Higgins says new rice agreement with South Korea is
"win for South Louisiana"
Posted: 4:05 PM, Nov 20, 2019
Updated: 3:05 AM, Nov 21, 2019
By: KATC News
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) issued the
following statement after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that the Trump Administration
has reached an agreement with South Korea on market access for American rice.
Under the agreement, which enters into force on January 1, 2020,
South Korea will provide access for 132,304 tons of U.S. rice annually. This
gives the United States the greatest volume of guaranteed rice market access in
South Korea ever with a value of approximately $110 million each year.
Additionally, the agreement provides U.S. suppliers with enhanced disciplines
related to administration of the U.S. country-specific quota.
"Louisiana is one of the largest producers and exporters of
rice in the United States. Since 2017, my office has worked closely with
President Trump and his administration to prioritize new export agreements for
rice and other agricultural commodities. This agreement to expand market access
for rice is a win for South Louisiana farmers, millers, and ports. I'm grateful
that the President and his administration are putting America First and working
to deliver stronger trade opportunities for American industry."
Rs 2.9K cr paid for ‘non-existent’ paddy
Agencies
‘procure’ more than Haryana’s yearly produce
Posted at: Nov 21, 2019, 7:33 AM; last updated: Nov 21, 2019,
2:27 PM (IST)
Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 20
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 20
Year after year,
Haryana has been ‘purchasing’ more paddy than its farmers actually produce in
their fields, thanks to ‘bogus’ procurement by a cartel of rice millers,
government procurement agencies and officials of agriculture marketing board.
While official
procurement of paddy has yet to end in the state, government figures suggest
70.63 lakh MT of paddy has already been procured this year, out of which 63.81
lakh MT has been purchased by government agencies.
Since the government procures only non-basmati
varieties, given to rice millers for custom milling of rice (CMR), the figures
suggest 63.81 lakh MT of non-basmati paddy has been procured in Haryana so far.
In Haryana, 13
lakh hectare of land is under paddy crop cultivation — nearly 55 per cent of
this is basmati and the rest is non-basmati.
Gurjeet Singh Mann, a farmer from Kirpal Patti
village of Sirsa, says because of its water-guzzling ability, farmers in
several districts, including Sirsa, have stopped growing non-basmati
varieties completely and now these are largely grown in Karnal, Kaithal,
Kurukshetra, Ambala and Yamunanagar districts.
Agriculture
experts say the average production of non-basmati varieties is 30 quintals per
acre (among the best averages) or 75 quintal (7.5 MT) per hectare.
Even if it is
assumed that half of the paddy land in Haryana is under cultivation of
non-basmati varieties — though state agriculture and farmers’ welfare
department officials say it is only 45 per cent of the total paddy land — the
total production on 6.5 lakh hectares comes out to 48.75 lakh MT.
However, the
agencies have already ‘procured’ 63.81 lakh MT of paddy, which is 15 lakh MT
more than the state’s production.
In contrast,
private purchase, which is normally of Basmati varieties, is only 6.82 lakh MT
in the state this year. Given the fact that the government pays Rs 1,840 per
quintal (Rs 18,400 per MT) as minimum support price for the paddy it purchases,
this mean a sum of Rs 2,870 crore has been siphoned off from the state
exchequer this year for ‘paddy’ which was never there.
Even last year,
the government agencies had procured 58 lakh MT of paddy, while almost 47 lakh
MT of non-basmati paddy was produced in the state by farmers that year.
After the issue
cropped up at a meeting of Council of Ministers on Monday, the state
authorities initiated a crackdown on millers and PSD rice was recovered from
some mills in Karnal.
Pankaj Agarwal,
Director General of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs, Haryana,
however said paddy from other states, too, kept coming to the state for
procurement because of prompt payments and better facilities for farmers.
316 Karnal rice mills under
lens, cops deployed
osted at: Nov 21, 2019, 8:45 AM; last updated: Nov 21, 2019, 8:45
AM (IST)
PDS produce from other
states found in units across Haryana
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The police deployed at a sugar mill in Karnal. Sayeed Ahmed
rveen
Arora
Tribune
News Service
Karnal,
November 20
After
the recovery of PDS (Public Distribution System) rice and gunny bags of other
states in mills, 316 rice mills have come under the scanner of the district
administration. The police have been deployed at the mills. Not a single bag of
rice can be taken out of the mills or brought inside.
Superintendent of Police Surinder Singh Bhoria
has confirmed this.
After
complaints of bogus procurement of paddy with the connivance of rice millers,
traders and government officials, the district authorities, with the help of
the police, conducted a raid on mills on the intervening night of Monday and
Tuesday.
Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh assigned
duties to all four Sub-divisional Magistrates (SDMs) to monitor the raids and
file reports.
The DC has already confirmed that PDS rice
belonging to other states was found in some local mills, but he did not
disclose the quantity seized. He said the inspection was underway and would
continue for some days.
Gharaunda SDM Gaurav Kumar said officials
conducted raids on 29 mills in Gharaunda block and found old PDS gunny bags
belonging to other states.
Indri SDM Sumit Sihag said his team checked
around 18 mills in his block, but did not find PDS rice from the other state.
Rice millers, however, objected to the raids.
Vinod Goel, vice-president, Haryana Rice Millers and Dealers Association, said
the millers had requested the district authorities to allow them to send the
milled rice to the state government. “We are awaiting a reply,” he added.
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Rice price manipulation won’t be
tolerated
12:00
AM, November 21, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:18 AM, November 21, 2019
Warns government as Aman paddy procurement begins
Photo:
Collected
Star
Report
The government yesterday sounded a
note of warning against unscrupulous traders and said rice price manipulation
would not be tolerated as the country had no shortage of the staple.
“It will not be acceptable at any
cost if anyone tries to manipulate rice prices … there is no reason to hike the
price illegally,” Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder told reporters after a
meeting with rice mill owners and traders at the Secretariat.
Meanwhile, the food office
yesterday started procuring Aman paddy from farmers in some areas where the
harvesting began.
The government has decided to
procure 6 lakh tonnes of Aman paddy this Aman season, the highest for the
season in the last 24 years, according to the ministry data.
The minister said the paddy price
did not increase, so there was no logic in increasing the rice price, reports
BSS.
“Farmers would rather have
benefited had the paddy price been higher, but unfortunately it did not
happen,” he said.
He also said a control room had
already been opened under the food ministry and various vigilance teams were
monitoring the rice market at the field level.
Asked, Majumder said the ongoing
nation-wide transport strike would not impact rice prices for the next 8-10
days as each market across the country has sufficient rice stock.
Moreover, the Directorate of
National Consumer Rights Protection has already been asked to take necessary
actions if any irregularities come to its notice, he added.
If required, the minister said, the
food ministry would conduct mobile court drives to this end.
The country produces nearly 3.44
crore tonnes of rice annually against the demand of almost 2.16 crore tonnes,
he said.
At present, the country’s food
crops stock is about 14,52,707 tonnes at different warehouses of the
government. Of the stock, 11,13,303 tonnes are rice.
Acting food secretary Omar Faruque,
Director General of the Department of Food Nazmanara Khanum, Bangladesh Auto
Major and Husking Mill Owners Association President Abdur Rashid, Bangladesh
Auto Rice Mill Association President Khorshed Alam and representatives from the
home, commerce and agriculture ministries, among others, attended the meeting.
AMAN PROCUREMENT
Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum, director
general of the Directorate General of Food said, “We have asked all our field
offices to begin Aman procurement in areas where the harvest has started. The
procurement will start all over the country in phases.”
She said her office had already got
the list of growers provided by the Department of Agricultural Extension and
the procurement officially started in a couple of areas.
The government is buying the paddy
so that the farmers get fair prices for their produce and recoup losses
incurred in recent seasons.
This year, the volume of paddy
purchase, including that of Boro, would be the second highest during the
period, according to data from the food ministry.
The ministry bought the highest
quantity of paddy -- 6.70 lakh tonnes -- in the Boro season in 2017.
It had earlier announced that it
would start buying Aman paddy at Tk 26 each kg from marginal and small farmers
on November 20. The procurement would continue till February 28.
The food ministry estimated the
production cost of each kg at Tk 21.55, down from Tk 25.30 the previous year.
After a meeting of the Food
Planning and Monitoring Committee, the ministry had said the list of growers
would be scrutinised by the upazila procurement committee.
In case the number of farmers
exceeds the procurement target, the growers would be chosen through lotteries,
the food minister said at a briefing following the meeting on October 31.
The government has also decided to
buy 3.5 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice, which would be procured at Tk 36 each
kilogram.
The purchase quantity was the same
last year.
Besides, 50,000 tonnes of un-boiled
rice would be bought at Tk 35 a kg, according to a ministry statement.
Rice purchase from millers would
begin on December 1 and continue till February 28, said the statement.
PROCUREMENT IN DINAJPUR
Mahmudul Alam, deputy commissioner
of Dinajpur, said the government bought 1,000kgs of Aman paddy from two farmers
from the district’s Biral and Nawabganj upazilas.
Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman, district
food controller, said the district food office would buy 28,700 metric tonnes
of Aman paddy from 13 upazilas of Dinajpur.
A farmer can sell maximum 500kgs of
Aman paddy, he said, reports our Dinajpur correspondent.
The number of farmers in the
district is around 4.50 lakh.
Beyond the green revolution
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
There has been a substantial increase in food
production over the last 50 years, but it has been accompanied by a narrowing
in the diversity of cultivated crops. New research shows that diversifying crop
production can make food supplies more nutritious, reduce resource demand and
greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance climate resilience without reducing
calorie production or requiring more land.
The Green Revolution—or Third Agricultural
Revolution—entailed a set of research technology transfer initiatives
introduced between 1950 and the late 1960s. This markedly increased agricultural production across
the globe, and particularly in the developing world, and promoted the use of
high-yielding seed varieties, irrigation, fertilizers, and machinery, while
emphasizing maximizing food calorie production, often at the expense of
nutritional and environmental considerations. Since then, the diversity of
cultivated crops has narrowed considerably,
with many producers opting to shift away from more nutritious cereals to
high-yielding crops like rice. This has in turn led to a triple burden of
malnutrition, in which one in nine people in the world are undernourished, one
in eight adults are obese, and one in five people are affected by some kind of
micronutrient deficiency. According to the authors of a new study, strategies to
enhance the sustainability of food systems require the quantification and
assessment of tradeoffs and benefits across multiple dimensions.
In their paper published in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from
IIASA, and several institutions across the US and India, quantitatively
assessed the outcomes of alternative production decisions across multiple
objectives using India's rice dominated monsoon cereal production as an
example, as India was one of the major beneficiaries of Green Revolution
technologies.
Using a series of optimizations to maximize
nutrient production (i.e., protein and iron), minimize greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions and resource use (i.e.,
water and energy), or maximize resilience to climate extremes, the researchers
found that diversifying crop production in
India would make the nation's food supply more nutritious, while reducing
irrigation demand, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions. The authors
specifically recommend replacing some of the rice crops that is currently being
cultivated in the country with nutritious coarse cereals like millets and
sorghum, and argue that such diversification would also enhance the country's
climate resilience without reducing calorie production or requiring more land.
Researchers from IIASA contributed the design of the optimization model and the
energy and GHG intensity assessments.
"To make agriculture more sustainable,
it's important that we think beyond just increasing food supply and also find
solutions that can benefit nutrition, farmers, and the environment. This study
shows that there are real opportunities to do just that. India can sustainably
enhance its food supply if
farmers plant less rice and more nutritious and environmentally friendly crops
such as finger millet, pearl millet, and sorghum," explains study lead
author Kyle Davis, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Data Science Institute
at Columbia University, New York.
The authors found that planting more coarse
cereals could on average increase available protein by 1% to 5%; increase iron
supply by between 5% and 49%; increase climate resilience (1% to 13%
fewer calories would be lost during times of drought); and reduce GHG emissions
by 2% to 13%. The diversification of crops would also decrease the demand for
irrigation water by 3% to 21% and reduce energy use by 2% to 12%, while
maintaining calorie production and using the same amount of cropland.
"One key insight from this study was that
despite coarse grains having lower yields on average, there are enough regions
where this is not the case. A non-trivial shift away from rice can therefore
occur without reducing overall production," says study coauthor Narasimha
Rao, a researcher in the IIASA Energy Program, who is also on the faculty of
the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
The authors point out that the Indian
Government is currently promoting the increased production and consumption of
these nutri-cereals—efforts that they say will be important to protect farmers'
livelihoods and increase the cultural acceptability of these grains. With
nearly 200 million undernourished people in India, alongside widespread
groundwater depletion and the need to adapt to climate change, increasing the
supply of nutri-cereals may be an important part of improving the
country's food security.
Rice yields could plummet 40% by 2100 due to
climate change: Stanford University
At least 2 billion people, especially in Asia, could be affected
due to the scarcity
By DTE Staff
Last
Updated: Wednesday 20 November 2019
Global yields of rice, the
world’s largest staple food crop, could plummet by as much as 40 per cent by
2100, affecting two billion people, a new study by Stanford University in the
United States has said.
The plummeting of the yields
would be caused by increasing temperatures. Moreover, changes in the chemistry
of the soil due to increased temperatures would cause the rice grown to contain
twice as much toxic arsenic than the rice that is consumed today, the study has
added.
To arrive at their conclusions,
the researchers grew a medium-sized rice variety in soil from California’s
rice-growing region (Sacramento Valley). The experiment took place in
greenhouses, the temperatures of which were based on a five degree Celsius
temperature increase.
Carbon dioxide levels were
increased to twice as much as what they are today. Both, the temperature of the
greenhouse and the carbon dioxide level were based on estimates by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The scientists found that because
of the higher temperatures, the inherent arsenic in the soil was destabilised
and taken up by the rice plants. The arsenic went on to inhibit the absorption
of nutrients and decrease the plants’ growth and development, causing yields to
plummet by 40 per cent.
The researchers said the
development was worrying not just because rice is the food of half of the
world’s population but also because the increased levels of arsenic could pose
health threats to adults and infants alike.
Consistent exposure to arsenic
causes skin lesions, cancers, exacerbation of lung disease and death. Since
rice is also the first food that is given to infants in many cultures because
it is low in allergens, infants are especially at risk.
However, the scientists expressed
the hope that given the technology available today, rice varieties could be
grown which would address these threats.
The research was published on
November 1 in the journal Nature Communications.
U.S., South Korea reach rice trade
deal
by November 19, 2019 4:00 pm
Rice produced in Arkansas and the
rest of the country can soon be sold in South Korea. U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced
Tuesday (Nov. 19) an agreement with the government of South Korea on market
access for U.S. rice.
Under the agreement, Korea will
provide access for 132,304 tons of U.S. rice annually, with an annual value of
approximately $110 million. Korea also agreed to important disciplines to
ensure transparency and predictability around the tendering and auctioning for
U.S. rice.
“Exports are critical for the
economic health of the U.S. rice industry, with half our crop being exported
every year. Agreements like this, that expand opportunities for U.S. rice
producers in important markets, are critical to introduce foreign customers to
the bounty of goods produced by America’s farmers,” Perdue said.
In 2014, the United States,
Australia, China, Thailand, and Vietnam entered into negotiations with Korea
when its special treatment for rice market access under the World Trade
Organization (WTO) expired.
As a result of these negotiations,
Korea agreed to include in its WTO Schedule a 408,700-ton tariff-rate quota for
rice imports with a 5% in-quota duty and a 513% above-quota duty. Of that
408,700 tons, Korea will allocate 388,700 tons of rice to country-specific
quotas under a Plurilateral Agreement with the United States, Australia, China,
Thailand and Vietnam. The remaining 20,000 tons will be administered on a
global basis, which U.S. suppliers can also bid for.
Additionally, the agreement
provides U.S. suppliers with enhanced disciplines related to the administration
of the U.S. country-specific quota. The agreement will enter into force on
January 1, 2020.
Arkansas, which produces about
half the nation’s rice, will benefit from this agreement Arkansas Rice
Executive Director Lauren Waldrip told Talk Business & Politics. During the
last decade, the state has averaged about 1.35 million rice acres each year,
according to USDA.
“After nearly five years of
working towards a new agreement, we are pleased to see this deal finalized. The
industry will certainly benefit from this arrangement, which increases
consumption of U.S. rice and guarantees this market through the U.S.
country-specific quota. We are encouraged and hopeful that the administration
will complete other agreements such as these in the future,” Waldrip said.
Individual companies involved in
rice production and distribution were also pleased that an agreement had been
reached with South Korea, one of the top rice consuming countries in Asia.
“After nearly five years of work,
the rice industry and the U.S. government have finalized an agreement with
Korea for a country-specific quota for U.S. rice,” said Kevin McGilton, Vice
President Government Affairs for Stuttgart-based Riceland Foods. “We thank
Ambassador Lighthizer and Secretary Perdue for their hard work to finalize the
deal. U.S. agriculture is dealing with very uncertain times and this
country-specific quota brings certainty in a high-value market for U.S. rice
farmers and exporters.”
House will review
proposal to repeal rice tariffication law
November 20, 2019
This
file photo shows an assortment of commercial rice on sale at a grocery store in
Antipolo City.
THE leadership of the House of
Representatives on Tuesday said it will study the proposals repealing the rice
tariffication law (RTL).
This after Speaker Alan Peter
Cayetano and Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez along with other House
leaders received the 50,000 signatures gathered by Bantay Bigas calling for the
repeal of the law, which took effect just last March.
Cayetano said that they are open
to the proposal and would study all options to help farmers affected by the
RTL, who have groaned under deep cuts to their income with the surge in imports
as a result of liberalization.
Romualdez, chairman of the House
Committee on Rules, also vowed to hear the proposal of other lawmakers to
address the impact of RTL, saying “everyone deserves to be heard.”
On February 2019, Republic Act
(RA) 11203 entitled, “An Act Liberalizing the Importation, Exportation and
Trading of Rice, Lifting for the Purpose the Quantitative Import Restriction on
Rice, and For Other Purposes” was enacted to help support the local rice
industry specifically by creating a “Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.”
For his part, House Committee on
Agriculture and Food Chairman Wilfrido Mark Enverga said suspension of rice
importation will help farmers against losses due to the RTL.
“Definitely a call for suspension
of rice importation and/or raising the safeguard measures will ease the impacts
of the rice liberalization law,” he added.
December discussions
According to Enverga, his
committee will deliberate all the proposals amending, as well as repealing the
RTL next month.
“There are bills repealing and
amending the RTL. These measures will be scheduled this December for
deliberations,” Enverga said.
“It is a point of consideration
for President Duterte. We will welcome any measure that will cushion the
immediate impacts of the law to our rice farmers,” he added. Currently, there
are five pending bills and resolutions repealing and amending Republic Act
11203 or the RTL.
Last week, Bantay Bigas and the
National Federation of Peasant Women (Amihan) submitted a petition to the House
urging the leadership of the chamber to repeal the RTL.
