Saturday, May 09, 2020

9th May,2020 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter



Weekly inflation up 0.36pc
By APP

May 8, 2020

Description: https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/7-1-696x418.jpg
ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based weekly inflation for the week ended on May 7 witnessed an increase of 0.36pc, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.
The SPI for the week under review for the combined consumption group was recorded at 127.30 points, as against 126.84 points registered in the previous week.
The weekly SPI, with base year 2015-16, covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items of all expenditure groups.
The SPI for the lowest consumption group, up to Rs17,732, witnessed 0.89pc increase, from 132.18 points in the last week to 133.36 points during the week under review.
Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,733-Rs22,888, Rs22,889-Rs29,517, Rs29,518-Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 per month increased by 0.88pc, 0.78pc, 0.65pc and 0.02pc, respectively.
During the week, prices of 12 items decreased, 16 items increased, while that of 23 items remained unchanged.
The items that recorded a decrease in their average prices included diesel, petrol, onions, tomatoes, pulse (masoor, gram), garlic, curd, wheat flour, sugar, mustard oil and vegetable ghee (loose).
On the other hand, commodities that recorded an increase in their prices included chicken, bananas, potatoes, LPG Cylinder, gur, long cloth, powdered chilies, mutton, men shirts, beef, pulse (mash, moong), milk (fresh, powdered), eggs and firewood.
Similarly, commodities that observed no change in th



300 Bihar migrants reach Telangana to work in rice mills

“These workers, who load and unload rice from trucks, had gone to Bihar for Holi and were left stuck there due to the lockdown,”
 
By IANS 
Description: Migrant Workers in Train

Hyderabad, May 8 : At a time when migrant workers stranded across the country are scrambling to return to their home states amid the nationwide lockdown, a train with 300 migrants from Bihar reached Telangana on Friday.
The Shramik special train carrying migrants working in the rice mills of Telangana reached Lingampalli station on the outskirts of Hyderabad from Khagaria in Bihar.
Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Gangula Kamlakar, Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman M. Srinivas Reddy and other officials welcomed the workers on their arrival with flowers.
The Health Department personnel screened the migrants for any symptoms of Covid-19. Thereafter, the workers were sent to the districts where they wanted to work.
Officials said the workers were provided water, food packets, face masks and sanitisers and were also briefed on the precautions to be taken to protect themselves from Covid-19.
The workers were sent to various districts in specially arranges buses. The officials ensured that the workers follow social distancing during the journey.
Kamalakar said more workers from different states would be reaching Telangana to work in rice mills.
He said the effective steps taken by the state government for containing the spread of Covid-19, huge employment opportunities, higher wages, and measures taken by the government for the welfare of migrants were attracting them to Telangana.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao had said on May 5 that trains carrying migrant workers to Bihar will return with 20,000 to 25,000 workers from the eastern state, who were working in rice mills in Telangana.
Last month, Rao had urged the Bihar government to send back migrant workers to Telangana. More than 90 per cent of the workers employed in Telengana rice mills were Bihari migrants.
“These workers, who load and unload rice from trucks, had gone to Bihar for Holi and were left stuck there due to the lockdown,” the Chief Minister had said.
Rao had even stated that if necessary he would talk to the Centre to arrange a few special trains to bring back the Bihari migrant workers.
The Chief Minister said as Telangana was procuring record 1.05 crore tonnes of paddy from farmers at designated procurement centres in villages in view of the lockdown, the task can’t be completed without the labourers from Bihar, who load and unload the crop from truc


CMCO food delivery: How about some biryani rice from Masala Wheels to celebrate the weekend?
Friday, 08 May 2020 10:46 AM MYT
By Lee Khang Yi
Description: It's Sunday, relax at home and eat fragrant biryani rice with chicken, hard boiled egg and cucumbers in yoghurt – Pictures by Lee Khang YiIt's Sunday, relax at home and eat fragrant biryani rice with chicken, hard boiled egg and cucumbers in yoghurt – Pictures by Lee Khang Yi
PETALING JAYA, May 8 -- Phew! We made it through another week under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).
It's strange how even the body clock can differentiate that it's the weekend, despite all that work from home.
The weekends are perfect to just chill and eat your favourite meal. In my case, I've been looking for a good biryani I can get delivered to my doorstep.
Since the lockdown started, I've been cracking my head over which Indian restaurant to order from. Sure, I live next to a handful of popular Northern Indian restaurants but I just wanted something simpler like banana leaf rice or biryani rice.
I did try one popular place in Petaling Jaya. Sadly, the food was dismal, despite all the online raves. It was probably living off its past glory.
I asked around for recommendations and settled for Masala Wheels. The eatery is a social enterprise set up to help marginalised communities.
They also allow you to sponsor suspended meals for the needy, which is delivered via their volunteers. If you prefer, you can also sponsor provisions that are packed in a bundle which will be delivered to those in need.
I have eaten there once before... fond memories of the fragrant biryani rice served only on Sundays. It was my only visit there as when I returned a few times, I would face a long queue of customers trying to get their biryani rice fix too.
Well, the good thing about the lockdown is I can get my meal delivered!
You can find the restaurant on Oddle. Their page shows the suspended meals, sponsored provision packs and a rather limited menu.
Description: Order the chicken 'peratal' that is packed with flavourOrder the chicken 'peratal' that is packed with flavour
You can have their vegetarian banana leaf rice for RM10 on a daily basis. There's also add-ons for mutton or chicken, with a choice of peratal or varuval cooking styles.
Sadly, there's no way to indicate which style you want so it's up to the restaurant to decide. The focus is really on their signature Chatti biryani rice, served only on Sundays.
There's a vegetable biryani for RM11, chicken biryani for RM14 and mutton biryani for RM17.
The biryani rice is on a pre-order basis. I managed to place my order on Saturday night and it was delivered on Sunday morning, about 11.30am, as requested. 
Since it was my first time ordering via Oddle, I was happy to get an email confirmation for my order the night before. You also receive an email from the restaurant to confirm they got your order.
The next day, the restaurant will email you again to inform you that the food is being delivered to you.
Description: Your biryani meal comes packed in a box with compartments. My add-on chicken and mutton were placed in separate plastic bagsYour biryani meal comes packed in a box with compartments. My add-on chicken and mutton were placed in separate plastic bags
My chicken biryani arrived in a plastic box with compartments. There was a mountain of rice with a piece of chicken, one whole hard boiled egg, a fragrant curry and chopped cucumber with yoghurt.
While the rice isn't the long, fluffy Basmati type, what made this incredibly great was the aroma from the spices. I like how it arrived still hot so it is best to eat it as soon as possible.
The portion was huge so I ended up splitting it into two meals. While the chicken wasn't very flavourful probably because its essence had been absorbed by the rice, the curry gave it flavour.
Description: It may look unappetising but the mutton 'varuval' is flavourful and tenderIt may look unappetising but the mutton 'varuval' is flavourful and tender
I also had a chicken peratal and mutton varuval as add-ons. The chicken dish is RM7 while the mutton dish is RM10.  Both were good stuff.
Each piece of the chicken with the curry gravy was flavourful. The mutton may look dry and unappetising but it was tender. There's a mild flavour of spices too as you chew on the meat.
Masala Wheels, 2, Jalan 1/3, Section 1, Petaling Jaya. Order through https://masalawheels.oddle.me/en_MY/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masalawheels/



Non-basmati exports may rebound as India attracts new customers

Vishwanath Kulkarni  Bengaluru | Updated on May 08, 2020  Published on May 08, 2020
Description: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/uj00u5/article31537325.ece/alternates/LANDSCAPE_660/bl09Rice
Rice shipments, which were disrupted by the Covid pandemic, have resumed at a sluggish pace   -  Svetlana Ivanova

Malaysia, Philippines show interest; weak rupee makes country competitive

After almost a 40 per cent decline in shipments during last financial year, India’s non-basmati rice exports are set for a rebound this year on demand from new buyers such as Malaysia and the Philippines, exporters said. Firming prices, coupled with a decline in rupee, is seen aiding the shipments of the cereal.
“The demand from new buyers such as Malaysia and the Philippines should help the recovery in exports this year,” said BV Krishna Rao, President of the Rice Exporters Association.

Non-competitive pricing

The non-basmati rice exports slumped by about 40 per cent to 5-6 million tonnes in 2019-20, according to trade estimates. This decline was mainly on account of higher prices due to the rise in minimum support price (MSP) of paddy that hit the competitiveness of the Indian cereal in overseas market.
Official export figures for 2019-20 are yet to be released by the Agriculture and Processed Foods Exports Development Authority (APEDA), which monitors the non-basmati rice shipments. As per the latest data from APEDA, non-basmati rice exports for April-January 2019-20 period stood at 4.01 million tonnes, about 36 per cent lower than the corresponding period previous year.

Fall in exports

In value terms, non-basmati rice shipments were down 35 per cent at $1.63 billion ($2.50 billion in same period last year). India has been the largest exporter of rice, after the exports of non-basmati rice were allowed from 2011. India, the second largest producer and top exporter of rice, competes with countries such as Thailand and Vietnam in the markets of Africa and Asia.
Though global prices have firmed up in recent months on short supplies in the Asian countries, Indian prices are still competitive, attracting buyers, Rao said. Indian rice prices for parboiled and 5 per cent brokens, which hovered around $375 a quintal in February are quoted at $400-420 per tonne FOB to African countries.
Vietnam prices are in the range of $460-470 and Thai prices around $500. “The weakening of rupee by 7-8 per cent has helped us to be competitive,” Rao said. However, exporters are cautious about the African markets as the slump in oil prices could slacken the demand in some countries.

