| 23rd January,2020 Daily Global Regional and Local Rice E-Newsletter https://app.box.com/s/ror89kb3axefm6wu27ty6253m8m6lpn8 |
Wheat shortage
Who has made a killing?
Whoever
is responsible for the wheat shortage, is responsible for a lot of misery. The
jump in the price of the nation’s principle staple has not led to famine, but
could easily do so. It should not be forgotten that, as recently as World War
II, there was a terrible famine in Bengal. That was probably caused by exports
of rice from India to the UK. That decision took place because the British
government feared shortages for its fighting forces in the midst of a war. A
similar reason seems to prevail at present, though the justification is not a
war, but the greed of people also powerful enough to get permission to export
wheat. The blame game between the central and Sindh governments seems to boil
down to the export of what were actually buffer stocks.
Wheat
is harvested once a year in Pakistan, in Rabi (the staple in Kharif being
rice). At the time of harvest, when the new wheat arrives to the market, prices
are at their lowest. Prices gradually rise until the new crop is due to arrive.
They do not rise catastrophically, because the federal and provincial
governments release wheat stocks to millers which they have purchased at the
time of the harvest. It appears this buffer was exported. The government has
taken a novel approach: it insists that there is no shortage. This is the line
taken by the Planning Minister as well as the Food Security Minister. However,
the very decision to import wheat, which was taken to calm the markets and
bring down prices, shows that there is a serious problem.
Even before the wheat crisis is
over, there is a sugar crisis looming. Though not a staple, sugar is the only
sweetener available to people. Again, the cause is supposed to be an
over-enthusiasm to export. It makes no sense to earn foreign exchange by
exporting, only to spend that foreign exchange on importing wheat or sugar
later. There are arising cries from all quarters for a thorough probe. The
government should conduct one, so that if there are any persons in the
government who connived at these shortages, they should be unmasked and
punished. In this way, the government will show that it is as committed to good
governance as it claims.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/01/22/wheat-shortage/
From Pakistan to the Caribbean: Curry's journey around the world
Kate Springer, CNN • Updated 23rd January
2020
Curry around the world: Curry is not a single spice, nor is it related to the namesake
curry tree (though the leaves are used in many dishes in India). The catch-all
umbrella term refers to a "spiced meat, fish or vegetable stew"
either freshly prepared as a powder or spice paste or purchased as a ready-made
mixture," writes Colleen Sen in her book "Curry: A Global History."
Shutterstock
(CNN) — In 2019, ubiquitous Japanese curry house chain CoCo Ichibanya
restaurant announced plans to bring its popular "curry rice" to India in
2020.
It might seem counter-intuitive to eat CoCo Ichibanya's relatively
mild, sweet Japanese dish in the land of curry.
But the move underscores the sheer variety and complexity of curry
-- a word that's long been misunderstood.
Curry is not a single spice, nor is it related to the namesake
curry tree (though the leaves are used in many dishes in India).
The catch-all umbrella term refers to a "spiced meat, fish or
vegetable stew," either freshly prepared as a powder or spice paste or
purchased as a ready-made mixture," writes Colleen Sen in her book "Curry: A Global History."
According to Sen's book, the word curry most likely comes from a
misunderstanding of the southern Indian word "kari," which
"denoted a spiced dish of sauteed vegetables and meat."
"In the 17th century, the Portuguese [who colonized Goa in
western India] took the word to mean a 'spiced stew' over rice and 'kari'
eventually became 'caril' or 'caree' in Portuguese, then 'curry' in
English," Sen tells CNN Travel.
Curry, which is thought to have originated as early as 2500 BCE in
what is modern-day Pakistan, has since evolved into a truly global food, having
traveled the world through colonization and immigration, indentured labor,
trade and entrepreneurship.
Today, curry is everywhere, from chicken tikka masala in the UK to
fiery green curry in Thailand, kare raisu in Japan and curry goat in Jamaica.
"I don't think there's a place in the world that doesn't have
some kind of curry," says Sen.
If you're a curry lover, follow your cravings around the world by
heading to these 12 destinations:
India
Butter chicken curry with basmati rice and limes.
Shutterstock
Indian cuisine is incredibly diverse and complex, with local specialties
and traditions varying from state to state and community to community.
It's impossible to sum up India's various "curries" in a
few lines. But if there's one dish that can be found on menus across the
country, it'd be murgh makhani -- better known around the world as butter
chicken.
This famous dish -- created by chef and restaurateur Kundan Lal
Gujral in New Delhi in 1948 -- stars yogurt-marinated chicken baked in a
tandoor oven, then smothered in a rich creamy sauce of tomatoes, onions and
spices.
Vindaloo is another famous export and a must-try when in its
hometown of Goa. Derived from the Portuguese phrase, "vinha d'alhos"
(meaning meat marinated in garlic and wine vinegar), this hot and spicy dish is
traditionally made with pork, vinegar, tomato, onion, red chillies, garlic and
a complicated spice mix.
Other delicious curry dishes include: Fragrant, creamy korma (a
once imperial Mughal dish made with a yogurt sauce, turmeric and nut paste);
rogan josh (an aromatic curry usually made with slow-cooked lamb or mutton);
sweet and sour dhansak lentil curry from the Parsi community; chickpea-centric
chana masala (masala meaning "a mix of ground spices"); peppery saag
with mustard greens from northern India; maacher jhol fish curry from West
Bengal; and warming rajma masala from the Punjab region.
Japan
Japan's thick and mellow curry usually features chunks
of stewed beef, onions and carrots over a bed of rice.
JNTO
Typically mild and thick, Japanese curry, kare raisu, is eaten
across the country and even considered a de facto national dish, alongside
ramen.
"In a survey, the Japanese named curry rice as one of their
three favorite home-cooked dishes, while Japanese schoolchildren voted it the
best meal served in the lunch program," says Sen.
"It is the Japanese version of comfort food, with no
pretensions to class or elegance."
Curry has a long history in the country, thought to have been
introduced by British officers and merchants in the 1800s.
"At the beginning of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) Japanese ports
were first opened to foreigners," explains Sen.
"The Japanese military wanted to encourage meat consumption
as a way of building up the strength of Japanese youth, and curry with rice was
an ideal way to incorporate vegetables, rice and meat into one inexpensive yet
substantial meal."
Related content
Usually cooked with pre-made spice mixes or curry roux, Japan's
thick and mellow variation usually features chunks of stewed beef, onions and
carrots over a bed of rice.
Some curry blends, such as the popular Vermont Curry, also
incorporate honey and grated apple to add sweetness.
Another common incarnation of curry in Japan is the ever-satisfying
katsu karē, a hearty dish of crispy fried pork cutlets (called tonkatsu) and a
thick, brown gravy over rice.
"Japanese curry is very interesting to me -- it's the
antithesis of Japanese food, which is so elegant and beautifully
presented," adds Sen.
"The curry is just a mess of brown sauce, but the Japanese
just love it. It's the epitome of home cooking."
The Caribbean
A plate of Jamaican curried goat, served with
traditional rice and peas.
Shutterstock
In the Caribbean, curry is particularly prevalent in former
British colonies such as Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Guyana and Trinidad
and Tobago.
The arrival of curry in the region can be traced back to the
mid-1800s, after the British Empire abolished slavery in 1833 and freed more
than 800,000 African slaves around the world.
Since liberated slaves were no longer willing to work on sugar
cane plantations, the British enlisted indentured laborers from the Indian
subcontinent -- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri
Lanka -- to make up for the labor shortage.
According to Sen's book, 1.5 million Indians migrated to other
parts of the British Empire between 1834 and 1917, including 114,000 to
Trinidad and Tobago and 36,000 to Jamaica.
The mass migration resulted in an influx of new cooking
techniques, ingredients and dishes, including curry.
In Trinidad and Tobago, curry has "become a symbol of
national identity" over the past two centuries.
Curry dishes commonly feature crab, shrimp, duck, chickpeas,
potatoes -- and lobster for celebrations -- as well as cumin-heavy sauces and
roti on the side.
"In Trinidad, they use different spices based on what they
have," says Sen. "So you see a lot of cumin, coriander, fenugreek [a
herb similar to clover] and turmeric in a typical Trinidadian spice
mixture."
Likewise, in Jamaica, a mix of British and Indian influence gave
rise to a localized variety of curry goat -- the island's most popular curry
dish.
Prepared on special occasions, curry goat is tender and aromatic,
thanks to ingredients like coconut milk, garlic, onion, allspice, thyme, Scotch
bonnet chilli peppers, tomatoes and lots of turmeric for a sunny yellow hue.
Thailand
Thailand's curry dishes often include coconut milk.
courtesy Mark Wiens
During the fourth century, Indian traders and Buddhist
missionaries are thought to have disseminated spices and herbs like tamarind
and garlic, shallots, ginger and lemongrass across Southeast Asia.
Later, in the 16th century, the Portuguese introduced chilli
peppers -- now a staple ingredient in Thai food.
Over time, Thai people incorporated these ingredients into their
own dishes, which gave rise to the country's famously aromatic, spicy curries.
Often made with coconut milk, Thai curry dishes vary across the
country. Generally speaking, you'll see more drier varieties up north and
wetter variations in central Thailand and down south, where coconut milk is
more common.
Thai curries (or "gaeng" in Thai) come in a stoplight of
colors -- red, yellow and green -- and strive to strike a balance between
sweet, sour, salty and spicy.
Setting them apart, Thai curries typically contain fermented
shrimp paste, as well as lemon juice, palm sugar and holy basil.
Of course, Thailand has more than just three types of curries --
these are just the basics.
Look for ultra-fiery khua kling dry beef curry from southern
Thailand; rich, peanutty massaman curry that's common near the border with
Malaysia; and panang curry, a slightly sweeter, milder variation of red curry,
and dozens more.
Sri Lanka
Parippu, or dhal curry, is a staple in any Sri Lankan
restaurant or household.
Mark Wiens/cnn
As a major link along ancient spice trade routes and a former
British colony, Sri Lanka has a long relationship with curry.
"In the 19th century, the British established tea, cinnamon,
rubber, sugar, coffee and indigo plantations on the island and brought in
thousands of indentured laborers from Tamil Nadu [in southern India] to work on
them," explains Sen.
