Reforms needed for crop insurance
system
May 1, 2015 9:44 pm
by LEANDER C. DOMINGO
IN the light of the challenges presented by climate change, a Southeast Asian-based agricultural research organization is pushing for reforms to be made to make more farmers consider insuring their crops.This move for reforms is a result of a recent study spearheaded by Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in Los Banos, Laguna in collaboration with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) based in Nueva Ecija province.SEARCA researchers said their integrated report “Improving the Agricultural Insurance Program to Enhance Resilience to climate Change: Evidence from the Rice and Corn Production in the Philippines,” is being reviewed in preparation for its publication in a book.
They said this study aimed to
analyze how good agricultural practices (GAP) adoption among rice and corn
farmers could be implemented to complement the enhancement of agricultural
insurance systems in the Philippines.In the study, the rice component of the
project was carried out by PhilRice, an agency under the Department of
Agriculture (DA), while the corn component was spearheaded by SEARCA.The
researchers said the corn component aimed to identify existing and established
GAP technologies and determine its applicability for crop insurance in the
provinces of Isabela, Pangasinan and Bukidnon.“The study concludes that with
the promotion of GAP, the possibility of farmers availing insurance decreases.
Most farmers acknowledge the use
of recommended technologies as a scheme to cope with pest, disease damage, and
natural calamities, thus GAP becomes a substitute for insurance as a risk
management tool,” SEARCA researchers said.The researchers also pointed out that
the presence of moral hazard is also evident which means that corn insurance
has a negative influence in the extent of GAP adoption. They said there is also
information asymmetry, which causes to increase insurance premiums.
http://www.manilatimes.net/reforms-needed-for-crop-insurance-system/180061/
Arkansas
Rice Specialty License Plates Now Available
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LITTLE
ROCK, AR -- A special Arkansas license plate highlighting the state's
rice industry is now available. The Arkansas Rice Council worked with the
Department of Finance and Administration to develop the specialty license
plate to promote rice, Arkansas's second highest value commodity and top
agricultural export.Specialty fees from the plates will help fund
scholarships and education programs for students pursuing careers in
agriculture or the food industry.These plates are an easy way for any
Arkansan to help promote
"My husband, Greg, had the idea to do the specialty rice
plate after seeing the many different state plates promoting all manner of
organizations and schools," said Newport rice farmer Jennifer James.
"What we hadn't thought about initially was the amount of work it would
take to make this a reality, and it did take a lot, but, now that it's done,
it's a great visual and a constant reminder to our fellow Arkansans about the
big impact our rice industry has on the state's economy."
Any motor vehicle owner may obtain the Arkansas Rice license
plate for the specialty registration fee of $35. To learn more, please call (501) 682-4692.
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CME
Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures
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More eating rice, with more
choices now
Over the last few years, more types of rice have
become available in Singapore, some of which boast a reputation for being
healthier. Basmati and ponni rice, for instance, are known for their
low-glycemic index, meaning their impact on blood sugar levels is lower.
PEOPLE in Singapore are eating
more rice, and grains from Malaysia, Cambodia and Pakistan are seeing a huge
growth in demand.Latest figures from IE Singapore show that 361,930 tonnes of
rice were imported in 2011, rising steadily to hit 498,633 tonnes last year, or
a rise of 38 per cent.Importers point to growing awareness of healthy eating as
the main reason for the increase.
Other countries that supply rice
to Singapore include Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Pakistan. While they
accounted for less than 5 per cent of the total rice imports last year, three
of them saw huge growth increases.Demand for rice from Malaysia and Cambodia
jumped 11 times and nine times respectively, while demand for Pakistani rice
tripled.Rice importers said the quality of non-Thai rice has improved over the
years.
