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Kharif sowing of rice, pulses increases with
rains
Amiti Sen
Acreage under cotton,
oilseed cultivation still low but likely to improve
New Delhi, July 8:
With
surplus rain recorded between June 30 and July 6, sowing of rice and pulses
picked up pace with the total acreage under the two crops, since the beginning
of June, exceeding last year’s levels for the same period.
The
sharp decline in acreage under cotton and oilseeds, however, resulted in lower
acreage under all kharif crops till July 8, at 406.27 lakh hectares, compared
with 431.82 lakh hectares in the same period last year, according to data
released by the Agriculture Ministry.
“While
cotton sowing has been affected to some extent by the white fly attack last
year, the lower acreage in both cotton and oilseeds could be attributed to the
slow progress of the monsoon in parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and
Gujarat. But with rainfall abundant in most parts of the country now, acreage
is likely to improve for both,” an Agriculture Ministry official told BusinessLine.
The
country received 35 per cent surplus rainfall in the week ended July 6 with all
regions recording above-normal rainfall apart from the Peninsula, according to
the India Meteorological Department.
Deficit erased
The rainfall deficit of 11 per cent recorded till the end of June has hence
been wiped out with the country now recording a 1 per cent surplus in the
period starting June.
The
acreage under rice till July 8 increased to 81.93 lakh hectares (77.31 lakh
hectares) as States such as Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Andhra
Pradesh and Tamil Nadu witnessed a rise.
Cash crops
Sowing of pulses increased to 45.93 lakh hectares till July 8 this year, from
36.44 lakh hectares in the same period last year with a major spurt in acreage
in Karnataka, followed by Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra
Pradesh.
Acreage
under sugarcane also rose, although at a relatively lower level, to 45.78 lakh
hectares (43.68 lakh hectares) as sowing in Uttar Pradesh posted a significant
increase.
Cotton
sowing dropped to 67.89 lakh hectares till July 8 compared to 87.83 lakh
hectares in the same period last year, with the fall most pronounced in
Maharashtra, where acreage declined to 18.97 lakh hectares (29.98 lakh
hectares).
Oilseed coverage down
The acreage under oilseeds was lower at 82.28 lakh hectares, compared to 101.15
lakh hectares in the same period last year, with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
witnessing significant falls. Oilseed sowing in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana recorded a rise
DA chief eyes advanced rice
technologies to boost farmer productivity
July 10, 2016
LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, July 10 -- True to his
mission of making food available and affordable to all Filipinos, as well as
improve the lives of farmers—especially in challenging upland areas—Emmanuel
Piñol, new secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA), visited the
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) on 6 July. Piñol
was most concerned in ensuring that the advances in rice production achieved
through IRRI’s research reach farmers "so we can focus on food production
and poverty alleviation,” referring to the pronouncements of President Rodrigo
Duterte. “This
is the main thrust of the Duterte Administration's agriculture program,"
he said. Piñol
received an overview of IRRI and its existing collaborative projects with the
DA and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) from IRRI Deputy
Directors General V. Bruce J. Tolentino and Jackie Hughes. Also
briefing the DA team were Donna Casimero, Michele Weldon, Sarah Beebout, Roland
Buresh, Alice Laborte, Rowena Castillo, and Mary Jean Du. The Food Staples
Sufficiency Program (FSSP), which was launched in 2011, includes seven
components: the Philippine
Rice Information System (PRISM), a web-based tool called Rice
Crop Manager (RCM), better extension service through the Project
IPaD, development of new varieties in the NextGen
project, diffusion of associated
technologies in rainfed areas, benchmarking
of the Philippine rice economy, and preservation and
promotion of heirloom
rice varieties in the Cordilleras and in the uplands of
Alamada and Banisilan in Arakan Valley of North Cotabato. "My
experiences as a local government executive actually brought me to the
mountainous areas in my province," shared Piñol. "This is where
poverty is. If only families living in upland areas could produce enough rice
for their needs then, perhaps, we'll be able to alleviate poverty in these
areas. I'm really interested; maybe it's not for commercial reasons, but just
for subsistence.” Recognizing
the threats of La Niña and the recent El Niño, Piñol also stressed the
importance of establishing food centers in critical areas of the country with
enough supplies to last at least 6 months. Heirloom
rice varieties In the
ongoing FSSP partnership, IRRI works with DA regional field offices and local
government units in the Cordilleras and Region XII to help upland farmers not
only conserve traditional rice varieties but also connect
them with high-value markets such as restaurants that operate locally and
abroad. "The
Heirloom Rice Project (HRP) not only helps preserve and promote Filipino
cultural identity, but it also aims to improve the quality of life of Filipino
farmers economically and socially," said Dr. Nollie Vera Cruz, project
leader. Mechanization Engr.
