Monday, September 23, 2019

23rd September,2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter

Search on again for Kingdom’s best quality rice

Chea Vannak / Khmer Times 
The Cambodia Rice Federation has urged rice millers and exporters to join the National Rice Competition 2019 by submitting samples of their rice.
For in depth analysis of Cambodian Business, visit Capital Cambodia
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It said in an announcement on Friday that the best premium fragrant rice will be presented as Cambodia’s entry to the World Best Rice Award Contest scheduled to be held in Manila, the Philippines, from November 10 to 13.
The fourth national rice competition will be held on November 1 and the rice millers and exporters should submit their samples to the CRF no later than October 25, the CRF noted.
It said there are three categories in the competition – premium fragrant rice; fragrant rice; and long grain white rice.
Lun Yeng, CRF secretary general, yesterday said that rice millers and exporters are encouraged to join the contest to find the best quality rice in the country.
“Any rice miller and exporter can apply to join the upcoming national rice competition, so that the best quality rice will be selected by the CRF’s committee of judges,” he noted.
The competition will focus on the quality of rice after cooking, its fragrance and appearance, Mr Yeng said.
He noted that national winners in the fragrant rice and long grain white rice categories would be given awards during the 7th Cambodia Rice Forum scheduled to be held in December.
Since participating in the annual World Best Rice contest, Cambodian rice has won the top award in 2012, 2013, 2014 and last year.
Last year, Cambodia’s premium fragrant rice won the best rice in the world contest which took place in Hanoi, Vietnam during the 10th TRT World Rice Conference held on October 10 to 12.
According to Mr Yeng, Cambodia faces tough competition from Thailand and Vietnam which also produce high quality rice for export to other countries.
Cambodia exported 281,538 tonnes of milled rice during the first half of this year, an increase of 3.7 percent compared to the same period last year.

Low basmati prices worry Majha farmers

CITIES Updated: Sep 23, 2019 01:38 IST

Anil Sharma
Description: Hindustantimes
anil.kumar@htlive.com
Low prices of the early variety of basmati rice, PUSA-1509, have been worrying farmers of the Majha region as against ₹2,900-3,000 per quintal last year, they are getting only ₹2,300 to 25,000 for the same produce this year.
Three of the four districts of Majha region—Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur— bordering Pakistan is the most favorable destination for cultivation of the premium quality rice. Besides Majha, the variety is also cultivated in some parts of Hoshiarpur, Muktsar and Fazilka districts of the state. In Haryana, basmati is largely grown in Karnal and its adjoining districts. Punjab and Haryana collectively contribute to 75% of the high quality rice exports.
Commission agents blame the United States (US) sanctions on Iran for the low price while the farmers are blaming the Centre and state governments for not fixing minimum support price (MSP) of the crop.
The 1509 variety of basmati had started arriving in the grain markets of Majha from September 5. Another variety of basmati, PUSA 1121, is expected to arrive in the grain markets in the next few days.
“A quintal PUSA 1509 and 1121 was available at ₹2,900 to 3,000 last year. This year government encouraged us to cultivate basmati as it saves lot of water and we almost doubled the area under its cultivation this year. However, the government failed to ensure a fair price for our yield. We are getting only ₹2,300 to 2,500 per acre,” said Kawalpreet Singh Pannu, convener of Kisan Sangarsh Committee (KSC), Punjab.
This year, the agriculture department has recorded more than 40% increase in the area under the high quality rice cultivation as compared to last year. Out of around 5,68,676 hectares under paddy in the region, basmati was transplanted on more than 2,75,000 hectares this year. However, basmati was cultivated on 1,93,000 hectares in the region last year.
Chief agriculture officer (CAO), Tarn Taran, Harwinderjit Singh, said, “MSP of every crop is fixed by the Center. Farmers are getting ₹2,500 per quintal for PUSA 1509. The price may increase when PUSA 1121 arrives in the grain market.”
As per agriculture department, sowing basmati also helps farmers manage stubble as the premium quality paddy has less straw in comparison to the coarse varieties.
“If the government wants us to sow basmati next year too, it should fix the price of the high quality rice to more than ₹3000 per quintal,” said Nishan Singh, a farmer in Amritsar.
“Recently, the price of basmati superfine varieties for export has dipped from ₹9,200 to ₹7,200 per quintal, instilling a sense of worry in the mind of private players. This has happened due to the US sanctions on Iran. Most of the basmati is exported to Iran and Saudi Arabia,” said Rakesh Tuli, advisor of Arthia Union, Amritsar.

For Pakistan, deficit reduction is a success but is not enough

Published: September 23, 2019
Description: PHOTO: REUTERS
PHOTO: REUTERS
KARACHI: Maintaining a balance of payments equilibrium is one of the top most priorities of all macroeconomic managers and in the case of Pakistan, managing the balance of payments has been the main economic issue for the past two years.
The country has compromised on other macroeconomic goals such as low unemployment and low or stable inflation in order to reduce the current account deficit.
Pakistan received encouraging news on this front as the current account deficit narrowed to $579 million in July 2019, which was almost a fourth of the deficit recorded in July 2018 ($2.13 billion).
In order to explain this improvement, let us take help of the economic concept of J-curve.
Description: 2
According to the J-curve theory, initially the current account deficit increases slightly following devaluation of the currency but eventually this trend is reversed and improvement comes after six to eight months. This time lag occurs because imports and exports get adjusted with a lag. Imports slow down and exports gain momentum but the change does not take place immediately.
The improvement in the level of the deficit has been reflected in an improvement in value of the currency as well. Pakistan rupee strengthened against US dollar in August 2019 and traded at 156.75 against July close of 159.75.
The market expects the rupee to appreciate further in September based on the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) index of 91.0. This expectation will be strengthened if the current account deficit for the month remains under control. The above improvements are commendable but the economic team has faced a lot of criticism while trying to achieve this. Nevertheless, the improvement in the external sector is a feather in its cap. However, this victory of the economic team must be translated into long-term success and to achieve that, there is a long journey ahead.
Description: 1
Imports have been choked and import-oriented businesses have paid a huge cost for bringing improvement in the external sector. Several entrepreneurs have to shut down their businesses, which resulted in the loss of many jobs.
However, export volumes have not exhibited any plausible improvement, which is the biggest challenge. Without increasing exports, the victory on the external front is nothing but an illusion.
Increasing exports is a long but truly rewarding journey. The country needs to take the following measures in order to increase exports. The biggest problem with export-oriented businesses is that they are already operating at full capacity, hence, devaluation alone is not the solution. Policymakers must incentivise investment in the export-oriented business.
Government is already providing subsidised financing through the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) schemes, however, the country needs more than that.
Secondly, the government needs to focus on non-traditional exports. Pakistan exports mainly comprise of textile and rice. The government must put in efforts to diversify exports and increase incentives for the export of high value-added goods and services. I have always remained a great advocate of increasing the export of services and still believe we are not leveraging the internet up to its potential.
Import substitution is also synonymous to export. On the other hand, using solar and other forms of alternative energy for households and commercial sector is something which has not been considered aggressively.
The biggest problem in the power sector that remains unresolved is the line losses and massive investment is required in infrastructure to arrest the losses. The line losses are also primary contributors to the high cost of doing business in Pakistan, which turns the country’s exports uncompetitive. But if households and the commercial sector switch to solar energy, the problem of line losses will automatically get resolved. Businesses will get uninterrupted power supply and cost economics of this decision will be very lucrative.
Furthermore, this switch to solar energy will have a positive impact on the environment as well. It will also improve Pakistan’s external sector and the resulting reduction in the deficit will be much more sustainable and robust.
To summarise, it must be reiterated that the reduction in current account deficit is indeed an outstanding achievement of the economic team. However, the real victory will be a sustainable increase in exports through an increase in capacity, diversification of the export portfolio and reduction in the cost of doing business.
The writer is a treasury dealer and teaches economics

Crop yields at risk from rising temperature

Published: September 23, 2019
Description: A Reuters file photo of an agricultural field.
A Reuters file photo of an agricultural field.
ISLAMABAD: The agricultural scientists have said Pakistan’s average annual temperature will rise between 1.5-2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, which will drastically affect crop yields of wheat, rice, and cotton.
Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change presided over by Chairperson Munaza Hassan, the scientists said that rice-growing plains of Punjab will see the mercury rise up to 2.8 degrees Celsius between the years 2040 and 2060 following which monsoon rains will be cut by 25 per cent while winter rains will be cut by 12 per cent.
Consequently, they added wheat production would decrease between by six-10 per cent while rice yield will shrink by 15.2-17.2 per cent, which will be equal to 1.16 million tons of production amounting to Rs2.9 billion in losses.
The agro scientists suggested that the country needed to add up nitrogen content in the cultivation of rice and wheat by 15 and 25 per cent respectively to avert the negative impacts of climate change. They also suggested that irrigation water to the above-mentioned crops should also be cut in similar proportions to maintain the production.
Rice crop nursery should be shifted five days earlier and wheat must be sowed 15 days earlier than the existing time periods. The experts also stressed upon the role of agricultural scientists and university research to combat the probable decrease in crops.
On this, chairperson Hassan said: “Decrement of crops is dangerous for us. To fight this, we have to work with agro-scientists and agro-universities and come up with solid measures and ensure its full implementation.”
Presenting a briefing over the 10-billion tree project, Ministry of Climate Change Secretary Hasan Zafar Jami said the ministry intended to plant 3.29 trees during the next four years. He added the project has recently been approved by National Economic Council’s executive committee and “we have received first funding for the programme”.
Sindh’s forest secretary expressed his fear over the tree plantation campaign in the province, saying that funds have not been issued so far. “It is not feasible to carry out plantation drive during summers,” he the secretary added. In Sindh, “we have surpassed the target for mangrove plantation”.
It was highlighted that committee members must also extend their support to the provincial administration through the afforestation drive.
Zafar also briefed the committee over the collection and preparation of information pertaining to air pollution in Islamabad. He said the authorities information form round-the-clock monitoring of air pollution would be highlighted and shared on social media.

FPCCI proposes delegation to Tokyo: Dr Baig

KARACHI: Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, Acting President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), called on Consul General of Japan Toshikazu Isomura at Japanese Consulate General in Karachi to discuss forthcoming FPCCI businessmen delegation to Tokyo, Japan.
Dr. Baig while discussing the bilateral trade relations informed the consul general that a trade delegation for Japan was being proposed in October-2019 as per discussion with Special Assistant to Prime Minister Naeem ul Haq to foster trade and investment ties with Japan and South Korea. The proposed potential areas to be covered are fisheries, port & shipping, textile, leather, media, automotive and rice sectors.
Dr. Baig requested Consul General of Japan to request Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to facilitate the FPCCI delegation and arrangements of B2B meetings with Japanese counterparts.
The FPCCI is also taking on board new Ambassador of Pakistan in Tokyo Imtiaz Ahmad who visited the FPCCI and also proposed said delegation.
Japan is a potential trading partner of Pakistan with substantial Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in automobile sector. The forthcoming visit of FPCCI delegation will be led by Dr. Ikhtair Baig will intensify to interaction between private sectors of both countries particularly in the identified sectors.

Weekly inflation rises 1.01pc

ByAPP

ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based weekly inflation for the week ended on September 19 increased by 1.01pc as compared to the previous week.
The SPI for the week under review in the combined income group was recorded at 126.56 points, as against 125.29 points registered in the previous week, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Saturday.
The weekly SPI with base 2015-16=100 covered 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
Meanwhile, the SPI for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed an increase of 0.89pc, as it went up from 128.19 points in last week to 129.33 points during the week under review.
On a yearly basis, the SPI for the combined income group during the week under review witnessed an increase of 18.10pc, while for the lowest group, it increased by 15.16pc, when compared with the corresponding week of last year (Sept 2018).
The SPI for the income groups from Rs17,733-Rs22,888, Rs22,889-Rs29,517; Rs29,518-Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 per month increased by 0.97pc, 0.99pc, 1.04pc and 1.02pc respectively.
During the week under review, average prices of five items registered a decrease, while that of 27 witnessed increased, whereas the prices of the remaining 19 items remained unchanged.
The prices of the commodities that observed a decrease in their respective prices during the week under review included tomatoes, bananas, sugar, rice (irri-6) and tea (prepared cup).
The items which witnessed an increase in their prices included chicken farm, LPG cylinder, potatoes, eggs hen (farm), garlic, onions, tea, toilet soap, wheat flour, long cloth, georgette, cooked beef, vegetable ghee (tin), gur, powder milk, pulse moong, cooking oil, vegetable ghee (pouch), pulse gram, pulse masoor, mustard oil, curd, mutton, pulse mash and firewood.
The average prices of the commodities remained unchanged during the week under review included rice basmati, bread, beef, salt powder, chillies, cigarettes, shirting, lawn, gents sandal, gents sponge chappal, ladies sandal, electric charges, gas charges, energy saver,washing soap, matchbox, petrol, hi-speed diesel and telephone call charges.

Food Commodities Worth$650.252mln Exported In Two Months


ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Sep, 2019 ) :Food exports from the country during first two-month of current financial year registered about 14.27 percent as compared the corresponding period of last year.
According the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of statistics different food commodities including wheat, rice, fruit,vegetables, spices, fish, fish preparations, meat and meat products worth $650.252 million were exported as against $569.039 million of same period of last year.
During the period from July-August, 219 exports of rice grew by 48.64% as about 590,353 metric tons of rice worth $332.836 million exported as compared the exports of 3699,633 metric tons valuing $223.819 million of same period of last year.
During the period under review fish and fish preparations increased by 23.09% as about 16, 652 metric tons of the above mentioned commodities worth Us $36.
393 million exported as compared 12, 396 metric tons valuing US $ 29.565 million of same period of last year.
In last two months, country earned US $ 75.731 million and US $ 23.105 million by exporting about 89,964 metric tons of fruits and 85,966 metric tons of vegetables respectively.
The exports of fruits and vegetables were recorded at64,562 metric tons and 90,144 metric tons during the first two months of last year.
During the period under review, the exports of meat and meat products witnessed about 52% growth in their respective exports as about 8,364 metric tons of meat and meat products worth US $ 48.174 million exported as against the exports of 6,877 metric tons valuing $31.536 millionof same months of last year.
The other commodities that observed negative growth in their respective exports during the period under review included spices by 78% and sugar by 11%.

