SDD Contributor on December 1, 2019 at
2:46 am
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — They
had walked that once innocuous stretch of sidewalk side-by-side so many times.
Every Friday, Yasir Amin and his dad had ambled along the path toward the mosque where they prayed
together in peace, a routine so serene and so ordinary that Amin was nearly
blinded by confusion when the man drove up with the gun.
Amin and his father, Muhammad
Amin Nasir, were just 200 meters from the Al Noor mosque on Friday when
everything went wrong. They had no idea that a white supremacist had just
slaughtered at least 41 people inside the mosque‘s hallowed halls, or that more
people would be killed at a second mosque soon after. All they knew was that a
car that had been driving by had suddenly stopped. And a man was leaning out
the car‘s window, pointing a gun at them.
“RUN!” Amin screamed.
The bullets began to fly. The men
began to run. But at 67, Nasir couldn‘t keep up with his 35-year-old son. And
so he fell behind, by two or three fateful steps.
Amid the blasts, Amin turned to
scream at his father to get down on the ground. But his father was already
falling.
The gunman drove away. A pool of blood
poured from Nasir‘s body.
“Daddy!” Amin screamed. “Daddy!
DADDY!”
Yasir Amin, 35-year-old,
describes his run-in with the gunman in Friday‘s mass shootings Saturday, March
16, 2019, in Christchurch, New Zealand. (AP Photo/Kristen Gelineau)
Amin had never seen anyone shot
before. He left Pakistan for Christchurch five years ago, and was embraced by a
multicultural city that felt like the safest place on earth. His father, who
farms vegetables, wheat and rice back in Pakistan, also fell for the leafy green
city at the bottom of the world.
And so Nasir began making routine
visits to see his son, sometimes spending up to six months in New Zealand
before returning to Pakistan to tend to his crops. Nasir had been in town only
three weeks for his most recent visit when he was shot three times on the
street of the city he had adopted as a second home.
From the ground, Nasir stared up
at his son, unable to speak, tears running down his face. Amin ran to his car
to grab his phone and called the police. Officers quickly arrived, and soon the
father and son were in an ambulance racing to the hospital.
Nasir had always been more than
just a dad to Amin. When Amin was just 6, his mother died, leaving Nasir to
raise him along with his four siblings. Nasir became both a father and a
mother, a reliable source of laughter with a huge heart. He embraced Amin‘s new
community of New Zealand friends as if they were his own family. And in turn,
the community embraced Nasir — so much so, that it initially confused him.
The elder man was baffled by the
constant chipper greetings of “Hello!” he received whenever he dropped Amin‘s
children off at school. Why do they keep saying that to me? he asked his son.
Amused, Amin explained that the locals were simply trying to welcome him, their
own version of the Arabic peace greeting, “As-Salaam-Alaikum.”
Amin chuckled at the memory on
Saturday, one day after he brought his father to the hospital. Nasir remains in
an induced coma with critical injuries, though his condition has stabilized. The
bullets pierced his shoulder, chest and back.
Like many other victims
struggling to cope with the horrific events of Friday that left 49 dead, Amin
made his way to Hagley College near the hospital. The college was serving as a
community center for the grieving, and members of the public poured in with
meals and drinks, doling out hugs and words of support to those in need.
Outside the college, Javed
Dadabhai mourned for his gentle cousin, 35-year-old Junaid Mortara, who is
believed to have died in the first mosque attack. As of Saturday, many families
were still waiting to find out if their loved ones were alive.
“He‘s very punctual, so he
would‘ve been there at a dime. He would‘ve been there at 1:30,” Dadabhai said,
a reference to the time of the attack, which began soon after.
Mourners pay their respects at a
makeshift memorial near the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand,
Saturday, March 16, 2019. New Zealand‘s stricken residents reached out to
Muslims in their neighborhoods and around the country on Saturday, in a fierce
determination to show kindness to a community in pain as a 28-year-old white
supremacist stood silently before a judge, accused in mass shootings at two
mosques that left dozens of people dead.(AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
His cousin was the breadwinner of
the family, supporting his mother, his wife and their three children, ages 1 to
5. Mortara had inherited his father’s convenience store, which was covered in
flowers on Saturday.
Mortara was an avid cricket fan,
and would always send a sparring text with relatives over cricket matches when
Canterbury was facing Auckland.
“The sad thing is he was actually
due to come up to Auckland next weekend for a family wedding,” Dadabhai said.
“We were due to have a catch-up. But I never knew a more shy, soft-spoken kind
of person. … As cousins, you‘d kind of make fun of the fact when someone‘s so
gentle like that, but he‘s leaving a huge void.”
The long wait for information on
the status of the dead was particularly painful because Muslim tradition calls
for burials within 24 hours of a person‘s death.
Dadabhai said the community was
trying to be patient, because they understood there was a crime scene involved.
“But it‘s hard, because until that happens, the grieving process doesn‘t really
begin,” he said.
For some families, patience had
worn thin by Saturday, and frustration erupted as they waited to find out the
status of their relatives.
Ash Mohammed, 32, of
Christchurch, pushed through a police barricade outside the Al Noor mosque
Saturday morning, desperate for information, before police held him back.
“We just want to know if they are
alive or dead,” he could be heard telling an officer at the barricade.
In an interview later, Mohammed
said he was desperate for information about his brothers, Farhaj Ashashan, 30,
and Ramazvora Ashashan, 31, and his father, Asif Vora, 56, who were all at the
mosque on Friday.
“We just want to know, are they
alive or not alive so we can start the funerals,” he said. “The hospital‘s not
helping, cops not helping. Somebody has to help get the answers.”
As Amin waited and worried over
the fate of his father, he was also focused on trying to protect the youngest
members of his family. He and his wife have so far tried to shield their
children from hearing about the attack. But on Friday, Amin‘s wife briefly
turned on the news and an image of an ambulance popped onto the screen. Their
5-year-old son immediately dove under a table, assuming there was an
earthquake. Christchurch, no stranger to disaster, suffered a devastating quake
in 2011 that left 185 dead.
Though his relatives back in
Pakistan now fret that New Zealand is too dangerous, Amin believes Christchurch
is the safest place in the world. And he hopes that his funny, fiercely loving
father will pull through, so they can immerse themselves once again in the
friendly hellos and the peaceful Friday prayers they have long cherished.
Farid Ahmed, center, a
59-year-old survivor of the Friday mosque attacks, talks with other relatives
outside an information center for families, Saturday, March 16, 2019, in
Christchurch, New Zealand. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Like Amin, Farid Ahmed refuses to
turn his back on his adopted home. Ahmed lost his 45-year-old wife, Husna
Ahmed, in the Al Noor mosque attack, when they split up to go to the bathroom.
The gunman livestreamed the massacre on the internet, and Ahmed later saw a
video of his wife being shot dead. A police officer confirmed she had passed
away.
Despite the horror, Ahmed —
originally from Bangladesh — still considers New Zealand a great country.
“I believe that some people,
purposely, they are trying to break down the harmony we have in New Zealand
with the diversity,” he said. “But they are not going to win. They are not
going to win. We will be harmonious.”
AIADMK demands judicial
probe into SI’s death in Puducherry
PUDUCHERRY , NOVEMBER 30, 2019 23:02 IST
PM Imran announces measures to curb smog, improve air quality
November 30, 2019
Prime Minister Imran Khan addressing a press
conference in Lahore on Saturday. — DawnNewsTV
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday announced the government's
decision to take concrete measures to curb air pollution in the country.
The announcement came after a meeting was chaired earlier in the
day by the prime minister and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on smog and
environmental issues in Lahore.
Addressing a press conference in the evening, the premier
expressed regret that over the past 10 years, a 70 per cent decline had been
witnessed in the number of trees in the city.
"A 70 per cent drop in tree cover has meant far-reaching
consequences," he said.
He said that with a dense tree cover, pollution particles are
absorbed by the leaves. And with them being cut, the city had faced a great
loss.
The government's anti air pollution measures at a glance:
1.
Oil
that meets EU's Euro-4 emission standard will now be imported. By the end of
2020, a shift will be made to oil that meets the Euro-5 emission standard.
2.
Oil
refineries will be given a three-year warning period to improve the quality of
oil produced. If they fail, they will be shut down.
3.
The
auto industry will be asked to shift towards electric vehicles. All buses will
either be hybrid, electric or CNG-based.
4.
Imported
machinery will assist farmers to make use of the post-harvest rice crop, rather
than burn it.
5.
Brick
kilns will be given financial aid to use zigzag technology which is environmentally
friendly.
6.
Import
duties on scrubbers will be removed so air pollution from steel factories can
be curbed.
7.
An
urban forestry initiative in Lahore will see tree plantation over 60,000 kanals
of land.
The premier noted that while crop burning in India and Pakistan as
well as smoke from factories and brick kilns are all contributing factors to
air pollution, the biggest contributor is vehicular smoke.
"What adds the most to air pollution is transport. [To
combat] this, we have made certain decisions," he said.
He said that Pakistan relies on 50-60 per cent of imports for oil
and currently imports oil that meets the European Union's Euro 2 emission
standard. "We have decided we will import a more clean (environmental
friendly) oil, [which will meet] the Euro 4 standard."
"[This Euro 4 compliant oil] has fewer chemicals which
pollute the air. By the end of 2020, we will shift to the Euro 5 emission
standard. We feel this will have a 90 per cent impact on the quality of
air."
He said that the decisions had been made after a detailed meeting
with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on petroleum division,
Nadeem Babar.
Announcing other measures, the prime minister said that oil
refineries will be given a period of three years to improve the quality of oil
produced. "The quality they are producing has a lot of pollutants."
"If they do not move towards producing cleaner oil in this
time, we will shut them down," warned the premier.
He also announced that the government had decided to shift the
focus of the auto industry towards electric vehicles. "We are holding
talks with the car industries, because they have certain reservations."
The prime minister said that an incentive policy will be
introduced in 2020. He said the new government policy will lay special emphasis
on buses.
"The buses that run across our cities will either be hybrid
vehicles or electric. Or, we may insist on CNG, like in Delhi, where they run
buses only on CNG."
Speaking of the practice whereby farmers burn rice crop after its
harvest, the premier said that imported machinery will be brought in which will
facilitate the farmers to make use of the post-harvest crop, making it possible
for it to be sold. This will ensure that there is no need to burn the crop,
drastically reducing the air pollution caused otherwise.
He then spoke of steel factories and brick kilns, "which are
the main sources of the hazardous, fine air particles known as PM2.5".
The prime minister said that import duties on scrubbers will be
removed, so that the steel factories can purchase them. Scrubbers are systems
that use liquid (typically water) to remove particulates from industrial
exhaust streams.
He said that similarly, brick kilns, will be financially aided by
the government to use zigzag technology which will reduce air pollution.
Turning to Lahore, he said that an urban forestry initiative will
be undertaken in the city. "We have identified 60,000 kanals of land where
we will grow trees so they can clean the city's air."
"The impact will be slow. These are steps which should have
been taken 20 years ago but no one bothered," said the prime minister,
adding: "We feel that every year people should see an improvement (in air
quality). And in three years a significant difference will be seen."
The prime minister recognised that Lahore is not the only city
suffering from high levels of pollution. "It is an issue in Karachi, in
Peshawar, in Pindi. This issue (of pollution) will greatly affect our future
generations if we do not take steps to combat it today."
"Pollution is a silent killer, unlike when you witness an
accident or a murder. And it is very dangerous," he said, regretting that
Pakistan has now reached the top in the list of most polluted cities.
Flour price up and fuel,
others stable in Kabul
11/30/2019 10:15:16 AM
(MENAFN - Pajhwok Afghan News)
KABUL ok): The price of four increased while that of other items stayed stable
in capital Kabul during the outgoing week, markets sources said Saturday.
Mohammad Samim, a wholesaler in
Kabul's Mandavi Market, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the price of a 49-kilogram
bag of Kazakhstani flour increased from 1,650 afghanis to 1,670 afghanis during
the week.
Factors behind growing flour
price
Samim cited ban and high tax on
flour imports from Pakistan by the Afghan government and hike in flour price in Kazakhstan
as reasons behind the surge in rates.
However, the prices of other
items remained steady.
Samim said 49kg of Pakistani
sugar cost 1,920afs, 24kg of Pakistani rice 2,200afs, 16 liters of Khurshid
ghee 1,130 afs, a kilogram of Indonesian green tea 300afs and the same quantity
of African black tea 320afs, the same rates of last week's.
Ahmad Mustafa, who owns a grocery
store in Taimani area of Kabul, sold a 50-kg sack of Kazakhstani flour for
1,750afs, a 49-kg bag of sugar for 2,000afs, 24-kg of Pakistani rice 2,500afs a
16-litre tin of ghee for 1,200afs, one-kg of Indonesian green tea for 320afs
and the same amount of black African tea for 360afs—higher than wholesale
rates.
Fuel rates also remained
unchanged
Abdul Hadi, a worker at Wazirabad
Fuel Station in Kabul, said that the price of a liter of petrol was 51afs and
the same quantity of diesel 48afs.
Mohammad Akram, a liquefied gas
seller in Taimani area of Kabul city, said that the price of a kilogram of the
commodity was 50afs.
Haji Fawad Ahmad Salehzada, a jeweler
in Timor Shahee area of Kabul, told Pajhwok that the price of one gram of
Arabian gold was 30,50afs and the same quantity of Russian variety 2,450afs,
the same rates of last week's.
US dollar and Pakistani rupee
pick up slightly against afghani
Haji Mir Hussian Sadaqat, a
moneychanger at the Money Exchange Service in Sara-i-Shahzada, said one US
dollar was accounted for 78.75afs and 1,000 Pakistani rupees for 499afs against
last week's 78.10afs and 493afs.
Pk/ma
MENAFN3011201901740000ID1099349702
AMRI Set To Work On Four Machines For Rice Crop
MULTAN, Dec 1 (APP - UrduPoint /
Pakistan Point News - 1st Dec, 2019 ) ::Agriculture Mechanization
Research Institute (AMRI) in collaboration with Punjab Agriculture (Extension)
Department is working for preparing cost effective four different
machines for rice crop.
According to AMRI officer Abdul
Aaleem, Federal and
Provincial governments were working to enhance wheat, rice, sugarcane and oil seed production. In line
with a project, four different machines for rice crop would be prepared at
AMRI.
The machines includes rice planters of two different types, rice
raising nursery machine, rice remains shredder machine.
The agriculture department
would import these
machines soon and hand over these machines to AMRI department. The AMRI,
through its reverse engineering, would make cost effective machines. The
farming community is faced with severe shortage of labour. The machines would help
address the issue of labour shortage. The agriculture department
completed file work for importing the machines.
About AMRI achievements in past,
Abdul Aaleem said the institute was undertaking Research & Development for
low cost and
appropriate agricultural machinery and farm mechanization technologies which
consist of different sections i.e. design & development, fabrication, test
& field research, agronomy and instrumentation.
