Global warming deprives Koh-i-Sufaid of its peculiarity of remaining
snow clad throughout year
June 30, 2019
Adeel Saeed
PESHAWAR, June 30
(APP)::Koh-i-Sufaid, a mountain range straddling between Pakistan and
Afghanistan at bordering areas of Kurram district of erstwhile tribal area, has
lost its peculiarity of remaining snow clad throughout the year mainly due to
global warming caused by climate change.
An offshoot of Hindu Kush range
and spreading over an area of around 100 miles (160 kilometers), Koh-i-Sufaid
forms a natural border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Its peaks remain covered with
snow throughout the year and in winter the whole hilly terrain gives a look of
a giant feature wearing white tunic from tip to toe.
The magnificence of Koh-i-Sufaid
could be gauged from the fact that a large mural of the mountain is displayed
at the main hall of the Governor House Khyber Pakhtunkwa for the appraisal of
visitors about rich landscape of the tribal region of Pakistan.
The mountain is also called in
local Pashto language as `Spin Ghar’ (white mountain) and according to elders
of Kurram district the folklore behind naming of this mountain is its white
color due to snow draped peaks.
A local poet while reflecting
changes in appearance of Koh-i-Sufaid due to reduction in snow wrote a poem an
ode of which reads as `Zamana badal Giya Hai, Koh-i-Sufaid nai be rang badal
dia hai’ (Time has been changed and testimony to this fact is that Koh-i-Sufaid
has also changed its colours).
The mountainous range has great emotional
attachment with dwellers of Kurram Agency who proudly make its comparison with
Nile river of Egypt.
“As river Nile is to Egyptians,
Koh-i-Sufaid is to the denizens of Kurram valley,” remarked Zulfiqar Ali, a
Peshawar based journalist who belongs to Parachinar, capital of Kurram.
The highest peak of the
Koh-i-Sufaid mountain range is Mount Sikaram Sar with an elevation of 4,761
meters (15,620 feet) while other peaks include Agam Sar (14,300 feet) and
Badina Sar (13,500 feet).
A crossing near Sikaram Sar is
called Piewar-Kotal or Gawi Pass which connects Parachinar city with Aryob
valley of Paktia province of Afghanistan.
The climate of Kurram remains
pleasant most of the summer and in winter minimum temperature is usually below
freezing point, occasionally mercury drops below -10 degree Celsius.
“The mountainous region in our
Parachinar city remained snow covered throughout the year, but now for the last
several years the hills turn black from white in summer season thus reflecting
changes in weather,” observed Azmat Ali Zai, a local journalist of Parachinar.
Azmat, 42 years old, vividly
remembers heavy snow fall in Parachinar city during winter season bringing life
to a standstill and forcing people to remain indoor. The snow on mountains was
enormous, he recalled.
People used to arrange food
stocks in winter at their homes even in Central Kurram valley owing to shortage
of edibles in markets due to roads blockade because of heavy snow.
Being a major source of water
supply, the lives of farming community of Kurram district revolved around
Koh-i-Sufaid and decisions about selection of crops to be sowed were taken on
basis of observation of quantum of snow, he informed.
Due to sudden reduction in water
supply in parts of Kurram tribal district induced by climatic changes, quarrel
among farmers on dispute over water distribution for fields irrigation also
started cropping up.
Haji Ejaz, a farmer by profession
and dweller of Sadra village in Parachinar, hankered for days when he used to
earn a handsome earning by utilizing all of his four acres of agricultural land
in rice farming.
“The normal yield from half an
acre of land was around 20 to 25 mounds which were sold in market at a price of
around Rs. 2500 per mound,” Haji Ejaz told APP.
Due to high demand of Kurram rice
in markets of Pakistan and adjacent Afghanistan, the commodity was received by
grain merchants with both hands on cash payment basis, recalled Haji Ejaz.
However, for the last few years
after facing water scarcity in the area, Haji Ejaz is forced to reduce rice
farming from full to half of his land and utilizing remaining area on
cultivation of less water intensive crops including moong (a kind of pulse) and
soybean.
Both the crops are less profit
generating in comparison with rice thus reducing the monthly income of Haji
Ejaz.
The yield of rice crop over
remaining half acres of land is also reduced from normal 25 mounds to 15
mounds, further negatively impacting the income of Haji Ejaz and other farmers
in Kurram district of FATA having a population of 619553.
About reasons behind dwindling
water supply in the area, Ejaz simply said reduced snow on Koh-e-Sufaid, the
lifeline of agriculture and economy of Kurram Agency.
Majority of farmers in Kurram
prefer rice farming because of its increasing demand and good price in market,
Zulfiqar added.
He said Kurram rice, locally
called as `Kurram Rujje’ or `Kurmawalay Wrazey’ was a very popular dish in the
region and was also liked by people of other areas.
The coarse rice of Parachinar
have a unique taste which locals believe is because of mineral contents in
glacial water of Koh-i-Sufaid.
“Reason behind reduction in snow
on Koh-e-Sufaid is global warming causing glacial melting,” comments Mushtaq
Ahmad, Director Meteorological Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Talking to APP, Mushtaq said
changes in weather timings and global warming had reduced ice compaction as a
result of which snow was melting early and mountain started changing colors.
Earlier in 90’s, snow fall
started in October and continued till April end. Due to heavy snowfall,
compaction of ice was strong and the mountain’s peaks remained covered even in
the hot months of summer season, Mushtaq added.
However, now for the last more
than one decade the temperature is changing and the month of October also
remain tropical.
“The snowfall period is reduced
from seven months (October to April) to three months (December to late
February) as a result of which the ice melts,” Mushtaq explains.
He said heavy snow provided
maximum water to the region and now a number of nullahs and springs had been
dried up due to shortage of water.
Reduction in snow on Koh-e-Sufaid
was not only affecting the crops but also rich flora and fauna of the region,
Mushtaq said adding, “the dwellers of Kurram also grow different fruits in
orchids which are also being affected due to irregular weather pattern
including rains and strong storms, Mushtaq told APP.
If water availability continued
to dwindle, it would have very negative impact on economy and agriculture of
Kurram valley where majority of locals were associated with farming and due to
their preference on rice farming were highly dependent on proper supply of
water, he warned.
Chatham-Kent
home to Canada's first commercial rice crop
Agricultural history is quietly
being made on a farm west of Chatham where a one-hectare (2.5 acre) crop of
rice is growing.
Published on: June 28, 2019 | Last Updated:
June 28, 2019 5:49 PM EDT
Wendy Zhang, project and farm
manager with Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprises Inc. is seen here Friday
in front of a one hectare trial crop of rice planted west of Chatham, Ont.
(Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News)
Agricultural history is quietly
being made on a farm west of Chatham where a one-hectare (2.5-acre) crop of
rice is growing.
“This is the first Canadian
commercial rice production,” said Wendy Zhang, the project and farm manager
with Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprises Inc., which planted the crop.
She said initially the company
was allowed to grow a research trial crop, based on regulations set out by the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Zhang said they have now received
CFIA approval to expand next year.
The plan is to plant rice on the
entire 30-hectare (74-acre) farm where the first crop is currently growing and find
other land to plant up to 202 hectares (500 acres) next year.
Growing rice in Chatham-Kent is
more a relief than anything, Zhang said. The process began in 2016, she said,
with an expert rice production team from China coming to the municipality to inspect
the soil, the water, the weather and what kind of machinery could be used.
When it comes to growing rice,
Zhang said the first thing you need is flat land and, secondly, a good source
of water.
“It’s just so flat and so good
(in Chatham-Kent), and we got two lakes here as well.”
While this year’s cool, wet
spring has caused tremendous problems for other farmers, Zhang said her rice
crop benefited from the rain. The enterprise has saved a lot of money by not
having to operate a pump to irrigate the crop.
Many people may envision rice
crops being surrounded by a large amount of water, but Zhang said a new
technique was developed in recent years.
“We don’t need that much water,”
she said. “All we need to do is cover the soil surface.”
Zhang said the canopy will soon
fill in on the crop, so the water on the field won’t be visible.
She began preparing the crop in
early March by soaking the seed inside.
A one-hectare rice trial crop
is growing west of Chatham, Ont. (Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News)
“It has to be a closed
environment and monitored every day,” she said.
From there, the plants were moved
to a greenhouse in April before being transplanted in May.
The crop will be harvested in
late September or early October, depending on the weather, Zhang said.
Ontario FangZheng Agriculture
Enterprises has been working with the Ridgetown Campus of the University of
Guelph, which did a successful greenhouse study on rice. This resulted in the
experimental field of rice being planted by Zhang.
She told those attending a news
conference on Friday the one-hectare plot will be used to record plant growth
and development, evaluate pest pressure and control, determine yield potential,
and other production factors under Ontario growing conditions.
Chatham-Kent has a climate
similar to northern China, where rice production has expanded to grow crops
that can withstand cooler temperatures.
Zhang has been working with
Curtis Peltier, an agricultural consultant with Thompsons.
“It’s been quite interesting,”
Peltier said. “Definitely a lot to learn.”
He noted the fertilizers and
other inputs to grow rice are similar to planting wheat.
“So we’re kind of basing and
comparing everything to the wheat crops around here.”
Peltier said his company would be “definitely” interested in
growing rice “if we can find a market for it.”
Mayor Darrin Canniff, who
attended the Friday press conference, said a positive he sees with rice being
grown here is “diversification for our economy and a new opportunity for our
agri-business sector.”
If things work out, the trial
crop could expand into thousands of acres being planted across Chatham-Kent, he
said.
Zhang said the commercial rice
crop started with one acre in the U.S., “and we started with one hectare.”
She said the company would
welcome working with other growers to expand the amount of rice grown in
Chatham-Kent.
https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/chatham-kent-home-to-canadas-first-commercial-rice-crop/wcm/6a485933-304a-4c74-9190-5f432eb154c5
Time to shift gear to rice-based
and coconut-based farming systems
Published June 29, 2019, 10:00 PM
Dr. Emil Q. Javier
For reasons of ecology and
culture, our smallholder agriculture is dominated by two crops — rice in the
fertile valleys and alluvial plains and coconut in the uplands and slopes.
Rice is our staple food which we
share culturally with most of our Asian neighbors in the humid tropics and
subtropics. We grow rice because during the wet monsoon season, the valleys and
plains are partially flooded and will only support semi-aquatic plants like
rice.
For the hills and slope lands,
deep-rooted perennial trees like coconut are ideal to make up for lack of water
during the dry season and for soil and water conservation. The slope lands are
prone to soil erosion and it is best that the soil is protected from erosive
rain drops by a permanent canopy.
But coconut has two added
beneficial features. Unlike timber crops which are not edible, coconut produces
food of multiple uses all-year round. And, as importantly, for typhoon-prone
Visayas and Luzon, the coconut is relatively resistant to typhoons and strong
winds. The majestic coconut palm sways gently with the wind and only the
strongest of typhoons can uproot or break them. The flowers and immature
coconuts drop but the trees normally recover within a year or two.
Unfortunately, the farmers’
incomes per hectare from both rice and coconut are inferior to that derived
from other crops. Therefore, wherever ecologically feasible, and whenever there
can be an assured market, the farmers are better off planting something else.
For rice, in the valleys and
plains, the farmers have little choice but to plant rice during the monsoon
season because of flooding. But the crop after rice can be something else more
profitable than rice. Hence, the farming objective is crop diversification
(i.e. relay cropping after rice).
For coconut, because it is a perennial,
the solution is intercropping i.e. simultaneously raising two or more crops on the same
piece of land. There is sufficient sunlight filtering through the coconut
canopy to support valuable partial-shade tolerant crops like coffee, cacao,
black pepper, ginger, and even full sunlight crops like papaya, bananas,
pineapple, and various short-season vegetables.
Not only are the margins per
hectare higher from these other crops compared with rice and coconut, they
require more labor to cultivate and process and thus create more livelihoods in
the countryside.
Thus, the scientifically and
economically correct paradigm is farming systems rather than monocropping.
