چاول کے ایک پیالہ کی قیمت 1405 امریکی ڈالر
02
October,2019 12:51 pm
بیجنگ: (ویب ڈیسک) یوں تو پاکستان سمیت ایشیا بھر میں چاول کھانے
کے بہت زیادہ لوگ شوقین ہیں، پاکستان، بھارت، بنگلا دیش سمیت پورے ایشیائی خطے میں
چاولوں کی پیداوار بھی زبردست ہوتی ہے، تاہم چاولوں کے بارے میں ایک حیران کن خبر
چین سے آئی ہے چین میں چاول کا ایک پیالہ 1405 امریکی ڈالر (تقریباً دو لاکھ
پاکستانی روپے) کی خطیر رقم میں نیلام کیا گیا ہے۔
غیر ملکی خبر رساں ادارے کے
مطابق شمالی چین میں واقع ایک گاؤں میں چاول کی پہلی فصل کی کٹائی کے بعد نئی فصل
سے حاصل کیے جانے والے چاول کا پہلا پیالہ نیلام کیا جاتا ہے۔
خبر رساں ادارے کے مطابق گریٹ
ناردرن وائلڈرنس نامی فارم جو شمالی چین کا زرعی اعتبار سے اہم خطہ ہے اور زرخیز
زمین کی وجہ سے یہ کالی مٹی کے نام سے مشہور ہے۔ فارم میں چاول کی نئی فصل کی
کٹائی کے بعد حاصل کیے جانے والے چاول میں سے پیالہ چاول نکال کر پکائےگئے جسے
پکانے کے بعد نیلامی کے لیے پیش کیا گیا۔
نیلامی کے موقع پر بہت سے لوگوں نے
شرکت کی اور نئی فصل کے چاول کے پہلے پیالے کے لیے خوب بولیاں لگائیں گئی مگر اسی
دوران ایک خاتون نے سب سے زیادہ بولی لگا کر 1405 ڈالرز میں نئی فصل کے چاول کا
پہلا پیالہ حاصل کرلیا۔
خاتون نے جب چاول کی نیلامی کی رقم
ادا کردی تو ان کا کہنا تھا کہ اب وہ یہ چاول کھائیں گی اور انہیں بے حد خوشی
ہوگی۔ اس نیلامی کے حوالے سے بہت سے شہریوں کا کہنا تھا کہ یہ پروگرام کسی بھی شخص
کو دولت مند ثابت کرنے کا نہایت ہی کربناک طریقہ تھا۔
57
rice companies fold operations
TUESDAY OCTOBER 1 2019
Redudant rice milling machines at Damaza Grain
Millers Limited factory in Jinja District. The company is among those that laid
off some workers due to low production capacity. PHOTO by Joanita Mbabazi
In Summary
Increased importation of white fine rice from
other countries such as Tanzania which is not subjected to tax is greatly
crippling the local rice business, Joanita Mbabazi writes.
By Joanita
Mbabazi
Recently, rice
farmers, millers and exporters petitioned the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca
Kadaga to stop the eviction of rice farmers from wetlands in favour of foreign
investors.
Mr Isaac Kashaija, the chairperson of the Rice Business Sector Association, said the rice farmers were stopped from growing rice in wetlands, a situation that has left many jobless.
“If we are growing rice in wetlands and government thinks we are not doing it the right way, then we need to be guided on the best modern farming practices of growing rice in because rice as a food crop best grows in wetland areas. We are surprised that the wetlands are being given to investors to grow rice, leaving us the local farmers with no space to grow rice and the only option is to quit rice growing,” said Mr Maliba Christopher a farmer in Bugweri district.
To prove their outcry, Daily Monitor visited some of the rice milling factories and the rice gardens. At Damaza Grain Millers Limited factory, redundant machines greet us. Here, few workers also load skeletal sacks of rice for few locals who had come to buy the commodity. This was the same case at Wereke Investment Limited factory.
Much as we expected to hear sounds of machines sorting rice, or some activity involving loading and offloading sacks of both of sorted and paddy rice (rice with husks), this was not the case.
According to the owner of Damaza Grain Millers Limited, Mr Drake Magara, they laid off some workers due to low production capacity.
“On a daily basis, we used to mill around 50 tonnes of rice in a day. But now, we only mill five tonnes of rice.”
Mr Magara attributes this to farmers who ditched rice farming for other food commercial crops that can be grown on land as some have already faced eviction from wetlands to grow rice.
“Farmers have been evicted from the rice fields. They no longer get enough paddy rice to mill forcing them to lay off some workers. I have been employing 50 employees both those operating the machines to sort out rice and others in packaging loading and offloading. But I was forced to remain with 25 employees only,” Mr Magara says.
He adds that instead, imported rice has flooded the country.
“Why would we rely on foreign food like rice yet it can be locally grown here?” Magara adds.
Mr Isaac Kashaija, the chairperson of the Rice Business Sector Association, said the rice farmers were stopped from growing rice in wetlands, a situation that has left many jobless.
“If we are growing rice in wetlands and government thinks we are not doing it the right way, then we need to be guided on the best modern farming practices of growing rice in because rice as a food crop best grows in wetland areas. We are surprised that the wetlands are being given to investors to grow rice, leaving us the local farmers with no space to grow rice and the only option is to quit rice growing,” said Mr Maliba Christopher a farmer in Bugweri district.
To prove their outcry, Daily Monitor visited some of the rice milling factories and the rice gardens. At Damaza Grain Millers Limited factory, redundant machines greet us. Here, few workers also load skeletal sacks of rice for few locals who had come to buy the commodity. This was the same case at Wereke Investment Limited factory.
Much as we expected to hear sounds of machines sorting rice, or some activity involving loading and offloading sacks of both of sorted and paddy rice (rice with husks), this was not the case.
According to the owner of Damaza Grain Millers Limited, Mr Drake Magara, they laid off some workers due to low production capacity.
“On a daily basis, we used to mill around 50 tonnes of rice in a day. But now, we only mill five tonnes of rice.”
Mr Magara attributes this to farmers who ditched rice farming for other food commercial crops that can be grown on land as some have already faced eviction from wetlands to grow rice.
“Farmers have been evicted from the rice fields. They no longer get enough paddy rice to mill forcing them to lay off some workers. I have been employing 50 employees both those operating the machines to sort out rice and others in packaging loading and offloading. But I was forced to remain with 25 employees only,” Mr Magara says.
He adds that instead, imported rice has flooded the country.
“Why would we rely on foreign food like rice yet it can be locally grown here?” Magara adds.
A rice farmer
in a wetland in Jinja. Farmers have been evicted from their rice fields. PHOTO
BY Joanita Mbabazi
Low price
The price of local rice has gone down because local millers and retailers have to earn something to compete with the imported rice from other countries.
“This discourages farmers because a kilo of paddy rice costs Shs500, from a farmer. At retail price, a kilo of local fine rice costs Shs2,500 while a kilo of imported white fine rice is Shs3,000. We cannot sell at Shs3,000 because we shall not make more sales since we are competing with the imported rice as well on the market,” Mr Geoffrey Sudayisi, a retail business man in Jinja District says.
The rice sector employs more than 49,000 both millers, importers and farmers. But with the continuous low production, these are likely to abandon the business. Already, 57 companies that have been operating in losses of about Shs38b have closed business due to low production and meeting costs such as electricity and paying off workers. Bu and taxes cannot be affordable as they are earning less from the business.
Demand
According to Mr Isaac Kashaija, chairperson Rice Business Sector Association Limited, between 2007 and 2014, the demand of rice was about 225,000 metric tonnes but factories only produced 165,000 metric tonnes. From 2014 to 2017, the demand for rice increased to 499,200 but they were only able to produce 272,881 metric tonnes of rice.
In 2017 to 2019, the demand did not increase and remained the same like in 2017 but they were only able to produce 215,741 metric tonnes of rice. This implies that despite increased demand for rice, they cannot meet the production capacity to satisfy the all local consumers who need rice due to the increased decline in the production levels.
Mr Kashaija also complains that the increased importation of white fine rice from other countries like Tanzania which is not subjected to tax is greatly crippling the local rice business for people to earn from it.
14 rice import companies which include SWT Tanners Limited, General Agencies Uganda Limited,Ssuna Limited , Willex Commodities Limited, Akhcom Limited, Jassani General Trading Limited, Singa Rice Limited, Armour Trading Company Limited, Jan Mohammed Investments Limited,Galorre Intrenational Limited, Imba Foods Uganda Limited, Zen Trading Limited and Mabu Commodities, have been relieved of paying tax due to a delayed court appeal filed by these companies against Uganda Revenue Authority at the Commercial Court since 2014 opposing the 18 per cent VAT.
The price of local rice has gone down because local millers and retailers have to earn something to compete with the imported rice from other countries.
“This discourages farmers because a kilo of paddy rice costs Shs500, from a farmer. At retail price, a kilo of local fine rice costs Shs2,500 while a kilo of imported white fine rice is Shs3,000. We cannot sell at Shs3,000 because we shall not make more sales since we are competing with the imported rice as well on the market,” Mr Geoffrey Sudayisi, a retail business man in Jinja District says.
The rice sector employs more than 49,000 both millers, importers and farmers. But with the continuous low production, these are likely to abandon the business. Already, 57 companies that have been operating in losses of about Shs38b have closed business due to low production and meeting costs such as electricity and paying off workers. Bu and taxes cannot be affordable as they are earning less from the business.
Demand
According to Mr Isaac Kashaija, chairperson Rice Business Sector Association Limited, between 2007 and 2014, the demand of rice was about 225,000 metric tonnes but factories only produced 165,000 metric tonnes. From 2014 to 2017, the demand for rice increased to 499,200 but they were only able to produce 272,881 metric tonnes of rice.
In 2017 to 2019, the demand did not increase and remained the same like in 2017 but they were only able to produce 215,741 metric tonnes of rice. This implies that despite increased demand for rice, they cannot meet the production capacity to satisfy the all local consumers who need rice due to the increased decline in the production levels.
Mr Kashaija also complains that the increased importation of white fine rice from other countries like Tanzania which is not subjected to tax is greatly crippling the local rice business for people to earn from it.
14 rice import companies which include SWT Tanners Limited, General Agencies Uganda Limited,Ssuna Limited , Willex Commodities Limited, Akhcom Limited, Jassani General Trading Limited, Singa Rice Limited, Armour Trading Company Limited, Jan Mohammed Investments Limited,Galorre Intrenational Limited, Imba Foods Uganda Limited, Zen Trading Limited and Mabu Commodities, have been relieved of paying tax due to a delayed court appeal filed by these companies against Uganda Revenue Authority at the Commercial Court since 2014 opposing the 18 per cent VAT.
