Thursday, March 19, 2015

Rice R&D News -Technology & Innovation (17-19 March,2015)



How an Insect Pest Switches from Sluggish Super Breeder to Flying Invader

 

Insulin tells young planthoppers whether to develop short or long wings
March 18, 2015 
One of the leading pests of rice, brown planthoppers can grow up to have either short or long wings, depending on conditions such as day length and temperature in the rice fields where they suck sap. The hormone insulin controls the switch that tells young planthoppers whether to develop into short- or long-winged adults, finds a new study. Photo by Chuan-Xi Zhang of Zhejiang University in China
DURHAM, NC - Each year, rice in Asia faces a big threat from a sesame seed-sized insect called the brown planthopper. Now, a study reveals the molecular switch that enables some planthoppers to develop short wings and others long -- a major factor in their ability to invade new rice fields.The findings will appear Mar. 18 in the journal Nature.Lodged in the stalks of rice plants, planthoppers use their sucking mouthparts to siphon sap. Eventually the plants turn yellow and dry up, a condition called “hopper burn.
”Each year, planthopper outbreaks destroy hundreds of thousands of acres of rice, the staple crop for roughly half the world’s population.The insects have a developmental strategy that makes them particularly effective pests. When conditions in a rice field are good, young planthoppers develop into adults with stubby wings that barely reach their middles.Short-winged adults can’t fly but they’re prolific breeders. A single short-winged female can lay more than 700 eggs in her lifetime.“The short-winged ones have great big fat abdomens. They’re basically designed to stay put and reproduce,” said biologist Fred Nijhout of Duke University, who co-authored the study with colleagues at Zhejiang University in China.
But in the fall as days get shorter and temperatures begin to drop -- signs that the rice plants they’re munching on will soon disappear -- more planthopper nymphs develop into slender adults with long wings. Long-winged planthoppers lay fewer eggs but are built for travel, eventually flying away to invade new rice fields.Until now, scientists did not know exactly how the shorter days and cooler temperatures triggered the shift between short and long wings, or which hormones were involved.
To find out, the researchers used a technique called RNA interference (RNAi) to silence the genes for two different insulin receptors -- regions on the cell membrane that bind to the hormone insulin -- and measured the effects on the animals’ wings.“Previously it had been assumed that all insects only had a single insulin receptor gene. We discovered that brown planthoppers have two,” Nijhout said.When the researchers silenced the first insulin receptor, short-winged adults emerged.
Silencing the second receptor produced adults with long wings.Further study revealed that long wings are the default design. But when planthoppers secrete a particular type of insulin in response to changing temperatures or day length, the second insulin receptor deactivates the first receptor in the developing wings, leading to short-winged adults.“The second insulin receptor acts by interfering with the first one, therefore shutting down the signal,” Nijhout said.It’s too early to say whether the findings could lead to techniques to treat planthopper populations so they are unable to invade new rice fields, Nijhout says.But the researchers have found similar mechanisms in other planthopper species, and are now trying to find out if insulin plays a similar role in other insect pests with flying and flightless forms, such as aphids.This research was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, no. 2010CB126205) and by the National Science Foundation of China (no. 31201509 and no. 31471765).

https://today.duke.edu/2015/03/planthoppers

Untimely rain plays havoc with vegetable, pulse prices

NEW DELHI, MARCH 18:  
Prices of vegetables and pulses are set to shoot up after unseasonal rain damaged over 50 lakh hectares of standing crops across the country, putting enormous strain on household budgets.Consumers will have to pay more for potatoes, carrots, cabbages, mustard and almost all the pulses over the next few weeks. Rain in northern, central and western parts has caused widespread damage to crops in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Inclement weather not only affects production but also the quality of agricultural produce, besides hampering movement of supplies throughout the supply chain, exacerbating the situation and pushing up wholesale inflation.Wholesale Price Index-based inflation in February reflected higher food prices at 7.74 per cent. Further upward pressure in prices could force the Reserve Bank of India to think twice on policy rate cuts at its policy meeting early next month. Vegetable prices rose 15.5 per cent, while fruits surged 16.84 per cent. Prices for the politically significant onion rose 26 per cent.
Widespread damage

The Centre has estimated that standing crops over 50 lakh hectares (lh) were damaged — 27 lh in Uttar Pradesh, 14.5 lh in Rajasthan, 7.5 lh in Maharashtra, 50,000 hectares in West Bengal and at least 6,000 hectares in Punjab. “Wheat on some 6-7 acres of my 20 acres has been destroyed. Seasonal vegetables, potatoes in particular, besides cabbage and carrots have been affected,” said Karamjit Sidhu, a farmer from Kotla Suraj Lohar village in Amritsar district.Farmers from UP said potato and mustard crops have been badly affected as also wheat, while pulses such as chickpea (chana), black gram (urad) and green gram (moong) have been hit to a lesser extent.“Almost the entire mustard crop has been flattened,” said Rajiv Kumar, who owns 13 acres in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
 “The impact on wheat is less but more for mustard with hailstorms in Rajasthan and UP. There won’t be much addition to inflation on the basis of a slight fall in wheat output.“It’s not clear how much damage there has been to potato and perishables,” said Suresh Pal, who heads the Division of Agricultural Economics at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
Wholesale and retail prices of vegetables, such as bitter gourd, cauliflower and brinjal, have already shot up this month in the Capital. Agriculture Produce Market Committee data showed that the average price of brinjal increased some 19 per cent to 17.6/kg in March from February.During the same period, cauliflower prices rose to 20/kg from around 14/kg. Retail prices for bitter gourd and lady's finger have surged by 20 per cent, selling at 120/kg from 100 a month ago. Retailers expect prices, which have gone up by about 5/kg for most vegetables, to remain high with fresh arrivals not expected soon.
Delhi Govt acts

