Wednesday, September 16, 2020

15th & 16th September 2020 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter

Climate change could increase rice yields

American Society of Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America, Crop Science Society of America

Rice is the most consumed staple food in the world. It is especially common in Asia, where hunger concerns are prevalent.

Rice is classified as an annual plant, which means it completes its life cycle within one growing season then dies. However, in some tropical areas, rice can continue to grow year after year when taken care of properly.

Just as grass grows back in a lawn after it is mowed, rice can be cut after it is harvested, and the plant will regrow. The farming practice of cutting the rice above ground and allowing it to regrow is called ratooning.

Although Rice ratooning allows farmers to harvest more rice from the same fields, it requires a longer growing season compared to traditional single-harvest rice farming.

In many areas of the world where rice is grown, a long growing season isn’t a problem due to the tropical climates. But in Japan, cooler weather means rice ratooning has been a rare farming practice.

Hiroshi Nakano and a research team set out to learn more about the potential of ratooning to help Japanese rice farmers. Nakano is a researcher at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization.

Average temperatures in Japan have been higher in recent years. As climate change continues to affect the region, rice farmers may have a longer window for growing rice. “Rice seedlings will be able to be transplanted earlier in the spring, and farmers can harvest rice later into the year,” explains Nakano.

“The goal of our research is to determine the effects of harvest time and cutting height of the first harvest on the yield of the first and second rice crops,” says Nakano. “Ultimately, we want to propose new farming strategies to increase yield as farmers in southwestern Japan adjust to climate change.”

During the study on rice ratooning, researchers compared two harvest times and two cutting heights of the first crop. After the first harvest, they collected the seeds from the cut off portions of the rice plants. Researchers measured the yield by counting and weighing the seeds. The second harvest of rice was done by hand and the yield was determined in the same way.

The total grain yield and the yields from the first and second crops were different depending on the harvest times and cutting heights. This wasn’t too surprising, since the team already knew harvest time and height affected yield.

Rice plants harvested at the normal time for the first crop yielded more seed than the rice plants harvested earlier. “That’s because the plants had more time to fill their spikelets with seed,” explains Nakano.

“At both harvest times, rice harvested at the high cutting height had a higher yield than the low cutting height,” says Nakano. That’s because the plants cut at a higher height had access to more energy and nutrients stored in their leaves and stems.

“Our results suggest that combining the normal harvest time with the high cutting height is important for increasing yield in rice ratooning in southwestern Japan and similar climate regions,” says Nakano. “This technology will likely increase rice grain yield in new environments that arise through global climate change.”

Learn more about this research in Agronomy Journal. This work was supported by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO).

American Society of Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America, Crop Science Society of America: Collectively, these Societies represent more than 12,000 individual members around the world. The scientists' memberships build collaborating partnerships in the agronomy, crops, and soils science fields for the advancement of knowledge.

https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2020/09/15/climate-change-could-increase-rice-yields/5804043002/

DirtWork Alert: Satellite Imagery AI/ML Predicts 1 in 3 Permian Basin Oil Wells before Permits

DirtWork Alert satellite imagery predicts Permian Basin oil wells before drilling permits

Posted: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 9:01 am

Associated Press |

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 15, 2020--

Sourcewater, Inc., the technology leader in upstream energy and water intelligence, released its white paper, “Permian Basin Well Pads versus Drilling Permits for Predicting New Drilling.” The research, led by a Rice University research scholar, analyzed 12,854 Permian Basin oil and gas wells to measure the time and probability relationships between drilling permits, new drilling events and oilfield well pads detected in Sourcewater’s patented DirtWork Alert™ satellite imagery AI/ML analytics service.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200915005483/en/

DirtWork Alert satellite imagery predicts Permian Basin oil wells before drilling permits (Graphic: Business Wire)

Key findings include that 1 in 5 Texas drilling permits and only 1 in 2 New Mexico permits were ever drilled. At the same time, satellite imagery detection of well pad construction predicted fully one-third of all drilled wells on median almost three months ahead of any drilling permit filing. Moreover, drilling permits paired with satellite-detected well pads were far more likely to be drilled than permits without a well pad, in about half the time of permit without a pad.

“Traditional energy intelligence relies on regulatory records such as drilling permits and completion reports,” said Sourcewater Founding CEO Josh Adler. “These public data are self-reported, often late, missing or erroneous, and do not even attempt to track some of the most important energy activities on the ground. Sourcewater is pioneering AI/ML analysis of satellite imagery to identify energy activity that never shows up in regulatory data, or shows up too late to matter. We contextualize those results in the best data gathering, analytics and geospatial visualization platform in the industry to show upstream energy activity earlier and better than any other source. In a tough time for our industry, we are applying all our creativity, technology and perseverance to give our clients an edge.”

To get a free copy of the White Paper, visit: https://info.sourcewater.com/permian-dirtwork-white-paper

About Sourcewater

Sourcewater, Inc., ( www.sourcewater.com ) an MIT spinout based in Houston, Texas, is the technology leader in upstream energy and water intelligence. Sourcewater gathers, analyzes and visualizes satellite imagery, regulatory data and subsurface insights to show oilfield activity earlier, more completely and more accurately than any other source. The company has been granted nine U.S. patents.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200915005483/en/

CONTACT: Camille Alfaro, Director of Marketing

P: +1 (713) 909-4664

E:camille@sourcewater.com

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA TEXAS

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: OIL/GAS SATELLITE ENERGY DATA MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY

SOURCE: Sourcewater, Inc.

PUB: 09/15/2020 10:00 AM/DISC: 09/15/2020 10:01 AM

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200915005483/en

Tanzania, Pakistan Set to Address Trade Imbalance in Diplomatic Ties

15 SEPTEMBER 2020

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

By Hilda Mhagama

TANZANIA and Pakistan plan to establish bilateral business council to strengthen commercial ties and cooperation that will accelerate trade between the two countries and reduce trade imbalance.

According to Pakistan High Commissioner to Tanzania, Mr Muhammad Saleem, trade volume between both countries stands at 154 million US dollars in 2019/2020 and can only grow if economic ties are strengthened.

To reach this goal, it is important to focus not only on trade but also on investment in key sectors such as agriculture, mining and oil and gas, the reason why Pakistan and Tanzania are in talks to support the establishment of the council, Mr Saleem added.

Speaking during the Pakistan- Tanzania business conference in Dar es Salaam over the weekend, he said trade volume between two countries was not satisfactory was in November 2020, they will facilitate a Tanzania business delegation to visit their country and explore untapped opportunities available.

Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA), President, Mr Paul Koyi said the council will comprise 15 people whereby during the trip they will also sign Memorandum of Understanding with Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) to facilitate trade between the two countries.

"We need to increase trade with Pakistan as the current status is not good, we have a clear move to empower our tea growers to add value to their products as there is an opportunity to export tea in their market," he explained.

Carried under the theme 'Partnership for Shared Prosperity' the conference was co-hosted by TCCIA and high commission for Pakistan in Tanzania were businesspeople from both countries met and discussed hindrance of smooth trade.

Pakistan's export in goods and services in 2019/2020 valued at USD 69.8 million while imports from Tanzania valued USD 85 million.

Pakistan major exports include textiles, linens, tents, woven cotton fabric, furniture, rice, machinery parts and accessories.

Main imports from Tanzania were raw cotton, tea, dry fruits, cloves, hides, groundnuts, beans, chickpeas, Arabic gum and wattle extract.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Minister Plenipotentiary, Mr Luangisa Francis said there was no balance of trade between the two countries.

Mr Francis said statistics from Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) indicate that exports from Tanzania to Pakistan rose from 39bn/- in 2015 to 69bn/- in 2019 and imports from Pakistan rose to 90bn/- in 2019 from 80bn/- in 2015.

TanTrade, Acting Director for Business Development, Mr Boniface Ngowi, said they are charged with the mandate of spearheading trade development in the country and find markets for all products produced in Tanzania.

"Tanzania has not explored the Pakistan export opportunities thus there is no balance of trade, we are also calling on Pakistan businesspeople to come and invest in Tanzania as there is a conducive investment and trade environment," he said.

The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) indicate potential exists in enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries.

The key export item around the globe is textiles which can be improvised through effective bilateral talks and measures.

Successful improvement of the catalytic activity of photosynthetic CO2 fixing enzyme Rubisco

Date:

September 15, 2020

Source:

Kobe University

Summary:

A research group have succeeded in greatly increasing the catalytic activity of Rubisco, the enzyme which fixes carbon from carbon dioxide in plant photosynthesis. The research team also hypothesized the mechanism which determines the enzyme's catalytic activity. In the future, it is hoped that increasing the photosynthetic ability of agricultural crops will lead to improved yields.

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FULL STORY

A research group consisting of Associate Professor FUKAYAMA Hiroshi (Kobe University, Graduate School of Agricultural Science) and Professor MATSUMURA Hiroyoshi (Ritsumeikan University) et al. have succeeded in greatly increasing the catalytic activity of Rubisco (*1), the enzyme which fixes carbon from CO₂ in plant photosynthesis. The research team also hypothesized the mechanism which determines the catalytic activity of Rubisco, based on structural analysis of the proteins.

In the future, it is hoped that increasing the photosynthetic ability of agricultural crops will lead to increased yields.

These results were published in the international scientific journal Molecular Plant on August 31.

Main Points

Photosynthesis determines a plant's growth rate. The low activity of the enzyme Rubisco, which is the catalyst for the reaction that turns CO₂ into organic carbon, limits the rate of photosynthesis.
Rubisco consists of two types of protein; large subunits (RbcL) and small subunits (RbcS). RbcS is an important factor for determining the speed of the catalyst.
A hybrid Rubisco consisting of rice RbcL and sorghum RbcS demonstrated a catalytic rate that was approximately 2 times higher than that of rice Rubisco. This is believed to be the first time in the world that such a large increase in Rubisco activity has been achieved.
The 102 amino acid found inside RbcS is isoleucine in rice and leucine in sorghum. Analysis of the protein structures indicated the possibility that the difference in amino acid type could affect the catalytic activity.
It is hoped that the method to improve photosynthesis demonstrated in this study could be applied to many other crops which, like rice, have low Rubisco activity such as wheat, soybean and potato.

Research Background

Growth speed in plants is mainly determined by photosynthetic ability. Thus improving photosynthesis in agricultural crops can increase their yield. In photosynthesis, Rubisco is an enzyme that acts as the initial catalyst for the reaction which turns CO₂ into organic carbon. However, Rubisco has two major drawbacks which limit photosynthesis: its catalytic activity is very low, and it can be inhibited by O₂ (ie. Rubisco can mistakenly fix to O₂ molecules instead of CO₂ molecules, creating a toxic compound that needs to be recycled by the plant).

Rubisco's catalytic activity varies depending on the type of plant. Most major crops, such as rice, wheat and soybean are C₃ plants that use regular photosynthesis. C₄ plants, such as corn and sugarcane, on the other hand, have acquired a mechanism to concentrate CO₂ (the C₄ photosynthetic pathway).

The catalytic rate is low in C₃ plants, whereas in C₄ plants it tends to be high. Rubisco with high catalytic activity tends to be inhibited easily by oxygen, therefore it cannot function effectively in atmospheric conditions where there is a low concentration of CO₂ if the plant doesn't have a CO₂-concentrating mechanism. However, as the amount of atmospheric CO₂ is continuing to increase, it is believed that if C₃ plants had the same highly active type of Rubisco as C₄ plants then this could be utilized to improve photosynthetic ability.

Research Findings:

Rubisco is made up of two types of protein- large subunits (RbcL) and small subunits (RbcS). The sequence of the amino acids in RbcS varies greatly between species. This team has been focusing on conducting research into RbcS. They genetically modified rice (a C₃ plant) by transferring RbcS from the C₄ plant sorghum, successfully increasing the catalytic rate of rice Rubisco 1.5 times. This rice with sorghum RbcS inserted (SS line), produced a chimera form of Rubisco from both sorghum RbcS and rice RbcS. Next, the rice RbcS gene was knocked out in the sorghum RbcS incorporated rice plants using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing.

In this CSS line (sorghum RbcS transferred/rice RbcS knocked out), the rice RbcS was completely replaced by sorghum RbcS, producing hybrid Rubisco. This approximately doubled the catalytic rate to that which is equivalent to C₄ plants. Although many researchers have been able to improve Rubisco's catalytic characteristics, there have been no examples of such a large increase being achieved. Furthermore, CSS line plants demonstrated a higher photosynthetic rate than unmodified (wild type) rice under high CO₂ conditions, even though the amount of Rubisco in their leaves was over 30% less.

Subsequently, the researchers conducted x-ray crystallography (*2) in order to illuminate the mechanism by which sorghum RbcS increases Rubisco's catalytic activity. RbcL is present in Rubisco's catalytic site. Near this catalytic site, there is a structure called RbcS βC. The 102 amino acid found in βC is isoleucine in rice and leucine in sorghum. Leucine has smaller molecules than isoleucine. Therefore, it is thought that in sorghum RbcS the gaps between amino acid molecules become bigger, making the reaction site more pliable and thus increasing catalytic activity. Although further research is necessary to prove this, it is believed to be a previously unproposed ground-breaking theory for Rubisco research.

Conclusion

The CSS line produced in this study demonstrated high photosynthetic ability, however crop yield was not improved. Hopefully, it will be possible to vastly improve plant growth and productivity through appropriate control of Rubisco levels.

The current research used the C₃ plant rice, however it is vital to consider the applications of this methodology and investigate whether or not the same strategy can be used to increase Rubisco's catalytic activity in other major crops, such as wheat, soybean and potato.

It is thought that the 102 amino acid is an important determinant of the catalytic activity. Further research is being carried out to investigate this; for example by replacing only the amino acid at the 102 site with another amino acid and producing Rubisco.

Glossary

1. Rubisco (Ribulose-1,5-biphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase): In photosynthesis, the enzyme Rubisco is the catalyst for the initial reaction that fixes CO₂. It is not only the catalyst for the photosynthesis reaction (carboxylase reaction) but also serves as the catalyst for the oxygenase reaction where O₂ is the substrate. Plants accumulate large amounts of Rubisco in their leaves to compensate for the very slow rate of the catalyst. Around half of the soluble proteins in rice plant leaves are Rubisco and it is known to be the most prevalent protein on Earth.

2. X-ray crystallography: A method to determine the spatial coordinates of the atoms that make up a crystal by analyzing the diffraction obtained from x-raying a single crystal. This is one way of determining the structural arrangement of proteins. It is necessary to produce protein crystals.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Kobe University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Hiroyoshi Matsumura, Keita Shiomi, Akito Yamamoto, Yuri Taketani, Noriyuki Kobayashi, Takuya Yoshizawa, Shun-ichi Tanaka, Hiroki Yoshikawa, Masaki Endo, Hiroshi Fukayama. Hybrid Rubisco with Complete Replacement of Rice Rubisco Small Subunits by Sorghum Counterparts Confers C4-Plant-like High Catalytic Activity. Molecular Plant, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2020.08.012

Cite This Page:

Kobe University. "Successful improvement of the catalytic activity of photosynthetic CO2 fixing enzyme Rubisco." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 September 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200915090123.htm>.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200915090123.htm

Egypt turns to science to mitigate water crisis

Alamein’s 150k cbm/day desalination plant has been inaugurated as first phase to offset water scarcity

Mohammed El-Said

Description: https://dneegypt.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/2020/09/118768028_1255709691446151_255667953342660884_n-768x430.jpg

Among the most fertile of Egypt’s lands in Daqahleya governorate, 48-year-old farmer Mohamed Awad used to plant rice at this time of the year.

In 2020, however, he has been prevented from doing so by the local authorities, as the Egyptian government moves to allocate only a certain area of land to cultivate rice to decrease the country’s water consumption.

Awad said that rice is one of the best crops for farmers in Egypt to grow in economic terms, but “due to the construction of the Ethiopian dam, the government started to decrease the area cultivated with the water consuming crop.”

Whilst ostensibly to save water, the decision has negatively affected thousands of farmers across Egypt, like Awad, who have had to plant other crops they are not used to.

Egypt is heavily dependent on River Nile water, which provides about 97% of its present water needs. This still means that Egyptians can access only 660 cbm per person, one of the world’s lowest annual per capita water shares.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia is proceeding with construction on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Egypt believes will threaten its water security.

The Egyptian government blames overpopulation for the exponential increase in water demands. With the population expected to double in the next 50 years, Egypt is projected to experience critical countrywide fresh water and food shortages by 2025, according to a study conducted by the Geological Society of America (GSA).

Over the next 30 years, Egypt’s population is estimated to reach 150 million which will lead to a decrease in the per capita share of water to 350 cm/year.

Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohammed Abdel Aaty explained that his ministry is bulking out on the amount of water available, with 33% of Egypt’s water coming from recycled water resources. A further 55% of the virtual water comes in the form of crops that are imported as commodities and food items.

Egypt’s per capita share of water currently stands at below the international standard of 1,000 cbm/year, with the country taking 600 cbm/year. Despite the potential threat to accessing water from this source due to the Ethiopian dam project, the country’s share of River Nile waters is stable.

Four-directive strategy

Ragab Abdel Azeem, Deputy Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, said that in order to meet the country’s water needs, the ministry has set a strategy using four directives. These will develop water resources, rationalise water use, purify water and protect it from pollution, whilst also creating the appropriate environment for implementing these aspects.

