Thursday, October 15, 2020

15th October,2020 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter

 

 

 

Webinar by TDAP on issues being faced by rice exporters in Kenya

 

-PR

October 15, 2020

 

KARACHI -Trade Development Authority of Pakistan in collaboration with High Commission of Pakistan at Kenya organised a webinar on issues being faced by rice exporters in Kenya. Leading exporters of rice to Kenya attended the webinar from all over Pakistan.

Kenya is the third largest export market of Pakistan after China and UAE however our exports are declining from US$ 229.4 million in 2017 to US$ 188 million in 2019.The objective of the webinar was to discuss issues exporters are facing in exports of rice to Kenya with our High Commission at Kenya so that they will take up the same with Kenyan authorities for its resolution. 

During the webinar, Convener of REAP committee on Rice informed that there is a substantial decrease in exports of rice from Pakistan to Kenya due to the increase in the imports of rice by Kenya from Tanzania at zero duty as both the countries are member of East Africa Community club. Pakistani exporters are facing tough competition as the tariff rate on Pakistan’s rice is 35% or US$ 200 per metric ton (whichever is higher) due to which our rice become expensive. He requested our High Commissioner to take up this matter from Kenyan government. 

 

 

https://nation.com.pk/15-Oct-2020/webinar-by-tdap-on-issues-being-faced-by-rice-exporters-in-kenya


 

 

WTO Director General Race Narrows to Two   

 

By  Jesica Kincaid

 

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -- Last week the World Trade Organization (WTO) narrowed the election field for a new director general (DG) down from eight to two candidates: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, and Yoo Myung-hee of Korea.  Despite a lack of final results, history has already been made-for the first time in the 25-year existence of the WTO, a woman will sit at the helm.

 

The two remaining candidates are widely seen as highly qualified with extensive experience in both the trade and political fields.  Yoo Myung-hee is Korea's current trade minister and has the full support of the Korean government, including President Moon Jae-in.  She has a strong trade background, having worked on deals with the U.S., China, and the European Union, and has lived abroad, including in the U.S.  She has unique experience as a longtime trade expert and sharp political acumen gained from serving as trade minister.  If selected, she would be the second Asian DG and the first from Korea. Description: C:\Users\abc\Downloads\unnamed (2).jpg

 

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the former managing director of operations at the World Bank and a former Nigerian finance minister.  She is well known as an economic reformer, has impressed WTO members with her political wit, and is well-liked by officials in many capitals.  Her political weight upon entering the race was perhaps the highest amongst all eight original candidates and she is likely to secure the support of nearly all African delegations.  Okonjo-Iweala would be the first DG from Africa.

 

"Leadership at the WTO is important for U.S. agriculture, and especially rice, as we continue our efforts to level the playing field globally," said USA Rice president and CEO Betsy Ward.  "We are excited by the history made by either of these highly-qualified candidates, and hopeful that whomever is selected will lead the WTO efficiently, effectively, and fairly.  It is also notable that both of these women hail from countries that understand the complexity and importance of rice trade."

 

The WTO's DG selection committee reconvened on October 9 and runs until October 27 to afford members sufficient time to prepare their positions and make their final selection.

 

 

 

 

 

Sentera and Anheuser-Busch Partner to Help Rice Growers Enhance Their Fertilizer Programs and Sustainability Efforts with Predictive Modeling


NEWS PROVIDED BY

Sentera 

Oct 14, 2020, 10:00 ET

 

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sentera has announced a partnership with Anheuser-Busch under which Sentera will deliver critical grower-level insights to forecast nitrogen demand in rice production. This technology, delivered using advanced remote sensing tools, will empower growers to improve productivity and profitability by optimizing nitrogen usage.

Anheuser-Busch's agronomy team will deploy this technology to make precise, field-level nutrient and nitrogen prescriptions that help rice growers reach their highest quality yields.

"Nitrogen is one of the biggest input costs rice growers have today, and the correct application of fertilizer has enormous implications for plant health, yields, grower profits and the environment," said Zach Marston, principal scientist at Sentera. "While currently there are ways to systematically manage nitrogen demand, this solution enables us to get a baseline for the field, recommend a rate and closely monitor plant health throughout the growing season to modify additional applications accordingly. Ultimately, this empowers us to make adaptive decisions regarding nitrogen applications and management."

Rice is one of the most important cereal crops in the world and a key ingredient for brewers such as Anheuser-Busch. While nitrogen application improves grain yields and quality, excessive application of fertilizer can cause "luxuriant" growth, leaving the plant more susceptible to disease. Growth that is too rapid can also reduce stem strength, resulting in plant lodging under moderate wind conditions. In addition, over-applying nitrogen provides no benefit to the plant and has negative effects on the environment via leaching and denitrification, and on a grower's profit margin.

"We are very excited about the use of remote sensing to determine optimum nitrogen use rate in rice. I envision a very positive impact for our rice producers and our rice mill here in Jonesboro, AR," said Bill Jones, rice agronomy manager at Anheuser-Busch. "We are now able to provide farmers the tools and data they need to become more sustainable in their nitrogen applications and growing practices. They'll be able to improve their bottom lines while continuing to produce a high-quality rice crop."

Since 2017, Anheuser-Busch and Sentera have worked together to create digital tools that cultivate a healthier growing environment and deliver critical agronomic insights throughout the world.

"We are excited to expand our partnership with Anheuser-Busch to deliver on our shared goals of advancing sustainable agriculture and grower empowerment," said Kris Poulson, director of business development and strategy at Sentera. "Together, we continue to show that the right technology contributes to the grower's economic success, improved outcomes for the environment and better overall land stewardship for future generations. We're proud to help Anheuser-Busch deliver measurable impact on their 2025 sustainability goals." 

In April 2018, Anheuser-Busch launched its U.S. 2025 Sustainability Goals, focused on four key areas: renewable electricity and carbon reduction, water stewardship, smart agriculture and circular packaging. Smart agriculture refers to having 100 percent of Anheuser-Busch's direct farmers highly skilled, connected and financially empowered to increase crop productivity, protect the environment and deliver new innovations.

About Sentera

Sentera is the global technology leader for in-season data, analytics, and insights for growers, deployed at scale. Sentera's products make it easy for users to integrate in-field data insights with the digital ag platforms in use by more than 80 percent of the growers in North America. Sentera's equipment has flown tens of millions of acres all over the world, and processes hundreds of terabytes of new data for its customers every year. For more information, visit sentera.com.

About Anheuser-Busch

For more than 165 years, Anheuser-Busch has carried on a legacy of brewing great-tasting, high-quality beers that have satisfied beer drinkers for generations. Today, we own and operate more than 100 facilities, including breweries, wholesaler distribution centers, agricultural facilities and packaging plants, and have more than 18,000 colleagues across the United States. We are home to several of America's most recognizable beer brands, including Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob ULTRA and Stella Artois, as well as a number of regional brands that provide beer drinkers with a choice of the best-tasting craft beers in the industry. From responsible drinking programs and emergency drinking water donations to industry-leading sustainability efforts, we are guided by our unwavering commitment to supporting the communities we call home. For more information, visit www.anheuser-busch.com or follow Anheuser-Busch on LinkedInTwitterFacebook and Instagram.

SOURCE Sentera

 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sentera-and-anheuser-busch-partner-to-help-rice-growers-enhance-their-fertilizer-programs-and-sustainability-efforts-with-predictive-modeling-301151757.html

 

SRI LANKA TO IMPORT 6,000 METRIC TONS OF BASMATI RICE FROM PAKISTAN

 

POSTED IN LOCAL NEWS

 

Cabinet this week approved the State Trading Corporation (STC) and Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) to import 6,000 metric tons of Basmati rice annually under the provision of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Complaints have been received regarding various irregularities in the importation of rice, Cabinet Co-Spokesman Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said, pointing out that the same facility had been available to private sector. The decision by the Cabinet follows a proposal made by Trade Minister and will see STC and CWE import Basmati rice of high quality, he added.

“The idea is to import Basmati rice for those who seek it, thereby reducing the competition for local rice variants,” Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said, responding to a question.

Rambukella claimed that paddy farmers were not getting a high price for their crops.

(Source: Daily FT)

https://www.onlanka.com/news/sri-lanka-to-import-6000-metric-tons-of-basmati-rice-from-pakistan.html

 

Marcos to DA: More drying machines needed to prevent rice wastage

 

By: Katrina Hallare - Reporter / @KHallareINQ

INQUIRER.net / 04:48 PM October 13, 2020

Description: Imee Marcos

Sen. Imee Marcos during the online hearing Tuesday, October 13, 2020, of the Senate. Screen grab/Senate PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Imee Marcos has appealed to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to provide more drying machines, as well as set up storage facilities that will prevent wet-season harvests from going to waste.

In a statement on Monday, Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on economic affairs, said that this will also allow rice farmers to sell their dry palay for better prices.

According to the senator, the lack of drying machines and storage facilities are the reasons why rice farmers are suffering losses amid October’s wet-season harvest.

Marcos added that rice farmers are now selling their wet palay at P12 per kilo, compared to P15 per kilo weeks earlier.

“Local rice farmers are no longer thinking of profit, just cutting their losses and paying back their debts. They’ve been left high and dry amid the wet-season harvest,” the senator said.

“Production cost also goes up by one to two pesos per kilo if a farmer avails of a drying machine at the nearest coop, apart from having to line up with so many others,” she added.

Marcos added that in Nueva Ecija, the cost of hired labor also increased in the middle of the wet season,  from 10 cavans to 15 cavans for every 100 cavans harvested.

Citing complaints of farmers that reached her office, the senator said: “Some rice farmers are opting to put off harvesting amid the rains, rather than pay more for labor and sell at a loss to rice traders.”

“They’re now drying what palay they could fit into their own homes. What becomes discolored from moisture is later sold cheaply as broken rice or duck feed,” she added.

Aside from this, Marcos is also pushing to schedule rice imports outside of the Philippines’ harvest seasons in March to April and September to October.

This way, Marcos added, farmers do not have to compete with unrestricted importation under the Rice Tariffication Law.



Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1347235/marcos-to-da-more-drying-machines-needed-to-prevent-rice-wastage#ixzz6avhMKbrP
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1347235/marcos-to-da-more-drying-machines-needed-to-prevent-rice-wastage

 

 

 

Depleting balance in rupee-rial account chokes export of basmati rice, tea to Iran

Shobha Roy  Kolkata | Updated on October 14, 2020  Published on October 14, 2020

Payments worth 2,000 cr to basmati rice exporters stuck, say industry insiders

Export of basmati rice and tea is likely to be severely impacted this year due to issues with Iran which is one of the major importers of the two commodities. Delayed payments from Iran on the back of the “depleting balance” in the rupee-rial trade account is the problem.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/depleting-balance-in-rupee-rial-account-chokes-export-of-basmati-rice-tea-to-iran/article32856455.ece

 

 

Egypt increases imports, encourages domestic production to maintain food security amid pandemic


Egypt Independent

 

October 13, 2020
5:42 pm

 

   

Description: https://amayei.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-10-at-3.23.50-PM.png

Egypt has expanded its import contracts and successfully met public demand for food by following a government action plan that came with the coronavirus outbreak in March, according to a report from Egypt’s al-Borsaa news website.

Nomani Nasr Nomani, Advisor to Egypt’s supply and trade minister, reported that the country quickly responded to the slowdown of the global trade market, with president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordering an increase in imports and encouraging more domestic production.

Wheat

Nomani said that Egypt’s General Authority For Supply Commodities (GASC) has secured enough wheat to fulfill demand until April 2021.

Nomani estimated that the country has imported approximately 3.579 million tons of wheat since the beginning of its fiscal year (July 1), a 64 percent increase as compared to October 2019. 

Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat.

The country purchased the most wheat from Russia, buying 2.929 million tons, which accounts for 81.83 percent of the country’s total wheat imports. Ukraine came in second place, supplying 530,000 tons, or 14.81 percent.

Egypt imported wheat for the first time from Poland at an amount of 60,000 tons, and imported a similar amount from Romania.

