Wednesday, December 21, 2016

21st December,2016 daily global,regional and local rice enewsletter by riceplus magazine

REAP urges SBP to give six-month relaxation

December 21, 2016
The Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has sent a SOS message to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) seeking a six-month relaxation for the rice exporters for the year 2015-16 who could not succeed to achieve export performance as required by the SBP to match with Export Refinance Scheme.

Heavy penalties are being imposed on the exporters against short performance by the State Bank which is adding to the woes of exporters already under financial burden because of declining rice exports, especially Basmati for the last few years. There are many reasons of this sharp decline in Pakistani rice exporters which include unfavourable local and international prices and Indian rice factor, said a letter written by the REAP to the Governor SBP.

"We have already discussed this issue with the Ministry of Finance. For the year 2014-15, this relaxation was extended by the SBP and now we are seeking the same relaxation for the year 2015-16", said Senior Vice President Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan Shahjahan Malik while talking to this scribe, here on Tuesday. He urged the government to extend a relief of six months for saving the rice export sector from total collapse.

Shahjahan reviewing the year 2015-16 said it could be termed as bleak year for rice exports, especially for Basmati whose export fell by 18 to 20 percent. He said one of the major factors behind their Basmati rice exports' decline was lower rates of Indian Basmati rice because they had good new seeds giving them more per acre yield as compared to Pakistan.


He said just because of their lower prices, the Indians were far ahead of the Pakistanis in Saudi market which is also a big consumer of Basmati rice. Similarly, he said that they could not take advantage of normalisation of Iran-US relations which could earn as a big Basmati market. "We are yet to set up a banking channel which could help us opening L/Cs and make our presence felt in Iran," the REAP Senior Vice Chairman added.


On long term basis, he said their rice research institutes should introduce new higher yield rice seeds with resistance against diseases and climate change. More per acre yield could help us marketing cheaper rights, he said, and added that they are researching on some new varieties in collaboration with Chinese at his organisation to bring new varieties with higher yields.


However, it will take three to four years for making such varieties commercially acceptable for the growers after their introduction. On the front of REAP, he said they would be sending two delegations - one to Saudi Arab and another to the US for marketing Pakistani rice. "There are reservations on pesticide residue in Indian rice in the US which is not present in Pakistani rice and we are planning to take advantage of it", Shahjahan Malik concluded
http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/115539/

 

Ties with Iran: Envoy urges businessmen to daub trade potential


Daily Heights Posted Date : December 19, 2016 

RAWALPINDI: There are extensive opportunities to urge trade family between Pakistan and Iran, pronounced Pakistan Ambassador to Iran Asif Ali Khan Durrani during his revisit to a Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) on Monday.
Addressing a traders, he pronounced that Pakistan and Iran have aged story and they are culturally, historically, linguistically and religiously trustworthy with any other.He pronounced that Pakistan is confronting an appetite predicament and Iran has adequate energy sources in terms of electricity and gas. As a universe powers have carried sanctions on a nation there are good opportunities for Pakistani businessmen to daub trade intensity in Iran, a envoy added.“Pharmaceutical, information technology, petro chemical and line can offer as pivotal areas of investment to urge shared trade.” Durrani pronounced that Iran is a large marketplace and Pakistani products have a good repute and value in Iranian market. There is a large approach of Pakistani basmati rice, he added.
Talking about a problems opposition trade he pronounced there is a need to urge a banking channels to residence a LC issues and atmosphere links with approach flights from Tehran to Islamabad and other cities.He sensitive a participants about a arriving “Aalishan Pakistan Expo” in Iran to be hold on Mar 4-7. Durrani positive his full team-work and pronounced that his bureau is prepared to yield any assistance in this regard.Also vocalization on a occasion, RCCI President Raja Amer Iqbal pronounced that a sell of delegations is important, as singular nation exhibitions can be a good source of introducing products in any other’s market.

Assuring a envoy of their appearance in a arriving expo, Iqbal pronounced that a business village is prepared to urge a shared trade volume and business activities between a dual countries.He urged a supervision to take evident stairs to solve issues like etiquette tariffs, clearance, third currency, banking channel and improved railway links. He pronounced that a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor offers a large event for traders to urge informal trade and connectivity. An flexible response and assistance is compulsory from a government, he added.The envoy was given a brief lecture on RCCI stream and arriving events.

Published in The Express Tribune, Dec 20th, 2016.
Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay sensitive and join in a conversation

 

FCI staff against digitisation, says rice millers’ body

Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 20
Hailing the demonetisation decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Punjab Rice Millers Association today accused the Food Corporation of India (FCI) employees for trying to derail the motive of demonetisation.“We have welcomed the demonetisation move of the Prime Minister who have also announced that it would abolish inspector raj and help to weed out corruption from the country,” association president Tarsem Saini said. He alleged that FCI employees in the state were adamant that the country remained dependent on manual systems instead of digital ones.
Saini said to make the process digital, the Chief Managing Director of the Food Corporation of India had set up three computerised labs in Punjab for rice acceptance at Patiala, Jagraon and Sunam and even digital moisture metres had been installed, but employees of the FCI refused to use the digital system and insisted on manual process.“If the digital process is implemented there will not be any opportunity for employees to indulge in corruption, which they do in manual process, thus they have even gone on strike against the digital processes,” Saini alleged.

The association alleged that to continue with their corrupt practices, the staff of the Food Corporation of India and Punjab State Warehousing Corporation were on strike for nearly 10 days. “To root out corruption, the Food Corporation of India management had invested huge sums to make the FCI weighbridges online but the agencies and Food Corporation of India employees were creating obstacles not to implement the same,” Saini said

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jalandhar/fci-staff-against-digitisation-says-rice-millers-body/339761.html

New ‘Survivor’ Rice Variety

The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) is carrying out research to develop a new rice variety that can withstand drastic climatic changes, survive pest attacks, and is resistant to plant diseases.According to state news agency AKP, the CARDI research involves incorporating desirable traits from the Romduol and Leangchey rice species into a new laboratory-developed variety called “Ei Air”.“The new rice variety can be planted all through the year and can withstand floods, drought, diseases and pest attacks,” said Ouk Makara, director of CARDI.
 “It will have all the good qualities of Romduol and the strong survival traits of Leangchey,” added Mr. Makara.“The selected new variety can survive under [climatic] stress and retain desirable grain qualities. This will have positive impacts in the lives of poor farmers.”Mr. Makara said CARDI’s research had the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and other rice research centers in neighboring countries.
 Researchers in Asean and the Greater Mekong Sub-region are creating more robust, climate-ready rice varieties that boost yields and adapt well to harsh conditions. According to the International Rice Research Institute in Manila, a process known as marker assisted back-crossing can identify favorable survival traits, and combine them with other favorable traits to create more robust, elite rice varietieshttp://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/33376/new----survivor----rice-variety/

Philippines eyes faster 2017 farm output, banking on China demand

Reuters
Posted at Dec 20 2016 06:54 PM
MANILA - Philippine farm output growth could speed up to 7 percent to 8 percent next year as the Southeast Asian nation looks to ship more agricultural products to markets like China, the agriculture minister said.
China lifted a ban on Philippine exports of pineapples and bananas in October and pledged to import more fish and farm products from the Southeast Asian nation after President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to build a commercial alliance with Beijing."Our farmers are upbeat nowadays because of the opening of new export markets for them," Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol told a media briefing on Tuesday.
Next year's growth target in agriculture would outpace this year's forecast of a 3.5 percent to 5 percent increase. Piñol said 2016 growth would be supported by another bumper rice harvest in the final quarter, thanks largely to favorable weather.
He expected unmilled rice output to rise to 18.57 million tons next year from a projected 17.9 million tons this year as the government increases support to farmers by providing more seeds and irrigation services.
The moves should boost average yield per hectare to six tons in some areas from close to four tonnes currently, he said.Piñol said the Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers, was on track to be self sufficient in rice production by 2019.Agriculture accounts for about a tenth of the country's gross domestic product, but Piñol said he wants to raise the sector's contribution to overall economic output to 20 percent.