Import duty
These argue that they are currently paying 75 per cent import duty on rice, six per cent Withholding Tax, and 1.5 per cent infrastructure levy. Therefore, the addition of 18 per cent VAT levy would make their products expensive and unaffordable for customers.
“These are greatly enjoying the market space in the country as no ruling has been made yet since 2014 to date. During that financial year of 2014/2015, the VAT tax law was meant to work but these companies objected it saying this was abrupt and they were not notified as they had targeted to import rice for the festive season that year.
“But since 2014, up to now we find this unfair because when some exporters go to Tanzania much as it is part of the East African Community (EAC), they are charged taxes. But these importers must also pay the 18 per cent VAT tax,” Mr Kashaija says.
According to Mr Everest Kayondo, Kampala City Trader’s Association chairperson, importers within the EAC cannot pay tax on imports and exports due to the free movement of goods of services in all partner states. However, those who are not under this body find it fair enough to pay tax for their imported rice especially from Pakistan and India.
These argue that they are currently paying 75 per cent import duty on rice, six per cent Withholding Tax, and 1.5 per cent infrastructure levy. Therefore, the addition of 18 per cent VAT levy would make their products expensive and unaffordable for customers.
“These are greatly enjoying the market space in the country as no ruling has been made yet since 2014 to date. During that financial year of 2014/2015, the VAT tax law was meant to work but these companies objected it saying this was abrupt and they were not notified as they had targeted to import rice for the festive season that year.
“But since 2014, up to now we find this unfair because when some exporters go to Tanzania much as it is part of the East African Community (EAC), they are charged taxes. But these importers must also pay the 18 per cent VAT tax,” Mr Kashaija says.
According to Mr Everest Kayondo, Kampala City Trader’s Association chairperson, importers within the EAC cannot pay tax on imports and exports due to the free movement of goods of services in all partner states. However, those who are not under this body find it fair enough to pay tax for their imported rice especially from Pakistan and India.
Power
Companies which have closed business include:
•Kikagate Traders Ltd, Taubah General Enterprises, Band Investment Uganda Limited,
•Upland Rice Millers Company Limited,
•Royal Rice Limited,
•Pearl Rice Ltd,
•Eastern Rice Company Limited,
•OBN Produce and Supply Company Limited,
•Link N Global Commodity Limited,
•3R Agro industries Limited
•Rwenzori Upland Rice Company Limited among others
Companies which have closed business include:
•Kikagate Traders Ltd, Taubah General Enterprises, Band Investment Uganda Limited,
•Upland Rice Millers Company Limited,
•Royal Rice Limited,
•Pearl Rice Ltd,
•Eastern Rice Company Limited,
•OBN Produce and Supply Company Limited,
•Link N Global Commodity Limited,
•3R Agro industries Limited
•Rwenzori Upland Rice Company Limited among others
Arkansas scientists investigate effects of high
nighttime air temperatures on rice quality
·
By Abbi Ross, University of
Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
·
Oct 1, 2019
These rice plants in a greenhouse
growth chamber at the Rice Research and Extension Center, are part of a study
on high nighttime air temperatures. (Photo by Fred Miller, University of
Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.)
Fred Miller
Arkansas
scientists are working to develop rice varieties that are tolerant of Arkansas’
frequent high nighttime air temperatures, a condition that can significantly
reduce yields and post-harvest quality.
Paul
Counce, a University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture professor and
rice physiologist, is leading the high nighttime air temperature rice research
in the division’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
“We
began to do work about twenty years ago to pin these issues down,” Counce said.
“We started a series of experiments at the Rice Research and Extension Center
and in Fayetteville with Dr. Terry Siebenmorgen.”
The
team’s current objective is to identify genes associated with resistance to
high night temperatures, Counce said.
Prolonged
high night air temperatures during critical physiological stages can reduce the
quality and yield of rice, Counce said. Years with unusually warm seasons, like
2010 and 2016, can result in almost catastrophic losses due to reduced
pollination and fertilization of rice flowers. At later stages of development,
high night temperatures decrease the milling quality of rice.
“It’s
not just that there are high night temperatures that cause quality degradation,
it is that they occur when the rice is at a certain physiological stage,” said
Terry Siebenmorgen, distinguished professor of food science for the Division of
Agriculture. “That is when those temps are so impactful, they alter the way the
starch is put together in the kernel.”
Siebenmorgen
said the result is that rice kernels that are normally translucent become
chalky and prone to breakage during milling. The kernels that remain intact do
not cook properly for meals or when making cereals and other food products.
Markets
are determined by rice quality to a large extent, and when quality decreases it
makes marketing difficult, Counce said. In some years, farmers’ profits decline
from both lower yields and price markdowns resulting from poor milling quality.
After
working for years to determine the physiological and chemical bases of the
problem, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station scientists are now evaluating
cultivars for their nighttime heat susceptibility, Siebenmorgen said.
Growth
chambers that can control environmental conditions are used to simulate high
nighttime air temperatures to test rice breeding lines and varieties for their
tolerance or susceptibility, Counce said. The growth chambers also allow
researchers to control the light and carbon dioxide levels, which also play
roles in rice plant and seed development. The growth chambers were funded by
the Arkansas Rice Checkoff program.
“What
we are trying to do is improve our understanding of the varieties and the yield
and quality responses of the rice we have to the high temperatures,” Counce
said.
This
stage of the investigation focuses on identifying breeding lines with genetic
tolerance of high nighttime air temperatures, Counce said. “Division rice
breeders can then cross those tolerant lines with high-yielding and disease
resistant lines to develop improved varieties,” he said.
“This
is an excellent step forward in our efforts to find, develop and breed rice
that will tolerate high nighttime air temperatures,” said Bob Scott, Rice
Research and Extension Center director.
Scientists
inspect rice cultivation in Bokaro
Wednesday,
02 October 2019 | PNS | Bokaro
A team of National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack and 'Central
Rainfed Upland Rice Research Station' Hazaribagh inspected the improved rice
cultivation in the Bokaro district.
The team headed by Dr. Annie Poonam, Principal Scientist
National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack and Dr. S. Bhagat Principal Scientist
Central Rainfed Upland Rice Research Station, Hazaribagh inspected several
paddy farmland in Jaridih, Petarwar and Kasmar blocks of the district
cultivated by SRI (Systematic Rice Intensification) system and had a detailed
talk with the farmers.
All the scientists were very happy to see the growth of paddy
crop and praised the role as well as works of the district administration in
the field of agriculture. SRI is the improved method of rice cultivation was
developed in 1983 in Madagascar and has now spread to many parts of the world,
said Dr Bhagat adding "This methodology aimed at increasing the yield of
rice produced in farming. It is a low water, labor-intensive, method that uses
younger seedlings singly spaced and typically hand weeded with particular
tools."
SRI is not a technology, but a set of simple ideas and
principles that help produce more productive and robust plants, said an expert.
It (SRI) provides ample scope for enhancing productivity and breaking the yield
barrier in the smallholder's fields. Meanwhile, the truth is that SRI produces
more rice with less input while conserving precious water, he said.
Besides, Rajiv Kumar Mishra District Agricultural Officer many
other officials of the district agriculture department were present during the
inspection.
This
wheat seed holds much promise
Sandip
Das |
Updated on October 01, 2019 Published on October 01, 2019
HD3226, an indigenously developed
seed, has higher protein and is more resistant to pest attack than other
varieties
A
new variety of wheat seed developed by the country’s premier Indian
Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) comes at a critical time when farmers,
mostly across northern India, have to deal with increasing incidents of pest
attacks which threaten to impact yield.
Two
of the key wheat varieties — HD2967 and HD3086 — also developed by IARI a few
years back and grown widely by farmers mostly in the north-western plains, have
become susceptible to yellow and brown rust along with Karnal bunt (a fungal
disease) in recent years. IARI has released a new wheat seed, HD3226, which has
shown resistance to these pests and is reported to have higher protein content
than the existing varieties.
In
the next rabi (winter) season for which sowing is expected to commence in
November, farmers are expected to sow HD3226, also referred as Pusa
Yashasvi, whose protein content (average 12.6 per cent) is higher than
those of the two prevalent varieties — HD2967 (12.3 per cent) and HD3086 (11.3
per cent).
According
to scientists at IARI, a key institute under India Council for Agricultural
Research (ICAR) especially in development of rice and wheat varieties, the new
wheat variety is superior to others varieties in terms of dry and wet gluten
content. HD3226, developed after three years of field trials at various
locations, has also shown potential for higher yield compared to other
varieties.
To
deal with rusts that affect yield, HD3226 was released by the central
sub-committee of crop standards (under the Agriculture Ministry) in April 2019.
This variety is recommended for cultivation in the north-western plains —
Punjab, Haryana and parts of Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand — and in the coming rabi season,
farmers are expected to take up the new variety for cultivation in larger
areas.
IARI
has signed MOUs with 40 private seed producers in Haryana and Punjab who would
multiply the seeds for the farmers in the next rabi season. “The new variety,
because of higher protein content, could push up exports of wheat from India,”
Rajbir Yadav, Principal Scientist, Division of Genetics, IARI, said.
According
to Agricultural and Processed Food Development Authority (APEDA), in 2018-19,
India exported 44 lakh tonne of basmati rice and 75 lakh tonne of non-basmati
rice while wheat export was only to the tune of 2.36 lakh tonne.
At
present, around 95 per cent of the wheat produced in the country is suitable
for ‘bread’ quality, which requires less than 12 per cent protein content,
while only about 4 per cent is of ‘durum’ quality (with protein content of more
than 12 per cent), which is mostly grown in central India.
According
to Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), affiliated to ICAR,
‘durum’ wheat, which is extensively used for making instant foods such as
macroni, noodles and snack foods, have export potential. With the HD3226
variety giving a protein content of more than 12 per cent in field trials, this
could boost India’s wheat exports in the next few years.
IIWBR,
over the last few years, has been cautioning farmers against the spread of
fungus that causes yellow rust in wheat crop. The widely cultivated HD2967 and
HD3086, grown mostly in the north-western plains, have became susceptible to
yellow and brown rust. These two varieties are estimated to occupy around 12
million hectare (mh) out of the total estimated wheat area of around 30 mh.
Fungus attack
Yellow
rust disease in wheat crop is caused by fungus Puccinia found
in cold wheat-growing regions such as the north-western plains and northern
hills. This infection, which causes reduction of kernel numbers per spike and
decreases the weight of wheat kernels, is capable of causing a huge decline in
wheat yields.
Fungicides
such as propiconazole, tebuconazole and triadimefoan are being used to combat
yellow rust in wheat crop — the building of inherent genetic resistance in
plants to fight diseases is a method which lead to the development of HD3226.
The
new wheat variety is found to be resistant to Karnal bunt, a disease which
results in yield reduction and decrease in quality of grains by imparting a
fishy odour and taste to the wheat crop.
