Rice plants that grow as clones from seed
December
12, 2018, UC Davis
Postdoc
Imtiyaz Khanday and Professor Venkatesan Sundaresan with cloned rice plants in
a UC Davis green house, December 2018. Khanday, Sundaresan and colleagues have
solved the problem of propagating cloned, hybrid plants from seed -- a …more
Plant
biologists at the University of California, Davis have discovered a way to make
crop plants replicate through seeds as clones. The discovery, long sought by
plant breeders and geneticists, could make it easier to propagate
high-yielding, disease-resistant or climate-tolerant crops and make them
available to the world's farmers.
The
work is published Dec. 12 in the journal Nature.
Since
the 1920s, many crops have been grown from hybrid seeds created by crossing two
varieties. These hybrids can have superior qualities in areas such as yield or
pest resistance. But the seeds of hybrid crops do not produce plants with the
same qualities.
The
ability to produce a clone, an exact replica, of a plant
from its seeds would be a major breakthrough for world agriculture. Instead of
purchasing expensive hybrid seeds each year, which is often beyond the means of
farmers in developing countries, farmers could replant seeds from their own
hybrid plants and derive the benefits of high yields year after year.
About
400 species of wild plants can produce viable seeds without fertilization.
Called apomixis, this process seems to have evolved many times in plants—but
not in commercial crop species.
The
discovery by postdoctoral researcher Imtiyaz Khanday and Venkatesan Sundaresan,
professor of plant biology at UC Davis and colleagues at UC Davis, the Iowa
State University and INRA, France is a major step forward.
"It's
a very desirable goal that could change agriculture," Sundaresan said.
"Baby
boom" gene is key
Khanday
and Sundaresan discovered that the rice gene BBM1, belonging to a family of
plant genes called "Baby Boom" or BBM, is expressed in sperm cells but not
in eggs. After fertilization, BBM1 is expressed in the fertilized cell but—at
least initially—this expression comes from the male contribution to the genome.
BBM1,
they reasoned, switches on the ability of a fertilized egg to form an embryo.
The
researchers first used gene editing to remove the ability of the plants to go through meiosis, so that
the egg cells formed instead by mitosis, inheriting a full set of chromosomes
from the mother.
Then
they caused these egg cells to express BBM1, which they would not normally do
without fertilization.
"So
we have a diploid egg cell with the ability to make an embryo, and that grows
into a clonal seed,"
Sundaresan said.
So
far the process has an efficiency of about 30 percent, but the researchers hope
that can be increased with more research. The approach should work in
other cereal crops,
which have equivalent BBM1 genes, and in other crop plants as well,
Sundaresan said.
Explore further: Plants cloned as
seeds
More
information: Imtiyaz
Khanday et al, A male-expressed rice embryogenic trigger redirected for asexual
propagation through seeds, Nature (2018). DOI:
10.1038/s41586-018-0785-8
Rice inventory
jumps 88.7% in November
The country’s
total rice stock inventory grew by 88.7 percent to 3,000.45
thousand metric tons (TMT) as of Nov. 1, 2018 from 1, 589.89 TMT a month
earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
In its monthly “Rice and Corn Stocks Inventory” report, the PSA
said the November figure was likewise up by 1.4 percent from last year’s 2,
958.73 TMT.
On a monthly basis, household rice stocks and commercial
holdings increased by 81.2 percent and 122.3 percent, respectively. NFA
inventories were down by 18.7 percent.
Year-on-year, rice inventories fell 12.7 percent and 45.6
percent in those held by households and in NFA depositories, respectively.
However, commercial inventories grew by 36.2 percent.
Of the total rice inventories, 51.9 percent were from
households, while 44.6 percent and 3.5 percent were from commercial warehouses
and NFA depositories respectively.
Meanwhile, the country’s corn stock expanded by 12.8 percent to
639,520 MT in November from 566,830 MT a month ago, and was up by 6 percent
from 603,290 MT in the same period in 2017.
Corn stocks inventory from households rose by 35.3 percent while
commercial warehouses stocks declined by 0.7 percent. There were no corn stocks
in NFA depositories during the period.
Of the total, 75.9 percent was in commercial warehouses while
24.1 percent in households.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol earlier said the country is
expected to lose about 800,000 MT of palay (unmilled rice) this year because of
the typhoons that hit the country and slashed farmlands in the second half of
the year.
To ensure stable supply and price of rice in the market,
government had authorized the NFA for the importation of rice via
government-to-government (G2G) and government-to-private (G2P) procurement.
For this year alone, a total of 1.25 million MT of rice were
booked by the NFA as approved by inter-agency policy-making body NFA Council to
boost its buffer stocks.
Apart from this, the NFA Council also approved the procurement
of an additional 350,000 MT of rice under the importation program of the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) which aims to offer P38 per kilo of
commercial rice exclusively in supermarkets.
Cambodian rice
sees decline in exports to the international market
Hin Pisei |
Publication date 12 December 2018 | 08:19 ICT
Cambodia’s rice exports to the international market fell more than
13 per cent for the first 11 months this year. Hong
Menea
Cambodia's rice exports to the
international market fell more than 13 per cent for the first 11 months of the
year, compared to the same period last year, a report by the Secretariat of One
Window Service for Rice Export Formality said.
It showed a drop in exports to
the international market in the first 11 months of the year, accounting for
497,240 tonnes – down from 562,237 tonnes in the same period last year.
Industry insiders have repeatedly
said the decline is due to the lack of stockpiles and competition with
neighbouring countries.
Reason for decline
The vice-president of the
Cambodian Rice Federation, Hun Lak, told The Post on Tuesday that the Kingdom’s
rice exports have dropped almost every month this year. He said the fall is due
to a lack of stockpiles during harvest season and price competition with
neighbouring countries.
