You May Find
Salt-Tolerant Rice Growing In The Ocean By 2021
Artistic rendering of floating
ocean farms designed by Agrisea. Farms would be 0-200km from shore
Growing
rice in the ocean sounds a little whacky, but ocean agriculture is an emerging
form of food production that could have some real potential. Less than 1% of
fresh water is available for human use, and 70% of that is
used for agriculture worldwide. Increased demand for food and exploding
population levels are pushing innovators to explore areas where agriculture has
never gone before. One crop taking to the sea is rice. A company started by two
24-year-old scientists want to produce salt-tolerant rice and floating ocean
farms by 2021, with small pilot farms by the end of 2020.
With
7.7 billion people currently living on the planet, and an expected 2 billion more
joining the ranks by 2050, having enough food available is important, and some
companies are finding solutions to environmental problems, such as sea level
rise, through scientific innovation. Traditional agriculture requires many
inputs; fertilizer, specific chemicals, manual labor and water. Most of the
water used in agriculture is for irrigation, and some crops require more water
to grow than others. Rice is one of the most water-intensive crops, and also
one of the most widely consumed worldwide.
Grown
in over 100 countries, rice makes quite an impact for such a humble little
grain. Over 700 million tons is produced each year, with more than 90% of that
production in Asia alone. 3.5 billion people rely on rice every day, and with
such an enormous impact, people have long been interested in manipulating rice
genes to achieve certain goals.
Co-founder Rory Hornby works on
tissue culture and gene-editing in the lab.
AGRISEA
Manipulating
the rice genome is not entirely new. The Golden Rice Project emerged in 1999 to
address the rampant vitamin A deficiency, and resulting blindness in many
countries where rice is a staple food. Other research into
increasing photosynthetic efficiency, drought
resistance, and methane
reduction of rice is in the works as well, and all requires
genetic modification.
The
creators of Golden Rice found a way to make rice produce beta-carotene, which
is converted by the body into vitamin A. They inserted two genes from corn and
a bacterium found in soil, into the rice genome. The process of inserting genes
not naturally found in an organism is called genetic modification, and is
quite controversial.
Opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food has halted progress
on a project that the founders believe could save billions of people who eat
rice every day. GMO use is a divisive topic, and many scientists and companies
are choosing to stay away from them to avoid public disdain and regulatory
challenges.
Agrisea
is taking a different approach to food science. They want to grow rice in the
ocean by using gene-editing, which would amplify the expression of genes
already found in rice that control salt-tolerance. Salt-tolerant rice could be
grown in salty ocean water without the use of soil, fertilizer or fresh water.
Rather than inserting genes from other species, they have identified the genes
that control for salt expulsion, cellular insulation and DNA protection, and
are enhancing the expression of those genes. “Together these genes act in a
network, just like they do in nature,” Luke Young, CEO and co-founder of
Agrisea said. “We just encourage them along the pathways that nature has formed
in plants that can thrive in a salty environment.” The co-founders explained
that they could use repeated selective breeding in rice to get the same result,
but gene-editing just speeds up the process.
Salt-tolerant rice seedlings grow
in the lab.
AGRISEA
The
first step in the process was to create a portfolio of salt-resistant crops
that will eventually grow in floating ocean farms around the world. Agrisea is
already in talks with major rice-producing and consuming countries; Nigeria,
China, Vietnam and Bangladesh, as well as New Zealand, the USA, Japan and
Chile, to establish these floating ocean farms.
While
the company plans to have their first small pilot farms in the water by the end
of this year, they expect to have multiple larger pilot farms in the ocean by
the end of 2021. In addition to the farms providing food in rice-producing
countries, they hope to use the farms for bioremediation in the USA and New
Zealand to combat dead zones and algal blooms caused by fertilizer run-off. The
farms would act as ocean filters, soaking up and breaking down excess nutrients
that travel from agricultural fields into waterways. The crops could also be
planted directly into salty soil. In places like Japan, where tsunamis have
flooded coastal soil, this advantage could reduce the need for costly and
laborious transport of non-salty soil from other areas.
Seedlings growing in the lab in
floating trays that are on top of salt water. Roots hang down into ... [+]
AGRISEA
Agrisea
received initial funding from science accelerator IndieBio. They are now
continuing with additional start-up lab space through Velocity accelerator out
of Ontario. By raising $1 million, they hope to hire additional plant
scientists and expand their salt-tolerant crop portfolio to include corn,
wheat, barley, soybean, mung bean, spinach and more.
Gov’t bank launches 7 loan programs to help
farmers
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:11 AM February 24,
2020
In response to the worsening plight of
local rice farmers brought by plummeting palay prices, state-owned Land Bank of
the Philippines has introduced seven new agri-lending programs in partnership
with the Department of Agriculture (DA).
LandBank president and CEO Cecilia Borromeo
said the new lending facilities were the bank’s direct response to the rice
crisis and would “help address the specific requirements of the various players
in the agriculture sector.”
The new lending programs are: PAlay aLAY sa
Magsasaka ng Lalawigan, Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program for
Rice Farmers, Rice Farmer Financial Assistance Program, Accessible Funds for
Delivery to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries, Sulong Saka Program, Sustainable
Aquaculture Lending Program, and the Greenhouse Farming System Financing
Program.
These programs, with varying funding
allocations totaling billions of pesos, would assist rice-producing provinces
in procuring palay produced by their local farmers as well as in acquiring farm
machinery and postharvest facilities.
There will also be conditional cash
transfers and credit assistance to farmers tilling one-half to two hectares of
land.
As of Feb. 3, 5,822 LandBank cash cards
totalling more than P29 million in cash assistance have been distributed to
rice farmers in Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Neuva Ecija, Zamboanga del Sur, North
Cotabato, Bataan and Pampanga.
Three of the new programs will also promote
the production of high-value crops, mariculture and aquaculture, and will
provide financial assistance to cooperatives and agrientrepreneurs who would
like to shift to modern farming by adopting greenhouse farming technologies.
These are on top of the annual P10-billion
rice competitiveness enhancement program under the rice tariffication law and
complement DA’s own rice programs.
The huge funding for the rice industry came
as local rice farmers continued to call on the government for help as palay
prices have yet to recover from a major slump that started in January 2019.
In several
studies conducted by state-run agencies such as the Philippine Institute for
Development Studies and the Philippine Rice Research Institute, they reported
that farmers have already lost billions of pesos in palay revenues following
the influx of imported rice in the market. —Karl R. Ocampo INQ
Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/291176/govt-bank-launches-7-loan-programs-to-help-farmers#ixzz6EsLf7GBR
https://business.inquirer.net/291176/govt-bank-launches-7-loan-programs-to-help-farmers
Humans produce
more methane emissions than previously thought
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that may be contributing far
more to climate change than previously thought. In a new paper published
on 19 February in Nature, the authors suggest humans may be responsible for up to 40 per
cent more methane emissions than previously estimated (1).
This presents an important opportunity: reducing methane emissions
— for example, the methane that leaks out while producing and transporting oil
and gas — might have a much greater impact on curbing global warming.
Methane is produced in two ways: fossil methane released from
ancient hydrocarbon deposits through the extraction and burning fossil fuels;
and biological methane released from natural sources like wetlands or
anthropogenic sources such as landfills, rice paddies, and livestock.
Together, these emissions are responsible for
about 25 per cent of the global warming that’s happening. But
anthropogenic methane emissions may play a much bigger role than expected.
Over the past 300 hundred years, methane emissions to the
atmosphere have increased by around 150 per cent, according to the authors, but
until now, pinpointing the exact source of methane emissions — humans or
natural — has been difficult since the gas is emitted naturally and from human
activities.
“As a scientific community we’ve been struggling to understand
exactly how much methane we as humans are emitting into the atmosphere,” said
Prof Vasilii Petrenko of the University of Rochester, who led the study. “We
know that the fossil fuel component is one of our biggest component emissions, but
it has been challenging to pin that down because, in today’s atmosphere, the
natural and anthropogenic components of the fossil emissions look the same,
isotopically.”
However, unlike natural methane sources, fossil methane does not
contain the carbon-14 isotype. And this allowed the scientists to determine
which proportion of methane originated from fossil sources and which were
biological?
Armed with this information, the scientists looked to the past.
They collected ice cores from Greenland, which act as time capsules: ancient
air is trapped inside the ice. So, the researchers were able to study air
samples from the eighteenth century (before the start of the Industrial
Revolution) to the present day.
By measuring the chemical compositions of the ancient air, they
found that all of the methane emitted to the atmosphere up until about 1870 was
biological in nature. Then, they observed a sharp increase in the fossil fuel
component that coincides with the rapid increase in the extraction and use of
fossil fuels — and the new results are 25 to 40 per cent higher than previous
estimates.
In other words, scientists have been vastly underestimating how
much methane humans are emitting into the atmosphere via fossil fuel use.
Therefore, lead author Dr Benjamin Hmiel said in a statement: “Placing stricter
methane emission regulations on the fossil fuel industry will have the
potential to reduce future global warming to a larger extent than previously
thought”.
The new findings suggest methane is the second-largest contributor
to climate change after carbon dioxide. However, this might actually be good
news Hmiel explained: “Most of the methane emissions are anthropogenic, so we
have more control. If we can reduce our emissions, it’s going to have more of
an impact”.
(1) Hmiel, B. et al. Preindustrial 14CH4 indicates greater
anthropogenic fossil CH4 emissions. Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-1991-8.
SHARE
High-tech bilateral projects signal deeper Brazil-China
cooperation
File
photo taken on Dec. 20, 2019 shows the China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellite-4A
launched on a Long March-4B carrier rocket at Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center
in north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo by Zheng Taotao/Xinhua)
By
Brazilian and Chinese scientists
are collaborating closely on a variety of projects — from the rice fields in
Brazil’s southern Rio Grande do Sul state to satellites monitoring the Amazon
rainforest — which shows that the two countries have embarked on a new phase of
deeper cooperation, said experts.
Since 2003, the Rice Institute of
Rio Grande do Sul (IRGA), Brazil’s leading rice-producing state, has been
working with experts from Hunan Rice Research Institute.
The aim is to develop a kind of
hybrid rice variety Chinese consumers use for cooking, which can be “a great
business” for the future, said Ivo Mello, an IRGA researcher.
“Our type of rice is different
from what the Chinese consumer prefers … That is why we want to develop hybrid
rice in Brazil, so that we can supply this grain to China,” he explained.
“The business of the future is
really in China,” Mello said.
In December 2019, the
jointly-developed China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellite-4A (CBERS-4A) was sent
into orbit from a base in Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province,
advancing aerospace cooperation between the two countries.
CBERS-4A, the sixth satellite of
a joint cooperation program, is designed to improve the Brazilian government’s
ability to monitor the Amazon rainforest and environmental change.
Since 1982, when Brazil and China
signed an agreement for scientific and technological cooperation, the two
countries have inked scores of bilateral accords, particularly in the areas of
science, technology and innovation, said Luis Paulino, a professor of Sao Paulo
State University’s Faculty of Philosophy and Sciences.
After nearly four decades of
cooperation in science and technology, China’s ties with Brazil and the rest of
Latin America have reached “a new phase of deep integration,” based on direct
foreign investment, and scientific and technological cooperation, said Paulino.
Paulino also commended the
China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which is aimed at infrastructure
development and acceleration of economic integration of countries along and
beyond the routes of the historic Silk Road.
“This new model of cooperation is
interesting for both sides,” said Paulino, as it offers regional countries such
as Brazil access to superior technologies and techniques “to boost local
production and job creation, and demand for local inputs,” he said.
“Chinese investments, especially
in the areas of infrastructure and logistics, are fundamental to improving the
competitiveness of local companies and the productivity of the economy,”
Paulino added.
Noting that both Brazil and China
are developing countries with common interests and aspirations, as well as
complementarity, the scholar said all countries in the region, regardless of
their political and ideological orientation, have shown great interest in
strengthening their ties of cooperation with China.”
Georgia Tech physicists unlock the secret to perfect
wok-tossed fried rice
The trick is a
timely combination of side-to-side and see-sawing motions.
Hunting Ko and David Hu/Georgia Tech
Fried rice is a classic dish in
pretty much every Chinese restaurant, and the strenuous process of tossing the
rice in a wok over high heat is key to producing the perfect final product.
There's always chemistry involved in cooking, but there's also a fair amount of
physics. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have devised a model
for the kinematics of wok-tossing to explain how it produces fried rice that is
nicely browned but not burnt. They described their work in a recent paper published in the Journal
of the Royal Society: Interface.
This work hails from David
Hu's lab at Georgia Tech, known for investigating such diverse phenomena as the
collective behavior of fire ants, water striders, snakes, various climbing
insects, mosquitos, the unique properties of cat tongues, and animal bodily functions like
urination and defecation—including a 2019 Ig Nobel Prize-winning study on why wombats produce cubed poo. Hu and his
graduate student, Hungtang Ko—also a co-author on a 2019 paper on the physics of how fire
ants band together to build rafts—discovered they shared a common interest in
the physics of cooking, particularly Chinese stir-fry.
FURTHER READING
Hu and Ko chose to focus their
investigation on fried rice (or "scattered golden rice"), a classic
dish dating back some 1,500 years. According to the authors, tossing the
ingredients in the wok while stir-frying ensures that the dish is browned but
not burned. Something about this cooking process creates the so-called
"Maillard reaction": the chemical interaction of amino acids and
carbohydrates subjected to high heat that is responsible for the browning of
meats, for instance.
But woks are heavy, and the
constant tossing can take its toll on Chinese chefs, some 64 percent of whom
report chronic shoulder pain, among other ailments. Hu and Ko thought that a
better understanding of the underlying kinematics of the process might one day
lead to fewer wok-related injuries for chefs.
In the summers of 2018 and 2019, Ko
and Hu filmed five chefs from stir-fry restaurants in Taiwan and China cooking
fried rice and then extracted frequency data from that footage. (They had to
explain to patrons that the recording was for science and that they were not
making a television show.) It typically takes about two minutes to prepare the
dish, including sporadic wok-tossing—some 276 tossing cycles in all, each
lasting about one-third of a second.
