Dartmouth scientists launch website
to educate about arsenic
By MEGHAN PIERCE
Union Leader Correspondent
HANOVER — A Dartmouth College research program
wants to get the word out about arsenic.
The Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program is celebrating the launch
of its new website focused on arsenic.
The website provides comprehensive information for the public about arsenic in
water and in food, as well as from other sources such as pressure-treated wood
and smoking.
“We just wanted to have a central clearinghouse for that information,” Celia
Chen, one of the researchers in the program, said Tuesday.
The website is the fruit of years of talks with New Hampshire and New England
stakeholders all working to reduce arsenic exposure and consumption.
The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has been a big partner
in this work, Chen said.
The Dartmouth scientists have been working on the issue of arsenic for 22
years, Chen said.
“We’ve been working on arsenic as an area of research and outreach for that
long,” Chen said.
Arsenic in New Hampshire soil and water and exposure through New Hampshire
drilled wells was the genesis of the program’s research, she said.
“People have been very much aware of the water sources, but now it’s becoming
broader than that,” Chen said.
Arsenic found in rice has been a growing concern especially in the wake of so
many people adopting gluten-free or low-fat diets that increase rice
consumption.
While growing, rice takes in arsenic from the soil and water.
The Dartmouth website has a breakdown of the levels of arsenic found in rice
based on the brand and where it is grown.
Rice grown in the South for instance tends to have higher levels of arsenic,
Chen said, because a pesticide once used on cotton fields had arsenic in it.
The arsenic in New Hampshire soil that affects well water is naturally
occurring, she said.
The website also has a map of New Hampshire showing where arsenic levels are
higher, but the website was created to be a resource for people across the
country, Chen said.
The new website can be found at www.dartmouth.edu/~arsenicandyou/index.html.
mpierce@newstote.com
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20170501/NEWS12/170509981/-1/mobile?template=mobileart
Rice price situation
The increase in duty on rice import was put into effect with the
objective of helping the farmers who did not get fair price for their produce
in recent years. But allegation has it the duty hike has proved to be a boon,
not to the farmers to any substantial extent but considerably much to the
unscrupulous section of rice millers
The rice price situation that has entered an uncomfortable zone lately,
after about a decade, calls for some policy intervention on the part of the
government. The prices of the main staple have been in an upward curve for the
last couple of months, notwithstanding the fact that the last Aman output was
quite satisfactory and the international prices of rice have relatively been
stable at a low level. At the very onset of Boro harvest, a couple of unsavoury
developments are now being witnessed in the rice market; one is the unabated
rise in rice prices---the rice price, on an average, has recorded 24 per cent
increase over a period of one year--- and the other is wholesalers' stocks are
now largely depleted because of low level of replenishment.
Boro output has already
overtaken that of Aman, making available the largest quantity to the country's
food stock. Barring the production affected by flash floods in haor areas, the
overall production of Boro this year is expected to be satisfactory. Yet the
increase in rice prices at this point of time does point to something ominous.
The price of coarse varieties ranges now between Tk. 42 and Tk. 43 a kilogramme
while that of fine variety between Tk.54 and Tk 60 a kg. The price increase of
rice, as part of the money spent on daily necessities, does not mean that much
for the middle and upper class people. But it really hurts the poor and
lower-income groups since rice constitutes the major part of their daily food
basket.
The decision to double the duty on import of rice in the budget for the
current fiscal year (FY) is thought to be largely responsible for the current
instability in the market. Private import of the main staple declined notably
following the duty hike. However, the allegation of market manipulation by a
section of rice millers cannot be dismissed outright. The increase in duty on
rice import was put into effect with the objective of helping the farmers who
did not get fair price for their produce in recent years. But allegation has it
the duty hike has proved to be a boon, not to the farmers to any substantial
extent but considerably much to the unscrupulous section of rice millers.