In addition, the island is also home to millions of Sinhalese
people, an ethnic group who emigrated from northern India thousands of years
ago.
Thanks to influences from both the Sinhalese and southern Indian
communities, curry comes in a rainbow of colors, from bright yellow to creamy
white, bright red and rich brown.
Though flavors vary widely, curries often make use of ingredients
like coconut milk, tamarind, Maldivian fish, green chili, mustard seed,
coriander and cumin.
Among the many types of curries, look for popular varieties like
parippu (dhal curry), polos (green jackfruit curry), rich red kukul mas
(chicken curry), white chicken curry (usually made with aromatic lemongrass and
pandan leaves) and ambul thiyal (sour fish curry).
To get the lay of the culinary land, sit down for "rice and
curry."
This staple Sri Lankan meal includes rice, at least one curry, and
anywhere from four to 12 side dishes of chutney, pickles and sambol (spicy
condiments).
Related content
Pakistan
Pakistan's
cuisine is heavily influenced by the Mughals (a Muslim dynasty that ruled India
from 16th to 18th century).
Established in 1947 following the end of British colonial rule and
the violent partition of India, Pakistan sees strong influences from the
Mughals (a Muslim dynasty that ruled India from the early 16th to the mid-18th
century) in its cuisine.
This majority Muslim country tends to prepare dishes with beef,
chicken or fish as well as lots of spices, such as nutmeg, cumin, turmeric, bay
leaves, cardamom and black pepper.
Curry is incredibly popular, with dozens of varieties on offer all
over the country, from famous slow-cooked haleem (a stew-like dish of wheat,
barley, meat, lentils and spices) to spicy karahi (made with garlic, spices,
vinegar, tomatoes and onions with mutton or chicken), bitter gourd curry, saag
(a spiced puree of spinach and mustard greens), chickpea curry and daal chawal,
a must-try comfort food usually served with rice or roti.
The list doesn't end there: Don't miss a warming aloo gosht (meat
and potato curry); hearty, rich mutton korma; lobia daal (black-eyed peas
curry); and goat paya, a slow-cooked curry starring incredibly tender trotters.
Maldives
Mas riha is a popular Maldivian fish curry.
Shutterstock
The small island nation of the Maldives has a rich culinary scene
that includes lots of curry.
Revolving around a trio of staple ingredients -- coconut, fish and
various starches -- Maldivian food has been highly influenced by centuries of
trade with India, Africa and the Middle East.
When it comes to curry, you can expect hot and spicy creations
that often feature seafood and tropical fruit.
Typically consumed with rice or roshi flatbread, mas riha (fish
curry) is one of the most common types of localized curries.
Creamy and decadent, this delicious dish is typically made with
coconut milk, fresh chilies, cinnamon, a mix of spices and chunks of diced
tuna.
Sweet and sour anbu riha (mango tuna curry) is another highlight,
as is kukulhu riha (chicken curry).
You'll also find a wide variety of vegetarian curries, from
eggplant to pumpkin, potato, cauliflower and green banana.
Bunny chow is a dish of Indian origin, made uniquely
African. In the self-declared capital of African curry, Durban's claim on the
dish runs deep.
In highly diverse South Africa, curry (or "kerries") can
be traced to colonial times.
After the Dutch East India Company set up a settlement on the cape
to facilitate trade between Europe and Southeast Asia in the mid-1600s, they
shipped in slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar and India, who collectively formed
the Cape Malay ethnic community.
Fusing their own traditions with readily available spices, Cape
Malay cooks developed several styles of sweet and savory curries, from
tomato-infused chicken curry to slow-cooked lamb curry.
Later, the British took over the cape and relocated hundreds of
thousands of indentured workers from southern India to work on plantations.
Their influential cooking style gave rise to much-loved Durban
curry -- a fiery, oily and robust red curry that's often made with lamb,
chicken, fish and crab.
A few decades later, a wave of businessmen from India's western Gujarat
state moved to South Africa, where many set up spice shops and restaurants.
These entrepreneurs are credited for the famous "bunny
cho" -- essentially a bread bowl filled with curry and topped with Indian
pickles.
"One explanation of its name is that in Durban, Indian
merchants were often called 'banias,' the name of a caste of traders,"
explains Sen.
These traders opened small restaurants which, because of
apartheid, black people couldn't enter -- but they could illegally be served at
the back door. "The dish was named bunny chow, from 'bania chow,'"
explains Sen.
Malaysia
Chicken curry kapitan is made from tamarind juice,
candlenuts, fresh turmeric root and belacan (shrimp paste.)
Darshini Kandasamy
Due to its position along the Strait of Malacca, an important
maritime trade route between east and west, Malaysia's culinary traditions have
been influenced by centuries of cultural exchange.
From the late 1700s, Britain had a presence in several parts of
present-day Malaysia and Singapore.
As with its many other trading ports and colonies, the British
hired laborers from India to work on rubber and palm plantations.
With the immigrants came curry. Tangy fish head curry,
Tamil-influenced chicken varuval, warming dalcha lentil curry ... Malaysia's
curries are as delicious as they are diverse.
Nyonya cuisine -- dishes created by the Straits-Chinese community
-- also plays an important role in Malaysia's culinary melting pot.
One of the best known Nyonya curries is kari ayam (bone-in chicken
curry) which features a mix of Chinese techniques and Malaysian ingredients,
including shrimp paste, coconut milk, star anise, cinnamon, fish sauce, kaffir
lime, turmeric, ginger and more.
Sen also points to curry chicken kapitan, which sees pieces of
chicken sauteed in curry paste then simmered in coconut milk, tangy tamarind
water and aromatic cinnamon.
Another popular dish that's enjoyed across Malaysia and Indonesia,
particularly during holidays and festivals, is rendang.
Well known around the world, this relatively dry curry dish is
made with beef or chicken braised in a sauce of coconut milk, lemongrass,
ginger, and cinnamon for an ultra-tender texture.
Indonesia
Rich and spicy gulai is a popular Indonesia curry dish.
Melanie Wood/CNN
Like Malaysia, Indonesia sees notable influences from Indian,
Chinese and Middle Eastern food traditions thanks to centuries of international
trade and colonization.
The sheer variety of curries across the nation's 17,000-some
islands is astounding, with dishes evolving based on whatever local meats and
vegetables are available.
Depending on which region you're exploring, look for dishes like
gulai kambing (a rich, spicy coconut milk-based lamb curry), kari ayam (chicken
curry), and world-famous rendang.
To try a few curries in one go, a nasi padang experience is your
best bet.
At this buffet-like meal, you can choose a sampling of spicy
sambals and curries -- like gulai otak (brain curry), gulai kepala ikan (fish
head curry) in a creamy coconut sauce, and gulai cubadak (unripe jackfruit curry).
South Korea
Curry tteokbokki is made with rice and fish cakes,
veggies and eggs.
courtesy Korean Tourism Organization
In South Korea, curry is said to have begun making an appearance
in the cuisine after World War II.
Before and during the war, Japan controlled Korea and roughly 2.4
million Korean people lived in Japan.
"Many had migrated during the 1920s; some were taken as
forced labor before and during World War II," explains Sen. "After
Japan's surrender, most were repatriated to Korea -- only about 600,000
remained."
While in Japan, Koreans became familiar with many local foods,
including curry, and later tried to recreate the recipes at home.
Curry proliferated after a company called Ottogi produced
ready-to-make curry powders and instant curries in the 1960s.
Since then, Sen says curry rice (a stew of beef, carrots, potatoes
and onions over rice) and curry tteokbokki -- a stew-like gravy with tteok (rice
cakes), fish cakes, vegetables and eggs -- have become two of the most popular
home-cooked meals.
Related content
The UK
Tikka Masala is believed to have been invented in the
UK.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
Owing to its long relationship with India, the UK has been putting
its own spin on curry since the 18th century .
Curry-like dishes and other Indian fare began appearing on coffee
house menus after members of the British colonial administration who lived in
India returned home and craved a taste of their life abroad.
Around the same time, inventive merchants bottled up pre-mixed curry
powders and exported them across the empire.
In 1810, the first dedicated curry house, Hindoostane Coffee
House, opened its doors in Marylebone, London, and though it did not succeed,
curry houses became increasingly common.
Related content
Curry further cemented itself as part of British food traditions
after the arrival of tens of thousands of Indian immigrants in the early 20th
century and, later, an influx of Bangladeshi immigrants in the 1970s -- many of
whom set up restaurants.
"Curry is hugely popular in the UK," says Sen. "The
Brits really love it -- they invented tikka masala there, because India has
been a part of the British psyche for so long."
Today, curry remains an unofficial national dish -- it's so
popular, the country celebrates National Curry Week every October.
Whether you're at a casual curry house after a night out or an
upscale Indian restaurant, choose from anglo-Indian variations of spicy
vindaloos, mild and creamy chicken tikka masala, tomato-packed Madras curries,
rogan josh, red-hot chicken jalfrezi and creamy korma.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/curry-origins-history/index.html
Lessons from China
On 10th January 2020, a
glittering function was held in The Great Hall of the People in Beijing with
several thousand dignitaries. It was presided over by Chinese President Xi
Jinping.
Present were also the prime
minister, the deputy prime minister, other cabinet ministers and all top
scientists of China. The function was held to honour top scientists of China
and the world. The highest scientific award of China, the International Science
and Technology Collaboration Award, was conferred on 10 foreign scientists. I
was one of those chosen to receive this honour from President Xi himself, the
first scientist from the Islamic world to be decorated.
The journey that led to this
award started in 1974 with my first visit to China. I delivered a lecture at
the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and met a science giant of China,
Prof Wang Yu, who had succeeded in carrying out the first synthesis of insulin,
in the face of fierce US competition. Over the years we have developed
collaborations with China in many fields. These include AI with the Shenzhen
Institute of Advanced Technologies and Guandong University, Hybrid Rice Seed
Production with the China National Rice Research Institute, and Virology with
the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
These collaborations have
led to many joint discoveries including an exciting Chinese herbal drug which
was tested at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences at
the University of Karachi for its activity against Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and found to be as effective as ampicillin. It will
soon be marketed in Pakistan.
