Means our
death': Egyptian farmers fear effect of Ethiopia dam
The
prospect of the mega-dam is a new worry for Egyptian farmers with water
scarcity already a major problem.
![Description: Ethiopia says electricity generated by its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a crucial lifeline for the country [AFP]](file:///C:/Users/abc/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.jpg)
Ethiopia
says electricity generated by its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a crucial
lifeline for the country [AFP]
In
the winter of 1964, Makhluf Abu Kassem was born in an agricultural community
newly created at the far end of Egypt's Fayoum Oasis. His parents were among
the village's first settlers, moving there three years earlier from the Nile
Valley to carve out a new life as farmers.
It
was a bright and prosperous start. The region was fertile and for 40 years they
made their living growing corn, cotton and wheat.
Now
55, Abu Kassem looks out at what is left of his shrivelling farm,
surrounded by barren wasteland that was once his neighbour's farmland - victims
of dwindling irrigation in recent years.
"There
used to be enough water to make all this area green ... Now, it is as you
see," he said.
In
the past, he and other villagers irrigated their farms through canals linked to
the Nile River, Egypt's lifeline since ancient times. It provides the country
with a thin, richly fertile stretch of green land through the desert.
But
years of mismanagement, corruption and increasing population led to the loss of
at least 75 percent of farmland in the village and the surrounding areas,
according to Abdel-Fattah el-Aweidi, head of the Gazaer Qouta Agriculture
Association overseeing the area.
Now,
Abu Kassem fears a dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, the Nile's main
tributary, could add to the severe water shortages already hitting his village
if no deal is struck to ensure a continued flow of water.
"The
dam means our death," he said.
Farmers sit under the shade of a
tree surrounded by barren wasteland that was once fertile and green Qouta town,
Fayoum, Egypt [AP]
Fight for resources
The
exact effect of the dam on downstream countries Egypt and Sudan remains
unknown. For Egyptian farmers, the daunting prospect adds a new worry on top of
the other causes of mounting water scarcity.
Egypt
is already spreading its water resources thin. Its booming population, now more
than 100 million, has one of the lowest per capita shares of water in the
world, at about 550 cubic metres per year, compared with a global average of
1,000.
Ethiopia
says the electricity generated by its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is
a crucial lifeline to bring its nearly 110 million citizens out of
poverty.
Egypt,
which relies on the Nile for more than 90 percent of its water supply,
including drinking water, industrial use and irrigation, fears a devastating
effect if the dam is operated without taking its needs into account.
It
wants to guarantee a minimum annual release of 40 billion cubic metres of water
from the Blue Nile while Ethiopia fills the dam's giant reservoir, according to
an irrigation official. That would be less than the 55 billion cubic metres
Egypt usually gets from the Nile, mostly from the Blue Nile.
The
shortage would be filled by water stored behind Egypt's Aswan High Dam in Lake
Nasser, which has a gross capacity of 169 billion cubic metres of water.
Egyptian farmer and shepherd Abu
Mazen walks his sheep in Second Village, Qouta town, Fayoum, Egypt [AP]
"If
the dam is filled and operated without coordination between Egypt and Ethiopia,
its effect will be destructive to the whole Egyptian society and the state will
not be able to address its repercussions," said Egypt's former Irrigation
Minister Mohammed Nasr Allam.
It
is estimated that a permanent drop of five billion cubic meters of Nile water
to Egypt would cause the loss of one million acres (400,000 hectares) of
farmland, or 12 percent of the country's total, he said.
Sudan
says the project could endanger its own dams, though it would also see benefits
from the Ethiopian dam, including cheap electricity and reduced flooding.
Abu
Kassem's village, with the bland bureaucratic name of Second Village, was one
of multiple agricultural communities created in Egypt in the 1960s by the
socialist government of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Built on reclaimed
desert, it depends for irrigation on the Yusuf Canal, which flows from the Nile
through Fayoum, fanning out in a series of channels.
The
villagers enumerated the variety of crops they used to farm, ranging from
cotton and vegetables to wheat and grains.
Now,
most of the village's lands are barren. Almost all the Nile water that used to
reach it is diverted into other agricultural projects or used for the growing
population before it reaches Second Village, farmers say. Similar shortages of
water have grown more common even in communities in the Nile Valley and the
Delta, where farmers also face increasing salinity.
To
irrigate, the village farmers now depend on wastewater from nearby towns, which
is a mix of agricultural drainage and sewage.
On
Abu Kassem's 16-acre farm (6.5 hectares), only a single acre is now cultivated.
His family tried growing corn, but the plants died. They, like most others in
the area, switched to growing olive trees, which use less water. But even those
suffer.
"These
trees haven't seen water in over 40 days," Abu Kassem said, showing a
shrivelled fruit.
With
the water waning, many of the village's 12,000 people have left, including Abu
Kassem's three brothers and his four sons.
Ihsan
Abdel-Azim, 53, the wife of one of Abu Kassem's brothers, moved with her family
to work as doormen in Cairo in 2001.
"We
had no choice at the time," the mother of five said, sitting among her
grandchildren during a visit to the village earlier this month.
"Cultivating the farm became insufficient to feed my children. All roads
led that way."
Farmer Makhluf Abu Kassem stands
on a land that was once fertile, in Second Village, Qouta town, Fayoum,
Egypt [AP]
Deadlocked talks
Years-long
negotiations among Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia failed to reach a deal on the dam.
The dispute reached a tipping point earlier this week when Ethiopia announced
it completed the first stage of the filling of the dam's 74 billion-cubic-meter
reservoir.
That
sparked fear and confusion in Sudan and Egypt. Both have repeatedly insisted
Ethiopia must not start the fill without reaching a deal first.
Ethiopian
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the filling occurred naturally,
"without bothering or hurting anyone else", from torrential rains
flooding the Blue Nile.
Sticking
points in the talks have been how much water Ethiopia will release downstream
during the filling if a multi-year drought occurs and how the three countries
will resolve any future disputes. Egypt and Sudan have pushed for a binding
agreement, while Ethiopia insists on non-binding guidelines.
In
recent years, the Egyptian government accelerated its efforts to modernise the
country's irrigation systems, including lining canals and encouraging farmers
to adopt drip and spray irrigation, which use less water.
The
government also slashed cultivation of water-consuming crops, such as rice, and
threatened to fine farmers who grow such crops in areas not specified for its
cultivation.
President
Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said in televised comments late in July his government
allocated more than $62.5bn for investments to preserve water until 2037.
He
reiterated warnings that the Nile is "a matter of life" for Egypt and
acknowledged the anxiety gripping the country.
"I
am also concerned," he declared.
Rice prices
increase as exporters grapple with floods, coronavirus
Reuters BENGALURU
| Updated on August 21, 2020 Published
on August 21, 2020
Demand is huge
for Indian rice due to lower prices, but exports are getting affected by floods
and the coronavirus outbreak in Andhra Pradesh
India
rice prices rise as exporters grapple with floods, coronavirus
·
AUGUST
20, 2020 / 5:38 PM /
BENGALURU (Reuters) - Rice export
prices in top-hub India
edged higher this week as floods and surging coronavirus cases hammered supply
and export logistics.
A
worker carries boiled rice in a wheelbarrow to spread it for drying at a rice
mill on the outskirts of Kolkata, India, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Rupak De
Chowdhuri/Files
India’s 5% broken parboiled
variety rose to $383-$389 per tonne from last week’s $382-$387, with exporters
struggling to fulfil orders due to limited availability of containers and
workers at the country’s biggest rice handling port, Kakinada, in the state of
Andhra Pradesh.
“Demand is huge for Indian rice
due to lower prices, but exports are getting affected by floods and the
coronavirus outbreak in Andhra Pradesh,” said Nitin Gupta, vice president for
Olam India’s rice business.
With 2.84 million total COVID-19
cases, India is the worst-hit country in Asia and third only behind the U.S.
and Brazil in terms of the number of cases.
Floods in neighbouring Bangladesh
damaged rice crops worth 363.34 billion taka ($4.29 billion) on around 100,000
hectares, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque said.
Bangladesh, the world’s third
biggest rice producer, often relies on imports to cope with shortages caused by
floods and droughts.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s 5% broken
rice rates were unchanged at $480-$490 a tonne on Thursday, its highest since
late 2011.
“Supplies are thin as local
traders have increased their purchases recently and the summer-autumn harvest
has ended,” a trader based in Ho Chi Minh city said.