The government's market intervention mechanism needs to be strengthened
under the prevailing circumstances. The open market sale (OMS) of rice and
'atta' has been going on for many months in some cities and towns. But, OMS
shops/trucks have lately been failing to deliver rice to the poor people in
right quantities for reasons best known to the authorities. The government's
food stock at the moment is reported to be not sufficient enough to meet any
major demand-supply gap. The stock position is unlikely to improve much either
by the procurement of Boro because of gross mismatch between the price set by
the government and the market-driven one. The policymakers should now think of
lowering the duty on rice to help encourage its import by both private and
public agencies. This is necessary to cool off an otherwise-over-heated
domestic rice market
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/04/29/68548/Rice-price-situation
Agriculture ministry to create 80,000 hectares
of new rice fields
News Desk
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta | Fri, April 28, 2017 | 07:00 am
Farmers plant rice in Jatiluwih, Tabanan, Bali.
(JP/Agung Parameswara )
The Agriculture Ministry has expressed its
optimism that it is able to create some 80,000 hectares of new rice fields this
year as targeted by the government as part of the country’s food security
program.The Ministry’s
agricultural infrastructure director general Pending Dadih Permana said the new
rice fields would be created outside Java.
“Many
plots of land have not been developed [by the owners]. We will help them
convert the land into rice fields. We will prioritize owners who are ready to
cultivate their land,” said Pending during a hearing with members of the House
of Representatives’ Commission IV overseeing agriculture affairs.
Last
year, the ministry created 129, 096 hectares of new rice fields in 27
provinces, slightly lower than the target of 132,167 hectares.
Those
rice fields were created in West Kalimantan (16,905 hectares), Central
Kalimantan (16,550 hectares), Lampung (11,874 hectares), West Nusa Tenggara
(11,537 hectares) and South Sumatra (11.475 hectares).
Before
the rice fields are created, initial work, including investigations and design
surveys, will be carried out in the areas to be used.
Additional
work includes the flattening of land and the construction of rice field paths,
as well as the development of roads and irrigation infrastructure.
Rice
field construction has also required the involvement of Indonesian Military
(TNI) personnel. (bbn)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/04/28/agriculture-ministry-to-create-80000-hectares-of-new-rice-fields.html
Strengthen local rice production
12:04 AM May 01, 2017
The article
“Duterte: I have final say on rice imports” (News, 4/11/17) reported that the
President fired Agriculture Undersecretary Maia Chiara Valdez who approved the
order to extend rice importation without the authority to do such thing.Mr.
Duterte’s firm action signals that he is serious in promoting domestic rice
production instead of relying on importation which only benefits businessmen.
For an
agricultural country like the Philippines, the need to import rice underscores
a fundamental problem—a rice crisis fueled by various factors such as
landlessness, high cost of inputs, lack of support services, land-use
conversion, and liberalization of the agriculture sector.
Mr. Duterte should not only sack corrupt officials; he
should also implement a genuine Rice Self-Sufficiency Program (RSSP) so that
there would be no need to import rice from other countries. In order to
implement a genuine RSSP, the Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes
(PNFSP) recommends that the President veer away from policies that promote the
use of petrochemical farm inputs and high-yielding seed varieties, such as his
earlier plan to revive Ferdinand Marcos’ Masagana 99 does.
Instead, the
government must implement pro-farmer policies such as sustainable agriculture
that eliminates dependence on expensive chemical pesticides and fertilizers
that destroy the soil’s fertility. And appropriate technology for pre- and
post-harvest facilities must be made accessible to the rural communities in
order to improve and increase the country’s total rice production.
Also, the
conversion of agricultural lands into commercial uses must be immediately
stopped. PNFSP urges the President to immediately sign an executive order
imposing a two-year moratorium on land-use conversion.
In addition,
the Quantitative Restrictions on Rice which expires on June 30, 2017, should be
extended. Without it, the local market will be flooded with cheaper imported
rice and essentially destroy the livelihood of Filipino farmers. Although
proponents of free trade argue that consumers will benefit from the reduced
rice prices, in the long run the country’s food insecurity will worsen
especially if, for example, the exporting countries suddenly decide to stop
their exportation during times of natural calamities.
Lastly, the
National Food Authority must be empowered into doing its mandate of palay
procurement from farmers to ensure availability of affordable rice for the poor
without having to rely on cheap imported rice.
PNFSP hopes
that the President will remain sincere about protecting the local farmers and
the agriculture sector to ensure a strong and stable domestic rice production,
so that there would be no more need to import rice.
