Friday, July 31, 2020

Rice News-Market Research Reports March 2018-2

From Almonds To Rice, Climate Change Could Slash California Crop Yields By 2050

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March 2, 201810:54 AM ET

EZRA DAVID ROMERO

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Walnut trees at a farm in Byron, Calif. An analysis of nearly 90 studies finds warming temperatures may alter where key crops grow across the state, which provides around two-thirds of America's produce.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Climate change could decrease the yield of some crops in California by up to 40 percent by 2050. That's a big deal for farmers in the state, which provides about two-thirds of the nation's produce.

California farmers grow more than 400 commodity crops. Tapan Pathak, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist based in California's Central Valley, and his research team analyzed 89 studies on climate change and discovered that warming temperatures may alter where crops grow across the state. Their findings were published in the journal Agronomy.

"In order to make California agriculture more sustainable, we have to act now," Pathak says.

As the climate continues to change and drought and heat waves become more frequent, Pathak says the challenges agriculture will face are going to intensify. He's referring to things like how the lack of cold temperatures will impact trees that need a certain number of chill-hours, or sleep each year, as well as increased impacts from pests and diseases.

"That could adversely impact yields and production for some highly valued crops in California," Pathak says. The study reports "several fruit and nut crops are losing yield and decreasing in acreage . . . as a direct consequence of increased winter and nighttime temperatures."

The study also points out that climatic conditions — warming temperatures and a shrinking snowpack — by the end of the 21st century may make it difficult for the state to even support some of its main tree crops. The study suggests that by the middle of the century, California's Central Valley won't be able to support crops like peaches, walnuts and apricots. That number jumps to 90 percent by the end of the century. Almonds, avocados, cherries, table grapes, corn, tomatoes, rice, strawberries and others are expected to suffer crop yields as well.

Walnuts would be the hardest-hit crop because they "require the highest number of chill hours, implying a future decline in walnut acreage within the valley," the authors report. Nearly 99 percent of the nation's supply of the crop originate from California and support around three-quarters of the global supply of the nut.

But Pathak says crops planted yearly, like alfalfa, could yield more as temperatures increase. The study also says wine grapes will see small declines in yield.

What can be done now to mitigate this?

The study's authors say the California agricultural industry needs to take breeding research seriously by testing for heat-tolerant varieties. The report also urges the industry to figure out regional "management practices that can extend crops' winter dormancy periods. Since different crops react to temperature changes differently, research efforts on climate adaptation should be crop-specific," the study reports.

While California farmers and ranchers have long experienced fluctuations in weather, the authors say that "the increased rate and scale of climate change is beyond the realm of experience for the agricultural community." And that may translate into food security issues at the state and national level.

Peter Gleick, an expert in climate and water for the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, read the study and says, "it is critical that we start making decisions now to reduce the threats later."

Gleick says even though some crops will fare better than others, "impacts will be deeply negative, especially if we are not more aggressive about both reducing emissions and putting in place more climate resilient agriculture."

He says farmers must take an active role in addressing climate change and the state is going to need to help by expanding "efforts to help communities that will be negatively affected by changes we won't be able to avoid."

This story comes to us from member station Capital Public Radio in Sacramento.

· climate change and food

· california agriculture

· climate change

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https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/02/590056872/from-almonds-to-rice-climate-change-could-slash-california-crop-yields-by-2050

Trade News Comes in Threes

By Bob Cummings

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congress and the Trump Administration made headline news in the trade world this week to mixed reaction.

Yesterday the Senate confirmed Gregg Doud as Chief Agricultural Negotiator within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). "Mr. Doud's confirmation was long overdue," said Bobby Hanks of Supreme Rice Mill in Louisiana and chair of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee. "We look forward to working closely with Ambassador Doud on our trade issues as he brings his policy leadership to USTR's agriculture office."

President Trump announced yesterday that he would impose import duties on steel and aluminum under a rarely used provision of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that permits the president to restrict imports on national security grounds. The president reportedly said the higher duties would take effect "next week."

This action is highly controversial, with the steel and aluminum industries saying protection is vital to counter unfair global competition which has spurred global over capacity and low prices. Many others, including export dependent industries like agriculture, are fearful of retaliation by countries affected by higher import duties. The EU and China, for example, have criticized the action and spoken of responding in kind.

On Monday, USTR released the agency's 2018 Trade Policy Agenda and 2017 Annual Report. The 300-plus page document lays out the President's trade policy agenda. Citing a "New era in trade policy," the report details the administration's trade priorities, including "...establishing year-round markets for U.S. rice to Colombia, Nicaragua, and China."

"USTR's focus on an assertive trade policy and strong enforcement of trade deals have long been supported and pushed by USA Rice," continued Hanks. "We're equally aware that trade and trade agreements -like NAFTA and our free trade agreement with Colombia - provide tremendous benefits to our members. We have to be smart in our actions to protect existing benefits while we pursue new access and justified claims against other countries. We will continue to deliver this message to our negotiators."

The fear of losing culture

A parent wonders what her kids lose when the cultural connection disappears

Uzma Jalaluddin, in background, with sons Mustafa Merchant, right, Ibrahim Merchant, left, and her mother Azmat Jalaluddin. Culture is family, history and tradition, Uzmas writes. (AARON HARRIS / TORONTO STAR)

By UZMA JALALUDDINSpecial to the Star

Thu., March 1, 2018

How is culture and tradition maintained beyond first and second generation immigrants?

Without regular trips “back home” or strong relationships through cultural associations, I wonder if my own kids will simply ... lose their culture. And if they do, what exactly have they lost?

These are questions I and my fellow second generation immigrant friends wonder and worry about for our children.

My kids have never visited India. They don’t know how to speak Urdu, the language I grew up with, or Malayalam, the south Indian language of my husband’s family. They also have no spicy-Indian-food game, and any time I make biryani or rajmah or palak paneer, they ask what else they can eat for dinner. They do like butter chicken, but when a curry is also a pizza-and-poutine topping choice, it loses its cultural authenticity.

A well-known Italian idiom, “shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations,” refers to the accumulation and loss of wealth across generations. In China, the saying is “wealth never survives three generations.” I fear the same is true for culture.

Culture is about more than food or colourful clothing. It is a mindset, a way to experience the world and navigate one’s place within. Culture is family and history and tradition.

When my sons are asked, “So where are you from?” I wonder how they will answer. My answer is easy — I was born in Canada, but my parents immigrated from India. My sons’ answer gets murkier: They were born in Canada. Their parents were born in Canada. Their grandparents immigrated from India — a country they have seen only in pictures and through the memories of others.

Being the child of South Asian immigrants was a big part of my identity growing up, and it also provided a handy cultural reference for myself and others. http://www.katc.com/story/37627976/blackbirds-are-causing-problems-for-rice-farmers

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https://www.thestar.com/life/relationships/opinion/2018/03/01/the-fear-of-losing-culture.html

Blackbirds causing problems for rice farmers

Posted: Mar 02, 2018 4:27 AM PSTUpdated: Mar 02, 2018 6:58 AM PST

By Josh Meny

CONNECT

Acadia Parish -

In Acadiana, blackbirds are causing problems for rice farmers and their harvests. Those farmers are teaming up with the LSU AgCenter and the USDA to combat that problem.

Every year, millions of blackbirds settle in Acadiana after flying south for winter.

"They form into huge flocks, and for a little while, it's a good thing because they're eating weed seeds, but once we start planting rice, they can attack and eat the rice in the rice fields," explained LSU Ag Rice Research Center Coordinator Don Groth.

"They'll start as soon as the seed is put out into the field and go all the way through actually pulling the growing plant," said GF&P Zaunbrecher Farms Co-Owner Fred Zaunbrecher.

Farmers say huge flocks of blackbirds can take out a whole field in days.

Their solution is treating rice seeds with the chemical Starlicide.

Farmers say that the chemical is specifically made to target blackbirds and is safe for the crops and the environment.

"Only about one percent of the seed is treated, and it's put out at the specific roosting areas about the time we start planting rice," said Zaunbrecher.

For farmers, this program is saving them time and money.