Nomani explained that Russia’s acquisition of the largest percentage of imports is due to the fact that it is the largest producer and exporter of wheat in the world, having approximately 37.5 million tons available to export during the current season.

Domestic production incentives will allow the country to reach its targeted amount of 6.275 million tons, he added.

Cooking Oil

The GASC has a recorded stock of 268,000 tons of cooking oil, including imported sunflower oil and domestic soybean oil.

This supply will cover Egypt for six months, which is a very good rate, according to Nomani, as Egypt depends on importing about 95 percent of its oils.

He stated that the GASC, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture, is seeking to expand local production of cooking oils, and the authority has proposed financial incentives for local producers. 

Meetings have been held with local manufacturers, particularly with those in the extraction sector, in which their production capabilities were discussed, he added.

The GASC has also called upon the ministry to allocate new lands for the cultivation of oilseeds.

In 2019, the authority opened its doors to allow suppliers to register with the government and gain incentives. A total of seven local companies are registered.

Bread Subsidies

Nomani said that the government’s August decision to reduce the weight of the subsidized bread loaf to 90 grams from its previous 110 grams was aimed at providing higher-quality bread to the public.

About 800,000 tons of wheat will be saved per month due to the reduction.

The money saved from the reduction will be added to the state’s public treasury.

The advisor stressed the importance of public oversight, stating that that upon close inspection, the Ministry discovered many bakeries further decreasing the size of the loaves.

He added that the state additionally provides the starchy component of the public’s dietary needs in other subsidized commodities, such as rice and pasta.

Other Commodities

The supply and trade ministry has secured a stock of Sudanese meet that is projected to last for 26 months, while the country’s supply of frozen Brazilian meat will suffice for a month and a half.

Egypt’s sugar reserves will last until January 2021, which will be the start of the next local production season.

The current rice balance covers four months, Nomani said, adding that prices are expected to remain stable ranging between LE6 and LE8.5 per kilo.

The Egyptian government announced in September the establishment of its first commodities exchange company, which aims to strengthen internal trade by connecting small farmers and producers with larger markets.

Nomani said that the stock exchange will both tighten controls on pricing various commodities and allow for healthier market competition, with the intention abolishing any existing monopolies.

https://egyptindependent.com/egypt-increases-imports-encourages-domestic-production-to-maintain-food-security-amid-pandemic/

 

 

Pandemic, rice imports, price controls killing farmers in North Cotabato

Oct. 12, 2020 KATH M. CORTEZ

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — “The struggle is real, and we are dying each day, in case they don’t know that.”

Tatay Duroy said over the phone, his voice barely containing anger and worry over the hardships he and fellow farmers in Tulunan, North Cotabato had to endure in the past years.

Duroy has been a farmer for forty years. In the past, his rice product is “somehow enough” to put food on the table for his and spend some for his children in school.

But now, farming can barely sustain their daily needs with the drought, pandemic and cheaper imported rice in the market affecting him and other farmers in the province.

Rice Tariffication

The Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) was signed in 2019 as an immediate solution of the Duterte government to the shortage of local rice supply. But that opened the floodgates of cheaper rice imports that hit the selling price of local rice farmers like Duroy.

“It is not in any way advantageous to struggling local farmers,” Tatay Duroy said. “Imported rice will kill us in the near future since it now dominated the local market.”

“Traders will prefer imported rice than local rice because it will cost them cheaper. Buying local rice will cost them double from drying to milling compared to importing rice where they can directly distribute it to their sellers,” Duroy explained.

During the 2016 drought that affected North Cotabato, the buying price of rice is around P14 per kilo while traders buy both yellow and white corn for P9 to P 11 for a kilo. The price rose to P18 at the beginning of the Duterte years.

With RTL, traders are buying local rice as low as nine to 13 pesos.

Rising costs, piling debts

The impact of cheap buying price has forced Tatay Duroy and farmers in his province of North Cotabato to harvest their products right away to recoup with capital and to pay debts.

“Our debt and interest are getting bigger because we cannot pay them. Other farmers are forced to sell their land or allow the landlord to convert the land into a plantation even if the rent is too small,” he said.

On average, a rice harvest can yield up to 120 sacks in one hectare, and as low as 50 sacks in a bad season affected by drought, floods or pests.

A sack of rice grain is equivalent to 50 to 65 kilos and will cost P864 excluding deductions.

The expenses include P8,000 for the rental of a tractor for preparing the rice land before planting. A cheaper option is to rent a carabao for P600 a day but it would take longer days for the preparation.

For rice cropping for one hectare, a farmer fills these with three sacks of rice seeds that costs a minimum of P7,500, and seven liters of herbicide or weedicide that costs P1,200 at the minimum.

Farmers need to fertilize the plants through the whole cropping season, which needs a minimum of nine sacks costing around P1,300 to P1,500.

Farmers also spend labor to speed up the work which costs around P4,000 to P6,000. They are also obliged to pay farm labor either with two sacks of the rice grain or P2,000 per cropping for irrigation.

Another expense for harvesting includes paying tractor harvesters either one sack of rice for every 25 sacks harvested. Harvesters who do it by hand will receive one sack per 11 sacks of harvested rice grains.

Such costs has forced farmers to do their work by themselves, such as Tatay Felix from M’lang, a neighboring town in North Cotabato.

“It is very expensive so we tried to minimize the expenses by doing double work but most of the time the only option is to borrow money to sustain the cropping,” said Felix.

Usury has been the practice of rice traders to lend money to farmers to sustain the farms until harvest with capital including farm inputs with interest as high up to 10 percent.

For that reason, farmers like Felix are indebted to traders, and are forced to sell their product at a lower price. Farmers’ harvest are also deducted one kilo for every sack owed to the trader, and another deduction if the sacks get muddy.

Traders in the province also designed classifications of rice grains to their advantage. Classifications such as semi-dry, semi-green, wet and spotted means a deduction of P10 per sack.

“When we arrive, they will check the grains and put those classifications. Even if our grain is in good quality, we still expect deductions, because that is how it works here and cannot argue against that,” Tatay Felix said.

The National Food Authority (NFA) also buys grains from farmers at a higher price but its guidelines are strict, such as requiring grains to meet 14% moisture with 95% dryness and purity.

Pandemic woes

The low buying price brought by rice liberalization has been killing farmers and the local economy.

M’lang Vice Mayor Lito Piñol said that if RTL favors the consumers, it does not favor the survival of small food producers.

Piñol said that the rice variety of local farmers cannot compete with the long grain variety of imported rice which is now leading in the market.

“How can our farmers compete with imported rice when we are still using a backward way of farming? Where is the rice tariffication assistance that the government promised to give our farmers? For more than a year, not even one harvester, one tractor, or one Caltex of fertilizer was given to our farmers,” Piňol asked.

Piňol said the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to the slowdown of agriculture activity. Health protocols and border to border restrictions made the situation more difficult for farmers to continue the production. These restrictions affect the entry of mechanical tractors and harvesters as well as manual labor for planting and harvest.

“Our planters and harvesters, even machine operators cannot enter without following different community protocols. So when harvest season started we don’t have enough manpower anymore,” he said.

Farmers in North Cotabato have experienced successive setbacks in the past years.

A drought that began in late 2015 until the first half of 2016 dried up the farms. This forced 5,000 farmers, including Duroy and Felix, to barricade the highway fronting NFA in the province’s capital city of Kidapawan demanding food assistance from the local government. They were instead met with bullets that killed two farmers and wounded 15 others. Scores were arrested but freed by the courts.

But Tatay Felix said that if this crisis continues under this pandemic, it will surely result to another huge protest to urge the government to do appropriate action for the struggling farmers. (davaotoday.com)

http://davaotoday.com/main/economy/pandemic-rice-imports-price-controls-killing-farmers-in-north-cotabato/

 

 

 

Regulators Classify Gene-Edited Rice Varieties with Disease Resistance as Equivalent to Conventional Varieties

Crops resist bacterial leaf blight; ruling clears path to provide smallholder farmers with a safe, affordable option for preventing destructive disease

14-Oct-2020 10:35 AM EDTby Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Newswise — Columbia and St. Louis, MO, October 14, 2020 – The Healthy Crops team, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have used gene editing tools to develop new varieties of disease-resistant rice that regulators in the United States and Colombia have determined are equivalent to what could be accomplished with conventional breeding. Bacterial blight can reduce rice yields by up to 70 percent, with the heaviest losses typically experienced by smallholder rice growers in low and middle-income countries. This has a profound impact on farmer productivity and economic mobility. The Healthy Crops team turned to gene editing to develop disease-resistant varieties as a way to provide farmers with a safe, affordable, effective solution.

“We first set about to understand the gene the bacteria use to make the plant vulnerable to its disease,” said Bing Yang, PhD, a researcher with the University of Missouri Bond Life Sciences Center professor, Division of Plant Sciences and member, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. “We then used our CRISPR technology precisely to remove the element in the gene to avoid the pathway the pathogen takes that makes the plants susceptible to blight.”

The team used gene editing to create rice lines in elite varieties that are comparable to naturally occurring variants. These lines can resist infection by bacterial leaf blight, which leads to major losses for one of the world’s most important food crops. The rulings from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the corresponding authority in Colombia, the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA), clear the way for field tests to select the best material for distribution to breeders in the U.S. and Colombia.

The improvements were accomplished via gene editing, which did not introduce any DNA into the plants and focused on “promoter regions” in three genes that are targeted by the causative agent of rice blight, the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae. The research was described in an article in Nature Biotechnology in 2019.

Yang is just one member of the research consortium, headed by Humboldt Professor Wolf B. Frommer from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), that has worked more than four years on this research. Six research institutions on three continents were involved including the University of Missouri, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, University of Florida, the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) in France and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. 

In the wake of the ruling from U.S. and Colombian officials, the new blight-resistant varieties can now be used to introduce the resistance trait into many different types of rice via standard breeding strategies. Additional testing and breeding work is expected to take place in multiple locations that are favorable for growing tropical rice varieties.

“It’s exciting to use science and technology to do to help farmers protect and improve their rice production,” Yang said. “We hope to work closely with the local institutions in the next phase to introduce these into the varieties of rice small farmers use.”

The Healthy Crops Team has no commercial interest in its work. Its goal is to ensure disease- resistant rice varieties are accessible and affordable, especially for smallholder farmers who depend on rice production to support their families.

About The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science. Research, education and outreach aim to have impact at the nexus of food security and the environment, and position the St. Louis region as a world center for plant science. The Center’s work is funded through competitive grants from many sources, including the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Follow us on Twitter at @DanforthCenter.

 

About Bond Life Sciences Center

Founded in 2004, the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center was designed with teamwork in mind, fostering collaborations between scientists of diverse disciplines and backgrounds. From cancer and HIV to plant science and informatics, our researchers work together to move basic science forward and lay the groundwork for a better world. Learn more at bondlsc.missouri.edu.

https://www.newswise.com/articles/regulators-classify-gene-edited-rice-varieties-with-disease-resistance-as-equivalent-to-conventional-varieties

 

 

 

Basmati rice import taken under the purview of the State

Tuesday, 13 October 2020 - 14:02

 

The Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval to import basmati rice by the State Institutions under the tariff concessions of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement.

This is in view of the irregularities that have occured in the recent past by allowing the private sector to import basmati rice under the above concession.

Accordingly, Sathosa and the Sri Lanka State Trading (General) Corporation were granted approval to the import 6,000 metric tons of basmati rice.

Cabinet Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella was inquired in this regard as well as the increase in rice prices at the media briefing held today (13).


 

Pakistan seeks EU’s technology to develop livestock sector

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday sought technical and financial assistance from the European Union (EU) to develop the country’s livestock sector through technology.

 

EU can support meat industry by allowing the import of other meat and chicken products, a statement said after a meeting between the Minister for Food Security Fakhar Imam and EU Ambassador Androulla Kaminara.

