Monday, July 01, 2019

1st July,2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter





Global warming deprives Koh-i-Sufaid of its peculiarity of remaining snow clad throughout year

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Adeel Saeed
PESHAWAR, June 30 (APP)::Koh-i-Sufaid, a mountain range straddling between Pakistan and Afghanistan at bordering areas of Kurram district of erstwhile tribal area, has lost its peculiarity of remaining snow clad throughout the year mainly due to global warming caused by climate change.
An offshoot of Hindu Kush range and spreading over an area of around 100 miles (160 kilometers), Koh-i-Sufaid forms a natural border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Its peaks remain covered with snow throughout the year and in winter the whole hilly terrain gives a look of a giant feature wearing white tunic from tip to toe.
The magnificence of Koh-i-Sufaid could be gauged from the fact that a large mural of the mountain is displayed at the main hall of the Governor House Khyber Pakhtunkwa for the appraisal of visitors about rich landscape of the tribal region of Pakistan.
The mountain is also called in local Pashto language as `Spin Ghar’ (white mountain) and according to elders of Kurram district the folklore behind naming of this mountain is its white color due to snow draped peaks.
A local poet while reflecting changes in appearance of Koh-i-Sufaid due to reduction in snow wrote a poem an ode of which reads as `Zamana badal Giya Hai, Koh-i-Sufaid nai be rang badal dia hai’ (Time has been changed and testimony to this fact is that Koh-i-Sufaid has also changed its colours).
The mountainous range has great emotional attachment with dwellers of Kurram Agency who proudly make its comparison with Nile river of Egypt.
“As river Nile is to Egyptians, Koh-i-Sufaid is to the denizens of Kurram valley,” remarked Zulfiqar Ali, a Peshawar based journalist who belongs to Parachinar, capital of Kurram.
The highest peak of the Koh-i-Sufaid mountain range is Mount Sikaram Sar with an elevation of 4,761 meters (15,620 feet) while other peaks include Agam Sar (14,300 feet) and Badina Sar (13,500 feet).
A crossing near Sikaram Sar is called Piewar-Kotal or Gawi Pass which connects Parachinar city with Aryob valley of Paktia province of Afghanistan.
The climate of Kurram remains pleasant most of the summer and in winter minimum temperature is usually below freezing point, occasionally mercury drops below -10 degree Celsius.
“The mountainous region in our Parachinar city remained snow covered throughout the year, but now for the last several years the hills turn black from white in summer season thus reflecting changes in weather,” observed Azmat Ali Zai, a local journalist of Parachinar.
Azmat, 42 years old, vividly remembers heavy snow fall in Parachinar city during winter season bringing life to a standstill and forcing people to remain indoor. The snow on mountains was enormous, he recalled.
People used to arrange food stocks in winter at their homes even in Central Kurram valley owing to shortage of edibles in markets due to roads blockade because of heavy snow.
Being a major source of water supply, the lives of farming community of Kurram district revolved around Koh-i-Sufaid and decisions about selection of crops to be sowed were taken on basis of observation of quantum of snow, he informed.
Due to sudden reduction in water supply in parts of Kurram tribal district induced by climatic changes, quarrel among farmers on dispute over water distribution for fields irrigation also started cropping up.
Haji Ejaz, a farmer by profession and dweller of Sadra village in Parachinar, hankered for days when he used to earn a handsome earning by utilizing all of his four acres of agricultural land in rice farming.
“The normal yield from half an acre of land was around 20 to 25 mounds which were sold in market at a price of around Rs. 2500 per mound,” Haji Ejaz told APP.
Due to high demand of Kurram rice in markets of Pakistan and adjacent Afghanistan, the commodity was received by grain merchants with both hands on cash payment basis, recalled Haji Ejaz.
However, for the last few years after facing water scarcity in the area, Haji Ejaz is forced to reduce rice farming from full to half of his land and utilizing remaining area on cultivation of less water intensive crops including moong (a kind of pulse) and soybean.
Both the crops are less profit generating in comparison with rice thus reducing the monthly income of Haji Ejaz.
The yield of rice crop over remaining half acres of land is also reduced from normal 25 mounds to 15 mounds, further negatively impacting the income of Haji Ejaz and other farmers in Kurram district of FATA having a population of 619553.
About reasons behind dwindling water supply in the area, Ejaz simply said reduced snow on Koh-e-Sufaid, the lifeline of agriculture and economy of Kurram Agency.
Majority of farmers in Kurram prefer rice farming because of its increasing demand and good price in market, Zulfiqar added.
He said Kurram rice, locally called as `Kurram Rujje’ or `Kurmawalay Wrazey’ was a very popular dish in the region and was also liked by people of other areas.
The coarse rice of Parachinar have a unique taste which locals believe is because of mineral contents in glacial water of Koh-i-Sufaid.
“Reason behind reduction in snow on Koh-e-Sufaid is global warming causing glacial melting,” comments Mushtaq Ahmad, Director Meteorological Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Talking to APP, Mushtaq said changes in weather timings and global warming had reduced ice compaction as a result of which snow was melting early and mountain started changing colors.
Earlier in 90’s, snow fall started in October and continued till April end. Due to heavy snowfall, compaction of ice was strong and the mountain’s peaks remained covered even in the hot months of summer season, Mushtaq added.
However, now for the last more than one decade the temperature is changing and the month of October also remain tropical.
“The snowfall period is reduced from seven months (October to April) to three months (December to late February) as a result of which the ice melts,” Mushtaq explains.
He said heavy snow provided maximum water to the region and now a number of nullahs and springs had been dried up due to shortage of water.
Reduction in snow on Koh-e-Sufaid was not only affecting the crops but also rich flora and fauna of the region, Mushtaq said adding, “the dwellers of Kurram also grow different fruits in orchids which are also being affected due to irregular weather pattern including rains and strong storms, Mushtaq told APP.
If water availability continued to dwindle, it would have very negative impact on economy and agriculture of Kurram valley where majority of locals were associated with farming and due to their preference on rice farming were highly dependent on proper supply of water, he warned.

Chatham-Kent home to Canada's first commercial rice crop

Agricultural history is quietly being made on a farm west of Chatham where a one-hectare (2.5 acre) crop of rice is growing.
Published on: June 28, 2019 | Last Updated: June 28, 2019 5:49 PM EDT
Wendy Zhang, project and farm manager with Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprises Inc. is seen here Friday in front of a one hectare trial crop of rice planted west of Chatham, Ont. (Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News) 

Agricultural history is quietly being made on a farm west of Chatham where a one-hectare (2.5-acre) crop of rice is growing.
“This is the first Canadian commercial rice production,” said Wendy Zhang, the project and farm manager with Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprises Inc., which planted the crop.
She said initially the company was allowed to grow a research trial crop, based on regulations set out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Zhang said they have now received CFIA approval to expand next year.
The plan is to plant rice on the entire 30-hectare (74-acre) farm where the first crop is currently growing and find other land to plant up to 202 hectares (500 acres) next year.
Growing rice in Chatham-Kent is more a relief than anything, Zhang said. The process began in 2016, she said, with an expert rice production team from China coming to the municipality to inspect the soil, the water, the weather and what kind of machinery could be used.
When it comes to growing rice, Zhang said the first thing you need is flat land and, secondly, a good source of water.
“It’s just so flat and so good (in Chatham-Kent), and we got two lakes here as well.”
While this year’s cool, wet spring has caused tremendous problems for other farmers, Zhang said her rice crop benefited from the rain. The enterprise has saved a lot of money by not having to operate a pump to irrigate the crop.
Many people may envision rice crops being surrounded by a large amount of water, but Zhang said a new technique was developed in recent years.
“We don’t need that much water,” she said. “All we need to do is cover the soil surface.”
Zhang said the canopy will soon fill in on the crop, so the water on the field won’t be visible.
She began preparing the crop in early March by soaking the seed inside.
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A one-hectare rice trial crop is growing west of Chatham, Ont. (Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News) ELLWOOD SHREVE / ELLWOOD SHREVE/THE DAILY NEWS
“It has to be a closed environment and monitored every day,” she said.
From there, the plants were moved to a greenhouse in April before being transplanted in May.
The crop will be harvested in late September or early October, depending on the weather, Zhang said.
Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprises has been working with the Ridgetown Campus of the University of Guelph, which did a successful greenhouse study on rice. This resulted in the experimental field of rice being planted by Zhang.
She told those attending a news conference on Friday the one-hectare plot will be used to record plant growth and development, evaluate pest pressure and control, determine yield potential, and other production factors under Ontario growing conditions.
Chatham-Kent has a climate similar to northern China, where rice production has expanded to grow crops that can withstand cooler temperatures.
Zhang has been working with Curtis Peltier, an agricultural consultant with Thompsons.
“It’s been quite interesting,” Peltier said. “Definitely a lot to learn.”
He noted the fertilizers and other inputs to grow rice are similar to planting wheat.
“So we’re kind of basing and comparing everything to the wheat crops around here.”
Description: Dr. Emil Q. JavierPeltier said his company would be “definitely” interested in growing rice “if we can find a market for it.”
Mayor Darrin Canniff, who attended the Friday press conference, said a positive he sees with rice being grown here is “diversification for our economy and a new opportunity for our agri-business sector.”
If things work out, the trial crop could expand into thousands of acres being planted across Chatham-Kent, he said.
Zhang said the commercial rice crop started with one acre in the U.S., “and we started with one hectare.”
She said the company would welcome working with other growers to expand the amount of rice grown in Chatham-Kent.

Time to shift gear to rice-based and coconut-based farming systems

Published June 29, 2019, 10:00 PM

Dr. Emil Q. Javier
For reasons of ecology and culture, our smallholder agriculture is dominated by two crops — rice in the fertile valleys and alluvial plains and coconut in the uplands and slopes.
Rice is our staple food which we share culturally with most of our Asian neighbors in the humid tropics and subtropics. We grow rice because during the wet monsoon season, the valleys and plains are partially flooded and will only support semi-aquatic plants like rice.
For the hills and slope lands, deep-rooted perennial trees like coconut are ideal to make up for lack of water during the dry season and for soil and water conservation. The slope lands are prone to soil erosion and it is best that the soil is protected from erosive rain drops by a permanent canopy.
But coconut has two added beneficial features. Unlike timber crops which are not edible, coconut produces food of multiple uses all-year round. And, as importantly, for typhoon-prone Visayas and Luzon, the coconut is relatively resistant to typhoons and strong winds. The majestic coconut palm sways gently with the wind and only the strongest of typhoons can uproot or break them. The flowers and immature coconuts drop but the trees normally recover within a year or two.
Unfortunately, the farmers’ incomes per hectare from both rice and coconut are inferior to that derived from other crops. Therefore, wherever ecologically feasible, and whenever there can be an assured market, the farmers are better off planting something else.
For rice, in the valleys and plains, the farmers have little choice but to plant rice during the monsoon season because of flooding. But the crop after rice can be something else more profitable than rice. Hence, the farming objective is crop diversification (i.e. relay cropping after rice).
For coconut, because it is a perennial, the solution is intercropping i.e. simultaneously raising two or more crops on the same piece of land. There is sufficient sunlight filtering through the coconut canopy to support valuable partial-shade tolerant crops like coffee, cacao, black pepper, ginger, and even full sunlight crops like papaya, bananas, pineapple, and various short-season vegetables.
Not only are the margins per hectare higher from these other crops compared with rice and coconut, they require more labor to cultivate and process and thus create more livelihoods in the countryside.
Thus, the scientifically and economically correct paradigm is farming systems rather than monocropping.
Policy and organizational
implications
Such being the case, this agronomic paradigm shift from monocropping to farming systems, has important economic policy and organizational design implications. For rice the national priority ought to be redirected not necessarily to rice self-sufficiency but to food security i.e. generating more livelihoods and incomes for the rural poor with which to purchase food.
In the case of coconut, the national objective is still optimizing the productivity of the coconut palm with hybrids and proper cultivation but also to provide additional and complementary sources of income to buffer the poor coconut farmers from the ups and downs of the global vegetable oils market where coconut is a minority player.
Organizationally since rice and coconut each with three million hectares account for 2/3 of our total farm area, it is appropriate that we have national agencies dedicated to their research and development — the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA). Both have made their marks in scientific research for their respective crop responsibilities. PhilRice is well-led and appropriately funded. PCA, on the other hand, had leadership problems in recent years and chronically underfunded.
Both agencies are aware of the opportunities of multiple cropping but are conflicted by their narrow, specific crop mandates. Multiple cropping inevitably receives attention only when funds can be spared from their main research agenda.
Therefore, relay cropping in the case of rice, and intercropping for coconut ought to be major headings in the research agenda of PhilRice and PCA. Not just after thoughts!
Finally, since the expertise for the other crops reside in the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), and some of the state universities and colleges (SUCs) like Cavite State University, Benguet State University, and University of Southern Mindanao for coffee, cacao and other industrial crops, PhilRice and PCA by themselves cannot be held solely responsible for pushing the farming systems paradigm.
The rest of the Department of Agriculture family of agencies, namely the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), Department of Agriculture (DA) Marketing Services as well as Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) , the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and some of the larger SUCs should be mobilized around national Rice-based and Coconut-Based Farming Systems research, extension and promotion networks.
*****
Dr. Emil Q. Javier is a Member of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and also Chair of the Coalition for Agriculture Modernization in the Philippines (CAMP).
For any feedback, email eqjavier@yahoo.com