Shipments resume

Rao said the rice shipments, which were disrupted by the Covid pandemic, have resumed on a sluggish pace.
India’s rice production for 2019-20 is estimated at an all-time high of 117 million tonnes, as per the second advance estimates. Rice stocks with the Food Corporation of India stood at 27.66 million tonnes as on May 4.
Published on May 08, 2020



ARS working to create rice under reduced water use
05.08.2020
WASHINGTON, DC, US — The Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture in partnership with university scientists are hoping to identify US rice varieties with genetic markers for coping with reduced water use.
Their research is in line with the water saving trend that US rice growers are implementing.
According to the ARS, rice traditionally is grown in leveed sections of fields called paddies that can be flooded with water pumped in from rivers, alluvial aquifers, on-farm reservoirs, and other sources. Such flooding helps control weeds and ensures the rice crop can attain its maximum yield potential.
But with issues such as water availability and climate change, Jai Rohila and Anna McClung, both with the ARS Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center as well as Christopher Henry with the University of Arkansas and Argelia Lorence with Arkansas State University are looking to identify traits that can help the grain crop cope with reduced water.
“Reducing water use, which is currently about 30 inches per acre over the season for Arkansas-grown rice, is a necessary step toward sustainable production of rice and food security,” said Rohila, an agronomist. “About 80% of the irrigation water for the Arkansas rice crop is pumped from the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer.”
Over the past four decades, however, the aquifer’s water levels have dropped at the rate of 12 to 18 inches per year, Rohila said. Alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, land leveling, tailwater recovery and multiple-inlet irrigation are some of the strategies that growers are investigating or already using to conserve water, in some cases by 20%.
But there is a genetic hiccup that can lead to grain yield reductions under such measures.
“All current rice varieties in the United States were essentially developed for production under continuous flood irrigation management systems,” said McClung, a supervisory geneticist who directs the ARS center. “We conducted this research to determine what are the traits and genetic resources that can be used to develop new rice cultivars that will have high grain quality and yield under reduced irrigation inputs.”
Toward that end, the team designed a series of field experiments in which they subjected 15 different rice cultivars (conventional medium- and long-grain varieties as well as specialty rice) to sub-surface drip irrigation regimens based on one of four soil-moisture scenarios, or volumetric water contents (VWCs).
The first scenario was comparable to conventionally flooded field conditions with a VWC of 30%. The fourth mimicked a severe water-deficit scenario (VWC 14%) capable of triggering catastrophic wilting from which the rice crop cannot recover. In between these extremes were two moderate water-deficit scenarios with VWCs of 24% and 20%.
“This gradient of soil moisture regimes in our study allowed us to assess how well the varieties can respond to varying degrees of water deficit,” Rohila said.
Among the results, the researchers reported that:
  • Of 10 total traits (e.g., plant height, flowering time/duration, and grainfill) they examined, six traits accounted for 35% of the variability in the varieties' physiological responses to water stress, including their ability to produce grain.
  • Plant height was generally greatest in the first soil-moisture scenario (mimicking flooded fields), except for five of the varieties tested. Grain yields were also highest in the first scenario, except for seven varieties, which performed better in scenarios two and three.
  • Varieties with higher leaf canopy temperatures tended to produce the most grain under water-stress conditions.
  • Those same varieties also had genetic origins in tropical or subtropical regions of the world, where heat stress conditions are common, another form of physiological stress.
  • One top contender that performed well under water-stress conditions is a tropical japonica-type rice from the Philippines known as PI 312777. Other top performers were Francis and Mars from the United States and Zhe 733 from China. Among the cultivars tested, 10 have been used to develop populations of offspring displaying different stress-coping traits that can be used with genomic mapping techniques, which according to the researchers can help identify the genes that control these traits and potentially use them in rice breeding and improvement programs.
McClung said they aim to provide rice breeders with DNA markers associated with the genes and alleles (alternate copies) for these traits so that they can be passed into elite rice varieties more quickly, efficiently and with less cost.
The researchers indicate that this is the first step in adapting rice varieties to production systems that use a minimum amount of irrigation.
“We understand our vision is ambitious," Rohila said. “But the goal is to have both food and natural resource (water) security for society and our future generations.”
To read more about the research visit Agronomy and take a look at the findings.

Like the Oscars, but for science | KSU researcher named to National Academy of Sciences

·       Rafael Garcia rgarcia@themercury.com

·       May 7, 2020 Updated May 8, 2020

·        0

·        3 min to read

Barbara Valent, a researcher and professor in K-State’s plant pathology department, is the first faculty member named to the National Academy of Sciences for work conducted at K-State.
Courtesy photo
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If it weren’t for the pandemic, Barbara Valent would be getting the red-carpet treatment right now.
Valent, a plant pathology researcher at K-State, became the first K-State faculty member to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences for work during their tenure at the university. Induction into the academy is like the scientific equivalent of winning an Oscar, she said, and graduate students even dream of the honor. Valent says she’d know, because she was one of them.
“I wouldn’t say it’s what you work toward, but having it happen is a tremendous honor and a validation of all of the hard work, and the work that the people in my lab have done,” she said. “It’s huge.”
Valent found out about the honor last week after a colleague called her and told her the exciting news. The colleague later sent her an email invitation to a Zoom chat, and when she opened it, several members of the academy welcomed her into the prestigious society, which holds a Congressional charter and is charged with offering objective scientific counsel to the nation’s policymakers.
Induction into the academy — which numbers about 2,400 members and 500 foreign associates — is by nomination, often from an existing member, after which the members vote on whether to accept a candidate. Valent said she still doesn’t know exactly who nominated her, but she suspects it was a colleague in her discipline.
“It’s a tough thing,” she said. “You have to have a record that convinces all of these people who don’t especially know you that your work is good enough to be accepted into the academy.”
Valent’s research specifically deals with rice blast and wheat blast disease, the latter of which has caused several billions of dollars of destruction in South America and recently south Asia, and finding ways to improve crops’ resistance to the fungi which causes them.
Her team’s research — much of which has to be done in the Biosecurity Research Institute’s biosafety level 3 lab in Pat Roberts Hall — also works to keep wheat blast out of North America and away from the region, where the fungi could cause untold damage.
“It’s scary because we don’t have much resistance, fungicides don’t work very well, and if the weather’s right, we don’t have much of a way to control it,” she said. “It can kill whole fields.”
Megan Kennelly, interim department head of K-State’s plant pathology department, said Valent and her team has been instrumental in developing new protections for the crops.
“Her research is truly transformative, both in terms of basic understanding of plants and microbes but also with the potential to save wheat and rice yields worldwide,” Kennely said. “Her work has truly opened our eyes to the intricate interplay of plants and fungi in a completely new way.”
While the substance of Valent’s work is fungi research, Valent said her interest is in food security, saying that most people don’t realize how vulnerable the food supply is to diseases. Pathogens travel easily around the world, as evidenced by the spread of the coronavirus, she said, and the policy makers need to put in place measures to prevent a similar pandemic affecting the food supply.
There aren’t many other plant pathogen specialists in the academy, and Valent said her expertise in food security and fungi would be put to good use. She also wants to serve as an advocate for higher levels of agricultural research funding.
“We always struggle with having the money to do the critical research,” Valent said. “That’s been getting worse lately, and I really worry how it’s decreased to the point that we have young faculty members who have trouble getting the money to do the research they want to do and build their careers on.”
Originally from Iowa, Valent grew up in Colorado and was the first person in her family to graduate from college, having earned her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado in 1972 and 1978, respectively, and serving as a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University from 1980 to 1982. She came to K-State in 2001 as a researcher and was named a university distinguished professor, K-State’s highest award for faculty, in 2002.
In addition to research, Valent also teaches three K-State graduate classes and advises doctoral student and postdoctoral fellows in her lab.
Valent said she credits public education at all levels for helping her get to this point in her career at a land-grant university, and she encouraged young researchers who might be dreaming of being inducted into the academy to follow their passions.
“It’s important to choose important problems, things that matter in the real world,” Valent said. “That’s what was important to me, to be working on something that could make a difference in people’s lives, and plant pathogens do make a difference.
“You can’t work toward an honor,” she continued. “You’ve got to work toward a research goal.”
For now, with in-person celebrations out of the question, Valent said she’s celebrating her induction with old friends, students and colleagues, some of whom she hadn’t seen in years, with champagne parties via Zoom. She said her induction was just as much a recognition of their work and assistance as it was hers.
While one other recent K-State faculty member — Jim Riviere, who retired in 2017 — was inducted to the National Institute of Medicine, Valent is the first K-State faculty member to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.
“I hope I’m the first of many,” Valent said. “We have a lot of really great researchers and research going on, and it’s a big deal for the university. I’m very proud to have brought that to K-State.”

 

 

Drought tolerance of rice: research and recent advancements

The crop of rice is affected by drought tolerance (below-average precipitation) in the areas where water shortage exists. But rice can bear the drought and can tolerate it.
Description: Drought tolerance of rice: research and recent advancements

Rice (Oryza sativa) is used as a staple food by billions of people around the world. Probably the oldest domestic grain (~10,000 years. Pakistan is the world’s 11th largest producer of rice. Pakistan’s export makes up 8% of the world’s total rice trade. In the year 2016-17, Pakistan produced 6.7 million tons of rice.

In the last few decades, the researchers have worked on the drought and have given the possible ways of drought tolerance. Drought-tolerant varieties have been introduced by International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) in several countries and are now being planted by farmers.
Sahbhagi dhan in India, 5411 variety in the Philippine’s, sookha dhan variety by Nepal, BRRI dhan variety by Bangladesh has been introduced. Drought Degree Tolerance (DTD) is a new introduces technique in which the mean of the ratios of green leafs length to the total leaf of top three leaves in every rice seedling is taken after drought treatment.

