Global
cooling event 4,200 years ago spurred rice's evolution, spread across Asia
Scientists use genomics, archeology, and
climate data to reconstruct history of rice
Date:
May 15, 2020
Source:
New York University
Summary:
A major global cooling event that occurred
4,200 years ago may have led to the evolution of new rice varieties and the
spread of rice into both northern and southern Asia, an international team of
researchers has found.
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A major global
cooling event that occurred 4,200 years ago may have led to the evolution of
new rice varieties and the spread of rice into both northern and southern Asia,
an international team of researchers has found.
Their study,
published in Nature Plants and led by the NYU Center for Genomics and
Systems Biology, uses a multidisciplinary approach to reconstruct the history
of rice and trace its migration throughout Asia.
Rice is one of
the most important crops worldwide, a staple for more than half of the global
population. It was first cultivated 9,000 years ago in the Yangtze Valley in
China and later spread across East, Southeast, and South Asia, followed by the
Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In the process, rice evolved and
adapted to different environments, but little is known about the routes,
timing, and environmental forces involved in this spread.
In their study,
the researchers reconstructed the historical movement of rice across Asia using
whole-genome sequences of more than 1,400 varieties of rice -- including
varieties of japonica and indica, two main subspecies of Asian rice -- coupled
with geography, archaeology, and historical climate data.
For the first
4,000 years of its history, farming rice was largely confined to China, and
japonica was the subspecies grown. Then, a global cooling event 4,200 years ago
-- also known as the 4.2k event, which is thought to have had widespread
consequences, including the collapse of civilizations from Mesopotamia to China
-- coincided with japonica rice diversifying into temperate and tropical
varieties. The newly evolved temperate varieties spread in northern China,
Korea and Japan, while the tropical varieties and spread to Southeast Asia.
"This
abrupt climate change forced plants, including crops, to adapt," said
Rafal M. Gutaker, a postdoctoral associate at the NYU Center for Genomics and
Systems Biology and the study's lead author. "Our genomic data, as well as
paleoclimate modeling by our collaborators, show that the cooling event
occurred at the same time as the rise of temperate japonica, which grows in
milder regions. This cooling event also may have led to the migration of rice
agriculture and farmer communities into Southeast Asia."
"These
findings were then backed up by data from archaeological rice remains excavated
in Asia, which also showed that after the 4.2k event, tropical rice migrated
south while rice also adapted to northern latitudes as temperate
varieties," said Michael D. Purugganan, the Silver Professor of Biology at
NYU, who led the study.
After the
global cooling event, tropical japonica rice continued to diversify. It reached
islands in Southeast Asia about 2,500 years ago, likely due to extensive trade
networks and the movement of goods and peoples in the region -- a finding also
supported by archeological data.
The spread of
indica rice was more recent and more complicated; after originating in India's
lower Ganges Valley roughly 4,000 years ago, the researchers traced its migration
from India into China approximately 2,000 years ago.
While the
researchers had thought that rainfall and water would be the most limiting
environmental factor in rice diversity, they found temperature to be the key
factor instead. Their analyses revealed that heat accumulation and temperature
were very strongly associated with the genomic differences between tropical and
temperate japonica rice varieties.
"This
study illustrates the value of multidisciplinary research. Our genomic data
gave us a model for where and when rice spread to different parts of Asia,
archaeology told us when and where rice showed up at various places, and the
environmental and climate modeling gave us the ecological context," said
Purugganan. "Together, this approach allows us to write a first draft of
the story of how rice dispersed across Asia."
Understanding
the spread of rice and the related environmental pressures could also help
scientists develop new varieties that meet future environmental challenges,
such as climate change and drought -- which could help address looming food
security issues.
"Armed
with knowledge of the pattern of rice dispersal and environmental factors that
influenced its migration, we can examine the evolutionary adaptations of rice
as it spread to new environments, which could allow us to identify traits and
genes to help future breeding efforts," said Gutaker.
Story Source:
Materials provided by New York University. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.
Journal
Reference:
- Rafal M. Gutaker, Simon C. Groen, Emily S. Bellis, Jae Y. Choi, Inês S. Pires, R. Kyle Bocinsky, Emma R. Slayton, Olivia Wilkins, Cristina C. Castillo, Sónia Negrão, M. Margarida Oliveira, Dorian Q. Fuller, Jade A. d’Alpoim Guedes, Jesse R. Lasky, Michael D. Purugganan. Genomic history and ecology of the geographic spread of rice. Nature Plants, 2020; 6 (5): 492 DOI: 10.1038/s41477-020-0659-6
Cite This Page:
New York
University. "Global cooling event 4,200 years ago spurred rice's
evolution, spread across Asia: Scientists use genomics, archeology, and climate
data to reconstruct history of rice." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 May
2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200515115646.htm>.
Tackling food insecurity in the midst of food security
By Prof Dato Roshada Hashim, Noor
Khalidah Abdul Hamid - May 14, 2020 @ 1:06pm
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After four Agricultural Policies, including the latest National Agrofood Policy (2011 – 2020), the agriculture sector still lags behind the manufacturing, food and ICT sectors.
This is in spite of having dedicated agencies for agriculture and volumes of research data and output from their research centres and universities. For example, local rice production has stagnated in the last 30 years and between 2016 to 2018, rice production decreased by 6.20 percent.
Today, Malaysia imports between 30 to 40 per cent of its rice consumption mainly from Vietnam, India and Thailand. Among the questions are why half the hectarage of available paddy fields are left idle and why new strains that produce high quality grains and innovations in fertilisers and culture systems from decades of research, failed to enhance production.
At the same time, almost 100 per cent of raw materials such soybean meal, fishmeal and corn meal needed to support the feed industry for livestock and fish culture are imported. In the case of poultry and fish, between 2016 to 2018 saw a paltry increase of 1.96 percent in poultry production and a 15.61 and 1.41 percent decrease in aquaculture and wild fish landings, respectively.
Our inability to increase self sufficiency in rice production and reliance on imported raw materials and protein staples leave us vulnerable. Indeed a crisis now looms as the WHO and WTO issued warnings recently of an impending food crisis in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the possibility that governments will impose export restrictions on food supplies which will impact food security of importing countries.
The establishment of a Cabinet Committee on Food Security, though timely, may not suffice. The agenda should be spearheaded by an independent Council on Food Security comprising of high level experts on food production, economists, social scientists and the industry. This is due to the interconnectedness between food production, environmental sustainability, economics, entrepreneurship, rural development as well as research and development.
Research, for example, is currently carried out by agencies in the several ministries of agriculture, higher education, as well as science and technology. The dots still remain to be connected regarding what foods/products to focus on, what technologies to develop or translated for large scale testing, and what socio-economics to study.
There is also our readiness to use artificial intelligence and Big Data for smart farming on a scale than can elevate the agriculture sector. Thus, the council will be responsible for making recommendations on all matters related to food such as food supply, crop diversification, food reserves, and evaluation of technologies, including funding for research.
Although there is no shortage of food, disruptions in the food supply chain began to emerge as the crisis unfolded but these were resolved speedily because online shopping became a lifeline. However, the pandemic also saw the emergence of a new group of families who lack the financial resources to buy food due to the abrupt loss of employment and income.
Hence, although there was technically no problem about food supply, the same cannot be said about access to and affordability of food. In other words, in spite of the availability of sufficient food, there are segments of society who experienced food insecurity. This insecurity existed prior to the pandemic, merely underscored its potential severity.
Indeed, children in food insecure households are prone to suffer not only health related problems but run a greater risk of developmental and educational delays. Therefore, the proposed National Council for Food Security must make a distinction between the production of affordable and sufficient food staples such as rice, fish and poultry
for internal consumption versus the production of high value food for trade.
It needs to take cognisance of factors such as demographic trends and diversity, job preferences, infrastructure, access as well as availability of labour, water and land resources, and be designed within a Malaysian context to ensure the issue of food insecurity is appropriately addressed.
Ultimately, what is needed is high level political commitment and prioritisation to produce food economically that will accommodate the food secure and food insecure members of our society. This should be Malaysia's agricultural new normal.
Prof. Datuk Roshada is from the Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) while Noor Khalidah is from the School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
As long as he doesn't ask ... what does this button do?
Robert Galvin
One of
the more bizarre, and issue-raising, entertainment items to shoot across the
horizon recently might have evaded your attention, as you were no doubt busy
attending to more pressing matters here on Planet Earth.It seems that Thomas Mapother IV — the artist otherwise known as Tom Cruise — is in talks to shoot a movie on location that cost $100 billion to construct.
The talks are with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — otherwise known as NASA — and the location for the proposed film is the International Space Station.
The actual Space Station, the one orbiting 254 miles above the New Mexico sound stage where they faked the moon landing.
According to reports, Cruise and two (film) crew members would make the 48-hour journey, shoot their scenes on the 354-foot long station, then return.
The first American who wasn’t an astronaut or scientist paid $20 million for a seven-day visit back in 2013. Just last year, NASA said that a round-trip tourist ticket would cost $58 million ... plus $35,000 a night in expenses for items such as food and water.
And, oh yes, “life support.”
You might think that the last thing NASA would want rummaging around the intricate interior of the most expensive object ever built is a film crew going through the motions for the sake of “realism.”
As always when we think such things ... we’d be wrong.
“NASA is excited to work with @TomCruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station!” tweeted NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, making sure to use both the primary parties Twitter handles.
“We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA’s ambitious plans a reality.”
Now I know what I’m thinking: We’ve really sunk so low in our ability to inspire the “new generation of engineers and scientists” that we believe sending the guy who jumped up and down on Oprah’s interview couch — expressing his love for the artist otherwise known as Joey Potter — will get those young, bright minds excited?
But that’s where my mind goes in such matters. There certainly are more important questions to be answered by this possibility.
Like, say, oh, I don’t know, how about ... ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR MINDS?
(And by “THEY,” let the record show I’m including everyone with a stake in this cockamamie concept — except for the insurance company likely to charge
$58 million plus $35,000 a night to write a policy that will cover every contingency.)
But the answer to that is easy. Yes, yes they are.
The entertainment value of the exercise is what truly should concern us here ... and it raises its own fundamental question.
Why?
As I said earlier, they still have that secret base in New Mexico at which they can certainly create a replica of the station — one longer than a football field and change — where the filming process would allow for the presence of a full crew ... room enough for a gaffer, a grip, a dolly grip, a key grip and a best boy.
Cruise is a known adrenaline junkie when it comes to stunts. He’s hung off the side of a plane (while harnessed) during takeoff, performed his own rock climbing (while harnessed), and scaled (while harnessed) a portion of the world’s tallest building — the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
But what is there to gain, in terms of authenticity, with a trip to the Space Station? This isn’t Buster Keaton riding the front of a train in Cottage Grove, or Harold Lloyd hanging onto the hand of a clock over Broadway. Even those famed shots were augmented by artifice.
This isn’t even trained martial artist Jackie Chan performing fight sequences that are rehearsed and choreographed so that every wall climb, every leap, every punch is orchestrated to the nth degree.
“Forrest Gump” was on television the other night and not once did I wonder how they got that shot of Tom Hanks sitting between John Lennon and Dick Cavett, or whether Gary Sinise actually sacrificed his legs so that Lt. Dan would look realistic in (or out of) his wheelchair.
If they could pull those off (the effects, not Sinise’s legs), then they can certainly make it look like Tom Cruise is aboard the Space Station.
For evidence, look at another movie that Hanks and Sinise starred in ... the NASA drama “Apollo 13.”