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)

Abdel Azeem noted that the ministry is working on implementing a modern irrigation system as an alternative to flood irrigation. The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation has also implemented programmes and campaigns to educate farmers and citizens about the importance of balanced water consumption.

In addition to this, the ministry is undertaking several studies to estimate Egypt’s underground reservoir, and its potential uses in development without depleting this non-renewable natural resource.

“We have, in the past two years, started to implement the use of solar energy for irrigation in underground wells instead of diesel,” Abdel Azeem said.

The project started in the New Valley Governorate, with a three-year plan to make all wells across the governorate solar-powered. The project was also implemented in the Nile Delta governorates, to operate irrigation systems using solar energy. A number of government buildings nationwide are also being converted to using solar energy.

Drought tolerant crops

Researchers have identified new drought-resistant plant genes that could cope with water scarcity. They have also looked into cultivating rice, which could help in decreasing the salinity of the soil in Egypt’s coastal governorates.

Said Soliman, Professor of Genetics at Zagazig University’s Faculty of Agriculture, outlined one local experience relating to environmentally viable rice cultivation. Soliman has gained long-term experience in developing new species of rice that resist drought and use less water during cultivation.

He said that he has developed a variety of rice, which was given the name “Oraby” in honour of the political leader Ahmed Oraby and who is Zagazig University’s symbol.

This new variety of engineered rice only takes about 120 days to grow, compared to the 145 days for normal rice. He added that the Oraby rice variety can be cultivated twice yearly.

It can also be cultivated on all types of land, with successful cultivation experiments having been undertaken using the sandy soils of Toshka, as well as in clay soil. According to Soliman, there are several other benefits to the new variety of rice developed at Zagazig University.

Not only is Oraby rice considerably more productive than normal varieties, it is also possible to cultivate 2m feddan of Oraby rice using the same amount of water as that needed for 1m feddan of normal rice.

Desalination

Another solution to mitigating the water access crisis is the use of desalinated water. This would see a dependence on groundwater as well as the desalination of seawater to meet the domestic demand for water.

Late in 2019, the government established the Alamein desalination plant, located on the Mediterranean Coast. The plant expects to produce 150,000 cbm/day of drinking water from desalinated seawater.

A recent study noted that the domestic water sector is one of the largest users of water in Egypt, consuming more than 16% of the country’s total renewable water resources.

Egypt is urgently in need of a plan to offset the increase in current domestic water consumption, from around 9.2bn cbm in 2016 to about 15bn cbm of water by 2040. This would use alternatives to River Nile waters, according to findings of a study published in the American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER).

According to the study, domestic water in Egypt is taken from two main sources. The first source is surface water, which supplies about 88.99%, with the second source being groundwater, which supplies about 10.77% of total demands. A further 0.24% is taken from sea water desalination plants. The major factor affecting the amount of diverted water for domestic use is the efficiency of the country’s delivery networks.

“Groundwater and seawater desalination are together a promising source for meeting the future water needs of Egypt. By 2040 Egypt will need additional 5bn cbm to meet the domestic use of water to reach the needed amount 15 bn cbm,” said Osama Sallam, the author of the study and researcher at the Egyptian National Water Research Center, and Water Projects Manager, at the UAE’s Environment Agency.

Sallam added that Egypt’s groundwater stock is fresh with low levels of salinity, allowing for the future domestic water demands to be met. He noted that it is also cheaper than seawater desalination methods.

The process of seawater desalination is very expensive, with the cost of desalinating 1 cbm of water currently stands at $1,000. This is in addition to the other operating and maintenance costs.

This process, however, is a promising source of water for coastal governorates particularly as Egypt relies on cheaper sources for energy that will help in decreasing the cost of desalination.

Harvesting water from desert air

A total of 97% of Egypt’s land is desert, found in Sinai as well as the Eastern and Western Deserts, with only a restricted line of fertile lands available hugging the River Nile.

For arid countries like Egypt, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have developed a device that produces water from dry desert air, using only sunlight. The method is dependent on developing a molecular powder, a metal–organic framework (MOF), that is highly porous and acts like a sponge to absorb water.

According to the study published in Science Advances Journal, the powder saturated with water during a moist and cool night after it was packed in a frame at a plexiglass box. After this step, it releases water as sunlight heats it during the day, resulting in water condensation on the sides of the box which was kept open at night and closed in the day.

https://dailynewsegypt.com/2020/09/16/egypt-turns-to-science-to-mitigate-water-crisis/

ICAR appoints 2 SKUAST-K professors as Emeritus Scientists

GK News Network

Srinagar, September 16, 2020, 3:30 AMSeptember 15, 2020, 11:28 PM

UPDATED: September 15, 2020, 11:28 PM

Description: https://i1.wp.com/www.greaterkashmir.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/icar.jpg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1

Indian Council of Agricultural Research, (ICAR), Union Ministry of Agriculture has offered position of Emeritus Scientists to two faculty members of SKUAST-K, Prof M Y Zargar and Prof G A Parray, for a period of three years, an official statement said.

It said the offer has been made on the basis of their “life time achievements” including contributions to agricultural education and research and the projects submitted by them for investigation during their tenure as Emeritus Scientists.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:F8767kPLY4sJ:https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/icar-appoints-2-skuast-k-professors-as-emeritus-scientists/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk

Rice farmers see reasons for hope as harvest begins

Issue Date: September 16, 2020

By Ching Lee

Description: https://www.agalert.com/story/images/4734_p1_20200903FarmersBrewing_5785_FG2.jpg

Farmers harvest rice in a Glenn County field. Marketers say retail demand for rice jumped at the start of the pandemic and has remained strong, but that slumping sales to food-service buyers have reduced overall demand for the crop this year.
Photo/Fred Greaves

Farmers expect rice harvest in the Sacramento Valley to ramp up this week, and they express optimism for their crop and its prospects.

Based on harvested fields of some earlier-maturing varieties already making their way to dryers, farmers say they anticipate crop yields will be about average. Despite a recent heat wave, they reported a largely typical growing season—even though the pandemic has made for an unusual marketing year.

With wildfire smoke blanketing California skies, Colusa County farmer Leo LaGrande said harvest has so far been "on the muddy side," as lack of sunlight prevented fields from drying completely, which could potentially slow harvest. Most of what he's harvested are Japanese short-grain varieties, which mature earlier than medium-grain Calrose, the state's predominant variety. He noted strong winds last week did help dry fields faster and that the smoke cover has allowed the crop to mature "at a good, steady pace."

With uncertainty about how the pandemic will further shake up demand for California rice, LaGrande said he's excited to learn about shipping channels opening again, with more imports of consumer goods from China coming into the United States, which bodes well for U.S. exports finding capacity in shipping containers.

"That's a big deal," he said, "because that creates an availability of ships going back (to Asia), and a lot of that usually carries ag products."

In the early days of the pandemic lockdown, when Americans loaded up on pantry staples such as rice, California marketers scrambled to fill orders from retailers trying to restock empty grocery shelves. That uptick in retail demand has slowed, said Chris Crutchfield, president and CEO of American Commodity Co. in Williams, which markets rice domestically and internationally.

Even though domestic retail demand remains "much higher than pre-COVID," Crutchfield said demand from food service has "dropped off the charts," and increased retail sales have not offset reductions in food service. For this reason, overall domestic shipments of California rice during the last two months have trended lower than before the pandemic, he added.

"People were talking about a lack of inventory. It's not as low as we thought," he said.

California farmers grew more rice this year—507,000 acres compared to 498,000 acres last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With an "excellent growing season" in 2020, Crutchfield said he expects better yields and more supply coming through the pipeline.

"All that put together, I still feel a little positive about the upcoming year," he said, noting that prices to farmers have been "very strong" the last two years. "I suspect it'll still be a profitable crop year for the farmers."

He pointed to good market prospects in South Korea, the second-largest export market for California rice. This represents the first year South Korea has implemented a country-specific quota for rice imports that guarantees market access and a minimum tonnage from the U.S., all of which will come from the Golden State, Crutchfield added.

But one important Asian market—China—remains out of reach for now. With soured U.S-China relations, there have been no exports of U.S. rice to China, after the country made an initial purchase last year from a Colusa-based rice company. This is despite a 2017 phytosanitary protocol reached between the two nations and a completed Phase 1 U.S.-China trade agreement that included commitments to buy more U.S. rice.

Crutchfield said private Chinese importers have expressed their desire to buy California rice, but none of them are doing so until the Chinese government either makes a purchase or tells them directly it's OK to import U.S. rice. With the U.S. presidential election in less than two months, he said "it's certainly not imminent or even probable that we would see (U.S. rice exports to China) anytime soon."

With domestic demand down by more than 30%—a trend expected to continue until restaurants reopen and begin serving at full capacity—Crutchfield said California rice marketers will need to rely on more traditional export markets such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and look to other foreign markets such as the Middle East, which is more challenging from a pricing standpoint.

In Glenn County, farmer Bill Weller has been harvesting his rice crop since late August, which he said is early for him. He said prices to growers have been strong this year and that the cooperative to which he markets his rice has sold more rice domestically this year, attributing the enhanced demand to COVID-19 and increased retail sales.

Weller also owns a brewery business and uses some of his Calrose rice for brewing beer, which he said "adds a lot of value to our rice."

Though it's still early to determine overall yields, Weller said his crop appears "above average" so far. He noted a recent heat wave could accelerate growth of the crop, causing the plants to lodge or fall over, which could slow harvest and reduce yield somewhat.

Sutter County farmer Jon Munger, who has been harvesting a short-grain variety since the start of the month, said much of that rice will be sold domestically to retail and food-service markets. He said though sales on the retail side "seem to be holding," it's hard to know how long that can be sustained and when demand from food service will return.

"I think it's to be determined," he said. "A lot of this, unfortunately, there's not much history to go by."

Of harvest, Munger said he expects to start on the medium-grain this week and that progress appears "right on schedule, based on when we planted." He noted short-grain varieties are already prone to lodging and recent high winds didn't help.

LaGrande said even though the year started with "a lot of concerns" because of COVID-19, he remains "cautiously optimistic" about the rice crop's outlook.

"We think there's great opportunity with the product that we grow," he said. "We're excited about this upcoming year and about getting our exports going again and, of course, restaurants opening up."

(Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item.

https://www.agalert.com/story/?id=14318

Fall Whole Grain: The Return of Miss Fluffy

By Deborah Willenborg

ARLINGTON, VA -- For those readers of a certain age, the cover image on the Fall issue of the USA Rice Whole Grain will be a blast from the past. Everyone else will get an introduction to Miss Fluffy, a U.S. rice spokesgrain from the 1960s, as Staff Writer Lesley Dixon takes a retrospective look at the history of advertising rice in the 20th century in this issue's cover story.
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"Miss Fluffy may seem outdated but she personifies the message we got from recent marketing research that consumers think of rice as exciting, lively, and fun," said Michael Klein, USA Rice vice president of marketing, communications, and domestic promotion. "This story reminds us that advertising has to 'keep it fresh,' and that the rice industry always has."

Read about other ways USA Rice stays current with different forms of outreach in stories about our new podcast, The Rice Stuff; a brewpub partnership that produced a craft beer made with purple rice grown in Louisiana; and a series of webinars that share the industry's unparalleled sustainability story.

"In this issue, we also introduce the new leadership our organization elected over the summer," said Klein. "That personnel change every two years guarantees an influx of different ideas and perspectives that keep our industry dynamic."

If you do not receive the Whole Grain in your mailbox, or you'd like additional copies to distribute to friends, neighbors, and colleagues, or you would like to advertise in future issues, contact Deborah Willenborg.

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14 SEP 2020 PRESS RELEASE ENVIRONMENT UNDER REVIEW

UN-backed label launched to help shoppers choose environmentally friendly rice

Pixabay

Bangkok, 14 September 2020 – A new ecolabel launched today by the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) will help shoppers reduce their environmental impact by identifying rice that has been sustainably produced. The SRP – a grouping of over 100 public, private, research, financial institutions and civil society organizations led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)– has developed the “SRP-Verified” Label to reduce the environmental impact of one of the largest food crops in the world.

"SRP-Verified" ecolabel

Over 3.5 billion people rely on rice as a daily staple, but the crop has an undeniable environmental impact. Rice farming consumes up to one-third of the world’s developed freshwater resources and generates up to 20% of global anthropogenic emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. This life-giving crop will also be the victim of rising global temperatures, with production expected to fall by 15% by 2050 due to climate change, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The new Assurance Scheme is based on the SRP Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation, the world’s first voluntary sustainability standard for rice. It is underpinned by proven best practices and provides a science-based process to assess compliance. Employing best practices in rice farming can reduce water use by some 20% and methane emissions from flooded rice fields by up to 50%.

The scheme will be managed by Germany-based GLOBALG.A.P., which will oversee approval of qualified verification bodies that will be responsible for inspection of producers according to the SRP Standard. NEPCon-Preferred by Nature, a Denmark-based non-profit organization that supports better land management and business practices, is the first to be approved to perform SRP verification audits, with several others expected to be approved soon.

“SRP was established to address global environmental and social challenges in rice production. The Assurance Scheme offers supply chain actors a robust, cost-effective and transparent path to sustainable procurement. Consumers are increasingly demanding that food is produced sustainably, and now they have a reliable way to choose environmentally friendly rice,” said Wyn Ellis, SRP Executive Director.

With the new label, consumers will be able to trace the rice back to its origin country. The scheme will also benefit an entire industry. By stocking SRP-verified rice, retailers can make significant and measurable contributions to sustainability commitments and climate change targets. Industry actors will also be able to de-risk their supply chains and ensure stability by sourcing through SRP-verified suppliers.

Farmers also benefit - switching to SRP practices can boost farmers’ net incomes by 10-20%. With 90% of the world’s 144 million rice producers living on or near the poverty line, this can make the difference between a secure livelihood and a family going hungry.

NOTES TO EDITORS

About the Sustainable Rice Platform

The Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) is a global multi-stakeholder alliance led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), together with over 100 public, private, research, financial institutions and civil society organizations. SRP, whose Secretariat is hosted by UNEP, works with partners to transform the global rice sector by improving smallholder livelihoods in developing countries, reducing the social, environmental and climate footprint of rice production; and by offering the global rice market an assured supply of sustainably produced rice

About GLOBALG.A.P.

GLOBALG.A.P. is a global organization with a crucial objective: safe, sustainable agriculture worldwide. GLOBALG.A.P. sets and operates voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe – and more and more producers, suppliers, and buyers are harmonizing their certification standards to match our Company’s Purpose: the right of every generation to safe food.

About the UN Environment Programme

UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-backed-label-launched-help-shoppers-choose-environmentally-0

How Should Researchers Ensure Racial Diversity In Clinical Trials For The Coronavirus Vaccine?

By Greater Boston Staff

September 15, 2020Greater Boston

In a New York Times op-ed, the presidents of four historically Black universities and medical schools argue that the lack of racial diversity in clinical trials for a potential coronavirus vaccine “creates problems on two fronts: treatment and trust." To discuss, Jim Braude was joined by one of the authors, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, the president of Morehouse School of Medicine.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/science-and-technology/2020/09/15/how-should-researchers-ensure-racial-diversity-in-clinical-trials-for-the-coronavirus-vaccine

Paddy buying norms unjust: Kumari Selja

· Posted: Sep 16, 2020 07:33 AM (IST)

· Updated : 8 hours ago

Chandigarh, September 15

State Congress president Kumari Selja has questioned the new conditions for giving paddy to rice millers for custom

milled rice.

She accused the BJP-JJP government of harassing people during the pandemic. She said after the lathicharge on farmers and labourers in Kurukshetra, other sections were on target.

Selja said new conditions had been imposed as part of a conspiracy to harass rice millers. If these new conditions were implemented, farmers and rice millers would suffer, she said.

“They will face difficulty in selling paddy,” she stated. She said the government wanted to give paddy to only 600 out of 1,400 rice mills.

Selja said it was clear that the government was deliberately harassing rice millers. She said the state Congress was with rice millers and farmers.

She claimed that if the government policy was not changed soon, rice millers could refuse to purchase paddy, which would directly affect farmers as they would have trouble in selling the crop.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/paddy-buying-norms-unjust-kumari-selja-141649

Seaweed capsule packed with stem cells could repair damage after heart attack, scientists find

By PAT HAGAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:04 BST, 14 September 2020 | UPDATED: 22:11 BST, 14 September 2020

A tiny capsule made from seaweed and packed with stem cells is being tested as a treatment for heart attack patients.

Roughly the thickness of a grain of rice, the capsule is injected into the heart through an incision in the side of the chest.

It is filled with up to 30,000 stem cells, which kick-start the healing process in cardiac muscle left severely damaged by the lack of blood that occurs during a heart attack.

A tiny capsule made from seaweed and packed with stem cells is being tested as a treatment for heart attack patients (file image)

GOOD HEALTH HONOURED

Good Health has received more nominations than any other newspaper health section in the prestigious 2020 MJA awards, which recognise excellence in health and medical journalism.

Good Health writers dominate the highly competitive Freelance Of The Year category, with Fiona MacRae, Caroline Scott and Jo Waters all shortlisted for their work for the section. Fiona’s feature on developments in the flu jab was also shortlisted for the Science Explained award. The tally of Mail nominations includes medical correspondent Ben Spencer for the Mental Health Story Of The Year award, and health reporter Eleanor Hayward for Newcomer Of The Year. The winners will be announced on September 23.