Agriculture Ministry officials refrained from giving estimates of the damage, but Delhi Government officials Gopal Rai and Asim Ahmed Khan convened a meeting this week to check the steadily rising prices and announce emergency measures.These included the display prices of major vegetables at wholesale market yards and keeping an eye on commission agents.
(This article was published on March 18, 2015)

Vietnam aims for greener rice cultivation


Wednesday, 18 March 2015 05:26

Vietnam plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rice cultivation alone by 14 per cent by 2030

According to the 2010 National Greenhouse gas inventory, there will be an increase in emissions on both livestock and farm land in Vietnam. (Image source: CatSh/sxc.hu)

This was announced at a recent conference in Hanoi by an official from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.Pham Hoang Yen, an expert involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, said that in the last few years, the country has set the goal of a 20 per cent reduction in GHG in the overall cultivation sector by 2020.

The Southeast Asian country has been preparing for National Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) and other policies that developing countries have adopted to control global GHG at a UNFCC conference in Bali eight years ago.In addition, Vietnam has also carried out a programme of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).In June 2014, the country had 253 CDM projects and had registered 11 programmes of activities. This move earned it 10.7mn certified emission reduction (CEF) credits granted by CDM Executive Board through CDM activities, Yen added.The total GHG emissions reduction from the 253 CDM projects was 137mn tonnes of CO2equivalent.In the future, many projects are expected to be started to lower methane emissions in rice cultivation in a number of localities, Yen said.
The agricultural sector also applied Good Agricultural Practices and cultivation methods that economise the use of fertiliser, pesticide and water in order to limit methane emission on rice fields, she said.According to the 2010 National Greenhouse gas inventory, there will be an increase in emissions on both livestock and farm land. In livestock breeding sector, GHG emissions are expected to grow from 18.03mn tonnes of CO2 in 2010 to 24.95mn tonnes in 2020 and 29.32mn tonnes in 2030. In agriculture, GHG emissions are expected to increase from 23.81mn tonnes of CO2 in 2010 to 33.94mn tonnes of CO2 in 2020 and 37.4 tonnes in 2030.
The industrial process had a GHG emission growth, but it was still small compared with the total of emissions, Yen said. It has been predicted that land use, land use change and forestry activities in Vietnam will absorb 42.5mn tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2020, and 45.3mn tonnes in 2030 and the main source of emissions and absorption will be forest and cultivated land.



Managing Asean rice reserves

3/17/2015 
New Straits Times (Malaysia)
STABILISING Asean rice markets is a crucial concern for averting crises, such as the 2007-08 global rice crisis. The current strategy towards this is by growing the size of rice reserves in the Asean-Plus-Three Emergency Rice Reserve (Apterr), although Apterr has been critiqued for its small size relative to total demand and low utilisation. A look into the stabilisation policies in currency markets show that more important than size is the way the reserves are used to incentivise actors towards behaviours that reduce risk exposure.
As such, the limited reserves in Apterr can be used for encouraging behaviours such as increasing transparency/reporting, increasing partner diversification, addressing structural imbalances in agricultural production and consumption within countries.Rice, as a commodity, is subject to unstable marketdynamics.
For instance, chance events, such as a drought in India's wheatmarket combined with panic reactions by both exporters and importers, triggered world rice prices to soar in 2007-08.This developed into a crisis when Thailand and Vietnam, major exporting countries, closed their export gates following India's lead.This left rice importing countries unable to purchase the needed amounts to meet their own demand.Structurally, risks of the recent crisis recurring are high since the top five exporters (India, Thailand, Vietnam, the United States and Pakistan) occupy 81 per cent of global rice trade, as reported by the International Rice Research Institute.Production shortfalls in any of the five countries are likely to cause panic.
Worse still, is if they engage in strategic behaviour of holding stocks to drive prices up (in fact, a rice cartel was proposed by Thailand in 2012).Lastly, countries hardly provide accurate data on how much stocks they have, making it harder to assess risk.To address instability in the rice market, the 10 Asean countries plus China, Japan and South Korea developed the Asean-Plus-Three Emergency Rice Reserve (Apterr), a multilateral institution that holds rice reserves contributed by member countries for use during crises. The attention given in the media is often to the low amount of reserves relative to demand.Asean reports show that compared to an Asean demand of half a million tonnes of rice per day, Apterr is small as its overall size is only at 787,000 tonnes (enough to cover a day and a half of consumption).
Overall recommendations for Apterr have focused on increasing accumulation and accessibility of its reserves for crises.Of the total reserves, 87,000 tonnes come from all 10 Asean countries combined, while the rest are sourced from the "Plus Three" countries (Japan, Korea, China), leading to calls for increasing contributions by Asean countries.Relatedly, it has been critiqued for its low utilisation rate: member countries prefer to have country-to-country rice purchases because the Apterr's mechanism poses the risk that the needed rice/funds are not delivered soon enough.For instance, it requires a time-consuming process of crisis declarations by countries in need and approvals by member countries. However, the approach to rice market stabilisation through the Apterr may be insufficient from the standards of currency market stabilisation. Rice and currency markets are comparable for a few reasons:
Firstly, they both deal with priced commodities, the latter being priced based on the exchange rate. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was set up after World War 2 for the purpose of stabilising exchange rates.Similar to the Apterr, the IMF also has a system of holding reserves and releasing them for stabilisation purposes though it has committed to doing things differently, learning from the 2007-08 global financial crisis.The IMF has moved on from issues of size and utilisation. A key insight to be learned from its practices in currency market stabilisation is its shift from crisis resolution to crisis prevention.
What the IMF will be doing differently is its use of reserves to influence countries towards reducing risk, by tailoring the criteria for accessing reserves.Firstly, data adequacy is a key criterion for which country receives funds, and how much of it a country can tap.Next, these criteria also include behavioural adjustments which would reduce structural instabilities in the countries concerned, in the areas of external position and market access, fiscal policy, monetary policy and financial sector soundness. In sum, the use of reserves is only a last resort for the IMF while most of its work focuses on stabilising the structures of economies so that they will have no need for the said emergency mechanism in the first place.
Applying this to rice market stabilisation, the criteria for release of rice reserves can be tailored towards incentivising countries to reduce their vulnerability to risk, individually.Firstly, net-importing countries can be incentivised to prioritise rice production so that they can reduce external dependence, and to spread their risk by diversifying into other export partners.Strategic indicators may be drawn from current food security databases, including the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Food Security Index, or Syngenta's Rice Bowl Index.Next, Apterr can also adopt the data adequacy criterion used by IMF to reward countries for reporting country data on rice stocks held.
This would allow it to perform effective surveillance in countries, which in turn would feed into better recommendations for reducing long-term structural risks.Learning from stabilisation practices in currency markets, Apterr reserves should be used not simply as a buffer for crisis purposes. Instead, they should be tapped for incentivising countries towards reducing overall systemic risk.In this regard, it would not be the size of Apterr, but its potential for reducing overall risk, which should be the focus in the next Apterr meeting this year.The writer is an associate research fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

