Furrow-irrigated rice gaining popularity in Southeast
Missouri
Rice
has historically been grown in level fields surrounded by levees that are
flooded with 5-8 inches of water. The seedlings are typically soaked and then
dropped into the fields where they mature after four or five months.
Missouri
is one of the first places to adopt a furrow-irrigated growing system. This
involves building raised beds within fields, which appeals to farmers who need
to conserve their labor costs.
According
to Gene Stevens, a researcher of cropping systems at Fisher Delta Research
Center in Portageville, the method works well for those who have a hard time
finding workers.
“The
main advantage of furrow-irrigated rice is that there’s less labor because you
don’t have to build the levees up and knock them down,” said Stevens, an
agronomy extension professor at the center. “Also, most of our rice is rotated
with soybeans in alternating years.”
The
disadvantages, Stevens said, have to do with weed and insect control.
Furrow-irrigated rice is more vulnerable than conventional rice fields to
billbugs, stinkbugs and a fungus called blast caused by windblown spores.
Still,
furrow irrigation has taken off in the Bootheel region in southeast Missouri,
home to exceptional soil conditions. Rice can’t be grown on lighter ground
because it requires very heavy soil to help with water management.
The
clay and silt soils make Missouri a competitive place to grow rice, said Jeff
House, field specialist in agronomy for MU Extension in New Madrid County.
According
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Missouri is one of six states, including
Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, that make up 99% of all
rice grown in the country.
Missouri
currently has 224,000 acres planted in rice, and the total 2018 value of the
state’s rice production was $179.4 million.
One
lesson the researchers at the Fisher Delta Research Center have learned about
growing rice is that flat beds with small widths produce higher yields.
Travis
Jones, field specialist in agronomy for MU Extension in Stoddard County, said
they have also found that furrow-irrigated rice is more susceptible to weed
germination than conventionally flooded rice because it’s much harder for weeds
to germinate in standing water.
“At
least one if not two additional herbicide trips are made across
furrow-irrigated rice when compared to flood rice and more residual herbicides
are used,” he said.
But
with careful management, solutions can be found to overcome most of the
problems of growing rice in Missouri, Stevens said.
Finding
these solutions means yield rates would besimilar to those of rice grown the
conventional way. Stevens said they’re often not as high but sometimes they are
actually higher.
“More
and more each year I see farmers trying it out,” Jones. “As far as rice as a
whole, we’re probably at our maximum.”
Southeast
Missouri is a low-lying region that’s a part of the Southern alluvial
Mississippi River Delta. In the early 20th century, a system of ditches, levees
and canals were built to drain the uninhabitable land that was infested with
mosquitoes and malaria.
This
system, known as the Little River Drainage District, is the world’s largest
man-made drainage effort.
“We
have the ideal soil, infrastructure and transportation that we already
utilize,” House said. “The only limiting factor is acreage.”
House
said farmers are becoming more efficient at handling rice and the specialized
equipment that comes along with it.
The
abrasive crop requires equipment with a hardened interior to cut through its
sandpaper-like texture. This process, House said, has been refined to where
farmers know when they plant in April or May what they’ll harvest in September
or October, though every year is different.
“We’re
not like the rest of the state because this is all reclaimed swampland,” House
said.
Rice Futures: High Expectations
In 2020
Jan.
23, 2020 8:15 AM ET
|
Long/short equity, value, special situations, growth at
reasonable price
(73 followers)
Summary
The deficit in rice production is expected to continue in 2020.
China's shift from a major rice
importer to exporter has affected countries such as Thailand.
Forecast of increased beer
production with a CAGR of 1.28% is seen as a major catalyst in rice production
and consumption.
Inadequate innovative rice strains have
affected production in Thailand as opposed to Vietnam.
Thesis
As reported in my previous article,
decreased global inventories were poised to push the rice prices higher. A
10-year analysis of the global consumption levels from 2009 to 2010 indicated
that the global deficit at the period was 25.3 million metric tonnes. Falling
demand from prime countries such as India and China was also a key factor in
the likelihood of low prices getting into 2020. However, despite the increase
in production of off-season rice, the high global competition, decreased
exports from emerging powerhouses and unfavorable climate will further raise
the price of rice futures. The ETF chosen for investing in rice futures is
ELEMENTS Linked to the Rogers International Commodity Agriculture ETF
(NYSEARCA:RJA).
Introduction
A 10-year analysis of the RJA ETF
shows that the total return is picking up from a decade low earnings as
compared to the volatile nature of agricultural futures. In a return vs. market
fundamental analysis, it was seen that the normalized percentage change as at
that January 17, 2020, period fell by 26.02% as compared to rice at 45%. The
trading price at this same period rose by 1.27% to trade at $5.63. We can here
assert that the ETF's position has strengthened especially since it has been
trading under the $5.50 mark since July last year.
Source: YCharts
The month of January 2020 has seen
a decline in the global production of rice as compared to that of 2019. The end
of the year saw Pakistan increase its rice production to 7.5 MMT owing to
the currency's devaluation against
the US dollar. Sri Lanka's department of agriculture maintained that
the Maha season was set for a total rice production of 2.4 MMT in 2019-2020.
While this production is significant owing to the destruction of up to 20,000
hectares of paddy rice in 2020, it is still below the expected target. In 2018,
Sri Lanka produced 3.0 MMT of rice.
Thailand is feeling the pressure
Since 2013, Thailand's total rice
production was 20 MMT before falling by almost 5 MMT in 2015. Africa has
remained Thailand's main export market since 2013 with China reportedly
slashing its import to less than 1 MMT (see figure below).
Source: USDA
Africa's rice imports have also
subsided from 2017, with Indonesia taking a huge cut - to less than 0.3 MMT in
2019. This reduction has been attributed to increased domestic production of
the commodity. Philippines, which is the top global rice importer, has taken a
hit with reduced production from Thailand as well as Vietnam. A decrease in
rice production from Thailand will lead to increased import prices as feared by
the Philippines government. On a global front, Philippines has risen to play a
major role after it imported 3.0 MMT of rice in 2018.
Bullish Global Rice Prices
December report by The World Agricultural
Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) indicated that the 100B
rice quotes in Thailand rose to $428 a ton. Vietnamese price was competitive at
$355, India at $362 and Pakistani at $358 a ton. Rice futures in the US have
increased their trading price in the last year from $10.60 on January 10, 2019,
to $13.52 on January 17, 2019.
