Diplomatic Calendar: Uzbek Armed Forces Day celebrated
Tanveer Shahzad | Syeda Shehrbano Kazim | Jamal ShahidFebruary 03,
2020
Uzbek dancers perform during the Armed Forces Day celebrations of
their country in Islamabad.
Ambassador of Uzbekistan Furqat Sidiqov and Defence Attaché Lt Col
Sadullah Tashmatov celebrated the 28th Armed Forces Day of Uzbekistan with
colourful shows by Uzbek performers and the Uzbek Military Troupe.
The event was attended by a diverse group of Pakistanis, diplomats
and Uzbek nationals including civil and military officials, journalists and
academics.
The guests were enchanted by performances by young Uzbek children
wearing traditional garb and an Uzbek army officer’s rendition of the Pakistani
song Chanda Karaysalam, Suraj Karaysalam.
Ambassador Sidiqov expressed his delight at being able to share
Uzbek culture and cuisine with the guests in keeping with the warm bilateral
relations between Pakistan and Uzbekistan. He shared that the relations between
the two had reached new heights and would continue to grow for years to come.
The Uzbek Pilaf, a lamb and rice creation similar to the local
pulao was greatly appreciated by the Pakistani palate as was the effort to
learn and perform Pakistani music.
Turkmen Ambassador Atadjan Movlamov speaks at a press briefing in
Islamabad.
Ambassador of Turkmenistan Atadjan Movlamov said on Thursday that
he hopes formalities around the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India
(TAPI) gas pipeline are completed so the project can be constructed in two
years.
Speaking at a press briefing to announce celebrations of the 25th
anniversary of the neutrality of Turkmenistan, he said: “We appreciate the
Pakistani government and the people for supporting neutrality status of
Turkmenistan.
“Pakistan was one of the co-sponsors of resolution of UN on
permanent neutrality of Turkmenistan in December 1995. Relations with Pakistan
from the first day of our independence have been going.”
He said joint projects such as the TAPI gas pipeline, laying fibre
optics to establish better communication and the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and
Pakistan power line project were examples of strengthening ties between the
people of both countries.
“These projects offer a win-win situation to both countries. The
leadership of Turkmenistan is keen on enhancing these relations for greater
benefits for people of the two nations,” Ambassador Movlamov said, going on to
share his government’s initiatives to save the Aral Sea.
A documentary was also screened depicting life in Turkmenistan.
Representatives of the business community who attended the
briefing were also in favour of joint ventures with Turkmenistan and greater
access to Central Asian states.
They suggested more interactions between the people of the two
countries at social and cultural levels.
Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2020
Quest for rice export
• Nigeria
should make haste slowly
Editorial
For
a country that only recently ranked among the world’s leading importers of
rice, the quest for domestic sufficiency in record time would ordinarily be
deemed admirable. Not so the frenetic race to join the league of exporters,
even when basic infrastructure are far from being in place. That would be akin
to putting the cart before the horse.
That
perhaps best describes the press conference in Lagos last week during which an
apparently upbeat agriculture and rural development minister, Muhammad Sabo
Nanono, announced that the country was ready to join the league of rice
exporters. He listed, among his reasons, the country’s 11 rice milling plants
with the capacity to produce from 180 tonnes to 350 tonnes of rice per day;
another mill with a capacity to produce 400 tonnes of rice per day expected to
come on board soon, and this aside other upcoming 34 smaller mills and
countless other clusters in different parts of the country.
According
to the minister, “Before the closure of our land borders, most of these rice
milling plants were partially operating, but now, they not only operate in full
capacity but are also expanding. And if we maintain the momentum in the next
two years, we may export rice to other countries”.
Like
his predecessor, the minister may have succumbed to the pressure to overstate
the reality of possible achievement.
No
doubt, a lot of money has been poured into the CBN-initiated Anchor Borrowers
Scheme. As at May, last year, over N190 billion had reportedly been disbursed
to more than 1.1 million smallholder farmers through the programme. In all,
over 1.3 million hectares of land were said to have been brought under
cultivation.
Overall
however, the indication is that the country still has a long way to go. The US
Department of Agriculture and the World Markets and Trade, for instance, both
put the total rice production at 3.7 million tonnes annually – and this against
an annual demand of 6.4 million tonnes (representing 20% of Africa’s
consumption). Unfortunately, the figures from the Federal Government have
remained one of wild guestimates.
However
the government tried to wish the problems away, the truth of the matter is that
they have endured. Top on the list is relatively low output. Here,
mechanisation remains a major drawback at 0.3 hp/ha, relative to 2.6hp/ha in
India and 8 hp/ha in China.
In
a rather graphic picture, PWC – the global accounting firm – says that
increasing the mechanisation rate from 0.3hp/ha to 0.8hp/ha in the next five
years can double rice production to 7.2 million tonnes. That, says the firm,
would involve tripling the current stock of machinery over the same period. At
the moment, that remains a tall order.
Add
to the aforementioned the emerging complaints about the quality of local rice
on offer. As it seems, there can be no further shying away from asking tough
questions – about what our millers are doing to ensure that the locally
produced rice is world-class, both in quality and packaging.
As
for the farmers, they certainly can do with more help in extension services to
boost output and to cut post-harvest losses. Moreover, to the extent that the
current credit architecture for rice remains not only ad hoc but restrictive –
there is a lot to be said of the role of the apex bank as sole promoter of the
anchor borrower initiative.
The
giant killer of course remains smuggling. By closing the borders, the
government has since demonstrated its resolve to tame the monster.
Unfortunately, despite government’s efforts to make our ECOWAS neighbours
see reason, they have remained unyielding, if not recalcitrant. Since the
closure cannot be permanent, the government ought to be considering targeted
measures as alternative to punish non-compliance.
The
government will do well to address the identified challenges first before
venturing into the highly competitive export market. In other words, rather
than setting unrealistic time frame for itself, the quest should be more about
developing a sustainable eco-system for the entire sector. That will not only
put the country in better stead to sustain the current momentum but will supply
the launch pad for our export aspirations.
Maulana
Fazal-ur-Rehman lashes out at PTI led govt
02 February,2020 06:31 pm
Voters of the current government are disgruntled with
its performance: Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman
PESHAWAR (Dunya News) - Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman said that government has missed
output targets of wheat, rice and cotton.
While addressing Tahafuz e
Madaris Conference, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman said that government has failed to
achieve export targets despite devaluation of Pakistani rupee.
He further added that his party
did not accept rigged elections and termed opposition of the current government
as jihad. He added that current government has destroyed the economy by taking
record breaking loans.
JUI-F chief said that
international establishment wants to abolish madaris but in Azadi March they
showed the world that they are organized and peaceful people.
He further added that voters of
current government are disgruntled with its performance.
Maulana
Fazal-ur-Rehman demanded an apology from parties that voted in favour of
merging FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
While criticizing PTI led
government, he said that government has failed to achieve output targets of
cotton, wheat and rice
Joy for rice farmers as Uhuru orders
price increment
President Uhuru Kenyatta tours Mwea Rice Growers
Multipurpose (MRGM) Co-operative Society in Wang'uru on Saturday. [Source/State
House Kenya/Twitter]
The farmers will now sell the rice at Sh85 per kilo which they initially sold at Sh45.
Addressing residents at Wang'uru stadium, Kirinyaga County on Saturday, President Kenyatta directed the Agricultural Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya to ensure raw rice prices are increased to help farmers to make a profit.
Kenyatta promised farmers that the Kenya National Trading Corporation would buy the rice and distribute it to government institutions. The promise comes shortly after Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru highlighted the farmers' plight.
"Due to influx of cheap rice from Pakistan and invasion of Mwea Irrigation Scheme by brokers, our farmers have been suffering and they should be helped," Waiguru said while urging rice importation to be banned.
The Kirinyaga County boss urged the head of state to step in before rice farmers lost hope.
"Our farmers do not have a good market for their produce and they have been incurring heavy losses. They depend purely on rice farming to educate their children and meet other financial obligations and the government should come to their rescue," Ms Waiguru told President Kenyatta.
The president revealed that up to Sh0.5 billion had been allocated for rice purchase from local farmers.
"From now onwards, farmers will receive Sh85 per kilo of paddy," announced the president.
The head of state added that the government was committed to seeing that farmers no longer faced market challenges for their produce.
President Kenyatta also directed that Mwea Rice Mills be revived and subsidised fertilisers are made available to rice farmers.
Touching on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), Kenyatta called upon all to embrace it noting that, "BBI will bring peace and all Kenyans should back it."
Thank you for reading my article! You have contributed to my success as a writer. The articles you choose to read on Hivisasa help shape the content we offer.
-Justin Nzioka
David Ndii
Rubbishes Uhuru's New Directive
President Uhuru Kenyatta
(pictured) gave the directive on Saturday, February 1, during his tour of
Kirinyaga County. FILE
· 
Economist David Ndii has taken issue with
President Uhuru Kenyatta's
directive that the price of unprocessed rice (called 'paddy')
be increased from Ksh45 to Ksh85 per kilogram following complaints from
farmers.
