3rd September,2016 daily global,regional and local rice e-newsletter by riceplus magazine

Duterte admin to scrap rice import quota

By: Ben O. de Vera

The Duterte administration is set to remove the quota on rice importation. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Duterte administration plans to remove the quota on rice importation.
“Last week, the Cabinet decided to end the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice,” National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director Reynaldo Cancio told an investor conference call late Thursday.
A repeal of Republic Act (RA) No. 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996, which had kept the QR on rice importation in place, should be pursued to scrap the quota.
In 2014, the World Trade Organization (WTO) allowed the Philippines to extend its QR on rice until 2017, in a bid to buy more time for local farmers to prepare for free trade in light of the government’s goal of achieving rice self-sufficiency.
Since the government imposes a quota on rice imports, domestic prices are vulnerable to shocks resulting from meager supply.
The extended QR slaps 35-percent duty on imported rice under a minimum access volume (MAV) of 805,200 metric tons. Importations outside of the MAV limit are levied a higher tariff of 50 percent.
The Philippines’ most favored nation (MFN) rate—the additional tariff imposed when imported outside of Asean—on the commodity remains at about 40 percent./rga

http://business.inquirer.net/214374/duterte-admin-to-scrap-rice-import-quota#ixzz4JBl77OWw

Pakistani mango’s special taste appreciated at Ankara festival

Thursday, 01 September 2016 20:55

 Parvez Jabri

ISLAMABAD: In order to popularize Pakistani mangoes in Turkey and facilitate their availability in the Turkish market, the Embassy of Pakistan in collaboration with Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and Swissotel Ankara organized a "Pakistan Mango Festival" in Ankara.Key political figures, representatives of the food and beverages industry, fruit importers, diplomats and media representatives had a first-hand experience of the taste, juiciness and aroma of Pakistani mangoes, a message received here from Ankara on Thursday said.The "Pakistan Mango Festival" included a wide-range of mango delicacies such as mango ice cream, mango souffl, mango mousse, mango trifle, mango tart, mango pudding, mango salad, mango milk- shake, mango lassi, and mango cake, made of freshly-arrived mangoes from Pakistan were served to the guests.

Pakistani cuisine including `Biryani' made of famous Pakistani Basmati rice was also served.Welcoming the guests to the festival, Ambassador Sohail Mahmood said Pakistan was the 5th largest producer of mangoes in the world and 6th largest exporter of this "King of Fruits."
He added that Pakistan was exporting mangoes to 57 countries including the US, European Union and Japan.
He also informed the participants that there were over 110 varieties of high quality mangoes including Sindhri, Anwar Retaul, Lungra, Malda, Dusehri, Fajri, Chaunsa and others.
Ambassador Sohail Mahmood added that the Pakistan Embassy had further intensified its efforts to popularize mangoes and in this context a promotional event was also organized at a leading super market in Ankara last week.
"Pakistan and Turkey are moving towards concluding the Free Trade Agreement (FTA)," he said, and observed that the FTA will help availability of Pakistani mangoes in Turkish market on a regular basis.
Chairman of Pakistan-Turkey Cultural Association and Member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly from Van, Mr Burhan Kayaturk, in his speech appreciated the unique flavor of Pakistani mangoes and termed it as number one in taste in the world.
He said he had spent over ten years in Pakistan and the major things that he missed about Pakistan were its delicious mangoes. He appreciated the efforts to make mangoes available for Turkish people and consumers on a regular basis.
The proceedings started with observance of one-minute silence for the martyrs of democracy on the night of 15 July and for all the innocent people who had lost their lives in recent terrorist attacks in Turkey, Pakistan and other places.
The event was also attended by a large number of Ankara-based Ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions as well as relevant Turkish Ministries/Departments.

http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/business-a-economy/316471-pakistani-mangos-special-taste-appreciated-at-ankara-festival.html

August floods, conditions hard on northeast Arkansas rice

August weather was ‘uncommon occurrence’

Sep 2, 2016 David Bennett | Delta Farm Press

• August rains bring misery to many Arkansas rice farmers.
• How is crop looking in early Spetember?

Flooded out roads and fields are still in evidence just south of Cord, Ark. The photo was taken on August 31.On the first day of September, many Arkansas rice farmers are happily saying goodbye to an extremely wet August.  “We’re still doing assessments on the flooding in northeast Arkansas on how many acres have been impacted, how widespread the flooding has been and what the results will be,” says Jarrod Hardke, Arkansas Extension rice specialist.“Just for rice in three counties – Lawrence, Randolph and western Clay – initial figures are about 20,000 that were underwater. Since then, more rainfall has hit that area and in Missouri. That rain in the north made its way down into the state, where conditions are already saturated and/or flooded.”

The Cache and White rivers have now been affected as that excess water moves down. “It’s fair to say nearly 40,000 acres of rice has been underwater with a large amount now in Craighead County. Now, those acres have been underwater for various lengths of time, of course. Some was under for only a couple of days, some is still under. That means there will be varying degrees of loss.

“A lot of the flooding makes the (cropland) look like lakes.”Once rice acres are flooded out, unfortunately, “many things can contribute to losses. Rice growth stages are important when it goes underwater. Generally speaking, once (you remove the excess water off the rice) in seven days, or less, the crop will largely be fine. That doesn’t mean there won’t be damage or impact but usually the rice will remain standing and reach full development. There is potential for some stain.“After a week underwater it gets to be a coin flip. After 10 days, it’s pretty much over. The water conditions are likely to go anaerobic and the plants will shut down. Pull the water off and the plants lay down and rot.”
Depending on the stage, those fields may be walkaways. “If it was dry and the crop was mature at the time of the flood, the grain may have been made and you can get something out of it. But that isn’t always the case.
“Everyone knows the later into the year we go, the more likelihood of bad weather. We’re already seven to 10 days behind on harvest, whether you’re worried about flooding, or not.”
While producers are anxious to harvest, “you can only do so much scrambling when the ground is so wet. It’s very hard to get into the field and get the crop out. Some guys are trying to pick up speed on damp ground. That means tracking more mud than they’d like and those ruts in fields will have to be fixed, sometimes at great expense.”
That leads into the sprouting issue. Thankfully, the problem has slowed in recent days. “We’ve gotten out of the pattern that is conducive to sprouting. A few sunny days will dry the canopy out.
“The worst flooding is where the sprouting began. Depending on your area of the state, and how much rainfall was received over that very wet week, or so, really determines sprouting from there. Every field is a snapshot in time.
“This sprouting isn’t cultivar-specific, or anything. Whatever fields were more mature when the rains fell and conditions were right now have more sprouting. Because hybrids are usually a bit earlier maturing, there is a bit more sprouting being seen in those fields. But that isn’t due to hybrids being more prone to sprouting – it’s simply because the plants had more mature grains.”
What about the potential cost of damages?
“That’s part of the problem with trying to put a figure on the sprouting. One fair criticism I received from a guy – and he’s right – is that the photos we tend to see with these stories are more sensational. It isn’t that the level of sprouting depicted in a picture is all that common in the field. But if you want to emphasize a problem using a picture, a plant with bad sprouting does a better job of showing what we’re talking about. Small sprouts on grains actually don’t show up in pictures that well.
“In the field, though, it’s more common to see a couple of kernels per head with small sprouts. Because the state’s rice production area is so broad north to south, some fields didn’t catch the huge rains on consecutive days. Some of the sprouting is so minimal it’s barely a blip – but it is everywhere.
“Anyway, fields with a small amount of sprouting are a fairly minimal concern although milling will be affected. The milling will probably take a small hit because the kernels will tend to break up a bit more.”
Where the sprouting is bad, “it’ll cause drastic problems in milling. That will drop the price for producers and they’ll get knocked heavily. But those cases will be more an exception than the rule.
“Hopefully, we’ll continue the run of dry days we seem to be settling into and get harvest behind us. I’m not worried about a lot more sprouting, knock on wood. But it only takes two or three days of warm temperatures with consistently rainy, overcast conditions and it can happen again.”
Hardke provides some historical context to the conditions in August. “Usually, we get to September and the high temperatures drop and put a stop to the sprouting worries. This has been an uncommon occurrence. The best I can tell, the late 1970s were the last time anything remotely like the conditions we’re seeing happened with sprouting.
“We keep planting earlier maturing cultivars and also plant early. This year was about the third fastest planting season we’ve ever had in the state. You’d think that would put the crop outside the possibility for sprouting. But we don’t usually see rains like this in August.
“This has been kind of a near perfect storm for rice. However, things would have been worse if this had happened a week later when a larger percentage of the crop was mature. I’ll take that small victory right now.

