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Malik To Assume SAARC CCI President Office On
30th
22 hours ago Mon 08th June 2020 | 07:58 PM
Veteran Pakistani business
leader Iftikhar Ali Malik will take over the office of President of SAARC
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SAARC CCI) on June 30th for two years term
LAHORE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jun, 2020 ) :- Veteran Pakistanibusiness
leader Iftikhar Ali Malik will take over the office of President of SAARC Chamber
of Commerce and Industry
(SAARC CCI) on June 30th for two years term. SAARC
CCI Presidium virtual meeting held on June
06, 2020
attended by President SAARC Chamber
Ruwan Edirisinghe, Khairuddin Mayel Ahmadi, VP Afghanistan,
Mahbubul Alam VP Bangladesh,
SVP Designate and former President, Dasho Ugen Tsechup Dorji, Vinod Juneja VP India, Chandi Raj Dhakal, VP Nepal,
and Dr. M. Rohitha Silva, VP Sri
Lanka decided to convene an online handing over taking over ceremony along
with a Joint session of EC and GA of SAARC CCI, according to media
statement issued by United Business
Group on Monday. Malik a seasoned businessman of Pakistan has
been associated with SAARC CCI since its inception and served for regional
integration and economic cooperation for 25 years. Malik
became the President of LahoreChamber
of Commerce and Industry
(LCCI)
in 1990 and also render his services as President of the most reputable
institution FPCCI in 2000.
He will be the third Pakistani
to assume the Presidency of SAARC CCI.
Currently
he is the senior Vice President of SAARC CCI and have also enjoyed vice
presidency of SAARC CCI for five consecutive terms. As entrepreneur, Group
Chairman of Guard Group a Lahore
based conglomerate, involved in business
of automobile
filters, to leading brands in Pakistan,
using as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts. His business
owns over 80 percent of Pakistan
OEM marketshare.
In addition, the Guard Group also owns major share
of rice exports in Pakistan.
As renowned Philanthropist, Mumtaz Bakhtawar Memorial Trust Hospital is a
magnum-opus for the welfare of public. Pakistani
patients, who are unable to bear the expenses of modern medical treatments,
find Mumtaz Bakhtawar Memorial Trust Hospital as a complete support for their
survival. Emergency and Chronicle cases are brought to the hospital by free mobile squad. In
recognition of his remarkable services his name has also been included in
internationalbook "WHO IS WHO".
Gambia receives agric machinery, equipment
& fertiliser from China
Jun 8,
2020, 11:04 AM
The government of The Gambia through
the Ministry of Agriculture on Friday 5 June 2020 received agricultural
machinery, equipment and fertiliser from the government of the People’s
Republic of China for onward delivery to the farming community.
Speaking
at the handing over ceremony at the Department of Agriculture in Cape Point,
Bakau, the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Ms. Amie Fabureh, said since the
restoration of relations with the People’s Republic of China, The Gambia has
seen cooperation in various sectors but most especially in agriculture. This,
she added is evident with the display of variety of farming equipment and
fertilisers received from China. She said: “The official handing over of this
magnificent agricultural equipment/machinery accompanied with their
state-of-the-art accessories and fertilisers yet marks another milestone
towards the realisation of the development of Rice and Horticulture sub sectors
value-chain prioritised as flagship projects in the National Development Plan.” Minister
Fabureh said the equipment and fertiliser are crucial ingredients to The
Gambia’s economic growth given that agriculture employs over 70 percent of the
population and more than half of them are women farmers, noting that women
farmers are the core rice and vegetable producers. Minister
Fabureh on behalf of the president of the Republic of The Gambia H.E. Adama
Barrow commended the ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to The Gambia
for facilitating the delivery of the agricultural equipment and extended thanks
and appreciation to the president of the People’s Republic of China, H.E. Xi
Jinping for China’s continuous support to The Gambia. The
ambassador, Excellency Ma Jianchun, in his remarks said the handing over
ceremony marks an important milestone of cooperation in a bid to protect The
Gambia’s food security and to also support efforts of Gambia’s agricultural
production and development. Ambassador
Ma expressed optimism that under the leadership of H.E. President Adama Barrow
and with efforts by the government and the people of The Gambia, there would be
victory in combating the novel coronavirus. He pointed out that the economy and
people’s lives will get back on track. He
disclosed that the donation is part of cooperation in the area of agriculture
between the two countries. Ambassador Ma recounted the numerous agricultural
achievements registered by the Chinese agricultural experts in the Central
River Region of The Gambia, adding that: “The Chinese agricultural experts have
reclaimed 7 acres of rice farms to conduct the research for strengthening
Gambian rice varieties, and the experiments on adapting high-production hybrid
Chinese rice varieties to local natural environment.” The
items donated by China include: 10 metric tons of fertiliser, 30 sets of
walking tractors, 30 sets of small rice threshers, 29 sets of rice mill, 25
sets of pumps, 1 set of steering-wheel tractor, 2 sets of diesel engine and
corresponding spare-parts, maintenance tools and other materials. The
items were inspected by dignitaries including the Honourable Minister of
Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Gambians Abroad, Dr. Mamadou
Tangara, which followed the singing of Exchange Note by Foreign Minister
Tangara and Ambassador Ma. This
high level ceremony was chaired by the Communications officer of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Saikou Ceesay. Issued
by the Communication Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International
Cooperation and Gambians Abroad
BEIJING,
June 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have grown saline-alkali tolerant rice on
a farm at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the northwestern province of Qinghai,
marking the first trial of "sea rice-planting" on the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau. For
thousands of years, rice has been planted in places with high temperatures,
humidity and short days. The farm is located on the plateau's Qaidam Basin
where there is a large area of saline-alkali land that makes it difficult for
crops to grow. It is also frequented by drought, hail, frost and other natural
disasters. A team
led by the "father of hybrid rice" Yuan Longping has worked on the
research to yield more rice in saline-alkali environments. Last
week, the researchers from the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and
Development Center moved strains of cold- and alkali-resistant rice they
cultivated from a greenhouse to the saline-alkali soil on the plateau for trial
planting. They
plan to plant 6.67 hectares during the trial and use manual and mechanical
methods to conduct observation and provide samples for future large-scale
planting, said the center engineer Zhang Guodong. Since
2019, the center has promoted sea rice in seven major saline-alkaline areas in
China and the United Arab Emirates. According
to the researchers, new experimental centers and planting bases will be
established in Qinghai in order to explore new ways for plateau agricultural
production. Enditem
BEIJING, June 9
(Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have grown saline-alkali tolerant rice on a farm
at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the northwestern province of Qinghai, marking
the first trial of "sea rice-planting" on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
For thousands
of years, rice has been planted in places with high temperatures, humidity and
short days. The farm is located on the plateau's Qaidam Basin where there is a
large area of saline-alkali land that makes it difficult for crops to grow. It
is also frequented by drought, hail, frost and other natural disasters.
A team led by
the "father of hybrid rice" Yuan Longping has worked on the research
to yield more rice in saline-alkali environments.
Last week, the
researchers from the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and
Development Center moved strains of cold- and alkali-resistant rice they
cultivated from a greenhouse to the saline-alkali soil on the plateau for trial
planting.
They plan to
plant 6.67 hectares during the trial and use manual and mechanical methods to
conduct observation and provide samples for future large-scale planting, said
the center engineer Zhang Guodong.
Since 2019, the
center has promoted sea rice in seven major saline-alkaline areas in China and
the United Arab Emirates.
According to
the researchers, new experimental centers and planting bases will be
established in Qinghai in order to explore new ways for plateau agricultural
production. Enditem
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-06/09/c_139126283.htmChina
grows sea rice on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
BEIJING, June 9
(Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have grown saline-alkali tolerant rice on a farm
at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the northwestern province of Qinghai, marking
the first trial of "sea rice-planting" on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
For thousands
of years, rice has been planted in places with high temperatures, humidity and
short days. The farm is located on the plateau's Qaidam Basin where there is a
large area of saline-alkali land that makes it difficult for crops to grow. It
is also frequented by drought, hail, frost and other natural disasters.