Source: Markets Insider
This jump represents an annual
increase of 27.55% with a ton of rice trading at a cost of $560 in the US. Only
Uruguay decreased its prices to $516 per ton. However, Uruguay's export base in
2017 entailed more than 50 markets internationally.
At the time, it exported 1.014 MMT at $454 per ton. So from 2017 to 2020,
Uruguay's price range has increased by 13.66%.
Rice types and climatic barriers
Innovative rice exporters are now
altering the variety of rice to not only suit market demands but also cope with
the climatic change affecting production. In a statement, the Thai Rice
Exporters Association's President, Mr. Charoen Laothamatas, explained:
Thai rice quality has dropped because of climate change and global
warming, as well as changing the plantation method. Farmers prefer to use
machinery and chemicals that affect Thai rice's aromatic quality and good taste
Because of the labor shortage, , while other exporters such as Vietnam have
developed their own varieties every year to serve consumer demand. Vietnam now
has seven or eight rice types for export to serve global demand.
China has also increased its
off-season rice production in the FY 2019-2020. According to the USDA, China
has now shifted from importing to exporting of rice, with its main market
including Africa, which comprises of Thailand's main rice destination. Chinese
researchers as early as 2017 developed close to 200
new rice strains that could tolerate saltwater and still
maintain high yields to feed almost 200 million people. Countries like Vietnam
that have developed new rice grains are able to cope with harsh climatic
conditions that have affected India, Bangladesh and Thailand.
US Beer Market
US beer consists of rice that
provides good source of (fermentable) sugar. According to the US Brewers
Association that is composed of more than 4,000 independent brewers, rice was
established as an ingredient in the beer style guidelines spanning from 1979.
Therefore, the beer industry provides an important rice destination. For
instance, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (NYSE:BUD)
dubbed the "King of Beers" emerged as
the largest purchaser of US rice in the beer industry in 2018. With a market
capitalization of $155.3 billion and the stock trading at $80.03, the company
has seen a rise in beer production over the past year. However, with the price of
rice going up, we expect reduced production in the FY 20.
In a Forbes Report published
on December 31, 2019, craft beer production in the US was expected to increase
from 24.3 million barrels in 2015 to 27 million barrels in 2019 (a rise of
11.11%). This production is significant owing to the fact that the prediction
was for 1 million barrels with a single-digit increase in production levels.
Further, the forecast of 2019-2026 perceives
an increase in global beer market value from $602.69 billion in 2018 to $667.25
billion. The expected CAGR is 1.28% with the increase in value attributed to
popularity and increased consumption in developing countries. An increase in
beer production and consumption is expected to increase rice demand leading to
an increase in prices.
Final Thoughts
Decreased rice production levels
are expected deep into 2020. This inventory level is expected to push the price
of rice futures higher. Climatic changes such as droughts, floods and irregular
weather have caused significant damages to rice plantations such as in
Thailand. Without development of resistant strains of the rice crop as seen in
China and Vietnam, further dips in production are expected. China has changed
tune from a high net importer to a major exporter of rice globally. This shift has
hurt economies such as Thailand. While the involvement of China may lower
prices, decreased inventories in the US and Thailand and high beer production
may give a robust push to the commodity.
Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans
to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article
myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for
it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any
company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Campaign
grinds to a halt as big violators go unpunished
Emran Hossain |
Published: 02:27, Jan 24,2020
A BSTI mobile court destroys
spurious powdered milk during a recent drive in Dhaka. — New Age photo
The safe food campaign has come to a halt as government agencies
responsible for taking the campaign ahead appeared to have sided with dishonest
businessmen.
Fate of many major food standards related cases filed last year
by different government agencies appears doomed with wilful destruction of
evidences by them.
Even the High Court’s initiative to prevent the marketing of
contaminated pasteurised milk has been put on the back burner with the
government smelling a conspiracy against the local milk industry, which it felt
was active behind the move.
All the 14 local pasteurised milk brands accused of marketing
cow milk contaminated with banned antibiotics and excessive heavy metals
continued their businesses without having to face a trial.
Independent researchers are afraid of disclosing their findings
of dangerous adulteration and contamination in foods and prefer to keep it a
secret even after being published in international journals.
‘Consumers fate is sealed when the protector turns predator,’
Consumers Association of Bangladesh president Ghulam Rahman told New
Age.
He said that government agencies’ priority to promote businesses
instead of protecting consumers’ interest is evident in almost all their moves.
‘Laws are there to protect consumers. But there is nobody to
implement those,’ said Ghulam Rahman.
In its latest press conference in the 2nd week of January the
CAB demanded that a separate ministry be formed to look into consumer rights.
The existing public ministries and offices are all concerned
with protecting industrialists and businesses and there is nobody to listen to
consumers’ plights, the CAB chief said.
The safe food campaign began four years ago when Bangladesh Food
Safety Authority came into being, three years later the food safety law was
formulated.
The campaign has been very limited and based in the capital.
Outside the capital the BFSA remained virtually absent.
The new law was applied in a very small number of cases only in
the capital with BFSA’s food inspectors around the country remaining virtually
inactive.
Food safety officers said that they were frustrated and suffered
from a complete lack of motivation because of confusing leadership of their
high-ups.
About 18 food safety inspectors based in Dhaka filed 166 cases
under the safe food law since the safe food campaign began.
Most of the cases were filed against small businesses on charges
of selling foods long after their shelf lives had expired.
Few cases were against big companies using deceptive
advertisements for marketing their products.
One of the inspectors, who filed several cases against two big
companies, was called to the office of a former minister last year and was
asked to withdraw the cases.
At the minister’s office, the inspector found the accused
relaxingly loitering around. The inspector said that he was humiliated before
them with questions like who gave him the authority to file such cases.
‘Going against businesses in the country means taking a lot of
professional troubles and risking life even,’ said an inspector requesting
anonymity.
‘You might even lose your job or never get your hope of
promotion realised,’ he said.
The inspector did not withdraw the cases but has lived in fear
ever since.
The legal proceedings of the cases he had filed were however
stayed anyway through the High Court.
‘Influential ruling party lawmakers, lawyers by profession,
appeared on behalf of the accused businessmen to prove the government wrong,’
said the inspector.