http://deltafarmpress.com/rice/august-floods-conditions-hard-northeast-arkansas-riceHaiti

Japan donates 8,500 tons of US rice to Haiti - Haiti Sentinel

Friday September 2, 2016

Japan donates 8,500 tons of US rice to Haiti

Valéry Bennett

LAFITEAU, Ouest, HT (sentinel.ht) – 8,509 tons of American rice was offered by Japan to the Haitian government on Thursday.
The Haitian government made reception of the cargo as part of the Economic Cooperation Program and the Food Aid Convention.
This donation follows an agreement signed January 2016 between the two countries and estimated at more than $4 million [USD].
The Bureau of Monetization of Development Assistance Programs (BMPAD) received the cargo and will place the rice on the market at a “competitive price”. The program’s aim is to stabilize the price of this commodity in the local market.
The Director of BMPAD responded to longtime concerns of rice flooding Haitian markets. He said precautions have been taken to avoid discouraging domestic production but provided no details

http://sentinel.ht/2016/09/02/japan-donates-8500-tons-us-rice-haiti/

Duterte admin to scrap rice import quota

By: Ben O. de Vera

11:26 AM September 2nd, 2016

The Duterte administration is set to remove the quota on rice importation. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Duterte administration plans to remove the quota on rice importation.
“Last week, the Cabinet decided to end the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice,” National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director Reynaldo Cancio told an investor conference call late Thursday.
A repeal of Republic Act (RA) No. 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996, which had kept the QR on rice importation in place, should be pursued to scrap the quota.
In 2014, the World Trade Organization (WTO) allowed the Philippines to extend its QR on rice until 2017, in a bid to buy more time for local farmers to prepare for free trade in light of the government’s goal of achieving rice self-sufficiency.
Since the government imposes a quota on rice imports, domestic prices are vulnerable to shocks resulting from meager supply.The extended QR slaps 35-percent duty on imported rice under a minimum access volume (MAV) of 805,200 metric tons. Importations outside of the MAV limit are levied a higher tariff of 50 percent.The Philippines’ most favored nation (MFN) rate—the additional tariff imposed when imported outside of Asean—on the commodity remains at about 40 percent./rga

http://business.inquirer.net/214374/duterte-admin-to-scrap-rice-import-quota#ixzz4JBcEwmAn

Rice growers anticipate harvest in September

Mississippi State University field personnel begin the rice harvest on test plots at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, Mississippi. (File photo by MSU Extension Service/Bobby Golden)

By Ms. Linda M. Breazeale

MSU Extension Service

Senior Extension Associate

STONEVILLE, Miss. -- Cue the song “Anticipation” for Mississippi’s rice growers because that title and chorus perfectly describe this point in the season.
“The majority of our rice fields are drained, and we are just waiting for conditions to stay dry long enough for harvests,” said Bobby Golden, Extension rice specialist based at the Mississippi State University Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville. “The weather has made us about 10 days later than normal. Harvest activity should increase rapidly in the first days of September as long as we stay dry.”
Mississippi has about 200,000 acres of rice, up 33 percent or 50,000 acres from last year. The state’s 2015 rice crop yielded an average of 7,110 pounds per acre for a total value of $132 million.
Golden said 2016 was less complicated than last year, at least until the last weeks approaching rice maturity. Still, Golden said he hopes yields will be better than average.
“Conditions were better than in 2015 from planting until late July and August, when rains started complicating things,” he said. “Rice had perfect disease weather in recent weeks with some pretty severe sheath blight in certain areas.”
Tom Allen, Extension plant pathologist, said sheath blight has been the biggest challenge, but it has not been the only one. Bacterial panicle blight is rare in Mississippi rice production systems, but conditions this year caused some isolated cases of the disease.
“The specific environment for development of bacterial panicle blight is generally considered to be hot, humid weather, especially when temperatures are high during the night,” Allen said. “Nighttime temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s during grain-filling periods can increase the risk associated with bacterial panicle blight.”
Allen said management practices do not reduce the presence of bacterial panicle blight, even after the disease has been detected.
“Fungicides are not active on the bacterial organism,” he said. “As in the past, the fields affected appear to have been planted within a narrow window and were at susceptible or conducive growth stages during the hot, dry weather required for disease development.”
Brian Williams, agricultural economist with the MSU Extension Service, said September rice futures are running around $9.19 per hundredweight. A year ago, rice futures were trading for $11.30 per hundredweight.
“Markets have been on a downward trend since mid-June, with the exception of a brief weeklong run-up in mid-August,” he said. “The biggest driver of rice’s downward trend is forecasts of a record national harvest this fall.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting that an estimated 307.7 million hundredweight of rice will be harvested this year in the U.S., which would be the largest crop on record. Ending stocks are also projected to be the highest since 1986.
“The run-up in prices that we saw a couple of weeks ago was in response to the flooding in Louisiana and Arkansas that was preventing much of the crop from being harvested,” Williams said. “The dryer weather pattern that has now moved in is allowing producers to get back into the field in some areas, which has driven the markets back down again.”

Released: September 2, 2016

Contacts: Dr. Bobby Richard Golden, Dr. Brian R. Williams

Photos for publication (click for high resolution image)

http://extension.msstate.edu/news/crop-report/2016/rice-growers-anticipate-harvest-september

August floods, conditions hard on northeast Arkansas rice

August weather was ‘uncommon occurrence’

Sep 2, 2016 David Bennett | Delta Farm Press

• August rains bring misery to many Arkansas rice farmers.

How is crop looking in early Spetember?

