GM Quader: Rice export may lead to food scarcity
Published at 02:49 pm May 18th, 2019
Jatiya Party (JaPa) acting chairman GM Quader addresses an
emergency press conference at the JaPa chairman's office, in Dhaka's Banani, on
Saturday, May 18, 2019 Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune
He added that the government should not hurry
in deciding about rice exports
Jatiya Party (JaPa) acting chairman GM Quader
has said exporting rice may cause food scarcity in Bangladesh.
He said this at an emergency press conference
at the JaPa chairman's office, in Dhaka's Banani, on Saturday.
The government should not hurry in taking a
decision to export rice at this moment, he opined.
GM Quader said: "Farmers are frustrated
because the production cost of paddy is more than the market value. In these
circumstances, the government has to buy paddy directly from the farmers
instead of millers."
In his written statement, he said: “When a
maund of coarse rice is being sold at Tk500-550, a mound of fine rice is priced
at Tk1,600 to Tk2,000.
"Farmers are claiming that they have
become captive in the hands of middlemen, adding that the government purchases
rice from millers, depriving the growers of fair price.”
JaPa acting chief urged the government to make
uses of private warehouses for stocking paddy if it suffers from space
constraint in public granaries.
"If necessary, the government should use
the services of private storage facilities for emergencies," he said.
In response to a question from a journalist GM
Quader said: “Government can import rice if necessary but in the world market,
rice may not be available at the time of need.
According to farmers it costs around Tk700 to
Tk800 to produce a maund of paddy, but they have had to sell the paddy at
Tk400.
Party presidium member Moshiur Rahman Ranga
was present at the press conference among others.
Previously, on Friday, the Bangladesh Krishak
Samity demanded they be allowed to charge profitable prices for paddy.
They also demanded the government open
procurement centres—at the union level—to buy paddy directly from farmers.
"The government must procure paddy
directly from farmers; through the establishment of government purchase centres
at the union level. They also must reduce the prices of agricultural
imports," said SM Sabur, president of the Krishak Samity on Friday.
The platform threatened to intensify protests
on May 23 if the demands of the farmers' organization are not met.
Exports
to Iran may go down to zero if oil imports are not resumed: Exporters
Amiti Sen New Delhi | Updated
on May 19, 2019 Published on May 19, 2019
With no breakthrough in situation
following US sanctions, money in UCO Bank may get exhausted in a few months
Indian
exports to Iran are likely to take a big hit over the next few months and may
even come down to zero if the new government decides not to resume oil imports
from the country in adherence with the US economic sanctions, say exporters.
Ajay
Sahai, Director-General, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO),
said: “Assuming there is no breakthrough in the situation and the government
sticks to the decision of not buying oil from Iran, whatever money is lying in
the UCO Bank at the moment will get used up. We will not be able to sustain
exports beyond four months. Virtually all exports to Iran will stop.”
Rajesh
Paharia, an exporter of rice to Iran, agrees with Sahai. “Right now exports are
taking place to Iran and it will happen till the day there is money in the
special rupee payment account of the UCO Bank for transactions with Iran.
However, if oil imports don’t restart and the money dries up, from where will
the government have funds to pay exporters to Iran?” Paharia asks.
Although
India’s exports to Iran were less than $3 billion last year, they could rise
several-fold if the rupee payment mechanism is fully utilised, as per
calculations made by exporters.
India
stopped buying oil from Iran from May 2 after the US sanction waiver for buying
Iranian oil expired and the Trump regime refused to extend it. When Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in New Delhi last week to discuss
India’s plans on oil purchase, he was informed by his Indian counterpart Sushma
Swaraj that he must wait till after the general elections for a decision on the
matter. Because of banking sanctions imposed by the US for doing business with
Iran, India and Iran have been carrying out trade through a rupee account in
the country’s UCO Bank, which has limited exposure in the US. As per the
mechanism, India deposits payments in rupee in Iran’s account for the oil
purchased and then uses it to make payments to Indian exporters of goods to
Iran.