They "have improved their polishing and
dehusking technology", said Mr LimPrices
also play a part. At FairPrice supermarkets, for instance, a 10kg bag of
housebrand jasmine fragrant rice from Vietnam costs $15.50 while a similar bag
of housebrand Thai fragrant rice and white rice blend costs $18.60. About 70
per cent of rice sold at FairPrice is from Thailand, down from 95 per cent in
2007.Mr Lim said restaurants have turned to white rice from Vietnam, Cambodia
and India, as they cost less than the Thai variety.Mr Andrew Tan, chairman of
the Singapore General Rice Importers Association, said the shift to non-Thai
rice began in 2011.That year, the Thai government started buying rice from
farmers at above-market rates, building a stockpile at home. This reduced the
amount of rice available for export and led to higher prices.
People are also
eating more rice because there are now more varieties available. Mrs Mui-Kok
Kah Wei, FairPrice's senior director of purchasing and merchandising, said the
supermarket chain's range now includes varieties like calrose, red unpolished
rice and multi-grain rice.Basmati and ponni rice are also gaining popularity.
Telemarketer Amutha Chetty, 44, said her family eats only ponni rice from
India. "We used to eat some Thai rice but we don't anymore. (It is) more
expensive."But teacher Sarah Lim, 53, is sticking to her Thai rice.
"It is so ingrained in me that Thai rice is better... I won't change to
rice from elsewhere even if it is cheaper," she said.
limjess@sph.com.sg
http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/more-eating-rice-more-choices-now#sthash.a7ag6xeG.dpuf
Rs1.5bn subsidy approved for food items in Ramazan
The
decision was taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of
the cabinet presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The ministry of industries and
production had proposed allocation of Rs1.7bn for the package but the minister
suggested that Rs1.5bn be approved instead. Last year Rs1.4bn was spent for the
purpose.The meeting also directed the USC to spend Rs10 million on publicity of
the package from its own resources.Mr Dar claimed that the government was
extending the package as a special measure because prices had already declined
in the market because of low inflation. The step was, therefore, meant to
further facilitate the public during the holy month.The ministry of industries
and production had proposed allocation of Rs1.7bn for the package but the
minister suggested that Rs1.5bn be approved instead. —Reuters/File
The
finance division will provide an upfront payment of Rs1bn to the USC to buy the
items before Ramazan. A total of 18 items will be sold at subsidised rates at
the USC outlets.The items include wheat flour, sugar, ghee/oil, pulses (daal
channa, daal moong washed, daal maash washed, daal masoor, white gram), baisen,
dates, basmati rice, sela rice, broken rice, squashes and syrups (900ml
bottles), black tea, milk (Tetra pack) and spices.The meeting instructed the
industries ministry and the USC to submit a report to the ECC by the middle of
Ramazan about the implementation of the package which would be launched on June
15.
The
ECC also approved a proposal of the ministry of information technology to make
operational the already opened, non-lapsable Personal Ledger Accounts (PLAs) of
Universal Support Fund and Research and Development funds subject to amendments
in R&D and USF rules.This has been allowed to help telecom operators
utilise funds for execution of projects, especially those relating to rural and
underserved areas.The meeting also approved $35.96m for induction of 15
aircraft on dry lease into the fleet of the Pakistan International Airlines
(PIA).In its meeting held on December 6, the ECC had approved in principle $52m
and provision of first tranche of $16.4m for the aircraft.
The
PIA had arranged to obtain 10 A-320 and 5-ATR-72 aircraft on dry lease, the ECC
was informed.The ECC also accorded ex-post facto approval of separation of two
major entities in the power sector, required under the IMF programme.The power
secretary told the meeting that following the 1992 Power Sector Reform plan
approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI), the function of transmission
and distribution of electricity fell under the purview of the National
Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).The system operations were being run
by the NTDC through its various divisions.
The reform plan also envisioned the creation
of a competitive and wholesale ‘electricity market’ that would benefit the
sector and the country’s economy through newly introduced profit incentives and
enhancement in managerial autonomy as well as accountability.Therefore, the
meeting approved the separation of the NTDC from the Central Power Purchase
Agency-Guarantee, tasked with creating an ‘electricity market’.