The groups said their petition
was signed by 50,000 farmers in top rice-producing provinces, including Nueva
Ecija, Isabela, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Iloilo, Camarines Sur, Tarlac and Leyte.
“We strongly hope that the House
of Representatives heeds the noble demands of the Filipino people for the
attainment of national food security based on self-sufficiency and
self-reliance, free from import dependence and grounded on strengthened
tenurial rights of rice farmers in the country,” the petition said.
Reiterated
Meanwhile, House Committee on
Ways and Means Chairman Joey Salceda on Tuesday reiterated that the national
government has three options, including requesting Congress to impose
quatitative restrictions, to stop farmers from incurring losses due to RTL.
According to Salceda, the sudden
drop in palay prices is due to increased local harvest and the huge volume of
imported rice with the RTL.
One of the options, Salceda said,
is for President Duterte to ask Congress for special powers to impose the
quantitative restrictions, which was repealed in the passage of RTL last year.
With the surge of rice imports
and injury to domestic industry the other option the government may invoke,
Salceda said, is Republic Act 8800 or the Safeguards Law to impose 30 percent
to 80 percent tariff on imported rice outside the Minimum Access Volume (MAV)
of 350,000 metric tons. “RA 8800 is well recognized under our commitments
with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and the provisional measure has a
maximum period of one year,” he said.
The third option, Salceda said,
is for the government to provide cash transfers to marginal small-lot farmers
and concessional loans to big rice farmers. The lawmaker said a total of 2.1
million farmers will benefit from these options
Repeal Rice Tariffication
Law'
Mike Alquinto,
ABS-CBN News
Members of various farmers groups
hold a protest against the Rice Tariffication Law in front of the National
Economic and Development Authority's main gate in Pasig City on Wednesday.
President Duterte ordered the Department of Agriculture to suspend the
importation of rice to avoid a “food crisis,” months after signing into law a
rice tariffication bill which lifted restrictions on rice imports.
US, S. Korea Reach Annual Rice Export Deal Worth More Than $100Mln -
Trade Representative
The United States and South Korea
reached a deal to allow more than $100 million of American rice exports into
the Asian country each year, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR)
said on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th November,
2019) The United States and South Korea reached
a deal to allow more than $100 million of
American rice exports into
the Asian country each year, the Office of the US
Trade Representative (USTR) said on Tuesday.
"Under the agreement, Korea will provide
access for 132,304 tons of US rice annually, with an annual value of
approximately $110 million," the USTR said in a
statement. "Korea also agreed to important disciplines to ensure
transparency and predictability around the tendering and auctioning for US
rice."
Rice has been South Korea's most important
agricultural crop and staple grain but Seoul's policies had isolated
its market in
the past from the
global rice markets,
the US Department of Agriculture said separately in
a report.
In 2014, the United
States, Australia, China, Thailand, and Vietnam entered into
negotiations with Korea when its special treatment for rice market access under the World Trade Organization (WTO)
expired.
"Exports are critical for the
economic health of the US rice industry, with half our crop being
exported every year," US Agriculture Secretary Sonny
Perdue was quoted as saying in the USTR statement. "Agreements like this,
that expand opportunities for US rice producers in important markets, are critical to introduce
foreign customers to the bounty of goods produced by America's farmers."
Following the WTO negotiations,
Korea agreed to include in its WTO schedule a
408,700-ton tariff-rate quota for rice imports with a five percent in-quota
duty and a 513-percent above-quota duty.
Of the 408,700 tons, Korea will
allocate 388,700 tons of rice into country-specific quotas under a plurilateral
pact with the United
States, Australia, China, Thailand and Vietnam. The remaining 20,000 tons
will be administered on a global basis, which U.S. suppliers can also bid for.
Food Exports Up By 16.21%, Imports Down 20.34% In Four Months Of
FY2019-20
Food group exports from the country
during first four months of current financial year increased by 16.21%, where
as imports of the food commodities into the country decreased by 20.34% as
compared to the corresponding period of last year
ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint /
Pakistan Point News - 20th Nov, 2019 ) :Food group exports from the country during first
four months of current financial year increased by 16.21%, where as imports of
the food commodities into the
country decreased by 20.34% as compared to the corresponding period of last
year.
The imports of the food group came
down to $1.583 billion during the
period from July-October,
2019-20 from $1.987 billion of the same period of last year,
according the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
During the period under review, the
imports of milk cream and milk for infants reduced by 33.41%, tea by 28.16%,
spices.08%, palm oil 18.64% and sugar by 26.55%
respectively.
Besides, the imports of pulses in
period under review also decreased by 23.33%, and all other food items by
20.32%, the data reveled.
On the other hand, the exports which witnessed about
16.21% growth in last four months of current financial year reached to $1.
The food items that observed positive growth during the period
under review included rice by 43.76%, basmati-rice 55.32%, other rice 36.83%,
fish and fish preparations 18.11% respectively.
The exports of fruits grew by
3.72%, vegetables by 19%, tobacco 335.20, sugar by 9.63%, meat and meat
products 53.57% in four months of current financial year.
On month on month basis, the exports of food also grew by
22.50% in October, 2019 as compared the exports of the same month of last year as food
commodities worth $375.466 million exported during the
period under review as compared the exports of corresponding
period of last year.
meanwhile, the imports of food
group into the country during the month of October, decreased by 8.08% as it
was recorded at $486.088 million as against the imports
of $528.826 million of same month of last year, the
data added.
‘Hybrid rice way
out of rice-imports trap’
November 20, 2019
THE Philippines could stop
depending on rice imports if it steps up investments in the production of
hybrid rice, according to an industry expert.Dr. Frisco Malabanan, senior
technical consultant at SL Agritech Corp., said the estimated 7 percent to 10
percent shortfall in local rice output could be drastically cut if the country
would produce hybrid rice in about 1.5 million hectares. This, he pointed out,
should be coupled with the correct support in terms offertilizer and irrigation.
“My recommendation, since rice is
the staple food of Filipinos, is that there should be really support for hybrid
rice production. This technology has been proven and tested to give farmers a
30-percent increase in income as it could double or even more than double their
yield per hectare,” Malabanan told the BusinessMirror during the first episode
of its Farm Fridays podcast. (https://businessmirror.podbean.com/e/farm-fridays-with-jennifer-ng-hybrid-rice-technology-with-frisco-malabanan/ )
Malabanan noted that it is
difficult for the Philippines to be dependent on other countries for its rice
supply due to the thin volume traded in the world market and volatility in
global production.
“Our concern is the thin supply
in the world market. But right now we have solutions to produce the sufficient
amount of rice requirement of the Filipinos,” he said. “[Investing in hybrid
rice production] will ensure that Filipinos would have sufficient rice supply
whatever happens to our trade partners,” he added.
Malabanan, who is also a
technical adviser to the Department of Agriculture’s hybrid rice program,
proposed that the government provide farmers with direct cash assistance so
that they could shift to hybrid rice production.
“The DA and the government should
invest in our farmers. If the government could give billions-worth conditional
cash transfer to the poor, then it can also give to farmers planting in the
targeted 1.5 million hectares for hybrid rice,” he said.
“For example, you just give them
P5,000 per hectare for the additional costs incurred for seeds and other
inputs. It’s just a small amount to give farmers the proper support, so that
they will be able to produce the country’s total rice requirement,” he added.
Malabanan said he is not against rice importation but it would be better if the
country’s staple requirement would be ensured through local output.
“There’s nothing wrong about rice
importation, it’s part of the open market and globalization. But what I mean is that,
given that rice is our staple food, we must see to it that we have enough
production for Filipinos,” he said.
The DA is eyeing to expand the
adoption of hybrid rice in the country through its annual P7-billion rice
program to improve farmers’ productivity and income.
The country’s rice production
from January to September declined by nearly 5 percent to 11.32 million metric
tons from 11.909 million metric tons due to reduced harvest area, according to
the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Suspension of rice imports won't impact inflation, says Diokno
ABS-CBN News
MANILA – President Duterte's
suspension of rice importation is unlikely to affect inflation since there is
enough supply during the harvest season and pending imports are expected to
arrive, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said on
Wednesday.
“Hindi naman makakaapekto kasi
marami nang imports na darating pa lang eh, tapos concern nga is harvest
season, baka lalong bumaba yung presyo,” Diokno told reporters.
(It won’t have an effect since we
have a lot of imports that will be arriving. The concern is it’s harvest
season, so prices might even go lower)
Inflation stayed below the
government's 2 to 4 percent target range for 3 straight months after
inflationary pressures in 2018, including the shortage in rice supply, were
addressed.
The Philippines is also likely to
enjoy “a nice Christmas” in terms of consumer prices with lower global oil
forecasts, Diokno told reporters.
“And on prices naman, sinusewerte
pa rin tayo, mababa pa rin ang long term forecast of oil prices, sinuswerte
tayo all the way. So we’ll have a nice Christmas,” he added.
(On prices, we’re lucky since the
long term forecast of oil prices remain low. We’re lucky, so we’ll have a nice
Christmas)
Diokno said “there’s no way” the
government will turn its back on the rice tariffication since it has already
been enacted into law.
President Rodrigo Duterte on
Tuesday night ordered Agriculture Sec. William Dar to suspend rice
importation.
-- with a report from Bruce
Rodriguez, ABS-CBN News
Halting rice
imports has no legal basis’
November 21, 2019
By
Bernadette D. Nicolas, Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas & Cai U. Ordinario
PRESIDENT Duterte may be inviting
lawsuits as there is no legal basis for his decision—announced verbally in a
late-Tuesday press conference—to prohibit the private sector’s importation of
rice during harvest, according to an expert.
Apart from this, former
Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor said the President’s order to suspend
imports at this time will no longer help farmers, as harvest of the wet season
crop is almost over.
Instead of suspending imports,
economists and legal experts told the BusinessMirror that the government may
impose safeguard duties, a trade remedy that is allowed by the World Trade
Organization (WTO).
The President’s verbal order to
ban rice imports was made as calls mounted for the government to stem the surge
of imports—tracked since the rice trade liberalization law took effect in
March—that farmers blamed for the plunge in their incomes as farm-gate prices
of palay have hit record lows.
Lawyer Michael Ll. Yusingco,
nonresident research fellow of the Ateneo School of Government, said on
Wednesday he cannot recall any law allowing the President to stop the
importation of rice.
“As the head of the Executive
branch of government, the President could have the authority to prohibit his
administration from importing rice. But absent any national statute authorizing
him to do so, the President cannot just prevent private entities from lawfully
importing rice,” Yusingco said in an e-mail to the BusinessMirror.
He said the government may face
lawsuits if it will stop the private sector from importing rice, a move which
could affect the supply of the staple in the domestic market.
“Preventing private business from
importing rice without the proper authority can open the government to legal
action. More important, it may have an adverse impact on the rice supply
market, which may ultimately affect consumers. It is never a good move for
government to intervene in private matters without justification and proper
authority,” said Yusingco.
Montemayor agreed with Yusingco,
saying the rice trade liberalization (RTL) law does not give the President the
power to suspend rice imports. He noted that the law only allows the President
to hike tariffs to effectively limit the purchases of traders.
The BusinessMirror reported that
Republic Act 11203, or the RTL law, effectively dismantled the government’s
right to impose quantitative restriction on rice imports as a trade remedy.
“On the matter of stopping
importation, the government could be questioned because under the law, [rice
trade] is already liberalized. The government cannot just stop imports under
the new law,” said Montemayor. “What is the legal basis of the government to
stop imports?”
Legal remedies
Experts said there are other
legal remedies outside of suspending imports.
“We’ve been proposing for some
time now the general safeguard protection which has the same effect of stopping
additional rice importation. Unfortunately, our economic managers rejected that
proposal,” said Montemayor, who is also chairman of nongovernment organization
Federation of Free Farmers.
“Imposing safeguard duties would
discourage importers from bringing in more rice to the country because our
total imported volume is already over and above our requirement,” he added.
The Philippine Chamber of
Agriculture and Food Inc. (Pcafi) reiterated its call for the government to
impose special safeguard (SSG) measures on rice imports as a legal remedy to
limit imports.
Pcafi said the SSG may still be
implemented by January or February next year to protect farmers during the
summer harvest season.
“This is to ensure imports will
not coincide with harvest by dry season in March to April 2020, the peak
harvest of the two-season crop. It will help support farm-gate price of palay
[unhusked rice] to at least P17 per kilogram,” Pcafi President Danilo V. Fausto
said in a statement on Wednesday.
“It takes 30 to 60 days to
implement the law. So it should be issued January to February. A
suspension is against the prevailing law on ‘no QR’ [quantative restriction],”
Fausto added.
The founding President and
Chairman of the Society Towards Reinforcing Inherent Viability for Enrichment
Foundation Inc. Leonardo A. Gonzales said the government can consider non-tariff
measures (NTMs) to somehow help local farmers recover from the steep decline in
farmgate prices.
While NTMs are the prerogative of
the administration, former Tariff Commissioner George Manzano said the
government should be able to provide a solid basis for this.
Manzano said if the government
imposes NTMs, the Philippines must officially notify the World Trade
Organization (WTO) to ensure that the country is not violating any of its
commitments.
“Depends on the type of NTMs,
provided the administration can defend it objectively. For example, sanitary
measures provided that there is a justification. But government has to notify
WTO. Not easy to use arbitrary NTMs,” said Manzano in an SMS to BusinessMirror.
Economist Maria Ella C. Oplas
urged the government to amend RA 11203 to involve the National Food Authority
in the monitoring of rice prices.
Chuck ‘BBB’
Ateneo Eagle Watch Senior Fellow
Leonardo A. Lanzona Jr. said he believes the President’s decision will not
yield the results that he is hoping for, and would only lead to suffering for
consumers.
“Suspending the [implementation]
of the law will just bring back the old system and remove the gains achieved by
our consumers. Any kind of trade restriction will not solve the problem. The
solution is a comprehensive reform of the agricultural sector,” said Lanzona.
“[Government] must channel
resources to rural areas and deal with the problems there. Forget ‘Build,
Build, Build’ [BBB], and work on the basic needs like food, education and
health,” he added.
Lanzona said that while it was
true that a significant amount of funds have been set aside for the
government’s ambitious infrastructure program, the impact on the economy and
farmers has been “underwhelming.”
He said the infrastructure
program would have a greater impact if rural areas received more projects. Thus
far, Lanzona noted that the program “has no effect on the lives of farmers.”
“We have seen growth in the
previous quarter but this is an empty achievement,” he said.
Economist Rene Ofreneo told BusinessMirror
that abandoning “dubious” BBB projects would free up necessary resources that
will hasten the development and boost the growth of the farm sector.
An example of these dubious
projects, Ofreneo said, are connecting bridges between islands, as well as the
“expensive” subway project in Makati. He said these projects limit the
government’s ability to help other sectors of society.
He said abandoning the dubious
projects is a better alternative than suspending rice imports at this time,
when importers have already stocked up on the staple.
“The President, given his awesome
power, can ask the big importers listed by the BusinessMirror’s report [See “Pre- and post-rice
trade lib law, big traders gaming farmer groups,” in the BusinessMirror,
October 31, 2019] to calibrate any importation
program based on local production and harvesting schedule,” said Ofreneo.
“What the government is doing is
fire fighting,” he said. “The lesson is that any major policy requires a
comprehensive program of adjustment measures to smoothen the process. In this
case, [the goal should have been] not to sacrifice domestic palay production
and palay producers.”
Gonzales said the government
should pursue sustainable agriculture. This means going for programs and
projects that will help make agricultural value chains more efficient.
“The problem is that
infrastructure projects, such as farm to market roads, are not linked [to
specific] commodities,” said Gonzales.
Money for procurement
Aside from suspending imports,
the President also ordered the purchase of all unhusked rice produced by local
farmers.
farmers.
While Yusingco sees nothing wrong
with this move, he said this cannot be a long-term policy as it can distort
market dynamics.
He also noted that government’s
“ultimate goal” should be to make rice farmers competitive and allow them to
meet not just the requirements of domestic consumers but also that of the
export market.
“This approach of government
buying directly from rice farmers has to be well-thought of and well-timed. It
cannot be just a knee-jerk response on the part of the administration. But it
can be a part of the economic and social safety net package to help rice
farmers cope with the implementation of [RA 11203],” he said.
Oplas, who is also an economics
professor at the De La Salle University, expressed concern over the feasibility
and the impact of the President’s pronouncement to buy all the produce of local
farmers.
“One, where will the government
get the budget to buy? New sets of taxes? Two, if government buys, they will
now create an artificial floor price,” she said.
The creation of an artificial
floor price, Oplas explained, could lead to market distortion and may make room
for corruption as the government can sell rice at a lower price
‘Stopping rice imports to hurt poor families’
Neda chief warns against reversing gains of liberalized trade
regime
By: Ben
O. de Vera - Reporter / @bendeveraINQ
Philippine
Daily Inquirer / 04:11 AM November 20, 2019
INQUIRER file photo
The
country’s chief economist on Tuesday warned against reversing the gains made
under the liberalized rice trade regime, under which he claimed lower prices
redounded to the benefit of poor families.
Socioeconomic
Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told reporters Tuesday that the government
had already put in place measures to alleviate the impact of the Rice
Tariffication Law—which removed the import quota—on palay farmers.
Pernia, who
heads the state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority
(Neda), said the Cabinet approved to give away about P3 billion in cash to
farmers whose livelihoods were affected by the drop in palay prices amid a
surge in imports.
The
P3-billion funding will come from the tariff collection from imported rice that
exceeded the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
If the
government would backtrack on rice importation, Pernia warned, “we will be back
to where we were last year,” referring to the high inflation episode partly
caused by the domestic rice supply bottlenecks that pushed retail prices up.
When rice
prices rise, “the poor will suffer,” Pernia added, as the bulk of Filipino
families’ expenditures go to food items.
“Inflation
for the 30-percent poorest [households] has come down to 0.9 percent—the
much-bigger majority is benefitting,” Pernia said.
The latest
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed that the consumer price index
(CPI) for the bottom 30-percent income households in October fell to a 46-month
low of 0.9 percent year-on-year as food prices and cost of utilities declined
year-on-year.
In a press
conference last Monday, International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief Thomas
Helbling described rice tariffication as a “major step forward” as he said it
had been long overdue.
“I think
rice tariffication—that is to move from import quotas to import tariffs—is
helping the broader population. We would also know that, of course, rice
farmers may suffer from this but the government has instituted income support
for affected farmers,” Helbling told reporters.
The Action
for Economic Reforms (AER) has also strongly urged President Duterte not to
suspend the implementation of the RTL, noting that data from the PSA presented
evidence that retail prices of rice have fallen significantly to the great
benefit of the 100 million consumers of rice in the country, including the
poorest of the poor who consider rice a basic necessity.
While the
falling prices of palay is a growing concern, it said that any policy
pronouncements implying the erosion of the RTL would create uncertainty over
the law’s implementation and is precisely the cause for the lack of stability
in palay prices. “Rice traders who anticipate a reversal of the law are
hoarding rice, depressing farm gate prices to the detriment of Filipino rice
farmers. Halting implementation would only play into their hands. To counter
this, strong signals must be sent as regards the certainty and consistency of
this reform,” it pointed out.