Stem cells, usually found in bone marrow and capable of turning into bone or muscle, are the building blocks of all human tissue. The idea is that, once in place, they will start to grow into healthy new heart muscle within days or weeks of somebody having an attack.

This would help repair damage that often leads to heart failure, where the weakened heart muscle is unable to push blood efficiently around the body.

Treatments for heart failure include medication, such as blood pressure pills, and lifestyle changes to reduce the strain on the heart, but these cannot undo the damage done. Heart failure kills more than 100,000 people a year in the UK. Many more live with debilitating symptoms, such as breathlessness and exhaustion.

Previous attempts at injecting stem cells have largely failed because either the cells are destroyed by the immune system, which regards them as a foreign material, or they migrate away from the area of damage to other parts of the body.

It is hoped the seaweed capsule can both keep the cells in the heart and stop them being attacked by the body’s defences.

Seaweed contains a compound called alginate, which makes a soft gel when mixed with water. It is already widely used in medicine, as, for example, a stabiliser to stop tablets crumbling and in slow-release pills, where the active drug needs to be released gradually in the stomach.

Description: Treatments for heart failure include medication, such as blood pressure pills, and lifestyle changes to reduce the strain on the heart, but these cannot undo the damage done. Heart failure kills more than 100,000 people a year in the UK (file image)

DO THIS

Practise yoga to reduce anxiety, say scientists at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, following a study of 226 people with generalised anxiety disorder. Participants were offered education on stress management and yoga — those who tried yoga experienced less anxiety than those on the stress management course.

Alginate is ideal as it breaks down slowly in the gut and is highly biocompatible, so does not trigger an attack by the immune system. The capsules, which measure just 1.5mm in diameter and were developed by scientists at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine, both in Houston, Texas, have a porous membrane that lets the stem cells gradually escape.

In animal studies, the researchers injected several capsules into damaged cardiac muscle. The results, published in the journal Biomaterials Science, showed that four weeks after having the seaweed capsule injected, 41 per cent of rats saw a significant improvement in their ejection fraction scores — a measure of how much blood the heart is able to pump in each beat.

But when the researchers injected the stem cells without putting them inside a capsule, only 16 per cent of the rats experienced an improvement.

Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘Repairing a broken heart with stem cells has been an aspiration for over a decade, but has so far proved elusive.

‘The alginate capsule is a step in the right direction.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8732279/Seaweed-capsule-packed-stem-cells-repair-damage-heart-attack-scientists-find.html

Farmers' group urged DA to buy all local palay to be harvested in coming months

Published September 15, 2020 1:18pm

By JON VIKTOR D. CABUENAS, GMA News

Farmers' group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) called on the government to walk the talk and intensify the buying of palay or unmilled rice, as it said the administration's budget is not even enough to procure 10% of the national harvest.

In a statement on Tuesday, SINAG called on the Department of Agriculture (DA) to prepare a higher budget to increase the procurement of palay from local farmers, given the competition they have from imported rice due to the liberalization of the industry from the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).

"The situation today is very different. It is very dire for our rice farmers because of the COVID pandemic and the deluge of imports courtesy of the Rice Tariffication Law," said SINAG chair Rosendo So.

"Sino nga ba ang bibili ng palay? Nagrereklamo rin ang member millers ng SINAG dahil ang mga bodega ng local millers ay puno pa rin dahil hindi sila makasabay sa pagbaha ng murang imported rice mula nang maisabatas ang RTL," he added.

According to SINAG, the National Food Authority (NFA)—mandated to ensure food security through the availability, affordability, and accessibility of rice—does not have enough funds to procure a significant percentage of the country's total output with only P14 billion at best, including a rollover fund of P7 billion.

SINAG said that at P19 per kilogram, the P14 billion will only be able to buy 739,842 metric tons (MT) of palay. This is equivalent to only 8.18% of the total expected palay harvest of 9 million MT.

"Instead of forging deals with foreign institutions and trumpeting the studies multilateral agencies in transforming our sector; the DA must first forge a deal with the local rice farmers that they will buy all the palay that will be harvested this coming weeks and months, if only for the rice farmers to survive this cropping season and the RTL," said SINAG.

For its part, the DA assured farmers bigger earnings, as it claimed it will take the "extra mile" by picking up the produce from their respective barangays.

"We will continue to buy palay as high as P19 per kilo, at 14 percent moisture content, from our farmers to assure them of bigger earnings, and if need be pick up their produce at a designated area in their barangay," Agriculture Secretary William Dar was quoted as saying in a statement released by the DA on Tuesday.

"We have instructed NFA offices nationwide, through administrator Judy Dansal, to offer transport services for farmers who cannot deliver their produce to the agency's warehouses, and likewise avail of its drying facilities," said Dar, who chairs the NFA Council.

According to NFA Region 3 director Elvira Obaña, they target to buy a total of 1,747,700 bags of palay from farmers in Central Luzon starting this month until the end of the year.

Dar also instructed the NFA to immediately mill the palay, then sell it to local government units or the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). It will then subsequently roll-over the amount to be able to buy more from farmers.

Aside from this, Dar also called on the governors of top 12 rice-producing provinces to help NFA buy palay direct from their farmer-constituents to stabilize prices. These include Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Iloilo, Camarines Sur, Tarlac, Negros Occidental, Maguindanao, Bukidnon, North Cotabato, and Leyte.

"Their direct procurement will significantly shore up the national average farmgate price of palay, thus helping more farmers," he said.—AOL, GMA News

Show comments

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/755634/farmers-group-urged-da-to-buy-all-local-palay-to-be-harvested-in-coming-months/story/

How Africa can move from net food importer to exporter

AfDB says that modern agriculture, driven by technologies such as drought resilience, crop protection and yield enhancement, can also contribute substantially to employment and wealth creation as well as to the improvement of health and nutrition on the continent. As such, agriculture will build the cornerstone of Africa’s economic transformation.

Emmanuel Ntirenganya

Published : September 15, 2020 | Updated : September 15, 2020

A solar-powered irrigation system in Nasho, Eastern Province. The project was developed to modernise Rwanda’s agriculture sector and specifically improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods. / Photo: Sam Ngendahimana

Africa remains a net food importer, meaning that it imports more foods than it exports. And, increased food demand and changing consumption habits are leading to Africa’s rapidly rising food import bill.

This is one of the issues that were talked about in a virtual session during the 2020 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF 2020) Summit that was co-hosted virtually by Rwanda last week (from September 8 to September 11, 2020).

The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimated that in 2017, Africa spent $64.5 billion on importing foods, and the food import bill is projected to increase to over $110 billion by 2025, if the status quo remains. This, according to the Bank, is unsustainable, irresponsible, and unaffordable.

Africa’s exports of food and agricultural products are worth between $35 billion and $40 billion a year, according to McKinsey & Company – a US-based management consulting firm.

Producing more and adding value to farm produce

AfDB said that Africa’s food imports include wheat, sugar, rice, beef, and soybeans, yet, these commodities can be produced on the continent.

By continuing to pay for food to be imported, the Bank said that Africa is losing precious foreign exchange, so it must quickly eliminate the negative balance, and start to sow, grow, process, consume, and ultimately to export the food itself.

It added that export of primary agricultural production is still very high in Africa compared to other regions of the world.

Therefore, it said, agriculture offers a realistic prospect for large-scale job creation, especially in fragile economies, if agricultural produce gets added value before export.

Given the importance of food and nutrition, promoting agricultural value chains and improving market access have the potential to diversify economies, raise incomes, increase food security and macroeconomic stability, contribute to mitigating conflict and prevent internal and external migration.

Easing and boosting intra-Africa food trade

A World Bank report – Africa Can Help Feed Africa: Removing barriers to regional trade in food staples – which was released in 2012 indicated that Africa’s farmers can potentially grow enough food to feed the continent and avert future food crises if countries remove cross-border restrictions on the food trade within the region.

The World Bank pointed out that the continent would also generate an extra $20 billion in yearly earnings if African leaders can agree to dismantle trade barriers that blunt more regional dynamism.

The Bank’s report also pointed out that rapid urbanisation will challenge the ability of farmers to ship their cereals and other foods to consumers when the nearest trade market is just across a national border.

Speaking at a virtual session during the AGRF 2020 Summit, Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission said that with Covid-19 has underscored the need to boost food trade within thecontinent such as through the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“As much as we were worried about the health plan [to deal with Covid-19 pandemic], we were also worried about the food plan, because many countries were expecting to get rice shipments from Asia,” he said.

“Sometimes [in Africa], there are countries that have a surplus, while there are others that have a deficit in the same region. Lack of infrastructure, unaccustomed to trade among themselves, they end up importing [foods] like rice from Asia, yet they can buy such commodities from neighboring countries,” he said.

“So there are dysfunctions in our business, in the way we act. ... This is something that is absolutely urgent,” he said, pointing out that Africa should increase food trade between its countries.

However, he called for more investment into and modernisation of the agriculture sector in Africa.

Speaking at the same Summit, President Paul Kagame said that “the only reason that Africa can continue to import large amounts of its food from outside the continent, is that it simply has not been a priority to add value to our own products and do more business with each other.”

Prioritising agriculture, lowering production cost

The recommendations of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) which urges every African country to invest at least 10 percent of their public expenditure into agriculture, has largely not been implemented.

The fact that some agricultural commodities imported overseas – such as wheat from Russia and Canada – reach Africa and are sold at lower prices than those produced on the continent is somehow paradoxical.

What happens is that Africa food producers have difficulties competing on the market as their edible products are more expensive than imported ones.

This would not be the case if Africa invested enough money or subsidised food production to make it more affordable, as it would help the continent to lower the cost of production.

“No region has built a modern economy without first strengthening the agriculture sector. This is true of both in ancient economies, and in modern times,” said Hailemariam Desalegn, the Board Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Scaling up technology use in agriculture

As a result, technology-driven agriculture will help to leverage the potential of the continent’s youthful population.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), over 60 percent of Africa’s estimated 1.2 billion people are under the age of 25. Yet, with little job creation currently in the rural areas where the majority of the population resides, there is a growing uncertainty over the continent’s preparedness to tap this resource.

Therefore, there is a need to engage the youth into the agriculture sector from farm production to agribusiness such as agro-processing through helping them to easily access technologies and financing.

entirenganya@newtimesrwanda.com

https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/how-africa-can-move-net-food-importer-exporter

Kenya: How Scounderels Blend Mwea Rice With Cheap Imports

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14 SEPTEMBER 2020

By Irene Mugo

A multi-million-shilling racket, in which cheap rice imports are blended with the highly-valued Mwea pishori, has been going on in the country, taking millions of consumers for a ride all the way to the dining table.

While Kenya's paddy-grown rice in the Mwea plains is prized for its aroma and quality, business buccaneers adulterate it and sell to unsuspecting consumers. The poor quality rice is usually sprayed with 'perfume, a chemical property that brings out the aroma', but the scent fades after washing, compared to the original rice that maintains its pleasant smell after cooking.

On Saturday, a multi-agency team comprising the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Kenya Revenue Authority and Kenya Bureau of Standards destroyed contraband rice worth millions of shillings that was destined for the kitchen table.

It all starts at the expansive Mwea Irrigation Scheme, which produces 76 per cent of paddy in Kenya. There, cartels buy the high grade pishori and mix it with low quality products from Asia and pass it to unsuspecting buyers.

Farmers at the scheme are now worried since the unbranded cheap imports have taken a toll on locally produced rice.

"Consumers come for Mwea rice for the aroma that can be smelt from the packet, but they are finding it hard to tell the real one from the blend," said Ms Mary Mumbi, a trader at Ngurabani centre in Mwea constituency.

Slender grain

"To tell pure pishori rice, aroma buyers should look out for a nice-looking slender grain. The amount of broken grains should be minimal or zero. It should also be polished white rice," said Vincent Koskei, a manager at Mwea Irrigation Agriculture Development.

The manager said the sector needs a clear mandate of each stakeholder to avoid repetitiveness along the value chain to foster food security.

While a kilo of Mwea pishori rice goes for between Sh130 and Sh140, the imports are selling at Sh80 for the same quantity.

Today, it's hard to get pure packaged pishori rice from Mwea, which was, for years, the most successful irrigation scheme in the country.

As a result, farmers in the 22,000-acre irrigation scheme, between Rivers Nyamindi and Thiba, hardly get premium price for their produce, which amounted to 121,000 tonnes last year.

Mr Moris Mutugi, the chairman of Mwea Rice Farmers Association, has been a rice farmer since the 1970s and has seen the collapse of prices for Mwea pishori due to the cheap imports and for lack of certified seeds.

He also faults the "oppressive import guidelines" for denying local farmers fair play in the market.

"We've enough rice to satiate the market for a while before the country can open up for imports," Mr Mutugi said. In the 1970s, he added, it would not be a struggle to differentiate the rice brand produced from the county.

"You could tell it's Mwea rice from the whiff it sent to the air from a distance, but that is no longer the case. What was uniquely our brand and quality rice is now compromised," he said.

Before it was run down, the National Irrigation Board (NIB) used to supply seeds, but currently, farmers are not obliged to buy seeds from government-licensed dealers. With the downturn in the economy, Kenyans are also turning to the compromised rice.

Stop at Sagana

"The cheap imported rice is bad for our business because Kenyans want to save money in this harsh economic times. They are often choosing the imports over our locally grown rice," Ms Wairimu Karanja, another trader says.

On a normal day, it's not unusual to see buyers stop at Sagana, on the busy Nyeri-Nairobi highway, to buy what is branded as aromatic pishori. What most buyers are unaware of, however, is that they're taking home a blend of two or more rice varieties under the guise of pure pishori.

Traders have been importing rice from Thailand, which normally grows the Jasmine variety, and from Pakistan, the world's 10th producer of rice by quantity. Thailand is also known for exporting broken rice.

It's this broken rice -- at best cheap, and at worst substandard -- that's mixed with the brand from the irrigation scheme by only adding a small portion of the locally grown produce to maintain its whiff.

All the cartels need is rice that has the same texture, colour and size as the locally grown rice.

Cost of production

While blaming the cheap imports for their predicament, farmers also cite the high cost of production. Farmers spend between Sh28 and Sh30 to produce a kilogramme of paddy rice. Since most consumers cannot tell the difference between pure pishori and adulterated until it's cooked, deceitful traders are now taking advantage of that culinary illiteracy.

To the farmers who own rice paddies in Mwea, the imports have triggered a rise in blending, which, if not controlled, will push them over the edge, counting insurmountable losses.

While market liberalisation has opened up the sector to be competitive across the value chain, Mr Mutugi opines that it has also given some players the leeway to exploit farmers.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2019 says, the country imports a third of all consumed rice to bridge the gap. Now Mwea farmers want the government to intervene and regulate the imports.

"During the peak seasons, the government should ensure there are no rice imports for farmers to leverage on the sales of their rice," Mr Mutugi said.

In the local market, there are more than 300 brands approved by the Rice Release Committee, where only a few are aromatic.

While rice scientists indicate that the aroma is just a demand-driven trait that does not add any nutritional value, they have continuously upgraded seeds for high yields that would fetch higher returns for farmers.

With the help of Mwea Irrigation Agriculture Development (Miad) centre, farmers grow two aromatic varieties, both Pishori: the NIBAM 10 and NIBAM 11. While NIBAM 10 has higher yields, it has less distinct aroma.

Quest for yields

But in the market, it's the distinct aroma that gives rice from the county an edge over the other varieties, thus giving Mwea pishori a brand identity.

Scientists are now grappling with the quest for yields and maintenance of the pishori aroma.

"The more the aroma, the lower the yields, hence the preference by farmers to capitalise on the yields," Mr Koskei says.

While researchers agree that blending of rice has affected the quality reaching the consumers and compromises the Mwea brand, they insist they provide quality seeds to farmers.

"The seeds are still the same and the aroma is still present. The market is what has distorted our production," he said.

According to Mr Koskei, variety as a trait determines the production rate as some produce 8,000 metric tonnes (MT) per hectare and others as low as 3, 000MT/ha.

Besides the choice of rice planted, other factors that determine the aroma of the produce include crop production and post-harvest management.

Farmers hastening the drying of rice after harvest will commonly alter with the aroma of rice.

"Speeding the drying period will always have bad results. The moisture content should gradually be lowered from 21 and 25 per cent at harvesting stage to 14 per cent before the grains are stored," he said.

Already, Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) has issued guidelines to traders on the labelling of rice.

Blending is not illegal

While blending is not an illegal practice, Kebs requires that milled rice composed of two or more varieties be clearly and conspicuously labelled as such, a guideline that has been overlooked by the traders.

Without declaration of the blends, as required by Kebs, traders in Kirinyaga have been duping consumers into buying rice under the guise of pure while it's a blend or a repackage of cheap imports.

"Consumers are the biggest casualties in the blending matrices being practised by traders," Mr Koskei said.

Artificial aroma

For blending, all one needs are grains of similar characteristics, colour and texture.

Kebs insist that a declaration of varieties blended as pure is prohibited and is an offence punishable by law.

It also prohibits blends from being declared as aromatic.

"It shall be an offence to introduce any artificial aroma to the varieties blend milled rice," Kebs guidelines indicate.

But Mr Mutugi points an accusatory finger at Kebs, who are mandated to inspect the standards of rice being sold while ensuring their guidelines are adhered to.

"Kebs has failed farmers because all these trade malpractices are happening under their watch," Mr Mutugi says.

The blending has influenced consumers' trust on the Mwea brand because quality of each purchase is not guaranteed, which affects prices.