A team led by
the "father of hybrid rice" Yuan Longping has worked on the research
to yield more rice in saline-alkali environments.
Last week, the
researchers from the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and
Development Center moved strains of cold- and alkali-resistant rice they
cultivated from a greenhouse to the saline-alkali soil on the plateau for trial
planting.
They plan to
plant 6.67 hectares during the trial and use manual and mechanical methods to
conduct observation and provide samples for future large-scale planting, said
the center engineer Zhang Guodong.
Since 2019, the
center has promoted sea rice in seven major saline-alkaline areas in China and
the United Arab Emirates.
According to
the researchers, new experimental centers and planting bases will be
established in Qinghai in order to explore new ways for plateau agricultural
production. Enditem
KARACHI: The Covid-19 continues to pose serious challenges to the economic
conditions of developed and developing countries.
A recent
report of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA),
titled “The impact of Covid-19 around the world, as told by statistics”,
reveals the devastating impact on commodity prices, global trade, tourism as
well as poverty. The
report of the CCSA, which comprises several international and supranational
organisations, highlights the unprecedented shock to the labour market as 305
million full-time workers working a 48-hour workweek are expected to lose their
jobs. Almost
all regions of the world are likely to report a drop in the hours worked.
Approximately 2.26 billion workers have been affected by workplace closures,
which are 68% of the total employed workers globally. Similarly,
71 million employers, or 82% of all employers globally, have been impacted by
workplace closures. The
report also highlights a sharp decline in quarterly global merchandise trade
values. With commodity prices on a downward trend as well, the uncertainty in
trading patterns is likely to continue. The Free
Market Commodity Price Index (FMCPI) for March 2020 had been negative for all
major commodities. The
industrial production index with base year of 2015 collapsed for China in
January 2020. In December 2019, China reported index value of 134. It decreased
to 99.8 in January 2020. With
China as a primary hub of manufacturing activities, this decline has sent
shockwaves through all economies of the world. Uncertainties
facing Pakistan With the
world economy reeling, the economy of Pakistan faces severe uncertainties as
Covid-19 has impacted several aspects of the economy. The
overall Business Confidence Index, reported in the State Bank of
Pakistan-Institute of Business Administration (SBP-IBA) Business Confidence
Index published in April 2020, stands at 38. The index had recovered from its
trough in June 2019, reaching a peak of 52 in December 2019. Although
employment levels improved in April 2020 from previous observations, the
expected employment levels shrank from a positive to a negative level. The SBP-IBA
Consumer Confidence Index reports a declining trend in indices in May 2020. The
index for expected economic conditions is higher than that for the current
economic conditions, indicating a more positive outlook. The
overall growth in large-scale manufacturing (LSM) industries was negative 5.4%
between July 2019 and March 2020. Major industries such as textile, food and
beverages, chemicals and automobiles reported negative growth. On the
other hand, fertiliser and leather products reported positive growth rates of
5.8% and 5% respectively. The
quantum index consistently showed improvement in March in the preceding five
years. However, the decline was substantial in March 2020. Therefore, the sharp
fall in March 2020 can significantly influence other economic indicators that
take into account volatility in the LSM index. Export
earnings The
decrease in global and domestic economic activity has severely dented export
earnings for Pakistan. Exports in April 2020 decreased by 47% month-on-month
and 54% year-on-year. Imports declined 3.4% month-on-month and 32%
year-on-year. Exports
in April 2020 were reported to be less than $1 billion. The decline in exports
in the first 10 months of FY20 over the same period of last fiscal year was
3.9% and the decline in imports was 16.2%. The
Covid-19 shock to exports has been exacerbated as major trading partners of
Pakistan are all reporting either total or partial lockdown, limiting trade. On the
other hand, as trade policies adopted in the past couple of years have restricted
imports to mainly essential goods, the drop in imports is likely to be less
severe. The
decline in exports as well as expected drop in remittances can aggravate the
delicate situation in terms of foreign currency reserves. Therefore, it is
likely that Pakistan will have to approach various international donor agencies
for Covid-19-related assistance. Pakistan
exported $17.5 billion worth of goods between July 2019 and March 2020, which
was 2.2% higher than exports in the same period of previous fiscal year. Exports
had increased 3.6% till February 2020. However, the sluggishness in exports in
April 2020 reversed the increasing trend. Rice, in
particular Basmati rice, was the only product that recorded positive growth in
exports in April 2020 over the amount reported in April 2019. On a year-on-year
basis, exports declined 33.64% in May 2020 while imports dropped 43.17%.
However, the total impact on exports will be clear once the lockdown is lifted
by major trading partners. It is
essential that Pakistani exporters improve export intelligence and enhance
trading relationships to ensure that they are not only able to recapture but
also expand export sales. Workers
at risk Every
sector in the economy stands exposed to challenges, albeit at a varying degree.
The second edition of “The ILO Monitor: Covid-19 and the World of Work”,
published by the International Labour Organisation, provides a sector-wise
perspective in the backdrop of current crisis. The
manufacturing sector, wholesale and retail trade sector, accommodation and food
services are likely to be most at risk in terms of job loss, while education,
health services, public administration and utilities are positioned at the
other end of the spectrum. It also
emphasises the risk of workers in the informal sector falling deeper into
poverty. Therefore, as the global economies reopen, there is likely to be major
redistribution in terms of employment and value addition across sectors. Businesses
will be forced to not only re-evaluate the demand and supply of their products
in the market but will also have to more intensely manage their supply chains. Pakistan
recently reported a surge in demand for its textile face masks and personal
protective equipment, particularly from the US and EU. Furthermore,
there is a significant potential for export of pharmaceutical products,
including raw material, commonly produced in Pakistan and identified as crucial
for combating the spread of the virus. It is
essential to take advantage of the surge in global demand for the
health-related products produced competitively in Pakistan. In essence, the
challenges and difficulties associated with Covid-19 can be mitigated by
capitalising on the opportunities arising from the changing dynamics across
different industries.
The
Government of Liberia in partnership with stakeholders in the agriculture
sector celebrates the launch of the USAID Feed the Future Liberia Agribusiness
Development Activity’s cash voucher scheme aimed at distributing quality rice
seeds among 1,500 rice farmers in Bong, Nimba and Lofa Counties, respectively.LADA, a five-year
initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) includes series of trainings, technical assistance and investment
grants to support technology upgrade and streamlining of supply chains,
increasing participation of women entrepreneurs, and boost domestic and
international market access to make rice, cassava, vegetables, cocoa, and
aquaculture profitable and competitive. As part
of efforts to complement the Ministry of Agriculture efforts in mitigating the
risk of food security impact from the COVID-19 crisis, LADA distributes
agricultural inputs to smallholder rice producers to enable them remain on the
production cycle during the pandemic. The
program targets approximately 1,500 food insecure and progressive rice
producers in the three counties. The beneficiaries received quality rice seeds
through community agricultural input voucher fairs. USAID
launched the first seeds distribution fair in Melekee, Jorquelleh District,
Bong County, which brought together public-private stakeholders including
farmers, agro-dealers, processors and government officials. Speaking
during the ceremony, Agriculture Minister Jeanine M. Cooper said “empowering
smallholder farmers most especially during the coronavirus pandemic is essential
to enable them overcome the economic shock of the virus as well as make Liberia
reduce its dependence on rice imports.” Minister
Cooper: “Although there are challenges confronting agriculture and food
security, we are able as a country to produce our staple food to enable more
food supply to many Liberians, especially the vulnerable households. We
therefore thank USAID-LADA for buttressing government’s effort to distribute
quality seed rice within our major rice producing counties. Farmers can now
grow the rice and Government can assure them that the rice they produce will be
bought at a reasonable price to supply the market”. Editing by Jonathan Browne
Citi FM, Citi TV Secures 50-acres Of Land For
Farming In Akuapem North
Citi
FM and Citi TV have secured lands for the organisations' agribusiness
initiative, which will see the cultivation of some selected crops to encourage
farming. The
50-acre land for farming; is located in the Akuapem North District in the
Eastern region of Ghana. The land
was secured with support from the Municipal Chief Executive of Akuapem North,
Dennis Aboagye. For a
start, the organization will be cultivating maize while other crops will be
added subsequently. The
project is in partnership with Glofert Fertilizer Company. Following
the stations' “Operation Feed Yourself” campaign in November 2019, the
management of Citi Fm and Citi TV announced plans of starting an initiative
which will see the cultivation of some selected crops to encourage farming. Among other
things, 'Operation Feed Yourself' seeks to encourage people to use agriculture
and agribusiness as a supplementary revenue source in the short term and to get
as many people as possible to go into full-time farming in the medium to long
term. The campaign
also seeks to get a lot more people into food production and processing. The
Managing Director of Citi 97.3 FM, Samuel Attah-Mensah, speaking on the
‘Operation Feed Yourself’ initiative at the time said, “The 'Operation Feed
Yourself' is “borrowed from the Kutu Acheampong era” to “drive people to
re-ignite interest in agriculture. We are talking about people who are not
farmers, middle-income earners, tertiary students and people who are in the
urban areas to look at farming and agribusiness as another means to generate
revenue, compliment the revenues and basically to feed themselves.” Citi TV
in November 2019 also embarked on another agric related campaign, which was an
advocacy for the consumption of local rice. The
campaign was spearheaded by the Chief Executive Officer of Citi FM/Citi TV,
Samuel Attah-Mensah. Mr.
