IRRI Trustees announce next director general
Matthew Morell, IRRI deputy director general for research, will succeed Robert Zeigler as director general of the world’s premier research center on rice starting December 2015.
Dear friends,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), I take great
pleasure in announcing the appointment of Dr. Matthew Morell as the next Director General of the Institute. Dr. Morell will
take up the position in mid-December 2015.Dr. Morell is currently IRRI’s Deputy
Director General for Research (DDG-R), a position he has held since February
2014. As DDG-R, Dr. Morell has provided and continues to provide effective
strategic leadership to the Institute’s scientific portfolio.
Dr. Morell brings to IRRI decades
of experience driven by a passion for scientific excellence, an understanding
of private-public partnerships, a tested understanding of identifiable patent
outcomes and protection of intellectual property, and a sound capacity for
stakeholder engagement. He has a solid track record in identifying, protecting,
and managing intellectual property, as well as in establishing a means for
strong compliance with the requirements of gene technology regulations, genetic
modification stewardship, and occupational health and safety legislation.Prior
to his coming to IRRI, Dr. Morell worked with CSIRO, where he served for 16 years.
Dr. Morell holds a Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry from the University of Sydney. He did postdoctoral studies at the University of Michigan and the University of California Davis and served as research fellow at the Australian National University.
Dr. Morell holds a Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry from the University of Sydney. He did postdoctoral studies at the University of Michigan and the University of California Davis and served as research fellow at the Australian National University.
Please join me in congratulating
Dr. Morell on his appointment as IRRI’s next Director General.
I also take this opportunity to
thank our Director General, Dr. Robert Zeigler, who is retiring after a decade of inspired and steadfast
leadership. We wish him all the best!
(Sgd.) Emerlinda Roman
Chair
IRRI Board of Trustees
Scientists create
starchier, low-methane rice
By Mariette Le Roux ,AFP
July 25, 2015, 12:02 am TWN
July 25, 2015, 12:02 am TWN
PARIS --
Scientists said Wednesday they had created a rice variety with starchier grains
that emits less methane, a step towards the twin goals of feeding more people
and curbing global warming.The cultivation of rice, a staple starch for
billions of people, is also mankind's major emitter of methane, a potent
climate-altering gas.Methane lives for a shorter time in the atmosphere than
carbon dioxide (CO2), the most abundant greenhouse gas, but traps far more heat
radiated from Earth's surface.
Every year, rice paddies pump out 25 to 100
million tonnes of methane — the second-most important greenhouse gas at about
16 percent.This means a high risk for the planet as rice cultivation expands to
feed a growing population, said the paper, published in the journal
Nature."There is an urgent need to establish sustainable technologies for
increasing rice production while reducing methane fluxes from rice
paddies," wrote the team led by Chuanxin Sun of the Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences.Already in 2002, scientists reported that the more grain
carried by rice plants, the less methane they emitted.
The leaves and stems of rice plants take up
CO2, which is transformed through photosynthesis into sugars that are used to
produce starch in the shoots, roots and grains.Carbon released from dead
plants, or directly into the soil via the roots, is transformed by
microorganisms into methane, which can escape into the atmosphere.Larger,
starchier rice grains mean there is less carbon transferred to the soil to be
turned into methane.But attempts to reduce emissions from paddies have focused
on changes in farming practices, which can be onerous and expensive.
Groundbreaking Work
Tackling the problem differently, a team from
China, the United States and Sweden added a barley gene to a conventional rice
cultivar to create a variety dubbed SUSIBA2."Three-year field trials in
China demonstrated that the cultivation of SUSIBA2 rice was associated with a
significant reduction in methane emissions," said the study."SUSIBA2
rice offers a sustainable means of providing increased starch content for food
production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice
cultivation."In a comment also carried by Nature, Paul Bodelier of the
Netherlands Institute of Ecology described the research as
"groundbreaking," but cautioned it also raised several
"biological and ethics concerns.
""In addition to the general
questions surrounding the use of genetically modified crops for human
consumption, and how access to seed for such crops is controlled, we do not yet
have a clear picture of how this modification affects rice plants' survival and
general function," said Bodelier.Long-term measurements of methane
emissions would be needed to calculate the crop's potential overall impact on
greenhouse gas reduction efforts, he wrote.Also, the reduction of carbon in
soil may have unknown consequences for other types of microorganisms that could
aid or harm the plants.All said, the work should spur scientists worldwide
"to conduct experiments to verify whether this variety will enable more
sustainable cultivation of the crop that feeds half the human population,"
said Bodelier.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/life/environment/2015/07/25/441537/Scientists-create.htm
On-going
rains to hinder rice exports
Published: July 25, 2015
REAP Chairman Rafique Suleman
also held the government responsible for the declining exports. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: Recent
rains may adversely affect the rice crop and result in a further drop in
exports, stated the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP).
“Pakistan’s rice exports have already come
down from $2 billion to $1.85 billion, and it is feared that this figure may
further decline due to the on-going monsoon rains in the country,” said REAP
Chairman Rafique Suleman.On another note, Suleman also held the government
responsible for the declining exports as it is doing very little to support
research and development (R&D) in the sector.“Different rice producing
governments are focusing on their R&D including our neighbours like India
and Bangladesh. On the other hand, here, authorities are approving housing
schemes on the land of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad,”
he said.
He called the agriculture sector the
backbone of the Pakistani economy, and stressed prime research centres to work
actively with full state-of-the-art technologies so that exports may be
increased and maximum foreign exchange earned.
He said such actions would prove detrimental
for national agriculture and put the country back many decades back and affect
not only productivity but exports as well.“For years, the government has been
giving mnimum attention to the sector and not providing due funds,” noted
Suleman, adding that many international research institutes were located inside
the NARC Campus and its closure or relocation would affect Pakistan’s
credibility throughout the world.REAP urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
Minister for Commerce, Minister for National Food Security and Research to give
priority to food security in the country.
Published in The Express
Tribune, July 25th, 2015.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/926040/on-going-rains-to-hinder-rice-exports/
How
A New Type Of Rice Can Fight Global Warming
After three years of field trials in China, a group of
international scientists have developed a new type of genetically modified rice
that could boost food sustainability without adding to global warming. While
some experts hail the findings as an important breakthough, it seems likely to
add new fuel to the heated debate over genetically modified (GM) foods.Today,
rice paddies are one of the largest sources of atmospheric methane, the second
most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Methane is thought to be
responsible for one-fifth of the global warming effect.The new plant – equipped
with DNA from barley – emits as little as 1% of the methane,according to
Science Magazine. What’s more, the new rice may also boost food security as it
produces significantly higher yield per plant.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
Timothy
Searchinger, a research scholar at Princeton University who wasn’t involved in
the study, described the results as “extraordinary” in the magazine’s
report.The new rice was created by a group led by Chuanxin Sun, a plant
biochemist at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, in collaboration
with Chinese and American scientists. The results came after a three-year field
trial in China.These new results represent “the first example, to our
knowledge, of such a rice,” the team of scientists said in its report.
