Nepalese Rice Farmers Boost Yields By Sowing Fewer Plants And Cutting
Water
LISTEN·3
January
30, 201912:43 PM ET
DANIELLE PREISS
Apsara
Bharati is watching over her field in Nepal, where she and her neighbors are
using the system of rice intensification to plant seedlings.
Danielle
Preiss/NPR
Apsara
Bharati and her neighbors are spread across a small bit of land in Kavre, about
20 miles outside Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. The women bend to plant rice
seedlings in mud up to their calves in Bharati's field.
"One
by one," Bharati instructs the women, who are used to placing several
plants at once. Bharati is practicing SRI, or the system of rice
intensification. The technique, which was developed in Madagascar in the 1980s
by French Jesuit priest Henri de Laulanié, involves several practices that seem
counterintuitive to increasing production, such as planting fewer seedlings,
planting them younger and using less water. But small farmers across the world
have reported massive gains in yield that they attribute to the process.
Farmers
using SRI in Nepal have consistently doubled their yields, according to
Rajendra Uprety, a senior agriculture extension officer in southern Nepal and a
pioneer of the practice in the country. This can make a huge difference for
small landholders who rely on what they grow for months out of the year. Uprety
says SRI-grown rice also can be sold for three times the price of conventional
rice, because it is considered higher quality. SRI also cuts water demand,
which is becoming increasingly important as climate change causes worries about
scarcity and food security.
Norman Uphoff, a professor of
government and international agriculture at Cornell University, estimates about
20 million households around the world now use SRI, which also involves other
practices, such as carefully controlling water use and applying organic
fertilizers. Uphoff has been tracking its spread across the globe through
the SRI
International Network and Resource Center housed at Cornell.
Small farmers in India supposedly shattered yield records using the practice.
But
while it grows among farmers, the scientific community remains mixed. Those
sensational yield records have been challenged by researchers who say they're
simply not possible. "The claims that were being made were of yields that
were well beyond those that have been measured by standard practices and beyond
sort of the physiological maximum of the rice crop in the field," says
David Johnson, the Southeast Asia representative for the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI). SRI also proves difficult to measure as its
flexibility means comparisons are more difficult to draw across farms and
regions.
Some of the criticism has come
from Uphoff's own colleagues at Cornell, who found SRI to be no better than
conventional agriculture through a review of data in 2006. Uphoff says the study used
selective data, but that support for SRI is limited because there is no
commercial interest from large agricultural firms that sell improved seeds and
chemical fertilizers.
"The
green revolution technology [of the 1950s and 60s] which had great benefits for
many people requires that you buy new seeds and that you buy and use a lot of
chemical fertilizer," he explains.
There might be a more pressing
reason for countries like Nepal to try SRI. If you've ever seen rice paddies,
you've probably seen them flooded. Rice is one of the most water-intensive
crops to grow, needing about 2,500 liters per kilogram, according to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
"Rice is not a water-thirsty
plant. But this is the tradition. That's how people plant rice," says Srijana Karki, who promotes SRI use through the U.S.-based organization World Neighbors.
Karki says the excess water used in traditional rice agriculture is really to
control weeds. With SRI, farmers weed more, but use less water.
This aspect of the method has
piqued the interest of climate scientists like Sonali McDermid at New York
University.
"I've
seen estimates of about 25 percent reductions in water consumption, all the way
to 50 or 60 percent reductions in water consumption," McDermid says of
SRI. Standing water also causes methane emissions that contribute to climate
change. As climate change causes drier conditions and less reliable weather
patterns around the world, researchers are worried about the serious
consequences for food security.
Women
in Apsara Bharati's field are up to their calves in mud, using a technique that
involves planting fewer seedlings but produces a higher yield.
Danielle
Preiss/NPR
Rice
is a vital crop in Asia, where it makes up a majority of the diet of hundreds
of millions of people. "Without rice, South Asia cannot think about food
security. If rice production goes down it will affect the food security, it
will affect the nutritional security, it will destabilize the society,"
says Golam Rasul, chief economist at the Integrated Center for International
Mountain Development in Kathmandu. Rasul says Nepal is especially vulnerable to
the effects of climate change both because of its poverty and its geographic
diversity. Temperatures increase more quickly in the high mountains, and the
country's low GDP and dependence on agriculture don't allow much room for
adaptation.
But Nepal is small potatoes
compared to massive rice-growing countries like India, where over 20 percent of
the world's rice is produced. That's why McDermid is working with researchers
from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to see whether SRI might help in the
face of global water shortages. "We are very close to hitting a crisis, if
not starting a crisis already, in terms of the amount of water available to
sustain production," says McDermid.
Through
test plots in India and Latin America, the researchers aim to isolate the parts
of SRI that seem to work for poor farmers. They'll then use climate models to
see how it might fare in a drier future. With longer root systems, the thinking
goes, the plants should access deeper groundwater and be better able to
withstand drought. McDermid is waiting for the data to say whether SRI is
really a game changer, but cautions the method helps poor farmers, not those
who can afford the production boost of agricultural tech like improved seeds
and fertilizers.
David
Johnson, from IRRI, says SRI has drawn better attention to general good crop
management practices, such as weed control and use of young seedlings, and that
farmers with yield gaps can certainly benefit from using the principles. But
Johnson says for better adaptation, these should be combined with stress
tolerant varieties of seed. IRRI has developed specific varieties for use in
both Nepal and India.
Back in Kavre, Srijana Karki
translates for farmer Indira Lamisal, who is noticing changes in the climate.
"In earlier days rainfall was pretty predictable and regular, but nowadays
there's no rainfall and it's not predictable," she says. SRI
might not actually fix this; carefully controlling irrigation is an important
step of the process and if rain really dries up, and small farmers like Lamisal
don't have decent irrigation, the crop could suffer. These scenarios are what
McDermid and her team hope to understand better. "This is where the
science can help the farmers," she says.
But
Karki says the hardest part is convincing farmers' families to take on the risk
of SRI.
"There's
no insurance, and they don't have much land, you know. They depend on the
produce, they don't have extra money to buy rice if it doesn't work," she
says.
Shanti
Rai, who was helping her neighbour Apsara Bharati plant, remembers seeing what
looked like a barren field when she tried SRI for the first time herself. Used
to seeing many plants bunched together, the few widely spaced plants didn't
look like they could possibly produce enough rice to feed the family.
"I
was scared and my family yelled at me, what did you plant?" she remembers.
Srijana
Karki (dressed in black) hands over rice seedlings for planting in Apsara
Bharati's field. Karki says the hardest part is convincing farmers' families to
take on the risk of SRI.
Danielle
Preiss/NPR
Rai's
family changed their minds when they saw their production increased almost 25
percent. True to the method, the single-spaced plants produced around double
the number of seeds per plant than they would have normally. This meant they
grew enough to eat from their fields for eight months out of the year instead
of the six they managed before. For families like theirs, this is all the
evidence they need.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/01/30/689685891/nepalese-rice-farmers-boost-yields-by-sowing-fewer-plants-and-cutting-water30 JANUARY
2019
Indian court’s decision to uphold GM cotton patent could boost industry
research
But the ruling
is not the end of the legal challenge.
Gayathri
Vaidyanathan
Almost 90% of the cotton grown in India in 2017–18
contained Monsanto’s genetic modifications.Credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg via Getty
Some scientists in India have
welcomed a supreme court ruling that reinstates a patent on genetically
modified cotton that had been quashed by a lower court. They say the decision
to uphold the intellectual-property rights of seed maker Monsanto could help
reverse a decline in biotechnology research in agriculture in the country.
“Publicly funded science in this
broad area can now be assured of protection of its intellectual property,” says
government science adviser Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan, who is based in New
Delhi. “Indian agriculture and other biotech scientists should feel encouraged
to innovate further.”
In a long-running battle over
intellectual protection for genetically modified (GM) crops in India, the 8
January decision from the country’s highest court is seen as a win for
research-focused seed companies such as Monsanto (bought last year by Bayer of
Germany) that want protection for their transgenic technology.