SHARLENE LOPEZ, executive director, Philippine
Network of Food Security Programmes
Export Summary-South Korea buys corn, Taiwan tenders for corn
Reuters | Apr 25, 2017, 02.51 AM IST
April 24 (Reuters) - Snapshot of the global export markets for
grains, oilseeds and edible oils as reported by government and private sources
as of end of business on Monday:
CORN PURCHASE: South Korea's
Feed Leaders Committee (FLC) purchased about 65,000 tonnes of corn to be
sourced from optional origins in a deal late last week, European traders said.
FEED WHEAT PURCHASE: Malaysian interests have in past days
purchased an unknown volume of feed wheat from Moldova in east Europe for May shipment in
containers, European traders said on Monday.
CORN TENDER: Taiwan's MFIG purchasing group has issued an
international tender to buy 40,000 to 65,000 tonnes of corn which can be
sourced from the United States, Argentina, Brazil or South Africa,
European traders said. The tender closes on April 26, they said. Shipment is
sought in July.
DURUM TENDER: Algeria's
state grains agency OAIC has issued an international tender to
purchase a nominal 50,000 tonnes of durum wheat, European traders said. The
tender closes on April 26, they said. Shipment was sought in the first and
second half of June. Volumes in Algeria's tenders are nominal and the country
frequently purchases more than the volumes initially sought.
FEED GRAIN TENDER: A group of Israeli private buyers has issued
international tenders to purchase up to 100,000 tonnes of corn, 45,000 tonnes
of feed wheat and 30,000 tonnes of feed barley all to be sourced from optional
origins, European traders said. The tenders close on April 26, traders said.
PENDING TENDERS:
WHEAT TENDER UPDATE: The lowest price offer in a tender from Iraq's
state grains board for at least 50,000 tonnes of hard wheat was from Russia,
an origin not permitted under the tender terms, European traders said. The
tender had requested wheat sourced only from the United States, Canada or Australia,
they said. No purchase was believed to have been made and negotiations
continue.
RICE TENDER: Iran's state grains buyer GTC issued tenders to buy at least 65,000
tonnes of rice from Thailand and India, signaling a return to
seeking international bids after the easing of sanctions, European traders
said. Traders said Iran had largely purchased rice through
lengthy direct negotiations before the relaxation of Western sanctions, which
were imposed over the nation's nuclear program. The new tenders, with a closing
date of April 18, sought 50,000 tonnes from Thailand and 15,000 tonnes from
India for May shipment.
CORN TENDER: Turkey's
state grain agency TMO has issued an international tender to
purchase and import up to 44,000 tonnes of animal feed corn to be sourced from
the European Union and Moldova. The tender closes on
April 25, with offers having to remain valid until April 26.
WHEAT AND CORN TENDER UPDATE: A Libyan state grain buying agency
again delayed the offer deadline in an international tender to purchase 100,000
tonnes of milling wheat, 50,000 tonnes of durum wheat and 75,000 tonnes of
yellow corn, this time until May 9, European traders said. The tenders were
originally issued in February but have been repeatedly postponed. Shipment of
the grains was originally sought in April and May. (Compiled by Karl Plume in
Chicago)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/export-summary-south-korea-buys-corn-taiwan-tenders-for-corn/articleshow/58352010.cms
Once
an International Aid Recipient, South Korea Becomes Rice Donor
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA -- For the first time in history, South
Korean rice will be sent to Southeast Asian developing countries through an
international food aid program. According to the Ministry of Agriculture,
Food and Rural Affairs, it is the first time any of the government-run rice
stockpile will have been donated to a third country through an international
framework.
South Korea is the only country in the world to
have become a donor country after being a recipient of United Nations aid in
half a century.
Last month a panel of the ASEAN+3 Emergency Rice
Reserve (APTERR) approved South Korea's plan to offer 750 tons of rice to the
food aid program. Launched in 2013 by 10 countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), plus South Korea, Japan, and China, APTERR is
aimed at safeguarding the region's food security in case of emergencies.