Mindanao organic rice finds market in US
By Digna Banzon  September 21, 2019, 7:30 pm
Description: https://files.pna.gov.ph/category-list/2019/09/21/minda.jpg
ORGANIC RICE. Mindanao farmers forged a supply agreement with a US-based marketing firm to supply American consumers with organic rice. An initial shipment of 5,000 metric tons is expected before yearend. (Photo by MinDA)
DAVAO CITY -- Organic rice produced in Mindanao now has access to the United States (US) after an agreement between farmers and an American marketing group here on Friday.

Dr. Adrian Tamayo, communications head of the Mindanao Development Authority (MINDA), said Saturday the deal would allow American consumers access to organic rice and the heirloom Adlay variety produced in the Southern Philippines.

Tamayo said Andrew Bolougne, head of the US Marketing Firm, told the farmers to produce as much as they could and promised that they will market it.

Bolougne's group committed a buying price which would give farmers double what they are earning by planting commercial rice, he added.

The signing of the marketing deal with unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay grown by the tribes capped the Mindanao Rice Forum organized by MinDA.

The Mindanao Rice Forum was attended by Adlay and Organic rice farmers associations and cooperatives.

Tamayo added that an initial shipment of 5,000 metric tons is expected by the end of the year.

During the forum, the participants, guided by the MinDA and the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Offices (DA-RFO) in Mindanao and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), organized themselves and formed the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO). Chosen as Interim Chairman of MORCO was the Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative with Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen.

Represented in the Council are organic rice farmers’ cooperatives and associations from all over Mindanao, organic fertilizer and soil ameliorants producers group, seed growers, and rice millers.

Tamayo said MinDA will be the lead government agency to support the group with the assistance of the DA and PhilRice.

MinDA will establish a database of all organic rice and Adlay farmers in Mindanao, including the geotagging of the production areas. Availability of seeds for the Black Organic Rice, which is the most sought-after product, will also be determined, including the estimated production.

Bolougne said the demand for organic rice, especially the Black Rice which is reputed to have medicinal benefits, is huge and largely unfilled.

"You cannot imagine how huge is the market demand for organic food today and we will cash in on that," he said.

Don Bosco vice-chairperson and marketing officer Maria Helenita Gamela said organic rice farmers are not affected by the Rice Tariffication Law, and the unimpeded entry of imported rice that resulted in low farm gate price for commercial rice.

"We have a niche market. The price is steady whole year round but we cannot produce the needed volume," she said.

Currently, Don Bosco buys from its members organic paddy rice at PHP19 to PHP20 per kilo. This could go even higher with the forging of the marketing agreement with the US group, Gamela said.

The export deal for organic rice and Adlay is the second marketing deal arranged by MinDA for Mindanao's rice farmers. (PNA)

DA to release free palay seeds to farmers

 September 21, 2019, 10:00 PM
By Chino S. Leyco
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will start releasing the certified seeds under the rice competitiveness enhancement fund (RCEF) to help palay farmers cope with the lower buying price of their paddy output.
Description:  Agriculture Secretary Dr. William D. Dar   (KEVIN TRISTAN ESPIRITU, MB Photo )
Agriculture Secretary Dr. William D. Dar (KEVIN TRISTAN ESPIRITU, MB Photo )
In a statement, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said about two million bags of certified seeds will be distributed to rice farmers this year.
The package, which contains 20 kilos of certified seeds per bag, will roughly translate to planting around one million hectares of rice land which can contribute in increasing the yield up to six tons per hectare in high-yielding provinces by 2024. Among the rice seed varieties for distribution include NSIC Rc 160, Rc 216, Rc 222, and two location-specific inbred varieties.
Dar said among the provinces that are considered for the program are those with high-potential for competitiveness.
“So far, we have identified 57 provinces based on the size of area harvested, yield level, cost of production, and share of irrigated area. These municipalities and cities must also have an annual area planted of more than 500-ha for dry season 2019-2020,” DA said.
Farmer-beneficiaries are those listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA). Each farmer receives seeds for two consecutive cropping seasons until December 2020 and is entitled to a maximum of four bags of inbred seeds depending on farm size for the October to December planting season.
Dar said that prior to the distribution, farmers will be provided with technical briefings on seed preparation and other interventions and technologies from the Philippine Rice Research Institute for them to achieve the target yield in their areas.

Festival unites cultures at Mormon Church

 
Sep 21, 2019
Venerable Jirayut Tonlek (left), known as “Monk Joey” at the Chino Hills Buddhist Temple, shares a cultural moment with Katelyn Street, 7, of Chino.
Samrridhi Sreedhar is one of three dancers from the Chino Hills BAPS Hindu Temple who performed at a multi-cultural festival Saturday.
The State of Chiapas, Mexico is represented in a turtle dance featuring women holding eggs in baskets and a single male dancer.
More than 600 residents who streamed into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Eucalyptus Avenue and Peyton Drive in Chino Hills last Saturday were issued “passports” allowing them to travel to India, China, Mexico, the Honduras, Pakistan, Argentina, Thailand, and Pakistan.
Along the way, they were asked to meet five people to sign the passports.
Travelers walked to the display rooms where the cultures were represented and were greeted with mounds of tasty food like Pad Thai, chicken adobo, pork lumpia, empanadas, pork and vegetable dumplings, Basmati rice with peas, and milk cake.
Residents then gathered in the cultural hall and watched dancers perform in varying traditions and costumes.An enthusiastic audience whistled and cheered during the performances.
“The most valuable aspect of the festival was simply to get to know each other and develop personal relationships,” said Stake President William Rockwood. “As we get to know and become comfortable with each other, it makes it much easier to work together on projects that strengthen the community.”
Dr. Khalid N. Ahmed of the Baitul Hameed Mosque in Chino on Ramona Avenue opened the performances with chanting from the Koran. The mosque displayed copies of the Koran and brought Pakistani food including vegetable-filled paddies, pakoras, sweet pretzels, rice and chocolate. “All served with lots of love, care and affection to bring harmony among different religions and mankind in general,” Dr. Ahmed said.
Mr. Rockwood said those who attended learned a great deal about religion as well as culture. “Although we have different names and practices, we are all people who believe in and worship God,” he said. “There is great strength in united worship, especially when we all live in the same community.”

To Feed a Hot Planet, They’re Making More Efficient Plants

Australian scientists are part of a worldwide effort to boost agricultural output to meet the growing global food demand.
Wheat varieties being tested in a laboratory at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.CreditCreditDavid Gray for The New York Times
By Benjamin Ryan
  • Sept. 21, 2019
Robert Furbank was at home in Canberra, Australia, watching a news segment about climate change with his two teenagers this summer when his daughter quipped, “Geez, Dad, you’ve really stuffed things up for us, haven’t you?”
Sitting there as a proxy for the collective old guard, the plant physiologist faced the prospect that the next generation of Australians would be the first to wind up worse off than their parents.
But as it happens, Dr. Furbank is in a position to help the world get ahead of the looming food shortage crisis stemming from global climate change, as rising temperatures, worsening drought, and changing wind and rainfall patterns threaten agriculture’s capacity to feed the world.
Dr. Furbank is the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis, an enterprise that draws on experts from several Australian universities and the national government’s premier research agency. In tandem with scientists in universities and private labs that span the globe, the center has set its sights on an audacious solution to the impending food crisis: making crops more efficient at conducting photosynthesis.
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Photosynthesis is the process, vital to all life on earth, by which plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to produce sugars and oxygen.
Climate change was seen as a future threat. Now, it is a reality of the present.
Crop physiologists project that if they could make plants just 5 percent more efficient at the process, they could boost the yield of most crops by 20 percent.
That would be a big help in feeding the global population, which is expected to rise from 7.5 billion today to perhaps 10 billion in 2050. Scientists say that crop yields will need to soar by an estimated 70 percent or more to keep up with global demand.
If the sheer mathematics of recent history are any guide, there is reason to hope. Between 1960 and 2010, global food production rose by 175 percent, thanks to a suite of agricultural innovations collectively known as the Green Revolution. By cultivating high-yield grains, refining the use of nitrogen fertilizer and improving irrigation techniques, the agricultural sector averted global famine while the world’s population multiplied at a rapid rate.
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However, as the Green Revolution’s methods have approached their apparent biological limits in recent years, global crop yields have stalled. At the same time, modern agriculture has had a destructive impact on the planet through greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen fertilizer pollution, soil degradation and the like.
Experts predict that during the coming decades, researchers will need to cultivate crops that can achieve unprecedented bounty in ever harsher and more unpredictable conditions and yet thrive with fewer resources — including land, water and fertilizer — than today’s varieties.
Robert Sharwood is part of an international research effort seeking to increase corn’s productivity.CreditDavid Gray for The New York Times
There’s a lot more than food at stake. Climate change’s impact on agriculture is already contributing to global crises, experts say.
“Food scarcity and crop failures driven by droughts and other causes in the Middle East and Central America have likely contributed to the flooding of refugees into Europe and the United States,” said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute.
In Australia, agricultural scientists are in a strong position to provide the global agricultural community with valuable insights into what it will take to harvest successful crops in an increasingly forbidding climate.
“As the driest continent on earth, Australia is the proverbial canary in the coal mine,” said Nick Austin, an Australian native and the director of agricultural development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, which invests some $400 million annually into agricultural development. “Much of what is learned in Australia will have relevance to other countries as they face hotter and more variable farming conditions.”
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The Australian government’s Grains Research & Development Corporation channels a significant portion of its $200 million research budget toward climate-resilient crop development. The corporation derives the majority of its funding from a levy on farmers’ output, which encourages projects that will increase yields.
On the photosynthesis front, Australian scientists are grappling with improving the performance of an enzyme called rubisco that is abundant in plants and critical to the process. Rubisco works at a slothful pace; 20 to 40 percent of the time it picks up oxygen molecules, rather than carbon dioxide molecules, and throws them through the photosynthetic assembly line, wasting water and energy in the process.
In the 1960s, Australian researchers discovered that some plants, including corn and sugar cane, manipulate rubisco into working more efficiently, allowing those crops to thrive in less-forgiving environments. If Dr. Furbank and his many colleagues and counterparts across the globe could engineer high-demand crops like beans, rice, wheat and potatoes to function similarly, the scientists could in theory improve those crops’ yields while reducing fertilizer and water demands.
The research teams from 12 institutions in eight nations, including Australia, that comprise the Gates Foundation-funded C4 Rice Project hope to achieve this task in rice that is ready for field planting by the early 2030s.
Robert Furbank, left, and Dr. Sharwood inspecting a wheat crop under controlled lighting in one of their center’s growth laboratories. CreditDavid Gray for The New York Times
Robert Sharwood, a researcher in Dr. Furbank’s center, is working on corn along with David B. Stern, president of the Boyce Thompson Institute and a plant biologist at Cornell University. They are leading an international research effort that has boasted early success in increasing rubisco levels in corn — and ultimately the crop’s productivity, according to their 2018 paper in Nature Plants.
Wheat, which covers more land than any global crop and provides 20 percent of all calories and protein consumed by people worldwide, is also a major focus of international research into increasing yields.
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Australia’s $6 billion wheat industry is the source of about 8 percent of worldwide exports of the grain, making the nation’s harvest an important factor in the stability of global markets.
On a recent visit to the ARC Centre, Dr. Sharwood and Dr. Furbank displayed an array of innovations that allow them to cultivate crops in environments that simulate future climate conditions and devices that closely measure and monitor crop growth.
The rich data those devices collect can help breeders identify the most promising crop varieties and guide farmers’ midseason decision-making — for example, by determining the precise amount of fertilizer, pesticide or irrigation needed.
The phenoMobile replaces manual assessments of crop growth that are time consuming. Video by David Gray for The New York Times
Complementing the photosynthesis research, Surinder Singh and Thomas Vanhercke at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, the national government’s premier research agency, are making progress in engineering crops that can produce up to 30 percent of their weight in oil, thus offering a sustainable alternative to the environmentally destructive cultivation of palm oil. Their colleague Craig Wood is among those seeking to cultivate plants capable of converting nitrogen from the air into a usable form, reducing the need for fertilizer.
Addressing the variety of experiments underway in this corner of Australia and around the world, Dr. Furbank said, “I don’t think there’s going to be a single technological solution to any of this. We need to have concerted action across a number of fronts.”
Eliza Berlage contributed reporting from Canberra, Australia.
Much-delayed funds out
HIDDEN AGENDA - Mary Ann LL. Reyes (The Philippine Star) - September 22, 2019 - 12:00am
After six months of delay, Filipino farmers are getting more funds aimed at financing projects that will hopefully improve their competitiveness amid increasing rice imports, declining palay prices, and the shift from quantitative import restrictions to tariffs.
The Department of Budget and Management has finally released additional funds for the Rice Competitive Enhancement Fund (RCEF), a safety net mechanism created by the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) aimed at helping local farmers cope with the liberalized entry of imported rice into the country.
Around P2.038 billion was released by the Department of Budget and Management to be used by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) for the seed component of the RCEF.
Under the program, PhilRice will develop, propagate, and promote inbred rice seeds. Mandated to promote high-quality inbred rice seeds to about two million farmers in 57 provinces, PhilRice will also enhance farmers’ skill and knowledge on rice production. Government is hoping that the seed component of RCEF will contribute in increasing yield to up to six tons per hectare in high-yielding provinces and five tons in medium-yielding provinces by 2024. The program also aims to lower production cost by 30 percent, reduce postharvest losses to 12 percent, and trim down marketing cost by P1 per kilo.
Though PhilRice was expecting P3 billion, or a shortfall of P962 million, PhilRice deputy executive director Flordeliza Bordey said they are ready to start implementing the program this month until December.
It will be recalled that the Philippines lifted its quantitative restrictions on imported rice as part of the country’s obligation to the World Trade Organization (WTO). For 22 years, WTO had allowed the Philippines to limit the entry of rice imports as the country prepares its farmers for international competition. The WTO had granted several extensions for special treatment on rice until it expired in June 2017, thus, the passage of the RTL.
With the RCEF, she said PhilRice can now afford to hire and train a new generation of rice specialists to help rice farmers become competitive.
Under the RTL, farmers are promised a yearly P10-billion RCEF budget for six years to be sourced from tariffs on private rice importations, after the law removed the rice import quotas and replaced them with import duties.
Sen. Cynthia Villar, who chairs the Senate committee on agriculture and food, said the money is needed to jumpstart the programs enumerated in the law aimed to make the domestic rice industry more competitive.
Villar said the committee in the exercise of its oversight function will make sure that the funds are allocated for the intended purpose, as she emphasized that whether or not the Bureau of Customs is able to collect the required amount, the farmers will be getting P10 billion a year.
Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Credit Policy Council (DA-ACPC) and the Land Bank of the Philippines have started the release of an additional P1 billion as recovery assistance for rice farmers affected by falling palay prices.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said this was on top of an existing P1.5 billion financial allocation under the Survival and Recovery Assistance Program (SURE Aid) for rice planters.
Dar said that with P2.5 billion for the SURE Aid Program, rice production should improve and help 70,000 more farmers cope with the impact of the RTL, in addition to the 100,000 farmers that have already received assistance.
But with the program targetting 600,000 small farmers nationwide, Dar said the DA will look for other sources of funds to cover all small farmers.
The DA has also started this month the bidding for the mechanization component of the RTL in order to make farmers more productive and competitive starting next year.
Under the law on the RCEF, each farmer from a total of 947 rice-producing towns all over the country will be receiving P5 million worth of farm equipment and machinery. The aid machinery may be used for land preparation, crop establishment, harvesting and threshing as well as for drying and milling.
The respective local governments will be tasked with the maintenance of the equipment in the absence of farmer associations in the area. 
The National Food Authority (NFA), on the other hand, has announced that the agency continues to buy palay from farmers even if it still has four million bags of imported rice in its warehouses.
The RTL requires NFA to maintain a 15 to 30-day buffer stock of rice based on a national daily consumption requirement (DCR) of 651,860 bags.
During the lean months of July to September, more farmers are selling to the NFA to take advantage of its higher buying price and incentives.
NFA administrator Judy Carol Dansal said their procurement operation is a year-round activity and their field personnel are always ready to receive palay deliveries from farmers through more than 300 buying stations strategically located across the country.
The NFA currently buys palay at P17 per kilogram support price plus P3 per kilo buffer stocking incentive, 20 centavos per kilo drying incentive, 20 centavos per kilo delivery incentive, and 30 centavos per kilo as cooperative development incentive fee (CDIF) or a total of  P20.70 per kilo for farmer cooperatives and P20.40 per kilo for individual farmers.
From January to Aug. 22 this year, the NFA had already bought 5.9 million bags of palay, exceeding its target of 5.3 million by 11 percent. The total volume is already 41 percent of the agency’s 14.46 million bags target for the year.
Based on the country’s palay harvest calendar, 30 percent of total annual production comes from the summer harvest between March and May while 70 percent comes from the main harvest from October to December.
Dansal said that this early, NFA is already preparing for aggressive palay buying starting October, although the agency continues to entertain farmers selling their stocks from sporadic harvests in between the summer and main cropping seasons.
Amid the rice tariff system, the NFA in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, continues to procure palay even during the off-season palay harvest month. Assistant provincial manager Norma Harina said more farmers are now selling their harvest to NFA at P20.40 per kilo. An incentive of 30 centavos per kilo is given to members of accredited farmer’s organizations if the quality of their palay meets the standards set by NFA, she added.
For comments, e-mail at mareyes@philstarmedia.com