http://www.world-grain.com/news/news%20home/LexisNexisArticle.aspx?articleid=2323641395



Managing Asean rice reserves

3/17/2015 
New Straits Times (Malaysia)
STABILISING Asean rice markets is a crucial concern for averting crises, such as the 2007-08 global rice crisis. The current strategy towards this is by growing the size of rice reserves in the Asean-Plus-Three Emergency Rice Reserve (Apterr), although Apterr has been critiqued for its small size relative to total demand and low utilisation. A look into the stabilisation policies in currency markets show that more important than size is the way the reserves are used to incentivise actors towards behaviours that reduce risk exposure.
As such, the limited reserves in Apterr can be used for encouraging behaviours such as increasing transparency/reporting, increasing partner diversification, addressing structural imbalances in agricultural production and consumption within countries.Rice, as a commodity, is subject to unstable marketdynamics.
For instance, chance events, such as a drought in India's wheatmarket combined with panic reactions by both exporters and importers, triggered world rice prices to soar in 2007-08.This developed into a crisis when Thailand and Vietnam, major exporting countries, closed their export gates following India's lead.This left rice importing countries unable to purchase the needed amounts to meet their own demand.Structurally, risks of the recent crisis recurring are high since the top five exporters (India, Thailand, Vietnam, the United States and Pakistan) occupy 81 per cent of global rice trade, as reported by the International Rice Research Institute.Production shortfalls in any of the five countries are likely to cause panic.
Worse still, is if they engage in strategic behaviour of holding stocks to drive prices up (in fact, a rice cartel was proposed by Thailand in 2012).Lastly, countries hardly provide accurate data on how much stocks they have, making it harder to assess risk.To address instability in the rice market, the 10 Asean countries plus China, Japan and South Korea developed the Asean-Plus-Three Emergency Rice Reserve (Apterr), a multilateral institution that holds rice reserves contributed by member countries for use during crises. The attention given in the media is often to the low amount of reserves relative to demand.Asean reports show that compared to an Asean demand of half a million tonnes of rice per day, Apterr is small as its overall size is only at 787,000 tonnes (enough to cover a day and a half of consumption).
Overall recommendations for Apterr have focused on increasing accumulation and accessibility of its reserves for crises.Of the total reserves, 87,000 tonnes come from all 10 Asean countries combined, while the rest are sourced from the "Plus Three" countries (Japan, Korea, China), leading to calls for increasing contributions by Asean countries.Relatedly, it has been critiqued for its low utilisation rate: member countries prefer to have country-to-country rice purchases because the Apterr's mechanism poses the risk that the needed rice/funds are not delivered soon enough.For instance, it requires a time-consuming process of crisis declarations by countries in need and approvals by member countries. However, the approach to rice market stabilisation through the Apterr may be insufficient from the standards of currency market stabilisation. Rice and currency markets are comparable for a few reasons:
Firstly, they both deal with priced commodities, the latter being priced based on the exchange rate. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was set up after World War 2 for the purpose of stabilising exchange rates.Similar to the Apterr, the IMF also has a system of holding reserves and releasing them for stabilisation purposes though it has committed to doing things differently, learning from the 2007-08 global financial crisis.The IMF has moved on from issues of size and utilisation. A key insight to be learned from its practices in currency market stabilisation is its shift from crisis resolution to crisis prevention.
What the IMF will be doing differently is its use of reserves to influence countries towards reducing risk, by tailoring the criteria for accessing reserves.Firstly, data adequacy is a key criterion for which country receives funds, and how much of it a country can tap.Next, these criteria also include behavioural adjustments which would reduce structural instabilities in the countries concerned, in the areas of external position and market access, fiscal policy, monetary policy and financial sector soundness. In sum, the use of reserves is only a last resort for the IMF while most of its work focuses on stabilising the structures of economies so that they will have no need for the said emergency mechanism in the first place.
Applying this to rice market stabilisation, the criteria for release of rice reserves can be tailored towards incentivising countries to reduce their vulnerability to risk, individually.Firstly, net-importing countries can be incentivised to prioritise rice production so that they can reduce external dependence, and to spread their risk by diversifying into other export partners.Strategic indicators may be drawn from current food security databases, including the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Food Security Index, or Syngenta's Rice Bowl Index.Next, Apterr can also adopt the data adequacy criterion used by IMF to reward countries for reporting country data on rice stocks held.
This would allow it to perform effective surveillance in countries, which in turn would feed into better recommendations for reducing long-term structural risks.Learning from stabilisation practices in currency markets, Apterr reserves should be used not simply as a buffer for crisis purposes. Instead, they should be tapped for incentivising countries towards reducing overall systemic risk.In this regard, it would not be the size of Apterr, but its potential for reducing overall risk, which should be the focus in the next Apterr meeting this year.The writer is an associate research fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

