Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open-
January 30, 2020
JANUARY
30, 2020 / 1:32 PM
* *
* * * *
Nagpur
Foodgrain Prices – APMC/Open Market-January 30, 2020 Nagpur, Jan 30 (Reuters) –
Gram and tuar prices showed weak tendency in Nagpur Agriculture Produce and
Marketing Company (APMC) auctions here in absence of buyers amid high moisture
content arrival. Fresh fall on NCDEX in gram, weak trend in Madhya Pradesh
pulses and release of stock from stockists also pushed down prices here. About
50 bags of gram and 300 bags of tuar reported for auction, according to
sources.
GRAM
*
Gram varieties ruled steady in open market here on subdued demand from local
traders.
TUAR
* Tuar gavarani moved down in open market here on poor demand from local
Traders.
*
Moong Chamki reported weak in open market here on poor buying support
from
local traders.
* In
Akola, Tuar New – 5,200-5,400, Tuar dal (clean) – 8,100-8,300, Udid Mogar
(clean)
–
9,900-11,000, Moong Mogar (clean) 9,300-10,200, Gram – 4,400-4,500, Gram Super
best
–
5,500-5,700 * Wheat, rice and other foodgrain items moved in a narrow range in
scattered
deals and settled at last levels in thin trading activity.
Nagpur
foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg
FOODGRAINS
Available prices Previous close
Gram
Auction 3,600-3,800 3,600-3,860
Gram
Pink Auction n.a. 2,100-2,600
Tuar
Auction 4,300-4,790 4,350-4,800
Moong
Auction n.a. 3,950-4,200
Udid
Auction n.a. 4,300-4,500
Masoor
Auction n.a. 2,200-2,500
Wheat
Lokwan Auction 2,000-2,155 2,000-2,170
Wheat
Sharbati Auction n.a. 2,900-3,000
Gram
Super Best Bold 5,700-6,000 5,700-6,000
Gram
Super Best n.a. n.a.
Gram
Medium Best 5,100-5,400 5,100-5,300
Gram
Dal Medium n.a. n.a
Gram
Mill Quality 4,300-4,400 4,300-4,400
Desi
gram Raw 4,350-4,450 4,350-4,450
Gram
Kabuli 8,500-10,000 8,500-10,000
Tuar
Fataka Best-New 8,000-8,200 8,000-8,200
Tuar
Fataka Medium-New 7,500-7,800 7,500-7,800
Tuar
Dal Best Phod-New 7,000-7,300 7,000-7,300
Tuar
Dal Medium phod-New 6,300-6,800 6,300-6,800
Tuar
Gavarani New 5,000-5,100 5,000-5,150
Tuar
Karnataka 5,350-5,450 5,350-5,450
Masoor
dal best 6,000-6,200 6,000-6,200
Masoor
dal medium 5,600-5,800 5,600-5,800
Masoor
n.a. n.a.
Moong
Mogar bold (New) 9,800-10,500 9,800-10,500
Moong
Mogar Medium 8,500-9,500 8,500-9,500
Moong
dal Chilka New 8,150-9,150 8,150-9,050
Moong
Mill quality n.a. n.a.
Moong
Chamki best 8,500-9,500 8,500-9,500
Udid
Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 10,000-11,500 10,000-11,500
Udid
Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG) 8,500-9,200 8,500-9,300
Udid
Dal Black (100 INR/KG) 7,200-7,700 7,200-7,700
Mot
(100 INR/KG) 6,200-7,400 6,000-7,400
Lakhodi
dal (100 INR/kg) 4,900-5,300 4,900-5,300
Watana
Dal (100 INR/KG) 6,500-6,600 6,500-6,600
Watana
Green Best (100 INR/KG) 11,700-12,000 11,700-12,000
Wheat
308 (100 INR/KG) 2,350-2,450 2,350-2,450
Wheat
Mill quality (100 INR/KG) 2,250-2,350 2,250-2,350
Wheat
Filter (100 INR/KG) 2,700-2,800 2,700-2,800
Wheat
Lokwan best (100 INR/KG) 2,700-2,850 2,700-2,850
Wheat
Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,600 2,500-2,600
Lokwan
Hath Binar (100 INR/KG) n.a. n.a.
MP
Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG) 3,600-4,200 3,600-4,200
MP
Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG) 2,800-3,200 2,800-3,200
Rice
Parmal (100 INR/KG) 2,600-2,700 2,600-2,700
Rice
BPT best new (100 INR/KG) 3,200-3,800 3,200-3,800
Rice
BPT medium new(100 INR/KG) 2,900-3,100 2,900-3,100
Rice
BPT New (100INR/KG) 2,700-3,300 2,700-3,300
Rice
Luchai (100 INR/KG) 3,200-3,300 3,200-3,300
Rice
Swarna best new (100 INR/KG) 2,800-3,000 2,800-3,000
Rice
Swarna medium new (100 INR/KG)2,500-2,700 2,500-2,700
Rice
Swarna New (100 INR/KG) 2,400-2,700 2,400-2,700
Rice
HMT best new (100 INR/KG) 4,200-4,500 4,200-4,500
Rice
HMT medium new (100 INR/KG) 4,100-4,200 4,100-4,200
Rice
Shriram best new(100 INR/KG) 5,200-5,700 5,200-5,700
Rice
Shriram med new (100 INR/KG) 4,700-5,100 4,700-5,100
Rice
Shriram New (100 INR/KG) 4,000-4,300 4,000-4,300
Rice
Basmati best (100 INR/KG) 8,500-13,000 8,500-13,000
Rice
Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 5,000-7,500 5,000-7,500
Rice
Chinnor best new 100 INR/KG) 5,900-6,300 5,900-6,300
Rice
Chinnor medium new(100 INR/KG)5,600-5,800 5,600-5,800
Rice
Chinnor New (100 INR/KG) 4,500-4,700 4,500-4,700
Jowar
Gavarani (100 INR/KG) 2,350-2,550 2,350-2,550
Jowar
CH-5 (100 INR/KG) 2,050-2,250 2,050-2,250 WEATHER (NAGPUR) Maximum temp. 30.0
degree Celsius, minimum temp. 13.0 degree Celsius Rainfall : Nil FORECAST:
Mainly clear sky. Maximum and minimum temperature likely to be around 29 degree
Celsius and 12 degree Celsius respectively. Note: n.a.—not available (For oils,
transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but included in market
prices)
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Bracing for global rice
export
During a courtesy visit to Nestle Nigeria Plc.
in Lagos, the Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, revealed that plans
were afoot by the Federal Government to commence export of locally produced
rice in the next two years. Taiwo Hassan reports
Indeed,
the commencement of the Federal Government’s rice policy in the country’s agric
sector by President Muhammadu Buhari has today made the country a leading
producer of rice in Africa following recent statistics released by United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Africa Rice Center.The
statistics showed that Nigeria was now the numero uno in Africa in terms of
rice production with capacity storage of four million tonnes, surpassing Egypt
and Madagascar respectively.
For
stakeholders in rice value chain, attaining the continent’s new position did
not come easily. The success is attributable to hard work, conducive clime and
support of the Federal Government in ensuring that the non-oil sector of the
economy becomes the lead in GDP contribution.
At
the beginning
In
2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the Anchor Borrowers
Programme (ABP) targeted at boosting agric and manufacturing value chains in
line with Federal Government’s economic agenda to improve revenue earnings for
the economy.
Besides,
the timing to aggressively invest in rice cultivation by the present
administration came with challenges because it was the period oil prices at the
international market crashed to all-time low.
That
same year, the CBN launched the ABP in 14 states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger,
Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Zamfara, Adamawa, Plateau, Lagos, Ogun,
Cross-Rivers and Ebonyi for rice and wheat farmers to advance their status from
small holder farmers to commercial or large growers of the commodity.
During
the flag-off in Birni-Kebbi, Kebbi State, the CBN set aside N40 billion out of
the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund (MSMEDF)
for local farmers at single digit interest rate of maximum nine per cent per
annum under the ABP so as to encourage intensive rice production in the
country.
As
history would have it, the country’s rice industry has never been the same
again as the Federal Government’s decision on rice policy gave new vista for
the country’s non-oil sector to overtake the oil sector as the leading revenue
earner to the GDP
However,
in the space of four years, the rebirth of the country’s rice value chain
through the APB has brought recognition to Nigeria at both continental and
global levels with the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organisation
affirming the impact of inclusive growth in rice production under the Buhari’s
administration to ensure food sufficiency in rice production.