Out of the 750 tons of donated South Korean
rice, 500 tons will go to Myanmar and 250 tons to Cambodia sometime this
month. Both Myanmar and Cambodia are net exporters of rice, mostly long
grain and jasmine rice.
The APTERR participation is also part of the
Seoul government's plan to deal with a chronic oversupply of rice in the
country stemming from a sharp drop in rice consumption. Some 300,000 tons
of rice remained in excess last year, as the 4.2 million ton supply outpaced
the 3.9 million tons consumed, and the oversupply situation will likely remain
at 200,000 tons in 2017.
"Under the terms of accession to the World
Trade Organization (WTO), South Korea is required to import 408,700 metric tons
of rice annually and imports from the U.S. have averaged around 46.5 percent of
this total in the last five years," said Hugh Maginnis, USA Rice vice
president of international. "The South Korean government has taken a
number of measures in recent years in an attempt to reduce rice production,
increase rice consumption, and bring supply and demand into better
balance. This food aid initiative is just the latest effort in this
regard."
USA Rice
Forces against Nigeria’s rice
revolution
Despite
consuming about seven million metric tons (MT) of rice yearly, Nigeria produces
a meagre 2.7 million MT. This leaves a supply gap of 4.3 million MT to imports,
which cost the Federal Government an estimated N360 billion yearly. This figure
is expected to rise as consumption is projected to hit 35 million MT due to
population growth. Sadly, Nigeria’s quest for self-sufficiency in rice
production has continued to be hampered by issues around quality, price
instability, and harvesting/processing challenges, among others. DANIEL ESSIET
examines the forces against Nigeria’s rice revolution.
With 45, 000 hectares of rice farm, the Chief Executive, T.W.
Heritage, owners of Kereksuk Rice Farm in Nassarawa State, Mr. Rotimi Williams,
is contributing his quota to the Federal Government’s target of achieving
self-sufficiency in rice production and consumption. His farm produces about 8,
000 metric tonnes of rice paddy yearly, which he sells to major milling firms
across the country.
However, Williams’ investment and his inroad into the rice sector are still
considered a drop in the ocean in Nigeria’s quest for self-sufficiency in rice.
This is not his making, but the barrage of unresolved issues and challenges
facing him and indeed, other local investors in the rice value chain, which has
continued to hamper the nation’s target of self-sufficiency in rice.
Nigeria consumes about seven million Metric Tons (MT) of rice yearly. The
country produces 2.7 million MT, leaving a supply gap of 4.3 million MT to
imports, which cost the Federal Government an estimated N360 billion yearly.
Experts fear that this figure will rise as rice consumption is projected to hit
35 million MT by 2050, due to population growth. This was why the government
came up with the target to achieve self-sufficiency in rice by 2017. However,
five months into the target year to end rice importation, there are no visible
signs on the horizon that this will be achieved.
Williams and other operators in the rice sub-sector, who spoke with The Nation
said issues around quality, price instability, and harvesting/processing
challenges, among others, remain the clog in the wheel. They argued that until
and unless these issues are resolved Nigeria’s dream of achieving the feat will
not be realised.
Williams put the problems in perspective when he lamented that local rice
production remained uncompetitive because of rising cost of input. He said for
instance, rice farmers and investors are bugged down by rising cost of inputs
such as seed, irrigation water, fertilisers and other assorted chemicals and
pesticides, among others.
According to him, rice farmers are contending with high electricity bills and
other inputs, which have pushed up cost of domestic rice prices. He said prices
of domestic rice have doubled in the last two years despite the ban on rice
importation. At present, the price of local rice is higher than imported one. A
module of 1.4 Kilogramme (kg) of local rice cost N300, while imported one is
N200.
“The quality of our seeds is a contributory factor in the high cost of our
locally produced rice. The resulting yield from these seeds means that the cost
at which millers purchase paddy is high, with varying quality and subsequently,
the rice recovered after milling is below the global average of 62 per cent,”
Williams explained.
Aside poor quality of seed and disincentive to local rice farmers, there are
others like land preparation process and inputs for rice farming, which are lot
more demanding than most crops. He pointed out that majority of the rice paddy
available for sale to millers are grown by subsistence farmers.
“It is obvious that yields will be a lot less in comparison to the likes of
Thailand and India that use full mechanisation process for land preparation.
