Thursday, October 22, 2015

21st October,2015 Daily Global Local Regional Rice E-Newseltter by Riceplus Magazine

Rice News Headlines...
·         Senate, rice importers tango over N44b import duties ‘debt’
·         Partnerships, key to farmer technology adoption and improved productivity
·         Scientists Team up with Farmers to Improve Organic Rice Production
·         Arkansas Farm Bureau Daily Commodity Report
·         World Market Price Subcommittee:  PLC Payment Timelines and Trade   
·         USARiceOutlook Contest:  Week Two     
·         CCC Announces Prevailing World Market Prices
·         CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures  
·         Rice is nice: This plain grain is more nutritious than you think
·         Punjab farmers demand Rs 5000/quintal MSP for basmati rice
·         An introverted “mad” scientist speaks candidly and makes no apologies
·         Partnerships, key to farmer technology adoption and improved productivity
·         Reflections on hospitality and stakeholder engagement
·         State U, partners  push aerobic rice farming  technology
·         Climate change lessons take to the stage in rural Pakistan
·         Pakistan's climate change 'time bomb' is already ticking
·         Rice: another dying commodity
·         Rice importers owe Nigeria N44bn – Senate
·         Scientists Team up with Farmers to Improve Organic Rice Production
·         Vietnamese ambassador seeks help from UC Davis to preserve country’s rice crop
·         From Actress to Cookbook Author: The Lives of Madhur Jaffrey
·         Festive fare, anybody?
·         U.S. Rice Takes Center Stage at Food Service Show in Mexico 
·         CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures  
·         With organic rice in demand, scientists to help farmers improve production
·         New deal resumes rice exports to China
·         Philippines may import more rice after typhoon damages crops
·         Philippines says 'significant' rice losses from Typhoon Koppu
·         SunRice guarantee to growers
·         Jasmine fragrant rice to be developed as Vietnam’s national rice brand
·         Rice quality key to export growth
·         State U, partners  push aerobic rice farming  technology

Senate, rice importers tango over N44b import duties ‘debt’
POSTED BY EMMANUEL LEKE ON OCTOBER 21,
The money has allegedly been outstanding since May 2014

The Senate on Monday revealed that Stallion Group and Olam International, two foreign companies involved in rice importation into the country, are owing Nigeria a whopping N44 billion in import duties.The money has allegedly been outstanding since May 2014.However, the two companies were quick to deny owing the country.The Senate Adhoc Committee on Import Waivers, which is probing the abuse of the policy in recent years, made its position known when Stallion Group and Olam international appeared before the Committee on Tuesday.The Chairman of the committee, Senator Adamu Aliero, told the concerned importers that the government would not fold its hands and watch the huge debt swept under the carpet.Aliero requested the companies to quickly pay their debt.He said: “There is no way the government will ignore this kind of money.
“We have to ensure that that this money is collected and deposited into the Federation Account.”
The Chairman also revealed that the companies imported rice into the country without paying waivers, off-loaded it into their warehouses only to refuse to pay required duties when asked by the Nigeria Customs Service.According to him, when Stallion Group was accosted by the Nigeria Customs Service for the money, the company opted to drag the NCS to court.Aliero also disclosed how the company flouted the quota given to it to import 157,000 metric tonnes of rice with impunity by opting to unilaterally import 457,000 metric tonnes.Responding to the allegation, the Executive Director of Stallion Group, Harpreet Singh, claimed that its mission in Nigeria was to ensure that the country was self-sufficient in rice production and equally ensure that the nation is saved from scarcity of the product.
Singh also claimed that Nigerian borders were porous, adding that former President Goodluck Jonathan granted the approval on fiscal policy on rice production on May 26, 2014.According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture opted to flout the tenets of the policy by giving quotas to “non-existing millers and investors who have no connection with the policy, while existing investors were left blind”.Also reacting to the allegation, Olam informed that it had the largest rice farm in Africa and that it has been operating in Nigeria in the past 35 years.The company argued that given its long period of business operation in Nigeria, it would not consider shortchanging the nation.In a report submitted to the Senate Committee, Stallion Group specifically underlined the fact it had fully paid N17.15 billion in duties and levies for its imports and therefore has not evaded anything due to the government.
Olam, on the other hand, claimed that it had the largest rice farm in Africa and that it had been operating in Nigeria in the past 35 years, arguing that given its long period of business operation in Nigeria, the company will not consider shortchanging the nation and has filed a suit in the law courts for determination.Stallion Group submitted on Tuesday that the rice import by its companies were governed by the content and stipulations of the 2014-2017 fiscal policy measures on rice by the federal government, and are not duty waivers as misunderstood by in some quarters.
It stated further that rice production companies have applied to the country’s courts to determine if the additional retrospective duties meant for traders are payable by bonafide rice millers.Stallion stated that it had no choice but to approach the country’s judicial system for relief and fair judgement.The company also assured the Senate Committee that the group will duly abide by the court’s final determination after a due process and is fully committed to the country’s quest for self-sufficiency in rice production.Olam also contended to the committee that given its long period of business operation in Nigeria, the company will not consider shortchanging the nation, and according to its representative, the company was seeking a legal determination on the matter by the law courts.
http://theeagleonline.com.ng/senate-rice-importers-tango-over-n44b-import-duties-debt/

Partnerships, key to farmer technology adoption and improved productivity

By International Rice Research Institute October 20, 2015 | 12:30 pm EDT

The rising demand for rice in the Southeast Asian region puts mounting pressure on the rice value chain stakeholders, especially on smallholder farmers, to increase yield and improve farm productivity.With this in mind, the ASEAN Rice Future Forum, organized byBayer CropScience, in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Vietnam Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD), brought together more than 100 policymakers and rice experts from across the ASEAN countries to discuss how public-private and value chain partnerships are essential in encouraging the adoption of farming technologies, and thus, improving food security.IRRI projects that the current rice production, which is more than 700 million tons annually, will not be sufficient to meet future demands.

Over the next 10 years, rice production will need to increase by 80 million tons.At the forum, Bas Bouman, director of the IRRI-led Global Rice Science Partnership, said that the challenges experienced by the rice-farming sector should be viewed as opportunities to channel impact in the right direction. “If we do it right, it will lead toward land consolidation, mechanization, and labor productivity increase. Farmers can have a decent income from farming while, at the same time, we can keep the price of rice affordable for the poorest consumers,” he explained.The forum, held on 14-16 October 2015, aims to continue the constructive dialogue that stemmed from the 2013 Rice Future Forum in India and the 2014 International Rice Congress in Thailand.MARD Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said that collaborative efforts and partnerships formed by the Vietnamese government have helped advance the rice sector in the country.

Sascha Israel, Head of Bayer CropScience in the Asia Pacific Region, emphasized the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors across the value chain to enhance rice technology adoption.Speaking on the economic transition and demographic changes in the ASEAN region, Sam Mohanty, IRRI Social Sciences Division head, said that IRRI has a significant role to play in shaping the future of the rice value chain. “IRRI’s breeding program will be more demand-driven; we understand what is needed in the value chain, so we can produce the variety or management practice that suits the market,” he added.

“Engaging with the public and private sectors can bring energy, know-how, and financing. It could help us better leverage the technologies that IRRI has in the marketplace for the benefit of smallholder farmers and the entire rice ecosystem,” said Remy Bitoun, IRRI's head of Public-Private Engagement.The institute featured its work on rice innovations during the marketplace session while engaging with various government officials, media, and private companies from across the Southeast Asian region. Aside from the forum, Bayer CropScience also organized a trip to its various field demonstration sites outside Ho Chi Minh City.

Scientists Team up with Farmers to Improve Organic Rice Production
Tue, 10/20/2015 - 9:36am
Texas A&M Univ.
Organic rice is increasingly desired by U.S. consumers, but farmers know that growing the grain chemically free can mean providing a feast for insects, diseases and weeds.That’s why the U.S. Department of Agriculture has put $1 million on a multi-state team of scientists with a track record of battling pests toward the goal of making organic rice profitable for farmers and more available for consumers. The grant also establishes the first Center of Excellence for organic rice research in the U.S.  “Organic rice is important to the U.S., and most of the organic rice acreage is located in the southern growing region and California,” said Xin-Gen “Shane”” Zhou, Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathologist in Beaumont and project leader. “Organic rice acreage has increased to about 50,000 acres in the nation. In contrast, conventional rice acreage is on the decline.“The organic market is growing, but U.S. farmers have not been able to keep up with the demand domestically.”
While the price farmers receive for organic rice is nearly double what they get for conventionally grown rice, Zhou said, producing an adequate yield of quality rice organically is challenging.“Very little research has been done on organic rice, and organic studies on other crops do not apply to rice because – unlike other crops – most of it is grown in flooded fields,” he said. “That subjects rice to a different spectrum of disease, weeds and insect pests than dryland or irrigated crops.”Informal surveys to identify the issues affecting organic rice production were conducted in California, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, he said, along with field days, workshops and meetings with farmers, millers and end-users. This helped the scientists identify nutrient management, pest control and rice varieties as the main needs to make organic rice production economically viable.
The team on the 3-year study includes plant pathologists, breeders, crop nutrient managers, economists, weed scientists, entomologists and outreach specialists from Texas, Arkansas and Washington, D.C. Research on organic rice has been in progress at the AgriLife Research facility in Beaumont for at least five years, Zhou said, and results from those studies, along with some from other areas, will be parlayed into the new study.“We developed this new proposal to further develop profitable methods for organic rice farmers,” he said. “We surveyed organic farmers and found the major issues were weed control, nitrogen supply and stand establishment. In organic rice systems, we are not supposed to use any herbicides, chemical fertilizers, fungicides or insecticides, so that definitely causes a lot of stress for the organic farmers.”
For example, farmers would like to use less nitrogen fertilizer, because organic fertilizers are much more expensive compared to conventional fertilizers. But applying organic nitrogen improperly can give the weeds a chance to grow and compete with rice plants, he explained.Also, diseases not commonly found in conventional rice are more severe in the organic rice, Zhou added.The research farm at Beaumont is suitable for the study, Zhou noted, because it met the criteria to be certified organic in 2012 and has been maintained as such since. The facility also houses a collection of rice cultivars and breeding lines from around the world that may be useful in finding the best varieties for organic production.Zhou said the team plans to develop a strategy for organic rice production by the completion of the research and will develop a web-based economic analysis tool with interactive budgets to help farmers make decisions for their own organic rice production. They also will  have on-farm demonstration trials in Texas, Missouri, Florida and South Carolina.
“We will have direct connection with organic rice farmers to show them what kind of management practices or tools they can use for managing pests and for yield increase,” Zhou said. “Rice is important to the world, and the acreage devoted to rice is really too small in the U.S. compared to the rice acreage in other countries. That’s why the potential impact of this project is so important.”
http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2015/10/scientists-team-farmers-improve-organic-rice-production
Arkansas Farm Bureau Daily Commodity Report
A comprehensive daily commodity market report for Arkansas agricultural commodities with cash markets, futures and insightful analysis and commentary from Arkansas Farm Bureau commodity analysts.
Noteworthy benchmark price levels of interest to farmers and ranchers, as well as long-term commodity market trends which are developing. Daily fundamental market influences and technical factors are noted and discussed.
Soybeans
High
Low
Cash Bids
901
856
New Crop
935
880


Riceland Foods


Cash Bids
Stuttgart: - - -
Pendleton: - - -
New Crop
Stuttgart: - - -
Pendleton: - - -


Futures:
High
Low
Last
Change
Nov '15
907.00
894.50
905.25
+9.25
Jan '16
911.25
899.00
909.50
+8.50
Mar '16
913.25
901.75
911.50
+7.50
May '16
916.25
905.75
914.75
+6.75
Jul '16
920.75
912.25
919.25
+6.00
Aug '16
917.00
914.00
918.00
+5.75
Sep '16
911.00
906.00
909.25
+4.75
Nov '16
908.75
901.00
907.00
+4.00
Jan '17
914.25
911.50
912.25
+4.00

Soybean Comment

Soybeans were higher today as export demand continues to improved. Demand remains the driver in soybeans, and the market seems now to be ignoring forecasts of large supplies. At some point the market is going to realize the large supplies, at which point soybeans will feel pressure and need exports and crush to still be robust to avoid a major sell off.


Wheat
High
Low
Cash Bids
481
471
New Crop
498
416


Futures:
High
Low
Last
Change
Dec '15
497.50
490.25
494.75
+3.50
Mar '16
503.50
496.75
501.25
+3.00
May '16
507.50
502.25
505.50
+2.75
Jul '16
510.00
504.00
507.75
+2.50
Sep '16
517.75
514.00
515.75
+2.00
Dec '16
532.00
528.00
529.75
+1.75
Mar '17
541.00
+1.25
May '17
541.25
+1.25
Jul '17
530.50
+1.25

Wheat Comment

Wheat prices were higher today as support from outside markets helped pull wheat higher. Wheat remains a weak market searching for some bullish news to help wheat maintain gains in a very volatile market.