DA pins hope on hybrid seeds to hit rice self-sufficiency goal

-
File Photo of hybrid rice seeds
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will plant hybrid rice seeds in 1 million hectares of irrigated lands starting next year in its bid to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2019.Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the government will identify 10 initial areas with 1,000 hectares of irrigated land under the Masaganang Ani (MA) 6000 program.
“The DA is positive that it can be done. We are now in the process of finalizing the MA 6000 program, which will initially target 1 million hectares of irrigated areas,” Piñol told reporters in a news briefing on Tuesday.
“These areas will be supported with hybrid-rice seeds, sufficient fertilizer, and efficient irrigation system and mechanization,” he added. Under the MA 6000 program, Piñol said they will only use 1 million hectares of the 1.3 million hectares of irrigated lands in the country, according to the latest report National Irrigation Administration (NIA) report.
“The purpose of the Masaganang Ani 6000 is to address the issues that would contribute to productivity. It’s the existing irrigated area that we are going to utilize, we are not expanding,” he said.
The DA said it is eyeing to improve the national average rice production to 6 metric tons (MT) per hectare from the current 3.9 MT per hectare. Citing farmers’ testimonies, Piñol said they are able to produce more than the national average yield by planting hybrid rice seeds in areas with proper irrigation system and efficient farm machines. “So we are in the process of coming up with a system on how we are going to implement the MA 6000 program and how we are going to extend the distribution of hyrbid-rice seeds, fertilizers, as well as the needed pest control materials,” he said.
“If we can perfect that program then we can achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2019,” Piñol added.Increasing the productivity of the 1 million hectare areas targeted under the MA 6000 program by 2 MT per ha. would increase annual rice output by 2.4 million metric tons (MMT) and wipe out imports.“Considering that the areas being targeted are irrigated, the increase in rice output could reach 2.4 MMT.“We are currently short of 1.8 MMT of rice, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO],” Piñol said.
Citing the FAO data, he said farmers lose about 20 percent of their harvest during the milling of rice due to the use of inefficient machines.“The old rice mills have a recovery rate of 60 percent against the 65 percent recovery rate of new rice mills, so that’s 5 percent being wasted,” he said.“Our intention is really to modernize the post-harvest facilities, hoping that at least we can cut post-harvest losses to as low as 10 percent,” Piñol added





Thailand Exports 9.3 Million Tons of Rice Jan to Mid-Dec 2016: Commerce Ministry
Bangkok. Thailand has exported 9.3 million tons of rice so far this year, mostly to China and countries in Africa, the commerce ministry said on Monday (19/12), well short of the government's target for 2016.
From January to Dec. 14, 2016 Thailand signed export agreements for 9.3 million tons of rice worth $4.17 billion said Duangporn Rodphaya, chief of the ministry's foreign trade department. Early this month, Commerce Minister Apiradee Tantraporn said Thailand's rice exports this year would reach 10.5 million tons, above an earlier target of 9.5 million tons. In a statement on Monday, Duangporn said Thailand, the world's second-largest rice exporter after India, will meet its rice export target this year and has until early January to finalize export agreements.
The top importers of Thai rice this year were Benin, Ivory Coast, South Africa, China and Cameroon, she added. Thailand has stocks of about 8 million tons left over from a rice-buying scheme under the previous government that paid farmers well above market rates for their rice. Most of the rice has been stored for more than five years, the foreign trade department said, making it difficult to sell it at target prices and to find potential buyers.
The current military government has been trying to sell off stockpiles from the scheme through several state auctions since it took power in 2014. Duangporn said the rice could be used for industrial purposes, adding that the government plans to offload all of the remaining rice stocks from the scheme by end-2017
http://img.beritasatu.com/cache/jakartaglobe/909x605-2/2014/04/2014-04-17T070523Z_847281681








Rice Export Firms Get Go Ahead

Eighteen local rice export companies are now eligible to carry out milled rice exports to China starting from next month, according to an announcement released on Monday by the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF).The announcement added that the CRF and the Green Trade Company – under the umbrella of the Commerce Ministry – will play a role in facilitating exports and send the list of qualified local rice mills to China.“The validity of this export quota of rice takes effect from January to December 2017,” it said.“After a discussion between the Chinese company COFCO, CRF and Green Trade from December 15 to 17 in Beijing, the three parties agreed to allow the first 18 local rice mills to start fulfilling the export quota as most of these companies have experience exporting rice to China in the past.
”In October, China signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to import rice with an export quota of 200,000 tons per year from the Kingdom.Earlier this month, a delegation of Chinese experts inspected the quality and safety at 28 rice mills during a week-long visit to Cambodia. All of the rice mills passed quality and food hygiene tests for export to China.CRF vice president Hun Lak told Khmer Times yesterday that the 18 local rice export companies would begin exporting rice to China next month. The other 10 local rice export companies that passed inspection will proceed with exports later.
Mr. Lak said there was no limit in the amount of rice exports for each company as it is a free market but he could not disclose how many tons would be exported to China in January.“We start exporting rice to China based on orders and it depends on price negotiations. We do not know the amount of rice to be exported yet,” he said.Mr. Lak said that the quality, standard and hygiene were accepted by China, but export quantities more or less depended on price as China always compares prices with Cambodia’s neighbors. He added that more rice would be exported if Cambodia can compete with the price offered by Thailand and Vietnam.
Phou Puy, president of the Battambang-based Green Rice Miller, a company that has been exporting rice to China for years, told Khmer Times yesterday that the demand for Cambodian rice from China has been increasing of late.
 