Border
closure
Following
the intention to ban rice importation into the country in favour of local rice
production, there has been aggressive move by private sector –led firms to
invest in rice mills in order to boost rice production in the country.
Particularly,
many rice millers have commenced rice cultivation, in line with government’s
rice policy to ensure sufficiency in the country to boost production.
Similarly,
the border closure has also seen hundreds of rice mills spring up, while those
that were moribund are now being activated in many rice-producing states of the
federation. It has been reported that the border closure drastically brought
down rice smuggling, which has affected farmers, processors and investors
positively.
Potential
exporter
To
prove how good the country has gone, during a recent visit to Lagos, the
Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, revealed that locally produced
rice would be exported to other countries in the next two years.
In
fact, this is cheering news for Nigeria as many rice merchants are already
bracing to commence export to neighbouring countries and beyond with the tag
‘Proudly Made in Nigeria.’
According
to Nanono, Federal Government’s move on border closure boosted the productivity
of milling plants in Nigeria, which were formerly operating below capacities.
Affirming
there has been a great improvement in the production of rice in the country, he
said “if we maintain the momentum in the next two years, we may export rice to
other countries. “Nanono also said that the increased production of rice in the
country had stirred the expansion of local rice value chains and pave way for
job creation.
“As
at today, we have 11 rice milling plants with the capacity to produce from 180
tonnes to 350 tonnes of rice per day.
“In
a few months, another mill with a capacity to produce 400 tonnes of rice per
day is going to be opened, with another upcoming 34 smaller mills; then, we
have clusters in different areas,” Nanono disclosed.
Processing
challenges
The
minister also hinted that to avoid challenges in processing, the country would
cultivate rice in a nine-month cycle, stressing that from November to January,
rice is not being grown in Nigeria. He, however, hopes that the cycle will
widen to upscale production.
He
said: “I was worried in terms of the production of rice, but what I have found
out is that most rice producers have stocked rice for the next six months.
“This
means that before the stock is finished, dry season rice will be harvested, and
before that finishes, the rainy season will come back.”
Rice
clusters
He
further noted that local rice farmers were being engaged fully in clusters and
they use between 200 and 300 farmlands directly to achieve the targeted output.
Last
line
With
Federal Government’s projection of rice export in two years’ time, Nigeria is
on the verge of earning more foreign exchange (forex) to boost her revenue
profile. However, despite the ambition, Nigerians are yet to feel adequate
presence of local rice even as the price remains exorbitant where available.
Brazil may start Importing Rice and
Wheat from India after Expressing Interest
Agriculture and Farmer’s welfare
ministers of India and Brazil resolved to strengthen cooperation. Reports
indicate that Brazil may start importing rice and wheat from India after
expressing interest. Ties between the countries strengthened after Brazil’s
President was invited to be Chief Guest at Republic day ceremony in India.
Bilateral
Trade of Rice and wheat
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Minister Narendra Singh Tomar discussed bilateral
trade with Brazilian Agriculture Minister Costa Dias. The official release
after the minister’s meeting of both countries revealed Brazil’s willingness to
import wheat and rice from India. Further, they also discussed interests and opportunities
in agriculture and allied sectors in both countries.
In addition, Dias mentioned that
both countries face similar problems with the large population dependent on
agriculture. She said that Brazil has a large number of small farmers without
market access and lack of innovation and technology. Further, Dias stated that
India will benefit from exporting wheat, rice, millet, and sorghum. Brazil will
make efforts to remove bottlenecks that will boost trade between the two
countries.
Potential of
India and Brazil
Tomar, holding portfolios of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj,
stated that bilateral trade (2018-19) was less than both the country’s
potential. India and Brazil traded for USD 1.045 billion, which does not fully
reflect the strength of both economies. Citing the complementary and synergies
of both countries, Tomar stated the need to encourage more trade.
Discussion on
PDS
The Brazilian delegation also had
an interaction with Ram Vilas Paswan, Union minister of consumer
affairs. Paswan highlighted the political relationship and strategic
partnership of both counties. Further, he mentioned an effective targeted
public distribution system providing subsidized food grains to 800 million
people of the country. Besides, he highlighted ‘one nation one ration card’
scheme that ensures inter-state portability of ration cards.
Access to
Market
Paswan also requested Brazil to
grant access to markets for corn seeds and onions, pending since 2012. However,
India has already provided a market for Brazilian commodities like cotton,
maize, and soybeans. Further, he thanked the Brazilian government on visa-free
travels and MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement. Apart
from this, both countries discussed climate issues and how blending ethanol
with petroleum can help it.
In all, India and Brazil have the
same aspirations and development challenges, and cooperation can help them.
Govt now pushing for rice exports
12:00
AM, January 31, 2020 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:48 AM, January 31, 2020
Announces 15pc cash subsidy
Star Business Report
The government will provide 15 per
cent cash subsidy to rice exporters for the first time in the country’s history
with the view to encouraging shipment of the surplus grain.
Millers, who process rice from
locally grown paddy, will be eligible for the cash subsidy on their earnings
from export, according to a Bangladesh Bank notice yesterday.
“This subsidy will be instrumental
in making locally grown rice competitive in the global market,” said Anup Kumar
Saha, deputy executive director of consumer brands at ACI, which has four
automatic rice mills.
The announcement comes at a time
when the prices of the staple are rising, prompting the food ministry to form
seven committees to monitor the market and stave off unusual price hike.
The teams will visit wholesale
markets in the Dhaka metropolitan area to check prices of rice and flour and
submit reports in this regard, the food ministry said on Wednesday.
The prices of all varieties of rice
have been on the rise since January 26, according to data compiled by the
Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
For instance, the average prices of
coarse rice consumed mainly by low-income people rose 3 per cent to Tk 33.5
each kilogram in the markets of Dhaka from Tk 32.5 a week earlier.
However, the prices still remain
below last year’s levels, according to the state-run TCB.
The cash subsidy has been declared
upon recommendations from the finance and commerce ministries, said a central
bank official.
Earlier, a commerce ministry report
had suggested incentive for rice export against the backdrop of higher
production than local demand in fiscal 2018-19.
Bangladesh had surplus rice of
34.95 lakh tonnes last fiscal year after production hit 3.73 crore tonnes,
according to the report.
Amid the production glut, rice
millers had been demanding export subsidy. But the government imposed 62.50 per
cent import duty in a bid to help farmers offset losses caused by price
decline.
Exporters who want to get the cash
subsidy will have to take prior permission from the commerce ministry and
obtain certificates from the customs department, said the Bangladesh Bank
notice.
Millers using duty-free packaging
materials for rice export will not be entitled to the subsidy.
Banks will have to preserve all
subsidy-related documents for three years so that the BB or other authorities
can verify the export if necessary.
The central bank will debit the
amounts from banks if the subsidy is provided illegally. Stern actions also
will be taken against officials involved in malpractice, according to the
notice.
KM Layek Ali, general secretary of
the Bangladesh Auto Major and Husking Mills Association, welcomed the
government move as exports have become necessary as production now exceeds
demand.
“Due to the subsidy, we will become
competitive in the international market,” he said.
Locally grown rice has so far been
uncompetitive in the international market because of low prices from India, a
leading exporter, according to Saha.
The incentive will encourage
millers to buy paddy, which will also help raise prices at the farm gates, Ali
said, adding that the export subsidy will not lead to abnormal spiral in
prices.
The government had earlier slapped
a ban on the export of parboiled rice but softened the stance last year, when
it gave private operators the go-ahead to ship nearly one lakh tonnes abroad in
the face of falling prices in the local market.
However, the private sector has
long been exporting aromatic rice based on approvals from the commerce
ministry.
The government move will help
increase the overall export earnings that are now witnessing sluggish growth,
the BB official said.
Export earnings fell 5.84 per cent
year-on-year to $19.3 billion in the first six months of the fiscal year.
The receipts between the months of
July and December last year were also 12.77 per cent lower than the half-yearly
target of $22.12 billion, according to data from the Export Promotion
Bureau.
UK
and European Union Finalize 3.5-Year Divorce
LONDON,
UNITED KINGDOM -- Celebrations are underway here after more than three and a
half years since the epochal referendum in June 2016 when UK voters opted to
separate from the European Union (EU). The "Brexit" train ebbed
and flowed throughout that time but experienced a resurgence of support after
Prime Minister Boris Johnson took the helm in July 2019 and helped deliver a
resounding new majority to parliament for the pro-Brexit conservative party in
December 2019.