 

“EU is the main buyer of sheep casing from Pakistan. EU can help Pakistan to increase agriculture production and increase export of regulated goods,” said the ministry’s statement.

 

The meeting was told critical support in farming, technology and techniques would be imperative for the development of the country’s agriculture sector.

 

“Therefore, there is dire need of collaboration between the agriculture sectors,” said the statement. “The EU may provide technical and financial assistance in the livestock sector of Pakistan like risk-based foot and mouth disease control, virtual-based disease information and surveillance system and establishing foot and mouth disease free zones.”

 

Pakistan and EU signed strategic engagement plan last year for transfer of technology. Pakistan exports rice, mango, vegetables, spices and tobacco to the EU states. However, the current level of bilateral trade between Pakistan and EU countries does not fully reflect the potential of agro-products, which may need to be enhanced further.

 

Pakistan imports chickpeas, instant gum, potato seeds and other food stuff from the EU.

 

Imam said the menace of the desert locust has been brought completely under control in the country.

 

“The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations assisted Pakistan a lot in anti-locust operations,” he said.

 

Imam said the EU agriculture policy benefits the farmers to an exemplary scale.

 

The minister said Pakistan is focusing on developing phytosanitary system. Fruits and vegetables worth $700 million are exported from Pakistan.

 

The country also has a big livestock sector “but foot and mouth disease has handicapped us”.

 

The ambassador was told that a facility is under development in Bahawalpur for developing vaccine for the foot and mouth disease.

 

The minister said cotton is one of the major crops of the country and Pakistan needs a breakthrough in cotton sector. The interest was expressed in developing a niche market for floriculture in Pakistan much like the Netherlands.

 

Kaminara asked the country to develop its fisheries sector as there is a lot of potential for fish exports. The EU is the financier of FAO. Cotton is very much linked with generalised system of preferences plus status that allows tariff incentives to Pakistani exports to the 27-member countries bloc.

 

The meeting was told that the ministry of food security is implementing partner of Balochistan rural development and community empowerment program. It is a five-year plan, which also includes improvement in production of livestock.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/728967-pakistan-seeks-eu-s-technology-to-develop-livestock-sector

 

 

 https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/pakistan-australia-discuss-covid-19-strategy-trade-ties-in-phone-call-1.74544042. 

 

Pakistan, Australia discuss COVID-19 strategy, trade ties in phone call

Imran Khan, Scott Morrison note there is immense potential in expanding partnership


Published:  October 13, 2020 20:14 Sana Jamal, Correspondent

  


Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison on Tuesday, October 13, 2020. Image Credit: PM Office

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, discussed the COVID-19 successful strategy and huge potential to enhance bilateral ties during a phone call between the two leaders on Monday, the PM Office said. Bilateral matters and international issues of mutual interest including the Afghan peace process also came under discussion.

COVID-19 strategy

Prime Minister Khan appreciated Australia’s “impressive management of COVID-19” crisis and highlighted the unprecedented global health and economic challenges posed by the pandemic. Pakistan’s PM shared that his government’s emphasis during the health emergency had been on “saving lives, securing livelihoods, and stimulating the economy.” He cited the “smart lockdown” strategy and other measures that led to significant containment of the pandemic in Pakistan. Australian PM shared his country’s efforts in managing the coronavirus pandemic.

Khan particularly highlighted the pandemic’s detrimental impact on the economy of the developing countries, for which he had also called for the “Global Initiative on Debt Relief” supported by Australia.

Expand bilateral ties

The two leaders noted that there is immense potential in expanding Pakistan-Australia partnership to further enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in diverse fields. Khan highlighted the prospect for enhanced trade and increased regional connectivity after the commencement of Afghan peace talks. Morrison also noted Pakistan’s positive role in the Afghan peace process. Both the leaders invited each other to visit their respective countries.

Trade, education and cricket

Commenting on the development, Australia’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Dr Geoffrey Shaw, welcomed the phone call between the two leaders in which they discussed “bilateral ties” and successful approaches on COVID-19” by both countries. “We’ll keep building our cooperation on trade, education, security, development, and cricket” which is a shared Commonwealth heritage, he said in a tweet. PM Khan also expressed hope for the resumption of Pakistan-Australia cricket series as the COVID-19 situation improves.

Pakistan-Australia ties

• Pakistani population in Australia has increased to 91,000 in 2019, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). They are mostly skilled migrants, professionals and students.
• Pakistan-Australia trade and investment relationship has improved steadily over the past decade. The two-way trade was worth $1.83 billion in 2017.
• Australia’s major goods exports to Pakistan are pulses, oilseed, fertilizer and scrap metals. Major imports from Pakistan are textiles, rice and petroleum.
• Both countries are exploring ways to expand trade in agribusiness as well as IT and communications, processed foods, clean energy, medical technologies, infrastructure investment, and mining equipment, technology and services (METS).
• Pakistan and Australia regularly hold dialogues between senior leaders from respective militaries, government agencies and think tanks.
• Australian Federal Police has a 27-year relationship with Pakistan law enforcement agencies. Military cadets from each country also attend specialized courses in defence institutes of Pakistan and Australia.
• The two states are also bolstering cooperation to combat transnational crime, such as terrorism financing and illegal migration.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:crJW-0H5iDEJ:https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/pakistan-australia-discuss-covid-19-strategy-trade-ties-in-phone-call-1.74544042+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk

 

Sri Lanka state agencies to import basmati rice from Pakistan

October, 14, 2020

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The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by Minister of Trade to import 6,000 metric tons of Basmati rice annually under the provision of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and to allow only the Sri Lanka State Trading Corporation (STC) and Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) to import rice under this agreement.

Earlier, the private sector was also allowed to import Basmati rice under this agreement. However, the permission given to private sector has been revoked due to complaints that were received regarding various irregularities in the importation of rice.

http://bizenglish.adaderana.lk/sri-lanka-state-agencies-to-import-basmati-rice-from-pakistan/

 

 

Wednesday Oct 14, 2020

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SL to import 6,000 MT of Basmati rice from Pakistan

Wednesday, 14 October 2020 01:45 -      - 125

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Cabinet this week approved the State Trading Corporation (STC) and Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) to import 6,000 metric tons of Basmati rice annually under the provision of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA). 

Complaints have been received regarding various irregularities in the importation of rice, Cabinet Co-Spokesman Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said, pointing out that the same facility had been available to private sector.  The decision by the Cabinet follows a proposal made by Trade Minister and will see STC and CWE import Basmati rice of high quality, he added.

"The idea is to import Basmati rice for those who seek it, thereby reducing the competition for local rice variants," Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said, responding to a question. 

Rambukella claimed that paddy farmers were not getting a high price for their crops.(AF)

 

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Hilde Lee: Foods of Pakistan and India often use curry powder; here's an easy recipe

·         Hilde G. Lee

 

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Last week, in our “wishful thinking trip,” we experience some of the foods of India, their uniqueness and their religious origins. I want to tell you a little more about the region, but also focus on its neighbor Pakistan, whose food is different from India. And, as I promised, I will also give you a recipe for curry powder.

So, let’s see what foods are prevalent in Pakistan. We are probably more familiar with that country since it is close to Afghanistan.

Pakistan came into being on Aug. 15, 1947. It covers the area of the Indian subcontinent where the population is predominately Muslim.

Pakistan is a land of contrasts. In the northern area is the “Roof of the World,” where large mountains converge (the Kush, Karakoram, the Kunlun and the Himalayas). Between the mountains and the desert areas are green valleys and fertile plains that are watered by the Indus River and its four tributaries.

For more than a thousand years, successive invaders — Aryans, Greeks, Huns, Mongols, Turks and Afghans — have poured through mountain passes into what is now Pakistan. They have brought their own cultures and food habits, all to be melded into what today is Pakistani cuisine.

Even though Pakistan as a nation is 73 years old, the area has been known for 5,000 years. In recent history Europeans, particularly the British, ruled for almost two centuries. Thus, Pakistan is a great mixture of races, religions, languages and cultures. There are a wide variety of culinary and eating habits, which are typical of Pakistan.

All of life’s important occasions are excuses for feasts, to which friends and relatives are invited. In the major cities, there is a strong European influence in food and manners. However, in a traditional home, food is cooked, served and eaten in simpler ways. Even though food is served with a spoon, it is eaten with the fingers of the right hand. Hands are carefully washed before and after the meal.

A basic Pakistani meal consists of a meat dish, a vegetable dish, bread, rice, accompanying pickles, fruit and dessert. Pakistanis eat a great deal of meat, but, like all Muslims, they are forbidden to eat pork, which is considered unclean. Alcoholic beverages are also forbidden.

The northwest frontier, with the mountainous terrain and the Khyber Pass, is famous for its fertile valleys. Here, orchards of peaches, apricots, almonds and apples supply fruit for the country. Mushrooms grown in the valley are exported all over the world.

The food of Pakistan is primarily based on meat. It lacks the spiciness of much of the neighboring Indian dishes. Such dishes as shashlik — small pieces of meat cooked on skewers and basted with sheep fat — and burra, roasted baby lamb stuffed with rice, nuts and raisins, are favorites. An unusual dish of Mediterranean-heritage cooking is aash. It includes cottage cheese, meat sauce, shredded chilies, lemon juice and noodles.

The bread eaten in both India and Pakistan is naan. It is a flat leavened bread that is cooked in the earthenware ovens that are in every home. Goats’ milk cheese is made at home, and yogurt is eaten at almost every meal.

Most of the ancestors of Pakistan were nomads; thus, cooking over an open fire was the norm. A favorite dish, bukhara gosht, is meat cooked with plums, almonds, raisins, onions and green chilies. It is eaten with naan.

Karachi is Pakistan’s major port and a bastion of the old British culture. There, the food is both Western and Eastern. Lobster and seafood abound and are served with a chili sauce that has a touch of Asian flavorings. As Rudyard Kipling would have said, “There the twain have met.”

Before I get sidetracked, let me give you my recipe for curry powder. After mixing the spices, be sure to keep the curry powder in a tight container so that it does not loose its pungency.

The ground spices in this curry mixture are 1 tablespoon ground cumin, 2 tablespoons ground coriander, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground cardamom, 1/4 teaspoon mace, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper and 1 tablespoon ground turmeric.

I was not very meticulous in measuring and used a little more or a little less of each. The mixture smelled so good, I knew I had a winner — and even had enough for another meal or two.

Let’s go back to some Indian cooking, now that we have the curry powder. The commonest and simplest way of cooking vegetables in India is to stir-fry them, known as bhujia in the north and foogath in the south. In both cases, the vegetables are stir-fried with spices. There is no sauce, but the resulting dish is surprisingly pungent.

Vegetable curries are made from one or a number of vegetables. A dish of pureed vegetables, delicately spiced, is called barta. Mashed vegetables are shaped into patties or balls, fried and eaten dry or added to a curry sauce.

There are many different ways of cooking meat in India. Besides curries, there are kormas — braised meats that are cooked in yogurt or cream and sometimes even in broth. There are kebabs of various kinds and baked meats.

Indian chickens, although they are often small and scrawny, are also the basis of lightly seasoned dishes. Chicken, marinated in spices and yogurt, is either cooked in a clay oven or on the spit.

With a coastline of more than 2,000 miles, India has a great variety of fish. Prawns or shrimp are used in curries, baked with spices or grilled. Along the coast, shrimp are often cooked with mustard and yogurt or deep-fried in a spicy batter. Fish is often wrapped in banana leaves and baked. The banana leaf imparts an unusual flavor that is lost if the fish is just wrapped in foil.

The fine, firm-fleshed Indian potato is often stuffed with a mixture of onions, coriander leaves, green chilies, garlic and fresh ginger.

In many middle-class homes, the main meal of the day consists of two or three vegetable dishes, one of which is dhal, and a meat or fish dish, if the household is not vegetarian. Yogurt, pickles and chutneys are side dishes, as well as rice. A sweet is often included with the other dishes, rather than afterwards, as is the custom in the West.