On Monday, a Dhaka court flew into a rage during the trial of a
case filed against Quasem Food Products for manufacturing substandard potato
chips.
Quasem Food Products is one of the 61 companies accused of
manufacturing 73 uneatable food items last year.
The court said that that Bangladesh Standards and Testing
Institution destroyed all evidences relating to the prosecution of all the 61
companies.
The BSTI also gave false information to the government
prosecutor to save the companies and in some cases framed innocent grocers or
shopkeepers to let the real culprits go, said the court.
The BSTI told the court during the hearing that they do not
preserve evidence more than 72 hours.
‘Your decision to destroy evidence in 72 hours reveals your
predetermination to let the culprits go,’ the food court judge special
metropolitan magistrate Mehedi Pavel Sweet told the BSTI.
The court said that it was flooded with allegations from
consumers against government agencies such as the BSTI.
‘Your performance is very poor. You better serve people better,’
the judge said.
The BSTI took a lot of flak last year when it found 73 food
items not conforming to its standards but did not take any action against them.
The indifference of the national standards enforcing institution
sparked a public outcry and resulted in a public litigation seeking direction
from the High Court to protect consumers.
The High Court expressed its disappointment with BSTI’s
performance and had asked it to regularly update the court on its activities.
BSTI director general Muazzem Hossain told New Age that they did
not have enough space to preserve evidence of substandard foods.
‘It is also difficult to protect evidence of perishable foods,’
said Muazzem, who hastened to add that they worked under many limitations and
that they also had a limited jurisdiction.
According to the law, Muazzem said, only those products needing
mandatory certification from us is under our control.
At the moment only 181 products, including 72 food items, need
to have BSTI license to be sold in the market.
The jurisdiction represents less than 5 per cent of packaged food
industry in Bangladesh.
About 95 per cent of businesses producing foods in the country
do not need standards certification to run their businesses.
Many of the businesses however regularly use fake BSTI
certification and rarely get punished because of it.
Laboratory activities of the BSTI are mainly limited to testing
samples commercially for private businesses.
BSTI’s poor market monitoring gives businesses the golden
opportunity to flood the market with substandard products.
The samples that it tests as part of regular market monitoring
are often supplied by their producers. The BSTI collects samples on its own
sometimes.
When a sample fails to pass the test, its producer always gets a
second chance to send a second sample in for test, which most of the time meets
the full standards compliance, said BSTI officers.
The producers of the substandard or adulterated foods rarely get
their licenses cancelled irrespective of the seriousness of their crime.
Of the 73 food items found substandard last year some were
contaminated with excessive lead, but the BSTI served merely show cause notices
on their producers and did not take any action against them.
‘We are not here to hurt businesses. We have to act by the law,’
said Muazzem.
The country’s other food laboratories were not operating
properly either, often because of government’s reluctance in using them
effectively.
The food testing laboratory established to monitor qualities of
food sold in both south and north city corporations in Dhaka remained out of
operation for the last two years.
The food testing laboratory did not test a single sample in 2018
and 2019 because it did not have an analyst.
In 2017 the laboratory had tested 501 food samples while 569
samples were tested the year before.
Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research also
remain busy with commercial tests for private businesses. Reports of its
researches are rarely made public.
‘There is no denying the fact that our laboratories are not
enough to take the safe food campaign ahead,’ said BFSA member Monzur Morshed
Ahmed.
He said that food testing laboratories needed a lot of
improvements and they did not even have standards for testing many food
products sold in the market.
‘It will need time to improve laboratory services,’ he said.
The laboratory of the Institute of Public Health is the only one
who publishes yearly report on its market monitoring through press conference.
Last year the IPH faced scathing criticism from government food
regulators after it revealed that raw cow milk, fodder and other food items
were contaminated with banned antibiotics, excessive heavy metals and other
impurities.
The BFSA and the BSTI were quick to question IPH’s methodologies
of tests and cast their doubts about the IPH having the capacity to run proper
tests.
Last year the BFSA hit headlines several times for withholding
names of powder milk importers even after detecting heavy metals in them.
The BFSA did not ban the milk brands. Neither did it withdraw
them from the market, despite being aware of the fact that the children, the
elderly and the sick people were consuming them.
Milk ranks among the food items considered most dangerous for
consumption.
The BFSA found gaping leaks along milk value chains but did very
little to improve the situation.
For instance, cold chain is not maintained in supplying
pasteurised milk by companies to retailers. Bacterial growth starts in
pasteurised milk in half an hour of its production if the cold chain is not
maintained.
The cold chain is preserving pasteurised milk under 4 C until it
is consumed.
But, the BFSA so far failed to force companies to maintain cold
chain.
In another desperate attempt to serve businessmen the BFSA
overstepped the law when it said last year that calcium carbide could be
applied for ripening mangoes artificially.
Use of calcium carbide is legally prohibited in Bangladesh.
After chromium presence in poultry meat was reported on the
media last year, the BFSA dismissed the reports saying chromium gets destroyed
by cooking, which is not true.
The BFSA even conducted researches justifying illegal practices
among businesses.
For instance, a BFSA investigation concluded in 2018 that
miniket rice was cultivated in Bangladesh, contradicting the Bangladesh Rice
Research Institute.
According to the BRRI, miniket is over-polished BRRI-29, a thick
but popular rice grown in Bangladesh.
Businessmen claim Miniket to be a different variety of rice and
its price is higher than regular BRRI-29 rice.
Even the High Court noticed the visible favouritism shown by the
BFSA and the BSTI towards businesses, even after they faltered in all counts to
maintain food standard.
At a hearing last year, the High Court reprimanded the BSTI
officials for sitting idle in air conditioned offices wasting public money.
It scolded the BFSA officials at another hearing saying ‘are you
scared of the big businesses?’ ‘You better quit, go home and cook food,’ the
court told the BFSA officials.
Many BSTI employees spearheaded social media campaign supporting
campaign of private businesses that safe food campaign was a pretext to destroy
home grown food business.
Even the prime minister said that she believed there was a
conspiracy going on against local milk companies.
Soon after the PM’s remark came, the jurisdiction of the High
Court bench, whichin a suomotoorder asked the production of pasteurised milk by
14 companies to stop last year, was curtailed.
The bench no longer has the power to issue suomoto and now hears
cases not related to food standards.
Even independent researchers and safe food campaigners became
the victims of smear campaigns by government officers and businesses throughout
last year.
