BUHARI URGED TO SUPPORT RICE
PRODUCTION
Published on Thursday, 02 July 2015 04:00
Written by Misbahu Bashir, Kaduna
President Muhammdu Buhari has been urged to make favourable
policies for paddy growers and millers in the country.The call was made by the General
Manager of Labana Rice Limited, Birnin Kebbi, Alhaji Abdullahi Idris Zuru,
during a Ramadan Food Fair organized by Al-Amin Foundation in Kaduna.Alhaji
Abdullahi said the federal government should encourage rice production by
improving steady supply of electricity and discourage illegal importation of
rice. e said to ensure uninterrupted supply of paddy to millers, government
must support local farmers through provision of imputes and subsidies.“Local
rice farmers and millers, if encouraged can supply enough rice for the country.
That is why we are appealing to the president to end activities of those
smuggling foreign rice into the country. Rice smuggling is really a problem to
local farmers and millers. Government needs to block all loopholes because we
have the capacity to produce rice required annually in the country,” he said.
http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/daily/index.php/news-menu/news/58907-buhari-urged-to-support-rice-production
Millers to not
sell basmati below 5,500/Q
MUKTSAR: Punjab-based basmati rice millers have
decided not to sell milled rice below Rs 5,500 per quintal in the coming kharif
marketing season. The millers are currently getting Rs 4,600 per Q for milled
basmati rice, which has registered a jump of Rs 700 per Q in a fortnight, owing
to strong overseas demand, they said after a meeting held in Malout town of
Muktsar district on Wednesday andPunjab Basmati Rice Millers Association
spokesperson Ashish Kathuria said, "Export orders from Iran, Saudi Arabia
and Qatar are mounting, but we have very low stocks. In the prevailing
circumstances, we have decided not to sell rice below Rs 5,500 per Q. In the previous
year, millers had to suffer a loss of Rs 8,000 crore due to steep fall in the
prices of basmati rice in the international market."
He said the there was a carryover stock of 2.7
lakh tonnes of basmati paddy from the previous season, out of which about 1.27
lakh tonne rice could be obtained after milling over next three months.
Kathuria said about 60,000 tonnes of basmati rice was available with the
millers in Punjab."As fresh crop is expected only in the last week of
November, it is very hard for exporters to buy desirable quantities of basmati
rice from Punjab and Haryana according to the growing global demand. We are
expecting the prices to rise further. Apart from that, farmers are not planting
much of Pusa 1509 variety as it has lost acceptability in the international
market," he added.Another association member Bharat Bhushan Binta said
that rise in the rates of basmati rice was also expected because of weak
monsoon spurred by EI Nino factor and the low food grain buffer stock with
Asian and African countries, including Ghana.
"Expected decline in basmati acreage this
season is nearly 40% in India. It is also a major factor behind the surge in
basmati rates in India," he said.He said that, last year, basmati was
planted over 8.62 lakh hectares in Punjab and the output was about 35 lakh
tonnes while the area under aromatic crop was likely to be 5.5-6 lakh hectares
this season with an estimated production of 22 lakh tonnes.Amritsar-based
basmati rice exporter J S Chatha said, "Due to higher international demand
and less supply from India, prices of basmati rice have increased. Also this
year, the area under Pusa 1509 variety gone down, which means lesser output in
the ensuing season. This could further lead to spurt in basmati prices."
DROP IN IMPORTS HAS AFFECTED
REVENUE’
Published on Thursday, 02 July 2015 04:00
Written by Mahmud Jega
Comptroller General of Nigeria
Customs Service Dikko Abdullahi Inde speaks to Daily Trust on several topical
issues involving the service.It is over a year now since Nigeria Customs
Service took over Destination Inspection from private contractors. What has
happened since then? Has there been an improvement or a decline in revenue
generation?
The Customs Service insisted on taking over this function from
the private contractors in the interest of this country but many Nigerians
didn’t seem to appreciate that. The companies contracted to carry out
Destination Inspection [DI] were issuing a paper called RAR. That RAR is a
self-assessment report, an assessment of duty to be paid for imported goods.
However there were delays because RAR was only issued when the cargo arrived in
Nigeria. It was only when the goods arrive that the importer will start going
to NAFDAC, SON, NDLEA, state security etc to seek for clearance stamps. When
the contract period expired and we wanted to take over, many people thought the
Customs Service would not be able to ensure a clearance procedure that is
smooth and quicker than what the contractors were doing.
The contractors were being paid with monies we collected under a
fund called Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme, CISS. They were being paid
between $20million to $40 million a month, so by taking over the function we
have now saved this money for the nation. On three different occasions when we
tried to take over this function from the contractors, we were thwarted by some
interests. When we finally took over our main focus was to simplify the
clearing procedure and to reduce the time limit for clearance. We initially
targeted 48 hours. We replaced the RAR with the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report
[PAAR] which means when an importer gets an invoice, the bank opens Form M and
follows up on the procedure of import. When the final invoice is issued the
bank will upload it unto our system.
Our system will automatically profile the importer with an
automatic profiling machine, his genuineness, integrity. We will then know the
type of person we are dealing with because our policy is to encourage the
compliant trader. So when we have the information and the trader is compliant
then we give him a fast track so that when the cargo arrives he can take it out
without any hindrance. Further examination of the cargo will be done at the
owner’s premises, together with all the other security agencies. So the PAR
that contractors used to issue [after the cargo arrived] is now issued two to
three weeks before the cargo’s arrival.
The importer can go and pay his duty even before the cargo’s
arrival. But if you are an importer that for example imports fans today, imports
stoves tomorrow and then imports canvas shoes the day after, then the profiling
machine will not recognise you because you are a heterogeneous importer. Under
the Risk Assessment System we have the blue which is rudimentary check. We have
red which is physical examination. There is yellow which means scanning and we
have green which is release. If you have yellow then you go through scanner and
if nothing is seen you are allowed to go but if it is red, then the goods have
to be examined physically, especially goods such as used spare parts and mixed
supermarket goods.
We have to examine those because of the nature of the packing.
Basically, we have now run the PAAR for more than one year and I can assure you
that Nigerian traders are very happy. We have saved Nigeria a lot of money from
the payment of those contractors and we increased the revenue by 20% from what
they were collecting before. Basically, it is our job. If not because of the
drop in imports due to the economic situation which has affected the traders,
we would have done even better than that.
You mentioned the current economic situation and the drop in government revenue. How has it affected Customs’ revenue targets especially since many people are hoping that since we can’t get money from oil then let us get more from Customs?
It has affected our revenue targets in two ways. Most of the firms involved in the oil business are importers, that’s one. Secondly the oil price fall also affected the naira’s value against the dollar which inevitably affected importers. These factors have seriously affected us because the casual importers who used to bring in two or three containers have mostly closed shop though the large importers are still able to get by due to economy of scale. Our hope is that when the general economic situation improves, Customs’ revenue generation will also improve.
So your revenue target has been affected?
Definitely! Our revenue collection is dependent on the volume of imports. Don’t forget, there were some unfriendly policies that we complained about that affected our revenue collection such as rice, vehicles and Free Zones. As a professional I don’t believe that smuggling across the land borders is worse than smuggling through the air and seaports. Take the case of Free Zones. This is an avenue for smuggling. When we took up the case of TINAPA sometime ago, we were happy that the governors supported us because we made a lot of discoveries and a lot of money was recovered. There were people who wanted to evade duty in various ways.
Goods that are going to the Free Zones are duty free goods. They
are like diplomatic cargo; you cannot open them until they arrive in there. We
find that the goods that go there are mostly finished products or goods that
are supposed to pay duty but they escape to that place. So coming out of that
place, we say they have to pay duty. There is a law that gives them 75% waiver
of that duty, so whichever way you look at it we are losing revenue. I strongly
feel therefore that regulations with respect to the Free Zones should be
reviewed. Only raw materials should be allowed to go into Free Zones since the
essence is to boost foreign exchange earnings through exports. Whatever is
produced there is supposed to have value addition and also the goods produced
there are supposed to be exported but if it is going into Nigeria, then it must
pay the duty that all other goods imported into Nigeria attract.