PH now trains new generation of rice specialists

With P3-billion funding

Updated July 1, 2019, 4:21 PM
By Madelaine B. Miraflor
The Philippines, which has already opened the local market to the unlimited entry of cheaper importer rice, has a lot of catching up to do, but thanks to the rice fund that was just recently made available, the country can now afford to train new generation of rice specialists.
Description: PhilRice Logo
PhilRice Logo
A statement showed that the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), which will receive P3 billion from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), already began training new generation of rice specialists to help farmers become competitive amid the entry of more imported rice.
Right now, most of the Philippine government’s rice specialists already retired or have already moved to private sector for higher pay.
The training forms part of the agency’s preparations to make use of its share of the RCEF, which is where all the tariff collected from imported rice should go. As part of the Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law, RCEF will be first injected with P10 billion annually from 2019 to 2024 or a period of six years.
The fund will be used to make Filipino rice farmers competitive so they can produce equally cheaper rice.
Of the P10 billion, P5 billion will be allocated for mechanization of rice farming, P3 billion for provision of high-yielding in bred rice seeds, P1 billion for credit support, and P1 billion for extension support and education of rice farmers.
PhilRice is supposed to take the lead in providing high-yielding inbred rice seeds to farmers, while the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will undertake the training of farmers and extension workers.
Titled Rice Specialists’ Training Course (RSTC), the training PhilRice has just started is set to enhance the technical competence of rice focal persons from ATI Regional Centers and the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Regional Offices.
“There is a need to train a new generation of rice specialists as most of the graduates from the first training program were either retired, promoted to higher positions in the government, or transferred to private sector,” said Philrice’s Technology Management and Services Division (TMSD) Head Lea Abaoag.
29 participants already completed the first part of the training course that focused on mind-setting to strengthen their sense of mission of helping farmers become more competitive through the transformational leadership framework.
The second part of the training will focus on strengthening the skills of rice specialists on diagnosing and managing field problems based on PalayCheck and Palayamanan Systems.
The modular season-long training, conducted by the TMSD, is one of the preparatory activities of the Rice Extension Services Program established through the implementing rules and guidelines of RA 11203.
The first training of rice specialists was conducted in early 1990s during the implementation of KASAKALIKASAN Program, which focused on pest and disease management and facilitating FFS. The second generation were trained from 2008 to 2011.
They were hired by the Institute as Rice Sufficiency Officers and deployed in major rice-producing provinces.
Abaoag said that the third part of the training, slated in September to October, will focus on other knowledge and skills that will help in improving the delivery and sharing of rice production technologies to farmers.
The trainees will be divided into five groups to handle field demonstration in the learning farm located at PhilRice.
They will also manage a Farmers’ Field School and establish PalayCheck technology demonstration in Llanera and Rizal, Nueva Ecija where they can immediately apply their learning from the training.
“We are aligning our modules with TESDA module/guidelines so that the trainees will be ready for NC II assessment on Grains Production” Abaoag explained.
The new generation of rice specialists will be included in the pool of resource persons for the rice production training after completing the course. They will also handle technical dispatches in their respective areas.
Right now, the cost of producing rice in the Philippines stand at P12 per kilo, which is more than half of the production cost of Thai and Vietnamese rice farmers. Thus, making the locally produced rice more expensive than the imported supply.
The cost of producing rice in the Philippines currently stands at P12.72 per kilo, while it is only P6.22 per kilo in Vietnam and P8.86 per kilo in Thailand. This is why rice that are produced here are more expensive than the rice imported abroad.
Based on estimates, RCEF is meant to reduce the cost of producing palay in the Philippine by P1 to P3 per kilo

Local rice? Experimental farm showcases crop in Chatham-Kent

Experimental crop is about a hectare in size, located off Queen's Line on Drake Road

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Jonathan Pinto · CBC News · Posted: Jun 28, 2019 10:20 PM ET | Last Updated: June 29
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Farm manager Wendy Zhang stands in front of a rice transplanter, imported from China for use on the experimental rice crop. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
Rice is grown in Asia, Africa, the southern United States — and if Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprise has its way — one day across Chatham-Kent.
On Friday, the company held an open house to celebrate the successful planting of its first-ever experimental crop of medium-grain rice, grown on a hectare of land on a roughly 29-hectare farm located off Queen's Line on Drake Road.
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A look at the open house for an experimental rice farm operated by the Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprise in Chatham-Kent. 2:03
Farm manager Wendy Zhang, who recently graduated from an agricultural masters program at the University of Guelph, said that the unusually wet spring that has concerned many local farmers actually helped her crop in a way, since rice is grown in wet conditions.
"I kept saying to my farmer friends, "I'm happy [that it's raining today] — I save money on [gas for my water pumps!]"
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Xianfeng Yin is the president of Ontario FangZheng Agriculture Enterprise. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
Zhang explained that the goal is, once commercially viable, to export the rice internationally, particularly to the Chinese market.
"Canada has got a very good reputation in the international market with food quality and safety control," she said. "We want to produce high quality, clean rice ... in Canada we can ensure that."
Tap on the player to hear reporter Jonathan Pinto talk about his visit to the farm on CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive.
Rice is grown all over Asia, the American South...and if one company has its way, Chatham-Kent. Today, the Ontario Fangzheng Agriculture Enterprise showed off its experimental rice farm. It's about a hectare in size, located off Queen's Line on Drake Road. Jonathan Pinto told us more. 7:28
When asked if the current tensions between Canada and China may put a damper on Chinese demand for Canadian products, Zhang wasn't concerned.
"As a Chinese citizen who lives in Canada, Chinese people [have liked] Canada for a very long time," she said. "There's something happening right now [between our two countries] but I truly believe it's a temporary thing."
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John Zandstra is a professor at the University of Guelph's Ridgetown Campus and is involved in the project.(Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
Zhang also noted that her company is a private enterprise not controlled by the Chinese government.
University of Guelph professor John Zandstra, who has been providing assistance to the project, said he was initially skeptical of the idea of growing rice in Canada.
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A small sign at the entrance to the Ontario Fangzheng Rice Research and Development Station in Chatham-Kent. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
"I kinda laughed at first," he said, explaining that he thought of rice as something only viable in the southern United States. "[But] when they got explaining where they grew it [in China] and when I went there and saw it, [I thought] 'well yeah, this might work.'"
Gus Kotsakis, an industrial and commodities sales manager at Dainty Foods, which operates arice mill in Windsor — the only of it's kind in Canada — said when he was first approached by Zhang, his company also didn't think growing rice in Canada would work.
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Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff attended the open house. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
He was impressed with what he saw on the farm Friday.
"I'm going to bring pictures and everything that was discussed here," he said. "I think it's great news for the area. We look forward to working with them long term as a partner on this project, where we could help them with milling and processing the rice."
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Canadian senator Victor Oh (Conservative - Ont.) attended the open house. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)
This year's crop will be harvested this fall, with the rice used to seed a larger crop for next year.
While there are still a few regulatory hurdles before the crop can become commercially viable — the government, for example, doesn't have any approved fertilizers and pesticides for rice because the grain hasn't been grown here before — Zhang is confident those issues can be quickly addressed.
"We want [commercial harvesting to] happen next year," she said. "We have the passion to do it."
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The experimental rice field is roughly one hectare in size, just south of Queen's Line. (Jonathan Pinto/CBC)

Can Traditional Rice varieties Make a Comeback?

Dr. Tasneem Mubarak
In view of changing climatic conditions and demand for high value agriculture products research priorities also metamorphose to cater the needs of the time. In agriculture, vast genetic resources have allowed scientists to develop wonderful region and location specific varieties with desired characters in many crops. Local land races are of enormous importance because of high adaptability and some special traits.
Plant breeders as well as the farmers in many parts of India have been and shall be harnessing the traits of these races for the benefit of farmers, traders and consumers. Conservation and cultivation of indigenous crop varieties especially those at the verge of extinction is thus in the nature of an imperative; that is why Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act 2001 is considered a timely intervention.

People all over the globe are now realizing the importance of such traditional and local land races and efforts have been intensified over the past few years to check genetic erosion and to conserve precious germplasms. When we talk about Kashmir valley more than 100 local land races of paddy suited to different agro-ecological situations have been reported and most of these are being conserved at the Mountain Research Center for Field Crops, MRCFC-SKUAST-Kashmir. Three among them are Mushkebudji, Kamad and Zag(red rice). Mushkebudgi and Kamad are very famous for their aroma and flavor in the state and beyond while Zag is known for its nutritional value especially in terms of iron and zinc content. Red rice is also reported to be rich source of important vitamins, fiber and anti-oxidants and believed to be quite beneficial for heart problems, bone health, obesity, diabetes, constipation and so on.

Owing to this there is now good demand for these varieties of rice. Since these land races are well suited to the certain ecologies (mid altitude belts of the valley ranging between 1850- 1950 meter amsl) their potential can be harnessed by implementing the set of technology components developed by SKUAST-Kashmir, especially with respect to the management of blast disease, which is considered to be one of the major reason for farmers to discontinue the cultivation of these varieties. Experts involved in the survey and purification programme from MRCFC-SKUAST, consider non-uniformity of the produce, lack of quality seed, poor yield potential owing to mixing of strains and area expansion under high yielding paddy varieties as other reasons in addition to blast, for the disinterest of farmers and pushing of these land races to few pockets in the valley.
Against this backdrop, an initiative was undertaken by SKUAST-Kashmir for the revival of these land races through MRCFC including genetic purification together with the development of package of practices especially Integrated Disease Management module to tackle the problem of blast disease plus popularization through participatory mode involving all stakeholders. Under the revival programme village Sangam and adjoining villages were identified in district Anantnag for demonstration on purified MushkBudji and Kamad rice and Gomal and adjoining areas of Tangdar in district Kupwara were identified for Zag.
 In the process of popularizing these varieties among farmers in these belts, synergy between the Agricultural University, the department of agriculture and the farming community could be seen. As a result of these efforts farmers not only earn good returns but this won the community prestigious ‘genome community savior award’ .Taking into consideration the impact in Anantnag, a crop testing programme was initiated in nontraditional area of similar ecologies in other districts of valley including Kulgam. The Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Agriculture Science Center) Kulgam, SKUAST-Kashmir in collaboration with MRCFC in year 2016-17 tested these two strains in the mid belts of district. During investigations, it was observed that the productivity of these varieties was almost at par with the existing varieties grown in the mid belt, but returns were reasonably high owing to high market price for milled rice.
KVK-Kulgam situated in the mid altitudes of district also successfully tested and demonstrated the technology related to the cultivation of Mushkebudji and Kamad during 2017 and 2018 at its instructional farm. The Kendra has received good demand especially for Mushkebudji and , on account of this, demonstrations are being carried out this year as well.
A project proposal for the horizontal spread of Mukebudg iin the mid belt is under way to cater transfer of technology and to facilitate formation of a viable farmers’ interest group/farmer producer company or a self-help group in future. Besides Mushkebudji, Kendra is also testing the performance of Zag (Red rice) this year. Observing the demonstration at KVK Kulgam, many farmers also desired to grow it in lower plains as well. Since Mushkebudji is highly susceptible to blast disease, farmers in the lower plains, despite great interest cannot grow it as the microclimate in plains is congenial for the outbreak of the disease. Efforts are however being made at Mountain Research Center for Field Crops (MRCFC)-SKUAST-Kashmir to transfer blast resistant genes into the existing strain and some success has already been achieved. MRCFC shall be coordinating with KVKs of Valley in the near future for area expansion under new version of Mushkebudji after multi-location testing for blast resistance/tolerance and yield and quality parameters in the target area.
—The author is a Senior Scientist & Head KVK-Kulgam,SKUAST-Kashmir. He can be reached at: drtasneem.mubarak@gmail.com

