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Syed Fakhar
Imam welcomes the new French investment and introcution to modern technology in
the agriculture sector of Pakistan.
agriculture-sector
Syed Fakhar
Imam welcomes the new French investment in the agriculture sector of Pakistan.
He briefed the meeting attendees about the importance of this sector in the
country and the world.
In a recent
webinar, Syed Fakhar Imam – Minister for National Food Security and
Research – told
that Pakistan has been renowned for its agricultural products. The products,
like rice, are of high value around the globe.
In the webinar,
Syed further added that agriculture has always been the backbone of the
country. With this new investment from France and the introduction of modern
technology, this sector would flourish more.
He also
outlined the plans on increasing the boundaries for this sector. He informed
the participants that the new plans involve development in fishery, livestock,
meat production, and dairy sectors.
The Minister
was talking to an audience of 25 French companies and excitingly talked about
the plans to further improve this agriculture sector.
PM Khan vows to bring down food prices across
Pakistan
SAMAA
| Digital - Posted: Oct 10, 2020 | Last
Updated
Photo:
File
Prime Minister Imran Khan has promised that
the government will use all of its resources to bring down food prices in the
country from Monday onward.
“We
are already examining causes of the price hikes: whether there is a genuine
supply shortage or simply hoarding by mafias,” he said in a tweet on Saturday.
The
premier assured that the government will also investigate if the hike has been
caused by an increase in international prices for palm oil, lentils or any
other item.
The
government will devise a strategy for this purpose, he added.
Following
this, Minister of State for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar also tweeted
that South Asia is experiencing temporary food inflation.
“The
government will take all measures needed to reduce prices of essential
commodities. Imported wheat and sugar will be released at control rates by
provinces. All options are being examined for other commodities.”
Earlier
this week, people across Pakistan complained that the price of essential food
items such as wheat, lentils, sugar and rice have skyrocketed.
Rice
Traders Organizes Sessions On Agri- Children Rights
59 minutes ago Sun 11th October 2020 |
02:00 PM
ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint /
Pakistan Point News - 11th Oct, 2020 ) :The top rice
traders has organized the workshops for educating the 1000 rice transplanters
families and their children on Child Rights and to create awareness for their
personal health, hygiene and Prevention from COVID-19
pandemic.
The top rice
trader of the country, Rice Partners (Pvt) Ltd (RPL)
organized 20 awareness sessions on "Child Rights and Personal Health and
Hygiene" for rice transplanter's families in different region of the Punjab province,
said a press release issued here on Sunday.
In last session the series of
awareness session, the Project Officer RPL,
Rizwan Ali highlighted the different aspects children health and threats and
also delivered a lecture on child rights.
The Rice Partners (Pvt) Ltd (RPL)
in collaboration with Helvetas Pakistan and
Swiss Solidarity conducted 20 awareness sessions for agriculture families on "Child Rights and Personal Health and
Hygiene" especially for rice transplanter's families in 16 remote villages
of district Sheikhupura and
other districts, he said.
He threw light on the rights of
children and highlighted the strategies for elimination of child abuses and
child labor.
During the series of awareness
sessions, more than 2000 participants attended these awareness sessions, he
said.
While, SOPs were strictly followed
regarding the COVID-19 during these sessions.
He shared the key points of the
document of the United Nations Child Rights Convention
(UNCRC) with the participants.
The UNCRC has 41 articles which
tell us about various rights of the child.
He said that the constitution
of Pakistan also grants fundamental
rights to the citizens of Pakistan particularly
to women and children.
As per article 25-A of Constitution
of Pakistan "The State shall provide
free and compulsory education to all children
of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be
determined by law" he added.
He also described the last sermon
of Holy Prophet (PBUH) as per the last sermon that all the
people are equal and no one is superior.
The base of superiority is the
faith only.
He also said that RPL is
providing books, stationery and uniforms to the deserving children of the
transplanting community free of cost so
they should send their children into schools.
He ended the session by saying
that RPL is also supporting in birth
registration of child.
The Health Officer, Punjab Health
Department, Ms Zunaira Arooj sensitized the participants on personal health and
hygiene.
She told the participants what
measures should be taken in case of heatstroke, accidents, bites, chemical
exposures etc.
She added to always use
filtered water or boiled water to
remain safe from water- borne diseases. She
also spread awareness on prevention from novel
corona virus.
She described the methods of making
hand sanitizers and ORS at home.
While talking to APP, Muhammad Ali Tariq Chief Operating Officer
Rice Partners Pvt Ltd has said that RPL is
working for the betterment of farmers and farm laborers from past
many years through provision of laser land leveling on 50%, cost sharing
basis, trainings on water saving techniques.
"We are ensuring decent
working conditions for rice transplanters and their children by establishing
Community Child Care Centers, first aid kits distribution of food packs,
canopy kits etc.
He also said that RPL has
organized number of medical camps in Punjab and
treated more than 20,000 patients in the community.
He said that RPL is
the only organization in Pakistan which
is working on many aspects of the rice value chain like Water productivity,
Crop management, Gender equality, Child rights, Vocational trainings, Women empowerment,
human rights and health issues.
He said that they try their best to
improve the livelihood of the farmers and farm labour.
So far more than 28,000 farmers
have been sensitized by RPL.
GOLARCHI: Collaboration of
Pakistani and Chinese scientists' for development of high-yield hybrid coarse
rice varieties has enabled the paddy growers of lower Sindh to achieve three
times more production as compared to traditional varieties thus improving their
living standards and elimination of poverty from the rural areas.
'Our per acre average yield was
30-35 maund before the introduction of the hybrid rice and now we are getting
100-110 maund and in some cases, the progressive farmers achieved 136 maund per
acre,' said different growers while talking to a delegation of the Agriculture
Journalists Association (AJA) Lahore.
The success of the hybrid varieties
can be gauged from the fact that it is now being sown over 1.7 million acres of
land in Sindh and South Punjab.
Guard Agricultural Research &
Services (Pvt) Ltd, which is the pioneer in bringing the Hybrid Rice to
Pakistan in collaboration with the Yuan Longping Hi-Tech China is now working
on to introduce such varieties which are heat resistant, salinity resistant,
water shortage tolerant and capable to do away with the negative impacts of
climate change in Sindh and whole of Pakistan. Guard's Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) Shahzad Ali Malik had already been awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the
Government of Pakistan for efforts in the rice sector.
Guard Agricultural Research &
Services (Pvt) Senior Executive Momin Malik while talking to journalists said
that they are also going to introduce three new varieties such as LP-18,
Guard-403 and Guard 53 in Sindh which are heat resistant and can perform in
high heat which had hit hard the rice crop a year back. He said that these
varieties are lodging free too.
He said that a long period is
required for research and development of new varieties and the government
should develop some mechanism for approval of new varieties at a fast phase. It
will help to expedite the research and development in the agricultural sector,
he averred.
Momin said that they are running
four research stations in Pakistan out of which two are in Sindh and two are in
Punjab. These research stations are in Golarchi, Larkana, Pakpattan and Sundar
area near Lahore and working on numerous new lines having resistance against
heat, salinity, water shortage or impacts of climate change.
Yuan Longping Hi-Tech
representative in Pakistan Liu speaking on this occasion said that Hybrid rice
is playing a very important role in ensuring food security and eradicating
hunger from the world. He said that founder of his company who is known as 'Father
of Hybrid Rice' has a dream to take the per acre yield to 200 maund per acre.
He said that their company has its research stations in Pakistan, India,
Philippines, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
He disclosed that Pakistan's
climate and the land are so suitable for Hybrid long-grain rice that their seed
is giving a top performance in this country and yield is even better than
China. He said that his company in collaboration with Guard will continue
research to introduce varieties having resistance against climate change. He
urged the progressive growers to educate their fellows on how to get better
yield and what are the good agricultural practices for this seed.
Students
at the National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) at the NED University
successfully developed Pakistan’s first-ever AI-based ‘rice quality analyzer’.
Students
at the National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) at the NED University
developed Pakistan’s first AI-based rice quality analyzer.
The
software is efficient enough to analyze rice within just 60 seconds based on 7
key characteristics which include – length, thickness, average weight, and
percentage of broken grains.
This AI-based analyzer is far more efficient than the ones developed in
the USA and Japan and is cheaper too. The accuracy rate of this analyzer is
measured to be at 99%.
Pakistan
is the world’s 10th largest country to produce rice and has been exporting to a
number of countries for long. The technology will not improve the analyzing
process of rice, but also would improve its trust for importing countries.
And thus the percentage of export could also rise.
Hafiz
Ahsan-ur-Rehman, a research associate at the NCAI and a member of the Rice
Quality Analyzer Software Development Team proudly announced the creation of
this rice analyzer based on artificial intelligence.
They
are already receiving appreciations from major rice importers like
China, India, and Bangladesh.
PAGADIAN
CITY: More
interventions to farmers adversely affected by the latest implementation of the
Rice Tariffication Law have been pledged by Agriculture Secretary William Dar,
according to Zamboanga del Sur Gov. Victor Yu.
Dar
was earlier reported to have pledged to fast-track DA’s proper and efficient
enforcement of “various components and interventions under the P10 billion Rice
Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF)” even as he previously distributed,
conducted necessary trainings and bidded for appropriate machinery “together
with validation of farmers’ cooperatives and processing and granting of loans.”
“Implementing
the RTL is both a challenge and opportunity to transform our traditional rice
lands into modern farming communities through the annual P10 billion resources
that RCEF provides,” he said, adding that this year’s RCEF has been allocated
to make rice farmers more competitive and to prop up prices of palay (unmilled
rice) “which has dropped to 1.4 percent in the third week of September to
P15.96 per kilogram, based on Philippine Statistics Authority data.”
The
DA chief announced that President Rodrigo Duterte also “later granted P3
billion as unconditional cash assistance to benefit 600,000 rice farmers
tilling one hectare and below…and additional P3 billion cash aid next year for
rice farmers cultivating 1.01 hectares to 2 hectares even as another P2.5
billion was furnished for the expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance (SURA)
aid program, wherein P15,000 zero-interest loan payable in eight years to affected
farmers tilling one hectare or less.”
Dar
claimed the National Food Authority (NFA) “was also given a P7-billion budget
to directly purchase palay from the farmers of which some 10.25 million bags
were procured.”The DA reported that governors of 33 rice producing provinces,
including those in Zamboanga Peninsula, “have committed at least P5 billion to
purchase palay from their farmers and dry and mill the grains into rice and
sell them directly to their constituents and institutional buyers.”
A
farmer burns wheat stubble in a field following the harvest season, amid the
ongoing coronavirus pandemic, on the outskirts of Amritsar, May 2020. Photo:
PTI.
In
Punjab and Haryana, the paddy crop is usually harvested between the first and last
weeks of October. Farmers then sow the wheat crop from the first week of November
until the middle of December.
These
farmers regularly complain about the menace of rice straw – a product of
mechanised agriculture – exacerbated by shortage of labour and lack of time.
When paddy is harvested by a combined harvester and thresher, the machine
leaves behind a significant
length of straw and stubble on the field. This prevents
other machines from sowing wheat seeds. With only 10-15 days between the
rice-harvesting season and the wheat-sowing time, farmers often burn the
stubble to quickly eliminate the paddy stubble. According to some estimates,
farmers burned about 11 million tonnes of stubble in Punjab and Haryana, out of
the 27 million tonnes of paddy stubble produced last year. The numbers are
likely to be similar this year.
This
way is very easy for them – but the huge clouds of smoke that rise up blow into
Delhi, contributing significantly to the national capital’s notorious wintertime
air pollution.
Apart
from contributing to air pollution, stubble-burning
deteriorates the
soil’s organic content, essential nutrients and microbial activity – which
together will reduce the soil’s long-term productivity. Stubble burning has
been prohibited or discouraged in many countries, including China, the UK and
Australia. In India, although both the Centre and state governments have
encouraged alternatives, for example by promoting the use of new machines and
technologies, farmers have been reluctant to adopt them.
Instead,
they find the traditional way of stubble-burning to be easier, low cost and
time-efficient, compared to alternatives that demand more time, investment and
labour.
If
farmers wish to remove stubble manually, they will need at least Rs 6,000-7,000
per acre. To reduce these costs, as well as save labour and time, the
Government of Punjab distributed 24,000 tractor-mounted ‘happy seeders’ to cut
down the rice stubble and sow wheat seeds simultaneously. To use a ‘happy
seeder’ over one acre, farmers have to spend Rs 1,000 for rent plus about
Rs 2,000 on diesel.
Even
when farmers have expressed a willingness to adopt happy seeders, availability
and suitability have been important issues. A single happy seeder covers 10
acre in a day. Punjab state requires 50,000 happy seeders to clear its 75 lakh
acres of paddy fields in 15 days, but the government only distributed 24,000.
In addition, farmers have also complained about problems while sowing and low
germination of wheat seeds, when sown with ‘happy seeders’. Many machines have
been dumped only after two years of use.
Officials
have also advertised a machine called a straw baler – to compress crop residue
into compact bales – to bale rice stubbles and moving them out of the field.
But it flopped because the machine takes an hour for every acre, typically
producing 12-15 quintals of bales. Earlier, baler-owners would provide their
services free of cost and would make up for their time and labour by selling
the bales to biomass factories nearby. However, this year, they are charging Rs
1,000-1,500 per acre. The state government may arrange to procure the stubble,
along with paddy grain, by hiring balers to work for free for the farmers. The
stubbles can then be sold to biomass-based power plants, paper mills and
cardboard factories.
Another
machine is the paddy straw chopper-cum-spreader – to chop paddy straw left
behind on mechanically harvested paddy fields. It chops the straw into pieces
and spreads it around the field in a single operation, so wheat-sowing becomes
easy. It is a mounted-type machine and can be operated by a tractor with 45-50
HP or more.