In addition to these, we also have problems with the trade liberalisation of West African states. Honestly the intention is not about trade liberalisation; it is about dumping and smuggling. We have detected some [West African] countries that import goods from foreign countries and they label them made in a country in West Africa. I don’t want to mention names. From the documentation we could see that the goods were not made in any West African country. The principle underlying the policy is that the legal person making those goods must be in West Africa and the payment for the goods must stay in West Africa but we found out that the money was paid to some foreign countries. So this also affects Customs’ revenue generation targets. Before you can amend such schemes you must go through ECOWAS. We have drawn our government’s attention to this and I expect that the new government will confront this matter head on.
You said with respect to the Free Zones that it is raw materials basically that are supposed to go to them. But you see imported manufactured goods headed for the Free Zones and you can’t open them. What kind of arrangement is that?
You see, a Free Zone is a country within a country. If you have cargo meant for Benin Republic and it arrives in a container, we cannot examine it. We can only escort it to Benin where the Customs there can inspect it. Although we have Customs officers inside the Free Zones, but it is like a place where untouchable people are doing business. So our officers are threatened and cajoled not to reveal the truth to us, or they connive with them. So after taking some steps we discovered that irregularities are taking place but we have been unable to redress it because the regulations as they exist now are not in favour of tax collection.
You mentioned briefly the issue of rice imports. We read reports recently about some companies that imported rice above their quota and didn’t want to pay the duty that Customs slapped on them. What happened? Have they paid the duty?
Nobody evaded duty payment. The issue was one of rule of law. Whoever is into a business he must obey the rules that apply for that business. Unfortunately the situation we find ourselves in with respect to the rice issue has become a nightmare. We did not even know who was responsible for allocating rice import quotas. We received a letter from the Minister of Agriculture issuing quotas but it was flouted by some companies that exceeded the quotas and only issued indemnities. This happened because even though the rice import policy was rolled out in May last year, the quotas were not allocated until December. So as Customs we did not know who was authorised to bring in what.
What we did instead was
in the spirit of trade facilitation we allowed companies to bring in and clear
the rice by issuing indemnities, so that when the quota is finally issued we
will calculate what you imported and if there is any balance to pay, you pay
it.The approved duty was 10-20 for millers and 10-60 for traders. So if a
miller exceeds his quota then he is now a trader and must pay the higher duty.
We have a list of such firms that exceeded their quotas; we went to the
National Assembly and it passed a resolution that all those that exceeded their
quotas must pay the duty and we will make them to pay.
This rice importation policy is really cumbersome. What has the Customs recommended to government with
respect to this dual tariff
policy on rice imports?
I have written several letters to the Ministers of Finance and Agriculture and even to the President. I did not support the dual tariff regime because if one were to import brown rice, value must be added before it becomes a finished product. The same thing with paddy rice which must be cleaned, polished and making it parboiled rice. If millers are therefore allowed to import husky brown and paddy rice at less duty I have no objection to that because there will be value addition, Nigerians are going to be employed and millers must invest to bring in rice mills.
But to say that a rice trader should import rice at 10-60
whereas someone can bring in his own parboiled rice---a finished product---at
10-20 simply because he has milling capacity, I see no justice there. There is
no level playing ground. The duty concession given to millers should be limited
to brown rice which requires milling but not parboiled rice. Even the
calculation of national rice supply gap is controversial, and it is based on
this that quotas are allocated to some people to import parboiled rice at
concessionary duty. Personally I will recommend to government to ban the
importation of parboiled rice. Anybody who wants to import rice should import
brown rice and then mill it or he should grow the paddy rice inside Nigeria.
The general policy on waivers has been controversial for a long time. What exactly has been the impact of
waivers on the Customs’ revenue
generation targets?
Waivers are meant to help local industries. However, we have hardly seen the impact of the waivers that were granted to investors for the importation of machinery and raw materials. For example, since 2010 import of textile machinery has attracted zero duty but why is it that we still have problems of quality and also complains that the industry is not doing well? We lose the duty on that and we also collect levies on textile material imports. The levy is used to support local textile industries but there is still no appreciable effect. So before waiver is given to any sector let us see that the revenue loss is offset by employment generation and other economic benefits. So far we have not seen that which amounts to double jeopardy for the country. There are also proven cases of diversion.
For example waiver is granted to a person who is setting up a
hotel of more than 100 rooms but he instead imported trade goods. We hope the
new government will review the waivers policy so that clear benefits should be
seen that outweigh the loss of revenue.I understand there are also waiver
issues with respect to the automobile industry.
It is granted under Chapter 87 which covers things to do with vehicles. However, we see a clause which does not exist in our nomenclature which is SKD, that is semi knocked down. The concession granted under Chapter 87 is for those who have vehicle assembly plants. As far as we know there are only two vehicle assembly plants in Nigeria today, Peugeot and ANAMCO. Others make the claim but since they are not under the excise control of Customs we cannot make a report on them. My suggestion to the government is that every assembly plant must be made to register with Customs for the purpose of inspection even if it is not paying excise duty. We need to confirm that it is living up to the reason for which a waiver was given to it.
Right now waivers are given to some people who do not have assembly plants. Someone will bring in cars and say they are semi knocked down; the only things missing from that car are tyres. Every other thing in the car is intact and you call it semi knocked down. It means the person will only have a vulcanising outfit and call it an assembly plant, to the detriment of others who are paying 35% duty and 35% levy on a new car. He is only paying 20%. This should not be allowed and all those who cheated in this way should be made to pay the correct duty.
How much has Nigeria lost from these waivers and concessions?
Since 2013 we have lost N144 billion annually and the amount is increasing. If not for all these Customs would have generated for the government about N1.7 trillion. My estimate is that we lost 600 to 700 billion to waivers and concessions.
You were in Kano recently inspecting a huge warehouse of seized textile materials but I think I later saw a report saying the goods were released. What happened in that case?
I am glad you brought up this issue. You see, whenever the issue of smuggling comes up people tend to mention a particular place and a particular person but I want to assure Nigerians that nobody is above the law. A lot of the things people say are hearsay and rumour. It is good for newsmen to ask Customs before they rush to town with allegations of smuggling, whether the person concerned has paid duty and whether he has the authority to clear cargo. Whoever obtains a Customs clearing license should operate where there is an approved border.
This issue of textiles has been lingering for a long time. Initially, cargo was intercepted at the railway station in Lagos. It was a large quantity of textile materials. At first we seized it but we later found out that the company actually pays duty.
If you seize it, you will
merely auction it at a giveaway price so it is much more advantageous for the
government if we collect the duty instead. We then find out what the person’s
intention was and we prosecute him. We found out that they were misled. After
we concluded our investigation we recovered the Customs duty with penalty. We
also took them to court where the case is still pending. The people who
connived with them are being prosecuted too. The goods came through the
railway, not the Katsina border that many people were saying. While we were
inspecting those goods in Kano we also intercepted other containers that came
to the inland container terminal from Apapa. They were carrying the same
material and two days later we arrested more containers at Kaduna inland
terminal again with the same goods.
You see, the Chinese are out for dumping. They produce these goods in huge quantities and are looking for where to dump it and some unscrupulous Nigerians promise to help them to bring it here. When they stock the container with African print, one quarter of the container will be left for concealment. The one in Kano, it was concealed with food flasks. Majority of the inland container terminals do not have the equipment to bring down these materials for 100% Customs examination. So Customs have a limited capacity to go inside the container to see what is in there. When a Customs officer examines up to one quarter of a container and keeps seeing food flasks he will believe that the person is an honest importer, so you use your discretion and allow him to carry his cargo. Unknown to you he has concealed African print inside.
