| PHL shoots for rice output of 19.6 MMT |
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| A farmer uses a hand tractor to plow a rice field before planting palay seedlings in Tanay, Rizal, in this BusinessMirror file photo. |
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The Department of
Agriculture (DA) is targeting to expand the country’s paddy rice output this
year by at least 6.5 percent to a record-high of nearly 20 million metric
tons (MMT). The DA said it is banking on the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness
Enhancement Fund (RCEF) and its hybrid rice program to increase palay output
to 19.6 MMT, from last year’s estimated 18.4 MMT. The DA has earlier slashed
its projected total palay output for 2019 to 18.4 MMT, from 19 MMT following
a series of typhoons that battered the farm sector in December. Typhoon
Ursula (international code name Phanfone) and Typhoon Tisoy, (international
code name Kammuri) which struck the Philippines last month, destroyed
billions of pesos worth of crops, according to official government data. The
damage and losses to agriculture due to Ursula alone reached P3.5 billion.
The typhoon damaged some 39,000 metric tons of rice, corn, and high-value
crops planted in Mimaropa, Bicol region, Western Visayas, Central Visayas,
and Eastern Visayas. Citing the projection of Philippine Statistics Authority
(PSA), Agriculture Assistant Secretary Andrew B. Villacorta said palay output
likely reached 19 MMT despite the damage caused by the storms. In its latest
forecast, the PSA estimated that total palay production in 2019 likely
remained flat at 19 MMT. In 2017, the Philippines recorded its highest palay
output of 19.276 MMT, according to PSA data. Villacorta said the effects of
the RCEF seed component, which provides free high-yielding seeds to rice
farmers, would be seen this year and expansion of areas planted to hybrid
rice would drive total production to hit record-high this year. He added that
the DA is eyeing to expand hybrid rice area to about 500,000 hectares this
year using its P7-billion rice program fund. Under the RCEF, the government
would distribute P3 billion worth of inbred seeds to farmer-beneficiaries
annually until 2024. “The 19.6 [MMT palay output target] for 2020 is still
conservative,” Villacorta said during the DA’s press briefing last week. The
country’s palay output in January to September 2019 fell by 5 percent to
11.32 MMT, from 11.91 MMT recorded in the same period of 2018, according to
PSA. The country’s rice “adequacy” level last year fell to 85 percent
following higher imports which reached a record-high 3-MMT volume. The
Philippines’s rice self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) fell to an eight-year low in
2018, as more imports flowed into the country to plug the shortfall in
domestic production, according to the PSA. The PSA said rice SSR declined in
2018 as domestic output shrank while the supply of imports went up. The PSA
defines SSR as “the magnitude of production in relation to domestic
utilization.” The SSR shows the extent to which a country’s supply of
commodities is derived from its own domestic production.
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Date: 06-Jan-2020
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Rice exports: enjoy while it lasts
By BR Research on
If there is one key take from
SBP's first quarter “State of the Economy" report for FY20, it is that
rice is now the undisputed king of Pakistan's kharif economy. At over three
million hectares, the paddy crop is well-ahead of all other competitors.
Paddy's success has come about
thanks to a multitude of factors, chief among them beings its lower cost of
production compared to substitutes. According to indicative production costs
calculated by Punjab's Agriculture Marketing Information Service department,
indicative cost per acre during FY19 for both basmati and IRRI varieties were
less than fifty thousand rupees. This is lower in comparison to indicative
costs for all other major seasonal crops such as maize, seed cotton, or
sugarcane, whose production costs ranges between rupees sixty to hundred
thousand per acre.
At the same time, recovery in
international demand for domestic basmati varieties, coupled with stability in
international price trends has helped propel cultivation of paddy, as growers
kept up plantation momentum from previous year.
Note that Pakistan exports over
half of its domestically produced rice, but its profile has dramatically
changed over the past decade. Until FY09, basmati varieties used to be the
primary value contributor to rice exports, thanks to higher unit price that
traded at a premium of 2.5 times over IRRI category. The latter varieties in
turn contributed the bulk of export volume.
Over the following ten years,
Pakistan lost its basmati advantage as the premium between average export unit
prices of basmati and IRRI fell to as low as 1.68 times. The watershed moment
came in FY16 when basmati rate in the international market fell below the $800
per ton psychological barrier, last seen in FY07.
Since then, basmati price in the
international market are on a recovery trend that saw a brief touch and go
moment with $1,200 per ton in May 2017. However, the opportunity was largely
missed as during the intervening period Pakistan had lost much ground in the
premium rice category to exporters from neighbouring India.
But fortunes finally begin to
smile on Pakistan's basmati at the close of 2018 when EU regulations on
fungicide acceptability levels in food products saw a revision. Background
discussions indicate that basmati rice originating from India has higher tricylazole levels, a chemical spray heavily used on paddy crop to fight
fungal pests. As a result, Indian exporters begin to find it hard to maintain
market share, leaving open field for Pakistani exporters.
The explanation also appears to
draw support from trade data sheet, which indicates 80 percent growth in
basmati export volumes in 5MFY20. At the same time, average unit price fetched
by rice exporters has fallen compared to same period last year, as differential
between basmati and IRRI rates appears to have trimmed down.
Nevertheless, basmati's success
may prove to be short-lived. Rice exporters note that Indian basmati enjoyed
the added benefit of GI-tagging, short for geographical identification, which
allowed use of basmati label by varieties grown in limited regions such as
state of Haryana only. Indian regulatory efforts at market restriction allowed
Haryana basmati to command additional premium, until the revised fungicide
rules took effect in EU.
But it is only a matter of time
before the Indian rice value chain ensures that rice growing practices comply
with revised international regulations for chemical sprays. In the meanwhile,
if Pakistan fails to make any efforts at developing a legislative framework for
GI-tagging for its basmati, it may once again have to cede space to its
perpetual frenemy in the basmati race as well.
Worried
India balances West Asia options
Suleimani killing puts
world on edge but does little for US long-term strategy
- Published 6.01.20,
10:18 PM
- Updated 6.01.20,
10:18 PM
Coffins of Gen. Qassim Suleimani and others who
were killed in Iraq by a US drone strike during a funeral procession at the
Enqelab-e-Eslami square in Tehran, Iran, on Monday. (AP)
“It’s hard to envision
how this ends short of war,” is the grim comment from former US National
Security Advisor, Susan Rice on the US assassination of Iran’s Major Gen Qassim
Suleimani, commander of the Quds special forces and one of the most important
political and military figures in the Middle East. Rice says retaliatory measures
by Iran to the killing of its top-most general and US counter-retaliatory
measures could spiral uncontrollably. “Americans would be wise to brace for war
with Iran. Full-scale conflict is not a certainty, but the probability is
higher than at any point in decades,” she adds ominously.
Initially, India,
reacted cautiously to the crisis but has now been putting its foot in the
waters to test the mood in the region. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, who
served in Washington as India’s ambassador and is well known to American
officialdom, was in Tehran on Sunday, holding talks with his Iranian
counterpart Javad Zarif. Jaishankar has also made whistle-stop hops to Oman and
the UAE and had talks by telephone with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Any conflict could have
a devastating impact on the entire world and India would be quick to feel the
pain, even if tensions only ratchet up a few notches. The Middle East has
always been crucial geopolitically for India and that’s true now more than
ever. It’s a temporary home for more than 8 million Indians. We get around 66
per cent of our oil from the region and Iraq is now our largest supplier,
having overtaken Saudi Arabia last year.
Petrol prices have
already gone up as a reaction to the Suleimani assassination, but HPCL chairman
M. K. Surana says India doesn’t need to worry yet. “Unlike earlier when most of
the oil used to come from the Middle East, today there are multiple choices
available and it comes from the US, Russia and other places,” he says.
Iran is still reeling
from the unexpected strike that killed Suleimani. His coffin was taken first to
Ahvaz, a city near the Iran-Iraq border, then to Mashhad in northeastern Iran
and finally to Tehran – even Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian
Revolution didn’t receive such multi-city rituals.
The huge mourning in
Iran underlined how crucial a figure Suleimani had been. He had built a network
of contacts that spread from Lebanon to Syria, Iraq and the furthest reaches of
the Middle East and his goal was to build a Shia power bloc. He was the key
backer of the powerful Shia militia Hezbollah which led a huge mourning
procession in Beirut and was also said to have been the figure behind the
assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Soon after the drone
strike on Suleimani, US President Donald Trump claimed the Iranian had been
behind a terror attack in New Delhi. Trump didn’t offer details, but he seemed
to be referring to the attempted car-bomb assassination of an Israeli diplomat
in 2012.
At a strategic level,
Suleimani was said to have been the man who went to Moscow and spread out maps
to show how, with Russian assistance, Syrian President Bashir Assad could be
kept in power. Maintaining Assad in power was a crucial goal for him and when
he found the Syrian forces to be largely incompetent, he spent several months
in the country personally directing the battle against Isis.
Suleimani and the
Americans are said to have worked together to bring Isis to its knees. He’s
also believed to have been behind the release of 12 American sailors who had
been held by Iran after they strayed into the country’s territorial waters. The
Iranians have pointed out that Suleiman was the military advisor to both Syria
and Iraq and was there at their invitation to combat terrorist groups like
Isis, Al Qaeda and the Al-Nusra Front.
For India there’s
further cause for alarm. Iran and the US are two key players in Afghanistan
along with our arch-rival Pakistan and also China. In that complex
battleground, Iran and India have often found themselves on the same side, for
instance, when they backed the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. India has also
been given the greenlight by the US to proceed with the Chabahar port project
that could reduce Afghanistan’s dependency on Pakistan for port access.
Significantly, the US
called Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa to inform him about Suleimani’s
killing before it got in touch with India. It also announced the resumption of
military training for the Pakistan Army over the weekend. Any difficulty in the
region, will inevitably result in the Americans being more dependent on
Pakistan.
What happens next?
Diplomatic efforts to cool tensions are in full swing. Meanwhile, the US is
upping security at all its bases in the Middle East and so are its allies like
Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel. The Iranians always have an easy target in oil
tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz which is only 39km wide at its
narrowest point.
Trump’s two
predecessors, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, had rejected carrying out any US
attempt on Suleimani for fear of pitchforking the entire Middle East into
conflict. While the US and Iran have been involved in a shadow war for years in
the Middle East, it’s not clear what Trump hoped to achieve by ordering Suleimani’s
assassination now. Alternatively, there’s the question of whether he ordered
the killing to divert attention from the current presidential impeachment
proceedings against him.
Certainly, Suleimani
had blocked the US in scores of different ways. But by the assessment of many
US observers, he was too big a player to be assassinated. The former US
ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, once summed up Suleimani’s importance,
saying: “If ever there was somebody who needed killing, it would have been him
-- the damage he has done to us and would likely do in the future. But does it
fit into a long-term strategy?”
Who is manoomin?
A clash between
culture and climate change
Danielle
Johnson
“I kind of grew
up with a lot of different tribal members,” said Melonee Montano, a member of
the Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe. “ I used to have a tape recorder that I’d carry
with me when I drove elders around to dialysis appointments or whatever, and I
was kind of always just gathering that knowledge.”
Montano has now
turned this passion for collecting knowledge into her job as the traditional
ecological knowledge outreach specialist for the Great Lakes Indian
Fish & Wildlife Commission in Odanah, Wisconsin. Here, she
interviews elders and others, especially those who hunt, fish, and gather, who
have witnessed changes in the environment over time.
