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IMF’s bailout if
endorsed would be to stabilize the Pakistan economy
IMF director communications said they would put in place the
preconditions for sustained inclusive growth and modalities of that would get
announced once a staff-level agreement was reached
LAHORE: The International Monetary Fund (IMF), Director Communications
Gerry Rice on Thursday said the objective of the program would be to stabilize
the Pakistan economy.
While speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Mr Rice said
that Pakistan on October 11th had
formally requested for financial assistance from the IMF during the annual
meetings held in Indonesia.
He added, the discussions with the authorities regarding the
bailout are expected to commence on November 7th,
for which an IMF mission will arrive in Islamabad.
IMF director communications said they would put in place the
preconditions for sustained inclusive growth and modalities of that would get
announced once a staff-level agreement was reached.
Once that is done, Mr Rice said, “Then we’ll go forward to our
board for the formal approval of the program.
“There will be, again as usual — people who follow us know this
— there will be a press release, there will be a communication at the end of
that. Assuming staff-level agreement is reached, there would be a communication
at that point, said Mr Rice.
“So, November the 7th is when the discussions are going to
begin, and the board date would be — the board discussion would be contingent
on an agreement being reached and following again.”
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Asad Umar while speaking in the
National Assembly had defended the move of to approach friendly countries as
well as the IMF for assistance so it wouldn’t be dependent on any single
source.
While talking at the floor of the National Assembly, the finance
minister said, “When we went to Saudi Arabia we signed a $3 billion deal.
Naveed Qamar has stayed in the IMF programme, Ishaq Dar is not here but he must
also know that all the money does not come from the IMF.”
Moreover, Mr Umar rebuffed the impression that the government’s
indecision on the IMF programme had spawned the stock market crash and told the
house that the KSE-100 benchmark index had nosedived by 15,000 points even when
the previous PML-N administration was in power.
He stated during the two months of PTI’s government, the stock
market went down by 4,000 points whereas during the previous seven months of
the PML-N administration it nosedived by 15,000 points.
The finance minister told the house that the trade deficit had
risen from 4.2% to 6.6% and this rise had incurred a loss of Rs1,000 billion.
He acknowledged Pakistan’s highest trade deficit is with China
and reiterated that Beijing is fully determined to “work with us on this.”
Asad Umer said Saudi Arabia has agreed to deposit $3 billion
with State Bank of Pakistan for a period of one year, whilst it will provide $9
billion of oil on deferred payment for a period of three years.
Last week, Pakistan had gained a $6 billion bailout from Saudi
Arabia and the Finance Ministry spokesman Noor Ahmed had told Bloomberg, “Islamabad will now
negotiate with the IMF from an improved position.”
He added, “We’ll have to go to IMF. The Saudi Arabian package
“is something you strengthened your position for talks.”Mr Ahmed said an IMF
programme will help boost discipline in the economy.
I often have to visit Pakistan where I teach Islamic Theology,
Koranic Studies, Persian and Arabic. Since I’m nuts on idli, dosa, rasam and
sambar, even in Pakistan, I’ve managed to find places across Pakistan where I
can get almost authentic South Indian dishes as I get in Madras (please, no
Chennai for me; it grates). I love the way dosa and upma are made by Malayali
Muslims in Chitral, Pakistan. They migrated to Pakistan from Kerala after
Partition.
But the best and crispiest dosas that I’ve tasted in Pakistan
are served by Tamil Hindus and Muslims, who are concentrated mainly in Karachi
and Lahore. Before descanting on dosas made by Tamils, I must mention that in
1986, The Dawn of Pakistan carried
an article on Tamils of Pakistan. It mentioned that Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
(nephew of the Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman), who got the Nobel for his
‘Chandrasekhar Limit’ in 1983, was born in pre-Independence Lahore. Mani
Shankar Aiyar was born in Lahore. Emmanuel Nicholas, a former schoolteacher of
Pakistan’s one-time Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, was born in Sialkot.
And Catholic Bishop Victor Gyanapragasam was from the erstwhile Layalpur, now
Faisalabad.
The newspaper mentioned that the British Frontier Railways in
the NWFP required accountants with sharp mathematical abilities and found
Tamils to be the best-suited for the job, just as Ramanujan, whose mathematical
genius awed the world, not just the British mathematician Sir Thomas Hardy. So
many Tamils were sent there and a few of them chose to stay back even after
Partition.
The Madrasi Para (‘colony’ in Bengali) behind the Jinnah Post
Graduate Centre in Karachi is home to some 100 Tamil Hindu families, who still
speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. This is where you
get authentic Madrasi khana, or dastarkhwan (as
it’s known in Pakistan), in Pakistan. Two types of coconut chutneys with a bowl
of piping-hot sambar and a crisp dosa with mildly spicy potato filling (often
containing garlic) can transport you back to Madras if you happen to be a Tamil
or an Indian. The taste is awesome, to use a cliche.
I have tasted food made by Tamils settled in Singapore and
Malaysia also, but the finger-licking taste of original South Indian dishes
that I experienced in Karachi is unique. I had idly with medhu vada and chutney
and sambar, served on a banana leaf.