Published
in Dawn, May 1st, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1179175/rs15bn-subsidy-approved-for-food-items-in-ramazan
Agricultural products' export continuously declining
May 01, 2015
Pakistan's agriculture products' export is continuously showing a
declining trend because the international price of major farm products ie rice,
wheat and sugar and cotton are lower compared to Pakistan where cost of inputs
are on higher side due to heavy taxation. According
to statistics, export of rice recorded 3,009,574 MT at a total value of $1.57
billion during July-March 2014-15 against 2,970,319 MT and value of $1.667
billion during the same period of 2013-14, showing a negative growth of 5.8 per
cent. The export of Basmati recorded 373,329 MT at a value of $442.895 million
in 2014-15 against 479,751 MT with a total value of $542.418 million showing a
decline of 18.35 per cent. Export of other rice varieties stood at 2,636,245 MT
at value of $1.127 billion during the first nine months of current fiscal as
compared to 2,490,568 MT with a total value of $1.1246 billion during the
corresponding period of last year.
Though Pakistan is surplus in wheat, its export is negligible.
During the first nine months of current fiscal year, Pakistan exported only
6,408 MT at a value of $1.67 million against 20,037 MT valued at $7 million
showing a decline of 76 per cent. Government has recently allowed private
sector to export surplus wheat against a subsidy of $50 and $45 per MT for
Punjab and Sindh respectively. Commerce Minister, Engineer Khurram Dastgir
recently held an internal meeting to review the export performance and reasons
for the decline. According to the
Ministry of National Food Security and Research higher prices of domestic wheat
poses a challenge to the local exporters in their export endeavours. The
Ministry maintains that due to higher stocks of wheat and lower international
prices of the commodity, Pakistan will have to make a concerted effort to
export surplus wheat stock in order to create physical and fiscal space for new
crop procurement. Official sources claim that the Punjab Government has now
approached the Federal Government that some countries such as Tajikistan have
contacted them for importing wheat from Pakistan.
However an insider told
this scribe that the proposal from Tajikistan was not a serious one. Commerce Ministry, sources said, is
contacting its Commercial Officers in different countries and directing them to
approach the host government to check if they intend to procure wheat on
government to government basis. Similar efforts are afoot for export of rice
but no positive signals have been received from abroad. The export of sugar
stood at 354,111 MT during this period at a value of $208 million whereas
538,001 MT sugar was exported against total value of $236.7 million in 2013-14. The Economic Coordination Committee of
the Cabinet has extended deadline for export of 650,000 MT of sugar.
The Dar led ECC was informed that procedure prescribed for export
of sugar stipulated that export contract was to be registered with SBP against
a deposit of 15 per cent of the export price to ensure export within 45 days
but no later than May 15, 2015. Failure to do so would result in forfeiture of
the deposit. According to the data provided by SBP, till May 27, 2015 out of
permissible quantity of 650,000 MT contracts of only 323,466 MT were registered
with SBP. Apparently, it would not be possible to export the remaining quantity
by May 15, 2015. After detailed consultation, the ECC extended deadline of
6540,000 MT sugar export till July 15, 2015.
http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1181945/
APEDA India News
International
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Confronting kharif 2015
The prospect of weak monsoon is
never good news, but this time it comes on top of a rabi harvest destroyed by
unseasonal rainfall, and a spate of farmer suicides
Prof. Uphoff and a farmer compare the root growth of a
conventionally-grown rice plant and an SRI plant in Tripura.
The prospect of a sub-normal monsoon is never good
news, but this time it comes on top of a rabi harvest destroyed by being rained
on at the wrong time, and a spate of farmer suicides. The only option is to
turn monsoon adversity into an opportunity for closer inspection of water usage
in agriculture. We need to look at cultivation pathways that generate more
output per unit input of water. We also need to release farmers from the
clutches of the corporate seed mafia.It is here that a miracle solution, which
has been on offer in this country for at least 15 years, needs to be pressed
into speedy action. No, this is not genetically modified seed.