AER said the
government must not renege on its policy commitment toward making rice more
accessible and affordable for Filipino consumers while putting in place
strategic measures that would address the farmers’ plight.
For one, the
RCEF, which will be sourced from tariff collections on rice imports, will
provide the means toward increasing farmers’ productivity and incomes in the
long run. In the meantime, AER said the government can directly procure rice
from local farmers in order to buoy prices. AER said it also strongly supported
using the tariff collections in excess of P10 billion for the purpose of direct
and conditional cash transfers to the rice farmers to provide transitional aid
and as an incentive for farmers to increase productivity as they continue
farming.
AER called
on Mr. Duterte to stay the course in implementing the RTL and the swift
implementation of mitigating measures to address the impact on rice farmers.
How long will Delhi gasp for breath?
Published: November 20, 2019 2:30:54 AM
The Kharif
paddy crop sowing cannot be advanced—the existing Preservation of Subsoil Water
Act in Punjab and Haryana can’t be relaxed because of a fast depleting water
table (studies say it is reducing at 0.3 to 1 metre/year). So we need
technological alternatives to stubble burning.
Scientists working in this field, environmentalists, farmers’
organisations and agricultural economists have suggested responsible solutions.
(ANI)
By Arabinda K Padhee
& ML Jat
& ML Jat
Delhi is considered one of the most polluted cities in the world.
Air pollution is caused due to rising number of vehicles, industrial pollution,
construction activities and a lessening green cover not commensurate with rapid
urbanisation. Air quality from mid-October to mid-November is worst, often
slipping from severe to hazardous category. A major reason ascribed to poor air
quality is stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and parts of UP. The situation
gets compounded by lighting of firecrackers on Diwali. Regulatory actions in
Delhi (odd-even scheme) or cajoling farmers through sops (or drastic actions)
have not proved successful. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) and State
Pollution Control Boards have issued several directions to states to control
stubble burning, but without noticeable outcomes.
Are there no solutions to tackle stubble burning? Scientists
working in this field, environmentalists, farmers’ organisations and
agricultural economists have suggested responsible solutions. The authors have
first-hand experience in the field; they interacted with scientists,
policymakers, farmers adopting prescribed technological solutions, and analysed
the body of ‘limited’ literature on the subject in the past few years. Based on
these, an actionable framework, in short and medium to long term, is suggested
that needs political will and cooperation of all the stakeholders, mainly the
farming community.
How did the problem start?
Earlier, farmers of Punjab and Haryana used to grow three crops in a year: short-duration paddy (termed Sathi) in May that was harvested by mid-July; during Kharif (rainy season), farmers would go for late-sown high-yielding paddy, for which free irrigation and procurement by government agencies were favourable (few farmers started cultivating Basmati rice during this season); and after harvest of Kharif paddy, high-yielding varieties of wheat were grown in the winter. Cultivation of Sathi was possible because of plenty shallow groundwater to irrigate the water-guzzling crop even during peak summer. But unsustainable cropping practices led to a steep decline in water table, prompting both Punjab and Haryana to enact laws to ban early transplanting of paddy. As per law, paddy nurseries can only be started from May 10 and transplanting from June 13 in Punjab (dates for Haryana are May 15 and June 15, respectively).
Earlier, farmers of Punjab and Haryana used to grow three crops in a year: short-duration paddy (termed Sathi) in May that was harvested by mid-July; during Kharif (rainy season), farmers would go for late-sown high-yielding paddy, for which free irrigation and procurement by government agencies were favourable (few farmers started cultivating Basmati rice during this season); and after harvest of Kharif paddy, high-yielding varieties of wheat were grown in the winter. Cultivation of Sathi was possible because of plenty shallow groundwater to irrigate the water-guzzling crop even during peak summer. But unsustainable cropping practices led to a steep decline in water table, prompting both Punjab and Haryana to enact laws to ban early transplanting of paddy. As per law, paddy nurseries can only be started from May 10 and transplanting from June 13 in Punjab (dates for Haryana are May 15 and June 15, respectively).
These fixed dates led to delayed harvest of the crop to October, a
time when farmers are supposed to prepare land for wheat. Although tech
solutions are available, farmers take the easiest option to clear the fields,
by burning the stubble/residue. And then there are other factors—increased
straw production surpassing the demand of fodder, drastic decline in
agricultural workforce (labour) and increased mechanised harvesting operations.
What are the solutions?
The Kharif paddy crop sowing cannot be advanced—the existing Preservation of Subsoil Water Act in Punjab and Haryana can’t be relaxed because of a fast depleting water table (studies say it is reducing at 0.3 to 1 metre/year). So we need technological alternatives to stubble burning.
The Kharif paddy crop sowing cannot be advanced—the existing Preservation of Subsoil Water Act in Punjab and Haryana can’t be relaxed because of a fast depleting water table (studies say it is reducing at 0.3 to 1 metre/year). So we need technological alternatives to stubble burning.
Short-term solutions: Happy seeder is a tractor-mounted machine
that sows (wheat) seeds without the need to till the field or remove existing
paddy straw. The remains of rice crop residue act as mulch, conserving soil
moisture and improving soil health. Research shows such climate-smart practices
lead to reduced carbon dioxide emissions, enhanced micro-biome activities in
the soil, and less weed infestation. Happy seeder and implements like
straw-spreader or straw management system (SMS) have been field tested.
Governments (Union and states) have encouraged farmers with subsidies to adopt
these. The usage of happy seeders has incrementally gone up, but hasn’t caught up
fast enough to make a perceptible dent on stubble burning. The cost of machines
(`1.5 lakh and above) is often cited as a reason for low adoption. Business
models with lead farmers, farmers’ cooperatives and service providers through
custom-hiring centres have to be developed to provide machinery on demand.
Massive awareness campaigns and capacity-building activities need to be
undertaken for all the stakeholders. Initially, subsidies on machines may be
raised and farm cooperatives and specialised start-ups may be encouraged to
operate custom-hiring centres. Gram Panchayats may also be made responsible to
take up such activities. Banks and financial institutions should provide
capital assistance to desirous individuals/groups.
Machinery would displace manual labour. It could, therefore, be
suggested to engage agricultural labourers in the collection of paddy straws
for production of manure and other purposes. Wages of these labourers could be
met from the MGNREGA funds by Panchayati Raj institutions. This will generate
employment.
A new cadre of trained human resource would be needed to provide
technical know-how to farmers. For this, attracting youth in agriculture would
greatly help.
Till kharif paddy is substituted with other crops, cultivation of
short-duration rice varieties suited for direct-seeded-rice (DSR) method
coupled with micro-irrigation could be tried as an alternative. DSR paddy takes
less time for establishment and there is no transplanting shock to the plant.
This method may significantly save irrigation water and advance the growing
season (as no transplanting is done). This would widen the gap between paddy
harvest and wheat sowing, thus potentially reducing burning problem.
Baling of straw by suitable machines can clear the field for next
sowing, and scientific binding of straw can be employed to address fodder
scarcity in nearby areas.
Adoption of zero-tillage farming for crop residue management has
been advocated by ICAR and CIMMYT. Zero-tillage using happy seeder alone has
the potential to solve half of the residue burning issues. It reduces GHG
emissions, and also ensures remunerative income to farmers.
Medium to long-term solutions: Phasing out current subsidies
provided on piecemeal basis and transitioning towards a holistic farming approach
through provisioning of payments for ecosystem services will provide farmers
better opportunities to take wise decisions in accordance to their local
circumstance. In addition to conservation agriculture, high-value crops like
fruits, vegetables, maize, soybean, etc, could be replaced in stubble burning
areas. Climate-resilient crops like sorghum and millet (nutri-cereals) could be
planned.
Processing infrastructure to support a vibrant value chain linking
to the market would, however, be needed. Also, making pellets/briquettes from
paddy straw for their use in (thermal) power plants, use of stubble in
bio-refineries (bio-ethanol), biomass gasification, etc, have been suggested as
solutions to utilise paddy straw.
Non-basmati paddy cultivation is preferred by farmers, mainly
because of assured procurement under MSP. A gradual reduction of the common
paddy area and substitution with other crops (including Basmati) may reduce
environmental footprint. Subsidies for power/irrigation water, fertilisers, etc,
have compounded the problem. Diversification of existing cropping system is
also fraught with high political dynamics. A strong will from top political
leadership (maybe with a direction from the judiciary) may change the behaviour
of all actors in the policy arena.
India is world’s third-largest emitter of GHGs. As per a report
submitted by the government of India to the UNFCCC, crop-residue burning
accounts for 2% of GHG emissions within the agriculture sector. Effective
mitigation measures with contextual adaptation practices as suggested above
would reduce stubble burning, thus lessening the load on the environment and
possibly making the Delhi air cleaner.
Padhee is country director,
India, ICRISAT; Jat is principal scientist, CIMMYT. Views are personal.
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Norm
Borlaug Gave Us The Green Revolution: What's Next?
By Hank Campbell | November 20th 2019 02:31
AM
Dr.
Norm Borlaug, the "father of the Green Revolution", is credited with
saving a billion lives using agricultural science, and for the last 50 years he
and his successors debunked the Malthusian claims of cynics like Paul Ehrlich,
John Holdren, and their modern-day acolytes like Bill McKibben, Michael Pollan,
and Naomi Oreskes.
When Holdren and Ehrlich (and the other Ehrlich) were trying to drum up support for mandatory birth control and a world government to enforce it(1), Borlaug and the science community quietly made farming more efficient than ever. Today, even the poorest people in most of the world can afford to be fat, something never possible before, and that is thanks to the legacy of Dr. Borlaug.
But what's next? Can we do for everything what they did for cereals?
It certainly seems possible. With older techniques like organic-certified mutagenesis we may have hit caps on growing food under inhospitable conditions, but genetic engineering, RNAi, and now CRISPS-Cas9 there is reason for optimism that everyone will be able to have a variety of locally grown, affordable, diverse foods.
But first, baby steps.
Drs. Norman and Julie Borlaug (his granddaughter). Credit: AgriLife via Flickr. Go here to read Organic Industry A-Team stooge Tom Philpott attack her for supporting science. The reputation of Grist has gotten much better since he took his conspiracy theories to Mother Jones.
A recent paper in PNAS found that the next phase in the Green Revolution may be ready to begin. Whereas the first phase was to get people enough of anything, thanks to science and technology a country like India can now diversify beyond the “rice dominated monsoon cereal production ” that Borlaug had to optimize.
Their models basically turned knobs of pollution, resources, and output and found that replacing some rice crops with millets and sorghum would be better for the country without undermining calorie production or using more land. Part of their secret sauce for convergence was reducing impacts of climate change, which are basically impossible to model but seem to be mandatory to get published in PNAS.(2)
But it's reason for optimism, especially when environmental groups and their political allies at media corporations act more like a doomsday cult. Yet Dr. Borlaug faced the same cultural milieu and now has taken his place as one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.
There are challenges, sure. Opposed to science are $2 billion in activist groups engaged in a war of extinction on food and chemicals, but just like there are still vaccine deniers, a new generation will see through their scaremongering, even in Europe, and not want developing countries to be left behind.
When Holdren and Ehrlich (and the other Ehrlich) were trying to drum up support for mandatory birth control and a world government to enforce it(1), Borlaug and the science community quietly made farming more efficient than ever. Today, even the poorest people in most of the world can afford to be fat, something never possible before, and that is thanks to the legacy of Dr. Borlaug.
But what's next? Can we do for everything what they did for cereals?
It certainly seems possible. With older techniques like organic-certified mutagenesis we may have hit caps on growing food under inhospitable conditions, but genetic engineering, RNAi, and now CRISPS-Cas9 there is reason for optimism that everyone will be able to have a variety of locally grown, affordable, diverse foods.
But first, baby steps.
Drs. Norman and Julie Borlaug (his granddaughter). Credit: AgriLife via Flickr. Go here to read Organic Industry A-Team stooge Tom Philpott attack her for supporting science. The reputation of Grist has gotten much better since he took his conspiracy theories to Mother Jones.
A recent paper in PNAS found that the next phase in the Green Revolution may be ready to begin. Whereas the first phase was to get people enough of anything, thanks to science and technology a country like India can now diversify beyond the “rice dominated monsoon cereal production ” that Borlaug had to optimize.
Their models basically turned knobs of pollution, resources, and output and found that replacing some rice crops with millets and sorghum would be better for the country without undermining calorie production or using more land. Part of their secret sauce for convergence was reducing impacts of climate change, which are basically impossible to model but seem to be mandatory to get published in PNAS.(2)
But it's reason for optimism, especially when environmental groups and their political allies at media corporations act more like a doomsday cult. Yet Dr. Borlaug faced the same cultural milieu and now has taken his place as one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.
There are challenges, sure. Opposed to science are $2 billion in activist groups engaged in a war of extinction on food and chemicals, but just like there are still vaccine deniers, a new generation will see through their scaremongering, even in Europe, and not want developing countries to be left behind.
Endangered whales react to environmental changes
New study documents altered right
whale movements in Massachusetts Bay
IMAGE: THIS IS A NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE BREACHING.
CREDIT: SUSAN PARKS
Ithaca, NY--Some
"canaries" are 50 feet long, weigh 70 tons, and are nowhere near a
coal mine. But the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale is sending the
same kind of message about disruptive change in the environment by rapidly
altering its use of important habitat areas off the New England coast. These
findings are contained in a new study published in Global
Change Biology by scientists at the Center for Conservation
Bioacoustics (formerly the Bioacoustics Research Program) at the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology and at Syracuse University. It's the longest running published
study to continuously monitor the presence of any whale species at one location
using sound."
"The change in right whale
presence in Massachusetts Bay over the six years of the study is
striking," says lead author Russ Charif, senior bioacoustician at the
Center for Conservation Bioacoustics (CCB) at Cornell. "It's likely linked
to rapid changes in conditions along the Atlantic Coast, especially in the Gulf
of Maine which is warming faster than 99% of the rest of the world's ocean
surface."
Charif points out that, starting
in 2011, other studies began documenting dramatic changes in habitat use by
right whales in other parts of the Gulf of Maine, which includes Massachusetts
Bay and Cape Cod Bay. Massachusetts Bay is the gateway to Cape Cod Bay, one of
the most important feeding areas for North Atlantic right whales, who
congregate there in large numbers in late winter to early spring.
Nineteen marine autonomous
recording units (MARUs) were deployed by CCB in Massachusetts Bay from July
2007 to April 2013, recording around-the-clock to detect the characteristic
"up-call" of the North Atlantic right whale. Analysis of 47,000 hours
of recordings by computer detection systems and human analysts found that in
all but one of the study years detection of right whale calls kept increasing.
"During the six years of the
study, our detection rates doubled during the winter-spring months," says
study co-author Aaron Rice, principal ecologist with CCB. "During the
summer-fall months the rate of detection for right whales had increased
six-fold by the end of the study period, rising from 2% to 13% of recorded
hours."
The scientists found right whales
were present to varying degrees all year round in Massachusetts Bay, with
implications for conservation efforts.
"There are seasonal
conservation measures that kick in based on our historical understanding of
where and when right whales are most often congregating, including
Massachusetts Bay," Rice explains. "But the old patterns have changed
and whales are showing up in areas where there are no protections in place to
reduce the likelihood of ship strikes or fishing gear entanglements."
Entanglements and ship strikes
remain the biggest threats to right whales with unknown cumulative effects from
changing water temperatures, rising ocean noise pollution, and other stressors.
The increasing use of Massachusetts Bay occurred even as the overall right
whale population declined. Latest estimates peg the population at about 400
animals with only 95 of them females of reproductive age.
"Our study data end in 2013
and conditions may have changed even more since then," says Charif.
"We need to do more of these long-term studies if we're to have any hope
of understanding how right whale habitat is changing because of human
activities and before it's too late for the species to survive."
###
Funding for acoustic data
collection and initial analysis was provided by Excelerate Energy L.P. and
Neptune LNG, LLC. Funding for multi-year data compilation, analysis, and
synthesis was provided by the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission (Grant Number
MMC14-207).
Reference:
Russell A. Charif, Yu Shiu,
Charles A. Muirhead, Christopher W. Clark, Susan E. Parks, Aaron Rice. (2019)
Phenological Changes in North Atlantic Right Whale Habitat Use in Massachusetts
Bay. Global
Change Biology.
Media downloads: video, sound,
graphic, images https://cornell.app.box.com/folder/90447207504
China's top 10 advances in agricultural science
help feed the nation
Source:
Xinhua| 2019-11-20 12:27:31|Editor: huaxia
NANJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese experts have selected the
10 most significant advances in cutting-edge agricultural science and
technology in fields that are making life better for farmers and helping to
feed the world's most populous nation.
Research on rewiring of the fruit metabolome in tomato breeding
helped restore the original good taste of tomatoes of former times and provided
big data and innovative methods for the study of the molecular mechanism of
plant metabolites.
Scientists found that a selfish genetic element confers
non-Mendelian inheritance in rice, and this study challenges traditional
genetic laws, and could help cultivate new high-yield rice varieties.
In another study, scientists discovered a single transcription
factor that promotes both yield and immunity in rice.
The selected advances include studies in modulating plant
growth-metabolism coordination for sustainable agriculture, genomic variation
in more than 3,010 diverse accessions of Asian cultivated rice, and rapid
evolution of H7N9 highly pathogenic viruses that emerged in China in 2017.
Chinese scientists have also achieved advances in genetic
studies of cotton, bacterial resistance and a new mechanism of plant immune
pathways.
The 10 advances by Chinese agricultural scientists last year
were announced at the Forum 2019 on Science and Technology for Agricultural and
Rural Development in China, which opened Wednesday in Nanjing, capital of east
China's Jiangsu Province.
Cinnamon Horchata Rice Pudding
This post may include affiliate
links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
NOVEMBER
11, 2019 — BY YVETTE
MARQUEZ
If you love horchata and love rice pudding,
then you will love this rich and comforting dairy-free Cinnamon
Horchata Rice Pudding. This dish is slow simmered with cinnamon sticks,
cloves and Mexican vanilla extract in one pot in about 45 minutes, making it a
simple dessert.
Classic
Latin flavors in one creamy bite. This rice pudding can be served warm or
chilled and is the perfect dish to enjoy after a festive meal. A small serving
goes a long way and is all you need.
This dessert is similar to traditional arroz con leche, but
is dairy free, made with a combination of almond milk and rice milk. The
nostalgic flavors and spices remind me of my grandma, and so I celebrated,
serving this rice pudding in her vintage pink Depression glass bowls.
I don’t
think my grandma ever used these bowls. I have a feeling she was saving them
for a special occasion. Serving the rice pudding in these bowls was a great
reminder to pull out your pretty dishes and celebrate every day – don’t wait
for a “special occasion.”
This
rice pudding can be made with authentic Mahatma grains, such as long grain
rice, but also works very well with Mahatma Arborio Rice for a creamy, tender
and slightly chewy texture.