The return of the novel
coronavirus to Vietnam late last month has also prompted the hoarding of rice
domestically, the trader noted.
Traders expect prices to stay
elevated for the next few months until a new harvest in October.
Supply concerns also pushed
Thailand’s benchmark 5% broken rice prices up to $480-500, its highest since
July 2, from $465-$500 last week,
“It seems like the rice harvest
in the provinces will not be so great,” a Bangkok-based trader said.
Demand for Thai rice has remained
flat this week as prices were high, traders said.
(Refile to fix the spelling of Ho
Chi Minh city in eighth paragraph)
Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in
Mumbai, Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Khanh Vu in Hanoi and Patpicha Tanakasempipat in
Bangkok; editing by Arpan Varghese and Amy Caren Daniel
Our Standards:The Thomson
Reuters Trust Principles.
Why farmers are not cheering their exceptional
feat this kharif season
Highest rice acreage in six years, more farmers in farms, a
bounty monsoon and an expected bumper harvest don't enthuse farmers as their
earning dips
By Richard Mahapatra
Last
Updated: Wednesday 19 August 2020
It is a piece of news that everybody would love to cheer about,
except those who made this possible.
The current kharif season is exceptional. In comparison to last
year, over eight million more hectares of farms are under cultivation this
season.
There are more people engaged in cultivation now due to the huge
reverse migration of workers after the countrywide lockdown over the novel
coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Most of them are those who had quit
farming.
All types of crops have reported an increase in acreage. But the
increase in acreage of rice — the staple crop in kharif that sustains the
maximum number of farmers — is the highest in the last five years. The
monsoon is expected to be above normal.
To add to the cheer, the State Bank of India (SBI)’s latest
research report shows that the agriculture sector has been immune to the
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, this is the only major economic
sector that would witness a growth rate of three per cent this fiscal
year; the rest are going to shrink significantly.
Before this, to provide relief to farmers amid the countrywide
lockdown, the Union government increased the minimum support price (MSP) of 14
kharif crops on June 2, 2020.
Hopes float in the corridors of the finance ministry. Many have
started talking in terms of this fuelling the revival of the country’s economy,
if not this fiscal, then definitely in the next one.
Basically, it is premised on the belief that an increase in
agricultural yield will lead to more income; and this, in turn, would lead to
more consumption among rural Indians. So, the revival of the rural economy
would ultimately add on to the sluggish national economy.
But, as usual, farmers don’t seem to be jubilant. In recent
times, they don’t see a natural correlation between their physical yield from
farming and that of income from it. Rather, the more they produce, the
less they earn for their produce.
This is despite the consistent increase in demand for food in
the country. Immediately after the declaration of MSP, farmers were on streets,
demanding more assured prices, citing huge losses even with enhanced support
price.
India ranks second in agricultural production globally,
overtaking countries such as the United States, Russia and Brazil. But our
farmers’ per capita income from farming is negligible in comparison to these
countries.
According to a report by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation
Development and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Indian farmers
have lost Rs 45 lakh crore due to “non-proper” pricing of the product between
2000 and 2017. Even MSP, that the government pursues as the primary
support system to ensure fair price, covers just six-10 per cent of farmers.
This is also a concern for the political leadership as the
promise to double farmers’ income by 2022-23 is hardly 30 months away.
Arguably, this year would have been that springboard to catch up with the
target, given all favourable conditions.
By 2022-23, to achieve this target, a farmer’s annual income has
to be Rs 192, 694 (2015 price), from Rs 96, 703 in 2015-16. This needs a 10.4
per cent annual income growth till that target year, according to the government's
own estimate.
To achieve this growth rate, the current income ratio of a
farmer has to fundamentally change: The current 60:40 ratio of income from farm
and non-farm has to be turned into 70:30. But this involves a farmer increasing
his / her investment on farming by 12.5 per cent annual. This is possible if he
/ she earns enough to invest more.
And the government committee that recommended various ways to
double farmers’ income clearly said that the biggest challenge is to monetise
farmers’ produce, meaning to ensure more economic return. This has not been
possible. Rather, in the last five-six years, farmers are increasingly facing a
market glut.
If farmers from this exceptionally favourable year can’t earn,
it is going to be a troubling time for the country and also for the
government’s target to double farmers’ income. Going by the prevailing
situation, there is not much to be expected in terms of the government actually
ensuring a fair price for the expected bumper harvest in winter.
Its own stock of food grain is already too high to accommodate
further, thus curtailing its capacity to buy more at MSP. For the farmers, it
means another round of distress selling or even not being able to sell their
harvests. This is a loss in income as usual and an addition to its legacy debt
burden.
The SBI research estimates that due to the COVID-19
pandemic, the per capita loss for the whole of India is around Rs 27,000. This
is also for the farmers who would be incurring further losses this year due to
the market glut.
It is a scary climax to a seemingly milestone year for farmers.
And for those who hope a rural revival would lead to a national economic boom,
the same research report says that the rural revival would have not much impact
on the country’s gross domestic product as the urban population spends
more than the rural people on food and other commodities. And they are not
spending now due to loss in income.
Govt distributes 13,000 tonnes of rice among flood affected people
By City Desk
20th-Aug-2020
A total of 13, 000 tonnes of rice
has so far been distributed among the flood affected people across the
country. "The government has distributed a total of 13,000 tonnes of
rice among the flood hit people in 33 districts in the country," said an
official press release on Tuesday.
So far 19,510 tonnes of rice has been allocated and 12,948 tonnes of rice has
been distributed among the flood victim people of the country. The
government has also distributed Taka 2.94-crore cash among the flood victims
and Taka 1.05-crore has also been given for purchasing baby food till August
17, 2020, it said.
In addition to this, the district administrations have distributed more
1,41,842 packets of dry food among flood affected people. Besides, 400
bundles of corrugated iron sheet have been allotted and so far 100 bundles have
been distributed.
The government has opened 1,017 flood shelter centers in the flood prone areas
where 24,100 people have taken refuge. In the flood affected district, a
total of 866 medical teams have been formed where 241 of them are functioning.
The flood affected districts include Dhaka, Gazipur, Tangail, Manikganj,
Faridpur, Munshiganj, Gopalganj, Rajbari, Madaripur, Shariatpur, Kishoreganj,
Mymensingh, Netrokona, Jamalpur, Chandpur, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Brahmanbaria,
Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore, Sirajganj, Bogura, Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari,
Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Hobiganj and Sunamganj.
Farmers
fight to save output as floods, virus hit
Since mid-July, Huang Xiaoping
has been busy working in his 110-hectare paddy field, harvesting early rice and
sowing for the next season.
Huang also runs a rental business
involving farm machinery in a village near the Dongting Lake, China’s
second-largest freshwater lake ,in the central Hunan Province, helping local
farmers during the “double rush” season.
“We need to fight the current
flood and strengthen the embankments,” Huang said.
China’s Ministry of Emergency
Management said rain-triggered floods had affected some 54.8 million people in
27 provincial-level regions as of late July, causing direct economic losses of
144.43 billion yuan (US$20.8 billion).
Restrictions on food exports and
panic hoarding in some countries and regions, as well as rampant desert locust,
have adversely affected food production.
“The State of Food Security and
Nutrition in the World 2020” report released by five agencies, including the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, projected that
COVID-19 could push up to 132 million people into starvation globally this
year.
Although downpours and floods
destroyed vast stretches of farmland and agricultural facilities, flood control
situation in the hard-hit provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui is improving as the
water level in major waterways continues to recede.
The flood control and drought
relief headquarters of the two provinces have successively downgraded their
emergency response level since early August.
In the face of the floods, the
Chinese provinces have been mobilizing resources, using upgraded technology,
and providing material support to ensure grain security and make up for losses
in production.
Xinhua
Villagers
transplant rice seedlings in Gaitian Village in Lixian County, central China's
Hunan Province.
For farmers like Huang, time is
the essence. In the low-lying township of Liaonan near the Poyang Lake in
Jiangxi, Wu Baolin was busy sowing seeds of late rice with two workers. He saw
some two hectares of his crops damaged in the floods.
“The harvest is finally
guaranteed even if it might be delayed,” Wu said, adding that there is no time
to lose when it comes to growing crops.
In Anhui, replantation of
single-cropping rice has been carried out on every piece of farmland where the
floodwater has receded. As of early August, more than 100,000 hectares of crops
had been resowed, accounting for 38 percent of Anhui’s total area of farmland
needing replantation, according to the provincial department of agriculture and
rural affairs.
