Tuesday, October 15, 2019

15th October,2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter


Vietnam should improve rice quality in long-term strategy
Vietnam needs a long-term strategy to increase the quality of its rice exports to create sustainable growth in the future, experts say.
VNA Monday, October 14, 2019 18:54 
Sacks of rice are loaded for export (Photo: VNA)

Description: Vietnam should improve rice quality in long-term strategy hinh anh 1Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam needs a long-term strategy to increase the quality of its rice exports to create sustainable growth in the future, experts say.

To meet the changing demands of export markets, Bui Thi Thanh Tam, general director of VinaFoods 1 Corporation, said firms should invest in domestic production to increase the quality of rice.

To do that, the agriculture sector needed support from relevant ministries.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade focuses on developing markets and negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) to create favourable conditions for rice exports. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is in charge of production, including improving 
rice quality.

Local authorities needed to guide and encourage farmers to produce 
organic rice so that Vietnam could offer clean materials to meet market demands. Businesses also needed to ensure the quality of the rice they were exporting. If those parts were linked, it would ensure the sustainable growth of rice exports, Tam said.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the global rice market was at present about 36-40 million tonnes per year. Of this figure, Vietnam exported 7 million tonnes of rice per year, but had failed to reach high export value due to its passive approach.

In the long-term strategy, the agriculture sector should look at reducing the total area of rice plantations to a level that ensured food security and partial exports.

Cuong said the domestic market needed to ensure supplies and the quality of rice and packaging. Regarding export markets, Vietnam should promote and expand markets, for examples, in Africa and the Middle East, as well as regional markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

He said this year, the winter-spring rice crop in the Mekong Delta had yielded up to 14 million tonnes. Despite a significant drop in exports to China, Vietnam had still gained growth in export volume.

"The Government plans to put 200,000 tonnes of rice in reserve to maintain rice prices and develop the market. Vietnamese enterprises have expanded into the American market," Cuong told Kinh te Nong thon (Rural Economy) newspaper.

Vietnam’s major competitor, Thailand, was facing a severe drought, affecting the country's rice production. Singapore, which regularly imported 30-40 percent of its rice from Thailand, was considering a strategy to diversify imports from other sources, according to MARD.

Opportunities to exporting rice to Singapore would result for many other countries, especially Vietnam and Cambodia.

In addition, Japan, which regularly imported 50 percent of its rice demand from the US, was also considering switching to importing rice from CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) members, including Vietnam.

MARD said the rice export volume in the first nine months was estimated at 5.2 million tonnes, earning 2.24 billion USD, up 5.9 percent in volume but down 9.8 percent in value compared to the same period in 2018.

Of which, 
rice exports in September were estimated at 586,000 tonnes, earning 251 million USD.

Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Import and Export Department Tran Thanh Hai said China had been Vietnam’s largest rice export market for many years, but this year exports had fallen by 65 percent.

In 2018, China tightened control on rice from Vietnam including quality control and traceability. It has also set an import quota of about 5 million tonnes of rice this year, but in fact, it is only likely to import about 3.3 million tonnes.

Tam said China had adopted a plant quarantine policy. This had forced local firms to promote rice exports in other markets. For example, exports to the Philippines had doubled or even tripled against previous years. The Iraqi market had also imported up to 400,000 tonnes of 
Vietnamese rice.

Despite these difficulties, Tam said Vietnam would still reach its target of exporting more than 6.5 million tonnes of rice this year./.
VNA

Licence No. 1374/GP-BTTTT dated September 11, 2008 by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Tel: (+84 24) 3941.1349
Fax: (+84 24) 3941.1348
Email: 
vietnamplus@vnanet.vn

Emerging gains and losses of Nigeria’s border closure


Seme border
The closure of the Seme and Idiroko borders presents different scenarios to the country, its neighbours and the residents of border communities. ANNA OKON reports
The continued closure of Nigeria’s borders with her closest West African neighbours has continued to generate reactions within and outside the country.
Many travellers were struck by the reality of the situation on August 22, 2019 when they found themselves stranded, following the sudden closure of the busy Seme and Idiroko borders, which separated Nigeria and neighbouring Republic of Benin.
Initially the Nigeria Customs Service had denied the Federal Government’s involvement in the closure of the borders, but it owned up to the truth later and described the development as a joint security exercise ordered by the government and tagged, ‘Operation Ex-Swift Response’.
It was not until President Muhammadu Buhari explained to his Beninnoise counterpart, Mr Patrice Talon, that Nigeria shut the border to prevent smugglers from bringing rice into the country that the narrative changed and every Nigerian knew what was going on.
The spokesman of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr Joseph Attah, described the exercise as a joint operation coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser and involving the NCS, the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Nigeria Police Force, as well as other security and intelligence agencies in the country.
Attah noted that the exercise was aimed at checking the unbridled influx of smuggled goods, small arms and ammunition, as well as illegal immigrants, to Nigeria.
Although it was not the first time that Nigeria moved to check the activities of smugglers at her borders, this time the Federal Government had deemed it necessary to act in order to boost local production of food items and manufactured goods. In line with this, the Central Bank of Nigeria drew up a list of 41 items whose importation would no longer be welcomed in the country. Rice and other food items featured prominently on this list.
Prior to the closure of Seme and Idiroko borders, the Federal Government had stopped the issuance of Form M to importers willing to bring in goods by sea. As a result, no goods were imported to the country through the seaports in the last four years.
Similarly, the Nigeria Customs Service had in 2016, banned importation of rice through the land borders. Despite these measures, imported rice continued to flood the Nigerian market at rock bottom prices, thereby rendering locally-produced rice very unattractive to buyers.
The fight to put an end to the smuggling of rice across the border also saw operatives of the NCS engage in shootouts with smugglers, which sometimes resulted in the loss of lives.
The Gainers
Amid persistent complaints from many affected Nigerians, the Nigeria Customs Service and some members of the public have endorsed the Federal Government’s decision to close the borders, describing it as the most successful and effective measure so far adopted, in terms of curtailing the influx of smuggled rice and other goods to the country.
Description: https://cdn.punchng.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/15050503/truck-stranded-in-Seme.jpgTruck loads of perishable goods at Seme
The Comptroller-General of the NCS, Col Hameed Ali, said the agency’s revenue had risen to over N5bn daily, since the closure.
Also, more than 200 illegal immigrants, he added, were apprehended across the border and thousands of bags of rice and other contrabands confiscated.
The impact of the closure on fuel smuggling was not left out. In September, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, tweeted that the closure of Nigeria’s borders, as well as other interventions, had helped to check the smuggling of Premuim Motor Spirit (petrol) outside Nigeria.
The Losers
Most importers of perishable goods, valued at millions of naira, had their consignment of goods trapped in Cotonou, capital of Benin Republic, for several weeks because the Seme and Idiroko borders were closed without warning.
“Some of those goods are perishable and the Nigerian Government has collected duty on them. I don’t know why they won’t allow the goods to come in.
“There are some perishable goods that will go bad in 28 days when this operation ends. We brought in two trailers from Ghana on Thursday and they have not been allowed to come in,” a clearing agent based in Seme,  Khally Momodu, told our correspondent.
As expected, the prices of food consumed by ordinary Nigerians have hit the roof.
Food items, such as frozen foods, were reported to have gone up by 65 per cent.
The price of foreign parboiled rice also went up by 29.4 per cent from N17, 000 to N22, 000.
The demand for local rice in the absence of foreign rice drove the price of local rice up from N15, 000 to N17, 000.
The situation has left many people questioning the wisdom in shutting the borders against rice imports, whereas Nigeria has not been able produce enough to meet local demand.
The volume of local rice production in the country is put at 3.7 million tonnes per annum, while consumption is almost 7 million tonnes. The wide gap between the production and consumption of the item is filled with imports. But the Federal Government had decided that spending the sum of $35bn on the importation of food annually was not healthy for the economy.
The joint security exercise also threw up unexpected revelations from countries whose products were not allowed free entry into Nigeria.
Although the border closure affected all the six geopolitical zones in the country, the impact was not as visible and audible as the one felt in Seme, the closest border with Benin Republic and Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria.
Reports had it that recently in the Benin Republic many people called for the resignation of President Talon. Thousands of women and youths allegedly gathered in Cotonou to register their frustration and displeasure with the government, shouting, ‘Talon, you must go.’
Accounts of trade dealings between Nigeria and Benin Republic have explained why the people acted in that manner.
Officially, Beninoise exports to Nigeria are estimated at three per cent  of its total annual export volume, but the World Bank had reported that informal trade between both countries accounts for 20 per cent of Benin Republic’s Gross Domestic Product.
A 2018 data disclosed that Benin topped the list of 184 countries importing rice from Thailand. And Nigeria had always suspected that its neighbour used its port as transit route for rice and other goods coming into Nigeria from Asia.
 Ali testified that about 20 million tonnes of rice were stuck in Benin during the seven weeks period of the border closure.
Benin Republic is a small country with a population of 11.8 million. Ali doubted that such a small population consumed 20 million tonnes of rice.
He concluded that the final destination of the rice was Nigeria.
Also lending credence to these claims, Talon met Buhari in Japan, ahead of the second Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama and pleaded with him to reopen the borders and save his people from further suffering.
The Director-General of Benin’s Customs Administration, Moussa Saca Boco, also met with Ali over the border closure on October 9.
Boco’s colleague, the Minister of State for Planning and Development,  Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, expressed the feared that if allowed to linger, the closure could reduce Benin’s tax revenue and impact on its expected economic growth for 2019 and the forecast for subsequent years.
Since the closure of their borders with Nigeria, Niger and Benin have reportedly banned the importation of rice to their countries.
Talon explained that this was done to honour the ECOWAS terms between his country and Nigeria and to get the latter to change its mind and open its borders.
Many Nigerians who commended the closure of their country’s borders with neighbouring countries also expressed some reservations.
Even lawmakers who expressed their opinion on the joint security exercise across Nigeria’s borders spoke the minds of many Nigerians. Senator Solomon Adeola, representing Lagos West Senatorial District, for example, described the exercise as commendable. However, he wondered if closing the borders was a permanent solution to the problem of smuggling.
On his part, the Senator for Ogun West Senatorial District, Tolu Odebiyi, urged the Federal Government to give the people enough time to think about the possible effects and make arrangements for alternatives before embarking on such initiative in the future.
Former Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, on his part, called for a permanent solution to smuggling, instead of leaning heavily on border closure to check the social malaise.
Amosun said that since people had been doing genuine business on both sides of Nigeria’s borders with her neighbours and under the free trade movement agreement that the country had signed, an indefinite closure of the borders would affect them.
Also reacting, Senator Suswam Gabriel pointed out that Nigeria had bilateral agreements with other countries in the West African sub-region, which required her to open her borders to all kinds of people and services.