Grain Sorghum
High
Low
Cash Bids
386
319
New Crop
387
339



Corn
High
Low
Cash Bids
386
344
New Crop
405
374


Futures:
High
Low
Last
Change
Dec '15
381.00
375.50
380.75
+4.00
Mar '16
390.75
385.25
390.25
+3.00
May '16
396.25
391.00
396.00
+2.50
Jul '16
400.50
394.75
400.00
+2.00
Sep '16
397.00
393.00
396.75
+0.50
Dec '16
404.25
400.00
404.00
+0.75
Mar '17
412.50
410.50
413.50
+0.75
May '17
418.50
418.50
419.50
+0.75
Jul '17
421.75
420.75
423.50
+1.00

Corn Comment

Corn prices closed higher today. The market found support from reports of improved commercial buying. Corn remains under pressure now from slow export demand, the good news for prices is ethanol demand continues to track with current forecast as does feed demand. With the stronger dollar, it maybe difficult for exports to catch up.


Cotton
Futures:
High
Low
Last
Change
Dec '15
64.66
63.65
64.23
0.45
Mar '16
64.49
63.6
64.05
0.39
Dec '16
64.44
64.02
64.10
0.22

Cotton Comment

Cotton futures were higher across the board today, with December moving above previous resistance at 65 cents. Continuing rains in Texas are slowing harvest and causing concerns about the quality of the crop there. The supply of high quality cotton is tight, and is providing some support. Also supportive is news that the crop in India and Pakistan will be short. However, the smaller crop there has caused prices to soar, and the All World Price right along with them. That means the LDP for U.S. farmers has been cut in half over the past few weeks.


Rice
High
Low
Long Grain Cash Bids
- - -
- - -
Long Grain New Crop
- - -
- - -


Futures:
High
Low
Last
Change
Nov '15
1229.0
1218.0
1226.0
+8.5
Jan '16
1258.0
1247.0
1255.0
+8.5
Mar '16
1283.0
1282.0
1282.0
+8.5
May '16
1306.5
+9.0
Jul '16
1324.5
+9.0
Sep '16
1253.5
+9.0
Nov '16
1253.5
+9.0

Rice Comment

Rice futures were higher again today. November continues to find support near $12, which is the 38% retracement level. The recent rally has stalled and a round of profit taking quickly took $1.40 off the market over the past two weeks. The market is still trending higher, however. Global production problems have helped support the market since the summer. Disappointing U.S. yields have likely been built into prices at this point.


Cattle
Futures:
Live Cattle:
High
Low
Last
Change
Oct '15
140.650
139.325
139.900
-0.350
Dec '15
143.700
142.225
143.150
-0.025
Feb '16
144.425
143.200
144.200
+0.175
Apr '16
143.300
142.000
143.075
+0.175
Jun '16
133.875
132.650
133.650
+0.375
Aug '16
131.025
130.225
131.025
+0.450
Oct '16
133.050
132.275
132.875
+0.375
Dec '16
134.250
133.400
133.900
+0.200
Feb '17
133.275
133.000
133.275
-0.025
Feeders:
High
Low
Last
Change
Oct '15
194.925
193.500
194.300
-0.575
Nov '15
192.875
190.900
191.600
-0.850
Jan '16
185.150
183.625
184.750
+0.375
Mar '16
181.175
179.600
181.150
+0.375
Apr '16
181.600
180.450
181.575
+0.425
May '16
181.550
180.100
181.325
+0.075
Aug '16
182.000
180.625
181.825
+0.225
Sep '16
180.075
180.075
180.950
-0.100

Cattle Comment

Cattle prices closed lower today as prices failed to close above resistance near $143 in live cattle and $192 in feeders. With tomorrow's cold storage report being released after the market closes tomorrow look for prices to be cautious ahead of this report.


Hogs
Futures:
High
Low
Last
Change
Dec '15
68.775
66.650
67.325
-0.525
Feb '16
69.425
68.000
68.825
-0.025
Apr '16
72.225
70.875
71.775
-0.050
May '16
76.825
76.775
76.700
-0.100
Jun '16
79.925
78.825
79.525
-0.050
Jul '16
79.200
78.600
79.000
-0.025
Aug '16
78.400
78.025
78.300
-0.275
Oct '16
68.825
68.300
68.500
-0.250
Dec '16
66.300
65.850
66.125
-0.175

Hog Comment



Shell Eggs

National Turkeys

Delmarva Broilers


World Market Price Subcommittee:  PLC Payment Timelines and Trade 

Double-checking the facts and figures
WASHINGTON, DC -- This morning, the World Market Price Subcommittee (WMP) met here with representatives from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the Farm Service Agency (FSA), the Economic Research Service (ERS), and the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) to discuss a variety of issues in the global rice trade affecting the U.S. rice industry.While reviewing recent reports of rice yield from NASS, Subcommittee members found projected yields from Texas to be too high and those from California to be far too low. Members also questioned FSA about the statistics of Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments for the 2014 crop.  While payments under the new program were expected quickly and in-full this coming November, FSA agreed to clarify its timeline and report back to USA Rice.  (See USA Rice Chairman Dow Brantley's comments on the topic.)

The Subcommittee discussed global policy issues including details of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).  Because the U.S. government has not yet released the official text of the deal, possible ramifications for the U.S. rice industry are speculative at this point.  The Subcommittee was interested in what could be discovered about the deal between the U.S. and Japan, as well as what duties will continue to exist between Mexico and Vietnam, as both countries, one a critical destination for U.S. rice, the other a strong competitor, are also signatories to the TPP.

Chairman Keith Glover welcomed new participants onto the subcommittee for the 2015-17 term, and afterwards said, "The meeting today was productive and educational.  We appreciate the participation of NASS, ERS, FSA, and FAS, and look forward to receiving clarification about the status of PLC payments from the 2014 crop."The next World Market Price meeting will take place in February 2016, following the close of the Government Affairs Conference (GAC).
 Contact:  Kristen Dayton (703) 236-1464

USARiceOutlook Contest:  Week Two  
  Paul Johnson (right) all smiles at the
John Pac packaging facility in Crowley, LA
ARLINGTON, VA -- Paul Johnson, a rice farmer from Welsh, Louisiana, is this week's finalist in the #USARiceOutlook social media contest.  A weekly winner will be announced every Wednesday until November 4, and will be in the running for the grand prize of a free registration to USA Rice's Outlook Conference in New Orleans December 9-11.
For contest eligibility, participants can retweet or share USA Rice's posts about the Outlook Conference, or they can create their own original content using the hashtag #USARiceOutlook.  Members can share what they are looking forward to most at Outlook, which speaker they are most excited about, their favorite part about New Orleans, etc. Creativity is encouraged!
"I'm really looking forward to the Outlook Conference in New Orleans this year," said Johnson, a member of the 2015-2017 Rice Leadership Class.  "We visited New Orleans during session one of the Leadership Program this past March and I'm excited to get back there and also reconnect with everyone else from our Class at the conference." 

Follow @usaricenews on Twitter for more exciting updates about the 2015 USA Rice Conference and remember to tweet us using #USARiceOutlook!

Contact:  Colleen Klemczewski (703) 236-1446
CCC Announces Prevailing World Market Prices 
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporationtoday announced the following prevailing world market prices of milled and rough rice, adjusted for U.S. milling yields and location, and the resulting marketing loan gain (MLG) and loan deficiency payment (LDP) rates applicable to the 2015 crop, which will become effective today at 7:00 a.m., Eastern Time (ET).  Prices are unchanged from the previous announcement.

World Price
MLG/LDP Rate

Milled Value ($/cwt)
Rough ($/cwt)
Rough ($/cwt)
Long Grain
14.92
9.42
0.00
Medium/Short Grain
14.43
9.68
0.00
Brokens
  9.00 
----
----

This week's prevailing world market prices and MLG/LDP rates are based on the following U.S. milling yields and the corresponding loan rates:

U.S. Milling Yields
Whole/Broken
(lbs/cwt)
Loan Rate
($/cwt)
Long Grain
55.01/13.46
6.50
Medium/Short Grain
61.81/8.43
6.50

The next program announcement is scheduled for October 28, 2015.    


CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures   
CME Group (Prelim):  Closing Rough Rice Futures for October 21 
Month
Price
Net Change

November 2015
$12.260
 + $0.085
January 2016
$12.550
+ $0.085
March 2016
$12.820
+ $0.085
May 2016
$13.065
+ $0.090
July 2016
$13.245
+ $0.090
September 2016
$12.535
+ $0.090
November 2016
$12.535
+ $0.090

Rice is nice: This plain grain is more nutritious than you think

Rice up your life!
Rice is a complementary starch to highly nutritious foods like beans, fish, tomatoes and greens, and whole grain rice is itself nutrient dense.

By: Theresa Albert Metro Published on Tue Oct 20 2015
Canadians won’t sacrifice taste for health and are learning that healthy and tasty can be inclusive when they take a bite out of the world around them. Rice is a practical grain that goes with everything and is a healthier option than many other starches like nutrition-robbed peeled and boiled potatoes.According to a study published in Food and Nutrition Sciences, rice consumption was associated with better diet quality and general nutrient intake.Here are some more cool facts about rice to spout at the water cooler:

Contrary to common thinking, rice can be reheated. Cool and store covered in the fridge for up to a week or freezer up to 6 weeks. Homemade “minute rice” simply needs 2 Tbsp of liquid per cup of rice added before warming it up in a microwave or on the stovetop.Canada doesn’t grow rice, (wild rice is an aquatic grass) meaning U.S.-grown rice is as local as it gets, which explains why nearly 70 per cent of our rice is from south of the border.One seed of rice yields more than 3,000 grains. It is the highest yielding cereal grain and can grow in many kinds of soils. This hits all the right notes for our sustainability quest.Winter-flooded rice fields provide important habitat for migratory waterfowl and other species.
Across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of rice acres are being enhanced annually to provide habitat for these birds. About 50 per cent of North Americans consume only half of the magnesium that they should. Magnesium is critical for muscle function, the heart is the largest muscle in the body. There is more magnesium in 1 cup of cooked long grain brown rice (21 per cent DV) than in 3.5 cups of spinach (20 per cent DV), and it has 4 g of fibre.Theresa is an on-camera food and health expert, nutritionist and writer who loves to spread the word on food.
http://www.metronews.ca/views/nutri-bites/2015/10/20/this-plain-grain-is-more-nutritious-than-you-think.html?utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+October+21%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email
Punjab farmers demand Rs 5000/quintal MSP for basmati rice
The farmers are protesting against the low price and are demanding a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 4200 to Rs 5000 per quintal from the government.  18 0Google +0 6 With untimely and scare rains being observed in India, farmers in the agricultural state of Punjab are facing huge issues with the declining price of Basmati rice. The oversupply of Basmati rice in international markets, issues on quality and decreasing demand have all pushed down the price of rice just when farmers were expecting it to fetch more. The farmers are protesting against the low price and are demanding a Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 4200 to Rs 5000 per quintal from the government.

An introverted “mad” scientist speaks candidly and makes no apologies

 

Dr. Robert S.”Bob” Zeigler is an internationally respected plant pathologist with more than 30 years of experience in agricultural research in the developing world, most of them involved with rice. He has been the director general (DG) of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for the last 10+ years—the second longest tenure after the Institute’s founding DG, Robert F. Chandler, Jr. (1960-72). As DG, Bob set the Institute’s strategic direction and he has also been a passionate spokesperson on a wide range of issues that affect rice growers and consumers worldwide.
Proclaiming himself an introvert, he gave this IRRI pioneer interview, conducted in his office at IRRI headquarters on 28 August 2015. With his customary wit and candor, he discussed his life both before and during his professional career, which has spanned time in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the U.S. He retires on 11 December 2015.

The selected excerpts here are just the tip of the “riceberg.” Much of the rest of Bob’s 4-hour interview will soon be published on the Rice Today website. It will feature anecdotes about polar bears and all-meat dinners above the Arctic Circle, studying forest fires in Crater Lake National Park, what gives him goose bumps, and the wheels of the brilliant machine that is IRRI. He also gives frank opinions and views on a wide-ranging set of topics—including Golden Rice, IRRI’s proud Filipino roots, the funding roller coaster, the plight of smallholder farmers, the role of women, the humbling experience of working with national programs, the Svalbard Doomsday Vault, climate change, growing up Catholic, advice for the incoming DG, and much, much more.
Agricultural beginnings on Pennsylvania dairy farms
When I was a kid, both my parents came from dairy farming families. My father’s farm was in southeastern Pennsylvania; my mother’s in the southwestern part of the state. I was mostly influenced by my mother’s side of the family. They were pretty much very small dairy farmers, scraping to get by. I didn’t realize that we were very poor. The men worked in the bituminous coal mines of Cambria County.

A fourth grader’s wish: to be a mad scientist

Science always grabbed my attention as a kid. I was probably just wired that way. I loved plants. My earliest memories are of me working with my mother. She always had a vegetable garden and I just loved it when the plants came up, especially the first flowers in the spring. It just gave me a sense of indescribable joy and a love of nature, life, plants, and gardens that I have to this day.That led to a curiosity that transferred into science. I liked the 1950s’ science fiction movies such as The Killer Shrews and The Bride of Frankenstein. And, there were the comic book superheroes such as Superman, Batman, and the rest. They had in them the good and the evil of science wrapped throughout. I took the good and thought it was exciting. This was pretty instrumental in shaping how I view the world. The mad scientist role was a career model. I could be a mad scientist!
Biology was mind-blowing
After my family moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois, I attended Urbana High School, where I was exposed to biology in a way that was just mind-blowing. I loved it. I really got turned on by science in an academic way, as opposed to the mad-scientist comic book/science fiction movies. It helped change how I saw things in the world.BOB’S WIFE, Crissan [with him and daughters Claire and Ali in Laos in January 2007], has always been an unbelievable supporter. “There is no way I could possibly have done what I did without her support and role as a tremendous sounding board,” he says.