After
midnight tonight, the world will watch and wait for the UK to publish their
negotiating objectives with both the United States and the EU to determine
where discussions are likely to lead. While a comprehensive deal with the
EU will be the likely priority for the UK, concurrent negotiations with the
U.S. are expected to begin as early as next month.
Late
last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, "We're focused on
trying to get this done this year," in reference to a trade agreement with
the UK. When asked about the ability for the UK to negotiate concurrently
with the EU and the U.S., he said, "there are certain issues that perhaps
they need to resolve with the EU, but there are a lot of issues that can be resolved
simultaneously."
Last
month, the U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer said,
"The U.K. is a priority. As soon as they get their objectives agreed
to, we will start talking."
As a rice miller and consumer, but
not a rice producer, the UK provides a new opportunity for the U.S. rice
industry to gain some ground by providing UK buyers with a quality, consistent,
and price-competitive product outside of the existing 38,000-ton quota for the
broader EU.Mark Holt, chair of the USA Rice European Union Trade Policy
Subcommittee, said, "USA Rice supports the full, existing EU quota for
U.S. rice to remain with the EU, providing an opportunity for duty-free access
into the UK. Brexit finalization has been a long time coming but the real
work is about to start."
He
added, "Following an industry trip there last month, it is evident that
there's demand for our rice, but we also know that trade negotiations are
usually tougher than they seem on the outset. We are prepared to ride
this one out until completion, even if it's beyond 2020."
Food or War? A
look at feast and famine in our quest for peace and sustainability
The foods in
our stores are more bountiful than ever -- but they're also more vulnerable
than ever.
“Food or War”
By Julian Cribb
Cambridge University Press, 350 pages | Buy on Amazon
By Julian Cribb
Cambridge University Press, 350 pages | Buy on Amazon
The world is 9 meals away from anarchy, American journalist Alfred
Henry Lewis noted in 1906, an idea which has been reiterated by numerous
scientists and writers since then.
That still stands true today, though we might not think it. In a
thought-provoking new book, science writer Julian Cribb discusses how important
food is for mankind, and how the availability we often take for granted is much
more vulnerable (and much more vulnerable) than we think.
Julian Cribb is what you might call an extinctologist. As a
science author, he has focussed on some of mankind’s biggest challenges:
climate change, pollution, and food security.
We don’t think about it too much because we take it for granted
nowadays, but food availability has been a constant issue over mankind’s
evolution — even today, billions of people live in food insecurity. Meanwhile,
our supermarkets are brimming with choices but we’re overexploiting resources
at an unprecedented pace — and we can’t keep this up for much longer. Our
eating habits are not sustainable, and the check might be larger than we can
afford to pay.
Famine in the past
Communist regimes and lack of food go hand in hand. It’s hard to
imagine today, but people used to line up for hours at food shops, trying to
get their “allocated ratios” of meat or milk — without any guarantee that there
is enough.
Communist regimes also brought in widespread hunger, resulting in
the starvation of millions. In Soviet USSR, the traditional kulak peasants were
wiped off by Lenin’s regime leaving the country’s agriculture in the hands of
an incompetent and unprepared (but servile) part of the population. Stalin’s
regime only made things worse, ironically completing the destruction of the
food supply that he promised to rebuild. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, Pol Pot’s
bloodthirsty regime managed to completely destroy the seed of native rice —
fortunately, the Rice Research Institute in the Philippines had stored some
varieties.
But nowhere has famine struck with
such severity as China. The fact that there’s a Wikipedia page called ‘List of famines in China‘ is telling, and in the 20th
century alone, famines killed in the tens of millions.
Cribb does an excellent jobs at explaining the causes associated
with these famines, and how they are often tied with bad governance and
recklessness. It’s not just agricultural know-how and seeds — the entire
infrastructure was destroyed by reckless regimes — and, as Cribb warns, we’re
not out of the woods yet. If anything, modern famines could be more devastating
than ever.
Modern hunger
Our modern society relies upon complex, modern supply chains for
food — but this also makes them more vulnerable. How would we cope if they were
to suddenly collapse?
To many people in the western world,
the idea of a conflict based on food seems ludicrous — but food and war are
often intertwined. Even in 1990s Europe, when Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital
Sarajevo was suddenly besieged, the food disappeared almost instantly.
It doesn’t take a catastrophic event to lead to famine. Even
without war or any unforeseen disaster hitting our food production systems, the
rate at which we are using resources is unsustainable, Cribb emphasizes —
backed by a mountain of science.
We’re doing a pretty lousy job when it comes to managing our
resources sustainably.
Even something we almost never think about (soil) is threatened by
our unsustainable consumption. For every meal we consume in the developed
world, between 5 and 10 kilograms of soil are lost, in addition to 800 liters
of freshwater — and that applies to every person and every meal. This, Cribb
writes, makes the human jawbone one of the most destructive forces on the face
of the Earth.
Soil erosion is a naturally occurring process that affects all
landforms, but current agricultural practices mean soil is eroded at a faster
rate than new soil is produced. A rough calculation, we have around 60 years of
topsoil left before we start coming across major problems, Cribb writes.
Water shortage is also an issue.
Water scarcity is even a bigger trigger for war than food scarcity, and most of
not all groundwater aquifers (which are the largest reserve of freshwater on
our planet) are being used unsustainably — which means that they could run out. Farmers are increasing their water usage more and more, which
they can’t truly be faulted for, but without careful water conservation
policies, many parts of the world could face major water shortage within
decades or even years. We are already seeing these effects in major cities
in India and Brazil, for instance.
Pollution and fertilizer usage (which is threatening pollinators
and other vital parts of ecosystems) are two other major issues that must be
approached and improved.
Business-as-usual emissions (including those from agriculture) are
sufficient to raise temperatures by 4-5 °C by 2100 — a temperature at which
many crops will fall globally.
“As we race towards a population
of nine billion, business as usual for farming is no longer a viable option. We
must take a more ecological approach,” argue two agrucultural experts, Nina Moeller
and Michel Pimbert.
A book for a starved planet
Food or War is definitely an enticing book, and one that poses some crucial
and very dark questions. The story invariably ventures into doomsday scenarios,
but as any writing of this type should, it also ends with some proposals for
solutions.
However, some of these solutions are even more depressing than the
rest of the book.
It’s not that the solutions aren’t good, on the contrary. Cribb
offers a very pragmatic and very cynical analysis — one that is almost
certainly correct. But the fact that we don’t know if it’s feasible is outright
depressing.
Cutting down global military expenditure by 20% and generating a
whopping $340bn annually sounds like a great idea. Using that money for
eco-agriculture, environmental projects, education, and novel farming
techniques (particularly in the urban areas) also sounds great. But is this
realistic? Hard to believe. Will politicians allocate this money from other
sources? That’s also questionable.
In many ways, the global food problem — even without the ‘war’
component — seems impossible to solve under the current social and political
context.
We know it is problematic, we know what must be done, but action
is slow or non-existent. We are starving the planet for resources and as a
result, we might eventually starve ourselves.
Transitioning to a sustainable
model will be costly no matter how we look at it. Like many works before, Food
or War concludes that we need to make sustainable changes or
we pay the price.
I’d recommend the book to anyone, regardless of whether or not
they have an interest in agriculture, history, or sustainability. It’s a book
about all of us, written in a time when we are increasingly decoupled from our
food sources and the environmental cost of our meals.
This is not a book that’s easy to read — neither intellectually or
morally. It is complex, and at points, it is very dark. But it is a book that’s
important to read, perhaps now more than ever.
Bent into shape: The rules of tree
form
How do trees find their sense of
direction as they grow? Researchers are getting to the root — and the branches
— of how the grandest of plants develop.
There’s a place in West Virginia where trees grow upside-down.
Branches sprout from their trunks in the ordinary fashion, but then they do an
about-face, curving toward the soil. On a chilly December day, the confused
trees’ bare branches bob and weave in the breeze like slender snakes straining
to touch the ground.
