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Eating
white rice regularly may raise type 2 diabetes risk
Eating white rice on a regular
basis may increase the risk for type 2 diabetes, according to new Harvard
School of Public Health (HSPH) research.HSPH researchers from the Department of
Nutrition—led by Emily Hu, research assistant, and Qi
Sun, research associate—reviewed four earlier studies involving more
than 352,000 people from China, Japan, the United States, and Australia who
were tracked between four and 22 years. The researchers found that people who
ate the most rice—three to four servings a day—were 1.5 times more likely to
have diabetes than people who ate the least amount of rice. In addition, for
every additional large bowl of white rice a person ate each day, the risk rose
10 percent. The link was stronger for people in Asian countries, who eat an
average of three to four servings of white rice per day. People in Western
countries eat, on average, one to two servings a week.
The study was published in
the British
Medical Journal March 15, 2012.
White rice has a high glycemic
index, meaning that it can cause spikes in blood sugar. Previous research has
linked high glycemic index foods with increased type 2 diabetes risk.
“People should try to make a
switch from eating refined carbs like white rice and white bread to eating more
whole grains,” Sun told Time magazine.
Additional HSPH authors, also
from the Department of Nutrition, included An
Pan, research associate, and Vasanti Malik, research fellow.
Traders said GASC received a total of 11
offers, of which all the Chinese samples and one Vietnamese rice sample were
accepted
Falling rice Grains of white rice
falling through outstretched fingers into shallow glass bowl.
Reuters/ Allison
Achauer
By Nadine
Awadalla, Reuters News
CAIRO - Egypt's state grain
buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said on Thursday it had bought 47,500
tonnes of milled white rice in an international purchasing tender for shipment
Feb 1 - March 1.
GASC had been seeking short grain milled
white rice of any origin, with 10-12 percent broken parts, and asked traders to
submit 2 kg samples of their grains for a cooking test.
Traders said GASC received a total of 11 offers, of
which all the Chinese samples and one Vietnamese rice sample were accepted,
traders said while all Indian samples and one Vietnamese sample failed
the test.
GASC gave no further purchase
details.
A trade source gave the following
breakdown of the purchase:
* Mufaddal: 38,000 tonnes of
Chinese rice plus 25 pct equating to 47,500 tonnes of rice at $405 CIF and
letters of credit opened at site. In-land costs for transfer from port to
warehouse are 490 Egyptian pounds per tonne.
INSUFFICIENT
investment in agriculture R&D has resulted in sub-optimal yields and a
lower-than-potential productivity growth curve of basmati rice varieties.—White
Star
ISLAMABAD: The celebrated export of
Pakistan’s basmati rice as well as its production has slipped, according to a
study of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The study, ‘Investment in Research
and Development for Basmati Rice in Pakistan’ points out that the contribution
of basmati rice as a major export commodity is below its potential.
Pakistan is fourth largest rice
exporter in terms of quantity, and rice is the country’s second largest export
earner, after cotton.
In the last decade, Pakistan’s
overall rice export growth has remained unchanged and, in the case of basmati,
has dropped significantly.
Newer long grain, non-aromatic
varieties have been cutting into basmati’s share of the premium rice market.
Low value, non-basmati varieties can still thrive by catering to low-priced,
lower-quality markets but premium varieties require greater research and
development investment to maintain their edge.
The study notes that being a niche
variety with a relatively small gene pool, basmati requires more research than
other varieties in order to increase its yields, protect it from disease,
enhance its ability to compete with other varieties, and increase its
resilience to climate and other environmental changes.
Under-investment in basmati
research and development (R&D) has led to underperformance of the
subsector.
Merely increasing budgetary
allocations of public sector R&D will not achieve the intended purpose.
A wholesale reform of the R&D
institutional structure is almost impossible given incumbent interests and the
absence of political motivation.
While investment in basmati R&D
requires attention to the entire value-chain, the single most important aspect
is to develop seed varieties that can thrive in changing ecological and
marketing environments.
The study says that the cess
collected from rice exporters in the last two decades has not been chanelled as
the Export Development Fund Act stipulates. The Act specifies that the cess
funds can be used for R&D, technical institutes, market and product
development, and other areas related to export enhancement.
Rice exporters pay a surcharge of
0.25 per cent, which is deducted by the bank from foreign receipts and
submitted to the State Bank of Pakistan.
Bago City farmers get P4.2-M in equipment, livelihood
By
Erwin Nicavera December
14, 2018, 7:01 pm
FARM
EQUIPMENT. Bago
City Mayor Nicholas Yulo (center) and Vice Mayor Ramon Torres (2nd from
left) lead officials during the turn-over of the P4.2 million worth of farm
machinery and livelihood projects at the City Agriculture Office in Barangay
Balingasag on Thursday (December 13, 2018). (Photo courtesy of the City
of Bago)
BACOLOD CITY -- The City of Bago in Negros
Occidental distributed PHP4.2-million worth of farm equipment and livelihood to
14 associations on Thursday.
The turn-over ceremony was led by
Mayor Nicholas Yulo and City Agriculturist Carlito Indencia at the City
Agriculture Office in Barangay Balingasag.
Yulo said the city government
recognizes the need to assist the farmers to attain rice industry development.
“The distribution of farm machinery has contributed to the improvement (of rice
yield),” the mayor said.
As of November, this year, Bago
City’s average rice yield was pegged at 4.4 metric tons per hectare, higher
than the 4.1 metric tons per hectare in 2017.
“By boosting our production, we can
also contribute to increasing the province’s rice sufficiency level and ensuring
food security,” Yulo added.
Dubbed the rice granary of Negros
Occidental, Bago City’s contribution to the province’s total rice production is
about 19 percent.
