The Lost Continent You
Did Not Know About
June 22, 2020
The Formation
About 175
million years ago, the supercontinent, Pangea, starting breaking up. This
disassembly gave rise to two smaller supercontinents called Laurasia and
Gondwanaland during the Late Triassic. The northern landmass, Laurasia, would
drift north and gradually split into Europe, Asia and North America.
Separated by
the Tethys Sea, the southern landmass split into the remainder of the
continents: Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian
subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula. So how many continents are there? Most
people would say 7, which is correct. Technically there exist 7 geographical
entities which qualify as ‘continents.’ As per its definition, continents are
large landmasses on the earth’s surface, surrounded, or mainly surrounded, by
sea.
The supercontinent, Pangea, with modern
borders.
The Discovery
While the
number 7 remained constant, the distribution of the continents varied.
Australia split from Antarctica about 30 million years ago. Before that, the
now distinct continents were merged as one. However, the number of continents
was still 7. This was due to the elusive continent of Zealandia. The
modern-day New Zealand is 7 % of the much loftier landmass, Zealandia. Little
is known about it as the majority of the landmass is two-thirds of a mile
underwater. Scientists estimate that this narrow microcontinent submerged about
80 million years ago. Despite being underwater, it continues to contribute to
NZ’s economy. The rich mineral deposits allow for mining and the ma 
ny
natural gas fields across Zealandia provide important biofuels. Zealandia imaged and enhanced from space.
ny
natural gas fields across Zealandia provide important biofuels. Zealandia imaged and enhanced from space.
32 scientists
affiliated with the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) at Texas
A&M University went on an expedition to study the former continent.
Scientists taking part in the 2017 expedition drilled deep into Zealandia’s
seabed at six sites in water depths of more than 4,000 feet (1,250 meters).
They collected
8,000 feet (2,500 meters) of sediment cores from layers that record how the
geography, volcanism and climate of the region have changed over millions of
years (more about Zealandia and the ring of fire here).
A team of 32 scientists aboard the
JOIDES research vessel on a voyage to the lost continent of Zealandia.
Gerald Dickens, a professor at Rice
University and one of the scientists who led the project said, “More than 8,000
specimens were studied, and several hundred fossil species were identified. The
discovery of microscopic shells of organisms that lived in warm shallow seas,
and of spores and pollen from land plants, reveal that the geography and
climate of Zealandia were dramatically different in the past.”
We wouldn’t have known about this
sunken continent if it wasn’t for an observation from space. For geologists and
planetary scientists, the area holds many clues to our planet’s past, and may
help scientists understand landforms seen on other worlds in the solar system.
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China grows sea rice on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-22 21:48:59|Editor: huaxia
Chinese scientists have grown sea rice on a
farm at an altitude of 2,800 meters in Qinghai Province, marking the first
trial of "sea rice-planting" on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Analysis | China faces a rice bowl dilemma after Covid
- Tuesday, June 23, 2020 -
For a nation scarred by famine, it’s hard to overstate the importance of food security. That was true long before 1994, when U.S. environmental pioneer Lester Brown drew international attention to the potential consequences of scarcities by asking who would feed China when it boomed. Officials fear inflation as a potential cause of social and political instability — not without reason, given that rising prices helped provoke the Tiananmen Square protests. Agricultural imports, of course, have a tendency to become tangled in diplomatic spats.
The answer was historically a simple one: self-sufficiency, particularly in grains like wheat, rice and corn. The idea has been hard to shake, even if the exact meaning of the phrase has softened over the years. Then came the 2020 pandemic, pressing everyone to fret about messy distribution chains. Officials freshened up plans and, projecting an image of self-reliance, Premier Li Keqiang told China’s parliament last month that it was imperative to ensure food supply, while rewarding grain-producing counties and boosting the minimum purchase price for rice.
That doesn’t mean the country can simply set the clock back to 1996, when China outlined a strict grain self-sufficiency policy — or that it plans to. In part, what China is doing now is a regular rebalancing of the official position, says Thomas David DuBois at Beijing Normal University, who hosts the China Eats podcast.
For one, a back-to-the-future move would be nigh-impossible. China has become a member of the World Trade Organization. Households eat larger portions and tuck into more protein, increasing demand for grain to feed livestock. Imports of produce have climbed. While China has rice and wheat, it relies on overseas markets like the U.S., Brazil and Argentina for soybeans. It has also sought to increase meat imports after African swine fever hit pork production last year. Agricultural purchases have been key to a trade truce with Washington.