As the crew in the capsule and the crew in Houston worked to pull off a remarkable, and somewhat unlikely, rescue effort, tension and realism where achieved the old-fashioned way — through technical skill and humanization of characters.
The 1982 film “Fitzcarraldo” depicted the efforts of a madman to have a 320-ton steamship hauled over a mud-caked, 40-degree hillside in the Amazon to reach a waterway on the side.
The documentary “Burden of Dreams,” also released in 1982, depicted the efforts of director Werner Herzog to get “Fitzcarraldo” made — including his insistence that a real 320-ton steamship be hauled over a mud-caked, 40-degree hillside in the Amazon.
Disasters struck during the making of both
films. There were a pair of plane crashes, attacks by regional tribes, injuries
and deaths from the working conditions (including one crew member who cut off
his own leg with a chainsaw to prevent the spread of venom after being bit by a
poisonous snake.)“If I abandon this project, I would be a man without dreams, and I don’t want to live like that,” Herzog says in “Burden of Dreams.” “I live my life, or I end my life, with this project.”
Heck, it’s not my money. (Thank goodness, for I could barely afford an hour of “life support.”) If NASA wants to shoot Tom Cruise (and a camera operator and sound engineer) into space — and they want to go — do they really need a reason?
Do we really need to ask?
Mail Tribune news editor Robert Galvin, who once spent $30 on an unfilmed trip to the International House of Pancakes, can be reached at rgalvin@rosebudmedia.com
Breaking wheat-paddy cycle a must to save groundwater: CSSRI study
Flood-based irrigation in Haryana, Punjab a threat to groundwater which is depleting over 3 feet every year
cities Updated: May 14, 2020 23:19 IST
Asserting that the rice crop alone consumes about 50% of the total irrigation water, the researchers have suggested radical changes in the agricultural use of available water.
‘OPT FOR ROOT ZONE IRRIGATION’
With five million hectares under rice cultivation in the country’s Indo-Gangetic plains of north west, including Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, it is the most important production area for India’s two staple cereals -- rice and wheat. The crops in this region are harvested on the cost of natural resources that leads to groundwater depletion and deterioration in soil and environmental quality, the scientists said. They have also advised the farmers to adopt root zone irrigation (RZI) over flood irrigation to save the groundwater.
The research has suggested that RZI not only saves about 50% water, but also improves yields up to 20% by eliminating surface water evaporation with similar management practices over flood irrigation.
OVER 3FT DECLINE IN GROUNDWATER EVERY YEAR
The report also reveals that the decline of about 3-feet every year in the groundwater table between 1973 and 2001 has accelerated by five-fold between 2000 and 2006 in central Punjab and parts of Haryana. Moreover, during 2008-2012, the total freshwater withdrawals in India were about 761 billion cubic metre of which about 90% was used for agriculture. By 2050, the share of water for agricultural use will be less than 50% of the total water from the present share of 70%, the report read.
‘MAIZE A GOOD ALTERNATIVE’
Director of ICAR-CSSRI, Karnal, PC Sharma, said, “There is an immediate need to break the wheat-paddy cycle to save groundwater for the future generations.” He said that maize could be a better option for both wheat and paddy as it consumes 50% less water, but there is a need of assured marketing of maize such as wheat and paddy to divert farmers.
“Both rice and wheat need 20% less nitrogen-based fertilisers under a subsurface drip fertigation (injection of fertilisers) system. It can improve ecosystem’s health and cut the emission of greenhouse gases,” he said.
Chinese
company donates living materials to needy families in Pakistan
By
A leading
company in China’s seed industry said it donated living materials to 1,000
impoverished households in Pakistan.
Yuan Longping
High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd, based in central China’s Hunan Province, has
purchased materials worth over 3 million rupees (about 30,000 U.S. dollars)
with the assistance of its local partner to offer 20 kg of flour, 10 kg of
rice, 5 kg of sugar and 3 liters of cooking oil to each family.
Liu Linhui, a
manager of the company, said many local residents lost their source of income
as production halted due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the company has been
sending living necessities to difficult households in the Pakistani cities of
Golarchi and Pakpattan since May 8.
The company has
been developing, promoting and localizing hybrid rice in Pakistan since 2000.
The planting area of its hybrid rice in Pakistan has exceeded 2 million
hectares, the yield in those fields also doubled.
Pakistan: COVID-19 – Situation Report (As of 14 May 2020)
Source
·
OCHA
Posted
Originally published
Origin
Attachments
Highlights
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has risen to 35,788 as of 14 May. Increase of 1,452 new cases in the last 24 hours. The most affected province due to COVID-19 virus is Punjab 13,561, followed by Sindh 13,341. A report released by United Nations has named Pakistan among 10 countries where deaths from preventable diseases in children under five could rise by almost 45% over the next six months as the coronavirus pandemic could divert scarce health resources. The number of confirmed patients has been increasing in Rawalpindi with each passing day as on Wednesday 133 more tested positive for Covid-19 in the garrison city while a person died and three recovered. Pakistan sees a record jump in Covid-19 cases only days after the reopening of markets, as blatant violation of the government’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) continued despite repeated warnings by the relevant authorities and sealing of some overcrowded shopping areas. The government on Wednesday allowed air transportation of Covid-19 infected bodies to bring back to the country the bodies of Pakistanis who died of the coronavirus abroad. To many farmers in southeast Pakistan, an impending locust attack when summer crops of cotton, sugarcane and rice are being sown, and fruit and vegetables are ready to be picked is a much bigger problem than the coronavirus pandemic.
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.
India Grain: Basmati prices up on
firm bulk demand; maize down
Thursday, May
14
NEW DELHI
– Prices of Pusa 1121 basmati paddy continued to rise across major spot
markets today as bulk demand from millers remained firm amid weak supply,
traders said.
Arrivals are
usually lower during this time of the year as most farmers and stockists
exhaust their stocks. Curbs on movement amid the nationwide lockdown have
also limited supply this season, Amritsar-based trader Ashok Sethia said.
Anticipation of
another extension to the nationwide lockdown is also seen helping prices as
most millers are procuring stocks required for some weeks in advance, he said.
Currently, the lockdown is in place till Sunday. India has so far reported
78,003 COVID-19 cases, with the death toll at 2,549.
However, prices
at spot markets are unlikely to rise sharply due to an anticipated decline in
demand from West Asian countries, Delhi-based trader Anand Goyal said. Usually,
demand for basmati picks up during this time due to Ramzaan. The
restrictions on movement and recent steps by Iran to withdraw subsidy on rice
imports may also hit India's exports, Goyal said. Iran is a major buyer of
Indian basmati rice.
On
the Indian Commodity Exchange, the May basmati paddy contract ended
at 3,428 rupees per 100 kg, up 0.9%.
Maize prices
fell further in major spot markets as bulk demand from feed makers remained
subdued, traders said. Arrivals in Nashik were pegged steady at 700-800
bags (1 bag = 100 kg) and supply in Nizamabad was also largely unchanged at
700-800 bags.
Bulk purchases
by the poultry industry and animal-feed makers have been subdued as
consumption of poultry products declined on rumours that broilers and eggs
are carriers of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, Nizamabad-based
trader Amrutlal Kataria said.
An outbreak of
African Swine Fever in Assam is also seen hitting demand in northeastern states
as culling pigs is the only option, he said.
A decline in
feed consumption due to the virus may also hit demand for maize, a key
component of animal feed, in the region, Patna-based trader Avinash Kumar said.
So far, over 13,000 pigs have died of the virus in Assam.
On the National
Commodity and Derivatives Exchange, the most-active May contract fell 0.3% to
close at 1,175 rupees per 100 kg.
Prices of
mill-quality wheat in Jaipur were unavailable today as spot markets in
Rajasthan are shut. Traders in Rajasthan are protesting against the state
government's decision to impose a 2% farmers' welfare fee on the purchase of
agricultural produce, particularly grains.
Markets in
Indore and Kanpur have been shut because of the lockdown.
Prices of the
staple foodgrain are seen declining further in the coming days as the slower
pace of government procurement is exerting supply pressure on spot markets,
Kota-based trader Aniket Mehta said.
In Jaipur,
prices of bajra were largely steady due to lack of cues, traders said.
Following are
today's prices of wheat, maize, paddy, and bajra in rupees per 100
kg, in key wholesale markets, and the change from the previous day of trade:
|
Commodity
|
Market
|
Price
|
Change
|
|
Wheat
|
Indore
|
1,830-1,860*
|
—
|
|
Wheat
|
Jaipur
|
1,700-1,720*
|
—
|
|
Maize
|
Nashik
|
1,39-1,420
|
(-)20-30
|
|
Maize
|
Nizamabad
|
1,370-1,400
|
(-)20-30
|
|
Pusa 1121 basmati paddy
|
Amritsar
|
3,010-3,080
|
30-50
|
|
Bajra
|
Jaipur
|
1,750-1,800
|
—
|
* Spot markets
for wheat in Indore and Jaipur were shut today
End
Edited by
Subham Mitra
Cogencis Tel
+91 (11) 4220-1000
Send comments
to feedback@cogencis.com
.
This copy was
first published on the Cogencis WorkStation
Tackling food insecurity in the midst of food security
By Prof Dato Roshada Hashim, Noor
Khalidah Abdul Hamid - May 14, 2020 @ 1:06pm
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After four Agricultural Policies, including the latest National Agrofood Policy (2011 – 2020), the agriculture sector still lags behind the manufacturing, food and ICT sectors.
This is in spite of having dedicated agencies for agriculture and volumes of research data and output from their research centres and universities. For example, local rice production has stagnated in the last 30 years and between 2016 to 2018, rice production decreased by 6.20 percent.
Today, Malaysia imports between 30 to 40 per cent of its rice consumption mainly from Vietnam, India and Thailand. Among the questions are why half the hectarage of available paddy fields are left idle and why new strains that produce high quality grains and innovations in fertilisers and culture systems from decades of research, failed to enhance production.
At the same time, almost 100 per cent of raw materials such soybean meal, fishmeal and corn meal needed to support the feed industry for livestock and fish culture are imported. In the case of poultry and fish, between 2016 to 2018 saw a paltry increase of 1.96 percent in poultry production and a 15.61 and 1.41 percent decrease in aquaculture and wild fish landings, respectively.
Our inability to increase self sufficiency in rice production and reliance on imported raw materials and protein staples leave us vulnerable. Indeed a crisis now looms as the WHO and WTO issued warnings recently of an impending food crisis in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the possibility that governments will impose export restrictions on food supplies which will impact food security of importing countries.
The establishment of a Cabinet Committee on Food Security, though timely, may not suffice. The agenda should be spearheaded by an independent Council on Food Security comprising of high level experts on food production, economists, social scientists and the industry. This is due to the interconnectedness between food production, environmental sustainability, economics, entrepreneurship, rural development as well as research and development.
Research, for example, is currently carried out by agencies in the several ministries of agriculture, higher education, as well as science and technology. The dots still remain to be connected regarding what foods/products to focus on, what technologies to develop or translated for large scale testing, and what socio-economics to study.
There is also our readiness to use artificial intelligence and Big Data for smart farming on a scale than can elevate the agriculture sector. Thus, the council will be responsible for making recommendations on all matters related to food such as food supply, crop diversification, food reserves, and evaluation of technologies, including funding for research.
Although there is no shortage of food, disruptions in the food supply chain began to emerge as the crisis unfolded but these were resolved speedily because online shopping became a lifeline. However, the pandemic also saw the emergence of a new group of families who lack the financial resources to buy food due to the abrupt loss of employment and income.