Farm machinery units, including a
hand tractor, two thresher, one multi-tilling machine, three rice planting
machines, and five pumps with engines, were distributed to 10 farmers
association-recipients.
These included the Punta Playa
Multi-Purpose Association, Mailum Organic Village Association, Barangay Napoles
Women Association for Rural Improvement, Fermina Small Water Impounding System
Association, Bago Integrated Farmers Association, Small Farmers Association of
Abuanan, Dulao and Antipuluan, Newton-Camingawan-Para Farmers Association,
Barangay Malingin Farmers Association, Association of Rice Farmers of Tabunan,
and Sagasa Women’s Group.
They also received livelihood
projects like "balut" (fertilized duck eggs) making, food processing,
salted egg making, and mushroom production.
Four fisherfolk associations,
including Taloc Baybay Fisherfolk Association, Calubay Anahaw Small Fishermen
Association, Can-itum Integrated Fisherfolk Association, and Barangay
Calumangan Integrated Fisherfolk Association, were provided alternative
livelihood projects such as fish vending, rag making as well as cooking
equipment and facilities.
Indencia said the machinery and
livelihood projects are funded by the city government through its Agriculture
Development Program.
“The program covers the city’s
measure to develop its rice and fishery sectors,” he said, adding that it also
aims to provide farmers and fisherfolk alternative sources of income through
the livelihood development component.
Could gene-edited asexual rice produce better crops?
14 December 2018
A gene editing technique has been
used to produce asexual rice, which could carry traits such as high yields and
drought resistance. The Innovative Genomics Institute in the US explains how it
works and why the researchers behind this innovation believe it will improve
commercial rice crops.(Image: Diagram explaining how newly engineered rice can
reproduce asexually, Credit: Innovative Genomics Institute.)
Rice and maize are the North’s main
staples, but rice output was expected to be below average because of erratic
rains and low irrigation supplies, the FAO said in its quarterly Crop Prospects
and Food Situation report.
Unfavourable weather conditions
also diminished maize yields, it added.
As a result the country would need
to import 641,000 tonnes of food in the coming year, up from 456,000 tonnes
this year, when it bought 390,000 tonnes and received 66,000 tonnes in food
aid.
There was a widespread lack of
access to food in the North, it said in the document.
“Food insecurity continues to
remain a key concern, with conditions aggravated by the below-average 2018 main
season output,” it said.
Agricultural production is
chronically poor in the North, which only has a limited supply of arable land.
The country has periodically been
hit by famine, and hundreds of thousands of people died — estimates range into
the millions — in the mid-1990s.
North Korea was one of 40 countries
— 31 of them in Africa — listed as in need of external assistance for food in
the report.
UN agencies estimate that 10.3
million people in the North need humanitarian assistance. But donor funding has
dried up in the face of political tensions over its weapons programmes, with
critics saying that the provision of aid encourages Pyongyang to prioritise its
military ambitions over adequately providing for its people.
David Beasley, the head of the UN’s
World Food Programme, said in May that there was undoubtedly a hunger problem
in North Korea but it was not on the scale of the 1990s famine.
BAGHDAD, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Iraq has signed an
agreement with the United States to import U.S. wheat and rice, the Iraqi trade
minister said on Thursday.The agreement covers the first half of 2019, Mohammed
Hashim said at a signing ceremony in Baghdad."The agreement signals a
wider cooperation with the American companies to supply Iraq with wheat and
rice for 2019. The cabinet has approved it," Iraqi trade minister Mohammed
Hashim said during ceremonies held in Baghdad and attended by the U.S.
ambassador to Iraq.
The trade minister said this deal
was signed because Iraq prefers the high quality of the U.S. rice and wheat.
Iraq needs an annual wheat supply
of between 4.5 million and five million tonnes, and has an import gap of around
two million tonnes a year.
The country spends billions of
dollars annually on a Saddam Hussein-era programme for food rationing, the
Public Distribution System, which distributes subsidised bread and other
essential food.
Scientists clone hybrid rice seeds in breakthrough that could cut
costs for farmers
Hybrid seeds created by crossing two varieties
have superior qualities including high yield, pest resistance and climate
tolerance and have been used by farmers for decades
Scientists
in the US and France have successfully tweaked a hybrid variety of Rice
Japonica’ (Asian variety) so that some of the plants produce cloned seeds.
New Delhi: In a breakthrough for farmers
across the world, especially those from developing countries, scientists have
discovered a way to clone hybrid seeds of rice.
Hybrid seeds created by crossing
two varieties have superior qualities including high yield, pest resistance and
climate tolerance and have been used by farmers for decades. However, a major
challenge with such crops so far has been that unlike other crops, their seeds
do not produce plants with same qualities.
So, farmers have had no option but
to buy expensive hybrid seeds every year. “These seeds are not only expensive,
but have to be purchased every year, which puts a lot of burden on poor
farmers,” said Jagmohan Singh, farmer union leader from Patiala, Punjab.
Now, scientists in the US and Francehave successfully
tweaked a hybrid variety of Rice Japonica (Asian variety) so that some of the
plants produce cloned seeds, according to research published in the latest
edition of journal Nature. This, experts said, would enable farmers
to re-plant seeds from their own hybrid plants and derive the benefits of high
yields year after year, instead of having to purchase expensive new seeds every
year.
Japonica and Indica are the two
major varieties of rice grown around the world. While Japonica is grown in
countries with cooler climates, Indica is usually cultivated in countries with
hot temperatures such as India.
“It’s a very desirable goal that
could change agriculture. The approach should work in other cereal crops, which
have equivalent genes,” said Prof Venkatesan Sundaresan of the University of
California, Davis, who was among the researchers. Wheat, corn, barley and
millets are among other cereal crops which have equivalent genes.