Martin Gummert, head of the postharvest unit at IRRI, shared several
postharvest technologies with the Secretary during his visit. These included
the Superbag, a durable plastic bag designed to
keep grains dry and safe from moisture, as well as insects, rats, and molds. He
also demonstrated the solar
bubble dryer (SBD) that dries grains inside a plastic dome
to protect them from rain. The SBD can dry grains to a moisture level of
10–13%, depending on the weather conditions—dry or wet. It can also run on
solar power, when needed. Other technologies that were showcased included a transplanter,
drum
seeder for sowing pregerminated rice, combine
harvester, among others. Water
conservation Piñol
also took notice of asimple
perforated plastic pipe that can be used by farmers to alternately wet and dry
fields. He remarked that, for decades, the Philippine
irrigation program has been focused on mega projects that take 15–20 years to
complete but then only irrigate 10,000–15,000 hectares. Instead, he wants to
focus on establishing quick communal irrigation projects that are also environment-friendly "Building
irrigation projects starting now will take us 15 years to complete," he
said. "Because our population is growing at 1.9% per annum and our
irrigation program only adds about 50,00–60,000 hectares a year, that's not
going work."
Piñol
noted that the country squanders many of its resources, the most important of
which is water. "We are a country with six months of rain, typhoons, and
flooding. Then there are three months of dry spell when we cry for water,"
he said. "We really need somebody to help us come up with a good plan to
conserve water. We need a program on how to preserve La Niña water for the
coming season." Climate-smart
varieties Dr. Gina
Vergara, who leads the NextGen
project, discussed varieties that can withstand stresses
brought about by climate change such as drought, flooding, and salinity. The DA
Secretary asked if these varieties were already available. She reported that
two flood-tolerant varieties developed by IRRI have been released by the
National Seed Industry Council but breeding materials for stagnant flooding are
still being evaluated in field trials.
Genetic
conservation
Piñol also toured the International
Rice Genebank (IRG), where he asked if it would be possible
to obtain seeds of Dinorado, Azucena, and other traditional varieties for seed
production. IRG
manager Flor de Guzman replied that the seeds are available to anyone upon
request and are free of charge. Currently, the IRG holds about 7,800 accessions
of Philippine rice varieties, about 40% of them being IRRI-developed. Crop
management In
addition to the IRG and a briefing of the PRISM and RCM projects under the FSSP,
Piñol also toured the Long-Term
Continuous Cropping Experiment(LTCCE), where the institute
has been able to sustainably cultivate three rice crops annually for nearly 55
years. Extension Keen on
getting technologies into the hands of farmers, Sec. Piñol stressed how he
wanted to expand the current program for agricultural extension workers in the
country.Director Edmund Sana of the DA National Rice Program agreed with the
secretary that any technology is useless when it is not in farmer's hands. "Last
Monday, we did an assessment and we are already planning for the roll
out," reported Sana. "This program will have to be expanded further
to support the rice production enhancement program that we will be undertaking
to ensure rice self-sufficiency.”
Sana
explained that the agricultural extension workers in Project
IPaD are not only being trained exclusively on the
technology of rice production. "The first module involves values
transformation. The second one is on enterprise development because extension
workers need to look at farming as an enterprise. We don't just recommend that
farmers plant rice from A to Z, but they also have to make money while doing
it." Dr.
Tolentino explained that IRRI, as a research agency, is mandated to come up
with ideas and to test or validate them. However, it cannot directly bring
technologies to farmers because its mission is global. In
addition to officials from the DA and PhilRice, Piñol’s party also included
officials from National Irrigation Administration, the Department of Interior
and Local Government, among others. (IRRI)
THE
National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental reported that the current
rice supply in the province is at a comfortable level and can meet the daily
consumption requirement for the next four months.The latest NFA Negros
Occidental Rice Situationer Report showed that as of December 2015, the
province has an inventory of 3,143,758 bags of rice, and can still supply the
province’s average daily consumption requirement of 22,220 bags for the next
141 days. Of the
total rice inventory, 1,833,149 bags are commercial sector stocks mainly from
rice mills, warehouses, wholesaler, and retailers. This supply alone can last
for 82 days, the report added. In terms
of household inventory, the province has 847,434 bags of rice that can meet the
province’s daily consumption requirement for the next 38 days. NFA
Negros Occidental further reported that for government inventory, or those
remaining NFA rice stocks stored at the agency’s warehouses, the province is
secured for 21 days with the remaining 463,175 bags. Cynthia
Luz Chua, senior grains operations officer of NFA Negros Occidental, told
Sun.Star Bacolod that the province reached high local rice production targets
in 2015. The rice
inflow from other provinces like Cebu and Iloilo were also high, contributing
to safe rice situation levels in Negros Occidental, she said. “The
province has nothing to worry in terms of rice supply this year,” Chua said,
adding that the existing stocks are still expected to move upward as there were
still pending NFA rice allocation for this year.She also said that rice usage
will also be replenished by constant rice production and inflow in the province
Palay output target raised to
over 20-M metric tons
Posted on July 11, 2016
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is
projecting over 20 million metric tons (MT) for this year’s palay output, but
said the increased production will be subject to an additional funding request
of P18 billion being approved.