But some lawyers say celebrations
are premature. Although the supreme court has upheld the patent for now, it has
instructed a lower court to re-examine whether Monsanto’s specific patent on GM
cotton is valid. Some farmers, scientists and seed-trading companies think the
country’s patent laws do not extend to transgenic seeds, crops or plants.
The legislation is open to
interpretation — it says that genetic sequences generated in the lab can be
patented, but seeds and plants can’t. Scientists say the court’s decision on the Monsanto cotton patent will set a precedent
for the protection of other GM crops, which will have a profound effect on
research and development in the field.
Cotton is the only GM crop
currently approved for cultivation by the Indian government. If the patent is
upheld, biotechnology companies will probably increase their investment in the
GM research, but a denial could have the opposite effect.
Long battle
Monsanto’s patent covers the
process by which the gene Cry2Ab from the bacterium Bacillus
thuringiensis is inserted in the cotton genome. This gene causes the
plant to make proteins that protect the crop from devastating bollworm
caterpillars. Almost all Indian cotton-seed companies pay a trait fee to
Monsanto to incorporate the gene into their varieties, which accounted for 89%
of cotton planted in India in 2017–18.
After a dispute over the trait
fee in 2015, Nuziveedu Seeds in Hyderabad challenged the validity of Monsanto’s
patent in court in 2017. In April last year, the Delhi high court ruled that
the patent was invalid, finding that items such as seeds cannot be patented
under India’s 1970 Patents Act.
The court made its decision
without a trial, after both companies waived their rights to one. But the
supreme court says this was not allowed, ruling the high court’s decision
invalid and reinstating Monsanto’s patent.
Even though the patent will be
reviewed again, industry scientists say that the supreme-court decision will
restore companies’ confidence in the patent system. This case is about more
than just a dispute between Monsanto and Nuziveedu, says Suresh Atluri, founder
of Tierra Seed Science in Hyderabad. The ruling sets a precedent that a patent
cannot be quashed easily in court, says Atluri. Seed companies that invest in
research and development need this protection to deter competitors from copying
their discoveries, he says.
“This development will have a
positive effect on creating more investments for agriculture research,” says
Usha Barwale Zehr, chief technology officer at Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds in
Jalna, which has developed a GM aubergine that has not yet been approved for
cultivation.
The ongoing intellectual-property
case has partly curbed funding for research into GM crops over the past three
years, says Zehr. “But to bring it back to the same level it was three years
ago will take time, and to a certain level, we all have lost the opportunity of
creating new products with new technologies over the past three years.”
Existing knowledge
Some researchers think that the
court should not uphold Monsanto’s patent. Polumetla Ananda Kumar, a plant
biologist at the Indian Institute of Rice Research in Hyderabad, says many
agricultural scientists were aware that crystal proteins in B.
thuringiensis could be inserted into the cotton genome to protect
crops from pests when the company filed its patent claim in 1998.
“Theoretically speaking, one cannot file a patent on an invention about which
prior knowledge is available,” Kumar says. “So, on that basis itself, this
patent application doesn’t stand any validity in India.”
Bayer currently restricts use of
the transgene in India to certain hybrid varieties of cotton. However, if the
patent is denied, the company will no longer exercise control over the
varieties that get released to farmers, says Keshav Kranthi, head of technical
information at the International Cotton Advisory Council in Washington DC.
Scientists in public institutions would be free to incorporate the transgene
into non-hybrid varieties, says Kranthi. This could improve yields for some
farmers, because hybrids are not well suited to the non-irrigated regions that
make up 62% of cotton acreage in India, he says.
A Bayer spokesperson says the
company is confident that it can defend any challenge to the patent. No date
has been set for the retrial.
But if the high court finds in
Bayer's favour, Nuziveedu Seeds will appeal the decision, says Murali Krishna
Narne, a lawyer for the company.
Nigerians love rice so much even
exorbitant tariffs can’t stop them importing it
Rice is Nigeria’s most popular food
staple.
A few generations ago, pre-independence in 1960, long grain rice
was something only elites had with any regularity, for many Nigerians it was
something for the weekend or special occasions. Today, everyone eats rice in
Nigeria. It cuts across the ethnic and religious divides in Africa’s most
populous country and is consumed across households, from low to high-income.
Over time, rice has evolved from being regarded as a luxury dish to being an
everyday meal.
In fact now, rice is the face of Nigerian cuisine with fun
pan-African debates over ownership of the
famed Jollof rice dish.
With no obvious substitute grain crops as widely available or consumed and
Nigeria’s continued
population growth, the demand for rice is unlikely to slow down.
But this popularity, universality and growing demand has also
meant rice has in time become Nigeria’s most political food. One of the
many reasons for this is Nigeria never really had a big rice farming culture,
at least not at sufficient scale to satisfy the country’s growing demand.
“It’s not an invasion of foreign rice. Just think about it as
honest farmers in other countries being more competitive than ours.”
Since coming to office in 2015, Nigeria’s president Muhammadu
Buhari has repeatedly talked up plans to achieve food sufficiency and boost
local agriculture with rice as a centerpiece of that strategy. To that end, a
crackdown on rice imports with tariffs and levies totaling 70% and a
$150 million loan scheme for local rice farmers were put in place. The
idea the government had was to make imports less attractive while also boosting
production and consumption of local rice.
The tactic appears to have worked with latest data from Gro
Intelligence showing local rice production has grown by 60% in the last five
years, peaking
at 4.8 million metric tons over the past year.
But there’s a catch: local production still cannot match domestic
demand.
And despite the government’s high tariffs, that supply gap is
still being plugged by imports which have not dropped significantly. Even
worse, some importers are avoiding the steep import tariffs—and rewarded with
healthier margins—by smuggling rice through Nigeria’s porous land
borders, despite
the high risks.
Debisi Araba, regional director at the Nairobi-based International
Center for Tropical Agriculture, says the tariffs will likely remain
ineffective in reducing imports given rising local demand. ”The rice
tariffs have minimal impact on the rice market,” he says. “Because ultimately,
imported rice is making its way into the country whether legally or otherwise.”
“As long as the demand is still there and there’s a gap, people
will fill it,” says Tunde Leye, consulting partner at SBM Intelligence, a
Lagos-based research firm. Despite higher tariffs and risks, “smuggling and
imports are still having to supply a significant portion of consumption, so the
economics still make sense for the importer,” says Leye.
Rather than “obsessing” over imports, Araba argues, players in the
sector should be more focused on investing in agronomy and improving yields
which have, so far, only shown marginal growth. “That’s due to a number of
factors [including] access to irrigation and proper agronomic practices,” he
says. “Agriculture is really sophisticated and you can’t reduce it to
distributing fertilizers to farmers,” adds Araba who also served as special
adviser to Nigeria’s former minister of agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina.
In attempting to clamp down on imports while local production
still falls short of demand, Leye says the government is chasing the wrong
priority. ”The correct goal we should be pursuing is that food should be
cheap so that the portion of the income of the average Nigerian that goes to
food is reducing,” he says. Given that the government’s loan scheme for rice
farmers has been saddled by fraud
allegations and high
rates of loan defaults, it can hardly be classed as a sustainable,
long-term fix.
To kick-start and sustain its ambitious agriculture revolution,
the government will be better served plugging the enduring loopholes along the
local agriculture value chain. The long-running issue of produce failing to
reach the market owing to transportation and preservation problems largely
remains unsolved. And lingering
pastoral conflict in Nigeria’s major food-producing regions have posed
a new challenge—and impacted
productivity—over the past few years.
In the meantime, Araba recommends a change in the
government’s aggressive rhetoric on rice importation. “It’s not an invasion of
foreign rice,” he says. “Just think about it as honest farmers in other
countries being more competitive than your farmers so focus on making your
farmers more competitive.”
NFA says over half of rice import orders have arrived as of Jan. 29
January 30, 2019 | 10:06 pm
PHILSTAR
THE National Food Authority (NFA)
said 258,854.80 metric tons (MT) or about 53.77% of the 500,000 MT of rice
contracted for import has arrived in the Philippines as of Jan. 29.