All of the food is put on the table at the same time. Each person eats what he or she wants, combining dishes to suit their taste. I like that idea; I’d probably eat the shrimp and then the dessert.

https://dailyprogress.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/hilde-lee-foods-of-pakistan-and-india-often-use-curry-powder-heres-an-easy-recipe/article_63a1ab62-084d-11eb-921e-5b7284b3ebb5.html Fish, Rice and a Slice of Pakistani Malayali Life: Video of Karachi Eatery Serving Kerala Cuisine Goes Viral

Malabar Cafe in Karachi, Pakistan | Image credit: YouTube/Sameer Key Vlogs

Located in downtown Karachi, the Malabari eatery is a popular haunt, not just among the immigrant Malayali community in Pakistan but also for locals.

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·         LAST UPDATED:OCTOBER 14, 2020, 6:18 PM IST

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Buzz Staff

 

India and Pakistan have much in common. Besides the common taste for music and poetry, Indians and Pakistanis also share a penchant for good food. And while Pakistani cuisine is quite popular in India, it seems Indian cuisine also finds an appetite in Pakistan.

In a recent video that has been going viral on the content-sharing site, Reddit, shows a Malabari restaurant that serves Kerala cuisine in the heart of Pakistan. Located in Karachi's Wellington Street, the Malabari (or Malwari/Malbari as it is locally called) eatery is a popular haunt, not just among the immigrant Malayali community in Karachi but also for locals.

The shop sells all kinds of Malabari dishes, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, many of which are popular in Kerala including authentic fish and rice.

Teh video was originally posted on a YouTube channel called 'Sameer Key Vlogs', run by YouTube content creator Sameer Khokhar. He is also the one who created the video and can be seen speaking to several persons eating at the restaurant as well as the cooks.

Malayali Muslims are a sizeable yet shrinking community in Pakistan, many of whose members are settled in and around Karachi. The migrated to Pakistan before and after Partition, though the stories of their exodus have been slightly different from that of other Muslims who migrated to Pakistan.

Play Video

The first wave of migration of Malayali Muslims from Kerala occurred during teh 1921 Mappila Revolt in Malappuram district where Mappila or Malabari Muslims led an armed revolt against upper caste-Hindus and the British. The second wave

The Malabar Muslim Jamat runs several schools and Malabari kitchens in the Karachi to support the Malayali Muslim community. The community's native language and culture have nevertheless been on the decline in recent years. The death of prominent Indian-origin Pakistani politician and human rights activist B.M. Kutty in august, 2019, also caused a blow to the Malayali community, which lost is sole representation in mainstream Pakistani politics.

Apart from the Malayali community in Pakistan, the "Sameer Ke Vlogs" YouTube channel also tries to document other minority communities from India living in Pakistan to capture the cultural flavour and essence of the life of migrants in Pakistan.

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/youtubers-video-of-malabari-restaurant-in-pakistan-offers-look-inside-karachis-malayali-community-2963213.html

 

 

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_20B/Oct13_1602600602CH.php

DA expects 16% increase in rice production

 

 

 

During the Senate hearing on the P284.4-billion proposed budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) for 2021 that included P24 billion from the Bayanihan 2 funds, Dar told senators agriculture grew by 1.6 percent during the second quarter of 2021 or during the lockdown.

 

 

Cecille Suerte Felipe (The Philippine Star

This content was originally published by The Philippine Star following its editorial guidelines. Philstar.com hosts its content but has no editorial control over it.

) - October 13, 2020 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — A 16 percent increase in rice production is anticipated in the third quarter of the year, a good indication of employment attraction in agriculture despite the coronavirus pandemic, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said yesterday.

During the Senate hearing on the P284.4-billion proposed budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) for 2021 that included P24 billion from the Bayanihan 2 funds, Dar told senators agriculture grew by 1.6 percent during the second quarter of 2021 or during the lockdown.

“Here in the third quarter, initial indicators indicate an increase in rice production by 16 percent, meaning the employment attraction was really there for agriculture, IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) is supportive of farming and fishing,” he added.

Playvolume

01:27/02:46Budget chief insists DOH not underfundedTruvidfullScreen

Sen. Cynthia Villar, however, rebuked some DA officials for the apparent duplication of rice subsidy programs for farmers and failure to provide the Senate with the list of recipients of the rice subsidy programs.

For almost an hour, Villar slammed DA officials for apparent duplication of two rice subsidy programs – the national rice program, which includes the distribution of rice hybrid seeds to farmers, and the use of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund under the rice tariffication law.

“I want to see where the budget was brought. I gave a list of questions with regard to the Bayanihan 2, you have two and a half months to do it and yet you have not answered. I sent you 16 questions. I did not understand your reports,” said Villar, who chaired the budget hearing as head of the Senate committee on agriculture.

Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel Cayanan, who could barely answer, said they have sent a list of subsidy recepients to the Senate but he could not discuss the content of the list.

Villar demanded to see the list to double-check whether the grant was actually given to the grantee and also to see if the seed supply and the projects are doubled.

Dar promised to submit a more detailed list and reports to Villar.

Villar’s demand was echoed by Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who asked for a list of people who were given cash assistance by the DA.

For their failure to mute the microphone and interrupting the hearing of the Senate on the proposed DA budget, Villar also threatened to remove the budget of a DA program.

Villar several times asked those present at the DA hybrid hearing to mute their microphones to avoid interrupting the senators who were asking questions.

“Will you please mute (your mic). Who is that ADING? Is ADING a program of DA?” said Villar.

Dar said ADING stands for Agriculture Dialogue and Information Network Group, designed to promote integrity and good government.

Villar said officials of ADING kept on talking loudly while their microphones were on, thus interrupting the Senate proceedings.

Sen. Joel Villanueva, who was interrupted by ADING officials, said while ADING was supposed to promote integrity, it seemed people there do not have such traits.

“ADING is always talking and it has a P100-million budget. They are always talking. Maybe we should remove their P100-million budget in the Bayanihan 2. My God, they are always talking and it’s loud, we cannot understand each other. They are always talking, it’s always ADING who is talking,” said Villar.

Meanwhile, Sen. Imee Marcos pointed to the lack of drying machines and storage facilities for the losses that rice farmers are suffering amid October’s wet season harvest.

Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on economic affairs, said rice farmers who were selling their wet palay at P15 per kilo weeks earlier where now selling below their average production cost of P12 per kilo.

The lowest farm gate price of P10 per kilo was reported in Bicol and Capiz, and was ranging from P11 to P13 in other rice-producing provinces.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros is pushing for a P48.7-billion increase in the budget of the Department of Health for 2021 as the country continues to bear the brunt of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is a health emergency. If we want to win against COVID-19 and finally recover as a country, our national budget next year must be a pandemic budget, no ifs and buts,” said Hontiveros.

Hontiveros’ proposed the P48.7-billion hike to provide the necessary funding to upgrade various aspects of the county’s healthcare system. based on the projected amounts initially proposed by the health department to the Department of Budget and Management.

She said with the huge proposed P4.5-trillion national budget next year, the DOH is not even in the top three agencies with the largest funding.

“We do not seem to be in the top 20 countries with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. What is this, we will just ignore the sick and dying Filipinos?” Hontiveros said.

She said P22 billion of her proposal puts a spotlight on programs critical to the country’s health response against the COVID-19 pandemic. She questioned the “shocking” budget cuts, such as the slashed operations budget for national and subnational laboratories that only received P289 million, despite the DOH’s request of P1.3 billion.

Local Health Systems Development and Assistance, which promotes health at the community level, she said, only received P353 million of its requested P1.7 billion.

Meanwhile, the programs for prevention and control of communicable diseases were only awarded P5.98 billion from the requested P15 billion, which Hontiveros says is crucial to “prevent further uncontrollable outbreaks from worsening the country’s health situation.”

Apart from health programs to beat the COVID-19 pandemic, Hontiveros added that funding for the prevention and control of other “killer” non-communicable diseases was also deprioritized, having been awarded a “measly” P373 million from the requested P1.33 billion.

Hontiveros said P26 billion of her proposal is meant to increase the funding of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to cover the health costs of the 7.6 million unemployed workers.

 

 

 

Cataloguing rice collection for crop improvement

 

 

OCTOBER 14, 2020 4:54 PM AEDT

Genetic tests help search and manage USDA’s rice genetic repository

Rice is one of the most important global cereal crops. More than half of the world’s population depend on rice as their primary source of energy from food.

Rice is cultivated around the world. But rice farmers face many challenges. These range from adapting to the effects of climate change to dealing with pressure to increase crop productivity.

That’s where gene banks come in. They serve as repositories for crop genetic materials.

“Gene banks preserve and characterize crop diversity for use in crop improvement, both now and for generations to come,” says Georgia Eizenga, a member of the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America.

Eizenga is the lead author of a new study that aims to enhance the management and utility of the USDA’s repository of rice genetic resources. The research was published in Crop Science, a publication of the Crop Science Society of America.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Small Grains Collection contains material from close to 20,000 varieties of rice. This diverse collection is especially important to the U.S. rice industry.

“Rice was introduced into the United States from Asia and Africa,” says Eizenga. “Having a diverse global collection of rice cultivars provides a source of new traits which can be used for crop improvement.”

But cataloging this collection of genetic material is no easy feat. Challenges include developing detailed descriptions, finding and correcting labelling errors, and removing redundant varieties.

Using physical characteristics to catalog close to 20,000 varieties is very difficult. Some characteristics, such as cooking quality and disease resistance, can be especially challenging to determine. That’s where genetic techniques can be useful.

“The USDA rice gene bank is a resource that has been developed over decades,” says Eizenga. “Molecular techniques will allow us to use this resource even more effectively.”

Eizenga and colleagues developed a small panel of genetic markers. Genetic markers are short, identifiable DNA sequences found in specific places of a genome.

These genetic markers serve as a guide to help researchers determine quickly whether a particular variety of rice has a specific trait This made it easier to search the USDA rice collection and manage it more efficiently.

Take for example, resistance to fungal diseases. Without genetic markers, breeders would start by growing several different rice varieties. Then they would have to expose the rice plants to the fungus. Finally, they would observe which varieties contracted the disease and which were resistant.

This process could take months. A set of genetic markers works much faster.

Researchers know which genes play a role in fungal disease resistance in rice. They can extract genetic material from different rice varieties. Then they use molecular biology techniques to test which varieties have the disease resistance genes.

Instead of months, this process can be completed in days. That can save valuable time and expense.

“Having molecular markers for traits that are difficult to phenotype can reduce the cost of characterizing rice varieties,” says Eizenga. “Molecular markers can also make the process more reliable.”

Genetic markers also help researchers identify different rice varieties more accurately.

“Knowing the correct species, subspecies and subpopulation is vital for breeders and geneticists,” says Eizenga. That’s especially the case when making crosses to incorporate desirable traits into new rice varieties.

Crosses made between two closely related varieties of rice are likely to produce more viable seeds than crosses between two diverse varieties. So, the markers for species, subspecies and subpopulation help breeders choose which rice varieties will work well together to develop improved hybrids.

Without establishing these successful hybrid varieties, breeders cannot incorporate desired traits into new rice varieties.

Eizenga and colleagues are now testing a newer molecular marker technology.

This technology involves looking for tiny differences in the genetic material of different rice varieties. It uses what are called single nucleotide polymorphisms – or SNPs.

“Using this technique will allow rice varieties to be cataloged even more quickly and inexpensively,” says Eizenga.

This research was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. Georgia Eizenga is a researcher at USDA’s National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Arkansas.

Crop Science is the flagship journal of the Crop Science Society of America. It is a top international journal in the fields of crop breeding and genetics, crop physiology, and crop production. The journal is a critical outlet for articles describing plant germplasm collections and their use.

The American Society of Agronomy is an international scientific and professional society with its headquarters in Madison, WI. Our members are researchers and trained, certified professionals in the areas of growing our world’s food supply, while protecting our environment. We work at universities, government research facilities and private businesses across the United States and the world.

/Public Release. The material in this public release comes from the originating organization and may be of a point-in-time nature, edited for clarity, style and length. View in full here.

