Government
Job: Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad Recruitment 2015
Related
Links
Applications are invited by the
Project Director, Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad from
eligible candidates for recruitment to 2 administrative posts of Lower Division
Clerk at IIRR, Hyderabad, under the administrative control of Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR). The recruitment would be done through written
test and interviews to be conducted by the IIRR. Last date to apply for
recruitment is within 30 days/ 45 days (as applicable) from the date of
advertisement.
Vacancy details:
·
Name of the posts:
Lower Division Clerk
·
Total posts: 02 posts
·
Pay scale: Pay Band 1
of Rs. 5200- 20200 with Grade Pay of Rs.1900
Eligibility:
·
Educational
qualification: Candidates applying should have pass Class 12th or equivalent
qualification from recognized a Board or University and have typing speed of 35
wpm in English or 30 wpm in Hindi on computer.
·
Age
limit: Candidates applying should not be less than 18 years and not more
than 27 years of age as on January 01, 2015.
Selection process: Candidates would be
recruited through an examination which shall be conducted in 2 stages:
·
Written test
·
Interview
How to apply: All eligible and interested
candidates should send their application, in the prescribed format, along with
crossed DD of Rs. 300 in favour of ‘ICAR Unit – A/c IIRR’ payable at Hyderabad,
as non-refundable application fee, and attested copies of supporting documents
to ‘The Administrative Officer, ICAR – Indian Institute of Rice Research,
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad -500030’ by post within 30 days/ 45 days ( as
applicable) from the date of advertisement. [No application fee for SC/ ST/ PH/
and female candidates]
Important dates: Last date for receipt of
applications:
·
within 30 days from
the date of advertisement.
·
within 45 days from
the date of advertisement for candidates from Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur,
Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar,
Lakshadweep, Minicoy and Admindivi Island. Ladakh division of J&K state,
Pangi sub-division of Chamba and Lahul & Spiti district of HP.
·
Date of Advertisement:
June 29,
2015
http://www.prepsure.com/news/government-job-indian-institute-of-rice-research-hyderabad-recruitment-2015/
Rice Business and Matters Arising
04 Jul 2015
Buhari
Julius Ogunrombi
One primary campaign promise of the Buhari-led government has been to stamp out
corruption in Nigeria. At the moment, the country’s rice sub-sector is assailed
with corruption, protectionism and smuggling, all pulling each other in the
same direction of destroying the plan of self-sufficiency in the rice sector.
Analysts are however hopeful that the rice
sub-sector will benefit from this proposed cleansing.It is a pity however, that
the rice business is becoming synonymous with high level corruption that runs
from ordinary citizens smuggling one or two bags of rice into the country, to
the big ones who work with Custom officers, and government officials who
circumvent the nation by influencing government’s policy and regulation to
their selfish advantage. In the end, the efforts of the nation toward
self-sufficiency remains largely unattainable.Of particular interest is the
furore which arose from the lack of transparency in the 2014 Rice Quota
allocation.
This has brought renewed anxieties over the
2015 provision which reliable sources claimed, were quickly passed by the
Jonathan-government to favour some ‘friends-of-government’.As it is, the
Buhari-led government appears to be in the process of weighing the magnitude of
corruption in the different economic sectors; it would be good if he makes a
priority of reviewing policies and regulations in the rice sub-sector, the rice
value chain relevance of foreign and local investors, and as well place checks
in the activities of government officials involved in the rice market.As it
appears, we are fast becoming a country that does not learn from its past. So
far, the 2014 Rice Quota replays the rice uproar of 1981, which happened during
the Shehu Shagari government.
At that time, considering the
fluctuating irregularities in the market, and subsequent rice shortages, the
government decided to protect local rice farmers from imported food through the
quota system. And just as promised in the 2014 Quota, it was an attempt to
protect local players from foreign investors. The result however was a
high-level corruption among high government officials.The cusp of rice
policy-making in Nigeria typically shifts between high tariffs and quota
allocations. These processes encourage smugglers to find ways to corrupt
systems like the Customs Service which already lacks integrity. It also
encourages local traders to partner with timeserving importers who are grouped
with genuine investors, building mills and raising paddies across Nigeria.
It is important to note that
government’s instability of policy and regulations in the rice sector is a
major reason it has lacked sustainable growth. Foreign investors are not the
problem; as they are governed by the rules of the land.Also, granting rice quota
to those who are all out to make quick money, without investing in the rice
value chain, undermines the effort of those who are working towards the
self-sufficiency goal of the government.Interestingly, some ‘victimised’
foreign investors are in this category. They are the ones who run functional
mills, grow paddies, and work with local farmers.Should the government decide
to offer equity to investors, it should consider bring it with open hands;
especially in this case as food security is involved.
It should also place in perspective that
investors are running a business, and this implies they need to plan ahead,
manage budgets and have turnarounds. The inconsistency of deploying
unstable regulations and policies, makes rice business a huge risk, and in the
long run, largely unattractive for investment.It can be said that the 2014
quota allocation is an obvious way of how a government must not implement
policies, and it is largely hoped that the Buhari-led government would not
repeat the same mistake.The crisis surrounding the quota began when the Federal
Government accused foreign investors in the country of owing the government
N36.56 billion naira, which they explained accrued from exceeded quota
allocations. As published in newspapers, the Nigerian Rice Millers
Association (NRMA) said it received a circular from the former Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the 2015 – 2017 Fiscal Policy Measure on Rice.