"We're looking at millions of dollars potentially because it costs $80 to $300 per acre to plant a rice field for just the seed," explained Groth.

LSU Ag agents also say the program helps local songbird species who have to compete against the invasive blackbirds for resources.

http://blog.lafayettetravel.com/ingrained/

Navy confiscates 3,574 bags of smuggled rice in Calabar ON MARCH 1, 20185:53 PMIN NEWS1 COMMENT Naval personnel attached to the Nigerian Navy Ship Victory in Calabar, have arrested a large wooden boat laden with 3,574 bags of foreign rice worth N53.6 million smuggled from Cameroon republic. They also arrested three suspects found in the boat that came from Cameroon and heading for Calabar. NNS Commander of NNS Victory, Commodore Julius Nwagu, said on Thursday in Calabar that the arrest was made along the Calabar waterway in the early hours of Feb. 27, when they got information about the activities of the suspected smugglers. Addressing newsmen at the NNS Victory Jetty before handing over the items and suspects to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nwagu said that it took the command two and half days to offload the bags of rice from the wooden boat. “In the early hours of Feb. 27, we got information about a boat laden with rice and my patrol team arrested the boat and three suspects on board. We brought the boat to base and offloaded the rice. “It took us two and a half days to offload the content. After counting, we got 3, 574 bags valued at N53.6million. “We will hand them over to the Nigerian Customs

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/navy-confiscates-3574-bags-smuggled-rice-calabar/

German ambassador eats at a restaurant where even Pakistanis fear eating

Poor to gain more from making rice cheaper via scrapping of QR’

Bernadette D. Nicolas

March 1, 2018

Converting the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice into tariffs would benefit the poor more than increasing the cash subsidies given to them, an official of the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Thursday.

In a news briefing in Malacañang, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua also told reporters more Filipinos would benefit from the conversion of the QR on rice.

“The government’s plan is to reduce the price [of rice] so that everyone would benefit. Because if you will give a subsidy, that means the government is taking it from the budget,” Chua said.

Aside from making rice cheaper, the DOF official said converting rice-import caps will also help the government increase its tax collection. Citing the National Economic and Development Authority’s (Neda) estimate, Chua noted that scrapping the QR would slash the price of rice by P7 per kilogram.

He added there are other ways to help the poor in case inflation accelerates, such as the provision of conditional-cash transfer (CCT) and the unconditional-cash transfer (UCT).

A total of 7.4 million families will receive a cash subsidy of P200 per month to help them cope with the increase in commodity prices following the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

Amounting to P2,400 for the whole year, the UCT will be distributed within the first quarter to 4.4 million existing beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and to 3 million indigent senior citizens.

The UCT is different from the CCT because it requires children of the beneficiaries to continue attending school to undergo regular check-ups.

Chua said 4P beneficiaries have started to receive the conditional cash transfers, adding that the Department of Social Welfare and Development distributes the UCT together with the 4P subsidy.

In an economic bulletin on the rice-sector reform, Finance Undersecretary and chief economist Gil S. Beltran said the conversion of the QR would encourage more private traders to import the staple.

Citing a Neda study, Beltran said the reduction in rice prices would be beneficial to the majority of households spending at least 20 percent of their income on rice.

The DOF’s chief economist added reducing rice prices would also help the government cut poverty as the staple is a major driver of inflation.

The first package of the TRAIN, which was implemented in January, lowered income tax rates but hiked the excise tax of fuel products, sweetened beverages and brand new vehicles.

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https://businessmirror.com.ph/poor-to-gain-more-from-making-rice-cheaper-via-scrapping-of-qr/

Dangote Inaugurates Multi Billion Naira Rice Processing Plant In Jigawa

The mill, with capacity to process 16 metric tons of paddy rice per hour, when completed will in a year process paddy rice worth N14 billion bought directly from the famers in Jigawa State at market rate.

By Dotun Oladipo On Mar 1, 2018

2020

The Dangote Rice Outgrower Scheme in Jigawa State reached a turning point on Thursday when the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, laid the foundation stone for the construction of a multi-billion Naira rice processing mill in Hadin, Jigawa State.

Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony in Hadin, Kaugama Local Government Area, Dangote said the commencement of the construction of the integrated rice processing plant was the culmination of series of events, which began with the signing of a $1 billion agreement with the Federal Government for the integrated rice production in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Niger and Jigawa States.

He said: “We have continued to pioneer new approaches to empowering our primary stakeholders and our farmers, through the Dangote outgrowers programme thereby creating thousands of jobs, increasing incomes poverty reduction in rural communities by providing high quality agro-inputs, technical support and secured market for farmers.

“Also, creating access to finance, mechanization and irrigation services so as to enhance agricultural productivity.”

Recalling that Dangote Rice Limited started the outgrowers scheme in 2016 with thousands of hectares of land in Hadejia, Jigawa State, creating over 10,000 jobs (direct and indirect) to farmers, the business mogul said with the new ultra modern mill, enough paddy rice will be grown and harvested for processing.

According to him, the mill, which will take only months for installation and commissioning, is the first in the series of five other mills coming up in Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Niger States in the first phase, while in the second phase, other mills will be built in Nasarawa, Kogi and other states.

Dangote said: “When these planned six mills come fully on stream, we will achieve a capacity of 700,000 metric tons per annum of par boiled rice, which will make Dangote Rice the largest rice producer in Africa and will make a bold step in making Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production, stop importation and save the nation foreign exchange ”

Dangote stated further that towards co-creating value for all stakeholders, the company has engaged about 20,000 outgrowers who are expected to produce an average of 180,000 tons of paddy rice on about 30,000 hectares of land.

He said: “We are focused on engaging in the region of 300,000 farmers in the next 12 months when our rice mills are all functional and we achieve steady state.

“We will continue to launch massive agricultural projects across the country in rice and dairy farming.

“Our push for backward integration in providing our own raw materials on a massive scale has led to the planned investment of $4.6 billion over the next three years in sugar, rice and dairy production alone.

Indonesia aims to clean the ‘world’s dirtiest river’

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MARCH 2, 2018 BY AGENCIES

JAKARTA: The scabies on Indonesian rice farmer Yusuf Supriyadi’s limbs are a daily reminder of the costs of living next to the “world’s dirtiest river”.

Supriyadi depends on the Citarum’s murky waters, a floating carpet of household rubbish, toxic chemicals and animal feces, to irrigate a small rice plot in West Java that sustains his family of six.

The farmer’s rice yield is now down by two-thirds in the rainy season as textile factories dump more and more industrial waste into the river. But he has few other options.

“There are floods during the rainy season. My hands get itchy and the harvest is damaged,” the 54-year-old tells AFP.

“Pollution makes my rice hollow. If I keep going I’ll lose money, but if I don’t, I’ll have no other job,” he adds.

Now faced with a health emergency after decades of failed clean-up efforts, Jakarta is stepping in with a seemingly impossible goal: make the Citarum’s water drinkable by 2025.

Using this polluted water is a risky calculation for many of the 30 million people who rely on it for irrigation, washing and even drinking water, including around 80 percent of residents in the sprawling capital Jakarta.

At nearly 300-kilometres long, the river is also a key source for hydroelectric power for Indonesia’s most populated island Java and tourism hotspot Bali.

The World Bank declared it the most-polluted river in the world a decade ago, a description widely picked up by media and environmentalists.

Waste levels can vary depending on how pollution is measured and the time of the year.

But the Citarum is dangerous by almost any standard.

Previous research has shown it has alarming levels of toxic chemicals, including 1,000 times more lead than the US standard for safe drinking water.

It regularly appears on most-polluted lists alongside India’s Ganges river, the Mississippi River in the United States and China’s Yellow River.

‘Not playing around’

In January, Jakarta yanked responsibility away from local government and vowed to get tough on business owners who ignore waste-disposal rules.

Factories that fall short could have operating permits revoked.

And CCTV cameras are to be installed along the river’s banks to keep an eye out for offenders dumping waste in the early morning hours to evade detection.

Meanwhile, dredging equipment will be used to clean up the filthy river, said Djoko Hartoyo, a spokesman for the Ministry of Maritime Affairs.

“We are not playing around this time,” he added.