This is an effective technique but it is avoided in drought tolerance of upland rice at late growth stages. Direct Seeded Rice is a technique in which rice seed is sown and sprouted directly in the field reducing the crop’s water requirement. Improving the photosynthesis in rice by inserting the c4 pathway is the latest drought tolerance technique.
In c3 plants like rice, CO2 is assimilated into a 3-carbon compound by the photosynthetic enzyme ribolose1-5, bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (Rubisco). At temperature above 30°C which is typical of rice-growing areas of the world rate of oxygenation increases substantially and this reduces the photosynthetic efficiency of C3 plans by up to 40%.
Thus photosynthesis of rice in the tropics and warm temperate regions becomes inefficient. The C4 plants which have CO2 concentration mechanism within their leaves have very much reduced level of photorespiration. Rice with a photosynthetic mechanism would have increased photosynthetic efficiency while using scarce resources such as land water and fertilizer specifically nitrogen more effectively.
                                                                                              


CRISPR enhances Golden rice

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Published: May 7, 2020

Rice is a worldwide staple, feeding half the world’s population.

Golden rice, a genetically modified rice with high levels of beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A, is highly valued in countries where vitamin rich food is limited.
To improve upon the conventional method of genetically modifying rice, scientists at the University of California, Davis, used CRISPR technology to more precisely transfer genes encoding certain desired traits into the rice genome.
CRISPR enables scientists to alter DNA sequences to modify gene function. It is used to create more disease-resistant and drought-tolerant crops.
The research team used Kitaake, a Japonica rice variety that received a large segment of donor DNA from Golden rice. The DNA was placed precisely into regions of the plant where researchers knew it would not cause adverse effects to the host rice.
Oliver Dong, a postdoctoral scholar in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology and Genome Center, said CRISPR has important advantages compared to conventional methods of genetic modification.
“Compared with conventional methods of gene delivery, the biggest advantage of using CRISPR to insert genes is that the insertion site is defined,” he said. “As well as inserting genes at a known position, CRISPR has also been used to disrupt genes (gene knockout) or modify the genetic code at a given gene. In application, CRISPR has been used to engineer rice with herbicide tolerance, or disease resistance to diverse pathogens.”
The research has opened up the possibility that genes controlling multiple desirable traits, such as providing high levels of beta carotene or producing a plant that is disease-resistant or drought-tolerant, can be clustered at a single position within the genome. This can lead to a significant reduction in the need for subsequent breeding endeavours.
Going forward, the research team will continue to refine the method of DNA transfer using the CRISPR technology.
“Now that we can insert large DNA fragments at a defined region in the rice genome, we would like to demonstrate the insertion of multiple trait genes at the same site by the iterative use of the method,” said Dong. “Stacking multiple genes at the same genomic position would simplify downstream breeding efforts.”
The research study was published recently in the journal Nature Communications.

India lockdown boosts Pakistan’s rice exports to Middle East

  • Pakistan's rice exports to the region increase by about 59 percent to $420 million in April.

The lockdowns imposed by India proved beneficial for Pakistan, as the country rice exports to the Middle East region rose significantly.
As per details, Pakistan rice exports to the region increase by about 59 percent to $420 million in April, amid lockdowns imposed by India in order to curb the spread of coronavirus.
“The Middle East is the main market of India's basmati rice," Muhammad Raza, senior vice chairman of the Rice Exporters' Association of Pakistan (REAP), quoted Arab News. “When New Delhi decided to impose the lockdown, the orders were diverted to Pakistan."
The development comes amid Pakistan's exports on month-on-month (MoM) basis have witnessed a massive decline of 47.24 percent, from $1.814 billion to $957 million, during April 2020 against March 2020, Pakistan Bureau of Statistic (PBS) said.
According to PBS, the country's imports during the period also witnessed a decline of 6.88 percent from $3.316 billion to $3.088 billion. Meanwhile, The country's balance of trade during April-March 2020, also witnessed a decline of 41.88 percent, from $1.502 billion to $2.131 billion, the PBS said.


Amid COVID-19, Asia’s White Rice Is the New Black Gold

Surging demand and slashed exports are leading to inflated prices for rice across the region.
By Bob Savic
Credit: Pixabay

Description: Amid COVID-19, Asia’s White Rice Is the New Black GoldFor Eduardo Astrero, a small-hold farmer in the Philippines’ lowlands province of Nueva Ecija, located north of Manila on the country’s main island of Luzon, the rice growing season that begins in June every year is regarded with a certain degree of foreboding. Still, in late April each year, Eduardo’s village and surrounding rural communities celebrate the Tanduyong Festival, marking the end of the hot sun-soaked dry season, lasting from start of January to the end of May.
The period is normally a Filipino farmer’s paradise as the hot sun yields an abundant variety of cash crops like onions, pumpkins, watermelons, sunflower, corn, and various tropical fruits. By the end of the dry season, the rich agricultural produce has been harvested and transported to local government cooperatives, which in turn sell the produce to private buyers at the retail level.
“The Tanduyong Festival is both a happy and sad time for us,” says Eduardo. “We enjoy celebrating in the dry season, even though it’s very hot, because we can grow so many different crops with hopefully enough money to support us for the rice-growing wet season to come,” he adds.
The wet season is much less predictable weather-wise, than the dry season, and rice is typically the only or main crop grown during that time. In fact, 80 percent of Philippines’ farmlands are devoted mainly to rice, as well as corn and coconut, cultivation. “Rice farming is back-breaking work,” laments Eduardo, who regularly plants rice seeds by hand in muddy, sometimes snake-infested paddy water.
His efforts are not made any easier given the wet season coincides with relentless arrivals of numerous typhoons. These tropical storms can blow away both the paddy water and underlying planted soils, leaving the rice cultivation ruined.
This year, though, Eduardo is a little more optimistic. “The government is issuing farmers across the nation with new more durable rice seeds and the prices we’ll be getting at wholesale, by the end of this wet season, should be the best in many years,” he claims.
Eduardo’s optimism may indeed be well-placed. Rice has been the global commodity market’s star performer this year with prices up by nearly 65 percent, year-on-year, at the end of April 2020. By stark contrast, following the onset of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, global resources prices have generally collapsed with most commodities falling anywhere from 5 percent to 40 percent year-on-year, and in some cases even more.
Much of the reason for rice’s stellar and almost unique performance in the commodities space is attributable to governments’ coronavirus lockdown measures across Asia. This resulted in most of the world’s largest rice net exporters, namely India, China, and Vietnam, as well as major up-and-coming net exporters like Cambodia and Myanmar, freezing their overseas shipments to ensure sufficient stocks of rice for domestic consumption. Thailand stands out as the one significant rice exporting country continuing to supply the region’s heightened rice-consumption needs throughout the pandemic.
In the meantime, regional rice net importers including Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines have been adding substantial resource capacity to their domestic rice production and supply.
About three-quarters of worldwide rice exports originate from Asia, with shipments valued around $16.4 billion last year.
Yet the recent threat of a U.S.-induced economic war with China has potentially left rice vulnerable to the same downward trajectory in prices suffered by the entire span of agricultural and industrial commodities.



China Becomes the Rice Importing Global Game-Changer

Get first-read access to major articles yet to be released, as well as links to thought-provoking commentaries and in-depth articles from our Asia-Pacific correspondents.
China’s surging demand for rice at the beginning of the year was arguably the principal driver in boosting global prices for the agricultural commodity. In the first quarter of 2020, according to China’s Customs Statistics, the value of rice imports rose by 60.3 percent while the value of overall agricultural imports increased by 17.4 percent for the period.
China, which is both the world’s largest producer and consumer of rice, became a net importer in 2011, progressing to become the world’s biggest importer by 2012. It is second only to India in rice cultivation area, having paddy farmland of 30.35 million square hectares in contrast to India’s 43.2 million hectares. However, China produces the largest amount of milled rice, at 148 million metric tonnes versus India’s 116 million metric tonnes. Even so, India was by far the largest rice exporter in the world, in 2019, valued at $7.1 billion and accounting for 32.5 percent of world rice exports, while China only exported $1.1 billion or 4.8 percent of global exports despite being the world’s fastest growing rice exporter since 2015.
By 2017, China was importing 4.03 million tonnes of rice, due mainly to its domestic crop prices exceeding those of imports, typically from Thailand and Vietnam, while being of a roughly similar quality.
China also lifted its purchase prices for imported rice in 2020, with plans to buy record levels from this year’s global harvest in order to secure domestic supplies — in spite of not having to import or export a great deal relative to consumption – with a view to beefing up rice stocks in the wake of its coronavirus shutdowns.
Southeast Asia’s Divergent Rice Policies
Vietnam, currently the world’s fourth largest rice exporter, behind India, Thailand, and the United States, managed $1.4 billion in exports, last year, which accounted for roughly 5 percent of international rice exports. Even so, Vietnam restricted export volumes for April and May to ensure ample reserves for domestic use. For the sake of maintaining cooperative relations with neighboring countries and within the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) framework, Vietnam’s government has been conducting bilateral negotiations with the region’s net rice importers to secure special government-supply agreements.
According to Vietnam’s deputy minister for agriculture and development, the Philippines, which imports 90 percent of its rice from the country, will be one of the first to be informed of the exception to this temporary restriction as Manila awaits delivery of about 1.2 million metric tonnes of rice. Other regional net exporters that have imposed such export restrictions, including Myanmar and Cambodia as top-ten global rice exporters, are similarly negotiating such agreements with the region’s net importers.
Thailand, the world’s second largest rice exporter, on the other hand, remains open for new business as its regional competitors close down international rice sales. The Thai government announced that sufficient rice was cultivated to meet its annual export target, normally around 10 million tonnes yearly, on top of its domestic consumption of a similar quantity, even in the face of a debilitating drought that’s lasted since November last year. The price of Thai white rice 5 percent broken, which is an Asian export benchmark, has risen over 25 percent this year, even reaching a seven-year high, as India and other exporters imposed export controls. At the beginning of the year, Thailand’s rice export prospects were relatively gloomy, but a complete about-turn materialized when the coronavirus outbreak arose.
In Hong Kong, which typically imports the bulk of its rice from Thailand, widespread  hoarding led to the price of Thai rice rising by 30.3 percent from January to March. Over January to February alone, the special administrative region of China imported about 58,000 tonnes of rice worth $58 million as consumption expanded by nearly 17 percent in annual terms. Of the total imported, Thai white rice amounted to $37 million in value, followed by lower valued purchases from Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, and China. Even so, those supplies were not sufficient to satisfy demand, resulting in the Hong Kong government having to intervene and limit purchases to one bag of rice per customer.
For larger regional net importers, such as Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy and population of 273 million, governments have set about ensuring that current rice stocks exceed estimated consumption for the year. Indonesia’s State Logistics Agency, known locally as “Bulog,” has been faced with concerns over mounting rice import shortfalls. As a remedy, Bulog plans to acquire an additional 950,000 metric tonnes of rice from local farmers to enhance this year’s stock. The agency had earlier anticipated reducing its domestic rice stocks of 2.25 million tonnes, held at the end of 2019, down to 1.3 million tonnes throughout 2020, with the goal of exporting up to a half million tonnes of premium rice for the current year. This ambition appears highly unlikely to be achievable this year.
The Philippines, also a net rice importer, has the second highest population in Southeast Asia (109 million people) alongside the highest regional population growth rate. Its government has been urgently allocating funds of over $600 million for food sufficiency programs. The Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Seed Program, now in its second year of distribution operations, has been issuing free certified inbred rice seeds to the country’s rice farmers, in an effort to help raise productivity and competitiveness as well as continuity of rice production. For the coming wet season, it is targeting issuance of about 2.5 million bags of seeds, at 20 kg per bag, to over 1.2 million of the country’s farmers. In return for the provision, farmers are required to use hand sanitizers, wear face masks, monitor body temperature, and practice physical distancing when engaged in the business of farming the seeds.
For Eduardo, the RCEF program may not exactly be manna from heaven, but it is welcome support for himself and small-hold farmers who have struggled their entire lives to turn rice into enough cash to feed their families. “The government is beginning to recognize the importance of small-scale farming to our country and these support programs will help us grow more rice to feed the people and keep us on the land, “ stated Eduardo with a broad smile, as he tried to strap on a face mask for the first time in his farming life.
More likely the international price of rice will make the difference to rice farmers such as Eduardo, at least for this year. The problem is that international commodity prices have been notoriously fickle. For micro enterprises such as those in rice farming, the longer term intervention of the state will be key to their viability. The economic and health devastation arising from the coronavirus pandemic should ensure that state support for rice growers will remain an essential and increasing feature of global and national food security for decades to come.
Bob Savic is a Visiting Professor at the Asia Research Institute, Nottingham University

