Thursday, November 07, 2019

6th November 2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter


6th November 2019
Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter
Un-Edited Version
Bureau of Customs launches tracking system for parcels
The Parcel and Balikbayan Box Tracking System provides updates about the parcel or balikbayan box as it goes through the different stages of customs clearance.





The Philippines’ Bureau of Customs (BOC) recently launched the Parcel and Balikbayan Box Tracking System (PBTS) as part of the Bureau’s drive to promote transparency and ease of doing business.
According to a recent press release, the Parcel and Balikbayan Box Tracking System aims to render a more efficient means of tracking parcels and balikbayan boxes.
The Parcel and Balikbayan Box Tracking System
The tracker can be accessed via the Bureau’s website. The system is capable of providing updates about the parcel or balikbayan box as it goes through the different stages of customs clearance.
This will reportedly enable Filipinos to check on the status of parcels and balikbayan boxes sent to them by their families and friends abroad.
This also allows the Bureau to monitor the efficiency of BOC officials and personnel.
The system will aim to lessen instances of scams being perpetrated by unscrupulous individuals. At the same time, claimants can verify the status of parcels and packages being processed by Customs.
During his opening remarks at the launch, BOC Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip C. Maronilla explained the timeliness of the launch as the Christmas season draws closer.
Several Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are expected to send balikbayan boxes and packages to their loved ones in the Philippines during this time.
BOC Commissioner Rey Guerrero formally closed the event after conducting a live demonstration of the system.
The Commissioner explained during this time that the success of the system relies on the support of the various stakeholders of the Bureau.
In addition, he also reminded the public to be cautious in sending their packages and parcels.
OFWs and claimants are advised to support only legitimate and accredited forwarders in order to avoid the possibility of being scammed by fly-by-night operators.
Additional information
As reported, Customs is required to do the following under the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) signed by former President Benigno Aquino III:
1.     Make an innovative processing of shipments
2.     Streamline export and import procedures
3.     Simplify the process of seizure and disposition of illegal goods
According to the Bureau’s Statistical Analysis Division (SAD), their collection in September 2019 was PHP 7 billion (US$ 138.7 million) higher than the PHP 52.42 billion (US$ 1.038 billion) collected in the same period last year.
The growth in revenue was traced to the increase in the volume of importation, higher collection as a result of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, Rice Tariffication Law, and the National Food Authority tax expenditure collection.
The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) under the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program seeks to correct a number of deficiencies in the tax system to make it simpler, fairer, and more efficient.
The Rice Tariffication Law essentially allows for the liberalisation of rice imports and will remove the previously placed quota on rice imports, permitting traders to import a near-unlimited quantity of rice.

Dangote Group to begin rice export soon 

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Description: Dangote Group to begin rice export soon Knut Ulvmoen
Nigeria’s rice importation woes may soon come to an end following the decision of Dangote Group to go into production of rice.
This decision was made public by Dangote Group’s Supply Chain Director, Knut Ulvmoen, at the 33rd edition of the Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF).
Existing capacity: Dangote Group boasts of 150,000 hectares of land dedicated to growing rice in Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, and Zamfara States and 10 rice mills in several parts of the country. All of these are expected to help the Group achieve production of one million tonnes of rice yearly.
Ulvmoen noted that the group used to be the best in the business before it shifted focus to other things like cement, sugar and flour. Ulvmoen noted that even after the company stopped importing rice for sale, its product was still in high demand.
“So what do we do? We are entering into rice farming and processing and targeting a million tons output annually.  
“We are already active in the farms. We have already got some paddy rice in some silos. We are also challenging others to do what we are setting out to do in order to make rice an exportable product in Nigeria,” he said.
The  Group’s Supply Chain Director added that they were also interested in boosting the production of sugar, fertilizer and petroleum products in Nigeria.
Regarding fertilizer products, Ulvmoen noted that the group wanted to stop importing fertilizers but was also interested in exporting it to the world. He also noted that more products would be churned out to the public.
“The urea production is the starting point. Additional products will come out. We are aiming to have all the different fertilizer products like NPK etc. that are needed to improve the yields for the farmers.  
“Nigeria is today importing fertilizer. But we do not want only to be importing. We want to be self-sufficient and move on to massive exportation of fertilizer,” Ulvmoen said.
A rice mill
In the area of petroleum products, Ulvmoen said that the Dangote refinery would produce a variety of crude oil forms and climate-friendly fuels for different purposes – aviation, transport and personal uses. He added that the refinery would process 650,000 barrels of crude daily and hinted at gas pipelines being laid from Port Harcourt to Lekki, to ensure optimal movement of refined goods.
What is very important in Nigeria is gas. There is so much gas in the oil field that is still burnt. But this gas is very important for the production of energy in the country. And we want to make sure that there is gas in the pipeline. Nigeria needs to utilize all-natural resources especially oil and gas. 
“We have our sugar refinery in Apapa with capacity for 1.4 million tons annually. But we also want to reduce the importation of raw sugar. So, we are improving our plantation for sugar cane. We want Nigeria to be as independent as possible from sugar import.”

Blockchain adds trust to rice trading platform

Kathy Gibson is at Fujitsu Forum in Munich – Fujitsu and Rice Exchange have debuted the world’s first global blockchain-based rice trading platform, offering new levels of security, transparency, efficiency, traceability and trust to the $450-billion global rice market.
Ricex is the first digital platform designed for buying and selling rice, one of the world’s largest agricultural commodities.
The platform digitalises rice trading using a blockchain distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. Through it, buyers, sellers and service providers can easily find each other in a digital environment, efficiently conduct trades, and arrange insurance, shipping, inspection and settlement with the assurance of seamless integration and verifiable data.
“The Rice Exchange platform brings transparency, efficiency and security to the global rice trade,” says Stephen Edkins, CEO of Ricex. “The distributed ledger technology from our partner, Fujitsu, enables us to remove the many barriers that have prevented transparent, low-risk trading in rice and allows trade buyers to purchase this vital food staple with full confidence that they are getting a quality product at a fair price.”
The use of a DLT platform injects new levels of trust and efficiency into the highly fragmented international rice trade. It creates verified, immutable data for all stakeholders, such as buyers, sellers, shippers, inspectors, insurers, regulators and payment system operators.
By using a distributed ledger, the platform removes friction and delays in the supply chain, ensuring security and transparency in international rice trades by allowing all stakeholders to see the same verifiable data, in realtime.
For example, the Ricex platform allows buyers to search for rice that has been certified as sustainably-grown. This gives buyers certainty about the provenance of the rice and in turn allows producers to charge a premium for their product.
Frederik De Breuck, head of the Fujitsu Blockchain Innovation Centre in Brussels, says: “Sustainability, track and trace, and provenance are at the heart of the Rice Exchange, which is another powerful example of the real-world use cases for blockchain.
“Ricex has shown great vision in adopting Fujitsu’s approach to distributed ledgers as a supplementary layer in larger enterprise architectures, and not end-to-end solutions by themselves. We have placed a focus on making sure the DLT can interoperate with existing infrastructures. This is how we deliver true value from investment in this exciting new technology.”
Fujitsu is delivering a production-ready, private, permissioned DLT scale-out solution running on Hyperledger Fabric – a DLT especially developed for enterprise use with advanced automation features.
Ricex selected the Fujitsu Blockchain Innovation Centre in Brussels as key integration partner to develop the solution because of its blockchain expertise, in particular with architectures built on Hyperledger Fabric, and because of Fujitsu’s flexible DevOps approach, covering both operational and development services using the scrum/agile methodology.
The Fujitsu BIC relies on Microsoft Azure to provide the platform for its agile development and to deliver the production environment for Fujitsu’s blockchain as a service offerings such as DocumentFlow and InvoiceFlow. As Fujitsu grows the Rice Trading platform, it intends to leverage Azure’s global scale as a secure and reliable foundation.
Rice trading is an opaque, complex and extremely process-intensive business, often still paper-based.
Certification requirements for rice imports vary by region and documents must be checked and matched manually, which is expensive and prone to costly human error. Documents must also travel globally with the goods, with the risk of loss of time due to faulty or lost documentation.
The Rice Exchange platform simplifies documentation compliance, leading to lower transaction costs and back-end operations, and providing full transparency.
Increasing volumes of rice are now traded internationally, up five-fold in 30 years. This is being driven by demographic growth and concerns over food security and water usage. But unlike other major grain crops, rice has a wide variety of types and finishes.
This makes pricing a lot less homogeneous, with trading managed by a relatively small group of individuals, with little transparency. The parties involved rarely have a full, transparent view of the rice market and market participants find it difficult to establish whether a buyer or seller has a clean track record for fulfilling contractual obligations.
Stakeholders in the rice supply chain have grown accustomed to these inefficiencies and have accepted their impact on price and margin as a “cost of business”. However, digital transformation based on distributed ledger technologies has created the means to rectify these costly and inefficient drawbacks.
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·       Knowledge Center

·       Crop Biotech Update

·       November 6, 2019 Issue

·       Bacterial Blight Resistant Rice Developed thru Genome Editing
Description: Crop Biotech Update

Bacterial Blight Resistant Rice Developed thru Genome Editing

November 6, 2019
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Description: http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/files/images/1162019123336AM.jpg
Genome editing made it possible for the world's most important food crop to become resistant to a destructive bacterial disease.
Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae (Xoo) causes bacterial blight in rice, a stable food for billions of people worldwide. To combat the devastating infection, Ricardo Oliva and his team at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) explored on Xoo genes that encode proteins called transcription-activator-like effectors (TALEs). Xoo use TALEs to switch on SWEET genes in rice plants, which are necessary for disease susceptibility. Thus, when the SWEET genes are expressed, Xoo gets access to the nutrients in the rice plants' leaves.
The researchers analyzed 63 Xoo strains and found that each strain has one or more versions of TALEs. Each version can turn on at lease on of the three SWEET genes. To modify the SWEET genes, the researchers used the genome editing tool CRISPR-Cas9. This led to edited SWEET genes that cannot be activated by the bacterial TALEs. The rice plants with edited genes were found to be resistant to at least 95 Xoo strains.
The findings indicate that genome editing could be an effective tool in enhancing disease resistance of rice, particularly to bacterial blight.
Xoo use these proteins to turn on the plant's SWEET genes, which produce sugar-transporting molecules. This gives the bacteria access to nutrients in the plants' leaves.