Policy and organizational
implications
implications
Such being the case, this
agronomic paradigm shift from monocropping to farming systems, has important
economic policy and organizational design implications. For rice the national
priority ought to be redirected not necessarily to rice self-sufficiency but to
food security i.e. generating more livelihoods and incomes for the rural poor
with which to purchase food.
In the case of coconut, the national objective is still optimizing the productivity of the coconut palm with hybrids and proper cultivation but also to provide additional and complementary sources of income to buffer the poor coconut farmers from the ups and downs of the global vegetable oils market where coconut is a minority player.
In the case of coconut, the national objective is still optimizing the productivity of the coconut palm with hybrids and proper cultivation but also to provide additional and complementary sources of income to buffer the poor coconut farmers from the ups and downs of the global vegetable oils market where coconut is a minority player.
Organizationally since rice and
coconut each with three million hectares account for 2/3 of our total farm
area, it is appropriate that we have national agencies dedicated to their
research and development — the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)
and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA). Both have made their marks in
scientific research for their respective crop responsibilities. PhilRice is
well-led and appropriately funded. PCA, on the other hand, had leadership
problems in recent years and chronically underfunded.
Both agencies are aware of the
opportunities of multiple cropping but are conflicted by their narrow, specific
crop mandates. Multiple cropping inevitably receives attention only when funds
can be spared from their main research agenda.
Therefore, relay cropping in the case of rice, and intercropping for
coconut ought to be major headings in the research agenda of PhilRice and PCA.
Not just after thoughts!
Finally, since the expertise for
the other crops reside in the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), and some of the
state universities and colleges (SUCs) like Cavite State University, Benguet
State University, and University of Southern Mindanao for coffee, cacao and
other industrial crops, PhilRice and PCA by themselves cannot be held solely
responsible for pushing the farming systems paradigm.
The rest of the Department of
Agriculture family of agencies, namely the Agricultural Training Institute
(ATI), Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), Bureau of Soils and Water Management
(BSWM), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Bureau of Agricultural
Research (BAR), Department of Agriculture (DA) Marketing Services as well as
Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) ,
the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research
and Development (PCAARRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST),
and some of the larger SUCs should be mobilized around national Rice-based and
Coconut-Based Farming Systems research, extension and promotion networks.
*****
Dr. Emil Q. Javier is a Member of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and also Chair of the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines (CAMP).
Dr. Emil Q. Javier is a Member of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and also Chair of the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines (CAMP).
For any feedback, email
eqjavier@yahoo.com
PH now trains new generation of
rice specialists
With P3-billion funding
Updated July 1, 2019, 4:21 PM
By Madelaine B. Miraflor
The Philippines, which has
already opened the local market to the unlimited entry of cheaper importer
rice, has a lot of catching up to do, but thanks to the rice fund that was just
recently made available, the country can now afford to train new generation of
rice specialists.
PhilRice Logo
A statement showed that the
Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), which will receive P3 billion
from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), already began training
new generation of rice specialists to help farmers become competitive amid the
entry of more imported rice.
Right now, most of the Philippine
government’s rice specialists already retired or have already moved to private
sector for higher pay.
The training forms part of the
agency’s preparations to make use of its share of the RCEF, which is where all
the tariff collected from imported rice should go. As part of the Republic Act
(RA) 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law, RCEF will be first injected with P10
billion annually from 2019 to 2024 or a period of six years.
The fund will be used to make
Filipino rice farmers competitive so they can produce equally cheaper rice.
Of the P10 billion, P5 billion
will be allocated for mechanization of rice farming, P3 billion for provision
of high-yielding in bred rice seeds, P1 billion for credit support, and P1
billion for extension support and education of rice farmers.
PhilRice is supposed to take the
lead in providing high-yielding inbred rice seeds to farmers, while the
Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) and Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (TESDA) will undertake the training of farmers and
extension workers.
Titled Rice Specialists’ Training
Course (RSTC), the training PhilRice has just started is set to enhance the
technical competence of rice focal persons from ATI Regional Centers and the
Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Regional Offices.
“There is a need to train a new
generation of rice specialists as most of the graduates from the first training
program were either retired, promoted to higher positions in the government, or
transferred to private sector,” said Philrice’s Technology Management and
Services Division (TMSD) Head Lea Abaoag.
29 participants already completed
the first part of the training course that focused on mind-setting to strengthen
their sense of mission of helping farmers become more competitive through the
transformational leadership framework.
The second part of the training
will focus on strengthening the skills of rice specialists on diagnosing and
managing field problems based on PalayCheck and Palayamanan Systems.
The modular season-long training,
conducted by the TMSD, is one of the preparatory activities of the Rice
Extension Services Program established through the implementing rules and
guidelines of RA 11203.
The first training of rice
specialists was conducted in early 1990s during the implementation of
KASAKALIKASAN Program, which focused on pest and disease management and
facilitating FFS. The second generation were trained from 2008 to 2011.
They were hired by the Institute
as Rice Sufficiency Officers and deployed in major rice-producing provinces.
Abaoag said that the third part
of the training, slated in September to October, will focus on other knowledge
and skills that will help in improving the delivery and sharing of rice
production technologies to farmers.
The trainees will be divided into
five groups to handle field demonstration in the learning farm located at
PhilRice.
They will also manage a Farmers’
Field School and establish PalayCheck technology demonstration in Llanera and
Rizal, Nueva Ecija where they can immediately apply their learning from the
training.
“We are aligning our modules with
TESDA module/guidelines so that the trainees will be ready for NC II assessment
on Grains Production” Abaoag explained.
The new generation of rice
specialists will be included in the pool of resource persons for the rice
production training after completing the course. They will also handle
technical dispatches in their respective areas.
Right now, the cost of producing
rice in the Philippines stand at P12 per kilo, which is more than half of the
production cost of Thai and Vietnamese rice farmers. Thus, making the locally
produced rice more expensive than the imported supply.
The cost of producing rice in the
Philippines currently stands at P12.72 per kilo, while it is only P6.22 per
kilo in Vietnam and P8.86 per kilo in Thailand. This is why rice that are
produced here are more expensive than the rice imported abroad.
Based on estimates, RCEF is meant
to reduce the cost of producing palay in the Philippine by P1 to P3 per kilo
Local
rice? Experimental farm showcases crop in Chatham-Kent
Experimental
crop is about a hectare in size, located off Queen's Line on Drake Road
· CBC
News · Posted: Jun 28, 2019 10:20 PM ET |
Last Updated: June 29
Farm manager Wendy Zhang stands in front of a rice transplanter,
imported from China for use on the experimental rice crop. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
Rice is grown in Asia, Africa,
the southern United States — and if Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprise
has its way — one day across Chatham-Kent.
On Friday, the company held an
open house to celebrate the successful planting of its first-ever experimental
crop of medium-grain rice, grown on a hectare of land on a roughly 29-hectare
farm located off Queen's Line on Drake Road.
A look at the open house for an experimental rice farm operated
by the Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprise in Chatham-Kent. 2:03
Farm manager Wendy Zhang, who
recently graduated from an agricultural masters program at the University of
Guelph, said that the unusually wet spring that has concerned many
local farmers actually helped her crop in a way, since
rice is grown in wet conditions.
"I kept saying to my farmer
friends, "I'm happy [that it's raining today] — I save money on [gas for
my water pumps!]"
Xianfeng Yin is the president of Ontario FangZheng
Agriculture Enterprise. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
Zhang explained that the goal is,
once commercially viable, to export the rice internationally, particularly to
the Chinese market.
"Canada has got a very good
reputation in the international market with food quality and safety
control," she said. "We want to produce high quality, clean rice ...
in Canada we can ensure that."
Tap on the player to hear
reporter Jonathan Pinto talk about his visit to the farm on CBC
Radio's Afternoon Drive.
Rice is grown all over Asia, the American South...and if one
company has its way, Chatham-Kent. Today, the Ontario Fangzheng Agriculture
Enterprise showed off its experimental rice farm. It's about a hectare in size,
located off Queen's Line on Drake Road. Jonathan Pinto told us more. 7:28
When asked if the current tensions
between Canada and China may put a damper on Chinese
demand for Canadian products, Zhang wasn't concerned.
"As a Chinese citizen who
lives in Canada, Chinese people [have liked] Canada for a very long time,"
she said. "There's something happening right now [between our two
countries] but I truly believe it's a temporary thing."
John Zandstra is a professor at the University of
Guelph's Ridgetown Campus and is involved in the project.(Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
Zhang also noted that her company
is a private enterprise not controlled by the Chinese government.
University of Guelph professor
John Zandstra, who has been providing assistance to the project, said he was
initially skeptical of the idea of growing rice in Canada.
A small sign at the entrance to the Ontario Fangzheng
Rice Research and Development Station in Chatham-Kent. (Jonathan
Pinto/CBC)
"I kinda laughed at
first," he said, explaining that he thought of rice as something only
viable in the southern United States. "[But] when they got explaining
where they grew it [in China] and when I went there and saw it, [I thought]
'well yeah, this might work.'"
Gus Kotsakis, an industrial and
commodities sales manager at Dainty Foods, which operates arice mill in Windsor
— the only of it's kind
in Canada — said when he was first approached by
Zhang, his company also didn't think growing rice in Canada would work.
Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff attended the open
house. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
He was impressed with what he saw
on the farm Friday.
"I'm going to bring pictures
and everything that was discussed here," he said. "I think it's great
news for the area. We look forward to working with them long term as a partner
on this project, where we could help them with milling and processing the
rice."
Canadian senator Victor Oh (Conservative - Ont.)
attended the open house. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
This year's crop will be
harvested this fall, with the rice used to seed a larger crop for next year.
While there are still a few
regulatory hurdles before the crop can become commercially viable — the
government, for example, doesn't have any approved fertilizers and pesticides
for rice because the grain hasn't been grown here before — Zhang is confident
those issues can be quickly addressed.
"We want [commercial
harvesting to] happen next year," she said. "We have the passion to
do it."
The experimental rice field is roughly one hectare in
size, just south of Queen's Line. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
Can
Traditional Rice varieties Make a Comeback?
Dr.
Tasneem Mubarak
In view
of changing climatic conditions and demand for high value agriculture products
research priorities also metamorphose to cater the needs of the time. In
agriculture, vast genetic resources have allowed scientists to develop
wonderful region and location specific varieties with desired characters in
many crops. Local land races are of enormous importance because of high
adaptability and some special traits.
Plant
breeders as well as the farmers in many parts of India have been and shall be
harnessing the traits of these races for the benefit of farmers, traders and
consumers. Conservation and cultivation of indigenous crop varieties especially
those at the verge of extinction is thus in the nature of an imperative; that
is why Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act 2001 is considered
a timely intervention.
People all over the globe are now realizing the importance of such traditional and local land races and efforts have been intensified over the past few years to check genetic erosion and to conserve precious germplasms. When we talk about Kashmir valley more than 100 local land races of paddy suited to different agro-ecological situations have been reported and most of these are being conserved at the Mountain Research Center for Field Crops, MRCFC-SKUAST-Kashmir. Three among them are Mushkebudji, Kamad and Zag(red rice). Mushkebudgi and Kamad are very famous for their aroma and flavor in the state and beyond while Zag is known for its nutritional value especially in terms of iron and zinc content. Red rice is also reported to be rich source of important vitamins, fiber and anti-oxidants and believed to be quite beneficial for heart problems, bone health, obesity, diabetes, constipation and so on.
Owing to this there is now good demand for these varieties of rice. Since these land races are well suited to the certain ecologies (mid altitude belts of the valley ranging between 1850- 1950 meter amsl) their potential can be harnessed by implementing the set of technology components developed by SKUAST-Kashmir, especially with respect to the management of blast disease, which is considered to be one of the major reason for farmers to discontinue the cultivation of these varieties. Experts involved in the survey and purification programme from MRCFC-SKUAST, consider non-uniformity of the produce, lack of quality seed, poor yield potential owing to mixing of strains and area expansion under high yielding paddy varieties as other reasons in addition to blast, for the disinterest of farmers and pushing of these land races to few pockets in the valley.