Certainly, the cost of past domestic ambitions has already been extortionate. In environmental terms, the damage has meant fertilizers used at four times the global rate, degraded soil and scarce water. Then there’s the financial blow: According to the World Bank, input subsidies rose sevenfold between 2006 and 2010. By that final year, government support for producers amounted to 17% of gross farm receipts. This rising bill, along with other changes, including growing international clout, accounts for Beijing’s more balanced approach after late 2013, when policy began to lean toward imports, sustainability, investing abroad and modernizing at home.
It’s encouraging that some of those efforts have paid off during the pandemic. Farmers seem to have been better able to handle spring planting disruptions thanks to digital applications. Longer-running policies like the vegetable basket plan that makes city mayors responsible for urban food security, partly to stimulate local production and preserve agricultural land, appear to have worked. Reserves held out. Still, the weaknesses of the global supply chain were exposed.
As ructions with Washington rumble in the background, it’s unsurprising that the idea of the national rice bowl held firmly in Chinese hands, filled with Chinese rice, holds some attraction. Yet there are longer-term risks for misallocated resources that already lead to plentiful smuggling of cheaper fare. Not to mention what Amrita Jash at New Delhi’s Centre for Land Warfare Studies points out are heightened risks of clashes with neighbors like India, as China seeds clouds in Tibet, or further afield from an expanding fleet of distant-water fishing vessels
It matters, though, that popular concern over issues including genetically modified crops, metal-tainted soil and dirty water — plus official awareness of the cost of ignoring them — means that a new domestic push has a chance of being far less destructive than before. Food safety worries have only heightened of late. Physical constraints like water scarcity will play a role in limiting those aspirations, as Bloomberg Intelligence notes, and shape more sustainable policy by encouraging investment in irrigation and other innovations.
China has little choice but to build food security by balancing internal sufficiency against more diverse international sources, often with Chinese links in the supply chain. That doesn’t necessarily mean large-scale acquisition of land in Africa and elsewhere to ship harvests back home, which is both unpopular and economically punitive. Using its clout on global markets makes more sense.
In this context, the Belt and Road Initiative has been a game-changer in terms of linking up the mainland and friendly sellers when it comes to grains, says Zhang Hongzhou of Nanyang Technological University, who studies China’s resource governance. Ukraine is now a leading supplier of corn to China.
China’s rice bowl is going to stay mixed a while longer — however tightly it is held. Clara Ferreira Marques, Bloomberg
Close gaps in rice import tags, BOC told
June 23, 2020
AFP
personnel help in repacking rice to be distributed to local government units at
a Department of Social and Welfare Development warehouse in Pasay City.According to the FFF, the BOC uses over 10 different classification codes for the same type of rice imports, which, it pointed out, could be utilized by unscrupulous importers to evade higher customs’ reference prices.
“Eighty percent of rice imports in 2020 were placed under a tariff heading for ‘broken rice’ which includes a subheading for rice ‘of a kind used for animal feed’. Others were classified as ‘brown rice’, even if they were actually white and well-milled,” FFF National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor said in a statement on Monday.
“It is possible that some imports were being misclassified under tariff lines that had lower reference prices so as to conceal attempts to undervalue FOB prices,” Montemayor added.
The FFF also explained that a “significant” volume of imports did not indicate any rice grade, thus, making it impossible to determine their proper tariff classification and corresponding customs’ reference price.
The customs’ reference price serves as a basis for the prevailing price of an imported good so it could determine if there are undervaluation or other trade-related issues.
“This makes it easier for a Customs examiner to accept whatever price the importer declares and/or to arbitrarily place the imports under any classification code,” Montemayor said.
The FFF recommended that the BOC sit down with the Department of Agriculture (DA), the National Food Authority (NFA) and private-sector representatives to come up with an “accurate and realistic” classification and valuation system for rice imports.
The farmers’ group also urged the DA to tighten further its screening of rice imports and blacklist unscrupulous players that have undervalued their shipments since the rice industry was deregulated in March 2019.
The FFF has repeatedly raised the issue of undervaluation before the BOC and the DA following the enactment of the rice trade liberalization law in 2019, paving the way for the easier importation of rice.
It recently claimed that undervaluation of rice imports continues with at least P890 million in lost tariff revenues from over 766,000 metric tons of staple imported from January to April.
The undervaluation, the FFF explained, could be seen in the free on board (FOB) price of rice and the freight and insurance costs of the shipments.
Indonesia's Bulog expects no rice imports this year
6/23/2020
JAKARTA, June 23 (Reuters) - Indonesia food
procurement agency Bulog currently has 1.4 million tonnes of rice and does not
expect a need to import the grain this year, its chief executive said on
Tuesday.Bulog had to double the volume of rice released to the market in recent months in an effort to blunt a price spike caused by demand from social assistance programmes during the country's coronavirus outbreak.
Indonesia has reported nearly 47,000 infections in the country as of Monday, the highest in East Asia outside of China.