About 123,905 MT has been
unloaded in various ports, the NFA said, and the shipments have been received
by the agency’s warehouses.
About 235,140.20 MT of rice are
still scheduled to arrive, with 81,728 MT still in transit, while 141,967.20 MT
are loading.
The ports due to receive
shipments are Manila, La Union, Subic, Batangas, Tabaco, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu,
Tacloban, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, General Santos, and Surigao.
The 500,000 MT of rice forms part
of the total 750,000 MT in rice imports conducted by the NFA before it loses
its role as the main importer of rice, prior to the implementation of the rice
tariffication bill. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio
Sugar import
liberalization seen to benefit consumers
January 29, 2019
MANILA — Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Monday said that
while the planned liberalization of sugar imports would negatively affect local
producers, this would benefit a greater number of consumers.
“There are more consumers than
sugar producers,” Diokno said in an SMS message to the Philippine News Agency
(PNA).
The plan to import around 200,000
metric tons of sugar seeks to address the elevated domestic inflation rate,
whose upticks last year was caused by supply-side factors like a lack of supply
of rice, meat and several agricultural products, he noted.
Diokno said sugar is next on the
government’s list of agricultural products that will see a relaxation in import
restrictions.
The administration already pushed
for the deregulation of rice imports with the Rice Tariffication Bill, which is
now up for President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s signature.
Monetary and non-monetary
measures have been put in place in 2018 to address the rise of inflation,
which, after peaking at 6.7 percent last September and October, has decelerated
to 6 percent and 5.1 percent in the succeeding two months.
Government leaders, sugar
farmers, millers, business groups, agrarian reform beneficiaries, sugar workers
and other stakeholders have come together to oppose the proposed liberalization
of sugar importation.
“Liberalization will kill
Philippine agriculture,” said lawyer Emilio Yulo, Board Member of the Sugar
Regulatory Administration (SRA), representing the planters, in a statement.
Yulo said food processing
exporters have been lobbying for open importation due to the high cost of
retail sugar in the market.
He, however, stressed they have
been urging the Department of Trade and Industry to investigate where the
problem lies because “the farmers are definitely not profiting from the high
cost of sugar being sold at retail outlets.”
Sugar leaders in Negros
Occidental are set to meet with Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on
Wednesday (January 30), hoping to get his support.
“We are confident of the support
and we have heard Secretary Piñol fight for the rights of the small farmers as
well as the other agriculture sector. So we hope that we get his support,” said
Yulo.
Piñol, in an earlier interview,
said issues involving the sugar industry will be discussed very soon.
“Any statement now would affect,
any mention of any related sugar issues will affect the stocks of various sugar
corporations. So, I will not talk regarding that issue (at the moment),” he
said.
“My statement is that it’s
(liberalization of sugar imports) a very serious issue, it affects a huge
industry, it affects huge investments, it affects thousands of farmers, and
just like what we did in rice, we have to inform (all stakeholders), and the
industry should go through a tedious and exhausted consultations,” he stressed.
Raymond Montinola of the
Confederation of Sugar Producers, for his part, said Negros alone has about
200,000 workers directly involved in the industry and open importation will be
disastrous to the local economy.
“If this pushes through, the
immediate effect will be on the peace and order situation,” he added, citing the
80’s when the sugar industry plunged, hunger was prevalent and crime was at its
highest.
They appealed for the President’s
intervention to stop the liberalization of sugar imports.
Opposition has snowballed with
Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon among the first to issue condemnation,
urging Negrenses to stand together in opposing the move.
The Negros Occidental Provincial
Board and the Bacolod City Council also passed a resolution stressing that this
move can lead to “the demise of the sugar industry which is the lifeblood of
Negros,” and that open importation will result to “economic dislocation and
would in time foment widespread social unrest, putting to naught all social
economic initiatives of the province.”
However, Diokno explained that
“in arriving at any policy decision, policymakers should always be guided by
the principle of ‘what’s the greatest good for the greatest number.”
“The importation of sugar
benefits consumers and hurt sugar producers. Hence, policymakers have to weigh
the net gain of a policy decision — total benefits by consumers vs. total loss
of sugar producers,” he added.
Feature: Reduced net
international reserve; Is rice and sugar import reduction possible?
Head of UCC
School of Business Finance Department, Professor John Gatsi
The current economic data which backs BoG's decision to reduce
the policy rate by 100 basis points looks interesting.Firstly, the data shows
addition of about Ghc50 billion to public debt stock from 2017. The high public
debt level, in the data, is conveniently measured against projected GDP to
reflect a relatively lower Debt-GDP ratio.The data also reveals a distressing
situation of repayment cost exceeding the needed investments in national
infrastructure. Investment in broad-based national infrastructure strategically
positions the economy for continuous growth and development. It is important,
at this point, to remark that the economic cost of the high debt is not only in
the repayment, but also, how the repayment entangles commitments to capital
expenditure. An example is the slow pace of infrastructural investment across
the country.Secondly, on external sector developments, Ghana, in 2018, recorded total capital goods import of about USD2,000 million and over USD2,570 million consumption imports, out of which USD339M was spent on rice importation. On the policy front, the flagship program planting for foods and jobs (PFJ) may not be impacting rice importation significantly as rice importation continues to grow. About USD123M was also spent to import sugar, while policy decision on making the Komenda sugar factory operational remains unclear. Though export of palm oil yielded USD128M, the import volume of palm oil products doubled relative to USD257 when compared with exports.
Thirdly, Gross International Reserve, which provides an outlook for import cover and currency management, reduced from over USD7,500M in 2017 to about USD6,900M in 2018. The net international reserve which was USD3,400M at the beginning of 2017, also reduced to USD3,240M in 2018, after increasing to USD4,500M in 2017.
This shows that the 2016 net international reserve was better than 2018. Again, it signals that the BoG over intervened in the forex market to manage the strength of the cedi, which presently settles around the Ghc 5 perimeter against the dollar. The cedi, according to the BoG, depreciated more than 8% in 2018 and greeted us with more than 2% depreciation in January 2019.
With depleting reserves, this does not signal reduction in the policy rate. Perhaps, in the first quarter, the quantum of currency reserve may be at risk and the MPC rate reduction may not be a reflection of the reserve and risk side realities.
Non-Performing Loans (NPL) only reduced by 3% despite the banking sector reform and assurances of renewed confidence in the sector.
From the present economic outlook, focusing on agriculture remains paramount. Currency management, as well as a progressive balance between debt repayment cost and capital expenditure, have to be pursued vigorously by the economic managers. The economic data for 2018 questions the commitment to policy decisions bordering on rice and sugar import reduction.
Drier Conditions Force
Researchers To Find New Rice Farming Method
Rice farmers in Nepal are
improving yields by more than 50 percent using a technique that sows fewer
plants per acre but produces more rice per plant. It also uses less water.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
How do we adapt to a world with
more people and less fresh water? The question becomes urgent as climate change
accelerates. The oceans may rise, but some regions are becoming drier. Farmers
use a lot of water growing rice as a basic food for billions, but some need to
do it with less. Danielle Preiss reports from Nepal.
(CROSSTALK)
DANIELLE PREISS, BYLINE: Apsara
Bharati and her neighbors are spread across a small bit of land in Kavre about
20 miles outside Nepal's capital. The women bend to plant rice seedlings in mud
to their calves in Bharati's fields.
APSARA BHARATI: (Speaking
Nepali).
PREISS: One by one, Bharati
instructs the women, who are used to placing several plants at once. Bharati is
practicing SRI, or the system of rice intensification. The technique, which
developed in Madagascar in the 1980s, involves planting fewer seedlings,
planting them younger and using less water. It seems counterintuitive, but in
countries like Nepal, subsistence farmers have seen their harvest grow.
BHOLA MAN SINGH BASNET: We are
getting more than 50 percent or in some cases 100 percent increase in yield you
see by following the SRI.
