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Unaccounted Cash Seized Rice
Millers Agent
NEWS
Hyderabad: Police seized Rs1.44 crore cash from one Prasad near LB
Nagar ring road on Saturday midnight. Prasad who belongs to Nellore was spotted
by police with cash bags. When questioned, he reportedly stated that the cash
belonged to 14 rice mill owners in Nellore.The man was handed over to Income
Tax authorities as the cash was a profit on number-2 transactions of rice
millers. Undocumented cash is black money
http://www.sakshipost.com/news/2016/10/16/unaccounted-cash-seized-rice-millers-agent
Africa: A Fable
of Rice and Women
By Elfrieda Pschorn-Strauss
A month ago, I read that Kanayo Nwanze, president of the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), based in Rome,
dedicated his African Food Prize award to "the millions of African women
who silently toil to feed their families."
In a follow up interview, he said that his wish is for these women
to become businesswomen and entrepreneurs participating in the economy. He also
mentioned that his advice for young African scientists is to cultivate and put
into practice the ideas that his generation inherited from Norman Borlaug and
other Green Revolution architects.
These views come as no surprise, as he was instrumental in
introducing and promoting the fabled 'new rice for Africa', NERICA. But still,
it made me think about NERICA, and I was wondering how far this miracle rice
has gone in achieving its promise to feed Africa?
NERICA is a cross between the hardy African rice (Oryza Glaberrama)
and high-yielding Asian rice (Oryza Sativa). It is promoted with a huge amount
of propaganda and funding and is seen as the crop that will finally allow
Africa to follow Asia and have its own Green Revolution.
NERICA is heralded as a Green Revolution success story and as the
'rice for women', because it allows women to participate in the production of
cash crops. And indeed, more women have been cultivating NERICA, even in areas
where they have not previously grown rice, like Uganda.
But like most other top down Green Revolution technologies, NERICA
can be a trap, in particular for African rural women. And as with International
Day of Rural Women and World Food Day, celebrated last weekend, they seemed to
be centre stage, what better opportunity to tell a fable of rice and rural
women.
Eroding diversity
A study by the Africa Rice Centre has shown that this strong
promotion has led farmers to adopt NERICA, in the process replacing their local
varieties. Seed production in particular is seen as lucrative, and the
capturing of NERICA seed production by local elites has been extensively
documented. In Benin it is shown that even though women accounted for 70% of
the rice farmer workforce, it is men who benefit from seed production, because
male farmers have more access to land and are contracted to grow NERICA.
Another study in Uganda showed that replacing food with the growing
of rice as a cash crop does increase household income. In instances where women
are able to grow rice as a cash crop, it increases women's decision-making
power. However, it is coming at price.
Replacing food crops with NERICA has brought significant costs to
women and children as they take on the most burdensome tasks related to its
cultivation. Children complain that they have to miss school - especially
girls, who have to look after the home and younger siblings while their mothers
are chasing birds in the rice field.
It is worth pausing to reflect at this point, to fully comprehend
what is happening here. And what the long term impact of this shift to a Green
Revolution crop will be on rural women's well-being. At what cost are they
shifting to this new seed and crop?
As echoed by the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch, 80 percent of
rice in Africa is grown by women and most of this used to be local, farmer
varieties. Women are seed custodians in rice growing communities and they
usually have seed plots near the home where they try out varieties, but also
keep their old and trusted varieties. Across Africa, thousands of local
varieties were always grown and preferred by farmers. But this diversity and
the social and cultural systems attached to it, is fast disappearing.
In anticipation of the massive erosion expected with the
introduction of the Green Revolution rice varieties into Africa, scientists in
the 70s made a huge effort to collect as many local varieties as possible.
Today there are 500 000 accessions housed at the Africa Rice Centre. A rapid
erosion of genetic diversity in rice is taking place and a detailed survey
showed that the growing of African rice varieties (O.Glaberrima) is declining
sharply, now making up only 0.1% of the total rice growing area.