China’s total grain output
consists of three parts — early rice, summer grain and autumn production.
Summer grain is the first season of the annual grain production, which accounts
for more than a fifth of the annual output.
Various measures have been
adopted by authorities to ensure stable grain output amid efforts to control
the COVID-19 epidemic, such as fully implementing support policies like the
minimum purchase price for rice and wheat and improving the quality of spring
plowing.
As the world’s top food producer
and consumer, China saw its grain output reach a
HKSAR
LegCo session to start in mid-October: gov't gazette
1
The Legislative Council (LegCo)
of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will start its 2020-2021
session on October 14, according to the Gazette of the HKSAR government on
Friday.
HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam
announced the date in a statement following a decision of China's top
legislature earlier this month for the sixth HKSAR LegCo to continue performing
duties for no less than a year in a bid to address the vacancy caused by the
postponement of the LegCo election.
The election for the seventh-term
LegCo members of the HKSAR, originally scheduled for September 6, 2020, will be
put off for a year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Lam has said the decision of the
top legislature maintains the constitutional and legal order of the HKSAR and
ensures the normal governance of the HKSAR government and the normal operation
of society.
https://www.shine.cn/news/nation/2008194513/
Ensuring
national food security
|
|
Thursday, 2020-08-20
17:47:39 |
|
|
|
Font
Size: | |
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NDO – The Politburo recently
signed the promulgation of Conclusion No. 81-KL/TW on ensuring national food
security until 2030. |
|
Accordingly, the Politburo has
urged the Party Committees, Party organisations and authorities at all levels
to pay attention to directing localities and units to improve agricultural
land use efficiency and maintain 3.5 million hectares of rice land with
annual rice output at a minimum of 35 million tonnes, serving as the core in
ensuring national food security. In addition, the Politburo has
requested the effective use of the rice land fund with strict plans, as well
as the improvement of the lives and income of people in rural areas. It can be seen that ensuring food
security still remains one of Vietnam’s key priorities, particularly in the
context of a changing domestic and international situation like at present.
Specifically, Vietnam is one of the countries most affected by climate
change, natural disasters and extreme weather patterns (storms, floods,
droughts, extreme heat and extreme cold). Due to the impact of climate change
and rising sea levels, Vietnam’s agricultural sector is at risk of losing 7.2
million tonnes of rice and having 32.2% of agricultural land affected by the
end of the 21st century. If the average temperature increases by 10 degrees
Celsius, rice output will decrease by 10%, corn production down 5-20%, and
the demand for irrigation will surge by 10%. This will adversely affect food
production and threaten food security for the poor and near poor. Meanwhile,
global food demand has also expanded due to increased population, increased
per capita income and changes in diet. According to the United Nations, the
world’s population will increase from the current 7.5 billion people to about
10 billion by 2050, which also means agricultural production needs to grow by
70% to meet the population’s demand for food at that time. In the face of subjective and
objective conditions mentioned above, the task of ensuring national food
security has become extremely urgent, in which due attention must be paid to
rice, a strategic commodity with direction impacts on food security and
socio-economic stability. Together with maintaining 3.5 million hectares of
rice cultivation land, another big problem relates to improving the income
and lives of rice farmers. In recent years, the Party and State have issued
policies to support rice farmers. However, often times, farmers still suffer
when the rice price falls and even plunges to below the production cost,
causing losses for many farming households and driving them to abandon their
fields in some localities. Therefore, in order to
effectively implement Conclusion No. 81-KL/TW on ensuring national food
security until 2030, competent agencies will need to develop mechanisms and
policies to appropriately and effectively support farmers, thus helping bring
rice farming households into professional production households; encouraging
rice production in the form of connecting cooperatives with businesses and
associating production with processing, preservation and consumption; and
efficiently building large-scale fields and production areas with
geographical indications and market connections. In particular, preferential
policies should be effectively implemented to support farmers, cooperatives
and enterprises in successfully applying technological advances to move step
by step towards modernising the rice commodity industry, thus contributing to
ensuring food security and improving rice farmers’ income. |
https://en.nhandan.org.vn/business/item/8995902-ensuring-national-food-security.html
Bulletin
on the Output of Early Rice in 2020
National
Bureau of Statistics of China2020-08-20 09:30
National
Bureau of Statistics of China
August
19, 2020
According
to the sampling survey of early rice harvesting by on-site
measurement, the sown area, yield per unit area and total output of early rice
in China in 2020 are estimated as follows:
The
total sown areas of early rice was 4,751 thousand hectares (71,260 thousand
mu), which increased 300.7 thousand hectares (4,511 thousand mu) over last
year, and an increase of 6.8 percent.
The
yield per unit area of early rice was 5,745 kg/ha (383 kg/mu), decreased 157.3
kg/ha (10.5 kg/mu) over last year, with a drop of 2.7 percent.
The
total output of early rice was 27,290 thousand tons (54.6 billion jin),
increased 1,028 thousand tons (2.06 billion jin) over last year, with an
increase of 3.9 percent.
Output of Early Rice in 2020
|
Regions |
Sown Area (thousand hectares) |
Total Outputs (10,000 tons) |
Yield per Unit Area (kg) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
National
Total |
4750.7 |
2729.3 |
5745.0 |
|
|
Beijing |
|
|
|
|
|
Tianjin |
|
|
|
|
|
Hebei |
|
|
|
|
|
Shanxi |
|
|
|
|
|
Inner
Mongolia |
|
|
|
|
|
Liaoning |
|
|
|
|
|
Jilin |
|
|
|
|
|
Heilongjiang |
|
|
|
|
|
Shanghai |
|
|
|
|
|
Jiangsu |
|
|
|
|
|
Zhejiang |
101.2 |
62.8 |
6202.0 |
|
|
Anhui |
170.3 |
91.2 |
5355.3 |
|
|
Fujian |
97.7 |
62.2 |
6362.4 |
|
|
Jiangxi |
1217.5 |
646.7 |
5311.6 |
|
|
Shandong |
|
|
|
|
|
Henan |
|
|
|
|
|
Hubei |
122.4 |
68.3 |
5578.6 |
|
|
Hunan |
1225.7 |
718.7 |
5863.7 |
|
|
Guangdong |
869.1 |
518.5 |
5966.0 |
|
|
Guangxi |
805.2 |
476.8 |
5921.0 |
|
|
Hainan |
110.0 |
65.9 |
5989.5 |
|
|
Chongqing |
|
|
|
|
|
Sichuan |
|
|
|
|
|
Guizhou |
|
|
|
|
|
Yunnan |
31.5 |
18.3 |
5806.9 |
|
|
Tibet |
|
|
|
|
|
Shaanxi |
|
|
|
|
|
Gansu |
|
|
|
|
|
Qinghai |
|
|
|
|
|
Ningxia |
|
|
|
|
|
Xinjiang |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
Annotations:
Explanation on the Early Rice
Output Survey
1.
Survey Coverage
The
data released by NBS on the early rice output, were estimated from the sample
survey taking the province as the total population.
Sample
survey and on-site measurement conducted in the counties (cities) are organized
by the Survey Organizations of NBS at provincial level.
2.Survey
Sample
The
sample survey on early rice output consists of sown area sample survey and
yield per unit area sample survey.
The
sample survey on early rice sown areas is conducted in more than 3,000 sample
land segments selected in national survey counties (cities). The early rice
sown areas at province level is estimated based on the basic survey data.
The
survey on yield per unit area of early rice is estimated by on-site measurement, which is
conducted in the selected 20,000 small sample plots from almost 7,000 sample
land segments selected from survey villages in national survey counties
(cities).
3.
Output Measurement Method
The
on-site measurement refers to the investigators in the grass roots, before
harvesting, in accordance with System of Statistical Report for Agriculture,
Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery, stepping in the field and estimating
the output of planting land plots one by one, and ranking them by output, then
selecting a certain segment and marking them out. During harvesting period,
investigators of the survey organizations at county level or assistant
investigators will put sample and select sample on-site, and then estimate the
yield per unit area through threshing, drying, water-checking, weighting and
other steps on the selected land segments. The survey organizations at province
level estimate the provincial (municipal) average yield per unit area based on
the data from the selected land segments.