"The quality of rice purchased from us is no longer guaranteed and the consequence is a decline in prices for farmers who are practising it to make ends meet as opposed to subsistence," he said.

With the government seeking to double the production of rice in Mwea after the completion of the Sh20 billion Thiba Dam to 118,000MT per year, their biggest challenge is to stop the cartels within the rice belt.

Value chain

In the past, farmers observed that the government had a stake across the rice value chain, which included provision of farm inputs, land preparations, storage and marketing.

"But nowadays, all these are left for the private sector to dictate. They can sometimes play to their advantage due to competition, which at times is overrated," Mr Mutugi said.

With some farmers growing rice in wet lands, the quality of the produce reaching stores has been compromised.

More so, water shortages have been a constant headache for farmers in the scheme, alongside pests and diseases, migratory birds and high cost of inputs.

Experts say that for optimal production of rice in Mwea, farmers require an additional three million cubic metres of water on top of what Thiba dam will provide.

For a complete crop season, farmers require 16 irrigation circles, but with the current supply of water from River Thiba and Nyamindi, they are getting between six to 10, which is insufficient.

During the main season in December, they harvest 72, 000MT and a second crop in February also known as ratoon produces 60 per cent of the main harvest standing at 42,000MT in February and March.

At Miad, they say rice production has been increasing over the years because of enhanced good farming practices, expansion of the irrigation scheme and improved crop management.

To emphasise the effects of water shortage, Mwea Irrigation Scheme Manager Innocent Ariemba said the water requirement stands at nine cubic metres per second to supply all areas under the crop. However, it currently receives 7.5 cubic metres per second, which is insufficient for production.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202009150079.html

UPDATE 3-NIGERIA REELS FROM TWIN CRISES THAT THREATEN FOOD AVAILABILITY

9/14/2020

(Removes graphics)

By Libby George

ABUJA, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Mal Shehu Ladan took a boat across what was, until this month, a growing rice paddy. Now, like thousands of hectares of rice in Nigeria's Kebbi state, it is under water.

"Almost all my farm has been flooded. I didn't harvest any rice," Ladan told Reuters. "It's going to be devastating."

Floods early this month across northwest Nigeria destroyed 90% of the 2 million tons that Kebbi state officials expected to harvest this autumn, the head of the state branch of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria told Reuters. The loss amounts to some 20% of the rice Nigeria grew last year, and the waters are still rising.

Farther south, outside Nigeria's capital, Abuja, chicken farmer Hippolite Adigwe is also worried. A shortage of maize forced him to sell most of his flock of more than 1,000 birds, and the 300 left are hungry. Chicken feed prices have more than doubled, and he isn't sure how long he can cope.

Twin crises, floods and maize shortages, come just after movement restrictions and financing difficulties caused by COVID-19 containment measures complicated spring planting.

Some farmers and economists say it could push Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, into a food crisis. Rice is the country's staple grain, and chicken is a core protein.

"There is a real fear of having food shortages," Arc Kabir Ibrahim, president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria told Reuters. "The effect on the food system is going to be colossal."

Nigeria took roughly 4,000 tons of millet and sorghum from the regional economic bloc's (ECOWAS) strategic stocks last month and released 30,000 tons of its own maize. It also gave four companies special permission to import maize.

The prominent Nigerian Economic Summit Group has called for "a complete overhaul" of agriculture policy.

Problems accessing foreign exchange to import food are adding to shortages. In July, the central bank added maize to a list of items for which importers are banned from using its dollars. Rice and fertilizer were already on the list, along with other items that Nigeria wants made locally.

Last week, even as food prices spiked, President Muhammadu Buhari vowed that not one cent of central bank dollars would go to food or fertilizer imports, as Nigeria would continue encouraging local farmers over imports.

Importers can use dollars from pricier parallel markets. But these are tough to find due to an oil price crash that has cut Nigeria's core source of foreign exchange.

SWITCHING GRAINS

Rice prices had already risen substantially due to a land border closure last year that aimed to stamp out smuggling and boost local production.

Peter Clubb of the International Grains Council said the spike drove consumers to eat maize instead. This, along with a disappointing crop late last year and the foreign exchange issues, boosted maize prices to 180,000 naira per ton from around 70,000 naira in March.

Farmers say that consumers grappling with inflation, the first hike in fuel prices since 2016 and a power price spike can only pay so much more for food.

Ayodeji Balogun, chief executive at commodities exchange Afex, said the central bank's lending scheme for farmers has significantly expanded output, and can work long term.

But the coming months will be tough. Fertilizer prices hit a record after a COVID-19 outbreak shut down country's sole urea plant for two weeks, meaning more farmers will skip fertilizers, limiting crop yields.

"The worst is yet to happen," Balogun said. "It is a problem across grains."

Buhari has pledged more support, and Agriculture Minister Muhammed Sabo Nanono visited the northwest area this weekend and promised to provide farmers with high-quality seeds and to set up a special committee to ensure they have all they need to plant new crops as soon as possible.

Adigwe, the chicken farmer, said he thinks barring foreign food in order to help farmers is not a bad idea, but "there are some factors that were not considered."

"Can local production sustain the population of Nigeria?" (Reporting by Libby George; Additional reporting by Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, Abraham Achirga in Abuja and Angela Ukumadu in Lagos; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans)

https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/update-3-nigeria-reels-from-twin-crises-that-threaten-food-availability

Farmers blame low palay prices on ‘unpredictable’ rice imports

September 14, 2020 | 7:24 pm

Description: https://www.bworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/palay-rice-philstar.jpg PHILSTAR

THE ‘unpredictable’ pattern of rice imports has depressed farmgate prices of palay, or unmilled rice, according to an organization of farmers.

In a statement, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor said rice traders are offering low prices for palay out of fear that imports will flood the market in the coming months.

According to the FFF, rice imports for the first eight months of the year fell 25% year on year to 1.66 million metric tons (MT), with the national rice inventory as of Aug. 1 also posting a 16% decline year on year.

“The decline in farmgate prices is surprising considering the lower imports. Palay buying prices usually go up in September because of the scarce supply of palay and then go down only during the peak harvest season in October and November,” the FFF said.

Based on the group’s field reports, the buying price of palay in September has declined to as little as P16 per kilogram on a dry basis, and from P11 to P13 per kilogram for wet palay.

FFF also said that palay prices averaged P18.39 per kilogram in late August, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

“Last year, traders bought palay from farmers during the first half of the year at relatively high prices and were caught flat footed by the massive inflow of imports in the second half of the year. Many of them could not unload their stocks at a profit and some had to suspend their operations,” Mr. Montemayor said.

Mr. Montemayor said that despite three million tons of excess imports in 2019, the Bureau of Plant Industry still issued sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances for 3.75 million tons of rice imports between January and September this year.

“However, less than half of the allowed volume has entered the country so far, mainly due to the increase in international prices of rice in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and weather disturbances in the region,” Mr. Montemayor said.

Mr. Montemayor added the Department of Agriculture (DA) has repeatedly assured that the country has ample rice supply, but did not say that the surplus rice inventory is due to imports.

“The problem now is that we already have a surplus at present, the main harvest is coming in, and the importers might still bring in more stocks in the coming months. The anticipated surplus is what is driving palay prices down,” Mr. Montemayor said.

The DA was asked to comment but had not replied at deadline time. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Australia to run out of homegrown rice by Christmas this year

September 15, 2020

Australia to run out of homegrown rice by Christmas this year. Rob Gordon, Chief of Sun Rice warned that the domestic-grown rice is going to get over. The local supplies are dwindling and Australia may need to rely on imported rice, especially from Vietnam.

There are rice products on the shelves but are imported rice from Vietnam. The dwindling stock of domestic rice produces is the result of both natural and health pandemic. The low rainfall, dry weather, and COVID19 pandemic are contributing to the diminishing stock.

Australia to run out of homegrown rice by Christmas

Sun Rice is the biggest rice supplier of Australia and has already lost at least $400mn in exports. Riverina region in New South Wells is one of the most rice-producing parts in the country. However, Sun Rice had to cut down the workforce by one-third there.

The harvesting figures of Australia have reduced by 90 percent since 2017, reported the Daily Mail. Last Year, the production was bad too. Sun Rice harvested only 54000 tonnes of rice than an average of 800000 tonnes.

Lack of irrigation water has also caused the problems, complained to farmers.

New South Wales contributes to 98 percent of the rice industry. However, poor allocation of water is taking it to the verge of collapse, NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey told.

The panic buying during the COVID19 pandemic added more problems for Australia. The situation was so poor, that Prime Minister reportedly called Vietnam. Reports say that Prime Minister Scott Morrison called Vietnam counterpart to ensure that the Australia-owned companies in Vietnam continue to export rice despite closed borders.

http://theasianherald.com/australia-to-run-out-of-homegrown-rice-by-christmas-this-year/

Ancient DNa is revealing the genetic landscap

Ancient DNA is revealing the genetic landscape of people who first settled East Asia

Melinda A. Yang, University of Richmond

Published 3:01 pm CDT, Tuesday, September 15, 2020

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Melinda A. Yang, University of Richmond

(THE CONVERSATION) The very first human beings originally emerged in Africa before spreading across Eurasia about 60,000 years ago. After that, the story of humankind heads down many different paths, some more well-studied than others.

Eastern regions of Eurasia are home to approximately 2.3 billion people today – roughly 30% of the world’s population. Archaeologists know from fossilsand artifacts that modern humans have occupied Southeast Asia for 60,000 years and East Asia for 40,000 years.

But there’s a lot left to untangle. Who were the people who first came to these regions and eventually invented agriculture? Where did different populations come from? Which groups ended up predominant and which died out?

Ancient DNA is helping to answer some of these questions. By sequencing the genomes of people who lived many millennia ago, scientists like me are starting to fill in the picture of how Asia was populated.

Analyzing ancient genomes

In 2016, I joined Dr. Qiaomei Fu’s Molecular Paleontology Lab at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Our challenge: Resolve the history of humans in East Asia, with the help of collaborators who were long dead – ancient humans who lived up to tens of thousands of years ago in the region.

Members of the lab extracted and sequenced ancient DNA using human remains from archaeological sites. Then Dr. Fu and I used computational genomic tools to assess how their DNA related to that of previously sequenced ancient and present-day humans.

One of our sequences came from ancient DNA extracted from the leg bones of the Tianyuan Man, a 40,000-year-old individual discovered near a famous paleoanthropological site in western Beijing. One of the earliest modern humans found in East Asia, his genetic sequence marks him as an early ancestor of today’s Asians and Native Americans. That he lived where China’s current capital stands indicates that the ancestors of today’s Asians began placing roots in East Asia as early as 40,000 years ago.

Farther south, two 8,000- to 4,000-year-old Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers from Laos and Malaysia associated with the Hòabìnhian culture have DNA that, like the Tianyuan Man, shows they’re early ancestors of Asians and Native Americans. These two came from a completely different lineage than the Tianyuan Man, which suggested that many genetically distinct populations occupied Asia in the past.

But no humans today share the same genetic makeup as either Hòabìnhians or the Tianyuan Man, in both East and Southeast Asia. Why did ancestries that persisted for so long vanish from the gene pool of people alive now? Ancient farmers carry the key to that answer.

DNA carries marks of ancient migrations

Based on plant remains found at archaeological sites, scientists know that people domesticated millet in northern China’s Yellow River region about 10,000 years ago. Around the same time, people in southern China’s Yangtze River region domesticated rice.

Unlike in Europe, plant domestication began locally and was not introduced from elsewhere. The process took thousands of years, and societies in East Asia grew increasingly complex, with the rise of the first dynasties around 4,000 years ago.

That’s also when rice cultivation appears to have spread from its origins to areas farther south, including lands that are today’s Southeast Asian countries. DNA helps tell the story. When rice farmers from southern China expanded southward, they introduced not only their farming technology but also their genetics to local populations of Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers.

The overpowering influx of their DNA ended up swamping the local gene pool. Today, little trace of hunter-gatherer ancestryremains in the genes of people who live in Southeast Asia.

Farther north, a similar story played out. Ancient Siberian hunter-gatherers show little relationship with East Asians today, but later Siberian farmers are closely related to today’s East Asians. Farmers from northern China moved northward into Siberia bringing their DNA with them, leading to a sharp decrease in prevalence of the previous local hunter-gatherer ancestry.

Past populations were more diverse than today’s

Genetically speaking, today’s East Asians are not very different from each other. A lot of DNA is needed to start genetically distinguishing between people with different cultural histories.

What surprised Dr. Fu and me was how different the DNA of various ancient populations were in China. Weandothers found shared DNA across the Yellow River region, a place important to the development of Chinese civilization. This shared DNA represents a northern East Asian ancestry, distinct from a southern East Asian ancestry we found in coastal southern China.

When we analyzed the DNA of people who lived in coastal southern China 9,000-8,500 years ago, we realized that already by then much of China shared a common heritage. Because their archaeology and morphology was different from that of the Yellow River farmers, we had thought these coastal people might come from a lineage not closely related to those first agricultural East Asians. Maybe this group’s ancestry would be similar to the Tianyuan Man or Hòabìnhians.

But instead, every person we sampled was closely related to present-day East Asians. That means that by 9,000 years ago, DNA common to all present-day East Asians was widespread across China.

Today’s northern and southern Chinese populations share more in common with ancient Yellow River populations than with ancient coastal southern Chinese. Thus, early Yellow River farmers migrated both north and south, contributing to the gene pool of humans across East and Southeast Asia.

The coastal southern Chinese ancestry did not vanish, though. It persisted in small amounts and did increase in northern China’s Yellow River region over time. The influence of ancient southern East Asians is low on the mainland, but they had a huge impact elsewhere. On islands spanning from the Taiwan Strait to Polynesia live the Austronesians, best known for their seafaring. They possess the highest amount of southern East Asian ancestry today, highlighting their ancestry’s roots in coastal southern China.

Other emerging genetic patterns show connections between Tibetans and ancient individuals from Mongolia and northern China, raising questions about the peopling of the Tibetan Plateau.

Ancient DNA reveals rapid shifts in ancestry over the last 10,000 years across Asia, likely due to migration and cultural exchange. Until more ancient human DNA is retrieved, scientists can only speculate as to exactly who, genetically speaking, lived in East Asia prior to that.

[Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week. Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter.]

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-is-revealing-the-genetic-landscape-of-people-who-first-settled-east-asia-139458.

https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Ancient-DNA-is-revealing-the-genetic-landscape-of-15569384.php

Farm and rural families should stand up and be counted in the 2020 Census

Data collection ends Sept. 30

9:30 am

Description: The deadline to respond to the 2020 U.S. Census is approaching at the end of September.

Caption

The 2020 Census is underway. Participation and leadership from farmers, ranchers and other agricultural leaders is critical and will have an impact on rural communities for the next 10 years.

Many farmers and ranchers complete other Census surveys, such as the Census of Agriculture, but the 2020 U.S. Census also is important. The U.S. Constitution calls for a complete count every 10 years of everyone living in the United States and its territories, regardless of gender, age, race, ethnic origin or citizenship.

For your community, county and state, census participation is about legislative representation and money. The 2020 Census will determine how the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives will be allocated to each state, for the next 10 years. Similarly, many states use Census data as part of legislative redistricting processes.

Each year, $675 billion in federal spending comes back to local communities, counties and states through programs that use census data in determining allocations.

They include things like health and medical programs; nutrition assistance and the school lunch program; energy assistance and housing programs. Funds may come back through grants for schools, parks, education and library services, or fire and emergency services.

Of course, a big one is funding for highway and road planning and construction. Regardless of how you use the roads — foot, bicycle, motorcycle, car, truck, or horse and buggy — federal money allocated based on the census affects you.

Census data are also factored into allocation of money through various farm bill and U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Other rural programs that receive funding based on census data include:

• Rural education.

• Rural business enterprise grants.

• Rural home rental assistance.

• Water and waste disposal for rural communities.

• State wildlife grants.

• Rural housing preservation grants.

• Hunter education and safety.

Most people already received invitations to participate in the 2020 Census through mailings that began March 12. They can continue to complete the census online at www.2020census.gov, by phone or by mail with a paper questionnaire.

To encourage more households to self-respond, the Census Bureau sent a seventh mailing, including a paper questionnaire, in late August to early September, to the lowest-responding communities. Some households also may be contacted by phone or email.

Many households in rural areas with no mail delivery to physical addresses, or those who receive mail at U.S. Post Office boxes or by other means, should have received census forms this summer using a non-contact process called “update leave,” where census staff verified the address and dropped off a census form at the door. Those forms still can be mailed in, but even if the form was lost or misplaced, you can still complete the census online or by phone.

On Aug. 9, Census workers began knocking on doors nationwide to follow up with those who had not yet self-responded by internet, phone or mail. Census takers wear masks and other personal protective equipment and are trained in social distancing.

As of Aug. 30, about 64.4% of people self-responded nationwide and 82.4% of U.S. households have been counted in total. Yet, self-response rates in 13 states or territories remain below 60%.

There are rural areas in almost all states — including high-responding states — where response is much lower. To see daily-updated self-response rates down to the local level, visit https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html, and to see state totals, see https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates/nrfu.html.

The goal of the 2020 Census is to get a complete and accurate count. Leadership from farmers, ranchers, ag businesses and rural families is essential for rural communities to benefit from the Census for the next 10 years.