They also use high quality inputs such as fertiliser and high-yielding seeds.
We are still playing catch-up with leading rice-producing countries, which
makes our produce less competitive,” Williams lamented.
Indeed, experts in the rice sub-sector have said Nigeria lagged far behind
other rice-producing countries in seed development and per acre yield. They
also believed that lack of strict quality control was a major reason why
Nigerian rice did not get much positive response in the market as imported ones.
Funding, according to them, constitute an issue. It was learnt that most banks
in the country would rather fund acquisition of machinery than rice production.
Coupled with the fact that cost of funds are in double digits, most farmers
have no access to such funds and those that have struggled to pay up and this,
by extension, reflected in the price of rice.
“Given the high cost associated with the actual production of paddy, there is
no subsidisation on the cost of paddy to millers, as we see in Thailand.
Therefore, this cost is passed on to the final consumer,” Williams said.
Nigeria’s huge infrastructure deficit has not helped matter either. Lack of
access roads, which increased transportation cost, has continued to frustrate
rice farmers. Also, the nation’s perennial inadequate power supply means that
rice millers have to run on diesel-powered generators at huge cost.
The Chairman, Kebbi State Rice Farmers Association, Alhaji Sahabi Augie,
lamented that farmers are still battling with high costs of inputs, including
seeds, fertilizers, chemicals and diesel, used for running milling machines. He
said the situation was responsible for rice not being produced cheaply.
Augie said, for instance, that fuel is sold for N180 per litre around Kebbi
State, and he needs to buy it daily to operate irrigation pumps. The same
applies to all farmers because they use fuel for irrigation water. He, however,
expressed happiness that the price of fertiliser has gone down to N5000 a bag.
At the trading and processing ends of the value chain, The Nation reliably
learnt from industry operators that sharp practices capable of undermining
government’s set target for rice have been going on. For instance, many traders
resort to blending and mixing high-quality varieties with low-quality ones in a
bid to compete with imported brands.
Some processors are also fingered as being culpable. Some of them in a bid to
make quick profits at the detriment of Nigeria’s long-term commercial interest,
allegedly process and polish low-quality varieties in a way that makes it
difficult for one to differentiate them from the high-quality varieties.
Nigeria insignificant in global chart
Last year, the global production of paddy rice was estimated at 749.8 million
MT, translating to about 499.9 million MT of milled rice, according to the
United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). This volume was
produced mostly in the Asian countries.
Nigeria is the largest consumer and producer of rice in Africa. According to
Rice Authority, a Philippine online platform for global rice importers and
exporters, Nigeria imports about 1.4 million tonnes (4.8 per cent of global
rice imports).
Between 2012 and 2015, Nigeria spent over N474 billion on rice importation,
according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Right now, major states producing Nigerian local rice include Kebbi, Sokoto,
Ondo, Abia, Delta, Kogi, Benue, Kano, Niger, Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa, Kwara,
Ebonyi, Cross River, Bayelsa, Borno, Enugu, Ekiti and Ogun.
Experts said Nigeria has high potential for irrigated rice development with
vast but untapped potentials in the flood planes of river Niger, Benue, Cross River,
Kaduna-Karadawa Sokoto-River, Gongola, Chad Basin, Ogun, Osun, Imo, Anambra and
Benin-Owena River Basins, totaling about 1.4 million hectares.
They note that maintaining a favourable rice supply-demand balance in the
future depends largely on the exploitation of the production capacity of the
rainfed systems in the Southern part of the country.
Government’s interventions
When President Muhammadu Buhari launched the pilot phase of the Anchor
Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) in late 2015, it was seen by many operators and
stakeholders as an indication that the government was determined to turn things
around in the rice sub-sector.
The programme, which mainly targets small-holder subsistence farmers with a
view to helping them scale their businesses to commercial level, encourages
farmers across the country to become rice growers on at least one hectare of
land each. It also targets millers with the aim of increasing their capacity
utilisation.
At the launch of ABP, President Buhari said Nigeria was spending not less than
one trillion naira on the importation of food items that could have been
produced locally, a situation the CBN said was contributing “greatly to the
depletion of the nation’s foreign reserves, especially in the face of low oil
revenue resulting from falling oil prices.”
