Wednesday, October 30, 2019

30th October ,2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter


Winds of climate change blow across South Asia
Description: http://images.deccanchronicle.com/8601574c367b5353d36a975ea21a27df54d6b698-tc-img-columnists.jpg
The writer, a policy analyst studying economic and security issues, held senior positions in government and industry. He also specialises in the Chinese economy
Published : Oct 29, 2019, 1:27 am IST
Updated : Oct 29, 2019, 1:27 am IST
According to the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, Pakistan officially crossed the water scarcity line in 2005.
Description: The India-Pakistan enmity is possibly the world’s most intractable and obdurate, with a mutual misreading of history made extremely volatile with the brandishing of nuclear weapons.
 The India-Pakistan enmity is possibly the world’s most intractable and obdurate, with a mutual misreading of history made extremely volatile with the brandishing of nuclear weapons.
The India-Pakistan enmity is possibly the world’s most intractable and obdurate, with a mutual misreading of history made extremely volatile with the brandishing of nuclear weapons. Despite having two giant militaries at each others’ throats, the more immediate existential challenges that India and Pakistan face are related to how climate change and misuse of common natural resources have combined to confront both together. It is not the militaries which will determine our fates, but the degree of cooperation the two nations can summon. Our problems are common and perhaps India and Pakistan will find the good sense to act together?
Looking at the climate change challenges Pakistan and India face together, collective action — as unlikely as it seems — may just be what is needed to secure the lives and livelihoods of future generations.
According to climate researchers at Germanwatch, Pakistan ranks eighth on the Global Climate Risk Index, with over 145 catastrophic events — heat waves, droughts and floods — reported in the past 20 years. On the other hand, India ranks among the top 20 vulnerable countries in terms of climate risk. Pakistan is home to around 47 per cent of the Indus Basin, and India to around 39 per cent. The Indus Waters Treaty has been in effect since 1960. The recent political bickering aside, the Indus Waters Treaty has managed to survive the test of time, yet fails to comprehensively address climate change. Then again, at the time it was enacted, many of the stark realities we know today were not understood.
According to the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, Pakistan officially crossed the water scarcity line in 2005. The United Nations Development Programme and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources have issued warnings about the upcoming scarcity of groundwater in just six years.
According to some estimates, Pakistan is the fourth-largest user of its groundwater and over 70 per cent of drinking requirements and 50 per cent of irrigation needs are met through groundwater extraction. Due to excessive pumping, it is estimated that water tables could fall by as much as 20 per cent by 2025.
South Asia is drained by the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra river basins, which collectively form the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) and include some of the highest-yielding aquifers of the world. The aquifers associated with these river basins cross the international borders of the contiguous South Asian countries, forming numerous trans-boundary aquifers, including the Indus basin aquifers (between India and Pakistan), Ganga and Brahmaputra basin aquifers (between Bangladesh and India), the aquifers of the tributaries to the Ganga (between Nepal and India), the aquifers of the tributaries to the Brahmaputra (between Bhutan and India, and between India and Bangladesh).
At the beginning of every hydrologic year, 4,000 billion cubic meters (bcm) water enters the South Asian hydrological systems, of which almost half is lost by poorly understood and un-quantified processes (such as overland flow, surface discharge through rivers to the oceans, submarine groundwater discharge and evaporation). The annual groundwater withdrawals in the region are estimated to exceed 340 bcm, and represent the most voluminous use of groundwater in the world. South Asia faces an acute shortage of drinking water and other usable waters in many areas, as it is seeing a rapid rise in water demand and change in societal water use pattern because of accelerated urbanisation and changes in lifestyle. In many urban and rural areas of the region, surface waters have been historically used as receptacles of sewage and industrial waste, rendering them unfit for domestic use, prompting a switch to groundwater and rainwater sources to meet drinking and agricultural water needs. At present, about 60–80 per cent of the domestic water supplies across South Asia are met by groundwater.
Irrigation accounts for 85 per cent of groundwater withdrawals and is considered to be the main contributor to groundwater depletion with the maximum possible groundwater footprint seen in the Gangetic aquifers.
Among the main contributors to water stress in India and Pakistan are poor water resource management and poor water service delivery, including irrigation and drainage services. Moreover, the lack of reliable water data, subsequent analysis and consequent poor planning and allocation is leading to environmentally unviable methods of water withdrawal, causing an alarming reduction in groundwater.
In both countries, water stress is attributed first and foremost to the massive population growth. Another cause is the lack of sufficient urban water treatment facilities, which prevent the usability of river water for drinking and irrigation.
Air pollution contributes substantially to premature mortality and disease burden globally, with a greater impact in low-income and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. The northern plains of South Asia has one of the highest exposure levels to air pollution globally.
The major components of air pollution are ambient particulate matter pollution, household air pollution, and to a smaller extent ozone in the troposphere, the lowest layer of atmosphere. The major sources of ambient particulate matter pollution are coal burning for thermal power production, industry emissions, construction activity and brick kilns, transport vehicles, road dust, residential and commercial biomass burning, waste burning, agricultural stubble burning, and diesel generators.
In India and Pakistan, farm residues are burnt after harvesting in October to November, which affects the air quality of the region. In Pakistan, most of the rice cultivation takes place in Punjab, and the same is true for India’s Punjab due to suitable climatic conditions for the crop. In both countries, stubble burning is the key cause of smog. According to India’s new and renewable energy sources ministry, India’s Punjab contributes 44-51 million tonnes of residue annually. According to the estimates, paddy areas burnt every year in Indian Punjab and Haryana are 12.68 million hectares and 2.08 million hectares respectively. According to a study, farmers burn 30-90 per cent of residue, which contributes to the smog formation, not just in the immediate region, but the entire Indo-Gangetic plain. With air pollution levels lurking in the “extremely poor” band for almost half the year, the northern regions of South Asia may not be able to host healthy populations for very long.
The number of deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution in India in 2017 was 0·67 million and the number attributable to household air pollution was 0·48 million. The number of deaths due to ambient particulate matter pollution in Pakistan in 2017 was 60,000.
Climate change over 3,000 years ago destroyed the Indus Valley Civilisation and it went into oblivion, leaving behind traces of what befell the people here before. The next few decades are extremely critical. Can we summon some good sense to survive or go the way of the Meluhans? The verses of Allama Iqbal, albeit in another context, still hold true: Watan ki fiqr kar nadaan museebat aane wali hai/ Teri barbadiyon ke mashware hain aasmanon mein…/ Na samjhoge tou mit jaoge Hindustan walon/ Tumari daastan tak bhi na hoge daastanon mein. (Think of the homeland, O ignorant one! Hard times are coming./Conspiracies for your destruction are afoot in the heavens./You will be finished if you do not care to understand, O ye people of India!/Even the mention of your being will disappear from the world’s chronicles).

Cash, Valuables Looted In Separate Incidents In Hafizabad

Description: Cash, valuables looted in separate incidents in Hafizabad

Dacoits looted cash and valuables worth about Rs 6.5 million in the district during the past 24 hours

HAFIZABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Oct, 2019 ):Dacoits looted cash and valuables worth about Rs 6.5 million in the district during the past 24 hours.
Police said on Monday that trader Sajid Mehmood was on his way to Cheema Rice Mill Jalalpur Bhattian on a motorbike when armed persons intercepted him and snatched Rs 4.7 million from him at gun point and decamped with the booty.
In the second incident, some dacoits snatched Rs 500,000 from a fertiliser dealer Nasrullah Khan at Chiniot road when he was going to Pindi Bhattian after drawing Rs 500,000 from a bank.
In another incident, an accountant of a rice mill Muhammad Ashraf was on his way to Khanna Bhattian by a car (LE-749) when two bandits intercepted him near Hakeemwala and snatched Rs 200,000 from him.
In a theft case, thieves stole 26 batteries worth Rs 1 million from the tower of a mobile company in Jalalpur village.
Some burglars took away cash and valuables worth thousands of rupees from the house of Muhammad Ashraf in Jalalpur village.Cases have been registered against the accused.

PTI govt intends to lift rice exports to highest-ever level
By APP
Published: October 29, 2019
Description: PHOTO: REUTERS
PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD: Rice is the largest agriculture commodity in the export basket of Pakistan with total export value of over $2 billion annually, which will be increased up to $5 billion in the coming five years, said Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood.
He stated this during a meeting with a delegation of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) on Monday. The meeting was aimed at chalking out policy proposals in order to enhance exports of rice up to $5 billion over the next five years.
Dawood appreciated all the proposals presented by REAP and assured the association of full cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce in that regard. He asked the delegation of rice exporters to introduce new varieties of rice in order to enhance production and quality of the commodity by investing in research and development work.
“All bottlenecks in the way of rice exports will be removed as soon as possible through effective coordination and cooperation with all the relevant government ministries and departments,” the adviser said.
He pointed out that rice exports to China and Indonesia were on an uptrend due to the additional market access secured by the government. “The government intends to lift exports to the highest-ever level,” he remarked.
“The government is taking different measures for enhancing exports including recapturing traditional markets besides enhancing access to new markets,” he added.
REAP President Syed Almas Hyder appreciated the government’s endeavours to boost exports of traditional and non-traditional products.
The delegation presented various proposals for achieving the envisaged targets, which included better farm practices, higher crop yields through water management, mechanical transplanting, drying and storage, and balancing, modernisation and replacement (BMR) of existing rice mills.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2019.

Japan To Increase Exports Of Authentic Japanese Rice To UAE, MENA
Tue 29th October 2019 | 01:15 AM
Description: Japan to increase exports of authentic Japanese rice to UAE, MENA
DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 29th Oct, 2019) The Japan External Trade Organisation, a Japanese Government body supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, has underlined its will to increase the export of authentic Japanese rice and its products in the middle East and North Africa region as well as introduce Japanese rice flour for the first time in the UAE.
The UAE is a key partner of Japan in the MENA region with trade exchange between the two countries valued at AED387 billion in 2018, according to Akima Umezawa, the Consul General of Japan in Dubai.
"Japan’s rice has brought abundance and health to the lives of Japanese people. It is the pride of the nation and is exported to the UAE to bring quality that can be trusted," he added.
Pakistan can benefit from ‘straw biomass utilization’ to enhance agriculture products: Chinese Scientist
October 29, 2019

BEIJING, Oct 29 (APP):Pakistan, as an agricultural country can manufacture and utilize biochar based fertilizer by using the straw biomass as a raw material to further enhance its agriculture production and protect environment, a Chinese soil scientist said.
Biochar based fertilizer is currently being manufactured in China, where straw is carbonized and then mixed with fertilizers, Dr. Genxing Pan, Nanjing Agricultural University told a delegation of Chinese and foreign media outlets who recently visited a straw biomass utilization project in Ulanhot, a city of China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and gained a general understanding of biochar fertilizer manufacturing process and experienced the magic of how straws of corn and other crops were turned into fertilizer and other by-products.
Explaining the mechanism of biochar and biochar based fertilizer, he said, in this way, straw is returned to the field and recycled, which effectively avoids air pollution caused by straw burning in open fields, and helps improve air quality in the project areas.
Dr. Genxing Pan, a soil scientist, and director at Institute of Resources, Environment and Ecosystem of the University said that biochar-based fertilizers have attracted increased attention because biochar can improve the soil fertility, promote plant growth and crop yield.
The regional countries especially Pakistan, which is also an agricultural country can benefit from the straw biomass utilization to further improve its agricultural produce especially rice.
He opined that the use of biochar based fertilizers can also alleviate problems of soil hardening and reduce the damage caused by chemical fertilizers and thus increase the yield of farmland.
“Biochar based fertilizer enhances nutrition and it has a huge potential to boost global food production and save land and environment besides feeding the increasing population,” he said.
He said that raw materials to produce biochar, including plant residues, wood chips, organic wastes, and poultry manure are widely available.
Dr. Genxing Pan shared that he has visited Pakistan and delivered a lecture in Faisalabad on the use of straw biomass utilization and its positive impact on the soil and environment.
According to Karen Lane, Principal Communications Specialist, ADB, Department of Communication based in Manila who also accompanied the media delegation during the visit informed that the two such projects, financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB) are under construction and scheduled to be in operation in the early part of next year.
Located in Jalaid Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and in Kangping County in Liaoning Province, each project has received loans of 150 million yuan. The capacity of both projects is about 30,000 tons.
She said the ADB is lending support to China to reduce carbon and shift to the green economy as it is good for the region and the world.
Zhou Yun, Senior Environment Specialist, and Project Officer, ADB East Asia Department opined that regional countries can learn from the experience of China and introduce this fertilizer in addition to chemical and other conventional fertilizers.
She remarked that biochar fertilizer being more friendly to soil can help reduce air pollution and enhance agriculture production.
Walking into the particle storehouse of the project set up in a suburban area, the journalists could see big bags full of straw pellets manufactured at another factory set up outside of the city.
At carbonization workshop, Xiaodong Guo, deputy manager, briefed the delegation about the plant, its production capacity, and the fertilizer manufacturing process.
The plant, designed and manufactured in China, turns the straw pellets into fertilizer by cooking the material from 400 to 500-degree centigrade. No waste or carbon dioxide emissions are produced throughout the whole process.
The delegation also took a round of laboratory, liquid fertilizer, organic fertilizer and carbon-based fertilizer workshops and met with technicians and shop directors. They also visited sunlight greenhouse and talked with the technicians and workers.
During the visit to particle plant in Xinfu village where trucks were unloading straws brought from the nearby fields, Bao Tianxi, owner of the plant briefed that these straw are collected from fields in the form of bales and densified into pellets and then transported to the fertilizer manufacturing plant.
“I purchase straw from 400 local farmers and the production of the plant is around 100 tons per day during the harvest season,” he added.
The farmers of this area usually utilize biochar fertilizer for their crops as it is available for them on a 20 percent discount.
The owner said that before setting up this plant, his annual income was around 100,000 yuan but last year, his net profit was three million yuan.
Some farmers present in the areas informed the delegation that this fertilizer is becoming popular because of its benefits and its market demand is increasing day by day.
Although, the cost of the fertilizer is high as compared to the chemical fertilizers but we are switching to it because it is environment-friendly and useful for the soil besides helpful to enhance per acre yield, they added.

Rice shop set ablaze as owner refuses to pay money in extortion
Description: https://www.thenews.com.pk/assets/uploads/akhbar/2019-10-29/547599_6976525_jodia-bazaar_akhbar.jpg
The owner of a rice shop in Jodia Bazaar, which was set on fire late on Sunday night, has claimed that his shop was set ablaze by gangsters of Lyari.
The rice shop was reduced to ashes after it was set ablaze late on Sunday night. The shop owner claimed that extortionists involved in the Lyari gang war were behind the incident who burnt his shop because he had refused to pay them extortion money.
Police have registered an FIR No 756/19 under the sections 327/34 and 336 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act against unidentified persons on behalf of the rice trader, Akbar Ali.
In the FIR, the complainant recorded his statement that his brother, Ahmed Ali, had received a phone call on his mobile phone around a month ago and the caller introduced himself as Sikandar, alias Sikku, who demanded Rs500,000 in extortion and threatened him with dire consequences in case did not pay the amount.
He also claimed that earlier on October 1, two men on a motorcycle had opened fire on his residence in Liaquatabad. Later, he approached the Liaquatabad police and registered a case against unidentified persons over the firing incident.
The rice trader added that after the firing, the extortionists again contacted him through WhatsApp and demanded Rs500,000 in extortion. He said the gang had been using different phone numbers, including international numbers, to contact him and he had provided those numbers to law enforcement agencies but they were yet to trace the extortionists.
He said separate cases had been lodged against unidentified extortionists over firing at his residence and setting fire to his shop in Jodia Bazaar. He appealed to higher authorities to provide him protection and arrest the extortionists.
House robbed
A group of armed men robbed a house in North Karachi on Monday. The incident happened within the limits of the Sir Syed police station. Police said three armed men broke into the house and held the family members hostage at gunpoint. The robbers stole cash, jewellery, mobile phones and other valuables from the house.
The family claimed that some of the gang members had stayed outside the house while their accomplices committed the robbery. The robbers managed to escape after stealing cash and valuables worth around Rs10 million.
Immediately after the robbers had escaped, the family informed police about the incident. Police reached the house to inquire into the robbery. Experts from the forensic division were also called to help police in investigations, who obtained fingerprints to trace the suspects. SP Altaf Hussain said police reached the house in a timely manner after the family members had informed them about the incident.

UAE-Japan trade at Dhs387 billion in 2018

28 Oct 2019
Description: UAE-Japan-Trade-750
Akima Umezawa - Consul General of Japan (2nd from left) with other top officials during the event on Monday in Dubai.
Sajjad Ahmad, Gulf Today

The UAE is one of the largest trade partner of Japn in the region and the trade exchange between the two countries valued at Dhs387 billion in 2018, said Akima Umezawa - Consul General of Japan in Dubai.

 He revealed this during the launch of  Japanese rice flour for the first time in the UAE market.