Agriculture remains in neglect

Economists and agriculturalists raise alarm over poor allocation

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Source: Finance ministry data compiled by CPD
The government’s expenditure on the agriculture sector is shrinking consistently as percentage of total budget although the sector needs more attention to develop new technologies to ensure food security of the nation, said economists and agricultural scientists.
Allocation to agriculture -- including fisheries and livestock, land, water and environment -- declined to 5.42 percent of the total proposed budget for fiscal 2019-20, down from 5.7 percent in the outgoing fiscal year. 
In fiscal 2017-18, the sector’s share was 6.1 percent of the budget.
In terms of gross national product, financing to the sector with the biggest share of employment has been falling for the past five years at a time when the sector is registering slowing growth.
Description: Bangladesh Budget
Agriculture has relation with poverty reduction, said Akhter Ahmed, country representative of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
“The pace of poverty reduction has slowed because of falling agricultural growth. It is alarming as agricultural growth is linked to poverty reduction,” he said.
Over the last one and a half decades, the scope for expanding production has narrowed thanks to antiquated technology.
Annual average growth of agricultural GDP reduced to 2.45 percent between fiscal 2014-15 and 2018-19 from 3.62 percent in the previous five years, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
The annual rate of poverty alleviation also declined during the period.
Description: https://assetsds.cdnedge.bluemix.net/sites/default/files/styles/very_big_2/public/news/images/budget_9.jpg?itok=nehMMr4M
Under the circumstances, higher investment is required in the farm sector, especially on research and development of new crop varieties that give higher yields, said Akhter, also the chief of party of USAID-funded Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Programme. 
“Huge investment is also required for extension. These are the two most critical aspects for agricultural development.”
Some 110 rice varieties have been developed by state-sponsored research institutes and yet farmers mainly grow two varieties that were developed 24 years ago.  One of the reasons might be the poor extension system, he said.
From that point of view, the declining share of agriculture in budgetary allocation is not a good sign.
Akhter said agriculture should not be seen from its share in overall GDP. 
“It is a broad based sector and 75 percent of rural population depend on farming. Allocation for agriculture has be increased for greater impact on poverty alleviation.” 
Farmers also have to be given price support, he said, adding that paddy should be purchased directly from producers. He went on to cite the West Bengal government as an exemplar on this front. 
The agriculture ministry has recently asked the IFPRI to carry out a study to support farmers, he said, adding that the IFPRI will begin study soon. 
“We should view procurement from the objective of giving price support and incentive to farmers and not from the objective of building public stock,” he added.
There should have been some measures in the proposed budget to ensure fair prices for farmers who suffered losses for slumping prices of paddy in the last boro season, said M Asaduzzaman, former research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
“No sensitivity was shown towards farmers and farming in the budget speech although they are producing food for the nation.” 
The government could have allocated funds to provide interest-free loans to growers during the harvesting season so that they do not have to sell their produce to meet any emergency need for fund, he added.
Rice accounts for more than 70 percent of total cropped area of 1.54 crore hectares, and 77 percent of marginal and small famers depend on rice for food security and their livelihoods, according to Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey 2015, funded by the USAID. 
The initiative to introduce crop insurance is a good move as it will address the risk of crop losses for farmers, said Quazi Shahabuddin, former director general of the BIDS.
The falling share of government allocation in agriculture is not satisfactory.
“We are nearing the exhaustion of our technological frontier, the high-yielding varieties. The HYV rice are grown on 90 percent of Boro area, and nearly 70 percent of Aman acreage. We need second green revolution to ensure food security of future generation.”
Since cultivable land is shrinking, the only way to expand production is to increase productivity, he said, while suggesting exploiting modern biotechnology for increased food production.  
The biggest risk for agriculture is climate change and steps should be taken to address the risk, Asaduzzaman said.
Rice production is unlikely to grow after 2021, but there is lack of concern for that, said a senior agricultural scientist working at a public research institute. 
As production is increasing every year, it may be that all are thinking that there is nothing to worry about, he said
“Massive investment is needed. Farmers also have to be ensured profitable prices for their produce so that they feel encouraged to grow and improve their living standards,” he said.


The Karnataka farmer who runs a museum to preserve traditional seeds
A farmer in rural Karnataka tries to combat agricultural distress through seed conservation.
Written by Arathi Menon |
Updated: June 30, 2019 5:15:31 am
 Odisha’s ancient art of Pattachitra struggles to find its feet after Cyclone Fani

Depth of field

‘My life as a filmmaker is nothing less than a comedy’
karnataka farmers, indian farming, paddy cultivation, paddy farming, indian monsoon, paddy varieties india
Seeding an idea: Syed Ghani Khan on his farm. (Photo: Abhishek Chinnappa)
As the country braces itself for yet another bad monsoon, Syed Ghani Khan, a farmer in Karnataka’s Mandya district, is hoping to fight it with traditional farming techniques like multi-cropping and minor millet cultivation. These are the two techniques that helped the farmer from the remote village of Kirugavalu navigate the water crisis during the last three kharif seasons. Largely a paddy farmer in a dryland area, Khan was able to feed his family of 15 and also make a profit of Rs 2 lakh.

Khan, 42, isn’t just another organic farmer, though. He’s a collector and conservationist of traditional seeds, which are housed in a seed museum that he runs. So far, he has conserved 120 traditional mango varieties, over a thousand paddy varieties from all over the world and hundreds of millet seed varieties.

“From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, our biodiversity changes every 20 km. There is a traditional variety of paddy in every state,” he says. He collects paddy seeds from farmers all over the country and tries the varieties on a one-acre area of his farm that he has set aside for research purposes. He does this to not only conserve the rice varieties that are better suited to our climate and are more financially viable to cultivate, but to disseminate the know-how on how to make traditional farming profitable. “The IR varieties of rice developed in Manila are distributed to our farmers. They don’t sustain here and farmers are troubled. Why would we depend on Manila when we have thousands of traditional paddy varieties in our own country?” he says.

karnataka farmers, indian farming, paddy cultivation, paddy farming, indian monsoon, paddy varieties india
Paddy varieties in Syed Ghani Khan’s museum. (Photo: Abhishek Chinnappa)
Just outside his godown, at the edge of his 16 acre farm, is the Sultan road, the only road that connected Bengaluru and Srirangapatna during Tipu Sultan’s time. Anticipating an attack from the British army anytime, Tipu had set up a small army camp at this village. Kiri-kavalu — which translates to “a small army camp” — over time, became Kirugavalu. As the soldiers settled down in the area, they were given parcels of land and mango seeds by Tipu, so that they could begin farming. Like many others in the village, Khan is a descendant of one of these soldiers. The mango trees grown here six generations ago are still preserved by him.

For nearly two centuries, it was largely mango that was grown in the area. When Krishna Raja Sagara or the KRS dam opened in 1932, farmers switched to monocropping of paddy. Khan joined his father in the farm in the early ’90s at a time when hybrid paddy was being cultivated via chemical farming. One day while he was spraying pesticides on the farm, Khan felt dizzy. He began thinking about the effect of chemicals. “A farmer is called the annadaata (provider of food) and here I was spraying harmful chemicals on the food,” he says. Slowly, he switched to organic farming.

“Biodiversity is important for a healthy ecosystem. Earlier, there were no birds on the farm. Now the farm is abuzz with them,” he says. What Khan finds challenging, however, is the lack of farmhands. “It is difficult to find labour because villagers are migrating to cities. We are forced to mechanise farming,” he adds.

For his contribution to the farming sector, Khan has been awarded the Krishi Pandita award (2008-2009) as well as the Biodiversity Award (2010-2011) from the Karnataka Government. He has also received the Plant Genome Saviour Award (2012) from the central government and Innovative Rice Farmer award (2011) from the Indian Institute of Rice Research in Hyderabad. He, however, gets no government support for conservation work. “I do this research with my own money to conserve these varieties for the future generation. Somebody has to do it,” he says.

Arathi Menon is a Mysuru-based writer and yoga practitioner. This headline appeared in the print edition with the headline: Sowing Hope


Highlights of China's science news

Source: Xinhua| 2019-06-29 20:47:19|Editor: Liangyu
BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's science news from the past week:
CHANG'E-4 PROBE
The lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the seventh lunar day on the far side of the moon after "sleeping" during the extreme cold night.
The lander woke up at 9:45 a.m. Thursday, and the rover, Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2), awoke at 1:26 p.m. Wednesday. Both are in normal working condition, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
BIRTHPLACES OF NEW SUNS
Chinese astronomers plan to use the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), by far the largest telescope ever built, to search for birthplaces of new suns so they can better understand how stars and life substances are formed.
Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently caught the birth of a dark molecular cloud for the first time by using three telescopes of the United States and Europe.

Commentary: Innovation to thrive in cooperative environment

Source: Xinhua| 2019-06-28 22:31:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Innovation is playing a role more essential than ever in mankind's future, and it should be a joint undertaking of the world.
Addressing the ongoing Osaka G20 summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called on the Group of 20 major economies to promote international innovation cooperation.
G20, which accounts for some 80 percent of global trade and about 85 percent of global GDP, has been a major platform for working out multilateral solutions for many of the world's pressing challenges.
While innovation tends to be an answer to many of the challenges the world is facing, it cannot benefit human unless by means of sharing and cooperation across different nations.
This spirit of sharing can be found in many projects under cooperation between China and other countries.
The United Nations and China, for example, announced earlier this month the selection of nine international scientific experiments to be performed aboard the China Space Station. They involve 23 entities from 17 countries including France, Kenya, Mexico and Peru.
The move is hailed as heralding openness and inclusiveness in international space cooperation.
Having received 50 contracts on 5G commercial services from 30 countries and regions, China's telecom equipment provider Huawei has shipped more than 150,000 5G base stations worldwide. The company has promised to continue sharing the 5G technology with the world.
The Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and Nigeria have expressed strong interest in China's research and development of saline soil rice, an innovative technology expected to help increase rice output and boost food security. To meet demand, China is planning to build saline-alkali tolerant rice research and promotion centers in the Middle East and Africa.
G20 major economies should move beyond border limitation and man-made fences, pool global wisdom to tackle common problems, and broadly apply innovation outcomes to benefit more countries and peoples.


Rice Research Institute staff contribute Rs 2.33 lakh to CMRF

 On Jun 28, 2019
Description: CMRF contribution
Bhubaneswar: The staff members of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have contributed Rs 2.33 lakh to Odisha Chief Ministers’ Relief fund for post-Fani reconstruction works.
Dr Ranjitha Puskur, Theme Leader, Sustainable Impact Platform, IRRI presented the cheque to Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi in State Secretariat today afternoon.
Padhi thanked all staff members of IRRI for showing their oneness with the people of Odisha who suffered heavy loss due to the devastating cyclonic storm.
Puskur said that IRRI would continue helping the farmers of Odisha by popularizing the climate resilient agricultural technologies which would enhance their income sustainably.