It stated that the President had assessed the fiscal policy on rice, as a
measure to promote investments in the rice value chain through backward
integration as from 26 May 2014.
One of the newspapers reporting
quoted from the circular: “Importation of Husked Brown rice (H.S. Code
10006.2000.00) and semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished
or glazed (H.S. Code 10006.3010.00), by investors with rice milling capacity
and verifiable backward integration programme, shall attract 10 per cent duty
rate with a levy of 20 percent and will be limited to the national supply gap
to be determined by the Committee (for a period of fours) and; Importation of
Husked Brown rice (H.S. Code 10006.2000.00) and semi-milled or wholly milled
rice, whether or not polished or glazed (H.S. Code 10006.3010.00), by pure
traders, shall attract an import duty rate of 10 percent plus 60 percent levy.
”By the time the circular got to
NRMA, the Nigerian Customs had granted some companies—merchants,
investors—shipment, using the preferential tariff reserved for the investors. Mindless
of this, the NRMA went along with the circular, and imported rice into the
country, but received another letter in December, which was backdated to
November 27 from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, informing
the association that a tentative import quota had been given to each rice
importer. It asked them to pay 10 per cent duty and 60 per cent levy for a
surplus into the national treasury. This would be the quota list of twenty-six
companies, paraded around.Hence it was an ex post fact o penalty which to an
observer could be a form of ‘foreign investor exploitation.
’ The truth as time have
revealed, over and over, is that the problem in our rice sub-sector is beyond
the outsiders-are-milking-us issue, rather we have a national problem.
The corruption in our rice market is influenced locally; so that advancement of
the-foreigners-are-out-to-kill-our-rice-market theory, works as a huge
distraction on solving the problem ground.The rice sub-sector is in need of an
urgent change, and the Nigerian government may need to call for a stakeholders’
meeting to understand the immediate problems, while establishing long-term
solutions that will help the country reach its self-sufficiency goal.Ogunrombi,
a public affairs analyst, writes from Ibadan, Oyo State
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/rice-business-and-matters-arising/213788/
CBN: Our Economic Fundamentals Remain Strong, Replies Economist
04 Jul 2015
Mr. Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor
Obinna Chima
Following its decision to exclude
funding of 41 items from the forex market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on
Friday told The Economist that Nigeria's economic fundamentals remain strong
despite grappling with oil price decline.
The apex bank added that it would not take desperate measures to satisfy those
it described as "few misguided interests in the market.
"The CBN's reaction was in
response to an article by The Economist titled: “Toothpick Alert,” published in
the print edition of July 4th 2015, of the international magazine.The banking
sector regulator also said it would "not panic", even as it
reiterated that Nigeria cannot attain its full potentials by importing anything
and everything.The apex bank last week announced the restriction of importers
of 41 items from accessing forex from the official foreign exchange market.Some
of these items include rice, wheel barrows, head pans, cement, margarine, palm
kernel/vegetable oil, meat and processed meat products, vegetable and processed
vegetable products, poultry, private airplanes/jets, Indian incense, toothpicks
and canned fish in sauce (geisha/sardines), among others.
As a result of this, the value of
the naira has depreciated to N230 to a dollar at the parallel market.But the
Central Bank pointed out that The Economist article ignored the fact that the
exchange rate is simply a price that is essentially determined by the forces of
supply and demand.It explained: "The CBN believes that the 48 per cent
decline in oil prices may not be transitory and made bold policy changes
including closure of the subsidised official forex window, which resulted in a
22 per cent depreciation in the naira. Because the Nigerian economy is heavily
dependent on imports and the exchange rate pass-through to inflation is high,
we believe that this adjustment is optimal at this time.
"Contrary to the article’s
argument, adjustments to a sharp decline in supply of US dollars cannot all be borne
by an indeterminate depreciation, without considering the full impact on the
Nigerian economy. The demand side also has to be considered, not just in
response to the pressure on the naira but as an opportunity to change the
economy’s structure, resuscitate local manufacturing, and expand job creation
for our citizens."Take rice imports, for example: why should we keep
allocating scarce forex to rice importers when vast amounts of paddy rice of
comparable quality produced by poor hardworking local farmers across the rice
belts of Nigeria are wasted, and farmers are falling deeper into poverty while
we export their jobs and income to rice producing countries?
"Few decades ago, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest
producers of palm oil but today we import nearly 600,000 metric tonnes while
Indonesia and Malaysia combine to export over 90 per cent of global demand.
Under these circumstances, the CBN will do the little it can to protect the
jobs and incomes of local farmers, using some of the same principles Western
Economies use to justify the protection of their farmers through huge
subsidies."More also, it pointed out that if the article believes the CBN
should adjust to reflect the current parallel market rate, why was the
suggestion not made in the week following the inauguration of President Buhari
when the same rate fell sharply to under N190 per dollar.
"For far too long, this trend has significantly weakened
the operating capacities of our industries, but now is a good opportunity to
begin a reversal. Although the article hastily derides this idea as lacking in
economic foundations, it is the same principles upon which many other countries
do not allow importation of certain products."Furthermore, it appears
condescending to suggest that the list of items seemed “to have been drawn up
by someone wandering around a house and a building site”. On the contrary,
items were only included after thorough and exhaustive discussions at the
highest policymaking body of the Bank, with the strategic national interest of
Nigeria.