He said, “Japan’s rice has brought abundance and health to the lives of Japanese people. It is the pride of the nation and is exported to the UAE to bring quality you can trust and a difference you can taste.”

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) addressed its will to increase the export of Japanese rice and its products in the region as well as introduce Japanese rice flour for the first time in the UAE available at KOBEYa located in Wasl Vita Mall, Dubai.

While Japanese rice isn’t new to the market, Japanese rice flour is bringing on a new era to the rice market and creating a new addition to the Japanese food culture exclusively for Japanese food lovers, gluten intolerants and health enthusiasts.

With over 200 Japanese restaurants in the UAE, many are not aware of the difference between authentic Japanese rice in comparison to other countries.

Only a few select top Japanese Restaurants in the UAE use Japan’s authentic rice such as Tomo, Kohantei, Hoseki and KOBEYa.

Masami Ando, Managing Director, JETRO – Middle East said, “UAE imports approximately 1 million tonnes of all types of rice every year with the highest imports from India, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam. Followed by United States, Egypt and Australia. In our efforts to increase the export of Japanese rice and its products in the region, JETRO has tied up with KOBEYa, UAE’s first gluten free Japanese and Far Eastern café offering authentic Japanese rice, rice flour and confectionary retail products from Japan such as cookies, tea, snacks and much more.

Rice export to be increased to $5 bln in five years: Razak



ISLAMABAD, Oct 28 (APP):Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Industries and Production, Textile and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood Monday said rice was the largest agro export commodity in the the country’s export basket with a total volume of over $ 2 billion, which will be increased to $5 billion in next five years.
He said this during a meeting with a Rice Exports Association of Pakistan (REAP) delegation, led by its president Syed Almas Hyder to chalk out policy proposals in order to enhance the commodity’s export.
The adviser appreciated all the proposals of REAP and ensured full cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce in that regard.
He advised the delegation to introduce new varieties of rice to enhance production and quality by investing in research and development.
All bottlenecks in the rice export would be removed with effective coordination and cooperation among all the relevant ministries and departments, he assured.
The adviser said the rice export to China and Indonesia was on upward trajectory due to additional market access secured by the current government in those countries.
Razak said the government intended to take the exports to the highest level ever and for the purpose it was taking different measures to reclaim traditional markets besides accessing new ones.
The REAP president appreciated the current government’s endeavours for boosting exports of traditional and non-traditional products.
The REAP delegation presented various proposals for achieving the envisaged target, which included better farm practices, higher yields through water management, mechanical transplanting, drying and storage and BMR of existing rice mills.
The REAP office-bearers assured that the rice would be exported as per quality and standard to the markets like Iran, Qatar and China where additional market access had recently been gained by Pakistan.

Paddy farmers may reap high yield

 

KHAMMAM, OCTOBER 30, 2019 00:21 IST
UPDATED: OCTOBER 30, 2019 00:21 IST

Conducive weather, timely release of water from NSP are reasons

As the area under paddy cultivation has increased to about 91,698 hectares this kharif season, paddy growers in the district are expected to reap rich yield of the crop in the impending harvest season.
The acreage under paddy cultivation in the last kharif season was 82,000 hectares.
The paddy output this kharif season may surpass last year’s production of a little over four lakh metric tonnes. The paddy production is estimated at 4.93 lakh metric tonnes this year, nearly 90,000 metric tonnes more than last year’s rice output in kharif season, sources in the Agriculture department said.
Khammam is considered as the key paddy producing district of the State.
As many as 16 of the total 21 mandals of the district are under the command area of the Nagarjunasagar Project (NSP) left canal system. Most parts of the remaining mandals are covered under the Bhakta Ramadasu Lift Irrigation Scheme (BRLIS).
Thanks to the conducive weather conditions and timely release of water from the NSP into the irrigation canals, the kharif paddy output this year is poised to increase substantially across the district, sources added.
Anticipating the high paddy output, the Civil Supplies department has drawn up plans to set up around 115 procurement centres in the district to buy paddy from farmers in a hassle-free manner at the agriculture market yards and various other places, including grain markets. The procurement centres are likely to become operational from the second week of November.
This year’s kharif paddy yield is expected to touch 4.93 lakh metric tonnes, said Jhansi Lakshmi Kumari, Joint Director of Agriculture, Khammam.
Apart from the favourable weather conditions coupled with the early release of water for irrigation, the successful adoption of dry converted wet rice cultivation method by many farmers in various mandals of the district have contributed to the increase of acreage under paddy, she told The Hindu.
Paddy growers of Sattupalli division embraced the method in a big way as an alternative to the conventional method of transplanted rice due to its multifarious advantages, she said.
Scores of farmers in Jal Shakti blocks of Khammam division too followed the method owing to a vigorous campaign by the field staff of the Agriculture department and scientists of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), as part of outreach activities under the overall supervision of Collector R.V. Karnan.

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Much of Asia still goes to bed unfed

Climate-smart and resource-saving farming technologies could be one way to address hunger in Asia, write Akmal Siddiq and Md Abul Basher of Asian Development Bank.

Filipino children eat a meal of rice and broth in Obrero, Manila. While 800 million men, women and children from all over the world face chronic hunger and malnutrition, about a third of global food production per year gets wasted. Image: Feed My Starving ChildrenCC BY-NC-ND 2.0
By Akmal Siddiq and Md. Abul Basher
Monday 28 October 2019
Despite repeatedly faltering on the targets to reduce hunger, the global community renewed its pledge in 2015 to build a hunger-free world by 2030. Ironically, the number of food-insecure people has been increasing since then. In 2017 about 518 million people went to bed unfed or half-fed in Asia and the Pacific. In parallel, the challenges for farmers are increasing with economic and demographic transformations, and climate change.  
Agricultural resources, including land, are shrinking and being increasingly claimed by other sectors. The farm workforce is decreasing as the incomes from other sectors including migration become more attractive and the youth are less interested in agriculture, making it a sector reliant on an aging population.

FOOD & AGRICULTURE

Rice paddies raise methane threat

In this situation, doing more of the same will not resolve the challenge of Sustainable Development Goal 2: ending hunger and malnutrition by 2030.
Fortunately, the future does not have to be that gloomy. As always, science and technology provide solutions to these evolving challenges. ADB and the International Rice Research Institute, in partnership with a number of national research organisations, completed field experiments of two climate-smart and resource-saving technologies in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Nepal in 2019 to showcase scientific solutions to the problems faced by the agricultural sector.
In Bangladesh, alternate wetting and drying technology was used for comparisons with the continuous standing water irrigation system – the traditional irrigation method. In Cambodia and Nepal, direct-seeded rice technology was tested to compare with the traditional transplanted puddled system. In all pilot countries, vegetables were also cultivated between two rice crops.
The alternate wetting and drying technology, used in experiments in Bangladesh, required about 22 per cent less water compared to the traditional irrigation. Depending on the rice varieties and season of the rice cultivation, greenhouse gas emissions were 13 per cent–41 per cent less under alternate wetting and drying compared to continuous standing water irrigation.
This was achieved through reductions of periods of flooding of the rice field which in turns reduces the emission of methane. Yield of rice under alternate wetting and drying has either increased or remained at par with the traditional method of irrigation. 
In Cambodia, mechanised direct-seeded rice technology decreased use of labor by 60 per cent–79 per cent compared to the traditional transplanted pu
Farmers in Asia face substantial challenges but climate-smart and resource-saving technologies give them a fighting chance of producing the food the region needs in a way that is both profitable and sustainable.
ddled system. It also increased the yield of rice by 26 per cent–50 per cent compared to the traditional transplanted system; and saved water by about 19 per cent‒32 per cent. Greenhouse gas emission was 68 kg/ha under direct-seeded rice compared to 98 kg/ha under transplanted puddling system.
In Nepal, direct-seeded rice technology combined with the machine-operated boom sprayer for plant protection and combine harvesting reduced the total cost of production of rice by 25 per cent compared to the conventional method. This technology also reduced the use of labor by about 83 per cent compared to conventional transplantation. Seed requirements decreased from 80 kg/ha under conventional methods to only 45 kg/ha under mechanised direct-seeded rice.
Overall, the income of the farmers increased by 52 per cent-61 per cent and the benefit–cost ratio increased by more than two-fold under these climate-smart and resource-saving technologies.
The results show that technology can lead to a shift from labor- and resource-intensive, to technology- and knowledge-intensive agriculture. This new paradigm will require less water, less workers, and emit less greenhouse gases to increase food profitably for farmers.  This shift, however, would also face roadblocks.
Farmers’ lack of access to knowledge and technology is one of them. The appropriate approach, mechanism, and institutions to deliver the knowledge and technology to farmers are yet to be developed.
The key is to have a clear picture of the field to determine the suitability of a technology or combination of technologies to be promoted. There is a need to assess current practices, level of mechanisation, and availability of services. Appropriate technologies should be developed through field experiments and should be validated involving farmers in the process. The governments need to create an enabling environment for private companies to manufacture custom-designed machines to support the new production practices.
A smart extension service system should be developed to improve farmers’ access to information and knowledge. A platform involving scientists, farmers, private sector, and academia working together in partnership to support climate-smart agriculture will be useful.
In order to promote the mechanisation required for climate-smart agriculture, land consolidation at the production level is important. Governments should take measures to promote more voluntary land consolidation at the production level.
The majority of smallholder farmers are unable to own machinery by themselves to practice climate-smart agriculture. The private sector should be given incentives to set up hiring centers where farmers can rent machinery at a more affordable price.
Farmers’ cooperatives should be promoted as well to set up hiring centers. However, such cooperatives should be run following corporate principles, i.e., with a clear demarcation between equity holders and management personnel, all of whom should be accountable for their decisions.
Farmers in Asia face substantial challenges but climate-smart and resource-saving technologies give them a fighting chance of producing the food the region needs in a way that is both profitable and sustainable.
Akmal Siddiq is Chief of Rural Development and Food Security Thematic Group of the Asian Development Bank, (ADB), while Md. Abul Basher is Natural Resources and Agriculture Specialist, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department.This article is republished from the ADB Blog. 



Fighting Climate Climate With Local Know-How – OpEd

Sali Dummay personifies what wordsmiths call a “dirt-poor farmer”.His crops are at the mercy of adverse weather conditions, sky-rocketing farm inputs, middlemen monopoly and worsening attack of pests and diseases, not to mention anti-farmer government policies.
Worse, climate change, a man-made enemy, is rearing its ugly head– there are more destructive typhoons, droughts are longer, water sources are drying up. Not even science or the most advanced technology can reverse the phenomena.
But Sali, unschooled, every bit illiterate to any schooled pen-pusher, but learned in the ways of the old, has what it takes to survive this fast-changing world. So much so that he can take scientists to school.

Old Ways Given New Names

Sali makes use of traditional heirloom seeds—upland rice, corn, beans squash,— handed down by ancestors for generations. His kaingin garden is watered by cool spring water, his soil fertilized by rotten remains of weeds, sedges and grass.
“Outsiders came to say what I’m doing is organic gardening, , what is that, another new name for an old practice?, he sneered.
“When government foresters visited my father’s “tayan” (communal woodlot), they said we were doing agroforestry, why do they give names to our old ways, ways they don’t understand”?
“Our ricefields are fertilized by rotten pig manure, rice hay and wild sunflower leaves and this is good government agriculturists say but these are the same people who brought poison to kill insect pest that later killed birds and bees, the same people who brought the golden snail that now kill our rice plants, “ Sali exclaimed.
The indigenous practices that Sali still adheres to are sustainable ways that help stymy global warming and climate change.
Amy Dickie and Monica Zurek of the University of Oxford, in an IPCC Conference paper titled “Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change in Agriculture”|,they said organic farming practices including those of indigenous peoples reduce the GHG intensity of agriculture, both by changing production practices without harming yield.
By using traditional organicfertilization techniques, Sali and his lot enhance regenerative agriculture strategy focused on the nourishment of the soil, an effective way for farmers to adapt to the challenges of a climate change and even help reverse the problem.
Maybe it doesn’t look like much more than dirt, but soil does more than just give crops life — it also serves as the terrestrial ecosystem’s most significant carbon storehouse. Fertile soil is microbe- and carbon-rich, traditional practices are less excessive tilling and use less monocropping (producing a single crop every year on the same land) thereby killing less of those critical microbes that oxidizes in the air and transforms into carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat and contributes to warming temperatures.

Traditional Crops, Cropping Patterns More Climate Change Resilient

By using traditional crops, Sali and his lot refrain from depending on expensive and input-demanding and intensive genetically-tinkered seeds.The local heirloom seeds have adapted to local conditions for hunreds of years.The crops include bush beans, pigeon peas, corn, rice, chillies, squash and sweet potato tubers
Also included are indigenous vegetables water cress or tongsoy, Amaranthus spp, bracken fern, Sonchus spp., and Pasiflora spp. amti, gendey and burburtak, all climate change resilient indigenous crops.
As climate change poses threats and dangers to the survival of communities worldwide, indigenous peoples contribute the least to greenhouse emissions.
In fact, indigenous peoples are vital to, and active in, the many ecosystems that inhabit their lands and territories and may therefore help enhance the resilience of these ecosystems. In addition, indigenous peoples interpret and react to the impacts of climate change in creative ways, drawing on traditional knowledge and other technologies to find solutions which may help society at large to cope with impending changes.
Sali also makes use of a variety of seeds,often, exchanged with other farmers to enhance agro-biodiversity. This allows good characteristics of other seeds to blend with others through cross-pollination. A drought resistant pigeon pea seed may acquire weevil-resistant trait from another seed.
Sali is also changing his cropping patterns, a knowledge gained from ancestors, When most neighbors plant following sucessive patterns of sweet potato, he deviates and does not plant because the pattern completes the life cycle of insct pest, increasing infestation. He plants cassava, instead. When his neighbors harvest all their sweet potato, killing all the vines, thereby eliminating host plant of pests, he plants sweet potato becauase there will be least pest infestation.

Ensuring Water Supply of Springs and Brooks

While Sali’s family owns a tayan or a communal woodlot, he ensures that the spring and brook where he farms have ample water recharge. This he does by transplanting giant ferns or tanapu and Ficus nota figs or tebbeg wildlings above his watershed headwaters.
Tayans are hereditary communal properties such as forestlands inherited through generations. The tayan system refers to the indigenous concepts of managing the communal properties. Common to the indigenous peoples is their land tenure system that defines the practices of access, use, and control over resources by individuals, clans, and communities. These practices among indigenous cultural communities are restricted and modified by varying economic and political transformations as well as national land laws within a diversity of historical and social conditions.
Replanting with ferns and figs is a practice long been learned from old folks who say both fern and tree have good water holding capability.
Sali said “What most don’t realize is trees are important members of the landscape, what good is a land without water and only trees can give us water.
Sali’s tayan is Pinus insularis pine dominated with a mixture of few semi- tropical dipterocarps, wild edible berries and vines and mossy trees. Guarded by members of Sali’s clan, cutting of timber for housing, furniture, firewood and for rituals is covered by unwritten laws passed down from one generation to another. Use of any part of the land, trees, plants and water are likewise ruled by customary laws of the clan and tribe.

Forest Gives Life

Sali has developed a forest garden, where trees, indigenous vegetables , different species of diverse biological types annual herbs, perennial herbaceous plants, climbing vines, creeping plants, shrubs and trees thrive.
Natural processes of cycling water and organic matter are maintained; dead leaves and twigs are left to decompose, keeping a continual litter layer and humus through which nutrients are recycled. Compost, rice terraces mud and green manures are commonly used on cropland. These forms of recycling are sufficient to maintain soil fertility without the use of chemical fertilisers.
Sali, unschooled, regulates or modifies the functioning and dynamics of each plant and land within the system.
He understands this, his people have been doing it for hundreds of years. Didn’t they carve stairways to heaven with their rice terraces?