Against this backdrop, an initiative was undertaken by SKUAST-Kashmir for the revival of these land races through MRCFC including genetic purification together with the development of package of practices especially Integrated Disease Management module to tackle the problem of blast disease plus popularization through participatory mode involving all stakeholders. Under the revival programme village Sangam and adjoining villages were identified in district Anantnag for demonstration on purified MushkBudji and Kamad rice and Gomal and adjoining areas of Tangdar in district Kupwara were identified for Zag.
In the process of popularizing these varieties
among farmers in these belts, synergy between the Agricultural University, the
department of agriculture and the farming community could be seen. As a result
of these efforts farmers not only earn good returns but this won the community
prestigious ‘genome community savior award’ .Taking into consideration the
impact in Anantnag, a crop testing programme was initiated in nontraditional
area of similar ecologies in other districts of valley including Kulgam. The
Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agriculture Science Center) Kulgam, SKUAST-Kashmir in
collaboration with MRCFC in year 2016-17 tested these two strains in the mid
belts of district. During investigations, it was observed that the productivity
of these varieties was almost at par with the existing varieties grown in the
mid belt, but returns were reasonably high owing to high market price for
milled rice.
KVK-Kulgam situated in the mid altitudes of district also successfully tested and demonstrated the technology related to the cultivation of Mushkebudji and Kamad during 2017 and 2018 at its instructional farm. The Kendra has received good demand especially for Mushkebudji and , on account of this, demonstrations are being carried out this year as well.
KVK-Kulgam situated in the mid altitudes of district also successfully tested and demonstrated the technology related to the cultivation of Mushkebudji and Kamad during 2017 and 2018 at its instructional farm. The Kendra has received good demand especially for Mushkebudji and , on account of this, demonstrations are being carried out this year as well.
A
project proposal for the horizontal spread of Mukebudg iin the mid belt is
under way to cater transfer of technology and to facilitate formation of a
viable farmers’ interest group/farmer producer company or a self-help group in
future. Besides Mushkebudji, Kendra is also testing the performance of Zag (Red
rice) this year. Observing the demonstration at KVK Kulgam, many farmers also
desired to grow it in lower plains as well. Since Mushkebudji is highly
susceptible to blast disease, farmers in the lower plains, despite great
interest cannot grow it as the microclimate in plains is congenial for the
outbreak of the disease. Efforts are however being made at Mountain Research
Center for Field Crops (MRCFC)-SKUAST-Kashmir to transfer blast resistant genes
into the existing strain and some success has already been achieved. MRCFC
shall be coordinating with KVKs of Valley in the near future for area expansion
under new version of Mushkebudji after multi-location testing for blast
resistance/tolerance and yield and quality parameters in the target area.
—The
author is a Senior Scientist & Head KVK-Kulgam,SKUAST-Kashmir. He
can be reached at: drtasneem.mubarak@gmail.com
Agriculture
remains in neglect
Economists and agriculturalists raise alarm over poor allocation
Source:
Finance ministry data compiled by CPD
The government’s expenditure on the
agriculture sector is shrinking consistently as percentage of total budget
although the sector needs more attention to develop new technologies to ensure
food security of the nation, said economists and agricultural scientists.
Allocation to agriculture --
including fisheries and livestock, land, water and environment -- declined to
5.42 percent of the total proposed budget for fiscal 2019-20, down from 5.7
percent in the outgoing fiscal year.
In fiscal 2017-18, the sector’s
share was 6.1 percent of the budget.
In terms of gross national product,
financing to the sector with the biggest share of employment has been falling
for the past five years at a time when the sector is registering slowing growth.
Agriculture has relation with
poverty reduction, said Akhter Ahmed, country representative of the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
“The pace of poverty reduction has
slowed because of falling agricultural growth. It is alarming as agricultural
growth is linked to poverty reduction,” he said.
Over the last one and a half
decades, the scope for expanding production has narrowed thanks to antiquated
technology.
Annual average growth of
agricultural GDP reduced to 2.45 percent between fiscal 2014-15 and 2018-19
from 3.62 percent in the previous five years, according to the Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics.
The annual rate of poverty
alleviation also declined during the period.
Under the circumstances, higher
investment is required in the farm sector, especially on research and
development of new crop varieties that give higher yields, said Akhter, also
the chief of party of USAID-funded Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy
Support Programme.
“Huge investment is also required
for extension. These are the two most critical aspects for agricultural
development.”
Some 110 rice varieties have been
developed by state-sponsored research institutes and yet farmers mainly grow
two varieties that were developed 24 years ago. One of the reasons might
be the poor extension system, he said.
From that point of view, the
declining share of agriculture in budgetary allocation is not a good sign.
Akhter said agriculture should not
be seen from its share in overall GDP.
“It is a broad based sector and 75
percent of rural population depend on farming. Allocation for agriculture has
be increased for greater impact on poverty alleviation.”
Farmers also have to be given price
support, he said, adding that paddy should be purchased directly from
producers. He went on to cite the West Bengal government as an exemplar on this
front.
The agriculture ministry has
recently asked the IFPRI to carry out a study to support farmers, he said,
adding that the IFPRI will begin study soon.
“We should view procurement from
the objective of giving price support and incentive to farmers and not from the
objective of building public stock,” he added.
There should have been some
measures in the proposed budget to ensure fair prices for farmers who suffered
losses for slumping prices of paddy in the last boro season, said M
Asaduzzaman, former research director of the Bangladesh Institute of
Development Studies (BIDS).
“No sensitivity was shown towards
farmers and farming in the budget speech although they are producing food for
the nation.”
The government could have allocated
funds to provide interest-free loans to growers during the harvesting season so
that they do not have to sell their produce to meet any emergency need for
fund, he added.
Rice accounts for more than 70 percent
of total cropped area of 1.54 crore hectares, and 77 percent of marginal and
small famers depend on rice for food security and their livelihoods, according
to Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey 2015, funded by the USAID.
The initiative to introduce crop
insurance is a good move as it will address the risk of crop losses for
farmers, said Quazi Shahabuddin, former director general of the BIDS.
The falling share of government
allocation in agriculture is not satisfactory.
“We are nearing the exhaustion of
our technological frontier, the high-yielding varieties. The HYV rice are grown
on 90 percent of Boro area, and nearly 70 percent of Aman acreage. We need
second green revolution to ensure food security of future generation.”
Since cultivable land is shrinking,
the only way to expand production is to increase productivity, he said, while
suggesting exploiting modern biotechnology for increased food
production.
The biggest risk for agriculture is
climate change and steps should be taken to address the risk, Asaduzzaman said.
Rice production is unlikely to grow
after 2021, but there is lack of concern for that, said a senior agricultural
scientist working at a public research institute.
As production is increasing every
year, it may be that all are thinking that there is nothing to worry about, he
said
“Massive investment is needed.
Farmers also have to be ensured profitable prices for their produce so that
they feel encouraged to grow and improve their living standards,” he said.
The Karnataka farmer who runs a
museum to preserve traditional seeds
A farmer in rural Karnataka tries
to combat agricultural distress through seed conservation.
Written by Arathi Menon |
Updated: June 30, 2019 5:15:31 am
Odisha’s ancient art of Pattachitra struggles
to find its feet after Cyclone Fani
Depth of field
‘My life as a filmmaker is
nothing less than a comedy’
karnataka farmers, indian
farming, paddy cultivation, paddy farming, indian monsoon, paddy varieties
india
Seeding an idea: Syed Ghani Khan
on his farm. (Photo: Abhishek Chinnappa)
As the country braces itself for
yet another bad monsoon, Syed Ghani Khan, a farmer in Karnataka’s Mandya
district, is hoping to fight it with traditional farming techniques like
multi-cropping and minor millet cultivation. These are the two techniques that
helped the farmer from the remote village of Kirugavalu navigate the water
crisis during the last three kharif seasons. Largely a paddy farmer in a
dryland area, Khan was able to feed his family of 15 and also make a profit of
Rs 2 lakh.
Khan, 42, isn’t just another
organic farmer, though. He’s a collector and conservationist of traditional
seeds, which are housed in a seed museum that he runs. So far, he has conserved
120 traditional mango varieties, over a thousand paddy varieties from all over
the world and hundreds of millet seed varieties.
“From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, our
biodiversity changes every 20 km. There is a traditional variety of paddy in
every state,” he says. He collects paddy seeds from farmers all over the
country and tries the varieties on a one-acre area of his farm that he has set
aside for research purposes. He does this to not only conserve the rice
varieties that are better suited to our climate and are more financially viable
to cultivate, but to disseminate the know-how on how to make traditional
farming profitable. “The IR varieties of rice developed in Manila are
distributed to our farmers. They don’t sustain here and farmers are troubled.
Why would we depend on Manila when we have thousands of traditional paddy
varieties in our own country?” he says.
karnataka farmers, indian
farming, paddy cultivation, paddy farming, indian monsoon, paddy varieties
india
Paddy varieties in Syed Ghani
Khan’s museum. (Photo: Abhishek Chinnappa)
Just outside his godown, at the
edge of his 16 acre farm, is the Sultan road, the only road that connected
Bengaluru and Srirangapatna during Tipu Sultan’s time. Anticipating an attack
from the British army anytime, Tipu had set up a small army camp at this
village. Kiri-kavalu — which translates to “a small army camp” — over time,
became Kirugavalu. As the soldiers settled down in the area, they were given
parcels of land and mango seeds by Tipu, so that they could begin farming. Like
many others in the village, Khan is a descendant of one of these soldiers. The
mango trees grown here six generations ago are still preserved by him.
For nearly two centuries, it was
largely mango that was grown in the area. When Krishna Raja Sagara or the KRS
dam opened in 1932, farmers switched to monocropping of paddy. Khan joined his
father in the farm in the early ’90s at a time when hybrid paddy was being
cultivated via chemical farming. One day while he was spraying pesticides on
the farm, Khan felt dizzy. He began thinking about the effect of chemicals. “A
farmer is called the annadaata (provider of food) and here I was spraying
harmful chemicals on the food,” he says. Slowly, he switched to organic
farming.
“Biodiversity is important for a
healthy ecosystem. Earlier, there were no birds on the farm. Now the farm is
abuzz with them,” he says. What Khan finds challenging, however, is the lack of
farmhands. “It is difficult to find labour because villagers are migrating to
cities. We are forced to mechanise farming,” he adds.
For his contribution to the
farming sector, Khan has been awarded the Krishi Pandita award (2008-2009) as
well as the Biodiversity Award (2010-2011) from the Karnataka Government. He
has also received the Plant Genome Saviour Award (2012) from the central
government and Innovative Rice Farmer award (2011) from the Indian Institute of
Rice Research in Hyderabad. He, however, gets no government support for
conservation work. “I do this research with my own money to conserve these
varieties for the future generation. Somebody has to do it,” he says.
Arathi Menon is a Mysuru-based
writer and yoga practitioner. This headline appeared in the print edition with
the headline: Sowing Hope
Highlights of
China's science news
Source:
Xinhua| 2019-06-29 20:47:19|Editor: Liangyu
BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of
China's science news from the past week:
CHANG'E-4 PROBE
The lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed
work for the seventh lunar day on the far side of the moon after
"sleeping" during the extreme cold night.
The lander woke up at 9:45 a.m. Thursday, and the rover, Yutu-2
(Jade Rabbit-2), awoke at 1:26 p.m. Wednesday. Both are in normal working
condition, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the
China National Space Administration.
BIRTHPLACES OF NEW SUNS
Chinese astronomers plan to use the Five-hundred-meter Aperture
Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), by far the largest telescope ever built, to
search for birthplaces of new suns so they can better understand how stars and
life substances are formed.
Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatories of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences recently caught the birth of a dark molecular cloud
for the first time by using three telescopes of the United States and Europe.
Commentary:
Innovation to thrive in cooperative environment
Source:
Xinhua| 2019-06-28 22:31:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan
BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Innovation is playing a role more
essential than ever in mankind's future, and it should be a joint undertaking
of the world.