The
outputs of early rice are multiplied by the sown areas from sample survey and
the yield per unit area.
http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202008/t20200820_1784289.html
China's early rice production
increased 3.9 percent
8/19/2020 2:54:18 PM
(MENAFN)
On Wednesday August 19 the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated that
China's early rice production accounted a 3.9-percent increase in 2020
subsequent to seven uninterrupted years of refuse.
The production arrived at 27.29 million tons, up 1.03 million tons from 2019.
Li Suoqiang an official with the NB S stated that the steady increase in early
rice production was mostly because of a rush in the cultivation area, though
severe floods in parts of southern China led to a drop in per unit area give
way.
Li stated that a bumper summer crop and a boost in early rice manufacture laid
a solid base for steady crumb manufacture of the year
https://menafn.com/1100662155/Chinas-early-rice-production-increased-39-percent
$800 for a tonne of rice in the country - Dr Mahendra Reddy
Friday 21/08/2020
Minister for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy While opening the
Rice Field Day demonstration in Nawaicoba in Nadi.
Minister for Agriculture Dr
Mahendra Reddy has encouraged sugarcane farmers to complement their farm income
and set aside one or two acres of land for rice production since the price of
rice per tonne at the moment is $800.
While opening the Rice Field Day
demonstration in Nawaicoba in Nadi, Dr Reddy says that each acre of rice could
produce about 1.5 tonnes of paddy grain.
He says farmers need not worry
about its market as Fiji Rice Limited would purchase rice at farm gate prices.
The Minister says that the
Government wants to reduce the import bill for rice as on average Fiji imports
$46.2 million of rice per year.
He adds $46.2 million is going
out of the country in foreign currency, which means that US$20 million is going
out every year for imported rice.
Dr Reddy says that acquiring
24,000 acres of land for rice production would be possible if the 12,000
sugarcane farmers set aside two acres of land each as this would also make the
80-90 per cent self-sufficiency rate achievable.
Want to get more updates delivered to you?
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https://www.fijivillage.com/news/800-for-a-tonne-of-rice-in-the-country---Dr-Mahendra-Reddy-fr584x/
Next up: a phone powered by microbial wires?
1.
Elizabeth Pennisi
See
all authors and affiliations
Science 21 Aug 2020:
Vol. 369, Issue 6506, pp. 904
DOI: 10.1126/science.369.6506.904
Summary
The discoverers of electric
microbes have been quick to think about how these bacteria can be put to work.
One potential use is to detect and control pollutants. Cable microbes seem to
thrive in the presence of organic compounds, such as petroleum, so their
presence may reveal undetected pollution. They might also aid cleanup, not just
of organic compounds, but also nuclear waste. Electric bacteria are also giving
rise to new technologies. Some have been genetically modified with the goal of
making sensitive, wearable sensors. And fashioned into a film, nanowires also
generate electricity from the moisture in the air. Now that researchers have
coaxed a common lab and industrial bacterium, it should be easier for
researchers to mass produce the structures and explore these and other
practical applications.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6506/904
12:00 AM, August 21, 2020 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:07 AM, August 21, 2020
Great leader of soil and people
Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is seen wearing ‘mathal’ (a special hat) at a popular
folk programme ‘Gambhira song’ on January 10, 1973. Photo: www.mujib100. gov.bd
March 17, 1920. The river Madhumati
was flowing at her own will while its tributary Baigar has been alongside for
many years. The smell of Robi crop was all around in Tungipara. Sheikh family
heard the cry of a new born. It was the moment of arrival of the liberator of
(Bangalees) Bengalis, the people who were suppressed for ages. sGrowing up amid
the joys and sorrows of Madhumati, the farming families and changes of seasons,
this boy became a young man who always craved for emancipation. Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, who later became the ultimate leader of Bangladesh, brought us our
independence and gave birth to a country named Bangladesh. I went to Tungipara
in Gopalganj in March this year. Memories of the father of the nation were
everywhere. Struggle of marginalized, peasants, and labourers gave him the
impetus to enter politics when he was pretty young. The seed of politics and
will to work for people were sown inside during his student life. Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman was an incomparable name in mass communication, oration and
awakening the hardworking people in every corner of Bangladesh. If you go
through his autobiography, 'The Unfinished Memories' and the 'Diary in Jail',
you will get to know the depths of his mind, the landscape of his vision and
his passion for the Bengal and its people. It is a new challenge for the people
who have been deprived of land for many years. When day labourers of one
district used to go to the other to harvest paddy, they would return with some
paddies they received for their wages. They would carry those by boat. These
people were called 'Dawal'. The autocratic government people started blocking
the paddy boats of the Dawals and an announcement was made to confiscate the
paddy and the boat if the paddy was not deposited to the government storage.
Sheikh Mujib formed a movement on behalf of the Dawals and also awakened the
ordinary people on behalf of the peasants and labourers.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman played an
outstanding role in every noteworthy movements for the betterment of Bengal.
While Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Jabbar and many others sacrificed their life in the
Language Movement of 1952, Mujibur Rahman started a hunger strike at Faridpur
prison. Bangabandhu became the leader with pure inspiration, and hope and
aspiration of all the people residing in the then East Pakistan.
I saw an elderly farmer returning
home from his farm work in Tungipara. I requested him to share any memory of
Bangabandhu if it comes to his mind. "The government men were taking away
rice from my house as I was in debt. Hearing the news, Sheikh Mujib came
running and repaid the loan from his own pocket. After getting the money when
policemen were leaving the spot Bangabandhu told them from the back, "The
money has been paid, now you have to fix everything you have ruined." "Such
a brave and kind man he was," added the old man.
All that Bangabandhu did and said
was for the people of Bangladesh, especially the marginalized and the peasants.
He was always vocal. If we see the attendants of the March 7, 1971, speech of
Bangabandhu, we'll see most of them were ordinary people--farmers, labourers,
students and people from all walks of life, but a significant portion of them
was farmers. Farmers were at the forefront in the steps taken by Bangabandhu
during the Liberation War as well as after the independence of Bangladesh.
Bangabandhu thought very intensely about ensuring the constitutional rights of
the farmers.
Article 14 of the constitution of
Bangladesh states, "The main responsibility of the state is to liberate
the working people--peasants and workers and to liberate other backward groups
from all forms of exploitation." Article 16 of the constitution states,
"In order to wipe out the discrimination in living standards between urban
and rural people, he called for an agricultural revolution." He said,
"No matter how boastful we try to be, we must not forget, we all are
rooted in the soil and farming."
During his visits across the
nation, Bangabandhu drew attention to various issues like agricultural heritage
of different regions, condition of farmers, diversified crops and their
rotation. He reminded about the unique features of the soil of this country.
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu as the head of the government and head of the
state got only 1,314 days to rebuild independent Bangladesh. His visionary,
long-term and well-thought-out vision is in every aspect of Bangladesh's
development. During the post-liberated period in 1972, the production of food
grains in the country was 1.1 crore (11 million) tonnes. It was not enough for
7 crore (70 million) people during that time. The Bangabandhu government had
provided food subsidies for two years after independence to curb down the food
shortage. In the first five-year plan, more investment was made in mainstream
agriculture, irrigation and other input facilities. Cooperatives played an
essential role in Bangabandhu's agricultural development and food security. He
discussed his thoughts with eminent economists, university professors and many
other people from relevant fields. He took various initiatives to make the plan
up-to-date. He thought of a two-tiered cooperative. There has been much
research on his cooperative ideas. Active researchers and economists of that
time still carry that memory and strategies. Bangabandhu told everyone to become
a down-to-earth person so that people can contribute to the country in the best
manner possible.
His speech at the Bangladesh
Agricultural University on February 13 in 1973 provides a complete outline and
philosophy for agricultural production and food production. He urged the
agriculturists to go to the village. He said the gap between village and the
city should be bridged. He also mentioned that modern and mechanized
agriculture should be embraced. He also stressed on the issue that farmers
should be honoured and respected. In 1973, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute
was institutionalized through Act No 10. Initiatives for research of different
crops, except rice, were taken at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research
Institute. Horticulture Development Board, Cotton Development Board, Seed
Certification Agency, Rubber Development Programme, Bangladesh Agricultural
Development Corporation, Fisheries and Livestock Research Institute and
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, the highest body for research coordination
were reconstituted.
The ministry of jute was
established to expand the potential of the golden fibre of Bengal. Today,
Bangladesh's progress in agricultural development is appreciated and followed
all over the world. We are getting excellent benefits of Bangabandhu's dream
and initiatives. The world is amazed at the foresight of an undisputed leader.