A simple question
A simple question needs to be asked at this point: does diversity
matter? Does it matter to rural women?
Diversity is nature's insurance policy and rural woman are
dependent on nature. Women farmers have to deal with changing weather all the
time.
But, if within the genetic makeup of a seed, there are a few genes
hidden somewhere that can survive the drought or the cold, the plant can
survive and the family will eat.
Scientists say that those seeds with a complex genetic make-up are
more likely to survive, they have horizontal resistance, a resistance to risk.
They are prepared, resilient. It is survival of the fittest, where the weakest
die.
Life depends on diversity and it constantly generates diversity as
a life impulse. Some humans rejoice in this diversity and enhance it.
Others, kill it off and narrow it down. It is not easy to
monopolise diversity, so to gain maximum profit it is necessary to simplify and
exclude diversity. Therefore we get hybrid maize, NERICA rice, GM crops.
Rural women are told that their lives will improve if they throw
away their old seeds and plant this new seed.
In 2009 GRAIN already wrote that the NERICA project is about
building the foundations of a seed system that will respond to the needs of
agribusiness by putting in place the systems and seed policies that will
integrate African small farmers into networks managed by big companies.
Through NERICA the infrastructure is put in place that will make it
much easier for GM companies to move in.
Over millennia agriculture has emerged from specific regions
through selection by farmers, breeding from the wild biodiversity they have
created an incredible variety of crops in specific areas which have spread all
over the world. So for rural women too, diversity is their insurance policy.
They depend on it. We all depend do. It is unimaginable that we could conceive
of destroying it, yet it is happening.
NERICA has a very narrow genetic base, with the entire family bred
from just two O.Glaberrima varieties. This is a far cry from the 500 000
varieties that were out there in farmers' fields four decades ago. Not the kind
of insurance policy that reassures me and that I need to go into the insecure
future of climate change.
The propaganda about Green Revolution crops and GM is all about
'improved delivery of new seeds and other inputs" to rural women, as if
they have no agency, no seeds, no knowledge. Reports that praise the economic
value of Green Revolution crops like NERICA, have only looked on the surface
and omit to mention how the new labour burden and loss of diversity cause
extreme social deprivation and exacerbate poverty for rural women. Apart from
the irreversible loss of their ancestral seed varieties and the whole range of
social and cultural losses that accompanies this, it impoverishes them and
their children
http://allafrica.com/stories/201610160313.html
How $3bn Nigeria-bound rice
rots away in Benin Republic
·
In BUSINESS
·
5 hours ago
·
Ifeanyi Lawrence-Agbai
An estimated $3 billion bags of rice destined for the
Nigerian markets are stuck in various warehouses in Benin Republic due to the
Federal Government’s refusal to allow importation through land borders and
fierce customs anti smuggling drive.
The annual routine of importing rice into the neighbouring
country from July to December to make massive sales in Nigeria during Yuletide
period has hit a brickwall this year as Controller General of Customs, Colonel
Hameed Ali has insisted that his men have tightened the frontiers.
Nigeria shares major border frontiers with Benin Republic
at Seme Border (Lagos), Idiroko (Ogun), Shaki (Oyo),Chikanda (Kwara) and other
smaller openings. Prominent among them is Seme where the highest volume of
trade and largest smuggling opportunity exist because of its easy access to
Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital city.
Seme Border which hitherto was a major transit point for
foreign rice importation suddenly became impenetrable for smugglers as almost
daily seizures of 50kg bags have taken a good portion of the customs warehouse
in the area.
A recent visit to Benin revealed that most of the
warehouses where the bagged rice are kept before shipment into Nigeria are now
battling for space.
Some consignments of imported rice no longer have storage
space at the popular stores and so are exposed to rains, weevils and other
unhygienic forms of storage.
Popular warehouses no longer receive rice shipments as
thousands of bags earlier delivered to them since July could not be evacuated
into Nigeria as planned as was the case in previous years.