“Approaches to increase rice productivity and reduce methane emissions as seen
in SUSIBA2 rice may be particularly beneficial in a future climate with rising
temperatures resulting in increased methane emissions from paddies.”
“The
new rice sounds like a win-win for good yields and reduced climate impact,”
Paul West, lead scientist for the Global Landscapes Initiative at the
University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, told the Christian
Science Monitor.Still, many questions remain. Chuanxin Sun acknowledged that
much work needs to be done to see if it holds up in realistic field trials. The
findings also come with ethical issues to be addressed as people are concerned
whether genetically modified crops are safe for human consumption.“Right now,
Chinese society is very sensitive” to concerns about GM food, Sun said. China,
the world’s largest producer of rice, hasn’t allowed a single genetically
modified rice variety into its fields, he added
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jnylander/2015/07/27/how-a-new-type-of-rice-can-fight-global-warming/
Much needed:
Iranian delegation to visit Pakistan next month
Published: July 26, 2015
There is a Preferential Trade
Agreement between Iran and Pakistan that can be converted into Free Trade
Agreement after the ban is formally lifted. PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD:
A delegation
from Iran will arrive in Pakistan next month to address bottlenecks in the way
of trade and investment between the two countries and explore opportunities
under the new scenario following the nuclear deal by Iran and six major world
powers.
A senior officer in the Ministry of Commerce
told The Express Tribunethat an official delegation will arrive in
Islamabad in the first week of August to explore opportunities.Iran has
recently agreed with world powers to curb its nuclear programme. In return,
economic sanctions placed on the country that have hindered its trade relations
will likely be lifted following an inspection of its compliance with the
agreement.The Iranian delegation will meet Commerce Minister Khuram Dastgir,
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to
discuss issues of mutual importance.
“We will discuss the issues under the new
scenario in the region as trade and commerce opportunities can be exploited
after the sanction lift by the international community following the nuclear
deal,” said a senior officer of Ministry of Commerce.Earlier in April this
year, Dastgir had headed a delegation to Iran and both sides had agreed to
formulate a five-year facilitation plan to increase bilateral trade from the
current level of $1 billion to $5 billion.
“There is a Preferential Trade Agreement
between Iran and Pakistan, it can be converted into Free Trade Agreement after
the ban is formally lifted,” said the officer.“We had already agreed to form a
working group to devise a substantial widening of the 2006 Pak-Iran
Preferential Trade Agreement.”
The two sides also reiterated the need for
joint investments in agro-food processing and infrastructure, particularly in
the field of establishing an effective rail, road and sea links between the two
countries.Presently, Pakistan exports rice, kinnows, potatoes and meat, edible
meat offal; edible fruits, nuts, melons, cotton, melons; cotton; paper and
paperboard, and articles of pulp to Iran while imports chemicals, plastic
products, bitumen, paraffin, iron scrap and many other chemicals and machinery
related products.
The sanctions on Iran as well as
indirect/informal trade, smuggling, non-availability of banking channels,
custom duties, non-operational system of barter trade, transportation-related
issues are hindering the volume of bilateral trade.The officer said that there
exist a lot of potential to increase the volume of bilateral trade by
curtailing smuggling and increasing direct trade. “We hope that now the volume
of trade can be substantially increased after streamlining the payment
mechanism once the ban is lifted by the international community,” noted the
officer.
Published in The Express
Tribune, July 26th, 2015
http://tribune.com.pk/story/926466/much-needed-iranian-delegation-to-visit-pakistan-next-month/
REAP CONDEMNS HOUSING PROJECT ON NARC LAND
Sunday, July 26, 2015 - Lahore—Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has urged the federal
government not to replace National
Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad with a housing scheme. Rafique Suleman, Chairman REAP showing concern over
heavy rains said rains and floods may affect the rice crop resulting in lower
rice export of the country.He said the country has already missed last year’s
export target due to lack of research and development. Pakistan’s rice export target of
$2 billion could not be achieved in FY15 as overall exports from Pakistan crossed $1.85 billion at the end of the last
fiscal year. Chairman REAP said the governments across the world focus on their research and development work and our neighbouring countries,
such as India, Bangladesh are also spending huge amounts of money on R&D
work for new seeds of rice as well as other agricultural commodities. On the other hand, in Pakistan, the authorities
are trying to approvehousing scheme
on the land of National Agricultural
Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad, REAP strongly protests
against this project, he added.
He said agricultural sector is the backbone of our economy
and the prime research centre must be working actively besides
having fully equipped state of the art technologies. It is the need of the hour
to take appropriate steps for agricultural sector boost, so that exports of agri commodities may be increased
and maximum foreign exchange could be fetched for the growth of the country’s
economy. He said that NARC conversion into a housing scheme would be detrimental for thenational agriculture and take country decades back. It will not only affect our
productivity but our exports too, he added.
Many international research institutes are also
located in the same campus and their closure or relocation will badly affect
our credibility throughout the world. In fact, for years, the government has
been giving least priority to agricultural
researchand does not p release any resources, Rafique said. The Chairman REAP
appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Ministerfor
Commerce and Minister for National Food Security &
Research not to replace NARC with housing society. Theagricultural research centres of various countries of the
world are located in their capital cities, such as Indian Council
forAgricultural Research (ICAR)
in New Delhi, Bangladesh Agricultural
Research Center (BARC) in Dhaka
and Nepal Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Kathmandu, he
maintained.—Agencies
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=269018
REAP urges government not to turn NARC land into housing
scheme
July 25, 2015
RECORDER REPORT
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has urged the
federal government not to replace National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC)
Islamabad with a housing scheme. Rafique Suleman, Chairman REAP showing concern
over heavy rains said rains and floods may affect the rice crop resulting in
lower rice export of the country. He said the country has already
missed last year's export target due to lack of research and development.
Pakistan's rice export target of $2 billion could not be achieved in FY15 as
overall exports from Pakistan crossed $1.85 billion at the end of the last
fiscal year. Chairman REAP said the governments across the world focus on their
research and development work and our neighbouring countries, such as India,
Bangladesh are also spending huge amounts of money on R&D work for new
seeds of rice as well as other agricultural commodities.
On the other hand, in Pakistan, the authorities are trying to
approve housing scheme on the land of National Agricultural Research Centre
(NARC) Islamabad.... REAP strongly protests against this project, he added. He said agricultural sector is the backbone of our economy and the
prime research centre must be working actively besides having fully equipped
state of the art technologies. It is the need of the hour to take appropriate
steps for agricultural sector boost, so that exports of agri commodities may be
increased and maximum foreign exchange could be fetched for the growth of the
country's economy. He said that NARC conversion into a housing scheme would be
detrimental for the national agriculture and take country decades back. It will
not only affect our productivity but our exports too, he added. Many international research institutes are also located in the
same campus and their closure or relocation will badly affect our credibility
throughout the world. In fact, for years, the government has been giving least
priority to agricultural research and does not p release any resources, Rafique
said.
The Chairman REAP appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Minister for Commerce and Minister for National Food Security & Research not to replace NARC with housing society. The agricultural research centres of various countries of the world are located in their capital cities, such as Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Dhaka and Nepal Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Kathmandu, he maintained.
