Friday, May 03, 2019

3rd May,2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter


Climate extremes play significant role in global crop yield: study

E-mailXinhua, May 3, 2019
SYDNEY, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A global team of scientists revealed on Friday that extreme climate events such as drought, heatwaves and floods as being responsible for 18 percent to 43 percent of variation in global major crop yields.
These events are expected to increase with the effects of climate change, posing a significant risk both to local and global food security.
“With climate change predicted to change the variability of climate and increasing the likelihood and severity of climate extremes in most regions, our research highlights the importance of adapting crop production to these changes,” study lead author Dr. Elisabeth Vogel from Melbourne University said.
Vogel and her team, comprising scientists from Australia, Germany and the U.S, used a global agricultural database along with climate and extreme weather datasets to determine which climate factors played the greatest role in influencing crop yields.
They found that year to year changes in climate were responsible for 20 percent to 49 percent of yield fluctuations in maize, rice, soy and spring wheat crops worldwide.
While extreme climate events such as intense temperatures, drought or heavy precipitation accounted for 18 percent to 43 percent.
“Interestingly, we found that the most important climate factors for yield anomalies were related to temperature, not precipitation, as one could expect, with the average growing season temperature and temperature extremes playing a dominant role in predicting crop yields,” Vogel said.
The study also looked at global hotspots such as North America for soy and spring wheat, Europe for spring wheat and Asia for rice and maize, “regions that are critical for overall production and at the same time strongly influenced by climate variability and climate extremes,” Vogel said.
“Increasing the resilience to climate extremes requires a concerted effort at local, regional and international levels to reduce negative impacts for farmers and communities depending on agriculture for their living.” Enditem

Processing of rice imports to take maximum of 28 days

MANILA – Rice importation is set to take a month – with the processing of permits to be shortened to a maximum of 28 days – under the Rice Liberalization Act, government officials said Monday.
In a press conference in Manila City, Finance assistance secretary Antonio “Tony” Joselito Lambino II said securing permits to import rice will only take a maximum of 28 days.
President Rodrigo Duterte in February signed into law the Rice Liberalization Act, which effectively removed the quantitative restrictions on rice, and imposed a 35-percent tariff on imports from the country’s neighbors in Southeast Asia.
As of the April 28 draft guidelines of the Rice Liberalization Act, the milled rice importation process will take a maximum of 28 days, with several government agencies involved.
Securing permits from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) will take a maximum of 14 days – six days for registration, and another seven days for the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC).
It will take six to seven working days to secure permits from the Bureau of Customs (BOC), six to seven days from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), three days from the registration with the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC), and another eight days for the PITC import consolidation.
Kung tutuusin, maybe all in all, three weeks, four weeks, nandiyan na ‘yung bigas,” Trade secretary Ramon Lopez said.
“As long as wala nang kinuhang NFA (National Food Authority) permit, it’s really just the quality and then the actual procedure of importation, nandiyan na ‘yung bigas in less than one month,” he added.
Trade undersecretary Ruth Castelo noted, however, that the actual process could be shortened given the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007.
Binibigyan lang namin ng allowance para masigurado na maka-comply pa rin sila,” she said.
“With ARTA Law, maximum of three days for simple applications, mami-minimize pa po itong 28 days na binigay natin,” Castelo added. (GMA News)
Dispute breaks out over RCEF funding as DA insists on P10B
May 2, 2019 | 10:01 pm
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has signaled that it will claim the full amount of P10 billion once tariffs start generating funding for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), arguing that a P5 billion advance provided in 2018 was meant for other rice projects.
“There was confusion on the initial P5 billion that was released to the DA on Dec. 28… it’s meant to support the rice program of the DA,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in a briefing Thursday.
“Definitely, the P5 billion is not part of RCEF,” he said, with the liberalization of rice imports only implemented this year, while the initial P5 billion was given last year.
The RCEF is meant to be funded by tariffs generated by rice imports, raising P10 billion each year to improve farmers’ access to financing, rice seed, machinery and know-how, among others.
He said that the DA has fully allocated the P5 billion released in December, with P4 billion going to the regions before the end of 2018, and P1 billion set aside for lending programs.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has requested for the latter to be returned to help finance the acquisition of rice drying facilities and other equipment.



The financing will be provided by LANDBANK and the Development Bank of the Philippines, which will charge 2%.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Assistant Secretary Mercedita A. Sombilla has said that the P5 billion was meant to be used for projects that meet the RCEF mandate while the Rice Tariffication Law, which authorizes the RCEF, was still being implemented.
The Rice Tariffication Law aims to bring down the price of rice by liberalizing the imports of cheap foreign grain.
The need to support farmers while imports increase their footprint in the market is intended to help make them more competitive. The threat of more imports has already exerted pressure on domestic prices of palay, or unmilled rice, reducing farmer incomes and highlighting the need for them to be more cost-efficient.
“I talked to Secretary Mon (Ramon M.) Lopez and he agrees that that amount should not be part of the RCEF. Binalik lang naming ’yung P1 billion para lang makatulong na hindi na masyadong maghanap ng pera ang gobyerno [We returned the P1 billion to help ensure the government is not pressed for funding],” Mr. Piñol said.
He said the DA will initiate a dialogue on the matter.
For the deployment of the actual RCEF funds, he said, “We are still in the process of organizing the project steering committee… when organized, I will ask all the agencies involved in the RCEF to make a presentation of their programs. As the only accountable officer for the P10 billion, I will have to ask them to present their project proposals and I will have to make sure that money really goes to the rice farmers.” — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Cabinet Reshuffle Signal at the End of Jokowi–JK’s Administration

Penulis: Safrezi Fitra
Editor: Yura Syahrul
 2/5/2019, 16.20 WIB
The reshuffle is planned to happen after the announcement of the presidential election results or after Eid al-Fitr.
Description: Telaah - Reshuffle Kabinet Jokowi

