Thursday, July 23, 2020

23rd July 2020 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter

 

  

 

Pakistan Market Monitor Report - July 2020

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Posted

 

23 Jul 2020

 

Originally published

 

23 Jul 2020

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HIGHLIGHTS

• In June 2020, the average retail prices of wheat and wheat flour significantly increased by 9.6% and 14.4%, respectively, from May 2020; the prices of rice Irri-6 and rice Basmati negligibly increased by 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively, in June 2020 when compared to the previous month;

• Headline inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased in June 2020 by 0.82% over May 2020 and increased by 8.59% over June 2019;

• The prices of staple cereals and non-cereal food commodities in June 2020 experienced negligible to slight fluctuations, except for wheat, wheat flour and eggs which experienced significant price fluctuations, when compared to the previous month’s prices;

• In June 2020, the average ToT significantly decreased by 11.7% from the previous month;

• In July 2020, the total global wheat production for 2020/21 is projected at 769.31 million MT, indicating a decrease of 4.12 million MT compared to the projection made in June 2020.

https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-market-monitor-report-july-2020

National Program To Enhance Productivity Of Rice

Description: APP - Associated Press Of Pakistan  

Description: National program to enhance productivity of rice

SIALKOT, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2020 ) :Under PM Agriculture Emergency programme, a five-year plan costing Rs.6.63 billion was launched in 15 districts of Punjab to enhance profitability through increasing productivity of rice,said Deputy Director Agriculture Abdul Sami Tahir on Thursday here. .

Talking to APP, he said that under the program,the mechanized transplanting of rice nurseries will replace the outdated manual transplanting.

He added efforts were being made for timely sowing of identified ecological best varieties through the promotion of direct seedling of rice drills in the districts including SialkotGujranwalaSheikhupuraOkaraHafizabadNankana SahibBahawalnagarJhangNarowalKasur, Mandi Bahaudin, ChiniotGujratLahore and Faisalabad districts where area under rice both Basmati and course verities would be brought under cultivation on 70,000 acres of land.

Under the programme, government will provide riding type rice transplanter, walk-after type rice transplanter, nursery raising machine, direct seedling drill, rice straw chopper, water tight motivator and knapsack power sprayer, disk plough on 50 percent subsidy, he disclosed.

Sami further said that the government will also provide subsidy to the rice growers for the purchase of tested paddy seeds and pesticides,adding subsidy amounting Rs.1500 per acre to the growers for encouraging combined harvesting.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/national-program-to-enhance-productivity-of-r-982461.html

 

Rice Exports Increase Record 5.12%

Description: APP - Associated Press Of Pakistan  

Description: Rice exports increase record 5.12%

Rice exports during FY 2019-20 grew by 5.12% as compared to the exports of the corresponding period of last year

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jul, 2020 ) :Rice exports during FY 2019-20 grew by 5.12% as compared to the exports of the corresponding period of last year.

During the period from July-June 2019-20, Rice worth $2,175,493 thousand were exported as compared to the exports of $2,069,618 thousand of same period of last year.

According the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the exports of Fruits increased by 3.80%, Fruits valuing $431,272 thousand exported as compared to worth $415,497 thousand of same period of last year.

Meanwhile, vegetables worth $299,290 thousand were also exported in current financial year as compared to the exports of valuing $233,910 thousand of same period of last year.

During the period under review, Tobacco exports of the country also recorded positive growth of 47.28%.

Tobacco worth $35,787 thousand was exported as compared to the exports of $24,217 thousand of same period of last year.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/business/rice-exports-increase-record-512-981645.html

 

 

APP 22 Jul, 2020

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Description: https://i.brecorder.com/primary/2020/07/5f183b5164253.jpg

ISLAMABAD: Rice exports during FY 2019-20 grew by 5.12pc as compared to the exports of the corresponding period of last year.

During the period from July-June 2019-20, Rice worth $2,175,493 thousand were exported as compared to the exports of $2,069,618 thousand of same period of last year.

According the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the exports of Fruits increased by 3.80pc, Fruits valuing $431,272 thousand exported as compared to worth $415,497 thousand of same period of last year.

Meanwhile, vegetables worth $299,290 thousand were also exported in current financial year as compared to the exports of valuing $233,910 thousand of same period of last year. During the period under review,

Tobacco exports of the country also recorded positive growth of 47.28pc.

Tobacco worth $35,787 thousand was exported as compared to the exports of $24,217 thousand of same period of last year.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40006934/rice-exports-increase-record-512pc

Rice worth $2.175 billion exported in last fiscal year

 

Description: https://i2.wp.com/www.app.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/rice.jpg?resize=500%2C344&ssl=1Rice exports during last fiscal year (2019-20) registered about 5.12 percent growth

ISLAMABAD, Jul 23 (APP):Rice exports from the country during last fiscal year (2019-20) registered about 5.12 percent growth as compared the exports of the corresponding period of last year.
During the period from July-June, 2019-20, about 4,166,123 metric tons of rice worth $2.175 billion exported, according the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
The rice exports from the country during the same period of last year was recorded at 4,120,137 metric tons valuing $2.096 billion, it added.
Meanwhile, country earned $790.792 million by exporting about 890,207 metric tons of Basmati rice in 12 months of fiscal year ended on June 30, 2020 as against the exports of 659,571 metric tons valuing $634.532 million of same period of last year.
Meanwhile, 3,275,923 tons rice other then Basmati worth $1.384 billion also exported during last year as against the exports of 3,460,555 metric tons valuing $1.435 billion of same period last year.
It may be recalled that food group exports during fiscal year 2019-20 decreased by 5.38 percent as it went down from $4.607 billion to $4.361 billion.
The decreasing trend in exports of food commodities were mainly attributed to COVID-19 Pandemic, which has also effected the other economies of the world.
The exports of food commodities from the country during month of June,2020 also decreased by 3.38 percent as compared the exports of the corresponding month of last year
It is worth mentioning here that Rice crop cultivation targets for Kharif season 2020-21 was fixed at 2, 957 thousand hectares in order to produce about 7.999 million tons to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as for exporting.
The rice cultivation target for Punjab Province during current season was set at 1,900 thousand hectares for producing about 4.200 million tons of the commodity.
The average per- hectare crop out put in the country was fixed at 2,702 kg.
,Meanwhile, rice crop cultivation targets for Sindh were set at 800 thousands hectares with production of 3.00 million tons.
The average per- hectare rice output in Sindh was fixed at 3,750 kg and in Punjab it was fixed at 2,211 kg per-hectare.
During Kharif season 2020-21, about 67 thousand hectares would be put under rice cultivation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to get about 0.190 thousand tons of rice.
Per-hectare output during the season under review in the province of fixed at 2,836 kg.
he added.
In order to exploit the agriculture potential of Baluchistan Province as well as enhancing the farm income of small scale growers, rice crop would be grown over 67 thousand hectares in order to produce about 0. 600 million tons of the commodity.

https://www.app.com.pk/business/business/rice-worth-2-175-billion-exported-in-last-fiscal-year/

 

INSIGHT-Signs of farm 'revolution' in India as coronavirus prompts change

Mayank Bhardwaj, Naveen Thukral

 

* Farms plant record acreage by machine as labour stays away

 

* Improved planting technique to boost Indian rice yields

 

* Jobs may be lost as machines take over planting

 

* New planting technique to substantially reduce water usage

 

By Mayank Bhardwaj and Naveen Thukral

 

RAIPUR JATTAN, India/SINGAPORE July 23 (Reuters) - For more than two decades, Indian farmer Ravindra Kajal cultivated rice the way his forefathers had - every June he flooded his fields with water before hiring an army of farmhands to plant paddy seedlings.

 

But a scarcity of workers this year because of the coronavirus forced Kajal to change. He irrigated the field just enough to moisten the soil and leased a drilling machine to directly sow seeds on his 9-acre (3.6-hectare) plot.

 

“Since I was more than comfortable with the tried-and-tested way of growing rice, I opted for the new method with some trepidation,” said Kajal, 46, looking over his field, green with rice saplings, in the Raipur Jattan village in Haryana state.