A farmer prepares to load rice stalks into a
threshing machine at a farm in Ilocos Norte. -- AFP
According to the data showed by the DA to
reporters last week, the agency is projecting 20.09 million MT, higher than the
previous administration’s target of around 19 million MT.
“Eighteen billion pesos for this year, that’s additional... If approved, then
that’s the projection,” said Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol in a phone
interview.
Asked if the 2016 total takes into account the damage from the severe El Niño
prevailing earlier in the year, Mr. Piñol replied in the positive but added
that hitting the projection will still largely depend on the approval of the
funds on top of those already budgeted.
For 2016, the DA has an approved budget of P40.33 billion. Earlier, Mr. Piñol
said that the agency still has P17 billion from this year’s budget unreleased.
The agency’s projection for this year is in line with a 100% rice
self-sufficiency goal within in two years. For 2017 and 2018, palay output is
expected to reach 20.52 million MT and 21.27 million MT, respectively.
The goal implies raising the national palay yield to 4.57 MT per hectare in two
years from 4 MT currently.
The P18 billion worth of additional funding for rice is included in a P62
billion fund proposal presented last Tuesday to the government’s economic
managers, according to Mr. Piñol.
Mr. Piñol added that in the area of farm-to-market roads (FMRs), the department
will review the criteria for project approval to prevent the misuse of funds.
“The system is being abused. Even barangay roads are being designated
farm-to market roads. That is not going work under this administration,” he
said during a rice stakeholder’s meeting last week in Los Baños, Laguna.
He said the last government allowed infrastructure to take the lion’s share of
agricultural funds. In 2015, he said, some P9 billion was appropriated for FMRs
while, P7 billion funded efforts to boost food production.
The Aquino administration’s P431-billion agriculture budget from 2011 to 2016
exceeded the sector’s budget from 1975 to 2010 by P45 billion, and directed 67%
to the establishment of irrigation facilities, farm-to-market roads, trading
centers, and community fish landings, according to former Agriculture Secretary
Proceso J. Alcala in the Philippine Agriculture Report Card 2010 to 2016.
Mr. Piñol, however, clarified that he will “not reduce funds for
infrastructure” but will only focus on strategic areas to prevent the misuse of
FMR funds.
Last year, the Commission on Audit reported that the DA, under Mr. Alcala, set
aside P6 billion for FMRs that were never built. Mr. Alcala has denied the
allegations. -- Janina C. Lim
CLEVELAND, MS -- Growers in the area
were presumably celebrating slightly more than the average American over the
Fourth of July weekend due to a much-needed rain following a 25 day long dry
spell. Nat McKnight, a grower and member of the 2015-2017 Rice Leadership
Development Class, reports that his rice, corn, and soybean crops are thriving,
especially after the recent wet weather.
According to McKnight, 3-5 percent
of the rice is already headed in Mississippi and within two weeks roughly 60 percent of
the crop will be headed.
With 50-60 percent of the crop past
mid-season, growers are currently focusing on irrigating the fields.
During this stage in the rice growing cycle, McKnight employs intermediate
flooding, a conservation tactic that distributes water to the crop strategically
in measured spurts over the course of several days.
McKnight reports that the crop
looks very good this year and most Mississippi growers will harvest their rice
starting the last week of August. However, the main challenge comes after
the harvest.
Last year, 149,000 acres of rice
were grown in Mississippi, and the projected acreage for this year is
200,000. The other five rice-growing states are experiencing the same
increase in rice acreage this year. A concern voiced by many growers including
McKnight is that this year's high acreage could result in low prices due to
market limitations.
While McKnight expresses optimism
at the prospect of breaking into the Cuban market and gaining a steadier hold
in Iraq, he also sees great potential domestically.
"I would like to see us
eventually increase the annual average consumption of rice in the United States
another 5-10 pounds per person," said McKnight. (Americans currently
eat a little more than 26 pounds of rice per person each year.)
"Even in Bolivar County, where we are the largest rice-producing county in
the state, some local restaurants do not have rice on the menu. We have
to keep pushing the message out there that rice is healthy, affordable, and can
be used in so many different ways for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Customers should be looking for U.S. rice on menus. Of course, our
exports are important, but I see a lot of promise right here at home as well.
NFA: Negros Occidental has enough rice supply
Monday, July 11, 2016
THE
National Food Authority (NFA) in Negros Occidental said the province has enough
rice supply until the next harvest season in September. Provincial
manager Marianito Bejemino said at present, 265,000 sacks of rice are on
standby at the NFA warehouse and 240,000 sacks more of imported rice are
arriving in two shipments. Rice
supply is sufficient despite the damage and losses brought by the dry spell to
rice plantations in the province. Bejemino
said that Negros Occidental consumes 22,500 sacks daily. Based on
inventory, Negros Occidental has still 2.1 million sacks of rice, including the
stocks of NFA, commercial rice dealers, and households. Bejemino
said they expect a good harvest in September and October, and the coming
months. (TDE)
Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on
July 11, 2016
Vietnam’s rice exports to drop to eight-year
low: association
TUOI TRE NEWS
Updated : 07/11/2016 16:35 GMT + 7
Vietnam’s rice exports this year are likely to
tumble to the lowest since 2009, the Vietnam Food Association has said.