Samuel Attah-Mensah, who declared himself a campaigner for the consumption of
locally-produced rice in the country, was also hopeful the move will help
reduce government's expenditure on rice imports by at least 50% by 2021. The
drive for local rice consumption was premised on the fact that Ghana spends
over GHS 1.1 billion annually on importation of rice. Ghana’s
import regime, according to data available has a negative impact on Ghana’s
currency the cedi and many sectors including agriculture. Another
campaign embarked on by Citi FM and Citi TV to promote locally produced goods
was the Christmas Made in Ghana food fair in December 2019. The fair
was to support Citi FM and Citi TV's drive to support distributors and
producers of Made In Ghana products. It also
fell under the Operation Feed Yourself campaign that seeks to encourage growth
and investment in the agribusiness space.
BATAAN
First District Rep. Geraldine Roman is proposing a bill that will solve the low
income of farmers.
Bataan
Rep. Geraldine Roman in pink silk skirt and Filipiniana shawlRoman
wants to put up hubs of clustered farmer organizations that will directly sell
to consumers, including resellers.
“We are
an agricultural country with a population of over 100 million of which about 10
million or 24 percent of the total national employment, are rice farmers who
struggle to make less than P200 [about $4] day,” she said, citing facts drawn
from studies.
“It’s
painful for a farmer to plant the seeds to feed everyone then have nothing to
eat,” the lawmaker added. Roman
said the farmers suffer from low income because of low farmgate price of palay
(unmilled rice) and the high cost of rice production. According
to the Bataan representative, “The low farmgate price of unhusked rice is
caused by increased competition from cheaper rice imports resulting from
implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law enacted to liberalize rice imports
to fill the local rice shortage (attributable in part to underutilization of
farmlands) and the fact that our rice farmers lack direct market access and, as
such, are ‘price takers.’” “Our
rice farmers sell mainly to rice traders and wholesalers or millers who are
known to increasingly buy imported rice or directly import rice to avoid
incurring overhead for processing and distributing rice to retailers, and the
National Food Authority, which, for lack of resources, is unable to fulfill its
legal mandate to buy rice from our rice farmers at reasonable prices. The high
cost of rice production is attributable to notable increases in prices of
fertilizers, which are imported, and the high price of diesel needed for farm irrigation
systems,” Roman continued. To solve
the problem, she added, a law is needed that requires cooperation among
competing farmer associations and cooperatives, or “coopetition,” through
place-based clustering and establishes a multipurpose, fully equipped hub per
cluster (“cluster hub”). At
present, according to Roman, the government extends farming assistance
(machinery, equipment, seeds, training and loans) through competing farmer
organizations, but farmlands are underutilized because not every farmer
organization receives government farming assistance. She said
placed-based clustering of farmer organizations to mainly serve as the
exclusive conduit of government farming assistance and to take advantage of
synergies in the sourcing and sharing of farming resources would result in
wider dispersal of farming resources, increased utilization of farmlands,
increased rice production, reduced dependence on rice imports and, ultimately,
food security. Secretary
of Agriculture William Dar agrees that farmlands should be “consolidated to
bring about economies of scale, particularly for crops that require
mechanization and massive use of technology.” He said
farmer organizations should “undertake marketing functions…to minimize
inefficiencies in the marketing system and to enable farmers to avail
themselves of better returns on their produce.” Roman
wants to try first the implementation of her proposed solution right in Bataan. She said
this practice had been going on in Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam.
New
Delhi Relations
between India and Malaysia are back on the upswing after taking a hit under
former premier Mahathir Mohamad, with Kuala Lumpur increasing its purchases of
rice and sugar from New Delhi in recent months. India
quietly initiated steps to reset the relationship after Mahathir, who irked New
Delhi with his repeated criticism of the situation in Kashmir and the
Citizenship (Amendment) Act , or CAA, resigned in March, people familiar with
developments said on Monday. India’s
ambassador to Malaysia, Mridul Kumar, was the first foreign envoy to meet new
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and foreign minister Hishammuddin Hussein
within a week of the formation of the new cabinet in March, and the two sides
have worked behind the scenes to put ties back on an even keel. The
people cited above, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said India is buying
200,000 tonnes of palm oil for the June-July period from Malaysia, the world’s
second-biggest producer and exporter of the commodity after Indonesia. Earlier
this year, India, the world’s largest buyer of edible oils, had changed its
rules to effectively bar imports of refined palm oil from Malaysia, largely
because of the position taken by Mahathir. “This is
the largest order for palm oil by India in the past few months,” said one of
the people cited above. Indian importers
will also benefit from Malaysia’s decision of June 5 to fully exempt palm oil
from export duty for the rest of this year as part of efforts to help
industries hit by the Covid-19 crisis. “This
move will benefit India’s refining industries, which had been hit hard by the
imposition of this duty earlier in the year. This duty has been a focus of
India’s commerce ministry,” the person quoted above said. On the
other hand, Malaysia has placed an order with India for 100,000 tonnes of rice
for May-June, whereas its total import of rice from India last year was around
85,000 tonnes, the people said. MSM
Malaysia Holdings, the country’s leading refined sugar producer, bought around
88,000 metric tonnes of raw sugar from India last year, whereas it procured
130,000 metric tonnes of raw sugar worth $50 million for the January-March
quarter this year, the people said. Following
the Covid-19 outbreak, the Indian government also approved the supply of
hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol for Malaysia, the people said. External
affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Malaysian counterpart, Hishammuddin
Hussein, also spoke in mid-April about the response to the pandemic and efforts
to assist citizens stranded in each other’s country. Malaysia
is one of India’s key trading partners in Southeast Asia, and bilateral trade
was worth $17.25 billion in 2018-19, up from $14.71 billion in 2017-18 However,
bilateral ties were hit after Mahathir repeatedly criticised CAA and the
situation in Kashmir after the Indian government scrapped the region’s special
status last August. Despite
pushback from India, Mahathir continued his criticism and the diplomatic spat
led to India imposing curbs on palm oil imports that hit Malaysia for some
time.
Farmers Producing Organization – A Need for
Improving Rural Economy
An FPO or
Farmer Producing Organization is an entity established under legal framework
comprises by primary producers, i.e. farmers, milk producers, fishermen,
weavers, rural artisans, craftsmen, vegetable vendors etc. The concept of
Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO)' consists of collectivization of producers,
especially small and marginal farmers, with the objective to form an effective
alliance to collectively address underlying problems associated with agriculture such
as improved access to investment, technology, inputs, markets, existing
intermediary barriers etc.