The Chairman REAP appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Minister for Commerce and Minister for National Food Security & Research not to replace NARC with housing society. The agricultural research centres of various countries of the world are located in their capital cities, such as Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Dhaka and Nepal Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Kathmandu, he maintained.
http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1210521/
Aromatic rice exporters may get
more time
12:00
AM, July 26, 2015 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:06 AM, July 26, 2015
The government is likely to extend
the time for aromatic rice exports by one year, a senior official of the
commerce ministry said yesterday.“We are working on it. We expect to issue a
notice within a month,” said the official, seeking to remain unnamed.The
ministry plans to extend time after the validity of scented rice export expired
on June 30.On June 17 last year, the government extended time for aromatic rice
export for fiscal 2014-15 but maintained a ban on exports of parboiled rice to
keep the prices of the staple stable on the domestic market.Many exporters have
already applied to the commerce ministry for extension of time to ship aromatic
rice, which is popular among Bangladeshis living abroad, along with South
Asians residing in Europe, America, Australia and the Middle East.
Some exporters said the delay in the government's decision has
forced them to either cancel orders or keep the shipments pending. “We are
losing business. The delay in decision is creating a gap in the export market,
which our competitors in India and Pakistan will take up,” said Khurshid Ahmad
Farhad, assistant general manager-in-charge of export at Square Food and
Beverage Ltd, a member of Square Group.Square exported about 300 tonnes of
aromatic rice under its brand in fiscal 2014-15, up from about 250 tonnes a
year earlier, according to Farhad. Aromatic rice export resumed in mid-2012 after a three-year ban,
imposed on all sorts of rice in November 2008 to boost supply and keep the
prices stable in the local market.
There were also allegations that parboiled rice was exported in
the name of the aromatic variety. Md Mizanur Rahman, chief of exports at Pran,
said the past ban had affected Bangladesh's export markets for aromatic rice.
“Our markets would have been bigger had there been no ban -- we had to regain
the market.”Pran, a leading food processor and exporter, shipped 2,500 tonnes
of scented rice in fiscal 2014-15, up 38.89 percent year-on-year, according to
the official. The company aims to export 3,000 tonnes this fiscal
year.Currently, it has export orders for nearly 200 tonnes of rice, but it
cannot start shipping until the extension comes through.“We are waiting for
permission,” said Rahman, who believes that the demand for Bangladesh's scented
rice will grow because of its better flavour than Basmati, exported mainly from
Pakistan and India.Exporters fetched $7.34 million last fiscal year, up 51
percent year-on-year, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/aromatic-rice-exporters-may-get-more-time-116740
Unlocking rice immune system will
benefit humanity: Scientists
The team discovered that a bacterial protein called
"RaxX" activates a specific rice immune receptor protein named
"XA21".
WASHINGTON: Rice is a staple food for half of the world's
population. To protect it against deadly pathogens, a team of researchers has
identified a bacterial signal that, when recognised by rice plants, enables
them resist a devastating blight disease.The team discovered that a bacterial
protein called "RaxX" activates a specific rice immune receptor protein
named "XA21".This activation triggers an immune response against
Xanthomonas oryzaepv.oryzae (Xoo), a pathogen that causes bacterial blight, a
serious disease of rice crops.
"Our results show that 'RaxX' - a small,
previously undescribed bacterial protein - is required for activation of
immunity to Xoo," said Pamela Ronald, plant geneticist for the US
Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and the
University of California (UC) Davis.XA21 can detect RaxX and quickly mobilise
its defenses to mount a potent immune response against Xoo."Rice plants
that do not carry the XA21 immune receptor or other related immune receptors
are virtually defenseless against bacterial blight," Ronald added in a
paper that appeared in the journal Science Advances.Pathogens of grass-type
biofuel crops that would reduce the yield of fuel-producing biomass likely use
similar infection mechanisms to Xoo."Having identified the activator of
XA21, we will be able to study the rice immune system in far greater detail
than ever before. This might help in the future engineering of more
disease-resistant grass-type biofuel crops," explained Benjamin
Schwessinger, a grass geneticist with JBEI.
Most plants and many animals can only defend themselves against a given disease if they carry specialised immune receptors that sense the invading pathogen behind the disease.Rice is also a model plant for perennial grasses which are prime feedstock candidates for the production of clean, green and renewable cellulosic biofuels.Just as bacterial blight poses a major threat to rice crops, bacterial infections of grass-type fuel plants could present major problems for the future production of advanced biofuels.In addition to its implications for future grass-type biofuel feedstocks, unlocking the rice immune system also holds important implications for the worldwide supply of rice, the authors concluded
Most plants and many animals can only defend themselves against a given disease if they carry specialised immune receptors that sense the invading pathogen behind the disease.Rice is also a model plant for perennial grasses which are prime feedstock candidates for the production of clean, green and renewable cellulosic biofuels.Just as bacterial blight poses a major threat to rice crops, bacterial infections of grass-type fuel plants could present major problems for the future production of advanced biofuels.In addition to its implications for future grass-type biofuel feedstocks, unlocking the rice immune system also holds important implications for the worldwide supply of rice, the authors concluded
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Unlocking-rice-immune-system-will-benefit-humanity-Scientists/articleshow/48213814.cms
Rice
security or self-sufficiency?
By: Roehlano M. Briones and Gary B.
Olivar
Philippine Daily Inquirer
01:33 AM July 26th, 2015
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
WITH over two million rural
households depending on rice farming, the Filipino dream of self-sufficiency in
rice exerts a powerful hold on vote-hungry politicians as well as the popular
imagination.This dream was again revived by the Aquino administration in 2010
as a performance objective through its Food Self-Sufficiency Program (FSSP),
which targeted total self-sufficiency (zero rice imports) by either 2013 or
2016.But was this dream ever realistic at all to begin with? History says no.
(See Table 1.)
Previously, average annual growth
in palay production exceeded 6 percent only once, in the mid-’80s, due almost
entirely to the high-yield new varieties from the “Green Revolution” hatched in
Los Baños, Laguna. But since 1994, the historical average has only been 3.2
percent, or half the FSSP target of 6.3 percent growth a year.
Wide gap
The gap is especially wide for
irrigated palay, where FSSP hopes to increase the rice-planted area by an
ambitious 4.1 percent a year through new or rehabilitated irrigation systems.
One has to ask if this will ever match the natural advantages of, say, Vietnam
and Thailand, the biggest rice exporters in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (Asean), whose large and fertile plains are watered by the great Mekong
River delta. The historical record with our irrigated palay area is only
halfway to the target.
The view through the windshield
confirms the perspective from the rear mirror. Figure 1 shows a range of
projections of annual rice imports by the Philippines (in thousand metric
tons), based on the Arkansas Global Rice Model developed by Eric Wailes,
professor at the University of Arkansas, from the experience of 40
rice-exporting and -importing countries.The midpoint of the projections (the
mean) tells us that we will still be importing rice every year till 2022. And
below the lower boundary of the range, there is only a 10 percent likelihood
that we will become self-sufficient by 2015 and begin enjoying “negative
imports” (i.e. exports) thereafter. In fact, the government has already
projected nearly 100,000 MT of rice imports by the middle of this year.