So people should not think that smuggling is always through the land borders because smugglers are very clever. We are also getting wiser by the day. 98% of crime detection in the world is based on information. There are no sacred cows here, contrary to what some people are alleging. They can check our records at whichever border post they like. There is no difference between the procedures at Jibia border and those of Seme border. People should be properly guided before they talk. Go and check the records and see if anyone is not paying duty.
You said these goods came through the railway to Kano; did they come through the seaports or Seme border or where?
Some came from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea through Calabar to the railway where we seized them. Others came legitimately through the seaports and they were transported to inland container terminals because that was where the importer addressed them to. That container was transported officially but we found out that textiles were concealed inside food flasks. We also seized 36 containers of the same goods inside Apapa ports. The biggest seizure of textiles we made was in the creeks along Seme border, with the help of Nigerian Navy. It was coming from Malabo.
The Kano seizure was child’s play compared to that one. After
seizing the goods in Kano, the government removed African print from the import
prohibition list so we decided to collect duty with penalty rather than auction
the goods. We even brought EFCC into the case to ensure transparency.
I saw a story that Customs levied a compromised duty; that is a painful allegation and we even brought in other agencies just to be transparent in that matter. The owners of those goods are Chinese manufacturers. They were looking for an emerging market and some Nigerians from Kano presented themselves as agents of that manufacturer. The manufacturer now sent his representatives to come along with the so-called agents.
I saw a story that Customs levied a compromised duty; that is a painful allegation and we even brought in other agencies just to be transparent in that matter. The owners of those goods are Chinese manufacturers. They were looking for an emerging market and some Nigerians from Kano presented themselves as agents of that manufacturer. The manufacturer now sent his representatives to come along with the so-called agents.
When they came to Nigeria they opened a warehouse. Where we made
the seizure had nothing to do with Kantin Kwari market. The warehouse is in a
residential area in Gandun Albasa. When you drive in you think you are driving
into a house but it is actually a warehouse. And they are coming into the
country from different directions. They were stocking up for a long time. We
invoked Section 147 which allows us to enter a suspicious place without a
warrant to find out if the goods were legitimately imported and if they paid
duty
http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/daily/index.php/business/58818-drop-in-imports-has-affected-revenue
Two rice
varieties first domesticated in India’
VARANASI: Amidst raging controversy whether rice originated
in India or China, data generated by a DNA chip developed for fingerprinting of
rice by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) scientists has indicated
that the two most important groups of cultivated rice varieties were first
domesticated in the Indian subcontinent. A patent has been filed for the chip and the work has been
published in the prestigious journal, 'Nature Scientific Reports', on June 26. "The chip's data lends weight to the theory that the two
most important groups of cultivated rice varieties, Aus and Aman (Indica), are
very closely related to the Indian wild rice and were first domesticated in the
Indian subcontinent.
The findings are significant as they come amidst growing
controversy whether rice originated in India or China and where was it first
cultivated," said N K Singh, an alumnus of the Banaras Hindu University
(BHU) who led a team of ICAR scientists in developing the chip for
fingerprinting and breeding rice. The ICAR scientists faced the challenge of
designing their own DNA chip as the only other such chip which has been
developed by the Cornell University of the US, was not available for research
in India. The Indian chip is unique as it is based on a comprehensive set of
single-copy rice genes and, therefore, gives better result in terms of call
rates and reproducibility for which a patent has been filed, Singh claimed.
The usefulness of the chip in genetic diversity and
phylogenetic studies of cultivated and wild rice germplasm has been demonstrated.
The chip has also proved useful for monitoring the spread of new rice
varieties, checking the purity and varietal identity of rice seeds and
therefore in quality control and regulation of rice seed business," Singh
said.
"Rice is the post important food crop of the world providing staple diet to more than half of the human population. Therefore, developments in genetics and breeding of new high yielding, stress tolerant and improved quality rice varieties are crucial for the global food security. The ICAR rice chip will help identify new useful genes from our vast genetic resources of wild rice and traditional rice varieties to face the twin challenges of growing population and climate change," he claimed.
"Rice is the post important food crop of the world providing staple diet to more than half of the human population. Therefore, developments in genetics and breeding of new high yielding, stress tolerant and improved quality rice varieties are crucial for the global food security. The ICAR rice chip will help identify new useful genes from our vast genetic resources of wild rice and traditional rice varieties to face the twin challenges of growing population and climate change," he claimed.
Formerly with BHU's department of Genetics and Plant
Breeding, Institute of Agricultural Science, Singh is the national professor,
BP Pal Chair, at the National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, New
Delhi. According to BHU spokesperson Rajesh Kumar Singh, it's a
breakthrough in rice genetic research as the high density microarray chip with
50,051 SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) has been developed exclusively for
DNA fingerprinting and breeding applications in rice.
SNP is the most abundant form of DNA sequence variation
present in the plant genomes. ICAR scientists designed and validated the SNP
genotyping chip for use in genetic and evolutionary studies as well as
molecular breeding in rice. "Assays with the chip showed high success rate
and reproducibility because of the single-copy gene based design with no
sequence redundancy and cross-hybridisation problems," Singh said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Two-rice-varieties-first-domesticated-in-India/articleshow/47908571.cms
Thailand lowers 2015
rice output forecast by over 2 mln tonnes
BANGKOK,
JULY 1 |
The Thai government lowered its
forecast for this year's main-crop rice output by over 2 million tonnes,
according to the latest report from the Office of Agricultural Economics, as
the major rice-producing nation battles with a severe drought.A drop in output
in Thailand, one of the world's top rice exporters, could underpin benchmark
Thai prices of the grain. Prices are near their lowest since January 2008 amid
a massive overhang of rice stocks built up under the previous government's
buying program.
The Ministry of Agriculture and
Cooperative's Office of Agricultural Economics said that Thailand will produce
24,135,450 tonnes of main-crop rice this year, lower than its previous forecast
of 26,576,150 tonnes.The estimate comes after Thailand asked rice farmers last
week to delay planting their main crop in the fertile Chao Phraya River Basin
area as the country battles drought in 16 out of 76 provinces.Although the wet
or monsoon season has begun, dozens of provinces are still contending with
drought conditions. Last week, Thailand's finance minister said drought was
threatening Thailand's already sputtering economy and could cut economic growth
by 0.5 percentage points this year.
Thailand has around 15.4 million
tonnes of rice in storage, accumulated under the previous government's
rice-buying programme that left the grains hanging over markets.The government
plans to sell around 5.89 million tonnes of deteriorated rice held in
stockpiles to the industrial sector starting in July, Duangporn Rodphaya,
director general of the Commerce Ministry's Department of Foreign Trade, told
reporters on Wednesday.Price of Thailand's benchmark five-percent rice fell to
its lowest level in over seven years last month, when quoted at $365-$368 a
tonne, FOB, on June 17.The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) latest
estimate expects Thailand to produce around 19.8 million tonnes of milled rice
in the 2015/16 crop year, up from 18.8 million in 2014/15, as yields improve.
The USDA will revise its figures
for Thailand's rice output by around mid-July, the USDA's agricultural
specialist in Bangkok told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Pracha
Hariraksapitak; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Gopakumar Warrier)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/01/thailand-rice-idUSL3N0ZH30M20150701
Plan to convert
deteriorated rice into fuel
Erich Parpart
The Nation July 3, 2015 1:00 am
The
Energy Ministry has been assigned by the government to help off-load around
5.89 million tonnes of deteriorated rice held in stockpiles with the plan at
the first stage to convert around 1.3 million tonnes of the rice into ethanol
fuel and the rest into biochar (bio-charcoal)."The plan is to convert this
rice into fuel instead of just burning them. The value of what we will get from
converting these C1 and C2-grade rice into ethanol and biochar will be less
than the price of the rice when sold to the middleman. The lowering of the
stockpile will increase the price of rice and reduce the maintenance cost and
that is what we want," Energy Minister Narongchai Akrasanee said
yesterday.