Border closure: Rice millers in Gombe make brisk profits

Wednesday, November 6, 2019 3:16 pm
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Rice Mill
Rice millers in Gombe State comment on the increase in sales and patronage of locally-sourced rice since the closure of the border by the Federal Government.
The Federal Government had shut borders with neighbouring countries of  Benin Republic, Cameroun and the Niger Republic since August.
According to the research done by a NAN correspondent, several rice millers who had shut down businesses, reopened while others formed themselves into clusters to process rice in large quantities since the border closure.
The association of rice millers lauded the President’s decision to close the border. They claim that the decision remains the best for the agricultural sector as it has enhanced the local processing of rice in large quantities.
Alhaji Umar Na-Abu, the former Chairman, Rice Millers’ Association of Nigeria, Gombe State chapter said that the closure was a good measure to boost employment and local production. He acknowledged that Nigeria can feed itself and condemned the importation of certain staple foods.
“May God bless President Buhari for this initiative. We now supply rice to different parts of Nigeria, especially the South and there are more jobs here for everyone except you do not want to work.
“We have left this place before but today we have all returned and we mill over 10, 000 bags every day. I mill over 1, 200 bags per day now with my machines as against 50 before. I sell at different prices depending on their types. We sell for N13, 000, N14, 000 and N15, 000 per 50 kg. Now, we are taking a lot of youths off the street,’’ he said.
Also speaking, Adamu Usman said the business of rice milling had witnessed a boom as more persons were now joining the business and there was no issue of competition because the market is available.
He called on the Federal Government to put up modalities to ensure that those who might want to undermine the government’s effort were stopped.
Usman, however, urged the government to also look into the issue of power supply.

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Nigeria: Again, Emefiele Lists Consequences of Immediate Border Reopening

6 NOVEMBER 2019

By James Emejo
Abuja — The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said though the country cannot afford to have its borders shut in perpetuity, reopening them at this time may roll back the economic gains so far achieved since the closure in August.
Speaking recently, at the maiden convocation lecture of the Edo University, Iyahmo, Auchi in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, he said an attempt to reopen the borders could create room for a flooding of smuggled items into the country, a situation that could cripple the ability of rice millers to sell their stock.
He also said smallholder farmers currently producing paddy would no longer be able to sell them while poultry farmers would equally be affected, a situation that could lead to massive job cuts in agriculture.
The CBN governor, who delivered the convocation lecture titled, 'The Role of Monetary Policy Towards Economic Growth in Nigeria', maintained that before thinking of reopening the borders, dialogue was needed with Benin Republic in order to exact their commitment to respect that, "we don't want what they import into their country that we can produce in our country to pass through their borders into our country."
The CBN governor further warned that failure to exact commitment from its neighbours, particularly in the areas of smuggling and dumping before reopening the borders could cause a relapse to conditions observed prior to closure.
He said: "If we don't engage, you know what will happen? I will give you a few examples: before the border closure, two weeks before border closure, the president of the Rice Processors Association called to say that our Nigerian rice producers have produced rice they cannot sell that each of them is carrying close to 20,000 metric tonnes of rice in their warehouses."
According to him: "The Rice Farmers Association led by Alhaji Goronyo came out and also said that farmers cannot sell the rice they produced, that's the paddy rice.
"We also have people in the poultry industry that said they couldn't sell their chicken and eggs- some were carrying up to 5,000 crates of eggs unsold and they said government needs to do something about it.'
He added: "Luckily, as a result of we intervening and other people intervening- in fact, it might interest you to know that most of the arms that have been brought into this country are being smuggled through the borders.
"Even the armed forces themselves gave in and said listen, that we need to do something about the borders. So, the government went ahead and shut the borders.

Procurement lapses: DPPC warns action against civil supplies, RMC babus

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Description: Representational image

Malkangiri: Even as the district level paddy procurement committee geared up for paddy procurement for the current kharif season in Malkangiri district, authorities have decided to take strong action against the civil supply department and the regulatory marketing committee (RMC) if paddy is received from farmers without tokens.
Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Secretary and Commissioner Vir Vikram Yadav discussed with rice millers, civil supplies officers, RMC members and LAMPS officials about various measures for smooth procurement of kharif paddy in the district. The commissioner wanted officials to ensure that farmers do not face any problem during procurement.
According to sources, paddy procurement for kharif crop season in FY 2019-20 is about to start from November 15. Before holding the meeting, Yadav had visited various areas in the district and reviewed progress of various schemes related to farmers.
During his visit, he instructed officials of LAMPS, rice millers and civil supplies officer to give importance to farmers’ welfare and interest by streamlining the procurement system and removing bottlenecks.
“If any farmer keeps his/her paddy sacks in the mandis without having tokens from procurement centers, their paddy sacks will be seized by the civil supplies department and regulatory marketing committee,” Yadav said.
He said strong action will be taken against farmers who are found stocking their paddy without tokens at the procurement centers. The commissioner instructed millers to immediately lift the paddy of farmers, who have got tokens.
At the meeting, some rice millers pointed out that they will suffer loss if paddy was later found to be of substandard quality.
Yadav advised millers to procure paddy only after getting the standard of the paddy tested through RMC. Notably, the rate of general FAQ (fair average quality) of paddy was fixed at Rs 1815 per quintal and FAQ-A grade paddy at Rs 1835.
Later, the commissioner visited various villages in Malkangiri district and reviewed progress of various schemes and projects in the district.
Yadav discussed with farmers about their problems during paddy procurement and reviewed the special system made by SHGs for paddy procurement in the district.

Border closure: Senate probes alleged extra judicial killings at borders by NCS operatives

...As Gombe rice farmers make brisk business


Description: Border closure: Senate probes alleged extra judicial killings at borders by NCS operatives

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The Senate on Wednesday, mandated its Committee on Customs to investigate the alleged extra judicial killings at the nation’s border posts by operatives of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).
This was sequel to a motion by Senator Tolulope Odebiyi (APC-Ogun West) during plenary on “the Need to condemn the incessant excesses and recent extra judicial killings of people by men of the NCS in Idiroko/Ipokia state constituency.”
Idiroko is a town in Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Debating the motion, Odebiyi said since the closure of the country’s land borders, officials of customs have been conducting themselves in very reckless and unruly manner along the Idiroko axis.
“It is disturbing that precisely, on October 7, while we were on break, men of Nigeria Customs Service were alleged to have shot and killed a student including subjecting many students to various degrees of injury.
“The people of Idiroko state constituency are daily being harassed and treated with disdain by men of the Nigerian Customs Service.
“While many of the actions and excesses by the operatives including the recent killings are not only breaches but done against the state, sadly there are yet to be any report of any of the officers involved or reprimanded.”
Supporting the motion, Sen. Ibrahim Oloriegbe (APC-Kwara Central), said “we have debated on this floor the reason for the closure of the border and its importance.
“It is very unfortunate and sad that lives of Nigerians are being lost as a result of their actions. It is also sad that those men are not keeping to the code of their various services.”
In his remark, President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan, in a voice vote, called for the amendment of the prayers of the motion which was unanimously adopted by the senators.
Meanwhile Seme Customs command said it intercepted 55 fairly-used  vehicles smuggled into the country since the border closure on August 20 this year.
The Customs Spokesman in Seme, Abdullahi Hussaini, said in a statement that the seizure was part of the tremendous achievements recorded by the command in its anti-smuggling operations.
“The command within the period of the exercise intercepted 55 fairly used smuggled vehicles with DPV values worth millions of naira,” the customs spokesman said.
Hussaini described as baseless and unfounded reports on social media alleging that officers were collecting money in order to allow passage of fairly-used vehicles into the country despite the border drill.
He urged members of the public with tangible evidence that could assist the Command to tackle any recalcitrant to come forward for the benefit of all.
Hussaini also advised social media users to do proper investigation before making such serious allegations in order not to dampen the morale of officers in the discharge of their duties.
This was as the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) on Wednesday commended Nigeria government for allowing its products into the country for the Lagos International Trade Fair.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Mr Samuel Dentu, gave the commendation in an interview with newsmen at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair.
The Ghanaian official said that Nigeria’s border closure almost created difficulties in bringing exhibition products to the fair but for the timely intervention of relevant Federal Government agencies.
“As a fall out of what is happening with the border closure, we had a bit of issues getting the products coming here for exhibition but we worked with the Nigeria customs and our embassy in Lagos and we were able to get to the fair.
“Nigerian Government helped us by taking Ghanaians to border to negotiate and our goods were released. This shows that the Government of Nigeria has been magnanimous enough to help us so far.
“We have been working with authorities here to make sure that we don’t suffer collateral damage as far as the closure is concerned.
“We eventually pulled through it because of the cordial relationship that we had with Nigeria authorities,” he said.
Dentu said that Ghanaians preferred to exhibit their products in Nigeria because of the similarity in language and products and, above all, the brotherly relationship.
“We know there are trade barriers, but that doesn’t stop the smooth relationship between both countries,” the Ghanaian official said.
About 37 Ghanaian companies are participating at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair, as against  29 companies that exhibited their goods at 2018 fair.
In a related development rice millers in Gombe State say they have recorded increased sales and patronage since the closure of the border by the Federal Government. A recent survey revealed that many of the rice millers who hitherto shut down businesses have reopened for business while others formed themselves into clusters to process rice in large quantities.
According to them, the decision by the President to close the border remains the best for the agricultural sector as it has enhanced local processing of rice in large quantities.
Alhaji Umar Na-Abu, the former Chairman, Rice Millers’ Association of Nigeria, Gombe State chapter told  a reporter that the closure was a good move to boost employment and local production. According to him, Nigeria has the capacity to feed itself.
“May God bless President Buhari for this initiative. We now supply rice to different parts of Nigeria, especially the Southern and there are more jobs here for everyone except you do not want to work. “We have left this place before but today we have all returned and we mill over 10,000 bags every day.
“I mill over 1,200 bags per day now with my machines as against 50 before. I sell with different prices depending on their types.
“We sell for N13,000, N14,000 and N15,000 per 50 kg. Now, we are taking a lot of youths off the street,’’ he said. Another miller, Abubakar Mohammed said that from the time the border was closed, his business had witnessed a lot of expansion and massive employment of youths who had started working for their money.
“Before the closure, we most times do not work at all and when we come here to work, we just mill between 15 and 20 bags…”