Asexual reproduction through seeds,
called Apomixis, is known to occur naturally in more than 400 species of wild
plants, but not in crops. This mechanism of seed production allows a plant to
clone itself through a seed, without fertilization and, thus prevents any loss
of hybrid characters in plants. However, recreating these pathways in crop
plants has been a challenge to science.
“Ensuring that crops pass on hybrid
qualities to seeds has been a major challenge, but the current research fills
gaps in previous studies,” said Imran Siddiqui, plant geneticist at the Centre
for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.
“The team has shown a proof of
principle in an important crop like rice, which is very significant. The target
now is to improve the efficiency of this clonal propagation to reap maximum
benefit.”
Researchers discovered that a rice
gene called “Baby Boom 1” (BBM1) is expressed in sperm cells, but not in eggs.
After fertilization, BBM1 is expressed in the fertilized cell. Scientists
reasoned that this expression initially comes from the male contribution to the
genome, and that BBM1 switches on the ability of a fertilized egg to form an
embryo. The team then used gene-editing techniques to remove the ability of
plants to undergo sexual reproduction. The egg cells are thus formed asexually.
“We are currently using over 40
hybrid varieties of rice in this country and the research would be very useful
for farmers who would be able to save these seeds for future use,” said V.P.
Singh, former programme leader (rice) at Indian Agricultural Research
Institute, whose team had once led a breakthrough in hybridization of Basmati
rice following the development of PUSA-1121.
The current research was conducted
by postdoctoral researcher Imtiyaz Khanday and Prof Venkatesan Sundaresan at
University of California, Davis and researchers from the Iowa State University
and INRA, France.
Work schedules that disrupt our
natural circadian rhythms come with consequences.
Around 20 percent of employees
perform shift work – rotating or nontraditional work hours – and these
schedules have been linked to health problems including heart disease, diabetes
and depression. Tired workers are more likely to be distracted, inefficient and
prone to error. For workers such as medical clinicians or truck drivers, minor
mistakes can be deadly.
Tanzeem Choudhury, associate
professor of information science, and colleagues at Rice University and the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, were recently awarded a four-year, $2
million National Science Foundation grant to explore how measuring people’s
biological clocks can help improve their performance or lower their stress.
Tanzeem Choudhury
“We want to look at how we can
augment and enhance people’s alertness and ability to perform tasks,” Choudhury
said. “Are there peak periods when they can focus on things that are more
cognitively demanding than others, and can we align people’s task performance
with their biological rhythm?”
Choudhury and her team are
developing tools that can monitor biological clocks unobtrusively, through
devices such as smartphones and smartwatches. That information could be put to
use to make people healthier, less anxious and more productive.
The project builds on previous work
in Choudhury’s People-Aware Computing Lab, including
smartphone based tools that calculate alertness by photographing the size of
your pupils, or measure your sleep and behavior to determine whether your sleep
aligns with your biological clock.
“There are rhythms during the day,
there are ebbs and flows that we are trying to track using these kinds of
sensing devices,” she said. “And then once you’re able to understand a person’s
rhythm, there are different ways to intervene.”
Possibilities for interventions
range widely, depending on the type of work someone is performing. In the
trucking industry, scheduling drivers who are naturally morning people to drive
early shifts, and those who tend to stay up late to drive at night, could both
improve truckers’ health and reduce accidents.
Office workers might take steps to
limit distractions during periods of peak alertness, such as reducing email
notifications. They could schedule rote tasks requiring less focus during the
periods when they’re less cognitively alert.
Members of the team are also
exploring ways to offer subtle interventions when people are feeling anxious or
distracted. Exposing them to light when they are less alert, for instance, or
using a smartwatch to deliver relaxing vibrations when it senses stress, could
potentially help people feel or perform better, Choudhury said.
“If people have a lot of tasks they
need to complete and they’re not really aligned with their rhythms, they’re not
functioning at their optimal level,” she said.
The NSF awarded a total of $25
million for 26 projects as part of its Future of Work – Human Technology Frontier
initiative, which aims to respond to the challenges and opportunities of a
changing workforce. Choudhury will receive $590,000 for her portion of the
project.
Choudhury said that to address
privacy issues, all the tools she and her students are developing have been
made available only to individuals through their own devices. More widespread
use would need to be implemented thoughtfully and carefully to protect an
employee’s privacy and autonomy.
“It would have to be used in
specific contexts that are beneficial both to employer and employee,” she said.
Biological rhythm “disruptions are causing problems at an individual and
societal level, and interventions can be structured in a way that is beneficial
to everyone.”
After
decades of efforts, scientists have managed to modify a hybrid rice strain so
that it passes on its favorable traits in its own seeds, according to ScienceDaily. By producing clones
from its seeds, instead of requiring fertilization, the hybrids would allow
farmers to replant seeds from their own plants instead of having to buy
expensive new seeds each growing season.
Some
wild plants, such as blackberries, have evolved the ability
to self-replicate in a process called apomixis. But scientists have struggled
to reproduce that process in commercial hybrids, which offer benefits like
higher yields or resistance to pests and disease.
“It’s a
very desirable goal that could change agriculture,” said Venkatesan Sundaresan,
a University of California, Davis professor of plant biology who made the
discovery, along with postdoctoral researcher Imtiyaz Khanday.
The
researchers have now made a breakthrough toward that goal, with a hybrid strain
of rice.
The
researchers discovered that in fertilized plant eggs, the male version of genes
called BBM1 or “Baby Boom 1,” spark the process of embryo formation in a seed.