Mahatma Rice is a staple in my pantry, and
obviously extremely versatile; rice is not only for savory dishes.
Cinnamon
Horchata Rice Pudding
servings: 8 SERVINGS
prep time: 5 MINUTES
cook time: 35 MINUTES
total time: 50 MINUTES
If you love horchata and love rice pudding, then you will love
this rich and comforting dairy-free Cinnamon Horchata Rice Pudding. This dish
is slow simmered with cinnamon sticks, cloves and Mexican vanilla extract in
one pot in about 45 minutes, making it a simple dessert.
INGREDIENTS
·
2 cups vanilla-flavored almond milk
·
3 cups rice milk
·
1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract
·
Ground cinnamon to garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
1.
In a large saucepan, combine rice, sugar, almond milk, rice milk,
vanilla extract, cinnamon sticks, and cloves.
2.
Bring to a boil and then lower heat to low heat and simmer the
rice until it is very soft and achieves a thick, pudding-like consistency,
about 35 minutes. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
3.
Remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves.
4.
This rice pudding can be served warm or chilled and sprinkled with
ground cinnamon.
course: BREAKFAST,
DESSERT
cuisine: MEXICAN
keyword: ALMOND
MILK
I’D LOVE TO SEE WHAT YOU COOK!
TAG #MUYBUENOCOOKING IF
YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE.
Subscribe to Muy Bueno to get new recipes in your
inbox and stay in touch on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.
Photography
by Jenna Sparks
This post is in partnership with Mahatma. As always, thank you for
reading and for supporting companies I partner with, which allows me to create
more unique content and recipes for you. All opinions are always my own.
posted by YVETTE
MARQUEZ in ALL RECIPES, BREAKFAST, CHRISTMAS, DESSERTS, SPONSORED
POSTS, THANKSGIVING
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yvette Marquez is an Emmy-winning producer
and writer, award-winning food blogger, and author of Muy
Bueno and Latin Twist. She is a
second-generation Mexican-American, born and raised in El Paso, Texas and
currently lives in Colorado. She has been sharing cherished family Mexican recipes
since 2010. Her blog is the perfect destination for anyone looking to embrace
their culture through food, fiestas, and family life. Yvette has been
featured in several prominent publications, websites, radio, and TV. Follow
her
California’s Chinook
salmon are in danger. Rice fields just might be their salvation
Jak Wonderly
The Golden State's native salmon have been losing habitat to
agriculture for decades. Now, they’re getting a much-needed boost from
strategically flooded rice fields.
Snow geese erupt against a blue
sky trimmed with fresh, white clouds. The air is so clear you can see for
miles, east to the distant peaks of the Sierra Nevada and west to the gentle
slopes of the Coast Ranges. But Carson Jeffres and Jacob Katz are less
interested in the view above them than the one at their feet. Standing
knee-deep in a flooded field at Knaggs Ranch, a rice farm near Sacramento, they
peer into a floating cage made of PVC pipe and mesh and prepare to check on its
unusual inhabitants.
Jeffres opens the top of the cage
and dips in a small net. When he pulls it out, a pair of plump fish, each the
size of a pinky finger, wriggle inside. These are young Chinook salmon—a
species imperiled in California. He holds up his catch for Katz to admire.
This story originally appeared in bioGraphic,
an online magazine about nature and sustainability powered by the California
Academy of Sciences.
The two men are fish
ecologists—Jeffres at the University of California, Davis, and Katz at the
conservation-based non-profit California Trout—and they are testing a wild
idea. To help save the Chinook, they are using rice fields as winter nurseries
for young salmon migrating from their natal streams to the ocean.
Over the last century, water
agencies have built levees along most of the state’s rivers to control floods
and supply water to communities and farmers alike. But these levees also bar
young Chinook from the floodplains that historically provided safe, food-rich
places to grow on their journey to the Pacific. Today, more than half a million
acres of these former floodplains in California’s immense interior valley are
occupied by rice farms. Repurposing them as surrogate floodplains during the
months they would otherwise lie fallow could be key to restoring endangered
populations of wild-spawning Chinook.
Jak Wonderly
Carson Jeffres from the University of California, Davis and
Jacob Katz from California Trout scoop a Chinook salmon fry out of a cage in a
flooded rice field at Knaggs Ranch
Jak Wonderly
Carson Jeffres scoops two young Chinook salmon out of a cage in
a flooded rice field near Sacramento
Jak Wonderly
The fish raised in the flooded rice fields at Knaggs Ranch grow
quickly, thanks to a plentiful supply of freshwater crustaceans
“We can’t restore those
floodplains,” says Rene Henery, California science director for the conservation
non-profit Trout Unlimited, “but we can recover the functionality that the fish
evolved with.”
California’s Central Valley is a
flat expanse, flanked on either side by mountain ranges, that extends 400 miles
down the middle of the state. Salmon once flourished in the streams and rivers
that course through it. “One or two million came back every year,” says Peter
Moyle, a fish ecologist at UC Davis. “They were up to 60 pounds and close to a
meter long.”
For millennia, adult Chinook in
California returned to spawn in the upper reaches of waterways that flow down
from mountains surrounding the valley. Then, when the winter rainy season
caused their natal streams to swell, the next generation of young fish would
all swim downstream toward the sea, taking advantage of the many floodplains
along the way.
The final stretch of their long
journey would begin when the fish hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta,
where the water slows, twisting and turning around the Delta’s many islands.
Migrating young salmon have to navigate these braided waterways before making
their way across the San Francisco Bay and through the Golden Gate Strait, the
iconic narrow opening spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge that leads to the
ocean.
Fish out of Water
Dams now block Chinook salmon
from reaching more than 90 percent of their spawning habitat in California’s
Central Valley. Additionally, water diversions and other perturbations have
rendered some of their accessible habitat unusable.
Map data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, January 2013.
Today, few Central Valley salmon
spawn in the wild. The region’s waterways have been completely remade into a
system that includes 20 major dams and more than 1,600 miles of riverbank
levees. While this engineered set-up tames flooding and supplies drinking and
irrigation water, these benefits to people come at a cost to salmon. Dams block
entry to the mountain streams where the fish once spawned, and levees block
access to the valley-floor floodplains where young salmon once found plentiful
food and shelter.
Across their range, Central
Valley Chinook are all classified as a single species, but for management
purposes the fish are divided into four runs according to the season when
adults return from the Pacific Ocean to spawn. Two of those runs are listed
under the federal Endangered Species Act, while the other two are considered
federal populations of concern.
Engineered rivers are almost
completely to blame. “Just as we’ve lost almost all the floodplain habitat,
we’ve also lost pretty much all of the spawning habitat,” says Brian Ellrot,
the Central Valley salmon recovery coordinator at the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which leads the efforts to restore
populations of these fish.
Jak Wonderly
An aerial view of a canal and irrigation system near the
Sacramento River illustrates how heavily engineered the landscape has become
“They’re just straggling along
right now,” Jeffres says. “They’re propped up by hatcheries.” State hatcheries
release more than 32 million young salmon annually, and these fish dominate all
four runs of Central Valley Chinook.
The best way to restore Chinook
salmon, fish biologists say, is to give them back some of what they’ve lost. To
provide more spawning grounds, NOAA plans to start transporting migrating
adults past Central Valley dams―from the downstream side to the upstream
reaches―as is done by wildlife agencies in the states of Washington and Oregon.
Restoration of degraded spawning
grounds below dams will also be critical to their recovery. While most salmon
return to their natal waters to spawn, a few stray in search of new homes. This
penchant for exploration allows them to revisit waterways where they had
previously been extinct for decades. Recent restoration efforts are starting to
pay off: After an absence of 70 years, Chinook now return by the hundreds to
spawn in Putah Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River. Likewise, for the
first time in more than half a century, a couple dozen Chinook have found their
way back to historical spawning grounds in the San Joaquin River, which flows
from the Sierra Nevada to the Delta.
Jak Wonderly
A dense flock of snow geese lifts off from a flooded rice field
in California’s Central Valley
Restoring floodplain nurseries is
a harder problem to solve, since this habitat has been more dramatically
altered and requires changes on a much larger scale. Repurposing rice fields in
the off-season may be a big part of the answer, and NOAA is supportive of the
effort. “We’re pushing to make that happen,” Ellrot says. “Salmon are really
resilient―I’m optimistic that if we give them the right nudge, we can restore
them in the valley.”
Restorationists have good reason
to think that prime nursery grounds are vital to the long-term survival of the
region’s salmon. The most robust population of spring-run Chinook originates in
Butte Creek, which runs along a wildlife refuge that contains some of the
valley’s few remaining floodplains. The Butte Creek salmon population is
wild-spawning and self-sustaining. “It’s the one successful population of
spring-run salmon,” Jeffres says. Young salmon here are more likely to make it
out to sea, and the adults more likely to return and spawn.
“Fish abundance equals water
security. It doesn’t have to be fish versus farms―it can be fish and farms.”
A probable reason for Butte
Creek’s success is that it gives Chinook a place to grow and thrive. The
creek’s young fish are larger than those elsewhere in the valley, and being
bigger presumably boosts survival. “It makes the salmon more resilient,” Katz
says, just like packing lunch before a long trip.
Jak Wonderly
An aerial view of restored wetlands in the Sacramento River
floodplains near Knaggs Ranch
Before scientists understood the
value of floodplains, they considered them risky for fish. “Wildlife biologists
thought floodplains were bad for salmon because they stranded them, and that
levees were good for salmon because they kept them in the river,” Moyle says.
“It was pretty much unquestioned.”
It’s only in the last two decades
that this conventional wisdom has been overturned. The first evidence came from
scientists looking at the fate of young salmon in the Yolo Bypass. Built to
contain a floodplain of the Sacramento River, the Bypass is an enormous flood
control structure—about 40 miles long and two miles wide—that shunts water from
the Sacramento River around the City of Sacramento. It’s bounded on either side
by colossal, earthen levees that are more than 20 feet high and wide enough to
drive on. When the river runs high, it overtops a weir at the north end of the
levees. Water spills down inside the bypass, flooding it, then rejoins the
river at the south end of the levees.
The Yolo Bypass only fills during
the winter, and, when it does, some of the young salmon migrating downstream
come along for the ride. During particularly wet winters, the bypass is so full
it looks like an inland sea. “The floodplains are still there,” Katz says.
“They’re just used differently, as bypasses.” A 1998 study concluded that
salmon swept into the bypass grew faster than those that remained in the river.
Jeffres got similar results when
he looked at fish in the Cosumnes, one of the state’s rare, free-flowing rivers
that still has remnants of natural floodplains. In 2004, he found that young
salmon in a floodplain grew faster than those in the Cosumnes River itself.
Jak Wonderly
Jacob Katz examines a water sample full of zooplankton, pulled
from a flooded rice field at Knaggs Ranch near the Sacramento River
In 2009, the California
Department of Water Resources decided to give salmon about 20,000 acres of
floodplain habitat―one-third of the total acreage―in the Yolo Bypass. Most of
the land there is privately owned and farmed for rice during the summer growing
season. That decision caught the attention of rice farmer John Brennan, who
wanted to keep fields in production in the Yolo Bypass.
Water is in short supply during
the hot, dry Central Valley summers, especially during the state’s periodic
severe droughts. Historically, the fight over this constrained resource has
pitted growers against environmental laws that require allocating water for
endangered fish like Chinook. Rather than playing this zero-sum game, Brennan
has been looking for ways to integrate conservation with agriculture. “If
you’re in the rice business, you’re in the water business―and if you’re in the
water business, you’re in the fish business,” he says.
Katz puts it this way: “Fish
abundance equals water security. It doesn’t have to be fish versus farms―it can
be fish and farms.”
In flooded rice fields like this onenear the Sacramento River,
the shallow, still water provides the perfect conditions for both algae and
zooplankton to proliferate
Jak Wonderly
Jennifer Kronkfrom California Trout prepares to weigh and
measure a young Chinook salmon
Jak Wonderly
Jennifer Kronk records fish measurements and tagging information
at a sampling site
In 2010, Brennan joined forces
with two environmentalists to see if rice fields in the bypass could be used as
salmon nurseries during the winter, when the fields are dormant and fish are
migrating downstream. After scouting the Yolo Bypass for available properties,
Brennan and his partners settled on the rice fields of Knaggs Ranch as a chance
to put their plan into practice. They bought the ranch and assembled a research
team, starting with Jacob Katz since his father is one of Brennan’s partners. Katz
invited Jeffres to join him, and the pair has collaborated ever since.
In the winter of 2012, the
researchers flooded a five-acre corner of the ranch and released 10,000 young
hatchery salmon in the fallow field. “When we first started, lots of farmers laughed
and said it was the stupidest thing they’d ever heard,'” Jeffres says. He and
Katz had their doubts, too. “It didn’t look like fish habitat,” Jeffres says,
pointing across the ranch to their original test site. Flat brown fields
stretch in all directions, and tidy mud berms divide the land into a patchwork
of close-packed rice paddies. “We thought it might be the dumbest thing we’d
ever done.”
Jak Wonderly
A Chinook salmon fry is measured at the Bodega Marine Laboratory
at the University of California, Davis
They worried they’d end up with a
field full of dead fish. They weren’t concerned about residual pesticides,
which are applied months earlier and break down relatively quickly in the
environment, but they fretted about a host of other potential pitfalls. They
thought the stagnant, shallow water in the field might get too warm for fish or
make them easy prey for hungry birds. And they didn’t know whether the
decomposition of rice stubble, which is left on the fields after the fall
harvest, would deplete oxygen levels in the water.
At first the researchers couldn’t
tell whether anything was happening. “Out in the fields in mid-winter it looks
like a mud puddle. We couldn’t see the fish,” Katz says. “Then we ran a net
through the water and caught fish with little potbellies. It was amazing.”
Their rice-field test subjects
did far more than survive. They thrived, growing five-fold―from 1 gram to more
than 5―in just six weeks. “They grew at the highest rates recorded in the
Central Valley,” Jeffres says.
Ultimately, the scientists
envision that the young salmon, instead of being introduced into rice fields by
humans, will leave their natal waters and migrate downstream and into the
bypass on their own. To make that journey possible even if the weir hasn’t
overflowed, the California Department of Water Resources wants to add gates
that can be opened to let salmon swim in and out of the rice fields on their
way to the ocean.
While there are still some
barriers left to remove, the possibility of wild-spawning, self-sustaining
Chinook runs raised on rice farms is no longer just a pipe dream. In the years
since they launched their pilot project, Jeffres and Katz have expanded their
effort to encompass 20 acres and 50,000 fish, proving that it can work on a
real-world scale. They have also found that, on average, salmon reared in these
rice-field nurseries weigh 12 times more than those that grow up in the
Sacramento River. The reason for this, Jeffres says, is that there’s so much
more for them to eat.
Jak Wonderly
This water sample, taken from a flooded rice field near the
Sacramento River, is thick with small freshwater crustaceans in the genus
Daphnia. The crustaceans are a nutritious food source for young salmon
Back at Knaggs Ranch, Jeffres
wants to know just how much more food the rice fields contain. He casts a long,
white net across the shallow water of a rice field then draws it back
carefully, keeping clear of the mud. Katz tips the contents into a plastic bag
and lifts it high so they can both see.
“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy
moly!” Katz exclaims. “I am totally astonished.”
Jeffres is equally jazzed.
“That’s insane!”
Inside the plastic bag, tiny
freshwater crustaceans―or “bugs,” as the researchers call them―dart back and
forth in constant motion. The water is so thick with them that it looks like a
whirling cloud of pink.
These small crustaceans are the
perfect food for young fish, and this haul is the best Katz and Jeffres have
ever seen. Most of the bugs they netted belong to the genus Daphnia,
often dubbed water fleas for the way they swim in short hops. They’re here in
such abundance because they thrive in shallow, algae-rich waters, from puddles
to flooded fields to floodplains. “It’s magic when water slows down and spreads
across a floodplain,” Katz says. “It’s liquid protein.”
Pickings are far slimmer in
rivers. Katz holds up another bag, this one netted about an hour earlier from
the Sacramento River. Just a few crustaceans scoot around inside it. “There’s
basically nothing here,” he says. “By building levees, we’ve created rivers
that are essentially food deserts.”
Jak Wonderly
Jacob Katz throwsa siphon to collect a water sample in a flooded
rice field near the Sacramento River
The Sacramento River has several
flood control bypasses, and Katz estimates that, altogether, they contain up to
150,000 acres of rice fields that could be used as bug-rich salmon nurseries.
Another 500,000 acres of rice farms lie along the Sacramento River but outside
bypasses―and he thinks they may be able to help salmon, too.
One of these is River Garden
Farms, which lies a short stretch upriver from Knaggs Ranch and is managed by
Roger Cornwell. Like Brennan, Cornwell wondered if his fields could benefit
salmon, despite the fact that the land is not in a bypass. “I met Jacob Katz
and started talking to him about what we could do,” he says. Katz proposed
another wild idea, one that could solve the food-desert problem: bug farming.
They wanted to know, Jeffres
says, “If we can’t bring the fish to the floodplain, can we bring the
floodplain to the fish?”
Jak Wonderly
Jacob Katz examines the contents of asiphon after collecting a
water sample in a flooded rice field near the Sacramento River
River Garden Farms is separated
from the Sacramento River by a levee, atop which sits the Rough and Ready
Pumping Plant, which was installed in 1915 to irrigate fields. The plant houses
five glossy, black, massive pumps—each about six feet tall—which fill the pump
house with a low roar. This past winter, the team took advantage of the setup
and flooded a fallow rice field to raise bugs, then pumped the food-rich water
into the Sacramento River to feed young fish as they swam through.
To test whether the bugs would
reach their intended recipients, the researchers placed cages of young salmon
at intervals along a mile or so of the river. The Rough and Ready pumps
delivered bugs starting in late February, and Jacob Montgomery and Jennifer
Kronk of California Trout took weekly measurements of the caged fish. By late
March, when we visit, all the bugs have been pumped off the field. The field
crew pulls on their waders and heads out to the river to see if the experiment
worked.
Jak Wonderly
Jennifer Kronk from California Trout rinses the contents of a
siphon into a specimen bag in order to measure the amount of zooplankton
present
They start at a site upstream of
the pumping plant, where the caged fish didn’t get any field-raised bugs.
Montgomery and Kronk wrestle a cage to the river’s muddy bank. Montgomery hefts
the cage above the water, revealing young salmon that flash silver as they flip
back and forth in distress. The team works fast so as to get the fish back to
the river as soon as possible. Montgomery places each fish in a tray with a
ruler, splashing it with water to keep it calm and still, and calls out the
length for Kronk to record. Then he passes it to her for weighing. When the
measuring is done, he estimates that the upstream fish averaged about 55
millimeters long and weighed around 2 grams.
Moving downstream to the next
site, Kronk scoops up a fish collected right by the pump outfall. This site got
the most bugs delivered from the rice field―if the experiment works, they’ll
see it here.