Of course, the probability of
success is only one reason to do anything and not even the most important
reason at that.
The more important questions are
these:
Will this action be worth it?
Will the benefits outweigh the
costs?
Will those net benefits conform
with and maybe even reinforce other things that are also considered important?
Not worthwhile if costly
Self-sufficiency in rice is
worthwhile to the rice-consuming majority only to the extent that it provides
real rice security: sufficient rice supply at affordable and stable
prices.Second, it is worthwhile to the rice-producing minority to the extent
that it sustains its livelihood, assuming that rice farming is, in fact, the
best alternative open to it. And there are—as with everything else—all sorts of
costs to think about.
Consider a neighborhood block with
20 families. They all love pan de sal for breakfast. One family, headed by Mang
Panadero, bakes pan de sal in an old-fashioned pugon. Every morning he sells it
to the other 19 families for P150 a dozen.
One day a Vietnamese bakery opens
for business down the road. With the latest in baking technology, they can sell
exactly the same quality of pan de sal, but for only P100 a dozen. What should
the neighborhood do?
Status quo: The other families love
Mang Panadero, so they continue to buy his pan de sal even at a premium of P50
a dozen, or 50 percent. That premium, paid by 19 families, totals a tidy sum of
P950 received by Panadero every day. Economists regard it as addition to
“producer surplus.”Better alternative: Money is tight, so the 19 families shift
their business instead to the Vietnamese newcomer and collectively save P950 a
day. Now that it is savings, this amount can be added to “consumer surplus.”
With those savings, the families
can choose to buy more than one dozen pan de sal a day, or butter and eggs to
go with the bread. The added consumer surplus is now stimulating additional
demand for pan de sal and other goods from the bakery, the neighborhood grocery
and other producers.
Since the families do still love
Mang Panadero, they could set aside, say, P100 a day from their savings as a
charity fund for his family. With that money, at least his family can continue
to buy pan de sal at the same low price as their neighbors.Mang Panadero now
faces the challenge of modernizing his pugon, or looking for other customers
outside the neighborhood, if he wants to stay in the pan de sal business.
Alternatively, he could start making something else that his neighborhood wants
to buy but is not yet available. What about pan de coco? Maybe his neighbors
will even agree to pitch in more money to help him transition to a new
livelihood.
The simple illustration above can
be transferred to the country’s rice sector. (See Table 2.)
Over the four years from 2006 to
2009, the country incurred an average economic cost (a negative net surplus) of
P6.7 billion a year from its rice policies. This increased by three times to
P20.17 billion a year from 2010 to 2012, when the Aquino administration
launched its FSSP.
Causes of welfare cost
This economic welfare cost was
caused by the following:
Price difference between locally
grown and imported rice. In 2012, the average price of local rice was about 50
percent more expensive than Vietnamese rice.Lower rice consumption due to high
prices of locally grown rice. This is especially true for the poor, whose food
budgets are more limited.
Quantitative restriction on rice
imports under a special treatment that the Philippines has enjoyed from the
World Trade Organization since 1994. Among other things, this reduces tariff
revenues that might otherwise be collected from unrestricted imports.Net costs
of FSSP, estimated at over P50 billion over the program’s six-year life even if
it achieves its self-sufficiency targets.
Cost of National Food Authority’s
(NFA) price support, such as its mandate during lean harvest times to buy palay
at above market (high palay procurement price paid to farmers) and sell rice at
below market (low official release price charged to consumers).
To its credit, the Department of
Agriculture is now saying that it never targeted total self-sufficiency in
rice, only “optimum sufficiency.” Malaysia, for example, only targets
80-percent self-sufficiency.
We hope this rethinking by
government leads to a repurposing of FSSP: away from the questionable objective
of zero imports toward a more realistic objective of simply improving the
productivity of our rice farmers to make them more competitive within
unrestricted Asean and global markets.
Rice security via trade
Ironically, the Asean region is
home to two of the world’s largest rice importers (the Philippines and
Indonesia) as well as two of the largest rice exporters (Thailand and Vietnam).
The difference in per capita rice production (kilograms per person) between the
two groups has been inexorably widening since the early ’90s. (See Figure 2.)
It makes sense for the region’s
rice exporters to be selling more and more to its rice importers over time. And
yet the Asean region as a whole has been exporting more of its rice to the rest
of the world than to each other since 1980. (See Figure 3.)
Clearly, much remains to be done in
order to deepen and stabilize the rice trade between the region’s rice
exporters and importers:
Exporters must be able to rely upon
importers’ long-term purchase commitments so that they can invest in the necessary
production capacity.
Importers must be given guaranteed
access to export supplies even during episodes of global market
volatility.Broader and more transparent trading arrangements will lead to wider
sharing of market information, reducing the uncertainty and miscalculations
that are the real cause of price volatility.The sharp global rice price hike in
2008, for example, could have been avoided if Vietnamese rice traders had not
hedged against higher export prices by sitting on their rice stocks, prompting
the Philippines to counterhedge by buying excessive amounts of rice abroad.
In the long run, greater rice trade
will encourage the emergence of new rice exporters, such as Myanmar and
Cambodia, which share the natural advantages of their bigger neighbors in
Indochina.
The instinct to protect one’s rice
sector is almost visceral and not just in the Philippines. Rice (followed by
sugar) is mentioned most often on the short lists of tariffable (and almost
always agricultural) items that Asean members are allowed to exempt from
intraregional free trade. Any progress made toward opening up and deepening
regional rice trade can only be a collective achievement.
Repurposing NFA
As the region opens up its rice
trade, the Philippines must make difficult choices about the different ways its
rice farmers have been protected by government. In particular, the country’s
grain agency, the NFA, must decide whether it should continue to play two roles
from among its multiple mandates:
Should the NFA continue to be the
country’s sole authorized importer of rice?
Should the NFA continue to provide
price support—whether to rice farmers or rice consumers—that piles on ever
larger amounts of subsidies and debt?
The first one is a
command-and-control role that rarely does well in a market-driven economy.
Consider that the NFA and its Vietnamese counterpart, Vinafood 2, together
account for about half of the region’s rice trade. Any miscalculation by one or
the other, or both, tends to be magnified and prolonged, as in 2008.
Open market
By comparison, in a truly open
market, the dynamic interaction between many private importers and many sellers
converges into an equilibrium price that truly reflects the underlying scarcity
of rice. This continuous exchange of information among many players also
stabilizes the price and minimizes its volatility over time.This in turn allows
those players to make reasonable and long-term commitments and investments.
The same market pricing dynamic
applies to the local production and distribution of rice. As subsidies are
phased out, the NFA can also seek a “financial restart” by shifting the burden
of its accumulated debt over to government.