They used a genetic switch called a promoter that would allow a female version
of the gene perform the same function on its own.
But
since a normal egg that had formed through the normal cell division process,
meiosis, would have contained only half the necessary chromosomes, more changes
were still necessary.
Using an
approach developed by French National Institute for Agricultural Research plant
geneticist and study coauthor Raphael Mercier, the team disabled genes
necessary for meiosis, leading the rice to reproduce asexually through mitosis
instead. Sundaresan and Khanday updated Mercier’s procedure, using CRISPR/Cas9
gene-editing to disable the genes.
In a
type of japonica rice called Kitaake,
the process succeeded in allowing about 30 percent of plants to produce viable
seed clones with all the desirable hybrid genetic traits passed on. In turn,
those seeds grew into plants that successfully produced clones, which
themselves produced yet another generation of hybrid clones.
Sundaresan
says the researchers will now work to make the process more efficient.
The
development could help farmers, especially in developing countries, produce
enough food for the world’s growing population. Hybrid plants can even offer
properties that make them more resistant to climate change, which means the new
process could play a crucial role in adapting food production to the extreme
weather and higher temperatures that come with climate change.
The
study was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
Succeeding more than 20 years of
conjecturing about it, scientists have modified a hybrid diversification
of rice so that some of the plants generate cloned seeds. Intersecting two fine
varieties of grain can render one prodigious one, merging the principal variety
of genes to yield crops advisable attributes such as greater produce.
However, such hybrid grain
miracles usually do not progress along those desired genetic aspect to all
seeds in the course of reproduction. Therefore farmers who persistently want
excessive produce have to disburse for the contemporary hybrid seeds every
year.
This contemporary lab genre
of hybrid rice would protect those constitution through self-cloning says study
coauthor Venkatesan Sundaresan, a plant geneticist at the University of California,
Davis.
Albeit 400 types of plants
encompassing some blackberries and citruses have engendered self-cloning seeds
inherently overhauling those routes in crop plants has been difficult than
anybody anticipated Sundaresan says. He and his teammates envisioned the idea
for the contemporary research while scrutinizing how a fertilized egg becomes a
zygote, this mystical cell that restores a whole organism.
The researchers found that recasting two sets of genes
engendered the Japonicarice hybrid called Kitaake
to clone its own seeds. Initially the team discovered that in an
impregnated plant egg only the male variety of a gene called BABY
BOOM1 discovered in sperm propelled the evolvement of seed
embryo. Therefore the scientists thrust a genetic starter switch, called a
promoter that allows the female variety of the same gene do similar work
Scientists, including those of
Indian origin, have discovered a way to grow rice plant clones from seeds, an
advance that could lead to high-yielding and disease-resistant crops.
The ability to produce a clone,
an exact replica, of a plant from its seeds would be a major breakthrough for
world agriculture, said researchers at the University of California, Davis in
the US.
Instead of purchasing expensive
hybrid seeds each year, which is often beyond the means of farmers in
developing countries, farmers could replant seeds from their own hybrid plants
and derive the benefits of high yields year after year.
"It's a very desirable goal
that could change agriculture," said Venkatesan Sundaresan, a professor at
UC Davis.
Sundaresan and postdoctoral
researcher Imtiyaz Khanday discovered that the rice gene BBM1, belonging to a
family of plant genes called "Baby Boom" or BBM, is expressed in
sperm cells but not in eggs.
After fertilisation, BBM1 is
expressed in the fertilised cell but -- at least initially -- this expression
comes from the male contribution to the genome.
BBM1 switches on the ability of a
fertilised egg to form an embryo, according to the study published in the
journal Nature.
Researchers first used gene
editing to remove the ability of the plants to go through meiosis (cell
division), so that the egg cells formed instead by mitosis, inheriting a full
set of chromosomes from the mother.
Then they caused these egg cells
to express BBM1, which they would not normally do without fertilisation.
"So we have a diploid egg
cell with the ability to make an embryo, and that grows into a clonal
seed," Sundaresan said.
So far the process has an efficiency
of about 30 per cent, but the researchers hope that can be increased with more
research.
The approach should work in other
cereal crops, which have equivalent BBM1 genes, and in other crop plants as
well, Sundaresan said.
SAN DIEGO, CA -- The Cajun combination of rice and
crawfish production not only drives southern Louisiana economically but also
positively impacts the region's environment. This story of rice
production's environmental benefits, told in video form, won one Louisiana
high school senior this year's National Rice Month scholarship.
Caroline Benoit, winner of the 2018 scholarship sponsored by Corteva
Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont, received a $4,000
scholarship and a trip for two to the awards ceremony at last week's 2018 USA
Rice Outlook Conference in San Diego.
Benoit attends Louise S. McGehee School in New Orleans. Her winning
video, titled "Rice in Louisiana," was chosen from a field of 86
entries and is a comprehensive overview of rice production in her home
state.
"I think when most people think of rice, they think of the most obvious
-- food," Benoit said. "But I learned there's so much more to
rice and its importance to my home state and the nation as a whole."
Benoit admitted to some hesitance about working on a project like this that
was outside her comfort zone. "By winning, I mostly learned that
if I just put myself out there and try something new, the outcome could be
really good."
SAN DIEGO, CA -- Members of the 2019/21 Rice
Leadership Development Program class were announced last week during the
annual Rice Awards Luncheon at the 2018 USA Rice Outlook Conference.
The class is comprised of seven rice industry professionals selected by a
committee of agribusiness leaders.
"This is a very outstanding and diverse group of young men and I think
they will mesh well together in their upcoming sessions," said Rice
Foundation Director Steve Linscombe.