Villar wants rice imports capped at 1-M tons/year

October 29, 2019, 10:00 PM
By Madelaine B. Miraflor
Senator Cynthia Villar suggested that the Philippine government should restrict the issuance of import permits on rice, which should be done in such a way that only 1 million metric tons (MT) of rice should be allowed to enter the country every year.
This, as she shut down the possibility of raising tariffs on rice imports, which is one of the measures seen to address the declining price of palay.
“We have to prove that we can compete,” Senator Cynthia Villar said on the sidelines of the 2019 National Food Security Summit.
She went on to say that “we got good ratings in the world when we were able to liberalize [because] we weren’t afraid to open the market to imported rice”.
“If we will impose safeguard measures, they will think that we just gave up and that we can’t do it,” she further said.
Implemented in March, the Rice Tariffication Law or Republic Act (RA) 11203 allowed the entry of more imported rice into the country.
Since the law’s passage, more than 2 million metric tons (MT) of cheaper, imported rice already entered the country, resulting in the continuous decline in the price of palay.
Villar, who serves as the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, admitted that it would be easier to impose safeguard measures to address the declining price of palay but “it is an indication that we are afraid” to prove the country’s willingness to boost local rice production.
Under the Section 10 of RA 11203, in order to protect the Philippine rice industry from sudden or extreme price fluctuations, a special safeguard duty on rice could be imposed in accordance with Safeguard Measures Act.
During the first week of October, the average farm-gate price of palay already fell by 28.8 percent to P15.56 per kilogram (/kg) from the P21.86/kg during the same period last year.
To address this, Villar said the government should limit the amount of imported rice that enters the country. This, according to her, should also address the existence of cartel in the rice sector.
“We will try to lessen the importation and limit it to 1 million metric tons because that’s what we need. We will help the rice farmers,” Villar said.
To do this, Villar said the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) is now planning to restrict the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPS-IC) on rice imports.
In order to import rice, RA 11203 only requires local traders to obtain an SPS-IC from BPI. An SPS certifies that rice imports that will enter the country are free from pests and diseases.
For his part, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the DA will issue next week a set of guidelines that will call for the strict issuance of SPS-IC.
A source said that restricting the issuance of SPS-IC is illegal and that importers can actually file a case against the government for doing it.
Dar, however, said he hopes rice importers will understand the situation and will not import rice during the harvest season

Gov’t to curb rice imports via non-tariff measures

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:11 AM October 30, 2019
The proponent and author of the rice tariffication law wants to limit the country’s rice imports as the downtrend in palay prices continued.
The call was made by Sen. Cynthia Villar at the sidelines of the National Food Security Summit on Tuesday, adding that the move would help local farmers adjust to the new rice regime as the government helps the sector be more competitive.
The average buying price of palay hit its lowest in eight years based on government monitoring and are expected to decline further as the harvest season begins.
Villar noted that the Philippines produces 93 percent of its rice requirement, while the rest —estimated at 1.1 million metric tons (MT)—are mostly imported from Thailand and Vietnam.
“We will try to lessen importation and limit it to 1 million MT [annually] because that’s all we need. Let us help our farmers,” she said.
Villar added that this could be done if the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) would be more strict when it comes to issuing sanitary and phytosanitary permits (SPS), which are major requirements before traders are allowed to import the staple.
In response, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the agency would be releasing a set of guidelines next week compelling BPI to strictly impose food safety regulations. This includes updating the bureau’s lists of pests and diseases to look out for.
Latest data from the Bureau of Customs showed that about 1.9 million MT of rice had already entered the country since the enactment of the new rice law in March.
The number is expected to swell further to 2.4 million MT by yearend and this would be the highest on record for the country, according to the United States of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Services.
Last month, Dar also pushed for the imposition of safeguard measures, but these were rejected by the administration’s economic managers due to their “inflationary effects.”
Slapping safeguard duties on imported rice could have been the easiest way to curb the inflow of imported rice in the market, Villar said, but she said the move would leave an impression that the Philippines was “scared” of competition.
“We have to prove that we can compete. If we are going to employ safeguard measures, they would think that we’ve already given up and that we are not capable. Let’s show them that we can [compete],” she added.
In lieu of the safeguard measures, the Department of Agriculture said it would distribute P5,000 in cash subsidies to 600,000 farmers with one hectare of land or less. This is on top of the loan programs it opened to rice farmers and interventions under the rice competitiveness enhancement program.

https://business.inquirer.net/282237/govt-to-curb-rice-imports-via-non-tariff-measures#ixzz63pclf4Fo

 The effects of Nigeria’s closed borders on informal trade with Benin
A man rests on a mini truck loaded with bagged food-stuff at a internal displaced persons (IDP) camp during the official flag-off of food and relief materials distribution for the internal displaced persons in Nigerian city of Maiduguri, June 8, 2017.REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye - RC1CF1A1DD10
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Nigeria’s recent announcement confirming that it is closing its borders to prevent movement of all goods has been met with harsh criticism from neighbors and regional integration advocates. The Buhari administration has justified the decision as a tactic to curb smuggling of goods of which the country wants to internally increase production, such as rice.
The border closures will have particularly negative consequences for traders, especially informal ones, along the Benin-Nigeria border, as the two economies are closely intertwined.[1] Indeed, this informal trade generates substantial income and employment in Benin, and Benin’s government collects substantial revenues on entrepôt trade—goods imported legally and either legally re-exported to Nigeria, or illegally diverted into Nigeria through smuggling.

Nonresident Senior Fellow - Global Economy and DevelopmentAfrica Growth Initiative

The informal sector throughout West Africa, and particularly in Benin, represents approximately 50 percent of GDP (70 percent in Benin, in fact) and 90 percent of employment. Unsurprisingly, informal cross-border trade (ICBT) is pervasive and has a long history given the region’s artificial and often porous borders, a long history of regional trade, weak border enforcement, corruption, and, perhaps most importantly, lack of coordination of economic policies among neighboring countries. Notably, ICBT takes several forms, not all of which are illegal: For example, trade in traditional agricultural products and livestock in bordering countries may involve little or no intent to deceive the authorities, as peasants and herders ignore artificial and un-policed borders.
The economic relationship between the two countries, both members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is already asymmetric, with Nigeria exerting much more influence on Benin than vice versa. Given Nigeria’s larger population, economy, and natural resource wealth, Benin has adopted a strategy centered on being “entrepôt state,” i.e., serving as a trading hub, importing goods and re-exporting them legally but most often illegally to Nigeria, thus profiting from distortions in Nigeria’s economy. Benin’s dependence on Nigeria is not apparent from official trade statistics, as Benin’s reported trade with Nigeria accounted for only about 6 percent of Benin’s exports and 2 percent of Benin’s imports in 2015-17.[2] These official statistics are very misleading, however, as they do not reflect the vast informal trade along the border.

NIGERIA’S TRADE POLICIES CREATE DISTORTIONS THAT INCENTIVIZE SMUGGLING

Nigeria’s heavy dependence on oil and many dysfunctional economic policies have created an environment for ICBT between it and its neighbors, mainly Benin and Togo, to flourish. The wide gap between the official and black-market rates of the naira; Nigeria’s subsidized fuel prices; import barriers (Table 1); poor trade facilitation (Table 2); and Benin’s poor business climate have incentivized local traders to turn to the informal cross-border trade. 

Table 1: Nigeria’s import barriers on selected products, import tax rates (%), and import bans, 1995-2018

1995
2001
2007
2013
2018
Beer
Banned
100
Banned
Banned
Banned
Cloth and apparel
Banned
55
Banned
Banned
45/ Forex ban**
Poultry meat
Banned
75
Banned
Banned
Banned
Rice
100
75
50
100
70***
Sugar
10
40
50
60
70
Cigarettes
90
80
50
50
95
Used cars*
Banned
Banned
Banned
Banned
Banned / 70
Vegetable oil
Banned
40
Banned
Banned
Banned
*The maximum age of cars banned from import has varied over time as more 8 years old in 1995, and 5 years in 2001, back to 8 years in 2007, and 15 years in 2018. In addition, imports are banned via land borders since 2016.**Banned from using the official foreign exchange market. ***Rice imports banned through land borders since 2013.
Sources: Soulé (2004), Nigerian customs data provided by the World Bank, Nigerian import prohibition list https://www.customs.gov.ng/ProhibitionList/import.php, online reports, World Trade Organization Nigeria Trade Policy Review 2017.

Table 2: Indicators of trade facilitation, Benin and Nigeria, 2018

Trading across borders: overall rank (190 countries)
Time to import: border compliance (hours)
Time to import: documentary compliance (hours)
Benin
107
82
59
Nigeria
182
264
144
Source: World Bank Doing Business Indicators 2018.

MAGNITUDE OF ENTREPÔT TRADE BETWEEN BENIN AND NIGERIA

Smuggling is, of course, difficult to measure but can be estimated indirectly through the magnitude of official imports per capita into Benin compared to Nigeria and other countries. Imports per capita into Benin of certain products—such as cars, cloth, rice, and poultry, all heavily protected in Nigeria—are far too large to be explained by Benin’s domestic consumption (Figure 1 a-b).

Figure 1. Imports per capita for Benin and Nigeria, USD

A. Rice
Source: Authors’ calculations using U.N. Comtrade, World Bank World Development Indicators, 2018
B.  Poultry
Source: Authors’ calculations using U.N. Comtrade, World Bank World Development Indicators, 2018

EFFECTS ON NATIONAL INCOME, EMPLOYMENT, AND TAX REVENUES

Like in other countries, the effects of ICBT for Benin are mixed. For example, ICBT generates about 20 percent of Benin’s GDP. Moreover, gasoline smuggling employs around 40,000 people, about as much as the size of the public sector in Benin, while direct and indirect jobs from used car smuggling are estimated at around 15,000 and 100,000 people, respectively. On the other hand, the longer-term effects on economic growth and diversification can be negative: ICBT attracts entrepreneurial talent into illegal or semi-legal informal activities instead of potentially more productive sectors. Furthermore, the implication of government officials at all levels of informal activity makes reform much more difficult.
Benin’s system of import taxation has revolved around maximizing the income from entrepôt trade, by taxing goods when they enter Benin at a rate well below that in Nigeria or taking advantage of Nigeria’s import prohibitions. The country’s revenues are hit hard when there are border closures or there is a recession in Nigeria due to lower demand for products being traded there.

Border closure: Mopping a leaking roof

 October 30, 2019
Jide Ojo
JIDE OJO
“Now that our people in the rural areas are going back to their farms, and the country has saved huge sums of money which would otherwise have been expended on importing rice using our scarce foreign reserves. We cannot allow smuggling of the product at such alarming proportions to continue”
–President Muhammadu Buhari to his Beninois counterpart, Patrice Talon, on the margins of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference for African Development, in Yokohama, Japan
On August 20, 2019, President Mhammadu Buhari ordered a partial closure of Nigeria’s land borders in order to check smuggling of contrabands into the country. The banned items include rice, secondhand clothing materials and poultry products among others. Opinions are divided among Nigerians on the propriety or otherwise of that action. I have said on several platforms that though the decision is laudable, it is not far-reaching.
It is true that no sane country will allow its market to be flooded with products of doubtful standards and wholesomeness. For so long, Nigeria has been at the receiving end of being converted to dumping ground for all manner of foreign imports, many of which can be produced locally. It is on record that most of the rice and poultry products smuggled into Nigeria from Benin Republic, Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic are either contaminated, expired or unhygienic for human consumption. The rice has been in the silos of the exporting countries for many years and being preserved with chemicals; the poultry products are also preserved with harmful substances such as formalin allegedly used in embalming corpses while some of them are injected with steroids to make them big. Even if these products are good for human consumption, the wider implication is that their being smuggled into the country will kill local production as these foreign goods are sold cheaper than the locally produced ones while people also have mentality of preferring imported products to locally manufactured ones.
I was shocked to learn that Nigeria spends an average of US $22bn (N7.92tn) each year on food imports. Its major food imports include wheat, sugar and fish. Another big import, rice, accounts for about US$1.65bn, or N0.59tn. Most of the country’s rice is imported from Thailand and India. Government’s backward integration programme led to billions of naira being loaned to Nigerian farmers by the Central Bank of Nigeria to encourage local rice production under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme. Remember the LAKE Rice jointly being produced by Lagos and Kebbi states. Poultry and livestock farmers are also being similarly motivated.  Ironically, in spite of this encouraging move, less than half of the domestic demands are being met by local farmers, thus pushing up demand for foreign imports. This is one of the reasons why smuggling of such products has been very attractive. Demand is very much higher than supply.
Among the benefits of the current border closure is the increased revenue for the Nigerian Customs Service. According to its Comptroller-General, Hameed Ali, the agency collects between N4.7bn and N5.8bn daily since the Federal Government closed the nation’s major land borders. He made the revelation on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 when he appeared before the National Assembly joint committee on finance. Ali equally revealed that “About 10.2m litres of fuel has now been cut down from what we had been assuming to have been consuming. These 10.2m litres of fuel are always going across the border.” On Monday, October 28, 2019, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, after meeting with President Buhari said Nigerian rice and poultry farmers are now laughing to the banks as all their unsold products have been bought with so much unmet demands due to the border closure. Apart from financial and economic gains, closure of the border has also curtailed the smuggling of small arms and light weapons into the country.
Despite these positive and remarkable achievements, I maintain that it amounts to mopping a leaking roof. How do I mean? Border closure is not far-reaching enough to check smuggling. The front page report of THISDAY of Tuesday, October 22, 2019, said, “Despite the closure of Nigerian land borders by the Federal Government in the last three months, smuggling still persists at the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic.” The newspaper gathered that at the border between Jibia in Katsina State and Niger Republic, smugglers had resorted to the use of illegal routes to ferry in bags of foreign rice, bales of second-hand clothing and other contrabands.
The newspaper went on to say that its investigation revealed that while strict compliance appears to reign at the main border post between the two countries, illegal business still thrived at some bush paths and sundry illegal entry points where unscrupulous operatives, work hand-in-glove with smugglers to smuggle contraband goods into the country. Some of the illegal routes the smugglers used to ferry in the contrabands from Niger Republic to Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State include Sabon Gari, Dan-Harau, Alele, Makada and Maidabaro roads despite heavy security at the borders.
The smugglers, it was learnt, go through the laborious route of offloading the contrabands a few meters away from the official border security post and use J-5 buses, Gulf 4 and 5 vehicles and motorcycles to ferry the items from their hideouts into Jibia for onward movement to their warehouses in Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, Jigawa states and some other parts of the country.
Recall that the Nigeria Immigration Service, on Wednesday, April 23, 2014, in Abuja, disclosed that Nigeria has over 1,400 illegal border routes.  The then Comptroller-General of the NIS, David Parradang, made the disclosure while addressing the National Conference on Immigration. He said that even though the country had only 84 approved land border control posts designated in the 1980s after the Maitatsine riots, “there are more than 1,400 illegal borders in the country”. What have we done to effectively police these illegal entry points?
On April 25, 2019, the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo approved N52bn for an e-border solution to monitor the country’s borders. The former Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, announced the approval while briefing State House correspondents. He said the contract would cover 86 border posts and the over 1,400 illegal routes being used for smuggling and other cross-border crimes. The big question is, how much of this princely sum has been released for the work to commence? Can Nigerians be updated on where we are with this e-border project? In as much as we have porous and unpoliced borders, smuggling will continue to thrive. It is therefore imperative for the government to use the period of this border closure to reinforce security at our borders.
Aside from effective surveillance of Nigerian borders, there is a need to court the support of Nigerian border communities. Government needs to incentivise them with good infrastructure and make them feel the impact of good governance so that their buy-n can be got in the fight against smuggling. That is the only way they can serve as whistle-blowers on the smugglers.
Furthermore, all the corrupt elements among Nigerian law enforcement agents at the borders should be weeded out. These economic saboteurs’ renegades and fifth columnists who aid and abet the smugglers in their nefarious activities need to be shown out of the security agencies.   Lastly, there is an urgent need to promote the ease of doing business. Apart from the dumping policy of some countries, the cost of doing business in the country is too prohibitive which then makes Made-in-Nigeria goods not to be competitive in the market. It is wrong for locally produced goods to be more expensive than the imported ones even when they are smuggled into the country. The government should ease the clearing of goods at our seaports, airports and even land borders by reducing the layers of the bureaucratic bottlenecks

Again, gunmen kidnap Catholic priest in Enugu


 

unmen have abducted the Catholic Priest of Enugu Diocese, Rev. Fr. Arinze Madu.
Madu, Vice Rector, Queen of Apostle Spiritual Year Seminary, Imezi-Owa in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, was reportedly kidnapped at the gate of the institution on Monday by gunmen.The Director of Communication, Enugu Catholic Diocese, Rev. Fr. Benjamin Achi, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview yesterday.

Achi said he was yet to get details of the abduction, which he described as “shocking and terrifying”.The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Ebere Amaraizu, has confirmed the kidnap. 
The PPRO, who confirmed the incident on the phone, said that the command was tracking the kidnappers.
He said: “The priest was kidnapped on Monday while he was coming out from his school located at Imezi-Owa in Ezeagu Local Government Area. But I can assure you that the police, in collaboration with the Army and local vigilantes were combing the forest in the area.”
 Amaraizu dismissed insinuations that the kidnappers were herdsmen, saying that their identity were yet to be ascertained.
Some reverend fathers were attacked, kidnapped or assassinated in Enugu about three months ago, among other victims, leading to tight security measures being put in place by the state government.
The measures included the establishment of Forest Guards and reinvigoration of Neighbourhood Watch Vigilante Services and joint security air surveillance of forests in the state. 
 Meanwhile, the state government expressed concern about the priest’s abduction.
It charged the police and other security agencies to ensure that the priest was rescued unhurt.
The government added that it “will leave no stone unturned to make sure that he regains his freedom”.