MOHD HANIFF/123RF



President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) hinted at the possibility of reshuffling his ministers. It will be done after the announcement of the 2019 Presidential Election results from the General Elections Commission (KPU) on May 22, or after Eid al-Fitr in early June.
Although his Working Cabinet still has a remaining five-month working period, Jokowi is reportedly going to replace several ministers for a number of reasons and considerations.
As reported by Koran Tempo on Monday (4/29), Jokowi stated that he is currently considering a cabinet reshuffle. It will be done before the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected president in October.
In this fifth reshuffle of the Working Cabinet, Jokowi will provide opportunities for figures with political backgrounds to take ministerial positions. “There are also professionals,” he said.
The news about the cabinet reshuffle has been circulating a week after the General Election on April 17. Three sources in government told Katadata.co.id that the president is indeed considering replacing a number of ministers due to various reasons.
Some of the reasons include the existence of legal cases against his ministers, the results of the presidential election that were not very encouraging for Jokowi's team, performance appraisal, and strategic considerations for the formation of a new cabinet after the inauguration of the newly-elected president in October.
The reshuffle is likely to happen in June or after Eid, says the sources in government last week. By replacing ‘troubled’ ministers early on, the sources added that Jokowi wanted the new cabinet formed after the inauguration of the newly-elected president to be able to work immediately.
Description: Jokowi
Jokowi (Cahyo | Presidential Secretariat Press Bureau)
A strong signal for cabinet reshuffle also came from the existence of legal cases in the hands of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) against a number of ministers. First is Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi for bribery related to a grant from the ministry to the National Sports Committee (KONI).
KONI Secretary General Ending Fuad Hamidy was charged for bribing the Deputy IV of the Youth and Sports Ministry Mulyana and two of his staff with money of around Rp 400 million to smooth out the disbursement of a grant proposed by the committee to the ministry. He is still acting as a witness in the case. In a hearing on Monday (4/29), Imam who is a politician of the National Awakening Party (PKB) also claimed to have used his ministry’s fund for umrah (a minor Islamic pilgrimage).
Second is Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita related to the bribery case of Bowo Sidik Pangarso, a member of the Indonesian House of Representatives Commission VI from the Golkar faction. He claimed to have received Rp 2 billion from Enggar to secure the ministry’s regulation about refined crystal sugar trade through commodity auction market. Last Monday, KPK searched Enggar's officeand confiscated a number of documents related to sugar auctions.
The anti-corruption commission had also summoned Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin. He was a witness for a bribery case centering on promotion process at the Religious Affairs Ministry, which also involved the United Development Party (PPP) General Chairman Romahurmuziy. Lukman is a PPP representative in the Working Cabinet.

Poor Economic Performance Leads to Reshuffle

Economic performance, which has not yet improved and has been highlighted by the opposition during the 2019 Presidential Election campaign in recent months, is reportedly also one of Jokowi’s considerations to overhaul his ministers in the economic field.
Several economists also propose the same thing. Economist from the University of Indonesia (UI) Fithra Faisal believes a number of economic ministers need to be replaced because their performance is very burdensome to the government.
He recommended the reshuffling of three ministers: Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita, Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto, and Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman. The three ministerial sectors are considered to have a myriad of problems.
Under Minister Enggar, the current account deficit in 2018 reached the worst point in the last four years. The poor performance of non-oil and gas trade coupled with an increase in imports led to a deficit.
Confusion over agricultural data and deindustrialization overshadowed the Industry Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry. The food import policy without a clear database is also a problem for the two ministries.
One example is the commotion over imported rice last year. Trade Ministry and Bulog argued about the decision to import rice. Bulog said imports were not needed due to sufficient domestic production, but the Trade Ministry stated rice imports were required to maintain price stability in the market.


Can obesity really be cured by eating more rice? Study says so

Description: https://1v1d1e1lmiki1lgcvx32p49h8fe-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/1556793723-GettyImages-1059806784-48x27.jpg Description: https://1v1d1e1lmiki1lgcvx32p49h8fe-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/1556793723-GettyImages-1059806784-960x540.jpg
There's a whole world of slimming in that pilau... or maybe not. Photo: Getty

Eat more rice, cure obesity – this is the news that went around the world in the past 24 hours, largely without critical analysis. Is there a grain of truth in such a bold declaration?
Or has an interesting observation by Japanese scientists been over-cooked by hype? The secret is more likely to be in portion sizes, not the food itself.
A study from Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto, Japan, found obesity levels are “substantially lower in countries that consume high amounts of rice” – meaning an average of 150 grams per day, per person.
Countries with an average lower rice intake – 14 grams per day – were found to have higher obesity levels.

There’s a link, but what does it really mean?

The study, presented this week at the European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow, concluded: “An extra quarter cup of rice per person per day may be enough to lower worldwide obesity levels by 1 per cent.”
The researchers analysed data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. This included relative consumption (grams of rice per day per person) and energy consumption (kilo calories per day per person) in the diets of 136 countries, which were eventually categorised into low and high (rice) consumption groups.
Also factored were estimates of obesity prevalence, average number of years spent in education, percentage of population over 65 years old, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and health expenditure.

Poorer countries eat the most rice

Bangladesh ranked first at 473 grams per day per person (3.3 per cent of the population obese); Laos was second with 443 grams per day (3 per cent obese); Cambodia third with 438 grams per day (2.9 per cent obese). These countries also had lower consumption of energy.
At the other end of the scale, where obesity is in plague proportions: Australia was 67th with 32 grams per day and two thirds of adults overweight or obese; the US 87th with 19 grams per day and one in three adults obese); France was 99th with 15 grams per day, and about one in four adults are obese.
The college’s Professor Tomoko Imai, who led the research, interpreted the numbers this way: “Eating rice seems to protect against weight gain. It’s possible that the fibre, nutrients, and plant compounds found in whole grains may increase feelings of fullness and prevent overeating.”
Professor Lynn Riddell is Associate Dean in the Faculty of Health at Deakin University.
“The reason why these countries have typically lower obesity is that their overall energy intake is compromised,” Dr Riddell told The New Daily.
“You have high levels of wasting and stunting in child populations … and overall an energy deficit traditionally in those countries.”

Not just any rice

Another problem with the study: the researchers used “rice” as an umbrella term for brown or unrefined rice, white rice and highly refined rice flour. The more refined the grain, the less fibre and micronutrients.
Dr Riddell advised there was no reason to choose rice over any other grain – or any one food – as protection against obesity. She did advise people who chose to eat grain to opt for whole grain, as research showed it was conducive to lower body weight.
Dr Gunter Kuhnle, Associate Professor in Nutrition and Health, University of Reading, posted similar comments in his response to the study at the Science Media Centre: “White rice consists mainly of carbohydrates, and there is no reason to assume that carbohydrates from rice – and not other sources such as grains or potatoes – have a different effect on obesity.”

Japan, not so grainy

Finally, there is a contradiction in Professor Imai’s final recommendation: “The observed associations suggest that the obesity rate is low in countries that eat rice as a staple food. Therefore, a Japanese food or an Asian-food-style diet based on rice may help prevent obesity.”
There is a big difference between a heart-friendly Japanese diet and sugar-rich Thai food or ghee-based curries.
And the Japanese diet isn’t overly rice heavy.
According to 2015 figures, Japan ranked 50 with 119 grams per person per day being eaten. It enjoys the lowest obesity rate (3.7 per cent) for the developed world. Smaller portions might be helping.
The New Daily wasn’t able to read the study paper, which hasn’t been published – and has relied on a statement from the European Association for the Study of Obesity.