"Like other oil-exporting countries, Nigeria is grappling
with its share of the aftermath of the oil price decline. Despite this, our
economic fundamentals remain strong. Inflation is still within the CBN’s
single-digit band, the exchange rate has stabilised around N197 per dollar for
the last five months, GDP expanded by four per cent in the first quarter
of 2015, and 469,070 new jobs were created in the same quarter."With
ingenuity and productiveness, we believe that Nigerians will seize this
opportunity and use it for the greater good of the country. As we transition
into a new administration in Nigeria, we must continue to ensure policy
stability at all times," it added.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/cbn-our-economic-fundamentals-remain-strong-replies-economist/213824/
Probe source of fake rice, Aquino orders
06:53 AM July 4th, 2015
President Benigno Aquino III on Friday ordered law enforcement
agencies to start tracking down sources of “synthetic rice” that may have
entered the country although state scientists would not say for sure whether or
not a suspicious sample from Davao City was indeed made of fake grains.The
President told Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima
to get their investigation line agencies—the Criminal Investigation and
Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police and the National
Bureau of Investigation, respectively—on the case.
The Food Development Center (FDC),
the laboratory arm of the National Food Authority (NFA), held a press briefing
yesterday to say that preliminary results of their tests showed the Davao
sample was “contaminated with dibutyl phthalate or DBP, a raw material for
making flexible plastic products.”But FDC officer in charge Jocelyn M. Sales
stressed that further tests were needed to know whether the sample was actually
not rice. The samples, she added, did contain starch—which is also found in
rice.
Earlier reports on the suspected
synthetic rice, supposedly smuggled from China, included information that the grains
were a mixture of potatoes, sweet potatoes and plastic or an industrial
synthetic resin.DBP is a plasticizer used to soften materials like PVC so that
it could be processed easily. “It is used in the manufacture of various
products, including food-containing items like plastic wraps and lunch boxes,”
Sales explained in a press briefing yesterday.
Francis Pangilinan, Presidential
Assistant on Food Security and Agricultural Modernization, told Davao residents
not to panic. He said the contaminant DBP was not a poison that could kill a
person immediately upon ingestion.“I was informed that, for harmful effects to
be felt, one has to be ingesting DBP everyday for at least three months,”
Pangilinan said.“And even if the sample from Davao City was found with DBP,
there was no cause for alarm or panic,” he insisted. “The NFA has been
conducting daily inspections to ensure that there is no fake rice in the
market,” he claimed.
NFA administrator Renan B. Dalisay
said the agency had addressed more than 20 complaints from various parts of the
country, including General Santos City and Metro Manila, regarding consumers’
suspicions about the milled rice they bought.“In most of these instances, we
were able to easily verify that the questionable product was actually rice,”
Dalisay said. “It was only on the complaint from Davao that we needed
laboratory tests.”Roxas, interviewed in Cagayan de Oro City, confirmed that the
President discussed the matter with him early yesterday. He said he had already
told the CIDG to “help the NFA and the DA (Department of Agriculture) in their
investigation.”In particular, he tasked the CIDG to determine the component of
the “plastic rice” and locate the warehouses where such shipments are brought.
“The CIDG should determine where these came from. In other words, the police
will follow and establish the supply chain or custody chain (of the fake
rice),” he said.“We will also find out where these were sold and where are the
warehouses so that we will able to know how they arrived),” Roxas added.
De Lima also said on Friday she was
ordered by the President to investigate the presence of synthetic rice in the
Philippine market.“I’ve been directed by the President to look into that. I
will constitute a task force to investigate that,” De Lima said in a statement
sent via text message yesterday.She said she would coordinate with Pangilinan
and tap the NBI.The NFA found that the suspicious rice in Davao City came from
a trader in Bansalan town, Davao del Sur.Fake rice is said to look no different
from real rice but has the texture of styrofoam when cooked and consumed. With Marlon Ramos and Tarra Quismundo
C-DAC
launches mobile apps marking Digital India Week
The Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has launched four mobile apps as part of the Digital
India Week, the first two pertaining to agriculture, and the other two for
fishermen and environment education for children.RiceVocs mobile app is a
compendium of rice-related vocabulary, and comprises about 2,500 terms related
to paddy crop, arranged in alphabetical order.It works as a ready reckoner for
the extension officers working with the knowledge about rice, a press release
informed on Friday.The Learnrice mobile app will provide users with a
comprehensive list of courses specifically designed for paddy crop. Both the
apps were developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Rice
Research.
The Potential Fishing Zone
Advisory mobile apps in Indian languages can be used to produce advisories to
the fishermen on daily basis with specific references to the 586 fish landing
centres along the Indian coast.The app has been developed in collaboration with
the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).The Joy of
Learning mobile apps developed in association with Centre for Environment
Education for classes III to V, VI to VIII, and IX to XI provide details of
useful science experiments for schoolchildren, the note informed.In another
press release, the C-DAC informed that it has signed a MoU with the Kakatiya
University to forge research and academic collaboration.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/cdac-launches-mobile-apps-marking-digital-india-week/article7385243.ece
Global
Rice Bran Oil Conference 2015 to be held in August
Mumbai | Saturday, Jul 4 2015 IST
The
second international conferencetitled 'Global Rice Bran Oil Conference 2015',
hosted by The SolventExtractors' Association of India (SEA), will be held on
7th and 8thAugust 2015 at Trident Hotel, Nariman Point, Mumbai. The
conference,according to the organizers SEA, will bring together over
400delegates and special invitees from not only India, but also fromChina,
Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries, for a closerinteraction for
promoting rice bran oil and its value addedproducts.