“As
per rough estimates, there would be around ₹12,000-15,000
crore in the rupee account. Even when we add some more to it for the payments
that have to be made by the Indian government for the oil purchases made in the
last two months, the money will not last for long,” said Paharia.
Uncertainty playing havoc
The
uncertainty is playing havoc with prices of Basmati in the local market, which
has gone down by at least 5 per cent recently, and if ambiguity about the
future remains, things would get worse, he said.
“Basmati
rice will be one of the first items to be affected as when the money starts
drying up. Iran will prefer to buy other essential items such as drugs or
medical equipment with it. The country buys about 30 per cent of our exports
and if that stops one can imagine the industry’s plight,” Paharia added.
Many
handicraft exporters, who have been carrying out business with Iran through
banks other than UCO in Euros, say their exports have completely stopped.
“Banks are not sending the required papers (GR forms) to the RBI for completion
of a transaction as they are afraid of US sanctions. Because of this,
exporters’ files are open throughout the country. We sincerely hope that when
the government re-starts buying oil from Iran, it will help us export to Iran
in rupee through the UCO Bank or any other bank it authorises,” said Satpal
Pugla, an exporter based in Moradabad.
Govt’s plan to export rice to be
risky: GM Quader
06:17
PM, May 18, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:05 PM, May 18, 2019
File
photo of GM Quader.
“If the government export rice now,
it will face a serious crisis in purchasing the rice from the market despite
paying the double price during any natural disaster,” Quader said at the press
conference at party President HM Ershad’s Banani office in Dhaka.
Food Minister Abdur Razzak,
addressing a press conference at his secretariat office on Tuesday, said having
a surplus after meeting the local demands, the government is mulling to export
five to 10 lack metric tons rice.
Rejecting the government’s plan, GM
Quader, also a former commerce minister, said, “Whether there is any surplus of
rice, it will be a sensitive decision to export the rice now. And the country
will have to pay a price if it faces any natural disaster.”
“We are not telling that the
government should stop its move, but stressing the need for more discussion and
examination before taking such risky step,” the JP leader said.
China
accelerates rice cultivation in saline soil A leading saline soil rice research center
in eastern China’s Shandong Province made the decision to expand its
experimental land to over 667 hectares early this month.
The
Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center in the coastal city
of Qingdao said the move aimed to speed up research and development and
optimize various types of saline soil rice.
The
center said one other important purpose of the expansion was to seek the best
cultivation methods.
“All
strains of rice to be grown on the experimental land passed regional experiments
in different types of saline soil,” said Zhang Guodong, deputy director of the
center.
Zhang
noted that regional experiments were conducted in Xinjiang, Bohai Gulf in
eastern China, northeastern China and coastal areas in southeastern China.
“We
were surprised by parts of the experimental data last year. And this year, we
are not only expanding the test area but also making stricter test parameters
in order to better simulate actual production,” Zhang added.
The
center has set a target of 300 kg yield per mu (one mu is equivalent to 667
square meters). Meanwhile, researchers will study which rice types are suitable
for which areas and which saline-alkali land needs to be ameliorated.
Rice
is a staple food in China, as well as many other Asian countries.
China has about 100 million hectares of saline-alkali soil, of which about one fifth could be ameliorated to arable soil.
China has about 100 million hectares of saline-alkali soil, of which about one fifth could be ameliorated to arable soil.
“This
is not a small amount. We want to ameliorate 6.7 million hectares of
saline-alkali soil at first, and then expand the area gradually. But the task
cannot be done by any single institution; we need to work together,” Zhang
said.
To
scientifically exploit and use saline soil, increase the grain output of China,
as well as prevent disasters of saltwater intrusion into paddy fields at home
and abroad, organizations and institutions have now strengthened cooperation.
“From
the experimental field to farmers’ land, there need to be repeated experiments
at different stages,” said Li Xinqi, a saline soil rice expert.
Li
said the regional experiment was one of the key links of the whole production
process, which could lay the foundation for the strains of saline soil rice.