Yet
another alternative is the accelerated straw decomposition process. The Indian
Agricultural Research Institute has developed a
solution it
has named ‘Pusa’, which can decompose crop residue into manure by accelerating
the decomposition process. These agents act on the straw to make it soft and
ploughable, break down its molecular components and release the nutrients into
the field. As a result, Pusa may reduce the use and cost of fertilisers and
could help increase the yield of the subsequent crop. It costs less than Rs
1,000 per acre.
A
third option is to convert stubble into
biochar,
which can be used as a fertiliser, by burning it in a kiln. For this purpose, a
kiln has to be 10 ft wide and 14 ft high, and be able to accommodate 12
quintals of rice straw and convert it into 6.5 quintals of biochar in 10-12
hours.
In
the longer term, another way to reduce stubble burning is to replace
long-duration paddy varieties with shorter
duration varieties like Pusa Basmati-1509 and PR-126, which can be harvested in
the third week of September itself. This will widen the window between the end
of the rice season and start of the wheat season, allowing enough time for the
paddy stubble to decompose, and eliminate the need for stubble-burning.
Apart
from all this, the state government needs to popularise the traditional use of
paddy straw and stubble as fodder and as part of feed-mixture preparations.
This can happen locally as well as can be stored and transported to deficit
areas like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, by developing the fodder and
feed markets.
Incentives
to adopt alternative technologies
The
Punjab government has resolved to make the state a zero stubble-burning zone.
To this end, it offers a 50% subsidy on machines for individual farmers and 80%
for cooperative societies and farmers’ groups. Last year, the governments of Punjab
and Haryana also announced a bonus of Rs 2,500 per acre for small and marginal
farmers. If the bonus is given directly to farmers, it could compensate the
expenses incurred by avoiding stubble-burning. However, some farmers have said
that most farmers don’t receive the bonus of Rs 2,500 per acre.
Last
year, the Supreme Court
asked the
Punjab and Haryana governments to provide Rs 100 per quintal to small farmers
to manage the stubble; given that the average productivity is 25.6 quintal per
acre in Punjab, they may receive about Rs 2,560 per acre. But it seems many
farmers don’t receive the amount – even though the government has assigned 8,000
nodal officers to oversee the compensation exercise, to prevent
stubble-burning, and to increase awareness of alternate technologies.
Governments
have also been punishing farmers using monetary penalties for stubble-burning.
Last year, over 52,000 farm fires were reported in Punjab alone after the paddy
harvest season. In over 23,000
cases,
an environmental fine was imposed on farmers, and ‘red entries’ were made
against their land records. Errant farmers were together reportedly fined Rs
6.1 crore. However, they have deposited only Rs 1 lakh thus far. Collecting
fines from farmers is difficult, but more importantly doing so creates a hostile
environment for local agricultural development functionaries.
Farmers
have a tough time unlearning the age-old practice of stubble-burning.
Alternatives to stubble burning are not popular because they impose additional
operational expenses, often from the farmer’s pocket. On the other hand,
stubble-burning only requires a matchbox. Further, most of the custom hiring
centres are also unwilling to purchase these machinery upfront – as they can be
operated only for 15 days in a year, after which they have no use.
§
In
sum, the government has to either increase monetary incentives or offer
technologies and policies that don’t require farmers to spend even more. It
seems that imposing penalties only makes the problem harder to solve.
There
are multiple alternatives to stubble burning, and farmers can choose between
the technologies and machines most suited to their particular local conditions,
with the objective of ‘no burning’. The government should play the part of an
enabler by spreading awareness about the pros and cons of each option, so as to
eliminate confusion and ease the adoption of new technologies by removing
socio-economic barriers. For this, the state governments can rope in
block-level agricultural officers and officials of agricultural produce market
committees to develop and implement comprehensive ‘no burning’ strategies at
the local level.
A.
Amarender Reddy is the principal scientist at the ICAR-Central Research
Institute for Dryland Agriculture. The views expressed here are the author’s own.
The
leopard caught by forest officials in Ranga Reddy district, Telangana.
[Photo/ANI]
More
Rangareddy
(Telangana) [India], October 11 (ANI): Forest department officials here
succeeded in catching a leopard today morning which was roaming freely in the
area and handed it over to the Nehru Zoological Park authorities, according to
Rajendranagar Inspector G Suresh on Sunday.
The
leopard had killed two calves on Friday night. The owner had then approached
the police department, following which along with the forest department a
search for the beast had been launched.
Speaking
to ANI over the phone, Rajendranagar Inspector G Suresh said, "The leopard
has been caught by the Rangareddy forest department and has been handed over to
the Nehru Zoological park officials."
The
officials also said that the leopard had been on the run for the past six
months and had been attacking cows and calves in the vicinity of the Rice
Research Centre in Rajendranagar in Rangareddy district.
Meanwhile,
Curator of the Nehru Zoological Park said that the captured leopard has some
minor abrasions and injuries on the face, for which treatment has been
provided.
They
further added that the leopard will be released into the wild following its
complete recovery and getting permission from the Chief Wildlife Warden,
Telangana. (ANI)
THREE
Filipino scientists have shared their experiences in the country amid the
coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic in a webinar organized by the
Department of Science and Technology (DoST) on Saturday.
Dr.
Nelzo Ereful, who studied at the National Institute for Agricultural Botany in
Cambridge, United Kingdom, offered his services as a bioinformatician at the
Philippine Genome Center through linkages with the University of the
Philippines Los Baños and the International Rice Research Institute for their
reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR, testing to the UP
Philippine General Hospital.
Ereful was
also part of the group that studied the molecular analysis of SARS-CoV2 —
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus that causes Covid-19
— in its early stages.
Dr.
Jonel Saludes, who studied at the University of California-Davis and underwent
training at the Washington State University, with other Balik Scientists
(returning Filipino scientists) from the University of San Agustin in Iloilo
City created databases to effectively manage the pandemic not only in Iloilo
but also in Quezon City and Bacolod City.
Dr.
Annabelle Villalobos, who had her doctorate from the University of
Cincinnati and worked for medical giant Johnson & Johnson, used her
expertise as a biochemist to discuss the possible vaccines for
Covid-19 that were presented to the public in different webinars
and conferences.
Science
and Technology Undersecretary for Research and Development Rowena Cristina
Guevara said the contributions of the Balik Scientists have spurred significant
progress in research and development in fields such as health, agriculture and
technology.
“Through
the [Balik Scientists] Program, we envision that more Filipinos would opt to
stay home and pursue their career here, with the mission of caring for and
providing better solutions for our fellow Filipinos,” Guevara said.
Guevara
pointed out that 21 Balik Scientists are currently already working in the
country amid the pandemic, and she expects that more Balik Scientists will be
able to serve in the coming months.
There could not be any worse time than the current one
for the prices of essentials going through the roof. Most daily essentials have
recorded an unabated rise in recent months. Lately, the pace of increase has
only intensified. Barring fish and poultry, essentials, including the main
staple rice, are becoming costlier by the day. All varieties of rice are now
being sold at record high prices. Vegetables, spices, eggs and edible oils are
costlier than before.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the national statistical organisation,
on monthly basis do also corroborate the uptrend in prices of most essentials.
The rate of inflation in September last, according to the BBS data, was 5.97
per cent compared to that of 5.54 per cent in the corresponding month of
2019. What is however worrying is the food inflation. It went up by 1.20
percentage point to 6.50 per cent in September last over that in the same month
of last year. This is a notable jump. The price trend is indicative of a
further rise in food inflation during the current month (October).
Both nature and humans are responsible for the latest
rise in essentials' prices. Recurrent floods---some northern districts were hit
by four consecutive bouts of flooding--- are blamed for the rise in the prices
of vegetables. Abrupt ban on onion export by the Indian government has pushed
the price of the item in the domestic market. Traders and refiners have upped
the price of edible oils capitalising on the ongoing volatility in the
international edible oil market.
The reasons behind the rise in the prices of the most
politically sensitive item---rice--- remain rather murky. The country had its
record bumper harvest of Boro rice in the last season. The government silos do
have sufficient stock of rice. The warehouses owned by the millers are also
filled to their capacity. Then again, the supply of rice in the market is
abundant. Yet the prices of all varieties of rice have been on the rise. It
could be that the millers are sensing a shortfall in next rice crop-Aman-
production because of this year's extensive floods. The price-hike, it seems,
is a systemic response from the millers.
The impact of the price hike, however, to some extent, is
different from that witnessed on previous occasions. This time the size of the
population affected by the price-rise is bigger as in addition to poor and
low-income people, the middle-class is also hit hard. The pandemic has also
sapped much of the latter's financial strength. If the current price trend
persists, the paceof economic recovery might lose steam since spending by the
middle-class remains a key driver. The rise in the cost of living, as a natural
outcome, would force members of this class to spend less on non-food
items.
On its part, the government has tried to intervene in the
rice market fixing the price of a certain variety of rice, but the move has not
worked. In other areas, the Ministry of Commerce has so far preferred to be an
onlooker. There is no denying that when some commodities are in short supply,
their prices would come under pressure. The government may not control the
prices, but it surely can play a very effective role in keeping the same within
a reasonable level. It would not be a big ask if the consumers expect the
government to play a befitting role in a very difficult time.
Fatal attraction: the virus
attacks the plant, it produces vein-clearing symptoms which make the plant look
beautiful, but hinders flowering and fruiting. | Photo Credit: ASHWIN NAIR
How tiny geminiviruses that measure a mere 20 nanometres can
enter large plants and break through their defences
Plants and viruses are constantly
involved in a race to outdo one another, and their lives literally depend on
this. A new study with researchers from National Centre of Biological Sciences
(NCBS-TIFR), Bengaluru, has discovered a new step in this arms race between the
virus called Synedrella Yellow Vein Clearing Virus and the plants it attacks.
The virus was isolated by the researchers from a plant named Synedrella
nodiflora, and it was able to infect tobacco and tomato plant
in their studies.
Large family
This virus is a representative of
the Begomovirus family of viruses. “Begomoviruses are a large family with about
400 members. They infect economically important plants and are a major reason
for crop loss,” explains Ashwin Nair, from NCBS-TIFR, who is the first author
of a paper on the work published in BMC Biology. “We think SyYVCV
can infect many more host plants.”
Attacks, counter-attacks
The arms race typically happens
like this: The virus first attacks the plant, and the plant has defences that
are actually counter-attacks – mechanisms that seek to destroy the virus. In
turn, the virus develops a counter-counter-attack by trying to escape being
destroyed by the plant’s mechanisms. In the case of the Synedrella Yellow Vein
Clearing Virus, it happens this way: When the virus attacks the plant, it
produces vein-clearing symptoms which make the plant look beautiful.
The fact, however, is that this
does not make it better for the plant. It actually makes it difficult for the
plant to produce flowers and fruits. “Without BetaC1, a viral protein, the
virus will not be able to defeat the host attacks and also will not be able to
completely infect the plant, as the virus will not be able to move through the
veins of the plant,” says P.V. Shivaprasad, in whose lab at NCBS-TIFR the work
was carried out.
In turn, the plant develops
defence mechanisms to destroy the virus. It targets the protein called BetaC1
made by the virus which helps in successful infection and intracellular
movement within the plant. Plants degrade BetaC1 protein of virus by tagging
this protein with another smaller protein called ubiquitin.
Viral response
In their study, the researchers
found that, in response, the virus uses the plant’s machinery to create a small
modification of the BetaC1 protein. It adds a tiny protein called SUMO to the
betaC1 protein in a process termed SUMOylation. “BetaC1 hijacks the SUMO
pathway machinery of the plants and makes itself a substrate for SUMOylation.
Essentially, BetaC1 mimics or tricks the host SUMOylation machinery as if it is
one of the host plant protein requiring SUMOylation,” explains Prof.
Shivaprasad.
Kiran Chatterjee and Ranabir Das,
also at NCBS-TIFR, collaborated in understanding the nano-scale SUMOylation
process, because such small interactions can only be studied by special
protein-protein structure determining techniques
Tiny virus
The study used tobacco plants.
The virus is fairly new. Says Dr Shivaprasad, “We isolated it in 2018 and have
not studied its prevalence in other crops. Viruses very similar to this virus
are the biggest threat to crop production throughout world.” Apparently, in
infected fields, up to 60% of horticultural crops are lost due to begomoviral
infection.
Viruses can range in size from 5
nanometre to 300 nanometre. The studied virus, which falls under the category
geminivirus, is among the smaller ones, measuring about 20 nanometres. The
SARS-CoV-2 virus, for instance is about five times larger than these. Within
this small size, they make proteins that are comparable in size with those of
the plants that help them function.
The difference comes in the
number of proteins they make. While the rice plant makes about 35,000 proteins,
and we humans make about 20,000 proteins, geminiviruses code for just 8-10
proteins. The larger SARS-CoV-2 virus codes for about 25 proteins.
New results
“These concepts are new to
plant–pathogen interactions. Previously, researchers did find the significance
of other protein modifications, but not the ones we have found in this study,”
says Dr Shivaprasad. “Our results also provide newer tools to identify and
generate plants that can resist viruses.”
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Paddy productionn is likely to rise by 40% this Kharif,
procurement for 75 days
The G.O comes in continuation with
the announcement made by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on paddy
procurement.
Published: 11th October 2020 02:02
AM | Last Updated: 11th October 2020 11:18 AM |
Farmers planting paddy saplings | EXPRESS
By Express News Service
HYDERABAD: The State
government on Saturday issued guidelines for ‘procurement policy’ of paddy
under minimum support price (MSP) operations and delivery of custom milled rice
for Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21. The G.O comes in continuation with the
announcement made by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on paddy
procurement.