Water usage in animal systemway too high, says ICAR chief
TIRUPATI, OCTOBER 15, 2019 00:32 IST
UPDATED: OCTOBER 15, 2019 00:32 IST

 ‘Study from all angles, suitable intervention need of the hour’

It requires 15,450, 8,763 and 5,988 litres of water respectively to produce just one kg of bovine meat, mutton and pig meat. The paddy and sugarcane crops ‘guzzle’ up 2,000 litres to produce one kg of rice and sugar.
Trilochan Mohapatra, Director-General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the highest policy-making body on agrarian issues in the country, urged the fraternity to work towards achieving higher productivity and better water efficiency. Speaking at the national conference titled ‘Issues and strategies for physiological capacity building in animals,’ conducted concurrently with the second annual meeting of the Animal Physiologists Association (APA) at the Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) here on Monday, Dr. Mohapatra said the animal system was grossly inefficient and hence required suitable intervention, as the preference for non-vegetarian food was growing across the country.
He cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call to achieve ‘More crop per drop’ and the need for the scientists to work towards achieving the goal, both for the benefit of the farming community as well as the environment. A thorough study of the physiology, biochemistry and genetics of animals, akin to the case of plants, and suitable intervention wherever required would go a long way in bringing down water usage.

Reduction of footprint

“Apart from ensuring reduction of ‘water footprint’ on food, scientists should also work towards achieving higher grain yield per hectare with lower fertilizer use,” he said.
Vice-Chancellors R.K. Singh (Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar) and Y. Hari Babu (SVVU Tirupati) aired similar views and sought steps to tackle the rising temperature and green house gases. APA president G.Taru Sharma and general secretary V.P. Maurya spoke, and SVVU Dean (faculty of veterinary science) T.S. Chandrasekhara Rao presided over the conference. \
Associate dean K. Nalini Kumari and organising secretary B. Rambabu Naik were among the participants.

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China ‘must ensure its own food security’, but soybean imports to continue
·       The country must fill its rice bowl with more of its own food, researchers say in a national white paper
·       Such a move would disappoint overseas producers hoping that Beijing will increase imports to meet the country’s demand

Published: 10:00pm, 14 Oct, 2019
Description: Keegan ElmerDescription: Soybean imports are crushed into animal feed to fuel China’s growing demand for meat. Photo: AFP
Soybean imports are crushed into animal feed to fuel China’s growing demand for meat. Photo: AFP
China must rely on its own resources to ensure its food supplies, officials said in a white paper released on Monday, dimming hopes among overseas producers that Beijing will expand imports to meet domestic demand.
Unveiling the document in Beijing, Zhang Wufeng, head of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, said China’s food security was “the best in history”, citing the country’s high levels of food production and reserves, and its stable food prices.
“We must hold the rice bowl firmly in our hands, and fill it with even more Chinese food,” said Zhang, who is also a member of the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) Communist Party leadership group.
He said grain output was expected to reach about 780 million tonnes in 2019 – for the fifth year in a row.
Description: Chinese children play around bags of soybeans at a grain wholesale market in Beijing in August. Photo: EPA-EFE
Chinese children play around bags of soybeans at a grain wholesale market in Beijing in August. Photo: EPA-EFE
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But the white paper said that grain output and demand would remain “closely aligned”, meaning there would be little excess production.
“Looking to the future, China has the conditions, capabilities and confidence to enhance food security relying on its own efforts,” the document said.
The white paper outlined a series of measures to better protect supplies of staples, including soybeans, which China has traditionally bought from major suppliers on the world market such as the United States and Brazil.
NDRC deputy secretary general Su Wei said China would continue to import the crop to “manage a shortage in varieties”.Most of China’s soybean production is for domestic consumption in soy-based foods for human consumption, while imports are crushed into animal feed to fuel the country’s growing demand for meat.
“Of course, we still import some food products like soybeans, which everyone is paying attention to,” Su said.
According to the white paper, soybeans accounted for 75.4 per cent of China’s food imports between 2001 and 2015, while imports of rice and wheat were less than 6 per cent. China imported more than 88 million tonnes of soybeans in 2018, the paper said.
Soybeans were China’s single biggest agricultural import from the US before the trade war between the two countries broke out more than a year ago.
After negotiators from the two countries ended a new round of trade talks in Washington on Friday, US President Donald Trump said China would buy up to US$50 billion in agricultural products from the US. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that China had already begun to make the purchases, but did not give details.

Tommy Wu, senior economist at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong, said soybeans were still a major bargaining chip in the drawn-out US-China trade war.
“The reduction in soybean purchases hurt US farmers, and strikes at the heart of states supporting Trump,” Wu said.
Description: Farmers harvesting soybeans near Harvard, Illinois on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE
Farmers harvesting soybeans near Harvard, Illinois on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE
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E. Wayne Johnson, from Enable AgTech Consulting in Beijing, said it was natural for China to emphasise self-sufficiency to ensure food security.“Food security is of paramount importance for every nation. Reliance on imports for the staple components of the food supply is a shaky foundation in terms of food security,” Johnson said.
“The most effective barrier to the real threat posed by security-damaging imports is a vibrant and efficient staple food production system.”
China was forced to expand pork imports this year after domestic production was hit by outbreaks of African swine fever.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: China ‘must ensure its own food security’

Are researchers ‘crazy’ to engage in their work?