He said Cambodian rice quality and prices can compete with both Thailand and Vietnam and added that exports to China would increase if the amount, quality and price were acceptable to both parties. “I did not calculate yet how many tons of rice we export to China, but overall about 60,000 tons of rice have been exported to China, the European Union, Malaysia and Brunei,” Mr. Puy said.
“The price of rice sold to China is between $500 FOB [free on board] per ton to about $620 FOB per ton – it depends on the season and market.”Amru Rice (Cambodia) president Song Saran told Khmer Times that Amru is new to the Chinese market and most of its exports are to the European Union, but he is optimistic about the new market’s potential. He said Amru exported about 500 tons to 1,000 tons of rice to China this year.“I really appreciate this new market. Market diversification gives plenty of choices to farmers,” he said. Cambodia exported about 500,000 tons of rice to the international market in the first 11 months of this year, a five percent increase compared with the same period last year. China alone imported about 107,091 tons
Buzz Nigeria


State rice stocks headed for disposal

Warehouse charges cost B510m a month
20 Dec 2016 at 07:56 5,547 viewed4 comments
NEWSPAPER SECTION: BUSINESS | WRITER: PHUSADEE ARUNMAS

Forklifting sacks of rice at a processing plant in Ayutthaya province. The government plans to bring the quantity of state rice stocks down as much as possible next year. THITI WANNAMONTHA

The government is committed to disposing all 8 million tonnes of state rice stocks next year.According to Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, most of the existing 8 million tonnes of rice stocks are white rice, and 5 million tonnes of the total is poor-quality grain unfit for human consumption.
The remaining 3 million tonnes are mixed-grade in quality, suitable for human consumption.The government has been paying 510 million baht a month for rice warehouses.According to Mrs Duangporn, the Commerce Ministry is in talks with the Energy and Industry Ministry to find proper ways to use rice stocks unsuitable for human consumption for industrial purposes, such as biomass and ethanol production.

For good-quality grain, she said, the authorities will call general auctions at opportune periods.Since the May 2014 coup, 8.68 million tonnes of rice has been sold via 23 auctions, fetching 89.2 billion baht.Government-to-government rice deals have unloaded an estimated 3.8 million tonnes worth 50 billion baht.The state-held rice stocks have fallen sharply from the 18.7 million tonnes accumulated through various rice-pledging schemes during 2011-14.According to Mrs Duangporn, lower rice supply will benefit the government if it succeeds in selling existing state-held stocks.

The government expects Thailand's rice shipments to remain strong, with this year's figures possibly exceeding the Commerce Ministry's target of 9.5 million tonnes.As of Dec 14, she said Thailand had shipped 9.3 million tonnes, up 2% from the same period last year, fetching US$4.17 billion.The top five importers were Benin, China, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Cameroon.Of the total exports, white rice made up for 50%, hom mali rice 25% and parboiled, glutinous and Pathum Thani fragrant rice comprised the rest.Mrs Duangporn said hom mali rice shipments have risen this year to 2 million tonnes from 1.5 million tonnes last year, mainly to China, Indonesia and the Philippines."Thailand's rice prices have gradually improved thanks to the government's myriad measures, teamed with the private sector promoting rice sales," Mrs Duangporn said.

Bangkok Post



LAKE Rice Now Selling at N12,000 Per Bag In Lagos

·         Post by Iheoma Hendy December 20, 2016

As promised, the Lagos State Government has commenced the sale of its ‘LAKE Rice’ at the price of N12,000 for 50kg and N6,000 for 25kg.Last week, the Special Adviser on Food Security to Governor Akinwumi Ambode, Sanni Okanlawan, said that the rice sale which was earlier slated to begin from December 15 was postponed to this week to ensure plots to hijack the project was averted.The state government had planned to sell the rice at N13,000 per 50kg bag at the 57 Local Government and Local Council Development area headquarters.During the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry National Agriculture Stakeholders Summit, Okanlawon said that government was installing mechanisms for Lagosians to celebrate the best Yuletide without hiccups posed by money bags.
According to Okanlawan:

“We are working out the modalities to make sure that what the government intends to sell at N13,000 was not hijacked and sold to Lagosians at N15,000, that is what we do not want. From all indications, hopefully, by next week LAKE Rice will be out, so, we want everything to be in place before it is out.”Also Read: Lagos Markets Reduce Prices of Food Condiments by 55%

National Helm reports that LAKE Rice is now available and can be bought at the following locations nearest to you:
LAGOS EAST
Ikorodu – Odogunyan Farm Service Centre
Epe – Temu Farm Service Centre
Eredo – Noforija Town Hall
Ibeju – Magbon Alade High School
Maryland – Subeb Premises
LAGOS WEST


Agege – LSADA Complex/Farm Service Centre
Ojo – LAISA Agric Bus Stop
Mowo – Coconut House
Badagry – Town Farm Service Centre, Marina
Oshodi – Ikeja Grammar School, Bolade
LAGOS CENTRAL
Ajah – Ministry of Agric Area Office
Lagos Island – Lastma Office Adeniji/Freeman
Ajegunle – Alakoto Senior High School, Tolu
Surulere – TESLIM Balogun stadium
Yaba – Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre,
Rowe Park

LAKE Rice is the acronym of both Lagos and Kebbi States joint product subsidised by the government. In March, Lagos State government signed an MoU with the Kebbi State Government to produce rice paddy to be milled and packaged in Lagos State.




Scientists look to ‘sea rice’ to lift output

Source: Xinhua | December 21, 2016, Wednesday
Sea rice is sometimes found in saline-alkaline soil where rivers join the sea. The plant is resistant to pests, diseases, salt and alkali, and does not need fertilizer.Currently, the most advanced sea rice breed in China has a yield of 400kg per mu, but can only be grown in water with salinity less than 0.3 percent.A sea-rice research center, with Yuan as the chief scientist, was established in October in Qingdao, Shandong Province. With dozens of breeds of sea rice brought in from worldwide, researchers will use gene sequencing technology to cultivate new strains. For decades, scientists led by Yuan have worked on new approaches to significantly increase rice yields.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nation/Scientists-look-to-sea-rice-to-lift-output/shdaily.shtml


TDAP relevance?


APROPOS your report ‘Is TDAP losing its relevance?’ (Dec 18). The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan has lost its relevance because of the country’s changing export base, says the report in the first paragraph. In the last paragraph, it says that the CE, TDAP, did not agree with the proposal to re-locate the TDAP headquarters to Islamabad.
Globally, only the cities that are commercial hubs qualify for having headquarters of organisations like TDAP.
In Germany, trade promotional activities are carried out not from its capital city, Bonn, but from Cologne, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf.Similarly, the centre for business promotion in the US is not Washington, but New York. The same is true for China’s key cities: Beijing and Shanghai.It should be agreed that the ministry of commerce, like other ministries, may be located in Islamabad, but our capital city has no routes in commerce and trade.
The argument that the TDAP is located in the south of the country, though most of its officers are from the north, and cannot be posted elsewhere is absurd and invalid. All federal government employees are bound to serve at any place in the country.If (basmati) rice, kinno, etc, are grown and exported from Punjab, IRRI rice and dry chilies produced in Sindh are shipped from its capital city.Date fruit, too, is cultivated in Sindh and Balochistan and its export originates from the south of the country.
The main reason for falling export from Pakistan is the poor attention, by those at the helm of affairs in Islamabad, to all regions producing products with export potential.A glaring example of such uneven attention is the failure by the authorities concerned to take suitable measures for renovating a highly advance date-processing factory (now in ruins), set up at Turbat with technical and financial assistance from the US government in the middle of the last century. If renovated, dates processed in that factory could generate hundreds of new jobs for the youths of Kech Makran and earn millions of dollars in foreign exchange for the country.Exports from Pakistan will increase only by according equal treatment to the people and produce of all regions.
M. Essa Jalbani