Paddy bugs have wreaked extensive havoc, entomology dept has failed rice farmers

By Staff Writer 
Dear Editor,
The entomology department of the Burma Research Centre has once again failed the country’s rice farmers by alerting them too late about the invasion of paddy bugs and the very poor effectiveness of  the pesticide being used.
It has been a well-known fact that when a certain chemical is used for a protracted period the particular insect biologically will build up resistance against such chemicals. This very sensitive information was always delivered at workshops and seminars by articulate research personnel. This kind of service had been available in the past not so any more. Can the head of GRDB please tell me why such services have stopped suddenly? Every farmer needs to know. But then, if you fail to disclose same, you are guilty of hiding vital information from all rice farmers.
Paddy bugs have wreaked extensive havoc in the entire country all because the entomology department failed to put in place a very comprehensive plan on how to deal with the impending invasion of paddy bugs. If ever there was any application of strategic action to counter the paddy bugs invasion, it came at a time when the damage was already done. Statistics will tell you of the extensive damage done in every rice farming community. It is alarming and devastating. It has been too much for us to bear such losses.
As I see it our entomologist needs further training. I would recommend a refresher course for her if it is possible. Because of poor performance and lack of experience, rice farmers have suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings and the millers have had a field day by doling out grades recently unheard of. Some farmers have had to dump their harvested paddy and on the Essequibo coast farmers were paid $500 and $1300 per bag. The equivalent poundage was far beyond the stipulated amount. It cost the farmers $2800 – $3200 to produce one bag of paddy. In earlier times the millers used to award the farmers grades from Extra ‘A’ to negotiable but, now he has in
Place the sample grades 1-12, each sample grade has a variation of price per bag. I wish to ask Mr. Hassan the general manager of GRDB if he has knowledge of “sample grades” at the mills. I need a direct answer and may I ask do you still have GRDB grading officers at the miller’s grading offices, if not why not? The presence of such person rules out under-grading.
Research and GRDB extension services have become very poor and we need to know why this has been so? As I have often said extension services are an important link between the research station and rice farmers. There is laxity in every department at the Burma Research Station and I have no apologies in saying so. Something is not right up there. I urge our honourable minister to investigate, this is within your portfolio minister!
Be good, be alert and save the rice industry.
Yours faithfully,
Ganga (Bobby) Persaud

RDB says loans to be repaid in time

Chea Vannak / Khmer Times 


The Rural Development Bank (RDB) said all loans disbursed under the emergency fund since last October will be repaid in time because the last few rice harvests have been successful.
RDB director Kao Thach said the maturity date of the loans will not have to be extended to help borrowers pay, as it happened last year.
“Loan payments are due in June, and we expect that all rice millers will pay back in time,” Mr Thach said. “The rice sector has been doing well during this period so we expect no problems with payments.”
. .
In October RDB disbursed $50 million of government funds to rice millers as part of its emergency fund.
Launched in 2016, the government-led emergency fund aims to help rice millers purchase paddy rice from farmers.
Mr Thach said the bank plans to increase the emergency fund in upcoming years.
“The government aims to export up to 1 million tonnes of rice to international markets,” Mr Thach said. “With only $50 million in the emergency fund, this will probably not happen.”
Last month, China signed an agreement that expanded its import quota for Cambodian rice from 300,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes for 2019 and 2020.
. .

Sustainability Report:  The Greatest Yields  

Report highlights:  Second in a nine-part series.

ARLINGTON, VA -- Efficiency is the bedrock of sustainability.  Rice farmers must utilize the land to its fullest while ensuring its continuing health.  Increased productivity allows farmers to feed a growing population using less water and energy and get the most out of what each acre of soil has to offer.

The U.S. Rice Industry Sustainability Reportprovides a comprehensive look at just how much U.S. rice farmers have achieved when it comes to yields.  In 1980, total national rice production was at 146 million hundredweights.  By 2015, that amount had been raised to 193 million.  But this 32 percent increase is not a result of farmers farming more land nor is it a result of farmers employing Genetically Modified Organisms -- the commercial crop is GMO-free.  Thanks to research, technological advances, and a lot of hard work within the industry, farmers have been able to grow more rice on their land than ever before.  Rice yields per acre have increased an impressive 62 percent since 1980, and that means farmers are getting more rice out of every inch of soil they till. 

Why is this important? For one, it means more rice:  more food for a growing domestic population, as well as more exports to provide foreign markets with an affordable commodity that is a staple in cuisines worldwide.  It also means we have more to give back to our communities, whether it be through stimulating the local economy or donating to food banks and participating in international food aid programs.  But as much as yields are about more, they're also about less. 

By increasing yields per acre, farmers are reducing energy and water use.  Higher yields mean fewer passes in the combine, and each grain of rice takes a lot less water to grow.  The numbers speak for themselves:  during the time period covered by the study, water use has decreased by 52 percent, energy use has decreased by 34 percent, and greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 41 percent.  This proven efficiency in land use is foundational to the U.S. rice industry's sustainability mission. 

"Why would a farmer want to waste anything?" said Arkansas rice farmer Ryan Sullivan.  "It costs money to pump every gallon of water, so we are conservative in order to stay profitable." 

Innovative techniques and improvements in U.S. rice production have also reduced the time farmers spend in the fields to just seven man-hours per acre.  This is an especially significant number when compared to the 300 hours often still required for rice production in less developed countries, and it speaks to how committed our industry is to streamlining every element of the process.  The less labor that each acre requires, the more time and effort U.S. farmers can put into improving their operations and implementing new sustainability practices. 

As our nine-part series covering the highlights of the U.S. Rice Industry Sustainability Report continues, we will explore the many innovative practices farmers have employed to make such a drastic yield increase possible, and how they plan to continue to raise yields in the future. 

The full report can be found online and you can contact Steve Linscombe if you would like hard copies of the report.
USA RICE DAILY


CAN CAULIFLOWER BE 'RICE'? SOME STATES SAY NO.

New state measures are targeting riced vegetable products to protect the rice industry.
Riced cauliflower has gained popularity as part of low-carbohydrate and paleo diets.
In the rice industry's worst nightmare, a harried customer enters the grocery store. A representative from the trade group USA Rice says he envisions a single parent who's shopping quickly: He or she might go to the frozen food aisle, grab a package of fried rice, and check out before realizing that the worst has happened: That rice is not rice at all.

Touting a version of this scenario, at least four states have passed or are considering measures to ban food companies from using the word "rice" unless the product is made of, well, rice. Louisiana's measure, which passed the state Senate last week, targets cauliflower rice in a bid to protect the state's rice industry (and its top agricultural export). USA Rice supports these measures, arguing that, since the grain has no national "standard of identity"—a Food and Drug Administration definition for foods—rice is vulnerable to attacks from its cauliflower competitors.
On the surface, this is a fight between industry insiders: USA Rice has squared up against another trade group, the Plant Based Food Association. But both sides have positioned the consumer as the victim, using arguments based on health or free speech. The rice battle is happening alongside others at the state and national level over the meaning of milk and meat; some measures, like Louisiana's, target multiple plant-based alternatives.

'RICE IS A GRAIN, NOT A SHAPE'

In the milk debate, the dairy industry has embraced former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb's infamous phrase: "An almond doesn't lactate." Michael Klein, vice president of marketing, communications, and domestic promotion for USA Rice, says the rice industry has a similar battle cry: "Rice is a grain, not a shape."
Klein argues that use of the rice moniker misrepresents the product and misleads consumers. He says industry groups would settle for "riced cauliflower," as opposed to "cauliflower rice"—a change that some frozen food brands, such as Birds Eye and Green Giant, have already made.
However, these arguments have not convinced anyone on the plant-based side when it comes to milk and meat. The same goes for rice: Isn't the general public able to distinguish between foods in the grocery store?
The Plant Based Foods Association, which represents 136 food companies (some of the biggest are Blue Diamond, Brookside, and Campbell Soup), has said these bans are inventing consumer concerns to protect traditional agriculture industries like rice, which have the benefit of support from United States Department of Agriculture-funded marketing services and checkoff programs.
"Consumers are not confused, they know exactly what they are buying and are choosing plant-based alternatives for a variety of reasons: health, environmental concerns, ethical reasons and taste," the group wrote in a letter to the Louisiana bill's sponsor, Senator Francis Thompson, as reported by the Advocate in Baton Rouge.