This conference will showcase the latest
products anddisseminate information on the latest technologies on rice bran
oiland its value added products.Speaking on the beneficial qualities of rice
bran oil, an officialfrom SEA said, "Rice bran oil, also know as the
'Wonder Oil' is aunique edible oil produced from the oily layer of brown rice,
whichis separated as rice bran, while producing white rice."The world
production of rice bran oil is about 15 lakh tonnes, outof which 9.5 lakh
tonnes are produced in India, against thepotential of 16 lakh tonnes, according
to SEA. Other major rice branoil producing countries are China, Japan, Thailand
and Vietnam.UNI JS FH SM1432
--
(UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-212636.Xml 1234
http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20150704/2634431.html
Sightly yellowish Saila rice.KARACHI: They say no feast is complete
without the rice dish be it in the shape of pulao, biryani, the plain white
variety or sweet zarda. There are some people who don’t touch bread or roti and
like having everything with rice. In the subcontinent,
lentils and fish curry are usually eaten with plain white rice.Rice as
mentioned already can be cooked in many ways. Pulao is cooked in broth. There
is also pea pulao or vegetable pulao that’s popular among children. Biryani, of
course, is enjoyed with plenty of spices and meat and potatoes. Zarda or sweet
rice is coloured saffron and is a popular dish for distributing when sharing
any good news with friends.
But these are different ways of cooked rice. There are also
different kinds of rice used for different kinds of dishes. You must have heard
of Basmati, Saila, Tota, etc. But a visit to the retail market, Jodia Bazaar,
introduces you to several more varieties of rice in different jars. There are
varieties such as Kernel rice, Super Kernel, Irri-6, etc. There are other
varieties too that are different in colour when compared with each other. Some
are white, some off-white, some even grey. And all are priced differently.
Buyers come all day examining the different varieties and taking or placing
orders for what they need or like.
“The varieties are created during
sorting to remove the brown peels that the thrashing in the fields didn’t do
away with, stones within the grains, etc. During the process, the machines may
break the grains which are separated to sell as Tota or broken rice,” explains
Fahad Ahmed, a rice dealer.“Saila rice doesn’t break easily. Since it’s rather
stubborn, we steam it, which changes its colour from white to yellowish. Some
varieties of Saila is double steamed as well,” he shares.
Sacks full of rice in a godown.
“Some people prefer extra long grains that grow even longer when cooked. They
don’t mind paying a little extra for it. Others who are price conscious and
don’t care about the appearance go for the cheaper Tota,” he says.“There is
another variety of rice grown from Indian seeds, which is quite expensive. It
is very expensive due to its beautiful long grains but it doesn’t taste as
great as our local Basmati,” he says.Asked then why is Pakistani rice not as
much in demand as Indian rice when ours tastes better, the rice expert explains
that Pakistan doesn’t fumigate the rice grains very well and the foreign buyers
are pretty disgusted to find insects crawling in the rice we export.
“Cleanliness matters,” he says.
The different varieties of rice
on display in jars at a shop.When asked if it is dangerous to fumigate
something that is going to be eaten, he shakes his head with a smile. “Why?
Don’t we spray crops? Rice fumigation is not strong. The effect of the
fumigation wears out with time. It is not dangerous.”
Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1192336/every-grain-of-rice
Indian
scientists' new DNA chip for speeding up rice breeding
By PTI | 5 Jul, 2015, 11.04AM IST
Rice is considered to be the 'king of cereals', hence rival claims
on its centre of origin cause a lot of heart burn in research
community.
By Pallava Bagla
NEW DELHI: One Chinese lie has been finally nailed this time by a team of
Indian scientists who provide irrefutable evidence that rice did originate in
India, a fact contested by China. If one
thought the Asian Big Brother was only fighting a proxy war to usurp Arunachal Pradesh,
parts of Kashmir and encircle India with a 'string of pearls' in the oceans,
there was also a deeper scientific conspiracy to rid India of the tag that our
staple food rice actually originated in China and not in Mother India.
Ownership of intellectual
property is a hugely emotional issue and can
lead to bruising skirmishes. Traditional wisdom has to be guarded at all costs.Lead researcher Nagendra Kumar
Singh, a biotechnologist working at National
Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, Indian
Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, says "Our work
proves that rice was indeed domesticated in India."Rice is native to India
is the verdict of a team of scientists at IARI who, while publishing their
findings in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, have effectively proved that
the rice varieties grown in India have actually originated in India.
This finding which demolishes the Chinese claim is actually a colateral benefit
of a neat new development from Singh's laboratory, the development of a new
'DNA chip for rice' a handy tool that will speed up development of new
varieties of rice as the world tries to adapt to a changing climate. This chip
will also help finger print rice varieties.Rice is considered to be the 'king
of cereals', hence rival claims on its centre of origin cause a lot of heart burn in research
community.
In
the 20th century, it was widely accepted that rice was independently
domesticated in both China and India.But, Chinese literature attributed the
domestication of rice to legendary Chinese Emperor Shennong.
This legend from Beijing
got bold impetus when a landmark 2011 research paper published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences refuted the widely held belief
that India was also a centre of origin of rice. It suggested that a single
domestication event some 8,200-13,500 years ago, in the Yangtze Valley of China
was the source of all rice in the world.