SunRice’s interim profit hit by California glut

SunRice has run into a sliding international rice price.
The Australian
Australia’s $1 billion monopoly rice exporter SunRice has posted a slide in its interim net profit as Californian rice millers dumped rice on the international market while limp economic conditions across the Middle East and the Pacific dried up sales.SunRice, whose shares are listed on the National Stock Exchange and is one of the nation’s biggest agricultural exporters, also experienced tough trading conditions for its Always Fresh supermarket food range, as private label brands won over shoppers, and its dairy cattle feed business suffered from reduced demand.
However, the biggest hit to its bottom line came from challenging conditions driven by the worldwide oversupply that has slashed prices for medium-grain rice. Deteriorating economic conditions were experienced in some of SunRice’s key export markets in the Middle East and the Pacific.SunRice recorded a 13.2 per cent fall in half-year net profit to $20.8 million for the six months to October 31 as revenue for the period fell 11.5 per cent to $568.3m.
“The Californian (rice) industry recovered from drought and had a very large crop, and unfortunately the millers and processors in California are trying to work that surplus off very rapidly by crashing market prices around the world,’’ SunRice chief executive Rob Gordon said.
“Prices year on year nearly halved in a lot of the export destinations, and as much as we have maintained a really significant brand premium, when the underlying price charged by one of your major high-quality competitors comes off by nearly half, it does put a bit of pressure on.”SunRice’s Riviana business, which sells Always Fresh, saw profit drop by nearly 60 per cent.SunRice confirmed previous guidance that full-year net profit for 2017 would be around $40m.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/sunrices-interim-profit-hit-by-california-glut/news-story/8524980815a647092eb3e2937cb79f9d








AgCenter offers rice growing seminars

Tue, 12/20/2016 - 14:12

The LSU AgCenter will conduct a series of rice clinics in January and February throughout the rice-growing areas of Louisiana to help farmers get ready for the upcoming crop year.Farmers will be able to get advice about key decisions that must be made early in the year, including variety selection and field preparations for the 2017 crop, said Steve Linscombe, director of the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station.“Topics to be covered in the clinics will include controlling weeds, insects and diseases,” Linscombe said. “We also will talk about our research for variety development and agronomic practices in addition to an economic outlook for rice.”

The sessions will be held at various locations on the following dates:
• Jan. 5 at the Acadia Parish Education Center in Crowley, 2122 N. Parkerson Ave., behind Gatti’s Pizza restaurant, starting at 8:10 a.m.

• Jan. 10 in Welsh at the Welsh Community Center, 101 Palmer St., starting at 8:15 a.m.
• Jan. 11 in Ville Platte at the Civic Center, 704 N. Soileau St., starting at 8 a.m.
• Jan. 12 in Abbeville at the Vermilion Parish Library, 405 E. Saint Victor St., starting at 8 a.m.
• Jan. 17 at the DeWitt Livestock Facility adjacent to the LSUA campus south of Alexandria, starting at 8:20 a.m.
• Feb. 8 at the Rayville Civic Center, 827 Louisa St., starting at 9 a.m
http://www.richlandtoday.com/local/agcenter-offers-rice-growing-seminars



Scientists look to ‘sea rice’ 

REAP urges SBP to give six-month relaxation

December 21, 2016
The Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) has sent a SOS message to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) seeking a six-month relaxation for the rice exporters for the year 2015-16 who could not succeed to achieve export performance as required by the SBP to match with Export Refinance Scheme.

Heavy penalties are being imposed on the exporters against short performance by the State Bank which is adding to the woes of exporters already under financial burden because of declining rice exports, especially Basmati for the last few years. There are many reasons of this sharp decline in Pakistani rice exporters which include unfavourable local and international prices and Indian rice factor, said a letter written by the REAP to the Governor SBP.

"We have already discussed this issue with the Ministry of Finance. For the year 2014-15, this relaxation was extended by the SBP and now we are seeking the same relaxation for the year 2015-16", said Senior Vice President Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan Shahjahan Malik while talking to this scribe, here on Tuesday. He urged the government to extend a relief of six months for saving the rice export sector from total collapse.

Shahjahan reviewing the year 2015-16 said it could be termed as bleak year for rice exports, especially for Basmati whose export fell by 18 to 20 percent. He said one of the major factors behind their Basmati rice exports' decline was lower rates of Indian Basmati rice because they had good new seeds giving them more per acre yield as compared to Pakistan.


He said just because of their lower prices, the Indians were far ahead of the Pakistanis in Saudi market which is also a big consumer of Basmati rice. Similarly, he said that they could not take advantage of normalisation of Iran-US relations which could earn as a big Basmati market. "We are yet to set up a banking channel which could help us opening L/Cs and make our presence felt in Iran," the REAP Senior Vice Chairman added.


On long term basis, he said their rice research institutes should introduce new higher yield rice seeds with resistance against diseases and climate change. More per acre yield could help us marketing cheaper rights, he said, and added that they are researching on some new varieties in collaboration with Chinese at his organisation to bring new varieties with higher yields.


However, it will take three to four years for making such varieties commercially acceptable for the growers after their introduction. On the front of REAP, he said they would be sending two delegations - one to Saudi Arab and another to the US for marketing Pakistani rice. "There are reservations on pesticide residue in Indian rice in the US which is not present in Pakistani rice and we are planning to take advantage of it", Shahjahan Malik concluded
http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/115539/

 

Ties with Iran: Envoy urges businessmen to daub trade potential


Daily Heights Posted Date : December 19, 2016 

RAWALPINDI: There are extensive opportunities to urge trade family between Pakistan and Iran, pronounced Pakistan Ambassador to Iran Asif Ali Khan Durrani during his revisit to a Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) on Monday.
Addressing a traders, he pronounced that Pakistan and Iran have aged story and they are culturally, historically, linguistically and religiously trustworthy with any other.He pronounced that Pakistan is confronting an appetite predicament and Iran has adequate energy sources in terms of electricity and gas. As a universe powers have carried sanctions on a nation there are good opportunities for Pakistani businessmen to daub trade intensity in Iran, a envoy added.“Pharmaceutical, information technology, petro chemical and line can offer as pivotal areas of investment to urge shared trade.” Durrani pronounced that Iran is a large marketplace and Pakistani products have a good repute and value in Iranian market. There is a large approach of Pakistani basmati rice, he added.
Talking about a problems opposition trade he pronounced there is a need to urge a banking channels to residence a LC issues and atmosphere links with approach flights from Tehran to Islamabad and other cities.He sensitive a participants about a arriving “Aalishan Pakistan Expo” in Iran to be hold on Mar 4-7. Durrani positive his full team-work and pronounced that his bureau is prepared to yield any assistance in this regard.Also vocalization on a occasion, RCCI President Raja Amer Iqbal pronounced that a sell of delegations is important, as singular nation exhibitions can be a good source of introducing products in any other’s market.

Assuring a envoy of their appearance in a arriving expo, Iqbal pronounced that a business village is prepared to urge a shared trade volume and business activities between a dual countries.He urged a supervision to take evident stairs to solve issues like etiquette tariffs, clearance, third currency, banking channel and improved railway links. He pronounced that a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor offers a large event for traders to urge informal trade and connectivity. An flexible response and assistance is compulsory from a government, he added.The envoy was given a brief lecture on RCCI stream and arriving events.