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu is
in the heart of our farmers and evolution of the farming sector of Bangladesh.
Today, we're experiencing an extraordinary agricultural awakening. I have been
walking in rural Bangladesh for more than four decades. In the farmer's field,
I have seen many adverse conditions and hardships of the agrarian population. I
have also witnessed thousands, lakhs of people focus on agriculture with
confidence. This confidence comes from the great leader Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, whose motto was never to look back and fight back with what you
have. Most profound homage on the 45th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members.
https://www.thedailystar.net/country/news/great-leader-soil-and-people-1948449
Stem-cell capsules could help people recover from heart damage
Luke Dormehl
Digital TrendsAugust 20, 2020
Stem cells have
been shown to be promising as a treatment for heart disease. But that’s only
one part of solving the problem. Transplanted cells die after implantation due
to the hostile environment they find themselves in, including the patient’s own
immune system, which fights against the stem cells, even when they’re trying to
help.
Researchers from Rice University
and Baylor College of Medicine may have come up with an answer. They’ve
developed capsules which encase mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in a hydrogel
material made out of brown algae. This shielded approach protects the stem
cells from the host, while allowing them to perform the function of delivering
reparative proteins that are secreted by the cells.
“Alginate is a naturally occurring
polymer found in seaweed which can form a gel in presence of divalent
cations,” Omid Veiseh,
assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University,
told Digital Trends. “The material can be fabricated into spheres quite easily,
using reactions which are friendly to the cells we load into the capsules.
Alginate hydrogel formulations are quite prevalent in various medical products,
and are also used widely in the food industry. One such example is vegan
caviar. The unique aspect of our approach is that our [capsules] are formulated
using a version of alginate polymer we developed that is immunomodulatory.
These polymers have been chemically modified such that the body no longer
recognizes the material as foreign.”
Rice
University
More
The stem cell capsules have not yet
been demonstrated in humans. However, in a study carried out using rodents, the
stem cells were implanted next to wounded hearts using minimally invasive
techniques. Within a month, the heart healing was 2.5x greater in animals that
had been given the special shielded stem cells than it was in animals which had
not been given these stem cells.
“The next step is to further
develop the delivery strategy for how to get the shielded stem cell into
position on top of the heart using minimally invasive catheters. and further
validation in chronic heart failure models,” Ravi Ghanta, associate professor of surgery at Baylor
College of Medicine, told Digital Trends. “With further development and testing
this approach could be utilized in a variety of cell therapies for the heart.”
A paper describing the work
was recently published in the
journal Biomaterials Science.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stem-cell-capsules-could-help-185745514.html
ASIA
RICE-INDIA PRICES RISE AS EXPORTERS GRAPPLE WITH FLOODS, CORONAVIRUS
8/20/2020
* Floods in Bangladesh damage $4.29
bln worth of crops- minister
* Vietnamese rates to stay elevated
until October harvest- trader
* Demand for Indian rice still
high- analyst
By Nakul Iyer
BENGALURU, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Rice
export prices in top-hub India edged higher this week as floods and surging
coronavirus cases hammered supply and export logistics.
India's 5% broken parboiled variety
<RI-INBKN5-P1> rose to $383-$389 per tonne from last week's $382-$387,
with exporters struggling to fulfil orders due to limited availability of
containers and workers at the country's biggest rice handling port, Kakinada, in
the state of Andhra Pradesh.
"Demand is huge for Indian
rice due to lower prices, but exports are getting affected by floods and the
coronavirus outbreak in Andhra Pradesh," said Nitin Gupta, vice president
for Olam India's rice business.
With 2.84 million total COVID-19
cases, India is the worst-hit country in Asia and third only behind the U.S.
and Brazil in terms of the number of cases.
Floods in neighbouring Bangladesh
damaged rice crops worth 363.34 billion taka ($4.29 billion) on around 100,000
hectares, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque said.
Bangladesh, the world's third
biggest rice producer, often relies on imports to cope with shortages caused by
floods and droughts.
Meanwhile, Vietnam's 5% broken rice
<RI-VNBKN5-P1> rates jumped to $480-$490 a tonne on Thursday, its highest
since late 2011, from $470 last week.
"Supplies are thin as local
traders have increased their purchases recently and the summer-autumn harvest
has ended," a trader based in Ho Ci Minh city said.
The return of the novel coronavirus
to Vietnam late last month has also prompted the hoarding of rice domestically,
the trader noted.
Traders expect prices to stay
elevated for the next few months until a new harvest in October.
Supply concerns also pushed
Thailand's benchmark 5% broken rice <RI-THBKN5-P1> prices up to $480-500,
its highest since July 2, from $465-$500 last week,
"It seems like the rice
harvest in the provinces will not be so great," a Bangkok-based trader
said.
Demand for Thai rice has remained
flat this week as prices were high, traders said. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav
in Mumbai, Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Khanh Vu in Hanoi and Patpicha Tanakasempipat in
Bangkok; editing by Arpan Varghese and Amy Caren Daniel)
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020.
Click For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
Read more about
Uka Eje:
Access to Credit Remains Vital Factor for Scaling Agriculture
August 21, 2020 3:37 am
Uka
Eje
In March 2020 when the government
first imposed a total lockdown to minimise the spread of the
COVID-19, there was a panic among food growers because it was the start of a
new planting season. Even though essential workers were excluded from the
directive, Agric-tech entrepreneurs like Uka Eje, Co-Founder & CEO
of Thrive Agric, experienced logistical nightmares among others.
In this interview with Chiemelie Ezeobi, he maintains that until
smallholder farmers are well funded, Nigeria will not self-actualise
How did you get here? Give us an
insight into the journey so far
I come from Benue State. Being an
agrarian State a lot of farming activities happen there. While I
was young, I noticed that my parents sent a lot of food to their relatives
in the villages and for me that was absurd since I expected it to be the
other way round. I started asking a number of questions and I noticed the
reason was because farmers did not have all that they needed for farming. A lot
of the rural farmers lacked best advisory support,
best farming inputs and access to premium markets and this
limited their output upon harvest. This situation still prevails till
date among a lot of smallholder farmers.
You could have done anything
else; why agriculture?
Agriculture has the potential to
create immense impact on smallholder farmers and beyond these farmers,
agriculture has the ability to transform multiple value chains. For
instance, an increased production of paddy rice can lead to an increased
entry of rice millers and rice retailers. This is one way
that agriculture,by itself, has the power to open up multiple value
chains and transform rural and urban communities.
One of the steps you first took
was to build a supply chain for farmers in Northern Nigeria; how did that turn
out? How sustainable has it turned out to be?
It turned out pretty well. The
outcome of that has helped us to manage distribution of inputs
to smallholder farmers in clusters. On top of this, we have also been
able to build commodity distribution chains from farmers around
various communities, which have enabled us to build firm
relationships with food processing companies locally and internationally,
therebybringing value to these farmers.
You have been able to identify
three major challenges farmers face: finance, access to better inputs and
low yields because of insufficient data and a lack of access to premium
markets – what have you done with that knowledge?
This discovery was what made
us embark on the journey as a company. We started working with smallholder
farmers to give them access to finance, technology-enabled advisory and
accessto premium market. So far, we have provided this service to over 50,000
farmers in Nigeria.
As the Founder and CEO of
Thrive Agric, how have you bridged the funding gap since that seems to be
at the core of your derivatives?
Funding is a key factor to
scaling agriculture whether as individuals – like a smallholder farmer, or
collectively – as a corporate entity like Thrive Agric or a whole
nation. Access to credit remains fundamental to accessing premium seeds,
fertilizer and other farming inputs you can think of. Farmers need to be
able to concentrate on their job – farming – in order to achieve maximum
yields, and not worry about storage or access to market. By funding the sector
via ThriveAgric for instance, we are able to provide the farmers with
not just expert advisory but also these guarantees, linking them with needed
funding. These are people who otherwise aren’t included in the formal financial
services hence will not qualify for loans. One key thing we have been able
to do is to build a simple technology that links bank partners on-lend to
smallholder farmers. We also have a platform that connects individuals to
farmers for financing. We think it’s still early stage and there are so
many opportunities yet to be unlocked.
Why do you target small
holder farmers?
We believe that 80 per cent of
food production in Nigeria is largely done by small holder farmers. As a
company, we decided to expand the productivity of this 80 per cent
population because in doing so we can invariably increase the agriculture
potential of Nigerian and Africa. We believe that the smallholder
farmer, if properly advised and properly linked with market access, would
grow to large scale farmers in the coming years.