A Producing Organization (PO) can be
a production company, a cooperative society or any other legal form which
provides for sharing of benefits among the members (in this case farmers). The
FPOs are generally managed by promoting institutions/ Resource Agencies
(RAs). Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) provides support for the
promotion of FPOs. The resource agencies (RA’s) leverage the support available
from governments and agencies like NABARD to promote and nurture FPOs, although
a lot needs to streamline the system so as to give the desired results.
FPO’s are established in the country
ensure better income for the producers or the growers through an organization
of their own. The major reason for establishing FPO is to enable farmers in
reaping the benefits of economies of scale (or enhancing revenue and optimizing
operations) which they are unable to do individually. Small scale or medium
scale farmers generally do not have adequate finances or resources to run their
livelihood/farming operations properly. In agricultural marketing, there is a
long chain of intermediaries who very often work with lesser transparency. This
often results in farmers receiving only a lesser remuneration, which he would
have received. Here lies the advantage of doing business through FPO because
through this form of aggregation, the primary producers can avail the benefit
of economies of scale.
The essential features of a Farmers
Producing Organization are - It is formed by a group of crop growers for farm
or activities. It is a registered body and a legal entity. Farmers are
shareholders in the organization. A FPO deals with business activities related
to the primary produce/product i.e. the crop which is grown by the farmer
members.The Organization works for the
benefit of the farmers. Also, some percentage of the profit is shared amongst
the farmers while balance surplus is added to the FPO funds for expanding the
business.
India’s first Farmer Producer
Company was the Vanilla India Producer Co. in Kerala, which was established in
year 2004. The numbers have increased to nearly 5000 since then. Details are
given below
PROMOTING
AGENCY
NUMBERS
SFAC
902
NABARD
2086
STATE
GOVERNMENT
510
NRLM (Under
Ministry of rural development)
131
OTHER
ORGANISATION/FUNDS
1371
Source: Business Standard
There are lots of success stories
about FPO’s running operations successfully, apart from addressing rural
problems or challenges. According to SFAC report, Paddy produced by farmers in
Kuraon block in Allahabad was well known for its quality in UP. But the farmers
were facing difficulty in marketing paddy. Several middlemen were engaged in
purchasing paddy from farmers’ doorsteps at a price decided by the middlemen,
and hardly there was any direct linkage between the farmers and the mandi or
the rice millers. These middlemen used to sell them either in mandi or to big
rice millers which are 110 in numbers, after buying paddy from the growers.
Shri Kuraon Farmer Producer Company Limited owned by small and marginal farmers
started collecting paddy from farmers. The company then decided to sell
growers’ paddy in mandis and also sell directly to the rice millers.
The Board of Directors initially
decided to explore the buyers, to in order to reduce the risk involved in the
process. Afterwards they succeeded in getting some order for paddy from a few
rice millers. The FPO then bought paddy of the growers in small quantities and
supplied to the rice millers. A total of 120 quintals of paddy was bought from
47 shareholders and sold to the rice millers initially. The company decided to
procure paddy directly from the growers’ house and for this purpose, it
established four temporary procurement/collection centers. The FPO bought jute
bags to carry the paddy. The FPO had procured paddy worth Rs1.74 lakhs during
the month of February 2017.
Similarly involvement of FPO’s in
hedging crop risk by participating in futures market has started increasing. In
coming weeks, coverage will be on this aspect in details. Stay tuned to the
sections of “Commodity Update”/”Featured articles” etc to get further insight
on hedging crop risk through futures market/role of FPO’s in futures market
etc.
The first futures trade by an Indian
FPO took place in 2014 when the Ram Rahim Pragati Producer Company – an
enterprise started by 3,000 women belonging to self-help groups in a tribal
area of Madhya Pradesh, was successfully in hedging price risk of soya bean on
the National Commodity and Derivates Exchange (NCDEX). By September 2019
NCDEX had successfully added FPO’s, covering nearly 4.6 Lakh farmers from the
group. Total states covered were 13 and reportedly most farmers of Madhya
Pradesh, Bihar, and Rajasthan were able to receive nearly 20% higher farm-gate
prices for wheat, maize, mustard seed, and soybean, which were actively hedged on
NCDEX. For further understanding on futures trading in Agriculture, kindly
Importance of FPO’s is therefore
increasing every year in shaping economic activities of rural areas/villages.
Since the major objective of FPO’s is to enhance livelihood of farmers/rural
area or village residents and it helps individual farmers in improving their
financial standards, it is now understood that to improving rural economy there
is need to recognize the importance of these organizations by the government
and come out with effective measures in order to resolve current issues with
the FPO’s and obtain desirable results in longer run. The Centre in February 2020
announced plans to promote 250 new farmer-producer organizations (FPOs) for
financial year (2020-21). This is towards meeting its target of creating 10,000
new FPOs in the next five years. According to the new guidelines issued by the
government, FPOs will have to have a minimum 300 members, down from the
existing requirement of 1,000. Currently, India has roughly 5,000
FPOs/farmer-producer companies (FPCs) of which almost 2,100 have been promoted
by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in the last
few years.
LITTLE ROCK, AR -- Missouri and
Arkansas rice is in the ground! While it's been another wet year across
the region, there were enough dry spells in April and May for producers to
finally get in the fields and plant.
Planting in Missouri finished up last week. According to Rance Daniels
who farms in Hornersville, "Everyone in our area finished or decided they
were finished planting last week. It rained anywhere from 3/10 to 2
inches last Thursday which was good for us. Our later planted fields
needed some water; if we didn't have that rain then we would have had to flush
those fields to get the crop up. The early planted rice is looking pretty
good; a lot of those fields received their pre-flood nitrogen and are going to
flood right now. Quite a few crop dusters are in the air today, too, with
neighbors putting out fertilizer before Tropical Storm Cristabol hits."
While Daniels and others in his area weren't able to plant all of their
intended acres, some producers north of him were able to plant all of their
intended rice acres and then some, leading him to predict Missouri rice acres
will match state projections or be down just a little.
Jeff Rutledge in northeast Arkansas was able to plant all of his rice from
April 11 through the end of May. "While it was a wet spring, we had
enough dry periods to get out and plant. We were only 100 acres short of
our intended planted acres and that was due to flooding. Unfortunately,
the rain keeps coming and the river hasn't had a chance to drop yet so quite a
few acres are still underwater. If the water doesn't recede soon, we will
have some fields that will not be planted and some that will lose
strands."
On Matthew Morris' operation in central Arkansas, the heavy rainfall that hit
the state in recent weeks missed their land, providing them with a much-needed
dry spell. "We planted about 60 percent of our rice crop the first
couple weeks of May, then waited for it to dry down to plant the rest of our
intended rice acres. We're actually pretty glad that planting was spread
out like it was because then our watering and harvesting should be spread out,
too. We planted RiceTec Gemini because we've had good luck with it in the
past. It has a longer growing period than some other varieties so by
planting it last, our harvest period is stretched out and we can control the
dry down to prevent shattering and improve milling yields."
Robert Petter and Brandon Truax, who farm in south Arkansas, have all of their
rice acres planted. "We planted all of our rice in a week in mid-May
and will put it to flood next week," said Truax. "It's looking
good so far so we're optimistic about this year's crop. It looks like
rice acres will be up in our area this year, too. We're seeing rice
planted on fields where rice isn't typically grown, and you can see a lot of
row rice in Desha County as well."
Joe Mencer, near Lake Village, was able get all of his rice planted but it was
3-4 weeks later than he wanted. "We planted some rice on May 27 and
had to flush the fields. In most of our fields we're putting out
fertilizer and cleaning the crop up, trying to get rid of grass, weeds,
etc. The rain from Cristobal hit our place at 6 a.m. today and we had
received 1½ inches in four hours. It's been a good, steady rain with
winds about 15 - 20 mph so it's been a lot better than we expected."