“We’re going in with a holistic approach so we are optimistic we can make Citarum clean again, just like it was 50 or 60 years ago.”

In the 1980s, a new industrial zone sprang up around the small town of Majalaya, about 170 kilometres east of Jakarta, and things quickly changed for the pristine river.

Some 2,000 area textile factories have provided much-needed jobs, but it came with a heavy cost: about 280 tons of industrial waste are dumped into the river each day, according to government and environmental group data.

Making matters worse, many locals think nothing of tossing their household waste into its toxic waters.

“When it rains and my house gets flooded, the smell is awful,” Achmad Fachrureza said from inside an inflatable dingy, as he navigated the river’s styrofoam containers, fabric, empty cans, plastic bottles and garbage bags.

The 57-year-old villager said he was sacked from his job as a textile factory security guard after asking questions about the firm’s waste disposal system.

Factory pipes dump waste directly into waters bubbling with chemical dyes used in textiles, creating an overwhelming stench.

“Most factories here have a waste disposal system, but they don’t work properly because it’s just a formality,” said Deni Riswandani from local environmental group Elingan.

That poses a serious health risk, especially for the five million people living in the river’s basin.

Many locals suffer from skin diseases like scabies and dermatitis, as well as respiratory infections from inhaling factory pollution.

Environmental activist Deni Riswandani holds up cups of water from the Citarum river (R) and water from another tributary

“The number of people going to the health clinic is very high,” Riswandani said. “We keep reporting these issues to the government, but we never get a solution.”

He and other frustrated activists have blocked some waste pipes with rocks and concrete, but the factories usually remove the blockage right away.

Locals hope Jakarta’s new goals can be achieved. But they’re also skeptical given the scale of the task and endemic corruption that could see factory owners try to buy their way out of trouble.

“I long to see the Citarum like it was when I was young”, Fachrureza said.

“I could swim in it and drink the water. It was so clean.”

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/03/02/indonesia-aims-to-clean-the-worlds-dirtiest-river/ Pak-Philippines JEC for activation of Joint Business Forum

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Muhammad Arshad

Islamabad

Pakistan–Philippines Joint Economic Commission (JEC), Wednesday, agreed to re-activate the Pakistan-Philippines Joint Business Forum/Council with the participation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Philippines and Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan (FPCCI).
Both sides agreed to hold and actively participate in trade fairs, single country and product based exhibitions in each other’s country on a regular basis. JEC also agreed to conduct feasibility studies on the possibility of Preferential Trade Agreement and to the formation of a Technical Working Group within the JEC for this purpose.
JEC met here co-chaired by Secretary, Economic Affairs Division Arif Ahmed Khan and Deputy Minister, Industry Development and Trade Policy Group, (IDTPG) Department of Trade and Industry, Philippines Dr. Ceferino S. Rodolfo and held detailed discussions between experts of the two sides on a number of issues, especially focusing on trade, investment, energy, agriculture, tourism, health, industries and other matters of mutual interest.
At the concluding session both the countries signed a protocol of the session based on major actions / decisions. Both sides presented prospective export products for each other’s markets. In this regard Pakistan side offered Rice, Fruit (especially Pakistani citrus and Mangoes), Leather Garments, Pharmaceutical Goods, Sports Goods and Surgical Items while Philippines’ side presented electronics and semi conductors; automotive parts and components; processed food and Halal Products.
Pakistan offered Philippines investment opportunities in Power sector of Pakistan in renewable energy and small hydro power projects and training in the areas of hydro carbon like exploration, production, processing and survey etc. The two sides agreed to collaborate in the area of post-harvest management and processing of rice and banana.
Pakistan invited Philippines to invest in construction of Highways in Pakistan on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. Philippines shared investment opportunities for Pakistan pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturing in the Philippines. The Parties mutually agreed for exchange of visits between the officials of Central Banks of the two countries.
Both sides deliberated upon and agreed to review the proposals regarding revision of the convention on the Avoidance of Double Taxation between Pakistan and Philippines as well as explore the possibility of cooperation in matters related to Customs. The meeting was held in a spirit of friendship, cooperation and desire to make rapid advances in the above mentioned sectors/areas.

Bihar: Hindu refugees from East Pakistan want land, living, identity

Many of the Hindu refugees from East Pakistan settled in Bihar are yet to be granted land and have no source of income. In a state in which caste plays a major role, these Bengali-speaking people are struggling for recognition

INDIA Updated: Mar 02, 2018 08:05 IST

Vijay Swaroop
Hindustan Times, Bettiah

Bangladeshi refugee, Girija Lal Sahu, at Hazari camp in Bettiah. Sahu, who came to the camp in 1974, plies a rickshaw for a living. (AP Dube/HT Photo)

Seventy-eight-year-old Anil Havildar is disconsolate. He points to his field, which had once won him the badge of a successful farmer from the Bihar government. He had grown a record 492 quintals of rice in one acre, in 1977.

But for this man, who resettled at Biranchi tola number 3 colony -- one among 46 other East Pakistani Hindu refugee colonies in west Champaram -- life is not the same. A flooded Manihari river left piles of sand on his farm and destroyed his fields and his pride. Havildar, who made his way here in 1956, is a broken man after losing four acres of land which are either filled with sand or have been eroded by the river. “Nobody from the government has come here. I am virtually landless,’’ he says.

Havildar is not alone. Shyamal Prasad Saha (70) and nonagenarian Rabindra Nath Poddar too lost huge chunks of land to sand, making them virtually landless. Saha, one of the educated Bengali refugees grew rice, wheat and sugarcane in the four acres of land he got from the government as part of the rehabilitation policy. He has now shifted base to one of the refugee colonies situated in Bettiah town.

Poddar, who earned name and fame for his treatment of snake bites, lives with his extended family. Nearly 55 families out of 113 families rehabilitated in Biranchi no 3 in 1956, have lost nearly 121 acres of agricultural and 69 decimals of housing land. They now live on the edge of poverty.

Land for settlement

Many Bengali speaking Hindus were forced to leave East Pakistan and take shelter in India.

The Centre arranged for their rehabilitation in West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar, Assam and Tripura.

In Bihar, these Bengali speaking refugees were first set up in a camp near Paschim Hazari area. They were then relocated to the 46 refugee colonies spread across West Champaran. Bihar has 115 refugee colonies. West Champaran has the maximum, followed by 38 in Purnia and 13 in East Champaran.

Each of the displaced families were given two types of land -- five acres for farming and 18 decimal to build a house, or four acres and 18 decimal land. They were given voting rights only two years back in 2015.

Not all refugees were lucky. Nearly 24 families – 14 of whom are from Myanmar and living at Paschim Hazari camp set up in 1956 – are still to get any land. “It is not the issue of citizenship. They all have voting rights,” said Dr (Capt) Dilip Kumar Sinha, former vice-president of Bihar Minority Commission and president of Bihar-Bengali Samiti. He did not address the issue of non-allocation of land.

“We never visited our relatives who stayed back…. But nobody cares for our plight,” said Girija Lal Sahu, a refugee, who came to Hazari camp in 1974. Sahu makes do plying a rickshaw. Other refugees left out in land settlement either work in fields as daily wagers or are into petty business.

While some still do fight for land, at Majaharia, another refugee colony, situated near the Udaipur ox-bow lake, encroachment of their land by locals resulted in a bloody fight in 1997.

Caste Recognition

In a state where caste plays a major role, these Bengali speaking people are also vying for a caste identity.

Raja Kumar Das, a student of class 10 at Swatantra Senani Kedarnath Motani High School, has been trying to get a caste certificate to apply for his board examinations for the last eight months.

The Bihar School Examination Board has announced the schedule, but Das is still struggling to get the caste certificate that is mandatory.

“It has been proved that more than 65% of them belong to Scheduled Castes (SC) but they are shown in the list of backward castes and extremely backward caste list in Bihar. This is making it difficult for them to get caste certificates. This deprives them of different welfare projects of government,” said Madan Banik, vice president (zone 4), central committee, Bihar Bengali Association.

