How an Insect Pest
Switches from Sluggish Super Breeder to Flying Invader
Insulin tells young planthoppers whether to develop short or
long wings
March 18, 2015
One of the leading pests of rice, brown planthoppers can grow up
to have either short or long wings, depending on conditions such as day length
and temperature in the rice fields where they suck sap. The hormone insulin
controls the switch that tells young planthoppers whether to develop into
short- or long-winged adults, finds a new study. Photo by Chuan-Xi Zhang of
Zhejiang University in China
”Each year, planthopper outbreaks destroy hundreds of thousands
of acres of rice, the staple crop for roughly half the world’s population.The
insects have a developmental strategy that makes them particularly effective
pests. When conditions in a rice field are good, young planthoppers develop
into adults with stubby wings that barely reach their middles.Short-winged
adults can’t fly but they’re prolific breeders. A single short-winged female
can lay more than 700 eggs in her lifetime.“The short-winged ones have great
big fat abdomens. They’re basically designed to stay put and reproduce,” said
biologist Fred Nijhout of Duke University, who co-authored the study with
colleagues at Zhejiang University in China.
But in the fall as days get shorter and temperatures begin to
drop -- signs that the rice plants they’re munching on will soon disappear --
more planthopper nymphs develop into slender adults with long wings.
Long-winged planthoppers lay fewer eggs but are built for travel, eventually
flying away to invade new rice fields.Until now, scientists did not know
exactly how the shorter days and cooler temperatures triggered the shift between
short and long wings, or which hormones were involved.
To find out, the researchers used a technique called RNA
interference (RNAi) to silence the genes for two different insulin receptors --
regions on the cell membrane that bind to the hormone insulin -- and measured
the effects on the animals’ wings.“Previously it had been assumed that all
insects only had a single insulin receptor gene. We discovered that brown
planthoppers have two,” Nijhout said.When the researchers silenced the first
insulin receptor, short-winged adults emerged.
Silencing the second receptor produced adults with long
wings.Further study revealed that long wings are the default design. But when
planthoppers secrete a particular type of insulin in response to changing
temperatures or day length, the second insulin receptor deactivates the first
receptor in the developing wings, leading to short-winged adults.“The second
insulin receptor acts by interfering with the first one, therefore shutting
down the signal,” Nijhout said.It’s too early to say whether the findings could
lead to techniques to treat planthopper populations so they are unable to
invade new rice fields, Nijhout says.But the researchers have found similar
mechanisms in other planthopper species, and are now trying to find out if
insulin plays a similar role in other insect pests with flying and flightless
forms, such as aphids.This research was supported by the National Basic
Research Program of China (973 Program, no. 2010CB126205) and by the National
Science Foundation of China (no. 31201509 and no. 31471765).
https://today.duke.edu/2015/03/planthoppers
Untimely rain plays havoc with vegetable, pulse prices
Prices of vegetables and pulses are set to shoot up after
unseasonal rain damaged over 50 lakh hectares of standing crops across the
country, putting enormous strain on household budgets.Consumers will have to
pay more for potatoes, carrots, cabbages, mustard and almost all the pulses
over the next few weeks. Rain in northern, central and western parts has caused
widespread damage to crops in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Inclement weather not only affects production but also the
quality of agricultural produce, besides hampering movement of supplies
throughout the supply chain, exacerbating the situation and pushing up
wholesale inflation.Wholesale Price Index-based inflation in February reflected
higher food prices at 7.74 per cent. Further upward pressure in prices could
force the Reserve Bank of India to think twice on policy rate cuts at its
policy meeting early next month. Vegetable prices rose 15.5 per cent, while
fruits surged 16.84 per cent. Prices for the politically significant onion rose
26 per cent.
Widespread damage
The Centre has estimated that standing crops over 50 lakh hectares (lh) were damaged — 27 lh in Uttar Pradesh, 14.5 lh in Rajasthan, 7.5 lh in Maharashtra, 50,000 hectares in West Bengal and at least 6,000 hectares in Punjab. “Wheat on some 6-7 acres of my 20 acres has been destroyed. Seasonal vegetables, potatoes in particular, besides cabbage and carrots have been affected,” said Karamjit Sidhu, a farmer from Kotla Suraj Lohar village in Amritsar district.Farmers from UP said potato and mustard crops have been badly affected as also wheat, while pulses such as chickpea (chana), black gram (urad) and green gram (moong) have been hit to a lesser extent.“Almost the entire mustard crop has been flattened,” said Rajiv Kumar, who owns 13 acres in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
“The impact on wheat is
less but more for mustard with hailstorms in Rajasthan and UP. There won’t be
much addition to inflation on the basis of a slight fall in wheat output.“It’s
not clear how much damage there has been to potato and perishables,” said
Suresh Pal, who heads the Division of Agricultural Economics at the Indian
Agricultural Research Institute.
Wholesale and retail prices of vegetables, such as bitter gourd,
cauliflower and brinjal, have already shot up this month in the Capital.
Agriculture Produce Market Committee data showed that the average price of
brinjal increased some 19 per cent to ₹17.6/kg in March from February.During the same period,
cauliflower prices rose to ₹20/kg from around ₹ 14/kg. Retail prices for bitter gourd and lady's finger have surged
by 20 per cent, selling at ₹ 120/kg from ₹ 100 a month ago. Retailers expect prices, which have gone up by
about ₹ 5/kg for most vegetables, to
remain high with fresh arrivals not expected soon.