“In the second and third
quarters, the price of Cambodia’s jasmine rice was higher than neighbouring
countries by $30 to $40 a tonne and this is the reason for the decline in
exports,” he said.
Cambodia pledged to send one
million tonnes of rice per year to the international market by 2015, but only
exported 538,396 tonnes in 2015, 542,144 tonnes in 2016, and 635,679 tonnes
last year.
‘Many challenges’
In November this year, Cambodia’s
rice exports only equalled 62,433 tonnes, down from 70,112 tonnes in the same
month last year.
“With the current situation in
Cambodia, it is difficult to reach the target of one million tonnes of rice exports
because there are still many challenges to be addressed,” Lak said.
The key ways to improve exports,
said Lak, is through increasing and expanding rice stockpiles, increased loans
to grow the industry, and lowering production costs.
AMRU Rice (Cambodia) Co Ltd CEO
Song Saran said the decline in exports is due to Cambodia’s move towards
high-quality and thus more expensive rice market.
He said Cambodia previously
exported mostly white rice, but these numbers have steadily declined as the
volume of fragrant rice exports increased.
“In terms of the quantity of
exports we’ve seen a drop, but when we talk value it is higher than last year,”
he said.
In 2018, Cambodian white rice
sold at $470 per tonne, fragrant rice ranged between $785 and $790 per tonne,
while jasmine rice sold for $890. These prices represented an increase of 8 to
10 per cent from last year.
China was the leading buyer of
Cambodian rice in the first 11 months of the year with nearly 140,000 tonnes,
while exports to France totalled over 70,000 tonnes, Malaysia (40,000 tonnes),
and Gabon (2,500 tonnes).
Cambodia is also facing impending
rice tariffs from the EU that could further impact exports.
China
vows new measures to step up farm mechanisation
·
DECEMBER
13, 2018 / 4:56 AM
SHANGHAI, Dec 13 (Reuters) -
China will introduce new measures to speed up mechanisation in its huge farming
sector, looking to revive the countryside, boost domestic demand and raise
rural incomes, the government said late on Wednesday following a cabinet
meeting.China’s rural population has been steadily declining as a result of
rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and it needs to encourage farmers to
raise mechanisation rates to cover the labour shortfall and improve yields.
The cabinet said in a statement
China would grant subsidies to encourage the use of deeper ploughing machines
and also make it easier for farmers to borrow money to buy machinery.Under the
new rules, domestic and foreign agricultural machinery would be treated
equally.It said the first task was to raise mechanised harvesting rates for
crops like rice, wheat, corn, potato, rapeseed, cotton and sugar cane.The
cabinet said it will also encourage technological advances in order to support
the precision application of pesticides and boost the efficiency of fertilisers
and irrigation.
Though China has been trying to
encourage consolidation by making it easier for farmers to sell their land
leases to agribusinesses, the country’s farming sector still consists of large
numbers of small household farms, which has held back mechanisation.To try to
resolve the problem, China will support research into machinery that can be
used in small-scale or remote mountain farms, and will also encourage the
creation of professional service centres allowing small household farms to
share agricultural equipment. (Reporting by David Stanway Editing by Sonali
Paul)
Good news for farmers! Govt hikes MSP of 22 crops to a minimum
of 50% over cost
This decision
of the Government was a historic one as it fulfills the commitment to the farmers
to provide 50 per cent return over cost of production for the first time for
all mandated crops," as said by Minister of State for Ministry of
Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Last Updated: December 12, 2018 | 13:48 IST
Government has increased the
Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) of 22 kharif and rabi crops to a minimum of 50
percent returns over cost, the Ministry of Agriculture has said. The
government has taken the decision after considering the views of the state
governments.
The MSPs fixed by the government
for most of these crops provide at least a return of 50 per cent over cost of
production for the year 2018-19.
"Government has increased
MSPs substantially for all mandated crops for the season 2018-19. This decision
of the Government was a historic one as it fulfills the commitment to the
farmers to provide 50 per cent return over cost of production for the first
time for all mandated crops," as said by Minister of State for Ministry of
Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
The MSP for Kharif crops such as
paddy has been increased from Rs 1550 to Rs 1750. For Jowar, the MSP has been
increased from Rs 1700 to Rs 2430, which is the highest. The MSP of Bajra has
been increased from Rs 1425 to Rs 1950.
For Rabi crops the increase is
only marginal as all of the mandated rabi crops already has an MSP which
provided returns of more than 50 per cent over cost except Safflower which
provided only a 31.2 per cent returs over cost to farmers. Now after the
revision in MSP, the returns of Safflower has been increased to Rs 4,945,
providing a 50.1 per cent returns to farmers.
MSPs of these crops have been
hiked after considering the increase in production costs such as labour, land
rent, seeds, fertilizers, irrigation charges, electricity, etc.
To view the revised MSP please
refer to the table below:
2018
Farm Bill on Track to Pass in 2018
WASHINGTON, DC -- The 2018 Farm Bill, known
formally as the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, H.R. 2, and its
accompanying conference report of resolved differences between the House and
Senate versions is in the final stretch to becoming law.
The Farm Bill conference report was officially filed late Monday evening. Yesterday afternoon, the Senate voted 87 to 13 to adopt the Farm Bill conference report. This afternoon, the House overwhelmingly, adopted the conference report by a vote of 369 to 47.
The rice industry had broad support from our many friends in Congress representing both agriculture and urban states and districts. Unfortunately, two Members of Congress representing rice states voted against this legislation that supports the U.S. rice industry in a time of great need, including Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and John Kennedy (R-LA).