A study conducted by Asian Development Research Institute’s Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance (CEPPF) reveals that 36.2% people fail to find their caste in the state list, whereas 66% have been placed in extremely backward class. The survey reveals that 97.1% people claimed themselves to be SC, of which 49% and 38% are in East and West Champaran districts respectively.

“The same people find place in SC list in neighbouring West Bengal. Does change of place change the caste also?” wondered Banik.

“This has happened despite the state general administration department issuing instructions (letter no 20810, dated 16.6.2009) to district authorities to issue caste certificate.”

The association’s Bettiah chapter president, Radhakant Debnath, had written a letter in October 2017 to the district magistrate to consider the state directive, but has not had a response.

Socio-Economic Conditions

The CEPPF study reveals that only 16.2% Bengali speaking refugees have passed matric or taken to higher education; 11.2% refugees can read in their mother tongue Bengali with difficulty, while just 23.6% can write in Bengali.

The economic condition of these refugees has not changed either with only 3.3% of their population in government services.

While 43.7% are wage labourers, 28.7% are self-employed, mostly in agriculture. More than half their population, 56.6% have shown their income below Rs 3000 per month. Over 30% of the population does not have ration cards and only 15.2% have concrete shelter.

The demand for the formation of a Refugee Development Authority is long pending. In 2011, Bihar government announced the constitution of Tharu Development Authority for the development of Tharus living near the borders with Nepal and gave them the status of scheduled tribes. The Bengali Association has also demanded that they be included. The government has, however, been found lacking.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bihar-hindu-refugees-from-east-pakistan-want-land-living-identity/story-WUinXFN2BbAiAPJmOclMSI.htmlhttps://pakobserver.net/pak-philippines-jec-activation-joint-business-forum/

Pakistan posts 64% growth in exports to Qatar post blockade, says official

Date

2/28/2018 4:30:25 PM

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(MENAFN - Gulf Times) Pakistan has recorded a 64% surge in exports to Qatar from July 2017 to January 2018, according to an official at the Embassy of Pakistan in Doha.
Commercial secretary Salman Ali, who spoke at the ‘Pakistan-Qatar Business & Investment Opportunities Conference' held in Doha yesterday, said Pakistan witnessed an 'export quantum seven months after an economic blockade was imposed on Qatar in June last year.
Citing figures from the State Bank of Pakistan, Ali said Pakistan exports to Qatar in July 2017 stood at $5.66mn and increased to $8.74 in January 2018, 'exceeding the $8mn mark for the first time since May 2012.
He said Pakistan's major exports to Qatar include rice, red meats, fresh fruits, vegetables, cotton and fabric of all types, leather and all its articles, cereal straw and husk, and fish and its products.
'Besides a policy of self-reliance, Qatar views Turkey, Iran, Oman, and Pakistan as the long-term source of food and other supplies, Ali noted during his presentation.
On Pakistan's current strategy to facilitate exports, the products in focus are construction materials, pharmaceuticals, processed/frozen food items, raw chicken and meat (frozen/chilled), dairy items, including UHT milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, food packaging materials, light engineering and electrical goods, defence exports, sports goods, textiles, and services.
On Pakistan's export performance compared to other countries in the region, Ali said: 'Other regional countries had a comparatively much bigger export footprint in Qatar. Many products from the region have flooded the market in Qatar but Pakistan's logistic advantage and international position eventually gives it a competitive advantage not rivalled by any other country in the region.
Ali also said some of the Pakistani products 'successfully introduced in the Qatari market since the blockade include Menu Frozen Food (Season's Food); Olpers UHT Milk, Cream and Ghee (Engro Food); biscuits and candies (Hilal Food); packaging material by M/S Packages and M/S Afeef Packages; ketchup and juices for the hospitality sector by Shangrila Limited; steel piping products by International Industries Limited and electrical cables by Pakistan Cables; and ketchup, mayonnaise, and sugar by M/S Soya Supreme Group.

From Almonds To Rice, Climate Change Could Slash California Crop Yields By 2050

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March 2, 201810:54 AM ET

EZRA DAVID ROMERO

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Climate change could decrease the yield of some crops in California by up to 40 percent by 2050. That's a big deal for farmers in the state, which provides about two-thirds of the nation's produce.

"In order to make California agriculture more sustainable, we have to act now," Pathak says.

But Pathak says crops planted yearly, like alfalfa, could yield more as temperatures increase. The study also says wine grapes will see small declines in yield.

What can be done now to mitigate this?

Peter Gleick, an expert in climate and water for the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, read the study and says, "it is critical that we start making decisions now to reduce the threats later."

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/02/590056872/from-almonds-to-rice-climate-change-could-slash-california-crop-yields-by-2050

Rice prices rise for 7th consecutive week

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:26 AM March 03, 2018

The upward trend in the wholesale and retail prices of rice is now on its seventh week, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

Prices of commercial rice has risen at least 20 percent since the first week of January, according to the agency.

Worse, it said, the lack of cheap, subsidized rice in the market due to the stock shortage at the National Food Authority is expected to continue until the first week of June—the scheduled arrival in the country of imported rice.

For the third week of February, wholesale and retail prices were at P36.90 per kilo and P39.31 per kilo, respectively.

Retail prices, meanwhile, rose by 0.46 percent from last week’s P39.01 per kilo.

Compared to the price in the same period last year, it rose by 6.01 percent.

Similarly, wholesale and retail prices for well-milled rice increased during the week.

Wholesale price was quoted at P40.33 per kilo, while average retail price was at P43.10 per kilo. —KARL R. OCAMPO

Let traders import rice freely–experts

Cai Ordinario

March 4, 2018

Local economists called on the Duterte administration to remove the legal monopoly of the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice if it wants to stabilize the price of the staple.

According to economists belonging to the Foundation of Economic Freedom (FEF), it is only when the government is given the sole authority to import the staple that the Philippines faces periodic situations of unstable supply with rising rice prices.

“If private traders can freely import rice, they can quickly respond more to the needs of the rice market. The price of rice in our rice-exporting neighbors is about half the domestic price of rice,” the FEF said in a statement sent over the weekend.

“There is no reason rice prices should become unstable and rise since there is plentiful supply from our neighboring countries that can be easily tapped by our private traders,” it added.

The FEF also said the NFA is “at fault for giving the rice cartel room to manipulate rice prices” simply because it failed to immediately import rice when its stockpile started to go down below the required 15-day level.

The economists said the NFA did not restock its emergency rice inventory to the required 15-day level in case of emergencies and natural calamities. This despite the the Marawi City siege and the eruption of Mayon Volcano in Albay.

The FEF said the rice stock in NFA warehouses caused rice traders to get “greedy” and raise rice prices to P40, P45, P50 or P60 per kilogram (kg), depending on the quality.

The group noted that it was only at this time when the NFA sought the President’s clearance to import 250,000 metric tons of rice to beef up its supply, a move that would have been more effective if done sooner.

Last month the NFA said it sought the NFA Council’s (NFAC) go signal to import rice as early as November.

“If the NFA had the stocks, NFAC Chairman Leoncio Evasco can address this issue by injecting more NFA rice into the market. But without adequate stocks, NFA cannot effectively bring down the price. Accordingly, the poor will have to pay more for the rice,” FEF said. “This shows that behind every attempt by the rice cartel to manipulate rice price is a mistake of the NFA.”

Earlier, senators urged the government to raise the support price of the NFA. The increase in its buying price aims to encourage farmers to sell their harvest to the food agency.

National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Undersecretary for Planning and Policy Rosemarie G. Edillon, however, said that apart from the indebtedness of the NFA, increasing the support price of the NFA would accelerate inflation.

Also, prices become volatile whenever the NFA imports rice and then floods the market with cheaper rice. This causes commercial rice prices to decline steeply.

While it has yet to run the estimates of how much a P1 to P3 hike in NFA support price will impact on inflation, Edillon said it is likely that the Nedawould thumb down proposals to increase it.