The
price of Thailand's benchmark 5-per-cent rice fell to its lowest level in more
than seven years when it was quoted at US$365 to $368 per tonne last month."We
have to start with the plan to convert about 1 million to 1.3 million tonnes of
the deteriorated rice into ethanol first, as there is less supply of cassava
and there are seven ethanol factories that currently have the technology to
convert the rice into ethanol fuel," he added.
He
explained that the Energy Ministry is ready to buy the rice from the Commerce
Ministry as soon as they have "unchained" the lock on the stockpile.
The deteriorated rice is being used as evidence in the claims of corruption and
negligence against the previous government over its rice-pledging
scheme.Thailand has around 15.4 million tonnes of rice in storage, accumulated
under the previous government's rice-buying programme."We are ready to
start the process tomorrow if required but we cannot convert all of the rice
into ethanol fuel since the supply of cassava will eventually recover while the
setting up of a new factory would take too long," said the Energy
Minister.
The
process to convert the 1 million to 1.3 million tonnes of rice into ethanol
fuel will take around 4 months.Narongchai revealed that another way to convert
the rice into energy would be to turn it into biochar but this process can be
done at any charcoal factory so it can wait for a while. The prices of ethanol
fuel and biochar that will be gained from the conversion are similar and it
will be determined by how much heat it can produce.Meanwhile, the Energy
Ministry is planning to spend about Bt3 billion of its left over budget (about
Bt4.8 billion) to replace government agencies' normal light bulbs and old
air-conditioners with LED energy-saving light bulbs and No 5 energy-saving
air-conditioners, to cash in on the decline in the price of LED light bulbs.
They expect this energy-saving investment will reduce government agencies'
electricity consumption by 50 per cent.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Plan-to-convert-deteriorated-rice-into-fuel-30263618.html
Rice Field Day attracts over 400 people to discuss future of the
rice industry
Published: July 1, 2015, 5:22 pm
Over 400 people gathered at
the LSU AG Center Rice Research Station on Wednesday to discuss
the future of the rice industry.Attendees took tours through the rice fields,
learned about the research done at the station and listened to guest speakers
such as Senator David Vitter and Former Louisiana Lt. Governor Scott
Angelle. With the constant heavy rainfall in Louisiana, rice farmers are
expecting a smaller crop this year, and a smaller crop means less
money.“Two weeks we caught fourteen inches of rain so I lost a thousand
acres of rice.” says Jeffery Sylvester, a Ville Platte rice farmer, who
also says all of the rain washed away the pollen needed to harvest the rice
seeds. Sylvester says he attends the rice station field day every year to
learn. “The research that they do over here makes us a better farmer.
When they came out with Cypress
it made all the farmers a better farmer because our yields went up fifteen
percent and we didn’t do anything different we just had a better product to
plant.”LSU Agricultural Economics Professor, Dr. Mike Salassi, says the
2015 national rice crop price is down since last year for several factors
including excess product in the market and rainfall. However, he says
Louisiana’s rice industry is still doing well. “Last few years we’ve had
record yields. Our average yields now are over seven thousand pounds an acre.
That’s really the primary thing that keeps growers in business..
This station here and the
research they do is so important”The station has been doing research on the how
to grow rice for one hundred and seven years to help Louisiana
farmers. The farmers help fund that research and the station by
contributing five cents for every 100 pounds of rice sold… creating a
continuous cycle for both parties.“This is an opportunity for all of us to
allow for all of the rice industry people to come in whether its producers,
consumers, millers and some of our end users to kind of give them an overview
of all of the research we’ve been doing.” says Dr. Steve Linscombe, Director of
the Rice Research Station.In addition to educating farmers on topics such as
weed control, insect control and disease control. The rice station has
released 50 varieties of rice in it’s history, 30 in the past 25 years
Watch video on website:
http://klfy.com/2015/07/01/rice-field-day-attracts-over-400-people-to-discuss-future-of-the-rice-industry/
No threat to paddy crop despite deficient rain forecast: Govt
The country got 28 per cent more
than normal rainfall last month
Press Trust of India
| New Delhi
July 2, 2015 Last Updated at 22:31 IST
The government on Thursday tried to allay
concerns on paddy crop, saying there's no threat to it despite India
Meteorological Department (IMD)'s projection of deficient rains in July and August. The sowing is under way in most parts of
the country. IMD has forecast eight per cent and 10 per cent deficient rains
for July and August, respectively. The country got 28 per cent more than normal
rainfall last month.“IMD has projected eight per cent less rains for this
month. If there are rains in an interval of seven-eight days, we can save our
crops despite deficient rains. So, there is no threat to paddy crop,”
Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain told reporters here.The sowing of paddy, the main kharif
(summer) crop, has started picking up in major growing areas. The area under
paddy has so far improved in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and
Punjab due to the pick-up in rains in June.
In Punjab, transplanting of paddy so far has been
done in 12.45 lakh hectares, against the target of 28 lakh hectares. Farmers in
Andhra Pradesh have sown the crop in 78 per cent of the average normal area.
Telangana has seen similar progress, according to government data.As of June
26, paddy in India was sown in only 23.28 lakh hectares, slightly lower than
the 25.04 lakh hectares in the year- ago period, the data showed.
Sowing of paddy and other paddy kharif crops begins with the onset of
southwest monsoon.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/no-threat-to-paddy-crop-despite-deficient-rain-forecast-govt-115070200783_1.html
TDAP urged to close QRC to
boost rice export
July 02, 2015
KARACHI - The Union of Small and
Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has invited the attention of the ministry of
commerce (Mincom) to the difficulties being faced by the SME rice exporters due
to the lingering in the implementation of already decided closure of the
Quality Review Committee (QRC).President Unisame Zulfikar Thaver said it was
finally decided by the Mincom to close the QRC as it was unanimously agreed
that QRC has become futile and the committee as pointed out by all stakeholders
is not serving any purpose. The buyers prefer to import rice in their own or
selected brands of blended rice.
He urged the federal commerce
minister engineer Khurram Dastagir to direct the Trade Development Authority of
Pakistan (TDAP) to disband the futile committee and to close it immediately as
every single day matters for closure of this troublesome body.Many buyers
demand blended rice of different varieties with basmati rice as basmati rice
has aroma and when mixed with 1121 and 386 makes it aromatic.
It is pertinent to note that 1121 is the most expensive rice. It is in great demand all over the Gulf and Middle East countries but is not classified as basmati rice. The demand for basmati rice is very little as compared to 1121 and 386.QRC is not required any more and its presence as an inspection cell is more a hurdle than a monitor because it is issuing certificates for non basmati rice as basmati rice under pressure to keep business going. The big rice exporters are obliged but the SMEs are facing difficulties.
http://nation.com.pk/business/02-Jul-2015/tdap-urged-to-close-qrc-to-boost-rice-export
APEDA NEWS (India)
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UK GM wheat trial highlights costs of violent activism
via IRRI
Last week, scientists at Rothamsted Research, an agriculture
science institute based in the UK, made a rather unusual announcement: A five-year long field trial to test a genetically
modified variety of wheat found that the crop did not repel pests as it was
designed to.The news media, both in the UK and U.S., widely covered the story. Why was this unusual? It’s not often that a hypothesis
that is not confirmed by experiments is published, let alone that it would
receive so much attention. But, in this case, the wheat trial had caught media
buzz earlier in 2012 when an activist group called ‘Take the Flour Back’
threatened to destroy and ‘decontaminate’ the field trials. Scientists
eventually managed to convince the activist group to not damage the crop. So a demonstration and a relatively peaceful protest outside the institute resulted
instead. Upon learning of the outcome of the trials, those opposed to GM crops
quickly pointed out that the decision to do the experiments was flawed to begin with
and called the trials a ‘pointless’ waste of public resources in a “bid to
outwit nature”.
But the whole ordeal brought to
light a bigger issue at play. Rothamsted disclosed last week that while the
research funded completely by the UK government cost a little more
than $1.1 million, UK taxpayers spent more than thrice that amount – approximately $3.4 million in fencing to protect the field and
security measures to prevent the crops from being destroyed by vandals and
activists.A cost that not mentioned and likely harder to calculate is the time
and money lost by the institute in its efforts to engage Take the Flour Back in peaceful dialogue and protect its
facilities from damage. They even spent the time to make an appeal on YouTube emphasizing
that they were all publicly funded scientists conducting research, the results
of which would be freely available.