This was not my first
meeting with President Xi of China. In 2017, I was formally inducted by him in
the same space as an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a unique
honour, and in 2014 I received the highest award of China for foreigners, the
Friendship Award from him.
Another humbling experience
was the inauguration of a six-storey research building in my name on October
24, 2019 at a special function that corresponded with a huge international
conference at the Hunan University of Chinese Medicine in Changsha. The
research centre was named the ‘Academician Professor Atta-ur-Rahman One Belt
and One Road Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Research Center’. The function
in China was attended by our Federal Minister of Science and Technology Fawad
Hussain Chaudhry.
My linkages with China over
the last 45 years have given me an opportunity to study the developments in
China in some depth. The reforms in science institutions were three pronged.
First, the funding system to science institutions was reformed and scientists
were forced to carry out contract research for private enterprises, offer
consultancy services and undertake entrepreneurial activities so that science
had an impact on society.
Applied research was
encouraged through incentives such as licensing of technology developed by
institutions, establishing onsite manufacturing operations and creating
technology based spinoffs. Public funding was directed towards basic research
only in strategic high-technology industries.
Second, emphasis was given
to proper R&D management. The improvements included measures such as
decentralization of decision-making, change in the evaluation criteria for
measuring efficiency, fostering competition among organizations and
diversifying their activities.
The third prong was to
establish efficient linkages. Public-sector funding was offered to
manufacturing industries for supporting R&D and for providing strong
technical assistance from universities and research institutions.
The vision to use science
and technology as engines for socio-economic development was reflected in
funding allocations. China has now overtaken the US in terms of R&D
expenditure. While R&D spending in the US grew only by 4.3 percent annually
from 2000 to 2017, it grew by more than 17 percent annually in China during the
same period. According to a report in the world’s leading science journal
‘Nature’ earlier this month: “The United States accounted for 25 percent of the
US$2.2 trillion spent on R&D worldwide in 2017, and China made up 23
percent. Preliminary data from 2019 suggest that China has already surpassed
the United States in R&D spending”.
The remarkable GDP growth
rate of 8-11 percent of China has been based on the massive investments made in
the development of highly skilled manpower. China is sending about 600,000 students
to top universities of the world each year and about 500,0000 are now returning
after PhDs or postdoctoral training each year and joining the workforce. The
result is a mind-boggling rate of progress of China, particularly in the new
and disruptive technologies that are predicted to have a global impact of over
100 trillion US dollars over the next ten years.
We must start a similar
programme to send at least 10,000 students annually to top universities of the
world. There must be jobs in universities and R&D institutes on their
return. We must offer excellent salaries, research funding and infrastructure
to attract them back as was done by us from 2002 to 2008. This will allow us to
develop top centres of excellence in emerging technologies that can lay the
foundations of the high-tech industry in Pakistan.
The path adopted by China
has many lessons for us. Nations are not built by just building roads or
houses. It is only through education, science, technology and innovation that
we can march forward. Our single focus should be to manufacture and export high
technology products. Science Minister Fawad Chaudhry and I met China’s Minister
of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang on October 21, 2019.
My proposal that a joint
China-Pakistan Committee be set up for the manufacture and export of
high-technology products involving Chinese and Pakistani industries was
enthusiastically accepted. The Chinese minister immediately nominated his
member of the committee. This could be a game-changer for Pakistan if we can
persuade leading Chinese industries to establish manufacturing operations in
Pakistan under the CPEC initiative.
The snowball effect could
change the fate of the country as CPEC could be the venue of the production and
export of engineering goods, electronics, automobiles, aircraft,
pharmaceuticals, industrial alloys, pharmaceuticals etc. To achieve this
objective we must do whatever it takes. This should include offer of free land
to joint manufacturing units, 50 percent discount on electricity and gas rates,
a 15-year tax holiday, and insurance against disruption of industrial
production due to the law and order situation.
Our prime minister and our
Minister of Planning should carefully consider these suggestions. The path to
socio-economic development lies only in education, science, technology and
innovation and there are many lessons in this respect that we can learn from
China.
The writer is the
formerchairman of the HEC, andpresident of the Network of Academies of Science
of OIC Countries (NASIC). Email: ibne_sina@hotmail.com
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/602149-lessons-from-china
Seeds of Hope
India’s premier farm research and education
institute has a full-time director after nearly four years.
New IARI director Ashok Kumar Singh with a farmer
It is an institution whose blockbuster varieties account for
more than 95% of the country’s Rs 32,800-crore annual basmati rice export
revenues, nearly half of its total wheat area, and a quarter of that sown under
mustard. Yet, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI, better known as
Pusa Institute) has an annual research budget of just over Rs 111 crore and,
moreover, was without a regular director for almost four years until late last
week.
Scientists at this premier constituent institute of the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) are behind the development of improved
basmati paddy varieties such as Pusa-1121, Pusa-1509, Pusa Basmati-1, Pusa-1401
and, more recently, Pusa-1718 and Pusa-1637 that are resistant to bacterial
blight and blast fungus diseases.
According to Commerce Ministry data, India’s basmati rice
exports were worth $ 4.71 billion (Rs 32,804.30 crore) in 2018-19. Out of the
total estimated 19.39 lakh hectares (lh) area planted under basmati in 2019,
the major share was of IARI varieties, including Pusa-1121 (9.41 lh), Pusa-1509
(4.86 lh), Pusa-1401 (1.57 lh) and Pusa Basmati-1 (1.49 lh). Their combined
contribution to basmati shipments in value terms would have exceeded 95%.
No less has been IARI’s role in breeding the dwarf wheat
varieties that produced India’s Green Revolution — from Kalyan Sona and
Sonalika in the mid-sixties to HD-2285 (released in 1982) and HD-2329 (1985) —
and also the newer generation high-yielding and rust-resistant HD-2967 (2011),
HD-3086 (2013), HDCSW-18 (2016) and HD-3226 (2019). The last two
“climate-smart” varieties have been specifically bred for conservation
agriculture — sowing directly on fields containing leftover paddy stubble
without recourse to burning — and are also amenable to early sowing (by last
week of October) for harvesting by end-March (to withstand any spike in
temperatures or premature onset of summer).
The IARI wheat varieties, again, cover some 140 lh out of the
country’s average area of 300 lh. These include HD-2967 (70 lh), HD-3086 (30
lh) and others grown in 20 lh each of Central (HI-1544, HI-1605, HD-2932,
HI-8663, HI-8713, HI-8759 and HI-8737) and Eastern India (HD-2733, HD-2851,
HD-3059 and HI-1500). Given their higher yields, they would easily have a more
than 50% share of India’s annual wheat production of 100 million tonnes.
IARI’s research fields have, likewise, given a host of
rapeseed-mustard varieties (Pusa Bold, Pusa Jaikisan, Pusa Vijay, and Pusa
Mustard-25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30) that cover 25% of the roughly 65 lh area
under this most widely-cultivated indigenous oilseed. A more recent
breakthrough has been Pusa Double Zero Mustard-31, a “canola-grade” variety
whose oil contains very low levels of glucosinolates (the source of pungency)
and erucic acid (linked to cardiac muscle impairment risks). If the IARI
varieties in other crops are included — chana or chickpea (BG-256 and BG-3062,
which yields 2.4-2.5 tonnes per hectare and is also suitable for mechanised
harvesting), vegetables (Pusa Ruby tomato, Pusa Purple Long brinjal and Pusa
Sawani okra) and mango (Amrapali and Mallika) — it adds up to a substantial and
tangible contribution.
The irony, however, is that IARI’s budget for 2019-20 is a mere
Rs 570.35 crore, of which only Rs 20.65 crore is dedicated towards research and
the rest going towards meeting salary, pension, maintenance and other
administrative expenses. Apart from the budget support of Rs 20.65 crore for
research, IARI is raising Rs 91 crore through externally funded projects —
mainly from other government bodies (Department of Biotechnology, Science &
Technology and Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation and some private contract research.
The silver lining is that the venerable institution — which also
has a post-graduate school with about 820 PhD and 320 MSc & MTech students
— is not headless now: Ashok Kumar Singh was appointed as full-time director on
January 18, nearly four years after Trilochan Mohapatra had left to become
director-general of ICAR on February 22, 2016.
Previously head of IARI’s Division of Genetics, Dr Singh is
primarily a paddy breeder who was actively involved in developing the basmati
varieties — especially Pusa-1121 (the world’s longest cooked rice grain) and
Pusa-1509 (the most water-saving high-yielding aromatic rice, with a
seed-to-grain duration of just 115-120 days) — that have led to India’s exports
zooming from $ 433.73 million in 2003-04 to $ 4.71 billion in 2018-19.
“Resource generation is going to be a priority for me,” Dr Singh
tells The Indian Express.
He identifies three sources from where this could come. The first is royalty on
seeds from IARI-bred varieties. “For wheat, farmers generally sow 100 kg per
hectare and the seed price is about Rs 40/kg. In paddy, it is 15 kg per
hectare, with the price at Rs 70/kg for basmati and Rs 40-50/kg for non-basmati
varieties. Why cannot we be given some part of that price as royalty?,” he
asks.
IARI supplies breeder seeds of its varieties that are multiplied
into foundation and further to certified seeds for sale to farmers. One quintal
of breeder paddy seeds typically results in 150 quintals of foundation, which,
in turn, yields 22,500 quintals (150*150) of certified seeds. “Right now, the
indents from state governments and seed companies, both public and private
sector, come to us through the Union Agriculture Ministry and we have to make
the breeder material available accordingly. There should be a Pusa Beej (seed)
royalty. Even if it is small, the potential revenue is huge, given the sheer
area covered by our varieties,” points out Dr Singh.
A similar mechanism can be worked out for levying a cess on the
produce of Pusa varieties arriving in mandis and on export of basmati rice from
the country. “The monies from all this would ultimately be ploughed back for
breeding and research work. Farmers will be the last to object,” he adds.