Addressing the ongoing Osaka G20 summit, Chinese President Xi
Jinping on Friday called on the Group of 20 major economies to promote
international innovation cooperation.
G20, which accounts for some 80 percent of global trade and
about 85 percent of global GDP, has been a major platform for working out
multilateral solutions for many of the world's pressing challenges.
While innovation tends to be an answer to many of the challenges
the world is facing, it cannot benefit human unless by means of sharing and
cooperation across different nations.
This spirit of sharing can be found in many projects under
cooperation between China and other countries.
The United Nations and China, for example, announced earlier
this month the selection of nine international scientific experiments to be
performed aboard the China Space Station. They involve 23 entities from 17
countries including France, Kenya, Mexico and Peru.
The move is hailed as heralding openness and inclusiveness in
international space cooperation.
Having received 50 contracts on 5G commercial services from 30
countries and regions, China's telecom equipment provider Huawei has shipped
more than 150,000 5G base stations worldwide. The company has promised to
continue sharing the 5G technology with the world.
The Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and Nigeria have
expressed strong interest in China's research and development of saline soil
rice, an innovative technology expected to help increase rice output and boost
food security. To meet demand, China is planning to build saline-alkali
tolerant rice research and promotion centers in the Middle East and Africa.
G20 major economies should move beyond border limitation and
man-made fences, pool global wisdom to tackle common problems, and broadly
apply innovation outcomes to benefit more countries and peoples.
Rice Research Institute staff
contribute Rs 2.33 lakh to CMRF
Bhubaneswar: The staff members of
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have contributed Rs 2.33 lakh to
Odisha Chief Ministers’ Relief fund for post-Fani reconstruction works.
Dr Ranjitha Puskur, Theme Leader,
Sustainable Impact Platform, IRRI presented the cheque to Chief Secretary
Aditya Prasad Padhi in State Secretariat today afternoon.
Padhi thanked all staff members
of IRRI for showing their oneness with the people of Odisha who suffered heavy
loss due to the devastating cyclonic storm.
Puskur said that IRRI would
continue helping the farmers of Odisha by popularizing the climate resilient
agricultural technologies which would enhance their income sustainably.
GMO crop not a
prudent plan
Published: 00:00, Jun 28,2019
THE agriculture minister on
January 31 said that golden rice was to be commercially released soon. But the
authorities should have considered the studies that have showed that vitamin A,
converted from beta carotene, is very low in genetically modified golden rice
and that the rice is also unable to hold the biochemical element for long after
harvest. Unless preserved in a refrigerated condition in vacuum packaging as
paddy, golden rice loses up to 84 per cent of its beta carotene in six months,
as research shows. The degradation of beta carotene level, as New Age reported
on Thursday, gets faster with processing and the degradation is the highest in
polished golden rice, a research published in the British journal Food
Chemistry says. The research notes that rice is always eaten after processing
and it is in this state that rice is stored in Asian countries. High
temperature and humidity also accelerate the rate of degradation of beta
carotene. Besides, cooking can destroy up to 25 per cent of beta carotene.
The national committee on
biosafety approved five genetically modified agricultural crops, including
rice, potato and cotton, for confined trial farming after the commercial
farming of Bt brinjal. But the authorities need to note that besides the recent
findings, a biotechnology professor in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Agricultural University also said that beta carotene was generally considered a
highly stable biochemical element but now it was clear that beta carotene gets
degraded rapidly. Such findings show that golden rice campaign to help to fight
vitamin A deficiency would not work. Green activists also campaign that Asian
countries are abundant in natural sources containing beta carotene. They are
particularly against golden rice and other genetically modified crops and say
that scientists are unaware of the harmful impact of such crops on public
health. Even the food and health regulators the developed countries have found
beta carotene concentration in golden rice to be very low, refusing to accept
it as a nutritious grain. All these genetically modified crops were originally
developed by the US-based seed giant Monsanto and BARI received the technology
from India’s Mahyco that is affiliated to Monsanto.
It is unacceptable that when GM
crops and foods based on them are barred from entering the US and EU markets
and the farming of these crops are banned in India and the Philippines, the
government is serving the interest of Monsanto and Mahyco at the expense of
Bangladesh’s poor population. Conscious sections of society need to mount
pressure on the government to rethink its harmful move to cultivate these
crops, including golden rice
China, Africa sign rice
industry initiative
By Yang Kunyi and Feng Qingyin in Changsha Source:Global Times
Published: 2019/6/28 22:42:37
Photo taken on April 4, 2018
shows the Wanbao rice farm project located in southern Mozambique's Xai-Xai
district. (Xinhua/Nie Zuguo)
African countries are willing to learn more Chinese agricultural technologies, especially in rice industry, to tackle food security issue in the continent.
Salifou Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso minister for Agriculture and Hydro-Agricultural Developments, told the Global Times on Friday that China has been a great support in providing technology and preferential trade policies in the agricultural sector.
"We are especially keen on learning from China's high-end technologies to help our agriculture," Ouedarogo said. "With the help of drones and other monitoring technologies, our farmers can get to know exactly when and how much water is needed for their crops."
In 2018, China also signed a tariff agreement with Burkina Faso, which exempts tariffs on 97 percent of the country's exports to China.
"We are very grateful for the preferential policy," Quedraogo said. "Our farmers and manufacturers are very motivated and excited to know their products will have a market of over 1.4 billion people."
Ouedraogo, along with some 10,000 guests and traders, including those from 53 African countries, is attending the three-day first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province.
During the expo, the Joint Initiative on Strengthening South-South and Triangular Cooperation in China-Africa Rice Value Chain, proposed by seven organizations, including the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center and the African Union, was released on Thursday.
According to the joint initiative, African countries and China, along with partners of the initiative, will review China's technologies in the rice industry, and carry out experimental plants to localize China's aided agricultural technology.
Nick Austin, Director of Agriculture Development of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is also a partner of the joint initiative, told the Global Times that China has been contributing in many ways to help Africa solve its food security problem.
"We are not just looking to move the technology to Africa and expect it to solve the problem," Austin said, "we are trying to find new varieties of crops and technology that can adjust to the local conditions and environment."
Food security has long been a challenge faced by the continent. A UN report said that by 2050, 70 percent more food is needed to feed the global population. The Food and Agriculture Organization said out of the 86 countries that are food deficient, 43 are in Africa.
China has been working to provide new varieties and technology in agriculture to African countries since 2006, and, so far, the efforts have started to bear fruit. In Madagascar, a hybrid crop variety developed by Chinese scientists has a yield of 10.8 tons per hectare, far exceeding the yield of local crops by an average of 3 tons, China Central Television reported on Friday.
Chinese experts and technicians have carried out more than 300 small-scale projects in nine African countries, promoted 450 agricultural technologies, and trained nearly 30,000 local farmers and technicians, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
06-27-2019
Why a global
surveillance system for crop diseases is urgently needed
Earth.com staff writer
Due to climate change and global trade, crop
diseases, which annually kill off 20% of the five global staple
crops that provide half the world’s communities with caloric intake, are able
to thrive and spread. In a new report published in the journal Science, scientists argue that a Global Surveillance System (GSS) must be put in place to strengthen and connect biosecurity measures to prevent the spread and reemergence of crop diseases and therefore improve global food security.
“As part of efforts to satisfy global demand for food — which could mean increasing agricultural production by as much as 70 percent by 2050 — we need a GSS to reduce food lost to pests,” said lead author Mónica Carvajal, a researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). “A lot of collaboration and discussion is needed to rapidly take action and avoid outbreaks that could negatively impact food security and trade.”
This GSS system would prioritize the six major food crops (maize, potato, cassava, rice, beans, and wheat) as well as other food and cash crops that are traded across borders.
Carvajal and her team used the Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) as an example of why a GSS must be instated. CMD was discovered in Cambodia in 2015, yet wasn’t properly reported until 2016. That gave CMD enough time to spread to Thailand and Vietnam by 2018, and is now estimated to be present in 10% of the land cultivated in this area, thus threatening millions of cassava smallholders, which generate $4 billion in export revenue.
“The question I asked was why does it take so long to respond to crop diseases in some cases?” said Carvajal. “What is the limitation to responding faster from the outset?”
If the proposed GSS was put into action, the network of “active surveillance” and “passive surveillance” personnel would be tightened. Labs at agricultural inspection stations, and customs and phytosanitary inspectors at borders and ports, make up the active surveillance personnel. And farmers, scientists and agronomists at universities and research centers, national agriculture organization extension workers, and agriculture industry specialists make up the passive surveillance group.
“For this infrastructure to be effective, connections between first detectors and downstream responders must be enhanced and actions coordinated,” the authors explain. “But diagnostic capacity, information sharing, and communications protocols are lacking or weakly established in some regions, especially in low-income countries.”
“Our reflection on many disease outbreaks is that whether in high-income countries or low-income countries, the passive surveillance infrastructure has the most in-field monitoring eyes but the least coordination from local to global,” they continue.
Furthermore, the GSS, which would consist of five separate formal global networks (a diagnostic laboratory network, a risk assessment network, a data management network, an operational management network, and a communications network), would use cutting-edge technology to better diagnose diseases, and it would also use social media to share information about specific findings.
“We encourage the annual G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting, the World Bank Group, and FAO, among others, to join efforts toward enhancing cooperation for a multi-year action plan for the proposed GSS to more effectively reduce the impact of crop diseases and increase global food security,” the study authors conclude.
Interested in learning more important facts about plants? Head on over to the PlantSnap blog!
—
By Olivia Harvey, Earth.com Staff Writer
Image Credit: Georgina Smith / International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Nigerian press
focuses on menace of rice smuggling, echoes of new minimum wage
Published on 28.06.2019 at 10h21 by APA News
The menace of smuggling of rice
into Nigeria and the impending face-off between labour and governors over
minimum wage are some of the leading stories in newspapers on Friday.The
Guardian reported that notwithstanding Federal Government’s efforts to promote
the production of rice in Nigeria, the continuous smuggling of the commodity to
the extent of dominating the local market, is making nonsense of an existing
ban with attendant capital flight.
The Nation said that the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba has told governors who are not
ready to implement the new national minimum wage to brace for confrontation
with the organised labour.
Wabba said this at the 11th
Triennial Delegates Conference of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) in
Abuja.
ThisDay said the federal
government has denied the allegation by the Northern Christian Elders Forum
(NCEF) that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was practicing
bigotry and alienating Christians.
It also denied that the Boko
Haram terrorism has link with the official policy of the government, stressing
that the violent acts by the terrorist group predated the Buhari
administration, like many others that were inherited on coming to office in
2015.
The Punch reported that former
President Olusegun Obasanjo said he was pained by the high number of
out-of-school children in the country.
The former president said this as
the Federal Government disclosed that it would start an open schooling
programme in July as part of efforts to solve the problem of the out-of-school
children.
The Sun quoted the General
Officer Commanding 8 Division, Major General Hakeem Otiki, as saying that the
recently launched Operation Habin Kunama III, successfully neutralised several
bandits in the zone
Agricultural
productivity programme for Southern Africa bears fruits
·
BySouthern Times --
·
Jun28,2019 --
By Sharon
Kavhu
Windhoek
- The Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) has seen
over 3 million people benefiting from agricultural technologies and innovations
in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, said APPSA coordinator, Dr Monica Murata.
The Southern Times has learnt that the programme
has seen at least 134 agricultural scientists being trained to improve the
technology and innovations of crops that are drought and diseases tolerant in
the three countries.
Out
of the 134 scientists that have been trained, 77 have already completed the
training at Masters and PHD level.
“To
date we have managed to reach out to almost 3 million beneficiaries, 301
technologies in the three countries. Through these technology, we have managed
to develop quite a lot of improved varieties which are drought and diseases
tolerant. We also have plants like maize. We are hoping
for the spillover of the developments to other SADC member states so that they
may also benefit,” said Murata.
She
said the project has seen Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia working on 74
collaborative projects in coming up with improved farming technologies.