NALYSIS: Why Nigeria’s border closure may spike price of local rice

 On Oct 29, 2019
Nigeria-Seme Border Fully Closed Photo Source: Guardian Newspaper
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SINCE the Federal Government launched a border closure policy in late August, the decision has triggered mixed reactions from Nigerians, neighbouring countries and regional bodies.
Farm produce from neighbouring nations such as Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana meant for the Nigerian market rots away daily due to the government’s policy. And the cost of food items in Nigeria, particularly rice, is on a steady rise.
For instance, prior to the land border closure, a 50kg bag of rice that was sold at N13, 000, now goes for N25, 000.
After the border closure, the rigours they go through and tricks smugglers employ in bringing the so-called imported rice to Nigeria – storing it in a car bomber, fuel tank as seen here is incredible! pic.twitter.com/hRqigycBgG
— Seyi Gesinde (@GhesheS) October 19, 2019

As at 2011, Nigeria annually spent N24.5 trillion importing food items into the country. Five years after, a different report put the figure of four major imported commodities – Wheat, Rice, Sugar and Fish at $11 billion (4 trilliion). Experts have argued that Nigeria’s fertile soil places it at advantage to grow rice in over 18 states across the country, thus feeding itself with the commodity which has an annual estimated import figure of N356 billion.
For reasons partial border closure appears to be the right decision, the above figure is invariably assumed good enough to create local jobs. Rather, what we have are continued job exports through persistent food imports. Former Ministers of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and Chief Audu Ogbeh, as well as former Agriculture Minister of State, Heineken Lokpobiri, have repeatedly claimed rice and frozen foods illegally imported through the land borders lack good nutritional value compared with local varieties. They argued further that such imports keep crippling local capacity and government efforts to promote farming, especially among the youth. Ironically, more than 18 states from the 36 across the country have the potential to grow rice.
Some of the states include Kebbi, Ogun, Kaduna, Adamawa, Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Cross Rivers, Ebonyi, Benue including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to mention but few.
Most importantly, the sector has significantly enjoyed the attention of repeated administrations either in terms of funding or policy. Aside from Levy and Excise Duty-free tariff for agricultural commodities, the sector has enjoyed World Bank loans through the FADAMA projects and recent FADAMA Additional Funding I and II.  The CBN, as at April 2019 says it has so far disbursed N174.48 billion to farmers via the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP). And since the border closure, the federal government boasted to have raked in N1.4 billion and arrested 319 suspected smugglers.
But, despite these interventions and the recent land border closure, believed good enough to ensure self-sufficiency in rice production, the nation might continue to witness higher costs of rice except deliberate and sustained actions are taken in selected areas. The ICIR identifies these to include farm mechanisation, extension services, subsidy for farmers such as the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES), establishment of more rice milling centres, improved finance – single-digit interest rate; banks until lately have been recalcitrant to lending to farmers and even those who do do so at high-interest rate; addressing infrastructure deficit and awareness creation on insurance or early warning system against flooding or natural resources that could affect farm harvests.
Farm Mechanisation

Machinery and Equipment Requirement Across the Rice Value Chain.
Source: PWC 2017 Report on Boosting Rice Production through Increased Mechanisation
Statistics have shown that Nigeria’s large population is fed by subsistence farmers largely in rural communities. Majorly, 80 percent of rice grown in the country which is about 3.7 million tonnes is produced by smallholder farmers while the remaining 20 percent is cultivated by commercial farmers. Yet, local consumption of staple food stands at 6.4 million tonnes as of 2017.
Invariably, this implies an almost 50 percent deficit in local consumption. Cultivation has also been manual, usually through the use of cutlasses, hoes and other crude equipment; hence the level of production output. As such, Nigeria clearly has a high deficit in farm mechanisation, a factor threatening local rice sufficiency target.
A 2017 report from the PriceWaterCoopers (PWC) titled Boosting Rice Production through Increased Mechanisation revealed that agricultural mechanisation in the country has remained so low at 0.3hp/ha unlike 2.6hp/ha in China and 8hp/ha in India.
The report further put the estimated figure of tractors in the country at 22,000 farm machines, relative to 1 million in China and 2.5 million in India – all top rice-growing nations.
“We estimate that increasing the mechanisation rate in Nigeria from 0.3hp/ha to 0.8hp/ha in the next 5 years, can double rice production to 7.2 million tonnes. To achieve this, we estimate that Nigeria will need to at least triple its current stock of machinery over the same period,” the report says.
Extension Services
The role of extension services to farmers cannot be overemphasised. Their responsibility is mainly to enlighten farmers either as groups or through other means on better agricultural practices. Oftentimes, the extension workers are domiciled in the State and Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Rural. They go round to sensitise the farmers of the right choice of seeds, rain onset and offset to guide farmers towards better harvests.
However, the ratio of extension workers to farmers is low.The National Agricultural Extension Research Service (NAERLS) in a report criticised the population of extension service to the farmers. As a result, a digital platform to share information across to farmers was established. But again, how many farmers are digitally literate?
Farm Subsidy
Several experts have argued that for the nation to realise its food sufficiency target, there should be a constant and strategic subsidy for farmers. Such incentive was provided to farmers during the administration of Adesina, the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The local farmers across the nation were provided with subsidised seeds and fertilisers.
The model was such that the Federal Government pays 50 per cent for the farm inputs, the State was responsible for 25 per cent while the interested but captured farmers only paid 25 per cent. Ogbeh, the immediate past agriculture minister also maintained the same argument attributing lack of subsidy to farmers as a reason for the increasing price of local rice.
“Agriculture should be subsided, but strategic subsidization at the point of providing general incentives that give enabling environment for farmers to achieve optimum production,” Prof. Oluwole Fatumbi, Lead Specialist at the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) added at recent training in Abuja.
“….only 2 per cent of Americans are farmers on the farm while 13 per cent are in value chain development, processing and financing which brings growth and reduction in the price of the commodity. So, I am not against government efforts, they are trying, but they need to channel the efforts and energy in the right direction to ensure that agriculture delivers for the larger population.”
Rice Milling Centres
Rice generates more income for farmers than any other cash crop in the country. This singular reason led to a steady increase in local production despite the poor mechanisation. For instance, in 2017, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation put the value of harvested rice paddy at 4,912,650 but mainly affected by milling capacity.
Rural farmers are mostly faced with the challenge of logistics to transport rice paddy to millers. Some would often travel kilometres to mill but local access roads are usually in bad states while corruption trails distribution of milling machines.
Though new mills are springing up via private sector involvement such as the 250 tonnes daily milling capacity Amarava Rice Mill, Kano state, local access to farm mechanisation remains abysmally low.
In July 2018, the former Agric. minister signed N10.7 billion deal on behalf of the government with MV Agro Engineers, to make available integrated rice mills for the use of local farmers. It is to be delivered in December this year. Hopefully, this promise will be fulfilled by the set date.
Single Digit Interest Rate
Except for CBN interventions with special interest on rice, farmers’ access to credit from commercial banks has been a huge challenge. This situation also extends to rice farmers which, in most cases, the commercial banks prefer to give loan more than other businesses.
Until August 2018, commercial banks gave loaned to farmers with an interest rate of about 30 per cent, an initiative  Ogbeh repeatedly described as non-sustainable.
“That the Central Bank considered working with the Bankers’ Committee to finance agriculture from the commercial banks’ huge reserves, running into billions of naira, is a cause for optimism in the agricultural sector.
“This is more so as the single-digit interest rate of nine per cent on long-term credit of a minimum tenor of seven years will support stable agricultural investment and predictable increase in food production. The multiplier effect of this initiative at a time of a restructured and recapitalised Bank of Agriculture will be a reduction in uncertainties and avoidable risks in agricultural investments where farmers will enjoy wider latitude of access to loans from either commercial banks or BOA with less hassles,” Ogbeh had stated. Yet, farmers wanted a 5 per cent rate instead of the existing 9 per cent.
Infrastructure Deficit
One of the major challenges of rural farmers is basic infrastructure such as access roads to transport agricultural products from farms to markets. This is evident in Benue State where farm produces rots away, especially during the rainy season due to lack of motorable roads. Also for rice, transporting paddy from farm to milling machine has reportedly been a huge problem – far worse during the wet season.
Awareness Creation
The Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Commission (NAIC) is an agency of government responsible for insuring farm produce against flooding and other forms of disasters, but, most farmers are unaware of its existence yet annual budgetary allocation goes to the agency. Aside, most farmers are still ignorant of how to access financial supports from the government despite huge sum disbursed since the commencement of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).
More so, information on the free import duty for agricultural machinery is not so popular among rural farmers. These, among others, are to be addressed if the nation must achieve its rice sufficiency target.
Meanwhile, Aminu Goronyo, President of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), conclusively maintained that border closure was to promote patriotism and not to enrich rice farmers.
“Before 2015 Nigeria, spent nothing less than N368 billion for rice importation but today that same money is in circulation within the country’s business community….However, the closure is not to enrich rice farmers but a devotion to the welfare of the country and commitment to compete with other nations,” he said.

Border closure: Rice dealers seek FG loan

Monday, October 28, 2019 10:56 am
Rice
Some rice farmers have appealed to the Federal Government to provide them with affordable loan facilities to boost production to reduce the price of the commodity as they described the closure as a welcome development.
The price of a 50kg bag of local rice, which sold for N14,000 before the closure of the country’s borders on Aug. 19, now goes for N22,000.
The farmers, who called for the loans in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday, noted that the current price of rice was too high.
A Benue-based rice farmer, Mr. Egio Boniface, said there was a need for the government to provide loans to enable them to increase their productivity. Boniface faulted the government’s failure to carry rice farmers along before the border closure, adding that the increase in the price of the commodity should be expected.
“Before we can address the increase in the price of rice, farmers need to have prepared to boost their production through the cultivation of high-yield species. We are expecting that the government will give us loans to secure inputs on time to produce high-yield rice to reduce the cost for the benefit of Nigerians. We need the help of the government to help the rice farmers to breakeven,” he said.
According to him, when farmers increase their production, the price of the commodity will fall.
In Lafia, Mr. Adamu Ibrahim, Nasarawa state Chairman of Rice Millers and Dealers Association of Nigeria (RIMDAN) said that the closure of the country’s border would boost production.
Ibrahim told NAN in Lafia that the development had heightened the demand for the local rice by consumers. He said that the price of the commodity had increased a little as a result of the high demand.
“For instance, before the border closure, we sell a 50 kg bag for N10, 000 but it now goes for N14,000, ” Ibrahim said.
According to him, the action has boosted the local production of the commodity and has seriously helped in employment generation. He said that when there was no restriction on the importation, millers in Lafia could not even sell one truck of rice in one week.
“Now we sell up to six trucks of rice daily from the Lafia Central Mill alone.’’
He said that the decision had also generated employment for women and youths involved in the processing of the commodity.
Ibrahim said that over 40, 000 were currently engaged in the rice processing in the state. He appealed for the government’s support through soft loans to procure modern milling equipment that would enable them to add value to their production to meet international standards.
He stressed the need for adequate power supply as a major challenge to their production.
Similarly, Mr. Jonathan Joshua, Secretary of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Nasarawa state chapter lauded the Federal Government for the action.
Joshua said that since the closure of the border, a lot of people have shown interest in investing in agriculture, especially rice production. He said local producers were also trying to improve on their production by adding value and making it more attractive to consumers, who were used to the foreign rice.
“We this action and the high level of interest by investor and farmers in rice production, there is hope that Nigeria can produce enough to feed its citizen and export as a foreign exchange earner,” Joshua said.

Border Closure: About 500,000 Bags Of Local Rice Sold In One Week, Says Emefiele

Akinkunmi Obakeye And Ajibola Akinola 
Updated October 28, 2019
4.2K16
About 500,000 bags of local rice was sold by millers within one week of the border closure, the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has revealed.
Emefiele made the revelation on Monday while briefing reporters after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
He said that the Chairman of the Rice Processors Association complained to him that rice millers and processors in the country had 25,000 metric tonnes of unsold local rice in their warehouses and urged that something should be done to help keep their businesses alive.
The CBN governor who noted that he received the complaint before the nation’s borders were closed stated that the same person called one week after the closure that all the rice in their warehouses had been sold.
“Recently, the Chairman of the Rice Processors Association called me and said that all the rice millers and processors are carrying 25,000 metric tonnes of milled rice in their warehouses that they have been unsold because of the smuggling and dumping of rice through the Republic of Benin and other border posts we have across the country, and he would want us to do something about it,” he told reporters.
Emefiele added, “I am aware also that after some meetings held, in addition to those engagements we held with the President, the border was closed subsequently.
“A week after the borders were closed, the same Rice Millers Association called to say that all the rice in their warehouses has all been sold.
“Indeed, a lot of people have been depositing money into their account and they are telling them to hold on until the rice has been processed.”
Description: https://www.channelstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Godwin-Emefiele.jpgA photo of CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
 Benefits Of Border Closure
The 25,000 metric tonnes of rice translates to 500,000 bags of (50kg) rice as 1,000 kilogrammes make one metric tonne.
The CBN governor also revealed that between 2015 and 2019, the number of companies setting up integrated and small mills rose astronomically and loan facilities have been given to help encourage the production of local rice.
He said, “Between 2015 and 2019, we have seen a rise in the number of companies setting up integrated and small mills; the CBN and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and rural development has been at the centre of not just encouraging the production of rice in Nigeria, but also funding these farmers by giving them loans to acquire seedlings, fertilizers and some herbicides for rice production.
“The benefit of the border closure in Nigeria is that it has helped to create jobs for our people, bring our integrated rice millers back into businesses and they are making money; our rural communities are bubbling because farmers are selling.”
 Condition For Re-Opening
Similarly, Emefiele noted that some members of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, who also complained of difficulties selling their eggs and processed chicken confirmed that since the closure, demand has been on the rise.
He stressed that proper engagements between the Federal Government and neighbouring countries are key to ending the spate of smuggling and a consequential reopening of the borders.
The CBN governor added, “We are not saying that the border should be closed in perpetuity, but that before it can be reopened, there must be concrete engagements with countries that are involved in using their ports as landing ports for bringing in goods that are smuggled into Nigeria.
“That engagement must be held, so we agree on the basis of what products they can land in their country and if it is meant for their local consumption, it’s understandable.
“But the fact that they are now smuggled into Nigeria, we all agree should not happen because it undermines our economic policies and desire to ensure that industries are alive and jobs are created in Nigeria.”

