Thursday, July 18, 2019

18th July,2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter

Qatar Lifts Ban On Import Of Pakistani Rice

Mahnoor Sheikh (@mahnoorsheikh03) 9 minutes ago Thu 18th July 2019 | 12:12 PM

Description: Qatar lifts ban on import of Pakistani rice

Description: https://files.pna.gov.ph/category-list/2018/10/31/bacolod-central-market-sticky-rice-.jpg — https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/07/17/-output-likely-dipped-5-6-in-q2/

Concern Shifts From Rice To Soybeans Following Hurricane Barry

By ANDREW FLEMING • JUL 16, 2019

CREDIT CREATIVE COMMONS

Storms associated with Hurricane Barry are posing problems for Arkansas farmers. Agricultural officials had concerns that heavy rain and winds would damage rice crops, but are now more concerned about damage to soybean crops. Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, says weather over the weekend was not as damaging to rice crops as originally feared.

"We really thought we were going to get a lot of that rain in a shorter period of time along with some high winds. Instead, we really haven't had the winds so much and the rains have been spread out now over the course of about three days," Hardke said. "That's kind of allowing most of the rice fields to allow that water off." However, he said, there are still concerns related to sustained rain for rice farmers.

"A lot of this midday rain is problematic for flowering rice because that rainfall can disrupt pollination. A single day of it isn't always necessarily too devastating, but several days in a row can really cause some serious issues because plants do like to spread out their pollination over a few days," Hardke said.

With long sustained rains, more concern is being focused on soybean crops in the state. Hardke said that while rice fields can deal with flooding, the same is not true for soybean fields, especially since much of this year's crop was planted relatively late.

"Small soybeans do not like or tolerate flooded or saturated soil conditions very well for very long, and this slow, continuous, heavy rainfall has a lot of bottom ends of fields backed up at this point. Unfortunately, as it continues to rain, those areas are not going to drain very fast," he said. Hardke also said intense heat in the coming days could compound the problem and cause further damage to soybean crops.

Officials are also concerned that the storm could increase the number of insects threatening crops among other things. For now, according to Hardke, farmers will have to wait and see what happens in the coming days before they know the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Barry.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/post/concern-shifts-rice-soybeans-following-hurricane-barry

Philippine Farmers Seek Review of Rice Law as Prices Plunge

By Ditas B Lopez and Cecilia Yap

July 17, 2019, 5:39 AM GMT+5 Updated on July 17, 2019, 6:29 AM GMT+5

As rice prices plunge, farmers in the Philippines are asking President Rodrigo Duterte to review a 5-month-old law that paved the way for unlimited imports of the staple grain, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol said.

Rice prices at the farm gate dropped to 12-14 pesos ($0.24-$0.27) a kilo from 20 pesos earlier this year, Pinol said on his Facebook account. That would result in an annual loss of about 114 billion pesos ($2.24 billion) for Filipino rice farmers, he said.

The law, signed in February, removed caps on rice imports and boosted supply of the stable grain. The measure was intended to help cool inflation, which in 2018 accelerated to the fastest pace in nine years and triggered one of the most aggressive monetary tightening responses in Asia.

Rough-rice output in the second quarter probably fell 5.6% from a year ago to 3.86 million metric tons, the statistics agency said in a report.

Read: Cheap Imported Rice Soothes Philippines Inflation Pangs

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-17/philippine-farmers-seek-review-of-rice-import-liberalization

How can the world feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050 while also advancing economic development, protecting and restoring forests, and stabilizing the climate?

It won’t be easy and will require major new efforts, but it can be done. Our newWorld Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future — co-issued by the World Bank, UN Environment Programme and UN Development Programme— recommends a menu of 22 solutions served over five courses:

1.     Reduce growth in demand;

2.     Increase food production without expanding agricultural land;

3.     Increase fish supply;

4.     Reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from agricultural production;and

5.     Protect and restore natural ecosystems.

This menu enables the world to close the gap between the food available today and that needed by 2050, without clearing more land for farming and while reducing the food system’s GHGs to a level aligned with the Paris Agreement.

Some items on the menu require more farmers to implement best practices that already exist today. Others need consumers to change behavior, or governments and businesses to reform policies.

The challenge is sufficiently large, however, that many solutions will require technological innovations. Advancing them is a major theme of our report. Here are 10 important examples:

1.     Plant-based meat. Globally, per gram of edible protein, beef and lamb use around 20 times the land and generate around 20 times the GHGs of plant-based proteins. Affordable plant-based products that mimic the experience of eating beef could reduce growth in global beef consumption, while still satisfying meat-lovers. Fortunately, companies such asImpossible Foods and Beyond Meat are already making headlines by creating plant-based “beef” that looks, sizzles, tastes and even bleeds like the real thing.

2.     Extended shelf lives. About one-third of food is lost or wasted between the farm and the fork. Fruits and vegetables are a common food item wasted in more developed markets. One breakthrough to address this is the emergence of inexpensive methods that slow the ripening of produce; companies are already investigating a variety of natural compounds to do so. For example, Apeel Sciences has an array of extremely thin spray-on films that inhibit bacterial growth and retain water in fruit. Others include Nanology and Bluapple, whose technologies delay decomposition.

3.     Anti-gas for cows. About a third of all GHGs from agricultural production (excluding land-use change) come from “enteric” methane, released as cow “burps.” Several research groups and companies are working on feed compounds that suppress the formation of methane in cows’ stomachs.DSM has a product called 3-NOP that reduces these methane emissions by 30 percent in tests, and does not appear to have health or environmental side effects.

4.     Compounds to keep nitrogen in the soil. About 20 percent of GHGs from agricultural production are related to nitrogen from fertilizer and manure on crops and pastures. The majority of these emissions come from the formation of nitrous oxide, as microorganisms transfer nitrogen from one chemical form to another. Compounds that prevent these changes, including coatings on fertilizers and so-called “nitrification inhibitors,” can reduce nitrogen losses and increase the amount of nitrogen taken up by plants, leading to lower emissions and less water pollution from fertilizer runoff. Without a regulatory push, research into such technologies has stagnated, but great potential remains. Some new compounds have emerged in just the past year.