Yadav
of IARI said that in field trials HD3226 was found to be resistant to Karnal
bunt, with its incidence being 63.67 per cent lower than in HD3086. Its grains
possess high protein (12.8 per cent) content, high wet (30.85 per cent) and dry
gluten (10.10 per cent) content and a perfect Glu-1 score (10). This variety is
thus suitable for both bread and chapatti-making. The new variety
is also suitable for early seeding under zero till condition.
Meanwhile,
the IARI, in major breakthrough, has also developed two other wheat varieties —
HD-CSW18 and HD3117 — which can be transplanted directly to the soil (in
northern India) soon after the harvesting of kharif paddy. Yadav said that this
would prevent farmers from burning their field post paddy harvest and, thereby,
help in dealing with environmental pollution.
IARI,
in the last three decades, has developed more than 45 varieties of wheat seed
and 20 varieties of basmati rice varieties. The basmati rice variety, Pusa
Basmati 1121, developed by the institute, has earned a cumulative value
of ₹50 lakh crore during 2008-2016.
Last year, an improved version, Pusa Basmati 1718, was developed with inbuilt
resistance to bacterial blight disease.
The
writer is a senior consultant with ICRIER. Views are personal
ADM
Rice's Chris Bonnesen to Retire
ARLINGTON, VA -- After more than 40 years in the
U.S. and international rice industry, Christian Bonnesen, president of Archer
Daniels Midland (ADM) Rice, Inc., is retiring on October 31.
Bonnesen started his early rice career with Continental Grain Company, with a focus on U.S. and international rice trading. In 1999 he founded ADM Rice, and over the course of 20 years grew the fledgling rice company into one of the world's largest global rice groups, with both a large U.S. footprint and a significant international presence. In 2004, Bonnesen spearheaded the acquisition of a California rice mill to add to the ADM Rice portfolio.
Bonnesen served in many USA Rice leadership roles throughout his career, including the USA Rice Board of Directors, the USA Rice Millers' Association (RMA) Board of Directors, and the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee. As chair of the EU Trade Policy Subcommittee, he continually sought a fundamental rewrite of access for U.S. rice in Europe, a task that remains a key objective of USA Rice.
"Chris grew ADM into one of the premier millers and exporters of U.S. rice," said Bobby Hanks, chair of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee. "ADM's rice leadership is essential in maintaining a viable market for U.S. rice in Iraq, a complex and difficult market, and the company provides continuing leadership in market access for Japan, Korea, and Taiwan."
Bonnesen's tireless focus on customer and supplier relationships, as well as his work with USA Rice, has had a tremendous impact on the rice industry.
"We'll certainly miss his steady leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and good humor," said Betsy Ward, president and CEO of USA Rice. "Everyone here at USA Rice wishes Chris the best in his retirement."
Brock Meadows, the company's current vice president of trade and administration, has been appointed the new president of ADM Rice, Inc. Todd Burich will continue in his key role as vice president of ADM Rice, representing the company on RMA and USA Rice boards and committees; and Jorge Rodriguez will remain as ADM Rice's international marketing director.
Bonnesen started his early rice career with Continental Grain Company, with a focus on U.S. and international rice trading. In 1999 he founded ADM Rice, and over the course of 20 years grew the fledgling rice company into one of the world's largest global rice groups, with both a large U.S. footprint and a significant international presence. In 2004, Bonnesen spearheaded the acquisition of a California rice mill to add to the ADM Rice portfolio.
Bonnesen served in many USA Rice leadership roles throughout his career, including the USA Rice Board of Directors, the USA Rice Millers' Association (RMA) Board of Directors, and the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee. As chair of the EU Trade Policy Subcommittee, he continually sought a fundamental rewrite of access for U.S. rice in Europe, a task that remains a key objective of USA Rice.
"Chris grew ADM into one of the premier millers and exporters of U.S. rice," said Bobby Hanks, chair of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee. "ADM's rice leadership is essential in maintaining a viable market for U.S. rice in Iraq, a complex and difficult market, and the company provides continuing leadership in market access for Japan, Korea, and Taiwan."
Bonnesen's tireless focus on customer and supplier relationships, as well as his work with USA Rice, has had a tremendous impact on the rice industry.
"We'll certainly miss his steady leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and good humor," said Betsy Ward, president and CEO of USA Rice. "Everyone here at USA Rice wishes Chris the best in his retirement."
Brock Meadows, the company's current vice president of trade and administration, has been appointed the new president of ADM Rice, Inc. Todd Burich will continue in his key role as vice president of ADM Rice, representing the company on RMA and USA Rice boards and committees; and Jorge Rodriguez will remain as ADM Rice's international marketing director.
Expect rice, pork and vegetable prices to
go down soon
Philippine Daily Inquirer /
04:01 AM October 01, 2019
The public
can look forward to cheaper prices for rice, pork, chicken and vegetables in
Metro Manila and other urban centers very soon.
Expect also
the elimination of middlemen and cartels which manipulate the supply and price
of rice and other agricultural products. Earlier, over 30 governors from
“food-producing provinces” agreed to work together with the Department of
Agriculture to improve the lives of their farmers and find a way to speed up
the delivery of their goods to Metro Manila.
One of them
was Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali who created a provincial food council with
an initial fund of P200 million but later raised it to P5 billion to buy and
sell rice and onions. Today, he allotted P2.2 billion for the purchase of palay
from preidentified farmers at P15-19 per kilo, much higher than “private
trading.”
Other
governors from Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, Cagayan and other provinces
have also pledged to be more directly involved in the food supply chain.
The National
Food Authority has allotted P7 billion to buy palay this year, but involving
local government units (LGUs) will mean an additional P700 funding for not just
rice farmers but also other agricultural products. I was told that Landbank and
the Development Bank of the Philippines had opened credit lines to LGUs to ensure
food sustainability and security projects in their provinces.
With
governors and mayors now directly helping their farmers and delivering their
produce to Metro Manila, these greedy food middlemen and cartels will soon
become obsolete.
* * *
A look at the
family picture posted on Sen. Nancy Binay’s Facebook page shows that the rift
that started in the May 2016 election continues.
Missing from
the “#BeNice” photo were Makati Mayor Abigail Binay and her husband, prompting
netizens to ask: “Why is the mayor not here?”
Deliberately
or not, the posting of the Binay clan photo without one of its most important
members is most ironic, given that it was released during National Family Week.
Who knows,
there might yet be another twist in the Binay saga? After all, some say blood
is thicker than water. Let’s just hope that there will still be a happy ending
and reconciliation for the family despite signals to the opposite.
* * *
In April,
Metro Manila residents experienced rotational brownouts because of limited capacity.
We all
clamor for additional and sustainable power supply as low reserves continue.
Recently,
Meralco secured a 1,700-megawatt power supply agreement through a public
bidding called the “competitive selection process (CSP).”
Initially,
Phinma Energy Corp., San Miguel Energy Corp. and South Premiere Power Corp.
(SPPC) offered the lowest rates beginning December. Two days after, First Gen
Hydro Power, Phinma Energy and SPPC were awarded contracts to supply midmerit
capacity.
Both are
beneficial to Metro Manilans not just in terms of continuous power but because
they are also cheaper (P0.28 per kilowatt hour for the first contract and
P0.133 per kWh in the second). However, critics continue to oppose the CSP
bidding process.
Their
“selective” noise, this time against the country’s first 1,200-MW
ultrasupercritical coal-fired plant in Atimonan, Quezon province, owned by
Meralco’s Powergen, is not helping either.
Maize, paddy
production feared to drop 20pc on extreme heat
LAHORE: Production of maize and
paddy in the Punjab are likely to drop by around 20 percent as extreme heat
during pollination stage and diseases have wreaked havoc with the two major
summer crops, farmers and officials said on Thursday.
A senior official of Pakistan
Agricultural Research Council said yield of maize could fall by 15 to 20
percent due to lack of grain setting amid hot daytime temperature.
The official, while referring to
initial reports, said output of maize sown on large area could be hurt “as a
result of abnormally high temperatures”.
Punjab Agriculture Department
(extension wing) also acknowledged the reports of potential losses to maize and
paddy crops. “Continuous high temperature has impacted some early sown corn and
in some area rice as well,” a senior official of the department said. “Night temperature,
which has dropped a bit, will positively impact pollination process,” the
official added. For an optimal production of maize, day temperature should not
be more than 38 centigrade and night temperature should be between 32 and 34
centigrade. Sowing season for summer (kharif) crops, including rice and maize
starts in April and ends in June, while harvesting is completed in October.
Maize – sown in a large area of the
province spanning from central district of Okara to southern district of Multan
– have badly been affected by the prolonged hot weather in August and
September, hurting the pollination process. Without proper cloud cover, the
daytime temperature of more than 40 centigrade for several weeks did not let
pollination to properly occur, leaving corncobs largely without grains.
Maize, being the highest yielding
gain crop, assumes immense importance for meeting growing needs of human and
animals. Maize occupies an area of 1.33 million hectares with production of
6.13 million tons in the country with an impressive yield of average 4.59 tons
per hectare. Punjab is the largest maize growing province in the country with
an area of 0.86 million hectares and production of 5.23 million tons with an
average yield of 6.03 tons per hectare.
Agriculture experts ascribed
extensive damage to crop yields to climate change-driven extreme heat recorded
in the late summer and early autumn months. Several farmers were shocked to see
their corncobs without grains. Health of the plants was otherwise almost perfect,
they said.
“I was pained to see corncobs sans
kernels,” Sultan, a farmer from Vehari district, without telling his second
name, said. “I applied fertiliser and took all precautions for nurturing a good
crop but it seems that my all efforts have gone in vain as there is hardly any
grain on the cobs.”
The farmer said the plants’ height,
strength of stems, spread-out of lush green colored leaves – all were like a
healthy crop. “But eventually it is really the fury of nature that subdued the
final yield badly.”
Another farmer of the same area said
seed bag marketed by a multinational company cost him Rs8,500, but grain
setting could not take place, leaving him befuddled.
Rana Imran, a farmer from Okara said
global warming has started to badly hitting farm productivity. Harsh weather
halted pollination process of maize and paddy crops. He feared that production
of these crops would be affected “to a great extent”.
Ijaz Rao, a progressive farmer from
Bahawalpur said severe heat affected maize planted till July 20. Rao felt that
highest-ever mercury levels would negatively impact paddy as well as cotton
production.
Diseases like root and stem rots
have also grievously damaged crops in patches during spring and ongoing autumn
seasons. Maize cultivated on thousands of acres with imported seeds were
destroyed due to these diseases. “My crop was badly damaged due to root rot,”
Muhammad Sajjad, a grower from Depalpur in Okara said. “I spent thousands of
rupees on seeds but to no avail.”