APPSA
is an initiative meant to improve technology generation and dissemination
within and among participating countries in Southern Africa. The programme is
funded by the World Bank.
Murata
said the concept behind APPSA is to ensure that all the technologies that have
been in the shelves in the region are made useful for the benefit of the
people. She said the initiative created a platform for farmers to have a wider
range of choices depending on their environments.
“The
participating countries received some credit facilities from the World Bank for
the project which had two components, namely, technology generation and
dissemination and strengthening regional centres of leadership. In the
technology dissemination, we had a principal investigator in, for example
Zambia, and he will be working with two other co-investigators from Mozambique
and Malawi on the same problem then they share and analyse the outcomes.
“To
date we have about 74 collaborative projects between the three countries and
the projects have been addressing most of the key research issues which have
been prioritised not only in their national countries but also in other SADC
member states,” Murata said.
She
said the strengthening capacity component aims at improving the science in the
region and this has seen the training of the 134 scientists.
APPSA
has also seen the operating environment of these scientists within the
participating countries being improved. The scientific laboratories,
infrastructures such as road and irrigations have been improved to enable an
effective environment for the researches and development to take place.
Each
country had a specific commodity to research on and develop during the
programme.
“Malawi
was elected the regional centre for leadership for maize seed cropping systems,
Zambia opted for food legume cropping based systems whereas Mozambique is the
lead in rice research,” she said.
She
said Angola and Lesotho will be joining the programme focusing on cassava and
horticulture respectively.
APPSA is a brainchild of the
World Bank and is being coordinated and
facilitated by the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and
Development in Southern Africa (CCARDESA). It was established in 2013 where
each participating country was given a loan facility of approximately US$30
million which comes in batches. The six year programme is expected to end on January
31, 2020.
Punjab to
register, tag Basmati growers in the state
|
Jun 29, 2019, 6:19 PM; last updated: Jun 29, 2019, 6:19 PM
(IST)
|
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|
For representation only. File photo
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, June 29
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, June 29
The central and
Punjab governments have jointly launched a new project to register the state’s
six lakh Basmati growers, an official said.
The project,
undertaken to help bring down pesticides in the crop to help boost exports, will
give each Basmati grower in the state a unique ID. The project, undertaken
jointly by Punjab government, the Punjab Rice Millers’ Export Association and
the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority
(APEDA)—a federal authority that comes under the central government—will help
identify crops that have pesticides beyond permissible limits.
The development comes on the back of a rise in
India’s Basmati exports being rejected, often because of the residue of
pesticides found in the produce. Punjab accounts for some 50-60 per cent of the
country’s Basmati exports. The internationally accepted limit for
pesticides is 0.01 mg per kilogramme.
Also part of the
initiative is an active campaign to discourage farmers from using nine specific
types of pesticides—Acephate, Triazophos, Thiamethoxam 25 percent WG,
Cerbendazim 50 percent WP, Buprofezin, Arbofuron, Propiconazole and Thiophanate
Methyl.
“The gradual
elimination of these poisons will make it sure that Punjab’s Basmati passes all
the international import parameters. Since every farmer will be registered on
basmati.net portal and will be tagged, it will be easy to keep a tab on the
origin of pesticide laden fields particularly, upon the landing of the crop in
the market. At the same time, those farmers not using these unwanted pesticides
will also be identified,” Sukhdev Singh Sidhu, Joint Director (Plant
Protection) and the Nodal Officer for Basmati in Punjab said.
He said Basmati
growers could keep the pests at bay by using “green triangle” pesticides that
Ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University has recommended.
“These
pesticides were less harmful for human health and did not exceed residue limits
set by the EU and other foreign countries,” he said.
Basmati, which
was considered a flagship crop on Punjab’s diversification front, suits farmers
because it consumes less water than paddy—a fact that is especially important
given the depleting groundwater levels in the state.
Diversifying
Crops Will Mitigate Climate Change Impact in India, Say Researchers
·
·
Jun
28, 2019
Narasimha D. Rao, Indian American assistant professor at Yale's
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, is one of the co-authors of the
paper. (iiasa.ac.at photo)
NEW YORK — Diversifying the crops
in India can be an effective way to adapt its food-production systems to the
growing influence of extreme climate change, said U.S. researchers including an
Indian American.
The team studied the effects of
climate change on five major crops: finger millet, maize, pearl millet, sorghum
and rice, which make up the vast majority of grain production during the
June-to-September monsoon season in India – with rice contributing
three-quarters of the grain supply for the season.
Taken together, the five grains
are essential for meeting India's nutritional needs.
In a paper published in
Environmental Research Letters, Kyle Davis, an environmental data scientist
from the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, found that the yields
from grains such as millet, sorghum and maize are more resilient to extreme
weather.
Their yields vary significantly
less due to year-to-year changes in climate and generally experience smaller
declines during droughts.
But yields from rice, India's
main crop, experience larger declines during extreme weather conditions.
"By relying more and more on
a single crop – rice – India's food supply is potentially vulnerable to the
effects of varying climate," said Davis, the lead author on the paper.
"Expanding the area planted
with these four alternative grains can reduce variations in Indian grain
production caused by extreme climate, especially in the many places where their
yields are comparable to rice.
"Doing so will mean that the
food supply for the country's massive and growing population is less in
jeopardy during times of drought or extreme weather," he noted.
The co-authors on the paper are
Ashwini Chhatre, associate professor at the Indian School of Business in
Hyderabad; Narasimha D. Rao, assistant professor at Yale's School of Forestry
and Environmental Studies; Deepti Singh, assistant professor at Washington
State University in Vancouver; and Ruth DeFries, professor of Ecology and
Sustainable Development at Columbia University.
Temperatures and rainfall amounts
in India vary from year-to-year and influence the amount of crops that farmers
can produce.
With episodes of extreme climate
such as droughts and storms becoming more frequent, it's essential to find ways
to protect India's crop production from these shocks, according to Davis.
To reach this conclusion, the
authors combined historical data on crop yields, temperature and rainfall.
Data on the yields of each crop
came from state agricultural ministries across India and covered 46 years
(1966-2011) and 593 of India's 707 districts.
"This study adds to the
evidence that increasing the production of alternative grains in India can
offer benefits for improving nutrition, for saving water, and for reducing
energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture," said Davis.
Crop-based exports: adapt or die?
BR ResearchJune 28,
2019
Pakistan’s status as a low-value commodity exporter is at best a
misnomer. Over the past decade, consolidated share of crop-based exports has
remained fairly stable at 17 of total commodity exports. Yet, that stability
has come about due to a concomitant contraction in value-added exports, and not
due to a growth in agri-exports. In fact, since FY13 when crop-based exports
peaked at $4.4 billion, the sector has witnessed a secular decline with a CAGR
of negative 0.8 percent over past eight years – touching a new bottom of $3.9
billion in FY19 on annualized basis.
While it is correct that prices of major grains and cereals have
ebbed over the past decade, the purported “backbone” of the economy failed to
usher in a volume growth in quantities exported. Just to showcase volume of
basmati rice export, pride of Pakistan’s cereals, has declined to almost half
since FY11.
The fate of raw cotton has during this period has been just as
abysmal. Once a net exporter, the country became a net importer during the
2000s with the textile boom of Musharraf-era – an acceptable trade-off
considering the re-exports were hoped to offset the exchange loss.
Ever since, not only have textile exports remained stuck at
average $12 billion throughout past decade, raw cotton exports have climbed
down from $0.4 billion in FY11 to almost barely twelve thousand dollars. Given
how cotton production has been performing, readers should not be surprised if
the country records nil cotton exports in the coming fiscal year.
Which brings us to the why part. The fact is, just as industrial
and services sectors of the economy, Pakistan’s crop-based out equally
consumption centric. Of the four major crops – wheat, cotton, cane and paddy,
only rice has a significant export share out of total domestic production.
Whereas, the state of wheat and sugarcane is not even worth a comment, with
erratic years of exports largely function of government subsidy in years of
extreme supply glut.
Moreover, if the decline in demand for Pakistani grains a
function of international commodity prices that further cements the argument
that local crop’s lack of competitiveness is becoming increasingly
unsustainable. Afterall, total global demand continues to expand, only to be
fulfilled by economies such as China and India with higher yield and improved
returns per dollar invested.
A sector that employs nearly forty percent of labour force and
directly & indirectly sustains two-thirds of households in the country can
survive on government protection only for so long. If Pakistan’s economy is to
break through the cycle of subpar growth, Pakistan’s crop sector needs to usher
in a revolution, and fast.
Why this new variety of India’s
iconic basmati rice is certain to boost exports
Published: June 29, 2019 12:47:12 AM
A new basmati
variety, called Pusa 1718—which is an improved version of the iconic Pusa
1121—is set to sustain India’s aromatic and long-grained rice exports through
higher yield and the ability to fight bacterial blight disease
Illustration:
Rohnit Phore
By Sandip Das
Last few weeks have been quite busy for Preetam Singh, who lives
in the Uraland Khurd village, part of Panipat district, Haryana, as farmers
like him from nearby villages make a beeline for buying paddy seed of a new
basmati rice variety, called Pusa basmati 1718 (PB1718) developed by the Indian
Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Singh owns 32 acres of agricultural
land—he has also taken 100 acres of land on lease for farming—and he is mostly
engaged in producing seeds for basmati rice variety.
This new basmati variety, which draws its parentage from the
widely-grown Pusa 1121 (PB1121), has been endowed with two extra genes to fight
the bacterial leaf blight disease, thus preventing lodging, besides increasing
the yield. “Farmers who had sown this new basmati variety (PB1718) in the
kharif season (2018) say that it did not flatten during rain and hailstorm
owing to its comparatively shorter length,” farmer Singh said.
Notified in 2017 by the agriculture ministry, PB1718 is gradually
being accepted by farmers across Haryana and Punjab—the key aromatic and
long-grain rice-producing region of the country. “The new paddy variety is
characterised by its ability to fight bacterial blight, it prevents lodging and
also increases the yield,” AK Singh, head, Department of Genetics, IARI, said.
Farmers who have grown this new variety in the previous kharif season (2018)
claim that the yield has increased to around 25 quintals per acre, as against
around 18 quintals achieved for the widely-grown PB1121 (also developed by
IARI).
Singh added that while traditional varieties of basmati had a
yield of around nine quintals per acre, the short-duration variety Pusa 1509
(PB1509, developed by IARI) gives a yield of around 20 quintals per acre.
According to official estimates, PB1121 was grown in around 10 lakh hectares of
land, of the total basmati acreage of around 15 lakh hectares in the key growing
states last year. The short-duration variety PB1509 was grown in around 3 lakh
hectares and the new PB1718 in around 1 lakh hectares. The traditional variety
of basmati was grown in less than 1 lakh hectares during last year’s kharif
season.
Ritesh Sharma, principal scientist, Basmati Export Development
Foundation (BEDF)—an affiliate body of the Agricultural and Processed Food
Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)—said there were no effective
pesticides available to deal with the bacterial leaf blight disease in PB1121
variety, which has a major share in India’s exports of aromatic and
long-grained rice. “We have been dependent on one variety of basmati rice
(PB1121) for many years for sustaining our exports. With PB1718, we have an
alternate variety in case of exigency,” Sharma said.
Another unique characteristic of the new basmati variety is that
there is less grain-loss or lodging while harvesting at maturity, as compared
to PB1121, which results in higher yield for farmers. “A new variety also takes
5-6 years to get the desired results; PB1718 has been introduced at the right
time, and in the next couple of years is going to be widely cultivated by
farmers,” Sharma added.
More than a decade after the introduction of PB1121, which gave a
boost to India’s basmati rice exports, PB1718 is expected to help the country
dominate the global trade in aromatic and long-grain rice market in the coming
years. Commerce ministry officials said that the new variety could not have
come at a better time, because due to the bacterial leaf blight disease in
PB1121, the yield has been adversely impacted and farmers are increasingly
using pesticides to curb pests.