The government has estimated that there will be around 30 to 40
per cent of increase in paddy production when compared to previous Kharif
season. It is estimated that 165 LMTs of paddy (90 LMTs in Vanakalam and 75
LMTs in Yasangi) is to be procured by the State government for Kharif Marketing
Season.
The procurement in each season will be held for 75 days from the
date of commencement.The government directed the Collectors to shift paddy
directly from procurement centres to rice mills, after taking their previous
performance into consideration before allotment, for custom milling.
The Collectors were also tasked to blocklist the rice millers, who
indulge in processing PDS rice. The government has specified that the rice millers
should deliver custom milled rice within 15 days from the date of receipt of
paddy. The Civil Supplies Department will set up 5,690 procurement centres,
which can be increased, if required.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has so mastered the art of
Orwellian doublespeak that it can quietly but recklessly approve jumbo
importations designed to flood the market with imported rice, then highlight
through its non-stop propaganda machine a supposed enhanced rice production
program as a real, serious and well-funded undertaking to cut back on rice
imports and empower the small rice farmers. The real, and the only, rice supply
strategy is nonstop importation, but a public declaration — which makes DA head
William Dar a VSP or a very serious person in the eyes of gullible pundits —
that a supposed inspired rice production program so imports can be cut back and
domestic rice production takes primacy.
From January to September, according to records compiled by
peasant groups, the DA, through the Bureau of Plant Industry, issued import
permits called Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearances for 3.75 million
metric tons of rice, which topped the 3 million MT imported last year.
With imports as the anchor of the country’s rice supply policy,
domestic rice production and the issues related to domestic production have
been rendered as afterthought. Small rice farmers have been written off as
well. So, when harvest season comes, and currently we are in a harvest season,
the DA whose policy is to flood the market with imports, is utterly
inadequate to respond to steep drops in palay prices. The Rice Tariffication
Law (RTL) provides for the emasculation of the National Food Authority (NFA),
which used to be the main palay buyer during the pre-RTL regime, and this has
compounded the misery of the rice farmers.
The DA is uncaring and clueless. The NFA under the RTL, has
been stripped of its market stabilization and trading functions. With jumbo
rice imports flooding the market, the demand for domestically produced palay
plummets to inconsequential levels, hence the price dives reported by rice
farmers across all major rice-producing areas in the country.
The NFA, because of the palay crisis, has been asked to do
limited trading functions (this is contrary to the mandate of the RTL).
The Federation of Free Farmers said the fund given to the NFA
for palay buying is barely enough for the palay produce of one region — Central
Luzon.
In Central Luzon, produce that does not fall within the “dry” —
or palay with 14 percent moisture content or less–is bought by private buyers
at a range of P13 to P14 per kilo, if there are buyers at all. Dry palay is P17
per kilo but to get that, price farmers must truck the palay to buying centers
in faraway Bulacan.
In Mindanao, it is P11 to P13 per kilo for newly harvested palay
and below P16 for the dry palay. North Cotabato Gov. Nancy Cotamco, after
surveying the palay price carnage in the rice-producing towns of the province,
has asked Congress to amend the RTL.
The Mindanao Development Authority board that includes Sen.
Miguel Zubiri has supported the call for the amendment of the RTL. The repeat
of the most tragic rural story of last year, palay prices down to as low as P8
to P10 per kilo, has pushed Cotamco, who voted for the RTL while in Congress,
to seek the amendment of a law she had enthusiastically supported.
So, what was Secretary Dar’s reaction to the appeal from peasant
groups and government leaders to amend the RTL because of the massive suffering
of the country’s rice farmers?
Borrow from the playbook of Donald Trump and the Trumpians. Deny
the facts and create what the FFF calls an “alternate reality.” Also deny there
is a problem and claim everything is hunky dory. And blame outside groups for
stating the facts on the ground and exposing the massive suffering of the
country’s rice farmers. Every and all problems are created by outside groups
and agitators to rock the government.
And, of course, rev up the press release factory, which Dar and
his PR group have built at a traditionally press-shy agency. (I know, I covered
the DA for years and the late Ato Faustino never wrote a single press release
during my time there. You were on your own and pack reporting was unheard of.
The stories filed by beat reporters — Tuting Perez, Ruben Pascual, this typist
and the others — were never the same and this happened almost daily.
On the palay price drops and the massive suffering in the
farming areas, Dar’s version was one that was totally different from what is
taking place on the ground. Dry palay, he claimed, were P18 and P19 per kilo in
the two main regions of Central Luzon and Cagayan Valley. Wet palay was
slightly lower but at prices still profitable to rice farmers. The buying price
in Mindanao for wet palay, he said, is P13 per kilo, not the P10 or P11
validated by leaders of local government units (LGUs).
The NFA has been actively buying, Dar also claimed, without
mentioning that the NFA, under the RTL, has been stripped of all its trading
functions and legally it cannot even engage in palay buying. The DA is moving
from one farming area to another to collect data, according to its chief, also
without mentioning that devolution of powers has transferred all farm extension
work to the LGUs.
Stubble-burning,
in a nutshell, is an unintended consequence of the technology developed for the
Green Revolution.
· DR. TARADATT
Stubble-burning
practiced after harvest of paddy in Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh
during the winters, cited among the principal reasons for pollution in Delhi.
File photo
Delhi,
our national capital, draws attention many-a-times for issues that sully its
image worldwide. Career-activists and news-makers, particularly from electronic
media, appear ever ready to indulge in scare-mongering without proper study of
root causes and possible remedial measures, often without realizing that their
display of ‘expertise’ on such issues risks causing unwarranted tragedies. Many
physical and mental disorders are psychosomatic; repetitive hourly predictions
of doom are enough to rock even a reasonably stable mind!
Stubble-burning
practiced after harvest of paddy in Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh
during the winters, cited among the principal reasons for pollution in Delhi,
as if to pressurize governments for doling out subsidies. The hyper
environmental consciousness that emerges after the harvest of paddy gets lost
to oblivion with the showing of the Kharif crop!
Notwithstanding
Corona being the flavor of the season, the issues related to agriculture
including pollution on account of stubble burning are bound to resurrect sooner
or later. A question seldom examined is why stubble-burning is rarely seen in
traditional paddy-growing areas across India. Without getting digressed to
search for reasons why stubble-burning appears to cause more suffering in the
National Capital Region (NCR) than in areas where it happens, it is necessary
to gauge the factors leading to stubble-burning and measures to arrest it.
Production
of rice in large swathes of areas surrounding the NCR is largely a Green
Revolution phenomenon after the mid-1960s. The Green Revolution, as we know,
was intended to somehow achieve self-sufficiency in food grain production. It
was not as important as to which areas the rice production came from. Research
on developing high-yielding varieties was biased towards plain areas with
higher potential for irrigated agriculture. The technology thus developed was not
scale-neutral. More so, unlike in the traditional paddy-growing areas in
eastern, southern, and central India where rice is the principal staple food,
in Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh, rice is hardly consumed by the
growers. Rice became a commercial cash crop in the newfound granary giving
birth to the recurrent stubble burning menace.
While
the country succeeded in achieving the desired objective, there were unintended
consequences of large proportions that have persisted over time. Paddy cultivation
is water-intensive and requires flooding for irrigation. The fertile plains of
areas with rayati settlement system received high investment and heavy
subsidies for developing irrigation infrastructure coupled with heavy
exploitation of groundwater. Incentivized progressive farmers in these areas
started producing paddy with assured market intervention by the State unmindful
of their non-rice-consuming habits. Paddy became a commercial crop in Punjab,
Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh, and the direct beneficiaries were the big
farmers.
High-yielding
paddy developed by scientists and cultivated in these areas is mostly a dwarf
variety, matched well for mechanized harvesting. With hardly any risk of
cyclones and floods in the new-found granary for rice, productivity soared with
more sunny days during Kharif season and controlled irrigation facilities.
Mechanized harvesting left a higher stubble, which became a burden for farmers
who had transformed their status from tillers to supervisors and did not like
to bear the additional costs of clearing their fields for subsequent sowing
during the Rabi season. The easy option was ‘stubble burning’, a polluting
activity.
LAHORE-Hybrid
coarse rice varieties have achieved three times more yields as compared to
traditional varieties in lower Sindh and south Punjab.
Use of hybrid seed, developed by scientists
from Pakistan and China after extensive research, has helped increasing yield
from 39-35 maunds per acre to well over 100 maunds per acre this year.
Progressive farmers have even managed to get more than 135 maunds paddy per
acre.
Joint research for inventing high-yield hybrid
coarse rice varieties has enabled paddy growers to get more earning, thus
pushing their living standards upward besides reducing poverty from the rural
areas. “Our per acre average yield with traditional rice varieties was 30-35
maund. Now hybrid varieties have enabled us to get 100 maund plus yield. In
some cases the progressive farmers achieved 136 maund per acre,” said different
growers while talking to a delegation of the Agriculture Journalists
Association (AJA) Lahore during visit to rice fields in Golarchi in district
Badin, lower Sindh.
Success of the hybrid varieties can be gauged
from the fact that it is now being sown over 1.7 million acres of land in Sindh
and south Punjab. Guard Agricultural Research & Services (Pvt) Ltd, which
is pioneer in bringing the hybrid rice to Pakistan in collaboration with the
Yuan Longping Hi-Tech China, is now working on to introduce such varieties
which are heat resistant, salinity resistant and capable to do away with the
negative impacts of climate change in Sindh and other parts of Pakistan.
Talking to journalists, Guard Agricultural Research & Services (Pvt) Senior
Executive Momin Malik said that three heat resistant varieties such as LP-18,
Guard-403 and Guard 53 will soon be introduced in Sindh. He said that these
varieties are lodging free too. He said that a long period is required for
research and development of new varieties and the government should develop
some mechanism for approval of new varieties at a fast phase. It will help
expediting the research and development in agricultural sector, he said.
Momin said that Guard is running four research
stations in Pakistan out of which two are in Sindh and two in Punjab. These
research stations are in Golarchi, Larkana, Pakpattan and Sundar area near
Lahore. Yuan Longping Hi-Tech representative in Pakistan Mr Liu said that
hybrid rice is playing a very important role in ensuring food security and
eradicating hunger from the world. He said that founder of his company who is
known as ‘Father of Hybrid Rice’ has a dream to take the per acre yield to 200
maund per acre. He said that their company has its research stations in
Pakistan, India, Philippines, Vietnam and Bangladesh. He disclosed that
Pakistan’s climate and land is so suitable for hybrid long-grain rice that
their seed is giving top performance in this country and yield is even better
than China. He said that his company in collaboration with Guard will continue
research to introduce varieties having resistance against climate change.
He urged the progressive growers to educate
their fellows on how to get better yield and what are the good agricultural
practices for this seed. Guard General Manager Agriculture Abdul Karim Marri
said that their company in collaboration with Chinese counterpart is also
exporting rice seed to Philippines which once was considered as the headquarter
for coarse variety. A progressive farmer Ali Mardan Shah proudly said that
Golarchi is not only producing higher yield but is leading the whole of
Pakistan.
President
Trump has said, among other things, that the coronavirus will magically
disappear and that science doesn't really know if the planet is getting warmer.
Credit: Getty Images
Instead
of thinking about whether to vote Democratic or Republican in the upcoming U.S.
election, think about voting to protect science instead of destroying it.
As
president, Donald Trump’s abuse of science has been wanton and dangerous. It has also been well documented. Since the November 2016
election, Columbia Law School has maintained a Silencing Science Tracker that records the Trump
Administration’s attempts to restrict or prohibit scientific research, to
undermine science education or discussion, or to obstruct the publication or
use of scientific information. By early October, the tracker had detailed more
than 450 cases, including scientific bias and misrepresentation (123
instances), budget cuts (72), government censorship (145), interference with
education (46), personnel changes (61), research hindrances (43) and
suppression or distortion of information (19).
The
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) also keeps a tracker of the administration’s attacks on science. It details
antiscience rules, regulations and orders; censorship; politicization of grants
and funding; restrictions on conference attendance; rollbacks of data
collection or data accessibility; sidelining of science advisory committees;
and studies that have been halted, edited or suppressed. The fact that so many
types of abuse have occurred, and so often that they each warrant their own
category, is scary.
ADVERTISEMENT
Alarmingly,
many of the attacks involve the most immediate and long-term threats to people
on earth: the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. In September, for
example, Politico reported that Trump’s political
appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services were editing weekly
reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the
pandemic prior to publication. Ten days later, U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan
Brouillette asserted that “no one knows” whether human activities are causing climate
change—a refrain that is so tired it has become silly.
Such
declarations parrot Trump’s own words and actions. As was widely reported, when
the president was touring the California wildfires in mid-September and was
asked about the role of climate change, he said, “It'll just start
getting cooler, you just watch.” Wade Crowfoot, California's secretary for
natural resources, replied, "I wish science agreed with you.” To which
Trump retorted: "Well, I don't think science knows, actually.”
Moves
by Trump Administration officials to block or alter scientific information have
been particularly egregious. In 2016 National Park Service leaders deleted
language about climate change in a report done by an agency scientist, Maria
Caffrey. She filed a whistleblower complaint, the language was
reinstated—and later she was terminated. In May 2019 the U.S. Geological Survey
director ordered employees to use climate change
models that only project impacts through 2040, cutting off consideration of
severe consequences that are likely in the years beyond.
In
June 2019 Politicoreported that Department of Agriculture officials buried dozens of climate
change studies, including one that revealed how rice worldwide growing in an
atmosphere with more carbon dioxide would provide less nutrition. The next
month, a State Department scientist resigned after
the White House blocked him from submitting written testimony to the House Intelligence
Committee on the national security dangers of climate change.