What are going to be IARI’s new research focus areas? “Breeding
for nutrition will certainly receive attention. We have recently released Pusa
Vivek QPM9 Improved, a hybrid maize rich in pro-vitamin A as well as lysine and
tryptophan (essential amino acids). There is also Pusa-1201, an iron and zinc
fortified bajra (pearl-millet). Normal bajra has 30 mg/kg of iron, which is
twice in our bio-fortified variety. Instead of spending Rs 4 on an iron capsule
containing 20 mg, you can get thrice that from bio-fortified bajra. The government
can incentivise farmers to grow the variety by paying a higher minimum support
price and include it under the public distribution system,” suggests Dr Singh.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pusa-iari-agriculture-research-seeds-of-hope-6230739/
Bayer and neonicotinoids in Japan
Phil Carter
| 23rd
January 2020
German pesticide manufacturer Bayer attempted to discredit the
rigorous peer-reviewed study that proved that its products caused a fishery to
collapse in Japan.
I still remember the only
dragonfly I saw in the rice-fields near the Arakawa River in Saitama
Prefecture, Japan in 2019. It was large, with a rust-brown body and it
paused for a moment, balancing on the air, before darting away.
I had observed the rice
cultivation there all year, from when the pesticides were sprayed on the crop
until the harvest, and dragonflies and other insects were conspicuous by their
absence.
In Japan, as in rice-fields
worldwide, spraying is usually with broad-spectrum neonicotinoid pesticides or
else fipronil, both developed by German chemical company Bayer. Neonicotinoids
are the subject of a ban for outdoor use in the European Union and fipronil,
which is now marketed by another company, has been banned in China.
Dead zone
The May 2019 newsletter of the
Saitama Ecosystem Conservation Society describes how, before the introduction
of these chemicals in the 1990s, numberless brilliant red akiakane or autumn darter dragonflies could
be seen around rice fields in the fall.
These dragonflies, which have
their larval nymph stage in the water of rice paddy fields, are an eye-catching
indicator species for other water insects in the ricefield ecosystem. Some are
considered by farmers as pests, and the powerful insecticides from Bayer
offered a solution - but in doing so the rice fields became a dead zone
except for the rice plants.
Experiments by Japanese dragonfly
expert Tetsuyuki Ueda of Ishikawa Prefectural University showed how the
pesticides reduced the number of surviving dragonfly nymphs to a small
fraction, and that they persist for years in the soil of rice paddy fields.
In addition, the poison was
getting into the rivers, and in Lake Shinji in Shimane Prefecture in the west
of the main Japanese island of Honshu, it accumulated. Lake Shinji is
surrounded by rice paddy fields, and in November 2019 a team of Japanese
scientists led by Dr. Masumi Yamamuro published a study in the prestigious
peer-reviewed journal Science showing how the important fishery there collapsed after the
introduction of Bayer’s pesticides, and has not recovered.
Nearly 300 tons of smelt was
caught annual in the late 1980s, but since 1993 - when neonicotinoids were
introduced in the lake watershed - the smelt catch collapsed to zero and
has stayed there.
The study explored different
possible reasons for the collapse and clearly demonstrated that it was due to
several types of neonicotinoid poison that had killed the insects the fish feed
on.
Integrity
While Japan is a wealthy country
with other food supplies, Yamamuro’s team said that the same thing was almost
certainly happening in rice farming countries worldwide. This conclusion has
chilling implications for poorer countries where Bayer does business, and the
loss of a fishery can be literally life or death for local people.
In a statement by email, Bayer
spokesperson Carlota Gomez said that Bayer’s CSR sets high standards: “Raising
the bar in transparency, sustainability and engagement with all stakeholders
including the scientific community with integrity and respect.”
However, Gomez repeated Bayer’s
earlier dismissal of Yamamuro’s study, as reported by Douglas Main writing
for National Geographic. Gomez said that it was wrong due to the “scientific methods
and data interpretation.”
No evidence or details were
offered as to why the study, which was painstaking and careful in its
methods and conclusions, was mistaken.
Yamamuro, who has a Ph.D. from
the University of Tokyo, explained by email that the strict peer review process
for Science took seven months, with the journal sending the
study to two anonymous reviewers, whose criticisms had to be answered before
the journal would publish.
Disinformation
In a world that has become used
to terms like “fake news” and “alternative facts”, peer-reviewed results of
studies by reputed scientists may be considered as truth when multiple reports
give the same result.
The unfounded and repeated claim
by Bayer that the methods and conclusions of the Lake Shinji study are
wrong is therefore part of a continuing disinformation campaign against
scientists that criticise the company, with the sole aim of maximizing profits
for shareholders.
The implications are ominous. The
scrupulous study by Yamamuro’s team has brought a terrifying new word into
focus that is likely to be attached by future generations to Bayer in much the
same way as climate change denial has been to the fossil fuel industry. The
word is “trophic cascade”, describing how the loss of the insects at the bottom
of the food chain leads inevitably to the collapse of everything dependent on
it.
However, Bayer has so far felt
safe to ignore this hard reality, perhaps thinking that there is no economic
impact, and there is no sign the company is taking the issue seriously.
On the contrary, Bayer appealed
to the European Court of Justice against the European Union’s ban on all
outdoor use of neonicotinoids, losing in May 2018 when the court ruled that it
was an appropriate application of the precautionary principle. Peer-reviewed
studies that were bitterly disputed by Bayer linked the chemicals to
declining bee populations.
Deformities
In Japan, the chemicals remain in
use, and Jun Hoshikawa of Act Beyond Trust, an NGO that campaigns against
systemic pesticides, said by email that Japan has weak laws because Bayer and
other pesticide manufacturers have a strong influence the regulatory process.
Yamamuro’s team showed the
effects of this combined lobbying and sales effort clearly, with sales of
neonicotinoids increasing four-fold from 2000 to 2016 in Shimane Prefecture
where Lake Shinji is located. The study also points to a cumulative effect of
different kinds of neonicotinoid making them even more dangerous.
To the south of Lake Shinji on
the west coast of the Japanese island of Kyushu, the town of Minamata and the
chemical company Chisso Corporation became synonymous with horrific human
consequences of a trophic cascade due to denial of chemical pollution.
For decades from the 1930s,
organic mercury was discharged by Chisso into the ocean, contaminating the
fish. A series of terrible birth deformities due to local people eating the
fish was memorably recorded by the photographer W. Eugene Smith.
Scientific studies showed a
likely link with Chisso, but the company disputed the link and refused to
voluntarily stop the discharge. Eventually, under international pressure due to
Smith’s photographs, the Japanese government enacted strict pollution control
laws in the 1970s and the pollution, and the deformities, ended.
Responsibility
Is Bayer’s published Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) policy simply in place to distract from the
business of making money from ecosystem-wide devastation? The evidence
points in this direction.
The CSR section of the company’s
website talks about their commitment to the environment. It states: “In
the course of our business activities, we aim to use natural resources
responsibly and respect biodiversity”. But the reality is one of
relentlessly trying to undermine and discredit any reports, including
peer-reviewed studies, that show the company’s products harm the environment.
Their propaganda mirrors methods
that have been honed to an art form by petrochemical companies’ denial of
climate change, following Chisso Corporation’s denials in Japan over Minamata
disease. However, terrible though the deformities of Minamata disease were, the
effects of the new wave of greenwashing are likely to be much graver.
The world depends on insects, and
multiple studies show that insect populations are disappearing. Long-term
studies are crucial to understanding this because insects can reproduce rapidly
in response to favorable conditions, but an emerging consensus is that a mass
extinction event is underway and that broad-spectrum systemic pesticides
including neonicotinoids are a major cause.
University of California
professor Art Shapiro, who has carried out one of the longest continuous
studies of butterflies in California over 47 years, is reported as saying
that a long-term decline is occurring and pinpoints a major decline that
occurred in the 1990s at the same time as neonicotinoid pesticides came into
widespread use. This is the same as Yamamuro’s team found in Lake Shinji and
dragonfly experts have found elsewhere in Japan.
Trophic cascade
Bayer spokesperson Gomez said:
“We do acknowledge that a decline of insect abundance is currently being
reported from various parts of the world.”
However, Gomez categorically rejected
any role played by Bayer’s products, saying: “There is no evidence which would
point to pesticides as a key factor” and further, “there is no evidence of a
causal link between the decline of insects and the use of neonicotinoids in
agriculture.”
I believe this is a
misleading statement given the increasing number of conscientious
peer-reviewed studies, such as the one by Yamamuro’s team, which show the
opposite.
Meanwhile, in a sign that a
trophic cascade is indeed underway across Japan, another peer-reviewed study by
Satoe Kasahara and Kazuo Koyama published in the journal Ornithological Science in 2010 shows that birds
using rice fields suffered a long-term decline in numbers from 1996 to 2009.
They say that changes in
cultivation methods in rice fields are a likely factor, which points to the
introduction of neonicotinoids that began around 1993.
Return
On the island of Kyushu to the
south of the toxic waste site that Lake Shinji has become, protected from the
chemical companies by the laws related to Aso-Kuju National Park, I learned
about rice farming without pesticides.
The Kuju Home Village Nature
School (Kuju Furusato Shizen Gakko), is a nature center in a protected area high in the mountains
of central Kyushu which maintains traditional rice farming methods to pass them
to future generations.
Walking around the grass at the
edge of the rice paddy, startled frogs jump into the water. According to
Hideyuki Abe of the center, eight species of dragonfly were observed in 2019
including the iconic autumn darter. The center maintains its rice field in the
rhythm of the seasons as people have for two thousand years in Japan, patiently
educating children and the public about what they have lost.
The red dragonflies return in the
autumn, a brilliant signal that all is well with the ecosystem and the aquatic
insects that form the basis of the food chain and fisheries in surrounding
rivers and lakes.
Will the Japanese people wake up
from the hypnotism of corporate disinformation and spin to realize what has
happened and demand action as they did after the Minamata tragedy, allowing the
dragonflies to return to the rest of Japan?
This Author
Phil Carter is a freelance
environmental journalist based in Saitama, Japan.
New survey results reveal the experts and public's attitude towards
gene-edited crops
Their findings were published on
November 5th, 2019 in Palgrave Communications.
The authors conducted
experimental web-based surveys to obtain clearer understanding of both experts
and public perception of the benefits, risks and value of utilizing gene
editing technology for the breeding of crops compared to other technologies.