"USA Rice applauds the work and perseverance of the Farm Bill Conference Committee, especially the House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders and their staff, for passing a Farm Bill that is good for the U.S. rice industry," said Joe Mencer, Arkansas rice farmer and chairman of USA Rice Farmers. "The Farm Bill provides a sense of confidence for rice farmers and the industry during a time of depressed prices and an uncertain trade and market outlook going into next season."
The 12-title, 807-page omnibus farm law contains several positive provisions for the U.S. rice industry, many of which were developed by and advocated for by the dedicated grassroots members of USA Rice. Some highlights include the maintenance and enhancement of the Price Loss Coverage Program, an increase to the rice marketing loan rates, improvements to critical conservation programs, and the preservation of trade promotion and food aid programs.
"On behalf of the U.S. rice industry, I want to thank all of our members who played a role in developing our Farm Bill priorities and for the countless hours advocating to ensure they were included in the bill," said Charley Mathews, Jr., California rice farmer and USA Rice Chairman.
"Whether it was phone calls or meetings to
discuss USA Rice positions and Farm Bill developments, interacting with Members
of Congress or their staff, testifying before Congress or at field hearings, or
any other role you may have played in this process, our success would not have
been possible without your dedication and support."
Now that the bill and compromise package have cleared both chambers of Congress, it goes to President Trump's desk for his signature. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue has stated he will urge the President to sign the bill.
USA Rice fully supports the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, and strongly urges President Trump expeditiously sign the 2018 Farm Bill into law.
The Farm Bill conference report was officially filed late Monday evening. Yesterday afternoon, the Senate voted 87 to 13 to adopt the Farm Bill conference report. This afternoon, the House overwhelmingly, adopted the conference report by a vote of 369 to 47.
The rice industry had broad support from our many friends in Congress representing both agriculture and urban states and districts. Unfortunately, two Members of Congress representing rice states voted against this legislation that supports the U.S. rice industry in a time of great need, including Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and John Kennedy (R-LA).
"USA Rice applauds the work and perseverance of the Farm Bill Conference Committee, especially the House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders and their staff, for passing a Farm Bill that is good for the U.S. rice industry," said Joe Mencer, Arkansas rice farmer and chairman of USA Rice Farmers. "The Farm Bill provides a sense of confidence for rice farmers and the industry during a time of depressed prices and an uncertain trade and market outlook going into next season."
The 12-title, 807-page omnibus farm law contains several positive provisions for the U.S. rice industry, many of which were developed by and advocated for by the dedicated grassroots members of USA Rice. Some highlights include the maintenance and enhancement of the Price Loss Coverage Program, an increase to the rice marketing loan rates, improvements to critical conservation programs, and the preservation of trade promotion and food aid programs.
"On behalf of the U.S. rice industry, I want to thank all of our members who played a role in developing our Farm Bill priorities and for the countless hours advocating to ensure they were included in the bill," said Charley Mathews, Jr., California rice farmer and USA Rice Chairman.
"Whether it was phone calls or meetings to
discuss USA Rice positions and Farm Bill developments, interacting with Members
of Congress or their staff, testifying before Congress or at field hearings, or
any other role you may have played in this process, our success would not have
been possible without your dedication and support."Now that the bill and compromise package have cleared both chambers of Congress, it goes to President Trump's desk for his signature. USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue has stated he will urge the President to sign the bill.
USA Rice fully supports the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, and strongly urges President Trump expeditiously sign the 2018 Farm Bill into law.
Low paddy purchase in
Odisha's Kendrapara target puts peasants in spot of bother
After the authorities decided to procure
only five lakh quintals of paddy at the start of the harvesting season, farmers
worry on the fate of remaining 12 quintals harvested.
Published: 13th December
2018 09:24 AM | Last Updated: 13th December 2018 09:24 AM |
Paddy stacked
near a threshing floor at Rajnagar in Kendrapara district | Express
KENDRAPARA: The fate of a large numbers of
farmers in the district hangs in balance after the authorities decided to
procure only five lakh quintals of paddy at the start of the harvesting season.
In the district, farmers are all set to harvest about 17 lakh quintals of paddy
this year. However, after the administration’s announcement, a large number of
farmers will not get chance to sell their paddy to Odisha State Civil Supply
Corporation (OSCSC), said president of the district Krusak Sabha Umesh Chandra Singh.
Sources said farmers of Rajnagar, Rajkanika,
Mahakalapada and Aul have already started harvesting paddy. Similarly, farmers
of Pattamundai, Derabishi, Garadapur and Marsaghai will harvest their
crops within two weeks.
Singh said some mill owners and traders have
started purchasing paddy from farmers at `1,400 per quintal, which is `350 less
than the minimum support price fixed by the Government.“Millers and traders are
camping in villages to purchase paddy from the hapless farmers by paying them less
money fixed by the authorities,” alleged Biswajit Behera, a farmer of
Pattamundai.
Secretary of the district unit of Krusak
Sabha Gayadhar Dhal said after harvesting paddy, farmers are being forced to
sell their stock at throwaway price to meet their daily expenses. The
administration, however, is not taking any steps to check the distress sale, he
alleged.
Contacted, Civil Supply Officer (CSO)
Rajanikanta Das said OSCSC has recently decided to procure five lakh quintals
of paddy in the first phase from farmers. A decision on purchasing more paddy
from farmers will be taken later, he said.
As many as 116 Primary Agriculture
Cooperative Societies (PACS) will procure paddy from farmers from December 17.
After purchase, the PACS will hand over the paddy to 14 rice millers of the
district, the CSO said.The MSP for a quintal of Fair Average Quality (FAQ)
paddy has been fixed at `1,750, he added.