Popular Cherika Warehouse in Akpakpa near Cotonou with a
capacity to store 25,000 bags is fully loaded with Thailand rice with no hope
of evacuating them into Nigeria except government relaxes its policy of rice
importation through border.
Defezi Warehouse close to the Cotonou Port is filled with
over 40,000 units of 50kg bags of Indian and Thailand rice. Defezi got occupied
earlier due to its proximity to the port but was not evacuated as the owners
could not risk entering Nigeria with it.
Cica Warehouse in Missebo area of the Cotonou outskirts
that suffered lack of patronage in the past due to distance from Seme Border
and bad road presently has over 15,000 bags.
Some grains are getting moulded, caked with their bags
torn and quantity reduced while endlessly awaiting shipment into Nigeria.
As hope of smuggling them into Nigeria gets slimmer by the
day, there is a conscious effort to bring in the commodity without using bags.
The unwholesome method requires pouring grains of rice
into various compartments of vehicles like the boots, bonnets, inner parts of
the doors, under the seats and other spaces meant for spare tyres and tools.
Sources disclosed that the more the attempt to smuggle
hundreds of bags into the country, the more customs in Seme and Idiroko make
more seizures.
Unfortunately, some of these grains are no more safe for
human consumption and so cannot be donated to Internally Displaced Persons
(IDP) as was done in the past.
Over 37,000 bags of rice have so far been seized in Seme
and Idiroko between January and September 2016 including the 13 vehicles laden
with smuggled rice.
From
the owners of the rice to the transporters, loaders, landlords and operators of
warehouses, there is a general lull as it has been a season of stockpiling
without transiting. They expressed frustration at the
government policy but more on what they described as Seme Customs lack of
cooperation.
Nigerian
Customs had in an October 2016 press statement reiterated government’s ban on
rice importation through the borders. The statement signed by Wale Adeniyi,
customs spokesman reinforced its resolve to protect government’s attempt to
improve local rice capacity.
Part
of it reads: ‘’We like to reiterate the position that importation of rice
remains banned through our land borders, and we have the commitment to partner
government agencies and stakeholders to enforce this restriction. While this
restriction is in force, rice imports through the ports are still allowed
subject to payment of extant charges.
‘’It
is equally important to restate the confidence of the Nigerian Customs Service
in the ability of Nigerian rice producers to fill the existing sufficiency gaps
in the supply of the product. The service has noted with satisfaction the
ongoing rice revolution undertaken by many state governments, and strategic
interventions by the Federal Government agencies.’
‘’The
service is convinced that the bumper harvests expected from these efforts will
address the supply gap in 2017. It is our belief that continuous waste of
scarce forex on a commodity that can be produced locally makes no economic
sense, most especially at a period of recession. The service will therefore
advocate a total ban on rice importation into Nigeria with effect from 2017’’
There
are loud cries in Benin over what is going on at Seme and other borders. A
respondent simply identified as Mr. Sewanu said things have taken a turn for
the worse as every attempt to bring rice into Nigeria has failed.
‘’You
can see we are idle here because rice is not entering Nigeria through Seme
Border. We can’t work. Each day we come here , it is in prayer that the customs
should cooperate with our bosses so we can have jobs to do to survive.
‘’By
this time in previous years, thousands of bags of rice had entered Nigeria from
here and more ships had been discharging at the Cotonou Port. But this year is
different, nothing is working.
‘’Seme
customs have spoiled the business for us.We don’t want to take the risk of
transporting rice through any other border because Lagos is the largest market.
Once you enter through Seme,you are already in the market.
‘’If
this continues, we may die of hunger. Benin customs in Krake cooperates with us
but the customs in Nigeria are our only headache. We want the Controller
removed. He is making things difficult,’’ Sewanu lamented.
A
visit to the border shows smooth running and processing of imports into Nigeria
and there are so much activities in the banks. People were seen paying customs
duties for items not on Nigeria’s import prohibition list.
While
the stockpiling of imported rice continues to increase in Cotonou and
neighbouring towns, there may never be a market for them as they face the risk
of either being expired or going bad due to poor storage condition.