Ko and Hu presented preliminary results of their
experiments at a 2018 meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of
Fluid Dynamics, publishing the complete analysis in this latest paper. They
were able to model the wok's motion with just two variables, akin to a two-link
pendulum, since chefs typically don't lift the wok off the stove, maintaining
"a single sliding point of contact," they wrote. Their model
predicted the trajectory of the rice based on projectile motion, using three
metrics: the proportion of the rice being tossed, how high it was tossed, and
its angular displacement.
The authors found two distinct
stages of wok-tossing: pushing the wok forward and rotating it clockwise to
catch rice as it falls; and pulling the wok back while rotating it
counter-clockwise to toss the rice. Essentially, the wok executes two
independent motions: side to side, and a see-sawing motion where the left end
moves in a clockwise circle and the right moves counterclockwise. "The key
is using the stove rim as the fulcrum of the seesaw motion," the authors
wrote. Also key: the two motions share the same frequency but are slightly out
of phase.
Hu compared the effect to "flipping
pancakes or juggling with rice." The trick is to ensure that the rice
constantly leaves the wok, allowing it to cool a little, since the wok
temperature can reach up to 1,200 degrees Celsius. That produces fried rice
that is perfectly browned but not burned.
FURTHER READING
Based on their analysis, Hu and Ko
recommend that chefs increase both the frequency of motion when tossing fried
rice in a wok and the "phase lag" between the two distinct motions.
This "may enable rice to jump further, and promote cooling and
mixing."
The mathematical model Hu and Ko
developed isn't just a fun curiosity; it should also prove useful for
industrial robotic designs. One goal for the authors is to develop a wearable
exoskeleton or similar device to reduce the rate of shoulder injury among
Chinese chefs. But there has been interest in automating cooking since the
1950s to perform such basic functions as cutting, boiling, frying, and pancake
flipping—the latter task usually relying on reinforcement learning algorithms.
There have also been attempts to
automate stir-frying fried rice in large batches, with limited success. Prior
robotic designs have included a rotating drum to mix ingredients, and a
see-sawing wok to flip ingredients, augmented with an automated spatula. These
could mix ingredients via rotation or shaking but could not toss the rice and,
thus, could not produce the ideal carbonated grains. "If there was an
automated way of doing this, it could be very useful [for chefs]," said
Hu.
DOI: Journal of the Royal Society: Interface,
2020. 10.1098/rsif.2019.0622 (About DOIs).
Gov’t bank launches 7 loan programs to help farmers
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:11 AM February 24,
2020
In response to the worsening plight of local rice farmers
brought by plummeting palay prices, state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines
has introduced seven new agri-lending programs in partnership with the
Department of Agriculture (DA).
LandBank president and CEO Cecilia Borromeo said the new
lending facilities were the bank’s direct response to the rice crisis and would
“help address the specific requirements of the various players in the
agriculture sector.”
The new lending programs are: PAlay aLAY sa Magsasaka ng
Lalawigan, Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program for Rice Farmers,
Rice Farmer Financial Assistance Program, Accessible Funds for Delivery to
Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries, Sulong Saka Program, Sustainable Aquaculture
Lending Program, and the Greenhouse Farming System Financing Program.
These programs, with varying funding allocations totaling
billions of pesos, would assist rice-producing provinces in procuring palay
produced by their local farmers as well as in acquiring farm machinery and
postharvest facilities.
There will also be conditional cash transfers and credit
assistance to farmers tilling one-half to two hectares of land.
As of Feb. 3, 5,822 LandBank cash cards totalling more
than P29 million in cash assistance have been distributed to rice farmers in
Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Neuva Ecija, Zamboanga del Sur, North Cotabato,
Bataan and Pampanga.
Three of the new programs will also promote the
production of high-value crops, mariculture and aquaculture, and will provide
financial assistance to cooperatives and agrientrepreneurs who would like to
shift to modern farming by adopting greenhouse farming technologies.
These are on top of the annual P10-billion rice
competitiveness enhancement program under the rice tariffication law and
complement DA’s own rice programs.
The huge funding for the rice industry came as local rice
farmers continued to call on the government for help as palay prices have yet
to recover from a major slump that started in January 2019.
In several studies conducted by state-run agencies such
as the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and the Philippine Rice
Research Institute, they reported that farmers have already lost billions of
pesos in palay revenues following the influx of imported rice in the market. —Karl R. Ocampo INQ
Climate Change Impacting Crops Yield In
Pakistan: Experts
Sun
23rd February 2020 | 06:20 PM
LAHORE, (APP -
UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Feb, 2020 ) :Crops across Pakistan are being infested by pests, following
irregular rain patterns due to climate change, which is damaging the crops
yield badly.
This was stated
by experts on climate change, while talking to APP on Sunday. Environmentalist Mehmood Khalid Qamar said that
climate change was a reality. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) fifth assessment report, human activity was responsible for the
unsustainable calamity.
Due to its
diverse geographical and climatic feature situation, Pakistan was among the most vulnerable to climate
changes, he added.
Sustainable
Development Policy Institute (SDPI) environmental researcher Kashif Mehmood Salik said that climate change
patterns had now reached alarming levels, causing various disasters in the form
of floods, droughts and other natural calamities in the country.
He said that in
the aftermath of the 2010's torrential floods, one fifth of the country's land
area was submerged, adding that the torrential rains severely damaged the economy and
agricultural infrastructure of the country.
The floods
impacted the livelihoods of millions of people, leaving 90 million people food insecure. Similarly, in 2012, Pakistan was among those countries whose crops
production was badly affected by the climate change effects.
Noted
environmentalist Dr Sarwat N Mirza urged the government to establish research institutions
regarding climate change, which could develop pest resistant cotton seeds, sustaining bad weather conditions.
He said that it
was not only weather but also locust damages, which had caused
heavy losses to growers in the country. He said that due to unavailability of
Bt cotton, average yield was 16 maunds per acre, at a
production cost of Rs40,000 per acre. Due to high
temperatures, rice crop was being affected in Sindh and Punjab while maize was severely affected in Punjab, he added.
He said
unexpected rainfall in August and September affected harvesting of cotton and onion, while production of tomatoes was also affected, which resulted in a
huge increase in prices.
Dr Shahzad Basra told APP that Pakistan's agriculture was facing severe challenges due to
negative consequences of climate change. He said that agriculture was considered as the back-bone of the
economy of Pakistan and more than 60 per cent population of
the country was attached directly or indirectly with the sector, adding that
the sector had been affected due to climate change issues.
Ravi slams those making
anti-national statements
UDUPI, FEBRUARY
22, 2020 22:37 IST
C.T. Ravi, Minister for Kannada
and Culture, said on Saturday that there should be no pardon for those
indulding in anti-national activities, and making anti-national statements in
the country.
Weekly inflation
dips 0.14pc
By APP
February 22, 2020
ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator
(SPI)-based weekly inflation for the week ended on February 20 decreased by
0.14pc as compared to the previous week.
The SPI for the week under review in the combined consumption
group was recorded at 130.67 points, as against 130.85 points registered in the
previous week, according to latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of
Statistics (PBS).
The weekly SPI was 100 collected with base 2015-16, covering 17
urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
The SPI for the lowest consumption group, up to Rs17,732, also
witnessed 0.03pc reduction as it went down from 134.07 points in the last week
to 134.03 points during the week under review.
As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for
the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase
of 15.97pc, while for the lowest group, it increased by 14.39pc.
Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,733 to
Rs22,888, from Rs22,889 to Rs29,517, Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175
per month also decreased by 0.08pc, 0.11pc, 0.14pc and 0.16pc, respectively.
During the week under review, average prices of 13 items
registered a decrease, while that of nine items increased with prices of 29
items remaining unchanged.
The prices of the commodities that recorded a decrease in their prices
during the week under review included tomatoes, eggs (farm), chicken, potatoes,
gur, garlic, wheat flour bag, LPG cylinder (11.67kg), sugar and pulses (mash,
gram, masoor, moong).
The items which recorded an increase in their average prices
included onions, bananas, rice basmati, mutton, beef, curd, rice (irri-6),
vegetable ghee and mustard oil.
The commodities that observed no change in their prices during
the week under review included bread, milk fresh, powder milk, cooking oil,
vegetable ghee, salt powder, chilli powder, tea, cooked beef, cooked daal, tea
(prepared), cigarettes, long cloth, shirting, lawn, georgette, gents sandal,
gents sponge, ladies sandal, electricity charges, gas charges, firewood, energy
charges, washing soap, matchbox, hi-speed diesel, telephone calls and toilet
soap.
Exports diversification
urged
KARACHI: The Federation of Pakistan
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has underlined the need to diversify
exports, as the country’s exports are concentrated more than 75 percent on
traditional items, textiles, carpets, leather, rice and sports goods, a statement
said on Saturday.
“There’s a need to shift in the
composition of exports towards promotion of high and medium technology products
whose participation in the global trade is increasing,” FPCCI President Mian
Anjum Nisar said.
Commenting on the low volume of
exports, he said one of the reasons was concentration and dependence of
Pakistan’s exports on traditional items and limited markets.
“Products included in Pakistan’s
export basket are facing stiff competition from regional countries due to the
low cost of doing business along with huge facilities for exports extended by
the competitor governments.”
He urged the government to
facilitate exports of non-traditional items such as pharmaceutical,
electronics, chemicals and other engineering goods.
Pakistan should learn from the
experience of the Asian economies such as Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South
Korea, as these countries promoted their exports through development of small
and medium industries, he added.
Turkish
wood furniture company launched in PakistanBy Associated Press of Pakistan on February 22, 2020
- Ambassador of Turkey inaugurated this
newly built factory which would produce kitchens doors and wardrobes in
Pakistan as per the European Standard.
- It also has great experience of developing
home interiors on European standards due to its large field of expertise
on different trends and furniture varieties as per the international
standards.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Turkey a
have entered into a new era of close economic ties as Turkish business
companies have started investing in Pakistan.
Keeping in view the vision of
Prime Minister Imran Khan for bringing foreign direct investment (FDI) in
Pakistan, a Turkish wood working Brand MOOÖI Atolye has launched their factory
in Pakistan right after the visit of Turkish president.
The Turkish woodwork industry had
a vast legacy of embellishing decor and unique furniture style, said a press
release.
Ambassador of Turkey inaugurated
this newly built factory which would produce kitchens doors and wardrobes in
Pakistan as per the European Standard.
It also has great experience of
developing home interiors on European standards due to its large field of
expertise on different trends and furniture varieties as per the international
standards.
Moreover, it has become more
easier to provide all its variety in Pakistan as the company is shifting
technology and human resources to Pakistan.
Exports increase
22.11 percent to Rs2110 billion in 7 months
Mobile phone
import increases over 79pc
APP
ISLAMABAD
The exports from the country, in rupee term,
surged by 22.11 percent during the first seven months of the current fiscal
year compared to the corresponding period of last year, Pakistan Bureau of
Statistics (PBS) reported.
The exports from the country during
July-January (2019-20) were recorded at Rs2110.426 million against the exports
of Rs1728.346 million during July-January (2018-19), showing growth of 22.11
percent, according to the provisional figures released by the bureau.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the exports
from the country increased by 8.44 percent during the month of January 2019 and
amounted to Rs305.986 million compared to the exports of Rs282,179 million in
January 2018.
The exports on month-on-month however decreased
by 0.88 percent during January 2019 when compared to the exports of
Rs308.697 million in December 2019.
The Main commodities of exports during January,
2020 were readymade garments (Rs. 41,597 million), knitwear (Rs. 37,891
million), bed wear (Rs. 30,016 million), cotton cloth (Rs. 27,168 million),rice
others (Rs.18,310 million), cotton yarn (Rs. 14,789 million), towels (Rs.
10,093 million), fruits (Rs. 9,722 million), rice basmati (Rs. 9,703 million)
and made-up articles (excl. towels & bed wear) (Rs. 8,608 million).
On the other hand, the Imports into the country
during July – January 2019-20 totaled Rs. 4,272,554 million as against
Rs4,224,292 million during the corresponding period of last year showing a
slight increase of 1.14%.
Imports into Pakistan during January, 2020
amounted to Rs639,572 million as against Rs619,586 million in
January 2019 and Rs625,463 million during December, 2019 showing an increase of
3.23 percent over January 2019 and by 2.26% over December, 2019.
Main commodities of imports during January,
2020 were petroleum products (Rs. 65,067 million), petroleum Crude (Rs. 48,403
million), electrical machinery and apparatus (Rs.35,815 million), natural gas,
liquified (Rs. 34,530 million), plastic materials (Rs. 27,145 million), Palm
oil (Rs.24,593 million), iron and steel scrap (Rs. 22,772 million), mobile
phone (Rs. 22,338 million), raw cotton (Rs.16,720 million) and iron and steel
(Rs.16,021 million).
Meanwhile, the import of mobile phones into the
country increased by 79.46 percent during the first seven months of current
financial year (2019-20) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $760.582
million during July-January (2019-20) as compared to the imports of $423.818
million during July-January (2018-19), showing growth of 79.46 percent,
according to the latest data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
On year-on year basis, the import of mobile
phones witnessed growth of 141.65 percent in January 2020, as compared to the
imports of the same month of last year. The mobile imports during January 2020
were recorded at $144.437 million against the imports of $59.771 million in
January 2019. On month-on-month basis, the imports of mobile phones also grew
by 22.73 percent during January 2020, as compared to the imports of $117.682
million during December 2019, according to the data.
It is pertinent to mention here that the
country’s merchandise trade deficit plunged by 28.40 percent during the first
seven months of the current fiscal year (2019-20) as compared to the deficit of
the same month of last year.
During the period under review, the country’s
exports registered about 2.14 per cent growth, whereas imports reduces by 15.95
per cent, according the foreign trade statistics, released by the Pakistan
Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
During the period from July-January (2019-20),
exports reached to $13.498 billion against the exports of $13.216 billion of
the same period of last year, it added.