New class members are Jason Bond, Stoneville, MS; Austin Davis, Cleveland MS;
Michael Durand, St. Martinsville, LA; Bobby Golden, Leland, MS; Austin
Littleton, Parma, MO; Matthew Morris, Carlisle, AR; and Justin Nix, Maurice,
LA.
The Rice Leadership Development Program gives young men and women a
comprehensive understanding of the U.S. rice industry, with an emphasis on
personal development and communication training. During a two-year
period, class members attend four one-week sessions that are designed to
strengthen their leadership skills.
John Deere Company, RiceTec, Inc., and American Commodity Company are
sponsors of the Rice Leadership Development Program through a grant to The
Rice Foundation, and USA Rice manages the program.
Revised Definition
of Waters of the U.S. Announced
WASHINGTON, DC -- At a public event held Tuesday
at EPA headquarters, EPA's Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the
imminent publication of a new definition for Water of the United States (WOTUS)
under the Clean Water Act to replace the 2015 WOTUS rule.
During the briefing, the agency reiterated the
importance of predictability and indicated that one of the main goals is that a
landowner should be able to determine what is and isn't a WOTUS on their land
without needing to hire several lawyers and hydrology experts.
"Many of us live on the land we work, and
not only do we want clean water to produce our crops, we also want clean water
for our families. We also need rules that are clear so it's
straightforward how to comply with them," said Arkansas farmer David
Gairhan. "I applaud the work the EPA is doing to try and provide us
with certainty of what is and is not defined and regulated as a WOTUS so we can
get back to doing what we do best, farming."
"USA Rice appreciates the efforts of EPA
and the Army Corps of Engineers to solicit feedback prior to drafting this new
proposal and applauds the agencies' commitment to continued engagement with
stakeholders," said USA Rice President & CEO Betsy Ward.
"We look forward to implementation of a commonsense new water rule that
provides clarity for our members."
Once published, the rule will have a 60-day
comment period. USA Rice will provide substantive comments for the
industry and encourages our members to provide individual comments of their
own.
Rice plants that grow as
clones from seed
UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS
IMAGE: POSTDOC IMTIYAZ KHANDAY AND PROFESSOR VENKATESAN SUNDARESAN WITH
CLONED RICE PLANTS IN A UC DAVIS GREEN HOUSE, DECEMBER 2018. KHANDAY,
SUNDARESAN AND COLLEAGUES HAVE SOLVED THE PROBLEM OF PROPAGATING... view more
CREDIT: UC REGENTS
Plant biologists at the
University of California, Davis have discovered a way to make crop plants
replicate through seeds as clones. The discovery, long sought by plant breeders
and geneticists, could make it easier to propagate high-yielding,
disease-resistant or climate-tolerant crops and make them available to the
world's farmers.
The work is published Dec. 12 in
the journal Nature.
Since the 1920s, many crops have
been grown from hybrid seeds created by crossing two varieties. These hybrids
can have superior qualities in areas such as yield or pest resistance. But the
seeds of hybrid crops do not produce plants with the same qualities.
The ability to produce a clone,
an exact replica, of a plant from its seeds would be a major breakthrough for
world agriculture. Instead of purchasing expensive hybrid seeds each year,
which is often beyond the means of farmers in developing countries, farmers
could replant seeds from their own hybrid plants and derive the benefits of
high yields year after year.
About 400 species of wild plants
can produce viable seeds without fertilization. Called apomixis, this process
seems to have evolved many times in plants - but not in commercial crop
species.
The discovery by postdoctoral
researcher Imtiyaz Khanday and Venkatesan Sundaresan, professor of plant
biology at UC Davis and colleagues at UC Davis, the Iowa State University and
INRA, France is a major step forward.
"It's a very desirable goal
that could change agriculture," Sundaresan said.
"Baby boom" gene is key
Khanday and Sundaresan discovered
that the rice gene BBM1, belonging to a family of plant genes called "Baby
Boom" or BBM, is expressed in sperm cells but not in eggs. After
fertilization, BBM1 is expressed in the fertilized cell but -- at least
initially--this expression comes from the male contribution to the genome.
BBM1, they reasoned, switches on
the ability of a fertilized egg to form an embryo.
The researchers first used gene
editing to remove the ability of the plants to go through meiosis, so that the
egg cells formed instead by mitosis, inheriting a full set of chromosomes from
the mother.
Then they caused these egg cells
to express BBM1, which they would not normally do without fertilization.
"So we have a diploid egg
cell with the ability to make an embryo, and that grows into a clonal
seed," Sundaresan said.
So far the process has an
efficiency of about 30 percent, but the researchers hope that can be increased
with more research. The approach should work in other cereal crops, which have
equivalent BBM1 genes, and in other crop plants as well, Sundaresan said.
###
Other authors on the paper are
Debra Skinner at UC Davis, Bing Yang at Iowa State University and Raphael
Mercier, INRA, Versailles, France.
The work has been funded by the
Innovative Genome Institute, a joint venture between UC Berkeley and UC San
Francisco that focuses on applying genome editing to solve global problems, and
by the National Science Foundation.
Rice millers and farmers from Central America and the
Dominican Republic are making an urgent plea to their U.S. counterparts: Help
stop the reduction in tariffs on U.S. rice
ASIA RICE-VIETNAM RATES DIP FOR 4TH WEEK
AS CHINESE NORMS BITE
12/13/2018
* India prices unchanged at $364-$368
* Thai rates little changed as demand remains flat
By K. Sathya Narayanan
BENGALURU, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Rice export prices fell for the
fourth consecutive week in Vietnam on concerns of lower intake from China due
to stricter norms in Beijing, while subdued demand weighed on the Indian and
Thai markets.