“Oh, he’s fat,” Kronk says.
Jak Wonderly
On the left, a water sampletaken from a flooded rice field is
bursting with zooplankton. On the right, a water sample taken from the
Sacramento River on the same day contains very little food for young salmon
She lays it in the measuring
tray. It’s 65 millimeters and 2.5 grams, considerably bigger than the upstream
average. The next fish is even fatter, at 66 mm and just over 3 g, and the one
after that is fatter still, at 71 mm and 4 g.
“Wow, look at these guys. They’re
doing great,” Montgomery says.
Although supplying bugs to fish
in a free-flowing river doesn’t guarantee delivery, a system that monitors
migrating salmon is already in place―so the researchers will know when to
expect the fish and can serve them food from the fields at just the right time.
“We can pump bugs into the river when fish are passing by,” Katz says. By
spring, the salmon will have completed their journey, and the rice fields will
be drained and ready for planting.
Fish biologists have long assumed
that the larger young salmon are when they navigate the Delta, the faster they
can swim and the better their chances of survival. “It’s a really dangerous
place,” Trout Unlimited’s Rene Henery says. “There are lots of introduced
predatory fish.” To date, however, there is no direct evidence that size is
important to survival.
“In the fish world, we say bigger
fish are more likely to make it to the ocean. But no one has actually looked at
survival,” says Rachelle Tallman, a graduate student in fish ecology at UC
Davis. Tallman is now heading up a project to do just that.
The project is part of an effort
by the California Rice Commission to incentivize farmers to manage their rice
fields in a way that benefits local wildlife. Paul Buttner, who manages
environmental affairs for the commission, currently pays farmers to flood their
fields for water birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway. He hopes to launch a
similar program for salmon that would compensate farmers for creating
floodplain nurseries for young, migrating fish. But first he needs solid proof
that it works.
“How many salmon from fields
survive and go out the Golden Gate?” Buttner asks. “More than those that grow
up in the river?”
While the Rough and Ready plant
was pumping bugs into the Sacramento River, Tallman was setting up a different
experiment to assess how size affects a salmon’s success. She reared two sets
of young salmon: some in a laboratory tank and others in rice fields in the
Yolo Bypass. Now, on a warm April day near the edge of the bypass, she’s
pulling fish from the rice fields and equipping them with acoustic tags so she
can compare survival rates as they swim out to, and beyond, the Golden Gate.
Jak Wonderly
Rachelle Tallman, a graduate student at the University of
California, Davis, makes an incision in the abdomen of a salmon fry to insert a
tracking tag
Tallman stands at a fish-surgery
station sheltered by a white tent. As she slips a young salmon into a bucket of
anesthetic, she alerts her team that a surgery is in progress. “Dope!” she
calls out. A minute later the fish has stopped wriggling and Tallman
springs into action. In rapid succession, she weighs it, measures it, and
places it on a foam block. Cool water streams across the fish, which lies
motionless apart from flapping gills.
Surgical scissors in hand,
Tallman cuts a small opening in its belly and pushes a centimeter-long tag
inside. She closes the wound with a single stitch and knots both ends. “Fish
out of surgery,” she calls. A crew member collects the salmon and puts it in a
recovery bucket. The whole operation, including anesthesia, takes just two
minutes. Then Tallman picks up another fish and starts the process anew.
“Dope!” she says.
Back at the lab, another crew
tags tank-reared fish. Collectively, the team tags more than 750 salmon.
A day after the surgeries,
Tallman releases her tagged salmon into the wild, sending some into the
Sacramento River and some into the Yolo Bypass, which drains into the
Sacramento. About 200 underwater acoustic receivers will track their progress.
By early May, the first tagged
fish have navigated the perils of the Delta. Now, they must traverse the San
Francisco Bay—a huge body of water that covers more than 500 square miles. But
this part of their journey is less risky. Once they’ve gotten this far, most
young salmon readily find their way across the Bay and swim through its narrow
opening beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, out into the Pacific Ocean. It will
likely be December before Tallman can crunch all the data and tell Buttner
whether—and how much—the rice field nurseries boost survival rates for the
salmon. While the final verdict is still out, Buttner says they’re all hoping
for a nice Christmas present.
The fish in Tallman’s study that
do make it to the Pacific and survive in the open ocean will eventually attempt
to return as adults to spawn in the Central Valley’s extensive but highly
altered river system. It’s a journey the scientists hope will become at least
slightly less challenging in the years to come. “We’re not going to get back
what we once had,” Jeffres says. “But we can mimic it.” He and Katz envision
waterways that are managed for flood control and farming but also for Chinook
survival, ones with rice-field nurseries and bug farms to help restore
self-sustaining salmon populations.
“It’s about welcoming the wild
back into human landscapes in a way that makes sense,” Katz says. “We’re
reimagining the system to work with nature.”
This story originally appeared
in bioGraphic, an online magazine about nature and
sustainability powered by the California Academy of Sciences.
Bangladesh could
be the first to cultivate golden rice, genetically altered to fight blindness
A serving of golden rice contains half the beta-carotene children
need daily
ISAGANI SERRANO/CPS/IRRI
PHOTO/FLICKR/CC BY-NC-SA
Soon. That has long been
scientists' answer when ask
ed about the approval of golden rice, a
genetically modified (GM) crop that could help prevent childhood blindness and
deaths in the developing world. Ever since golden rice first made headlines
nearly 20 years ago, it has been a flashpoint in debates over GM crops.
Advocates touted it as an example of their potential benefit to humanity, while
opponents of transgenic crops criticized it as a risky and unnecessary approach
to improve health in the developing world.
Now, Bangladesh appears about to
become the first country to approve golden rice for planting. "It is
really important to say we got this over the line," says Johnathan Napier,
a plant biotechnologist at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, U.K., who was not
involved in the crop's development. He says approval would show that
agricultural biotechnology can be successfully developed by publicly funded
research centers for the public good. Still, environmental groups haven't
dropped their opposition—and the first harvest isn't expected until at least
2021. And more research will be needed to show the extent of real-world
benefits from golden rice.
Golden rice was developed in the
late 1990s by German plant scientists Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer to combat
vitamin A deficiency, the leading cause of childhood blindness. Low levels of
vitamin A also contribute to deaths from infectious diseases such as measles.
Spinach, sweet potato, and other vegetables supply ample amounts of the
vitamin, but in some countries, particularly those where rice is a major part
of the diet, vitamin A deficiency is still widespread; in Bangladesh it affects
about 21% of children.
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To create golden rice, Potrykus
and Beyer collaborated with agrochemical giant Syngenta to equip the plant with
beta-carotene genes from maize. They donated their transgenic plants to
public-sector agricultural institutes, paving the way for other researchers to
breed the golden rice genes into varieties that suit local tastes and growing
conditions.
Over the past 2 years, regulators
in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia approved golden rice
for consumption. There are no plans to grow the crop in these countries, but
approval will prevent problems if golden rice somehow accidentally turns up in
food supplies.
The golden rice under review in
Bangladesh was created at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in
Los Baños, Philippines. Researchers bred the beta-carotene genes into a rice
variety named dhan 29, which is grown widely during the dry season in Bangladesh
and contributes about 14% of the national harvest. In tests of dhan 29 golden
rice at multiple locations, researchers at the Bangladesh Rice Research
Institute (BRRI) in Gazipur found no new farming challenges and no significant
differences in quality—except for the presence of vitamin A.
BRRI submitted data to the
Bangladeshi Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change in November
2017. The Biosafety Core Committee, a group of eight officials and scientists,
has since been reviewing environmental risks, such as the plant's potential to
become a weed, as well as food safety. The review is nearing completion; on 28
October, the Dhaka Tribune reported that a
decision would be made by 15 November.
That date has come and gone; the
holdup appears to be due to the death of a committee member. But a source
familiar with the committee's deliberations says some members remain skeptical
of golden rice, wondering for example why it is needed when people could also
eat more vegetables.
Proponents are optimistic,
however. The scientific evidence is strong, the committee previously approved
another transgenic crop, and golden rice enjoys high-level political support in
Bangladesh, they say. "We are hopeful that golden rice might get the green
light soon," says Arif Hossain, director of Farming Future Bangladesh in
Dhaka, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to
inform policymakers and others about biotechnology.
After the environment ministry
signs off, golden rice must be registered by a seed certification agency within
the Ministry of Agriculture, which requires field trials in multiple places to
test for seed quality. If all goes smoothly, farmers might have golden rice
seed to plant by 2021.
How popular it will be is
uncertain. Farmers in Bangladesh quickly adopted an eggplant variety engineered
to kill certain insect pests after its 2014 introduction, but that crop offered
an immediate benefit: Farmers need fewer insecticides. Golden rice's health
benefits will emerge more slowly, says agricultural economist Justus Wesseler
of Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, so adoption
may be slower as well. The government may need to promote golden rice and,
Hossain says, even subsidize farmers to grow it.
Consumer acceptance may be another
challenge, given the golden hue, says Sherry Tanumihardjo, who studies vitamin
A and global health at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "People
have a difficult time changing the color of food they eat," and many
people in Bangladesh prefer to eat white rice. On the other hand, cooked golden
rice resembles khichuri, a popular dish of rice and lentils cooked with
turmeric, which may increase its appeal. With Gates Foundation support, IRRI
and BRRI are developing a strategy for directing farmers' harvest to rural
regions and cities with high poverty and malnutrition rates.
Opposition from nongovernmental
organizations could still hobble the introduction. Last month, two groups in
Bangladesh—the Agricultural Farm Labour Federation and the National Women
Farmers & Workers Association—called for a ban on both golden rice and
transgenic eggplant.
If golden rice does make inroads
in Bangladesh, additional varieties better adapted to other seasons or
locations may follow. Bred at BRRI, they are now in greenhouse trials. Like all
local versions of golden rice, these varieties were created not with genetic
engineering, but by traditional backcrossing, so they will likely not need
biosafety approval. "There will be no problem for a year-round supply of
biofortified rice," says Partha Biswas, a plant breeder at BRRI.
But for now, all eyes are on dhan
29. "It would be great to see it approved," Napier says. "It's
been a long time coming."
U.S. Rice to go to South Korea
Spring
flooding in 2017 hammered growers for roughly $175 million in damaged acreage
and lost production.
(
Chris Bennett ) U.S. rice will soon have a new market overseas. The
U.S. Trade Representative announced an agreement with South Korea. Under the
plan, South Korea will open its markets for more than 132,000 tons of U.S. rice
every year. The deal is valued at $110 million dollars. The U.S. Trade
Representative released the following statement:
United States and South Korea Reach
Agreement on Guaranteed Market Access for American Rice
Washington,
DC –
United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Secretary
of Agriculture Sonny Perdue are pleased to announce that the Trump
Administration has reached an agreement with the government of South Korea on
market access for U.S. rice. Under the agreement, Korea will provide
access for 132,304 tons of U.S. rice annually, with an annual value
of approximately $110 million. Korea also agreed to important disciplines
to ensure transparency and predictability around the tendering and auctioning
for U.S. rice. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, this
agreement gives our farmers the largest volume of guaranteed market access
for rice in Korea that the United States has ever enjoyed,” said
Ambassador Lighthizer. “It will prove enormously beneficial for
American producers and their customers in Korea, who will enjoy access to high
quality and cost competitive U.S. rice.” Secretary Perdue
said, “Today’s announcement is another great testament of President
Trump’s determination to expand export opportunities for America’s farmers and
ranchers. Exports are critical for the economic health of the
U.S. rice industry, with half our crop being exported every year.
Agreements like this, that expand opportunities for U.S. rice producers
in important markets, are critical to introduce foreign customers to the bounty
of goods produced by America’s farmers.” Background: In
2014, the United States, Australia, China, Thailand, and Vietnam entered into
negotiations with Korea when its special treatment for rice market
access under the World Trade Organization (WTO) expired. As a result of
these negotiations, Korea agreed to include in its WTO Schedule a 408,700-ton
tariff-rate quota for rice imports with a five percent in-quota duty
and a 513-percent above-quota duty. Of that 408,700 tons, Korea will
allocate 388,700 tons of rice into country-specific quotas under a
Plurilateral Agreement with the United States, Australia, China, Thailand and
Vietnam. The remaining 20,000 tons will be administered on a global
basis, which U.S. suppliers can also bid for. The agreement gives the United
States the greatest volume of guaranteed rice market access in Korea
ever with an annual value of approximately $110 million. Additionally,
the agreement provides U.S. suppliers with enhanced disciplines related to
administration of the U.S. country-specific quota. The agreement
will enter into force on January 1, 2020.
Free Food Worthy
of the Gods
After eating a vegetarian burrito given to me by a Hare Krishna on the
Ave, I ventured out to Sammamish for a Love Feast.
by David
Lewis
Iusually can't remember something I ate more than seven years ago
(unless it made me throw up or something). But I still remember that burrito
wrapped in tinfoil. A Hare Krishna handed it to me on the Ave back when I was
in college. "For you," was all he said, silently waving away my
offers to give it back. He went back to chanting.
"I wouldn't eat that," my
friend warned me. Well, the Hare Krishna didn't give it to him. I unwrapped the
foil.
SPONSORED
In the tradition
of Homo For The Holidays: JINGLE ALL THE GAY! Dec 6-29
Wow.
It was really good: rice,
potatoes, curry, ghee.
I think about that burrito more
than any other single item of food I've eaten. It was so good, I read the
pamphlet he gave me along with it: Easy Journey to Other Planets.
Hare Krishnas (they are officially known as the International Society for
Krishna Consciousness or ISKCON) are religiously opposed to space exploration,
believing that money would be better spent supplying the entire world with
quality vegetarian food.
Although the pamphlet originally
came out in 1970 (to protest the space race between the United States and the
Soviet Union), now that Jeff Bezos is using space exploration as a
justification for destroying Seattle, the pamphlet is weirdly locally relevant.
The amount of free food that the Hare Krishnas give out each Saturday in the
University District from their Free Vegetarian Food Truck gives a taste of what
a difference could be made if Elon Musk spent his money on feeding humanity
instead of launching a Tesla into orbit.
Hare Krishnas believe there is
food in outer space, but none of it is meant for humans. The demigods on the
moon drink soma-rasa, which is delicious for demigods but can't be digested by
Earth people. For us there is thandai, an Indian milk drink with a
cinnamon/almond flavor that is occasionally served from the food truck. What
they're serving at the food truck varies from week to week, but no matter what
it is, it always tastes good. Since our time on Earth might as well be
enjoyable, Hare Krishnas invest heavily in good food.
"It's not food, it's prasada,"
spiritual leader Harry Terhanian corrected in a recent sermon at the ISKCON
Vedic Cultural Center in Sammamish. Each Sunday they hold a Love Feast, a free
vegetarian banquet, at the center. I'd been wanting to go for years, but if you
don't have a car, getting to their big pink temple surrounded by evergreens is
like getting to the moon. There is no bus service remotely close to it on a
Sunday.
To learn more about prasada, I
finally decided to splurge and head out there. I got there partially by bus and
partially by Lyft. I learned that for food to become prasada, it has to be
offered to Krishna first. Not even the cooks are allowed to sample the food
before it has been presented to Krishna.
Before the Love Feast, we chanted
to the altar of Krishna playing the flute while the food for the banquet was
laid below the statue's feet. All of Lord Krishna's senses are fused
together—so for him, looking at the food is the same as tasting it. The founder
of the Hare Krishna movement, Srila Prabhupada, explained the reasoning:
"If a tuberculosis patient eats something and you eat the remnants, you
will be infected with tuberculosis. Similarly, if you eat food left by Krishna,
then you will be infected with Krishna consciousness."
They do not serve homeless people
any food they would be embarrassed to serve God.
After Krishna tasted it, the food
became prasada and we could eat.
In the dining hall, everybody sat
on the floor with their shoes off. Having no tables made cleaning up afterward
easy, as men with brooms just walked through the room during the feast,
sweeping up anything that happened to spill. On entering, I got a paper cup of
thandai and a paper plate. People walking around with metal buckets and ladles
dropped enormous piles of food on my plate. At no cost to you, there is
chickpea cucumber salad, curried potatoes with peas, and slender basmati rice
covered in a curried tomato sauce.
Hare Krishna cooking is
vegetarian, but not vegan, as they firmly believe that God loves dairy. The
prasada is soaked in ghee (clarified butter), which makes it delicious. For
religious reasons, they cannot eat any "foods in the mode of passion."
That includes caffeine and hot peppers. If you like Indian food but (like me)
have extremely white taste buds that can't handle heat, Hare Krishna cooking is
perfect.
I was one of only four white
people in the dining hall. And with my shoes off, I realized my feet could star
in a haunted house movie about the world's palest ghost. Those who remember
Hare Krishnas as being Caucasian burned-out hippies from the 1970s are always
surprised to learn that the movement is now primarily Indian. The old Hare
Krishna scene crashed hard back in the 1990s following a string of pedophiliac
sex-abuse scandals in Hare Krishna boarding schools.
Terhanian, the Sammamish temple's
spiritual leader, is a white holdover from the 1970s. His mother was a survivor
of the Armenian genocide, and before the feast he gave a sermon condemning
racism. But despite the sermon, and all the old Hare Krishna pamphlets
depicting white, Indian, black, and Asian children playing together, the temple
is obviously primarily meant for middle-class and rich Indians.
Do you want to
support The Stranger? Contribute here.
But the Love Feast is open to
all. If you're looking for a free meal and a sense of community around the
holidays, it's worth checking out. That said, my bus trip to Issaquah, followed
by a Lyft ride from there, plus a Lyft back to Seattle after the bus stopped
running, cost me a total of $66.50.
And while you may be rolling your
eyes at the bad stuff Hare Krishnas have done, those same things have been done
by basically every other religion on the planet, and those religions don't
provide great vegetarian food for free to homeless people. The temple might
mostly be for Indians, but their U-District food truck is for everybody.
South Korea
agrees to open market to US rice worth $110M per year
Historic market access, U.S. trade officials say.
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Former Commerce Department deputy
director Chris Garcia gives his insights on the ongoing U.S.-China trade talks.
South Korea agreed to give the U.S. market access for
approximately $110 million worth of rice a year, U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Lighthizer and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced
Tuesday.
"Thanks to President Trump's
leadership, this agreement gives our farmers the largest volume of guaranteed
market access for rice in Korea that the United States has ever enjoyed,"
Lighthizer said in a statement. "It will prove enormously
beneficial for American producers and their customers in Korea, who will enjoy
access to high quality and cost competitive U.S. rice."
The agreement providing access for 143,304 tons of rice annually
will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Lighthizer. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
"This announcement continues the Trump administration's
aggressive promotion of U.S. exports," Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., told
FOX Business in a statement. "Since Arkansas leads the country in
rice production, I hope to see even more international markets open up to allow
our industry to thrive. I thank Trade Representative Lighthizer and Agriculture
Secretary Perdue for their commitment to American agriculture."
Tuesday's agreement comes as
the U.S. global trade landscape is in an uncertain place. The Trump administration
is trying to make progress in negotiations with China and
convince Congress to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The uncertainty combined with tariffs hasn't been good for
farmers' bottom lines.