 

“But I’ve already saved around 7,500 rupees ($100) per acre because I hardly spent on water and workers this year,” he said.

 

India is the world’s biggest exporter of rice and the world’s second-biggest producer after China. Across the country’s grain bowl states of Haryana and neighbouring Punjab, thousands of farmers like Kajal have been forced by the coronavirus to mechanise planting.

 

They are still wary of the technology and overturning the time-honoured use of manual labour.

 

But Kahan Singh Pannu, Punjab’s agriculture secretary, is convinced a historic change is underway that could dramatically increase India’s rice output, which in turn could impact world markets.

 

“It is no less than a revolution in Indian agriculture,” he told Reuters.

 

Government officials say the so-called direct seeding of rice (DSR) method could increase yields by about one-third and slash costs on workers and water.

 

The DSR machines allow farmers to grow more than 30 saplings per square metre against the usual 15 to 18 seedlings, said Naresh Gulati, a state government farm official in Punjab.

 

Punjab is the home of the 1960s Green Revolution that led to a spike in crop yields. This year, farmers there have used seed drilling machines to sow rice on more than half a million hectares, a big increase compared with less than 50,000 hectares in 2019, growers and government officials said.

 

Pannu expects DSR use to jump again next year.

 

“More and more farmers are using the DSR technology which seems to be so promising that the entire 2.7 million hectares of Punjab’s rice area could come under it next year, which will be a watershed for India’s rice production,” he said.

 

Avinash Kishore, a research fellow at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said if this year’s crop was good, DSR would be the way forward.

 

“The scale of this year’s shift to the DSR is a momentous change in rice cultivation in India,” he said.

 

Sudhanshu Singh, a senior agronomist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, said the shift to DSR was “one of the rare positive fallouts from COVID.”

 

NO MIGRANT LABOUR

None of the world’s major rice exporting nations - India, Vietnam and Thailand - makes significant use of seeding machines.

 

They have come into play in a big way in India this year because hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers from Bihar and Jharkhand states in the east did not arrive in the northern grain belt for the 2020 planting season due to the coronavirus lockdown.

 

That pushed up the price of local workers and made it more economical for farmers to lease rice planting machines rather than pay for hired help, said Jaskaran Singh Mahal, a director at the Punjab Agricultural University.

 

Farm wages have gone up by 1,500 rupees an acre to about 4,500 rupees this year, and growers need around half a dozen workers to transplant rice paddy on a one acre plot.

 

In comparison, farmers can hire planting machines for 5,000 to 6,000 rupees per acre, which can cover 25 to 30 acres in a day, rice growers said.

 

“Other than helping us save on major overheads such as water and labour, DSR is swift, unlike the old method which was tedious and time-consuming,” said Devinder Singh Gill, a farmer in Punjab’s Moga district, well known for its aromatic basmati rice.

 

The conventional method requires farmers to sow seeds in nurseries and then wait for 20 to 30 days before manually transplanting the seedlings into plantation fields that are ankle-deep in water.

 

Seeding machines allow farmers to bypass the nursery stage and plant straight into fields.

 

Water conservation is another key attribute of DSR, which is crucial in a mostly dry, monsoon dependent country like India.

 

Under the conventional method, 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water is used in India to produce 1 kg of rice - the most water-thirsty crop - and DSR allows growers to cut water use by at least 50% to 60%, farmers and government officials said.

 

The main challenge for farmers using direct seeding machines is managing weeds, which require the spraying of herbicides through the season.

 

Still, even factoring in the extra costs of these applications, the overall cost of cultivation is substantially lower under DSR, said Kajal, the farmer in Haryana.

 

Another drawback will be that if the method is adopted across the farm belt, there will be huge unemployment in the eastern states next year.

 

But farmers say they will wait to see the harvest in October before deciding whether to stick with the technology next year.

 

“The new technology leads to a lot of saving on account of water and labour, but the real test lies in productivity and farmers will not be fully convinced unless they see some rise in their yields,” said Ashok Singh, a rice farmer. ($1=74.93 rupees)

 

Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj and Naveen Thukral; Editing by Gavin Maguire and Raju Gopalakrishnan

 

https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL3N2EM1NS

 

 

Paddy sowing season amid pandemic: Amid migrant labour shortage, more farmers opt for mechanised transplanting in Punjab

The technique saves time, labour and cuts cost by nearly Rs 4,000-5,000 per acre compared to manual transplanting, said agriculture officials.

Written by Anju Agnihotri Chaba | Jalandhar | Published: July 23, 2020 12:56:16 am

Description: Coronavirus pandemic, Paddy sowing, mechanised transplanting, migrant labour shortage, Jalandhar news, Punjab news, Indian express news

A whopping increase in area of mechanical transplanting has been seen this season in Punjab. (Representational)

At a time when Punjab is facing acute shortage of migrant labour specialising in conventional transplantation of paddy (hailing primarily from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh) amid the pandemic, around a thousand rice/paddy transplanting machines — mostly made in China, Japan and Korea — are being used in agricultural fields.

The technique saves time, labour and cuts cost by nearly Rs 4,000-5,000 per acre compared to manual transplanting, said agriculture officials.

A whopping increase in area of mechanical transplanting has been seen this season in Punjab. But while this has been technique available to farmers for over a decade, it did not get a good response because farmers find ‘paddy nursery’ raising for transplanters a cumbersome process.

Collectively, these transplanters have cultivated 52,000 hectares (1,28,440 acres) in 40 days from June 10 to July 11 — an 8-fold increase in area as compared to last year. Around 2,000-3000 hectares more may be covered under this system by the end of rice sowing this month.

“Since mechanical transplantation was introduced in Punjab in 2007-08, the state has never transplanted more than 3,000 to 4,000 hectares paddy per year with this method, barring last year when 6,500 hectares (16,055 acres) was brought under it,” said a senior officer in the Punjab agriculture department, adding that this time there was a huge response from farmers, and labour shortage is the main reason.

This year alone, 700 paddy transplanters (several of which reached farmers only in July) were purchased by farmers of Punjab while the number of these machines was just 313 till last year.

How did demand for this method first arise?

The need for rice transplanters was first felt in the state following the enactment of MG-NREGS Act in 2005, which led several migrant labourers, who were experts in paddy transplanting, to staying back in their home states — Bihar and UP — to avail the 100 days’ guaranteed employment at their native places rather than coming to Punjab for two months in the paddy sowing season.

Then Punjab imported 171 Chinese and Japanese-made transplanters till 2018 and then 142 were more in 2019. In the ongoing season, 700 have been purchased.

There are three types of these machines — the ‘walk-behind’ (the person walks with it in the puddled field) having two models (4-row and 6-row), the ‘single wheel ride on’ and ‘four-wheeled ride on’. While the ‘walk-behind’ model costs around Rs 3-3.50 lakh each, the ‘single wheel ride on’ and ‘four wheel ride on’ machines cost Rs 2.5- 3.5 lakh and Rs 10-14 lakh respectively. While most of them are made in China or Japan, some Indian companies’ transplanters were also made available to farmers at 40-50 per cent subsidy. However, farmers are still waiting for the subsidy for the purchase they made last year.

“Walk-behind and single wheel machines sow 4-5 acres each a day and two persons are sufficient for it — one for running the machine and other to supply nursery for feeding in the machine. Four-wheeled ride on can sow 8-10 acres in a day,” said Agricultural Engineering Manmohan Kalia, nodal officer, Farm Machinery, Punjab, and joint director (officiating), Agriculture Engineering.

Farmer’s verdict

Farmer Major Singh Bajwa of Bajwa Kalan village under Shahkot sub-division of Jalandhar district, who has done mechanical transplantation on his 60 acres field this time, said he had purchased a transplanter last year and the results were good, so he has increased the area this year.

“With this machine, I am tension-free as it saves huge labour cost too,” he said, adding that training nursery is a little labour-intensive and technical but one needs to get used to it.