This fact peeved many Indian researchers until this week's new finding which
succinctly refutes the Chinese claim.Concurring with the IARI's claim, Gurdev S
Khush, Adjunct Professor, University of California, Davis, and former head, Plant Breeding
Genetics and Biotechnology, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Philippines says,
"This new paper certainly leads to the conclusion that some of the
varieties were domesticated in India."Therefore, in a way it possibly
settles the controversy that China alone should take the credit for giving the
world this wonder crop. It seems ancient farmers more than 10,000 years ago
independently in both countries figured out that rice was a great plant to
cultivate. The
National Gene Bank in India houses about 90,000 different varieties of rice
and in parts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh wild relatives of rice can still be found.
The
13-member team mainly from IARI actually set out to develop a unique DNA Chip
(rather different from a computer chip) that would help look for the best genes
and speed up development of new varieties. The scientists developed unique
genetic probes which are embedded on the surface of a glass plate and when a
suitable genetic mixture extracted from leaves of rice is poured, the wanted
regions glow under special conditions this helps the scientists identify the
presence or absence of the right gene combinations.
The new IARI Rice Chip accommodates 50,000 combinations of genes on a single
plate and is today the best of its kind in the world. Its nearest rival can
house only 44,000 variants and was developed by Susan R McCouch at
the Cornell
University in USA a few years ago.Singh says, "India was forced to develop
its own 'rice chip' after the American team denied India the import of this
technology." The team has now patented this new 'rice chip' and the
knowhow will be available for all breeders to use.
Singh says traditional plant breeding takes anything up to 15 years to develop
a new variety of rice but if one uses the new 'rice chip' the time taken to
breed can be halved. This, he says, is especially useful as there is a need to
hurriedly make agriculture 'climate resilient' as vagaries of weather affect the
globe due to global warming. The new chip is already finding use and Singh says
the popular Pusa Basmati-1 variety has recently been made resistant to a
damaging disease called 'rice blast' and to develop this new resistant variant
the chip was deployed. The chip is also being used to develop varieties of rice
that can tolerate long durations of flooding.
The team developed the 'rice chip' in about 5 years and at a cost of Rs 30-40
lakh and help was taken from a private Californian firm Affymetrix that custom
makes these chips. "India should be proud of this breakthrough," says
Khush. According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), India
has the world's largest area under rice with 42.5 million ha and is the second
largest producer with 106 million tonnes - in 2014 next only to China. It
contributes 21 per cent of global rice production. Within the country, rice
occupies one-quarter of the total cropped area, contributes about 40 to 43 per
cent of total food grain production and continues to play a key role in the
national food and livelihood security system. Rice export contributes nearly 25
per cent of total agricultural exports from the country.
However,
productivity of rice is only 2.54 tonnes/ha of milled rice as against the global
average productivity of 3.28 tonnes/ha. In contrast, China produces more rice
by cultivating just about 29 million hectares with yields almost double that of
India. Singh says, "Modern molecular breeding can help bridge this yield
gap and the chip will be helpful." An ICAR estimate for the production of
rice in 2050 suggests that by then the population would touch 1.63 billion and
India would need to grow about 136 million tonnes of rice, possibly on a
smaller cultivable area and with increased shortage of water. Khush says,
"The new rice chip will certainly help speed up rice breeding and thus
will contribute to food security."
Dangote Backs Central Bank's Forex Restrictions on Rice, Toothpicks,
Others
05 Jul 2015
Says without such ban, he would not have been able to build his
cement plants across Nigeria
By Festus Akanbi
Following the criticisms by foreign media who are calling for a
massive devaluation of the naira instead of foreign exchange restrictions on certain
items such as rice and toothpicks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),
Africa’s richest man and foremost businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has come
out in strong support of the CBN’s decision, calling the ban on 41 items
from forex market as "excellent and one of the best decisions taken so far
by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele."
Apparently miffed by criticisms in some quarters against the apex bank’s
decision to restrict forex on the importation of certain items, Dangote, who is
President of Dangote Group, described the CBN’s intervention as appropriate for
the Nigerian economy saying, “We cannot be importing poverty and exporting
jobs.” The apex bank recently announced
the restriction of importers of 41 items from accessing forex from the official
foreign exchange market.
Some of these items include rice, wheel barrows, head pans, cement, margarine,
palm kernel/vegetable oil, meat and processed meat products, vegetable and
processed vegetable products, poultry, private airplanes/jets, Indian incense,
toothpicks and canned fish in sauce (geisha/sardines), among others.
Dangote believes that this should be seen as a clarion call for all hands
to be on deck in the development of the nation’s economy disclosing that the
foreign exchange restrictions on the 41 items also affected the Dangote Group,
especially the Dangote Rice. He however believes that the measure would
encourage his firm “to look inward and massively produce locally to
create jobs for our growing young population.”
Dangote said without such ban by the administration of former President
Olusegun Obasanjo, he wouldn’t have got the opportunity to grow his cement
business as it is today such that he is now exporting cement when only 10 years
ago Nigeria was importing cement massively.His cement firms, Obajana Cement Plc
Kogi; Benue Cement Company, Benue and Dangote Cement Works Ltd, Ibese have a
combined capacity of 20 million metric tonnes per annum, providing hundreds of
thousands of direct and indirect jobs across Nigeria.“When Obasanjo introduced
the policy, he was massively criticized by multinationals and the same foreign
media. But today, we are self-sufficient in cement production,” he recalled.