A few ways you can help are:

• Spread the word to friends, neighbors, employees, and others in your community, that it is important to participate in the 2020 Census.

• Remind others that their participation is essential. Some, especially immigrant farm workers, may be concerned about how information about them will be used. By law, the Census Bureau can’t share or disclose anyone’s individual data with any other organization or agency, including law enforcement and immigration enforcement.

• Self-respond online at www.2020census.gov, by phone at 844-330-2020 from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern time, or by mail. Respond online in English or 12 other languages, or receive assistance through language guides and videos available in 59 languages. Or, if a census taker knocks at the door, answer.

Data collection for the 2020 Census ends Sept. 30. Now is the time to stand up and be counted.

https://www.agrinews-pubs.com/2020/09/14/farm-and-rural-families-should-stand-up-and-be-counted-in-the-2020-census/az2inns/

Govt agencies may procure 495 lakh tonnes of rice in 2020-21: Food Ministry

Mon, Sep 14 2020 10:15:15 PM

New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS): Government agencies may set a new record in rice procurement as the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Monday that around 495.37 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of rice has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21.

Previously, actual procurement of paddy (in terms of rice) was 420.22 LMT in KMS 2019-20, which was a record procurement, said the ministry in a statement.

As per the statement, Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution (DoFPD), Government of India, chaired a meeting of State Food Secretaries through video conference on September 11 to discuss the procurement arrangements for ensuing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21.

Around 495.37 LMT of rice has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming KMS 2020-21 (Kharif Crop) season which is 19.07 per cent more than the 416 LMT procurement estimate of KMS 2019-20 (Kharif Crop). In KMS 2019-20 (Kharif Crop), actual procurement of paddy (in terms of rice) was 420.22 LMT.

During ensuing KMS 2020-21, procurement estimates for Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have jumped by 100 per cent and more, and for Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar and Jharkhand are higher by 50 per cent and more in comparison to KMS 2019-20, as per the statement.

The leading states in terms of estimated procurement of rice are Punjab (113 LMT), Chhattisgarh (60 LMT) and Telangana (50 LMT) followed by Haryana (44 LMT), Andhra Pradesh (40 LMT), Uttar Pradesh (37 LMT) and Odisha (37 LMT), said the ministry.

In view of COVID-19, Secretary, DoFPD requested all states to take necessary steps to ensure social distancing during procurement operations. Other issues of states regarding food subsidy were also discussed during the meeting.

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=751109

India may lose basmati rice Iran market to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India could lose its position as leading exporter of basmati rice to Iran, with Tehran now beginning to procure the produce from Pakistan, foreign media reported. For the first time in decades, basmati rice exports from India to Iran have fallen drastically in the first half of 2020-21 owing to disruption in payments, a result of the US-led sanctions.

New Delhi and Tehran are now exploring a conventional barter tradeto address the concerns. The matter was discussed between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif during the former’s recent visit. Iran is now importing basmati rice from Pakistan while Indian consignments worth Rs1,500 crore are stuck owing to payment issues, the sources said.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/715100-india-may-lose-basmati-rice-iran-market-to-pakistan

India may lose Iran basmati rice market to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India could lose its position as the leading exporter of basmati rice to Iran, with Tehran now beginning to procure the produce from Pakistan, foreign media reported.

For the first time in decades, basmati rice exports from India to Iran have fallen drastically in the first half of 2020-21 fiscal owing to disruption in payments, a result of the US-led sanctions. New Delhi and Tehran are now exploring a conventional barter trading system to address the rising concerns.

The matter was discussed between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif during the former’s recent visit to that country. Jaishankar had made a stopover in Tehran while on his way to Moscow last week for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s foreign ministers’ meeting. Iran is now importing basmati rice from Pakistan while Indian consignments worth Rs1,500 crore are stuck owing to payment issues, the sources said.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/715133-india-may-lose-iran-basmati-rice-market-to-pakistan

India may lose basmati rice Iran market to Pakistan

https://agriculture.einnews.com/article_detail/526244892/_fBoa4OvwjPV9TSb?n=2&code=VuZLay2YinrVF2-0&utm_source=NewsletterNews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Basmati+Rice+News&utm_content=article

Rice procurement estimated at 495.37 LMT for Kharif Crop Season of 2020-21

Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD), Government of India, chaired a meeting of State Food Secretaries through video conference on 11.09.2020, to discuss the procurement arrangements for ensuing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21. Around 495.37 LMT rice has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming KMS 2020-21 (Kharif Crop) season which is 19.07% more than the 416 LMT procurement estimate of KMS 2019-20 (Kharif Crop). In KMS 2019-20 (Kharif Crop), actual procurement of paddy (in terms of rice) was 420.22 LMT, which was a record procurement.

During ensuing KMS 2020-21, procurement estimates for Tamil Nadu & Maharashtra have jumped by 100 percent and more, and for Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar and Jharkhand are higher by 50 percent and more in comparison to KMS 2019-20. The leading States in terms of estimated procurement of rice are Punjab (113 LMT), Chhattisgarh (60 LMT) and Telangana (50 LMT) followed by Haryana (44 LMT), Andhra Pradesh (40 LMT), Uttar Pradesh (37 LMT) and Odisha (37 LMT).

In view of COVID-19, Secretary, DoFPD requested all States to take necessary steps to ensure social distancing during procurement operations. Other issues of States regarding food subsidy were also discussed during the meeting.

https://udaipurkiran.com/rice-procurement-estimated-at-495-37-lmt-for-kharif-crop-season-of-2020-21/

Tanzania, Pakistan Set to Address Trade Imbalance in Diplomatic Ties

15 SEPTEMBER 2020

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

By Hilda Mhagama

TANZANIA and Pakistan plan to establish bilateral business council to strengthen commercial ties and cooperation that will accelerate trade between the two countries and reduce trade imbalance.

Pakistan's export in goods and services in 2019/2020 valued at USD 69.8 million while imports from Tanzania valued USD 85 million.

Pakistan major exports include textiles, linens, tents, woven cotton fabric, furniture, rice, machinery parts and accessories.

Main imports from Tanzania were raw cotton, tea, dry fruits, cloves, hides, groundnuts, beans, chickpeas, Arabic gum and wattle extract.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Minister Plenipotentiary, Mr Luangisa Francis said there was no balance of trade between the two countries.

The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) indicate potential exists in enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries.

The key export item around the globe is textiles which can be improvised through effective bilateral talks and measures.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202009160172.html

Unheard of for years, 'Tiger of Terror' finally on Intel radar

· Wed, Sep 16 2020 12:45:54 PM

By Deepak Sharma

New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS): A Kenyan food import company, Magnum Africa, operating from Nairobi has rekindled hopes at the headquarters of India's external Intelligence agency -- RAW -- of locating one of the most sought after fugitives, Tiger Memon, the mastermind of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, which killed 257 people in one of the worst ever terror attacks in the subcontinent.

For the past five years, the elusive Tiger Memon involved in drug trafficking has been literally off the radar of Intel agencies.

Tracking Magnum Africa's dealings in Pakistan has disclosed that under the garb of trade-in grains the company was involved in an international drug trafficking racket. On paper, Magnum imported high-quality rice and other grains from Pakistan but its real deals were related to narcotics.

Tracking a 35kg heroin deal, smuggled from Karachi into India, the police caught Abdul Majid alias Moosa in February 2020.

Description: http://www.tvdaijiworld.com/images6/asha_16920_tigermmn.jpg

Moosa, an accused in serial blasts, is considered Tiger Memon's right-hand man. Moosa was arrested at the Mumbai airport while he was on his way to Dubai from Nairobi. Moosa's subsequent interrogation sheds light on Tiger Memon's whereabouts.

The Intelligence dossier on the 'Tiger of Terror' says the 59-year-old Memon sought help from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to execute serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.

While Dawood Ibrahim's specific addresses in Karachi have been traced, Tiger Memon remains almost unheard of, untraceable thus elusive.

"We have enough evidence against Dawood Ibrahim's presence in Karachi, but we have little information to go on in Tiger Memon's case, who is the prime accused..., " says Ujjwal Nikam, the chief prosecutor of the serial blasts.

The last time when police traced Tiger Memon, it was in July 2015. Tiger had called his mother in Mumbai, hours before his younger brother Yakub was hanged for his role in the Mumbai serial blasts.

In the three minutes telephonic conversation with his mother, Tiger had vowed to avenge the hanging of Yakub. Since then Tiger has not been heard of.

"We have sent several Interpol notices to Pakistan to track and arrest Tiger Memon. But there was not even a whisper from the other side. On our files, Tiger, the mastermind of the serial blasts, is an absconder.

"Though the trial has ended, we still await his arrest. The moment he is caught, a fresh charge sheet would be filed on the basis of the evidence already placed before the court," said Nikam, the special public prosecutor in several leading terror cases, including the Mumbai bombings.

Sources said that after executing the Mumbai serial blasts, Tiger Memon escaped to Pakistan and lived in Karachi's Gulshan-e-Iqbal area. Later on, he shifted his base to the posh Defence Housing Area in the same city. Though Dawood and his brother Anees Ibrahim also live in Karachi, sources said that Tiger Memon and the D company have separate businesses.

Tiger Memon, mostly involved in drug trafficking has also launched a few prime construction projects in Karachi. Apart from organized crime operations, Tiger Memon also runs guest houses and hotels in Dubai.

The charge sheet in Mumbai serial blasts says that Tiger Memon had roped in Moosa to help him in the execution of bombings on March 15, 1993. Moosa, on his instructions, had bought three scooters that were used in the blasts.

After the serial blasts, Moosa fled to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, and from there he went to Bangkok. Later, Memon got him a Pakistani passport under the name of Anwar Muhammed.

Sources said Moosa then shifted to Nairobi and has been running Magnum Africa, initially involved in the import of rice from Pakistan.

https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay.aspx?newsID=751645

Growing climate-resilient crops imperative: speakers

Staff Correspondent

For a number of years, rice cultivation in haor areas, which account for one-fifth of the total rice production in Bangladesh, has been bearing the brunt of climate change.

To tackle this, rice growers in the haor regions need short-duration, cold-tolerant and high yielding varieties, said Additional Agriculture Secretary Kamalaranjan Das.

He made the remark at an online workshop, organised by International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) yesterday.

A new five-year research project -- "Development of Short-duration Cold-tolerant Rice Varieties for haor Areas of Bangladesh", funded by Krishi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF), was launched at the workshop.

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) is a partner of this project.

The additional secretary said this new project would help bring a positive change in the lives of the haor people and also contribute to food and nutrition security.

Boro paddy is the main crop in haor areas. But almost every year, flash flood in April caused by heavy rainfall in the upstream submerge almost the entire Boro yield in this region. The Boro season usually begins in mid-November, but many farmers start sowing in late October to avoid flash flood.

BRRI Director General Md Shahjahan Kabir said population of Bangladesh is increasing at the rate of 1.37 percent per year, but arable land is decreasing at 0.4 percent.

He said the global climate change has been continuously challenging the country's food security.

Saying that there is about 1.26 million hectares of cultivable land in the northeastern haor areas where farmers can grow only one crop every year, the scientist said flash flood often damages that only crop, putting Bangladesh's food security in jeopardy.

"That is why BRRI and IRRI have been trying to develop cold and submergence tolerant varieties. With this aim, BRRI has already collected germplasms from South Korea, Nepal and Japan and have finished their characterisation," he added.

KGF Executive Director Dr Jiban Krishna Biswas said Boro rice is faced with two adverse conditions in the haor areas.

"This project is expected to develop varieties that could stand up to these adverse conditions -- low temperature and flash flood - and also give high yield," Biswas said.

IRRI Director General Dr Mathew Morrell said the critical climactic challenges that the haor areas in Bangladesh face are going to intensify in the future due to the global climate change.

"So, developing cold tolerant, short duration and high yielding rice varieties is an imperative for building resilience," he added.

IRRI's Head of Plant Breeding Division Dr Hansraj Bhadwaj, South Asia Representative Dr Nafees Meah and Bangladesh Representative Dr Humnath Bhandari were present at the workshop, among others.

https://www.thedailystar.net/city/news/growing-climate-resilient-crops-imperative-speakers-1961473 https://www.kws24.com/research-on-brown-rice-market-impact-of-covid-19-2020-2026-ashasia-golden-rice-daawat/

BRRI-IRRI launch project to develop new rice varieties for haor areas

Tribune Desk

· Published at 06:37 pm September 14th, 2020

Description: Web_Sunamganj-haor

File photo: Farmers seen ploughing their agricultural land in a Haor in Sunamganj Dhaka Tribune

For a number of years, rice cultivation in the haor areas, which account for one-fifth of the total rice production in Bangladesh, has been bearing the brunt of climate change

A five-year research project has been launched to develop new rice varieties for the haor areas in Bangladesh.

The project, titled "Development of Short-duration Cold-tolerant Rice Varieties for Haor Areas of Bangladesh" was launched at a workshop organized by International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) on Monday.

The project will be funded by Krishi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF). Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) is a partner of the project.

For a number of years, rice cultivation in the haor areas, which account for one-fifth of the total rice production in Bangladesh, has been bearing the brunt of climate change. To tackle the problem, rice growers in the haor regions need short-duration, cold-tolerant and high yielding varieties of rice. The purpose of this project is to develop such varieties of rice.

Regarding the project, Additional Agriculture Secretary Kamalaranjan Das said: “IRRI-Bangladesh ties go a long way back. IRRI has played a crucial role in ensuring food security in the country. We hope that this new project will help bring a positive change in the lives of the haor people and also contribute towards food and nutrition security across the country.”

KGF Executive Director Dr Jiban Krishna Biswas said: “Boro rice is sandwiched by two adverse conditions in the haor areas. Any deviation from these conditions damages the crop. So, this project is expected to develop varieties of rice that could stand up to these adverse conditions - low temperature and flash flood - and also give high yield.”

IRRI Director General Dr Mathew Morrell said: “The critical climatic challenges that the haor areas in Bangladesh face are going to intensify in the future due to global climate change. So, developing cold tolerant, short duration and high yielding rice varieties is imperative for building resilience.”

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/agriculture/2020/09/14/brri-irri-launch-project-to-develop-new-rice-varieties-for-haor-areas

Matco Foods Limited

BR Research 16 Sep 2020

Description: https://i.brecorder.com/primary/2020/09/5f60d1674ad38.jpg

Matco Foods Limited (PSX: MFL) was established in 1964, as a private limited company under the repealed Companies Ordinance, 1984. It is primarily in the business of processing and exporting rice, rice glucose, rice protein. It also trades biscuits, pink salt, bran oil, masala, and kheer.

Three years after inception, in 1967 it set up its first rice processing plant in Larkana, Sindh. Since then it has added to its production capacity and product portfolio. By 1999, it had developed its own brand name “Falak” under which it sold its products. Today the company has five processing plants and apart from catering to the domestic markets, Matco Foods also exports to USA, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Middle East, Australia, and South Africa among many others.

Shareholding pattern

Matco Foods Limited is largely owned by its directors, CEO, their spouses, and minor children; together they hold 60 percent of the shares of the company. Within this category, Dr. Tariq Ghori, Mr. Khalid Sarfaraz Ghori and Mr. Jawed Ali Ghori own the highest number of shares- almost 20 percent each. About 11 percent is distributed with the local general public while 15 percent is held by the foreign shareholders. The latter solely includes International Finance Corporation. It first became an investor in the company fairly recently in 2012. The remaining about 14 percent of the shares of Matco Foods is with the rest of the categories.

Description: https://i.brecorder.com/large/2020/09/5f60d19b80d44.jpg

Historical operational performance

Matco Foods has seen four consecutive years of positive topline growth with growth rate also on a rise. This was subsequent to a period of negative growth rate between FY14 to FY16. However, despite the positive topline growth seen in the last four years, profitability has not followed suit. Rather, it has declined owing to a consistently rising cost of production that has remained above 80 percent and crossed the 90 percent in FY20.

Description: https://i.brecorder.com/large/2020/09/5f60d19be42ee.jpg

Looking at the results of the last two years specifically, in FY18 when the company went public, the company saw a nearly 10 percent incline in its topline. This was due to a combination of factors; favourable export prices in the international rice market, exchange gain on export sales and tax benefit due to installation of Rice Glucose Plant (Phase 1) in addition to company listing. During the year, the company also exported its first rice glucose container.

Moreover, it focused on high margin basmati rice which was essentially responsible for a value terms growth of almost 22 percent in export sales. In quantitative terms there was a 16 percent decline due to “absence of tender business” and decline in IRRI export; the quantity of which was deliberately cut due to low margins.

Description: https://i.brecorder.com/large/2020/09/5f60d19bb0843.jpg

Despite the higher revenue from sales as well as exchange gain, profit margins were comparatively low due to high costs. Main cost driver for the company was the rice consumed that made 90 percent of the total cost. Cost of production as a percentage of revenue rose to 87 percent keeping profit margins lower than the previous year.

In FY19, topline registered a near 17 percent incline. This was due to focusing on high margin basmati rice. Pakistan’s overall rice exports also saw an improvement as they increased by almost 10 percent. Despite the increase in revenue, gross margins reduced further year on year due to a gradual rise in costs of production, mainly driven by rice consumed. The company collectively earned Rs 260 million from a net exchange gain and other income. The latter rose as a result of gain on sale of property, plant, and equipment. This allowed net margin to improve marginally.