5.     Nitrogen-absorbing crops. Another way to chip away at nitrous oxide emissions is to develop crop varieties that absorb more nitrogen and/or inhibit nitrification. Researchers have identified traits to inhibit nitrification in some varieties of all major grain crops, which others can now build upon through crop breeding.

6.     Low-methane rice. Around 15 percent of emissions from agricultural production come from methane-producing microorganisms in rice paddies. Researchers have identified some common rice varieties that emit less methane than others, and they’ve bred one experimental strain that reduces methane emissions by 30 percent in the laboratory. Despite this promise, there is no consistent effort in any country to breed and encourage the uptake of low-methane rice varieties.

7.     Using CRISPR to boost yields. Two broad items on the menu for a sustainable food future involve boosting yields on existing cropland, and producing more milk and meat on existing grazing land. One way to boost crop yields sustainably (without over-application of fertilizers or over-extraction of irrigation water) is to unlock traits in crop genes that increase yields. CRISPR technology, which enables more precise turning on and off of genes, has the potential to be revolutionary in this regard.

8.     High-yield oil palm. Dramatic growth in demand for palm oil — an ingredient found in everything from shampoo to cookies — has beendriving deforestation in Southeast Asia for decades, and now threatens forests in Africa and Latin America. One way to reduce this threat is to breed and plant oil palm trees with 2-4 times the production per hectare of conventional trees. Potential for higher-yielding oil palm trees already exists: The company PT Smart, for instance, has a variety with triple the current average yield of Indonesia’s oil palm trees. These high-yield varieties need to be used in new plantations and when farmers restock current plantations with new trees (typically done every 20 or more years).

9.     Algae-based fish feeds. Another element of a sustainable food future is to reduce pressure on wild fish stocks. As the global fish catch has peaked,fish farming, or aquaculture, has grown to meet world fish demand. However, aquaculture can increase pressure on the small, wild fish species used as feed ingredients for larger, farmed fish. One technological innovation to circumvent this challenge is to create substitute feeds usingalgae or oilseeds that contain the omega-3 fatty acids found in wild fish-based oils. Some companies are moving to produce algae-based aquaculture feeds, and researchers have created a variety of canola that contains omega-3s.

10. Solar-powered fertilizers. The production of nitrogen-based fertilizers uses vast quantities of fossil fuels and generates significant emissions, roughly 85 percent of which result from the production of hydrogen to blend with nitrogen. Many have invested in solar energy to produce hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles, but similar technologies can also help produce low-carbon fertilizers. Pilot plants are under construction inAustralia.

Rapidly deploying technology for a sustainable food future

Despite their potential, none of these measures are moving forward at adequate speed and scale. Research funding for agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation is miniscule and needs to be increased, in part by making better use of the $600 billion in existing public support each year for agriculture globally.

In addition, although many of the technologies above have the potential to save money even in the near term, many cost more than their conventional counterparts today. Increasing their uptake will require not only more public research funds, but also flexible regulations that give private companies stronger incentives to innovate. For example, in areas where technologies are underdeveloped — such as compounds that reduce enteric methane — governments could commit to requiring the use of these compounds if a product achieves a certain level of cost-effectiveness in mitigation (such as $25 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent). As another example, governments could require fertilizer companies to increasingly blend in compounds that reduce nitrogen loss.

The good news is, for virtually every type of advancement needed in the food system, small groups of scientists with limited budgets have already identified promising opportunities. Today’s plant-based burgers that taste like real beef were developed and brought to market in fewer than 10 years.

Feeding a growing world population in the face of climate change and resource constraints is an enormous challenge. The technological innovations listed above aren’t the only ones the food system needs — and of course, we won’t solve the challenge through technology alone. However, just as in other sectors, such as energy and transport, technological innovation is an essential ingredient of a sustainable future.

Published Jul 17, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST

https://sustainablebrands.com/read/defining-the-next-economy/10-breakthrough-technologies-that-can-help-feed-the-world-without-destroying-it

Wild rice project sows seeds for university, tribal collaboration

July 17, 2019 By Tom Ziemer

A manoomin bed on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in northern Wisconsin. COURTESY OF SARAH DANCE

The Ojibwe people tell of a prophecy that spurred their journey from the Atlantic coast of North America to the Great Lakes region more than 1,000 years ago — revelations that told them to travel west to a land where food grew on the water.

That food? Wild rice, or “manoomin” to the Native American nations that, like the Ojibwe, comprise the broader group of Anishinaabe tribes in the Upper Midwest and Canada.

But manoomin is much more than just a crop to these tribes and others. It represents their connection to nature and holds profound spiritual significance as a gift from their creator. The Menominee Tribe’s name literally translates to “wild rice people.”

“It permeates all aspects of their cultures,” says Sarah Dance, a graduate student in the University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering who’s working on a project to build connections between the university and Native American tribes around wild rice protection and restoration efforts.

Sarah Dance

Dance, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and a doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received a Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Grant to support her project, which will span three growing seasons.

A 2011 study by researchers at UW–Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies showed the number of watersheds with wild rice in Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota had declined 32 percent since 1900. Southern Wisconsin, in particular, has become barren.

Research from the University of Minnesota has illustrated the harmful role of sulfide in the soil beneath wild rice waterways — a key consideration given the prospect of several potential mines in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and state legislation in 2017 that eased Wisconsin’s sulfide mining restrictions.

By testing water quality, studying sediment and conducting bucket experiments that will simulate a range of environmental conditions, Dance hopes to develop site-specific recommendations in partnership with her collaborators from the Lac du Flambeau and Lac Courte Oreilles tribes.

“I think Sarah’s project really is a good opportunity for the university to start building a better relationship, partnership with tribes.”

William “Joe” Graveen

“Native people already know the water quality issues in the area that are impacting manoomin survival and growth, and the university has this wealth of resources that can look at some of those conditions,” says Dance, who has worked on a wild rice outreach and education toolkit as part of a Wisconsin Sea Grant project. “We found that there are all of these really small efforts out there and they’re not well connected to one another. Our hope is that the research we’re doing can push the needle forward on creating some best practices and sharing those across all those different entities.”

Dance views building those connections between tribal and university researchers and instilling trust as paramount to the effort. The two sides will work together to identify the testing sites and design the experiments, and Dance hopes to hand off leadership of the project to the tribes. William “Joe” Graveen, a wild rice technician in the Lac du Flambeau Tribe’s wild rice cultural enhancement program, says he hopes the project will spur more research — at UW–Madison and other UW System schools — into the manoomin conditions in the state.