Published in The Express Tribune, Dec 20th, 2016.
Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay sensitive and join in a conversation

 

FCI staff against digitisation, says rice millers’ body

Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 20
Hailing the demonetisation decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Punjab Rice Millers Association today accused the Food Corporation of India (FCI) employees for trying to derail the motive of demonetisation.“We have welcomed the demonetisation move of the Prime Minister who have also announced that it would abolish inspector raj and help to weed out corruption from the country,” association president Tarsem Saini said. He alleged that FCI employees in the state were adamant that the country remained dependent on manual systems instead of digital ones.
Saini said to make the process digital, the Chief Managing Director of the Food Corporation of India had set up three computerised labs in Punjab for rice acceptance at Patiala, Jagraon and Sunam and even digital moisture metres had been installed, but employees of the FCI refused to use the digital system and insisted on manual process.“If the digital process is implemented there will not be any opportunity for employees to indulge in corruption, which they do in manual process, thus they have even gone on strike against the digital processes,” Saini alleged.

The association alleged that to continue with their corrupt practices, the staff of the Food Corporation of India and Punjab State Warehousing Corporation were on strike for nearly 10 days. “To root out corruption, the Food Corporation of India management had invested huge sums to make the FCI weighbridges online but the agencies and Food Corporation of India employees were creating obstacles not to implement the same,” Saini said

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jalandhar/fci-staff-against-digitisation-says-rice-millers-body/339761.html

New ‘Survivor’ Rice Variety

The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) is carrying out research to develop a new rice variety that can withstand drastic climatic changes, survive pest attacks, and is resistant to plant diseases.According to state news agency AKP, the CARDI research involves incorporating desirable traits from the Romduol and Leangchey rice species into a new laboratory-developed variety called “Ei Air”.“The new rice variety can be planted all through the year and can withstand floods, drought, diseases and pest attacks,” said Ouk Makara, director of CARDI.
 “It will have all the good qualities of Romduol and the strong survival traits of Leangchey,” added Mr. Makara.“The selected new variety can survive under [climatic] stress and retain desirable grain qualities. This will have positive impacts in the lives of poor farmers.”Mr. Makara said CARDI’s research had the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and other rice research centers in neighboring countries.
 Researchers in Asean and the Greater Mekong Sub-region are creating more robust, climate-ready rice varieties that boost yields and adapt well to harsh conditions. According to the International Rice Research Institute in Manila, a process known as marker assisted back-crossing can identify favorable survival traits, and combine them with other favorable traits to create more robust, elite rice varietieshttp://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/33376/new----survivor----rice-variety/

Philippines eyes faster 2017 farm output, banking on China demand

Reuters
Posted at Dec 20 2016 06:54 PM
MANILA - Philippine farm output growth could speed up to 7 percent to 8 percent next year as the Southeast Asian nation looks to ship more agricultural products to markets like China, the agriculture minister said.
China lifted a ban on Philippine exports of pineapples and bananas in October and pledged to import more fish and farm products from the Southeast Asian nation after President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to build a commercial alliance with Beijing."Our farmers are upbeat nowadays because of the opening of new export markets for them," Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol told a media briefing on Tuesday.
Next year's growth target in agriculture would outpace this year's forecast of a 3.5 percent to 5 percent increase. Piñol said 2016 growth would be supported by another bumper rice harvest in the final quarter, thanks largely to favorable weather.
He expected unmilled rice output to rise to 18.57 million tons next year from a projected 17.9 million tons this year as the government increases support to farmers by providing more seeds and irrigation services.
The moves should boost average yield per hectare to six tons in some areas from close to four tonnes currently, he said.Piñol said the Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers, was on track to be self sufficient in rice production by 2019.Agriculture accounts for about a tenth of the country's gross domestic product, but Piñol said he wants to raise the sector's contribution to overall economic output to 20 percent.

DA pins hope on hybrid seeds to hit rice self-sufficiency goal

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File Photo of hybrid rice seeds
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will plant hybrid rice seeds in 1 million hectares of irrigated lands starting next year in its bid to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2019.Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the government will identify 10 initial areas with 1,000 hectares of irrigated land under the Masaganang Ani (MA) 6000 program.
“The DA is positive that it can be done. We are now in the process of finalizing the MA 6000 program, which will initially target 1 million hectares of irrigated areas,” Piñol told reporters in a news briefing on Tuesday.
“These areas will be supported with hybrid-rice seeds, sufficient fertilizer, and efficient irrigation system and mechanization,” he added. Under the MA 6000 program, Piñol said they will only use 1 million hectares of the 1.3 million hectares of irrigated lands in the country, according to the latest report National Irrigation Administration (NIA) report.
“The purpose of the Masaganang Ani 6000 is to address the issues that would contribute to productivity. It’s the existing irrigated area that we are going to utilize, we are not expanding,” he said.
The DA said it is eyeing to improve the national average rice production to 6 metric tons (MT) per hectare from the current 3.9 MT per hectare. Citing farmers’ testimonies, Piñol said they are able to produce more than the national average yield by planting hybrid rice seeds in areas with proper irrigation system and efficient farm machines. “So we are in the process of coming up with a system on how we are going to implement the MA 6000 program and how we are going to extend the distribution of hyrbid-rice seeds, fertilizers, as well as the needed pest control materials,” he said.
“If we can perfect that program then we can achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2019,” Piñol added.Increasing the productivity of the 1 million hectare areas targeted under the MA 6000 program by 2 MT per ha. would increase annual rice output by 2.4 million metric tons (MMT) and wipe out imports.“Considering that the areas being targeted are irrigated, the increase in rice output could reach 2.4 MMT.“We are currently short of 1.8 MMT of rice, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO],” Piñol said.
Citing the FAO data, he said farmers lose about 20 percent of their harvest during the milling of rice due to the use of inefficient machines.“The old rice mills have a recovery rate of 60 percent against the 65 percent recovery rate of new rice mills, so that’s 5 percent being wasted,” he said.“Our intention is really to modernize the post-harvest facilities, hoping that at least we can cut post-harvest losses to as low as 10 percent,” Piñol added





Thailand Exports 9.3 Million Tons of Rice Jan to Mid-Dec 2016: Commerce Ministry
Bangkok. Thailand has exported 9.3 million tons of rice so far this year, mostly to China and countries in Africa, the commerce ministry said on Monday (19/12), well short of the government's target for 2016.
From January to Dec. 14, 2016 Thailand signed export agreements for 9.3 million tons of rice worth $4.17 billion said Duangporn Rodphaya, chief of the ministry's foreign trade department. Early this month, Commerce Minister Apiradee Tantraporn said Thailand's rice exports this year would reach 10.5 million tons, above an earlier target of 9.5 million tons. In a statement on Monday, Duangporn said Thailand, the world's second-largest rice exporter after India, will meet its rice export target this year and has until early January to finalize export agreements.
The top importers of Thai rice this year were Benin, Ivory Coast, South Africa, China and Cameroon, she added. Thailand has stocks of about 8 million tons left over from a rice-buying scheme under the previous government that paid farmers well above market rates for their rice. Most of the rice has been stored for more than five years, the foreign trade department said, making it difficult to sell it at target prices and to find potential buyers.
The current military government has been trying to sell off stockpiles from the scheme through several state auctions since it took power in 2014. Duangporn said the rice could be used for industrial purposes, adding that the government plans to offload all of the remaining rice stocks from the scheme by end-2017
http://img.beritasatu.com/cache/jakartaglobe/909x605-2/2014/04/2014-04-17T070523Z_847281681