After a group of Dhaka University teachers revealed last year
that many products certified by the BSTI do not conform to the national standards,
the BSTI employees joined the campaigns calling the researchers names and
identifying them as agents of foreign companies.
The team of researchers were led by Dhaka University’s pharmacy
department teacher professor ABM Faroque.
Even Faroque’s own department was quick to notify public in a
rare statement that the department had nothing to do with the research.
A file photo shows that BSTI mobile court staff dumps
adulterated chocolates after confiscating those during a drive. — New Age photo
How onions and old cheese could help inflammatory bowel disease:
Scientists find diets rich in pre and probiotics ease gut cramps - but milk,
pasta and rice will make them worse
·
Researchers tested diet on 19 patients to see if would
improve their gut health
·
They found nearly two in three (61.3 per cent) reported
less severe symptoms
·
Patients all had severe Crohn's disease or ulcerative
colitis, all forms of IBD
A diet rich in pre and
probiotic foods could improve the symptoms of millions of inflammatory bowel
disease (IBD) sufferers, researchers say.
Researchers from the
University of Massachusetts set strict meal plans for 19 patients and monitored
them over two months.
Their diets were made up
of lots of prebiotics, like onions and bananas, and probiotics, such as yohurts
and old cheese.
After eight weeks more
than two in three of participants reported a dramatic decline in the severity
of their symptoms.
The scientists say the two
food types increase the number of 'good' fatty acids which lessen inflammation
in the gut.
Assistant professor Ana
Maldonado-Contreras, lead author of the study, said diet was the 'best
medicine' to treat IBD.
She warned sufferers
should steer clear of milk, pasta, rice, refined sugar and fresh cheese, which
all only further inflame the gut.
+A diet rich in pre and probiotic foods could improve the symptoms of
millions of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) sufferers, researchers say
Probiotics are foods
containing live bacteria thought to keep the gut healthy.
Prebiotics are types of
fibre which serve as food for this bacteria, helping them thrive in the body.
As well as onions and
bananas, prebiotic foods which feature on the list include; garlic, artichokes,
leeks, asparagus and ground flax seeds.
IBD is the name given to a
group of conditions in which the intestines become inflamed.
Two major types of IBD are
Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. There are thought to be around 620,000
sufferers in the UK, with a further 3million in the US.
WHAT IS
INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE?
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a
medical term that describes a group of conditions in which the intestines
become inflamed (red and swollen).
Two major types of IBD are Crohn's disease
and ulcerative colitis.
Ulcerative colitis affects the large
intestine (colon) whereas Crohn's disease can occur in any part of the
intestines.
Symptoms may include:
· Abdominal cramps and pain
frequent
· Watery diarrhoea (may be bloody)
· Severe urgency to have a bowel
movement
· Fever during active stages of
disease
· Loss of appetite and weight loss
· Tiredness and fatigue anaemia
(due to blood loss)
People of any age can get IBD, but it's
usually diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 40.
The conditions are chronic and cannot be
cured so treatment usually relies on medication and lifestyle changes to manage
the symptoms, but may include surgery.
IBD is thought to affect some three million
people in the US, over 300,000 Britons, and 85,000 Australians.
Source: Crohn's & Colitis
Australia
Symptoms include abdominal
cramps, watery diarrhoea, fever and loss of appetite.
The latest
study found 61.3 per cent of patients who followed the diet, called
IBD-AID, reported a significant easing in the condition.
Meals were designed to
increase the numbers of bacteria which produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
These nourish intestine
lining cells and help to reducing inflammation.
Assistant professor
Maldonado-Contreras and her colleagues tested it on patients who had severe
Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
After analysing stool
samples from the patients, they found that the foods included in the diet
correlated with a large amount of SCFAs.
They also found a decline
in 'bad' strains of bacteria, such as escherichia, alistipes, and eggerthella,
all of which inflame the gut.
Patients who stuck to the
diet for a minimum of 50 per cent of the time for eight weeks saw a dramatic
decrease in the severity of their symptoms, the researchers added.
IBD-Aid advises avoiding
certain foods to ‘starve’ bad bacteria and allow the gut to recover.
It adds that all trans
fats and foods containing partially hydrogenated oil, such as shop-bought
muffins and cakes, should be avoided.
The diet has three phases.
The first, termed 'bringing it back to basics', aims to help patients who have
severe symptoms and who cannot tolerate many foods.
It advises eating
soft-cooked pureed food, including smoothies, vegetables and even meat and
fish, via a blender.
The second phase tries to
introduce patients with symptoms which are hopefully now less severe to more
foods and textures.
More fibrous foods are
added, such as beans and lentils, but are still pureed or cooked until they are
very soft.
Tomatoes, aged cheese and
well-cooked lean meat is also allowed. In the final phase, termed 'Remission',
patients are ideally becoming stronger and more comfortable eating a wider
variety of foods.
Their bowel movements will
be more solid and controlled. They can now eat things such as stir-fried
vegetables and meat, shellfish, citrus fruit and apples.
Assistant Professor
Maldonado-Contreras and her colleagues said the results allowed them to
customise diet guidelines to emphasise foods known to improve gut health.
She said: 'Your food is
your best medicine. Nowhere else is this more real than for those suffering
from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
'Thus, we developed the
IBD-Anti-Inflammatory Diet (IBD-AID) to relieve IBD symptoms while providing
nutrient adequacy.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7920089/Diet-rich-probiotics-prebiotics-onions-eases-symptoms-IBD-sufferers.html
National study raises alarm about arsenic,
lead and other heavy metals in baby food
Thursday, January 23rd 2020
SAN FRANCISCO (SBG) — From formula to rice cereal,
fruits and veggies to snacks, a recent study from a consumer advocacy group
found toxic heavy metals in some of the food we feed our children.
Instead of nursery rhymes, you'll
find warnings about pesticides and toxic chemicals painted on the walls of
Suzanne Price’s organic baby boutique, Sprout, in San
Francisco. The mom of two daughters isn’t trying to scare new
parents. Instead, she says her goal is to help educate them about what could be
in the products they’re considering for their children and offer healthier
alternatives her staff has thoroughly researched. She told Spotlight on
America, "I really believe in sharing information, no matter what. I
really think people should know the facts and make their own choices."