Based on what I did in high school, I enrolled at the University of Illinois, where I ended up in an Honors Biology Program that really changed the course of my life. It was not the general premed biology class with 300 students: eight or ten of us were taught by four professors. I was attending a large land-grant university with thousands and thousands of students. However, it was akin to a school like Harvard with small classes and outstanding teachers.I took a plant ecology field trip to Mexico and was blown away again. I had never seen the ocean before. Mexico showed me a different culture with snow-capped mountains and tropical beaches. In the cities, I could drink beer even though I was only 20 years old. I didn’t have to worry about an ID; fantastic food—my God, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! I came back from that trip transformed.
My professors urged me to go into molecular biology, as that was the clear wave of the future. I thought about it, but the study of ecology better captured my love of nature. So, I did the opposite of what they advised! As a result, I joined the Peace Corps in 1971 and was sent to Africa—specifically, the very remote Congo (Zaire back then) because of my knowledge of French.

In the Peace Corps, Dr. Zeigler taught (in French) high school math, chemistry, physics, and biology at a little school, Collége Musim, in Bandundu Province about 200 kilometers north of Kikwit

Peace Corps stint cultivates interest inplant disease

In the Peace Corps, I taught (in French) high school math, chemistry, physics, and biology at a little school, Collége Musim, in Bandundu Province about 200 kilometers north of Kikwit[arrow on map]. If you “Google” Kikwit, the first thing you find is the Kikwit strain of Ebola, which was 24 years after my time. I loved living in fascinating rural Africa.A transformative event was an outbreak ofbacterial blight that wiped out the cassava crop [the third largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice and maize]. The main food for the people in my area was wiped out. This was causing local starvation. We had to close our school; there was not enough to feed my students. It really struck me that a plant disease, hitting a staple crop, could have such impact and nobody could do anything about it.

Later, when I was a graduate student at Oregon State University, I took a forest pathology course; I wanted to study the interaction in the forest of dwarf mistletoe parasitism, fire, and pine forest community dynamics. This continued my turn-on to plant disease. The complexity of plant disease in ecosystems, my exposure to its impact on cassava, and the real eye-opening experience of living and working in a developing country [through the Peace Corps] all directed my career from then on.

No ambition to be a director general
It’s funny. I never, ever had an ambition to be a director general. I, like most young, hungry scientists, loved nothing more than to make fun of the DG and to complain. My God, what we said: “Obviously, the director general does not know a damn thing; what is he thinking, etc.” I was very much an iconoclast who felt that people in authority were pretty much incompetent and didn’t know what they were doing. I made no secret about it and said it quite openly. Surprisingly, I still had a job [as a plant pathologist at both the CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) in Colombia and IRRI].

IN THE TRANSGENIC screen house at theBangladesh Rice Research Institute  in Gazipur, Bob confers with Bangladesh national program researchers on the latest work on Golden Rice in the country.The first time the notion of being a DG was mentioned to me was in this office. I was giving my exit interview to Ron Cantrell [then IRRI DG, 1998-2004]. I was going off to Kansas State University to head the Plant Pathology Department. I didn’t think I’d ever be back in an international center again. I thought I’d be moving into U.S. academia, focusing on agriculture there. Ron mentioned in passing that he saw a great future for me and, some day, I could even be sitting in this chair. I thought, “What, are you crazy?”

At that time [1998], CGIAR DGs were gods and I certainly didn’t have any god-impression about myself. But, lo and behold, 6 years later, I was heading the CGIAR’s Generation Challenge Program based at CIMMYT [International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico]. There, a colleague who was a good friend of Ron Cantrell, told me that Ronnie was resigning from IRRI and that he and Bob Havener [former IRRI interim DG in 1998] said they thought that I’d be one of the strong candidates for the position. To make a long story short, it ended up being me. But it’s something I never sought.

Not “one of the boys” anymore

I was certainly one of the boys when I was here [as plant pathologist at IRRI, 1992-98]. In those days, we had some wild, raucous times that will be best described by others.
ONE OF the boys at IRRI, circa 1993.
There were advantages and disadvantages in coming back [as DG] after being away 6‒7 years. An advantage was that I knew rice. I am the only director general of the Institute who actually has had a career in rice. I understood the rice plant; I understood the challenges around rice biology, agronomy, and crop protection. I’ve always had an interest in social sciences. I had an administrative career in rice at CIAT and at IRRI. I also had a pretty good appreciation of the culture of IRRI. I knew ALL of the tricks that people pull on senior management because I had pulled them all myself in previous incarnations. I had a good relationship with most of our partners across the region. I had a real appreciation for real potential for rice in Africa.

One disadvantage: I was friends with people [from the previous stint at IRRI] and that friendship could get in the way of doing my job—and that was really hard. I had to let people go who I used to play tennis with and socialize with. That’s no picnic. Likewise, the direct expectations from me that people could draw on a past relationship to get favors done made me uncomfortable, to put it mildly. It was particularly hard for my wife. There were expectations that we could magically transform real problems or challenges at the Institute with the snap of a finger. One real education for me was how bureaucracies have a life of their own. More importantly, problems in an institution are never in isolation. Almost always, they are interconnected with more fundamental or structural problems. Hence, no quick fixes.I tried my very best to make sure that the Institute itself, not the DG, is as sensitive and responsive as possible. One of the things I tried to do, and I hope I’ve been somewhat successful, was to take the personality cult, the “god” cult, out of the director: that we talk about the institution and not the DG.
Greatest challenges as IRRI chief

Convincing donors to contribute. One strength is the unassailable nature of IRRI’s mission. Keeping in mind what IRRI is about, why we’re here, our track record, and our ability to contribute made dealing with the challenges much easier. There are the usual challenges: one—making sure that the money comes in. I still love explaining to donors how important rice is and what IRRI’s role is in the future of the world and what we have to contribute.

WHENEVER POSSIBLE, Bob visits farmers’ fields around the world to interact with the ultimate members of the private sector. Here, he diagnoses what disease might be afflicting a smallholder’s crop near Ubon, Thailand.
CGIAR nightmare. The CGIAR brings out the worst in people. Some people you deal with one on one are really nice, serious, and dedicated. But, when you get them into the context of the CGIAR, they’re just horrible, myself included. I think I turned into the meanest SOB you’d never want to meet when I put on my CGIAR hat. I never thought about it in those terms until right now. This morning, I had to write a message related to the CGIAR that I didn’t want to write. I just find myself, in many cases, having to deal with people who somehow survived in positions way beyond their capacity. It’s just one endless stream of frustrations. That’s a real big challenge—to stay positive and keep IRRI working and moving forward in the CGIAR environment, which in many cases is toxic.


Being an introvert. There is the challenge of me being an introvert. I am generally happier by myself. People may be surprised about that, but I’m a very strong introvert. Meeting the challenge of being outwardly projecting was something I had to learn, including being gregarious and dealing with people in social situations. Handling difficult personnel problems was always a big challenge for me.

Discovery—one of the greatest joys

Oh the discovery! Realizing that you found something new is a thrill that can’t be described. I’ve worked on hoja blanca virus, bacterial pathogens, the Pseudomonas complex, and blast disease. In each, I like to think I made some significant discoveries and advances. The realization, when it hits you—that you have an insight that explains something that was unexplained before—there’s nothing like it. It’s a rush, I mean goose bumps; hair stands on end! It’s just a thrill. I think any scientist will tell you that ecstasy of discovery—of enlightenment—when you have that flash of understanding—is indescribable. I had a few of those and, my God, they’re something else. Personally, it takes your whole being to a new level.

As a director general or research manager, I found it equally exciting to take pleasure from other people’s discoveries and breakthroughs, be it the SUB1 gene [for flood tolerance], advances with C4 rice [transferring the photosynthetic efficiency of maize into rice], or new information coming out of our long-term trials [Long-Term Continuous Cropping Experiment].
IN APRIL 2014, Bob assists in the ceremonial harvest of the 150th crop of IRRI’s Long-Term Continuous Cropping Experiment (LTCCE). Flanking him are Roland Buresh, soil scientist and lead researcher for the LTCCE, and Teodoro Correa, Jr., LTCCE manager. The LTCCE is one of the longest running agricultural experiments in the world.
No apologies for the Green Revolution

I believe that those who developed the modern rice and wheat varieties in the 1960s and ’70s and then recommended routine pesticide applications, etc., did not know that they were advocating bad practices. In that sense, an apology is not necessary. You make an apology for things that you do wrong when you knew they were wrong. And you judge the actions of people in the context of their time. We certainly openly recognize it was a mistake and we have learned from it.

If you look at how IRRI’s research program has evolved from that learning, early on, we started to question the impact of those early Green Revolution practices and took corrective action. This resulted in ground-breaking studies on the biosphere within the rice paddy, arthropod complexity, and the impact of insecticides.
Do we regret? I don’t know. It was a different time and place. It’s pretty hard to second-guess these kinds of things. Apologize? No! Recognize that those practices were destructive to the environment? Absolutely. Make sure that the same thing doesn’t happen again? Absolutely. Be watchful and vigilant of those who misuse tools for short-term gain? Absolutely.
Being at the helm of IRRI—no other job like it

The IRRI experience is number one in my career—without a doubt. The job as IRRI director general is unlike any other job you can ever possibly want. Science, its value in human terms, the impact you can have positively on the environment—you can transform the way the whole planet will function decades from now, a century from now. What happens at IRRI is relevant.My God, you can’t ask for anything better or more humbling. If you are at IRRI and you work hard, do your best, you will never have to worry about wasting your life. Every morning, when you look in the mirror, you won’t regret what is looking back at you. That’s worth a hell of a lot!

After more than 22 years at IRRI, Gene Hettel, editor-in-chief of Rice Today and IRRI historian, also retires shortly after Dr. Zeigler. Read more about IRRI’s rich history.

Partnerships, key to farmer technology adoption and improved productivity
By International Rice Research Institute October 20, 2015 | 12:30 pm EDT

The rising demand for rice in the Southeast Asian region puts mounting pressure on the rice value chain stakeholders, especially on smallholder farmers, to increase yield and improve farm productivity.With this in mind, the ASEAN Rice Future Forum, organized byBayer CropScience, in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Vietnam Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD), brought together more than 100 policymakers and rice experts from across the ASEAN countries to discuss how public-private and value chain partnerships are essential in encouraging the adoption of farming technologies, and thus, improving food security.

IRRI projects that the current rice production, which is more than 700 million tons annually, will not be sufficient to meet future demands. Over the next 10 years, rice production will need to increase by 80 million tons.At the forum, Bas Bouman, director of the IRRI-led Global Rice Science Partnership, said that the challenges experienced by the rice-farming sector should be viewed as opportunities to channel impact in the right direction. “If we do it right, it will lead toward land consolidation, echanization, and labor productivity increase. Farmers can have a decent income from farming while, at the same time, we can keep the price of rice affordable for the poorest consumers,” he explained.
The forum, held on 14-16 October 2015, aims to continue the constructive dialogue that stemmed from the 2013 Rice Future Forum in India and the 2014 International Rice Congress in Thailand.MARD Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said that collaborative efforts and partnerships formed by the Vietnamese government have helped advance the rice sector in the country. Sascha Israel, Head of Bayer CropScience in the Asia Pacific Region, emphasized the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors across the value chain to enhance rice technology adoption.Speaking on the economic transition and demographic changes in the ASEAN region, Sam Mohanty, IRRI Social Sciences Division head, said that IRRI has a significant role to play in shaping the future of the rice value chain. “IRRI’s breeding program will be more demand-driven; we understand what is needed in the value chain, so we can produce the variety or management practice that suits the market,” he added.
“Engaging with the public and private sectors can bring energy, know-how, and financing. It could help us better leverage the technologies that IRRI has in the marketplace for the benefit of smallholder farmers and the entire rice ecosystem,” said Remy Bitoun, IRRI's head of Public-Private Engagement.The institute featured its work on rice innovations during the marketplace session while engaging with various government officials, media, and private companies from across the Southeast Asian region. Aside from the forum, Bayer CropScience also organized a trip to its various field demonstration sites outside Ho Chi Minh City.
http://www.agprofessional.com/news/partnerships-key-farmer-technology-adoption-and-improved-productivity

Reflections on hospitality and stakeholder engagement

 Iris Bugayong   |  Oct 20, 2015

Partnerships between international research organizations and national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) are crucial in the development and successful adoption of agricultural innovations. In this blog post, the author recounts her humbling experience as she reflects on the hospitality of a NARES partner, which was indicative of strong stakeholder engagement—a key ingredient in promoting collective action and getting things on the ground.
As I write this, I can slowly feel the burnout caused by the pre-event and event proper workload of our project’s recent major activities creeping in. Reporting back to the office to do my post-event tasks and go back to the daily grind seemed overwhelming.My past jobs also involved event management, and post-event assessments were usually done formally and immediately after the closing session. The project I am currently part of is relatively small, and feedback is given informally (usually it’s just between me and my boss) so I normally do a self-reflection—just a simple analysis of what went right, what went wrong, and how to do things better next time.