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Cai Ordinario

A professional journalist for over a decade, Cai U. Ordinario currently writes macroeconomic and urban development stories for BusinessMirror. She has received awards for excellence in reporting on the macroeconomy and statistics. She was also cited for her contribution to statics reporting by the National Statistical Coordination Board (now the Philippine Statistics Authority). She is a recipient of journalism fellowships including the Jefferson Fellowship from the Honolulu-based East West Center. She is currently completing her Masters degree in Communication at the University of the Philippines. She graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Arts Major in Journalism from the University of Santo Tomas.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/let-traders-import-rice-freely-experts/

Ingrained

Some time in 1960s, businessmen with the Japanese electronics company Hitachi flew to southwest Louisiana, specifically, we are told, to Ville Platte. Of interest to them were the curiously high sales marks of their rice-cookers across a region otherwise alien to their products. At the time, Louisiana was the site of the single largest distribution of Hitachi rice-makers in North America, or so it is said. Anecdotal evidence of that phenomenon can be found in flea markets, kitchens and estate sales around Acadiana to this day.

According to Mamou native and photographer Lucius Fontenot, the businessmen toured the outer climes of Acadiana, mouths agape at miles of rice land. Visited, as they were, by the sight of rice farming operations that rivaled those in their native land, they understood the kindred desire in Louisiana for the Hitachi rice-cooker.

Why these things took off is a study best left to the geniuses of market research, but we can safely say that the crux of it is that Louisiana loves and thrives on rice.

Fontenot, who’s recently embarked upon a photo journal of Hitachi rice-cookers and the Cajuns who love them, remembers accompanying his grandmother to a local mill to buy 50-pound sacks of medium grain rice to accompany the fixture of stews on his grandmother’s stove-top. Medium grains cook softer and stickier than their long-grain cousins, making for more absorbent conduits of gravy and sauce-based Cajun cuisine.

By the time the Soileaus of Ville Platte and the Guillorys of Mamou were stocking their shop warehouses with Hitachi rice makers, one of which made its way to Fontenot’s grandmother’s kitchen in the 1960s or 1970s, rice was a prime cash crop for farmers across the Cajun prairies west of Lafayette, stretching all the way to the Sabine River that divides Louisiana from Texas. Rice has long been an essential ingredient for hardy Cajun victuals, such as gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, boudin and all kinds of gravies.

Looking back, it was probably a no-brainer that the cookers caught on. Automated and electronic, they freed up burners and freed up hands for accomplishing the sundry tasks of the mid-century household. Many a Cajun child knew the Hitachi chime as the 20^th century dinner bell.

Like the rice-cookers, though, rice itself is not native to Louisiana. It’s not even native to the Americas. While seeking its exact place of origin, you run into an intersection of antiquity, legend and guess-timation as to the Big Bang of rice production in the United States. However, those who will hazard a guess—like Steven Linscombe, PhD, of LSU’s Rice Research Center in Crowley—will tell you it likely came by boat from Madagascar to the port of Charleston, SC, some time in 18^th century.

It wasn’t so much a formal introduction, according to Linscombe, but more of a casual parting—a box full of seeds was perhaps given to eager hands at harbor.

“Here’s some rice. Y’all dabble with this,” guessed Linscombe.

From there, rice production followed a south westerly migration during the 19^th century, making its way through plantations and farms in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and, finally, Louisiana.

At first, rice was a staple crop grown for the plantation slave labor force along the Louisiana banks of the Mississippi river. Its continued migration westward in the years after the Civil War was provoked by the stimulated interest in cheap land in Acadia, Vermilion and Evangeline parishes, marketed aggressively to pioneering German Midwesterners.

These wheat and corn farmers found their customary crops ill-suited to Louisiana’s wet climate. Taking note of micro-agronomic production of rice by the Cajuns kicking around pre-railroad Acadiana, the ever-industrious Germans took it upon themselves to mechanize and modernize the rice industry with seeders, binders and threshers.

Where profligate water presented a problem for other crops, rice thrived in Louisiana’s oft-flooded conditions. Steam pumps and adjacent bayous provided an abundant source of water for enterprising farmers. The Cajun prairies also have a lagniappe topographical feature in the form of a dense subsurface layer of clay. That pack of hardened earth creates a basin that contains pumped-in water, making for efficient use of an embarrassment of hydrological riches.

Milling came later in the 19^th century, moving an essential business from New Orleans to the now self-proclaimed “Rice Capital of America” in Crowley, the seat of Acadia Parish. Rice of any grain size could be separated from husks and milled to remove the outer bran layer that distinguishes un-milled brown rice from milled white rice. Folks scooped rice into their gumbos instead of corn meal mush, and the great Acadiana staple was born.

At its height in the mid 20^th century, Louisiana’s rice production was the nation’s largest and most cutting edge. Before we were enamored of the Hitachi cooker’s chime-o-matic laissez-faire, we saw the advent of rice enrichment by Wright Enterprises in Crowley, a process that re-introduced to white grains the vitamin and nutrient content bereft by the milling process.

A symbiotic relationship developed between the farming of rice and crawfishing. Flooded fields provide an excellent breeding ground for aquaculture like crawfish. The Cajun crustacean also is quite fond of detritus from leftover rice crops, a revelation which led rice researchers to develop in the early 2000s a rice variety known as ecrevisse—French for crawfish—grown specifically for its agricultural benefit for crawfish.

Medium grain rice once dominated Louisiana’s production and consumption, due in large part to the medium grain varieties’ agricultural hardiness when compared to the more gastronomically coveted long-grains. There are those, like the Fontenots, who stand by the sopping utility of medium grains as the ideal vehicle for gravy. But for the most part, long grain has enjoyed a preferred status among consumers, typically fetching higher prices for farmers.

In the 1980s, medium grains accounted for 65 percent of grown rice varieties in Louisiana, with the remaining 35 percent accounted by long grains. Over time, folks like Linscombe at the Rice Research Center developed new varieties of long-grain rice that perform better in Louisiana’s climate and produce higher yields per crop rotation. Technology caught long grain up with demand. In 2015, long-grain rice accounted for 85 percent of rice grown in Louisiana.

Nearly half of all rice grown and milled in Louisiana is exported nationally and internationally, meaning local rice producers need to keep up with the tastes of buyers around world. Popular tropical aromatics like Thai Jasmine rice don’t do well in Louisiana’s climate, forcing farmers to improvise. To that end, farmers and researchers with the Rice Research Center have developed Jazzman and Jazzman II varieties of long-grain rice, specifically bred to produce the nutty aroma and soft texture of the ever popular Thai import.

Long before Jazzman, the Research Center introduced the Della long-grain varieties more popularly known in Acadiana as Popcorn Rice. Like Thai Jasmine or Jazzman, steaming Popcorn rice produces a nutty, almost popcorn-like, aroma. But where Jasmine-type rice cooks soft, Popcorn rice retains the stiffer texture of generic, long-grain rice. Around Acadiana, Popcorn rice is marketed as a connoisseur’s bag fit for the discerning rice palate.

Today, Louisiana remains the third largest producer of rice in the United States, behind California and Arkansas. In Acadiana, the number of plate lunch houses serving rice and gravy on a daily basis will give you an idea of just how important the crop remains as a cultural icon in the area. Rice is a given in Louisiana cuisine, regardless of the time of day or year. Very few meals are complete without a dollop of steamed rice, a scoop of rice dressing or a lagniappe of jambalaya. Despite its foreign origins, it’s a product that binds folks in Acadiana to their earth and gives a sense of culinary unity.

Rice cookers have certainly advanced since the original Hitachis spread around Acadiana like rice-seed from a crop-dusting plane. But the kindred love affair with rice those Japanese businessmen found in the eccentric bayou towns they visited in the 1960s still remain. Many have held on to those Hitachis as family heirlooms, weighing their cookers’ tops down with books or taping the button down to get the steam-time right. Others have moved on to digital contraptions with adjustable temperatures, timers and readouts. What really counts, though, is what happens when the steam rises and whatever chime dings. When the rice is done, it’s time to eat.

Bulog to disburse 400,000 tons of subsidized rice in March

Anton Hermansyah

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta | Sat, March 3, 2018 | 10:17 am

Workers unload Vietnamese rice at Tenau Port in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Feb. 13. The rice is part of the imported rice quota of 500,000 tons that began arriving in February. (Antara/ Kornelis Kaha)

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The National Logistics Agency (Bulog) will distribute 400,000 tons of subsidized rice in an attempt to stabilize the price in March.