Tags:AfricaAgricultureamericaAmerican Society of AgronomyArkansasAsiaclimate changeDNAenvironmentGeorgiaGovernmentmolecular biologyproductiontechniquetechnologyU.S.United States

https://www.miragenews.com/cataloguing-rice-collection-for-crop-improvement/

 

 

Farmers are facing a phosphorus crisis. The solution starts with soil

 

Overuse of fertilizer has led to phosphorus shortages and water pollution. But farms might not need so much to grow healthy crops.

farmer spreads organic fertilizers of bone meal pellets and rock phosphate before planting spinach in the Harmony garden in Golden, Colorado.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE AMON, THE DENVER POST/GETTY

BY JULIA ROSEN


PUBLISHED OCTOBER 14, 2020

ON AN OVERCAST day, Roger Sylvester-Bradley walks along a hawthorn hedge, collecting a thick rind of mud on his leather boots, before stepping into a gently sloping field of barley.

He stoops to pluck an ankle-high seedling from the ground and examines its healthy mop of fine white roots. Turning them in his hands, he says, “when you see a plant that’s deficient in phosphorus, it doesn’t look like this.”

That’s something of a surprise to Sylvester-Bradley, a crop scientist at ADAS, an agricultural consulting company in Cambridge, England. Phosphorus occurs naturally in soil and is a critical nutrient for plant growth. For centuries, farmers have added extra to their fields to boost harvests, but Sylvester-Bradley and his colleagues are studying ways to produce food using less of it.

The reasons are twofold: First, phosphorus runoff from farms contributes to widespread water pollution. Second, we don’t have phosphorus to waste.

Nearly all of the phosphorus that farmers use today—and that we consume in the food we eat—is mined from a few sources of phosphate rock, mainly in the United States, China, and Morocco. By some estimates, those could run out in as little as 50 to 100 years. Geologists know of other deposits, but they are harder to access and contain less phosphorus. Thus, the price will likely rise, making it harder for growers to afford fertilizer and for people to afford food.

Here and at other experimental sites in England, Sylvester-Bradley and his colleagues have taken a first commonsense step toward addressing the problem: They stopped adding phosphorus fertilizer to half the barley field to see how the plants would fare. Eight years later, they have only just started to observe the first effects on crop size and yield. The plants have survived on the excess nutrients in the soil—so-called legacy phosphorus—which some say represents a key piece of the phosphorus puzzle.

Researchers have calculated that, in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, there is already billions of dollars’ worth of fertilizer in the ground that could help offset demand for mined phosphorus. Using it up would also curb phosphorus runoff.

Roger Sylvester-Bradley inspects the roots of a healthy barley plant for signs of phosphorus deficiency. The field has had no added fertilizer for almost a decade, and the plants are only now starting to show a slight lack.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIA ROSEN

To Paul Withers, a soil scientist at Lancaster University and one of Sylvester-Bradley’s collaborators, tapping into legacy phosphorus is a no-brainer and continuing with the status quo is a recipe for both ecological and humanitarian disaster. “We can’t have agriculture polluting the environment and using resources the way we are,” Withers says. “It’s just going to cause a meltdown in the end.”

A devious nutrient

Phosphorus is a non-negotiable requirement for life. It’s the backbone of DNA and the P in ATP—the molecule that carries energy around cells. Plants need phosphorus to grow, which is why farmers have been feeding it to their crops for millennia.

At first, and without understanding the chemistry, people used manure and human waste as fertilizer. Then in the 1800s farmers recognized that phosphorus-rich bones and rocks worked too.

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In 1842 an Oxford University dropout named John Bennet Lawes patented a process for treating these new mineral forms of phosphorus with acid, making the nutrient more accessible to plants, and soon began selling the world’s first human-made fertilizer.

Lawes plowed his considerable profits back into research at his family’s country estate, which later became the Rothamsted Research center. And there, scientists discovered that phosphorus was a somewhat devious nutrient.

The fertilizer Lawes manufactured contained a soluble, inorganic form of phosphorus that plants can readily use. But as soon as the phosphorus hit the soil, a large fraction of it reacted with soil minerals, forming compounds that crops can’t access. Some also got locked away in equally unavailable organic forms.

From those observations, scientists concluded that farmers shouldn’t scrimp on phosphorus. They should heap it on, especially as they raced to feed the world’s growing populations during the 20th century.

In fact, it was once Withers’ job to spread the word. As a government farm advisor in the 1980s, he drove a red Volvo station wagon around the winding roads of rural England telling farmers to make sure their crops got plenty of key nutrients.

This method, which Withers calls “insurance-based farming,” still prevails in many parts of the world. In Europe, farmers apply roughly 4 kilograms of phosphorus for each kilogram that we consume in food. For U.S. diets, that ratio is about 9 to 1, and in China, it may be as high as 13 to 1. (There are crucial exceptions in places where farmers have never had adequate access to phosphorus fertilizer, like many parts of Africa and South America.)

Phosphorus is lost at many stages of food production and processing. But these inefficiencies pose a problem as looming changes in phosphorus availability and price threaten to destabilize the world’s food system, Withers says. “We’ve sort of gone over the top and we’ve come back to vulnerability.”

To make matters worse, some unused fertilizer builds up in the soil, which causes environmental problems long after it’s applied, says Helen Jarvie, a hydrochemist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, U.K. Her research shows that it slowly leaks into the environment for decades, confounding well-intentioned efforts by landowners to reduce nutrient pollution.

Even small amounts of phosphorus runoff from farms and sewage are enough to fuel algal blooms that fill waterways with festering green scum. Sometimes, like in Lake Erie, they produce toxins that can foul drinking water and use up dissolved oxygen, killing fish and other aquatic life.

According to one study, phosphorus pollution affects nearly 40 percent of Earth’s land areas. And the damage adds up. By one estimate, the impacts of excess phosphorus and nitrogen—another key nutrient—on water quality and ecosystems cost $2.2 billion per year in the U.S. alone.

A slam dunk for plants?

If legacy phosphorus is an environmental liability, it is also a tremendous opportunity, according to Withers and other scientists. He and his colleagues calculated in a 2015 study that fields in the United Kingdom contain more than $10 billion worth of phosphorus, enough to meet the country’s fertilizer demand for up to 54 years.

A front end loader moves granules of monoammonium phosphate into a storage warehouse at the PhosAgro-Cherepovets fertilizer plant in Cherepovets, Russia, on Aug. 9, 2017.

Many other nations possess similar reserves. A 2012 analysis found that global soils contain enough legacy phosphorus to cut the projected demand for new fertilizer in half by 2050.

“The plants can use our mistakes from the past,” says Sheida Sattari, lead author of the study.

By the numbers, legacy phosphorus looks like a slam dunk. But can plants actually live on it? Studies suggest that, in places with long histories of phosphorus overuse, like the U.K., crops can thrive for 10 years or more on the stores built up in the ground. The most extreme example comes from Saskatchewan, where researchers haven’t added phosphorus to plots of wheat since 1995. Twenty-five years later they still haven’t seen problems.

Conventional measures of soil chemistry suggest they should apply more fertilizer, says Barbara Cade-Menun, who oversees the experiments at the Swift Current Research and Development Center in Canada. “But our yields aren’t changing.”

Scientists think that as plants use up the readily available phosphorus in the fields, soil minerals and organic matter release more of the nutrient. Cade-Menun doesn’t yet know whether changes in soil chemistry, soil microbes, or plants themselves can explain what’s happening in her plots. Regardless, the results suggest that those inaccessible forms of phosphorus that the Rothamsted researchers fretted about aren’t quite as off-limits as scientists once thought.

And that means just cutting back on fertilizer could go a long way to meeting phosphorus demand and reducing runoff without jeopardizing harvests.

Smarter crops

At some point, however, soil phosphorus drops low enough that crops become stressed. That’s partly because some of it really is out of reach for plants, but also because many modern crops cannot get ahold of what is there.

The scarcity of phosphorus in nature forced wild plants to develop strategies for securing an adequate supply. Many evolved extensive root systems that search out phosphorus. Some can also excrete chemicals to liberate the nutrient from the soil.

But most commercial crops don’t have those abilities. Scientists cultivated them in well-fertilized soils that didn’t require plants to spend energy deploying such tools. And, in a world of plentiful resources, breeders didn’t select for varieties with strong phosphorus-harvesting traits. The result, says Phil Haygarth, a soil scientist at Lancaster University, is “a load of fast-growing, dumb plants” that struggle to extract phosphorus from the soil.

Researchers now want to create smarter crops. In 2012, scientists identified a gene in an ancient variety of Japanese rice that enhanced the plant’s ability to find phosphorus by growing fine roots. Researchers then bred the trait into modern rice plants, and in 2019 farmers in Madagascar—which has naturally nutrient-poor soils—started testing some of the most promising varieties.

Sigrid Heuer, a researcher at Rothamsted who helped with the rice study, is searching for a similar gene in wheat as part of the International Wheat Yield Partnership. Other scientists are developing crop varieties that don’t need as much phosphorus in the first place.

Besides breeding, no-till farming could help by preventing soil compaction and encouraging good root development to help plants access more legacy phosphorus. Adding symbiotic fungi that spread through the soil may extend a plant’s underground reach, and growing crops alongside legumes and other plants that secrete phosphorus-releasing compounds can free up more of the nutrient.

Withers and Sylvester-Bradley have been running down the phosphorus levels in their test fields for the exact purpose of exploring these kinds of approaches.

The researchers had to abandon the barley field in Cambridge because of changes in farm ownership. But at the remaining sites, phosporus levels have finally dipped low enough for them to start conducting experiments on how to help plants access as much legacy phosphorus as possible. The first will compare the performance of existing commercial wheat varieties.

The researchers had to wait longer than expected—nearly a decade—for phosphorus levels to drop back to natural levels. But that fact alone should reassure growers that they can safely cut back on the nutrient, Sylvester-Bradley says.

“The take-home for farmers, as far as I’m concerned, is they can relax.”

This story was supported by a science journalism fellowship from the European Geosciences Union.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/10/farmers-are-facing-a-phosphorus-crisis-the-solution-starts-with-soil/

 

Environment advocates slam DENR undersecretary for demeaning UP scientists

 

Published October 14, 2020, 9:53 PM

by Chito Chavez

The Kalikasan People’s Network for Environment (Kalikasan PNE) described Wednesday as “uncalled for’’ the comments of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary Benny Antiporda against the scientists of the University of the Philippines (UP) Institute of Biology and Marine Sciences during the inspection at the rehabilitation of Manila Bay.

“As a government environmental official, he should always be open to the sound and scientific suggestions of our scientists and marine experts,” said Gia Glarino, research coordinator of Kalikasan PNE.

The group noted that Antiporda “lashed out with a demeaning comment that scientists from UP Institute of Biology have no right to criticize the dolomite project and called them “bayaran (paid)”.’’ 

Antiporda’s tirade came after the UP Institute of Biology and Marine Science Institute, both highly respected in their own areas of discipline, offered science-based services and advice to the DENR in rehabilitating Manila Bay.

“We back the suggestion of the UP scientists to the government. They must instead restore mangrove forests and prioritize the improvement of Manila Bay’s water quality. It is sound and appropriate for DENR to center its rehabilitation efforts towards reviving the ecological health of Manila Bay instead of mere beautification,” Glarino noted.

Since September, Kalikasan PNE has asserted that the DENR’s dolomite beautification project poses negative impacts on the bay’s still thriving fisheries and to ecological and public health. 

“The onion-skinned and blubbering DENR Undersecretary could serve the nation better if he will resign from his post and spare us from his cheap shots,” Glarino said.

During the inspection, Antiporda noted that the mangrove have their own places located in “Cavite, Bataan and Baseco area’’ and cannot be put in the middle of the baywalk since ‘it will destroy the landscape’’ and they will not thrive in the area.

He claimed that UP objected to the overlaying of dolomite and instead wanted mangroves to be planted in the baywalk area of Manila Bay.