By: Rafael R. Castillo MD     
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:03 AM October 15, 2019
I can’t help but feel low after reading a recent comment of a senator who looked down at research as not worth the budget being allocated for it by the Department of Agriculture.
She was quoted as saying: “Why does it seem like all your budget goes into research? You’re crazy over research. What will you do with this research?”
This mindset pretty much sums up the sad state of science and technology in the country, why we’re slowly slipping down in our global competitiveness, why our gifted scientists are shifting to more pragmatic means to put food on their table, rather than engage in potentially breakthrough researches that can fulfill a serious need in the country as well as the world.
If a nation’s progress were an engine, research is the spark plug which starts it and revs it up. It can give back more than a dozen-fold of the investment, in terms of enhanced productivity, better outcomes and more cost-effective interventions.
Even in business, which the good senator must be well-versed on, market research is crucial in arriving at certain decisions.
Research in various aspects is part of due diligence. So, if one does not believe in research, one stands the risk of being negligent.
Second-rate
Time and again, I’ve lamented in this column the lukewarm attitude our government is showing toward research. Though I’m privileged to be occasionally invited to speak in international congresses, I confess to feeling somewhat a second-rate expert—compared to foreign colleagues whose sophisticated research works are funded by their government and other agencies.
I remember in the 1960s to the ’80s, the Philippine-based International Rice and Research Institute (Irri) was the epicenter of agricultural research in Asia, and one of the best sources of innovative rice-growing technologies in the world. The key to its success is its generous funding, no thanks to the Philippine government, but to international nongovernment organizations like the Rockefeller and Ford foundations.
The University of the Philippines College of Agriculture (UPCA), in Los Baños, Laguna
—where Irri is based—was known worldwide as the strongest academic institution on agriculture in Asia. Scientists from all over Asia were sent to the UPCA and Irri to study and train.
We exported rice to neighboring countries and the rest of the world. Now, we’re the ones importing rice from Thailand and other countries. The former mentor is now the beneficiary of the science gained by the student.
High-impact
Irri granted numerous research scholarships to Filipino and Asian researchers and scientists for their MS and PhD degrees, and their research works were published in high-impact international publications.
There was also a generous budget for postmasteral and postdoctoral fellows, who were offered training courses in research.
Because these scientists could focus on their researches full-time, they also finished their works promptly and translated it to actual benefits in the agricultural fields.
Those were the heyday of agricultural research in the country. When the funding from the international foundations started to dry up, the national government failed to sustain it with an equal budgetary leverage it used to get.
I remember, too, in the ’70s and early ’80s, the Philippine Heart Center (PHC) was known as the PHC for Asia, the premier cardiovascular center in Asia.
Royalties and dignitaries were brought there for treatment of their complicated heart ailments. Young doctors from other Asian countries were also sent to PHC to be trained as heart experts and cardiovascular surgeons.
In the mid-’80s, when Dr. Espie Cabral took over, it was deemed fit to remove the tag “… for Asia” in its name. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong have progressed by leaps and bounds through their modernization programs and productive researches.
Meager funds
The PHC remains a good training ground for future cardiovascular experts, but we failed to match the momentum of development—with research as one of the main pillars—which other countries had adopted.
With meager or no funds at all, Filipino researchers have been trying to do meaningful work—simply for the love of science. But they have to be practical, too, with bills to pay. So, the motivation of our promising local scientists eventually dissipates, and they shift to more productive ways to earn a decent living.
Recently, we’ve been trying to help young doctors get their papers published in reputable international journals. But most journals now require article publishing charges (APCs) to cover for the indexing of papers in various international databases, so that the international scientific community could read about it and learn from it, too.
Sadly, in the various fields of medicine, our citation index is among the lowest in the world. It’s simply because we’re not able to publish our research works in internationally indexed scientific journals. Young researchers will have to dig deep into their pockets to fork out the $1,500-5,000 APCs which top-tier medical journals are asking.
We’ve written to government research agencies for assistance to help defray the costs of APCs, but we have not heard from them. We take it as—“We don’t have any budget to assist you.”
I believe it’s a mindset issue, as exemplified by the senator’s hurtful remarks. I don’t believe we don’t have funds. It’s just that we allocate money only when we truly believe it’s worth every peso spent for that project or program.
If we can allocate P2 billion for a small modern jet for top officials in the rare event of a crisis, it’s because the government believes it’s a necessity. If we can’t even allocate P50,000 to get one of our world-class researches published, it means we don’t believe it’s worth that amount.
It’s about time we reprogram a faulty mindset on research, and start to actively contribute to global innovation. I hope the government shows its concern by giving research the shot in the arm it badly needs.
Dangers Of Eating 5-Day-Old Pasta, Rice: Liver Failure And Death
Oct 14, 2019 09:22 PM By Darwin Malicdem
Majority of food prepared at home should be consumed immediately or a day after cooking. But some people tend to store food for days in the fridge for the other night’s dinner. 
That sounds good for people who hate wasting food. But storing certain cooked food for up to five days could harm you.
Rice and pasta may grow the bacterium Bacillus cereus. This rare bacteria is commonly present in the soil and plants but can also affect food and humans. 
"The known natural habitats of B. cereus are wide-ranging, including soil, animals, insects, dust and plants," Anukriti Mathur, a biotechnology researcher at the Australian National University, told Science Alert. "The bacteria will reproduce by utilizing the nutrients from the food products [..] including rice, dairy products, spices, dried foods and vegetables."
B. cereus has both positive and negative effects. It could support the probiotics in the body. 
The bad effects of the bacteria occur when food is stored in the wrong conditions, which enable the B. cereus to grow and proliferate. When they are present in rice and pasta at high levels, exposure could lead to liver damage and even death. 
There are multiple cases of serious health conditions linked to B. cereus in the past. A study in 2005 detailed how the bacteria affected five children in a single family after eating four-day-old pasta salad.
Researchers found that the pasta was prepared on a Friday, taken to a picnic on Saturday and stored in the fridge until Monday evening for dinner. Right after their meals, the children started vomiting.
The kids were rushed to the hospital for food poisoning. Three of them only needed fluids to treat their conditions, one child had a liver failure but the youngest child died. 
Another B. cereus food poisoning was reported in 2011 in Belgium. A 20-year-old student ate spaghetti with tomato sauce, which he prepared five days earlier. 
He experienced diarrhea, abdominal pain and profuse vomiting after consumption. The student died later that night. 
There are more cases that left people dead after eating days old pasta and rice harboring B. cereus. Experts said the number of patients could be higher due to unreported cases.
"It is important to note that B. cereus can cause severe and deadly conditions, such as sepsis, in immunocompromised people, infants, the elderly and pregnant women," Mathur said. 
B. cereus can cause severe food poisoning by releasing toxins in the food. Reheating the food may not help since these toxins could withstand 250 degrees Fahrenheit. 
When ingested, B. cereus toxins could cause cell death and inflammation in the body. 
Description: pastaRice and pasta could grow the potentially deadly bacterium Bacillus cereus when stored for more than four days after cooking. Pixabay

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Nigeria’s Land Borders A No-Go-Area For Goods As Gov’t Places Total Ban On Imports/Exports
By Nzekwe Henry October 14, 2019
ow
Nigeria appears to be taking the much-talked-about campaign against illegal/illicit imports to a whole new level. And that’s even as people continue to lament the hike in the price of certain commodities, especially food, since a partial border closure was first announced in August.
The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has just announced a complete ban on imports and exports through the country’s land borders effective immediately. By the new directive, exports will no longer be allowed via land borders until certain conditions are met.
Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of NCS, made this known at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.
He said the measure would enable security agencies to be able to scan the goods entering the country.
Ali stated that, for now, goods can only enter the country through the air and seaports, where they can undergo thorough scanning and certified fit for consumption.
“We hope that by the time we get to the end of this exercise, we would have agreed with our neighbours on the type of goods that should enter and exit our country,” he said.
“For now, all goods, whether illicit or non-illicit, are banned from going and coming into Nigeria.
“Let me add that for the avoidance of doubt that we included all goods because all goods can equally come through our seaports,” he remarked.
“For that reason, we have deemed it necessary for now that importers of such goods should go through our controlled borders where we have scanners to verify the kind of goods and how healthy they are for people.”
He insisted that despite the rights for movement of persons the enabling ECOWAS protocols, there must be primacy of security over such rights.
Ali, who was asked whether the federal government had not breached the rights of the citizenry to movement and international trade, said: “When it comes to security, all laws take back a seat.
“We want to our nation, we want make sure that our people are protected. You must be alive and well for you to begin to ask for your rights. Your rights come when you are well and alive.
“Go and the people in Maiduguri when Boko Haram was harassing their lives, the only question was survival, there is no question of right. This time Nigeria must survive first then before we begin to ask for our rights.”
The recent blockade is the latest of a series of measures taken by the Nigerian government to curb the importation of certain products, especially those that are believed to be produced in sufficient amounts locally.
Rice, a popular Nigerian staple, is one of such products. However, since the measures at the border first kicked in, the price of rice has only soared as traders lament scarcity and hoarding which has forced prices up. And rice is only of the many commodities that have seen increments in price.
Earlier today, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) asked rice farmers in the country not to increase the price of the product as a result of the border closure.
In a statement in Abuja on Monday, Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, urged members of the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) and other stakeholders in the value chain not to hoard rice.
Border closure: Local rice varieties now rule markets
By Hussein Yahaya, Vincent A. Yusuf (Abuja), Idris Mahmud, (Katsina), Eyo Charles, (Calabar), Ibrahim Musa Giginyu (Kano) &  Hope Abah Emmanuel (Makurdi) | Published Date Oct 15, 2019 4:17 AM TwitterFacebookWhatsAppTelegram Dealers re-bag locally processed rice as foreign — Consumers Why price is on the high side — Processors Farmers ready for massive paddy rice production Locally processed rice is now common in markets and departmental shops, a market survey carried out by Daily Trust recently has shown. Miva rice, Mama Gold dominate markets in Benue with a 50kg bag of each costing between N16,000 and N18,500. ADVERTISEMENT In Cross River State, Bansanra rice and Ayade Vitaminised & Nutrient Rice are common in most of the local markets in the state with a 50kg bag sold for N15,500 to N17,000, depending on the market. ADVERTISEMENT OVER 5,000 NIGERIAN MEN HAVE OVERCOME POOR BEDROOM PERFORMANCE SYNDROME DUE TO THIS BRILLIANT DISCOVERY Our correspondent in Kano reports that the popular Jamila rice now being bagged is gradually taking the place of foreign rice in the state alongside Umza rice. They both cost N16,000 to N17,500 per 50kg bag also depending on place of purchase. In Abuja market and some notable stores, Mama Gold, Mama Pride produced by Olam go for N16,000 to N18,000 per 50kg bag, depending on the market. This has been the price since the border closure, it was discovered. Similarly, brands like Umza from Kano, Bull from WATCO in Argungu (Sokoto State), and other brands have remained at N14,500 to N17,000 depending on the market they are purchased from. Other local brands like Mas Rice in Gombe, Anambra Rice, Mama Happy Rice in Niger, Ofada Rice, Abakaliki Rice and Igbemo Rice now dominate major markets across the country. Consumers’ new rush for local rice brands Daily Trust reports that because of the border closure, the quantum of foreign rice is gradually reducing in both local markets and major stores. The closure is also forcing the price of the product out of reach of many consumers. A 50kg bag of Tomato rice, one of the notable foreign rice brands now costs between N20,000 and N22,000 depending on the market while Royal Stallion goes for slightly higher. The same goes for other foreign rice brands wherever you can find them at the market. A measure (small mudu) of foreign rice now costs between N700 and N750 compared to the locally processed rice that sells for between N500 and N550, depending on the market and the state. A consumer in Abuja, Madam Rose Isah, attributed her new love for locally processed rice to the price disparity, saying she can save as much as N200 per measure if she buys the locally processed rice. A rice retailer at Wuse market told Daily Trust that many residents now patronise local rice as the prices of the foreign varieties were going higher by the week. Dealers re-bagging locally processed rice as foreign – Consumers Consumers and local rice merchants in Katsina State have decried how some rice mills and foreign rice dealers were purchasing and allegedly re-bagging locally processed rice which they resell as foreign at exorbitant prices. Border closure has seriously affected the importation of foreign rice into the country, a situation that has increased demand for the locally produced variety, especially with the proliferation of modern rice mills across the country. Farouk Abdu, a local rice dealer, said besides the newly established modern mills that were purchasing paddy rice in bulk, some foreign rice dealers have resorted to mopping up locally processed rice and re-bagging it to be sold at high price as foreign rice. “If you go to Dandume, Kafur and Bakori, you will see how those rice dealers are mopping up the locally milled rice which they transport to Kano, where they just sieve and re-bag it as foreign one,” he said. Farouk added that the development has caused the market price of the locally processed rice to skyrocket. “This year we started selling the locally processed rice at N490 per measure and 100kg at N19,500, but now because of high demand, a bag costs N28,000 and a measure N700, the price that normally comes after the harvest period, which is around March,” Farouk also said. He said many trailers load local rice on weekly basis out of Bakori, Kafur and Dandume, the three major local rice markets in the state. Alhaji Abdullahi Namairo, one of the dealers purchasing locally processed rice, told this reporter that because of high demand for rice generally, locally established rice mills could not meet up with the increasing demand of the produce hence they resorted to purchasing the already locally processed rice, which they sieve and polish before it is bagged and sold as made in Nigeria rice. “Unlike how it was widely speculated, we add value to the produce we buy before we sell it as Nigerian rice, not foreign rice,” said Namairo. He added that even those with penchant for foreign rice have no option now than to buy the local one because the foreign one is now either scarce or costly in the market. Daily Trust noticed that there was bulk purchase of locally processed rice in Katsina markets but could not ascertain whether the produce was being re-bagged and sold as foreign rice as alleged by some merchants and consumers; especially that the ones purchased were being transported to Kano. Usman Sani, a rice farmer, said the complaints came mainly from consumers and some dealers but farmers were celebrating the high cost of the produce. “Rice farmers this year are happy because of the high demand of both paddy and locally processed rice in the market. It has reached the extent that farmers are being followed to their farms to buy paddy rice at not less than N10,000 depending on the variety,” said Sani. Why prices are on the high side now -Processor In the last couple of weeks, the prices of paddy rice have changed twice. This caused fear among processors that the price of milled rice may further go up. Although the wet season harvest has just commenced, there is high demand for the product at the moment as buyers go after those who have already harvested. Daily Trust can confirm that this is the case in Doma area of Nasarawa State which is home to Olam Nigeria, one of the biggest producers and processors, where this reporter visited. “Two weeks ago, I sold a 100kg of paddy at N11,000, surprisingly a week later I sold 12 bags at N14,000 each and the buyer came here (the village),” a farmer, Dauda Bako told Daily Trust in Doma. However, a paddy buyer, Ibrahim Maishinkafa, said processors are rushing for the paddy in anticipation of the yuletide season – Christmas and New Year. “This rush will certainly trigger price rise,” he said, adding that “as more harvest hit the market, we expect some stability”. In an earlier interview with Daily Trust, the Managing Director, Labana Rice Mills Ltd, Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, Alhaji Abdullahi Idris Zuru explained the rise in price. “To be honest with you, the price has increased to some extent because the millers went to get paddy from the farmers and the farmers, knowing that the borders have been closed, and the millers will come for it, increased their price. And only a few of them have it because some had earlier given up the business because the price was not encouraging. “A ton of rice which was sold at N100,000 is now about N120,000 to N122,000. If the farmers are encouraged and returned to farm based on this policy and produce, the price will crash.” He was optimistic that the millers will process more and with additional mills coming on board, the price will come down.
“The current price is just because  the (border closure) policy just came into force,” Alhaji Abdullahi said. Farmers ready for massive paddy rice production The farmers are optimistic of a promising future as the National President of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, told Daily Trust in a phone interview. Alhaji Aminu said farmers are already planning big for the forthcoming dry season as they are targeting to cultivate one million hectares with an average of seven tons. The wet season harvest has already begun across the country. “We had planned and proposed to government for this border closure to cultivate a minimum of one million hectares by the forthcoming dry season. We expect to get a minimum of seven million metric tons of rice; and what we consume in Nigeria is between 7 to 8 million metric tons per annum. “So you can see in this one production circle, which is the dry season, that 7 million can be cultivated and we can do this three times in a year. So we are hoping that the commodity will be available and affordable,” he said. Goronyo also said they were working closely with the processors to support the federal government to make sure that it succeeds in its self-sufficiency drive. He reiterated that the current policy is already incentivizing the production as many people are already warming up for dry season production, adding that as more farmers go into production and millers off-take, the prices would come down.
 Meanwhile, despite the increase in the prices of paddy in the last few weeks, the prices of the finished products have been stable in the market, Daily Trust gathered. RelatedDescription: Border closure: Local rice varieties now rule markets