Building Bodies
“It’s really kind of mind-boggling,” says plant molecular
biologist Chris Dardick, waving toward the bizarro plum trees. “They’re
completely messed up.”I’m visiting an orchard at the Appalachian Fruit Research
Station, an outpost of the US Department of Agriculture nestled in the sleepy
Shenandoah Valley. Here, at Dardick’s workplace, the disoriented plums are but
one in an orchard of oddities, their outlines, seasonally stripped of leaves,
standing out in stark relief.
There are trees with branches that shoot straight up, standing to
attention in disciplined rows, with nary a sideways branch. There are trees
with branches that elegantly arch, like woody umbrellas; others with appendages
that lazily wander this way and that.
Dwarf trees crouch, sporting ball-like crowns akin to Truffula
trees. Compact “trees” poke from the ground in clumps of scraggly, knee-high
sticks. Apple trees with some hidden predicaments grow in a greenhouse nearby:
Their roots reach sideways rather than down. The topsy-turvy growth of all of
these trees comes from genetic variations that cause the dialing up, dialing
down or elimination altogether of the activity of key genes controlling plant
architecture.
Understanding these misfits has real-world applications: It could
help grow the next generation of orchards that, densely packed with trees,
produce more fruit while using less land and labor than today. But Dardick is
also trying to answer a fundamental question: How do different trees get their
distinctive shapes? From the towering spires of spruce and fir, the massive
spreading limbs of an oak to the stately arching canopies of an elm, the
skeletal shapes of trees offer signature silhouettes.
Dardick’s work and that of other researchers also could help to
explain how the shapes of individual trees are far from fixed. Trees, much more
than we can, will morph in response to their literal neck of the woods. Limbs
in the shade reach toward spots of sunlight. Trees on windswept hills bend
trunk and branches into gnarled architectures.
The familiar shape of a regular
plum tree (left) is transformed by dialing down the activity of certain plant
architecture genes, leading to plums with erect branches that shoot straight up
(middle) or plums with branches that cascade downward (right).
CREDIT: C. HOLLENDER (LEFT), C.
DARDICK (CENTER AND RIGHT)
Work by breeders, biologists and botanists have revealed sizable
pockets of knowledge about the hormones, genes and processes that yield the
diverse shapes of trees and other plants, between species and within species.
It has not been easy: Two of trees’ most appealing attributes — their long
lives and large sizes — make them intractable research subjects.
But as scientists pursue these questions, commonalities are
emerging between vastly different species. The puzzle of shape diversity and
adaptability turns out to be tied to the fundamentals of being a plant:
grappling with gravity, fighting for sunlight, all while anchored in one place
for a lifetime.
“Plants are stuck. The best they can do is grow toward something,”
says Courtney Hollender, a former postdoc of Dardick’s who now runs her own lab
in the Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
“That’s all they’ve got; they can’t run, they have to adapt to their
environment. And they’ve developed brilliant ways to do it.”
Available at all branches
Scientists have a word for the ability to adapt so readily: plasticity.
In plants, this feature is both obvious and astounding. Most animals are born
in specific shapes then just grow larger, but plants are modular — they grow in
various iterations of two building blocks: shoots and roots.
It is the first of these — where and when a shoot grows or doesn’t
grow — that governs the basic form a tree takes.
Some aspects are hardwired. Leaves emerge in a pattern that is
usually fixed throughout the tree’s life, with structural arrangements that
tend to be shared by members of a given plant family. And shoots emerge where
leaves meet the stem. So, for example, plants in the maple family, which have
leaves set opposite each other, have branches in the same format. Members of
the beech family have leaves, and thus branches, that alternate up the stem.
But the interplay between physiology and external forces also
plays a large part. Take your standard-issue plant with a main central stem
that grows upward and has few side branches. Most plants, from basil to birch,
start out this way, a growth habit that probably evolved because it enables
them to quickly reach the light — more rapidly than the competition. Called
apical dominance (the tip of the plant is the “apex”), this is largely under
the purview of the plant hormone indole acetic acid, also known as auxin. Made
in the tip, auxin diffuses downward and blocks the growth of side branches.
This is why pinching the tips off of basil or geranium makes them
bushy — you are removing the source of that bossy auxin, freeing buds on the
stem’s sides from the prohibition and allowing them to grow. (Though auxin is
mighty, it’s not the only player here. Other plant hormones, along with light
intensity and access to nutrients, also wield power.)
Another related and less-understood phenomenon occurs in some tree
species. Called apical control, it also is imposed by the tip of a tree and
probably also by auxin. But rather than operating at the scale of a branch, it
commandeers the whole dang tree.
Think of a pine. At the top, there’s a pointy tip, then upper
branches that tend to reach skyward. Moving down, the branches become more
horizontal, growing out more than up. But unlike a basil plant, a pine tree
does not become bushy when you lop off the top. Instead, a new bud near the top
grows upward, becoming the new leader. Or an existing branch reorients to grow
up and become the new dominant tip.
These two principles are always in the back of arborists’ minds as
they work. “They have to consider, ‘If we cut a branch here, that bud below is going
to break and we’ll just get a branch in basically the same spot,’” Dardick
says. “All of their rules of what to prune and where are based on these
physiological factors that contribute to tree shape.”
A natural reaction
Physiology also underpins the plastic responses trees have to more
extreme situations they may face. A tree on a high mountain peak or windswept
coast must contend with exposure to mechanical forces that could topple and
kill it. To survive, such trees become short and stocky, their bent, asymmetric
crowns reducing drag and presumably protecting a tree from violent gusts. The
driver is the wind’s very touch — a response now called thigmomorphogenesis
that has been observed for hundreds of years.
How it works is still unclear, but over the past decade
researchers have made some headway. They’re actively studying force-sensing
proteins and processes that may be involved. And recent work suggests an important role for hormones such
as jasmonate, which accumulates in all kinds of plants in response
to damage and mechanical stress. In experiments with a weedy mustard
called Arabidopsis, plants became stunted when researchers bent their leaves back and
forth twice a day. Mutants that couldn’t make jasmonate, though, grew
normally.
Sometimes, wind does more than gust against a tree: It blows the
whole tree over, and that tree, if still rooted, must reorient the growth of
its branches and buds toward the sky. Avalanches, erosion and landslides deal
similar fates. And trees in all sorts of circumstances must grow around
obstacles, away from competitors and toward the light. To get these jobs done,
trees make a special kind of wood called reaction wood.
Trees may become contorted in
challenging physical environments, such as this ridge in the Rocky Mountains.
The touch of wind and other forces prompt physiological responses by the plant
that yield a shorter, stockier stature, gnarled asymmetric shape and the
development of specialized wood. This characteristic tree form is called a
krummholz (German for “crooked wood”).
CREDIT: BRYCE BRADFORD / FLICKR
Hardwoods such as maple, beech, oak and poplar form this tough
stuff (in this case called tension wood) on the upper side of their stems.
Incredibly, it creates a tensile force that pulls the stem upward. “If you walk
around the woods, you can see that most species, if not all species, have this
kind of reaction wood response,” says Andrew Groover, a research geneticist
with the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station in Davis,
California.
The hardwood tree first discerns that it is off-kilter using
specialized gravity-sensing cells. Where these cells reside in trees — the
woody stem? the tip of new shoots? — was unknown until Groover and colleagues
detected them in woody and soft tissues of poplar, a few years back. The cells
contain organelles called statoliths that sink down in the cell and indicate to
the plant that it’s leaning one way or the other. This, in turn, causes that influential auxin to mobilize, triggering the
growth of tension wood on the top. Cellulose with a peculiar
gelatinous layer is thought to act as the “muscle” that generates the
pulling-up force.
In this experiment, young, potted
poplar trees were placed sideways to investigate the
plants’ gravity-sensing machinery. The poplar in this time-lapse movie,
taken over two weeks, responded to being tipped on its side by reorienting its
growth upward. The plant hormone auxin is key to this response. Mutants that
cannot respond appropriately to auxin’s signaling instructions do not right
themselves this way. (This particular poplar also received a dose of a chemical
called gibberellic acid that interacts with auxin, so that scientists could
learn more about its role.)
CREDIT: ANDREW GROOVER AND
SUZANNE GERTTULA, US FOREST SERVICE, PACIFIC SOUTHWEST RESEARCH STATION DAVIS
CA
When genes defy gravity
Much of the knowledge about the architecture of plants is rooted
in millennia of human efforts to alter crop shapes to make them more suitable
for cultivation, and modern science is now revealing the genetic changes that
lie behind these creations. The lessons, it turns out, apply broadly across the
plant kingdom, to herbaceous and woody species alike.