http://www.world-grain.com/news/news%20home/LexisNexisArticle.aspx?articleid=2323641395

 

Paradigm shifting’ rice method receives award

3/17/2015 - by World Grain Staff
SINGAPORE — Cornell University’s System of Rice Intensification (SRI) production method, which can increase rice yields by 20% to 50%, received an award from Olam International, the company announced on March 17.
The International Prize for Innovation in Food Security was awarded by an international jury panel to Professor Norman Uphoff and the SRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) at the 3rd Global Science Conference on Climate Smart Agriculture in Montpellier, France.Launched in partnership with leading scientific organization Agropolis Fondation to celebrate Olam’s 25th anniversary, the Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security recognizes an outstanding innovation for its impact on the availability, affordability, accessibility or adequacy of food.
SRI-Rice, which is housed at Cornell University in New York, U.S., has been promoting research and facilitating knowledge-sharing on the System of Rice Intensification, a climate-smart methodology with outstanding results for rice production that is surprisingly counter-intuitive.Capitalizing on biological processes, on the genetic potential of the crop, and on plant-soil-microbial interactions, the system requires 80% to 90% fewer rice seeds, up to 50% less water and in many instances no fertilizer.
Yields are then boosted by 20% to 50% (and often by much more), with farmers’ costs subsequently reduced by 10% to 20%.SRI methods include alternately drying and wetting the rice field rather than the usual practice of continuous flooding, adding organic matter to soil for their improvement, and instead of planting  the standard of approximately 130 plants per square meter, about 16 single, very young seedlings are planted with much wider spacing. These carefully designed planting and growing practices produce deep-rooted rice plants with a greater amount and diversity of soil organisms.
The healthier, more robust plants are better able to withstand the stresses of drought, flooding, storm damage, and pests and diseases.SRI is now being promoted by governments in China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam, where two-thirds of the world’s rice is produced. Use of SRI practices is increasing the yields of over 10 million smallholder farmers by an average of 1.67 tonnes per hectare, while simultaneously reducing their costs and lowering water requirements.
“The innovation behind SRI is fascinating because it disrupts common notions of rice farming, and such disruption is essential if we are to feed 9 billion people by 2050. Grown by 200 million small-scale farmers, rice is the world’s staple diet, so I am delighted that Olam is helping to scale up practices so clearly proven to increase yields, thereby reducing the pressure on precious arable land and water,” said Sunny Verghese, co-founder, group managing director and chief executive officer.
 “On top of this, there are no costs to the farmer which provides three benefits: firstly, communities have increased access to vital calories without paying more; secondly they can improve their livelihoods by selling the surplus and lastly, through that surplus they are supporting global food security needs.“As we celebrate our 25 years in the agricultural sector, I am proud that this anniversary prize should be awarded to SRI-RICE, a team that has ‘transcended boundaries’ – the meaning of Olam. And with our own 10,000 hectare rice farm and smallholder program in Nigeria we will certainly be exploring this research further.”In addition to the promotion of the new methodologies, SRI-Rice provides technical assistance to development and research programs, advancing knowledge on SRI and acting as a global hub for the international SRI community.
“The SRI-Rice team stood out for the demonstrable impact their research and outreach on paradigm-shifting methodologies is having in over 55 rice-growing countries globally,” said Pascal Kosuth, director of Agropolis Foundation and jury member for the Olam prize. “Professor Uphoff and the SRI-Rice team at Cornell University are working with a vast global network to build a body of scientific evidence demonstrating that significant yields can be achieved from the same land by simply better understanding the natural synergies between plants, soils, water, nutrients, soil organisms and climate.
”“Along with the rest of the SRI-Rice team and the hundreds of colleagues all around the world who have made SRI a reality on the ground, I am honored to receive this award from Olam, one of the world’s largest agribusinesses and a team that knows very well the importance of agricultural science to ensuring food security,” said Uphoff, in receiving the award. “However, this award must be dedicated to the memory of Père Henri Laulanie, whose ideas and observations working with impoverished farmers in Madagascar some 30 years ago provided the basis for all SRI research.
“Scaling up SRI and its derived System of Crop Intensification (SCI) is a matter of changing mindsets, habits and practices, and the recognition Olam has bestowed on us with this award marks a milestone in terms of support from the private sector. The Olam Prize money will be used to support further research, particularly around how SRI management methods can reduce methane gas emissions – essential in the fight against climate change – as well as on the role of soil microbes in the uptake of nutrients.”With a prize value of $50,000, the Olam prize was judged by an international panel of experts in conjunction with the Louis Malassis International Scientific Prizes.