Bulog is maximising local procurement from the recent main harvest and expects another harvest between September and November to boost supply, especially for food assistance programmes, chief executive Budi Waseso told reporters.
"Rice absorption is still on going, which convinces me that we have enough supply," he said.
Based on the farming ministry's output estimate and data from the statistics agency, Bulog will not require imports this year, he added.
The agency as of June 22 has procured 609,577 tonnes of rice equivalent from local farmers this year, company data showed.
In the next three months, the Bulog has been slotted by President Joko Widodo to supply 450,000 tonnes of rice for the government programmes, Waseso said, and if necessary, that may be repeated in the three months after.
Indonesia's farm ministry is estimating unhusked rice output of 59.15 million this year and 63.5 million tonnes in 2021. (Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Martin Petty)
Global
scientific collaboration hindered by politics, says Baker Institute study
HOUSTON – (June 22, 2020) -A survey
of thousands of scientists conducted by Rice University’s Baker Institute for
Public Policy suggests international scientific collaboration can be improved
through policy reform.
Many scientists approach their work
with “an increasingly collaborative outlook” and are not motivated by politics
or diplomatic relations, which often hinder collaboration, according to a paper
co-authored by the institute’s Kirstin Matthews, Erin Yang and Steven Lewis.
More than 9,000 scientists from
eight countries or regions – the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Italy,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Turkey and France – were surveyed to gauge the attitudes and
experiences of a diverse cross section of religious traditions and research
infrastructure.
The survey found that barriers to
global collaboration include insufficient funding for international work,
restrictions on material or data sharing, differences in academic standards and
bias against scholars from other countries. For example, there were “accounts
of national, racial and ethnic biases experienced by Indian and Turkish
scientists,” which hinders their ability to publish or present at conferences,
one of the key ways to meet potential collaborators.
“This is particularly challenging
now as scientific conferences go virtual and researchers no longer get to meet
in person,” Matthews said. “Researchers are also being challenged by political
issues as the (Trump) administration tries to limit future science and
engineering students as well as researchers from coming to the United States,”
said Lewis.
Some of the barriers to
collaboration the surveyed scientists face include political issues (especially
obtaining funding or visas); data-sharing regulations; logistical issues (such
as time zone and language differences); and cultural issues (such as academic
standards).
While inadequate funding was the
most common barrier cited by American scientists, many of them also noted
regulations on sharing data and other material. Several specifically mentioned
the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, a series of U.S. laws that regulate
and control equipment and technical data that might be related to defense or
military technology. “One U.S. scientist remarked, ‘The FBI visits me about
once a year concerning my collaborations in China,'” according to the paper.
International collaboration has
increased over the past 20 years, the authors wrote. Thanks to increased
research and development funding and subsequent output, science and engineering
publications have also steadily grown. A “growing openness” for a global
science network has created prominent hubs for migrating scientists in the
U.S., the U.K., France, Germany and Canada, according to the paper.
Global cooperation increases the
visibility and impact of research, facilitates sharing project costs and gives
scientists access to more resources, the authors wrote. It also encourages
sharing of data, sparks creativity and leads to new ideas, the authors
concluded.
Policy changes could lead to more
collaboration, according to the paper. For example, existing funding sources could
be modified to allow scientists in different countries to share resources.
Without government support,
scientific collaboration could stagnate, the authors argued. “By addressing
these issues, international collaboration can help improve the scientific
enterprise necessary for global efforts to address problems facing all of
humanity,” they wrote.
Additional co-authors of the paper
are Brandon Vaidyanathan, associate professor and chair of the department of
sociology at the Catholic University of America, and independent scholar Monica
Gorman.
U.S. Rice Makes Inroads in the Japanese Consumer Market
By Sarah Moran
TOKYO, JAPAN -- A recent article in
the Shokei Advice, a rice trade paper, reported on U.S. medium grain Calrose
rice that attracted a lot of attention from consumers shopping at Gyomu Super,
a large Japanese grocery store chain that sells items in bulk. The price of the Calrose was significantly
lower than that of domestic rice, and, according to one shopper with ties to a
local rice industry association, "the taste is unimaginably good for the
price -- it tasted even better than the Japanese rice I usually eat at
home."
The article also included a link to
the USA Rice homepage and instructions on how to cook Calrose rice.
"We've seen lower-priced U.S.-origin
rice selling well as more families here are cooking at home due to the COVID-19
pandemic and they're looking for value in this uncertain economic
environment," said Jim Guinn, USA Rice director of Asian promotion
programs. "However, if a product
does not meet consumer taste expectations, the spike in demand will end just as
quickly as it began; we don't think that will be the case here."