When it comes to choices about
what your children eat, a recent study is sounding an alarm informed moms like
Price says people should hear. She said, "I do think studies like this
will help push companies to do the right thing."
Boutique
owner Suzanne Price provides customers safer alternatives to potentially toxic
baby products (Photo: Alex Brauer, Sinclair Broadcast Group)
The study we discussed with Price
is a 2019 report from the consumer advocacy group, Healthy
Babies, Bright Futures. The organization discovered toxic heavy
metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in 95% of the more than 150 baby
food products they tested. Their study included big brands and small ones and
included food bought at chain stores and online. The study showed the results
of testing done on products ranging from cereal and snacks to juice, formula
and containers of fruits and veggies.
Dr. Gina Solomon is the former
deputy secretary for science and health at California's Environmental Protection Agency. She
now works as a principal investigator at the Public Health Institute in Oakland,
California. We asked her about the Healthy Babies, Bright Futures study.
"I understand that people are concerned when people
hear about heavy metals in baby food. That is worrisome," Dr. Solomon
explained. "One of the things people should know is heavy metals like lead
and arsenic are very widespread in the environment and they get into a lot of
things."
One of the biggest problem foods
pointed out by the study? Rice. This common ingredient in many baby foods,
including cereal and snacks, contains arsenic. But Solomon explained it's
naturally occurring in the environment and gets picked up from the soil. Still,
that doesn't make it any easier for parents to swallow, as studies cited by
the Food and Drug Administration show
any exposure to heavy metals, in general, has the potential to impact brain
development in children. The rice industry maintains inorganic arsenic in rice grown
in the United States poses no public health risk.
"There are some things that
are very hard to change so what we need to see from the Food and Drug
Administration and these companies making these products, are best efforts to
bring the levels down, to be aware of where this food is coming from and that
it has the lowest feasible levels," Solomon said.
Dr.
Gina Solomon with the Public Health Institute talks about a study that
uncovered heavy metals in baby food (Photo: Alex Brauer, Sinclair Broadcast
Group)
Right now, the FDA has no enforceable
limits for most heavy metals when it comes to baby food, although the agency
has proposed them when it comes to arsenic in apple
juice and rice cereal.
Last year some of the biggest
names in the baby food business took matters into their own hands, joining
together with partners like Cornell University and
the Environmental
Defense Fund to form a Baby Food Council. The group
says they’re committed to improving their methods to limit heavy metal
contamination and reduce levels. “Although heavy metals are naturally occurring
in the environment, we are always looking to reduce their presence in
food," a representative of one manufacturer said in a release about the
council. Another said, "We never stop asking ourselves, ‘Can we do more?’
This question inspires our commitment to continuously raise our high standards
and improve our methods to reduce and limit contaminants in all our
foods."
For now, experts say the best
thing parents can do is switch things up when it comes to children's
diets. Dr. Timur Durrani, associate professor with the
University of California San Francisco, told Spotlight on America feeding your
children a varied and balanced diet that doesn’t focus too much on any one food
is a solid step to limit exposures. He advises breastfeeding as long as
possible and then choosing non-processed options for your children when
possible after they've made a move to solid foods.
"Anytime a child has an exposure to a potentially
neurotoxic substance that is problematic," Durrani said. "Our
interest and our goal is to minimize that as much as possible."
Mixing things up in your child's
diet won't stop every exposure to heavy metals, but it helps. And when it comes
to rice, Durrani says you may want to consider infant cereals or snacks made
with oatmeal or mixed grains that are often sold at about the same cost. He
advised choosing white rice over brown, given arsenic levels have shown to be
lower with that variety. The FDA has even issued some cooking advice for rice.
The agency says cooking rice in extra water that doesn't evaporate and has to
be poured off can lower arsenic levels in the food significantly.
Moms like Suzanne Price
understand there's a lot of information parents have to wade through. Her
advice is to listen but try not to get overwhelmed. "What I always tell
people is you do what you can do. You can’t get rid of every bad thing in the
environment around your child," she said. "But you can make less of
them by making some smart choices."
Disabling viruses with CRISPR scissors
January 23, 2020
Anirban Roy helped modify a crop-destroying virus to
help plants resist infection.
Viruses cause billions of dollars in losses for many food, feed,
and fiber crops, including staples like wheat, rice, potatoes, cassava, beans,
and plantains. In a scientific first, Washington State University researchers
delivered a one-two punch to knock out these viruses, using precise, targeted
editing of viral genes.
Popularly known as CRISPR-Cas9, this genome editing approach can
delete and replace individual bases in DNA.
“Genome editing is one of the most powerful and groundbreaking
developments in molecular biology, with potentially far-reaching applications
in agriculture, biology, and medicine,” said Hanu Pappu, Samuel H. Smith
Distinguished Professor and Chuey Endowed Chair in WSU’s Department of Plant
Pathology.
In a recent article in the journal PloS One, Pappu and his
collaborators showed that precise modifications of multiple genes of a virus at
the same time both disabled the virus and made the plants highly resistant to
disease.
Virus infection results in severe stunting of plants,
left, but plants challenged by a virus with edited genes at right, showed no
damage.
The study’s lead authors—Anirban Roy, a visiting scientist on
sabbatical from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, and
Ying Zhai, a post-doctoral fellow in Pappu’s lab—used a crop-destroying DNA
virus to apply this approach. Their collaborators included WSU crop science
professor Michael Neff and his doctoral student Jessica Ortiz. Roy was
supported by a fellowship from the joint Indo-U.S. Genome Editing Initiative.
“Commonly referred to as begomoviruses, these are some of the
most destructive viruses of vegetable crops in tropical and sub-tropical
countries around the world,” Roy said. Begomoviruses are spread by whiteflies,
a tiny insect that feeds on plants, making them extremely difficult to control.
“These viruses tend to mutate and evolve to escape their host
plants’ defenses, and are notorious for overcoming host plant resistance,”
Pappu said. “This makes developing virus resistant crops that remain disease
resistant very challenging.”
With his Indian collaborators, Sunil Mukherjee and Bikash
Mandal, Pappu tried a new tactic: simultaneously targeting and editing several
different genes of the virus that are critical for its multiplication and
survival. The result was remarkably cumulative: plants were able to resist the
virus infection, and they remained symptom-free.
While CRISPR-Cas9 was used to edit out single bases in one gene,
Pappu’s team found a downside to this approach. The edited virus quickly
mutated to its original form and started causing disease.