Farmers lose millers gain

Posted By: daily industryon: November 07, 2019In: BangladeshDistrictNo Comments
Description: http://www.dailyindustry.news/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Farmers-lose.gifGovt policy and syndicate liable
Special Correspondent: The reluctant policy of the government and poor monitoring, farmers of the country are turning into backbone less due to incurring huge loss every season. On the other hand the millers and stockiest are making money, falling into the trap. Both the growers and consumers are exploited by the powerful millers and stockiest. Paddy and onion are the recent burning example of the trap of the syndicate.
The rice price in the market has been souring again ahead of the new harvesting season and the ongoing Bengali monga month of Kartik. The growers in the last season have incurred huge loss but the millers make remarkable profit on the other hand.
According to government estimates, a farmer had to spend Tk 24,000 to grow one tonne of paddy. But millers are buying the same amount for Tk 15,000, inflicting a Tk 9,000 loss on farmers per tonne. If the government procures directly from farmers at Tk 26,000 a tonne, the farmers get at least Tk 2000 in profit.
At the same time, under the procurement programme, the government pays millers at least Tk 21,600 for the rice produced from one tonne of paddy. In this case, the millers have to spend only Tk 15,700 including the husking cost of Tk 750 per tonne. This means, the millers garner about Tk 5,850 in profit every tonne. In simple terms, while farmers make a profit of Tk 2000 per tonne from government procurement, the same scheme gives Tk 5,850 of profit to millers. This just this year’s example and we again say it is symbolic and repetition of the more or less the same snapshot of the past couple of years.
It is nothing new and a repetition of tragedy of our agricultural marketing of staples and that scorch not only macro economy, but our conscience and media gets flooded with, when our ill fated patriotic farmers responding to the national call to “produce more” fall victim of over production. Taking all farmers’ friendly subsidized facilities provided by government, farmers are king in production, but slaves in marketing, becoming prey to profiteering of millers and owners of “chatals”.
But a part of assured food security denotes keeping high the justified share of all stakeholders from production to marketing and finally reaching to end consumers and for that a due market economy desires a market mechanism with no oligopolistic existents.
Side by side there must have an efficiently operational social security programmes and responsibilities. Sorry to say, everything has been done away with for long. Leverage has been broken down. Concerned ministries have been very much loyal to assist producers in production in direct and indirect ways and to that extent oblivion to them to have incentive prices in markets that will stop them thinking twice whether to go for further production with the same zeal. Yes, the need for formation of much talked about “Price Commission” is being echoed in vain.
For not so long, various researches have been pointing out a trend that rice production has been on the wane and it corroborates the recent findings and observation of agricultural extension directorate. It says, a silent change has been occurring in cultivation scenario in Northern districts once known as major rice producing areas.
Tobacco cultivation has been increased in Rangpur. Vegetables in Bogura and Rajshahi instead of rice production. Farmers in Sirajganj turn off rice to fish cultivation and they are digging ponds in agricultural lands. Naogaon is called the capital of rice and now farmers are tilting more to mango cultivation leaving rice. This trend might have accentuated further due to this year’s depressed price of boro. Agricultural extension directorate anticipates.
For four years only in Naogaon saw 18 thousand and 13 thousand hectares of lands ceased to produce boro and aman respectively. Instead this season used 18 thousand hectares more for mango production as next best alternative (opportunity cost). In Rangpur, mango producing lands has been enhanced from 2 thousand 950 hectares to 3 thousand 125 hectares. In Bagura 1,000 hectare rice producing land has been squeezed during 5 years.
The government has bought only 1.5 lakh tonnes of paddy from farmers, which makes up less than one percent of the total estimated production of around 1.96 crore tonnes this boro season. Under the same scheme, the government is purchasing 11.5 lakh tonnes of rice from millers. Although, the primary goal of the procurement programme is to give price support to farmers. But it is not benefitting them much.
On one hand, millers are buying paddy in the open market at low prices and selling rice to the government at high rates. On the other, the government is buying almost 13 times more in terms of paddy from millers than from farmers. This means millers are gaining more both ways. This is the case when farmers are facing losses due to low selling prices in the open market. Moreover, the amount of government procurement from farmers is paltry compared to the amount it would buy from millers. The procurement started on April 25 and will continue till August31.
Just to give a short numerical example of this year and it is symbolic of an endless story of the same repetition with just as varying the number and extent of production but telling the same eternal tragedy of deprivation our farmers.
During harvesting, farmers are bound to depressed selling due to pressure from hired labours, loan from banks and mahajans and their day to day family consumption needs. So farmers are bound to set off millers’ doors for depressed selling. When government starts procuring, meanwhile farmers’ coffers become empty to sell further. So even paddy procurement, benefit goes to millers.
Mind it farmers never prepare rice for market. Only millers are doing this. So if rice is bought from millers, it would not benefit farmers. Thus millers are benefited from the entire process of procurement.
But for immediate task must be to disburden carryover stocks by invigorating distribution among destitute at low price and enhancing other social net programmes to accommodate procured rice. In addition import is to be reined in and rethink again over 10 to 15 lakhs tonnes of rice export and giving 20 percent incentive to exporters.
Researchers use drones to pilot a new tool to fight Malaria
  • The drones the researchers fly carry the innovation they say offers a new approach in fighting the deadly disease.
  • The drones sprayed mosquito-infested rice fields, typical breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes, with Aquatain AMF, a non-toxic colourless, solution.
  • Researchers said that using drones in this manner will prove efficient and cost effective, especially in large irrigation areas.
(Tanzania) A drone takes to the skies of the Zanzibar archipelago in the Indian Ocean – the latest technology that scientists are deploying in the fight against malaria.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the disease killed 435,000 of the 219 million people who were infected last year.
The drones the researchers fly carry the innovation they say offers a new approach in fighting the deadly disease.
The drones sprayed mosquito-infested rice fields, typical breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes, with Aquatain AMF, a non-toxic colourless, solution.
The liquid, which has been tested in laboratories but never before in the field, creates a thin film on the water's surface preventing malarial pupae and larvae from breathing at the surface, drowning and then killing them.
Researchers said that using drones in this manner will prove efficient and cost effective, especially in large irrigation areas.
“As you can see the way the paddies look like, it is very difficult to just walk through the paddies and apply the chemicals so you want to have something that can just spray it on the water surface, it spreads, does the job and that's it," said Professor Wolfgang Richard Mukabana from the University of Nairobi, one of the researchers behind the project.
Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 90 percent of malaria deaths around the world, the WHO said. It is one of the major causes of death among children under the age of five, according to the United Nations. Globally, malaria kills a young child every single minute and causes 75 percent of all under five deaths.
In Tanzania, 70,000 people die annually from the mosquito-transmitted disease. The researchers said that they will sample the larvae and the mosquitoes in the fields before, during and after spraying to test the impact of the approach.
“This is where the problem starts. These are the breeding grounds of mosquitos. Once we control them here we will see far fewer mosquitos making it to the house-holds where people live, biting these people and therefore transmitting malarial disease. So by controlling them right at the source we hope to have an impact ultimately on the transmission of malaria," said vector biologist, Bart Knols.
After the trial in Zanzibar, the researchers aim to publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, they said, and hope to expand the approach across the continent.
“In future if this goes well and we get good results from the trial, we may be using the same technology in many other parts of Africa where they have irrigated agriculture and malaria problems. If not that we may in some case actually be contributing to the elimination of malaria in a specific country," Knols added.
The researchers say they chose Zanzibar for the trials because of its progressive laws towards the use of drones.
Other countries in Africa have deployed drones in the fight against malaria.
Malawi has used drones to map mosquito breeding sites but the researchers in Zanzibar say spraying Aquatain takes the malaria fight to the next level.


Taiwan Hosts the U.S. for Rice Grading Seminar  

TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- This week, a team led by USA Rice with representation from USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service and OMIC USA, Inc. (U.S.-based contract inspection company), traveled here to conduct a rice grading seminar with Taiwan's Agriculture and Food Agency inspectors. 

The delegation spent two days working with Taiwan's importers, in-country USDA representatives, and Taiwanese government officials to discuss market conditions, demand for U.S. rice in Taiwan, and differences in grading protocols.  The seminar is the second of its kind, the first was held in 2013, and was borne out of the annual U.S.-Taiwan rice technical meetings.

This particular workshop has been nearly two years in the making.  Taiwan is an important export market for U.S. rice, particularly southern medium grain, where they import 64,634 MT of American-grown rice annually to meet their World Trade Organization commitments. Working out the inconsistencies in grading is pivotal to keeping commercial shipments flowing between the U.S. and Taiwan in the future. 

Michael Rue, a California producer and chair of the USA Rice Asia Trade Policy Subcommittee, said, "The conversations this week were fruitful and really help drive home the importance of the industry's regular technical discussions with our major export markets.  We have addressed a number of technical issues over the years resulting from small misunderstandings that come to light during these regular meetings.   Thorough discussions of the differences in interpretation of both U.S. and Taiwanese standards help the Taiwanese government better target their tender specifications." 

Seminar participants included Taiwan's Council of Agriculture - Agriculture and Food Agency quality assurance/inspection officials, SGS Taiwan (Taiwan-based contract inspection company) officials, Kansas City-based USDA Agricultural Marketing Service - Federal Grain Inspection Service, OMIC USA, Inc. officials, and USA Rice. 

Fujitsu partners Swiss startup for blockchain rice trading

2 days ago
Today, Fujitsu announced a partnership with Switzerland-based startup Rice Exchange (Ricex) for its blockchain rice trading platform. The Ricex platform is scheduled to launch in 2020.
With a global market value of $450 billion, rice is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world. But commodity trade is marred with inefficiencies due to paper-based transactions, which are slow and prone to error.
The problem the industry is facing is due to the wide variety of rice. Each strain differs in quality, taste and fragrance, all of which decides the price of rice. Currently, Japonica and Basmati have the highest market share, but selling substandard varieties under these names is not uncommon.
Rice is the staple food of nearly half of the world’s population and is vital for food security. Its trade involves a lot of government intervention, tariffs and subsidies. With an already convoluted system, a lack of transparency and traceability leads to contractual breaches and insurance claims.
Ricex is digitalizing rice trade using blockchain and is creating a transparent ecosystem of importers, exporters, wholesalers, producers, regulators and other stakeholders.
The blockchain platform aims to streamline the trading process by providing insurance, shipping information, inspections and automated settlement to participants. “The Rice Exchange platform brings transparency, efficiency and security to the global rice trade,” says Stephen Edkins, CEO of Ricex.
Meanwhile, the Ricex platform also allows buyers to search for rice certified as sustainably grown. While this is not the prime objective of the project, the platform provides rice provenance to enable producers to earn a premium for their product.
“People are not just buying long-grain, white rice anymore; they want to have a choice of different rice. These sell for higher prices, but each time you buy one of these varieties, you want to know that you’ll get what you paid for. It comes back to having transparency in the supply chain,” Stephen Edkins, co-founder and CEO of Ricex told the Financial Times.
Fujitsu’s role is as an integration partner, and it’s delivering a production-ready solution built on Hyperledger Fabric. The Fujitsu Blockchain Innovation Centre relies on Microsoft Azure for providing hosting services, which Ricex aims to leverage for its platform.
In July, the blockchain startup partnered with DUCAT Maritime to offer to ship small and medium-sized lots to rice traders, without chartering an entire vessel themselves.
Last year, Oxfam launched a blockchain project for Cambodian rice farmers to get them better prices for their produce. In China, Alibaba and ANT are working with Wuchang Municipal Government to help track and authenticate Wuchang rice.
The Ricex platform is one of several initiatives exploring blockchain for streamlining commodities trading.
Commodities blockchain projects:
Commodity
Consortium/ Company
Agribusiness
ABCCD: ADM, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Dreyfus, Glencore
Agribusiness
Sugar
Oil
Gold, Silver
Metals
The Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative WEF, Glencore, Tata Steel, Anglo American/De Beers +
Metals
Cobalt