Date: - 23/09/2019
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Pakistan: Oil imports plummet by over 26pc to $1.93 billion

Description: https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Maersk%20vlcc%20tanker%2001%20small.jpg
Pakistan’s oil imports have reduced by over 26 percent that helped to decrease the overall imports by a one-fifth in first couple of months of the current fiscal year.
The country’s had spent $1.935 billion on importing oil in July and August period of the year 2019-2020 as compared to $2.642 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the trade figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The massive reduction in oil imports had helped in reducing overall imports of the country. Pakistan’s imports had dropped by 21.4 percent to $7.7 billion during the period under review.
The PBS data showed that the import of petroleum products had shown decline of 16.42 percent to $897 million. Similarly, import of petroleum crude had reduced by over 55 percent to $396 million. Meanwhile, imports of natural gas liquefied had also recorded decline in the period under review. However, imports of petroleum gas liquefied had shown increase of around 40 percent and were recorded at $41.94 billion.
Exports of tents, canvas and tarpaulin witnessed decrease of 4.23 percent. Meanwhile, exports of made-up articles(excluding towels and bedwear had declined by 7.66 percent.
Meanwhile, the exports of food commodities had recorded an increase of 14.27 percent during first two months of the current fiscal year.
In food commodities, exports of rice recorded growth of 48.64 percent, fruits exports increased by 23.09 percent and oil seeds, nuts and kernels exports had gone down by 11.23 percent.
Source: The News Pakistan

Crop yields at risk from rising temperature

Published: September 23, 2019
Description: A Reuters file photo of an agricultural field.
A Reuters file photo of an agricultural field.
ISLAMABAD: The agricultural scientists have said Pakistan’s average annual temperature will rise between 1.5-2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, which will drastically affect crop yields of wheat, rice, and cotton.
Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change presided over by Chairperson Munaza Hassan, the scientists said that rice-growing plains of Punjab will see the mercury rise up to 2.8 degrees Celsius between the years 2040 and 2060 following which monsoon rains will be cut by 25 per cent while winter rains will be cut by 12 per cent.
Consequently, they added wheat production would decrease between by six-10 per cent while rice yield will shrink by 15.2-17.2 per cent, which will be equal to 1.16 million tons of production amounting to Rs2.9 billion in losses.
The agro scientists suggested that the country needed to add up nitrogen content in the cultivation of rice and wheat by 15 and 25 per cent respectively to avert the negative impacts of climate change. They also suggested that irrigation water to the above-mentioned crops should also be cut in similar proportions to maintain the production.
Rice crop nursery should be shifted five days earlier and wheat must be sowed 15 days earlier than the existing time periods. The experts also stressed upon the role of agricultural scientists and university research to combat the probable decrease in crops.
On this, chairperson Hassan said: “Decrement of crops is dangerous for us. To fight this, we have to work with agro-scientists and agro-universities and come up with solid measures and ensure its full implementation.”
Presenting a briefing over the 10-billion tree project, Ministry of Climate Change Secretary Hasan Zafar Jami said the ministry intended to plant 3.29 trees during the next four years. He added the project has recently been approved by National Economic Council’s executive committee and “we have received first funding for the programme”.
Sindh’s forest secretary expressed his fear over the tree plantation campaign in the province, saying that funds have not been issued so far. “It is not feasible to carry out plantation drive during summers,” he the secretary added. In Sindh, “we have surpassed the target for mangrove plantation”.
It was highlighted that committee members must also extend their support to the provincial administration through the afforestation drive.
Zafar also briefed the committee over the collection and preparation of information pertaining to air pollution in Islamabad. He said the authorities information form round-the-clock monitoring of air pollution would be highlighted and shared on social media.

Brainstorm: The Next Generation | Masagana 2019?

BY ATTY. CAESAR EUROPA ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
The Philippines importing rice was unheard of when I was growing up in the 70s. In fact, what I remember is that our country was exporting rice to other countries in Asia.
The present plight of our Filipino farmers having to compete in price with imported rice is a sad, sad state of affairs that we must do something about.
Although not directly about rice production, I remembered a story about the sad state of Philippine Agriculture, told me by one of my best friends, Atty. Patricia “Pinky” Nazareno, about her father, former Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Lino Nazareno who also used to teach at UP Los Baños, our country’s foremost educational institution in agriculture.
Asec. Nazareno was on an official trip to Thailand (or was it Indonesia?) when he visited an orange orchard that implemented all the latest technologies at the time which raised the production to area ratio of the farm to unprecedented levels.
Amazed at the highly efficient implementation of proper and effective agricultural techniques and mechanization, Asec. Nazareno asked the people in charge where they got the know-how to do all that they did. One of the lead scientists of the farm raised his hand and, apparently recognizing Asec. Nazareno as a former teacher, proudly asserted “I’M A UPLB GRAD, SIR!”.
According to Pinky, Tito Lino was aghast and caught undecided on whether to be proud that UPLB alumni achieved such success or be ashamed that foreigners schooled in the Philippines were able to use what they learned from us in their home nations to far outpace our country in agricultural prowess.
Something must be seriously wrong somewhere when we have all the best technologies and research in agriculture, particularly with regards rice production seeing that the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is also based in UP Los Baños, but we are seriously lagging behind in production to the detriment of our Filipino farmers.
The Masagana 99 program of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, using one of the best rice varieties produced by IRRI at the time, was a project that enabled the Philippines to exponentially increase our rice production to the extent that our country was able to export rice to other countries.
From what I have learned about it, it eventually failed, not because of the sound science behind it but because of the perennial cancer in Philippine society, our Big “C”, CORRUPTION. The main reasons for the program’s failure were reputed to be the bias in favor of rich landowners as a form of political patronage and the improper application of the program’s credit facilities that left poor farmers in debt.
There you have it, while, of course, there are many other factors to consider, like much needed farm to market roads and the minimization of middle-men in the economic equation, one of the main things that we really have to do to improve the circumstances of small Filipino farmers is to clean up our act so that government programs and funds intended for such farmers will actually benefit them and not the human leeches who are always there to make money by bleeding our country’s coffers dry.
Apart from government, one thing that we can do as Filipinos desiring to help uplift our fellow countrymen, is to buy Filipino meaning that we should, as much as possible, patronize agricultural products produced in the Philippines over imported ones.
One problem though is that we certainly cannot talk to the rice to see if it answers in Pilipino, Bisaya, or some other local dialect. For this reason, maybe Filipino agricultural products should be clearly marked as “PROUDLY FILIPINO” or “AGRI-PINOY” or something like that. I know that some rice varieties are named for their origins, like “Banaybanay Rice” from Davao Oriental, but it would be so much easier if all Philippine made agricultural products had some kind of common marketing mark so that the buying public can immediately know that what they are buying will enrich the pockets of Filipino farmers and not foreign exporters.
As Filipinos, it is our duty and responsibility to do what is right and to collectively act in support of what is Filipino. As we used to swear in allegiance to our motherland, “SISIKAPIN KONG MAGING ISANG TUNAY NA PILIPINO, SA ISIP, SA SALITA AT SA GAWA.”

Indonesia to prioritise meat, rice, raw sugar imports from India

Indonesia will prioritise importing buffalo meat, rice and raw sugar from India, which agreed to adjust crude palm oil (CPO) tariff for the country earlier this month.
VNA Monday, September 23, 2019 10:56 

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Description: Indonesia to prioritise meat, rice, raw sugar imports from India hinh anh 1Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita (Source: Antara)

Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia will prioritise importing 
buffalo meat, rice and raw sugar from India, which agreed to adjust crude palm oil (CPO) tariff for the country earlier this month.

Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said at a recent event that India has given Indonesia an opportunity to increase its CPO exports, adding it is fair to give the South Asian nation access to the Indonesian market.

India is the largest palm oil market of Indonesia with export share of about 20 percent, equivalent to 6.71 million tonnes last year.

Previously, Indonesia’s palm oil products faced a 50 percent import tariff from India, while those from its rival producer Malaysia enjoyed a lower tariff of 45 percent thanks to a bilateral deal. India has agreed to adjust Indonesia’s tariff to match the levy faced by Malaysia.

In six months, Indonesia will ship CPO worth at least 500 million USD to India, Enggar said.

Despite prioritising India as an import origin country, Indonesia would not increase the total volume of its meat, rice and raw sugar import, he noted, saying Indonesia will only buy what it needs as long as the market can absorb the products.

He added that imports of India’s buffalo meat could fill in the gap of the 620,000-tonne meat demand as local producers can only provide about 450,000 tonnes.

As for raw sugar, Enggar stated the country had equalised India’s import duty with other countries, namely Australia and Thailand.

Meanwhile, when it comes to importing rice, Indonesia will prioritise India’s products, particularly basmati rice, the minister said, adding that the two countries were also looking at other commodities for trade, such as textiles.

The two countries are aiming for 50 billion USD in bilateral trade by 2025./.

DA to impose ‘safeguards duty’ on rice imports

Published September 23, 2019 12:30pm
As farmgate prices of palay has plunged, the Department of Agriculture has decided to impose a general “safeguards duty” on rice imports to prevent flooding the market as the harvest season approaches.
“We have to holistically and systematically protect the consuming public and much more, our small farmers,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said.
“So, I have taken the necessary steps and the direction where we will enforce legal measures during these times when we have greatly exceeded the volume needed to fill up the slack in national rice supply, most particularly in Metro Manila and major urban rice consumption centers,” he added.
Dar said that investigations regarding the matter are ongoing and are expected to be completed by the end of September or early October.
The safeguards duty is in line with the Republic Act 8752 or the Anti-Dumping Act of 1999.
Under the law, the government may impose duties on any imported product that is priced way below fair market value.
The department is also looking at the possibility of tempering rice importations by implementing stringent sanitary and pytho-sanitary and inspection measures.
The Philippines imports 7% of its national rice requirements, according to the DA.
To date, 2.4 million metric tons of rice that has been imported has already exceeded the country’s requirement.
Quantitative restrictions on rice imports have been removed and a 35% was set for shipments from Southeast Asia.
“We will protect our small farmers by not allowing additional imports especially this main harvest season. We want them to benefit from the respectable farmgate prices of palay set by the government through the National Food Authority,” Dar said. —Dona Magsino/VDS, GMA News

Finding our balance in modernizing our rice industry


September 22, 2019 | 11:35 pm
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Description: Ramon L. Clarete
Introspective
By Ramon L. Clarete
Description: https://www.bworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Clarete-092319.jpg
Public support is shifting from rice consumers in 2018 to rice farmers this year. Last year, the country’s inflation rate breached Central Bank’s upper band. Analysts blamed that on rice price inflation, which carries among the largest weight in the consumer’s price index.
Policy makers in both executive and legislative branches reached the consensus that it was the decision — or lack of it — on the timing of importing rice by the National Food Authority (NFA) that caused it. The punishment was swift. In less than a year, Congress came up with the rice tariffication law getting rid of the NFA’s monopoly in rice imports and other regulations, ending the agency’s privileged status of being both a referee and player in the local rice market.
The rice tariffication law is a landmark reform. For decades, many had attempted to revisit the 1972 charter of the NFA to get rid of the NFA’s import monopoly. They all failed. It was that single event in 2018, the high price of rice, which brought us rice import liberalization.
It was a big surprise indeed since price spirals are commonplace in the local rice markets. Sometimes they are due to the world market, but most of the times are traceable to the NFA, in whom Presidential Decree No. 4 of the late President Ferdinand Marcos entrusted all our rice security.
Last year’s price surge could have passed as one among the many. It is interesting to note that the 13% year-to-year price increase in 2018 was one of many. It ranked 13th place in the order of price increases from 1970. The highest was a 47% increase of rice prices in 1984. The 2008 rice price crisis in the world market pushed up rice prices by 30%. But 2018 turned out to be memorable, because the spiral gave us the rice import liberalization law that some of us, including myself had advocated.
Not all of us wanted the rice import liberalization and the stripping of the NFA’s regulatory functions. Those who opposed the reforms might themselves have been caught by surprise at the swiftness by which the law was whisked through Congress. But when it passed, they were still hoping the President would veto it, but he respected the wisdom of our legislators and his Cabinet, with the exception of former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.