Benin
Republic with an estimated population of 11 million persons and closest to Togo
with a little above 8 million, there appears to be no market for the stocked
rice as these countries lack the population and luxury to consume them.
Prices
of rice which presently sells for between N11,000 and N13,000 in Cotonou is
expected to crash ahead of the Yuletide period as they continually face
difficulties in getting them into Nigeria
https://www.today.ng/business/198539/3bn-nigeria-bound-rice-rots-benin-republic
Demand for local rice overwhelms millers
·
In BUSINESS
·
22 hours ago
·
Tonye Adikumo
Following the Federal Government’s ban on rice importation
through the land borders, local rice millers are finding it difficult to cope
with the demand for the commodity from dealers.
Only Umza Rice, the largest local rice mill in Nigeria,
which is located in Kano, is currently supplying most markets in the country.
Many dealers expressed anger over depositing money to the
company for months without getting any supply.
Consumption of rice in Nigeria is put at over six million
metric tonnes per annum. Local production is about 2.8 million metric tonnes
while imports account for 2.5 million metric tonnes.
Local production recently dropped from 2.835 million
metric tonnes to about 2.701 million metric tonnes, according to data from the
United States Department of Agriculture.
The USDA projected that local rice production would hit
2.730 million metric tonnes by December 2017. Imports are also expected to fall
by 400,000 metric tonnes to 2.1 metric tonnes by 2017.
A major rice distributor in Lagos, Mrs. Olufunke Coker,
said she had paid for the 10 trailers of rice for the past one month but she
could only get two trailers.
Umza was said to be so overwhelmed with orders that the
management of the company had resorted to rejecting fresh orders from people
needing the commodity.
Although
importation of rice is allowed through the seaports, importers said they were
required to source for forex from the parallel market at the exchange rate of
over N400 to one dollar to bring the product into the country. Investigations
revealed that the situation sometimes forced dealers to buy smuggled rice from
Cotonou at the risk of having their consignments impounded by the Nigeria
Customs Service.
Recently,
officials of the NCS seized more than six trailers of rice suspected to be
smuggled from some shops at the Iddo Railway Terminus, Lagos.
The
spokesman for the NCS, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, said the service had received
information that some smuggled trailers of rice were taken to the terminus,
which prompted the raid.
Following
the fall in crude oil prices and drop in Nigeria’s foreign reserves, the
government had through the Central Bank of Nigeria restricted importation
including banning the importation of rice.
It
was gathered that efforts by major rice producing states to boost production in
November 2015 had resulted in the adoption of the dry season rice farming
scheme, deploying improved rice seedlings in Kebbi State.
Speaking
in an interview, the former Deputy Governor of Kebbi State, Sulaiman Argungu,
said the dry season farming had yielded a harvest of 1.5 million metric tonnes
of paddy rice.
An Anambra State local rice miller and Chairman of Stine
Industries, Chief Akai Egwuonwu, said rice production would increase by
November this year, adding that this could push down the price of the product,
currently hovering around N20, 000 per 50kg bag
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/bag-of-local-rice-now-n26000-as-prices-of-grains-drop-in-kano/
Rice stakeholders discuss policy directions on rice
security
Various stakeholders from the
rice industry gathered in a policy seminar-workshop to discuss issues and
recommendations in the country’s quest for
rice security, Sept. 30.
With the theme, Toward a rice-secure Philippines:
Identifying key priority government interventions in 2017-2022, the
activity aimed to identify strategies that could help attain the Department of
Agriculture’s three-point agenda under the
leadership of Sec. Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol. This includes: fast and effective
agricultural technology transfer to farmers; easy access to financing; and
efficient marketing for farmers' produce.
Raymond Patrick Cabrera, senior
agriculturist of the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research, presented
the current rice research and development projects implemented through
partnerships and collaborations with international, national, and local R&D
institutions.
Cabrera also presented the Rice
Research Development and Extension Agenda and Programs (RDEAP) as a reference
material “to guide the path towards a
competitive, sustainable, and resilient rice industry.”