Economist David Ndii has taken issue with
President Uhuru Kenyatta's
directive that the price of unprocessed rice (called 'paddy')
be increased from Ksh45 to Ksh85 per kilogram following complaints from
farmers.
Taking to his social media platforms on Saturday, February 1,
Ndii dismissed the directive by President Kenyatta as poorly thought-out.
"These are called roadside declarations. I hope he knows
what he is talking about because farmers are paid for paddy, not rice. It takes
1.6kg of paddy to get a kg of rice. Ksh85 would translate to Sh136 per kg of
rice," he wrote.
Ndii was of the opinion that the president's directive would
disrupt the cost of production of rice in the country in effect making the
sector unsustainable.
Economist
David Ndii on Point Blank with Tony Gachoka on March 6, 2019.
"I should have pointed out Mwea rice is retailing at
Ksh150/kg, meaning paddy at Ksh136 leaves Ksh14 margin for processing
transport, distribution. Untenable," he added.
Ndii's sentiments were echoed by other individuals who also
offered a bleak forecast of the tenability of the directive by the president.
"Raw paddy when milled yields 45-50% head rice. So in other
words, the big guy wants Ksh170 per kg plus processing costs," Moses
Njuguna pondered.
A study report by the Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture and Technology, titled Analysis of Millers in Kenya’s Rice
Value Chain (2019) indicates that the major cost for large scale
millers is the cost of paddy (unprocessed rice), which accounts for 69% of
production costs.
The president's initiative to increase the cost of paddy to
almost double what it is at the moment would lead to the doubling of production
costs, in effect leading to the increase in the market price of rice which is
widely consumed across the country.
According to data from the International Rice Research
center, national rice consumption is estimated at 538,000 metric tonnes
compared to an annual production of 112,800 tonnes.
The data indicate that with a projected population growth rate
of 2.7% per year, the estimated annual national need can reach up to
570,490 tonnes by 2030.
A
rice farmer working in a rice field.
Govt. to purchase paddy at Rs. 50 per
kilo
Monday, February 3, 2020 - 01:00
The Government, in line with the
President’s Vision of Prosperity policy has already commenced purchasing paddy
at a minimum guaranteed price of Rs. 50 per kilogramme under its programme to purchase
the paddy harvest in Maha season 2019/2020, a statement from the Finance,
Economy and Policy Development Ministry said.
It is noteworthy that the
government for the first time this year will buy the paddy with moisture
content higher than the usual as a special benefit to the farmer, the Ministry
of Finance said.
In the previous seasons, the
government purchased only paddy with moisture content of 14 percent. This time
the government will purchase paddy with moisture content up to a maximum of 22
percent at a lower price. Paddy should be dried to safe moisture content within
24 hours after harvesting to avoid damage and deterioration.
In the past one kilogramme of nadu
was purchased at Rs. 38 and one kilogram of samba at Rs. 41. However, this time
all varieties will be purchased at Rs. 50 per kilogramme. The government will
purchase the paddy in two ways to facilitate the farmers to supply the paddy to
the government.
The Paddy Marketing Board will
purchase paddy with a maximum moisture content of 14 percent at Rs. 50 per
kilogramme of paddy.
The government has also taken
measures to procure paddy with moisture for the first time through the
Divisional Secretaries, small and medium scale millers and co-operative
societies under the direction of the District Secretaries. Accordingly, a
kilogramme of paddy with moisture content exceeding 14 percent but less than 22
percent will be purchased at Rs. 44.
The Treasury has already provided
Rs. 3.83 billion to the Paddy Marketing Board and District Secretaries for the
initial step of implementing this programme. Also, the storage facilities at
Paddy Marketing Board stores and stores owned by the Food Commissioner’s
Department and other government institutions as well as the storage facilities
owned by the small and medium-scale rice mill owners have been prepared.
According to the Department of
Agriculture, paddy production forecast based on the reported sown extent as at
end November 2019 is 2.40 million metric tons taking into account crop losses
and would be sufficient for more than seven months.
How letting your
children pick their snack will help improve your eating habits
By - IANS
Created: Feb 2, 2020, 21:00 IST
Parents, please take a note. Giving in to
your kid's desire for an unhealthy snack may improve your own eating choices,
say researchers.
The study, published in the journal Appetite, showed that parents and other adult caregivers such as babysitters tended to make better food choices for themselves if they accommodated the youngster's request for a particular snack--whether that snack was healthy or not.
The study, published in the journal Appetite, showed that parents and other adult caregivers such as babysitters tended to make better food choices for themselves if they accommodated the youngster's request for a particular snack--whether that snack was healthy or not.
"It was a "striking finding" that shows the psychological impacts of decision-making," said study researcher Utku Akkoc from University of Alberta in Canada.
Through a series of experiments and a field study, the researchers measured how powerful caregivers felt and what foods they consumed after making decisions in various scenarios, such as when they packed a treat the child had asked for in a school lunch.
Caregivers who listened to their children's preferences ate a lower number of unhealthy foods themselves.
In one experiment, participants who granted a child's snack request ate on average 2.7 fewer unhealthy snacks and 1.9 more healthy snacks than those who imposed their own preferences on the child.
The reason likely lies in how the caregivers feel about their decision, the researchers said.
"Our theory is that moms who accommodate the child's preferences against their better judgment would end up feeling less powerful, compared to moms who successfully impose their own food choices on their children," Akkoc said.
"This happens because accommodation involves a passive and less stressful willingness to yield to the child. When people feel less powerful, they make more inhibited, healthier choices like a dieter would," Akkoc added.
The research also showed the caregivers were influenced in their personal choices if they were eating together with their child, consuming the same healthy or unhealthy food.
"We believe it's because people would feel hypocritical if they ate cake in front of a child that's made to eat fruit," Akkoc said.
The findings offer an "effective, simple recipe" in tackling the problems of poor eating and obesity, according to the researchers.
"It shows some ways parents and other adults can increase their own healthy eating by dining together with their children after making healthy choices for them," he said.
Inflation jumps to
record 14.6pc
By Meiryum
Ali
February 1, 2020
–Highest recorded inflation since
PTI took office in August 2018
–Analysts say inflationary
pressure will ease in few months
KARACHI: The inflation rate has
jumped up 14.56 per cent year-on-year (YoY) for the month of January, according
to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Saturday.
This is the highest level that inflation has ever hit since the
current government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf took office in August 2018.
In its monthly report, the PBS noted that inflation had risen by
1.97pc compared to December 2019. This is a marked increase from the
previous month’s inflation rates. December’s inflation rate stood at 12.63pc,
while the November inflation rate was recorded at 12.67pc.
According to the data released, the bulk of the inflation was
linked to rises in food prices, with food and non-alcoholic beverages making up
34.5pc of the CPI. Housing, electricity, gas, and fuel made up 23.63pc of the
CPI.
On a whole, the information is dismal: on a YoY basis, tomato
prices increased 157.72pc in urban areas, and 211.18pc in rural areas; onion
prices increased 125.32pc in urban areas, and 136.63pc in rural areas; fresh
vegetables prices increased 93.6pc in urban areas, and 104.47pc in rural areas;
potato prices increased 87.3pc in urban areas and 111.24pc in rural areas; and
what prices increased 36.13pc in urban areas and 32.18pc in rural areas.
Additionally, gas prices rose 54.84pc YoY in urban areas, and
motor fuels rose 25.69pc in urban areas and 26.4pc in rural areas.
However, on a month-on-month (MoM) basis, tomato prices
decreased 8.36pc in urban and 8.22pc in rural areas, while onion prices also
saw a decrease from December 2019 (18.37pc in urban and 20.52pc in rural
areas).
This unusually high inflation rate of 14.56pc stands in sharp
contrast to the official line the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is promoting.
It also puts the SBP in trouble, as the IMF’s [Intenational
Monetary Fund] had given strict instructions to maintain positive real interest
rates (nominal interest rate minus inflation rate). The real interest rate has
for the first time dipped into negative territory, at -1.35pc.
In the most recent monetary policy announcement on January 28,
the SBP said that the bank’s projected average inflation for FY20 has remained
broadly unchanged at the (much lower) 11-12pc range.
“The MPC viewed the latest increase in CPI [Consumer Price
Inflation] as primarily transitory in nature,” the central bank said in a
statement.
While noting that the recent inflation outruns of November and
December 2019 had been on the higher side, the SBP maintained the figures
reflected “sharp increases in selected food items on account of temporary
supply disruptions and upward adjustments in administered prices”.
Terming the recent food inflation as ‘supply-side shocks’, the
statement said that the “second rate effects on inflation from supply-side
shocks have not materialized, and inflation expectations remain broadly
anchored”.
In addition to supply shocks, analysts term this spike in
inflation also due to the lag impact of devaluation of Pakistani rupee.
In fact, SBP Governor Reza Baqir somewhat optimistically said
inflation would be brought down to 5-7pc over the next two years.