GMO crop not a prudent plan

Published: 00:00, Jun 28,2019
      


THE agriculture minister on January 31 said that golden rice was to be commercially released soon. But the authorities should have considered the studies that have showed that vitamin A, converted from beta carotene, is very low in genetically modified golden rice and that the rice is also unable to hold the biochemical element for long after harvest. Unless preserved in a refrigerated condition in vacuum packaging as paddy, golden rice loses up to 84 per cent of its beta carotene in six months, as research shows. The degradation of beta carotene level, as New Age reported on Thursday, gets faster with processing and the degradation is the highest in polished golden rice, a research published in the British journal Food Chemistry says. The research notes that rice is always eaten after processing and it is in this state that rice is stored in Asian countries. High temperature and humidity also accelerate the rate of degradation of beta carotene. Besides, cooking can destroy up to 25 per cent of beta carotene.
The national committee on biosafety approved five genetically modified agricultural crops, including rice, potato and cotton, for confined trial farming after the commercial farming of Bt brinjal. But the authorities need to note that besides the recent findings, a biotechnology professor in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University also said that beta carotene was generally considered a highly stable biochemical element but now it was clear that beta carotene gets degraded rapidly. Such findings show that golden rice campaign to help to fight vitamin A deficiency would not work. Green activists also campaign that Asian countries are abundant in natural sources containing beta carotene. They are particularly against golden rice and other genetically modified crops and say that scientists are unaware of the harmful impact of such crops on public health. Even the food and health regulators the developed countries have found beta carotene concentration in golden rice to be very low, refusing to accept it as a nutritious grain. All these genetically modified crops were originally developed by the US-based seed giant Monsanto and BARI received the technology from India’s Mahyco that is affiliated to Monsanto.
It is unacceptable that when GM crops and foods based on them are barred from entering the US and EU markets and the farming of these crops are banned in India and the Philippines, the government is serving the interest of Monsanto and Mahyco at the expense of Bangladesh’s poor population. Conscious sections of society need to mount pressure on the government to rethink its harmful move to cultivate these crops, including golden rice

China, Africa sign rice industry initiative

By Yang Kunyi and Feng Qingyin in Changsha Source:Global Times Published: 2019/6/28 22:42:37
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Description: http://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2019/2019-06-28/b1a517fe-7ea8-40a3-960e-1b851a94470c.jpeg
Photo taken on April 4, 2018 shows the Wanbao rice farm project located in southern Mozambique's Xai-Xai district. (Xinhua/Nie Zuguo)


African countries are willing to learn more Chinese agricultural technologies, especially in rice industry, to tackle food security issue in the continent.

Salifou Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso minister for Agriculture and Hydro-Agricultural Developments, told the Global Times on Friday that China has been a great support in providing technology and preferential trade policies in the agricultural sector.

"We are especially keen on learning from China's high-end technologies to help our agriculture," Ouedarogo said. "With the help of drones and other monitoring technologies, our farmers can get to know exactly when and how much water is needed for their crops."

In 2018, China also signed a tariff agreement with Burkina Faso, which exempts tariffs on 97 percent of the country's exports to China.

"We are very grateful for the preferential policy," Quedraogo said. "Our farmers and manufacturers are very motivated and excited to know their products will have a market of over 1.4 billion people."

Ouedraogo, along with some 10,000 guests and traders, including those from 53 African countries, is attending the three-day first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province.

During the expo, the Joint Initiative on Strengthening South-South and Triangular Cooperation in China-Africa Rice Value Chain, proposed by seven organizations, including the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center and the African Union, was released on Thursday.

According to the joint initiative, African countries and China, along with partners of the initiative, will review China's technologies in the rice industry, and carry out experimental plants to localize China's aided agricultural technology.

Nick Austin, Director of Agriculture Development of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is also a partner of the joint initiative, told the Global Times that China has been contributing in many ways to help Africa solve its food security problem.

"We are not just looking to move the technology to Africa and expect it to solve the problem," Austin said, "we are trying to find new varieties of crops and technology that can adjust to the local conditions and environment."

Food security has long been a challenge faced by the continent. A UN report said that by 2050, 70 percent more food is needed to feed the global population. The Food and Agriculture Organization said out of the 86 countries that are food deficient, 43 are in Africa.

China has been working to provide new varieties and technology in agriculture to African countries since 2006, and, so far, the efforts have started to bear fruit. In Madagascar, a hybrid crop variety developed by Chinese scientists has a yield of 10.8 tons per hectare, far exceeding the yield of local crops by an average of 3 tons, China Central Television reported on Friday.

Chinese experts and technicians have carried out more than 300 small-scale projects in nine African countries, promoted 450 agricultural technologies, and trained nearly 30,000 local farmers and technicians, the Xinhua News Agency reported.


06-27-2019

Why a global surveillance system for crop diseases is urgently needed

Description: https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59d395db5f432abbaeb18111ea97d062?s=32&d=mm&r=gDescription: Scientists argue that a Global Surveillance System must be put in place to prevent the spread and reemergence of crop diseases improve global food security.
Earth.com staff writer
Due to climate change and global trade, crop diseases, which annually kill off 20% of the five global staple crops that provide half the world’s communities with caloric intake, are able to thrive and spread. 
In a new report published in the journal Sciencescientists argue that a Global Surveillance System (GSS) must be put in place to strengthen and connect biosecurity measures to prevent the spread and reemergence of crop diseases and therefore improve global food security.
“As part of efforts to satisfy global demand for food — which could mean increasing agricultural production by as much as 70 percent by 2050 — we need a GSS to reduce food lost to pests,” said lead author Mónica Carvajal, a researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). “A lot of collaboration and discussion is needed to rapidly take action and avoid outbreaks that could negatively impact food security and trade.”
This GSS system would prioritize the six major food crops (maize, potato, cassava, rice, beans, and wheat) as well as other food and cash crops that are traded across borders.
Carvajal and her team used the Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) as an example of why a GSS must be instated. CMD was discovered in Cambodia in 2015, yet wasn’t properly reported until 2016. That gave CMD enough time to spread to Thailand and Vietnam by 2018, and is now estimated to be present in 10% of the land cultivated in this area, thus threatening millions of cassava smallholders, which generate $4 billion in export revenue.
“The question I asked was why does it take so long to respond to crop diseases in some cases?” said Carvajal. “What is the limitation to responding faster from the outset?”
If the proposed GSS was put into action, the network of “active surveillance” and “passive surveillance” personnel would be tightened. Labs at agricultural inspection stations, and customs and phytosanitary inspectors at borders and ports, make up the active surveillance personnel. And farmers, scientists and agronomists at universities and research centers, national agriculture organization extension workers, and agriculture industry specialists make up the passive surveillance group.
“For this infrastructure to be effective, connections between first detectors and downstream responders must be enhanced and actions coordinated,” the authors explain. “But diagnostic capacity, information sharing, and communications protocols are lacking or weakly established in some regions, especially in low-income countries.”
“Our reflection on many disease outbreaks is that whether in high-income countries or low-income countries, the passive surveillance infrastructure has the most in-field monitoring eyes but the least coordination from local to global,” they continue.
Furthermore, the GSS, which would consist of five separate formal global networks (a diagnostic laboratory network, a risk assessment network, a data management network, an operational management network, and a communications network), would use cutting-edge technology to better diagnose diseases, and it would also use social media to share information about specific findings.
“We encourage the annual G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting, the World Bank Group, and FAO, among others, to join efforts toward enhancing cooperation for a multi-year action plan for the proposed GSS to more effectively reduce the impact of crop diseases and increase global food security,” the study authors conclude.
Interested in learning more important facts about plants? Head on over to the PlantSnap blog!

By Olivia HarveyEarth.com Staff Writer
Image Credit: Georgina Smith / International Center for Tropical Agriculture

Nigerian press focuses on menace of rice smuggling, echoes of new minimum wage

Published on 28.06.2019 at 10h21 by APA News

Description: https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/15617136655830-780x440.jpg
The menace of smuggling of rice into Nigeria and the impending face-off between labour and governors over minimum wage are some of the leading stories in newspapers on Friday.The Guardian reported that notwithstanding Federal Government’s efforts to promote the production of rice in Nigeria, the continuous smuggling of the commodity to the extent of dominating the local market, is making nonsense of an existing ban with attendant capital flight.
The Nation said that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba has told governors who are not ready to implement the new national minimum wage to brace for confrontation with the organised labour.
Wabba said this at the 11th Triennial Delegates Conference of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) in Abuja.
ThisDay said the federal government has denied the allegation by the Northern Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was practicing bigotry and alienating Christians.
It also denied that the Boko Haram terrorism has link with the official policy of the government, stressing that the violent acts by the terrorist group predated the Buhari administration, like many others that were inherited on coming to office in 2015.
The Punch reported that former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he was pained by the high number of out-of-school children in the country.
The former president said this as the Federal Government disclosed that it would start an open schooling programme in July as part of efforts to solve the problem of the out-of-school children.
The Sun quoted the General Officer Commanding 8 Division, Major General Hakeem Otiki, as saying that the recently launched Operation Habin Kunama III, successfully neutralised several bandits in the zone

Agricultural productivity programme for Southern Africa bears fruitsHome

Agricultural productivity programme for Southern Africa bears fruits
Description: news-image
·       BySouthern Times --

·      Jun28,2019 --
By Sharon Kavhu 
Windhoek - The Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) has seen over 3 million people benefiting from agricultural technologies and innovations in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, said APPSA coordinator, Dr Monica Murata.
The Southern Times has learnt that the programme has seen at least 134 agricultural scientists being trained to improve the technology and innovations of crops that are drought and diseases tolerant in the three countries.
Out of the 134 scientists that have been trained, 77 have already completed the training at Masters and PHD level.
“To date we have managed to reach out to almost 3 million beneficiaries, 301 technologies in the three countries. Through these technology, we have managed to develop quite a lot of improved varieties which are drought and diseases tolerant.  We also have plants like maize. We are hoping for the spillover of the developments to other SADC member states so that they may also benefit,” said Murata.
She said the project has seen Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia working on 74 collaborative projects in coming up with improved farming technologies.
APPSA is an initiative meant to improve technology generation and dissemination within and among participating countries in Southern Africa. The programme is funded by the World Bank.
Murata said the concept behind APPSA is to ensure that all the technologies that have been in the shelves in the region are made useful for the benefit of the people. She said the initiative created a platform for farmers to have a wider range of choices depending on their environments.
“The participating countries received some credit facilities from the World Bank for the project which had two components, namely, technology generation and dissemination and strengthening regional centres of leadership. In the technology dissemination, we had a principal investigator in, for example Zambia, and he will be working with two other co-investigators from Mozambique and Malawi on the same problem then they share and analyse the outcomes.  
“To date we have about 74 collaborative projects between the three countries and the projects have been addressing most of the key research issues which have been prioritised not only in their national countries but also in other SADC member states,” Murata said.
She said the strengthening capacity component aims at improving the science in the region and this has seen the training of the 134 scientists.
APPSA has also seen the operating environment of these scientists within the participating countries being improved. The scientific laboratories, infrastructures such as road and irrigations have been improved to enable an effective environment for the researches and development to take place.
Each country had a specific commodity to research on and develop during the programme.
“Malawi was elected the regional centre for leadership for maize seed cropping systems, Zambia opted for food legume cropping based systems whereas Mozambique is the lead in rice research,” she said.
She said Angola and Lesotho will be joining the programme focusing on cassava and horticulture respectively.
APPSA is a brainchild of the World Bank and is being coordinated  and facilitated by the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa (CCARDESA). It was established in 2013 where each participating country was given a loan facility of approximately US$30 million which comes in batches. The six year programme is expected to end on January 31, 2020.

Punjab to register, tag Basmati growers in the state

Jun 29, 2019, 6:19 PM; last updated: Jun 29, 2019, 6:19 PM (IST)
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Description: Punjab to register, tag Basmati growers in the state
For representation only. File photo
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, June 29
The central and Punjab governments have jointly launched a new project to register the state’s six lakh Basmati growers, an official said. 
The project, undertaken to help bring down pesticides in the crop to help boost exports, will give each Basmati grower in the state a unique ID. The project, undertaken jointly by Punjab government, the Punjab Rice Millers’ Export Association and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)—a federal authority that comes under the central government—will help identify crops that have pesticides beyond permissible limits.
The development comes on the back of a rise in India’s Basmati exports being rejected, often because of the residue of pesticides found in the produce. Punjab accounts for some 50-60 per cent of the country’s Basmati exports.  The internationally accepted limit for pesticides is 0.01 mg per kilogramme.
Also part of the initiative is an active campaign to discourage farmers from using nine specific types of pesticides—Acephate, Triazophos, Thiamethoxam 25 percent WG, Cerbendazim 50 percent WP, Buprofezin, Arbofuron, Propiconazole and Thiophanate Methyl.
“The gradual elimination of these poisons will make it sure that Punjab’s Basmati passes all the international import parameters. Since every farmer will be registered on basmati.net portal and will be tagged, it will be easy to keep a tab on the origin of pesticide laden fields particularly, upon the landing of the crop in the market. At the same time, those farmers not using these unwanted pesticides will also be identified,” Sukhdev Singh Sidhu, Joint Director (Plant Protection) and the Nodal Officer for Basmati in Punjab said.
He said Basmati growers could keep the pests at bay by using “green triangle” pesticides that Ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University has recommended.
“These pesticides were less harmful for human health and did not exceed residue limits set by the EU and other foreign countries,” he said.
Basmati, which was considered a flagship crop on Punjab’s diversification front, suits farmers because it consumes less water than paddy—a fact that is especially important given the depleting groundwater levels in the state.