“I and my fellow farmer Rajinder Singh had developed a seedler for nursery growing for this method and it will make nursery growing simple,” he said, adding that a trial was done this time but from next time it will be fully functional.

Sukhjit Singh Diwala of Diwala village in Ludhiana has sown his 36 acres with a walk-behind machine this year and also provided his machine on rent. He raised a nursery for fellow farmers of his village and did mechanical transplanting on 100 acres in his village including his own fields.

“Finding labour was becoming difficult. I purchased a translator last year o experiment on my own field and it was so successful that I got 4-5 quintals more yield because of increasing of a number of plants in the fields with this method,” said he, adding that to sort the nursery raising method, Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, had invented a new machine to grow nursery for paddy transplanters and it ill come in the market from next season.

This machine will sow nursery for 100 acres in a 3-4 days with the help of two persons while currently, it takes 20 days for seven persons to raise nursery for 100 acres.

In Punjab, 27-30 lakh hectares area is under paddy crop including Basmati, for which around 6 to 6.5 lakh migrant labourers are required to transplant paddy nursery in the fields for 40-50 days. Punjab needs around 20,000 paddy transplanters to cover the entire area excluding DSR area. And with an increased number of machines, the rental rates of these machines would also come down for small and marginal farmers.

Manual versus mechanical transplanting

Under mechanical technique, a nursery is raised on polythene sheets, each 20 feet long and 22 inches wide with a 1 inch layer of soil. As 80 feet long and 22 inches wide area is required to grow paddy for one acre. Around 7-8 kg seed is required for one acre and after sowing, it is covered with dry, fine earth. After proper watering, nursery gets ready in 25-30 days depending on the varieties of rice and is transplanted in puddle fields with the transplanter machine. The nursery is fed into machine-like cakes in 22×11 inches pieces, which carries hundreds of plants, and machine transplants the same ensuring appropriate space between the plants and the rows. It takes around one and half hours to sow one acre. Using this method, around 33 plants are sown per sq. meters. Because of the specified distance from plant to plant and between rows, the airing is proper in the field and such fields are less prone to fungal and blight diseases. If a farmer owns this machine, the total cost of paddy sowing will come to around Rs 3,500-4,000 which includes preparation of nursery, diesel cost, preparation of field, which needs tilling and puddling before transplanting seeds.

In manual transplanting, the per acre costs comes to Rs 8,000-9,000. As the expenses up to puddling are same i.e. Rs 2,000 per acre, while the cost of nursery growing is up to Rs 800-1,000 and labour cost is Rs 5,000-6,000 per acre. With this method, only 3 kg seed is required per acre because in manual transplanting, only 22-25 plants are sown per sq. mt by the labour.

What is the cost of mechanical transplanting for farmers who have to rent it?

Currently, there are only 1,000 machines and farmers who go for mechanical sowing hire it from fellow farmers who own them.

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/paddy-sowing-season-amid-pandemic-amid-migrant-labour-shortage-more-farmers-opt-for-mechanised-transplanting-in-punjab-6518959/

 

 

Signs of farm 'revolution' in India as coronavirus prompts change

 

Wednesday, July 22, 2020 10:37 p.m. EDT by 

FILE PHOTO: A man walks in a filed covered with rice saplings at Kullan village in Kashmir's Ganderbal district June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Danis

By Mayank Bhardwaj and Naveen Thukral

RAIPUR JATTAN, India/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - For more than two decades, Indian farmer Ravindra Kajal cultivated rice the way his forefathers had - every June he flooded his fields with water before hiring an army of farmhands to plant paddy seedlings.

But a scarcity of workers this year because of the coronavirus forced Kajal to change. He irrigated the field just enough to moisten the soil and leased a drilling machine to directly sow seeds on his 9-acre (3.6-hectare) plot.

"Since I was more than comfortable with the tried-and-tested way of growing rice, I opted for the new method with some trepidation," said Kajal, 46, looking over his field, green with rice saplings, in the Raipur Jattan village in Haryana state.

"But I've already saved around 7,500 rupees ($100) per acre because I hardly spent on water and workers this year," he said.

India is the world's biggest exporter of rice and the world's second-biggest producer after China. Across the country's grain bowl states of Haryana and neighbouring Punjab, thousands of farmers like Kajal have been forced by the coronavirus to mechanise planting.

They are still wary of the technology and overturning the time-honoured use of manual labour.

But Kahan Singh Pannu, Punjab's agriculture secretary, is convinced a historic change is underway that could dramatically increase India's rice output, which in turn could impact world markets.

"It is no less than a revolution in Indian agriculture," he told Reuters.

Government officials say the so-called direct seeding of rice (DSR) method could increase yields by about one-third and slash costs on workers and water.

The DSR machines allow farmers to grow more than 30 saplings per square metre against the usual 15 to 18 seedlings, said Naresh Gulati, a state government farm official in Punjab.

(Graphic - Signs of "revolution" in India's rice bowl as farmers embrace mechanised planting: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/bdwvkerjevm/IndiaRiceAreaYieldsJul2020.png)

Punjab is the home of the 1960s Green Revolution that led to a spike in crop yields. This year, farmers there have used seed drilling machines to sow rice on more than half a million hectares, a big increase compared with less than 50,000 hectares in 2019, growers and government officials said.

Pannu expects DSR use to jump again next year.

"More and more farmers are using the DSR technology which seems to be so promising that the entire 2.7 million hectares of Punjab's rice area could come under it next year, which will be a watershed for India's rice production," he said.

Avinash Kishore, a research fellow at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said if this year's crop was good, DSR would be the way forward.

"The scale of this year's shift to the DSR is a momentous change in rice cultivation in India," he said.

Sudhanshu Singh, a senior agronomist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, said the shift to DSR was "one of the rare positive fallouts from COVID."

NO MIGRANT LABOUR

None of the world's major rice exporting nations - India, Vietnam and Thailand - makes significant use of seeding machines.

They have come into play in a big way in India this year because hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers from Bihar and Jharkhand states in the east did not arrive in the northern grain belt for the 2020 planting season due to the coronavirus lockdown.

That pushed up the price of local workers and made it more economical for farmers to lease rice planting machines rather than pay for hired help, said Jaskaran Singh Mahal, a director at the Punjab Agricultural University.

Farm wages have gone up by 1,500 rupees an acre to about 4,500 rupees this year, and growers need around half a dozen workers to transplant rice paddy on a one acre plot.

In comparison, farmers can hire planting machines for 5,000 to 6,000 rupees per acre, which can cover 25 to 30 acres in a day, rice growers said.

"Other than helping us save on major overheads such as water and labour, DSR is swift, unlike the old method which was tedious and time-consuming," said Devinder Singh Gill, a farmer in Punjab's Moga district, well known for its aromatic basmati rice.

The conventional method requires farmers to sow seeds in nurseries and then wait for 20 to 30 days before manually transplanting the seedlings into plantation fields that are ankle-deep in water.

Seeding machines allow farmers to bypass the nursery stage and plant straight into fields.

Water conservation is another key attribute of DSR, which is crucial in a mostly dry, monsoon dependent country like India.

Under the conventional method, 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water is used in India to produce 1 kg of rice - the most water-thirsty crop - and DSR allows growers to cut water use by at least 50% to 60%, farmers and government officials said.

The main challenge for farmers using direct seeding machines is managing weeds, which require the spraying of herbicides through the season.

Still, even factoring in the extra costs of these applications, the overall cost of cultivation is substantially lower under DSR, said Kajal, the farmer in Haryana.

Another drawback will be that if the method is adopted across the farm belt, there will be huge unemployment in the eastern states next year.

But farmers say they will wait to see the harvest in October before deciding whether to stick with the technology next year.

"The new technology leads to a lot of saving on account of water and labour, but the real test lies in productivity and farmers will not be fully convinced unless they see some rise in their yields," said Ashok Singh, a rice farmer.