Dangote maintained that those criticising Emefiele for the decision on foreign
exchange restrictions do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart.He
therefore called on people in the South-south region of the country to
focus on the development of palm plantations instead of importing palm oil. In
the same vein, he enjoined the people of Nigeria to see this as an opportunity
to invest in fish farming across Nigeria from the North to the Atlantic ocean,
rather than importing fish, saying Nigeria can borrow a leaf from Senegal.
"Although fish is a major staple food in Senegal, the country does not
import fish..... why should we be importing fish in Nigeria with all our God
given ocean resources,” he asked.
He lauded Emefiele for his bold and courageous decision to place
certain items that could be produced locally on forex restrictions.The CBN had
also in a statement on Friday dismissed a report by The Economist titled:
“Toothpick Alert,” published in the print edition of July 4, 2015, of the
international magazine., insisting that Nigeria's economic fundamentals remain
strong despite grappling with oil price decline.The apex bank added that it
would not take desperate measures to satisfy those it described as “few
misguided interests in the market.”The banking sector regulator also said it
would "not panic", even as it reiterated that Nigeria cannot attain
its full potentials by importing anything and everything.The CBN had stated in
the statement:"Take rice imports, for example: why should we keep
allocating scarce forex to rice importers when vast amounts of paddy rice of
comparable quality produced by poor hardworking local farmers across the rice
belts of Nigeria are wasted, and farmers are falling deeper into poverty while
we export their jobs and income to rice producing countries?
"Few decades ago, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest
producers of palm oil but today we import nearly 600,000 metric tonnes while
Indonesia and Malaysia combine to export over 90 per cent of global demand.
Under these circumstances, the CBN will do the little it can to protect the
jobs and incomes of local farmers, using some of the same principles Western
Economies use to justify the protection of their farmers through huge
subsidies."
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/dangote-backs-central-banks-forex-restrictions-on-rice-toothpicks-others/213930/
Area under aromatic rice varieties
decreases in K'shetra
Kurukshetra, July 4
After having failed to fetch fair prices for
their aromatic varieties last year, farmers this year have given preference to
non-basmati varieties.While last year the aromatic varieties were sown in 55 to
60 per cent area in Kurukshetra, it has come down to 35 to 40 per cent this
year.Gurnam Singh Charuni, BKU (Charuni) chief, said, “Last year, farmers
didn’t get fair returns for their produce, which is the only reason behind the
fall in the cultivation area of the aromatic varieties. This year, the farmers
have preferred to increase the area under PR varieties.
”He said, “Farmers had recently fetched good
prices for aromatic varieties, following which a spurt was witnessed in its
cultivation. However, a drastic fall was witnessed last year. The pure basmati
and pusa-1121 varieties have fetched Rs 5,800-6,000 and Rs 4,400-4,500 per
quintal to farmers in the past, but last year, they failed to get even the half
of it.”Charuni maintained, “The situation is the same across the state. Though
the area under cultivation has come down this year, it is hard to anticipate
what level the aromatic varieties will witness this season.”Wazir Singh, Deputy
Director, Agriculture, said, “A fall in the cultivation area of aromatic
varieties has been observed. It has dropped by over 20 per cent and the major
fall has come in the sowing of pusa-1509 variety.
Last
year, it was sown in over 20 per cent area, but it is likely to be around five
per cent this year.”Replying to a question, he said, “Owing to the high
incidence of breakage, the demand for pusa-1509 has dropped drastically, which
is the prime reason behind the fall in its area.”Wazir Singh said, “Nearly 85
per cent cultivation has been completed and the rest is likely to end in a
week.”“This year, rice millers had advised the farmers against growing
pusa-1509, as they would not purchase it,” said Rakesh Kumar, a farmer.Amit
Chandna, a trade expert, said, “Though a marginal uptrend has been witnessed in
the prices of aromatic and non-basmati rice varieties this week, it is hard to
anticipate the future trends of market.”
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/area-under-aromatic-rice-varieties-decreases-in-k-shetra/102351.html
Needed: Green Thumb
Tonnes of waste
prevented from being dumped in 2010 due to compositing and recycling efforts
Here is a look
at the current development pattern vis-a-vis green concerns
The just
released socio economic census reminds us that still it is miles to go on the
development front. A majority of population in country still lives in villages
where a vast majority is deprived of developmental benefits. At present,
metropolitan agglomerations and industrial cities in India have attracted
village folks in quest of employment and a better life. However, perhaps they
have not been able to provide the desired better life. As many of them have
crossed the carrying capacity, have huge population resource imbalance, and the
cities are facing environmental problems.
It is a good
idea to have several smart cities, but mostly the idea is not realised in its
totality.The drinking water woes of Dwarka sub-city in Delhi is the best
example. I am not sure if in the present form it qualifies to be a smart city.
But the fact remains that the city has scarce groundwater resource. The
over-exploited and polluted Yamuna does not have much water for drinking
purpose, which can be supplied to the city. It also generates huge sewerage,
which ultimately joins Yamuna. Similar is the story of several other cities.
An answer to
this was sewerage treatment initiatives which again is a good vision, but many
social and governmental audits have revealed that most of the sewerage
treatment plants function below their capacity or are non-functional.It is nice
that we have realised that development and environmental protection goes
together. But the real problem is how to link them. Big bang approach to
ecological restoration is often fascinating. But we should not forget that
ecology is a system where there are many variables.