Nigerian Newspapers: 10 things you need to know this Tuesday morning

 
Description: https://dailypost.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Nigerian-Newspapers.jpeg
Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers:
1. The Supreme Court has told the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, that it had yet to constitute the panel that would hear the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
2. Nigeria’s First Lady Aisha Buhari has made revelations on the power tussle at the State House in the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Mrs. Buhari confirmed the viral video that circulated online last week. The First Lady said she ranted after she was denied access to parts of the villa by Mamman Daura and his family.
3. About $665billion has been lost in the last three years globally to disasters. A large percentage of the loss was recorded by high-income countries.
The Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Engr. Mustapha Maihaja stated this on Monday.
4. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has blamed the moribund state of the country’s refineries on lack of proper maintenance of the facilities over the years. The NNPC said that Nigeria has one of the highest number of technicians in the petroleum sector in the world, but that the experts have not been adequately engaged.
5. The Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said that fuel subsidy will gulp N450 billion in 2020. She said this on Monday in Abuja, at the public presentation of the 2020 budget proposals.
6. The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), retired Col. Hammed Ali, said operatives of the ongoing Joint Border Security had seized items worth N1.4 billion since the partial closure of borders.
7. The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, to reverse the tenure extension for seven permanent secretaries in the federal civil service who are already due for retirement.
8. The ECOWAS Court of Justice has ordered the Federal Republic of Nigeria to pay N10 million compensation for the violation of right to work to Pte. Barnabas Eli, a dismissed Nigerian soldier.
9. Fatima, the daughter of Mamman Daura, has accused the wife of the president Aisha Buhari of attacking her inside the presidential villa in Abuja. Fatima is family member to President Muhammadu Buhari.
10. Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has urged members of Rice Millers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) and other stakeholders in the rice value chain not to increase the price of the product due to the border closure.

Border Closure: CBN appeals to Rice millers, stakeholders not to increase price

CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele
The Central Bank of Nigeria has appealed to members of Rice Millers Association of Nigeria and other stakeholders in the rice value chain not to increase the price of rice over border closure.
Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor said this in a statement issued and made available to newsmen on Monday in Abuja by Mr Muhammed Tijani, Media Assistant to RIMAN’s Chairman.
Emefiele also called on them not to hoard rice as a result of the closure of the borders in order to increase the price, adding that such acts were unpatriotic.
The CBN governor said that the border closure was meant to promote the growth of the Nigerian economy and ensure that the country attained food self-sufficiency in the rice value chain.
He said that this was for the benefit and wellbeing of the citizenry.
He said that imported rice into the country was chemicalised for preservation, therefore not good for the consumption.
Emefiele said that there was a need to increase rice production and discourage hoarding leading to a price increase while calling on rice millers to support government’s effort in the rice value chain sector.
He said that hoarding rice with a view to increasing the prices of rice would bring hardship to Nigerians.
He said that the CBN under his leadership would support rice millers to stem off smuggling in the country and grow the rice sector for food self–sufficiency.
Emefiele called on Nigerians to support the government action on the closure of the border, adding that government took the decision in the best interest of Nigerians as it was meant to secure the country.
He said that this would also secure the health of the citizenry from heavily chemicalised products that were injurious to the health of the country.
Mr Peter Dama, the RIMAN Chairman assured the CBN of the supports of its members on the Federal Government’s action on border closure.
He said that its members would not succumb to pressure to reverse the policy on borders’ closure.
He urged the CBN for financial support to build capacity and expand milling activities to stimulate further growth in the rice sector.

Water usage in animal systemway too high, says ICAR chief
TIRUPATI, OCTOBER 15, 2019 00:32 IST
UPDATED: OCTOBER 15, 2019 00:32 IST

 ‘Study from all angles, suitable intervention need of the hour’

It requires 15,450, 8,763 and 5,988 litres of water respectively to produce just one kg of bovine meat, mutton and pig meat. The paddy and sugarcane crops ‘guzzle’ up 2,000 litres to produce one kg of rice and sugar.
Trilochan Mohapatra, Director-General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the highest policy-making body on agrarian issues in the country, urged the fraternity to work towards achieving higher productivity and better water efficiency. Speaking at the national conference titled ‘Issues and strategies for physiological capacity building in animals,’ conducted concurrently with the second annual meeting of the Animal Physiologists Association (APA) at the Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) here on Monday, Dr. Mohapatra said the animal system was grossly inefficient and hence required suitable intervention, as the preference for non-vegetarian food was growing across the country.
He cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call to achieve ‘More crop per drop’ and the need for the scientists to work towards achieving the goal, both for the benefit of the farming community as well as the environment. A thorough study of the physiology, biochemistry and genetics of animals, akin to the case of plants, and suitable intervention wherever required would go a long way in bringing down water usage.

Reduction of footprint

“Apart from ensuring reduction of ‘water footprint’ on food, scientists should also work towards achieving higher grain yield per hectare with lower fertilizer use,” he said.
Vice-Chancellors R.K. Singh (Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar) and Y. Hari Babu (SVVU Tirupati) aired similar views and sought steps to tackle the rising temperature and green house gases. APA president G.Taru Sharma and general secretary V.P. Maurya spoke, and SVVU Dean (faculty of veterinary science) T.S. Chandrasekhara Rao presided over the conference. \
Associate dean K. Nalini Kumari and organising secretary B. Rambabu Naik were among the participants.