Meanwhile, the country’s imports
witnessed significant decrease of 15.95 % as these went down from $32.420
billion in first seven months of last financial year to $27.249 billion of same
period of current financial year, it said.
https://nation.com.pk/23-Feb-2020/exports-increase-22-11-percent-to-rs2110-billion-in-7-months
Farmers hear optimistic rice outlook
·
By Bruce Schultz LSU AgCenter
Feb 22, 2020
Farmers
heard about several optimistic developments in the international rice trade at
the 2020 meeting of the Louisiana Rice Council and Louisiana Rice Growers
Association on Feb. 10.
Betsy
Ward, USA Rice chief executive officer, said Brexit has the potential to
increase sales to the British market without the restrictions of the European
Union. “We’re optimistic we can open that market to U.S. rice,” she said.
The
United Kingdom had bought as much as 600 metric tons, but that dropped by 75%
because of tariffs in 2017. The Turkish market for U.S. rice was lost because
of tariffs, but the country bought some American rice last week, she said.
The
preliminary trade agreement with China includes American rice.
China
holds 65 percent of the world’s rice stocks, and the country is dumping the
excess on the market, even selling medium-grain rice to Puerto Rico. “The
prices they are selling rice for in Puerto Rico don’t make sense,” Ward said.
An
anti-dumping case is being built against China, and two cases were won
recently, including one that complained China was unfairly subsidizing rice
production.
“I
think China will come around, and I think there will be stability in trade with
Mexico,” Ward said.
India,
the world’s largest rice exporter, also uses unfair trade practices, “and they
are just as bad an actor as China,” she said. An unfair trade complaint also is
being developed against India.
The
trade agreement with Canada and Mexico is a positive development for American
rice. “It’s brought some stability to the market,” Ward said.
A
memorandum of understanding with Iraq has been extended to 2021 to buy more
U.S. rice.
U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is receptive to the needs of the rice
industry. “He’s probably one of the best (agriculture secretaries) we’ve ever
had,” Ward said.
USA
Rice Chairman Charley Matthews Jr. has met twice with President Donald Trump to
voice concerns of rice farmers.
Mike
Strain, commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry,
said trade developments worldwide are going well for American agriculture. “I’m
very positive where the economy is going,” he said.
A
U.S.-Japanese trade agreement will cut tariffs on American products. Rice is
not included in the agreement yet, but administration officials assured him
rice would eventually benefit, Strain said.
Other
countries, such as Kenya, are approaching the U.S. to make new trade
agreements.
China
will be buying up to $37 billion in U.S. agricultural products. But some
uncertainty is resulting from the coronavirus outbreak as well as two new viral
diseases, Strain said.
Funding
for dredging the Mississippi River is being proposed, and that has resulted in
port expansions along the river, he said.
A
rural task force in Louisiana will be studying what’s needed to improve life in
the rural areas of the state. A broadband initiative will improve internet
connectivity, and the state needs to maintain roads and bridges better, Strain
said.
Also
at the meeting, advertising consultant Mark Williams detailed an advertising
campaign in 2018 and 2019 in north Louisiana. WiIliams, who co-founded the firm
that came up with the slogan for pork, “The Other White Meat,” said the radio
campaign aired 5,249 ads heard 20 times by the average citizen.
The
campaign, “Start with Rice,” used radio ads and billboards, and surveys and
statistics showed the project had a significant effect on consumers.,Williams
said.
Michael
Klein, USA Rice vice president for communications, detailed last year’s 2019
Rice Road Trip. Using a truck that was eventually a raffle prize, Klein
traveled across the U.S. to spread the word about rice.
Promotional
items such as rice cookers were distributed to consumers along the way along
with rice samples and recipes. Email addresses were collected to send regular
messages with rice recipes.
Klein
reminded the gathering that the 2020 USA Rice Outlook Conference will be in
Austin, Texas, Dec. 9-11, and the 2021 conference will be in New Orleans.
Global rice milling centre
to come up in Mysuru
MYSURU, FEBRUARY 22, 2020 22:30 IST
It will address shortage of
trained manpower in the industry
The Global Centre for Rice
Technology (GCRT), the first of its kind in the country, is coming up in Mysuru
to facilitate the rice milling industry to keep pace with
technological advancements in the field.
Notice for less than 1% paddy shortage unfair, say millers
· Posted: Feb 24, 2020 07:10 AM (IST)
Nitish
Sharma
Tribune
News Service
Ambala,
February 23
Unhappy
with the recovery notices issued by procurement agencies to millers for
shortfall of paddy detected during physical verification, especially to the
millers having less than one per cent shortfall, the millers have accused the
agencies of going against the agreement by not giving the benefit of one per
cent driage.
As
many as 193 rice mills in Ambala were allotted 9,09,000 MT paddy for custom
milling. Of this, shortfall of 9,401 MT paddy was found in 185 rice mills during
physical verification. The remaining eight mills had excess paddy.
The
majority of rice mills (136 rice mills) had less than 1 per cent shortage, 34
mills had 1 to 2 per cent, eight mills had 2 to 3 per cent, four mills had 3 to
4 per cent while three mills had 4 per cent and above. Of the total, 115 mills
are under Hafed, 72 under food and supplies department and the remaining six
under the warehousing corporation. The agencies had issued notice to millers to
deposit around Rs 20 crore.
Raj
Kumar Singla, president, Ambala Rice Miller Association, said, “The recovery
notices sent to millers having less than one per cent shortage is wrong and
against the agreement. The millers are not willing to deposit the amount but
are being forced by the agencies.”
A
miller claimed that they get paddy (Grade ‘A’) containing 17 per cent moisture.
It is required to be dried up to a level of 13-14 per cent moisture because the
miller has to deliver custom milled rice to the government.
The
drying process is essential before the start of rice milling. Haryana Rice
Millers and Dealers Association chairman Jewel Singla said, “The Haryana
Government is setting a wrong example and it will widen differences between
millers and government. We have no objection if the recovery is made from
wilful defaulters and from those having higher percentage of shortfall, but
recovery from millers having less than one per cent shortage is unacceptable.”
Shortfall
found in 136 mills
·
A shortfall of 9,401 MT paddy was
found in 185 rice mills during physical verification
·
A majority of rice mills (136)
had less than 1% shortage, 34 mills had 1 to 2 per cent, eight mills had 2 to 3
per cent, four mills had 3 to 4 per cent while three mills had 4 per cent and
above
·
The government has decided to give
the benefit of 1 per cent driage to millers upon full delivery to the FCI
In Ambala, Rs 6.7 cr deposited so far
SHARE
ARTICLE
· Posted: Feb 24, 2020 07:28 AM (IST)
· Updated
: 12 hours ago
Rice millers in Ambala have
deposited over Rs 6.72 crore so far to procurement agencies in Ambala after
they were asked to deposit around Rs 20 crore for paddy shortfall detected
during physical verification of the stock. - File photo
Ambala,
February 23
Rice
millers in Ambala have deposited over Rs 6.72 crore so far to procurement
agencies in Ambala after they were asked to deposit around Rs 20 crore for
paddy shortfall detected during physical verification of the stock. A total of
185 rice mills in Ambala were asked by the Food and Civil Supplies Department,
Hafed and Warehousing Corporation, to deposit Rs 20 crore by February 19. Of
these, 115 rice mills are under Hafed, 72 under the Food and Civil Supplies
Department and six under the Warehousing Corporation.
While
the Food and Civil Supplies Department has recovered Rs 5.92 crore, Hafed Rs 80
lakh, the Warehousing Corporation is yet to recover money from the millers.
District Food and Supplies Controller Nishant Rathee said, “Millers have
deposited Rs 5.92 crore to Food and Civil Supplies Department so far while the
last date to deposit the amount is over. The millers are being asked to deposit
the amount at the earliest and further action will be taken as per government
orders.” — TNS
Siem Reap hosts first sustainable
rice summit
Chea Vannak / Khmer Times
The first ever Sustainable Rice
Summit, in Cambodia, was held on Feb. 21 in Siem Reap province, where 180 representatives
from agriculture cooperatives, rice millers, and related stakeholders discussed
about the improvement of rice sector in the country.
The one-day summit was organised
by Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), Amru Rice, and Cambodian Agriculture
Cooperative Corporation Plc (CACC) with the support from the Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.
The summit was chaired by Mey Kalyan,
Senior Adviser of Supreme National Economic Council and Chairperson of CACC,
and CRF President Mr. Song Saran.
With the theme “Strengthening
Agricultural Cooperatives in Cambodia”, the event included some important
panelist discussion sessions on various topics such as supporting cooperatives,
access to finance through digital platform and innovations, access to finance
for smallholder farmers, sustainable rice value chain in Cambodia and the way
of moving forward, and building inclusive and sustainable rice value chain,
according to CRF.
Last year, Cambodia exported
about 620,000 tons of milled rice to foreign markets.
CRF President Mr. Song Saran said that Cambodia sets to export
at least one million tons of milled rice by 2023. AKP
Co-ops, groups top
rice importers under RTL
February 24, 2020
COOPERATIVES, farmers’ groups and
associations edged out companies and traders in terms of rice imports under the
new trade regime, as they cornered a total of 1 million metric tons (MMT) of
the staple at the end of 2019.
Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI)
data obtained and analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that at least 120
multipurpose and farmers’ cooperatives, organizations and irrigators’
associations imported 1.043 MMT from March 5 until December 31, 2019. The rice
trade liberalization law (RTL) which deregulated the industry took effect on
March 5, 2019.
The volume imported by farmers’
organizations was 28 percent higher than the 810,548.85 MT of rice imported by
the 96 traders, rice millers and corporations, which included the likes of
Puregold Price Club Inc. and Davao-based firm Davao San-Ei Trading Inc.
BPI data showed that the total
volume of rice that entered the country under the new trade regime by end-2019
was at 1.853 MMT, or half of the total applied volume of 3.632 MMT.
Rice importers used a total of
2,317 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances to bring the staple into the
Philippines out of the 4,069 total SPS-ICs issued to them from March 5 to
December 31, 2019, according to BPI data.
During the 10-month period,
farmers’ organizations used 1,134 SPS-ICs to import rice. The top
rice-importing farmers’ group during the period was San Jacinto Poblacion
Farmers Consumers Cooperative, which brought in 40,392 MT of rice. It was
followed by Timmaguab II Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative, which purchased
36,720 MT of rice imports, BPI data showed.
Davao-based firm Davao
San-Ei Trading Inc. led all rice importers during the period with 64,636
MT, followed by publicly listed firm Puregold Price Club Inc. with 63,854.83
MT.
Investigation
Currently, farmers’ groups are
under the scrutiny of the government after the Department of Agriculture (DA)
initiated an investigation into cooperatives and associations that are
supposedly being used as dummies or fronts by unscrupulous traders who want to
take advantage of their tax-exemption incentives.
Documents obtained by the
BusinessMirror showed a discrepancy between the financial capacity of some
irrigators’ associations and the volume of rice they are importing (See “Farmer groups
‘top rice importers’–are they?,” in the BusinessMirror, November 21, 2019).
Bureau of Customs data compiled
and analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that the country’s total rice imports
in 2019 reached a record-high 2.98 MMT. At least P14.7 billion in tariffs were
collected from importers.
However, preliminary Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA) data obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that rice
imports last year reached 2.76 MMT, which was 38 percent higher than the nearly
2 MMT imported in 2018.
The Philippines overtook China as
the world’s top rice buyer in 2019 as the deregulation of the rice industry
drove its total staple imports to record-high levels.
The United States Department of
Agriculture expects the Philippines to remain as the top rice importer in the
world this year as the country’s purchases are projected to reach 2.5 MMT
despite the waning appetite of traders for the staple.
How Emefiele’s
Agric Intervention is Paying Off
February 23, 2020 4:23 am
Godwin-Emefiele
• As Rice Boom Heralds a New
Optimism
His gentle mien gives no inkling
of his sturdy determination to promote and project made-in-Nigeria products.
His message is simple enough – No country has ever succeeded if it imports
everything she needs from other countries, particularly so if that country has
the capacity and natural endowment to produce most of what she consumes. A
tireless advocate of Nigeria First policy. In this piece, James Emejo assesses
the unflinching determination of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Governor, Mr.
Godwin Emefiele, against all odds in advancing the patronage of made-in-Nigeria
goods particularly local rice which has become the toast of every household
In line with its developmental
function, which is distinct from its primary mandate of price stability, the
CBN had established the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) which was launched by
President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
The programme aimed to create a
linkage between anchor companies involved in the processing and smallholder
farmers (SHFs) of the required key agricultural commodities.
The thrust of the ABP is the
provision of farm inputs in kind and cash to smallholder farmers to boost
production of farm commodities which states have comparative advantage to
produce including cereals namely rice, maize, wheat, cotton, roots and tubers
namely cassava, potatoes, yam, ginger, tomato, poultry, oil palm, fish,
sugarcane among others.
The apex bank’s intervention was
particularly strategic towards the resuscitation of moribund sectors of the
economy in line with the present administration’s agenda to diversify the
economy from oil as well as preserve foreign exchange.
With Nigeria’s annual rice
importation at over $2 billion, this was particularly worrisome for the CBN as
it constituted a major drain of the fragile reserves.
And when it appeared that most
government economic blueprint to revive the economy had been mere statements of
intent rather than action, Emefiele took the bull by the horns to undertake a
difficult mission to stop the importation of commodities which the country has
a comparative advantage to produce.
The CBN governor’s efforts
towards food sufficiency especially in rice production have now materialized
and currently causing ripples effects in the economy.
Today, there has been a
revolution in local rice production, as most of the inactive rice mills across
the country have suddenly received life again while the staple has become the
favorite in most Nigerian homes, partly because of its affordability and the
fact that local rice had been properly cleaned up to eliminate stone particles
which had been a turn off for most people. The staple can now compete with the
imported counterpart.