KEEPING RICE IMPORT MARKETS CONTESTABLE
Rice importers were all ready to import rice, which they prepared for even before the IRR was issued. In the first half of 2019, rice imports swelled to nearly 2 million metric tons.
But somehow that did not do very well. We all expected rice prices to go down to below P30 a kilo given the current level of world prices. However, the price of well milled rice got stuck at P36 a kilo, and some of us have urged the government to go after the rice cartel which is blamed for not passing most of the benefits of the reforms to rice consumers.
There are simpler explanations, other than the cartel, for the observed prices in the first half of 2019. One is a quality upgrade of imported rice. If importers are out there to maximize their profits, they would likely first buy the more expensive, better quality rice varieties, which would be attractive to households in highly urbanized cities. Indeed, I talked to an NFA official who confirmed that they were having a hard time selling their own stocks in the market because imported rice had fewer “brokens” to say the least.
But more importantly, we may be looking at a rice market in the process of finding its equilibrium under the new rules. In a major reform like rice import liberalization, the big traders may be the first ones to enter and thus get the larger shares of the rice import business. Because of the large quantities they hold, their release and price decisions influence rice prices, and there is no longer an NFA to offset that. In economics, we call this market oligopolistic.
But for as long as the rice import business is open to us all, its profits attract new importers, and that process goes on until the above-normal profits are brought down to competitive levels. And that would then be the time that rice consumers start to enjoy rice at less than P30 a kilo.
Notwithstanding our disappointment, it is interesting to note that the decline of rice prices in the first half of 2019 relative to its 2018 average is the largest — 2.6% — since 1970. Indeed, annual prices fell in only eight of nearly 50 years.
But if prices remain stuck at levels significantly higher than what the 35% tariff rate implies, it may be time for the Philippine Competition Commission to compute rice import concentration ratios to check if the import business remains as strongly contestable as the rice tariffication law envisioned it to be. That inquiry should include those who continue to regulate the rice import business with the sanitary and phyto-sanitary import licenses for regulatory capture.
SAFEGUARDS AND NFA PALAY PROCUREMENT
Falling palay prices apparently kicked public’s support from rice consumers to the rice farmers in 2019. The decline of farm gate prices of palay in the first six months of 2019 was unprecedentedly sharp. If one measured the fall from its average price in 2018 to its lowest monthly level in 2019, that would be 22%. Its near second occurred in 2015, when prices fell by 19% from its average in 2014 to its lowest monthly in 2015.
Description: https://www.bworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/rice-farmers-092319.jpg
Three percentage points worse, yet the intensity of the debate on the appropriateness of its cause is beyond measure. We hear muted calls of reversing the rice tariffication law, and Congress seems, for now, to prefer to give more time for the law to succeed.
The clearer message of concerned stakeholders to the government is to help rice farmers who are hurting from low palay prices. They apparently appreciate the importance of keeping rice prices low for the country’s rice consumers, many of whom are likewise as poor as the farmers. About 20% of household expenditures of the poor is just on rice. Asking Congress to repeal the rice tariffication law without a good solution to keep rice prices low and predictable is unacceptable, even to many who are unhappy about the law.
There are three safeguards in the law to protect rice farmers. One is the tariff rate of 35% if we are importing rice from ASEAN. If one is importing from India or countries outside of ASEAN, he or she pays 180%. No one is likely to do that in commercial quantities.
Two, this can be raised by up to 25% with the special safeguards law, which is all within the power of the Agriculture Secretary. There are two versions of it depending on the trigger mechanism used, the volume and price triggers. It is easier to invoke the volume safeguards, but it may also be lifted at the end of the calendar year.
But that works well for us? It is very likely that the volume trigger is breached by the third quarter of the year. Private traders would have completed their importation in the first half of the year, so that by the time of the main harvest in the last quarter, import tariffs will be higher to discourage rice imports.
Three, the NFA can still procure rice from the local markets for buffer stocking. The relatively deep fall of palay prices indicates that traders and rice millers are not buying locally temporarily. They may first be assessing how the import liberalization would play out. Like the rice market, the palay market is in the process of finding its equilibrium under the new rules. Withdrawal of commercial rice traders and millers from the local palay market may be significant as to bring down palay prices sharply.
I support the contingent measure of stabilizing the farmgate price of palay for this main harvest season, or for any other time when the low palay markets show some instability affecting incomes of rice farmers.
Two measures in support of procurement are in order. One, the NFA Council instructs the NFA to buy at an official farmgate price, calibrated to provide incentives to plant rice to rice farmers. I believe this is done. The NFA Council had decided the procurement price to be at P19 a kilo. Two, the national government gives the NFA a bigger budget for palay procurement to prop up demand of palay in the main harvest.
Historically, procurement has been about two to three percent of local production. But there were years when this reached 6% as in 1990. The higher this volume, the faster the NFA can arrest the free fall of palay prices in the main season.
Aside from cost consideration, we may also have to ask about the absorptive capability of the NFA. The NFA is limited by its logistics capacity. I talked to an NFA official who confirmed that they may go into leasing private sector warehouses to absorb more procurement, and that entails a cost to the national government.
We may start with a 5% procurement rate. This shift in demand for palay can benefit other farmers with a more stable palay price.
It is a contingent measure for when the private sector is finding its bearings following a fundamental change in the rules of the industry at a time just before the main planting season.
Conditional cash transfers to rice farmers could have been another way to help rice farmers. However, without the proper identification of rice farmers, and rules to ensure its integrity, NFA procurement is the less costly measure to mitigate the fall of rice farm incomes. In procurement, identification of intended beneficiaries is built into the program.
CREATIVE WAYS OF USING RCEF
We look forward to Secretary William Dar putting in place out-of-the-box ideas in the use of RCEF or the rice competitiveness enhancement fund. RCEF, which can accumulate at least P10 billion a year, is expected to give the rice farmers the opportunity to retool and make rice farming in the country more productive. With the fund, adjustment costs of rice farmers can be lowered, resulting in fewer farmers exiting the industry — giving meaning to the phrase “inclusive trade reform.” An ingenious way of using RCEF is key to modernizing the rice industry, and raise rice farm incomes.

Ramon L. Clarete is a professor at the University of the Philippines School of Economics.


Border closure: Nigerians shouldn’t panic over scarcity of rice ― RIFAN ON SEPTEMBER 22, 20197:44 PMIN NEWSBY VICTOR OGUNYINKA FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsAppPinterestShare Says artificial scarcity caused by saboteurs To harvest 6 million metric tonnes of rice in 3 weeks By Gabriel Ewepu THE Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, RIFAN, Sunday, allayed fears of Nigerians over the scarcity of rice as land borders remain closed. Foreign rice seized by Ogun Command This assurance was made by the National President, RIFAN, Aminu Goronyo, in a telephone chat with Vanguard on the alleged price increase of rice across markets in the country. According to Goronyo rice processors and farmers have met and resolved that border closure would not affect the price of the commodity, rather will maintain prices despite the closure of land borders. He further stated that there is enough rice paddy for millers in their warehouses, which they cannot quantify and disclose that in three weeks over 6 million metric tonnes of rice would be harvested, which will be added to the 4 million metric tonnes already harvested and that put together is over the current annual consumption of 7.5 million metric tonnes. He said: “The rice processors have met and assured Nigerians that the issue of border closure will not affect the prices of rice they sell to Nigerians. There are prices ranging from N13, 500- N14, 000 per bag of rice and they promised to maintain that price. With the cooperation of Nigerians, God willing the prices will start coming down. “Secondly, the farmers who produce, grow and cultivate this rice did not add a kobo to the normal price they use to sell their paddy. I see no reason why Nigerians should panic and try to create unnecessary artificial scarcity of this commodity. “The paddy we have on ground now that is in our warehouses we can’t even quantify the quantum of it. “The rice that is on the field that is going to be harvested in the next two, three weeks it is only God who knows the quantity. We have enough factories in Nigeria that are now milling to international standards and enough for Nigerians to buy and consume.” He also added that “The dry season is around the corner, by November we will start cultivating again the dry season farming as usual.” He also appealed to Nigerians, “All we need is to exercise patience. The border closure is not about rice only but about all the commodities, but rice stands to be the most important. “We have rice in abundance in the country. All the prices are still maintained. The bag of paddy is still being sold at N7, 000-N7, 500 and maximum of N8, 000. We did not change it and is still the price maintained.” However, the RIFAN chief accused people whom he called enemies of the country who are the ones creating artificial scarcity and are against the country attaining self-sufficiency in production. “Like I said there are enemies of the progress we are making who are trying to make it difficult for the common man to get this commodity at a cheaper rate, who are not happy with this development that we are achieving rice self-sufficiency in the country. They are the ones creating this fake and artificial scarcity and rumour going around the country. “But from the farmers and millers, we are meeting all the times, and we are trying to make it possible for any Nigerians to have access to this commodity at affordable prices. We want to make it available, accessible and affordable.” “I want to assure you that the ones coming into our stocks from the fields is a bumper harvest and we are even growing more than what we consume,” he said. On flood currently ravaging parts of the country he (Goronyo) said the disaster cannot stop production, availability, accessibility and affordability, “Rice is being grown on the lowland but there are also areas we cultivate rice on the upland, so even if there is flood I don’t think it will make an impact that will create scarcity of rice in the country. “It is not healthy rice they bring as foreign rice into the country because we call it a foreign disease. This rice is kept over seven years in their silos and every quarter they spray chemicals on it to preserve it and this is the rice they pack from their silos and send it to Nigeria and people are not eating fresh ones rather they are eating disease. Most of the diseases killing people in the country today including cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, blindness and others are traceable to this rice they call foreign rice that is actually disease is the source of them. Nigerians should be careful with this foreign disease sent to Nigeria”, he added

AfricaRice Holds Smart Valley Innovation Forum with Farmers

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Description: https://i0.wp.com/www.liberianobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/harvest.jpg?resize=696%2C522&ssl=1Dr. Inoussa Akintayo partakes in the harvest exercise with the farmers.
The Smart Valley Rice Project (SVP) under AfricaRice with funding from the Japanese Government on Thursday, September 12, 2019 concluded a daylong rice innovation forum on improved lowland rice production for farmers, agriculture extension workers from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), and researchers from the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI).
The training, which brought together 50 participants in all, was held at CARI in Suakoko District, Bong County.
AfricaRice Representative to Liberia, Dr. Inoussa Akintayo, told the trainees that many still wonder why Liberia is yet to feed itself as the country continues to import US$200 million worth of rice annually, though it has 4.6 million hectares of arable land that covers over 40 percent of the rain forest in the Sub-region.
“We have all the requirements to grow enough rice, including good climatic conditions. If only we can top up on those potentials, then we can feed ourselves and the neighboring countries,” Dr. Akintayo said.
Akintayo said it is now time that the Liberian government prioritizes lowland rice cultivation, which has the potential to produce more yield to at least feed some of the population.
“Lowland rice production entails big investment and, as such, the government alone cannot do all. AfricaRice has introduced the “SAWAH” approach, which is the low cost lowland development where the farmers used local materials to develop the land. SAWAH is also a man-made, improved rice-growing environment with demarcated, bunded, leveled, and puddled fields for water control,” he said.
Dr. Akintayo informed the participants that the project would have phased out by the end of September 2019, but because of the success stories of lowland rice productions by the farming groups in the selected communities, AfricaRice through the Japanese Government decided to extend the project by an additional three months.
“We have tried this “SAWAH” method in many countries in the sub-region, and it worked well. This same technique is working well with the farming groups that we are working with in the country,” Dr. Akintayo said.
Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), is a leading pan-African research organization with a mission to contribute to poverty alleviation and food security in Africa through research, development and partnership activities.
“In the Southeast, the government has developed hundreds of hectares of lowland with donors’ support, but unfortunately, those lands have not been used. Interestingly, in other parts of the country, farmers are yearning for such environments to cultivate,” Dr. Akintayo said.
He added, “If a household can apply the “SAWAH” approach by using the local materials to cultivate the lowland or swamp, it breaks the chains of poverty by generating capacity for local production, processing and marketing of rice and rapidly decreasing dependence on world markets.”
Description: https://i2.wp.com/www.liberianobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/AFRICARICE.jpg?resize=696%2C519&ssl=1The AfricaRice training, which brought together 50 participants in all, was held at CARI in Suakoko District, Bong County.
An official from MoA said that the government is committed to increasing rice production, “and this forum will provide more information regarding the process to production of the rice.”
He encouraged farmers to take the SMART VALLEY Project training “very serious” so as to go in their various communities and train other farmers.
Smart Valley Project Coordinator, Dr. Roland Nuhu Issaka, said the project has established 20 farming groups in Bong, three in Nimba County and one in Margibi County.
Dr. Issaka said the projects are to improve inland valley rice production of smallholder farmers through area expansion and increased productivity in the targeted counties to achieve augmented, and stable yields through improved site-specific agronomic practices, and to build the capacities of farmers about lowland farming, especially on rice productions and soil management.
He named lack of interest (not interested in group ownership), infiltration by individuals with ulterior motives and physical and land tenure as some challenges in the production of lowland rice.
He said over the months his institution has provided to the farmers wellington boots, shovels, hoes, cutlasses, seed rice, sand bags, twine, the periodic supply of rice fertilizer and pesticides, as well as on the job training of water management, agronomy and pest management.
Earlier, Bong County Superintendent Esther Y. Walker urged SVRIF to focus on options that would intensify the project by enhancing production in rice-based systems in a sustainable manner.
She said that it is time for Liberians to engage in “serious” agriculture activities.