Threats against trials of GM crops
funded by governments or non-profits are not new. In 2011, Greenpeace
vandalized a GM wheat trial in Australia, a crime for which the organization was fined and two members givensuspended jail sentences. The organization also destroyed trials of a genetically
modified Bt eggplant in the Phillipines, leading to prosecutionthere as
well. Infamously, in 2013 activists wearing HazMat suits uprooted fields of
vitamin A enriched ‘Golden Rice’ being tested in the Philippines by the
non-profit International Rice Research Institute with funding from the Bill and
Melinda Gates foundation.
Opposition to GM crops often tends
to focus on the potential control of all agriculture and in turn the food
supply by large multinational corporate entities. Kumi Naidoo, the executive
director of Greenpeace Internationalwrote in an opinion that he supported “Greenpeace Australia’s efforts to
stop control of this crucial food staple from falling into the hands of
transnational GM food companies.” But when crop varieties (GM or otherwise)
developed by governments and non-profits are made freely available to farmers who
can use them without any fear of patent infringement, this would only allow
more growers to take control over what seeds they get and how they use them,
contradicting the idea of a monopoly over food supply. Acts of vandalism only
serve to push this process back, both in time and money.
Going back to the Rothamsted
trials, the failure of these experiments is not really a failure for all GM
crops as has been portrayed by many media reports. Firstly this was the first
time a plant had been engineered to produce an insect pheromone, a feat in itself. And even as researchers hypothesized planned
further experiments to overcome the potential problems with the current
variety, there was much information gained from the trials that could be put to
use in the future. Jonathan Gershenzon, a plant chemistry expert at the Max
Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany commented on this in a Nature News article,“It was good that they tried. It’s a different
system with wheat, it’s a different aphid,” and they did it in field
conditions, he says. “I give them lots of points for trying and even more
points for being willing to publish negative data. It shows how science can
work.”
The trial has brought to everyone’s
attention however, how such violent activism and protecting against it costs
millions of dollars to taxpayers, significantly increasing the economic burden
and slowing down research. At a time when research funding has declined significantly there is little doubt that these costs could have been put towards
a more important goal – identify the most promising research be it either
in organic, conventional or GMO agriculture and bring it to market as quickly
as possible.
Arvind Suresh is a science
media liaison at the Genetic Expert News Service. He is also a science
communicator and a former laboratory biologist. Follow him @suresh_arvind.
http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/07/02/uk-gm-wheat-trial-highlights-costs-of-violent-activism/
U.S. rice growers want to get in on Cuba
Play
0:00 / 1:29
Thursday, July 2, 2015 - 05:00
The U.S. will open an embassy in
Havana — so said President Barack Obama Tuesday, a significant step showing
that efforts to normalize relations with Cuba are ticking along. However, the
embargo still stands, and only Congress can lift it. Should that happen, many
U.S. exporters will stand to benefit, including American rice farmers.
Ray Stoesser grows about 4,000 to
5,000 acres of rice on his Texas farm and would very much like to see some of
it head to Cuba.“We as farmers, we analyze what the market is, what people want
to buy, and we grow it,” he says. “Right now, we don’t have enough buyers, and
that’s why the rice price slipped so much.”Rice prices have dropped
significantly this year, but Stoesser thinks if the U.S. could sell to Cuba,
the increased demand would help prices recover. Cuba was a major importer of
rice before the embargo.
But Louisiana grower Fred
Zaunbrecher says margins are so slim right now, growers aren’t investing in new
equipment or planning for new potential customers.“We really can’t bank on it,
or grow a crop on it or make financial decisions on it until it’s actually
opened and our markets are responding to that demand,” says
Zaunbrecher.However, should Congress decide to lift the embargo, the rice
industry will be ready, says Terry Harris with Riceland Foods, a large rice
miller and marketer.“We have the abilities, we have the infrastructure,” he
says. “We could ship rice to [Cuba] starting next week.”
A biplane from Williams Ag
Service drops rice seeds on a field in Biggs, California. The U.S. rice
industry could benefit from normalized relations with Cuba.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/us-rice-growers-want-get-cuba
2 rice millers in vigilance net
Press Trust of India
| Moga
July 2, 2015 Last Updated at 19:57 IST
Two rice millers form villages
Ajitwal and Kokri Kalan in the district were arrested today by sleuths of Punjab Vigilance Bureau on
charge of embezzling paddy worth Rs 17 crore, an official has said. The millers had cheated Punjab Agro Food Corporation as it had
stocked paddy on the premises of the rice mills, the official said, adding, on
an enquiry it was found that grain worth Rs 17 crore was missing from the stock
for custom milling. hile Ajitwal miller Manoj Jain, and
one of the owner of mill at Kokari Kalan Kunal Bansal have been arrested, his
partner Ashish is absconding, he said. A case of cheating was registered
against the three millers on July 15, 2014 after they failed to deliver the
custom milling paddy, he added.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/2-rice-millers-in-vigilance-net-115070201217_1.html
VB arrests 2 millers
in Rs 18-cr paddy scams
Moga, July 2
The state Vigilance Bureau today
arrested two rice millers in multi-crore rice scams, which were unearthed in
Moga district last year.Notably, the Moga police, after having registered three
criminal cases against the rice millers, had not arrested them. Instead, they
gave a clean chit to them during a re-investigation marked by the Inspector
General of Bathinda Range.
It was only after the intervention
of the state Home Secretary that the investigations of these cases were handed
over to the Vigilance Bureau recently. The total embezzlement of paddy and
custom-milled rice by the three rice mills have been estimated at Rs 42 crore.Surinder
Kumar, DSP of the bureau, who is investigating these cases, said Manoj Jain,
owner of Mahadev Rice Mill, Ajitwal; and Kunal Bansal, owner of Mahaveer Rice
Mill, Ajitwal; had been arrested. Paddy worth Rs 7,70,30,099 and Rs
10,52,96,315 had gone missing from these rice mills, respectively.They would be
produced before a local court tomorrow to seek police remand. The third partner
of these rice mills, Ashish Bansal, was yet to be arrested, the DSP said.
These two rice mills had together
“embezzled” paddy and custom-milled rice worth over Rs 18 crore. The paddy was
allotted to them by the Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation. The economic
offences wing of the local police registered two separate cases against them.Meanwhile,
the alleged kingpin in the third case, one of the biggest paddy scams of the
state, worth Rs 24 crore, Inderpreet Singh, alias Bunty, is still on the run.
He is son of Ram Tirath, owner of Kwality Rice Mills Private Limited,
Dharamkot. An FIR was registered against him in the Dharamkot police station in
December 2014.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/vb-arrests-2-millers-in-rs-18-cr-paddy-scams/101682.html
Rice mills directed to
submit details of available stock
July 03, 2015 RECORDER REPORT 0
CommentsE-mailPrintPDF
The
Punjab government has directed all the rice mills in the province to submit
details of their available stocks in next five days to the government enabling
it for chalking out a strategy to resolve the problems being faced by the
growers at present or with regard to the coming crop. The millers will submit
stock reports in next five days in the office of the Director General
Agriculture (Extension). A form has been despatched through rice growers',
traders and millers and market committees across the province.