With climate
change in action, though, Montano’s job of documenting traditional ecological
knowledge, may be more important now than ever. Many environmental conditions,
from temperature to sea level, have been changing over the years and will
continue to do so in the future, according to climate change scientists. Wild
rice, called manoomin in Ojibwe, meaning good berry, is a
culturally-significant plant and food to the Ojibwe, but commission scientists
say it is one of many species already beginning to struggle as a result of
climate change. While tribal members and biologists may feel helpless in some
areas, traditional ecological knowledge might be able to inform future
decisions on manoomin maintenance in the wake of climate change and the many
problems it brings.
The importance
of manoomin to Lake Superior Ojibwe goes back to their
migration story.
“It’s a plant
that helped tell us through prophecies where we need to come because we needed
to come to the place where food grows on water,” Montano says, “and that’s
really where we settled ourselves after travelling and migrating.”
Manoomin is also one of the main foods in the
traditional diet for the Ojibwe. It is present at all of their ceremonies,
including naming ceremonies, funerals, and first kill feasts for young hunters
when they kill their first animal. “It’s a huge part of our identities,”
Montano notes.
The wild rice
grown and harvested by the Ojibwe in the Great Lakes region is northern wild
rice called zizania palustris, but North America also has southern
wild rice identified as zizania aquatica and Texas wild rice,
which is zizania texana, a rare and endangered species endemic to
Texas.
According to
Peter David, wildlife biologist at the commission, all 11 Ojibwe tribes
grow manoomin, though it’s not necessarily evenly
distributed. Manoomin grows mainly in the northern Great Lakes
region, including northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, as well as Canada. The
ideal growing condition is 0.5–3 feet of water that naturally flows and fluctuates.
Water clarity is also important because it allows sunlight penetration.
Tribes usually
harvest manoomin from late August to early September, though
David notes this year’s harvest went almost through the end of September. While
the commission encourages natural reseeding by the plant itself, it does
additional seeding by hand in the fall to mimic the natural seeding.
David is not a
tribal citizen himself, but he has learned much from the tribes in working with
commission for over 30 years, including knowledge in the form of traditional
ecological knowledge.
“The four-year
rule is that in four years, there’s one good, one lousy, and two medium
years—but we’ve seen failure increasing,” he says, noting a higher number of
bad years, likely as a result of several factors onset by climate change.
Northern wild
rice is adapted to the climate in the northern United States, including the
harsher winter, so as temperatures rise, it faces more competition from plants,
both native and invasive, that have traditionally been kept away by the colder
conditions. Increased storms, including severe wind, hail, rainfall, and
flooding, also play a role.
“We’re having
100-year floods every three to four years,” said David, which certainly poses
problems to the ideal water conditions of manoomin. “The Bad River rice beds
are having a terrible year this year,” he said. Although Lake Superior, where
the Kakagon Sloughs of Bad River reside, is relatively healthy, he says the
lake is the highest he’s seen in 30 years and that they’ve started to see some
algal blooms, which are rapid increases in algae populations as a result of
nutrient-rich water conditions. These blooms can deplete oxygen levels, making
it difficult for other plants and wildlife to survive.
Other pests and
diseases are becoming more prominent as well. Brown spot disease is a fungal
disease that destroys the seed bank of wild rice, and it’s increasing in
prevalence with warmer, wetter conditions. Climate change is also believed to
enhance the survival of rice worm pests that decrease seed production.
If the impacts
of climate change weren’t bad enough, David also notes that the manoomin seeds,
which are relatively heavy, don’t have much dispersal ability. Moving water can
help transport seeds downstream, but they don’t have wings, so they usually
fall in the water near the plant and have trouble moving upstream.
“Lots of
historic rice beds have been lost,” he says. “There’s really no way of knowing
how much, but I’d guess maybe 50 percent.” Counteracting this loss, however, is
a struggle when the landscape and hydrology have been significantly altered and
waterways damned. He says they could rebuild dikes for 500-year floods rather
than 100, for example, but that can be cost-prohibitive.
“There’s not a
lot of work on genetics of wild rice,” David says, perhaps contemplating it as
an alternative. While some areas see it as “wild rice was a gift from the
Creator and shouldn’t be messed with,” he thinks others may be willing to
embrace genetic research as a result of the harsh impacts they’ve seen.
In the
meantime, the commission and Montano’s work in traditional ecological knowledge
may inform some action regarding manoomin. In addition to
documenting TEK, sometimes dating back multiple generations or even centuries,
her job is to bridge the gap between this knowledge and western science.
“We kind of
look at what the scientists are gathering and what we’re hearing in the
interviews, and we figure out where the connections are,” she said. “Especially
when it comes from a vulnerability perspective, there’s a lot of ways that they
match. So, for example, our interviews talk about wild rice being one of the
most vulnerable beings when it comes to climate change, and that has been the
case that has shown up in our scientific approach with the vulnerability
studies too.”
The
commission’s first Vulnerability
Assessment categorizes manoomin as
“highly to extremely vulnerable,” noting that of the 11 plants and animals
studied, it was the “most vulnerable being/species in this assessment, and has
already begun to respond to climate-related effects.”
Montano notes
the importance of traditional ecological knowledge also as a connection to
language, culture, and identity.
“We don’t just
look at it from the ecological standpoint because as Anishinaabe people, our
environment is directly connected to our culture, to our identities, to our way
of being, treaty rights, all those kinds of things,” Montano says, “so we can’t
really separate or put ecology in its own file. It doesn’t work from an
Anishinaabe perspective.”
Along with
this, she notes that regular science uses tools that “take the personhood out
of it.” Whereas science would describe manoomin as a thing or a “what,” the
Anishinaabe perspective considers it as a being or a “who.” Documenting and
combining this perspective and knowledge with western science, like in the
Vulnerability Assessment, is something the commission can then share with their
member tribes.
“It can help
tribes actually realize from all our collective knowledge maybe what they
should be focusing on or putting energy in as far as climate change
adaptation,” Montano says. “If we’re seeing consistently across the board that
manoomin is one of the most sensitive ones, it can help them realize that maybe
more efforts need to be put toward manoomin and the surrounding ecosystem.”
The commission
is currently working on a second assessment on the vulnerability of more
species, as well as a climate change adaptation plan that will include a
cultural component and help further inform action regarding wild rice and other
beings affected by climate change.
Doomed resolutions
Fatima S AttarwalaJanuary 06,
2020Facebook Count
RESOLUTIONS are a new year’s
tradition, as is the tradition of failing to live up to them. From a
macroeconomic perspective, increasing exports may very well be the
policymakers’ new year resolution, but it is unlikely that the hackneyed old
roads will bear fruit. An overemphasis on the capacity-strapped textile sector
and topsy-turvy incentives are as big a lingering malaise as the cake in the
fridge that prevents the achievement of the popular resolution of losing
weight.
On the other hand, stepping away
from incentivising the manufacturing sector, the services industry has a low
hanging fruit in the form of information technology (IT) exports. Standing at
$1 billion currently for formal exports, informally the sector earns about 1.5
times the formal sector, said Syed Ahmad, chairman of the Pakistan Software House
Association.
“The Ministry of Commerce has
acknowledged that growth will not be driven from the industrial sector that has
been provided several big incentives in the past. Growth will stem from the
services sector which is led by the IT industry,” he said.
Most of the small and medium
enterprises (SME) in this sector are not registered since this increases the
cost by seven per cent through payroll packages, special securities, the
Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution, etc. If the incentive offered is
greater than the cost, companies will naturally gravitate towards the formal
sector, he explained.
While exports of goods receive cash
rebates, exports of services do not even though this facility was approved by
the last government for the IT sector but not implemented by the current one.
Textile, taking up the lion’s share
of exports, is unlikely to be a catalyst for growth despite the room created by
the US-China trade war that has urged big textile manufacturers to increase
capacity
This view was agreed upon by Ehsan
Malik, CEO of the Pakistan Business Council (PBC). “A low-hanging fruit that
can become big over time is IT and IT-enabled services. Assume that I am a
freelance software developer and I am given a piece of program to write that I
sent out electronically. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) does not know I have
exported the service, and the payment is made to a contact abroad who gives it
to me through an informal channel. This means work done in Pakistan does not
accrue benefits to the country,” he said.
Any exporter of a physical item is
entitled to a rebate when he exports, i.e. a percentage of the sales value is
given when sales are made abroad. But the service sector is not given this
incentive; if the SBP is impartial to a $1 being earned on a good or a service,
then incentives should be given to both of them, said Mr Malik.
While an incentive package can
double exports, in its absence the sector would achieve its average growth rate
of 30-35pc, he said.
On the agriculture side, Pakistan
was headed towards a record rice crop, before Mother Nature stepped in. “We
would have clocked in close to 7.8 million tonnes compared to 7.1-7.2m tonnes
which was the previous record,” said Safdar Hussain Mehkri, a former chairman
of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan. However, the heatwave in the
first half of September did a lot of damage to the yield, limiting the
year-on-year increase to 5pc.
Keeping the production side aside, a
source in the know lamented the subsidised rice from China which makes
competition for non-Basmati rice very challenging; an issue Pakistan cannot
take up with them due to the relations between the two countries.
Another big challenge on the demand
side, for Basmati rice, is that we are selling our produce to the European
Union market 40pc below its value. Pakistan’s Super Basmati rice exports to
Europe range from 200,000-300,000 tonnes and are valued at $750 a tonne on
average. In contrast, Europe buys Thai Jasmine fragrant brown rice, which is
also a premium rice but inferior to our variety, at $1,100 a tonne.
We are selling a superior line at an
underpriced rate because of lack of standards in the supply chain and poor
ability to compete successfully. Provincial departments have not set standards
such as those implemented in India, Thailand, and Vietnam where farmers are
supposed to bring standardised produce to the mandis. As a result, tonnage is
being increased but we are losing value.
Drying is an important aspect of
standardising rice crop. “The government is so hungry for dollars that they
don’t want to disturb anything. If 10 guys are drying rice but 90 are not, they
are not incentivising the 10 in fear of offending the 90 who are bringing in
the dollars,” the source said regretfully.
But some incentive has to be
provided for those putting up the drying infrastructure. Those who are not
drying would still be selling cheap but with government support, the ones who
are drying could compete successfully in the premium markets. If the support
came now, it would still take at least five years for it to yield benefits but
at least the market would start shifting towards it, he added.
Textile, taking up the lion’s share
of exports, is unlikely to be a catalyst for growth despite the room created by
a trade war between the United States and China that has urged big textile
manufacturers to increase capacity. While this may bring in dividends in the
long run, an increase in exports in can only come from diversifying away from
traditional industries.
Unfortunately, diversifying out from
textiles to small and generally overlooked cottage industries such as surgical
goods seems unlikely as well.
“The government has worsened the
situation for us,” bemoaned Qaiser Mahmood, an exporter of surgical
instruments. “According to the new rules, the payment has to come from the city
to which we are exporting. The problem is that though we export to one country,
the owner sits in some other country.”
Mr Mahmood explained that this rule
had created a huge barrier for them. “I have already lost 6-7 customers. The
previous government was managing affairs in a much better manner. I have
customers in Egypt and Sudan who were routing from places such as Lebanon. They
have now opted for vendors situated elsewhere.”
The retrospective nature of the
incentives structure further discourages the expansion of non-traditional
sectors with little exports. For example, exports of $100 worth of goods allow
the exporter to keep $10 to reinvest in the overseas market. But if there is a
brilliant product not exported before, there is no inflow of foreign exchange
for its market development.
“Say you want to register a
pharmaceutical product in an African country which can cost anywhere from
$80,000 to $1 million. Without existing exports, where will you find the
required amount since the SBP will not extend it to you? And this applies to
any good,” explained PBC’s Mr Malik.
Furthermore, design capabilities are
missing for smaller industries such as footwear and furniture. In sports good,
the reason we are successful is that the know-how comes from elsewhere. If
Adidas places an order for footballs, it also retains proprietary rights so
their designs cannot be used for us to come up with our own product, Mr Malik
added.