http://www.world-grain.com/articles/news_home/World_Grain_News/2015/03/Paradigm_shifting_rice_method.aspx?ID=%7BA409D1E3-1093-47E2-87C3-9E15469E0CF9%7D&cck=1

Golden rice is a humanitarian effort: Moore

OUR BUREAU
Grain of salt: Leader of the 'Allow Golden Rice Now' campaign Patrick Moore addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Monday. - RAMESH SHARMA
Campaign leader claims it will address Vitamin A deficiency in developing nations
NEW DELHI, MARCH 16:  
The ‘Allow Golden Rice Now’ campaign led by former Greenpeace member Patrick Moore made its way here on Monday after similar events in Manila and Dhaka.It aims to promote ‘golden rice’, a genetically-modified variant containing beta-carotene, that the technology’s proponents claim will address the problem of Vitamin A deficiency in the developing world.Interestingly, it’s touted as an “entirely humanitarian” endeavour with public research being funded by donor organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Helen Keller Foundation and USAID, among others. Hence, Moore told BusinessLine, fears of corporate monopolisation were unfounded and merely rumours spread by anti-GMO organisations such as Greenpeace.“There’s nothing in it for the companies, not one is considering making money from Golden Rice,” he said.
Syngenta’s role
When asked about the agri-business giant Syngenta’s role in the Golden Rice Project, Moore stated that the corporation had helped develop an improved version called ‘Golden Rice 2’ (GR-2) using a maize gene instead of the one from daffodils.The new version, introduced in 2005, apparently produces 23 times more beta-carotene than its predecessor.“It was a charitable act that made Golden Rice better and the technology has been given to others. GR-2 will be given away free in developing nations where there’s a Vitamin A deficiency issue, a royalty will only be charged in industralised nations,” he added.
Moore stated that the distribution model, using The Philippines as an example, involved public research institutes such as the International Rice Research Institute in Manila (IRRI, where trials have been conducted over the last decade) and its partner institutions disbursing seeds to farmers for free once Golden Rice is fully developed.The farmers would grow it and be able to sell the seeds with no reason to charge more than they would for regular rice since there was no royalty required to be paid.
Complex system
“It’s not true that there are no corporate interests at work, Syngenta has a patent on Golden Rice but has permitted others to work with it. The company can retain control if it wants to,” said Rajesh Krishnan of the Coalition for a GM-Free India, and feared that field trials would contaminate other rice varieties.“Preservation of genetic diversity is one of the biggest problems because India is one of the centres of origin and diversity of rice,” he added.“Syngenta still owns the patent but there are plenty of contracts and sub-contracts which are difficult to unravel. The larger point is that it isn’t even ready for the market yet.
Excessive Vitamin-A has its problems and the efficacy of the project can be questioned since a wholesome diet with minerals and fat cannot be achieved by Golden Rice,” said Sreedevi Lakshmi Kutty of the Save Our Rice Campaign.The IRRI has claimed limited success with multilevel trials, it is believed that yields have not been adequate either, she added. Currently, Golden Rice is still under development and is being evaluated at the IRRI and can only be provided to farmers if it gets regulatory approval.“I don’t see approvals in The Philippines coming through soon, we hope that this can be taken to India, Bangladesh and Indonesia,” said Moore.
(This article was published on March 16, 2015)

Hybrid Rice

Delhi  ,March 17, 2015 Last Updated at 14:20 IST
Government of India has not fixed any target for increasing acreage of hybrid rice in the country. However, efforts are being made to promote cultivation of hybrid rice through various crop development programmes such as National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). From the initial level of 10,000 hectares in 1995, area under hybrid reached one million hectare in 2006. It has picked up during the last nine years, mainly because of increasing popularity of hybrid rice in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and area under hybrid rice has exceeded to 2.5 million hectares during 2014, which is about 5.6% of the total rice area in the country. 
Although, there are reports of incidence of bacterial infection, but no report about huge loss to paddy crop have been received from state governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and Directorate of Rice Research (DRR) have jointly developed bacterial blight resistant variety 'Improved Samba Mahsuri' which variety was notified and released for cultivation in 2008. The variety has so far spread to an area of 90,000 ha in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture Sh.Mohanbhai Kundaria in Lok Sabha today. 

Govt to introduce cold-tolerant Boro
Dhaka Tribune
Abu Bakar Siddique
The government plans to introduce a coldtolerant variety of Boro paddy to avoid crop damage by erratic weather.This particular variety, tolerant to cold conditions both at the seedling and reproductive stages, can be introduced within two years, said Dr Jibon Krishna Biswas, director general of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).“We are now running trials, and once we get successful results, we will apply for its commercial release.
”He said the government had been trying to develop crop varieties tolerant of extreme climatic events to ensure steady food production.As a part of that initiative, BRRI has been working on cold-tolerant Boro because a large number of rice farmers suffer significant losses every year as none of the existing varieties can cope with extreme cold. Though a winter crop, Boro is often affected by cold-related diseases at the seedling and reproductive stages.Paddy farmers in haor (wetland) areas usually face more problems than do others, as they only cultivate Boro and start the cultivation process in January – a month ahead of the rest of the country.
“Since January is the coldest month in Bangladesh, the haor farmers often have to tackle cold-related diseases affecting their crops. They will be particularly benefited by this new paddy variety,” the BRRI DG told the Dhaka Tribune.The BRRI previously developed another cold-tolerant Boro variety named BRRI 36, but its cold tolerance is very low.Boro is the most produced paddy in the country accounting for a production of almost 19 million tonnes out of 34.6 million tonnes produced in Bangladesh in 2013-14.The BRRI also released two saline tolerant varieties and two submergence tolerant varieties of paddy in 2010, and in 2012 the state-run rice research organisation released two drought tolerant varieties.In addition to these varieties, the BRRI also released eight more varieties between 2009 and 2013 which are currently being popularised among farmers. 