This was why the CBN said it had decided to shift from merely concentrating on
price, monetary, and financial system stability to acting as a financial
catalyst in specific sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture, in an effort
to create jobs on a mass scale, improve local food production and conserve
scarce foreign reserves through the ABP.
The implementation of the programme involves the CBN, Bank of Agriculture,
Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, State Governments, integrated
millers and farmers.
The Nation learnt that the programme may have started yielding result. For
instance, President, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Alhaji Aminu
Goronyo, said the price of rice may drop to N6, 000 in the next six months,
following the ABP intervention.
He told The Nation that in some northern states, paddies now go for as low as
N10, 000. Goronyo said the demand and consumption of locally produced rice has
increased tremendously in recent time, just as farmers are smiling to the bank
as a result of the patronage they are enjoying.
According to him, there has been increased productivity in the north as more
farmers have keyed into the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme. He also said his
association was mobilising rice farmers to take advantage of the CBN window
nationwide to get involved in rice production.
“We are going to assist the Federal Government to produce more than enough
rice. It is part of the plan to bring down the price of rice. There are several
efforts that we are making to see that in no distant time, the price of rice
will come down for Nigerians to have access to affordable milled rice,” Goronyo
assured.
The ABP strategy, according to him, entails expansion of areas under rain fed
farming and irrigation, reduction of post-harvest losses through mechanisation,
improved seed production systems and market development improvement, among
others.
Goronyo expressed optimism that price of rice will continue to drop as prices
of inputs fall. He said the Association had signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with some farm input suppliers in the country to ensure
prompt supply of cheap fertilisers and pesticides to boost production.
RIFAN President also pointed out that local rice is now well-processed and cheaper
than imported ones, resulting in increased demand.
Augie agreed with Goronyo that the price of rice will crash soon, adding that
this will be possible if the government works with the private sector to reduce
the cost of production.
Private sector operators wade in
The Federal Government through the CBN is not alone in the current efforts to
reposition the sector and achieve set target. For instance, Coscharis Farms,
which is a 2, 600 hectares rice plantation, funded through the ABP, is aimed at
boosting food production in the country, especially rice.
The CBN granted Coscharis Farms a N2 billion Commercial Agricultural Credit
Scheme (CACS) to boost its capacity to produce rice all-year round, which is
three harvests in a year.
Coscharis Group Chairman , Mr. Cosmas Maduka, said Coscharis Farms Limited will
provide full time employment for about 3, 000 people as well as drive ancillary
industrial growth in the state when all the phases of the investment are
completed.
He said the farm phase of the business employs over 250 people, adding that the
rice mill and irrigation components of the investment for which the CBN has
given approval in principle to finance, will significantly enhance the capacity
of the business to create more jobs and boost economic activities.
Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) has also thrown its hat in the rice
cultivation ring. The indigenous conglomerate has since signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
(FMARD) to invest $1billion (N306 billion) on the establishment of full
integrated rice production and processing operations across Nigeria.
Farmland in Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara, and Niger states, totalling 150,000
hectares, have been penciled down for commercial production of paddy rice.
Dangote inaugurated its 8,000-hectare rice out-growers’ scheme in Hadejia,
Jigawa State early this year when he distributed rice seedlings to farmers.
The scheme was said to have helped reduce the level of Nigeria’s imports while
potentially providing direct and indirect jobs to about 10, 000 Nigerians.
An agri-business Specialist with Agribusiness Supplier Development Programme
(ASDP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Dr. Nelson Abila,
said his organisation was working with some development partners to build the
capacity of rice stakeholders throughout the value chain, from farmers to
millers and parboilers.
By helping actors along the value chain add value to rice, Abila said the
project is helping raise income, improve rice quality, and expand the market
for locally produced rice.
According to him, Nigeria has the potential to become a big rice granary in
Africa with advantages of having ample suitable lands and water resources, and
good climate.
Similarly, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
(DFATD) and AfricaRice, in partnership with McGill University, are spearheading
an ambitious project on food security in Africa, with a focus on rice
post-harvest handling and marketing.