PREISS: Bhola Man Singh Basnet is
a retired agronomist from Nepal's National Agriculture Research Council. He
says SRI is not a technology but a set of practices that helps plants grow
stronger roots and more seeds per plant. Small farmers in India have broken
yield records, and Nepal plans to incorporate it into next year's agriculture
policy. While some in the scientific community doubt the sensational results
and peer-reviewed research has been limited, SRI appeals to Basnet because
there's no need to invest in new technology or buy seeds.
BASNET: I like this SRI system
very, very much as an agronomist also because farmers, without spending extra
money, they can increase yield.
PREISS: There might be a more
pressing reason for countries like Nepal to try SRI. If you've ever seen rice
paddies, you've probably seen them flooded.
SRIJANA KARKI: Because rice is
not water-thirsty plant, but this is the tradition. That's how people plant
rice.
PREISS: Srijana Karki, who
promotes SRI use in Nepal through the organization World Neighbors, says the
water is really to control weeds. With SRI, farmers weed more but use less
water.
SONALI MCDERMID: We are very
close to hitting a crisis, if not, you know, starting a crisis already, in
terms of the amount of water available to sustain production.
PREISS: Climate researcher Sonali
McDermid at New York University, who I reached by Skype, is working with
collaborators from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to see whether SRI might
help in the face of global water shortages.
MCDERMID: I've seen estimates of
about 25 percent reductions in water consumption all the way to 50 or 60
percent reductions in water consumption.
PREISS: Through test plots in
India and Latin America, the researchers aim to isolate the parts of SRI that
seem to work for poor farmers. They'll then use climate models to see how it
might fare in a drier future. With longer root systems, the plants should
better withstand drought. Back in Kavre, Srijana Karki translates for farmer
Indira Lamisal who is noticing changes in the climate.
KARKI: In earlier days, rainfall
was pretty predictable and regular, but nowadays, there's no rainfall, and it's
not predictable.
PREISS: But Karki says the
hardest part is convincing farmers' families to take the risk on SRI.
KARKI: There's no insurance, and
they don't have much land, you know, and they depend on the produce. And they
don't have extra money to buy rice if it doesn't work.
PREISS: Shanti Rai, who is
helping her neighbor plant, remembers seeing what looked like a barren field
when she tried SRI for the first time.
SHANTI RAI: (Through interpreter)
I was scared, and my family yelled at me, what did you plant?
PREISS: Rai's family changed
their minds when they saw their production increased almost 25 percent. This
meant they grew enough to eat from their fields for eight months out of the
year instead of the six they managed before. For families like theirs, this is
all the evidence they need. For NPR News, I'm Danielle Preiss in Kathmandu.
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China failing to curb methane
emissions, study finds
Date created : 29/01/2019 -
17:03
The research found that the largest increases in methane emissions
were from regions with lots of coal production AFP/File
Tokyo (AFP)
Methane emissions from coal mining in China have continued to rise
despite tough legislation and ambitious government targets, a new study based
on satellite data said Wednesday.
The news is likely to fuel concerns that major emitters like China
are failing to meet targets intended to prevent nightmare climate change
scenarios.
"China's methane regulations have not had a detectable impact
on the country's methane emissions," the study's first author Scot Miller
told AFP.
"China has been able to 'talk the talk' so to speak in terms
of setting emissions reduction policies, but we found that the country has not
yet been able to 'walk the walk'," added Miller, assistant professor of
environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
The research used data gathered by a Japanese satellite that
monitors greenhouse gases, and looked at measurements from 2010-2015, the most
recent information available when the study began two years ago.
It found that emissions continued to grow in line with pre-2010
trends even after a raft of new regulations came into place.
"We estimate that emissions in 2015 are 50 percent higher
than in 2000," Miller said.
The increase in China's emissions over the 15-year period was
comparable "to the total annual emissions from a country like Russia or
Brazil," he added.
Methane is considered the second most important greenhouse gas
after carbon dioxide.
Like CO2, it traps the sun's heat, warming the atmosphere, but
methane does so 28 times more efficiently than carbon dioxide.
While methane can be naturally released, and absorbed, by the
earth, emissions of the gas have skyrocketed along with industrialisation and a
growing human population.
It occurs naturally in seams of coal, and is released when the
resource is mined.
- 'Business as usual' -
By some estimates, China is the world's largest emitter of
methane, with the coal sector accounting for about a third of its output.
The country is the world's biggest polluter, but also its biggest
investor in renewable energy and has repeatedly vowed to reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions.
From 2006, operators in China were required to use or burn off all
methane from coal mines, and legislation provided financial incentives to
encourage use of the gas to generate electricity.
But the study published Wednesday in the Nature Communications
journal said methane emissions "continue to increase following a
business-as-usual scenario."
There are other industries that produce methane, including rice
farming and beef production.
But the researchers found the largest increases in methane
emissions were from regions with lots of coal production.
And neither rice nor beef production increased significantly in
China over the period studied, while coal production expanded.
The researchers pointed to existing studies from the US
Environmental Protection Agency and the International Energy Agency that could
explain why the regulatory effort in China appears to have failed.
Part of the problem could be poor infrastructure, which makes it
hard to transport natural gas, as well as an underdeveloped market for the
product.
Coal mines in China also tend to be deeper than in other
countries, and the technology available to remove methane from them often
results in a poor quality product.
Local electricity providers also appear to have been reluctant to
accept power generated by coal mine methane, in part because its production
fluctuates unpredictably.
And there is also some evidence that mine operators may be
diluting drained gas because the law only requires them to dispose of it when
it has a methane content over 30 percent.
One of Miller's students is now working on a follow-up study that
will look at ways China can better implement its methane regulations, including
using the gas to generate electricity or home heating.
"China could both reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and
reduce air pollution by using this methane in place of their current, much
dirtier power plants," Miller said.
SEC sets 7-year
timeline to revive, develop commodities market
ON JANUARY 31, 20196:57 AMIN ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
By Nkiruka Nnorom THE Securities and
Exchange Commission, SEC, and other stakeholders in the commodities ecosystem
have set a seven year timeline to revive the commodities market in Nigeria
through the Nigerian Commodity Exchange, NCX, and set it at par with other
commodity exchanges in other parts of the world. The restructuring will be
concluded in 2025. VP Yemi Osinbajo, SAN The Commission is said to be focusing
on the importance of commodity exchange to the economic diversification agenda
of the federal government and the need to grow the agriculture value chain.
Part of the restructuring plan includes injection of fund by the Nigeria
Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) into the NCX which has been comatose for
some years. This comes as the only functional commodity exchange in Nigeria
-AFEX Commodities Exchange – a privately owned commodities exchange, moved
46,160 metric tonnes (MT) of commodities (ginger, paddy rice, soya beans and
maize among others) worth N6.3 billion between second quarter 2016 and fourth
quarter, 2017, according to available data. To also facilitate the plan, the
Commission has set up a special division – Commodities Division – as part of
measures to strengthen regulatory capacity for the market. The NCX has been
battling with a host of challenges, including lack of funding occasioned by
government’s inaction, lack of enabling laws and proper understanding of the
operations of commodities exchange. ALSO READ: Low awareness, threat to green
bond investment in Nigeria – Experts Phases of the restructuring
Recommendations by the Technical Committee, TC, on Enhancing the Commodities
Trading Eco-system, set up by SEC to recommend solutions to the many problems
of the NCX showed that the planned restructuring would be in four phases with
the first phase lasting for two years from 2018 to 2019. The first phase,
according to the report of the committee, will focus on achieving food/input
sufficiency, price discovery and market development with special attention on
agriculture produce like maize, sorghum, soya beans, cassava and rice. This
phase will also involve engagement in public enlightenment and development of
education roadmap by the SEC as well as encouragement of investment in
warehouses and storage facilities by both the Commission and private sector
operators. This phase will also involve organisation of farmers into
cooperatives by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development, FMARD, and SEC to aggregate produce and
encourage them to become members of the exchange among other relevant actions.