USA Rice has promoted U.S. rice in
foodservice and retail outlets that, until recently, had seen limited supplies
of U.S. rice. Typically, U.S. rice had
primarily been available at specialty grocers such as those serving the
expatriate community. Working with
importers and wholesalers, and expanding the promotion beyond the Kanto region
(Tokyo/Yokohama area), interest in and visibility of U.S.-origin rice has
increased significantly.
"The increase in cooking at
home and the associated rise in retail sales of rice and other pantry staples
has raised the profile and awareness of U.S.-grown rice in Japan," said
Guinn.
China Faces a Rice Bowl Dilemma After Covid
The risk to food supply chains is reviving a push for self-sufficiency. That comes with an environmental cost.By Clara Ferreira Marques
June 22, 2020, 3:00 AM GMT+5
Photographer: Shen Bohan/Xinhua/Getty
Clara Ferreira Marques is a
Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and
governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters
Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India,
the U.K., Italy and Russia.
China Faces a Rice
Bowl Dilemma After Covid Clara Ferreira Marques BookmarkJune 22 2020, 3:30 AM June 23 2020, 4:18 AM
Empty supermarket shelves in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic have put grow-your-own back on the world’s agenda, and nowhere more so than in China, where ensuring food supplies for its huge population has been a political priority for decades. Simply diversifying imports may not satisfy hawkish voices. Emphasizing domestic production, though, will extract a heavy toll for a country with a fifth of the globe’s people, but roughly a 10th of arable land and less than 6% of water resources.
For a nation scarred by famine, it’s hard to overstate the importance of food security. That was true long before 1994, when U.S. environmental pioneer Lester Brown drew international attention to the potential consequences of scarcities by asking who would feed China when it boomed. Officials fear inflation as a potential cause of social and political instability — not without reason, given that rising prices helped provoke the Tiananmen Square protests. Agricultural imports, of course, have a tendency to become tangled in diplomatic spats.
The answer was historically a simple one: self-sufficiency, particularly in grains like wheat, rice and corn. The idea has been hard to shake, even if the exact meaning of the phrase has softened over the years. Then came the 2020 pandemic, pressing everyone to fret about messy distribution chains. Officials freshened up plans and, projecting an image of self-reliance, Premier Li Keqiang told China’s parliament last month that it was imperative to ensure food supply, while rewarding grain-producing counties and boosting the minimum purchase price for rice.
That doesn’t mean the country can simply set the clock back to 1996, when China outlined a strict grain self-sufficiency policy — or that it plans to. In part, what China is doing now is a regular rebalancing of the official position, says Thomas David DuBois at Beijing Normal University, who hosts the China Eats podcast.
Certainly, the cost of past domestic ambitions has already been extortionate. In environmental terms, the damage has meant fertilizers used at four times the global rate, degraded soil and scarce water. Then there’s the financial blow: According to the World Bank, input subsidies rose sevenfold between 2006 and 2010. By that final year, government support for producers amounted to 17% of gross farm receipts. This rising bill, along with other changes, including growing international clout, accounts for Beijing’s more balanced approach after late 2013, when policy began to lean toward imports, sustainability, investing abroad and modernizing at home.
It’s encouraging that some of those efforts have paid off during the pandemic. Farmers seem to have been better able to handle spring planting disruptions thanks to digital applications. Longer-running policies like the vegetable basket plan that makes city mayors responsible for urban food security, partly to stimulate local production and preserve agricultural land, appear to have worked. Reserves held out. Still, the weaknesses of the global supply chain were exposed.
As ructions with Washington rumble in the background, it’s unsurprising that the idea of the national rice bowl held firmly in Chinese hands, filled with Chinese rice, holds some attraction. Yet there are longer-term risks for misallocated resources that already lead to plentiful smuggling of cheaper fare. Not to mention what Amrita Jash at New Delhi’s Centre for Land Warfare Studies points out are heightened risks of clashes with neighbors like India, as China seeds clouds in Tibet, or further afield from an expanding fleet of distant-water fishing vessels
It matters, though, that popular concern over issues including genetically modified crops, metal-tainted soil and dirty water — plus official awareness of the cost of ignoring them — means that a new domestic push has a chance of being far less destructive than before. Food safety worries have only heightened of late. Physical constraints like water scarcity will play a role in limiting those aspirations, as Bloomberg Intelligence notes, and shape more sustainable policy by encouraging investment in irrigation and other innovations.
China has little choice but to build food security by balancing internal sufficiency against more diverse international sources, often with Chinese links in the supply chain. That doesn’t necessarily mean large-scale acquisition of land in Africa and elsewhere to ship harvests back home, which is both unpopular and economically punitive. Using its clout on global markets makes more sense.
In this context, the Belt and Road Initiative has been a game-changer in terms of linking up the mainland and friendly sellers when it comes to grains, says Zhang Hongzhou of Nanyang Technological University, who studies China’s resource governance. Ukraine is now a leading supplier of corn to China.