Millers
can obtain their form from any of these bodies and then submit stock reports
directly or through these bodies, sources in the provincial agriculture
department said here on Thursday. The sources said that an important meeting to
discuss the problems of the rice growers was held here the other day with
Parliamentary Secretary Ch Asad Ullah Arain in the chair. The meeting was
attended by the stakeholders of rice business including exporters, millers and
growers' representatives. The meeting decided that correct information of rice
stocks available from crop 2013-14 and 2014-15 should be collected to get a
clear picture and then talk to departments concerned for solution of the
problems faced by the rice growers and businessmen.
http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1203176/
FARE Crowns 2015 Culinary Competition Winners
Photographs by Scott Mitchell
The winning dish: a
Southwestern-style Asian bulgogi wrap with fruited rice salad and a
caramelized-onion and barbecue vinaigrette spring salad.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- If CSP’s annual FARE Conference
is all about bringing together operators from across the foodservice segments
to talk about their businesses, then the event’s annual culinary competition is
the embodiment of that mission.Held on the opening night of last week’s
conference, the culinary competition pitted teams of chefs against each other
to determine who could prepare the best dish in an hour or less. The
contestants—ranging from convenience store chefs to senior-living operators and
restaurant chefs—were grouped into teams a week in advance, giving them a quick
chance to exchange ideas and develop a game plan.
The winning team featured Clementine de Roode, executive chef of
the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., and Peyton
Edmonson, commis chef, Sinema Restaurant and Bar in Nashville. They prepared a
Southwestern-style Asian bulgogi wrap with fruited rice salad and a
caramelized-onion and barbecue vinaigrette spring salad.Taking its cue from the
Korean dish of grilled and marinated beef, the mesquite-smoked beef brisket was
seasoned with red wine vinegar, brown sugar, barbecue sauce, chipotle pepper
and cilantro—“a nice sweet and hot combination,” said de Roode. “We cooled it
with the sweet crisp peppers and topped them with sweet and spicy pickled
onion.”The rice was seasoned similar to sushi rice and mixed with pears, apples
and sweet peppers.
“The salad added color and finished the plate with something
light, spicy and sweet,” said de Roode.Participants were given 60 minutes to
prepare, package and serve an original and innovative on-the-go-style meal
item. They were judged on a 10-point scale in four categories, each weighted
equally: taste, creativity and innovation, presentation and—a true FARE
twist—portability/convenience: Dishes could be considered grab-and-go or
made-to-order and either travel well for later consumption or be eaten easily
on the go.To create their dishes, teams had to use at least one product from
sponsor companies Arcobasso Foods, Emmi Foodservice, McCormick for Chefs and
Tyson. They had to serve their dishes in to-go containers provided by
Georgia-Pacific Professional, and use the Ovention ovens situated at each
teams’ station. A pantry of basic staples was also available.
Other participants and teams
consisted of:
§
Rich
Daggett, CEO and president of Tasty Enterprises Inc., New York, and David
Sparrow, culinary specialist forQuickChek Corp., Whitehouse Station, N.J.Dish: Creamy caramelized-onion
mac and cheese and brisket sandwich.
§
Edward
Ziems, executive chef for M. Gibson Hotels in Knoxville, and Brandon
Shackleford, food and beverage director for M. Gibson Hotels, Knoxville. Dish: Barbecue beef brisket
pizza topped with a Caribbean jerk and wild greens salad.
§
Mickey
Sellard, executive chef/manager of dining services for Golden Living, Fort
Smith, Ark., and Lisa Pickett, food and beverage category manager for Tri Star
Energy LLC, Twice Daily & Daily’s, Nashville, Tenn. Dish:Chicken Alfredo sandwich
with macerated peppers and tomatoes.
Judges for the culinary competition
included:
§
Ben
Lucky, project manager-QSR for Maverik, North Salt Lake, Utah
§
Sara
Rush, senior associate editor for Restaurant Business magazine, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.
§
Kyle
Patterson, executive sous chef for Sinema Restaurant & Bar, Nashville,
Tenn.
§
Neil
Doherty, senior director of culinary development for Sysco Corp., Houston
§
Pete
Torres, sous chef, EatZi’s Market and Bakery, Dallas
“It was no easy feat to quickly
transform the market-basket items into a portable and elevated dish in this
year’s culinary competition, but all of the competitors did a great job,” said
Rush. “Those that delivered the most craveable meals played with big, bold
flavors, whether it was a tangy barbecue sauce or a sweet-and-spicy Asian
glaze, both of which had me going back bite after bite.”
FARE also welcomed Steak Shapiro to
the role of emcee for this year’s competition. A well-known character in
Atlanta food circles, he is featured in two Food Network shows: “Food Truck
FaceOff” and “Best.Ever.” Celebrity chef Robert Irvine took the stage during
the next day’s general session to help announce the winning team.Next year’s
FARE conference will be held June 20-22 at the Gaylord Texan in Dallas. Stay
tuned towww.fareconference.comfor details on the 2016 conference and culinary
competition.
http://www.cspnet.com/category-news/foodservice/articles/fare-crowns-2015-culinary-competition-winners
Two rice
varieties first domesticated in India’
VARANASI: Amidst raging controversy whether rice
originated in India or China, data generated by a DNA chip developed for
fingerprinting of rice by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
scientists has indicated that the two most important groups of cultivated rice
varieties were first domesticated in the Indian subcontinent.
A patent has been filed for the chip and the work
has been published in the prestigious journal, 'Nature Scientific Reports', on
June 26. "The
chip's data lends weight to the theory that the two most important groups of
cultivated rice varieties, Aus and Aman (Indica), are very closely related to
the Indian wild rice and were first domesticated in the Indian subcontinent.
The findings are significant as they come amidst growing controversy whether
rice originated in India or China and where was it first cultivated," said
N K Singh, an alumnus of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) who led a team of
ICAR scientists in developing the chip for fingerprinting and breeding rice.
The ICAR scientists faced the challenge of
designing their own DNA chip as the only other such chip which has been
developed by the Cornell University of the US, was not available for research
in India. The Indian chip is unique as it is based on a comprehensive set of
single-copy rice genes and, therefore, gives better result in terms of call
rates and reproducibility for which a patent has been filed, Singh claimed. "The usefulness of the chip in genetic
diversity and phylogenetic studies of cultivated and wild rice germplasm has
been demonstrated. The chip has also proved useful for monitoring the spread of
new rice varieties, checking the purity and varietal identity of rice seeds and
therefore in quality control and regulation of rice seed business," Singh
said. "Rice is
the post important food crop of the world providing staple diet to more than
half of the human population.
Therefore, developments in genetics and breeding
of new high yielding, stress tolerant and improved quality rice varieties are
crucial for the global food security. The ICAR rice chip will help identify new
useful genes from our vast genetic resources of wild rice and traditional rice
varieties to face the twin challenges of growing population and climate
change," he claimed. Formerly with BHU's department of Genetics and Plant
Breeding, Institute of Agricultural Science, Singh is the national professor,
BP Pal Chair, at the National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, New
Delhi.
According to BHU spokesperson Rajesh Kumar Singh,
it's a breakthrough in rice genetic research as the high density microarray
chip with 50,051 SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) has been developed
exclusively for DNA fingerprinting and breeding applications in rice. SNP is the most abundant form of DNA sequence
variation present in the plant genomes. ICAR scientists designed and validated
the SNP genotyping chip for use in genetic and evolutionary studies as well as
molecular breeding in rice. "Assays with the chip showed high success rate
and reproducibility because of the single-copy gene based design with no sequence
redundancy and cross-hybridisation problems," Singh said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Two-rice-varieties-first-domesticated-in-India/articleshow/47908571.cms
Indigenous varieties of rice conserved in Odisha
CUTTACK: Both the Centre and the state are
collecting and conserving indigenous rice varieties to craft new ones.The State
Seed Testing Laboratory (SSTL) in Bhubaneswar, Central Rice Research Institute
(CRRI) in Cuttack, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in New
Delhi under ICAR and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights
Authority (PPV & FRA) in New Delhi are conserving indigenous varieties. The
objective is to culture them, preserve them and come out with high-yielding
varieties.
"Rapid urbanization and industrialization destroy rice varieties' habitats. Besides, we use their best genes to generate new varieties," said CRRI director Trilochan Mohapatra.Now CRRI has nearly 30,000 indigenous varieties, including over 5,000 of Odisha and 11,000 of NBPGR. "We preserve them by maintaining a temperature of 4 degree centigrade and 30% relative humidity for medium-term conservation of eight years. But, NBPGR has nearly 10, 2000 varieties of different crops, including rice. It stores them by maintaining temperature of -18 degree centigrade and 15% relative humidity for long-term conservation of over 50 years," said B C Patra, a CRRI scientist.