(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj and Naveen Thukral; Editing by Gavin Maguire and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

https://wkzo.com/news/articles/2020/jul/23/signs-of-farm-revolution-in-india-as-coronavirus-prompts-change/1042226/?refer-section=business

 

Vietnam vows to raise rice value

 

22/07/2020    16:32 GMT+7

Vietnam’s rice export turnover in the first five months increased by 13 percent compared with the same period last year with the average export price of $485 per ton, a report said.

Vietnam is one of the biggest rice exporters in the world, but it is among the lowest income earners.

Description: Vietnam vows to raise rice value

According to Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An Hi-tech Agriculture JSC, Vietnam mostly exports low-end low-cost rice with lower quality than Thai and Cambodian products.

“Even when Vietnam sells high-quality rice, buyers also try to force the prices down,” Binh said.

Experts believe that the problem lies in branding. According to Professor Vo Tong Xuan, having the best rice in the world will bring great opportunities to Vietnam.

Under the rice export strategy approved by the government, Vietnam will gradually reduce the export volume and increase the export value.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, at a working session with rice exporters, said Vietnam is ‘restructuring rice production’ by prioritizing investments in some varieties to heighten the value of the rice.

Description: https://vnn-res.vgcloud.vn/ResV9/images/quote-icon.png

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, at a working session with rice exporters, said Vietnam is ‘restructuring rice production’ by prioritizing investments in some varieties to heighten the value of the rice.

“Rice is not only a kind of food, but can become medicine and functional food,” he said.

Quang Tri province has built a model of 600 hectares of organic rice growing area, which aims to develop the best rice.

With rapid growth of 15 percent of the animal feed industry over many years, Vietnam has to import 90 percent of oil cake brans needed from India to serve domestic production.

 

In Vietnam’s rice value chain in the time to come, not only rice grains, but rice bran will also be considered a key product.


CJ Group in Vietnam has suggested establishing a rice research center in Vietnam which would find ways to improve the value of Vietnam’s rice in the world market.

Chang Bok Sang from CJ said Vietnam has great potential for producing and exporting rice, but still cannot fully exploit the potential and optimize the added value.

“In order to fully exploit the potential and minimize risks as exports depends on import countries, it is necessary to increase the added value of rice by making processed products,” he said.

Want Want, the group with the largest rice cake market share in Taiwan, has come to Vietnam to set up a rice cake factory in Tien Giang. Once it becomes operational, slated for early 2021, it will use 6,000 tons of rice a year.

https://vietnamnet.vn/en/business/vietnam-vows-to-raise-rice-value-659683.html

 

 

Milling that extra mile: Kingdom on track to achieve rice export target

Harrison White / Khmer Times 

Prime Minister Hun Sen drives a rice harvester during a visit to farmers in Takeo province yesterday. KT/Khem Sovannara

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that new farming techniques being implemented in the Kingdom will help it to reach a major target of achieving one million tonnes of milled rice exports which was set five years ago.

Description: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/photo_2020-07-23_00-55-00.jpg

Mr Hun Sen said this during a visit, along with Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon and Australian Ambassador Pablo Kang to see demonstrations of modern farming machinery and a signature irrigation scheme.

The visit was also to showcase the ongoing development of Cambodia’s agricultural sector now considered the major pillar of the country’s economic prospects during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ambassador Pablo Kang with Prime Minister Hun Sen in Takeo province. KT/Khem Sovannara

“These new farming techniques are much easier than before, as these farmers now have hydraulic systems and modern agriculture factories to help us achieve our goals. However, we do still have problems such as rice diseases, insufficient transportation and machinery needed to process and exports such large volumes,” Mr Hun Sen said.

He said the one-million tonne export milestone can be achieved through hard work and smart planning although there are some hurdles to overcome.

Speaking about his visit yesterday, Ambassador Kang said: “Agriculture has always been the backbone of the Cambodian economy and a safety net for the Cambodian people.”

“As a friend and neighbour, Australia is building on decades of support for Cambodian agriculture to respond to the impact of COVID-19. As many Cambodians face hardship and uncertainty at this time, Australia is proud to play a role in supporting Cambodia’s food security and its economic resilience,” he added.

The irrigation scheme inspected in Ta Soung is connected to the Prek Ambil river and uses a single pump station to transport water through almost 50 kilometres of canals and field channels directly into farmers’ fields.

Funding for the scheme came from one of Australia Aid’s signature funding initiatives called the Australia Agricultural Value Chain Program (CAVAC).

CAVAC’s stated goals are to increase productivity and incomes for smallholder farmers in Cambodia through working in partnerships with the government and private sector and using a market systems approach to spread knowledge about new agricultural techniques.

According to the Australian Embassy, before the scheme was built in 2017, most of the farming households in Ta Soung could only grow one rice crop each year, using the receding waters from the annual flood.

However, farmers are now able to produce two or three crops each year, more than doubling their agricultural income. While water costs have reduced almost threefold, and average rice yields have grown from 4 to 5.5 tonnes per hectare.

CAVAC has expanded construction to 10 schemes located in Takeo, Prey Veng, and Kandal provinces since 2016.

Collectively, the scheme is now able to irrigate 9,000 additional hectares each year and have doubled rice production, representing about $10 million of additional income for farmers annually.

CAVAC also works with Provincial Departments of Water Resources and Meteorology to establish and train Farmer Water User Communities (FWUCs) to take responsibility for managing the scheme when operations begin.

In addition to sustainable irrigation services, CAVAC is supporting agricultural mechanisation, encouraging the use of better-quality seed and appropriate inputs, and promoting investment in higher-value crops and agro-processing.

These strategies – implemented with both the government and the private sector – are key to the modernisation of Cambodian agriculture which will support economic resilience in the face of COVID-19 challenges.

Sakhon has previously stated that Cambodia is looking to reach one million tonnes of milled rice exports set in 2015 due to high demand from the international market during COVID-19.

He said according to the first-quarter results, which increased more than 40 percent compared with the same period last year, exports for 2020 could reach the goal as set by the government five years ago.

 

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50747086/milling-that-extra-mile-kingdom-on-track-to-achieve-rice-export-target/

Top rice exporter gets more hi-tech

Sok Chan / Khmer Times 

Bloc2 enables the source of food to be found by reading the QR on its container. Supplied

 

Amru Rice (Cambodia), one of the country’s leading rice exporters, has scaled up its BlocRice technology project to 500 households in two communities in Preah Vihear province.

BlocRice project phase I had 50 household farmers in one agricultural community in Preah Vihear province. The project, a first in the Kingdom because of its usage of blockchain technology, was launched in April 2018 as a pilot programme that ended in March 2019. Its goal is to ensure farmers can sell their products at a higher price and it also enables the source of food to be identified.

The BlocRice pilot involved relevant actors in the rice supply chain with 50 farmers from the Reaksmei cooperative, rice exporter AmruRice, rice-cake producer SanoRice and Oxam Novib and Schullelaar & Partners.

After a successful pilot, demonstrating the use case and providing farmers with a digital identity, the partners decided to upscale the project to a commercially viable level, involving more farmers and providing a direct link with consumers.

The first phase was also involved in the research phase determining the living income benchmark and good agriculture practices plus technological needs. The project also monitors the progress of rice farmers towards a living income; improves farm income from rice and from other sources as a result of technical assistance and extension services; reduces operational costs through farmers’ cooperatives and gives farmers a digital identity and voice in the supply chain as well as increasing transparency in the supply chain. Retailers and consumers have real-time insight in the rice supply chain for enhanced social auditing.

“Let’s talk about agri-tech and how financial technology could be part of it. A lot of people are talking about Blockchain, big data, the internet of things (IOT), the Industrial Revolution 4.0, Smart Agriculture etc. Here we make things work by utilising Blockchain technology. It is called BlocRice phase II,” said Kann Kunthy, vice-president of Amru Rice (Cambodia).

BlocRice mainly focuses on trust, transparency and traceability. Kunthy added that in phase I, the team piloted with one agricultural cooperative (AC) with 50 households and now it is scaling up to two ACs with 500 households.

“Our goal is to utilise Blockchain technology for millions of households not only in rice but all agricultural crops. Local tech firms or individuals with block chain knowledge and expertise would be part of the future (localisation),” Kunthy said, adding that it is only possible if farmers and ACs are organised and integrated, turning them from seasonal farmers to commercial and professional farmers who are market-oriented.