Delhi Govt acts
Agriculture Ministry officials refrained from giving estimates of the damage, but Delhi Government officials Gopal Rai and Asim Ahmed Khan convened a meeting this week to check the steadily rising prices and announce emergency measures.These included the display prices of major vegetables at wholesale market yards and keeping an eye on commission agents.
(This article was published on
March 18, 2015)
Vietnam aims for
greener rice cultivation
Wednesday, 18 March 2015 05:26
Vietnam plans to
reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rice cultivation alone by 14 per
cent by 2030
According to the 2010 National
Greenhouse gas inventory, there will be an increase in emissions on both
livestock and farm land in Vietnam. (Image source: CatSh/sxc.hu)
The Southeast Asian country has been preparing for National
Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) and other policies that developing
countries have adopted to control global GHG at a UNFCC conference in Bali
eight years ago.In addition, Vietnam has also carried out a programme of Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM).In June 2014, the country had 253 CDM projects and
had registered 11 programmes of activities. This move earned it 10.7mn
certified emission reduction (CEF) credits granted by CDM Executive Board through
CDM activities, Yen added.The total GHG emissions reduction from the 253 CDM
projects was 137mn tonnes of CO2equivalent.In the
future, many projects are expected to be started to lower methane emissions in
rice cultivation in a number of localities, Yen said.
The agricultural sector also applied Good Agricultural Practices
and cultivation methods that economise the use of fertiliser, pesticide and
water in order to limit methane emission on rice fields, she said.According to
the 2010 National Greenhouse gas inventory, there will be an increase in
emissions on both livestock and farm land. In livestock breeding sector, GHG
emissions are expected to grow from 18.03mn tonnes of CO2 in
2010 to 24.95mn tonnes in 2020 and 29.32mn tonnes in 2030. In agriculture, GHG
emissions are expected to increase from 23.81mn tonnes of CO2 in
2010 to 33.94mn tonnes of CO2 in 2020 and 37.4 tonnes in 2030.
The industrial process had a GHG emission growth, but it was still
small compared with the total of emissions, Yen said. It has been predicted
that land use, land use change and forestry activities in Vietnam will absorb
42.5mn tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2020, and 45.3mn tonnes
in 2030 and the main source of emissions and absorption will be forest and
cultivated land.
Managing Asean rice reserves
3/17/2015
New Straits Times (Malaysia)
New Straits Times (Malaysia)
STABILISING Asean
rice markets is a crucial concern for averting crises, such as the 2007-08
global rice crisis. The current strategy towards this is by growing the size of
rice reserves in the Asean-Plus-Three Emergency Rice Reserve (Apterr), although
Apterr has been critiqued for its small size relative to total demand and low
utilisation. A look into the stabilisation policies in currency markets show
that more important than size is the way the reserves are
used to incentivise actors towards behaviours that reduce risk exposure.
As such, the
limited reserves in Apterr can be used for encouraging behaviours such as
increasing transparency/reporting, increasing partner diversification,
addressing structural imbalances in agricultural production and consumption
within countries.Rice, as a commodity, is subject to unstable marketdynamics.
For instance,
chance events, such as a drought in India's wheatmarket combined with panic reactions by both exporters and importers,
triggered world rice prices to soar in 2007-08.This developed into a crisis
when Thailand and Vietnam, major exporting countries, closed their export gates following India's lead.This left
rice importing countries unable to purchase the
needed amounts to meet their own demand.Structurally, risks of the recent crisis
recurring are high since the top five exporters (India, Thailand, Vietnam, the United
States and Pakistan) occupy 81 per cent of global rice trade, as reported by
the International Rice Research Institute.Production shortfalls in any of the
five countries are likely to cause panic.
Worse still, is if
they engage in strategic behaviour of holding stocks to drive prices up (in
fact, a rice cartel was proposed by Thailand in 2012).Lastly, countries hardly
provide accurate data on how much stocks they have, making it harder to assess
risk.To address instability in the rice market, the 10 Asean countries plus
China, Japan and South Korea developed the Asean-Plus-Three Emergency Rice
Reserve (Apterr), a multilateral institution that holds rice reserves contributed
by member countries for use during crises. The attention given in the media is
often to the low amount of reserves relative to demand.Asean reports show that
compared to an Asean demand of half a million tonnes of rice per day, Apterr is
small as its overall size is only at 787,000 tonnes (enough to cover a day and
a half of consumption).
Overall
recommendations for Apterr have focused on increasing accumulation and
accessibility of its reserves for crises.Of the total reserves, 87,000 tonnes
come from all 10 Asean countries combined, while the rest are sourced from the
"Plus Three" countries (Japan, Korea, China), leading to calls for
increasing contributions by Asean countries.Relatedly, it has been critiqued
for its low utilisation rate: member countries prefer to have
country-to-country rice purchases because the Apterr's mechanism poses the risk
that the needed rice/funds are not delivered soon enough.For instance, it
requires a time-consuming process of crisis declarations by countries in need
and approvals by member countries. However, the approach to rice market
stabilisation through the Apterr may be insufficient from the standards of
currency market stabilisation. Rice and currency markets are comparable for a
few reasons:
Firstly, they both
deal with priced commodities, the latter being priced based on the exchange
rate. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was set up after World War 2 for
the purpose of stabilising exchange rates.Similar to the Apterr, the IMF also
has a system of holding reserves and releasing them for stabilisation purposes
though it has committed to doing things differently, learning from the 2007-08
global financial crisis.The IMF has moved on from issues of size and
utilisation. A key insight to be learned from its practices in currency market
stabilisation is its shift from crisis resolution to crisis prevention.