Export Finance Scheme: Rice exporters fear funds unavailability to badly affect exports

Rice exporters fear that unavailability of financing under Export Finance Scheme (EFS) and higher interest rates on loans from the commercial banks may lead to rendering them uncompetitive in the international market thus making a big dent on the exports which have shown growth in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
The exporters are complaining of unavailability of funds under EFS through commercial banks, either being entitled under EFS-2 or for having Pre-Shipment finance EFS-1. This will ultimately result in obtaining loans with higher markup, in turn, making exports uncompetitive in the international market whilst giving higher margins to commercial banks at loss of exporters. Unavailability of finance at a time when the paddy procurement season is in full swing will damage the rice exports and achieving the target of taking these exports to US five billion dollars from present US two billion dollars.
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) in a recent meeting raised this issue with the Prime Minister's Advisor for Commerce, Textile, Industry and Production Abdul Razak Dawood.
REAP Chairman Shahjahan Malik while talking to Business Recorder here on Tuesday said that Export Refinance is a scheme under State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to promote Pakistani exports. Under this scheme, an exporter may avail finance from any scheduled bank at a concessional rate in two separate schemes called EFS-1 and EFS-II. In part one, an exporter can get finance for six months against a specific contract and has to bring back the export proceeds to Pakistan within the stipulated period. EFS-II make an exporter eligible an exporter for fifty percent of the export it exported within a fiscal year but the exporter has to double its exports.
He alleged that textile sector is being given priority while disbursing funds under EFS scheme. He said that we raised the issue with the advisor that the rice sector is not claiming subsidies on account of gas or any other head, but they deserve funds under the Export Finance Scheme. He said that they will leave no stone unturned to secure this facility for their members and will soon meet the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor too, to resolve this issue at the earliest.
Sami Ullah Naeem a progressive exporter and former REAP chairman said that exporters are not being allotted funds under the ERF-II scheme. He said that exporters instead of having finance on 3 percent they have to obtain loans on 16 percent. He said that exporters because of unavailability of funds are reluctant to buy the paddy. He said that if the entitlement of exporters is not restored at the earliest then it will dent the exports by 30 percent.
The Association in its submission to the Advisor also claimed that it had increased rice exports from $300 million to $2 billion due to the condition of mandatory REAP membership. Unfortunately, a few years back Government vide public notice withdrew this condition. Requesting restoration of mandatory membership condition, the REAP delegation observed that without mandatory membership, the interest of members will be lost and they may not follow the instructions from REAP in true letter and spirit

Baba Farid Free Laser Eye Camp To Be Held At Pak Pattan From Nov.9

 
Description: Baba Farid free laser eye camp to be held at Pak Pattan from Nov.9
KARACHI, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2019 ) :The 273rd Baba Farid Free Laser Eye Camp will begin from November 9 at Pak Pattan to provide free eye treatment to the poor rural population of the town and its surroundings.
The free eye camp is being setup by the Haji Razzak Janoo Memorial Trust, which is one of the largest free eye camp trust in Pakistan under the management of Janoo family that holds free eye camps throughout the year in various cities and towns of Pakistan as well as in Bangladesh.
At these camps, the prominent eye surgeons and specialists undertake laser eye surgeries/operations. Till today, approximately 128,750 surgeries had been done and more than 2.85 million patients were given treatment at free OPDs.
Abdul Rahim Janoo, chairman Haji Razzak Janoo Memorial Trust and former chairman Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan said that all the medicines and food to the patients and their attendants are being provided "Free of cost " by his trust.
The camps are being setup with an aim to provide latest facilities to less-privileged people of remote areas because they cannot bear the huge expense of such facilities at the modern hospitals.
The trust will organize its 274th Eye Camp at Gawadar, 275th Eye Camp at Ormara and 276th Eye Camp in K.T. Bandar in December with collaboration of Pakistan Navy, whereas 277th Eye Camp will be held at Dadu in January 2020 with the cooperation of Dadu Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
Whereas, 278th Free Eye Camp will be held at Rajanpur in February 2020.
Janoo said that eye camps began in 1989 and they have adopted Free EyeCamping as a mission to help restore the lost vision of poor eye patients through treatments, surgeries, medication, lenses, spectacles and all such related services and materials absolutely free of cost.

Inflation falls to 42-month low but ASF makes chicken, beef pricier in NCR

By: Ben O. de Vera - Reporter / @bendeveraINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 11:40 AM November 05, 2019
MANILA, Philippines–Retail prices of rice declined year-on-year for the sixth straight month in October, pulling down inflation to a 42-month low of 0.8 percent, the government reported Tuesday.
While the nationwide headline inflation rate was the lowest since April 2016’s 0.7 percent, National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told a press conference that the rate of increase in prices of basic commodities in the National Capital Region (NCR) inched up to 1.3 percent year-on-year last month from 0.9 percent in September due to “higher annual increment in food and non-alcoholic beverages,” especially chicken meat amid the African swine fever (ASF) scare.
Chicken and beef prices were on the rise in NCR and Region 3 as more consumers buy these meat products instead of pork, whose prices, in turn, were on the decline, Mapa said.
In areas outside NCR, it was in Region 3 that inflation was the highest last month, at 2.3 percent year-on-year.
In the case of rice, Mapa said the Filipino food staple posted the sixth consecutive month of deflation, as prices dropped 9.7 percent year-on-year in October, the biggest decline since 1995.
The economic team had been attributing the declining rice prices to liberalized rice importation under the Rice Tariffication Law being implemented since March.
To recall, rice prices jumped 10.7 percent in October last year—the peak of rice inflation, due to domestic supply bottlenecks that were later on resolved by government orders easing food importation.
Prices of corn and vegetables last month were also lower from a year ago levels by 3.9 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
At the end of the first 10 months, headline inflation averaged 2.6 percent, within the government’s 2-4 percent target range.
The national inflation rate in October last year hit an almost 10-year high of 6.7 percent, hence a high base that translated into last month’s minimal year-on-year increment. /jpv
PhilRice at 34: Boosting support for rice competitiveness

Description: DSC_0638

Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) marked its 34th year taking on the challenge of fulfilling its newly added mandate to implement the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF)- Seed and Extension programs.

With the theme, “Championing Competitiveness of the Filipino Rice Farmers,” the anniversary coincides with the observation of the National Rice Awareness Month every November.

“As we continue to embody the mantra of public service, let us all be servant-leaders. Let us do what we can to serve. That is our calling,” Dr. John C. De Leon, PhilRice acting executive director, said.

Emphasizing on strengthened cooperation to empower farmers amidst rice trade liberalization, de Leon said discussions on RCEF during anniversary programs will further drive the Institute on research, development, extension, and production competitiveness.

Under RCEF, PhilRice will develop, propagate, and promote inbred rice seeds; and enhance farmers’ skill and knowledge on rice production.

“More than anything else, it is teamwork, which causes the celebration of success,” he said.

The anniversary will also highlight this year’s roster of awards and recognition, which include the Intellectual Property Award for Top Patent Grant, Outstanding Innovator Award (Breeding Institute Category), PRIME-HRM Bronze Award, Information Visionary Category Award, and FutureRice Farm Project as Model Extension.

Thanksgiving and moral enrichment program, seminar series on research management and institution building, Dangal ng PhilRice awarding ceremonies, and medical mission are also included in the activities. 

PhilRice was established on November 5, 1985 through Executive Order 1061
Philrice News

Federal government should review the issue of border closure —Bashir Tofa ON NOVEMBER 5, 20192:31 PMIN NEWSBY LAWAL SHERIFAT FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsAppPinterestShare Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa By Abdulmumin Murtala – Kano The former Presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC Alhaji Bashir Tofa has called on the federal government to review the border closure to avoid the tremendous economic loses involved. He made the call in Kano on Tuesday while responding to questions from newsmen at a press conference by Kano elders under the aegis of Kano Concerned Citizens Initiative, KCCI. “First we appreciate why the federal government found it necessary to close the borders. We have mentioned also that closing the boarders alone is not going to solve the entire problem. READ ALSO: Corrupt elements, incompetent aides, saboteurs join forces to hinder Buhari — Bashir Tofa “In some cases there are advantages. Some companies like rice millers to them certainly are a very good thing, it is an advantage. But to some others, it is a disadvantage. Even to the federal government, there are advantages and disadvantages to them. “When the government seeks to stop illegal importation of contra banned goods due to the lack of payment of duties, at the same time government has made many people lose money in terms of their exports while exporting these goods. “We know that there may be billions of naira worth of goods on both sides of the boarders, those coming in and also those going out and a lot of them are sources of revenue for the federal government” he stated. Tofa thereby advised the federal government to reexamine the issue of the closure to allow those doing their legal businesses to continue accordingly. “So, what we advise is that the federal government should examine this issue very closely and make sure that those who are legally doing their business are allowed to continue their business as long as they are paying the right duties. “We understand that a lot of these problems are connivance between Customs officials and some businessmen who are willing and ready to pay some money less than what they should pay through the right process” he lamented. He also stated that the boarders as still porous despite the closure while those doing their legal businesses are strongly affected. “In fact, these borders are still very porous and things have not changed much in some of them because some of the Customs officials are still collecting money and allowing goods come in” he charged. READ ALSO: No evidence I lost June 12, 1993 election to Abiola — Bashir Tofa The former Presidential candidate further advised that task forces be formed to check activities of faulting customs officials and also a high powered committee to discuss with neighbouring countries on how to effect the laws of Nigeria and ECOWAS at the border. “So we advise that there should be task forces in each of the border points made up of professional customs officials, those that are trustworthy who will implement what needs to be implemented. “There should Also be another committee, a very high-powered committee, that should go and negotiate with these neighbouring countries in terms of abiding by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as ECOWAS laws. “We do not believe closing the border per se is a good thing for everybody. It is advantageous for some people but certainly, it will ruin a lot of businesses for those who legitimately export out of the country. Tofa also pointed out the need to bring about ways of resolving congestion at clearing points for importers of goods through Lagos. “We also pointed out that for all imports coming to the country, one has to go to Lagos first is also another difficulty. It is also another problem because there will be so much congestion there and you will see so many delays there. “A lot of people who import goods have to go there and stay for upwards of three months, six months and will still incur tremendous losses in their goods because some of these goods are perishables, some are building materials which if they don’t carry for long will be a loss to some of these businesses. It is enormous and that will certainly affect the economy of the country. “We are calling on the federal government to examine both sides of the coin to make sure they come up with something that will be more beneficial to everybody including the federal government herself,” he said.