HTTPS://THEDIPLOMAT.COM/2020/05/AMID-COVID-19-ASIAS-WHITE-RICE-IS-THE-NEW-BLACK-GOLD/

POLICY THAT FATTENS UP RICE MILLERS
 SHAMSUL HUQ ZAHID | PUBLISHED:  MAY 07, 2020 22:49:03 | UPDATED:  MAY 08, 2020 21:46:10

Description: --FE/Files--FE/FILES
THAT THE GOVERNMENT'S RICE PROCUREMENT PROGRAMME IS BENEFITTING THE MILLERS FAR MORE THAN THE PEASANTRY HAS BEEN A RECURRENT ALLEGATION FOR MANY YEARS NOW. THE GOVERNMENT, HOWEVER, HAS PREFERRED NOT TO REACT TO SUCH A CLAIM IN PUBLIC.
A RECENT STUDY, COMMISSIONED BY THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND CARRIED OUT BY THE INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE (IFPRI), HAS FOUND THE ALLEGATION TO BE TRUE.
IN FACT, THE STUDY HAS REVEALED SOME HIDDEN TRUTHS THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO REDESIGN ITS FOOD PROCUREMENT POLICY AIMED AT BENEFITTING NONE BUT MILLIONS OF FARMERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THE UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (USAID) HAS FUNDED THE STUDY.
THE STUDY WAS UNDERTAKEN IN THE LATTER PART OF THE LAST YEAR TO FIND OUT THE REASONS BEHIND THE PRICES OF PADDY FALLING ABRUPTLY DURING THE HARVEST OF BORO DURING 2018-19.
THE STUDY NOTED THAT IN JANUARY LAST YEAR THE PRICE OF PADDY WAS  TK 17.42 A KILOGRAMME (KG) AT THE GROWERS' LEVEL AFTER THE AMAN HARVEST, BUT THE PRICE DROPPED BY 22 PER CENT TO TK 13.56 A KG IN MAY WHEN FARMERS HAD PULLED A BUMPER HARVEST OF BORO.  THE PRICE WAS WELL BELOW THE FULL COST (INCLUDING IMPUTED COST OF FAMILY LABOUR AND LAND RENT) OF PRODUCTION OF PER KG OF PADDY. THE STUDY ESTIMATED THE FULL COST OF A KG OF BORO PADDY IN 2018-19 AT TK 17.83. THERE WAS ALSO MEDIA UPROAR OVER THE FALLING POST-HARVEST BORO PRICES AT THAT TIME.
IN FACT, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF REASONS FOR BORO PADDY PRICES REMAINING DEPRESSED IN THE EVENT OF A BUMPER HARVEST. THE STUDY HAS BROUGHT A FEW OF THESE TO THE FORE.
THE MOA-IFPRI STUDY DOES MAKE IT AMPLY CLEAR THAT THE MILLERS ARE THE REAL BENEFICIARIES OF THE PROCUREMENT POLICY THE GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN PURSUING FOR MANY YEARS. THE POLICY IS BIASED TOWARDS THE MILLERS, NOT THE FARMING COMMUNITY.
 HOWEVER, NOT ALL FARMERS ARE EQUALLY AFFECTED BY LOWER PADDY PRICES; THOSE OWNING SMALL FARMLAND HOLDINGS AND THE CASH-LEASE TENANT FARMERS ARE AFFECTED MORE THAN SHARECROPPERS AND MARGINAL FARMERS. THE LATTER GROUPS USUALLY DO NOT SELL MUCH PADDY IN THE MARKET OR TO THE GOVERNMENT.
THE STUDY FOUND THAT 80 PER CENT OF THE GOVERNMENT'S PROCUREMENT OF BORO IN 2018-19 CAME IN THE FORM OF RICE AND MILLERS MADE AVAILABLE THE ENTIRE QUANTITY. THE REST CAME FROM FARMERS IN THE FORM OF PADDY.
THE STORY DOES NOT END THERE. MILLERS ARE TOO CUNNING TO REAP BENEFITS IN ADDITION TO WHAT THEY GET FROM THE PRICE SUPPORT MEANT FOR FARMERS. MORE THAN 94 PER CENT OF RICE, THE STUDY MENTIONED, MILLERS HAD MADE AVAILABLE TO THE GOVERNMENT IN 2018-19 BORO SEASON WAS OF 'HYBRID' VARIETY, WHICH WAS 25 PER CENT CHEAPER THAN HIGH YIELDING VARIETY (HYV) RICE. HYBRID RICE ACCOUNTED FOR 18 PER CENT OF BORO PRODUCTION IN 2018-19. THIS VARIETY OF RICE IS OF INFERIOR QUALITY AND IT IS LEAST LIKED BY CONSUMERS. 
THERE IS NO DENYING THAT THE PUBLIC FOOD PROCUREMENT PROGRAMME DOES LEAVE AN IMPACT ON THE POST-HARVEST MARKET PRICES OF PADDY NOTWITHSTANDING THE FACT THAT THE GOVERNMENT COLLECTS A VERY SMALL QUANTITY OF PADDY FROM FARMERS.
THE STUDY HAS CALCULATED THAT HAD THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF FOOD FULFILLED ITS PROCUREMENT TARGET ONLY BY PURCHASING PADDY IN 2019 BORO SEASON, THE MARKET PRICE OF PADDY WOULD HAVE GONE UP BY 45 PER CENT. THE PROCUREMENT IN LARGER QUANTITY WOULD HAVE RAISED THE PRICE OF PADDY EVEN TO A HIGHER LEVEL. THE GOVERNMENT, THUS, MIGHT THINK OF PROCURING PADDY ONLY TO HELP OFFER BETTER PRICES TO FARMERS.
HOWEVER, PROCESSING OF PADDY AND OTHER ISSUES ARE INVOLVED WITH SUCH PROCUREMENT. YET THOSE COULD BE RESOLVED USING THE SERVICES OF MILLERS. THE STUDY HAS ALSO MADE A REVIEW OF THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT SYSTEM FOLLOWED IN THE NEIGHBOURING INDIAN STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND SUGGESTED HOW BEST IT CAN BE REPLICATED IN BANGLADESH SITUATION.
THE MOOT ISSUE HERE IS THAT THE GOVERNMENT'S FOOD PROCUREMENT PROGRAMME NEEDS A THOROUGH REVIEW WITH A VIEW TO OFFERING FARMERS THE BEST POSSIBLE PRICE SUPPORT. THE BENEFITS RICE MILLERS AND OTHER MIDDLEMEN HAVE BEEN REAPING FOR YEARS SHOULD GO TO FARMERS, NONE ELSE.

INDIA GRAIN: SPOT BASMATI PRICES RISE ON FIRM BUYS; MAIZE, WHEAT DN

FRIDAY, MAY 8

BY SAMPAD NANDY

NEW DELHI – PRICES OF PUSA 1121 BASMATI PADDY REMAINED FIRM ACROSS KEY SPOT MARKETS TODAY AS BULK DEMAND FROM MILLERS WERE ROBUST ON ANTICIPATION OF A PICKUP IN RETAIL DEMAND AFTER EASING OF RESTRICTIONS IN AREAS WITH FEWER COVID-19 CASES, TRADERS SAID. 