So
far, multiple organizations and institutions, including the research center in
Qingdao, Hybrid Rice Research Center in central China’s Hunan Province,
Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences and China National Rice Research
Institute, have jointly established a National Salt-Tolerant Rice Regional
Trail Alliance in May 2017.
The
alliance then set standards for the regional experiments of saline soil rice
and lead the experiments. The organization is currently discussing saline soil
rice’s production standards.
“The
establishment of the alliance facilitates the research and development of
saline soil rice in China,” said Peng Jiming, an official with the research
center in Hunan, adding that the alliance also helped to attract over 20
enterprises and scientific research institutions to join the research and
development of saline soil rice.
Experts
said it was necessary to establish an authoritative organization to work out
standards, collect the latest trends of saline soil rice studies and solve
problems.
Chinese
tech giant Huawei has also participated in the development of the saline soil
rice. It has worked with the research center in Qingdao to develop a saline
soil rice intelligent agricultural system based on technologies of the Internet
of Things and big data.
The
system is expected to make headway in the fourth quarter of this year.
The
research and development of saline soil rice in China have drawn international
attention. The Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and Nigeria have expressed
strong interest, while China will soon build up saline-alkali tolerant rice
research and promotion centers in the Middle East and Africa.
Yuan
Longping, known as the “father of hybrid rice,” also urged the establishment of
a national research and development center on saline-alkali tolerant rice and
to make use of more saline-alkali land to increase rice yield.
Source:
GNA
In Japan, driverless
tractors are on the move
Robot tractor on the move.
The driverless tractors can sense
any obstruction on the field and come to an automatic halt when needed
While driverless cars may now be a question of ‘when’ rather
than ‘if’, in Japan, their countryside counterpart, the robot
tractor, is already on the move. Demographic decline, coupled with
urbanisation, means that the average number of farmers fell by 22% between 2005
and 2015, while their average age is currently a venerable 67. According to
Agriculture Ministry statistics, 81% of the farming machine-related accidents
in 2016 involved a farmer over the age of 65.
Consequently, a number of Japanese machinery manufacturers are
betting big on the future of agriculture being ‘smart’ and automated. Iseki and
Co. Ltd, one of the archipelago’s largest players in the field, already
manufactures driverless, smart rice transplanters that fertilize as they
transplant, while simultaneously measuring soil depth and sending the relevant
information to fertilizer dispensers.
Ibaraki prefecture, just north of Tokyo, is Japan’s breadbasket.
It is also home to Iseki and Co.’s optimistically named ‘Dreamy Agricultural
Research Institute’, a space filled with tank-like machines, clad in sensors
and cameras that look straight out of a 1980s sci-fi movie. Smart combine
harvesters rub mechanical shoulders with smart hullers and graders. But, among
all these machines, the pride of place belongs to Iseki’s flagship offering:
the Robot Tractor TJV655.
This driverless tractor came in the market in December 2018. It
can sense any obstruction on the field and come to an automatic halt when
needed. It can make U-turns using GPS technology to determine its location. The
machine can also be used for tilling the ground and applying the optimal amount
of fertilizer and pesticide. Katsushi Miwada, the general manager of Iseki’s
Agri-Business Solutions Department, says driverless tractors are likely to
become popular faster than autonomous cars, given that they need to worry less
about compensating for the behaviour of other vehicles and pedestrians. They
can also be put to work 24 hours a day, exponentially increasing farming
efficiency.
Cost factor
One of the main constraining factors, however, is cost. The
TJV655 retails for 12 million yen ($1,10,000) and has only sold 10 units so
far, a drop in the ocean of the almost 40,000 units that Iseki sells of the
same size tractor in a year. The latter are priced at 7.1 million yen
($65,000).
Mr. Miwada hastens to explain that the company considers the
next year or two to still be a pilot phase when the focus will be on training
potential users and familiarising them with the technology, rather than on
sales.
And, despite the hefty price tag, in the end farmers may simply
have no other choice. Mr. Miwada cites the example of the northern island of
Hokkaido where at the start of this century, a farmer worked an average of 18.9
ha of land. Today that number has risen to 30.1 ha. The trend of burgeoning
farm size looks set to continue as long as Japan’s population decline
continues. “There are not enough tractor operators per hectare,” he concludes.