On the rice extension
session, Dr. Eliseo Ponce, former professor of research and extension
management of the Visayas State University, talked about issues, challenges, and
opportunities of the rice extension system in the Philippines. He recommends
the national government to identify structural or organizational barriers to an
effective rice extension system and institute the corresponding policy
solutions.
Participants of the
forum also learned about the Fostering Agriculture and Rice
Marketing by Improved Education and Rural Advisory Services (FARMERS) project
of the Better Rice Initiative for Asia (BRIA) Philippines.
According to Nomer Esmero, BRIA PH’s senior national
coordinator, FARMERS is a public-private partnership initiative that includes
efforts for better rice production, better market linkage, and documentation of
project insights and good practices as reference of partner agencies at
national and regional levels.
Meanwhile, Dr. Roehlano Briones, senior research fellow of
the Philippine Institute for
Development Studies (PIDS), identified factors for rice marketing
inefficiency in the country. To solve this issue, he recommends the
establishment of wholesale palay
markets that "should come as a package" by introducing palay grades and standards; weighing,
drying, and storage facilities; and compulsory warehouse receipts among other
features.
Also part of the event was the launch of the book Competitiveness of Philippine Rice in Asia authored by
socio-economists from PhilRice and the International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI). The book is a product of the study Benchmarking the
Philippine rice economy relative to major rice-producing countries in Asia.
Outputs of the workshop sessions in research for
development (R4D), marketing and trade, rice extension system, and support
services for farmers, will be presented to Sec. Piñol by the Socioeconomics
Division of PhilRice that organized the policy forum.
“For us to make an impact on the lives of our
farmers economically, we need to bridge them to our policymakers for them to
better understand our farmers’ dilemmas. To do this, we need to craft and
submit relevant policy papers to support legislation,” said Dr. Sailila Abdula,
acting executive director of PhilRice.
R4D and rice security was the theme of the 29th National R&D
Conference where Abdula presented the new strategic plan of
the Institute anchored on its vision of a rice secure Philippines.
PhilRice develops software for grain quality
evaluation
Researchers at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) have
developed an automated classification software to measure chalkiness and
identify immature grains in milled rice.
In the conventional process, the grain quality evaluation team of the
Rice Varietal Improvement Group (RVIG) manually evaluates the physical
attributes of 600-800 promising lines every year. They evaluate two sets of 30g
milled rice of candidate elite line using their naked eye, a process that is tedious
and time consuming for researchers.
“This prompted us to come up with the PhilRice Milled Grain Classifier
(PMGC), a software that can speed up the conventional classification process,”
said Imeldalyn G. Pacada, PhilRice senior science research specialist.
A classifier evaluates 30g of milled rice and can assess its physical
attributes at around 48-96min. By using PMGC, a classifier can evaluate 6.2g of
milled rice in less than 5min.
The software provides quick overview of analyzed milled grain samples
that can be enlarged for verification. It validates translucent, chalky, and
immature grains and gives grain ID number and color. It can also determine
grain length and shape, and identify broken and brewer grains.
According to Pacada, PMGC was developed by establishing an algorithm
using special programming language for image acquisition, processing, and
integration of Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The developed algorithm
includes the development of Graphical User Interface (GUI) to control the
hardware and execute the image analysis software. The establishment of models
or training samples was the key for increasing the predicting value of the
software.
“This consists of image acquisition of different degree of chalky grains
and various samples of immature grains that were used for model development
with the help of neuroshell program,” Pacada explained.
The research team composed of Pacada, Evelyn H. Bandonill, Thessa Marie
M. Pascual, Fred Jan A. Fracia, Arvin Paul P. Tuaño, Andres M. Tuates, and Thelma F. Padolina hopes that the software can help classifiers and plant
breeders for faster grain quality evaluation.
The software was developed under the research study titled New tools for predicting chalkiness and
immature grains in milled rice. The study won the best poster award during
the 29th National Rice R&D Conference held at PhilRice, Sept. 7-8.
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