Cheap rice imports choke small town’s Sh13b economy
 Mt Kenya Star  28th Oct 2019 09:55:15 GMT +0300
Description: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/images/monday/sjkzqhgr54sxutgdol5db691d67810a.jpgTraders waiting for buyers at Nice Ricers Millers. [Kamundia Muriithi, Mt Kenya Star]Massive rice imports mainly from Pakistan have chocked the economy of Ngurubani town in Mwea, Kirinyaga County, which is the biggest grower and supplier of rice in Kenya, slowing development and pushing farmers to diversify into other crops.
Mwea region produces about 100,000 tonnes of rice, which is 80 per cent of what Kenya produces.
However, Kenya requires massive rice imports mainly from Pakistan have chocked the economy of Ngurubani town in Mwea, Kirinyaga County which is the biggest grower and supplier of rice in Kenya, slowing development and pushing farmers to diversify into other crops.
According to the Kenya Economic Survey, 2019, Mwea region produces about 100,000 tonnes of rice, which is 80 per cent of what Kenya produces.
However, Kenya requires about 400,000 tonnes of rice every year meaning that it has to import about 300,000 tonnes, or three times of what is produced locally.
While this reality has existed for many years, and traders in the town have adjusted to it, what has changed is that the importers are increasingly bringing in very low-quality rice, blamed on smuggling through the Somali-Kenya border and weaker surveillance at the Port of Mombasa.
The cheaper rice is then sold at rock bottom prices and then blended with Mwea’s aromatic pishori rice to be sold at pishori variety, at a cheaper price, knocking off demand of the original variety that Mwea is known for.
The imported rice varieties sell at as low as Sh80 per kilogramme whereas pure Mwea pishori rice, which has a distinctive aroma, retails at Sh130.
In a bigger blow to the area’s economy, as the construction of Thiba Dam, which was supposed to flow in more money because of doubling of rice farming area, has stalled indefinitely.
A visit to the bustling town revealed that milling factories are operating at half capacity because of the diminishing demand, slowing down the rice chain that has starved the town of cash flow.
The cheap imported varieties pose stiff competition, and for customers seeking to save a shilling in the hard economic times, many opt for the cheaper rice. But their biggest hurdle are unscrupulous traders who use devious means to pass off the imported varieties as pure pishori.
Many customers are not wiser and cannot differentiate between pure pishori and a blend of cheap rice and the pishori. Strangely, traders raise concern that “pishori” sells at about Sh120 in some dealers in Nairobi and Mombasa whereas ordinarily it would be higher than Mwea’s due to transportation cost.
They say such rice could be adulterated or perfumed blends that is killing their businesses. Traders and millers said they were disturbed by reports that some dishonest merchants had gone to the extent of spraying the cheaper imports with perfumes to cheat buyers that that is pure pishori.
At top rice mills and rice shops in Mwea town, business is not roaring like before a situation the dealers linked to business disruption by the cheap imports. “Our sales have been on a decline compared to previous years. When I started trading rice here seven years ago, business was booming, but nowadays has slumped down as customers opt for a cheaper varieties sold elsewhere. Other consumers unknowingly buy cheaper rice blended with pishori out there unknowing believing that is pure pishori. Those of us who deal with genuine pishori area suffering,” said Jane Njagi, a trader at Nice Rice Millers.
When Mt Kenya Star visited some of the rice mills in Mwea on Thursday, we found the traders, mostly women, idly looking forward to the tiny trickle for customers. However, milling machines continue to roar processing rice produced from the Mwea irrigation scheme.
As a customer walked in, the traders scrambled for his attention promising that their rice is pure and grade one.
The customer who we later identify as Michael Kanuthu, a petrol truck driver heading back to Nairobi from taking delivery to Meru, told us he had made it a habit of stopping at Nice Rice Millers where he is certain of buying pure pishori.
“Every time I pass through this route I buy enough rice to last my family for weeks. I’m reluctant to buy the commodity elsewhere as I can’t tell whether it is blended with other varieties,” he says.
Traders say if they could get as many customers as Kanuthu who appreciate the pure pishori, their fortunes would change for the better. But that is just a wish since customers have cheaper alternatives.
Peris Wawira, a rice farmer and trader at Mwea, wondered why rice that is imported all the way from Pakistan would sell cheaper than locally produced ones.
“That tells you the farm inputs, that is fertilizer, chemical sprays and labour here is high and adds up to the cost of production. This makes our produce expense and unable to compete with imported varieties,” says Wawira.
She says the best measure the government can adopt to address this is by subsidizing farm inputs and providing more water to reduce costs associated with hiring people to channel water to paddies.
“Mwea has the capacity to multiply rice production several times and feed the nation only if adequate water is provided, inputs subsidized and the government helps us to find more market,” says Wawira.
Stakeholders say many factors like insufficient water supply and high cost of production are contributing to lower rice production wherase Mwea irrigation scheme has potential to produce more.
At Top Graders Rice Millers, the director Loise Njoki, said whereas they have a milling capacity of 1000 bags of rice daily, they were doing only 200.
Njoki said the miller which has been operating since 2015 providing employment to over 100 traders and farmers, deals only in pure pishori. She said cheap imports was posing unfair competition.
“Truck drivers have been buying our rice in large quantities but they now prefer cheaper rice. We are left with consumers who buy smaller quantities,” she said.
Njoki called on the government to complete construction of Thiba dam so that more acreage can be put under rice production, while also intervening to lower production cost.
“Cheaper inputs such as fertilizer and controlling of the destructive quelea birds, which force us to hire even 10 people to fight them can lower production expenses and make our rice competitive,” says Njoki who is also a rice farmer.
At Nice Rice Millers, Head of Operations Peninah Kamunde said they mill 60 tonnes of rice every day but that is still below their capacity.
She said their pure pishori rice whereas loved by customers is under threat from cheaper imports. She said the adulteration of pure Mwea pishori alters the market and shatters the loyalty of consumer who find the fake pishori unpalatable.
“We go the extra mile to ensure only pure pishori comes from our mills and is traded here. It is now upon the relevant government agencies to shield farmers from other faked rice out there,” said Kamunde.
She said apart from weeding out fake rice, provision of adequate water by completing Thiba Dam, lowering cost of inputs would enable farmers to access cheaper fertilizer and sprays to control rice blast.
In an interview in May this year, Tai Rice Millers proprietor Edwin Kagombe expressed concern over competition from the cheap imports. He said the cheap Pakistan grain is dumped into a big store in Mwea always after every harvesting season and the is blended with the Mwea pishori rice and offered to unsuspecting consumers at a much cheaper cost.
He said the adulterated rice was affecting business and called for protection of farmers against unfair trade practices. Peter Njagi, a farmer, said rice farming is a tedious and that the government should protect farmers. https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001347120/cheap-imports-choke-town-s-sh13b-economy

Pusa 1121 fails to fetch fair prices

Posted at: Oct 30, 2019, 7:16 AM; last updated: Oct 30, 2019, 7:16 AM (IST)
Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, October 29
The Pusa 1121 variety, a major contributor to basmati exports as well as to the income of farmers, is fetching low price this time. It is being sold for Rs2,600 to Rs2,800 per quintal as compared with Rs3,300 to Rs3,700 in the corresponding period last year.
Farmers say that the Pusa 1121 variety after getting good prices last year, they cultivated the variety of 1121 on a large scale this time, but the variety made them unhappy.
Surinder Kumar, a farmer, said: “Last year, I had received a good price for the Pusa 1121 variety, prompting me to enhance the area under it. But this time, I have fetched a good price.”
Another farmer Ram Kisan echoed similar sentiments. “I had hoped that the 1121 variety would bring some respite from the financial loss I had suffered earlier. But the variety had a free fall this year, exacerbating my condition.”
Rice millers and exporters, who are bulk buyers of the 1121 variety, are hesitant to purchase it because of dip in demand and lower price offered in the international market. “Iran is a big buyer of India’s rice. But this time, Iran is not coming forward to purchase Indian basmati. Besides, low rate of the Indian rice in the international market could be the reason behind the dip in price,” said Vijay Setia, president, All-India Rice Exporters Association

Pusa 1121 fails to fetch fair prices

: Oct 30, 2019, 7:16 AM; last updated: Oct 30, 2019, 7:16 AM (IST)
Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, October 29
The Pusa 1121 variety, a major contributor to basmati exports as well as to the income of farmers, is fetching low price this time. It is being sold for Rs2,600 to Rs2,800 per quintal as compared with Rs3,300 to Rs3,700 in the corresponding period last year.
Farmers say that the Pusa 1121 variety after getting good prices last year, they cultivated the variety of 1121 on a large scale this time, but the variety made them unhappy.
Surinder Kumar, a farmer, said: “Last year, I had received a good price for the Pusa 1121 variety, prompting me to enhance the area under it. But this time, I have fetched a good price.”
Another farmer Ram Kisan echoed similar sentiments. “I had hoped that the 1121 variety would bring some respite from the financial loss I had suffered earlier. But the variety had a free fall this year, exacerbating my condition.”
Rice millers and exporters, who are bulk buyers of the 1121 variety, are hesitant to purchase it because of dip in demand and lower price offered in the international market. “Iran is a big buyer of India’s rice. But this time, Iran is not coming forward to purchase Indian basmati. Besides, low rate of the Indian rice in the international market could be the reason behind the dip in price,” said Vijay Setia, president, All-India Rice Exporters Association

ANALYSIS: Why Nigeria’s border closure may spike price of local rice

 On Oct 29, 2019
Nigeria-Seme Border Fully Closed Photo Source: Guardian Newspaper
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SINCE the Federal Government launched a border closure policy in late August, the decision has triggered mixed reactions from Nigerians, neighbouring countries and regional bodies.
Farm produce from neighbouring nations such as Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana meant for the Nigerian market rots away daily due to the government’s policy. And the cost of food items in Nigeria, particularly rice, is on a steady rise.
For instance, prior to the land border closure, a 50kg bag of rice that was sold at N13, 000, now goes for N25, 000.
After the border closure, the rigours they go through and tricks smugglers employ in bringing the so-called imported rice to Nigeria – storing it in a car bomber, fuel tank as seen here is incredible! pic.twitter.com/hRqigycBgG
— Seyi Gesinde (@GhesheS) October 19, 2019

As at 2011, Nigeria annually spent N24.5 trillion importing food items into the country. Five years after, a different report put the figure of four major imported commodities – Wheat, Rice, Sugar and Fish at $11 billion (4 trilliion). Experts have argued that Nigeria’s fertile soil places it at advantage to grow rice in over 18 states across the country, thus feeding itself with the commodity which has an annual estimated import figure of N356 billion.
For reasons partial border closure appears to be the right decision, the above figure is invariably assumed good enough to create local jobs. Rather, what we have are continued job exports through persistent food imports. Former Ministers of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and Chief Audu Ogbeh, as well as former Agriculture Minister of State, Heineken Lokpobiri, have repeatedly claimed rice and frozen foods illegally imported through the land borders lack good nutritional value compared with local varieties. They argued further that such imports keep crippling local capacity and government efforts to promote farming, especially among the youth. Ironically, more than 18 states from the 36 across the country have the potential to grow rice.
Some of the states include Kebbi, Ogun, Kaduna, Adamawa, Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Cross Rivers, Ebonyi, Benue including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to mention but few.
Most importantly, the sector has significantly enjoyed the attention of repeated administrations either in terms of funding or policy. Aside from Levy and Excise Duty-free tariff for agricultural commodities, the sector has enjoyed World Bank loans through the FADAMA projects and recent FADAMA Additional Funding I and II.  The CBN, as at April 2019 says it has so far disbursed N174.48 billion to farmers via the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP). And since the border closure, the federal government boasted to have raked in N1.4 billion and arrested 319 suspected smugglers.
But, despite these interventions and the recent land border closure, believed good enough to ensure self-sufficiency in rice production, the nation might continue to witness higher costs of rice except deliberate and sustained actions are taken in selected areas. The ICIR identifies these to include farm mechanisation, extension services, subsidy for farmers such as the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES), establishment of more rice milling centres, improved finance – single-digit interest rate; banks until lately have been recalcitrant to lending to farmers and even those who do do so at high-interest rate; addressing infrastructure deficit and awareness creation on insurance or early warning system against flooding or natural resources that could affect farm harvests.
Farm Mechanisation

Machinery and Equipment Requirement Across the Rice Value Chain.
Source: PWC 2017 Report on Boosting Rice Production through Increased Mechanisation
Statistics have shown that Nigeria’s large population is fed by subsistence farmers largely in rural communities. Majorly, 80 percent of rice grown in the country which is about 3.7 million tonnes is produced by smallholder farmers while the remaining 20 percent is cultivated by commercial farmers. Yet, local consumption of staple food stands at 6.4 million tonnes as of 2017.
Invariably, this implies an almost 50 percent deficit in local consumption. Cultivation has also been manual, usually through the use of cutlasses, hoes and other crude equipment; hence the level of production output. As such, Nigeria clearly has a high deficit in farm mechanisation, a factor threatening local rice sufficiency target.
A 2017 report from the PriceWaterCoopers (PWC) titled Boosting Rice Production through Increased Mechanisation revealed that agricultural mechanisation in the country has remained so low at 0.3hp/ha unlike 2.6hp/ha in China and 8hp/ha in India.
The report further put the estimated figure of tractors in the country at 22,000 farm machines, relative to 1 million in China and 2.5 million in India – all top rice-growing nations.
“We estimate that increasing the mechanisation rate in Nigeria from 0.3hp/ha to 0.8hp/ha in the next 5 years, can double rice production to 7.2 million tonnes. To achieve this, we estimate that Nigeria will need to at least triple its current stock of machinery over the same period,” the report says.
Extension Services
The role of extension services to farmers cannot be overemphasised. Their responsibility is mainly to enlighten farmers either as groups or through other means on better agricultural practices. Oftentimes, the extension workers are domiciled in the State and Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Rural. They go round to sensitise the farmers of the right choice of seeds, rain onset and offset to guide farmers towards better harvests.
However, the ratio of extension workers to farmers is low.
The National Agricultural Extension Research Service (NAERLS) in a report criticised the population of extension service to the farmers. As a result, a digital platform to share information across to farmers was established. But again, how many farmers are digitally literate?
Farm Subsidy
Several experts have argued that for the nation to realise its food sufficiency target, there should be a constant and strategic subsidy for farmers. Such incentive was provided to farmers during the administration of Adesina, the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The local farmers across the nation were provided with subsidised seeds and fertilisers.
The model was such that the Federal Government pays 50 per cent for the farm inputs, the State was responsible for 25 per cent while the interested but captured farmers only paid 25 per cent. Ogbeh, the immediate past agriculture minister also maintained the same argument attributing lack of subsidy to farmers as a reason for the increasing price of local rice.
“Agriculture should be subsided, but strategic subsidization at the point of providing general incentives that give enabling environment for farmers to achieve optimum production,” Prof. Oluwole Fatumbi, Lead Specialist at the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) added at recent training in Abuja.
“….only 2 per cent of Americans are farmers on the farm while 13 per cent are in value chain development, processing and financing which brings growth and reduction in the price of the commodity. So, I am not against government efforts, they are trying, but they need to channel the efforts and energy in the right direction to ensure that agriculture delivers for the larger population.”
Rice Milling Centres
Rice generates more income for farmers than any other cash crop in the country. This singular reason led to a steady increase in local production despite the poor mechanisation. For instance, in 2017, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation put the value of harvested rice paddy at 4,912,650 but mainly affected by milling capacity.
Rural farmers are mostly faced with the challenge of logistics to transport rice paddy to millers. Some would often travel kilometres to mill but local access roads are usually in bad states while corruption trails distribution of milling machines.
Though new mills are springing up via private sector involvement such as the 250 tonnes daily milling capacity Amarava Rice Mill, Kano state, local access to farm mechanisation remains abysmally low.
In July 2018, the former Agric. minister signed N10.7 billion deal on behalf of the government with MV Agro Engineers, to make available integrated rice mills for the use of local farmers. It is to be delivered in December this year. Hopefully, this promise will be fulfilled by the set date.
Single Digit Interest Rate
Except for CBN interventions with special interest on rice, farmers’ access to credit from commercial banks has been a huge challenge. This situation also extends to rice farmers which, in most cases, the commercial banks prefer to give loan more than other businesses.
Until August 2018, commercial banks gave loaned to farmers with an interest rate of about 30 per cent, an initiative  Ogbeh repeatedly described as non-sustainable.
“That the Central Bank considered working with the Bankers’ Committee to finance agriculture from the commercial banks’ huge reserves, running into billions of naira, is a cause for optimism in the agricultural sector.
“This is more so as the single-digit interest rate of nine per cent on long-term credit of a minimum tenor of seven years will support stable agricultural investment and predictable increase in food production. The multiplier effect of this initiative at a time of a restructured and recapitalised Bank of Agriculture will be a reduction in uncertainties and avoidable risks in agricultural investments where farmers will enjoy wider latitude of access to loans from either commercial banks or BOA with less hassles,” Ogbeh had stated. Yet, farmers wanted a 5 per cent rate instead of the existing 9 per cent.
Infrastructure Deficit
One of the major challenges of rural farmers is basic infrastructure such as access roads to transport agricultural products from farms to markets. This is evident in Benue State where farm produces rots away, especially during the rainy season due to lack of motorable roads. Also for rice, transporting paddy from farm to milling machine has reportedly been a huge problem – far worse during the wet season.
Awareness Creation
The Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Commission (NAIC) is an agency of government responsible for insuring farm produce against flooding and other forms of disasters, but, most farmers are unaware of its existence yet annual budgetary allocation goes to the agency. Aside, most farmers are still ignorant of how to access financial supports from the government despite huge sum disbursed since the commencement of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).
More so, information on the free import duty for agricultural machinery is not so popular among rural farmers. These, among others, are to be addressed if the nation must achieve its rice sufficiency target.
Meanwhile, Aminu Goronyo, President of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), conclusively maintained that border closure was to promote patriotism and not to enrich rice farmers.
“Before 2015 Nigeria, spent nothing less than N368 billion for rice importation but today that same money is in circulation within the country’s business community….However, the closure is not to enrich rice farmers but a devotion to the welfare of the country and commitment to compete with other nations,” he said.

