Rice Federation to Get $450,000 From Ministry
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
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.
Feng 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. 
Rice 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.
Rice 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.
The 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
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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
Saori 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."
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
“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
The 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.”
To hear Dr. Hardke’s comments, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYXvUl96IxQ&feature=youtu.be&t=40m55s
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
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
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
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.
This 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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