Flooded out roads and fields are still in evidence just south of Cord, Ark. The photo was taken on August 31.On the first day of September, many Arkansas rice farmers are happily saying goodbye to an extremely wet August.  “We’re still doing assessments on the flooding in northeast Arkansas on how many acres have been impacted, how widespread the flooding has been and what the results will be,” says Jarrod Hardke, Arkansas Extension rice specialist.“Just for rice in three counties – Lawrence, Randolph and western Clay – initial figures are about 20,000 that were underwater. Since then, more rainfall has hit that area and in Missouri. That rain in the north made its way down into the state, where conditions are already saturated and/or flooded.”
The Cache and White rivers have now been affected as that excess water moves down. “It’s fair to say nearly 40,000 acres of rice has been underwater with a large amount now in Craighead County. Now, those acres have been underwater for various lengths of time, of course. Some was under for only a couple of days, some is still under. That means there will be varying degrees of loss.
“A lot of the flooding makes the (cropland) look like lakes.”Once rice acres are flooded out, unfortunately, “many things can contribute to losses. Rice growth stages are important when it goes underwater. Generally speaking, once (you remove the excess water off the rice) in seven days, or less, the crop will largely be fine. That doesn’t mean there won’t be damage or impact but usually the rice will remain standing and reach full development. There is potential for some stain.
“After a week underwater it gets to be a coin flip. After 10 days, it’s pretty much over. The water conditions are likely to go anaerobic and the plants will shut down. Pull the water off and the plants lay down and rot.”
Depending on the stage, those fields may be walkaways. “If it was dry and the crop was mature at the time of the flood, the grain may have been made and you can get something out of it. But that isn’t always the case.
“Everyone knows the later into the year we go, the more likelihood of bad weather. We’re already seven to 10 days behind on harvest, whether you’re worried about flooding, or not.”
While producers are anxious to harvest, “you can only do so much scrambling when the ground is so wet. It’s very hard to get into the field and get the crop out. Some guys are trying to pick up speed on damp ground. That means tracking more mud than they’d like and those ruts in fields will have to be fixed, sometimes at great expense.”
That leads into the sprouting issue. Thankfully, the problem has slowed in recent days. “We’ve gotten out of the pattern that is conducive to sprouting. A few sunny days will dry the canopy out.
“The worst flooding is where the sprouting began. Depending on your area of the state, and how much rainfall was received over that very wet week, or so, really determines sprouting from there. Every field is a snapshot in time.
“This sprouting isn’t cultivar-specific, or anything. Whatever fields were more mature when the rains fell and conditions were right now have more sprouting. Because hybrids are usually a bit earlier maturing, there is a bit more sprouting being seen in those fields. But that isn’t due to hybrids being more prone to sprouting – it’s simply because the plants had more mature grains.”
What about the potential cost of damages?
“That’s part of the problem with trying to put a figure on the sprouting. One fair criticism I received from a guy – and he’s right – is that the photos we tend to see with these stories are more sensational. It isn’t that the level of sprouting depicted in a picture is all that common in the field. But if you want to emphasize a problem using a picture, a plant with bad sprouting does a better job of showing what we’re talking about. Small sprouts on grains actually don’t show up in pictures that well.
“In the field, though, it’s more common to see a couple of kernels per head with small sprouts. Because the state’s rice production area is so broad north to south, some fields didn’t catch the huge rains on consecutive days. Some of the sprouting is so minimal it’s barely a blip – but it is everywhere.
“Anyway, fields with a small amount of sprouting are a fairly minimal concern although milling will be affected. The milling will probably take a small hit because the kernels will tend to break up a bit more.”
Where the sprouting is bad, “it’ll cause drastic problems in milling. That will drop the price for producers and they’ll get knocked heavily. But those cases will be more an exception than the rule.
“Hopefully, we’ll continue the run of dry days we seem to be settling into and get harvest behind us. I’m not worried about a lot more sprouting, knock on wood. But it only takes two or three days of warm temperatures with consistently rainy, overcast conditions and it can happen again.”
Hardke provides some historical context to the conditions in August. “Usually, we get to September and the high temperatures drop and put a stop to the sprouting worries. This has been an uncommon occurrence. The best I can tell, the late 1970s were the last time anything remotely like the conditions we’re seeing happened with sprouting.
“We keep planting earlier maturing cultivars and also plant early. This year was about the third fastest planting season we’ve ever had in the state. You’d think that would put the crop outside the possibility for sprouting. But we don’t usually see rains like this in August.
“This has been kind of a near perfect storm for rice. However, things would have been worse if this had happened a week later when a larger percentage of the crop was mature. I’ll take that small victory right now.”

http://deltafarmpress.com/rice/august-floods-conditions-hard-northeast-arkansas-rice

Rice Prices

as on : 03-09-2016 02:33:59 PM
Arrivals in tonnes;prices in Rs/quintal in domestic market.

	Arrivals			Price
	Current	% change	Season cumulative	Modal	Prev. Modal	Prev.Yr %change
Rice
Bangalore(Kar)	2075.00	-13.83	177917.00	3800	3800	-11.63
Gadarpur(Utr)	2046.00	305.15	137215.00	2210	2215	13.04
Bazpur(Utr)	595.80	-54.85	51471.01	1825	2050	0.05
Bangarpet(Kar)	390.00	26.21	12629.00	1830	1950	18.83
Sultanpur(UP)	267.50	18.36	4174.50	2300	2200	10.31
Jaunpur(UP)	220.00	10	5590.00	2200	2190	10.00
Agra(UP)	210.00	-0.47	7017.00	2250	2240	10.29
Pilibhit(UP)	100.00	19.05	21237.50	2240	2235	2.05
Siliguri(WB)	90.00	5.88	7046.00	2600	2600	-
Bareilly(UP)	87.00	335	8313.70	2375	2365	7.95
Thodupuzha(Ker)	70.00	NC	4130.00	2900	2900	16.00
Jangipur(WB)	63.00	-0.79	1572.60	2225	2230	6.97
Saharanpur(UP)	62.00	-1.59	6438.00	2300	2320	6.48
Ballia(UP)	50.00	-16.67	7960.00	2070	2070	5.08
Mainpuri(UP)	48.00	-12.73	1629.50	2250	2225	13.64
Junagarh(Ori)	47.92	-7.78	1878.98	2100	2100	NC
Gazipur(UP)	41.00	13.89	2869.50	2100	2170	3.96
Yusufpur(UP)	40.00	166.67	1070.00	2140	2075	7.81
Vasai(Mah)	32.00	-43.86	237.00	2840	2520	9.23
Palghar(Mah)	31.00	63.16	845.00	2801	2280	2.60
Balugaon(Ori)	30.00	NC	534.00	3200	3300	6.67
Rampur(UP)	28.00	12	1102.50	2460	2460	13.36
Sindhanur(Kar)	24.00	-65.71	112.00	2100	2100	-
Dahod(Guj)	22.70	-55.75	1582.60	4100	4100	7.89
Kolaghat(WB)	22.00	10	1069.00	2450	2450	2.08
Tamluk (Medinipur E)(WB)	22.00	10	1060.00	2450	2450	2.08
Achalda(UP)	20.00	-45.95	4285.50	2260	2240	1.57
Kalahandi(Dharamagarh)(Ori)	19.73	-48.91	1295.22	2100	2100	NC
North Lakhimpur(ASM)	14.40	30.91	1905.90	1900	1900	NC
Banda(UP)	13.00	NC	549.50	2260	2260	-
Nilagiri(Ori)	12.00	NC	623.00	2500	2300	13.64
Shikohabad(UP)	12.00	-20	587.50	2125	2100	14.25
Fatehpur(UP)	11.50	27.78	363.20	2265	2235	1.57
Naugarh(UP)	11.50	-8	952.00	2100	2100	8.81
Kolhapur(Laxmipuri)(Mah)	11.00	-8.33	2184.00	3600	3600	-
Cherthalai(Ker)	10.00	17.65	455.00	2200	2200	-12.00
Khair(UP)	10.00	NC	226.00	2420	2400	25.39
Deogarh(Ori)	9.00	NC	571.50	2500	2500	NC
Sheoraphuly(WB)	9.00	12.5	549.65	2800	2750	5.66
Bolangir(Ori)	8.00	NC	375.90	2400	2300	9.09
Firozabad(UP)	8.00	NC	769.10	2260	2260	10.78
Mirzapur(UP)	7.50	-11.76	1625.60	1985	1990	0.76
Tusura(Ori)	7.00	-6.67	381.00	2500	2300	13.64
Dibrugarh(ASM)	6.00	-31.03	1505.40	2450	2450	-
Udala(Ori)	5.00	-70.59	941.00	2800	2700	7.69
Jahanabad(UP)	5.00	-16.67	345.30	2180	2200	1.87
Robertsganj(UP)	5.00	-16.67	764.50	1970	1955	5.91
Karsiyang(Matigara)(WB)	5.00	-33.33	177.60	2700	2700	-
Madhugiri(Kar)	4.00	-	4.00	2547	-	-15.10
Nimapara(Ori)	4.00	-33.33	271.00	2000	2000	-9.09
Islampur(WB)	4.00	100	371.50	2400	2400	11.63
Darjeeling(WB)	3.30	-5.71	103.50	2900	2900	7.41
Alibagh(Mah)	3.00	NC	171.00	4000	4000	21.21
Murud(Mah)	3.00	NC	243.00	3000	3250	87.50
Mangaon(Mah)	2.00	100	50.00	2800	2800	12.00
Jeypore(Ori)	1.80	-47.06	170.40	4200	4100	29.23
Tumsar(Mah)	1.00	NC	3.00	1900	3301	-38.93