Sajjad said seeds should be properly
screened before their commercial sale to shield crops against diseases and
other vulnerabilities. Growers stressed characteristics like plant health, heat
and drought resistance and susceptibility to diseases and pest attack should be
equally vetted in the whole process of seed registration and certification.
Global Price Watch: August 2019 Prices (September 30,
2019)
REPORT
Key
Messages
·
In West Africa, 2019/20 crop
production is expected to be average to favorable. Market supplies are
currently decreasing, and demand is increasing seasonally, but at below-average
levels due to substantial outstanding stocks. The ongoing lean season in the
Sahel remains marked by atypical month-to-month decreases and, in some cases,
stability in coarse grain prices, which are below both last year and average
levels. On the other hand, above-average local and imported rice prices persist
in most coastal countries. Disrupted trade activities and atypical market
trends persist in insecurity-stricken Greater Lake Chad basin, Tibesti region,
and Liptako-Gourma region. Furthermore, Nigeria has recently closed land
borders to curb smuggling and banditry.
·
In East Africa, maize and sorghum
prices declined or remained stable in August across Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia,
and South Sudan. Sorghum prices increased seasonally at elevated levels at the
peak of the lean season in Sudan. Maize prices increased in the main producing
markets of Somalia in response to a second consecutive below-average season.
Wheat flour prices were stable at elevated levels in Yemen. Livestock prices
were stable with improved rangeland conditions during the ongoing
June-to-November rainy season in many countries
·
In Southern Africa, maize
supplies on major markets were at average to below-average levels in August.
Maize grain prices exhibited mixed trends across the major markets in the
region and are anticipated to increase atypically during the September to
October period. The exception will be South Africa where prices will likely
remain stable during this period. Maize grain was generally able to circulate
between surplus and deficit areas, except for Zambia where export restrictions
remain in place
·
In Central America, maize and
bean market supplies remained sufficient region-wide in August with carryover
stocks from the Postrera harvest and international imports. Month on month
maize and bean price trends varied in line with seasonal trends, while maize
prices remaining above average and bean prices below average. In Haiti, markets
were adequately supplied with imported staple foods while supply of local
staples was limited due to below-average Printemps harvests. Prices of both
local and imported staple foods continue to be significantly above-average
levels. The Haitian gourde was stable against the USD for the second
consecutive month but maintains a 30 percent year-on-year depreciation.
·
Central Asia sustained adequate
supplies and intraregional trade is expected to fill local wheat deficits
within the region. Local wheat availability in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and
Pakistan is expected to be at average levels. Wheat prices have been increasing
but remain at average levels in Kazakhstan and are above average in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and Tajikistan
Central Asia sustained adequate
supplies and intraregional trade is expected to fill local wheat deficits
within the region. Local wheat availability in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and
Pakistan is expected to be at average levels. Wheat prices have been increasing
but remain at average levels in Kazakhstan and are above average in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and Tajikistan
·
International staple food markets
are well supplied. Maize, wheat and soybean prices decreased while rice prices
were stable in August. Global crude oil decreased in August partly in response
to declining global economic indicators while global fertilizer prices fell in
August.
Boro production hits record 2.04cr tonnes
Staff Correspondent |
Published: 00:00, Oct 01,2019
A
file photo shows farmers busy with thresing and drying paddy on the outskirts
of Dhaka. The country’s farmers produced record 2.04 crore tonnes of boro rice
during the 2018-19 crop season, according to the Department of Agricultural
Extension.— New Age photo
The
country’s farmers produced record 2.04 crore tonnes of boro rice during the
2018-19 crop season, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension.
DAE
officials said the boro production was estimated by government agencies
including Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and Space Research and Remote Sensing
Organisation.
Boro is
the largest cereal crop of Bangladesh in terms of volume of output, they said.
DAE
field service wing director Chandi Das Kundu said that the country saw bumper
production of boro this year despite its low price for the growers.
Boro
yield per hectare was also estimated at 4.15 tonnes, he said, adding that boro
production crossed the target due to higher cultivation acreage.
The
farmers grew boro at over 49 lakh hectares of lands though the government
target was 48 lakh hectares, said officials.
In last
year, the growers produced 1.96 crore tonnes of boro from 48.42 lakh hectares
of lands, according to the DAE estimate.
The boro
growers, however, have incurred heavy financial losses this year due to high
production costs against low prices of boro paddy.
The
farmers were forced to sell 40 kilograms of un-husked boro at Tk 500-600
though the growers had to hire a labourer at Tk 550-600, said farmers and
officials.
The
government’s procurement system did not work well to increase the prices of the
rice crop as the government mainly purchased rice from the millers.
But this
year the government has increased its procurement of un-husked rice from the
farmers in a bid to help increase the prices of rice, said food ministry
officials.
According
to the food ministry, the government has already procured more than 14 lakh
tonnes ofboro rice from the domestic market during the boro season.
Of them,
there were four lakh tonnes of un-husked rice and 10 lakh tonnes of husked
rice, the food ministry notice said.
NFA officials scolded on rice
hoarding, buffer stocking
October 01, 2019
National Food Authority (NFA)
representatives attending a Senate probe were recently admonished like children
and also castigated for theirsystem of keeping a buffer stock of rice, among
many other things. Senators learned during a hearing that the NFA failed to
sell the four million bags or 290,000 metric tons of imported rice still in its
warehouse and buy the palay and rice of local farmers.
NFA officials confirmed to the
senators that the agency has yet to dispose several bags of imported rice,
reason why local rice has not been sold.
‘We still have lots of imported
rice that is why we are trying to have it sold before we sell the local rice’,
NFA administrator Carol Dansal explained.
This did not sit well with the
senators specially Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairman of the Senate committee on
agriculture and food, who did not find the NFA official’s explanation
acceptable and insisted that there were massive rice importations before the
passage of the law.
Without mincing words, Villar
told the NFA officials to just avail of early retirement or resign if they find
public service to be difficult. The feisty lady senator also lamented
that she and the authors of the Rice Tarrification Law (RTL) are the ones who
get the blame when ‘it looks now as if the NFA is an accomplice of the
rice cartels.
She told the NFA to ‘stop with
that buffer stocking,’ noting NFA’s repeated excuse they could not buy rice
from local farmers because their warehouses are still full of buffer stock. The
lawmaker also points out that the NFA ‘bought a lot to circumvent because after
the RTL, you can’t import anymore. And we all know you make money out of importation.’
At the Senate hearing, Villar is
urging the local government units (LGU) to invest in farmers to boost the
industry saying the NFA had neglected them and not buying their produce.
‘That’s why we are convincing the
LGUs to give them capital. It’s up to them who to choose, but the (local
officials), maybe they want to help so that people will vote for them in the
coming elections. These NFA officials are not elected, so that’s why they don’t
care if the people get mad at them,’she said.
It was also bared that there were
local government units who wanted to buy rice from NFA but were discouraged as
the agency was selling it at P37 per kilo. The senator recalled an exchange
with a farmer, who said the NFA allegedly did not buy palay from them because
of its high moisture content.
‘Baguhin ‘nyo ‘yang ugali na
‘yan…. Kung gusto ‘nyo talaga tulungan ang mga tao, ‘wag kayo magrarason ng
ganyan. Kaya lang naman kayo nandiyan para tulungan ang farmers eh,’ the
scolding continued.
The Department of Social Welfare
and Development had also been urged to use its funding to purchase local rice
instead of doling out money to its beneficiaries, saying the agency receives an
annual rice subsidy of P31 billion, which could be used to support the
country’s own palay producers.
At the same hearing, Villar said
the NFA should have sold the rice at its warehouses and used the money to buy
local rice. They have to sell their stocks in order to return the money, she
said.
The harvest season is near in
which the NFA can buy rice from local farmers and according to Villar, ‘it is
their mandate under the new RTL to buy rice from the local farmers and sell it
to the Filipino consumers at a reasonable price.’
Last month, President Duterte
directed the NFA to buy the palay produce of local farmers at competitive
prices, even as he defended the law that liberalized the importation of rice.
Duterte defended the measure, saying it was intended to serve the greater
interest of the majority of the people.
The RTL aims to ensure that market
rice prices would remain affordable by replacing the quantitative restrictions
on rice imports with tariff.
Safety nets were included in the
law, among which was a comprehensive assistance program worth P10 billion a
year for the next six years under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund
(RCEF). Based on the country’s palay harvest calendar, 30 percent of
total annual production comes from the summer harvest between March and May
while 70 percent comes from the main harvest from October to December.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar
blamed hoarding for the drop in the prices of palay in the market and not the
implementation of the RTL. Dar said some millers and traders may have
used the tarrification law – which lifts the quantitative restriction on
imported rice — to gain access and hoard supply of the grain.
Dar also directed the agency to
increase palay support price to P19 from P17 per kilo.
***
Jokjok (from Judiel Crisostomo of
Pakil, Laguna)— JUDGE: Ano ba talaga ang nangyari? PEDRO: (di sumasagot)/
JUDGE: Sumagot ka! Ano talaga ang nangyari?!/ PEDRO: Naman eh! Kala ko ba
hearing lang to? Bakit may speaking?!
***
Direct Hit entertains comments, suggestions or complaints.
Please have them emailed to itchiecabayan@yahoo.com or text 0927-7169778.
Storms impact rice and cotton harvests
Heavy
winds and rains blew across much of northeastern Arkansas and surrounding areas
last week and it will likely impact both rice and cotton harvests, as growers
try to make the most of otherwise favorable conditions.
The
National Weather Service reported Thursday (Sept. 26) that more than half a
dozen counties in the northeast corner of the state had received between 1-4
inches of rain, with as much as 5 inches concentrated in central Jackson
County. Heavier rainfall averages, spanning 3-6 inches, were also recorded in
northwestern counties, where the agriculture is primarily dominated by cattle,
poultry and the grazing acreage needed to support ranching.
Branon
Thiesse, staff chair for the Craighead County Cooperative Extension Service
office, said the western half of his county received about 2 inches of rain
Wednesday (Sept. 25) night.
“The
system that went through last night had some pretty significant winds,” Thiesse
said Thursday. “There’s not a whole lot of rice left — they’ve gotten the bulk
of it out. But the fields that are left, they could see some lodging.”
Thiesse
said he was more concerned about cotton in his county, however, most of which
remains to be harvested.
“Heavy
wind and rain will pull the lint right out of the bolls if this continues,” he
said. “We’re right on the front end of harvest, so we don’t need any more of
this stuff — it needs to get out of here, so we can get to pickin’.”
Jarrod
Hardke, rice agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of
Agriculture, said damage to unharvested rice acres was visible as he toured
areas in northern Arkansas following the storms.