Exports began falling in March, eventually
hitting only 380,000 metric tons in June, according to the VFA.
In the first half of this year, Vietnam’s rice
exports topped 2.65 million metric tons, down two percent from a year earlier,
the association said. The Jan-June rice exports were worth US$1.14 billion.
The VFA therefore predicted exports to reach
three million metric tons in the second half of this year, meaning the
full-year figure is expected to be 5.65 million metric tons, an eight-year low.
This will also be the first time the country’s
annual rice exports drop to below six million metric tons, according to the
VFA.
Vietnamese rice exporters were off to a good
start in the first quarter, thanks to deliveries of orders placed late last
year, including one million metric tons by Indonesia and another 450,000 metric
tons by the Philippines.
However, the lack of new orders and fierce
competitions from other Asian rice exporting countries have strongly hit
exports in the second quarter, the VFA said
Area
under basmati, that fetched low price last year, falls by 14%
The fine variety of paddy is not covered under the MSP, but the Centre offers
Rs 1,520 per quintal for parmal and other coarse varieties.
Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, July 9
The area under basmati has dropped by about
50,000 hectares (14 per cent) in the Majha region this season. The loss of
basmati is the gain of coarse variety of paddy.Failing to get remunerative
prices for the popular basmati varieties of 1509 and 1121 last year, farmers
have shifted to the coarse variety, which is insulated by minimum support price
(MSP).The fine variety of paddy is not covered under the MSP, but the Centre
offers Rs1,520 per quintal for parmal and other coarse varieties.
Basmati
is grown in the Majha region, comprising Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur
districts. A reduction its cultivation may affect exports as a major share of
basmati here finds its way in the UAE and the UK.In Amritsar, the total area
under paddy is 1.80 lakh hectares. Of this, the area under coarse variety has
gone up to 74,000 hectares in comparison to 44,000 hectares last year. The area
under basmati has come down to 1.06 lakh hectares against 1.36 lakh hectares
last year. The biggest fall was witnessed in the area under 1509 variety, which
has come down to 16,000 hectares from one lakh hectare last year.
Basmati
lost about 1.66 per cent area in this district.Similarly, the area under paddy
cultivation is 1.75 lakh hectares in Tarn Taran. Of this, the share of coarse
variety has gone up to 1.10 lakh hectares from the last year’s 90,000 hectares,
while that of basmati has come down to 67,000 hectares from 87,000 hectares.Farmer
leader Rattan Singh Randhawa said basmati rice was the country’s largest farm
export commodity. The reduction of area under its cultivation was alarming.
Pusa 1509 superfine basmati had fetched Rs3,500 per quintal in 2013 and it was
priced at Rs2,200 the following year. However, the farmers were left high and
dry last year when its prices hovered between Rs950 and Rs1,200 per quintal.He
blamed a cartel of traders that quoted low rates during the procurement season
and taking these higher immediately after the end of the season.
VietNamNet
Bridge – The shift from rice to corn growing in the country’s northern
mountains has proved successful, officials said at an agricultural conference
in Son La Province this week.
The conference was held to review a project
initiated in January 2014 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
(MARD) to shift from rice to corn cultivation in areas with one crop a year and
those facing difficulties in irrigation.
The shift from rice to corn growing in the
country’s northern mountains has proved successful, officials said at an
agricultural conference in Sơn La Province this week. — Photo
khuyennongvn.gov.vn
Director of the Center for Technology Transfer
and Agricultural Promotion, Le Quoc Thanh, said that economic efficiency in
growing corn is 20 to 30 percent higher than rice in the experimental areas.
The figures were calculated from 20 pilot
programmes which the center carried out over the past two and a half years in
eight northern mountainous provinces, covering 600 hectares.
The pilot programmes supported farmers with new
corn varieties and advanced technology with the goal of reducing labour costs
and increasing productivity.
“Corn cultivation brought in between VND5 to 10
million per hectare more than rice,” Thanh said.
“The application of advanced ploughing machines
in Ha Giang and Quang Ninh provinces reduced labour costs by 2.5 to 3 million
VND per hectare, while a system of drying, cleaning and preserving in Ha Giang
helped reduce produce loss by 6.5 percent after harvesting”, he said.
Ha Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development’s deputy director Pham Thi Ha praised the success of the project,
saying that it managed to “considerably increase” farmers’ income and was
highly appreciated by the farmers in her province.
She said that Ha Giang had carried out the
project in the low lands.
“I hope Ha Giang will receive more support to
expand corn cultivation in higher areas in the future,” she said.
Ha Van Truong, a corn-grower from Mai Son
District in Son La Province, said others in his village, who preferred growing
rice to corn, have decided to shift to corn for the next crop after his
success.