A male-expressed rice
embryogenic trigger redirected for asexual propagation through seeds
Published:
Abstract
The
molecular pathways that trigger the initiation of embryogenesis after
fertilization in flowering plants, and prevent its occurrence without
fertilization, are not well understood1. Here we show in rice
(Oryza sativa) that BABY BOOM1 (BBM1), a member of the AP2 family2 of transcription
factors that is expressed in sperm cells, has a key role in this process.
Ectopic expression of BBM1 in the egg cell is sufficient for
parthenogenesis, which indicates that a single wild-type gene can bypass the
fertilization checkpoint in the female gamete. Zygotic expression of BBM1 is
initially specific to the male allele but is subsequently biparental, and this
is consistent with its observed auto-activation. Triple knockout of the
genes BBM1, BBM2 and BBM3 causes
embryo arrest and abortion, which are fully rescued by male-transmitted BBM1.
These findings suggest that the requirement for fertilization in embryogenesis
is mediated by male-genome transmission of pluripotency factors. When genome
editing to substitute mitosis for meiosis (MiMe)3,4 is combined with
the expression of BBM1 in the egg cell, clonal progeny can be
obtained that retain genome-wide parental heterozygosity. The synthetic
asexual-propagation trait is heritable through multiple generations of clones.
Hybrid crops provide increased yields that cannot be maintained by their
progeny owing to genetic segregation. This work establishes the feasibility of
asexual reproduction in crops, and could enable the maintenance of hybrids
clonally through seed propagation5,6.
The staggering scale of France's battle
against terror, by the numbers
Newsletter: A
closer look at the day's most notable stories
Jonathon Gatehouse · CBC
News ·
Soldiers
in France's anti-terror 'Vigipirate' plan, dubbed 'Operation Sentinelle,'
patrols next to Notre-Dame cathedral in Strasbourg following Tuesday night's
shooting near the city's famous Christmas market. (Jean Francois
Badias/Associated Press)
Welcome to The National Today newsletter, which takes a closer look at what's happening around some of
the day's most notable stories. Sign up here and
it will be delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday.
TODAY:
- France's battle against terror attacks, by
the numbers.
- Proponents of an alternative method of
growing rice say it boosts yields dramatically and reduces the impact on
the environment, but not everyone is buying in.
- Missed The
National last night? Watch it here.
France's terror problem
Last night's attack on a
busy Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg killed two people and
wounded 12 others, including one victim who doctors say is clinically brain
dead.
Although the suspect is
still at large, French prosecutors have characterized the shooting and stabbing
spree, which lasted for minutes on end, as an act of terrorism, citing
witnesses who heard the man shout "Allahu Akbar."
The alleged attacker, identified
by authorities as 29-year-old Chèrif Chekatt, was born and raised in
Strasbourg, and has been on police radar since the age of 10.
Christophe Castane, France's
interior minister, told a news conference today that Chekatt's first criminal
conviction came when he was 13. At least 26 more, mostly for robbery and
assault, have since followed in France, Germany and Switzerland.
Authorities
work at a makeshift emergency services base after Tuesday night's deadly
shooting in Strasbourg, France. The gunman is still at large and the motive for
the attack is still unclear. (Patrick Seeger/EPA-EFE)
Chekatt has been on France's
security watch list, known as Fiche-S, since 2015.
He shares
that distinction with at least 20,500 other citizens and residents, and despite
devoting $30 billion to security and
a further $64 billion to defence in
its 2018 budget, the country doesn't have the resources to watch them all.
Police
say it takes 20 officers a day to keep just one terror
suspect under constant, 24-hour surveillance, suggesting they would need more
than 400,000 dedicated cops to
fully blunt the threat.
Here are some other figures that
illustrate the scale of France's terror problem:
22 — the number of terror incidents on French soil since the
beginning of 2015.
249 — the number of dead in those attacks.
928 — the number of wounded.
To date, the weapons used have
included guns, bombs, hammers, trucks, cars and knives.
7,000 — the number of troops that have been guarding French
tourist sites and patrolling city streets since 2015 under the anti-terror
Opération Sentinelle, in addition to 2,000 specialized Vigipirate anti-terror police.
Another 3,000 soldiers are held on standby for emergencies.
350 — how many police, soldiers and helicopter pilots are
currently involved in the manhunt for Chekatt.
16 — the number of categorization levels under the Fiche-S
system, counting up to one for the most severe threats.
2,050— the estimated number of Strasbourg residents on the S-List,
meaning that a city with 2 per cent of the country's population accounts
for 10 per cent of its terror
suspects.
17 — the number of Strasbourg residents who have been
arrested or killed in prior terror incidents or plots, including a failed
attempt to attack the Christmas market on New Year's Eve in 2000.
2.5 million — the estimated annual attendance at the festive market,
Europe's largest.
A
placard near the scene of the Strasbourg shooting reads, 'Tribute to the
victims. I am Strasbourg.'(Christophe Ena/Associated Press)
While France faces
a considerable and constant threat, its terror challenges pale in
comparison to the world's real hot spots.
To put it all in context, the
Global Terrorism Index, an annual report prepared by the
Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace, ranks France 30th in the
world for severity.
The U.K., at No. 28, and the
United States at No. 20, are both judged to have bigger issues, although
nothing on the scale of Afghanistan where there were 4,653 terror
fatalities in 2017, or Iraq where 4,271 people died that same year. (Canada now
ranks 57th on the list, up nine places from the year before.)
In fact, the 20 deadliest
terrorist attacks in 2017 all occurred in Africa, the Middle East or South
Asia, killing a total of 2,926 people.
All of Western Europe, in
comparison, saw 81 terror deaths in 2017.
And in the first 10 months
of 2018, the report tallies 10 such killings in Europe.
Worldwide, there were 18,814
terror fatalities in 2017, down 44 per cent from their 2014 peak.
