·
Advanced post-harvest rice
technologies introduced
·
PhilRice intensifies
promotion of El Niño-ready technologies
·
Global Demand for Food Is
Rising. Can We Meet It?
·
Traders eye 30pc increase
in rice exports to Iran
·
Wheat, barley up on
increased offtake
·
Widespread Support for USDA
Presence in Cuba
·
New long, medium market
grows
·
Top-end Rice Cooker
Pioneers Home Appliance Revolution in China
·
China Real Time Tests
Xiaomi’s Smart Rice Cooker
·
Amira Nature Foods :
Expects to Release Interim Financials in April 2016 and Full Year Financials in
July 2016
·
Arkansas Farm Bureau Daily
Commodity Report
Advanced post-harvest rice technologies
introduced
A workshop introducing advanced
post-harvest rice technologies was held by the Cuu Long Delta Rice Research
Institute (CLRRI) and Sontag Consult in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on
April 8.During the workshop, attendees discussed the current condition of
rice preservation and processing in Vietnam and factors that could increase
rice quality and export values.A number of technological solutions and advanced
equipment for effective preservation, storage and processing of rice were also
introduced; such as, rice cleaning, drying and milling technologies,
technologies for parboiled rice production, and eco-friendly rice husk burning
stoves.
According to CLRRI Director Prof.
Nguyen Hong Son, the Mekong Delta is the country’s rice farming hub where more
than 90 percent of rice for export is produced. Last year, the region exported
over six million tonnes of rice.Despite that, the rice export values have
remained lower than those of other countries in the region, due to not only a
lack of high-quality varieties but also outdated post-harvest handling, he
said.Prof. Pham Van Tan from the Vietnam Institute of Agricultural Engineering
and Post-harvest Technology noted that out-of-date handling techniques have
increased post-harvest losses of rice in the Mekong Delta to about 13.7
percent, which equates to more than 781 million USD per year.Poor preservation
has also reduced rice export value, he added, urging the need for the delta to
apply advanced technology in rice post-harvest handlin
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/science-it/154727/advanced-post-harvest-rice-technologies-introduced.html
PhilRice intensifies
promotion of El Niño-ready technologies
SCIENCE CITY OF MUNOZ, Nueva
Ecija — The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhiRice) has recommended the
use of drought-tolerant varieties and technologies to help farmers cope with
the ongoing El Niño phenomenon.“Rice normally grows at temperatures between 20-35°C.
Reports have indicated that temperatures above 35°C is critical for rice growth
especially during the reproductive stage. At present, temperature may reach up
to 38 to 40°C,” said Dr. Norvie Manigbas, PhilRice plant breeder.Based on the
studies, rice yield can decrease by 10 percent for each 1°C increase in minimum
night temperature during the dry season.
Dr. Jasper G. Tallada, head of the PhilRice’s Climate Change
Center, said drought affects all stages of rice growth.”It does not only reduce
water supply but also increases the amount of water needed for plant
transpiration,” he said.For irrigated lowland, PhilRice said farmers may
consider planting several early-maturing varieties.“Use of direct seeding
technologies can also help farmers cope up with El Nino so that rice plants can
escape drought or heat. Direct seeded rice matures earlier by seven to 10 days
compared to transplanted culture due to stress during transplanting,” Manigbas
said.
For water-saving technologies, the PhilRice recommended the
alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and low-cost drip irrigation system (LDIS)
technologies.Developed by International Rice Research Institute, AWD guides
farmers when to irrigate or not the rice field. Hence, this prevents wasteful
use of water.PhilRice studies show that use of AWD also minimizes greenhouse
gas emissions in paddy fields.
LDIS is also used for efficient use of water and is recommended
for irrigating rice-based crops.Meanwhile, the use of fossil fuel-free
technologies such as the rice hull gasifier-pump system, windmill-pump system,
rice hull stove and carbonizer lessens production cost and is
environment-friendly.The rice hull gasifier-pump system uses rice hull instead
of gasoline or diesel in pumping water from the ground. It is recommended for
rainfed areas where fuel expenses are high.
The wind mill-pump system is applicable in areas where wind
energy is abundant.A device called rice hull carbonizer processes the rice hull
into biochar (charcoal).
Aside from being used as soil conditioner, biochar is also
popular as main ingredient in producing organic fertilizers thus, reducing
dependence on synthetic fertilizers.
: http://northboundasia.com/2016/04/08/philrice-intensifies-promotion-el-nino-ready-technologies/#sthash.vaSykJTM.dpuf
Global Demand for Food Is Rising.
Can We Meet It?
APRIL
07, 2016
Over the last century, the global
population has quadrupled. In 1915, there were 1.8 billion people in
the world. Today, according to the most recent estimate by
the UN, there are 7.3 billion people — and we may reach 9.7
billion by 2050. This growth, along
with rising incomes in
developing countries (which cause dietary changes such as eating more protein
and meat) are driving up global
food demand.Food demand is expected to increase anywhere between 59% to 98% by 2050.