China’s rice bowl is going to stay mixed a while longer — however tightly it is held.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the editor responsible for this
story:
Patrick McDowell at pmcdowell10@bloomberg.net
Patrick McDowell at pmcdowell10@bloomberg.net
MP govt to move SC over
GI tag for Basmati-growing regions
By Qayam Published:
June 19, 2020, 3:07 pm IST
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to
approach the Supreme Court to challenge the Madras High Court’s ruling in the
matter of not providing GI (geographical indication) tag to the state’s Basmati
rice- growing regions, state minister Kamal Patel said on Friday. Earlier this year, the state government and a
Basmati growers association lost two separate cases in the Madras high court
filed in 2016, challenging the exclusion of 13 districts of the state from a
map submitted by the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development
Authority (APEDA) for GI tags.
“We are
traditional growers of high-quality basmati rice. However, our farmers have not
been getting the right price for the produce because of the lack of GI
(geographical indication) tag,” the state agriculture minister said.
Earlier, the
Congress government did not take the matter seriously, which is why the court
ruled against the interest of the state’s farmers, he alleged.
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After reviewing
the situation, the matter has been filed in Supreme Court on May 28 and the
hearing will begin soon, Patel said, adding that the government will take all
possible measures to protect the interest of farmers.
The matter
dates back to 2008 when the APEDA filed an application before the Chennai-based
assistant registrar of GI seeking GI-Tag for the basmati rice.
In 2010, the
state government had opposed the APEDA’s application on the ground that it had
excluded 13 basmati- producing districts, following which the authority
directed APEDA to again file its application along with a map clearly showing
areas where the rice is actually cultivated.
However, the
APEDA moved to Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) against the
authority and since then the litigation in the matter is on.
Malaysia’s imported rice supply not affected by
Covid-19 outbreak, says Kiandee
Sunday,
21 Jun 2020 07:05 PM MYT
Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said
Malaysia's imported rice supply has not been affected despite the global
Covid-19 pandemic ― Picture by Hari Anggara
ALOR
SETAR, June 21 — The country’s imported rice supply has not been affected
despite the global Covid-19 pandemic, said Agriculture and Food Industry
Minister Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee.
He
said there have been no concerns so far from the nation’s sole rice importer,
Padiberas Nasional Berhad (Bernas) on the matter, and gave his assurance that
imported rice supply and domestic production are capable of meeting local
needs.
“We
have no issues on blockages, even though it was reported that some countries
have not been allowing exports, but we have no problem importing rice for our
usage.
“We
are still producing rice, about 70 per cent, and import the other 30 per cent
for our needs. There have been no issues reported by our sole importer to bring
in rice from exporting countries,” he told reporters after visiting the Muda
Agricultural Development Authority (Mada) here today.
He
was asked whether Malaysia was facing any problems in importing rice from other
countries following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Elaborating
on the impact of the movement control order (MCO) on domestic rice production,
Kiandee said paddy planting and harvesting activities are being carried out
smoothly as the industry was categorised as essential and was allowed to
operate by the government.
“I
can say that there is no impact as we have been producing rice. During the MCO,
it was harvesting season in Selangor and the process went smoothly without any
interruptions.
“And
currently, it is planting season in Kedah. So, overall, the MCO brings no
impact to our rice production,” he said.
Meanwhile,
Kiandee said the government has allocated RM11.2 million under the Economic
Stimulus Package (PRE 1) and another RM5.4 million under the Prihatin Economic
Stimulus Package (PRE Prihatin) to Mada to assist the agency post-Covid-19.
He
said the allocation under PRE 1 was focused on increasing farmers’ income and
upgrading irrigation infrastructure.
“While
under PRE Prihatin, an allocation of RM200,000 was distributed to each District
Farmers’ Organisation to develop short-term agrofood projects, benefitting
1,810 Mada farmers,” he said. — Bernama
Drones used in rice farming in central Vietnam
22/06/2020 14:25 GMT+7
The central province of Quang Nam and the Loc Troi Group have
launched the use of drones in agriculture production – the first step in
boosting hi-tech farming and joining the global farm produce supply chain in
the near future.
 |
|
A drone sprays fertiliser on a rice farm in Quang
Nam Province. The province plans to promote hi-tech farming and join the
global agriculture production supply chain. Photo courtesy Loc Troi Group
|
The project is part of a series of demonstrations on the
use of drones in rice farming in the central region, with the aim of creating
a sustainable agriculture system in central provinces of Khanh Hoa, Binh
Dinh, Quang Nam and Quang Tri.
The programme, which was debuted by the Loc Troi Group in 2019,
plans to build a chain of 100 co-operatives, with close linkages of
enterprises and farmers.