A canoe filled with wild rice—along with the knockers used to harvest it—after a ricing trip on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation. COURTESY OF SARAH DANCE

“I think Sarah’s project really is a good opportunity for the university to start building a better relationship, partnership with tribes,” he says. “I think that’s kind of the missing piece.”

Dance is also planning to hire Native American students as summer interns, giving them the sort of experience she had working on environmental research with her own tribe as an undergraduate at North Carolina State University. When she was weighing graduate schools, she looked for a place that would allow her to connect with Native American tribes on collaborative research. She’s found that in civil and environmental engineering Professor Matthew Ginder-Vogel’s lab.

“I’m hoping to spark an interest in pursuing science and to help improve Native American representation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) by creating this space for students to pursue research that aligns with their identity and what they want to do for their communities while also having the academic and rigorous aspects,” Dance says. “You don’t have to turn your back on your community or pursue something that doesn’t align with your ideals.”

https://news.wisc.edu/wild-rice-project-sows-seeds-for-university-tribal-collaboration/

Acclaimed NYC Chef Serves Up Perfect Rice Bowls At New FIELDTRIP Spot In Harlem

BY SCOTT LYNCH

JULY 16, 2019 1:15 P.M.

• 12 PHOTOS

SCOTT LYNCH / GOTHAMIST

Braised Beef with Texas Brown Rice ($10.99)

Our latest installment of Quick Bites brings us to Harlem for some of the best rice bowls in town.

THE VIBE
One of the great restaurant trends of the past five years or so is that of accomplished chefs with fancy pedigrees putting their talent, energy, and love into an affordably-priced counter service restaurant so that we all can enjoy their creations on a regular basis. Brooks Headley's Superiority Burger remains the genre's gold standard, but other examples abound, including Alex Stupak's Al Pastor, Pierre Tham's Teranga, Daniel Humm's Made Nice, and, as of last week, JJ Johnson's FIELDTRIP, located on Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem.

Johnson made his name at The Cecil and, more recently, has been running the show at Henry at Life Hotel in Nomad. FIELDTRIP is a different sort of place, a rice-bowl spot where nothing on the tight but impressively varied menu costs more than twelve bucks. Johnson's aim here, beyond cooking people delicious food, is to showcase the diversity, in both flavor and texture, of the grain at the center of so many of the world's great cuisines. "Rice is Culture" is the motto here, and Johnson wants to take you exploring.

The space itself is spacious and comfortable, with seating for about twenty at tables in the back and communal standing tables up front, which opens out onto the busy avenue. There's a colorful map delineating where each type of rice comes from, and 1980s-era photographs of the neighborhood on the wall as well. You order at the cashier by the open kitchen, and you'll get a text when your food is ready. Napkins, utensils, and water are all self-serve, and please be polite and clean your own table when you leave.

THE BITES
I ate most of the FIELDTRIP menu over the weekend and, bottom line, everything is thoughtfully conceived, surprisingly complex, and the five different kinds of rice at the foundation of each of the main dishes were cooked to perfection. In other words, though I had my favorites, you can't really go wrong here, so order with confidence across the board.

The Braised Beef, with a generous portion of tender meat, features Texas brown rice and spicy black beans, with a turmeric yogurt sauce adding some additional texture. The Salmon bowl also packed some fire, seemingly emanating the wonderfully chewy China black rice. The roasted fish was a little dry, but the piri piri sauce was there to help. The Shrimp had a nice snap to them, served with Thai Sticky Rice, a bit of toasted coconut, and some lively green curry.

Fried Crispy Chicken comes covered in a BBQ sauce that's sweeter than I generally like, though the West African Carolina Gold rice in the bowl eats like a luxury item. Finally, the Veggie bowl, starring that Nigerian staple Jollof Basmati and a whole mess of charred broccoli, stood tall among all the animal proteins. A slab of buttery Nana's Bread stuck in there ensured that you would not leave hungry. The vegetarian Quinoa Bao Buns were less successful in that regard, but the Yucca Puffs that came with them were fun, and worthy of a solo side order if you want something with crunch. And while the Crab Pockets taste more like cream cheese than crustacean, the texture's good and, like everything else at FIELDTRIP, the price is low enough to warrant a try.

Skip the Soft Serve until the machine's ready; they'll just give you Sugar Hill Creamery "regular" ice cream in the interim, and you can walk up three blocks to the parlor for a complete menu of that.

THE VERDICT
If you live up here FIELDTRIP should definitely be added into your regular rotation. The food feels healthy, it's inexpensive, and it's made with a lot of skill and care. Expansion seems plausible.

FIELDTRIP is located at 109 Malcolm X Boulevard between 115th and 116th Streets, and is currently open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m (917-639-3919; fieldtripnyc.com)

https://gothamist.com/2019/07/16/field_trip_harlem.php

Rice Well-Represented at Dietary Guidelines Meeting

By Deborah Willenborg

WASHINGTON, DC -- Last week the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) held the second of five public meetings here with presentations by each of the DGAC subcommittees and public deliberation on presentations by the full DGAC. This also was the first opportunity for the public to deliver oral comments to the committee.

The subcommittees that presented were Data Analysis and Food Pattern Modeling Cross-Cutting, Dietary Patterns, Frequency of Eating, Pregnancy and Lactation, Birth to 24 Months, Beverages and Added Sugars, and Dietary Fats and Seafood. During the allotted time for public comments, more than 75 people testified, including the Grain Chain, a coalition of stakeholders in the grain industry of which USA Rice is a member.

"The Grain Chain endorses maintaining the 2015 DGA's recommendation of carbohydrate intakes between 45-65 percent of calories and at a minimum, the recommended six servings daily of traditional grains with at least half as whole grains," said Kathy Wiemer, MS, RD, who works at General Mills and is a Grain Chain spokesperson. "Given that Americans continue to underconsume whole grains, we support an increase in daily recommended whole grain servings, while maintaining at least three servings of enriched grains."