It is hard to overstate the importance to human history of some of
these plant-shape changes, says plant molecular geneticist Jiayang Li,
who details some of their genetic
underpinnings in the Annual Review of Plant Biology. A classic example is the transformation of the ancestor of corn
(maize) into a key staple crop for much of the world. It arose from a species
of the Central American grasses called teosintes — bushy plants with many
branches. Domestication, among other things, abolished that branching, yielding
the single-stalked upright corn we plant today.
Similarly, explains Li, who works at the Chinese Academy of
Sciences’ Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, the green revolution
of the 20th century ushered in compact, dwarf varieties of wheat and
rice. By modifying the height and
thickness of the stems of these grasses, breeders developed varieties that
could carry more grain without toppling over in wind and rain.
Much of Li’s own research has focused on architectural variation
in rice, although the work turns out to have implications for the architecture
of plants in general, from lowly mosses to towering trees. Like other grasses,
rice grows shoots called tillers — specialized, grain-bearing branches that
emerge from the base. In cultivated rice, the angle at which these tillers grow
varies widely: Some varieties are squat and wide-spreading, others have shoots
that are more upright. Breeders are interested in altering tiller angle because
upright plants can be grown more densely, giving farmers more bang for their
acreage.
In a key advance, in 2007, a team including Li reported
they’d discovered the genetic cause of the
spread-out architecture trait. The scientists named the responsible
gene TAC1, short for “tiller angle control.” A functional TAC1 gene increases rice’s tiller
angle, leading to open, widely branching plants. Mutations in TAC1 lead to the opposite: plants
with erect shoots that reach up, instead of out.
That same year, Li’s team and a group in Japan both reported another major
achievement: finding a long-sought gene behind a curious trait in some rice
varieties that gives plant branches a scruffy, lounging look. The trait, known
as “lazy,” had intrigued plant breeders and geneticists since the 1930s, when
researchers described its extreme manifestation in corn: “The lazy plants grow along the
ground, following the unevenness of the surface.”
In ordinary rice (left), the
hormone auxin helps to tell the plant which direction is up. Auxin transport
within the plant goes awry when a gene called LAZY malfunctions, leading to
confused plants with sprawling branches (right).
CREDIT: B. WANG ET AL / AR PLANT BIOLOGY 2018
The cause, it turns out, was errors in a gene that normally makes
branches shoot straight up. Li and his colleagues surveyed some 30,000 mutant rice plants to pin down that
gene, now called LAZY (names of genes, confusingly, often refer to what happens
when a gene is mutated and doesn’t work, rather than when it is functioning
properly). And they provided convincing evidence for an idea batted around for
decades — that lazy plants have muddled perceptions of gravity and that auxin
is centrally involved.
A common test for whether a plant’s gravity-perception machinery
is working is to lay the plant on its side. If it knows up from down, it won’t
continue to grow sideways, but will start to grow up again, akin to the
reaction-wood response of a toppled tree’s branches. An important step in this
reorienting involves auxin pooling on the bottom side of the shoot. But in lazy
mutants, proteins that help ferry auxin around the plant are malfunctioning, so
instead of shoots growing in the correct direction, they’re prone to casually
sprawl about.
Scientists now know that LAZY genes come in multiple versions. Some appear to operate in
plant roots, telling them which way is down, probably using similar,
auxin-related signals. If those genes are absent or inactive, confused roots
grow upward. And though the genes were first found in monocots, a branch of the
plant kingdom including rice and corn, researchers now know that LAZY genes exist in numerous
plants, including the plums growing in the fruit research station in West Virginia.
A lazy mutant of corn (left)
compared with normal corn (right). Such corn mutants were described nearly 100
years ago, but it took 21st century molecular biology to nail down the growth
habit’s cause: genetic malfunctions that meddle with responses to gravity.
CREDIT: T.P. HOWARD III ET AL / PLOS ONE 2014
Reaching upward and outwards
As our boots crunch along the uneven ground, Dardick points at an
errant orchard cat watching our tree tour from a distance. One row of trees
stands so upright that a fencepost at the end of it is enough to block the row
from view. These regimented trees are “pillar” peaches, and they are favorites
of landscapers (one reason: it’s easy to get around them with a lawnmower).
They also were key to uncovering genes like LAZY and TAC1 at the Shenandoah Valley
station.
By comparing ordinary peaches to pillar peaches, and drawing on
decades of work by former lead scientist Ralph Scorza, a team of station
scientists and others in the US and Germany discovered the cause of the pillar
trait: mutations in the peach version
of TAC1.
Many of the strange plant
architectures under investigation existed as naturally occurring varieties that
were developed by breeders for ornamental gardens or orchards; only recently
have the genes underlying these forms been identified. It’s now known that the
upright growth habit of the pillar peach (center), available commercially under
the name “Crimson Rocket,” results from mutations in a gene that
helps plants branch outward.
CREDIT: C. DARDICK
The team also found that LAZY was at work in many of their misfits. Just as with the corn
plants described nearly 100 years ago, mutations in LAZY made plums grow topsy-turvy,
their branches seeking the soil. Apple trees with LAZY mutations have similarly
disoriented roots. And when multiple copies of LAZY genes malfunction in the
weed Arabidopsis, its roots grow up, its shoots down.
In the last decade, researchers have found that TAC1 influences branch angle in
plums, poplar trees, the grass Miscanthus and Arabidopsis, and it appears to affect leaf angle in corn. But LAZY genes have even deeper roots.
They’re found in all manner of plants, including the evolutionarily older Loblolly
pine and even more ancient mosses.
This finding suggests a very old role for LAZY: It may have allowed plants to
grow up, literally, when they first colonized land. Plants got their start in
water. There, rootless and leafless, they were buoyed, unconcerned with
gravity. The transition to land spurred the development of proper roots and
stems, and plants then had to figure out up from down. LAZY seems to have allowed plants
to orient their above-ground growth away from gravity and up toward the sun.
Scientists think that TAC1 evolved somewhat later, providing a counterpoint to LAZY — ensuring that branches
don’t only grow straight up, but also reach out. Together, these genes
laid critical groundwork for the diversity of plant forms we see today, all
seeking sustenance in their own ways.
“Once you start to grow up as a vascular plant, you need to
maximize your resources, you need to capture as much sun as possible,” says
Hollender, who has been working on yet another gene, called WEEP, that — when nonfunctional — lends
plants a weeping, waterfall-like structure seen here and there in trees of
ornamental gardens. (But it’s probably not responsible for the shape of weeping
willow trees.) “Modifying your shoot angles is an important adaptive trait for plants
that allows them to capture light. It’s essential for them to survive.”
This kind of research has broad economic implications. Fruit and
nut trees bring $25 billion annually in the US alone and there are hefty costs
associated with pruning, bending and tying branches; spraying hormones; and the
manual labor of picking fruit from an unruly cacophony of limbs. Understanding
the genetic controls behind tree architecture could help scientists breed trees
that make the whole fruit-farming enterprise more efficient and environmentally
friendly.
“Orchard systems are not the most sustainable in the world,”
Dardick says. “The idea is, if we can modify tree architecture, if we could
reduce their size and limit the amount of area they take up, then we could
plant them at higher density and potentially increase their sustainability.”
And there may be odder outcomes than friendlier outdoor orchards:
In collaboration with NASA, the USDA team is investigating genetic tweaks that
might even help bring fruit to space. On that
December day, Dardick takes me to a greenhouse tucked in a corner of the lab.
In it are plum and apple trees whose shape is so transformed that they look
more like the love children of shrubs and vines. This strange growth habit is a
side-effect of efforts to breed plants that flower and make fruit sooner and
then do so continuously, rather than flowering after growing for several years,
and then only in the spring.
The genetic tweaks that sent the trees’ developmental program into
overdrive have also transformed their architecture. In the
greenhouse, these precocious “trees” sprawl, draping lazily along wire
trellises, happily flowering and heavy with fruit. “They’re growing almost like
tomatoes,” Dardick says. “So we’re broaching the concept of, can we bring an
orchard indoors?”
The strange, vine-like growth of
this plum results when a gene controlling the timing of flower development
malfunctions. Such unusually shaped “trees” may facilitate
indoor “orchards” that produce fruit many months of the year.