As I was reflecting, I read an email from Dr. Bob Zeigler, our director general at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), on how visitors are often impressed with the Institute’s smooth implementation of events. He was pertaining to how IRRI was able to pull off some major events again during that week, particularly, the visit of the ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestryand of a delegation from India to IRRI headquarters. He noted: “It’s always so impressive how IRRI manages to pull these things off so well and seemingly with so little effort. But we all know that an enormous effort goes into these kinds of events at all levels.”
However, organizing events outside IRRI HQ—in another country —has its own challenges, even though there are country offices (COs) to assist in coordination.

The IRRI-Japan Collaborative Research Project (IJCRP) has organized events held in Laos and Indonesia during the past three years and staff from IRRI COs have been instrumental in the planning and implementation of these events. The first in-country meeting of the new IJCRP, titled Climate Change Adaptation through Development of a Decision-Support tool to guide Rainfed Rice production (CCADS-RR) was jointly organized with staff of its major stakeholder, the Indonesian Center for Rice Research (ICRR) at Sukamandi, where the meeting was held alongside the Dryland Rice Network meeting.There are many event requirements that should be planned and coordinated and I won’t elaborate on the meeting venue and AV facilities of ICRR, which I find exemplary and common for institutions under the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development(IAARD), and almost of the same caliber as those of the Indonesian Center for Food Crops Research and Development (ICFORD) where we held another event two years ago. What struck me most was the accommodation we received.

During the planning stage, Dr. Indrastuti Apri Rumanti, one of ICRR’s seasoned breeders and also lead event organizer, was hesitant to let us stay at the ICRR dormitory. However, a major consideration was the proximity of the dormitory to the meeting venue, which is also inside the ICRR compound (about 7 minutes by car and 15 minutes by foot from the dormitory). The nearest hotel is about 30 minutes (depending on traffic) from ICRR. We decided then that it was more practical to reserve our accommodations at the ICRR dormitory.

The dormitory at the ICRR, a 5-star accommodation in terms of hospitality!
Of course, I did not expect what seemed like a five-star accommodation, but I felt what VIPs must feel when they visit IRRI from the moment we arrived until we left. We heard that there was a directive from Dr. Ali Jamil, ICRR director, to ensure that we were given the best accommodation possible.We were welcomed by Dr. Indras and some ICRR staff. Our rooms, though lacking the usual amenities of a hotel (e.g., hot water, cable, and wi-fi), were well-prepared. Our individual names were even posted on the doors. There was 24-hour coffee service located at the dormitory lobby. Meals were served on time and we ate as the locals did—feasting on hot and spicy dishes. Our rooms were cleaned and fresh towels supplied everyday.
I found serenity hearing the first prayer of the day from a nearby mosque at four in the morning and by watching the birds perched on mangrove in the middle of a manmade pond (similar to that at IRRI’s rotunda) just outside the dormitory. Shuttle service to the meeting venue was provided at 7:15 a.m. daily.

My view from the ICRR dorm—a serene pond. (Photo: Rozakurniati)
We were unable to take breakfast on our last day as we had to leave early, but we were given fresh homemade donuts (tasted better than Indonesia’s popular donut brand!) to enjoy on the way as we headed to our next destination.
In the bigger scheme of things, the absence of standard hotel amenities is insignificant compared with the hospitality accorded to us by ICRR.There are still many things to be done toward adoption by farmers of CCADS-RR’s major output, WeRise. WeRise is a seasonal climate prediction app that aims to help farmers make decisions that will maximize rainfed rice production through efficient natural resource management. As with any technology, good engagement of stakeholders will be crucial in promoting collective action and moving things forward.

Feeling burned out after organizing events is normal, but what’s important is getting back on track. For me, this entails reflection—asking myself why I do the things I do, what keeps me motivated. The hospitality of the ICRR was indicative of its strong support and, I’d like to think, was also a result of our efforts on engaging them, particularly at the onset of CCADS-RR’s project implementation. The thought is motivating enough. But the opportunity to work with stakeholders who aim to ensure that research outputs reach the ground and achieve impact by improving farmers’ lives gives me the real sense of fulfilment.

Ms. Bugayong works as an Administrative Coordinator in the IRRI-Japan Collaborative Research Project. She is taking up Master in Development Management and Governance at the College of Public Affairs and Development at UP Los Baños.
http://ricetoday.irri.org/reflections-on-hospitality-and-stakeholder-engagement/

State U, partners  push aerobic rice farming  technology 

 October 20, 2015
  
KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato,  Oct 20 (PIA)  —  Government-run Sultan  Kudarat  State University based in  Tacurong City is  advancing the adoption of aerobic  rice technology, a  production system that is  appropriate in  areas with insufficient water supply. Aerobic rice, according to the  International Rice  Research Institute (IRRI) is “a production system where rice is grown in well-drained, non-puddled, and non-saturated soils. Water requirements can be lowered by reducing water losses due to seepage, percolation, and evaporation.” Dr. Ruby  Hechanova, director for  research and development of SKSU  told  Philippine Information Agency that  aerobic rice  technology “could help  address the problems of  farmers regarding climate  change such as  El Nino” because it   requires  minimum amount of water.   “Unlike in conventional  farming  where rice paddies should be submerged in water, in aerobic  rice  technology  rice can be grown even with only 10 percent  soil moisture,”  Dr. Hechanova said.

According to the Rice Knowledge Bank of IRRI, said  farming system is   suitable in  “areas  where the land is flat and where rainfall  with or  without supplemental irrigation is  sufficient to  frequently being the soil water close to field  capacity…” It is  also fit in upper slopes or terraces in undulating, rainfed lowland and water-short irrigated farms.Hechanova added that aerobic  rice researches  conducted in  rice fields at the tail-end  of  irrigations  systems in some parts of Luzon showed positive  results. In 2014, she said, SKSU  started  testing the aerobic  rice  technology in the towns of Quirino and Lutayan and  Tacurong City, all in Sultan Kudarat  province. “With appropriate management,  yield  from aerobic  rice  is comparable to that from  conventional farming,” she  said. Aerobic  rice  technology is  highlighted in 3rd Aerobic Rice National Conference at the Sarangani Highlands  in General Santos  City from October 20 - 23. 

The event highlights updates on aerobic  rice technology and  other  potential water-saving technologies  for  rice production. Paper presentations cover aerobic  rice technology  and related research and development  activities  from leading institutions  such as  Bataan Peninsula State University, Bulacan Agricultural State College, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Isabela State University and others. It is also an opportunity   for sharing of  good practices on aerobic  rice production.The 3rd Aerobic  Rice National  Conference is  supported by  IRRI, ICRISAT, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Research, Bureau of Soils and Water Management, Philippine Rice Research Institute and the aforementioned state schools. Participants  include academicians, researchers, farmers, and representatives of   government and nongovernment  organizations. (DEDoguiles-PIA 12) 
http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/1611445302179/state-u-partners-push-aerobic-rice-farming-technology-#sthash.XWE1ni4T.dpuf

Climate change lessons take to the stage in rural Pakistan


BADIN, Pakistan, Oct 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Mir Muhammad's family had reason to celebrate: after the harvest of their rice crop, they were planning to throw a wedding.But then flash floods hit their three-hectare farm, washing away the family's sole source of income and their dreams of the big day.This was the scene played out on the makeshift stage of an open-air theatre in Badin district of Pakistan's Sindh province - a region, like many others in Pakistan, trying to find ways to better understand and deal with worsening climate change impacts."Nature has destroyed all our plans," lamented Zuleikha Bibi, who played Muhammad's mother in the production.
"We were preparing for the wedding of our eldest son, but the flood has turned all our happiness into mourning."An audience of over a hundred men, women and children from Badin's fishing and farming communities watched as the actress wiped away her pretend tears. Then they listened, engrossed, as a singer in traditional Sindhi dress sang about the sufferings of poor people in the region.The show is the brainchild of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), a non-governmental organisation based in Karachi that works for the social and economic welfare of vulnerable communities.Looking for a way to help villagers adapt to the effects of extreme weather and flooding, the forum hit on the idea of putting on plays."We are using theatre as an advocacy tool to educate people about the adverse impacts of climate change on their daily lives," said PFF project manager Maria Soomro.

TAPPING LOCAL LANGUAGE AND TRADITION

In a region where the majority of the rural population is illiterate, theatre is an effective way to communicate new ideas, Soomro said.Using local language, traditional songs and folklore, the performances aim to raise awareness about issues such as shortages of water for agriculture, erratic rainfall, frequent floods and droughts.On the stage in Badin, young actors told the audience how extreme weather conditions in the province impacted on their studies."I was a student in seventh grade and I had to quit my school due to flash floods last year," said Farzana Bangash, 12. She urged the audience to find ways to mitigate the impact of flooding and erratic rainfall on their crops.The messages, which began taking to the stage last year, appear to be getting through.

Farmer Shagufta Bhel said that after watching a show in June last year, she and her family stopped sowing genetically modified seeds for their wheat and rice crops, saying they feared they would be less adaptable to increasingly extreme weather."We have been sowing local seeds instead, and getting good yield too," she said.According to a recent report by the U.S.-based World Resources Institute, floods in Pakistan affect 715,000 people each year, and by 2030 that number could increase to as many as 2.7 million.Annual losses as a result of river flooding amount to just short of 1 percent of Pakistan's GDP - about $1.7 billion - the report added."We can't provide food to everybody affected by floods and droughts in the province but we can definitely sensitise them to the issues," said the PFF's Soomro.The PFF put on its first open-air play in June 2014 in Karachi and has since held over 20 performances in rural areas of six districts of Sindh province. Each cast uses 15 volunteers, mostly local people, who get a week of acting training before they start, Soomro said.

Using its own funding and working in collaboration with other NGOs, the forum plans to expand its theatre project to other districts of the province.Experts agree that theatre is an effective tool for making a topic as complex as climate change more easily understandable and relevant to a wide audience."The beauty of open-air theatre is that it attracts a large audience for entertainment and helps convey a critical message in the local language of the people," said Sarwar Bari, national coordinator of the Pattan Development Organisation, an NGO in Islamabad.Shafqat Aziz, a food security expert with Oxfam Novib, the Dutch affiliate of anti-poverty charity Oxfam, said the plays also help empower people, motivating some to ask government representatives for policies on issues such as food security and crop insurance.

"The awareness drives affected communities to a decision-making position and this is where they try to come up with effective solutions for tackling climate change," he said.As the 30-minute play came to an end on the Badin stage, one of the characters, a farmer named Sikandar Sanam, turned to the audience to talk about seeds. One good adaptation strategy, he suggested, would be for communities to store the seeds of native crop varieties."Our local seed varieties of rice and wheat can tolerate floods and droughts," Sanam said. "So we should form a local seed bank to preserve our own seeds, shouldn't we?"

The audience shouted in agreement. (Reporting by Aamir Saeed; editing by Jumana Farouky and Laurie Goering :; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, women's rights, trafficking and corruption. Visit www.trust.org/climate)


Pakistan's climate change 'time bomb' is already ticking

By AFP
Published: October 20, 2015
PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI: The sprawling megacity lies crumbling, desiccated by another deadly heatwave, its millions of inhabitants suffering life-threatening water shortages and unable to buy bread that has become too expensive to eat.It sounds like the stuff of dystopian fiction but it could be the reality Pakistan is facing. With its northern glaciers melting and its population surging — the country’s climate change time bomb is already ticking.In a nation facing violence and an unprecedented energy shortage slowing economic growth, the environment is a subject little discussed.But the warning signs are there, including catastrophic floods which displaced millions, and a deadly heatwave this summer that killed 1,200 people.Three of the world’s most spectacular mountain ranges intersect in Pakistan’s north: the Himalayas, the Hindu Khush and the Karakoram, forming the largest reservoir of ice outside the poles.

The mountain glaciers feed into the Indus River and its tributaries to irrigate the rest of the country, winding through the breadbasket of central Punjab and stretching south to finally merge with the Arabian Sea near Karachi.The future of Pakistan, a Muslim giant whose population the UN predicts will surge past 300 million people by 2050, can be read in part by the melting of glaciers like Passu, at the gateway to China.rom its magnificent rocky slopes, the glacial melt is obvious.“When we would come here 25 years ago, the glacier reached that rock up there,” explains Javed Akhtar, indicating an area some 500 metres from the tip of the ice.Akhtar, his face bronzed by the sun, is a villager who has been employed by a team of glaciologists measuring the impact of climate change.
Temperatures in northern Pakistan have increased by 1.9 degrees Celsius in the past century, authorities say, causing “glof” — glacial lake outburst floods, where the dams of such lakes abruptly rupture, sending water cascading down the slopes.Today, thirty glacial lakes are under observation in the north. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), such mass loss of water is “projected to accelerate throughout the 21st century, reducing water availability, hydropower potential, and changing seasonality of flows in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges”.In Pakistan, most of the country is fed by the lush, fertile plains of one such region: Punjab.Despite its growing population, Pakistan remains self-sufficient in agricultural terms, largely thanks to the rich Punjabi soil.