Wiemer also highlighted key recommendations including the fact that both whole and enriched grains play a leading role in diet quality, and enrichment and fortification of grain foods have made lasting contributions to health. She emphasized that grains are important to growth and development in infants and children, and that scientific evidence does not support a recommendation of low-carbohydrate dietary patterns to the U.S. population.

"We understand the role the Dietary Guidelines for Americans plays in shaping people's diets and eating habits which makes USA Rice's presence and voice vital during these advisory committee meetings," said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice manager of domestic promotion. "USA Rice is in complete support of the Grain Chain testimony and we look forward to delivering our individual oral testimony on behalf of rice at the fourth DGA meeting next January."

While this meeting primarily focused on the evaluation and systematic review of the science behind the recommendations, the majority of oral testimonies is scheduled to take place January 23-24 when the meeting moves to Houston, Texas.

"USA Rice will continue to be fully involved in the Dietary Guidelines process by attendance at the remaining three meetings, submitting our scientific research and comments, and providing oral testimony to ensure the U.S. rice industry message is included in the 2020-25 guidelines," said Jacobs. "We commend the USDA for its commitment to public engagement."

The next meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee takes place here October 24-25.

Palay prices falling; SRP on rice eyed

Updated July 17, 2019, 7:07 PM

By Madelaine Miraflor and Argyll Geducos

A nationwide uproar among rice farmers in the country has forced the government to act on the falling palay prices – a trend that could rob farmers of potential income worth P114 billion for the entire 2019.

On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol sought a meeting with Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla to discuss the implementation of the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) policy on commercial rice sold in the market based on the Price Act.

MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO (JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN)

“The only way that we can help them [rice farmers] is to buy their harvest at a competitive price. Palugi talaga ang gobyerno (The government is at the losing end but it is) to save the farmers. So another working productive day for them,” President Duterte said in a separate interview.

“With the NFA [National Food Authority] stripped of its supervisory and regulatory powers over the rice industry, the Price Act is the only remaining instrument of government to rationalize the pricing of agricultural products in the market,” Piñol said.

During the meeting with Sombilla and Lopez, which was also attended by Finance Assistance Secretary Tony Lambino, they decided to put an SRP on the retail price of rice based on the landed cost of imported stocks, Piñol said.

A joint memorandum of agreement between the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will be signed within this month to impose this.

This decision came a day after farmer leaders and rice industry stakeholders asked the DA during an impromptu consultation meeting to address the continuous decline in the prices of palay, which was possibly triggered by the loopholes in the Rice Tarrification Law or Republic Act (RA) 11203, which legalized in March the unlimited entry of cheaper, imported rice into the Philippines.

Piñol said the meeting took place amid the “nationwide uproar” among farmers who have been suffering since farm gate prices of paddy rice dropped to a record low of P12 per kilogram (/kg) to P14/kg in many parts of the country, a steep drop from an average of P20/kg price for fresh palay earlier this year.

During the fourth week of June alone, the average farmgate price of palay continued to decline, falling by 0.3 percent to P17.85 per kilogram (/kg) from previous week’s level of P17.90/kg. This was a huge drop of 16.5 percent from the previous year’s same week level of P21.38/kg.

What upsets the farmers is that while the price of palay remains to be on a downtrend, the retail price of rice or the price that consumers are paying for to buy a kilo of the staple has remained the same, Aldrin Cardenas, a leader of a farmers’ cooperative in Tarlac, pointed out.

Based on their computation, the market prices of rice – which was expected to drop by P7/kg with the entry of more imported rice – have remained relatively high, reporting a drop of only P1/kg to P2/kg four months since the passage of RA 11203.

“The drop in the price of rice in the market of P1 to P2 per kilo does not even come close to the financial sacrifices of the rice farmers,” said farmer leader Pedro Lim of Caraga Region.

The rice industry stakeholders also decried the massive profits being enjoyed by rice importers and traders, as the stocks they have imported are now being sold in the market at prices higher than their landed cost.

A data from Bureau of Customs (BOC) showed that the imported rice that entered the country so far had landed cost of only P18.22/kg for Myanmar’s 25 percent broken rice; P25.33/kg for Vietnam’s 5 percent broken rice; P23.06/kg for Thailand’s 5 percent broken rice.

These are being sold in the local market for P32/kg to a high of P70/kg, while the average selling price is at P42 per kilo, based on the validation conducted by the DA Regional Offices.

Premium or 5 percent broken rice imported from Vietnam and Thailand is sold from P50/kg to P60/kg for a whooping margin of P25/kg to P35/kg.

At the end of their meeting, Piñol assured the rice industry stakeholders that their concerns will be submitted in a formal memorandum to President Duterte.

President Duterte, in an interview with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, said the government has no choice but to import rice from other countries since the harvest of farmers are not enough for the entire country.

Duterte said he recognizes the plight of Filipino farmers who are selling palay for prices as low as P12/kilo, a figure below the production cost.

The President said the government is willing to buy the harvest of the farmers but said this will still not be enough since the country has run out of lands for planting crops.

“The Philippines cannot be a rice sufficient nation. We have run out of lands and most of the prime real estate went to big corporations now planting cash crop: banana, pineapple,” he said early Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a group of rice farmers sounded the alarm last week over a possible price manipulation among local rice traders, which may be declaring the wrong import price to reduce their tariff obligations to the Philippine government.

Based on its latest monitoring, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said it has noticed a huge gap between the value of imported rice declared by local traders and the landed cost of rice based on the data from international monitoring groups such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Under the Rice Tariffication Law, importers are allowed to bring in any volume of rice at any time provided they pay a 35 percent tariff based on the declared value of their imports.

The Department of Finance (DOF) recently reported that the BOC had collected P5.9 billion in tariffs from imports of 1.43 million metric tons (MT) of rice since the effectivity of RA 11203 in March.

FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor said that using DOF’s data and assuming a P52 per dollar exchange rate, it will come out that the average landed price of the rice imports before imposing tariffs was US$227 per MT.

Data from international monitoring groups such as the FAO, however, indicate that the real landed cost of these imports should have been around US$391 per ton if these were 25 percent broken rice.