The institute is providing industrial extension service to the
local agricultural machinery manufactures for production of standardized and
quality machinery. It also imparts technical guidance to farmers for proper
selection, operation and maintenance of agricultural machinery and equipment.
He maintained that AMRI said that
AMRI had developed over 120 cost effective agriculture machines so far
since its inception from 1978.
Out of locally developed over 120
machines, nearly 49 machines had become commercial, he said and added that
developed machines were identified as Seed Cleaner/Grader, Rabi Drill,
Cultivator Drill, Dry sowing/Runner Drill, Rota Drill, Thresher, Wheat straw Chopper Drill,
Rota Drill, Thresher, mobile Bhoosa
Baler, Seed Delinter, Seed Treater, Kharif Drill, Precision Planter, Cotton Ridge with Fertilizer,
Bed and Furrow shaper planter, Rotary Slasher, Root Digger, Intercultural
Toolbar, Sugarcane Ridger, Sugarcane planter, Stubble Shaver, Axial Flow Pump,
Sprinkle Gun, Vegetable Ridger, Potato Planter, Rotary Potato Digger, Post hole digger, Fruit
Picker, Potato Digger Shaker, Mango Hot water treatment plant,
Vegetable nursery transplanter, Maize Sheller, Self Leveling Boom Sprayer,
Orchard Sprayer, Fertilizer Broadcaster, Fodder Cutter, Fodder Chopper, Mango pruner and some others.
Lahore looks for answers amid ‘air
apocalypse’
30/11/2019
LAHORE:
When black smoke from burning rice stubble in nearby India swept into Lahore –
one of Pakistan’s largest and wealthiest cities – earlier this month, outraged
residents declared an “air apocalypse” and the provincial government shut down
schools. But even the city’s own thick autumn smog – driven in large part by
emissions from polluting vehicles – is becoming a significant threat to health
and basic rights, residents and human rights groups warn.
“Air pollution … claims tens of thousands of lives, devastates the health of millions, and denies other rights, like the right to education, when children cannot go to school,” said Omar Waraich, South Asia campaigns director for Amnesty International. “This is a human rights crisis,” he said. This autumn, Lahore’s worsening air quality has led it to overtaking New Delhi on some days as the most polluted city in the world, according to the community-led Pakistan Air Quality Initiative.
“Both Lahore and Delhi now have a similar number of days of very unhealthy or hazardous air pollution” said Abid Omar, a founder of the non-profit initiative. Since October, the city of more than 10 million has been engulfed most days by a smoky, chemical haze that is relieved only briefly when it rains. Warmer air layers above the cooler air at ground level act like a lid that keeps the pollutants close to the ground, according to Pakistan’s Meteorological Department.
Across the city, many residents now wear disposable anti-pollution masks – but they are a poor fit for the faces of vulnerable young children, residents say. Air quality is so bad that it exceeds even the worst ratings of the World Health Organization, said Attiya Noon, an air quality activist in Lahore and the mother of three young children. Pollution “is now beyond the index” – which means serious consequences for the city’s health, said Noon, a member of the Punjab government’s newly set up Smog Committee.
The committee was hurriedly established earlier this month when air quality levels became so hazardous in Punjab’s capital that schools had to be shut down three times, and social media channels erupted with outrage. The smog group now aims to find both immediate and longer-term ways to reduce pollution. Mahbina Waheed, a Lahore entrepreneur and another member of the committee, said the creation of the group was one sign the provincial government was taking the problem seriously. “With the last government we felt we were helpless and were spiraling into this abyss with all the focus on building new roads. Now with this new government we can raise our voices and they are heard,” she said.
More monitoring
One of the quick fixes the activists are proposing is to require students to ride buses to school, rather than arriving in many more individual cars. Countries such as China and Iran have used school closures as a way of curbing smog emergencies, Noon noted. Malik Amin Aslam, an advisor to the country’s prime minister on climate change, attended early meetings of the Smog Committee and said Lahore needed “more high-quality air monitoring stations and actionable data.”
New Delhi, he said, has 37 official air monitoring stations, while Lahore has just four. The World Bank plans to provide 30 new monitors in Pakistan, including 10 in Lahore, with the aim of having them in place within six months, he said. The biggest driver of the city’s pollution, Aslam said, is vehicles, which contribute 43 percent of the smog. Burning of crop stubble, steel manufacturing furnaces and brick kilns are other major sources, he said.
Omar, of the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative, said mandating the use of cleaner fuels should be a top priority. “While closing schools or low weekend traffic have a marginal impact, our transportation and industrial sectors never sleep,” he said. Aslam said he would take up fuel standards with the country’s oil ministry and urge them to import higher quality diesel. He said he also planned to introduce vehicle inspection systems in Punjab province in coming months to keep a check on polluting vehicles.
As well, Pakistan’s cabinet recently passed a new electric transport policy, which aims to shift 30 percent of vehicles on the country’s roads to electric power by 2030. Aslam said the World Bank also plans to provide $55 million to help Punjab steel and brick plants shift to cleaner technologies, and to help farmers find alternatives to burning crop residues by next year.
‘Unlivable’ cities?
Effectively cutting emissions, however, will also require better city planning, said Mome Saleem, executive director of the new Islamabad-based Institute of Urbanism. The most densely populated and least well-planned cities are the ones with the most serious smog problems, she said – and as people flock to already congested cities Pakistan will see more of air pollution threats. “We need a proper urban policy or else our cities will become unlivable,” she warned.
Waraich, of Amnesty International, said governments in too many smog-hit South Asian cities “seem content to ride out of the months of the smog season” rather than “enforce clear limits on pollutants and punish those responsible for poisoning the air”. “The failure to take these steps is a human rights violation,” he said.
Waheed, the Smog Committee member, said she had installed an air quality monitor in her home, connected to the Air Visual mobile phone app. The app gives residents an indication of air quality around the city – and has helped back the campaign to clean up Lahore’s air. “Clean air was something we took for granted and now it has become the most cherished commodity,” she said. – Reuters
Stanford University Research
finds Rice Yields may fall by 40% in 2100 Due to Climate Change
A research conducted
by Stanford University revealed that climate change will lead to increased
levels of arsenic in rice and the rice yield may
fall by 40% in 2100.
The Study on Rice
Yields and Arsenic
Stanford University Research
derived the results by growing a medium-sized variety of rice in the California
rice-growing region (Sacramento Valley). The experiment was conducted in a
greenhouse. The researchers set carbon dioxide levels twice as the present
levels and increased the temperature by five degrees Celsius. The researchers
selected these conditions as projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change.
Rice Arsenic Level and
Rice Yields in Year 2100 – Stanford University Research
Result
Stanford University Research found
that increased temperature makes the crop to take up more than required arsenic
levels from the soil. The problem worsens with irrigation as plants take up
more of this semi metal. Besides, the over-pumping of groundwater
(arsenic-contaminated) in the future will lead to destabilization of the
microorganism that decides whether the arsenic will remain in the soil or taken
up by the plant. As a result, the rice will uptake a greater amount of toxic
arsenic from soil. It will come in the nutrient absorption of rice thus
constraining its growth. Hence the prediction of a 40% decline in rice
production.
Increased consumption of arsenic
poses several health concerns to humans. It can aggravate lung diseases, skin
contusion, cancer, and even death. Many crops have a certain amount of arsenic
but increased levels can cause the above-mentioned problems.
Future
Rice is the staple diet for almost
half of the world’s population. It is fed as the first food to infants as it is
low on allergens. The fact that this grain can become dangerous for consumption
is worrisome. The scientists consider this result as a sign of early warning.
They expect that the advancement in seed technology will bring a variety of
rice that will fight this problem. They also revealed that the society must
adopt measures that would decrease the chances of increased temperature and
carbon dioxide levels in the future.
Stanford University Research on Climate Change Year 2100
To conclude, the Stanford
University Research made us aware of what waits for us in the future and
the need to take immediate steps.
Tags: allergens, Arsenic LEvel Rice, Arsenic Levels, carbon dioxide, climate change, groundwater, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, nutrient absorption, rice production, rice yield, rising temperatures, Stanford University, Stanford University Research, year 2100
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HKU Plant Scientists Identify New
Strategy to Enhance Rice Grain Yield
OsACBP2-overexpressing (OE) rice
plants produce bigger grains (A) and higher biomass (B). OE-1, OE-3, OE17 and
OE-21 are four independent OsACBP2-OE transgenic rice lines. VC,
vector-transformed control. ZH11, Zhonghua11 wild type. Scale bar = 1 cm.
(*statistically different from
the control)
Rice provides a daily subsistence
for about three billion people worldwide and its output must keep pace with a
growing global population. In light of this, the identification of genes that
enhance grain yield and composition is much desired. Findings from a research
project led by Professor Mee-Len Chye, Wilson and Amelia Wong Professor in
Plant Biotechnology from the School of Biological Sciences of The University of
Hong Kong (HKU), with postdoctoral fellows Dr Guo Zehua and Dr Shiu-Cheung
Lung, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Calgary and
Rothamsted Research (UK), have provided a new strategy to enhance grain yield
in rice by increasing grain size and weight. The research results have been
published in The Plant Journal and an international patent has been filed
(Patent Application No. WO 2019/104509).
In this technology, the research
group led by Professor Chye has identified a protein, ACYL-COA-BINDING PROTEIN2
(OsACBP2) from rice (Oryza sativa), that when overexpressed in transgenic rice,
will enhance grain size and weight by 10% and elevate grain yield (Image 1).
The biomass of the OsACBP2-overexpressing transgenic rice grains exceeded the
control by over 10%. OsACBP2 is a lipid-binding protein that binds lipids such
as acyl-CoA esters, the major precursors in seed oil production. Oil was
observed to accumulate in the transgenic rice grains (Image 2). OsACBP2 is
promising not only in enhancing grain size and weight, but also in improving
nutritional value with a 10% increase in lipid content of rice bran and whole
seeds (Image 3).
As OsACBP2 contributes to
boosting oil content as well as size and weight in transgenic rice grains, an
application of this technology in rice is expected to benefit agriculture by
increasing grain yield and composition to satisfy the need for more food.
Professor Chye said: “Increasing grain size and yield, besides rice bran and
seed lipid content, in crops such as rice is an important research area that
aligns with the aspirations of Dr Wilson and Mrs Amelia Wong on the use of
plant biotechnology for a sustainable future. Furthermore, as rice bran oil is
considered highly valuable because it contains bioactive components that have
been reported to lower serum cholesterol and possess anti-oxidation,
anti-carcinogenic and anti-allergic inflammation activities, this technology,
if applied to other food crops, would not only help address food security but
also elevate nutritional properties in grains.”
This research project was funded
by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong and the Wilson and Amelia Wong
Endowment Fund.
The paper:
‘The overexpression of rice
ACYL-CoA-BINDING PROTEIN2 increases grain size and bran oil content in
transgenic rice’ by Zehua Guo, Richard P Haslam, Louise V Michaelson, Edward C
Yeung, Shiu-Cheung Lung, Johnathan A Napier, Mee-Len Chye in The Plant Journal.
Link to journal paper: https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.14503
/Public Release. View
in full here.
Tags:biological, council, food, Haslam, Hong Kong, import, Napier, Professor, project, research, school, science, Scientists, sustainable, university, University
of Hong Kong, world
Staples, nutrition and
bureaucratic red-tape
Regular
rice next to Golden Rice. PHOTO: IRRI
Bangladesh is on the verge of
making one of the most important decisions in the history of GM crops: it may
become the first country to commercialise and grow golden rice.
This miracle crop promises to save
lives and prevent blindness in children. Packed with beta carotene in the
yellow grains that inspire its name, golden rice holds the potential to wipe
out the Vitamin-A deficiencies that have caused so much suffering in the
developing world.
The toll is enormous: an estimated
one million people die each year because they don’t have enough Vitamin A in
their food. Most of them are children. An additional half million people go
blind.
I have observed poverty,
malnutrition and disease up close here in the Philippines, where I am a farmer
who grows corn and rice. More than one in five of my fellow Filipinos live in
dire poverty. The situation is even worse in Bangladesh. Its per-capita GDP is
about half of what we enjoy in the Philippines.
Poverty is a root cause of
malnutrition and malnutrition gives rise to any number of severe problems with
long-term consequences. It can stunt growth in every nightmarish way, from
physical stature to mental capacity. In the worst cases, it kills.
The good news is that golden rice
would fuel the consumption of Vitamin A in poor countries where rice is a
staple food. Its regulatory approval would keep people alive and their vision
intact. All they would have to do is keep eating the rice-based meals just like
they do today.
Science shows that golden rice is
safe. We have studied it for two decades. Regulators in Australia, Canada, New
Zealand, and the United States have accepted it—but hardly anybody in those
countries needs golden rice. They get enough Vitamin A in their diet so there
is no commercial market.
The situation is different in Asia.
Here, golden rice would help hundreds of millions of people in countries such
as India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Bangladesh and the Philippines would also
benefit, which is why scientists in our two countries have studied golden rice
and pushed for its commercialisation.
Several weeks ago, word got out
that Bangladesh would make an important announcement about golden rice on
November 15. Anticipating its regulatory approval, media around the world
prepared for its coverage. Would Bangladesh indeed become the first developing
nation to accept this GMO? Would other countries then follow its example,
approving the crop for their own farmers to grow and consumers to eat?
Yet November 15 came and went
without an announcement. Perhaps a decision will arrive next week, or maybe
next month. We just don’t know. We remain right where we have been, stuck in
the maddening limbo of recognising a bad problem, knowing a specific solution,
and doing nothing.
The reasons behind Bangladesh’s
delay are unclear, but it’s easy to speculate about the political pressures its
policymakers face. Here in the Philippines, poorly informed environmental
activists destroyed a golden rice testing site in 2013. Beholden to an ideology
that refuses to tolerate scientific inquiry, they launched a violent attack on
a tool that can fight malnutrition—and their extreme tactics unfortunately have
succeeded in delaying the approval of golden rice.
I have planted GM corn on my farm
for years. I prefer these crops because they have protected my crops from pests
that would have destroyed it, allowing me to grow more food on less land. It is
good for the environment, as well as the food security situation of my country.
It is also good for me as a farmer. The extra income has helped me pay for the
education of my children.
I would love to have the opportunity
to plant golden rice—and I am hoping that an approval in Bangladesh would lead
to an approval in the Philippines.
A new book by Ed Regis—a science
writer with a doctorate in philosophy—makes a persuasive case for this
innovative crop. “The effects of withholding, delaying, or retarding golden
rice development through overcautious regulation has imposed unconscionable
costs in terms of sight and lives lost,” he writes in “Golden Rice: The
Imperilled Birth of a GMO Superfood,” published by Johns Hopkins University
Press.