CREDIT: C. SRINIVASAN
Those ambitions aside, Dardick has his hands full trying to answer
numerous basic-science questions about how trees do what they do. Researchers
still don’t know how different tree species set the angles of their branches —
going wide like an oak, or arching like an elm. They don’t know how trees alter
those angles during the course of mature growth, as branches sprout from
branches sprouted from branches, until some of them finally point down. Trees
are both kindred and foreign to us, their various forms so familiar, but their
architectural rules still in so many ways opaque.
“I find myself looking at trees all
the time now in a new way; they fill space so beautifully and efficiently,”
Dardick says. “They are the biggest organism we have that’s visible, that’s in
our face all the time. But there’s so much we don’t know.”
10.1146/knowable-013120-1
Border Closure: Panacea For Rice Production,
Rice Processing
on February 1, 2020
By
TUNDE OGUNTOLA writes on the renewed commitment to change the narratives in
rice production and processing in the country as Darma Rice Mill projected to
bridge the mechanisation gap in rice production in the country.
Nigeria is the most populous
country in Africa, as of 2019, the estimated population of the country is over
200 million. The nation’s domestic economy is dominated by agriculture, which
accounts for about 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and two-thirds of
the labour force. Agriculture supplies food, raw materials and generates
household income for the majority of the people. The external sector is
dominated by petroleum, which generates about 95 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign
exchange earnings while agriculture contributes less than 10 per cent.
Sadly, squealing to the discovery
of petroleum, Nigeria has rapidly grown into a major food-importing nation as
the government has become neglectful of the agricultural sector since petroleum
is considered a more viable resource for economic development.
Preoccupied with the challenge of
diversifying the structure of its economy and its desire to boost local
production of rice considering its investment in the agriculture sector, the
President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government on 22 August, 2019 closed its
land borders aimed at plugging leakages and helping the economy by checkmating
smuggling and unbridled importation, conserving foreign reserves and boosting
local production, necessary for food sufficiency and the long march towards
industrialization.
This is even as the federal
government noted that since ongoing border drill in four geo-political zones of
the country the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) now generates between N5 and N8
billion daily and has recorded over 30 per cent increase in revenue since the
drill and has drastically curtailed the inflow of arms and ammunition.
The exercise, code-named, ‘Ex-Swift
Response’, was launched, as part of measures to secure Nigeria’s land and
maritime borders, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and Nigerian Immigration
Service (NIS), in collaboration with the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) as well
as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and other security and intelligence agencies
commenced the joint border security exercise, in four geopolitical zones of the
country, namely; South-South, South-West, North-Central and North-West on the
20 August, 2019. The exercise is being coordinated by the Office of the
National Security Adviser (ONSA) and is aimed at better securing our borders to
strengthen the nation’s economy and address other trans-border security
concerns.
The food sub-sector of Nigerian
agriculture parades a large array of staple crops, made possible by the
diversity of agro-ecological production systems. The major food crops are:
cereals – sorghum, maize, millet, rice, wheat; tubers – yam, cassava; legumes –
groundnut, cowpeas and others such as vegetables
These are the commodities that are
of considerable importance for food security, expenditures, and incomes of
households. But of all the staple crops, rice has risen to a position of
preheminence. Since the mid-1970s, rice consumption in Nigeria has risen
tremendously, at about 10 per cent per annum due to changing consumer
preferences. Domestic production has never been able to meet the demand,
leading to considerable imports as the country consumes almost 7 million tonnes
a year. The imports are procured on the world market with Nigeria spending
annually an average of US $22 billion (₦7.92trn) each year on food imports.
However, Nigeria’s rice statistics
suggest that there is an enormous potential to raise productivity and increase
production. Yields have remained at 2 tonnes per hectare, and as population
increases, along with rural to urban migration, ensuring food security in key
staples becomes critical. But, it has become evidently clear that food security
cannot be achieved by a system that depends almost entirely on human muscle
power and other manual methods.
As of September 2019, the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has spent N146 billion to support 849,480 wet and
dry seasons rice farmers across the country. The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin
Emefiele, gave the details at a meeting with some state Governors in Abuja said
that the bank was working with other stakeholders to wage war against smuggling
of rice into the country.
As the country continues to take
steps to ramp up domestic production in rice production and as part of efforts
to bridge its mechanisation gap in the country and to complement the effort of
federal government, the chairman of Max Air, Alhaji Dahiru Mangal is building a
₦20 billion worth rice mill in Kastina state aimed at revolutionalising rice
production in the country.
With the renewed commitment of the
federal government in direct response to the mechanisation gap in the country
and also to complement the federal government’s effort, Darma Rice rice mill is
projected to be the biggest in Africa.
The rice mill project LEADERSHIP
Weekend gathered will be divided into two phases, and would be completed by the
first quarter of 2020, and is aimed at assisting the country to meet the
domestic demand for high quality parboiled rice and attain self-sufficiency in
rice production.
The project manager, Mr. Mukhtar
Kafinsoli said that with a production capacity of 36 tonnes per hour in two
production lines, the mill would be the largest rice mill in Africa.
While speaking with LEADERSHIP
Weekend added that the second line of the mill comprises of silos and raw
materials store, stressing that the plan is to have four capacity, but they are
starting with two at the moment.
Kafinsoli: ‘’We intended to have
four capacity starting with two. We will start the second batch immediately
after completing the ongoing project. The machines arrived Nigeria by 25
December, 2019 and the project will be completed by March 2020.’’
Meanwhile, the managing director of
the Rice Mill, Dr. Nural Dahiru Mangal, said that over 2000 direct staff would
be employed, along with over 200 expatriates who are going to train the
indigenous staff. He revealed that the rice mill would have a conventional
storage facility of 12,00 metric tonnes of rice worth N20 billion. Mangal added
that fertilizer plant would equally be built to help increase the yield of
rice.
According to him, ‘’The rice mill
was designed by Indians due to their expertise in rice mill business but is
being built by Nigerians. We will give it maximum support for the project to be
achieved.
‘’The government has long been
concerned that its people are too focused on importing the things they want,
and they are using their money to support foreign countries, instead of
home-grown goods and Darma is here to change the narratives.”
He said the welfare of its staff
remains paramount hence, staff quarters will be built to accommodate 130
staffers.
“A story building will be built for
staff quarters with the capacity to accommodate 130 staff. Also, a staff
quarter that will accommodate over 200 expatriates with staff canteens would
also be built,” he said.
He said with Darma rice mill
projected to be the biggest rice mill in Africa, the much-expected rice
revolution in the country is about to begin.
‘’Food is no doubt, the most basic
of all human survival needs. Although, so many efforts have been sunk in
improving the quality as well as production but failed. Economists both locally
and internationally have severally pointed out that Nigeria’s economic output
is underperforming, but we are here to change the narratives,’’ he added.
LifeStyle Matters: All rice is not the same
Friday, January 31st 2020
In this episode of LifeStyle Matters, show host
Marilyn Moore talks with Tawnie Graham about the different kinds of rice and
the benefits of each.
FRESNO,
Calif. (FOX26) — In this episode of LifeStyle Matters, show host
Marilyn Moore talks with Tawnie Graham about the different kinds of rice and
the benefits of each.
Tawnie is a Registered Dietitian
from krollskorner.com and a regular guest on FOX26, where she prepares
delicious and healthy dishes in the Great Day Kitchen.
Click here to follow Tawnie on Facebook.
In this episode of LifeStyle Matters, show host Marilyn Moore
talks with Tawnie Graham about the different kinds of rice and the benefits of
each.
Thwarting Smugglers Leave Nigerians Counting Costs of Stony Rice
Tope Alake, Ruth Olurounbi and Anthony Osae-Brown
BloombergJanuary 31, 2020
(Bloomberg) -- In Adeola
Adejare’s market store in Lagos, two teenage boys separate stones from Nigerian
rice, preparing it for sale after the government closed land borders and
stemmed the flow of cheap, smuggled grains.
“Most people cannot afford to
buy” even the least costly local variety, said Adejare, a trader in Daleko, the
largest rice market in the country’s financial hub. Sales have plummeted by
90%, with the 47-year-old now considering herself lucky to sell two 50-kilogram
bags a day.
In a drastic effort to boost
domestic production and stem widespread rice smuggling, Nigeria closed its
crossings with Benin and Niger five months ago. Since then, it’s been a
bittersweet experience for locals in the world’s second-biggest buyer of the
white grain.