Hence, although there was technically no problem about food supply, the same cannot be said about access to and affordability of food. In other words, in spite of the availability of sufficient food, there are segments of society who experienced food insecurity. This insecurity existed prior to the pandemic, merely underscored its potential severity.
Indeed, children in food insecure households are prone to suffer not only health related problems but run a greater risk of developmental and educational delays. Therefore, the proposed National Council for Food Security must make a distinction between the production of affordable and sufficient food staples such as rice, fish and poultry
for internal consumption versus the production of high value food for trade.
It needs to take cognisance of factors such as demographic trends and diversity, job preferences, infrastructure, access as well as availability of labour, water and land resources, and be designed within a Malaysian context to ensure the issue of food insecurity is appropriately addressed.
Ultimately, what is needed is high level political commitment and prioritisation to produce food economically that will accommodate the food secure and food insecure members of our society. This should be Malaysia's agricultural new normal.
Prof. Datuk Roshada is from the Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) while Noor Khalidah is from the School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
World
Market Price Meeting Goes Virtual
ALL
AROUND RICE COUNTRY, USA -- Today the USA Rice World Market Price (WMP)
Subcommittee held its May meeting via videoconference due to COVID-19
precautions. The full Subcommittee beamed in via Zoom to discuss
projected plantings, supply and demand, and rough rice stocks.
Subcommittee members agreed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) planting projections were on target, and the industry as a whole is looking forward to a larger crop than in 2019.
"The May World Market Price meeting is important for gathering information about the current state of the U.S. rice industry and dialoguing that information with USDA about the rest of the current marketing year and sharing our latest thoughts on rice acreage for the 2020 crop," said WMP Subcommittee Chair Keith Glover. "Even though we were unable to conduct our normal in-person meeting in Washington, DC, we, nevertheless, accomplished our objective today using a new meeting platform."
Following the Subcommittee meeting, Glover and USA Rice staff held another virtual meeting with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to review committee members' feedback on projected plantings, and supply and demand estimates.
Members also held a virtual meeting with USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service staff to talk about the impact of COVID-19 on global rice production and exports, market access issues, and ongoing and upcoming trade negotiations.
"In this time of global uncertainty, it was very beneficial for USA Rice members and staff to discuss the global rice situation with experts at USDA," said USA Rice President & CEO Betsy Ward. "As the COVID-19 pandemic continues around the globe, we were able to hold productive, informative, virtual discussions."
Subcommittee members agreed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) planting projections were on target, and the industry as a whole is looking forward to a larger crop than in 2019.
"The May World Market Price meeting is important for gathering information about the current state of the U.S. rice industry and dialoguing that information with USDA about the rest of the current marketing year and sharing our latest thoughts on rice acreage for the 2020 crop," said WMP Subcommittee Chair Keith Glover. "Even though we were unable to conduct our normal in-person meeting in Washington, DC, we, nevertheless, accomplished our objective today using a new meeting platform."
Following the Subcommittee meeting, Glover and USA Rice staff held another virtual meeting with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to review committee members' feedback on projected plantings, and supply and demand estimates.
Members also held a virtual meeting with USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service staff to talk about the impact of COVID-19 on global rice production and exports, market access issues, and ongoing and upcoming trade negotiations.
"In this time of global uncertainty, it was very beneficial for USA Rice members and staff to discuss the global rice situation with experts at USDA," said USA Rice President & CEO Betsy Ward. "As the COVID-19 pandemic continues around the globe, we were able to hold productive, informative, virtual discussions."
Farmers
threaten stir over curbs on paddy cultivation
To hold kisan
panchayat tomorrow; millers extend support
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- Posted: May 14, 2020 07:29 AM (IST)
Tribune News
Service
Kurukshetra,
May 13
Unhappy with
the government decision of restricting paddy cultivation, the Bharatiya Kisan
Union (BKU) has threatened to launch an agitation and called a kisan panchayat
on May 15 in Shahabad grain market to decide the future course of action.
Rakesh Bains,
spokesman of BKU (Charuni), said “We strongly oppose the Haryana Government’s
decision of restricting paddy cultivation in 19 blocks. The government has put
the entire blame for depleting water table on farmers, which is wrong. It has
denotified Dadupur Nalvi canal, even when it is vital for recharging
groundwater. There are flooded areas where no crop, except paddy, can be
cultivated. The transplantation work will start from June 15 and we don’t have
much time, thus it has been decided to hold a kisan panchayat.”
Meanwhile, the
rice millers’ association has also come out in support of the farmers and has
appealed to the state government to withdraw its decision.
Jewel Singla,
chairman of the association, said “The decision taken by the government wouldn’t
only affect the farmers but will hit the rice industry too. The government has
asked the farmers to grow maize, but its demand is very poor in the market. The
government should make efforts to bring SYL water rather than putting
restrictions on paddy cultivation.”
Minister
Jagadish Reddy feels coronavirus chain broken in Suraypet Deekonda Ravi Shankar
Hans News
Service | 13 May 2020 1:30 PM IST AddThis Sharing Buttons Share to Facebook to More Minister Jagadish Reddy feels
coronavirus chain broken in SuraypetMinister jagadish reddy interacting with a
vendor after inaugurating new mini vegetable market at junior college in
suryapet Highlights Minister Jagadish reddy felt that Corona pandemic chain was
broken in suryapet with the support of people who sincerely followed government
lockdown norms and medical department instructions. Suryapet: Minister Jagadish
Reddy felt that the Corona pandemic chain was broken in Suryapet with the
support of people who sincerely followed government lockdown norms and medical
department instructions. On Wednesday, he inaugurated new vegetable markets
near the junior college and Afzal rice mill, later he distributed essential
commodities to 400 private car drivers in a program held at rice millers
association located at jammigadda in the town
https://www.thehansindia.com/telangana/minister-jagadish-reddy-feels-coronavirus-chain-broken-in-suraypet-622261
https://www.thehansindia.com/telangana/minister-jagadish-reddy-feels-coronavirus-chain-broken-in-suraypet-622261
3,130 Bags, 1,300 Cartons Of Commodities Recovered
During the ongoing crackdown on hoarding, the assistant commissioners have recovered 3,130 bags of various commodities and 1,300 cartons of ghee from different godowns during the past 12 hours
FAISALABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th May, 2020 ) :During the ongoing crackdown on hoarding, the assistant commissioners have recovered 3,130 bags of various commodities and 1,300 cartons of ghee from different godowns during the past 12 hours.A spokesman for the local administration said on Wednesday that Assistant Commissioner City Syed Ayub Bukhari took action against hoarding at Sitiana Road and seized 3,350 bags of flour, sugar, ghee and rice at the godown of Khalid Mahmood Grocery Store.
The AC said that 2,200 bags of flour, 150 bags of sugar, 80 bags of rice and 900 cartons of ghee were stored at godown which was sealed.
Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner Chak Jhumra Imtiaz Baig raided a godown at Barnala and recovered 700 bags of sugar and 400 cartons of ghee and sealed the godown.
Rice exports to resume
Sok Chan / Khmer Times
The announcement was signed by Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth who stated that, based on a request
from the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), the government is now resuming the export of white rice in order to facilitate agreements with foreign countries from May 20.
The announcement comes after Prime Minister Hun Sen, in late March, ordered the ban for all exports of white rice and paddy from April 5 until further notice. The decision was made to safeguard local supply in response to COVID-19 food shortage fears.
“Starting from April 5, we will not allow the export of any white rice or paddy to the international market. This is because we want to keep the supply for domestic demand. However, fragrant rice can be exported normally,” Mr Hun Sen said.
Over the past few weeks, the CRF has been requesting the government to revise the ban of white rice exports “as soon as possible”, so rice millers could clear old stock and pay back debt owed to paddy farmers.
Rice millers had also been concerned that an oversupply would occur and they would not be ready to buy paddy during the early July harvest.
“We have studied the current business situation and necessary measures during the outbreak of the COVID-19 situation,” the Deputy Prime Minister Aun Pornmonirath said when responding to why the government reversed the ban.
Hun Lak, chairman of CRF, told Khmer Times that he welcomed the government’s move and that Cambodia now has a food safety net.
Rice millers working at a factory silo can resume international exports from May 20. KT/Pann Rachana
“We now have enough rice and paddy to supply the domestic market. From April until now we exported on average 70,000 tonnes of rice per month, with 85 percent of this being fragrant rice, while white rice has been the other 15 percent,” he said, CRF President Song Saran said the current storage capacity of rice mills in Cambodia is running at 1.9 million tonnes per season, with silo capacity at approximately 45,000 tonnes per day.
“With the current COVID-19 situation, some of the by-products of rice have also been blocked. For example, rice bran cannot be exported. CRF is now requesting the government exempt the withholding of tax for transport of paddy and milled rice, especially, withholding tax on warehoused rents and private truck transport because this has been a burden for the mill-stunted corn.”
The federation also requested the government allocate an additional $30 million to the existing $50 million rice fund that is now totalling about $200 million, to assist millers in buying around 800,000 tonnes of paddy.
From January to April this year, Cambodia’s rice exports to China were 122,094 tonnes (41 percent), to the European Union 97,337 tonnes (32.4 percent), to Asean members 37,428 tonnes (12.5 percent) and to other destinations 43,393 tonnes (14.45 percent).
The announcement comes after Prime Minister Hun Sen, in late March, ordered the ban for all exports of white rice and paddy from April 5 until further notice. The decision was made to safeguard local supply in response to COVID-19 food shortage fears.
“Starting from April 5, we will not allow the export of any white rice or paddy to the international market. This is because we want to keep the supply for domestic demand. However, fragrant rice can be exported normally,” Mr Hun Sen said.
Over the past few weeks, the CRF has been requesting the government to revise the ban of white rice exports “as soon as possible”, so rice millers could clear old stock and pay back debt owed to paddy farmers.
Rice millers had also been concerned that an oversupply would occur and they would not be ready to buy paddy during the early July harvest.
“We have studied the current business situation and necessary measures during the outbreak of the COVID-19 situation,” the Minister Pornmoniroth said when responding to why the government reversed the ban.
Hun Lak, chairman of the CRF, told Khmer Times that he welcomed the government’s move and that Cambodia now has a food safety net.
“We now have enough rice and paddy to supply the domestic market. From April until now we exported on average 70,000 tonnes of rice per month, with 85 percent of this being fragrant rice, while white rice has made up the other 15 percent,” he said,
CRF President Song Saran said the current storage capacity of rice mills in Cambodia is running at 1.9 million tonnes per season, with silo capacity at approximately 45,000 tonnes per day.
“With the current COVID-19 situation, some of the by-products of rice have also been blocked. For example, rice bran cannot be exported. CRF is now requesting the government exempt the withholding of tax for the transport of paddy and milled rice, especially, withholding tax on warehouse rents and private truck transport because this has been a burden for the mill-stunted corn.”
The federation also requested the government allocate an additional $30 million to the existing $50 million rice fund that is now totalling about $200 million, to assist millers in buying around 800,000 tonnes of paddy.
From January to April this year, Cambodia’s rice exports to China were 122,094 tonnes (41 percent), to the European Union 97,337 tonnes (32.4 percent), to Asean members 37,428 tonnes (12.5 percent) and to other destinations 43,393 tonnes (about14 percent).