PBC’s back-of-the-envelope calculations
in a do-nothing-new scenario where Pakistan and the rest of the world continue
with the status quo estimate exports of $25bn by the end of this fiscal year,
with an increase to $29bn by 2023. However, this will be accompanied by an
increase in the trade deficit by $2bn in three years as growth in imports will
be greater than the quantum of increase in exports.
Clearly, there is little joy to be
had for a positive movement in exports in the new year.
Published in Dawn, The Business and
Finance Weekly, January 6th, 2020
Can Pakistan provide
food security to the Middle East?
By BR Research on January 6, 2020
“We can provide food security to the Middle East," so said PM
Khan last week at the groundbreaking ceremony of Air University campus in
Islamabad. Can we really?
If the central bank's The State of
Pakistan's Economy 3QFY19 report is any guide, Pakistan ranks eighth in wheat
production, tenth in rice, fifth in sugarcane and fourth in milk production.
But that doesn't necessarily mean we can provide food security to the Middle
East.
In the simplest of terms, the United
Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) defines food security “to
exist when all people, at all times have physical, social and economic access
to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and
food preferences for an active and healthy life".
In order to achieve this, it is
obviously important to have sufficient quantity and acceptable quality of food,
availability of resources to access food and a stable source of food
accessibility, unaffected by sudden price changes and/or cyclicalevents. But it
is equally important to have proper utilization of food combined with clean
water, access to health care and proper sanitation to ensure nutritional
well-being. In other words, food security is a far more holistic concept than
people imagine. Pakistan's poor performance on each of these wider aspects of
food security is rather well known.
A country need not produce all the
food its people eat. But it has to have exportable surplus of food and non-food
goods and services to be able to import food that it doesn't produce. This
means food security is also affected by overall balance of payments.
According to the FAO's Food
Insecurity Experience Scale ‘mild insecurity' refers to “worrying about the
ability to obtain food", ‘moderate insecurity' means compromising on the
quality of food or missing meals, while ‘severe insecurity' refers to being
“hungry on a chronic basis".
In specific terms, 60 percent of
Pakistan's population and about 37 percent households are food insecure
according to The State of Pakistan's Economy 3QFY19 report by the State Bank of
Pakistan (SBP), whereas about 20 percent of Pakistan's households are facing
‘severe insecurity'.
This has led to serious
malnutrition. The World Food Programme's recently estimated that 15 percent of
Pakistan's children below five years of age suffer from acute malnutrition, 32
percent are underweight and majority of the children under two years of age do
not consume even half of their daily energy requirements. These statistics are
quite alarming considering Pakistan has a growing youth bulge. If today's
generation is malnourished, their contribution to the economy in future is
questionable. Already according to The State of Pakistan's Economy 3QFY19
report by the SBP, malnutrition in Pakistan affects the economy by 3 percent of
GDP annually.
So, can a country like this really
provide food security to another country?Perhaps only after a decade or two of
investments in agriculture, water, value chain, health care and all other
ancillary affairs. PM Khan would do well not to signal lofty promises to the
Middle East, when Pakistan is struggling with food security herself.
GM “golden” rice approved for consumption in the Philippines
This could be
a major game changer for millions of people.
In the Philippines, a country of
over 100 million people, almost half of the children are suffering from vitamin A deficiencies. This nutrient-rich golden rice
has the potential to change all that.
Golden rice is engineered with
genes that boost its beta-carotene content, a precursor of vitamin A. Image
credits: International Rice Research Institute.
Genetically Modified (GM) foods
(sometimes GMO) are still a highly controversial topic. The technology has the
potential to revolutionize our food systems, but the public
is overwhelmingly against it. However, studies have
shown that, if the process is carried out properly, GMO’s offer little reason
for concern.
Some places, however, are more
receptive than others — and the Phillippines is a good example. GMO corn is
already transforming farmers’
lives in the country, as the GMO strain is much more resistant to pests, which would
often wreak havoc into plantations.
Now, another emblematic modified
crop will enter the stage in Phillippines: rice.
According to a thorough national
report, golden rice is just as safe for consumption as regular rice. This comes
as no surprise, as several
scientific reports had already reached the same conclusion.
“This
is a victory for science, agriculture and all Filipinos,” member
of congress Sharon Garin said in a statement.
The Philippines is one of several
lower-income countries with widespread vitamin A deficiency — a dietary
condition that affects the immune system and can cause a series of chronic
conditions, including blindness. Every year, this deficiency kills over half a
million children worldwide, largely because they don’t consume enough
beta-carotene. This problem is particularly prevalent in countries where the
local diet greatly relies on rice and features few other legumes.
Golden rice has the potential to
make a huge impact here — a single portion carries more than half of the daily
requirement, which can make all the difference in the world. But while the
prototype was unveiled in 1999, few countries have approved it for mass
consumption: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States — all
high-income countries with low prevalence of vitamin A deficiency. This lack of
wide-scale approval is largely owed to public controversy. Researchers hope
that as more and more countries approve this type of crop, the baseless
controversy will also be quenched.
The scientific evidence has long
shown that golden rice (as well as other GMOs on the market) are safe to plant,
process and eat — and more and more governments are starting to understand
this. After the Philippines, Bangladesh (a country of 164 million people) is
probably next
in line.
However, people will have to wait a
bit more before they can eat this golden rice. The crop has not yet received
the green light for commercial propagation — which is necessary for farmers to
plant it in the fields. The International Rice Research Institute, the
Philippine-based organization developing the country’s golden rice, plans to
submit its application for approval as soon as possible.
Scientists investigate the
taxonomy and evolution of pipeworts
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Read time: 4 mins
Bengaluru Jan 7, 2020, (Research Matters):
Bengaluru Jan 7, 2020, (Research Matters):
Rice, millets, bamboo, pineapple, bell reed and other
economically essential and regularly consumed crops have a thing in common —
taxonomically, they all belong to the order Poales of the plant kingdom.
Although it has five groups, studies on the evolution of plants under Poales
have mostly focused on the Graminids, which includes grasses like maize, wheat,
and barley.
In a recent study, researchers from Pune's Agharkar Research Institute and
Savitribai Phule University, and China's Zhejiang University have turned their
attention towards Xyrids to gain a holistic understanding of the evolution of
Poales. This group includes plants like yellow-eyed grass and pipeworts. The
study, published in the journal PLOS One, was funded by the
Agharkar Research Institute, the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science
Foundation, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The researchers collected leaf samples of Eriocaulon
decemflorum, a type of pipewort, from Mt. Dayang in Zhejiang
Province, China. While this species is endemic to China, almost one fourth of
the species belonging to genus Eriocaulon are found in India,
with many being endemic. The researchers studied the genetic sequence of E.
decemflorum for the first time and compared it with
representatives from the other groups under Poales—Graminids, Bromeliads,
Restiids, and Cyprids.
"Many of the Eriocaulon species are known to possess
medicinal properties. E. burgerianum is a known
neuro-protectant and E. cinereum is known to
possess some anti-cancer properties. Moreover, some species are used in the
traditional medicinal systems of China to cure various ailments," says Dr
Ritesh Choudhary, a researcher associated with Agharkar Research Institute and
Savitribai Phule University, and an author of the study.
Eriocaulon decemflorum. Credits - Mr Difei Wu
The researchers then studied the genetic material within a
cell's cytoplasmic organelles, known as the plastome, and compared it with the
genetic material from three other groups of Poales — Bromeliads, Graminids and
Cyprids. These genomes haven't changed much during evolution and hence are
ideal for genomic studies. They found two genes — ycf1 and ycf2 — in E. decemflorum that
has been lost in Graminids and partially degraded in Bromeliads. These genes
are necessary for the plant's survival as they produce crucial proteins. The
fact that these two genes are lost sheds light on the evolution of plants
belonging to the order Poales through comparison across the constituent groups
instead of focusing on one.
While previous studies have looked at the plastomes in
Eriocauloideae and Paepalanthoideae, which belong to subfamilies of Xyrids, no
research till date has focused on the plastomes of the Eriocaulaceae family to
study their genetic evolution and structural content of the plastomes.
"The relationship between Xyridaceae, Mayacaceae and
Eriocaulaceae is still not well understood. With the inclusion of more plastome
data, our understanding of the evolution of this group will be enhanced,"
says Ms. Ashwini Darshetkar, a Ph.D. student of ARI working on this project.
The study found that the accD gene, which is vital for
photosynthesis and affects leaf development, was lost in Poales after the split
between Eriocaulaceae and Xyridaceae. This finding corroborates the findings
from another study from 2012. Scientists previously thought that the gene was
lost in monocots either before the divergence of the orders Poales and Commelinales
or after the split between Cyprids and Xyrids. A functional copy of accD gene
was found in the plastome of pipeworts.
Photo credits - Mr Difei Wu
Further, the study looked into two introns—parts of DNA that do
not code for any proteins. One such intron was rpoC1, which is necessary for
the production of the enzyme RNA polymerase. The other was the introns of clpP,
which is a protein-coding gene that assists in chloroplast development. It
found that the E. decemflorum plastome
contains these introns. In the evolutionary history within Poales, Bromeliads
still have the introns and the Graminids have lost them. Functional benefits of
presence or absence of these introns in the plastomes of Poales are yet to be
explored.
The study results indicate a high degree of similarity between
the plastomes of the Eriocaulon and the Bromeliad group. Previous studies on
the evolution of the Xyrid group considered the family Eriocaulaceae as a
sister of the Xyridaceae family, with little or no connection with the
Mayacaceae family. However, the phylogenomic analyses in the present study
posit the family Eriocaulaceae as the sister of the Mayacaceae family, a
finding that has been supported by other recent studies.
Speaking about the next steps in the team's research, Dr.
Choudhary emphasises the need to study the relationship with the Xyrids,
specifically between Xyridaceae, Mayacaceae and Eriocaulaceae, to better
understand the evolution within the Poales order.
·
Type 2 diabetes warning: This popular ingredient may increase
your risk
TYPE 2 diabetes is strongly tied to unhealthy lifestyle
decisions so making poor choices can heighten your risk of developing the
chronic condition. While some dietary decisions are patently risky, others
present more hidden dangers, including a mealtime staple.
07:05, Tue, Jan 7, 2020 | UPDATED: 08:02, Tue, Jan 7, 2020
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition in which a person’s pancreas
doesn’t produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. This impaired
mechanism may not pose a threat initially, but overtime, unregulated blood
sugar levels can hike your risk of developing chronic diseases such as heart
disease and stroke. It is therefore important to keep your risk of developing
type 2 diabetes at bay and this means cutting back on or completely avoiding
unhealthy lifestyle habits.
RELATED ARTICLES
Certain dietary decisions have
been seen to raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by causing blood
sugar levels to spike.
The worst offenders are foods
that rank high on the glycemic index. The glycemic index is a value assigned to
foods based on how slowly or how quickly those foods cause increases in blood
sugar levels.
Foods with a high carbohydrate
content pose the greatest threat to blood sugar management because carbohydrate
is broken down into glucose relatively quickly and therefore has a more
pronounced effect on blood sugar levels than either fat or protein, explains
Diabetes.co.uk.
One particular high-carb food
that has been shown to heighten your risk of developing type 2 diabetes is
white rice.
Type 2 diabetes: Regularly eating white rice is associated with an
increased risk (Image:
Getty Images )
✕
Research published in the journal
BMJ suggested that eating white rice regularly - a common practice in Asian
countries - may increase risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
To gather their findings,
researchers looked at data from four studies: two in Asian countries (China and
Japan) and two in Western countries (the U.S. and Australia). All participants
were diabetes-free when the study began.