What the IMF will
be doing differently is its use of reserves to influence countries towards
reducing risk, by tailoring the criteria for accessing reserves.Firstly, data
adequacy is a key criterion for which country receives funds, and how much of
it a country can tap.Next, these criteria also include behavioural adjustments
which would reduce structural instabilities in the countries concerned, in the
areas of external position and market access, fiscal policy, monetary policy
and financial sector soundness. In sum, the use of reserves is only a last
resort for the IMF while most of its work focuses on stabilising the structures
of economies so that they will have no need for the said emergency mechanism in
the first place.
Applying this to
rice market stabilisation, the criteria for release of rice reserves can be
tailored towards incentivising countries to reduce their vulnerability to risk,
individually.Firstly, net-importing countries can be incentivised to
prioritise rice production so that they can reduce external dependence, and to
spread their risk by diversifying into other export partners.Strategic indicators may be
drawn from current food security databases, including the Economist
Intelligence Unit's Global Food Security Index, or Syngenta's Rice Bowl
Index.Next, Apterr can also adopt the data adequacy criterion used by IMF to
reward countries for reporting country data on rice stocks held.
This would allow
it to perform effective surveillance in countries, which in turn would feed
into better recommendations for reducing long-term structural risks.Learning
from stabilisation practices in currency markets, Apterr reserves should be
used not simply as a buffer for crisis purposes. Instead, they should be tapped
for incentivising countries towards reducing overall systemic risk.In this
regard, it would not be the size of Apterr, but its potential for reducing
overall risk, which should be the focus in the next Apterr meeting this
year.The writer is an associate research fellow at the Centre for
Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International
Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
http://www.world-grain.com/news/news%20home/LexisNexisArticle.aspx?articleid=2323641395
Managing Asean rice reserves
3/17/2015
New Straits Times (Malaysia)
New Straits Times (Malaysia)
STABILISING Asean
rice markets is a crucial concern for averting crises, such as the 2007-08
global rice crisis. The current strategy towards this is by growing the size of
rice reserves in the Asean-Plus-Three Emergency Rice Reserve (Apterr), although
Apterr has been critiqued for its small size relative to total demand and low
utilisation. A look into the stabilisation policies in currency markets show
that more important than size is the way the reserves are
used to incentivise actors towards behaviours that reduce risk exposure.
As such, the
limited reserves in Apterr can be used for encouraging behaviours such as
increasing transparency/reporting, increasing partner diversification,
addressing structural imbalances in agricultural production and consumption
within countries.Rice, as a commodity, is subject to unstable marketdynamics.
For instance,
chance events, such as a drought in India's wheatmarket combined with panic reactions by both exporters and importers,
triggered world rice prices to soar in 2007-08.This developed into a crisis
when Thailand and Vietnam, major exporting countries, closed their export gates following India's lead.This left
rice importing countries unable to purchase the
needed amounts to meet their own demand.Structurally, risks of the recent crisis
recurring are high since the top five exporters (India, Thailand, Vietnam, the United
States and Pakistan) occupy 81 per cent of global rice trade, as reported by
the International Rice Research Institute.Production shortfalls in any of the
five countries are likely to cause panic.
Worse still, is if
they engage in strategic behaviour of holding stocks to drive prices up (in
fact, a rice cartel was proposed by Thailand in 2012).Lastly, countries hardly
provide accurate data on how much stocks they have, making it harder to assess
risk.To address instability in the rice market, the 10 Asean countries plus
China, Japan and South Korea developed the Asean-Plus-Three Emergency Rice
Reserve (Apterr), a multilateral institution that holds rice reserves contributed
by member countries for use during crises. The attention given in the media is
often to the low amount of reserves relative to demand.Asean reports show that
compared to an Asean demand of half a million tonnes of rice per day, Apterr is
small as its overall size is only at 787,000 tonnes (enough to cover a day and
a half of consumption).
Overall
recommendations for Apterr have focused on increasing accumulation and
accessibility of its reserves for crises.Of the total reserves, 87,000 tonnes
come from all 10 Asean countries combined, while the rest are sourced from the
"Plus Three" countries (Japan, Korea, China), leading to calls for
increasing contributions by Asean countries.Relatedly, it has been critiqued
for its low utilisation rate: member countries prefer to have
country-to-country rice purchases because the Apterr's mechanism poses the risk
that the needed rice/funds are not delivered soon enough.For instance, it
requires a time-consuming process of crisis declarations by countries in need
and approvals by member countries. However, the approach to rice market
stabilisation through the Apterr may be insufficient from the standards of
currency market stabilisation. Rice and currency markets are comparable for a
few reasons:
Firstly, they both
deal with priced commodities, the latter being priced based on the exchange
rate. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was set up after World War 2 for
the purpose of stabilising exchange rates.Similar to the Apterr, the IMF also
has a system of holding reserves and releasing them for stabilisation purposes
though it has committed to doing things differently, learning from the 2007-08
global financial crisis.The IMF has moved on from issues of size and
utilisation. A key insight to be learned from its practices in currency market
stabilisation is its shift from crisis resolution to crisis prevention.
What the IMF will
be doing differently is its use of reserves to influence countries towards
reducing risk, by tailoring the criteria for accessing reserves.Firstly, data
adequacy is a key criterion for which country receives funds, and how much of
it a country can tap.Next, these criteria also include behavioural adjustments
which would reduce structural instabilities in the countries concerned, in the
areas of external position and market access, fiscal policy, monetary policy
and financial sector soundness. In sum, the use of reserves is only a last
resort for the IMF while most of its work focuses on stabilising the structures
of economies so that they will have no need for the said emergency mechanism in
the first place.