However, Emefiele’s feats in
revolutionizing agriculture especially in the areas of rice, tomato, milk,
textile production had pitched him against powerful interests in the society,
who hitherto benefitted from a largely dysfunctional system as they continued
on huge food import, however, at the expense of the country’s hard-earned
reserves.
These individuals have now
embarked on a smear campaign and sponsored despicable campaigns against the
efforts of the CBN to reset the economy.
Nevertheless, Emefiele’s passion
and commitment to economic diversification had been strengthened as well as
applauded from far and near, as those who never thought a revolution could ever
happen in rice production have eaten back their words.
Today, local rice has practically
replaced foreign rice as the preferred staple, thanks to efforts by the federal
government and the CBN towards patronage of locally made products.
All markets and shops are now
filled with locally manufactured rice, with the attendant economic implications
on employment generation for the unemployed youths.
Emefiele had stressed that
agriculture presented the major opportunity for long-term sustainable
development in the country, noting that in spite of the current levels of unemployment,
the sector remained vital to the efforts of the federal government in
diversifying the country’s monolithic economy away from oil.
While recently acknowledging the
twin-challenge of youth restiveness and unemployment, the CBN stressed the need
for stakeholders to confront the challenge with innovative thinking using
agriculture as a fulcrum of a long-term sustainable and profitable approach.
According to him, agriculture had
the potential for huge revenue generation and remained pivotal in job creation,
noting that the fact that the agricultural sector was the only sector that
experienced growth during the recent recession in the country bore testimony to
that.
Nevertheless, further in
attesting to the effectiveness of the CBN ABP especially in rice production,
the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono recently
announced that the country will begin to export its brand of rice within the
next two years.
He said: “With the improved
production rate, Nigerian rice will soon be exported, before the closure of our
land border, most of these rice milling plants were partially operating, but
now, they not only operate in full capacities but are also expanding.
“If we maintain the momentum in
the next two years, we may export rice to other countries. 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.”
The minister noted that the
country cultivates rice in a nine-month cycle adding that “probably as we move
on, the cycle will widen, so we do not have a problem with rice processing.” He
also said that there had been an expansion of the local rice value chain as
well as the creation of more jobs due to an increase in rice production.
As of 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.”
It is estimated that the country
consumes about seven million tonnes of rice annually, a development that has
become unsustainable given current fiscal challenges of the government as well
as the fact that it is blessed with vast proportions of arable land and
youthful population to benefit from agriculture.
Stakeholders have continued to
back Buhari and Emefiele in their decision to restrict foreign exchange to food
importation, rather encouraging them to support local producers.
The CBN currently categorized
about 43 items that are not eligible for forex at the official windows.
However, key players in the
agricultural sector told THISDAY that Buhari’s move was welcoming and long
overdue towards the repositioning of agriculture and the economy in general.
The National President, Rice
Farmers Association (RIFAN), Alhaji Aminu Goronyo said all farmers’ groups have
lauded the pronouncement and committed to ensuring the country achieves food
security.
He said: “It is not a new thing
at all as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has in the last four years, has not
been issuing forex to most of the essential commodities that were being
imported into the country.
“For over four years, rice and
other commodities including maize which had not enjoyed any support from the
CBN to import them into the country. So, this is not a new thing, nevertheless,
it is a welcome idea as Nigeria in no distant time will be self-sufficient in
all commodities going by this instruction from the president.
“It is a welcome idea and all the
commodities associations in Nigeria welcome the idea and we have tightened our
belts to make sure we do not fail the president in this laudable effort he has
made to stop taking our money to foreign countries in the name of food items.”
Also, Vice President, Nigeria
Agri-business Group/Chairman, Dr. Emmanuel Ejewere, said the president took the
bull by the horns by with his landmark restriction of forex for food import.
He said: “I think what the
president was saying is that to ensure food security, we must take such actions
as to be self-reliant. If we are self-reliant then we can achieve food security
and what is happening here is that we have become a nation of importers and
exporting jobs to people.
“The agricultural industry needs
to grow a lot faster and the way to make it grow faster is to make sacrifices
today for tomorrow’s happiness and security. So, I fully and totally support
what the president has said, it makes a lot of sense and for a long time, this
is one of the first times that the government of Nigeria has had the courage to
bite the bullet and so what is right for Nigeria.
“There is no way we can go into
the future in an economy that is agriculture driven if we do not take this
decision that we have taken. So, the president made a wise decision and it is
positively risky but I believe that it would work because the Nigerian
agriculture community is just waiting for this kind of injection and it has
come in and I support it absolutely and I commend the president for this
courage.”
In the same vein, Chairperson of
the Association for Small Scale Agro Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN), Hajiya
Amina Bala Jubrin, lauded the move by Buhari, adding, however, that efforts
should be geared towards creating a conducive environment for agricultural
producers to thrive.
“For me as a farmer, it is the
right step in the right direction. It is high time Nigerians started
patronizing Nigerian products.
“My only take on this is that the
federal government should take a giant stride in supporting or creating
favourable conditions for producers such as bringing in machinery at a subsidized
price for farmers to be able to afford.
“Like in the case of milk, our
livestock products should be enhanced to have good breeds of cows: they can
promote artificial insemination that would have our local breeds inseminated
with the semen of the exotic breed so that if we don’t have at least 75
percent, at least we can have 50 percent, which is better than allowing our
cows that can give 1 liter of 1.5 liters of milk. We should start getting cows
that can give us at least 10 liters per day.”
She said: “These are some of the
things the federal government can do. It is not necessary that our people have
to go out and start bringing in every Tom, dick and harry as cows into this
country and feed us with them. It is high time we produced our own.
“The conditions should be
improved for the producer; bring machinery subsidized, bring improved seeds so
that production yields will be increased. These are the things I will want the
federal government to do rather than give forex to import because even the common
farmer does not benefit from that.”
Meanwhile, Emefiele’s drive
towards food security and economic revolution had come at a price: if anything,
he has made enemies for himself and he has admitted at different fora that
corruption was fighting back against his lofty objectives.
A former Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh had particularly commended the CBN
governor for refusing to bulge in the face of mounting opposition for him to
abandon his commitment to diversifying the economy through laudable
interventions in the agricultural sector.
He said: “The CBN has been
pushing the agriculture programme with direct support by funding through
programmes in the Ministry of Agriculture.
“People have called him
(Emefiele) names and criticized him. But if he had not devised the means of
bypassing the mountains of obstacles confronting production in this country, by
today, the story of Nigeria would have been a horrible one.”
Yet, there were other economic
saboteurs including smugglers who tried so hard to ensure they reversed the
achievements of the CBN in resetting the economy.
Amid the success story in rice
production, smugglers continued to breach regulations, bring in foreign rice in
order to undermine the CBN and government’s efforts.
Last year, Chairman, Rice
Processors Association of Nigeria (RIPAN), Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Maifata
threw its weight behind the recent decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to
effect partial closure of the border between Nigeria and the Benin Republic to
stem the activities of smugglers.
He argued that but for the prompt
response by the government, the country would have lost about $400 million
(about N150 billion) to smuggling as intelligence showed that from January to
August 2019, over one million metric tons of rice was brought into Benin from
mostly Thailand and India.
He said: “The implications are
that everything that comes to Benin comes to Nigeria because no other country
in the West Coast eats parboiled rice, it’s only Nigeria. Benin itself eat
white rice and going by their population, they require not more than 300 metric
tonnes per annum. So, why do they bring in two million tonnes of parboiled rice
in this case, not even the white rice that they eat.”
Highlighting the negative
implications of smuggling on the economy, Maifata said: “This action cripples
most of the local rice mills as we cannot operate because of the massive inflow
of this rice into our economy.
“Most of the mills are working
half capacity while others have even closed. Our farmers are now stocking up
paddy rice because millers cannot buy and you know the massive campaign by the
government for them to go back and produce this commodity.”
However, with the continued
closure of the border, which may be unconnected with the CBN’s resolute stance
to ensure that its intervention efforts in agriculture yield further fruits,
rice farmers have started counting their gains again.
Emefiele had recently warned
against the reopening of the borders anytime soon, citing possible reversal of
current economic gains.
According to him, though the
country could not afford to have its borders shut in perpetuity, reopening them
at this time could roll back the economic gains so far achieved since the
closure in August.
He said an attempt to reopen the
borders could create room for a flooding of smuggled items into the country, a
situation that could cripple the ability of rice millers to sell their stock,
adding that smallholder farmers currently producing paddy will no longer be
able to sell them while poultry farmers will equally be affected, a situation
that could lead to massive job cuts in agriculture.
Listing the benefits of the
closure on the rice industry, he said: “Before the border closure, two weeks
before border closure, the president of the Rice Processors Association called
to say that our Nigerian rice producers have produced rice they cannot sell
that each of them is carrying close to 20,000 metric tonnes of rice in their
warehouses.
“The Rice Farmers Association led
by Alhaji Goronyo came out and also said that farmers cannot sell the rice they
produced, that’s the paddy rice. We also have people in the poultry industry
that said they couldn’t sell their chicken and eggs- some were carrying up to
5,000 crates of eggs unsold and they said the government needs to do something
about it.”
He said: “Luckily, as a result of
us intervening and other people intervening- in fact, it might interest you to
know that most of the arms that have been brought into this country are being
smuggled through the borders.
“Even the armed forces themselves
gave in and said listen, that we need to do something about the borders. So,
the government went ahead and shut the borders.
“And I am speaking truthfully:
one week after the borders were closed, the president, the president of the
Rice Millers Association called to say that all their millers had called to say
that the rice they had in their warehouses had been sold. Paddy businesses are
growing again.
“The poultry people also called
to say they’ve sold all their eggs. All the chickens they have had been sold.”
Emefiele said: “So now when we
say, those who say we should reopen our borders because they say it’s creating
problems, what would happen is that when you reopen the borders again right,
those smuggled items will come in our millers will no longer be able to sell
their rice, our smallholder farmers that are producing paddy will no longer be
able to sell their paddy and our poultry farmers can no longer sell their
poultry.”
Virtually every state government
has also commended the CBN governor’s bold and unprecedented intervention in
agriculture in recent times.
The Governor of Kaduna State,
Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, recently applauded the CBN for the various efforts it
has so far undertaken to resuscitate key sectors of the economy, stressing that
without such a move, the ongoing revitalization of the manufacturing and
agricultural sectors would not have been possible.
He said Emefiele’s management of
the central bank was unprecedented, adding that steps were taken towards
economic rejuvenation further portrayed him as “more than a central bank
governor” and commended his contributions in developing agriculture and other
key sectors.
Moreover, Buhari had commended
and described the CBN’s ABP as crucial to lifting millions of small farmers out
of poverty as well as providing jobs for the youths.
Recently, Emefiele has tasked
policymakers in all sectors of the economy, particularly political leaders who
had witnessed “the good old days” in the country, to take up the responsibility
of ensuring that the system works again adding that the failure of the country
to implement its development plans alongside the Asians tigers, in the 1960s,
was partly responsible for its current travails.
The CBN boss, also said he would
like to be remembered as one who did his best to get the country working again
by the time he retired from public office and challenged other public office
holders to have a similar mindset- of putting the country above any selfish
interest.
He said: “We owe it as a
responsibility as policymakers whether in the educational sector, in the
banking sector, in the political arena to see to it that you contribute your
best, your quota towards changing the situation for the better in our country.”
“We need to beat our chest as
policymakers whether in education, in politics, in banking and tell yourself
that you want to reverse the situation.”
He said: “It is unthinkable and I
have been abused when we proposed exclusion of certain items, that I just went
I to a room and found different things and I took toothpicks and I said we
should not import toothpicks into Nigeria and that am I not ashamed that I am
picking toothpick?
“And true, they may be correct.
Because what does it take to produce toothpicks, ladies and gentlemen?
Toothpicks machines can be imported for less than $50,000…and yet Nigeria was
importing toothpicks.”
Continuing, he said: “Also,
pencils used in writing, Nigeria imports pencil. What does it take to produce
pencils, ladies, and gentlemen? Go to Ebonyi State, you have lead in large
quantity and today, Lead is being exported out of Ebonyi State. That is what we
did for our country.
“But what am I doing at this
lecture? I am trying to say, in the midst of these adversity lies opportunities
and all it takes is for us to stand and tell yourself that you want to do
something for your country.
“You want to do something for
yourself and for your country by extension. We express regret over what is
happening today because we said things have gone bad but can you please stand
and tell yourself in the next 15 to 20 years, we pray that we are able to turn
things around- when people are beginning to talk about policymakers of today-
that they will say positive things about what you have done for your country.
“And I tell myself that I will
try as much as possible. By the next 20 years, perhaps I am in my garden or in
my village resting and then people are expressing regrets over what
policymakers didn’t do. I will beat myself and say I did my best.”
Local rice
industry may collapse due to smuggling of foreign rice
Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The Federal Government has been
advised to thoroughly suppress the smuggling foreign rice into the country in
order to prevent the collapse of the domestic rice industry.
The Social Integrity Network,
(SINET) in a statement signed at the weekend by its National Coordinator,
Mallam Ibrahim Issah, noted that while the country is reaping the benefits of
land border closure measure in terms of revenue generation and reduction of
insurgency, there are calls to reverse the policy for dubious interest.
Issah said it is unfortunate that
with the huge efforts made by local rice farmers and millers towards ensuring
that Nigeria is self-sufficient in rice production, foreign rice is still in
commercial circulation across the country.
Issah called for the
maintenance of the border closure policy in order that local manufacturers
remain in business. He noted that some of the
manufacturers have commenced operations, providing more jobs for Nigerians,
while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has invested heavily in local
manufacturing through loans.
“Unfortunately, with the huge
efforts made by rice farmers as well as rice millers towards ensuring that the
nation remains self-sufficient in the rice production, it is surprising to note
that foreign rice is already getting the ways back into the country.