FROM THIS WEEK, THE GOVERNMENT HAS ALLOWED MORE SHOPS AND INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY TO RESUME IN 319 DISTRICTS AFTER A NEAR-COMPLETE LOCKDOWN OVER FIVE WEEKS. THE RELAXATIONS ARE LIKELY TO BOOST RETAIL DEMAND FOR THE COMMODITY, AMRITSAR-BASED TRADER ASHOK SETHI SAID. 

LOWER ARRIVALS ALSO SUPPORTED PRICES AT MOST SPOT MARKETS, HE SAID. ARRIVALS ARE USUALLY LOWER AT THIS TIME AS FARMERS AND STOCKISTS EXHAUST THEIR STOCKS, SETHI SAID.    

HOWEVER, ANY SHARP RISE IN PRICES OF THE PREMIUM-QUALITY RICE MAY REMAIN CAPPED AS A DECLINE IN DEMAND FROM WEST ASIA IS SEEN IN THE COMING DAYS DESPITE RAMZAN, DELHI-BASED TRADER ANAND GOYAL SAID.

RESTRICTIONS ON MOVEMENT DUE TO THE LOCKDOWN AND RECENT STEPS BY IRAN TO WITHDRAW A SUBSIDY ON RICE IMPORTS COULD ALSO HIT EXPORTS, GOYAL SAID.

ON THE INDIAN COMMODITY EXCHANGE, HOWEVER, THE MAY BASMATI PADDY CONTRACT ENDED STEADY AT 3,360 RUPEES PER 100 KG. 

PRICES OF MAIZE DECLINED ACROSS KEY SPOT MARKETS TODAY AS BULK PURCHASES BY FEED MAKERS AND OTHER CONSUMERS WERE SUBDUED, TRADERS SAID.

ARRIVALS IN NASHIK WERE PEGGED AT 700-800 BAGS (1 BAG = 100 KG). IN NIZAMABAD, ARRIVALS WERE AT 700-800 BAGS.

DEMAND FROM BULK BUYERS, SUCH AS POULTRY SECTORS, HAS BEEN HIT AS THE CONSUMPTION OF POULTRY PRODUCTS HAS FALLEN ON RUMOURS THAT BROILERS AND EGGS ARE CARRIERS OF COVID-19, NIZAMABAD-BASED TRADER AMRUTLAL KATARIA SAID.   

AN OUTBREAK OF AFRICAN SWINE FEVER IN ASSAM IS ALSO SEEN HITTING DEMAND IN THE NORTHEASTERN STATES AS CULLING PIGS IS THE ONLY OPTION, HE SAID.

A DECLINE IN FEED CONSUMPTION DUE TO THE VIRUS MAY ALSO HIT DEMAND FOR MAIZE WHICH IS A KEY COMPONENT OF ANIMAL FEED, PATNA-BASED TRADER AVINASH KUMAR, A TRADER FROM BIHAR, SAID.   

PRICES OF MILL-QUALITY WHEAT IN JAIPUR, TOO, FELL FURTHER DUE TO A RISE IN ARRIVALS AMID WEAK GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT, THEY SAID. 

IN JAIPUR, ARRIVALS WERE PEGGED AT 78,000-85,000 BAGS (1 BAG = 100 KG), UP 3,000-4,000 BAGS FROM THURSDAY, THEY SAID. 

MARKETS OF INDORE AND KANPUR WERE SHUT BECAUSE OF THE LOCKDOWN. 

IN JAIPUR, PRICES OF BAJRA WERE LARGELY STEADY DUE TO LACK OF TRIGGERS, TRADERS SAID.

FOLLOWING ARE TODAY'S PRICES OF WHEAT, MAIZE, PADDY, AND BAJRA IN RUPEES PER 100 KG, IN KEY WHOLESALE MARKETS, AND THE CHANGE FROM THE PREVIOUS DAY OF TRADE:

COMMODITY
MARKET
PRICE
CHANGE
WHEAT
INDORE
1,830-1,860*
WHEAT
JAIPUR
1,700-1,720
(-)10-20
MAIZE
NASHIK
1,420-1,470
(-)20-30
MAIZE
NIZAMABAD
1,430-1,470
(-)20-30
PUSA 1121 BASMATI PADDY
AMRITSAR
2,900-2,950
30-50
BAJRA
JAIPUR
1,750-1,800

END 
EDITED BY SUBHAM MITRA


PADDY CULTIVATION UP BY 20 PERCENT IN ASIFABAD

Officials attribute this to improved irrigational facilities, better MSP offered by the government
By AuthorTelanganaToday  |  
Published: 8th May 2020
  8:34 pmUpdated: 9th May 2020  12:50 am
Description: Asifabad
Farmers load paddy hay in a tractor for shifting it to their residence on outskirts of Dahegaon mandal centre. Photo: Santosh Padala
KB Asifabad: Growing paddy is a common sight in monsoon in any part of the Kumram Bheem Asifabad district. In a welcoming sign, eye pleasing scenes of paddy crop harvesting can be witnessed in several parts of the district in yasangi season fall in summer. Thanks to the improved irrigational facilities in the last few years and better minimum support price offered by the government to growers.
“The area of paddy cultivation of the district is 12,000 acres in this agriculture season when compared with 10,000 acres of previous year, showing a rise by 20 percent. The district is set to register an expected yield of 30,000 metric tonnes in this season as against 25,000 metric tonnes recorded in yasangi last year,” R Srinivas Rao, in-charge district agriculture officer told Telangana Today.

 

Usually, the farmers rely on irrigation tanks, streams and rains for growing paddy. They, however, are now depending on canals of irrigation projects and bore wells. They are coming forward to raise the crop in yasangi season like never before, and are able to make profits as the government is paying reasonable MSP to the produce.
As a result, the area of paddy cultivation is increasing gradually in the district. “Apart from better irrigation facilities, the MSP is playing a vital role in the growth of the paddy cultivation. The fine quality paddy was offered MSP of around Rs 1,500 per quintal in 2019. The price is Rs 1,830 per quintal this time,” Srinivas Rao opined.
A total of 24 paddy procurement centres were set up across the district for purchasing the produce directly from the farmers. The process of procurement has already begun. Growers have started harvesting their crop and some of them already shifted the produce to the centres. They are now getting amply earnings by venturing into paddy cultivation in yasangi.

Modern machinery

Unlike in the past, the paddy growers are hiring modern machinery to sow saplings, to harvest the crop and to shift hay following the short of agriculture labourers in this region. Some of them are buying machines from Karimnagar and Hyderabad. Using of farm equipment has also been remarkably gone up in the district with government giving subsidies as part of mechanisation of agriculture.

10.47 lakh tonnes of rice moved via 374 train loads: FCI

Hyderabad: Maximum procurement of paddy has taken place in Telangana where there has been a quantum jump in the production due to commissioning of large irrigation projects, said DV Prasad, Chairman & Managing Director, Food Corporation of India (FCI). “Out of the total nationwide paddy procurement of about 45 lakh metric tonnes, contribution of Telangana alone is 30 lakh metric tonnes, followed by Andhra Pradesh with about 10 lakh metric tonnes,” he said in a press release.
The FCI Telangana has undertaken movement of food grains via railway rakes to the deficit/needy state on a massive scale to cater the needs of the people in States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and recently Jharkhand among others. Since the beginning of the lockdown, 10.47 lakh metric tonnes of rice was moved via 374 train loads, which is the highest ever movement undertaken by FCI Telangana till date, the press release said.
The FCI said that 2.87 lakh metric tonnes of food grains benefitting 191.62 lakh persons and costing around Rs 1,100 crores have been allotted to Telangana. Further, around 1.33 lakh metric tonnes of rice is being issued from FCI to Telangana at Rs 22 per kg to cater the food grain needs of 88.60 lakh persons who were not covered under NFSA affected due to Covid-19 lockdown.
Food grains were also issued at subsidised rates to 57 charitable/ NGOs running relief camps/ providing food to needy people affected by the lockdown, the press release added.

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How More Than Ever -- U.S.-Grown Rice  

ARLINGTON, VA -- In the most challenging of times, Americans can always count on the U.S. food supply.  Even in the midst of a global pandemic, while the domestic food supply chain is facing unprecedented logistical strain, the supply of food itself is plentiful and enough to meet demand.  

However, in many developing nations around the world, some of which are destinations for rice in food aid, the situation is very different.  Nations that were in transition to greater resilience have now regressed to food insecure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), warns of a looming "famine of biblical proportions," as WFP reports 135 million people facing hunger and an additional 130 million on the edge of starvation, up from 80 million a few years ago.  Beasley also said that if food doesn't reach those in need, up to 300,000 people could starve to death every day.  

"Now, more than ever, U.S.-grown rice is one of the best solutions to address hunger, stop starvation, and prevent children from slipping into malnutrition," said Bobby Hanks, chair of the USA Rice Food Aid Subcommittee.  "Fortifed rice in particular is readily available and saves and improves lives by providing eight micronutrients traditionally lacking from diets in many nations where we provide food assistance."

USA Rice members have a long history of feeding the world through global food aid programs in tandem with the U.S. Government and WFP.  Currently almost 100,000 MT of U.S.-grown milled and fortified rice is shipped to food insecure nations in Asia, Latin America, and parts of Africa, where over 1.6 billion people eat a diet dominated by rice.  The versatility of rice allows for distribution as both emergency food in direct response to a crisis, and as part of long-term development programs that focus on feeding school children.  And as fortified rice is now part of the global food assistance supply chain, rice can be considered not only a solution to hunger but as a solution to the devastating and lingering effects of malnutrition.  

USA Rice continues to advocate for aid organizations to use more rice in key prepositioning locations, making it available to those in urgent need with quick delivery times.  Innovations in packaging ensure that fortified rice arrives to its destination in peak condition and with critical shelf life potential.  