“Wind
and rain did a number on remaining rice in the field,” he said. “Fields ready
for harvest have anywhere from small patches to large swaths of downed rice.
This will definitely slow down harvest in these fields and increase wear and
tear on combines.”
Jeffrey
Works, agricultural agent for the Poinsett Cooperative Extension office, said
Wednesday night’s rain broke a nearly month-long dry streak for the county,
during which growers had done much to reclaim the calendar from nearly a year
of ongoing, intermittent rains.
“These
farmers have been going at it non-stop, cutting,” Works said. “It’s a lot
different than last year, for sure.”
Rice Prices
as on : 01-10-2019 12:47:11 PM
Arrivals in tonnes;prices in
Rs/quintal in domestic market.
|
Arrivals
|
Price
|
|||||
|
Current
|
%
change |
Season
cumulative |
Modal
|
Prev.
Modal |
Prev.Yr
%change |
|
|
Rice
|
||||||
|
Bangalore(Kar)
|
2954.00
|
16.71
|
44904.00
|
4500
|
4500
|
4.65
|
|
Gadarpur(Utr)
|
859.00
|
8.32
|
49375.00
|
2840
|
2200
|
-
|
|
Pilibhit(UP)
|
800.00
|
1130.77
|
5412.50
|
2685
|
2695
|
4.68
|
|
Bindki(UP)
|
300.00
|
200
|
3640.00
|
2440
|
2430
|
-
|
|
Siliguri(WB)
|
145.00
|
-40.33
|
5798.00
|
3800
|
3800
|
-
|
|
Agra(UP)
|
77.00
|
-3.75
|
2817.00
|
2610
|
2630
|
2.76
|
|
Aligarh(UP)
|
70.00
|
NC
|
2535.00
|
2540
|
2560
|
1.60
|
|
Barhaj(UP)
|
70.00
|
-30
|
4443.00
|
2420
|
2400
|
7.08
|
|
Bhivandi(Mah)
|
65.00
|
116.67
|
437.00
|
2200
|
2300
|
-19.71
|
|
Puranpur(UP)
|
60.00
|
NC
|
2460.00
|
2730
|
2700
|
7.06
|
|
Gauripur(ASM)
|
48.00
|
-4
|
1709.50
|
4500
|
4500
|
NC
|
|
Beldanga(WB)
|
40.00
|
NC
|
1375.00
|
2700
|
2600
|
1.89
|
|
Naugarh(UP)
|
37.50
|
-2.6
|
1677.50
|
2470
|
2460
|
19.61
|
|
Basti(UP)
|
35.00
|
-12.5
|
737.50
|
2470
|
2460
|
14.09
|
|
Muzzafarnagar(UP)
|
30.00
|
NC
|
812.00
|
2790
|
2835
|
1.82
|
|
Lakhimpur(UP)
|
30.00
|
-14.29
|
1139.00
|
2460
|
2450
|
7.89
|
|
Asansol(WB)
|
28.00
|
14.29
|
1785.30
|
3000
|
2900
|
NC
|
|
Karsiyang(Matigara)(WB)
|
24.50
|
965.22
|
549.40
|
3400
|
3400
|
13.33
|
|
Durgapur(WB)
|
24.00
|
-4
|
1227.60
|
2750
|
2700
|
-2.65
|
|
Chintamani(Kar)
|
23.00
|
9.52
|
88.00
|
2800
|
2800
|
24.44
|
|
Cachar(ASM)
|
20.00
|
-50
|
2380.00
|
2400
|
2400
|
NC
|
|
Dadri(UP)
|
20.00
|
33.33
|
553.00
|
2950
|
2950
|
7.66
|
|
Sitapur(UP)
|
18.00
|
NC
|
508.00
|
2460
|
2445
|
7.66
|
|
Champadanga(WB)
|
18.00
|
20
|
319.00
|
3050
|
3050
|
-4.69
|
|
Bankura Sadar(WB)
|
16.00
|
-30.43
|
113.00
|
2500
|
2400
|
-3.85
|
|
Indus(Bankura Sadar)(WB)
|
15.00
|
-40
|
1427.00
|
2800
|
2800
|
NC
|
|
Giridih(Jha)
|
12.34
|
27.35
|
194.89
|
3600
|
4200
|
2.86
|
|
Sahiyapur(UP)
|
11.50
|
21.05
|
806.50
|
2460
|
2450
|
13.63
|
|
Utraula(UP)
|
11.00
|
57.14
|
141.00
|
1860
|
1870
|
14.11
|
|
Badayoun(UP)
|
10.00
|
11.11
|
332.50
|
2600
|
2590
|
8.33
|
|
Vilthararoad(UP)
|
10.00
|
NC
|
541.00
|
2150
|
2150
|
-1.83
|
|
Karvi(UP)
|
8.50
|
-10.53
|
286.50
|
2360
|
2375
|
6.79
|
|
Chitwadagaon(UP)
|
8.00
|
-11.11
|
164.00
|
2100
|
2100
|
-
|
|
Khurja(UP)
|
7.50
|
-6.25
|
286.30
|
2680
|
2675
|
2.29
|
|
Panchpedwa(UP)
|
6.90
|
15
|
219.90
|
1975
|
1940
|
-
|
|
Kasganj(UP)
|
5.00
|
25
|
86.00
|
2560
|
2570
|
-7.25
|
|
Puwaha(UP)
|
5.00
|
25
|
283.20
|
2600
|
2480
|
4.00
|
|
Anandnagar(UP)
|
4.80
|
-78.18
|
154.60
|
2455
|
2400
|
9.11
|
|
Fatehpur(UP)
|
4.50
|
NC
|
726.50
|
2400
|
2410
|
8.11
|
|
Tamkuhi Road(UP)
|
4.50
|
-35.71
|
393.00
|
2250
|
2250
|
4.65
|
|
Kosikalan(UP)
|
3.50
|
-12.5
|
151.50
|
2613
|
2610
|
0.89
|
|
Maudaha(UP)
|
1.90
|
-17.39
|
105.00
|
2375
|
2360
|
6.03
|
|
Jambusar(Kaavi)(Guj)
|
1.00
|
NC
|
63.00
|
3200
|
3100
|
-
|
|
Achnera(UP)
|
0.70
|
NC
|
26.70
|
2550
|
2550
|
NC
|
|
Achalda(UP)
|
0.70
|
-41.67
|
16.50
|
2600
|
2600
|
85.71
|
Published on October 01, 2019
Found: 588
Carp Teeth From China’s Oldest-Known Fish Farm
Chinese farmers domesticated the common carp as early as 6200 BC,
researchers say.
SABRINA IMBLEROCTOBER 1, 2019
Found: 588 Carp Teeth From China's
Oldest-Known Fish Farm
Rice terraces in China's Guangxi Province. MIQUITOS/CC BY 2.0
In This Story
Honghe Hani Rice
Terraces
China
IN
THE 1960S, AN EXCAVATION of Chinese tombs from the Eastern Han Dynasty,
in what’s now Shanxi Province, unearthed a clay model of a rice paddy that held
tiny clay fish. The miniatures, which were created between the years 25 and
220, depict the ancient practice of rice-fish farming, in which farmers stocked
their flooded rice fields with carp, according to Rice-Fish Culture in
China. It’s a symbiotic relationship. When grown together, the
rice plants require fewer pesticides; the carp eat weeds and insect pests,
while also providing natural fertilizer.
References to this kind of aquaculture date
back to the oldest surviving collection of Chinese poetry, the Shijing,
or Book of
Odes, which was written around the 11th century BC. It notes that
Chinese farmers reared carp in ponds during the period 1142 to 1135 BC. But the
origins of this practice are murky, because fish bones are less easily
fossilized than those of other, larger livestock. Now, a new study led by
Tsuneo Nakajima of the Lake Biwa Museum in Japan, and published in Nature Ecology &
Evolution, suggests the practice of rice-fish aquaculture
actually began thousands of years earlier than previously believed—around 6200
BC.
The researchers had a hunch that these
aquaculture systems originated a long time ago, because rice paddies have been
around since 5000 BC, four millennia earlier than the first evidence of carp
aquaculture. Some researchers guessed that the rice-and-fish system might have
developed around that time, Mark Hudson, an archaeologist at the Max Planck
Institute for the Science of Human History who co-authored the study, writes in
an email. “Carp are a fish that can thrive in waters affected or controlled by
humans,” he says.
A historical illustration of a common carp. BIODIVERSITY
HERITAGE LIBRARY/CC BY 2.0
One site showed particular promise for an
investigation into the origins of fish-rice aquaculture: Jiahu, a settlement
occupied from around 7000 to 5700 BC in the Yellow River Basin of Henan
Province, in central China. By Neolithic standards, Jiahu was positively
cosmopolitan. Archaeologists have unearthed many signs of a complex society,
such as flute fragments carved from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes—some
of the earliest examples of playable musical instruments, according to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In other
words, if any Neolithic Chinese culture were to have domesticated fish, it
would probably be Jiahu.
'Batnadoes' Can
Protect California’s Crops
To search for
Jiahu’s ancient fish remains, the researchers excavated the site’s trash heaps
using a mesh sieve, to filter them from the soil. “Bones from carp and other
things that have been eaten are usually jumbled together in rubbish pits,”
Hudson says. The researchers compared what they found at Jiahu to remains from
other contemporary sites in China and Japan, as well as modern-day carp from a
farm in Japan’s Matsukawa Village.
On land, most species of livestock are
physically distinct from their wild counterparts. The skeletons of domesticated
sheep, for example, tend to be proportionally smaller and older than those of their
wild sheep. This skeletal skewing makes it easy for archaeologists to discern
when humans began to rear a given species. But fish bones are much smaller and
more fragile than sheep bones, making them far less likely to be preserved. “In
fish, such skeletal changes are much less well-known, if indeed they exist,”
Hudson says. Instead, the researchers had to work with the best-preserved part
of the carp: their pharyngeal teeth, which are harder and thus more likely to
survive than bone, he says.
Co-author Junzo Uchiyama getting ready to measure carp collected
from a modern rice paddy. MARK HUDSON
At Jiahu, the researchers found a surprising
abundance of teeth from the common carp. Despite the fish’s name, common carp
aren’t quite as easy to find as crucian carp, which stay closer to shores and
riverbanks throughout the entire year, making them an easier catch. Yet 75 percent
of the 588 carp teeth that were recovered came from the common carp.
According to Hudson, it’s relatively easy to
extrapolate a fish’s body length from the size of its teeth. When the
researchers calculated the probable body lengths of the Jiahu bones, they found
an unnatural pattern, which suggested the carp had been farmed. According to
prior research of carp bones at other Paleolithic sites in China and Japan, the
body lengths thrown out by hunter-gatherers generally formed a bell curve that
peaked at 11.8 inches, the average size of a mature adult carp—the kind you’d
want to catch and eat. Bones found in the oldest layers at the Jiahu site
produced similar body length patterns.