It is just a system of intensive cultivation that cuts
water requirement in half, and uses less seed, less fertiliser and less
pesticide, and delivers higher output per acre by anywhere from 20% to 100%.
Initially developed for rice alone, it now extends to other crops such as wheat
and sugarcane as well.Called the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), it is an
altered method of planting and cultivation rather than an altered seed, and
thus holds promise for preserving the rich crop diversity of India from being drowned
by the corporate seed mafia. In the context of other crops, SRI changes to SCI,
replacing the word rice with crop. It offers the best hope for insulating the
country’s crop production from the fall in rain predicted by climate change
scientists.
After the Met department’s initial forecast that this
year’s monsoon will likely be deficient, the coming kharif season offers a
great opportunity to test its promise.Too good to be true? Data on relevant
parameters of SRI are available on the website of the Cornell College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences (sri.cals.cornell.edu).
Cornell University is at the forefront of popularizing SRI, through the
untiring efforts of Norman Uphoff, a political science
professor oddly enough, who works on rural development and happened upon SRI in
Madagascar, where it originated.
Tripura leads Indian states, with 40% of rice
cultivation now practising SRI. Clearly, the rate of adoption in any state will
be driven by the commitment of the state agriculture department, and here there
are a number of political obstacles to overcome. First, the agricultural
scientist fraternity sees SRI as scientifically unsupported, since it
originated not in a laboratory but in the field. Second, there is powerful
opposition stemming from the weight of rice planting practices over the
centuries. Surely, so the argument goes, farming practices embodying the
distilled wisdom of the ages could not be wrong, or improved upon?
In traditional rice transplanting, women wade their way
down a row in a flooded field with a clutch of seedlings held in one hand, from
which small clumps are detached and pushed into the soil at regular intervals.
Rice originated in water-abundant regions of the world, and this received
practice, involving flooding of the field during transplanting and early growth
of the plant, has been used in states like Punjab where poor drainage and high
use of chemical fertiliser have had a devastating impact on soil quality.
Punjab is said to be contemplating a ban on rice cultivation. What it could do
instead is to switch to SRI.
The unique feature of SRI is that in place of a clump
of seedlings, a single seedling is planted in slots at measured distances
supplied with water, in a field otherwise kept unflooded. The source of the
enhanced crop yield is said to be this very change, because the single seedling
does not lose strength from having to battle competitors for nutrients. The
single seedling consequently is more sturdy, develops more tillers, and puts
down deeper roots. SRI yields do well without chemical fertiliser, and pest
infestation is reduced because of the wider spacing of plants.SRI thus
radically departs from tradition, with methods of planting and nurturing which
are more artisanal. That also makes SRI more labour intensive.
And there lies the catch today in rural India, where
real rural wages have spurted over the last 10 years. An embedded solution is
however possible right there. The list of activities covered by the rural jobs
programme can be extended to SRI cultivation. No better use of a public
make-work scheme could surely be devised than one which directly increases
agricultural productivity, instead of the indirect effects of building roads and
other infrastructure, which are well known to be of poor quality because of
materials to wages limits in the programme.
There is a
National Consortium on SRI which actually suggested this in a formal submission
as far back as January 2012.Based on that, a detailed suggestion was sent by
the Planning Commission to the ministry of rural development, justifying
inclusion of SRI cultivation in the list of works covered by the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), on the grounds of the saving
in water usage. However, like all such government documents, it specifies
qualifying conditions that are impossible to monitor.
Inclusion of SRI in the qualifying list was to be
confined to blocks that declare themselves SRI blocks, and that too for a
maximum of 5 years; and there were detailed prescriptions of how many
person-days would be allowed for transplanting and weeding. These were further
hedged by the overall eligibility conditions for MGNREGA labour on private
land, the boundaries of which are defined in an unwieldy way. In the event, SRI
did not get included in the MGNREGA list. Going forward, it would be best to
include it as permissible, and leave it to the block panchayat to secure local
consent.In addition to higher labour requirements, SRI also calls for a
hand-held mechanical weeder that turns over the weeds growing around the rice
plant into the soil to enrich it.