Applying this to
rice market stabilisation, the criteria for release of rice reserves can be
tailored towards incentivising countries to reduce their vulnerability to risk,
individually.Firstly, net-importing countries can be incentivised to
prioritise rice production so that they can reduce external dependence, and to
spread their risk by diversifying into other export partners.Strategic indicators may be
drawn from current food security databases, including the Economist
Intelligence Unit's Global Food Security Index, or Syngenta's Rice Bowl
Index.Next, Apterr can also adopt the data adequacy criterion used by IMF to
reward countries for reporting country data on rice stocks held.
This would allow
it to perform effective surveillance in countries, which in turn would feed
into better recommendations for reducing long-term structural risks.Learning
from stabilisation practices in currency markets, Apterr reserves should be
used not simply as a buffer for crisis purposes. Instead, they should be tapped
for incentivising countries towards reducing overall systemic risk.In this
regard, it would not be the size of Apterr, but its potential for reducing
overall risk, which should be the focus in the next Apterr meeting this
year.The writer is an associate research fellow at the Centre for
Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International
Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
http://www.world-grain.com/news/news%20home/LexisNexisArticle.aspx?articleid=2323641395
Paradigm shifting’ rice method
receives award
3/17/2015 - by World Grain
Staff
SINGAPORE — Cornell University’s
System of Rice Intensification (SRI) production method, which can increase rice
yields by 20% to 50%, received an award from Olam International, the company
announced on March 17.
SRI-Rice, which is housed at Cornell University in New York, U.S.,
has been promoting research and facilitating knowledge-sharing on the System of
Rice Intensification, a climate-smart methodology with outstanding results for
rice production that is surprisingly counter-intuitive.Capitalizing on
biological processes, on the genetic potential of the crop, and on
plant-soil-microbial interactions, the system requires 80% to 90% fewer rice
seeds, up to 50% less water and in many instances no fertilizer.
Yields are then boosted by 20% to 50% (and often by much more),
with farmers’ costs subsequently reduced by 10% to 20%.SRI methods include
alternately drying and wetting the rice field rather than the usual practice of
continuous flooding, adding organic matter to soil for their improvement, and
instead of planting the standard of approximately 130 plants per square
meter, about 16 single, very young seedlings are planted with much wider
spacing. These carefully designed planting and growing practices produce
deep-rooted rice plants with a greater amount and diversity of soil organisms.
The healthier, more robust plants are better able to withstand the
stresses of drought, flooding, storm damage, and pests and diseases.SRI is now
being promoted by governments in China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam,
where two-thirds of the world’s rice is produced. Use of SRI practices is
increasing the yields of over 10 million smallholder farmers by an average of
1.67 tonnes per hectare, while simultaneously reducing their costs and lowering
water requirements.
“The innovation behind SRI is fascinating because it disrupts
common notions of rice farming, and such disruption is essential if we are to
feed 9 billion people by 2050. Grown by 200 million small-scale farmers, rice
is the world’s staple diet, so I am delighted that Olam is helping to scale up
practices so clearly proven to increase yields, thereby reducing the pressure
on precious arable land and water,” said Sunny Verghese, co-founder, group managing
director and chief executive officer.
“On top of this, there are
no costs to the farmer which provides three benefits: firstly, communities have
increased access to vital calories without paying more; secondly they can
improve their livelihoods by selling the surplus and lastly, through that
surplus they are supporting global food security needs.“As we celebrate our 25
years in the agricultural sector, I am proud that this anniversary prize should
be awarded to SRI-RICE, a team that has ‘transcended boundaries’ – the meaning
of Olam. And with our own 10,000 hectare rice farm and smallholder program in
Nigeria we will certainly be exploring this research further.”In addition to
the promotion of the new methodologies, SRI-Rice provides technical assistance
to development and research programs, advancing knowledge on SRI and acting as
a global hub for the international SRI community.
“The SRI-Rice team stood out for the demonstrable impact their
research and outreach on paradigm-shifting methodologies is having in over 55
rice-growing countries globally,” said Pascal Kosuth, director of Agropolis
Foundation and jury member for the Olam prize. “Professor Uphoff and the
SRI-Rice team at Cornell University are working with a vast global network to
build a body of scientific evidence demonstrating that significant yields can
be achieved from the same land by simply better understanding the natural
synergies between plants, soils, water, nutrients, soil organisms and climate.
”“Along with the rest of the SRI-Rice team and the hundreds of
colleagues all around the world who have made SRI a reality on the ground, I am
honored to receive this award from Olam, one of the world’s largest
agribusinesses and a team that knows very well the importance of agricultural science
to ensuring food security,” said Uphoff, in receiving the award. “However, this
award must be dedicated to the memory of Père Henri Laulanie, whose ideas and
observations working with impoverished farmers in Madagascar some 30 years ago
provided the basis for all SRI research.