Description: https://i.brecorder.com/large/2020/09/5f60d19bdbe16.jpg

Risks

The company sells more in the international market than it does in the domestic market. Some of the risks the company faces as an industry player are increased input costs arising due to inflation, competition and entrants of new competitors, risks associated with fluctuating exchange rate, production and harvesting of rice crop, interest rate risk and government regulations.

Recent results and future outlook

Matco Foods saw the highest jump in sales revenue in FY20 at 44 percent. A major chunk of this, about 40 percent of the revenue was earned in the last quarter of FY20. During the year, Pakistan’s overall rice exports also crossed the $ 2.1 billion mark. News reports suggest that due to the outbreak of Covid-19, a lot of the sectors saw exports and orders faltering, similar situation was faced by the rice sector. However, when India, another major rice exporter in the region went under a strict lock down, a lot of the orders, majorly from the Middle East were directed towards Pakistan, that allowed latter’s rice exports to pick up.

Matco Foods has been consistently expanding its product portfolio, adding varieties of salt, gur shakkar, and various kinds of kheer in addition to focusing on brand development that may give way for better profits in the future.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40018786

Ilocos Norte gets P4-M prize as Agri-Pinoy rice achiever

By Leilanie Adriano September 15, 2020, 5:43 pm

BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY. A rice farmer in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte applies fertilizer to sustain his rice crops. To boost farmers' productivity, the government also provides farming inputs. (PNA photo by Leilanie G. Adriano)

LAOAG CITY – The province of Ilocos Norte continues to lead the way in terms of rice sufficiency as it hit again its rice production target with a surplus of more than 150 percent.

Recognized as one of the country’s top 10 rice producers, Ilocos Norte was awarded PHP4 million check recently through Department of Agriculture (DA) regional director Nestor Domenden, as an Agri-Pinoy rice achiever.

The turnover of the check coincided with the distribution of multi-million farm machinery and equipment to further inspire Ilocos Norte farmers to boost their productivity.

According to provincial agriculturist Norma Lagmay, the PHP4 million prize will be utilized to help rice farmers improve their way of life in the face of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

The DA-initiated Agri-Pinoy Rice Achiever’s Award identifies the top 10 rice-producing communities in the country. The competition is divided into three categories: Local Government Units (LGUs), Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs), and Irrigators Associations (IAs) for the regional level and national level.

Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority data, the volume of rice production in Region 1 had an increment of 6,033 metric tons from 488,855 metric tons production in 2019 to 494,887.85 metric tons production in 2020.

La Union recorded the highest growth at 19.83 percent, followed by Ilocos Sur at 2.42 percent, Ilocos Norte at 2.42 percent, and Pangasinan at 0.91 percent.

As to yield, the province of Ilocos Sur registered the highest level yield per hectare at 5.30 metric tons, followed by Ilocos Norte at 5.21 metric tons, La Union at 4.92 metric tons, and Pangasinan at 4.74 metric tons.

In receiving the award, Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc said in a virtual interview Tuesday that agriculture remains to be a top priority under his administration. (PNA)

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1115510

Machinery: A growing feature of farming

Sorn Sarath / Khmer Times

Farmers harvesting rice paddy by machine. KT/Chor Sokunthea

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has been working with the private sector and development partners to integrate the use of agricultural machinery into middle-class farming communities to respond to the current and future decline in the agricultural workforce.

Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon said that to implement the government’s vision to modernise Cambodia’s agriculture sector, MAFF’s General Department of Agricultural Engineering has been making great efforts in research and cooperation with relevant parties to gradually promote the use of machinery in line with relevant geographical characteristics, the size of a farmer’s land and his or her resources.

“We have seen a decrease in the workforce in the agriculture sector recently, so we need a strategy to deal with the challenges this is creating,” he said. “Our research shows that Cambodia has mostly smallholders…so we need to increase the use of small machinery that can benefit them according to the resources available to them.”

Sakhon said that the Kingdom’s workforce in agriculture in 1993 was more than 80 percent and so far has decreased to about 32 percent. He expects that it will continue to decline to around 20 percent by 2050.

“Now the use of machinery in farming and harvesting has reached 90 percent and we are integrating new technology that allows farmers to increase their harvests as well,” he said.

While most farmers may not be able to afford some kinds of machinery, the minister said that the ministry is cooperating with the private sector to provide leasing services to their communes to help farmers who are not be able to buy the equipment.

Last week, the government via MAFF offered 130 rice-planting machines to a farming community in Takeo province’s Prey Kabas district.

Marin Udom, deputy general-manager of the agriculture equipment division of RMA Cambodia, said that most farmers cannot afford their products outright so they need a loan to buy the equipment.

“Farmers do not have enough money and they need a loan from a bank which currently comes with very strict terms. We are a supplier and the government as well as MAFF should urge loan providers to ease and facilitate the process of lending,” he said.

Udom added that during the current COVID-19 pandemic, farmers are finding it more difficult to get loan approvals and they rely on their children who work in manufacturing, which is also affected by Coronavirus, for revenue.

“Now those who need to buy new agriculture equipment, the banks can lend them only 50 percent of its cost when before they provided up to 70 to 80 percent,” he noted.

Udom said on average RMA Cambodia could sell about 300 units a year and this year sales declined.

The government aims to make Cambodia a high middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050. At the same time, it has an ambition to modernise Cambodia’s agricultural sector to be more competitive, environmentally resilient and sustainable in order to increase the income of farmers’ families, expand prosperity and improve the wellbeing of the Cambodian people.

China-based Zoomlion Heavy Industry and Technology Co Ltd in September handed over agricultural machinery to MAFF to contribute to modernising agricultural work in Cambodia.

Sakhon said the modernisation of the agriculture sector is also a new approach and has the scope to develop it, focusing on intensive production, relying mainly on the use of new technology, research and development, mechanisation as well as increasing irrigation capacity
to raise productivity and diversify crops and markets.

Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture show that in 2020 the rice harvest increased to more than 85 percent of the total cultivated area. In particular, the use of tools for sowing and planting rice are also on the rise, as they are for planting vegetables, irrigating, fertilising and harvesting potatoes.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50764036/machinery-a-growing-feature-of-farming/

Haryana Rice millers up in arms against new CMR policy

· Posted: Sep 15, 2020 07:31 AM (IST)

· Updated : 1 day ago

Karnal, September 14

Unhappy with the new Custom Milled Rice (CMR) policy 2020-21, state’s rice millers are not showing interest in getting themselves registered for paddy procurement.

They claimed that the new policy was not miller-friendly. They said the government had raised the FD guarantee to Rs 50 lakh for the first tonne of paddy from Rs 10 lakh earlier and Rs 10 lakh per tonne further from Rs 5 lakh. The millers demanded the government to go with the CMR policy applicable 2 years ago.

PK Das, Additional Chief Secretary, said around 200 rice millers got themselves registered for the CMR policy and were hopeful that around 500 more would get themselves registered. He said they were looking into the demands of the rice millers and some relaxation could be given in the policy. — TNS

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/rice-millers-up-in-arms-against-new-cmr-policy-141351

Farmers' group urged DA to buy all local palay to be harvested in coming months

Published September 15, 2020 1:18pm

By JON VIKTOR D. CABUENAS, GMA News

SINAG said that at P19 per kilogram, the P14 billion will only be able to buy 739,842 metric tons (MT) of palay. This is equivalent to only 8.18% of the total expected palay harvest of 9 million MT.

For its part, the DA assured farmers bigger earnings, as it claimed it will take the "extra mile" by picking up the produce from their respective barangays.

According to NFA Region 3 director Elvira Obaña, they target to buy a total of 1,747,700 bags of palay from farmers in Central Luzon starting this month until the end of the year.

"Their direct procurement will significantly shore up the national average farmgate price of palay, thus helping more farmers," he said.—AOL, GMA News

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/755634/farmers-group-urged-da-to-buy-all-local-palay-to-be-harvested-in-coming-months/story/

Unleash the ducks! Thai drought worries threaten farming tradition

SEPTEMBER 15, 20201:08 PMUPDATED 20 HOURS AGO

By Prapan Chankaew

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand (Reuters) - After harvesting the rice crop in this part of central Thailand, a flock of around 10,000 ducks is released from a pen and instinctively stream towards the flooded fields to devour pests such as snails hiding in the rice stubble.

This way of raising ducks in rice-growing areas has long been a tradition in the area and other parts of the region. Thais call it “ped lai thoong”, which means “field chasing ducks”.

The Khaki Campbell ducks, a British breed, are brought to the fields after 20 days in nursery and will be raised on the move for the next few months.

After roaming free for about five months, they are returned to the farm to produce eggs for up to three years.

“The benefit (for the breeder) is that we reduce costs to feed the ducks,” said Apiwat Chalermklin, 34, a breeder who took over the business from his father.

“And in return, for the rice farmer the ducks help eat pests from the farm and the farmers can reduce the use of chemicals and pesticides.”

On Sunday, Apiwat’s ducks appear to be finding plenty of pests such as snails and insects to feed on during their field-cleaning job that he expects to last a week in this 15 acre (67 hectares) farm.

Apiwat has four flocks of ducks that move around different rice fields in Nakhon Pathom province where farmers typically cultivate three rice crops every year.

“They help eat golden apple snails and remains of unwanted rice husks that drop into the field from last harvest. The ducks also step on the rice stubble to flatten the ground and make it easier to plough,” said farmer Prang Sipipat.

For now, farmers say the system works well for both the duck raiser and rice grower, but even though there has not been drought in Nakhon Pathom they are worried about the threat.

Thailand, which is the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, faces a prolonged drought affecting many growing areas this year.

Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Stephen Coates

https://www.reuters.com/article/thailand-ducks/unleash-the-ducks-thai-drought-worries-threaten-farming-tradition-idINKBN26610S

Leaders to learn online

by OLIVIA DUFFEY

Description: https://d3pbdxdl8c65wb.cloudfront.net/cloudinary/2020/Sep/15/B23jHN3LxRxOd2clbRdw.jpg

The annual Rice Industry Leadership Program will be hosted online this year.

As part of the program, the Ricegrowers Association of Australia will offer a series of online professional development workshops focused on ‘‘upskilling the next generation of leaders for industry and communities’’.

The introductory level workshops will cover topics like time management, communication skills and public speaking.

They will be facilitated by Josh Farr from Campus Consultancy.

RGA leadership coordinator Ainsley Massina said the program would traditionally bring emerging leaders together in one place for a residential program.

She said when that option was abandoned due to Coronavirus restrictions, the RGA reassigned funding for the program to develop the online format.

‘‘We are always looking for people to take on leadership roles in the industry and these skills will assist them with that,’’ she said.

‘‘But the skills are also important to people running their own business or even studying.

‘‘We understand a thriving community and thriving businesses, regardless of the type of business, are vital to the rice industry’s success.’’

The workshop is fully subsidised for eligible participants, who must live in or be connected to a rice growing community.

Workshops on each topic are limited to only 30 participants, so registering early is strongly encouraged.

Applications for the time management program close this Thursday, and the program will take place from 9am to 2pm on September 22.

The communication skills program deadline is October 1, and the session will be held from 9am to 2pm on October 6.

The public speaking workshop will be held from 9am to 2pm on October 20, with registration closing on October 15.

For more information or to register, go to www.rga.org.au.

https://www.corowafreepress.com.au/deniliquin-news/2020/09/15/1605773/leaders-to-learn-online

Uncharted territory: Legal experts weigh in on the COVID-19 outbreak

Credit: fivepointsix/iStock

The spread of the new coronavirus has affected people all over the world, and state and local governments are taking sweeping actions to halt the spread of the disease and mitigate the public health and economic impact of the outbreak.

HLS scholars and legal experts consider the important legal and policy concerns and challenges that have emerged—including those involving civil liberties, privacy, historical precedent, and economic impact—as cities, states and countries respond to the epidemic.

The following selection of their articles and op-eds will be updated regularly.

The Genetic Engineering Genie Is Out of the Bottle

An article by Vivek Wadhwa: Usually good for a conspiracy theory or two, U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that the virus causing COVID-19 was either intentionally engineered or resulted from a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Its release could conceivably have involved an accident, but the pathogen isn’t the mishmash of known viruses that one would expect from something designed in a lab, as a research report in Nature Medicine conclusively lays out. “If someone were seeking to engineer a new coronavirus as a pathogen, they would have constructed it from the backbone of a virus known to cause illness,” the researchers said. But if genetic engineering wasn’t behind this pandemic, it could very well unleash the next one. With COVID-19 bringing Western economies to their knees, all the world’s dictators now know that pathogens can be as destructive as nuclear missiles. What’s even more worrying is that it no longer takes a sprawling government lab to engineer a virus. Thanks to a technological revolution in genetic engineering, all the tools needed to create a virus have become so cheap, simple, and readily available that any rogue scientist or college-age biohacker can use them, creating an even greater threat. Experiments that could once only have been carried out behind the protected walls of government and corporate labs can now practically be done on the kitchen table with equipment found on Amazon. Genetic engineering—with all its potential for good and bad—has become democratized.

Continue Reading at Foreign Policy »

How to Fight Back Against Coronavirus Vaccine Phobia

An article by Cass Sunstein: The world is soon likely to confront a serious new challenge to the fight against Covid-19: vaccine hesitancy. In the U.S. and U.K., large numbers of people — at least 30 percent — have said in recent surveys that they would hesitate to take or refuse a vaccine that could protect them from the coronavirus and slow its spread. These numbers probably understate the problem. People might tell a researcher that they will get vaccinated even if they won’t. And the problem might be even worse if a vaccine is made available under a speeded up “emergency use” exception to the usually lengthy approval process, amplifying public concerns about rushing it out. What can be done? To answer that question, we need to understand why some people are reluctant to take vaccines. Research explores the influence of three factors, often known as the three Cs. The first is convenience. Human beings suffer from inertia, and they also procrastinate. If it’s not so easy to get vaccinated, many people won’t do it. Physical proximity to vaccination sites helps; so do short waiting times. Long lines hurt. So do paperwork requirements and administrative obstacles. If widespread immunity is the goal, officials must not underestimate the importance of eliminating inconveniences, both small and large. The good news is that when vaccines are easily available, the rate of vaccination increases greatly, even among people who have doubts. The second factor is complacency. With respect to diseases, a lot of people tend to think that their personal risk is low. “Optimism bias,” as it is called, makes vaccination seem unnecessary. The third factor is confidence: public trust in the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, and also in the motivations and competence of those who are behind it.

Continue Reading at Bloomberg »

We Should Cheer Quick FDA Approval of a Covid-19 Vaccine

An article by Noah Feldman: With each passing day, there is more reason to think that President Donald Trump’s Food and Drug Administration may issue an emergency use authorization for two or more Covid-19 vaccines in late October. In an ideal world, this would be terrific news. We are, after all, in the grip of a major global emergency. Roughly 1,000 Americans die from the virus every day, or roughly one every 80 seconds. A vaccine would save lives. Yet an emergency use authorization, or EUA, is likely to be met with pervasive skepticism by many Americans, and not only Democrats. The reason isn’t hard to see. Trump has tried over the last four years to politicize nearly every aspect of independent judgment by government officials. He has delegitimized agencies like the Department of Justice and the FBI, which he sees as threats, and attacked institutions from the judiciary to the post office when it has suited his political purposes. Now, Trump (and the rest of us) are about to inherit the whirlwind. At precisely the moment when we could benefit massively from public trust in independent agency judgment, our trust is shot. Trump critics have become accustomed to distrusting Trump’s agencies, much as Trump himself has somewhat successfully convinced his own supporters that there is no such thing as governmental objectivity or independence, but only politics all the way down. Even if there is good reason for the EUA to be issued and for people who have the opportunity to receive the vaccines to do so, some — perhaps many — rational people aren’t going to trust the FDA enough to make that choice.

Continue Reading at Bloomberg »

https://today.law.harvard.edu/roundup/uncharted-territory-legal-experts-weigh-in-on-the-covid-19-outbreak/

DA urges C. Luzon farmers to sell palay to NFA

By Zorayda Tecson September 15, 2020, 7:00 pm

PALAY PROCUREMENT. Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar encourages farmers to sell their palay to National Food Authority that buys the grains at a higher price compared to private rice traders. Dar graced the inauguration of the Research Outreach Station in Magalang, Pampanga on Monday (Sept. 14, 2020). (Photo by DA-Central Luzon)

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – The Department of Agriculture (DA) is urging rice farmers in Central Luzon to sell their palay (unhusked rice) to the National Food Authority (NFA), which buys grains at a higher price.

DA Secretary William Dar, in his visit to Magalang town, this province on Monday for the inauguration of the Research Outreach Station, said NFA which is under the DA, started procuring dry palay at PHP19 per kilo this month.

“NFA is buying dry palay with 14 percent moisture content at PHP19 per kilo,” Dar said.

He said he earlier received reports that farmers could not sell their palay as private rice traders were offering to buy their produce at only PHP11 per kilo.

“I am now telling them to connect with NFA. The NFA is buying all the palay produce now for buffer stocking. They have the capacity to buy more,” he said.

Dar particularly cited the NFA-Tarlac which has the capacity to buy some 500,000 bags of dry palay.

At present, he said the NFA-Tarlac has only procured 28,000 bags of the grains.

The secretary also said that he instructed the NFA to immediately mill the palay then sell it to local government units (LGUs) or the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and subsequently roll over the amount and to buy more from farmers.

“What they can buy now, they will mill and then sell, to buy more. So that is what we will do,” Dar said.

Likewise, he encouraged farmers to go to their cooperative/association which will coordinate with NFA in selling their produce.