Rice Export Firms Get Go Ahead

Eighteen local rice export companies are now eligible to carry out milled rice exports to China starting from next month, according to an announcement released on Monday by the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF).The announcement added that the CRF and the Green Trade Company – under the umbrella of the Commerce Ministry – will play a role in facilitating exports and send the list of qualified local rice mills to China.“The validity of this export quota of rice takes effect from January to December 2017,” it said.“After a discussion between the Chinese company COFCO, CRF and Green Trade from December 15 to 17 in Beijing, the three parties agreed to allow the first 18 local rice mills to start fulfilling the export quota as most of these companies have experience exporting rice to China in the past.
”In October, China signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to import rice with an export quota of 200,000 tons per year from the Kingdom.Earlier this month, a delegation of Chinese experts inspected the quality and safety at 28 rice mills during a week-long visit to Cambodia. All of the rice mills passed quality and food hygiene tests for export to China.CRF vice president Hun Lak told Khmer Times yesterday that the 18 local rice export companies would begin exporting rice to China next month. The other 10 local rice export companies that passed inspection will proceed with exports later.
Mr. Lak said there was no limit in the amount of rice exports for each company as it is a free market but he could not disclose how many tons would be exported to China in January.“We start exporting rice to China based on orders and it depends on price negotiations. We do not know the amount of rice to be exported yet,” he said.Mr. Lak said that the quality, standard and hygiene were accepted by China, but export quantities more or less depended on price as China always compares prices with Cambodia’s neighbors. He added that more rice would be exported if Cambodia can compete with the price offered by Thailand and Vietnam.
Phou Puy, president of the Battambang-based Green Rice Miller, a company that has been exporting rice to China for years, told Khmer Times yesterday that the demand for Cambodian rice from China has been increasing of late.
 
He said Cambodian rice quality and prices can compete with both Thailand and Vietnam and added that exports to China would increase if the amount, quality and price were acceptable to both parties. “I did not calculate yet how many tons of rice we export to China, but overall about 60,000 tons of rice have been exported to China, the European Union, Malaysia and Brunei,” Mr. Puy said.
“The price of rice sold to China is between $500 FOB [free on board] per ton to about $620 FOB per ton – it depends on the season and market.”Amru Rice (Cambodia) president Song Saran told Khmer Times that Amru is new to the Chinese market and most of its exports are to the European Union, but he is optimistic about the new market’s potential. He said Amru exported about 500 tons to 1,000 tons of rice to China this year.“I really appreciate this new market. Market diversification gives plenty of choices to farmers,” he said. Cambodia exported about 500,000 tons of rice to the international market in the first 11 months of this year, a five percent increase compared with the same period last year. China alone imported about 107,091 tons
Buzz Nigeria


State rice stocks headed for disposal

Warehouse charges cost B510m a month
20 Dec 2016 at 07:56 5,547 viewed4 comments
NEWSPAPER SECTION: BUSINESS | WRITER: PHUSADEE ARUNMAS

Forklifting sacks of rice at a processing plant in Ayutthaya province. The government plans to bring the quantity of state rice stocks down as much as possible next year. THITI WANNAMONTHA

The government is committed to disposing all 8 million tonnes of state rice stocks next year.According to Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, most of the existing 8 million tonnes of rice stocks are white rice, and 5 million tonnes of the total is poor-quality grain unfit for human consumption.
The remaining 3 million tonnes are mixed-grade in quality, suitable for human consumption.The government has been paying 510 million baht a month for rice warehouses.According to Mrs Duangporn, the Commerce Ministry is in talks with the Energy and Industry Ministry to find proper ways to use rice stocks unsuitable for human consumption for industrial purposes, such as biomass and ethanol production.

For good-quality grain, she said, the authorities will call general auctions at opportune periods.Since the May 2014 coup, 8.68 million tonnes of rice has been sold via 23 auctions, fetching 89.2 billion baht.Government-to-government rice deals have unloaded an estimated 3.8 million tonnes worth 50 billion baht.The state-held rice stocks have fallen sharply from the 18.7 million tonnes accumulated through various rice-pledging schemes during 2011-14.According to Mrs Duangporn, lower rice supply will benefit the government if it succeeds in selling existing state-held stocks.

The government expects Thailand's rice shipments to remain strong, with this year's figures possibly exceeding the Commerce Ministry's target of 9.5 million tonnes.As of Dec 14, she said Thailand had shipped 9.3 million tonnes, up 2% from the same period last year, fetching US$4.17 billion.The top five importers were Benin, China, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Cameroon.Of the total exports, white rice made up for 50%, hom mali rice 25% and parboiled, glutinous and Pathum Thani fragrant rice comprised the rest.Mrs Duangporn said hom mali rice shipments have risen this year to 2 million tonnes from 1.5 million tonnes last year, mainly to China, Indonesia and the Philippines."Thailand's rice prices have gradually improved thanks to the government's myriad measures, teamed with the private sector promoting rice sales," Mrs Duangporn said.

Bangkok Post



LAKE Rice Now Selling at N12,000 Per Bag In Lagos

·         Post by Iheoma Hendy December 20, 2016

As promised, the Lagos State Government has commenced the sale of its ‘LAKE Rice’ at the price of N12,000 for 50kg and N6,000 for 25kg.Last week, the Special Adviser on Food Security to Governor Akinwumi Ambode, Sanni Okanlawan, said that the rice sale which was earlier slated to begin from December 15 was postponed to this week to ensure plots to hijack the project was averted.The state government had planned to sell the rice at N13,000 per 50kg bag at the 57 Local Government and Local Council Development area headquarters.During the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry National Agriculture Stakeholders Summit, Okanlawon said that government was installing mechanisms for Lagosians to celebrate the best Yuletide without hiccups posed by money bags.
According to Okanlawan:

“We are working out the modalities to make sure that what the government intends to sell at N13,000 was not hijacked and sold to Lagosians at N15,000, that is what we do not want. From all indications, hopefully, by next week LAKE Rice will be out, so, we want everything to be in place before it is out.”Also Read: Lagos Markets Reduce Prices of Food Condiments by 55%

National Helm reports that LAKE Rice is now available and can be bought at the following locations nearest to you:
LAGOS EAST
Ikorodu – Odogunyan Farm Service Centre
Epe – Temu Farm Service Centre
Eredo – Noforija Town Hall
Ibeju – Magbon Alade High School
Maryland – Subeb Premises
LAGOS WEST


Agege – LSADA Complex/Farm Service Centre
Ojo – LAISA Agric Bus Stop
Mowo – Coconut House
Badagry – Town Farm Service Centre, Marina
Oshodi – Ikeja Grammar School, Bolade
LAGOS CENTRAL
Ajah – Ministry of Agric Area Office
Lagos Island – Lastma Office Adeniji/Freeman
Ajegunle – Alakoto Senior High School, Tolu
Surulere – TESLIM Balogun stadium
Yaba – Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre,
Rowe Park

LAKE Rice is the acronym of both Lagos and Kebbi States joint product subsidised by the government. In March, Lagos State government signed an MoU with the Kebbi State Government to produce rice paddy to be milled and packaged in Lagos State.