Read more at:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/11/federal-government-should-review-the-issue-of-boarder-closure-bashir-tofa/

Buhari to make rice cheaper, sufficient before Christmas By Economic Confidential -November 5, 2019 Kebbi Governor Atiku Bagudu. Buhari to make rice cheaper, sufficient before Christmas The National Food Security Council (NFSC), chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, will make rice available before the Christmas festivity. The Deputy Chairman of the Council, Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, stated this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. He stated that the Council was aware of the current high prices of rice, assuring Nigerians that rice would be made available at a cheaper rate. According to the governor, government is also aware of the activities of some individuals and groups bent on frustrating the new rice policy. “The good news is that there is a lot of production in the country. All the Millers in Nigeria have enough paddy and farmers are producing and the harvest is coming in strong. “We believe in addition to market forces, there are some people bent on manipulating the situation in order to exploit bigger revenue, bigger profits and some may even be doing so for the wrong reason. ” They want to truncate policy which is helping the Nigerian economy; which is helping Nigerian millers; which is helping the Nigerian farmers and the Nigerian population. “We are taking steps to ensure that more rice is taken to markets where shortages can easily be created. “There is enough production in the country and the National Food Security Council is focused on how to ensure that availability is restored all across the country so that prices will come down reflective of the cost of production,’’ he said. On the reported loss of about N1 billion by Onion farmers in Kebbi State, Bagudu said government would always respond to farmers’ predicaments promptly. The governor, however, said that the assessment of the total loss by the farmers had not been completed by relevant agencies. He disclosed that the federal government had approved N23billion for distribution to States affected by flood disaster this year. “We have always responded to farmers’ issues or any trade group that has a misfortune, both the State and the Federal Government has been very active in helping. “You may recall that recently, Mr President approved about N23 billion for states affected by flood which Kebbi is one of them, and this is in addition to our own resources that we mobilise to support our farmers. “This year’s rainy season is unusual, as of last week there was rain and it’s unusual. ”For the onion farmers they have calculated that the rain will stop by September because when onion is growing there is a point at which it does not desire rainfall, now we have rainfall. “I’m not sure of the N1 billion lost in terms of quantum because we have not done the assessment but we are always willing and ready to support all our producers especially when they are faced with unforeseen circumstances like this,’’ he said. NAN reports that Bagudu was on the entourage of Buhari’s official visit to Saudi Arabia which ended on Saturday. The governors on the president’s entourage included Prof. Babagana Zulum of Borno and Aminu Masari of Katsina. Read more at: https://economicconfidential.com/2019/11/buhari-make-rice-christmas/

Again, Emefiele Lists Consequences of Immediate Border Reopening

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Description: https://storage.googleapis.com/thisday-846548948316-wp-data/wp-media/2019/03/e26dab08-godwin-emefiele-696x532.jpgGodwin Emefiele
James Emejo in Abuja
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said though the country cannot afford to have its borders shut in perpetuity, reopening them at this time may roll back the economic gains so far achieved since the closure in August.
Speaking recently, at the maiden convocation lecture of the Edo University, Iyahmo, Auchi in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, he said an attempt to reopen the borders could create room for a flooding of smuggled items into the country, a situation that could cripple the ability of rice millers to sell their stock.
He also said smallholder farmers currently producing paddy would no longer be able to sell them while poultry farmers would equally be affected, a situation that could lead to massive job cuts in agriculture.
The CBN governor, who delivered the convocation lecture titled, ‘The Role of Monetary Policy Towards Economic Growth in Nigeria’, maintained that before thinking of reopening the borders, dialogue was needed with Benin Republic in order to exact their commitment to respect that, “we don’t want what they import into their country that we can produce in our country to pass through their borders into our country.”
The CBN governor further warned that failure to exact commitment from its neighbours, particularly in the areas of smuggling and dumping before reopening the borders could cause a relapse to conditions observed prior to closure.
He said: “If we don’t engage, you know what will happen? I will give you a few examples: before the border closure, two weeks before border closure, the president of the Rice Processors Association called to say that our Nigerian rice producers have produced rice they cannot sell that each of them is carrying close to 20,000 metric tonnes of rice in their warehouses.”
According to him: “The Rice Farmers Association led by Alhaji Goronyo came out and also said that farmers cannot sell the rice they produced, that’s the paddy rice.
“We also have people in the poultry industry that said they couldn’t sell their chicken and eggs- some were carrying up to 5,000 crates of eggs unsold and they said government needs to do something about it.’
He added: “Luckily, as a result of we intervening and other people intervening- in fact, it might interest you to know that most of the arms that have been brought into this country are being smuggled through the borders.
“Even the armed forces themselves gave in and said listen, that we need to do something about the borders. So, the government went ahead and shut the borders.
“And I am speaking truthfully: one week after the borders were closed, the president, the president of the Rice Millers Association called to say that all their millers had called to say that the rice they had in their warehouses had been sold. Paddy businesses are growing again.
“The poultry people also called to say they’ve sold all their eggs. All the chickens they have had been sold.”
Emefiele said: “So now when we say, those who say we should reopen our borders because they say it’s creating problems, what would happen is that when you reopen the borders again right, those smuggled items will come in our millers will no longer be able to sell their rice, our smallholder farmers that are producing paddy will no longer be able sell their paddy and our poultry farmers can no longer sell their poultry.”

Sri Lanka:Development & Pitfalls: Agricultural Marketing
Posted on November 5th, 2019

Garvin Karunaratne,Ph.D. Michigan State University, former Government Agent, Matara. 

I am prompted to write about what was achieved in Sri Lanka since we gained independence in order to educate some of our presidential aspirants who have said that we have not achieved anything.
I can emphatically state that Sri Lanka had done wonders in the field of agricultural marketing within the short period of three decades  1948 to 1977.  By 1977 Sri Lanka stood far ahead of what all .other countries have ever achieved. However, it is sad to note that after 1977 the development infrastructure that had been built up with great care was privatized and abolished under the advice of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) by the Government of President JR Jayawardena.
The main programmes of agricultural marketing were:
The Guaranteed Price Scheme for Paddy & Cereals
Rice Milling
The Vegetable & Fruit Marketing Scheme
The Cannery
The Bakery
The Fair Price Shops
Agricultural Loan  Scheme
I entered the Public Service of Sri Lanka in 1955 as an Assistant Commissioner in the Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing, covering its activities in Districts and was  in charge of the Vegetable & Fruit Purchasing Scheme in 1957. In 1958 a special Department, the Department of Agrarian Services was created for furthering agricultural marketing and also agricultural production where I was an  Assistant Commissioner. In 1961 I was in charge of the Agricultural Loan Scheme.  I was an Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services from 1958, but covered all activities of the Marketing Department till 1960.
The Guaranteed Price Scheme for Paddy and Cereals was meant  to purchase paddy and cereals from genuine producers at a premium price well above the prices offered by traders. The price was also  above the World Market price. This was done as an incentive for producers., as otherwise the producers will be at the mercy of traders who tried to buy their produce at the lowest possible price.  The Department had established stores all over producing areas and had rice mills to mill the paddy.   One of the key features was that purchases were to be made only from genuine producers.  . The agricultural overseer of the area had to produce a list of cultivators and owners who cultivated in each season, giving the extent cultivated in the particular season  and based on the average yield, the cooperative society was authorized  to purchase only on this list. Thus in the Sri Lankan system the premium price reached the genuine cultivator. Other countries that had similar programmes purchased produce from anyone and then the premium price offered went to the persons who handed over the produce, mostly to traders who had collected the paddy. 
This system was continued by the Department of Agrarian Services when it took over the guaranteed price scheme. Later the Paddy Marketing Board took over the paddy purchasing scheme and continued it.  This was a great success and I am certain that this purchasing scheme was greatly instrumental in making Sri Lanka self sufficient in paddy production by 1970. It is important to note that Sri Lanka became self sufficient while implementing a rice ration scheme offering rice at a low rate. If not for the rice ration scheme the poor would not have been able to buy rice at the market rate.

Rice Milling

Rice Milling came to the fore when Sri Lanka had to mill large quantities of paddy that were produced by the success of the green revolution. The Marketing Department(MD)  imported a few large rice mills and installed them in the producer areas- at Ambalantota, at Anuradhapura and Amparai. These were the best available then.  I supervised the working of the rice mill at Ambalantota for two years. The MD also called for applicants from the private sector to invest in rice milling.  MD produced  specifications of rice milling machinery that can be imported and also drafted plans to construct rice mills- with storage, drying floors etc. The Private Sector responded, applicants were selected and allocations of foreign exchange were  authorized for the import of machinery as at that time foreign exchange was controlled. The millers had to construct the buildings under the supervision of the Assistant Commissioners. I served as Assistant Commissioner in the Southern Province and I supervised the rice mills being constructed and getting into rice milling.  The response was quick and very successful. Many rice millers later became business magnates like Harischandras.
This method of using our private entrepreneurs was the opposite of what President JR Jayawardena did when  he had to import flour. Instead of depending on local entrepreneurs to mill the wheat to flour, he invited a multinational from Singapore-. Prima, to come over and establish flour mills, import wheat, mill and handover the flour to us. Then the profits went tax free to Singapore while in the case of rice milling the profits stayed in the country, benefiting our private sector. The Government also benefited because the rice millers paid taxes.
It has to be noted that rice milling was a great success, a feather in the cap of   Sri Lankan  investors.  It tells anyone that the  Sri Lankan private sector can  be successful if only the Government will give them some direction. Proper direction is required because otherwise many investors could undertake the same activity and further the Government has to actively control imports.
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The Vegetable & Fruit Marketing Scheme & Cannery