Meanwhile, NFA-Region 3 Director Elvira Obaña said they target to buy a total of 1,747,700 bags of palay from farmers in Central Luzon starting this month until the end of the year. (PNA)

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1115483#:~:text=CITY%20OF%20SAN%20FERNANDO%2C%20Pampanga,grains%20at%20a%20higher%20price.

Rice-to-fiberboard firm, after default, wants to borrow $53 million more

September 14, 2020, 5:05 p.m. EDT2 Min Read

A company building a novel factory in California that has defaulted on its debt payments is seeking the state’s approval to sell an additional $53 million in tax-exempt bonds.

CalPlant I LLC, constructing the world’s first facility converting rice cultivation debris into fiberboard, will appear before the California Pollution Control Financing Authority on Tuesday for its request to borrow more, according to a company filing and the agency’s agenda.

Description: https://arizent.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0b50339/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2999x1598+0+68/resize/840x448!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsource-media-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2f%2F4c%2Fd23a471e4f1abad53c866d26a627%2F231754076.jpg

Bags of rice prepared for shipment from the Port of Sacramento. Municipal bonds are funding construction of a California facility to convert rice production debris to fiberboard.

Bloomberg News

Proceeds will go to the operation’s costs and not to cover debt service for its previous unrated tax-free bonds, the company’s filing said. The firm skipped a July payment on a $228 million issue sold in 2017, although it has continued to meet obligations for last year’s $74 million deal. The company plans to get the consent of its bondholders before issuing the debt.

The request will test California’s appetite for such ventures that are intended to produce economic and environmental benefits and will also gauge investors’ risk tolerance. Already, a company backed by Fortress Investment Group private equity funds plans to sell a record amount of unrated municipal bonds this month to finance a passenger train to Las Vegas from a Mojave Desert town, after California and Nevada officials granted the company the states’ limited allotment of municipal bonds for such projects.

Amid low rates, bond buyers have moved further down in credit quality in search of fatter returns. Still, for the past three weeks, investors have yanked cash out of municipal-bond high-yield funds, according to Refinitiv Lipper US Fund Flows data.

Project Woes

CalPlant has run into many troubles during construction. Last month, fire swept through its storage yard holding the fiberboard material called rice straw, and last week, insurance adviser Marsh USA Inc. said it’s not “commercially feasible” for the company to get property coverage for construction risks under the terms of its policy that expired in August.

A report from the California financing agency on CalPlant’s request couldn’t be disclosed yet, according to Spencer Walker, attorney for California Treasurer Fiona Ma. He also declined to state her position on the matter. CalPlant is responsible for debt payments, not the agency issuing the bonds on its behalf.

Elizabeth Whalen, a spokesperson for CalPlant, declined to comment on the proposed financing.

“The plant startup and commissioning specialists returned to Willows in August after leaving the site in March for Germany due to the pandemic,” she said by email. “We anticipate starting the plant in November 2020.”

https://www.bondbuyer.com/articles/rice-to-fiberboard-firm-after-default-wants-to-borrow-53-million-more#:~:text=Private%20activity%20bonds-,Rice%2Dto%2Dfiberboard%20firm%2C%20after%20default%2C%20wants,to%20borrow%20%2453%20million%20more&text=A%20company%20building%20a%20novel,million%20in%20tax%2Dexempt%20bonds.

Nigeria reels from twin crises that threaten food availability

By Libby George

4 MIN READ

ABUJA (Reuters) - Mal Shehu Ladan took a boat across what was, until this month, a growing rice paddy. Now, like thousands of hectares of rice in Nigeria’s Kebbi state, it is under water.

few birds he has

“Almost all my farm has been flooded. I didn’t harvest any rice,” Ladan told Reuters. “It’s going to be devastating.”

Farther south, outside Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, chicken farmer Hippolite Adigwe is also worried. A shortage of maize forced him to sell most of his flock of more than 1,000 birds, and the 300 left are hungry. Chicken feed prices have more than doubled, and he isn’t sure how long he can cope.

Twin crises, floods and maize shortages, come just after movement restrictions and financing difficulties caused by COVID-19 containment measures complicated spring planting.

Some farmers and economists say it could push Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, into a food crisis. Rice is the country’s staple grain, and chicken is a core protein.

“There is a real fear of having food shortages,” Arc Kabir Ibrahim, president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria told Reuters. “The effect on the food system is going to be colossal.”

Nigeria took roughly 4,000 tons of millet and sorghum from the regional economic bloc’s (ECOWAS) strategic stocks last month and released 30,000 tons of its own maize. It also gave four companies special permission to import maize.

The prominent Nigerian Economic Summit Group has called for “a complete overhaul” of agriculture policy.

People stand outside after their houses were destroyed following heavy rains in Kebbi state, Nigeria in this handout picture taken September, 2020. SEMA/Handout via REUTERS

Importers can use dollars from pricier parallel markets. But these are tough to find due to an oil price crash that has cut Nigeria’s core source of foreign exchange.

SWITCHING GRAINS

Rice prices had already risen substantially due to a land border closure last year that aimed to stamp out smuggling and boost local production.

Farmers say that consumers grappling with inflation, the first hike in fuel prices since 2016 and a power price spike can only pay so much more for food.

Ayodeji Balogun, chief executive at commodities exchange Afex, said the central bank’s lending scheme for farmers has significantly expanded output, and can work long term.

But the coming months will be tough. Fertilizer prices hit a record after a COVID-19 outbreak shut down country’s sole urea plant for two weeks, meaning more farmers will skip fertilizers, limiting crop yields.

“The worst is yet to happen,” Balogun said. “It is a problem across grains.”

Adigwe, the chicken farmer, said he thinks barring foreign food in order to help farmers is not a bad idea, but “there are some factors that were not considered.”

“Can local production sustain the population of Nigeria?”

Reporting by Libby George; Additional reporting by Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, Abraham Achirga in Abuja and Angela Ukumadu in Lagos; Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-food-crisis/nigeria-reels-from-twin-crises-that-threaten-food-availability-idUSKBN2652IZ

Country's three major grains in stable supply

By YANG WANLI | China Daily | Updated: 2020-09-15 09:00

Women perform a dragon dance on Saturday to celebrate a red rice harvest in Jinlong village of Kaiyang county, Guizhou province. QIAO QIMING/FOR CHINA DAILY

China's three major cereal grains - wheat, rice and corn - will continue to see stable output, ensuring the country's food security, said the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration.

Reserves of wheat and rice recently hit a record high, Wang Xiaohui, deputy director of the China National Grain and Oils Information Center, said on Friday.

Wheat is expected to see production outstrip demand by about 14 million metric tons during seasonal sales next year, Wang said, adding that rice is also expected to see production surpass demand by about 17 million tons.

The administration said that government summer cereal purchases will end soon, with about 50 million tons of wheat and 4.72 million tons of rice already purchased from major production areas by the end of August.

Average prices for government purchased wheat was 2.36 yuan ($0.35) per kilogram, an increase of 0.06 to 0.1 yuan compared to last year, the administration said.

Compared to government purchases, summer wheat and rice purchases on the open market took a bigger share - 87 percent and 90 percent, respectively - said Qin Yuyun, head of the administration's food reserves department.

Qin also said that China is expected to see a bumper autumn harvest amid smooth production if no major natural disasters occur in the following months.

China's cereal output consists of early rice, summer grain and autumn production-which includes corn, and middle- and late-season rice, and accounts for three-quarters of the year's grain production.

"In order to improve farmer enthusiasm, government purchase prices for middle-and late-rice were raised to 2.54 yuan per kg," Qin said. "Moreover, we will intensify the inspection of illegal activities that disturb the market order."

As China's soybean consumption mainly relies on imports, Wang said China has continued to expand its soybean planting area, and annual output is expected to hit 19.2 million tons by the end of the year.

However, he said the cost of soybean imports might rise in the coming months as the United States and Brazil, two major soybean exporters, are facing logistical challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters.

https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202009/15/WS5f60122aa3101ccd0bee0570.html

Rice procurement estimated at 495.37 lakh tonnes in Kharif season of 2020-21

"Around 495.37 lakh tonnes rice has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming KMS 2020-21 season which is 19.07 percent more than the 416 lakh tonnes procurement estimate of KMS 2019-20," an official statement said.

PTI

The food ministry on September 14 said the rice procurement is estimated at 495.37 lakh tonnes in the kharif season of 2020-21 marketing year.

The secretary in the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), Sudhanshu Pandey, chaired a meeting of state food secretaries through video conference on September 11 to discuss the procurement arrangements for ensuing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21.

Paddy is mainly grown in Kharif (summer sown) season. "Around 495.37 lakh tonnes rice has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming KMS 2020-21 season which is 19.07 percent more than the 416 lakh tonnes procurement estimate of KMS 2019-20," an official statement said.

During ensuing KMS 2020-21, procurement estimates for Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have jumped by 100 percent and more, and for Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar and Jharkhand are higher by 50 percent and more in comparison to KMS 2019-20.

The leading states in terms of estimated procurement of rice are Punjab (113 lakh tonnes), Chhattisgarh (60 lakh tonnes) and Telangana (50 lakh tonnes) followed by Haryana (44 lakh tonnes), Andhra Pradesh (40 lakh tonnes), Uttar Pradesh (37 lakh tonnes) and Odisha (37 lakh tonnes).

In view of COVID-19, states have been requested to take necessary steps to ensure social distancing during procurement operations. Other issues of states regarding food subsidy were also discussed during the meeting.

First Published on Sep 14, 2020 10:35 pm

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/economy/rice-procurement-estimated-at-495-37-lakh-tonnes-in-kharif-season-of-2020-21-5839351.html

Haryana Rice millers up in arms against new CMR policy

· Posted: Sep 15, 2020 07:31 AM (IST)

Karnal, September 14

Unhappy with the new Custom Milled Rice (CMR) policy 2020-21, state’s rice millers are not showing interest in getting themselves registered for paddy procurement.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/haryana-rice-millers-up-in-arms-against-new-cmr-policy-141351

Govt agencies may procure 495 lakh tonnes of rice in 2020-21: Food Ministry

Date

9/14/2020 4:02:56 PM

(MENAFN - IANS)

New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) Government agencies may set a new record in rice procurement as the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Monday that around 495.37 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of rice has been estimated for procurement during the forthcoming Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21.

Previously, actual procurement of paddy (in terms of rice) was 420.22 LMT in KMS 2019-20, which was a record procurement, said the ministry in a statement.

--IANS

pj/kr

MENAFN1409202002310000ID1100796754

:https://menafn.com/1100796754/Govt-agencies-may-procure-495-lakh-tonnes-of-rice-in-2020-21-Food-Ministry+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk

VIETNAM AUG COFFEE EXPORTS DOWN 8.9% M/M; RICE SHIPMENTS UP 26.3%

9/14/2020

HANOI, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Vietnam exported 100,188 metric tonnes of coffee in August, down 8.9% from July, government data released on Monday showed.

The country's coffee exports in the first eight months of this year fell 2.1% from a year earlier to 1.15 million tonnes, the Customs Department said in a statement.

The Southeast Asian country's rice exports in August rose 26.3% from July to 605,566 tonnes, the department said, adding that rice shipments in the January-August period rose 0.6% on the year to 4.61 million tonnes.

Export price peaks, Vietnam’s rice advances towards the EU

Chia sẻ |

14/09/2020 16:07 GMT+7

The rice price in the world market, which is at a nine-year high, helped Vietnam earn $2.2 billion from rice exports in the first eight months of the year.

Vietnam’s fragrant rice was able to take full advantage of the tariff exemption in the EU market.

The rice exports have been breaking records this year, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. With the sharp rice export turnover increase, Vietnam has become the second largest rice exporter in the world.

Description: Export price peaks, Vietnam’s rice advances towards the EU

The Ministry of Agricuture and Rural Development (MARD) reported that while the export volume in the first eight months of the year decreased by 1.7 percent to 4.5 million tons, export turnover still increased by 10.4 percent compared with the same period last year, bringing revenue of $2.2 billion.

The Philippines was the top client for Vietnam’s rice in the first seven months of the year with 35.3 percent of market share. It imported 1.5 million tons of rice worth $688 million, up by 2.7 percent in quantity and 17.3 percent in value.

The exports to other markets also increased sharply. Exports to Indonesia, for example, were up by three times, to China by 84 percent. Particularly, exports to Senegal soared by 19.8 times.

Regarding the average export price, it saw a 12.5 percent year-over-year increase in the first seven months to $487.2 per ton. Vietnam’s 5 percent broken rice increased from $470 per ton to $480-490 per ton, the highest level since late 2011.

Thailand’s rice price continued to increase slightly. However, the demand for Thai rice was low because of the uncompetitive price. Analysts therefore believe that Vietnam has the opportunity to boost exports.

Asked about rice exports to the EU after EVFTA took effect, director of the Department of Crop Production Nguyen Nhu Cuong said Vietnam has been preparing to export rice to the EU for a long time. To date, the procedures on fragrant rice variety recognition for export to the EU have been set.

According to Cuong, the fragrant rice cultivation area in Mekong Delta provinces accounts for 25 percent of the total cultivation area, about 1 million hectares, and the fragrant rice output is estimated at 3.5 million tons.

Under EVFTA, Vietnam can export up to 30,000 tons of fragrant rice to the EU every year at a preferential tariff, which is equal to 1.2 percent of fragrant rice output in Mekong Delta, which means great potential for fragrant rice exports.

If Vietnam can strictly observe the rules set by the EU and export 30,000 tons of fragrant rice in particular and 80,000 tons of rice in general under the quotas at high prices, this will help heighten the efficiency of Vietnam’s rice production and strengthen the Vietnamese rice brand in the choosy market.

This will also help in negotiations for expanding the quotas for fragrant rice exports to the EU in the future.

https://vietnamnet.vn/en/business/export-price-peaks-vietnam-s-rice-advances-towards-the-eu-673180.html

NFA still has P10-B for palay procurement

Published September 14, 2020, 3:03 PM

by Madelaine Miraflor

For the remainder of the year, the National Food Authority (NFA) still has more than P10 billion budget to buy as much as 10 million bags of locally produced unhusked rice, a top official of the state-run grains agency said.

In a text exchange, NFA Administrator Judy Dansal said NFA is still set to buy 10 million bags of palay from rice farmers for the remaining part of 2020. If this isn’t enough, she said, the agency could still buy more since it has “credit lines available.”

“For this year, we have P7 billion from subsidy, P5.5 billion from corporate receipts that include our sales of rice, and P2.5 billion from cash and credit lines. So far, we already used P3 billion for procurement,” Dansal said on Monday.

“Yes [we can buy more palay because] we have credit lines available and the DOF [Department of Finance] supports us,” she added.

She said this amid calls by some groups for the Philippine government to buy more palay from farmers so they wouldn’t be forced to sell their produce at current farmgate price of about P11 per kilogram (/kg) to P12/kg.

In the Philippines, the cost to produce rice is about P12/kg, while NFA, whose sole mandate has been reduced to buffer stocking for calamities and emergencies after the passage of Rice Tariffication Law, buys palay at P19/kg.

Every year, NFA gets an annual budget of P7 billion to procure palay, which it sells to local government units (LGUs) and other government agencies like Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to support their relief efforts.

Dansal told Business Bulletin that while NFA could increase the amount of palay it could buy for this year, the agency couldn’t buy it all because some farmers would still choose to sell to traders.

“We don’t buy everything. The private traders of course will also buy because they have clients requiring local rice too,” she said.

At present, NFA procures 33,775 bags of palay per day nationwide in different provinces.

In August, Dansal said it is not the supply, but the lack of rice milling facilities and low buying price that impedes the agency’s palay procurement.

According to her, NFA’s rice milling warehouse could only cater to 25 percent of its palay inventory, forcing the agency to keep its contract with private millers, while farmers sometimes opt to sell their produce to traders when the farm-gate price of palay is higher than the government buying price.

“The market dictates the price. So if the farm-gate price of palay is high, higher than the P19/kg buying price of the government, the farmers sell their produce to the private traders,” she said.

Also on Monday, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) pointed to the unabated entry and unpredictable pattern of rice imports as the main cause for the current drop in palay farmgate prices.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that palay prices have been on a downward trend, averaging P18.39/kg in late August, down about 5 percent from their peak in May 2020.

Field reports, on the other hand, showed that buying prices, as of September, have already gone down to as low as P16/kg on a dry basis and to P11/kg to P13/kg for wet or freshly harvested palay.

The FFF noted that the decline in farmgate prices is surprising considering that imports from January to August 2020 totaled only 1.66 million tons, or about 25 percent lower than in the same period last year.

In turn, national rice inventories as of August 1 were about 16 percent lower than in the previous year, which should also help push the price of palay higher.
FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor attributed the declining prices to speculative behavior of traders arising from the lack of a clear rice import policy from the DA.

“Many traders are playing safe and buying low because they fear that imports will continue to come in and flood the market again in the coming months. Last year, they bought palay from farmers during the first half of the year at relatively high prices and were caught flatfooted by the massive inflow of imports in the second half of the year. Many of them could not unload their stocks at a profit and some had to suspend their operations,” he said.

Normally, palay buying prices really go up in September because of the scarce supply of palay and then go down only during the peak harvest season in October and November.

https://mb.com.ph/2020/09/14/nfa-still-has-p10-b-for-palay-procurement/#:~:text=For%20the%20remainder%20of%20the,state%2Drun%20grains%20agency%20said.