But in recent years the region has seen unprecedented, deadly floods that wipe out millions of acres of prime farmland. The disasters are caused by monsoon rains, but are a bellwether for the havoc that melting glaciers could cause, with any variation in water levels threatening farmers’ crops.“When there is too much water it’s not good for rice, and when there is not enough, that’s also bad. And it’s the same for wheat,” says farmer Mohsin Ameen Chattha during a walk through his family land just outside the Punjabi capital of Lahore.
Surplus monsoon water is mostly stored in Pakistan’s two large reservoirs, the Tarbela and the Mangla dams — but, warns Ghulam Rasul, director general of Pakistan’s meteorological department, the supply would hardly last 30 days.

“That is not sufficient,” he says.Throughout the rest of the year, farmers rely on the rivers, primarily the glacier-fed Indus, to irrigate their land.For now, the production of rice and wheat is still rising.But if the glaciers were to one day disappear, “we would be totally dependent on the monsoon. And already it varies,” says Rasul.“All this has an impact on food security” for the country, he added.If its daily wheat production should no longer suffice, Pakistan would have to begin importing the grain — driving the price of bread up.

Like the Indus, the ominous warning signs all culminate around Karachi.The city draws almost all of its water from the river and already fails to meet even half of the four billion litres a day its inhabitants require, in part because of its inadequate pump network and .By 2050 the IPCC predicts a decrease in the freshwater supply of South Asia, particularly in large river basins such as the Indus.That means Karachi will somehow have to manage its growing population with even less water — a population with a significant poverty rate that will also struggle should food prices rise.“In the long term, it is a huge challenge,” says Syed Mashkoorul Hasnain of the Karachi Water Company.

To make matters worse, the meteorologist Rasul predicted changes in atmospheric pressure over the Arabian Sea that could reduce the breezes that currently temper the sweltering heat of the port.In June an unprecedented heatwave took 1,200 lives, mostly in poor neighbourhoods of Karachi — heat traps with their massive concrete buildings, lack of shade, and the absence of aqueducts.Could it have been a taste of the future? Back on the Passu Glacier, the research assistant Javed Akhtar is unequivocal.“A calamity is coming,” he warns.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/976105/pakistans-climate-change-time-bomb-is-already-ticking/


Rice: another dying commodity


October 20, 2015
At 46 percent of all Pakistan's food exports and over 8 percent of total exports, one would think that the rice industry is given some importance. But much like the case with textile, wheat, and sugar, a high cost of doing business and low international prices have rendered our rice exports uncompetitive and stagnant.Rice exports observe a seasonal trend, falling by the end of the summer and bottoming out around the time the new crop starts coming in the winter months (September-October). As of late, however, the exports haven been bringing too much foreign exchange; although rice exports for the first two months of this fiscal year represent a volumetric growth over the preceding year, the price fetched seems to have been far lower.Vice President of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP), Noman Shaikh told BR Research that there were two main reasons behind the industry's problems: one was the international commodity crisis, which is out of everyones hands. However, the other factor is the high cost of doing business, which is rendering the rice exporters uncompetitive and is a result of government inadequacies.

Shaikh said there are 5 lac tons of un-exported rice in stock, which is losing moisture by the day and losing its value. About the high cost of business, he said that electricity and gas is far more expensive in the region than the neighbouring countries and the supply is also interrupted. Moreover, he lamented that fertilizer in Pakistan is available for Rs2400 per bag, whereas in India the same is Rs800-900. With such high costs, it is increasingly difficult to compete in a market where the prices are already so low."No research has been done since the 70s into developing new varieties," the REAP Vice President added. "Meanwhile, India has developed new varieties that are also cheaper, and has snatched up the International market."Indeed, its a disappointment that most of the Gulf countries, Pakistan used to export its Basmati variety have been lost. REAP has asked the government to provide a $200 per ton subsidy on Basmati rice and $50 per ton subsidy on IRRI-6 to get rid of the surplus stocks and rejuvenate the industry.

http://www.brecorder.com/br-research/44:miscellaneous/5910:rice-another-dying-commodity/Olam International, Other

 

Rice importers owe Nigeria N44bn – Senate


The Senate ad-hoc Committee on Import Duty Waivers on Monday accused two foreign companies, Messrs Stallion Group and Olam International, which are involved in rice importation into the country, of owing Nigeria N44bn as import duties on 457,000 metric tonnes they imported since May 2014.The panel stated this when the representatives of the two firms appeared before it to answer their connection with the “flagrant abuse of rice waivers’ policy in the country.”
Chairman of the committee, Senator Adamu Aliero, demanded full payment of the money owed by the foreign firms, insisting that “Nigeria would not fold its hands and watch the huge debt swept under the carpet. ”He said: “There is no way the government will ignore this kind of money. We have to ensure that this money is collected and deposited into the federation account.”Aliero further claimed that the comanies imported rice into the country without paying waivers, off-loaded it into their warehouses and refused to pay required duties when asked by the Nigeria Customs Service.

He noted with concern that while the Nigeria Customs Service confronted Stallion Group with payment demand notices, the firm opted to drag NCS to court.He also accused the company of exceeding the quota given to it to import 157,000 metric tonnes of rice, saying it imported 457,000 metric tonnes in excess of its required quota.But while defending the action of his firm, Executive Director of Stallion Group, Harpreet Singh, claimed that their mission in Nigeria was to ensure that the country was self-sufficient in rice production.He also said the firm had planned that the nation is saved from the global scarcity of the commodity.He also claimed that Nigerian borders were porous and that former President Goodluck Jonathan granted the approval on fiscal policy on rice production on May 26, 2014.According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture opted to flout the tenets of the policy by giving quotas to “non-existing millers and investors who have no connection with the policy while existing investors were left blind.”

He claimed further that the Stallion Group’s investments in Nigeria were not giving jobs to foreigners but to Nigerians.He said his company had lost millions of Naira to activities of smugglers as a result of porous borders.Also speaking, Olam, through his spokesperson, Ade Adefeko, claimed that it had the largest rice farm in Africa and that it has been operating in Nigeria in the past 35 years.He argued that given its long period of business operation in Nigeria, the company would not consider short-changing the nation.According to him, Olam was seeking a legal opinion on the matter, saying whatever counsel it is given, it will be duly followed.

http://naija247news.com/2015/10/olam-international-other-rice-importers-owe-nigeria-n44bn-senate/



Vietnamese ambassador seeks help from UC Davis to preserve country’s rice crop


BY STEPHEN MAGAGNINI
Vietnam’s ambassador to Washington, Pham Quang Vinh, visited the Sacramento region Tuesday to promote trade and educational exchanges, and to further his country’s long-standing relationship with UC Davis.Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have for years assisted Vietnamese universities and farmers in an effort to sustain the Mekong Delta’s rice basin, “known for productivity and the quality of rice,” Vinh said. “That area is suffering because climate change is causing the sea level to rise,” he said Tuesday.Vinh said he also hopes to tap into the university’s expertise in biotechnology and engineering.In a wide-ranging conversation hosted by Sacramento City Councilman Allen Warren, who has been to Vietnam and is hosting a civic delegation there next month, Vinh said the communist country has evolved over 20 years of diplomatic relations with the U.S.

“The new Vietnam is very dynamic,” Vinh said. “More than half the population is under 30, 40 percent of the 91 million people have Internet, 28 percent are on social media and there are 128 million mobile phones, so some people have two.” A decade ago, he said, nearly a third of Vietnamese lived in poverty – now it’s down to 4.5 percent, and per capita income has risen from about $200 a year to $2,000.The Sacramento region’s roughly 32,000 Vietnamese Americans include many who fled communism after the fall of Saigon 40 years ago and remain critical of Vietnam’s human rights record. They still use the name Saigon for Ho Chi Minh City, and some are pressing for the day when there are free, multiparty elections and freedom of speech and dissent.Vinh acknowledged those sentiments, but insisted things are improving. “We have a one-party system, that’s a fact, but we have a constitution and everybody’s equal before the law.”There are more than 17,000 Vietnamese students studying at U.S. universities, including more than 5,000 in California and hundreds at UC Davis, Vinh said.

 And the doors of trade are opening wider. In 2012-13, Vietnam imported $333 million worth of agricultural products from California, and in 2014, California exported $1.2 billion in manufactured goods to Vietnam.On Tuesday, Vinh met with about 75 students and faculty at UC Davis, many of them Vietnamese. He fielded questions about why some U.S. investors are having problems doing business in Vietnam. He cited as progress the state’s move earlier this year to allow foreign companies to own 100 percent of the equity in Vietnamese firms.“Vietnam has always been a little bit sensitive around Vietnamese American populations, not knowing what it will encounter, and this is the first time an ambassador from Vietnam has visited a California university and extended himself to students,” said Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde, an associate professor of Asian American Studies at UC Davis, who hosted the meeting. “He said they can help Vietnam create a better future.


”More than 40 professors from Vietnam have already come to UCD under a program funded through the Vietnamese government, said Jim Hill, associate dean emeritus of International Programs for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and a rice researcher. About 20 or more UC Davis professors and academic scholars have spent time helping at Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Nong Lam University and other schools, he said.Warren said he extended the invitation to Vinh, who was making his first trip to the Sacramento region, to promote the area as a place to invest and visit.“We’re an international city, one of the most diverse in the country,” Warren said.

The next step will be to encourage Vietnamese to invest in Sacramento, said Chris Worden, vice president of public policy at the Sacramento Metro Chamber, who attended a meeting with the ambassador and Warren at Sacramento City Hall. “It will take some additional steps to get large direct foreign investment from Vietnam, but we are sprinting forward to get the pieces in place,” Worden said. “A vibrant Vietnamese community locally coupled with continued investment from other Southeast Asian nations are key factors in our economic development.”Accompanied by his wife and diplomatic staff, Vinh also visited city officials in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He plans to meet with Gov. Jerry Brown in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Stephen Magagnini: 916-321-1072, @StephenMagagnini

From Actress to Cookbook Author: The Lives of Madhur Jaffrey

 

By MICHELE KAYAL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
 Oct 20, 2015, 12:44 PM ET
Madhur Jaffrey is known to Americans — when she is known at all — as an author of Indian cookbooks. And with good reason: she has written more than two dozen of them.But that's just the start. The woman often called "the Julia Child of Indian cookery" was born in Delhi, India, and came to the United States in the late 1950s, eventually landing among the New York glitterati. She started her career as an actress — something she continues to do — but soon found herself deeply rooted in the world of food. She has hosted cooking shows both here and in Britain, and helped launch the renowned New York Indian restaurant Dawat.Now 82, her newest book, "Vegetarian India: A Journey Through the Best of Indian Home Cooking," will be released in October. We took the opportunity to talk with her about acting, her start in food, and her pivotal friendship with filmmakers Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.Associated Press: What was the impetus for "Vegetarian India?" Why this book and why now?

Madhur Jaffrey: I've never done a book that's all Indian and all vegetarian. There are many areas of India that I don't know and many cuisines I don't know, and I thought this would be a good way to learn about the cuisines I don't know anything about.AP: When you came to the United States in the late 1950s, you landed first in Vermont, where you taught pantomime, correct? How did that happen?