AKD Securities noted in a research report sent to clients on
January 29: “The [SBP] policy statement carried ‘accommodative bias’,
with the statement downplaying inflationary risks, in our view. The
central bank has surprisingly kept its inflation forecast for FY20 unchanged at
11-12% despite the recent increases in food prices, which we think are
relatively broad-based and non-cyclical in nature barring an increase in wheat
and its byproducts prices.”
January’s inflation rate crossed even expectations of what
market analysts were predicting, at around 13-13.6pc.
“Going forward I expect food inflation to persist at least till
Ramzan that can keep inflation elevated, after which the base effect will come
into play in pulling down inflation numbers,” said Hamza Kamal, analyst at AKD
Securities.
Arsalan Hanif from Arif Habib Limited said inflationary
pressures will ease in the upcoming months. “The government allowing the import
of wheat will most likely normalize prices,” he said. He also said a
significant decline in prices of perishable goods will bring inflation down to
below 13pc.
At the start of January 2019, the inflation rate was recorded at
5.6pc. It stayed in single digits until August 2019, when the inflation rate
was recorded at 10.5pc. It then hovered between the 11-12pc range from
September to December 2019, before climbing to 14.56pc in January 2020.
In Pakistan, inflation is measured by the Consumer Price Index
(CPI), using the base year of 2015-16. The PBS changed the base year for price
statistics in August 2019, from 2007-08 to 2015-16.
The CPI comprises urban CPI and rural CPI. The urban CPI covers
35 cities and 356 consumer items.
The rural CPI covers 27 rural centres and 244 consumer items. In
the new base year, the CPI for 12 major groups is also computed by taking the
weighted average of urban CPI and rural CPI.
Additional reporting by Ariba
Shahid.
The agriculture challenge
February 2, 2020
Bringing innovative solutions to
the growers and helping them achieve sustainable farming is the only option for
coping with the challenges of today’s agriculture sector
The agriculture sector in Pakistan
faces major challenges, including depleting water resources, lack of
technological innovation, low-quality seeds, and input supply, among others.
Water resources are the lifeline
for Pakistan. Since 1950s, the expanse of irrigated land has tripled. Around 90
percent of the water use today goes to irrigate fields. The data obtained by
the Pakistan Economic Survey 2016-17 shows that the share of agricultural
output in the gross domestic product (GDP) is 19.5 percent, providing 42.3
percent employment to the labour force.
Pakistan’s major crops are wheat,
rice, cotton, maize and sugarcane. Together these account for about 63 percent
of the total cropped area. Production of three important crops namely: rice,
cotton and sugarcane as well as 90 percent of wheat and most of maize, is
confined to irrigated areas.
A report of the Pakistan Academy
of Sciences, Islamabad (PASI) published in 2019 states that the minimum per
capita domestic water requirement is 50 litres whereas 2,600 to 5,300 litres
water is needed to grow food for one person per day. Therefore, food security
is directly related to water security as 50 to 70-times more water is required
to grow food than the water used for domestic needs.
However, Pakistan Council of
Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) warned in 2016 that the country may run dry
by 2025. A UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) 2016 report says that
the major threat that Pakistan faces today is not terrorism but water scarcity.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), per capita annual water
availability in Pakistan has dropped to 1,017 cubic metres from 5300 in 1947 —
the situation is close to the scarcity threshold of 1,000 cubic metres.
Suleman Khan, chairman of the
Sindh Taas Water Council, says the increasing demand for water and its erratic
supply are resulting in water shortages. Population growth, rapid urbanisation,
water-intensive farming practices and industrialisation have contributed to
Pakistan’s increasing demand for more water. “Pakistan’s water profile has
changed drastically from being a water abundant country, to one experiencing
water stress. Thus, water related problems are, undoubtedly, amongst the key
challenges for Pakistan.”
In Pakistan, the total water
supply available to agriculture comes from three sources: rainfall, surface
water from the River Indus and its tributaries and ground water. Sewage water
and sea water supplement these in some areas.
“The main source of water in
Pakistan is the canal irrigation system. The Indus valley, comprising the
planes of Punjab and Sindh is mainly dependent on the water of river Indus and
its tributaries, as the area is mostly arid on the basis of annual
precipitation,” Khan says while talking to TNS.
Food production is dependent
mainly on land and water resources. IWMI’s (International Water Management
Institute) Physical and Economic Water Scarcity Indicators show that the
countries that will not be able to meet the estimated water demands in 2025,
even after accounting for the future adaptive capacity, are called “physically
water scarce”.
DW reports that Pakistan has the
world’s fourth-highest rate of water use. Its water intensity rate — the amount
of water in cubic meters used per unit of GDP — is the world’s highest. This
suggests that no economy is more water-intensive than Pakistan’s. The IMP ranks
Pakistan third in the world among countries facing acute water shortage.
“Pakistan has one of the largest
contiguous irrigation systems in the world yet it is one of the most
inefficient irrigation systems where more than 60 percent of the water is lost
due to leakage and seepage and at the field level due to poor irrigation
methods,” says Dr Muhammad Azeem Ali Shah, a senior regional researcher at the
IWMI.
DW reports that Pakistan has the
world’s fourth-highest rate of water use. Its water intensity rate — the amount
of water in cubic meters used per unit of GDP — is the world’s highest. This
suggests that no economy is more water-intensive than Pakistan’s.
According to Pakistan Academy of
Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan has one of the world’s largest groundwater
aquifers (4th after China, India and the USA). It provides more than 60 percent
of irrigation water supplies and over 90 percent of drinking water. The
groundwater has played a major role in increasing the overall cropping
intensity in Pakistan from about 63 percent in 1947 to over 120 percent in
2018. Nevertheless, 74.3 percent of fresh water is being extracted annually.
“It is the only reliable resource
that provides resilience against droughts and climate change impacts. However,
this resource is freely accessible. In the absence of any regulatory framework,
anyone can install any number of tube wells, of any capacity, anywhere and can
pump any amount of water and sell it to others. This resulted in groundwater
depletion,” adds Azeem Shah.
Water shortage for agriculture,
experts say, can be managed through professional water management, soil and
water conservation technologies, enhanced use of high-efficiency irrigation
systems, developing drought-resistant varieties, and introducing climate-smart
agriculture.
“To help reduce water losses at
the tertiary level, methods like ensuring laser levelling; ridge/bed sowing at
field level; improvement of outlets can greatly reduce losses from water
channels. Use of rain gun, drip irrigation and sprinkle irrigation may be
encouraged, especially in the hilly areas, sandy soils, and for high value
crops,” suggests Azeem.
“One of the most significant
instances of poor administration is the mishandling of yield zoning. High delta
yields, for example rice and sugarcane, are grown in zones where surface water
is lacking and groundwater is profound and saline,” he says, adding, “These
yields in such regions have gigantic stress on groundwater, resulting in water
scarcity and salinisation.”
Unfortunately, growers are the
victims of this situation. Farmers Associates Pakistan director and Agri
Commission member, Farooq Bajwa, says most of the farmers are uneducated. “They
do not know how to utilise new ways to manage water properly. In addition,
theydo not have the funds to adopt new technologies to increase per acre crop
yield.”
He adds, “Pakistan needs to work
for a resilient agriculture sector to cope with climate change risks. This
requires that growers be equipped with the latest methods of better water
management. We need to have high-yield varieties that have the potential for
both increasing crop yield and drought resistance like some African countries
have successfully opted this kind of seed varieties.”
Head of Public Affairs and
Sustainability, Bayer Pakistan, Azeem Khan Niazi tells TNS that
Bayer has advanced capability in precision plant breeding and biotechnology.
The breeding programmes are designed to address emerging needs of the farmers
and local climatic changes. “Through precision breeding, we are able to shorten
the breeding cycle of new climate resilient plants and bring better improved
seed to farmer.”
Biotechnology has come a long way
and several useful traits can now be introduced in plants that would provide
protection against pests, increase drought tolerance and improve nutritional
value of the crop, he says, adding, “Our drought-tolerant soybean and maize
seeds require less water to deliver good yields for the farmer. Cultivation of
tomato while using fewer natural inputs has been a success as well.”
Experts believe that bringing
innovative solutions to the growers and help them achieve sustainable farming
is the only option for coping with the challenges that today’s agriculture
sector.
The writer can be reached
at warraichshehryar@gmail.com
Uhuru
orders increase in unprocessed rice prices
SATURDAY
FEBRUARY 1 2020
President Uhuru Kenyatta is taken
through samples of rice varieties by an expert (right) at Mwea Rice Mills on
February 1, 2020 as Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru (fourth left) and other
officials watch. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary
· Ms Waiguru called for banning of rice imports to
protect local farmers from unfair competition.
· Governor Anne Waiguru had complained that farmers
have been selling their produce at throw away prices.
· He also directed that the Multi-million Mwea Rice
Mills be revived to process farmers’ produce.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has
ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to increase the price unprocessed rice from
Sh45 to Sh85 per kilogramme following complaints from farmers.
The President directed Agriculture Cabinet Secretary
Peter Munya to implement the directive with immediate effect.