Diversifying Crops Will Mitigate Climate Change Impact in India, Say Researchers

·      

·       Jun 28, 2019
Narasimha D. Rao, Indian American assistant professor at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, is one of the co-authors of the paper. (iiasa.ac.at photo)
NEW YORK — Diversifying the crops in India can be an effective way to adapt its food-production systems to the growing influence of extreme climate change, said U.S. researchers including an Indian American.
The team studied the effects of climate change on five major crops: finger millet, maize, pearl millet, sorghum and rice, which make up the vast majority of grain production during the June-to-September monsoon season in India – with rice contributing three-quarters of the grain supply for the season.
Taken together, the five grains are essential for meeting India's nutritional needs.
In a paper published in Environmental Research Letters, Kyle Davis, an environmental data scientist from the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, found that the yields from grains such as millet, sorghum and maize are more resilient to extreme weather.
Their yields vary significantly less due to year-to-year changes in climate and generally experience smaller declines during droughts.
But yields from rice, India's main crop, experience larger declines during extreme weather conditions.
"By relying more and more on a single crop – rice – India's food supply is potentially vulnerable to the effects of varying climate," said Davis, the lead author on the paper.
"Expanding the area planted with these four alternative grains can reduce variations in Indian grain production caused by extreme climate, especially in the many places where their yields are comparable to rice.
"Doing so will mean that the food supply for the country's massive and growing population is less in jeopardy during times of drought or extreme weather," he noted.
The co-authors on the paper are Ashwini Chhatre, associate professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad; Narasimha D. Rao, assistant professor at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; Deepti Singh, assistant professor at Washington State University in Vancouver; and Ruth DeFries, professor of Ecology and Sustainable Development at Columbia University.
Temperatures and rainfall amounts in India vary from year-to-year and influence the amount of crops that farmers can produce.
With episodes of extreme climate such as droughts and storms becoming more frequent, it's essential to find ways to protect India's crop production from these shocks, according to Davis.
To reach this conclusion, the authors combined historical data on crop yields, temperature and rainfall.
Data on the yields of each crop came from state agricultural ministries across India and covered 46 years (1966-2011) and 593 of India's 707 districts.
"This study adds to the evidence that increasing the production of alternative grains in India can offer benefits for improving nutrition, for saving water, and for reducing energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture," said Davis.

Crop-based exports: adapt or die?

BR ResearchJune 28, 2019
Pakistan’s status as a low-value commodity exporter is at best a misnomer. Over the past decade, consolidated share of crop-based exports has remained fairly stable at 17 of total commodity exports. Yet, that stability has come about due to a concomitant contraction in value-added exports, and not due to a growth in agri-exports. In fact, since FY13 when crop-based exports peaked at $4.4 billion, the sector has witnessed a secular decline with a CAGR of negative 0.8 percent over past eight years – touching a new bottom of $3.9 billion in FY19 on annualized basis.

While it is correct that prices of major grains and cereals have ebbed over the past decade, the purported “backbone” of the economy failed to usher in a volume growth in quantities exported. Just to showcase volume of basmati rice export, pride of Pakistan’s cereals, has declined to almost half since FY11.
The fate of raw cotton has during this period has been just as abysmal. Once a net exporter, the country became a net importer during the 2000s with the textile boom of Musharraf-era – an acceptable trade-off considering the re-exports were hoped to offset the exchange loss.
Ever since, not only have textile exports remained stuck at average $12 billion throughout past decade, raw cotton exports have climbed down from $0.4 billion in FY11 to almost barely twelve thousand dollars. Given how cotton production has been performing, readers should not be surprised if the country records nil cotton exports in the coming fiscal year.
Which brings us to the why part. The fact is, just as industrial and services sectors of the economy, Pakistan’s crop-based out equally consumption centric. Of the four major crops – wheat, cotton, cane and paddy, only rice has a significant export share out of total domestic production. Whereas, the state of wheat and sugarcane is not even worth a comment, with erratic years of exports largely function of government subsidy in years of extreme supply glut.
Moreover, if the decline in demand for Pakistani grains a function of international commodity prices that further cements the argument that local crop’s lack of competitiveness is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Afterall, total global demand continues to expand, only to be fulfilled by economies such as China and India with higher yield and improved returns per dollar invested.
A sector that employs nearly forty percent of labour force and directly & indirectly sustains two-thirds of households in the country can survive on government protection only for so long. If Pakistan’s economy is to break through the cycle of subpar growth, Pakistan’s crop sector needs to usher in a revolution, and fast.

Why this new variety of India’s iconic basmati rice is certain to boost exports

Published: June 29, 2019 12:47:12 AM

A new basmati variety, called Pusa 1718—which is an improved version of the iconic Pusa 1121—is set to sustain India’s aromatic and long-grained rice exports through higher yield and the ability to fight bacterial blight disease

Description: basmati, export, basmati riceIllustration: Rohnit Phore
By Sandip Das
Last few weeks have been quite busy for Preetam Singh, who lives in the Uraland Khurd village, part of Panipat district, Haryana, as farmers like him from nearby villages make a beeline for buying paddy seed of a new basmati rice variety, called Pusa basmati 1718 (PB1718) developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Singh owns 32 acres of agricultural land—he has also taken 100 acres of land on lease for farming—and he is mostly engaged in producing seeds for basmati rice variety.
This new basmati variety, which draws its parentage from the widely-grown Pusa 1121 (PB1121), has been endowed with two extra genes to fight the bacterial leaf blight disease, thus preventing lodging, besides increasing the yield. “Farmers who had sown this new basmati variety (PB1718) in the kharif season (2018) say that it did not flatten during rain and hailstorm owing to its comparatively shorter length,” farmer Singh said.
Notified in 2017 by the agriculture ministry, PB1718 is gradually being accepted by farmers across Haryana and Punjab—the key aromatic and long-grain rice-producing region of the country. “The new paddy variety is characterised by its ability to fight bacterial blight, it prevents lodging and also increases the yield,” AK Singh, head, Department of Genetics, IARI, said. Farmers who have grown this new variety in the previous kharif season (2018) claim that the yield has increased to around 25 quintals per acre, as against around 18 quintals achieved for the widely-grown PB1121 (also developed by IARI).
Singh added that while traditional varieties of basmati had a yield of around nine quintals per acre, the short-duration variety Pusa 1509 (PB1509, developed by IARI) gives a yield of around 20 quintals per acre. According to official estimates, PB1121 was grown in around 10 lakh hectares of land, of the total basmati acreage of around 15 lakh hectares in the key growing states last year. The short-duration variety PB1509 was grown in around 3 lakh hectares and the new PB1718 in around 1 lakh hectares. The traditional variety of basmati was grown in less than 1 lakh hectares during last year’s kharif season.
Ritesh Sharma, principal scientist, Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF)—an affiliate body of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)—said there were no effective pesticides available to deal with the bacterial leaf blight disease in PB1121 variety, which has a major share in India’s exports of aromatic and long-grained rice. “We have been dependent on one variety of basmati rice (PB1121) for many years for sustaining our exports. With PB1718, we have an alternate variety in case of exigency,” Sharma said.
Another unique characteristic of the new basmati variety is that there is less grain-loss or lodging while harvesting at maturity, as compared to PB1121, which results in higher yield for farmers. “A new variety also takes 5-6 years to get the desired results; PB1718 has been introduced at the right time, and in the next couple of years is going to be widely cultivated by farmers,” Sharma added.
More than a decade after the introduction of PB1121, which gave a boost to India’s basmati rice exports, PB1718 is expected to help the country dominate the global trade in aromatic and long-grain rice market in the coming years. Commerce ministry officials said that the new variety could not have come at a better time, because due to the bacterial leaf blight disease in PB1121, the yield has been adversely impacted and farmers are increasingly using pesticides to curb pests.
PB1121, a landmark rice variety having basmati-quality traits drawn from traditional varieties, was formally released for commercial cultivation in 2003. Singh of IARI said the new variety possesses extra-long and slender milled grains, aroma, and high-cooked kernel and taste. Owing to its exceptional quality characteristics, it has set new standards in the basmati global rice market. According to commerce ministry officials, the cumulative foreign exchange earnings from PB1121 since 2008 have been around $21 billion. This has given a boost to incomes of basmati growers. India has around 85% share in the global basmati rice trade, while Pakistan has a share of 15%.
India had achieved record basmati rice shipment, both in terms of value as well as volume, in the last financial year. According to APEDA data, India exported basmati rice worth `32,806 crore in 2018-19, which is 22% higher than the `26,870 crore achieved during 2017-18. Volume-wise also, India shipped 4.88 million tonnes of aromatic long-grained rice, which is a record in itself. Today, India exports basmati mostly to countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK, besides several other countries. “PB1718 would definitely help sustain India’s dominant position in the global basmati rice trade,” a commerce ministry official added.
Meanwhile, exporters of India’s aromatic and long-grained basmati rice and officials from the commerce ministry have been deliberating on the complexities arising from the stringent import norms imposed by the European Union (EU), which sharply slashed the level of a commonly-used fungicide, Tricyclazole, in the rice that the EU imports. Tricyclazole is a fungicide used in India to protect the paddy crop from a disease called ‘blast’, and the EU had cut the maximum residue limit for Tricyclazole from 1 PPM to 0.01 PPM from December 31, 2017, onwards. This has put basmati rice exporters in a tough position.
“Two to three crop cycles are required to effect the desired change. Moreover, there is no scientific evidence that the concerned chemical is harmful to human health,” Vijay Setia, president, All India Rice Exporters’ Association (AIREA), said. The EU and the US are high-value markets for basmati rice exporters, even though a major chunk of aromatic and long-grained rice is shipped to Gulf countries.
Official data says that there are 16 lakh farmers, mostly in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and a few pockets of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, engaged in basmati rice cultivation. During the previous kharif season (2018), to curb the use of fungicides, AIREA, in association with APEDA, conducted campaigns among basmati rice growers in many districts of Punjab.

BRRI to develop 5 more high yielding rice varieties

Our Correspondent . Gazipur | Published: 00:47, Jul 01,2019
      
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has developed five new varieties of high yielding rice.
The institute’s Strengthening Physical Infrastructure and Research Activities project director Md Humaun Kabir informed it at a workshop on Sunday.
He also said 70 per cent works of the SPIRA project had been done. 
The project is aimed at reaching BRRI developed rice varieties to the farm level with a view to enhance cropping intensity, increasing laboratory and field level research facilities, ensuring in-country higher education (PhD) of 10 scientists, providing training to 1,125 extension officials along with 4,320 model farmers, providing training to 50 officials on project implementation and management, extending foreign training and tour facilities of the officials, building central research lab, procuring transports and developing existing office and laboratory buildings.
Agriculture secretary Md Nasiruzzaman attended the workshop as chief guest with BRRI director general Shahjahan Kabir in the chair.
Agriculture ministry planning wing joint chief Md Rejaul Karim was the special guest. BRRI director (administration and common service) Md Ansar Ali delivered the welcome address and BRRI director (research) Tamal Lata Aditya gave the vote of thanks.