“Scaling up SRI and its derived System of Crop Intensification
(SCI) is a matter of changing mindsets, habits and practices, and the
recognition Olam has bestowed on us with this award marks a milestone in terms
of support from the private sector. The Olam Prize money will be used to
support further research, particularly around how SRI management methods can
reduce methane gas emissions – essential in the fight against climate change –
as well as on the role of soil microbes in the uptake of nutrients.”With a
prize value of $50,000, the Olam prize was judged by an international panel of
experts in conjunction with the Louis Malassis International Scientific Prizes.
http://www.world-grain.com/articles/news_home/World_Grain_News/2015/03/Paradigm_shifting_rice_method.aspx?ID=%7BA409D1E3-1093-47E2-87C3-9E15469E0CF9%7D&cck=1
Golden rice is a humanitarian
effort: Moore
Grain of salt: Leader of the 'Allow Golden Rice Now' campaign
Patrick Moore addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Monday. - RAMESH
SHARMA
Campaign leader claims it will
address Vitamin A deficiency in developing nations
NEW
DELHI, MARCH 16:
The ‘Allow Golden Rice Now’ campaign led by former Greenpeace
member Patrick Moore made its way here on Monday after similar events in Manila
and Dhaka.It aims to promote ‘golden rice’, a genetically-modified variant
containing beta-carotene, that the technology’s proponents claim will address
the problem of Vitamin A deficiency in the developing world.Interestingly, it’s
touted as an “entirely humanitarian” endeavour with public research being
funded by donor organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
the Helen Keller Foundation and USAID, among others. Hence, Moore told BusinessLine, fears of
corporate monopolisation were unfounded and merely rumours spread by anti-GMO
organisations such as Greenpeace.“There’s nothing in it for the companies, not
one is considering making money from Golden Rice,” he said.
Syngenta’s role
When asked about the agri-business giant Syngenta’s role in the
Golden Rice Project, Moore stated that the corporation had helped develop an
improved version called ‘Golden Rice 2’ (GR-2) using a maize gene instead of
the one from daffodils.The new version, introduced in 2005, apparently produces
23 times more beta-carotene than its predecessor.“It was a charitable act that
made Golden Rice better and the technology has been given to others. GR-2 will
be given away free in developing nations where there’s a Vitamin A deficiency
issue, a royalty will only be charged in industralised nations,” he added.
Moore stated that the distribution model, using The Philippines
as an example, involved public research institutes such as the International
Rice Research Institute in Manila (IRRI, where trials have been conducted over
the last decade) and its partner institutions disbursing seeds to farmers for
free once Golden Rice is fully developed.The farmers would grow it and be able
to sell the seeds with no reason to charge more than they would for regular
rice since there was no royalty required to be paid.
Complex system
“It’s not true that there are no corporate interests at work,
Syngenta has a patent on Golden Rice but has permitted others to work with it.
The company can retain control if it wants to,” said Rajesh Krishnan of the
Coalition for a GM-Free India, and feared that field trials would contaminate
other rice varieties.“Preservation of genetic diversity is one of the biggest
problems because India is one of the centres of origin and diversity of rice,”
he added.“Syngenta still owns the patent but there are plenty of contracts and
sub-contracts which are difficult to unravel. The larger point is that it isn’t
even ready for the market yet.
Excessive Vitamin-A has its problems and the efficacy of the
project can be questioned since a wholesome diet with minerals and fat cannot
be achieved by Golden Rice,” said Sreedevi Lakshmi Kutty of the Save Our Rice
Campaign.The IRRI has claimed limited success with multilevel trials, it is
believed that yields have not been adequate either, she added. Currently,
Golden Rice is still under development and is being evaluated at the IRRI and can
only be provided to farmers if it gets regulatory approval.“I don’t see
approvals in The Philippines coming through soon, we hope that this can be
taken to India, Bangladesh and Indonesia,” said Moore.
(This article was published on
March 16, 2015)
Hybrid Rice
Delhi ,March 17, 2015 Last Updated at 14:20 IST
Government of India has not fixed any target for increasing acreage of hybrid rice in
the country. However, efforts are being made to promote cultivation of hybrid
rice through various crop development programmes such as National Food Security
Mission (NFSM), Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) and
Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). From
the initial level of 10,000 hectares in 1995, area under hybrid reached one
million hectare in 2006. It has picked up during the last nine years, mainly
because of increasing popularity of hybrid rice in eastern Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and area under hybrid rice
has exceeded to 2.5 million hectares during 2014, which is about 5.6% of the
total rice area in the country.
Although, there are reports of incidence of bacterial infection,
but no report about huge loss to paddy crop have been received from state
governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Centre
for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and Directorate of Rice Research
(DRR) have jointly developed bacterial blight resistant variety 'Improved Samba
Mahsuri' which variety was notified and released for cultivation in 2008. The
variety has so far spread to an area of 90,000 ha in the states of Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This
information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture Sh.Mohanbhai
Kundaria in Lok Sabha today.
Govt to introduce cold-tolerant Boro
The government plans to introduce a coldtolerant variety of Boro
paddy to avoid crop damage by erratic weather.This particular variety, tolerant
to cold conditions both at the seedling and reproductive stages, can be
introduced within two years, said Dr Jibon Krishna Biswas, director general of
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).“We are now running trials, and once
we get successful results, we will apply for its commercial release.
”He said the government had been trying to develop crop
varieties tolerant of extreme climatic events to ensure steady food
production.As a part of that initiative, BRRI has been working on cold-tolerant
Boro because a large number of rice farmers suffer significant losses every
year as none of the existing varieties can cope with extreme cold. Though a
winter crop, Boro is often affected by cold-related diseases at the seedling
and reproductive stages.Paddy farmers in haor (wetland) areas usually face more
problems than do others, as they only cultivate Boro and start the cultivation
process in January – a month ahead of the rest of the country.