With more and cheaper imports,
“economic surplus” will return to our consumers from our farmers. Some of that
surplus can be recycled back to the farmers, e.g. by using some of the
additional tariff revenues from higher imports to fund a
conditional-cash-transfer program for the neediest farmers, or to help finance
the redirection of their activity and resources toward nonrice, higher-value
and perhaps, exportable crops.
Smaller NFA role
This leaves the NFA with a
potentially smaller set of restricted roles:
Maintain buffer rice stocks (both
imported and locally grown) in support of domestic disaster response and
poverty alleviation.Provide logistical services in remote areas with poorly
developed supply chains, while pursuing market upgrading in other areas (e.g.
by establishing negotiable warehouse receipts).Other regulatory oversight, e.g.
monitor rice purchase agreements, enforce rice grades and standards, and
license legitimate rice importers (without applying import ceilings).
In short, “rice security through
self-sufficiency” is a false mantra. The proper policy choices are to seek rice
security on behalf of the majority of consumers; rely on open trade with our
rice-exporting neighbors to deliver most of that security; maintain buffer
stocks against the unexpected; and support our rice farmers with direct
livelihood assistance as well as long-term productivity improvement through
technology and extension programs.
(Roehlano M. Briones, Ph.D., is
a senior research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
Gary Olivar is a banking and political consultant. They wish to acknowledge
valuable research insights from Ramon Clarete, Ph.D., former dean of the
University of the Philippines School of Economics. All three are fellows of
Foundation for Economic Freedom, an advocacy for free-market reforms supported
by good governance.)
http://opinion.inquirer.net/87039/rice-security-or-self-sufficiency
Philippines to import more rice as El Nino worry persists
July 26, 2015
RECORDER REPORT
The Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers, could
ship in more to boost buffer stocks and keep local prices stable because of an
El Nino dry weather pattern now forecast to last until next year, potentially
hurting the local harvest. "The economic managers have
indicated that they are reassessing the rice supply-demand conditions for the
rest of the year (to see) if there is a need to do another importation,"
Zeno Ronald Abenoja, director at the Department of Economic Research of the
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said on Thursday.
The central bank is represented in the National Food Authority
Council (NFA), which approves rice imports. Purchases this year have reached 750,000 tonnes - 550,000 tonnes
from Vietnam and the rest from Thailand. The NFA has permission from President
Benigno Aquino to import an additional 250,000 tonnes if drought conditions
worsen and hurt local rice production. Timely imports of the staple have
prevented a repeat of last year's spike in rice prices caused by damage to
supply chains from Super Typhoon Haiyan in late 2013.
Food prices have a weighting of 39 percent in the consumer price
index. Central bank Governor Amando Tetangco, in an interview with
Reuters on Tuesday, said he saw no need to alter monetary policy settings for
now but cited the potential threat of an extended El Nino as one of the reasons
to be careful. Inflation is expected to inch up later in the year, after
slowing to a two-decade low in June, due to the potential impact of the
worsening dry spell and possible adjustments to electricity prices. Latest government data shows local rice prices have fallen around
5 percent from a year earlier.
The expectation now is for
the domestic harvest to be "lean" in the third quarter before
rebounding in the final three months, Abenoja said. The Philippines' weather
bureau forecasts a "moderate" El Nino that is likely to intensify and
last until early next year. Private rice traders have also been given
permission to import 805,200 tonnes of rice with a tariff of 35 percent, although
so far they have applied to ship in only about 300,000 tonnes.
http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1210908/
Rice bug menace haunts Nalgonda villagers
A woman removing bugs from rice in Nalgonda district.
Rice bugs (red flour beetle and
rice weevil) are making life miserable for the villagers living in the
surroundings of rice godowns in district.Since these bugs in godowns live by
feeding food grains like rice, lentils, wheat and others, they are also
invading the nearby houses, particularly during the evenings.As the district is
famous for paddy production and paraboiled rice mills, a huge quantity of paddy
is milled here. While the district alone produces 7 lakh to 10 lakh metric
tonnes of paddy every season, the millers too purchase rice from other
districts and bring it here for milling. Apart from that, these godowns also
house rice to be supplied to Food Corporation of India and to be distributed
through the Civil Supplies Department to white ration card holders.A week ago,
villagers of Shilarmiyagudem and Kothagudem villagers staged a protest near
Thipparthy, accusing the godown owners of taking no measures to control the
bugs.
Speaking to The Hindu , Sk Usenbi, said spraying of
chemicals and covering the rice bags with tarpaulins would control the menace
to a great extent but the godown owners did not act so far despite lodging
several complaints.It is not only the case of these two villages, a host of
villages around Miryalaguda have also lodged complaints with the Revenue
Divisional Officer in Miryalagda seeking action against these erring
managements of the godowns.The villagers living near Bhongir and Bibinagar have
also submitted representations to Bhongir Revenue Divisional Officer and sought
action against the owners.Another woman from Kothegudem village, Gugulothu
Sujatha, said they always have to keep their doors and windows closed during
the nights fearing the bugs.
Official blames
godown owners
Kishan Rao, Revenue Divisional
Officer of Miryalaguda, observed that there is a visible negligence on part of
godown owners since they did not cover the windows of godowns and fails to
spray chemicals in regular intervals.“I have written to the District Civil Supplies
Manager seeking action against them. I have also instructed the local
Tehsildars to inspect these godowns and prepare a report on violations,” Mr.
Rao said.However, he agreed that the villagers are suffering from rice bug
menace.
A week ago, villagers staged a protest near Thipparthy, accusing
godown owners of taking no measures to control the problem
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/rice-bug-menace-haunts-nalgonda-villagers/article7466519.ece
Granger to address rice conference
Amid rising concerns over the rice industry with the looming end of
a lucrative Venezuelan deal, President David Granger is on Monday expected to
address paddy farmers and rice millers on the way forward.The Government
Information Agency (GINA) said the President is scheduled to deliver the
feature address at the opening of the National Rice Industry Conference, to be
held at the Arthur Chung International Convention Centre, at Liliendaal. He is
also expected to outline the new government’s plan for the rice industry.
GINA said that the conference will be held under the…to continue
reading this article,
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2015/news/stories/07/25/granger-to-address-rice-conference-2/
Pilgrims our guests’
STAFF
REPORTER
It was a mega serving of about
one lakh pilgrims a day during the 12-day Godavari Maha Pushkaram-2015. From
breakfast to dinner, delicious and hygienic food was served to the pilgrims
every day by over half a dozen service organisations. Pilgrims coming from
distant places to take a holy dip in the Vasishta Godavari during the
Pushkaralu were served breakfast, lunch and snacks from morning to evening by
different organisations.
Using the public address systems,
the organisers invited the pilgrims to visit their venue to have food. West
Godavari Rice Millers Association, Arya Vysya Welfare Association and West
Godavari Kshatriya Parishad engaged in serving lunch with different delicacies
to the visiting public, organisations like Jain Samaj and Sri Y.N. College
involved in providing breakfast in the morning and snacks in the evening to the
devotees. “We feel we are honoured to serve the devotees, who came from far
away place to have a holy dip here,” says Ch. Sriranga Raju, president of the
rice millers’ body. “They are our guests and we have to treat them with
respect,” he adds.