PHL rice inventory as of Aug. 1 falls 16.3%

ByJasper Y. Arcalas

September 14, 2020

THE country’s rice inventory as of August 1 fell 16.3 percent to 1.786 million metric tons from the same period of last year’s 2.133 MMT, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed.

Likewise, the inventory was 15.1 percent lower than the 2.104 MMT rice inventory recorded in July, according to the PSA’s latest monthly rice and corn stocks report.

“Of the total stocks for this month, 47.7 percent were in the households, 40.9 percent were in commercial warehouses, and 11.4 percent were in NFA [National Food Authority] depositories,” the PSA said.

Rice stocks held by households reached 852,460 MT while those in commercial warehouses was estimated at 729,950 MT, according to PSA data. NFA buffer stock was at 203,850 MT.

“Year-on-year, rice stocks inventory in households rose by 7.5 percent. However, stocks in commercial warehouses and NFA depositories dropped by 17.1 percent and 55.8 percent, respectively,” the PSA said.

“Month-on-month, rice stocks inventories in all sectors posted decreases. A decline of 20.6 percent was recorded in the households, 9.7 percent in commercial warehouses, and 8.4 percent in NFA depositories,” the PSA added.

Rice industry sources said household figures were high during the month as Filipinos stocked up on the staple to ensure their supply during the Covid-19-induced lockdowns imposed by the government. Sources noted that stocks in commercial warehouses fell due to lower imports this year.

“The supply is good for 51 days, which is okay but it is much lower than the previous years,” Federation of Free Farmers National President Raul Q. Montemayor told the BusinessMirror. “So it is still surprising why palay prices are going down. Unless it is really the speculative behavior on the part of the traders,” he added.

Last month, rice industry groups sounded the alarm over the government’s rice buffer stock, which they said will last for only seven days based on a nationwide daily consumption rate of 33,000 metric tons (MT).

In the same report, the PSA disclosed that corn inventory as of August 1 grew by 1.1 percent to 732,180 MT from last year’s 724,080 MT.

“However, the total corn stocks inventory as of 01 August 2020 was lower by 1.3 percent compared with the previous month’s level of 741,660 thousand metric tons,” the PSA said.

“About 86.8 percent of the current stocks inventory level were in commercial warehouses and 13.2 percent were in the households,” it added.

Corn stocks held by commercial warehouses reached 635,660 MT while those stored in households were estimated at 96,520 MT, PSA data showed.

“In comparison with the previous year’s same period level, corn stocks in the households and commercial warehouses grew by 3.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively,” it said.

“Corn stocks in the households increased by 25.5 percent, while stocks in the commercial warehouses decreased by 4.4 percent relative to the previous month’s level,” it added.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/09/14/phl-rice-inventory-as-of-aug-1-falls-16-3/

Palay output likely up in Q3

Louise Maureen Simeon (The Philippine Star

- September 14, 2020 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s production of palay (unhusked rice) likely jumped in the third quarter amid more planted areas and better yield, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Based on the latest crop estimates of the PSA, palay production from July to September may surge by 16.4 percent to 3.55 million metric tons (MT).

Production of unhusked rice reached 3.05 million MT in the third quarter of 2019.

Harvest area in the third quarter likely went up by 15.7 percent to about 743,000 hectares. Yield per hectare, on the other hand, may rise to 4.31 MT from 4.11 MT in the previous year level.

About 10 percent of the updated standing crops have already been harvested.

As for the farmer’s planting intentions for the period, about 1.02 million hectares or 57 percent of the perceived area have been actually planted.

Meanwhile, corn production in the third quarter may also go up by 3.4 percent to 2.82 million MT from the 2.72 million MT a year ago.

The latest projection is just slightly higher than the earlier forecast of 2.81 million MT.

This as harvest area may rise five percent to 919,580 hectares from 874,400 hectares in 2019. Yield per hectare, however, may decrease to 3.06 MT from 3.11 MT

https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/09/14/2042162/palay-output-likely-q3

Rice inventory down in August

Louise Maureen Simeon (The Philippine Star

) - September 14, 2020 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s rice inventory went down by 16.3 percent to 1.79 million metric tons (MT) as of end-August from 2.13 million MT in the same period last year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The current inventory is also 15.1 percent lower than the previous month’s volume stock of 2.1 million MT.

The PSA did not specify the number of days that the stock inventory of Filipinos’ main staple will be sufficient.

But, based on the average daily consumption of Filipinos of 32,000 MT, the current inventory is sufficient for 56 days.

Households had nearly half of total inventories at 48 percent while commercial warehouses held about 41 percent. Supplies from the National Food Authority depositories cornered 11 percent of the total.

On a monthly basis, rice stocks in households and commercial warehouses decreased by 21 percent and 10 percent, respectively. An eight percent decrease was also noted in NFA depositories.

Meanwhile, prices of Filipinos’ main staple continued to be on the downward trend year-on-year and have already stabilized compared to when the quarantine started in March.

The PSA said the average wholesale price of well-milled rice is now at P38.91 per kilogram as of the third week of August.

This is 0.4 percent lower than the P39.07 per kilo level from the same period a year ago, and 0.2 percent lower on a weekly basis.

Its average retail price also decreased by 0.4 percent to P42.42 per kilo, while week-on-week prices went down by 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the wholesale price of regular-milled rice was P35.35 per kilo, down 0.2 percent, while its average retail price was at P38.11 a kilo.

Local farmers, on the other hand, continue to slowly see a gradual increase in farm gate prices.

The average farm gate price of palay is now at P18.39 per kilo, a 4.4 percent improvement from the P17.61 per kilo last year. On a weekly basis, it also registered a 0.2 percent increase.

https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/09/14/2042163/rice-inventory-down-august

Nine Vietnamese rice varieties given tariff quotas in EU

Nine Vietnamese fragrant rice varieties will enjoy tariff export quotas to Europe under the Europe-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.

VNA Sunday, September 13, 2020 16:37

As part of the agreement, the EU will give Vietnam a quota of 80,000 tonnes of rice with a zero-per-cent tax rate per year, including 30,000 tonnes of milled rice, 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice and 30,000 tonnes of fragrant rice.

The EU will also fully liberalise broken rice, helping Vietnam export an estimated 100,000 tonnes to the EU annually.

For products made from rice, the EU will bring the tax rate down to 0 percent after three to five years.

Rice plantations in Mekong Delta provinces account for about 25 percent of the total cultivated area, equivalent to about 1 million hectares. Fragrant rice output is estimated at 5.5 million tonnes.

The amount of fragrant rice exported to the EU was entitled to a preferential tariff quota of 30,000 tonnes, equivalent to 1.2 percent of the rice produced in the region./.

https://en.vietnamplus.vn/nine-vietnamese-rice-varieties-given-tariff-quotas-in-eu/182888.vnp

Upper West Region Rice Parboilers Association appeals for equipment

The association is asking for support in the form of dryers, pavilion and tarpaulins

The Upper West Region Rice Parboilers Association has appealed to government, civil society organisations and international donor communities to come to its aid with the provision of de-stoner and dryer machines to improve on parboil rice production.

Presently, the association has only one de-stoner machine, which is inadequate to meet the production levels of members and consumer demands.

The weather condition is also affecting products, and therefore any support in the form of dryers, pavilion and tarpaulins would help improve the quality of parboil rice produce to access markets and better prices for members.
Madam Benedicta Naab, Chairperson of the Association, made the appeal at a two-day rice parboiling techniques training workshop organised for 35 women representatives from five rice parboiler groups in Wa.

The women were drawn from Wa Municipal, Wa East and Wa West Districts with facilitators coming from rice parboiling groups from Navrongo in the Upper East Region.

The European Union and German Government funded the programme with GIZ and the Market Oriented Agriculture Programme (MOAP) in North West in collaboration with the Regional Agriculture Department, organised the workshop to add value along the rice value chain development.

Madam Naab bemoaned the poor quality of parboiled rice products in the region and attributed it to the lack of modern machines and equipment and effective parboiling technique, which resulted in poor quality products.

She explained that with the provision of skills and techniques acquired from the workshop, the cost of production would still remain high and difficult for parboilers to increase profit levels due to the influx of foreign rice products in the market, without equipment.

The association urged government to consider providing free ferilizers to rice farmers to boost rice production and encourage local consumption, as it had become a staple food for many households in the communities.

Madam Naab also appealed to the government to provide soft loans to members of the association to expand their businesses, and provide means of transport for the association to haul paddy rice from the hinterlands and warehouses.
She indicated their willingness to go into large-scale rice production next year to complement the produce they buy from other farmers and pleaded with the government and other benevolent organisations to support them with tractors and other equipment to execute their plan.

Madam Henrietta Abaah, the lead facilitator, gave the assurance that the new technology provided members of the association would help them to produce quality products for the markets and urged the MOAP to supply the association with vessels and other equipment to parboil paddy rice to reduce cost on firewood, time and other unexpected challenges.

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Upper-West-Region-Rice-Parboilers-Association-appeals-for-equipment-1058683

Rice farmers at Fumbisi appeal for combine harvesters

A combine harvester

Rice farmers at Fumbisi in the Builsa South District of the Upper East Region are appealing to government to support them with combined harvesters to harvest their rice this year.

The rice harvest would begin in November and go on to January, depending on the variety of the crop and the availability of equipment.

Mr Richard Akuka, a rice farmer at Fumbisi, made the appeal on behalf of his colleagues in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the side-line of the inauguration of the Builsa South Commercial Farmers Association.

He said government through the Savannah Zone Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP) under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA),supported farmers in the area with seed and fertilizers, adding that the SAPIP initiative had boosted their production.

“Government has supported us with fertilizer and seed, we have worked well and are now appealing for help to able to harvest. We need combine harvesters. Even if it will be on credit bases, so that we pay back after sales or else if we get good yields and we are not able to harvest and it dries on the field, the buyers will not buy.”

Mr Akuka emphasized that “Our main challenge is the lack of combine harvesters, because if we are able to do all this work, and at the end we don’t harvest, it means our suffering will be in vain.”

Responding to the appeal by the farmers in a separate interview, Mr Wilson Doku, a Value Chain and Agribusiness Specialist working with the SAPIP, said “As part of the project objective, we are setting up mechanization service centres, right from land development to processing.”

He said the Centres would be driven by the private sector, “We will advertise it for the private sectors to apply. Even though it will be subsidized, we will give you a period of time to pay”, he told the farmers.

Mr Doku said procurement processes had begun, and contracts were awarded for work to start, “We are very hopeful that Builsa South will be one of the Districts that will benefit, we only need a private sector person to lead that process”, he added.

He said his outfit would ensure that the private individual would be stationed in the District for farmers to benefit from the equipment, “Hopefully before the end of the year, all the implements will come in. Harvesting has been one of the biggest challenges.”

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Rice-farmers-at-Fumbisi-appeal-for-combine-harvesters-1058767

India could lose basmati rice market in Iran to Pakistan as US sanctions disrupt payments

Tehran and New Delhi explore barter trading options even as Iran has stepped up importing basmati rice from Pakistan.

NAYANIMA BASU 14 September, 2020 12:04 pm IST

Description: File image of India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (left) with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif | Photo: ANI File image of India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (left) with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif | Photo: ANI

New Delhi: India could lose its position as the leading exporter of basmati rice to Iran, with Tehran now beginning to procure the produce from Pakistan, ThePrint has learnt.

India and Iran have been discussing the barter trading system for nearly a year now, ever since the Donald Trump administration began imposing tough economic sanctions on Tehran.

Iran has said it will buy basmati rice, sugar and medicines from India in lieu of fertilisers. New Delhi, however, is yet to firm up its decision, Iranian government sources told ThePrint.

Iran is now importing basmati rice from Pakistan while Indian consignments worth Rs 1,500 crore are stuck owing to payment issues, the sources said, adding that Tehran has now asked New Delhi to quickly move on this decision by utilising the banking channels of UCO Bank and IDBI Bank that continue to maintain a presence there.

Sanctions and the barter system

Due to the US sanctions on Iran, it has become difficult for Indian banks to operate the payment mechanism, while exporters are finding it increasingly difficult to sell rice in that market.

Some of the exporters, who used to ship their basmati rice consignments through Dubai, have now come under the scanner of investigating agencies.

The Indian government believes a traditional barter trading system with Iran will be difficult since India has stopped buying crude oil from that country. This is because India exports basmati rice worth $1 billion to that market, and hence buying fertilisers worth that amount will not be cost-effective, according to Indian government sources.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is exploring the options of extending a limited line of credit to Iran via the EXIM Bank so that the payments issue for Indian exports can be sorted out until the sanctions are lifted.

“Exporters are concerned that rice exports can also come under sanctions and payments have become a huge issue,” said Ajay Sahai, DG and CEO, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO). “Basmati rice exports to Iran have taken a hit this year. Getting the market back will be difficult if we lose it to other countries, if and when the sanctions are lifted.”

Owing to the US’ unilateral sanctions, India brought down its crude imports from Iran to zero in May last year. In 2019, India was the top exporter of basmati rice to that country, shipping nearly 1.6 million tonnes.

China eyeing massive investments in Iran

While India has made it clear to Iran that it will not be able to make much progress in the next phase of the Chabahar Port project as long as the US sanctions are there, Tehran has asked New Delhi to invest in some of the affiliated projects such as free trade zones, economic enclaves and other logistical infrastructure.

Even though the Chabahar port project was spared from American sanctions, Indian players have shied away from participating in the next phase, which entails constructing a rail link from the port to Zahedan in the Sistan-Baluchistan province and a 218-km road from Zaranj to Delaram.

“India has to see these projects from the perspective of its own national interest and not through the prism of other countries,” said a top Iranian official, who refused to be named. “We are telling India to at least invest in the ancillary projects that will feed into the larger Chabahar project. Many countries are waiting to invest in these projects but we want India to come in but it should not be too late.”

According to the official, India should “utilise this opportunity to be a major partner in the lucrative project” even as China is planning investments of billions of dollars under the new and updated Iran-China strategic partnership deal.

“Wish India also did the same… To be close to China does not mean we are against India,” the official said.

The China-Iran agreement is expected to overshadow even the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Under this deal, China is also expected to build a major port development project on the Strait of Hormuz.

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https://theprint.in/india/india-could-lose-basmati-rice-market-in-iran-to-pakistan-as-us-sanctions-disrupt-payments/501818/

Aman farming target exceeds by 1.17% in Rangpur region

BSS

· Published at 01:48 pm September 14th, 2020

Description: Web-Farmer_Rice-Paddy

Photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Earlier, the government undertook massive post-flood agriculture rehabilitation programs to assist flood-affected farmers in attaining the fixed Aman rice farming target to recoup crop losses caused by the recent floods in the region this season

Despite damages caused by floods, farmers have exceeded the farming target of Aman rice this season with government assistance, braving the Covid-19 pandemic, in Rangpur agriculture region.

“Farmers have already brought 6,12,235 hectares of land under Aman rice farming, exceeding the fixed farming target by 1.17%,” said Muhammad Ali, Additional Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) for Rangpur region.

The government, through the DAE, continues distributing specially prepared Aman rice seedlings among 15,225 flood-hit farmers free of cost for re-transplanting those on 15,225 bigha of submerged cropland with one bigha each in the region.

Earlier, the DAE fixed a target of producing 16, 97,795 tons of clean Aman rice (25,46,693 tons of paddy) from 6,05,140 hectares of land for Rangpur agriculture region this season.

“Farmers have already transplanted Aman rice seedlings by Saturday on 6,12,235 hectares of land which is higher by 7,095 hectares or 1.17 percent against the fixed farming target of the crop,” Ali said.

Earlier, farmers had prepared Aman rice seedbeds on 34,427 hectares of land, higher by 4,036 hectares or 13.28% than a requirement of preparing the same on 30,391 hectares to produce seedlings for transplantation on 6,05,140 hectares of land.

“However, the recent floods damaged Aman rice seedbeds on 1,196 hectares of land causing losses to seedlings worth TK15.95 crore and affecting 38,705 farmers in the region,” Ali said.

Besides, the floods damaged the transplanted Aman rice crop on 111 hectares of land causing production losses of 320 tons of rice worth Tk 1.16 crore and affecting 1,222 farmers.

As a part of the government programs, the DAE has prepared community Aman rice seedbeds on 221 acres of land in flood-hit areas and distribution of the prepared seedlings among 14,732 flood-hit farmers of the region is nearing completion.

Besides this, 500 floating Aman rice seedbeds have also been prepared in flood-hit areas and the prepared seedlings are being distributed among 125 flood-affected farmers.

“In addition to this, the DAE continues distributing late variety Aman rice seedlings after preparing those on 9,568 floating trays among 368 flood-affected farmers with 26 trays to each of the farmers of the region,” Ali said.

Besides, late variety Aman rice seeds have been distributed free of cost among flood-hit farmers who have already broadcasted those on their affected croplands.

Many flood-hit farmers have cultivated late ‘Ganjia’ varieties of Aman rice using seeds from their own stocks in affected areas.

“Farmers are expected to complete re-transplantation of Aman rice seedlings on their submerged croplands by the next couple of days to further exceed the fixed farming target in the region this season,” Ali added.

He hoped with full confidence that farmers would achieve a bumper production of Aman rice despite damages caused by recent floods to the crop in all five districts of Rangpur agriculture region this season.

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2020/09/14/aman-farming-target-exceeds-by-1-17-in-rangpur-region

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