On one of the visits I also had koottu, which is a stew of
vegetables or greens, usually made with lentils, and spices which makes for a
side dish for a meal consisting of rice, sambar and rasam. This I had at
‘Virundhu’, which means ‘feast’ in Tamil. The owner’s father migrated to
Karachi from Madras in 1946. The owner, Ganesan, served me thayir (curd)
along with poriyal (dry fry of
vegetables). I didn’t have this in India despite my many visits to Madras and
Bangalore.
British culinary expert Gordon Ramsay aptly said the original
taste of a localised cuisine in a faraway place makes the food nostalgically
all the more tasty. This can very well be said of the typical Tamil gastronomic
delights in Pakistan. One feels a home connection and makes a trip down memory
lane. The feeling is indescribable. It’s akin to describing a rainbow to a
sight-impaired person.
After partaking of the wholesome Madrasi dastarkhwan (food
arrangement, in Persian), I said thank you in Tamil. The owner asked me if I
knew Tamil: Tamil pesuweengalaa? I told him I
understood it very well but could speak only a smattering of it. He then broke
into flawless Urdu, much to my amazement. And he wrote his name and address in
Urdu!
Now, I’ve begun to take my Muslim friends to these Tamil joints
and they too swear by the taste of idiyappam, sevai, kozhukattai, aapam and
typical Chettinad chicken. By the way, many Pakistani and Indian Muslim friends
of mine are of the opinion that South Indian Chettinad chicken can beat the
over-hyped butter chicken of Punjab province of India and West Punjab.
My Muslim friends in Pakistan love a certain pink-coloured soft
drink served after food, and thakkali saadam (tomato rice)
in these South Indian eateries in Pakistan’s metros.
·Exports to Malaysia remain highly negligible despite an FTA
signed in 2008
·Pakistan has given 15pc discount in import duty on palm oil
but has not received concessions in return
ISLAMABAD: As Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to visit Malaysia after
returning from China, the Ministry of Commerce has suggested to revise the Free
Trade Agreement (FTA) or seek unilateral concession on a number of export
items, as the existing bilateral trade was “highly in favour of Malaysia”.
According to sources, the prime minister will take up the issue
of imbalance of trade with Malaysia owing to the huge import of palm oil. The
exports to Malaysia remain highly negligible despite the FTA the two countries
signed in 2008, they added.
Although the PM wanted to visit Malaysia early last week, it was
later decided to postpone the trip until his visit to China. PM Khan will
be leaving for Malaysia on the invitation of his counterpart Mahathir Bin
Mohamad in the second week of November.
The PM will be accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising
Finance Minister Asad Umar, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
Earlier on October 18, Prime Minister Khan had made a telephone
call to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during which both leaders
invited each other to visit their respective states and agreed to extend
cooperation in various sectors.
According to sources at the Ministry of Commerce, the major
reason behind Pakistan’s negligible exports to Malaysia was that the items
which have the highest potential for exports are either not part of Malaysia’s
concession list or they are outright unfavourable for Pakistan, as competitors
enjoy better tariff rates.
Although Malaysia’s exports to Pakistan amount to only 0.52 per
cent of its total exports of $234 billion, the country managed to get
concessions for its most important export to Pakistan i.e. palm oil, sources
said.
As per the documents, 10 items amounted to 86 per cent of
Pakistan’s total exports to Malaysia. These included cereals (rice), cotton,
textiles and articles of apparel, and fish. Meanwhile, the top 10 items
imported by Pakistan from Malaysia contributed to 85 per cent of total imports
from Malaysia. These consisted mainly of palm oil (52%), machinery (7.82%) and
mineral fuels (7.31%).
According to the sources, under the existing trade agreements,
Pakistan has given 15 per cent discount in import duty on palm oil but has not
received concessions in return despite being one of the largest consumers of
the commodity.
The commerce ministry will reportedly suggest the government to
convince Malaysia for more imports of rice from Pakistan. It has been noted
that Malaysia buys 1 million tonnes of rice, however, not even 100,000 tonnes
are exported from Pakistan.
After giving concession and preferential treatment to palm oil
imports, Pakistan may ask Malaysia as well as Indonesia to give it a special
treatment with regard to selected export items like rice.
Unfortunately, Pakistan has been asking Indonesia and Malaysia
for opening the border for Kinnow and some other agricultural items. As per a
report, palm oil is worth $550 per tonne whereas kinnows are not even $50.
Pakistan may not have products worth up to $550 per tonne to balance out
imports, but it does have rice valued at $350 per tonne, which should be
exported instead.
First steps in building consensus for a new rice sector road map
Dr. Emil Q. Javier
Rising inflation had been very much in the news lately, with a
marked increase in the retail price of rice often cited as one of the major
culprits. Indeed, our rice sector has a long way to go to produce enough to
meet our national requirement at a cost competitive with imports.
However, in fairness to the Department of Agriculture (DA), our
national rice production had been increasing steadily during the last 50 years
(1968–2018) at a respectable rate of 3.18%. In fact, our average palay yield is
higher than that of Thailand from whom we import rice. But Thailand has three
times more riceland and 30 million less people to feed.