Truong allocated 1,000 square metres of land to grow genetically modified corn,
one of the varieties of corn used in this project, for the spring-summer crop
this year.
“Growing corn requires less water and
fertilizer than rice,” he said.
“Genetically modified corn also has many strong
points, particularly its resistance to borers.”
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development aims to turn 668,000 hectares of rice-growing land into
corn-growing land in northern mountainous provinces within five years, and
expects this to be completed by 2020.
The government decided earlier this year to
provide farmers shifting from rice growing to corn with up to VND 3 million per
hectare to buy seed.
Over 35,000 Venezuelans cross
into Colombia to buy rice, oil and flour
Nicolás Maduro
administration allows crossing for one day due to recurring shortages of staple
foods
Cúcuta
Ampliar foto Hundreds
of people crossed into Colombia from Venezuela on Sunday. GABRIEL
Hundreds
of people stood in line on Sunday on the sidewalks of Sixth Avenue, in downtown
Cúcuta, carrying as many bags as they could manage. They made up the more than
35,000 Venezuelans who crossed into Colombia that day to buy staple foods and
other basic products.Neither the weight of their load nor the fact that they
spent the equivalent of two months’ minimum wage (15,000 bolívares, around $15
at black market rates) could deter Venezuelan shoppers as they filled their
carts with oil, sugar, flour, bread, coffee, milk and toilet paper. They had
been waiting for this day for nearly a year, after Venezuelan president Nicolás
Maduro decided to shut down his side of the border, citing the need to crack
down on smuggling. The
decision to open the border temporarily came shortly after a group of 500 women
calling themselves Las Damas de Blanco (The Ladies in
White) pressured border agents into letting them through to buy food and
medicine for their families.
Humanitarian
corridors to assist schoolchildren and the sick remain open since August of
last year
“We
knew something could happen, but we were not expecting this massive arrival,”
said David Castro, manager of Los Montes supermarket, which registered a 190%
rise in sales compared with ordinary Sundays since the border shutdown.
“Although
we were missing a few products due to a transportation strike, the essential
ones, the ones they buy, were in stock,” added Castro. In order
to serve the thousands of Venezuelans who descended on the establishment, Los
Montes upped its personnel to 40 from the usual 10, closed its doors at certain
hours of the day to control the flow of shoppers, and provided free buses to
the border. Standing
in line awaiting the bus that would take them back to Venezuela, a group of
women who declined to give their names opened up their grocery bags to reveal
their purchases.
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up for our newsletter
EL
PAÍS English Edition has launched a weekly newsletter. Sign up today to receive
a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. For full
details about how to subscribe, click here. “I’ve
spent around 5,000 pesos ($17) in San Cristóbal. I could no longer find
sanitary pads or medicine for headaches,” explains one. “If they
open up again tomorrow, I am coming back. I don’t mind spending all my money.
There’s nothing left in Venezuela,” says another. Police
officers accompanied the visitors throughout their time in Colombia to ensure
that their journey would be trouble-free. “An
operative of 1,000 men worked to make sure their transit was peaceful,” said
Gustavo Moreno, head of the border police. “No incidents were reported.” Before
boarding the buses, some Venezuelans cried out: “Thank you Colombia! Long live
Colombia!” For many of them, it had been a long time since they’d seen so much
food together at a store. Some shoppers, such as Efraín López, who lives in the
state of Falcón, traveled 13 hours for the chance to cross into Colombia. When the
border was closed, much of the activity in the area ceased altogether: the
currency exchange stands, the drivers offering to help carry products from one
side to the other. Now, though, some of the former bustle has returned to the
area. We
knew something could happen, but we were not expecting this massive arrival
David Castro, Los Montes supermarket manager
“We’ve
made twice as many sales,” says one cashier at a grocery store named El
Triunfo. On the floor next to her there was a paper bag where she placed the
bolívar notes. “We charge a 0.25 surplus,” she explains.
At 8pm,
as the border shut down again, police officers, military personnel, immigration
agents and Tax Agency inspectors at the Colombian checkpoint went over people
and bags to make sure there was nothing inside except food and supplies. A few
meters away, Venezuelan guards looked on but did not request any form of ID. “Most of
them made it back,” says Víctor Bautista, who advises the Colombian Foreign
Ministry on border issues. “The working sessions between both countries remain
open, and both ministers are going to meet before 20 days have elapsed.” Meanwhile,
humanitarian corridors to assist schoolchildren and the sick remain open since
August of last year. Venezuelans remain hopeful that the border will reopen
again. But nobody knows for sure which way the Maduro administration will turn.