Search on again for Kingdom’s best quality rice

Chea Vannak / Khmer Times Share:    
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The Cambodia Rice Federation has urged rice millers and exporters to join the National Rice Competition 2019 by submitting samples of their rice.
For in depth analysis of Cambodian Business, visit Capital Cambodia
.
It said in an announcement on Friday that the best premium fragrant rice will be presented as Cambodia’s entry to the World Best Rice Award Contest scheduled to be held in Manila, the Philippines, from November 10 to 13.
The fourth national rice competition will be held on November 1 and the rice millers and exporters should submit their samples to the CRF no later than October 25, the CRF noted.
It said there are three categories in the competition – premium fragrant rice; fragrant rice; and long grain white rice.
Lun Yeng, CRF secretary general, yesterday said that rice millers and exporters are encouraged to join the contest to find the best quality rice in the country.
“Any rice miller and exporter can apply to join the upcoming national rice competition, so that the best quality rice will be selected by the CRF’s committee of judges,” he noted.
The competition will focus on the quality of rice after cooking, its fragrance and appearance, Mr Yeng said.
He noted that national winners in the fragrant rice and long grain white rice categories would be given awards during the 7th Cambodia Rice Forum scheduled to be held in December.
Since participating in the annual World Best Rice contest, Cambodian rice has won the top award in 2012, 2013, 2014 and last year.
Last year, Cambodia’s premium fragrant rice won the best rice in the world contest which took place in Hanoi, Vietnam during the 10th TRT World Rice Conference held on October 10 to 12.
According to Mr Yeng, Cambodia faces tough competition from Thailand and Vietnam which also produce high quality rice for export to other countries.
Cambodia exported 281,538 tonnes of milled rice during the first half of this year, an increase of 3.7 percent compared to the same period last year.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50645419/search-on-again-for-kingdoms-best-quality-rice/ Mindanao farmers to export rice to US

DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
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September 22, 2019
MINDANAO organic farmers and a U.S.-based marketing group forged an agreement Sunday, September 22, 2019, which would allow American consumers access to organic rice and adlay produced in the Southern Philippines.

“Produce as much as you could and we will market it,” said Andrew Bolougne, head of the U.S. marketing firm which is also importing green and matured coconuts from the Philippines.

The signing of the marketing deal with unlimited volume of white, brown, red and black rice and the exotic adlay grown by the tribes capped day-long Mindanao Rice Forum organized by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa) held at the Grand Regal Hotel.

The Mindanao Rice Forum, sponsored by Seedworks Philippines and AMO Organic Fertilizer, was attended by adlay and organic rice farmers associations and cooperatives.

During the forum, the participants, guided by the MinDa and the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional offices in Mindanao and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), organized themselves and formed the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO).

Chosen as interim chairman of MORCO was the Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative with Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group.

Represented in the Council are organic rice farmers’ cooperatives and associations from all over Mindanao; organic fertilizer and soil ameriolants producers group, seed growers and rice millers.

MinDa will be the lead government agency to support the group with the assistance of the DA and PhilRice.

MinDa will establish a database of all organic rice and adlay farmers in Mindanao, including the geotagging of the production areas.

Availability of seeds for the black organic rice, which is the most sought-after product, will also be determined, including the estimated production.

Bolougne, who led the U.S. group which signed the marketing agreement with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative, said the demand for organic rice, especially the black rice which is reputed to have medicinal benefits, is huge and largely unfilled.

“You cannot imagine how huge is the market demand for organic food today and we will cash in on that,” he said.

Bolougne's group committed a buying price which would give farmers double what they are earning by planting commercial rice.

Don Bosco vice chairperson and marketing officer Maria Helenita Gamela said organic rice farmers are not affected by the Rice Tariffication Law which allowed the unimpeded entry of imported rice which resulted in low farm gate price for commercial rice.

"We have a niche market. The price is steady whole year round but we cannot produce the needed volume," she said.

Currently, Don Bosco buys organic paddy rice from its members at P19 to P20 per kilo. This could go even higher with the forging of the marketing agreement with the U.S. group.

The export deal for organic rice and adlay is the second marketing deal arranged by MinDA for Mindanao's rice farmers.

Earlier, MinDA arranged the export of Mindanao premium rice to Papua New Guinea.

An initial shipment of 5,000 metric tons is expected before the end of the year. A delegation from Papua New Guinea, led by Central Province Governor Robert Agarobe, is now in Mindanao to inspect the production areas and the processing facilities. (PR)

India's forex reserves declines by US$ 0.65 billion in the week ended 13 September

Capital Market Last Updated at September 20, 2019 20:50 IST
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Forex reserves eases to US$ 429.0 billion as on 13 September 2019
India's foreign exchange reserves declined by US$ 0.65 billion to US$ 428.96 billion in the week ended 13 September 2019. The foreign exchange reserves had stood at US$ 429.61 a week ago.
Within the foreign exchange reserves, the foreign currency assets fell to US$ 396.80 billion in the week ended 13 September 2019 from US$ 397.20 billion a week ago. The gold assets also declined to US$ 27.10 billion from US$ 27.35 billion a week ago. SDRs were flat at US$ 1.43 billion in the week ended 13 September 2019.
India's foreign exchange reserves increased by US$ 16.09 billion over March 2019, while jumped US$ 28.47 billion over a year ago level.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Non-availability of local rice threatens FG’s programme

Description: Jill Okeke   by Jill Okeke


Description: Non-availability of local rice threatens FG’s programme

Local rice traders, especially in Lagos and its environs, are lamenting the non availability of local rice as demand and price for the product increases due to the shutting down of land borders in order to curtail the influx of smuggled rice, which was already threatening the survival of the budding Nigerian rice industry.
The traders are warning that the continuous scarcity of the product will greatly undermine government’s efforts to groom Nigerians off imported foreign rice to our locally cultivated rice. Consumers most especially affected by the border closure are those in border towns who have for many years depended on the foreign par boiled long grain rice.
However, with the border closed and no more rice smuggled in, those consumers who hitherto consumed such rice have no option other than to turn to our very nutritious organic rice. But the problem is that we do not seem to have enough to go round everybody. The population of Lagos State alone according to the National Population Commission of Nigeria as at 2016 is over 21million.
Market survey in major rice markets in Lagos, like Daleko Mushin market, Iddo Terminus and G CAPPA Iddo, revealed the numerous rice brands in Nigeria. What more, no foreign rice was on display except what the traders dubiously refer to as the ‘Nigerian foreign rice’, whereby local rice is deceptively bagged in foreign branded rice bags like, Royal Umbrella, Caprice and for those consumers who still insist on buying foreign rice, the traders direct you to such bags. They sell for about N18,000 per 50kg bag while local rice branded Nigeria sells for between N14,500-N17,000. Though if they see you are ready to pay any high amount for the real foreign rice, they retreat inside the market and produce it for between N20,000-N23,000.
However, all the traders are complaining of lack of rice to sell to consumers. As at last week Tuesday and Wednesday when the reporter visited the markets, the traders disclosed that things have generated to the level that even rice manufacturers have stopped receiving money to supply rice to the traders.
In an interview with one of the big rice dealers at No. 1, Taylor Rd. G-CAPPA rice market, Idowu Omogbemi, he said manufacturers like Olam, Stallion, Big Bull, Umza, Famous, Tomato King, amongst others, declined to take money from traders explaining they had run short of rice.
“A majority of rice dealers who paid for truck load of rice since the last two weeks have not received their order. If you pay for 11 trucks, you get just one truck in order to make room for other traders. In fact at the moment, manufacturers are rationing the rice,” regretted the rice dealer.
“Rice manufacturers are overwhelmed by the demand. They cannot meet up. Labana, Three Brothers, Super Champion, Al-Hamsad, etcetera are no longer taking money from traders. I tried to pay them today for consignment of rice but they refused to accept money,” lamented Mrs. Nky Okoro at the Iddo Terminus rice market.
At Daleko market in Mushin, many traders were complaining bitterly that they could not find rice to buy. They complained that the major distributor of the product, Madam Jumilar, was not giving them enough to buy. She is rationing 10 bags to each trader daily through her agent, Tokunbo. If Tokunbo does not like your face, he will not sell to you. Those he does not sell to, patronise the traders he sells to at a higher price, resulting to un-uniformed rice price in the market. Besides, what is 10 bags of rice? One customer alone can buy them all and your shop becomes empty,” cried Mrs. Ethel of shop 409/416.
The same tales of demand and the same tales of scarcity were everywhere. Of course, this has greatly affected the price. Virtually all the local rice brands sell between N14,500-N17,000 per 50kg bag. “The price keeps escalating,” lamented Mrs Effiong Orji.
Acknowledging the scarcity and attributing the increasing price of rice to rice farmers who increased the price of Rice Paddy, President, Association of Rice Distributors in Nigeria, Mrs. Esther Akinsoye, said that government needs to stop owners of Paddy from hoarding the product and increasing the price.
“Rice millers are complaining that farmers are increasing the price of Paddy because of high demand and as such forcing the millers to also increase their price, resulting in further increase by the manufacturer,” regretted Mrs. Akinsoye. “They should make the Paddy or rough rice to be surplus for the manufacturers and millers.”
Reacting to the development, Nigeria’s leading rice merchant, the Iya Loja of Daleko Market, Chief Mrs. Ibilola Solaja popularly called Madam Jumlar,  appealed to Nigerians to be patient. “Rome was not built in a day. There is bound to be teething problems as we are just starting. In a few years time, we shall have more than enough rice to eat and export.”
Admitting the scarcity, she said it will soon be over as many farmers have gone back to farms and millers have also gone back to their business due to the demand for local rice now. “I encourage the consumption of local rice so that we can grow our economy. I give to traders on credit and they remit money back to me when they sell,” said the delectable lady.
However, in a telephone interview with the National President, Rice Millers Association, Arc Kabir, though he admitted that he heard of shortage of rice in some parts of the country, he said they were not experiencing much shortage in the north.
In Enugu State, another big player in the rice industry, Ogbonnaya, regretted that the price of local rice has gone slightly up since the closure of the border but added that consumers in the eastern part of the country were not feeling it. “People here prefer nutritious local rice to foreign rice. Price went up because there is increased demand from places like Lagos State.”
Another analyst, however, pointed out that majority of rice mills in the country are located within eastern and northern states. “It is only Olam that has a mill in Lagos State because consumers here preferred foreign rice. Rice farmers in the west send their rice Paddy to east and northern mills. Even Lagos State Lake rice is milled in Kebbi State. However, with the promise of Lagos State to open a mill in the state come March 2020, maybe we shall have enough rice for the residents.”
To ease the immediate problem of scarcity in major states, stakeholders should find cheaper ways to transport rice from the hither lands to the metropolis. Investigations revealed that a truck load of rice from Kano town to Lagos is about N350,000 and this price is deterring some people. All hands should please be on deck to make this government’s noble project to succeed.

Mindanao organic rice finds market in US
By Digna Banzon  September 21, 2019, 7:30 pm
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Description: https://files.pna.gov.ph/category-list/2019/09/21/minda.jpg
ORGANIC RICE. Mindanao farmers forged a supply agreement with a US-based marketing firm to supply American consumers with organic rice. An initial shipment of 5,000 metric tons is expected before yearend. (Photo by MinDA)
DAVAO CITY -- Organic rice produced in Mindanao now has access to the United States (US) after an agreement between farmers and an American marketing group here on Friday.

Dr. Adrian Tamayo, communications head of the Mindanao Development Authority (MINDA), said Saturday the deal would allow American consumers access to organic rice and the heirloom Adlay variety produced in the Southern Philippines.

Tamayo said Andrew Bolougne, head of the US Marketing Firm, told the farmers to produce as much as they could and promised that they will market it.

Bolougne's group committed a buying price which would give farmers double what they are earning by planting commercial rice, he added.

The signing of the marketing deal with unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay grown by the tribes capped the Mindanao Rice Forum organized by MinDA.

The Mindanao Rice Forum was attended by Adlay and Organic rice farmers associations and cooperatives.

Tamayo added that an initial shipment of 5,000 metric tons is expected by the end of the year.

During the forum, the participants, guided by the MinDA and the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Offices (DA-RFO) in Mindanao and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), organized themselves and formed the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO). Chosen as Interim Chairman of MORCO was the Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative with Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen.

Represented in the Council are organic rice farmers’ cooperatives and associations from all over Mindanao, organic fertilizer and soil ameliorants producers group, seed growers, and rice millers.

Tamayo said MinDA will be the lead government agency to support the group with the assistance of the DA and PhilRice.

MinDA will establish a database of all organic rice and Adlay farmers in Mindanao, including the geotagging of the production areas. Availability of seeds for the Black Organic Rice, which is the most sought-after product, will also be determined, including the estimated production.

Bolougne said the demand for organic rice, especially the Black Rice which is reputed to have medicinal benefits, is huge and largely unfilled.

"You cannot imagine how huge is the market demand for organic food today and we will cash in on that," he said.

Don Bosco vice-chairperson and marketing officer Maria Helenita Gamela said organic rice farmers are not affected by the Rice Tariffication Law, and the unimpeded entry of imported rice that resulted in low farm gate price for commercial rice.

"We have a niche market. The price is steady whole year round but we cannot produce the needed volume," she said.

Currently, Don Bosco buys from its members organic paddy rice at PHP19 to PHP20 per kilo. This could go even higher with the forging of the marketing agreement with the US group, Gamela said.