A GRAIN WITH NO NAME 

According to Klein, the real threat is that rice's competitors (or as he calls them, "rice pretenders") have started to mimic their packaging. For example, he says one brand has adopted a hue suspiciously close to "Uncle Ben's orange."
Some of this packaging also contains health claims, which are under the purview of the FDA. The brand RightRice markets its blend of lentils, chickpeas, and green peas as "healthier" and more nutritious than rice, calling it a product for people who no longer eat the grain but want to "enjoy rice again." Klein objects to such marketing. "It implies rice is wrong," he says, noting that such products have a "completely different nutrient profile."
While the FDA does not regulate "rice" itself, it does define "standards of identity" for 300 foods across 20 categories. Sherbet gets one; so do peanut butter and milk. Any manufacturer claiming to sell these products must meet the FDA's specifications, or risk a lawsuit. The rules are the reason that food companies have had to maintain a certain ratio of cherries for every frozen cherry pie—one of several regulations the Trump administration has proposed to roll back this year, the Associated Press reports.
Klein points out that rice makes an appearance in the Codex Alimentarius, an internationally recognized list of food standards from the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Here, it's defined as "whole and broken kernels obtained from the species Oryza sativa L." But it has no standard of identity in the U.S., meaning state-level laws are the only guidelines defining rice.

BATTLE OF THE CROPS

It's no secret that agriculture interests have pushed these measures at the state level. In Louisiana, the Advocate reports that representatives from the rice and cattle industries have backed the bill.
The four states that are contemplating these bans—Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, and Arkansas—are among the biggest rice producers in the U.S. Most of the country's rice comes from the Arkansas prairie, Mississippi Delta, Gulf Coast, and California's Sacramento Valley. "Things are pretty tough for farmers as it is," Klein says. "Anything that threatens those folks and their livelihood is a problem."
The dairy industry claims it's lost more than a billion dollars in sales to plant-based milk competitorsKlein fears this could happen to the U.S. rice industry. He says that, when alternative rice products began to emerge about three years ago, one of the first calls he made was to a dairy industry trade group.
Unlike the milks, rice and cauliflower may not seem like natural foes: Rice is a global food staple, and the U.S. exports about half its crop. Meanwhile, overall U.S. vegetable consumption is falling, but cauliflower is on the rise. Of course, most people who buy riced alternatives do so to accommodate a dietary restriction. (A pending patent for a riced cauliflower blend offers a gluten-free substitute for wheat-based dough "with regards to mouth feel, texture, [and] flavor.")
So how realistic is that image of a single mom in the grocery store, shopping blindly for rice? There's some evidence that American consumers misinterpret food labels, and that packaging measures fail to improve health across classes. Choosing between cauliflower and rice is not as significant a health decision as that of milk or meat substitutes, nor can personal choice significantly mitigate agriculture's carbon footprint. But if the rice industry has its way, this debate will play out in legislation instead of the frozen food aisle.
Emily Moon is an editorial fellow at Pacific Standard. Previously she worked at the Chicago Sun-Times and the Herald-Times in Bloomington, Indiana. She is a graduate of Northwestern University.
https://psmag.com/news/can-cauliflower-be-rice





Rejoice Asians! This study says eating rice could help you lose

Description: Rejoice Asians! This study says eating rice could help you lose weight.

Description: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/364/6439/422/F2.medium.gif


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Wild yams such as these were cultivated into an African crop.
PHOTO: NORA SCARCELLI/IRD
The recent findings pinpoint the wild ancestors of some of Africa's most important crops, highlighting reservoirs of genes that could be exploited to boost the productivity and disease resistance of the domesticated varieties, he adds. Such improvements could be life savers on a continent where population is expanding, and climate change threatens crop yields. “When we study evolution of crops across time, it helps us to see varieties [that] are more resilient,” says Alemseged Beldados, an archaeobotanist at Addis Ababa University. “It will help us single out better breeds.”
Generations of archaeologists have studied plant domestication in the Middle East as well as in Asia and the Americas. “But Africa has very much lagged behind,” says Dorian Fuller, an archaeobotanist at University College London. Plant fossils and farming artifacts are less likely to be preserved in Africa's warm, moist environments, funding is scarce, and field research often faces political and logistical challenges.
Genetic studies, however, bypass some of these difficulties. In 2002, Nora Scarcelli, a population geneticist colleague of Vigouroux's at IRD, took an interest in yams, the most important root crop in Africa before the introduction of cassava in the 1500s and still more important than maize in parts of Africa.
The vines of the African yam (Dioscorea rotundata) produce large tubers that look a bit like American sweet potatoes (sometimes mistakenly called yams), but the plant is a different species that is also distinct from Asian yams. But whether the modern African crop was derived from D. abyssinica, a wild yam that grows in the savanna, or D. praehensilis, which thrives in the wetter rainforests, was not known. Hoping to resolve the issue, Scarcelli and colleagues recently sequenced and compared 167 genomes of wild and domesticated yams gathered from Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The DNA of savanna wild yams was fairly similar, but the forest wild yams split into two groups, one centered in Cameroon and another much farther west.
Scarcelli, Vigouroux, and their colleagues further identified forest yams in the Niger River Basin, between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria, as the source of the modern domesticate. Their analysis could not pinpoint the date of domestication, but it did identify genes that changed along the way. Variations in genes for water regulation probably helped convert a forest dweller into a plant that thrives in open sun. Alterations in root development and starch production genes also likely made tubers regularly shaped and richer in starch.
A similar study of pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus), the most important cereal for arid areas of Africa and Asia with poor soils, also pointed to a West African origin. When Vigouroux and his colleagues sequenced and compared the genomes of 221 wild (Pennisetum glaucum monodii) and domesticated millets, they concluded that all domesticated pearl millet varieties came from a single ancestor growing north of the Niger River in part of the western Sahara Desert that today includes northern Mali and Mauritania. The genetic work, reported last year in Nature Ecology & Evolution, dovetails nicely with a 2011 discovery of 4500-year-old pearl millet remains in an archaeological site in southeastern Mali, Fuller adds.
Previous studies had shown that about 6000 years ago, probably before millet was domesticated, a moist climate created a network of lakes in the region, yielding abundant wild food. As the climate dried and those lakes vanished, Vigouroux hypothesizes, the local people began to cultivate plants.
And over more time, people and plants shifted southward, with cultivated plants intermittently interbreeding with wild plants. The mingling slowed full domestication but added genetic variation to the millet. “Our findings stressed the importance of wild-to-crop gene flow during and after crop domestication,” Vigouroux and his colleagues wrote.
African rice (Oryza glaberrima) is less important today than the other traditional crops, having been mostly replaced with Asian rice. But it, too, got a West African start. Last year in Current Biology, Vigouroux and his colleagues analyzed 163 varieties of the domesticated African rice and 83 samples of wild rice collected from west and east Africa. Their analysis showed the cultivated species has about half as much genetic diversity as the wild species, and that it arose from wild relatives in northern Mali. They also found that some of the same genetic changes central to the taming of Asian rice, such as a gene deletion that made the plant grow more erect, also played a part in the domestication of African rice.
Other researchers have tracked down additional genes that aided African rice domestication. In the March issue of PLOS Genetics, they described the evolution of genes that make rice seeds less likely to fall off the stalks. Such a detailed history is easier to piece together for African rice than Asian rice because so many wild populations are still intact, says evolutionary geneticist Michael Purugganan of New York University in New York City, who led the work. Studies in Africa “may tell us more about crop domestication than what people have learned about other crops elsewhere,” he adds.
While Vigouroux focuses on climate to explain why agriculture arose in this part of Africa, archaeologist Sylvain Ozainne from the University of Geneva in Switzerland suggests movements of Saharan pastoralists called Nok helped initiate and spread a culture of crop growing, particularly of pearl millet. “Rather than a direct response to abrupt climatic change, the expansion of African agriculture may be better explained through a more complex process, which involved socioeconomic transformations,” he says.
In Africa, as elsewhere, crop domestication was a long, drawn-out process (Science, 29 June 2007, p. 1830). It happened outside the Niger River Basin as well. Sorghum was likely tamed in East Africa. Last month, Nature Plantspublished a genetic analysis of wild and domesticated sorghum samples excavated from an archaeological site in Egypt that spans several thousands years. It showed that early farmers either deliberately crossed this crop—now the sixth most widely grown in the world—with wild relatives and with domesticates from other places, or cultivated varieties that naturally interbred.
All this genetic exchange ultimately helped improve the final crop, says Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie, an archaeobotanist at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. The new findings, he adds, “speak about how intelligent our ancestors were in terms of selecting and managing crops for a variety of uses.”