Rice Prevent Plant acres are expected to be down this year across the state but
there may be areas that have higher numbers because of the rain.
"Due to coronavirus, most producers haven't been able to get out and visit
with neighbors like in years past so it's hard to know what everyone else is
doing," said Truax.
Indonesia’s
Food Security Under Threat
People browse low-cost rice and other groceries
at a warehouse amid the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, in Surabaya, East Java
on 22 April, 2020. (AFP Photo)
Food
security is still the top priority in President Joko Widodo's second term as
part of his economic development agenda for national development 2020-2024. For
the last five years, the policy direction of the Food Security Agency for
strengthening food security in Indonesia was focused on three main areas – food
availability, food accessibility and food utilisation.
At a glance, the food security policy during
Jokowi's administration seems to benefit the rural economy as import
restrictions have improved commodity prices and increased the incomes of
farmers in the country. The price of rice has been steadily increased to an
average of IDR12,000/kg (US$0.84/kg) in 2019 from IDR6,000/kg (US$0.42/kg) in
2010 and domestic maize prices have resulted in the doubling of the import
price for maize. However, the policy does not align with the fact that the
Indonesian Farmers' Terms of Trade has been lower than 100 in 15 provinces and
has been in decline since 2012. Ironically, farmers haven’t necessarily
benefited from the policy.
The government of Indonesia has been putting a
lot of effort into developing several strategic commodities to achieve its food
security agenda. The high level of dependence on rice is still a challenge for
each regime that has led the country in meeting the food
needs of the people. The Green Revolution that took place in
Indonesia decades ago has impacted food diversity in households and has
resulted in Indonesia’s dependency on rice as a staple.
Many local, more nutritious cereal options (e.g. sorghum, corn, tubers, and
root vegetables) have been replaced by processed white rice containing less
fibre and nutrients. To reduce this dependency on rice and to accelerate the
process of food diversification, the government has issued a Presidential
Regulation on the Policy for the Acceleration of Diversity in Food-Based Food
Consumption. Indonesia’s food policies certainly need to be changed, by putting
more focus on nutrition security.
Emphasising the importance of nutrients,
internationally recognised nutritionist, Dr Michael Greger has said that people
with the proper body weight can go up to 382 days without additional calories.
However, no one can last even a fraction of that time without vitamins.
Despite the policy on food diversity,
agriculture subsidies in Indonesia have been stagnant from one regime change to
another, with funds allocated mainly to calorie based cereal crops (e.g. maize
and rice) and sugar. This one-sided policy has prevented the opportunity to
make fruit and vegetables more available and affordable for all households, let
alone poor farmer households in rural areas.
More
Expensive Calories
In past decades, food security policies in Indonesia
have generally been driven by pro-poor, high-yielding crops, and investments in
rural infrastructure. Having higher productivity and production of commodities
through agricultural input subsidies was expected to increase farmers'
household incomes. This increase in income presumably would be used to shift
their food consumption behaviour from consuming low nutritious foods to better
ones.
Yet, Nobel Prize winners in Economics,
Professor Abhijit Banerjee and Professor Esther Duflo in their book titled
"Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty”,
have said that if extremely poor people have an opportunity to spend a bit more
on food, they do not pour everything into getting more calories, instead, they
buy better-tasting, more expensive calories. They also figured out that even
though the poor prefer subsidised grains, providing them more, does little to
convince them to use the extra money they have to eat nutritious food.
Source: Various
Subsidy
allocation has a long-standing effect on household consuming behaviour. Input
subsidy has dramatically influenced the price of commodities in the retail
segment. In rural households where the majority of incomes is spent on food, in
addition to the preference for tastier foods, these households often choose to
buy more affordable foods to consume.
For staple crops, where most subsidies are
allocated, the government can start to promote the cultivation of rice.
Research and development should be given priority so that farmers can start to
plant more with affordable, productive seeds; allowing them to gradually plant
more diverse crops.
Subsidy timing is also important according to
Professor Esther Duflo as farmers in developing countries are usually
present-biased and naive when it comes to buying subsidised inputs. Small,
time-limited subsidies may, therefore, be attractive to them as farmers would
increase inputs used for the present.
The journey to achieve food and nutrition
security is long and arduous. The new controversial Omnibus Bill is viewed as
weakening farmers and the nation's agricultural sector as it eases conditions
on imports, environmental regulations and land use. It also allows food imports
to be classified as a source of national food supply which is contrary to Law
Number 18 of 2012 which states that food availability refers to food from
domestic production and national food reserves. The Omnibus Law also allows the
conversion of sustainable agricultural land into public-use land instead of
expanding existing agricultural land or agricultural areas for the creation of
food production centres.
The world has been badly hit by the COVID-19
pandemic and the economic crisis that has followed. The deadly outbreak has
served as a lesson about the importance of sovereign
food production and food reserves so that access to food
sources is maintained in times of emergency; allowing the State to provide food
assistance to specific groups under special conditions.
As an agrarian and maritime country,
Indonesia’s government has an obligation to maintain the sustainability of
these pillars of national economy. It also has to ensure that Indonesians are
able to buy a variety of nutritious foods that are produced by locals.
Vietnam’s National Assembly has green-lighted a
major trade agreement with the European Union (EU) that is set to scrap almost
all customs duties on goods traded between the Southeast Asian country and the
bloc.
The bilateral trade deal,
officially known as the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, gained
overwhelming support in the Vietnam’s parliament on Monday. The EU and Vietnam
signed the deal in Hanoi last year, and it was already ratified by the European
Parliament in February. The agreement is expected to officially come into force
next month.
During the session, the deputies
also ratified another document that is set to attract more foreign investors to
Vietnam. When the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement takes effect
sometime in July or August this year, it will give EU companies equal treatment
with local businesses while competing for public contracts in Vietnam.
According to the terms of the trade
pact, as much as 49 percent of tariffs on EU exports to Vietnam will be lifted
as soon as it takes effect, while the rest will be phased out over the next 10
years. In turn, Brussels will eliminate 85 percent of its tariffs on Vietnamese
goods, gradually cutting the rest over the next seven years.
Trade between the EU and Vietnam
reached $56.45 billion last year. The implementation of the agreement may boost
Vietnam’s gross domestic product by over two percent, while exports may
increase 12 percent, according to the World Bank estimates.
“Such benefits are particularly urgent to lock in positive
economic gains as the country responds to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the World Bank said.
Vietnam has not been seriously
affected by the large number of coronavirus cases, despite having a long border
with China, which was the first country to be hit by the outbreak. However, the
pandemic has hit the Vietnamese economy hard, and has also revealed how much
the country is dependent on supplies from its neighbor. While factories are
ready to open, they face shortages of materials they usually source from China.
“Covid-19 has given Vietnam a hard lesson about being dependent on
China,” former adviser to several of
Vietnam’s prime ministers Pham Chi Lan has been reported as saying. The
economist added that the free trade agreement comes “at the
right time” because it’s essential the world diversifies its
supply chains.
Asia is on track to become the world's second largest wealth hub
by 2024, with India being the main engine for this growth, outpacing
neighboring China and Indonesia, according to the Knight Frank consultancy
forecast.
After rising by more than six
percent in 2019 to 513,200 people, the number of ultra-high-net-worth
individuals (UHNWIs) — those who have a fortune of more than $30 million — is
expected to further expand over a five-year period. According to the firm's
recent Wealth Report, the super rich population will jump by 27 percent to
nearly 650,000.
As the Asia-Pacific region hosts
the fastest-growing economies, it is not surprising that most of new
multimillionaires are building fortunes in countries such as India and China.
The former had less than 6,000 ultra-rich individuals last year, but the figure
is projected to increase by 73 percent — the fastest pace in Asia and across
the globe.
India will be followed by Egypt and
Vietnam, the super-rich population of which is set to jump by 66 percent and 64
percent, respectively. China will not make it into the top three, with expected
UHNWI population growth of 58 percent, followed by Indonesia and Tanzania.