The second phase, which will last for another two years from 2020 to 2021, will
focus on the development of export-focused commodities in agriculture like
cocoa, sesame, cotton and palm oil, and continuous de-risking of agriculture
value chain by the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM. In the third phase
(2022-2023), exchanges would be expected to key into Customs Single Window System
to ease process of export. During the fourth phase of the project (2024-2025),
SEC and other stakeholders will ensure that there is strong international
presence in the commodities market, while tradeable commodities will be
expanded to include solid minerals and energy. ALSO READ: e-dividend
registration will boost liquidity — SEC Challenges However, the NCX has been
faced with beehive of challenges, which the committee identified to include
lack of proper funding to carry out its functions, which has hampered the
ability of the NCX to enter into technical collaboration for capacity building
and knowledge transfer that is badly needed with established commodity
exchanges. In addition to these challenges, the exchange is faced with weak
supply, lack of interest by operators in the securities market to open
commodities trading subsidiaries, low understanding of the workings of the
exchange and the absence of supportive infrastructure and institutional
arrangements that could strengthen the supply side of the market. There is also
the non – existence of vibrant farmers’ co-operatives that could bulk the
produce of their members for wholesale marketing on the floor of the Exchange.
Equally lacking were commodity grades and standards as well as farmers’ credit
system based on Warehouse Receipts. Recommendations/Solutions One of the key
recommendations of the committee is that commodity brokers/dealers should be
encouraged to trade and not penalized by excessively high capital requirements.
According to the report, in many other commodity markets, spot market brokers
trading only physical contracts do not carry any mandatory capital base. The
Committee stated that clear and straightforward regulation is required for the
effective operation of a commodity exchange and advised that regulation of the
spot markets should be devolved from the SEC to the Commodity Exchanges among
other recommendations. Mary Uduk, SEC’s Action According to the Acting Director
of SEC, Ms. Mary Uduk, in furtherance of the commitment to develop a vibrant
commodities eco-system, the Commission has commenced the implementation of
measures to strengthen regulatory capacity by establishing a Commodities
Division. She said: “One of the cardinal objectives of the current government
is diversification. Like you all know, Nigeria is a mono-product economy, which
is oil. The capital market is actually, the next center of any economy and we
at the SEC are trying to key in to that diversification objective of the
government. Nigeria is majorly also an agrarian economy where every street in
this country has a product that is exportable. “Hence, the best way for farmers
to have value for their products is for there to be price transparency and a
level playing field for every participant in the commodities space. 
For that to
happen there will be a virile commodities exchange.” ALSO READ: Naira
appreciates to N360/$ in parallel market Continuing, she said: “The SEC sees it
as major priority to help the farmers, the people and the economy, hence the
need to re-establish the Commodity Exchange Division, empower it, provide the
resources, training and the necessary where-withal to make sure that we
regulate the market. Of course, we have the responsibility to support the
creation of exchanges according to perception 13 of the Investment and
Securities Act, ISA. That is why we are doing what we are doing in order that
the Nigeria becomes better in the process of diversifying the economy.”
For that to
happen there will be a virile commodities exchange.” ALSO READ: Naira
appreciates to N360/$ in parallel market Continuing, she said: “The SEC sees it
as major priority to help the farmers, the people and the economy, hence the
need to re-establish the Commodity Exchange Division, empower it, provide the
resources, training and the necessary where-withal to make sure that we
regulate the market. Of course, we have the responsibility to support the
creation of exchanges according to perception 13 of the Investment and
Securities Act, ISA. That is why we are doing what we are doing in order that
the Nigeria becomes better in the process of diversifying the economy.”
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/01/sec-sets-7-year-timeline-to-revive-develop-commodities-market/
Nigerians love rice so much even
exorbitant tariffs can’t stop them importing it
Rice is Nigeria’s most popular food staple.
A few generations ago, pre-independence in
1960, long grain rice was something only elites had with any regularity, for
many Nigerians it was something for the weekend or special occasions. Today,
everyone eats rice in Nigeria. It cuts across the ethnic and religious divides
in Africa’s most populous country and is consumed across households, from low
to high-income. Over time, rice has evolved from being regarded as a luxury
dish to being an everyday meal.
In fact now, rice is the face of Nigerian
cuisine with fun pan-African debates over ownership of the
famed Jollof rice dish.
With no obvious substitute grain crops as widely available or consumed and
Nigeria’s continued
population growth, the demand for rice is unlikely to slow down.
But this popularity, universality and growing
demand has also meant rice has in time become Nigeria’s most political
food. One of the many reasons for this is Nigeria never really had a big rice
farming culture, at least not at sufficient scale to satisfy the country’s
growing demand.
“It’s not an
invasion of foreign rice. Just think about it as honest farmers in other
countries being more competitive than ours.”
Since coming to office in 2015, Nigeria’s
president Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly talked up plans to achieve food
sufficiency and boost local agriculture with rice as a centerpiece of that
strategy. To that end, a crackdown on rice imports with tariffs and levies
totaling 70% and a
$150 million loan scheme for local rice farmers were put in place. The
idea the government had was to make imports less attractive while also boosting
production and consumption of local rice.
The tactic appears to have worked with latest
data from Gro Intelligence showing local rice production has grown by 60% in
the last five years, peaking
at 4.8 million metric tons over the past year.
But there’s a catch: local production still
cannot match domestic demand.
And despite the government’s high tariffs, that
supply gap is still being plugged by imports which have not dropped
significantly. Even worse, some importers are avoiding the steep import
tariffs—and rewarded with healthier margins—by smuggling rice through Nigeria’s
porous land borders, despite
the high risks.
Debisi Araba, regional director at the
Nairobi-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture, says the tariffs
will likely remain ineffective in reducing imports given rising local
demand. ”The rice tariffs have minimal impact on the rice market,” he
says. “Because ultimately, imported rice is making its way into the country
whether legally or otherwise.”
“As long as the demand is still there and
there’s a gap, people will fill it,” says Tunde Leye, consulting partner at SBM
Intelligence, a Lagos-based research firm. Despite higher tariffs and risks,
“smuggling and imports are still having to supply a significant portion of
consumption, so the economics still make sense for the importer,” says Leye.
Rather than “obsessing” over imports, Araba
argues, players in the sector should be more focused on investing in agronomy
and improving yields which have, so far, only shown marginal growth. “That’s
due to a number of factors [including] access to irrigation and proper
agronomic practices,” he says. “Agriculture is really sophisticated and you
can’t reduce it to distributing fertilizers to farmers,” adds Araba who also
served as special adviser to Nigeria’s former minister of agriculture, Akinwumi
Adesina.
In attempting to clamp down on imports while
local production still falls short of demand, Leye says the government is
chasing the wrong priority. ”The correct goal we should be pursuing is
that food should be cheap so that the portion of the income of the average
Nigerian that goes to food is reducing,” he says. Given that the government’s
loan scheme for rice farmers has been saddled by fraud
allegations and high
rates of loan defaults, it can hardly be classed as a sustainable,
long-term fix.
To kick-start and sustain its ambitious
agriculture revolution, the government will be better served plugging the
enduring loopholes along the local agriculture value chain. The long-running
issue of produce failing to reach the market owing to transportation and
preservation problems largely remains unsolved. And lingering
pastoral conflict in Nigeria’s major food-producing regions have posed
a new challenge—and impacted
productivity—over the past few years.
In the meantime, Araba recommends a change
in the government’s aggressive rhetoric on rice importation. “It’s not an
invasion of foreign rice,” he says. “Just think about it as honest farmers in
other countries being more competitive than your farmers so focus on making
your farmers more competitive.”
https://qz.com/africa/1532327/nigerias-rice-tariffs-not-slowing-imports/
Thai rice exports to fall 14 pct in 2019 – industry body
Fawad
MaqsoodJanuary 30, 2019
BANGKOK: Thailand’s rice exports
are expected to fall 14 percent in 2019, to 9.5 million tonnes as a stronger
currency makes shipments more expensive for overseas buyers, the country’s rice
exporters association said on Wednesday.
The world’s second-biggest rice
exporter shipped 11 million tonnes of rice last year, but demand from overseas
buyers has slowed in recent months as the Thai baht has strengthened.
Thai growers have also faced increased
competition from India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, and Vietnam, the
third biggest, Chookiat Ophaswongse, the association’s honorary president, told
a news conference.