In Vietnam, the third biggest exporter of the staple, prices of
the benchmark 5 percent broken variety <RI-VNBKN5-P1> fell to $395 a
tonne from last week's $400 level.
"We are still concerned about China's move to impose stricter
conditions on shipments from Vietnam as China is the largest export
market," a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said.
"This will have an adverse impact on Vietnam's rice exports
for the coming years."
Vietnam's rice shipments to China fell 39.1 percent in the first
10 months of 2018 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Industry
and Trade.
In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice <RI-THBKN5-P1>
prices were quoted at $385-$393, free on board Bangkok, versus $390-$393 last
week on flat demand, traders said, adding the market was likely to remain quiet
going into the new year period.
"There are talks that some of our neighbours like the
Philippines still want more rice, but there are no indications at this stage
whether there will be fresh deals," a Bangkok-based rice trader said.
A gradual increase in supply due to seasonal harvesting during the
December and January period could further dampen prices, another trader said.
Meanwhile, rates for top exporter India's 5 percent broken
parboiled variety <RI-INBKN5-P1> were unchanged from the previous week at
$364-$368 per tonne. "We have slashed prices in the last few weeks after a
subsidy was announced, but demand is still weak," said an exporter based
at Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh adding it was not possible
to cut prices further, while local paddy prices are firm.
The Indian government will give a subsidy of 5 percent for
non-basmati rice exports for the four months to March 25, 2019, the trade
ministry said last month.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Bangladesh's rain-fed rice, or 'Aman'
crop, is likely to rise to 14 million tonnes from 13.5 million tonnes the
previous year, helped by favourable weather, Mohammad Mohsin, director general
of Department of Agriculture Extension, told Reuters.
Aman, the second biggest crop after the summer variety Boro, makes
up about 38 percent of Bangladesh's total production of around 35 million
tonnes.
The south Asian country, which emerged as a major importer in 2017
after floods damaged its crops, imposed 28 percent duty to support its farmers
after local production revived this year.
(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, Khanh Vu in Hanoi, Ruma
Paul in Dhaka and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai; Editing by Arpan Varghese/David
Evans)
India
rice rates slip; tough Chinese rules dent Vietnam exports
Rice
export prices fell a the second consecutive week in India on a weakening rupee
and slow demand, while strict inspections from top consumer China muted exports
from Vietnam.
By
: Reuters
Dec
6, 2018 19:33 IST
Labourers remove dried grass from a rice field on the
outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, August 30, 2016. Picture taken August 30, 2016
(representational image).Reuters file
Rice export prices fell a the second consecutive week in
India on a weakening rupee and slow demand, while strict inspections from top
consumer China muted exports from Vietnam.
India's 5 percent broken parboiled variety was quoted
around $364-$368 per tonne this week, from $366-$370 the last week.
"Prices are down as traders are adjusting to the drop
in the rupee. Demand is still weak," said an exporter based at Kakinada in
the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
The Indian rupee fell nearly 1 percent on Thursday to the
lowest level in two weeks, increasing exporters margin from the overseas sales.
In an attempt to accelerate exports, the Indian government
last month said it will give a 5 percent subsidy for non-basmati rice shipments
for the four months to March 25, 2019.
In neighbouring Bangladesh, rice imports in July-November
stood at 106,640 tonnes, the country's food ministry data showed, after the
government imposed a 28 percent tax on shipments to support its farmers after
local production revived.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, rates for 5 percent broken rice
dipped to $400 a tonne from $408 last week as exports to China fell on stricter
inspections and conditions on Vietnamese rice, traders said.
"Exports to China are almost frozen, no one dares to
buy or sell. Some people who had their rice ready at the port now have to take
them back because they fear the Chinese side will not take them," a trader
in Ho Chi Minh City said.
However, the fall in prices was limited due to tight
supply at the end of a small crop season in Vietnam and orders from rice-scarce
Philippines.
The next major crop harvest in the southeast-Asian nation,
the winter-spring crop, is due next March.
In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice prices
narrowed to $390-$393, free on board (FOB) Bangkok, from $380-$397 last week.
"Apart from the recent order from the Philippines,
Thai rice exporters are not expecting any large order until early 2019," a
Bangkok-based rice trader said.
Traders attributed this week's fluctuation in rice prices
to the exchange rate. The Thai baht shed more than a quarter of a percent on
Thursday, after rising for four previous sessions.
"Some exporters are still talking about a possible
deal to markets like Japan and Indonesia, but so far things are quiet and will
likely remain this way until January," said another Bangkok-based trader.
The
government has extended duty benefits to non-basmati rice exporters under a
scheme to boost the shipment of the agri commodity.The duty benefit is provided
under the commerce ministry's Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS).
"Non-basmati
rice items have been made eligible for MEIS benefits at the rate of 5 per cent
for exports made with effect from November 26 and up to March 25, 2019,"
the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said in a public notice.
DGFT,
under the commerce ministry deals with export and import related policies.
Under
MEIS, government provides duty credit scrip or certificate depending on product
and country.
Those
scrips can be transferred or used for payment of a number of duties including
the basic customs duty.
India
is one of the largest exporters of non-basmati rice and in 2017-18, the country
exported 8.63 million tonnes of the rice, which was more than double the
quantity of basmati rice exports of 4.05 million tonnes.
Non-basmati
rice exports during April-February 2018 stood at $3.26 billion as against $2.53
billion in 2016-17.
Rice
is the country's main kharif crop. As per the first advance estimates of
foodgrains production for kharif (summer-sown) season for 2018-19 crop year,
rice output is estimated at record 99.24 million tonnes as against 97.5 million
tonnes of production in last year's kharif season.