It’s time to stop the suffering of
our peoples and grow golden rice. I am hopeful that Bangladesh would do the
right thing and show us the way.
Rosalie Ellasus is a
first-generation farmer and public servant, growing corn and rice in San Jacinto,
Philippines.
Best small cities to relocate to in the world
Time for a change? One of these lesser known
cities could be the perfect place for you.
Many of us dream of relocating. The promise
of new opportunities, the adventure of a new place, the charms of experiencing
a new culture – it all sounds pretty dreamy, doesn’t it?And its benefits are backed up by science, too. A team of social scientists from Rice University, Columbia University and the University of North Carolina conducted six studies with 1,874 participants that involved a mixture of online panels and asking individuals from international MBA programs to complete surveys about living abroad, and found multiple benefits from living abroad.
If their study is anything to go by then making a move abroad could be one of the kindest things you ever do for yourself. From decreased levels of stress, improved job performance, greater life satisfaction, and a greater relationship with yourself, living away from home offers a lot of rewards.
But where to move? Of course, there’s the obvious choices like capital cities such as Paris, New York or Berlin – but for some people these might feel a little overwhelming and, well, touristy.
Sunrise in Salzburg doesn't look to bad, does it?
Monocle is
famous for its expertly researched city guides which manage to sniff out the
coolest places, usually known only to locals. So, when the brand announced it
had come up with a list of the best small cities in the world to move to, we
were intrigued.After noting how technology has encouraged more people to work remotely and that the soaring price of living in a capital city has meant the millennial generation is being priced out and forced to look for other options, Monocle enlisted correspondents, editors and researchers to analyse elements such as the quality of public transport, rail and air connections and progressive local government.
“We kept noticing that our readers were moving to the likes of Porto and Boulder and creating busy, better lives for themselves. This survey shows why people are voting with their feet and ambitions,” says Monocle Editor, Andrew Tuck.
The list features spots from all over the world including France, Canada and Japan. The UK also features, with the Monocle team heralding Bath as the spot to move to over London, but the winner is Lausanne in Switzerland thanks to its diversity, fantastic nightlife and its beautiful architecture (think stone buildings with shutters in soft green, chalky blue and dove grey).
Scroll down to find out 12 smaller cities that are better to move to than a capital.
1. Lausanne, Switzerland
2. Boulder, USA
3. Bergen, Norway
4. Hobart, Australia
5. Chigasaki, Japan
6. Bolzano, Italy
7. Bordeaux, France
8. Innsbruck, Austria
9. Porto, Portugal
10. Aachen, Germany
11. Reykjavik, Iceland
12. Savannah, USA
CRISPR used to edit rice
DNA as defense against pathogen
November 30, 2019
Bacterial blight attacks rice crops in Southeast Asia and West
Africa. It is a very well-studied crop disease, and it often serves as a model
system to examine the interactions between microbes and their host plants. The
pathogen is called Xoo, for Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae, and it makes
its living by hijacking a number of rice genes that export sugars.
Now, researchers have figured out how to edit the rice‘s genome
to block this hijacking.
A TALe of
sugars
Xoo secretes TALes (transcription activator-like effector
molecules) that bind to the DNA near the rice‘s SWEET genes, activating them.
These SWEET genes (Sugars Will Eventually Be Exported Transporters) are
ubiquitous in plants. As their name indicates, the SWEET proteins transport
sucrose across the cell membrane. Their expression is required for
susceptibility to Xoo.
Researchers thought that modifying the rice SWEET genes would
confer resistance to Xoo, especially since natural-occurring resistance has
arisen this way. But thus far, only a few Xoo strains have been characterized
genetically, so it wasn‘t clear whether it had additional ways of attacking its
host.
In order to see how to most efficiently render the rice resistant
to Xoo—which of the rice‘s SWEET genes to change, and how—an international team
of scientists first examined 63 strains of Xoo, 33 from Asia and 30 from
Africa. All of them were found to use TALes to induce the expression of SWEET
genes.
As a proof of concept, the scientists then used CRISPR to edit
the DNA near three SWEET genes in Kitaake rice. This editing specifically
targeted the DNA sequences that the TALe proteins stick to but left the
surrounding DNA intact. It‘s far more specific than could be expected to occur
simply by selecting for naturally occurring variants.
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The engineered rice was resistant to all known Xoo strains. The
Kitaake cultivar is a variety of japonica rice that is optimal for such studies
since it has a quick flowering cycle and high regeneration. In the future, this
new resistant line can serve as a diagnostic test to assess the virulence of
any new Xoo strains that crop up.
Testing on
crops
Since it is a variety of japonica, it can also be harnessed to
breed the resistant trait into Japanese and Chinese rice. But it is not ideal
for breeding with the indica varieties that are grown in most of Southeast Asia
and Africa.
So next the team used CRISPR to modify two rice mega
varieties—those grown over a million hectares. In paddy experiments, the edited
rice grew normally and performed much like its unmodified parents in terms of
plant height and other agriculturally relevant metrics. Critically, it was
resistant to three representative strains of Xoo. Although encouraging, the
researchers note that these results hardly provide a sound base for going out
and planting fields of the stuff; much more extensive field trials are
required, along with complete sequencing to ensure that CRISPR did not generate
any off-target DNA edits.
Rice has over 20 SWEET genes, and only three are naturally
targeted by Xoo. “Broad resistance to bacterial blight at the SWEET promoters
will not prevent adaptation of the pathogen, and the durability of this
approach will depend on the ability of Xoo populations to adapt to recessive
resistance alleles,” the authors sagely note. They suggest that making large
changes in the SWEET gene promoters might delay Xoo‘s ability to overcome the
engineered resistance.
Nature Biotechnology, 2019. DOI: ().
How the grain processor is boosting farmers
SATURDAY
NOVEMBER 30 2019
A catalogue of bread on display after value
addition in Kawanda. Photos by Lominda Afedraru.
In Summary
· Grain
farmers from Masindi, Oyam and Jinja will be the first beneficiaries to use the
multi-million value addition processor plant. At a pocket friendly fee, farmers
will be able to bake cakes, cornflakes, bread and flour among others,
writes Lominda Afedraru.
By Lominda Afedraru
It is no longer business as usual where
agricultural scientists at the National Agricultural Research Organisation
(Naro) stop at developing products at the research station to be disseminated
to farmers by other stakeholders but they have taken it to agro food processing
level.
One such initiative is where scientists at the
National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NaRL) in Kawanda have gone ahead
to process food products at the incubation centre ready for distribution in the
market. They are teaming up with the Korean Food Research Institute (KFRI) and
Korean International Agricultural Development Institute who donated to the
incubation centre equipment worth Shs2.4b. The initiative is under a two year
project implemented jointly with NaRL and the Ministry of Agriculture where the
scientists are training incubatees as well as processing agro food products
from maize mill, soy mill and rice flour ready for marketing.
The head of the food biosciences laboratory at
NaRL, Dr Kephas Nuwakunda, explains that the initiative is to improve food and
nutritional security through transferring technology advancement knowledge to
food processors.
The director of KFRI, Dr Kum Jum explains that food processing is now a key essential for food security because there is value added to what is consumed and it is the reason the Korean government is investing in such a project.
The director of KFRI, Dr Kum Jum explains that food processing is now a key essential for food security because there is value added to what is consumed and it is the reason the Korean government is investing in such a project.
To him in Uganda agriculture research work is
not yet industrialised and so the need for scientists to engage in processing
high quality nutritious food for the local market through using advanced
technology. The team has embarked on profiling agribusiness farmers and actors
growing rice maize and soy bean in the districts of Jinja, Oyam and Masindi and
are encouraging them to participate in processing the crops they are growing in
order to earn increased income.
The plant
Dr Nuwakunda explains that the processing plant contains a set of machinery ranging from grainer cleaner, rice destoner to remove unwanted gravels, milling machine, mixer which is used to mix the processed flour of soy mill, rice and maize as well as mixing granules of maize with soy to come up with extruded cornflakes and other snacks.
In the production room there is humidifying mixer, extruder, cooling conveyors, harmer mill, ribbon mixer and roaster machine. There is also the packaging machine which is used to measure and package the processed food items.
The major machinery in the plant is the extrusion machine where the mixed ingredients are forced through and opening in a perforated plate through the extruder.
Dr Nuwakunda explains that the processing plant contains a set of machinery ranging from grainer cleaner, rice destoner to remove unwanted gravels, milling machine, mixer which is used to mix the processed flour of soy mill, rice and maize as well as mixing granules of maize with soy to come up with extruded cornflakes and other snacks.
In the production room there is humidifying mixer, extruder, cooling conveyors, harmer mill, ribbon mixer and roaster machine. There is also the packaging machine which is used to measure and package the processed food items.
The major machinery in the plant is the extrusion machine where the mixed ingredients are forced through and opening in a perforated plate through the extruder.
A machine operator picks bread from the slicing section
The extruder consists a rotating screw tightly
fitted within a stationery barrel.
The ingredients for this case are the mixture of granule maize with soy mill which is taken through a conditioner where water and other ingredients such as sugar and potassium are added.
The mixture is then passed through the extruder which puffs and produces cornflakes. This means the cooking takes place within the extruder while moulding the mixture which is cut in the desired blades.
The ingredients for this case are the mixture of granule maize with soy mill which is taken through a conditioner where water and other ingredients such as sugar and potassium are added.
The mixture is then passed through the extruder which puffs and produces cornflakes. This means the cooking takes place within the extruder while moulding the mixture which is cut in the desired blades.
Products
The scientists are so far processing precooked porridge flour from soy, maize and rice which is used for making porridge. Already they have entered a Memorandum of Understanding with an NGO Good neighbours that have ordered for 5.2 tonnes of the product to be supplied to refugees across the country.
The product is sold at Shs4,200 per kilogramme. Other products extruded include cornflakes granules and snacks.
There is the component of the bakery section where the scientists are baking a range of confectionaries ranging from cookies, bread, cakes among others.
The scientists are so far processing precooked porridge flour from soy, maize and rice which is used for making porridge. Already they have entered a Memorandum of Understanding with an NGO Good neighbours that have ordered for 5.2 tonnes of the product to be supplied to refugees across the country.
The product is sold at Shs4,200 per kilogramme. Other products extruded include cornflakes granules and snacks.
There is the component of the bakery section where the scientists are baking a range of confectionaries ranging from cookies, bread, cakes among others.
Incubation
According to Dr Nuwakunda so far they have trained people from five different food processing companies and there are other six companies that have sent in their workers for training. If individuals wishing to train come in, they are encouraged to form a food processing company where they will continue to carry out product development from the knowledge acquired.
According to Dr Nuwakunda so far they have trained people from five different food processing companies and there are other six companies that have sent in their workers for training. If individuals wishing to train come in, they are encouraged to form a food processing company where they will continue to carry out product development from the knowledge acquired.
Incubatee experience
Baisilio Twikirize is the proprietor for Equator Food Processing who attained knowledge from the institute incubation centre. He is now processing pumpkin flour for instant porridge making, maize flour mixed with pumpkin and soy flour.
He also processes cornflakes from maize granules mixed with soy mill and pumpkin flour. The flour products are packaged in 500grammes and sold at Shs10,000 while the flakes are sold at Shs5,000.
Baisilio Twikirize is the proprietor for Equator Food Processing who attained knowledge from the institute incubation centre. He is now processing pumpkin flour for instant porridge making, maize flour mixed with pumpkin and soy flour.
He also processes cornflakes from maize granules mixed with soy mill and pumpkin flour. The flour products are packaged in 500grammes and sold at Shs10,000 while the flakes are sold at Shs5,000.
December 1, 2019
India pollution: How a farming revolution
could solve stubble burning
Pollution in Delhi has hit
record-breaking levels and a farming method, known as stubble burning, was a
major contributor. DW‘s Catherine Davison went to the countryside to check out
what‘s being done to stop this trend.
As a cloud of pollution enveloped
Delhi earlier this week, closing schools and prompting the announcement of a
public health emergency, new hope in mitigating the capital‘s annual pollution
crisis might be found in a government plan to transform the agricultural
sector.
Delhi has seen the worst
pollution since 2016 this month, with some parts of the city experiencing over
150 times the concentration of toxic particles recommended by the World Health
Organization.
Although a variety of measures –
such as and halting construction in the city – have been implemented in an
attempt to curb the pollution, blame has largely been apportioned to stubble
burning in the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana.
–
As farmers set fire to their
fields to clear excess crop residue in time for the wheat sowing season,
Delhi‘s Chief Minister tweeted that the fumes were transforming the capital
into a “gas chamber.”
“If you take an average of the
whole year, the contribution of agricultural burning [to Delhi‘s air pollution]
is only 5%,” says Dr Sumit Sharma, an Associate Director at TERI, a New
Delhi-based research institute.
“But if you talk about specific
days when the fires are peaking, then it can go up to 40%.”
Despite an order on Monday from
the highest court in India for an immediate halt to the practice, satellite
data showed over 5,000 fires that day in Punjab alone.
Record-breaking pollution left
Delhi gasping for air
A big contributor has been
stubble burning, a cheap and quick method of clearing land
India‘s unsustainable demand for
crops
The states surrounding Delhi are
known collectively as the “grain bowl” of India after the agricultural
sector underwent a green revolution in the 1960s, leading to a dramatic
increase in rice and wheat productivity. In Haryana alone, 80% of the almost 5
million hectares of land is now under cultivation, producing over 13 million
tons of grain per year.
But as production grew, the
sector could not keep up with an increasing demand for labor, with farmers
eventually abandoning hand harvesting in favor of less labor-intensive methods
such as the combine harvester.
Unlike manual harvesting
techniques however, combine harvesters leave behind rice stubble, which
prevents machines from sowing wheat seeds. With as little as 10 days between
rice harvesting season and the sowing of wheat, farmers often turn to stubble
burning to quickly remove the remaining rice crop residue.
“To hire laborers in a 5
million hectare area at one time within 10 days is not
possible,” explains Dr ML Jat, Principal Scientist at the International
Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), which has a research
center in Karnal, Haryana.
“So when you cannot move the
loose residue, when you cannot spread it on the surface there is no option
except burning.”
A woman hand harvests basmati
rice in a field near Karnal, Haryana
The result: basmati rice
With one ton of residue
containing 4-6 kg of nitrogen, 1-2 kg of phosphorus, and 15-20 kg of potassium,
CIMMYT‘s research has shown that residue burning not only releases toxic gases
into the air, but also reduces soil nutrition and therefore crop yields.
Burning the residue “means you
are burning a lot of nutrients, basically,” says Dr Jat.
He argues that India now needs to
undergo a second, “evergreen” revolution, driven by technology such as the
happy seeder, a machine which allows wheat to be sown on top of rice stubble,
and the super sms (straw management system), a machine which attaches to the
rear of a combine harvester to cut and spread loose residue across the field.