Highlights of China's science news

Source: Xinhua| 2019-06-29 20:47:19|Editor: Liangyu
BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's science news from the past week:
CHANG'E-4 PROBE
The lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have resumed work for the seventh lunar day on the far side of the moon after "sleeping" during the extreme cold night.
The lander woke up at 9:45 a.m. Thursday, and the rover, Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2), awoke at 1:26 p.m. Wednesday. Both are in normal working condition, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
BIRTHPLACES OF NEW SUNS
Chinese astronomers plan to use the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), by far the largest telescope ever built, to search for birthplaces of new suns so they can better understand how stars and life substances are formed.
Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently caught the birth of a dark molecular cloud for the first time by using three telescopes of the United States and Europe.
HEAVY METAL IN RICE
Chinese researchers have discovered a gene which plays an important role in cadmium accumulation in rice, providing a reference for the cultivation of low-cadmium rice varieties.
By using the genome-wide association study technology and gene annotation system, researchers from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Agricultural University successfully identified a rice grain cadmium accumulation related gene called OsCd1.
DIESEL FUEL REMOVAL
Chinese scientists have developed a hydrophobic nanosponge that can efficiently remove diesel fuel from contaminated water and soil.
Researchers fabricated an environmentally-friendly adsorbent for diesel fuel. The modified hydrophobic nanosponge could effectively control diesel fuel migration and then remove it from water and soil.
ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY ACCUMULATION
Dark-colored biological dust called cryoconite found on the surface of glaciers during the intensive melting season creates a large accumulation of atmospheric mercury deposition on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The glacier surface biological dust is a granular aggregate, comprised of both mineral and biological materials, and is known to accumulate atmospheric mercury contaminants.
PRIMATES THREATENED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
Primate populations may be increasingly threatened by extreme climatic events including cyclones and droughts, according to an international study.
Results showed that 16 percent of the primates are vulnerable to cyclones, particularly those in Madagascar. About 22 percent of the primates are vulnerable to droughts, and they are mainly distributed in the Malaysia Peninsula, North Borneo, Sumatra and tropical moist forests of West Africa. Enditem

The wheat puzzle

Charting India's role in the historic cracking of the wheat genome
Description: Pooja Biraia Jaiswal By Pooja Biraia Jaiswal June 29, 2019 17:48 IST
Description: 18-The-wheat-puzzle-1
It has been two years since 32-year-old Nishi Khattar stopped including wheat-based chapatis in her meals. She instead has either bajra, jowar or millet chapatis and gets her quota of carbs with rice and oats. Khattar makes sure to stay away from anything that has even a small proportion of wheat in it. The main reason for this is that every time she has it, she feels bloated and irritable. “It happened a few times when I would suddenly have this feeling of inflammation in the gut and I realised that this may be because I was eating wheat chapatis. When I skipped the rotis in my meals for two days, I was feeling just fine. So, I figured that this may have to do with my wheat intolerance,” says Khattar. What she refers to as wheat intolerance is, in scientific parlance, known as gluten intolerance—a range of physical disorders caused by gluten protein in wheat. One of these, celiac disease, affects one in 100 people in north India.
The UK was about to snatch [the project] from us. It was after a lot of convincing that they agreed and asked us to make sure we finish it in time, no matter what. - Dr N.K. Singh, ICAR-National Research Institute Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi
Soni, too, has given up on the intake of wheat, but for a different reason. She says it will help her lose weight easily because it is the gluten that has kept her from shedding the excess weight, according to her dietician. “I totally stopped wheat about four months ago and I have noticed the difference in my body after that. I have lost one and a half kilos and I feel much lighter and more energetic,” says Soni. Dr Karishma Chawla, nutritionist, connects the gluten in the wheat to describe what both Khattar and Soni are trying to convey. “There is no doubt that whole wheat is good for one’s overall health. That is precisely what we have all grown up eating. However, the gluten in it is also known to lead to problems of bloating and weight gain. It must be consumed in a very limited way and a complete shift to other protein-rich staples works better for good, lean and energetic health.”
Very soon, all those who have so far avoided wheat—the second largest produced staple in India—are going to be able to have it without worrying. That is because, last August, 200 researchers from across the world, including three Indian scientists, and their teams finally managed to crack the wheat code, or sequence the wheat genome. This means that they will now be able to edit the faulty parts in the crop's DNA that cause allergies and intolerance and replace it with good DNA, which provides increased nutritional efficiency and productivity.
But doing this was no mean task. The wheat genome is the most complex plant genome—over 40 times more mysterious than the rice genome and has 1,07,891 genes, which is five times than that of a human being's. This is one of the reasons why scientists could sequence the genome of rice, of mice and even that of a human but the wheat somehow always bewildered them. The Human Genome Project (HGP), which ended in 2003, was the world's most significant project and India missed out on participating in it. So, when there came the opportunity to work with scientists around the world on the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), which was formed in 2005, India's Dr Kuldeep Singh took it upon himself to ensure that India would be a part of it.
Description: https://img.theweek.in/content/dam/week/magazine/health/more/images/2019/6/25/21-The-wheat-puzzle-2.jpg
As the molecular geneticist in the School of Agricultural Biotechnology at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, he and his institute approached the department of biotechnology with a proposal for India's participation and soon the wheels were set in motion. “Nobody ever thought that wheat genome mapping was possible. Especially because 85 per cent of wheat's genome is replicated, meaning nearly everything looks identical or has identical characteristics. What we had to do was to sequence the genome, which meant break it down into thousands of pieces, identify each piece and put it back together again. So it was quite a task,” says the 57-year-old scientist. In wheat there are three genomes—A, B and D—with seven chromosomes in each. So the consortium had to sequence all 21 chromosomes. But since each is so huge, every country took to sequencing just one and India took the 2A.
Helmed by three scientists—Kuldeep Singh, N.K. Singh from ICAR-National Research Institute Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, and Jitendra P. Khurana from the University of Delhi (South Campus)—a team of 18 scientists got down to work together from their respective campuses. The chromosome 2A that India took was the second largest, while France took to mapping chromosome 3B which is said to be the most complicated and longer than the entire soybean genome.
Description: Dr N.K. SinghDr N.K. Singh
The project was carried out on a budget of Rs35 crore. The teams worked for long hours over eight years to conclude their research. There were moments of frustration, but one which Dr N.K. Singh will never forget was when the international community started questioning if India had the ability to complete the project in the given timeline. They wanted to do everything by themselves, according to him. The problem he says was that the IWGSC was formed in 2005 and most countries had already begun work on their respective chosen genomes. Whereas India joined it in 2010. “The UK was about to snatch it from us. It was after a lot of convincing that they agreed and asked us to make sure we finish it in time, no matter what,” he says.
The initial DNA sample that was to come from the Czech Republic to India also got delayed by six months. Then there were infrastructural issues, too, according to Ajay Kumar Mahato, who worked as a research associate on the project along with Dr N.K. Singh. “The wheat genome is based on the next generation sequencing technology so the data that is generated for the sequencing machine is approximately 230GB. So, the problems we faced was the availability of computational resource to assemble all that data. We established new infrastructure and purchased new servers with high computational facilities. It took us about one and a half years and a lot of night shifts in the lab for data generation alone. And then another almost 2.5 years for actually capturing the analysis of the data of the assembled genome of wheat chromosome 2A short arm,” says Mahato.
In 2014, IWGSC with 2,400 members across 68 countries published the first draft of the genome sequencing and by 2018, as per an article published in Science, the DNA sequence had been ordered and it represented the highest quality genome sequence generated to date for the bread wheat, covering 94 per cent of the entire wheat genome.
Naveen Sharma, who works as a research associate in the department of plant molecular biology under Professor Khurana, managed the bac-n sequencing in the wheat genome project, which means fragmenting the DNA, cloning the genomic fragments and then doing the n-sequencing which finally helps in the assembly of the sequence. “The major problem we faced was with repeat sequencing,” said Sharma. "There was so much pressure to complete the work in the given time frame that it got very exhausting at one point. We used to take one week for sequencing of 3,200 clones which would sap us of all our energy. There was always the risk of failure because everything was so expensive. A 20ml chemical used in sequencing cost us approximately Rs5 lakh to Rs6 lakh. So it had to be perfect the very first time. There was no room for error, wastage and repeat work." Sharma and his researcher friends partied once the research got published in the Science journal.
The decoding of the wheat genome will help identify genes controlling complex agronomic traits such as yield, grain quality and resistance to diseases and pests, as well as tolerance to drought, heat, water logging and salinity. According to Minister of Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan, it will also go a long way in developing climate-resilient wheat and help tide over possible impact of climate change on farm output.
“The genome map will also help in isolating proteins that cause gluten intolerance so that you will no longer have to give up on consuming it,” says Dr Kuldeep Singh. “We also believe that it will help in increasing the bio-availability of iron in bread wheat. As of now only 5 per cent of the iron content in wheat can be absorbed but once we identify the genes and double the bio-availability, we can increase the nutritional quantity of iron in wheat.”
According to a study in the journal PLOS One, it was estimated that the current agricultural output would be insufficient for humans by 2050 and crop yields would need to increase by 1.6 per cent annually to meet the demand. All this, in the face of depleting land and water resources and vagaries of climate change. By cracking the wheat genome, scientists have ensured that wheat remains resilient to most natural calamities and its productivity increases manifold to address the concerns of quality and nutrition. According to well-known wheat researcher Bikram Gill, who is a professor in the department of plant pathology at Kansas State University, scientists in India must be given the freedom to do what they want to. He says that since wheat is an integral part of India's food consumption, it was natural for the country to be part of the history that has been created. He hopes we can now enjoy wheat without worry or panic.
Punjab to register, tag Basmati growers in the state
Description: Punjab to register, tag Basmati growers in the stateVarinder Singh Tribune News Service Jalandhar, June 29 The central and Punjab governments have jointly launched a new project to register the state’s six lakh Basmati growers, an official said.  The project, undertaken to help bring down pesticides in the crop to help boost exports, will give each Basmati grower in the state a unique ID. The project, undertaken jointly by Punjab government, the Punjab Rice Millers’ Export Association and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)—a federal authority that comes under the central government—will help identify crops that have pesticides beyond permissible limits. The development comes on the back of a rise in India’s Basmati exports being rejected, often because of the residue of pesticides found in the produce. Punjab accounts for some 50-60 per cent of the country’s Basmati exports.  The internationally accepted limit for pesticides is 0.01 mg per kilogramme. Also part of the initiative is an active campaign to discourage farmers from using nine specific types of pesticides—Acephate, Triazophos, Thiamethoxam 25 percent WG, Cerbendazim 50 percent WP, Buprofezin, Arbofuron, Propiconazole and Thiophanate Methyl.

“The gradual elimination of these poisons will make it sure that Punjab’s Basmati passes all the international import parameters. Since every farmer will be registered on basmati.net portal and will be tagged, it will be easy to keep a tab on the origin of pesticide laden fields particularly, upon the landing of the crop in the market. At the same time, those farmers not using these unwanted pesticides will also be identified,” Sukhdev Singh Sidhu, Joint Director (Plant Protection) and the Nodal Officer for Basmati in Punjab said. He said Basmati growers could keep the pests at bay by using “green triangle” pesticides that Ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University has recommended. “These pesticides were less harmful for human health and did not exceed residue limits set by the EU and other foreign countries,” he said. Basmati, which was considered a flagship crop on Punjab’s diversification front, suits farmers because it consumes less water than paddy—a fact that is especially important given the depleting groundwater levels in the state.