Chinese company donates living materials to needy families in Pakistan
Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-14 10:48:14|Editor: huaxia
CHANGSHA,
May 14 (Xinhua) -- A leading company in China's seed industry said it donated
living materials to 1,000 impoverished households in Pakistan.Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd, based in central China's Hunan Province, has purchased materials worth over 3 million rupees (about 30,000 U.S. dollars) with the assistance of its local partner to offer 20 kg of flour, 10 kg of rice, 5 kg of sugar and 3 liters of cooking oil to each family.
Liu Linhui, a manager of the company, said many local residents lost their source of income as production halted due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the company has been sending living necessities to difficult households in the Pakistani cities of Golarchi and Pakpattan since May 8.
The company has been developing, promoting and localizing hybrid rice in Pakistan since 2000. The planting area of its hybrid rice in Pakistan has exceeded 2 million hectares, the yield in those fields also doubled. Enditem
Wednesday River Talk Is Online
by
The presentation called "Chasing Geese on the St. Louis River to Protect Wild Rice" will be hosted by former undergraduate research fellow with the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, Sam Hansen.
Northern wild rice, that is native to the St. Louis River was once abundant but is now threatened by high water and feeding pressure by geese.
Hansen will describe a project to determine if low impact kayaking in wild rice bays could reduce the number of Canada geese.
Registration for the talk at 7 p-m Wednesday on Zoom is required.
Those registering will receive an email with a link and password to join the meeting.
River Talks are sponsored by the Minnesota and Wisconsin Sea Grant Programs and the Lake Superior NERR.
Register by following this link: https://uwextension.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0od-ihqDIvEtQfz-vWF3bPtsPAIdk-ULYW
Black rice fossils found to date from at least 900 years
May 13, 2020 by Ancientfoods
The Phnom Penh Post/ANN)—-Scientific test
results of black rice fossils found in the basement of the Preah Ko temple site
in Thala Barivat district, Stung Treng province late last year show that
Cambodians have been cultivating and producing rice since the early Neolithic
period.
The Neolithic age began around 12,000 years ago
and ended as civilizations started to rise around 3500BCE.
In July last year, Thuy Chanthourn, the deputy
director of the Institute of Arts and Culture of the Royal Academy of Cambodia
and deputy president of the Cambodian Historians Association, brought the
mysterious samples of black rice fossils from Preah Ko temple to the laboratory
of the Australian National University (ANU) to conduct experiments to date the
fossils.
With technical support from Rachel Wood, an
archaeological and anthropological specialist at the ANU Research School of
Earth Sciences, Chanthourn successfully examined the rice which has since
become the earliest scientific dating of early rice cultivation in Cambodia.
“We have dated a rice seed sample which we
cleaned with Scalpel and types of acid. We kept it for a while and then
measured it with a special machine.
“Experimental results show that the black rice
fossils date from about 900 years to 1,000 years ago. Therefore, this
scientific experiment has unveiled the oldest example of rice production in
Cambodia,” he said.
In addition to the new evidence, Chanthourn
also presented results of other studies conducted on ancient rice husks at
Banteay Kou Circular Earthwork sites, east of the Mekong River at the red
plateau areas, a site dating to around 2,000BC.
“The rice husks and the evidence on the temple
carvings show that in Cambodia, we had a lot of rice production in the Angkor
period. The inscription also mentions rice gifts evidencing that rice was not
only being cultivated but had cultural value,” he said.
Chanthourn’s study showed that rice has been
the mainstay cereal of Southeast Asians since the Neolithic period.
Many varieties of rice seeds come from Asia,
such as Indica and Japonica rice seeds – the same variety that originated from
about 8,200 to 13,500 years ago in the Pearl River valley region of China.
The black rice fossils sampled at the ANU’s
laboratory came from the Tuol Ang Khmao or Preah Ko Temple located in Kaing
Techo village in Thala Barivat commune of the district, behind the old district
hall, about 300m away. The wonder of this rice is not decayed in water and
buried for hundreds of years.
According to research books of the Stung Treng
Provincial Department of Culture and Fine Arts, during French colonial era,
black rice was so rich people would collect and scatter it on the ground to
wish well to one another.
Thala Barivat natives have regarded the black
rice sample used in the experiment as a cultural treasure left behind from the
ancient ancestors since the construction of Preah Ko Temple.
The black rice is still referred to today as
the ‘glorious rice’ locally.
DA-PhilRice distributes
rice seeds in Ilocos region
By Hilda
Austria May 13, 2020, 8:54 pm
SAN FERNANDO
CITY, La Union – The
Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Philippine Rice Research Institute
(PhilRice), is distributing a total of 621,988 sacks of hybrid palay (rice)
seeds and 86,017 sacks of inbred seeds in the Ilocos region.
In a phone
interview on Wednesday, DA 1 (Ilocos) officer-in-charge Technical Director for
Operations Erlinda Manipon said the total number of hybrid seeds covers 125,000
hectares of land in the region, while the inbred seeds cover 86,467 hectares.
Pangasinan farmers
were allotted 363,188 sacks of hybrid rice; La Union farmers, 47,100 sacks;
Ilocos Sur farmers, 62,100; and Ilocos Norte farmers, 149,600 sacks, Manipon
said.
For the inbred
seeds, Pangasinan farmers were allocated 37,382 sacks; La Union farmers, 12,137
sacks; Ilocos Sur farmers, 23,998 sacks; and Ilocos Norte farmers, 12,500
sacks, she added.
“Generally, all
rice farmers enrolled in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture.
But it still depends on the list submitted by the local government units
consolidated by the Office of the Provincial Agriculture,” Manipon said.
She said the
number of sacks each farmer receives depends on the land area of his field and
the type of seed the farmer plants.
“The hybrid
seeds’ packaging is about 15 kg. to 20 kg. per sack and each hectare of land
needs 15 kg. For the inbred, each sack contains 40 kg. of seeds and each
hectare needs one bag or 40 kg.,” she added.
The seed
distribution is part of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Seed
Program.
The DA will
also distribute inbred and hybrid rice seeds with fertilizers to both rain-fed
and irrigated areas on top of the RCEF and support to inbred and hybrid farmers
under the National Rice Program. (PNA)
Furrow-irrigated
rice handbook available
- By Tracy Courage, U of A System Division of Agriculture
- May 13, 2020 Updated May 13, 2020
Furrow-irrigated
rice has been gaining ground, increasing from less than 1% to 10% of total rice
acreage in Arkansas in the past five years.
A new handbook
from the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture provides rice
growers with the latest research and recommendations for furrow-irrigated rice.
The “Arkansas
Furrow-Irrigated Rice Handbook” provides research-based information about selecting
cultivars, establishing stands, and managing fertility, weeds, disease, insects
and irrigation. It also provides information about budgeting and crop
insurance, which became available for furrow-irrigated rice earlier this year
through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency.
The publication
is available on the Cooperative Extension Service website at https://bit.ly
New rice variety with promising yields
This is the first year Jewel, a high-yielding rice variety from
Arkansas, is being used as a foundation seed for growers.
Jewel, a new rice variety from Arkansas, is a high-yielding variety with a good
cook type and blast resistance.Karen Moldenhauer, a professor and rice breeder for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, is one of the rice breeders for the new variety. The rice breeding program is based on the Rice Research and Extension Center near Stuttgart, Ark.
"This is the first year Jewel, a mid-season, long-grain rice cultivar, is being used as a foundation seed for growers," Moldenhauer said. "This will be the first time we get feedback on how it does in an on-farm location as opposed to the trials, which were spread all over the state. In the on-farm tests, which are the Arkansas Rice Performance Trials (ARPT) and the Producer Rice Evaluation Program (PREP), we get an idea of how a variety is going to do on a farm, but this will be the first year it's grown on any kind of farm operation with several acres."
Yield compares with Diamond
Moldenhauer says the variety stacks up nicely next to other commonly used rice varieties."It's been in the Arkansas performance trials and the uniform regional nursery trials from 2017 through 2019, and it'll be in this year's trials too. It yields well," she said.
Jewel's yield potential is like LaKast and Roy J, but it is also close to Diamond.
"Diamond has high yield potential, but in the Arkansas uniform rice regional nursery for the past three years, Jewel has been close to Diamond's numbers," Moldenhauer said. "Jewel was 229 bushels per acre. Diamond was 239 bushels per acre. LaKast was 208, and Roy J was 199, so Jewel did better than LaKast and Roy J.
"In the 2019 data planting date study, its average yield was 204, and Diamond was 210, so there's not a lot of difference in yield from the data. It has good yield potential."
Jewel also has genes for resistance to the common blast races in Arkansas.
"For disease resistance, it's going to act similar for sheath blight like LaKast and Roy J," she said. "It rates at MS (moderately susceptible), so it's a little better than Diamond and Wells, which are rated S (susceptible) for sheath blight. Jewel rated an S for bacterial panicle blight, which is the same as Roy J. Diamond is rated a little better at MS."
Cook type and parentage
The cooking quality is similar to Cheniere, a good cook type."There is interest in varieties with the Cheniere cook type," Moldenhauer said. "It has high amylose, a weak RVA (rapid visco analyser), which measures the pasting properties in rice, and intermediate gelatinization temperature. Accordingly, it cooks a little differently than our typical standard USA long-grain varieties. Another benefit is a nice kernel with low chalk.”
Jewel grows to about the same height as Diamond and LaKast, about 37 inches.
"Jewel is a cross made in 2009 and has a long list of varieties in its parentage," she said. "There were seven different crosses made to get to this point. One variety, LaGrue, was an extremely high-yielding variety when it was released in 1994, so Jewel is made from some good varieties."
The variety works in both a conventional and row crop settings.
"It may work better as a row crop than some of the others because it does have some blast resistance, which can be a problem if you get it too dry, but it should work well in both of those systems," Moldenhauer said.
New handbook offers research, recommendations for furrow-irrigated rice production
The “Arkansas Furrow-Irrigated Rice Handbook” provides
research-based information about selecting cultivars, establishing stands, and
managing fertility, weeds, disease, insects and irrigation.
Furrow-irrigated rice has been gaining ground, increasing from less than 1
percent to 10 percent of total rice acreage in Arkansas in the past five years.A new handbook from the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture provides rice growers with the latest research and recommendations for furrow-irrigated rice.
The “Arkansas Furrow-Irrigated Rice Handbook” provides research-based information about selecting cultivars, establishing stands, and managing fertility, weeds, disease, insects and irrigation. It also provides information about budgeting and crop insurance, which became available for furrow-irrigated rice earlier this year through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency.
The publication is available on the Cooperative Extension Service website at https://bit.ly/ArkRiceHandbook.
In 2019, 1.1 million acres of rice were harvested in Arkansas, accounting for 46 percent of total U.S. rice production. Most of that acreage relied on flood irrigation.
Furrow-irrigated rice, also known as row rice or upland rice, has been grown in small pockets of Arkansas for more than 30 years. This method eliminates the need for constant flooding. Instead, small channels – or furrows – are dug between the rows and carry water to the crop. Five years ago, this method was used on less than 1 percent of rice acreage in Arkansas. Now, it accounts for 10 percent of rice acreage, according to Jarrod Hardke, rice extension agronomist with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“The practice of furrow-irrigated rice continues to surge in adoption,” Hardke said. “In 2012, there were fewer than 5,000 acres in Arkansas, but by 2019 we had well over 100,000 acres. Expectations for 2020 are that we could see 200,000 acres if weather permits planting of all intended acres.”
Similar increases in adoption are occurring in the Missouri Bootheel and northeast Louisiana, Hardke said.