CIMMYT studies show that
agricultural productivity can be improved with the use of happy seeders and
super sms machines by between 10 and 15%, by reducing labor costs and time and
allowing nutrients from the crop residue to be recycled back into the soil. Dr
Jat sees it as a win-win situation: “On one side you are increasing your
productivity with the happy seeder,” he says, “And on the other you
are saving your resources.”
Government subsidy helps farmers
Although the technology itself is
not new, it was up until recently prohibitively expensive, with a happy seeder
costing around 150,000 INR (almost €2,000). With around 80% of farmers in
Haryana owning under 5 acres of land, the majority cannot afford to
invest.
Now, however, a central
government scheme is investing over 11b INR (€140 million) in three states over
a two-year period, with the aim of reducing crop residue burning by providing
subsidies to farmers buying the machines. Organizations like CIMMYT are working
alongside state governments to train farmers and promote the new technology, in
an attempt to both increase grain productivity and reduce economic and labor
inputs required by the farmers.
Saptal Ram, 67, operates a happy
seeder machine used to sow wheat in Karnal
Farmer Vikas Chaudray examines
wheat growing through the rice stubble residue
Vikas Chaudhary, 39, a
beneficiary of the plan who owns 14 hectares of land just outside Karnal,
Haryana, says that his input cost has decreased from 3-4 thousand rupees per
acre to just over 1,000 since he started using the happy seeder.
“Everyone said I was a mad
farmer, I will never get a good yield with the field full of
straw,” Chaudhary says. “But I am very happy. I am saving time and
energy.”
‘Without the machines, you cannot
stop it‘
Although the number of happy
seeders has increased from just 100 to around 10,000 within the past decade,
the machines are still only used on 20% of the land cultivated each year. In
the rest of the region, stubble burning persists.
“We are trying to stop the
stubble burning, but it takes time,” Dr Jat explains. ”In two years, we
cannot stop this residue burning in a 5m hectare area.”
He worries about what will happen
when the government funding ends next year, and farmers are left without
subsidies to buy the new machinery.
With the pollution crisis
increasing year-on-year however, investment in agricultural technology is
becoming more of a priority for governments and NGOs.
“If the funding comes again, then
we can reduce the stubble burning in a significant area,” Dr Jat says.
“Because you need the machines. Without the machines you cannot stop it.”
Sohn: Today's
climate records are our new norms - Part 1
November 30th, 2019 | by Pam
Sohn
Staff file photo by Erin O. Smith / Fallen le
aves lie along the trail at Chattanooga's Enterprise South
Nature Park. The dying leaves were victims of September's dry and record-hot
temperatures, not our usual cool fall rains that normally bring on this
region's autumn color.
aves lie along the trail at Chattanooga's Enterprise South
Nature Park. The dying leaves were victims of September's dry and record-hot
temperatures, not our usual cool fall rains that normally bring on this
region's autumn color.
On Nov. 21, the Times Free Press reported that Chattanooga has broken 17
weather-related records in 2019.
That's not normal. In 2018, Chattanooga saw only five such record-setting
days.
Especially not normal, according to the story reported and
written by Times Free Press reporter Mark Pace, was the autumn weather that
precipitated his report: a long fall heat wave that set 13 record high
temperatures between Sept. 12 and Oct. 4 — including the last two days of that
streak when the mercury topped out at 100 degrees.
Think about that: 100 degrees. In October. In the foothills of
the Appalachian Mountains.
"Basically, it seems like whatever pattern we got into this
year, we just stayed stuck in it longer," meteorologist Derek Eisentrout
of the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tennessee, told the Times Free
Press. "So we had prolonged periods of rain and long periods of dry, which
is not the most common."
But "not the most common" is becoming the new normal.
On Tuesday, a new United Nations report offered a grim
assessment of just how much the world — and especially America — has squandered
the time we had to stave off the worst effects of climate change. We're now so off-track
that global temperatures are on pace to rise as much as 3.9 degrees Celsius —
that's 7 degrees Fahrenheit — by the end of the century, according to the
annual U.N. "emissions gap" report, which assesses the difference
between the world's current path and the changes needed to meet the goals of
the 2015 Paris climate accord.
Under the Paris accord, which President Donald Trump recently
officially signaled he's pulling us out of, world leaders had agreed to hold
warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial
levels.
The bottom line now is that our current trajectory is nearly
twice the Paris pact's lofty but once-achievable goal.
"Bleak" was the word in most headlines for the new
report. Disgusting is a better descriptor.
Chattanooga's 2019-to-date record-setting weather is not a
singular trend. And we can wager our futures that it is just the beginning of
more extreme years like it. (Spoiler alert: More on wagered futures on Monday.)
This year's national weather records got an early jolt in
January with a severe cold wave caused by a weakened jet stream that brought
the U.S. an Arctic polar vortex. The cold mostly hit the Midwest and eastern
Canada, killing at least 22 people as it made its way west and locked over the
Canadian and American West. The end result was the coldest temperatures in more
than 20 years to most locations. Here, we got rain. Lots of it.
Fast forward 11 months to November, when many headlines looked
like this one in The Washington Post: "Cold snap of historic proportions
hits East Coast, over 300 records fall." That was when we shivered out of
short sleeves and dragged out our winter coats. Meteorologists said this was
the most severe early November cold snap in more than a century, setting record
lows that were 20 to 30 degrees below normal over the eastern third of the
nation. Memphis saw its coldest fall temperature ever when the mercury there
plunged into the upper teens. Chattanooga registered three nights of hard
freeze in the 20s.
Climate change is not just about global "warming,"
though nine of 11 months this year in Chattanooga have been warmer than
average, according to National Weather Service data collected at the
Chattanooga airport.
But the more operative word for climate change may be
"extremes," and those extremes — heat waves, cold spells, droughts
and deadly downpours — are often the result of stalled weather patterns, like
what the Morristown National Weather Service's Eisentrout described as what
brought Chattanooga a string of overheated September and October days.
Thus it seemed quite timely on Nov. 13 that Science Daily
reported on a new study from Rice University: "Stalled weather patterns
will get bigger due to climate change."
The Rice research indicates that climate change will increase
the size — not just the frequency — of stalled high-pressure weather systems
called "blocking events." Those blocking events already have produced
some of the 21st century's deadliest heat waves, the study notes. What's more,
the study extrapolates that the size of blocking events in the northern
hemisphere will increase by as much as 17% due to climate change.
The message from Trump and most Republicans — certainly those
who won't brook any difference with the doddering leader of their party — is
much like what they say to everything else: We can't hear you. Get over it.
Well, we won't. In mid-September, a poll conducted by The
Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly four in 10
Americans described climate change as a crisis, and two-thirds said President
Trump is doing too little to tackle the problem. Moreover, about eight in 10
said they believe human activity is fueling climate change, and roughly half
believe action is urgently needed within the next decade.
There are solutions. We'll examine some of the market solutions
Monday. For today, we'll close with one really important political fix. Vote
Trump and other Republicans out of office next November.
AMRI Set To Work On Four Machines For Rice Crop
MULTAN, Dec 1 (APP - UrduPoint /
Pakistan Point News - 1st Dec, 2019 ) ::Agriculture Mechanization
Research Institute (AMRI) in collaboration with Punjab Agriculture (Extension)
Department is working for preparing cost effective
four different machines for rice crop.
According to AMRI officer Abdul
Aaleem, Federal and
Provincial governments were working to enhance wheat, rice,
sugarcane and oil seed
production. In line with a project, four different machines for rice crop would
be prepared at AMRI.
The machines includes rice planters of two different types, rice
raising nursery machine, rice remains shredder machine.
The agriculture department
would import these
machines soon and hand over these machines to AMRI department. The AMRI,
through its reverse engineering, would make cost effective
machines. The farming community is faced with severe shortage of labour. The machines
would help address the issue of labour shortage. The agriculture department
completed file work for importing the machines.
About AMRI achievements in past,
Abdul Aaleem said the institute was undertaking Research & Development for
low cost and
appropriate agricultural machinery and farm mechanization technologies which
consist of different sections i.e. design & development, fabrication, test
& field research, agronomy and instrumentation.
The institute is providing industrial extension service to the
local agricultural machinery manufactures for production of standardized and quality
machinery. It also imparts technical guidance to farmers for proper selection,
operation and maintenance of agricultural machinery and equipment.
He maintained that AMRI said that
AMRI had developed over 120 cost effective agriculture machines
so far since its inception from 1978.
Out of locally developed over 120
machines, nearly 49 machines had become commercial, he said and added that
developed machines were identified as Seed Cleaner/Grader, Rabi Drill,
Cultivator Drill, Dry sowing/Runner Drill, Rota Drill, Thresher, Wheat straw
Chopper Drill, Rota Drill, Thresher, mobile Bhoosa
Baler, Seed Delinter, Seed Treater, Kharif Drill, Precision Planter, Cotton Ridge
with Fertilizer, Bed and Furrow shaper planter, Rotary Slasher, Root Digger,
Intercultural Toolbar, Sugarcane Ridger, Sugarcane planter, Stubble Shaver,
Axial Flow Pump, Sprinkle Gun, Vegetable Ridger, Potato Planter, Rotary Potato
Digger, Post hole
digger, Fruit Picker, Potato Digger Shaker, Mango Hot water treatment
plant, Vegetable nursery transplanter, Maize Sheller, Self Leveling Boom
Sprayer, Orchard Sprayer, Fertilizer Broadcaster, Fodder Cutter, Fodder
Chopper, Mango pruner
and some others.
FG Hands Over 6 Completed Border Projects
To Kebbi
December 1, 2019
By
The federal government, through the Border Communities Development
Agency (BCDA), has handed over six completed border community projects to the
Kebbi State Government at a symbolic presentation ceremony in Kamba, Dandi
Local Government area of the state.
In his address at the handing over
ceremony, the executive secretary of the agency, Alhaji Junaid Abdullahi said
the projects were aimed at boosting trade and other economic activities of
border communities in the state.
According to him, the six projects
comprised construction of transnational border market with open and lock-up
shops and solar powered borehole with elevated steel tank in Kamba town and
Bachaka area in Arewa Local Government, respectively.
He said, “We constructed four units
of two bedroom detached bungalow and units of semi detached bungalow of one
bedroom at Tsamiya in Bagudo Local Government Area.
“We also constructed skill
acquisition centre and solar powered borehole with elevated tank at Dole Kaina
in Kamba town, and rice processing mill and solar powered borehole with
elevated tank at Lolo in Bagudo local government, “ he said.
Abdullahi added that the agency,
also constructed drainage of 1.4 kilometres at Lolo, in Bagudo LGA and two
blocks of six classrooms each with solar powered borehole at Kamba in the 2019
capital projects.
The Kebbi State governor, Senator
Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for the keen interest he had been showing to
people in the border communities.
The intervention, like these, are necessary to complement the
silent issues that are happening in the border communities, he said, even as he
noted that Kamba town is an important border and commercial area in Nigeria
which serves as a gateway to countries like Niger and Benin republic.
He expressed delight that the projects will go along way in
supporting farming and trade activities of border communities in the area.
‘’The market and rice processing
mills will go a long way in supporting our trading activities in West and North
African countries, especially by our women, as our communities are bordering
Benin and Niger Republics,” he said.
Bagudu also commended the federal government for the border
closure, saying it was meant to curb smuggling and encourage farming
communities to produce more rice for millers.
Stakeholders,
experts chart economic path for rice, sugar, dairy products
By Christiana T. Alabi,
Lagos | Published Date Dec 1, 2019 4:34 AM TwitterFacebookWhatsAppTelegram From
left: Dairy Development Manager, Friedland Campina WAMCO Nigeria, Adekunle
Olayiwola John; Vice President, Sahel Capital and Director, L and Z Integrated
Dairy Ltd, Mr. Deji Adebusoye; General Manager, Business and Strategy, Daily
Trust, Ahmed Shekarau; Chief Executive Officer, Integrity Organisation Ltd,
(GTE), Mr. Soji Apampa; Program Director, Lagos Business School Agribusiness
Programme, Mr. Kelikume Ikechukwu; and, Prof. Peter Barje of NAPRI, Zaria
during the just concluded Daily Trust Agric conference 2019, held at Federal
Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Photos: Benedict Uwalaka
Stakeholders and experts from different states of Nigeria converged on the
Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos from November 26 to 27, 2019 to brainstorm on how
to re-position rice, sugar and dairy products for optimal yields so that
Nigeria can harness its potentials to not only feed its citizens but also
export to other countries and generate jobs. The two-day event, titled,
Re-positioning Rice, Sugar and Dairy Production for Optimal Yield, took place
at a period when the Nigerian government shut the nation’s borders along the
sub-regional lines due to illicit trade, particularly, imports of agricultural
produce that can be grown locally and even exported out of the country.
ADVERTISEMENT It also presented an opportunity for stakeholders to review,
evaluate and exchange views on strategies that would bring the best out of the
nation’s agricultural sector. The annual event is gradually growing to become
an important forum for Nigeria’s agriculture and its value chain, as well as a
platform that brings farmers, investors, financiers, and small and medium
enterprises together. ADVERTISEMENT HOW OVER 5000 NIGERIA MEN HAVE PERMANENTLY
OVERCOME TERRIBLE BEDROOM PERFORMANCE DUE TO THIS RECENT BRILLIANT DISCOVERY BY
MEDICAL CONSULTANTS All discussions at the conference tilted towards achieving
self-sufficiency, food security, job and wealth creation from agricultural
production, poverty alleviation and rural development in the country. The
chairman of the conference, a renowned chattered accountant and co-chair of the
Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), Mr. Emmanuel Ijewere, said Nigeria’s
agricultural system had almost collapsed and is currently in an intensive care
unit where it can be saved as a matter of urgency. He lauded the closure of the
nation’s borders by the Federal Government, noting, “Some felt the border
closure was premature while some felt it shouldn’t have been done. The fact
remains that our agricultural system has almost collapsed and the best way is
to let it go through the intensive care unit. “As a policy, what we have is
what we should be proud of. Let us have Nigerian rice. Now, some Nigerians are
beginning to realise the freshness of Nigerian rice. I am not saying the sector
should be at the unit for too long, but let us be patient, endure the suffering
for a short period and then re-position rice in Nigeria,” he said. The Nigerian
Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA)
at the conference described the nation’s agriculture as a major and very important
sector of the economy that employs about 38 per cent of the total working
population and accounts for a large share of the country’s gross domestic
product. The national president of the association, Hajiya Saratu IyaAliyu,
noted that recent success in the sector had demonstrated that with the right
policies, Nigeria could scale up productive activities, improve food production
and food security, as well as make impact within the agricultural value chain.