PB1121, a landmark rice variety having basmati-quality traits
drawn from traditional varieties, was formally released for commercial
cultivation in 2003. Singh of IARI said the new variety possesses extra-long
and slender milled grains, aroma, and high-cooked kernel and taste. Owing to
its exceptional quality characteristics, it has set new standards in the basmati
global rice market. According to commerce ministry officials, the cumulative
foreign exchange earnings from PB1121 since 2008 have been around $21 billion.
This has given a boost to incomes of basmati growers. India has around 85%
share in the global basmati rice trade, while Pakistan has a share of 15%.
India had achieved record basmati rice shipment, both in terms of
value as well as volume, in the last financial year. According to APEDA data,
India exported basmati rice worth `32,806 crore in 2018-19, which is 22% higher
than the `26,870 crore achieved during 2017-18. Volume-wise also, India shipped
4.88 million tonnes of aromatic long-grained rice, which is a record in itself.
Today, India exports basmati mostly to countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia,
the UAE, the UK, besides several other countries. “PB1718 would definitely help
sustain India’s dominant position in the global basmati rice trade,” a commerce
ministry official added.
Meanwhile, exporters of India’s aromatic and long-grained basmati
rice and officials from the commerce ministry have been deliberating on the
complexities arising from the stringent import norms imposed by the European
Union (EU), which sharply slashed the level of a commonly-used fungicide,
Tricyclazole, in the rice that the EU imports. Tricyclazole is a fungicide used
in India to protect the paddy crop from a disease called ‘blast’, and the EU
had cut the maximum residue limit for Tricyclazole from 1 PPM to 0.01 PPM from
December 31, 2017, onwards. This has put basmati rice exporters in a tough
position.
“Two to three crop cycles are required to effect the desired
change. Moreover, there is no scientific evidence that the concerned chemical
is harmful to human health,” Vijay Setia, president, All India Rice Exporters’
Association (AIREA), said. The EU and the US are high-value markets for basmati
rice exporters, even though a major chunk of aromatic and long-grained rice is
shipped to Gulf countries.
Official data says that there are 16 lakh farmers, mostly in
Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and a few pockets of Uttarakhand,
Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, engaged in basmati rice cultivation.
During the previous kharif season (2018), to curb the use of fungicides, AIREA,
in association with APEDA, conducted campaigns among basmati rice growers in
many districts of Punjab.
BRRI to
develop 5 more high yielding rice varieties
Our Correspondent . Gazipur | Published:
00:47, Jul 01,2019
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has developed five new
varieties of high yielding rice.
The institute’s Strengthening Physical Infrastructure and
Research Activities project director Md Humaun Kabir informed it at a workshop
on Sunday.
He also said 70 per cent works of the SPIRA project had been
done.
The project is aimed at reaching BRRI developed rice varieties
to the farm level with a view to enhance cropping intensity, increasing
laboratory and field level research facilities, ensuring in-country higher
education (PhD) of 10 scientists, providing training to 1,125 extension
officials along with 4,320 model farmers, providing training to 50 officials on
project implementation and management, extending foreign training and tour
facilities of the officials, building central research lab, procuring
transports and developing existing office and laboratory buildings.
Agriculture secretary Md Nasiruzzaman attended the workshop as
chief guest with BRRI director general Shahjahan Kabir in the chair.
Agriculture ministry planning wing joint chief Md Rejaul Karim
was the special guest. BRRI director (administration and common service) Md
Ansar Ali delivered the welcome address and BRRI director (research) Tamal Lata
Aditya gave the vote of thanks.
Highlights of
China's science news
Source:
Xinhua| 2019-06-29 20:47:19|Editor: Liangyu
BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of
China's science news from the past week:
CHANG'E-4 PROBE
The lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed
work for the seventh lunar day on the far side of the moon after
"sleeping" during the extreme cold night.
The lander woke up at 9:45 a.m. Thursday, and the rover, Yutu-2
(Jade Rabbit-2), awoke at 1:26 p.m. Wednesday. Both are in normal working
condition, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the
China National Space Administration.
BIRTHPLACES OF NEW SUNS
Chinese astronomers plan to use the Five-hundred-meter Aperture
Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), by far the largest telescope ever built, to
search for birthplaces of new suns so they can better understand how stars and
life substances are formed.
Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatories of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences recently caught the birth of a dark molecular cloud
for the first time by using three telescopes of the United States and Europe.
HEAVY METAL IN RICE
Chinese researchers have discovered a gene which plays an
important role in cadmium accumulation in rice, providing a reference for the
cultivation of low-cadmium rice varieties.
By using the genome-wide association study technology and gene
annotation system, researchers from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of
Sciences and China Agricultural University successfully identified a rice grain
cadmium accumulation related gene called OsCd1.
DIESEL FUEL REMOVAL
Chinese scientists have developed a hydrophobic nanosponge that
can efficiently remove diesel fuel from contaminated water and soil.
Researchers fabricated an environmentally-friendly adsorbent for
diesel fuel. The modified hydrophobic nanosponge could effectively control
diesel fuel migration and then remove it from water and soil.
ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY ACCUMULATION
Dark-colored biological dust called cryoconite found on the
surface of glaciers during the intensive melting season creates a large
accumulation of atmospheric mercury deposition on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The glacier surface biological dust is a granular aggregate,
comprised of both mineral and biological materials, and is known to accumulate
atmospheric mercury contaminants.
PRIMATES THREATENED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
Primate populations may be increasingly threatened by extreme
climatic events including cyclones and droughts, according to an international
study.
Results showed that 16 percent of the primates are vulnerable to
cyclones, particularly those in Madagascar. About 22 percent of the primates
are vulnerable to droughts, and they are mainly distributed in the Malaysia
Peninsula, North Borneo, Sumatra and tropical moist forests of West Africa.
Enditem
The wheat puzzle
Charting India's role in the historic cracking of the wheat
genome
It has been two years since
32-year-old Nishi Khattar stopped including wheat-based chapatis in her meals.
She instead has either bajra, jowar or millet chapatis and gets her quota of
carbs with rice and oats. Khattar makes sure to stay away from anything that
has even a small proportion of wheat in it. The main reason for this is that
every time she has it, she feels bloated and irritable. “It happened a few
times when I would suddenly have this feeling of inflammation in the gut and I
realised that this may be because I was eating wheat chapatis. When I skipped
the rotis in my meals for two days, I was feeling just fine. So, I figured that
this may have to do with my wheat intolerance,” says Khattar. What she refers
to as wheat intolerance is, in scientific parlance, known as gluten
intolerance—a range of physical disorders caused by gluten protein in wheat.
One of these, celiac disease, affects one in 100 people in north India.
The UK was about to snatch [the project] from us. It was after a
lot of convincing that they agreed and asked us to make sure we finish it in
time, no matter what. - Dr N.K. Singh, ICAR-National Research Institute Plant
Biotechnology, New Delhi
Soni, too, has given up on the
intake of wheat, but for a different reason. She says it will help her lose
weight easily because it is the gluten that has kept her from shedding the
excess weight, according to her dietician. “I totally stopped wheat about four
months ago and I have noticed the difference in my body after that. I have lost
one and a half kilos and I feel much lighter and more energetic,” says Soni. Dr
Karishma Chawla, nutritionist, connects the gluten in the wheat to describe
what both Khattar and Soni are trying to convey. “There is no doubt that whole
wheat is good for one’s overall health. That is precisely what we have all
grown up eating. However, the gluten in it is also known to lead to problems of
bloating and weight gain. It must be consumed in a very limited way and a
complete shift to other protein-rich staples works better for good, lean and
energetic health.”
Very soon, all those who have so
far avoided wheat—the second largest produced staple in India—are going to be
able to have it without worrying. That is because, last August, 200 researchers
from across the world, including three Indian scientists, and their teams
finally managed to crack the wheat code, or sequence the wheat genome. This means
that they will now be able to edit the faulty parts in the crop's DNA that
cause allergies and intolerance and replace it with good DNA, which provides
increased nutritional efficiency and productivity.
But doing this was no mean task.
The wheat genome is the most complex plant genome—over 40 times more mysterious
than the rice genome and has 1,07,891 genes, which is five times than that of a
human being's. This is one of the reasons why scientists could sequence the
genome of rice, of mice and even that of a human but the wheat somehow always
bewildered them. The Human Genome Project (HGP), which ended in 2003, was the
world's most significant project and India missed out on participating in it.
So, when there came the opportunity to work with scientists around the world on
the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), which was formed
in 2005, India's Dr Kuldeep Singh took it upon himself to ensure that India
would be a part of it.
As the molecular geneticist in
the School of Agricultural Biotechnology at Punjab Agricultural University,
Ludhiana, he and his institute approached the department of biotechnology with
a proposal for India's participation and soon the wheels were set in motion.
“Nobody ever thought that wheat genome mapping was possible. Especially because
85 per cent of wheat's genome is replicated, meaning nearly everything looks
identical or has identical characteristics. What we had to do was to sequence
the genome, which meant break it down into thousands of pieces, identify each
piece and put it back together again. So it was quite a task,” says the
57-year-old scientist. In wheat there are three genomes—A, B and D—with seven
chromosomes in each. So the consortium had to sequence all 21 chromosomes. But
since each is so huge, every country took to sequencing just one and India took
the 2A.
Helmed by three
scientists—Kuldeep Singh, N.K. Singh from ICAR-National Research Institute
Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, and Jitendra P. Khurana from the University of
Delhi (South Campus)—a team of 18 scientists got down to work together from
their respective campuses. The chromosome 2A that India took was the second
largest, while France took to mapping chromosome 3B which is said to be the
most complicated and longer than the entire soybean genome.
Dr N.K.
Singh
The project was carried out on a
budget of Rs35 crore. The teams worked for long hours over eight years to
conclude their research. There were moments of frustration, but one which Dr
N.K. Singh will never forget was when the international community started
questioning if India had the ability to complete the project in the given
timeline. They wanted to do everything by themselves, according to him. The
problem he says was that the IWGSC was formed in 2005 and most countries had
already begun work on their respective chosen genomes. Whereas India joined it
in 2010. “The UK was about to snatch it from us. It was after a lot of
convincing that they agreed and asked us to make sure we finish it in time, no
matter what,” he says.
The initial DNA sample that was
to come from the Czech Republic to India also got delayed by six months. Then
there were infrastructural issues, too, according to Ajay Kumar Mahato, who
worked as a research associate on the project along with Dr N.K. Singh. “The
wheat genome is based on the next generation sequencing technology so the data
that is generated for the sequencing machine is approximately 230GB. So, the
problems we faced was the availability of computational resource to assemble
all that data. We established new infrastructure and purchased new servers with
high computational facilities. It took us about one and a half years and a lot
of night shifts in the lab for data generation alone. And then another almost
2.5 years for actually capturing the analysis of the data of the assembled
genome of wheat chromosome 2A short arm,” says Mahato.
In 2014, IWGSC with 2,400 members
across 68 countries published the first draft of the genome sequencing and by
2018, as per an article published in Science, the DNA sequence had been ordered
and it represented the highest quality genome sequence generated to date for
the bread wheat, covering 94 per cent of the entire wheat genome.
Naveen Sharma, who works as a
research associate in the department of plant molecular biology under Professor
Khurana, managed the bac-n sequencing in the wheat genome project, which means
fragmenting the DNA, cloning the genomic fragments and then doing the
n-sequencing which finally helps in the assembly of the sequence. “The major problem
we faced was with repeat sequencing,” said Sharma. "There was so much
pressure to complete the work in the given time frame that it got very
exhausting at one point. We used to take one week for sequencing of 3,200
clones which would sap us of all our energy. There was always the risk of
failure because everything was so expensive. A 20ml chemical used in sequencing
cost us approximately Rs5 lakh to Rs6 lakh. So it had to be perfect the very
first time. There was no room for error, wastage and repeat work." Sharma
and his researcher friends partied once the research got published in the
Science journal.