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Rice Irrigation Worsened Landslides In Deadliest Earthquake Of 2018 Finds NTU Study

: Oct 14, 2019 01:47 AM EDT
Description: Irrigation Worsened Earthquake-Triggered Landslides (IMAGE)
Heavily irrigated rice padi fields artificially raised the water table to almost ground level, worsening the 2018 earthquake-triggered landslides in Palu, Indonesia.
(Photo : Gilles Brocard/University of Sydney)
Irrigation significantly exacerbated the earthquake-triggered landslides in Palu, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, in 2018, according to an international study led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) scientists.

The 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Indonesian city on 28 September 2018, taking the lives of over 4,300 people, making it the deadliest earthquake in the world that year.

Writing in Nature Geoscience, researchers from NTU Singapore's Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) and the Asian School of the Environment (ASE), together with collaborators from institutions in Indonesia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Australia, reveal that the landslides in Indonesia's Palu Valley resulted from widespread liquefaction in areas that were heavily irrigated for rice cultivation.

A century-old aqueduct, constructed to bring enough water into the Palu Valley to irrigate rice, artificially raised the water table to almost ground level. This elevation increased the potential for liquefaction - a situation where buried sediment becomes fluid-like due to strong seismic ground-shaking.

The combination of this fluid-like sediment and the slope of the valley floor exacerbated the catastrophe, creating wide lateral spreading of water, landslides, and debris, which swept through the villages.

This deadly cocktail marked Indonesia´s deadliest earthquake since Yogyakarta in 2006.

"This event is a wake-up call for any area where active faults and irrigation coincide," said Dr Kyle Bradley, a principal investigator at NTU's EOS who led the research.

"We need to improve the awareness and understanding of liquefaction-related landslides and pay closer attention to places where irrigation has artificially raised the water table, said Dr Bradley, who is also a lecturer at NTU's ASE.

The research highlights the urgency for Southeast Asian nation-states to review locations with intensive rice farming activities which lie among active faults.

Dr Bradley said, "This is of particular concern in Southeast Asia as the pace of development is often faster than the return time of large earthquakes - the average time period between one earthquake and the next. Most other similarly irrigated areas have not yet been tested by extreme ground shaking, and some of those areas could also pose a major hazard."

Research used historic and current satellite data

By analysing satellite images taken before and after the earthquake to identify areas affected by landslides, NTU researchers discovered that irrigated paddies and fields were strongly affected, while areas planted with trees were more stable.

This suggested that heavy irrigation and a raised water table were responsible for creating a new liquefaction hazard.

"Hazards that are created by humans can often be more readily moderated than other natural hazards. Based on the relative resiliency of areas planted with mixed tree crops and irrigated fields, we propose that more intermixed planting could decrease the hazard of large landslides in the future," said Dr Bradley.

The satellite image mapping was complemented by field observations of the landslides and of the local irrigation system and practices, produced by an international team of scientists led by Dr Ella Meilianda of the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center at Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh.

Professor Thomas Dunne of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not affiliated with the study, said "The study has demonstrated how Earth scientists with strong field-based understanding of land surface mechanics can use the rapidly growing toolbox of remote sensing to analyse dangerous processes. The landscape-scale survey approach could be applied elsewhere for systematic assessment and avoidance of dangers that are often overlooked when large infrastructure is first proposed in rapidly developing, but potentially unstable terrains."

The research team plans to continue their study by assessing the effects of local land use on outcomes during the Palu earthquake. 

Niger Republic bans rice export to Nigeria

Description: Niger Republic bans rice export to Nigeria
October 14
14:282019
Niger Republic has banned the exportation of rice to Nigeria, following the closure of nation’s borders.
At a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigerian Customs Service, said Niger Republic took the action as a result of the closure of borders.
“The government, through diplomatic channels will continue to engage our neighbours to agree to comply with ECOWAS Protocol on transit,” he said.
“Goods that are on the prohibition list in Nigeria, such as rice, used clothes, poultry products and vegetable oil should not be exported to the country.
“As a result of this border closure, Niger Republic has already circulated an order banning exportation of rice in any form to Nigeria.”
In August, Nigeria shut its borders across the country, an action President Muhammadu Buhari said was taken to checkmate smuggling.
Speaking when he met Patrice Talon, his Beninois counterpart, on the sidelines of the seventh Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD7), in Yokohama, Japan, in August, Buhari had said smuggling was a threat to his administration’s agricultural policies.
“Now that our people in the rural areas are going back to their farms, and the country has saved huge sums of money which would otherwise have been expended on importing rice using our scarce foreign reserves, we cannot allow smuggling of the product at such alarming proportions to continue,” Buhari was quoted to have said.
The president had added that the closure was to allow Nigeria’s security forces develop a strategy on how to “stem the dangerous trend and its wider ramifications”.

India and Sierra Leone sign $30 million loan to boost rice production


Sierra Leone Telegraph: 13 October 2019:
India’s vice president Shri Venkaiah Naidu, met with Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada Bio at State House in Freetown today Sunday, where he announced major areas of support for Sierra Leone to promote economic development in the country.
The support package includes a US$30 million credit line to implement a major irrigation development project that will boost Tomabom rice farming and help Sierra Leone achieve food self-sufficiency.
Praising president Bio and his government for the ongoing economic reforms, the Indian vice president said that the agreement with Export–Import Bank of India would encourage public-private partnerships, and development of Sierra Leone’s private sector.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Sierra Leone’s vice president- Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh and his Indian counterpart said that both the Indian and government of Sierra Leone have signed other cooperation agreements, including the establishment of a joint commission, cultural exchange and capacity building programmes aimed at promoting president Bio’s flagship human capital development agenda.
Sierra Leone’s minister of foreign affairs – Mrs. Nabeela Tunis, and the Indian Director of Telecommunications Consultants – Mr. Kamendra Kumar, also signed an MoU to participate in the e-VBAB Network Project – a Pan-Africa e-Network venture.

The Indian vice president is visiting Sierra Leone along with his country’s Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries – Shri Sanjeev Kumar Balyan; a Member of Parliament in the upper House of the bicameral Parliament of India – Shri Ramvichar Netam; and senior officers of the Government of India.
President Bio paid tribute to the long-standing relationship between the two countries, mentioning the role the Indians played as peacekeepers with the United Nations in post-war Sierra Leone.
He said that the Indian community in Sierra Leone has contributed greatly to Sierra Leone’s economic development.
“Sierra Leone and India have had a long-standing relationship. Today, as a country, we want to assure the people of India that we will continue to strengthen that relationship for our mutual benefit. Enjoy your stay and thanks for visiting Sierra Leone,” president Bio said.
Speaking about the importance of the meeting, vice president Naidu, who concludes his three-day visit to Sierra Leone tomorrow Monday, 14 October, said the visit is the first ever high-level visit the West African nation has had from the Republic of India.

PHL could be 2nd top rice importer

THE Philippines’s rice imports this year could reach a record-high 3.1 million metric tons, nearly matching China’s, the world’s top buyer of the staple, with its purchase of 3.15 MMT, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.
In its monthly global grain situation report, the USDA pointed out that the Philippines would become the world’s second top rice buyer this year, accounting for 7 percent of total global imports.
“In just a few years, the Philippines has emerged as one of the top global importers of rice, nearly on a par with China,” it said in its report published recently.
“The Philippines’s rice imports have nearly quadrupled, from 800,000 metric tons in 2016 to 3.1 million anticipated for 2019, representing 7 percent of total global rice imports,” it added.
“In comparison, China’s share of global rice imports has almost reduced by half, to just over 7 percent,” the report added.
The country’s estimated rice imports this year is 24 percent higher than the 2.5 MMT recorded last year, following the opening up of the domestic rice market in March. This is the first time that the country’s rice imports breached the 3-MMT level.
“While China rice imports continue to shrink, Philippine purchases provide much-appreciated reprieve from nearby exporters in Southeast Asia,” the USDA said.
“Vietnam is its primary supplier with a market share of about 70 percent, followed by Thailand, Pakistan, and Burma,” it added.
The country’s rice imports next year is forecast to decline by 12.9 percent to 2.7 MMT due to higher ending stocks this year, USDA said.
“With a forecast for adequate production and large stocks, Philippine rice imports are expected to decline in 2020, but still remain above the five-year average,” it added.
Due to the opening up of the domestic rice market, the country’s demand for the staple is projected to increase next year to 14.6 MMT, 3.55 percent over the 14.1 MMT estimated consumption this year, USDA said.
Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data showed that a total of 208 private entities, including big firms, imported more than 1.6 MMT of rice seven months after the government eased import restrictions on the staple.
Figures from the BPI, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), showed that cooperatives, traders and institutions imported 1.614 MMT of rice as of October 4 after the rice trade liberalization law took effect on March 5.
The BPI data indicated that importers bought rice from India, Italy, Myanmar, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam.
Topping the list of importers is Puregold Price Club Inc., the grocery-chain operator owned by businessman Lucio Co, which imported 52,021.850 metric tons during the seven-month period. Puregold accounted for 3.22 percent of the total rice volume that arrived in the country.

Delaying safeguard duty on rice imports to hurt farmers more’


THE delay in the imposition of safeguard duties on rice imports could further hurt farmers, as the inflow of the staple is expected to continue amid the harvest season, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) has warned.
FFF pointed out that this “runs counter to President Duterte’s public instructions not to allow imports during harvest time.”
The imposition of safeguard duties, which could effectively double tariffs on rice imports, is a measure seen by groups like FFF to deter further entry of imported rice.
Under the rules of the WTO and Republic Act 8800, general safeguard duties may be temporarily imposed on imports of rice, on top of regular tariffs, if there is evidence of a surge in rice imports and this surge has resulted in, or threatens to cause, serious injury to the rice farmers, FFF explained.
“There seems to be no sense of urgency and no appreciation of the serious difficulties that rice farmers are facing at present because of the surge of cheap rice imports,’ FFF National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor said in a statement over the weekend.
“The rules on general safeguard duties were designed by the WTO precisely to allow governments to quickly and effectively address market emergencies brought about by trade liberalization. Delaying a decision defeats the purpose of the law, and may make the harm on farmers irreparable,” Montemayor added.