While some farmers have made
fortunes taking advantage of the elimination of cheap foreign competition, prices
of the Nigerian staple -- used to make delicacies such as jollof rice -- have
soared by at least 70% in that period, according to traders. Many also complain
about the shoddy condition of some local grain.
Rotten Rice
Adejare’s hired help have to
clean the cheapest produce to make it edible. “Our experiences range from
receiving wet, rotten rice from the north, some of it turning black within two
to three weeks,” she said. “Some are so stone-filled.”
Once a major agriculture
exporter, Africa’s largest oil producer has long depended on imports after
successive administrations since independence in 1960 allowed farming to
languish following the discovery of crude. Easy oil money flowed into
government coffers --though much was either pilfered or squandered by military
dictatorships and democratically elected leaders.
President Muhammadu Buhari -- a
77-year-old austere former general who was elected for a second term last year
-- is attempting to promote self-reliance and wean Nigeria off its dependence
on oil and foreign goods.
His measures have been severe.
Along with imposing restrictions on the use of foreign currency for imports,
Buhari first ordered the partial closure of Nigeria’s border with Benin in
August to halt smuggling that undercut the price of locally produced rice. In
October, his administration further restricted trade of all goods over land
crossings with Benin and Niger.
‘Short-Changed’
Part of the problem with relying
on domestic rice is Nigeria’s lack of widespread industrial farming. Costs are
further pushed up by woeful infrastructure that delays produce reaching the
market.
With supply constricted, food
inflation reached almost 15% in December, a 20-month high, hitting a population
of about 200 million people who spend almost two-thirds of their income on
food, according to Lagos-based SBM Intelligence.
The increase has affected many
families, with 44% now unable to afford nutritious food, the Nigerian
statistics agency said in its latest household survey published in December.
“Rice is one of the most consumed
staples in the country and issues around pricing and quality affect the common
man,” said Michael Famoroti, a partner at Lagos-based Stears Business. “People
are being short-changed in an already tough economy.”
While the government has begun
talks with the neighboring states, it has yet to find a way to stem smuggling
if land trade resumes. Buhari told journalists in London last week that his
administration has no plans to reopen the borders until a committee established
to consider the issue releases a report. A spokesman for the president declined
to comment further.
On Tuesday, Agriculture and Rural
Development Minister Muhammad Sabo Nanono said in a statement that Nigeria
would become a rice exporter by 2021 thanks to the border closures “if we
maintain the momentum.”
Boosted Production
Despite widespread discontent
over rising prices, many Nigerian farmers are happy with Buhari’s tough stance.
Estimates of Nigeria’s grain
supply and demand vary wildly -- though they point to Buhari’s measures
boosting domestic cultivation. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
shows the country’s milled rice production increased by 24% since 2015 to reach
4.9 million tons this year, leaving a near 2-million ton deficit.
The ban has improved the
confidence of planters and expected output for this year is 13 million tons,
said Muhammad Sahabi Augie, chairman of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria
in the northwestern state of Kebbi.
Two Day-long Kisan Mela concludes in Morigaon
January
31, 2020 11:30 am
MORIGAON: A two-day long Kisan Mela concluded on Thursday at
Bhakatgaon in Morigaon. In the Kisan Mela, various organizations took part.
Among them, the Grant Thornton led by Pradeep Bhuyan, in association with the
members of AAPIAM, Morigaon, participated in the mela. The initiative was taken
under the banner of Grant Thornton and AAPIAM. The products showcased were from
food processing sector, rice millers and dairy processors.
Navy seizes 2,053 bags of rice smuggled into Akwa Ibom
ON JANUARY 30, 20206:14 PMIN NEWS Kindly Share
A vehicle with smuggled foreign rice.
By Chioma Onuegbu – Uyo The Nigerian Navy, Forward Operating
Base, FOB, Ibaka, in Mbo local government area of Akwa Ibom State, has arrested
13 suspects and seized 2,053 bags of rice they smuggled into the state. The
Commanding Officer, FOB, Captain Peter Yilme disclosed this while handing over
the suspects and 50kg bags of rice to the Deputy Superintendent of Nigeria
Customs Service (NCS) Garba Hassan. Yilme who was represented by the Base
Operations Officer, 
Lieutenant Commander
Kabiru Yusuf, said the suspects were arrested on 26th and 29th January 2020 at
respectively at the Unyenge Creek area in Mbo local government area, during a
routine patrol by Navy gunboats. He expressed worries over the unrelenting
drive of the smugglers, noting that the recent arrests were made just three
days after 5 suspects and 98 bags of rice were handed over to the NCS.
Lieutenant Commander
Kabiru Yusuf, said the suspects were arrested on 26th and 29th January 2020 at
respectively at the Unyenge Creek area in Mbo local government area, during a
routine patrol by Navy gunboats. He expressed worries over the unrelenting
drive of the smugglers, noting that the recent arrests were made just three
days after 5 suspects and 98 bags of rice were handed over to the NCS.
Navy seizes 3,378 bags of smuggled rice in Akwa Ibom He
reassured that the base will not relent in putting an end to illegalities on
the waterways, and warned the rice smugglers to desist from the illicit act.
His words, “On behalf of the Commanding Officer, FOB, Ibaka, I hand over 2 053
bags of seized rice and 13 suspects to the Nigeria Customs Service. “The arrest
brings to fore the unrelenting drive of the smugglers to continue their illicit
acts. Nevertheless, the Base will not relent in ridding the waterways of all
forms of criminal activities in order for legitimate economic activities to
strive. “Smugglers are advised to turn a new leaf and embrace legitimate
business activities. FOB, Ibaka appreciates once again, the provision of
necessary logistics to the Base by the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral
Ibok Ete Ibas. “Additionally, the Base would not be achieving its operational
mandate if not for the support and encouragement accorded her by the FOC
Eastern Naval Command, Rear Admiral David Adeniran”.
Babytalk: We need to talk about arsenic levels found in children's
rice products
Download 10.55 MB
We don't mean to alarm you but
researchers from Melbourne's RMIT University have found some riced based
products for children found in Australian supermarkets contain arsenic at
levels above European safety guidelines. While obviously this is not great
news, most children will be fine if they eat regular amounts of rice based
products.
Families most at risk will
include children whose diets are very high in rice based products.. this will
include children with gluten intolerance, coeliac disease or allergies, where
rice is a substitute for another ingredient.. like rice milk, rice pasta, rice
milk formula or rice cereal. If this is what your child's diet is filled with
rice substituting for other food products you can imagine how the rice levels
consumed could be quite high.
But how does arsenic get into
rice products? Are products made from Australian rice safer? (Actually Chinese
rice products have been found to have the lowest levels of arsenic.) And what
are the safe levels for rice products eaten by babies and children.
In this week's Babytalk podcast
you'll hear from Senior Researcher Associate Professor Suzie Reichman an
environmental toxicologist at RMIT University. She'll explain how the research
was conducted, how the findings might inform some food choices for your family
and raise the question on why Australia does not have safety standards around
arsenic that are specific for children
Bioseed to
launch 4-5 hybrids each year
M
Somasekhar Hyderabad | Updated on January 31,
2020 Published on January 31, 2020
Dr
Paresh Verma, Executive Director & Chief Executive- Bioseed S-E Asia &
Research Director- BRI
Bioseed,
the hybrid seeds business of DCM Shriram, plans to launch four to five new
hybrid seeds every year with focus on vegetable hybrids, while strengthening
corn and rice, the main drivers.
Eggplant,
tomato, bitter gourd and watermelon are some of the products in the pipeline.
The company will invest more on bioinformatics and molecular breeding
capabilities as it diversifies into newer crops.
At
present, it is strong in corn, cotton, hybrid rice and select vegetables with
its R&D lab in Hyderabad driving its developments, says Paresh Verma,
Executive Director & Chief Executive, Bioseed South East Asia, and Research
Director BRI.
With
the changing consumption patterns the share of vegetables is growing. Hybrid
technology helps in making tailor-made changes in the produce and improve
farmer incomes, he told BusinessLine.
The
DCM Shriram group set up the biotech lab at the ICRISAT about 12 years ago.
Today, it is among the best, fully-equipped and is being constantly upgraded.
It has 20-25 researchers. It provides expertise across R&D, field and lab
testing, data analytics, seed production, and farm extension, among others.