Participants for surveys consisted of 3,197 volunteers of the lay public and
scientists with and without expertise in molecular
biology.
According to the study,
participants who had expert knowledge of molecular biology perceived emerging
technologies to offer the lowest risk and highest benefits or value for food
application, while lay public showed the highest risk and lowest benefit.
Experts from other disciplines had similar perceptions to the lay public in
terms of the risk, but similar perceptions to the molecular biology experts in
terms of value. The lay public tended to perceive gene-edited crops as being
both more beneficial and valuable than other genetically modified crops, while
also posing less risk. Even though the differences in perception between gene
editing and genetic modification was very small compared to the differences in
perception between genetic modification and conventional plant breeding
techniques, obtaining such results from the participants living in Japan, may
hold great potential for this emerging technology.
Tomato is a fine model plant among biologists.
Credit: Naoko Kato-Nitta, the Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research
and The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tokyo, Japan.
Additionally, "the results
enabled us to elucidate the deficit model's boundary conditions in science
communication by proposing two new hypotheses," said Kato-Nitta. The
model's assumption is that as scientific knowledge increases, so too does
public acceptance of new technologies. "Firstly, this assumption was valid
only for conventional science, knowledge of which can be acquired through
classroom education, but not valid for emerging science, such as gene editing,
knowledge on which may be acquired mainly through informal learning,"
Kato-Nitta said. "Secondly, the model's assumption on emerging science is
valid only for increasing benefit perceptions but not for reducing risk
perceptions."
Food scarcity is becoming a
worldwide problem and the famine is frequently found in many regions on the
earth. One of the major reasons for this is the rapid increase of the global
population which has reached 7.7 billion, and is still growing, whereas areas
of farmable land have been continuingly decreasing because of reasons such as
extensive industrial or urban development, extended droughts and other extreme
weather conditions. To compensate with the increasing needs for crops,
enhancement of production through breeding has also been a powerful tool for
farmers to produce more crop products from their limited resources in addition
to the extensive usage of fertilizers and pesticides. Recent development of
recombinant DNA technology, which is commonly called genetic engineering
technology, and its adaptation to crops are believed to speed up the
time-consuming breeding processes and to widen the range of genetic features to
the original plants such as enhancement of nutritional value, resistance to
drought, frost, or pests, for example.
The gene editing technology has
been very tantalizing for molecular biologists, and in theory offers
significant potential to improve global food security; however, there are many
people who are not convinced and remain somewhat skeptical, preferring to take
a more cautious approach to how we produce the food that ultimately goes into
our bodies and which significantly contributes to our overall health and
well-being.
There are two viewpoints
concerning gene editing. The first, known as product-based policy, views gene
editing as technology through which no foreign genetic material is added, that
is more similar to conventional plant breeding procedure than genetic
modification. The second, known as process-based policy views gene editing
similar to that of genetic modification, as both require genetic manipulation
to achieve the desired results, but gene editing can just do so quicker. In
their study, experts in molecular biology tended to adopt product-based policy,
while non-specialists tended to take the process-based policy.
For many, the potential benefits
associated with utilizing these unconventional plant breeding methods are not
worth the potential risks. But are these attitudes and beliefs influenced by
lack of sufficient scientific knowledge of the subject, and can they be changed
if the information is passed on from experts in an effort to improve public
scientific literacy? This concept, which is known as the deficit model of science
communication, attributes public
skepticism of science and technology to a lack of understanding, arising from
lack of scientific literacy or knowledge on the subject. Their research
statistically elucidates where such explanation types are valid and where they
are not.
According to Kato-Nitta, their
findings suggest that people perceive gene editing to have greater potential
than genetic modification, especially in terms of the benefit aspects of
utilizing this technology. "We still have to be cautious in terms of
people's attitude toward the risk and value aspects associated with this
technology," she noted. "In the survey, the experts in other field
perceived even more risk in gene editing than genetic
modification in terms of
"Possibility of misusing this technology."
"I hope my research will
help to narrow the gap between scientific experts and the public." said
Kato-Nitta. "The scientific experts need to understand the diverse range
of people outside their domain-specific community. I am currently working on
developing a new model on public communication of science and technology that
can explain the key factors that affect various facets of people's attitudes
toward emerging science more comprehensively than the previous studies have
done."
We must sustain local rice consumption
Business News of Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Source: Daily Graphic
Daily Graphic Editorial
This is particularly so when, in the recent past, locally produced rice never had space in the rice demand equation in a country where emphasis was placed on imported rice.
Ghanaians never had faith in locally produced rice because it was seen as inferior to its preferred foreign counterpart, which enjoyed monopoly until now.
That situation led to financial institutions shying away from supporting the local rice value chain operators, thereby constraining local operators from operating at full capacity because of lack of funds.
The situation got the point where the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, had to intervene and set up a Rice Technical Team, made up of the MoFA, the Ministry of Finance, rice importers, rice processors and rice millers, to discuss the way forward to ending the importation of rice and making the country attain rice sufficiency by 2022.
The Daily Graphic lauds the initiative to set up the Rice Technical Team, which has the potential to save the millions of dollars used to import rice from outside.
This surely resonates with the Presidents Ghana Beyond Aid agenda and must be pursued vigorously to achieve rice sufficiency in the country. We believe this is doable.
For instance, in 2017, out of the 1,089,000 metric tonnes (MT) of rice consumed in the country, only 433,000MT was produced locally and we had to import about 656,000MT to be able to meet the national demand.
In 2018, out of over 1.12million metric tonnes of national demand, only 456,000MT was produced locally, leaving an excess of about 665,670MT to be supplied from importation.
But the story changed in 2019 when MoFA stepped in to provide subsided improved seeds and fertilizer for rice farmers.
Following the intervention, the quantity of locally produced rice jumped to 784,875MT, leaving a deficit of just 370,445MT.
It is projected that by 2021, locally produced rice will exceed one million metric tonnes and we will be required to top up with only 47,554MT in order to meet the national rice demand, while in 2022 we will need to import only 3,073MT to meet the national demand for rice.
Indeed, the MoFA has projected that by 2023 Ghana would have met its rice demand, with an excess of 365,302MT for export. As a nation, we must continue taking steps to promote the consumption of local rice to put money in the pockets of our hardworking farmers. What we have forgotten is that the more rice we import, the richer foreign farmers become, while our own rice farmers become poorer.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, urges both the MoFA and the Ministry of Finance to support rice farmers to be able to secure funding from financial institutions to be able to increase their production and also for the milers to be able to increase their production and also for the millers to be able to off-take paddy rice at the farms.
The claim by local rice millers that they could not meet the market demand for locally milled rice during the Yuletide should be worrying news to those who believe in Ghana.
We know for a fact that the local millers could not meet the market demand not because there was no paddy rice mill but that the millers did not have enough funds to off-take all the paddy rice from farmers.
We believe that this is the time to resource rice millers with funding facilities to enable them to mill all the rice produced locally. The MoFA and the Ministry of Finance should serve as collateral for farmers to assess funding from the financial institutions which demand collateral and other facilities before giving out loans to these farmers.
This is the time to sustain the interest in local rice and the onus is on MoFA and the Ministry of Finance to support the farmers and those in the rice value chain to keep up the momentum.
This is the only way we can realise the President’s Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
Supply
constraints threaten to disrupt rice prices
MANILA,
Philippines — The relatively stable prices of rice in the local market may
suddenly spiral out of control after Vietnam and Thailand the country’s two
biggest rice suppliers decided to cut exports of the staple.
Former
Butil Farmers party-list Rep. Cecil Chavez has warned that the Philippines may
be at the losing end once its ASEAN neighbors start to reduce exports to
prioritize their own rice requirements.
“No
one seems to be paying attention to these grim developments on the rice supply
front. There should be a strong, coordinated response to supply woes and the
now-reduced paddy production in our own country,” Chavez said.
Instead,
what we are seeing is either indifference or complacency,” she said.
VietnamNet
Global reported that Vietnam’s rice sector is facing difficulties this year
amid strong volatility on production, demand and prices. The country’s land use
for growing rice is also seen to reduce.Production is expected to
decline by as much as seven percent to 41.5 million metric tons due to water supply
and weather disturbance problems and farmers’ decision to shift to more
profitable crops.
Hanoi
was the Philippines’ biggest rice supplier in 2019 where 2.1 million MT of
the Philippines’ total three million MT rice imports were shipped from
Vietnamese ports.
On
the other hand, the United States Department of Agriculture sees Thai rice
exports declining to the lowest level in seven years as supplies fall and
prices remain high.
USDA
said the strengthening of Thailand’s currency has also affected exports with the
baht now at a six-year high.
Thailand
competes with more competitive Indian and Vietnamese rice, which are priced
about 20 percent lower.
“Looking
ahead to 2020, Thailand’s export prospects are grim. Lower demand from key
markets and uncompetitive pricing, compounded with a severe drought, are
expected to decimate offseason rice production. With tighter supplies, Thai
exports are likely to remain at low levels,” USDA said.
Chavez
said the country is now facing a “horrible trifecta” of rice supply problems
with the expected reduction of exports from Thailand and Vietnam.
This
is also exacerbated by local farmers’ decision to discontinue rice
farming.
“The
grand illusion that there will always be cheap and ample rice on the global
market has been shattered. And this confidence was the main argument for the
passage of the rice tariffication law last year,” Chavez said.
The
law led to the opening up of the market to cheap rice imports which resulted in
lower palay farm gate prices in several rice-producing areas.
https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/01/23/1986939/supply-constraints-threaten-disrupt-rice-prices
A growing problem: Nigerian rice farmers fall short after borders
close
· JANUARY 23, 2020 / 1:42 PM
MAKURDI, Nigeria (Reuters) -
Thomas Tyavwva Maji is planting rice on more of his land in Nigeria’s Benue
State than ever to take advantage of a surge in prices since the country shut
its land borders in August.
FILE PHOTO: Farmers are seen threshing harvested rice in Benue,
Nigeria December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
But he says he cannot go much further.