The NBPGR's stock with CCRI includes 300 wild
varieties, according to D C Pani, In-charge of NBPGR's regional station in
Cuttack. "Only 20 wild rice species have been identified in the world,
including five in Odisha. Our 300 varieties belong to these five species,"
he said.Scientists genetically cleanse indigenous varieties of their weak and
vulnerable characteristics to boost their productive potential and resistance
capacity. Conversion of 'nua dhusara' from 'dhusara' and 'nua kala jeera' from
'kala jeera' by CRRI are pointers. Yield potential increases by 25% on an
average after genetic cleansing, according to SSTL's assistant agriculture
officer C Panda.
While NBPGR collects up to 20 gram of a variety,
CRRI gathers maximum 250 gram. But, SSTL collects 3 to 4 kg. India has over
80,000 indigenous rice varieties. The NGPGR, which also collects samples of
other crops, keeps small quantities because of space crunch. Similarly, CCRI
collects rice varieties not only from different states but also from foreign
countries. But, SSTL stores larger quantities for detailed characterization of
a variety."Each variety has over 62 traits and it is mandatory to analyze
29 and report to PPV & FRA for its acceptance," explained S R Dhua, a
former CRRI scientist and adviser to SSTL
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Indigenous-varieties-of-rice-conserved-in-Odisha/articleshow/47910184.cmsField
Day Features USA Rice Presentations
Rice farmer Ray Stoesser
(l) in talks with USA Rice's Ben Mosely
EAGLE
LAKE, TX -- USA Rice staff Betsy Ward and Ben Mosely addressed Texas farmers at
the dinner and program following the Eagle Lake Rice Field Day this week.Ward
gave an overview of USA Rice work on behalf of rice farmers and specifically
addressed trade issues critical to the rice industry like the TPP negotiations,
Iraq, China, and domestic and international promotion initiatives.Mosely
outlined USA Rice's work with Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
on implementation of the farm bill, and plans to submit a pre-proposal next
week for a small reservoir here as part of the Regional Conservation
Partnership Program (RCPP). The project
will be executed in cooperation with Ducks Unlimited and the Lower Colorado
River Authority, among several other partners, as a way to reduce groundwater
usage on rice fields and in managed waterfowl habitat.
"Visiting
farmers helps us develop our message to Congress and federal agencies,"
said Ward. "Rice is a small
commodity and our goal is to speak to policymakers and influencers with one
voice so that the industry delivers a strong, clear message. We want to keep fighting above our weight
class for farmers in Texas and across the rice states."Ward and Mosely
also answered questions on recent changes to farm policy and trade from members
of the Texas Rice Producers' Legislative Group and the Texas Rice Producers'
Board and heard from both groups about the important issues on the ground.
Contact: Amy Doane (703)
236-1454
WOTUS Publication Met with
Multiple Lawsuits
WASHINGTON, DC -- On Monday the Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) and Army Corp of Engineer's Clean Water Rule: Definition of "Waters of the United
States,"commonly called Waters of the U.S. or WOTUS, was published in the
Federal Register along with thousands of pages of supporting documentation
showing the agencies' intent. The rule
is effective on August 28, 2015. Lawsuits began to be filed as soon as the
document was published with four suits filed by 27 states and one lawsuit filed
by a private energy company; one more state-initiated lawsuit is expected. The primary tenets of the lawsuits are: the
rule was finalized while a major structural document, The Connectivity Report,
was incomplete; there were procedural violations such as a failure to respond
to comments; and, the rule violated the Administrative Procedures Act, the
Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.
Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi filed a
joint lawsuit asserting that the EPA's final rule is "an unconstitutional
and impermissible expansion of federal power over the states and their citizens
and property owners." There appears
to be overlap in the lawsuits which may lead to consolidation in some cases.The
rule states that rice fields are excluded from jurisdiction. A review of the Response to Comments suggests
that EPA's intent was more nuanced.
Rice fields that would
revert to uplands if no longer farmed are excluded as are rice fields that are
prior converted wetlands. However, rice fields that were created in wetlands
and retain wetland characteristics could be jurisdictional but normal farming
exemptions would still apply. Rice
fields are allowed other uses including crop/crawfish rotation, fallowing, and hunting
without becoming jurisdictional waters.
Rice irrigation water drainage conveyances are
open to interpretation. Conveyances
bringing water into rice fields are likely excluded from jurisdiction while
drainage ditches that empty into waters of the U.S. are likely within
jurisdiction of the rule.
USA Rice will continue to review the supporting documentation,
including the Response to Comments, to fully understand the rule's
ramifications for farmers.
Contact: Steve Hensley (703) 236-1445
Industry Calls for
Normalization of Relations with Cuba Grow Stronger
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. State Department and the Cuban
government recently announced they will re-open embassies in Washington and
Havana. President Barack Obama said that Secretary of State John Kerry
would travel to Cuba later this summer to formally open the embassy,
following the official re-establishment of diplomatic relations on July 20, and he called on Congress to fully lift the embargo, which has
been in place since 1961.
Prior to the President's announcement, a resolution came out of
the Louisiana State Senate, authored by Senator Dan Morrish, from Jefferson
Davis Parish, urging the U.S. Congress to "restore trade relations
between the United States and Cuba in order to open the market to Louisiana
rice."
Louisiana's rice industry has the potential to benefit greatly
from normalizing trade relations with Cuba, and the resolution sent to
Congress makes the parameters of that potential clear. USA Rice's involvement
with the U.S. Agriculture for Cuba (USACC), and support for normalizing trade
relations with the country, were also mentioned in the Louisiana resolution."USA
Rice has been advocating for the end of the embargo," said USA Rice
President & CEO Betsy Ward. "Along with loosened travel
restrictions and some new economic ties, the restoration of diplomatic
relations and reestablishment of embassies would be a huge steps toward this
goal." The United States exported $64 million worth of rice to Cuba
as recently as 2004 but the Cubans have not bought any U.S. rice since 2009.
Weekly Rice Sales,
Exports Reported
|
||
|
WASHINGTON, DC -- Net rice sales of 69,200 MT for 2014/2015 were down
47 percent from the previous week, but up 18 percent from the prior four-week
average, according to today's Export Sales Highlights report. Increases were reported for Mexico (45,700
MT), South Korea (7,500 MT), Costa Rica (7,400 MT), Jordan (4,000 MT), and
Canada (1,900 MT). Net sales of 13,000 MT for 2015/2016 were reported for
South Korea (9,000 MT), Canada (3,200 MT), and unknown destinations (800 MT). Exports of 50,800 MT were down 25 percent from the
previous week and 28 percent from the prior four-week average. The primary
destinations were Japan (10,000 MT), Haiti (10,000 MT), Honduras (7,800 MT),
Costa Rica (6,500 MT), and Mexico (5,700 MT).
This summary is based
on reports from exporters from the period June 19-25, 2015.
|
CME Group/Closing
Rough Rice Futures
|
Local
Rice Farmers May Soon Trade With Cuba
Jeané Franseen
07/01/2015 03:49 PM
07/01/2015
05:30 PM
NORTHEAST LOUISIANA-- Rice farming is a trade
important to the state of Louisiana
"Over the entire state, there's about 400-thousand
acres of rice grown," says Richard Letlow, LSU AgCenter County Agent. 
Much of the rice grown comes from Morehouse and Richland Parish."There's 40-thousand acres of rice generally in Morehouse Parish and Richland Parish has about 20. So there are many acres that we have," says Letlow.County agent for the Louisiana State University Ag-Center, Richard Letlow, says relations between the two countries will lead to more rice sells."Any time you open up a new market, of course that's going to give it a bit more competition and more rice sells will probably mean high rice prices in the long run," says Letlow.