Still and all that growth rate in rice production while
commendable was not enough to match our population growth and increasing per
capita consumption that goes with increasing income Thus, during the last two
years, our rice self-sufficiency score is only 91%.
For so long our domestic rice sector has been shielded from
foreign competition with restrictions on volume of rice that may be imported.
That protection had been costly as manifested by the much higher price of rice
Filipino consumers had to bear.
That cost is reflected as well in the huge losses incurred by
the National Food Authority (NFA), the national agency tasked with providing
price support to increase income of the producers while selling rice at a loss
to make rice affordable to the poor.
With the lapse of the exception granted to the Philippines
regarding quantitative restrictions (QRs) on rice imports, we have no choice
now but to make good on the liberal market conditions we have voluntarily
acceded to when we joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) i.e. lifting QRs
but imposing reasonable tariffs.
Thus, the imperative for a new rice industry road map to take
into account the new market circumstances.
Last Tuesday, we had the opportunity to take a first look at the
new rice industry road map drafted by a DA multi-agency panel tasked by DA
Secretary Emmanuel Piñol and chaired by Flordeliza Bordey of the Philippine
Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).
The presentation was made at a policy forum convened by the Asia
Rice Foundation, Inc. (ARF), the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic
and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD-DOST) and the Coalition
for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines (CAMP) to get an immediate
feedback from stakeholders from the science community, the operating units of
DA itself and a few farmers.
The plan is very much a work in progress and the purpose of the
Forum precisely was to harvest comments and recommendations and buy-in to the
plan by significant stakeholders.
Here are the significant impressions:
Overwhelming support to road
map key targets
A detailed plan is yet to be developed so what was presented was
the road map in broad strokes. Basically the draft road map was very well
received. There was overwhelming support for the key targets, namely: 1)
increasing average yield to six tons per hectare through more use of certified
seeds and hybrids, and appropriate level of fertilizers, 2) reducing cost of
producing palay to P8–P10 per kilogram, a big part by more mechanization, 3)
reducing postharvest losses by 12%, with more drying facilities, 4) reducing
marketing margins by P1.00 per kilogram of rice, and 5) assisting rice farmers
and farm workers in low priority provinces in the transition to open market.
The fact that the plan was bold enough to express targets in
absolute but doable numbers reflected well on the rigor that went into the
deliberation of the drafting panel. That the plan was disaggregated into
provinces to take into account big differences in growing conditions was also
well-received.
Paradigm shift from rice
self-sufficiency to
raising farmers’ incomes
This issue had been the core of the debate all along. To the
relief of many, the draft road map without explicitly saying so, proceeds on
this premise. The first four technical objectives which address increasing
yield and reducing costs will raise farmers’ incomes and enable domestic rice
to be able to compete with imports.
But the 5th target is revealing. Assisting rice farmers and
farmworkers in low priority provinces in transition recognized the fact the
farms that are unproductive for rice due to lack of reliable water supply will
not be able to compete and are better off cultivating something else. It goes
without saying that this diversion of the less productive rice farms will
reduce total national output and effectively preclude self-sufficiency.
No to free distribution of
production inputs
Another key issue raised was whether the plan involves the free
distribution of seeds, fertilizers, and farm equipment to go along with free
irrigation. In response it was made clear that Secretary Piñol’s intention was
to facilitate access of farmers to formal credit with which to acquire the needed
production inputs.
This will be achieved by 1) making affordable credit more easily
accessible, 2) by expanding insurance coverage to protect farmers from
catastrophic losses, and 3) providing more guarantee funds to protect the rural
finance institutions and encourage them to lend more.
However, this should not rule out the opportunity to assist rice farmers to
turn around quickly after typhoons and floods with freely available seeds.
Re-engineering NFA as a
logistics service provider
Conspicuously absent in the road map was the absence of mention
of what to do with the NFA.
However, there was a consensus that abolishing NFA does not make sense. The
proper direction is to limit NFA’s mandate to 1) maintaining our grain
reserves, and 2) emergency food distribution after calamities. With all its
trained people, distribution networks, and physical assets, NFA could be
re-engineered into a profitable grains logistics service provider as proposed
by former NFA Administrator Romeo David during the forum.
Operational plans and budgets
The crowd in attendance most of whom were operating technical
personnel of the DA regional offices and DA agencies as well as senior
scientists and administrators from CAMP, PhilRice, Southeast Asian Regional
Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), Philippine
Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), Philippine
Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), UP Los Banos and other SUCs were basically
supportive of the draft road map. Unfortunately, there were only a few rice
farmers from Batangas in attendance.
As the rice road map gets firmed up, collectively, they look
forward to getting clarity on the operational plans and exactly how, by whom,
when, where, and most importantly, how much it will cost.
Additionally, more forward looking reforms in land markets,
basic data gathering, new institutional arrangements and innovative business
modalities applicable not just for rice but also for the entire agriculture and
fisheries sector were contributed by a distinguished panel which included
Lourdes Adriano (ADB), Leo Gonzales (formerly with IRRI and IPPRI), Leocadio
Sebastian (former PhilRice executive director), Fermin Adriano (World Bank
consultant), Senen Reyes (University of Asia and the Pacific) and Ernesto
Ordoñez (Agriculture and Fisheries Alliance).