Of the 400,000 tons, 250,000 tons was taken from the March allocation, while the remaining allocations were in January and February, said Bulog president director Djarot Kusumayakti after meeting with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Friday.

Meanwhile, a further 150,000 tons of rice from the April allocation would be pushed forward to March he said, adding: "The President has allowed us to distribute April’s allocation in March.”

According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released on Thursday, the price of all qualities of rice had increased in February compared to January.

The price of premium rice increased by 0.31 percent, while the prices of medium and low quality rice increased by 0.37 percent and 1.99 percent respectively.

BPS chairman Suhariyanto said that the price of low quality rice reached Rp 9,987 per kilogram, higher than the government’s price ceiling target.

Economic Coordinating Minister Darmin Nasution said Bulog currently had around 660,000 tons of rice in stock. (bbn)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/03/02/bulog-to-disburse-400000-tons-of-subsidized-rice-in-march.html

Vietnam likely to export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018

Monday, 03/05/2018, 12:11

Vietnam may export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ha Cong Tuan.

High-quality rice accounts for a large proportion of total rice export volume and normal rice makes up less than 20%, Tuan said.

Vietnam shipped 861,000 tonnes of rice abroad in the first two months of this year, earning US$419 million, up 17% in volume and 34% in value compared with the same period last year.

The Philippines was the biggest importer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for 26.9% of the market share. It was followed by China, with 23.5%.

The export price for Vietnamese rise rose from US$435 per tonne in 2016 to US$450 per tonne in 2017 and US$475 per tonne during January-February.

The increase was attributed to the country’s efforts to raise its rice quality.

Vietnam is doing well in increasing rice quality, Deputy Minister Tuan said, suggesting the country focus on improving the brand name of its rice.

Last year, Vietnam pocketed US$2.6 billion from exporting 5.8 million tonnes of rice

http://english.vov.vn/economy/vietnam-likely-to-export-65-million-tonnes-of-rice-in-2018-369781.vov Government to help in upgrade of rice quality as exports hit high

HTOO THANT 05 MAR 2018

Workers dry the paddy under sunlight in a field at the Kyaunggon Township in the Ayeyarwaddy region, Myanmar. Photo - EPA

Myanmar will likely export at least 3.2 million tonnes of rice by the end of the current 2017-18 fiscal year by month-end taking rice exports to their highest level in 70 years, according to officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOALI).

“According to government estimates, we have exported 3.2 million tonnes of rice to this day (March 4). The numbers could increase if we continue exporting,” MOALI Permanent Deputy Secretary U Myo Tint Tun told The Myanmar Times on Sunday.

The estimate was confirmed by Union Minister U Aung Thu, who quoted similar numbers during a farmers’ roundtable talk on March 2 in Danubyu, Ayeyarwaddy Region.

However, Myanmar is still mainly exporting average-grade rice to China, implying that the country is still overly reliant on its neighbour. As such, the country should take steps to improve its rice quality for better value while expanding its market beyond China to diversify risk.

While representing a step in the right direction, that move will see Myanmar farmers face stiff competition from existing high-grade rice exporting countries like Thailand, India and Vietnam.

In that light, farmers at the roundtable sought government help to gain access to long term, low-interest loans, the lack of which is “the main hindrance to low rice productivity,” said Danubyu farmer U Thein Aung during the talk.

“Farmers risk high losses because of weather changes, pests, volatile prices and other factors. On top of all that, we have to service high-interest loans to help pay off losses and as a result, our children have to work in large cities and foreign countries to repay the debt,” he said.

The government recently raised the volume of loans available to farmers to K150,000 per acre of farmland from K100,000 before and is now enjoying the support of the Japanese in extending two-step loans to the sector.

“The issue is when loan amounts increase, the burden on farmers is much heavier in the event of default or losses due to weather changes or price fluctuations,” said U Hla Kyaw, deputy minister for the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation.

https://www.mmtimes.com/news/government-help-upgrade-rice-quality-exports-hit-high.html

President says Myanmar can export record 3 million tons of rice this year

Zeyar Maw

On Saturday, 3 March 2018

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Myanmar's President Htin Kyaw. Photo: Hein Htet/EPA

President Htin Kyaw said that Myanmar could export 3 million tons rice this financial year and it would be a record high over 70 years.

He was addressing Peasants’ Day which falls today on March 2.

“Myanmar can export 3 million tons of rice a record high in 70 years. The export of such a high record is because of great efforts by peasants, cooperation between departmental officials and the private sector so we can praise their great efforts,” the President said in his message.

The President added that 70% of the population lives in rural area and their main livelihood is agriculture

http://www.mizzima.com/business-domestic/president-says-myanmar-can-export-record-3-million-tons-rice-year

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2. Domestic Economy

Saturday, March 03, 2018

Rice Farming Banned in Khuzestan

Rice cultivation in the southern Khuzestan Province will be banned as of the upcoming crop year starting on March 21, the deputy head of Khuzestan Agricultural Jihad Organization said.

“This is due to the water shortage facing the country. We advise farmers to cultivate alternative crops such as pulses, sunflowers, soybeans and fodder, which are less water-intensive,” Mohammad Qaseminejad was also quoted by Mehr News Agency as saying.

The official added that land under rice cultivation in Khuzestan has declined from between 97,000 and 98,000 hectares five years ago to less than 40,000 hectares at present.

Agricultural and environment experts have been urging the government for years to restrict rice farming to the water-rich provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran, which are home to the majority of Iran’s paddy fields, and to ban the activity in the rest of the country.

Asia Rice-Supply dip perks up India prices; lack of deals hurt Thai rates

Koustav Samanta

3 MIN READ

BENGALURU, March 2 (Reuters) - Rice prices in top exporter India snapped a three-week losing streak on lower supplies and a slight improvement in demand, while rates for the staple grain eased in Thailand and Vietnam due to lack of deals and the beginning of a new harvest.

India’s 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices RI-INBKN5-P1 rose by $5 per tonne to $419-$423 per tonne.

A drop in the Indian rupee capped the upside in rice export prices in dollar terms, said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

“Local rice prices have risen due to falling supplies in central and eastern states. Demand has also slightly improved from Bangladesh,” said another exporter based in Kakinada.

Bangladesh, which has emerged as a major rice importer since 2017 after floods damaged its crops, imported more than 3 million tonnes from July to February, its biggest ever haul, exceeding its previous annual rice import record in just eight months, the food ministry data showed.

The country could buy more rice in the next few months, given the high prices of the staple in domestic markets, a food ministry official said.

“From today, we are resuming subsidized rice sales to help the poor and bring down local prices,” the official added.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s benchmark 5 percent broken rice rates RI-THBKN5-PI slipped to $395-$400 per tonne, free on board (FOB) Bangkok, compared with $404-$410 last week.

The drop in prices was due to flat demand and a lack of major deals on the horizon, traders said.

“On top of the lack of demand, there was also some new rice entering the market,” a Bangkok-based rice trader said.

Thailand, the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, is expecting new rice harvest in April but due to heavy rain and flood in some areas last year, some crops were grown much later and are being harvest off-season.

Prices are expected to drop further if there is no new demand while new crops enter the market, traders said.

Vietnam’s 5-percent broken rice RI-VNBKN5-P1 edged lower to $410-$415 a tonne from $415-$420 a week earlier, as farmers have started harvesting for the winter-spring paddy, traders said on Friday.

“Demand was not too strong, especially when Thai rice is still cheaper... Vietnam’s prices were kept afloat, thanks to some government-to-government deals,” said a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader.

Prices might change vastly after the next two weeks when harvest come into full swing, traders said, adding the market is still eyeing the Philippines’s plan to import 250,000 tonnes of rice.

Vietnam’s rice exports in the first two months of 2018 rose an estimated 14.6 percent from the same period last year to 842,000 tonnes, official data showed. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice/asia-rice-supply-dip-perks-up-india-prices-lack-of-deals-hurt-thai-rates-idINL4N1QK3QW Rice importation still needed, says PhilRice

Research agency says no shortage of staple, stock enough for 87 days

By: Anselmo Roque- @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 06:25 AM March 02, 2018

Farmers thresh newly harvested palay at a farm in Labrador town, Pangasinan province. —WILLIE LOMIBAO

SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ—Rice stocks from last year’s harvests and this year’s cropping season assure the country of supply for three months but there is still need to import as augmentation during the lean months of production, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) here said.