President Trump said Friday a new
round of payments would go out to farmers caught up in the China trade war.
Our great
Farmers will recieve another major round of “cash,” compliments of China
Tariffs, prior to Thanksgiving. The smaller farms and farmers will be big
beneficiaries. In the meantime, and as you may have noticed, China is starting
to buy big again. Japan deal DONE. Enjoy!
"Our great Farmers will
recieve [sic] another major round of 'cash,' compliments of China Tariffs,
prior to Thanksgiving," Trump wrote on Twitter. "The smaller farms and farmers will
be big beneficiaries."
"In the meantime, and as you may have noticed, China is
starting to buy big again," he continued. "Japan deal DONE.
Enjoy!"
S. Korea to
Keep 513 Percent Tariff on Imported Rice
Write: 2019-11-20 11:36:00/Update: 2019-11-20 11:54:17
YONHAP News
South Korea will maintain a 513 percent tariff on
imported rice next year while applying import quotas on major rice exporting
countries.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Tuesday, South Korea reached a deal with China, the U.S., Vietnam, Thailand and Australia -- five countries which had been disputing South Korea's high rice tariffs through the World Trade Organization since 2015.
After years of negotiations, South Korea reached an agreement with the five countries that allows Seoul to keep its 513 percent tariffs on imported rice.
In return, South Korea agreed to introduce annual import quotas for each country, with the highest quota applied to China with 157-thousand-195 tons of rice and the lowest applied to Australia, with 15-thousand-595 tons.
Rice imports from these two countries, along with the U.S., Vietnam and Thailand, will constitute 95 percent of the 408-thousand-700 tons subject to five percent tariffs under the government's Tariff Rate Quota(TRQ).
The remaining five percent, or 20-thousand tons, will be open for other countries. Additional rice imports exceeding the TRQ will be subject to the full 513 percent tariff rate.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Tuesday, South Korea reached a deal with China, the U.S., Vietnam, Thailand and Australia -- five countries which had been disputing South Korea's high rice tariffs through the World Trade Organization since 2015.
After years of negotiations, South Korea reached an agreement with the five countries that allows Seoul to keep its 513 percent tariffs on imported rice.
In return, South Korea agreed to introduce annual import quotas for each country, with the highest quota applied to China with 157-thousand-195 tons of rice and the lowest applied to Australia, with 15-thousand-595 tons.
Rice imports from these two countries, along with the U.S., Vietnam and Thailand, will constitute 95 percent of the 408-thousand-700 tons subject to five percent tariffs under the government's Tariff Rate Quota(TRQ).
The remaining five percent, or 20-thousand tons, will be open for other countries. Additional rice imports exceeding the TRQ will be subject to the full 513 percent tariff rate.
November 20, 2019
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte confirmed Tuesday night, November 20,
that he ordered the suspension of rice importations as a remedy to the low
farmgate prices of palay (unhusked rice).
He also noted that it is harvest season for locally grown rice.
Duterte further said he will ask Congress and Agriculture Secretary William Dar to appropriate funds for the purchase of rice grown by Filipino farmers, who are reeling from the impact of rice tariffication.
“What is the other remedy? Nothing. I cannot stop tariffication,” Duterte said in an interview with Palace reporters at the Malacañang late Tuesday night.
“You appropriate money and we will buy all the rice, farmgate price, from the farmers,” he added.
Republic Act (RA) 11203, or the Rice Tariffication Law, removed the quantitative restrictions in rice importations in a bid to improve supply and bring down prices which had caused inflation to surge in 2018.
This resulted in a large influx of imported rice in the market and the decline in farmgate prices of palay.
The government is set to release a total of P3 billion to around 600,000 farmers affected by the rice tariffication.
Duterte said he is willing to spend billions of pesos to help local farmers.
“Malugi? Lugi tayo, Pilipino? Malugi, ilang bilyon? P3 billion? Bakit? Para ang farmers mabuhay. Kaninong gastos? Gastos natin lahat (Will we suffer losses? Will Filipinos suffer losses? How many billions? P3 billion? Why? So the farmer can live. Who will spend? Us),” he said.
“Kung gusto natin, walang problema. Bibilhin lahat ng produced ng producer-farmers. Bilhin (If we want, there’s no problem with that. We will purchase all locally produced rice from producer-farmers),” Duterte added.
Duterte did not specify a time frame for the suspension of rice importations. (NASE/SunStar Philippines)
He also noted that it is harvest season for locally grown rice.
Duterte further said he will ask Congress and Agriculture Secretary William Dar to appropriate funds for the purchase of rice grown by Filipino farmers, who are reeling from the impact of rice tariffication.
“What is the other remedy? Nothing. I cannot stop tariffication,” Duterte said in an interview with Palace reporters at the Malacañang late Tuesday night.
“You appropriate money and we will buy all the rice, farmgate price, from the farmers,” he added.
Republic Act (RA) 11203, or the Rice Tariffication Law, removed the quantitative restrictions in rice importations in a bid to improve supply and bring down prices which had caused inflation to surge in 2018.
This resulted in a large influx of imported rice in the market and the decline in farmgate prices of palay.
The government is set to release a total of P3 billion to around 600,000 farmers affected by the rice tariffication.
Duterte said he is willing to spend billions of pesos to help local farmers.
“Malugi? Lugi tayo, Pilipino? Malugi, ilang bilyon? P3 billion? Bakit? Para ang farmers mabuhay. Kaninong gastos? Gastos natin lahat (Will we suffer losses? Will Filipinos suffer losses? How many billions? P3 billion? Why? So the farmer can live. Who will spend? Us),” he said.
“Kung gusto natin, walang problema. Bibilhin lahat ng produced ng producer-farmers. Bilhin (If we want, there’s no problem with that. We will purchase all locally produced rice from producer-farmers),” Duterte added.
Duterte did not specify a time frame for the suspension of rice importations. (NASE/SunStar Philippines)
‘Stopping rice imports to hurt poor families’
Neda chief warns against reversing gains of liberalized trade
regime
By: Ben
O. de Vera - Reporter / @bendeveraINQ
Philippine
Daily Inquirer / 04:11 AM November 20, 2019
INQUIRER file photo
The
country’s chief economist on Tuesday warned against reversing the gains made
under the liberalized rice trade regime, under which he claimed lower prices
redounded to the benefit of poor families.
Socioeconomic
Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told reporters Tuesday that the government
had already put in place measures to alleviate the impact of the Rice
Tariffication Law—which removed the import quota—on palay farmers.
Pernia, who
heads the state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority
(Neda), said the Cabinet approved to give away about P3 billion in cash to
farmers whose livelihoods were affected by the drop in palay prices amid a
surge in imports.
The
P3-billion funding will come from the tariff collection from imported rice that
exceeded the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
If the
government would backtrack on rice importation, Pernia warned, “we will be back
to where we were last year,” referring to the high inflation episode partly
caused by the domestic rice supply bottlenecks that pushed retail prices up.
When rice
prices rise, “the poor will suffer,” Pernia added, as the bulk of Filipino
families’ expenditures go to food items.
“Inflation
for the 30-percent poorest [households] has come down to 0.9 percent—the
much-bigger majority is benefitting,” Pernia said.
The latest
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed that the consumer price index
(CPI) for the bottom 30-percent income households in October fell to a 46-month
low of 0.9 percent year-on-year as food prices and cost of utilities declined
year-on-year.
In a press
conference last Monday, International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief Thomas
Helbling described rice tariffication as a “major step forward” as he said it
had been long overdue.
“I think
rice tariffication—that is to move from import quotas to import tariffs—is
helping the broader population. We would also know that, of course, rice
farmers may suffer from this but the government has instituted income support
for affected farmers,” Helbling told reporters.
The Action
for Economic Reforms (AER) has also strongly urged President Duterte not to
suspend the implementation of the RTL, noting that data from the PSA presented
evidence that retail prices of rice have fallen significantly to the great
benefit of the 100 million consumers of rice in the country, including the
poorest of the poor who consider rice a basic necessity.
While the
falling prices of palay is a growing concern, it said that any policy
pronouncements implying the erosion of the RTL would create uncertainty over
the law’s implementation and is precisely the cause for the lack of stability
in palay prices. “Rice traders who anticipate a reversal of the law are
hoarding rice, depressing farm gate prices to the detriment of Filipino rice
farmers. Halting implementation would only play into their hands. To counter this,
strong signals must be sent as regards the certainty and consistency of this
reform,” it pointed out.
AER said the
government must not renege on its policy commitment toward making rice more
accessible and affordable for Filipino consumers while putting in place
strategic measures that would address the farmers’ plight.
For one, the
RCEF, which will be sourced from tariff collections on rice imports, will
provide the means toward increasing farmers’ productivity and incomes in the
long run. In the meantime, AER said the government can directly procure rice
from local farmers in order to buoy prices. AER said it also strongly supported
using the tariff collections in excess of P10 billion for the purpose of direct
and conditional cash transfers to the rice farmers to provide transitional aid
and as an incentive for farmers to increase productivity as they continue
farming.
AER called
on Mr. Duterte to stay the course in implementing the RTL and the swift
implementation of mitigating measures to address the impact on rice farmers.
GIEWS Country Brief: Madagascar 20-November-2019
REPORT
Published on 20 Nov
2019
FOOD
SECURITY SNAPSHOT
· Planting
of 2020 paddy crops underway following favourable weather conditions
· Paddy
production in 2019 estimated at above‑average level, reflecting larger
plantings and higher yields
· Prices
of rice increased seasonally since July 2018, but were lower year on year in
October 2019 due to improved national supplies
·
Number of food insecure declined due
to impact of larger 2019 cereal harvest
Planting
of 2020 paddy crops underway following favourable weather conditions
Planting
of the 2020 main season cereal crops, mainly paddy, has recently started and is
expected to continue until mid‑January. Overall, adequate and well‑distributed
rains from October have boosted soil moisture levels and supported planting
activities.
The
latest seasonal weather forecasts indicate a higher likelihood of average to
above‑average rainfall for the period between November 2019 and March 2020 in
the key paddy‑producing areas, located in the central and northern regions. By
contrast, rainfall is forecast at below‑average levels for the same period in
most southern regions, which normally experience prolonged periods of drought
conditions.
Above‑average
paddy production estimated in 2019
Harvesting
of the 2019 paddy crop concluded in July and production is estimated at about
3.9 million tonnes, 9 percent above the previous five‑year average. Production
increases were reported across most regions, mainly due to an above‑average
area planted and high yields resulting from conducive rainfall and temperatures
throughout the cropping season.
Harvesting
of the 2019 maize crop concluded last April and production is estimated at 220
000 tonnes, slightly above the previous year’s low level but still well below
the five‑year average. In spite of an estimated increase in yields this year,
supported by favourable weather conditions, a lower‑than‑average area planted
kept this year’s harvest at a low level. The reduced area sown to maize was
partly caused by infestations of Fall Armyworms, reported in the country since
2017, which prompted farmers to decrease plantings.
Cereal
import requirements increase slightly in 2019/20
The
aggregate import requirement of cereals in the 2019/20 marketing year
(April/March) are forecast to increase to an above‑average level of 600 000
tonnes. Despite the rebound in paddy production in 2020, import requirements of
rice, which account for the largest share of imports, are forecast at 450 000
in 2019/20, 15 percent above the average, as the country seeks to replenish
stocks and buffer domestic availabilities following two consecutive years of
below average paddy harvests. Import requirements of wheat are forecast at 130
000 tonnes, 7 percent above the average, reflecting increasing demand for food
use.
Prices
of rice increased seasonally but lower on a yearly basis
Prices
of rice have increased seasonally in the past four months but, as of October
2019, they were lower year on year as the 2019 bumper harvest boosted national
supplies. Stable exchange rates and international prices of rice have also
contributed to limiting imported inflation in 2019 and lessening upward
pressure on domestic rice prices.
High
prevalence of severe food insecurity persists in spite of improved 2019
harvests
The
number of people experiencing severe food insecurity declined by almost 30
percent in 2019, mainly due to improved domestic availabilities of staple foods
(rice, maize and cassava) and lower prices of cereals compared to the previous
year. According to the latest Vulnerability Assessment Committee’s (VAC)
evaluation, about 916 000 people are estimated to be in IPC Phase 3: “Crisis”
and Phase 4: “Emergency” in December 2019, well below 1.26 million people in
the previous year.
Sindh’s education boards told to follow AKU-EB’s system from 2020
Naeem Sahoutara
Updated November 16, 2019
The SHC asks chief secretary to form a committee to
apply National Curriculum Policy 2006 in Sindh. — Reuters/File
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed all
education boards in the province to ensure implementation of a court order in
letter and spirit with regard to upgrade of the curriculum and examination
system on the pattern of The Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB)
from 2020.
A single bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar
further directed the boards to submit details as to how they had implemented
that relevant paragraph of the court’s Aug 2 order passed in a constitutional
petition filed at the SHC’s circuit bench at Hyderabad.
The bench issued these directives while hearing an
appeal of a female officer of the education department regarding preparation of
an alleged fake invigilation bill by another education officer for annual
examination 2011.
She alleged in the appeal, filed in 2017, that a senior
education officer along with an official of the National Accountability Bureau
approached and pressurised her to release the payment.
At the outset, IBA registrar Engineer Zahid Khan Khand,
who was appointed by the court as amicus curiae (friend of the court),
submitted his recommendations/suggestions.
The SHC asks chief secretary to form a committee to
apply National Curriculum Policy 2006 in Sindh
The provincial law officer as well as representatives
of the Karachi, Sukkur and Larkana education boards failed to submit the
criteria of amount specified for invigilation and other expenses incurred on
the examinations, as sought by the court in the last hearing.
The bench ordered all boards of education to ensure
compliance of the Aug 2 order regarding upgrade of the curriculum and
examination system on the pattern of the Aga Khan Examination Board “in its
letter and spirit from the year 2020 onwards”.
The secretary of universities and boards was directed
to ensure compliance with the court’s order.
The IBA registrar pointed out that despite a federal
policy regarding curriculum adopted in 2006, which was being implemented in
other three provinces, the Sindh education department was yet to apply the same
here.
He added that the policy was also applicable to all the
universities, colleges and schools.
The bench ordered that the policy shall be applied in
Sindh from 2020 onwards and directed the Sindh chief secretary to constitute a
high-level committee in this regard within one week of receipt of the copy of
this order.
The proposed committee would be headed by Nisar Ahmed
Siddiqui, the vice chancellor of the IBA-Sukkur, and comprise of chairmen of
the boards of education, chairman of the Sindh Textbook Board (STBB), director
curriculum, former and incumbent managing director of the Sindh Education
Foundation (SEF), the VCs of the Sindh, Karachi and Khairpur universities,
secretary schools and colleges secretary.
The court said that all the boards and universities
would be responsible and they shall come forward with an undertaking in this
regard.
Noting that the curriculum policy and publication of
books related to the STBB and director curriculum, the court directed them to
ensure that books shall be made available as per curriculum and as per standard
of the National Curriculum Policy 2006, as applied in the Punjab, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan education departments.
The IBA registrar stated that normally the Aga Khan
Board recommended the textbooks of Punjab and KP textbook boards instead of
STBB, which needed to be upgraded and ensure that the books published were at
par with other provinces.
Issuing notices to the STBB chairman and the director
curriculum for the next date, the bench asked them to submit an undertaking and
mechanism that from 2020 onwards textbooks would be available a month prior to
the commencement of the academic session in the province.
The bench directed to send the IBA registrar’s
suggestions/recommendations to all education boards asking them to consider the
same or come forward with a better proposal.
The court told all chairmen of the boards to sit
together and submit their policy to remove nuisance/unfair means of cheating in
examinations and submit their compliance reports/better proposal on Dec 11.
The chief secretary was told to supervise that process
and its implementation.
Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2019
Dawn News
Villar: Suspension
of rice importation good for local farmers
BACOLOD. Senator Cynthia Villar with SPM Andrew Montelibano
leads the ribbon cutting during the opening of the 14th Negros Island Organic
Farmer’s Festival in front of the Provincial Capitol Wednesday, November 20,
2019. (Photo by Prime Tejida)
November 20, 2019
THE order of President Rodrigo Duterte to suspend the
importation of rice is good for the local farmers in the country, Senator
Cynthia Villar said Wednesday, November 20.
Villar was in Bacolod City as guest of the 14th Negros Island Organic Farmers’ Festival at the Provincial Capitol that opened Wednesday.
“It means they will limit the importation because before you import you need to secure sanitary permits,” she said.
Villar said that the national government will delay the importation until the end of the harvest season so their products can be sold.
The Philippines always imports because the domestic rice production is not enough, the senator said.
Villar clarified that the liberalization of the rice industry is covered by the agreements of the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization (GATT-WTO) signed in 1995 and expired on 2017.
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered Agriculture Secretary William Dar to suspend the importation of rice in order to help local farmers who suffered from the rice tariffication law.
Duterte gave the order in a press conference late Tuesday night, November 19, saying the move was needed to avoid “riots” brought about by hunger and a lack of food.
He added that among the reasons for the lack of rice was local producers’ failure to accurately predict how much they produce citing factors such as climate change, which affected local farmers’ projected output come harvest time.
The President said he opted to stop the importation of rice as he could not stop rice tariffication, which was needed to “erase corruption.”
Duterte did not say for how long the order would be in place, claiming it was needed to ensure farmers earned from their efforts.
Duterte ordered Congress to appropriate the needed funds to buy “all the rice” from local farmers and additional stocks needed to feed millions of consumers.
Since the signing of Republic Act 1120 or an “An Act liberalizing the importation, exportation, and trading of rice, lifting for the purpose the quantitative import restriction on rice,” farmgate prices of palay (unhusked rice) have reportedly dropped to as low as P7 per kilo in some areas.
Critics said the passage of the rice tariffication law that replaced import quotas with tariffs.
With the rice tariffication law, the deregulation of rice meant imported rice flooding the country, to the disadvantage of Filipino rice farmers and the local rice industry as a whole, which can’t compete with the prices of rice from countries like Thailand and Vietnam.
Since the enactment of the rice tariffication law in February, lawmakers have attempted to pass measures that will allow the government to use Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) rice subsidy funds to buy palay from local farmers in select provinces.
In her speech, Villar informed local officials of Negros Occidental that the government under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund is distributing to 947 rice-producing towns in the country with a minimum rice land of 100 hectares.
Every year, she said every town will receive P5 million worth of equipment for the next six years as part of the government’s agriculture mechanization program.
If your local government does not receive anything report it to the Senate and we will use our oversight powers, she added.
These towns will also receive 20 kilos of in-bred seeds per hectare, Villar said adding that these seeds will increase one’s rice production by 50 percent.
From four metric tons per hectare, to six metric tons per hectare, she said.
We want to bring the cost of rice so that our rice industry can be competitive, she also said.
Villar also said that under the Philippine Rice Program every hectare will receive one bag of fertilizer.