What are your high points so far?
The most exciting parts of this
journey is in seeing farmers who produced one tonne in a
hectare now being able to harvest four tonnes on the same
hectare, which represents 4X more value and increased economic prosperity
for them and their immediate community. These impacts make us see how our
contribution to every individual farmer has an impact on the grand scheme.
Any challenges? How has the
pandemic worsened or made the challenges easier?
One massive challenge was
the difficulty in moving goods from place to place. The announcement of
the initial lockdown coincided with the start of a planting season when we needed to
transport inputs from the manufacturers to farmer locations. There were a
number of restrictions moving these goods and what would take two days took a
lot more because of road blocks and access issues. We also experienced
issues with the closure of some of our primary input
producers further complicating our otherwise smooth system. The sum total of
these challenges limited the total number of farmers we could reach for the
season.
Knowing what you know now, would
you still venture down this path again?
Absolutely. Beyond
profits, I find venturing into agribusiness very exciting when I
consider many factors. Our involvement produces impacts that we can
see; impact ranging from higher crop yields for the farmers, better
standard of living and economic prosperity for the nation. It’s rewarding.
Where do you see yourself and
Thrive Agric in the near future?
In the next two years, 2023
to be exact, we plan to have provided these services to over a million
smallholder farmers in Nigeria and steer massive economic prosperity for them.
Africa is ripe for an agricultural revolution and I see
Thrive Agricleading that revolution through technology.
USITC
Shines Light on Impact of Residue Limits on Exports, Including Rice
WASHINGTON, DC -- Late last month, the U.S.
International Trade Commission (USITC) released a long-awaited first volume
report on the global economic impact of missing and low pesticide maximum
residue levels (MRL) on international agricultural trade. The USITC
solicited comments from across the U.S. agriculture industry, following a
request by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and focusing on the
financial toll that MRLs take on commodity export markets.
Both USA Rice and the California Rice Commission
provided comments to the USITC in December 2019, outlining concerns in several
countries where a lack of an MRL or low MRLs for crop protection tools used by
U.S. rice farmers has impacted U.S. rice exports. As pest pressures grow
with the introduction of new invasive species and pests continue to develop
resistance to several significant crop protectants, it has become increasingly
important to have access to a full menu of products deemed safe by U.S.
regulators and researchers.
In the U.S., crop protectants are registered and
residue limits are set by the Environmental Protection Agency following a
thorough, lengthy risk assessment process looking at effects on human, animal,
and environmental health. While this science-based process is cumbersome,
it has proven effective. The United Nations' Codex Alimentarius
Commission is also responsible for setting non-binding international standards,
using a science-based method and relying on significant research from around
the world.
"Unfortunately, many countries do not use
science-based risk assessments, nor do they defer to the U.S. or Codex
standards, leading to arbitrary limits based on social research instead of
science," said David Petter, Arkansas farmer and chair of the USA Rice
Regulatory Committee. "Japan, for example, tests U.S. rice and other
imports for nearly 600 chemicals, when we can account for just over 40 crop
protection products registered for rice use in the U.S."
The European Union is another market that is
notorious for setting arbitrarily low residue levels as a result of social
pressure from non-governmental organizations. These limits provide little
or no room for tolerance if a crop is affected by inadvertent drift from
neighbors or other factors outside of a U.S. farmer's control.
"We appreciate the USITC's inclusion of
input from USA Rice and the California Rice Commission in developing this
report, and we are looking forward to reviewing the second volume set to be
published early next year," said Petter. "As more countries
have joined the World Trade Organization and started reducing their tariffs and
opening their markets up, many countries have turned toward non-tariff barriers
like MRLs that inhibit the flow of imports, increasing the visibility of this
issue."
USA Rice submitted additional input for the
USITC's second volume of the report last month. The USITC reports will
ultimately be used as guidance for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
on the best actions to take on behalf of U.S. agricultural exports.
Golden Rice is 'trojan horse'
Stop Golden Rice
Network
| 19th August 2020 |
Independent Science News
Kervin Bonganciso/MASIPAG
Golden Rice will only strengthen the grip of corporations over
rice and agriculture, endangering agrobiodiversity and human health.
The push for corporate-led
solutions to hunger and malnutrition is alarming. In particular, Golden Rice is
now being proposed as a solution to the worsening hunger and malnutrition
associated with the pandemic.
Agrochemical transnationals
(TNCs) and collaborating institutions such as the International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) are using concerns over food security during the pandemic to
push for an industrial agricultural system that is already discredited.
According to Pesticide Action
Network (PAN) Asia Pacific, Jean Balie, IRRI’s head of Agri-Food Policy, has said
that they are “looking to increase the mineral and vitamin content in rice
grains” as a response to the pandemic, alluding to renewed promotion of the
genetically-modified Golden Rice, which has recently been approved for
commercialisation in Bangladesh and the Philippines.
Dangers
Golden Rice projects and
applications are currently underway in three countries. The Philippines’
Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI) issued a
Golden Rice permit for Direct Use for Food, Feed and Processing on 10
December 2019.
This was despite the standing challenge by
farmers, scientists and civil society groups regarding Golden Rice’s unresolved
safety and efficacy issues.
It was confirmed that Indonesia
rice research centre (BB Padi) had grown Golden Rice in their testing fields in
Sukamandi, West Java, in August 2019. But BB Padi is still awaiting permission
from Indonesia’s biosafety clearing house for confined field testing in
selected areas.
In Bangladesh, rumours have
circulated that Golden Rice would be approved by the Biosafety Core Committee
under the environment ministry last November 15, 2019. While there have been no
specifics yet, proponents are optimistic that approval in Bangladesh will
occur.
We, the Stop Golden Rice Network
(SGRN), believe that Golden Rice is an unnecessary and unwanted technology
being peddled by corporations purely for their profit-making agenda. Golden
Rice will only strengthen the grip of corporations over rice and agriculture
and will endanger agrobiodiversity and peoples’ health as well.
Therefore, farmers, consumers and
basic sectors have been campaigning against the propagation and
commercialization of Golden Rice since the mid-2000s, utilizing various forms
and actions, including the historical uprooting of Golden Rice field trials
back in 2013.
Malnutrition
The importance of rice in Asian
countries cannot be understated. Ninety percent of rice is produced
and consumed in Asia. Rice is at the center of the social, cultural and
economic activities of peoples across Asia. It is also a political commodity as
rice is the staple food for a majority of the Asian population.
Asian countries such as the
Philippines, Indonesia, and India are centers of origin of more than 100,000
varieties of rice. Also considered as among the most biodiverse countries in
the world, a wide array of vegetables, fruits, root crops and cereals abound in
the farms and forests of these countries, ensuring a dependable source of
nutrition for the families and the communities.
Yet, malnutrition is prevalent,
particularly among children and women. This is not simply because of the
absence of an important nutrient or vitamin. It is caused by the “lack of
access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food” due to poverty, and changing
food production and consumption patterns.
This impact is seen in IRRI’s
Green Revolution wherein many farmers across Asia have become bound to the
expensive inputs and seeds peddled by huge agrochemical TNCs who promote a
single-crop diet. As a result of green revolution, white rice has become
dominant in once very diverse Asian diets; but white rice has a high glycemic
index which causes diabetes and 60 percent of global diabetes cases are in
Asia.
Packing more nutrients, like
Vitamin A, in rice, which requires more rice consumption would make this worse.
Especially with the new pandemic for which diabetes is considered a risk factor
for severity of Covid-19.
Insecurity
The United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) identifies the dominance of large
corporations over food systems as among the factors that contribute to food
insecurity and malnutrition.
In developing countries, large
tracts of agricultural lands are being converted either to industrial and
commercial land uses, or to large-scale mono-cropped plantations of cash crops
such as pineapples, palm oil and bananas that hardly serve the nutrition needs
of the people.
FAO further acknowledges that the
changes in food systems and diets, such as the prevalence of highly-processed
foods and displacement of traditional foods and eating habits also contributes
to the worsening trend of food insecurity and malnutrition.
Given this context, we assert
that Golden Rice is simply a ‘band-aid’ solution to the wide, gaping wound of
hunger and poverty. Worse, the issues that continue to hound Golden Rice
further prove the point that it is unnecessary and unwanted
The worsening land-grabbing and
land conversion cases, liberalization of agricultural commodities and
increasing control of corporations over agriculture and food, however, are
preventing farmers and their communities from having access to these safe and
nutritious foods.