“The digital infrastructure can only perform given that the physical infrastructure can support [be it logistics, transportation, post-harvest management, storage and delivery],” Kunthy added. “The ultimate goal is to train and educate ACs to become ‘agri-preneurs’.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen told farmers in Prey Kabbas district, Takeo province, yesterday that the agriculture sector must be aligned with the Industrial Development Policy 2015-2025 is to attract more foreign investment to work on processing in Cambodia.

He said that Cambodia has put a strong effort into the building of silos, warehouses and rice milling machinery. He added that Cambodia will take $400 million from China to build warehouses for paddy across the country. He is also considering lowering the electricity tariff for farmers and the agriculture sector in general and also building more physical infrastructure to support farmers.

 

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50747088/top-rice-exporter-gets-more-hi-tech/#:~:text=Amru%20Rice%20(Cambodia)%2C%20one,communities%20in%20Preah%20Vihear%20province.

 

Thai rice exporters cut 2020 forecast to 6.5 million tonnes, lowest in 20 years

 

Patpicha Tanakasempipat

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand’s rice exporters association has slashed its forecast for 2020 exports to 6.5 million tonnes, the lowest volume in two decades, owing to drought and a strong baht currency, its executives said on Wednesday.

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Immigrant workers unload sacks of rice from a barge to a cargo ship on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok August 27, 2014. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo

The industry group’s latest forecast for Thailand, the world’s second-largest rice exporter last year, is lower than its previous expectation of a seven-year low of 7.5 million tonnes for 2020.

The association attributed that to a persistently strong baht compared to other currencies and drought cutting Thai rice output by 5 million tonnes this production season, making prices higher and uncompetitive.

“The new forecast of 6.5 million tonnes is the lowest volume in 20 years,” said Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, adding the previous low was 6.15 million tonnes in 2000.

“This year will be a struggle.”

From January to June, Thailand exported 3.14 million tonnes of rice, about a third less than the same period last year, the association’s data showed, less than India’s 4.53 million tonnes and the 4.04 million tonnes shipped by Vietnam.

Thailand’s gains from India halting logistics during lockdown and Vietnam temporarily banning new contracts to ensure domestic supply amid the coronavirus crisis would be shortlived, and balanced out by flat demand, Charoen Laothamatas, the association’s president.

“COVID-19 has made the market volatile, making importers buy more than usual earlier to stock up, but now they won’t need to for a while,” he said.

Sales of Thai premium-grade jasmine rice have risen by 63% this year, benefiting from panic-buying in wealthier markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States and Canada.

Meanwhile, lower purchasing power globally has seen Thai white rice lose out to cheaper grades offered by Vietnam in key Asian markets like the Philippines.

China, once a Thai rice importer, was also beating Thailand in key African markets with cheaper prices.

Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Ed Davies and Martin Petty

https://in.reuters.com/article/thailand-rice/thai-rice-exporters-cut-2020-forecast-to-65-million-tonnes-lowest-in-20-years-idINKCN24N0K4#:~:text=in%207%20hours-,Thai%20rice%20exporters%20cut%202020%20forecast%20to,tonnes%2C%20lowest%20in%2020%20years&text=BANGKOK%20(Reuters)%20%2D%20Thailand's%20rice,its%20executives%20said%20on%20Wednesday.

 

PM orders 2,000 rice sowing machines for farmers

Rice farming to go automated. AKP

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that he has ordered 2,000 rice sowing machines from local processing firms to boost paddy rice production in the country.

 

During his visit to Prey Kabas district of Takeo province to learn about the country’s agricultural progress, Mr Hun Sen underlined that the order is part of the government’s commitment to further promote local agricultural productivity.

The Premier ordered to buy 1,000 each of big and small rice sowing machines. The big rice sowing machines cost $1,300 each, while the small ones $1,100 each.

According to the premier, each of the 135 households who had a get-together with him this morning will receive a small one, and the rest, both big and small machines, will be handed over to target farmers and communities.

The Royal Government of Cambodia has been paying high attention to the agriculture productivity amid the COVID-19 crisis.

This is the second time that the Prime Minister visited Prey Kabas district where he spent his time to do rice farming with local farmers. Heng Phanna – AKP

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50747209/pm-orders-2000-rice-sowing-machines-for-farmers/#:~:text=Prime%20Minister%20Hun%20Sen%20said,rice%20production%20in%20the%20country.

 

Land rights battle inches Kenyan rice farmers closer to title deeds

Kagondu Njagi

JULY 22, 2020 / 8:12 AM

NGURUBANI, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Wilson Kariuki’s three younger children finish high school, the Kenyan rice farmer will not have to worry about paying to send them to a university far from home, as he did with his two eldest.

 

Instead, they can attend a new university being built in their home village of Ngurubani, central Kenya, on 100 acres (40 hectares) that the farmers on the Mwea Irrigation Scheme now own after winning a case against the county government in April.

 

The rice farmers’ victory is a sign of the rising awareness of land rights that is driving small-scale farmers around Kenya to demand ownership of the land they live and work on, farmers and land rights activists say.

 

“This land will benefit our children,” said Kariuki, 55. “When they study at a university which is based here, they will help our community solve problems which have been troubling us for years - like the issue of land rights.”

 

The farmers had donated portions of their farmland in 2017 for the construction of a medical research centre to study water-borne diseases, Kariuki explained.

 

But the project stalled when Kirinyaga County officials presented the farmers with a title deed that claimed the land as government property.

 

After lobbying by farmers, local leaders and grassroots groups, the National Land Commission (NLC), an independent government body that manages public land, declared the county government’s title illegal and issued a new one to the farmers.

 

But the battle is not over yet, said Kariuki. He and the more than 50,000 farmers on the irrigation scheme now want the national government to issue them with title deeds to their individual plots of land.

 

With land titles, the farmers would have autonomy from the National Irrigation Authority (NIA), which manages the plantation and dictates what the farmers can grow, how much they produce and what they sell it for.

 

“Title deeds will help farmers make decisions over their land,” said Stephen Mururia, a human rights defender with the Mwea Foundation, a local lobby group.

 

“For instance, they can decide to switch from rice growing to a more profitable crop,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

 

Previous efforts to convince the government to give the farmers individual title deeds - through meetings with officials and demands from local leaders - always end with promises that are never met, Kariuki said.

 

Daniel Nzonzo, head of corporate communication at the NIA, said in a phone interview that “the issue of rice farmers getting title deeds is being considered by the government through the NLC.”

 

“This matter is already with the Senate, who will debate it,” he added, without giving a timeline for when the debate might take place.

 

GAINING CONTROL

Located some 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of the capital Nairobi, the 30,050-acre (12,160-hectare) Mwea plantation is the largest rice-growing irrigation scheme in Kenya, with a population of about 50,000.

 

It produces about 90,000 tonnes of rice each year, or 80% of the country’s rice supply, according to the National Irrigation Authority.

 

Each farming family in Mwea has the right to live and work on up to four acres (1.6 hectares) of land under a 99-year leasehold that started when the plantation was established in 1954, according to independent land rights researcher Gladys Gichobi.

 

As the farmers continue their efforts to gain legal ownership of that land, they can look to cases of small-scale farmers in other parts of Kenya who have successfully pushed for title deeds to land they lived and worked on for decades.

 

Since 2013, as a result of years of lobbying, Kenya’s government has given title deeds to more than 60,000 farmers along the country’s coast.

 

And in January, officials promised to issue another 500,000 titles around the country by the end of the year.

 

When they announced the initiative, authorities said priority would go to marginalised communities - a group that includes the Mwea farmers - and Kenyans who have suffered historical land injustices.

 

NO COLLATERAL, NO LOANS

Until they get title deeds, the farmers have limited resources to invest in their own land or get bank loans, said Anthony Mwai, another farmer on the plantation.

 

As a solution, some farmers’ groups band together to bypass banks and get uncollateralised loans from microfinance lenders and savings and credit cooperatives to help them boost their output.