Letlow adds before the embargo in the 60's, they once
traded with Cuba and did pretty well economically."Louisiana rice was
exported to Cuba as one of the biggest markets we had here in Louisiana,"
says Letlow.Those rice sales could also improve Louisiana's economy as a whole."Which
means more money for the state. Anytime anything is exported through the port,
that helps the state in general. The state gets tax money off that," says
Letlow.Today, President Barack Obama announced that the United States and Cuba
have struck a deal to open embassies in each other's capitals, and re-establish
diplomatic relations for the first time in half a century.
http://www.myarklamiss.com/story/d/story/local-rice-farmers-may-soon-trade-with-cuba/82477/UU7Xfv6N2EyBr8K4C0O7wA?utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+July+2%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email
One more time: Don’t delay enrolling in ARC/PLC programs in the new
farm bill
Payments could be held up if signup falters
Wilson said Farm Service Agency personnel are hopeful they can
complete the ARC or PLC enrollment for the nation’s farmers by the Sept. 30
deadline. But she acknowledged staff and producers may be challenged. Besides
enrolling in the programs for two crop years, growers will also be reporting
their acreage, and some may be signing up for disaster programs.Tired of making
trips to your county Farm Service Agency office to comply with yet another of
the myriad requirements of the Agricultural Act of 2014 – aka the 2014 farm
bill?
You’re probably not alone, but now is not the time to throw in
the towel. The latest deadline of Sept. 30 for enrollment in the Agricultural
Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs could be the most
important deadline yet.Arkansas Farm Service Agency specialists told
participants in the University of Arkansas Extension Service’s Farm Bill
Webinar series Thursday (June 25) that failing to meet the ARC/PLC enrollment
deadline could delay the issuance of payments for the two programs.
Loss Coverage or Agricultural Risk Coverage payments are
triggered for the 2014 crops – after Oct. 1 of this year. Farmers have until
Sept. 30 to enroll in either of those programs at FSA offices for the 2014 and
2015 crops.“If for some reason, enrollment has to continue into October – the
sheer volume of enrollment could run us into October – then PLC or ARC payments
for wheat and feed grains (corn, grain sorghum and soybeans) would be delayed,”
says Anita Wilson, state agricultural program specialist with the Arkansas Farm
Service Agency.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this article was posted,
officials with the USA Rice Federation have told Delta Farm Press that
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has agreed to publish the final 2014 national
average market price for medium grain, excluding Japonica rice, and the
preliminary 2014 national average market price for long grain rice in its Oct.
29 Agricultural Prices Report.
“ARC/PLC payments for medium grain rice,
excluding Japonica, will be made in early November 2015, rather than February
2016,” the secretary said in a letter to USA Rice Producers Group Chairman John
Owen and to USA Rice Federation Chairman Dow Brantley.“NASS will also publish a
preliminary 2014 national average market price for long grain rice in the
October 29 report. This price will be used to establish 2014 PLC and ARC
payment rates. The payment rates will be deemed final and will not be adjusted
if the final price differs from the preliminary price.”
http://deltafarmpress.com/cotton/one-more-time-don-t-delay-enrolling-arcplc-programs-new-farm-bill?page=1&utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+July+2%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email
Agriculture: El Nino to erode Thai output by 2%
2 Jul 2015 at
08:10
The government expects drought from the El Nino
weather phenomenon to shave Thai rice production for this year's main crop by
2% to 26 million tonnes, though this could mean a rise in prices.The estimate
from the Agriculture Ministry is based on a delay in rice farming for two
months until August. However, if the drought is prolonged, the rice yield may
be much lower.
The ministry expects El Nino will cut global
rice production by 1% from 476 million tonnes last year. Commerce Minister
Chatchai Sarikulya said yesterday at the meeting of the National Rice Policy
Committee chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha that rice prices have
risen since the middle of last month, as importers are wary about potential
higher rice prices thanks to lower supply from India, Vietnam and Cambodia.However,
Nipon Paopongsakorn, a distinguished fellow at the Thailand Development
Research Institute, argued it remains difficult to predict the impact of El
Nino on agriculture.
Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the
Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the dry spell has had a
psychological effect on global rice trade. Importers are increasingly
aware the dry weather may worsen rice production.Buyers who had been
reluctant to purchase rice and stockpile it in recent years are now
doing just that because they are worried global rice prices will
rise, he said.In a related development, yesterday the committee approved the
Commerce Ministry's plan to open bids for rice sales for industrial use such as
ethanol production.However, a panel handling the rice sales was told to
reconsider the appropriate volume for ethanol in order to curb the impact on
other crops used for ethanol production such as tapioca and sugar cane.
The Commerce Ministry reported state rice
stocks as of June totalled 15.46 million tonnes. Since Gen Prayut took office,
the ministry has held seven auctions to speed up disposal of 18
million tonnes of stocks accumulated from rice pledging schemes. It
has sold 3 million tonnes for 30 billion baht.Existing state stocks consist of
4.6 million tonnes of C-grade poor quality rice, which the ministry plans to
call bids for this month for industrial use."Some 1.29 million tonnes are
categorised as rotting rice that cannot be sold for ethanol production, but
could be used as fuel for cement production," said Gen Chatchai.The
committee also approved measures to stabilise main crop prices, including 200
baht per rai to cut production costs, a 3% interest rate subsidy for millers to
purchase paddy, and a 3% interest rate subsidy for cooperatives to
delay their stock sales.
Bangkok
Post e-newspaper
Indigenous varieties
of rice conserved in Odisha
By
Niroj Ranjan Misra, TNN | 2 Jul, 2015, 03.41PM IST
CUTTACK:
Both the Centre and the state are collecting and conserving indigenous rice
varieties to craft new ones.The State Seed Testing Laboratory (SSTL) in
Bhubaneswar, Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) in Cuttack, National Bureau
of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in New Delhi under ICAR and Protection of
Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPV & FRA) in New Delhi are
conserving indigenous varieties.
The objective
is to culture them, preserve them and come out with high-yielding varieties."Rapid
urbanization and industrialization destroy rice varieties' habitats. Besides,
we use their best genes to generate new varieties," said CRRI director
Trilochan Mohapatra.
Now
CRRI has nearly 30,000 indigenous varieties, including over 5,000 of Odisha and
11,000 of NBPGR. "We preserve them by maintaining a temperature of 4
degree centigrade and 30% relative humidity for medium-term conservation of
eight years. But, NBPGR has nearly 10, 2000 varieties of different crops,
including rice.
It
stores them by maintaining temperature of -18 degree centigrade and 15%
relative humidity for long-term conservation of over 50 years," said B C
Patra, a CRRI scientist.The NBPGR's stock with CCRI includes 300 wild
varieties, according to D C Pani, In-charge of NBPGR's regional station in
Cuttack. "Only 20 wild rice species have been identified in the world,
including five in Odisha. Our 300 varieties belong to these five species,"
he said.
Scientists
genetically cleanse indigenous varieties of their weak and vulnerable
characteristics to boost their productive potential and resistance capacity.
Conversion of 'nua dhusara' from 'dhusara' and 'nua kala jeera' from 'kala
jeera' by CRRI are pointers. Yield potential increases by 25% on an average
after genetic cleansing, according to SSTL's assistant agriculture officer C
Panda.
While
NBPGR collects up to 20 gram of a variety, CRRI gathers maximum 250 gram. But,
SSTL collects 3 to 4 kg. India has over 80,000 indigenous rice varieties. The
NGPGR, which also collects samples of other crops, keeps small quantities
because of space crunch. Similarly, CCRI collects rice varieties not only from
different states but also from foreign countries. But, SSTL stores larger
quantities for detailed characterization of a variety.
"Each
variety has over 62 traits and it is mandatory to analyze 29 and report to PPV
& FRA for its acceptance," explained S R Dhua, a former CRRI scientist
and adviser to SSTL.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/flora-fauna/indigenous-varieties-of-rice-conserved-in-odisha/articleshow/47910184.cms
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