The US is currently first in the
wealth race, hosting 240,575 ultra-rich individuals — more than Europe and Asia
combined. It will apparently keep the leading position, but will enjoy just 22
percent growth in the number of people worth more than $30 million in the next
five years, one percent less than Russia.
The Wealth Report's findings are
based on projected GDP growth, house prices, equity performance, interest rates
and other asset classes that individuals hold. To make a clearer picture and
evaluate net wealth, Knight Frank also looks at primary residences and second
homes not owned primarily as investments.
Thailand is among the world's largest rice exporters. For many
years, the country held the global crown for rice exports except last year when
it was beaten by India.
Thai fragrant rice, Hom Mali, is well recognised in the world
market as a premium quality rice and and commands premium prices in the world
rice market.
With this premise, Thai rice farmers should have moved out of
poverty and be enjoying better livelihoods by now.
Unfortunately, the opposite is the case. Most rice farmers are
among the poorest in the country's farm sector.
This is paradoxical given Thai consumers pay high prices for
white rice in the market, while farmers still have to sell paddy at low prices.
There must be something wrong.
Last year, Thai rice exports dropped drastically to 7.58 million
tonnes, the worst in six years. Vietnam was neck-and-neck with Thailand at 6.37
million tonnes and India's rice exports came in at 9.77 million tonnes.
This year is another challenging year for Thai rice and farmers,
as the country's farm sector has struggled with a severe drought and impacts of
the economic downturn.
Rice exports from Thailand are expected to drop to 7.5 million
tonnes this year, the lowest volume in seven years. More importantly, the worst
drought in 40 years has resulted in a substantial decrease of about 1.5-2
million tonnes of milled off-season rice, according to the Thai Rice Exporters
Association.
Without question, difficult times lie ahead.
Last week, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha met rice farmer
leaders to mark Rice and Farmers Day 2020. The premier told farmers he well
understood the hardship of farmers who are forced to sell their paddy at low
prices.
He said the government is considering a measure to register rice
mills where farmers would be urged to sell paddy only to those registered
millers.
The details remain unclear. Currently, rice mills have had to
register their business with the Commerce Ministry. Still, the prime minister
has a point. It is known that millers and middlemen have taken advantage of
farmers for a long time but this problem remains unsolved.
Rice farmers should have more influence over their selling
prices, compared to the millers or middlemen who force farmers to sell below
the proper rate.
Other problems have hurt rice farmers over the years, if not
decades. Thailand has about eight million farmer households and half are rice
growers. Rice plantations in the country cover around 60 million rai.
Unfortunately, rice yields are low. For example, the yield of
the average rice crop in Thailand is about 450 kilogrammes per rai, while in
Vietnam, the average yield per rai can be as high as 800-1,000 kg/rai.
Production costs are another problem. They are high due to
several factors. One study indicated rice production costs in Vietnam are up to
50% lower than Thailand. As a result, after middlemen and millers take their
cut, the prices that farmers get for their rice is lower than the cost of
production. This is one reason farmer debts have skyrocketed.
These factors have bedevilled the industry for half a century
without effective solutions. Governments, including the current one, must call
on rice farmers to accept the market mechanism instead of demanding subsidies,
but they have also failed to solve these fundamental problems to help farmers
make a decent living and which in effect have chained farmers to poverty.
Charipara village is flooded by the sea as Cyclone
Amphan destroyed embankments in Kalapara Upazila in Patuakhali District,
Bangladesh. Date: 3 June 2020. Credit: Md. Johirul Islam
The Atlantic and Caribbean hurricane season has just begun, with
the world worried about the prospect of providing humanitarian relief in the context of a
pandemic and lockdowns. But Bangladesh recently experienced one of
the most powerful Bay of Bengal cyclones on record and
saved thousands of lives through forecasting, warning, and evacuation.
This is in stark contrast to
the November 1970 cyclone,
which killed around 500,000 people in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), making
it one of the deadliest known storms in human history. Around 11,000 died in a 1985 cyclone, and one in
1991 killed 140,000. More recent strikes, such as Cyclone Sidr in 2007 and Cyclone Alia in 2009,
had over 3,400 deaths and about 190 deaths respectively.
All these far exceeded the recent Cyclone Amphan's total of 26 deaths so
far. Understanding the generally declining death toll offers lessons on how the
rest of the world could prepare better for such events. Part of it is
forecasting, warning, and evacuation.
But another part is local action, which we research.
Much of this science is participatory,
directed by the people who are vulnerable in order to balance and meld
local and external ideas and approaches.
From vulnerability to resilience
Cyclone Amphan made landfall in Bangladesh on May 20 2020. It inundated over 4,000
sq km of land and destroyed homes, polders (low-lying areas of
land surrounded by dikes or levees), embankments, roads, electricity poles,
mobile phone towers, bridges and culverts, with the exact costs still being
tallied. Many agricultural fields and fish farms were overwhelmed by the
saltwater storm surge.
The low death toll can be largely
attributed to Bangladesh's long-term efforts to reduce vulnerabilities,
including at the local level, which is always the key in preventing disasters.
In 1970, the country had only 42 cyclone shelters, whereas now over 12,000
functionally active cyclone shelters dot the coastline, serving nearly 5
million people.
A diverse system of warning
messages tailored to local needs keeps people informed about evacuation,
ranging from social media to people on bicycles with megaphones. Training in
school means that the announcements are trusted and the population knows how to
react and why.
Bangladesh has invested in
constructing numerous polders to reduce the force of storm surges, although
water retention has sometimes damaged agriculture and infrastructure. Local
leaders, organisations, and authorities collaborate to implement tidal river
management and nature-based approaches such as mangroves. This helps to deal
with storm surge and rainfall, as well as reduced freshwater due to India's
Farakka Barrage, built across the Ganges River to keep the water in India since
the 1970s.
We assessed one local programme
funded and supported by the British and Swedish Red Cross for implementation by
the Bangladesh Red Crescent. This "Vulnerability to Resilience"
programme ran between 2013 and 2016 in the coastal villages of Pashurbunia and
Nowapara in Kalapara Upazila in Patuakhali district.
Cyclone
Amphan affected areas in Shyamnagar Upazila, Satkhira District, Bangladesh.
Credit: Taifur Rahman, HMBD Foundation, Bangladesh
This was the first time that people there had been involved in
such resilience-building work. They installed flood-resistant tubewells, raised
latrines above expected flood levels, trained for improved hygiene and first
aid, distributed safety equipment, improved local early warning and evacuation
systems, and were trained as local volunteers to continue these activities.
Diverse and alternative livelihood opportunities were also
promoted. Household-level businesses and shops were encouraged, alongside local
markets for the products.
This included people growing and selling garden vegetables and
rice, producing crafts through quilting and sewing, rearing cattle for milk and
beef, and investing in ducks, chickens, and aquaculture for fish. If any one of
these livelihoods is interrupted or ruined, then people would still have
options for earning income.
These initiatives are clearly not about cyclones only and move
far beyond forecasting, warning, and evacuation. They improve livelihoods,
living conditions, community interaction, health, and safety irrespective of a
storm. Our calculations immediately after the programme demonstrated that every
dollar invested in the programme produced a quick payback of almost five times
that amount through enhanced income and local activities.
Local success
The real test, though, remains what happens during a hazard. Three
weeks after the programme ended, Cyclone Roanu ripped through the south coast
of Bangladesh on May 21, 2016. Pashurbunia and Nowapara reported successful
warning and evacuation, no casualties, livelihoods with limited interruption,
and a water supply and latrines that functioned afterwards.
Similar
success is now repeated with Amphan. Despite the cyclone's devastation, the
people are alive and are returning home to rebuild. In Pashurbunia and
Nowapara, seven kilometres of polder length were destroyed while the villages
and agricultural lands were inundated.
The
local population is repairing the damaged polders, houses, and latrines while
restoring the drinking water supply and resuming their livelihoods. This is
mainly through self-help, without much external assistance so far. It is not
easy, but much better than before.