In
July 2020 the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office revealed how the Trump administration
artificially lowered estimates of climate damages to justify weakened climate
policies, failing to listen to experts from the National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering and Medicine.
ADVERTISEMENT
Undercutting
science has dangerous repercussions. New York Times contributor
David Leonhardt, analyzing COVID-19 data from the World Bank and Johns Hopkins
University, found that as of September 1, if the U.S. had the same rate of
COVID-19 deaths as the world average, 145,000 fewer Americans would have died from the disease.
Trump’s
dismissal of medical science is one reason for the awful excess. As Ben Santer,
a researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a member of the
National Academies, wrote in a Scientific Americanarticle in
June: “It was scientifically incorrect for Donald Trump to dismiss the
coronavirus as no worse than the seasonal flu, as he did on February 26. It was
incorrect to advise U.S. citizens to engage in business as usual, which he did
as late as March 10. It was incorrect to imply, as he did in a press briefing
on March 19, that the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are
promising remedies for COVID-19.” (There was already evidence that the
medications did not help, and additional findings soon led the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration to revoke authorization for their use.)
“Dissemination of such inaccurate information helped to spread the novel
coronavirus in America faster by delaying the adoption of social distancing.”
Even
after Trump became ill with COVID, he continued to mislead the public about the
danger of the illness and the safety and efficacy of the experimental
treatments he received—while the White House has declined to do the sort of
extensive contact tracing public health experts consider vital.
The
administration has also been “suppressing CDC reports on how to safely operate
businesses, schools and houses of worship during the pandemic,” according to
UCS research analyst Anita Desikan, in an August blog post on the
organization’s Web site.
Disregard
for science threatens people in other ways. Desikan noted that the EPA has
discounted the human health effects of particulate air pollution, which
numerous studies show contributes to asthma, lung damage and birth defects, and
has ignored the dangers of asbestos, a known human carcinogen, raised by its own scientists. The EPA, she noted, has even
downplayed harm from a chemical that damages the hearts of human fetuses. EPA’s
leaders, appointed by Trump, have rolled back numerous regulations affecting
endangered species, clean air, clean water and toxic chemicals—even the
neurotoxin mercury—which will increase hazards to human health as well as
emissions of greenhouse gases. These threats are particularly important for
Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities, which suffer disproportionately from
pollution as well as COVID-19.
Science,
built on facts and evidence-based analysis, is fundamental to a safe and fair
America. Upholding science is not a Democratic or Republican issue. There are
plenty of people in red and blue states across the country who respect and need
science. Industrial innovation, profitable farming, homeland security, a
competitive economy and therefore good jobs, all depend on it. But politicians
of different stripes have to get on board to protect science from further
demise. In May, for example, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Scientific Integrity Act as part of the Heroes Act. It would require science-based federal agencies to have a
scientific integrity policy that ensures that no one at the agency will
“suppress, alter, interfere, or otherwise impede the timely release and
communication of scientific or technical findings.” But the bill sits idle in
the Senate.
On
an individual basis, the most powerful action you can take to protect science
is to vote out of office a president who is trying to gut it—and to encourage
people you know to do likewise, especially in the battleground states. The same
applies to the November elections for key U.S. Senate races. Most senators and
representatives do prize facts and evidence-based thinking, yet too many of
them remain silent about Trump’s abuse of science. Their silence is complicity.
For that reason, the November 3 election should be a day of reckoning.
A grand push is on for corporate-led solutions
to hunger and malnutrition. On the GMO front this manifests as Golden Rice
being pressed into service as a solution to the hunger and malnutrition
worsened by the pandemic. In this way, global agrochemical transnational
corporations (TNCs) and collaborating institutions such as the International
Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are using concerns over food security heightened
by the pandemic to promote an industrialized agricultural model that many think
is already discredited.
Opponents
of Golden Rice are concerned it will endanger agrobiodiversity and peoples’
health. Photo by Kervin Bonganciso/MASIPAG.
As IRRI’s head of Agri-Food Policy, Jean Balié,
told a webinar sponsored by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (“The
future of food systems in Southeast Asia post-COVID19”),
IRRI is “looking to increase the mineral and vitamin content in rice
grains” in response to the pandemic.
Golden Rice projects and applications for its
approval are currently underway in three countries. On December 10, 2019, the
Philippines issued a Golden Rice permit for Direct Use for Food, Feed, and
Processing. This was despite the standing challenge by farmers, scientists,
and civil society groups regarding Golden Rice’s unresolved safety and efficacy
issues.
In Indonesia, it was confirmed in August 2019
that the rice research center (BB Padi) had grown Golden Rice in their testing
fields in Sukamandi, West Java. However, BB Padi is still waiting for
permission from Indonesia’s biosafety clearing house for confined field testing
in selected areas.
In Bangladesh, rumors have been circulating since November 2019
that Golden Rice would be approved by the Biosafety Core Committee. Despite the
delay, proponents are optimistic that approval in Bangladesh will still occur.
At the Stop Golden Rice Network (SGRN) we
believe that Golden Rice is an unnecessary and unwanted technology. It is being
peddled by corporations purely for profit-making agendas and
will only strengthen the grip of corporations over rice and agriculture.
Moreover, we believe it will endanger agrobiodiversity and peoples’ health as
well. In consequence, farmers, consumers and others have been campaigning
against its use and commercialization since the mid-2000s, including
through the uprooting of Golden Rice field trials back
in 2013.
Why is there intense opposition towards Golden
Rice?
The importance of rice in Asian countries
cannot be understated; 90 percent of rice is produced and consumed in Asia.
Rice is at the center of the social, cultural, and economic activities of
peoples all across Asia.
And as the staple food for a majority of the
Asian population, it is also a political commodity. As well, Asian countries
such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and India are the centers of origin of more
than 100,000 varieties of rice. Also considered as among the most biodiverse
countries in the world, a wide array of vegetables, fruits, root crops, and
cereals abound in the farms and forests of these countries, ensuring a
dependable source of nutrition for the families and the communities.
Yet malnutrition is prevalent in Asia,
particularly among children and women. This is not simply because of the
absence of specific important nutrients or vitamins. It is caused by the “lack of
access to sufficient, nutritious, and safe food” due to poverty
and changing food production and consumption patterns.
The impact of these changes is seen in IRRI’s
Green Revolution in which many farmers across Asia have become bound to the
expensive inputs and seeds peddled by huge agrochemical TNCs who promote a
single-crop diet. As a result of the green revolution, white rice now dominates
once very diverse Asian diets. White rice has a high glycemic index which
causes diabetes and 60 percent of global diabetes cases are in Asia. Packing
more nutrients, like Vitamin A, in rice, which requires more rice consumption
would make this worse. Especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, for
which diabetes is considered a risk factor for disease severity.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (UN FAO) identifies the dominance of large corporations over
food systems as among the factors that contribute to food insecurity and
malnutrition. In developing countries, large tracts of agricultural lands are
being converted either to industrial and commercial land uses, or to
large-scale mono-cropped plantations of cash crops such as pineapples, palm
oil, and bananas — crops that hardly serve the nutrition needs of the people.
FAO further acknowledges that the changes in food systems and diets, such as
the prevalence of highly processed foods and displacement of traditional foods
and eating habits, also contribute to the worsening trend of food insecurity
and malnutrition.
Given this context, Golden Rice is simply a
‘band-aid’ solution to the wide, gaping wound of hunger and poverty.
More specifically, Golden Rice has a series of
highly problematic aspects
Negligible
beta carotene content — The current version of
the Golden Rice is called GR2E. It contains a negligible amount of
beta-carotene (from 3.57 ug/g to 22 ug/g), which the United States Food and Drug Administration (US
FDA) also acknowledged, making the product useless in
addressing Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in contrast to existing and readily
available food sources. Already minimal, Golden Rice’s beta-carotene was
also found to degrade quickly after
harvesting, storing, and processing, such as milling and even cooking,
unless the farmers vacuum-pack and refrigerate the GM rice. Farmers from
developing countries however, do not seal or store paddy rice in vacuum
packs, which will make the product more expensive. Electricity also
remains scarce in remote farming communities so refrigerating the harvest
is unrealistic bordering on the absurd.
No meaningful safety tests have
been done — Even as the Golden Rice has been approved in the
Philippines, there has been no testing to ascertain if it is safe for
human consumption. Meanwhile, the aforementioned beta-carotene degradation
may result in toxic compounds causing
oxidative stress damage–which might lead to cancer. Dr. David Schubert of
the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA and Dr. Michael Antoniou of
King’s College London, state that “there have never been short nor, more
importantly, long-term safety testing in laboratory animals (of Golden
Rice) and this must be done for several generations in rats to determine
if it causes birth defects, which we consider a serious possibility.”
Contamination
of other rice varieties and wild relatives of rice —
Field trials conducted so far have only looked at the agronomic traits of
Golden Rice, and not its long-term effects on the environment, including
its possible effects on the genetic diversity of the thousands of rice
varieties being cared for by small scale farmers and Indigenous peoples.
Although rice is a self-pollinating crop, cross-contamination is inevitable.
Contamination can also occur through seed mixing. Such contamination has
already happened in the US with the Liberty Link rice scandal back
in 2006 that caused US farmers millions of dollars in losses because of
the inadvertent contamination of the yet unapproved GM rice.
Safer
sources of beta-carotene —
Being some of the mega-diverse countries, vegetables and fruits that are
high in beta-carotene are found in abundance in the Philippines,
Indonesia, Bangladesh, India and other target countries for Golden Rice.
These foods are available and accessible for the people and contain much
higher levels of beta-carotene than Golden Rice. Worsening land-grabbing
and land conversion, liberalization of agricultural commodities, and
increasing control of corporations over agriculture and food, however, are
preventing farmers and their communities from having access to these safe
and nutritious foods.
In developing countries the challenges described
above remain the main culprit of food insecurity and malnutrition. Both the
development of biofortified crops like Golden Rice for solving health issues
and corporate led projects in agriculture as ways to ensure food security
represent a worrisome push for top-down and anti-diversity approaches to food
and health that will ultimately undermine people’s capacities to strengthen
their local food systems. By emphasizing dependence on just a few market-based
crops biofortification actually promotes a poor diet with little nutritional
diversity
Golden Rice is a failed and useless product,
and that is why we continue to resist and oppose it. Time and again, huge
agrochemical companies, philanthrocapitalists, and pseudo-public agencies have attempted to deny the people’s right to
participate in decisions about their food and agriculture. Already, zinc and
iron GM rice and thirty other GM rice products are in the
pipeline, with Golden Rice serving as the Trojan Horse to lure the people into
social acceptance and false security.
More than resisting the release of Golden Rice
however, we are pushing for safer, better and healthier alternatives to address
VAD and other malnutrition issues. Malnutrition can be mitigated and
addressed by having a diverse diet. Nutrition does not need to
be an expensive commodity, nor rely on advanced technology. We believe that
instead of pushing Golden Rice and biofortifying crops through genetic
modification, governments should promote biodiversity in farms and
on tables by supporting safe, healthy and sustainable food production.
We are also calling on governments to pay
attention to the needs of our food producers, including facilitating access to
lands to till, appropriate technologies, and an agriculture policy that will
promote and uphold the people’s right to food and the nations’ food
sovereignty.
Farmers from 6th mile and Rautey-Rumtek, East Sikkim, have
complained about the extensive damage to their grain, caused due to combined
infection of neck blast and nodal blast on their crop.
Shri Bhim Prasad Sharma, a farmer from 6th mile, who had planted
this variety of paddy on 0.4 hectares, asserted that, “the paddy plant looks
like a normal ripened crop but has dried up due to problems not known in the
past.”
He said that his entire efforts have gone in vain and that it will
be a great loss for him in the current season, as he won't be able to harvest
even a single grain in the current year.
Shri Kamal Sharma, another farmer from Rautey-Rumtek, East Sikkim,
had also planted the same variety in 0.3 hectares and he too has a similar tale
to narrate. After discussing with the farmers, Dr R K Avasthe, Joint Director,
ICAR-NOFRI constituted a team of Scientists from ICAR-NOFRI, Tadong, comprising
of Dr Chandramani Raj (Scientist-Plant Pathology) and Dr Janak Kumar Singh
(Subject Matter Specialist-Plant Breeding) for the field visit.
The affected areas upon close observation of the paddy fields
growing Abhishek variety recorded extensive damage due to combined infection of
neck blast and nodal blast causing chaffy grains which remain unfilled.
The paddy variety is said to have come from the regional station,
Hazaribagh of ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack in 2006. However,
other paddies which originated in Sikkim, like Sano Attey and Kalchanti, were
free from the disease despite being planted in the near vicinity of the
affected Abhishek variety.
The microscopic examination of the affected samples was conducted,
by Dr Shweta Singh (Scientist –Plant Pathology) and she concluded that the
paddy sheath and grains were infected, with neck and nodal blast infection
which was evident due to the presence of spores of the fungi.
As a preventive measure, ICAR-NOFRI recommends the following steps
:
1. Fields be sanitized and bury the infected straw and stubbles in
the field.
2. Seed treatment with Pseudomonas flourescens @ 10 g/kg of seed.
3. During nursery preparation, sprinkling 2.5 kg of Pseudomonas
fluorescens (talc) in stagnated water to a depth of 2.5 cm over an area of 25
m2 for one hectare of the nursery.
4. Seedlings should also be treated, by soaking the root system of
seedlings for 30 minutes in Pseudomonas flourescens @ 4 ml/L before
transplanting.
5. Spray three times Pseudomonas fluorescens talc formulation @
0.5 per cent from 45 days after transplanting to grain filling stage at ten
days interval.