Trojan horse
In developing countries the
challenges described above remain the main culprit of food insecurity and
malnutrition. Both the development of biofortified crops like Golden Rice for
solving health issues and corporate led projects in agriculture as ways to
ensure food security represent a worrisome push for top-down and anti-diversity
approaches to food and health that will ultimately undermine people’s
capacities to strengthen their local food systems.
By emphasizing dependence on just
a few market-based crops biofortification actually promotes a poor diet with
little nutritional diversity
Golden Rice is a failed and
useless product, and that is why we continue to resist and oppose it. Time and
again, huge agrochemical companies, philanthrocapitalists and pseudo-public
agencies have done everything in their power to deny the people’s right to
participate in decisions about their food and agriculture.
Already, zinc and iron GM rice
and thirty other GM rice are in the pipeline, with Golden Rice serving as the
Trojan Horse to lure the people into social acceptance and false security.
Diet
More than resisting the release
of Golden Rice however, we are pushing for safer, better and healthier
alternatives to addressing VAD and other malnutrition issues.
VAD and other malnutrition
problems can be mitigated and addressed by having a diverse diet. Nutrition
does not need to be an expensive commodity, nor rely on advanced technology.
We believe that instead of
pushing Golden Rice and biofortifying crops through genetic modification,
governments should promote biodiversity in farms and on tables by supporting
safe, healthy and sustainable food production.
We are also calling on
governments to pay attention to the needs of our food producers, including
facilitating access to lands to till, appropriate technologies and an
agriculture policy that will promote and uphold the people’s right to food and
the nations’ food sovereignty.
This Author
Members of the Stop Golden Rice
Network (SGRN) include:
AGRA (Alliance of Agrarian Reform
Movement), Indonesia
APC (Asian Peasants Coalition)
APVUU (Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union), India
BAFLF (Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation), Bangladesh
Bangladesh Krishok Federation, Bangladesh
BINA DESA, Indonesia
CENDI (Community Entrepreneur Development Institute), Vietnam
Consumers Union of Japan, Japan
GM Free India Coalition, India
GRAIN
HEAD (Health Action for Democracy), Philippines
KMP (Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas), Philippines
Labour Resource Center (LRC), Bangladesh
MASIPAG (Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura),
Philippines
MONLAR, Sri Lanka
Narasimha Reddy Donthi, Telangana, India
NWFA (National Women Farmers and Workers Association), Bangladesh
ORRISSA (Organization for Rural Reconstruction and Integrated Social Services
Activities), India
PAN Phils (Pesticide Action Network-Phils)
PANAP (Pesticide Action Network-Asia Pacific)
Peoples Coalition on Food Sovereignty, Global
PNSFP (Philippine Network for Food Security Programs)
RESIST! Agri-TNCs Network, Philippines
Save Our Rice Network, India
SERUNI (National Women’s Alliance), Indonesia
SHISUK (Shikha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram), Bangladesh
SIBAT (Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya), Philippines
SPFT (Southern Peasants Federation of Thailand), Thailand
SRD (Center for Sustainable Rural Development), Vietnam
TFIP (Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples Rights)
THANAL, India
Save Our Rice campaign, India
Women’s Development Federation (WELIGEPOLA), Sri Lanka
https://theecologist.org/2020/aug/19/golden-rice-trojan-horse
Reminder: Register now for UC ANR
California Rice Virtual Field Day
Time is running out to register for the California Rice Virtual
Field Day, which will be held on August 26, from 1 pm to 3 pm.
Here’s a link to register. The registration
fee is $20.
The UC Cooperative Extension and
California Rice Research Station will provide the latest information on variety
development, disease and arthropod management, weed control, weedy rice, and
fertility.
The full agenda is available here.
Here are contacts for more
information:
Logistics and Registration: Rachel Palmer, ANR
Program Support Unit, 530-750-1361.
Course Content: Whitney Brim-DeForest, UC ANR County
Director, Sutter and Yuba Counties and CE Rice and Wild Rice Advisor.
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INDUSTRY
NEWS • AUGUST 19, 2020
In Memory: Dennis Lindberg
We extend our condolences to the family and friends of Dennis
“Denny”
Lindberg, who passed away August 14, at the age of 96 after a brief
illness. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte, daughter Sherry Lindberg
and husband Ed Gilbertson; son Gary Lindberg and his wife Linda; Linda’s
daughter Dawn and husband Steve Wicklander, and their son, Bryce.
Denny was passionate about many things, including rice farming
and his community of Richvale. He grew rice for more than 75 consecutive
seasons, chaired the group that wrote the book, “Richvale: A Legacy of Courage,
Dedication and Perseverance,” and provided written and video blogs for the
California Rice Commission. Denny was also well-known for his scrap metal
animal sculptures, which can be seen throughout the Richvale area. His civic
work and love of community was evidenced by his being honored as “Outstanding
Citizen of the 20th Century” by Lundberg Family Farms.
“It was always pleasurable to work with and interact with
Denny,” said Mark Kimmelshue of the Associated Rice Marketing Cooperative in Richvale.
“His support of and positive outlook for the California Rice Industry set an
example for others and demonstrated his devotion to the industry and community
he loved.”
No services are planned beyond private burial due to present
restrictions. Memorial contributions can be made to the Community
Foundation of Richvale, care of Carl Hoff at BUCRA, P.O. Box 128, Richvale,
California 95974; the Rice Research Trust, P.O. Box 3-6, Biggs, California
95917; or a favorite charity.
Registration Open for UC ANR California Rice Virtual Field Day
Mark your calendar for the California Rice Virtual Field Day,
which will be held on August 26, from 1 pm to 3 pm.
Here’s a link to register. The registration
fee is $20.
The UC Cooperative Extension and California Rice Research
Station will provide the latest information on variety development, disease and
arthropod management, weed control, weedy rice, and fertility.
The
full agenda is available here.
Here are contacts for more
information:
Logistics and Registration:
Rachel Palmer, ANR Program Support Unit, 530-750-1361.
Course Content: Whitney Brim-DeForest, UC
ANR County Director, Sutter and Yuba Counties and CE Rice and Wild Rice
Advisor.
Industry News: Increased global mortality linked to arsenic
exposure in rice-based diets
Rice is the
most widely consumed staple food source for a large part of the world’s
population
04 Aug 2020
Rice is the most widely consumed
staple food source for a large part of the world’s population. It has now been
confirmed that rice can contribute to prolonged low-level arsenic exposure
leading to thousands of avoidable premature deaths per year.
Arsenic is well known acute
poison, but it can also contribute to health problems, including cancers and
cardiovascular diseases, if consumed at even relatively low concentrations over
an extended period of time.
Compared to other staple foods,
rice tends to concentrate inorganic arsenic. Across the globe, over three
billion people consume rice as their major staple and the inorganic arsenic in
that rice has been estimated by some to give rise to over 50,000 avoidable
premature deaths per year.
A collaborating group of
cross-Manchester researchers from The University of Manchester and The
University of Salford have published new research exploring the relationship,
in England and Wales, between the consumption of rice and cardiovascular
diseases caused by arsenic exposure.
Their findings, published in the
journal Science of the Total Environment, shows that - once corrected for the
major factors known to contribute to cardiovascular disease (for example
obesity, smoking, age, lack of income, lack of education) there is a
significant association between elevated cardiovascular mortality, recorded at
a local authority level, and the consumption of inorganic arsenic bearing rice.
Professor David Polya from The
University of Manchester said: “The type of study
undertaken, an ecological study, has many limitations, but is a relatively
inexpensive way of determining if there is plausible link between increased
consumption of inorganic arsenic bearing rice and increased risk of
cardiovascular disease.
Professor Polya from The
University of Manchester said: “The study suggests that
the highest 25 % of rice consumers in England and Wales may plausibly be at
greater risks of cardiovascular mortality due to inorganic arsenic exposure
compared to the lowest 25 % of rice consumers.
“The modelled increased risk is
around 6 % (with a confidence interval for this figure of 2 % to 11 %). The
increased risk modelled might also reflect in part a combination of the
susceptibility, behaviours and treatment of those communities in England and
Wales with relatively high rice diets.”