But starting around 6200 BC at Jiahu, the
archaeologists found two bell curves, one
representing the adult fish and another representing smaller, younger fish. The
researchers believe the simultaneous abundance of these two body lengths
suggest these fish were not caught wild as adults, but harvested from a pond,
meaning that immature fish were caught alongside full-grown ones. This
distribution pattern of two common body lengths, adult and juvenile, appeared
in excavations of more recent sites with a known history of aquaculture.
The Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in Yunnan Province. JIALIANG
GAO/CC BY 3.0
The researchers’ findings help to answer a
larger question at the heart of early aquaculture: whether domesticated carp
were moved from Europe to Asia, vice-versa, or neither, writes Jennifer Harland, an archaeologist
at the University of the Highlands and Islands, in a comment in Nature.
During the Roman Empire, carp were eaten but likely not domesticated in ponds
until the 12th century, according to medieval historian Richard
Hoffman in a 1995 study published in Guelph Ichthyology Reviews. Harland
believes that the new findings at Neolithic Jiahu suggest the common carp was
domesticated twice, once in Asia and once in Europe.
Though the researchers found ample carp teeth
at Jiahu, they have not yet found traces of rice paddies. They hope to continue
searching for traces of these fields to pinpoint when the rice-fish farming
first emerged, as they believe this system—like the domestication of the
carp—may be more ancient than previously thought. Today, rice-fish farms are
found all across China. In the Ailao Mountains in Yunnan Province, for example,
a spectacular mosaic of rice terraces cascade down the slopes and
support a variety of carp, including crucian, silver,
and, of course, common.
57 rice
companies fold operations
TUESDAY OCTOBER 1
2019
Redudant rice milling machines at Damaza Grain
Millers Limited factory in Jinja District. The company is among those that laid
off some workers due to low production capacity. PHOTO by Joanita Mbabazi
In Summary
Increased importation of white fine rice from
other countries such as Tanzania which is not subjected to tax is greatly
crippling the local rice business, Joanita Mbabazi writes.
By Joanita Mbabazi
Recently, rice farmers, millers and exporters
petitioned the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga to stop the eviction of
rice farmers from wetlands in favour of foreign investors.
Mr Isaac Kashaija, the chairperson of the Rice Business Sector Association, said the rice farmers were stopped from growing rice in wetlands, a situation that has left many jobless.
“If we are growing rice in wetlands and government thinks we are not doing it the right way, then we need to be guided on the best modern farming practices of growing rice in because rice as a food crop best grows in wetland areas. We are surprised that the wetlands are being given to investors to grow rice, leaving us the local farmers with no space to grow rice and the only option is to quit rice growing,” said Mr Maliba Christopher a farmer in Bugweri district.
To prove their outcry, Daily Monitor visited some of the rice milling factories and the rice gardens. At Damaza Grain Millers Limited factory, redundant machines greet us. Here, few workers also load skeletal sacks of rice for few locals who had come to buy the commodity. This was the same case at Wereke Investment Limited factory.
Much as we expected to hear sounds of machines sorting rice, or some activity involving loading and offloading sacks of both of sorted and paddy rice (rice with husks), this was not the case.
According to the owner of Damaza Grain Millers Limited, Mr Drake Magara, they laid off some workers due to low production capacity.
“On a daily basis, we used to mill around 50 tonnes of rice in a day. But now, we only mill five tonnes of rice.”
Mr Magara attributes this to farmers who ditched rice farming for other food commercial crops that can be grown on land as some have already faced eviction from wetlands to grow rice.
“Farmers have been evicted from the rice fields. They no longer get enough paddy rice to mill forcing them to lay off some workers. I have been employing 50 employees both those operating the machines to sort out rice and others in packaging loading and offloading. But I was forced to remain with 25 employees only,” Mr Magara says.
He adds that instead, imported rice has flooded the country.
“Why would we rely on foreign food like rice yet it can be locally grown here?” Magara adds.
Mr Isaac Kashaija, the chairperson of the Rice Business Sector Association, said the rice farmers were stopped from growing rice in wetlands, a situation that has left many jobless.
“If we are growing rice in wetlands and government thinks we are not doing it the right way, then we need to be guided on the best modern farming practices of growing rice in because rice as a food crop best grows in wetland areas. We are surprised that the wetlands are being given to investors to grow rice, leaving us the local farmers with no space to grow rice and the only option is to quit rice growing,” said Mr Maliba Christopher a farmer in Bugweri district.
To prove their outcry, Daily Monitor visited some of the rice milling factories and the rice gardens. At Damaza Grain Millers Limited factory, redundant machines greet us. Here, few workers also load skeletal sacks of rice for few locals who had come to buy the commodity. This was the same case at Wereke Investment Limited factory.
Much as we expected to hear sounds of machines sorting rice, or some activity involving loading and offloading sacks of both of sorted and paddy rice (rice with husks), this was not the case.
According to the owner of Damaza Grain Millers Limited, Mr Drake Magara, they laid off some workers due to low production capacity.
“On a daily basis, we used to mill around 50 tonnes of rice in a day. But now, we only mill five tonnes of rice.”
Mr Magara attributes this to farmers who ditched rice farming for other food commercial crops that can be grown on land as some have already faced eviction from wetlands to grow rice.
“Farmers have been evicted from the rice fields. They no longer get enough paddy rice to mill forcing them to lay off some workers. I have been employing 50 employees both those operating the machines to sort out rice and others in packaging loading and offloading. But I was forced to remain with 25 employees only,” Mr Magara says.
He adds that instead, imported rice has flooded the country.
“Why would we rely on foreign food like rice yet it can be locally grown here?” Magara adds.
A rice farmer in a wetland in Jinja. Farmers have been evicted from
their rice fields. PHOTO BY Joanita Mbabazi
Low price
The price of local rice has gone down because local millers and retailers have to earn something to compete with the imported rice from other countries.
“This discourages farmers because a kilo of paddy rice costs Shs500, from a farmer. At retail price, a kilo of local fine rice costs Shs2,500 while a kilo of imported white fine rice is Shs3,000. We cannot sell at Shs3,000 because we shall not make more sales since we are competing with the imported rice as well on the market,” Mr Geoffrey Sudayisi, a retail business man in Jinja District says.
The rice sector employs more than 49,000 both millers, importers and farmers. But with the continuous low production, these are likely to abandon the business. Already, 57 companies that have been operating in losses of about Shs38b have closed business due to low production and meeting costs such as electricity and paying off workers. Bu and taxes cannot be affordable as they are earning less from the business.
Demand
According to Mr Isaac Kashaija, chairperson Rice Business Sector Association Limited, between 2007 and 2014, the demand of rice was about 225,000 metric tonnes but factories only produced 165,000 metric tonnes. From 2014 to 2017, the demand for rice increased to 499,200 but they were only able to produce 272,881 metric tonnes of rice.
In 2017 to 2019, the demand did not increase and remained the same like in 2017 but they were only able to produce 215,741 metric tonnes of rice. This implies that despite increased demand for rice, they cannot meet the production capacity to satisfy the all local consumers who need rice due to the increased decline in the production levels.
Mr Kashaija also complains that the increased importation of white fine rice from other countries like Tanzania which is not subjected to tax is greatly crippling the local rice business for people to earn from it.
14 rice import companies which include SWT Tanners Limited, General Agencies Uganda Limited,Ssuna Limited , Willex Commodities Limited, Akhcom Limited, Jassani General Trading Limited, Singa Rice Limited, Armour Trading Company Limited, Jan Mohammed Investments Limited,Galorre Intrenational Limited, Imba Foods Uganda Limited, Zen Trading Limited and Mabu Commodities, have been relieved of paying tax due to a delayed court appeal filed by these companies against Uganda Revenue Authority at the Commercial Court since 2014 opposing the 18 per cent VAT.
The price of local rice has gone down because local millers and retailers have to earn something to compete with the imported rice from other countries.
“This discourages farmers because a kilo of paddy rice costs Shs500, from a farmer. At retail price, a kilo of local fine rice costs Shs2,500 while a kilo of imported white fine rice is Shs3,000. We cannot sell at Shs3,000 because we shall not make more sales since we are competing with the imported rice as well on the market,” Mr Geoffrey Sudayisi, a retail business man in Jinja District says.
The rice sector employs more than 49,000 both millers, importers and farmers. But with the continuous low production, these are likely to abandon the business. Already, 57 companies that have been operating in losses of about Shs38b have closed business due to low production and meeting costs such as electricity and paying off workers. Bu and taxes cannot be affordable as they are earning less from the business.
Demand
According to Mr Isaac Kashaija, chairperson Rice Business Sector Association Limited, between 2007 and 2014, the demand of rice was about 225,000 metric tonnes but factories only produced 165,000 metric tonnes. From 2014 to 2017, the demand for rice increased to 499,200 but they were only able to produce 272,881 metric tonnes of rice.
In 2017 to 2019, the demand did not increase and remained the same like in 2017 but they were only able to produce 215,741 metric tonnes of rice. This implies that despite increased demand for rice, they cannot meet the production capacity to satisfy the all local consumers who need rice due to the increased decline in the production levels.
Mr Kashaija also complains that the increased importation of white fine rice from other countries like Tanzania which is not subjected to tax is greatly crippling the local rice business for people to earn from it.
14 rice import companies which include SWT Tanners Limited, General Agencies Uganda Limited,Ssuna Limited , Willex Commodities Limited, Akhcom Limited, Jassani General Trading Limited, Singa Rice Limited, Armour Trading Company Limited, Jan Mohammed Investments Limited,Galorre Intrenational Limited, Imba Foods Uganda Limited, Zen Trading Limited and Mabu Commodities, have been relieved of paying tax due to a delayed court appeal filed by these companies against Uganda Revenue Authority at the Commercial Court since 2014 opposing the 18 per cent VAT.
Import duty
These argue that they are currently paying 75 per cent import duty on rice, six per cent Withholding Tax, and 1.5 per cent infrastructure levy. Therefore, the addition of 18 per cent VAT levy would make their products expensive and unaffordable for customers.
“These are greatly enjoying the market space in the country as no ruling has been made yet since 2014 to date. During that financial year of 2014/2015, the VAT tax law was meant to work but these companies objected it saying this was abrupt and they were not notified as they had targeted to import rice for the festive season that year.
“But since 2014, up to now we find this unfair because when some exporters go to Tanzania much as it is part of the East African Community (EAC), they are charged taxes. But these importers must also pay the 18 per cent VAT tax,” Mr Kashaija says.