With the offer of the UP Institute of Biology and Marine Sciences of help, Antiporda said the DENR will gladly accept this “if it is for free.’’

Antiporda claimed to have done his own research showing the DENR paid half a billion pesos from 2016 to 2020 purely for consultation purposes only with no single infrastructure built.

He asserted that the institute should refrain from making criticism since they are paid by the government.

A peeved Antiporda declared this after the UP institute had asked for an audit on the Manila Bay White Sand Project which is a pet project of the DENR.

Turning the tables around, Antiporda asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to investigate where the half a million pesos consultation fee paid by the agency from 2016 to 2020 went.

With the “election fever’’ nearing, Antiporda noted that critics are merely out to discredit the government for the Manila Bay White Beach Project.

https://mb.com.ph/2020/10/14/environment-advocates-slam-denr-undersecretary-for-demeaning-up-scientists/

Group teaches investing in capital market

Published October 15, 2020, 7:00 AM

by James A. Loyola

The Global Filipino Investors Inc. (TGFI), a group led by entrepreneur and housing tycoon Januario Jesus Atencio, is helping Filipinos take advantage of the capital market rut due to the pandemic in anticipation of an economic recovery.

Description: https://mb.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/jba2-1024x892.jpgJanuario Jesus Atencio

TGFI is bringing together powerhouse economists and stock market gurus in a free virtual conference to teach Filipinos how to invest as the country charts its path to be one of the leading emerging markets in the post COVID era.

Atencio, TGFI Chairman and CEO of Januarius Holdings Inc., said that the two-day conference scheduled next month will tackle the relevance of investing in bonds and stocks to the Philippine economy recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also said that Filipinos should look beyond the challenges of the present situation and let the national leaders and health authorities worry about the global crisis.

 “We cannot be fixated with the here and now of the current crisis,” Atencio stressed.

For his part, TGFI President, Floi Wycoco said that the free TGFI Bonds and Stocks Online Conference 2020 will serve as a reminder that there are still people out there who are generous enough to help others.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) has partially recovered after crashing of the economy. It stalled as the entire Luzon was placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) during March 2020.

 “It also makes sense to conduct this event now while the PSEi is still in its correction phase, bonds can work as a way to protect the unrealized loss encountered during this phase so our goal is to let our attendees understand the purpose of being diversified especially in times such as the world is in today,” Wycoco said.

He added Filipinos need to rise stronger and smarter as a nation when it comes to finance.

 “Months have passed since the lockdown, live events have left the stage, and businesses had to pivot.

This is where the TGFI Bonds and Stocks Online Conference (BSOC) comes in. We believe that Filipinos from different classes can learn more about these two investment vehicles and more so, give our audience the confidence to invest both in bonds and the stock market,” Wycoco said.

In promotion of financial literacy in support of the efforts of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and to improve the well-being of every Filipino, the Group organized TGFI Bonds and Stocks Online Conference 2020 happening on November 21 & 22, 2020 to bring light to the opportunities in-store for every Filipino.

 “This is the new normal. And we’re ready to get geared up for a more financially literate Philippines. And many Filipinos have gotten into their own businesses recently.  It’s so exciting where we’re all heading.

This leap done by most of our countrymen is very special to me, as a former OFW, Filipinos are truly resilient,” Wycoco said.

 

https://mb.com.ph/2020/10/15/group-teaches-investing-in-capital-market/

Assessment of flood damage on rice awaited

Sok Chan / Khmer Times 

Collecting rice from a flooded paddy in Banteay Meanchey province. Supplied

 

The Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) has called on rice miller members to collect and purchase wet paddy from farmers at an affordable price after recent deluges.

CRF’s President Song Saran said some members have already purchased the paddy from farmers, especially from the most affected areas.

“We called on our members to purchase the paddy in the rice fields. Our members number nearly 100 in Banteay Meanchey, Battambang and Pursat,” Saran added. “Some areas, farmers have had to harvest the crop in the water, so we have to help purchase the wet paddy from them,” he added.

Chray Son, Chairman of Capital Food Investment Import Export Co in Battambang province, said his company has purchased around 3,000 tonnes of paddy so far from farmers as of Oct 12. “Now, there is no paddy to buy because it was flooded and farmers cannot harvest it,” Son said.

“If there is paddy available, we will continue purchasing it from farmers,” he said. He added that the price of paddy is around 1,060 riel to 1,080 riel per kilogramme while last year it was only 1,020 riel per kilogramme. However, he added that the price varies according to the quality.

Flash floods have been hitting Battambang, Pursat, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Kampong Speu, Stung Treng and Siem Reap provinces, inundating houses, schools, administrative offices and other infrastructure, as well as rice fields.

Pursat Agricultural Department Director Lay Piseth said as of Oct 12, more than 18,570 hectares of paddy fields in Pursat were affected by flooding and 4,600 hectares were damaged.

He said that if there is no more rain and flooding in Veal Veng district, in at least one week,  levels will be low because the water will flow to Tonle Sap Lake. Mostly, the paddy cultivated here is a three-month variety (three harvests a year). The most affected areas are around Pursat city and Kandieng district.

“We see the rice millers come and buy the paddy from farmers and price is good at around 1,150 riels to 1,200 riels per kilogramme,” he added.

Chhim Vichara, director of the Battambang provincial Agricultural Department, said there were more than 62,000 hectares of 350,000 hectares affected in his province while more than 46,000 hectares of other crops were also affected. He said the province has yet to evaluate the damage. The flood hit the medium and premium fragrant rice – such as Phka Romdoul.

“We cannot make any assessment on when the water will be low because now rain is still coming. Later the province will conduct an assessment on the impact,” he added. “We
are working with relevant authorities to help and evacuate people and animals to safe places,” he added.

A report from National Committee for Disaster Management of Cambodia stated that more than 120,000 hectares of farmland were affected by floods and damaged. Among the affected farmland, 80,000 hectares are paddy fields.

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https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50772988/assessment-of-flood-damage-on-rice-awaited/

Poor quality pulls down palay prices – traders

Published October 14, 2020, 12:16 PM

by Madelaine B. Miraflor

Millers and traders are blaming the poor quality of unhusked rice being produced by farmers to the current low prices of the staple food.

Description: https://mb.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/rice.jpg (MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

This was validated by Agriculture Secretary William Dar, who said consumers now prefer quality rice.

In a statement, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said rice millers and traders are having difficulty buying palay because of low quality, composed mostly of assorted or ‘rumble’ varieties that when milled produce chalky and broken grains.

“If farmers want to command good prices, they should plant better quality rice seeds and what the consumers want,” a miller from Nueva Ecija told DA.

A Bulacan rice miller, on the other hand, also told the DA that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it hard for them to sell their rice stocks because of lack of demand, which “was made even harder by the low quality of palay harvest this season”.

DA likewise cited a trader from Isabela, who said that consumers now prefer rice varieties that are long-grain and taste and smell better when cooked.

“Millers and traders are thus one in saying that farmers should now plant varieties that have good milling and eating qualities, and preferred by consumers,” DA said.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that palay prices fell to as low as P12 per kilogram (/kg) in some areas in the country during the third week of September, which means some farmers barely made money during this harvest season.

This, since in order to produce a kilo of rice in the Philippines, Filipino rice farmers have to spend P12.72, which is higher compared to the production cost of farmers in Vietnam and Thailand at P6.22/kg and P8.86/kg, respectively.

With such production cost, the breakeven farmgate price of fresh harvest should be around P14.50/kg.  

In Davao City, palay’s price went down to as low as P12.74/kg during the third quarter of September, while Caraga, North Cotabato, and Surigao del Sur saw palay prices plunging to around P12/kg to P12.80/kg.

To address the problem about the poor quality rice being produced by farmers, Dar said that for the succeeding cropping seasons, the country will not just be after attaining production targets, but also producing quality rice for Filipino consumers that will provide higher income for farmers.

“We need to adapt to the changes brought about by the Rice Tariffication Law [RTL], one of which is consumers’ preference for quality rice. This is now an integral part of the overall transformation of the country’s rice industry,” Dar said.

Dar said he will meet with seed producers to discuss the preferred rice varieties of consumers, and the desired levels of productivity that will provide farmers more income.

“We have to make seed producers, farmers and other stakeholders understand that our overall strategy now is inclusive market-oriented development,” Dar said.

“Kung ano demand ng market, kung ano ang pangangailangan ng consuming public iyon ang dapat i-produce ng ating mga magsasaka [What the market demands, what the consuming public needs, farmers should be able to produce that,” he added.

Under the RTL, which allowed the unlimited entry of cheaper imported rice, the government is compelled to provide free seeds and mechanization to rice farmers through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), the collection of rice import tariff.  

This means that after RTL was passed in March last year, it was actually the DA who provided some farmers the seeds that they used for the current harvest, which according to traders yielded poor quality rice.  


So far, the DA already distributed 1.38 million bags of certified inbred seeds to 554,512 farmers during the dry season 2019 to 2020, and 2.27 million bags of inbred seeds to 862,854 farmers during the current wet season.

Moving forward, Dar said the DA will hold consultations with farmers, seed producers, traders, millers, and other stakeholders to determine current industry trends, demand of the domestic retail market and institutional buyers, customers’ needs and wants, and needed policy shifts or reforms and government interventions.

The other day, agriculture lobby group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) asked President Rodrigo Duterte to order DA to allot P36 billion to help subsidize palay procurement.

This, according to SINAG Chair Rosendo So will be used to help private millers and traders to buy palay at P19/kg, supposed that it’s being bought at P15/kg.

He said this would be enough to buy 9 million metric tons (MT) of palay from farmers without shortchanging both farmers and millers.  

Right now, the National Food Authority (NFA), whose sole mandate is to secure the government’s buffer stock for calamities and national emergencies, procures palay at P19/kg.

However, NFA Administrator Judy Dansal said before that while the state-run grains agency can intensify its palay procurement, it couldn’t buy the entire produce due to its limited budget and post-harvest facilities.

Palay harvest during the first semester of 2020 totaled 8.387 million metric tons (MT), 1.4 percent more than the 8.269 million MT produced during the same period last year.

Second semester palay output this year is expected to be at 11.954 million MT, 13.4 percent more than last year’s 10.545 million MT.

https://mb.com.ph/2020/10/14/poor-quality-pulls-down-palay-prices-traders/

 

DA sees record-high 8% hike in palay harvest in 2020 to 20.341 MMT

 

ByJasper Y. Arcalas

October 14, 2020

 

Description: https://businessmirror.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Agri-photo-696x522.jpgA farmer in Pangasinan displays threshed rice in this photo. The average farm-gate price of dry palay reached P17.12 per kilogram in the second week of September, according to government data.

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The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday said the country’s total palay harvest this year could increase by 8 percent to a record-high of 20.341 million metric tons (MMT) on the back of better yield and favorable planting conditions.

In a news statement, the DA said second semester palay output is projected to reach 11.954 MMT, which is 13.4 percent more than the 10.545 MMT output in the July-to-December period of last year.

The country’s palay output in the first half grew by 1.4 percent to 8.387 MMT from last year’s 8.269 MMT, the DA added.

In a recent virtual Senate hearing, Agriculture Undersecretary Ariel T. Cayanan said the projected full-year output would be met, barring weather disturbances such as typhoons and possible impact of La Niña.

If the full-year palay output is met, this would bring the country’s rice self-sufficiency level from 87 percent to about 93 percent to 94 percent, Cayanan said.

Following higher local production, the DA said it will now encourage Filipino rice farmers to shift from planting low-quality rice varieties to high-quality ones that are preferred by consumers to be able to earn more.

“We need to adapt to the changes brought about by the rice tariffication law, one of which is consumers’ preference for quality rice. This is now an integral part of the overall transformation of the country’s rice industry,” said Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar.

“That is why for the succeeding cropping seasons, we are not just after attaining production targets but also producing quality rice for Filipino consumers that will provide higher income for farmers,” he added.

Dar made the pronouncement during a recent virtual meeting with leaders of farmers’ groups, rice millers and traders, from major rice-producing provinces, the DA said.