On-going
rains to hinder rice exports
Published: July 25, 2015
REAP Chairman Rafique Suleman
also held the government responsible for the declining exports. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: Recent
rains may adversely affect the rice crop and result in a further drop in exports,
stated the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP).
“Pakistan’s
rice exports have already come down from $2 billion to $1.85 billion, and it is
feared that this figure may further decline due to the on-going monsoon rains
in the country,” said REAP Chairman Rafique Suleman.
On another note, Suleman also held the
government responsible for the declining exports as it is doing very little to
support research and development (R&D) in the sector.“Different rice
producing governments are focusing on their R&D including our neighbours
like India and Bangladesh. On the other hand, here, authorities are approving
housing schemes on the land of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC)
Islamabad,” he said.He called the agriculture sector the backbone of the
Pakistani economy, and stressed prime research centres to work actively with
full state-of-the-art technologies so that exports may be increased and maximum
foreign exchange earned.
He said such actions would prove detrimental
for national agriculture and put the country back many decades back and affect
not only productivity but exports as well.“For years, the government has been
giving mnimum attention to the sector and not providing due funds,” noted
Suleman, adding that many international research institutes were located inside
the NARC Campus and its closure or relocation would affect Pakistan’s
credibility throughout the world.REAP urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
Minister for Commerce, Minister for National Food Security and Research to give
priority to food security in the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 25th,
2015.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/926040/on-going-rains-to-hinder-rice-exports/
Rice sector wary of EU-Vietnam deal
Mon, 27 July 2015
As Vietnam and the European Union
reach the final stages of negotiating a bilateral trade agreement, giving
Cambodia’s neighbour zero-duty exports to the economic bloc, local rice millers
and exporters have expressed concerns that the deal could hurt the Kingdom’s
rice exports.Under the proposed EU-Vietnam Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (EU-V
BFTA), the EU may import around 76,000 tonnes of rice, mostly husked and milled,
from Vietnam at zero per cent duty, according to Oryza, an industry
publication.Song Saran, president of Amru Rice (Cambodia), said he was
concerned if the EU-V BFTA went ahead, as it would be a big crisis for the
country’s rice industry.
“If it is materialises, Cambodia would face a big challenge to
compete with Vietnam and it will lose certain market share,” Saran said.“In the
short-term, it will limit growth in rice production and exports, as well as the
investment needed to improve the sector,” he added.Currently, the European
Union (EU) imports rice and other products duty-free from least developed
countries under the Everything But Arms policy.Of the rice exports to the EU
under this policy, Cambodia accounts for 22 per cent and Myanmar three per cent.If
Cambodia needs to maintain or increase the 250,000 tonnes its exports to the
EU, Saran said it will have to improve its production capacity and logistical
services to remain competitive.
“To get more volume, we need better expanding our dryer,
warehouse, and reserve funds to purchase the rice paddy during the harvest, “he
said, “Farmers should improve paddy production yield and quality.”To do so,
Saran said, it require the government should provide financing to boost stocks
of paddy for export with low interest, building the warehouse and dryer
machines, reducing cost for farmers in rice farming, accessing the direct
market among farmers and rice millers, and coordinating the cost reduction on
transportation among trucking companies and exporters to explore the cost
effective and reduce transportation fee.According to David Vann, former senior
advisor to Cambodia Rice Federation, starting this October the EU will import
10,000 tonnes of rice duty-free from Vietnam.
“That is just the start and once the 10,000 tonnes quota is
achieved, they would renew and would add more tonnage subsequently.”Given the
size of Cambodia’s exports to the EU – which is 60 per cent or 172,000 tonnes
according to the Ministry of Agriculture – Vann said that it would be advisable
to expedite diversification to other markets.Independent economist Srey Chanthy
said that despite tough competition from Vietnam, Cambodia could increase focus
on the niche market of fragrant rice – a variety that is not grown in Vietnam
currently.“Cambodia should also double efforts to diversify to other Asian
markets, like China and Malaysia, and Africa, which remains a much untapped
destination,” he said. “That would drive us to be less dependent on the EU
market.”
Image:A man unloads a bag of rice at an export warehouse in
Phnom Penh earlier this month.Vireak Mai
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-sector-wary-eu-vietnam-deal
Express Recipes:
How to make Raw Mango Rice
This one has
subtle flavours - raw mango and coconut. It makes for a delicious breakfast, a
nice change from Poha and upma.
Raw Mango Rice recipe
I love the way South Indian cuisine celebrates the humble rice –
so many flavours and all so delicious – tomato rice, lemon rice, tamarind rice,
mango rice etc. This one has subtle flavours – raw mango and coconut. It makes
for a delicious breakfast, a nice change from Poha and upma.
Add a side of raita and you have a light and healthy complete
meal.
Raw-Mango Rice (Kachchi Kairi Pulav)
Preparation Time: 5 mins | Cooking Time: 15 mins| Serves 2
Preparation Time: 5 mins | Cooking Time: 15 mins| Serves 2
Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice (you can use any long grain rice of your choice)
½ tsp ghee
1 raw mango, grated (~1 cup after grating)
5-6 curry leaves
2 tbsp peanuts
Salt to taste
1 cup basmati rice (you can use any long grain rice of your choice)
½ tsp ghee1 raw mango, grated (~1 cup after grating)
5-6 curry leaves
2 tbsp peanuts
Salt to taste
Ingredients for spice mix:
1 tsp mustard seeds
¼ tsp asafoetida powder
3 dry red chilies, broken
¼ tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp grated coconut powder
1 tsp mustard seeds
¼ tsp asafoetida powder
3 dry red chilies, broken
¼ tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp grated coconut powder
Ingredients for tempering:
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp Bengal gram daal
1 dry red chili, halved
Poppadoms/ papad of your choice
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp Bengal gram daal
1 dry red chili, halved
Poppadoms/ papad of your choice
Method
* Wash and soak rice in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes
* Wash and soak rice in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes
* Add ghee and salt to the rice and cook (with the 2 cups of
water it was soaked in) in an open sauce pan, on low flame till the water is
over and rice is cooked.
* While the rice is getting cooked; grind together all the ingredients
for the spice mix and half of the grated raw mango in a mortar and pestle to
make a coarse paste.
* In a broad non-stick wok, heat 2 tbsps of olive oil and add
all the ingredients for tempering (mustard seeds, Bengal gram daal and dried
red chili)
* When the mustard seeds start to sputter, add the peanuts and
curry leaves. Saute for a minute and add the remaining half grated raw mango.
Mix well and cook for a couple of minutes.
* Now add the spice mix and cook for 4-5 minutes, with frequent
stirring.
* Remove from heat and stir in the cooked rice – a little at a
time and mix with a light hand taking care not to break or mash the rice.
* Serve with roasted papad of your choice.