“Our competitiveness is lower,
but our production remains the same,” Chookiat said, noting quality
improvements in rival Vietnam.
The baht has strengthened for the
past three months against the US dollar and has gained nearly 3.4 percent so
far this year, making it the best performing currency in Asia.
Rice is a major commodity export
for Thailand. Sales of 9.5 million tonnes would generate about $4.8 billion,
Chookiat said.
Charoen Laothamatas, the
association’s president, urged the government to address the baht’s
appreciation and volatility.
“Our competitors are getting stronger
while we’re regressing It gets worse every year as long as we don’t have a
long-term strategy for not just rice but also other agricultural products,”
Charoen said.
“The government should help
weaken the baht. This is something that can be done immediately.”
Thailand’s finance minister said
earlier on Wednesday that the strong baht is hurting exports of agricultural
goods.
Thailand mainly exports rice to
Africa and Asia. Chookiat said he expected Indonesia to import less Thai rice
this year due to ample stocks, while the Philippines and Malaysia were expected
to buy more from Vietnam due to pricing.
Indian court’s decision to uphold GM cotton patent could boost industry
research
But the ruling
is not the end of the legal challenge.
Gayathri
Vaidyanathan
Almost 90% of the cotton grown in India in 2017–18 contained
Monsanto’s genetic modifications.Credit: Prashanth
Vishwanathan/Bloomberg via Getty
Some scientists in India have
welcomed a supreme court ruling that reinstates a patent on genetically
modified cotton that had been quashed by a lower court. They say the decision
to uphold the intellectual-property rights of seed maker Monsanto could help
reverse a decline in biotechnology research in agriculture in the country.
“Publicly funded science in this
broad area can now be assured of protection of its intellectual property,” says
government science adviser Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan, who is based in New
Delhi. “Indian agriculture and other biotech scientists should feel encouraged
to innovate further.”
In a long-running battle over
intellectual protection for genetically modified (GM) crops in India, the 8
January decision from the country’s highest court is seen as a win for
research-focused seed companies such as Monsanto (bought last year by Bayer of
Germany) that want protection for their transgenic technology.
But some lawyers say celebrations
are premature. Although the supreme court has upheld the patent for now, it has
instructed a lower court to re-examine whether Monsanto’s specific patent on GM
cotton is valid. Some farmers, scientists and seed-trading companies think the
country’s patent laws do not extend to transgenic seeds, crops or plants.
The legislation is open to
interpretation — it says that genetic sequences generated in the lab can be
patented, but seeds and plants can’t. Scientists say the court’s decision on the Monsanto cotton patent will set a precedent
for the protection of other GM crops, which will have a profound effect on
research and development in the field.
Cotton is the only GM crop
currently approved for cultivation by the Indian government. If the patent is
upheld, biotechnology companies will probably increase their investment in the
GM research, but a denial could have the opposite effect.
Long battle
Monsanto’s patent covers the
process by which the gene Cry2Ab from the bacterium Bacillus
thuringiensis is inserted in the cotton genome. This gene causes the
plant to make proteins that protect the crop from devastating bollworm
caterpillars. Almost all Indian cotton-seed companies pay a trait fee to
Monsanto to incorporate the gene into their varieties, which accounted for 89%
of cotton planted in India in 2017–18.
After a dispute over the trait
fee in 2015, Nuziveedu Seeds in Hyderabad challenged the validity of Monsanto’s
patent in court in 2017. In April last year, the Delhi high court ruled that
the patent was invalid, finding that items such as seeds cannot be patented
under India’s 1970 Patents Act.
The court made its decision
without a trial, after both companies waived their rights to one. But the
supreme court says this was not allowed, ruling the high court’s decision
invalid and reinstating Monsanto’s patent.
Even though the patent will be
reviewed again, industry scientists say that the supreme-court decision will
restore companies’ confidence in the patent system. This case is about more
than just a dispute between Monsanto and Nuziveedu, says Suresh Atluri, founder
of Tierra Seed Science in Hyderabad. The ruling sets a precedent that a patent
cannot be quashed easily in court, says Atluri. Seed companies that invest in
research and development need this protection to deter competitors from copying
their discoveries, he says.
“This development will have a
positive effect on creating more investments for agriculture research,” says
Usha Barwale Zehr, chief technology officer at Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds in
Jalna, which has developed a GM aubergine that has not yet been approved for
cultivation.
The ongoing intellectual-property
case has partly curbed funding for research into GM crops over the past three
years, says Zehr. “But to bring it back to the same level it was three years
ago will take time, and to a certain level, we all have lost the opportunity of
creating new products with new technologies over the past three years.”
Existing knowledge
Some researchers think that the
court should not uphold Monsanto’s patent. Polumetla Ananda Kumar, a plant
biologist at the Indian Institute of Rice Research in Hyderabad, says many
agricultural scientists were aware that crystal proteins in B.
thuringiensis could be inserted into the cotton genome to protect
crops from pests when the company filed its patent claim in 1998.
“Theoretically speaking, one cannot file a patent on an invention about which
prior knowledge is available,” Kumar says. “So, on that basis itself, this
patent application doesn’t stand any validity in India.”
Bayer currently restricts use of
the transgene in India to certain hybrid varieties of cotton. However, if the
patent is denied, the company will no longer exercise control over the
varieties that get released to farmers, says Keshav Kranthi, head of technical
information at the International Cotton Advisory Council in Washington DC.
Scientists in public institutions would be free to incorporate the transgene
into non-hybrid varieties, says Kranthi. This could improve yields for some
farmers, because hybrids are not well suited to the non-irrigated regions that
make up 62% of cotton acreage in India, he says.
A Bayer spokesperson says the
company is confident that it can defend any challenge to the patent. No date
has been set for the retrial.
But if the high court finds in
Bayer's favour, Nuziveedu Seeds will appeal the decision, says Murali Krishna
Narne, a lawyer for the company.
Another
Shout Out for Rice as Top Culinary Trends for 2019
ARLINGTON, VA -- The accolades for rice keep
adding up as Flavor & The Menu released its Top 10
Foodservice Trends for this year with rice claiming the seventh spot. The
digital and print foodservice publication titled the trend, "Rice
Reimagined," and wrote about how consumers' familiarity with rice and its
versatility to match every flavor profile and diet preference is giving the
grain a big boost in 2019.
"There's a rice for almost everyone," said Maeve Webster, president of Menu Matters consultancy. "It's a universally familiar, broadly accepted ingredient that is almost infinitely versatile, either through the varieties available, the preparations used, or the flavors included."
"This trend should come as no surprise as rice is transitioning from a side dish to center of plate," said USA Rice Domestic Promotion Manager Cameron Jacobs. "Rice provides a platform for the creativity of both professional chefs and home cooks who are exploring new cuisines and recipes."
The growth opportunities for rice are fueled by the rising popularity of food bowls and the expansion of gluten-free options. "Bowls have allowed rice to come to the forefront again," said Shane Schaibly, vice president of culinary strategy and corporate chef for First Watch Restaurants. "And rice helps us push the envelope in bowl builds because it's a familiar comfort food."
"The 'reimagining' of rice definitely is taking it to the next level and that's a trend our industry can get behind," said Jacobs.
Flavor & The Menu's top ten trend list was compiled by a 34-member panel of experts that included chefs, food & beverage experts, and industry analysts.
Go here to read the six-page feature on rice and view the rest of the 2019 trends.
"There's a rice for almost everyone," said Maeve Webster, president of Menu Matters consultancy. "It's a universally familiar, broadly accepted ingredient that is almost infinitely versatile, either through the varieties available, the preparations used, or the flavors included."
"This trend should come as no surprise as rice is transitioning from a side dish to center of plate," said USA Rice Domestic Promotion Manager Cameron Jacobs. "Rice provides a platform for the creativity of both professional chefs and home cooks who are exploring new cuisines and recipes."
The growth opportunities for rice are fueled by the rising popularity of food bowls and the expansion of gluten-free options. "Bowls have allowed rice to come to the forefront again," said Shane Schaibly, vice president of culinary strategy and corporate chef for First Watch Restaurants. "And rice helps us push the envelope in bowl builds because it's a familiar comfort food."