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-

Rice paddy bank short of funds

The warehouse of Cambodia’s first large-scale rice paddy bank in Battambang is seen in this January 2015 photo. Photo supplied

Fri, 2 September 2016

Cheng Sokhorng

Two years since the opening of Cambodia’s first large-scale rice paddy bank, the private sector company behind the project is seeking additional capital to carry it through the next five years.
Thaneakea Srov (Kampuchea) Plc launched services in late August 2014 with its sprawling facility in Battambang city acting as a massive centralised storage facility for the province’s harvested rice paddy.
The company disburses loans to farmers in exchange for the paddy they put up as collateral, while its paddy stockpiles ensure sufficient stock for Cambodian rice millers and traders.
The project aimed at addressing the lack of storage capacity and finance channels that had led many farmers in the province to sell their paddy to Thai and Vietnamese traders instead of local millers.
Phou Puy, CEO of Thaneakea Srov, said the rice paddy bank began in 2014 with $7 million working capital and received 20,000 tonnes of paddy rice during its first year. The following year, working with $13 million capital, the bank was able to collect 37,000 tonnes of rice.
Puy said the project would need $70 million over the next five years to satisfy the demand of Cambodian millers and traders.
“Most of our customers have come asking for more loans, but our capital is limited,” he said.
“We need more capital and storage capacity to meet the demand of rice millers [for paddy rice].”
According to Puy, loans are offered to rice farmers for a period of 10 months at a monthly interest rate of 1 per cent.
“We receive the paddy rice as collateral in return for disbursing loans amounting to 80 per cent of its market price,” he explained, adding that the hocked rice is only sold if the loan is not paid back in time.
Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF), said the rice bank was playing an important role in the industry and if it would put forward a strong and detailed impact and risk assessment, the Rural Development Bank (RDB) would put up the required funds for it to continue operations.
“Thaneakea Srov is playing an important role in the rice industry, but currently it is helping only one part of the industry,” he said.
“If it needs a bigger budget to expand, then they should come and put all the issues on the table at the CRF in order to develop the project and request financial assistance from the RDB.”
Khim Sophanna, senior advisor of the agricultural NGO CEDAC, said the rice paddy bank was essential to helping farmers who had run short of capital.
“The rice paddy bank is a place where farmers can use their paddy rice in exchange for money whenever they run into financial troubles, which is better than selling the paddy at a cheap price,” he said.
“The bank also gives farmers a chance to recover the paddy they used as collateral if the price of rice increases.”
Most importantly, he said, the rice paddy bank ensures that the profits of rice farming remain in the local community.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-paddy-bank-short-funds

Mekong Delta region awaits floods

VietNamNet Bridge - The Mekong Delta, the rice, seafood and fruit granary of the country, is facing landslides and sinking, as it no longer receives enough silt because of limited floodwaters.

“We have been living here for several generations and we have never seen such poor floodwaters until the last year,” said Nguyen Van Ut, 70, in Tan Hong district of Dong Thap province.

According to Ut, as floods do not come, locals cannot breed fish and shrimp, or grow vegetables.

Nguyen Ba Hung, 38, in An Phu district of An Giang province, said it wasva surprise that floods had not come, though it is August.

According to the Southern Meteorological Station, the water level is now very low at the Cuu Long riverhead. On Tien River, the highest water level is 1.36 meters only measured in Tan Chau, while on Hau River, the figure is 1.2 meters, which is 40-50 cm lower than the same period last year. 

The Mekong Delta, the rice, seafood and fruit granary of the country, is facing landslides and sinking, as it no longer receives enough silt because of limited floodwaters.

“There is no sign of floods so far,” said Le Khuong Binh, director of the Dong Thap provincial Meteorological Station.

Nguyen Minh Nhi, former chair of An Giang province, who initiated the plan to take full advantage of the flooding season to develop the economy in 2001, said that if floods do not come, it will be a ‘big threat’ to the western part of the southern region.

Previously, production activities in flooding season in An Giang and Dong Thap provinces could create VND5 trillion in value, generating nearly 1 million jobs to locals within 3-4 months of flooding season. However, as floods have been poor in the last two years, the production has scaled down.

Nhi warned that damages caused by the absence of floods will be serious and millions of people will lose their livelihoods.

The appearance of more and more hydropower dams on the Mekong main stream and branches has resulted in decrease in the volume of water reaching Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

Nhi expressed concern about information that Thailand had diverted the Mekong stream to take water to irrigate its 5 million hectares of fields.

“Even Tonle Sap in Cambodia also fears water shortage,” he said. “If floods no longer come, we will have to live with increasingly serious saline intrusion."

According to Le Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Institute for Climate Change Studies, floods have not come because of changes in this year’s rainy season. Rains concentrate in the Mekong Delta and the water goes directly to the sea. Second, typhoons do not target the central region, but head for the north.

“Laos’ lower area and Vietnam’s central region play an important role in bringing floods to the Mekong Delta, but there is no water,” he said

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/environment/163004/mekong-delta-region-awaits-floods.html

Big rice forecast

By Country News on September 02, 2016

Rice production is predicted to return to ‘normal’ this season after a tough year of water availability for local farmers.

Rice production is predicted to return to ‘normal’ this season after a tough year of water availability for local farmers.

At its annual general meeting in Jerilderie on Thursday, SunRice announced a 2016/2017 crop prediction of at least 900,000 tonnes.

It’s a huge boost from the reduced 244,000 tonne crop delivered from the 2015/2016 season, which was a direct result of high water prices and low water availability.

An improved crop is expected to increase production for SunRice, which was forced to cut about 50 jobs earlier this year, mostly at the Deniliquin Rice Mill.

‘‘With water pricing having declined by around $100 per megalitre compared to the previous year due to improved water availability, SunRice considers that planting rice remains an attractive proposition,’’ SunRice chairman Laurie Arthur said.