6. Use local tolerant varieties which are convenient to Sikkim
conditions and
7. In outbreak conditions, copper oxychloride, about 0.3 per cent
should be applied, at intervals of 10 days till grain filling stage (< 8 kg
Cu/hectare/year).
Kejriwal to launch spraying of anti-stubble
burning solution on TuesdayPosted:Oct 11, 2020 07:27 PM (IST)
PTI file photo
New Delhi, October 11
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will on Tuesday launch the
spraying of anti-stubble burning solution in Delhi’s Ghalib Pur village,
Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Sunday.
“So far, we have received applications to spray the anti-stubble
burning solution on nearly 1,500 acres of land where non-basmati rice is
grown,” he said.
Scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research
Institute, PUSA, have developed “bio-decomposer” capsules, which are used
to prepare a liquid formulation. The solution, when sprayed in the fields, can
decompose crop residue and turn it into manure.
A centralised bio-decomposer system has been set up in
Kharkhari Nahar village in southwest Delhi. This year, the Delhi government is
going to use the solution on the land where non-basmati rice is grown.
“We have estimated that only Rs 20 lakh is needed to manage
stubble in 800 hectares of agricultural land in Delhi through this solution. It
includes the cost of preparation, transportation and spraying,” he said.
If this proves to be successful in Delhi, it can be a good
solution to the issue of stubble burning in neighbouring states too, he said.
Rai said the contribution of farm fires in neighbouring states
to Delhi’s pollution goes up to 44 per cent during the harvesting season.
PTI
Sen. Imee R.
Marcos today cited the lack of drying machines and storage facilities for the
losses that rice farmers are suffering amid October’s wet-season harvest.
Senator Imee R.
Marcos (Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN)
Marcos,
chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, said rice farmers who
were selling their wet palay at P15 per kilo weeks earlier are now selling
below their average production cost of P12 per kilo.
She urged
the scheduling of rice imports outside of the country’s harvest seasons in
March-April and September-October so that farmers don’t have to compete with
unrestricted importation under the Rice Tariffication Law.
“The truth
is, the warehouses are full of imported rice. The NFA (National Food
Authority), following corruption allegations, suffered budget cuts and had
already spent most of its funding at the start of the pandemic. There’s hardly
any money now to purchase the main harvest,” Marcos said.
“Local rice
farmers are no longer thinking of profit, just cutting their losses and paying
back their debts. They’ve been left high and dry amid the wet-season harvest,”
Marcos said.
The lowest
farmgate price of P10 per kilo was reported in the Bicol region and Capiz and
was ranging at P11 to P13 in other rice-producing provinces.
“Production
cost also goes up by P1 to P2 per kilo if a farmer avails of a drying machine
at the nearest coop, apart from having to line up with so many others,” Marcos
said.
In Nueva
Ecija, the rice bowl of Central Luzon, the cost of hired labor has also
increased amid the rains, from 10 cavans to 15 cavans for every 100 cavans
harvested.
“Some rice
farmers are opting to put off harvesting amid the rains, rather than pay more
for labor and sell at a loss to rice traders,” Marcos said, citing farmer
complaints reaching her office.
“They’re now
drying what palay they could fit into their own homes. What becomes discolored
from moisture is later sold cheaply as broken rice or duck feed,” she added.
Over 2,000 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC),
representing some 1.9 million metric tons (MMT) of rice, have expired as
traders were unable to use the permits beyond the 60-day deadline.
Documents from the Department of Agriculture (DA) obtained by
the BusinessMirror showed that in the January-to-May period alone, 2,071
SPS-ICs for 1.879 MMT of rice lapsed.
The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) National Plant Quarantine
Services Division (NPQSD) confirmed to the BusinessMirror that unused SPS-ICs
issued in June and July have expired as well.
An SPS-IC for rice, which certifies that the imported staple is
safe for human consumption, lapses after a 60-day must ship-out date and could
not be used for future importation, the BPI-NPQSD said.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar earlier said about 200,000
metric tons (MT) to 300,000 MT of rice will still enter the country in the
fourth quarter, majority of which would arrive by December.
Dar said the DA-BPI has been in talks with rice traders and
importers to refrain from importing rice for October and November, when local
harvest is in full swing, to prevent palay prices from declining.
In September, the DA-BPI only issued 14 SPS-ICs for 14,463 MT of
rice to eligible importers, according to data from the BPI.
The BPI-NPQSD told the BusinessMirror that it did not suspend
the issuance of SPS-IC for rice imports and that it was “managing” the schedule
of arrival “to prioritize the distribution of local palay/rice.”
“BPI also conducted a series of meetings with rice importers
regarding this matter and has received a commitment that the importers will
also manage their importations,” the agency said.
From January to October 2, about 1.817 MMT of rice was brought
into the country by 190 eligible importers. The bulk of the volume or 1.583 MMT
came from Vietnam, BPI data showed.
BPI data also showed that Puregold Price Club Inc was the top
rice importer with 65,728.658 MT followed by Davao San Ei Trading Inc. with
64,636 MT.
Aside from Vietnam, traders and importers bought rice from
Myanmar, Thailand, China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Taiwan, Italy and Spain.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has pared
down its total rice import forecast for the Philippines this year by 100,000 MT
to 2.5 MMT due to the “slower pace of issuing import permits.”
Philippine rice imports this year may decline by 13.8 percent
from last year’s 2.9 MMT, USDA data showed.
Due to the downward revision, global rice imports are expected
to fall slightly to 43.003 MT from last year’s 43.428 MMT, based on USDA’s
latest projections.
“Global trade is expected to contract slightly on lower
Philippines imports,” it said in its October “Grain: World Markets and
Trade” report published recently.
Likewise, the USDA revised downward its rice import forecast for
the Philippines next year to 2.6 MMT from a previous projection of 3 MMT due to
“higher production forecast.”
With the latest projection, rice imports next year would remain
flat but the Philippine would still be the world’s largest importer for the
third consecutive year.
The USDA forecasts the country’s milled rice production to reach
11.7 MMT next year, 700,000 MT higher than its previous estimate of 11 MMT.
Despite the upward revision, rice output next year would still
be 2 percent lower than this year’s estimated output of 11.927 MMT, USDA data
showed.
As part of Public Health England’s (PHE) Better Health campaign,
which encourages adults to eat better, lose weight and get active, registered
dietitian and member of the British Dietetic Association (BDA)Shola Oladipo shares
a healthy twist on how to prepare popular West African dish Jollof Rice.
Jollof rice (made with brown basmati rice)
Preparation time: 20-25 minutes
Cooking time: 50-60 minutes
Serves: 6
Ingredients
·3
cups brown basmati rice
·3 medium
tomatoes, chopped
·1 red bell
pepper, chopped
·1 large
onion, chopped
·2 garlic
cloves
·1-inch
ginger, chopped
·1/2 scotch
bonnet pepper or 2 teaspoons Cayenne pepper
·2
tablespoons of cooking oil
·2 teaspoons
curry powder
·1 teaspoon
thyme
·2 tablespoons
tomato paste or puree
·2 vegetable
bouillon cubes
·650
ml water
Method
1.Wash the brown rice thoroughly in a colander and allow to
drain
2.Using
a blender – blend tomato puree, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, ginger and
scotch bonnet pepper until smooth. Add sufficient water to blend to a thick but
pourable consistency.
3.Heat
oil in a large pot on medium-high heat, add pureed ingredients and cook for 3
minutes. Then add curry powder, vegetable bouillon cubes (crushed), and thyme.
4.Cook this mixture for about 2 minutes.
5.Stir
in the rice and 650 ml water – ensure all grains are sufficiently coated with
the tomato mixture.
6.Bring
to boil stirring carefully.
7.Cover
pot and reduce heat to low and cook until rice is tender and fluffy.
*Remember brown rice takes longer to cook – so allow 50-60
minutes.
Serve with grilled chicken, plantain and salad
The Better Health campaign provides a variety of free tools and
apps to help you become more active and make healthier food choices. This
includes the new FREE 12-Week NHS Weight Loss Plan, which helps people eat
better and learn skills to prevent weight gain.
Paddy procured from farmers should be custom milled and the
resultant raw rice delivered by millers would be utilised for Targeted Public
Distribution System (TPDS) and other welfare measures. | File | Photo
Credit: Mohd. Arif
The State government has targeted
procurement of 1.65 crore tonnes of paddy from farmers at the back of a record
production in the current year.
Of this massive quantity,
procurement in the Vaanakalam (kharif) is expected to be around 90 lakh metric
tonnes and balance 75 lakh metric tonnes during Yasangi (rabi season). The
government has already announced a minimum support price of ₹1,888 a quintal for A-grade
variety and ₹1,868 a quintal for the B-grade
or common variety.
The significant improvement in
the procurement target is attributed to the projected rise in the area under
agriculture with the operationalisation of major projects like Kaleshwaram.
Procurement of 1.65 crore tonnes of paddy would set a record for the State as
the procurement was 1.12 crore MT in 2019-20 and 77.41 lakh MT in the year
before that. Paddy procurement for the entire crop year hovered around 50 to 60
lakh MT during the previous years.
The Civil Supplies department has
released the paddy procurement policy for the current year after the State
Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar
Rao, finalized the action plan for the purpose at the village level itself. As
the incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the government has decided to
open 5,690 procurement centres in villages so that overcrowding at agricultural
market committees is avoided and the process is taken up at the farmers’
doorstep.
Paddy procured from farmers
should be custom milled and the resultant raw rice delivered by millers would
be utilised for Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and other welfare
measures. The annual requirement of raw rice for TPDS and other welfare
schemes, including open market sales scheme with two months buffer, is pegged
at approximately 28.8 lakh metric tonnes.
The policy mentioned in detail
the specifications of paddy, including the presence of foreign matter, both
organic and inorganic, discolouration, moisture content and immature, shrunken
or shrivelled grains. The Civil Supplies Corporation, IKP (women self-help
groups), agriculture cooperative societies and other agencies would make paddy
purchases at procurement centres. The allotment of procurement centres to these
groups would, however, be made after taking into consideration their previous
performance.
The policy contained clear
guidelines pertaining to custom milling of paddy to be undertaken by rice millers
and they were directed to deliver the custom milled rice within 15 days of
receipt of paddy. “The collectors shall take action to blacklist the rice
millers who divert paddy stocks delivered for custom milling or indulge in
purchase of PDS rice”.
Sangrur farmers protest paddy purchase from
other districts
Say their crop won’t be sold once millers buy
from others
·Oct 12, 2020 07:17 AM (IST)
·Updated :8 hours ago
Sangrur farmers protest in front
of trucks carrying paddy from Tarn Taran on Sunday. tribune photo
Tribune News Service
Sangrur, October 11
Farmers from Dhadriyan village, owing allegiance to the Kirti
Kisan Union, today laid siege to three trucks of paddy purchased from Tarn
Taran by local rice millers.
Farmers here alleged that as rice millers were purchasing paddy
from other districts, they would struggle to sell their crop once it was ready.
They announced to intensify their protest in the coming days.
“Rice millers of our area are bringing paddy from other
districts. We fear they will refuse to purchase our crop as it would come after
10-15 days. Till then, they would have made the entire required purchase. We
will not allow the sale of paddy from other districts in our area. Our protest
will continue till the authorities do not send these trucks back to Tarn
Taran,” said Bhajan Singh, a farmer leader.
He alleged though many trucks had come from Tarn Taran and other
border districts last night, they could seize only three trucks.
“Every year farmers of our area face problems because millers
purchase paddy from other areas,” alleged Tejinder Singh, another farmer
leader.
Punsup inspector Kuldeep Goyal and Markfed inspector Pushpinder
Singh said they had been trying to convince farmers to release trucks as
legally nobody could stop millers from purchasing paddy from any part of the
state. “We have deputed police personnel and are trying to convince farmers.
Meetings are on to break the impasse,” said Harchetan Singh, SHO, Longowal.
Farmers lay siege to trucks of paddy from other
districts; Sangrur farmers 'struggle to sell their crops'
They have announced to intensify their agitation
in the coming days
·Oct 11, 2020 06:36 PM (IST)
Photo for representation only. —
File photo
Parvesh Sharma Tribune
News Service Sangrur,
October 11
Farmers from Dhadriyan village, under the banner of Kriti Kisan
Union, have laid siege to three trucks of paddy, that were purchased from
Tartarn by local rice millers.
Farmers have alleged, that millers were purchasing paddy from
other districts while Sangrur farmers would struggle to sell their crops.
They have announced to intensify their agitation in the coming
days.
"Rice millers of our area, are bringing paddy from other
districts, but they would refuse to purchase our crop, which would come after
10-15 days because till then they would purchase their all quota. We would not
allow the sale of other districts' paddy in our area, and our protest would
continue till the authorities do not send these trucks back to Tartan,"
said a union leader, Bhajan Singh.
He alleged, that even though many trucks had come from Tartarn,
and other border districts last night, they could only capture three trucks.
"Every year the farmers of our area face problems because
millers purchase paddy from other areas," alleged another union leader,
Tejinder Singh.
Punsup inspector, Kuldeep Goyal, and Markfed inspector,
Pushpinder Singh, said that they had been trying to convince farmers to release
trucks as legally could not stop rice millers from purchasing paddy from any
part of the state.
“We have deputed cops, and trying to convince farmers. Meetings
are going on,” said the SHO Longowal, Harchetan Singh.
4,000 containers carrying basmati, other items
stranded at dry ports across state
Exporters are worried over timely
deliveries to overseas clients. file
Shivani Bhakoo
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, October 11
Owing to the ongoing farmers’ agitation, more than 4,000 export
containers carrying Punjab-produced items, including foodgrain such as basmati
and other perishable goods, are stranded at the dry ports across the state.