While more robust types of study
are required to confirm the result, given many of the beneficial effects
otherwise of eating rice due to its high fibre content, the research team
suggest that rather than avoid eating rice, people could consume rice
varieties, such as basmati, and different types like polished rice (rather
whole grain rice) which are known to typically have lower inorganic arsenic
contents. Other positive behaviours would be to eat a balanced variety of
staples, not just predominately rice.
The lead author, Ms Lingqian Xu,
is a President's Doctoral Scholarship Award recipient from the University of
Manchester and supervised by Professor David Polya (The University of
Manchester) and Dr Debapriya Mondal (University of Salford). Mr Qian Li is a
former Masters of Pollution and Environmental Control (MPEC) student from The
University of Manchester.
Xi Focus: China uses technology to secure
harvests amid floods
Source:
Xinhua| 2020-08-20 23:02:36|Editor: huaxia
HEFEI, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the
Communist Party of China Central Committee, has visited flood-stricken
residents in east China's Anhui Province.
While visiting Funan County in the city of Fuyang, Xi checked
the water situation of the Huaihe River and learned about local measures for
flood control, disaster relief and post-flood production recovery. He also
visited and consoled those affected by floods.
As floods have basically receded, local farmers in Anhui have
resumed farming to secure a bumper harvest in autumn, with the help of
agricultural technology.
Twenty-five-year-old Xi Wei manages an 87-hectare rice farm in
the city of Wuhu. Every day he rides an electric bicycle to learn the growth of
rice seedlings. From time to time, he stops for a quick check on soil conditions
-- on his smartphone.
The farm is on the banks of the Zhanghe River, a tributary of
the Yangtze River. It is a "smart" agricultural demonstration project
initiated in 2018 by Zoomlion Agriculture Machinery Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of
Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd., one of China's
leading high-tech equipment manufacturers.
An app in his phone provides information about soil moisture and
temperature. Sensors in the fields monitor the soil conditions around the clock
and relay the readings to him via WiFi.
Xi Wei just checked the moisture of the soil in the paddy
fields.
"It is necessary to drain all the water in the fields so
that the permeability of soil can be increased, and the roots of the seedlings
can grow deeper," he said.
Since the launch of the project, the company has installed many
high-tech devices in the fields, such as soil sensors and insect-monitoring
lamps. The data collected by these devices will be transmitted simultaneously
by the Internet of Things (IoT) to smartphones and computers.
Despite the rare floods since mid-June, the rice seedlings in
the fields have not been affected much because of the equipment embedded here.
"The information-driven rice planting is the primary
feature of our fields. Meteorological stations, soil sensors, insect-monitoring
lamps, and the IoT are cutting-edge tools we use to cope with natural disasters
and mitigate losses," said Xi Wei.
The project also uses satellite navigation technology to level
the fields to increase yield of rice.
"With the help of the global navigation satellite system,
the machine levels the fields with an average error of less than 3 cm for each
patch," said Xi Wei, adding that the result was impossible for the
traditional farming machines.
With constantly improving flood prevention systems, water
conservancy infrastructure and mechanization over the past few years, major
grain producers in China have upgraded their capabilities in countering natural
disasters.
China attaches great importance to food security. President Xi
Jinping has spoken of the issue on many occasions. Grain production, with
farmland as the fundamental element, is supported by water conservancy systems,
facilitated by science and technology, and driven forward by policies. Issues
relating to these key points must be addressed earnestly and properly to attain
breakthroughs in grain production, he has said.
China issued a guideline regarding advancing the development of
agricultural high-tech industry demonstration zones in 2018, highlighting the
importance of technology in modernizing agriculture and the role of
demonstration zones in spearheading the efforts.
The country has been promoting key technologies in agriculture,
such as high-yield hybrid rice varieties developed by Yuan Longping, the
"father of hybrid rice," and the wide use of smart farming machinery.
The application of agricultural science and technology has
played a positive role in increasing grain output. In 2018, the contribution of
scientific and technological progress to agriculture reached 58.3 percent, an
increase of 42.8 percentage points from 15.5 percent in 1996, according to a
white paper titled "Food Security in China" issued last year.
As the world's top food producer and consumer, China saw its
grain output reach a record high of 664 million tonnes last year, the 16th
bumper year in a row. The country's summer grain output reached a historic high
of 142.81 million tonnes this year, up 0.9 percent from last year, according to
the National Bureau of Statistics.
In addition to the improved infrastructure, Anhui has also been
mobilizing resources and using upgraded technology to ensure grain security,
and make up for losses from flood and other natural disasters.
In Funan County, Kang Guoping was busy shoveling up the ditches
to clear the remaining floodwater in his farmland, ready to plant sweet potato
seedlings distributed by the local government.
The flooding is unlikely to cause a sharp decrease in grain
production since the reinforced dikes and embankments along the Yangtze River
have made farmlands safer, said Wu Liquan, a professor at Anhui Agricultural
University.
Improved irrigation and drainage facilities, coupled with
advanced agricultural technologies, have further improved safety, according to
Wu.
"I'm looking forward to a bumper harvest this year as my
paddy fields have become more disaster-resistant, with the improved water
conservancy facility and smart farming technology," said Xi Wei. Enditem
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-08/20/c_139305967.htm
House panel OKs
bill creating the Bataan Rice Research and Development Center
Published August 21, 2020, 8:57 AM
The House Committee on Agriculture and Food
has passed a bill seeking the creation of the Bataan Rice Research and
Development Center, which seeks to assist rice farmers in producing and
marketing rice-based products.
MANILA BULLETIN
FILE PHOTO
The panel, chaired by Quezon 1st District
Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga approved the amended House Bill No. 4626,
principally authored by Bataan 1st District Rep. Geraldine Roman during its
recent virtual meeting.
“HB 4626 aims to establish a Rice Research
Development Centre in the first district of Bataan. The original idea is to
establish it in a town of Dinalupihan, after consultations with the president
and members of the College of Agriculture of the Bataan Peninsula State
University, I have decided and I am proposing for your consideration to amend
the bill to rename it as Bataan Rice Research and Development Center to be
located in the Abucay campus of the Bataan Peninsula State University,” Roman
said in her sponsorship speech.
She said the Abucay campus of the state
university is solely dedicated to students of agriculture.
“The idea is basically there will be
research on how to develop rice derivatives and also teach our farmers. We will
have laboratories there,” the House leader said.
“Bataan Peninsula State University, through
its president, has expressed its excitement over this recent development.”
During the virtual deliberation on the
bill, Philippine Rice Research Institute ( PhilRice) Executive Director John de
Leon said they do not have disagreement with Roman’s proposal, but he suggested
that PhilRice be considered as one of the agencies that “will collaborate” with
the proposed Center.
HB 4626 seeks to help rice farmers augment
their income by promoting and assisting them in the manufacture and marketing
of rice-based products.
Roman said among the duties and functions
of the proposed Center are to integrate, collate, and support research,
programs and studies on rice-based product development and marketing; conduct
continuing research on rice-based product development; undertake research and
generate relevant, efficient, cost effective and scientifically viable
approaches to achieve greater sustainability in rice-based product development;
impart technical knowledge and train rice farmers on rice-based product
development; and upgrade the entrepreneurial skills of rice farmers through
training courses, seminars, and workshops.
She said the Center is also expected to
collaborate with national, regional, and international research institutions
with knowledge and expertise on rice-based product research and development. It
shall coordinate with local government units, non-government organisations, and
private sector groups and interests involved in rice-based product development,
she added.
Roman said the Center is also tasked to
facilitate access to loans to establish and operate a rice-based product
development business, and encourage the creation of farmer cooperatives to
achieve efficiencies in rice-based product development, better qualify for
business loans, and boost marketing initiatives.
“It shall also receive and manage grants,
aid, donations, or any kind of assistance or gratuity from donors, foreign or
domestic, to better achieve the Center’s objectives,” she said.
Under the bill, the Center will be headed
by an Executive Director who shall be appointed by the President of the
Philippines upon the recommendation of the Secretary of the Department of
Agriculture (DA)
The Executive Director shall be a
recognized agriculturalist with extensive experience in rice-based product
research and development or a highly regarded entrepreneur in the field.
HB 4626 provides that the amount necessary
for the implementation of the proposed Act shall be charged affairs the
appropriations of the DA. Thereafter, the required budget for the continued
implementation of the proposed Act shall be submitted to the Department of
Budget and Management (DBM) for inclusion in the General Appropriations Act
(GAA).
The DA Secretary shall issue the
implementing rules and regulations of the proposed Act within 60 days from its
effectivity.
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