Hajiya Saratu, who was represented by the chairman, NACCIMA Agric Trade Group,
Chief Ade Adefeko, lamented that about $35 billion was spent on food imports
annually across the continent despite the fact that Africa is home to two-third
of the world’s most arable uncultivated land. “Rice is a staple in Nigeria and
the country consumes about 7 million tonnes of it annually. Despite Nigeria’s
potential in producing sugar for local consumption, the country has been under
the stranglehold of sugar importation for the confectionary and beverage
industry. “With reference to the diary sector, it is one of the drivers of
American economy, according to 2018 report of the International Dairy Food
Association; the dairy industry supports nearly three million workers,
generates more than $39 billion in direct wages and has an overall economic
impact of more than $628 billion. The dairy sector where we are yet to tap its
potentials has an extensive value chain and we must take full steps to fully
harness the potentials of the sector,” she said. While she commended the
efforts of the federal and state governments towards finding a lasting solution
through different programmes and initiatives to improve the productive capacity
within the dairy sector; she stressed that much more need to be done regarding
the policy thrust of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy on milk importation.
Sugar Sugar is a strategic commodity that is essential in the daily life of any
nation. It is consumed as a food item and also used as an industrial raw
material in virtually all foods, beverages and pharmaceuticals. The executive
secretary of the National Sugar Development Council, Dr. Latif D. Busari, in
his paper presentation titled, Nigeria Sugar Economy, stated that Nigeria’s
sugar consumption had been on the increase since independence, with an annual
average growth rate of 8per cent. He attributed some of the reasons for the
increase in demand for sugar to growth in population, increase in per capital
income, urbanisation, change in taste and increased industrial usage of the
commodity. However, he stated that only about 5per cent of the national demand
for the commodity is produced locally, while the balance is imported with a
huge foreign exchange on an annual basis. “For every cube of sugar imported
into the country, one is bringing poverty, unemployment and insecurity, among
others,” he said. He chronicled that the unacceptable situation informed the
establishment of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) by Decree 88,
1993 (now Act Cap No.78 LFN 2004) as a focal agency responsible for
coordinating the available national resources in the sugar sub-sector in order
to ensure that Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in the shortest possible time.
“In spite of the vast potential land for the commercial sugarcane cultivation,
the sugar industry did not come into existence until the early 1960s. The early
post-independence government industrial policies were basically import
substitution- oriented. This was aimed at producing local goods that consumed
foreign exchange, and that informed the establishment of the nation’s premier
sugar company, Nigerian Sugar Company (NISUCO), in Bacita, Kwara State. The
Savannah Sugar Company Limited (SSCL), Numan, Adamawa State and later, other
mini plants of 100tcd and 250tcd at Lafiagi and Sunti respectively. All these
sugar companies were owned and managed by government,” he said; stressing that
in spite of government’s efforts to develop a virile sugar industry in Nigeria
it had to halt the ever increasing gap between demand for and domestic supply
of sugar, Nigeria is still a long way to self-sufficiency. Rice All states in
Nigeria are said to have the capacity to produce rice if they prioritise with
less dissipation of energy on wheat. Due to the closure of borders, most
Nigerians are forced to patronise the locally grown rice, but the challenge
remains the high price, which has been a cause of concern. Alhaji Muhammad
Auwal Hadejia, the president of Paddy Rice Dealers Association in Nigeria, said
the increase in price was a response to the law of demand and supply; noting
that almost all the integrated mills in the country are over-stretched because
of the high demand for local rice. “That is why there is competition. Most of
these mills now don’t keep paddy; once they process, it is going into a truck and
taken to one dealer or another. Some of the dealers are even in the habit of
bribing mill operators to get produce ahead of those who deposited their money
earlier. So, along the value chain, after processing, some sell it, some add
money. If the cost of milled rice in an integrated mill cost about N15,500,
before it reaches the end customers, it may have increased to over N20,000 per
bag. The rice is within the reach of Nigerians, but activities of the numerous
agents increase the final price,” he said. The president of NABG, Alhaji Sani
Dangote, while presenting a lead paper on ‘The Rice Economy and Value Chain
Issues,’ said rice economy was estimated at $5.2billion and projected to hit
$6.3billion by 2025. Large scale processors, such as Olam and WACOT, are said
to be developing out-grower schemes in conjunction with government, commercial
banks, technical and financial partners and input providers. Olam Nigeria
Limited has also announced a total investment of $111million to introduce
mechanised rice farming in Nasarawa State, while investors have committed
additional N250 billion into Nigeria’s rice production and plan to set up
additional 14 rice mills. This is in addition to the current N300 billion
already invested by processors. Also, Dangote is projecting to invest $1b in
the rice value chain over the next five years. In spite of efforts by
development partners to support the development of the value chain, some core
challenges around scalability and sustainability of interventions still remain,
as he put it, the combined improved seed production capacity at 100,000 tons
satisfying less than 8per cent of national demand. He also put the
mechanisation rate at 0.3hp per ha compared to up to 8hp in China due to
challenges in accessing finance, while an estimated 1million tons of rice is
being smuggled and sold to local millers and retailers due to restrictive trade
policies. Dangote, who was represented by the director-general of NABG, Dr.
Manzo Daniel Maigari, further said that poor branding and packaging limit off
take from large scale retailers and high end consumers. Dairy products The
executive secretary/chief executive officer of the National Animal Production
Research Institute (NAPRI), Professor Clarence Lakpini, is of the opinion that
traditional methods are employed in raw milk preservation, sanitation and
transport. He noted that more than 80per cent of the milk produced by pastoral
herds is not pasteurised. Lakpini, who presented a paper titled, Re-positioning
Dairy Production in Nigeria: Opportunities
for Job Creation in the Dairy Value Chain, stated that lack of accessibility to
low-cost or accessibility to pasteurisation technologies increased the rate of
spoilage, decreases the distance producers can travel, thereby shrinking market
access, as well as increases the frequency of sales at less than optimal
prices. Lakpini, who was represented by Professor Peter Barje, also said that
over 80per cent of the raw milk produced was processed and packaged using
traditional methods. He said that about 63 modern milk processing plants were
established by governments across the country but noted that most of them have
closed down while those that are still operating do so at less than 20per cent
of their full capacity. Commenting on agricultural financing, the Nigeria
Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture Lending (NIRSAL), said it
is currently structuring four million hectares of land into 16,000 geo-coops,
covering 8million smallholder farmers for the production of the chosen
commodities across the different agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. It stated
that a systematic collaboration between agriculture and finance was required
for the realisation of the agricultural fortunes of Nigeria.
Experts deliberate on rice, maize improvement
programmes
Nov 29, 2019, 7:17 AM; last updated: Nov 29, 2019, 7:17 AM
(IST)
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, November 28
A special meeting was held at Punjab
Agricultural University (PAU) to review and re-orient rice and maize
improvement programmes in light of paddy straw management, crop diversification
and water saving.
The meeting,
held under the chairmanship of Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice Chancellor, PAU, was
attended by Navtej Bains, director of research; JS Mahal, director of extension
education; KS Thind, additional director of research (crop improvement); GS
Mangat, head, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics; and faculty of rice
and maize sections of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics.
It was decided during the meeting that the rice
breeding programme would stop working on the varieties of long duration and
would rather focus on medium maturity duration (110 days) (post-transplanting
duration). Also, the seed production of PR 122 (which takes 117 days to mature)
would be stopped from 2020. More emphasis would be laid on breeding varieties
suitable for direct seeding (DSR).
In view of
spread of basmati cultivation from the traditional zone to new areas, where
manual harvesting is not practiced, it was decided to promote cultivation of
shorter duration Pusa basmati 1509 rather than long duration Pusa basmati 1121.
PAU is in the process of developing new strains of basmati which matures a week
earlier than Pusa basmati 1121. These are at the final stage of testing and if
found suitable, multiplication and release will be accelerated. PAU will also
actively pursue the deregisteration of Pusa 44, the longest duration variety of
rice (130 days, post transplanting).
Diversification
away from rice is urgently required in the present situation, for which
important steps that need to be taken for strengthening maize were discussed
during the meeting. The maize breeding work at PAU was sought to be
strengthened by provision of two additional posts (Maize Breeding) for
strengthening research on long duration hybrids and speciality (pop, sweet,
baby, waxy, high oil) maize each, and one post for research on precision
agronomy at main campus at Ludhiana by diverting positions from other crops.
The maize
research team will also associate scientists from Farm Engineering departments
to provide improved farm mechanisation and processing technologies. Likewise,
one scientist each at Regional Research Stations at Gurdaspur and Ballowal
Saunkhri will be associated with maize as their priority area of research.
During the
meeting, it was also decided to work with farmers for implementation of
improved package of maize cultivation practices aimed at narrowing the gap in
economic returns vis-Ã -vis rice. Interventions will include quality seeds and
precise sowing with pneumatic planters) to ensure optimal plant followed by
effective pest management to ensure higher yield.
Why sustainable rice is an
overlooked challenge for climate action
145
By on Nov 29, 2019
With rice the main staple for half the planet, green bonds to
inventivise 150 million smallholder rice farmers to adopt climate-smart
practices may help avoid social unrest as well as global warming, argues Earth
Security Group’s Alejandro Litovsky
If you were asked to list the agricultural commodities where
sustainable business models and finance are a key priority in the climate
agenda, you will probably think of soy, cattle, and palm oil – all key drivers
of deforestation and emissions. It is not likely you would think of rice.
Rice is an important commodity in a different way. It is the main
staple on which 3.5 billion people on the planet depend for food security –
half of the world’s population. Rice uses 40% of the world’s irrigation water
and is acutely sensitive to changes in the climate.
A climate-driven failure in global production and trade would
trigger the type of social unrest that we saw during the uprisings that swept
through North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere during the food crisis of
2007-08 – some of these, as in the case of Haiti, connected to a spike in the
price of rice. This year, Chile’s cancellation of the annual UN Climate
Conference (UNFCCC) due to civil unrest threatened to undermine urgent climate
action but also served as a stark reminder of the need to address poverty and
social inequality as part of the low-carbon transition.
Rice uses 40% of the world’s irrigation water and emits 10% of
global methane emissions. (Credit: Jason KS Leung)
Rice farming is an enormous contributor to climate change,
emitting 10% of global methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG). In
Southeast Asia, rice cultivation accounts for up to 25-33% of the region’s
methane emissions and 10-20% of its overall GHGs. “Climate-smart” rice farming
practices have been shown to be a tremendous impact opportunity, and could
transform global value chains. Simple changes, such as removing rice straw from
a field instead of burning it, or alternating wet and dry field conditions
instead of flooding, could radically reduce methane emissions by up to 70%, and
slash water use by 50%.
However, the challenge is that rice is grown by 150 million
smallholder farmers, a number far higher than for any other crop, most of them
poor and outside the formal financial system. A handful of companies, such as
Mars Food, Phoenix Group, Olam International and Ebro Foods among others, have
led efforts to incorporate these practices within their value chains, working
closely with farmers as part of the UN-supported Sustainable Rice Platform.
Aligning corporate finance to reward companies that are putting
farmer livelihoods and resource efficiency at the heart of their business
models is an urgent task for banks and investment funds.
Among our proposals is the
design of a “rice bond” to unlock upfront capital for sustainable rice value
chains
Deploying finance to scale-up
sustainable rice production practices will not be easy. With few exceptions,
the rice value chain is extraordinarily fragmented. This forces us to rethink
public-private collaboration and finance partnerships. Earth Security Group’s
new report Financing Sustainable Rice for a Secure Future puts
forward the analysis, the business case and three innovative finance blueprints
to help scale up sustainable rice production in line with the Paris Agreement
and measurable contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Among our proposals is the design of a “rice bond” to unlock
upfront capital for sustainable rice value chains. Such a bond would enable a
global rice processor, trader, or retailer to provide farmers with capital to
transition to sustainable production, improve farming practices, increase
yields and revenue, and become more resilient to climate risks.
Last year, a bond to incentivise
Brazil farmers to grow soy sustainably on degraded land was launched on the
London Stock Exchange (see How investors can help prevent Brazil’s soy farmers from cutting
down forests), and next year is expected to be a milestone for
agricultural green bonds. To catalyse the growth of green bond issuance in
agriculture, the Climate Bonds Initiative, a standards-setting body, is
developing the taxonomy to guide issuers, banks and investors in developing
agriculture-related green bonds. We are recommending that this incorporate the
indicators for climate-smart rice production that have been already developed
by the Sustainable Rice Platform.
Most of the world's 150 million smallholder rice farmers are poor
and outside the formal financial system. (Credit: Oliver S)
Another underutilised pool of capital sits in international
climate finance. Given the GHG emissions of rice production, public climate
finance could be used strategically to attract private investments in
climate-smart agriculture. Country pledges that include rice in their
nationally determined contributions (NDCs) would be the first place to start.
At present, 48 countries include in their NDCs the commitment to reduce GHG
emissions from rice paddies, but have not yet outlined how they plan to
incentivise the private sector to achieve these targets.
The biggest challenge is ensuring that sustainable finance can
reach the farmers. This is complex. Most rice is grown on farms of less than
one hectare, by farmers with little or no access to credit and training. In the
report, we outline how the further development of digital finance platforms
could give rice smallholders access to bundled financial services and market
linkages to sustainable value chains. Currently, there are 400 digital
solutions for agriculture in Africa alone and promising signs that the sector
is maturing. Around 33 million smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa are now
registered with a digital solution provider, and as many as 200 million are
expected to register by 2030. These platforms must play a stronger role in
supporting sustainable production and value chains.
The global rice sector offers
impact investors a tremendous opportunity to invest in solutions that address
poverty and put food systems on a sustainable track
Across much of Asia and Africa, rice accounts for a substantial
share of poor households’ expenditure. Price shocks quickly impact poverty and
food insecurity. After skyrocketing rice prices during the 2007-08 food crisis,
a study showed that a 50% increase in the price of rice would on average
increase poverty by 2.2 percentage points in the poverty headcount across
Central and West Africa.
The global rice sector offers impact investors a tremendous
opportunity to invest in solutions that address poverty and put food systems on
a sustainable and resilient track. We have brought together a coalition of
partners to develop such solutions. These include the UN Capital Development
Fund (UNCDF); the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP); the leading commodities
trader Phoenix Group; the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
(WBCSD); and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), with whom
we are working to design the partnerships and investment programmes to
implement these ideas.
The investment profile of sustainable rice has so far been
over-shadowed by other high-profile commodities that are large-scale drivers of
deforestation. Rice is instead key to food security, and food security is key
to social stability in the turbulent times that lie ahead. The challenge of
putting rice on a sustainable footing is undoubtedly large, but the price of
inaction is significantly larger.
Alejandro Litovsky is CEO of Earth
Security Group. Earth Security’s report Financing Sustainable Rice for a Secure
Future Earth Security Group’s can be found here.
9 experts
receive Faces of Biotechnology award
December 1, 2019
The Filipino Faces of
Biotechnology award is bestowed on nine scientists, educators and science
communicators during its fourth annual event held by the Department of
Agriculture at a hotel in Makati on November 26.