Jaffrey: I needed a job. I was in the theater and was very kindly employed by the Catholic University theater team. They said "Why don't you come in the summer and work with our summer stock company," which used to live in Winooski, Vermont. I joined the company to do odd jobs with them. And get a visa. It was a technical way of coming.
AP: And from there you went to New York City. What were you hoping to find there?
Jaffrey: The theater brought me to New York. (My first husband) Saeed (Jaffrey) also studied at Catholic. He graduated and came to New York and I came with him. I was working as a guide at the U.N. at the time, and doing theater in the Village. We were doing off-Broadway. The way I could stay was to have a visa by working at the U.N. Then I could do theater, for which I was earning something like $10 a week.
AP: You and Saeed also introduced Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, the famous film duo. How did that come about?
Jaffrey: We were the only Indian actors in town at that time. Ivory had just done his first film — it was a short film — called "The Sword and the Flute," about Indian miniature paintings. And he needed someone to narrate that. He went to see (Saeed's) play and asked him to do it. That's how Saeed brought him home for the first time. We all became very good friends.
Around the same time, Ismail Merchant was here, studying at (New York University) business school. He met us because he had dreams of doing theater, films, anything. He just wanted to be famous. He wasn't sure how he was going to be famous, but it was going to be in the world of film and theater. His first idea was to get an Indian dancer and have her perform at Radio City Music Hall.
His dreams were so big. And to us ridiculous. But to him, everything was achievable. He brought that spirit of great adventure and far-sightedness to our little group.
AP: I imagine the Indian community in New York was very small at that time. Did everyone know each other? What was it like?
Jaffrey: All those (Indians) who came were doctors and statisticians and engineers. America wasn't taking people who weren't these things because that wasn't what was needed. We were very rare, these people in the arts. We knew all the people in the arts because that's where our interest lay. We knew the Indians who were around and other people who were actors but weren't Indians. It was an intellectual bookish, artish world.
AP: Were you fully embraced by the non-Indian art scene?
Jaffrey: As curiosities, yes. But as somebody to give work to, no. It was very hard to get work. That's why we needed other jobs, all of us. I am in the art world; I have one daughter who's an actress, one who is a writer. The actress daughter has the same problem I did. But she is two steps ahead. Indians now are more in shows. People are writing more parts for Indians and they can play non-Indians. In "House of Cards," my daughter played a Latino. (In my time) they never thought of us as secretaries or lawyers. We were just Indians, and they were always the shieky types. They came vaguely from the Middle East.
AP: What do you make of Mindy Kaling and Aziz Ansari and Indians on Pizza Hut commercials?
Jaffrey: It's changing. This new generation is getting much more work. My daughter's generation and her friends — all of these people you mention — she knows all these people because they've all been at it together for a long time.
AP: You once told the BBC you wanted to be the next Marlon Brando. What did that mean?
Jaffrey: Everybody dreams of saying "Thank you so much for the Academy Award." But I left India with dreams of being another Marlon Brando. I adored his method of acting and I adored him. I had met him in India when he was passing through. I thought, "I want to have that intensity, that depth." That you go into a part and you really find it inside you, and it comes out in this glorious rich form that it did with Marlon Brando. But there wasn't the opportunity. There just wasn't.
AP: How and why did you transition from theater to cooking?
Jaffrey: I said, "What else could I do to make money?" (I was getting divorced.) I had three little kids. I had no future. English literature was my major in college. I could write. I started writing about any subject that they wanted. Then one day, Holiday Magazine, which was a big magazine at that time, hired me to do a story about what I ate as a child in India. I did the story.
I had just done the (Merchant-Ivory) film "Shakespeare Wallah," so my name was about. Then (New York Times food editor) Craig Claiborne did an article about me. That was Ismail's doing. He had the ability to get to know anybody he wanted. He must have walked up to him at some point and said, "You must do an article about this woman who appears in my wonderful film." After that story things took off.
AP: You've published roughly 30 cookbooks. But you've never really stopped acting. You've appeared in film, television, on stage, and you're still acting today. Are you an actor who cooks, or a cook who acts?
Jaffrey: I always say, "I'm an actress who cooks." I see myself as an actress.
AP: How do you think others see you?
Jaffrey: Totally differently. Some people say, "Oh you still act?" They're not aware of that aspect of my life.
———
BERRY PILAF
"The restaurant where this pilaf is served has been in existence since 1923. It is a Bombay landmark," Madhur Jaffrey writes in her new cookbook, "Vegetarian India." ''The berry used here is the tiny Iranian barberry, or zareshk, sold by Indian and Persian grocers. If you cannot find it, use dried cranberries. The final flavors are sweet and sour."
Start to finish: 4 hours (30 minutes active)
Servings: 6
2 cups basmati rice
1 teaspoon saffron threads
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons very hot milk
About 1/2 cup barberries or dried cranberries
3 tablespoons olive or peanut oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and halved lengthwise, then sliced into fine half rings
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
5 cardamom pods
2 1/2-inch cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
3 cloves
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Wash the rice in several changes of water. Put in a bowl, cover generously with water, then set aside to soak for 3 hours.
Meanwhile, in a mortar and pestle, combine the saffron and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Pound together to create a fine powder. Transfer to a small bowl, then stir in the hot milk. Set aside for 3 hours.
Toward the end of the 3 hours, rinse the berries several times, then leave to soak in water for 20 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
In a medium skillet over medium-high, heat the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until they start to brown. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook until they are reddish brown. Add the drained berries and the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Stir once or twice, then remove from the heat.
Heat the oven to 325 F.
Bring about 10 cups of water to a boil. Add the salt, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, bay leaf and cloves. Stir once, then add the rice. Let it cook in the boiling water for about 5 minutes, or until it is three-quarters cooked but still has a thin, hard core. Drain in a colander.
Working quickly now, spread 1 tablespoon of the melted butter in a medium baking dish. Spread half the rice over it. Spread another tablespoon of the butter, plus half the saffron mixture and half the onion-berry mixture and some of its oil on top of the rice. Spread the remaining rice on top of the first layer. Pour the remaining tablespoon of butter over it, followed by the remaining saffron mixture and onion-berry mixture.
Cover tightly with foil and a lid and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. Toss the rice gently to mix before serving.
Nutrition information per serving: 410 calories; 110 calories from fat (27 percent of total calories); 13 g fat (4.5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 15 mg cholesterol; 170 mg sodium; 68 g carbohydrate; 1 g fiber; 12 g sugar; 6 g protein.
(Recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's "Vegetarian India," Knopf, 2015)

Abc News

Festive fare, anybody?


Try these delicious easy-to-prepare recipes

It’s the season of festivities, and here are some delectable reasons to celebrate. Festival food customs speak dimensions of our rich culture. Traditional recipes are passed on from one generation to another. It’s food preparation that marks the commencement of any festival. Durga Puja celebrates shakti, the mother goddess, and this continues for over a week; preparation begins much earlier. Here are a few easy-to-prepare ‘Bhog’ recipes which are presented every day to goddess durga during the week.
Moong Dal Khichuri
Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup split moon dal (yellow)
1/2 inch-piece cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2-3 green cardamom
3-4 cloves
A pinch of asafoetida
1 potato
1/4cup green peas
1 tomato
1/4 cup cauliflower florets
2 tspn ginger paste
1/2 tspn turmeric powder
1 tspn red chilli powder
2 green chillies slit
1/2 tspn cumin seeds
Salt to taste
Ghee for cooking
Method:
Wash and soak rice and dal separately for half an hour. Heat ghee in a pressure cooker; add cloves, cardamom, cinnamon stick, bay leaf and sauté for a few seconds. Add asafoetida.
Add cumin seeds and let them crackle.
Add ginger paste, green chillies, turmeric and red chilli powder. Add a few drops of water, vegetables and salt. Saute for a few minutes.
Now add rice and dal and sauté for a minute. Add water till it’s half an inch above the rice-dal mixture. Pressure-cook for three whistles or till soft and cooked well.
Tomato Chutney
Ingredients:
3 tomatoes chopped
4-5 dates (deseeded)
1tspn mustard seeds
2 dry red chillies
50 gms jaggery powder
1 tspn ginger paste
2 tspn raisins
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking
Method:
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and allow it to crackle.
Now add red chillies and salt.
Add chopped tomatoes, dates and raisins, and cook till they are soft and done.
Dates should merge well with the tomatoes.
Add ginger paste and mix. Now add jaggery, cook on a low flame till the jaggery is melted and chutney comes together.
Baingan Bhaja
Ingredients:
1 big brinjal
1 tbspn turmeric powder
1 tbspn red chilli powder
2-3 tbspn mustard oil
2 tbspn lemon juice
Salt to taste
Method:
Cut brinjal into medium slices (round). Use a fork and punch a few holes. Take some mustard oil in a bowl, add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and lemon juice and make a marinate paste. Smear the marinade generously over the brinjal slices. Heat a non-stick tava or a griddle. Add a few drops of mustard oil. Place these marinated brinjal slices, cover them with a plate and cook over a low flame for 3-4 minutes or till brown and crisp on one side. Flip these and let the other side cook. Serve hot.
Payesh
Ingredients:
1 cup any fragrant rice
6 cups milk
2 cups coconut milk
2 tbspn chopped nuts
2 cups sugar (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup jaggery powder
2-3 green cardamom
1 bay leaf
Method:
Wash rice and keep aside. Boil milk. When the milk stars to boil, add rice. Stir continuously and check if rice is cooked. When the rice is almost done, add sugar and jaggery. Keep stirring continuously to avoid sticking at the bottom of the pan. Add chopped nuts, cardamom and bay leaf. When the payesh is ready, transfer into a bowl and refrigerate for a few hours. Serve chilled garnished with coconut crust.
http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/Food/festive-fare-anybody/article7784971.ece
U.S. Rice Takes Center Stage at Food Service Show in Mexico 
  At the USA Rice workshop with 
Chef Alejandro Espinosa (in black)
PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO -- Earlier this month, USA Rice was a sponsor of Vallarta-Nayarit Gastronomica, a premier trade show here that attracts gastronomic personalities from all over Mexico as well as top international chefs.  These food service professionals gather to participate in live cooking shows and specialized workshops, and to propose culinary innovations for their peers at culinary institutions throughout Mexico.
 Many of the chefs used U.S. rice during their cooking demonstrations before a foodservice audience of more than 1,200.  Chef Jorge Jurado from Panama used U.S. parboiled rice as the main ingredient in the dishes he prepared on stage as well as in the Panama booth in the exhibition area of the event.  Two renowned Spanish chefs, Michelin Star Chef Kisko Garcia, and Chef Eva Millán, discussed the importance of using U.S. rice in restaurants and hotels citing its versatility.
 USA Rice offered specialized rice workshops conducted by Chef Alejandro Espinosa who has vast experience cooking rice in some of the top restaurants and hotels around the world.
 "Rice is extremely versatile and has great profit margins for a variety of dishes," said Chef Espinosa.  "We prefer parboiled rice in the foodservice sector and are very supportive of the use of the Authentic American seal to signal the high quality of the product."
 USA Rice regularly participates in trade shows throughout Mexico to showcase U.S. rice to a wider audience, gather new trade contacts, and learn about new food trends.

Contact:  Sarah Moran (703) 236-1457
CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures   
CME Group (Prelim):  Closing Rough Rice Futures for October 20
Month
Price
Net Change

November 2015
$12.175
+ $0.070
January 2016
$12.465
+ $0.075
March 2016
$12.735
+ $0.070
May 2016
$12.975
+ $0.070
July 2016
$13.155
+ $0.055
September 2016
$12.445
+ $0.030
November 2016
$12.445
 + $0.030

With organic rice in demand, scientists to help farmers improve production

October 20, 2015
Organic rice is increasingly desired by U.S. consumers, but farmers know that growing the grain chemically free can mean providing a feast for insects, diseases and weeds. Now a multi-state team of scientists with a track record of battling pests is working toward the goal of making organic rice profitable for farmers and more available for consumers.

Dr. Shane Zhou is leading a $1 million study on organic rice farming.
Credit: Kathleen Phillips
Organic rice is increasingly desired by U.S. consumers, but farmers know that growing the grain chemically free can mean providing a feast for insects, diseases and weeds.
That's why the U.S. Department of Agriculture has put $1 million on a multi-state team of scientists with a track record of battling pests toward the goal of making organic rice profitable for farmers and more available for consumers. The grant also establishes the first Center of Excellence for organic rice research in the U.S.
"Organic rice is important to the U.S., and most of the organic rice acreage is located in the southern growing region and California," said Dr. Xin-Gen "Shane"" Zhou, Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathologist in Beaumont and project leader. "Organic rice acreage has increased to about 50,000 acres in the nation. In contrast, conventional rice acreage is on the decline.
"The organic market is growing, but U.S. farmers have not been able to keep up with the demand domestically."
While the price farmers receive for organic rice is nearly double what they get for conventionally grown rice, Zhou said, producing an adequate yield of quality rice organically is challenging.
"Very little research has been done on organic rice, and organic studies on other crops do not apply to rice because -- unlike other crops -- most of it is grown in flooded fields," he said. "That subjects rice to a different spectrum of disease, weeds and insect pests than dryland or irrigated crops."
Informal surveys to identify the issues affecting organic rice production were conducted in California, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, he said, along with field days, workshops and meetings with farmers, millers and end-users. This helped the scientists identify nutrient management, pest control and rice varieties as the main needs to make organic rice production economically viable.
The team on the three-year study includes plant pathologists, breeders, crop nutrient managers, economists, weed scientists, entomologists and outreach specialists from Texas, Arkansas and Washington, D.C. Research on organic rice has been in progress at the AgriLife Research facility in Beaumont for at least five years, Zhou said, and results from those studies, along with some from other areas, will be parlayed into the new study.
"We developed this new proposal to further develop profitable methods for organic rice farmers," he said. "We surveyed organic farmers and found the major issues were weed control, nitrogen supply and stand establishment. In organic rice systems, we are not supposed to use any herbicides, chemical fertilizers, fungicides or insecticides, so that definitely causes a lot of stress for the organic farmers."
For example, farmers would like to use less nitrogen fertilizer, because organic fertilizers are much more expensive compared to conventional fertilizers. But applying organic nitrogen improperly can give the weeds a chance to grow and compete with rice plants, he explained.
Also, diseases not commonly found in conventional rice are more severe in the organic rice, Zhou added.
The research farm at Beaumont is suitable for the study, Zhou noted, because it met the criteria to be certified organic in 2012 and has been maintained as such since. The facility also houses a collection of rice cultivars and breeding lines from around the world that may be useful in finding the best varieties for organic production.
Zhou said the team plans to develop a strategy for organic rice production by the completion of the research and will develop a web-based economic analysis tool with interactive budgets to help farmers make decisions for their own organic rice production. They also will have on-farm demonstration trials in Texas, Missouri, Florida and South Carolina.
"We will have direct connection with organic rice farmers to show them what kind of management practices or tools they can use for managing pests and for yield increase," Zhou said.
"Rice is important to the world, and the acreage devoted to rice is really too small in the U.S. compared to the rice acreage in other countries. That's why the potential impact of this project is so important."


http://phys.org/news/2015-10-rice-demand-scientists-farmers-production.html?utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+October+20%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email

In Mauritius, Gourmet Rice Points to a Brighter Future

Michael Teig Rountree, whose family has farmed sugar on Mauritius since the early 19th century, has started growing Mighty Rice on the plantation. CreditChristopher F. Schuetze
RIVIÈRE DES ANGUILLES, Mauritius — In tropical Mauritius, where the change of seasons is muted, the blooming sugar cane flower is a sure indicator of the beginning of another autumn.The sugar cane and its seasonal fireworks — a sudden explosion of dusty color just above the 3-meter-high, or 10-foot-high, cane — have been a big part of island life since the 17th century. Dutch colonizers started growing sugar cane for the production of arrack, a strong, clear, distilled liquor they had discovered in Southeast Asia.Sugar became the island’s biggest industry — first as raw material for distillers, then as a commodity shipped around the world. Even into the 1970s, sugar represented roughly 95 percent of Mauritian gross domestic product, and cane was grown on a third of the island’s land.But fierce global competition, the rise of new cane-growing superpowers — China, Pakistan and Brazil — and waning preferred treatment from the European market have taken their toll on sugar prices. Although still grown on about a fourth of the island, sugar this year will represent only about 1 percent of the island’s G.D.P.
Photo
A sugar field owned by Medine, whose diversification efforts include growing vegetables for local consumption. CreditChristopher F. Schuetze
This perfect storm is leading sugar cane farmers here to look for ways to shore up their income, and their future. While some smaller farmers have simply abandoned their land, larger commercial farms are starting to look for alternatives — from tourism to real estate sales to, increasingly, higher-value crops that can be sold around the world at premium prices.“No one is talking about giving up sugar,” said Michael Teig Rountree, who runs Bel Air, a 390-hectare, or 965-acre, sugar farm that has been in his family since his ancestors emigrated from Ireland in the early 19th century. “Sugar cane has had its ups and downs. But it’s quite different this time.