The primary reasons for furrow irrigation are to simplify crop rotations and decrease time and expenses associated with flood-irrigated rice. Additional benefits could include water savings, which will prove more beneficial as water resources are further depleted.
Since rice is a semiaquatic plant, non-flooded rice production research efforts have been limited. Hardke and other researchers began compiling information in 2017 to provide producers with some limited guidance.
“This year we realized there was a need to expand on that previous information and provide something more robust as acres have continued to increase and research efforts have expanded to answer additional questions,” he said. “As research and adoption continue and we learn more, the handbook will be updated regularly to provide the best possible information to growers.”
Justin L. Chlapecka, a graduate research assistant and former extension agent, co-edited the handbook with Hardke. Additional contributors include Tom Barber, Tommy Butts, and Jason Norsworthy, extension weed scientists; Gus Lorenz and Nick Bateman, extension entomologists; Mike Hamilton, irrigation education instructor; Chris Henry, water management engineer; Ralph Mazzanti, extension rice verification coordinator; Trent Roberts, associate professor and soil fertility/soil testing specialist; Yeshi Wamishe, rice extension pathologist; and Brad Watkins, agricultural economist.
India Grain: Basmati prices up on
firm bulk demand; spot maize down
Wednesday, May
13
By Sampad Nandy
NEW DELHI
– Prices of Pusa 1121 basmati paddy rose today, too, across key spot
markets as demand from bulk buyers, particularly millers, was robust amid
subdued supply, traders said.
The arrivals
are usually subdued at this time of the year, as most farmers and stockists
exhaust the stocks with them. This year, curbs on movement due
to the lockdown have also limited supply, Amritsar-based trader Ashok Sethia
said.
Anticipation of
a further extension in the nationwide lockdown is also seen supporting prices
as millers are procuring more stocks for some weeks in advance, he said.
Currently, the lockdown is in place till Sunday. India has so far reported
74,281 COVID-19 cases, with deaths crossing 2,450.
However, prices
at spot markets are not likely to rise sharply due to a possible decline
in demand from West Asian countries, Delhi-based trader Anand Goyal said.
Usually, demand for basmati picks up during Ramzan. Also, the restrictions
on movement due to the lockdown and recent steps by Iran to withdraw subsidy on
rice imports could hit exports, Goyal said.
On
the Indian Commodity Exchange, the May basmati paddy contract ended
at 3,410 rupees per 100 kg, up 1.7%.
The prices of
maize fell further in major spot markets as bulk demand from feed makers
remained subdued, traders said. The arrivals in Nashik were pegged steady
at 700-800 bags (1 bag = 100 kg) and in Nizamabad, supply was largely unchanged
at 700-800 bags.
Bulk purchases
by the poultry industry and animal feed makers have been subdued as
consumption of poultry products declined on rumours that broilers and eggs
are carriers of COVID-19, Nizamabad-based trader Amrutlal Kataria
said.
An outbreak of
African Swine Fever in Assam is also seen hitting demand in northeastern states
as culling pigs is the only option, he said.
A decline in
feed consumption due to the virus may also hit demand for maize which is a key
component of animal feed in the region, Patna-based trader Avinash Kumar said.
So far, over 13,000 pigs have died due to the virus in Assam.
On the National
Commodity and Derivatives Exchange, however, June contract rose 1.3% to end at
1,195 rupees per 100 kg.
The prices of
mill-quality wheat in Jaipur were unavailable today as spot markets in
Rajasthan are shut. Traders in Rajasthan are protesting against the state
government's decision to impose 2% farmers' welfare fee on the purchase of
agricultural produce, particularly grains.
Markets in
Indore and Kanpur were shut because of the lockdown.
The prices of
the staple foodgrain are seen declining further in the coming days as the
slower pace of government procurement is exerting supply pressure on spot
markets, Kota-based trader Aniket Mehta said.
In Jaipur,
prices of bajra were largely steady due to lack of cues, traders said.
Following are
today's prices of wheat, maize, paddy, and bajra in rupees per 100
kg, in key wholesale markets, and the change from the previous day of trade:
|
Commodity
|
Market
|
Price
|
Change
|
|
Wheat
|
Indore
|
1,830-1,860*
|
—
|
|
Wheat
|
Jaipur
|
1,700-1,720*
|
—
|
|
Maize
|
Nashik
|
1,400-1,430
|
(-)20-30
|
|
Maize
|
Nizamabad
|
1,380-1,420
|
(-)20-30
|
|
Pusa 1121
basmati paddy
|
Amritsar
|
3,000-3,050
|
30-50
|
|
Bajra
|
Jaipur
|
1,750-1,800
|
—
|
*Spot markets
for wheat in Indore and Jaipur were shut today
End
Edited by
Michael Correya
Cogencis Tel
+91 (11) 4220-1000
Send comments
to feedback@cogencis.com
This copy was
first published on the Cogencis WorkStation
© Cogencis
Information Services Ltd. 2020. All rights reserved.
China hands out more grain import quotas to increase purchases - sources
5/13/2020
China has a 95% self-sufficiency target for its rice, corn and wheat consumption, but allows a certain volume of imports through a tariff rate quota (TRQ) system.
The quotas allow importers to buy specified volumes with duties as low as 1%, compared with 65% without the quotas.
However the opaque system has been widely criticized by grain exporters who say Beijing does not issue the promised volume of quota, limiting purchases from overseas.
As part of a Phase 1 trade deal with the United States in January, China pledged to allow for the full use of its TRQs and it has issued more than 6 million tonnes of low-tariff corn quotas in 2020 so far, said two sources familiar with the matter.
The sources did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
That includes 1.5 million tonnes of quota issued in the last month, in addition to the batch issued at the start of the year when most quota is normally allocated.
Beijing may issue a total of 7.2 million tonnes of corn quotas, added one of the sources, briefed on the government plan, which would be the first time it has fully allocated its corn quota.
China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, did not immediately respond to a fax seeking comment out of office hours.
PLEDGE TO USE MORE QUOTA
Beijing sets annual corn quotas at 7.2 million tonnes every year, wheat quotas at 9.64 million tonnes and rice at 5.32 million tonnes. The quotas do not specify any preferred origins.
With large portions of quota often going unused or being rolled into the following year, their allocation alone is not enough to predict China's grain import intentions.
However, after losing a World Trade Organization case brought by the United States on its grain quota system, China has also pledged to improve the way they are issued to ensure that more of the quota is used.
"China needs to buy more American farm goods. One way to do it is to expand use of import quota for grains like corn," said a manager with a state-owned firm.
So far, in the first quarter of 2020, China's corn imports totalled 1.25 million tonnes, up 27.3% on the same period a year ago, and came primarily from Ukraine, according to official data.
If quota were fully used, that would translate into $2.94 billion worth of wheat imports, and $1.52 billion of corn at current prices, according to Reuters calculations.
China's wheat quotas have also been issued "more widely" so far this year, said a source with a state-owned company, which has helped boost wheat imports by 23.1% to 1.27 million tonnes in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2019.
China used only a third of its wheat quotas last year. It stipulates that 90% of quota goes to state-owned trading companies, leaving very little for the large number of privately owned millers.
But last year Beijing said non-state companies could apply for the state quota portion using a state-owned trader as an agent. It also said all quota should be fully used "based on market conditions".
Reuters could not determine to what extent those changes are being implemented. But the source said wheat imports may hit as much as 7 million tonnes this year.
"The government might release more quota, or urge buyers to use more of the quota," he said, adding that the grain could come from both the United States and other origins. (Reporting by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Government okays return of rice exports
Thou Vireak | Publication date 13 May 2020 | 21:38 ICT
The government will allow the rice industry to resume exports of
white rice to global markets. Heng Chivoan
The
government has decided to allow the rice industry to resume exports of white
rice to global markets after a ban was issued in March.The lifting of the ban comes as the Philippines seeks to import an additional 300,000 tonnes of milled rice from major producers in Southeast Asia.
The decision is in response to a request by the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) to gradually resume white rice exports from May 20, said a letter sent from the Ministry of Economy and Finance to the CRF on Wednesday and signed by Minister Aun Pornmoniroth.
In March, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a temporary suspension of white rice and paddy exports to ensure adequate domestic supply, food security and price stability in the Kingdom during the Covid-19 pandemic.
CRF president Song Saran told The Post on Wednesday that lifting the ban would boost Cambodia’s white rice exports to countries facing food shortages.
“I think it is the right decision,” Saran said. “We know that Covid-19 has affected food supply chains and this [Cambodian exports] will contribute to the food needs for other countries. At the same time, it will help us create jobs for millers and farmers.”
Meanwhile, the Philippines, the world’s largest rice importer, wants to order around 300,000 tonnes of milled rice from a number of rice-producing countries in the region, including Cambodia, to increase state rice stockpiles.
Secretary of Agriculture of the Philippines William Dar on Monday said the government had asked major rice producers in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and India to ship milled rice before the third quarter, while local harvesting yields are low, reported Reuters.
Dar said the government-to-government agreement of this volume will increase Philippine rice imports to three million tonnes this year.
As the Philippines seeks to import more rice, CRF has called on the country to order rice from Cambodia, said Saran.
“Cambodia is already focused on exporting fragrant rice, premium rice of which nearly 80 per cent is exported to international markets, so we are studying the possibility of any quantity that we can export to the Philippines.
“We hope that we will find a trade partner in the Philippines, and we call on companies in the Philippines to order rice from Cambodia,” he said.
Ministry of Commerce spokesman Seang Thay told The Post that the ministry has not received an official letter from the Philippine government. However, Cambodia will have an opportunity to export rice to the Philippine market.
“This opportunity is possible for Cambodia, because Cambodia and the Philippines have already signed a Memorandum of Agreement [MoA] on rice trade,” said Thay.
He was referring to the MoA signed between former commerce minister Cham Prasidh and then-Philippine Ambassador to Cambodia Noe Wong in April 2013.
Only 200 tonnes of milled rice was exported to the Philippines in the first four months of this year, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries data shows.
CRF data shows that total rice exports to international markets reached more than 300,000 tonnes in the first four months of the year, up 40.46 per cent over the same period last year.
ore, including
how to change your settings, see our
Soaring
Prices, Rotting Crops: Coronavirus Triggers Global Food Crisis
Processing and transportation breakdowns, panic
buying threaten vulnerable nations; ‘a food crisis with lots of food’
People lined up
to receive free food in early May amid a lockdown Lahore, Pakistan. rahat
dar/EPA/Shutterstock
By
in Dubai and
in Hong Kong
May 13, 2020
2:52 pm ET
The coronavirus
pandemic hit the world at a time of plentiful harvests and ample food reserves.
Yet a cascade of protectionist restrictions, transport disruptions and
processing breakdowns has dislocated the global food supply and put the
planet’s most vulnerable regions in particular peril.
“You can have a
food crisis with lots of food. That’s the situation we’re in,” said Abdolreza
Abbassian, a senior economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, or FAO.
...
To Read the
Full Story
Farmers’ group warns of supply glut, low palay prices
Philippines to remain world's top rice importer until 2021
Rappler.com
Published 8:15 PM, May 13, 2020
Updated 8:15 PM, May 13, 2020
RICE. Quezon City residents receive rice during the coronavirus
lockdown. Photo by Darren Langit/Rappler
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will
continue to be the world's top rice importer in 2020 and 2021 to meet demand of
over 107 million people, while production of the staple is expected to dip.