The export deal for organic rice and Adlay is the second marketing deal arranged by MinDA for Mindanao's rice farmers. (PNA)

New study opens the door to flood resistant crops

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Of the major food crops, only rice is currently able to survive flooding. Thanks to new research, that could soon change — good news for a world in which rains are increasing in both frequency and intensity. 
The research, published recently in "Science," studied how other crops compare to rice when submerged in water. It found that the plants – a wild-growing tomato, a tomato used for farming and a plant similar to alfalfa – all share at least 68 families of genes in common that are activated in response to flooding.
Rice was domesticated from wild species that grew in tropical regions, where it adapted to endure monsoons. Some of the genes involved in that adaptation exist in the other plants but have not evolved to switch on when the roots are being flooded.
“We hope to take advantage of what we learned about rice in order to help activate the genes in other plants that could help them survive waterlogging,” said study lead Julia Bailey-Serres, a UC Riverside professor of genetics.
In the study, the team examined cells that reside at the tips of roots of the plant, as roots are the first responders to a flood. Root tips and shoot buds are also where a plant’s prime growing potential resides. These regions contain cells that can help a plant become more resilient to flooding.
Drilling down even further, the team looked at the genes in these root tip cells, to understand whether and how their genes were activated when covered with water and deprived of oxygen. 
“We looked at the way that DNA instructs a cell to create particular stress response in a level of unprecedented detail, across evolutionarily different species,” said one of the lead researchers, UC Riverside’s Mauricio Reynoso. 
The genes involved in flooding adaptations are called submergence up-regulated families (SURFs). “Since evolution separated the ancestors of rice and these other species as many as 180 million years ago, we did not expect to find 68 SURFs in common,” said co-author Neelima Sinha, professor of plant biology at UC Davis.
Though the SURFs were activated in all the plants during the flooding experiments, their genetic responses weren’t as effective as in rice. The wild tomato species that grows in desert soil withered and died when flooded. 
Climate change also produces periods of excessive drought, and separate efforts are under way to examine crop resilience to those conditions as well. However, Bailey-Serres said flooding responses are understudied compared to drought, making this work all the more important. 
The group is now planning additional studies to improve the survival rates of the plants that currently die and rot from excess water.
This year is not the first in which excessive rains have kept farmers from being able to plant crops like corn, soybeans and alfalfa. Floods have also damaged the quality of the crops they were able to grow. As the climate continues to change, this trend is likely to continue. Without efforts to ensure our crops adapt, the security of the world’s food supply is at risk.
“Imagine a world where kids do not have enough calories to develop,” said Bailey-Serres. “We as scientists have an urgency to help plants withstand floods, to ensure food security for the future.”

Scientists to help grains besides rice survive flooding

UPI
20 Sep 2019
Sept. 20 (UPI) — Currently, rice is the only crop staple that can withstand flooding. But with floods in some parts of the world expected to increase in severity and frequency as a result of climate change, scientists are working hard to develop more resilient crops.
New research, published this week in the journal Science, suggests long dormant genes can be turned on to help crops survive extreme weather.
Rice was domesticated from a wild species native to the tropics, where the grain evolved to endure heavy rains and flooding. Other grains possess the same genes as rice, but they remain silenced even when the crops experience flood conditions.
For the study, scientists analyzed gene expression in the root cells from rice plants, as well as the root cells of a wild-growing tomato, a tomato used for farming and a plant similar to alfalfa. Scientists made a list of the many genes activated in the root cells of flooded rice plants.
“We looked at the way that DNA instructs a cell to create particular stress response in a level of unprecedented detail,” Mauricio Reynoso, researcher at the University of California, Riverside, said in a news release.
When scientists compared the genetic response of the rice plants with the tomato and alfalfa plants, they found the plants share 68 families of the activated rice genes in common.
“This is the first time that a flooding response has been looked at in a way that was this comprehensive, across evolutionarily different species,” said Siobhan Brady, an associate professor of plant biology at the University of California, Davis.
The genes responsible for flood resilience are called submergence up-regulated families, or SURFs. Though the tomato and alfalfa plants host many of the same flood-proofing genes, they fail to activate the SURFs in response to flooding.
In followup studies, scientists at UC Davis and Emory University activated SURFs in the tomato and alfalfa plants. The SURFs proved to be no use to the wild tomato species, which prefers desert soil. The wild tomato withered and died when flooded. The other two plants appeared to benefit from the activated SURFs, but their genetic responses were not as effective as in rice.
Scientists are currently conducting similar analysis and tests involving genes responsible for drought and heat resistance.
The researchers aren’t giving up on flood-resistant crops. They hope additional studies will reveal new strategies for boosting genetic defenses against flooding in grains and other staple crops.

Technology important for 4th agricultural revolution’

“The reality of digitalizing agriculture is won or lost at the farmer level, where applicability and sustainability have to be tested.”
Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, director of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), said this before more than 350 scientists, researchers and educators at the opening of the 25th Federation of Crop Science Societies of the Philippines (FCSSP) and the first Federation of Plant Science Associations of the Philippines (FPSAP) Scientific Conference in Davao City last week.
FPSAP is composed of the Crop Science Society of the Philippines, the Philippine Seed Industry Association Inc., PhilFruits Association Inc. and the Philippine Association of Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology.
With the theme, “Converging Sustainability and Precision to Create Digital Plant Science Innovations,” the conference is convened at the Apo View Hotel and until September 21.
“At Searca, we are working toward elevating the quality of life of farmers by improving their access to new, sustainable, resilient production technologies and systems, and help them integrate with modern postharvest and logistics systems,” Gregorio said.
He explained the importance of using technology to achieve Agriculture 4.0, but pointed out that there is resistance to adapt to change by adopting modern technologies because of perceived risks associated with them.
“We have to embrace these changes to actually change the lives of farmers. Let’s give these technologies and changes a chance so that we can have a better chance of changing the current state of our farmers,” Gregorio said.
The theme of the conference highlights this need.
“Advances in plant science through the form of biotechnology or agro-engineering technology can create various impacts in our society and environment, and thus, should incorporate sustainable designs for future generations,” FPSAP President Ryan Rodrigo P. Tayobong said.
“Plant science and agriculture must be able to cope with how fast new knowledge is generated and technologies change,” Gregorio affirmed.
Speaking from more than 30 years of experience as crop scientist and research manager in international and private institutions, Gregorio urged the conference participants: “We must be innovative to change for a purpose.”
In the next five years, he said Searca will focus its efforts to facilitate interconnectedness among the academe, industry and government in order to contribute to the sustainable development goals, particularly on quality education; industry, innovation, and infrastructure; and partnerships for the SDGs, among others.
Gregorio challenged the participants to begin innovative approaches in transforming the agricultural sector.
 “We have to make agriculture attractive and this begins with changing the mindset of farmers from being producers to agripreneurs and in having a holistic approach to the agricultural value chain,” he said.
The conference is jointly organized by FPSAP with the University of Southeastern Philippines, and Southern Mindanao Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research Development Consortium.
It is cosponsored by Searca, Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development; Philippine Rice Research Institute; Corteva Agriscience; Monsanto Philippines-Bayer Crop Science; and CropLife Philippines.

New research paves way to make more crops resilient to floods

2 min read.
·       In a new research published in peer-reviewed journal, Science, scientists studied how other crops behaved when submerged
·       The rice variety chosen for research was one that is grown in tropical countries like India
Description: A view of the flood affected areas, in Kochi on Sunday. Photo: PTIA view of the flood affected areas, in Kochi on Sunday. Photo: PTI
New Delhi: With the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events causing severe damage to crops worldwide, a new study has paved way to enhance flood tolerance of more crops species through genetic engineering.
In a new research published in peer-reviewed journal, Science, scientists studied how other crops behaved when submerged in water and found that the plants- a wild-growing tomato used for farming and a plant similar to alfalfa - all share at least 68 families of genes in common that are activated in response to flooding.
The rice variety chosen for research was one that is grown in tropical countries like India where it is well-adapted to endure monsoons and water-logging. Scientists found that some of the genes involved in that adaptation exist in few other plants but have not evolved to switch on when the roots are being flooded.
"We hope to take advantage of what we learned about rice in order to help activate the genes in other plants that could help them survive water logging," said lead author Professor Julia Bailey-Serres at University for California, Riverside.
The team examined the cell structure at the tip of the roots of the plant which are first to respond to excess water and contain cells that can help a plant become more resilient to flooding. They studied the genes in these root tip cells to understand whether and how their genes were activated when covered with water and deprived of oxygen.
"We looked at the way that DNA instructs a cell to create particular stress response in a level of unprecedented detail," said co-author Mauricio Reynoso from UC Riverside.
The genes involved in flooding adaptations are called submergence up-regulated families (SURFs).
"Since evolution separated the ancestors of rice and these other species as many as 180 million years ago, we did not expect to find 68 SURFs in common," said co-author Neelima Sinha, professor of plant biology at UC Davis.
Though the SURFs were activated in all the plants during the flooding experiments, their genetic responses weren't as effective as in rice. The wild tomato species that grows in desert soil withered and died when flooded.
The group now plans additional studies to improve the survival rates of the plants that currently die and rot from excess water. “Imagine a world where kids do not have enough calories to develop," said Bailey-Serres. "We as scientists have an urgency to help plants withstand floods, to ensure food security for the future."

Tired of eating rice? Try these healthy alternatives


By - Created: Sep 21, 2019, 15:44 IST
Description: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/thumb/msid-71233048,imgsize-906782,width-800,height-600,resizemode-4/71233048.jpg
White rice or the regular rice we consume on a daily basis is linked to a lot of harmful effects. White rice lacks many of the essential vitamins and minerals. Because it is faster to digest, white rice fills you faster thus increasing your appetite. Rice is broken down to sugar very fast by our body, which is why it also linked with weight gain. Studies also show that consuming white rice for more than 5 times a week, puts you on high risk of type 2 diabetes. But since rice makes up for a staple meal for a lot of people, it becomes difficult to avoid it. However, healthier substitute of white rice is available so that you do not have to compromise on taste for health. Take a look at these 8 foods you should eat in place of rice for a healthier diet.
Quinoa
Quinoa seeds are gluten free and are abundant in proteins, iron and fibre. They are also rich in amino acids. Quinoa seeds are complete proteins, which means they have all the nine essential amino acids, which makes them a very rich source of proteins, especially for vegetarians.


Brown Rice
Much healthier and wholesome nutrition provider than rice is its brown counterpart, brown rice. Brown rice contains fibres that help in effective digestion. It is also linked with reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Barley
Along with lowering the cholesterol levels in body, barley is also rich in selenium, a rarely found mineral in other food items. Additionally it also contains manganese, phosphorus and copper. Though it takes more time to cook than white rice, barley is a much healthier substitute for rice.

Description: rt

Cauliflower rice

Prepared easily just by crushing cauliflower in a food processor, cauliflower rice is a low carb, low calorie alternative of rice. One serving of cauliflower can provide you with enough vitamin C required for the whole day. It also contains vitamin K that prevents blood clots and reduces the risk of hemorrhage. If you are on a keto- diet this is the perfect substitute of rice for you.


Amaranth

Amaranth is a rich source of fibre and a much healthier alternative for rice. This gluten free grain contains more protein than all other grains. It is also linked with reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and lowering cholesterol levels.


Buckwheat

Also gluten free, regular consumption of buckwheat improves heart health and reduces blood sugar levels. It is rich in fibre and is even known to fight against cancer. It contains much lesser calories than rice, and is effective for weight loss.

Govt losing the game of rice

SEPTEMBER 22, 2019
GOVT LOSING THE GAME OF RICE
Description: https://s14255.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/BEN-KRITZ20160229-1.jpgBEN KRITZ
FOR decades, the Philippine government has assumed that management of the supply and market for rice is one of its critical responsibilities, but it seems that the harder it tries to meet this obligation to anyone’s satisfaction, the more spectacularly it fails to do so. It should be obvious to all concerned that a comprehensive rethink of the government’s entire approach needs to be undertaken.
The situation at the moment is this: Average retail prices of rice, despite the implementation of Republic Act 11203, or the “Rice Tariffication Act,” in early March, have hardly budged despite expectations that they would be reduced by P2 to P7 per kilo as a result of increased supplies of imported rice. As of the end of last month, the average retail price was between P38.38 and P42.71 per kilo; that was 7 to 9 percent (depending on the type of rice) lower than the average retail price year-on-year, but relatively unchanged from prices just prior to the start of import liberalization.
Meanwhile, palay (unmilled rice) prices from domestic farms have gone into a tailspin, and now average about P17.60 per kilo nationwide, with prices in some areas falling to as low as P7 to P8 per kilo, against an average production cost of P12 per kilo. For the six months ending August, the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) estimated that Filipino rice farmers have incurred P95 billion in financial losses as a result of falling prices, which the PCAFI attributes entirely to the new tariff scheme.
To try to counter the divergent yet simultaneous effects of crashing wholesale prices and stagnant retail prices, the Department of Agriculture, through the National Food Authority (NFA), has taken two steps. To address the low farmgate prices, it has boosted its buying price for palay to P19 per kilo, and to address elevated retail prices has ordered the release of 3.6 million bags of rice (180,000 metric tons) from the NFA’s imported stockpile at P25 per kilo, to be sold at a retail price of P27 per kilo.
The apparent reason for the high retail price and low domestic farmgate price of rice is the stockpiling of imported rice by large-scale traders — an estimated 2.5 million bags, or about 125,000 metric tons. What importers have evidently done is bought rice from export suppliers, primarily Thailand and Vietnam, at a time when supplies are at their highest in those places and wholesale prices are consequently lower. Those peaks of supply (periods immediately after harvests) roughly correspond to elevated supply in the Philippines, the climates of the countries being similar, and so the traders kept their stocks for release at a time when supplies are at their lowest here, which typically occurs toward the end of the year, when wet-season supplies are exhausted and the next dry-season crop is still in the fields.
If that rice had been released to the retail market as it arrived, which is what the post-tariffication price projections of the Department of Finance assumed, it would have lowered retail prices, but that would have made it unprofitable to the importing traders. By holding it back until domestic supply drops, they can be assured of earning a reasonable profit; from the consumer point of view, rice prices would appear to be relatively steady. Domestic farmers, however, lose out; their harvest, which would normally be bought by those traders to build up their inventories ahead of the low season, is now largely unneeded, and so the traders are only buying it at a discount.
Buy low, sell high: That’s the free market at work, and while “rice hoarders” and “middlemen” are regarded as demons, they are actually doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, since their only mandate is to run their own businesses as efficiently and profitably as they can. The government, on the other hand, can only satisfy its mandate to support both suppliers and consumers by doing the impossible, working in the complete opposite direction — buy high, sell low.
Trying to operate in a hybrid space between a free market and a controlled one is obviously not working, and so the government ought to make a firm choice one way or the other: Either let the free market determine price and supply, or take full control of the rice market and manage both price and supply according to social, rather than economic, requirements.
Historically, the latter approach has never worked well or for very long, because it discourages production efficiency, and the result is either shortages or increasing poverty. On the other hand, a completely laissez faire approach risks abusive behaviors; the accusations of “hoarding,” which are misplaced now, might become self-fulfilling prophecies.
There is no easy answer, and there probably won’t be as long as rice is such a critical commodity. The difficulty the government has in managing it now, however, may have a positive effect: If rice continues to be such a headache to suppliers and consumers alike, it could encourage the diversification of crops and diets, which would alleviate many of the present difficulties. That is not, however, something anyone should expect to happen overnight, or even within a generation, unless the country collectively decides to take drastic action. Unfortunately, Filipinos, to their own detriment much of the time, have demonstrated they can absorb a lot of punishment before anything resembling drastic action to make it stop is even considered.
ben.kritz@manilatimes.net
Twitter: @benkritz
Rice safeguard duties to be imposed next month — DA
Catherine Talavera (The Philippine Star) - September 22, 2019 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The government is set to place general safeguard duties on rice imports by the end of the month or early October.
In a statement, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has already started the process of investigations that would lead to the imposition of a general safeguards duty on rice imports and arrest their influx, particularly in the forthcoming main harvest season.
“We have started investigations and we expect to complete them by end of September or early October,” Dar said.
The imposition of a safeguard duty on rice imports is one of the measures that the DA is banking on to stabilize the supply and price of rice.
Currently, the Philippines produces 93 percent of its total national rice requirements, with the remaining seven percent imported.
“We have to holistically and systematically protect the consuming public and much more our small farmers,” Dar said.
“So, I have taken the necessary steps and the direction where we will enforce legal measures to at least double the current tariff of 35 percent, during these times when we have greatly exceeded the volume needed to fill up the slack in national rice supply, most particularly in Metro Manila and major urban rice consumption centers,” Dar said.
The measure is in line with Republic Act 8752 (Anti-Dumping Act of 1999), where government can impose anti-dumping duties on imports of any product, including rice and other basic food items, that are priced way below the current fair market value.
Under the Rice Tariffication Law, the government may “increase, reduce, revise” import duty rates given certain conditions consistent with national interest and the “objective of protecting Filipino farmers and consumers.”
By raising tariffs, imports will become more expensive, thereby providing room for local traders to dispose of their stocks and buy again from farmers at higher prices.
Dar said at present, 2.4 million metric tons of rice are imported, or way above what is needed by the country.
“We will protect our small farmers by not allowing additional imports, especially this main harvest season. We want them to benefit from the respectable farmgate prices of palay set by the government through the National Food Authority (NFA),” Dar said.
Local farmgate prices of palay have been dropping since the implementation of the Rice Tariffication law in March.
Based on latest figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), average price of palay fell 4.4 percent to P16.68 per kilo as of end-August.
This is an annual decrease of 27.4 percent from its level of P22.98 per kilo in the same week of the previous year.
Apart from raising tariffs, the DA added that another option is to impose stringent sanitary and pytho-sanitary (SPS) inspection measures for rice imports.
“We have asked BPI (Bureau of Plant Industry) to implement protocol in import regulations regarding pesticide residue, presence of storage pests before the issuance of SPS certificate for imported rice,” Dar earlier said.
DA is also looking at the imposition of a suggested retail price “when figures don’t reflect true value of price” to ensure traders do not take advantage of the situation by managing the inflow of supply to domestic market.
Dar said the government would legislate an increase in rice buffer stock from 30 days to 90 days to provide higher government budget for buying of palay and ensure better income for farmers.
“We will enjoin LGUs to engage in the business of buying palay, milling, storing and distributing with the objective of immediately releasing rice stocks so that turnover of the value of rice may be realized, bringing multiple profits to Filipino farmers and other stakeholders,” he said earlier.