”Having tried livestock feeds like alfalfa, soybeans and corn, Mr. Rountree, whose farm sits on the lush southern side of the island, stumbled on something promising: a premium rice, destined for health-conscious and well-off consumers in Europe and the United States.While Mighty Rice, as it is called, was developed by cross-pollination in Bangladesh, its slick black-and-white packaging exalts the volcanic soil and rain-fed streams of Mauritius — marketing the benefits of the place it is grown as much as the food.The rice, which is grown on dry land and so can be easily integrated into traditional farms, yields between four and six tons per hectare at a fixed price to farmers of $800 per ton, earning them as much as $4,800 per hectare. Sugar, by contrast, has an average yield of eight tons per hectare.

 At this year’s price of $360 a ton, that comes to $2,880 per hectare.The retail price for Mighty Rice is higher as well. On the shelves of the California supermarket chain Raley’s, a 15-ounce bag sells for $4.99, which is seven to eight times more than the price for the same quantity of white cane sugar in the same store.“When we started growing rice here, the people thought we were insane,” said Herman Suhirman of Vita Rice, a Mauritian company that started growing Mighty Rice in 2009 on its own 400-hectare farm, which was formerly the site of a state-owned sugar farm. This year’s harvest will be his third to be available commercially, and already there are early signs of success. The company has produced 1,470 tons of rice in one year and is poised to sell some 40,000 15-ounce bags in the United States — so far its main export market.

The rice carries a certification guaranteeing that it is not genetically modified and free of arsenic — the latter a potential contaminate in other commercially available rice.While the rice is not yet certified as organic, Mauritian rice farmers are taking no chances, fertilizing their fields with molasses to avoid anything that could affect the end product.“We are looking for soft options” for pest control and fertilization, said Bill Hoare, an Australian who runs Vita Rice’s rice farm. “It’s cheaper and it’s better for the rice.”=Premium rice is just one of the products farmers around the world are using to replace commodity crops, said Luis A. Ribera, a professor in the Department of Agriculture at Texas A&M University. The state of Tamaulipas in Mexico, for example, has all but abandoned dry hay, corn and other row crops for irrigated vegetables destined for supermarket shelves in the United States. In some cases vegetables replacing row crops or cane in Central and South America are grown organically and sold at a premium.

“As crop land is reducing, population is increasing and purchasing power from both developed and developing countries is on the rise, more and more emphasis is given to demand-driven production,” Mr. Ribera wrote in an email.Sophie Desvaux de Marigny, the head of communication at Medine, once one of the largest commercial sugar plantations in Mauritius, agreed. When a case brought to the World Trade Organization in 2004 first threatened the guaranteed price of Mauritian sugar on the European market, Medine, which owns farmland covering 5 percent of the island, decided to revamp its business, establishing separate property and leisure clusters and detailing a 25-year master plan.Although Medine’s sugar and rum are still exported — the company is even actively reclaiming fallow land to expand its agriculture division — it now grows vegetables for local consumption, rents out office space, runs a resort village and attracts international tourists to its nature safari park.

“At this point you want to produce something value-added,” Ms. Desvaux de Marigny said.The Mauritius Sugar Syndicate, which represents local sugar growers and millers abroad, has invested in marketing so-called special sugars — various shades and grain sizes of brown cane sugar — that can be sold directly to consumers and commands a premium price.Lately the syndicate has been promoting Fairtrade sugar, of which it hopes to export 40,000 tons next year, a little less than 10 percent of all Mauritian sugar sold abroad. “The next phase is goingto be all about sustainability,” said Devesh Dukhira, who runs the syndicate.Now in his second year of growing Mighty Rice, Mr. Rountree has planted about 63 hectares of the crop on his farm. The rice, which stands no taller than half a meter when fully mature, is dwarfed by the surrounding cane, but it allows the passer-by to look out past the field to palm trees, mountains and the light-blue Indian Ocean.Remarking how nice such a view must appear to tourists, Mr. Rountree said: “It’s almost as if the rice is a solution for problems we didn’t even know we had.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/business/energy-environment/in-mauritius-gourmet-rice-points-to-a-brighter-future.html?_r=0&utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+October+20%2C+2015&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email

New deal resumes rice exports to China

Tue, 20 October 2015
Cambodia inked a new deal last week to export 100,000 tonnes of rice to China, according to local state media AKP.The new rice quota, which will begin in early 2016, was announced on the sidelines of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to China last week.The deal comes six months after the Ministry of Commerce expressed interest in April to double its rice shipments to China from 100,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015 11:59
Posted by Parvez Jabri
MANILA: The Philippines could be forced to import more rice after Typhoon Koppu hit major grain producing regions over the weekend causing "significant" losses, a senior agriculture official said on Tuesday.Official preliminary estimates on losses stood at around 412,000 tonnes of paddy rice, accounting for about 5 percent of the government's forecast fourth quarter harvest of 7.95 million tonnes. A final figure is expected in around a week."If you ask me if we need to import more, I would say 'yes', but up to what volume and when, I don't know," Edilberto de Luna, Department of Agriculture assistant secretary for field operations, told Reuters on Tuesday."This is a significant volume because the typhoon hit our major rice-producing provinces."Powerful typhoon Koppu ploughed into the northeastern Philippines before dawn on Sunday destroying homes and displacing thousands of people.
The Southeast Asian country remains one of the world's biggest buyers of rice, with imports approved for delivery this year reaching nearly 1.8 million tonnes, mainly from Vietnam and some from Thailand, two of the world's top suppliers.Prior to the typhoon, the country's National Food Authority Council had already been assessing the need to import 1 million tonnes of rice next year on top of 500,000 tonnes approved for the first quarter.The typhoon losses add to those from a dry spell induced by the El Nino weather phenomenon, forecast to intensify this quarter and extend until the second quarter of 2016.

Rice output in the third quarter was likely slightly lower than initially projected due to the dry spell, pest attack and typhoons, while stocks had shrunk steadily for four straight months starting May.But de Luna said that rains brought by Koppu had filled up water-starved dams, which should allow rice farmers to begin planting soon without worrying too much about water access.
Total crop losses from the typhoon, including those for rice, corn and other crops, were initially valued at 6.3 billion pesos ($137 million), he said.Corn losses were "minimal" at about 5,000 tonnes because harvesting was finished before Koppu's arrival, de Luna added.

http://www.brecorder.com/world/global-business-a-economy/257735-philippines-may-import-more-rice-after-typhoon-damages-crops.html

Philippines says 'significant' rice losses from Typhoon Koppu

Photo: AFP
MANILA - Around 412,000 tonnes of unmilled rice that has yet to be harvested may have been damaged by Typhoon Koppu when it hit the Philippines' major grain producing regions during the weekend, a senior agriculture official told Reuters on Tuesday. The initial estimate on rice crop losses was a "significant"volume and may prompt food security authorities to import more of the staple food, said Edilberto De Luna, Department of Agriculture assistant secretary for field operations.
That accounts for about 5 percent of the government's forecast for total paddy rice output of 7.95 million tonnes for the December quarter, based on its July survey of farmers'planting intentions.

http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/philippines-says-significant-rice-losses-typhoon-koppu#sthash.teFaaJVv.dpuf
SunRice guarantee to growers
THE WEEKLY TIMES
OCTOBER 21, 2015 12:00AM

Rice price promise: SunRice announce price guarantee for the first time since drought amid low Riverina water allocations. Picture: Andy Rogers

SUNRICE has announced an upfront guaranteed price for this year’s rice crop amid concerns about water allocations in the NSW Riverina.The company said last week it would pay growers $415 a tonne for reiziq rice, $545 for koshihikari and up to $655 for organic rice for the 2016 crop, which is currently being sown.It is the first time since the drought years of 2008-10 that SunRice has guaranteed a price before planting.Farmers don’t normally have an indicative price but receive the first pool estimates and partial payment in about April when they harvest.SunRice chairman and Moulamein grower Laurie Arthur said the price guarantee was made after a “crisis of confidence” among rice growers last month because of low water allocations for the main rice-growing regions.The NSW Government last week said the Riverina’s Murray Valley general security water allocation would increase from 6 to 12 per cent and the Murrumbidgee Valley allocation from 27 to 29 per cent.
Mr Arthur said SunRice decided to offer a strong price guarantee to “give our growers the confidence to plant”.Rice Growers Association president Jeremy Morton said members wanted certainty about their rice price.“Allocations are low and some (growers) will have to go to the temporary market to supplement their water,” Mr Morton said.He said the announcement would give growers confidence to plant rice before the end of the sowing window in about four weeks.
Jasmine fragrant rice to be developed as Vietnam’s national rice brand
VietNamNet Bridge - The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) has decided that Jasmine, a type of fragrant rice, will be developed into the country’s national rice brand.

Vietnam is well known as one of the largest rice exporters in the world which mostly exports low- and medium-end rice at low prices. Vietnamese farmers grow rice of different varieties. Harvested rice is sold by farmers to merchants, who buy rice from different sources, then mix the rice before selling to food companies for export.However, VFA has decided to develop Jasmine, a high-quality fragrant rice variety into the nation’s rice brand. VFA’s chair Huynh The Nang said it would be not an easy task to build up a national rice brand. However, when considering the structure of the rice exports in the last few years, VFA recognized that the fragrant exports account for an increasingly high proportion of total exports.Eight years ago, fragrant rice just accounted for 3 percent of total rice exports.
However, the figure soared to 26 percent in the first nine months of the year.VFA believes that developing an existing fragrant rice variety into the national brand is the best way for Vietnam to increase its brand recognition in the world market. Jasmine is the best choice among fragrant rice varieties.According to Nang, Vietnam previously could sell fragrant rice at $460 per ton, but the price has been increasing rapidly recently. Vietnamese exporters now can sell fragrant rice at $600 per ton.However, Nang admitted that it would take a long time to turn the idea into reality, though Vietnam’s Jasmine rice is very delicious and has high quality.In order to make fragrant rice for export, Vietnam would have to organize production on a large scale, and cannot rely on farmers’ small-scale cultivation.
Nang, who is also the general director of the Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2), one of two of Vietnam’s largest rice exporters, said Vinafood 2 is planning to join forces with some other enterprises to organize the fragrant rice production in accordance with the large-field model for export.Some days ago, sources said Vinafood 2 was considering teaming up with Loc Troi Group, formerly the An Giang Plant Protection JSC, to implement the project.Nguyen Trong Thua, a senior official from the agriculture ministry, said a lot of work would need to be done to develop the nation’s rice brand, from choosing varieties to organizing production, harvesting, processing and preservation.Vietnam began exporting rice in 1989, but it still does not have a national brand, which is believed to be the reason why the country’s rice is inferior to exports from other countries in importers’ eyes.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/143662/jasmine-fragrant-rice-to-be-developed-as-vietnam-s-national-rice-brand.html



Rice quality key to export growt
Workers at Hau River Food Company in the southern Can Tho Province load rice for export. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue
HA NOI  (VNS) — Viet Nam's rice exports have seen positive growth in the first quarter of 2015, but production needs to be restructured with rise in quality of trading and reputation, said experts.They said the demand for traditional rice export markets of Viet Nam has seen a recovery, such as a contract to export 450,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines.
Huynh Minh Hue, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Food Association, said Viet Nam has signed commercial contracts to export 1.3 million tonnes of rice and centralised contracts on shipping 1.5 million tonnes of rice in six months.However, Le Thanh Khiem, deputy director of the Tien Giang Food Company, said Viet Nam should focus on increasing the quality of exported rice rather than the volume to enter the high value export markets such as Europe and Japan that place high demand on quality for imported rice, Vietnamplus reported.Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said Viet Nam's export quality rice still expects traditional and centralised export markets.
The agricultural sector needs to restructure production and business of rice to improve product quality and build a trademark. These actions will help local rice producers and traders to avoid losses when the demand for imported rice drop.Vo Thanh Do, deputy head of the Department of Processing and Trade for Agro-forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt, said Viet Nam has more than 200 medium- and large-scale enterprises exporting rice, but Vietnamese rice is rated among the medium and low segments on the world market. The nation has seen low volume in exports of high export quality rice.