El Nino conditions rising, says Australia Met

VINSON KURIAN
Pacific cyclones have increased chances for such an eventuality to 50% by mid-year
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 17:  
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology suspects that ‘unusual conditions’ in tropical Pacific during the past fortnight may increase the chance of El Nino this year. But it also observed that model outlooks spanning the traditional transition period of February to May generally have lower accuracy than outlooks made at other times of year.El Nino is a condition in which tropical and adjoining east Pacific warms up relative to the west, taking away storm-building, clouding and rains from Asia to the South America coast.
El Niño watch
This is normally expected to leave an impact on the Asian summer, including the monsoon, though there is no direct cause-effect relationship.The bureau’s tracker is now locked at an ‘El Nino watch.’This indicates that there is about a 50 per cent chance of El Nino forming in 2015 – double the normal likelihood of an event. This is due to the warmer-than-average sub-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, the bureau said in an update.
Pacific cyclones
International models surveyed by it indicate that central and eastern tropical Pacific will warm to El Nino thresholds by mid-year.The bureau recalled that in the western Pacific, super cyclone Pam and tropical storm Bavi had straddled the equator, producing one of the strongest reversals in the trade winds in recent years.El Nino happens when weakening trade winds (east to west, which sometimes even reverse direction) allow the warmer water from the western Pacific to flow toward the east.A reversal of winds has taken place in the wake of the cyclones.This flattens out the sea level, builds up warm surface water off the coast of South America, and increases temperatures in east Pacific.
Warm anomaly
This change is expected to increase the already warm sub-surface temperatures currently observed in the tropical Pacific Ocean.It may in turn raise tropical Pacific Ocean surface temperatures in the coming months.However, the bureau said that it is too early yet to say whether the reversal in the trade winds is a short term fluctuation or the beginning of a sustained trend.International models surveyed have strengthened their outlooks for the likelihood of El Nino, it said.All eight models are suggesting ocean temperatures will exceed El Nino thresholds by mid-year.
(This article was published on March 17, 2015)

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/agri-biz/el-nino-conditions-rising-says-australia-met/article7003977.ece

 

 

German company helps farmers fight rice blast disease

Selasa, 17 Maret 2015 21:54 WIB |
Jombang, E Java (ANTARA News) - German chemical company BASF organized the Rice Innovation Experience Tour in Carangrejo village, Kesamben sub-district, Jombang district, East Java province, to introduce its new fungicidal product to 350 farmers."BASF has spent 250 million euros to conduct research and development in a bid to create a product that can help to fight the rice blast disease and increase the yield of rice," BASFs Crop Protection Business Area Manager for Southeast Asia Leon van Mullekom stated here on Tuesday.

Rice blast is one of the most destructive diseases affecting the rice crop and is caused by the fungus "Magnaporthe grisea," which can destroy rice plants."Innovations in rice-growing techniques and pesticides will contribute to higher rice yields and quality," noted Leon.According to Leon, Indonesian farmers are able to produce about 4.7 tons of rice per hectare, while farmers in Vietnam and China harvest 5.6 and 6.5 tons of rice per hectare, respectively.The Jombang district administration, Indonesian rice experts, and BASF gathered for a Rice Innovation Tour in Carangrejo village, Jombang district, East Java.

The event was organized to explore ways through which innovation can boost rice yields and quality, while simultaneously being safe for the environment and improving the livelihood of the local farmers.BASF chose Jombang as a location to introduce its new and innovative product as it is one of the highest rice-producing districts in East Java, along with Banyuwangi, Ngawi, and Lamongan.Nearly 60 percent of the total population in Jombang work as farmers, with nearly half of the total land in the area used as rice fields.

"This event is expected to help Jombang achieve the target of producing 436,207 tons of rice in 2015," Vice Regent of Jombang Munjidah Wahab affirmed.In January 2015, Jombang has harvested seven thousand tons of rice. Earlier in 2014, Jombang managed to achieve a surplus production of 145 thousand tons of rice."Rat, brown planthoppers, and rice blast disease are the main constraints hindering farmers productivity. Innovation is expected to increase the productivity of farmers," Munjidah added.(*)

http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/98148/german-company-helps-farmers-fight-rice-blast-disease



Genetically modified food in China: time to reap what scientists sow?

Genetically modified food is a field in which China is globally competitive, but researchers say government hesitation is slowing growth

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 18 March, 2015, 5:11am

UPDATED : Wednesday, 18 March, 2015, 7:52am

Mandy Zuomandy.zuo@scmp.com

Illustration: Henry WongAngel or demon, transgenic crops have become one of the "frontier technologies" that China is determined to embrace.In contrast to China's usual modesty in academic matters, mainland scientists claim that genetically modified organisms, utilising recombinant DNA technology, i s among the few fields in which China can claim to be globally competitive.Genetically modified rice, in particular, is the achievement that China should be most proud of, they say. But they fear the government's persistent hesitation to commercialise their successes could make China's GM quest lose momentum.