“In effect, importers appear to have undervalued their shipments by 42 percent and paid P4.24 billion less than what was due from them,” Montemayor said.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/07/17/ph-cannot-be-rice-self-sufficient-forced-to-import-staple-duterte/

Millions stranded in India as early monsoon downpours bring flood havoc

Wednesday, July 17, 2019 7:48 a.m. EDT

A man uses a makeshift raft to move his paddy to a safer place in a flooded area in Morigaon district in the northeastern state of Assam, In

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/07/17/-output-likely-dipped-5-6-in-q2/

Concern Shifts From Rice To Soybeans Following Hurricane Barry

By ANDREW FLEMING • JUL 16, 2019

CREDIT CREATIVE COMMONS

Storms associated with Hurricane Barry are posing problems for Arkansas farmers. Agricultural officials had concerns that heavy rain and winds would damage rice crops, but are now more concerned about damage to soybean crops. Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, says weather over the weekend was not as damaging to rice crops as originally feared.

"We really thought we were going to get a lot of that rain in a shorter period of time along with some high winds. Instead, we really haven't had the winds so much and the rains have been spread out now over the course of about three days," Hardke said. "That's kind of allowing most of the rice fields to allow that water off." However, he said, there are still concerns related to sustained rain for rice farmers.

"A lot of this midday rain is problematic for flowering rice because that rainfall can disrupt pollination. A single day of it isn't always necessarily too devastating, but several days in a row can really cause some serious issues because plants do like to spread out their pollination over a few days," Hardke said.

With long sustained rains, more concern is being focused on soybean crops in the state. Hardke said that while rice fields can deal with flooding, the same is not true for soybean fields, especially since much of this year's crop was planted relatively late.

"Small soybeans do not like or tolerate flooded or saturated soil conditions very well for very long, and this slow, continuous, heavy rainfall has a lot of bottom ends of fields backed up at this point. Unfortunately, as it continues to rain, those areas are not going to drain very fast," he said. Hardke also said intense heat in the coming days could compound the problem and cause further damage to soybean crops.

Officials are also concerned that the storm could increase the number of insects threatening crops among other things. For now, according to Hardke, farmers will have to wait and see what happens in the coming days before they know the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Barry.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/post/concern-shifts-rice-soybeans-following-hurricane-barry

Philippine Farmers Seek Review of Rice Law as Prices Plunge

By Ditas B Lopez and Cecilia Yap

July 17, 2019, 5:39 AM GMT+5 Updated on July 17, 2019, 6:29 AM GMT+5

As rice prices plunge, farmers in the Philippines are asking President Rodrigo Duterte to review a 5-month-old law that paved the way for unlimited imports of the staple grain, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol said.

Rice prices at the farm gate dropped to 12-14 pesos ($0.24-$0.27) a kilo from 20 pesos earlier this year, Pinol said on his Facebook account. That would result in an annual loss of about 114 billion pesos ($2.24 billion) for Filipino rice farmers, he said.

The law, signed in February, removed caps on rice imports and boosted supply of the stable grain. The measure was intended to help cool inflation, which in 2018 accelerated to the fastest pace in nine years and triggered one of the most aggressive monetary tightening responses in Asia.

Rough-rice output in the second quarter probably fell 5.6% from a year ago to 3.86 million metric tons, the statistics agency said in a report.

Read: Cheap Imported Rice Soothes Philippines Inflation Pangs

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-17/philippine-farmers-seek-review-of-rice-import-liberalization

How can the world feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050 while also advancing economic development, protecting and restoring forests, and stabilizing the climate?

It won’t be easy and will require major new efforts, but it can be done. Our newWorld Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future — co-issued by the World Bank, UN Environment Programme and UN Development Programme— recommends a menu of 22 solutions served over five courses:

1.     Reduce growth in demand;

2.     Increase food production without expanding agricultural land;

3.     Increase fish supply;

4.     Reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from agricultural production;and

5.     Protect and restore natural ecosystems.

This menu enables the world to close the gap between the food available today and that needed by 2050, without clearing more land for farming and while reducing the food system’s GHGs to a level aligned with the Paris Agreement.

Some items on the menu require more farmers to implement best practices that already exist today. Others need consumers to change behavior, or governments and businesses to reform policies.

The challenge is sufficiently large, however, that many solutions will require technological innovations. Advancing them is a major theme of our report. Here are 10 important examples:

1.     Plant-based meat. Globally, per gram of edible protein, beef and lamb use around 20 times the land and generate around 20 times the GHGs of plant-based proteins. Affordable plant-based products that mimic the experience of eating beef could reduce growth in global beef consumption, while still satisfying meat-lovers. Fortunately, companies such asImpossible Foods and Beyond Meat are already making headlines by creating plant-based “beef” that looks, sizzles, tastes and even bleeds like the real thing.

2.     Extended shelf lives. About one-third of food is lost or wasted between the farm and the fork. Fruits and vegetables are a common food item wasted in more developed markets. One breakthrough to address this is the emergence of inexpensive methods that slow the ripening of produce; companies are already investigating a variety of natural compounds to do so. For example, Apeel Sciences has an array of extremely thin spray-on films that inhibit bacterial growth and retain water in fruit. Others include Nanology and Bluapple, whose technologies delay decomposition.

3.     Anti-gas for cows. About a third of all GHGs from agricultural production (excluding land-use change) come from “enteric” methane, released as cow “burps.” Several research groups and companies are working on feed compounds that suppress the formation of methane in cows’ stomachs.DSM has a product called 3-NOP that reduces these methane emissions by 30 percent in tests, and does not appear to have health or environmental side effects.

4.     Compounds to keep nitrogen in the soil. About 20 percent of GHGs from agricultural production are related to nitrogen from fertilizer and manure on crops and pastures. The majority of these emissions come from the formation of nitrous oxide, as microorganisms transfer nitrogen from one chemical form to another. Compounds that prevent these changes, including coatings on fertilizers and so-called “nitrification inhibitors,” can reduce nitrogen losses and increase the amount of nitrogen taken up by plants, leading to lower emissions and less water pollution from fertilizer runoff. Without a regulatory push, research into such technologies has stagnated, but great potential remains. Some new compounds have emerged in just the past year.

5.     Nitrogen-absorbing crops. Another way to chip away at nitrous oxide emissions is to develop crop varieties that absorb more nitrogen and/or inhibit nitrification. Researchers have identified traits to inhibit nitrification in some varieties of all major grain crops, which others can now build upon through crop breeding.