There are 8 dry ports in Ludhiana, one each in Jalandhar &
Dapar
The rice exporters are worried they may not be able to keep the
timely delivery commitment made to overseas clients. Unless the produce is
delivered in time, exporters will not be able to secure repeat orders for rice
this season, they say.
Jalandhar exporter Viney Gupta, who runs a government-recognised
export house, says he ships rice to countries such as the UK, US, Australia,
Canada, etc. “The procurement season is on but containers full of rice are
stuck at dry ports. We can’t purchase more basmati from the farmer when the
previous stock hasn’t been cleared (lifted for export). Farmers will be the
ultimate sufferers if the containers remain stranded. We urge the government to
declare rice an essential commodity and save both farmers and exporters,” says
Gupta.
Rice is exported from other states such as Haryana, Rajasthan
and Madhya Pradesh as well. If Punjab is hit, buyers will go to these states
for basmati. Pakistan too is a viable option for them, he says.
Rice intermediary from Jalalabad Naresh Batra says the farmers’
agitation has come as a double whammy for them as exports had already been
suffering because of Covid-19.
“How can we get more orders when the previous consignments are
not cleared and payments are not made? The price of basmati has already gone
down since shipments are not going out on a regular basis. The problem of non-availability
of containers is also there,” said Batra.
The overall impact of stranded containers is expected to be
significant across the rice supply chain, right from farmers, millers to
exporters, they say.
“The movement of containers is in the interest of farmers. We
want the Punjab Government to intervene to resolve the issue and facilitate
immediate movement of containers,” said Gupta.
In total, there are 10 dry ports in the state, including eight
in Ludhiana - ICD, Concor; Gateway Rail Freight Limited; Pristine Mega
Logistics Park; Hind Terminals Private Limited; Overseas Warehousing Private
Limited; Punjab State WareHousing Corporation; Adani Logistics; and Krishna
Cargomovers. The other two are in Jalandhar and Mohali.
Jasmine Food Named Their 16th Consecutive "Malaysia's
Reader's Digest Most Trusted Brand Award"
·2
mins read
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/
-- Amidst the current unprecedented time of economic downturn due to the
Covid-19 outbreak, Jasmine Food Corporation (Jasmine) Sdn Bhd has demonstrated
its sustainable performance as evidenced by 10th consecutive years of receiving
awards by Reader's Digest. The 2020 accolade saw Jasmine awarded with
"Platinum Trusted Brand" in the Rice category among other Rice Brand
in Malaysia.
Jasmine
Food supports Pusat Darah Negara’s (PDN) Blood Donation Drive
"We have established our presence for more than 5 decades
as one of the leading rice market producers and distributors in Malaysia. We are proud of the awards that we have
received for so many years. The awards, for us, is encouragement to enhance our
trusted brand to keep providing the highest quality of our healthy rice
variants," Lim Swee Keat, CEO of Jasmine
Food Corporation, explained.
Lim also concerns about healthy eating lifestyle. For that
reason, Jasmine provides rice produced through the right cultivation that can
grow healthy products. "Among our products range in the list are fragrant,
basmathi, calrose, health rice, glutinous rice, rice vermicelli, and we also
have imported white rice."
Innovation is one crucial element that also attributes to the
success of Jasmine, which is evidenced by the production of innovative products
such as long grain basmathi rice. This type of low-fat and low carbohydrate
rice contains a low level of glycemic index, protein, calcium and vitamins.
Hence, Jasmine has won the trust and support achieved by partnering with the
country's health institute, Tung Shin Hospital, National Blood Donation Centre
(PDN), National Diabetic Association, and National Heart Institute or Institute
Jantung Negara (IJN).
"We became a subsidiary Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) in
1996 and have ever since imported a wide variety of rice from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Australia,
and USA to cater to diverse needs of
customers from various countries," Lim added.
Reader's Digest has for 22 consecutive years held such a
prestigious accolade to gain insights into customers' views and trusted brands,
based on trustworthiness and credibility, quality, value, understanding of
customer needs, innovation, and social responsibility. The insights were
collected from around 8,000 individuals from five countries/regions,
including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the
Philippines. Platinum Trusted Brand Awards were given to brands that
topped their category with an overwhelmingly higher score than their nearest
competitor.
The trustworthiness, quality and credibility are also proven
through Jasmine Rice's money-back
guarantee policy. Choose Jasmine products today, because you can trust in its
quality and consistency.
Rice traders organizes sessions
on agri-children rights
On 11 October,2020 06:17 pm
The
UNCRC has 41 articles which tell us about various rights of the child.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The top rice traders has organized the
workshops for educating the 1000 rice transplanters families and their children
on Child Rights and to create awareness for their personal health, hygiene and
Prevention from COVID-19 pandemic.
Accordng to a statement issued on Sunday, the top rice trader of
the country, Rice Partners (Pvt) Ltd (RPL) organized 20 awareness sessions on
“Child Rights and Personal Health and Hygiene” for rice transplanter’s families
in different region of the Punjab province.
In last session the series of awareness session, the Project
Officer RPL, Rizwan Ali highlighted the different aspects children health and
threats and also delivered a lecture on child rights.
The Rice Partners (Pvt) Ltd (RPL) in collaboration with Helvetas
Pakistan and Swiss Solidarity conducted 20 awareness sessions for agriculture
families on “Child Rights and Personal Health and Hygiene” especially for rice
transplanter’s families in 16 remote villages of district Sheikhupura and other
districts, he said. He threw light on the rights of children and highlighted
the strategies for elimination of child abuses and child labor.
During the series of awareness sessions, more than 2000
participants attended these awareness sessions, he said. While, SOPs were
strictly followed regarding the COVID-19 during these sessions. He shared
the key points of the document of the United Nations Child Rights Convention
(UNCRC) with the participants.
The UNCRC has 41 articles which tell us about various rights of
the child. He said that the constitution of Pakistan also grants fundamental
rights to the citizens of Pakistan particularly to women and children.
As per article 25-A of Constitution of Pakistan “The State shall
provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to
sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law” he added. He
also described the last sermon of Holy Prophet (PBUH) as per the last sermon
that all the people are equal and no one is superior.
The base of superiority is the faith only. He also said
that RPL is providing books, stationery and uniforms to the deserving children
of the transplanting community free of cost so they should send their children
into schools. He ended the session by saying that RPL is also supporting
in birth registration of child.
The Health Officer, Punjab Health Department, Ms Zunaira Arooj
sensitized the participants on personal health and hygiene. She told the
participants what measures should be taken in case of heatstroke, accidents,
bites, chemical exposures etc. She added to always use filtered water or boiled
water to remain safe from water- borne diseases. She also spread awareness on
prevention from novel corona virus. She described the methods of making
hand sanitizers and ORS at home.
Muhammad Ali Tariq, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Rice Partners
Pvt Ltd has said that RPL is working for the betterment of farmers and farm
laborers from past many years through provision of laser land leveling on 50%,
cost sharing basis, trainings on water saving techniques. “We are ensuring
decent working conditions for rice transplanters and their children by
establishing Community Child Care Centers, first aid kits distribution of food
packs, canopy kits etc.
He also said that RPL has organized number of medical camps in
Punjab and treated more than 20,000 patients in the community. He said
that RPL is the only organization in Pakistan which is working on many aspects
of the rice value chain like Water productivity, Crop management, Gender
equality, Child rights, Vocational trainings, Women empowerment, human rights
and health issues. He said that they try their best to improve the
livelihood of the farmers and farm labour. So far more than 28,000 farmers
have been sensitized by RPL.
Over 2,000 sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC), representing
some 1.9 million metric tons (MMT) of rice, have expired as traders were unable
to use the permits beyond the 60-day deadline.
Documents from the Department of Agriculture (DA) obtained by
the BusinessMirror showed that in the January-to-May period alone, 2,071
SPS-ICs for 1.879 MMT of rice lapsed.
The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) National Plant Quarantine
Services Division (NPQSD) confirmed to the BusinessMirror that unused SPS-ICs
issued in June and July have expired as well.
An SPS-IC for rice, which certifies that the imported staple is
safe for human consumption, lapses after a 60-day must ship-out date and could
not be used for future importation, the BPI-NPQSD said.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar earlier said about 200,000
metric tons (MT) to 300,000 MT of rice will still enter the country in the
fourth quarter, majority of which would arrive by December.
Dar said the DA-BPI has been in talks with rice traders and importers
to refrain from importing rice for October and November, when local harvest is
in full swing, to prevent palay prices from declining.
In September, the DA-BPI only issued 14 SPS-ICs for 14,463 MT of
rice to eligible importers, according to data from the BPI.
The BPI-NPQSD told the BusinessMirror that it did not suspend
the issuance of SPS-IC for rice imports and that it was “managing” the schedule
of arrival “to prioritize the distribution of local palay/rice.”
“BPI also conducted a series of meetings with rice importers
regarding this matter and has received a commitment that the importers will
also manage their importations,” the agency said.
From January to October 2, about 1.817 MMT of rice was brought
into the country by 190 eligible importers. The bulk of the volume or 1.583 MMT
came from Vietnam, BPI data showed.
BPI data also showed that Puregold Price Club Inc was the top
rice importer with 65,728.658 MT followed by Davao San Ei Trading Inc. with
64,636 MT.
Aside from Vietnam, traders and importers bought rice from
Myanmar, Thailand, China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Taiwan, Italy and Spain.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has pared
down its total rice import forecast for the Philippines this year by 100,000 MT
to 2.5 MMT due to the “slower pace of issuing import permits.”
Philippine rice imports this year may decline by 13.8 percent
from last year’s 2.9 MMT, USDA data showed.
Due to the downward revision, global rice imports are expected
to fall slightly to 43.003 MT from last year’s 43.428 MMT, based on USDA’s
latest projections.
“Global trade is expected to contract slightly on lower
Philippines imports,” it said in its October “Grain: World Markets and
Trade” report published recently.
Likewise, the USDA revised downward its rice import forecast for
the Philippines next year to 2.6 MMT from a previous projection of 3 MMT due to
“higher production forecast.”
With the latest projection, rice imports next year would remain
flat but the Philippine would still be the world’s largest importer for the
third consecutive year.
The USDA forecasts the country’s milled rice production to reach
11.7 MMT next year, 700,000 MT higher than its previous estimate of 11 MMT.
Despite the upward revision, rice output next year would still
be 2 percent lower than this year’s estimated output of 11.927 MMT, USDA data
showed.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented
event that has brought immense fear, anxiety and uncertainty among workers,
employers and the general public. Many businesses have closed and a huge number
of workers were displaced leading to higher rates of unemployment. At a
time when local and global companies across industries are reeling from
economic losses, how do we rebuild better beyond? We must recalibrate,
re-engineer and innovate ways in order to stay afloat.
In a series of focus group discussions conducted
by PMAP among its members, three (3) essentials to company culture were
highlighted : agility, “malasakit sa kapwa” or care and concern for
others, and the bayanihan spirit. These were identified as essential to
create safe and dignified working conditions that will promote productivity.
Further, to sustain employee engagement during this crisis, we must also
create a sense of peace and assurance among the family members of the
workers.
The People Management Association of the
Philippines (PMAP), the leading organization of people managers and HR
practitioners, continues to push for a national people-first strategy in
addressing human capital management issues during this difficult times. PMAP is
strong in its belief that promoting the interest of Filipino workers and
business owners through sound people management even during this pandemic is
viable. Thus, on October 21-23, PMAP will be holding its 57th Annual Conference via a digital platform with
global and local speakers from across government, varied industries and the
academe. Spearheaded by PMAP’s Vice President and Conference
Chairperson, Ms. Lin Mukhi, the conference’ discussion will highlight how to
future-proof organizations in the digital age, creating agile talent management
and development, HR innovations, ethics and governance, employment relations
and social protection. Indeed, the PMAP Annual Conference will bring
sharp focus on the issues of our times and help participants become
future-ready.
Farmers from 6th mile and Rautey-Rumtek, East Sikkim, have
complained about the extensive damage to their grain, caused due to combined
infection of neck blast and nodal blast on their crop.
Shri Bhim Prasad Sharma, a farmer from 6th mile, who had planted
this variety of paddy on 0.4 hectares, asserted that, “the paddy plant looks like
a normal ripened crop but has dried up due to problems not known in the past.”
He said that his entire efforts have gone in vain and that it will
be a great loss for him in the current season, as he won't be able to harvest
even a single grain in the current year.
Shri Kamal Sharma, another farmer from Rautey-Rumtek, East Sikkim,
had also planted the same variety in 0.3 hectares and he too has a similar tale
to narrate. After discussing with the farmers, Dr R K Avasthe, Joint Director,
ICAR-NOFRI constituted a team of Scientists from ICAR-NOFRI, Tadong, comprising
of Dr Chandramani Raj (Scientist-Plant Pathology) and Dr Janak Kumar Singh
(Subject Matter Specialist-Plant Breeding) for the field visit.
The affected areas upon close observation of the paddy fields
growing Abhishek variety recorded extensive damage due to combined infection of
neck blast and nodal blast causing chaffy grains which remain unfilled.
The paddy variety is said to have come from the regional station,
Hazaribagh of ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack in 2006. However,
other paddies which originated in Sikkim, like Sano Attey and Kalchanti, were
free from the disease despite being planted in the near vicinity of the
affected Abhishek variety.
The microscopic examination of the affected samples was conducted,
by Dr Shweta Singh (Scientist –Plant Pathology) and she concluded that the
paddy sheath and grains were infected, with neck and nodal blast infection
which was evident due to the presence of spores of the fungi.
As a preventive measure, ICAR-NOFRI recommends the following steps
:
1. Fields be sanitized and bury the infected straw and stubbles in
the field.