Citing a Bulacan-based miller, the DA said the low quality of palay harvest worsened the current anemic market demand since consumers prefer high-quality rice.

The DA quoted a Nueva Ecija-based miller that “if farmers want to command good prices, they should plant better quality rice seeds and what the consumers want.”

Citing a trader from Isabela, the DA said consumers now prefer rice varieties that are “long-grain, and taste and smell better when cooked.” The DA added that the rice should possess the “4M” characteristics: maganda, mura, mabango at malambot.

“An informal survey done by the rice industry groups showed that 40 percent of consumers prefer rice with said attributes,” it said.

“Millers and traders are thus one in saying that farmers should now plant varieties that have good milling and eating qualities, and preferred by consumers,” it added.

The DA said the rice traders and millers volunteered to help the DA in promoting recommended rice varieties that farmers should plant in the succeeding seasons.

Dar committed that he would meet with seed producers “to discuss the preferred rice varieties of consumers, and the desired levels of productivity that will provide farmers more income.”

“We have to make seed producers, farmers and other stakeholders understand that our overall strategy now is inclusive market-oriented development,” he said.

Kung ano demand ng market, kung ano ang pangangailangan ng consuming public iyon ang dapat i-produce ng ating mga magsasaka. We need to adapt to changes brought about by the new regime,” he added.

Furthermore, Dar said the DA will hold dialogue with farmers, seed producers, traders, millers, and other stakeholders “to determine current industry trends, demand of the domestic retail market and institutional buyers, customers’ needs and wants, and needed policy shifts or reforms and government interventions.”

Image credits: Laila Austria

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/10/14/da-sees-record-high-8-hike-in-palay-harvest-in-2020-to-20-341-mmt/

 

DA to promote rice varieties preferred by consumers

 

ByEireene Jairee Gomez

October 15, 2020

 

 

Description: Eireene Jairee GomezThe Department of Agriculture (DA) is aiming to promote varieties of rice favored by consumers and desired levels of productivity that would give farmers more income, its chief said on Wednesday.

“We need to adapt to the changes brought about by the Rice Tariffication Law, one of which is consumers’ preference for quality rice. This is now an integral part of the overall transformation of the country’s rice industry,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said during a virtual meeting with leaders of farmers’ groups, millers and traders from major rice-producing provinces.

“That is why for the succeeding cropping seasons, we are not [only] after attaining production targets, but also producing quality rice for Filipino consumers that will provide higher income for farmers,” he added.

Rice millers and traders said they were having difficulty buying palay (unmilled rice) because of their low quality and because they are composed mostly of assorted or “rumble” varieties that, when milled, produced chalky and broken grains.

“The Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic has made it hard for us to sell our rice stocks because of lack in demand, which was made even harder by the low quality of [the] palay harvest this season,” a rice miller from Bulacan province said.

“If farmers want to command good prices, they should plant better-quality rice seeds and what the consumers want,” an unidentified miller from Nueva Ecija province said.

A trader from Isabela said consumers preferred long-grain rice varieties and those that taste and smell better when cooked. He added that these should be “maganda, mura, mabango at malambot (good, cheap, fragrant and soft).”

An informal survey by rice industry groups showed that 40 percent of consumers prefer rice with these attributes.

Millers and traders said farmers should plant rice varieties that consumers seek, and offered to help the DA promote recommended which varieties that farmers should plant in future seasons.

In response, Dar said the DA would meet with seed producers to discuss the preferred rice varieties and the desired levels of productivity that will boost farmers’ income.

“We have to make seed producers, farmers and other stakeholders understand that our overall strategy now is inclusive market-oriented development,” he said.

He also said the DA would consult with farmers, seed producers, traders, millers and other stakeholders to determine current industry trends, demand of the domestic retail market and institutional buyers, customers’ needs and wants, and needed policy shifts or reforms and government interventions.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/10/15/business/business-top/da-to-promote-rice-varieties-preferred-by-consumers/780779/

 

CRF calls on members to buy paddy after floods

Thou Vireak | Publication date 14 October 2020 | 22:09 ICT

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Description: Content image - Phnom Penh Post

A farmer harvests paddy rice in Kampot’s Kampong Trach district in 2019. The Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) has called on its member rice millers to buy paddy from farmers in flood-affected areas at sensible prices following the recent deluges. Hong Menea

The Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) has called on its member rice millers to buy paddy from farmers in flood-affected areas at sensible prices following the recent deluges.

The plea comes after a series of flash floods inundated several hectares of paddy fields across the Kingdom over the past week, with Battambang, Pursat and Banteay Meanchey provinces being particularly badly hit.

The CRF noted in a press release that the dramatic increase in floods in the Kingdom’s central lowlands region has led to significant damages to paddy fields and disruptions of logistics and transportation chains.

It said: “The CRF would like to ask member rice millers based near [affected] fields to help buy as much flooded paddy from farmers as possible at reasonable prices.”

Eang Heang, the owner of Eang Heang Rice Mill in Battambang province’s eastern Sangke district, told The Post that he has purchased more than 10,000 tonnes of paddy from farmers at an average price of between 950 and 1,000 riel ($0.23 and $0.24) per kg and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

He said: “I’ve been buying their paddy every day from even before the floods hit. I constantly recommended them to harvest their crop and sell it immediately, and not store it for a couple of days as that could quite well harm its quality.”

The Thorn Chea Rice Mill in Tbong Khmum province’s southwestern O’Reang-ou district also vowed to buy the affected paddy for the time being, in a move that its owner claimed would help stabilise the crop’s price.

Pann Chantrea said she has bought 200 tonnes of the flooded paddy daily for more than a week, noting that most of it was shipped by Pursat-based farmers.

She said: “I’m buying up all of the flooded paddy as long as it is available at a base price of 950 riel per kg. I’ve got to do this so that the price of their paddy does not fall.”

CRF secretary-general Lun Yeng told The Post on Tuesday that although the flood situation had eased, the federation continues to call on its members to purchase affected paddy.

He said: “Bearing in mind that we are nearing the end of the harvest season for early-maturing rice varieties, paddy remains at some level of risk. We call on our members to buy paddy to avoid panic among farmers.”

According to the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, the Kingdom will continue to experience scattered rains resulting from Saudel – the 17th typhoon of the year – and Tropical Storm Nangka, which are forecast to make landfall in the Kingdom at the weekend.

https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/crf-calls-members-buy-paddy-after-floods

 

UCD, Morehouse leaders explain how cries for social justice, health equity are intertwined

OCTOBER 14, 2020 05:00 AM, 

This story was written and reported by The Sacramento Bee's Equity Lab, a community-funded journalism team exploring issues of equity, wealth, race, power and justice in the region. Click here for more stories and to support The Equity Lab.

Your access to walkable spaces, the fresh food options you have and ultimately your life expectancy will largely be determined by where you live, but to understand why and to improve people’s lives, you have to go beyond geography.

That’s the message that Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, the dean of Atlanta’s Morehouse School of Medicine and a Harvard University-trained physician, conveyed to faculty, staff and students at UC Davis Health in a Facebook forum marking October as Global Diversity Month.

“We’ve figured out that just going into a community and telling people what they should be doing is not enough to expect that people are going to respond and change their lifestyle,” Montgomery Rice said. “We needed policies that would lead to sustainability, particularly in those areas where we had the lowest life expectancy and that were influenced by psychological barriers.”

She joined Gary May, the chancellor of the University of California, Davis, and Allison Brashear, the dean of the UCD College of Medicine, for a presentation laid right at the intersection of social justice and health equity. The talk came as the new coronavirus continues to kill disproportionately high numbers of Latinos, African Americans and Pacific Islanders.

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Discussions like this one are crucial, Brashear said, because the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic social injustice “has made it very clear that we need to do more to ensure that everyone in our community has access to high-quality and culturally sensitive health care that they need and deserve.”

May said the conversation was particularly meaningful to him because his mother was among the first group of African-American students to integrate the University of Missouri back in the 1950s during Jim Crow.

“People think that stuff was so long ago, but for me and for many, that was just one generation ago,” he said. “Then, if you fast-forward, when I finished graduate school in 1991 at UC Berkeley, that year, I was one of only 30 African Americans to earn a Ph.D. in engineering. That was 30 in the entire United States. You could have fit us all in one classroom.”

Montgomery Rice also used a personal illustration to bring home the impact of social inequities. In her Facebook presentation, she showed a map of her hometown, Macon, Georgia, showing neighborhoods where African Americans were systematically denied services and home-buying opportunities for more than a century after slavery was abolished. Then Montgomery Rice presented a map she’d marked up with a Sharpie showing neighborhoods that still struggle today in Macon versus those that are wealthy.

That city’s highest-income communities remain in areas where African Americans had long been excluded, Montgomery Rice’s map showed, and there remains a redlining of opportunities for outdoor exercise, pre-kindergarten education, access to fresh fruits and vegetables in ZIP codes outside those areas of affluence.

It’s the same pattern identified by researchers in an exhaustive 2006 study of thousands of US counties, noted Montgomery Rice, in which Harvard-based researchers identified eight Americas and the socioeconomic and cultural factors that produced disparate health outcomes.

These so-called social determinants of health shape everything from people’s relationship to exercise and food to how many encounters they’ll have with law enforcement, researchers have found.

Where you grow up will determine your answers to questions like: Were you reared in a place where you could safely ride a bike or walk to a park? Historically, what kind of food did your family eat and what recipes were passed from generation to generation? What kind of preschool education did you receive? How did you access health care?

The origin of some social determinants date back centuries, Montgomery Rice noted in an interview with The Bee. Slavery, for instance, has had a longstanding impact on the nutritional health of African Americans. As enslaved people, they were given proteins and foods considered undesirable, she said, and when slavery ended, many lived on subsistence wages that limited food choices to what was cheapest.

“You saw the beginnings of malnutrition and then poor nutrition that led to diseases like diabetes and hypertension,” she said. “Combining that with (health care) access challenges, those diseases could not be managed appropriately. So, these disparities definitely started early on, and they have sprawled over the years. I believe they are longstanding and systemic.”

To counter these intractable challenges, the Harvard-led Eight Americas researchers urged government and public health leaders to take these steps:

▪ Identify cost-effective interventions that will reduce the factors that put people at greater risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. While some interventions may work across all groups, some may need to be specifically tailored.

▪ Put in place systems to monitor benchmarks for local populations who would benefit from those interventions.

▪ Publicly report to each community the interventions that are being taken, along with metrics that show the progress.

“We have to ask ourselves what can we do to influence policy,” Montgomery Rice said. “At the end of the day, sustainability of interventions only is realized through policy, so lots of people have had great intentions about how to address housing challenges or transportation challenges or even redlining, right? Many communities have dealt with that. But unless you wrap a policy around it that actually continues to monitor the protection that is afforded to those areas, then you will never see the opportunity for achieving equity and then that, of course, will inform health equity.”

As a Washington Post article recently noted, Montgomery Rice said, African Americans pay 13% more, on average, in property taxes than White neighbors in similarly priced homes, yet their neighborhoods often receive less investment in parks and other infrastructure that would benefit their health. Residents should ask public officials to provide data on property tax burdens, Montgomery Rice said, and how spending is apportioned.

What people often fail to see, Montgomery Rice added, is that the recent protests over social injustices are actually directly linked to statistics on longevity and poor health outcomes.

To address this, the Eight Americas researchers recommended that policymakers act to reduce socioeconomic inequalities. One way to do this, Montgomery Rice said during The Bee interview, would be to expand access to preschool education.

Controlled experiments at the Perry Preschool Project in Ypsilanti, Mich., in the 1960s, and the Carolina Abcedarian Project in the 1970s randomly assigned African American children to a preschool program or to a control group that didn’t go to preschool.

After decades of following those children, researchers reported significantly higher education, income, home ownership levels and markedly less involvement with the criminal justice system among those who attended preschool compared with the control group.

The Harvard researchers also recommended that civic leaders remove physical, behavioral and cultural barriers to care and make health insurance and health care more affordable.