A report from the group showed that a drone could help spray
fertiliser and pesticide on 25ha of crops per day, saving production
costs of VND200,000 (US$8.7) to VND300,000 ($13) per hectare.
The group said at least 200 drones would be used in rice
production in the four provinces in 2020.
It’s also the first ever project to use unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAV) in agriculture production in central Vietnam.
Quang Nam Province began its first organic rice farm zone on
150ha in Dien Ban Town in 2017. VNS
Soil profiling contributes to higher rice yields
·
Monday, 22 Jun 2020
By R. SEKARAN
NIBONG
TEBAL: The systematic profiling of the soil used for growing rice has almost
doubled rice yield per hectare since it was launched in 2016.
Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said the average yield from where soil profiling was implemented gave an output of 4.7 tonnes per ha, compared with 2.6 tonnes before that.
Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said the average yield from where soil profiling was implemented gave an output of 4.7 tonnes per ha, compared with 2.6 tonnes before that.
“Since
2016, soil profiling was implemented in 120,794ha of rice field (55% of the
nation’s rice growing areas) at a cost of RM15.7mil. This is to be implemented
in the entire country by 2022.
“It helps increase productivity and create better land management in line with guidelines set by Rice Check,” said Kiandee after launching the upgrading of irrigation systems and a book called Site-Specific Nutrition Management Technical at the irrigation scheme in Sungai Acheh here on Saturday.
“It helps increase productivity and create better land management in line with guidelines set by Rice Check,” said Kiandee after launching the upgrading of irrigation systems and a book called Site-Specific Nutrition Management Technical at the irrigation scheme in Sungai Acheh here on Saturday.
Rice Check is a guideline
launched by the government to manage rice fields to achieve targeted yields and
output standards.
“Soil profiling was implemented in Penang, and the scheme in Sungai Acheh was the state’s pilot project. We will continue monitoring the soil based on fertility, with the objective of achieving targeted yields to benefit 5,312 rice farmers with an area of 12,105ha.
Kiandee added that analysis of nutrients in the soil had led to better nutrition for the crop.
“The management of nutrients contributes to 40% of the increase in rice yield, with the balance of 60% through field management, which involves factors such as water management, infrastructure and weather.
On the Site-Specific Nutrient Management Technical report, Kiandee said the publication enabled the senior management of the agriculture scheme to use it as a support system for the overall administration of rice cultivation in the country.
“Soil profiling was implemented in Penang, and the scheme in Sungai Acheh was the state’s pilot project. We will continue monitoring the soil based on fertility, with the objective of achieving targeted yields to benefit 5,312 rice farmers with an area of 12,105ha.
Kiandee added that analysis of nutrients in the soil had led to better nutrition for the crop.
“The management of nutrients contributes to 40% of the increase in rice yield, with the balance of 60% through field management, which involves factors such as water management, infrastructure and weather.
On the Site-Specific Nutrient Management Technical report, Kiandee said the publication enabled the senior management of the agriculture scheme to use it as a support system for the overall administration of rice cultivation in the country.
Thailand to farm new rice variety seeking export advantages
By Pattaya Mail
The Thai Rice Exporters Association
(TREA) initiates the KorKhor 79 rice variety that will be farmed on 8 square
kilometers of land, in areas served by the irrigation networks, which should
produce 2,500 tons at harvest.
Farmers in Thailand will start
cultivating the first lot of the KorKhor 79 rice variety this year, aiming to
introduce the new soft rice variety to the export market, especially in Asia.
The Thai Rice Exporters Association
(TREA) says the KorKhor 79 rice variety will initially be farmed on 8 square
kilometers of land, in areas served by the irrigation networks, which should
produce 2,500 tons at harvest.
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TREA President Pol Lt Charoen
Laothamatas said this new type of soft rice will be introduced to the
international market, especially in China, Malaysia and the Philippines, where
soft rice is more popular.
The association is aiming to compete
with soft rice exports from Vietnam, which has been performing well in Asian
markets.
Harvests from these farms will be
purchased by mills at the market price of 9,500 baht per ton, and is expected
to be sold at prices lower than Hom Mali rice, but higher than white and local
fragrant rice.
KorKhor 79 rice can yield 700-800
kilogram of paddy per 0.16 hectares of land. The Department of Foreign Trade
(DFT) has set up a committee to draft quality standards for KorKhor 79
production.
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The DFT Director General Keerati
Rushchano said delegates from related agencies, including exporters, rice
millers, the Department of Agricultural Extension and the Rice Department, have
been approached to help set up the quality standards, with no specific time
frame for when the standards will be announced.