AMRU inks $15M deal with International Finance Corp

Thou Vireak | Publication date 28 June 2019 | 07:52 ICT
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Description: Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Cambodia exported a total of 626,225 tonnes of rice last year, down 1.4 per cent from 2017’s 635,679 tonnes. POST PIX
Amru Rice (Cambodia) Co Ltd, a local rice exporter and leading organic paddy producer, signed a more than $15 million loan agreement with the International Finance Corporation on Wednesday.
The firm plans to expand its organic milled rice exports to 50,000 tonnes a year, its CEO Song Saran said.
Saran told The Post on Thursday that the loan would be used to expand milled rice warehouses, drying silos, as well as to strengthen its packing standards, processing, quality and safety, and to increase capital to purchase paddy.
“In this capital package, we will invest in infrastructure, paddy purchases and reinforce quality. We want our country to become the largest exporter of organic milled rice in Southeast Asia, where Thailand is currently the largest,” he said.
Saran said the plan is scheduled to begin in July.
“[We] will also supply [rice] to food processing factories. We have the capacity to supply,” he said.
Saran said the company plans to export 20,000 tonnes of organic milled rice to the EU, US, China and Hong Kong this year, and 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes next year.
“We have been working on organic paddy for three to four years, and we have reached a commercial level, so it requires us to invest and expand business in compliance with the standards. We have nothing to worry about,” he said.
Saran said in the first six months of this year, the company exported more than 4,000 tonnes of organic milled rice, earning nearly $4 million. It expects to export 10,000 tonnes by the end of the year.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries shows that in the first five months of this year, Cambodia’s rice exports reached over 250,000 tonnes – up 4.14 per cent year-on-year.
Cambodia Rice Federation vice-president Hun Lak said total exports for this year will fall about five per cent due to tariffs imposed by the EU, despite a slight increase in the first five months.
“We know that the tariffs imposed on Cambodian rice exports to the EU will cause them to decline,” he said.
After the EU imposed tariffs on the Kingdom’s rice imports, China agreed in January to increase its import quota for Cambodian rice to 400,000 tonnes this year from the previous 300,000 tonnes.
Lak asserted that the Chinese market may offset the downside. “China’s additional [rice] quotas will compensate [for our losses],” he stressed.
Cambodia exported a total of 626,225 tonnes of rice last year, down 1.4 per cent from 2017’s 635,679 tonnes, data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said

Badin growers advised to cultivate rice
BADIN : The district administration of Badin, SIDA and irrigation departments on Sunday advised the growers of tail-ends to commence the rice cultivation with initially seedling of paddy crops in the district. Deputy Commissioner Dr Hafeez Ahmed Siyal along with SIDA officials while holding an important press conference advised the growers to start rice cultivation instantly as within seven days water rotation would end in the district.

Dr Siyal said that due to sincere efforts of Sindh govt the water shortage in the Kotri Barrage was reduced to 23 percent which earlier was 50pc.
He said that Phuleli Canal’s water flow was maintained at 12,000 cusec level recently and none perennial canals including Mirwah and Manak canal maintained an additional water flow which ultimately provided benefit to local growers. He also informed that water rotation in Golarchi taluka canals would be ending till end of the upcoming week. Water rotation in the Akram Wah system would continue till overall improvement of water system in the province, he added. The district administration would now control the water shortage after couple of month’s uninterrupted efforts and warned that stern action would be taken against those who theft the water of local growers.

On the occasion, Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur and others SIDA officials also addressed the press conference and responded the queries of the journalists.


Thai Organic Rice Helps Promote People’s Wellbeing
BANGKOK, July 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Department of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce, Thailand, has introduced a project called "Think RICE, Think THAILAND" to encourage international community to pay attention to consumer health and to raise awareness on the national crop by providing a wider range of knowledge, ranging from national agricultural history, standards and Thai rice quality.
Description: Thai Organic Rice Helps Promote People's Wellbeing
Thai Organic Rice Helps Promote People's Wellbeing
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The Ministry of Commerce explained that Thailand, as a leader in rice production and exports, has rapidly expanded its organic rice farming due to the increasing preference for organic food amongst consumers around the world. The country aims to become ASEAN's organic rice production hub with efficient production and product traceability, from grain selection to packaging.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce, encourage farmers and traders to produce quality organic rice that meets the requirements of international standards including: International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, EU Organic, USDA National Organic Program, Canada Organic Regime, Japanese Agricultural Organic Standard, China Organic Food Certification Center and Ecocert.
To produce Thai organic rice, the country starts with quality grains selection from organic rice suppliers, then, carefully preparing soil to minimize weeds without using chemicals. Next, it is about selecting fertile farmlands with controlled irrigation to prevent contamination from outside water sources and enrich the soil with organic plant fertilizers. Eliminating weeds is done by using non-chemical methods along with microbial pesticides. To prevent and eliminate diseases, a natural balance and proper irrigation to strengthen the rice's immunity to diseases provided. The country relies on natural predators to prevent and eliminate pests. Moreover. Thai organic rice farmers also focus on the chemical contamination prevention, before and after harvest to maintain the organic chain. Paddy rice must be stored in its suitable environment. As for pack milled rice, using either the vacuum packing method or CO2 technique.
Think Rice, Think Thailand.




Why this new variety of India’s iconic basmati rice is certain to boost exports

A new basmati variety, called Pusa 1718—which is an improved version of the iconic Pusa 1121—is set to sustain India’s aromatic and long-grained rice exports through higher yield and the ability to fight bacterial blight disease

Description: basmati, export, basmati riceIllustration: Rohnit Phore
By Sandip Das Last few weeks have been quite busy for Preetam Singh, who lives in the Uraland Khurd village, part of Panipat district, Haryana, as farmers like him from nearby villages make a beeline for buying paddy seed of a new basmati rice variety, called Pusa basmati 1718 (PB1718) developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Singh owns 32 acres of agricultural land—he has also taken 100 acres of land on lease for farming—and he is mostly engaged in producing seeds for basmati rice variety.

This new basmati variety, which draws its parentage from the widely-grown Pusa 1121 (PB1121), has been endowed with two extra genes to fight the bacterial leaf blight disease, thus preventing lodging, besides increasing the yield. “Farmers who had sown this new basmati variety (PB1718) in the kharif season (2018) say that it did not flatten during rain and hailstorm owing to its comparatively shorter length,” farmer Singh said. Notified in 2017 by the agriculture ministry, PB1718 is gradually being accepted by farmers across Haryana and Punjab—the key aromatic and long-grain rice-producing region of the country. “The new paddy variety is characterised by its ability to fight bacterial blight, it prevents lodging and also increases the yield,” AK Singh, head, Department of Genetics, IARI, said. Farmers who have grown this new variety in the previous kharif season (2018) claim that the yield has increased to around 25 quintals per acre, as against around 18 quintals achieved for the widely-grown PB1121 (also developed by IARI). Singh added that while traditional varieties of basmati had a yield of around nine quintals per acre, the short-duration variety Pusa 1509 (PB1509, developed by IARI) gives a yield of around 20 quintals per acre. According to official estimates, PB1121 was grown in around 10 lakh hectares of land, of the total basmati acreage of around 15 lakh hectares in the key growing states last year. The short-duration variety PB1509 was grown in around 3 lakh hectares and the new PB1718 in around 1 lakh hectares. The traditional variety of basmati was grown in less than 1 lakh hectares during last year’s kharif season. Ritesh Sharma, principal scientist, Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF)—an affiliate body of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)—said there were no effective pesticides available to deal with the bacterial leaf blight disease in PB1121 variety, which has a major share in India’s exports of aromatic and long-grained rice. “We have been dependent on one variety of basmati rice (PB1121) for many years for sustaining our exports. With PB1718, we have an alternate variety in case of exigency,” Sharma said. Another unique characteristic of the new basmati variety is that there is less grain-loss or lodging while harvesting at maturity, as compared to PB1121, which results in higher yield for farmers. “A new variety also takes 5-6 years to get the desired results; PB1718 has been introduced at the right time, and in the next couple of years is going to be widely cultivated by farmers,” Sharma added. More than a decade after the introduction of PB1121, which gave a boost to India’s basmati rice exports, PB1718 is expected to help the country dominate the global trade in aromatic and long-grain rice market in the coming years. Commerce ministry officials said that the new variety could not have come at a better time, because due to the bacterial leaf blight disease in PB1121, the yield has been adversely impacted and farmers are increasingly using pesticides to curb pests. PB1121, a landmark rice variety having basmati-quality traits drawn from traditional varieties, was formally released for commercial cultivation in 2003. Singh of IARI said the new variety possesses extra-long and slender milled grains, aroma, and high-cooked kernel and taste. Owing to its exceptional quality characteristics, it has set new standards in the basmati global rice market. According to commerce ministry officials, the cumulative foreign exchange earnings from PB1121 since 2008 have been around $21 billion. This has given a boost to incomes of basmati growers. India has around 85% share in the global basmati rice trade, while Pakistan has a share of 15%. India had achieved record basmati rice shipment, both in terms of value as well as volume, in the last financial year. According to APEDA data, India exported basmati rice worth `32,806 crore in 2018-19, which is 22% higher than the `26,870 crore achieved during 2017-18. Volume-wise also, India shipped 4.88 million tonnes of aromatic long-grained rice, which is a record in itself. Today, India exports basmati mostly to countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK, besides several other countries. “PB1718 would definitely help sustain India’s dominant position in the global basmati rice trade,” a commerce ministry official added. Meanwhile, exporters of India’s aromatic and long-grained basmati rice and officials from the commerce ministry have been deliberating on the complexities arising from the stringent import norms imposed by the European Union (EU), which sharply slashed the level of a commonly-used fungicide, Tricyclazole, in the rice that the EU imports. Tricyclazole is a fungicide used in India to protect the paddy crop from a disease called ‘blast’, and the EU had cut the maximum residue limit for Tricyclazole from 1 PPM to 0.01 PPM from December 31, 2017, onwards. This has put basmati rice exporters in a tough position. “Two to three crop cycles are required to effect the desired change. Moreover, there is no scientific evidence that the concerned chemical is harmful to human health,” Vijay Setia, president, All India Rice Exporters’ Association (AIREA), said. The EU and the US are high-value markets for basmati rice exporters, even though a major chunk of aromatic and long-grained rice is shipped to Gulf countries. Official data says that there are 16 lakh farmers, mostly in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and a few pockets of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, engaged in basmati rice cultivation. During the previous kharif season (2018), to curb the use of fungicides, AIREA, in association with APEDA, conducted campaigns among basmati rice growers in many districts of Punjab.
Author Name: A new basmati variety, called Pusa 1718—which is an improved version of the iconic Pusa 1121—is set to sustain India’s aromatic and long-grained rice exports through higher yield and the ability to fight bacterial blight disease basmati, export, basmati rice Illustration: Rohnit Phore By Sandip Das Last few weeks have been quite busy for Preetam Singh, who lives in the Uraland Khurd village, part of Panipat district, Haryana, as farmers like him from nearby villages make a beeline for buying paddy seed of a new basmati rice variety, called Pusa basmati 1718 (PB1718) developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Singh owns 32 acres of agricultural land—he has also taken 100 acres of land on lease for farming—and he is mostly engaged in producing seeds for basmati rice variety. This new basmati variety, which draws its parentage from the widely-grown Pusa 1121 (PB1121), has been endowed with two extra genes to fight the bacterial leaf blight disease, thus preventing lodging, besides increasing the yield. “Farmers who had sown this new basmati variety (PB1718) in the kharif season (2018) say that it did not flatten during rain and hailstorm owing to its comparatively shorter length,” farmer Singh said. Notified in 2017 by the agriculture ministry, PB1718 is gradually being accepted by farmers across Haryana and Punjab—the key aromatic and long-grain rice-producing region of the country. “The new paddy variety is characterised by its ability to fight bacterial blight, it prevents lodging and also increases the yield,” AK Singh, head, Department of Genetics, IARI, said. Farmers who have grown this new variety in the previous kharif season (2018) claim that the yield has increased to around 25 quintals per acre, as against around 18 quintals achieved for the widely-grown PB1121 (also developed by IARI). Singh added that while traditional varieties of basmati had a yield of around nine quintals per acre, the short-duration variety Pusa 1509 (PB1509, developed by IARI) gives a yield of around 20 quintals per acre. According to official estimates, PB1121 was grown in around 10 lakh hectares of land, of the total basmati acreage of around 15 lakh hectares in the key growing states last year. The short-duration variety PB1509 was grown in around 3 lakh hectares and the new PB1718 in around 1 lakh hectares. The traditional variety of basmati was grown in less than 1 lakh hectares during last year’s kharif season. Ritesh Sharma, principal scientist, Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF)—an affiliate body of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)—said there were no effective pesticides available to deal with the bacterial leaf blight disease in PB1121 variety, which has a major share in India’s exports of aromatic and long-grained rice. “We have been dependent on one variety of basmati rice (PB1121) for many years for sustaining our exports. With PB1718, we have an alternate variety in case of exigency,” Sharma said. Another unique characteristic of the new basmati variety is that there is less grain-loss or lodging while harvesting at maturity, as compared to PB1121, which results in higher yield for farmers. “A new variety also takes 5-6 years to get the desired results; PB1718 has been introduced at the right time, and in the next couple of years is going to be widely cultivated by farmers,” Sharma added. More than a decade after the introduction of PB1121, which gave a boost to India’s basmati rice exports, PB1718 is expected to help the country dominate the global trade in aromatic and long-grain rice market in the coming years. Commerce ministry officials said that the new variety could not have come at a better time, because due to the bacterial leaf blight disease in PB1121, the yield has been adversely impacted and farmers are increasingly using pesticides to curb pests. PB1121, a landmark rice variety having basmati-quality traits drawn from traditional varieties, was formally released for commercial cultivation in 2003. Singh of IARI said the new variety possesses extra-long and slender milled grains, aroma, and high-cooked kernel and taste. Owing to its exceptional quality characteristics, it has set new standards in the basmati global rice market. According to commerce ministry officials, the cumulative foreign exchange earnings from PB1121 since 2008 have been around $21 billion. This has given a boost to incomes of basmati growers. India has around 85% share in the global basmati rice trade, while Pakistan has a share of 15%. India had achieved record basmati rice shipment, both in terms of value as well as volume, in the last financial year. According to APEDA data, India exported basmati rice worth `32,806 crore in 2018-19, which is 22% higher than the `26,870 crore achieved during 2017-18. Volume-wise also, India shipped 4.88 million tonnes of aromatic long-grained rice, which is a record in itself. Today, India exports basmati mostly to countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK, besides several other countries. “PB1718 would definitely help sustain India’s dominant position in the global basmati rice trade,” a commerce ministry official added. Meanwhile, exporters of India’s aromatic and long-grained basmati rice and officials from the commerce ministry have been deliberating on the complexities arising from the stringent import norms imposed by the European Union (EU), which sharply slashed the level of a commonly-used fungicide, Tricyclazole, in the rice that the EU imports. Tricyclazole is a fungicide used in India to protect the paddy crop from a disease called ‘blast’, and the EU had cut the maximum residue limit for Tricyclazole from 1 PPM to 0.01 PPM from December 31, 2017, onwards. This has put basmati rice exporters in a tough position. “Two to three crop cycles are required to effect the desired change. Moreover, there is no scientific evidence that the concerned chemical is harmful to human health,” Vijay Setia, president, All India Rice Exporters’ Association (AIREA), said. The EU and the US are high-value markets for basmati rice exporters, even though a major chunk of aromatic and long-grained rice is shipped to Gulf countries. Official data says that there are 16 lakh farmers, mostly in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and a few pockets of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, engaged in basmati rice cultivation. During the previous kharif season (2018), to curb the use of fungicides, AIREA, in association with APEDA, conducted campaigns among basmati rice growers in many districts of Punjab.
Date: 01-Jul-2019