MAKE PROFITS
Speaking at Wang'uru Stadium in Kirinyaga County on
Saturday, he told the CS to ensure that unprocessed rice prices are increased
to enable farmers make profits.
The President assured farmers that their produce will
be bought by Kenya National Trading Corporation and distributed to government
institutions.
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru had complained that
for many years, farmers had been selling their produce at throw away prices.
“Due to influx of cheap rice from Pakistan and
invasion of the Mwea Irrigation Scheme by brokers, our farmers have been
suffering and they should be helped," she said.
Ms Waiguru called for banning of rice imports to
protect local farmers from unfair competition.
FRUSTRATIONS
She appealed to the President to intervene before the
farmers give up on rice farming due to frustration.
“Our farmers do not have good market for their
produce and they have been incurring heavy losses. They depend purely on rice
farming to educate their children and meet other financial obligations and the
government should come to their rescue," Ms Waiguru told the President.
President Kenyatta announced that the government has
set aside Sh500 million as revolving fund to buy rice from farmers.
SH85 PER KILOGRAMME
"From now on-wards, farmers will receive Sh85
per kilo of paddy," he announced.
The President said his government is committed to
ensuring that farmers no longer suffer due to lack of market for their produce.
He also directed that the Multi-million Mwea Rice
Mills be revived to process farmers’ produce.
The Head of State also directed that subsidised
fertilisers be availed to rice farmers to boost production.
On politics, he accused Tangatanga group allied to Deputy President William
Ruto of inciting Kenyans against the Building Bridges
Initiative.
He told Kenyans to ignore the group and support BBI.
"BBI will bring peace and all Kenyans should back it,” he said.
Local MPs, Munene Wambugu (Kirinyaga Central),
Kabinga Wathayu (Mwea) and Gichimu Githinji (Gichugu) attended the meeting.
Damascus rations
subsidised food with smart cards
DAMASCUS: Syria’s government on
Saturday started rationing subsidised food like rice and sugar with smart
cards, a ministry said, in the latest measure to address an economic crisis in
the war-torn country.
The value of the Syrian pound
against the dollar has plummeted on the black market in recent months, sparking
price hikes on key food items.
On Saturday, thousands of Syrian
families for the first time used cards with built-in microchips to track and
cap their purchases of subsidised food, the ministry of internal trade and consumer
protection said.
Under the new system, even the
largest family cannot collect more than three kilos of rice, four kilos of
sugar and one kilo of tea a month, it said on its Facebook page.
Subsidies are key for Syrians living
in government-held areas in a country where the United Nations says war has
compounded poverty.
But Ibrahim Saad, 51, asked how he
was expected to feed his family with the latest rationing.
"The rice is not enough for a
family of five or six people," said Saad, a father of three who earns a
meagre salary working in a grocery store.
"Before the war, we could buy
anything," he said.
But now he and his wife have to keep
track each month of the subsidised food and fuel they are allowed to buy in
order to make them last. Last year, Damascus imposed limits on state-backed
petrol for cars and motorbikes, as well as subsidised fuel oil and cooking gas.
Syria’s war has killed more than
380,000 people, but also ravaged key economic infrastructure, and sent oil and
gas revenues plunging by billions of dollars. Economist Ammar Yussef said food
subsidies were not having a huge impact on the average Syrian, and more needed
to be done to address the overall economy.
"The Syrian economy needs
restructuring to suit the exceptional crisis it’s going through," he said,
alluding to how hard it was to obtain hard currency for imports and sanctions.
Pro-government economists blame the
economic crunch on Western sanctions against Damascus.
But they say de-facto devaluation of
the Syrian pound is due to a liquidity crisis in neighbouring Lebanon, which
has long served as a conduit for foreign currency into government-held areas of
Syria.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/607863-damascus-rations-subsidised-food-with-smart-cards
TEXAS SCENE
Feb 1, 2020 Updated Feb
1, 2020
■ TEXAS 72, IOWA STATE
68: AUSTIN — Courtney Ramey’s 3-pointer with 1:06 to play gave Texas
the lead and Matt Coleman III’s two late free throws closed out a 72-68 win
over Iowa State on Saturday.
Texas fought back from an
eight-point deficit in the second half. Ramey led the charge, scoring eight
points of Texas’ 10 points in the run to take the lead. A 3 by Ramey and a dunk
by Jericho Sims got Texas within 65-63 before Ramey made his 3-pointer from the
left wing for the lead.
Iowa State’s Rasir Bolton then
missed three shots — a layup and two put backs — before Kai Jones was fouled
and made two free throws to extend the Texas lead.
After Iowa State was called for
an illegal screen with 29 seconds left, Texas was able to play keep-away and
drain another 12 seconds off the clock before Coleman was fouled and made his
free throws to push the lead to five and seal the victory.
■ GEORGIA 63, TEXAS
A&M 48: ATHENS, Ga. — Anthony Edwards recorded a double-double
with 29 points and a career-high 15 rebounds to lead Georgia past Texas
A&M.
The Bulldogs snapped a four-game
losing streak.
Edwards had eight points in a
15-6 run to open the second half, giving Georgia (12-9, 2-6 Southeastern
Conference) its first double-digit lead. He added a breakaway power jam with
less than three minutes remaining, stretching the lead to 59-42.
Wendell Mitchell led Texas
A&M (10-10, 4-4) with 13 points. The Aggies’ streak of three straight SEC
road wins was snapped.
■ STEPHEN F. AUSTIN 81,
SAM HOUSTON STATE 76: HUNTSVILLE — Gavin Kensmil scored 17 points as
Stephen F. Austin defeated Sam Houston State.
Kevon Harris and Nathan Bain
added 16 points each for the Lumberjacks.
Roti Ware had 11 points and six
rebounds for Stephen F. Austin (19-3, 10-1 Southland Conference), which won its
sixth straight game.
The game was tied at 36 at
halftime, then Sam Houston State led through most of the second half until SFA
tied it at 60 with 4:54 to go. Later, a 3-pointer by Charlie Daniels gave the
Lumberjacks the lead for good, 66-63 with three minutes remaining. The
3-pointer began an 11-2 run that helped SFA hold on to first place, now two
games ahead of Sam Houston State and idle Nicholls (8-3).
Kai Mitchell had 15 points for
the Bearkats (15-7, 8-3), whose four-game win streak was broken. Zach Nutall
added 11 points. Chad Bowie had 11 points.
■ SMU 82, TULANE 67: DALLAS
— Tyson Jolly scored 20 points and sophomore Kendric Davis added a
double-double to power SMU over Tulane.
Jolly made 7 of 14 shots from the
floor, including 4 of 9 from 3-point range, for the Mustangs (16-5, 6-3
American Athletic Conference). Davis finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds
for the second double-double of his career. CJ White had 15 points off the bench
on 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Isiaha Mike added 14 points, while
reserve Feron Hunt pitched in with 11 points and seven boards.
Nic Thomas hit six 3-pointers and
scored 20 to lead the Green Wave (10-11, 2-7). K.J. Lawson had 15 points and
seven rebounds, while Teshaun Hightower scored 12 with four assists. Christion
Thompson scored 11 for Tulane, which led 31-28 at halftime before being
outscored 54-36 after intermission.
■ RICE 84, NORTH TEXAS
75: HOUSTON — Josh Parrish and Trey Murphy III scored 15 points apiece
and Rice upset North Texas.
The Owls, who entered the game
with one Conference USA victory, was 9 of 16 on 3-pointers and shot 64% to take
a 44-33 halftime lead over the Mean Green, who shot 54.5%.
Rice protected the lead in the
second half by making 6 of 12 behind the arc and shooting 59% while North Texas
went 11 of 20 behind the arc but just 3 of 9 inside.
North Texas opened the second
half red hot, making 11 of 17 shots, including 9 3-pointers, to take at 65-58
lead at the midpoint. However, in the last 8 1/2 minutes, Rice was 10 of 12 to
regain control.
Robert Martin and Drew Peterson
each added 13 points for the Owls (10-13, 2-8 Conference USA).
■ TEXAS-ARLINGTON 68,
LOUISIANA-MONROE 54: ARLINGTON — Jabari Narcis scored 13 points and
pulled down 10 rebounds, Texas Arlington made half its field goals from beyond
the 3-point arc and the Mavericks defeated Louisiana-Monroe.
Sam Griffin led UT Arlington with
17 points on 6-for-9 shooting with four 3-pointers. Radshad Davis added 15
points on 4-for-4 shooting from distance as Texas-Arlington (10-13, 6-6 Sun
Belt Conference) made 13 3-pointers out of 26 field goals — the most 3s this
season against a Division I opponent.
Tyree White had 11 points and
seven rebounds for the Warhawks (6-15, 2-10).
Very Informative & Nice
Article-We share daily Rice E-Newsletter on Daily Basis across the globe.Visit
on www.riceplusmagazine.blogspot.com for more RICE News. Never Miss Rice News
Bent into shape: The rules of tree
form
How do trees find their sense of
direction as they grow? Researchers are getting to the root — and the branches
— of how the grandest of plants develop.