6.     Low-methane rice. Around 15 percent of emissions from agricultural production come from methane-producing microorganisms in rice paddies. Researchers have identified some common rice varieties that emit less methane than others, and they’ve bred one experimental strain that reduces methane emissions by 30 percent in the laboratory. Despite this promise, there is no consistent effort in any country to breed and encourage the uptake of low-methane rice varieties.

7.     Using CRISPR to boost yields. Two broad items on the menu for a sustainable food future involve boosting yields on existing cropland, and producing more milk and meat on existing grazing land. One way to boost crop yields sustainably (without over-application of fertilizers or over-extraction of irrigation water) is to unlock traits in crop genes that increase yields. CRISPR technology, which enables more precise turning on and off of genes, has the potential to be revolutionary in this regard.

8.     High-yield oil palm. Dramatic growth in demand for palm oil — an ingredient found in everything from shampoo to cookies — has beendriving deforestation in Southeast Asia for decades, and now threatens forests in Africa and Latin America. One way to reduce this threat is to breed and plant oil palm trees with 2-4 times the production per hectare of conventional trees. Potential for higher-yielding oil palm trees already exists: The company PT Smart, for instance, has a variety with triple the current average yield of Indonesia’s oil palm trees. These high-yield varieties need to be used in new plantations and when farmers restock current plantations with new trees (typically done every 20 or more years).

9.     Algae-based fish feeds. Another element of a sustainable food future is to reduce pressure on wild fish stocks. As the global fish catch has peaked,fish farming, or aquaculture, has grown to meet world fish demand. However, aquaculture can increase pressure on the small, wild fish species used as feed ingredients for larger, farmed fish. One technological innovation to circumvent this challenge is to create substitute feeds usingalgae or oilseeds that contain the omega-3 fatty acids found in wild fish-based oils. Some companies are moving to produce algae-based aquaculture feeds, and researchers have created a variety of canola that contains omega-3s.

10. Solar-powered fertilizers. The production of nitrogen-based fertilizers uses vast quantities of fossil fuels and generates significant emissions, roughly 85 percent of which result from the production of hydrogen to blend with nitrogen. Many have invested in solar energy to produce hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles, but similar technologies can also help produce low-carbon fertilizers. Pilot plants are under construction inAustralia.

Rapidly deploying technology for a sustainable food future

Despite their potential, none of these measures are moving forward at adequate speed and scale. Research funding for agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation is miniscule and needs to be increased, in part by making better use of the $600 billion in existing public support each year for agriculture globally.

In addition, although many of the technologies above have the potential to save money even in the near term, many cost more than their conventional counterparts today. Increasing their uptake will require not only more public research funds, but also flexible regulations that give private companies stronger incentives to innovate. For example, in areas where technologies are underdeveloped — such as compounds that reduce enteric methane — governments could commit to requiring the use of these compounds if a product achieves a certain level of cost-effectiveness in mitigation (such as $25 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent). As another example, governments could require fertilizer companies to increasingly blend in compounds that reduce nitrogen loss.

The good news is, for virtually every type of advancement needed in the food system, small groups of scientists with limited budgets have already identified promising opportunities. Today’s plant-based burgers that taste like real beef were developed and brought to market in fewer than 10 years.

Feeding a growing world population in the face of climate change and resource constraints is an enormous challenge. The technological innovations listed above aren’t the only ones the food system needs — and of course, we won’t solve the challenge through technology alone. However, just as in other sectors, such as energy and transport, technological innovation is an essential ingredient of a sustainable future.

Published Jul 17, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST

https://sustainablebrands.com/read/defining-the-next-economy/10-breakthrough-technologies-that-can-help-feed-the-world-without-destroying-it

Wild rice project sows seeds for university, tribal collaboration

July 17, 2019 By Tom Ziemer

A manoomin bed on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in northern Wisconsin. COURTESY OF SARAH DANCE

The Ojibwe people tell of a prophecy that spurred their journey from the Atlantic coast of North America to the Great Lakes region more than 1,000 years ago — revelations that told them to travel west to a land where food grew on the water.

That food? Wild rice, or “manoomin” to the Native American nations that, like the Ojibwe, comprise the broader group of Anishinaabe tribes in the Upper Midwest and Canada.

But manoomin is much more than just a crop to these tribes and others. It represents their connection to nature and holds profound spiritual significance as a gift from their creator. The Menominee Tribe’s name literally translates to “wild rice people.”

“It permeates all aspects of their cultures,” says Sarah Dance, a graduate student in the University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering who’s working on a project to build connections between the university and Native American tribes around wild rice protection and restoration efforts.

Sarah Dance

Dance, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and a doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received a Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Grant to support her project, which will span three growing seasons.

A 2011 study by researchers at UW–Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies showed the number of watersheds with wild rice in Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota had declined 32 percent since 1900. Southern Wisconsin, in particular, has become barren.

Research from the University of Minnesota has illustrated the harmful role of sulfide in the soil beneath wild rice waterways — a key consideration given the prospect of several potential mines in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and state legislation in 2017 that eased Wisconsin’s sulfide mining restrictions.

By testing water quality, studying sediment and conducting bucket experiments that will simulate a range of environmental conditions, Dance hopes to develop site-specific recommendations in partnership with her collaborators from the Lac du Flambeau and Lac Courte Oreilles tribes.

“I think Sarah’s project really is a good opportunity for the university to start building a better relationship, partnership with tribes.”

William “Joe” Graveen

“Native people already know the water quality issues in the area that are impacting manoomin survival and growth, and the university has this wealth of resources that can look at some of those conditions,” says Dance, who has worked on a wild rice outreach and education toolkit as part of a Wisconsin Sea Grant project. “We found that there are all of these really small efforts out there and they’re not well connected to one another. Our hope is that the research we’re doing can push the needle forward on creating some best practices and sharing those across all those different entities.”

Dance views building those connections between tribal and university researchers and instilling trust as paramount to the effort. The two sides will work together to identify the testing sites and design the experiments, and Dance hopes to hand off leadership of the project to the tribes. William “Joe” Graveen, a wild rice technician in the Lac du Flambeau Tribe’s wild rice cultural enhancement program, says he hopes the project will spur more research — at UW–Madison and other UW System schools — into the manoomin conditions in the state.