Rice futures ended a bit higher today after
trading in a relatively narrow range. USDA says 3.212 million acres of rice
were planted nationwide. In Arkansas, the total is a whopping 1.581 million
acres: 1.43 million acres of long grain and 150,000 acres of medium grain. Crop
conditions remain generally favorable, with 69% of the crop rated good to
excellent, unchanged for the past three weeks. September has bounced off
support near $10.25, and is attempting to work higher. Thailand has announced
plans to sell off over 2 million metric tons of government stocks, which could
affect export prospects
New Rice Research
July 11, 2016
Rice is grown across the globe and researchers are interested in
maintaining the quality of the crop. Developing a new rice variety that is
high-yielding, disease resistant and has excellent milling quality takes
patience and perseverance. Researchers at the H. Rouse Caffey Research Station in Crowley, Louisiana
believe they have two good candidates: a long-grain variety called CL 153 and a
medium-grain called CL272. CL 153 could serve as a replacement for the
widely-grown variety CL151, which is susceptible to blast disease and has some
milling concerns.
Steve Linscombe, a Rice Breeder for
Louisiana State University's AgCenter, is hopeful, "We think that CL
153 will address both of those issues while maintaining a very high yield
potential."
Medium-grain varieties are typically used by large-scale food processors. Kellogg’s
purchases a large amount of medium-grain rice, and it is important for CL272 to
meet the company’s standards. Linscombe said, "Up to this point, all of
the testing that has been done by Kellogg’s has been very positive. Kellogg’s
approval is very, very important, especially for medium-grains here in Louisiana."
Dustin Harrell, a state rice specialist for the AgCenter, says this year’s
crop looks good, but he doesn’t expect it to set any yield records. He is
focusing some of his research on the ratoon, or second crop of rice, because of
its economic importance to growers in south Louisiana. "Sometimes I talk
to producers, and they tell me they break even on their first crop, and then
they might make a little money with the ratoon crop, so it’s very important
here," said Harrell.
Harrell is looking at adding gibberellic acid to increase the yield on the
second crop. He said adding the acid when the first crop was at the soft dough
stage increased the second crop’s yield. The rice specialist said it would take
at least three years of data before he would make gibberellic acid a
recommended AgCenter practice. Louisiana has approximately 430,000 acres
of rice this year, which is a slight increase from last year.
THERE’S
SO much more to our rice policy than the rice industry itself. What we have
persisting to the present harms not only consumers and the rest of our
agriculture, but the industry and services sector along with it as well. And
that means the entire economy.
What’s this rice policy I refer to? It’s much
more complex than meets the eye, but stripped to the bone, it’s everything we
do that ultimately makes rice so much more expensive to Filipinos than it is to
our Southeast Asian neighbors. This traces largely to how we restrict rice
imports (which we can’t even do right as large amounts consistently get
smuggled in, anyway) by putting imports under the strict control of the
National Food Authority—all in the name of pursuing rice self-sufficiency. While
this would seem a noble objective, it’s not only impractical but even harmful
to us Filipinos at this time.
I must say at the outset that I have no doubt
we can attain full rice self-sufficiency. The scientists have always been
right: We can produce all the rice we need if we “do it right”—i.e., use the
right combination of hybrid seeds, fertilization, irrigation and crop care. The
question is whether we should pursue it the way we’ve been doing, keeping it
more inaccessible (translation: unaffordable) to poor and food-insecure
Filipinos than it needs to be. For sure, we can even produce well beyond our
needs. But if we do, could we even export it without losing money on it, given
international prices? Here’s where we need to listen to the economists and
social scientists, too, because it’s not just about production. It’s about
productivity, incomes and prices. As one writer recently put it, “[of] what use
is a bumper stock if our people cannot afford it?”
Consider these facts: Thailand has 11 million hectares of rice land to
feed 66 million Thais. Vietnam has 7.5 million hectares to feed 90 million
Vietnamese. But we only have 4.5 million hectares to feed 102 million
Filipinos. Thailand and Vietnam have the Mekong River naturally irrigating
their rice areas and permitting up to three crops a year. The Philippines (like
Indonesia, the other major rice-importing country in the neighborhood) is an
archipelago with no massive rivers running through it—and 20 or so typhoons
hitting it every year. Our own river systems, like the Pampanga River and
Cagayan River, irrigate our best rice lands in Central and Northern Luzon, but
these are puny in comparison to the great Mekong River that runs across six
countries. Any surprise that the two are the biggest rice exporters in
Southeast Asia, while we and Indonesia are the top importers? That’s why
Malaysia never aspired to produce all the rice it needs, and put its money in
things Malaysian farmers could get rich with—so they could buy whatever rice
they need to make up for what they can’t competitively produce.
The only way for us to go, then, is to achieve
much higher productivity, at comparable cost, with emphasis on the latter.
Otherwise, it makes no sense to insist on supplying all our rice needs if it
means restricting imports, forcing ourselves to pay up to twice what we
otherwise would, just so the domestic price will allow the “average rice
farmer” to recover his costs. What harm has this longstanding policy brought
us? Plenty.