Funding for these programs comes from the tariff imposed on imported rice, she said.
Villar was in Bacolod City as guest of the 14th Negros Island Organic Farmers’ Festival at the Provincial Capitol that opened Wednesday.
“It means they will limit the importation because before you import you need to secure sanitary permits,” she said.
Villar said that the national government will delay the importation until the end of the harvest season so their products can be sold.
The Philippines always imports because the domestic rice production is not enough, the senator said.
Villar clarified that the liberalization of the rice industry is covered by the agreements of the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization (GATT-WTO) signed in 1995 and expired on 2017.
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered Agriculture Secretary William Dar to suspend the importation of rice in order to help local farmers who suffered from the rice tariffication law.
Duterte gave the order in a press conference late Tuesday night, November 19, saying the move was needed to avoid “riots” brought about by hunger and a lack of food.
He added that among the reasons for the lack of rice was local producers’ failure to accurately predict how much they produce citing factors such as climate change, which affected local farmers’ projected output come harvest time.
The President said he opted to stop the importation of rice as he could not stop rice tariffication, which was needed to “erase corruption.”
Duterte did not say for how long the order would be in place, claiming it was needed to ensure farmers earned from their efforts.
Duterte ordered Congress to appropriate the needed funds to buy “all the rice” from local farmers and additional stocks needed to feed millions of consumers.
Since the signing of Republic Act 1120 or an “An Act liberalizing the importation, exportation, and trading of rice, lifting for the purpose the quantitative import restriction on rice,” farmgate prices of palay (unhusked rice) have reportedly dropped to as low as P7 per kilo in some areas.
Critics said the passage of the rice tariffication law that replaced import quotas with tariffs.
With the rice tariffication law, the deregulation of rice meant imported rice flooding the country, to the disadvantage of Filipino rice farmers and the local rice industry as a whole, which can’t compete with the prices of rice from countries like Thailand and Vietnam.
Since the enactment of the rice tariffication law in February, lawmakers have attempted to pass measures that will allow the government to use Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) rice subsidy funds to buy palay from local farmers in select provinces.
In her speech, Villar informed local officials of Negros Occidental that the government under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund is distributing to 947 rice-producing towns in the country with a minimum rice land of 100 hectares.
Every year, she said every town will receive P5 million worth of equipment for the next six years as part of the government’s agriculture mechanization program.
If your local government does not receive anything report it to the Senate and we will use our oversight powers, she added.
These towns will also receive 20 kilos of in-bred seeds per hectare, Villar said adding that these seeds will increase one’s rice production by 50 percent.
From four metric tons per hectare, to six metric tons per hectare, she said.
We want to bring the cost of rice so that our rice industry can be competitive, she also said.
Villar also said that under the Philippine Rice Program every hectare will receive one bag of fertilizer.
Funding for these programs comes from the tariff imposed on imported rice, she said.
Gov’t wavering on rice tariffs could weaken farmers’ market position
November 19, 2019 | 8:45 pm
PHILSTAR/MICHAEL VARCAS
ACTION for Economic Reforms
(AER), a non-government organization, warned the administration against sending
any signals that would call into doubt the future of the Rice Tariffication
Law, saying that its repeal will give rice traders even more leverage to
depress the price they pay to farmers.
“While the falling prices of
palay (unmilled rice) is a growing concern, any policy pronouncements which
imply the erosion of the Rice Tariffication Law creates uncertainty over the
law’s implementation and is precisely the cause for the lack of stability in
palay prices. Rice traders who anticipate a reversal of the law (will be)
hoarding rice, depressing farmgate prices to the detriment of Filipino rice
farmers,” AER said in a statement.
“Halting implementation would
only play into their hands,” it added.
To prevent this from happening,
the group said the government should be clear on its intent to implement the
law.
“Strong signals must be sent as
regards the certainty and consistency of this reform,” it said, adding that the
government should not break its commitment to make rice more affordable for all
Filipinos, while implementing measures that will improve competitiveness of
rice farmers.
“AER calls on the President
(Rodrigo R. Duterte) to stay the course in implementing the Rice Tariffication
Law. We call on the swift implementation of mitigating measures to address the
plight of the Filipino rice farmers,” it said.
The Rice Tariffication Law took
effect in March, liberalizing rice imports. The large volumes of cheap foreign
rice on the market weakened the bargaining position of farmers against the
traders they sell palay to.
According to the Bureau of
Customs (BoC), rice imported between March and October totaled 1.87 million
metric tons (MT).
The price of palay has also been
declining since March. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that in
the fourth week of October, palay prices were at P15.43 per kilo, down 0.4%,
week-on-week, and down 24.2%, year-on-year.
On Sunday, GMA News reported that
Mr. Duterte has ordered the suspension of rice imports. Presidential
Spokesperson Salvador S. Panelo then said on Monday that no order has been
officially issued yet.
When asked about the government’s
position, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said at a news conference
Tuesday in Quezon City: “I think the Palace has clarified things, so (the
policy remains) the same. (We are practicing) free trade… Let’s just be fair in
pursuing this free trade, but the government will be doing its best also to
help the affected palay farmers.” — Vincent Mariel P. Galang
House will review proposal to repeal rice
tariffication law
November
20, 2019
This
file photo shows an assortment of commercial rice on sale at a grocery store in
Antipolo City.
THE leadership of the House of
Representatives on Tuesday said it will study the proposals repealing the rice
tariffication law (RTL).
This after Speaker Alan Peter
Cayetano and Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez along with other House
leaders received the 50,000 signatures gathered by Bantay Bigas calling for the
repeal of the law, which took effect just last March.
Cayetano said that they are open
to the proposal and would study all options to help farmers affected by the
RTL, who have groaned under deep cuts to their income with the surge in imports
as a result of liberalization.
Romualdez, chairman of the House
Committee on Rules, also vowed to hear the proposal of other lawmakers to
address the impact of RTL, saying “everyone deserves to be heard.”
On February 2019, Republic Act
(RA) 11203 entitled, “An Act Liberalizing the Importation, Exportation and
Trading of Rice, Lifting for the Purpose the Quantitative Import Restriction on
Rice, and For Other Purposes” was enacted to help support the local rice
industry specifically by creating a “Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.”
For his part, House Committee on
Agriculture and Food Chairman Wilfrido Mark Enverga said suspension of rice
importation will help farmers against losses due to the RTL.
“Definitely a call for suspension
of rice importation and/or raising the safeguard measures will ease the impacts
of the rice liberalization law,” he added.
December
discussions
According to Enverga, his
committee will deliberate all the proposals amending, as well as repealing the
RTL next month.
“There are bills repealing and
amending the RTL. These measures will be scheduled this December for
deliberations,” Enverga said.
“It is a point of consideration
for President Duterte. We will welcome any measure that will cushion the
immediate impacts of the law to our rice farmers,” he added. Currently, there
are five pending bills and resolutions repealing and amending Republic Act
11203 or the RTL.
Last week, Bantay Bigas and the
National Federation of Peasant Women (Amihan) submitted a petition to the House
urging the leadership of the chamber to repeal the RTL.
The groups said their petition
was signed by 50,000 farmers in top rice-producing provinces, including Nueva
Ecija, Isabela, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Iloilo, Camarines Sur, Tarlac and Leyte.
“We strongly hope that the House
of Representatives heeds the noble demands of the Filipino people for the
attainment of national food security based on self-sufficiency and
self-reliance, free from import dependence and grounded on strengthened
tenurial rights of rice farmers in the country,” the petition said.
Reiterated
Meanwhile, House Committee on
Ways and Means Chairman Joey Salceda on Tuesday reiterated that the national
government has three options, including requesting Congress to impose
quatitative restrictions, to stop farmers from incurring losses due to RTL.
According to Salceda, the sudden
drop in palay prices is due to increased local harvest and the huge volume of
imported rice with the RTL.
One of the options, Salceda said,
is for President Duterte to ask Congress for special powers to impose the
quantitative restrictions, which was repealed in the passage of RTL last year.
With the surge of rice imports
and injury to domestic industry the other option the government may invoke,
Salceda said, is Republic Act 8800 or the Safeguards Law to impose 30 percent
to 80 percent tariff on imported rice outside the Minimum Access Volume (MAV)
of 350,000 metric tons. “RA 8800 is well recognized under our commitments
with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and the provisional measure has a maximum
period of one year,” he said.
The third option, Salceda said,
is for the government to provide cash transfers to marginal small-lot farmers
and concessional loans to big rice farmers. The lawmaker said a total of 2.1
million farmers will benefit from these options.
Vietnam’s rice
price surprisingly low despite high quality
20/11/2019 14:00
GMT+7
Vietnam is famous as one of the
world's biggest rice exporters, but its export price is low.
Vietnam’s ST24 rice variety has
been recognized as the best in the world at The Rice Trader (TRT) World Rice
Conference 2019 in Manila. The rice variety was created by Ho Quang Cua and a
group of high-quality rice producers in Soc Trang province.
Prior to that, at the TRF in Malaysia in 2015 and Macau (China) in 2017, two Vietnamese rice varieties, Loc Troi 1 (developed by Loc Troi Group) and ST 24 were listed among top 3 best rice varieties.
Meanwhile, at the 5th Continental Rice Trade Conference held in China in 2018, Loc Troi 28 won the first price among fragrant rice varieties, while OM 18, also developed by Loc Troi Group, won second prize among white rice varieties.
Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An Hi-tech Agriculture, affirmed that Vietnam’s rice is not inferior to the rice of any other country.
According to Nguyen Trung Kien, deputy chair of the Vietnam Food Association, scented rice and long-grain white rice exports account for 70 percent of total exports.
 |
|
Vietnam’s ST24 rice variety
has been recognized as the best in the world at The Rice Trader (TRT) World
Rice Conference 2019 in Manila. The rice variety was created by Ho Quang Cua
and a group of high-quality rice producers in Soc Trang province.
|
However, Vietnam’s rice export
prices are very low compared with other export countries. Binh said Vietnam’s
ST 24 rice sells for $750-800 per ton, while Thailand’s rice with the same
quality is priced at $1,100-1,200 per ton.
Cambodia’s rice, which has
suality just equal to Vietnam’s ST 5, can also sell for $600 per ton in the
world market. Meanwhile, Vietnam sells ST 5 at $550 per ton only.
“Thailand and Cambodia can sell rice for better prices because they are better at branding, which gains customers’ confidence. Vietnam’s rice has premium quality, but it is little known in the world market.” Binh said.
“This explains why Vietnam cannot earn much more money even though it has shifted to export high-quality instead of low-cost rice,” he explained.
Nguyen Dinh Bich, a respected trade expert, commented that Vietnam rice varieties are recognized as the best in the world, which shows that Vietnam now pays attention to making high-quality products.
However, he said, most of the varieties that won high prizes are still in small-scale production.
One year ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) officially introduced the logo of Vietnam’s national rice. However, to date, no export consignment has been sold with the logo on the packs.
“Thailand and Cambodia can sell rice for better prices because they are better at branding, which gains customers’ confidence. Vietnam’s rice has premium quality, but it is little known in the world market.” Binh said.
“This explains why Vietnam cannot earn much more money even though it has shifted to export high-quality instead of low-cost rice,” he explained.
Nguyen Dinh Bich, a respected trade expert, commented that Vietnam rice varieties are recognized as the best in the world, which shows that Vietnam now pays attention to making high-quality products.
However, he said, most of the varieties that won high prizes are still in small-scale production.
One year ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) officially introduced the logo of Vietnam’s national rice. However, to date, no export consignment has been sold with the logo on the packs.
Thanh Mai
Transport strike won't affect rice
market, says food minister
Published: 20 Nov 2019 03:30 PM BdST Updated: 20 Nov 2019 03:30 PM BdST
·
The ongoing transport strike over
the new road traffic law will not adversely affect the rice market even if it
is prolonged by another 10 days, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder has
said.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a
meeting with mill owners on Wednesday, the minister said the market in Dhaka
will not be affected 'in the slightest' due to the existing rice stocks at
small and large markets.
"I can guarantee that there
won't be any impact even if the strike continues for the next 10 days."
Buses remained grounded in
several districts in the country's south-western and northern regions for the
last two days after transport workers 'willingly' abstained from work.
Long-haul bus services on the
Dhaka-Chattogram, Dhaka-Sylhet and Dhaka-Tangail routes were impeded by
protesters on Wednesday morning.
A network of truckers and lorry owners also joined the strike on
Wednesday morning leaving many businesses to suffer as a result.
The minister acknowledged a four-taka
rise in retail prices of Miniket rice, but said there is no logical reason for
the hike.
"After monitoring the mills
and markets, we have found that there isn't any shortage of rice in stock.
There's no need to import rice. Instead, we are ready to export the
product."
The food ministry has written to
the home ministry to prevent any attempt to raise the price of rice, said
Sadhan. The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection and the commerce
ministry have also been informed of the matter.
"We won't tolerate any
attempt to raise the price by anyone."
Govt to purchase rice through app
this Aman season
Sun Online Desk
20th November,
2019 09:34:30
The
government has planned to purchase rice from farmers through digital Apps for
the first time in the upcoming Aman season.
In this
experimental move, the government will purchase rice from 16 upazilas of 8
divisions through an app named ‘Krishoker App’.
The app has been developed for the
farmer so that they could sell their produced paddy directly to the government.
After
downloading the app, it can be used easily on a smartphone. Farmers have to
register through the app providing their national ID number and phone number.
In case of not having a mobile, the farmer can go to the upazila digital center
and use the app there.
The officers
of Directorate General of Food said the government will start their
experimental process of collecting paddy from 20 November and from December 1
they will start collecting rice. Purchasing will continue till February 28.
The Food
Department of the country hopes that this process will curb the irregularities
and corruption in rice collection.
If this
experimental digital purchasing process goes well, the process will be
implemented widely in the next Boro season.
Dr.
Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum, the Director General of Directorate General of Food
said, “We want our farmers to apply for selling rice from their home. If one
does not have a smartphone he can use his relatives one or can get help from
upazila digital centers.”
She said, earlier the rice were
exchanged many hands before collected by the government. Now it can be solved.
Amon
paddy will be collected through the app from the farmers of Savar, Gazipur
Sadar, Mymensingh Sadar, Jamalpur Sadar, Brahmanbaria Sadar, Comilla Sadar
south, Barisal Sadar, Bhola Sadar, Naogaon Sadar, Bogra Sadar, Rangpur Sadar,
Dinajpur Sadar, Jhenaidah Sadar, Jessore Sadar, Habiganj Sadar and Moulvibazar
Sadar Upazila.
Rice price is stable: Food minister
BSS
19th November,
2019 08:38:42
Food
Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said on Tuesday the rice price is stable in
the country as the government kept the rice distribution programme
uninterrupted for 50 lakh poor people.
“As per
the electoral pledge of the ruling Awami League, the government is continuously
distributing rice among the poor at a price of Taka 10 per kg, which has kept
the rice price stable across the country,” he said.
The minister was addressing a
triennial council of the Awami League at Ghatnagar Union under Porsha
Upazila this afternoon.
Claiming
that the farmers are now getting fair price for their products, the minister
said the country is not facing any irrigation crisis and that’s why the rice
production has increased significantly.
He said
farmers had to die for fertilizer during the BNP regime, but it is now easily
available for the farmers.
Chaired
by Ghatnagar Union Awami League President M Asgar Ali, the meeting also
addressed, among others, by District Awami League vice-president M Abdur
Rahman, Organizing Secretary Jabed Jahangir Sohel and Deputy Publicity
Secretary Ranjet Sarker.
Minister to mill owners: Do not increase rice prices
Published at
02:26 pm November 20th, 2019
Varieties of rice Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka Tribune
A cell has been formed to monitor the market
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder has warned against
increasing rice prices, saying the country has an adequate stockpile of food
grain.
“There is no reason to hike the prices. Stern
action will be taken against those involved in increasing rice prices,” he
said, after a views exchange meeting with rice mill owners, at the Secretariat
on Wednesday.
A cell has been formed to monitor the market
round the clock and wholesale traders have been given directives in this
regard, he added.
Minister Sadhan said the annual demand for
rice is 28,416,710 tons, reports UNB.
He said: “About 1,459,000 tons of rice and
wheat are in stock and 1,113,303 tons are available at state-owned
warehouses.”
“Please do not raise the price of rice,” he
requested the wholesalers.
No reason to hike rice prices:
Minister
November
20, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:14 PM, November 20, 2019
Photo:
Collected
UNB,
Dhaka
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra
Majumder today warned against increasing rice prices, saying the country has an
adequate stockpile of food grain.
"There's no reason to hike the prices. Stern action will be taken against those involved in raising rice prices," he told reporters after a view-exchange meeting with rice mill owners at the Secretariat.
A cell has been formed to monitor the market round the clock and wholesale traders have been given directives in this regard, he said.
Minister Sadhan said the annual demand for rice is 2,84,16710 metric tonnes. "About 14.59 lakh mts of rice and wheat are in stock and 11,13,303 metric tonnes are available at state-owned warehouses," he said.
"Please don't raise the price of rice," he requested wholesalers.
"There's no reason to hike the prices. Stern action will be taken against those involved in raising rice prices," he told reporters after a view-exchange meeting with rice mill owners at the Secretariat.
A cell has been formed to monitor the market round the clock and wholesale traders have been given directives in this regard, he said.
Minister Sadhan said the annual demand for rice is 2,84,16710 metric tonnes. "About 14.59 lakh mts of rice and wheat are in stock and 11,13,303 metric tonnes are available at state-owned warehouses," he said.
"Please don't raise the price of rice," he requested wholesalers.
China reduces greenhouse gas emissions in rice
production: study
Source:
Xinhua| 2019-11-21 17:05:05|Editor: Xiang Bo
BEIJING, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- The greenhouse gas emissions from
China's rice fields have been reduced by 70 percent over the past five decades,
according to a recent Chinese study.
China's rice agriculture, a primary source of greenhouse gas
emissions, has experienced great changes in the last five decades due to
changes in dominant varieties and farming practices. Researchers from the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences comprehensively assessed the impacts
of these changes on greenhouse gas emissions.
Through large-scale variety comparison, field monitoring and
historical data mining, researchers found that China's average yield of rice
has increased by 130 percent over the past five decades. With rice planting
area shifting northwards, the adoption of high-yielding varieties and
innovation in irrigation systems, the greenhouse gas emissions from China's
rice fields have been reduced by 70 percent, with the reduction of methane
emissions most significant.
The findings illustrate that it is possible to enhance rice
productivity at reduced environmental costs through screening for low emission
varieties and agronomic techniques. Future innovations should ensure that rice
farming progressively adapts to climate change, while continuing to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study.
The study was published in the journal Environmental Research
Letters.
[ANALYSIS] Duterte’s ban on rice
imports: Enough of these capricious policies
JC Punongbayan
Published 1:31 PM, November 21, 2019
Updated 1:31 PM, November 21, 2019
You might call it policy-making by trial-and-error.
In a recent late night press
conference, following days of speculation,
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Agriculture Secretary William Dar to stop all importation of
rice and buy more rice from our local farmers.