Fixing agriculture a decade after cyclone Aila: A farmer recollects

by Sahana Ghosh on 3 May 2019
  • Aila also forced farmers to think of the trade-offs between food security and high productivity in the context of paddy and overuse of chemical fertilisers.
  • Research by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) shows that farmers opt for different rice varieties across wet and dry seasons and their choices depend on economic importance and stresses such as salinity and submergence.
  • As the Bay of Bengal prepares for Cyclone Fani, expected to hit the region this weekend, the story highlights the challenges faced by farmers and how they adapt, in the aftermath of a cyclonic event.
It has been a decade since Cyclone Aila ravaged the Bay of Bengal. But paddy farmer Tapan Mondal, is wary of growing legumes and watermelon in the still-recovering soil of the Sundarbans, which has been much abused by the overuse of chemical fertilisers.
When Aila raged through Bengal in May 2009, he and others belonging to the agrarian community in the low-lying islands of Sundarbans lost all standing crops, overnight, to the tropical cyclone.
“We used to grow legumes and watermelons, besides paddy, which were a good source of income, but that too was destroyed after Aila because of salinity rise. Legumes (such as moong) and watermelon could not survive the saline ingress,” rued Mondal.
“Even four to five years after the storm, there were no crops.”
In the aftermath of Aila, agricultural fields in the Sundarbans lay marooned in salt water as flood waters had gushed in, breaching embankments.
For the next few months, water stagnated in the low lying fields, ratcheting up salinity and rendering farms unproductive. Untimely rains in 2012 further played havoc with production.
Much to the consternation of villagers, who had expected these rains to wash the salt out of the soil, the salts that had permeated the soil infact began seeping up due to capillary action and forming coatings on it, wiping off possibilities of an immediate decent harvest.
Mondal recalled his lush green paddy fields in Sundarbans’s Satjelia island turned brownish-black as the crops suffered from this change in soil quality.
“Agriculture became expensive as more amount of fertilisers was needed to supplement high yielding varieties (HYV) of rice in the cyclone-damaged soil and hiring farm hands became expensive in the aftermath as labourers migrated in significant numbers to look for temporary jobs in other states in India,” he said.
Now, Mondal primarily continues to grow paddy in his farm plot and admits he is quite successful at it.
“I primarily grow rice and supplement the income by vegetables grown in 16 bigha (4.8 acres) of land. Rice cultivation during the aman season (the main season) yields 180 sacks. We use the majority for sale and a little (15 sacks) for consumption,” Mondal told this visiting Mongabay-India correspondent.
Aman paddy is sown in the rainy season (July-August) and harvested in winter.
Interview with farmer Tapan Mondal. Interview by Sahana Ghosh, edited by Kartik Chandramouli.

Aila triggered a fresh realisation on food security

However, Mondal refuses to blame Aila alone for the high input of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The successive influx of chemical fertilisers, much before Aila whipped through the region, has wreaked havoc on soil quality, claimed Mondal.
“We admit that earlier (much before Aila) we used to apply a lesser quantity of fertiliser because we were growing low-yield traditional varieties of rice. But now we need much more fertiliser because we have been growing high-yield varieties year after year.”
“For HYVs, the yield is almost three times as much as the indigenous paddy but the downside is the heavy use of chemical fertilisers. So for an investment of an additional Rs. 5 in fertiliser costs, we get Rs. 1000 more as income from paddy. Who does not want more money,” Mondal asked.
2017 report by Visva Bharati University notes that the average productivity of these traditional varieties is significantly less than that of the HYVs. “This is the major reason why these newly introduced varieties could displace the local varieties and are mostly cultivated by the local farmers,” the report said.
Mondal and his neighbours have been reaping the financial benefits of HYVs for over 20 years.
“Farm labourers who visited other West Bengal districts such as Burdwan for work noticed different HYVs (such as the CR Dhan varieties) and they brought it here from time to time. We started preferring those varieties over time.”
According to agronomist Sudhanshu Singh of International Rice Research Institute, perception of a healthy crop also matters for them favouring chemical fertilisers.
Farmers apply only nitrogen fertilisers (mostly urea) as they believe that their crop should look dark green.“The lack of balanced use of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic sources affect the soil fertility,” Singh said.
Description: Sunderban-Rice-Field

Ten years after Aila ravaged Bay of Bengal, farmers are still adjusting to the changes in soil quality due to saline-water ingress in the Indian Sundarbans. Photo by Kartik Chandramouli/Mongabay.