On average, people from Asian
countries ate about four servings of white rice daily, whereas individuals in
Western countries ate less than five servings a week.
After analysing the data,
researchers found that diabetes risk rose by about 10 percent with each
increased serving per day of white rice.
Accounting for the association, researcher Qi Sun, M, an
instructor in medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston,
suggests that, in addition to the high-carb content of white rice, the popular
ingredient also has a low-fibre content and fibre intake has been shown to reduce
your risk of developing the chronic disease.
According to Sun, other white, starchy carbohydrates, such as
white bread, white pasta, and white potatoes, will also heighten your risk if
eaten often enough.
While swapping white carbs for whole grain equivalents may
reduce the risk, you do not have to shun rice completely, he said.
How can I increase my fibre
intake?
According to Diabetes.co.uk, the surest way to add more fibre to
your diet is to eat plenty of vegetables.
Type 2 diabetes: The surest way to increase your fibre intake is
to eat plenty of fruit and veg (Image: Getty Images )
“The Department of Health advises us to eat at least five
portions of vegetables and fruit each day. Generally speaking, beating rather
than meeting the daily target is recommended,” advises the health body.
As the health site explains, if you’re buying starchy foods such
as rice, bread or pasta, look for those with higher amounts of fibre per 100g.
“Foods listed as whole grain should usually be good picks but
checking the nutritional value per 100g tends to be the most reliable way of
ensuring you pick a high fibre option,” it added.
The NHS does advise exercising a degree of caution when upping
your fibre intake, however, as it could lead to stomach cramps and bloating in
the short term, so it is important to keep hydrated at the same time.
Type 2 diabetes: What are the common symptoms? (Image: Getty Images )
What are the symptoms of type 2
diabetes?
According to the NHS, many people have type 2 diabetes without
realising because symptoms do not necessarily make you feel unwell.
Symptoms include:
· Urinating more than usual, particularly at night
· Feeling thirsty all the time
· Feeling very tired
· Losing weight without trying to
· Itching around your penis or vagina, or repeatedly
getting thrush
· Cuts or wounds taking longer to heal
· Blurred vision
You should speak to your GP if you have any of the symptoms of
type 2 diabetes or you're worried you may have a higher risk of getting it,
advises the health body.
It added: “The earlier diabetes is diagnosed and treatment
started, the better. Early treatment reduces your risk of other health
problems.”
Bowel cancer:
Taking this popular medication could help stave your risk of the disease
US strikes new challenge for India-Iran ties: Trade
thrived during sanctions, but things may change now
Published: January 7, 2020
6:10:07 AM
Since
India has stopped purchasing Iranian oil, which accounts for around 90%
of its imports from the Islamic nation, since May 2019 to avoid US
restrictions, the rupee-rial payment mechanism for exporters is inching closer
to a collapse.
Uncertainties about payment to
exporters, unless sorted quickly, will likely hit bilateral trade very hard.
By Banikinkar Pattanayak & Prabhudatta Mishra
While
the US-Iran tensions have added to the broader global uncertainties about
trade, data show Tehran tends to import more from India when it is hit hard by
sanctions and reduces its reliance on the country when times are relatively
good. But this time around, exporters fear the stakes are much higher if the US
imposes fresh sanctions against Iran.
Since
India has stopped purchasing Iranian oil, which accounts for around 90%
of its imports from the Islamic nation, since May 2019 to avoid US
restrictions, the rupee-rial payment mechanism for exporters is inching closer
to a collapse. Indian firms have been getting payments for exports to Iran from
the oil payments (meant for Tehran) held in rupee balances at UCO Bank after the sanctions against
Iran were imposed by the Obama administration. Later in 2019, even IDBI Bank was allowed to have this
facility. Two exporters told FE that the state-run banks have informally told
them that the balance in these accounts will last only up to April 2020.
This
problem wasn’t there up to the last fiscal because India had a goods trade
deficit with Iran ($10 billion in FY19), thanks to massive oil imports, so our
exporters didn’t face much problem in getting payments via rupee. Thanks to the
halt to oil imports from Iran, India’s total imports from the Persian Gulf nation
have collapsed 88% in the first eight months of this fiscal from a year before.
Uncertainties about payment to exporters, unless sorted quickly, will likely
hit bilateral trade very hard.
Compounding
exporters’ worries, US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose fresh
sanctions like never before if Iran retaliates against the killing of its top
general last week in an American drone attack. “As of now, there is not much
impact on our exports due to the tension. But if the tension flares up and the
US slaps fresh sanctions against Iran, we have to be ready,” said Ajay Sahai,
director general and chief executive at exporters’ body FIEO. If the US puts
sanctions against supplies of farm items and medicine to Iran, which are now
allowed on humanitarian grounds, India’s agriculture and pharma exports could
get hit. Cereals, especially basmati, made up for about 40% of India’s exports
to Iran last fiscal.
Mohit
Singla, chairman of Trade Promotion Council of India, said, “India has been an
old and reliable trading partner of Iran since ages and our diplomatic and
trade relations are deep and above these pressing issues. As for the impact on
trade, Iran imports all the essential commodities from India which will always
be sustainable in terms of demand.”
Iran
emerged as a very good destination for Indian basmati rice in 2012 and the very
next year it became India’s top importer of the aromatic rice variety toppling
Saudi Arabia. Last year, basmati rice export to Iran hit an all-time high as
many new traders joined the business and had offered the shipments on credit.
This resulted in some Rs 1,500 crore of payment default, which was taken up
with the Iranian authority by India.
Around
2011-12, a rupee-rial mechanism was put in place where up to 45% of India’s
purchases of Iranian crude could be effected in rupees in exchange for items
like rice, wheat and medicines that were not sanctioned by the UN.
Do
you know What is Cash
Reserve Ratio (CRR), Finance Bill, Fiscal
Policy in India, Expenditure Budget, Customs Duty? FE Knowledge Desk explains each
of these and more in detail at Financial
Express Explained. Also get Live BSE/NSE Stock Prices, latest NAV of Mutual
Funds, Best equity funds, Top Gainers, Top Losers on Financial
Express.
Don’t forget to try our free Income Tax Calculator tool.
RICE
TARIFFICATION:Birth pains force farmers' kids out of school
They're ditching farming as their children drop out of school.Will there still be Filipino rice farmers left in this
new decade?
BY RALF RIVASJANUARY 6, 2020
Published 5:05 PM,
January 06, 2020
Updated 6:45 PM,
January 06, 2020
NUEVA ECIJA, Philippines – The
government’s economic team, as well as most experts, were one in saying that
liberalizing rice imports is necessary to tame prices of the Filipino staple.
Hiccups in the implementation of the rice tariffication law are simply “birth
pains.”
Giving birth is an excruciating
process, but it can kill too.
The government’s poverty reduction efforts and educational reforms, which had shown
promising numbers, may suffer huge setbacks if the situation does not stabilize
soon.
Rappler found that children of
some farmers have dropped out of school, while their parents have moved to
cities to look for work.
Out of school
Most farmers in Mayantoc, Nueva
Ecija, are feeling the pinch of the much-lauded law. Children have started to
drop out of school, as farmgate prices of palay have fallen below the
production cost of P12.
With a heavy heart, Elvira
Gutierrez and her husband Rogelio asked their firstborn to temporarily drop out
of school until prices stabilize.
"'Yung panganay namin, hindi
naman masyadong matalino, pero masipag. Sabi niya rin na tutulong na muna siya
sa tatay niya, tumutulong na lang dito sa bahay, para makapag-aral pa rin 'yung
bunso.... Masakit pero gano'n talaga," Gutierrez said with a
smile.
(Our firstborn is not very smart,
but very hardworking. He said he will help his father by doing the household
chores so that his sister can remain in school.... It's painful but that's
life.)
"Ang pangarap namin sa kanya
makapagtapos.... Pangarap niya maging engineer. Ayaw na ayaw na namin maging
gano'n siya (magsasaka) tulad ng papa niya kasi napakahirap," she added. ()
(We wish for him to finish
school. He wants to be an engineer. We don't want him to become a farmer like
his father because it's very hard.)
Ely Abella, principal of Mayantoc
Elementary School, told Rappler that he fears other students may drop out soon
as well.
"So far, minimal pa, pero
dito kasi sa aming school 90% ng mga bata anak ng magsasaka. Bumaba ang
enrollment namin, noong 2018 nasa 182 tapos naging 170 na lang," Abella said.
(So far, the impact is minimal.
Around 90% of the kids here are children of farmers. Our enrollment rate went
down from 182 in 2018 to 170 in 2019.)
Abella said the students who
stopped going to school went to other towns where their fathers worked as
farmers. There, they help out by getting rid of pests and doing other light
tasks. He has yet to determine if the children have enrolled in other schools.
The government is aiming to keep
children in school through the conditional cash transfer program. Latest data
of the Department of Social Welfare and Development reveals that some 95% of
children go to school at least 85% of the year.
The cash assistance is withdrawn
once a child stops going to school. Gutierrez's family is a beneficiary of the
program and may lose some much-needed assistance.
Safety net: Too many holes to
patch up?
Lawmakers and government
economists alike anticipated the negative impacts of lifting the quantitative
restrictions of rice imports on farmers. To support them, the law provided
safety nets through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) worth P10
billion for better farm equipment and seeds. Farmers are also able to
avail of the P1-billion credit facility of RCEF.
The P10 billion is sourced
through the collected rice tariffs. So far, tariffs collected have reached P15
billion. The excess collection may be used by the government to support local
farmers.
Moreover, the Department of Agriculture has allocated P1.5
billion through the Agricultural Credit Policy Council. Under the program,
farmers are able to loan P15,000 payable in 8 years with no interest.
Rice tariffication does not include cash dole outs as it theoretically defeats the purpose of the law
that allows the free market to dictate rice prices.Meanwhile, the National Food Authority (NFA) was given strict orders by President Rodrigo
Duterte to aggressively buy palay directly from local farmers at a high price
of P19 per kilo.
While these safeguards look good
on paper, reality on the ground paints a different picture.
"Hindi naman namin alam 'yan
na mga programa na sinabi mo, wala naman taga-NFA na pumunta dito," said Dominador Melchor, a farmer in Nueva Ecija. (We don't
know any of the programs you just told me, no one from the NFA came.)
Moreover, rice cartels seemed to
have continued their reign and forced local farmers to sell palay at breakeven
or at a loss.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar
previously told reporters that they already have a list of those practicing
rice stock "management" and will talk to these groups.
When does rice management end and
hoarding begin? The line has yet to be drawn.
Numbers
As the government continues to
work on saving the agriculture sector, farmers are opting out of it.
Elvira said that she and her
husband are looking for jobs. She is already set to be a house help.
She may not be the only one doing
so. Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shows that
the percentage of those employed in the agriculture sector has declined, while
those in services increased.
Farmers have every reason to
leave farming. As of the last week of November 2019, farmgate palay prices sank
to P15.55 per kilo, over 22% lower than prices from the same period a year ago.
Assuming that the production cost
is at P12 per kilo, farmers just take home over P3 per kilo of palay sold. In
some areas like the Zamboanga Peninsula and Western Visayas, farmgate prices go
as low as P10 per kilo, lower than the assumed production cost.
Meanwhile, rice-producing regions
like Central Luzon and Calabarzon reported prices as low as P11.
Prevailing prices in
rice-producing provinces like Nueva Ecija and Tarlac stood at P19.35 and
P15.60, respectively. Elvira said she has never heard of such prices in
her locality.
While palay prices have
significantly gone down, rice prices have also gone down – but still not as low
as expected.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary
Ernesto Pernia previously told reporters that there would be no need for NFA
rice anymore, since commercial rice would come in at the same rate of P27 per kilo.