Provided the DA takes heed, these first steps in building
consensus for a new rice road map should prove meaningful.
The team led by Rice postdoctoral
researcher Dana Krepel used a suite of state-of-the-art analysis tools to make
the call: It’s a single ring.
Their work is the first step
toward understanding the activity of proteins over the structure of chromosomes
throughout mitosis and all phases of the cell life cycle. That understanding
will help scientists learn how to better treat genetic diseases, including
cancer.
The results of the Rice team’s two-year study appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Condensin does what the word
suggests: It helps condense the chromosomes into the cell’s nucleus. Recent
research has demonstrated that condensin and its protein partner cohesin
extrude DNA. But until now, nobody has settled on how condensin proteins come
together into their functional forms.
Krepel started her analysis from
bacterial condensin complexes made up of five subunits, including two
structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) proteins that come together as a
hinge and long kleisin proteins that make up the rest of the ring. Complexes in
human eukaryotic nuclei – a target for future analysis – are similar to their
more archaic counterparts.
Krepel pieced the puzzle together
by combining and comparing existing data about the atomic structures and
genetic sequences of the individual proteins. The structures came from
available X-ray crystallography of protein fragments, and sequence information
through direct coupling analysis (DCA), a statistics-based program introduced
by Onuchic and his colleagues in 2011 that compares amino acid residues in
proteins that coevolve.
“We used DCA to infer coevolving
pairs of amino acids, and we had little bits of protein fragments from
experiments,” Krepel said. “That was a good starting point, and then we had to
put them together like a puzzle. We wanted to get a full structure and settle
the conflict over whether it’s a single or double ring.”
Knowing how proteins evolve
together was key. “This is a modular mechanism made of many proteins,” said
Rice postdoctoral researcher and co-author Michele Di Pierro. “It’s easier to
crystallize one protein, but it’s very difficult to figure out the structure of
this entire complex. That’s why it was ideal to look at coevolution, which lets
us get information about the complex even if we don’t have the structure.”
“Coevolution is basically about
natural selection,” added Ryan Cheng, also a postdoctoral researcher and
co-author of the paper. “As you get random mutations, certain interactions need
to be preserved to keep the function of that complex.”
“We expect that where these two
residues come together and match, they’re going to evolve together,” Onuchic
said. “If this one makes a mutation and has a bad reaction, the other one has
to compensate. Dana asked if can we get this sequence information together with
small crystal structures and determine these gigantic structures, and it turned
out that we can.”
Onuchic’s group at Rice’s Center
for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) has published a series of papers that
extend its theories on protein folding to the much larger genome. He expects
ongoing work will eventually reveal condensin’s mechanisms. “These things have
to condense the chromosomes,” he said. “People know that. But nobody knows how
they do it.”
Onuchic said studies by others
suggest the flexible hinge may help open and close the ring, serving as a gate
that allows DNA strands in and out, a process also hinted at by the Rice study.
But without knowing the position of every molecule in the complex, there is no
way to completely understand its function and dynamics.
“We know the condensin complex is
involved, because if you remove it, mitosis doesn’t happen,” he said. “But
nobody understands the mechanism. Now that we have this structure, we have the
first shot at understanding the molecular details.”
More information:
Dana Krepel et al. Deciphering the structure of the condensin protein
complex, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018).
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1812770115
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Biological
physicists at Rice University have a new cellular mechanics theory that rings
true.
The team led by Rice postdoctoral
researcher Dana Krepel used a suite of state-of-the-art analysis tools to make
the call: It’s a single ring.
Their work is the first step
toward understanding the activity of proteins over the structure of chromosomes
throughout mitosis and all phases of the cell life cycle. That understanding
will help scientists learn how to better treat genetic diseases, including
cancer.
The results of the Rice team’s two-year study appear in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Condensin does what the word
suggests: It helps condense the chromosomes into the cell’s nucleus. Recent
research has demonstrated that condensin and its protein partner cohesin
extrude DNA. But until now, nobody has settled on how condensin proteins come
together into their functional forms.
Krepel started her analysis from
bacterial condensin complexes made up of five subunits, including two
structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) proteins that come together as a
hinge and long kleisin proteins that make up the rest of the ring. Complexes in
human eukaryotic nuclei – a target for future analysis – are similar to their
more archaic counterparts.
Krepel pieced the puzzle together
by combining and comparing existing data about the atomic structures and
genetic sequences of the individual proteins. The structures came from
available X-ray crystallography of protein fragments, and sequence information
through direct coupling analysis (DCA), a statistics-based program introduced
by Onuchic and his colleagues in 2011 that compares amino acid residues in
proteins that coevolve.
“We used DCA to infer coevolving
pairs of amino acids, and we had little bits of protein fragments from
experiments,” Krepel said. “That was a good starting point, and then we had to
put them together like a puzzle. We wanted to get a full structure and settle
the conflict over whether it’s a single or double ring.”
Knowing how proteins evolve
together was key. “This is a modular mechanism made of many proteins,” said
Rice postdoctoral researcher and co-author Michele Di Pierro. “It’s easier to
crystallize one protein, but it’s very difficult to figure out the structure of
this entire complex. That’s why it was ideal to look at coevolution, which lets
us get information about the complex even if we don’t have the structure.”