 

However, that method is often unsustainable, Mwai added, because many farmers struggle to pay back their loans due to the low prices they get for their rice, which are set by the NIA.

 

Farmers sometimes have to sell their rice for as little as 45 Kenyan shillings (about 40 cents) per kilogramme, said the 49-year-old farmer.

 

But it costs double that amount just to grow and harvest a kilogramme of rice, continued Mwai, who is currently paying back a loan he got as a member of the local Mwea savings and credit cooperative

 

“With such poor prices, farmers cannot even break even. So, will I use the money to repay a loan or will I feed my family first?,” he wondered aloud.

 

In a media briefing in February, NIA officials said they had raised the selling price of rice to 85 Kenyan shillings (80 cents) per kilogramme to help farmers meet the rising cost of production.

 

‘I LIVE AS A SQUATTER’

Data from the NLC shows that less than a fifth of Kenyans own more than 1.5 acres (0.60 hectares) of land, while nearly 15% own no land at all.

 

Gichobi, the land rights activist, said she and other local activists have been spreading the word about the importance of owning a land title deed and teaching farmers how to represent their cases to land authorities.

 

“Farmers want title deeds,” Gichobi said. “Because they now know having one will not only solve land problems here, but it will also accelerate economic growth.”

 

Mururia of the Mwea Foundation, one of the groups that helped the plantation’s farmers win their case, said his group spreads awareness on land rights through meetings hosted by village chiefs, at local football games and women’s groups.

 

While the farmers wait to one day make their own decisions on how they farm, Julius Muchiri said he and other Mwea farmers have to hire land from neighbouring farms in the hopes of growing enough to pay off their loans and feed their families.

 

“Look at me. I am an old man with nothing. I still live as a squatter,” Muchiri lamented.

 

“If the government would give me a title deed for even half an acre of land, I would be very happy.”

 

Reporting by Kagondu Njagi, Editing by Jumana Farouky and Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org

 

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-landrights-farming/land-rights-battle-inches-kenyan-rice-farmers-closer-to-title-deeds-idUSKCN24N0AN

 

 

 

Scientists Use CRISPR-Cas9 for Single-nucleotide Editing in Rice

 

By  Compiled by Staff

 

Description: https://seedworld.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/7212020113951PM-696x451.jpgThe scientist experimented in the laboratory.

Researchers from The Pennsylvania State University used CRISPR-Cas9 to perform single-nucleotide editing in rice without introducing a double-strand break. The results are published in aBiotechjournal.

Scientist Kubuddin Molla and colleagues used CRISPR-Cas9-mediated adenine base editors (ABEs) to generate precise point mutations in two rice genes, OsWSL5, and OsZEBRA3, which play roles in rice chloroplast development. The methodology led to precisely engineered point mutations that were stably inherited to the succeeding generations. The single-nucleotide alterations led to single amino acid changes and the linked wsl5 and z3 phenotypes, which were manifested by white stripe leaf and light green/dark green leaf pattern, respectively. By selfing and genetic segregation breeding techniques, transgene-free, base edited wsl5 and z3 mutants were attained in a short span of time.

The results of the study show that the methods used could lead to point mutations in multiple target genes in a single transformation and serve as a useful base editing tool for crop improvement.

Read more findings in aBIOTECH.

https://seedworld.com/scientists-use-crispr-cas9-for-single-nucleotide-editing-in-rice/

Punjab’s groundwater law plays ‘minimal role’ in spiking Delhi’s winter pollution: study

Description: https://th.thgim.com/migration_catalog/article14121023.ece/alternates/SQUARE_80/koshyJacob Koshy

NEW DELHI, JULY 22, 2020 23:33 IST

UPDATED: JULY 22, 2020 23:33 IST

Description: Delaying rice burning 10 days beyond what is currently practised could be detrimental, the study reveals.

 ‘Crop burning contributed nearly 40% of the near-surface PM2.5 in Delhi in 2016’

Delhi’s meteorology and the quantity of chaff burnt play a greater role in worsening air quality than the time chosen by farmers in Punjab to start crop burning, a study argues.

Crop burning, a traditional practice in Punjab and Haryana of razing fields off rice chaff to prepare it for winter sowing, begins around October and peaks in November, coinciding with the withdrawal of southwest monsoon.

Subsidies and assured procurement of rice has led to a rise in the rice acreage in these States. Coupled with increased farm mechanisation, large quantities of rice stubble have increased over the years. However, it has been pointed out that a change in Punjab’s water policy in 2009, mandated farmers to delay sowing to late June (to discourage groundwater extraction), led to sowing being delayed by an average of 10 days compared to 2002-2008.

This, consequently, delayed harvesting and rice chaff burning. As a result, the pollutants and the particulate matter from chaff, along with other sources of pollution in Delhi, which stuck in the lower atmosphere of the Indo-Gangetic plain, exacerbated winter pollution.

The study, which largely relies on mathematical modelling and to be published in the peer-reviewed Environment Research Letters, finds that crop burning contributed nearly 40% of the near-surface PM2.5 in Delhi in 2016 — a year that saw one of Delhi’s severest pollution episodes.

However, when data on the number of crop burning episodes (gleaned from satellite images) and levels of particulate matter were plugged into a mathematical model, it emerged that crop residue contribution to particulate matter over Delhi, in 2016, increased only marginally (1%) when compared to a hypothetical scenario of crops being burned 10 days earlier.

Moreover, early burning while reducing particulate matter burning by 20g/m3, didn’t reduce the number of days of significant PM exposure in Delhi, which hovered around 55 days. But the model showed that delaying rice burning 10 days beyond what is currently practised could be detrimental and could lead to an increase in peak particulate matter emissions as well as increase the number of pollution days, the paper notes.

“[The role of] legislation appears to be minimal, and indeed can sometimes decrease as well increase air quality problems depending on the meteorological conditions of the time,” the authors note. They consist of scientists from the IIT-Kanpur; The University of Leicester, The Energy Resources Institute, Panjab University and Post Graduate Institute for Medical Research, Chandigarh.

“Ultimately, the halting of crop residue burning would greatly aid the newly established National Clean Air Programme [NCAP], which aims to reduce emissions from various sectors including agricultural residue burning,” the authors note. The NCAP proposes to reduce pollution by 20-30% in annual PM concentration by 2024.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/punjabs-law-plays-minimal-role-in-spiking-delhis-pollution-study/article32166169.ece

 

Rice exports poised to drop in next decade

Agency calls for higher R&D budget

PUBLISHED : 23 JUL 2020 AT 04:02

NEWSPAPER SECTION: BUSINESS

WRITER: PHUSADEE ARUNMAS

Thailand risks dropping to No.5 in rice exports over the next decade if the country remains complacent and does not develop a long-term rice strategy for seeds and competitiveness, warns the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

Charoen Laothammatas, the association's president, said on Wednesday Thailand is expected to see a continuous drop in exports as the country's current rice policy lacks continuity or a long-term development plan.

Thailand also has a limited R&D budget for rice, he said.

"The first priority is the limited budget for R&D of rice seed development, particularly for soft-textured white rice which is now in high demand in the world market," said Mr Charoen.

"Thailand's production costs are relatively higher than those of competitors, while higher logistics costs and the strong baht have made Thai rice prices become more expensive than the grains of competitors."

·         High prices, strong baht cause rice export drop

·         Rice exports struggle

·         Competition tightens

He said alternating drought and flood disasters have affected Thailand's rice production and a lack of accurate data on rice has made it hard to devise effective marketing plans.

"For long-term strategies, related authorities are being urged to speed up their consideration of the entire supply chain in the rice industry, be it seed development, rice millers, paddy rice traders, seed manufacturers and traders, packed rice producers, or rice exporters," said Mr Charoen.

He said other rice producers such as China have spent a lot of money on R&D to raise their rice yield. China's rice yield is now around 2 tonnes per rai, while Vietnam's yield is around 960 kilogrammes per rai and Thailand's is 450kg per rai.