2. Seed treatment with Pseudomonas flourescens @ 10 g/kg of seed.
3. During nursery preparation, sprinkling 2.5 kg of Pseudomonas
fluorescens (talc) in stagnated water to a depth of 2.5 cm over an area of 25
m2 for one hectare of the nursery.
4. Seedlings should also be treated, by soaking the root system of
seedlings for 30 minutes in Pseudomonas flourescens @ 4 ml/L before
transplanting.
5. Spray three times Pseudomonas fluorescens talc formulation @
0.5 per cent from 45 days after transplanting to grain filling stage at ten
days interval.
6. Use local tolerant varieties which are convenient to Sikkim
conditions and
7. In outbreak conditions, copper oxychloride, about 0.3 per cent
should be applied, at intervals of 10 days till grain filling stage (< 8 kg
Cu/hectare/year).
Applications
are now open for the 2021 Jan Cathcart Scholarship, which supports women in the
rice industry in their tertiary studies.
Women involved in the Australian rice
industry and its related agricultural networks are encouraged to apply for the
2021 Jan Cathcart Scholarship.
On offer is financial assistance of up to $30,000 for tertiary
study, along with significant opportunities for work experience and employment
placement in the rice sector.
Applications are now open for the scholarship, which is an
initiative of the SunRice Group in honour of Jan Cathcart and her invaluable
contribution to the rice industry during her 43-year career with the company.
The SunRice Group offers financial assistance valued at $10,000
a year for up to three years of tertiary study through the scholarship.
SunRice Group chairman Laurie Arthur described the scholarship
as an ideal opportunity to help shape the future of the rice industry.
‘‘Since SunRice introduced the Jan Cathcart Scholarship in 2014,
we’ve seen many of the recipients take on significant roles in the rice
industry and agriculture in general,’’ Mr Arthur said.
‘‘Through this scholarship, which honours one of our industry’s
great contributors, we have supported the professional development and career
paths of women who are now also contributing to this sector, which is a
wonderful achievement.’’
Deniliquin’s Alexandra Morona received the 2020 scholarship and
is currently studying animal science at Wagga Wagga’s Charles Sturt University.
She said the scholarship had provided significant support in
terms of finance and networks.
Although she was planning to undertake work experience with
SunRice’s CopRice business unit earlier this year, the global COVID-19 pandemic
resulted in postponement. She now hopes to experience working in those
operations over summer.
‘‘Learning how to utilise the complementary relationship between
animals and crops for optimal production and sustainability has long been an
interest of mine, and I am most passionate about developing this line of
research,’’ Miss Morona said.
‘‘The future of agriculture requires innovation which will
contribute to the longevity and sustainability of the industry, and I am proud
to say this is what the Jan Cathcart Scholarship has afforded me the
opportunity to explore.’’
Berrigan’s Annabel Arnold, the 2018 scholarship recipient, is
undertaking a two-year graduate program with SunRice, currently completing her
first rotation with the marketing division in Sydney.
She said the work experience she had already gained through the
scholarship opened her eyes to future job prospects and, after growing up on a
Riverina rice farm, she now has the opportunity to explore other parts of the
SunRice business.
‘‘Marketing is a highly dynamic environment where you get
visibility across different portfolios and markets, and the ability to work
with cross-functional teams.
‘‘This has shown me another side of the rice growing industry,
and further opportunities for my long-term career development.’’
The scholarship is open to female SunRice shareholders, growers
and employees and their extended families.
Women from across the rice industry’s networks are also
encouraged to apply, or to nominate other eligible women who would benefit from
the program.
Eligible students include those currently studying at university
or new students attending their first year of tertiary studies in 2021.
Applications close on Monday, November 16, with the winner to be
announced in early 2021.
A healthcare worker wearing protective gear is pictured inside
La Paz hospital, in Madrid, on September 22. — Agence
France-Presse/Pierre-Philippe Marcou
ON SEPTEMBER 22. I lost a younger brother of mine. He died at
the age of 59 after a heart attack. He had fought for his life for almost 48
hours at a district general hospital before he left this world. On October 1, I
saw in a daily newspaper that another great soul of the land, Dr Tomal Lata
Aditya, a renowned rice breeder and scientific director of the Bangladesh Rice
Research Institute died of a heart attack at the age of only 53. Many such
events happen every day and many of them are helpless. Do these people deserve
to die without any medical attention at such a young age?
Since January 2019, when COVID 19 was first identified and
sequenced from Wuhan, China, the whole word was pulled into it within a couple
of months. More than a million people died globally and more than 34 million
became infected and the number is going upward every day. Many countries in the
west are now experiencing a second wave. In our daily life, be it job,
education, research or social life, and our every move or every action is
framed around COVID-19. Despite global collaborations and efforts at country
level are in most instances at their best, it seems to be a losing battle with
COVID-19. At the same time, we either forget or overlook many more serious
health issues in our everyday life. There can be no denying that we are facing
many unintended consequences and paying prices for them in one way or the other
— for instance, loneliness, depression, family stress, child safety, violence
against women, cybercrimes, sexual and reproductive health of youth, to name a
few.
In Bangladesh, people at all levels are facing hardship and
difficulties every day. No one has, however, thought of encountering life-time
experiences such as the issues of access to hospital care for chronically ill
patients such as kidney dialysis, diabetics, and liver disease and such fatal
diseases, finances and other issues aside. Similarly, people having a heart
pain are thinking which hospitals they can go to so that they can get admission
there rather than calling an ambulance and go to the nearest one for a speedy
access to the care they need and need immediately.
A large number of people are scared of asking for urgent care
and as a result, many tend to avoid professional or institutional help. Many
prefer to self-medicate themselves with antacid or stomach pain relieving
medicines with a hope that pain will go away. There are also more worrisome
pictures on access to routine vaccinations for the newborn. People are fearful
of taking their children to the facilities where vaccination is given. If
Bangladesh fails to provide the vaccines to the newborn and also the needed
booster doses in different times, the country may experience an awful
consequence at a later date. Bangladesh must be vigilant to keep its status as
of 2019 for their neonatal vaccine coverage.
Let me turn to heart attack or stroke patients that I started
with as my personal story. In Bangladesh, most rural districts have population
from 1 to 3 million as per the 2016 census. There is at least one general
hospital in district headquarters. However, few of them or may be none of them
have cardiac surgery units or facilities. Ischemic heart disease and stroke
account for more than 10 per cent of the total death in Bangladesh and that is
the highest cause of death compared with any other major causes except may be
cancer. Cancer patient will at least be allowed some time to find a suitable
hospital/clinic for their treatment and or management. Ischemic heart disease
and stroke will not do that mercy. The patients need attention within the
shortest possible time. So people living in rural areas have very limited
chance for survival if they have a heart attack or stroke in the middle of the
night.
An addition of a cardiac unit, general hospital at the district
level can play a pivotal role and can save many lives. A simple stent, also
called angioplasty, can be lifesaving for many people who have a sudden heart
attack. A heart attack strikes when plaque in an artery breaks open and causes
the formation of a blood clot in a partially clogged artery and completely
blocks blood flow. That is when a stent can be lifesaving. Angioplasty or
stenting can improve symptoms of blocked arteries, such as chest pain and
shortness of breath. Angioplasty is also often used during a heart attack to
quickly open a blocked artery and reduce the amount of damage to the heart and
could save person’s life. We need to remember that death at an early age is not
only a toll on the family but also on the country’s economy and growth.
It is the demand of the time that Bangladesh should work out a
strategy to establish at least a catheterisation laboratory, commonly called as
cath lab, which is an examination room in a hospital or clinic with diagnostic
imaging equipment used to visualise the arteries of the heart and the chambers
of the heart and treat any stenosis, or ring, or abnormality found. Cath labs
should have proper instruments, trained human resources namely cardiac surgeons
or cardiac interventionists and allied staff logistics in each district
hospital as quickly as possible so that everyone gets at least a chance to beat
that awkward death. The question remains: will that prevent all those untimely
death? The answer is ‘no,’ but at least victims can feel that they were given a
chance and the family can console themselves that they tried their best. It is
possible that many will get a second chance.
Dr Muhammad Morshed is a clinical microbiologist and programme
head, zoonotic diseases and emerging pathogens, at BC Centre for Disease
Control and clinical professor, department of pathology and laboratory medicine,
University of British Columbia.https://www.newagebd.net/article/118714/unintended-health-consequences
Six-Year-Old Leopard Preying On Cows Caught In Telangana
The leopard
had also killed two calves on Friday night. A team of forest department
officials launched a search to capture the leopard after the owner of the
calves approached police.
The leopard will be released into
the wild following its complete recovery.
Hyderabad:
A six-year-old leopard preying on
cows and calves in Hyderabad suburbs was trapped by Telangana Forest Department
on Sunday and relocated to the Nehru Zoological Park, forest officials said.
The leopard had also killed two calves on Friday night. A team
of forest department officials launched a search to capture the leopard after
the owner of the calves approached police.
It had been attacking cows and
calves in the vicinity of the Rice Research Centre in Rajendranagar in
Rangareddy district, officials said.
Speaking to ANI, Rajendranagar
Inspector G Suresh said, "The leopard has been caught by the Rangareddy
forest department and has been handed over to the Nehru Zoological park
officials."
Rice breeder
joins UA research center in Stuttgart
by Special to The Commercial | Today at 4:27 a.m.
Christian
De Guzman
Christian De Guzman has joined
the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture as an assistant
professor and rice breeder at the Rice Research and Extension Center at
Stuttgart.
De Guzman was a rice breeder and
researcher at Southeast Missouri State University's Rice Research Farm in
Malden, Mo., for four years before joining the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment
Station, the Division of Agriculture research arm. While there, he focused
mostly on long-grain rice, including making crosses for heat and drought
tolerance, according to a news release.
"Arkansas is the No. 1 rice
producing state in the nation, producing about half of the rice grown in the
U.S.," said Nathan Slaton, associate vice president for agriculture and
assistant director of the experiment station.
Rice contributed $1.02 billion in
cash farm receipts to Arkansas' agricultural economy in 2018, according to the
2020 Arkansas Agricultural Profile, published by the Division of Agriculture.
"The Division of Agriculture
is committed to supporting Arkansas' agricultural economy," Slaton said.
"We have a long tradition of rice research and breeding to support the
state's growers. I'm confident that Dr. De Guzman will continue that tradition
as we look to develop new, improved rice cultivars in long- and medium-grain
varieties and advance our work in hybrid rice."
De Guzman began working in
agricultural research in 2001 as a technical assistant. Later he was a junior
plant breeder for corn at East-West Seed Company in the Philippines. After
that, he was a visiting research associate at the Louisiana State University
AgCenter before beginning his doctoral studies.
He earned his bachelor of science
degree in agriculture at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños,
Laguna, and his doctoral degree in agronomy, with an emphasis on plant
breeding, at LSU .
After completing his Ph.D., De
Guzman joined Southeast Missouri State University before coming to Arkansas.
While focusing primarily on
long-grain rice breeding and genetics, De Guzman will also collaborate with
Rice Research and Extension Center rice breeding colleagues Xueyan Sha and
Ehsan Shakiba to advance medium-grain and hybrid varieties.
De Guzman brings with him a
scientific protocol he developed at Missouri to screen breeding lines for heat
tolerance, an essential trait for improving grain quality during periods of
high nighttime air temperatures. He also began making crosses to develop
drought tolerance while at Missouri. He said such rice would be well-suited to
row rice production.
He is already on the job at the
center after moving to Stuttgart with his wife, Jennifer, and their 7-year-old
twins, Dathan and Nasya.
Government injects Shs60bn into
boosting mechanised agriculture in Uganda
Under the first batch, 118 grant agreements have been
signed with a total grant amount of Shs34.8 billion. The government has
contributed Shs23.5 billion and of this, Shs21.7 billion has been disbursed to
111 grantees as of September 30, 2020.
The ministry of agriculture, animal industry and
fisheries will dole out Shs60 billion to farmer organizations across the
country so that they can start using improved methods of farming.
The project was launched Saturday by President
Yoweri Museveni at the Namalere Agricultural Referral Mechanization center in
Wakiso District.
At the same event, the president flagged off
post-harvest and matching equipment, namely: rice mills; maize mills,
generators, bean seed cleaners, coffee hullers, cassava processing equipment,
dryers and among others.
These are to be delivered to 47 different project
sites.
“This project is aimed at reminding farmers that
agriculture is a business and they should earn from it, and it is just the
beginning, we are going to do more for the farmers,” Museveni said at the
function.
The project is part of the Agriculture Cluster Development
Project (ACDP), which is being implemented in 57 districts grouped in 12
geographical clusters, with support from the World Bank, which has invested in
$ 150 million.
Farmers that will benefit are those involved in
growing and trading in five commodities, namely: maize, beans, cassava, rice
and coffee.
The government prioritized these crops from among
the priority commodities of the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan between the
financial year 2015/16 and financial year 2019/20.
The implementation of this project is done through
an inter-ministerial collaboration with the Ministry of Trade Industry and
Cooperatives, the Ministry of Works and Transport, the Ministry of Water and
Environment, the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of ICT, the Finance
Ministry and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
ACDP is designed to support the intensification of
on-farm production through provision of subsidized inputs using an electronic
voucher (e-voucher) system and improve value addition and market access through
provision of matching grants for post-harvest and value addition facilities and
also fixing road chokes.
It is also to help to strengthen policy and
regulatory framework in input quality assurance.
Farmers are given matching grants of up to $75,000
to support 67% of required investments in acquiring postharvest and value
addition infrastructure.
“This is meant to support farmers to undertake
bulking, value addition and collective marketing of quality produce for better
prices and thus realize better incomes,” officials say.