With no machinery or irrigation, limited manual labor and no spare cash for
fertilizers, the 45-year-old is not expecting any dramatic change in his
fortunes. “We work until we
get exhausted, manually we get exhausted,” said Maji, as a woman nearby beat
hand-harvested stalks on the ground to separate the grains from the chaff.
The constraints Maji faces have
bedeviled many rice farmers and millers across Nigeria for years. Despite
government measures designed to spur production, farmers in Nigeria get far
less from their land than other major rice growers and the West African country
is only marginally less reliant on imports.
That’s a problem for a government
that wants to grow all of its own food and boost the country’s agriculture, a
sector that accounts for nearly a third of gross domestic product in Africa’s
biggest economy.
When he came to power in 2015,
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari pledged to help the nation become
self-sufficient in rice – once a luxury but now a staple for millions of Nigerians.
In 2015, Nigeria’s central bank
banned the use of its foreign exchange to pay for rice imports and has backed
loans of at least 40 billion naira ($130 million) to help small-holders boost
output. It also banned rice imports across land borders and kept hefty 70%
tariffs on imports coming through ports.
In August last year, Nigeria went
a step further and closed its land borders altogether to stamp out smuggling,
often from neighboring Benin, with rice being one of the main targets.
(GRAPHIC: Rice Imports from
Thailand - here)
Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu,
said the measures boosted rice production to 9.2 million tonnes last year from
7.2 million in 2015, making Nigeria more or less self-sufficient, though
traders can import rice through ports if they pay the tariffs.
Agricultural data specialist Gro
Intelligence, however, put Nigeria’s rice output at 4.9 million tonnes in 2019,
up 60% from 2013 but well below local consumption of 7 million tonnes.
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture, meanwhile, expects Nigeria’s 2020 rice imports to rise 9% to 2.4
million tonnes, in part due to the high cost of unprocessed Nigerian paddy rice
and elevated operating costs at mills.
In Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city,
supermarket shelves remain stocked with a plethora of imported rice brands.
In the markets where most
Nigerians buy their food, sacks of Nigerian rice are piled high but imported
rice is still available, even though some traders keep the foreign grain under
wraps to prevent it being confiscated by customs agents.
(GRAPHIC: Nigerian Rice
Production and Consumption - here)
LOW YIELDS
Small-scale farmers such as Maji
account for 80% of Nigeria’s rice production with a handful of large companies,
such as Coscharis Group, Dangote and Olam, growing the rest, according to the
U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In Benue state, virtually every
aspect of Maji’s farming manual, from planting to harvesting to leveling out
roads to take the crop to market.
It’s a similar story on many
Nigerian farms, leaving the average yield per hectare at just over 2 tonnes -
half the global average and a fraction of Egypt’s 9.5 tonnes a hectare,
according to U.N. data.
(GRAPHIC: Nigeria Lags in Rice
Yield - here)
Experts say there is little hope of
improvement without significant investment in irrigation, mechanization, roads
and storage. More than 12% of rice is also wasted due to poor roads and
inefficient harvesting, milling and storage, consultants KPMG said in a review
of the Nigeria’s rice industry.
In a good year, Maji makes about
1.5 million naira ($4,900) – nowhere close to the 5 million, at least, a
tractor would cost. Without irrigation, a goal so remote he doesn’t even know
the cost, he can only plant one crop a year.
“At this scale, we will not even
be able to fetch a tractor. Talk less of fertilizer and other chemicals,” Maji
said.
According to the FAO, less than
1% of Nigeria’s farmland is irrigated, compared with a global average of more
than 20%.
Small- and medium-scale rice
millers, who account for more than 80 percent of the local market, also say
they’re struggling to meet increased demand without proper equipment.
At Wurukum Rice Mill in Makurdi,
Iveren Asan works alongside her sister, using a loud diesel-powered generator
to drive machinery processing paddy grains into consumable rice.
Nearby, rice grains that have
been parboiled in vats heated by firewood dry on tarps. She said new buyers
from across the country had surfaced since the border closures - but producing
more would require significant investment in new machines and the higher prices
were not enough on their own.
“We can’t meet the demand. We are
doing the process manually, so we cannot meet the demand,” she said.
(GRAPHIC: Nigeria's Incoming
Foreign Direct Investment Slides - here)
Slideshow (20 Images)
‘INCREDIBLY DISRUPTIVE’
More broadly, experts warned that
extreme measures, such as border closures, taken in the name of food security
were hurting Nigerians, stunting the development of other industries and
holding back foreign investment.
“The border closure has been
incredibly disruptive,” said John Ashbourne, an economist at Capital Economics.
“It stops industries from getting the imports they need, and it pushes up
prices.”
The border closure is set for
review Jan. 31 but the presidency’s Shehu said land frontiers would remain shut
until Nigeria’s neighbors stopped smuggling on their side - and there was “no
sign of compliance yet”.
Ashbourne said even some farming
has taken a hit from government policies.
After glass was added to a central
bank list of items importers cannot buy with foreign exchange, some tomato
paste plants shut because they couldn’t source the jars they needed.
On another farm in Benue State,
Abraham Hon, 51, weaves through rows of melons and corn before reaching his
rice, the crop that generates the most money.
“The prices look pretty good,” he
said, as men cut stalks of rice by hand and laid them in piles on the ground.
“We expect more money in the pocket this year.”
But while he and Asan are happy
with their increased income, they worry about the impact of higher prices on
consumers.
A 50 kg bag of rice can cost as
much as 24,000 naira in Lagos - nearly double the price in July before the
borders were shut and not far below the monthly minimum wage of 30,000 naira.
And consumers, who already spend
more than half their income on food according to the World Bank, are feeling
the squeeze.
“We will reach a point where
people who are buying rice can’t afford to buy rice. They will look at other
alternatives to get energy and get food on their table,” Hon said.
“That in the long term is not in
the interest of we, the farmers.”
(GRAPHIC: Border Closure Boosts
Nigeria's Inflation - here)
Editing by David Clarke
Curing trade
deficits requires holistic economic rebalancing
January 23, 2020
It is. No country can be a net
importer all the time. And yet, economists keep repeating, the Philippines’
annual growth has been fuelled largely by consumption. How is this possible? We
keep consuming without producing the goods needed by the country? The puzzle is
solved by the 10 million plus national heroes and heroines – the overseas
Filipino workers (OFWs), who have been remitting over $35 billion a year, in
pure cash. These remittances have been supplemented by the country’s earnings
from the call center-BPO sector and from the annual borrowings arranged by the
finance officials.
The problem is that we live in an
increasingly volatile and unpredictable world. There is an eerie calm in
the Middle East after the weak Iranian response to the American killing of
General Qassem Soleimani. But foreign analysts expect more conflagration in the
Gulf Area, a conflagration that might result in a mass return migration for
some three million OFWs. There is also rising xenophobia in many
migration destination countries.
The other economic savior of the
Philippines, call center-BPO sector, is also being buffeted by the rapid
advances in technology such as the rise of the chat-bots and automated
do-it-yourself gadgets. Growth in the sector has been in a plateau since 2017.
More and more countries such as Vietnam are also participating in the global
service offshoring industry, giving India and the Philippines stiffer
competition.
The point is that one cannot be
complacent in the face of the threats facing the country’s two major life
savers. This is indeed the time for an honest-to-goodness reassessment of
economic policy directions and institute measures to promote a more balanced
economic structure. In this regard, the BOI mentioned two major policy
targets:
One, balancing trade with the
major sources of imports: China, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand. We
agree. As we have argued in the past, the best economic assistance that China
can offer to the Philippines is a balancing of its trade relations with the
latter. China accounts for one-third of the total trade deficit. China is
also one reason for the collapse of a number of Philippine industries, from the
1980s onward. Think of the Filipino shoe, plastic and various light industries.
China, as a reliable economic
partner, has also been questioned by many Filipinos. China’s loan and
investment contracts in relation to a number of power, water and infrastructure
projects have been denounced as onerous and one-sided. China also
responded to the Philippines’ new policy of greater economic openness to its
neighbor by exporting Chinese construction materials for the country’s
build-build-build program, such as steel and sending tens of thousands of
Chinese workers and managers to Metro Manila and select provinces as “pogo”
workers. No real balancing with China.
The other declared goal of the
BOI is “robust industrialization policy”, which means enhancing the country’s
capacity to export more and import less. In support of this, the BOI is
suggesting increased Philippine participation in the global value chains
(GVCs), deeper engagement in the emerging fair trade agreements (FTAs) such as
the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and imposition of
remedies such as higher tariffs on certain products being dumped by certain
exporting countries such as Vietnam.
We fully agree with the need for
“robust” industrialization policy. But robustness cannot happen by simply
increasing Philippine participation in the GVCs and in the emerging FTAs.
Factory Asia, led by China and enabled by the system of GVCs developed by the
multinationals (MNCs), is now in crisis due to advances in automation and
robotization (reducing incentives for the outsourcing of labor-intensive
processes) and the rise of industrial protectionism (as mirrored in Trump’s
America First). Also, unlike South Korea and Malaysia, the Philippines has been
trapped in the low and middle levels of the GVC system because of its poor
industrial base and absence/neglect of “Industrial Policy” in the past; on the
other hand, it is increasingly unable to compete with new but low-cost
participants in the GVC system such as Cambodia.
And why are there no
Philippine-initiated GVCs that can conquer both the domestic and export
markets? The point is that there is limited opportunity in the GVC system that
is fracturing due to the factors mentioned above. The BOI’s industrial
visioning energy is better spent on the development of industries with higher
growth potentials, such as industries to meet the basic needs of 110 million
Filipino consumers and those that can support the build-build-build program
(for example, revival of the integrated steel industry in Mindanao). In
the case of the build-build-build program, it is ironic that Phinma, once upon
a time a leader in organizing basic industries in the 1960s-1970s such as the
cement industry, is now doing large-scale importation of Vietnamese cement for
the government’s build-build-build program.
Also, there is a proposal of the
Philippine Navy for the government takeover of the bankrupt Hanjin shipyard and
its transformation into a Philippine ship-building industry catering to the
needs of the Navy and the Philippine shipping industry. What is the BOI’s stand
on this?