"The 'reimagining' of rice definitely is taking it to the next level and that's a trend our industry can get behind," said Jacobs.
Flavor & The Menu's top ten trend list was compiled by a 34-member panel of experts that included chefs, food & beverage experts, and industry analysts.
Go here to read the six-page feature on rice and view the rest of the 2019 trends.
RICE REIMAGINED
Fueled by a number of
significant drivers, chefs are taking rice to the next level
FIRST WATCH’S PORK BELLY BANH
MI BREAKFAST BOWL DEFTLY MOVES RICE INTO THE MORNING DAYPART.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIRST WATCH
PHOTO CREDIT: FIRST WATCH
We are living in the Golden Age of
culinary innovation, where the pace of translation and adaptation has never
been more vigorous. It’s invigorating for chefs, thrilling for dining
consumers.
Today, few categories in the
foodservice landscape have been left unexplored. Vegetables are now sexy,
flavorful and surprising, thanks to the veg-centric movement. Whole grains,
with quinoa leading the charge, have been given significant attention, adding
texture, complexity and wholesomeness in craveable flavor combinations. They
have moved beyond side-dish-only considerations into bowl builds, salads, taco
fillers.
Now, rice is making moves,
following the creative pathway carved out by whole grains and demonstrating
menu versatility, daypart fluidity and unbeatable consumer awareness. Chefs are
leveraging those attributes and using rice in creative, craveable ways.
At Guerrilla
Street Food, a Filipino concept in St. Louis, a side item
of Fried Rice Tots boasts local jasmine rice and togarashi, and is served with
banana ketchup.
Super Six, a hip
Asian-American restaurant in Seattle, offers breakfast fried rice as a
companion to eggs, Spam or Portuguese sausage.
What’s Behind
the Rice Trend?
“What can really propel this trend forward is the familiarity of
rice with nearly every consumer in the world,” says Maeve Webster, president
of Menu Mattersconsultancy.
“There’s a rice for almost everyone. Want the low-flavor, high-carb experience
of white rice? Check. Nutty, more complex flavors? Check. Healthy? Check.
Indulgent? Check. It’s a universally familiar, broadly accepted ingredient that
is almost infinitely versatile, either through the varieties available, the
preparations used, or the flavors included.”
In addition to versatility and
familiarity, a few other drivers are moving the needle. First, rice is
naturally gluten-free, opening up all sorts of menu development for chefs
responding to guests who are looking to limit or eliminate gluten when dining
out. Second, a whole world of rice is ready for discovery, bringing with it
stories of origin, heritage and flavor.
“We have seen more restaurants utilizing more exotic or unique
rice grains to set themselves apart,” says Chris Casson, director of produce
and specialty foods for Shamrock
Foods Company. “The color, texture and flavors are what
differentiate these from traditional white rice. Black or forbidden, Pink Rose
or Minnesota wild rice are just a few examples. When cooked properly, these can
become the centerpiece of the dish and transform a plate from traditional to
exotic.”
Cameron Lee
The Roasted Veggie Rice Bowl at Cassava in San Francisco calls out
the Koshihikari rice varietal.
At Cassava, a New
American restaurant in San Francisco, Koshihikari rice anchors the Japanese
Breakfast, serving as the base for the accompanying dishes of miso soup,
pickled cabbage, bean sprouts kimchi, shio koji-marinated market fish, local
wakame, carrots and sesame, white miso-marinated corn and tomatoes, and a
poached egg. That opportunity to highlight rice varietals, including heirloom
or lesser-known ones, helps lend a menu specificity and premium positioning.
Third, global comfort food is a big
influencer on menus today, speaking a universal language of love and memory.
Whether it’s an African rice dish like jollof, a modern Chinese fried rice, or
a globally inspired bowl build, a comfort-forward rice dish scores instant
points and makes that all-important emotional connection.
Rice Trend Insights – insights
into the rice trend from our panel of experts.
Lat14
The Jeow Bong Fried Rice at the Laotian-themed Lat14 shows off yet
another global hotspot that stars rice.
Bowls and
Breakfast
The huge embrace of bowl builds by diners has certainly helped
position rice in a more prominent place. The bowl acts as a fantastic carrier
for any type of ingredient combination. The Rice Shop, a
fast-casual bowl concept in Cleveland, uses white rice as its platform for
flavor-forward, Asian-inspired builds.
The Hong Kong Roast Chicken Bowl
includes Chinese spinach and a yuzu-kosho vinaigrette, and the BBQ Pork Belly
Bowl is topped with honey-mustard kale and sambal sour cream. The rice is the familiar
anchor, tethering approachability while serving up adventurous flavor
combinations that resonate with modern consumers.
Cinder House
Cinder House in St. Louis leverages the comfort-food positioning
of Brazilian feijoada, relying on rice to anchor familiarity.
Gerard Craft, chef/owner at Cinder House, a
South American-inspired restaurant in St. Louis, offers his version of the
Brazilian stew, feijoada, with pork, beef, black beans, chimichurri and orange,
served over a comforting bowl of rice.
And at Lat14, a newly
opened Asian eatery in Golden Valley, Minn., a rice bowl moves into Laotian
territory with its Lao Jeow Bong Fried Rice, flavored with chile paste, roasted
galangal, dried shrimp, roasted garlic, roasted shallots and fish sauce, then
finished with a fried sunny-side egg and soy sauce.
First Watch
First Watch’s Pork Belly Banh Mi Breakfast Bowl deftly moves rice
into the morning daypart.
“Bowls have allowed rice to come to the forefront again,” says
Shane Schaibly, VP of culinary strategy and corporate chef for First Watch Restaurants.
“And rice helps us push the envelope in bowl builds because it’s a familiar
comfort food. There are also great stories to be told around rice.”
This spring, he’s rolling out a
limited-time offer aimed at all dayparts. The Pork Belly Banh Mi Breakfast Bowl
performed well in test last year. It starts with a base of brown rice, quinoa
and farro and is topped with pickled daikon and carrots, fresh jalapeño,
five-spice/brown-sugar-glazed pork belly, a baked egg and Sriracha. “It’s
hearty and delicious, and we think it’ll sell great throughout the day,” he says.
Perfect Porridge –
Porridge + Puffs in Los Angeles creates explosively flavorful porridge bowls
that feature elaborate layers of ingredients.
What’s interesting here is that
First Watch is known as a breakfast-themed place, and it’s choosing a
rice-grain blend as its familiar anchor. That signals a shift in the perception
of where rice belongs on menus.
Breakfast is proving to be rice’s
new frontier. “Rice is definitely working now at breakfast thanks to a broader
behavior during that daypart,” says Menu Matters’ Webster. “Asian influences
are growing at breakfast, and rice is a traditional element in that part of the
world, which makes it both familiar to American consumers as well as a little
unexpected, but welcome.”
At Ma’ono
Fried Chicken and Whisky, with three locations in Seattle,
the Curry & Bacon Fried Rice and Eggs makes fried rice the base and tops it
with poached egg, peas, mung bean sprouts and furikake.
Tasty n Alder, a
New American restaurant in Portland, Ore., serves Bim Bop Bacon & Eggs at
brunch that, after a proper stirring, yields crisped rice from the bottom of
the hot stone bowl.
Sunda
Sunda’s Crispy Rice puts a craveable spin on sushi rice, serving
up another way to signaturize a popular menu item.
Crisped and
Fried
The application of a crispy rice
element is helping make rice a menu darling today. Texturally, it’s a home run.
Visually, it adds interest, particularly when sporting vivid colors from
saffron, turmeric or za’atar.
At Sunda,
an Asian fusion concept with two locations in Chicago and Nashville, Tenn.,
Mike Morales, chef de cuisine/partner, uses crispy rice in a few menu
applications. On the menu’s Signature Crispy Rice entrée section, guests choose
a topper, including: Spicy Tuna with masago (capelin roe), Japanese chile oil,
Sriracha, chives and jalapeño; and Wagyu flavored with sambal, chives, red
chile and Asian pesto.