The
sowing operation of kharif crops begins with onset of monsoon and harvesting
starts from mid-September. Paddy, maize and soyabean are major kharif crops.
Iraq signs wheat,
rice imports with the United States
Iraq has signed an agreement with the United States to
import U.S. wheat and rice, the Iraqi trade minister said on Thursday. The
agreement covers the first half of 2019, Mohammed Hashim said at a signing
ceremony in Baghdad. “The agreement signals a wider cooperation with the
American companies to supply Iraq with wheat and rice for 2019. The cabinet has
approved it,” Iraqi trade minister Mohammed Hashim said during ceremonies held
in Baghdad and attended by the U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
The trade minister said this deal was signed because
Iraq prefers the high quality of the U.S. rice and wheat. Iraq needs an annual
wheat supply of between 4.5 million and five million tonnes, and has an import
gap of around two million tonnes a year. The country spends billions of dollars
annually on a Saddam Hussein-era programme for food rationing, the Public
Distribution System, which distributes subsidised bread and other essential
food.
Dhaka, December 14 (The Daily Star): Seeing Yusuf Molla’s
collection of paddies, one is likely to reminisce about the famous verses of
Jogindranath’s poem “Kajer Chhele”: “Dadkhani chal, mosurir dal, chini-pata
doi…”
Yusuf, a farmer in Rajshahi’s Tanore, has at least 200 rare and
almost extinct varieties of paddy in his collection that he has developed over
the years out of love for the crop.
During a visit last month, this correspondent found 77 sections
in Yusuf’s land. Each section had a signboard carrying the name of the variety
cultivated there.
Each variety has a distinct texture, colour, smell,
and taste.
Yusuf said “Dadkhani” rice was rich in zinc. In the past,
Bangalees used to serve it as a wholesome meal to the ailing.
“Raida” is slightly thin rice and the “mother of all paddies,”
according to Yusuf.
The “Black Pankhiraj” has white parts on both sides and looks
like a bird. Two grains grow from one seed of “Boiram Shundori”, also known as
“Dui Shotin”. “Randhuni Pagol” has an enchanting scent.
“Kajaldigha”, “Laxmidigha”, and “Kalarai” can survive floods,
while “Bhadoi”, “Kaloshoni”, “Kumri”, and “Shankhaboti” are resistant to
droughts.
Yusuf and the farmers employed by him cultivated at least 150
varieties in 15 districts of Rajshahi division this year.
With yields from 82 varieties, Yusuf celebrated Nabanna Utsav
(the festival of new crop) on December 9. On the occasion, around 200 guests
including farmers were served with traditional recipes made of the rare
varieties.
“I love the varieties. So, I feel the need to preserve them
before they are lost,” Yusuf said. He collected the seeds from different
corners of the country.
The 74-year-old farmer has one bigha of land in Duboil village
where he has been cultivating the paddies for the last 50 years.
Shahidul Islam, regional coordinator of Bangladesh Resource
Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (Barcik) lauded Yusuf for his passion.
“Preserving the varieties is important as paddy cultivation is
losing momentum due to climate change. Yusuf did what the government ought to
have done,” he said.
Yusuf inherited his passion for paddies from his father Abdur
Rahman Malakar who produced different varieties every year and entertained
villagers with the yields during Nabanna.
In 1968, the year Yusuf got married, he noticed that farmers
were leaning towards IRRI-8 variety instead of local varieties.
“I feared that one day the local varieties might just vanish.”
He started his search for the nearly extinct varieties in 2000. He travelled to
Chattogram, Khulna, Barishal, Rangpur, and different districts in Rajshahi
division in this endeavour.
“I went to every place where I could find a rare variety,” he
told this correspondent.
Yusuf’s contributions were recognised in 2013 when he received
the National Environment Award. This accolade motivated him to delve more into
his passion.
He founded the “Barind Seed Bank” with assistance from Barcik
officials in 2015. Bangladesh Rice Research Institute collected 110 varieties
from the bank last year. Officials from different research institutes and
farmers visit his bank regularly, said Yusuf.
The bank provides seeds to farmers for free and realises a
portion of their harvest in return. Those grains are again distributed among
another set of farmers. In this way, the bank helps keep the production
flowing.
Yusuf has one worry. “I am growing old. What would happen to my
collection after my death?”
(The featured photo shows Yusuf Molla the Bangladeshi who
is cultivating 200 rare varieties of paddy, some almost extinct)
Yielding is the new
director of the National Onion Association
National Onion Association
December 13, 2018
Arkansas- and Missouri-based rice
front man Greg Yielding has officially assumed the executive vice president
role at the National Onion Association.
Based in Greeley, Colo., the National
Onion Association represents roughly 500 onion growers, shippers, and suppliers
across the country. Yielding will take over for retiring executive vice
president Wayne Mininger, who has held the position for 33 years. Yielding will
officially start on Jan. 2, after spending the last 14 years advocating and
marketing rice all over the world.
Yielding hails from Jackson, Mo.,
where he has been serving simultaneously as the director of emerging markets
and special projects for the U.S. Rice Producers Association, as the executive
director of the Missouri Rice Research and Merchandising Council, and as the
executive director for the Arkansas Rice Growers Association.
"We are very excited to have
Greg on board and look forward to him representing our industry through
whatever challenges come our way, and as all of us know will come," said
NOA President Doug Stanley. "Greg's background with association work and
his extensive legislative background should serve our association well."
Though he came up the political
route, Yielding has grown to know farmers and agriculture in the past 14 years
advocating for rice.
"I like representing the
farmers and growers," he said. "I believe that everyone needs to be
represented, and representing farmers is important for the country."He welcomes the opportunity to lobby and market on behalf of
onions in Washington.