“Coevolution is basically about
natural selection,” added Ryan Cheng, also a postdoctoral researcher and
co-author of the paper. “As you get random mutations, certain interactions need
to be preserved to keep the function of that complex.”
“We expect that where these two
residues come together and match, they’re going to evolve together,” Onuchic
said. “If this one makes a mutation and has a bad reaction, the other one has
to compensate. Dana asked if can we get this sequence information together with
small crystal structures and determine these gigantic structures, and it turned
out that we can.”
Onuchic’s group at Rice’s Center
for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) has published a series of papers that
extend its theories on protein folding to the much larger genome. He expects
ongoing work will eventually reveal condensin’s mechanisms. “These things have
to condense the chromosomes,” he said. “People know that. But nobody knows how
they do it.”
Onuchic said studies by others
suggest the flexible hinge may help open and close the ring, serving as a gate
that allows DNA strands in and out, a process also hinted at by the Rice study.
But without knowing the position of every molecule in the complex, there is no way
to completely understand its function and dynamics.
“We know the condensin complex is
involved, because if you remove it, mitosis doesn’t happen,” he said. “But
nobody understands the mechanism. Now that we have this structure, we have the
first shot at understanding the molecular details.”
More information:
Dana Krepel et al. Deciphering the structure of the condensin protein
complex, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018).
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1812770115
Pemalang Records the Highest Added Planting Area
of Paddy in Central Java, Using This System
Coodination
Meeting of Special Efforts Program to Increase Rice, Corn and Soybean
Production by the Ministry of Agriculture in Pemalang
PEMALANG, NNC -- The Ministry of Agriculture continues to make
breakthroughs to increase rice production for the availability of rice at all
times and stable prices. Through the Special Efforts Program to Increase Rice,
Corn and Soybean Production (Upsus Pajale), the Ministry of Agriculture
implements a methuk system (separating areas for nursery and planting) to
increase the added planting area (LTT) of paddy.
"This methuk system
succeeded in increasing paddy LTT in Pemalang for the period October
2017-September 2018 covering an area of 100,343 hectares or a surplus by 9,960
hectares compared to the same period in October 2016-September 2017 covering
90,383 hectares," said PIC of Upsus Pajale of the Central Java Province,
who is also Director General of Horticulture, Suwandi at the Coordination
Meeting who at the same time gave an award to Pemalang Regency for reaching the
first place in Central Java in achieving paddy LTT, in Pemalang on Saturday
(11/3/2018).
"The award was also given to
the three high-performing sub-districts of paddy LTT at the tegency level,
namely Bantarbolang Sub-district, Taman Sub-district and Warungpring
Sub-district," he continued.
Suwandi explained this
achievement was due to the breakthrough of pumping and the planting pattern by
the methuk system, by seedlings and planting early. So the interval from
harvest to planting is at most two weeks.
The three outstanding
sub-districts along with Pemalang Military District Command (Kodim) 0711 were
also rewarded with the assistance of cayenne seeds which were immediately
handed over to the District Extension Coordinator and Pemalang Military District
Commander.
"This seed prize is to
provide fighting spirit to continue to improve its performance," said
Suwandi.
Suwandi added that besides
boosting rice production, it is expected to continue to boost production of
other superior commodities such as pineapple, mango and jasmine flowers, which
are export commodities.
"Ministry of Agriculture
continues to supervise and assist from upstream to downstream so as to boost
exports," he admitted.
According to the Head of the
Pemalang Regency Agriculture Service Suharto, based on the latest data, the
paddy fields declined by around 8,000 hectares from 38,000 to around 30,000
hectares.
However, this condition does not
reduce people's enthusiasm to succeed the government program, which is to
support the expansion of rice cultivation in particular so that it can achieve
such achievements today.
"For us, this is an
opportunity by applying the strategy by encouraging farmers to carry out the
methuk system so that before the harvest, the seedlings have been planted in
another location thus the location which is ready for harvesting can be
immediately processed for planting [again] because the seeds are ready,"
he said.
In addition, continued Suharto,
the Pemalang agricultural service continued to encourage farmers to implement
Gogo Rice (which is tolerant to dry land) and intercropping on dry land. This
strategy was successfully carried out by providing pumping support on the dry
land.
"As a result, it is able to
irrigate dry land and intercropping," he said.
Brawijaya University students win gold in 2018
IUFoST
Nedi Putra AW
The Jakarta Post
Malang, East Java | Sat, November 3, 2018| 09:07 am
Alfisah Nur Annisa (left), Widya Nur Habiba (second
left), Annisa Aurora Kartika (second right) and Joko Tri Rubiyanto (right) pose
with the awards they won in the 2018 International Union of Food Science and
Technology (IUFoST) Product Development Competition in Mumbai, India, on Oct.
27. (Courtesy of/Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Brawijaya University)
Students
from the Brawijaya University’s School of Agricultural Technology in Malang,
East Java, won three out of the five gold medals contested at the 2018
International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) Product Development
Competition.
The event was held On Oct. 23-27 at the
CIDCO Exhibition Center in Mumbai, India. It is a biennial world food
product development competition that started in 1962.