CBN: Farmers reaping heavily from border closure


deploythe borders should be closed in perpetuity, but that before the borders be reopened, there must be concrete engagements with countries that are involved in using their ports and countries as landing ports for bringing in goods that are smuggled into Nigeria. "That engagement must be held so that we agree on the basis under which: what are the kinds of products that they can land in their countries because if those products they land in their countries is meant for their own local consumption, it is understandable. "But the fact that those products are landed in their countries and then transshipped or smuggled into Nigeria is something that I am sure you all agree as Nigerians we should not allow to happen because it undermines our economic policy. It undermines our own desire to make sure that industries are alive and jobs are created in Nigeria,” Emefiele said.
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emifiele, has said that farmers in the country are benefiting immensely from the closure of borders along Benin and Niger Republic.
The CBN Governor declared that Nigeria’s land borders with neighbouring countries remain closed until their leaders agree to implement mutual antismuggling policies.
Emefiele stated this yesterday after his meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Speaking to State House Correspondents after the meeting, Emefiele said the two countries still have several smuggling routes into Nigeria.
He said Nigerian rice and poultry farmers have particularly benefitted im-mensely from the border closure as they have been able to sell off accumulated produce, hitherto hindered by illegal importation and smuggling of the items into the country.
He explained that since the closure of the borders, Nigeria has seen an astronomical growth in the number of farmers who have been going into rice farming and that paddy production has gone up also quite exponentially. According to him, the situation with smuggling at the borders have been undermining Nigeria’s economy.
The apex bank boss also explained that the Federal Government has been embarking on a programme where the accounts of those involved in smuggling of goods across the country’s borders are closed.
“We are saying if you are involved in the business of smuggling or dumping of rice in the country, we close your account in the banking industry. And that is coming very effectively.
“Recently, and this is the absolute truth, about two weeks before the border closure, the chairman of the Rice Processors Association – incidentally, he owns Umza Rice in Kano – called me and said that all the rice millers and processors are having nothing less than 25,000 metric tons of milled rice in their warehouses.
“This rice has been unsold because of the smuggling and dumping of rice through Republic of Benin and other border posts that we have in the country and that he would want us to do something about it.
“Second, we also have members of the Poultry Association of Nigeria who also complained that they have thousands of crates of eggs that they could not sell; even some of the processed chickens that they could not sell, also arising from smuggling and dumping of poultry products into Nigeria.
“I was told also that after some meetings that were held in addition to those engagements that we (CBN) also held with the President, the border was closed subsequently.
“A week after the borders were closed, the same rice millers association called to tell us that all the rice that they had in their warehouses have all been sold,” he said. According to him, “Indeed, a lot of people have been depositing money in their accounts and they have even been telling them to ‘please hold on don’t even pay money yet until we finish processing your rice.’
“The poultry associations have also come to say that they have sold all their eggs, they have sold all their processed chickens and that demand is rising.” Speaking further on the benefits of the closure, Emefiele said that it has helped to create jobs for vast majority of Nigerian people.
“It has helped to bring our integrated rice milling that we have in the country back into business again and they are making money. “Our rural communities are bubbling because there are activities, as rice farmers are able to sell their paddy. The poultry business is also doing well, and also maize farmers who produce maize from which feeds are produced are also doing business. These are the benefits.
The CBN Governor insisted that the Federal Government remained resolute in keeping the borders closed until engagements are concluded with Nigeria’s neighbours to have them stop using their ports as launch pads for smuggling goods into the country. “We are not saying that deploythe borders should be closed in perpetuity, but that before the borders be reopened, there must be concrete engagements with countries that are involved in using their ports and countries as landing ports for bringing in goods that are smuggled into Nigeria.
 “That engagement must be held so that we agree on the basis under which: what are the kinds of products that they can land in their countries because if those products they land in their countries is meant for their own local consumption, it is understandable. “But the fact that those products are landed in their countries and then transshipped or smuggled into Nigeria is something that I am sure you all agree as Nigerians we should not allow to happen because it undermines our economic policy. It undermines our own desire to make sure that industries are alive and jobs are created in Nigeria,” Emefiele said.

Customs seize 32 containers of expired rice


 

Officers of the Nigeria Customs Service on Tuesday impounded 32 containers of expired rice imported through the Tincan port, Apapa in Lagos.
An official said that the rice, which had expired since 2018, were imported from China and Thailand and were about to be smuggled into the Nigerian market.
According to online news portal, PREMIUM TIMES, Hameed Ali, the Controller General of Customs, while inspecting one of the containers found some empty bags with new dates, apparently, to be used to rebag the expired rice.
The discovery comes barely a day after five containers laden with rotten fish and other edibles were discovered in one of the terminals in the Apapa area of Lagos.

Sri Lanka: Its Development and Pitfalls: Industries
October 29th, 2019

Garvin Karunaratne

I am prompted to write about what was achieved in development since Sri Lanka achieved independence because some of our presidential aspirants have said that Sri Lanka had no development from the time we got independence 71 years ago.  It is sad to note that some of our presidential aspirants happen to be that ignorant.
Industrial Development began in the early Fifties. It was a two-pronged programme with the Ministry of Industries pursuing large scale industries like Cement, Paper, etc, while the newly established Department of Rural Development and Cottage Industries established  Handloom Training Centers in rural areas with the idea of training womenfolk in handlooms. With the appointment of  Demonstrators in Handlooms, this Programme took off with many women taking to have handlooms in their homes. Instructions were also provided in traditional crafts. This activity was supervised by the Rural Development Officers and by the Divisional Secretaries. As the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla and as the Government Agent at Matara I have been in charge of  the Department of Rural Development..
This industrial activity got a shot in the arm  when the small industry functions of the Department of Rural Development and Cottage Industries were taken over by a new Department of Small Industries. I worked as a Deputy Director of Small Industries in 1970. This Department provided foreign exchange allocations to small industrialists to import any requirement for their production. At that time imports were restricted and special allocations were required to import.. This Department also imported yarn and gave it to handloomers..  The handloomers made bespoke textiles like sarees as well as elegant textiles for general sales and these were sold by Cooperatives.. The establishment of  Lak Sala, a sales outlet run by the Department of Small Industries, with branches in many cities,  gave a boost to the sale of small industrial items made by small industrialists.
This effort to create incomes in rural areas got a boost with the establishment of  Powerlooms in the Sixties by the Department of Small Industries. These powerlooms were brought down from China and installed in many rural arreas. These functioned as cooperatives, managed by the Divisional Revenue Officers and these Powerlooms were helped in all technical matters by Velona a research and technical  institute based in Moratuwa. The Power looms produced all sorts of textiles. The textiles produced were of high quality. Sri Lankans who had settled down in Britain, when they came to Sri Lanka for holidays were searching to buy suiting material made at the Hakmana Powerloom.
The Department of Small Industry had a few wood work training centers where furniture was made while also training youths to handle machinery for wood work.. Similarly there were a few ceramic centers which made porcelainware., In fact the ceramic centers produced high quality items which made me when I was Deputy Director try to embark on making cups, saucers, plates etc. This was not approved because the kilns at these centers were not firing to the required high degree  to make tableware.
In large scale industry  the Ministry of Industries pursued the establishment of many industries. A Paper Factory was imported and established at Valachchenai in Batticaloa District, It was meant to use illuk grass as a basic raw material. However as illuk ran out, our scientists did find the method of using straw as a base and in its heyday the Valachenai Paper Mill was functioning making around half the amount of paper that Sri Lanka needed. It was so successful that a second factory was established at Embilipitiya.  Both Valachenai and Embilipitiya succumbed, the first due to the insurrection by the LTTE while Embilipitiya succumbed due to mismanagement. Industries were established to make high quality bricks and tiles. In Ceramics a Ceramic Corporation was established which initially made a host of ceramicware, like toilets and wash basins. However later on this Ceramic Corporation lost ground. In the private sector Noritaki came in and established a tableware factory, producing very high quality tableware that was sold worldwide. However in this case, it functioned on a tax holiday and paid no taxes to Sri Lanka but produced elegant ceramic items using our deposits. The country benefited only from the employment the industry created. Later the Government set up a Ceramic Factory at Dankotuwa which too turned out elegant tableware.
The Government also established a number of  Textile Factories making textiles out of imported yarn. The Textile Factory established in the Sixties at Tulhiriya was hailed as a State of the Art Industry, the best  in South Asia. By the Seventies Sri Lanka was making all its textiles..
 The State Hardware Corporation made many hardware goods like knives, forks etc.
 A Tyre Factory was installed with aid from Russia.  This made  tyres for local use.
Cement was made at the Kankesanturai Factory till it was taken over by the LTTE. A few other industries were established at Paranthan which too ceased after the LTTE took over the area.
In the rural areas the Department of Small Industries was able to encourage entrepreneurs to establish small scale  industries making traditional items. Many industrialists made items which enabled the country to reduce imports. Import substitution industries were a success.
In the Seventies the Divisional Development Councils Programme(DDCP) was established to provide employment for the youth.. Many small industrial units were established  under the DDCP  which enabled employment to youths.  Of significance were the Mechanized Boatyard making 40 foot seaworthy boats, a Paper Factory at Kotmale in the Nuwara Eliya District, a Crayon Factory at Morawaka in the Matara District. In addition there were many Smithys making tools, many small units like Batic and Sewing Centers. In detail, the Boatyard was established at Matara, making 40 foot inboard motor boats. This was the first attempt to establish a cooperative industry making seaworthy boats. Till then it was a stray carpenter making a boat and that happened all over the country.  This was a great success making around thirty boats per year. The boats were sold to Fishery Cooperatives and was instrumental in increasing the fishery boat fleet.
Special mention  is due of the Crayon Factory, established at Morawaka in the Matara District. This is important because of the sophisticated nature of the manufacture as well as its success. It was begun as a protest against the decision of the Ministry of Plan Implementation not to approve import substitutions type of industry. I instructed my Planning Officer a chemistry graduate to conduct experiments to unearth the art of making Crayons. The Science Laboratory at Rahula College the leading secondary school was obtained after hours. My Planning Officer aided by some of the science teachers at the Rahula College tried to find the art of making crayons every evening from six to around mid night. Even after attending to experiments for around five hours a day for two months we never got anywhere near making a good crayon. Then the Planning Officer decided to seek the assistance of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Colombo, from which he had graduated a year earlier. The Planning Officer beseeched his lecturers and professors for three days and was turned away, telling him that they had no time. We then sat down to continue our own experiments with greater zeal and finally found the art of making crayons of high quality. 
Then the question of establishing the industry cropped up. As the Government Agent though I had a number of Departments under me I had no authority in anyone of them to establish an industry. I finally selected the most efficient Cooperative Union in the District, the Morawaka Korale Cooperative Union to finance and establish the crayon industry as a cooperative. It so happened that this Cooperative Union was headed by Sumanapala Dahanayake, the member of parliament for Deniyaya who was  efficient  and could be trusted. The Crayon Factory was established at Morawaka in three weeks’ time working day and night. The Minister of Industries Mr TB Subasinghe was surprised at the quality of the crayons and readily agreed  to open sales. In a few months Coop Crayon was sold islandwide.
Currently Sri Lanka imports almost everything. Many doubt whether we can make import substitution type of industry. Making a  Crayon is a sophisticated  task and my Planning Officer succeed in it. It is a foregone conclusion therefore  that we can make almost everything we import.
Import substitution type of industries serves to save foreign exchange. To make crayons, dyes have to be used and dyes are imported. Our Crayon industry was denied an allocation of foreign exchange to import by the Ministry of Industry because ours was a cooperative. At that time, the Import Control Department allowed allocations of foreign exchange to import crayons for sale. Sumanapala Dahanayake and I decided to meet the Controller of Imports  Harry Guneratne. It did not take long for Harry to figure out  that by giving us an allocation of foreign exchange he could stop the import of crayons, saving valuable foreign exchange. He wanted us to get the approval of the Minister of Imports, Mr Illangaratne, who readily agreed. Harry was able to stop the import of crayons and Coop Crayon was sold islandwide.
In the late Fifties and Sixties paddy production was increasing and the Government had to attend to the milling of paddy. The Government then imported a few rice mills and established them in certain areas. I was in charge of the Ambalantota Rice Mill one of the three largest rice mills established. These were state of the art rice mills. Re the Rice milling industry I was in charge of rice milling for over five years working as an Assistant Commissioner for Development of Marketing.  A few of us Assistant Commissioners were trusted more than the Rice Milling Expert from Australia. By 1970 Rice Milling was a fully developed industry in the public sector-the Department of Agrarian Services and later the Paddy Marketing Board..
In addition, the Department drafted plans and specifications to establish rice mills  and invited applications from local investors. Many people submitted  applications and were given allocations of foreign exchange to import the machinery and the entrepreneurs had to construct the buildings  according to the specifications that were laid down by the Department. In the Southern Province which I covered there were some one hundred and ninety entrepreneurs who established rice mills under my supervision. This was done very quickly  and the rice mills established were very successful in milling  paddy.  This is in contrast to President Jayawardena handing over wheat milling to Prima, a foreign company. In the case of Prima, the full profit in wheat milling goes out of the country to Singapore, while in Rice Milling the full profit comes to local millers and they pay taxes while Prima works on a tax holiday. Many rice millers became industrial magnates. Harischandras is one of them.
Long ago in the late Forties and early Fifties, Sri Lanka was making all its lorries and bus bodies. Then we imported chasis of buses and lorries and thousands of carpenters were involved at the bus depots. At Ratmalana where the South Western Bus Company had its workshop the rattling and reverting noise could be heard for an easy quarter mile. At Moratuwa the Railway Workshop made all its coaches on imported chasis. There was a state of the art workshop at Werahera, Maharagama where buses were made.  Never were any buses, rail coaches  or lorries imported.
The Marketing Department established a Cannery that enabled Sri Lanka to become self sufficient in making fruit preparations like Jam and Juice. This will be dealt with later under Agricultural Marketing
Industries were pursued to the maximum and thousands were found employment.
Even though Governments changed hands, industries continued to be concentrated on.
The death knell of industrial development came to Sri Lanka with the IMF. When the government of President Jayawardena requested the IMF for financial assistance in 1978, the IMF insisted that Sri Lanka had to follow the Structural Adjustment Programme provisions.
The policies enforced under the Structural Adjustment Programme  included the provision that the Government should not attend to any commercial undertakings. This meant that all Government commercial undertakings had to be either abolished or privatized. With this decision out went most of the industries that had been established with great care at a tremendous cost. In detail, the functions of the Small Industries Department importing yarn and having a technical support service in the Department at Velona was axed. Out went the 98,000 handloomers and the Powerlooms. The country was flooded with textiles from imports.
. The Crayon Factory that was run by the Morawaka Cooperative Union was a pain in the neck of the UNP Government. It was the best industry established by the DDCP and had to be discredited. The Government sent a Deputy Director of Cooperatives, A.T. Ariyaratne on a special mission to find fault with the Crayon Factory and to discredit the MP Sumanapala Dahanayake who established and guided it. The Deputy Director after days of fact finding had to conclude that the industry was well run and all documents were found perfect.  Once in the Eighties when I went back to see the Ambalantota Rice Mill. I could not believe my eyes. I saw the five acre land in tatters, apportioned to a few Departments strewn with parts of the rice mill machinery which we had carefully maintained. It was a sorry sight that moved me. In its heyday it provided employment for over a hundred and milled 4000 bushels of paddy a day. That was also the fate of other Rice Mills at Anuradhapura and Amparai.  In making rail coaches the Railway Workshop Industry at Moratuwa was closed down and thousands lost their jobs. Thenceforth till today all rail coaches are imported. In  making buses and coaches, the Werahera Factory was shut  down and its precious machinery was sold for a song and thousands were laid off. Henceforth busses were imported.  The Hardware Corporation was closed down and I have seen knives and other metal products imported from as far as Mexico. The Weaving and Textiles Mills were privatized. The Tulhiriya Mill, once the best in South Asia was sold to Kabool a Pakistani firm that ran it to death and decamped leaving unpaid bank loans. The Tyre Factory donated to us by Russia, was privatized and now it is managed by CEAT an Indian multinational.  Hector Perera the  Chief Chemist who was trained in Russia, who established it once told me that the  Tyre factory had the capacity to make all the tyres Sri Lanka needed. It is sad that though we produce the best rubber in the world we do not yet make all our tyres.
Following the IMF’s advice thousands were laid off, their lives were ruined and the State of the Art Machinery was neglected and left to  be ruined. The full effort of administrators and technocrats to make Sri lanka self sufficient in industrial products and find employment for thousands achieved in three decades from 1947 to 1978 was totally sacrificed..
It is a sad story of losses and imports taking their place.  Being very conversant with rice milling machinery and having handled major construction work I can figure out that the lost industries can never  be replaced even if the funds are found. 
 I happened to have played a fairly major role in the planning and execution of a part of this great programme.  In every case the machinery was built up over decades in a most painstaking manner by our administrators and engineers.. I was   an essential part of the saga of industrial development  and can assure that the industries worked efficiently. I can state emphatically and with certainty that there is no one on earth who can re establish  the lost industries.
That is unfortunately the legacy of pillage and plunder President Jayawardena’s UNP Government left for our country. For the IMF and the Superpowers it was their victory to ruin our industries so that we have to import from them, become indebted so that we become ‘colonies’ once again.  It is a burden that a country cannot bear, a burden to which we have to succumb.
A comparative assessment  can be made with India and Bangladesh. I think that in Sri Lanka we did better in industry till the IMF came on the scene in 1978. But we totally succumbed to the IMF from 1978, while Bangladesh and India did not accept the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF. The IMF tried to get hold of Bangladesh to adopt the Structural Adjustment Programme in 1986 and again in 2007 but was totally rejected by the Government. In India some provisions of the Structural Adjustment Programme have been followed in 1991, but the full provisions have not been accepted as yet. In 1976, Sri Lanka was not an indebted country. Working on the IMF’s tutelage we have run up an international debt of around $ 56 to 60 billion due to curtailing local production, sacrificing our industries and getting in imports and liberalizing the use of foreign exchange which India and Bangladesh did not do. They continued to manage their economies with low interest rates-helping entrepreneurs, creating employment for their people with import controls and national planning.
Sri lanka gave up its national planning in 1978. .  In the early 1970s before the IMF stepped into Sri Lanka our currency the Rupee was on a par with the Indian Rupee and the Bangladeshi Taka. Today after following the IMF’s prescriptions, the Sri Lankan Rupee  is devalued at Rs. 182 to the dollar while the Bagladeshi Taka is valued at  Taka 85 to the dollar and the Indian Rupee is valued at Rs. 71 to the dollar.
 It is a sad conclusion that the IMF ruined Sri lanka’s economy  with Sri Lanka’s Government under President JR Jayawardena playing poodle, as documented in my Book: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success. (Godages)
 2006.
Garvin Karunaratne, former Government Agent Matara, Ph.D. Michigan State University Author of How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development (Kindle/Godages, 2017)