The event is part of the weeklong
National Biotechnology Week celebration. This year’s awardees are: Dr.
Nathaniel Dugos, Outstanding researcher in bioengineering; Dr. Ernelea Cao,
Outstanding educator, researcher and advocate on biotechnology; Dr. Candida
Adalla, Outstanding leader in pioneering developmental initiatives for
biotechnology; Dr. Gisela Concepcion, Outstanding researcher on medical and
cosmetics through biotechnology; Dr. Milagros Greif, Outstanding researcher on
urban pest control through biotechnology; Dr. Cynthia Hedreyda, Outstanding
advocate for biotechnology education; Dr. Gabriel Romero, Outstanding
researcher on rice genetics and crop biotechnology; the late Dr. Monina
Villena, Outstanding science communicator for biotechnology (her husband,
Nathaniel Villena, receives the award); and Dr. Claro Mingala, Outstanding
livestock biotechnologist. They are joined by DA-Bureau of Agricultural
Research Assistant Director Digna Sandoval (left), Agriculture Undersecretary
Rodolfo Vicerra (second from right) and DA Biotechnology Program Office
Director Dr. Dionisio Alvindia.
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/12/01/9-experts-receive-faces-of-biotechnology-award/
HKU Plant Scientists Identify New
Strategy to Enhance Rice Grain Yield
OsACBP2-overexpressing (OE) rice
plants produce bigger grains (A) and higher biomass (B). OE-1, OE-3, OE17 and
OE-21 are four independent OsACBP2-OE transgenic rice lines. VC,
vector-transformed control. ZH11, Zhonghua11 wild type. Scale bar = 1 cm.
(*statistically different from
the control)
Rice provides a daily subsistence
for about three billion people worldwide and its output must keep pace with a
growing global population. In light of this, the identification of genes that
enhance grain yield and composition is much desired. Findings from a research
project led by Professor Mee-Len Chye, Wilson and Amelia Wong Professor in
Plant Biotechnology from the School of Biological Sciences of The University of
Hong Kong (HKU), with postdoctoral fellows Dr Guo Zehua and Dr Shiu-Cheung
Lung, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Calgary and
Rothamsted Research (UK), have provided a new strategy to enhance grain yield
in rice by increasing grain size and weight. The research results have been
published in The Plant Journal and an international patent has been filed
(Patent Application No. WO 2019/104509).
In this technology, the research
group led by Professor Chye has identified a protein, ACYL-COA-BINDING PROTEIN2
(OsACBP2) from rice (Oryza sativa), that when overexpressed in transgenic rice,
will enhance grain size and weight by 10% and elevate grain yield (Image 1).
The biomass of the OsACBP2-overexpressing transgenic rice grains exceeded the
control by over 10%. OsACBP2 is a lipid-binding protein that binds lipids such
as acyl-CoA esters, the major precursors in seed oil production. Oil was
observed to accumulate in the transgenic rice grains (Image 2). OsACBP2 is
promising not only in enhancing grain size and weight, but also in improving
nutritional value with a 10% increase in lipid content of rice bran and whole
seeds (Image 3).
As OsACBP2 contributes to
boosting oil content as well as size and weight in transgenic rice grains, an
application of this technology in rice is expected to benefit agriculture by
increasing grain yield and composition to satisfy the need for more food.
Professor Chye said: “Increasing grain size and yield, besides rice bran and
seed lipid content, in crops such as rice is an important research area that
aligns with the aspirations of Dr Wilson and Mrs Amelia Wong on the use of
plant biotechnology for a sustainable future. Furthermore, as rice bran oil is
considered highly valuable because it contains bioactive components that have
been reported to lower serum cholesterol and possess anti-oxidation,
anti-carcinogenic and anti-allergic inflammation activities, this technology,
if applied to other food crops, would not only help address food security but
also elevate nutritional properties in grains.”
This research project was funded
by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong and the Wilson and Amelia Wong
Endowment Fund.
The paper:
‘The overexpression of rice
ACYL-CoA-BINDING PROTEIN2 increases grain size and bran oil content in
transgenic rice’ by Zehua Guo, Richard P Haslam, Louise V Michaelson, Edward C
Yeung, Shiu-Cheung Lung, Johnathan A Napier, Mee-Len Chye in The Plant Journal.
Link to journal paper: https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.14503
/Public Release. View
in full here.
Tags:biological, council, food, Haslam, Hong Kong, import, Napier, Professor, project, research, school, science, Scientists, sustainable, university, University
of Hong Kong, world
November 29, 2019
TORONTO — Health Canada has said
that levels of toxic heavy metals found in baby food “do not pose a safety
concern” after a U.S. investigation found nearly all infant foods tested
contain lead.
Tests of 168 baby products from
major manufacturers in the U.S. found 95 per cent contained lead, 73 per cent
contained arsenic, 75 per cent contained cadmium and 32 per cent contained
mercury.
A quarter of the foods contained
all four heavy metals.
Health Canada confirmed that “the
levels of metals…being reported are likely applicable to infant foods sold in
Canada, as many of the same products are available in Canada.”
“The available monitoring data
indicate that levels of cadmium, lead, total mercury and perchlorate in foods
sold in Canada, including those consumed by infants, do not pose a safety
concern,” the department told CTVNews.ca in an emailed statement.
Foods with the highest risk for
neurotoxic harm were rice-based products, sweet potatoes and fruit juices, the
analysis found.
The tests and analysis were
commissioned by Healthy Babies Bright Futures, which calls itself an alliance
of scientists, nonprofit organizations and donors trying to reduce exposures to
neurotoxic chemicals during the first months of life, according to CNN. The
report was released Oct.17.
“Health Canada’s view, like that
of other international authorities, is that concentrations of certain metals,
such as arsenic and lead, in foods should be as low as possible,” the
department said.
“The department is working to
ensure this. If Health Canada identifies a potential health concern, the
Government of Canada will take immediate and appropriate action to protect the
health and safety of all Canadians, including infants and young children.”
The report said even trace
amounts of these contaminants can “alter the developing brain and erode a
child‘s IQ. The impacts add up with each meal or snack a baby eats.”
Rice-based foods, such as puffed
rice snacks and rice cereal, topped the list of most toxic foods for babies.
Because rice is grown in water, it is especially good at absorbing arsenic and,
, has the highest concentration of any food.
“Unfortunately, the findings from
this thorough study were to be expected,” Prof. Andy Meharg from Queen’s
University Belfast told CTVNews.ca.
“The findings reinforce three
things. We should not be giving infants rice products because of rice’s arsenic
and cadmium content, baby food needs to be routinely screened to check for
toxins as they may arise from unexpected sources and standards need to be set
at stricter levels for infants than for the general populace.”
Urgent action is needed by major
baby food companies and the FDA, the report said.
"These popular baby foods
are not only high in inorganic arsenic, the most toxic form of arsenic, but
also are nearly always contaminated with all four toxic metals," the
report said.
If parents choose to cook rice
for their toddler, Healthy Babies recommends cooking it in extra water and
pouring it off before eating. That will cut arsenic levels by 60 per cent, the
report said, based on FDA studies.
"For the lowest levels, buy
basmati rice grown in California, India, and Pakistan. White rice has less
arsenic than brown rice," the report said.
Teething biscuits can also
contain arsenic, lead and cadmium, the report said. Instead, it suggests
soothing teething pain with frozen bananas or a peeled and chilled cucumber.
Tap water is also preferable over
juice because it contains 63 per cent less heavy metals, the report said.
Health Canada said it was working
with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to gather more information on arsenic
in rice-containing foods for babies.
“The report advocates a 1 ppb
(parts per billion) limit for metals in infant foods,” Health Canada said.
“This is more conservative than
limits that have been established by food standard setting bodies and
regulatory authorities. For example, both the European Union and the Codex
Alimentarius Commission (Codex) have established a maximum level of 10 ppb of
lead in infant formula.
“The Department is systematically
working to lower existing maximum levels and to establish new ones, as
necessary, for arsenic and lead in foods sold in Canada.”
In the U.S., the Senate‘s top
Democrat Chuck Schumer has called on the FDA to take more action to regulate
the baby food industry.
The New York senator told The
Associated Press that consumers "rightfully expect those foods to be
undeniably safe, appropriately regulated and nutritiously sustaining."
He says federal regulators should
examine the study and release a public statement of their findings.
—- With files from CNN and The
Associated Press
Amid 'air
apocalypse', mask-clad Lahore looks for answers
LAHORE, Pakistan (Thomson
Reuters Foundation) - When black smoke from burning rice stubble in nearby
India swept into Lahore - one of Pakistan’s largest and wealthiest cities -
earlier this month, outraged residents declared an “air apocalypse” and the
provincial government shut down schools.
FILE PHOTO: Men wearing
protective masks wait for a bus in Lahore, Pakistan November 22, 2019.
REUTERS/Mohsin Raza
But even the city’s own thick
autumn smog - driven in large part by emissions from polluting vehicles - is
becoming a significant threat to health and basic rights, residents and human rights
groups warn.
“Air pollution ... claims tens
of thousands of lives, devastates the health of millions, and denies other
rights, like the right to education, when children cannot go to school,” said
Omar Waraich, South Asia campaigns director for Amnesty International.
“This is a human rights
crisis,” he said.
This autumn, Lahore’s worsening
air quality has led it to overtaking New Delhi on some days as the most
polluted city in the world, according to the community-led Pakistan Air Quality
Initiative.
“Both Lahore and Delhi now have
a similar number of days of very unhealthy or hazardous air pollution” said
Abid Omar, a founder of the non-profit initiative.
Since October, the city of more
than 10 million has been engulfed most days by a smoky, chemical haze that is
relieved only briefly when it rains.
Warmer air layers above the
cooler air at ground level act like a lid that keeps the pollutants close to
the ground, according to Pakistan’s Meteorological Department.
Across the city, many residents
now wear disposable anti-pollution masks - but they are a poor fit for the
faces of vulnerable young children, residents say.
Air quality is so bad that it
exceeds even the worst ratings of the World Health Organization, said Attiya
Noon, an air quality activist in Lahore and the mother of three young children.
Pollution “is now beyond the
index” - which means serious consequences for the city’s health, said Noon, a
member of the Punjab government’s newly set up Smog Committee.
The committee was hurriedly
established earlier this month when air quality levels became so hazardous in
Punjab’s capital that schools had to be shut down three times, and social media
channels erupted with outrage.
The smog group now aims to find
both immediate and longer-term ways to reduce pollution.
Mahbina Waheed, a Lahore
entrepreneur and another member of the committee, said the creation of the
group was one sign the provincial government was taking the problem seriously.
“With the last government we
felt we were helpless and were spiraling into this abyss with all the focus on
building new roads. Now with this new government we can raise our voices and
they are heard,” she said.
MORE MONITORING
One of the quick fixes the
activists are proposing is to require students to ride buses to school, rather
than arriving in many more individual cars.
Countries such as China and
Iran have used school closures as a way of curbing smog emergencies, Noon
noted.
Malik Amin Aslam, an advisor to
the country’s prime minister on climate change, attended early meetings of the
Smog Committee and said Lahore needed “more high-quality air monitoring
stations and actionable data.”
New Delhi, he said, has 37
official air monitoring stations, while Lahore has just four.
The World Bank plans to provide
30 new monitors in Pakistan, including 10 in Lahore, with the aim of having
them in place within six months, he said.
The biggest driver of the
city’s pollution, Aslam said, is vehicles, which contribute 43% of the smog.
Burning of crop stubble, steel manufacturing furnaces and brick kilns are other
major sources, he said.
Omar, of the Pakistan Air
Quality Initiative, said mandating the use of cleaner fuels should be a top
priority.
“While closing schools or low
weekend traffic have a marginal impact, our transportation and industrial
sectors never sleep,” he said.
Aslam said he would take up
fuel standards with the country’s oil ministry and urge them to import higher
quality diesel.
He said he also planned to
introduce vehicle inspection systems in Punjab province in coming months to
keep a check on polluting vehicles.
As well, Pakistan’s cabinet
recently passed a new electric transport policy, which aims to shift 30% of
vehicles on the country’s roads to electric power by 2030.
Aslam said the World Bank also
plans to provide $55 million to help Punjab steel and brick plants shift to
cleaner technologies, and to help farmers find alternatives to burning crop
residues by next year.
‘UNLIVEABLE’ CITIES?
Effectively cutting emissions,
however, will also require better city planning, said Mome Saleem, executive
director of the new Islamabad-based Institute of Urbanism.
The most densely populated and
least well-planned cities are the ones with the most serious smog problems, she
said - and as people flock to already congested cities Pakistan will see more
of air pollution threats.
“We need a proper urban policy
or else our cities will become unliveable,” she warned.
Waraich, of Amnesty
International, said governments in too many smog-hit South Asian cities “seem
content to ride out of the months of the smog season” rather than “enforce
clear limits on pollutants and punish those responsible for poisoning the air”.
“The failure to take these
steps is a human rights violation,” he said.
Waheed, the Smog Committee
member, said she had installed an air quality monitor in her home, connected to
the Air Visual mobile phone app.
The app gives residents an
indication of air quality around the city - and has helped back the campaign to
clean up Lahore’s air.
“Clean air was something we
took for granted and now it has become the most cherished commodity,” she said.
Reporting by Rina Saeed Khan ;
editing by Laurie Goering : Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the
charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate
change, resilience, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit
news.trust.org/climate
Our Standards:The Thomson
Reuters Trust Principles.
Amid
'air apocalypse', mask-clad Lahore looks for answers
FILE PHOTO: Men wearing protective masks wait for a
bus in Lahore, Pakistan November 22, 2019. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza -
MOHSIN RAZA(Reuters)
By Rina Saeed Khan
LAHORE, Pakistan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When
black smoke from burning rice stubble in nearby India swept into Lahore – one
of Pakistan’s largest and wealthiest cities – earlier this month, outraged
residents declared an “air apocalypse” and the provincial government shut down
schools.
But even the city’s own thick autumn smog –
driven in large part by emissions from polluting vehicles – is becoming a
significant threat to health and basic rights, residents and human rights
groups warn.
“Air pollution … claims tens of thousands of
lives, devastates the health of millions, and denies other rights, like the
right to education, when children cannot go to school,” said Omar Waraich,
South Asia campaigns director for Amnesty International.
“This is a human rights crisis,” he said.
This autumn, Lahore’s worsening air quality has
led it to overtaking New Delhi on some days as the most polluted city in the
world, according to the community-led Pakistan Air Quality Initiative.
“Both Lahore and Delhi now have a similar
number of days of very unhealthy or hazardous air pollution” said Abid Omar, a
founder of the non-profit initiative.
Since October, the city of more than 10 million
has been engulfed most days by a smoky, chemical haze that is relieved only
briefly when it rains.