According to Mr Everest Kayondo, Kampala City Trader’s Association chairperson, importers within the EAC cannot pay tax on imports and exports due to the free movement of goods of services in all partner states. However, those who are not under this body find it fair enough to pay tax for their imported rice especially from Pakistan and India.
These argue that they are currently paying 75 per cent import duty on rice, six per cent Withholding Tax, and 1.5 per cent infrastructure levy. Therefore, the addition of 18 per cent VAT levy would make their products expensive and unaffordable for customers.
“These are greatly enjoying the market space in the country as no ruling has been made yet since 2014 to date. During that financial year of 2014/2015, the VAT tax law was meant to work but these companies objected it saying this was abrupt and they were not notified as they had targeted to import rice for the festive season that year.
“But since 2014, up to now we find this unfair because when some exporters go to Tanzania much as it is part of the East African Community (EAC), they are charged taxes. But these importers must also pay the 18 per cent VAT tax,” Mr Kashaija says.
According to Mr Everest Kayondo, Kampala City Trader’s Association chairperson, importers within the EAC cannot pay tax on imports and exports due to the free movement of goods of services in all partner states. However, those who are not under this body find it fair enough to pay tax for their imported rice especially from Pakistan and India.
Power
Companies which have closed business include:
•Kikagate Traders Ltd, Taubah General Enterprises, Band Investment Uganda Limited,
•Upland Rice Millers Company Limited,
•Royal Rice Limited,
•Pearl Rice Ltd,
•Eastern Rice Company Limited,
•OBN Produce and Supply Company Limited,
•Link N Global Commodity Limited,
•3R Agro industries Limited
•Rwenzori Upland Rice Company Limited among others
Companies which have closed business include:
•Kikagate Traders Ltd, Taubah General Enterprises, Band Investment Uganda Limited,
•Upland Rice Millers Company Limited,
•Royal Rice Limited,
•Pearl Rice Ltd,
•Eastern Rice Company Limited,
•OBN Produce and Supply Company Limited,
•Link N Global Commodity Limited,
•3R Agro industries Limited
•Rwenzori Upland Rice Company Limited among others
Sugar liberalization resisted as industry cites rice farmers’ plight
October 1, 2019 | 11:00 pm
Workers loading sugar cane in
Negros Oriental. -- BW FILE PHOTO
SENATE Majority Leader Juan
Miguel F. Zubiri said he will oppose the liberalization of sugar imports,
citing the impact of rice tariffication, the policy cited as a potential model
for the commodity.
“We’ve seen the impact of the
Rice Tariffication Law. There is no (denying) that it has affected our farmers.
And so, they are trying to figure out what to do nowkasi nangangapa pa rin
sila (everyone is still adjusting to what has happened in the rice
industry). We don’t want this to happen to the sugar industry,” he told
reporters.
“I will fight against the
liberalization of sugar industry for the precise reasons that it will kill 5
million people directly and indirectly and it will affect provinces
nationwide,” he added.
The Sugar Regulatory
Administration (SRA) approves import permits and determines how much can be
imported for the current crop year, based on assessments of domestic
production. Imports are charged a 5% tariff.
In 2018, the SRA approved imports
of 250,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar in August, and another 150,000
metric tons of raw and refined sugar in October. This was implemented to
address projections of low raw sugar production in crop year (CY) 2018-2019,
which at 2.073 million MT was lower than the revised target of 2.079 million MT
and the initial target of 2.25 million MT.
Asked to comment, SRA Administrator
Hermenegildo R. Serafica said the agency has yet to discuss the issue.
“I do not want to pre-empt kung
ano ang decision ng (the decision of the) Sugar
Board. We have yet to meet on this issue… we will discuss this matter soon,” he
told BusinessWorld.
The Department of Finance (DoF)
on Sept. 27 formally proposed import liberalization for the sugar industry,
along the lines of policies adopted for the rice industry. It noted that
removing restrictions on imports would allow for transparency, competitive
pricing, and allow downstream industries to grow as fast as their ASEAN
counterparts.
Finance Secretary Carlos G.
Dominguez III signaled in July that the government is taking a close look at
sugar imports because domestic prices are double the world market price,
hindering the competitiveness of the food processing industry.
The Confederation of Sugar
Producers (CONFED) has said that liberalizing imports would damage government
efforts to develop the sugar industry.
“To be faced with liberalized
importation at this point will lead to the demise of the sugar industry and
will undermine all efforts of the Duterte administration to help the industry,”
Raymond V. Montinola, spokesperson of CONFED said in a statement.
“Malaysia and Indonesia (strictly
regulate) the entry of imported sugar to ensure that it does not compete and
kill their own local sugar industries,” Mr. Montinola added. — Vincent
Mariel P. Galang
Sen. Risa Hontiveros calls for massive subsidies, palay buying
operations to help rice farmers.
October 2, 2019, 3:18 PM
By Hannah Torregoza
Senator Risa Hontiveros on
Wednesday filed a resolution asking the Duterte government to immediately
release massive subsidies to help rice farmers cope with the falling prices of
palay.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros (Senator Risa Hontiveros / Facebook / File
Photo / MANILA BULLETIN)
In filing Senate Resolution No.
152, Hontiveros said it is imperative that the Executive branch immediately
implement emergency measures to cushion the “economic shock of rice farmers, in
light of the crisis of emergency proportions they now face.”
The government, she said, should
study as well the implementation of palay-buying operations to provide relief
to rice farmers severely affected by falling prices of rice.
“It has since become evident
based on government data and testimony from palay farmers themselves that the
mismanagement by relevant officials and delayed launch of Rice Competitiveness
Enhancement Program and safety nets for farmers has meant that things will
become far worse for our rice farmers before they become better,” Hontiveros
said.
She said the government should
prioritize the release of the remaining funds under the Rice Competitiveness
Enhancement Fund (RCEF) in the 2019 national budget and the 2019 rice import
tariff revenues.
The RCEF is estimated to be
between P3.5-billion and P6.5-billion and is supposed to be distributed as
direct cash assistance for poor rice farmers all over the country.
“With nearly half of rice farmers
– or nearly 400,000 out of 987,000 rice farming households – nationwide considered
poor, the government must allocate at least P5-billion per year as income
support for the farmers and their families,” Hontiveros suggested.
Until the said cash grants are
issued, the senator also said that government must study and initiate palay
buying operations where government via the National Food Authority (NFA) will
buy palay stocks from farmers using available funds, to “ensure recovery of the
average production cost by farmers in each province.
The government should also
consider imposing safeguard duties of up to 80 percent additional tariffs on
rice imports exceeding the minimum access volume, on top of present tariffs for
rice imports, to control the influx of imported rice.
She said the entry of imported
rice primarily caused the sharp decline in the prices of rice in the market.
Greed brought us ASF; ban all
pork imports
OCTOBER 02, 2019
GREED
BROUGHT US ASF; BAN ALL PORK IMPORTS
MARLEN V. RONQUILLO
WHEN
a crisis strikes, the small people are the ones readily thrown under an
18-wheeler truck with 15 tons of gravel. The truck then rolls back and forth
till the last of the bones turn into peppery dust. Nothing survives. From “dust
to dust.”
This
is the latest example. The spike in rice prices several months back was the
crisis used as a convenient cover to pass the rice tariffication law. Two
winners emerged. The government technocrats who truly believe that investing in
the country’s three million small rice farmers was a waste of time and
resources. (The 3 million small rice farmers are in the real world the backbone
of the country’s food security, but never mind.) The second and biggest winners
are the real estate nabobs in both chambers of Congress who wanted to grab all
the A-1 ricelands for conversion into residential subdivisions.
This
is the whole truth. The scrapping of the quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice
imports could have been postponed till eternity. There was always this
consideration of 3 million small lives, which would have been enough to thwart
any World Trade Organization (WTO) reminder. The WTO mandarins are hardcore
against QRs of any sort but the Philippine situation of 3 million small rice
farmers was a humanitarian case which the WTO mandarins would have excused,
although grudgingly.
Where
are the 3 million small rice farmers now? Palay prices are anywhere from P8 to
P10 per kilogram. The desperation is such that many small farmers are now
untying the ropes of their carabaos to have something on standby just in case
that fateful decision to just hang themselves is arrived at. Those who do not
live in the rice-farming areas have no sense of the depths of desperation
there. But it is real. In many farming areas, even the incentive to harvest
standing palay is lost.
A
crisis turns out winners and losers. And the small ones, historically, have
been the losers.
That
recent history is repeating itself with the current hog farm crisis.
As
farmgate prices of pork fell due to the scare of the African swine fever (ASF)
— a made-for-television news story because you just scare people and the
bobitos and the bobitas of TV would report it without worrying about depth and
context — the first to go under the 18-wheeler truck were the backyard raisers.
At a farmgate price of P95 per kg and a production cost of P110 and up (more if
you rely on commercial feeds and backyard raisers rely on commercial feeds 100
percent), hog raising became untenable. Except for the backyard farms run by
prosperous OFWs, which can sustain long stretches of losses, all the backyard
farms in Luzon outside of those based in Metro Manila’s slums and fed by swill,
have ceased operations. These were the farms with 20 sow levels or less.
Who
is telling the plight of these small backyard raisers that dot the countryside
of Luzon? Not the Department of Agriculture (DA). Not Mr. Duterte and Mr.
Panelo. Not the supposedly vigilant civil society that even abets the mass
closure of small hog farms due to “ pollution” concerns. Not their congressmen
preoccupied with another kind of pork — the pork barrel. Not the LGU leaders
who love the 15 minutes of fame that they get from closing down “polluters” —
small farms that pose insignificant threats to the environment.
Not
even TV journalism, which is 100 percent about scaring pork consumers,
altogether missing the sad human component of the ASF story — shuttered
backyard farms and the general misery that brings into an already depressed
countryside.
Sloppy
TV journalism has even failed to report on the entry points of the ASF,
considering our distance from the affected countries.
The
true source of the ASF has been reckless importation of frozen pork and pork
byproducts, which the DA officially sanctions via the irresponsible grants of
sanitary and quarantine permits. And which the meat processors import
recklessly, or bring into the country via technical smuggling — the
falsification and misrepresentation of import documents.
The
ASF was due to greed, the greed of the meat importers and meat processors. Not
a single blame can be pinned or attributed to domestic bio-security concerns
except for one thing — swill that the small urban hog raisers probably get from
the restaurants where the Chinese POGO workers eat, or the Chinese-only
restaurants that seem to pop out of every nook and cranny of the metropolis.
The
domestic hog industry, more so the under-financed backyard raisers, have been
at the receiving end of the brutal wages of the greed and recklessness. The
truth-impaired TV stories, which scare away the pork consumers due to the
numerous and repetitious returns of the same tired but stomach-churning
footage, now deal the hog raisers in the country, especially the small ones, a
second death.