The controversy around rice
Proponents of an alternative
method of growing rice say it boosts yields dramatically and reduces the impact
on the environment, but not everyone is buying in, writes producer Anand Ram.
While agricultural improvement
strategies aren't exactly a conversation-starter for many people, there's one
crop the world might want to start talking about.
Rice.
It is a staple for billions,
culturally and calorically — making up as much as two-thirds of the calories in Asian diets.
But it's a thirsty, gassy plant.
One cup of rice takes about
500 litres of water to grow and is responsible for as much as
20 per cent of human-caused methane emissions, according
to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Surprising, then, that for nearly
four decades there has existed a method that supporters say checks all the
right boxes for a better way to grow rice.
A
rice paddy in Mali planted with the technique referred to as the System of Rice
Intensification (SRI). (Erika Stryger)
It's called the System of Rice
Intensification (SRI), and by flipping the traditional idea of jam-packed
flooded rice paddies on its head, it claims to get more out of less.
The broad strokes of SRI involve
planting seedlings early, spacing them farther apart and, counter-intuitively,
letting them go through dry periods.
"You use less seeds, less
water, less chemicals, and you can increase yields," says Erika Styger of
Cornell University, one of the world's leading SRI researchers.
Erika
Styger of Cornell University is one of the world's leading researchers on the
System of Rice Intensification (SRI). She calls SRI 'a no-brainer' for farmers
in terms of its benefits over more common rice-growing approaches. (Erika
Styger)
By the numbers, research done by Styger
and her colleagues in West Africa indicates that:
- Yields can go up by 50 per cent or more.
- Farmers use 90 per cent fewer seeds.
- Plants require 30 to 50 per cent less
water.
The method also drastically cuts
methane emissions and creates hardier roots that can withstand extreme weather.
"It's a no-brainer for
farmers and it's beneficial to the environment," Styger says.
Her work in Africa, supported by
groups such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
and the World Bank, has helped expand SRI's adoption by farmers in
more than 55 countries.
Despite Styger's findings, SRI is
not even close to a global standard for growing rice. Styger says it's
responsible for between just 2 and 5 per cent of the world's rice production.
One reason, she says, is that
because SRI uses fewer seeds and/or chemicals than the more popular growing
methods, it doesn't fit the agri-giant business model that's based on selling
those inputs to farmers.
"That's the common belief,
that this [agri-business model] is how we improve agriculture," Styger
says. "But SRI is basically the opposite. Farmers don't need to buy
anything. They can produce with their own resources. They can improve their
yields with their own knowledge."
Harouna Touré told The
National from Mali that he worked in rice farming for a decade
before switching to SRI. He said after using SRI himself and seeing it
practiced in West Africa, he's convinced that it's the way pe 
ople should grow rice everywhere.
ople should grow rice everywhere.
Harouna
Touré stands in a wet rice paddy in Mali, where farmers are learning SRI
planting techniques.(Harouna Touré)
There's skepticism, however, from
some members of the scientific community.
Critics maintain that SRI has
higher initial labour costs, and some researchers
say they've found SRI's promised yields difficult to reproduce.
Others struggle with the
definition of what precisely SRI is, partly because methods can differ from
country to country due to factors such as the local soil, climate and even
insects.
"The original hardcore
definition [of SRI] in agronomy terms got adapted and changed," says Bas
Bouman, a top scientist at the International Rice Research Institute.
"And if I can't say exactly
'this is SRI' … I can't go into country 'X' and say this is the set of
practices that defines SRI that you should adopt."
Bouman calls SRI a "social
movement" which sees itself as stoking a grassroots, of-the-people
narrative that the greater scientific community is trying to keep down. He adds
that SRI critics are often shouted down as not being farmer-friendly. 
Erika
Styger surveys a rice field in Timbuktu, Mali. (Erika Stryger)
However, Styger says that way of
looking at SRI takes away from the real science being done around it.
"Unfortunately, the
international research community experiences [SRI] as a threat. They didn't
develop it. And also they may not then get more funding to breed new
varieties."
Arguments of legitimacy go back
and forth, but climate change may soon render such minutiae and politics moot.
Droughts, floods and other extreme
weather events are on the rise and threaten food security – and
farmers' livelihoods.
And as a couple of SRI champions
in Mali told The National, once farmers see with their own eyes how SRI
crops are better at withstanding droughts, it's the method they will want to
use in the future.
- Anand Ram
- WATCH: The feature on SRI rice tonight onThe
National on CBC Television and streamed online
- SIGN UP: Receive the CBC News environmental newsletter,
written by CBC News journalists and delivered Thursdays. The environment
is changing, and this is your weekly guide to what we're doing about it.
A few words on ...
An act of solidarity and defiance
in Strasbourg, France.
Quote of the moment
"A leadership election would
not change the fundamentals of the negotiation or the Parliamentary arithmetic.
Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more division just as we
should be standing together to serve our country. None of that would be in the
national interest."
- British
Prime Minister Theresa May makes her case against a
no-confidence vote, scheduled for this evening, and triggered by her own
disgruntled pro-Brexit MPs.
Britain's
Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the
House of Commons, London, on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Rice self-sufficiency can boost the region’s efforts in
attaining development goals
Wednesday 12th
December, 2018
FAO and partners assure African countries of
continuous support
Ada, Dec.12, GNA — The Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO), AfricaRice and the International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) re-affirmed their commitment to support African countries in
their efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production.
Speaking at the opening of a workshop on rice
production in Africa, Abebe Haile-Gabriel, FAO Assistant Director-General and
Regional Representative for Africa, emphasized the need for partners to work on
measures to mainstream good practices into national rice investments to achieve
rice sustainability.