According to the Global Agricultural
Information Network (GAIN) report of the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), the Philippines and Brazil are projected to have production
declines, although modest, while the rest of the rice-producing countries will
produce more.
The report noted that Southeast Asia will
resume planting, while China will plant earlier than expected. Worldwide,
production is projected to hit more than 8 million tons, a new record.
The USDA said the Philippines is set to produce
11.4 million metric tons (MT) of rice in 2020 and 11 million MT in 2021.
Consumption is projected to hit 14.3 million MT
this year and 14.5 million MT next year.
"With lower production and tighter stocks,
larger imports are expected to enable consumption to rise marginally," the
USDA said. The Philippines is expected to import around
2.5 million MT of rice in 2020 and 3.3 million MT in 2021.
"The 2019 rice tariffication law has made
imports more available in the market, depressing overall milled rice
prices," the USDA added. (READ: Rice tariffication: Birth pains force
farmers' kids out of school)
Rice glut
The Philippine Department of Agriculture is
aiming to produce 13.51 million MT of rice for 2020.
This would bring the country's rice
self-sufficiency to 93% from 87% in 2019. If achieved, it would be the
country's highest palay output in at least a decade.
At the same time, the Philippines is also set
to import some 300,000 MT of rice through a government-to-government
arrangement.
With an ambitious production goal and
importation increasing, farmers warn that oversupply would likely depress
farmgate prices. (READ: [ANALYSIS] Plummeting rice prices: How will our rice
farmers cope?)
"Based on our computations, we will have
an ending inventory by December 31 of this year of 3.9 million tons of rice,
good for 110 days, if both these policies are pursued. This will create a glut
that will bring down prices during the main harvest season from September to
November this year and will even spill over to the dry season harvest from
February to April next year," said Raul Montemayor, national manager of
the Federation of Free Farmers. – Rappler.com
With projected rise in 2021 imports, PHL seen to remain top rice buyer
Workers unload tons of rice to be
distributed to Quezon City barangays affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. (NONOY
LACZA)
In its monthly global grain situation report, the USDA forecast that the country’s rice purchase next year will increase by 800,000 MT from the 2.5 MMT estimated volume this year.
USDA attributed the increase to “tighter” stocks coupled by lower production, which it projected to fall by 3.5 percent to 11 MMT next year. USDA estimated the local rice milled production this year could decline by almost 3 percent to 11.4 MMT from 11.732 MMT last year.
“With lower production and tighter stocks, larger imports are expected to enable consumption to rise marginally,” it said in the report.
“The 2019 rice tariffication law has made imports more available in the market, depressing overall milled rice prices,” it added.
This is the first projection by USDA for global rice trade for 2021.
Based on USDA’s projections, the Philippines’s rice imports next year could eclipse its previous record high of 2.9 MMT recorded in 2019, when the rice trade liberalization (RTL) law was enacted.
Republic Act 11203 or the RTL law deregulated the rice industry and eased import rules for eligible traders and importers.
USDA said total world rice imports next year may reach a three-year high of 45.21 MMT, which is 5.4 percent over 42.88 MMT estimated volume this year due to higher purchase from Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
“The greatest import demand growth is forecast in Sub-Saharan Africa,” USDA said.
“Southeast Asia is also expected to have a large increase in imports. This is mostly driven by the Philippines, which is forecast to be the top global importer, displacing China. The Middle East is also set to expand its imports,” the USDA added.
Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said it is too early to speculate or even assess possible total rice imports by the country for next year.
“It would really depend on the volume of rice that traders and importers will bring in this year. It depends on their appetite,” FFF National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor told the BusinessMirror.
The Philippines started and ended the previous decade as the world’s top rice importer, with the country formally overtaking China as the top buyer of the staple last year, based on USDA data.
Data from the USDA showed that the Philippines’s rice imports in 2019 rose to an all-time high of 2.9 MMT, making the country the top buyer of imported rice last year.
The last time the Philippines was regarded as the world’s top buyer of rice was in 2010, when it imported 2.4 MMT, historical USDA data showed.
The country has imported over 700,000 MT of rice from January to April, with private traders and corporations cornering bulk of the volume, latest Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data showed.
About 139 eligible rice importers, 86 of which are private traders, corporations and firms, brought in 728,979.07 MT of rice during the four-month period, latest BPI data analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed.
The rice imports were sourced from Cambodia, India, Italy, Myanmar, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam, based on BPI data.
The 86 private traders imported about 60 percent or 442,998.38 MT of the total volume, with Sodatrade Corp. leading the list with a total volume imported of 34,759.5 MT.
The remaining volume of 285,981 MT of rice was imported by cooperatives and associations, mostly led by farmers, BPI data showed
Customs
intercepts N12.7bn smuggled vehicles, rice, others
On May 14,
20203:18 amIn Business
Arrests
COVID-19 operational vehicle used for smuggling Importers count losses over
port closure in Rivers By Godfrey Bivbere smuggled vehicles, rice, The Federal
Operations Unit, FOU Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has
intercepted various items of contraband worth N12.7billion between January and
April 2020. The Unit also intercepted a vehicle with Covid-19 sticker used for
smuggling frozen chicken into the country from Benin Republic. A statement made
available to Vanguard by the Unit’s Public Relations Officer, Jerry Attah, said
the vehicle was arrested along Ijebu Ode Expressway. The CAC said, “the
officers were professional enough to intercept the vehicle which was believed
to be used in the movement of essential commodities for the COVID-19
emergencies but was surprise to see that it was containing the contraband.
:Non-issuance
of TDOs by shipping firms, terminal operators delay port operations However,
speaking on the activities of the command since this year he said contraband
goods worth N12.7 billion were intercepted from smugglers between January and
April 2020 Losses over ports closure in Rivers Meanwhile, operators and users
of the Rivers and Onne Ports have raised the alarm over loss of their investments
and perishable consignments over the crises in the ports following the arrest
of port workers by the Rivers State COVID-19 task force.
The state
government had imposed a 24-hour lockdown on Port Harcourt and Obia/Akpor local
government areas over the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation which effectively
blocked port workers from the port services. This is contrary to the guidelines
of the presidential task force of COVID-19 which classified port operations as
essential services. Daniel Kalu, Managing Director of Africa Atlantic
International Agencies, said the vessel transporting his consignment of 4,500
metric tons of frozen mackerel fish worth millions of euros have been unable to
berth at the Rivers Port for about two weeks now, a situation which he said could
make his company lose the entire consignment.
“Even if we get
the consignment out now, we already would have lost half of our investment
because the fish has lost quality and we won’t be able to sell at the standard
price,” he said. “That is not to speak of the demurrage that we must pay to
ship owners for keeping their vessels longer than expected. We pay a demurrage
of 7800 US dollars per day.” A vessel laden with a consignment of Muriate of
Potash, (blended with urea and other compounds to make fertilizer)) is unable
to berth at the Onne Ports as a result of the same situation. The Maritime
Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) had threatened a nationwide protest over arrest
of 20 dockworkers in the state who were said to have violated the lockdown
order by venturing to go to work.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/05/customs-intercepts-n12-7bn-smuggled-vehicles-rice-others/
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/05/customs-intercepts-n12-7bn-smuggled-vehicles-rice-others/
In a first, Telangana govt plans to tell farmers what to grow basis land and climatic conditions
Farmers not following the sowing recommendation will not be offered federally determined minimum support prices, as a form of disincentive.
india Updated: May 13, 2020 18:23 IST
In a nod to Chinese-style regulations, the move, backed by scientific evidence and experts’ advice, could raise productivity and incomes from farming, analysts said. But it will also see the state on take a bigger role in the farm sector, rather than leaving it to the markets.
Farmers not following the sowing recommendation will not be offered federally determined minimum support prices, as a form of disincentive. They will also not qualify for various input subsidy under the state’s flagship Rythu Bandhu scheme. Input subsidies denote cheap fertilisers and agricultural chemicals, funded by the government.
Chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday took a meeting with agricultural scientists and agronomists –experts in the science of crop yields– for a final set of recommendations, a statement from his office said.
The state is poised to implement a broad plan that will suggest which crops should be grown, depending on where farmers are located.
According to the plan created by agriculture scientists in the state, paddy has been allotted 8-9 million acres, while cotton is on 5 million acres. Among pulses, tur (a lentil) is sought to be grown 1 million acre and corn on 0.7 million acre. On rest of the arable land, vegetables ought to be grown on 0.35 million acres.
The state will introduce palm oil cultivation interspersed across the state because palm plantation can withstand drought.
“If this policy is followed, then the agriculture produce from the state would get good price. The government should decide on which crop the farmer should cultivate and it is important that the entire cultivation is done based on this policy,” a statement from the state said.
The policy is basically an attempt to break the practise of mono-cropping and introduce crop diversification, said KS Mani of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Crop diversification and more science-based agricultural raises per-acre incomes, he said.
Since rice and wheat fetch higher MSPs, farmers tend to grow much of these and little of others, upending the output balance. This has led to surplus of cereals in the country at the cost of other food articles.
Small farmers who don’t have economies of scale because smaller farms have higher cultivation costs don’t profit from such large-scale wheat-rice systems.
According to the government’s Doubling of Farmers’ Income Report, 2017, the average income of an agricultural household during July 2012 to June 2013 was as low as Rs 6,426 against an average monthly consumption expenditure of Rs 6,223.
In 2019, Haryana started a scheme to disincentivise rice growing in the state to save water in the severely water depleted state, which saw moderate success.
The unique experiment in Haryana could well break a long-standing chokehold on the state’s seriously depleted water table: rampant paddy.
Fifteen thousand farmers in the state, who have traditionally grown only rice, will not be growing the water-intensive crop this summer, the first time in 30 years. They have signed up for a state government drive that rewards them with cash and freebies for ditching paddy for maize.
According to Haryana’s farm department, every hectare (2.4 acre) brought under maize cultivation from rice would save the state 14,000 litres of water needed for irrigation.
“The total area under maize cultivation in districts chosen for the drive now stands at 50,000 hectares,” said Suresh Gehlawat, additional director in the state agriculture department. The move is expected to save 700 million litres of water for the entire season.
In the grain-bowl states of Punjab and Haryana, a practice of paddy-wheat cycle (paddy during summers, wheat during winters) has driven aquifers to an alarmingly low levels.
The campaign worked because of a string of freebies and a state-backed guarantee that all the maize harvested by farmers, who signed up for the programme, would be bought by the state at federally fixed minimum support prices.
PH to remain world’s top rice importer
By: Karl R. Ocampo - Reporter / @kocampoINQ
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:14 AM May 14, 2020
Despite moves by the Department of Agriculture to increase the country’s local
production of palay, global projections showed that the Philippines is still on
its way to become the biggest importer of the grain this year and the next.
Based on a
report released by the US Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural
Service, the Philippines is expected to import 2.5 million metric tons (MT) of
rice this year and 3.3 million MT of rice in 2020—seen to be the highest in the
world and the highest for the country.
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This would make the Philippines the biggest rice importer for three consecutive
years, with a population of 108 million, eventually displacing China from the
top spot. The economic behemoth, with a population of 1.4 billion, is only projected
to import 2.3 million MT and 2.2 million MT of rice for this year and in 2021.
The
Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said the government’s decision to allow the
unimpeded arrival of imports and its campaign to increase local production
might sow confusion among Filipino rice farmers, adding that pursuing both
policies would inevitably result in an overwhelming glut.