To date, the Ministry has signed grant agreements
with 193 selected farmer organizations from 24 pilot districts. An
additional 378 Farmer Organizations are being prepared for grant agreement
signing.
Under the first batch, 118 grant agreements have
been signed with a total grant amount of Shs34.8 billion. The government has
contributed Shs23.5 billion and of this, Shs21.7 billion has been disbursed to
111 grantees as of September 30, 2020.
Over 90 construction sites for storage and
machinery shelter have been completed and about 50 farmers' equipment (coffee
hullers, rice/ maize milling machines, threshers, dryers, generators, bean
cleaners) have been completed and are ready for delivery.
Under the second batch, 75 grant agreements have
been signed with total grant value of Shs28 billion, where Government will
contribute Shs18.1 billion and beneficiaries will contribute Shs9.2 billion.
The disbursement to these beneficiaries started this
month. Under the third batch, the Grants Management Committee approved over 378
business plans. These are currently being assessed by the Ministry and grant
award of about Shs42 billion will be award to selected beneficiaries
Karnal rice miller surrenders in Rs 5.09 cr
embezzlement case
·Oct 12, 2020 06:54 AM (IST)
Tribune News Service
Karnal, October 11
Naresh Kumar, MD of Ram Dev
International Company, has surrendered before the Karnal police in connection
with an alleged embezzlement of custom milled rice (CMR) worth Rs 5.09 crore
with the Food and Civil Supplies Department.
He has been sent to seven-day
police remand.
The company has three rice
milling plants, eight sorting and grading units in the district with offices in
Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Delhi.
The police had to recover money
of the fraud case along with the whereabouts of the other accused.
In May, the CBI had registered a
case against Kumar and two other directors — Suresh Kumar and Sangita —
following a complaint by the SBI on February 25. The SBI alleged that the
directors had removed the machinery from the old plant and fudged the balance sheets
to unlawfully gain at the cost of banks’ funds of around Rs 173 crore.
SP Ganga Ram Punia said Kumar was
absconding in connection with a case registered on July 19, 2016, on the
complaint of the then DFSC. He has surrendered in the embezzlement of paddy CMR
worth Rs 5.09 crore.
“Kumar is in police remand till
October 16,” he said, adding that the accused had fled to Dubai.
As per the FIR, a case was
registered against Naresh Kumar, Suresh Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Raj Kumar, Subhash
Chand and Pawan on the complaint of the then DFSC on July 19, 2016, for not
returning the CMR of the year 2015-16 worth Rs 5.09 crore. Despite several
reminders by the department, the accused did not give any satisfactory answer
about the embezzlement of 19,615.95 quintal CMR, the FIR said.
Sources said he was absconding in
the FIR registered by the CBI. Moreover, the Karnal Arhtiyas Association had
also filed a complaint against the firm for duping 111 arhtiyas belonging to
the Karnal grain market of Rs 9.54 crore in 2016. They had alleged that the
firm had purchased paddy from the arhtiyas of the Karnal grain market in 2014,
but did not clear their dues.
The
Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) is
ready to set the ball rolling for the purchase of additional P3-billion
worth of farm equipment under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
In a
statement, PhilMech, the agency tasked to fulfill the government’s promise to
mechanize the rice farm sector amid a liberalize regime, said it hopes to award
the bid contracts for additional P3-billion worth of farm equipment by
December.
RCEF, the collection of rice import tariffs, is the Philippine
government’s major compromise to rice farmers for allowing the unlimited rice
importation in the country through the passage of Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
Under the RTL, PHilMech should be given P5 billion annually from 2019 to
2024, or a six-year period, to fund the granting of farm machines to qualified
farmers cooperatives and associations (FCAs) nationwide.
For this year, PhilMech has P10-billion worth of RCEF money because it wasn’t
able to procure last year due to bureaucratic issues.
So far, the agency claimed it is now in the process of distributing P2
billion worth of farm equipment under RCEF, while the auction and awarding was
already finished for the P5 billion worth of machineries.
Thus, PHilMech Executive Director Baldwin Jallorina said 2021 will be a
busy year for his agency, as they will have to complete the distribution
of P10 billion worth of farm machineries, while also processing the acquisition
of another P5 billion worth of machineries. “PHilMech will still be very
busy in distributing farm machines even if 2021 will still have varying degrees
of lockdowns and quarantines due to the coronavirus,” Jallorina said.
Like
the bidding and acquisition for the first batches of farm machines worth P7
billion, PHilMech assured that it will conduct the one for the P3 billion
latest batch of farm equipment “in the most transparent manner”.
The process
from pre-bidding to awarding of bids, according to the agency, will be shown
live over the agency’s Facebook page.
According
to Jallorina, the bidding for various farm machines worth P3 billion already
started on September 19 by making available the bid documents, which was
followed by pre-bidding, evaluation of bids and awarding of bids.
“The
awarding of bids will be done in December this year,” he reiterated.
The types of
machines to be bid out under the P3-billion batch are four-wheel tractors,
combine harvesters, reapers, seeders, hand tractors, transplanters, floating
tillers, rice mills and threshers.
As of
September 2, PHilMech has distributed 1,029 pieces of farm machines to
qualified FCAs.
These
are: 171 four-wheel farm tractors; 128 hand tractors; 235 floating tillers; 52
precision seeders; 35 walk-behind transplanters; 118 riding type transplanters;
35 reapers; 241 combine harvesters; and 14 mobile rice mills.
Business
Bulletin had sought PhilMech for the names of the winning bidders, where the
equipment will come from (whether it’s local or imported), who exactly the
recipient will be, and the timetable for the equipment’s delivery, but the
agency has not responded yet.
In
August, a group of farmers claimed that the government had failed to consult
with them regarding the distribution of farm equipment under RCEF, but
Jallorina vehemently denied this.
“Hindi po
tama yun [that is not right],” PHilMech Executive Director Baldwin Jallorina
Jr. said, referring to this allegation.
Dhon
Daganosol, a rice farmer in Eastern Visayas, particularly said in a virtual
webinar that PhilMech has failed to consult with all the farmers, especially
the smaller ones and those without landholdings, when it comes to the
distribution of farm machinery under RCEF.
According
to him, only “wealthy” farmers, who have their own land and are part of FCAs,
will benefit from RCEF.
“Regarding
the mechanization component of RCEF, we can see that this is not being
implemented well. No consultation is happening. How can the government find out
what type of machinery that a particular group of rice farmers need if there is
no consultation?” Daganosol said.
Daganosol
said that PhilMech should hold “grassroots” consultations to reach even rice
farmers who live in the mountains.
Export
of essential agricultural commodities in the first six months of the current
fiscal rose 43.4% to Rs 53,626.6 crore from Rs 37,397.3 crore in the same
period last year.
APThe
jump in export is an outcome of the new agriculture export policy, which was
launched in 2018.
NEW DELHI: India agricultural exports have been booming the past six months,
while many sectors of the economy suffered because of the disruption caused by
the Covid-19 pandemic.
Export of essential agricultural commodities in the first six months of the current
fiscal rose 43.4% to Rs 53,626.6 crore from Rs 37,397.3 crore in the same
period last year.
“Major commodity groups which have recorded jump in exports are non basmati
rice, 105%, basmati rice 13%, ground nut 35%, refined sugar 104% and wheat
206%,” said an official.
The official said that the balance of trade in April-September 2020 has been
positive at Rs 9,002 crore as against trade deficit of Rs. 2,133 during the
same period in 2019.
“On-month-to-month basis, export of essential agricultural commodities during
September, 2020 has seen a jump of 81.7% in September at Rs 9,296 crore as
against export of Rs 5,114 crore in 2019,” he said.
The jump in export is an outcome of the new agriculture export policy, which
was launched in 2018.
“The government cluster based approach for export-centric farming of cash crops
like fruits, vegetables and spices where clusters for specific agri products
are identified across the country and focused interventions are carried out in
these clusters,” the official said.
Apart from that, the government has also set up eight Export Promotion Forums
(EPF) under APEDA to boost export of agriculture and horticulture products.
“The EPFs are created on banana, grapes, mango, pomegranate, onion, dairy,
basmati and non basmati rice. These EPFs reach out to stakeholders across the
entire production and supply chain of export for increasing these exports
significantly to the global market, through various interventions,” the
official said.
Recently, the government has also announced Agri Infra Fund of Rs. 1 lakh crore
to improve agri business environment which is also likely to promote agri
export.
India’s
agricultural exports jump in Covid times
SECTIONS
India’s
agricultural exports jump in Covid times
By
Rituraj Tiwari, ET BureauLast Updated: Oct 10, 2020, 05:15 PM IST
Export
of essential agricultural commodities in the first six months of the current
fiscal rose 43.4% to Rs 53,626.6 crore from Rs 37,397.3 crore in the same
period last year.
APThe
jump in export is an outcome of the new agriculture export policy, which was
launched in 2018.
NEW
DELHI: India agricultural exports have been booming the past six
months, while many sectors of the economy suffered because of the disruption
caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Export of essential agricultural commodities in the first six months of the
current fiscal rose 43.4% to Rs 53,626.6 crore from Rs 37,397.3 crore in the
same period last year.
“Major commodity groups which have recorded jump in exports are non basmati
rice, 105%, basmati rice 13%, ground nut 35%, refined sugar 104% and wheat
206%,” said an official.
The official said that the balance of trade in April-September 2020 has been
positive at Rs 9,002 crore as against trade deficit of Rs. 2,133 during the
same period in 2019.
“On-month-to-month basis, export of essential agricultural commodities during
September, 2020 has seen a jump of 81.7% in September at Rs 9,296 crore as
against export of Rs 5,114 crore in 2019,” he said.
The jump in export is an outcome of the new agriculture export policy, which
was launched in 2018.
“The government cluster based approach for export-centric farming of cash crops
like fruits, vegetables and spices where clusters for specific agri products
are identified across the country and focused interventions are carried out in
these clusters,” the official said.
Apart from that, the government has also set up eight Export Promotion Forums
(EPF) under APEDA to boost export of agriculture and horticulture products.
“The EPFs are created on banana, grapes, mango, pomegranate, onion, dairy,
basmati and non basmati rice. These EPFs reach out to stakeholders across the
entire production and supply chain of export for increasing these exports
significantly to the global market, through various interventions,” the
official said.
Recently, the government has also announced Agri Infra Fund of Rs. 1 lakh crore
to improve agri business environment which is also likely to promote agri
export.
Agri-commodities exports rise
43.4% in April-September: Government
PTI New
Delhi | Updated on October 10, 2020 Published on October 10,
2020
×
Exports of agri-commodities rose by 43.4 per cent to Rs
53,626.6 crore in the first half of the current fiscal notwithstanding the
ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the Union Agriculture Ministry said on Saturday.
Farm exports stood at Rs 37,397.3 crore
during the April-September period of the 2019-20 fiscal, it said. PSeptember 2020, agri exports rose by 81.7 per cent to Rs
9,296 crore from Rs 5,114 crore in September 2019.
“The consistent and concerted efforts of the
Government to boost agricultural exports are bearing fruit as despite of the
on-going Covid-19 crisis, the export of essential agri commodities for the
cumulative period of April-September, 2020 has increased by 43.4 per cent to Rs
53,626.6 crore,” the ministry said in a statement.
Positive growth was recorded in export of
groundnut (35 per cent), refined sugar (104 per cent), wheat (206 per cent),
basmati rice (13 per cent) and non-basmati rice (105 per cent) during the
April-September of this fiscal from over the year-ago, it said.
Furthermore, balance of trade during
April-September 2020 was significantly positive at Rs 9,002 crore as against
trade deficit of Rs 2,133 crore in the said period, it added.
To boost agri exports, the Government
announced Agriculture Export Policy, 2018 which inter-alia provides for
cluster-based approach for export-centric farming of cash crops like fruits,
vegetables, spices, etc. whereby clusters for specific agri products are
identified across the country and focused interventions are carried out in
these clusters.
Eight Export Promotion Forums (EPFs) have
been set up under the aegis of agri-export promotion body APEDA to boost export
of agriculture/ horticulture products. The EPFs are created on banana, grapes,
mango, pomegranate, onion, dairy, rice basmati and rice non-basmati.
The EPF are making concerted efforts to
identify, document particulars of, and reach out to stakeholders across the
entire production/ supply chain of export for increasing these exports significantly
to the global market, through various interventions, it said.
That apart, the Government has also
announced Agri-Infra Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore to improve agri business
environment which will promote agri exports in due course, the ministry said.
Besides, the Agriculture Ministry has also
prepared a comprehensive action plan towards promotion of agri trade i.e to
boost agri export with emphasis on value addition and a detailed action plan
for import substitution, the statement added.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has promised that
the government will use all of its resources to bring down food prices in the
country from Monday onward.
![Description: The leopard caught by forest officials in Ranga Reddy district, Telangana. [Photo/ANI]](file:///C:/Users/abc/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image012.jpg)
-Focus Bangla file photo
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has so mastered the art of
Orwellian doublespeak that it can quietly but recklessly approve jumbo
importations designed to flood the market with imported rice, then highlight
through its non-stop propaganda machine a supposed enhanced rice production
program as a real, serious and well-funded undertaking to cut back on rice
imports and empower the small rice farmers. The real, and the only, rice supply
strategy is nonstop importation, but a public declaration — which makes DA head
William Dar a VSP or a very serious person in the eyes of gullible pundits —
that a supposed inspired rice production program so imports can be cut back and
domestic rice production takes primacy.
Opponents
of Golden Rice are concerned it will endanger agrobiodiversity and peoples’
health. Photo by Kervin Bonganciso/MASIPAG.
Senator Imee R.
Marcos (Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN)
Christian
De Guzman
AP
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