Themed, 25 Billion Meals a Day by 2025 with
Healthy, Nutritious, Safe, and Diverse Food, the competition drew more than
3,000 contestants from 74 countries.
Widya Nur Habiba, Alfisah Nur Annisa, Annisa
Aurora Kartika and Joko Tri Rubiyanto from Brawijaya University won in the Best
Oral Presentation, Best Commercial Content and Best Overall Project categories.
They submitted for the event analog rice
made from local sago, corn and umbi
porang (elephant foot yam). The rice is named NABU, which
stands for nasi berbahan dasar sagu (sago-based
rice).
Team
leader Widya Nur Habiba said NABU was more nutritious and had a lower glycemic
index level than regular rice to prevent malnutrition and a higher risk of
diabetes.
She
added that the main ingredients were easy to find in Indonesia and the rice
could grow in extreme conditions.
Widya
also said that NABU could be consumed as an alternative to regular rice in
order to reduce rice imports.
“The analog
rice can be seen as a solution for famine, as what happened to the Asmat tribe
in Papua in January 2018,” she added. (iru/wng)
No need to import rice: Bulog
News Desk
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta | Wed, October 31, 2018| 01:31 pm
State-owned logistics company Bulog president director Budi
Waseso (Antara/Wahyu Putro A)
The
State Logistics Agency (Bulog) says its rice stock of 2.4 million tons is
adequate to meet domestic demand. Therefore, the company assures that the
country does not need to import the commodity.
“It indicates that we have strong stock,” Bulog
president director Budi Waseso said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said Bulog was committed to implementing its
main duties – purchasing rice from farmers, carrying out market operations to
stabilize prices and maintaining strong rice stocks to assure the availability
of the commodity.
The agency is required to maintain between
1 and 1.5 million tons of rice that should be ready to be
distributed to Bulog’s warehouses across the country at any time.
“As a price stabilizing institution, Bulog
continuously carries out market intervention. With it, the commodity should
always be available and of good quality,” Budi said, adding that since January,
Bulog had released 384,328 tons rice for market operations, an average of 2,500
per day.
Bulog will continue to monitor rice prices,
said Budi.
Bulog purchases 3,000 tons of unhusked rice
from farmers every day, he said, adding that with the absorption of farmers’
rice, Bulog could also stock up until the end of 2018.(bbn)
4,
2018, 12:03 AM; last updated: Nov 4, 2018, 12:03 AM (IST)
Allege pace of paddy
procurement slow due to high moisture content
Labourers
work at a grain market in Bathinda on Saturday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma
Tribune
News Service
Bathinda,
November 3
Several farmer unions have announced to block
roads for three hours across the state on November 5 over the slow pace of
paddy procurement due to high moisture content.
Sukhdev
Singh Kokrikalan, state secretary, BKU (Ekta) Urgahan, said people’s support
was being mobilised to block roads in protest on November 5 at the
village level.
Kokrikalan said, “Due to the wrong attitude of
the state government and the Centre towards genuine demands of farmers, we have
been forced to intensify our stir. We have been compelled to block roads in
protest.”
Kokrikalan
said farmers had been demanding is that the prescribed limit of moisture
content in paddy be raised to 24 per cent from 17 per cent. “Due to
government’s wrong policies, farmers sow paddy late, which results in late
harvesting. It means that the harvested crop will have more moisture content.
If paddy is sown before May 31, its moisture content is around 22%,” the farmer
leader added.
He said due to late sowing, the yield of paddy
has decreased by three quintals per acre. He added that the state government
should give compensations to farmers.
High moisture content in paddy has led to a
glut in grain markets across the region. Farmers have been saying that they are
being fleeced on account of high moisture in their paddy. They have also been
alleging a nexus among rice millers, arhtiyas, Mandi Board and procurement
agencies.
On a random visit to a grain market, it has
been found that the paddy with high moisture has left the mandi chocked.
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Atomic energy
utilization brings positive results in healthcare, agriculture
The 3rd national scientific conference on ‘Atomic
Energy Utilization for the Socio-Economic Development’ was held yesterday in
Hanoi by the Vietnam Atomic Energy Agency under the Ministry of Science and
Technology.
The 3rd national scientific conference on ‘Atomic Energy
Utilization for the Socio-Economic Development’. Photo by T.B
In the two years from 2016, the
implementation of radiation and radio-active isotopes has gained several
impressive results in the fields of health, agriculture, natural resources and
environment.
The conference aims at evaluating
the status and results of policy application and research activities regarding
atomic energy in the period from 2016 – 2018.
It also focuses on discussions
about development directions and potentials of atomic energy in the near
future, along with the fostering of cooperation in such activities like state
management, research and implementation, training and technology transfer,
production and services in the field for the national economic and social
growth.
In the event, many prominent
achievements on utilizing atomic energy in life were presented, such as the
creation of highly efficient rice species and made-in-Vietnam irradiation
equipment.
Regarding healthcare, there are
35 institutes of nuclear medicine with more than 45 pieces of radiation
equipment, some of which are as modern as those in neighboring countries to
help the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, heart, and nerve diseases become
more effective.