The project involves Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal,
Sierra Leone, and Uganda. It seeks to introduce improved harvesting and
post-harvest practices and equipment throughout the value chain to achieve
high-quality grain.
Most smallholder farmers and processors in Africa’s rice sector are women, who
often have fewer rights than their male counterparts to access the vital
resources they need to farm, process, and sell. The project, therefore, hopes
to ensure that women farmers obtain their fair share of attention in rice
Research & Development (R&D).
The project also aims to develop new rice-based products, explore innovative
uses of husks and straw, improve the policy environment, and build the capacity
of rice stakeholders.
The project envisages that by 2020, post-harvest losses will decline by 10 per
cent and this will help increase farmers’ nominal annual income in the eight
project countries by about $32 million.
Fertiliser racketeering, subsidy
are pains
Despite moves to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production, many farmers
complain of endemic corruption in the sale and distribution of fertilisers, a
critical input for rice farming. This has prevented fertiliser from getting to
the right people. Some of the people, who got fertilisers were said not to be farmers,
but racketeers, who sell them to real farmers at a premium.
Williams was emphatic that “Except farmers get fertiliser at reduced cost, and
tractors free of charge, the situation may not change”. He also said it costs
so much to produce a bag of rice to make profit when the government floods the
market with subsided Lake Rice.
While lamenting, for instance, that he could not sell his rice after the
government had flooded the market with lake rice at subsided price of N13, 000,
he said it was challenging for him to cultivate over 4, 000 acres of rice farm
without the government support.
Williams argued that government’s continued intervention by way of subsidies to
bring down the price of rice would not help private investors, who are spending
so much to stay in business. “We are likely to face a major problem if the
issue of government intervention to force down the price of rice is not
urgently addressed because farmers need to sell the produce, which they have
heavily invested in,” he said.
According to him, rice farmers depend on income from their produce to take care
of their families and repay the loans they took from financial institutions.
He advised the government to provide subsidies that are rationalised, adding
that interventions that are against market competition will not allow dynamism
and equitable participation of industry players.
Post-harvest challenges
Although rice, according to experts, grows well in all the six geo-political
zones of Nigeria, the demand for polished long grain, stone free and odourless
rice by urban dwellers is the reason Nigerians demand imported rice. They noted
that at present, locally produced is uncompetitive in the market because it is
fraught with stones.
Some foreign large mills, taking advantage of this, would always request for
brown rice rather than buy and encourage paddy production by local farmers.
Nigerian growers also struggled to meet quality standards set by foreign
agri-businesses, with consumers complaining of having to extract grit from
rice. Local rice, according to consumers, is good, but, the problem is the
stones in it. This is why they prefer foreign ones that have no stones.
According to experts, the quantity and quality of locally produced rice have
been the areas of concern, especially during post-harvest operations, which
usually resulted in huge loses. The qualitative losses come mainly as a result
of poor handling after harvesting and poor processing techniques.
Farmers, again, have had thousands of bags of rice locked up in warehouses due
to the unavailability of mills to process the commodity, a situation that
compelled them to manually process the rice, which invariably do not meet
market standards.
Aside denying farmers their primary source of livelihood, the situation is seen
as an impediment to government’s quest to motivate rice farmers into boosting
local production of the commodity to achieve food security and meet the target.
The Country Manager, Harvest Plus Nigeria, Dr. Paul Ilona, told The Nation that
rice production suffered from lack of investment in irrigation development and
research. This, he said, had slowed the adoption of high- yielding varieties
and improved crop management techniques.
Ilona noted that the quality of the local rice had been a major concern to the
future of the rice sector.
Way forward
The consensus of rice farmers is that there is the need to mechanise rice
farming in the rural areas to increase productivity. Some of them, who spoke
with The Nation, said mechanisation remained the key driver for change in the
rice sub-sector, as this will not only benefit farmers, but make quality local
rice available in the market.
To Williams, Nigeria will not achieve self -sufficiency in rice in the near
future unless the government makes the required huge investment in key areas of
the rice value chain. He, therefore, advised the government to prioritise the
value chain and place more emphasis on quality seed and actual production than
milling.