Hanu Pappu
“We went back to the drawing board and tried to come up with a
way to disable the virus more effectively,” Pappu said.
“It was a great moment when we did not see any indication that
the virus was able to mutate, after we edited its genes at multiple locations,”
Zhai added.
Now, with their proof of concept, the scientists say it could be
possible to extend this approach to any begomovirus-host combination.
“Genome editing is one more weapon in the arsenal for the
continued fight to protect crops from viruses,” Pappu said.
Read the team’s PLoS One journal article, Multiplexed editing of a begomovirus genome
restricts escape mutant formation and disease development (Roy,
A., Y. Zhai, J. Ortiz, M.M. Neff, B. Mandal, S.K. Mukherjee and H.R. Pappu
(2019).
Media contact:
· Hanu Pappu, Samuel H. Smith Distinguished Professor
and Chuey Endowed Chair, Department of Plant Pathology,
509-335-3752, hrp@wsu.edu
Govt. approves
Rs. 100 b in loans for paddy purchases
Friday, 24 January 2020 00:25
- Private buyers and mill
owners can obtain loans at 8% interest to buy paddy at Govt. set
prices
- Cabinet approves minimum
price at Rs. 50 per kilo
- Three million metric
tons of paddy expected for Maha season
- State Ministers
appointed to monitor paddy purchasing in key districts
By Uditha Jayasinghe
Cabinet has approved a wide-ranging paddy purchasing program for three million metric tons of Maha season paddy, which includes setting a minimum price of Rs. 50 and providing Rs. 100 billion in loans at 8% interest for private buyers, a top official said yesterday.
Paddy harvesting has already begun and the Cabinet of Ministers this week decided that the Government will mediate in purchasing surplus of paddy stocks in the Maha season of 2019/2020 with objective of encouraging the private sector paddy millers to purchase paddy under a fair price to ensure sustaining a fixed price of paddy.
Therefore a minimum certified price of Rs. 50 for a kilo of paddy with the due standard (subject to the criterion of moisture) has been mandated. The minimum certified price of a kilo of paddy with moisture is to be certified at Rs. 45.
“Cabinet has also approved giving loans through State and private banks approximately amounting to Rs. 100 billion under a concessionary loan interest rate of 8% for private sector buyers including small and medium scale as well as large scale millers for the purchase of paddy under the certified price,” Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told media.
He also defended the high prices of rice that have been seen in the market for the last few months, insisting that the Government had decided not to import rice as it could cause market distortions as it was too close to harvest time.
“During the previous Government we saw that every time prices increased they would resort to imports, but this is bad on two counts. One is that previous foreign exchange flows out of the country and secondly when rice imports are made so close to harvest time it drives down prices and farmers close the opportunity to get a good price. This is the Government that is on the side of the farmers, so the decision was taken not to import rice but to wait till the Maha season,” he said.
The Government program to purchase rice will be carried out through district secretaries and Government agents as well as the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB). Direct purchase of quantities of rice required for Government institutions such as the armed forces, Department of Prisons, public hospitals and other public institutions will be done directly from Paddy Marketing Board (PMB).
Cabinet also decided all store houses or warehouses under the purview of the Food Commission will be used for storing the paddy stocks purchased. Lorries and trucks belonging to the Government will be used for transportation of paddy stocks
Monitoring of the paddy purchasing program in the Districts of Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Vavuniya, Ampara, Batticaloa, Monaragala and Hambantota has been assigned to several State ministers.
Cabinet has approved a wide-ranging paddy purchasing program for three million metric tons of Maha season paddy, which includes setting a minimum price of Rs. 50 and providing Rs. 100 billion in loans at 8% interest for private buyers, a top official said yesterday.
Paddy harvesting has already begun and the Cabinet of Ministers this week decided that the Government will mediate in purchasing surplus of paddy stocks in the Maha season of 2019/2020 with objective of encouraging the private sector paddy millers to purchase paddy under a fair price to ensure sustaining a fixed price of paddy.
Therefore a minimum certified price of Rs. 50 for a kilo of paddy with the due standard (subject to the criterion of moisture) has been mandated. The minimum certified price of a kilo of paddy with moisture is to be certified at Rs. 45.
“Cabinet has also approved giving loans through State and private banks approximately amounting to Rs. 100 billion under a concessionary loan interest rate of 8% for private sector buyers including small and medium scale as well as large scale millers for the purchase of paddy under the certified price,” Cabinet Spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told media.
He also defended the high prices of rice that have been seen in the market for the last few months, insisting that the Government had decided not to import rice as it could cause market distortions as it was too close to harvest time.
“During the previous Government we saw that every time prices increased they would resort to imports, but this is bad on two counts. One is that previous foreign exchange flows out of the country and secondly when rice imports are made so close to harvest time it drives down prices and farmers close the opportunity to get a good price. This is the Government that is on the side of the farmers, so the decision was taken not to import rice but to wait till the Maha season,” he said.
The Government program to purchase rice will be carried out through district secretaries and Government agents as well as the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB). Direct purchase of quantities of rice required for Government institutions such as the armed forces, Department of Prisons, public hospitals and other public institutions will be done directly from Paddy Marketing Board (PMB).
Cabinet also decided all store houses or warehouses under the purview of the Food Commission will be used for storing the paddy stocks purchased. Lorries and trucks belonging to the Government will be used for transportation of paddy stocks
Monitoring of the paddy purchasing program in the Districts of Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Vavuniya, Ampara, Batticaloa, Monaragala and Hambantota has been assigned to several State ministers.
5. Spamming the comments section
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Chinese tariff rate quota policy severely impacted U.S. wheat
exports, study shows
Ripening wheat on the Palouse
hills of Washington. (Photo: Doug Wilson/USDA)
URBANA, Ill. – The U.S. and China
recently agreed to a phase one trade deal that aims to resolve the current
trade war between the two countries. But that is just the latest development in
longstanding and complicated U.S.-Chinese trade disputes.
China has consistently used
tariff rate quotas to restrict grain imports, and in 2016 the U.S. launched a
complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over China’s implementation of
tariff rate quotas on wheat, corn and rice. In their report, issued in April
2019, WTO sided with the U.S., but did not provide an assessment of the effect
on U.S. exports.