“Together with the Coalition for Africa Rice
Development (CARD), AfricaRice and IRRI, we are actively consolidating best
practices or lessons learned from project implementation. Our goal is to
eventually disseminate this knowledge to countries to promote sustainable rice
production,” Haile-Gabriel added.
He further noted the partnership was already yielding
some significant results, stressing: “It already has contributed to
improvements in seed, post-harvest activities, irrigation and technology
adoption in a number of African countries. FAO is optimistic that upscaling and
adopting best practices in the rice sector would help sustain the momentum
towards the attainment of rice self-sufficiency and the creation of gainful
employment for the youth and women along the entire rice value chain.”
The two-day workshop held in Ada, Ghana, on the
theme, Upscaling the Partnership for Sustainable Rice Systems Development in
Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons for National Projects and Programmes on Rice Value
Chain, provided a platform for brainstorming and technical contributions on how
to mainstream the best practices into national rice investment projects.
Effective leadership and political will essential for
achieving rice self-sufficiency in Africa
Achieving rice self-sufficiency for Africa is
strategic and consequential, not just in terms of meeting consumption
requirements locally. It has multiplier effects, which means reallocating the
much needed foreign exchange for investments in rice value chain development
initiatives. Such diversification will eventually create and expand employment
opportunities for youth and women. A number of countries are already exhibiting
a significant increase in rice production over the last few years.
According to Peter Anaadumba, South-South Cooperation
Officer in the FAO Regional Office for Africa, Tanzania is one of the few
countries that have become self-sufficient in rice production and no longer
import the commodity, saying, “This is a significant progress which is
definitely a milestone achievement.’’
“Additionally, through South-South Cooperation, the
project has promoted new technologies and innovation along the rice value chain
in sub-Saharan Africa, and such innovations ought to be mainstreamed into future
interventions in the rice sector,” he added.
“The encouraging success achieved in increased rice
production is also proof and demonstration that, with effective leadership and
political will as well as concerted efforts from all stakeholders, nothing can
stop us from achieving not only rice self-sufficiency, but also the goal of
ending hunger,” Anaadumba further said. “Despite the success, the fact remains
that there are still significant challenges in the quest for attaining
sustainable rice production,” he furthers conceded.
Rising import bills a burden for the region
Rice is the world’s most important staple food, with
the demand expected to double, putting stress on the production to meet the
needs of the growing global population. This requires increase in rice
production by 25 percent in the next 25 years.
More than half of the 43 rice-producing countries in
Africa are also net rice importers, with varying degrees ranging between 10 and
93 percent. Available evidence indicates that in 2015 alone, African countries
imported about 36 percent of their rice requirements, claiming over USD 4
billion.
The projections for 2020 show that the trend will
continue, but the worrying issue lies on the increasing drain on foreign
exchange to pay for the rice import bill. Forecasts peg the rise to USD 7
billion annually.
The workshop provided further guidance on upscaling
best practices related to technology adoption, best farming practices, water
control management and post-harvest activities into national projects, as well
as private sector investment in the rice sector. All these will contribute
toward realizing the rice transformation agenda in Africa.
About the project
The Partnership for Sustainable Rice Systems
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa is an ongoing FAO project. Approved in May
2014, the project initially ran for a period of 23 months, from February 2016
to December 2017.
An additional one-year extension brings the project
to the current expected completion date of December 2018. The project target
countries are Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria,
Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
Since the launch of the project, 10 beneficiary
countries carried out a needs identification exercise. This ensured alignment
of priorities during the project formulation and implementation phases.
Additionally, the exercise led to some modification to the project
implementation.
The project has been under implementation since
September 2016 in all the 10 selected countries in order to support the
scaling-up of the innovative practices such as System of Rice Intensification,
processing of rice, and post-harvest management.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/africa/rice-self-sufficiency-can-boost-the-region-s-efforts-in-attaining-development-goals-143112
Central
American rice millers want changes to US trade pact
The Latin millers want to continue to keep buying U.S. rice in large quantities, a delegation told members of the USA Rice Federation last week at a conference in San Diego, but warned that if they buy too much as tariffs continue to fall under the Dominican Republic-Central America (CAFTA-DR) free trade pact, local farmers will be devastated.
The U.S. signed it’s first-ever free trade agreement with small, developing countries -- Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic -- more than a decade ago, and by most measures, the pact has been beneficial for all seven nations.
“It’s been just over 10 years since we started cutting agricultural tariffs on both sides, and the deal has delivered exactly as trade agreements are supposed to,” said USDA Trade Counsel Jason Hafemeister earlier this year as Undersecretary Ted McKinney prepared to lead a delegation to several of the CAFTA-DR countries. “Going forward, a deal that has been a solid positive for U.S. agriculture has the potential to get even better as further market openings create more opportunities for U.S. exports.”
Jason Hafemeister, USDA
In 2003, before the pact was ratified, the U.S. was exporting about $1.6 billion worth of farm commodities to the CAFTA-DR countries, according to USDA data. By 2017 those exports had more than doubled to $4.3 billion worth of corn, rice, wheat, dairy, beef, pork and poultry.
And exports going north also doubled over the past decade as trade barriers gradually fell. Last year the U.S. imported about $5.8 billion worth of bananas, coffee, pineapples and other products from its CAFTA-DR partners. That’s up from $2.4 billion in 2003.
“While all the countries in the CAFTA-DR region face significant challenges, the GDP of the region has effectively doubled even as barriers to U.S. exports have fallen,” said Hafemeister. “The good news is there is plenty of room to grow … And the prospects for further economic growth in the region are good, particularly if all countries continue to pull together to facilitate trade.”
But there’s going to be just too much trade, said Eduardo Rojas, the newly elected president of the board of directors for Costa Rica’s National Rice Corporation and a leader on the Central American Rice Federation (FECARROZ).