Mondal said, in addition to fertilisers, indiscriminate use of pesticides has also become problematic.
“A good amount of pesticides is also required for the HYVs, which has added to our concerns because gradually pests are acquiring resistance to the chemicals,” said Mondal.
Mondal conceded: “And now without fertiliser, the soil refuses to give in.”
In the post-Aila scenario, however, the absence of legumes (such as moong) and watermelons in his farm has spelt further disaster for soil quality in Mondal’s farm. Legumes and watermelons, once regular occupants of his farm, disappeared after Aila brought in salt water.
“Legumes add nitrogen to the soil because they have nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their root nodules. Since legumes were unable to grow in the saline soil after Aila, the soil quality was further hit,” said Mondal.
“In addition, the decomposing leaves of legumes add organic matter to the soil which was highly useful for soil fertility and to counter the effects of high chemical fertiliser use,” he said.
“Even watermelon which required low water input does not grow now. Legumes and watermelon were good sources of income,” Mondal iterated, worry writ large on his visage.
Mondal hopes in the next two to five years, if an Aila-like cyclone doesn’t recur, the soil will have revived enough to let him farm legumes and watermelon.
“Because of low pressure, there are storms and cyclones. Frequency is more. I won’t say that there were no incidences earlier but it has increased. So anything that supplements paddy cultivation is good for sustainability,” he added.
Description: https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2019/05/03091620/aila-768x512.jpg

Severe Cyclonic Storm Aila at peak intensity. Photo by NASA/Wikimedia Commons.

Aila also forced farmers to think of the trade-offs between food security and high productivity. They are now starting to revert to the salt-tolerant local varieties to insure against total loss of crops due to saline water ingress, according to the Visva Bharati study.

Rice for all seasons and stresses

Research by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) shows that farmers opt for different rice varieties across wet and dry seasons.
“Originally farmers preferred bold grain tall plant types during the wet season. Tall plant types (140 to 170 cm) are suitable for low-lying land. And they felt that bold grain types of rice satiated longer when cooked and are also more suitable for parboiling,” Sudhanshu Singh explained.
These high yielding varieties take a longer time to mature (160–170 days) and are able to cope in the lowlands where water stagnates in the field for about four months (July to October).
For the dry season, farmers’ went for high yielding, salt tolerant, early maturing (115–130 days) varieties with long slender grains and good quality that fetches a better market price.
“Over time farmers have started growing rice in the dry season with long slender grains mostly for sale because the productivity of rice is higher in the dry season as it can be grown under controlled conditions with better management practices as compared to the wet season,” he said.
Most of the rice produced during the dry season is sold in the market, observed Singh based on participatory varietal selection (PVS) process that was implemented in 2008–2014 in the Indian Sundarbans region.

P31.46-M aid allotted for rice farmers in Davao Region

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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/03 May) – A total of  P31.46 million has been provided to rice farmers in Davao Region who will be affected by the implementation of Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law, a measure that eliminates import restrictions on rice, more than two months ago.
Jose D. Pascua, focal person for the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-11, said the assistance, which would be used for seed intervention, is part of the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) established by RA 11203, to modernize the rice industry and increase its productivity.
He said the agency would also be providing assistance for the mechanization of rice farms under the RCEF.
National Economic Development Authority-Davao director Maria Lourdes Lim said modernizing the rice industry is necessary to support the local rice farmers by providing them pre-harvest and post-harvest equipment.
She said the government would play a key role in helping modernize and improve the productivity of the local rice farmers through the RCEF implementation.
She said part of the annual RCEF fund would be allocated to “procure rice farm equipment, including tractors, threshers, rice planters, harvesters, and irrigation pumps and will be given as a grant-in-kind primarily to eligible farmers, rice farmer associations, and registered rice cooperatives.”
At least 30 percent will be given to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) to develop, propagate and promote inbred rice seeds to rice farmers and organizations of rice farmers; 10 percent will be given to Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines for the creation of a credit facility with minimal interest rates and collateral requirements; and 10 percent will be used for skills training in rice crop production, modern rice farming techniques, seed production, farm mechanization, and knowledge and technology transfer through farm schools nationwide.
Lim said the projects for irrigation development and farm-to-market roads must be pursued to help in the production of rice and the transport of products from the farms to the markets in the region.
The performance of the agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing (AHFF) sector improved by 2.9 percent in 2018, registering a total output of P42.610 billion, propelled by the growth in agriculture and forestry subsector, which posted a 3.5-percent increase last year, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.
Output in the fishery, however, decreased to P1.9 billion last year from P2.059 billion in 2017.
The AHFF contributed at least 10.6 percent to the gross regional domestic product of the Davao Region. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
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Dispute breaks out over RCEF funding as DA insists on P10B
May 2, 2019 | 10:01 pm
Description: rice farmerPHILSTAR
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has signaled that it will claim the full amount of P10 billion once tariffs start generating funding for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), arguing that a P5 billion advance provided in 2018 was meant for other rice projects.
“There was confusion on the initial P5 billion that was released to the DA on Dec. 28… it’s meant to support the rice program of the DA,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said in a briefing Thursday.
“Definitely, the P5 billion is not part of RCEF,” he said, with the liberalization of rice imports only implemented this year, while the initial P5 billion was given last year.
The RCEF is meant to be funded by tariffs generated by rice imports, raising P10 billion each year to improve farmers’ access to financing, rice seed, machinery and know-how, among others.
He said that the DA has fully allocated the P5 billion released in December, with P4 billion going to the regions before the end of 2018, and P1 billion set aside for lending programs.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has requested for the latter to be returned to help finance the acquisition of rice drying facilities and other equipment.



The financing will be provided by LANDBANK and the Development Bank of the Philippines, which will charge 2%.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Assistant Secretary Mercedita A. Sombilla has said that the P5 billion was meant to be used for projects that meet the RCEF mandate while the Rice Tariffication Law, which authorizes the RCEF, was still being implemented.
The Rice Tariffication Law aims to bring down the price of rice by liberalizing the imports of cheap foreign grain.
The need to support farmers while imports increase their footprint in the market is intended to help make them more competitive. The threat of more imports has already exerted pressure on domestic prices of palay, or unmilled rice, reducing farmer incomes and highlighting the need for them to be more cost-efficient.
“I talked to Secretary Mon (Ramon M.) Lopez and he agrees that that amount should not be part of the RCEF. Binalik lang naming ’yung P1 billion para lang makatulong na hindi na masyadong maghanap ng pera ang gobyerno [We returned the P1 billion to help ensure the government is not pressed for funding],” Mr. Piñol said.
He said the DA will initiate a dialogue on the matter.
For the deployment of the actual RCEF funds, he said, “We are still in the process of organizing the project steering committee… when organized, I will ask all the agencies involved in the RCEF to make a presentation of their programs. As the only accountable officer for the P10 billion, I will have to ask them to present their project proposals and I will have to make sure that money really goes to the rice farmers.” — Vincent Mariel P. Galang
RECOMMENDED
Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- MAY 03, 2019
MAY 3, 2019 / 2:24 PM
* * * * * *
Nagpur Foodgrain Prices – APMC/Open Market-May 3, 2018 Nagpur, May 3 (Reuters) – Gram and tuar prices firmed up again in Nagpur Agriculture Produce and Marketing Committee (APMC) on good seasonal demand from local millers amid tight supply from producing regions. Good rise in pulses in other foodgrain mandis and reported demand from South-based millers also helped to push up prices. About 2,900 bags of gram and 1,100 bags of tuar reported for auction, according to sources.

GRAM
* Gram varieties ruled steady in open market here but demand was poor.

TUAR
* Tuar gavarani and tuar Karnataka reported higher in open market on good seasonal

buying support from local traders amid weak supply from producing regions.

* Moong dal Chilka reported weak in open market on poor buying support from

local traders.