Safeguard probe terminated

Last Friday, the Department of Agriculture (DA) revealed that it terminated its safeguard investigation on rice imports pending a dialogue with the government’s economic managers.
“We started the study on the possibility of having to tap the general safeguards duty. The decision of the department is to have this discussed first with economic development managers,” said Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar, in a five-minute press briefing on Friday.
“That’s our decision: we terminated the first study. We will now actively discuss with the economic development managers on October 24,” Dar added.
Dar’s disclosure came a day after the DA’s 30-day deadline to reveal the findings of its preliminary safeguard investigation.
“If the DA Secretary felt that the economic managers should be consulted on the matter, he should have done this in advance given the urgency of the situation. Now it appears he is simply tossing the problem to the EDC,” Montemayor said.
In a news statement on September 21, the DA said it initiated the preliminary investigation to “arrest” the influx of imports, “particularly this forthcoming main harvest season.”
The DA pointed out that the imposition of a safeguard duty on rice imports is one of the measures it is banking on to stabilize the supply and price of rice.
“We have to holistically and systematically protect the consuming public and much more, our small farmers,” Dar was quoted as saying in the statement.
“So, I have taken the necessary steps and the direction where we will enforce legal measures during these times when we have greatly exceeded the volume needed to fill up the slack in national rice supply, most particularly in Metro Manila and major urban rice consumption centers,” Dar added.
Dar said at least 2.4 million metric tons of rice have entered the country, which “has gone beyond what is needed by the country.”
“We will protect our small farmers by not allowing additional imports especially this main harvest season. We want them to benefit from the respectable farm-gate prices of palay set by the government through the National Food Authority (NFA),” he said.

Vietnam should improve rice quality in long-term strategy

Experts believe Vietnam needs a long-term strategy to increase the quality of its rice exports to create sustainable growth in the future.
Description: Vietnam should improve rice quality in long-term strategy
Sacks of rice are loaded for export. — Photo vneconomy.vn
To meet the changing demands of export markets, Bui Thi Thanh Tam, general director of VinaFoods 1 Corporation, said firms should invest in domestic production to increase the quality of rice.
To do that, the agriculture sector needed support from relevant ministries.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade focuses on developing markets and negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) to create favourable conditions for rice exports. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is in charge of production, including improving rice quality.
Local authorities needed to guide and encourage farmers to produce organic rice so that Viet Nam could offer clean materials to meet market demands. Businesses also needed to ensure the quality of the rice they were exporting. If those parts were linked, it would ensure the sustainable growth of rice exports, Tam said.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the global rice market was at present about 36-40 million tonnes per year. Of this figure, Viet Nam exported 7 million tonnes of rice per year, but had failed to reach high export value due to its passive approach.
In the long-term strategy, the agriculture sector should look at reducing the total area of rice plantations to a level that ensured food security and partial exports.
Cuong said the domestic market needed to ensure supplies and the quality of rice and packaging. Regarding export markets, Viet Nam should promote and expand markets, for examples, in Africa and the Middle East, as well as regional markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines.
New markets
Cuong said this year, the winter-spring rice crop in the Mekong Delta had yielded up to 14 million tonnes. Despite a significant drop in exports to China, Viet Nam had still gained growth in export volume.
"The Government plans to put 200,000 tonnes of rice in reserve to maintain rice prices and develop the market. Vietnamese enterprises have expanded into the American market," Cuong told Kinh te Nong thon (Rural Economy) newspaper.
Viet Nam's major competitor, Thailand, was facing a severe drought, affecting the country's rice production. Singapore, which regularly imported 30-40 per cent of its rice from Thailand, was considering a strategy to diversify imports from other sources, according to MARD.
Opportunities to exporting rice to Singapore wwould result for many other countries, especially Viet Nam and Cambodia.
In addition, Japan, which regularly imported 50 per cent of its rice demand from the US, was also considering switching to importing rice from CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) members, including Viet Nam.
MARD said the rice export volume in the first nine months was estimated at 5.2 million tonnes, earning US$ 2.24 billion, up 5.9 per cent in volume but down 9.8 per cent in value compared to the same period in 2018.
Of which, rice exports in September were estimated at 586,000 tonnes, earning $251 million.
Deputy Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Import and Export Department Tran Thanh Hai said China had been Viet Nam's largest rice export market for many years, but this year exports had fallen by 65 per cent.
In 2018, China tightened controls for rice from Viet Nam including quality control and traceability. It has also set an import quota of about 5 million tonnes of rice this year, but in fact, it is only likely to import about 3.3 million tonnes.
Tam said China had adopted a plant quarantine policy. This had forced local firms to promote rice exports in other markets. For example, exports to the Philippines had doubled or even tripled against previous years. The Iraqi market had also imported up to 400,000 tonnes of Vietnamese rice.
Despite these difficulties, Tam said Viet Nam would still reach its target of exporting more than 6.5 million tonnes of rice this year. — VNS

Rice stocks still growing
Louise Maureen Simeon (The Philippine Star) - October 13, 2019 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice inventory has maintained its upward trend, rising by 14 percent in September, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.
Latest data from the PSA showed that total rice inventory stood at 1.84 million metric tons (MT) as of September, 13.7 percent higher than the 1.16 million MT recorded last year.
However, this is lower by 14 percent from the previous month’s 2.13 million MT.
The PSA did not specify the number of days that the stock inventory of Filipinos’ main staple will be sufficient.
But, based on the average daily consumption of Filipinos of 32,000 MT, the current inventory is enough for 58 days.
Commercial warehouses had almost half of total inventories at 41.2 percent while households held about 36.5 percent. Supplies from the National Food Authority depositories cornered 22.2 percent of the total.
On a monthly basis, rice stocks inventory in the households, commercial warehouses and NFA depositories were down by 15 percent, 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the National Food Authority is gearing up for the procurement of more palay as the main harvest season begins with the aim of exceeding its target of                                                                                                                                               14.6 million bags for the year.
NFA administrator Judy Dansal said the grains agency already started to procure high volume of palay last month as wet season harvest started early in some areas.
For September alone, NFA procured 621,430 bags of palay, mostly in Western Visayas and some areas in Luzon, increasing total procurement to 6.6 million bags.
“We have already reached 46 percent of our target for the year, but we are hopeful we can achieve 100 percent or more as the main crop traditionally yields about 70 percent of the total annual production,” Dansal said.
“Aside from the increased buying price, we want to have more than sufficient space for the stocks we will be procuring. We are clearing our warehouses by selling our rice stocks and we are also trying to acquire additional temporary warehouse spaces through lease,” she said.
Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- October 14, 2019
OCTOBER 14, 2019 / 2:58 PM

* * * * * *
Nagpur Foodgrain Prices – APMC/Open Market-October 14, 2018 Nagpur, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Gram prices zoomed up in Nagpur Agriculture Produce and Marketing Committee (APMC) here on increased demand from local millers amid tight supply from producing regions. Fresh hike in Madhya Pradesh gram prices and reported demand from South-based millers also boosted prices. About 350 bags of gram reported for auction, according to sources.
GRAM
* Gram varieties reported down in open market here on poor demand from local traders.
TUAR
* Tuar varieties recovered in open market here on renewed demand from local traders
* Udid varieties reported strong in open market here on good demand from
local traders.
* In Akola, Tuar New – 5,500-5,700, Tuar dal (clean) – 8,100-8,200, Udid Mogar (clean)
– 7,600-8,500, Moong Mogar (clean) 8,200-8,900, Gram – 4,300-4,400, Gram Super best
– 5,600-6,000 * Wheat, rice and other foodgrain items moved in a narrow range in
scattered deals and settled at last levels in thin trading activity.
Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg
FOODGRAINS Available prices Previous close
Gram Auction 3,900-4,600 3,700-4,500
Gram Pink Auction n.a. 2,100-2,600
Tuar Auction n.a. 4,700-5,250
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 1,975-2,085 2,000-2,060
Wheat Sharbati Auction n.a. 2,900-3,000
Gram Super Best Bold 5,800-6,200 6,000-6,200
Gram Super Best n.a. n.a.
Gram Medium Best 5,500-5,700 5,700-5,900
Gram Dal Medium n.a. n.a
Gram Mill Quality 4,450-4,550 4,500-4,600
Desi gram Raw 4,500-4,600 4,550-4,650
Gram Kabuli 8,500-10,000 8,500-10,000
Tuar Fataka Best-New 8,300-8,500 8,300-8,400
Tuar Fataka Medium-New 7,800-8,200 7,800-8,100
Tuar Dal Best Phod-New 7,500-7,800 7,400-7,700
Tuar Dal Medium phod-New 6,900-7,400 6,800-7,300
Tuar Gavarani New 5,700-5,800 5,650-5,750
Tuar Karnataka 5,950-6,050 5,900-6,050
Masoor dal best 5,400-5,700 5,400-5,700
Masoor dal medium 5,100-5,300 5,100-5,300
Masoor n.a. n.a.
Moong Mogar bold (New) 8,500-9,000 8,500-9,000
Moong Mogar Medium 7,000-7,800 7,000-7,800
Moong dal Chilka New 7,300-7,850 7,300-7,850
Moong Mill quality n.a. n.a.
Moong Chamki best 8,500-9,000 8,500-9,000
Udid Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 8,000-9,000 7,800-8,800
Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG) 6,200-7,200 6,000-7,000
Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG) 4,900-5,500 4,700-5,300
Mot (100 INR/KG) 5,800-6,800 5,800-6,800
Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg) 4,500-4,800 4,500-4,800
Watana Dal (100 INR/KG) 4,700-5,000 4,700-5,000
Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG) 6,850-7,100 6,850-7,100
Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG) 2,250-2,350 2,250-2,350
Wheat Mill quality (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,200 2,100-2,200
Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG) 2,650-2,750 2,650-2,750
Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG) 2,550-2,650 2,550-2,650
Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG) 2,300-2,450 2,300-2,450
Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG) n.a. n.a.
MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG) 3,200-4,000 3,200-4,000
MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG) 2,600-3,100 2,600-3,100
Rice Parmal (100 INR/KG) 2,400-2,500 2,400-2,500
Rice BPT best new (100 INR/KG) 3,200-3,600 3,200-3,600
Rice BPT medium new(100 INR/KG) 2,700-3,100 2,700-3,100
Rice Luchai (100 INR/KG) 3,000-3,100 3,000-3,100
Rice Swarna best new (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,700 2,500-2,700
Rice Swarna medium new (100 INR/KG)2,300-2,400 2,300-2,400
Rice HMT best new (100 INR/KG) 4,000-4,200 4,000-4,200
Rice HMT medium new (100 INR/KG) 3,500-3,700 3,500-3,700
Rice Shriram best new(100 INR/KG) 4,600-5,000 4,600-5,000
Rice Shriram med new (100 INR/KG) 4,200-4,500 4,200-4,500
Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG) 8,500-13,500 8,500-13,500
Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 5,000-7,200 5,000-7,200
Rice Chinnor best new 100 INR/KG) 5,400-5,500 5,400-5,500
Rice Chinnor medium new(100 INR/KG)5,000-5,200 5,000-5,200
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. 33.4 degree Celsius, minimum temp. 19.7 degree Celsius Rainfall : Nil FORECAST: Partly cloudy sky. Maximum and minimum temperature likely to be around 33 degree Celsius and 20 degree Celsius respectively. Note: n.a.—not available (For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but included in market prices)