In this context
it is heartening to learn about initiatives like clean Ganga. It is good that
the holy and national river of India is being cleaned. We must also realise
that the state of a major river in its basin is manifestation of ecology of the
basin.The clean Ganga initiative should also integrate land and water resource
management. The tributaries to the river also needs to be cleaned. Also, we
must define river space and permit ecologically sensible land use in the river
space. The numerous small and big industrial towns and urban agglomerations in
the Ganga river basin require to be upgraded as big or small 'smart cities'.
In most cases
the environmental flow in a river is affected by diversion of river water for
irrigation purpose. But still in the agriculturally developed regions, it is
seen that in canal command areas groundwater abstraction have increased
drastically and at the same time other areas have problem of soil salinity.
This certainly reflects lack of optimal and prudent utilisation of the canal
network and may be mismanagement in canal allowance.Besides land and water
management at watershed scale (incorporating water conservation) should be able
to sustain local agriculture. The non-remunerative agricultural activity is
also forcing many farmers to move toward exotic remunerative high yielding
water intensive crops. Basmati rice cultivation in Punjab and Haryana is the
best example.
In my opinion
value addition to indigenous crops in various part of country would help.The
genetic engineers should develop less water intensive high yielding crops:
“more crop per drop”. An efficient irrigation practice based on micro-climatic
condition would help in a long way. Many schemes aimed at rural poor have been
aimed at providing fish rather than the fishing rod.We must also not forget
that everybody can not leave their village. I think urbanisation and
industrialisation of rural India is required. Not by putting big industries,
but by promoting agro-based industries and giving then incentives for adhering
to strict environmental norms. I am reminded of North Bihar where sugarcane
industries in water rich areas did wonders by: 1. Giving option to farmers for
a cash crop 2.
Providing jobs to family members of farmers 3.
Small entrepreneurs like tractor and truck owners got assured business 4.
Hardware shops for maintenance of vehicles used in transportation of goods had
ample business and 5. Farm laborers used to earn sufficient.But there is a
serious ecological issues with such sugarcane industries, the molasses and
other wastes are often discharged directly in rivers. I think this can be
solved by stricter enforcement and incentives for environment protection.
But given the
fact that industries often tend to maximise their profit; a social of audit of
such waste discharge should also be done.The forests of the country are huge
resource and there are non tangible ecological benefits associated with them.
They are often good groundwater recharge areas, their ability to purify air and
influence ambient climate is well established. The development at the cost of
deforestation may not be sustainable. In the end it is nice to see that
ecological issues have become glamorous. An integrated bottoms up approach
would further sustain this.
The writer is assistant professor, department
of geology, University of Delhi
Entire tobacco crop to be procured by Sept 30’
V. RAGHAVENDRA
MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao felicitating Union
Minister of State for Industry and Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman at a meeting
organised by the Tobacco Board in Vijayawada on Saturday.- Photo: Ch.Vijaya
Bhaskar
Union Minister
of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman assured tobacco farmers
here on Saturday that the entire production of 172 million kg in Andhra Pradesh
in the 2014-15 crop season would be procured by September 30 but within a price
band based on five years’ average prices. It would be around nearly Rs 125 a kg
for bright varieties and farmers could expect that price only if the crop has
negligible or no pesticide residue, she said.Addressing tobacco farmers from
West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts after holding
deliberations with manufacturers and traders for close to three and a half
hours, Ms. Sitharaman said tobacco was a restricted crop, so a minimum support
price was not being fixed for it for the last four years.
But she said she
had persuaded the industry to agree to a minimum price band. However, she
pointed out that farmers were under obligation not to produce excess. If they
do so, they cannot expect unrealistic prices.She said only about 46 million kg
of tobacco has been purchased so far because of the global economic turmoil,
which has rendered even basmati rice non-remunerative.However, the Ministry of
Commerce was doing its best to enable tobacco farmers earn remunerative prices
while discouraging excess production. Tobacco cannot be compared with food
crops, she pointed out.
Ms. Sitharaman
clarified that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was permitted for purchasing and
exporting tobacco from India.It was a misinterpretation that FDI was not
allowed in the tobacco sector, due to which foreign investors have stayed away.
FDI was in fact not allowed only in tobacco manufacturing; there was no
objection to letting FDI flow into trading of the commodity.This anomaly has
been set right and communicated to the Reserve Bank of India, which has
disseminated the information to all countries through Indian embassies.
This would be of
great help to farmers as their produce would be purchased by foreign investors,
subject to quality norms.Earlier, Ms. Sitharaman held parleys with
manufacturers and exporters in the presence of ministers Pratthipati Pulla Rao
and P. Sujatha and MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, M. Murali Mohan and Maganti
Venkateswara Rao (Babu) and Tobacco Board chairman K. Gopal spoke about the
bleak export scenario for tobacco.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/entire-tobacco-crop-to-be-procured-by-sept-30/article7388736.ece
Vietnam vies with
Thailand, Filipino rice importers
VietNamNet Bridge
- The Philippines appears to have successfully exploited the stiff competition
between two large rice exporters, Vietnam and Thailand, to force the prices
down.
Part 1: Philippine strategy
The Philippines said it will no longer
import rice as domestic production is high enough to satisfy domestic
demand.Some exporters think that if Vietnam cannot sell rice to the country,
the Vietnamese rice market would collapse. However, analysts commented that it
would be better for Vietnam not to sell rice to the Philippines under the
current mode.In order to get the right to sell rice to the Philippines,
exporters have to travel there to attend bids opened by the Filipino National
Food Authority (NFA).The exporters who win the bids must offer the lowest
prices, and the prices must not be higher than ceiling prices set by the
authority.Both Vietnam and Thailand offered prices higher than the ceiling
price of $340 per ton for 25 percent broken rice set by NFA in the June 5 bid,
which NFA opened to seek suppliers of 250,000 tons of rice. Vietnam got
the right to supply 150,000 tons of rice later, after it agreed to lower the
selling price.