Warmer air layers above the cooler air at
ground level act like a lid that keeps the pollutants close to the ground,
according to Pakistan’s Meteorological Department.
Across the city, many residents now wear
disposable anti-pollution masks – but they are a poor fit for the faces of
vulnerable young children, residents say.
Air quality is so bad that it exceeds even the
worst ratings of the World Health Organization, said Attiya Noon, an air
quality activist in Lahore and the mother of three young children.
Pollution “is now beyond the index” – which
means serious consequences for the city’s health, said Noon, a member of the
Punjab government’s newly set up Smog Committee.
The committee was hurriedly established earlier
this month when air quality levels became so hazardous in Punjab’s capital that
schools had to be shut down three times, and social media channels erupted with
outrage.
The smog group now aims to find both immediate
and longer-term ways to reduce pollution.
Mahbina Waheed, a Lahore entrepreneur and
another member of the committee, said the creation of the group was one sign
the provincial government was taking the problem seriously.
“With the last government we felt we were
helpless and were spiralling into this abyss with all the focus on building new
roads. Now with this new government we can raise our voices and they are
heard,” she said.
MOREMONITORING
One of the quick fixes the activists are
proposing is to require students to ride buses to school, rather than arriving
in many more individual cars.
Countries such as China and Iran have used
school closures as a way of curbing smog emergencies, Noon noted.
Malik Amin Aslam, an advisor to the country’s
prime minister on climate change, attended early meetings of the Smog Committee
and said Lahore needed “more high-quality air monitoring stations and
actionable data.”
New Delhi, he said, has 37 official air
monitoring stations, while Lahore has just four.
The World Bank plans to provide 30 new monitors
in Pakistan, including 10 in Lahore, with the aim of having them in place
within six months, he said.
The biggest driver of the city’s pollution,
Aslam said, is vehicles, which contribute 43% of the smog. Burning of crop
stubble, steel manufacturing furnaces and brick kilns are other major sources,
he said.
Omar, of the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative,
said mandating the use of cleaner fuels should be a top priority.
“While closing schools or low weekend traffic
have a marginal impact, our transportation and industrial sectors never sleep,”
he said.
Aslam said he would take up fuel standards with
the country’s oil ministry and urge them to import higher quality diesel.
He said he also planned to introduce vehicle
inspection systems in Punjab province in coming months to keep a check on polluting
vehicles.
As well, Pakistan’s cabinet recently passed a
new electric transport policy, which aims to shift 30% of vehicles on the
country’s roads to electric power by 2030.
Aslam said the World Bank also plans to provide
$55 million to help Punjab steel and brick plants shift to cleaner
technologies, and to help farmers find alternatives to burning crop residues by
next year.
‘UNLIVEABLE’ CITIES?
Effectively cutting emissions, however, will
also require better city planning, said Mome Saleem, executive director of the
new Islamabad-based Institute of Urbanism.
The most densely populated and least
well-planned cities are the ones with the most serious smog problems, she said
– and as people flock to already congested cities Pakistan will see more of air
pollution threats.
“We need a proper urban policy or else our
cities will become unliveable,” she warned.
Waraich, of Amnesty International, said
governments in too many smog-hit South Asian cities “seem content to ride out
of the months of the smog season” rather than “enforce clear limits on
pollutants and punish those responsible for poisoning the air”.
“The failure to take these steps is a human
rights violation,” he said.
Waheed, the Smog Committee member, said she had
installed an air quality monitor in her home, connected to the Air Visual
mobile phone app.
The app gives residents an indication of air
quality around the city – and has helped back the campaign to clean up Lahore’s
air.
“Clean air was something we took for granted
and now it has become the most cherished commodity,” she said.
(Reporting by Rina Saeed Khan ; editing by
Laurie Goering : (Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable
arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change,
resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit
http://news.trust.org/climate)
euronews provides breaking news articles from reuters
as a service to its readers, but does not edit the articles it publishes.
Articles appear on euronews.com for a limited time.
Hasan Ali’s wife receives a fairytale welcome in Pakistan
By Arhama
Altaf - Web Editor
30th
November, 2019
Pakistani
fast bowler Hasan Ali reaches Pakistan along with his wife, Samiya Arzoo after
they both tied knot in Dubai on August 20 this year.
According
to media reports, the newlyweds reached their hometown in Pakistan with a
wholehearted welcome.
Sweet
fragranced rose petals were all their way from entrance to the couples’ room
with a memorable photo frame from their wedding shoot on the wall.
Earlier
on August 20, Pakistan’s pacer Hasan Ali has tied the nuptial knot with Samiya
Arzoo at a seven star hotel in Dubai.
The
wedding ceremony, which was held at one of the most expensive hotels, was
attended by Hassan’s close friends and relatives.
The
Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisine, including steamed mutton, basmati rice,
vegetable Peshawari, achari masalah, aalu methi, Punjabi gosht, and Arabic
mixed grill, was served to the guests.
Samiya
belongs to Hariana, India. Hassan met her a year ago through a close friend in
Dubai. She studied engineering from England.
The
bride lived with her parents in Dubai. She worked for a private airline.
Hasan
Ali’s pictures from his pre-wedding shoot entourage in orange kurta had gone
viral from the iconic Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
The
pre-wedding pictures of the new couple had made rounds on different social
media platforms.
Government to
ban rice imports by 2022
Mr Kennedy Osei
Nyarko
A Deputy Minister of Food and
Agriculture, Mr Kennedy Osei Nyarko, says rice importers have welcomed the
government’s intention to ban rice importation by 2022.
“When we communicated plans to
ban the rice importation by 2022, the importers were happy. Their main
challenge however is whether our current production capacity can meet demand to
avoid going back,” he said.
Tour
Mr Nyarko made this known during a working visit to the rice processing unit of the Global Agricultural Development Company (GADCO), producers of Aduahene and Copa Jasmine brands of rice at Fievie, near Sogakope in the Volta Region.
The deputy minister visited last Tuesday to acquaint himself with the operations of the company.
Tour
Mr Nyarko made this known during a working visit to the rice processing unit of the Global Agricultural Development Company (GADCO), producers of Aduahene and Copa Jasmine brands of rice at Fievie, near Sogakope in the Volta Region.
The deputy minister visited last Tuesday to acquaint himself with the operations of the company.
The visit also took him to Wheta
in the Anlo District in the Volta Region where he assured rice farmers of the
government’s commitment to promote the production and marketing of Ghana
rice.
Ban on importation of rice
After inspecting the facilities
of GADCO, Mr Nyarko said the intention of the government to ban rice
importation was to support local rice farmers to gain access to a market for
their produce.
He said it would become a mirage if efforts were not made to scale up the production capacity of rice farmers in the country to meet the high demand for the commodity.
According to him, the country consumed about 940,000 tonnes of rice every month as against the country’s production capacity of about 400,000 tonnes.
Increase in paddy production
Mr Nyarko said the country had witnessed an increase in the production of paddy rice over the past two years.
“In 2018, we recorded a total rice production level of about 769,400 tonnes. We are inching this year to about 900,000 tonnes and we have given ourselves up to about 2022 to meet the average per capita consumption rate of rice in the country to about 1,135 tonnes,” he said.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture added that the rice consumption rate kept going high so “we should be able to produce enough to meet consumption before we can say we want to ban rice importation.”
Rice mill cottages
He disclosed that as part of efforts to increase rice production in the country, the government intended setting up rice mill cottages in rice growing areas where the farmers would mill their rice.
“When this is done, the farmer would not be worried about his paddy rice getting rotten,” he said.
Subsidy
After the deputy minister’s address to the Copa Connect Farmers in Wheta, the Chairman of the Ghana Rice Interprofessional Body (GRIB), Mr Anthony Yaw Anyidoho, appealed to the government to further lower subsidies on farming inputs.
According to him, the cost of production of rice in the country was higher than the cost of importing rice.
“It is a challenge to sell our produce at a competitive price compared to the price of imported rice. If we want to eat rice that we grow in our country, then we need subsidy that is lower than the normal farming subsidy,” he said.
Sustainability of agricultural ventures
For his part, the Commodities and Procurement Manager of Wienco and fertiliser dealer, Mr Abdul Razak Sania, reiterated the company’s commitment to ensure that agricultural ventures in the country were sustainable.
He said it would become a mirage if efforts were not made to scale up the production capacity of rice farmers in the country to meet the high demand for the commodity.
According to him, the country consumed about 940,000 tonnes of rice every month as against the country’s production capacity of about 400,000 tonnes.
Increase in paddy production
Mr Nyarko said the country had witnessed an increase in the production of paddy rice over the past two years.
“In 2018, we recorded a total rice production level of about 769,400 tonnes. We are inching this year to about 900,000 tonnes and we have given ourselves up to about 2022 to meet the average per capita consumption rate of rice in the country to about 1,135 tonnes,” he said.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture added that the rice consumption rate kept going high so “we should be able to produce enough to meet consumption before we can say we want to ban rice importation.”
Rice mill cottages
He disclosed that as part of efforts to increase rice production in the country, the government intended setting up rice mill cottages in rice growing areas where the farmers would mill their rice.
“When this is done, the farmer would not be worried about his paddy rice getting rotten,” he said.
Subsidy
After the deputy minister’s address to the Copa Connect Farmers in Wheta, the Chairman of the Ghana Rice Interprofessional Body (GRIB), Mr Anthony Yaw Anyidoho, appealed to the government to further lower subsidies on farming inputs.
According to him, the cost of production of rice in the country was higher than the cost of importing rice.
“It is a challenge to sell our produce at a competitive price compared to the price of imported rice. If we want to eat rice that we grow in our country, then we need subsidy that is lower than the normal farming subsidy,” he said.
Sustainability of agricultural ventures
For his part, the Commodities and Procurement Manager of Wienco and fertiliser dealer, Mr Abdul Razak Sania, reiterated the company’s commitment to ensure that agricultural ventures in the country were sustainable.
Indian-origin
researcher turns banana plant into packaging material
By
December 1, 2019
Indian-origin researcher turns
banana plant into packaging material
Sydney: An Indian-origin researcher-led team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) on Friday announced it has discovered a novel way to turn banana plantation waste into packaging material that is not only biodegradable but also recyclable.
Sydney: An Indian-origin researcher-led team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) on Friday announced it has discovered a novel way to turn banana plantation waste into packaging material that is not only biodegradable but also recyclable.
Associate Professor Jayashree
Arcot and Professor Martina Stenzel looked at ways to convert agricultural
waste into something that could value-add to the industry it came from, while
potentially solving problems for another.
“What makes the banana growing
business particularly wasteful compared to other fruit crops is the fact that
the plant dies after each harvest,” Arcot from UNSW School of Chemical
Engineering, said in a statement.
“We were particularly interested
in the pseudostems – basically the layered, fleshy trunk of the plant which is
cut down after each harvest and mostly discarded on the field. Some of it is
used for textiles, some as compost, but other than that, it’s a huge waste,”
she added.
According to Arcot, banana
growing industry produces large amounts of organic waste, with only 12 per cent
of the plant being used (the fruit) while the rest is discarded after harvest.
Using a reliable supply of
pseudostem material from banana plants grown at the Royal Botanic Garden
Sydney, the duo set to work in extracting cellulose to test its suitability as
a packaging alternative.
“The pseudostem is 90 per cent
water, so the solid material ends up reducing down to about 10 per cent,” Arcot
noted.
The team brought the pseudostem
into the lab and chopped it into pieces, dried it at very low temperatures in a
drying oven, and then milled it into a very fine powder.
The team then took this powder
and washed it with a very soft chemical treatment.
“This isolates what we call
nano-cellulose which is a material of high value with a whole range of applications.
One of those applications that interested us greatly was packaging,
particularly single-use food packaging where so much ends up in landfill,”
informed Stenzel.
When processed, the material has
a consistency similar to baking paper.
Depending on the intended
thickness, the material could be used in a number of different formats in food
packaging.
“There are some options at this
point, we could make a shopping bag, for example,” said Arcot.
The material is also recyclable.
“One of our PhD students proved
that we can recycle this for three times without any change in properties,”
Arcot added.
Tests with food have proved that
it poses no contamination risks.
Other uses of agricultural waste
that the duo have looked at are in the cotton industry and rice growing
industry – they have extracted cellulose from both waste cotton gathered from
cotton gins and rice paddy husks.
“What makes bananas so attractive
in addition to the quality of the cellulose content is the fact that they are
an annual plant,” said Arcot who has been at UNSW since 1990 after completing
her education from Bachelor’s and Master’s from the University of Madras and
PhD from AP Agricultural University, Hyderabad.
“If the banana industry can come
on board, and they say to their farmers or growers that there’s a lot of value
in using those pseudostems to make into a powder which you could then sell,
that’s a much better option for them as well as for us,” said the researchers..
The UNSW has more than 52,000
students from nearly 130 countries, and highest are from India.
Delhi choking: Cheaper options available to deal with paddy
stubble
December 01, 2019 08:30 IST
One way would be to encourage farmers to come out of the
long-standing paddy-wheat cycle. But for that to happen, farmers want income
assurances akin to what they get for paddy and wheat, writes Sanjeeb Mukherjee.
Why Punjab,
Haryana farmers are defying ban on stubble burning
Why stubble
burning will continue to choke NCR
Image: Colombian boxer Dayana Cordero covers her face with a
cloth after her practice session ahead of AIBA Women's World Boxing
Championships at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
Mahendra Kaur, 75, has been
suffering from a recurring respiratory problem for the last few years. Her
trouble becomes acute in the winter, especially in the days after Diwali.
That's also the time when her husband, Joginder Singh, 80, burns the crop
stubble on his 15 acres of farm land in Mohal Gwara village in Nabha Tehsil in
Punjab's Patiala.
In other words, Kaur lives slap
bang in the middle of the lethal smoke from farm fires that severely pollutes
the National Capital Region at this time of the year.
"My wife's dependence on
medicines has increased in the last few years and so have her trips to the
doctor," rues Singh, who grows wheat and paddy on his farm, alternating
between the two every year.
"But do I have any option? I
know it is wrong to burn stubble and my own family is suffering, but tell me,
what can I do?" he asks.
Singh cannot afford to buy or
hire the machines that would cut out the need to burn farm waste.
"In 15 acres I need to run a
tractor thrice -- for cutting the stubble, for overhauling them, and then for
levelling the land. Assuming that a tractor consumes 65-70 litres of diesel,
look at the cost that I already incur. On top of this, how can I purchase
another machine that costs not less than Rs 1,50,000?" he exclaims.
Image: Smoke rises as a farmer burns paddy stubble at a village
on the outskirts of Amritsar. Photographs: PTI Photo
Singh feels that the best option for
farmers like him is using a combine harvester and burning the stubble left
behind. "We have to rely on combine harvesters for cutting paddy -- there
is no way out," Singh says.