Rice comprises the biggest chunk
in computing for the country's inflation rate. With prices going down, the overall figure has sunk
well within desirable range.
However, when 2019 prices are
compared to 2017 rates, these are observed to have merely returned to previous
rates. Rice tariffication promised much lower prices.
Local palay prices went down as
the Philippines imported a whopping 3 million metric tons of rice, according to
estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural
Service.
PhilStar reported that this figure is 58% higher than
imports in 2018 and is higher than China's rice requirements.
The Philippines only has a
population of over 110 million, while China has around 1.4 billion.
Fertilizer prices also pinched
farmers in 2019.
Abella, who also owns some two
hectares of land and farms on top of being a school principal, said they are
finding it harder to produce better yields due to rising fertilizer costs.
PSA data showed that urea,
ammosul, and ammophos fertilizer prices have risen over 20 consecutive months.
Complete fertilizer prices have recently gone down slightly, but registered the
highest leap from levels a year ago.
What can be done?
Despite the negative impact of
the law, experts are clear: reversing liberalization is far more complicated
and dangerous.
Think tank Action for Economic
Reform (AER) said in a previous statement that a backpedal would create
uncertainty and further shake up the stability of palay prices.
"Rice traders who anticipate
a reversal of the law are hoarding rice, depressing farmgate prices to the
detriment of Filipino rice farmers. Halting implementation would only play into
their hands. To counter this, strong signals must be sent as regards the
certainty and consistency of this reform," AER said.
AER recommended that farmers be
organized into cooperatives and associations to bond themselves and hopefully
directly market their milled rice. Conditional cash transfers must also be
implemented as various sectors and government agencies adjust to the new
regime. (READ: Gov't should provide 'offsetting
compensation' to farmers – PIDS study)
Meanwhile, University of the
Philippines School of Economics professor Ramon Clarete recommended that the
NFA continue to procure palay at a higher price. As the private sector adjusts
to the law, Clarete said the government can temporarily create the market for
local farmers.
He also echoed AER's
recommendation of cash dole outs, but added that there must be strict
monitoring of the disbursements to prevent abuse.
All these recommendations are
already being made by the government. So far, not all farmers have been
reached.
As we turn a new decade, will
there still be Filipino rice farmers? Or is the pain of competing with cheap rice imports
just too much to bear? – Rappler.com
You May Like
How a simple noche buena project
evolved to help rice farmers in Nueva Ecija
Inday Echevarria
Published 6:30 PM,
December 20, 2019
Updated 10:39 AM,
December 21, 2019
GIVING BACK. The author, along with Team Pilipinas, leads a
humble initiative to help farmers' families in Talavera, Nueva Ecija. All photos
from Team Pilipinas
MANILA, Philippines – At the La Salle Greenhills chapel
where my choir serves, the Mass always ends with this empowering reminder: be
the spark. Be the pebble that creates ripples. Be the change you want to see.
I am part of Team Pilipinas, a group of volunteers espousing
change, initiating projects that benefit underappreciated sectors such as
fishermen, teachers, and now, rice farmers.
It was heart-wrenching for us to realize that the same farmers
who made sure we had rice on our tables, could not afford to put rice on
theirs. Clearly, this problem needed government intervention – but, surely,
there was something we could do for their noche buena? (READ: A Filipino farmer's plea: 'Support
us, love us')
100 families? Kaya ‘yan (It’s possible).
The original plan was very simple. I asked my choir, Mass
Appeal, to sing for a small gathering I was planning for in November. Actress
Pinky Marquez, who is part of my choir, readily agreed to sing and emcee. I
then bumped into solo artist Reuben Laurente, and I shyly asked if he could
sing for our affair. Without hesitation, he agreed.
When Yen Cabalu of Team Pilipinas voiced her "suntok
sa buwan (shoot for the moon)" wish of having Arman
Ferrer sing, I didn’t think it would be that easy to get his manager Noel
Ferrer to say yes. It was also “suntok sa buwan” when I asked Jim
Paredes and Boboy Garovillo to sing “Tuloy na Tuloy” – which, to me, embodied
the spirit of focusing on Christ as the reason for Christmas. But to my
surprise, they all agreed. Zero budget, 100% enthusiasm.
UP Manila Chancellor’s Committee for Culture and the Arts
offered to help with the venue. Doc Melf Hernandez persuaded Chef Menoy Gimenez
to feed us. Then, Mon Eugenio of Myron’s offered more food– lugaw unlike any
you’ve ever tasted.
Last November 16, I invited friends to our party. Although only
a handful came – with some blaming traffic as a major deterrent – many more
sent their donations. At the end of the day, we happily announced that we had
raised enough for a decent noche buena for 100 families.
Mission accomplished.
But wait. The Lord had bigger plans.
Beyond food
A Facebook chat with a farmer’s daughter, Jette, made me want to
go beyond the spaghetti and fruit salad goal. In her very short wish list, she
had suggested organic fertilizer and seeds. Then, apparently sensing that my
intention was for noche buena, she added a bag of rice and a blanket. This idea
immediately resonated with me: December this year was going to be particularly
cold, and I could visualize those blankets providing a reassuring hug from us,
every night, for years to come.
I honestly didn’t know, though, if I could raise the money. Team
Pilipinas, at that time, was busy partnering with Vice President Leni Robredo’s
efforts to assist the Cotabato earthquake
victims, and I felt like I had already
badgered all my friends for the noche buena project. Kaya pa
ba (Is it still possible)?
I decided to broach the idea of purchasing blankets on my
Facebook wall. I was surprised at how receptive people were– even Duterte
Diehard Supporter friends responded to my appeal, momentarily setting aside
political differences. Without me asking, friends started sharing my post on
their walls. Friends of friends started sending me their pledges.
Friends researched blanket prices online, even volunteering to
go to Divisoria if needed! Our mantra, though, was “buy local!" and this
applied to both rice and blankets. The inabel blankets, which use a
handwoven textile created by artisans in the northern provinces of the
Philippines, that we were able to purchase with Dr. Arlene’s help were
absolutely gorgeous!
I was euphoric: noche buena, and a warm blanket.
Mission accomplished.
Lorelei Aquino, another colleague from Team Pilipinas, was
tasked to coordinate with the town mayor of Talavera, Nueva Ecija for our
turnover. Mayor Nerivi Martinez requested we increase the number of
beneficiaries from 100 to 106 families– covering two from each of the 53
barangays.
While there, Lorelei chatted with some of the farmers, but the
stories she heard left her totally drained and depressed. She called me up,
crying. When she asked Mang Alberto, one of the farmers there who recently had
a mild stroke and should be going to therapy, what he wanted for Christmas, he
didn’t ask for food, blankets, or help with his health. The only thing he
wanted was binhi (seeds). I ended up
crying, as well. (READ: [OPINION] When a farmer asks for seeds
instead of noche buena)
I was overwhelmed with feelings of guilt. Didn't Jette say, from
the start, that the farmers wanted seedlings and organic fertilizer? I blamed
myself for not listening enough. I had to do something but how? My initial
computation indicated I needed an amount I had no hope of raising, not in a
short span of one week.
Again, I was proven wrong.
Two miracles happened.
The first was media attention. Both Rappler and the Inquirer
carried my appeal, and my article was shared thousands of times. Suddenly, I
had a mini army of complete strangers working with me.
A certain Angela Maree embarked on her own fundraising, and
raised enough to pay for one sack of fertilizer for each of the 106 farmers’
families. Joahnna made a donation specifically for Mang Alberto’s medical
bills. Lydia decided to forego gift-giving this Christmas and, instead, make
donations in the names of her friends. Isa, who works with a popular rice
brand, is currently arranging for a donation of high-quality seedlings from
their company.
The second miracle was government intervention, both on the
municipal and national level. Since this rice crisis only peaked during
the second half of this year, many of the planned government measures were only
implemented recently, and have not yet reached full coverage. I am not fully
conversant on these measures, but as I understand it:
On the municipal level, government has started distributing free
seedlings. As for the fertilizers, Talavera’s municipal agricultural officers
were able to negotiate a huge discount on our purchases. The mayor and her
staff wholeheartedly supported us in this endeavor, identifying the recipients,
organizing the turnover, and adding their own gifts for distribution.
On the national level, government has announced a cash grant of
P5,000 to be given to the farmers worst hit by the crisis. Nueva Ecija is one
of the two provinces prioritized for this. They should receive the cash grants
before Christmas.
We distributed one tricycle-load of Christmas goodies last
December 14 to each of the 106 rice farmers in Talavera.
Finally, mission accomplished.
Understand that these farmers felt the full impact of the
crisis. Many of them were old– probably in their 60s or even older. I had expected
to see angry and bitter men. Yet, without exception, everyone I talked to was
kind and grateful. A smile was etched on every face I saw that day. One woman
even said I had reaffirmed her belief in God’s providence.
Looking back, I can’t help but wonder how a simple noche buena
gift-giving project was able to take on a life of its own and evolve into this.
It must be the Holy Spirit, silently working among us.
It seems the mission is not yet over. I want to go back soon. We
want to bring doctors and dentists to Talavera and check up on the health of
Mang Alberto and the other farmers.
Lorelei asked me if we could afford their medicines. I smiled.
Didn’t He say, “Ask, and ye shall receive?” – Rappler.com
Team Piipinas accepts donations: cash, medicines, hygiene kits,
as well as services of volunteer doctors and dentists. You may email
teamph.volunteers@gmail.com or call (0915) 3801977.
Inday Echevarria, 57, is an engineering graduate from UP, and a
retired pianist. She believes that all Filipinos should be involved both in
nation building and in fighting abuses. She is an active member of Team
Pilipinas.
Venezuela remains one of Guyana’s biggest rice
buyers, despite no PetroCaribe deal
The Guyana Rice Development Board,
Cowan Street, Kingston, Georgetown.
Venezuela is Guyana’s biggest
rice market, accounting for 34 percent or 177,682 tonnest of
all that grain exported to several Latin American countries the Guyana Rice
Development Board (GRDB) said in a statement.This means that despite
Venezuela stopping the rice for oil PetroCaribe agreement with Guyana in 2016,
a number of private exporters are still selling rice to that neighbouring
Spanish-speaking country.Latest figures show that Guyanese rice exporters earned US$227 million in exports to more
than 35 countries last year. The GRDB says that figure represents a 20
percent increase in export earnings more than the US$186 million that were
earned last year.
Coming second to Venezuela was Portugal which bought just over
60,000 tonnes or rice or 12 percent of all exports of the grain. Other main
importers of Guyana’s rice were Cuba, Columbia, Honduras and Panama.
Looking at the Caricom market, the GRDB said almost 69,956 tonnes
of rice or 13 percent valued at US$35 million were exported in 2019.Of this
figure, Jamaica imported 32,743 tonnes and Trinidad 25,417 tonnes. The
GRDB says Guyana exported rice to ten CARICOM countries, namely; Antigua,
Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, St. Kitts,
Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
As it relates to export by product, the GRDB says white rice
was the largest export earner, accounting for 51 percent of the total amount of
rice exported in 2019. That earned more than US $128 million. Other
products exported were parboiled rice, cargo rice, paddy and bran.
The GRDB says 214,190 tonnes of rice (41%) were shipped to the
European Union in 2019, compared with 146,092 tonnes shipped in 2018, an
increase of 47%. Main importing countries were Portugal, Italy, United Kingdom
and Spain.
The GRDB says Guyana produced more than one million tonnes of
paddy for 2019, making it the second highest production year for rice in
Guyana.