It keeps more Filipinos than necessary below
the poverty line, as rice alone is the single biggest item in the average poor
Filipino family’s budget (20-25 percent, studies say). When the official
poverty rate went up again in 2014 to 25.8 percent, from 24.6 percent in 2013
(an additional 1.2 million poor), then Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsi
Balisacan traced it, not to falling incomes, but to higher rice prices. It
leads us to give higher and less competitive wages so that our workers could
afford our primary “wage good,” rice. It makes it harder in turn for us to
attract more job-creating domestic or foreign investments, labor costs being
higher than what they could otherwise be. Hence, we continue to have 2.5
million jobless workers, even as millions have left to seek their fortunes overseas,
away from their families. Meanwhile, it renders too many Filipinos
food-insecure, making our malnutrition rate twice as high as in our comparable
neighbors. In turn, this affects our children’s educational outcomes,
ultimately leading to an inferior human resource pool with lower productivity.
And there’s much more. In sum, the effects are much more far-reaching than
meets the eye, hurting the whole Filipino economy and society—all because of
our distortive rice policy.
What do we do, then? Open up the floodgates to
rice imports and forget about producing rice? Of course not! We do have many
rice farmers whose productivity and costs allow them to compete even at
international prices. But we must strive to have many more, and that’s
precisely what the government ought to be pursuing and targeting, not simply to
produce more rice at all costs. The fact is, we only have until 2017 before we
must open up rice trade and shift to import tariffs as our mode of protecting
rice farmers. We are the last holdout still restricting rice imports, and are
on the third and final extension on this from the World Trade Organization.
Meanwhile, we managed to set the highest rice
import tariff of 35 percent in the Asean Economic Community, which takes effect
once we open up. Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol’s mission, then, is to make
sure that by 2018, our rice farmers can compete at a price 35 percent higher
than the import price. But we must eventually remove that 35-percent penalty on
Filipino rice consumers, especially on our poor, as well—so the homework would
not end there.
To spike disputes, centre
bans export of rice without price settlement
After a sharp fall in
basmati rice exports realisation since FY14, the government has decided to ban
the business practice of Documents against Acceptance...
Basmati
rice exporters agree that the government was initially reluctant to intervene
in a commercial transaction between importer and exporter of rice. (Reuters)After
a sharp fall in basmati rice exports realisation since FY14, the government has
decided to ban the business practice of Documents against Acceptance (DA) where
the rice consignments are shipped without settlement of prices, often leading
to disputes between exporters and importers.Sources
told FE that following representation from the All India Rice Exporters’ Association
(AIREA), the commerce ministry has forwarded its proposal of banning DA in rice
exports trade from October 2016 onwards to Directorate General of Foreign Trade
(DGFT), which would issue a formal notification shortly. In a
fiercely competitive basmati rice exports trade, small players in order to
increase the volume of shipment often send rice consignment to importers who
use this unsecure credit to their advantage. According
to Vijay Setia, former president of AIREA and also a leading basmati rice
exporter, because of DA, the rice trade has become buyers market; often
consignments are not lifted from the port by importer and thus, the price had
to be renegotiated. “We have
been demanding a curb on DA since the last couple of years as it was pulling
down price realisation from basmati rice export, thus hitting the farmers’
income as well,” Setia told FE. Official
sources said because of the practice of DA mostly carried out by small
exporters, the country’s basmati rice shipment has seen a 29% fall to R22,718
crore in FY16 from a record R29,299 crore reported in FY14. However, the volume
of basmati rice exports has risen from 3.7 million tonne (MT) to more than 4
MT.
According to an AIREA official, other rice exporting countries such as
Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand do not allow DA transaction. Basmati
rice exporters agree that the government was initially reluctant to intervene
in a commercial transaction between importer and exporter of rice. However,
with the realisation from the premium agricultural products like basmati rice
shrinking sharply, hitting overall agricultural product exports from the
country, the commerce ministry has agreed to ban the practice of DA. “With a
ban on DA transactions many unhealthy practices in the industry will stop and
prices realisation will rise,” Kuber Seth, director, DCP India, which exports
basmati rice with ‘Asbah’ brand name. Trade sources said the bigger sized
basmati rice exporters at present use the system of ‘letter of credit’ where
the importers instruct their bank to pay exporters as per the specified
conditions mentioned in the original documentary credit. Commerce
ministry sources said the average realisation from basmati exports has fallen
from $1,295 per tonne in FY14 to around $850 a tonne in FY16 while for
non-basmati rice, the fall was to $350 per tonne in the last fiscal from around
$450 per tonne two years earlier. India
has around 85% share in the global basmati rice exports while the rest is
contributed by Pakistan. The countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and United
Arab Emirates (UAE) are the biggest destination for the country’s aromatic and
long grain rice.
Stakeholders Alarmed by Increased
Smuggling of Rice
Posted on Jul 12, 2016 in
Rice stakeholders have expressed concerns over
the increased activities of rice smuggling at the nation’s porous borders,
noting that the ugly situation poses threat to local investment in rice
production in Nigeria.The stakeholders told journalists in Lagos that
smuggling also threatens millions of job opportunities that had been created by
local investment in the nation’s rice industry.