FG woos investors to establish agricultural equipment assemblies
ON OCTOBER 29, 20193:03 PMIN AGRICBY LAWAL SHERIFAT
LGAs to get agric service centres soon Alhaji Sani Nanono By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja Federal Government woos investors to establish agricultural equipment assemblies in the country to boost mechanization of the agricultural sector towards greater participation in food production across various value chains. This was disclosed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Nanono, at a town hall meeting with farmers under the auspices of All Farmers Associations of Nigeria, AFAN, including other stakeholders in Kano, Kano State.
 Nanono who expressed optimism and hope over-boost the sector will experience when fully mechanized said young people would be actively involved and engaged in various activities across the value chains and that would reduce the number of unemployed youths drastically including vices. READ ALSO: African youths charged to invest in modern agriculture He said: “We need to give the Government the necessary support and cooperation to enable it to achieve success in terms of food security, job creation and increased Internally Generated Revenue, IGR. “Federal Government is attracting these companies to set up their factories in Nigeria and when they do that, it will generate more jobs. “Farmers should rise up to the challenge of meeting the expectation of government for the sector being the backbone of the nation’s economy. “The Buhari-led administration is committed to revolutionize the agricultural system with a deliberate plan to attract investors and to set up assembly plants in Nigeria
: Invest in agric, protect IP, to re-double economic growth, FUTO Alumni tells FG Meanwhile, the Minister also made it known that the government has plans to establish agricultural service centres across the 774 Local Government Areas of the country for accessibility and affordability by farmers. “Already, we are planning to establish service centers across the 774 local government areas across Nigeria where farmers can access improved seed and other farm inputs. “With the setting of the service centers equipment will be sourced and assembled in Nigeria to serve the rural and urban farmers. He said the ministry would continue to support farmers like the Rice Millers, yam, wheat, maize, and others to produce more to meet the nation’s demand.” Earlier speaking was the Chairman, Kano State Chapter, AFAN, Ahmed Mudi, in a welcome address appreciated the visit and meeting by the Minister with farmers and leadership of the association in Kano.
Mudi also said there is a need for the government’s intervention to scale up small scale activities of processors and millers by making it easier for them to perform optimally along the commodities’ value chains. He requested that the government should help in building the capacity of processors and extension service agents in the country including welfare programnmes.



ReliefWeb: "GIEWS Country Brief: Honduras 28-October-2019"
 28 Oct 2019 View Original

Description: preview FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT
·       Maize production in 2019 anticipated at below‑average level due to prolonged dry spells that affected main season crops
·       Cereal imports forecast to increase and reach high levels in 2019/20 marketing year
·       Prices of white maize below their year‑earlier levels
Maize production in 2019 anticipated at below‑average level due to prolonged dry spells that affected main season crops
Harvesting of the 2019 main season maize crop was completed in September and production is officially estimated at a below‑average level due to prolonged dry weather conditions in the June‑August period (see ASI map). In comparison to the long‑term average (1989‑2018), the rainfall amounts during this period were more than 25 percent lower than the average in several maize producing departments. According to the Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria (DICTA), the crops in Francisco Morazán, Olancho and El Paraíso departments were severely affected by rainfall deficits, even those under irrigation. A large number of livestock died due to forage and water deficits in Olancho Department.
In order to minimize the impact of dryness on the livelihoods of the affected households, the Government is distributing fertilizers and seeds of maize, beans or rice for the ongoing “postrera” season. As part of a short‑term response plan, the Government envisions to build rainwater harvesting systems and wells to facilitate imports to meet the domestic demand and to increase financing for irrigation systems.
Rainfall amounts increased since mid‑September, reducing soil moisture deficits and easing planting operations of the 2019 minor season maize crop, to be harvested in December. Given the low probability of occurrence of an El Niño phenomenon during the last quarter of 2019, production of the minor maize crop is likely to be at average level. Overall, the aggregate maize crop in 2019 is anticipated at a below‑average level of 470 000 tonnes, due to the low outputs gathered in the main season harvest, which accounts for about 80 percent of the annual production.
Cereal imports forecast to increase and reach high levels in 2019/20 marketing year
Cereal import requirements in the 2019/20 marketing year (September/August) are forecast at a well above-average level of 1.1 million tonnes due to the reduced maize output. Imports have been increasing steadily since 2016 due to the growing demand for wheat and rice, which the country is largely dependent on imports to satisfy its domestic consumption needs, due to population growth and the increasing demand for yellow maize for feed use.
Prices of white maize below year-earlier levels
Domestic prices of white maize increased from the beginning of 2019 to September when their started to decline with the commercialization of supplies from the main season harvests. They were below their levels a year earlier, which were significantly elevated as high fuel costs in 2018 contributed to substantial increases in production and transportation costs. Prices of red beans have been the rise since May 2019, following seasonal trends. In September 2019, they were higher than a year earlier, reflecting reduced minor season outputs, harvested in September.

Singapore’s Wilmar Myanmar will build largest rice mill in Thilawa SEZ
 29 OCTOBER 2019
SHUN LE WIN
Description: A new flour mill and consumer pack edible oil processing plant in Thilawa Special Economic Zone. A new flour mill and consumer pack edible oil processing plant in Thilawa Special Economic Zone.
YANGON- Wilmar Myanmar which is a subsidiary of Singapore-listed Wilmar International, one of the largest agribusinesses in Asia, will be building the largest rice mill in Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ), according to the reports.The mill will produce till 1,200 tons of rice per day.
The Wilmar Myanmar opened a new flour mill and consumer pack edible oil processing plant in Thilawa SEZ, Yangon, on October 27th.
The mill will be producing 530 tons of wheat per day, while the processing plant will have the capacity to produce 460 tons of edible oil per day.
The stake driving ceremony to build the largest rice mill in Thilawa SEZ was held in conjunction with the opening ceremony of a new flour mill and consumer pack edible oil processing plant in Thilawa SEZ, Yangon, on October 27th.
Upon completion of rice mill, rice bags will be exported to the foreign countries via Thilawa jetty.
“Myanmar is the second largest land wide country among the South-east Asia. Moreover, it riches good soil and more rainfalls and there are 54 million peoples. I believed that Myanmar owned the prosperity of business and agriculture sectors. So, it can create not only local agricultural imports and local and foreign markets,” said Kuok Khoon Hong, CEO of Wilmar International Limited.
The Wilmar Myanmar had opened the Wilmar Jetty on March 25th, 2018.
Myanmar Investment Commission granted Wilmar Company to operate Wilmar Myanmar Port Terminals (Thilawa) under a 50-year build, operate and transfer agreement with the government.
The jetty has totaling 234-meter length and 25 meters breadth. Moreover, plans are underway to extend the jetty construction having 390 meters long and 13 meters depth of water.
It is the 3rd general commodity jetty and construction was started in February, 2016 and completed by the end of November 2017.

Rice Prices

as on : 29-10-2019 08:20:49 PM

Arrivals in tonnes;prices in Rs/quintal in domestic market.
Arrivals
Price
Current
%
change
Season
cumulative
Modal
Prev.
Modal
Prev.Yr
%change
Rice
Manjeri(Ker)
290.00
NC
8700.00
3500
3500
NC
Siliguri(WB)
275.00
17.02
8288.00
3800
3800
-
Dhing(ASM)
142.00
1.43
2488.00
2770
2700
5.73
Burdwan(WB)
102.00
-5.56
1036.00
2350
2250
2.17
Katwa(WB)
83.00
-7.16
1086.97
2350
2350
-
Guskara(Burdwan)(WB)
79.00
-4.82
1414.00
2350
2300
NC
Kalna(WB)
64.50
4.88
1249.50
2950
2950
-1.67
Pandua(WB)
45.00
25
1596.00
3000
3000
NC
Howly(ASM)
44.00
-57.69
463.00
1700
1650
21.43
Naugarh(UP)
42.50
2.41
2489.50
2490
2480
10.67
Cachar(ASM)
40.00
NC
2820.00
2400
2400
NC
Karimganj(ASM)
40.00
100
660.00
2450
2450
-
Jorhat(ASM)
27.50
-77.08
1647.50
3400
3400
6.25
Karsiyang(Matigara)(WB)
27.50
4.96
760.60
3400
3400
13.33
Etawah(UP)
27.00
-16.92
1060.00
2570
2550
4.90
Samsi(WB)
23.00
4.55
235.00
3250
3400
-4.41
Asansol(WB)
21.00
13.51
1934.70
3000
3000
3.45
Durgapur(WB)
21.00
10.53
1347.60
2720
2720
-3.72
Nalbari(ASM)
20.00
-31.03
423.90
2500
2550
NC
Purulia(WB)
18.00
50
174.00
2620
2640
NC
Karvi(UP)
15.00
42.86
385.50
2340
2380
4.93
Vilthararoad(UP)
10.00
NC
701.00
2150
2150
NC
Hailakandi(ASM)
7.00
NC
90.00
2450
2400
2.08
Dibrugarh(ASM)
6.00
-45.45
254.20
3100
3100
6.16
Nadia(WB)
6.00
-25
386.00
3800
3800
-5.00
Ruperdeeha(UP)
5.00
-16.67
333.00
2250
2250
40.63
Melaghar(Tri)
3.00
50
40.00
2800
2800
3.70
Bishalgarh(Tri)
2.50
NC
10.00
3400
3400
3.03
Imphal(Man)
2.30
-4.17
35.80
4900
4700
-
Khatra(WB)
2.00
-33.33
565.40
2650
2650
3.92
Nandyal(AP)
1.00
NC
30.00
3800
3900
-
Jambusar(Kaavi)(Guj)
1.00
NC
87.00
3000
3000
-
Lamlong Bazaar(Man)
1.00
NC
19.60
4800
4800
-
Achalda(UP)
0.60
NC
22.10
2600
2600
36.84
Bishenpur(Man)
0.60
NC
15.30
4700
4400
-
on October 29, 2019

NFA revises palay buying operations

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 03:34 AM October 29, 2019
MANILA, Philippines — The National Food Authority (NFA) has recalibrated its operations to be “more responsive and effective” under the rice tarification law as the policy’s adverse effects continue to outweigh the promised benefits.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the move was approved by the NFA’s policy-making body, which includes representatives from the Department of Finance, Department of Trade and Industry, and National Economic and Development Authority.
Changes included an increase in NFA’s palay procurement target by 193 percent to 1.14 million metric tons (MT) from 390,000 MT.
The huge spike was made to ensure the NFA would still meet the 15-day buffer stock set by the new rice policy, given that it is now going to supply P600 worth of rice to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program every month.
The NFA has also put up additional 247 palay buying stations all over the country, bringing the total to 558 from 311. —Karl R. Ocampo

HOW TO YIELD BIG FROM RICE FARMING


By Alex Wachira
Farmers at rice farms in Mwea. It takes rice plants four to five months to grow to maturity.
Description: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/images/tuesday/pwnaboh76ql1jw5db7c8678a4e9.jpgRice is considered Kenya’s third staple food after maize and wheat.
It is actually the seed of a grass species that is an annual plant
To add value to rice it is milled into rice flour.
Raw rice is dried before milling or grounding to make flour which can be used to make pancakes, noodles, thicken soups and stews and as an alternative to wheat flour in cakes and biscuits.
Planting
It takes rice plants four to five months to grow to maturity.
Popular varieties include Basmati, Pishori and aromatic.
There are plenty of rice varieties and they are grown differently as stated by farmlinkkenya.com include
Irrigated varieties: Sindano, Basmati 370, Basmat 217, BW 196, BG-90-2, BR 51-74-6 and IR 2793-80-1, ITA 310
Low land rain fed: Ci Cong Ai, WABIS-675, Jasmine-85, TGR-78
Rain-fed upland: NARIKA 1, NARIKA 4, NARIKA 10, NARIKA 11, TRG-94, Nam Roo, Deurado precoce, WAB 181-18
Majority of the rice in Kenya is grown under irrigation in paddy schemes.
Ecological conditions required for rice growing consist of annual rainfall of 800 to 2,000mm, the temperature of 20 to 36 degrees Celsius.
Rice thrives best in sandy loam to clay soils with a soil PH of 4.5 to 7.0
The land is ploughed about two weeks before sowing and flooding and a raised bed prepared.
Land preparation is carried out by flooding the fields to a depth of 10 cm, 15 days before direct sowing and transplanting seedlings.
Planting should be before the onset of long rains for rainfed rice. 
Farm practices carried out to maintain rice on the fields include weeding manually by hand or by using herbicides and crop rotation with legumes such as soybeans and green grams to boost soil fertility.
Pests and diseases
Common diseases known to attack rice as noted by informationcradle.com include blast, rice yellow mottle virus, damping off, bacterial leaf blight, sheath blight, sheath rot and brown leaf spot.
Rice pests include stem borers, leaf miners, root cutting insects, white rice borer, birds, stalk-eyed fly, rice sucking bugs, rice root knot nematode and rice leafhopper.
The pests and diseases are controlled by use of appropriate insecticides, cultural methods, planting healthy seeds, crop rotation, observing field hygiene and through biological control.
Harvesting
Rice is harvested between four to six months after planting. It is cut, swathed, threshed, winnowed, dried and stored.
Drying is done to around 12 percent to 14 percent moisture content before storage.

Position GRIB to drive industry change

Tuesday 29th October, 2019


Description: Position GRIB
By Sumaiya Salifu Saeed, GNA
Ho, Oct. 29, GNA - Nana Adjei Ayeh II, President of the Ghana Rice Inter-Pofessional Body (GRIB) has called on farmers and value chain actors in rice production to position themselves to help drive change in the industry.
He said rice as a second staple lacked the needed attention for large-scale production as other staples grown in the country.
Nana Ayeh who was speaking at the launch of rice value chain platform and inauguration of regional and district executives of the Body said averagely the country spent about $1.5 billion annually on rice importation, a situation rice farmers could turn around with the needed support.
He noted that rice importation was crippling the nation's economy and called on government to support the local rice industry to help build wealth in the country.
Nana Ayeh said the election of regional and district executives would help drive the accelerated growth and generate the needed pressure to turn around the fortunes of farmers and value chain actors in the industry.
He bemoaned how the Body "did not have the numbers to make an impact” as accurate data on rice farmers and value-chain actors were unavailable.
Nana Ayeh applauded the John Agyekum Kuffour Foundation (JAKF) and the Alliance for Green Revolution Africa (AGRA) for supporting GRIB to collect data on the farmers and stakeholders nationwide as well as assist them to restructure the Body.
Mr Gideon Hosu-Porbley, Programme  Advisor, JAKF, said the Foundation had worked in other African countries to help rice farmers streamline their production and same would be replicated here.
He called for concerted effort in ensuring that management at both the national and sub-national levels were beneficial to members of the Body.
Mr Anthony Yaw Anyidoho, Volta Regional Chairman, said rice farmers were faced with post-harvest losses due to lack of drying floors and silos which helps improve rice quality and price.
He appealed to the government to provide rice farming districts with machinery especially as the commodity lodges into the soil due to lack of combine-harvesters which becomes problematic for production.
Ghana produces 750,000 metric tons of paddy rice annually out of which 60 per cent is recovered.