There’s a place in West Virginia
where trees grow upside-down. Branches sprout from their trunks in the ordinary
fashion, but then they do an about-face, curving toward the soil. On a chilly
December day, the confused trees’ bare branches bob and weave in the breeze
like slender snakes straining to touch the ground.
Building Bodies
Read more from Knowable Magazine’s special report on
development
“It’s really kind of mind-boggling,” says plant molecular
biologist Chris Dardick, waving toward the bizarro plum trees. “They’re
completely messed up.”
I’m visiting an orchard at the Appalachian Fruit Research Station,
an outpost of the US Department of Agriculture nestled in the sleepy Shenandoah
Valley. Here, at Dardick’s workplace, the disoriented plums are but one in an
orchard of oddities, their outlines, seasonally stripped of leaves, standing
out in stark relief.
There are trees with branches that shoot straight up, standing to
attention in disciplined rows, with nary a sideways branch. There are trees
with branches that elegantly arch, like woody umbrellas; others with appendages
that lazily wander this way and that.
Dwarf trees crouch, sporting ball-like crowns akin to Truffula
trees. Compact “trees” poke from the ground in clumps of scraggly, knee-high
sticks. Apple trees with some hidden predicaments grow in a greenhouse nearby:
Their roots reach sideways rather than down. The topsy-turvy growth of all of
these trees comes from genetic variations that cause the dialing up, dialing
down or elimination altogether of the activity of key genes controlling plant
architecture.
Understanding these misfits has real-world applications: It could
help grow the next generation of orchards that, densely packed with trees,
produce more fruit while using less land and labor than today. But Dardick is
also trying to answer a fundamental question: How do different trees get their
distinctive shapes? From the towering spires of spruce and fir, the massive
spreading limbs of an oak to the stately arching canopies of an elm, the
skeletal shapes of trees offer signature silhouettes.
Dardick’s work and that of other researchers also could help to
explain how the shapes of individual trees are far from fixed. Trees, much more
than we can, will morph in response to their literal neck of the woods. Limbs
in the shade reach toward spots of sunlight. Trees on windswept hills bend
trunk and branches into gnarled architectures.
The familiar shape of a regular
plum tree (left) is transformed by dialing down the activity of certain plant
architecture genes, leading to plums with erect branches that shoot straight up
(middle) or plums with branches that cascade downward (right).
CREDIT: C. HOLLENDER (LEFT), C.
DARDICK (CENTER AND RIGHT)
Work by breeders, biologists and botanists have revealed sizable
pockets of knowledge about the hormones, genes and processes that yield the
diverse shapes of trees and other plants, between species and within species.
It has not been easy: Two of trees’ most appealing attributes — their long
lives and large sizes — make them intractable research subjects.
But as scientists pursue these questions, commonalities are
emerging between vastly different species. The puzzle of shape diversity and
adaptability turns out to be tied to the fundamentals of being a plant:
grappling with gravity, fighting for sunlight, all while anchored in one place
for a lifetime.
“Plants are stuck. The best they can do is grow toward something,”
says Courtney Hollender, a former postdoc of Dardick’s who now runs her own lab
in the Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
“That’s all they’ve got; they can’t run, they have to adapt to their
environment. And they’ve developed brilliant ways to do it.”
Available at all branches
Scientists have a word for the ability to adapt so readily:
plasticity. In plants, this feature is both obvious and astounding. Most
animals are born in specific shapes then just grow larger, but plants are
modular — they grow in various iterations of two building blocks: shoots and
roots.
It is the first of these — where and when a shoot grows or doesn’t
grow — that governs the basic form a tree takes.
Some aspects are hardwired. Leaves emerge in a pattern that is
usually fixed throughout the tree’s life, with structural arrangements that
tend to be shared by members of a given plant family. And shoots emerge where
leaves meet the stem. So, for example, plants in the maple family, which have
leaves set opposite each other, have branches in the same format. Members of
the beech family have leaves, and thus branches, that alternate up the stem.
But the interplay between physiology and external forces also
plays a large part. Take your standard-issue plant with a main central stem
that grows upward and has few side branches. Most plants, from basil to birch,
start out this way, a growth habit that probably evolved because it enables
them to quickly reach the light — more rapidly than the competition. Called
apical dominance (the tip of the plant is the “apex”), this is largely under
the purview of the plant hormone indole acetic acid, also known as auxin. Made
in the tip, auxin diffuses downward and blocks the growth of side branches.
This is why pinching the tips off of basil or geranium makes them
bushy — you are removing the source of that bossy auxin, freeing buds on the
stem’s sides from the prohibition and allowing them to grow. (Though auxin is
mighty, it’s not the only player here. Other plant hormones, along with light
intensity and access to nutrients, also wield power.)
Another related and less-understood phenomenon occurs in some tree
species. Called apical control, it also is imposed by the tip of a tree and
probably also by auxin. But rather than operating at the scale of a branch, it
commandeers the whole dang tree.
Think of a pine. At the top, there’s a pointy tip, then upper
branches that tend to reach skyward. Moving down, the branches become more
horizontal, growing out more than up. But unlike a basil plant, a pine tree
does not become bushy when you lop off the top. Instead, a new bud near the top
grows upward, becoming the new leader. Or an existing branch reorients to grow
up and become the new dominant tip.
These two principles are always in the back of arborists’ minds as
they work. “They have to consider, ‘If we cut a branch here, that bud below is
going to break and we’ll just get a branch in basically the same spot,’”
Dardick says. “All of their rules of what to prune and where are based on these
physiological factors that contribute to tree shape.”
A natural reaction
Physiology also underpins the plastic responses trees have to more
extreme situations they may face. A tree on a high mountain peak or windswept
coast must contend with exposure to mechanical forces that could topple and
kill it. To survive, such trees become short and stocky, their bent, asymmetric
crowns reducing drag and presumably protecting a tree from violent gusts. The
driver is the wind’s very touch — a response now called thigmomorphogenesis
that has been observed for hundreds of years.
How it works is still unclear, but over the past decade
researchers have made some headway. They’re actively studying force-sensing
proteins and processes that may be involved. And recent work suggests an important role for hormones such as jasmonate, which accumulates in all kinds of plants in response to
damage and mechanical stress. In experiments with a weedy mustard called Arabidopsis, plants became stunted when
researchers bent their leaves back and forth twice a day. Mutants that
couldn’t make jasmonate, though, grew normally.
Sometimes, wind does more than gust against a tree: It blows the
whole tree over, and that tree, if still rooted, must reorient the growth of
its branches and buds toward the sky. Avalanches, erosion and landslides deal
similar fates. And trees in all sorts of circumstances must grow around
obstacles, away from competitors and toward the light. To get these jobs done, trees
make a special kind of wood called reaction wood.
Trees may become contorted in
challenging physical environments, such as this ridge in the Rocky Mountains.
The touch of wind and other forces prompt physiological responses by the plant
that yield a shorter, stockier stature, gnarled asymmetric shape and the
development of specialized wood. This characteristic tree form is called a
krummholz (German for “crooked wood”).
CREDIT: BRYCE BRADFORD / FLICKR
Hardwoods such as maple, beech, oak and poplar form this tough
stuff (in this case called tension wood) on the upper side of their stems.
Incredibly, it creates a tensile force that pulls the stem upward. “If you walk
around the woods, you can see that most species, if not all species, have this
kind of reaction wood response,” says Andrew Groover, a research geneticist
with the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station in Davis,
California.
The hardwood tree first discerns that it is off-kilter using
specialized gravity-sensing cells. Where these cells reside in trees — the
woody stem? the tip of new shoots? — was unknown until Groover and colleagues
detected them in woody and soft tissues of poplar, a few years back. The cells
contain organelles called statoliths that sink down in the cell and indicate to
the plant that it’s leaning one way or the other. This, in turn, causes that influential
auxin to mobilize, triggering the growth of tension wood on the top. Cellulose with a peculiar gelatinous layer is thought to
act as the “muscle” that generates the pulling-up force.
In this experiment, young, potted
poplar trees were placed sideways to investigate the
plants’ gravity-sensing machinery. The poplar in this time-lapse movie,
taken over two weeks, responded to being tipped on its side by reorienting its
growth upward. The plant hormone auxin is key to this response. Mutants that
cannot respond appropriately to auxin’s signaling instructions do not right
themselves this way. (This particular poplar also received a dose of a chemical
called gibberellic acid that interacts with auxin, so that scientists could
learn more about its role.)
CREDIT: ANDREW GROOVER AND
SUZANNE GERTTULA, US FOREST SERVICE, PACIFIC SOUTHWEST RESEARCH STATION DAVIS
CA
When genes defy gravity
Much of the knowledge about the architecture of plants is rooted
in millennia of human efforts to alter crop shapes to make them more suitable
for cultivation, and modern science is now revealing the genetic changes that
lie behind these creations. The lessons, it turns out, apply broadly across the
plant kingdom, to herbaceous and woody species alike.