With annual average yields increasing steadily and closing 2019 at
almost 6 tonnes per hectare, production is expected to continue to increase in
the coming year
China won’t
hike grain import quotas for US trade deal: Report
US President
Donald Trump had said that China agreed to double pre-trade war purchases of US
agricultural products over the next two years.PHOTO: AFP
BEIJING (REUTERS) - China
will not increase its annual low-tariff import quotas for corn, wheat and
rice to accommodate stepped-up purchases of farm goods from the United States,
local media group Caixin quoted senior agriculture official Han Jun as saying
on Tuesday (Jan 7).
The report raises further
questions about how China will meet a target of spending billions of
dollars more on US agricultural goods as the two countries look to reach
an initial agreement to calm an extended trade war.
US President Donald Trump said in
December that China had agreed to double its pre-trade war purchases of
US agricultural products over the next two years as part of a Phase 1 trade deal to be signed this month.
Han, a vice agriculture minister and
part of the negotiating team, said last month that China would buy more
wheat, rice and corn from the United States to meet demands for higher
agricultural imports.
His comments led to speculation
that Beijing could increase the quotas that it issues each year to grain
buyers, setting the amount of wheat, corn and rice that can be imported at a
tariff rate of 1 per cent.
The amounts for 2020 were issued
in September last year and were steady on previous years.
Imports outside the quotas are
rare because of tariffs of 65 per cent.
Han was quoted by Caixin on
Tuesday as saying the quota is offered to global markets and “we won’t adjust
it for one country.”
US Trade Representative
Robert Lighthizer said in December Beijing had committed to buy an additional
US$32 billion of American agricultural products over two years, or roughly
US$16 billion a year more than the 2017 baseline of US$24 billion. He said
Beijing would aim for another US$5 billion in farm purchases each year on top
of that.
China’s annual quotas are 9.64
million tonnes for wheat, 7.2 million tonnes for corn and 5.32 million tonnes
for rice.
It has not bought large volumes
of US wheat, corn and rice in recent years.
Soybeans made up more than half
of China’s agriculture purchases from the United States in 2017, at about
US$12.2 billion.
The agriculture ministry did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
International restaurant chain imports Indian and
vegetarian fare to McKinney
Jan 6, 2020, 10:40 am
Behold vada prav, like sliders,
with a fried potato dumpling inside a bun. Photo courtesy of Honest
Anew Indian and vegetarian restaurant has
opened in McKinney that is part of an international chain. Called Honest Restaurant, it was founded in India in 1975, originally
as a street-cart, serving Indian street foods.
The concept graduated to restaurant status, and
there are now more than 50 locations across India, and, since 2016, 13 locations in
the U.S., in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, and
California.
The McKinney restaurant is on the boundary of
Allen at 8910 SH 121, #220. It's the second location in Texas, following a
location in Houston.
Honest prides itself on making its food from
scratch daily. Dishes are cooked to order, and they use no frozen or processed
products.
Their menu includes Indian and vegetarian with
street foods, sandwiches, dosas, chaat, uttapam, and pav bhaji. They
incorporate influences from western, southern, and northern India, including
spicy Indo-Chinese dishes.
Specialties include a vegetable curry called
bhaji pav, and a veggie rice dish called pulav – like pilaf. There are samosas;
Indian-style pizzas with toppings on naan bread; and puri, a puffed rice dish.
There are South Indian dishes such as the crisp
crepes filled with mashed potatoes and other vegetables, called dosas; and
uttapams, like pancakes made from rice lentils, topped with onion, tomato, bell
pepper, and green peas.
There are "thali" combination plates;
dal – simmered lentils served with rice; and biryani, the comforting
casserole-like rice dish.
There are also Indo-Chinese dishes including
dumplings, fried rice, and noodles, which can be ordered spicy-hot.
They do a "baahubali" sandwich, like
an Indian club, stacked with three layers and loaded with veggies such as baby
corn, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and bell peppers; and vada prav, which
is like a slider, with a fried potato dumpling placed inside a bun.
They also do yummy specials such as dahi vada,
which are like fritters, made from lentils, and topped with flavorful sauces
and chutneys.
The McKinney restaurant opened in summer 2019.
A spokesperson says that they plan to open more locations in DFW in 2020.
China
Won't Hike Grain Import Quotas for U.S. Trade Deal-Caixin
By Reuters
·
Jan. 6, 2020BEIJING — China will not increase its annual
low-tariff import quotas for corn, wheat and rice to accommodate stepped-up
purchases of farm goods from the United States, local media group Caixin quoted
senior agriculture official Han Jun as saying on Tuesday.
The report underlines China's desire to protect
its domestic producers and raises further questions about how it will meet a
target of spending billions of dollars more on U.S. agricultural goods as the
two countries look to calm an extended trade war.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in December
that China had agreed to double its pre-trade war purchases of U.S.
agricultural products over the next two years as part of a Phase 1 trade deal
to be signed this month.
Han, a vice
agriculture minister and part of the negotiating team, said last month China
would buy more U.S. wheat, rice and corn to meet demands for higher imports.
His comments led to speculation that Beijing
could increase the quotas that it issues each year to grain buyers, setting the
amount of wheat, corn and rice that can be imported at a tariff rate of 1%.
The amounts for 2020 were issued in September
last year and were steady on previous years. Imports outside the quotas are
rare because of tariffs of 65%.
Han was quoted by Caixin on Tuesday as saying
the quota is offered to global markets and "we won't adjust it for one
country."
"This is soothing market nerves
here," said Meng Jinhui, a corn analyst with Shengda Futures. "I
think the market is worried about a blow from the possible increase of grain
imports, and that (message) has gone to the high leadership."
Increasing
sales of meat, ethanol, distillers grains and soybeans are likely to be more
important for reaching the U.S. target for doubling farm exports to China, Meng
said.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer
said in December Beijing had committed to buy an additional $32 billion of
American agricultural products over two years, or roughly $16 billion a year
more than the 2017 baseline of $24 billion.
China's annual quotas are 9.64 million tonnes
for wheat, 7.2 million tonnes for corn and 5.32 million tonnes for rice, but
large portions go unused each year as China relies on domestic production.
"This is about national food security, so
it won't be opened up," said a Chinese wheat trader, who declined to be
identified as he is not allowed to talk to media.
The quota system has been heavily criticised by
the United States, which last year won a World Trade Organisation ruling that
China violated its obligation to administer the quota on a fair basis.
China has not bought large volumes of U.S.
wheat, corn and rice in recent years.
"Although there's certainly types of
high-quality wheat that China would look to import, maxing out the tariff rate
quota would also weigh on domestic producers," said Darin Friedrichs,
senior Asia analyst at INTL FCStone, in a note late on Monday.
"China will be facing a tough balancing
act of trying to satisfy the U.S. demands for large agriculture purchases,
while also not hurting the rural population."
The agriculture ministry did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by
Dominique Patton and Hallie Gu; Editing by Richard Pullin)
Liberia Agriculture Review 2019 -
Reflecting Interventions By Government and Partners
6 JANUARY 2020
By Judoemue Kollie
Rice is the staple food of Liberia but the country is yet to
increase the production of rice to meet domestic consumption in order to reduce
importation.
President George M. Weah in his second annual message delivered
to the 54th Legislature on Monday, January 28, 2019, described agriculture as
critical to the transformation of the country and as such he promised his
government's commitment to put more money into agriculture in order to revive
the sector.
According to the President, because the sector accounts for more
than 70 percent of household earnings, it is important to note that the
Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) can only be sustainably
achieved through agriculture.
The 14 year civil war in Liberia completely destroyed the
agricultural sector, leaving it with infrastructural deficits and the
disruption of food production. Since the end of the civil crisis government and
partners have made some significant efforts to improve the sector in order to
reduce poverty in the lives of poor farmers and to stimulate economic growth.
Hence, this agriculture sector review 2019, highlights some
interventions made by the government and partners as reported in the Daily
Observer newspapers. It is a collection of data on allotment in the national
budget for agriculture, introduction of policies and an attempt to improve
agriculture value chains, such as rice, vegetable, cassava, cocoa and coffee,
as well as to encourage youths to take advantage of agriculture for employment.
Budget for Agriculture
Although, the President has expressed commitment to prioritize
agriculture during the year under review, it was discovered that the allotment
made in the 2019/2020 National Budget for agriculture was far less than that of
previous year. An amount of US$6,208,754 was allotted in the budget for
agriculture which is 1.16 percent of the total budget.
On the other hand, the Government has attracted additional
funding from the World Bank and the African Development Bank as loans to
support agriculture. However, stakeholders in the sector on the contrary have
said that the country cannot continue to depend on external sources to support
agriculture.
They want the government to ensure that the budget for
agriculture be in line with "Malabo Declaration for Food and Nutrition
Security", which calls for 10% to be set aside annually for agriculture by
every African government.
Mariatou Njie, Country Representative of FAO told stakeholders
at the World Food Day Program that there is need for the Government to adhere
to "Malabo Declaration for Food and Nutrition Security" to accelerate
growth in the sector.
Meanwhile, President Weah has disclosed that the World Bank has
expressed interest to further support agriculture.
Policies
The President, in fulfillment to his promise to prioritize
agriculture, passed several laws, including the Act to Amend the Executive Law
of Liberia to create a National Food and Feed Quality and Safety; the Financing
Agreement Tree Crops Extension Project II (TCEP II) between Liberia and the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the Act to Establish
the Liberia Fertilizer Regulatory Division and an Act to Establish Liberia
Plant Pesticides Regulatory Services Bureau.
The President also issued Executive Order number 97, spending
tariff on all agriculture produce and equipment for a period of one year.
Rebecca Kalayi, President of the National Agro-inputs Dealer
Association of Liberia (NAIDAL) commended the President for the duty waver
policy and expressed the hope that it would benefit the country. She however,
called on the government to strictly monitor the implementation of the policy.
Rice Value Chain
Rice is the staple food of Liberia but the country is yet to
increase the production of rice to meet domestic consumption in order to reduce
importation. Statistics still show that Liberia spent US$200 million to import
rice annually. Moreover, the country's rice sub-sector still faces many
challenges.
Dr. Mongana Flomo, former Minister of Agriculture once told
stakeholders that Liberia was expected to reduce rice imports by 7% last year
through communal farming system. The plan by the former minister did not seem
to materialize as he was relieved of his post and nothing is being reported
about the outcomes on communal farming.
Partners and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) assisted farmers
in rice producing counties to scale up the level of production but challenges
such as limited extension service, market constraint, and the provision of
improved seed still remained as impediment.
Mohammed Kamara, President of the National Rice Federation of
Liberia stressed the need for the government to subsidize the rice sector. He
said that about US$ 8 million, which is currently used by government annually
to subsidize rice import, could be used to support local production.
Vegetable Value Chain
Vegetables are profitable crops in Liberia but the majority of
them are still being imported from neighboring countries. This is partly due to
the lack of technologies for farmers to produce vegetables throughout the year.
To help scale up vegetable production, the FAO in 2019 disclosed
plans to carry out an integrated farming project for vegetable and poultry
farmers.
Also, the Government and the United Nations in June 27, 2019,
launched a peace-building fund project in the country, aimed at enhancing
incomes of vegetable farmers in Bong, and Lofa counties.
Cassava Value Chain
Cassava is the second most important staple for Liberians and,
if supported by government, can help to eliminate hunger. But many cassava
farmers lack the improved skills and technologies to enhance production.
The National Cassava Sector Coordinating Committee, which has
the responsibility to coordinate the activities of cassava producers, is faced
with financial constraint to support it members.
Joseph Morris, head of the cassava sector, told stakeholders at
one of their meetings that plans are underway by his organization to attract
funding from donors to support cassava farmers.
UAPB Scientists Investigate Eco-friendly
Solution to Agricultural Waste
Will Hehemann | School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human
Sciences
UAPB graduate students of
agricultural regulations Aneesh Chandel, left, and Hen Sharma, right, test
water samples to determine the efficiency of biochar in removing contaminants.