A canoe filled with wild rice—along with the knockers used to harvest it—after a ricing trip on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation. COURTESY OF SARAH DANCE

“I think Sarah’s project really is a good opportunity for the university to start building a better relationship, partnership with tribes,” he says. “I think that’s kind of the missing piece.”

Dance is also planning to hire Native American students as summer interns, giving them the sort of experience she had working on environmental research with her own tribe as an undergraduate at North Carolina State University. When she was weighing graduate schools, she looked for a place that would allow her to connect with Native American tribes on collaborative research. She’s found that in civil and environmental engineering Professor Matthew Ginder-Vogel’s lab.

“I’m hoping to spark an interest in pursuing science and to help improve Native American representation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) by creating this space for students to pursue research that aligns with their identity and what they want to do for their communities while also having the academic and rigorous aspects,” Dance says. “You don’t have to turn your back on your community or pursue something that doesn’t align with your ideals.”

https://news.wisc.edu/wild-rice-project-sows-seeds-for-university-tribal-collaboration/

Acclaimed NYC Chef Serves Up Perfect Rice Bowls At New FIELDTRIP Spot In Harlem

BY SCOTT LYNCH

JULY 16, 2019 1:15 P.M.

• 12 PHOTOS

SCOTT LYNCH / GOTHAMIST

Braised Beef with Texas Brown Rice ($10.99)

Our latest installment of Quick Bites brings us to Harlem for some of the best rice bowls in town.

THE VIBE
One of the great restaurant trends of the past five years or so is that of accomplished chefs with fancy pedigrees putting their talent, energy, and love into an affordably-priced counter service restaurant so that we all can enjoy their creations on a regular basis. Brooks Headley's Superiority Burger remains the genre's gold standard, but other examples abound, including Alex Stupak's Al Pastor, Pierre Tham's Teranga, Daniel Humm's Made Nice, and, as of last week, JJ Johnson's FIELDTRIP, located on Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem.

Johnson made his name at The Cecil and, more recently, has been running the show at Henry at Life Hotel in Nomad. FIELDTRIP is a different sort of place, a rice-bowl spot where nothing on the tight but impressively varied menu costs more than twelve bucks. Johnson's aim here, beyond cooking people delicious food, is to showcase the diversity, in both flavor and texture, of the grain at the center of so many of the world's great cuisines. "Rice is Culture" is the motto here, and Johnson wants to take you exploring.

The space itself is spacious and comfortable, with seating for about twenty at tables in the back and communal standing tables up front, which opens out onto the busy avenue. There's a colorful map delineating where each type of rice comes from, and 1980s-era photographs of the neighborhood on the wall as well. You order at the cashier by the open kitchen, and you'll get a text when your food is ready. Napkins, utensils, and water are all self-serve, and please be polite and clean your own table when you leave.

THE BITES
I ate most of the FIELDTRIP menu over the weekend and, bottom line, everything is thoughtfully conceived, surprisingly complex, and the five different kinds of rice at the foundation of each of the main dishes were cooked to perfection. In other words, though I had my favorites, you can't really go wrong here, so order with confidence across the board.

The Braised Beef, with a generous portion of tender meat, features Texas brown rice and spicy black beans, with a turmeric yogurt sauce adding some additional texture. The Salmon bowl also packed some fire, seemingly emanating the wonderfully chewy China black rice. The roasted fish was a little dry, but the piri piri sauce was there to help. The Shrimp had a nice snap to them, served with Thai Sticky Rice, a bit of toasted coconut, and some lively green curry.

Fried Crispy Chicken comes covered in a BBQ sauce that's sweeter than I generally like, though the West African Carolina Gold rice in the bowl eats like a luxury item. Finally, the Veggie bowl, starring that Nigerian staple Jollof Basmati and a whole mess of charred broccoli, stood tall among all the animal proteins. A slab of buttery Nana's Bread stuck in there ensured that you would not leave hungry. The vegetarian Quinoa Bao Buns were less successful in that regard, but the Yucca Puffs that came with them were fun, and worthy of a solo side order if you want something with crunch. And while the Crab Pockets taste more like cream cheese than crustacean, the texture's good and, like everything else at FIELDTRIP, the price is low enough to warrant a try.

Skip the Soft Serve until the machine's ready; they'll just give you Sugar Hill Creamery "regular" ice cream in the interim, and you can walk up three blocks to the parlor for a complete menu of that.

THE VERDICT
If you live up here FIELDTRIP should definitely be added into your regular rotation. The food feels healthy, it's inexpensive, and it's made with a lot of skill and care. Expansion seems plausible.

FIELDTRIP is located at 109 Malcolm X Boulevard between 115th and 116th Streets, and is currently open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m (917-639-3919; fieldtripnyc.com)

https://gothamist.com/2019/07/16/field_trip_harlem.php

Rice Well-Represented at Dietary Guidelines Meeting

By Deborah Willenborg

WASHINGTON, DC -- Last week the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) held the second of five public meetings here with presentations by each of the DGAC subcommittees and public deliberation on presentations by the full DGAC. This also was the first opportunity for the public to deliver oral comments to the committee.

The subcommittees that presented were Data Analysis and Food Pattern Modeling Cross-Cutting, Dietary Patterns, Frequency of Eating, Pregnancy and Lactation, Birth to 24 Months, Beverages and Added Sugars, and Dietary Fats and Seafood. During the allotted time for public comments, more than 75 people testified, including the Grain Chain, a coalition of stakeholders in the grain industry of which USA Rice is a member.

"The Grain Chain endorses maintaining the 2015 DGA's recommendation of carbohydrate intakes between 45-65 percent of calories and at a minimum, the recommended six servings daily of traditional grains with at least half as whole grains," said Kathy Wiemer, MS, RD, who works at General Mills and is a Grain Chain spokesperson. "Given that Americans continue to underconsume whole grains, we support an increase in daily recommended whole grain servings, while maintaining at least three servings of enriched grains."

Wiemer also highlighted key recommendations including the fact that both whole and enriched grains play a leading role in diet quality, and enrichment and fortification of grain foods have made lasting contributions to health. She emphasized that grains are important to growth and development in infants and children, and that scientific evidence does not support a recommendation of low-carbohydrate dietary patterns to the U.S. population.