Food is never just food. I believe it’s story telling, it’s
conversation. It brings people together and it speaks a universal language! I
love to play around in my kitchen. The thrill of being able to create something
new and sharing it with others is what fuels my passion for cooking. The fact
that dear husband is a foodie and an honest critique helps! I blog about my
adventures in the kitchen athttp://www.myweekendkitchen.in/
http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/food-wine/express-recipes-how-to-make-raw-mango-rice/#sthash.tFuz2DGE.dpufa
Rice disease-resistance discovery closes the loop for
scientific integrity
Written by Pamela
Ronald
Published: 26 July 2015
Davis, California - When disease-resistant rice is invaded by
disease-causing bacteria, a small protein produced by the bacteria betrays the
invader. Upon recognizing that protein, the rice plants sense that a microbial
attack is underway and are able to mount an immune response to fend off
bacterial infection, reports a research team led by the University of
California, Davis.Identification of the tiny protein, called RaxX, holds
promise for developing more disease-resistant crop varieties and therapeutic treatments
for blocking microbial infections in both plants and animals, said the
researchers, who found particular satisfaction in this discovery, two years
after retracting the announcement of a similar find.Results of the new study
are reported July 24 in Science Advances, an open-access journal published by
the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The paper is available
online from the journal at http://bit.ly/1OmytAd.
Discovery unlocks clues to
disease protection
In this new study, researchers discovered that the RaxX protein
was present in at least eight species of the disease-causing Xanthamonas
bacteria that are known to attack rice — the staple food for half of the
world’s population — as well as maize, cassava, sugar cane, tomatoes, peppers,
wheat, alfalfa, onions, banana and citrus.“Our research team is delighted to
announce the discovery of the RaxX protein, a new class of microbial signaling
molecules," said Pamela Ronald, a professor of plant pathology, who
directed the study.
Ronald noted that her laboratory is currently investigating the
role of RaxX during bacterial infection of rice in the absence of the immune
receptor.The researchers have noticed that RaxX closely resembles a class of
plant signaling factors that promote growth and modulate the immune response.
They suspect that the bacteria could be mimicking these natural plant-signaling
factors to inhibit the plant immune response and thereby enhance the
competitiveness of the bacteria.In the long term, the researchers hope to use
this information to develop new strategies to prevent infection in various
crops.
New findings have special
significance
Publication of the new study is particularly poignant for Ronald
and lead co-authors Rory Pruitt and Benjamin Schwessinger, because it brings
the research team full circle in correcting unintentional errors that led the
Ronald lab in 2009 to misidentify the protein now known to be RaxX.Pruitt and
Schwessinger both worked on the new study as postdoctoral scholars in the
Ronald lab, and Schwessinger is now an independent research fellow at the
Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.
Ronald’s laboratory has been studying rice genetics and disease
resistance for more than two decades and in 1995 announced that a gene called
Xa21 confers resistance to the bacterial blight pathogen. Bacterial blight, one
of the worst bacterial plant diseases in the world, has been found in virtually
every crop species including rice.The discovery of Xa21 was widely acclaimed by
the scientific community and sparked further research into other key parts of
the disease-resistance puzzle. Researchers were confident that if Xa21 produced
a “receptor” in the plant cell that was capable of recognizing and thwarting a
bacterial invasion, there must be a complementary protein in the bacteria that
triggered that immune response in the plant.In 2009 the Ronald lab announced
discovery of a bacterial protein called Ax21, which their research indicated
was the protein that triggers the immune response by the Xa21 plant receptor.
A second related study,
based on identification of Ax21, was published in 2011.Then in 2013, as
researchers in the Ronald lab began repeating the earlier experiments in
preparation for a new study, they discovered that a bacterial strain had been
mislabeled in the previous work and that one of the tests used in the earlier
study turned out to be quite variable. These errors had led to the
misidentification of Ax21 as the bacterial protein that sparks an immune
response by the Xa21 receptor in the plant cells.
After finding the errors, Ronald retracted two papers from her
laboratory about this research, published in 2009 and 2011 in the journals PLOS
One and Science, respectively. She chronicled the story of that process in an
October 2013 Scientific American blog posting titled, “Lab Life: The Anatomy of
a Retraction,” which can be found at http://bit.ly/1KdEDli.In tandem with this
week’s announcement of the RaxX protein, Ronald and her laboratory colleagues
have prepared a new posting for the Scientific American blog, which tells the
story of the new discovery and the closure it brings in setting the scientific
record straight. It is scheduled for posting on July 24, concurrent with
publication of the new study in Science Advances.
Collaborators and funders
Collaborating with Ronald, Schwessinger and Pruitt on the new
study were researchers from UC Davis; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory;
University of Tübingen, Germany; University of Texas at Austin; UC Irvine; and
the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India.Funding for the study
was provided by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of
Energy, the European Molecular Biology Association, the Human Frontiers Science
Program, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India, the Welch
Foundation, and Monsanto’s Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program.
UC's Global Food Initiative
UC Davis is participating in UC’s Global Food Initiative
launched by UC President Janet Napolitano, harnessing the collective power of
UC to help feed the world and steer it on the path to sustainability.
http://www.imperialvalleynews.com/index.php/news/california-news/4463-rice-disease-resistance-discovery-closes-the-loop-for-scientific-integrity.html
Study: GMO rice could reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Rafiq Maqbool
India Agriculture
An Indian farmer uses a pair of
bulls to plough a paddy field as another prepares rice saplings for replanting
during monsoon rains on the outskirts of Mumbai, Maharashtra state, India,
Tuesday, July 21, 2015.
Posted: Saturday, July 25,
2015 10:09 pm
By Sasha Harris-Lovett/Los Angeles Times (TNS)
More than half of the people on the
planet eat rice as a staple food. Growing rice emits methane, a potent
greenhouse gas — to the tune of 25 million to 100 million metric tons of
methane every year, a notable contribution to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.As
the world's 
population grows and needs more food, the problem is likely to get
worse, but genetic engineering could help, a new study reports. By transferring
a barley gene into a rice plant, scientists have created a new variety of rice
that produces less methane while still making highly starchy, productive seeds.
The development of the new rice strain is described this week in the journal
Nature.Finding a way to boost rice production while reducing methane emissions
has been a goal for many years, said Chuanxin Sun, a plant biologist at the
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the lead author of the study.
By engineering barley genes into the rice plant, "we demonstrated it's
possible to get these two traits with this technology," he said.When rice
paddies are flooded, methane-producing bacteria thrive on the carbohydrates
secreted by rice roots in the oxygen-free soils. The rice plant itself acts as
a conduit, transmitting methane from the soil into the atmosphere.
population grows and needs more food, the problem is likely to get
worse, but genetic engineering could help, a new study reports. By transferring
a barley gene into a rice plant, scientists have created a new variety of rice
that produces less methane while still making highly starchy, productive seeds.
The development of the new rice strain is described this week in the journal
Nature.Finding a way to boost rice production while reducing methane emissions
has been a goal for many years, said Chuanxin Sun, a plant biologist at the
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the lead author of the study.
By engineering barley genes into the rice plant, "we demonstrated it's
possible to get these two traits with this technology," he said.When rice
paddies are flooded, methane-producing bacteria thrive on the carbohydrates
secreted by rice roots in the oxygen-free soils. The rice plant itself acts as
a conduit, transmitting methane from the soil into the atmosphere.