It is hard to overstate the importance to human history of some of
these plant-shape changes, says plant molecular geneticist Jiayang Li,
who details some of their genetic underpinnings in the Annual Review of Plant Biology. A classic example is the transformation of the ancestor of corn
(maize) into a key staple crop for much of the world. It arose from a species
of the Central American grasses called teosintes — bushy plants with many
branches. Domestication, among other things, abolished that branching, yielding
the single-stalked upright corn we plant today.
Similarly, explains Li, who works at the Chinese Academy of
Sciences’ Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, the green revolution
of the 20th century ushered in compact, dwarf varieties of wheat and
rice. By modifying the height and
thickness of the stems of these grasses, breeders developed varieties that
could carry more grain without toppling over in wind and rain.
Much of Li’s own research has focused on architectural variation
in rice, although the work turns out to have implications for the architecture
of plants in general, from lowly mosses to towering trees. Like other grasses,
rice grows shoots called tillers — specialized, grain-bearing branches that
emerge from the base. In cultivated rice, the angle at which these tillers grow
varies widely: Some varieties are squat and wide-spreading, others have shoots
that are more upright. Breeders are interested in altering tiller angle because
upright plants can be grown more densely, giving farmers more bang for their
acreage.
In a key advance, in 2007, a team including Li reported
they’d discovered the genetic cause of the spread-out architecture trait. The scientists named the responsible gene TAC1, short for “tiller angle control.”
A functional TAC1 gene increases rice’s tiller angle, leading to open, widely
branching plants. Mutations in TAC1 lead to the opposite: plants with erect shoots that reach
up, instead of out.
That same year, Li’s team and a group in Japan both reported another major achievement: finding a
long-sought gene behind a curious trait in some rice varieties that gives plant
branches a scruffy, lounging look. The trait, known as “lazy,” had intrigued
plant breeders and geneticists since the 1930s, when researchers described its
extreme manifestation in corn: “The lazy plants grow along the ground, following the unevenness
of the surface.”
In ordinary rice (left), the
hormone auxin helps to tell the plant which direction is up. Auxin transport
within the plant goes awry when a gene called LAZY malfunctions, leading to
confused plants with sprawling branches (right).
CREDIT: B. WANG ET AL / AR PLANT BIOLOGY 2018
The cause, it turns out, was errors in a gene that normally makes
branches shoot straight up. Li and his colleagues surveyed some 30,000
mutant rice plants to pin down that gene,
now called LAZY (names of genes, confusingly, often refer to what happens
when a gene is mutated and doesn’t work, rather than when it is functioning
properly). And they provided convincing evidence for an idea batted around for
decades — that lazy plants have muddled perceptions of gravity and that auxin
is centrally involved.
A common test for whether a plant’s gravity-perception machinery
is working is to lay the plant on its side. If it knows up from down, it won’t
continue to grow sideways, but will start to grow up again, akin to the
reaction-wood response of a toppled tree’s branches. An important step in this
reorienting involves auxin pooling on the bottom side of the shoot. But in lazy
mutants, proteins that help ferry auxin around the plant are malfunctioning, so
instead of shoots growing in the correct direction, they’re prone to casually
sprawl about.
Scientists now know that LAZY genes come in multiple versions. Some appear to operate in
plant roots, telling them which way is down, probably using similar,
auxin-related signals. If those genes are absent or inactive, confused roots
grow upward. And though the genes were first found in monocots, a branch of the
plant kingdom including rice and corn, researchers now know that LAZY genes exist in numerous
plants, including the plums growing in the fruit research station in West
Virginia.
A lazy mutant of corn (left)
compared with normal corn (right). Such corn mutants were described nearly 100
years ago, but it took 21st century molecular biology to nail down the growth
habit’s cause: genetic malfunctions that meddle with responses to gravity.
CREDIT: T.P. HOWARD III ET AL / PLOS ONE 2014
Reaching upward and outwards
As our boots crunch along the uneven ground, Dardick points at an
errant orchard cat watching our tree tour from a distance. One row of trees
stands so upright that a fencepost at the end of it is enough to block the row
from view. These regimented trees are “pillar” peaches, and they are favorites
of landscapers (one reason: it’s easy to get around them with a lawnmower).
They also were key to uncovering genes like LAZY and TAC1 at the Shenandoah Valley
station.
By comparing ordinary peaches to pillar peaches, and drawing on
decades of work by former lead scientist Ralph Scorza, a team of station
scientists and others in the US and Germany discovered the cause of the pillar
trait: mutations in the peach version of TAC1.
Many of the strange plant
architectures under investigation existed as naturally occurring varieties that
were developed by breeders for ornamental gardens or orchards; only recently
have the genes underlying these forms been identified. It’s now known that the
upright growth habit of the pillar peach (center), available commercially under
the name “Crimson Rocket,” results from mutations in a gene that
helps plants branch outward.
CREDIT: C. DARDICK
The team also found that LAZY was at work in many of their misfits. Just as with the corn
plants described nearly 100 years ago, mutations in LAZY made plums grow topsy-turvy,
their branches seeking the soil. Apple trees with LAZY mutations have similarly
disoriented roots. And when multiple copies of LAZY genes malfunction in the
weed Arabidopsis, its roots grow up, its shoots down.
In the last decade, researchers have found that TAC1 influences branch angle in
plums, poplar trees, the grass Miscanthus and Arabidopsis, and it appears to affect leaf angle in corn. But LAZY genes have even deeper roots.
They’re found in all manner of plants, including the evolutionarily older
Loblolly pine and even more ancient mosses.
This finding suggests a very old role for LAZY: It may have allowed plants to
grow up, literally, when they first colonized land. Plants got their start in
water. There, rootless and leafless, they were buoyed, unconcerned with
gravity. The transition to land spurred the development of proper roots and
stems, and plants then had to figure out up from down. LAZY seems to have allowed plants
to orient their above-ground growth away from gravity and up toward the sun.
Scientists think that TAC1 evolved somewhat later, providing a counterpoint to LAZY — ensuring that branches
don’t only grow straight up, but also reach out. Together, these genes
laid critical groundwork for the diversity of plant forms we see today, all
seeking sustenance in their own ways.
“Once you start to grow up as a vascular plant, you need to
maximize your resources, you need to capture as much sun as possible,” says
Hollender, who has been working on yet another gene, called WEEP, that — when nonfunctional — lends
plants a weeping, waterfall-like structure seen here and there in trees of
ornamental gardens. (But it’s probably not responsible for the shape of weeping
willow trees.) “Modifying your shoot angles is an important adaptive trait for
plants that allows them to capture light. It’s essential for them to survive.”
This kind of research has broad economic implications. Fruit and
nut trees bring $25 billion annually in the US alone and there are hefty costs
associated with pruning, bending and tying branches; spraying hormones; and the
manual labor of picking fruit from an unruly cacophony of limbs. Understanding
the genetic controls behind tree architecture could help scientists breed trees
that make the whole fruit-farming enterprise more efficient and environmentally
friendly.
“Orchard systems are not the most sustainable in the world,”
Dardick says. “The idea is, if we can modify tree architecture, if we could
reduce their size and limit the amount of area they take up, then we could
plant them at higher density and potentially increase their sustainability.”
And there may be odder outcomes than friendlier outdoor orchards:
In collaboration with NASA, the USDA team is investigating genetic tweaks that
might even help bring fruit to space. On that
December day, Dardick takes me to a greenhouse tucked in a corner of the lab.
In it are plum and apple trees whose shape is so transformed that they look
more like the love children of shrubs and vines. This strange growth habit is a
side-effect of efforts to breed plants that flower and make fruit sooner and
then do so continuously, rather than flowering after growing for several years,
and then only in the spring.
The genetic tweaks that sent the trees’ developmental program into overdrive have also transformed their architecture. In the
greenhouse, these precocious “trees” sprawl, draping lazily along wire
trellises, happily flowering and heavy with fruit. “They’re growing almost like
tomatoes,” Dardick says. “So we’re broaching the concept of, can we bring an
orchard indoors?”
The strange, vine-like growth of
this plum results when a gene controlling the timing of flower development
malfunctions. Such unusually shaped “trees” may facilitate
indoor “orchards” that produce fruit many months of the year.
CREDIT: C. SRINIVASAN
Those ambitions aside, Dardick has his hands full trying to answer
numerous basic-science questions about how trees do what they do. Researchers
still don’t know how different tree species set the angles of their branches —
going wide like an oak, or arching like an elm. They don’t know how trees alter
those angles during the course of mature growth, as branches sprout from
branches sprouted from branches, until some of them finally point down. Trees
are both kindred and foreign to us, their various forms so familiar, but their
architectural rules still in so many ways opaque.
“I find myself looking at trees all
the time now in a new way; they fill space so beautifully and efficiently,”
Dardick says. “They are the biggest organism we have that’s visible, that’s in
our face all the time. But there’s so much we don’t know.”