 

A quarter of the world's top research papers on rice have been written by Chinese researchers, said Yan Jianbing, a corn genomics researcher at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan ."Agricultural biotechnology is one of the few technologies in which China is on an equal footing with the world's best," said Yan, who works at the university's laboratory of crop genetic improvement, a key GMO research facility designated by the central government.With vast funding and a big team, China was ready to bring to market an insect-resistant transgenic rice it developed on its own a decade ago, said Zhu Zhen, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Bureau of Life Sciences and Biotechnology.

But the government has chosen so far not to commercialise its GMO expertise as the technology remains controversial around the world and has triggered fierce debate at home."Public opinion remains unfavourable for the technology, and even now, the prospect for commercialisation is unclear," Zhu said.China pumped vast funds into GMO research when global studying of the subject started in the mid-1980s, and kept pace with international research all the time, he noted.China was the first country to commercialise transgenics in the early 1990s with the introduction of virus-resistant tobacco.In the mid-1990s, China was behind only the US in planting transgenic crops, with 1.1 million hectares of such crops, or 39 per cent of the world's total, being sown in 1996.

 

 But progress slowed considerably as controversy arose at home and abroad.In the past decade, many talented researchers returned from overseas to become the pillar of China's GM research effort, Zhu said. Today, his main fear is that the government's sluggishness to commercialise these accomplishments is frustrating ambitious young scientists."It's important to maintain an advantage in research, but to keep the technology from being commercialised means it won't be rewarded by the market. This will only make our research lose momentum," said Zhu, who is also the deputy director-general of the Chinese Society of Biotechnology. "The market will not wait," he said.

 

"There is good stuff overseas too."According to the non-profit international organisation, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a record 181.5 million hectares of GM crops were grown globally in 2014.The United States planted most, while China ranked sixth with 3.9 million hectares.Yan Jianbing said China had invested greatly in research and building a solid base of expertise.A handful of genetically modified 'Golden Rice'. GM research was designated by the government as one of 16 major areas in which it was aiming for major breakthroughs by 2020, according to a national scientific research plan in 2008.The China Business News cited a leading scientist as saying that from 2006 to 2020 about 20 billion yuan would be devoted to GM research.

 

Yan was optimistic that China could keep up the good work as long as the government maintained its investment, but shared Zhu's concern that China lagged others in applying the technology. "GM research, especially its application, needs to be driven by corporations, but for now the central government is doing the job, which is inconsistent with economics," he said.Dr Alan McHughen, a geneticist at the University of California, Riverside, said the healthiest approach to research was to have vigorous involvement by the public and private sectors. The public sector should concentrate on the underlying technologies, while the private sector would adapt the results of public researchers to develop commercial products for the good of society.

 

"In this respect, China is well organised and strategic in using public funding support to encourage GM research in China to improve crops of highest importance to the country, instead of simply adopting GM crops developed elsewhere," he said.Calling China "one of the world leaders in GM agriculture", he said the country would increase agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability with such public support.William Niebur, vice-president of DuPont for crop genetics research, also saw a promising Chinese GM market.He noted that faced with an urbanising population and natural resource constraints, China had begun to move away from extensive management methods driven by large output goals and excessive agricultural input practices."In the future, improving agricultural competitiveness will be achieved by promoting technological innovation in agriculture and mandating environmentally sustainable development," he said."As the world's most populous nation and the largest grain consumer, China has stepped up efforts to ensure its food safety and security, as well as integrating new agricultural technologies to increase land productivity."But much concern remains as views on GM agriculture vary greatly among ordinary people and even government officials.

 

In the government's first policy directive this year, issued earlier this month, authorities called for improvements in safety management and public education on GM crops."After the frequent reports of illegal planting and circulation of GM crops in the past decade due to slack supervision, the authorities have apparently started to realise it's a serious problem," said Fang Lifeng, formerly a biosafety campaigner for environment group Greenpeace and now an independent observer."It was the first time public education was brought up in the document, which actually started in the second half of last year," he said.Led by the Ministry of Agriculture, various departments have increased their propaganda about GM technology to create a favourable environment for the commercialisation of GM crops."So I expect more publicity machines are going to voice support for GM research in the future," said Fang.This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Time to reap what scientists sow?

 

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1740481/genetically-modified-food-china-time-reap-what-scientists-sow

 

PhilRice develops 25 new heat-tolerant rice varieties

March 17, 2015 8:54 pm
by JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ REPORTER


The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has developed 25 new heat-tolerant varieties that can stand the impact of harsh climate change and other extreme weather conditions such as the El Nino phenomenon.Dr. Norvie Manigbas, lead researcher, said the development of rice varieties with high temperature tolerance was intended to address effects of climate change in areas where 90 to 95 percent of the population depend on rice.He said PhilRice was able to identify the new breeding lines after rigorous selection for high temperature tolerance using conventional method and marker-assisted selection.
“We established breeding nurseries in high temperature prone areas in Cagayan and Nueva Ecija to screen and select breeding materials under field conditions,” Manigbas said.Rice grows optimally between 20-35°C and becomes increasingly sensitive to increasing temperatures especially during flowering. In 2010, Manigbas and his team developed new rice genotypes that can tolerate and adapt to high temperatures at 37-39°C under irrigated lowland conditions.They identified N22 (Nagina 22 from India), Dular (India), and Nipponbare (Japan) as donor parents and used conventional breeding and molecular marker-assisted selection to generate new high temperature tolerant breeding populations.