In addition, while Viet Nam is one of the top three rice exporters on the world, the nation has not seen a national rice brand name so far, Do said, while Thailand and India have had many export quality rice products with national brand names.Moreover, Viet Nam has not chosen rice varieties for stable development in the long term, Khiem said. Most of Vietnamese rice varieties were developed in the short term and then were degraded.Therefore, Viet Nam's rice need to face strong competition in quality and brand names with potential rivals such as Cambodia, Myanmar and the United States.Nguyen Duc Thanh, director of the Viet Nam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR), said if Viet Nam focusses on the easy markets, the nation will reduce its quality standards in production and export of rice.
The competitive ability of Vietnamese export quality rice will reduce more and more on the global market.When free trade agreements with foreign partners come into effect in the future, Viet Nam's rice industry will not have the power to change its quality to gain any advantage from the agreements.So, Viet Nam needs to restructure its rice production and business right now. The restructuring could bring rice output down but strongly raise the value and brand name of Vietnamese rice in the future, Thanh said.The prime minister has approved a plan for the development of Viet Nam's rice brand by 2020 onwards to 2030. Under the plan, Viet Nam will have a brand name for 20 per cent of its national total rice export volume by 2020 and be a part of the global value chain. The percentage will increase to 50 per cent in 2030.According to the VFA report, Viet Nam shipped over 4.3 million tonnes of rice worth US$1.95 billion abroad till September 2015, down 9.12 per cent in terms of volume and 14.3 per cent in value compared to the same period last year. — VNS
http://vietnamnews.vn/economy/277320/rice-quality-key-to-export-growth.html
State U, partners  push aerobic rice farming  technology
October 20, 2015

KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato,  Oct 20 (PIA)  —  Government-run Sultan  Kudarat  State University based in  Tacurong City is  advancing the adoption of aerobic  rice technology, a  production system that is  appropriate in  areas with insufficient water supply. Aerobic rice, according to the  International Rice  Research Institute (IRRI) is “a production system where rice
is grown in well-drained, non-puddled, and non-saturated soils. Water requirements can be lowered by reducing water losses due to seepage, percolation, and evaporation.” Dr. Ruby  Hechanova, director for  research and development of SKSU  told  Philippine Information Agency that  aerobic rice  technology “could help  address the problems of  farmers regarding climate  change such as  El Nino” because it   requires  minimum amount of water.  “Unlike in conventional  farming  where rice paddies should be submerged in water, in aerobic  rice  technology  rice can be grown even with only 10 percent  soil moisture,”  Dr. Hechanova said.
According to the Rice Knowledge Bank of IRRI, said  farming system is   suitable in  “areas  where the land is flat and where rainfall  with or  without supplemental irrigation is  sufficient to  frequently being the soil water close to field  capacity…” 
 It is  also fit in upper slopes or terraces in undulating, rainfed lowland and water-short irrigated farms.Hechanova added that aerobic  rice researches  conducted in  rice fields at the tail-end  of  irrigations  systems in some parts of Luzon showed positive  results. In 2014, she said, SKSU  started  testing the aerobic  rice  technology in the towns of Quirino and Lutayan and  Tacurong City, all in Sultan Kudarat  province. “With appropriate management,  yield  from aerobic  rice  is comparable to that from  conventional farming,” she  said. Aerobic  rice  technology is  highlighted in 3rd Aerobic Rice National Conference at the Sarangani Highlands  in General Santos  City from October 20 - 23. The event highlights updates on aerobic  rice technology and  other  potential water-saving technologies  for  rice production.
Paper presentations cover aerobic  rice technology  and related research and development  activities  from leading institutions  such as  Bataan Peninsula State University, Bulacan Agricultural State College, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Isabela State University and others. It is also an opportunity   for sharing of  good practices on aerobic  rice production. The 3rd Aerobic  Rice National  Conference is  supported by  IRRI, ICRISAT, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Research, Bureau of Soils and Water Management, Philippine Rice Research Institute and the aforementioned state schools. Participants  include academicians, researchers, farmers, and representatives of   government and nongovernment  organizations. (DEDoguiles-PIA 12)

 http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/1611445302179/state-u-partners-push-aerobic-rice-farming-technology-#sthash.hhXhAJRf.dpuf

22nd October 2015 Daily Exclusive ORYZA Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

New Online Platform for International Agricultural Trade

Oct 21, 2015

The Italian Telematic Commodity Exchange has developed a new online platform for international agricultural trade, "International Market",  to extend the benefits and advantages of an electronic commodity exchange to non-European countries.
It also aims at balancing the demand for and supply of food products between European and non-European countries.
The Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry presented the "International Market" on October 20, 2015 at the Milan Rice Expo.
"We are ready to start with a first experimental phase of one year, involving mostly African countries, from Egypt to Tunisia, from Angola to other Mediterranean partners. The development of international relations, fairer and more transparent markets passes through innovative solutions such as this," said the Italian Agriculture Minister.
The new platform will allow small and medium sized enterprises from the developing countries to trade internationally by surpassing the gap related to different international regulations. It also allows parties to integrate their agreements with the choice of more and specific contractual terms.
Members will receive ID and password to access the trading platform and transact their goods and conclude effective contracts. The platform automatically records the prices and quantities of various goods traded thereby ensuring market transparency.
The "International Market" is seen as an innovative tool to facilitate companies' access to foreign markets in a regulated and transparent way.

Indonesia will Import Rice if Dry Season Continues Until November 2015, Says President

Oct 21, 2015

The Indonesian President today confirmed that the government would decide to import rice if rains don't resume by the fourth week of October 2015 and if the dry season continues till November, according to local sources.
The President noted that rice import agreements are already finalized with some exporting nations and rice can be shipped to Indonesia whenever needed. He stated that the imported rice will be used to add up to the national rice reserves.
The Vice-President earlier indicated that Indonesia needs to import about 1.5 million tons of rice to maintain adequate stocks and avoid price hikes. He confirmed that the government would import rice from Vietnam to maintain food supply at the end of this year after analyzing the likely food shortages in November and December 2015.
Indonesian rice production is likely to be impacted by a drought-inducing El Nino phenomenon, which is expected to be stronger than that experienced in the 1997-1998 period.
The President was keen on achieving self-sufficiency in rice production and avoid imports. However, the extending dry conditions have prompted the government to import rice.

Iraq Seeks to Purchase 30,000 Tons of Rice in International Tenders

Oct 21, 2015

Iraq has invited international tenders to purchase about 30,000 tons of rice from U.S., Uruguay, Argentina and India, Bloomberg quoted a statement from the Iraq's Trade Ministry.
Last date for submitting bids is November 11, 2015 and offers remain valid till November 19, 2015.
The Iraq Trade Ministry did not make any purchase in the last tender, for which it initially set September 6, 2015 as deadline to receive bids with offers having to remain valid until September 10. It extended the deadline twice due to high prices.




Plans Underway to Develop Global Food Crop Genetics Search-Engine

Plans are underway to develop a new food crop genetics search-engine known as Global Information System (GLIS), which can speed up research efforts aimed at breeding and developing higher yielding crop varieties, according to local sources.  
Nearly 139 government agencies and non-government organizations who are members of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources have approved for the development of GLIS at a meeting in Rome recently.
The Head of genetic resources at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) noted that the GLIS will serve as an index that helps users to get  information that exists on many databases around the world. "It is a bit like the search-engines Google or Bing, they are indexes of information held on other people's websites," he said.
He noted that many gene banks contain rarely used, low-yielding varieties of rice and other food crops, and these contain useful genetic traits, like disease resistance, drought or frost tolerance. An index developed with their traits can help researchers breed better varieties, he said. "If you can transfer specific desirable plant characteristics from the old varieties into the new varieties, then you create something that's better than the best," he added.
It is understood that world's famous genetic repositories such as Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway and a facility in Horsham in Australia will be roped in to provide public access to digital information about genetics held in their collections.
Australia, which chairs the Treaty's governing body, has so far contributed over $1.5 million to the Treaty since 2009, according to the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.

China Rice Imports Increase Sharply in First Nine Months of 2015

Oct 21, 2015
China has imported around 2.314 million tons of rice in the first nine months of 2015 (January - December), up about 34% from around 1.73 million tons imported during the same period last year, according to data from China Customs General Administration.
In September 2015, China imported around 357,700 tons of rice, up about 66% from around 215,000 tons imported in August 2015, and almost twice of around 180,000 tons imported in September 2014.
China has exported around 205,200 tons of rice in first nine months of 2015, down about 43% from around 363,161 tons exported during the same period last year, according to data from the China Customs General Administration.
In September 2015, China exported around 63,000 tons of rice, up about 3.3 times from around 19,000 tons exported in August 2015 and up about 45% from around 43,489 tons exported in September 2014.
China imported about 2.563 million tons of rice and exported about 419,069 tons of rice and in 2014.
USDA estimates China to produce around 145.5 million tons of milled rice in MY 2015-16 (July - June). It estimates China to import around 4.7 million tons and export around 400,000 tons of rice in 2015.

Philippines to Hold Emergency Meeting on Additional Rice Imports This Week

Oct 21, 2015

The government of Philippines has decided to hold an emergency meeting this week to discuss about additional rice imports this year after the Typhoon Koppu left many paddy fields damaged, according to Reuters.
The National Food Authority (NFA) Council is scheduled to meet on October 29to review the country's rice supplies and the need for one million tons rice imports next year. However, the NFA Council has decided to advance the meeting to this week as crop losses from the Typhoon are likely to be high.
"We will immediately discuss if the stocks we've prepared for El Nino and an additional volume that has yet to arrive would still be enough until December," said the NFA Administrator.
The typhoon reportedly has destroyed about 400,000 tons of paddy rice, almost 5% of the estimated output of around 7.95 million tons (basis milled) in the last quarter.
The government has already approved for importing about 1.8 million tons of rice for delivery this year.

Oryza Afternoon Recap - Chicago Rough Rice Futures Move Higher as Firmer Grains Continue to Support the Market

Oct 22, 2015

Chicago rough rice futures for Nov delivery settled 8.5 cents per cwt (about $2 per ton) higher at $12.260 per cwt (about $270 per ton). The other grains traded higher today; Soybeans closed about 1% higher at $9.0525 per bushel; wheat finished about 0.7% higher at $4.9475 per bushel, and corn finished the day about 1.1% higher at $3.8075 per bushel.
U.S. stocks were mixed in choppy trade Wednesday, as investors took in fresh corporate earnings. The Dow Jones industrial average was slightly higher, while the S&P and the Nasdaq traded near the flatline again. Investors also digested EIA oil inventories data, which showed inventories rise by 8 million barrels, as U.S. crude prices have fallen over 4.5% this week. Wall Street also digested Japanese exports data, which came in far weaker than expected. Japan's annual export growth slowed for the third straight month in September, raising questions as to whether or not the Bank of Japan will go further into its qualitative and quantitative easing program. In Europe, stocks ended mixed, with the pan-European STOXX 600 closing flat and the German DAX ending higher in anticipation of Thursday's European Central Bank meeting. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 44 points, or 0.24%, to 17,259. The S&P 500 traded 0.26 points higher at 2,031, with industrials leading four sectors lower and materials leading laggards. The Nasdaq fell 6 points, or 0.12%, to 4,874. Gold is trading about 0.8% lower, crude oil is seen trading about 2.1% lower, and the U.S. dollar is seen trading about 0.1% higher about  1:30pm Chicago time.
Tuesday, there were 967 contracts traded, down from 1,694 contracts traded on Monday. Open interest – the number of contracts outstanding – on Tuesday increased by 214 contracts to 13,108.

Thailand, Vietnam Rice Sellers Alter Some of Their Quotes Today; Other Asian Quotes Remain Unchanged

Oct 21, 2015

Thailand rice sellers lowered their quotes for parboiled rice by about $5 per ton to around $30 - $370 per ton today. Vietnam rice sellers increased their quotes for jasmine rice variety by about $5 per ton to around $475 - $485 per ton. Other rice sellers kept their quotes unchanged from yesterday.
5% Broken Rice
Thailand 5% rice is indicated at around $355 - $365 per ton about $15 per ton discount on Vietnam 5% rice shown at around $370 - $380 per ton. India 5% rice is indicated at around $350 - $360 per ton, about $45 per ton premium on Pakistan 5% rice shown at around $305 - $315 per ton.
25% Broken Rice
Thailand 25% rice is indicated at around $330 - $340 per ton, about $20 per ton discount on Vietnam 25% rice shown at around $350- $360 per ton. India 25% rice is indicated at around $330 - $340 per ton, about $50 per ton premium on Pakistan 25% rice shown at around $280 - $290 per ton.
Parboiled Rice
Thailand parboiled rice is indicated at around $360 - $370 per ton. India parboiled rice is indicated at around $340 - $350 per ton, about $65 per ton discount to Pakistan parboiled rice last shown at around $405 - $415 per ton.                            
100% Broken Rice

Thailand broken rice, A1 Super is indicated at around $305 - $315 per ton, at par with Vietnam 100% broken rice shown at around $305 - $315 per ton. India's 100% broken rice is shown at around $290 - $300 per ton, about $15 per ton premium on Pakistan broken sortexed rice shown at around $275 - $285 per ton.