“Based on
our computations, we will have an ending inventory by Dec. 31 of this year of
3.9 million MT of rice, good for 110 days, if both these policies are pursued,”
FFF national chair Raul Montemayor said. “This will create a glut that will
bring down prices during the main harvest season from September to November
this year and will even spill over to the dry season harvest from February to
April next year.”
DA’s own
computation showed that there would be an excess supply for 94 days by the end
of 2020, assuming that all import permits would be used by the private
sector. According to the Bureau of Plant Industry, it has approved the
entry of 2.7 million MT of rice this year, 28 percent of which have already
arrived in the country.
266,000 hectares of rice, corn farms at risk as Typhoon Ambo hits PH
Published
By Madelaine Miraflor
Nearly 266,000 hectares of rice and corn farms are at risk as Typhoon Ambo hit
the country, prompting the Department of Agriculture (DA) to release portions
of its Quick Response Fund (QRF).
Department of Agriculture (MANILA BULLETIN)
Based on the latest data from the DA’s Disaster Risk Reduction
and Management Council (DRRM), Ambo, the first storm to make a landfall in the
Philippines for this year, will affect rice and corn areas, particularly those
under reproductive and maturity stages.
At risk to possible destruction by the typhoon are some 175,954
hectares of rice farms and 89,303 hectares of corn farms located in Bicol
Region and Western Visayas. Agriculture Spokesperson Noel
Reyes said the DA is “now prepared” and that interventions are now being
positioned.
“We have funds for this under the
QRF,” Reyes said in a virtual press briefing on Thursday.
However, Reyes did not specify
the amount of money that will be withdrawn from QRF, which is a built-in fund
allocation or stand-by budget that certain agencies can tap into immediately to
assist areas stricken by natural calamities.
As for the other interventions,
DA’s DRRM said rice seeds worth 75,875 bags has already been prepositioned for the
affected areas, while it is 8,448 bags for corn seeds.
DA also prepositioned drugs and
biologics for livestock and poultry needs, as well as funds from the Philippine
Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) to indemnify farmers.
The other day, DRRM said that
despite the risks, Ambo may be beneficial to areas experiencing a dry spell,
particularly to crops that are on their newly planted and vegetative stages,
and to other farming operations that need moisture, including land preparation.
Ambo, it added, may also
replenish any rainwater harvesting facilities such as dams and small scale
irrigation projects.
For this month, an average of 12
percent, equivalent to 109,317 hectares of rice, are harvestable in CAR,
Regions I, II, III, IV-A, V, VI, VII and VIII, the regions along the forecasted
path of Ambo.
Farmers have been advised to
harvest mature crops and mobilize post-harvest facilities; secure seed
reserves, planting materials and other farm inputs to higher ground, as well as
feed and water for livestock; relocate farm machineries and equipment to higher
ground; and clear drainage in irrigation and rice paddies from obstructions to
prevent flooding.
Typhoon Vongfong Raked Through the Philippines Bringing Damaging Winds, Storm Surge, Flooding Rain
weather.com
meteorologists
Published: May 15,
2020
Typhoon Vongfong, the first typhoon of 2020,
raked the central Philippines with flooding rainfall, landslides and damaging
winds.
Vongfong, which was locally known as "Ambo" in the
Philippines, made landfall just after midday local time on May 14 near the town
of San Policarpo in the province of Eastern Samar, about 350 miles southeast of
the nation's capital, Manila.
at 12:15PM (14 May 2020): Typhoon #AmboPH has made landfall over San
Policarpio, Eastern Samar.
Less than 2 hours after landfall, the U.S.
Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) estimated Vongfong's maximum sustained
winds were 115 mph, Category 3 equivalent on the U.S. Saffir
Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Devastation of tropical typhoon #Ambo #AmboPH #Vongfon.
Catubig River swells. Roofs and walls of some houses are unnailed. No more electricity in the entire province as the heavier rains pour and stronger wind blows.
At Las Navas,Northern Samar, Philippines.
Catubig River swells. Roofs and walls of some houses are unnailed. No more electricity in the entire province as the heavier rains pour and stronger wind blows.
At Las Navas,Northern Samar, Philippines.
Vongfong lost intensity as its center moved
across the Eastern Visayas region after landfall. By the following afternoon,
Vongfong was rated by JTWC as a tropical storm.
The Philippine weather service, PAGASA, issued a tropical
cyclone wind signal number 3, the third highest signal on a scale of 1 to 5,
for the parts of the central Philippines including the Eastern Visayas and the Bicol Region. In these
areas, widespread power outages and downed trees were expected, with
considerable wind damage to structures, especially those of poorer
construction, possible.
Given Vongfong's small size, the Philippine capital, Manila, was
only expected to have peripheral impacts, including bands of locally heavy rain
and gusty winds, possibly tropical storm-force.
(MORE: News Impacts)
Vongfong is the first named storm of 2020 in the Western Pacific
Ocean, and the first major hurricane strength storm in the northern hemisphere
this year.
The Western Pacific Basin is Earth's most active basin for
tropical cyclones due to a vast expanse of warm water, a lack of dry air that
invades the Atlantic Basin.
Since these Western Pacific systems can form any time of year,
there really is no season, per se.
From 1981 through 2010, an average of 26 Western Pacific named
storms formed each year, 17 of which became typhoons, more than double the
average of Atlantic Basin named storms (12) and hurricanes (6).
The Weather Company’s primary
journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and
the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily
represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
Cambodia to lift
partial ban on rice exports on May 20
Cambodia
to lift partial ban on rice exports on May 20
May 14, 2020
Cambodia will lift a partial ban on rice exports that
had been put in place to ensure local food security during the coronavirus
crisis, the finance minister told exporters of the grain on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Aun Porn Moniroth wrote to the Cambodia Rice
Federation to confirm the decision.
“I would like to inform (that) … the royal government has
decided to allow exports of white rice gradually starting from May 20, 2020,
onward,” the letter said.
RPT-Asia Rice-Thai prices
dip as demand flows to India, Vietnam
Nakul Iyer
(This is a repeat of an item issued on Thursday)
* Thai prices fall to over 1-month low, but still most expensive
* Robust demand pushes Indian rates to more than 9-month peak
* Vietnamese rates rise to $450-$460 a tonne on low supplies
By Nakul Iyer
BENGALURU, May 15 (Reuters) - Thai rice export prices fell this
week as the drought-hit country saw fresh supplies entering the market while
also facing stiff competition from cheaper Indian and Vietnamese offers.Thailand’s
benchmark 5% broken rice RI-THBKN5-P1 prices were quoted at $480-$485 a tonne,
their lowest since March 26 and down from $515–$546 last week.
“We’re beginning to see new supply entering the market this month
and forecasts for rain have eased concerns over supply generally,” a
Bangkok-based rice trader said.
One of the worst droughts in decades put a strain on supplies,
causing prices to soar to a seven-year high in April.
“Demand remains flat but there are hopes that buyers in places like
the Philippines may be interested in Thai rice as prices dropped, although
competition from Vietnam is very strong,” another rice trader in Bangkok said.
Prices for top-exporter India’s 5% broken parboiled variety
RI-INBKN5-P1 edged to their highest since early August at $380-$385 per tonne
this week.
Demand is better than last year as Indian rice is offered at a
discount compared with exports from Thailand and Vietnam, said B.V. Krishna
Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association.
The availability of trucks and workers, which limited exports in
April, has improved, Rao added.
Exports are also getting support from a weaker rupee , raising
exporters’ margin from overseas sales, exporters said.
Meanwhile, low supplies pushed rates for 5% broken rice
RI-VNBKN5-P1 from Vietnam to a near one-year high of $450-$460.
“Traders are rushing to fulfil contracts signed before the export
ban (introduced in March), while the government is also buying rice from
farmers for its national stockpiling program,” a trader based in Vietnam’s
Mekong Delta province of An Giang said.
“Supplies from the upcoming harvest will not increase sharply as
the harvest will take place slowly, lasting more than two months.”
Vietnam fully resumed rice exports from May, after a ban in March
to ensure adequate supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.
Preliminary shipping data showed nearly 150,000 tonnes of rice is
to be loaded at Ho Chi Minh City port between May 2 and May 17, with most of it
heading to the Philippines.
Elsewhere, Bangladesh will procure an additional 200,000 tonnes of
paddy during the current harvest season to secure supplies for relief
operations, a food ministry official said, amid the coronavirus pandemic which
has infected 18,863 people and killed 283 in the country as of Thursday.
(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Khanh Vu in Hanoi
and Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok; Editing by Arpan Varghese and Mark Potter)
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
MORE FROM REUTERS
Ministry
to strictly manage rice exports via international border gates
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will continue to
strictly manage rice exports through international border gates, said an
official.
Packing rice for export (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will continue to strictly manage rice exports through international border gates, said an official.
Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the MoIT’s Export-Import Department, said at the ministry’s regular press conference on May 15 that although rice is a key export staple, it is a must to ensure the country's food security.
The ministry will also coordinate with competent forces to increase inspections in order to prevent rice smuggling across borders, he said.
Statistics showed that Vietnam shipped abroad 2.1 million tonnes of rice valued at 991 million USD in the first four months of this year, up 1.1 percent in volume and 4.1 percent in value.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has agreed with the MoIT’s proposal to resume rice exports from May 1, in accordance with Decree 107/2018/ND-CP on rice exports.
In implementing the PM’s instructions regarding rice exports in the time ahead, the ministry has asked cities and provinces to supervise businesses’ ensuring circulated reserves at at least 5 percent of the total rice export volume, Hai told the Vietnam News Agency.
In addition, the ministry has urged the 20 biggest rice exporters to sign agreements with at least a supermarket system to ensure food reserves for circulation.
The MoIT will continue its close coordination with other ministries, agencies, localities and the Vietnam Food Association to implement solutions to facilitate rice exports in terms of procedures, logistics and credit.
Notably, it will keep a close watch on the developments of domestic and global rice demand-supply and forecast actions to be taken by the world’s major importers and exporters, as well as the developments of diseases and natural disasters. Relevant reports will be submitted to the PM for decision making.
According to the MoIT, the country is projected to harvest 43.5 million tonnes of paddy this year, nearly 30 million tonnes of which is expected to be used for domestic consumption, and the rest for export./.
Mass sell-off of public property
means state no longer owns enough storage space for disaster stockpiles
Published on May 14, 2020
A warehouse for storing rice in
Yangon (Photo: Sai Zaw/ Myanmar Now)
The Myanmar Rice Federation will
spend 100 million kyat per month on storage to stockpile rice during the
pandemic because the state cannot afford to and its own facilities are damaged,
in bad locations, or already in use.
The rice will go to warehouses in
Yangon’s industrial zones that were state-owned before 2010, when the previous
military government oversaw mass sell-offs of public property to military-owned
companies and military cronies.
Leading rice exporters and
traders, including the federation secretary Lu Maw, own the warehouses that
will hold the stockpiles, which are intended to ensure food security amid the
Covid-19 crisis.
The government will spend 21
billion kyat ($14.8m) on one million bags of rice over the next five months. It
will build the 50,000-tonne stockpile by buying 10% of exports each month at
slightly below market value.
There are two state-owned
warehouses in Mandalay region, but they can only store 50,000 bags, said
commerce minister Than Myint.
The Myanmar Rice Federation, a
private industry body, will pay 100 kyat per rice bag per month as rental fee
to the warehouses, said federation chairperson Ye Min Aung.
“It is a lot cheaper than the
market rate. No one can rent out at this rate,” he added. The usual rate is
about 500 kyat per bag.