"We understand the role the Dietary Guidelines for Americans plays in shaping people's diets and eating habits which makes USA Rice's presence and voice vital during these advisory committee meetings," said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice manager of domestic promotion. "USA Rice is in complete support of the Grain Chain testimony and we look forward to delivering our individual oral testimony on behalf of rice at the fourth DGA meeting next January."

While this meeting primarily focused on the evaluation and systematic review of the science behind the recommendations, the majority of oral testimonies is scheduled to take place January 23-24 when the meeting moves to Houston, Texas.

"USA Rice will continue to be fully involved in the Dietary Guidelines process by attendance at the remaining three meetings, submitting our scientific research and comments, and providing oral testimony to ensure the U.S. rice industry message is included in the 2020-25 guidelines," said Jacobs. "We commend the USDA for its commitment to public engagement."

The next meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee takes place here October 24-25.

Palay prices falling; SRP on rice eyed

Updated July 17, 2019, 7:07 PM

By Madelaine Miraflor and Argyll Geducos

A nationwide uproar among rice farmers in the country has forced the government to act on the falling palay prices – a trend that could rob farmers of potential income worth P114 billion for the entire 2019.

On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol sought a meeting with Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla to discuss the implementation of the Suggested Retail Price (SRP) policy on commercial rice sold in the market based on the Price Act.

MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO (JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN)

“The only way that we can help them [rice farmers] is to buy their harvest at a competitive price. Palugi talaga ang gobyerno (The government is at the losing end but it is) to save the farmers. So another working productive day for them,” President Duterte said in a separate interview.

“With the NFA [National Food Authority] stripped of its supervisory and regulatory powers over the rice industry, the Price Act is the only remaining instrument of government to rationalize the pricing of agricultural products in the market,” Piñol said.

During the meeting with Sombilla and Lopez, which was also attended by Finance Assistance Secretary Tony Lambino, they decided to put an SRP on the retail price of rice based on the landed cost of imported stocks, Piñol said.

A joint memorandum of agreement between the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will be signed within this month to impose this.

This decision came a day after farmer leaders and rice industry stakeholders asked the DA during an impromptu consultation meeting to address the continuous decline in the prices of palay, which was possibly triggered by the loopholes in the Rice Tarrification Law or Republic Act (RA) 11203, which legalized in March the unlimited entry of cheaper, imported rice into the Philippines.

Piñol said the meeting took place amid the “nationwide uproar” among farmers who have been suffering since farm gate prices of paddy rice dropped to a record low of P12 per kilogram (/kg) to P14/kg in many parts of the country, a steep drop from an average of P20/kg price for fresh palay earlier this year.

During the fourth week of June alone, the average farmgate price of palay continued to decline, falling by 0.3 percent to P17.85 per kilogram (/kg) from previous week’s level of P17.90/kg. This was a huge drop of 16.5 percent from the previous year’s same week level of P21.38/kg.

What upsets the farmers is that while the price of palay remains to be on a downtrend, the retail price of rice or the price that consumers are paying for to buy a kilo of the staple has remained the same, Aldrin Cardenas, a leader of a farmers’ cooperative in Tarlac, pointed out.

Based on their computation, the market prices of rice – which was expected to drop by P7/kg with the entry of more imported rice – have remained relatively high, reporting a drop of only P1/kg to P2/kg four months since the passage of RA 11203.

“The drop in the price of rice in the market of P1 to P2 per kilo does not even come close to the financial sacrifices of the rice farmers,” said farmer leader Pedro Lim of Caraga Region.

The rice industry stakeholders also decried the massive profits being enjoyed by rice importers and traders, as the stocks they have imported are now being sold in the market at prices higher than their landed cost.

A data from Bureau of Customs (BOC) showed that the imported rice that entered the country so far had landed cost of only P18.22/kg for Myanmar’s 25 percent broken rice; P25.33/kg for Vietnam’s 5 percent broken rice; P23.06/kg for Thailand’s 5 percent broken rice.

These are being sold in the local market for P32/kg to a high of P70/kg, while the average selling price is at P42 per kilo, based on the validation conducted by the DA Regional Offices.

Premium or 5 percent broken rice imported from Vietnam and Thailand is sold from P50/kg to P60/kg for a whooping margin of P25/kg to P35/kg.

At the end of their meeting, Piñol assured the rice industry stakeholders that their concerns will be submitted in a formal memorandum to President Duterte.

President Duterte, in an interview with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, said the government has no choice but to import rice from other countries since the harvest of farmers are not enough for the entire country.

Duterte said he recognizes the plight of Filipino farmers who are selling palay for prices as low as P12/kilo, a figure below the production cost.

The President said the government is willing to buy the harvest of the farmers but said this will still not be enough since the country has run out of lands for planting crops.

“The Philippines cannot be a rice sufficient nation. We have run out of lands and most of the prime real estate went to big corporations now planting cash crop: banana, pineapple,” he said early Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a group of rice farmers sounded the alarm last week over a possible price manipulation among local rice traders, which may be declaring the wrong import price to reduce their tariff obligations to the Philippine government.

Based on its latest monitoring, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said it has noticed a huge gap between the value of imported rice declared by local traders and the landed cost of rice based on the data from international monitoring groups such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Under the Rice Tariffication Law, importers are allowed to bring in any volume of rice at any time provided they pay a 35 percent tariff based on the declared value of their imports.

The Department of Finance (DOF) recently reported that the BOC had collected P5.9 billion in tariffs from imports of 1.43 million metric tons (MT) of rice since the effectivity of RA 11203 in March.

FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor said that using DOF’s data and assuming a P52 per dollar exchange rate, it will come out that the average landed price of the rice imports before imposing tariffs was US$227 per MT.

Data from international monitoring groups such as the FAO, however, indicate that the real landed cost of these imports should have been around US$391 per ton if these were 25 percent broken rice.

“In effect, importers appear to have undervalued their shipments by 42 percent and paid P4.24 billion less than what was due from them,” Montemayor said.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/07/17/ph-cannot-be-rice-self-sufficient-forced-to-import-staple-duterte/

Millions stranded in India as early monsoon downpours bring flood havoc

Wednesday, July 17, 2019 7:48 a.m. EDT

A man uses a makeshift raft to move his paddy to a safer place in a flooded area in Morigaon district in the northeastern state of Assam, In

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