“Since January is the coldest month in Bangladesh, the haor
farmers often have to tackle cold-related diseases affecting their crops. They
will be particularly benefited by this new paddy variety,” the BRRI DG told the
Dhaka Tribune.The BRRI previously developed another cold-tolerant Boro variety
named BRRI 36, but its cold tolerance is very low.Boro is the most produced
paddy in the country accounting for a production of almost 19 million tonnes
out of 34.6 million tonnes produced in Bangladesh in 2013-14.The BRRI also
released two saline tolerant varieties and two submergence tolerant varieties
of paddy in 2010, and in 2012 the state-run rice research organisation released
two drought tolerant varieties.In addition to these varieties, the BRRI also
released eight more varieties between 2009 and 2013 which are currently being
popularised among farmers.
El Nino conditions rising, says
Australia Met
Pacific cyclones have increased
chances for such an eventuality to 50% by mid-year
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,
MARCH 17:
El Niño watch
This is normally expected to leave an impact on the Asian
summer, including the monsoon, though there is no direct cause-effect relationship.The
bureau’s tracker is now locked at an ‘El Nino watch.’This indicates that there
is about a 50 per cent chance of El Nino forming in 2015 – double the normal
likelihood of an event. This is due to the warmer-than-average sub-surface
temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, the bureau said in an update.
Pacific cyclones
International models surveyed by it indicate that central and
eastern tropical Pacific will warm to El Nino thresholds by mid-year.The bureau
recalled that in the western Pacific, super cyclone Pam and tropical storm Bavi
had straddled the equator, producing one of the strongest reversals in the
trade winds in recent years.El Nino happens when weakening trade winds (east to
west, which sometimes even reverse direction) allow the warmer water from the
western Pacific to flow toward the east.A reversal of winds has taken place in
the wake of the cyclones.This flattens out the sea level, builds up warm
surface water off the coast of South America, and increases temperatures in
east Pacific.
Warm anomaly
This change is expected to increase the already warm sub-surface
temperatures currently observed in the tropical Pacific Ocean.It may in turn
raise tropical Pacific Ocean surface temperatures in the coming months.However,
the bureau said that it is too early yet to say whether the reversal in the
trade winds is a short term fluctuation or the beginning of a sustained
trend.International models surveyed have strengthened their outlooks for the likelihood
of El Nino, it said.All eight models are suggesting ocean temperatures will
exceed El Nino thresholds by mid-year.
(This article was published on
March 17, 2015)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/agri-biz/el-nino-conditions-rising-says-australia-met/article7003977.ece
German company helps farmers fight rice blast
disease
Selasa, 17 Maret 2015 21:54 WIB |
Jombang, E Java (ANTARA News) -
German chemical company BASF organized the Rice Innovation Experience Tour in
Carangrejo village, Kesamben sub-district, Jombang district, East Java
province, to introduce its new fungicidal product to 350 farmers."BASF has
spent 250 million euros to conduct research and development in a bid to create
a product that can help to fight the rice blast disease and increase the yield
of rice," BASFs Crop Protection Business Area Manager for Southeast Asia Leon
van Mullekom stated here on Tuesday.
Rice blast is one of the most
destructive diseases affecting the rice crop and is caused by the fungus
"Magnaporthe grisea," which can destroy rice plants."Innovations
in rice-growing techniques and pesticides will contribute to higher rice yields
and quality," noted Leon.According to Leon, Indonesian farmers are able to
produce about 4.7 tons of rice per hectare, while farmers in Vietnam and China
harvest 5.6 and 6.5 tons of rice per hectare, respectively.The Jombang district
administration, Indonesian rice experts, and BASF gathered for a Rice
Innovation Tour in Carangrejo village, Jombang district, East Java.
The event was organized to
explore ways through which innovation can boost rice yields and quality, while
simultaneously being safe for the environment and improving the livelihood of
the local farmers.BASF chose Jombang as a location to introduce its new and
innovative product as it is one of the highest rice-producing districts in East
Java, along with Banyuwangi, Ngawi, and Lamongan.Nearly 60 percent of the total
population in Jombang work as farmers, with nearly half of the total land in
the area used as rice fields.
"This event is expected to
help Jombang achieve the target of producing 436,207 tons of rice in
2015," Vice Regent of Jombang Munjidah Wahab affirmed.In January 2015,
Jombang has harvested seven thousand tons of rice. Earlier in 2014, Jombang
managed to achieve a surplus production of 145 thousand tons of rice."Rat,
brown planthoppers, and rice blast disease are the main constraints hindering
farmers productivity. Innovation is expected to increase the productivity of
farmers," Munjidah added.(*)
http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/98148/german-company-helps-farmers-fight-rice-blast-disease
Genetically modified food in China: time to reap what scientists
sow?
Genetically modified food is a field in which
China is globally competitive, but researchers say government hesitation is
slowing growth
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 18 March, 2015, 5:11am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 18 March, 2015, 7:52am
Mandy Zuomandy.zuo@scmp.com
Illustration:
Henry WongAngel or demon, transgenic crops have become one of the
"frontier technologies" that China is determined to embrace.In contrast
to China's usual modesty in academic matters, mainland scientists claim that
genetically modified organisms, utilising recombinant DNA technology, i s among the few fields in which China can
claim to be globally competitive.Genetically modified rice, in particular, is
the achievement that China should be most proud of, they say. But they fear the
government's persistent hesitation to commercialise their successes could make
China's GM quest lose momentum.