Overall, the company has about 75 scientists, including 25 breeders and 30-35
agronomists.
DCM
Shriram took over Bioseed in 2002 and since then they have expanded operations
to many countries. It strengthened its operations in the Philippines, Vietnam
and Thailand recently.
Dr
Sharad Sharma, Executive Director& Chief Executive- Bioseed South As
To
accelerate its growth, Shriram Bioseed and KeyGene entered into a multi-year
strategic co-development research program for development of improved rice
hybrids last year.
According
to the agreement, KeyGene’s platforms will be exploited to boost important
traits like higher yields, tolerance to abiotic stresses and better grain
quality in Bioseed’s elite rice germplasm.
The
partners agreed to make joint investments and push the growth of hybrid rice
markets in India and South East Asian markets.
At
the Hyderabad laboratory, scientists use biotechnology to build resistance
traits into crops by marrying appropriate strains of seeds. These experiments
undergo vigorous testing, first in sterile conditions in laboratories, and then
in breeding stations that simulate farming conditions, Paresh explained.
On
an average, the gestation period of each Bioseed project is seven to 10 years,
from experiments in the laboratory to observation in the fields to
commercialisation.
The
company has breeding stations in Bengaluru, Aurangabad, Alwar, Faizabad and
Hissar. The main crops include cotton, rice, wheat, paddy, mustard, tomato, and
chilli.
A
strong distribution network also enables Bioseed to provide quality seeds to
farmers across South and South East Asia. It uses biotechnology-based solutions
for the benefit of countries with similar climatic and soil conditions, he
added
“Bioseed
is registering stable growth in all verticals in India except cotton seed
business, which continues to suffer because of the government’s policy towards
introduction of new technologies and price controls. Internationally, the
Philippines is registering consistent growth,” according to its latest
quarterly performance.
Study: The difference between helping, hurting male allies
Being a male ally in the
workplace can help female peers feel supported and empowered, but occasionally
can have a negative effect, according to a study from
Houston-based Rice University.
Interested in how men play a role
in combating sexism at work, Rice Associate Professor Eden King, PhD, surveyed
100 women varying in age, work experience and ethnicity about their experiences
with male allies.
The researchers identified
helpful behaviors of a male ally, which include listening to female peers;
suggesting women for promotions, projects and raises; and speaking up if they
witness bad behavior.
Survey respondents said allyship
can sometimes be ineffective when it has no effect on workplace culture or even
causes backlash. A few respondents described unwanted allyship, when a man
intervenes for a woman who doesn't need help, which can leave women feeling
less confident.
"While we found that allies
can have a very positive impact, we encourage these individuals to confer with
their female colleagues to see if help is wanted or needed," Dr. King said
in a press release. "If the answer is yes, then allies should keep doing
what they are doing. If the answer is no, they should respect that."
Young law graduate in Indonesia finds
a simple farmer's life a happy life
Miftahul
said he chose to become a farmer to help sustain the country's food production
and prevent land from being developed into a sea of buildings.
PHOTO: The
Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
It was early afternoon and the sun
was no longer boiling hot when Miftahul Abdurrakman, 30, started clearing weeds
from his rice field.
Using a lawn mower, he cut the
weeds that grew among his 13-day-old rice plants but left the debris there to
decompose, thus providing extra organic fertiliser for his crops.
Miftahul implements a semi-organic
farming method, meaning he uses only a small amount of pesticide to help the
plants grow in their early stages. The rest of the time he uses homemade
organic fertiliser.
A graduate of Indonesian Islamic
University's (UII) School of Law, Miftahul has for the last three years earned
a living as a farmer, an occupation that not many youths in Indonesia want to
pursue.
The results of a 2018 survey
released by the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) revealed that only 191,000 out of
some 2.7 millions family heads aged between 25 and 34 years earn a living from
farming. In total, there are 33.5 million farmers across the country.
He said his ancestors, including
his parents, were all farmers. Yet, of the four siblings in his parents' family,
he alone has decided to take up the line of work.
Unlike his ancestors, who used
traditional farming methods, Miftahul is a modern farmer and has pioneered the
implementation of agricultural mechanisation in his village of Timbulharjo in
Sewon district, Bantul regency, Yogyakarta.
"There are currently at least
five other young farmers in my village who also implement agricultural
mechanisation," he said, referring to the use of machinery in agriculture
such as lawn mowers and other equipment.
READ
ALSO
Miftahul is one of only a handful
of farmers who do not have their own land but are confident that agriculture
can be a promising livelihood.
With the help of a worker, he
cultivates 10,000 square metres of land that he rents, of which 9,000 square
metres is used to grow rice while the rest is used to breed catfish.
With the use of agricultural
machinery, he can control his expenses and overcome the difficulties of finding
workers.
To earn more profit, Miftahul does
not sell his harvests unhusked but instead mills the rice first on his own
before selling his produce online through social media.
"I can sell a kilogram of rice
for between Rp 11,000 (S$1.10) and Rp 12,000, higher than the market price of
around Rp 8,500 per kg," he said.
He added that with the use of
machinery, from 1 hectare he could harvest 3 tons of unhusked rice every 85
days. If the rice is sold for Rp 11,000 per kg, he said, he could earn Rp 9
million per harvest.
"I have no rice left at the
moment. It's all sold out," he said, adding that put all the money he
earned from rice into savings. To support his daily expenses, he uses the
revenue from his catfish sales, which he harvests once every two weeks.
READ
ALSO
"I'm happy living as
a farmer. I can support my family and save money for my children's school
fees."
He expressed confidence that many
other youths would become interested in farming if the government created good
market conditions for agricultural produce, such as by buying all unhusked rice
produced by farmers and ending rice imports.
"Unfortunately, rice is still a very political product. If
the price increases just a bit, it will promptly be decreased by importing rice
to prevent chaos," explained Miftahul.
Agricultural Innovation Partnership announces projects
The
Agricultural Utilization Research Institute recently announced the projects
selected for the third installment of its Agricultural Innovation Partnership
program.
The
selected projects align with AURI’s core focus areas: biobased products,
renewable energy, coproducts and food. Each project furthers AURI’s mission to
foster long-term economic benefit through value-added agricultural products.
The projects will receive funding from AURI, plus additional support and
guidance to help capitalize on these ideas to catalyze innovation.
The
2019 AIP selections are:
Food
waste
Packaging
Technology & Research will map out the food loss and waste value chains for
select Minnesota agricultural products from farm to end of retail. Through this
work PTR aims to provide insights to add value to ag processing waste streams
through diversion from landfills, including new processing and product
solutions, innovative supply chain solutions to decrease food loss, novel
sustainable packaging solutions and innovative system solutions to help reduce
food waste.
Shelf
life
Minnesota
food entrepreneurs bring many new products to market each year. These
entrepreneurs often turn to AURI for guidance and frequently inquire about
product shelf life. Through this project, AURI will work with Minneapolis-based
Clutch Business Accelerator to create a shelf life primer, enabling food
entrepreneurs with the science behind and supply chain ramifications of
defining a food product’s shelf life.
Wild
rice
Minnesota
is one of the world’s largest suppliers of cultivated wild rice. Producers are increasingly
looking for ways to blend wild rice into new products as a way to expand market
share. In partnership with the Minnesota Wild Rice Council, this project will
conduct a Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score evaluation on wild
rice. PDCAAS is the industry standard and preferred method for measuring the
protein quality of a food product, an important attribute in defining the
product’s impact on human nutrition. Additionally, this project will measure
the relative impact of a wild-rice rich diet, relative to other diets. This
will help position cultivated wild rice as a key ingredient in new food uses
ranging from nutrition/protein bars to gluten free flours/pastas, as well as a
gateway to plant-based ingredient alternatives.
Through
the AIP program, AURI provides expertise and oversight to assist entrepreneurs
in finding diverse funding sources to advance ideas; support communicating and
managing project activities; aid in monitoring progress and reporting against
goals; and tracking and reporting initiative impacts.
In
addition, all AIP projects are intended for public consumption and AURI will
share the information generated through the program to help producers,
entrepreneurs, businesses and agricultural processors explore opportunities and
technologies. Past research through the program has produced applied research
studies, as well as guides and tools to help businesses utilizing the state’s
agricultural products.
AURI
considers proposals spanning the value-added agricultural sector and encourages
new and returning applicants to submit ideas to its AIP program next year.
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