This will shape agricultural markets in ways we have not seen before. Farmers
worldwide will need to increase crop production, either by increasing the
amount of agricultural land to grow crops or by enhancing productivity on existing
agricultural lands through fertilizer and irrigation and adopting new methods
like precision farming.However, the ecological and social trade-offs of
clearing more land for agriculture are often high, particularly in the tropics.
And right now, crop yields — the amount of crops harvested per unit of
land cultivated — are growing too slowly to meet the forecasted demand for
food.Many other factors, from climate change to urbanization to a lack of
investment, will also make it challenging to produce enough food. There is strong academic
consensus that climate
change–driven water scarcity, rising global temperatures, and extreme weather
will have severe long-term effects on crop yields. These are expected to impact
many major agricultural regions, especially those close to the Equator. For
example, the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, one of the most important
agricultural regions worldwide, may face an18% to 23% reduction in soy and corn output by 2050, due to
climate change. The Midwestern U.S. and Eastern Australia — two other globally
important regions — may also see a substantial decline in agricultural output due to extreme
heat.Yet some places are expected to (initially) benefit from climate change.
Countries stretching over northern latitudes — mainly China, Canada, and Russia
— are forecasted to
experience longer and warmer growing seasons in certain areas. Russia, which is
already a major grain exporter, has huge untapped production potential because
of large crop yield gaps (the difference between current and
potential yields under current conditions) and widespread abandoned
farmland (more than 40
million hectares, an area larger than Germany) following the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, in 1991. The country arguably has the most agricultural
opportunity in the world, but institutional reform and significant investments
in agriculture and rural infrastructure will be needed to realize it.Advanced
logistics, transportation, storage, and processing are also crucial for making
sure that food goes from where it grows in abundance to where it doesn’t. This
is where soft commodity trading companies, such as Cargill, Louis Dreyfus, or
COFCO, come in. While Big Food companies such as General Mills or Unilever have
tremendous global influence on what people eat, trading companies have a much
greater impact on food security, because they source and distribute our staple
foods and the ingredients used by Big Food, from rice, wheat, corn, and
sugar to soybean and oil palm. They also store periodically produced grains and
oilseeds so that they can be consumed all year, and they process soft
commodities so that they can be used further down the value chain. For example,
wheat needs to be milled into flour to produce bread or noodles, and soybeans
must be crushed to produce oil or feed for livestock.
Nonetheless, even if some regions increase their output and
traders reduce the mismatch between supply and demand, doubling food production
by 2050 will undeniably be a major challenge. Businesses and governments will
have to work together to increase productivity, encourage innovation, and
improve integration in supply chains toward a sustainable global food balance.
First and foremost, farmers, trading companies, and other
processing groups (Big Food in particular) need to commit to deforestation-free
supply chains. Deforestation causes rapid and irreversible losses of
biodiversity, is the second largest source of
carbon dioxide emissions after
fossil fuels, and has contributed greatly to global warming—adding to the
negative pressure on agriculture production for which these forests were
cleared in the first place.Farmers must also grow more on the land they
currently operate through what is called “sustainable intensification.” This
means using precision farming tools, such as GPS fertilizer dispersion,
advanced irrigation systems, and environmentally optimized crop rotations.
These methods can help produce more crops, especially in parts of Africa,
Latin America, and Eastern Europe with large yield gaps. They can also reduce
the negative environmental impacts from over-stressing resources–preventing groundwater depletionand
the destruction of fertile
lands through over-use
of fertilizer.The agricultural sector also needs significant long-term private
investment and public spending. Many large institutional investors, including pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, have already made
major commitments to support global agricultural production and trading in recent years—not least because
agricultural (land) investments have historically delivered strong returns,
increased diversification, and outpaced inflation.Still, investment in
agriculture in most developing countries has declined over the last 30 years and much less is spent on R&D compared to developed
countries—resulting in low productivity and stagnant production. And because
banking sectors in developing countries give fewer loans to
farmers (compared to
the share of agriculture in GDP), investments by both farmers and large
corporations are still limited. To attract more financing and investment in
agriculture, the risks need to be reduced by governments. Regulators need to
overhaul policies that limit inclusion of small, rural farmers into the
financial system— for example, soft loans (i.e., lending that is more generous
than market lending) and interest rate caps discourage bank lending. More
supportive policies, laws, and public spending on infrastructure would help
create a favorable investment climate for agriculture.Global policy makers,
corporations, and consumers must put the global food balance higher up the
agenda. International business leaders who are participating in this supply
chain have to better communicate the need for policy changes and for developed
countries to incentivize investment in regions where there is the most
potential for growth. Our food security will depend on it.
size=0 width="100%" align=center>
Maarten Elferink is the founder and Managing Director
of Vosbor, an Amsterdam based commodity service and solutions provider
dedicated to sustainability, originating soft commodities and derivative
products selectively in Eastern Europe and the FSU for distribution in the
Asia-Pacific region.
Florian Schierhorn is a post-doctoral researcher at the
Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies in Halle,
Germany and was selected for participation in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
on Economic Sciences in 2014. His overall research relates to the question of
how to meet global food security without increasing pressure on land.