* In Akola, Tuar New – 5,400-5,550, Tuar dal (clean) – 8,000-8,200, Udid Mogar (clean)

– 6,900-7,800, Moong Mogar (clean) 8,000-8,600, Gram – 4,400-4,550, Gram Super best

– 5,600-5,900 * Wheat, rice and other foodgrain items moved in a narrow range in

scattered deals and settled at last levels in weak trading activity.

Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg

FOODGRAINS Available prices Previous close

Gram Auction 3,800-4,325 3,800-4,290

Gram Pink Auction n.a. 2,100-2,600

Tuar Auction 4,750-5,610 4,700-5,550

Moong Auction n.a. 3,950-4,200

Udid Auction n.a. 4,300-4,500

Masoor Auction n.a. 2,200-2,500

Wheat Lokwan Auction 1,750-1,900 1,700-1,890

Wheat Sharbati Auction n.a. 2,900-3,000

Gram Super Best Bold 5,800-6,000 5,800-6,000

Gram Super Best n.a. n.a.

Gram Medium Best 5,200-5,600 5,200-5,600

Gram Dal Medium n.a. n.a

Gram Mill Quality 4,350-4,450 4,350-4,450

Desi gram Raw 4,250-4,350 4,300-4,400

Gram Kabuli 8,300-10,000 8,300-10,000

Tuar Fataka Best-New 8,400-8,500 8,400-8,500

Tuar Fataka Medium-New 8,000-8,200 8,000-8,200

Tuar Dal Best Phod-New 7,600-7,800 7,600-7,800

Tuar Dal Medium phod-New 7,200-7,500 7,200-7,500

Tuar Gavarani New 5,650-5,750 5,600-5,700

Tuar Karnataka 5,850-5,950 5,800-5,900

Masoor dal best 5,500-5,700 5,500-5,700

Masoor dal medium 5,200-5,400 5,200-5,400

Masoor n.a. n.a.

Moong Mogar bold (New) 8,000-8,800 8,000-8,800

Moong Mogar Medium 6,800-7,500 6,800-7,500

Moong dal Chilka New 6,800-7,700 6,800-7,800

Moong Mill quality n.a. n.a.

Moong Chamki best 8,100-9,000 8,000-9,000

Udid Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 7,800-8,500 7,800-8,500

Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG) 6,000-7,300 6,000-7,300

Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG) 4,500-4,700 4,500-4,700

Mot (100 INR/KG) 5,550-7,050 5,550-7,050

Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg) 4,850-5,050 4,850-5,050

Watana Dal (100 INR/KG) 5,600-5,800 5,600-5,800

Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG) 6,700-6,900 6,700-6,900

Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,200 2,100-2,200

Wheat Mill quality (100 INR/KG) 2,000-2,050 2,000-2,050

Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,600 2,500-2,600

Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,600 2,500-2,600

Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG) 2,200-2,400 2,200-2,400

Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG) n.a. n.a.

MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG) 3,400-4,000 3,400-4,000

MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG) 2,800-3,200 2,800-3,200

Rice Parmal (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,200 2,100-2,200

Rice BPT best (100 INR/KG) 3,300-3,800 3,300-3,800

Rice BPT medium (100 INR/KG) 2,700-3,100 2,700-3,100

Rice BPT new (100 INR/KG) 2,800-3,200 2,800-3,200

Rice Luchai (100 INR/KG) 2,900-3,000 2,900-3,000

Rice Swarna best (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,700 2,500-2,700

Rice Swarna medium (100 INR/KG) 2,300-2,400 2,300-2,400

Rice HMT best (100 INR/KG) 4,100-4,600 4,100-4,600

Rice HMT medium (100 INR/KG) 3,600-3,900 3,600-3,900

Rice HMT New (100 INR/KG) 3,600-4,000 3,600-4,000

Rice Shriram best(100 INR/KG) 5,300-5,500 5,300-5,500

Rice Shriram med (100 INR/KG) 4,600-5,000 4,600-5,000

Rice Shriram New (100 INR/KG) 4,400-4,600 4,400-4,600

Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG) 9,000-14,000 9,000-14,000

Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 5,000-7,500 5,000-7,500

Rice Chinnor best 100 INR/KG) 6,500-7,200 6,600-7,200

Rice Chinnor medium (100 INR/KG) 6,200-6,400 6,200-6,400

Rice Chinnor New (100 INR/KG) 4,700-5,000 4,700-5,000

Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG) 2,350-2,550 2,350-2,550

Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG) 2,050-2,250 2,050-2,250 WEATHER (NAGPUR) Maximum temp. 44.2 degree Celsius, minimum temp. 24.6 degree Celsius Rainfall : Nil FORECAST: Partly cloudy sky. Maximum and minimum temperature likely to be around 44 degree Celsius and 26 degree Celsius. Note: n.a.—not available (For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but included in market prices)

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Laos’ rice exports are expected to plummet

 | Publication date 30 April 2019 | 11:10 ICT
Description: Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Laos set a target of $45.6 million for rice exports last year but could only achieve $31.4 million. VIENTIANE TIMES
LAOS is anticipating reduced income from rice exports this year in the wake of widespread flooding across the country last year.
The country set a target of $45.6 million for rice exports last year but could only achieve $31.4 million, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
This year, the government is expecting to earn only $25.2 million from rice exports, a significant decline compared to last year’s figure.
Low rice yields in 16 provinces have been attributed to widespread flooding in the rainy season, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry reported.
Some 101,000ha of rice were affected by last year’s floods, about 12 per cent of the total planted area of 817,800ha.
About 66,000ha of the rice crop was estimated to have been destroyed by floods.
Last year, the government set a rice production target of 4.2 million tonnes and hit about 3.6 million tonnes or 86 per cent of the plan.
China is potentially a huge market for Lao rice but has stringent requirements as far as quality is concerned.
Laos’ rice exports to China hit $14.2 million in 2016, dropped to $5.6 million in 2017, and sank to about $5 million last year.
Minister of Industry and Commerce Khemmani Pholsena recently requested that China consider a rice import quota of 50,000 tonnes along with accepting other industrial goods as part of efforts to bolster bilateral trade.
The call for the increased rice quota comes after 20,000 tonnes were shipped to the northern neighbour in 2017 by China’s Xuanye (Lao) Co Ltd following approval by China’s National Development and Reform Commission.
Vietnam and Thailand are also significant markets for the Lao-grown staple.
Rice is an important commercial crop for the Lao market and for export, along with coffee, corn, bananas, sugarcane, cassava and rubber.
Local estimates expect the agriculture sector to expand by at least three per cent this year if Laos does not encounter any natural disasters.
According to the Asian Development Outlook 2019 forecast, the agriculture sector is expected to expand by 2.5 per cent.
The sector has grown gradually, but fell from a growth rate of 2.9 per cent in 2017 to 2.5 per cent last year, the National Institute for Economic Research reported. VIENTIANE TIMES/ANN