Prior to serving on the rice councils, he was the executive
director for the Arkansas Cable Telecommunications Association for 10 years.Yielding
is used to wearing many hats. While serving as constable in North Little Rock
from 1994-2004, he also served on the North Little Rock City Council, from
2000-2004. He's been serving as the chairman of the Jackson Historic District
Commission since last year.
Yielding is married to Caroline; he has a 7-year-old son named
Elisha and a 23-year-old son, Zachary, who is in the U.S. Marines.
CANBERRA — The global food system
needs to be transformed to respond to the health and nutrition needs of the
future. To achieve this, however, there needs to be a strong global program to
prevent greater threats from climate change.
In Canberra on Nov. 30, leaders
of three CGIAR centers gathered to talk about
global food systems as part of a forum on transforming global food systems
hosted by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
The message on climate was consistent: Food security is critical to the
achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. But climate
change is creating a risk that is growing rapidly.
“One of the biggest issues in the
use of averages is that it hides the real story of climate change. The real
story is around the variability and unpredictability of weather.”
— Matthew Morell, director general, International
Rice Research Institute
Martin Kropff, director general
of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center,
and Matthew Morell, director general of the International Rice Research Institute, spent
their time visiting Australian research institutes and presenting at a range of
forums. As part of their visit, they spoke to Devex about the limits of
agricultural research, and why we may be fast hitting barriers of how science
can solve food crises in a fast-changing environment.
“Whether it is rice, maize, and
livestock, we are looking at similar questions: the livelihood of smallholder
farmers, nutrition, empowerment of women, and impact of climate change,” Morell
said. “We need to do this to come up with an overall comprehensive solution to
solve some of these challenges.”
Food security requires climate
action
“In 1993, I was a scientist at
IRRI and our crop models [were] incorporating early climate change
projections,” Kropff said. “We made a prediction based on the available models
and in those days we wanted to be careful and not alarmist. And I was
skeptical. But 25 years later what the models projected is happening. These
predictions are real — and I am convinced we have to get out act together. It
is not going to be simple.”
Though the impact of climate
change on the environment and food security has been known for decades, the
response has been limited.
“We have individuals in the world
— it is pretty clear who they are — that really want to put their head in the
sand about this issue,” Morell said. “They will say that if it’s cold, that is
proof that global warming doesn’t really exist. But there are also those who
point to averages.
“One of the biggest issues in the
use of averages is that it hides the real story of climate change. The real
story is around the variability and unpredictability of weather. What I see on
the ground is that a monsoon is delayed. I see that there is rain in the dry
season when farmers really need it to be dry because they have planted crops
that can’t cope with excess water,” Morell said.
Among the solutions are to build
in biological insurances within plants, giving them the ability to withstand
these stresses — whichever way the production season turns out. There is also
crop insurance for smallholder farmers so they have the confidence to invest in
inputs, maximizing their potential income without fear of being financially
destroyed because of the weather.
But it is crucial, both Morell
and Kropff said, that such solutions are coupled with action to prevent global
warming to levels currently being forecast.
Responses remain reactive rather
than proactive
“I’m afraid on food security I
would place us as globally complacent,” Morell said.
Scientific modeling, Morell said,
shows that drought, new diseases, and extreme weather events such as cyclones
or typhoons will happen — even if it is impossible to pinpoint place or
time.
“But if we are rational human
beings, we understand that we should invest to future-proof our food systems to
deal better with these eventualities,” Morell said. “Yet our political systems
and current thinking is responsive — and by then it is less cost-effective and
simply less effective in general to deliver food aid rather than build a more
resilient system in the first place.”
The actions of governments today
are still as responsive as the past. And this means that funding for research
is just not adequate.
“In 2008 we had the price of
major staples increase and there was an injection of funding because of that,”
Morell said. “But now we have slipped back into our old ways. What appalls me
is that we still have 800 million people who go to be hungry every night. We
still have 151 million children suffering from stunting and hundreds of
millions of people suffering from iron and nutrition deficiencies. This is
right in front of us every day and it’s a global disgrace that we haven’t
eliminated that.
“Around the world, there has been
a trend, and the populist movement is less generous. And this means the
prevention of issues down the track — and the research funding needed — are
being overlooked.”
Limits of what science can
achieve
“We continually have new diseases
coming in,” Kropff said. Since taking on the role of director general in 2015,
he has seen more than one new disease a year that has dramatically impacted
crops — including a new disease in Africa that is growing fast across the
continent, wiping out maize. It is one of the effects of changing environmental
conditions.
In 2011 an emerging disease wiped
out 20 percent of maize crop in Kenya, and it took four years to produce a
resistant variety.
“Four years is too long,” Kropff
said. “But 10 years ago it would have been 14. We are fast, but not fast
enough. We need to deal better with predicting new diseases and have technology
that is faster.”
The concern for Kropff is that
with the rate of emerging diseases, there may be a time when they cannot be
fast enough.
“When you start innovating, at
the beginning it is easy. But there starts to get to a stage where it requires
a lot more science to go to the next stage,” he said. “It’s bigger than people
think.”
Reducing the impact of climate
change is the better solution.
Working together for collective
action
Responding to the issue of
climate change in food security requires global action. Among the 15
CGIAR centers — including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement
Center and International Rice Research Institute — there is collective action
with it impacting all aspects of their work.
“It’s so important to work globally
together,” Kopf said. “I’m still convinced we can do something about this. The
Sustainable Development Goals are the same for all of us and there is a lot of
ideas and things we do. And we have programs that go across the centers with
our scientists working together. And we need to continue doing this to
influence research, funding, and global policies.”
We need more than magic beans to help us offset the effects of
climate change