“We take our sweet and savory sushi
rice, made with rice wine vinegar and a hint of yuzu. We hand press and
precision cut it into dense rectangles, searing them to a golden-brown crunch
on each side with butter and tamari,” he says.
Morales also uses crispy rice in
his Braised Pork Belly on Crispy Rice Patty, served with a poached egg and
hollandaise.
”Crisped rice can add a fun and delicious crunch to any dish,”
says Kathy Casey, chef/founder of Kathy
Casey Food Studios – Liquid Kitchen. “For example, tossed
in a high flavor coating like harissa then re-dried, it makes a unique finish
to crudo drizzled with lemon zest-infused olive oil.”
Globally Themed
Rice
Globally themed restaurants have
been tapping into the craveability of crispy rice for decades, and they provide
a great source of inspiration for modern adaptation.
Funky Elephant, a
Thai restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., menus a Crispy Rice Salad with fried
jasmine rice in housemade red curry paste, herbs, peanuts, lime, fish sauce,
fermented pork and pig skin, maximizing the crunchy, savory profile of the
crispy rice in a salad presentation.
Tahdig, an Iranian rice dish that
translates to “bottom of the pot,” stars the crispy, golden crust that forms
when rice is cooked a certain way. Typically, long-grain white rice is soaked
and par-cooked, then mixed with variations on yogurt, egg, melted butter and
saffron water. The coated rice is placed in a well-oiled pot, then cooked. The
crispy, savory, rich layer of rice is tahdig, which offers potential for a
number of modern dishes, including as a shareable served with mix-ins, or as a
bar snack, broken off into shards and dusted with spices. It’s beginning to
make inroads on menus and offers huge opportunity for wider translation.
Curry Up Now
Curry Up Now in San Francisco serves a handheld Bhel Puri that
includes puffed rice and crispy sev noodles.
Bhel puri, a savory Indian snack,
is also making headway, as diners respond favorably to the combination of
puffed rice, vegetables and tamarind sauce.
Chai Pani, an
Indian street-food restaurant in Asheville, N.C., serves a vegan bhel puri on
its snack menu, describing it as “tangy, crunchy and spicy.” Its version
combines puffed rice, flour crisps, crunchy chickpea noodles, cilantro and onion
tossed in tamarind and green chutneys.
Curry Up Now, an
Indian fast casual based in San Francisco, menus bhel puri in a cone, making it
as portable and familiar as french fries. “Our bhel puri is made with puffed
rice, potato-garbanzo mash, crispy sev noodles, chaat masala, cucumber, red
onion, chutney and hot sauce,” says Akash Kapoor, co-founder and CEO. “It’s a
true ‘party in your mouth’ experience with its crispy, crunchy texture, as well
as its sweet, sour and spicy flavor profile.”
Thanks to the continuing interest in global flavors, a relatable
comfort-food profile, and a foodservice landscape that is hungry for
interesting new takes on menu staples, rice is having a rebirth. “We had the
quinoa revolution of 2011,” says First Watch’s Schaibly. “Ancient grains have
held the spotlight. Heritage rices, heirloom rice varieties, ‘regular’ rice
reimagined—they’ve been lying in wait and are ready to come to the forefront
again.”
From
the Jan/Feb 2019 Top 10 Trends issue of Flavor & the Menu
magazine. Read the full issue online or
check if you qualify for a free print subscription.
Rice Department reacts to export of subpar rice
By NNT
January
30, 2019
Bangkok – The Rice Department has
urged farmers to plant only validated strains of rice to maintain the quality
of exports.
Following news of fake Kao Dok
Mali 105 rice being sold to importers, thereby denting the image of Thai rice sales,
the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has ordered a thorough
investigation. So far, it has been found that a lesser strain of rice that can
be grown in a short amount of time has been substituted on occasions for Kao
Dok Mali 105 rice. It is believed that the lesser strain was smuggled in from
abroad.
The ministry has reminded
exporters that such actions are illegal and that all rice grown in the country
must be present on the Department of Agriculture’s registry. It believes those
growing subpar rice were deceived.
Rice Department Director-General
Acting Sub Lt Krisanapong Sripongphankul has pressed rice farmers to use only
validated strains of rice and to check that their crops conform to the strain
they believe they are growing. He further suggested farmers seek out strains in
high demand, such as Kor Koh 21 or Kor Koh 77, noting that Kor Koh 79 is also
nearing approval. Use of correct strains will help maintain the integrity of
Thai rice on the world stage.
Water shortages put
agriculture sector under pressure: State Bank
KARACHI: Water shortages resulted
in decline of area under cultivation and production of mainly cotton and rice
in the country in general and Sindh in particular, the first quarterly report
of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) over the state of the economy said on
Tuesday.
Agriculture preliminary estimates
for the major kharif crops, namely cotton, rice, sugarcane and maize, reveal a
subdued performance of the sector. “This is largely explained by a considerable
decline in the area under cultivation, especially in Sindh,” the report said.
Water shortage remained the major
reason behind a decline in area under cultivation while the situation would
become dangerous in the coming years, the SBP report said.
Thus, the central bank has
suggested construction of small reservoirs and adaptation of water conservation
measures including imposing higher prices of irrigation water for more water
consuming crops, especially, sugarcane.
The total area sown under kharif
crops for FY19 stood at 7.54 million hectares, a decline of 7.7 percent over
FY18. The contribution of kharif crops in the gross value addition (GVA) of the
agriculture sector might fall significantly below the FY18 level.
Going forward, the report said Rabi
season was expected to receive 35-40 percent lower canal water flows compared
to the actual allotment of 37.0 MAF. The erratic nature of river inflows and
monsoon rainfall requires proper management at the provincial level for meeting
the crop water requirement. The bank suggested that farmers’ participation in
the management of canal infrastructure would increase the accountability.
“Farmers’ organisations and area
water boards have been the successful models, as farmers take ownership of the
system, resulting in reduced wastages,” the report said.
Situation of major crops
Cotton: The latest estimates for
cotton crop reveal a worrying picture, as the total production in FY19 is estimated
at 10.8 million bales, a decrease of 9.2 percent over the last year’s
production level, and trailing 24.3 percent behind the targeted level of 14.4
million bales for the year.
Given the average mills’ annual
consumption of around 14 million bales in the country, the production is
expected to remain short by around 23 percent for the ginners, as per their
installed capacity for value-addition.
Sugarcane: Estimates place
sugarcane production at 68.3 million tons, matching the set target of 68.2
million tons for the year, but falling 16.9 percent short of the production
level achieved in the last year.
Rice: Initial estimates indicate
that rice production stood at 7.1 million tons during the FY19 kharif season,
higher than the target of 6.9 million tons, but 4.4 percent lower than the
record crop witnessed during FY18.
While the basmati performance in
Punjab was laudable, as the estimated crop exceeded the four million tons mark,
the production in Sindh suffered a contraction of 15.2 percent on a year on
year basis, largely due to a contraction in the area under cultivation.
Irri and hybrid varieties in Sindh
suffered due to exceptional water shortages (a decline of 43 percent during the
period under review) and the poor quality of groundwater, resulting in a total
area contraction of 17.1 percent compared to FY18.
Thailand meets rice export target
A
rice factory in Bangkok, Thailand (Photo: AFP/VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Thailand reached its rice export target by shipping 11.13 million tonnes worth 5.62 billion USD abroad in 2018, according to the country’s Ministry of Commerce.
The Thai government forecast rice exports will drop slightly to 10 million tonnes this year.
The ministry’s Foreign Trade Department said it will strive to increase export value and encourage farmers to grow quality and in demand varieties.
It noted that the global economic slowdown could affect purchasing power, which could make cheaper rice from other countries more attractive.
However, Director General of the Foreign Trade Department Adul Chotinisakorn said he believes the quality and price of Thai rice will allow it to remain competitive in global markets.
He added his department will launch marketing campaigns in major Asian markets in 2019, particularly Hong Kong (China), Singapore, China, the Philippines and Indonesia.-VNA
https://en.vietnamplus.vn/thailand-meets-rice-export-target/145957.vnp
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