Mindanao farmers to export rice to US

DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)

DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)

DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
DAVAO. During the Mindanao Rice Forum held on September 20 at Grand Regal Hotel, a marketing deal was forged for export of unlimited volume of White, Brown, Red and Black Rice and the exotic Adlay to the United States. Organized by Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa), the forum was participated by organic rice and adlay farmers, who organized themselves to form the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO), with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative as interim chair and Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group as vice chairmen. (Photo courtesy of Mindanao Development Authority)
September 22, 2019
MINDANAO organic farmers and a U.S.-based marketing group forged an agreement Sunday, September 22, 2019, which would allow American consumers access to organic rice and adlay produced in the Southern Philippines.

“Produce as much as you could and we will market it,” said Andrew Bolougne, head of the U.S. marketing firm which is also importing green and matured coconuts from the Philippines.

The signing of the marketing deal with unlimited volume of white, brown, red and black rice and the exotic adlay grown by the tribes capped day-long Mindanao Rice Forum organized by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa) held at the Grand Regal Hotel.

The Mindanao Rice Forum, sponsored by Seedworks Philippines and AMO Organic Fertilizer, was attended by adlay and organic rice farmers associations and cooperatives.

During the forum, the participants, guided by the MinDa and the Department of Agriculture (DA) regional offices in Mindanao and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), organized themselves and formed the Mindanao Organic Rice Council (MORCO).

Chosen as interim chairman of MORCO was the Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative with Agro Eco Philippines and SRII Technology Group.

Represented in the Council are organic rice farmers’ cooperatives and associations from all over Mindanao; organic fertilizer and soil ameriolants producers group, seed growers and rice millers.

MinDa will be the lead government agency to support the group with the assistance of the DA and PhilRice.

MinDa will establish a database of all organic rice and adlay farmers in Mindanao, including the geotagging of the production areas.

Availability of seeds for the black organic rice, which is the most sought-after product, will also be determined, including the estimated production.

Bolougne, who led the U.S. group which signed the marketing agreement with Don Bosco Multi-Purpose Cooperative, said the demand for organic rice, especially the black rice which is reputed to have medicinal benefits, is huge and largely unfilled.

“You cannot imagine how huge is the market demand for organic food today and we will cash in on that,” he said.

Bolougne's group committed a buying price which would give farmers double what they are earning by planting commercial rice.

Don Bosco vice chairperson and marketing officer Maria Helenita Gamela said organic rice farmers are not affected by the Rice Tariffication Law which allowed the unimpeded entry of imported rice which resulted in low farm gate price for commercial rice.

"We have a niche market. The price is steady whole year round but we cannot produce the needed volume," she said.

Currently, Don Bosco buys organic paddy rice from its members at P19 to P20 per kilo. This could go even higher with the forging of the marketing agreement with the U.S. group.

The export deal for organic rice and adlay is the second marketing deal arranged by MinDA for Mindanao's rice farmers.

Earlier, MinDA arranged the export of Mindanao premium rice to Papua New Guinea.

An initial shipment of 5,000 metric tons is expected before the end of the year. A delegation from Papua New Guinea, led by Central Province Governor Robert Agarobe, is now in Mindanao to inspect the production areas and the processing facilities. (PR)







LSU AgCenter plans crawfish workshops in South Louisiana

Description: LSU AgCenter plans crawfish workshops in South Louisiana
Crawfish caught in the Mardi Gras Pass area on the Plaquemines Parish east bank (Source: John Snell)
By Danae Leake | September 22, 2019 at 11:51 AM CDT - Updated September 22 at 12:41 PM
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Starting Monday, the LSU AgCenter will help crawfish producers get ready for the upcoming with five crawfish meetings in south Louisiana.
The meetings are scheduled ahead of the season, which runs from November to July. Louisiana is home to more than 90 percent crawfish farms in the United States, according to the Louisiana Sea Grant.
Pond management, such as water and vegetation management, will be some of the discussion topics.
Greg Lutz and Mark Shirley, both LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant crawfish specialists, will lead the discussion and answer questions.
A healthy aquatic environment, according to Lutz, keeps crawfish reproducing and growing throughout the season.
The meetings will be held:
·       Sept. 23 at the Jefferson Davis Parish LSU AgCenter extension office in Jennings at 1006 S. Lake Arthur Ave. at 6 p.m.
·       Sept. 25 at the Acadia Parish LSU AgCenter extension office in Crowley at 157 Cherokee Drive at 6 p.m.
·       Oct. 1 at the Evangeline Parish LSU AgCenter extension office in Ville Platte at 230 Court St. at 6 p.m.
·       Oct. 2 at the Vermilion Parish LSU AgCenter extension office in Abbeville at 1105 W. Port St. at 6 p.m.
·       Oct. 3 at the Lafourche Parish LSU AgCenter extension office in Raceland at 115 Texas St. at 6 p.m.
How second cropping rice affects crawfish yields will be another discussion topic.
The AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station in Crowley created two demonstration ponds to show the effect of second cropping.
The upcoming season will be the first after Governor Joh Bel Edward signed a law in June that requires restaurants and distributors that offer cooked or prepared crawfish or shrimp to notify customers if the seafood items came from outside the United States. The notice must be printed on menus.
Crawfish farmers were disappointed with the result of last season’s harvest. Because the supply was low, prices were high for the seafood item.

Dar assures safeguards in place on rice imports
By Lilybeth Ison  September 23, 2019, 4:35 pm
Description: https://files.pna.gov.ph/category-list/2019/08/14/0-02-06-2ca476c6d4fa5c92965aeab2752a4c00a7864a72cd4e7687a737ce0a91d6892dd19242f2.jpg
Agriculture Secretary William Dar  (PNA file photo)
MANILA -- Agriculture Secretary William Dar on Monday assured that safeguards are in place, such as increasing tariff on imports,  against over importation of rice as one of the measures to stabilize the supply and price of the commodity. 

This, as the DA has started the investigation on the excessive importation of rice particularly with the forthcoming main harvest season.

“We have started investigations and we expect to complete them by (the) end of September or early October,” Dar said in a statement.

Currently, the Philippines could only produce 93 percent of its total national rice requirements, while the remaining 7 percent is imported.

“We have to holistically and systematically protect the consuming public and much more, our small farmers,” Dar said.

“So, I have taken the necessary steps and the direction where we will enforce legal measures during these times when we have greatly exceeded the volume needed to fill up the slack in national rice supply, most particularly in Metro Manila and major urban rice consumption centers,” he added.

This measure is in line with Republic Act 8752 (Anti-Dumping Act of 1999), where government can impose anti-dumping duties on imports of any product, including rice and other basic food items, that are priced way below the current fair market value.

Another option is to impose stringent sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and inspection measures of rice imports.

Dar said that to date, some 2.4 million metric tons (MT) of rice has already been imported, which has gone beyond what is needed by the country.

“We will protect our small farmers by not allowing additional imports especially this main harvest season. We want them to benefit from the respectable farmgate prices of palay set by the government through the National Food Authority (NFA),” he said. 

Meanwhile, Dar assured farmers the delivery of high-quality equipment and machinery as part of the rice tariffication law.

“I am now directing the regional directors and the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) to see to it that the equipment, facilities, and machinery that we give as grants must be of high-quality standards,” he said.

“We have to be stricter on the standards and quality of the equipment that we are giving," he noted.

Dar warned employees and officials of the DA that they would be dismissed if found guilty of corruption.

He also encouraged the agriculture stakeholders to report any incident of corruption.

390 kgs of rice stolen from Niigata Pref farm

Today  06:30 am JST  17 Comments
NIIGATA
About 390 kilograms of premium Koshihikari rice have been stolen from a farm in Sanjo, Niigata  Prefecture, police said Sunday.
The rice, which had been just harvested and was ready for shipment, was stolen from a storage facility early Saturday morning, Sankei Shimbun reported. The value of the stolen rice is estimated at about 390,000 yen, according to the farmer who is in his 70s.
The farmer noticed that 13 bags of rice were missing when he went to the storage facility at around 5:15 a.m. Saturday. Each bag weighs around 30 kgs. The farmer told police he had not locked the facility when he was last there at around 5:30 p.m. on Friday.

Honey I shrunk my husband (and you can too!) How wife of top TV chef Giancarlo Caldesi reversed his type 2 diabetes with delicious low-carb recipes

Lunch at Katie Caldesi’s house is a glorious affair —richly flavoured, bite-size samples from her latest recipes are set out on the table, an enticing smorgasbord of savoury, piquant and subtly sweet. But all is not quite as it seems.
The squares of beef cottage pie, studded with diced swede, turnip and carrot, are topped not with traditional mashed potato, but with a crust of nutty celeriac.
The bread rolls, still warm from the oven, contain no flour. Instead, they are made from ground almonds and eggs. And Katie’s rosemary and apple mini muffins slathered in cream cheese frosting are neither cloying nor sugary. They, too, are flour-free and their delicate, herby sweetness is derived only from fruit.