In order to ensure that Sri Lanka could produce all its vegetable and fruit, it was necessary to offer attractive prices to producers.  Generally traders tried to purchase at the lowest possible rates. The aim of a trader is to boost their profit.
The MD developed an islandwide marketing programme for vegetables and fruits. The MD appointed Assistant Commissioners to the Districts which produced large quantities of vegetables. These officers were expected to visit the producer fairs. All producers brought their wares for sale to the producer fair in the area. The fairs were held every week. The Assistant Commissioners in the areas informed the availability of vegetables and the prices at which the traders purchased to The Tripoli Headquarters in Colombo. Similarly the MD Unit at the wholesale market in Colombo reported the  prices at which the goods were being sold to retailers.  (Tripoli was a very large hangar at the Colombo Railway Goods Shed and this was the headquarters of the Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme of the MD)
The Assistant Commissioner at Tripoli Market studied the prices at which the goods were being sold at Colombo wholesale market and the prices at which the goods were being bought by traders at the producer fairs. He would then fix a buying price for the main varieties well above the prices at which the traders purchased and he would keep a margin of around fifteen percent and fix the prices at which the goods would be sold at the MD Fair Price Shops. The buying prices were intimated to the District Offices by telegram and over the telephone.  The MD had Purchasing Depots and a fleet of lorries in the producer areas and a Marketing Officer will proceed to every important fair and put up a board giving the prices at which they would buy from producers.  The MD would buy from producers and dispatch the goods immediately to Tripoli Market in Colombo by lorry or by railway wagons. . 
The MD had, a main retail shop at Tripoli Market and around fifty small Fair Price shops in Colombo and a few in many cities.
Local producers would call over at Tripoli  with any produce they have and the MD purchased all produce..
Triploi Market opened at six in the morning and around ten or more wagons were always at the rail siding to be unloaded. In addition there were always around ten to twenty lorries. The goods were unloaded, allocated to the different sections- the Upcountry Unit, the Low country vegetable Unit or the Fruit Unit, where the goods were weighed, cleaned up and immediately dispatched to the retail units in the morning itself. By nine in the morning the goods received would be offered for sale at the retail units.
In case there was an excess that could not be disposed of Tripoli  Market would decide to have Van Sales where a van load of produce will be taken around selling to anyone. The Van Sales on many days will go on till late in the night till the full quantity was sold.
In case of goods that could be kept for the next day, there were a few cold rooms at Tripoli but the idea was to sell the produce more than storing.
The MD purchased around ten percent of the produce but the presence of the MD buying from producers at a high purchasing price meant that traders who bought from producers too had to buy at the price offered by the MD because otherwise they would not be in business.
Many cannot figure out the business acumen that we followed in MD.  In my words, The motto of the MD was to pay the highest possible price to the producer and sell at the lowest possible price to the consumer a creation of Ceylon administrators basset and BLW. Fernando. We as Assistant Commissioners  tried hard to work on this tight rope. At the end of each month a profit and loss account was made and I have had to bear the brunt of censure if either I incurred a loss or achieved a profit of over 10%”(From: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka)
The installation of a Cannery in the early Fifties proved to be a boon to producers. The entire quantity of Red Pumpkin, Ash Pumpkin, Melon and Oranges were purchased. These were made into Golden Melon Jam, Silver Melon Jam and Orange Juice. Pineapple was turned into  Juice and  Jam.  Tomatoes were made into  Juice and Sauce.  With the opening of the Cannery chena producers made fantastic incomes.
By the mid Fifties within a few years from the  installation of the Cannery the MD had in addition to making our country self sufficient in Jam, Juice and Sauces, even built up a foreign trade exporting pineapple pieces and rings. Assistant Commissioner Oswald Tilekeratne in charge of the Cannery often took wings to foreign lands.
The Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme had two aims:  To provide good prices to producers and also to offer goods at reasonable prices to city consumers.  When a Fair Price Shop is selling goods , no one will go to a private shop, unless the private shop too sold at a similar price. The MD  unofficially controlled prices. The Scheme controlled inflation, by not allowing traders to keep a fat margin.

 Fair Price Shops

Through Fair Price Shops  established in every City- there were around fifty in Colombo alone,  the Department, ensured that the prices of all essential commodities were indirectly controlled and the traders were compelled to sell at fair prices to consumers.”
In addition to the vegetables and fruits, the Shops had for sale all essential items like rice, sugar, flour, lentils,  and MD Cannery products. The aim in having essential items like lentils, sugar and flour always in stock was to avoid traders creating a shortage and thereby increasing the prices. When stocks are available in the MD Shops people would not buy at the private shops unless they offer at a reasonable rate, equal or priced a few cents above the MD shop price.

Bakery

The MD had a first class bakery that made quality bread, and  pastries and these items were sold at many outlets..  Expertise at the Bakery were used to run large Restaurants at festivals like at Kataragama. Food preparations were sold at rock bottom prices and this actually controlled the prices at Hotels in Kataragama. during the Festival period.  I supervised this Restaurant for the two years I served in the Southern Province.
The Agricultural Loan Scheme
The Department of Agrarian Services provided loans to agricultural cooperative societies. In 1961 I worked in charge of this loan scheme. Cooperative Societies had to provide cultivators with funds to buy agricultural requisites like fertilizer. Every Cooperative Society would collect details of the loans that are required, make a total, check whether the applicants were genuine producers and submit papers to get a loan from the Department of Agrarian Services.
The Cooperatives would be given the funds to be distributed to the producers. It was also my duty to visit the cooperative societies at random and inspect their books to ensure that the loans had been disbursed and also that recovery had been done.
The Cooperative Wholesale Establishment(CWE) While the Marketing Department handled the marketing of local produce, there was a need for imported  goods to be made available at reasonable rates. The CWE was established with this aim in view. Goods that were being imported by traders were sold keeping a high margin of profit and the CWE imported the same items and sold them at rock bottom prices , keeping a small margin of profit. The CWE ran a number of shops in Colombo and the outstations.  The Salu Sala  was like the CWE dealing with textiles. These trading institutions played a major role in enabling the people to buy imported essential items at reasonable rates. 
This entire agricultural marketing infrastructure to help the producer as well as to bring an increase in production was totally intact till the United National Party won the 1977 general election. The newly elected Government of President Jayawardena requested financial aid from the International Monetary Fund(IMF). Then the IMF insisted that if financial assistance was required Sri Lanka had to follow the Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP). This SAP had a number of provisions that were damaging to Third World countries but President Jayawardena agreed to follow the SAP conditions. While Sri Lanka submitted India and Bangladesh did not follow the SAP. They dodged and rejected the SAP. The main condition that ruined the agricultural marketing infrastructure that Sri Lanka had built up was the provision that the Government could not do any commercial undertakings and that all commerce should be left to the private sector. In fact in the SAP, the Private Sector was adopted as the engine of growth. The other provision was that Sri Lanka had to follow a high interest rate. The interest rate was increased and entrepreneurs had to obtain loans at the interest rate of 24%, which was forbidding.  This caused the death knell of the agricultural marketing infrastructure we had built up with great care. I am concerned because I was a part of it and have been fine tuning the system, wherever I worked for eighteen long years.
In detail, The Guaranteed Price for Paddy was abolished and in its place during  the harvest season  the Government fixed a price to purchase paddy. Paddy was purchased from anyone who brought it to the Government store. The arrangement to buy from genuine producers was dropped. Today, our Government makes a glorious utterance that they have purchased a great deal of paddy, but the fact that the system had only helped the traders and not the actual producer is forgotten. In fact today there is not even an agricultural overseer at the village level who can tell who cultivated what extent.  Paddy farming is done at the whims and fancies of the farmers who have no one to get any help or instruction. Earlier there was an Agricultural Overseer and in the days of the Agrarian Services there were Cultivation Committees with a qualified Field Assistant at the village level. The Paddy Lands Act was abolished and with this the Cultivation Committees ceased to function. Even today there is a vacuum at the village level. It is sad that the Ministry of Agriculture does not realize this fact.
In the case of Rice Milling, the State of the Art Rice Mills of the MD which ultimately belonged to the Paddy Marketing Board were abandoned. The most valuable rice milling machinery was in some cases sold for scrap. Once I gazed for ten minutes at the Ambalantota Rice Mill, my home for two years. I could hardly believe my eyes. It was on a plot of around five acres that had been apportioned to various departments. Many valuable parts of the machinery which we doted on with great care were strewn all over. That was a mill that milled 4000 bushels of paddy a day and when we started the mill at eight in the morning on a Monday it worked non stop day and night till it was stopped  on Saturday night. Sunday was for cleaning and re surfacing the rollers. That was done with great care. Now everything was in a scrap heap. I can make a statement that new rice mills even if bought cannot be easily installed. To start with it is not easy to find suitable  land. That itself will take years if at all it can be found. It is a colossal irrepairable damage. 
The Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Scheme was abolished and now the traders have a hay day making fat margins. In fact I visited a friend in Pangiriwatta recently and I saw a four story house that had sprung up overnight. I inquired from my friend and down came the reply that it belonged to a vegetable wholesaler in Colombo who buys a new limousine every year. In the days of the MD the profits they could keep were low and that was how the Government could offer vegetables and fruit at reasonable rates to consumers and also keep inflation at bay.
The Cannery was privatized and it is no longer run to help producers. The MD Cannery enabled producers to sell all their Red Pumpkin, Ash Pumpkin, Tomatoes etc and producers had good incomes. Simultaneously Sri Lanka was self sufficient in Jam, and Fruit Juice, Tomatoe Sauce. Last year the only Tomato sauce available in a Supermarket in Colombo was from Colorado in the USA. All Jam and Fruit Juice comes from Australia and the USA. The foreign  trade we had built up in exporting pineapple rings and pieces was lost.
The CWE was partly abolished by President Jayawardena and what remained was further abolished during the UNP reign of 2001 to 2003 by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and Minister Ravi Karunanayake. The CWE was reestablished by President Rajapaksa but it could not function efficiently as it did earlier. 
When in 1977 Sri Lanka was handed over to the UNP Government of President Jayawardena the foreign debt of |Sri Lanka was only $ 750 million. Chandra Maliyadda one of our then Permanent Secretaries had quoted that in 1970 we were not having a foreign debt and he queried as to how Sri Lanka had built up a massive debt today of around 56 to 60 billion dollars.  Today there is no production and it is a question of importing everything.
The Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure that we had built up is unique to Sri Lanka. There is no other country that had any similar infrastructure. The closest in paddy is BULOG of Indonesia but that too did not function as efficiently as our Guaranteed Price System. Bulog too was abolished at the instance of the IMF.
This was the legacy left by the United National Party of President Jayawardena. It is a  very sad story that I have narrated in great detail in my book:  How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success, (Godages) 2006.
Garvin Karunaratne,Ph.D. Michigan State University, former Government Agent, Matara. 
Author of How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Kindle/Godages:2017)
 05/11/2019

Nexus between Civil Supplies, rice millers in Wanaparthy exposed

Cops blow lid off scandal by Wanaparthy PDS officials who are lining their pockets with illegal rice recylcing by colluding with millers