Scientists look to ‘sea rice’ to lift output

Source: Xinhua | December 21, 2016, Wednesday
Sea rice is sometimes found in saline-alkaline soil where rivers join the sea. The plant is resistant to pests, diseases, salt and alkali, and does not need fertilizer.Currently, the most advanced sea rice breed in China has a yield of 400kg per mu, but can only be grown in water with salinity less than 0.3 percent.A sea-rice research center, with Yuan as the chief scientist, was established in October in Qingdao, Shandong Province. With dozens of breeds of sea rice brought in from worldwide, researchers will use gene sequencing technology to cultivate new strains. For decades, scientists led by Yuan have worked on new approaches to significantly increase rice yields.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nation/Scientists-look-to-sea-rice-to-lift-output/shdaily.shtml


TDAP relevance?


APROPOS your report ‘Is TDAP losing its relevance?’ (Dec 18). The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan has lost its relevance because of the country’s changing export base, says the report in the first paragraph. In the last paragraph, it says that the CE, TDAP, did not agree with the proposal to re-locate the TDAP headquarters to Islamabad.
Globally, only the cities that are commercial hubs qualify for having headquarters of organisations like TDAP.
In Germany, trade promotional activities are carried out not from its capital city, Bonn, but from Cologne, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf.Similarly, the centre for business promotion in the US is not Washington, but New York. The same is true for China’s key cities: Beijing and Shanghai.It should be agreed that the ministry of commerce, like other ministries, may be located in Islamabad, but our capital city has no routes in commerce and trade.
The argument that the TDAP is located in the south of the country, though most of its officers are from the north, and cannot be posted elsewhere is absurd and invalid. All federal government employees are bound to serve at any place in the country.If (basmati) rice, kinno, etc, are grown and exported from Punjab, IRRI rice and dry chilies produced in Sindh are shipped from its capital city.Date fruit, too, is cultivated in Sindh and Balochistan and its export originates from the south of the country.
The main reason for falling export from Pakistan is the poor attention, by those at the helm of affairs in Islamabad, to all regions producing products with export potential.A glaring example of such uneven attention is the failure by the authorities concerned to take suitable measures for renovating a highly advance date-processing factory (now in ruins), set up at Turbat with technical and financial assistance from the US government in the middle of the last century. If renovated, dates processed in that factory could generate hundreds of new jobs for the youths of Kech Makran and earn millions of dollars in foreign exchange for the country.Exports from Pakistan will increase only by according equal treatment to the people and produce of all regions.
M. Essa Jalbani







SunRice’s interim profit hit by California glut

SunRice has run into a sliding international rice price.
The Australian
Australia’s $1 billion monopoly rice exporter SunRice has posted a slide in its interim net profit as Californian rice millers dumped rice on the international market while limp economic conditions across the Middle East and the Pacific dried up sales.SunRice, whose shares are listed on the National Stock Exchange and is one of the nation’s biggest agricultural exporters, also experienced tough trading conditions for its Always Fresh supermarket food range, as private label brands won over shoppers, and its dairy cattle feed business suffered from reduced demand.
However, the biggest hit to its bottom line came from challenging conditions driven by the worldwide oversupply that has slashed prices for medium-grain rice. Deteriorating economic conditions were experienced in some of SunRice’s key export markets in the Middle East and the Pacific.SunRice recorded a 13.2 per cent fall in half-year net profit to $20.8 million for the six months to October 31 as revenue for the period fell 11.5 per cent to $568.3m.
“The Californian (rice) industry recovered from drought and had a very large crop, and unfortunately the millers and processors in California are trying to work that surplus off very rapidly by crashing market prices around the world,’’ SunRice chief executive Rob Gordon said.
“Prices year on year nearly halved in a lot of the export destinations, and as much as we have maintained a really significant brand premium, when the underlying price charged by one of your major high-quality competitors comes off by nearly half, it does put a bit of pressure on.”SunRice’s Riviana business, which sells Always Fresh, saw profit drop by nearly 60 per cent.SunRice confirmed previous guidance that full-year net profit for 2017 would be around $40m.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/sunrices-interim-profit-hit-by-california-glut/news-story/8524980815a647092eb3e2937cb79f9d








AgCenter offers rice growing seminars

Tue, 12/20/2016 - 14:12

The LSU AgCenter will conduct a series of rice clinics in January and February throughout the rice-growing areas of Louisiana to help farmers get ready for the upcoming crop year.Farmers will be able to get advice about key decisions that must be made early in the year, including variety selection and field preparations for the 2017 crop, said Steve Linscombe, director of the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station.“Topics to be covered in the clinics will include controlling weeds, insects and diseases,” Linscombe said. “We also will talk about our research for variety development and agronomic practices in addition to an economic outlook for rice.”

The sessions will be held at various locations on the following dates:
• Jan. 5 at the Acadia Parish Education Center in Crowley, 2122 N. Parkerson Ave., behind Gatti’s Pizza restaurant, starting at 8:10 a.m.

• Jan. 10 in Welsh at the Welsh Community Center, 101 Palmer St., starting at 8:15 a.m.
• Jan. 11 in Ville Platte at the Civic Center, 704 N. Soileau St., starting at 8 a.m.
• Jan. 12 in Abbeville at the Vermilion Parish Library, 405 E. Saint Victor St., starting at 8 a.m.
• Jan. 17 at the DeWitt Livestock Facility adjacent to the LSUA campus south of Alexandria, starting at 8:20 a.m.
• Feb. 8 at the Rayville Civic Center, 827 Louisa St., starting at 9 a.m
http://www.richlandtoday.com/local/agcenter-offers-rice-growing-seminars



Scientists look to ‘sea rice’ to lift output

Source: Xinhua | December 21, 2016, Wednesday | Print Edition
The research team plans to spend three years developing a breed that can withstand water with a salinity of up to 0.8 percent, with a yield over 300 kilograms per mu (about 665 square meters), said Yuan, known as the “father of hybrid rice,” during a seminar in Sanya City in Hainan Province.
“Over half of the world’s population relies on rice as their staple food, while the proportion is over 60 percent in China,” Yuan said, adding that China has more than 1 billion mu of saline-alkaline soil, and it will be of great significance to convert such soil into arable land by developing sea rice with a high salinity tolerance.
Using 100 million mu of land to grow sea rice, the country could produce an extra of 30 billion kg of rice and feed an extra 80 million people.
Sea rice is sometimes found in saline-alkaline soil where rivers join the sea. The plant is resistant to pests, diseases, salt and alkali, and does not need fertilizer.
Currently, the most advanced sea rice breed in China has a yield of 400kg per mu, but can only be grown in water with salinity less than 0.3 percent.
A sea-rice research center, with Yuan as the chief scientist, was established in October in Qingdao, Shandong Province. With dozens of breeds of sea rice brought in from worldwide, researchers will use gene sequencing technology to cultivate new strains. For decades, scientists led by Yuan have worked on new approaches to significantly increase rice yields.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nation/Scientists-look-to-sea-rice-to-lift-output/