A new study from University of
Illinois, published in Agricultural Economics, quantifies those effects
and shows that China’s tariff quota administration significantly affected U.S.
grain exports, particularly for wheat.
“Our analysis shows that if China
hadn’t used trade policies to restrict trade, wheat imports from the U.S. could
have been more than 80% higher in 2017. That’s a value of around $300 million,”
says Bowen Chen, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of
Agricultural and Consumer Economics at U of I. Chen is lead author on the
study, which was conducted as part of his doctoral dissertation.
The dispute concerns China’s
administration of tariff rate quotas (TRQ), a policy instrument intended to
regulate imports. Tariff rate quotas establish two tiers of tariffs, with a
lower tariff for in-quota imports and a much higher tariff for out-of-quota
imports. Chinese tariffs for grain commodities were 1% for in-quota and 65% for
out-of-quota imports.
The system is intended to allow
some access for imports at a low tariff rate, while the second-tier tariffs
provide protection for domestic commodities. Under the TRQ agreement, China is
obligated to import certain quantities of grain at the low tariff level.
However, the U.S. contended that these obligations were not fulfilled, and that
China’s imports of corn, wheat and rice were far below in-quota quantities.
Chen and his colleagues analyzed
trade and price data to assess the impact of Chinese TRQ policies on U.S. grain
exports. They also sought to explore the rationale behind the grain quota
administration in order to better inform policy initiatives and trade
negotiations.
The researchers obtained monthly
trade data for grain commodities from 2013 to 2017, using information from a
United Nations database and the Ministry of Commerce in China. They also looked
at domestic price data published by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. Using
the trade and price data, they estimated the import demand elasticities for
corn, wheat and rice.
“We estimate how the prices would
have been reduced if China was not imposing the tariffs. Then we simulate how
the quantities would change based on the price and elasticity,” Chen says.
Overall, the researchers
concluded that China’s 2017 grain imports could have been $1.4 billion or 40%
higher. Wheat imports from the U.S. could have been $324 million or 83% higher
without the restrictive policies. Corn and rice imports were affected to a
lesser extent.
Chen cautions that those results
are contingent on Chinese domestic prices being equal to world prices, assuming
that China would not maintain high prices to support domestic production.
“If China liberated their import
policy and reduced domestic price support, such market policy reforms would
alleviate pressure from trading partners,” Chen says. “However, they may not be
interested in full trade liberalization at this time.”
Chen explains that China has used
TQR as a trade policy instrument to stabilize domestic prices and restrict
imports, and his research can help understand why they engage in this practice.
“These restrictions will make
foreign commodities more expensive and give more incentive for domestic
producers, so China can eat more domestically produced food,” he says.
“China wants to feed itself and
be less dependent on other suppliers. Furthermore, China has huge grain stocks
and want to use them. Finally, international prices are volatile, so for food
security reasons they don’t want prices to fluctuate too much. They want to
have stable food prices so people can feel safe, buying the same food with the
same budget.”
Chen says the study can have
implications for trade negotiators and policy makers, both in the U.S. and
China, by showing the effect the TQR policy has on trade.
The new phase one trade deal
stipulates that tariff rate quota administration not be used to prevent the
full utilization of agricultural tariff rate quotas. The implementation of the
trade deal will likely benefit U.S. grain exports to China, Chen notes.
Soybean trade is an important
part of the trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, and that will be the
topic for Chen’s next research project.
“We will quantify the impact on
U.S. soybean exports to China, calculating how exports have been reduced by the
trade war in the last year. That’s what I’m currently working on,” he says.
The paper, “Tariff quota
administration in China’s grain markets: an empirical assessment,”
is published in Agricultural Economics.
JANUARY
23, 2020
Cambodia rice crisis signals deeper economic rot
A Cambodian rice farmer during
harvest season in Kompong Chhnang, Cambodia. Photo: AFP Forum
EU tariffs, intense drought and deep debts all loom darkly over
nation’s top crop and employer
Cambodia’s beleaguered rice sector is both literally and
figuratively drying up, with drought parching crops and commercial banks
refusing liquidity to farmers and millers in need of loans to stay afloat.
The country’s Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries last year warned farmers that they may only
be able plant one crop during the current dry season, which typically runs
through April.
The ministry has said this could
result in a smaller rice harvest year on year in 2020, a significant decline
considering the rice sector is still one of the mostly rural nation’s main
employers.
The agricultural sector, of which
rice farming is the biggest component, employed around 3 million of Cambodia’s
15 million workers and accounted for just over a fifth of the country’s gross
domestic product (GDP) in 2018, according to state data.
While the rice sector has long
faced problems of underfunding and black market dealing, and is increasingly
being impacted by environmental change and degradation, its woes have been
compounded by European Union (EU) tariffs imposed last year on rice imports
from Cambodia.
Rice shipments to Europe,
previously Cambodia’s largest export market, declined due to the tariffs by
around a third last year, from nearly 300,000 tons in 2018 to around 200,000
tons, according to Ministry of Agriculture statistics.
The blow was, to some extent,
cushioned by an increase of 46% in rice exports to China, the country’s main
political ally. Days after the EU’s tariffs went into effect last January,
Chinese president Xi Jinping promised to increase the rice quota amount of
China imports from Cambodia to 400,000 tons, up from the 300,000 tons set in
2018.
Cambodian workers load bags of rice in a file photo. Photo:
AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy
Not only does the quota amount
represent artificial demand, as it requires the Chinese government to enforce
imports, it is also more wishful thinking than a solution for Phnom Penh considering
China failed to meet its smaller quota set for 2018, when it bought only
170,000 of a promised 300,000 tons.
Despite nearly doubling, Cambodia
only exported 248,100 tons of milled rice to China in 2019, according to the
Cambodian General Directorate of Agriculture. This means it fell well short of
the 400,000 ton target and thus likely won’t be enough to lift the industry’s
parched 2020 prospects.
Those numbers don’t tell the
whole story, however.
While the total tonnage of
Cambodia’s rice exports fell by less than 1% last year, chiefly because of the
uptick of exports to China, official data shows that the total financial value
of rice shipments fell by 4.3%, down to US$501 million. In other words, exports
to China aren’t nearly as profitable as exports to the EU.
Yet it is farmers, not middlemen
exporters, who are paying the heaviest price. Voice of America reported this
month that rice dealers are offsetting the additional cost of EU tariffs by
paying farmers less for their produce.