It takes courage, Montgomery Rice said, to remove those barriers, those fences that keep certain groups in society from access to services that can improve their lives and ultimately the overall well-being of all Americans.

“You have to recognize that the fence actually exists, and most of the time, it’s unintentional,” Montgomery Rice said. “It is about educating ourselves, accepting the fact that we have unconscious biases, because once we recognize that they exist, then we can work on what the solution would be to move that fence because most of the time, it is unconsciously holding us back from helping you to reach your full opportunity.”

 

Haryana CM asks officers to monitor procurement of Kharif crops in Mandis across State

Wednesday, 14 October 2020 | PNS | Chandigarh

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Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday directed the officials engaged in procurement of Kharif crops to visit the field to monitor the procurement process in the Mandis across the State.

Apart from this, the officials at Head Quarter level should ensure online approval for H-Form, J- Form, Gate Passes and I Form for the process of crop lifting from Mandi to Warehouse during paddy procurement. The payment of farmers should also be ensured on priority basis within one week after issuing H Form and within 72 hours after the approval of I Form, he added. 

Presiding over a review meeting of officials of Departments engaged in the paddy procurement process here, Khattar said that even if one of the officers or employees involved in the procurement process is found neglecting their duty then the whole process stalls.

He said that the accountability of everyone including the officials of Mandi Board, Secretary, Ahrtiyas, Millers and Transporters should be fixed. The proportionate stock should be allocated to every rice mill attached to the concerned grain market. It should also be ensured that no mill gets more stock than its prescribed allocated quota, he added.

The Chief Minister said that a chart of the entire process based on Mandi wise, Farmer wise and Commission agents wise should be prepared and uploaded on the website so that any person can consult it. Notably, the farmer should be aware about the day when his H Form is released so that he can follow the schedule.

The Chief Minister said that he himself will continue to get information about the entire procurement process on the dashboard while at Chandigarh.

In the meeting, the Department of Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs apprised the Chief Minister that earlier the procurement process was offline which has now been made online. Every precise information including the day of issuing H Form, J Form, Gate Pass and I Form will be made available on the website. Besides this the information regarding the timings of clicking Pay-Now Button for online payments by the district manager or bankers will be available.

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/haryana-cm-asks-officers-to-monitor-procurement-of-kharif-crops-in-mandis-across-state.html

 

 

 

 

Nigeria now Africa’s largest rice producer –FG

Published October 14, 2020

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Okechukwu Nnodim, Abuja

Nigeria is now the largest producer of rice in Africa, the Federal Government said on Tuesday.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono, said this in Abuja at an event to mark the 2020 World Food Day, celebrated annually on October 16.

Nanono said, “Significant progress has been made to improve agricultural productivity since the inception of the present administration.

“To boost food security, Nigeria has curbed imports and has established a robust rice production programme to encourage more rice production at home.

“Efforts in this direction are starting to show results as Nigeria is now Africa’s largest producer of rice. The country is also the largest producer of cassava in the world.”

The minister said a range of policies and initiatives to strengthen the rice and cassava value chains had been put in place.

According to him, the economic potential of both livestock and fisheries are also being harnessed.

Nanono stated that in an attempt to diversify the economy, the Federal Government had continued with its focus on the agricultural sector.

“The government has deepened the culture with the Anchor Borrowers Programme initiative and ban on the importation of some agro-commodities,” he said.

The minister further stated that the Federal Government through the Agro Processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support project had set aside N600bn as loan support to farmers across the country.

He said no fewer than 2.4 million farmers were expected to benefit from the loan which had zero interest.

https://punchng.com/nigeria-now-africas-largest-rice-producer-fg/#:~:text=Okechukwu%20Nnodim%2C%20Abuja,celebrated%20annually%20on%20October%2016.

 

 

 

 

Container shortage may hamper rice exports from Vid

   Date :14-Oct-2020

Description: Container_1  H

 

 

By Ravi Chandpurkar :

 

Exporters are facing huge container shortage and rising freight rates which may hamper non-Basmati rice exports from Vidarbha. There is a huge pile up of loaded rice in containers at CONCOR-MIHAN and DLI freight terminal, Borkhedi. Containers are not being railed out to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Mumbai. This is because of lack of space on ships. Shipping lines blame the trade imbalance to be the main reason for the situation.

 

The current situation may derail the boom in non-Basmati rice exports from Vidarbha region. This was revealed by Shivkumar Rao, President of Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED) while speaking to The Hitavada. The COVID-19 crisis has disrupted the supply chain as there have been lockdowns in various countries at different time durations.

 

About 800 to 900 loaded containers of rice bound for exports are stranded at CONCOR MIHAN and DLI terminals. Imports to India has dropped drastically due to which there is shortage of containers. To worsen the situation, the freight rates of shipping vessels from Mumbai to West African ports which were at $1,100 per container to $1,200 per container has shot up to $1,600 per container to $1,700 per container, a rise of 25 per cent to 30 per cent, he said. On a monthly average 4,000 to 5,000 containers are exported from Nagpur. That is expected to rise to 8,000 to 9,000 containers per month with the current agri-export boom. Currently rice is witnessing a bumper crop due to good weather conditions.

 

Plus there is huge demand for non-Basmati rice from Vidarbha to West African countries. Sources said that further delay in container shipments could hit non-Basmati exports from Vidarbha and a big opportunity could be lost. To aggravate the situation, the loaded rice containers could get spoilt if held up for long period at the terminals. In addition, orders of exporters could get cancelled which would damage the reputation of the country in the international market. To ease the delay in container shipments, international shipping companies should try to allocate more containers and vessels for Indian exports. The Government should intervene and do something about the situation and find a solution at the earliest, sources demanded.

https://www.thehitavada.com/Encyc/2020/10/14/Container-shortage-may-hamper-rice-exports-from-Vid.html

 

 

10,000 evacuated in Cambodia due to flooding; rice crop hit

 

Oct. 14, 2020 Updated: Oct. 14, 2020 4 a.m.

1of9Buddhist monks walk through a flooded pagoda following recent rains on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. A Cambodian disaster official said Wednesday that more than 10,000 people have been evacuated to safety places after a tropical storm hit the country, causing the flash flood.Photo: Heng Sinith, AP

2of9Villagers walk down a flooded dirt road following recent rains on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. A Cambodian disaster official said Wednesday that more than 10,000 people have been evacuated to the safety places after the tropical storm hit the country by causing the flash flood.Photo: Heng Sinith, AP

3of9A man, right, sits on a bamboo bed as his wife, left, who wades through their flooded home following recent rains on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. A Cambodian disaster official said Wednesday that more than 10,000 people have been evacuated to safety places after a tropical storm hit the country, causing the Photo: Heng Sinith, AP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — More than 10,000 people have been evacuated in Cambodia after a tropical storm triggered flash floods, an official said Wednesday.

Seasonal rains made worse by the storm caused flooding in 19 of the country’s 25 provinces, affecting 140,000 people in all, said Khun Sokha, a spokesman for the National Committee for Disaster Management.

The flooding also destroyed thousands of hectares (acres) of rice, he said. The capital, Phnom Penh, was not badly hit, though police moved more than 500 families in a southern part of the city to safer ground.

Khun Sokha said the heavy rains have killed at least 11 people since the beginning of the month. They are expected to continue until this weekend as two more tropical storms are set to hit Cambodia in the next few days.

Transportation has also been affected, with trucks banned from several major roads in the worst-hit provinces to avoid damaging their surfaces. Another road leading south from Phnom Penh was closed to all vehicles because of a bridge that was weakened by the floodwaters.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/10-000-evacuated-in-Cambodia-due-to-flooding-15646310.php

 

DA seeks improved rice quality to address shifting preferences

 

 

Description: https://www.bworldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/PALAY-PHILSTAR.jpgPHILSTAR

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it hopes to improve the quality of domestic rice due to shifting consumer preferences, and to better align farmers’ production with market expectations.

“We need to adapt to the changes brought about by the Republic Act No. 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law, one of which is consumers’ preference for quality rice. This is now an integral part of the overall transformation of the country’s rice industry,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said in a statement after consulting with farmers, millers, and traders.

Mr. Dar said traders and millers reported that many farmers produce low-quality palay which when milled produces rice that is easily broken and with a chalky consistency.

“For the succeeding cropping seasons, we are not just after attaining production targets, but also producing quality rice for Filipino consumers that will provide higher income for farmers,” Mr. Dar said.

According to rice millers and traders, consumers want rice varieties that are long-grain and tastes and smell good when cooked. The market is demanding so-called four-M rice. The four Ms stand for maganda, mura, mabango, at malambot (attractive, cheap, fragrant, and soft).

The DA said that in an informal survey, consumers who said they prefer rice with those attributes accounted for 40% of the market.

Rice millers and traders urged Mr. Dar to plant varieties that hold up to the milling process and possess good eating qualities.

They also offered assistance to the Philippine Rice Research Institute in promoting recommended rice varieties to be used by farmers in future planting seasons.

Mr. Dar said he will consult with seed producers, farmers, traders, and other stakeholders to define current industry trends, market demand, consumer needs and preferences, and any required policy shifts or reforms.

Kung ano demand ng market, kung ano ang pangangailangan ng consuming public iyon ang dapat i-produce ng ating mga magsasaka. (Market demand and the needs of the consuming public should determine what farmers produce) We need to adapt to changes brought about by the new regime,” Mr. Dar said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave



High rice yield in heavy saline-alkali soil of NE China

 

China.org.cn, October 13, 2020

 

On Oct. 10, experts organized by the Cultivated Land Quality Monitoring and Protection Center (CLQMPC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) estimated the yield of a demonstration paddy field with heavy saline-alkali soil.

On this land, a 1,000 mu (about 67 hectares) field in Da'an City of northeast China's Jilin province, the experts randomly selected three plots for harvest and yield calculation. After land measuring, weighing, moisture measuring, impurity removal, and other strict procedures, the results showed that the average yield per mu of the three pieces was 659.714 kg, up 50.99% compared with 436.921 kg per mu of the control fields.

"The yield per hectare is close to a staggering 10,000 kg, which is the level of the high-yielding rice fields in our city," said Li Jinyou, an official from Da'an Natural Resources Bureau.

"Even grass couldn't survive on such saline-alkali soil," said Li Guo, a rice farmer of a selected plot. "Previous attempts only led to a yield of less than 2,000 kg per hectare. Now the yield has multiplied."

Da'an City is located in the heart of Songnen Plain, one of the world's three major tracts of soda saline-alkali land. Known as "soil cancer," saline-alkali land exhibits problems such as soil compaction, low content of organic matter and poor soil physicochemical properties, all of which are unsuitable for crop growth.

The soil in the demonstration field was ameliorated through organosilicon soil conditioner and a set of technical routes for saline-alkali soil treatment. These new technologies were developed by Hebei Silicon Valley Research Institute of Agricultural Sciences.

These technologies can promote soil granulation and improve permeability, both favorable to the propagation of beneficial organisms. It can also hinder the rise of salt-bearing groundwater to make the arable layer less salinized. Under such circumstances, the irrigation water tends to seep down, taking salt away from the surface.

"Our conditioner also contains nutrients that can meet the growth needs of crops and create a good environment for their root system, improving both yield and quality," noted Nie Hongmin, a technical expert with the research institute.

The cultivated land in China is divided into one to ten grades based on its quality from high to low. According to a MARA bulletin on the quality grade of cultivated land in China in 2019, the area of cultivated land evaluated as grade four to ten in northeast China is 215 million mu, of which 66 million mu is saline-alkali land.

"The improvement of every 10 million mu of saline-alkali cultivated land in northeast China will lead to an increase of five billion kg in the overall grain production. This is a successful demonstration. We hope these new technologies and models can be applied widely to saline-alkali land, converting saline-alkali wastelands into high-yield farmland," commented Li Rong, deputy director of CLQMPC.

Content created in partnership with Science and Technology Daily.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2020-10/13/content_76801809.htm