A quarter of the world's top research papers on
rice have been written by Chinese researchers, said Yan Jianbing, a corn
genomics researcher at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan
."Agricultural biotechnology is one of the few technologies in which China
is on an equal footing with the world's best," said Yan, who works at the
university's laboratory of crop genetic improvement, a key GMO research
facility designated by the central government.With vast funding and a big team,
China was ready to bring to market an insect-resistant transgenic rice it
developed on its own a decade ago, said Zhu Zhen, a researcher at the Chinese
Academy of Sciences' Bureau of Life Sciences and Biotechnology.
But the government has chosen so far not to
commercialise its GMO expertise as the technology remains controversial around
the world and has triggered fierce debate at home."Public opinion remains
unfavourable for the technology, and even now, the prospect for
commercialisation is unclear," Zhu said.China pumped vast funds into GMO
research when global studying of the subject started in the mid-1980s, and kept
pace with international research all the time, he noted.China was the first
country to commercialise transgenics in the early 1990s with the introduction
of virus-resistant tobacco.In the mid-1990s, China was behind only the US in
planting transgenic crops, with 1.1 million hectares of such crops, or 39 per
cent of the world's total, being sown in 1996.
But
progress slowed considerably as controversy arose at home and abroad.In the
past decade, many talented researchers returned from overseas to become the
pillar of China's GM research effort, Zhu said. Today, his main fear is that
the government's sluggishness to commercialise these accomplishments is
frustrating ambitious young scientists."It's important to maintain an
advantage in research, but to keep the technology from being commercialised
means it won't be rewarded by the market. This will only make our research lose
momentum," said Zhu, who is also the deputy director-general of the
Chinese Society of Biotechnology. "The market will not wait," he
said.
"There is good stuff overseas
too."According to the non-profit international organisation, the
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA),
a record 181.5 million hectares of GM crops were grown globally in 2014.The
United States planted most, while China ranked sixth with 3.9 million
hectares.Yan Jianbing said China had invested greatly in research and building
a solid base of expertise.A handful of genetically modified 'Golden Rice'. GM
research was designated by the government as one of 16 major areas in which it
was aiming for major breakthroughs by 2020, according to a national scientific
research plan in 2008.The China Business News cited a leading scientist as saying
that from 2006 to 2020 about 20 billion yuan would be devoted to GM research.
Yan was optimistic that China could keep up
the good work as long as the government maintained its investment, but shared
Zhu's concern that China lagged others in applying the technology. "GM
research, especially its application, needs to be driven by corporations, but
for now the central government is doing the job, which is inconsistent with
economics," he said.Dr Alan McHughen, a geneticist at the University of
California, Riverside, said the healthiest approach to research was to have
vigorous involvement by the public and private sectors. The public sector
should concentrate on the underlying technologies, while the private sector
would adapt the results of public researchers to develop commercial products
for the good of society.
"In this respect, China is well
organised and strategic in using public funding support to encourage GM
research in China to improve crops of highest importance to the country,
instead of simply adopting GM crops developed elsewhere," he said.Calling
China "one of the world leaders in GM agriculture", he said the
country would increase agricultural productivity and environmental
sustainability with such public support.William Niebur, vice-president of
DuPont for crop genetics research, also saw a promising Chinese GM market.He
noted that faced with an urbanising population and natural resource
constraints, China had begun to move away from extensive management methods
driven by large output goals and excessive agricultural input
practices."In
the future, improving agricultural competitiveness will be achieved by
promoting technological innovation in agriculture and mandating environmentally
sustainable development," he said."As the world's most populous
nation and the largest grain consumer, China has stepped up efforts to ensure
its food safety and security, as well as integrating new agricultural
technologies to increase land productivity."But much concern remains as
views on GM agriculture vary greatly among ordinary people and even government
officials.
In the government's first policy directive
this year, issued earlier this month, authorities called for improvements in
safety management and public education on GM crops."After the frequent
reports of illegal planting and circulation of GM crops in the past decade due
to slack supervision, the authorities have apparently started to realise it's a
serious problem," said Fang Lifeng, formerly a biosafety campaigner for
environment group Greenpeace and now an independent observer."It was the
first time public education was brought up in the document, which actually
started in the second half of last year," he said.Led by the Ministry of
Agriculture, various departments have increased their propaganda about GM
technology to create a favourable environment for the commercialisation of GM
crops."So I expect more publicity machines are going to voice support for
GM research in the future," said Fang.This article appeared in the South
China Morning Post print edition as Time to reap what scientists sow?
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1740481/genetically-modified-food-china-time-reap-what-scientists-sow
PhilRice develops 25 new
heat-tolerant rice varieties
March 17, 2015
8:54 pm
The Philippine Rice Research
Institute (PhilRice) has developed 25 new heat-tolerant varieties that can
stand the impact of harsh climate change and other extreme weather conditions
such as the El Nino phenomenon.Dr. Norvie Manigbas, lead researcher, said the
development of rice varieties with high temperature tolerance was intended to
address effects of climate change in areas where 90 to 95 percent of the
population depend on rice.He said PhilRice was able to identify the new
breeding lines after rigorous selection for high temperature tolerance using
conventional method and marker-assisted selection.