There are nearly 40 units of
radiotherapy nationwide, mostly in major cities.
As to health imaging, in Vietnam,
there are 174 computed tomography (CT) scanners, 51 magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) scanners, 21 digital subtraction angiography scanners, and over 500 high
frequency X-ray generators.
The production and use of
radio-active isotopes are considerably boosted in major hospitals in Hanoi and
Ho Chi Minh City like Cho Ray Hospital, Bach Mai Hospital, 108 Military Central
Hospital.
Concerning agriculture, according
to the evaluation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vietnam is
ranked the 8thposition in researching
on cross-breading plant species. Until 2017, it has been able to develop more
than 68 new plant types, 48 of which are rice types, thanks to applying the
irradiation technology.
Some typical examples are the
rice type Khang Dan grown in the northern regions with a cultivation area of
over 1.5 million ha, and the rice type DT10 also in the northern part with an
average yield of 5.5 to 6 tons per ha.
Vietnam has also registered
copyright of two temperature-sensitive rice genes of TGMS-VN1 and TGM-VN6 while
adding hundreds of mutated genes to the international rice gene bank.
Besides, the technology of
radio-active isotope Cesium-137 and Beryllium-7 has been used to evaluate the
soil erosion status in the Central Highlands and North West, and the potential
to further apply into an area of 13 million ha of sloping soil, accounting for
40 percent of the total amount of national land. This is expected to save
hundreds of tons of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer with a value of hundreds
of millions of US dollars per year.
Taking part in the conference
were more than 170 delegates who are members of the National Atomic Energy
Council as well as scientists, leaders, and experts from different related
ministries and regions, along with representatives of businesses in the field.
The conference had the honor to welcome representatives of IAEA, Head of the
Korean Advanced Radiation Technology Institute, and international
professionals.
Decree brings
small, medium enterprises rice export chances
SGGP
The Ministry of Industry and Trade
yesterday organized a conference to popularize Decree 107 on rice trading and
export, saying the decree facilitate small and medium enterprises’
participation in rice export market.
Workers pile up rice bags
According to the ministry, the decree has created transparent conditions for businesses by reducing costs
while joining in the market. They can hire instead of buying storages and
milling facilities as before. The decree also abolishes floor price in rice
export and permits businesses to export without registering with Vietnam Food
Association.
In addition, the decree encourages
investment in making and exporting high quality and high added value products,
contributing to the rice industry restructuring and fortifying Vietnamese rice
brand names in both domestic and foreign markets.
The ministry reports that Vietnam
now has over 140 businesses licensed to export rice.
By mid October, rice export output
reached five million tons, up four percent over the same period last. Value was
up 17.7 percent.
Major export markets include Asian
nations accounting for 67.9 percent of the country’s export volume, Africa 11.7
percent, America 8 percent and the Middle East 6.3 percent.
Over 6,000 rice farmers trained in
Kano, Jigawa – Africa Rice
By Tijjani Ibrahim, Kano| Published Date
The Africa Rice, in conjunction with Agricultural Transformation
Support Programme Phase I (ATASP-1), has trained a total of 6,436 rice farmers
on good agricultural practices in the Kano and Jigawa staple crops processing zone.
The Zonal Research Associate of Africa Rice, Mr Bisi Ilebani,
made this known during a field trip to commemorate Farmer’s Field Day at Zangon
Buhari village of Bunkure Local Government Area, Kano State.
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“Out of the number of trained farmers, 1,097 were provided with
improved seeds to cultivate 201.46 hectares and 260 were provided with improved
seeds and other inputs at 50 per cent subsidised rate to cultivate 144.1
hectares,” he said.
He added that 600 youths were trained on rice seed production
technology in the zone and they have cultivated about 30 hectares of rice seeds
production plots.
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“The second category was also provided with breeder seeds and
other inputs at 50 per cent discount and were subsequently linked up with seed
companies and farmers around the communities to offtake their produce,” he
stated.
One of the beneficiaries of the seed production technology
training, Sa’adu Tasiu, said before the training, he used to cultivate a
maximum of 35 bags of rice per acre, but with the training and improved
seeds, he harvested 65 bags per acre last year and projected about 75 bags this
year.
He called on the ATASP and Africa Rice to expand the programme
so that more farmers could benefit
FOCUSING on just three rice
varieties, Negros Occidental is bound to become the first province in the
country to initiate an innovation in rice farming by investing in a provincial
government-funded seed production program.This development came out after
Negros Occidental Alfredo G. Marañon Jr. met with Department of Agriculture
(DA) Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol during his recent visit to the province.
Under the agreement, it will be called the “Balik Binhi”
Program, wherein the provincial government will be developing a 50-hectare land
area to produce the seeds of the three inbred varieties that were developed by
the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) – particularly the RC 222, RC
160, and RC 216 varieties.
Negros Occidental Provincial Agriculturist Japhet Masculino said
the three PhilRice varieties were selected for propagation in the province
because of their adaptability in the area.
Marañon said the seeds produced from the provincial seed farm
will be distributed to the farmers for free.
The recipient farmers will in turn be required to “return” two
bags of seeds which the provincial government will again distribute to two more
farmers who will also be asked to pay back two bags of seeds each.
