in the oxygen-free soils is a big concern. It made starched grain and a smaller root system than the unaltered variety.With much of that population growth set to come in the 49 least developed countries-which the United Nations estimates will double in size from approximately 900 million in 2013 to 1.8 billion in 2050-and more than half of the world’s current population depending on rice as a staple, there’s no guessing at what most of those will be eating. Essentially, the new rice enhances productivity per acre while reducing the carbon footprint at the same time.
Chuanxin Sun told Scientific American: “This type of rice may be particularly useful in a predicted climate with higher temperatures, which will accelerate methane emissions from paddies, as methane emissions are temperature dependent”.“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. The study and research on this rice was recently published in the journal, Nature.

http://www.tjcnewspaper.com/gmo-rice-can-fight-global-warming-5147/


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