He said this is because the big millers are more concerned with imports than
backward integration. According to him, the quality of rice produce by
smallholder farmers still falls below the standard and must be strengthened
with quality inputs if government is serious about closing the import gap.
http://thenationonlineng.net/forces-nigerias-rice-revolution/
Farmers told to stop drying crops on roads
LAOAG
CITY — Despite warning from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH),
some residents who live near national and village roads still dry their palay
or corn crops on the highway.
This
harvest season, drying palay and corn along the highway is a common sight in
Ilocos province and its neighboring provinces of Ilocos Sur, Cagayan and
Isabela.
In
the absence of communal solar dryers, some farmers take advantage of the
weather to dry their crops along the road.
According
to farmers, it is more practical to dry their crops on public roads and sell it
right away to passing traders once the crops are dried up.
To
avoid road accidents, DPWH officials has reiterated to farmers and traders that
they should refrain from drying palay or corn along the highway.
The
DPWH has widened a number of major arterial roads nationwide to facilitate the
smooth flow of traffic and not to be used as solar dryers for agricultural
crops.
For
humanitarian reasons, drying of palay or corn during the harvest season has
been allowed in previous years, said District Engineer Mathias Malenab of the
Ilocos Norte Engineering District II, but such practice is now being
discouraged as it poses danger to motorists.
In
some parts of the province, farmers and traders even put on barricades on the
highways to protect their palay or corn from being overrun by passing
vehicles. Leilanie Adriano/PNA-northboundasia.com
- See more at:
http://northboundasia.com/2017/04/28/farmers-told-stop-drying-crops-roads/#.WQhZqPmGMdU
http://northboundasia.com/2017/04/28/farmers-told-stop-drying-crops-roads/#.WQhZqPmGMdU
How to curry flavour! Pilau rice
Wouldn't it be great if you could
cook the dishes you love at your local Indian restaurant in your own kitchen? Well now you can, with these recipes from The
Curry Guy Dan Toombs
+1
Pilau rice is one of those dishes I insist on cooking with ghee
Pilau rice is one of those dishes I insist on cooking with ghee. I
also prefer to steam it, as the flavour of the spices infuses better with the
rice.
Serves 4
·
370g (13oz) basmati rice
·
3tbsp whole milk
·
A pinch of saffron
threads
·
3tbsp ghee
·
6 green cardamom pods,
slightly crushed
·
5cm (2in) piece of
cinnamon stick
·
1tsp cumin seeds
·
1 onion, finely chopped
·
1 garlic clove, smashed
·
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-4455586/How-curry-flavour-Pilau-rice.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Millers
shun rice crisis loan fund
Rice
millers have taken up less than a quarter of a $27 million emergency loan fund
to stabilise prices of the grain, blaming late disbursement for the poor take
up.Following a price crash last year, the government told the Rural Development
Bank (RDB) to disburse the loans to millers to buy paddy rice from farmers at
840 riel ($0.21) per kg. The rice was to be stored in warehouses and processed
for export.But Kao Thach, chief executive of RDB, said few millers applied for
the loans.“Five rice millers asked for loans totalling nearly $5 million,” Mr.
Thach said.
He
said a drop in world rice prices could have put millers off buying rice,
despite having sufficient capital.“Some rice millers didn’t want to take the risk
of buying rice for stocks,” he said.
Of
the five millers who borrowed money, all but one has repaid the RDB. The annual
interest rate is 7 percent.Mr. Thach said he was unsure if the loans would
continue to be available.
“It
depends on the government,” he said. “If the government allows us, we could
broaden the use of the fund to address other problems.However, there has not
been any decision yet. It was designated as an emergency loan for the rice
crisis at that time.”Last June, the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) announced
that the government had agreed to the $27 million fund to help rice millers
purchase paddy from farmers.
Loans were to be made to CRF through the RDB, with the foundation acting
as guarantor.The CRF in turn would screen applicants and hand money to
deserving rice millers, who were reeling after a severe drought and facing
stiff competition from low-grade rice flowing into the country from Vietnam.Cambodia’s
milled rice exports only grew by 0.7 percent last year compared with 2015
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/37927/millers-shun-rice-crisis-loan-fund/