This holds the key to the reduced requirement of
chemical fertiliser. The traditional flooding of rice plots tends to kill off
weeds that do not thrive in excess water, unlike the rice plant. With SRI,
these weeds grow unchecked. The weeder calls for an additional fixed
expenditure of roughly Rs.1,000 for a farmer switching to SRI cultivation.
A subsidy on this device would be far below present subsidies on irrigation
water, electricity for pumping up ground water, fertiliser and pesticide.
The global spread of SRI is impressive. SRI cultivation
is now estimated to be practised in over 50 countries (essentially all countries
which grow rice), with empirical evidence of enhanced yield ranging from
20-100%, with 90% reduction of seed, and up to 50% water savings. It is
unquestionably the climate-smart way to go. In terms of cost of cultivation to
the farmer, SRI saves massively on seed, water, fertiliser and pesticide, but
adds to labour cost, and there is of course the one-time fixed cost of the
weeder.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in
Manila has only recently granted its imprimatur to SRI, with space on its
website. You have to search for it though, under the tab “news”, and within
that, under “hot topics”. The description of SRI falls short of total
endorsement, describing it as a flexible package of crop practices which
renders it a “challenge for evaluation and assessment”, as against a menu of
practices that is science-based, with “a solid track record of performance”.
IRRI explicitly
states that it will refrain from research comparing SRI to other cropping
practices, and will stay with its policies of disseminating only scientifically
proven improvements. At the same time, IRRI declares its willingness to work
with farmers practising SRI. By this, and links to the Cornell website, IRRI
has finally conceded that SRI is worth mentioning, even though it did not jump
out of a lab.
The reasons impelling adoption by farmers of SRI, even
with its present lack of scientific endorsement, is that it scores in cost over
the best management practices recommended by IRRI and other pillars of the
establishment, predicated as those are on expensive hybrid seed bought from
multinationals, and intensive application of water, chemical fertiliser and
pesticide.
Paddy cultivation is the single biggest consumer of
water in India. Even if the incremental yield is zero, the saving in water
usage alone makes SRI the climate-smart way to go. Leading states like Tripura
could be entrusted with the task of disseminating SRI methods to other paddy
cultivating states. It is not too late to start with an SRI push for kharif
2015.
The timing of the forecast of an impending sub-normal
monsoon could not be worse. We have just had a parade of welcome price data.
March, the last month of the last fiscal year, showed wholesale prices as
having fallen year on year for the fifth straight month. Consumer prices did
rise in March year on year but, at 5.17% as against 5.37% in February, the
increase was the lowest in three months. We desperately wanted the monsoon to
rain on this parade.
Indira Rajaraman is an
economist and is currently on the board of directors of the Reserve Bank of
India.
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/D0MbCqvbAALNn5LGaZWw2M/Confronting-kharif-2015.html
Local rice
production to increase
About 800 metric tons of rice seeds
have been produced across the Rice Sector Support Programme (RSSP) regions for
planting in the 2015 farming season, Dr Wilson Dogbe, Research Coordinator of
RSSP has announced.He said the available 800 metric tons of rice seeds would
cover 16,000 hectares of rice fields, which would increase domestic rice
production to meet the rising demand for rice in the country.Dr Dogbe announced
this at the 2015 Annual Rice Seed Stakeholders Meeting organised by the Savanna
Agricultural Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR – SARI) at Nyankpala in the Northern Region.
The meeting brought together
stakeholders from Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), development partners
including United States Agency for International Development, rice seed
companies, input dealers, seed producers, researchers, rice related projects
among others.It was to take stock of the rice seed situation in the four RSSP
regions for this year, which included Volta, Northern, Upper East and Upper
West Regions, and to plan the seed needs for 2016, as well as to identify the
roles of the various actors on the rice seed value chain.