ANALYSIS: Why Nigeria’s border closure may spike price of local rice

 On Oct 29, 2019
Nigeria-Seme Border Fully Closed Photo Source: Guardian Newspaper
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SINCE the Federal Government launched a border closure policy in late August, the decision has triggered mixed reactions from Nigerians, neighbouring countries and regional bodies.
Farm produce from neighbouring nations such as Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana meant for the Nigerian market rots away daily due to the government’s policy. And the cost of food items in Nigeria, particularly rice, is on a steady rise.
For instance, prior to the land border closure, a 50kg bag of rice that was sold at N13, 000, now goes for N25, 000.
After the border closure, the rigours they go through and tricks smugglers employ in bringing the so-called imported rice to Nigeria – storing it in a car bomber, fuel tank as seen here is incredible! pic.twitter.com/hRqigycBgG
— Seyi Gesinde (@GhesheS) October 19, 2019

As at 2011, Nigeria annually spent N24.5 trillion importing food items into the country. Five years after, a different report put the figure of four major imported commodities – Wheat, Rice, Sugar and Fish at $11 billion (4 trilliion). Experts have argued that Nigeria’s fertile soil places it at advantage to grow rice in over 18 states across the country, thus feeding itself with the commodity which has an annual estimated import figure of N356 billion.
For reasons partial border closure appears to be the right decision, the above figure is invariably assumed good enough to create local jobs. Rather, what we have are continued job exports through persistent food imports. Former Ministers of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and Chief Audu Ogbeh, as well as former Agriculture Minister of State, Heineken Lokpobiri, have repeatedly claimed rice and frozen foods illegally imported through the land borders lack good nutritional value compared with local varieties. They argued further that such imports keep crippling local capacity and government efforts to promote farming, especially among the youth. Ironically, more than 18 states from the 36 across the country have the potential to grow rice.
Some of the states include Kebbi, Ogun, Kaduna, Adamawa, Sokoto, Kano, Katsina, Cross Rivers, Ebonyi, Benue including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to mention but few.
Most importantly, the sector has significantly enjoyed the attention of repeated administrations either in terms of funding or policy. Aside from Levy and Excise Duty-free tariff for agricultural commodities, the sector has enjoyed World Bank loans through the FADAMA projects and recent FADAMA Additional Funding I and II.  The CBN, as at April 2019 says it has so far disbursed N174.48 billion to farmers via the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP). And since the border closure, the federal government boasted to have raked in N1.4 billion and arrested 319 suspected smugglers.
But, despite these interventions and the recent land border closure, believed good enough to ensure self-sufficiency in rice production, the nation might continue to witness higher costs of rice except deliberate and sustained actions are taken in selected areas. The ICIR identifies these to include farm mechanisation, extension services, subsidy for farmers such as the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES), establishment of more rice milling centres, improved finance – single-digit interest rate; banks until lately have been recalcitrant to lending to farmers and even those who do do so at high-interest rate; addressing infrastructure deficit and awareness creation on insurance or early warning system against flooding or natural resources that could affect farm harvests.
Farm Mechanisation 
Machinery and Equipment Requirement Across the Rice Value Chain.
Source: PWC 2017 Report on Boosting Rice Production through Increased Mechanisation
Statistics have shown that Nigeria’s large population is fed by subsistence farmers largely in rural communities. Majorly, 80 percent of rice grown in the country which is about 3.7 million tonnes is produced by smallholder farmers while the remaining 20 percent is cultivated by commercial farmers. Yet, local consumption of staple food stands at 6.4 million tonnes as of 2017.
Invariably, this implies an almost 50 percent deficit in local consumption. Cultivation has also been manual, usually through the use of cutlasses, hoes and other crude equipment; hence the level of production output. As such, Nigeria clearly has a high deficit in farm mechanisation, a factor threatening local rice sufficiency target.
A 2017 report from the PriceWaterCoopers (PWC) titled Boosting Rice Production through Increased Mechanisation revealed that agricultural mechanisation in the country has remained so low at 0.3hp/ha unlike 2.6hp/ha in China and 8hp/ha in India.
The report further put the estimated figure of tractors in the country at 22,000 farm machines, relative to 1 million in China and 2.5 million in India – all top rice-growing nations.
“We estimate that increasing the mechanisation rate in Nigeria from 0.3hp/ha to 0.8hp/ha in the next 5 years, can double rice production to 7.2 million tonnes. To achieve this, we estimate that Nigeria will need to at least triple its current stock of machinery over the same period,” the report says.
Extension Services
The role of extension services to farmers cannot be overemphasised. Their responsibility is mainly to enlighten farmers either as groups or through other means on better agricultural practices. Oftentimes, the extension workers are domiciled in the State and Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Rural. They go round to sensitise the farmers of the right choice of seeds, rain onset and offset to guide farmers towards better harvests.
However, the ratio of extension workers to farmers is low.The National Agricultural Extension Research Service (NAERLS) in a report criticised the population of extension service to the farmers. As a result, a digital platform to share information across to farmers was established. But again, how many farmers are digitally literate?
Farm Subsidy
Several experts have argued that for the nation to realise its food sufficiency target, there should be a constant and strategic subsidy for farmers. Such incentive was provided to farmers during the administration of Adesina, the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The local farmers across the nation were provided with subsidised seeds and fertilisers.
The model was such that the Federal Government pays 50 per cent for the farm inputs, the State was responsible for 25 per cent while the interested but captured farmers only paid 25 per cent. Ogbeh, the immediate past agriculture minister also maintained the same argument attributing lack of subsidy to farmers as a reason for the increasing price of local rice.
“Agriculture should be subsided, but strategic subsidization at the point of providing general incentives that give enabling environment for farmers to achieve optimum production,” Prof. Oluwole Fatumbi, Lead Specialist at the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) added at recent training in Abuja.
“….only 2 per cent of Americans are farmers on the farm while 13 per cent are in value chain development, processing and financing which brings growth and reduction in the price of the commodity. So, I am not against government efforts, they are trying, but they need to channel the efforts and energy in the right direction to ensure that agriculture delivers for the larger population.”
Rice Milling Centres
Rice generates more income for farmers than any other cash crop in the country. This singular reason led to a steady increase in local production despite the poor mechanisation. For instance, in 2017, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation put the value of harvested rice paddy at 4,912,650 but mainly affected by milling capacity.
Rural farmers are mostly faced with the challenge of logistics to transport rice paddy to millers. Some would often travel kilometres to mill but local access roads are usually in bad states while corruption trails distribution of milling machines.
Though new mills are springing up via private sector involvement such as the 250 tonnes daily milling capacity Amarava Rice Mill, Kano state, local access to farm mechanisation remains abysmally low.
In July 2018, the former Agric. minister signed N10.7 billion deal on behalf of the government with MV Agro Engineers, to make available integrated rice mills for the use of local farmers. It is to be delivered in December this year. Hopefully, this promise will be fulfilled by the set date.
Single Digit Interest Rate
Except for CBN interventions with special interest on rice, farmers’ access to credit from commercial banks has been a huge challenge. This situation also extends to rice farmers which, in most cases, the commercial banks prefer to give loan more than other businesses.
Until August 2018, commercial banks gave loaned to farmers with an interest rate of about 30 per cent, an initiative  Ogbeh repeatedly described as non-sustainable.
“That the Central Bank considered working with the Bankers’ Committee to finance agriculture from the commercial banks’ huge reserves, running into billions of naira, is a cause for optimism in the agricultural sector.
“This is more so as the single-digit interest rate of nine per cent on long-term credit of a minimum tenor of seven years will support stable agricultural investment and predictable increase in food production. The multiplier effect of this initiative at a time of a restructured and recapitalised Bank of Agriculture will be a reduction in uncertainties and avoidable risks in agricultural investments where farmers will enjoy wider latitude of access to loans from either commercial banks or BOA with less hassles,” Ogbeh had stated. Yet, farmers wanted a 5 per cent rate instead of the existing 9 per cent.
Infrastructure Deficit
One of the major challenges of rural farmers is basic infrastructure such as access roads to transport agricultural products from farms to markets. This is evident in Benue State where farm produces rots away, especially during the rainy season due to lack of motorable roads. Also for rice, transporting paddy from farm to milling machine has reportedly been a huge problem – far worse during the wet season.
Awareness Creation
The Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Commission (NAIC) is an agency of government responsible for insuring farm produce against flooding and other forms of disasters, but, most farmers are unaware of its existence yet annual budgetary allocation goes to the agency. Aside, most farmers are still ignorant of how to access financial supports from the government despite huge sum disbursed since the commencement of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).
More so, information on the free import duty for agricultural machinery is not so popular among rural farmers. These, among others, are to be addressed if the nation must achieve its rice sufficiency target.
Meanwhile, Aminu Goronyo, President of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), conclusively maintained that border closure was to promote patriotism and not to enrich rice farmers.
“Before 2015 Nigeria, spent nothing less than N368 billion for rice importation but today that same money is in circulation within the country’s business community….However, the closure is not to enrich rice farmers but a devotion to the welfare of the country and commitment to compete with other nations,” he said.

Difficult Weather Leads To Tough 2019 Planting Season For Arkansas Farmers

Description: https://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/kuar/files/styles/large/public/201705/2017-05-04-ArkFarmBureau.jpg
Flooding along some of Arkansas's river valleys added to an already difficult planting season this year.
CREDIT ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU / TWITTER
Irregular weather patterns this past year both harmed and aided Arkansas farmers in their planting and harvesting. 
Large amounts of rain significantly delayed planting for all Arkansas crops, including rice, corn and soybeans. Jarrod Hardke, rice extension agronomist for the University of Arkansas’s Rice Research and Extension Center, said this year’s rice planting process was the slowest in 25 years.
"Unfortunately, the running joke through a large portion of 2019 was, 'Well, in September of 2018, it started raining and then it just never stopped,'" Hardke said.  According to Hardke, the rainy and cold weather throughout the winter stopped farmers from preparing the land for planting, pushing the planting itself back even further. 
"So even when we did get a day or two of sort of dry ground, when it dried up just enough for the next rain, it really wasn’t much planting opportunity," Hardke said. "It was to do some actual tillage to get it ready so when another dry window comes around, maybe we can finally plant something."
Usually, for rice planting, Hardke says farmers try to complete as much planting as they can by late March through April. For this year, it took until May to reach 50% planting. Normally, 50% is reached by mid-April, meaning farmers were weeks behind. They also had to delay the planting of other crops as well, with the rainy conditions causing some crops to be replanted.
"So we had a lot of corn planted again, well on into May, [that were] planted for the first time were replanted. And a lot of our soybeans that we’ve learned that we can achieve better yields…planting earlier, we’re pushing pretty far back, planting a lot of soybeans into June and even July," Hardke said.
The situation was even worse for farmers that dealt with record-breaking flooding along the Arkansas River and other river valleys this past spring. This led to farmers turning in their policies for a record amount of prevented planting insurance, which according to the United States Department of Agriculture, farmers can receive if they are “prevented from planting by an insured cause of loss that is general to the surrounding area and that prevents other producers from planting acreage with similar characteristics.” According to Hardke, this was a record breaking year for that, at least in the case of rice, with over 500,000 acres of rice prevented planted that couldn’t go in the ground at all.
"Which means that that ground stayed too wet and or completely flooded, submerged until the end of May, which is when you hit the prevent planted period," Hardke said. 
Greg James produces rice, corn and soybeans in northeast Arkansas, overseeing 6,400 acres. He described this year as "very trying."
"Planting was delayed considerably with just a tremendous amount of wet weather this spring, to the point where we probably prevent planted as many acres as we ever have in my career of farming on this farm," James said. He says his proximity to the Cache River is the biggest reason why he normally purchases prevented planning.
While the continuous rain hindered the planting season, the unusually late and hot summer that happened from late August through September helped the crops that were planted on a greater scale than anticipated.
"Having that late heat come on, we made a lot more yield off of some of those later crops planted than we ever would have imagined at that time, because we got that late heat," Hardke said. These higher than expected yields was the main piece of good news for Arkansas farmers.
"Despite the difficulty of the year, yields were pretty good for growers. So that they’ve largely been pretty happy with what they were able to produce and grow this year. But that doesn’t replace how much we didn’t make because so many acres were left out," Hardke said.
For James, despite the difficult planting season, he had better yields than expected.
"Quite honestly, in lieu of late planting, we had the best corn crop average yield that we’ve ever had and our rice was not terribly off," James said. He also said the warmer late summer "saved him" on his planted rice crop.
"With planting dates as late as they were, one would think you would have a below average yield, and quite honestly we’ve had an average yield and the soybeans that we have harvested have been average to slightly above average," James said. Though the impact of this year’s planting and harvesting season will not be seen overnight, Hardke does expect prices of these crops to eventually increase for the consumer.
"There’s been a gradual uptick in prices here lately and as this cycles, the commodity prices should continue to increase and that’s going to get passed on ultimately to the store shelves for all the various products that rice, soybeans and corn are used in," Hardke said.
Though he had a better harvest than expected, James says he does not want to experience a year like this again.
"This is the year that we’ve all joked about we were all excited to get through with. And we’re not completely finished, but very close and it’s definitely turned out less disastrous than we feared," James said.

'Overzealous' Regulation of GM Crops Costs Children's Lives Worldwide, Says New Book

DAVID NIELD
30 OCT 2019
Government red tape and vocal opposition to a genetically modified strain of rice has led to millions of unnecessary deaths and blindness in impoverished children, according to science writer Ed Regis, who details the plight of Golden Rice in a new book.
Golden Rice was genetically engineered to include beta-carotene, a chemical that our bodies can use to produce vitamin A. Deficiency in this vitamin is a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness worldwide, with up to 500,000 children becoming blind every year.
Lacking vitamin A can increase the risk of death from childhood illnesses and infections, too. The problem is prevalent in more than half of all the world's countries, especially in Africa and South-East Asia, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
While supplements can go a long way in dealing with this harrowing problem, the WHO notes that food fortification is one method for addressing the issue in the long term. And Golden Rice was developed with exactly this in mind.
But although the yellow-coloured rice has been around since the start of the century, it has yet to find its way to the people who need it the most in Asia – and in his new book, Golden Rice: The Imperiled Birth of a GMO Superfood, Regis claims that over-cautious authorities are primarily to blame.
Greenpeace has been particularly vocal about opposing the introduction of Golden Rice, and genetically modified (GM) crops in general. The organisation has claimed that commercial interests are behind the promotion of the rice, that it hasn't been proven to boost vitamin A levels (although trials seem to indicate otherwise), and that it distracts from other attempts to end child poverty.
While there's plenty of research controversy still surrounding Golden Rice, the main problem that's hampered the crop, according to Regis, is the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. This international treaty, established in 2003, makes it very hard for GM crops to be introduced worldwide, assuming that these foods are dangerous until proven safe, rather than the other way around.
"Such regulations exist because of irrational fears of GMOs, ignorance of the science involved, and overzealous adherence to the precautionary principle," says Regis.
While we can all agree that health should always be a priority, Regis argues that the potentially life-saving effects of Golden Rice – we're talking about some 670,000 lives a year – is worth relaxing the 'better safe than sorry' approach just a little.
"In Bangladesh, China, India and elsewhere in Asia, many children subsist on a few bowls of rice a day and almost nothing else," writes Regis in his book. "For them, a daily supply of Golden Rice could now bring the gift of life and sight."
It's a debate that's been raging for years: in 2016, more than 100 Nobel Laureates signed a petition condemning the blocking of GM products such as Golden Rice, pointing out that there has never been a single recorded negative health outcome for humans or animals as a result of genetically modified organisms.
In 2018, a review of more than 6,000 studies came to the conclusion that GMOs lead to increased crop yields and significant health benefits. It's a compelling piece of evidence that indicates foods like Golden Rice deserve a chance to be cultivated - to potentially improve diets in impoverished parts of the world.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel. Golden Rice is currently only approved in four countries – Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Canada – but it's hoped that it will get the green light in Bangladesh and the Philippines before the end of the year, where it is far more urgently needed.
As the rice actually ends up in people's bowls, it's possible it will have the positive effects the developers hoped for. In that case, some of the stigma around GM foods – and the regulatory restrictions that slow down their wider use – may fall away.
But according to Ed Regis, there's no doubt that what we've seen so far has been a tragedy.
"The effects of withholding, delaying or retarding Golden Rice development through overcautious regulation has imposed unconscionable costs in terms of years of sight and lives lost," concludes Regis.
Rice production up 40pc in 7 years
Wednesday October 30 2019
 In Summary
           Farmers have experienced an average of 40 per cent increase of yields (3.2 tonnes per hectare to 4.5 tonnes per hectare) after adopting new techniques
By The Citizen Reporter @TheCitizenTZ news@tz.nationmedia.com
Dar es Salaam. Over 25,000 rice farmers in Tanzania have improved yields by nearly 40 per cent following a farming training provided by the ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) over the last seven years.
The statement issued by Jica Tanzania said the training was offered through the “Project for Supporting Rice Industry Development in Tanzania (TANRICE2)”, which started in 2012.  In irrigation, farmers have experienced an average of 40 per cent increase of yields (3.2 tonnes per hectare to 4.5 tonnes per hectare) after adopting techniques from the training.
The statement said the series of rice farming training programmes by TANRICE2 has reached to extension officers and farmers in both irrigated and rain-fed conditions throughout the country (90 irrigation schemes and 77 rain-fed areas).
“Through such programmes, farmers have learned many lessons such as irrigation scheme management, gender, marketing and agricultural machinery,” said a statement.
“The project has scored many achievements including the dramatic increase of the adoption of improved rice farming techniques, such as the adoption of the straight row planting from 3.5 per cent to 62.0 per cent,”
It also improved the use of improved rice variety from 2.5 per cent to 59.3 per cent, and application of fertilizer from 19.0 per cent to 56.3 per cent in rain-fed lowland rice cultivation before and after the project, respectively.
On October 30, 2019, the project’s Steering Committee meeting will be held to review the last seven years’ outputs of TANRICE2 at the Kilimanjaro Agricultural Training Centre (KATC) in Moshi.
Implementers of rice farming training programmes will present the progress of the project