Thursday, January 31, 2019

31st January,2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter


Nepalese Rice Farmers Boost Yields By Sowing Fewer Plants And Cutting Water
LISTEN·3
January 30, 201912:43 PM ET
DANIELLE PREISS
Description: https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/01/29/rice1-b3977dc82ff9122815031f0bba030da2766fbc6d-s1200-c85.jpg
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.
Description: A Warming Planet Could Zap Nutrition From Rice That Feeds The World
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.
Description: https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/01/29/rice2-a01fab9151cdf0c8bdc87bd7a7d80f090c8fa81f-s1200-c85.jpg
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.
Description: From Almonds To Rice, Climate Change Could Slash California Crop Yields By 2050
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.
Description: https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2019/01/29/rice3_wide-e921633a72e97e5848be2ad2bf37f857255cedf6-s1200-c85.jpg
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 courts 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

By Yomi KazeemJanuary 30, 2019
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
Description: rice importPHILSTAR
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


By Joann Villanueva and Lilybeth Ison/PNA
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
Description: John Gatsi1The 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
Description: The research found that the largest increases in methane emissions were from regions with lots of coal production
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. Description: https://www.vanguardngr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/OSINBAJO.pngFor 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.”

Nigerians love rice so much even exorbitant tariffs can’t stop them importing it

By Yomi KazeemJanuary 30, 2019
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
Description: https://www.brecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/rice3-1024.jpgBANGKOK: 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 courts 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.

RICE REIMAGINED

Fueled by a number of significant drivers, chefs are taking rice to the next level

Description: Pork Belly Banh Mi Breakfast Bowl
FIRST WATCH’S PORK BELLY BANH MI BREAKFAST BOWL DEFTLY MOVES RICE INTO THE MORNING DAYPART. 
PHOTO CREDIT: FIRST WATCH
BY KATIE AYOUB | JANUARY 9, 2019
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.”
Description: https://www.getflavor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/4-Roasted-Veggie-Rice-Bowl.jpgCameron 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.


Description: https://www.getflavor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/3-Jeow-Bong-Fried-Rice.jpgLat14
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.
Description: https://www.getflavor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/6-Brazilian-feijoada.jpgCinder 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.
Description: https://www.getflavor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/1-Pork-Belly-Banh-Mi-Breakfast-Bowl.jpgFirst 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.
Description: https://www.getflavor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/5-Crispy-Rice.jpgSunda
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.
Description: https://www.getflavor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2-Bhel-Puri.jpgCurry 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
Description: http://www.pattayamail.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/30-1-19t2-Rice.jpg
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

VNA WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019 - 10:37:00
Description: https://cdnimgen.vietnamplus.vn/t660/Uploaded/wbxx/2019_01_30/rice_factory_in_thailand.jpgA 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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