The RSSP is an initiative of MoFA
to amongst others, support lowland rice production to improve livelihood of
poor farmers in the targeted regions through the development of a sustainable
economic activity based on the natural potential of the regions.
Dr Dogbe, who is also Principal
Research Scientist at SARI, said there are challenges of seed quality in terms
of red rice, which must be addressed to improve the quality of the crop
produced.He mentioned some of the measures taken to reduce red rice levels in
the seeds produced, which included reducing acreages to manageable levels,
moving away from broadcasting of rice seed farms, and bonding of fields.
Dr Dogbe gave the assurance that
rice produced by local farmers is of high quality and therefore urged consumers
to purchase and consume locally produced rice.Mr Raphael Dinku, Field Officer
of GANORMAH, an input dealer, expressed the need for quality seeds to attract
farmers to purchase them and to increase domestic rice production. GNA
Reforms needed for crop insurance
system
May 1, 2015 9:44 pm
by LEANDER C. DOMINGO
IN the light of the challenges
presented by climate change, a Southeast Asian-based agricultural research
organization is pushing for reforms to be made to make more farmers consider
insuring their crops.This move for reforms is a result of a recent study
spearheaded by Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research
in Agriculture (SEARCA) in Los Banos, Laguna in collaboration with the
Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) based in Nueva Ecija
province.SEARCA researchers said their integrated report “Improving the
Agricultural Insurance Program to Enhance Resilience to climate Change:
Evidence from the Rice and Corn Production in the Philippines,” is being
reviewed in preparation for its publication in a book.
They said this study aimed to
analyze how good agricultural practices (GAP) adoption among rice and corn
farmers could be implemented to complement the enhancement of agricultural
insurance systems in the Philippines.In the study, the rice component of the
project was carried out by PhilRice, an agency under the Department of
Agriculture (DA), while the corn component was spearheaded by SEARCA.The
researchers said the corn component aimed to identify existing and established
GAP technologies and determine its applicability for crop insurance in the
provinces of Isabela, Pangasinan and Bukidnon.
“The study concludes that with
the promotion of GAP, the possibility of farmers availing insurance decreases.
Most farmers acknowledge the use of recommended technologies as a scheme to
cope with pest, disease damage, and natural calamities, thus GAP becomes a
substitute for insurance as a risk management tool,” SEARCA researchers
said.The researchers also pointed out that the presence of moral hazard is also
evident which means that corn insurance has a negative influence in the extent
of GAP adoption. They said there is also information asymmetry, which causes to
increase insurance premiums.
http://www.manilatimes.net/reforms-needed-for-crop-insurance-system/180061/
Local rice
production to increase
The
meeting brought together stakeholders from Ministry of Food and Agriculture
(MoFA), development partners including United States Agency for International
Development, rice seed companies, input dealers, seed producers, researchers,
rice related projects among others.It was to take stock of the rice seed
situation in the four RSSP regions for this year, which included Volta,
Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, and to plan the seed needs for
2016, as well as to identify the roles of the various actors on the rice seed
value chain.The RSSP is an initiative of MoFA to amongst others, support
lowland rice production to improve livelihood of poor farmers in the targeted
regions through the development of a sustainable economic activity based on the
natural potential of the regions.
Dr
Dogbe, who is also Principal Research Scientist at SARI, said there are
challenges of seed quality in terms of red rice, which must be addressed to
improve the quality of the crop produced.He mentioned some of the measures
taken to reduce red rice levels in the seeds produced, which included reducing
acreages to manageable levels, moving away from broadcasting of rice seed
farms, and bonding of fields.Dr Dogbe gave the assurance that rice produced by
local farmers is of high quality and therefore urged consumers to purchase and
consume locally produced rice.Mr Raphael Dinku, Field Officer of GANORMAH, an
input dealer, expressed the need for quality seeds to attract farmers to
purchase them and to increase domestic rice production.
Arkansas rice specialty license
plates now available to drivers
A special Arkansas Rice license
plate has arrived in Department of Finance and Administration revenue offices.