FY 2018-19: Nepal Rice Imports on the Rise Despite Bumper Harvest

The country Nepal imported rice worth NPR 278 million within the first 10 months of the current fiscal compared to NPR 241 in FY 2017-18 

In the recent update on Nepal’s paddy production, the country has recorded the highest paddy production of 5.6 million tons this fiscal year 2018-19.
However, Nepal’s rice import continues to be steadily on the rise, despite bumper paddy production throughout the last three years.
The country imported rice worth NPR 278 million within the first 10 months of the current fiscal compared to NPR 241 in FY 2017-18. Similarly, in 2016-17 Nepal’s rice imports were worth NPR 202 million.
According to Nepal Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) Ministry, changing habits of consumers were responsible for the increasing rice imports in the country. Most Nepalis prefer white rice or refined rice imported from India.
Despite the country’s ability to meet the rising demand, consumers’ varying taste have forced Nepal to import rice said MoALD.
According to MoALD, Nepal’s current market demand for rice stands at around 4 million tons at the moment and its local production meets only close to 3.4 million tons.

Nepal’s Paddy Production 2016-19


This current fiscal 2018-19, Nepal registered a paddy/rice increase by 9.8 percent compared to 5.1 million tons in the previous fiscal.
Similarly, the country’s paddy productivity reached 3.8 tons per hectare in the current fiscal, an increase of 8.6 percent compared to FY 2017-18.
The International Rice Research Institute  – Nepal’s (IRRI-Nepal) five-year work plan along with a few other places and programs are responsible for the success of Nepal’s increased paddy productivity, said MoALD Spokesperson Tej Bahadur Subedi.
However, increased productivity and production have not been able to override Nepal’s increasing rice imports.
This is a matter of concern as rice contributes to 20 percent of Nepal’s agriculture sector, which has a 27 percent in Nepal’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Meanwhile on June 30, 2019, Nepal marked the beginning of the crop plantation season with Ropain – the rice planting festival.

Federal govt identifies priority areas for support

Amin AhmedUpdated July 01, 2019
Description: The agriculture sector’s performance during the last two seasons remained subdued.  — APP/File
The agriculture sector’s performance during the last two seasons remained subdued. — APP/File
The government has lowered the growth target for the agriculture sector for 2019-20 owing to insufficient water and a drop in the fertiliser off-take.
The growth target for the sector is now 3.5 per cent, which is based on the expected contribution from important crops (wheat, rice, sugar cane and maize) at 3.5pc, “other crops” 3.1pc, cotton ginned 2.5pc, livestock 3.7pc, fisheries 4pc and forestry 2pc.
The sector’s performance during the last two seasons (Rabi and Kharif) remained subdued. It grew 0.85pc, significantly lower than the target of 3.8pc.
Targets for wheat and cotton will likely be achieved if the quality and quantity of inputs are ensured in addition to the consistent availability of water, certified seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and agriculture credit facilities.
The National Agriculture Emergency Programme aims to spend Rs290bn in the next five years to boost the crop yield, develop fisheries and livestock and improve water conservation
The government is planning to rationalise the area under cultivation for wheat, rice and sugar cane. Pakistan is self-sufficient in these crops. Thus, the area under cultivation is going to be reduced to grow cotton, pulses, oilseeds and high-value horticultural crops to reduce their imports.
The production targets for 2019 Kharif and 2020 Rabi seasons have been finalised. The wheat production target will be 25.55 million tonnes, rice 7.4m tonnes, sugar cane 68,583,000 tonnes, cotton 15m bales and maize 6,357,000 tonnes.
As for minor crops, the target for gram is 550,000 tonnes, onion 2.23m tonnes, sunflower 200,000 tonnes and potato 4.2m tonnes.
The annual development plan document shows that water availability at canal heads for 2019-20 is expected to be 108 million acre-feet (MAF) to support crop production.
The drop in the fertiliser off-take by 7.3pc was because of its high price, not a shortage of input. In 2018-19, domestic production of fertiliser increased 2.6pc. It was mainly because two urea manufacturing plants were functional owing to the supply of LNG at subsidised rates. At the same time, fertiliser imports increased 4.8pc. Thereby, its total availability rose 3.2pc in 2018-19.
The government is going to focus on improving agricultural input and output markets. It is also strengthening the capacity and infrastructure to conduct agriculture research.
Although the private sector plays a major role in the input supply chain, the government’s role as a regulator will be strengthened in order to ensure the supply of quality inputs in a timely manner. There are indications that an organisational setup at the federal level is on the anvil for the implementation of the amended Seed Act as well as the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act through the establishment of a registry.
The Ministry of National Food Security and Research will get an allocation of Rs15 billion as development budget.
The ministry has identified 20 priority areas for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in 2019-20. Major projects include Better Cotton Initiative, National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses, National Oilseed Enhancement Programme, enhancement of the command areas of small and mini dams in Barani areas, promotion of research for productivity enhancement in pulses, wheat, rice and sugar cane, promotion of rural poultry, olive cultivation on commercial scale, satellite-based mapping of cropping zones and monitoring system, and the national pesticide residue monitoring system.
There are indications that an organisational setup at the federal level is on the anvil for the implementation of the amended Seed Act as well as the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act through the establishment of a registry
According to the annual plan document, the programmes under the technology-driven knowledge economy will receive separate allocations.
In addition to the federal government, the provinces are also investing in agriculture using their own funds. Last year, investments by the provinces were Rs93bn, which is expected to go further up during 2019-20.
The federal government recently announced the National Agriculture Emergency Programme, which aims to spend Rs290bn in the next five years to boost the crop yield, develop fisheries and livestock and improve water conservation.
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 1st, 2019

Food as Hallmark to Nationhood

June 29, 2019, 7:33 am IST Reshmi R Dasgupta in Silk Stalkings | India | ET
Spinach is back in the news because scientists have discovered a natural steroid-like chemical in it that boosts stamina and performance. Just because the Chinese called the spinach plant ‘Persian vegetable’ –though it arrived there in the 7th century via India—it is “widely thought” to have originated in Iran. No one knows how it arrived in India, but Arab traders took it westwards to Europe and beyond.
Indeed, there are stories aplenty too about how Catherine de Medici—the Italian noblewoman who as Queen of France fostered that country’s culinary revolution—was also devoted to spinach. So much so, we are told, that she not only presciently brought over spinach seeds from her native Florence to Paris, she also decreed its inclusion in many dishes. Hence, even today, spinach-laden dishes are called ‘Florentine’.
India did not lack monarchs, nobles and even ordinary people with extraordinary interests and capabilities. It is unfortunate, however, that edicts and inscriptions apart, most of them exhibited a singular lack of interest in jotting down mundane things like their surroundings, daily activities, scientific achievements or thoughts. India has been let down all too often by its historical unwillingness to chronicle anything.
When it comes to food, we should be grateful that at least the aubergine—brinjal or baingan—is confirmed to have originated here, even though the oldest references to the vegetable once again come from a 6th century text on agriculture from China. Thank goodness, my schoolmate, doctor and now food investigator Manoshi Bhattacharya has dug up at least a few intriguing Indian references to it too!
She says Charaka the 3rd century BCE Ayurveda master mentions a vegetable called ‘bhandi’ or ‘bhanti’. And then nearly 15 centuries later, the epicurean Western Chalukya king Bhulokamala Someshwara III, actually chronicled in his treatise Manasollasa the earliest ever recipe for bhindi masala, which included it being sliced, doused in haldi, crisp-fried and sprinkled on top of a bowl of whipped yoghurt.
At least arhar or toor dal—called pigeon pea in English—is firmly attributed to India, thanks to the fact that its wild relative is still found in peninsular India. It’s providential that arhar remnants have been found dating back to 14th century BC in Karnataka, Maharashtra and even Orissa. At some point it travelled from ancient India’s ports to Africa, and eventually Europe and much later to the Americas.
Interestingly, Charaka once again saved us our blushes by mentioning adhaki (the oldest Sanskrit word for pigeonpea) in his ayurvedic prescriptions as did the ancient physician Susruta in the 6th century BC. Adhaki also crops up in Buddhist and Jain literature from the 2nd century BC onwards. Even the Gupta era Amarkosha compendium lists adhaki, kakshi and tuvarika, all names for arhar dal.
Origins of ancient food ingredients have depended on three major sources: finds during excavations, discovery of wild relatives in a region, and, of course, any written material. When India has so few chronicles and records, we have to depend on the first two, per force. And yet, theories of origin based on archaeological remnants are tricky as they can always be supplanted by newer discoveries.
The age-old battle between India and China on the origin of many things plays out today based on these factors, but archaeological finds are not the last word. For instance, China had claimed hunter-gathers living along the Yangtze River were the first to grow rice, 10,000 years ago. Bits (called phytoliths) of rice were found at a site called Shangshan, which China cited as the ‘origin’ of cultivated rice.
But then intrepid Indian archaeologists excavated a site in Lahuradeva village in Sant Kabir Nagar district of UP and found charred evidence of cultivated rice dating back to almost exactly the time of the Chinese sitethe 7th millennium BC! And knowing how seriously countries take claims of origin, the radio-carbon dating of Lahuradeva’s rice was done by three reputed laboratories, including one in Germany.
Food has become one of the hallmarks of nationhood these days. Battles rage over authenticity and origin, and much pride is invested in them. Geographical Indicator tags are the logical outcome of this intense possessiveness all aspects of human endeavour. Who knows what cases and claims will be made in the future (not only by China) but India should not regress into documentation neglect ever again.