Said Duterte, “Kung
gusto talaga nating walang problema, bilhin lahat ng produce ng farmers….Para
‘yung farmers, may resulta sa pawis nila.” (To avoid problems
let’s buy all the produce of farmers. So their efforts will pay off.)
Some sectors are hailing these
pronouncements, which they expect will aid rice farmers whose incomes have been
wiped out by the recent Rice Tariffication Act.
But let’s not forget that Duterte
himself signed the Rice
Tariffication Act on Valentine’s Day this year, resulting in
the massive wave of rice imports. Now, capriciously, Duterte wants to reverse
his very own policy.
There are ways to help out our
embattled rice farmers without banning rice imports altogether. In fact, such a
ban might only backfire.
Not bad per se
Rice tariffication per se was not
bad.
It ended the decades-long monopoly
of the National Food Authority (NFA) in the importation of rice, which not only
caused perennial shortages and surpluses but also strained our government’s
coffers no end. (READ: Will rice tariffication
live up to its promise?)
Before, the NFA used to set a
quota on the total amount of rice our country can import. Now, just about
anyone can import rice as long as they pay the necessary import taxes (also
called tariffs).
Indeed, rice tariffication
flooded the domestic market with foreign rice and depressed rice prices
everywhere. The US Department of Agriculture estimates, in fact, that by end of
2019 the Philippines will likely become the world’s largest rice
importer, beating China.
Wipeout
Government policymakers expected
– indeed intended – for rice prices to go down with rice tariffication. What
surprised them, though, was the extent that this happened.
Figure 1 below shows that by end
of October farmgate prices of palay (unhusked rice) dropped by about 24%
relative to last year. Meanwhile, retail prices of well-milled and
regular-milled rice dropped by 13% and 17%, respectively.
Figure 1.
Although falling rice prices are
a boon to rice consumers, they spell lower incomes for millions of rice farmers
nationwide – although rice prices did fall at different rates across
the regions, as shown in the graphs made by my friend AJ Montesa (Figure 2).
Some stuff on falling palay prices
Figure 2.
Proponents of rice tariffication
anticipated such hardships on our farmers. That is why they earmarked
P10-billion worth of tariff revenues – also called the Rice Competitiveness
Enhancement Fund (RCEF) – to help tide over our farmers.
But this may not be enough.
The Philippine Rice Research
Institute (PhilRice) recently came up with a study showing that rice farmers
across the country have suffered about P61.8 billion in
lost incomes.
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That’s more than 6 times the size
of RCEF, and the Rice Tariffication Act is barely a year old. Such income
losses might even balloon to P130 billion come peak harvest season.
Absent “immediate measures to
cushion the adverse effects” of rice tariffication, PhilRice suggests lots of
rice farmers will be dissuaded from planting rice in the future.
Import ban
Besides RCEF, politicians are
mulling a number of other palliative measures, some more helpful than others.
Others still might, in fact, do more harm than good.
Duterte’s recent rice import ban
is arguably the most knee-jerk proposal of all – one that he seemingly came up
with on his own sans the advice of his economic team.
The economic managers are flatly against it.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said it might bring us “back to
where we were last year and the poor will suffer.”
Their objection is rooted in the
fact that limited imports will likely tighten domestic supply, push up rice
prices, and stoke inflation just like last year.
But there’s a bigger concern:
rice traders.
In the wake of rice
tariffication, rice traders are reportedly over-importing and hoarding rice in
big warehouses. At the same time, they’re deliberately not buying from our
local farmers, thus pressuring farmgate prices downward.
As a result of traders’
anticompetitive behaviors, consumers pay more than they need to while farmers
receive less. This artificial scarcity drives the wedge you see in Figure 1
between farmgate palay prices (orange) and commercial rice prices (blue and
green).
Duterte’s rice import ban paves
the way for higher prices, thus providing an opportunity for rice traders to
profit immensely once they release their stocks of hoarded rice into the
market.
Unless government significantly
erodes the market power of these rice traders – behaving as a cartel – it will
be hard to contain the ill effects of rice tariffication.
In place of a rice import ban, a
number of people have alternatively suggested rice tariff hikes – also
called special safeguard duties –
to stem the inflow of rice from abroad.
But such tariff hikes, depending
on their size, might only have a similar effect as Duterte’s import ban.
Local purchases
Government is also planning to
aggressively purchase more rice from our local farmers.
For their part, the House of
Representatives already realigned P3.5 billion in
the proposed 2020 budget so the agriculture department could purchase more
palay directly from farmers.
On top of this, both houses of Congress also
passed a measure that would authorize the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) to buy rice from our farmers worth nearly P7 billion.
Basically this means that in some
provinces beneficiaries of the government’s flagship antipoverty program –
called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps – will begin to receive
actual sacks of rice in place of P600 worth of monthly rice subsidies.
Although seemingly well-meaning,
some economists are frowning upon this
move.
Aside from the fact that handing
out rice to more than 4 million poor families will surely prove to be a
logistical nightmare, the poor are likely better off with cash which gives them
more flexibility in buying the goods and services they truly need day-to-day.
Government cannot second-guess the
poor and simply assume they just need more rice.
Capricious policy-making
Right now the economic team must
be scratching their heads. Despite their misgivings, Duterte went ahead to
unilaterally stop rice importation altogether.
Was rice tariffication a miscalculation
by Duterte? Did he not anticipate that rice prices would plummet? Was he
ill-advised by the economic team?
At any rate, Duterte’s glaring
policy reversal on rice imports only adds to the growing sense of policy
uncertainty that has come to be associated with his administration.
(READ: How Duterte’s whims and
caprices hurt the economy)
Far from being “decisive” – as
the economic managers put it – Duterte’s rice policy comes off as exceedingly
capricious.
Till when do we put up with this?
– Rappler.com
The author is a PhD candidate at
the UP School of Economics. His views are independent of the views of his
affiliations. Thanks to AJ Montesa for sharing his graphs on provincial rice
price movements. Follow JC on Twitter (@jcpunongbayan) and Usapang Econ (usapangecon.com).
Switching back to coarse cereals can offer
multiple benefits: Study
T
V Jayan New Delhi | Updated on November 21, 2019 Published
on November 21, 2019
India can benefit substantially
on multiple fronts such as nutritional security, energy and water utilisation
and even cut its greenhouse gas emissions if it promotes the cultivation of
coarse cereals, showed a study by researchers from India, Austria and the US.
During the Green Revolution of
the 1960s and the 1970s, the focus has mainly been on increasing rice and wheat
output. As a result, a large number of farmers shifted away from more
nutritious coarse cereals to high-yielding crops such as rice, leading to
narrowing in the diversity of cultivated crops.
Rice focus
Between 1966 and 2011, the total
cropped area for monsoon cereals remained nearly constant, but harvested areas
dedicated to monsoon rice increased from 52 per cent to 67 per cent. Currently,
rice accounts for 74 per cent of kharif cereals production, 80 per cent of
energy and 81 per cent of water used for cereal production in the season.
Besides, nearly 90 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from kharif cereals
production comes from rice alone. In a study published in the prestigious journal, Proceedings
of National Academy of Sciences, the scientists, led by Ruth
DeFries and Kyle Davis of Columbia University in the US, on Tuesday, showed
that there can be multiple benefits if farmers were encouraged to switch back
to coarse cereals. They found that increasing combined calories supplied by
coarse cereals such as finger millet, pearl millet and sorghum from the present
14 per cent to 21-32 per cent can help improve the nutritive value of food,
apart from reducing irrigation demand, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Holistic
analysis
“This is the first time that the
various nutritional and environmental aspects, including water use, climate
resilience, and greenhouse gas emissions, of coarse cereals have been analysed
in a holistic manner,” DeFries of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and
Environmental Biology at Columbia University told BusinessLine.
The authors found that planting
more coarse cereals could on average increase available protein by 1-5 per
cent, increase iron supply by between 5-49 per cent; increase climate
resilience (1-13 per cent fewer calories would be lost during times of
drought); and reduce GHG emissions by 2-13 per cent. The diversification of
crops would also lower demand for irrigation water by 3-21 per cent and reduce
energy use by 2-12 per cent, while maintaining calorie production and using the
same amount of cropland.
“To make agriculture more
sustainable, it's important that we think beyond just increasing food supply
and also find solutions that can benefit nutrition, farmers, and the
environment. This study shows that there are real opportunities to do just
that. India can sustainably enhance its food supply if farmers plant less rice
and more nutritious and environment-friendly crops such as finger millet, pearl
millet, and sorghum,” said lead author Kyle Davis, a postdoctoral research
fellow at the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, New York.
DeFries said some States in India
are starting to include coarse cereals in their public distribution systems,
which promotes cultivation, as would increased research attention on improving
yields of coarse cereals. Davis said it was important for the governments to
increase public awareness on the nutritional and environmental benefits of
coarse cereals.
“One key insight from this study
was that despite coarse grains having lower yields on average, there are enough
regions where this is not the case. A non-trivial shift away from rice can
therefore occur without reducing overall production,” said study co-author
Narasimha Rao, a researcher at the International Institute of Applied Systems
Analysis in Austria.
The authors point out that the
Indian Government is currently promoting the increased production and
consumption of these nutri-cereals — efforts that they say will be important to
protect farmers’ livelihoods and increase the cultural acceptability of these
grains.
With nearly 200 million
undernourished people in India, alongside widespread groundwater depletion and
the need to adapt to climate change, increasing the supply of nutricereals may
be an important part of improving the country's food security, they said.
Among Indian authors of the study
were Ashwini Chhatre and Nabin Pradhan of the Indian School of Business in
Hyderabad and Suparna Ghosh-Jerath of New Delhi-based Public Health Foundation
of India.
Published
on November 21, 2019
57K Negrense farmers to get free certified seeds from
PhilRice
By
Erwin Nicavera November
20, 2019, 5:10 pm
FREE
RICE SEEDS. Free
certified seeds distributed by the Philippine Rice Research Institute to
Negrense farmers on Tuesday (Nov. 19, 2019). Some 57,000 farmers in Negros
Occidental will benefit from the program as part of the implementation of the
Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund. (Photo courtesy of PIO Negros
Occidental)
BACOLOD CITY -- The Philippine Rice
Research Institute (PhilRice) has started distributing free certified seeds
worth PHP174 million to some 57,000 Negrense farmers as part of the
implementation of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
PhilRice-Negros Occidental Director
Gerardo Estoy Jr. said they initially released the seed allocation for two
local government units and will complete the distribution to the 29 remaining
towns and cities in the province by the second week of December, in time for
the planting season.
On Tuesday, Estoy was joined by
provincial officials led by Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson during the ceremonial
distribution held at the Capitol grounds here, where farmers from Valladolid
received 2,773 bags of certified rice seeds.
The day before, 2,035.5 bags were
released to farmers in Sipalay City.
Estoy said that Negros Occidental
has a total allocation of 57,118.25 bags, covering 51,118.25 hectares per
cropping season.
Each bag of certified rice seeds
costs PHP1,520, which means the province has an allocation of almost PHP87
million for every cropping.
The PhilRice official said they
also provided farmers training on various farming technologies to help them
increase their yield and reduce losses.
“The free seeds will have no use if
farmers do not know the proper ways or new technologies in rice production,”
Estoy said.
Created under Republic Act 11203 or
the Rice Tarrification Law, the RCEF, or Rice Fund, is sourced from the tariff
revenues of the rice being imported by the country.
Through the program, the government
mainly aims to help improve the competitiveness of Filipino rice farmers and
augment their income while sustaining resilience and responsiveness.
The RCEF has an annual
appropriation of PHP10 billion for the next six years. Of which, 50 percent
will be allotted for rice farm machinery and equipment; 30 percent, rice seed
development, propagation, and promotion; 10 percent, expanded rice credit
assistance; and 10 percent, rice extension services. (PNA)
A trail blazer of China's hybrid
rice research
By Mi Xingang
Yan
Longan talks with reporters at the Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences in
Nanchang city, Jiangxi province, on Oct. 26, 2019. [Photo by Mi
Xingang/China.org.cn]
"As an agriculture researcher,
my only goal is to improve people's livelihood," said Yan Longan, a
renowned hybrid rice expert and academician of the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, during an interview with China.org.cn on Oct. 26.
Being a specialist on crop genetics
and breeding, Yan has spent over 50 years on hybrid rice research, application
and promotion.
Born into a poor family in 1937 in
a remote village of Pingxiang city, Jiangxi province, he experienced the life
of privation and the torture of near starvation, which made him determined to
see that everyone could have sufficient food when he grew up.
After being enrolled in the Jiangxi
Agricultural College in 1958, he began to concentrate on agricultural science
study and took immense interests on genetics. "Work hard and try to
improve rice yields," Yan recalled his father's expectations towards him
then. Four years of study under harsh conditions strengthened his determination
to conquer poverty and starvation.
After graduation in 1962, Yan
conducted research on dwarf rice breeding in Pingxiang and bred several
improved varieties. In 1970, he turned to hybrid rice research and the next year,
he was selected to follow Yuan Longping, who had initiated China's rice
heterosis application research in the 1960s, for further study at the Nanhong
Farm in Hainan province.
He took part in the selection and
breeding of the rice sterility line. In 1972, after an arduous endeavor, Yan
became China's first researcher to succeed in breeding the Wild Aborted Type
Indica Male Sterile Line -- Zhenxian 97, with epoch-making significance in
realizing the matching of "three lines," namely sterile, maintainer
and restorer lines, in China's hybrid rice breeding.
As for the hard process of breeding
the Zhenxian 97, Yan recalled as follows: "My colleague and I got 48 seeds
after pollination for over 300 spikelets under the scorching sun in Hainan and
brought them back to Pingxiang. The next March, we sowed them, but seven days
later, nothing happened. We dug them out and found they were all intact."
Yan felt so confused. However,
after consulting experts, he realized they might have a longer dormancy period.
He recalled with excitement: "Eventually, we cleared all of them, covered
them with moist cotton and plastic, and put them on pockets of our underwear.
To our great surprise, a further seven days later, all of them sprouted."
Among the same type, the sterile line
of Zhenxian 97 has been applied in production for the longest period as it's
still used today; it can create matching combinations in the largest number;
its promoted planting area is also the largest and its adaptability is the
strongest, said Yu Chuanyuan, current vice-president of the Jiangxi Academy of
Agricultural Sciences.
According to Ministry of
Agriculture statistics, from 1982 to 2003, the Xianyou series of hybrid rice
developed by the Zhenxian 97 was promoted in fields across China totaling 124.93
million hectares, accounting for 47.59% of the total hybrid rice planting area
in the country.
It helped increase rice output by
187.44 billion kilograms during this period. Yan made a significant
contribution to food security of China, according to Yu.
Biofortified CRISPR-edited rice
could help battle global vitamin A deficiency
ISAAA |
November 20, 2019
Corneal scarring after vitamin A deficiency. Image:
John DC Anderson
Genome editing could be an alternative approach to
improve the vitamin A content of crops, according to a study by Akira Endo and colleagues
at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization and Ishikawa
Prefectural University in Japan. The results of the study are published
in Rice.
Beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, is a vital target
for biofortification of crops to aiming to address the
problem of vitamin A deficiency prevalent in developing countries. In a
previous study, it was reported that dominant expression of splicing variants
in the Orange (Or) gene causes beta-carotene accumulation in
cauliflower curd. In Endo and team’s study, they focused on rice’s Orange gene
(Osor) and tested if they could increase the beta-carotene content of
rice callus using CRISPR-Cas9. The transformed calli turned orange,
indicating hyper-accumulation of beta-carotene. Molecular analyses indicated
that orange-colored calli are caused by an abundance of in-frame aberrant Osor transcripts,
while out-of-frame mutation was not associated with orange color.
Based on the findings, the
researchers concluded that directed gene modification of Osor gene
using CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome editing leads to beta-carotene fortification
in rice calli. This presents an alternative approach to improving beta-carotene
accumulation in crops.
Border Closure: Navy impounds 1,425 bags of
smuggled rice in Akwa Ibom
November 20, 2019
By
As the borders in Nigeria remain
closed, the Nigerian Navy, Forward Operating Base, Ibaka, Mbo local government
area in Akwa Ibom State, said it has seized about 1,425 bags of rice smugled
into the state between 12th and 18th November 2019.
The command also arrested 20
suspected smugglers within the period and seized four wooden boats used in
carrying the rice.
The Commanding Officer, FOB, Navy
Captain Peter Yilme while addressing the media, said Navy gunboats, during
patrols, seized the boats on Effiat waterways, carrying 50kg bags of rice
brought in from the Republic of Cameroon.
While handing over the suspects and
items to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Yilme said the Nigerian Navy has
zero tolerance for criminality and warned smugglers to desist from the act,
especially within FOB, Ibaka area of operation.
Yilme, who was represented by the
Base Operations Officer, Lieutenant Commander Kabiru Yusuf, said the base, in
the last one month handed over 3,800 bags of smuggled rice, 60 drums of
illegally refined Automated Gas Oil (AGO), and 60 suspects to the Customs
component of Operation Swift Response for necessary action.
“Four wooden boats carrying a
combined 1,425 bags of 50kg parboiled rice suspected to be smuggled into the
country and 20 suspects were impounded and arrested by the Forward Operating
Base, Ibaka.
“The handover of the 20 suspects
and 1,425 bags of rice on Tuesday 19 November, 2019 goes to show the resolve of
the Base not to relent on its oars. The arrests were made between November 12
-18, 2019.
“I commend the untiring efforts of
the officers and ratings in ensuring the mandate and tasks of the Base are
achieved. I also appreciate the immense effort of the Chief of Naval Staff,
Vice Admiral I. E. Ibas for providing the necessary platform and logistic
support for the Base to carry out its operations,” he said.
Receiving the 20 suspects from the
Nigerian Navy, Deputy Superintendent of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Alabi,
Adedokun commended the Navy for the cooperation existing between them, and for
the frequent arrests.
One of the suspects, Peter Okon, a
married man with three children from Okobo local government area of Akwa Ibom State,
said joblessness led him to smuggling the rice.
He said it was his first time in
smuggling rice and that the owner of the rice promised to pay him N2,000 to
bring in 200 bags of rice from Cameroon to Nigeria.
He noted that since he lives in the
creeks in Cameroon, he had no knowledge that the Federal Government had closed
the borders to stop the smuggling of rice into Nigeria.
He said, “As you can see, we are
jobless people. I am a worker in the boat and the owner of the rice gave me
N2,000 to bring in 200 bags of rice from Cameroon. This is my first time; I
live in the creeks in Cameroon and I have three children to feed”.
Another suspect, 23-year-old Samuel
Etim from Oron local government area of Akwa Ibom State said he was not
involved in smuggling the seized rice.
He stated that he was a fisherman
in Bakassi and boarded the rice boat because he had no money to pay his fare.
“I don’t know anything about the
rice. I joined the boat carrying the rice from Bakassi because I didn’t have
money to pay for my fares,” he said.