RPT-Asia Rice-Thailand


MAY 3, 2019 /
rates gain; weak demand hurts Indian prices
Harshith Aranya
                                                                                                                   
(Repeats story with no changes to text)
* Bangladesh to review export ban after Boro harvest -official
* Vietnam prices flat after rising last week
* Indian export prices down for fourth straight week
By Harshith Aranya
BENGALURU, May 2 (Reuters) - Rice export prices in Thailand rose this week as demand ticked up, while weaker overseas buying weighed on rates in leading exporter India.
Thailand’s benchmark 5-percent broken rice RI-THBKN5-P1 prices rose to $385-$402 a tonne on Thursday, free on board Bangkok, from $385-$388 last week.
Demand inched up following a drop in price last week, Bangkok-based traders said. Demand in May was expected to remain flat, as Muslims will be fasting during Ramadan, before picking up in the second half of the year, they added.
Middle Eastern countries are among the top buyers from Thailand, the world’s second-largest exporter.
Meanwhile, India’s 5 percent broken parboiled variety RI-INBKN5-P1 was down for the fourth consecutive week, at around $373-$376 per tonne from last week’s $375-$378.
“There is no improvement in demand. Buyers are delaying purchases,” said an exporter based at Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
India’s rice exports in 2018/2019 dropped 7.2 percent from a year earlier to 11.95 million tonnes due to poor demand for non-basmati rice from Bangladesh and African countries, an Indian government body said on Thursday.
The aggressive selling of old inventory by China to African buyers was also weighing on prices, exporters said.
In Vietnam, rates for 5 percent broken rice RI-VNBKN5-P1 were relatively flat at $365 due to the Reunification Day and Labour Day holidays which closed markets and government agencies from Monday to Wednesday.
That compares with a range of $360-$370 last week, the first rise after five weeks of flat trading, with a trader in Ho Chi Minh City saying relatively higher Vietnamese prices were hurting demand.
“Prices won’t likely decline in the near term as domestic supplies are falling and because partial water shortage is threatening the upcoming summer-autumn crop,” the trader said.
Rice exports from Vietnam in April are forecast to have fallen 10.6 percent from March to 620,000 tonnes, the government’s General Statistics Office said earlier this week.
It said rice shipments from the country in the first four months of this year fell 7.9 percent from a year earlier to 2.03 million tonnes.
Bangladesh, the fourth biggest producer, will review its long-standing ban on rice exports within a few weeks after the harvesting of summer rice ends, a food ministry official said on Thursday.
Farmers in coastal areas in Bangladesh have been instructed to harvest their paddy fields ahead of a severe cyclone due to make landfall on Friday.
The summer-sown crop, also known as Boro, usually contributes more than half of Bangladesh’s typical annual rice production of around 35 million tonnes. (Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat in Bangkok, Khanh Vu in Hanoi, Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman; editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Usher Agro's MD Vinod Chaturvedi held for defrauding foreign bank of Rs 17.8 crore

By Vallabh OzarkarVallabh Ozarkar, Mumbai Mirror | Updated: May 2, 2019, 07:29 IST
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Prison- arrest
Vinod Chaturvedi, MD of Usher Agro, took series of loans over 3 years by submitting forged documents.

Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing has arrested the managing director of a rice milling company for allegedly defrauding PT Bank Maybank Indonesia to the tune of Rs 17.80 crore.

According to the police, Vinod Chaturvedi, MD of Usher Agro, took a series of loans over a period of three years – 2013-2016 – by submitting 40 sale and purchase invoices for rice commodities. Under the terms, each loan had to be repaid in three months.
As the defaults kept piling up, the bank appointed a private forensic auditor, who found that there had been no physical sale or purchase and that the invoices submitted – involving eight ‘supplier companies’ and seven ‘client firms’ – were bogus.

“The bank then lodged a complaint and an FIR was registered,” a source said. “During the investigation, it was found that the 40 bills that were generated were bogus. The sale and purchase bills, transport bills… they were all forged. The companies that he ostensibly did business with were just a front,” the source said.


The accused, along with other ‘directors’ and ‘owners’ of the ‘companies’, had conspired to defraud the bank, the source added.

“The ‘directors’ of the other ‘companies’ were known to the accused. They would get a cut from him in exchange for their cooperation. Many of these ‘companies’ had the same address. The investigation is continuing,” said a police officer.


The accused have been booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

Smallcaps that earned Anil Goel a Rs 150 crore bonanza in 4 months

Goel's portfolio increased to nearly Rs 970 crore as of April 25 from Rs 815 crore.

By
, ETMarkets.com|
Updated: May 02, 2019, 10.47 AM IST
0Comments
Getty Images

Description: Money---Getty-2Goel was holding at least 35 smallcaps in his portfolio as of March 31, 2019, data on Ace Equity showed on April 25.

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Anil Kumar Goel, one of Dalal Street’s leading individual investors known for his love for smallcaps and microcaps, has already made more than Rs 150 crore so far this calendar.

Data available with corporate database Ace Equity showed the worth of his portfolio increased to nearly Rs 970 crore as of April 25 from Rs 815 crore at the beginning of the year.

Goel was holding at least 35 smallcaps in his portfolio as of March 31, 2019, data on Ace Equity showed on April 25.

So what worked for him? Select companies from sugar, auto ancillary, consumer food, textile and steel sectors mainly moved his portfolio higher in the recent market rally, which lifted BSE Sensex nearly 2,500 points, or 7 per cent, to 38,730 on April 25.

The BSE Midcap index declined nearly 2 per cent, while the Smallcap index gained marginally by 0.50 per cent in this period.

Goel made a couple of changes in his portfolio during the quarter gone by. He increased his holdings in Avadh Sugar & Energy, Triveni Engineering & Industries and Uttam Sugar Mills in March quarter; stocks that rallied up to 42 per cent on a year-to-date basis till April 25.

Analysts say government measures and projections of lower sugar production in Brazil mainly supported the sugar counter during the February-April period.

Majestic Auto, another stock in Goel’s portfolio, has more than doubled the share price from Rs 89.10 on January 1, 2019 to Rs 207.10 on April 25. Curiously, Goel slightly reduced his stake in the company to 1.92 per cent from 2.13 per cent during this period.

Basmati rice processing company KRBL delivered him 24 per cent in four months. Goel held 4.12 per cent stake in it as of March 31 against 4.13 per cent at December end.

Shares of Amarjothi Spinning Mills, in which he upped his stake to 3.26 per cent from 3.24 per cent, dipped 11 per cent in these four months.

Goel also sold some holdings in Samtex Fashions and Srikalahasthi Pipes during March quarter. His name did not appear among key shareholders of Srikalahasthi as of March 31.

However, he stayed put on most other holdings including Uttam Sugar Mills, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Mazda, Dwarikesh Sugar, Avadh Sugar Industries, Sanghvi Movers, KG Denim and Vardhman Special Steels. These stocks have risen between 4 per cent and 42 per cent so far in 2019.

Meanwhile, some of his other holdings like Omaxe, Panama Petrochem, Cosmo Films, Ador Fontech, South India Paper Mills, Swelect Energy Systems, JBM Auto, Shivam Auto, Austin Engineering, Sterling Tools, Thirumalai Chemicals, Star Paper Mills, Sarla Performance, IG Petrochemicals eroded up to 30 per cent of wealth during the same period.




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