That view is echoed by most
farmers in the region that this correspondent spoke to. Though they welcome the
Supreme Court's order to give an interim relief of Rs 100 per quintal for
stubble management, most feel that they cannot stop the practice
of stubble burning unless there is a viable and long-term solution to
the problem.
According to the Union ministry
of agriculture, between October 1 to November 3, there were 31,402 cases
of stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and western UP, of which, over
80 per cent was in Punjab alone. However, this is almost 12 per cent less than
last year.
Pritam Singh of Nabha's Kot Khurd
village says that going back to the old method of manual harvesting of paddy,
which does not leave crop residue, is out of the question because labour is
scarce.
Joginder Singh agrees, adding
that even the labour needed to run the combines is hard to get nowadays.
Incidentally, Nabha is known for
its farm machine industry. As many as 200-300 units in the area deal in farm
machines in some form or the other.
Combine harvesters from this town
are sold across India. But the use of combine harvesters and the resultant
burning of stubble continues to take its toll on the health of the people in
the region.
Dr Dalbir Kaur, senior medical
officer at the Civil Hospital in Nabha, says that since the last few years she
has seen a spurt in the number of people coming to the hospital with chest and
eye-related complaints during the days when farm fires rage.
"We normally get around
800-900 patients daily in our OPD, but in the last few days, this number has
increased by at least 15-20 per cent," Kaur says.
Seated in the clean but crowded
civil hospital premises, Kaur says that the ones who suffer most are the old
and the infirm as they are the most vulnerable.
"We advise them to stay
indoors and take medicines, but very little can be done as pollution is not
under our control," says Kaur, who feels that the farmers are to blame for
the sharp rise in pollution levels, both in their own areas as well as in the
cities that are miles away.
On their part, the farmers point
out that they can do little unless the authorities provide alternative
solutions which can be implemented efficiently.
Chamkaur Singh of Ghanurki
village tried an alternative route to dispose of his stubble, but now rues it.
Two years ago, he sold his
stubble for over Rs 11.50 lakh to the Punjab Biomass Power Plant in Patiala.
But so far, he has received just about Rs 2.45 lakh.
Chamkaur Singh is now running
from pillar to post to recover his dues. "After sowing wheat, I and 40
other farmers from my village will go to Mumbai to meet the company's
representatives to try and get our money back," he says. (Media reports
claimed that Punjab Biomass Power Plant shut down as it was in the red for the
last few years.)
"Even now, I don't burn
paddy stubble and look for alternatives. But for how long can I do this?"
Chankaur Singh asks.
The Punjab government has been
trying to encourage the setting up of biomass power plants which can put crop
stubble to good use.
According to the website of the
Punjab Energy Development Authority (PEDA) 13 biomass-based power plant
projects have been allocated, of which five have been commissioned.
Crop stubble have a high silica
content and biomass power plants need to make additional investments to get it
removed so they can be processed.
That is one reason why private
players have been reluctant to set up biomass power units that can process
stubble.
However, with the state
government now trying to offer a more attractive power tariff for investors,
many private players have again started showing their interest in these plants.
But there are other, cheaper,
options available to deal with paddy stubble. One way would be to encourage
farmers to come out of the long-standing paddy-wheat cycle. But for that to
happen, farmers want income assurances akin to what they get for paddy and
wheat.
"We don't want to grow paddy
anymore, but we need viable alternative arrangements for the crops that we will
grow instead, and some sort of assured procurement -- either by agro-based
industries or by the government," says Omkar Singh Khaira, general
secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Rajewal faction).
Khaira says that farmers in this
region can grow basmati rice, which needs less water than other rice varieties
and does not give rise to the problem of disposing stubble.
But if farmers are to switch to
basmati cultivation, they would need the assurance of a minimum support price
of at least Rs 3000 per quintal, he asserts.
White vs brown rice: Which one is better?
Published: November 30, 2019
PHOTO: FILE
Rice is an
important part of desi diets. The grain is a part of almost all meals and you
will find its presence on almost every occasion, weddings to dinners and even
funerals. Speaking of its variety, it is available in several colours, shapes
and sizes. These include white, brown, basmati and jasmine rice among others.
In the recent past, however, there has been a constant debate about which one
is the healthier choice and should be consumed. With many people adopting a
healthier lifestyle now, brown rice has become the rage these days. Compiled
from Pinkvilla, here is the truth about whether the ‘diet’
alternative is really the best option or not.
Know the difference
As mentioned, white rice is what is consumed by many. For the unversed, it is refined and processed, and high on carbs. It is milled in almost all cases which is why the bran and germ layer is not present anymore. The rice is left with endosperm which has fewer nutrients. And of course, the processing makes the rice less nutritional. Hence, white rice is the source of empty calories.
As mentioned, white rice is what is consumed by many. For the unversed, it is refined and processed, and high on carbs. It is milled in almost all cases which is why the bran and germ layer is not present anymore. The rice is left with endosperm which has fewer nutrients. And of course, the processing makes the rice less nutritional. Hence, white rice is the source of empty calories.
Speaking of brown rice, it has bran, germ
and endosperm and it is full of dietary fibre, antioxidants, phytic acid,
minerals, vitamins and polyphenols among others. The presence of soluble fibre
makes the digestion slower and keeps the gut healthy. Brown rice is recommended
not because it aids in weight loss but the sugar absorption is slower in the
blood and it does not allow the accumulation of fat. However, brown rice has
some anti-nutrients that can reduce the body’s ability to absorb some
nutrients. Phytic acid and arsenic among others are present in the same which
can contribute to nutrient deficiencies.
Bottom-line
If you are suffering from or are at a higher
risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, then you can include a small
serving of brown rice in your diet and lower the intake of white rice. But make
sure you do not overeat either of them.
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Thai
rice feels the strain
For second year running, flagship export misses out on top taste
prize
published : 1 Dec 2019 at
07:00
newspaper section: News
Farmers has stuck to its old
varieties such as Thai Hom Mali and Pathum Thani 1 and has not created any new
strains for a long time. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Failing to win the prize as the world's best fragrant rice for
two consecutive years has come as a wake-up call for Thailand to overhaul its
research and development into Hom Mali rice varieties to catch up with the
changing global demand for fragrant rice.
After winning the contest for five consecutive years, Thailand's
Hom Mali (jasmine) rice was beaten last year by Cambodia's fragrant rice and
this year by Vietnam's ST25 variety.
"It's about time that both the government and the private
sector joined hands in a more serious effort to improve the quality of Thai
rice to meet the global market's expectations," said Charoen Laothamatas,
president of Thai Rice Exporters Association.
Unlike two decades ago when Thailand was the world's major rice
exporter and could sell well whatever rice it produced, the number of
competitors is growing, he said.
"The country's reputation for producing quality rice is
suffering due to a lack of effective research and development to create better
varieties of Thai Hom Mali rice," he said.
Higher costs, lower yield
The strong baht also has exacerbated the rice export situation,
he said, adding that it has pushed the price of Thai rice more than US$1,100
higher per tonne than its competitors, he said.
As a result, Vietnam, for instance, is gaining a larger market
share in the global rice trade, as it can sell its rice for half the price that
Thailand can, he said.
Vietnam won this year's competition because it has continued
developing its rice varieties to improve both quality and crop yield, he said,
adding the country has been continually upgrading its fragrant rice and is now
up to a 25th iteration.
Thailand, on the other hand, has stuck to its old varieties such
as Thai Hom Mali and Pathum Thani 1 and has not created any new strains for a
long time, he said.
The yield of Thai rice is about 400 kilogrammes per rai, which
is fairly low when compared with the 1,000kg-per-rai yield of Vietnam's rice,
he said.
And while buyers in the world market are now looking for rice
with a soft texture, the Thai rice remains as hard as it was many years ago, he
said.
Despite the development of some new softer varieties, the work
of promoting these among rice growers has been slow and far from successful, he
said.
This has left exporters unable to respond to demand for rice
with a soft texture, he said.
Worse still, he said, the stronger baht has crippled exporters'
ability to compete with their counterparts in other rice-growing countries.
"If nothing is done to improve this problem, Thai Hom Mali
rice will soon become a thing of the past," Mr Charoen said.
When consumers in those countries get used to the taste of
cheaper rice from other rice exporting countries, it will become highly
difficult for Thailand to regain a foothold, he said.
Seeking a solution
Nipon Poapongsakorn, a distinguished fellow with Thailand
Development Research Institute, said one way to help bring the price down is to
slash production costs by increasing the yield, he said.
"Thailand may consider developing a rice variety that is
less fragrant yet gives a higher yield for the sake of cost-cutting," he
said.
The yield of the off-season crop needs to rise to at least
1,000kg per rai, he said, adding that China's hybrid rice variety now yields up
to 2,000kg per rai.
The government should also consider giving more incentives for
people to study to become researchers, he said.
China, for instance, offers researchers a handsome share of
income earned through intellectual property fees, on top of high salaries for
researchers in the civil service, he said.
Instead of boasting that Thai rice is better than products from
other countries, Thailand should pay more attention to meeting the changing
expectations of rice buyers in the world market, he said.
Low incentives
Mr Charoen blamed Thailand's lack of rice variety development on
politicians competing to win farmers' support only through price guarantees or
other types of price intervention.
"These policies have failed to give any incentive for
research and development into new varieties.
"As farmers are satisfied with these price intervention
policies, they are no longer interested in improving the quality or yield.
"The priority here is to speed up development a Hom Mali
rice variety with a yield of at least 800kg per rai, which will help to lower
production costs," he said.
"The problem is that Thailand's rice research centres are
using outdated tools and full of old researchers. So, to cope with this problem
the government should make rice research a national agenda," he said.
Little support for R&D
The current 200-300 million baht yearly budget for research is
far from sufficient to attract capable and talented researchers, according to
Mr Nipon.
"Thailand's competitors are spending far more money on
their rice research," he said.
"The research budget was only 238.6 million baht last year
[2018], yet the gross domestic product generated through rice trade was as much
as 140 billion baht," he said.
The director-general of the Rice Department declined to comment
on issues surrounding the Thai rice production.
Not just the strains
Tanee Sreewongchai, associate dean for Research and Innovation
in the Department of Agronomy at Kasetsart University's Faculty of Agriculture,
said Thai Jasmine rice was developed from "Khao Dok
Mali 105" and "Kor Khor 15",
and resulted in intense fragrance, soft texture and long grains.
But this was in 1959, he said, and since then there has been no
effort to improve on it, despite the ever more desirable strains being produced
by Thailand's competitors.
However, the Department of Rice is now attempting to develop it
further to increase its yield and make it more disease and weather resistant.
This is because, he added, Thai jasmine rice was developed from
native rice with an average yield of only 350kg per rai. Another challenging
issue is that Thai farmers have high costs of production compared with
competitors like Vietnam and Cambodia.
"The problem is not related to the Thai rice strain, but it
might be related to harvesting and packing procedures that destroy the quality
and fragrance, a report by our department has shown," he said.
He said exporters are aware of the problem and try to keep
stored harvested rice at optimal temperatures to maintain the fragrance.
However, he admitted that Vietnam is now a real rival as it can
produce better rice at lower prices.
Silver lining
Mr Charoen said that at the moment, Thai Hom Mali rice's
popularity in the global market remains high despite its losses in the rice
contest in the past two years, which means Thailand still has some time if it
intends to accelerate its research and development.
Meanwhile, Boonrue Chantarangsri, coordinator of the Knowledge
Management and Farmer School Network Foundation in Nakhon Sawan, prefers to
ignore the annual contest, saying that it is down to a subjective judgement in
flavour.
He said that his department has collected domestic rice strains,
which can be further developed for higher quality in terms of texture and
nutrients for consumers who are concerned about health.
He prefers the metric of market share in order to determine the
success, or otherwise, of Thai jasmine rice.
And as of August 2019, Thailand was the second-largest exporter
of rice in the world, ranked only behind India, but far ahead of all of its
Southeast Asian competitors.
AIADMK will picket assembly
if free rice not provided for poor people : Anbazhagan
Puducherry, Nov 30 (UNI)
AIADMK legislature party leader A Anbazhagan on Saturday cautioned that the
party after getting permission from the high command would picket the
legislative assembly if the government failed to provide free rice or cash for
rice to poor people in another 10 days.
Talking to news persons here, Mr Anbazhagan said that the government should shoulder responsibility for the possible law and order problem during the picketing.
He charged that the government is not interested in implementing any welfare scheme including free rice and the poor people are deliberately being ‘cheated’.
The poor people are suffering a lot in the tussle between Lt.Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on whether rice or cash to be provided, he said, adding that the government had allocated Rs.160 crore towards free rice while, a sum of Rs 271 crore is required per year.
He said either rice or cash were not provided for the 3.44 lakh ration card holders here for the past 19 months.
The Chief Minister and Welfare Minister were blaming the Lt.Governor for the state of affairs, Mr Anbazhagan said.
When the Lt.Governor had directed not to supply free rice, the cabinet should have taken a decision to provide cash for rice.The red colour ration card holders should be provided Rs 4,800 and Yellow color card holders Rs 2,400, he added.
Stating that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami ahd taken steps to provide a ‘Pongal Kit” for Rs 500 along with Rs.1000 in cash, Mr Anbazhagan said and demanded that Mr Narayanasmay should also take steps to provide the same in the Union Territory for Pongal.
The AIADMK leader also demanded a probe by a sitting judge into the alleged suicide by the Sub-Inspector of police Vimal Kumar, attached to the Nettapakkam police station, here recently.
UNI PAB CS 1436
Talking to news persons here, Mr Anbazhagan said that the government should shoulder responsibility for the possible law and order problem during the picketing.
He charged that the government is not interested in implementing any welfare scheme including free rice and the poor people are deliberately being ‘cheated’.
The poor people are suffering a lot in the tussle between Lt.Governor Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on whether rice or cash to be provided, he said, adding that the government had allocated Rs.160 crore towards free rice while, a sum of Rs 271 crore is required per year.
He said either rice or cash were not provided for the 3.44 lakh ration card holders here for the past 19 months.
The Chief Minister and Welfare Minister were blaming the Lt.Governor for the state of affairs, Mr Anbazhagan said.
When the Lt.Governor had directed not to supply free rice, the cabinet should have taken a decision to provide cash for rice.The red colour ration card holders should be provided Rs 4,800 and Yellow color card holders Rs 2,400, he added.
Stating that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami ahd taken steps to provide a ‘Pongal Kit” for Rs 500 along with Rs.1000 in cash, Mr Anbazhagan said and demanded that Mr Narayanasmay should also take steps to provide the same in the Union Territory for Pongal.
The AIADMK leader also demanded a probe by a sitting judge into the alleged suicide by the Sub-Inspector of police Vimal Kumar, attached to the Nettapakkam police station, here recently.
UNI PAB CS 1436