The decoding of the wheat genome
will help identify genes controlling complex agronomic traits such as yield,
grain quality and resistance to diseases and pests, as well as tolerance to
drought, heat, water logging and salinity. According to Minister of Science and
Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan, it will also go a long way in developing
climate-resilient wheat and help tide over possible impact of climate change on
farm output.
“The genome map will also help in
isolating proteins that cause gluten intolerance so that you will no longer
have to give up on consuming it,” says Dr Kuldeep Singh. “We also believe that
it will help in increasing the bio-availability of iron in bread wheat. As of
now only 5 per cent of the iron content in wheat can be absorbed but once we
identify the genes and double the bio-availability, we can increase the
nutritional quantity of iron in wheat.”
According to a study in the
journal PLOS One, it was estimated that the current agricultural output would
be insufficient for humans by 2050 and crop yields would need to increase by
1.6 per cent annually to meet the demand. All this, in the face of depleting
land and water resources and vagaries of climate change. By cracking the wheat
genome, scientists have ensured that wheat remains resilient to most natural
calamities and its productivity increases manifold to address the concerns of
quality and nutrition. According to well-known wheat researcher Bikram Gill,
who is a professor in the department of plant pathology at Kansas State
University, scientists in India must be given the freedom to do what they want
to. He says that since wheat is an integral part of India's food consumption, it
was natural for the country to be part of the history that has been created. He
hopes we can now enjoy wheat without worry or panic.
Punjab to register, tag Basmati
growers in the state
Varinder Singh Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, June 29 The
central and Punjab governments have jointly launched a new project to register
the state’s six lakh Basmati growers, an official said. The project,
undertaken to help bring down pesticides in the crop to help boost exports,
will give each Basmati grower in the state a unique ID. The project, undertaken
jointly by Punjab government, the Punjab Rice Millers’ Export Association and
the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority
(APEDA)—a federal authority that comes under the central government—will help identify
crops that have pesticides beyond permissible limits. The development comes on
the back of a rise in India’s Basmati exports being rejected, often because of
the residue of pesticides found in the produce. Punjab accounts for some 50-60
per cent of the country’s Basmati exports. The internationally accepted
limit for pesticides is 0.01 mg per kilogramme. Also part of the initiative is
an active campaign to discourage farmers from using nine specific types of
pesticides—Acephate, Triazophos, Thiamethoxam 25 percent WG, Cerbendazim 50
percent WP, Buprofezin, Arbofuron, Propiconazole and Thiophanate Methyl.
“The
gradual elimination of these poisons will make it sure that Punjab’s Basmati
passes all the international import parameters. Since every farmer will be
registered on basmati.net portal and will be tagged, it will be easy to keep a
tab on the origin of pesticide laden fields particularly, upon the landing of
the crop in the market. At the same time, those farmers not using these
unwanted pesticides will also be identified,” Sukhdev Singh Sidhu, Joint
Director (Plant Protection) and the Nodal Officer for Basmati in Punjab said.
He said Basmati growers could keep the pests at bay by using “green triangle”
pesticides that Ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University has recommended.
“These pesticides were less harmful for human health and did not exceed residue
limits set by the EU and other foreign countries,” he said. Basmati, which was
considered a flagship crop on Punjab’s diversification front, suits farmers
because it consumes less water than paddy—a fact that is especially important
given the depleting groundwater levels in the state.
AMRU inks $15M
deal with International Finance Corp
Thou Vireak | Publication date 28 June 2019 |
07:52 ICT
Share
Cambodia exported a total of 626,225 tonnes of rice last year,
down 1.4 per cent from 2017’s 635,679 tonnes. POST PIX
Amru Rice (Cambodia) Co Ltd, a
local rice exporter and leading organic paddy producer, signed a more than $15
million loan agreement with the International Finance Corporation on Wednesday.
The firm plans to expand its
organic milled rice exports to 50,000 tonnes a year, its CEO Song Saran said.
Saran told The Post on Thursday
that the loan would be used to expand milled rice warehouses, drying silos, as
well as to strengthen its packing standards, processing, quality and safety,
and to increase capital to purchase paddy.
“In this capital package, we will
invest in infrastructure, paddy purchases and reinforce quality. We want our
country to become the largest exporter of organic milled rice in Southeast
Asia, where Thailand is currently the largest,” he said.
Saran said the plan is scheduled
to begin in July.
“[We] will also supply [rice] to
food processing factories. We have the capacity to supply,” he said.
Saran said the company plans to
export 20,000 tonnes of organic milled rice to the EU, US, China and Hong Kong
this year, and 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes next year.
“We have been working on organic
paddy for three to four years, and we have reached a commercial level, so it
requires us to invest and expand business in compliance with the standards. We
have nothing to worry about,” he said.
Saran said in the first six
months of this year, the company exported more than 4,000 tonnes of organic
milled rice, earning nearly $4 million. It expects to export 10,000 tonnes by
the end of the year.
Data from the Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries shows that in the first five months of this
year, Cambodia’s rice exports reached over 250,000 tonnes – up 4.14 per cent
year-on-year.
Cambodia Rice Federation
vice-president Hun Lak said total exports for this year will fall about five
per cent due to tariffs imposed by the EU, despite a slight increase in the
first five months.
“We know that the tariffs imposed
on Cambodian rice exports to the EU will cause them to decline,” he said.
After the EU imposed tariffs on
the Kingdom’s rice imports, China agreed in January to increase its import
quota for Cambodian rice to 400,000 tonnes this year from the previous 300,000
tonnes.
Lak asserted that the Chinese
market may offset the downside. “China’s additional [rice] quotas will
compensate [for our losses],” he stressed.
Cambodia exported a total of
626,225 tonnes of rice last year, down 1.4 per cent from 2017’s 635,679 tonnes,
data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said
Badin growers advised to
cultivate rice
BADIN
: The district administration of Badin, SIDA and irrigation departments on
Sunday advised the growers of tail-ends to commence the rice cultivation with
initially seedling of paddy crops in the district. Deputy Commissioner Dr
Hafeez Ahmed Siyal along with SIDA officials while holding an important press
conference advised the growers to start rice cultivation instantly as within
seven days water rotation would end in the district.
Dr
Siyal said that due to sincere efforts of Sindh govt the water shortage in the
Kotri Barrage was reduced to 23 percent which earlier was 50pc.
He
said that Phuleli Canal’s water flow was maintained at 12,000 cusec level
recently and none perennial canals including Mirwah and Manak canal maintained
an additional water flow which ultimately provided benefit to local growers. He
also informed that water rotation in Golarchi taluka canals would be ending
till end of the upcoming week. Water rotation in the Akram Wah system would
continue till overall improvement of water system in the province, he added.
The district administration would now control the water shortage after
couple of month’s uninterrupted efforts and warned that stern action would be
taken against those who theft the water of local growers.
On
the occasion, Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur and others SIDA officials also addressed
the press conference and responded the queries of the journalists.
Thai Organic Rice Helps Promote
People’s Wellbeing
BANGKOK, July
1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Department of Foreign Trade, Ministry of
Commerce, Thailand, has introduced a project called "Think RICE,
Think THAILAND" to encourage international community to pay attention
to consumer health and to raise awareness on the national crop by providing a
wider range of knowledge, ranging from national agricultural history, standards
and Thai rice quality.
Thai
Organic Rice Helps Promote People's Wellbeing
More
The
Ministry of Commerce explained that Thailand, as a leader in rice
production and exports, has rapidly expanded its organic rice farming due to
the increasing preference for organic food amongst consumers around the world.
The country aims to become ASEAN's organic rice production hub with efficient
production and product traceability, from grain selection to packaging.
The Ministry of Agriculture and
Cooperatives, in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce, encourage farmers
and traders to produce quality organic rice that meets the requirements of
international standards including: International Federation of Organic
Agriculture Movements, EU Organic, USDA National Organic Program, Canada
Organic Regime, Japanese Agricultural Organic Standard, China Organic Food
Certification Center and Ecocert.
To
produce Thai organic rice, the country starts with quality grains selection
from organic rice suppliers, then, carefully preparing soil to
minimize weeds without using chemicals. Next, it is about selecting
fertile farmlands with controlled irrigation to prevent contamination
from outside water sources and enrich the soil with organic plant
fertilizers. Eliminating weeds is done by using non-chemical
methods along with microbial pesticides. To prevent and eliminate
diseases, a natural balance and proper irrigation to strengthen the rice's
immunity to diseases provided. The country relies on natural predators to prevent
and eliminate pests. Moreover. Thai organic rice farmers also focus on
the chemical contamination prevention, before and after harvest to
maintain the organic chain. Paddy rice must be stored in its
suitable environment. As for pack milled rice, using either the
vacuum packing method or CO2 technique.
Think
Rice, Think Thailand.
Why this new variety of India’s iconic basmati rice is certain
to boost exports
A new basmati variety, called Pusa 1718—which is an improved
version of the iconic Pusa 1121—is set to sustain India’s aromatic and
long-grained rice exports through higher yield and the ability to fight
bacterial blight disease
Illustration: Rohnit Phore
By Sandip Das Last
few weeks have been quite busy for Preetam Singh, who lives in the Uraland
Khurd village, part of Panipat district, Haryana, as farmers like him from
nearby villages make a beeline for buying paddy seed of a new basmati rice
variety, called Pusa basmati 1718 (PB1718) developed by the Indian Agricultural
Research Institute (IARI). Singh owns 32 acres of agricultural land—he has also
taken 100 acres of land on lease for farming—and he is mostly engaged in
producing seeds for basmati rice variety.
This new basmati variety, which draws its parentage from the
widely-grown Pusa 1121 (PB1121), has been endowed with two extra genes to fight
the bacterial leaf blight disease, thus preventing lodging, besides increasing
the yield. “Farmers who had sown this new basmati variety (PB1718) in the
kharif season (2018) say that it did not flatten during rain and hailstorm
owing to its comparatively shorter length,” farmer Singh said. Notified in 2017
by the agriculture ministry, PB1718 is gradually being accepted by farmers
across Haryana and Punjab—the key aromatic and long-grain rice-producing region
of the country. “The new paddy variety is characterised by its ability to fight
bacterial blight, it prevents lodging and also increases the yield,” AK Singh,
head, Department of Genetics, IARI, said. Farmers who have grown this new
variety in the previous kharif season (2018) claim that the yield has increased
to around 25 quintals per acre, as against around 18 quintals achieved for the
widely-grown PB1121 (also developed by IARI). Singh added that while
traditional varieties of basmati had a yield of around nine quintals per acre,
the short-duration variety Pusa 1509 (PB1509, developed by IARI) gives a yield
of around 20 quintals per acre. According to official estimates, PB1121 was
grown in around 10 lakh hectares of land, of the total basmati acreage of
around 15 lakh hectares in the key growing states last year. The short-duration
variety PB1509 was grown in around 3 lakh hectares and the new PB1718 in around
1 lakh hectares. The traditional variety of basmati was grown in less than 1
lakh hectares during last year’s kharif season. Ritesh Sharma, principal
scientist, Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF)—an affiliate body of
the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority
(APEDA)—said there were no effective pesticides available to deal with the
bacterial leaf blight disease in PB1121 variety, which has a major share in
India’s exports of aromatic and long-grained rice. “We have been dependent on
one variety of basmati rice (PB1121) for many years for sustaining our exports.
With PB1718, we have an alternate variety in case of exigency,” Sharma said.
Another unique characteristic of the new basmati variety is that there is less
grain-loss or lodging while harvesting at maturity, as compared to PB1121,
which results in higher yield for farmers. “A new variety also takes 5-6 years
to get the desired results; PB1718 has been introduced at the right time, and
in the next couple of years is going to be widely cultivated by farmers,”
Sharma added. More than a decade after the introduction of PB1121, which gave a
boost to India’s basmati rice exports, PB1718 is expected to help the country
dominate the global trade in aromatic and long-grain rice market in the coming
years. Commerce ministry officials said that the new variety could not have
come at a better time, because due to the bacterial leaf blight disease in
PB1121, the yield has been adversely impacted and farmers are increasingly
using pesticides to curb pests. PB1121, a landmark rice variety having
basmati-quality traits drawn from traditional varieties, was formally released
for commercial cultivation in 2003. Singh of IARI said the new variety
possesses extra-long and slender milled grains, aroma, and high-cooked kernel
and taste. Owing to its exceptional quality characteristics, it has set new
standards in the basmati global rice market. According to commerce ministry
officials, the cumulative foreign exchange earnings from PB1121 since 2008 have
been around $21 billion. This has given a boost to incomes of basmati growers.