A team of PhilRice economists, led by Deputy Executive Director Flordeliza Bordey, collected data for a study on rice security, self-sufficiency and competitiveness.

Highest production

“We have rice stock of almost 3 million metric tons of rice in the first quarter of 2018 that is enough for 87 days,” the PhilRice said in a statement.

The study said the country achieved the highest production last year at 19.3 million MT of palay. This was equivalent to 12.5 million MT of milled rice.

Together with the 900,000 MT of imported rice and the carry-over stock of 2.7 million MT from 2017, the country has 16.1 million MT in the first quarter of this year.

The prevailing stock will be boosted by the 2.9 million MT harvest in the first quarter.

Filipinos consume 110 kilograms of rice per year but the demand also includes raw materials for value-added products, animal feed and spoilage, thus increasing the annual consumption rate.

A National Food Authority employee inspects the agency’s rice stock at its warehouse in Baguio City amid reports of low supply of cheap rice in the market. —EV ESPIRITU

Necessary

Importation remains necessary because the bulk of palay harvest occurs at the fourth quarter of each year, PhilRice said. “It should be understood that there is seasonality of rice production, which is 23 percent in the first quarter, 21 percent in the second quarter, 16 percent in the third quarter and 40 percent in the fourth quarter,” it said.

“Therefore, the timing for the importation is of the essence, as the stock of rice goes down especially during the third quarter, which constitutes the lean months.”

The imported rice would help guard against sudden price fluctuations in the market, it added.

Resignation call

During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Senators Grace Poe and Bam Aquino called on National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Jason Aquino to resign for allegedly failing to act on the agency’s mandate to maintain a buffer stock and stabilize the supply and prices of rice.

Sought for comment on calls for Aquino’s resignation, NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez said: “The senators are in the legislative branch while we are in the executive branch. Both have the right to say what they want to say. As for us, we are still trying to find concrete and immediate solutions to replenish our stocks.”

Sri Lanka wholesale rice prices fall dramatically in February

Mar 02, 2018 08:27 AM GMT+0530 | 0 Comment(s)

ECONOMYNEXT - Sri Lanka's wholesale rice prices at the Marandagahamula market, which is a benchmark for the rest of the country has fallen dramatically in February with key grades down 20 percent from December 2017, as domestic harvests start to come in.

Marandagahamula Samba, a domestic premium rice fell to 82.30 rupees a kilogram on February 23, plunging 27.1 percent from 104.63 rupees a kilo peak reached on December 29, according to central bank data.

Marandagamula White Kekulu (Raw) rice fell from 20.3 percent from 90.75 rupees a kilo in December 29, to 75.40 rupees in February 23.

Marandagamula Red Raw fell 7.5 percent to 83.25 rupees a kilo to 77.00 rupees a kilogram.

Marandagamula Nadu, a popular grade used widely in mass-market rice takeway market (buth packet) rice fell 21.75 percent to 75.70 rupees a kilo from 96.50 rupees a kilo.

Sri Lanka main Maha (winter/spring) harvest is now coming in with this year's harvest expected to rise 57 percent as the rice growing regions recover from a drought.

The high prices last year helped cushion farmer incomes, as output halved.

Global rice prices are still high. Over 2017 rice prices have risen 20 to 30 percent in rice exporting and importing countries.

Unlike in Sri Lanka, where rice is protected with import duties, most Asian nations produce export grade rice and good harvests pushes up farmer incomes.

In 2017 many countries in Asia were hit by drought, with India's harvests estimated to be down 30 percent in some areas, pushing up prices. Indian coconut prices also rose.

The Food and Agricultural Organization's All Rice Price Index rose 18.1 percent in the year to February 2018.

The premium aromatic rice index was up 25 percent and the higher quality Indica index was up 15.7 percent.

Many countries have blamed the usual suspects, 'errant traders' and 'speculators' for rice price hikes.

"There might be some mechanisms by dishonest businessmen," Bangladesh PM Sheik Hasina was quoted as saying in parliament.

Bangladesh has cut import duties from 28 to 10 percent amid rising prices, the report said. Sri Lanka also cut import duties last year as prices rose amid a drought.

Sri Lanka's central bank also collapsed the rupee in 2015 and 2016 adding to the global rise in prices. In Sri Lanka's 'rice mafias' especially importers and millers are blamed for both hikes and falls in prices.

Sri Lanka's rice prices fall dramatically in good harvests, even when global prices are strong, as farmers who have been protected for years through import duties do not produce grades of rice that can be internationally traded.

Marandahamula benchmark wholesale prices are now at levels seen in December 2015. The government has announced floor prices for farmgate paddy (rough rice) (Colombo/Mar02/2018)

WIDE CORRIDOR:

Sri Lanka needs a narrower inflation target to stop stagflation, BOP crises: Bellwether

RED HERRING:

Sri Lanka's 'alternative facts' on bond sales

http://economynext.com/Sri_Lanka_wholesale_rice_prices_fall_dramatically_in_February-3-10029.html Reducing rice cultivation in Egypt: A controversy

A government decision to reduce rice cultivation has not been well received by farmers or consumers

Mona El-Fiqi , Thursday 1 Mar 2018

File Photo: Labourers transplant rice seedlings in a paddy field in the Nile Delta town of Kafr Al-Sheikh, north of Cairo, Egypt (Reuters)

Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Ati has announced that the government is reducing the area of land available for rice cultivation by more than 50 per cent.

Instead of 1.7 million feddans, only around 700,000 feddans will be cultivated this year (one feddan is 1.038 acres). The decision, taken to rationalise water consumption, will be applied from May to September 2018.

Rice consumes about two-and-a-half times the amount of water needed to grow wheat or maize as it needs to be grown in flooded fields. The government’s decision to reduce the country’s rice crop is designed to reduce water consumption, and similar measures have already been taken regarding sugarcane and bananas, like rice major consumers of water.

Rice cultivation will now only be allowed in the Delta governorates, and it will be prohibited in Upper Egypt, Suez, South Sinai, Marsa Matrouh, Qalioubiya, Menoufiya, Cairo and Giza. Farmers who violate the new rules will be subject to penalties under Irrigation Law 12/1984.

Many farmers are not happy about the decision, and they have written to the Ministry of Agriculture to complain. Mohamed Abdallah, a farmer in the Daqahliya governorate, said that despite the decision the farmers in his village intended to plant rice as usual because their families eat part of the harvest and sell the rest to earn an income.

Ragab Shehata, head of the Rice Division at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, said this was not the first time the government had issued a similar decision, only to find that it was ignored by farmers.

The decision is designed not only to save water, but also to find a balance between the production and consumption of rice. Production currently exceeds consumption by one million tons annually. In 2017, production stood at four million tons, while consumption was three million.

Following the minister’s announcement, rice prices rose from LE6,000 to LE7,000 per ton. According to Shehata, prices should not be negatively affected until May, but some traders could have taken advantage of the government announcement to increase prices.

Samah Ibrahim, a Cairo housewife, expected to see an increase in rice prices because “less production means less supply and higher prices.”

Consumers have been suffering from hikes in food prices since the floatation of the pound in November 2016. “It is the government’s role to find solutions that reduce prices, not to issue decrees that reduce production,” Ibrahim said. She added that in her view the price rises of rise were due to “traders stockpiling rice to cash in when the price increases.”

Some experts are also against the decision. Ali Abdel-Rahman, head of the International Union for the Environment and Development, a pressure group, blamed the government for not studying the results before making the announcement. “This political decision will have negative impacts on farmers, rice prices and investment in rice industries,” he said.

The decision had not taken farmers who depend on rice for their annual income into consideration, he said. Farmers cannot cultivate land used for growing rice with other crops, and so the total agricultural area will be reduced, he added.