It
required nearly 50 years from the 1970 calamity to achieve this state of
disaster risk reduction and readiness. Plenty of work remains since Bangladesh
faces many other hazards, including human-caused climate change, sea-level
rise, earthquakes, and landslides. The country is also coping with one of the
largest current refugee crises following genocide against the Rohingya.
This year, nearly 25 per cent
of the total area under paddy sowing is expected to come under this
technology which will help to slash cultivation cost in terms of both
labour and water
The
State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department sanctioned 4,000 DSR
(direct seeding of rice) machines and 800 paddy transplanting machines to
farmers on subsidy ranging from 40 to 50%
To cope up with the labour scarcity amid the Covid-19 pandemic,
the state government has stepped up its efforts to encourage farmers to switch
over to direct seeding of rice (DSR) instead of the traditional transplantation
of paddy this year.
This year, nearly 25 per cent of
the total area under paddy sowing is expected to come under this technology
which will help to slash cultivation cost in terms of both labour and water.
To promote the technology and motivate farmers to adopt it, the State
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department sanctioned 4,000 DSR machines and
800 paddy transplanting machines to farmers on subsidy ranging from 40 to 50
per cent.
Secretary, Agriculture, KS Pannu said Punjab
had earlier fixed the target to bring around 5 lakh hectares under the DSR
technique but given the labour shortage and keen interest shown by farmers to
adopt the advance technology, 6-7 lakh hectares of area is expected to come
under this technology, which roughly accounts for 25 per cent of the paddy
grown in Punjab.
He further stated that the DSR technique would
be instrumental in saving about 30 per cent of water besides cutting the cost
of paddy cultivation by nearly Rs 6,000 per acre. He said as per reports and
research of Punjab Agriculture University, the yield of paddy from the DSR is
on a par with paddy crop grown by conventional technique of transplanting.
He also appealed to farmers that most critical
element in new technology is the control of weeds and as such, farmers must be
careful that prior to undertaking DSR, they must procure weedicide and spray
the same within 24 hours of sowing the crop.
India-Malaysia ties back on
upswing; Kuala Lumpur to buy more rice, sugar
India quietly
initiated steps to reset the relationship after Mahathir, who irked New Delhi
with his repeated criticism of the situation in Kashmir and the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act (CAA), resigned in March, people familiar with developments
said on Monday.
INDIAUpdated: Jun 08, 2020 18:12 IST
Rezaul
H Laskar
Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Earlier this year, India, the world’s largest buyer of edible oils,
had changed its rules to effectively bar imports of refined palm oil from
Malaysia, largely because of the position taken by Mahathir.(Bloomberg file photo.
Representative image)
Relations between India and Malaysia are back on the upswing after
taking a hit under former premier Mahathir Mohamad, with Kuala Lumpur
increasing its purchases of rice and sugar from New Delhi in recent months.
India quietly initiated steps to reset the relationship after
Mahathir, who irked New Delhi with his repeated criticism of the situation in
Kashmir and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), resigned in March, people
familiar with developments said on Monday.
India’s ambassador to Malaysia, Mridul Kumar, was the first
foreign envoy to meet new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and foreign minister
Hishammuddin Hussein within a week of the formation of the new cabinet in
March, and the two sides have worked behind the scenes to put ties back on an
even keel.
The people cited above, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
India is buying 200,000 tonnes of palm oil for the June-July period from
Malaysia, the world’s second-biggest producer and exporter of the commodity
after Indonesia.
Earlier this year, India, the world’s largest buyer of edible
oils, had changed its rules to effectively bar imports of refined palm oil from
Malaysia, largely because of the position taken by Mahathir.
“This is the largest order for palm oil by India in the past few
months,” said one of the people cited above.
Indian importers will also benefit from Malaysia’s decision of
June 5 to fully exempt palm oil from export duty for the rest of this year as
part of efforts to help industries hit by the Covid-19 crisis.
“This move will benefit India’s refining industries, which had
been hit hard by the imposition of this duty earlier in the year. This duty has
been a focus of India’s commerce ministry,” the person said.
On the other hand, Malaysia has placed an order with India for
100,000 tonnes of rice for May-June, whereas its total import of rice from
India last year was around 85,000 tonnes, the people said.
MSM Malaysia Holdings, the country’s leading refined sugar
producer, bought around 88,000 metric tonnes of raw sugar from India last year,
whereas it procured 130,000 metric tonnes of raw sugar worth $50 million for
the January-March quarter this year, the people said.
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, the Indian government also approved the supply
of hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol for Malaysia, the people said. External
affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Malaysian counterpart Hishammuddin
Hussein also spoke in mid-April about the response to the pandemic and efforts
to assist citizens stranded in each other’s country.
Malaysia is one of India’s key trading partners in Southeast Asia,
and bilateral trade was worth $17.25 billion in 2018-19, up from $14.71 billion
in 2017-18
However, bilateral ties were hit after Mahathir repeatedly
criticised CAA and the situation in Kashmir after the Indian government
scrapped the region’s special status last August.
Despite push back from India, Mahathir continued his criticism and
the diplomatic spat led to India imposing curbs on palm oil imports that hit
Malaysia for some time.
Last December, Mahathir had said people were “dying” because of
CAA, prompting India to dismiss his remarks as factually inaccurate. During the
UN General Assembly last September, Mahathir said Kashmir had been “invaded and
occupied”. At that time, New Delhi had said he was interfering in India’s
internal affairs and such statements went against the spirit of long-standing
bilateral ties.
Strict policy for discharge of extra
irrigation water from canals for Kharif 2020
Policy on rice shoots stresses on
water conservation
•Posted:
Jun 06, 2020 01:16 PM (IST)
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 6
Paddy growers in Haryana will
have to make optimum use of water for paddy cultivation with the Haryana
government putting in place a stricter policy for rice shoots for the kharif
season-2020.
Now, strict norms will govern
obtaining the rice shoots—temporary openings on water channels for paddy
crop—by farmers during the upcoming kharif season with no new rice shoots
allowed on any main line, branch line or feeder channel.
The policy, released on June 3,
said a maximum of 25% additional discharge would be allowed in the Western
Jamuna Canal System, during the kharif season. The highest number of rice
shoots, both traditional (in existence for three years) and new rice shoots,
are allowed in the Western Jamuna Command area, considered to be the rice bowl
of the state.
Similarly, only 10 per cent of
authorised discharge would be made available for rice shoots in the Bhakra
Command System for the upcoming kharif season.
“Increased requirements of
drinking water in rural and urban areas now require the state to undertake
measures to reduce water consumption in agriculture without comprising on
productivity,” the policy said justifying tough measures on water conservation
during paddy production.
Agriculure Minister JP Dalal said
the state government was committed to optimum use of irrigation water,
especially during kharif season. “With that end in mind the government had
recently come out with “mera paani, meri virasat” to encourage crop
diversification especially to discourage water-guzzling paddy,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, the policy made it
clear that “there shall be no shortage of water at the tail-end when the
temporary rice shoots are sanctioned. “No temporary rice shoots will be
sanctioned to persons found guilty of unauthorised irrigation in the past five
years,” it said.
The minimum area for a temporary
rice shoot will be 20 acres, out of which at least 25% of the area will have to
be of non-paddy crops. No rice shoots will be allowed to the cultivators
cultivating “satthi” paddy (60-day crop) as this variety has already been
banned by the Haryana government.
“One kg rice consumes 5,000
litres of water.”
Officials said research had shown
that a kilogram of rice production consumed over 5,000 litres of water
stretching the logic to the extent that Haryana indirectly exported its water
even at the peril of future generations.
What are rice shoots
Rice shoots are temporary
openings on water channels for cultivation of paddy crop. The rice shoots are
exclusively given for irrigation of paddy crop from two
major canal
systems—Western Jamuna Canal System and the Bhakra Command System.
Rice traders at a market in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tran.
Average rice
export price in the first four months hit $470.2 per ton, up 10 percent year-on-year,
the highest in the last two years.
The Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development's agro processing and market development department also said
that May was an active month for the world rice export market with several
countries stocking up on the grain because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. As
a result, global rice export prices rose to its highest level in years.
Vietnam's rice export prices
increased, too. The average price of the five percent broken rice variety was
at $473-477 per ton, while that for jasmine rice (also known as fragrant rice)
rose highest to $558-562 a ton.
Vietnam's rice prices in 2019
ranged from $376-420 per ton and were around $380-502 per ton in 2018.
In the world market, the export
price of Indian rice has reached its highest level in the past one year due to
strong demand from African and Asian countries. The price of Thai rice
decreased in the past month due to an increase of new suppliers and fierce
competition from cheaper suppliers in India and Vietnam.
The agro processing and market
development department expects global demand for rice to continue rising.
The Philippines is seeking to
import an additional 300,000 tons of rice to strengthen its reserves and
prepare for the low-supply season in the third quarter.
Bangladesh has also purchased an
additional 200,000 tons of rice from the ongoing harvest season to secure
supply for domestic relief operations amid the spread of the pandemic in the
country.
China has already achieved 95
percent of its food self-sufficiency (rice, maize, wheat) target, but still
allows importing a certain amount through the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system.
Accordingly, the country allows domestic traders to import at a tax rate of
only one percent compared to the out-of-quota of 65 percent.
The latest forecast of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates world rice production in 2020 at
493.8 million tons, down about 0.5 percent from last year, while global
consumption is expected to reach 490.2 million tons, a 0.9 percent year-on-year
increase.
Vietnam's rice exports in May
reached 789,000 tons with a value of about $415 million. The five-month
total volume and export value reached nearly 2.9 million tons and $1.41
billion, up 5.1 percent and 18.9 percent, respectively, over the same
period in 2019.
In the first four months of the
year, the Philippines was the biggest buyer of Vietnamese rice, accounting for
40.5 percent market share at 902,100 tons worth $401.3 million.
Other markets with stronger rice
imports from Vietnam were China and Indonesia, both seeing a 2.7-fold increase
year-on-year; Taiwan, up 67.9 percent; and Ghana, up 39.3.
Vietnam, the world's third largest rice exporter, is likely to
ship seven million tons this year, official
agencies have said.
TUE/6-9
Columbiana Planning
commission via Zoom at 7 p.m., log in info at www.columbianaohio.
gov. East
Palestine Eagles
kitchen open for carryout from 4-7 p.m., special is supreme nachos for $5 or
chicken enchilada and rice for $6, call 330-886-0397 after 3:30 Lisbon Food
giveaway outside St. George from 9-10 a.m. Village
Council at 5 p.m. via Zoom; BPA at 5 p.m. Salineville BOE at
6:30 p.m. in high school cafeteria. Wellsville Yellow
Creek Township trustees will meet at 7 p.m. at township building on Oak Ridge
Road WED/6-10 Elkton Elkrun
Township trustees at 7 p.m. at township garage, limited to 10 Lisbon County
commissioners at 9 a.m. at courthouse County
park board at 4:30 p.m. at district garage New
Waterford Crestview
BOE at 7 p.m. June 10 in the PAC Salem UCT at
6:30 p.m. at Perkins. Salineville USA
board at 10:30 a.m. in Southern BOE office. Wellsville Carryout
steak dinner with dessert from 4-6 p.m. at Yellow Creek Presbyterian THU/6-11 Beloit West
Branch BOE, 5 p.m. in WBHS west wing conference room, on contract bargaining,
no action Columbiana Oasis
food distribution from 4-6 p.m. at First Christian Church, 39 Cherry St.,
drive-thru with trunks empty, ID, Ohio residents only, max two households per
car East
Palestine Eagles
kitchen open for carryout from 4-7 p.m., special is supreme nachos for $5 or
chicken enchilada and rice for $6, call 330-886-0397 after 3:30 Lisbon Architectural
Design and Review Board at 6 p.m. at village hall New
Waterford Wing
night from 4-9 p.m. at Eagles, full menu, social distancing, also carryout at
457-5230 Washingtonville
VFW post
meeting at 6 p.m. FRI/6-12 Columbiana Good As
New Shoppe at United Methodist Church, 210 S. Main St, open from 11 a.m. to 5
p.m., 831-0399 Guilford
Lake Fish fry
at Ruritan pavilion from 4-7 p.m., social distancing required, carryout also
available Lisbon JFS
senior services levy advisory board at 8 a.m. via Zoom New
Waterford Fish
night from 4-9 p.m. at Eagles, full menu, social distancing, also carryout at
457-5230 SAT/6-13 Columbiana Good As
New Shoppe at United Methodist Church, 210 S. Main St, open from 11 a.m. to 3
p.m., 831-0399 Lisbon Fair
food fill-up drive-thru from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at county fairgrounds, enter from
Lee Avenue, choice of eight food vendors, also Sunday New
Alexander Free
drive-thru spaghetti dinner beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Christian Church, 7665
Rochester Road Washingtonville
Spaghetti
dinner from 4-7 p.m. at Beaver Creek Sportmen’s Club, $7, dine on patio or
carryout at 330/921-9947 SUN/6-14 Lisbon Fair
food fill-up drive-thru from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at county fairgrounds, enter from
Lee Avenue, choice of eight food vendors New
Waterford Breakfast
from 8 a.m.-noon at Eagles, social distancing, also carryout at 457-5230 MON/6-15 Beloit West
Branch BOE, 5 p.m. in WBHS west wing conference room, on contract bargaining,
no action Salem Library
board at 4:30 p.m. via Zoom, email brads@salem.lib.oh.us for login instructions TUE/6-16 Hanoverton United
BOE at 4 p.m. via Zoom, link is zoom.us/j/93224516649 Lisbon Food
giveaway outside St. George from 9-10 a.m. Salem Free
eight-week beginner Spanish class will be held online via Zoom from 6:30-7:45
p.m. beginning June 16, 332-0042 to register WED/6-17 Lisbon County
commissioners at 9 a.m. at courthouse THU/6-18 East
Liverpool BOE at
11 a.m at Westgate, moved from June 25. Lisbon Drive-thru
food pantry 9:30-11 a.m. at Lisbon Baptist, 6428 Lisbon Road, ID FRI/6-19 Columbiana Good As
New Shoppe at United Methodist Church, 210 S. Main St, open from 11 a.m. to 5
p.m., 831-0399. SAT/6-20 Columbiana Good As
New Shoppe at United Methodist Church, 210 S. Main St, open from 11 a.m. to 3
p.m., 831-0399. Leetonia Drive-thru
food pantry for Leetonia school district residents from 9:30-11 a.m. at St.
Patrick, people remain in car, trunk must be empty SUN/6-21 MON/6-22 TUE/6-23 Lisbon Food
giveaway outside St. George from 9-10 a.m. Wellsville Yellow
Creek Township trustees will meet at 7 p.m. at township building on Oak Ridge
Road WED/6-24 Lisbon County
commissioners at 9 a.m. at courthouse THU/6-25 Columbiana Oasis
food distribution from 4-6 p.m. at First Christian Church, 39 Cherry St.,
drive-thru with trunks empty, ID, Ohio residents only, max two households per
car FRI/6-26 Columbiana Good As
New Shoppe at United Methodist Church, 210 S. Main St, open from 11 a.m. to 5
p.m., 831-0399. SAT/6-27 Columbiana Good As
New Shoppe at United Methodist Church, 210 S. Main St, open from 11 a.m. to 3
p.m., 831-0399 East
Palestine Firework
barbecue drive-thru from 4-6 p.m. July 3 at Eagles, ribs or brisket, $15, must
be ordered by Jtoday, 853-8483 Washingtonville
Spaghetti
dinner from 4-7 p.m. at Beaver Creek Sportmen’s Club, $7, dine on patio or
carryout at 330/921-9947 SUN/6-28 MON/6-29 TUE/6-30 Lisbon Food
giveaway outside St. George from 9-10 a.m.
22 hours ago Mon 08th June 2020 | 07:58 PM 