In a delayed start, the CAFTA-DR’s tariffs on U.S. rice began dropping steadily and are expected to reach zero in all of the countries in five years. At the same time, each of the Latin countries continues to increase the size of their tariff rate quotas for U.S. rice that allows hundreds of thousands of tons to enter with no tariffs.
All of that, together with weather and banking problems, is putting a major strain on the mostly small domestic farmers, said Enrique Lacs, a FECARROZ adviser and former deputy economics minister in Guatemala.
Lacs, Rojas and several others have presented the leadership at USA Rice with a proposal to stop the reduction in tariffs on U.S. rice and freeze in place TRQs that guarantee access to rice from the U.S.
"Central America is the second-largest importer of paddy rice for the United States and we hope that this meeting will facilitate a future alliance with the American rice industry so that we can be converted into the largest importer of paddy rice," FECARROZ President Mario Solorzano said during the San Diego meeting. "The FECARROZ proposal is a win-win strategy that is necessary in order to guarantee the long term sustainability of the commercial relationships between the United States, Central America, and the Dominican Republic."
If tariffs are allowed to go to zero, Lacs told Agri-Pulse, the 62,000 rice farmers and processors in the CAFTA-DR countries will go out of business. Instead of farmers and millers, the Latin countries will only have importers, buying the cheapest supplies they can find.
“The risk for Central America is that producers will disappear because they are small and can’t compete,” Lacs said.
Unlike most trade pacts, the CAFTA-DR allows for additional negotiation on agricultural issues, said Rojas and Lucs. The pact specifically allows the countries to assemble an agricultural committee to address unforeseen problems, and that’s expected to happen next year. The FECARROZ proposal is meant to both inform that committee and persuade USA Rice to join with their Latin counterparts to provide a united front.
USA Rice leaders have promised to consider the proposal.
“Central America is a top destination for U.S. rice and helps keep our export market thriving,” said USA Rice Chairman Charley Mathews Jr. “We are pleased that FECARROZ has given thought to how this trade can be sustained and reached out to us to start this dialogue.”
But USA Rice Chief Operating Officer Bob Cummings tells Agri-Pulse that he’s not convinced.
“I’m not sure I abide by the whole argument,” Cummings said. “They came to us with the proposal. They’re big customers, so we’re going to listen to them and we’re now going to start the process internally, examining what they came to us with.”
The interaction between FECARROZ and USA Rice has been cordial, with the Latin officials getting a warm welcome in San Diego at the U.S. group’s annual outlook conference, but the visitors came with deep convictions.
“We’re going to die standing and fighting this,” Rojas told the U.S. farmers and millers attending the meeting.
For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/11736-central-american-rice-millers-want-changes-to-us-trade-pact
Cambodian rice
sees decline in exports to the international market
Hin Pisei |
Publication date 12 December 2018 | 08:19 ICT
Cambodia’s rice exports to the international market fell more than
13 per cent for the first 11 months this year. Hong
Menea
Cambodia's rice exports to the
international market fell more than 13 per cent for the first 11 months of the
year, compared to the same period last year, a report by the Secretariat of One
Window Service for Rice Export Formality said.
It showed a drop in exports to
the international market in the first 11 months of the year, accounting for
497,240 tonnes – down from 562,237 tonnes in the same period last year.
Industry insiders have repeatedly
said the decline is due to the lack of stockpiles and competition with
neighbouring countries.
Reason for decline
The vice-president of the
Cambodian Rice Federation, Hun Lak, told The Post on Tuesday that the Kingdom’s
rice exports have dropped almost every month this year. He said the fall is due
to a lack of stockpiles during harvest season and price competition with
neighbouring countries.
“In the second and third
quarters, the price of Cambodia’s jasmine rice was higher than neighbouring
countries by $30 to $40 a tonne and this is the reason for the decline in
exports,” he said.
Cambodia pledged to send one
million tonnes of rice per year to the international market by 2015, but only
exported 538,396 tonnes in 2015, 542,144 tonnes in 2016, and 635,679 tonnes
last year.
‘Many challenges’
In November this year, Cambodia’s
rice exports only equalled 62,433 tonnes, down from 70,112 tonnes in the same
month last year.
“With the current situation in
Cambodia, it is difficult to reach the target of one million tonnes of rice
exports because there are still many challenges to be addressed,” Lak said.
The key ways to improve exports,
said Lak, is through increasing and expanding rice stockpiles, increased loans
to grow the industry, and lowering production costs.
AMRU Rice (Cambodia) Co Ltd CEO
Song Saran said the decline in exports is due to Cambodia’s move towards
high-quality and thus more expensive rice market.
He said Cambodia previously
exported mostly white rice, but these numbers have steadily declined as the
volume of fragrant rice exports increased.
“In terms of the quantity of
exports we’ve seen a drop, but when we talk value it is higher than last year,”
he said.
In 2018, Cambodian white rice
sold at $470 per tonne, fragrant rice ranged between $785 and $790 per tonne,
while jasmine rice sold for $890. These prices represented an increase of 8 to
10 per cent from last year.
China was the leading buyer of
Cambodian rice in the first 11 months of the year with nearly 140,000 tonnes,
while exports to France totalled over 70,000 tonnes, Malaysia (40,000 tonnes),
and Gabon (2,500 tonnes).
Cambodia is also facing impending
rice tariffs from the EU that could further impact exports.
India-Myanmar agricultural research center
opened in Nay Pyi Taw
Source:
Xinhua| 2018-12-13 10:07:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun
YANGON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- An India-Myanmar Advanced Center for
Agricultural Research and Education has been opened at the Yezin Agricultural
University (YAU) in Nay Pyi Taw to develop advanced agricultural method,
Myanmar News Agency reported Thursday.