Manigbas said planting was done on staggered basis so that flowering, or reproductive stage of all test entries, will coincide with the highest temperature during the growing season.“PhilRice identified twenty five new breeding lines tolerant and 16 of those had lower percent sterility compared with the tolerant checks and donor parent N22,” he said.Manigbas said the new lines will be evaluated further for other traits and if they passed, they can be nominated to the National Cooperative Test for Multi-Environment Testing.With his co-researchers — Luvina Madrid, Corazon Cardenas, Evelyn Ladia, and Ferdinand Enriquez — Manigbas targets the promising line to be released as a new heat-tolerant rice variety in 2016-2017.Their research won the bronze medal in the Gold AFMA Best R&D Paper Award.

Drought descends over rice fields
Water pumps in an irrigation canal provide water for farmland in Tambon Sanamklee of Suphan Buri's Muang district. (Photo by Thanarak Khunton)
With the searing heat and drought extending over large swaths of farmland in Suphan Buri, many local farmers see no hope of growing off-season rice crops to sustain their income.Along irrigation canals in several districts, water pumps are lined up side by side to siphon water into small, feeder canals, where water will be stored for farm use in the next two months.But there is no telling if the water supply will be enough to last them that long.Farmers are uncertain whether irrigation authorities would open sluice gates to release more water in the near future as the drought appears to be more severe and it arrived earlier than communities expected.
"Farmers in Nong Yasai and nearby districts knew in advance they might not be able to grow off-season rice two years in a row," Kraison Kaewruang, the 42-year-old village headman of Moo 5 in Nong Yasai district's tambon Nong Pho.Mr Kraison said not much rain fell this year over the Kra Seaw dam, one of the main water sources.Even if market sales fetched 10,000 baht per tonne, the risk of planting rice and seeing it wilt from drought is simply too much of a gamble, he said."The irrigation authorities wouldn't supply us with water for sure.
''Farmers already have a hard time earning a living because they cannot grow rice year round, yet constantly shoulder their daily living expenses, Mr Kraison said.Now, growers may have to refrain from working the fields for the next nine months.They hope the water released from the Kra Seaw dam will be enough to feed livestock or quick-growing crops, which can be eaten or sold on the side to supplement their income, he said.Mr Kraison said the drought would hit 4,800 rai of sugar cane and rice farms belonging to 156 households in his village. He said rice and sugar cane need at least four rounds of irrigation water per season — now a pipe dream as the dam is being rapidly depleted of water.Some growers, he said, are forced to dig wells to get water for their farms. According to Mr Kraison, an idea was earlier floated that water should be siphoned from the main Srinagarind dam to Doembang Nangbuat and Nong Yasai districts for agricultural use.
It was eventually scrapped as the pipe has to go through a natural World Heritage site where any man-made construction is banned, he said.Wilaiwan Robkob, a 37-year-old sugar cane grower in tambon Thap Luang of Nong Yasai district, said the drought is particularly severe this year.She and her neighbours, who own 100 rai of land between them, spent tens of thousands of baht installing pipes to draw water from an irrigation canal several hundred metres away. The pipe installation is necessary because the irrigation system does not reach his farm, he said. Sugar cane is also affected by drought although it needs less water than rice to grow.The drought leaves the canes thin and lowers their market value."It's even hard now to find water for bathing. Drinking water has to be drawn from our underground water system, which is not ideal," said Ms Wilaiwan.Pratuan Masomphan, a 42-year-old resident of tambon Talingchan of Muang district, and dozens of his neighbours grapple with siphoning water from the irrigation canal onto their land to feed livestock. The water stock could run out before May, he said. This is despite the fact that irrigation authorities released water from the Chao Phraya dam to Khlong Makham Thao in Suphan Buri for two days. "We wouldn't dare grow rice even if the price had gone up," said Mr Pratuan."Some people took the risk last year and went broke because there just wasn't enough water," he added.
Mr Pratuan said the tambon administration and irrigation officers are rationing water to prevent community conflicts. But Pathum Ruennarong, 76, and his wife Prang Srisamran, 79, in tambon Phlapphla of Song Phi Nong district, took the risk and grew rice.They said they did not know what else to do. Luckily, their 50-rai rice field leased from a Bangkok landlord is close to a reservoir, though they also worry about the supply as they fear they will run out before they get a chance to harvest."Water must be pumped into the rice field every 15 days. We're afraid it may not be enough until harvesting time in May," Mrs Prang said.Farmers expect yields to drop by 40% this year.Prices have hit an all-time low, between 6,500-7,000 baht per tonne, while leasing land costs up to 2,500 baht per rai."If the prices stay this low, we are in for very meagre profits or even losses," Mrs Prang said.
Courtesy:The Bangkok Post



Jhumka Basmati - India's New Rain and Pest Tolerant Basmati Rice Variety

Mar 17, 2015
A farmer in India's northern state Uttar Pradesh has developed a new variety of basmati rice through organic farming using seeds brought by his ancestors from Pakistan, according to local sources.The new variety 'Jhumka Basmati' can withstand heavy rain as its roots are strong and do not bend to the gusts of strong winds that accompany rain, the farmer told local sources. He also noted that since it is grown through organic methods using organic green manure,  its stem and roots are stronger. The seeds thus produced are rich in nutrition, he said. It is also pest-free said the farmer.He added that chemicals used for growing rice usually remain in the upper layer of the soil and does not allow roots to penetrate deep into the soil. He noted that chemical fertilizers increase the yield but weakens the root inside the soil.
The new variety matures in 110 days and produces an yield of about 14 quintal per acre (around 3.5 tons per hectare).
The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) has applied for the patent of 'Jhumka Basmati'.  rice. The variety will be introduced to other famers in the region once the patent formalities are completed, said the farmer.
ORYZA RICE NEWS