"These are uncertain times with a lot of unanswered questions out there and people around the world still struggle to eat," Hanks concluded.  "The U.S. rice industry is committed to using our harvest to provide key nutrition that so many people around the world desperately need."







Industry Welcomes New Guidelines on Demurrage and Detention Charges  
By Josie McLaurin

WASHINGTON, DC -- Last week, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) issued new guidance under the Shipping Act on how it will assess demurrage and detention charges -- essentially storage fees a merchant pays for use of a shipping container at a terminal or depot outside of a "free time" period. 

Ocean carriers and terminal operators often impose detention and demurrage charges on trucking and shipping companies when their shipping containers cannot be  returned to, or picked up from, marine terminals within a short "free time" window.  In the past, these charges were incurred even when the delay was caused by the ocean carriers or terminals themselves, for instance when the terminal is closed or a ship is late.

"According to the new FMC demurrage and detention guidelines, there should be no charge or penalties for failure to pick up or return a container within contracted deadlines when compliance is not possible through no fault of the shipper or trucker," said Bobby Hanks, a Louisiana rice miller and chair of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee.  "Getting clarification through these new guidelines is a big step forward, however enforcement by the FMC will be critical." 

USA Rice joined other agriculture and transportation organizations on a letter to Director of the U.S. National Economic Council Larry Kudlow and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue requesting their assistance to urge the FMC to finalize the rule.

The final rule will go into effect upon its publication in the Federal Register.


Market Information

Daily Rough Rice Prices
(updated daily)
           
Market Year Average Price Tracker (updated monthly)




India lockdown lifts Pakistani rice export to Middle East 


Description: https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Pakistan-Export-Rice.jpg
KARACHI: Export of Pakistani rice increased in the Middle East after India imposed strict lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Arab News reported.
According to rice exporters, export of Pakistani rice increased by about 59 percent in April 2020. In an interview, Senior Vice Chairman of the Rice Exporters’ Association of Pakistan (REAP) Muhammad Raza said, “The Middle East is the main market of India’s basmati rice.” “When New Delhi decided to impose the lockdown, the orders were diverted to Pakistan.”
According to data available, Pakistan’s rice exports to the Middle East increased by 59 percent to $420 million in April 2020. United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and other regional countries remained the destination of Pakistani rice.


Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI)) terms dismissal of intervention cost as ‘triumph of mafia’

Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) has named the dismissal of intervention cost for cotton crop 2020-21 as a triumph of the mafia, which has representation in the ECC.
Description: Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI)) terms dismissal of intervention cost as'triumph of mafia'

“It is a dark day for the cultivators when all is said in done and the cotton producers specifically as in the skirmish of industry and agribusiness by and by industry have vanquished horticulture with full power,” said Khalid Khokhar, Pakistan Kissan Ittehad President.
ECC dismissed a proposition of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research in which the intercession cost of seed cotton (Phutti was proposed at Rs 4,224/40kg).
“In the fight with the material business, cultivators who need a reasonable cost of their yield, have lost the fight against the strong lobby that has assumed control over the gathering and got a choice in support of them,” Khokhar included.
He was of the view that industry, consistently follows through on far less cost for cotton adding up to Rs 34.63 billion to the cotton producers for the sake of “free market economy” which as a general rule is a restraining infrastructure.
The producer has been requesting their entitlement to a reasonable cost of their yeild for long yet every time the mafia wins. This year with Syed Fakhar Imam in the seat as Minister for NFS&R was mentioned by farmer bodies to declare the help value well ahead of time so choice on cotton planting could be taken suitably.
The cotton region is declining by 20 percent Punjab since 2010 though the region under maize and sugarcane has been expanded by 66 percent and 37 percent individually.
He said water as a restricting variable for Pakistan must be used shrewdly and high delta crops like rice, maize, and sugarcane must be supplanted by low water requiring crops like cotton, oilseed, and heartbeats, Pakistan is burning through billions of dollars on import of these items.
Syed Fakhar Imam, a cotton cultivator himself, with the broad meeting, set a proposition to ECC, which was dismissed with a mind dominant part with the reason that cotton creation is a common subject after the eighteenth amendment, and the legislature is as of now attempting to dispose of wheat bolster cost and sugar characteristic cost.
“The choice shows a dreary future for cotton in Pakistan with the industry having a solid anteroom with the leaders who would prefer not to see cotton and agriculture thrive in Pakistan,” he proceeded.
The world has learned lessons during the current Covid-19 flare-up and understood that everything comes after food security and farming, lamentably, Pakistanis have not learned a lesson or are deliberately disregarding it.
Khalid Khokhar contended that after Atomic Testing and 9/11 Pakistan confronted the most exceedingly awful authorizes, however “since we had a surplus in agriculture thus Pakistan survived. During the current Covid-19 emergency Pakistan had enough of nourishment wares, so there is no frenzy like circumstance in the nation.
“We the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad as our last expectation, demand Prime Minister Imran Khan who has demonstrated his responsibilities to strike against mafias and cartels to buy and by mediate and bolster farmers at this pivotal time,” he finished up.

Louisiana rice crop off to good start, prices up

Eating leftover rice could pose a health risk, according to health experts. Buzz60
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CROWLEY — Rice prices have rebounded, and the Louisiana 2020 crop is off to a good start.
LSU AgCenter economist Michael Deliberto said there are several reasons why the economic outlook for rice is positive.
“There is no doubt that supplies are tight and demand has been good. These are the highest U.S. prices in at least seven years,” he said.
AgCenter rice specialist Dustin Harrell said the south Louisiana rice crop is doing well.
“This year’s rice crop has had a tremendous start,” he said.
Early planted rice benefited from a warm March, with the average March temperature 10 degrees higher than usual.

Rice has bounced back after a few cold days in April. Some areas have reported outbreaks of chinch bugs, but most of the crop has avoided any major challenges, Harrell said.
“It’s one of the best starts I’ve seen in a long time,” he said.
Heavy rainfall has interfered with planting in north Louisiana and Arkansas.
July rice is selling for roughly $23 a barrel, and September rice was priced north of $19 a barrel, which is 162 pounds.
“I think that number could go higher,” Deliberto said.
U.S. long-grain milled rice prices are currently being supported by continued large sales to Haiti, expectations of much tighter U.S. supplies later this market year and higher and rising global trading prices.
“Given the uncertainty of the pandemic, it’s hard to say just how high prices will go. Asian exporters are starting to relax some of the export restrictions,” Deliberto said.
Total rice acreage could affect pricing. Lower prices could be coming with an acreage shift in Arkansas, the largest rice-producing state, from soybeans to rice that exceeds projections.
“That’s why that June acreage report will be important for the market,” he said.
Rice planting has increased over the last year, with Arkansas accounting for 78% of the projected 307,000-acre total U.S. expansion. Estimates have been made that Arkansas will have almost 1.4 million acres in rice, 21% higher than a year earlier.
Rice growers in Louisiana indicated in March they would expand total rice plantings more than 1% to 430,000 acres, with long-grain varieties accounting for all the 2020 intended expansion, Deliberto said. Louisiana’s medium-grain intended planting of 40,000 acres is down by 15,000 acres from 2019.
Ending stocks are down considerably. Long-grain ending stocks are 58% below last year, the lowest since 2003-2004.
“From market reports, there appears to be very little of old crop supplies left unsold. Attention now shifts to new crop dynamics from a marketing perspective,” Deliberto said.
U.S. exports are up. Through February 2020, U.S. exports of long-grain rice totaled 41.5 million hundredweight, up 11.5% from a year earlier, with U.S. shipments well ahead of last year to Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela, he said. Latin America is projected to remain the top market for U.S. long-grain rice in 2019, with most of its purchases for rough, unprocessed rice.
At the same time, export restrictions recently announced by some Southeast Asian countries and the effect of lockdown policies in numerous countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic have tightened the global rice market.
“Most notable among the rice export bans is Vietnam, the third-largest global exporter since 2013,” Deliberto said.
But he said Vietnam trade officials have started to relax export restrictions.

Rice Sacks and Blessings 

Hmong and Lao volunteers feed their communities

Description: Bao Syphanthong, Pang Lo and Yuhmong Lo load a truck with rice sacks to be distributed to Hmong and Lao families in need.lick to enlarge