The center was inaugurated by visiting Indian President Ram Nath
Kovind on Wednesday, the third day of his state visit to Myanmar.
The center is composed of departments for genetic biology,
post-harvest education food science and increased plantation, taught by
professionals from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and Myanmar's
YAU.
Kovind also opened a rice bio park at the university, set up by
the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and the Agricultural Research
Department.
Kovind observed the paper-making process, rice grinding and
rice-based snack production conducted at the park.
Kovind's five-day Myanmar visit, which began on Monday and will
last until Friday, is the first to the country by an Indian top leader in over
a decade.
On Tuesday the two countries signed two memorandums of
understanding (MoU) on state-level cooperation in science and technology from
2018 to 2021 and on providing capacity building training to Myanmar's judges
and judiciary officers, respectively.
Moreover, a three-day Indian trade fair titled "5th
Enterprise India" is scheduled to take cplae in Yangon from Thursday to
Friday, focusing on the building of relationship and nurturing growth between
India and Myanmar.
Iraq
signs wheat, rice imports with the United States
December
13, 2018, 04:11:00 AM EDT By Reuters
Shutterstock
photo
BAGHDAD, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Iraq
has signed an agreement with the United States to import U.S. wheat and rice,
the Iraqi trade minister said on Thursday.
The agreement covers the first
half of 2019, Mohammed Hashim said at a signing ceremony in Baghdad.
"The agreement signals a
wider cooperation with the American companies to supply Iraq with wheat and
rice for 2019. The cabinet has approved it," Iraqi trade minister Mohammed
Hashim said during ceremonies held in Baghdad and attended by the U.S.
ambassador to Iraq.
The trade minister said this deal
was signed because Iraq prefers the high quality of the U.S. rice and wheat.
Iraq needs an annual wheat supply
of between 4.5 million and five million tonnes, and has an import gap of around
two million tonnes a year.
The country spends billions of
dollars annually on a Saddam Hussein-era programme for food rationing, the
Public Distribution System, which distributes subsidised bread and other
essential food
Pro-Poor Rice is not sustainable
The Weah Administration, like several previous administrations
before it believes subsidizing rice importation is the prudent way to
maintaining food security in the country, but this strategy is foolhardy,
because it has never been sustainable.
The late President William R. Tolbert, Jr. ventured into it and
his government got entangled in citizens’ protest that dragged it into the
April 14, 1979 Rice Riot characterized by insecurity, anarchy and deaths. Slain
President Samuel Kanyon Doe, guided by experiences from the rice riot, launched
and spearheaded the Green Revolution that saw Liberia’s food basket swelled
with exportation of cash crops such as cocoa and coffee, among others.
In partnership with Lebanese businessman George Haddad, jailed
former President Charles Ghankay Taylor maintained rice on the local market at
affordable price, and created the impression that he had solved the nation’s
food insecurity problem. But that was very far from reality. Former President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf brought in best qualified and experienced agriculture
technicians, who only talked the talk and wrote policy papers; nothing else.
All three former presidents were fully aware that rice is
Liberia’s staple. But they sought quick fix solutions except for President Doe,
who took the bull by the horn thru his Green Revolution campaign that led to
government officials investing in farms. A farm of the late Senator Kerkula B.
Kpoto of the Doe regime was never fully harvested due to its large size and the
civil war.
Despite leading a vague slogan of ‘power to the people’
President Weah seems to be seeking the same quick fix solution by importing
rice rather than prioritizing the agricultural sector. Immediately after he
took office early this year, the President met with importers in the country
and struck a deal to reduce price, but it did not work due to the fact that we
don’t grow our staple ourselves.
Now the government has established partnership with a so-called
private importer, TRH Trading, working in collaboration with the Ministry of
Commerce and Industry to import rice and sell at a reduced price of US$950 and
US$10, respectively below the current price of US$17.
President Weah himself went at the Bong Mines Pier near the
Freeport of Monrovia on Bushrod Island last week and launched the Pro-Poor Rice
with an initial consignment of 80,000 25kg bags already in country.
“We are now happy. When I took over, our people were on the
streets because the rice was expensive and I called all rice importers to find
a way around the issue and to let them know they need to do their best to
reduce the price or government will compete”, the President asserts.
The government’s intervention looks like nothing but the same
old “cow pupu” story that appears dried on the surface, but inside is watery.
How long can this partnership sustain the Pro-Poor Rice on the market is the
“61 million dollar question” everybody is asking.
We believe strongly that the real solution to our insatiable
taste for rice is to grow rice ourselves. Any intervention apart from growing
what we eat as a people is temporary, because we don’t control the market
outside our borders.
https://thenewdawnliberia.com/pro-poor-rice-is-not-sustainable/
Sandiganbayan junks Yap’s motion to quash
graft raps
The Sandiganbayan 6th Division
has junked the motion of House Deputy Speaker Arthur Yap to quash the graft
case against him concerning irregularities in the car loan plans for employees
at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).
The anti-graft court pointed out
that the arguments raised by Yap would be better ventilated in a full-blown
trial.
Because of this, the court
declared that his graft trial should proceed.
Under the charges, the then
PhilRice board of trustees allegedly favored 10 employees as beneficiaries for
the institute’s car plan from 2008 to 2009. At that time Yap was agriculture
secretary.
This allowed the 10 beneficiaries
to obtain personal loans from the Philippine National Bank (PNB) for the
purchase of private cars which were then leased to PhilRice for the employees’
official use even though they already receive transportation allowances.
The Office of the Ombudsman which
filed the case also found that two loan recipients allegedly signed hold out
agreements with PNB over the car plan which prevented PhilRice to withdraw
funds from its account until the loans were paid in full.
In his motion, Yap argued that he was not present during the
PhilRice board meeting when the car loan plans were granted.
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