‘‘The company estimates that our growing and vibrant markets could support a 2017 crop of 900,000 tonnes and we are encouraging growers to maximise their upcoming planting plans.’’

At the time of planting in October last year, general security water allocations were at just six per cent.

Murray Irrigation Limited records show irrigators were paying an average of $262 per megalitre for water in the same month.

This season, Murray Valley irrigators already have access to 25 per cent of general security water and that figure is expected to rise with high inflows into dams and rivers.

MIL also shows water is currently trading at a sell low price of $126/ML and a sell high price of $250.

MIL’s deal to secure a 200 gigalitre advance of water from the Snowy Scheme for its customers has also assisted in the positivity surrounding rice production.

Ricegrowers Association of Australia Berriquin branch president Warren Lang said it is a far more positive environment across the region than the same time last year.

‘‘I think it’s very positive for us to see the catchments filling up, which should see us return to being able to deliver two strong harvests a year, and that’s good for everyone.

‘‘Farmers are back to do what they’ve always wanted to do, and we’re in good shape.

‘‘Ricegrowers have all the equipment, the ability and the layouts to produce food for the world, and all we’ve needed is for the rain to fall, the dams to fill and for that water to be made available to us.

‘‘There is a good snow pack (in the mountains) and if the spring sun gets on it we’ll get another really good inflow.

‘‘The vibrancy that water will deliver to growers then extends throughout the community.’’

■ Rice industry challenges, page 9.

■ Rice vesting support vital, page 17.

http://www.countrynews.com.au/2016/09/02/2867/big-rice-forecast

Keep our rice export rules to sustain a vibrant industry

Jeremy Morton2 Sep 2016, 6 p.m.

Unlike farmers in the majority of other major rice producing nations, Australian growers receive no subsidies or tariff protection from our governments says Rice Growers Association of Australia president, Jeremy Morton.

Given the significant role rice plays in supporting businesses and communities in the Riverina, it is critical ricegrowers and others interested in the prosperity of this industry participate in the current NSW Department of Primary Industries’ review of state government vesting and export arrangements.Globally, Australia is a small rice producer, with our rice grown almost exclusively in the NSW Riverina, around the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys.

Smaller rice industries also exist in Queensland and the NSW North Coast. In years of average water availability, the industry usually produces less than a million tonnes, of which around 80 per cent is sold to export markets. While some people may advocate a deregulated export market would benefit the rice industry, as it has for certain other Australian crops, it is important to highlight how rice is different.

The small volume of rice exports means the industry is in a relatively weaker position to compete in the global rice market.Unlike growers in the majority of other major rice producing nations, Australian rice growers receive no subsidies or tariff protection from government.

There are also no material barriers to foreign producers who want to import rice into Australia.Many rice export markets have country-specific quota systems and rice was not included in the recent much heralded free trade agreements that Australia negotiated with key countries in Asia. For example, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan limit the amount of rice that can be imported from Australia, overseen by a single government buying agency, and Australian rice cannot enter the Chinese market due to government imposed non-tariff barriers.When it comes to addressing some of these challenges, it makes no sense for multiple sellers of Australian rice to be dealing with single desk buyers or fixed country-specific quotas, and it can also make it difficult for Australia to negotiate the removal of non-tariff barriers.

It would mean Australians competing with Australians, pitted against a sovereign buyer, all vying for a small slice of a protected and restricted market.Every past review has assessed the export arrangements since they were first implemented in 1983 (there have been four such reviews since 1995).These reviews supported the findings that current arrangements enabled SunRice, the holder of the export licence, to deliver significant price premiums in export markets to the benefit of Australian growers.These price premiums are largely achieved by exporting the majority of rice as packed consumer products under SunRice brands.Many of these brands have become synonymous with high quality rice products associated with NSW-grown rice, and are backed by SunRice’s research and development activities, processing infrastructure and supply chain quality assurance.

Independent reviews have found SunRice’s export price premiums, which are achievable through vesting arrangements, totalled almost $250 million between 2013 and 2015.

For the year to April 30, 2015 alone, SunRice delivered a price premium to growers of $82 million.These premiums contribute to the paddy price per tonne achievable for Riverina growers. In addition, the reports have showed SunRice has achieved average medium grain export prices greater than other international competitors for the majority of the last four years.Rice vesting and its export licence together maintain a competitive advantage for NSW-grown rice.These arrangements allow SunRice to consolidate export channels, maximise sales and marketing scale, and drive supply chain efficiencies to provide stability and continuity for NSW rice growers, who compete in international markets without any production or export subsidies.

Importantly, the majority of rice growers support the continuation of existing vesting arrangements, with all branches of the Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia (RGA) passing unanimous motions for the renewal of these arrangements at meetings in June.In 2012, 93 per cent of all submissions to the NSW government review favoured retaining these arrangements.To show their support for the NSW rice industry and to protect the future of the rice export price premiums it generates, Riverina rice growers, businesses and communities have until September 14 to lodge a submission in support of rice vesting and export arrangements.

For more information on how to make a submission is available from Rachel Kelly at Rice Growers Association (02) 6953 0433.Submissions can be sent to rice.review@dpi.nsw.gov.au or mailed to Rice Vesting Review, C/- Ms Leah Mansfield, Department of Primary Industries, Locked Bag 21, ORANGE, NSW, 2800.

Jeremy Morton is president of the Ricegrowers' Association of Australia

The story Keep our rice export rules to sustain a vibrant industry first appeared on The Land.

http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/4139576/keep-our-rice-export-rules-to-sustain-a-vibrant-industry/?cs=4726

Kharif acreage up 4 per cent on rise in sowing of pulses

Our Bureau

Pulses top the growth chart

New Delhi, September 2:  

Pulses have been the primary drivers of increased sowing in the ongoing kharif season with total acreage under the crop till September 2 surpassing the normal sowing area averaged over the last five years.

Acreage under rice, coarse cereals and oilseeds, too, has been robust, with sowing so far outstripping the previous year by 4 per cent. Total sowing of all seven kharif crops, at 1,033.99 lakh hectares (lh), is slightly lower than the normal area of 1,062.50 lh for the entire season, but is higher than sowing in the same period of the previous kharif season, which was 997.11 lh, according to figures released by the Agriculture Ministry.

With a few days of sowing still left in the ongoing season, total acreage is likely to catch up with the normal sown area of the last five years.

Rajasthan has taken the lead in sowing of pulses, followed by Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Total sowing of pulses till August 31 on 142.02 lh is higher than both last year’s acreage of 106.92 lh as well as the normal area of 108.693 lh.

Sowing in most rice-growing States, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal has been up to expectations, with total acreage at 372.95 lh — higher than last year’s 364.43 lh.

Sowing of coarse cereals till September 2 is at 184.13 lh (175.59 lh). Oilseed sowing for the period is at 179.60 lh (178.67 lh).

Cotton sowing at 101.96 lh till date was lower than the 114.17 lh sown in the same period last year as many farmers switched to other crops due to pest attacks.