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By AuthorVivek Bhoomi  |  Published: 6th Nov 2019  12:10 amUpdated: 5th Nov 2019  10:49 pm
Description: WanaparthyRevathy, District Supplies Officer, insisting police to hand over seized rice to DT Enforcement for verification.
Wanaparthy: The alleged nexus between some officials in the Civil Supplies Department and the rice millers in Wanaparthy district was exposed when police seized a truck with 270 bags of PDS (Public Distribution System) rice. However, the District Supplies Officer refuted the allegations of collusion with the rice millers or private rice processing units.
On October 29, Madanapuram police received specific information about a DCM truck with PDS rice illegally procured from white-ration card holders in villages (PDS rice recycling) by Surya Rice Mill in Athmakur and being brought to the warehouse to be distributed back to the beneficiaries in villages.
Madanapuram SI N Saidaiah, along with his staff raided the warehouse and seized the truck with 270 bags of rice (136 quintals) just before unloading of the rice from the vehicle. The twist in the narrative came when Revathy, the District Supplies Officer, who was supposed to take immediate action, instead tried to get into a turf war with the police and started questioning them about their jurisdiction. She asked the police to hand over the truck back to the DT Enforcement to verify if it was PDS rice. The initial report by the Civil Supplies officials about the incident to the police said the delivery was “suspected to be PDS rice,” but the police were not convinced. After the issue was pursued by local media, on Sunday another report was given by the CSD stating that it was indeed PDS rice.
The truck is presently stationed at Madanapuram police station and a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code was booked by police against three persons including the miller Venkata Swamy who has been absconding, the truck driver and the cleaner. And a case under 6 (A) of the Essential Commodities Act was booked by the Civil Supplies officials.
The rice millers also tried to bribe the policemen to let the accused go scot-free. But Madanapuram police personnel stood ground. This was the third such case where they had seized the vehicles transporting the material illegally during the past month.
On Monday, Dr Shobhana Devi and Prem Kumar, Members of FCI Consultative Committee, visited the SWC warehouse in Madanapuram and grilled the Civil Supplies officials about the incident. However, Revathy resorted to put the blame on the police officers. The members then went to the rice mill in Athmakur, which was found locked, despite being informed about the visit. An hour later, the mill was opened and the police found at least 40 more PDS rice bags there with labels of the warehouse and some trader.
What was interesting in the matter was that Surya Rice Mill, the mill under investigation, has not been in operation for the past 4 to 5 months now. But surprisingly, they have been delivering PDS rice to the warehouse, for which answer can be given only by the rice miller, according to CSD officials.
On the other hand, DSO Revathy kept blaming the police personnel regarding jurisdictional issues while Athmakur CI A Seethaiah and Madanapuram SI N Saidaiah were firm on debunking her claims in front of the FCI team. The CSD officials also claimed that the truck was not delivering the rice to the warehouse and that it was loading the rice from the warehouse. However, the police personnel said they have evidence to prove otherwise.
When the FCI Committee told the Civil Supplies officials that it was the failure of their vigilance and enforcement team which had prompted the police department to take action, Revathy and other officials gave some excuse to the members. The FCI Committee said a comprehensive report on the incident including the entire ring of illegal recycling of PDS rice which was being carried out across Wanaparthy district. The report will be submitted to Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan who is also the Chairman of Food Corporation of India, said the Committee.

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Newly-created Kwara Customs command generated N1.27b in 3 months

By NAN
05 November 2019   |   5:49 pm
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The Nigeria Customs Service, Kwara Area Command, says it generated the sum of N1.27 billion within three months of creation.
This was contained in a statement issued by Chado Zakari, the Public Relations Officer of the command on Tuesday, in Ilorin.
Zakari attributed the feat to the strategic policies and plans put in place by the command to bring all the excise factories within its jurisdiction under effective control by forcing them to comply with the extant laws.
He said that the command generated N980,652 in August, N697,810 in September and N572,116 in October.
Zakari added that the command had been able to make changes through strict adherence to its driving wheel.
”This has led to an increased level of compliance by stakeholders, as the controller is determined to make the command a haven for legitimate trade facilitation.
”In our desirous efforts to key into the Federal Government’s policy on agricultural development, particularly in the area of boosting local rice production, we have made our territories unfavourable smugglers of rice and other prohibited items.
”The area controller urged all Nigerians to embrace the Federal Government’s policy on production of agricultural produce with particular reference to rice for both home consumption and export for self-reliance.
”The controller will also like to use this opportunity to reiterate that the command has resolved to rid its area of jurisdiction of all prohibited goods,” Zakari said.
He added that the command was complimenting the efforts of Operation Ex-Swift Response Team, codenamed ‘Border Drill’.
”This has led to seizures of foreign rice, petroleum products and a large quantity of mosquito coils, with duty paid value (DPV) of N25,403,500.
”The seizures were made around Okuta, Ogundele, Ilorin express road, Jebba-Mokwa express road, Maigida-Arogaji road, Ilorin and Chikanda axis of the state respectively.
”The area comptroller, Ahmed Bello, wants to make this clear to economic saboteurs that the ban on importation of rice, used vehicles, vegetable oil, second-hand clothing, used tires and other dangerous drugs such as Tramadol through the land borders, is still in place.
“The Kwara command is committed to enforcing this to the later,” he said.
Zakari expressed appreciation to Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd.) for equipping the command with brand new patrol vehicles and other logistics needed to make its operations more effective and efficient.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the management of NCS had recently created additional eight commands to enhance administrative convenience, boost revenue generation and ensure coverage of the nation’s land borders.

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Rice Will Be Cheaper, Sufficient Before Christmas – FG

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The National Food Security Council (NFSC), chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, has assured Nigerians that there will be sufficient rice in the country before the Christmas festivity.
The Deputy Chairman of the Council and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu while briefing reporters in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, said the council is aware of the current high prices of rice.
“The good news is that there is a lot of production in the country. All the millers in Nigeria have enough paddy and farmers are producing and the harvest is coming in strong,” Gov. Bagudu said.
“There is enough production in the country and the National Food Security Council is focused on how to ensure that availability is restored all across the country so that prices will come down reflective of the cost of production. We are taking steps to ensure that more rice is taken to markets where shortages can easily be created,’’ he added.
Bagudu further noted that the government is also aware of the activities of some individuals and groups bent on frustrating the new rice policy.
“We believe in addition to market forces, there are some people bent on manipulating the situation in order to exploit bigger revenue, bigger profits and some may even be doing so for the wrong reason,” he said.
Since Nigeria’s land borders were closed and forex restricted for the importation of rice, a 50kg bag of the commodity has increased to an average of N22,000 from N14,000.

India urges FG to sustain policies on boosting local rice production


Description: India urges FG to sustain policies on boosting local rice production

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The Republic of India has called on the Federal Government to sustain its policies on boosting local production of rice.
The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhay Thakur, made the call in Abuja when the Managing Director of Tiamin Rice Mill Ltd. Aminu Ahmed, led the management of the company on a courtesy call on the envoy.
A statement on the visit to the High Commissioner was made available to newsmen in Abuja by Ahmed.
The High Commissioner specifically urged the federal government to sustain the policies beyond the present administration so that local industries in the country would grow.
He also thanked the management of Tiamin Rice for the courtesy call and for patronising Indian rice milling machines.
Earlier,, Ahmed disclosed that the company had invested a total of 13,370,500 dollar (about N4.7 billion) to boost its local rice production capacity from the current 320 tonnes to 1,520 tonnes per day.
Ahmed said that the policy of the present administration, especially the ban on smuggling and the interventions given to them by the Central Bank of Nigeria had helped immensely in boosting local production of rice.
He revealed that the company was established in 2016 in Kano and started production of rice in 2018 with 320 tonnes per day.
The managing director disclosed that the existing production line in Kano would be expanded from 320 tonnes to 920 tonnes next year, just as a new production line would start production of 600 tonnes per day in Bauchi by May 2020.
“We are now investing 13,370,500 dollar to boost our production capacity to 1,520 tonnes per day.
“Already, we have placed orders for all the machinery needed, and all arrangements are on top gear to meet the deadline we set.
“By next year, we plan to become the biggest rice producers not only in Kano but in whole country.
“Our watchword is quality and affordability. We produce one of the finest brands in Nigeria that can compete with foreign rice brands in terms of quality,” he said.
The Managing Director appreciated the relative quality and durability of Indian machines, which he said are the secret behind the quality of Tiamin Rice.
He thanked the Indian High Commission for support and sought further cooperation in the areas of easing trade relations between his company and Indian partners.
The Managing Director of the rice mill also thanked the federal government for supporting local rice production and the state governments for giving them enabling environment.
“We thank the federal government for giving us all the needed support to operate and sustain our production.
“We also thank Kano State and Bauchi State Governments for their support in the allocation of the area of land.
“In line with Kano state government’s policy of allocating free land to genuine investors towards reviving its industrial glory, the state Governor has particularly allocated land to us for our expansion project.
“It is heart-warming that during the governor’s visit to our company on May 23, 2018, he expressed desire to support and woo local investors with allocations of land.
“We urge other state governments to follow suit in order to boost local production and provide employment opportunities for youth in their states,” Ahmed added. (NAN)