Scientists put seaweed plaguing Tauranga harbour
to good use
SAT, FEB
1 • SOURCE: 1 NEWS
Tauranga's harbour is plagued by seaweed and
it's just one of many that's seeing an increase in sea lettuce. Fertiliser
run-off is fueling the problem down the coast in the Maketū Estuary too.
New Zealand scientists are developing ways
for the sea lettuce to be put to good use.
"We do see a build-up of sea lettuce in
Maketū as well as down the road in Tauranga, and some of our other
estuaries, so this is largely due to too much nutrients," marine scientist
Shari Gallop told 1 NEWS.
Sea lettuce smothers other marine species,
but the lab is exploring practical uses for seaweed.
"Basically we're working on a method
for fementing green seaweed called algae," Waikato University's Krystal Ryan
says.
They're exploring how it could be used to
create a plant feed, which would leach fewer nutrients to the sea by using
three different fermenting processes.
"One with a scoby, one with a rice
broth and one with an in-house plus supplement," said Ms Ryan.
The product helps to grow sacrificial tomato
plants.
The plants are then dissected with their
roots removed, measured, weighed and recorded.
"We hope to find a way that's able to
utilise algae that is so easy and accessible for everyone so that we don't have
to have a chemical process," said Ms Ryan.
They're also cultivating seaweed on land.
"We can actually have systems set up
where you can pump nutrient rich water from the environment the algae will
actually take up the nitrogen and phosphorous from the polluted waters, and
once you harvest the algae out from the land-based systems you have nice clean
biomass as a regular supply and clean water," Seaweed Aqua Culture
programme leader Marie Magusson says.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/scientists-put-seaweed-plaguing-tauranga-harbour-good-use
Rice: Can Nigeria attain
self-sufficiency in two years?
By CSL Stockbrokers
February 1, 2020
The Minister of Agriculture and
Rural Development, Mr Sabo Nanono, was quoted in a news report as
saying Nigeria would hopefully begin to export rice to other countries in the
next two years. According to him, the border closure by the Federal Government
had resulted in increased output of local rice by farmers and millers
across the country.
He also noted that the country now has 11 mega
rice milling plants with the capacity to produce from 180 tonnes to 350 tonnes
of rice per day. In a related development, the Lagos State government announced
its Imota Rice Mill in Ikorodu, will be completed by the second quarter of 2020
with a production capacity of 32 tonnes per hour.
Since 2011, the government has
been making substantial efforts to encourage the domestic cultivation of rice
and to completely eliminate imports using incentives such as subsidised loans,
cheap fertilizer, free farmland, and, tax rebates. The government’s efforts to
boost domestic production have, however, been curtailed by smuggled imports,
which were selling for between 25-40% lower than locally-produced rice.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2015 restricted
importers of 40 physical items, which included rice, from accessing US$ from
the interbank market and bureaux de change. In March 2016 the government, after
previously lifting the ban on imports through land borders, imposed the ban
again.
These restrictions led to a
gradual decline in
imports and resulted in an increase in the price of imported rice.
Consequently, the price gap that made cheaper imported rice more attractive
began to narrow. The most effective measure against rice imports however was
the closure of the land borders in August 2019. Since Nigeria closed its
land borders, the price of rice, a major staple in the country has been on the
rise.
The price of a 50kg bag of
imported rice, which
was selling at N14,500 before the closure of the border, now sells for N27,000
while locally produced rice has also seen an increase in price of between
25-50%.
Despite hurting consumers
currently,
we are inclined to believe the closure of the borders may be positive for rice
production in the medium to long term if production can be ramped up as quickly
as being broadcasted and the quality of the locally milled rice improves.
Uhuru says committed to address
plight of farmers countrywide
Yesterday 9:30 am
PSCU,
MWEA, Kenya Feb 1 – President
Uhuru Kenyatta has assured of the Government’s commitment to address challenges
facing farmers countrywide.
Speaking on the rice sector, the
President directed all government institutions to buy only locally produced
rice to ensure farmers reap maximum returns from their hard work.
President Kenyatta said the
government has set aside Sh500 million as a revolving fund to ensure farmers
are paid promptly once they deliver rice to their cooperative societies for
onward transmission to the Kenya National Trading Corporation.
“We said when we ushered in the
new year that this year we would like to address the various problems facing
the farmers. We know here in Mwea there have been problems. We are working
towards addressing those problems,” the President said.
President Kenyatta on Saturday at
Wanguru Stadium in Kirinyaga County after touring the Mwea Rice Millers (MRM)on
the second of day of his working visit of Central Kenya region that also saw
him visit Nyandarua County yesterday to launch several development projects.
The Head of State also ordered
the Kenya National Trading Corporation to be buying rice from the farmers at a
cost of Shs 85 per kilo of paddy instead of the current Sh70 per kilo.
“If we do that and continue to
buy the locally produced rice, as government, we will encourage private buyers
to also pay more for the rice from farmers.
“It is a free market but as a
government, we will be buying the locally produced rice at Shs 85 per kilo of
paddy,” he said.
The President said the government
is focused on reviving and improving the performance of rice mills so that
farmers will not suffer losses because of lacking functional mills to process
their produce.
President unveils a milk
cooling plant in Meru on February 1, 2020. /PSCU.
“We have a hardworking
Agriculture CS (Peter Munya) and after a year we will be back here to see the
work he has done to revive and improve the rice mills,” he said.
The President assured rice farmers
that subsidized fertilizer will be sold to them directly so as to ensure they
are not overcharged by middlemen.
He asked Kenya Power to lower the
electricity tariff they are charging MRM to reduce the cost of milling and
ordered the rice factory to ensure that farmers benefit from the savings that
will accrue from the lower electricity tariffs.
President Kenyatta, who later
flagged off trucks carrying rice from farmers to the Kenya National Trading
Corporation warehouses countrywide, reiterated his call for all Kenyans to
embrace peace and unity.
“Peace and unity are the key
ingredients for development,” President Kenyatta said, adding that peace is the
legacy he wants to leave behind.
He asked politicians to shun
divisive politics and instead work to consolidate peace that will ensure
Kenyans live together in harmony wherever they are within the country.
The Head of State also spoke
against corruption, saying the duty of leaders is to protect public resources
and not to loot what is entrusted to them.
Agriculture CS Peter Munya said
his ministry has embarked on a focused plan that will improve the agricultural
sector and ensure farmers benefit from their work.
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru
thanked President Kenyatta for caring for the welfare of farmers in Kirinyaga
and across the country.
Government’s program for purchase of
paddy in Maha season 2019/2020 to accept paddy with moisture
Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 09:44 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 09:44 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Feb 02, Colombo: The Government, in line with the President’s
Visions of Prosperity policy has already commenced purchasing paddy at a
minimum guaranteed price of Rs. 50 per one kilogram under the government’s
program to purchase the paddy harvest in Maha season 2019/2020.
It
is noteworthy that the government for the first time this year will buy the
paddy with moisture content higher than the usual as a special benefit to the
farmer, the Ministry of Finance said.
In
the previous seasons, the government purchased only paddy with moisture content
of 14%. This time the government will purchase paddy with moisture content up
to a maximum of 22% at a lower price.
Paddy
should be dried to safe moisture content within 24 hours after harvesting to
avoid damage and deterioration.
In
the past a nadu variety paddy kilogram was purchased at Rs. 38 and a Samba
kilogram at Rs. 41. However, this time all varieties will be purchased at Rs.
50 per kilogram.
The
government will purchase the paddy in two ways to facilitate the farmers to
supply the paddy to the government.
(A)
The Paddy Marketing Board will purchase paddy with a maximum moisture content
of 14% at Rs. 50 per kilogram of paddy.
(B)
The government has taken measures to procure paddy with moisture for the first
time through the Divisional Secretaries, Small and medium scale millers and
Co-operative Societies under the direction of the District Secretaries.
Accordingly, a kilogram of paddy with moisture content exceeding 14% but less
than 22% will be purchased at Rs. 44.
The
maximum amount of paddy that can be purchased from a farmer according to the
acreage cultivated is given below.
 |
The
Treasury has already provided Rs.3.830 billion to the Paddy Marketing Board and
District Secretaries for the initial step of implementing this program.
Also
the storage facilities at Paddy Marketing Board stores, and stores owned by the
Food Commissioner's Department and other government institutions as well as the
storage facilities owned by the small and medium scale rice mill owners have
been prepared.
According
to the Department of Agriculture, paddy production forecast based on the
reported sown extent as at end November 2019 is 2.40 million metric tons
accounting for crop losses and would be sufficient for more than seven months.
Offset Printing Press Market to be at Forefront by 2017 – 2025
Published
The
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this business vertical and encompasses a brief synopsis about its segmentation.
The report is inclusive of a nearly accurate prediction of the market scenario
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where the industry extends its horizons, in magnanimous detail.
The
market report, titled ‘Offset Printing Press Market Research Report 2019 – By
Manufacturers, Product Type, Applications, Region and Forecast to 2017 – 2025′,
recently added to the market research repository of details in-depth past and
present analytical and statistical data about the Offset Printing Press Market.