Description: https://static.bangkokpost.com/media/content/20200723/3698903.jpg

In a related development, the association lowered its rice export forecast for 2020 to 6.5 million tonnes, the lowest in 20 years, from an earlier forecast of 7.5 million tonnes.

It cited a host of negative factors, including the coronavirus crisis that weakened global demand, a strong baht that makes Thai rice more expensive, and continued drought cutting into production.

Thai rice prices are US$30-80 a tonne higher than those of competitors because of the strong baht, while the widespread drought has cut the domestic rice supply by 20% or 5 million tonnes of paddy rice this year.

According to Mr Charoen, important rice importers such as the Philippines, Malaysia and China favour soft-textured rice, but Thailand has yet to churn out the soft-textured grains.

This year China's import demand is expected to decrease given the mainland's relatively high rice stock of 117 million tonnes compared with a normal level 60-70 million tonnes.

China became a net exporter this year, expected to ship about 3.5-4 million tonnes of rice to Africa.

"Thai rice exports in the second half this year are expected to slow down, as the Covid-19 outbreak in April has triggered rising demand and led several countries to beef up their domestic rice stocks in the first half," he said.

"The new economic team should think about accelerating Thailand's rice competitiveness development and reining in the foreign exchange rate at 32.5-33 baht per US dollar."

Description: https://static.bangkokpost.com/media/content/20200723/3698907.jpg

In the first half of this year, Thailand shipped 3.14 million tonnes of milled rice, down 32.7% from the same period last year, with export value down 12% to $2.2 billion.

For the period, Thailand was the world's third largest rice exporter, trailing India and Vietnam, which shipped 4.53 million tonnes and 4.04 million tonnes, respectively.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1955959/rice-exports-poised-to-drop-in-next-decade

 

 

Scientists Use CRISPR-Cas9 for Single-nucleotide Editing in Rice

 

July 22, 2020

2

Description: http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/files/images/7212020113951PM.jpg

Researchers from The Pennsylvania State University used CRISPR-Cas9 to perform single-nucleotide editing in rice without introducing a double-strand break. The results are published in aBiotech journal.

Scientist Kubuddin Molla and colleagues used CRISPR-Cas9-mediated adenine base editors (ABEs) to generate precise point mutations in two rice genes, OsWSL5, and OsZEBRA3, which play roles in rice chloroplast development. The methodology led to precisely engineered point mutations that were stably inherited to the succeeding generations. The single-nucleotide alterations led to single amino acid changes and the linked wsl5 and z3 phenotypes, which were manifested by white stripe leaf and light green/dark green leaf pattern, respectively. By selfing and genetic segregation breeding techniques, transgene-free, base edited wsl5 and z3 mutants were attained in a short span of time.

The results of the study show that the methods used could lead to point mutations in multiple target genes in a single transformation and serve as a useful base editing tool for crop improvement.

http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=18216

 

 

 

Cameroon authorizes the duty-free importation of 200,000 tons of rice to build up reserves

  Wednesday, 22 July 2020 13:19

(Business in Cameroon) - To build its rice reserve and cover the national demand for the rest of 2020, Cameroon has authorized the duty-free importation of 200,000 tons of rice, according to a June 5, 2020 correspondence signed by the Minister of Finance (Minfi) Louis Paul Motaze.  

Various importers were assigned a specific volume to import. For instance, Sonam, which was the leading rice importer in 2019 (with 226,816 tons imported) is allowed to import 70,000 tons in this scheme. “I encourage you to pass the fiscal expenditures that would ensue on the selling price of those products,” Louis Paul Motaze wrote in a letter addressed to the CEO of Sonam.

In the framework of this measure, the 200,000 tons of rice imported would thus be exempted from the common external tariff (CET), which was partially restored to 5% after the customs duty exoneration of 2008. 

A measure contrary to discourse  

This decision surprised many people since the government was promising to implement new strategies aimed at boosting local production. "Given the decrease in public revenues, the state’s 2021-2023 economic and financial prospects are mainly tailored around  import-substitution via the reduction or gradual suppression of exemptions on some products that affect the trade balance- to encourage their local production on a larger scale,” the Minister of Finance explained during a special ministerial council on Jul 2, 2020.  

According to the budget orientation document, the country plans to raise the CET from 5% to 10% in 2021. Also, to limit the volume of importations, it proposed to regulate import finance. It also announced special measures for the legume and starch foods sectors likely to bridge the gap created by a drop in imports.

The document reveals that in 2019, Cameroon imported 905,107 tons of rice generating CFAF79.1 billion of fiscal expenditures.

Let’s note that when it comes to fiscal expenditures, VAT and custom duties exemption on rice imports are the most onerous for the state. In 2018, they represented 3.5% of the country’s fiscal revenues.

Sylvain Andzongo and Aboudi Ottou

https://www.businessincameroon.com/agriculture/2207-10566-cameroon-authorizes-the-duty-free-importation-of-200-000-tons-of-rice-to-build-up-reserves

Fund lack could stymie PSA rice stocks survey

 

ByJasper Y. Arcalas

July 23, 2020

 

Description: https://businessmirror.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Agri-photo-062920.jpgA stall at the San Andres public market sells assorted varieties of rice in this Businessmirror file photo.


LIMITED budgets may constrain the government from surveying rice stocks held by commercial warehouses, which are owned and run by private traders and importers, according to a Congress official.

Novel Bangsal of the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) revealed that the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) may face challenges in conducting the commercial rice stocks survey (CSS), partly because of limited funding.

The CSS is a survey of the rice stocks held by commercial warehouses. Its conduct was turned over to the PSA from the National Food Authority (NFA) as mandated by the rice trade liberalization (RTL) law that took effect in 2019.

Under the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the RTL law, the final turnover of the CSS from the NFA to PSA shall be on July 1. The IRR also stipulated that the budgetary requirement for conducting the CSS starting this year “shall be provided” in the annual budget of the PSA.

Citing PSA, Bangsal said a 2020 budget for the PSA’s CSS was approved under the agency’s Tier 2 fund.

However, Bangsal added that whether the CSS indeed got appropriation for this year would still need to be verified amid government’s spending for Covid-19 efforts.

“Whether the PSA will be able to conduct the CSS this year is still something that we need tot verify,” he said at a webinar about the RTL law hosted by various farmers groups on Wednesday.

Less frequent

Bangsal disclosed that due to PSA’s “low” budget for 2020 the agency may opt to reduce the frequency of the CSS from monthly to quarterly basis.

Citing PSA, Bangsal added that the agency may also just conduct the CSS at a national level instead of the planned provincial level, again, due to limited funds.

Bangsal also raised concern on how efficiently PSA can conduct the CSS since the rice industry has been deregulated and commercial warehouse owners may not easily cooperate unlike before, when NFA oversaw their licenses.

Bangsal pointed out that the PSA has yet to come up with a methodology for its CSS and a new methodology would mean the new rice stocks data could be incomparable to previous figures.

“Because there are changes in methodology, the new data won’t be comparable in previous stocks data since PSA does not have a methodology on how to do the CSS yet. This will be a challenge for the PSA,” he explained.

Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor said the PSA may also have a hard time finding the right warehouses to survey since commercial warehouses no longer need to get a license to store rice.

“The law removed the licensing requirements for importers. This means that even if you do not have a license you can import rice. And this could be a challenge for PSA as they will not be easily able to track where the imported rice went and stored,” Montemayor said at the webinar.

Based on the latest memorandum order of the Department of Agriculture, interested rice importers should now submit as an additional requirement the list of their distribution points and warehouses.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/07/23/fund-lack-could-stymie-psa-rice-stocks-survey/

Study calls for review of nutritional benefits of food subsidy programmes

Food subsidy programmes are considered a key component of efforts to combat food insecurity and malnutrition around the globe, but the study of an Indian programme has raised some concerns.

The nutritional benefit of rice and sugar distributed by national food subsidy programmes may be limited, new research has suggested.

India’s main food subsidy programme, the Public Distribution System (PDS), provides sugar, rice, and wheat to households at reasonably low costs to improve their nutrition intake and attain food security.