The government has no budget for
rice storage, and it is common practice in Myanmar for the state to ask the
private sector for help.
Although there are hundreds of
government-owned warehouses, they can’t be used as some have been leased to
businesses, are damaged or are not easily accessible, Ye Min Aung added.
“All warehouses in good locations
have been privatised since 2009. The remaining government-owned warehouses are
not in the main industrial zones,” he said.
Storing the rice in private
warehouses is cheaper than repairing the government’s own facilities, Than
Myint, the commerce minister, told Myanmar Now.
“Our warehouses can only hold up
to 3,000 tonnes as reserves for natural disasters. We do not have enough
space,” he said.
Ministry lends a helping hand to
farmers
PUBLISHED 14
MAY 2020
Yangon—In
a bid to prevent losses in the farming industry due to COVID-19 and ensure the
availability of capitals, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation
plans to carry out multiple crop production and the contract-farming system on
400,000 acres of land.
The
ministry is working to help farmers avoid a decline in the production of crops
and them in cultivation, the availability of paddy strains and inputs. In doing
so, the ministry will carry out the cultivation of multiple crops on 400,000
acres of land—200,000 acres with the assistance of overseas loans and
government budgets and 200,000 acres through the contract farming system of
Myanmar Rice Federation.
The
farm-to-fork process will require many workers create more employment
opportunities.
Myanmar
grows around 17.8 million acres of paddy annually and produces around 27
million tons of rice. In 2018-19 fiscal year, the total rice production
exceeded 27.5 million tons of rice, the maximum rice production in five years.
In
2014-15 FY, the paddy growing area exceeded 17,722,355 acres and the paddy
production, 26,423,319 tons.
In
2015-16 FY, Myanmar had a total paddy growing area of 17,820,586 acres and
produced 26,210,319 tons of rice.
In
2016-17 FY, the paddy growing area exceeded 17,695,525 acres and the paddy
production hit 25,672,833 to
Government orders new lists after review for rice at Tk 10 per kg scheme
Published: 14 May 2020 02:16 AM BdST Updated: 14
May 2020 02:16 AM BdST
The food ministry began to sell
subsidised rice at Tk 10 per kg in Dhaka in an effort to help the poor during
the Bangladesh-wide shutdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: Asif
Mahmud Ove
The government has ordered local authorities to review the lists of beneficiaries of the Food Friendly Programme under which five million families get rice at Tk 10 per kilogram.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder ordered the administrators and food
controllers of the districts in Dhaka division to include only those who are
really poor and helpless in the new lists in a meeting via video conferencing
on Wednesday.
The government launched the programme in 2016. The beneficiaries
received 30 kg rice a month in March, April, September, October and November.
The government issues registration cards to the families for the distribution.
The food minister asked the officials to verify the lists after
getting complaints over irregularities from different parts of Bangladesh, the
ministry said in a statement.
The officials must not fear intimidation or show nepotism while
making the lists, the minister said.
He also ordered replacing the tag officers, who had been tasked
with making the lists, if necessary.
Sadhan discussed the coronavirus crisis, its impact on the supply of food,
harvesting during the ongoing Boro crop season and collection of paddy and rice
by the government.
He said the committees formed to collect the grains will have to
select the farmers through lottery in their presence at every union.
Food Secretary Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum reminded the officials
of using separate seals on sacks of rice for different schemes, such as Food
Friendly Programme and Open Market Sale.
Explained:
Labour short, can direct seeding be alternative to paddy transplanting?
A
technology that allows farmers to sow paddy seeds directly could be a solution
to shortage of migrant transplantation labourers during lockdown. It also saves
water by not requiring flooding of fields.
Written
by Harish Damodaran , Anju Agnihotri
Chaba | Jalandhar, New Delhi | Updated:
May 14, 2020 8:36:21 pm
A
farmer on his direct seeded rice field at a village near Jalandhar in Punjab.
(Express photo by Anju Agnihotri Chaba)
The
two granary states of Punjab and Haryana could face a shortage of an estimated
10 lakh labourers, mainly seasonal migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, to
undertake transplantation of paddy in the upcoming kharif season. With lockdown
relaxations not extending to trains to ferry these labourers who usually arrive
by early June, farmers are now being encouraged to adopt ‘direct seeding of
rice’ (DSR) in place of conventional transplanting.
How is DSR different from normal transplanting of paddy?
In
transplanting, farmers prepare nurseries where the paddy seeds are first sown
and raised into young plants. These seedlings are then uprooted and replanted
25-35 days later in the main field. The nursery seed bed is 5-10% of the area
to be transplanted.
In
DSR, there is no nursery preparation or transplantation. The seeds are instead
directly drilled into the field by a tractor-powered machine. The Punjab
Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana has developed a ‘Lucky Seed Drill’
that can both sow seeds and simultaneously spray herbicides to control weeds.
This machine is different from the more popular ‘Happy Seeder’, used to
directly sow wheat on combine-harvested paddy fields containing leftover
stubble and loose straw.
But why spray herbicides along with sowing seeds?
Paddy
seedlings are transplanted on fields that are “puddled” or tilled in standing
water using tractor-drawn disc harrows. For the first three weeks or so after
transplanting, the plants have to be irrigated almost daily (if there are no
rains) to maintain a water depth of 4-5 cm. Farmers continue irrigating every
2-3 days even for the next 4-5 weeks, when the crop is in the tillering (stem
development) stage. The underlying principle here is simple: Paddy growth is
compromised by weeds that compete for nutrition, sunlight and water. Water
prevents growth of weeds by denying them oxygen in the submerged stage, whereas
the soft ‘aerenchyma tissues’ in paddy plants allow air to penetrate through
their roots. Water, thus, acts as a herbicide for paddy. The threat from weeds
recedes once tillering is over; so does the need to flood the fields.
In
DSR, water is replaced by real chemical herbicides. Farmers have to only level
their land and give one pre-sowing irrigation or rauni. Once the field has good
soil moisture, they need to do two rounds of ploughing and planking
(smoothening of soil surface), which is followed by sowing of the seeds and
spraying of herbicides.
What are these herbicides?
There
are two kinds. The first is called pre-emergent, i.e. applied before
germination. In this case, the pre-emergent herbicide used is Pendimethalin.
The Lucky Seed Drill that sows paddy can also spray the chemical, which costs
Rs 450-500 at one litre per acre. Alternatively, farmers can use an ordinary
seed drill and apply the herbicide immediately after sowing. The second set of
herbicides is post-emergent, sprayed 20-25 days after sowing, depending upon
the type of weeds appearing. They include Bispyribac-sodium (Rs 600-700 at 100
ml/acre) and Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (Rs 700-800 at 400 ml/acre).
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What is the main advantage with DSR?
The
most obvious one is water savings. According to PAU’s director of research
Navtej Singh Bains and principal agronomist Makhan Singh Bhullar, the first
irrigation (apart from the pre-sowing rauni) under DSR is necessary only 21
days after sowing. This is unlike in transplanted paddy, where watering has to
be done practically daily to ensure submerged/flooded conditions in the first
three weeks. The second savings, relevant in the present context, is that of
labour. About three labourers are required to transplant one acre of paddy in a
single day. Pritam Singh Hanjra,
a farmer from Urlana Khurd village in Haryana’s Panipat district, says that the
transplanting labour costs last year were around Rs 2,400 per acre, “which may
double this time”. As against this, the cost of herbicides under DSR will not
exceed Rs 2,000 per acre.
Are there drawbacks?
The
main issue is availability of the herbicides. Pendimethalin is sold by
companies such as BASF (under ‘Stomp’ brand) and PI Industries (‘Bunker’).
Bispyribac-sodium and Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl are marketed, among others, by PI
Industries and Bayer under ‘Nominee Gold’ and ‘Ricestar’ brands, respectively.
“If every farmer does DSR, will the demand for these chemicals be met? The seed
requirement for DSR is also higher, at 8-10 kg/acre, compared to 4-5 kg in
transplanting. Further, laser land levelling, which costs Rs 1,000/acre, is
compulsory in DSR. This is not so in transplanting,” Hanjra said.
Surjit
Singh, a 60-acre farmer from Gakhlan village in Punjab’s Jalandhar district,
tried out DSR for the first time on two acres in 2017. This he increased to 6
acres and 10 acres in the next two years. “I am planning to do 15 acres in the
coming season. The yields are as good as from normal transplanting, but you
need to sow by the first fortnight of June. The plants have to come out
properly before the monsoon rains arrive. There is no such problem in
transplanting, where the saplings have already been raised in the nursery,”
explained Singh, whose spring maize crop on the balance 45 acres will be
harvested only towards June-end.
How much area is likely to come under direct seeding of rice?
The adoption of any new
technology, be it Happy Seeder or Lucky Seed Drill, is ultimately dependent
upon farmers feeling the need. The maximum area covered by DSR in Punjab was
roughly 1.60 lakh hectares (lh) in 2015 — which dropped to 19,600 hectares,
1,100 hectares, 5,000 hectares and 23,300 hectares in the subsequent years. Sutantar
Kumar Airi, director of Punjab’s Agriculture Department, expects it to rise to
2-2.5 lh this time on the back of labour shortages. Even that would be hardly a
tenth of the state’s total 29-30 lh paddy area.
Rice Prices
as on : 12-05-2020 12:10:57 PM
Arrivals in tonnes;prices in
Rs/quintal in domestic market.
|
Arrivals
|
Price
|
|||||
|
Current
|
%
change |
Season
cumulative |
Modal
|
Prev.
Modal |
Prev.Yr
%change |
|
|
Rice
|
||||||
|
Jumpuijala(Tri)
|
80.80
|
6633.33
|
196.30
|
3050
|
3100
|
-
|
|
Allahabad(UP)
|
75.50
|
-16.11
|
1696.50
|
2520
|
2515
|
9.57
|
|
Hanagal(Kar)
|
70.00
|
180
|
452.00
|
1900
|
1900
|
NC
|
|
Naugarh(UP)
|
52.00
|
4
|
3152.00
|
2510
|
2535
|
4.58
|
|
Lakhimpur(UP)
|
40.00
|
33.33
|
1697.00
|
2430
|
2430
|
4.74
|
|
Sehjanwa(UP)
|
40.00
|
100
|
1877.50
|
2600
|
2585
|
20.37
|
|
Fatehpur(UP)
|
32.50
|
10.17
|
1806.40
|
2410
|
2415
|
4.78
|
|
Asansol(WB)
|
25.40
|
4.53
|
767.89
|
2850
|
2850
|
-6.56
|
|
Durgapur(WB)
|
24.00
|
1.69
|
680.35
|
2850
|
2850
|
NC
|
|
Rampur(UP)
|
18.00
|
12.5
|
350.00
|
2610
|
2590
|
2.35
|
|
Soharatgarh(UP)
|
10.00
|
11.11
|
1352.70
|
2530
|
2535
|
4.55
|
|
Achalda(UP)
|
6.00
|
20
|
213.10
|
2450
|
2460
|
10.86
|
|
Alibagh(Mah)
|
1.00
|
NC
|
62.00
|
4200
|
4200
|
NC
|
|
Murud(Mah)
|
1.00
|
NC
|
61.00
|
4200
|
4200
|
NC
|
|
Khair(UP)
|
1.00
|
-50
|
53.50
|
2560
|
2560
|
-1.54
|
|
Achnera(UP)
|
0.70
|
NC
|
25.00
|
2560
|
2550
|
0.39
|
May
12, 2020