As to the application of tariff
remedies on imported goods, why have the government’s economic managers opposed
the proposal of the farmer organizations for trade remedies against the
surge of rice imports last year? These imports, estimated to be around
three million tons, made the Philippines the world’s leading rice importer once
more, per data surveillance by the US Department of Agriculture. These
imports also made the lives of millions of Filipino palay farmers miserable, as
palay prices went down to as low as P7 to P11 a kilo in various provinces, way
below the production cost of P12 a kilo.
Clearly, a more holistic
re-assessment of industrial and agricultural policy options are needed in
order to restore industrial “robustness” and attain trade balance for the
country. Such a re-assessment should get out of the old simplistic
development paradigm of the EOI neo-liberal economists – export-or-perish
paradigm based on labor-intensive (read: low-level) participation in the GVC
system of MNCs. After five decades, the EOI program still has not
delivered its promises: higher industrial development for the country and
better welfare for the Filipino people.
RMIT study finds rice is not so nice, exposing
children to dangerous arsenic levels
BY FREYA LUCAS
A new study, conducted
by researchers from RMIT has found that rice snacks designed for children, and
sold in Australian supermarkets, contain arsenic at levels above European
safety guidelines of safe consumption for babies and toddlers.
The study
found Australian children who eat large amounts of rice-based food may be
exposed to dangerous amounts of arsenic. Researchers used the European
guidelines for their evaluation because Australia does not have safety
standards specifically for children.
Senior
researcher Associate Professor Suzie Reichman, an environmental toxicologist
said that while all the products tested met Australian guidelines, the
guidelines do not reflect the latest scientific understanding on how arsenic
affects the body.
“Children are
far more vulnerable to the long-term toxic effect of metals like arsenic, but
our rice guidelines are based on adults, and on out-of-date dietary habits,
when rice was generally eaten less often by Australian families,” she
added.
The study
highlights the need to develop new standards, specifically for children, and to
ensure that these guidelines are in line with what we now know about safe rice
consumption, Professor Reichman said.
With an
increasing number of children experiencing gluten intolerance, rice-based
products are a popular alternative, and Professor Reichman said that while rice
“can be safely eaten as part of a well-rounded, balanced diet, but if it’s a
child’s main source of carbohydrates, that could be a problem.”
“As a general
rule, we recommend that children under five eat rice in moderation and parents
should avoid serving rice at every meal, to minimise the risk of exposure to
arsenic.”
Arsenic
is a naturally occurring metal widely found in air, soil and groundwater that
comes in both organic and inorganic forms.Organic arsenic is relatively safe,
but inorganic arsenic is a carcinogen linked with cancers of the bladder and
skin. Long-term exposure to high amounts of inorganic arsenic is dangerous to
human health.
The
Australian rice guidelines are for total arsenic (organic and inorganic) and
set a maximum level of 1mg/kg. This is more than 3 times higher than the
standard for total arsenic set by the World Health Organisation of 0.3mg/kg.
Rather than
looking at total arsenic, the European Union guideline for infants and young children
focuses specifically on inorganic arsenic and sets a maximum level of
0.1mg/kg.
Almost
40 common products consumed by babies and toddlers were tested as part of the
research, including milk formula powder, cereal, crackers and pasta made from
brown, white, organic and non-organic rice.
The research
found 75 per cent of the products had levels of inorganic arsenic above the EU
standard for children. Inorganic arsenic was found in higher levels in brown
rice products, likely because arsenic is more concentrated in the rice bran
that is removed in white rice.
Professor
Reichman said the results for brown rice were particularly concerning because
it is generally seen by health-conscious parents as a better choice, due to its
higher fibre and nutrient contents.
The research
was part of a final-year capstone project by Bachelor of Environmental
Engineering student, Zhuyun Gu, who is now undertaking a PhD at RMIT, and was
“of such high standard that it was accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed
journal and highlighted in its special edition focusing on arsenic exposure in
the environment and human health,” Professor Reichman said.
“This work is
an important contribution to our understanding of safety issues around rice in
our diets, and supports the need for updating arsenic guidelines in
Australia.
“It’s a
fantastic example of how our students can shape the world by looking at
practical problems and searching for real solutions.”
You can read
the research, Arsenic concentrations and dietary exposure in rice-based infant food in
Australia, has been published in the International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and may be accessed here.
Despite less ozone pollution, not all plants
benefit
Date:January
22, 2020
Source:Florida State University
Summary:
Policies
and new technologies have reduced emissions of precursor gases that lead to
ozone air pollution, but despite those improvements, the amount of ozone that
plants are taking in has not followed the same trend, according to researchers.
Breathe easy: Concentrations of
ozone in the air have decreased over large parts of the country in the past
several decades.
But not too easy.
Policies and new technologies
have reduced emissions of precursor gases that lead to ozone air pollution, but
despite those improvements, the amount of ozone that plants are taking in has
not followed the same trend, according to Florida State University researchers.
Their findings are published in the journal Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.
"Past studies of plant damage
from ozone have been overly optimistic about what the improving ozone air
quality means for vegetation health," said Christopher Holmes, the Werner
A. and Shirley B. Baum assistant professor of meteorology in the Department of
Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science.
Ozone is a gas made of three
oxygen molecules. In the upper levels of the atmosphere, it is helpful for life
on Earth because it keeps too much ultraviolet radiation from reaching the
planet's surface. But when it's found at ground level, ozone is a pollutant
that can damage the lungs. It's also toxic for plants, and present-day levels
of the pollutant have cut global grain yields by up to 15 percent, resulting in
global losses of soybean, wheat, rice and maize valued at $10 billion to $25 billion
annually.
The falling levels of ozone
pollution are good news for human health, but FSU researchers wanted to know if
plants were seeing benefits too. To answer this question, Allison Ronan, a
former graduate student, and Jason Ducker, a postdoctoral researcher at FSU,
worked with Holmes and another researcher to track the amount of ozone plants
sucked up through pores on their leaves over 10 years at more than 30 test
sites. They compared those trends to measurements of atmospheric ozone.
As they expected, the ozone
concentrations in the air decreased at most of their study sites, but,
surprisingly, the ozone uptake into plants at the sites didn't necessarily go
down at the same time. In fact, at many sites, atmospheric ozone concentrations
fell while the ozone uptake into plants rose.
The different trends happen
because plants can open and close the stomata pores on their leaves in response
to weather, especially light, temperature, moisture, drought and other
environmental conditions. If the stomata close, the plants cease taking up
ozone, regardless of the concentration in the surrounding air. That means the
ozone uptake into leaves doesn't exactly track the amount of ozone in the air.
The FSU scientists found that these environmental factors have more impact on
the ozone dose the plants receive than the amount of ozone in the atmosphere.
"We know that weather and
growing conditions vary a lot from year to year, and that variability in
weather turns out to be more important for driving the trends and variability
in ozone uptake into plants than the concentrations in the surrounding
air," Holmes said. "With decreasing ozone concentrations, we're
moving in the right direction, but the benefits for crops and vegetation may
not be apparent until the air quality improvements have persisted longer."
The FSU team identified the
differing trends by using a dataset developed by Holmes' research group. The
dataset, called SynFlux, fuses measurements from air quality networks with data
from field sites that monitor energy flows between vegetation and the
atmosphere. It enabled the team to study ozone uptake trends at many more sites
than has previously been possible.
Future studies of plant damage
and accompanying economic losses need to avoid relying primarily on measures of
ozone concentration in the atmosphere and look at ozone uptake instead,
researchers said.
"With the SynFlux dataset
that we have developed, we've now got the information to do that on a large
scale at many sites across multiple continents," Holmes said. "We're
just scratching the surface of what we can learn about air pollution impacts on
vegetation using this tool."
Jordan L. Schnell at Northwestern
University contributed to this research. This work was supported by the
Winchester Fund at Florida State University, NASA and the National Science
Foundation.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Florida State University.
Original written by Bill Wellock. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.
Journal Reference:
1.
Allison
C. Ronan, Jason A. Ducker, Jordan L. Schnell, Christopher Holmes. Have improvements
in ozone air quality reduced ozone uptake into plants? Elem Sci
Anth, 2020; 8 (1): 2 DOI: 10.1525/elementa.399
Cite This Page:
Florida State University. "Despite less ozone pollution,
not all plants benefit." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 January 2020.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200122154336.htm>.
A heart-healthy protein from bran of cereal crop
Date:January 22, 2020
Source:American Chemical Society
Summary:Foxtail millet is an annual grass grown widely as a
cereal crop in parts of India, China and Southeast Asia. Milling the grain
removes the hard outer layer, or bran, from the rest of the seed. Now,
researchers have identified a protein in this bran that can help stave off
atherosclerosis in mice genetically prone to the disease.
Share:
FULL STORY
Foxtail millet is an annual grass
grown widely as a cereal crop in parts of India, China and Southeast Asia.
Milling the grain removes the hard outer layer, or bran, from the rest of the
seed. Now, researchers have identified a protein in this bran that can help
stave off atherosclerosis in mice genetically prone to the disease. They report
their results in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Atherosclerosis, or narrowing of
the arteries because of plaque buildup, is the leading cause of heart disease
and stroke. Plaques form when immune cells called monocytes take up oxidized
low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (ox-LDL) in the artery wall. These cells
then secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines, causing aortic smooth muscle cells to
migrate to the site. Eventually, a plaque made up of cholesterol, cells and
other substances forms. Drugs called statins can treat atherosclerosis by
lowering LDL levels, but some people suffer from side effects. Zhuoyu Li and
colleagues previously identified a protein in foxtail millet bran that inhibits
the migration of colon cancer cells. They wondered if the protein, called
foxtail millet bran peroxidase (FMBP), could also help prevent atherosclerosis.
To find out, the researchers treated
human aortic smooth muscle cells and monocytes in petri dishes with FMBP. The
millet protein reduced the uptake of lipids by both cell types and reduced the
migration of smooth muscle cells. In monocytes, FMBP treatment blocked the
expression of two key proteins involved in atherosclerosis. Next, the team fed
mice that were genetically predisposed to atherosclerosis a high-fat diet. Mice
that were then treated with either FMBP or a statin had far fewer plaques than
untreated mice. The FMBP-treated mice also had elevated blood levels of
high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), the "good cholesterol."