“We established breeding
nurseries in high temperature prone areas in Cagayan and Nueva Ecija to screen
and select breeding materials under field conditions,” Manigbas said.Rice grows
optimally between 20-35°C and becomes increasingly sensitive to increasing
temperatures especially during flowering. In 2010, Manigbas and his team
developed new rice genotypes that can tolerate and adapt to high temperatures
at 37-39°C under irrigated lowland conditions.They identified N22 (Nagina 22
from India), Dular (India), and Nipponbare (Japan) as donor parents and used
conventional breeding and molecular marker-assisted selection to generate new
high temperature tolerant breeding populations.
Manigbas said planting was done
on staggered basis so that flowering, or reproductive stage of all test
entries, will coincide with the highest temperature during the growing
season.“PhilRice identified twenty five new breeding lines tolerant and 16 of those
had lower percent sterility compared with the tolerant checks and donor parent
N22,” he said.Manigbas said the new lines will be evaluated further for other
traits and if they passed, they can be nominated to the National Cooperative
Test for Multi-Environment Testing.With his co-researchers — Luvina Madrid,
Corazon Cardenas, Evelyn Ladia, and Ferdinand Enriquez — Manigbas targets the
promising line to be released as a new heat-tolerant rice variety in
2016-2017.Their research won the bronze medal in the Gold AFMA Best R&D
Paper Award.
Drought descends over rice fields
Water pumps in an irrigation canal provide
water for farmland in Tambon Sanamklee of Suphan Buri's Muang district. (Photo
by Thanarak Khunton)
With the searing heat and drought extending
over large swaths of farmland in Suphan Buri, many local farmers see no hope of
growing off-season rice crops to sustain their income.Along irrigation canals
in several districts, water pumps are lined up side by side to siphon water
into small, feeder canals, where water will be stored for farm use in the next
two months.But there is no telling if the water supply will be enough to last
them that long.Farmers are uncertain whether irrigation authorities would open
sluice gates to release more water in the near future as the drought appears to
be more severe and it arrived earlier than communities expected.
"Farmers in Nong Yasai and nearby
districts knew in advance they might not be able to grow off-season rice two
years in a row," Kraison Kaewruang, the 42-year-old village headman of Moo
5 in Nong Yasai district's tambon Nong Pho.Mr Kraison said not much rain fell
this year over the Kra Seaw dam, one of the main water sources.Even if market
sales fetched 10,000 baht per tonne, the risk of planting rice and seeing it
wilt from drought is simply too much of a gamble, he said."The irrigation
authorities wouldn't supply us with water for sure.
''Farmers already have a hard time earning a
living because they cannot grow rice year round, yet constantly shoulder their
daily living expenses, Mr Kraison said.Now, growers may have to refrain from
working the fields for the next nine months.They hope the water released from
the Kra Seaw dam will be enough to feed livestock or quick-growing crops, which
can be eaten or sold on the side to supplement their income, he said.Mr Kraison
said the drought would hit 4,800 rai of sugar cane and rice farms belonging to
156 households in his village. He said rice and sugar cane need at least four
rounds of irrigation water per season — now a pipe dream as the dam is being
rapidly depleted of water.Some growers, he said, are forced to dig wells to get
water for their farms. According to Mr Kraison, an idea was earlier floated
that water should be siphoned from the main Srinagarind dam to Doembang
Nangbuat and Nong Yasai districts for agricultural use.
It was eventually scrapped as the pipe has to
go through a natural World Heritage site where any man-made construction is
banned, he said.Wilaiwan Robkob, a 37-year-old sugar cane grower in tambon Thap
Luang of Nong Yasai district, said the drought is particularly severe this
year.She and her neighbours, who own 100 rai of land between them, spent tens
of thousands of baht installing pipes to draw water from an irrigation canal
several hundred metres away. The pipe installation is necessary because the irrigation
system does not reach his farm, he said. Sugar cane is also affected by drought
although it needs less water than rice to grow.The drought leaves the canes
thin and lowers their market value."It's even hard now to find water for
bathing. Drinking water has to be drawn from our underground water system,
which is not ideal," said Ms Wilaiwan.Pratuan Masomphan, a 42-year-old
resident of tambon Talingchan of Muang district, and dozens of his neighbours
grapple with siphoning water from the irrigation canal onto their land to feed
livestock. The water stock could run out before May, he said. This is despite
the fact that irrigation authorities released water from the Chao Phraya dam to
Khlong Makham Thao in Suphan Buri for two days. "We wouldn't dare grow
rice even if the price had gone up," said Mr Pratuan."Some people
took the risk last year and went broke because there just wasn't enough
water," he added.
Courtesy:The Bangkok Post
Jhumka
Basmati - India's New Rain and Pest Tolerant Basmati Rice Variety
Mar 17, 2015
A farmer in India's northern
state Uttar Pradesh has developed a new variety of basmati rice through organic
farming using seeds brought by his ancestors from Pakistan, according to local
sources.The new variety 'Jhumka Basmati' can withstand heavy rain as its roots
are strong and do not bend to the gusts of strong winds that accompany rain,
the farmer told local sources. He also noted that since it is grown through
organic methods using organic green manure, its stem and roots are
stronger. The seeds thus produced are rich in nutrition, he said. It is also
pest-free said the farmer.He added that chemicals used for growing rice usually
remain in the upper layer of the soil and does not allow roots to penetrate
deep into the soil. He noted that chemical fertilizers increase the yield but
weakens the root inside the soil.
The new variety matures in 110
days and produces an yield of about 14 quintal per acre (around 3.5 tons per
hectare).
The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of
Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) has applied for the patent of
'Jhumka Basmati'. rice. The variety will be introduced to other famers in
the region once the patent formalities are completed, said the farmer.
ORYZA RICE NEWS