Katie Caldesi with her husband, top TV chef, Giancarlo. Katie has revealed the delicious low-carb recipes that reversed her husband's type two diabetes 
Food writer Katie — who, with her husband Giancarlo, runs two restaurants and a London-based cookery school, La Cucina Caldesi — is Britain’s most accomplished exponent of low-carbohydrate cooking.
Today, as we bring you the first batch in a series of tempting low-carb autumn recipes she’s devised exclusively for the Mail (see Weekend magazine), Katie explains the extraordinary health benefits of an eating regimen that involves neither self-denial nor calorie-counting, but could help you lose weight and more importantly, reverse type 2 diabetes.
As part of this month’s Good Health For Life series helping to put patients back in control of their health, Katie has teamed up once again with NHS GP and diabetes expert Dr David Unwin in a brilliant series of pullout guides for the Mail on how to use a low-carb approach to tackle a problem that affects nearly four million Britons. (A study this week even revealed one in eight new cases of type 2 diabetes in the UK is now in the 18-to-40 age group because of the obesity epidemic.)
One patient was Katie’s husband Giancarlo. Tall, serene and softly spoken, her outward calm belies a restless creative energy that drives her to rise at dawn to cook or write.
Today, Katie glides around the kitchen of the family home in Buckinghamshire, quietly assembling food on plates, while the younger of her two sons, 17-year-old Flavio — rangy and lean — cooks a brunch of spicy sausage and homemade tomato sauce, piling it artistically on to a trencher.
She has been devising low-carb recipes since 2011, when Giancarlo was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Yet, despite following a private doctor’s advice (endorsed by the NHS) to cut back on sugar and reduce his portion sizes, he actually worsened.
By coincidence, Katie, 56, stumbled on the real link between her husband’s diet and the disease. Suffering from bloating herself, she decided to eliminate gluten (a protein found in wheat) from the family’s diet. And, when she cut out starchy foods — not just wheat-based products such as flour and pasta, but rice, potatoes and other carbs — as well as sugar-laden puddings, the effect on Giancarlo, 66, was miraculous.
Although his favourite pasta and profiteroles were gone, he didn’t miss out, thanks to the regimen Katie devised.
Her recipes are abundant and flavoursome: full-fat yoghurt, cream, cheese and butter in place of processed low-fat spreads and skimmed milk. Nor is there a prohibition on rich, meaty ragu sauces or aromatic, warming stews.
Under this new eating plan, not only did Giancarlo’s waistline shrink — he lost 3 st — and his old energy return, but his type 2 diabetes went into remission. The low-carb diet saved his life.
Type 2 diabetes is a condition that makes it difficult for the body to process sugar, so its levels become too high. Associated with obesity and lethargy, diabetes can, if uncontrolled, also cause sight loss and diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage), which, in extreme cases, can lead to amputations.
Almost four million people in the UK have diabetes, of whom around 90 per cent have type 2. Two out of three will go on to die from its complications if it is not reversed.
Katie recalls its effects on her husband. ‘When I met Giancarlo 21 years ago, he was so lively and energetic his customers called him Tigger,’ she says.
‘But we both loved food and were overweight. We had our sons, Giorgio, now 19, [who is living in Japan and learning the language before he begins a business studies degree] and Flavio [still at school].
‘Then, in 2005, we opened a cookery summer school in Tuscany. We were getting married there six weeks later in Montepulciano, where Giancarlo grew up.
‘Life was frantically busy, and it was all being televised [for BBC series Return To Tuscany], so I really wanted to lose weight for the wedding. I was so terrified of not being able to fit into the dress that I burst into tears at the fitting.’
She continues: ‘I was a busy mum running two cookery schools and I exercised a lot. I got down to my lowest-ever weight, 10 st (I’m 5 ft 9 in), for our wedding.
Giancarlo and Katie before his type two diabetes diagnosis. Speaking about her husband, Katie said: 'He had frequent, excruciating attacks of gout, arthritis in his hands, and everything was an effort' 
‘But Giancarlo didn’t lose weight. He kept piling it on. And he’d say: “I’m getting old. Everything aches.” He started taking afternoon naps. He also said his feet were numb and stopped playing football with the boys — though he loved it — as his feet didn’t “work properly”.
‘He had frequent, excruciating attacks of gout, arthritis in his hands, and everything was an effort. He’d come home from work like a bear that hadn’t been fed, saying: “I need to eat! I need to eat!”
‘He’d cook himself pasta and gorge on it straight out of the saucepan, or devour the entire contents of the fruit bowl — one-and-a-half melons, bananas.’ He was also incredibly thirsty.
‘Now we know he had the classic symptoms of type 2 diabetes, but at the time, we hadn’t a clue what was wrong,’ says Katie. ‘Then he started to complain of blurred vision. And, one day in 2011, his sight went as he drove home.
‘He phoned me and said: “Something odd has happened. I can’t see properly.” He was really shaken. We wondered if it was a stroke. He waited in a lay-by until his sight came back and he drove home.’ A private GP ran tests — which revealed Giancarlo was diabetic.
‘The doctor gave him a choice. He said: “I can give you tablets, or you can avoid sugar to try to control it.” Giancarlo said he’d cut back on sugar, which just meant he stopped taking it in his coffee,’ says Katie.
‘No one explained the crucial fact that starch — in bread, pasta, rice and potatoes — releases sugar molecules into the body, causing a surge in blood sugar just as quickly as cakes, sweets and biscuits.’
So Giancarlo, who at more than 16 st (he’s 5ft 9in) was clinically obese, continued to eat bowls of pasta.
In 2013, a second set of tests confirmed his blood sugar levels had risen. Then, a year or so later, Katie chanced upon the solution.
Suffering from irritable bowel syndrome, feeling bloated and also needing to lose weight), on the advice of nutritionist Jenny Phillips, she began to cook gluten-free food.
This meant banishing Giancarlo’s favourites of pasta, bread, pizza and profiteroles. To begin with, he was bereft. ‘But, within three days, he started to lose weight,’ says Katie. ‘He was also brighter, less sleepy and his energy came back.’
She researched low-carb diets and discovered a GP, Dr David Unwin, who had achieved successes in reversing type 2 diabetes among patients in his Southport practice. She asked if he would collaborate on a cookery book and, with Giancarlo, they produced The Diabetes Weight-Loss Cookbook, serialised in the Mail this year.
Five years after his diagnosis, tests showed Giancarlo’s diabetes was in remission. ‘By 2017, he had lost 3 st and no longer had numbness in his feet or blurred vision,’ says Katie.
Crucially, Giancarlo also relishes his new way of eating, and low-carb options — among them courgetti spaghetti, pan-fried king prawns and vegetable ribbons, salami with air-dried salted beef and grilled veg — now feature in the menus at the family’s restaurants in Bray, Berkshire, and Marylebone, London.
Katie, too, has shed a stone in weight (she is now a healthy 10 ½ st) since going low-carb. She was, she says, acutely aware of her family’s propensity for weight gain — her adored mum Elizabeth became obese in old age and was suffering from health problems — among them vascular dementia and high blood pressure — when she died at the age of 86.
Elizabeth was also an excellent cook, and it was she who imbued Katie with a passion for food.
Her father Jim ran his own bookshop, but the business struggled in the Eighties. ‘My parents lost everything,’ says Katie. ‘I was at art school with an overdraft and they sent me £10: such a generous gesture when they had so little.’
Meanwhile, her mother continued to ail: she had a knee replacement and, at size 24 and weighing 22 st, was urged by doctors to lose weight.
But the dietary advice she was given, Katie realises, was ill-informed. ‘Mum was advised not to have so much butter on her bread, so she changed to low-fat spreads.’ These are now known often to contain high levels of fats associated with heart disease.
‘Mum would have been better off cutting down on bread and putting butter on her vegetables instead.’
Katie had wanted to become a chef, but back then, there were few opportunities, so she pursued her passion for painting. It was art that drew her to Giancarlo when she was commissioned to paint a mural for his London restaurant.
‘He says as soon as he shook my hand, he decided that he was going to marry me and we’d have two children,’ she smiles.
They set up home in two cramped rooms above the restaurant and Katie began working in its kitchen, acquiring the skills that have equipped her to run their cookery schools and restaurants.
Eleven years ago, they moved to their current home, where Katie’s parents lived with them until they died. In her parents’ former sitting room, she now writes her books —13 to date.
Punjab CM tells farmers to stop burning stubble, use ‘Happy Seeders’, they oppose him
This led to sharp reaction from farmers as some of them started interrupting his speech while others claimed that it was not true that wheat productivity increases with Happy Seeders. Others said that they never received any machines from government.
Written by Divya Goyal |Ludhiana |Updated: September 22, 2019 3:01:53 pm
Chief Minister Amrinder Singh checks the varieties of maize during Kisan Mela at PAU, Ludhiana. (Gurmeet Singh)

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh Saturday faced opposition from farmers when he told them to stop burning paddy stubble and start using ‘Happy Seeder’ machines being distributed by the Punjab government to sow wheat and increase productivity.
“Stop burning paddy stubble. Government is providing Happy Seeder machines. It gives more wheat productivity. Start sowing wheat with Happy Seeders,” Amarinder said addressing the Kisan Mela which commenced at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana.
This led to sharp reaction from farmers as some of them started interrupting his speech while others claimed that it was not true that wheat productivity increases with Happy Seeders. Others said that they never received any machines from government.
“Eh koi tareeka nahi hai, har gall nu edda taal dena. Eh karna hi payega kisi nu pasand hove ja na hove. Nahi taan tuhada hi kharcha vadu. Dunia aggey vadhdi hai. Koshish taan karo. Jina ne nahi kita oh karke vekho (You will have to do this whether you like it or not. You can’t shift the onus. Else only your input costs will increase. Everyone moves ahead with time. At least try once. Those who have never tried must try it once),” Amarinder retorted.
Amarinder said that instead of putting the blame on government, farmers must change their mindset. He said that if they face any issues in using Happy Seeders or other straw management technology, they must contact PAU scientists and seek solutions instead of showing unwillingness to adopt new technology at all.

The two-day Mela is dedicated to 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.
“Guru Nanak had said that we won’t have a future if we don’t save our waters, air and earth. Neither the river waters nor the groundwater is left in Punjab. If we don’t want Punjab to turn into a desert in 20 years, then the only option is to save water. Farmers have think of adopting new crop varieties, which consume less water, and adopt techniques like drip irrigation,” he said.

The CM said that PAU and Punjab took on its shoulders to feed the entire country and started research in 1970s, which led to the Green Revolution and country became self-sufficient in producing foodgrains. But, he said, the water guzzling paddy was never Punjab’s own crop. “No one ate rice in Punjab. It was not our staple diet or crop. It has taken a toll on our waters. Now, farmers must think about growing about maize, sugarcane, pulses and other vegetables,” he said.
PAU vice-chancellor Dr BS Dhillon said that Guru Nanak Dev had given a solution to all problems of farmers in just one line: ‘Pavan Guru Pani Pita, Mata Dharat Mahat (air is the Guru, water the father and the earth is our great mother)’. “From water to air, soil to pesticides, we are facing many challenges in agriculture today but solutions are also being found through research,” he said.
Urging farmers not to spray basmati rice with pesticides, he said, “Bear some loss but don’t add to the loss of country and Punjab.” He said that farmers should not go after higher income or higher yield but towards ‘higher profit’ and hence must adopt diversification, value addition and agro-processing.
Meanwhile, Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that he has urged CM to write a protest letter to Centre which is planning to import milk from New Zealand. “Where will our own farmers go? Dairy farmers in Punjab and entire country will be finished. We won’t let this happen,” he said.
diversification tuns worse if they don;t get good remuneration. “In my own constituency, there is great production of cauliflowers but I feel ashamed seeing faces of farmers when they sell it for Re 1 per kilo,” he said.
Later speaking to The Indian Express, he said, “Work of PAU is to research and give new varieties and technologies to farmers but they are lacking funds. We will soon grant it funds for research.”
Meanwhile, CM also inaugurated three-day Regional Agriculture & Pashu Palan Mela (Livestock Fair) at the adjoining campus of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU). The theme of GADVASU mela was ‘Suchaja Pashu Palan Apnao, Sehatmand Atey Khushaal Samaj Banao’ (Prosperity and Health Through Better Livestock Production) with several stalls related to cows, buffaloes, goats, fish, pigs on display for farmers.
Some farmers protested and raised slogans against Congress government and said that ‘VIP culture’ dominated the PAU fair as they were not allowed entry due to beefed-up security for CM. Some gates of the varsity and the main ground were closed after CM’s arrival and farmers were not allowed to enter. Farmers started raising slogans against CM and Congress. “Farmers are not being allowed to enter a fair which is for them while VIPs are being given special treatment,” a farmer said. Later, Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu asked security personnel to open the gates and let farmers in.











Strong baht battering rice shipments
published : 23 Sep 2019 at 06:44
newspaper section: Business

Description: Thai rice exports are tipped to decline by 35% this year as a consequence of the stronger baht. (Bangkok Post photo)Thai rice exports are tipped to decline by 35% this year as a consequence of the stronger baht. (Bangkok Post photo)
Thai rice exports are likely to stay below targets as the strong baht weakens competitiveness in the world market.
Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said Thai rice shipments may slip to as low as 8 million tonnes this year, led by a sharp drop in white rice exports.
He predicts that the continued strong baht -- which makes Thai rice more expensive than grains from other countries -- will lower white rice shipments by up to 35% from 5.49 million tonnes last year.
"Thai rice purchase orders look inactive now," Mr Chookiat said. "Exports totalled only 6 million tonnes at the end of September."
The free-on-board prices of Thai 5% white rice are quoted at US$400 a tonne, while those of Vietnamese rice are quoted at $320 a tonne.
Prices for paddy rice in Vietnam are also much lower at 5,600 baht a tonne, while Thai paddy rice prices are quoted at 7,500-7,800 baht a tonne.
Mr Chookiat said the Vietnamese currency has been quite stable since last year. "Given the strong baht, we expect buyers like the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia to switch to buying rice from Vietnam instead of Thailand," he said.
Normally Thailand's rice exports average 10 million tonnes a year, with white rice making up half the amount.
Mr Chookiat said white rice shipments may reach just 3 million tonnes this year.
In July, the association cut its target for annual rice exports from 9.5 million tonnes to 9 million. Of the total, white rice will account for 3.9 million tonnes, followed by parboiled rice at 2.8 million tonnes, hom mali rice at 1.3 million tonnes, aromatic rice at 600,000 tonnes and glutinous rice at 400,000 tonnes.
Key threats to Thai rice exports include the strong baht and lower purchase demand from China, which holds hefty rice stocks.
Major rice-importing countries have also changed their rice-buying policies.
For instance, the Philippines has allowed its private sector to play a greater role in rice imports, stiffening competition in the domestic market.
The drought will cut the country's overall rice production and may result in higher rice prices, according to the association.
"Given the strong baht, exporters themselves have yet to see a light at the end of the tunnel to raise export volume," Mr Chookiat said. "The stronger currency is killing us."
According to the latest report by the Commerce Ministry, Thailand's rice exports in the first eight months fell by 26.3% to 5.3 million tonnes. Export value slid 22% to $2.87 billion.
In a move to boost rice exports, the Trade Policy and Strategy Office will ask the commerce minister to pay a visit soon to Asian buyers like the Philippines and China.

‘Beautiful Wife’ rice cultivation technique significantly reduces labor


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Farmers in Laos have adopted the 'Beautiful Wife" Rice Cultivation technique because it allows them to harvest more crops.
Why did they call this technique "Beautiful Wife"? Watch the video below to know.

23/09/2019 Basmati Rate list-India


Date: - 23/09/2019
Basmati Rate list
1121 steam basmati – 71.50@
1121 white sella- 61.50@
1121 golden sella- 65.50@
1509 steam – 59.00@ ( new)
1509 white sella 50.50@ (new)
1509 golden sella 55.50@ (new)
Sugandha steam- 57.50@
Sugandha sella – 47.00@
Sugandha golden 53.50@
Pussa steam – 61.50@
Pussa white sella 55.50@
Pussa golden sella 59.50@
Sharbati sella- 37.50@
Sharbati golden- 42.50@
Sharbati steam- 42.50@
Pr11/14 steam 36.00@
Pr11/14 golden- 36.00@
Pr11/14 raw- 35.00@
Pr11/14 sella 35.00@
From:-
Agistin Biotech Pvt Ltd.
Ahmedabad Gujarat, India
+919428112215,
www.agistinbiotech.com