Some farmers say they are now
selling their crops for half the price they received in 2018. One producer told
VOA that he now sells fragrant rice, a high-quality brand, for 700 riel
(US$0.17) per kilogram, when it previously sold for 1,300 riel.
On December 26, Cambodian Prime
Minister Hun Sen stressed that his government won’t intervene in 2020 to prop
falling prices, as it did in 2017 during an election year when his ruling
Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) was keen to secure rural votes.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen delivers a speech in Kampong
Chhnang province. Photo: AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy
Cambodia isn’t a “communist
country,” he said in his December 26 speech, while stating that “we could only
make an appeal, but the market mechanism does not require the state to set the
prices.”
His government’s strict adherence
to market principles is questionable. It has previously set arbitrary interest
rate caps on the microfinance sector, imposed annual minimum wage increases for
garment workers, and bailed out the manufacturing sector on numerous occasions.
More likely, Phnom Penh knows
that any direct intervention in the rice sector will require more than just
price controls, and that state injections could cost billions of dollars at a
time when state coffers are needed for more profitable sectors, like garment
manufacturing, which could soon be hit by new punitive tariffs from the EU.
Falling profits couldn’t come at
a worse time for Cambodia’s rice farmers. The cost of pesticide and fertilizer
is rising and fluctuating weather patterns mean farmers are now increasingly
dependent on such products to maintain yields.
Flooding and droughts are also
becoming increasingly common, which requires farmers to spend even more money
on water pumps and irrigation systems, and to put aside enough capital in case
of crop failures.
According to a report by ASEAN
Today, 45,000 hectares of rice-growing paddies were affected by droughts in
December, for which the government was only able to provide financial relief to
half of affected farmers.
Farmers are likely instead to
turn to the already overheated microfinance sector, which has grown faster in
Cambodia than almost any other country worldwide. Between 2004 and 2014, the
average loan from a microfinance institution rose from $200 to $1000, twice as
fast as per-capita income growth, Bloomberg noted last year.
A report published last August by
two local nongovernmental organizations, Collateral Damage: Land Loss and
Abuses in Cambodia’s Microfinance Sector, found that 2.4 million Cambodians now
have combined outstanding microfinance debts worth around $8 billion, a third
of the country’s GDP.
A Cambodian rice seller in Siem Reap town’s Old Market. Photo:
AFP Forum
That makes an average debt per
borrower of $3,370, the highest in the world for microfinance lending.
For years, experts have warned
that the microfinance sector is overheated and that a significant number of
borrowers are using loans for non-productive means, usually to purchase
consumer goods or to repay other loans.
The Collateral Damage report
states that mounting debts are pressuring farmers to sell their land to make
repayments, as well as leading to more child labor, migration to neighboring
Thailand and Vietnam, and even illegal “bonded labor.”
As profits are falling for
farmers at the same time as they need to make new investments in equipment,
microfinance loans are expected to rise in 2020. So, too, will the number of
defaults, or non-performing loans (NPLs), analysts warn.
Reports suggest that the banking
sector’s NPL ratio is currently around 2%, though this could be considerably
higher because banks often include these debts under different categories and
many debts are taken by borrowers to refinance other loans, the World Bank
warns.
At the same time, however,
millers and exporters find it increasingly difficult to access credit from
commercial banks, which are increasingly wary of lending to the debt-ridden
agricultural sector.
Whether private financial
institutions lend or not is usually a litmus test for business confidence in a
sector.
In December, the Cambodia Rice
Federation (CRF), a farmers’ group, called upon the state-owned Rural
Development Bank (RDB) to make $200 million available for emergency loans so
that millers could continue to purchase their paddy.
A Cambodian rice farmer during harvest season at Kompong Chhnang
province. Photo: AFP Forum
The harvest season for premium
fragrant rice begins around November, but millers are often cash-strapped at
that time of year after purchasing white and fragrant rice varieties harvested
between July and October.
It thus isn’t unusual for rice
dealers to request RDB assistance. In 2016 and 2017, for instance, the RDB
injected an additional $27 million and $23 million in credit for millers to
continue buying harvested rice.
But the RDB only extended an
additional $50 million for new loans last month, leaving millers to search
elsewhere for the additional $150 million they requested.
The CRF’s vice-president, Chan
Sokheang, told the Phnom Penh Post in December that commercial banks have
recently halved the amount of their agricultural loans, with some trimming
credits by up to 60%.
Cambodia’s banks aren’t usually
wary about lending. In fact, Cambodia has the fastest growing lending sector in
East Asia, with domestic credit growing nine-fold since 2007, the World Bank
reported last year.
The World Bank report showed the
number of outstanding loans provided by the banking and microfinance sectors
were worth more than 100% of Cambodia’s GDP for the first time in 2019.
The National Bank of Cambodia
warned in April last year that this leveraging could have “destabilizing
effects on the economy.”
A Cambodian woman holds riel bank notes. Photo: AFP Forum
Unpredictable weather and
disruptions to international trade have compounded the structural problems that
have vexed Cambodia’s rice sector for years.
The UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) reported last year that some 44% of Cambodia’s rice exports
are undocumented and smuggled out of the country, chiefly because millers
cannot afford to purchase the entire harvest and growers look to informal
brokers for quick cash.
Recent reports suggest that the
government could do more to build silos and warehouses for millers (three new
ones were built in late 2018), improve exporters’ infrastructure and invest
more in research and development to produce new and better strains of rice.
Civil society groups are speaking
out about the perceived lack of government support, with discussion groups in
Phnom Penh questioning why the government cannot use part of its $3 billion in
foreign reserves to help subsidize the agricultural sector.
The call emerged after Hun Sen
said that he may use foreign reserves to offset the tariff costs incurred if
Cambodia is removed from the EU’s Everything But Arms (EBA) preferential trade
scheme in punitive response to his democratic backsliding.
The EU is expected to make its
EBA decision next month. Any revocation of EU privileges would devastate many
of Cambodia’s export-oriented industries, particularly the garment sector, and
likely require the government to divert further funds away from rice growers to
cushion the blow on manufacturers.
Nigerian rice farmers fall short after borders close
January 24 2020 12:13 AM
Women buy rice at Wurukum Rice Mill in Makurdi, Nigeria, in this
December 2, 2019, photograph.
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