Specialty fees from the plates will help fund scholarships and education
programs for students pursing a career in agriculture or the food industry.
Posted
Apr. 30, 2015 at 2:50 PM
In India's
grain bowl, recent rains ease weak monsoon worries
By Ratnajyoti DuttaMay 1, 2015 6:50 AM
Labourers plant saplings in a paddy field on the outskirts of the
eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar …
By Ratnajyoti Dutta
But these rains have driven up reservoir levels in paddy-growing
states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, the country's grain bowl in the north,
to higher than both a year ago and the average of the past decade, government data showed on Friday."This is a case
of cold comfort, but the excessive rainfall that we have witnessed in the past
six weeks have replenished reservoirs which would help mitigate the impact of
deficient monsoon rains," said Aditi Nayar, senior economist at ICRA, the
Indian arm of ratings agency Moody's.India is expected to see below-average rains
this year as the emergence of an El Nino weather pattern will likely cause dry
spells across South Asia.The monsoons are vital for India as its farm sector
accounts for 14 percent of its economy, and half of its farm land lacks
irrigation.
Weak rains have cut farm output in the past, stoking food price
inflation in the country.But this year, there is unlikely to be a big shortage
even if monsoons turn out to be weak as the government storehouses are brimming
with rice and wheat.However, for millions of farmers, the fate of a single crop
can be the difference between life and death.Dozens of farmers have committed
suicide after the damage from unseasonal rains, denting Modi's popularity in
the countryside and presenting an opportunity to the opposition Congress party
to tap into farmers' anger ahead of elections in the agrarian state of Bihar
later this year.
Another area of concern for the government is the likely deficit
of edible oils derived from soybean, which is grown mainly in the central state
of Madhya Pradesh where reservoir levels have fallen below last year's
levels.India imports about 60 percent of its edible oil needs at an annual cost
of up to $10 billion - its third-biggest import item after crude oil and
gold."India is all set to import more edible oil and pulses, though a
clear picture will emerge once monsoon covers the entire country," said P.
Chengal Reddy, secretary general of the Consortium of Indian Farmers
Associations.
(Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
Boonsong dodges rice deal grilling
- 1 May 2015 at 03:30
- NEWSPAPER SECTION: NEWS | WRITER: AEKARACH SATTABURUTH
Former
commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and two high-ranking Commerce Ministry
figures yesterday dodged being questioned by the National Legislative Assembly
(NLA) on allegedly fraudulent government-to-government rice sales deals.Mr
Boonsong, his former deputy Phoom Sarapol and ex-Department of Foreign Trade
director-general Manas Soythong, did not turn up at the NLA session for
questioning. They sent a letter citing their right to remain silent until their
court trial.The defendants said in their letter to the NLA that they feared
their answers before legislators will affect the trial, set to begin on June 29
at the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office-Holders.
Last January, the
National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) brought charges of corruption
against the men, accusing them of faking a G-to-G deal and reselling
state-owned produce to domestic firms with close ties to the Yingluck
Shinawatra administration.Anti-graft commissioner Vicha Mahakun found two
Chinese firms were given the rights to buy rice under the pledging scheme
without having to face competition from other bidders.These companies,
Guangdong Stationery & Sporting Goods Import & Export and Hainan Grain
& Oil Industrial Trading Co, were not mandated by the Chinese government to
work on its behalf. The firms later allegedly sold the paddy at lower-than
market rates to rice trading firm Siam Indica Co.Mr Vicha, in charge of the
investigation, forwarded the case to the NLA, asking legislators to impeach Mr
Boonsong, Mr Phoom and Mr Manas.
He argued the
defendants violated the interim charter as well as the 1999 Organic Act on
Counter-Corruption.NLA members had tabled questions to ask the three whether
they had evidence to prove the Chinese government authorised both firms to
undertake the supposed G-to-G deal and produce documents regarding rice exports
to China.Meanwhile, Mr Vicha maintained Mr Manas could be impeached, despite
the fact the former department director-general has already retired as a
government official.