Concentrating on just three varieties, the program for Negros
Occidental will be the first to be implemented in the country where farmers
usually plant just about every known variety.
The multiple-variety farming system has proven to be a bane of
the Philippine rice industry where farm management, including the handling of
diseases, has largely been a problem.
Multiple-variety farming system also poses a problem on
post-harvest operations where farmers who own small landholdings refuse to dry
their palay in mechanical dryers with huge capacity because they have different
varieties.
Another problem is milling because different varieties have
different grain sizes and formations.
In Vietnam, the country focused on at least two major varieties
which were all high-yielding and early maturing.
The Negros Occidental’s “3-in-1 Rice Industry Program” could
serve as the blueprint for other provinces in the future.
Marañon said this program will be started this coming planting
season with the support of PhilRice.
During its recent board of trustees meeting, PhilRice approved
the program and has committed to provide technical support to the initiative of
Negros Occidental.
PhilRice then gave the following information regarding the three
selected varieties:
When transplanted, the RC 216, also known as Tubigan 17, has a
maximum yield of 9.7 t/ha with a maturity of 112 days after sowing (DAS).
It is moderately resistant to brown planthoppers (BPH) and green
leafhoppers (GLH).
RC 160 has a maximum yield of 8.2 t/ha if direct-wet-seeded and
matures in 107 DAS.
It has intermediate reaction to blast, bacterial leaf blight
(BLB) and GLH, and is resistant to stem borer. This variety is also known for
its good eating quality because of its low amylose content.
While the RC 222, known as Tubigan 18, has a maximum yield of 10
t/ha matures in 114 DAS. It is moderately resistant to BPH, GLH, and stem
borers. (jaypeeyap@ymail.com/PN)
The
Niger State contingent to the just concluded national agricultural show has
explained why the state in the 2017 and 2018 farming seasons ranked first
according to the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services
(NAERLS) of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
Niger
State Project Coordinator of Fadama III (Additional Financing), Dr. Aliyu Usman
Kultigi, who led the state’s delegation to the show, said the state provided
all the necessary support to farmers to aid rice production.
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Dr.
Kultigi said under the Fadama III alone, 11,000 farmers in the state, each with
a hectare, had been given all the needed support leading to the cultivation of
11 thousand hectares.
He said
six irrigation structures had also been constructed for the dry season
cultivation, adding that this helped to scale up all-time rice production.
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In
addition to this, he said 300 tube wells were sunk for the farmers where
irrigation systems were not available.
The
programme has also constructed 10 rice aggregation centres to help farmers sell
their rice in a more organised manner in the state.
The
coordinator, however, lamented that the recent flood washed away over 5,000
hectares of rice farms, the impact of which was huge on the farmers.
Again,
Kano shows dominance in agric show
A visit
to the Kano State arena in the ongoing National Agricultural Show has shown
that no state came near to in terms of appearance.
In its
usual tradition, the state came with all its 44 local governments to show what
they all produce.
Every
year, the state does not only come with crops, services or livestock, it also
comes with a zoo, where thousands of people, including school children, go to
see animals, some of which they never have the opportunity to see for the first
time.
Whatever
you wish to see, Kano has something that will interest you; whether you are a
dairy farmer, crop farmer or a mere spectator.
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Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to
help make agri resilient to climate change
DECCAN CHRONICLE.
PublishedNov 4, 2018, 6:01 am IST
UpdatedNov 4, 2018, 6:01 am IST
Climate change, plant diseases and
insect-pests are estimated to cost an annual loss of USD 8.6 billion.
The
centre was formally launched by Akhilesh Gupta, Adviser and Head of the Climate
Change Programme of DST, recently.
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University is part of a national consortium to help make agriculture more
resilient to vagaries of climate change.
The Department of Science
and Technology (DST) which has established a centre of excellence on climate
change research for plant protection at the Hyderabad-based International Crop
Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), will operate like a
consortium. Besides TNAU, its partners include Indian Institute of Rice
Research; University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur; Indian Agricultural
Research Institute; Punjab Agriculture University; and centres of CGIAR, the
global network of research institutions working in the area of agriculture.
The centre would focus on
real-time structured surveillance for insect-pests and diseases using
GPS-tagging techniques besides develop a model to alert policy makers and
farmers of any changes in the pattern of plant diseases and insect-pests. It
will work on prediction of future climate scenarios and develop GIS-based risk
maps for diseases and insect-pests at zonal, regional and State-levels.
The centre was formally
launched by Akhilesh Gupta, Adviser and Head of the Climate Change Programme of
DST, recently.
Current estimates of
climate change indicate possible increases in global mean annual temperatures
in the order of 1 degree C by 2025 and 3 degree C by 2100. Coupled with
variability in rainfall pattern and increase in global precipitation levels,
this could result in new diseases and insect-pests, and increased risk of
invasion by migrant diseases and insect pests. Climate change, plant diseases
and insect-pests are estimated to cost an annual loss of USD 8.6 billion.
The centre would focus on real-time structured surveillance for insect-pests
and diseases using GPS-tagging techniques besides developing a
model to alert policy makers and farmers of any changes in the pattern of
plant diseases and insect-pests