Sugarcane sowing was also lower at 45.77 lh (49.60 lh). Jute and Mesta acreage, at 7.56 lh, is almost at the same level as last year’s 7.73 lakh hectares.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/kharif-acreage-up-4-per-cent-on-rise-in-sowing-of-pulses/article9066384.ece

09/02/2016 Farm Bureau Market Report

Rice

	High	Low
Long Grain Cash Bids	- - -	- - -
Long Grain New Crop	- - -	- - -

Futures:

ROUGH RICE High Low Last Change Sep '16 931.5 917.0 920.5 +1.0 Nov '16 954.0 941.5 950.0 +8.0 Jan '17 979.0 971.0 974.0 +6.5 Mar '17 1011.0 1011.0 991.5 -0.5 May '17 1013.0 -0.5 Jul '17 1034.0 0.0 Sep '17 1029.0 +2.0

Rice Comment

Rice futures were mixed at mid-day, with trading confined within Thursday’s trading range. Nationwide, 13% of the crop is now rated poor to very poor, and another 27% is in fair condition. Excessive rains have resulted in rice that has lodged and some has sprouted in the field. This will all result in poorer quality rice and less than ideal yields. However, abundant world supplies and declining prices in Asia continue to loom large over the market. India is expecting a large crop following a beneficial monsoon season. Technically, November charted a bearish outside day, signaling that further losses are possible.

Against Somber Mood in Disaster Areas, National Rice Month Kicks Off to Draw Attention to Powerful Grain 

By Michael Klein

	Harvest and National Rice Month are both underway!

ARLINGTON, VA - Despite recent disastrous weather across the mid-south that has had a devastating impact on communities and the rice industry there, National Rice Month, a celebration of the grain and industry, kicked off yesterday.

National Rice Month (NRM) will still be used by the industry, government, local communities, and partners to draw attention to the many varieties of healthy, nutritious rice grown right here in the United States, and to the many contributions rice makes, not just to our plates, but to our economy and communities as well.

Activities are planned throughout the month and across the country to honor rice and the people who bring it to our tables. USA Rice Daily will be highlighting some of these activities all month long.

Readers can look forward to updates from supermarket retail partners such as Jewel-Osco, Kroger, Rouses, and others; foodservice partners, including the outstanding charitable RiceGiving program USA Rice developed with P.F. Chang's China Bistro, and the revamped NRM Scholarship Contest, underwritten by Dow AgroSciences (see story below).

USA Rice has also made a promotional media kit available for the industry and partners who want to get in on the act of celebrating rice. The kit includes sample graphics, social media posts and videos clips, but rice enthusiasts are encouraged to use original materials as well - so long as they tag the posts, #ThinkRice.

"And of course it's important to remember that the reason September is National Rice Month is because it coincides with harvest, a time of intense, exciting action on the farms and at the mills," said Colleen Klemczewski, social media coordinator for USA Rice. "I want people to be snapping pictures and shooting videos of their rice operations and posting them or sending them to me all month long."

Klemczewski says photos and videos tagged with the #ThinkRice will be compiled on USA Rice's Facebook page where the public can vote on their favorites. Whoever posts the top vote-getter will win a complimentary registration to the 2016 USA Rice Outlook Conference in Memphis, Tennessee this December.

USA Rice Daily, Friday, September 2, 2016

 

 

 

National Rice Month Scholarship Contest Gets Major Makeover  

By Deborah Willenborg

	Take your best shot

ARLINGTON, VA - The annual National Rice Month (NRM) Scholarship contest has received a major update this year, and while the focus is the same - creating awareness for U.S.-grown rice - the methods are moving into the 21^st Century.

"The reality is we live in the age where almost everyone has a camera in their pocket, and in some cases, those cameras are more powerful and advanced than the cameras used to create some of our favorite Hollywood classics," said Michael Klein, vice president of Marketing, Communications, & Domestic Promotion for USA Rice.  "Image-centric social media platforms are driving communication today, and we use photos and videos throughout National Rice Month. We thought it was high time we brought a little of that to the scholarship contest."

Scholarship contest entrants are encouraged to use video and photography to tell the story of U.S. grown rice. Creative students can also use PowerPoint, Prezi, or any visual presentation tool, so long as the total run time of the piece does not exceed three minutes.

High school graduating students from rice-growing states -- Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas -- are eligible for the three scholarship prizes, sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, totaling $8,500. 

The grand-prize winner will receive a $4,000 scholarship and a trip with a chaperone this December to the awards ceremony at the 2016 USA Rice Outlook Conference in Memphis, Tennessee. The second-place winner will receive $3,000 scholarship, and third-place $1,500.

Contest entries will be judged on creativity, quality, popularity, and effectiveness in promoting U.S.-grown rice, NRM, and the importance of rice in the student's state. Sample topics include: rice production, nutrition, sustainability, and marketing/promotion.

"We are thrilled Dow AgroSciences is again sponsoring this scholarship program," says USA Rice President & CEO Betsy Ward. "National Rice Month is a time for America to salute its rice farmers and everyone involved in the U.S. rice industry, and we can't wait to see how creative students get with their entries for the revamped scholarship contest."

Entries are due October 31.

For more information and to submit an entry, visit the NRM scholarship page

USA Rice Daily, Friday, September 2, 2016

 

Scientists have found a sixth taste - and it explains our love of carbs

3 SEP 2016

 

Daria Nepriakhina/Unsplash.com

Scientists have found a sixth taste - and it explains our love of carbs

Salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami, and... starchy?
Scientists have found evidence that humans can pick up a sixth taste associated with carbohydrate-rich foods.
Not only could the discovery see a new flavour added to the list of tastes, which currently includes salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami, but the findings might also explain why we love such starchy foods so much.
"I believe that’s why people prefer complex carbs," lead researcher Juyun Lim from Oregon State University told Jessica Hamzelou from New Scientist.
"Sugar tastes great in the short term, but if you’re offered chocolate and bread, you might eat a small amount of the chocolate, but you’d choose the bread in larger amounts, or as a daily staple."
Lim and her colleagues gathered 22 subjects, and had them taste a bunch of different solutions made up of different levels of carbohydrates. The subjects were asked to rate how each tasted.
"They called the taste 'starchy'. Asians would say it was 'rice-like', while Caucasians described it as 'bread-like' or 'pasta-like'. It’s like eating flour," Lim told New Scientist.
Next the subjects were given a special compound that specifically blocked the receptors on their tongues that picked up sweet tastes, and then a compound that blocked the enzyme that breaks down long-chain carbohydrates.
This step was crucial, because until now, the consensus was that humans couldn’t detect the taste of carbs. The notion was that because carbs break down so rapidly, only a sweet taste was left over from the sugar molecules that make them up. So when we taste carbs, previous research suggested we only taste sweet.
After the blockers were administered, the subjects were still able to taste and describe the starchy flavour, leading Lim to conclude that humans are specifically able to taste carbohydrates.
"Every culture has a major source of complex carbohydrate. The idea that we can’t taste what we’re eating doesn’t make sense," Lim said.
The results also suggest that the newly found taste might be the reason why humans love to eat carb-rich foods like bread and rice, which have a long history as part of human culture.
Now, with a solid hypothesis to build on, the team hopes to identify the specific receptors on the tongue that are responsible for picking up the sixth taste.
'Starchy' isn’t the only new taste that scientists are investigating.
Back in 2015, researchers in the US found evidence that fat might be its own taste, saying that on its own, fat is a rather dull taste, but it works to amplify other flavours in the same way that bitterness does.
Another team is looking into the possibility that tastes like calcium, blood, and amino acids might be separate as well.
Regardless of whether or not these new 'tastes' make it in to the official list, it's clear that we still know very little about our own mouths and senses. Hopefully, we'll one day fully understand one of the most fundamental aspects of our daily lives: eating

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-might-have-just-found-a-sixth-taste

Indian and Aussie scientists to collaborate and develop salt-tolerant rice

Saturday, 03 September, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Our Bureau, Mumbai

Scientists from India and Australia will collaborate towards developing rice that is tolerant to salt water. An agreement was signed between M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and the University of Tasmania (UTAS) in Chennai recently for a project supported by the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund. The three-year project will conduct research on salt-tolerant rice varieties identified from wild species using biotechnology approaches in India and Australia.