Researchers at the University of
Arkansas at Pine Bluff are studying the potential of biochar – a charcoal made
from biomass – to reduce the ecological risks associated with common
agricultural waste. According to Dr. Hao Chen, assistant professor for the UAPB
Department of Agriculture, the product is increasingly being used throughout
the nation as a sustainable soil additive to improve crop yields.
“Agricultural waste, which
includes animal manure as well as crop residues, can be a major nuisance for
producers,” she said. “If farmers have rice husks or crop stems lying in their
field, they commonly either let the plant residue sit or decide to burn it.
Either practice releases a lot of greenhouse gasses into the environment.”
Dr. Chen said the conversion of
agricultural waste to biochar could help producers deal with agricultural waste
in a sustainable manner, minimizing the associated carbon dioxide emissions
that contribute to climate change. Moreover, biochar can have a positive effect
on soil and water quality in a number of other ways.
“Biochar may look like regular
charcoal, but it actually captures agricultural chemicals from the local
environment,” she said. “The value-added product is produced on a large scale
in a few American factories, but it is also easy to make on small farms. For
example, some small-scale producers use an oxygen-free tank or burn barrel to
turn waste such as peanut hulls, walnut shells or sweet potato stems into
biochar.”
Biochar can be added to soil
through tilling. After application, the product absorbs pesticides and other
chemical byproducts of agricultural production. Biochar improves water quality
by ensuring nutrients and chemicals are not leached off the field and into the
ground water or nearby bodies of water. It also increases soil health and
fertility.
Dr. Chen said UAPB research on
biochar is conducted in conjunction with the University of Florida. Current
projects investigate biochar’s properties as a soil amendment and in relation
to pollution absorption/degradation. Researchers are also studying the ability
of biochar to sequester antibiotics in the environment.
“Antibiotics are commonly used in
agricultural production and have become a huge problem in recent years,” she
said. “They are released into the environment in animal manure or from
reclaimed irrigation water and have a profoundly negative effect on
microorganisms. Biochar applications help ensure antibiotics found in the soil
are captured and contained inside the micropores of biochar. Since the
micropores are not accessible to microorganisms, the bioavailability and
environmental exposure of antibiotics will be largely reduced.”
UAPB project data will be used to determine agricultural best
management practices for the use of biochar on a large scale, Dr. Chen said.
Eventually the product could be an affordable substitute for other waste
treatment agents such as active carbon.
Dr. Chen said the research
furthers UAPB’s land-grant mission by helping make a clean resource available
to small producers, who will be able to improve crop yields. At the same time,
they will be contributing to overall local environmental protection.
“Biochar as a value-added product
is an innovative and increasingly popular way to make agricultural waste
profitable and better ensure soil quality and food productivity in the long
run,” she said.
House panel vows passage of bill to authorize use of 4Ps subsidy
to purchase palay from farmers
Published January 6, 2020, 2:08 PM
By Charissa Luci-Atienza
The House Committee on
Agriculture and Food vowed on Monday, January 6 to pursue the plenary passage
of a bill seeking to authorize the use of the rice subsidy as provided for
under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the 2019 General
Appropriations Act (GAA) for the purchase of palay (unhusked rice) from
farmers.
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga,
chairman of the panel, said House Bill No. 5583, principally authored by Deputy
Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, has been referred to
the House Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab,
for its deliberation and approval.
“We will still pursue for plenary
approval upon approval of Committtee on Appropriations,” he said in a text
message to the Manila Bulletin.
He noted that his panel approved
the measure on December 11, 2019, and immediately referred it to the Ungab
panel.
“Unfortunately, the
Appropriations committee was busy at that time with the proposed national
budget for 2020 and the bicameral conference,” Enverga said.
HB 5583 mandates the Department
of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in coordination with the National
Food Authority (NFA) and the Department of Agriculture (DA), to buy palay from
local farmers, and distribute rice as subsidy, instead of cash assistance, to
qualified beneficiaries.
Villafuerte, principal author of
the bill, noted that under the 2019 General Appropriations Act, the allocation
for rice subsidy amounts to P28.51 billion, and same amount has been allocated
for 2020.
“In order to promote the welfare
of farmers, this allocation should be used to buy rice from local farmers,
which will be then distributed to poor families covered by the 4Ps. The
government must do its best to help local farmers cope with the liberalization
of rice importation,” he said.
The Enverga panel decided that
only compliant beneficiaries of 4Ps will be entitled to the rice subsidy.
Under the CCT program, the
beneficiaries receive a monthly subsidy amounting to P600 or equivalent to 20
kilos of rice, apart from the P300 cash assistance they receive per month.
HB 5583 provides that the
beneficiaries of the conditional cash tranfer shall be entitled to rice
subsidy, which shall be given in actual kilos of rice, instead of cash.
The bill tasks the DSWD, together
with NFA and DA, to set the procedures and guidelines in the purchase of palay
from farmers, and distribution of rice to the 4Ps beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries shall receive
their rice subsidy from the DSWD-designated outlets, it said.
The Department of Finance (DOF)
and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) shall be involved in the
crafting of the implementing rules and regulations of the proposed Act.
Section 5 of the bill originally
provides that the target areas shall be rice producing provinces of Pangasinan,
Ilocos Norte, Cagayan. Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Oriental and Occidental Mindoro,
Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Zamboanga del Sur, and Iloilo.
But, the Enverga panel decided to
scrap such provision, and decided that the proposed Act will cover all
provinces which have very low prices of palay at a given time.
HB 5583 provides that a year-end
report of the program implementation shall be submitted to the DSWD to both
Houses of Congress to determine its performance and effectiveness.
Rice
exports struggle to hit 8m tonnes
PUBLISHED : 6 JAN 2020 AT 04:31
Officially known as Thai jasmine rice, hom mali
is a high-quality rice that remains the flagship variety.
Rice exports may fall below 8
million tonnes for 2019, with this year's prospects still uncertain because of
a slew of risk factors such as the continued strong baht, natural disasters and
emerging new rice exporters like Myanmar and China.
Charoen Laothamatas, president of
the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said shipments definitely will stand below
9 million tonnes, as projected by the association for 2019, but could struggle
to hit 8 million tonnes.
In the first 11 months of 2019,
Thailand shipped 7.11 million tonnes, a dip of 30.4% from the same period a
year earlier, fetching US$2.90 billion, down 24.3%. The fall was attributed to
the strong baht, hurting the country's export competitiveness.
Another factor is the lack of
Thai rice variety development over a period of 30 years to cope with changing
market demand and consumer behaviour. Thailand has shipped the same rice
varieties for 30 years, Mr Charoen said.
"Thai rice quality has
dropped because of climate change and global warming, as well as changing the
plantation method," he said. "Because of the labour shortage, farmers
opt to use machinery and chemicals that affect Thai rice's aromatic quality and
good taste, 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."
Mr Charoen said Thai hom
mali remains the flagship variety, while Thai white rice is no longer in a
position to compete with Vietnam, which has successfully developed
soft-textured rice that is exported worldwide.
For this year, the association is
hesitant to come up with any export projections because of multiple risks.
In 2018, Thai rice shipments
totalled 11.2 million tonnes, down 5% from 11.7 million in 2017 but higher than
the 9.91 million tonnes in 2016. Normally rice exports average 10 million
tonnes a year, with white rice making up half.
According to the Agricultural and
Cooperatives Ministry, annual paddy production for both the main and second
crops is forecast at 27-28 million tonnes in the 2019-20 season, weighed down
by a drop in production for the second crop because of flooding and drought.
Paddy output from the second crop
is estimated at just 3.5 million tonnes, down 54% from 7.75 million the
previous season, due to drought and inadequate water supply from dams.
Production from the main crop is
forecast at 24 million tonnes of paddy, down 4-12.5% from 25-27 million the
previous season. In 2018, shipments totalled 11.2 million tonnes, down 5% from
11.7 million in 2017 but higher than the 9.91 million tonnes in 2016.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1829434/rice-exports-struggle-to-hit-8m-tonnes
Flawed Anchor Borrowers’ scheme, RUGA, others marred agric
sector in 2019
By Femi
Ibirogba, Head, Agro-Economy
06 January 2020
| 4:22 am
Indications have emerged that lopsided implementation of the Anchor Borrowers’ scheme, the proposed RUGA settlement debacle, very epileptic power supply and appointment of the current minister of agriculture were some of the policies and actions that marred food production and agro-economic development of the country in 2019.
Head,
Commercial Agriculture and Training, Lower Niger River Basin Authority, Ilorin,
Kwara State, Dr Olabisis Awoniyi, while recalling happenings in 2019, said,
“One of the flaws in agricultural policies last year was in the area of Anchor
Borrowers’ programme of the Federal Government. Farmers did not have access to
the funds as of when due. Farmlands were not prepared on time; maize and other
grain farms were affected by Fall Armyworms before funds were available, among
other difficulties.”
He
explained that farmers were asked to look for resources to prepare land, buy
farm inputs and be reimbursed later, saying, “As good as the programme may be,
agriculture is time-bound, and this failure could reduce yield.”
The
anchor borrowers’ programme, some other critics said, revolved around only rice
and a few other grains, leaving other farmers out of the scheme.
A
Lagos-based consultant and agro-product exporter, Mr John-Bede Antonio, said emphasis
placed on rice production and its value chain prevented development of other
sub-sectors of agriculture in Nigeria, saying total value chain development
across various crops and regions is desirable for food security.
Mr
Antonio said, “I have stopped eating rice. The emphasis on rice is overblown,
irrelevant, irresponsible of the government, impractical and absolutely of no
value.
“The
moment this government leaves in 2023, the furor will die down because it is
unsustainable.”
He
argued that other cash crops which were mainstays of the country’s economy in
the past have been neglected despite a promise of a robust agro-economic policy
tagged The Green Alternative.
He
called on the government to extend input and financial support to cocoa, palm
oil, coconuts and cashew production because they are real industrial produce
that could revolutionise the economy if industrialised, processed and consumed
in the country and exported to other African countries the continental free
trade agreement.
Other
critics of the policy said resources for the scheme have been concentrated in
the north, with a very few farmers benefitting in the scheme in the south-east,
south-south and the south-west.
A
commercial rice farmer and processor in Iwo, Osun State, Mr Ayoade Popoola,
said despite several efforts to secure loans and inputs through the borrowers’
scheme, he and many other farmers could not get any support in 2019.
From the
angle of agro-chemical and agro-machinery, Dr Akin Oloniruha, a former provost
of the Ahmadu Bello University College of Agriculture, Kabba, Kogi State, said
importation of agro-machinery and chemicals is on the rise, making the country
to lose what it gains through the closure of borders.
He
emphasised that “We are still importing all our machinery and equipment, thus
while import of rice has dropped, that of machinery, equipment and
agrochemicals has correspondingly gone up.”
He
suggested that the “Government will do well to create incentives for local
assembly plants for machinery and production plants for agrochemicals to reduce
their prices and create more jobs.”
RUGA
settlement initiative as divisive policy, farm invasion
The Federal Government hinged its argument for the RUGA settlement policy on the point that over 95 per cent of the 20 million cattle population in Nigeria is managed under the traditional pastoral system which relies predominantly on mobility in search of pasture and water from natural range resources and crop residues, saying full potential of cattle raised under this system of production are limited in both production and per animal productivity due to poor feeding and watering occasioned by long dry season.
The Federal Government hinged its argument for the RUGA settlement policy on the point that over 95 per cent of the 20 million cattle population in Nigeria is managed under the traditional pastoral system which relies predominantly on mobility in search of pasture and water from natural range resources and crop residues, saying full potential of cattle raised under this system of production are limited in both production and per animal productivity due to poor feeding and watering occasioned by long dry season.