 to lift output

Source: Xinhua | December 21, 2016, Wednesday | Print Edition
The research team plans to spend three years developing a breed that can withstand water with a salinity of up to 0.8 percent, with a yield over 300 kilograms per mu (about 665 square meters), said Yuan, known as the “father of hybrid rice,” during a seminar in Sanya City in Hainan Province.
“Over half of the world’s population relies on rice as their staple food, while the proportion is over 60 percent in China,” Yuan said, adding that China has more than 1 billion mu of saline-alkaline soil, and it will be of great significance to convert such soil into arable land by developing sea rice with a high salinity tolerance.
Using 100 million mu of land to grow sea rice, the country could produce an extra of 30 billion kg of rice and feed an extra 80 million people.
Sea rice is sometimes found in saline-alkaline soil where rivers join the sea. The plant is resistant to pests, diseases, salt and alkali, and does not need fertilizer.
Currently, the most advanced sea rice breed in China has a yield of 400kg per mu, but can only be grown in water with salinity less than 0.3 percent.
A sea-rice research center, with Yuan as the chief scientist, was established in October in Qingdao, Shandong Province. With dozens of breeds of sea rice brought in from worldwide, researchers will use gene sequencing technology to cultivate new strains. For decades, scientists led by Yuan have worked on new approaches to significantly increase rice yields.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nation/Scientists-look-to-sea-rice-to-lift-output/



Tuesday, December 20, 2016

20th December,2016 daily global regional and local rice e-newsletter by riceplus magazine



Connecting Bangladeshi rice farmers to commercial buyers


Tuesday, 20 December 2016 05:15

 

A USAID-funded project, Feed the Future Bangladesh Rice Value Chain (RVC), aimed at improving the rice value chain is helping 365 farmer organisations in southern Bangladesh to grow premium-quality crops to gain access to national buyers

The project aims to empower farmers to produce high value varieties of rice in bulk quantities. (Image source: Trung Hieu Dang/Pixabay)
The project works towards developing the capacity of the farmer groups who grow the same high-value rice varieties, composed of 10,500 farmer members, to produce their crops in bulk in order to improve opportunities to do business with millers and food companies.RVC was present at the recent 3rd Rice and Grains Tech Expo along with another project, Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA), led by the International Rice Research Institute. STRASA said that it is is speeding up dissemination of seeds of improved rice varieties to farmers in areas prone to drought, flooding, and other severe environmental conditions.

“South Bangladesh is one of the country's poorest areas and most vulnerable to cyclone-induced disasters. It also has a much lower level of industrialisation. So, all the national food processing companies have their bases, including mills and factories, in the northern and western parts of the country,” said RVC project leader Tim Russell.
The organisation commented that after RVC spearheaded the creation of farmer groups with the capacity to grow crops and varieties in demand throughout the country, processing companies have begun to set up buying operations in southern Bangladesh.At the Expo, the farmer organisations and their members had the opportunity to link with national companies that produce agriculture and forestry products, farm machinery, and new technologies for rice production and marketing. The buyers are primarily interested in purchasing Chinigura rice from the farmers who now have the capacity to grow this Bangladeshi aromatic variety in bulk, .

http://fareasternagriculture.com/crops/agriculture/connecting-rice-farmers-to-commercial-buyers-in-bangladesh
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Indonesia Books Highest Jump in Food Security Index
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said that Indonesia's food resiliency has improved over the last two years as reflected by end of staple food imports. Amran claimed that Indonesia recorded the highest jump in the food security index in 2016.
"No rice imports, onion imports, and chili pepper imports; corn imports dropped by 60 percent, as acknowledged by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The world recognizes that we have the highest jump [in the food security index] in the world," Amran said as quoted by Antara on Tuesday, December 20, 2016.
The Global Food Security Index (GFSI) 2016 shows that Indonesia achieves the highest increase with an index of 2.7, and the food availability rank of 66.
Amran explained that food supplies remained stable with rice productions that increased by 6.64 percent in 2015 and 4.97 percent in 2016, despite El-Nino and La-Nina. Over the last two years, rice productions climbed by 8.3 million tons or worth Rp 38.5 trillion (US$2.9 billion).
"In 2016, there were no recommendation to import premium rice, and we managed to address distribution issues," Amran added.
The Agriculture Ministry and the Central Statistics Agency forecasted that the production of dried paddy reached 79.14 tons in 2016, increasing by 3.74 million tons or 4.97 percent when compared to 2015. Corn productions stood at 23.16 million tons, increasing by 3.55 million tons or 18.11 percent when compared to 2015.
Amran also revealed that the Ministry managed to address price hikes in December due to famine.
"For the first time in 71 years, we don’t have famine in December. Usually, prices are high in December. But now, prices of rice and onion are going down," Amran claimed
http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2016/12/20/056829159/Indonesia-Books-Highest-Jump-in-Food-Security-Index

Thailand exports 9.3 million tons of rice Jan to mid-Dec 2016: commerce ministry


Farmers spray pesticide over their rice field in Nakhonsawan province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, December 17, 2016. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
Thailand has exported 9.3 million tonnes of rice so far this year, mostly to China and countries in Africa, the commerce ministry said on Monday, well short of the government's target for 2016.From January to Dec. 14, 2016 Thailand signed export agreements for 9.3 million tonnes of rice worth 146 million baht ($4.07 million), said Duangporn Rodphaya, chief of the ministry's foreign trade department.
Early this month, Commerce Minister Apiradee Tantraporn said Thailand's rice exports this year would reach 10.5 million tonnes, above an earlier target of 9.5 million tonnes.
In a statement on Monday, Duangporn said Thailand, the world's second-largest rice exporter after India, will meet its rice export target this year and has until early January to finalize export agreements.
The top importers of Thai rice this year were Benin, Ivory Coast, South Africa, China and Cameroon, she added.
Thailand has stocks of about 8 million tonnes left over from a rice-buying scheme under the previous government that paid farmers well above market rates for their rice.
Most of the rice has been stored for more than five years, the foreign trade department said, making it difficult to sell it at target prices and to find potential buyers.
The current military government has been trying to sell off stockpiles from the scheme through several state auctions since it took power in 2014.Duangporn said the rice could be used for industrial purposes, adding that the government plans to offload all of the remaining rice stocks from the scheme by end-2017.
 ($1 = 35.8600 baht)
(Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Sunil Nair)


Ministry eyes rotten rice as energy source

December 19, 2016 18:16
By The Nation

THE National Rice Policy Committee is soon to consider releasing about 5 million tonnes of deteriorated and rotten rice for alternative energy production to cut stockpiling costs.

Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Foreign Trade Department, said it would in early January propose to the committee that it consider ways to clear out the stockpiles, particularly rotten rice, which makes up about 5 million of the 8 million tonnes remaining in the government’s stocks.The Commerce Ministry will discuss with the Energy Ministry the possibility of using some of this stockpiled rice to produce energy. The purchase price might be quite low, but it would cut down on the rice stocks and thereby save warehousing costs, which currently are Bt510 million per month or Bt17 million per day, Duangporn sai
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30302423


A Turtle Bay twist for Christmas Day

By Dan_Biggane  |  Posted: December 19, 2016