Although the programme aims to improve nutritional outcomes through its subsidies, the research team saw no evidence of improvements when children received subsidised rice and sugar.

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The study, ‘Subsidising rice and sugar? The Public Distribution System and Nutritional Outcomes in Andhra Pradesh India’, was carried out by a research team from Oxford and Lancaster Universities, the BITS Pilani in India and Bocconi University in Italy.

In India, 38 percent of children under five experience long-term malnutrition that impacts their growth, cognition and psycho-social development and perpetuate a cycle of intergenerational poverty – compounded by the COVID-19 outbreak and the measures to contain it.

“Importantly, our findings suggest that nutritional outcomes and food subsidies need to be considered over time rather than as a snapshot. This is essential for understanding not just the short-term effects of subsidies, but also the association with long-term nutritional outcomes,” said Dr Jasmine Fledderjohann, of Lancaster University.

“The subsidised foods available in the PDS may very well prevent severe malnutrition in the short-term by addressing caloric deficiencies, but rice and sugar subsidies appear not to improve longer-term nutritional outcomes,” she explained.

“Our findings suggest the subsidies should be carefully reviewed. It is possible that other more nutrient-dense foods could offer greater benefits for improving nutrition,” said Dr Sukumar Vellakkal of the BITS Pilani Goa campus.

The study also found that, particularly for wealthier households, the subsidies encouraged the consumption of less nutritious foods, with children in households receiving sugar subsidies snacking on sugary treats.

They also found that boys received more rice and sugar than girls, which is said to be consistent with broader evidence of son preference in India.

As countries around the globe struggle to feed their populations in the midst of record unemployment, food system disruptions, and social distancing associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, careful consideration of what items are included in food aid programmes and what the long-term consequences of specific programs of food provision are is vital, the researchers said..

https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/news/114805/study-calls-for-review-of-nutritional-benefits-of-food-subsidy-programmes/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=9e0682a3047c1a3ed77afb61c9f81073df1209b5-1595497463-0-AQPRQ65YWcHW-7Toy4zlHhT7vU0k7E0FQZQVK2hErf5a7WRztfLcq5QLlytRlxK3MnAG9y4kC2U5kTcPJk9jaqzbZflSSFG6jbuW1Mh75Rt2eXG728DvZxhTNmFpDZ1FGd45eCy01qinDtU30PDvaG3iQLJ9lLWeOULnvJaAV0AO0JFF8KNsEZcYCdt7d8-1-zraJh49NBOUBRgwD85QdKzOgQwLmCEj6h6KN9YLwoMUJcEg5fJRla03i6JaoFp8WIYKi2dgeFAi5NROlFATlfwat25_mFLZl9n7GJedhrSYtGNdPGSA5YfVmQBhx2pUKdtnZIsKDwp4G15avxXrsC6LxdTawQ0g4KXAmgsUqF_jVzJDRdF6T_tuhif20jYV7xM_VBL169vVFgf9YQohqn4

 

 

 

Rice farming practices in Asia may be fuelling antibiotic resistance

By spraying common antibiotics on crops, farmers are exacerbating disease risk in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and elsewhere.

Description: Rice farming practices in Asia may be fuelling antibiotic resistance

Research on Red Yeast Rice Market (impact of COVID-19) with Top Players: Mason Vitamins, Solaray, Lifetime, Daxing Jingxin, Now Foods, Metagenics, Nature’s Plus, Nature’s Way, KAL, Nature’s Bounty

Research on Red Yeast Rice Market (impact of COVID-19) with Top Players: Mason Vitamins, Solaray, Lifetime, Daxing Jingxin, Now Foods, Metagenics, Nature’s Plus, Nature’s Way, KAL, Nature’s Bounty

Global Red Yeast Rice Market: Trends Estimates High Demand by 2027

The “Red Yeast Rice Market” 2020 report includes the market strategy, market orientation, expert opinion and knowledgeable information. The Red Yeast Rice Industry Report is an in-depth study analyzing the current state of the Red Yeast Rice Market. It provides a brief overview of the market focusing on definitions, classifications, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, market segmentation, end-use applications and industry chain analysis. The study on Red Yeast Rice Market provides analysis of market covering the industry trends, recent developments in the market and competitive landscape.

It takes into account the CAGR, value, volume, revenue, production, consumption, sales, manufacturing cost, prices, and other key factors related to the global Red Yeast Rice market. All findings and data on the global Red Yeast Rice market provided in the report are calculated, gathered, and verified using advanced and reliable primary and secondary research sources. The regional analysis offered in the report will help you to identify key opportunities of the global Red Yeast Rice market available in different regions and countries.

“The final report will add the analysis of the Impact of Covid-19 in this report Red Yeast Rice industry.”

Some of The Companies Competing in The Red Yeast Rice Market are: Mason Vitamins, Solaray, Lifetime, Daxing Jingxin, Now Foods, Metagenics, Nature’s Plus, Nature’s Way, KAL, Nature’s Bounty, California Gold Nutrition, Maxi Health, Bluebonnet Nutrition, Nordic Naturals, Healthy Origins, Kyolic, and Jarrow Formulas

Get a Sample Copy of the Report@ https://www.reportsandmarkets.com/sample-request/global-red-yeast-rice-market-report-2020-by-key-players-types-applications-countries-market-size-forecast-to-2026-based-on-2020-covid-19-worldwide-spread?utm_source=coleofduty&utm_medium=24

The report scrutinizes different business approaches and frameworks that pave the way for success in businesses. The report used Porter’s five techniques for analyzing the Red Yeast Rice Market; it also offers the examination of the global market. To make the report more potent and easy to understand, it consists of info graphics and diagrams. Furthermore, it has different policies and improvement plans which are presented in summary. It analyzes the technical barriers, other issues, and cost-effectiveness affecting the market.

Global Red Yeast Rice Market Research Report 2020 carries in-depth case studies on the various countries which are involved in the Red Yeast Rice market. The report is segmented according to usage wherever applicable and the report offers all this information for all major countries and associations. It offers an analysis of the technical barriers, other issues, and cost-effectiveness affecting the market. Important contents analyzed and discussed in the report include market size, operation situation, and current & future development trends of the market, market segments, business development, and consumption tendencies. Moreover, the report includes the list of major companies/competitors and their competition data that helps the user to determine their current position in the market and take corrective measures to maintain or increase their share holds.

What questions does the Red Yeast Rice market report answer pertaining to the regional reach of the industry?

The report claims to split the regional scope of the Red Yeast Rice market into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America & Middle East and Africa. Which among these regions has been touted to amass the largest market share over the anticipated duration

How do the sales figures look at present how does the sales scenario look for the future?

Considering the present scenario, how much revenue will each region attain by the end of the forecast period?

How much is the market share that each of these regions has accumulated presently

How much is the growth rate that each topography will depict over the predicted timeline

A short overview of the Red Yeast Rice market scope:

Global market remuneration

Overall projected growth rate

Industry trends

Competitive scope

Product range

Application landscape

Supplier analysis

Marketing channel trends – Now and later

Sales channel evaluation

Market Competition Trend

Market Concentration Rate

Reasons to Read this Report

This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics

It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth

It provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow

It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future

It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors

It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segments

TABLE OF CONTENT:

Chapter 1: Red Yeast Rice Market Overview

Chapter 2: Global Economic Impact on Industry

Chapter 3: Red Yeast Rice Market Competition by Manufacturers

Chapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region

Chapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions

Chapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type

Chapter 7: Global Market Analysis by Application

Chapter 8: Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Chapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers

Chapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

Chapter 11: Red Yeast Rice Market Effect Factors Analysis

Chapter 12: Global Red Yeast Rice Market Forecast to 2027

Get Complete Report @ https://www.reportsandmarkets.com/sample-request/global-red-yeast-rice-market-report-2020-by-key-players-types-applications-countries-market-size-forecast-to-2026-based-on-2020-covid-19-worldwide-spread?utm_source=coleofduty&utm_medium=24

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