Left to Right: Ampha Mannorind, Amalah Syphanthong, Bao Syphanthong, Pata Vang, Onetha Sayavong and Yuhmong Lo pack boxes with food, school supplies and first aid kits, as well as information about COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place order translated into Hmong and Lao.
Every April the Humboldt Grange fills with music, prayer, the chanting of Buddhist monks and Lao food — tables laden with aluminum trays of fried fish, spring rolls, rice cakes and pungent salads — some of which families bring up in silver chalices as New Year's offerings to their ancestors. But this year, under the threat of COVID-19 and the restrictions of the resulting shelter-in-place order, there would be no feast, no families and friends gathered on mats, praying shoulder to shoulder to mark the lunar new year. But that doesn't mean they're not coming together.
Instead, a group of local Lao and Hmong folks joined to help bring much needed food and emergency supplies to families in both communities. On May 2, with $8,000 in funds from the Humboldt Area Foundation's COVID-19 Regional Response Fund, volunteers distributed Southeast Asian food staples, first aid kits, school supplies and health information related to COVID-19 translated into Hmong and Lao to some 70 families.
When Pata Vang, a Hmong American who works as a clinical social worker, heard about potential grant money from HAF, she reached out to "people I knew were willing to put in the work," some of whom were old classmates from Humboldt State University, like Ampha Mannorind and Thavisak "Lucky" Syphanthong. The two are, respectively, the president and vice president of the NorCal Lao Foundation, a nonprofit that grew out of a traditional dance group to support and sustain Lao culture in the area. Once the budget was secured, members, friends and relatives got their assigned tasks.
Over the phone last month, Malina Syvoravong, who was working on the logistics of supply lists and sourcing, explained that while the idea of Asian Americans as a "model minority" is still prevalent in mainstream culture, many in Lao and Hmong communities are low income. Elders and others with language barriers find it difficult to access resources. In some cases, existing need is exacerbated by the economic fallout of the pandemic. "Families might be losing business, losing income. And a lot of households are multigenerational, and that's a lot of mouths to feed," said Syvoravong.
Even if Lao and Hmong families are able to access supplies from Food for People, which Vang noted is a great source of fresh vegetables, the concept of stocking up on staples varies from culture to culture.
"The needs of Lao and Hmong families, their diet is just so different from the average American person," said Syvoravong. "During this time you should never buy food you're not going to eat [to avoid food waste]. Most Lao and Hmong families eat a lot of rice, not a lot of dairy, a lot of fresh greens. Beans don't do well with the stomachs of a lot of Asian Americans." Elders especially might have trouble with a sudden change in diet in an already stressful time. Citing the drop in business Asian markets and Chinatowns all over the country have suffered since the pandemic reignited anti-Asian racism and xenophobia, she said, "We hope to purchase a lot of these foods from a lot of the smaller Asian American stores. We want to use this money to help those businesses thrive."
Once they had their respective shopping lists, volunteers arranged to pick up noodles, rice — some by special order, as everything from Basmati to sushi rice was vanishing from store shelves at the start of shelter in place — and other food items from Asia's Best, Lao Oriental Market, Oriental Foods and Spices, Vang Chang Market and Little Japan, as well as Crescent City Oriental Market. After assembling the food and kits at Syphanthong's Eureka Skate Shop and making deliveries to some families on Friday, on Saturday the team donned masks and gloves to hand out supplies to families who pulled up to the curb at the Davis House on Harris Street. The plan was to go from noon to 2 p.m. but cars were waiting at 11:30 a.m., and by 12:45, everything was gone.
Vang said along with the food, it's important to get translated information about COVID-19 related health and safety guidelines to people, particularly "elders who live by themselves and don't have young people living with them. ... In larger cities in the Midwest, and in Fresno and Merced, they do have sources for information," along with international news in their native languages. In Humboldt County, there is one Hmong speaker on staff and Lao translation available at the Department of Health and Human Services information line (441-5000). But, Vang pointed out, vital information is often spread word of mouth. "Like, 'I gotta tell my auntie, I gotta go tell this other family' — it's really about how we communicate with each other in a small town."
"This is kind of the first time for our generation for the Hmong and Lao community to work together," said Syphanthong, who helped out with a similar effort through the Hmong Community Center in Crescent City. It's a sentiment echoed by Vang, who said there hasn't been an opportunity to come together like this before, though she hopes for more collaborations on both aid and events in the future. She also hopes to reach other small communities, like Pacific Islanders in the area.
Syphanthong, whose refugee parents told him they gave him a sleeping pill as an infant in order to flee Laos in silence under gunfire, said he and other local first- and second-generation Southeast Asians who grew up in the U.S. and were able to gain further education and stability feel a pull to give back to elders and other families.
Mannorind echoes the sentiment, adding that hers was one of the first families to cross from Laos into Thailand after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam. "We're kind of the lucky ones," she said, in that their parents shared their stories. Knowing their sacrifice, she said, makes her want to help her community.
"With this whole shelter in place and COVID, there's no New Year celebration," she said, which means missing paying tribute to ancestors and the blessing to cleanse one's sins. "A lot of things we look forward to we're not able to do. Being able to do this — passing out food and helping families — it's a blessing."

Rice Weeds Growers Need to Look For in 2020

Description: rice weedsThere are two species of rice weeds that growers will want to be closely monitoring for this year. The perennial aquatic weed marshweed, which was initially found in California in 1977 was found in Glenn and Sutter counties last year.  Another perennial aquatic weed, alligatorweed was also found last year in areas of Butte and Sutter counties.

“Marshweed has been around for a while and we talked about it quite a lot maybe 10 years ago or so but at that time it was thought to not be very widespread,” said Whitney Brim-DeForest, Rice Advisor for Sutter, Yuba, Placer and Sacramento Counties. “But we’ve had last year plus this year, now four sightings of it so we want to make sure that people are on the lookout for it.” 
While marshweed did not appear to negatively impact yields, it increased the time required for the fields to dry. During harvest last year some of the growers reported that their moisture content was a bit higher than normal.  “That I’m assuming is partially due to the fact that some of the weeds were also being pulled up into the harvester,” said Brim-DeForest.
Last year alligatorweed was found for the first time in northern California along the Sutter River and has since expanded out from there.  While a group of aquatic scientists is working to address the issue, growers are being encouraged to be on the lookout for the weed.
“There’s a possibility that if somebody had some irrigation connected or was taking equipment or boats back and forth to the river it could spread. So, that’s why we just want everyone to be aware that it’s out there and has been found,” Brim-DeForest noted. “It’s considered highly invasive, so we just want to keep our eyes out for it.”
Growers that believe they may have either of the rice weed species in their fields are encouraged to contact their local PCA’s or farm advisors.

Rice company calls for government intervention to guarantee Australian rice harvest

Description: Rice growing in better times
Rice paddocks in better times. SunRice is concerned that the days for Australian-grown rice are numbered.(ABC: Russell Ford)
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There will be no Australian-grown rice on supermarket shelves by December according to the company that produces 98 per cent of the domestic rice harvest.

·       Australia will run out of domestic grown rice by end of the year according to major rice company, SunRice
·       It wants water from the environment or government intervention in the water market so farmers in the Murray Darling Basin can produce an Australian rice crop for next year
·       Typically half the rice consumed in Australia is imported
But ASX-listed SunRice said if Governments intervened in the water market, subsidised the cost of water, or changed the Murray-Darling Basin Plan so that water intended to go to the environment can instead be used to grow rice, it would guarantee Australian-grown rice returned to supermarket shelves in April 2021.
Australians consume about 300,000 tonnes of rice each year and half of that is typically imported.
The company has told State and Federal Governments that if rice growers were provided with 200 gigalitres of irrigation water in southern New South Wales, it would produce 180,000 tonnes of rice to meet domestic demand next year.
Almost all of the rice grown in Australia comes from the NSW Riverina where farmers have had little or no access to irrigation water for the past two years and domestic rice production has fallen from 800,000 tonnes in 2017 to about 54,000 tonnes last year.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and fearing a third consecutive year without a water allocation in southern NSW, SunRice chairman Laurie Arthur met with Federal and NSW politicians to present "many different scenarios" that he believed would provide farmers with enough water to meet the domestic rice demand.

Mr Arthur is putting forward ideas to ensure rice continues to be grown in Australia.(ABC Landline: Sean Murphy)
One scenario included using South Australia's desalination plant to provide water for Adelaide, freeing up water upstream so farmers could grow rice — a readjustment of the Federal Government's water for fodder program, which uses the water to grow feed for drought-affected livestock.
But speaking with the ABC, Mr Arthur did not elaborate on the details, legality, or cost of his proposals.
Asked if the farmers or SunRice would pay for the water, Mr Arthur said: "That might be the case, we've talked about borrows, we've talked about all sorts of things".
Despite trading in more than 50 countries around the world, Mr Arthur said SunRice could guarantee all rice grown under the company's proposal would stay in Australia, something he argued was increasingly important during the pandemic.
"We're not talking about us being allocated water for rice every year. We're saying at the moment there's a specific problem," Mr Arthur said.
"What we're seeing with COVID-19 is that there's a very significant number of people that, for example, rice is their primary staple, they want access to it all the time, they don't want to go into a supermarket like it's Moscow in the 1980s."
Mr Arthur said there was no risk Australians would go hungry, but the pandemic had created some "turmoil in global rice trade" with at least three rice-growing nations restricting exports.

Water ministers point to each other, hope for rain

Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt said he was hopeful more rain in Murray-Darling basin catchments would increase the amount of water available to growers.
Description: Man in a suit sitting in the House of Representatives

Water Minister Keith Pitt says NSW has emergency reserves of irrigation water.(ABC News: Nick Haggarty)
"If there is available water somewhere, which I could do with the click of my fingers, I would have done it already, but you can't take water from one part of the basin and put it somewhere else without it impacting someone," Mr Pitt said.
However, Mr Pitt said that New South Wales had a "strong opportunity in its emergency reserves" to provide more water for farmers.
New South Wales Water Minister Melinda Pavey said the Australian rice industry was at risk of collapse and called on the Commonwealth to underwrite an opening water allocation for irrigators in southern NSW.
"NSW is already shaking every bucket to see what we have left in our coffers to give our producers to stop the collapse of these industries," Ms Pavey said.
SunRice's call follows a report by Mick Keelty that said: "Trading environmental water can only be undertaken on the open water market when water is excess to requirements and there is no risk to the environment … and … that is not generally the case during a drought."
Another recent report into Australian food security "found government intervention to provide additional water to a particular sector or producer would need to come from another user, such as reserves held to ensure future town supply or environmental outcomes, or water that would have been used for a more profitable sector, reducing the gross value of irrigated production".
The report also forecast a rice harvest of 180,000 tonnes in 2020-21, noting more than half of that would typically be exported.

Water policies and trade has compounded impact of drought: SunRice

Description: An aerial shot of a property including roads and water channels

SunRice says it has a short-term emergency in terms of providing Australian grown rice.(ABC Rural: Larissa Romensky)
Mr Arthur said in his briefings with politicians he was clear that it was not just drought and coronavirus affecting the SunRice business.
He said water policies such as the Murray Darling Basin Plan and water trading, which has allowed water to be traded away from traditional crops like rice to higher value crops like nuts, have devastated the rice industry.
"We're just alerting government and the public that we're having under water reform, and combined that with drought, we're having trouble providing that to Australian consumers."
"This isn't a [call to] 'come and help us government'.
Mr Arthur said if SunRice could not produce a domestic harvest, it would "do our best" to import rice to meet Australian consumer demand.
If governments could provide the water under the scenarios presented, he said it would be distributed among the company's growers at the discretion of Mr Arthur and the SunRice board.
Description: Close-up short of rice in a paddy.