Governor Hutchinson makes appointments to state boards

   
Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced several appointments Nov. 4. These include:
John McAlpine, Monticello, to the Arkansas Forestry Commission. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2025. Replaces Dr. Delia Haak.
Bobby Pierce, Sheridan, to the Grant County Quorum Court, Justice of the Peace for District 9. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2020. Replaces Pat O’Bryan.
Teresa Inman, Paris, to the Board of Control for Southern Regional Education. Appointment expires June 30, 2023. Reappointment.
Dr. Christopher Warrick, Magnolia, to the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy. Appointment expires Aug. 17, 2024. Replaces Michael Watts.
David Cawein, Morrilton, to the Arkansas State Board of Registration for Foresters. Appointment expires July 18, 2024. Reappointment.
Sue McGowan, Paragould, to the Board of Trustees of Black River Technical College. Appointment expires June 30, 2026. Replaces Ray Noel.
Kerri Michael, Little Rock, to the Arkansas Access to Justice Commission. Appointment expires Oct. 15, 2019. Reappointment.
Louis McGrail, Rogers, to the Arkansas Board of Hearing Instrument Dispensers. Appointment expires July 31, 2020. Replaces Christopher Lowry.
Lindsey Johnson, Mount Pleasant, to the Izard County Quorum Court, Justice of the Peace for District 7. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2020. Replaces Blake Johnson.
Keith Harmon, Batesville, to the Independence County Quorum Court, Justice of the Peace for District 7. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2020. Replaces Anna King.
Rickey Crook, Ash Flat, to the Sharp County Quorum Court, Justice of the Peace for District 5. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2020. Replaces Tony Vaughn.
Rhonda Ahrent, Corning, to the Clay County Quorum Court, Justice of the Peace for District 7. Appointment expires Dec. 31, 2020. Replaces Greg Ahrent.
Tom Allen, Beebe, to the Arkansas Home Inspector Registration Board. Appointment expires Jan. 26, 2021. Reappointment.
Robert Neal, Little Rock, to the Arkansas Home Inspector Registration Board. Appointment expires Jan. 26, 2021. Reappointment.
Bob Downum, Springdale, to the Arkansas Home Inspector Registration Board. Appointment expires Jan. 26, 2021. Reappointment.
Dale Spence, Little Rock, to the Arkansas Abstracters’ Board. Appointment expires July 1, 2025. Replaces Carl Plumlee.
Sherrie Berry, Conway, to the Arkansas Abstracters’ Board. Appointment expires July 1, 2025. Replaces Robert Winton.
Captain Steve Unger, Springdale, to the Arkansas Abstracters’ Board. Appointment expires July 1, 2023. Replaces Thomas Bailey.
Trey Weaver, Rogers, to the Arkansas Abstracters’ Board. Appointment expires July 1, 2021. Replaces Q. Byrum Hurst.
David Gairhan, Jonesboro, to the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board. Appointment expires June 30, 2021. Reappointment.
Wayne Wiggins, Jonesboro, to the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board. Appointment expires June 30, 2021. Reappointment.
Jeff Rutledge, Newport, to the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board. Appointment expires June 30, 2021. Replaces Richard Hillman.
Marvin Hare, Newport, to the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board. Appointment expires June 30, 2021. Reappointment.
Jim Whitaker, McGehee, to the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board. Appointment expires June 30, 2021. Reappointment.
Alvin Lopez, Rogers, to the Board of Examiners in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. Appointment expires June 30, 2022. Replaces Michael Yarbrough.
Dr. Randall Cummings, Hot Springs Village, to the Board of Examiners in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. Appointment expires June 30, 2022. Replaces Bobby Slagely.
Dr. Zachary Ward, North Little Rock, to the Board of Examiners in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. Appointment expires June 30, 2021. Reappointment.
Dr. Andrea Sieczkowski, Maumelle, to the Board of Examiners in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. Appointment expires June 30, 2022. Replaces Dr. Laura Smith-Olinde.
Deeni Sterling, Little Rock, to the Board of Examiners in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. Appointment expires June 30, 2021. Reappointment.
Sheriff Christopher Brown, Wilburn, to the Criminal Justice Institute Advisory Board. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2021. Replaces Keith Slape.
Dr. Michael Derden, Hot Springs National Park, to the Criminal Justice Institute Advisory Board. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2023. Replaces Steven Shults.
Dr. Margaret Ellibee, Little Rock, to the Criminal Justice Institute Advisory Board. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2021. Replaces Gregory Shapiro.
Chief Chadwick Henson, Trumann, to the Criminal Justice Institute Advisory Board. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2021. Replaces Russell White.
Mike Reynolds, Fayetteville, to the Criminal Justice Institute Advisory Board. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2023. Replaces Gregory Tabor.
Sheriff James Singleton, Hope, to the Criminal Justice Institute Advisory Board. Appointment expires Jan. 14, 2023. Replaces Mark Counts.
Rodney Farley, North Little Rock, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2022. Replaces Jermaine Moore.
Judy Watson, Hope, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2022. Replaces Sheila Beck.
Sheri Rogers, Arkadelphia, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2020. Replaces Grady Tracy.
Bekka Middleton Wilkerson, Bryant, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2023. Replaces Amanda Goddard.
Bethany Baldwin, Cabot, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2023. Replaces Joseph Adams.
Craig Reinhardt, Little Rock, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2020. Reappointment.
John Martin, Crossett, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2021. Replaces Taisha Robison-Froman.
LeDante Walker, Hot Springs, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2022. Replaces Eric Treat.
Robert Passwaters, Bryant, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2020. Reappointment.
Toni Fraser, Little Rock, to the Governor’s Commission on People with Disabilities. Appointment expires June 1, 2021. Replaces Sarah Thomas.
Carol Crews, Conway, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Replaces Nate Smith.
Christopher White, Fayetteville, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Reappointment.
Chief Hayes Minor, Rogers, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Reappointment.
Sheriff John Staley, Austin, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Replaces Michael McCormick.
LJ Bryant, Jonesboro, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Replaces Lisa Oppenheim.
Paul Stevens, Little Rock, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Reappointment.
Dr. Sara Jones, Sherwood, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Reappointment.
Judge Stephen Tabor, Fort Smith, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Reappointment.
Stuart Byford, Fort Smith, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Replaces Paul Dottley.
Christopher Dickie, Bryant, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Replaces Kimberly Brown.
Suzanne Tipton, LittleRock, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Replaces Melinda Squires.
Teresa Belew, Little Rock, to the Arkansas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinating Council. Appointment expires July 1, 2022. Reappointment.

Fujitsu and Rice Exchange bring to market first global blockchain rice trading platform


Munich, 05 Nov 2019
Read time 5min 10sec

News facts:
·       First digital platform for global rice trading – the world’s largest agricultural commodity.
·       Rice Exchange’s blockchain platform automates and simplifies the complexity of rice trading, increasing security, transparency, efficiency, traceability and trust with verifiable, immutable data.
·       Fujitsu’s expertise in Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology helps create an enterprise-standard, automated platform for removal of friction in the rice supply chain, lowers risk and cost for traders, insurers, shippers and other stakeholders.
Fujitsu and Rice Exchange (Ricex) today announce they are bringing to market the world’s first global blockchain-based rice trading platform. This brings unparalleled security, transparency, efficiency, traceability and new levels of trust to the $450 billion global rice market.
Ricex is the first digital platform designed for buying and selling rice, one of the world’s largest agricultural commodities. The platform digitalises rice trading using a blockchain distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. Through it, buyers, sellers and service providers can easily find each other in a digital environment, efficiently conduct trades, and arrange insurance, shipping, inspection and settlement with the assurance of seamless integration and verifiable data.
“The Rice Exchange platform brings transparency, efficiency and security to the global rice trade,” says Stephen Edkins, CEO of Ricex. “The distributed ledger technology from our partner, Fujitsu, enables us to remove the many barriers that have prevented transparent, low-risk trading in rice, and allows trade buyers to purchase this vital food staple with full confidence that they are getting a quality product at a fair price.”
The use of a DLT platform injects new levels of trust and efficiency into the highly fragmented international rice trade. It creates verified, immutable data for all stakeholders, such as buyers, sellers, shippers, inspectors, insurers, regulators and payment system operators. The use of a distributed ledger removes friction and delays in the supply chain, ensuring security and transparency in international rice trades by allowing all stakeholders to see the same verifiable data, in real-time.
For example, the Ricex platform allows buyers to search for rice that has been certified as sustainably-grown. This gives buyers certainty about the provenance of the rice and in turn allows producers to charge a premium for their product.
Frederik De Breuck, Head of the Fujitsu Blockchain Innovation Center in Brussels, says: “Sustainability, track and trace, and provenance are at the heart of the Rice Exchange, which is another powerful example of the real-world use cases for blockchain. Ricex has shown great vision in adopting Fujitsu’s approach to distributed ledgers as a supplementary layer in larger enterprise architectures, and not an end-to-end solutions by themselves. We have placed a focus on making sure the DLT can interoperate with existing infrastructures. This is how we deliver true value from investment in this exciting new technology.”
New Fujitsu DLT solution runs on Hyperledger Fabric
Fujitsu is delivering a production-ready, private, permissioned DLT scale-out solution running on Hyperledger Fabric, a DLT especially developed for enterprise use with advanced automation features. Ricex selected the Fujitsu Blockchain Innovation Center (BIC) in Brussels as key integration partner to develop the solution because of its blockchain expertise, in particular with architectures built on Hyperledger Fabric, and because of Fujitsu’s flexible DevOps approach, covering both operational and development services, using the scrum/agile methodology.
The Fujitsu BIC relies on Microsoft Azure to provide the platform for its agile development and to deliver the production environment for Fujitsu’s ‘blockchain as a service’ offerings such as DocumentFlow and InvoiceFlow. As Fujitsu grows the rice trading platform, it intends to leverage Azure’s global scale as a secure and reliable foundation.
Opaque, complex and process-intensive rice trading business
Rice trading is an opaque, complex and extremely process-intensive business, often still paper-based. Certification requirements for rice imports vary by region and documents must be checked and matched manually, which is expensive and prone to costly human error. Documents must also travel globally with the goods, with the risk of loss of time due to faulty or lost documentation. The Rice Exchange platform simplifies documentation compliance, leading to lower transaction costs and back-end operations, and providing full transparency.
Increasing volumes of rice are now traded internationally, up five-fold in 30 years. This is being driven by demographic growth and concerns over food security and water usage. But unlike other major grain crops, rice has a wide variety of types and finishes. This makes pricing a lot less homogeneous, with trading managed by a relatively small group of individuals, with little transparency. The parties involved rarely have a full, transparent view of the rice market and market participants find it difficult to establish whether a buyer or seller has a clean track record for fulfilling contractual obligations.
Stakeholders in the rice supply chain have grown accustomed to these inefficiencies and have accepted their impact on price and margin as a 'cost of business'. However, digital transformation based on distributed ledger technologies has created the means to rectify these costly and inefficient drawbacks.
Online resources
Blockchain Innovation Center microsite: https://www.fujitsu.com/be/microsite/blockchain/index.htmlFujitsu Technology and Service Vision microsite: https://www.fujitsu.com/global/vision/
Read the Fujitsu blog:
https://blog.global.fujitsu.com/
Follow Fujitsu on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/Fujitsu_Global
Follow us on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/company/fujitsu
Find Fujitsu on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/FujitsuICT
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Fujitsu South Africa
The evolving nature of every business means changes, enhancements and upgrades to its data center infrastructure. Businesses are finding data center upgrades to be not only disruptive but also costly. There is a constant need to re-train and re-skill data center staff in order to effectively manage applications whilst ensuring data availability, security and energy consumption optimisation. Not to mention maintaining compliance and service level agreements.
Fujitsu South Africa’s approach to Solutions covering Servers, Storage and Integrated Systems offers the flexibility to tailor data center technologies to our customer’s specific requirements. We provide the benefits of secure, robust, future-proofed technologies from a single source supported by a unique, consultative approach. This ensures you get exactly what your organisation demands bringing true business value to companies.
Fujitsu
Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 132,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.0 trillion yen (US $36 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019. For more information, please see www.fujitsu.com
Editorial contacts
Channel & Marketing ManagerSteven Kramer(+27) 233 5401steven.kramer@ts.fujitsu.com