He said the quality assurance of
this new KorKhor 79 rice will help promote confidence among customers in soft
rice from Thailand, which will contribute favourably to the overall exports of
Thai rice in the future. (NNT)
Covid-19 demand for milled rice
could mean record exports
·
Sunday, 21 Jun 2020
12:34 PM MYT
Cambodia exported 356,097 tonnes
of milled rice in the first five months of the year. - Phnom Penh Post/ANN
PHNOM PENH (Phnom Penh Post/ANN):
Cambodia could export between 800,000 and one million tonnes of milled rice
this year, buoyed by sustained demand stemming from Covid-19 uncertainty,
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries senior official Ngin Chhay has
announced.
Chhay, the director-general of
the ministry’s General Directorate of Agriculture, told a press conference that
the Kingdom exported 350,000 tonnes of rice in the first five months of the
year, to more than 60 countries.
He said: “I hope that this year,
according to estimates, rice exports may near the one million tonne mark if the
orders retain their momentum, or at least exceed 800,000 tonnes.”
At the same time, Chhay urged
farmers, investors and exporters to work together to ensure that the Kingdom’s
products meet quality standards to maintain existing markets and secure new
ones.
The ministry’s Secretariat of One
Window Service for Rice Export Formality reported that milled-rice exports to
the international market in the first five months of this year skyrocketed
42.34 per cent to 356,097 tonnes from 250,172 tonnes during the same period
last year.
The European market accounted for
122,010 tonnes, up 51.10 per cent year-on-year from 80,749 tonnes, the Chinese
market 136,825 tonnes, up 25.26 per cent, ASEAN countries 45,825 tonnes, up
45.39 per cent, and other destinations 51,437 tonnes, up 79.40 per cent.
Fragrant rice accounted for
289,287 tonnes, or 81.24 per cent, white long-grain rice 62,779 tonnes and
long-grain parboiled rice 4,031 tonnes.
Last month alone, rice exports
reached 55,845 tonnes, an increase of 53.38 per cent compared to May last year,
of which 51,683 tonnes was fragrant rice, 3,578 tonnes was white long-grain
rice and 584 tonnes was long-grain parboiled rice.
Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF)
board chairman Hun Lak said milled-rice exports showed remarkable performance
in the first five months this year compared to last year.
He attributed this to two main
factors – increased domestic production and expanding stockpiles worldwide in
response to the pandemic.
Lak said: “Looking at data over
the past five months, Cambodian milled-rice exports will be no less than
800,000 tonnes, but everything depends on the outcome of the auctions.
“If everything runs as smoothly
as it is now, then exports will hit the one million tonne target as predicted.”
CRF secretary-general Lun Yeng
told The Post that Cambodia is now capable of exporting milled-rice in excess
of one million tonnes per year as paddy production continues to grow gradually.
The surge in exports, especially
of fragrant rice, will generate more revenue for the Kingdom, he said.
“But I would not be so bold as to
formulate an estimate of how much money we would bring in, as prices are
subject to fluctuation. I do, however, expect we’ll make more than last year, ”
said Yeng.
Cambodia’s premium-grade fragrant
rice sells for US$920 per tonne on the international market, while
standard-grade fragrant rice fetches $830 and standard-grade white rice goes
for US$550, he said.
Premium-grade fragrant rice
accounts for more than 80 per cent of Cambodia’s total rice exports.
The government originally pledged
in August 2010 to export one million tonnes of rice by 2015.
But the Kingdom exported 387,000
tonnes of milled rice in 2014,538,396 tonnes in 2015,542,144 tonnes in
2016,635,679 tonnes in 2017,626,225 tonnes in 2018 and 620,106 tonnes last
year, CRF data show.
The Kingdom’s 2019 milled-rice
exports were worth about US$501 million, down 4.3 per cent compared to $524
million in 2018. - The Phnom Penh Post/Asian News Network
Cambodia on track to export 1 million tonnes of rice in 2020
By New Straits Times - June
21, 2020 @ 8:19am
CAMBODIA could export a record one million tonnes of rice this
year, buoyed by sustained demand stemming from Covid-19 uncertainty.
It's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced
that the country had exported 350,000 tonnes of rice in the first five months
of the year, to more than 60 countries.
Senior ministry official Ngin Chhay hopes rice exports may near
the one million tonne mark if orders retain their momentum, or at least exceed
800,000 tonnes, reports the Phnom Penh Post.
At the same time, Chhay urged farmers, investors and exporters
to work together to ensure that rice products meet quality standards to
maintain existing markets and secure new ones.
The ministry reported that milled rice exports to the
international market in the first five months of this year skyrocketed more
than 42 per cent to 356,097 tonnes from 250,172 tonnes during the same period
last year.