Rice Prices

as on : 14-10-2019 02:28:01 PM

Arrivals in tonnes;prices in Rs/quintal in domestic market.
Arrivals
Price
Current
%
change
Season
cumulative
Modal
Prev.
Modal
Prev.Yr
%change
Rice
Gadarpur(Utr)
1500.00
27.55
59917.00
2400
2205
-
Bindki(UP)
250.00
25
5040.00
2440
2440
9.91
Siliguri(WB)
235.00
62.07
6268.00
3800
3800
-
Hardoi(UP)
190.00
137.5
4060.00
2450
2530
-3.16
Barhaj(UP)
120.00
NC
5083.00
2420
2400
7.08
Kanpur(Grain)(UP)
80.00
6.67
4040.00
2375
2450
6.74
Muzzafarnagar(UP)
78.00
73.33
1118.00
2800
2810
4.67
Ballia(UP)
75.00
25
1965.00
2440
2440
7.49
Kalna(WB)
60.50
NC
872.50
2950
2950
-1.67
Jorhat(ASM)
45.00
63.64
1297.50
3400
3400
6.25
Hanagal(Kar)
45.00
21.62
421.00
1900
1900
11.76
Vasai(Mah)
45.00
4.65
953.00
3390
3425
4.31
Kopaganj(UP)
45.00
9.76
807.00
2460
2465
9.82
Karimpur(WB)
45.00
NC
920.00
3220
3310
-9.30
Bazpur(Utr)
42.80
82.13
3219.10
2200
2200
-8.33
Karimganj(ASM)
40.00
NC
460.00
2450
2450
-
Pandua(WB)
40.00
-4.76
1164.00
2950
2950
-1.67
Howly(ASM)
36.00
20
531.00
2500
2400
6.38
Jangipura(UP)
36.00
5.88
924.00
2400
2380
5.26
Naugarh(UP)
35.00
-15.66
1977.50
2475
2465
10.00
Gazipur(UP)
32.00
-33.33
4824.50
3310
3300
12.20
Chintamani(Kar)
30.00
11.11
202.00
2700
2800
20.00
Kayamganj(UP)
30.00
NC
943.00
2710
2710
13.87
Azamgarh(UP)
29.00
-3.33
2479.50
2450
2460
7.46
Madhoganj(UP)
28.00
75
1624.50
2320
2340
2.65
Lalitpur(UP)
27.00
-10
872.00
2470
2450
-3.14
Karsiyang(Matigara)(WB)
25.80
5.31
601.00
3600
3400
20.00
Dadri(UP)
25.00
66.67
683.00
2930
2940
6.55
Badayoun(UP)
20.00
150
400.50
2620
2625
11.49
Durgapur(WB)
20.00
-16.67
1267.60
2700
2750
-4.42
Jayas(UP)
19.00
5.56
868.40
2075
2060
6.41
Ulhasnagar(Mah)
18.00
-14.29
454.00
4500
4700
25.00
Bhivandi(Mah)
18.00
-43.75
605.00
2350
2200
-14.23
Safdarganj(UP)
17.00
-10.53
403.00
2480
2460
8.77
Bangarmau(UP)
16.00
344.44
135.10
2550
2450
12.09
Sirsaganj(UP)
16.00
14.29
323.00
2660
2640
-4.32
Asansol(WB)
16.00
-42.86
1817.30
3000
3000
3.45
Akbarpur(UP)
15.00
-16.67
687.00
2465
2465
10.04
Bharthna(UP)
15.00
-25
3585.00
2710
2680
9.72
Sahiyapur(UP)
14.00
-12.5
866.50
2455
2460
11.85
Chhibramau(Kannuj)(UP)
13.50
145.45
204.50
2680
2750
16.52
Kannauj(UP)
11.50
-8
264.50
2650
2650
10.42
Vilthararoad(UP)
10.00
NC
601.00
2150
2150
NC
Karvi(UP)
10.00
17.65
306.50
2360
2360
6.31
Chitwadagaon(UP)
9.00
NC
216.00
2100
2100
-
Etah(UP)
8.00
14.29
184.50
2560
2560
-6.57
Fatehpur(UP)
6.50
44.44
739.50
2385
2400
9.40
Ruperdeeha(UP)
6.00
NC
287.00
2250
2250
12.50
Tamkuhi Road(UP)
4.50
-27.42
428.40
2300
2250
6.48
Kosikalan(UP)
3.40
-2.86
165.30
2610
2600
1.95
Sehjanwa(UP)
3.00
-40
190.00
2160
2160
NC
Tundla(UP)
2.00
NC
187.70
2580
2600
2.38
Balarampur(WB)
1.82
0.55
25.40
2580
2580
-1.53
Gadaura(UP)
1.50
-16.67
372.90
2400
2400
14.29
Jambusar(Kaavi)(Guj)
1.00
NC
71.00
3200
3200
-
Aroor(Ker)
1.00
NC
9.00
10000
10000
9.89
Penugonda(Mah)
1.00
NC
20.00
4090
4090
0.25
Alibagh(Mah)
1.00
NC
82.00
2200
2200
-56.00
Murud(Mah)
1.00
NC
83.00
2200
2200
-45.00
Ujhani(UP)
0.60
NC
17.60
2650
2590
10.88
Lamlong Bazaar(Man)
0.60
NC
14.00
4600
4600
-


Could jackfruit flour be a healthier alternative to white rice?
OCTOBER 14, 2019 17:00 IST
UPDATED: OCTOBER 15, 2019 11:09 IST
Description: A tropical fruit that grows on a tree of the Mulberry family. It is eaten raw, dried, or in cooked form in Southeast Asia and India. Sometimes called Langka. This cluster is on a tree growing in a village in the Mekong delta of Vietnam.
A tropical fruit that grows on a tree of the Mulberry family. It is eaten raw, dried, or in cooked form in Southeast Asia and India. Sometimes called Langka. This cluster is on a tree growing in a village in the Mekong delta of Vietnam.   | Photo Credit: earleliason

With the availability of jackfruit flour, it is now easy to include raw jackfruit in our diet