The report describes the Offset Printing Press Market in detail in terms of the
economic and regulatory factors that are currently shaping the market’s growth
trajectory, the regional segmentation of the global Keyword market, and an
analysis of the market’s downstream and upstream value and supply chains.
This Press Release will
help you to understand the Volume, growth with Impacting Trends. Click HERE To
get SAMPLE PDF (Including Full TOC, Table & Figures) at https://www.persistencemarketresearch.co/samples/16129
The
report offers the market growth rate, size, and forecasts at the global level
in addition as for the geographic areas: Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific,
North America, and Middle East & Africa. Also, it analyses, roadways and
provides the global market size of the main players in each region. Moreover,
the report provides knowledge of the leading market players within the Offset
Printing Press Market. The industry-changing factors for the market segments
are explored in this report. This analysis report covers the growth factors of
the worldwide market based on end-users.
Key
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Few
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·
Ronald Web Offset
·
KOMORI Corporation
·
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
·
GSSE
·
AGAL
·
Haverer Group Ltd
·
Zonten Machinery Works Co., Ltd
·
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In
accordance with a competitive prospect, this Offset Printing Press report
dispenses a broad array of features essential for measuring the current Offset
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manufacturing process analysis, as well as labor costs have been enumerated in
the study
Substantial
details about the industry chain analysis, downstream buyers, and sourcing
strategies have been elucidated
A
separate section has been designated for the analysis of the marketing strategy
adopted, as well details about the distributors that are a part of the supply
chain
The
report is inclusive of information regarding the channels adopted for the
product marketing, marketing channel development trends, pricing and brand
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In order to get a strategic
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Since You Asked: North Medford sent a balloon over
Shasta, too
The fact that North Medford students wound up with an extra tank
of helium after launching two high-altitude balloons to capture images of the
2019 solar eclipse “was just a miracle,” said Robert Black, Astronomy teacher
and director of the school’s planetarium.
At a national conference (specifically, the Stratospheric
Ballooning Association’s Academic High-Altitude Conference) that he and three
student members of the balloon team attended in Minneapolis later that year, he
learned that far more teams had experienced defeat rather than success.
Of the 57 teams, 19 had successfully launched balloons and
captured images. The other 38, however, had failed in some capacity.
With that extra tank of helium, he and the students launched
their third balloon in May 2018, capturing photos of Mount Shasta at stunning
altitudes.
“We got some incredible pictures,” he said.
We imagine you can see that for yourself, though.
North Medford High School
students captured this image of Mount Shasta in May 2018, using a high-altitude
balloon similar to the two they used to photograph the Aug. 2017 total solar
eclipse. Photo courtesy of Robert Black, North Medford High School.
Send questions to “Since You Asked,” Mail
Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or
by email to youasked@rosebudmedia.com. We’re sorry, but the volume of questions
received prevents us from answering all of them.
We’re committed to addressing challenges facing farmers, Uhuru
says
Speaking on the rice sector, the President directed all government institutions to buy only locally produced rice to ensure farmers reap maximum returns from their hard work.
President Kenyatta said the government has set aside Ksh 500 million as a revolving fund to ensure farmers are paid promptly once they deliver rice to their cooperative societies for onward transmission to the Kenya National Trading Corporation.
“We said when we ushered in the New Year that this year we would like to address the various problems facing the farmers. We know here in Mwea there have been problems. We are working towards addressing those problems,” the President said.
President Kenyatta spoke today at Wanguru Stadium in Kirinyaga County after touring the Mwea Rice Millers (MRM)on the second of day of his working visit of Central Kenya region that also saw him visit Nyandarua County yesterday to launch several development projects.
The Head of State also ordered the Kenya National Trading Corporation to be buying rice from the farmers at a cost of Ksh 85 per kilo of paddy instead of the current Ksh 70 per kilo.“If we do that and continue to buy the locally produced rice, as government, we will encourage private buyers to also pay more for the rice from farmers.
“It is a free market but as a government we will be buying the locally produced rice at Ksh 85 per kilo of paddy,” he said.
The President said the government is focused on reviving and improving the performance of rice mills so that farmers will not suffer losses because of lacking functional mills to process their produce.
“We have a hardworking
Agriculture CS (Peter Munya) and after a year we will be back here to see the
work he has done to revive and improve the rice mills,” he said.
The President assured rice farmers
that subsidized fertilizer will be sold to them directly so as to ensure they
are not overcharged by middlemen.He asked Kenya Power to lower the electricity tariff they are charging MRM to reduce the cost of milling and ordered the rice factory to ensure that farmers benefit from the savings that will accrue from the lower electricity tariffs.
SKC uses
innovation to beat drought
PUBLISHED : 3 FEB 2020 AT 04:31
NEWSPAPER SECTION: BUSINESS
WRITER: LAMONPHET APISITNIRAN
Kubota Tractor in Japan's farm. (Photo courtesy of Siam Kubota
Corporation)
Thailand's recurring droughts
have become an issue for Siam Kubota Corporation (SKC), the farm machinery
maker, but it remains optimistic that revenue will increase 5-10% in 2020,
largely from farm machinery.
Newly appointed president
Takanobu Azuma said SKC expects a sales boost from government support for
farmers, such as measures to increase crop prices and help with debts.
"SKC forecasts that the
drought will not pressure sales of farm machinery much," he said.
Mr Azuma said SKC plans to adopt
agricultural innovations such as farm management, crop improvement and cost
reduction to help farmers and agricultural companies.
"These innovations will
solve the Thai labour shortage and assist in smart farming by using
automation," he said. "SKC plans to adopt Internet of Things sensors,
GPS telematics and drones for agricultural product management."
The company expects to sell 38,000
tractors and 3,000 combine harvesters in 2020, with a goal to reach 60,000
units of both products by 2024.
In 2020, SKC set aside 300
million baht, with half for development of Kubota Farm in Chon Buri on a plot
of 220 rai. The remainder is allocated to improve SKC's manufacturing
facilities at Nava Nakorn Industrial Park in Pathum Thani and Amata City
Industrial Estate in Chon Buri.
The Nava Nakorn factory normally
produces diesel engines and power tillers with annual production of 240,000
units. It also serves as the site for Kubota's parts distribution centre and
R&D hub for Asean.
Tractors and combine harvesters
are made at the Amata City facility with output of 77,000 units a year.
Founded in 2010, SKC is a 60:40
joint venture between Kubota Corporation and Siam Cement Group.
SKC posted 2019 revenue of 54
billion baht, a 2% rise from the year before, with 33 billion baht domestically
and 21 billion baht from exports to Southeast Asia, Australia and India.
In 2019, the company sold 35,000
tractors and 2,700 combine harvesters.
Senior executive vice-president
Somsak Mauthorn said SKC seeks to export Thai-assembled farm machinery to
Africa, where there are higher-potential markets.
The company has diversified its
farm machinery products to other dry crops and vegetable segments such as
cassava, sugar cane and corn.
"Most Kubota products are
for rice farming," Mr Somsak said. "Because of the drought, farmers
cannot grow off-season rice, while high-season rice farming will be
postponed."
He said SKC is preparing to
provide farm machinery for horticultural crops to diversify amid drought risk.
Trendsetter
Japan's Kubota aims to become a
major global brand by 2030, banking on its expertise in digital and innovation.
Yuichi Kitao, president of Kubota
Corporation, said digital disruption is the biggest challenge. He said the
company needs to invest more in the Internet of Things and analytics in a bid
to transform Kubota's business to deal with future changes.
"Kubota supports
globalisation through innovation, and we are committed to developing machinery
that benefits and helps economic development globally," Mr Kitao said.
He said many of the challenges
leading up to 2030 are related to global demographic shifts, including the
rising global population and increasing demand for food. The larger population
will also expand the middle classes. https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1849494/skc-uses-innovation-to-beat-drought
David Ndii takes
Uhuru head-on, trashes his latest directive
02 Feb 2020 , 1:36 PM
This is a roadside declaration - David Ndii
David Ndii takes Uhuru head-on, trashes his latest directive
David Ndii takes Uhuru head-on, trashes his latest directive
Economist David Ndii has taken president Uhuru Kenyatta head-on
following his directive that the Ministry of Agriculture should increase the
price of unprocessed rice from Sh45 to Sh85 per kilogramme following complaints
from farmers.
David Ndii termed Uhuru’s directive as ‘roadside declarations’
stating that the move would disrupt the cost of production of rice in the
country in effect making the sector unsustainable.
“These are called roadside declarations. I hope he knows what he is
talking about because farmers are paid for paddy, not rice. (takes 1.6kg of
paddy to get a kg of rice). 85/= that would translate to Sh136 per kg of rice” read David's tweet.
Speaking at Wang'uru Stadium in Kirinyaga County on Saturday,
Uhuru told the CS to ensure that unprocessed rice prices are increased to
enable farmers make profits.
This comes after several complaints that cheap rice from
Pakistan had invaded the market as well as invasion of the Mwea Irrigation
Scheme by brokers.
President Kenyatta announced that the government has set aside
Sh500 million as revolving fund to buy rice from farmers