More recently, Vietnam offered to supply 100,000 tons of rice at $416 per ton,
but it still lost the June 15 bid because the NFA’s ceiling price was much
lower, at $408.14 per ton.In late February, Vietnam also won the right to
provide 300,000 tons of white long grain rice to the Philippines under the G2G
(government to government) contract, after it agreed to slash the selling price
to the same level offered by Thailand.Analysts said that once NFA sets the
ceiling price, this means that the Philippines, or the buyer, always has the
right to set the prices. Therefore, Vietnam and Thailand have to compete
with each other to win the contract under Philippines’ control.For many years,
the prices of 25 percent broken rice have been set at levels hovering around
$340 per ton, which is very close to the production cost.
However, in most cases, Vietnamese exporters decided to lower the selling
prices in order to win the contracts. They did not want to return to Vietnam
empty-handed. Since the exporters could not sell rice at high prices, they
tried to force the prices down in the Vietnamese market. As a result,
Vietnamese farmers could not make reasonable profits.According to the Vietnam
Food Association (VFA), Vietnam had exported 2.1 million tons of rice by the
end of May, earning $870 million, a decrease of 10 percent in export volume and
13 percent price decrease in comparison with the same period in 2014.To date,
Vietnam has signed contracts on exporting 3.5 million tons of rice, or 8
percent lower than the same period of last year.
TBKTSG
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/134572/vietnam-vies-with-thailand--filipino-rice-importers.html
How Forex Restriction On Rice Can
Boost Local Production, Employment
— Jul 6, 2015 3:52 am
Nigeria is the largest producer of rice, a
staple food for almost all if not all households in the country. Yet it is the second
largest importer of rice in the World. Rice is mainly imported from Thailand,
Brazil, India, USA, UAE over the period as at 2010.Rice is grown in
approximately on 3.7 million hectares of land in Nigeria, covering 10.6 per
cent of the 35 million hectares of land under cultivation, out of a total
arable land area of 70 million hectares. 77 per cent of the farmed area of rice
is rain-fed, of which 47 percent is lowland and 30 per cent upland. The range
of grown varieties is diverse and includes both local (such as Dias, Santana,
Ashawa, Yarsawaba, and Yarkuwa) and enhanced varieties of traditional African
rice (such as NERICA) (Bayou 2009).
Despite the country’s huge potential in rice
production, statistics show a decreasing trend in production, associated with a
decline in area harvested between 2006 and 2010.Over the years, yields on rice
production has been on the rise, but area of land harvested and the number of
tonnes produced has been on the decrease, showing a possibility of a declining
number of rice farmers.This decline began in 2008. Before then, government
policies affecting rice production had been directed at protecting the local
industry through tariffs and providing extension support to rice farmers.
The
import tariff on value-added rice was 100 per cent in 1995, 50 in 1996 through
2000 and 85 in 2001.However, with effect from May 2008, rice imports into
Nigeria were declared free from all duties and charges, including customs duty,
seven per cent surcharge, value-added tax and levies.This caused a surge in
rice importation and discouraged local farmers as it became cheaper to import
the calorie-giving food.Currently, Nigeria spends about N1 billion daily
importing rice, a development, which the former Minister of Agriculture and
Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said is helping to put farmers to work
in countries like the United States, India and Thailand, while putting farmers
out of work in Nigeria.This had prompted the decision to make Nigeria
self-sufficient in rice production by the end of this year. Although rice
exporters like the United States has criticised this move, the National
Association of Nigerian Traders (NANT) and Nigerian Association of Chambers of
Commerce and Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) have argued that it is
achievable.
The president of NANT, Ken Ukaoha, had recently
charged the federal government to ensure that all of the nation’s efforts are
channelled towards achieving food security in the country because “a country
that cannot depend on itself for the food with which its citizens are sustained
is not truly an independent nation.”Consequently, one can say the recent move
by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop its foreign exchange support for
the importation of rice is a right step towards increasing production of rice
in the country.Before now, the CBN sells foreign exchange directly to rice
importers, making available to them cheap foreign exchange to the detriment of
local producers. Asides this, the oil price decline had put a lot of pressure
on not only the nation’s income but also its foreign reserves which has
declined to $29 billion.
The CBN’s decision to end foreign exchange
support for rice importation however goes beyond the value of the naira and the
foreign exchange reserves. It is meant to create an import substitution for
rice.Nigeria has the capacity and potential to not only be self sustaining in
rice production, but also be among the exporters of rice. The recent move is
directed at one of the key goals of the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele when he
assumed office last year June. It goes beyond reducing foreign exchange
pressures but is targeted at industrialisation of the economy, generating
employment and reducing poverty in the country.According to the director of
communications at the CBN, Ibrahim Mu’azu “why should we keep allocating scarce
FX to rice importers when vast amounts of paddy rice of comparable quality
produced by poor hardworking local farmers across the rice belts of Nigeria are
wasted, and farmers are falling deeper into poverty while we export their jobs
and income to rice producing countries?
“The CBN will do the little it can to protect
the jobs and incomes of local farmers, using some of the same principles
Western Economies use to justify the protection of their farmers through huge
subsidies.”
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