“We still need to extend the
border closure policy because our fear is that if the smuggling of foreign rice
is left unchecked, many rice mills will soon collapse while investors would be
declared bankrupt, thereby opening another episode of financial distress on
banks that have provided them with loan facilities for business operations and
expansion.
“SINET was shocked and
disappointed with a news report credited to the Director-General of the
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (MAN), Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadiri, describing
the border closure policy as unsustainable, even though, he understands that
influx of foreign-made products will definitely affect local manufacturers.
“It is pertinent to note that
with the border closure, many industries have commenced operations thereby
providing more jobs for Nigerians while the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) has
invested heavily on local manufacturers by providing them with loans.
“The effect of such unwholesome
moves by some cartel will have a negative impact on the nation’s economic
drive, even when the Nigeria Customs Service and the Central Bank of Nigeria
recently rolled out the numerous economic gains of border closure while the
influx of arms and ammunitions has reduced drastically,” the SINET statement
read.
The group advised the Federal
Government to engage the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, (NSCDC) in
the taskforce operation of checking warehouses found with foreign rice and
impose stringent sanctions on culprits in the collective interest of Nigerians.
SINET commended the Federal
Government for adopting policies capable of reviving Nigeria’s economic
fortunes amidst numerous global challenges, stressing that “government’s
decision on Treasury Bill in the recent times has clearly shown that the era of
looting Tax Payers’ money is over in the country.”
The group raised concerns over attempts by some groups to mount
undue pressure on the President to re-open the Nigerian borders, saying it does
not reflect the overall interest of Nigerians, claiming that the pressure
campaign is being sponsored by economic saboteurs.
Telangana reaps benefit of
paddy procured from Food Corporation of India under Centre move
The state
exchequer saves over Rs 330 crore due to the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic)
policy.
Published: 23rd February 2020 08:55
AM | Last Updated: 23rd February 2020 08:55 AM | A+A A-
Paddy
procurement
Express News Service
HYDERABAD:
The Central government’s move allowing all state governments and union territories
to procure paddy or rice from the Food Corporation of India (FCI), following a
demand for the same from the Telangana Civil Supplies Department, has allowed
the State government exchequer to save over Rs 330 crore.
The Telangana
State Civil Supplies Department (TSCSD) took the initiative of getting the Open
Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) policy amended by the Department of Food and
Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
According to
officials from the TSCSD, the public distribution scheme falls short of around
52,000 tonnes every month. In case of additional requirements, the TSCSD was
not allowed to procure rice for the purpose of public distribution from the
FCI.
Left without
any option, the TSCSD used to procure rice from millers at a price of Rs 28/kg.
Recently, the State authorities had procured average quality rice at Rs 22/kg.
The annual additional requirement of rice is estimated at over six lakh tonnes.
The latest
amendment has enabled the Civil Supplies Department to draw rice locally from
the FCI godowns. As and when they wish to procure the rice/paddy, the TSCSD has
to file a requisition through e-auction to get it sanctioned.
Speaking to
Express, Nagender Reddy, General Manager (Marketing), said, "Because of
the TSCSD, other states in the country are now reaping benefits. It is all
thanks to the efforts of Civil Supplies Department Chairman Mareddy Srinivas
Reddy and Commissioner P Satyanarayana Reddy."
Pointing out
that it was a benefit for the FCI as well, he said, “Earlier, the FCI had to
pay the godowns for maintaining the stock. There was also a chance that the
rice quality would go down over a period of time. Now, it has become a benefit
to both departments as it can save public money. The move also cuts short the
transport expenditure as we procure rice from the closest godowns.
Potentials unbound
Agricultural machinery
Faisal Mahmud, Dhaka
Nowadays, it is rare to see land being ploughed by oxen pulling
a yoke because automation has taken over 95 per cent of that job. Because of
that, an agricultural machinery market worth of Tk 10,000–12,0000 crore has
developed in Bangladesh. Farming machines are mostly used in preparing land
before planting crops. Power tillers and tractors are used to plough 90 to 95
per cent of farmland here in the country.The number of farm labourers is also dropping because of overall progress in education and a rise in income. Experts say the use of machines has increased mainly to cut costs. Educated youths who have taken up farming as a profession are giving importance to automation. Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) officials, machinery importers and manufacturers say automation can halve the cost of crop production. They also say that farmers have to spend between Tk12,000 and Tk13,000 per acre of land if they use the traditional method for producing crops.
Still an import-based sector
Machine manufacturers, importers
and officials of the agriculture ministry and the DAE say that the share of
locally produced farming equipment is only Tk 300–350 crore in the Tk10,000
crore to Tk12,000 crore market. A study by the Bangladesh Agricultural
University (BAU) says Bangladesh imports roughly 68 per cent of agro-machinery.
Tractors, power tillers, reapers, shallow machines are among 200 types of farm
machinery imported from India, China and Taiwan, the study reveals.
The report, titled “Passage of
Agro Machinery in Bangladesh and Government Initiatives”, has been prepared by
Professor Monjurul Alam of the department of farm power and machinery of BAU.
The report says the agro
machinery market reached US$ 1.2 billion or Tk 9,600 crore in 2017, of which
local manufacturers had 32 per cent share.
Imports from India, Taiwan,
China, Korea, Japan, and Germany meet 68 per cent of the demand for which the
country counted Tk 6,528 crore in expenses.
Growth of farm machinery sales is 20 per cent year-on-year, according to the report.
The report also says local
manufacturers are dominating the spare parts market with more than 60 per cent
share.
The study says five segments
related to farming have been mechanized significantly out of key eleven tasks
in the country.
It shows that plough, irrigation,
threshing, weed removing and pesticide application have been mechanized by 90
per cent, 63 per cent, 65 per cent, 80 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.
But fertilizer application,
plantation, harvesting, crop drying, and packaging to storing are yet to be
modernized as only 0.1 to 6.0 per cent land is using machinery for such
purposes, it says.
The report shows farmers in the country now use 35,000 tractors, 0.7 million power tillers, 0.35 million units of drum threshers and 1.7 million irrigation pumps.
Only 400 rice planters, 500
reapers, 200 combine harvesters and 2,000 rice shattering machines are being
used in the country, it said.
Usage of local machinery
declining
Alimul Ehsan Chowdhury, president
of the Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Association, told The Independent
that the purchase of agricultural equipment depended on government subsidies
and the financial capacity of farmers.
“The sale of tractors has fallen
because farmers did not get a fair price for paddy in the last boro season,” he
added.
In the last four years, the
market share for local manufacturers dropped by 15 to 20 per cent because of a
government subsidy on imported agriculture machinery.
Alimul said, “There are some 70
medium to big workshops in the country. Our sales are falling because the full
subsidy is going towards imported machinery, so we are losing the market.”
He said that government
initiative is needed to boost the production of local agro machinery.
Alimul said the national
agricultural policy 2013 put emphasis on farm machinery manufacturing, calling
for increased funding for research to increase local production.
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Foundation executive director Dr Wais Kabir told The Independent that apart from the universities and government research organizations, the private sector should be encouraged to invest and innovate.
The investors and innovators in
Bogra, Sylhet, Natore, Dhaka and elsewhere in the country have brought a silent
revolution to farm equipment manufacturing and assembling, he said.
They should be encouraged through
government policy support like cheap loans, research allocation, and market
promotion, he said.
Government support on automation
The emphasis on automation in
cultivation started in 2010. The government took up a Tk150 crore project to
give subsidies to farmers to buy machinery, thereby creating a demand for
tractors and power tillers.
In the second phase, the
government took up a Tk 339 crore project in the 2012–13 fiscal year to give
farmers between 25 per cent to 70 per cent subsidies, depending on size of
land, to buy agricultural equipment.
Sheikh Md Nazimuddin, project
director of the Enhancement of Crop Production Through Farm Mechanization
Project Phase-2, attributed the slow progress in the use of heavy machinery to
a lack of skilled manpower.
“Alongside, a backward linkage
necessary for servicing machinery has not been properly built up yet,” he
added.
The good thing is many people are
getting trained in the use of mechanical equipment.
Nazimuddin said they were emphasizing increased use of heavy machinery costing between Tk 30 lakh and Tk 35 lakh.
Explaining the difficulties in
using heavy equipment, he said, “There is a problem with moving heavy machines
in rural areas because the roads there are not designed for them.”
The government is going to stress
the import of heavy machinery in the third phase.
Even though the project has
ended, the government gave Tk 400 crore in subsidies in the 2019–20 fiscal year
to increase the use of combine harvesters, reapers and transplanters. From now
on, the government will give 60 per cent subsidy on the price of these three
types of machines.
Where equipment is used the most
Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions
are leading in the use of agricultural equipment. Alongside tractors and power
tillers, farmers use threshers, reapers, combine harvesters, rice transplanters
and some other types of heavy machinery.
There are three categories of
threshers—power threshers, paddle threshers and open drum threshers. There is a
high use of engine-run power threshers in Rajshahi division, while paddle
threshers are used more in the Rangpur division.
Barishal division—mostly a
coastal division—lags behind the most because the use of power tillers and
tractors is still at an initial stage there.
Md Badruzzaman Muslimi, a DAE
official and the person-in-charge of the monitoring and evaluation of the
Enhancement of Crop Production Through Farm Mechanisation Project Phase-2,
said, “We did not get much time before Bulbul hit the coastal areas. Had heavy
machines for harvesting paddy been available there, paddy in some coastal
regions could have been harvested quickly— something that is not possible by
using the traditional method of reaping.”
Rice farmers lose P68B in 2019, double than gains of consumers, says
group
Published February 22, 2020 1:25pm
By
TED CORDERO, GMA News
The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) claimed
that rice farmers lost a total of P68.18 billion in 2019, double than what
consumers saved due to lower prices of the grain in the first year of
implementation of the Rice Tariffication law.
According to FFF's study, the average retail
price of regular milled rice (RMR) declined by P2.61 per kilo in 2019 from
2018, while the price for well-milled rice (WMR) went down by P1.99 per kilo.
If the decline in the per kilogram of prices of
RMR and WMR will be multiplied by rice consumption volume of 9.466 million
metric tons, it will result in P34.16 billion savings or gains for rice
consumers.
On the other hand, the average farmgate price
of palay declined by P3.62 to P16.78 per kilo from P20.40 per kilo in 2018.
If the palay price difference of P3.62 will be
multiplied by the palay production volume of 18.814 million metric tons, it
will result in total losses to rice producers amounting to P68.18 billion.
RELATED CONTENT
The Rice Tariffication law, enacted in 2019,
removed the quantitative restrictions and most government controls on rice
imports.
An estimated three million tons of imported
rice entered the country during the year, effectively making the Philippines
the largest rice importer in the world in 2019, according to FFF.
“The results of the first year of RTL
implementation are totally the opposite of what the proponents of RTL were
promising," Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager, said.
“They were arguing that there are more
consumers than producers, and that many farmers were in fact net consumers of
rice. A Cabinet Secretary was even quoted as saying the RTL was a ‘no brainer’
because the gains of consumers in terms of lower rice prices would surely
outweigh the losses of farmers from lower farmgate prices. Official data now
indicates that they were overly optimistic, if not mistaken, in their
projections," Montemayor said.
The FFF reiterated its call for a thorough review
of the Rice Tariffication Law and the early amendment of the law as deemed
necessary.
The group also urged the government to urgently
review and upgrade its interventions to help farmers cope with the fall in
palay prices.
“You cannot brush off what has happened so far
as simple ‘birth pains’ and ask farmers to suffer a little bit more before the
law takes effect. The farmers have already lost billions of pesos, and the
consumers have not gained the benefits promised to them," Montemayor said. —KG, GMA
News
Show
comments
Filtered By: Money
MONEY
DOE: No
power plants maintenance this summer to ensure sufficient supply
Published February 22, 2020 9:48am
The
Department of Energy (DOE) on Saturday said it will not allow power generation
plants to schedule their maintenance shutdown during the summer in a bid to
ensure that power supply is sufficient and to prevent outages.
"Isa
po sa action plan natin, pinagbawal natin lahat ng maintenance during
summer," DOE-Electric Power Industry Management Bureau Director Mario
Marasigan said in an interview on Dobol sa News TV aired on GMA News TV.
"'Yung
mga critical na planta dapat gawin ang kanilang preventive maintenance bago pa
lang mag-summer," Marasigan said, adding that maintenance activities could
also be done by power generation firms by June.
The
Energy official noted that only hydroelectric power plants would be allowed to
conduct maintenance shutdown since water supply running their power generators
is usually thin during the dry season.
Assuming
that power supply is sufficient due to the measures undertaken by the DOE
during summer, Marasigan said the earlier projection of red alert from April to May could be
averted.
RELATED CONTENT
"Nu'ng
una po kasi ang worst scenario na nakikita natin sa buwan po ng Abril puwede
tayong magkaroon ng red alert. Pero sa kasalukuyan po, wala na po tayong red
alert by April at hahaba po na 'yan hanggang June," he said.
Among
the measures being undertaken by Energy authorities to prevent power
disruptions is the activation of Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which gives
distribution utilities (DUs), such as Meralco and implementing electric
cooperatives the option to engage with their high load consumers to voluntarily
reduce their electricity demand, and/or use their respective back-up generator
sets to serve their power requirements to help ease demand on the grid.
"Wala
po kaming nakikitang magkakaroon ng rotation brownout. Ang hindi namin masabi
ay kung may mga plantang biglang magkaproblema. Pero may nakahanda naman tayong
mga contingency kung sakaling mangyari ito," Marasigan said. —KG, GMA
News
Stocks slip as coronavirus fears spur safe-haven buying
Published February 22, 2020 7:08am
By
HERBERT LASH, Reuters
NEW YORK - Global equity markets slumped on
Friday as the fast-spreading coronavirus drove investors into safe havens, with
gold hitting a fresh seven-year high and the yield on the 30-year US Treasury
bond sliding to an all-time low.
The virus spread to hundreds of people in
Chinese prisons, contributing to a jump in reported cases beyond the epicenter
in Hubei province, including 100 more in South Korea.