For people from Kerala, summer is associated with the fruity smell of ripe jack fruit. The trees are found in the backyard of almost all houses and the fruit requires a certain skill to cut open. The fruit is used in all its forms; tender, mature and ripe. While the tender ones are used to make curries, the mature ones are made into a puzhukku (where the bulbs are cooked with shredded coconut). It is also sliced into strips and fried to make chips. The ripe ones are eaten as such or made into snacks like kumbilappam and desserts like chakka pradhaman.
Even so, have we used it to its full potential commercially? “Not really. It is still hard to find jackfruit in hotel menus. It is also often looked down upon as a poor man’s food,” says James Joseph, founder of Jackfruit 365, a company that sells raw jackfruit flour. Not many studies have been done on the jackfruit. “The lack of awareness about its nutritional benefits is the biggest reason for this. People are reluctant to experiment with a fruit that they are familiar with.” The state of Kerala declared it as its official fruit in 2018. “This changed a lot of things. It was seen in the market, selling for 20 to 25 per kilogram, he says.
James was working with Microsoft when he got interested in jackfruit. “I spend many years of my life abroad, and when I came back home on vacation, I realised that including jackfruit in my diet made me feel lighter. I had the same feeling as having a Caesar salad.” Later, while he was dining at a restaurant, he noticed that it was not usually used as a substitute for meat in dishes, except in North India. “The chef told me about the practical difficulties in using it. It was messy, smelly and seasonal. In addition to this, only an experienced chef would know how to cut it.”
He realised that there was an untapped potential for jackfruit in the market and started experimenting with it. “I worked with a few chefs and they made a burger with raw jackfruit and jackfruit pie with the ripe one. I was amazed at the texture and the taste.” In 2012, he quit his job and launched his brand in 2013. “Initially, I sold freeze-dried jackfruit. But I realised that for it to have a wider reach, I should make it into a flour that can go into idlidosa batter and usual roti flour. I stopped producing it and instead made flour out of it in 2017,” he says.
James also invested in research. According to the ‘Nutritional, Glycemic and Ecological Assessment of Green Jackfruit for Diabetes in Kerala’, a research study commissioned by him and published in the International Journal of Diabetes, the calorie, carbohydrate and glycaemic load of raw jackfruit is 40% less in comparison to rice. This could potentially make it a healthier alternative to white rice, for those who have diabetes.
It also shows that the fibre content of raw jackfruit is two times more. James adds a compound called pectin, extracted from jackfruit, to improve its binding quality.
Dr Lalitha Appukuttan, general physician and HOD, Naturopathy department, NIMS Medicity, Thiruvananthapuram, says, “I have been suggesting it to my patients for the past two years. Over the course of time, I have noticed that their blood sugar levels have decreased. There is also an increase in their energy level. Many lifestyle diseases are because of our high-calorie and low-fibre diet. I believe that raw jackfruit flour has a capacity to control it to an extent,” she says.
Chef Sunil Chauhan, Co-founder of Fab Café, says that he has been using jackfruit flour for the past one year. “Now, people are very health conscious and they are looking for gluten-free options to include in their diet. We had chapatis made out of wheat flour, which is temporarily taken out of the menu. The chapatis were softer and had a slight bitter taste compared to the ones made with wheat flour. But, it is not easy to knead and roll it out.” Sunil adds that the availability of jackfruit flour has made it easier to use. “It is also sustainable, being available easily in our country.” The café now serves momos made of a blend of jackfruit flour and root starches. “Our customers were eager to try it out and I got a lot of positive feedback.”
What James wants is for more research to be invested on raw jackfruit flour, in order to understand its true nutritional benefits.

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Philippines supports IRRI’s proposal to advance rice breeding in ASEAN +3 countries

Created: Tuesday, 15 October 2019 07:41

Description: DSC 2090 1Recognising the importance of developing new varieties to bring the production capacity of rice in a climate change-challenged world, the Philippines is strongly supporting the International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) proposal to the ASEAN +3 (Japan, Korea, China)

IRRI’s proposal is set to build a comprehensive testing and selection that is also backed up by training capacity for its national partners. (Image source: Department of agriculture of the republic of the Philippines)
“The Philippines, being the host country of IRRI, will reiterate its strong support to its proposal to the 41st ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) Meeting, hoping that Korea, Japan, and China can really come together and significantly push forward this initiative,” said Agriculture Secretary William Dar during a bilateral meeting held on 14 October in Brunei Darussalam.
IRRI’s proposal hopes to bring the ASEAN +3 to be involved in the selection and the development of new rice varieties that are resilient to multiple environmental stresses, pest and diseases thereby elevating the production capacity in the region.
“We need to combine these strengths and to have the right rice varieties that can adapt to all potential scenarios and also meet the market readiness and expectation acknowledging that in Southeast Asia consumers have particular preferences,” said IRRI Director General Matthew Morell.
Morell added that the IRRI’s proposal is set to build comprehensive testing and selection that is also backed up by training capacity for its national partners.
“We are not just transferring these new varieties but we are doing it with the national partners for them to conduct it themselves,” he added.

Boost to biofuel research at IIT Madras

Sunderarajan Padmanabhan  New Delhi | Updated on October 14, 2019  Published on 
Description: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-cleantech/2s4kdj/article28495488.ece/alternates/PORTRAIT_230/Bl17CTanchorGMB65NQLV4jpgjpg
Indian Institute of Technology Madras has signed an agreement with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company for conducting collaborative research on energy and biofuels.
The five-year agreement is focused on data analytics, gas conversion and transport, and is aimed towards finding low-emission solutions. One of the projects being taken up is for developing novel approaches to convert agro residue biomass to sugars and high value chemicals.
“The objectives of this program are three-fold. We aim to effectively deconstruct rice straw, bagasse and other biomass varieties of Indian origin to produce sugars, which will directly feed into Exxon Mobil’s bioconversion platform. Secondly, we intend to convert the lignin present in biomass to valuable phenols using novel catalysts, and finally, we aim to evaluate the environmental and economic implications of performing such conversions at scale,” said Dr. R. Vinu, Associate Professor of Department of Chemical Engineering, who is leading the project at IITM.
The current trend is to develop fuels and fine chemicals from non-food lignocellulosic biomass and agricultural residues, known as second-generation biomass. Lignocellulosic biomass is the only source of renewable carbon with the ability to maintain carbon neutrality in the environment by reducing the net greenhouse gas emissions.
India is the third highest producer of agro-residues globally with surplus potential of over 230 million tons annually, after China and Brazil. The biofuel potential is expected to get realized in the near future with the new biofuel policy of the government.
“This agreement expands our commitment to research at the university level. We work with over 80 universities around the world. This pact gives us a position in the Indian academia,” Dr. Vijay Swarup, a senior official of ExxonMobil.  (India Science Wire)
Twitter handle: @ndpsr

So-called plastic rice could have been the real deal, but stored for a decade

By Joe Whitworth on October 15, 2019Description: Chris Elliott
Reports about “plastic rice” are likely incorrect according to a food fraud expert who says it could have been actual rice that had been poorly stored for up to a decade.
Chris Elliott, professor of food safety and founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast, said he has been investigating rice fraud for a number of years.
“That all started off by lots of reports coming from different parts of the world about what was called plastic rice. People were claiming that they were being sold rice that was made from plastic. As someone who studies food fraud I was quite interested in this,” he told Food Safety News while he was in Edinburgh to meet the head of the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit (SFCIU).
“The first thing, when we looked at the economics, actually plastic is more expensive than rice so you (know) it is not made from plastic. Then you think why would people think they are eating rice made from plastic? It took quite a long time to uncover what we think was going on and I spent some time in South East Asia asking lots of questions.
“Plastic rice is not made from plastic, it is rice that has been stored for up to 10 years and not stored particularly well. The rice had become badly contaminated with molds and instead of that nice white color, had turned into an unpleasant green color and what the fraudsters had done was they had taken that rice out of the stores and bleached it to get back the white color.
“The only problem was whenever you bleach rice it loses the nice shiny surface so to get that back they sprayed it with paraffin wax. With that paraffin coating on it, it didn’t cook properly, hence the reason it was called plastic rice.”
Smartphone-based analysis
The university has been trying to develop quick analytical tests for the past couple of years so people can detect the difference between genuine rice and product that has been treated badly in terms of chemicals.
“There has been a big push in terms of how science and technology can detect and deter food fraud,” said Elliott.
“In terms of my own work at Queen’s University, we are looking at how we can use the thing that we all have in our pocket to detect food fraud. So doing a lot of smartphone-based analysis. Using fingerprints of food we can build these mathematical models of what the fingerprint of food should look like. Just six weeks ago I was in a marketplace in Ghana checking for fraud in rice using my smartphone.”
Elliott said Europe has a good food safety network so people would not try to sell very low quality product into the region because the systems would pick it up.
“In the U.K. and wider Europe we don’t need consumers to check if our food has been fraudulently produced. We’ve got a great infrastructure of government agencies and a fantastic food industry that are doing all that for us,” he said.
“What we want to do is put these tools in the hands of people in the food industry, government inspectors and environmental health officers to do that checking for us. In the developing world it is very different because that infrastructure doesn’t exist there, we want to put those tools in the hands of consumers to make informed decisions.
“The plastic rice is being sold to parts of the world that don’t have those checks and measures. It is not just in South East Asia; in Sub-Saharan Africa it crops up regularly where it is not only rice, they are generally sold the worst of the worst. Anything that cannot go into Europe because of food safety standards will end up getting dumped in Sub-Saharan Africa. They will sell to countries where they don’t have the measures to check and test for these things.”
Elliott led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal and is joint coordinator of EU-China-Safe, an EU Horizon 2020 project that runs until August 2021. There are 16 participants from the EU and 17 from China with an aim to improve food safety and combat fraud.
Predictions and problems caused by Brexit
A lot of work goes into trying to predict what the next problem might be.
“We’re developing predictive analytics, gathering lots of information from different parts of the world,” said Elliott.
“Thinking about what is happening to our climate and the way food is traded around the world, to try and predict where there will be problems, shortages and more demand than availability of foodstuffs. That is not only to guide our research but we inform the industry and government agencies about what we think their surveillance program should be not now but six months or a year down the road.”
Regarding Brexit, Elliott said it is not a question of if it will cause problems but how big they will be.
“As soon as you start to change rules and regulations that gives a massive opportunity for people who cheat and that happens the world over. There will be potentially a massive amount of fraud around tariffs as they are going to change. I think the potential for lots of smuggling from the Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the rest of Great Britain will happen as well,” he said.
“The other big factor, the thing that worries me even more, is that the U.K. will get cut off from the established European networks that share information and intelligence. Fraudsters aren’t silly, they will know the disconnect between the U.K. and Europe and they will maximize that opportunity.
“There will be difficulties in terms of the informal relationships as well, I know the regulatory agencies across the country can pick up the phone and talk to their counterparts in Germany or France but will that be the same case going forward, I doubt it somehow. It has not been a frictionless proposition about leaving Europe, I think it is going to take years to rebuild some of those relationships that we once had.”

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