The stakeholders that rice is being smuggled
into the country through the nation’s unapproved and porous borders,
maintaining that the high rate of smuggling activities has resulted in loss of
revenue for the nation and local investors in the industry.They added that as a
result of smuggling, lots of jobs and new businesses are springing up in
neighbouring countries like Republic of Benin, Niger Republic, and Cameroon
because of the increased activity in smuggling of rice at the nation’s sea
ports and borders.
According to the rice dealers, the
concessionaires of Nigerian seaport are laying off staff massively while
operations of shipping and clearing agents, transporters, and other service
providers have grounded to a halt in the past one year.Executive Director,
Nigeria Agriculture Development Watch, Dr. Johnson Idowu, lamented that
shipping lines and many other businesses are pulling out of Nigeria.
In his words, “The ripple effect of rice
smuggling into the country would lead to a mass laying off of staff and
redundancy. Interestingly, the Minster of Labour will soon come on air to issue
an ultimatum to these companies not to sack”.Idowu noted that the federal
government even contemplated the idea of opening the land border initially for
the importation of rice, which he said was a colossal error of reasoning.
“Let us do some elementary geography. Nigeria
is bounded in the North, West and South by Niger Republic, Republic of Benin,
and Cameroon respectively. None of these countries is a rice producing nation
per se. So what is the rationale behind opening the borders for rice
importation from these countries. The only reason there is an increase in rice
importation activities in these countries is because they have favourable
tariff and policy for rice importation,” he said.“On this premise, unpatriotic
business men hitherto in Nigeria i.e. rice importers have since diverted their
businesses to these countries. Whereas you may not blame them, opening the land
border is to encourage them further to export rice to Nigeria from these
countries. Moreover, why would we want to continue to favour neighbours in
terms of job creation and revenue generation from rice import rather that
adjust our own policies in order to boost our own revenue generation, and to
make businesses return”, he added .
“Government faced with these very robust
challenges will continue to seed the goodwill and revenue it ought to generate
from the sea ports/ rice import in the ‘spirit of good neighbourliness’ to
Cameroon, Niger and Republic of Benin is to say the least, preposterous. Enough
with encouraging economic saboteurs”, he advised.
Coordinator of Nigeria Agribusiness Group,
(NABG) Mr. Emmanuel Ijewere, said the story of smuggling of rice in Nigeria is
historical, saying that the situation has been on for a very long time
destroying the country’s industries.“Because it has destroyed our local
industries and the kind of story we are hearing now that the business of
smuggling of rice has increased is a bad omen and to the Nigeria Customs in
particular. Let the customs take some drastic and strategic decisions, whether
to destroy our industries and provide job for our neighbouring countries or to
provide jobs for our own people in Nigeria.
“We cannot run away from that, it is simple as
that, Nigeria need to take decisions. Nigerian farmers have suffered for long
and I am getting tired”, he said.Ijewere added,” The advancement we have made
in rice industry would be destroyed if something is not done to curb smuggling
activities. A lot of people have invested billions of dollars in rice growing
as well as rice processing. If government reserves its position on it, the
investors would be discouraged and they would lose confidence in any policy of
government concerning agriculture in the future,” he warned.Commenting on the
rice integration backward production abandoned by private sector which resorted
to importation, he said he is not aware of any company that participated and
abandoned the programme, calling on the federal government to exercise
patience, saying that schemes such as this require sometime to yield positive
results.
General Manager of Ebonyi State based rice
company, Oyus Brown Rice, Mr. Francis Okpani, said smuggling of rice into the
country has affected genuine business people who are willing to contribute to
the growth of the economy.“Now, we are not producing enough to feed ourselves,
we need more rice into the country but not through smuggling. Although, the
imported rice is not cheaper and affordable for some people in the country as
price has gone N20, 000 per bag from N8, 000”, he said.
Managing Director of Abibcom farms, Mr. Habib
Stephen Temitope, urged government to intervene now or the affect would be
unbearable Nigerians who have invested hugely in the rice industry.It would be
recalled that many companies like Elephant Group, Dangote Group, Olam and others
have invested a lot of money in Nigeria’s rice industry setting up mills and
processing plants that has created millions of jobs to NigeriansThis post was
syndicated from THISDAYLIVE. Click here to read the full text on the original
website
Update: 5:33PM HIS
Excellency, the President, Major-General (Ret'd) Jioji Konrote this morning
visited the Koronivia Research Station to see first-hand the new variety of
rice.The China-Aid Agricultural Development Project on Vanua Levu and Koronivia
commenced on January 2015 and will end on December 2016.President Konrote said
that Government aims to be self-sufficient in rice production to cut back on
the import bill and ensure food security for Fiji.
"I am glad to note that I am the first
President to visit the Koronivia Research Station and as the lead advocator of
non-communicable diseases (NCDs), I want to learn more on rice production in
terms of organic farming methods."
The project aims to increase rice production
through Chinese expertise, technologies, varieties selection and breeding,
provision of agricultural machinery, training of local staff and farmers.
Last year, a total of 336 sets of agricultural
machinery and equipment under the project were dispatched to respective
production areas.