Cases of the disease have turned up in 26
countries and territories outside mainland China, killing 11 people, according
to a Reuters tally. According to data, mainland China had 892 new confirmed
cases and 118 deaths, with most of those in Hubei's provincial capital Wuhan,
which remains under virtual lockdown.
The CBOE market volatility index, the market's
"fear gauge," rose just shy of 10% in the biggest single-day jump
since late January. The VIX closed at its highest level since Feb. 3.
Crude oil prices slid about 1% and the U.S.
dollar fell across the board.
Heading into the weekend, investors decided to
book profits on the possibility of more coronavirus news, said JJ Kinahan,
chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade.
The coronavirus has become this year's worry,
much as the U.S.-China trade war was in 2019, he said.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed
0.75% and emerging market stocks lost 1.05%.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.49% as
shares fell from record highs on Thursday. A raft of disappointing earnings
added to fears about the global impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
Auto stocks led losses in Europe, down 1.9% in
their worst session in four weeks. The sector is the worst performing among
major regional sectors, off more than 8% so far this year.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average fell 227.57 points, or 0.78%, to 28,992.41. The S&P 500 lost 35.48
points, or 1.05%, to 3,337.75 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 174.38 points,
or 1.79%, to 9,576.59.
US stocks were beaten down by concerns about
the virus and after data showed American business activity stalled in February,
signaling a contraction for the first time since 2016.
US chipmakers fell sharply. The Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index slid 2.99%, on track for its worst one-day drop since Jan
31, when fears about the health crisis pummeled markets.
A flash reading of the IHS Markit services
sector Purchasing Managers' Index dropped to its lowest level since October
2013. The manufacturing sector also clocked its lowest reading since August.
Heavyweights Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and
Apple Inc led U.S. stocks lower for a second straight day.
The dollar index fell 0.532%, with the euro up
0.6% to $1.0848.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.47% versus the
greenback at 111.62 per dollar.
While markets had largely brushed aside fears
of long-term economic damage from the virus, a steady drip of new cases in
countries beyond China has kept concerns alive.
Yields on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury
note fell below 1.5% for the first time since early September, while the
30-year long bond fell to 1.886%, an all-time low.
The 10-year note rose 17/32 in price to push
its yield down to 1.4696%.
Ten-year German government bond yields fell to
a four-month low earlier at -0.464%, but rebounded after the IHS Markit Composite
Flash PMI for the euro zone showed business activity accelerated more than
expected in February.
Yields closed at -0.43%
Oil prices slid as investors fretted about
crude demand being pinched by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, while
leading producers appeared to be in no rush to curb output.
Brent crude settled down 81 cents at $58.50 a
barrel. US crude dropped 50 cents to settle at $53.38 a barrel.
US gold futures settled up 1.7% at $1,648.80 an
ounce.
Spot gold rose 3.7% for the week, marking its
biggest weekly gain since early August. —
Reuters
Rice farmers lose P68B in 2019, double than gains of consumers, says
group
Published February 22, 2020 1:25pm
By TED CORDERO, GMA News
The Federation of Free Farmers
(FFF) claimed that rice farmers lost a total of P68.18 billion in 2019, double
than what consumers saved due to lower prices of the grain in the first year of
implementation of the Rice Tariffication law.
According to FFF's study, the
average retail price of regular milled rice (RMR) declined by P2.61 per kilo in
2019 from 2018, while the price for well-milled rice (WMR) went down by P1.99
per kilo.
If the decline in the per
kilogram of prices of RMR and WMR will be multiplied by rice consumption volume
of 9.466 million metric tons, it will result in P34.16 billion savings or gains
for rice consumers.
On the other hand, the average
farmgate price of palay declined by P3.62 to P16.78 per kilo from P20.40 per
kilo in 2018.
If the palay price difference of
P3.62 will be multiplied by the palay production volume of 18.814 million
metric tons, it will result in total losses to rice producers amounting to
P68.18 billion.
RELATED CONTENT
The Rice Tariffication law, enacted in 2019, removed the
quantitative restrictions and most government controls on rice imports.
An estimated three million tons of imported rice entered the
country during the year, effectively making the Philippines the largest rice
importer in the world in 2019, according to FFF.
“The results of the first year of RTL implementation are totally
the opposite of what the proponents of RTL were promising," Raul
Montemayor, FFF national manager, said.
“They were arguing that there are more consumers than producers,
and that many farmers were in fact net consumers of rice. A Cabinet Secretary
was even quoted as saying the RTL was a ‘no brainer’ because the gains of
consumers in terms of lower rice prices would surely outweigh the losses of
farmers from lower farmgate prices. Official data now indicates that they were
overly optimistic, if not mistaken, in their projections," Montemayor
said.
The FFF reiterated its call for a thorough review of the Rice
Tariffication Law and the early amendment of the law as deemed necessary.
The group also urged the government to urgently review and
upgrade its interventions to help farmers cope with the fall in palay prices.
“You cannot brush off what has happened so far as simple ‘birth
pains’ and ask farmers to suffer a little bit more before the law takes effect.
The farmers have already lost billions of pesos, and the consumers have not
gained the benefits promised to them," Montemayor said. —KG, GMA
News
Show comments
Filtered By: Money
MONEY
DOE: No power plants maintenance this summer to ensure
sufficient supply
Published February 22, 2020 9:48am
The Department of Energy (DOE) on Saturday said it will not
allow power generation plants to schedule their maintenance shutdown during the
summer in a bid to ensure that power supply is sufficient and to prevent
outages.
"Isa po sa action plan natin, pinagbawal natin lahat ng
maintenance during summer," DOE-Electric Power Industry Management Bureau
Director Mario Marasigan said in an interview on Dobol sa News TV aired on GMA
News TV.
"'Yung mga critical na planta dapat gawin ang kanilang
preventive maintenance bago pa lang mag-summer," Marasigan said, adding
that maintenance activities could also be done by power generation firms by
June.
The Energy official noted that only hydroelectric power plants
would be allowed to conduct maintenance shutdown since water supply running
their power generators is usually thin during the dry season.
Assuming that power supply is sufficient due to the measures
undertaken by the DOE during summer, Marasigan said the earlier projection
of red alert from April to May could be
averted.
RELATED CONTENT
"Nu'ng una po kasi ang worst scenario na nakikita natin sa
buwan po ng Abril puwede tayong magkaroon ng red alert. Pero sa kasalukuyan po,
wala na po tayong red alert by April at hahaba po na 'yan hanggang June,"
he said.
Among the measures being undertaken by Energy authorities to
prevent power disruptions is the activation of Interruptible Load Program
(ILP), which gives distribution utilities (DUs), such as Meralco and
implementing electric cooperatives the option to engage with their high load
consumers to voluntarily reduce their electricity demand, and/or use their
respective back-up generator sets to serve their power requirements to help
ease demand on the grid.
"Wala po kaming nakikitang magkakaroon ng rotation
brownout. Ang hindi namin masabi ay kung may mga plantang biglang
magkaproblema. Pero may nakahanda naman tayong mga contingency kung sakaling
mangyari ito," Marasigan said. —KG, GMA News
Stocks
slip as coronavirus fears spur safe-haven buying
Published February 22, 2020 7:08am
By HERBERT LASH, Reuters
NEW YORK - Global equity markets
slumped on Friday as the fast-spreading coronavirus drove investors into safe
havens, with gold hitting a fresh seven-year high and the yield on the 30-year
US Treasury bond sliding to an all-time low.
The virus spread to hundreds of
people in Chinese prisons, contributing to a jump in reported cases beyond the
epicenter in Hubei province, including 100 more in South Korea.
Cases of the disease have turned
up in 26 countries and territories outside mainland China, killing 11 people,
according to a Reuters tally. According to data, mainland China had 892 new
confirmed cases and 118 deaths, with most of those in Hubei's provincial
capital Wuhan, which remains under virtual lockdown.
The CBOE market volatility index,
the market's "fear gauge," rose just shy of 10% in the biggest
single-day jump since late January. The VIX closed at its highest level since
Feb. 3.
Crude oil prices slid about 1%
and the U.S. dollar fell across the board.
Heading into the weekend, investors
decided to book profits on the possibility of more coronavirus news, said JJ
Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade.
The coronavirus has become this
year's worry, much as the U.S.-China trade war was in 2019, he said.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the
globe shed 0.75% and emerging market stocks lost 1.05%.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index
lost 0.49% as shares fell from record highs on Thursday. A raft of
disappointing earnings added to fears about the global impact of the
coronavirus outbreak.
Auto stocks led losses in Europe,
down 1.9% in their worst session in four weeks. The sector is the worst
performing among major regional sectors, off more than 8% so far this year.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones
Industrial Average fell 227.57 points, or 0.78%, to 28,992.41. The S&P 500
lost 35.48 points, or 1.05%, to 3,337.75 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped
174.38 points, or 1.79%, to 9,576.59.
US stocks were beaten down by
concerns about the virus and after data showed American business activity stalled
in February, signaling a contraction for the first time since 2016.
US chipmakers fell sharply. The
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid 2.99%, on track for its worst one-day
drop since Jan 31, when fears about the health crisis pummeled markets.
A flash reading of the IHS Markit
services sector Purchasing Managers' Index dropped to its lowest level since
October 2013. The manufacturing sector also clocked its lowest reading since
August.
Heavyweights Microsoft Corp,
Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc led U.S. stocks lower for a second straight day.
The dollar index fell 0.532%,
with the euro up 0.6% to $1.0848.
The Japanese yen strengthened
0.47% versus the greenback at 111.62 per dollar.
While markets had largely brushed
aside fears of long-term economic damage from the virus, a steady drip of new
cases in countries beyond China has kept concerns alive.
Yields on the benchmark 10-year
US Treasury note fell below 1.5% for the first time since early September,
while the 30-year long bond fell to 1.886%, an all-time low.
The 10-year note rose 17/32 in
price to push its yield down to 1.4696%.
Ten-year German government bond
yields fell to a four-month low earlier at -0.464%, but rebounded after the IHS
Markit Composite Flash PMI for the euro zone showed business activity
accelerated more than expected in February.
Yields closed at -0.43%
Oil prices slid as investors
fretted about crude demand being pinched by the impact of the coronavirus
outbreak, while leading producers appeared to be in no rush to curb output.
Brent crude settled down 81 cents
at $58.50 a barrel. US crude dropped 50 cents to settle at $53.38 a barrel.
US gold futures settled up 1.7%
at $1,648.80 an ounce.
Spot gold rose 3.7% for the week,
marking its biggest weekly gain since early August. —
Rice farmers lose P68B in
2019, double than gains of consumers,
says group Published February 22, 2020
1:25pm By TED CORDERO,
GMA News The
Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) claimed that rice farmers lost a total of
P68.18 billion in 2019, double than what consumers saved due to lower prices of
the grain in the first year of implementation of the Rice Tariffication law.
According to FFF's study, the average retail price of regular milled rice (RMR)
declined by P2.61 per kilo in 2019 from 2018, while the price for well-milled
rice (WMR) went down by P1.99 per kilo. If the decline in the per kilogram of
prices of RMR and WMR will be multiplied by rice consumption volume of 9.466
million metric tons, it will result in P34.16 billion savings or gains for rice
consumers. On the other hand, the average farmgate price of palay declined by
P3.62 to P16.78 per kilo from P20.40 per kilo in 2018. If the palay price
difference of P3.62 will be multiplied by the palay production volume of 18.814
million metric tons, it will result in total losses to rice producers amounting
to P68.18 billion. RELATED CONTENT Public confused by govt rice import policy -
FFF The Rice Tariffication law, enacted in 2019, removed the quantitative
restrictions and most government controls on rice imports. An estimated three
million tons of imported rice entered the country during the year, effectively
making the Philippines the largest rice importer in the world in 2019,
according to FFF. “The results of the first year of RTL implementation are
totally the opposite of what the proponents of RTL were promising," Raul
Montemayor, FFF national manager, said. “They were arguing that there are more
consumers than producers, and that many farmers were in fact net consumers of
rice. A Cabinet Secretary was even quoted as saying the RTL was a ‘no brainer’
because the gains of consumers in terms of lower rice prices would surely
outweigh the losses of farmers from lower farmgate prices. Official data now
indicates that they were overly optimistic, if not mistaken, in their
projections," Montemayor said. The FFF reiterated its call for a thorough
review of the Rice Tariffication Law and the early amendment of the law as
deemed necessary. The group also urged the government to urgently review and
upgrade its interventions to help farmers cope with the fall in palay prices.
“You cannot brush off what has happened so far as simple ‘birth pains’ and ask
farmers to suffer a little bit more before the law takes effect. The farmers
have already lost billions of pesos, and the consumers have not gained the
benefits promised to them," Montemayor said. —KG, GMA News Show
comments Filtered By: Money MONEY DOE: No power plants maintenance this summer
to ensure sufficient supply Published February 22, 2020 9:48am The Department
of Energy (DOE) on Saturday said it will not allow power generation plants to
schedule their maintenance shutdown during the summer in a bid to ensure that
power supply is sufficient and to prevent outages. "Isa po sa action plan
natin, pinagbawal natin lahat ng maintenance during summer," DOE-Electric
Power Industry Management Bureau Director Mario Marasigan said in an interview
on Dobol sa News TV aired on GMA News TV. "'Yung mga critical na planta
dapat gawin ang kanilang preventive maintenance bago pa lang mag-summer,"
Marasigan said, adding that maintenance activities could also be done by power
generation firms by June. The Energy official noted that only hydroelectric
power plants would be allowed to conduct maintenance shutdown since water
supply running their power generators is usually thin during the dry season.