Methane traps heat in the
atmosphere with devastating efficiency: Over 20 years, it is 84 times stronger
than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, according to the most recent
assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Sun and his team
transferred barley genes that cause high-starch production in rice grains and
stems. Based on previous research that proposed that rice plants with smaller
root systems could produce less methane, the researchers hoped that the genetic
transfer would cause their rice plants to allocate less energy toward growing
roots and more toward making robust grains.
Then they planted a handful of
their genetically engineered rice plants alongside conventionally grown
Nipponbare rice in the laboratory and in two field settings in China.Near the
end of the growing season, in summer and fall, the researchers measured how
much methane each plant emitted by covering it with a sealed plastic cylinder
and using a syringe to extract the accumulated gasses in the trapped air. They
also measured how much starch the plants allocated to their seeds, stems and
roots, and how many methane-producing bacteria lived around the plant roots.As
they suspected, the genetically engineered rice grew smaller root systems and
starchier grains than conventional rice. Far fewer methane-producing bacteria
hugged the roots of the new rice. And the new rice variety emitted less than 10
percent of the methane of conventional rice, they reported.
The genetically modified rice
variety provides "a tremendous opportunity for more-sustainable rice
cultivation," Paul Bodelier, a microbial ecologist at the Netherlands
Institute of Ecology, wrote in an essay that accompanied that research
article.Previous techniques for reducing methane emissions from rice paddies
involve alternating flooding with dry periods, said Bruce Linquist, a plant
scientist at the University of California, Davis, who specializes in rice
cultivation and was not involved in the study.Although these techniques can cut
methane emissions in half, they also can reduce the plants' productivity.
Additionally, in a lot of places where rice is grown, you can't control when
rice paddies are wet or dry because irrigation is based on seasonal rains and
floods, he said.
The research is too preliminary to
make solid conclusions about methane emissions from the genetically engineered
rice, Linquist added. More research about how much methane whole rice paddies
(and not just individual plants) emit over the entire growing season is
necessary, he said. In addition, the new rice plants' smaller root systems
could make it difficult for the crop to uptake nutrients."It needs to be
tested more in the field," he said.Even if the new rice variety does prove
to reduce methane emissions on a larger scale, there are still barriers to it
being grown and sold. Genetically engineered rice isn't commercially cultivated
anywhere in the world, in part because of ethical and biological concerns about
the spread of engineered rice pollen, experts said."There's not a market
for it," Linquist said.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/business/study-gmo-rice-could-reduce-greenhouse-gas-emissions/article_8bac75f2-3354-11e5-80f8-6f83e06ff721.html
Bacolod food establishments urged to serve brown rice
Monday,
July 27, 2015
THE City Council of Bacolod
passed a resolution urging the City Agriculture Office and the City Health
Office to encourage food establishments in Bacolod City to offer brown rice as
part of their regular menu.Authored by Councilor Sonya Verdeflor, the
resolution cited Section 15, Article II of the 1987 Philippine Constitution,
which provides that, “the state shall protect and promote the right to health
of the people and instill health consciousness among them.”Cognizant and
supportive to the rice self-sufficiency program of the national government, the
city of Bacolod is exploring viable means that would facilitate the attainment
of the said program.
The government is desirous of
improving the nutritional value of rice as a staple food. Brown rice or
unpolished rice is the whole grain form of rice and is therefore nutritionally
superior than white rice in terms of protein, dietary fiber, B1, B2 and B9
vitamins, and Vitamin E, minerals and antioxidants.According to some
researches, brown rice or unpolished rice could help reduce the incidence of
type 2 diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases, and could lower blood pressure.Brown
rice or unpolished rice has higher milling recovery than white rice and therefore
could help in the attainment of rice self-sufficiency.The Department of
Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) is spearheading a
campaign called “Be RICEponsible” to promote better health and at the same time
help in the achievement of rice self-sufficiency through the promotion of brown
rice.
Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on July 27, 2015.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/local-news/2015/07/27/bacolod-food-establishments-urged-serve-brown-rice-421212
'No alternative to raising
production for food security'
RANGPUR, July 26 (BSS): There is
no alternative way to increase agricultural production under adverse impacts of
climate change to ensure food security.Agriculture Secretary Shyamol Kanti
Ghosh said this while addressing to the officials, scientists, researchers and
experts of different agriculture related departments, institutions and research
organisations here on Saturday as chief guest at a view sharing meeting.The
meeting was arranged at the conference room of the On-Farm Research Division
(OFRD) of Rangpur Station of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI).
Director General of BARI Dr Rafikul Islam Mandal presided over the
views-sharing meeting.Rangpur Regional Additional Director of the Department of
Agriculture Extension (DAE) Mohammad Mohsin and Member of the Board of
Governance of the BARI Khalilur Rahman Mandal addressed the meeting as the
special guests.
Chief Scientific Officer of the
OFRD of BARI from Gazipur Dr Mahbubur Rahman Khan delivered the welcome speech
while its Principal Scientific Officer of the OFRD for Rangpur Station Dr
Mazharul Anwar narrated the field level activities.Senior officials,
scientists, researchers and experts of the DAE, Seed Certification Agency, Soil
Resource Development Institute, Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation,
Agriculture Marketing Department, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute,
Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, Bangladesh Nuclear Agriculture Research
Institute, Barind Multipurpose Development Authorities, Cotton Development
Board, Tazhat Agriculture Training Institute, Integrated Agriculture
Productivity Project, Integrated Farm management Component, Agriculture
Information Service and NGOs participated.
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2015/07/27/101650
حالیہ بارشوں اور سیلاب سے چاول کی ملکی برآمدات میں کمی کا
خدشہ
25 جولائی 2015 (15:54)
اسلام آباد (یو این پی) حالیہ بارشوں اور سیلاب سے چاول کی ملکی
برآمدات میں کمی کا خدشہ ہے۔ رائس ایکسپورٹرز ایسوسی ایشن آف پاکستان ( ریپ) کے
چیئرمین رفیق سلیمان نے کہا ہے کہ چاول کی ملکی برآمدات 2 ارب ڈالر سالانہ سے کم
ہو کر ایک ارب 85 کروڑ ڈالر ہوگئی ہے جبکہ حالیہ بارشوں اور سیلاب سے اس کی ملکی
برآمدات میں مزید کمی کا خدشہ ہے۔ رفیق سلیمان نے کہا ہے کہ شعبہ کی ترقی اور ملکی
برآمدات کے فروغ کیلئے ریسرچ اینڈ ڈویلپمنٹ کے شعبہ پر خصوصی توجہ کی ضرورت ہے
انہوں نے اعلیٰ حکام سے درخواست کی کہ شعبہ میں تحقیق اور ترقی کے لئے جامع حکمت
عملی مرتبہ کی جائے تاکہ ملکی برآمدات کے فروغ سے زرعی شعبہ کی ترقی کو یقینی
بنایا جاسکے۔