The shortage of water was also not a good enough excuse for such a decision. “Egypt’s current water resources are enough to grow 18 to 20 million feddans of rice, but the actual cultivated area is between eight to 10 million feddans,” he said.

While the government said the aim of the decision was to save Nile water, Abdel-Rahman said that the water used for growing 90 per cent of the rice in the North Delta governorates was salt water from the Mediterranean Sea or reused agricultural water.

“Rice is a basic meal for most Egyptian families, and instead of working to keep Egypt’s self-sufficiency in rice, the government has decided to cut its agricultural area by half,” Abdel-Rahman added.

The government should promote the use of new kinds of rice that do not need as much water, Abdel-Rahman suggested.

The area allocated for rice cultivation has long been a controversial issue. In 2015, the government planned to decrease the area from 1.1 million feddans to 724,200 feddans, but upon consulting the group of economics ministers the decision was put to rest to avoid any shortages in local markets that could lead to increases in prices.

In 2016, the area increased to two million feddans, but was then decreased to 1.7 million feddans in 2017. The highest rice production over the past 10 years was in 2007/2008, when it reached 7.3 million tons, while the lowest was in 2010 with only 4.3 million tons, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics.

The Daqahliya, Kafr Al-Sheikh, Sharqiya, Beheira and Gharbiya governorates have the largest rice-cultivation areas.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/291961/Business/Economy/Reducing-rice-cultivation-in-Egypt-A-controversy.aspx E’bo rice farmers appealing for higher paddy prices

Mar 02, 2018 News 0 Comments

The meeting yesterday at the RDC boardroom

Rice farmers on the Essequibo Coast are once again appealing for an increase in the price being paid per bag of paddy. This plea was yesterday made when farmers met with representatives from the Guyana Rice Development Board [GRDB], during a farmers/miller association meeting.
Rice can be described as the core of the agro industry in Region Two [Pomeroon/Supenaam]. It is the main economic activity within the region. This industry made a drastic recovery late last year when significant exports were shipped to Mexico and Cuba. Farmers on the other hand, now want their share of the benefits, primarily an increase in the price paid per bag of paddy.
Kaieteur News understands that farmers in Region Two are currently being paid $2,800 per bag of paddy graded at level ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. This is already a significant increase as compared to just $2000 during 2015, when Guyana lost the Venezuelan Market. Yesterday, however, rice farmers appealed to a rice miller that they be paid $3000 per bag of paddy. This request comes primarily as the rice harvest in Region Two is just days away.
The miller noted that while he is more than willing to pay $3000 per bag of paddy, there is a heavy cost attached to freight. The miller, who happens to own one of the largest rice mills on the Essequibo Coast, said that the ferry toll per bag of paddy is $300 per ton.
The miller added, “Our freight from Essequibo to Georgetown is a problem because we have to pay both a ferry toll, and a toll at the Demerara Harbor Bridge. A couple of days ago our group shipped from Georgetown 20,000 tons of rice, and that never happened…Our problem here is that we can’t even carry a 1,000 tons from Essequibo via vessel.”
He further explained that the Essequibo River would require some amount of dredging, so that the company can move ahead in loading containers from right in Essequibo. The miller further reiterated that before famers can enjoy an increase in paddy price, vessels need to start docking in Essequibo in an effort to cut transportation cost.
Kaieteur News was told that before docking can commence in Region Two, permission must first be sought from the Transport and Harbor Department and the Maritime Administration. Representatives from GRDB, who included Essequibo’s branch manager, Devindranauth Singh, assured farmers that the river dredging would be pursued by the Board. [Romario Blair.]

https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2018/03/02/ebo-rice-farmers-appealing-for-higher-paddy-prices/

Rice Husk Ash sales Market Analysis and Opportunities Forecast to 2025

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India rice rates up on steady demand; stronger baht props up Thai rates

Arpan Varghese

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Rice prices rose in top exporter India this week on healthy demand amid lower supplies, while gains in the local currency and prospects of a deal with the Philippines pushed up rates for the staple grain in Thailand.

A woman spreads paddy crop for drying at a rice mill on the occasion of International Women's Day, on the outskirts of Agartala, March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jayanta Dey/Files

India’s 5 percent broken parboiled rice prices rose by $3 per tonne to $422-$426, the second straight week of gains.

“Inquiries are rising from African countries. Asian buyers are also showing interest,” said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Supplies are falling, forcing exporters to quote higher prices, said another exporter also based in Kakinada.

India’s non basmati rice exports during April-December jumped 39.5 percent from a year ago as Bangladesh and Benin raised purchases.

Meanwhile, demand for the grain from Bangladesh, which has emerged as a major rice importer since 2017 after floods damaged its crops, would stay strong for the next few months, given the high domestic rates, an official with the food ministry in Bangladesh said on Thursday.

In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice rates climbed to $408-$410 per tonne, free on board (FOB) Bangkok, from $395-$400 last week, amid a stronger baht and hopes of a prospective deal with the Philippines.

Speculation is rife that the Philippines will hold an auction later this month to import 250,000 tonnes and many Thai exporters are interested in this deal, a trader said.

“The fluctuation in prices at the moment depends on the currency exchange rate only because there’s no actual demand,” a Bangkok-based rice trader said.

The baht was on track for its second straight week of gains. [EMRG/FRX] A stronger baht translates to higher export prices in U.S. dollars.

“Many exporters have (also) been buying rice now because of low prices recently,” the trader added.

Prices rose in Vietnam as well, with rates for its 5 percent broken variety gaining to $418-$425 a tonne from $410-$415 a week earlier as farmers pinned their hopes on new government-to-government deals, even though shipments out of the country were falling.

“We are having difficulty clinching new deals with buyers, as Vietnamese prices are relatively higher now,” said a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader, adding buyers were seeking $405-$408.

Vietnam exported 339,706 tonnes of rice in February, down 31 percent from January, but exports in the first two months 2018 rose 13.2 percent from a year earlier to 831,504 tonnes, customs data showed.

The country could export 6.5 million tonnes of rice in 2018, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Sunday.

Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Khanh Vu in Hanoi; Editing by David Evans

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

https://in.reuters.com/article/asia-rice/india-rice-rates-up-on-steady-demand-stronger-baht-props-up-thai-rates-idINKCN1GK1K2

Wheat softens on increased supply

PTI | Mar 8, 2018, 14:25 IST

New Delhi, Mar 8 () Wheat prices declined by Rs 10 per quintal at the wholesale grains market today on ample stocks on increased arrivals from growing regions against reduced offtake by flour mills.

Maize also eased on subdued demand from consuming industries.

Traders said besides sluggish demand from flour mills, increased supplies from producing belts, mainly led to decline in wheat prices.

In the national capital, wheat dara (for mills) shed Rs 10 to Rs 1,790-1,795 per quintal. Atta chakki delivery followed suit and traded lower by a similar margin to Rs 1,800-1,805 per 90 kg.

Maize also declined by Rs 10 to Rs 1,400-1,405 per quintal.

Following are today's quotations (in Rs per quintal):

Wheat MP (desi) Rs 2,080-2,280, Wheat dara (for mills) Rs 1,790-1,795 Chakki atta (delivery) Rs 1,800-1,805, Atta Rajdhani (10 kg) Rs 260-300, Shakti Bhog (10 kg) Rs 255-290, Roller flour mill Rs 960-970 (50 kg), Maida Rs 980-9,90 (50 kg)and Sooji Rs 1,040-1,050 (50 kg).

Basmati rice (Lal Quila) Rs 10,700, Shri Lal Mahal Rs 11,300, Super Basmati Rice Rs 9,800, Basmati common new Rs 7,700-7,800, Rice Pusa (1121) Rs 6,700-6,800, Permal raw Rs 2,325-2375, Permal wand Rs 2,375-2,425, Sela Rs 2,800-3,000 and Rice IR-8 Rs 1,975-2,025, Bajra Rs 1,200-1,205, Jowar yellow Rs 1,400-1,450, white Rs 2,800-2,900, Maize Rs 1,400- 1,405, Barley Rs 1,490-1,500. KPS ADI ADI

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/wheat-softens-on-increased-supply/articleshow/63215982.cms India rice rates up on steady demand; stronger baht props up Thai rates