Based on these results, FMBP is a natural product with great potential in the
prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis, the researchers say.
Story Source:
Journal Reference:
1.
Fengming
Liu, Shuhua Shan, Hanqing Li, Zhuoyu Li. Treatment of Peroxidase Derived from Foxtail
Millet Bran Attenuates Atherosclerosis by Inhibition of CD36 and STAT3 in Vitro
and in Vivo. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry,
2020; DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.9b06963
Cite This Page:
American Chemical Society. "A heart-healthy protein from
bran of cereal crop." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 January 2020.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200122080604.htm>.
We must sustain local rice
consumption
Ghanaians never had faith in locally produced rice because it was seen as inferior to its preferred foreign counterpart, which enjoyed monopoly until now.
That situation led to financial institutions shying away from supporting the local rice value chain operators, thereby constraining local operators from operating at full capacity because of lack of funds.
The situation got the point where the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, had to intervene and set up a Rice Technical Team, made up of the MoFA, the Ministry of Finance, rice importers, rice processors and rice millers, to discuss the way forward to ending the importation of rice and making the country attain rice sufficiency by 2022.
The Daily Graphic lauds the initiative to set up the Rice Technical Team, which has the potential to save the millions of dollars used to import rice from outside.
This surely resonates with the Presidents Ghana Beyond Aid agenda and must be pursued vigorously to achieve rice sufficiency in the country. We believe this is doable.
For instance, in 2017, out of the 1,089,000 metric tonnes (MT) of rice consumed in the country, only 433,000MT was produced locally and we had to import about 656,000MT to be able to meet the national demand.
In 2018, out of over 1.12million metric tonnes of national demand, only 456,000MT was produced locally, leaving an excess of about 665,670MT to be supplied from importation.
But the story changed in 2019 when MoFA stepped in to provide subsided improved seeds and fertilizer for rice farmers.
Following the intervention, the quantity of locally produced rice jumped to 784,875MT, leaving a deficit of just 370,445MT.
It is projected that by 2021, locally produced rice will exceed one million metric tonnes and we will be required to top up with only 47,554MT in order to meet the national rice demand, while in 2022 we will need to import only 3,073MT to meet the national demand for rice.
Indeed, the MoFA has projected that by 2023 Ghana would have met its rice demand, with an excess of 365,302MT for export. As a nation, we must continue taking steps to promote the consumption of local rice to put money in the pockets of our hardworking farmers. What we have forgotten is that the more rice we import, the richer foreign farmers become, while our own rice farmers become poorer.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, urges both the MoFA and the Ministry of Finance to support rice farmers to be able to secure funding from financial institutions to be able to increase their production and also for the milers to be able to increase their production and also for the millers to be able to off-take paddy rice at the farms.
The claim by local rice millers that they could not meet the market demand for locally milled rice during the Yuletide should be worrying news to those who believe in Ghana.
We know for a fact that the local millers could not meet the market demand not because there was no paddy rice mill but that the millers did not have enough funds to off-take all the paddy rice from farmers.
We believe that this is the time to resource rice millers with funding facilities to enable them to mill all the rice produced locally. The MoFA and the Ministry of Finance should serve as collateral for farmers to assess funding from the financial institutions which demand collateral and other facilities before giving out loans to these farmers.
This is the time to sustain the interest in local rice and the onus is on MoFA and the Ministry of Finance to support the farmers and those in the rice value chain to keep up the momentum.
This is the only way we can realise the President’s Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
PM reiterates fair price of crops
·
Published
at 12:29 am January 23rd, 2020
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at the parliament on
Wednesday, January 22, 2020 PID
The premier said food grains were being
collected every year from internal sources aiming to ensure the fair price of
crops the farmers produce
Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh
Hasina on Wednesday reiterated her government’s commitment to ensuring fair
price of crops and other agricultural products in the interest of the farmers.
“The farmers-friendly Awami League government
has taken various initiatives to ensure fair price of crops produced by the
farmers and it will continue these programmes in the
future,” she told the House while replying to a starred
question placed by treasury bench member Md Shahiduzzaman Sarkar (Naogaon-2).
To ensure the fair price of food grains, the
prime minister said, the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee of the government
fixed the prices of food grains (rice, paddy and wheat) with 10-15 percent
profit on production cost, considering the interest of farmers.
To this end, she said, the government in 2019
decided to procure wheat per kg at Tk28, while Boro and Aman paddy per kg at
Tk26, boiled rice per kg at Tk36 and non-boiled rice per kg at Tk35.
The Leader of the House said the government
set a target of procuring 4.11 lakh tons of rice and about 4 lakh tons of paddy
during the last Boro season, while it collected around 15.5 lakh tons of food
grains, including 4 lakh MT of paddy and about 10 lakh MT of boiled rice
against the target.
Sheikh Hasina said the present government took
an initiative, for the first time, to procure Aman paddy directly from the
farmers.
“We’ve planned to procure 6,26,991 tons of
Aman paddy directly from peasants fixing the price of paddy at Tk 1,040 per
maund and 3,84,702 tonnes of rice from the millers,” she said.
The premier said food grains were being
collected every year from internal sources aiming to ensure the fair price of
crops the farmers produce.
She said the government took an initiative to
set up 200 silos across the country with the capacity of 5,000 tons each to
store paddy directly collected from the farmers.
“Another initiative has been taken to build
seven modern rice mills with drying facility of paddy,” she added.
Sheikh Hasina said the government planned to
set up storages in different parts of the country aiming to preserve and
process vegetables.
A “Farmers’ Market” has already been
established at ‘Sech Bhaban’ beside the city’s Manik Mia Avenue to ensure fair
price of agri products , she said, adding the market remained open on Friday
and Saturday.
Besides, the Leader of the House said, the
government was now setting up 30 more farmers’ markets in different parts of
the country.
A total of 18 assemble centres were set up in
the country’s northwestern and southern regions for proper marketing of crops
and other agricultural products, she added.
Exporting organic,
importing bukbok rice and critical engagement
The recent program of the
Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa) through its so-called Mindanao Organic
Rice Council exposes the outright bankruptcy of this government in terms of
rice sufficiency.
Late last year, MinDa chief and
former agriculture secretary Manny Pinol, proudly shared this program as a
support mechanism on the impacts of rice liberalization law. Earlier this week,
MinDa is finalizing the trial shipment of around 500 bags of organic rice to
the US.
This move by the government is a
confirmation of the neo-liberal agricultural economy dominant to Philippine
society, an affirmation to its export-oriented and import-dependent orientation.
It is crazy in so many levels,
sending our prime organic rice to other parts of the world, while we import and
eat the bukbok rice (weevil-infested
rice), which former Agri Secretary Piñol shamelessly taught us how to cook.
On a more serious note, exporting
organic rice will not solve the problems brought by Rice Liberalization Law
(RLL) which this government ratified last year. Our rice industry already
incurred, at least P100 Billion losses as of last year, affecting at least 2.5
million Filipino rice farmers. RLL also resulted to the closure of at least
4,000 rice mills nationwide affecting the livelihood of rice millers, operators
and laborers.
While some grouplet representing
the civil-society organizations (CSOs) of this so-called Mindanao Organic Rice
Council claim that they are in “critical engagement” with the government, the
truth is that they are uncritical at all. The truth is that they are in cahoots
with this government in making shallow programs as they veer away with the
devastation brought by rice liberalization to Filipino rice farmers.
The critical way to engage this
administration is to become critical in these superficial and PR-circus type of
programs. To critically engage this government is to stand against the dominant
export-oriented and import-dependent agricultural economy. To stand for the
repeal of Rice Liberalization Law and to stand for the interest of Filipino
farmers. That is critical engagement!
While we agree on the promotion
of organic rice, we must also carefully draw the line that is grounded on basic
tenets of sustainable agriculture- we give premium to local food sufficiency.
As we in MASIPAG describe it – PEOPLE FIRST BEFORE PROFIT!
Cattle Destroy N17m Rice Farm In Enugu
January 23, 2020
V
Over
N17 million worth of rice farmland has been destroyed by grazing activities of
cattle in Oji-Agu axis in Akpugo community in Nkanu East Local Government Area
of Enugu State.
Briefing newsmen on the massive destruction of the rich farmland in Enugu yesterday, Mr Ekene Uzodinma, the Manager of Excellent Integrated Farms Ltd., said that herds of cattle had eaten up over eight hectares of farmland that the company cultivated.
Uzodinma lamented that the herds also devoured some heaps of unprocessed paddy rice kept in the farmland, which was waiting to be sent to the milling machine.
“From the market value of local rice now, the eight hectares should produce at least 80 tonnes of rice as a finished product and it is nothing less than N17 million in evaluation,’’ he said.
“Presently, my workers, other farms and villagers are afraid to go to the farms again due to the unrelenting activities of the herds; while the herdsmen are threatening to brutally deal with anybody stopping their cattle from grazing.
“Initially, we tried our best to wade them off, especially during the rainy season and the swampy nature of the rice farm also kept the herdsmen and their herds away.
“However, when we started harvesting and the dry season rolled in; in early December, we were constantly chasing them away until December 15; when they started coming into the rice farmland during the late evening and night hours.
Briefing newsmen on the massive destruction of the rich farmland in Enugu yesterday, Mr Ekene Uzodinma, the Manager of Excellent Integrated Farms Ltd., said that herds of cattle had eaten up over eight hectares of farmland that the company cultivated.
Uzodinma lamented that the herds also devoured some heaps of unprocessed paddy rice kept in the farmland, which was waiting to be sent to the milling machine.
“From the market value of local rice now, the eight hectares should produce at least 80 tonnes of rice as a finished product and it is nothing less than N17 million in evaluation,’’ he said.
“Presently, my workers, other farms and villagers are afraid to go to the farms again due to the unrelenting activities of the herds; while the herdsmen are threatening to brutally deal with anybody stopping their cattle from grazing.
“Initially, we tried our best to wade them off, especially during the rainy season and the swampy nature of the rice farm also kept the herdsmen and their herds away.
“However, when we started harvesting and the dry season rolled in; in early December, we were constantly chasing them away until December 15; when they started coming into the rice farmland during the late evening and night hours.
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