World food prices fall in April

FAO index points out a sharp fall of 3.4% in food prices last month on March. Sugar prices plunged by 14.6%.
  
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Nile Sugar
Agência Brasil
pauta@ebc.com.br
São Paulo – World food prices fell for a third consecutive month in April, hit by the economic and logistical impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations food agency reported on Thursday (7). The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) food price index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 165.5 points last month, down 3.4%.
The sugar price index fell to a 13-year low, plunging by 14.6% from March. The vegetable oil price index fell by 5.2%, hit by falling palm, soy and rapeseed oil values, while the dairy index dropped 3.6%, with butter and milk powder prices posting double-digit declines. The meat index shed by 2.7%, with a partial recovery in import demand from China failing to balance a slump in imports elsewhere.
“The pandemic is hitting both the demand and supply sides for meat, as restaurant closures and reduced household incomes lead to lower consumption and labor shortages on the processing side are impacting just-in-time production systems,” FAO senior economist Upali Galketi Aratchilage said.
On the other hand, cereal price index declined only slightly, as international prices of wheat and rice rose significantly while those of maize dropped sharply. Rice prices rose by 7.2% from March, due in large part to temporary export restrictions by Vietnam that were subsequently repealed.

Crop Monitor for AMIS | No. 70 – March 2020

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Posted

6 Mar 2020

Originally published

6 Mar 2020

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As of the end of February, conditions are mixed for rice, while generally favourable for wheat, maize, and soybeans. In the Northern Hemisphere, winter wheat is in dormancy under generally favourable conditions with some winter kill vulnerability in Europe, southern Ukraine, and southern Russian Federation. In the Southern Hemisphere, maize is under favourable conditions across Brazil and Argentina for both spring and summer planted crops. Rice in Southeast Asia is under watch conditions due to continued dry conditions. In the Southern Hemisphere, soybean conditions are favourable.


Dominican Republic to set a rice harvest record


Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Republic will set a record rice harvest this month, with more than 8 million, 100-pound sacks, Agriculture Minister, Osmar Benítez, affirmed Thursday.
In a meeting with President Danilo Medina in the National Palace, the official also announced that the Government will buy 2.2 million eggs weekly, through the Ministry of Agriculture and the social assistance agencies that deliver food to the most vulnerable families.
In addition, Medina instructed the purchase of 1.2 million pounds of chicken from small farms.

Shobha Roy  Kolkata | Updated on May 08, 2020  Published on May 08, 2020
Description: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/dj81pe/article31532667.ece/alternates/LANDSCAPE_660/BL09RABI
This year sowing of the crop was delayed due to cyclonic weather and untimely rains   -  K MURALI_KUMAR
The unfavourable climatic conditions and the shortage of labour on fields are likely to weigh heavily on the production of boro paddy (the rabi crop) in West Bengal. The crop is estimated to be lower by 10-15 per cent at close to 60-65 lakh tonnes this year, against the average of around 70 lakh tonnes during normal years.
Harvesting of boro paddy, which is sown sometime in October, usually commences by the third week of April and peaks by end-April or early May. However, this year sowing of the crop was delayed due to cyclonic weather and untimely rains. Naturally, harvesting also got delayed.
“Harvesting has just started, it is a bit slow. We usually have Kalbaisakhi (Nor’westers) around this time; so, we are fairly prepared. However, this year the storm and rainfall have been far more frequent. So, farmers have to wait for sunshine…it is difficult to estimate the exact quantum of the crop till harvesting is complete but we expect 60-65 lakh tonnes production this year,” Pradip Kumar Mazumder, Chief Advisor (Agriculture) to the Chief Minister, told BusinessLine.
West Bengal produces 15-16 million tonnes of paddy each year across the three seasons ― aus, aman and boro. The kharif paddy (aus and aman) output accounts for about 70 per cent of the total production in the State. Boro paddy is usually cultivated on land which has canal or irrigation facility.
According to Abdar Rezzak, a farmer in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, the untimely rain is impacting the quality of the crop.
“The paddy is fully ready and waiting to be harvested. Rains at this time will only lead to rotting of the crop,” he said.

Labour shortage

Apart from the unfavourable climate, the shortage of labour is also delaying the process of harvesting. A majority of the labourers who work on fields come from the districts of Bankura, Purulia, Malda and Murshidabad.
Most of the labourers have gone back to their villages due to the pandemic scare. The harvesting is being done primarily with help from local family labour and some of the migrant labourers, who got stuck at potato harvesting. This apart, the state government has brought in some additional combine harvesters from other states.
“We have informed all the district magistrates and the entire administration and they are facilitating induction of harvesting machines. Movement of labour in a selected way from within green zones is also being permitted, so, it should not be a problem. The Chief Minister is very concerned about protecting farmers’ livelihood and their crop, and we are taking all possible measures,” Mazumder said.

Procurement yet to gather steam

The state government has managed to procure close to 90,000 tonnes of paddy through its central procurement centres so far since the beginning of May. It hopes to be able to procure close to 40,000 tonnes on daily basis starting next week once harvesting gains pace.
Paddy procurement is also facilitated through rice mills. However, with 30-40 per cent of the mills still closed due to labour shortage, the process is likely to be impacted. Some of the mills which are in red zone areas have been sealed.
“Procurement has started but there are several restrictions; so, naturally it is yet to gather pace. Only 60-70 per cent of the rice mills are operational and there is a fear psychosis among labourers about the pandemic,” Sushil Kumar Choudhury, President, Bengal Rice Mills Association, said.

Central Vietnam province hit by severe drought

By Viet Quoc    May 8, 2020 | 08:00 am GMT+7
People walk in the dried up Ta Mon irrigation lake in Ham Thuan Nam District in Binh Thuan Province, April 22, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Viet Quoc.

Binh Thuan Province has declared a state of emergency after drought affected over 97,000 residents and depleted irrigation water.

The declaration, signed by Nguyen Ngoc Hai, chairman of the Binh Thuan Province People's Committee on Thursday, stresses the importance of damage control and the supply of sufficient water for daily use.
Rainfall, which came late this year, has been low. Since the end of January, rivers and streams have dried out across Binh Thuan, home to popular beach town Mui Ne.
Levels of groundwater have also significantly dropped. Wells in the area have been nearly depleted of water, some experiencing cases of saltwater intrusion.
The irrigation system is also under pressure, with only about 27.4 million cubic meters of water remaining, less than 11 percent of designed capacity. Water levels are only one third the normal average, or 31 percent compared to those observed

Locals in Thuan Hoa Commune of Ham Thuan Bac District, Binh Thuan dig a well as the province is hit by severe drought, April 27, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Viet Quoc.
According to Binh Thuan authorities, farmers do not have enough water for production purposes. During the winter-spring rice crop, the entire province saw a loss of over 15,400 hectares of rice to ensure enough water for domestic consumption and perennial crops.

Currently, perennial crop hubs in Bac Binh, Ham Thuan Bac, Ham Thuan Nam and Ham Tan districts do not have enough irrigation water. Thousands of hectares of dragon fruit have shown a significant decrease in size, while many gardens have withered, causing heavy losses among local farmers.
According to a Department of Agriculture and Rural Development report, Binh Thuan, comprising 38 communes, wards and towns, suffered from a shortage of water for daily use from the end of April, affecting over 97,000 residents.
Elsewhere in Vietnam, Mekong Delta has also been hit by the biggest drought ever. Kenh Lap, the largest local reservoir, has dried up, while six provinces have declared states of emergency due to drought and saline invasion.

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/n

Rice exports to Bangladesh via West Bengal likely to commence soon

Rice exports to Bangladesh through West Bengal will likely begin soon as the ministry of home affairs (MHA) has taken a tough stand against the state government for not allowing border trade with India's eastern neighbour.

, ET Bureau| Last Updated: May 08, 2020, 10.02 AM IST
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Rice exports to Bangladesh through West Bengal will likely begin soon as the ministry of home affairs (MHA) has taken a tough stand against the state government for not allowing border trade with India's eastern neighbour. MHA has asked the state chief secretary to immediately allow transportation of essentials through land ports on the Indo-Bangladesh border. Traders said that trucks loaded with rice are stuck at the border, causing daily losses to the freight companies.
Description: Rice bccl“The trucks are waiting at the Bangladesh border for quite some time now. Despite the MHA order, the movement of trucks is stalled,” said Suraj Agarwal, chief executive officer of Tirupati Agri Trade. “Now we are hearing that from May 20, exports between the two countries through the Petrapole-Benapole border may begin.” Bangladesh imports basmati rice from Punjab and Haryana and the GI-tagged Gobindobhog and other types of rice from West Bengal.

Although exports through the land route have come to a halt, basmati rice has started to reach Bangladesh through the sea route. “Rice is going from Mundra port to Chittagong port through sea route,” said Angshu Mallick, deputy chief executive officer of Adani Wilmar. Farmers in West Bengal are also waiting for exports to Bangladesh to begin as prices of rice have fallen in the past one month.

Subrata Mondol, secretary of Rice Mill Association of Burdwan, said: “Since the state government has decided to give free ration for six months due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the price of rice has fallen. The common swarna masoori rice that was available at Rs 27 per kg a month ago has dropped to Rs 24 per kg. Similarly, minikit rice which was available at Rs 45 a kg a few days ago is now selling at Rs 36 per kg. Prices will firm up if exports begin to Bangladesh.”

However, the rice trade is facing an unusual problem. Unseasonal rains are damaging the boro paddy crop, which is being harvested now. West Bengal produces 15-16 million tonnes of paddy annually in three seasons which include aus, aman and boro. The kharif paddy (aus and aman) output accounts for about 70% of the total production in the state.
The Eocnomic Times

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