Dr Holger Meinke, director, School of Land and Food, University of Tasmania, Hobart, who was the signatory on behalf of UTAS, said, “Partnership is the heart of what we need to achieve. We need to produce as much food in the next 50 years as we did in the entire 10,000 year history of agriculture. This is the reason why we need these kinds of projects.”

Dr V Selvam, executive director, MSSRF, the Indian signatory to the project recalled the foundation’s pioneering work in mangroves and saline-tolerant plants. “The Integrated Mangrove Fishing Farming System developed by MSSRF has been recognised as a ‘Blue Solution’ by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. We need new approaches for food security,” he said.

AISRF project awarded to UTAS and MSSRF through a highly competitive bidding process, will explore the use of a halophytic, wild rice relative (Porteresia coarctata or also called Oryza coarctata) that occurs as a mangrove associate in the inter-tidal mangrove swamps along the coasts of India and Bangladesh. 

Dr Ajay Parida, principal investigator for the Indian side of the project, called this a milestone in biotechnology research also due to the unique international collaboration.

Prof. Sergey Shabala and Dr Lana Shabala from UTAS shared the details of the processes involved, while Dr Sivaprakash Ramalingam, MSSRF, shared the techniques that will be employed towards achieving this process.

In the backdrop of increasing pressures on natural resources, the need for food security solutions is important. In this regard, plants resistant to salinity could be of great significance. It is in this context that the research project between the University of Tasmania and MSSRF titled ‘Developing salt tolerance rice for food security in Australia and India,’ supported by the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) will be of relevance.

News.com/Top-News/indian-and-aussie-scientists-to-collaborate-and-develop-salttolerant-rice-39466

Collect CMR from rice millers’

• Staff Reporter

Commissioner, Civil Supplies, C.V. Anand has issued instructions to the officials for collection of custom milled rice (CMR) from rice millers on a war footing.He has written to the joint collectors of all the districts to this effect, and asked them to take all measures to collect CMR dues from millers.Listing the details of rice millers who owe the levy rice, Mr.Anand sought a report on the action taken by September 10.At a review meeting on Friday, he asked officials to slap cases against the errant millers.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-telangana/collect-cmr-from-rice-millers/article9068208.ece

Price of Rice To Drop 10¢

By Rico on 2 September 2016

Costa Rica currently imports about half of its rice consumption.

Costa Rica currently imports about half of its rice consumption

(QCOSTARICA) From the lighter side, but true department – concerned about the high cost of living in Costa Rica? Here is some good news: the cost of rice will drop next week.
Yep, a kilogram of rice will cost a whopping ¢10 colones less. That is ¢20 colones for the typical 2 kg bag sold in supermarkets around the country, more if you buy larger quantities, less if you just buy a handful.
The price drop was published on Thursday (Sept. 1) in the official government newsletter, La Gaceta, following the signing of an executive decree and will be effective on Tuesday, September 6. But, the price drop only affects rice that with 20% broken rice.Broken rice is fragmented, not defective; there is nothing wrong with it, just in case you were wondering. According to Wikipedia, it (broken rice) is as nutritious as the equivalent unbroken rice, i.e. if all the germ and bran remains, it is as nutritious as brown rice; if none remains, it is only as nutritious as white rice.
So, on Tuesday, a kilo of this rice will drop from ¢631 to ¢621.According to Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio (MEIC), 51% of all rice sold in the country is of this type.The drop is said to be due to a fall in international prices.Costa Rica currently imports about half of its rice consumption, according to the national rice corporation, the Corporación Arrocera Nacional (Conarroz).The process that led to the decree to effect such a price drop was, as many things in Costa Rica, a complicated one: it had to be reviewed by the respective ministries and is in the process that include Legal Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the  Ministry of Foreign Trade (COMEX), among others.

http://qcostarica.com/price-of-rice-to-drop-10%C2%A2/

 

Philippines lifts curbs on rice imports

By Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star) | Updated September 3, 2016 - 12:00am

Food price, particularly rice, rose and poverty line increased by almost 30 percent between 2009 and 2015. STAR/File photo

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is finally lifting the import curbs on rice after a series of extension on the imposition of quantitative restriction on the country’s most important staple crop over the past few years, an official of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said.NEDA director Reynaldo Cancio told participants of a conference call organized by the Investor Relations Office late Thursday the Duterte administration has decided to import more rice by removing the QR on the product.“Last week, the Cabinet decided to end the quantitative restriction on rice,” Cancio said.

The QR has allowed the government to limit the volume of rice that could be imported by the Philippines every year. It protects local farmer by preventing the influx of cheap rice imports.ADVERTISING

In 2014, the Philippines under former President Benigno Aquino obtained a favorable response from the World Trade Organization on its bid to extend the use of QR to 2017.The Philippines has appealed for an extension of the QR on rice thrice.

Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

The extended QR slaps a 35-percent duty on imported rice under a minimum access volume (MAV) of 805,200 metric tons (MT). The government imposes a higher tariff of 50 percent on imported rice outside of the MAV limit.Of the total volume, some 755,000 MT would be country-specific- quota with Vietnam and Thailand getting the bulk. The remaining 50,000 MT is omnibus volume that could be sourced anywhere.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol earlier said the Philippines should be rice self-sufficient in the next two years to be ready against the adverse effects of climate change.

Former socio-economic planning secretary and NEDA director general Arsenio Balisacan has been pushing for the lifting of the QR on rice to bring down the price of the staple.Balisacan, who now heads the Philippine Competition Commission, earlier said the private sector should be allowed to take the lead in rice imports, while the government through the National Food Authority should simply facilitate the access to both the import and export markets.Cancio said the dismal performance of the agriculture sector needs urgent attention.

Data released by NEDA showed the agriculture, fishery and forestry grew only 1.4 percent between 2010 and 2015 and even contracted 2.1 percent in the first quarter.“To reverse the output decline in the agriculture sector, a comprehensive agricultural development program will be pursued. This includes better land administration, asset reform, improving access to technology and innovation, and moving up the value chain,” he added.

Food price, particularly rice, rose and poverty line increased by almost 30 percent between 2009 and 2015.

According to him, improvements in agricultural productivity would address the problem of high food prices

www.philstar.com/business/2016/09/03/1619787/philippines-lifts-curbs-rice-imports

700,000 rai of farmland earmarked for flood retention

2 Sep 2016 at 14:42

WRITER: SUNTHORN PONGPAO AND CHUDATE SEEHAWONG

Water levels in riverside communities in Ayutthaya are rising sharply as the flood surge from the North moves South and a brimming Chao Phraya dam keeps discharging water downstream. (Photo by Sunthorn Pongpao)

AYUTTHAYA/CHAI NAT - About 700,000 rai of farmland in Auyutthaya province has been proposed for use as kaem ling (monkey-cheek) water retention areas to accommodate the huge volume of northern runoff flowing into the Chao Phraya dam reservoir.The move follows a warning issued on Thursday by the region12 irrigation office to governors and residents of seven central provinces.The office said the water level in the Chao Phraya and Noi rivers was rising quickly and it would begin discharging water from the Chao Phraya dam at 900 cubic metres per second. This would cause a rapid rise in the level of the river downstream by maybe 80-120cm.