Assuming that power supply is sufficient due to the measures undertaken by the
DOE during summer, Marasigan said the earlier projection of red alert from April
to May could be averted. RELATED CONTENT DOE mulls proposing another
holiday for canvassing of votes "Nu'ng una po kasi ang worst scenario na
nakikita natin sa buwan po ng Abril puwede tayong magkaroon ng red alert. Pero
sa kasalukuyan po, wala na po tayong red alert by April at hahaba po na 'yan
hanggang June," he said. Among the measures being undertaken by Energy
authorities to prevent power disruptions is the activation of Interruptible
Load Program (ILP), which gives distribution utilities (DUs), such as Meralco
and implementing electric cooperatives the option to engage with their high
load consumers to voluntarily reduce their electricity demand, and/or use their
respective back-up generator sets to serve their power requirements to help
ease demand on the grid. "Wala po kaming nakikitang magkakaroon ng
rotation brownout. Ang hindi namin masabi ay kung may mga plantang biglang
magkaproblema. Pero may nakahanda naman tayong mga contingency kung sakaling
mangyari ito," Marasigan said. —KG, GMA News Show comments Previous
Top Filtered By: Money MONEY GLOBAL MARKETS Stocks slip as coronavirus fears
spur safe-haven buying Published February 22, 2020 7:08am By HERBERT LASH,
Reuters NEW YORK - Global equity markets slumped on Friday as the
fast-spreading coronavirus drove investors into safe havens, with gold hitting
a fresh seven-year high and the yield on the 30-year US Treasury bond sliding
to an all-time low. The virus spread to hundreds of people in Chinese prisons,
contributing to a jump in reported cases beyond the epicenter in Hubei
province, including 100 more in South Korea. Cases of the disease have turned
up in 26 countries and territories outside mainland China, killing 11 people,
according to a Reuters tally. According to data, mainland China had 892 new
confirmed cases and 118 deaths, with most of those in Hubei's provincial
capital Wuhan, which remains under virtual lockdown. The CBOE market volatility
index, the market's "fear gauge," rose just shy of 10% in the biggest
single-day jump since late January. The VIX closed at its highest level since
Feb. 3. Crude oil prices slid about 1% and the U.S. dollar fell across the
board. Heading into the weekend, investors decided to book profits on the
possibility of more coronavirus news, said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist
at TD Ameritrade. The coronavirus has become this year's worry, much as the
U.S.-China trade war was in 2019, he said. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the
globe shed 0.75% and emerging market stocks lost 1.05%. The pan-European STOXX
600 index lost 0.49% as shares fell from record highs on Thursday. A raft of
disappointing earnings added to fears about the global impact of the
coronavirus outbreak. Auto stocks led losses in Europe, down 1.9% in their
worst session in four weeks. The sector is the worst performing among major
regional sectors, off more than 8% so far this year. On Wall Street, the Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell 227.57 points, or 0.78%, to 28,992.41. The
S&P 500 lost 35.48 points, or 1.05%, to 3,337.75 and the Nasdaq Composite
dropped 174.38 points, or 1.79%, to 9,576.59. US stocks were beaten down by
concerns about the virus and after data showed American business activity
stalled in February, signaling a contraction for the first time since 2016. US
chipmakers fell sharply. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid 2.99%, on
track for its worst one-day drop since Jan 31, when fears about the health
crisis pummeled markets. A flash reading of the IHS Markit services sector
Purchasing Managers' Index dropped to its lowest level since October 2013. The
manufacturing sector also clocked its lowest reading since August. Heavyweights
Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc led U.S. stocks lower for a second
straight day. The dollar index fell 0.532%, with the euro up 0.6% to $1.0848.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.47% versus the greenback at 111.62 per dollar.
While markets had largely brushed aside fears of long-term economic damage from
the virus, a steady drip of new cases in countries beyond China has kept concerns
alive. Yields on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note fell below 1.5% for the
first time since early September, while the 30-year long bond fell to 1.886%,
an all-time low. The 10-year note rose 17/32 in price to push its yield down to
1.4696%. Ten-year German government bond yields fell to a four-month low
earlier at -0.464%, but rebounded after the IHS Markit Composite Flash PMI for
the euro zone showed business activity accelerated more than expected in
February. Yields closed at -0.43% Oil prices slid as investors fretted about
crude demand being pinched by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, while
leading producers appeared to be in no rush to curb output. Brent crude settled
down 81 cents at $58.50 a barrel. US crude dropped 50 cents to settle at $53.38
a barrel. US gold futures settled up 1.7% at $1,648.80 an ounce. Spot gold rose
3.7% for the week, marking its biggest weekly gain since early August. —
Reuters Show comments Previous Top LOADING CONTENT ◀
Rice farmers lose P68B in 2019, double than gains of consumers, says group
Published February 22, 2020 1:25pm By TED CORDERO, GMA News The Federation of
Free Farmers (FFF) claimed that rice farmers lost a total of P68.18 billion in
2019, double than what consumers saved due to lower prices of the grain in the
first year of implementation of the Rice Tariffication law. According to FFF's
study, the average retail price of regular milled rice (RMR) declined by P2.61
per kilo in 2019 from 2018, while the price for well-milled rice (WMR) went
down by P1.99 per kilo. If the decline in the per kilogram of prices of RMR and
WMR will be multiplied by rice consumption volume of 9.466 million metric tons,
it will result in P34.16 billion savings or gains for rice consumers. On the
other hand, the average farmgate price of palay declined by P3.62 to P16.78 per
kilo from P20.40 per kilo in 2018. If the palay price difference of P3.62 will
be multiplied by the palay production volume of 18.814 million metric tons, it will
result in total losses to rice producers amounting to P68.18 billion. RELATED
CONTENT Public confused by govt rice import policy - FFF The Rice Tariffication
law, enacted in 2019, removed the quantitative restrictions and most government
controls on rice imports. An estimated three million tons of imported rice
entered the country during the year, effectively making the Philippines the
largest rice importer in the world in 2019, according to FFF. “The results of
the first year of RTL implementation are totally the opposite of what the
proponents of RTL were promising," Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager,
said. “They were arguing that there are more consumers than producers, and that
many farmers were in fact net consumers of rice. A Cabinet Secretary was even
quoted as saying the RTL was a ‘no brainer’ because the gains of consumers in
terms of lower rice prices would surely outweigh the losses of farmers from
lower farmgate prices. Official data now indicates that they were overly
optimistic, if not mistaken, in their projections," Montemayor said. The
FFF reiterated its call for a thorough review of the Rice Tariffication Law and
the early amendment of the law as deemed necessary. The group also urged the
government to urgently review and upgrade its interventions to help farmers
cope with the fall in palay prices. “You cannot brush off what has happened so
far as simple ‘birth pains’ and ask farmers to suffer a little bit more before
the law takes effect. The farmers have already lost billions of pesos, and the
consumers have not gained the benefits promised to them," Montemayor
said. —KG, GMA News Show comments Filtered By: Money MONEY DOE: No power
plants maintenance this summer to ensure sufficient supply Published February
22, 2020 9:48am The Department of Energy (DOE) on Saturday said it will not
allow power generation plants to schedule their maintenance shutdown during the
summer in a bid to ensure that power supply is sufficient and to prevent
outages. "Isa po sa action plan natin, pinagbawal natin lahat ng
maintenance during summer," DOE-Electric Power Industry Management Bureau
Director Mario Marasigan said in an interview on Dobol sa News TV aired on GMA
News TV. "'Yung mga critical na planta dapat gawin ang kanilang preventive
maintenance bago pa lang mag-summer," Marasigan said, adding that
maintenance activities could also be done by power generation firms by June.
The Energy official noted that only hydroelectric power plants would be allowed
to conduct maintenance shutdown since water supply running their power
generators is usually thin during the dry season. Assuming that power supply is
sufficient due to the measures undertaken by the DOE during summer, Marasigan
said the earlier projection of red alert from April to May could be averted.
RELATED CONTENT DOE mulls proposing another holiday for canvassing of votes
"Nu'ng una po kasi ang worst scenario na nakikita natin sa buwan po ng
Abril puwede tayong magkaroon ng red alert. Pero sa kasalukuyan po, wala na po
tayong red alert by April at hahaba po na 'yan hanggang June," he said.
Among the measures being undertaken by Energy authorities to prevent power
disruptions is the activation of Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which gives
distribution utilities (DUs), such as Meralco and implementing electric
cooperatives the option to engage with their high load consumers to voluntarily
reduce their electricity demand, and/or use their respective back-up generator
sets to serve their power requirements to help ease demand on the grid.
"Wala po kaming nakikitang magkakaroon ng rotation brownout. Ang hindi
namin masabi ay kung may mga plantang biglang magkaproblema.
Pero may nakahanda naman tayong mga
contingency kung sakaling mangyari ito," Marasigan said.
—KG, GMA News
Show comments Previous Top Filtered By: Money MONEY GLOBAL MARKETS Stocks slip
as coronavirus fears spur safe-haven buying Published February 22, 2020 7:08am
By HERBERT LASH, Reuters NEW YORK - Global equity markets slumped on Friday as
the fast-spreading coronavirus drove investors into safe havens, with gold
hitting a fresh seven-year high and the yield on the 30-year US Treasury bond
sliding to an all-time low. The virus spread to hundreds of people in Chinese
prisons, contributing to a jump in reported cases beyond the epicenter in Hubei
province, including 100 more in South Korea. Cases of the disease have turned
up in 26 countries and territories outside mainland China, killing 11 people,
according to a Reuters tally. According to data, mainland China had 892 new
confirmed cases and 118 deaths, with most of those in Hubei's provincial
capital Wuhan, which remains under virtual lockdown. The CBOE market volatility
index, the market's "fear gauge," rose just shy of 10% in the biggest
single-day jump since late January. The VIX closed at its highest level since
Feb. 3. Crude oil prices slid about 1% and the U.S. dollar fell across the
board. Heading into the weekend, investors decided to book profits on the
possibility of more coronavirus news, said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist
at TD Ameritrade. The coronavirus has become this year's worry, much as the
U.S.-China trade war was in 2019, he said. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the
globe shed 0.75% and emerging market stocks lost 1.05%. The pan-European STOXX
600 index lost 0.49% as shares fell from record highs on Thursday. A raft of
disappointing earnings added to fears about the global impact of the
coronavirus outbreak. Auto stocks led losses in Europe, down 1.9% in their
worst session in four weeks. The sector is the worst performing among major
regional sectors, off more than 8% so far this year. On Wall Street, the Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell 227.57 points, or 0.78%, to 28,992.41. The
S&P 500 lost 35.48 points, or 1.05%, to 3,337.75 and the Nasdaq Composite
dropped 174.38 points, or 1.79%, to 9,576.59. US stocks were beaten down by
concerns about the virus and after data showed American business activity
stalled in February, signaling a contraction for the first time since 2016. US
chipmakers fell sharply. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slid 2.99%, on
track for its worst one-day drop since Jan 31, when fears about the health
crisis pummeled markets. A flash reading of the IHS Markit services sector
Purchasing Managers' Index dropped to its lowest level since October 2013. The
manufacturing sector also clocked its lowest reading since August. Heavyweights
Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc led U.S. stocks lower for a second
straight day. The dollar index fell 0.532%, with the euro up 0.6% to $1.0848.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.47% versus the greenback at 111.62 per dollar.
While markets had largely brushed aside fears of long-term economic damage from
the virus, a steady drip of new cases in countries beyond China has kept
concerns alive. Yields on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note fell below
1.5% for the first time since early September, while the 30-year long bond fell
to 1.886%, an all-time low. The 10-year note rose 17/32 in price to push its
yield down to 1.4696%. Ten-year German government bond yields fell to a
four-month low earlier at -0.464%, but rebounded after the IHS Markit Composite
Flash PMI for the euro zone showed business activity accelerated more than
expected in February. Yields closed at -0.43% Oil prices slid as investors
fretted about crude demand being pinched by the impact of the coronavirus
outbreak, while leading producers appeared to be in no rush to curb output.
Brent crude settled down 81 cents at $58.50 a barrel. US crude dropped 50 cents
to settle at $53.38 a barrel. US gold futures settled up 1.7% at $1,648.80 an
ounce. Spot gold rose 3.7% for the week, marking its biggest weekly gain since
early August. — Reuters Show comments Previous Top LOADING CONTENT ◀
ShareThis Copy and Paste
Genome editing stays stuck in a rut
Bhagirath Choudhary, Yashika Kapoor & CD Mayee |
Updated on February 21, 2020 Published
on February 21, 2020
In the beginning of 2020, India’s
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) released the much-awaited draft guidelines on
regulation and risk assessment of genome-edited organisms. Genome editing
technologies such as CRISPR hold potential for many sectors of the Indian
economy, where agriculture assumes prominence in the mostly agrarian society.
Since the advent of disruptive
genome editing technologies in 2013, the US and China have made great leaps in
therapeutics and agriculture. But, before taking the plunge in India, the draft
guidelines remain open for discussions. It also inspires a revisit to the
country’s editing experiments since 2013.
Lack of
original research
Sadly, the agri-biotech timeline
reveals a stark image for gene-editing technology. Although Indian scientists
have published voluminous papers on the topic, talent remains limited to
assessment and review of the original research undertaken across the globe.
Likewise, Indian agri-biotech labs remain devoid of original research work,
except for a patent filed by ICGEB using the CRISPR scissors to yield herbicide
tolerant maize varieties.
So, why the need to move forward
and promote the genome editing efforts? Genome editing tool such as CRISPR-Cas
is a simple two-component system that allows researchers to precisely edit any
sequence in the genome of an organism. Scientists can achieve precise and
cost-effective editing of any genome by guide RNA, which recognises the target
sequence, and the CRISPR-associated endonuclease (Cas) that cuts the targeted
sequence.
This is a very efficient method
of making site-specific mutations contrary to the random mutation caused by
conventional chemical or radiation technology. In nature, bacteria usages the
CRISPR system to protect themselves from invading viruses. From research to
commercial applications, the CRISPR can now be deployed in all types of
organisms such as plant and animal species, as well as to humans. It has
countless applications.
In 2018, non-browning mushrooms
with extended shelf life made way to the US markets, while nutritionally
enhanced high oleic soybean was planted on a large area. Moreover, corn with
altered starch composition, resistance to northern blight, and potatoes with
reduced black spot have also been approved. Brazil declared genome-edited
hornless cows as conventional animals.