Farmgate
prices are now down to P95 per kg, a price level that has sent many a small hog
raiser into a state of desperation. To give context to this price, this is like
the P8 per kg price of palay .
At
least for the small hog raisers, there is a way out of this crisis. The
imposition of a total ban on the importation of pork and pork byproducts will
provide immediate relief
Safeguard
duties to ease rice planters’ suffering – Agri-Fisheries Alliance
October 1, 2019
Sacks of imported rice are delivered to a rice
seller at San Andres district in Manila in this file photo.
THE Agri-Fisheries Alliance (AFA)
said the government must immediately impose safeguard duties that would
effectively raise tariffs on rice imports to stop farmers from incurring more
losses due to the continuous drop in the farm-gate price of unhusked rice.
In a statement, the AFA said it
“fully supports” the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) investigation into the
surge in rice imports to determine whether safeguard measures are warranted.
“The rice farmers are suffering
too much from the 35-percent tariff, which is too low and results in their
earning significantly [dropping] below the poverty level,” Philippine Chamber
of Agriculture and Food Inc. President Danilo V. Fausto said.
“We therefore ask for the
implementation of Section 10 of the Rice Tariffication Law, which states: In
order to protect the Philippine rice industry from sudden or extreme
fluctuations, a special safeguard duty on rice shall be imposed in accordance
with the Safeguard Measures Act,” Fausto added.
PCAFI is a member of AFA together
with other groups, such as Alyansa Agrikultura (AA), Coalition of Agriculture
Modernization in the Philippines (CAMP), Pambansang Kilusan ng Kababaihan sa
Kanayunan and Agrifisheries 2025.
AA Chairman Ernesto Ordoñez said
slapping safeguard duties on imported rice would prevent the government from
repeating its mistakes in the 1990s, when it unilaterally reduced tariffs on
agricultural products.
“We do not want a repeat of the
mistake during the 1990s when we agreed to the too rapid tariff reduction
without giving the farmers the necessary support services and the safeguard
measures approved by the World Trade Organization (WTO),” he said.
For his part, CAMP President Emil
Q. Javier said the government should implement safety net measures, such as
cash transfers and credit assistance, to help farmers cope with the new trade
regime.
Under the rules of the WTO and
the Safeguard Measures Act (Republic Act 8800), the government can impose the
so-called general safeguard duties on rice imports on top of the regular
tariffs if these are found to have caused, or threaten to cause, injury to rice
farmers.
The DA has launched a preliminary
investigation into rice imports last September 11 to determine if additional
duties are warranted. Manila has the option to impose a provisional duty for a
maximum of 200 days.
The Tariff Commission will then
conduct its own investigation within 60 to 120 days to determine whether the
provisional duty should be retained, amended or removed.
PCC
probes rice importers involved in undervaluation
October
1, 2019, 10:00 PM
By Madelaine B. Miraflor
Philippine Competition Commission
(PCC), the government’s antitrust body, is to launch an investigation against
rice traders who may have been undervaluing their imports to the detriment of
Filipino consumers.
Philippine
Competition Commission
This, as the agency moved closer to
securing Supreme Court’s green light to PCC’s proposed Rules on Inspection
Orders, which will allow the agency to conduct dawn raids and more means to
obtain evidence against parties suspected of anti-competitive practices.
“We are looking at it [the
misdeclaration of rice imports], definitely. We are looking at the parties
involved. The competition commission is a quasi-judicial body that has an
investigative power,” PCC Chairperson Arsenio Balisacan said in an interview
with reporters.
“The Supreme Court just issued the
rules on inspection that will allow us to secure evidence by way of dawn raids
and search warrants,” he added.
An earlier report showed that the
Philippine government should have earned more from rice imports, but local
traders might be declaring the wrong price to reduce their tariff obligations.
To be specific, the Federation of
Free Farmers (FFF) has earlier noticed a huge gap between the value of imported
rice declared by local traders and the landed cost of rice based on the data
from international monitoring groups such as the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO).
Under the Rice Tariffication Law (RA
11203), importers are allowed to bring in any volume of rice at any time
provided they pay a 35 percent tariff based on the declared value of their
imports.
Since the implementation of RA 11203
in March, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported that the Bureau of Customs
(BoC) had collected P5.9 billion in tariffs from the importation of 1.43
million metric tons (MT) of rice
FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor said that using DOF’s data and assuming a P52 per dollar exchange rate, it will come out that the average landed price of the rice imports before imposing tariffs was only US$227 per MT.
FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor said that using DOF’s data and assuming a P52 per dollar exchange rate, it will come out that the average landed price of the rice imports before imposing tariffs was only US$227 per MT.
Data from international monitoring
groups such as the FAO, however, indicate that the real landed cost of these
imports should have been around US$391 per ton if these were 25 percent broken
rice.
“In effect, importers appear to have
undervalued their shipments by 42 percent and paid P4.24 billion less than what
was due from them,” Montemayor said.
Balisacan, for his part, said that “if this misdeclaration is intended to manipulate prices then it is covered by our law”.
Balisacan, for his part, said that “if this misdeclaration is intended to manipulate prices then it is covered by our law”.
Magsasaka Partylist Representative
Argel Joseph T. Cabatbat earlier criticized PCC for not doing its mandate as
provided under RA 10667, otherwise known as the Philippine Competition Act.
This, as he called for a
congressional probe on the increasing number of rice cartels and rice smuggling
in the country.
“You know the law creating the PCC
authorizes the PCC to open the warehouses of suspected rice cartels even
without receiving complaints. But, unfortunately, we did not see any
accomplishment and remarkable action from the PCC,” Cabatbat said.
RA 10667 was signed into law by
former President Benigno S. Aquino on July 21, 2015.
Right now, farmers are now facing
the worst impact that the rice tariffication law could have on them — prices as
low as P8 per kilogram (/kg) to P12/kg, forcing them to sell their yield at a
loss.
As of the first week of September,
farm-gate prices of palay fell by 29.5 percent from P23.10/kg last year to
P16.28/kg, according to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Week on week, it
dropped by 2.4 percent from a price level of P16.68/kg.
Rice ‘fingerprinting’ to fight fraud:
'20-50% of all premium rice is adulterated’
- Last updated on GMT
Rice is the second most important food staple in the world. Around half of the world’s population – 3.5bn people – depend on rice as their primary staple food. Demand for rice products has surged as a result of population growth, evolving food preferences and urbanisation.
As demand has increased the risk of food fraud has also risen, with some unscrupulous actors in the supply chain selling sub standard rice to consumers. According to the authors of recent research into rice fraud, these activities often go undetected because existing analytical methods are ‘cumbersome, time consuming, expensive and can involve substantial use of chemicals’.
For this reason, researchers led by Professor Chris Elliott, have been working on a new rapid detection system to identify fraudulent products. In a recently published study, ‘Innovative and rapid analysis for rice authenticity using hand-held NIR spectrometry and chemometrics’, they unveiled a two-tiered testing system.
Mary McBride is director of global market regulatory and standards strategy at Agilent Technologies, the company that bank-rolled the research. She told FoodNavigator that the ‘first tier’ is a ‘rapid, field-portable, hand-held device’ based on molecular spectroscopy. This, she explained, can be used to ‘quickly scan the rice’. This scan collects a spectral ‘fingerprint’ and then looks for a match within a ‘large database’ – a spectral library of fingerprints. If the scan finds a match, the rice can be identified.
The second tier is a laboratory-based system based on mass spectrometry. “This approach is a very rigorous technology that provides detailed chemical analysis about the sample. It is used when fraud is suspected in order to help food authorities understand the nature of the fraud so they can stop it,” McBride continued.
Why a two-tiered system? According to McBride, it is a ‘very practical and very powerful’ approach because the first tier puts easy-to-use and affordable technology into the hands of consumers, producers, growers, manufacturers, traders and other actors in the supply chain. For instance, buyers can use it to scan products to confirm whether they are what they are purported to be, and sellers can use it to prove to buyers that the buyer can have confidence that they are actually buying what they think they are purchasing.
”People need to choose an approach that meets their specific testing requirements. There is no 'one size fits all' testing technology, nor is there a single ’best’ approach, rather, testing is about determining what the requirements are, and how best to meet those requirements. We believe that the two-tiered system is excellent because it is fit for purpose.”
Rice is a 'prime target' for fraud
Innovative
approaches to authenticate food products are needed because rice fraud is a
‘common problem’ - and one that is on the rise.
What
forms does adulteration take?
The forms of rice prone to adulteration
are brown rice, polished rice, rice flour, rice cake and rice bran oil, McBride
noted.Common types of adulteration in rice include:
- Substitution of all or a portion of premium rice with lower
quality, lower cost rice (e.g. blending premium Basmati rice with other
low-quality rice of similar appearance)
- Substitution of a portion of the rice with other substances (e.g.
replacing rice with paper pellets, sweet potatoes pellets milled to look
like grains of rice and even plastic resins
- Mis-labelling the age, origin or brand of the rice
This is because the economics of the rice trade make it a ‘prime target’ for fraudsters, she continued.
“There are thousands of varieties of rice – some are highly prized for superior flavour, aroma, and appearance, while others are lower quality. Consumers are willing to pay more for premium quality rice, and the differences in the value of rice make it a target for unscrupulous traders who are tempted to mix premium rice with low grade, low cost grains or products and low nutritious adulterants to profit with little effort.
“The economics of rice trade make it a prime target for adulteration. Rice adulteration occurs all over the world. Where there is a demand for foods like rice, fraudsters will seek to gain an economic advantage from avoidance of price caps, duties and tariffs. This risk is higher where more market regulation is in place.”
The form that the fraud takes can vary greatly and – while often more of a quality issue than a safety one – there can be implications for human health.
McBride noted: “Although the majority of food fraud incidents do not present food safety issues, there are some types of fraud that present food safety threats to consumers. For example, there have been incidents of rice being sold that contain high levels of pesticides, other chemical contaminants or illegal pesticides. There have also been reports of mouldy rice pulled from grain storage, chemically treated with bleach to remove the mould, and then sprayed with synthetic compounds that make the rice smell like premium rice. This old, mouldy, poor quality rice is then passed off to consumers as premium quality rice.”
The implications of this should not be underestimated: “The loss of consumer confidence can have very severe impacts on the food industry – entire brands, and even companies have gone out of business once the reputation of their brand has been compromised.”
The methodology developed by the study can ‘absolutely’ be extrapolated to combat other areas of food fraud, the quality and standards expert added. “We are really excited about the prospects of moving our approach for rice into other food commodities.”
Source
'Innovative and rapid analysis for rice authenticity using hand-held NIR spectrometry and chemometrics'
Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Authors: Ernest Teye, Charles L.Y. Amuah, Terry McGrath, Christopher Elliott
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.saa.2019.03.085