The European market accounted for 122,010 tonnes, up 51 per cent
year-on-year from 80,749 tonnes; the Chinese market 136,825 tonnes, up 25 per
cent; Asean countries 45,825 tonnes, up 45 per cent; and other destinations
51,437 tonnes, up 79 per cent.
Fragrant rice accounted for 289,287 tonnes, or 81 per cent,
white long-grain rice 62,779 tonnes and long-grain parboiled rice 4,031 tonnes.
Last month alone, rice exports reached 55,845 tonnes, an
increase of more than 53 per cent compared to May last year.
Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) board chairman Hun Lak attributed
this to two main factors – increased domestic production and expanding
stockpiles worldwide in response to the pandemic.
He said that if everything runs as smoothly as it is now, then
exports will hit the one million tonne target as predicted.
CRF secretary-general Lun Yeng said Cambodia is now capable of
exporting rice in excess of one million tonnes per year as padi production
continues to grow gradually.
"But I would not be so bold as to formulate an estimate of
how much money we would bring in, as prices are subject to fluctuation. I do,
however, expect we'll make more than last year," said Yeng.
Cambodia's premium-grade fragrant rice sells for US$920 per
tonne on the intaernational market, while standard-grade fragrant rice fetches
US$830 and standard-grade white rice goes for US$550, he said.
The government originally pledged in Aug 2010 to export one
million tonnes of rice by 2015.
But it managed exports of only 387,000 tonnes in 2014; 538,396
tonnes in 2015; 542,144 tonnes in 2016; 635,679 tonnes in 2017; 626,225 tonnes
in 2018; and 620,106 tonnes last year, CRF data show.
Indonesia sees
higher rice output in 2021, lower corn output
JUNE 22, 2020 /
JAKARTA, June 22 (Reuters) -
Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry data presented at the parliament on Monday:
* Indonesia is targetting 63.5
million tonnes output of unhusked rice in 2021, up from this year’s target of
59.15 million tonnes
* Indonesia is targetting 26 million
tonnes output of corn next year, down from a 2020 corn production target of
30.35 million tonnes.
Reporting by Bernadette Christina
Munthe Writing by Fransiska Nangoy Editing by Ed Davies
Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service names new director
“We also want to acknowledge the many contributions that Dr. Rick Cartwright has made to the state, the Division of Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service throughout his long and productive career,” Cochran said. “He has been an exemplary extension director, scientist, educator, administrator and friend and colleague. I know that we all wish him and Lynette the very best as he moves into retirement. He will be greatly missed but not forgotten.”
As director and a senior vice president within the University of Arkansas System, Scott will face challenges. His statewide workforce will be in various stages of returning to the office while COVID-19’s progress takes unpredictable turns. Also, the extension service, as with all the entities within the University of Arkansas System, is replacing its fundamental financial and human resources processes, creating unity between the Division of Agriculture’s research and extension arms.
“I am coming into this position with the objective of seeing the Cooperative Extension Service grow and advance,” Scott said. “We need to keep pace with a rapidly changing society, advances in technology and lead by example in social issues which also divide some parts of our society today. I look forward to these challenges and see only opportunities for us as we go forward.”
Scott, who grew up on a family farm in Binger, Okla., is no stranger to the Cooperative Extension Service. He joined the Division of Agriculture as an extension weed scientist in 2002. During his tenure, he also maintained a partial appointment within the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the division’s land grant research arm.
In 2013, he picked up an administrative role as director of both the Newport and Lonoke Extension Centers, a position he held until March 2018.
In April 2018, Scott was appointed director of the Rice Research and Extension Center, where he oversaw rice breeding and facility modernization on the 1,000-acre facility near Stuttgart.
“[Scott’s] experiences at Stuttgart, Lonoke and Newport, as well as his years of service as a weed science specialist have prepared him well for his new duties,” Cochran said. “And he was even a 4-H’er growing up on the family row crop and cattle farm in Oklahoma. We expect great success for the extension service under Bob’s leadership.”
Scott holds a Ph.D. in weed science from Mississippi State University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in agronomy and master’s degree in weed science from Oklahoma State University.
“I think it is timely that I had the opportunity to gain more experience on the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station side as we move into a new era with a unified Division of Agriculture,” he said. “I believe in this change and feel we will be a better organization because of it.”
Scott said he has faith in the resilience of the faculty and staff of the Cooperative Extension Service, a characteristic he’s seen as work continued through COVID-19.
“During this crisis I have observed the expected innovation and acceptance of challenge that I would expect from the Cooperative Extension Service,” he said. “I believe we should be leaders during this time, learn new ways of doing business and continue to be of value to our stakeholders I have faith that we will not only survive this challenge but emerge on the other end of it with new ways of doing business and fulfilling our mission.”
News in brief
23 June 2020 at 2:18 a.m.
Proposals offeredfor hotel cleanup
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