India has around 85% share in the global basmati rice trade, while Pakistan has
a share of 15%. India had achieved record basmati rice shipment, both in terms
of value as well as volume, in the last financial year. According to APEDA
data, India exported basmati rice worth `32,806 crore in 2018-19, which is 22%
higher than the `26,870 crore achieved during 2017-18. Volume-wise also, India
shipped 4.88 million tonnes of aromatic long-grained rice, which is a record in
itself. Today, India exports basmati mostly to countries including Iran, Saudi
Arabia, the UAE, the UK, besides several other countries. “PB1718 would
definitely help sustain India’s dominant position in the global basmati rice
trade,” a commerce ministry official added. Meanwhile, exporters of India’s
aromatic and long-grained basmati rice and officials from the commerce ministry
have been deliberating on the complexities arising from the stringent import
norms imposed by the European Union (EU), which sharply slashed the level of a
commonly-used fungicide, Tricyclazole, in the rice that the EU imports.
Tricyclazole is a fungicide used in India to protect the paddy crop from a
disease called ‘blast’, and the EU had cut the maximum residue limit for
Tricyclazole from 1 PPM to 0.01 PPM from December 31, 2017, onwards. This has
put basmati rice exporters in a tough position. “Two to three crop cycles are
required to effect the desired change. Moreover, there is no scientific
evidence that the concerned chemical is harmful to human health,” Vijay Setia,
president, All India Rice Exporters’ Association (AIREA), said. The EU and the
US are high-value markets for basmati rice exporters, even though a major chunk
of aromatic and long-grained rice is shipped to Gulf countries. Official data
says that there are 16 lakh farmers, mostly in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar
Pradesh and a few pockets of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu &
Kashmir, engaged in basmati rice cultivation. During the previous kharif season
(2018), to curb the use of fungicides, AIREA, in association with APEDA,
conducted campaigns among basmati rice growers in many districts of Punjab.
Date: 01-Jul-2019
FY 2018-19:
Nepal Rice Imports on the Rise Despite Bumper Harvest
The country Nepal imported rice worth NPR 278 million within the
first 10 months of the current fiscal compared to NPR 241 in FY 2017-18
In the recent update on Nepal’s paddy
production, the country has recorded the highest paddy production of 5.6 million
tons this fiscal year 2018-19.
However, Nepal’s rice import continues to be
steadily on the rise, despite bumper paddy production throughout the last three
years.
The country imported rice worth NPR 278
million within the first 10 months of the current fiscal compared to NPR 241 in
FY 2017-18. Similarly, in 2016-17 Nepal’s rice imports were worth NPR 202
million.
According to Nepal Agriculture and Livestock
Development (MoALD) Ministry, changing habits of consumers were responsible for
the increasing rice imports in the country. Most Nepalis prefer white rice or
refined rice imported from India.
Despite the country’s ability to meet the
rising demand, consumers’ varying taste have forced Nepal to import rice said
MoALD.
According to MoALD, Nepal’s current market
demand for rice stands at around 4 million tons at the moment and its local
production meets only close to 3.4 million tons.
Nepal’s Paddy
Production 2016-19
This current fiscal 2018-19, Nepal
registered a paddy/rice increase by 9.8 percent compared to 5.1 million tons in
the previous fiscal.
Similarly, the country’s paddy productivity
reached 3.8 tons per hectare in the current fiscal, an increase of 8.6 percent
compared to FY 2017-18.
The International Rice Research
Institute – Nepal’s (IRRI-Nepal) five-year work plan along with a few
other places and programs are responsible for the success of Nepal’s increased
paddy productivity, said MoALD Spokesperson Tej Bahadur Subedi.
However, increased productivity and
production have not been able to override Nepal’s increasing rice imports.
This is a matter of concern as rice
contributes to 20 percent of Nepal’s agriculture sector, which has a 27 percent
in Nepal’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Meanwhile on June 30, 2019, Nepal marked the
beginning of the crop plantation season with Ropain – the rice planting festival.
Federal govt identifies
priority areas for support
July 01, 2019
The government has lowered the growth target for the agriculture
sector for 2019-20 owing to insufficient water and a drop in the fertiliser
off-take.
The growth target for the sector is now 3.5 per cent, which is
based on the expected contribution from important crops (wheat, rice, sugar
cane and maize) at 3.5pc, “other crops” 3.1pc, cotton ginned 2.5pc, livestock
3.7pc, fisheries 4pc and forestry 2pc.
The sector’s performance during the last two seasons (Rabi and
Kharif) remained subdued. It grew 0.85pc, significantly lower than the target
of 3.8pc.
Targets for wheat and cotton will likely be achieved if the
quality and quantity of inputs are ensured in addition to the consistent
availability of water, certified seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and agriculture
credit facilities.
The National Agriculture Emergency Programme aims to spend Rs290bn
in the next five years to boost the crop yield, develop fisheries and livestock
and improve water conservation
The government is planning to rationalise the area under
cultivation for wheat, rice and sugar cane. Pakistan is self-sufficient in
these crops. Thus, the area under cultivation is going to be reduced to grow
cotton, pulses, oilseeds and high-value horticultural crops to reduce their
imports.
The production targets for 2019 Kharif and 2020 Rabi seasons have
been finalised. The wheat production target will be 25.55 million tonnes, rice
7.4m tonnes, sugar cane 68,583,000 tonnes, cotton 15m bales and maize 6,357,000
tonnes.
As for minor crops, the target for gram is 550,000 tonnes, onion
2.23m tonnes, sunflower 200,000 tonnes and potato 4.2m tonnes.
The annual development plan document shows that water availability
at canal heads for 2019-20 is expected to be 108 million acre-feet (MAF) to
support crop production.
The drop in the fertiliser off-take by 7.3pc was because of its
high price, not a shortage of input. In 2018-19, domestic production of
fertiliser increased 2.6pc. It was mainly because two urea manufacturing plants
were functional owing to the supply of LNG at subsidised rates. At the same
time, fertiliser imports increased 4.8pc. Thereby, its total availability rose
3.2pc in 2018-19.
The government is going to focus on improving agricultural input
and output markets. It is also strengthening the capacity and infrastructure to
conduct agriculture research.
Although the private sector plays a major role in the input supply
chain, the government’s role as a regulator will be strengthened in order to
ensure the supply of quality inputs in a timely manner. There are indications
that an organisational setup at the federal level is on the anvil for the
implementation of the amended Seed Act as well as the Plant Breeders’ Rights
Act through the establishment of a registry.
The Ministry of National Food Security and Research will get an
allocation of Rs15 billion as development budget.
The ministry has identified 20 priority areas for the Public
Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in 2019-20. Major projects include Better
Cotton Initiative, National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses, National
Oilseed Enhancement Programme, enhancement of the command areas of small and
mini dams in Barani areas, promotion of research for productivity enhancement
in pulses, wheat, rice and sugar cane, promotion of rural poultry, olive
cultivation on commercial scale, satellite-based mapping of cropping zones and
monitoring system, and the national pesticide residue monitoring system.
There are indications that an organisational setup at the federal
level is on the anvil for the implementation of the amended Seed Act as well as
the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act through the establishment of a registry
According to the annual plan document, the programmes under the
technology-driven knowledge economy will receive separate allocations.
In addition to the federal government, the provinces are also
investing in agriculture using their own funds. Last year, investments by the
provinces were Rs93bn, which is expected to go further up during 2019-20.
The federal government recently announced the National Agriculture
Emergency Programme, which aims to spend Rs290bn in the next five years to
boost the crop yield, develop fisheries and livestock and improve water
conservation.
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 1st, 2019
Food as Hallmark to Nationhood
Spinach
is back in the news because scientists have discovered a natural steroid-like
chemical in it that boosts stamina and performance. Just because the Chinese
called the spinach plant ‘Persian vegetable’ –though it arrived there in the
7th century via India—it is “widely thought” to have originated in Iran. No one
knows how it arrived in India, but Arab traders took it westwards to Europe and
beyond.
Indeed, there are stories aplenty
too about how Catherine de Medici—the Italian noblewoman who as Queen of France
fostered that country’s culinary revolution—was also devoted to spinach. So
much so, we are told, that she not only presciently brought over spinach seeds
from her native Florence to Paris, she also decreed its inclusion in many
dishes. Hence, even today, spinach-laden dishes are called ‘Florentine’.
India did not lack monarchs,
nobles and even ordinary people with extraordinary interests and capabilities.
It is unfortunate, however, that edicts and inscriptions apart, most of them
exhibited a singular lack of interest in jotting down mundane things like their
surroundings, daily activities, scientific achievements or thoughts. India has
been let down all too often by its historical unwillingness to chronicle
anything.
When it comes to food, we should
be grateful that at least the aubergine—brinjal or baingan—is confirmed to have
originated here, even though the oldest references to the vegetable once again
come from a 6th century text on agriculture from China. Thank goodness, my
schoolmate, doctor and now food investigator Manoshi Bhattacharya has dug up at
least a few intriguing Indian references to it too!
She says Charaka the 3rd century
BCE Ayurveda master mentions a vegetable called ‘bhandi’ or ‘bhanti’. And then
nearly 15 centuries later, the epicurean Western Chalukya king Bhulokamala
Someshwara III, actually chronicled in his treatise Manasollasa the earliest
ever recipe for bhindi masala, which included it being sliced, doused in haldi,
crisp-fried and sprinkled on top of a bowl of whipped yoghurt.
At least arhar or toor dal—called
pigeon pea in English—is firmly attributed to India, thanks to the fact that
its wild relative is still found in peninsular India. It’s providential that
arhar remnants have been found dating back to 14th century BC in Karnataka,
Maharashtra and even Orissa. At some point it travelled from ancient India’s
ports to Africa, and eventually Europe and much later to the Americas.
Interestingly, Charaka once again
saved us our blushes by mentioning adhaki (the oldest Sanskrit word for
pigeonpea) in his ayurvedic prescriptions as did the ancient physician Susruta
in the 6th century BC. Adhaki also crops up in Buddhist and Jain literature
from the 2nd century BC onwards. Even the Gupta era Amarkosha compendium lists
adhaki, kakshi and tuvarika, all names for arhar dal.
Origins of ancient food
ingredients have depended on three major sources: finds during excavations,
discovery of wild relatives in a region, and, of course, any written material.
When India has so few chronicles and records, we have to depend on the first
two, per force. And yet, theories of origin based on archaeological remnants
are tricky as they can always be supplanted by newer discoveries.
The age-old battle between India
and China on the origin of many things plays out today based on these factors,
but archaeological finds are not the last word. For instance, China had claimed
hunter-gathers living along the Yangtze River were the first to grow rice,
10,000 years ago. Bits (called phytoliths) of rice were found at a site called
Shangshan, which China cited as the ‘origin’ of cultivated rice.
But then intrepid Indian
archaeologists excavated a site in Lahuradeva village in Sant Kabir Nagar
district of UP and found charred evidence of cultivated rice dating back to
almost exactly the time of the Chinese sitethe 7th millennium BC! And knowing
how seriously countries take claims of origin, the radio-carbon dating of
Lahuradeva’s rice was done by three reputed laboratories, including one in
Germany.
Food has become one of the
hallmarks of nationhood these days. Battles rage over authenticity and origin,
and much pride is invested in them. Geographical Indicator tags are the logical
outcome of this intense possessiveness all aspects of human endeavour. Who
knows what cases and claims will be made in the future (not only by China) but
India should not regress into documentation neglect ever again.