So, the
policy stipulated that fatal clashes arising between farmers and herders were
results of open grazing, therefore, “the need to come up with innovative and
integrated approach that would provide housing infrastructure and security
incentives to enhance settlement of pastoralists and increase productivity of
livestock.”
“One of
such innovations,” the government policy explains, “is the ‘Ruga’ settlement
model comprising 40 units of huts for 10 pastoral families on a minimum 20ha
land with the following facilities: solar powered borehole, water harvesting
infrastructure, sanitary facility, mini ruminant feed mills, dispensary, watch
tower security posts and access road.”
The
government claimed that the Ruga settlement model would be spread across 12
states, most of which had persistently experienced farmer-herder clashes. The
states were Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger,
Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara states.
The
public criticisms that trailed the announcement of the policy nearly burst the
country, and since the suspension, the government policy in the sector has had
no clear direction.
Similar
to the above were the proposed Radio Fulani and alleged N100 billion grant to
cattle breeders, which Nigerians rejected and described as sectionalist,
ethnic-centric and divisive in a multi-ethnic country.
Appointment
of Muhammed Nanono as minister of agriculture climaxed the directionless
agricultural policies. Many Nigerians have described the minister as too old,
and having no adequate knowledge of what to do in the sector.
Rural
underdevelopment
A former minister, Chief Audu Ogbeh, once told The Guardian that he was only saddled with the affairs relating to agriculture, not rural development because he was not equipped for such.
A former minister, Chief Audu Ogbeh, once told The Guardian that he was only saddled with the affairs relating to agriculture, not rural development because he was not equipped for such.
Rural
and food-producing communities have suffered massive infrastructural shortages
and dilapidation since the return of democratically elected government in 1999.
Audu Ogbeh said this was unconnected with crippling of the local government
administration by state governments with the appointment of care taker
committees and operation of joint accounts that kept the local government
councils stranded financially.
Grading,
reconstruction and construction of farm roads and other infrastructure within
the jurisdiction of the local authorities have been hampered, and President
Muhammadu Buhari-led administration could not effect an immediate shift in
2019.
Storage
facilities of the Federal Government were also leased out to private investors,
making such unavailable for grain farmers’ use.
Poor
road networks, according to Dr John Okechukwu, a cassava value chain specialist
at IITA and Dr Francis Nwilene, Regional Coordinator of Africa Rice Centre,
escalated post-harvest losses in 2019, and marginally increased the cost of
food items on getting to the final consumer on accounts of higher cost of
transportation.
Moving
crops, either processed or raw, from where they were produced in rural areas
was costly, difficult and time-consuming, they said, and this affected
wholesomeness of foods, profitability to farmers, prices and availability in
2019.
Oloniruha,
on his part, said “the rural feeder roads to farms remain deplorable as ever,”
suggesting that “states and local government councils should begin to live up
to their responsibilities so that farm produce can be evacuated to marketplaces
with little stress.”
He also
said “the menace of herdsmen on arable farms has remained intractable so much
so that some farmers had to abandon their farmlands. But with some creativity
and innovation, the government can solve this problem. Several farmlands were
flooded last year with farmers incurring huge losses and the government is
under intense pressure to come to farmers’ assistance.”
Oloniruha
said on the loss of crops to flooding and herdsmen, the Nigerian Agricultural
Insurance Corporation (NAIC) should step up its presence, activities, advocacy
and enlightenment to farmers so that they would imbibe the culture of insuring
their farms.
“In the
livestock section, due to increased demand for day-old-chicks by farmers, the
few hatcheries cannot cope. Farmers have to make booking for six months in some
cases before they can procure day-old-chicks.
“Setting
up hatcheries is expensive. Some state governments can take this up as it is
also lucrative.
“By and
by, I think the borders should remain closed until we can devise an ingenious
way to effectively and efficiently policing our borders.”
The
flipside of the flaws
However, policies adjudged to be good by many Nigerians are closure of some land borders, the Anchor Borrowers’ scheme in various crops and emphasis on local production of rice and poultry products.
However, policies adjudged to be good by many Nigerians are closure of some land borders, the Anchor Borrowers’ scheme in various crops and emphasis on local production of rice and poultry products.
Dr
Awoniyi said, “Border closure is a step in the right direction, and farmers
should be encouraged more to produce. Inputs such as seeds should be
distributed to farmers to prevent mixture of varieties as many of the
locally processed brands of rice in the country were mixture of different
varieties, which affects processing and cooking time.”
The
government should consider input subsidy that would make inputs get directly to
farmers, he suggested, as was done during the administration of a former
minister of agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adeshina. He also suggested more of
public-private-partnership in all areas of agriculture.
“Farm
produce should be bought off the local farmers to prevent glut and youths
should be involved in farming through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)
farms in all local government areas,” he added.
Despite
kicks from certain critics on the scheme, Dr Oloniruha commented that “The
Anchor Borrowers’ programme for farmers recorded great success last year,”
adding that “Farmers were also able to obtain fertiliser in good time.”
Oloniruha
argued that closure of the borders encouraged more production of rice and
poultry production, saying, “But processing facilities (for rice) are still
limited and expensive. One will like to see more processing facilities
installed this year.”
EU rice
tariffs hurt Cambodia’s farmers
TOPICS:EU
Dealers use EU tariffs to squeeze Cambodian farmers. The episode
holds warnings for 2020 as EBA protections remain under threat.
Editorial
Last January, the European Union (EU) introduced tariffs on
Cambodia and Myanmar’s rice imports to protect rice producers within the bloc.
Buyers are using the tariffs and the reduced demand for rice in
Europe to pay Cambodia’s rice farmers below market value for their harvest.
Rice farmers are feeling the pinch
Following the tariff introductions, rice exports from the Kingdom
to the EU fell by 30% in 2019. Buyers are using falling exports as an excuse to
drive rice prices down.
Choeun Socheat, a rice farmer in Cambodia’s Battambang province,
told VOA that rice prices are down to US$232 per ton, US$60 less than the
previous year’s rate. “The dealers told us that the price is low because they
are buying rice to keep at the rice mills, but not for exporting abroad.”
The numbers tell a different story
While EU rice imports are down, many of the losses have been
offset by increased Chinese purchases.
This year, China pledged to increase the quantity of rice bought
from Cambodian farmers. In 2018, Beijing agreed to import 300,000 tons of
Cambodian rice. In 2019, it increased this figure to 400,000.
As a result, despite decreasing demand in Europe, Cambodia’s
export volume endured in 2019. The Kingdom sold 620,106 tons of rice last year, a drop of barely 1% on 2018’s tally.
Around 40% of the country’s rice went to the Chinese market. The total value of
the Kingdom’s exports fell by 4.3% to US$501 million.
“We have to sell with the price dealers set,” Socheat said. But
export figures indicate that Cambodian farmers are being manipulated by dealers
looking to capitalise on their limited access to market information.
The government’s response reveals a lack of
empathy
Cambodia’s rice farmers face an increasingly uncertain future. In
addition to being at the mercy of predatory dealers, rising pesticide and
fertilizer prices mean they need to make even more money to break even.
One farmer from Omal commune in Battambang estimated that he
needed to fetch US$267 per ton to recover fertilizer costs.
Extreme weather patterns are deepening reliance on these expensive
chemicals. Droughts, particularly in the country’s north, have left
around 32% of farmers without access to water or irrigation facilities.
In December 2019, around 45,000 hectares of rice-growing paddies
were affected by severe droughts. The government was able to provide assistance
to farmers managing around 20,000 hectares; less than half of those that needed
it.
A farmer in Pursat province described how he needed to invest an
additional US$500 in equipment to pump water from a nearby irrigation canal to
his 16-acre rice paddy. These increased overhead costs reduce farmers’
abilities to absorb the costs of a low yield.
To maximise output and avoid a reduced harvest, farmers are
increasingly turning to pesticides and fertilizers. Between 2006 and 2016,
fertilizer consumption more than doubled across the Kingdom.
DA sees record local rice production
Updated January 6, 2020, 10:46 AM
By MADELAINE B. MIRAFLOR
The Philippines is expected to
keep its status as the world’s top rice importer even as rice production is
seen hitting record level this year after reaching its three-year low in 2019.
Agriculture Assistant Secretary
for Operations Andrew Villacorta said that for 2020, local rice production is
seen rising to a record 19.6 million metric tons (MT), which is around 7
percent higher from the 18.4 million MT forecast for 2019.
This, he said, will be backed by
the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), the tariff collected from
imported rice.
As part of the Republic Act 11203
or the Rice Tariffication Law, RCEF is supposed to be injected with ₱10 billion
annually from 2019 to 2024 or a period of six years.
So far, RCEF has already
bankrolled the distribution of inbred rice seeds across 46 provinces.
“The seed component of RCEF will
already have an impact [in local rice production] this year. All the ₱3 billion
allotted for seed program will be completely used. We will be able to
distribute seeds for two planting seasons,” Villacorta said.
The mechanization component of
RCEF, which has a budget of ₱5 billion, will also start this year.
Albeit still unofficial, an
output of 18.4 million MT of locally produced rice for 2019 will be the
country’s lowest output since 2016.
Data from Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA) showed that from 2015 to 2018, palay production in the country
was highest in 2017 at 19.28 million MT and lowest in 2016 at 17.63 million MT.
In 2018, palay production settled
at 19.07 million MT due to several typhoons and El Niño.
“Our original target for 2019 was
19 million MT but because of typhoons, we are now forecasting just 18.4 million
MT,” Villacorta said.
Liberia
Agriculture Review 2019: Reflecting Interventions by Government and Partners
January 6, 2020
Rice is the staple food of Liberia but the country is yet to
increase the production of rice to meet domestic consumption in order to reduce
importation.
President George M. Weah in his
second annual message delivered to the 54th Legislature on Monday,
January 28, 2019, described agriculture as critical to the transformation of
the country and as such he promised his government’s commitment to put more
money into agriculture in order to revive the sector.
According to the President,
because the sector accounts for more than 70 percent of household earnings, it
is important to note that the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development
(PAPD) can only be sustainably achieved through agriculture.
The 14 year civil war in Liberia
completely destroyed the agricultural sector, leaving it with infrastructural
deficits and the disruption of food production. Since the end of the civil
crisis government and partners have made some significant efforts to improve
the sector in order to reduce poverty in the lives of poor farmers and to
stimulate economic growth.
Hence, this agriculture sector
review 2019, highlights some interventions made by the government and partners
as reported in the Daily Observer newspapers. It is a collection of data on
allotment in the national budget for agriculture, introduction of policies and an
attempt to improve agriculture value chains, such as rice, vegetable, cassava,
cocoa and coffee, as well as to encourage youths to take advantage of
agriculture for employment.
Budget for Agriculture
Although, the President has
expressed commitment to prioritize agriculture during the year under review, it
was discovered that the allotment made in the 2019/2020 National Budget for
agriculture was far less than that of previous year. An amount of US$6,208,754
was allotted in the budget for agriculture which is 1.16 percent of the total
budget.
On the other hand, the Government
has attracted additional funding from the World Bank and the African
Development Bank as loans to support agriculture. However, stakeholders in the
sector on the contrary have said that the country cannot continue to depend on
external sources to support agriculture.
They want the government to
ensure that the budget for agriculture be in line with “Malabo Declaration for
Food and Nutrition Security”, which calls for 10% to be set aside annually for
agriculture by every African government.
Mariatou Njie, Country
Representative of FAO told stakeholders at the World Food Day Program that
there is need for the Government to adhere to “Malabo Declaration for Food and
Nutrition Security” to accelerate growth in the sector.
Meanwhile, President Weah has
disclosed that the World Bank has expressed interest to further support
agriculture.
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