The warning sparked alarm in riverside communities in Bang Ban, Sena, Phak Hai and Bang Sai districts of Ayutthaya, one of the seven provinces. The other six provinces are Chai Nat, Uthai Thani, Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Suphan Buri and Lop Buri.

At least 50 houses along the Noi River in tambon Krathum and tambon Hua Wiang in Sena district have already been inundated by water about 30cm deep. Deputy Ayutthaya governor Rewat Prasong said on Friday the province would coordinate with the  regional irrigation office, proposing ways to handle the flood surge into the Chao Phraya dam reservoir.Water should be diverted into fields that would be turned into natural monkey-cheek water retention areas,  Mr Rewat said.There were 500,000 rai of paddy fields in the province that had not been planted in crops and which could be used.There were also many paddy fields that farmers were racing against time to harvest before they were flooded out. If these areas were included, the proposed water retention areas would total about 700,000 rai, the deputy governor said.

Irrigation officials could immediately open canal sluice gates to discharge the flood water into these areas. He believed this was workable. It would ease flooding in riverside communities and store water for use during the dry season.Ayutthaya governor Prayoon Rattanasenee on Friday warned the public and private sectors, and local residents, to brace for flooding in four districts near the Chao Phraya and Noi rivers as water continued to be released from the Chao Phraya dam.The affected districts include Bang Ban, Sena, Phak Hai and Bang Sai, where the floodwater level is expected to rise to 50cm over the next day or two, the governor said.In Chai Nat, Nong Mamong district has been declared a flood disaster area after runoff flooded at lest 25,000 rai of farmland, affecting around 4,000 households.

Chai Nat governor Khanit Iemrahong on Friday declared the district a disaster area so assistance could be urgently sent to those in need.Downpouring rain has pounded the district since Aug 29, sending runoff from Khao Chong Lom-Khao Khad mountain in Uthai Thani’s Huai Khot district in agricultural areas and houses in nearby tambon Wang Takhian and tambon Nong Mamong. Three other tambons in Nong Mamong district were also hit separately by runoff.Mr Khanit advised residents to closely monitor the water situation as more flooding was likely to ravage the province. Local authorities have been put on full alert around the clock.A vast agricultural area in Chai Nat province's Nong Mamong district has been turned into a lake as runoff from nearby areas ravages the district, which has been declared a flood disaster zone. At least 25,000 rai of farmland has been damaged and about 4,000 households affected. (Photo by Chudate Seehawong

August floods, conditions hard on northeast Arkansas rice

August weather was ‘uncommon occurrence’

Sep 2, 2016 David Bennett | Delta Farm Press

August rains bring misery to many Arkansas rice farmers.

How is crop looking in early Spetember?

Flooded out roads and fields are still in evidence just south of Cord, Ark. The photo was taken on August 31.
On the first day of September, many Arkansas rice farmers are happily saying goodbye to an extremely wet August.  
“We’re still doing assessments on the flooding in northeast Arkansas on how many acres have been impacted, how widespread the flooding has been and what the results will be,” says Jarrod Hardke, Arkansas Extension rice specialist.
“Just for rice in three counties – Lawrence, Randolph and western Clay – initial figures are about 20,000 that were underwater. Since then, more rainfall has hit that area and in Missouri. That rain in the north made its way down into the state, where conditions are already saturated and/or flooded.”
The Cache and White rivers have now been affected as that excess water moves down. “It’s fair to say nearly 40,000 acres of rice has been underwater with a large amount now in Craighead County. Now, those acres have been underwater for various lengths of time, of course. Some was under for only a couple of days, some is still under. That means there will be varying degrees of loss.
“A lot of the flooding makes the (cropland) look like lakes.”
Once rice acres are flooded out, unfortunately, “many things can contribute to losses. Rice growth stages are important when it goes underwater. Generally speaking, once (you remove the excess water off the rice) in seven days, or less, the crop will largely be fine. That doesn’t mean there won’t be damage or impact but usually the rice will remain standing and reach full development. There is potential for some stain.
“After a week underwater it gets to be a coin flip. After 10 days, it’s pretty much over. The water conditions are likely to go anaerobic and the plants will shut down. Pull the water off and the plants lay down and rot.”
Depending on the stage, those fields may be walkaways. “If it was dry and the crop was mature at the time of the flood, the grain may have been made and you can get something out of it. But that isn’t always the case.
“Everyone knows the later into the year we go, the more likelihood of bad weather. We’re already seven to 10 days behind on harvest, whether you’re worried about flooding, or not.”
While producers are anxious to harvest, “you can only do so much scrambling when the ground is so wet. It’s very hard to get into the field and get the crop out. Some guys are trying to pick up speed on damp ground. That means tracking more mud than they’d like and those ruts in fields will have to be fixed, sometimes at great expense.”
That leads into the sprouting issue. Thankfully, the problem has slowed in recent days. “We’ve gotten out of the pattern that is conducive to sprouting. A few sunny days will dry the canopy out.
“The worst flooding is where the sprouting began. Depending on your area of the state, and how much rainfall was received over that very wet week, or so, really determines sprouting from there. Every field is a snapshot in time.
“This sprouting isn’t cultivar-specific, or anything. Whatever fields were more mature when the rains fell and conditions were right now have more sprouting. Because hybrids are usually a bit earlier maturing, there is a bit more sprouting being seen in those fields. But that isn’t due to hybrids being more prone to sprouting – it’s simply because the plants had more mature grains.”
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What about the potential cost of damages?
“That’s part of the problem with trying to put a figure on the sprouting. One fair criticism I received from a guy – and he’s right – is that the photos we tend to see with these stories are more sensational. It isn’t that the level of sprouting depicted in a picture is all that common in the field. But if you want to emphasize a problem using a picture, a plant with bad sprouting does a better job of showing what we’re talking about. Small sprouts on grains actually don’t show up in pictures that well.
“In the field, though, it’s more common to see a couple of kernels per head with small sprouts. Because the state’s rice production area is so broad north to south, some fields didn’t catch the huge rains on consecutive days. Some of the sprouting is so minimal it’s barely a blip – but it is everywhere.
“Anyway, fields with a small amount of sprouting are a fairly minimal concern although milling will be affected. The milling will probably take a small hit because the kernels will tend to break up a bit more.”
Where the sprouting is bad, “it’ll cause drastic problems in milling. That will drop the price for producers and they’ll get knocked heavily. But those cases will be more an exception than the rule.
“Hopefully, we’ll continue the run of dry days we seem to be settling into and get harvest behind us. I’m not worried about a lot more sprouting, knock on wood. But it only takes two or three days of warm temperatures with consistently rainy, overcast conditions and it can happen again.”
Hardke provides some historical context to the conditions in August. “Usually, we get to September and the high temperatures drop and put a stop to the sprouting worries. This has been an uncommon occurrence. The best I can tell, the late 1970s were the last time anything remotely like the conditions we’re seeing happened with sprouting.
“We keep planting earlier maturing cultivars and also plant early. This year was about the third fastest planting season we’ve ever had in the state. You’d think that would put the crop outside the possibility for sprouting. But we don’t usually see rains like this in August.
“This has been kind of a near perfect storm for rice. However, things would have been worse if this had happened a week later when a larger percentage of the crop was mature. I’ll take that small victory right now.

http://deltafarmpress.com/rice/august-floods-conditions-hard-northeast-arkansas-rice