Chinese feats
Correspondingly, in China,
glyphosate-tolerant maize, rice, and pigeon pea secured approval. In November
2018, a controversial Chinese researcher claimed to have created genome-edited
twins resistant to HIV infection. Not only the lessons from abroad underline
the benefits of tech, but the Indian story of Bt cotton is an in-house legend.
When the genome of ordinary cotton was edited through genetic modification, it
acquired unique abilities to maintain plant health by disturbing the predatory
insect’s gut.
Bt cotton plants not only became
capable of protecting themselves but also benefited farmers with higher
incomes. With a small nick in the genome, the use of insecticides was vastly
reduced. But the Bt cotton success remains confined to the cotton fields and
the Indian scientific competencies remain unexploited. Scientists in premier
genome editing labs such as ICAR, CSIR & DBT are all striving for survival
in the absence of large-scale project funds to advance genome editing in
agriculture.
Lack of
direction
Almost eight years of shying away
from the genome editing technology, which is helping developed nations feed
their populations better, has restrained the Indian potential. Bt brinjal
stands under a moratorium while Bangladesh has already approved, grown and
commercialised the crop.
Currently, the fate of dozens of
genome edited products such as maize, rice and banana under research and
development hangs in the balance. Lack of succinct policies and strategic
direction, coupled with rickety regulatory environment, hampers progress in the
filed. The current regulations on genome-edited organisms and, to no small
extent the proposed draft adopts a process-driven approach. Alternatively, the
US and other developed countries’ approach involves product-trigger, where the
novelty of the characteristic being imparted to the edited organism is
evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Yet, the draft guidelines proposed by DBT
take the process-driven approach further instead of a more desirable
product-centric approach.
Contrastingly, the process-driven
guidelines do not prescribe any safety tests for any possible unwanted changes
resulting from chemical or radiation-induced mutations. The guidelines also
leave grey areas for the categorization of edited products under Group I and
Group II categories. Additionally, the guideline is silent on cisgenic products
developed under Group III category.
Regulatory
imperatives
Instead of categorisation of
technologies, the draft guideline on genome editing should be about the
concepts, and should distinguish products based on their characteristics.
Moreover, the guideline excludes genome-edited microorganisms and thus,
fermentation products, which has myriad applications as biopesticides,
biofertilizer and biostimulants.
Once the discussions on
guidelines culminate, they will begin the eager wait to witness the possible
rectifications accepted by DBT. Hope we do not produce another rickety
regulatory guideline that drains the biotech jet and slows down the leap to a
new and sustainable future.
The authors are with South Asia
Biotechnology Centre, New Delhi
Giant Citizen Science Exercise Gives
India First Sweeping View of Its Birds
The new report was a product of
an extensive exercise undertaken by 10 research institutions and more than
15,500 birders across India.
Photo: Julian Andres Carmona
Serrato/Unsplash
22/FEB/2020
Kushal
Tharpu, a young resident of LunchaKameru village in Sumbuk block in South
Sikkim, wakes up early and heads to the village farmlands carrying a sack of
grains, accompanying by a bunch of fellow villagers. On a barren patch of hill
land, they spread the grains out and call out for peafowls. They show up
quickly enough, and begin feasting on the grains.
Tharpu’s and
his companions’ reasons for this daily activity is neither religious nor
ecological. It’s their desperate attempt to make sure hungry peafowls don’t
ravage their rice and corn fields instead.
“A couple
decades back, we didn’t have any peafowls in our area. Now, they are all over
the place and have become a menace,” Tharpu told The Wire.
“They eat up our rice and corn crops, so we offer them grains. Several farmers
have abandoned farming because of heavy crop losses due to peafowls.”
Sikkim’s
LunchaKameru isn’t the only place struggling with a higher population of
peafowls and its consequences.
A new and
unique nationwide assessment of 867 birds species in India recently reported an
increasing trend in both peafowl range expansion and its population in the
country.
“Some parts
of the country report greater levels of crop damage by peafowl – a trend that
calls for careful conflict assessment and management,” the report, entitled ‘State of India’s Birds 2020: Range, trends and conservation
status‘, reads. Researchers released it during the 13th UN
Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species, underway in
Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It was the product of an extensive exercise undertaken by
ten research institutions and more than 15,500 birders across India.
“This is the
first time such [a] national-level scientific exercise to determine both
long-term and current annual bird species trends [for 867 species] in the
country has been carried out,” Ashwin Viswanathan, a research associate with
the Nature Conservation Foundation, one of the 10 institutes involved,
told The Wire.
M.D.
Madhusudan, a conservation scientist who was also involved with preparing the
report, said, “India has a total of 1,333 birds species, of which, this study
assessed 867 species based on over 10 million records provided by thousands of
birders.”
“It was
possible to determine long-term trends, which required reliable data over a
25-year period, for 261 birds species. Since 2000, 52% of these species have
registered a decline, with 22% declining strongly,” he added.
To calculate
the prevailing annual trends – i.e. over the last five years – the researchers
had reliable data only for 146 species. “Of these, nearly 80% are declining,
with almost 50% declining strongly. Just over 6% are stable and 14% are
increasing,” the report reads.
Clearly,
many species of birds that the report has assessed have registered stronger
declines. That said, “it is remarkable that despite the availability of over 10
million records from across the country, there is still a data deficit that
does not allow us to reliably describe population trends for hundreds of birds
species,” Madhusudan said.
For example,
the report could study only 65% of the 1,333 birds species reported from India.
Of those, it had long-term data (25+ years) for fewer than a third. In the case
of current annual trends, i.e. over the last five years, reliable data was
available for just 16.8% of the birds species assessed.
“Data
deficit is a concern but this report has made a good beginning and in the
coming years, we should have more robust data on birds species trends in the
country,” Viswanathan said.
Indeed, the
report is already being celebrated for its use of citizen science to overcome
the data problem.
Birdwatchers
have a long-standing practice of noting down the species of birds they spot
while out birding. They used to do this in notebooks but of late smartphone
apps have replaced them as the logbook of choice.
eBird-India
is one such app that maintains birds species data. As part of the recent
exercise, this app was used to digitise information provided by 15,500
birdwatchers from the 1960s to 2020, and analysed to reveal the trends.
The final
assessment was based on three indices. Two were indices of change in abundance:
long-term trend (25+ years) and current annual trend (over the last five
years). The third index measured range size.
Using these
indices together with the IUCN Red List, the researchers classified each
species into different categories of conservation concern. Thus, India has 101
species of ‘high concern’, 319 species of ‘moderate concern’ and 442 species of
‘low concern’.
Species of
‘high concern’ include those whose numbers have declined considerably in the
long term and continue to decline today. Birds also found themselves in the
‘high concern’ bin if their current range has become very restricted or if
their abundance trend couldn’t be assessed while they’re listed as globally
threatened in the Red List.
All
together, this is how the researchers have been able to zero in on some good
news and lots of bad news.
The good
news first: The populations of the house sparrow, the Asian koel, the
rose-ringed parakeet and the common tailorbird are stable or increasing.
(Indeed, of the total 867 species assessed, 14.5% are either stable or
increasing.)
The bad
news: The populations of raptors, waterbirds and habitat specialists across
India, as well as birds endemic to the Western Ghats, are falling.
“The report
only indicates trends and does not investigate reasons or determinants for
decline,” Neha Sinha, a policy officer with the Bombay Natural History Society,
one of the 10 institutes (and The Wire Science‘s contributing
environment editor), said. “But if we are to speculate, raptors may be affected
by chemicals and slow poisoning. Shorebirds could be impacted by both habitat
loss as well as warming in their breeding grounds.”
“With the
exception of vultures,” Madhusudan said, “we haven’t known much about raptor
population trends in the country. A series of careful scientific studies on
vultures over the last two decades have showed that their populations had
declined precipitously due to poisoning from diclofenac, a common veterinary
drug that was often found in carcasses. Thereafter the sale of this drug was
banned.”
The report
also found that the populations of migratory species, both long-distance and
intra-subcontinent, were shrinking faster than those of resident species.
As for the
Western Ghats’ birds: “The 12 Western Ghats endemics included in this analysis
are almost 75% lower in their abundance index today than before 2000,
indicating a steep long-term decline,” the report reads.
On the flip
side, now that we know which bird species are in how much trouble, we have no
excuses to not act.
The primary
threats to birds around the world include are habitat change, mainly from
agricultural expansion and intensification, logging and increased urbanisation;
invasive species and hunting/trapping. Lesser but still significant threats
include dams and mining, linear infrastructure (roads, railways and power
lines) and pollution. Climate change acts on top of these factors and
exacerbates their effects.
“We all need
to come together to [study] the reasons for the decline and take suitable
action,” Vishwanathan said. “We need to focus on habitats like grasslands that
have been long ignored. There are a large number of habitats for which we have
no scientific information.”
Sinha also
said there’s a need to update the IUCN Red List because species like the large
cuckooshrike have steeply declined but are listed as being of ‘least concern’
on the list.
Nidhi Jamwal
is the environment editor of Gaon Connection, India’s largest rural media
platform.
Farmers claim ₱70-B loss from rice import lib
Published February 21, 2020, 10:00 PM
By MADELAINE B. MIRAFLOR
While consumers have saved more
than ₱30 billion because of the influx of cheaper, imported rice in the market,
Filipino rice farmers claimed they incurred nearly ₱70-billion loss since the
implementation of rice importation under the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
This is based on the computation
made by the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), a group of Filipino rice farmers
and producers.
The RTL, which was enacted into
law in early 2019, removed the quantitative restrictions and most government
controls on rice imports.
As a result, an estimated 3
million metric tons (MT) of imported rice entered the country during the year,
effectively making the Philippines the largest rice importer in the world,
beating China.
In 2019, the average retail
prices of regular milled rice (RMR) declined by ₱2.61 per kilogram (/kg)
compared to 2018, while prices for well-milled rice (WMR) went down by ₱1.99
per kilo.
FFF said that when this is
multiplied by consumption volumes, the RTL resulted in a gain of ₱34.16 billion
for consumers.
Palay farmgate prices, on the
other hand, dipped by ₱3.62 in 2019 resulting in total losses to farmers of
₱68.18 billion.
Data from the Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA) further showed that average prices for both RMR and
WMR in 2019 were actually higher than those in 2016 to 2017, which could be
considered “normal years” when compared to 2018 during which rice price spikes
occurred.
FFF National Manager Raul
Montemayor said the results of the first year of RTL implementation are totally
the opposite of what the proponents of RTL were promising, adding that official
data indicates that government officials “were overly optimistic, if not
mistaken, in their projections”.
“Rice prices did go down in 2019
when compared to 2018, but 2018 was an abnormal year during which prices spiked
because NFA [National Food Authority] was not allowed to promptly import rice,”
Montemayor said.
“When compared to 2016 and 2017
price levels, the data shows that we are just back to rice prices that
prevailed when the quantitative restrictions on rice imports were still in
place. So, where is the promised benefit from the RTL for consumers,” he
further said.
Because of this, Montemayor
reiterated his call for a thorough review of the RTL and the early amendment of
the law as deemed necessary.
Rice importers charged with Sh1.5bn
Tax Evasion
According to
investigations, it was established that for the period covering January 2015
and December 2018, the suspects imported rice worth Sh1.68 Billion. They sold
the rice and banked the proceeds in their various companies’ accounts/COURTESY
, NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 22 – Two businessmen of
Pakistani Nationality have been charged before Mombasa Chief Magistrate Edna
Nyaloti for evading tax worth Sh1.5 billion.The traders, Rahim Qasim and Rameez Gulzar Ali alongside their firm Jhulay Lal Commodities limited were found to have been importing rice into the country while deliberately failing to pay Income Tax.
According to investigations, it was established that for the period covering January 2015 and December 2018, the suspects imported rice worth Sh1.68 Billion. They sold the rice and banked the proceeds in their various companies’ accounts.
The suspects faced three counts of tax evasion. In the first count, the suspects while trading as Jihulay Lai commodities limited, jointly with others not before court, knowingly defaulted to remit Income Tax of Sh595, 363,478 in the year 2016.
They also faced two other counts of defaulting to pay Sh434, 930, 264 in the year 2017. The amount arose from omitted business undertakings with a sum of Sh1,441,318,809. The suspects also defaulted to remit Sh522, 925,981 in the year 2018. The amount accumulated from the omitted business undertakings with a sum of Sh1,735,015,739.
The suspects pleaded not guilty and were released on a bond of Sh20 Million and a surety of the same amount. The suspects were ordered hand in their passports to the court.
The arrest followed lengthy investigations carried out by KRA’s Investigation and Enforcement Department on the tax fraud schemes into the country. The case will be mentioned on 3rd March 2020.
150 agitating farmers taken into preventive custody in Panchkula
·
Posted: Feb 21, 2020 07:34 AM (IST)
Tribune News Service
Panchkula, February 20
Farmers, who gathered at Nada
Sahib, to protest against the Manohar Lal Khattar-led Haryana government, were
taken into preventive custody when they tried to march towards the state
Assembly in Chandigarh.
The police used water canon to
disperse farmers as they pushed away barricades set up on the spot. The
protesters were dragged into state transport buses. Subsequently, they were
shifted to different police stations, including Sector 14 and Sector 20.
According to a police official,
around 150 detained farmers were released in the evening. The Bhartiya Kisan
Union (BKU), the farmers’ organisation leading the protest, was demanding a
probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged paddy
procurement scam.
The police had made all security
arrangements on the Panchkula- Chandigarh border, near the Housing Board Chowk.
The president of the BKU Haryana unit, Gurnam Singh Chaduni, who was
taken to the Sector 20 police station along with more than 40 other protesters,
alleged that commission agents, rice millers and officials of procurement
agencies and Agriculture Marketing Board were involved in the paddy scam.He
questioned why the Haryana Government was hesitating for an inquiry into the
matter.
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