This correspondent jumps at the opportunity to test drive a
robot tractor and has to constantly beat down the desire to shout out, “look,
no hands”, as the tractor pivots and halts without any manual intervention.
However, a human is still required to monitor the workings of the tractor in
the field, until the safety measures have been fully established. The dream
part of Iseki’s ‘Dreamy Agricultural Research Institute’ is one that envisages
a farmer in his 80s, sending his fleet of driverless tractors off to plough,
sow and harvest his crops from the comfort of his living room sofa. Two other
firms, Kubota Corporation and Yanmar, have also developed similar machines. For
Japan, the possibility of regaining the high–tech leadership that it has ceded
to China is urgent. China has already emerged as the frontrunner in autonomous
cars. Beijing also recently announced a seven-year goal for developing fully
automated machinery capable of planting, fertilizing and harvesting staple
crops.
The production of Japan’s traditional agricultural products —
rice, wheat, beef, dairy and sugar — has dropped 32% in the past 50 years.
Whether the deployment of artificial intelligence can stem this decline remains
an open question. What is certain is that without it, Japanese agriculture is
an endangered species.
(Pallavi Aiyar is an author and journalist based in Tokyo)
Processed
foods make us fatter and are linked to a higher risk of cancer. Here’s what science
suggests we should eat instead.
May 17, 2019,
3:04 PM
Quesadillas made with canned beans, store-bought
tortillas, deli meat, and shredded cheese are considered processed food. Shutterstock
- Eating processed foods can lead to weight gain and is linked to higher rates of cancer and early death.
- But it can be difficult to
avoid these items when we're busy or looking for something
cheap to eat.
- Researchers at the National Institutes of Health recently developed
unprocessed menus to feed patients at their diet research center. People
who ate these meals lost weight and consumed less.
- Those unprocessed-food menus
included scrambled eggs with potatoes made from scratch, chicken, fish,
bulgur, Greek yogurt, nuts, and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
- Visit
Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Here's an
experiment: Sit alone in a hospital room for two weeks and eat nothing but
ultra-processed foods like hot dogs, muffins, canned ravioli, and chicken
salad.
You probably
wouldn't love the results.
But that's
exactly what 20 men and women did in a recent, rigorously controlled study from the National Institutes of
Health. Those participants ended up gaining an average of 2 pounds in those
two weeks on this ultra-processed diet. They also consumed about 500 additional
calories every day, compared to a different two-week period in which the same
people followed an unprocessed meal plan.
The scientists
behind the study — which was published Thursday— found that this discrepancy arose
because patients who were fed processed meals tended to overeat, even though
researchers controlled for how much salt, fat, sugar, protein, fiber, and
carbohydrates each meal contained (regardless of whether it consisted of
processed versus unprocessed items).
"This is
the first time that we can actually say that there's a causal relationship
between something that's independent of the nutrients ... that is driving these
differences in calorie intake and weight gain," lead researcher Kevin Hall
told Business Insider.
His team isn't
yet sure why processed food makes us hungrier, but they have a few educated
hypotheses. For one, they think the difference in calorie consumption might
have something to do with the ways that fresh foods trigger hormones that
regulate our appetite (ghrelin), and suppress hunger (PYY). Additionally,
people tend to eat unprocessed foods more slowly, which gives our body more
time to register that we're full before we overeat.
Beyond its link
to overeating, a diet heavy in processed food is also linked with all kinds of
other health problems, according to previous research: People who consume it
regularly are more likely to get cancer and die quicker than others.
Climate-smart agriculture is here to save water, curb methane emission
Published
at 12:43 am May 19th, 2019
File photo of farmers planting paddy seedlings Mehedi
Hasan/Dhaka Tribune
Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), a simple
technology, can help cut irrigation cost, stop rapid depletion of groundwater
table and halve methane emissions
It takes 3,000 litres of water to produce one
kilogram of rice. Dry season high yielding rice farming is heavily dependent on
irrigation.
And there is a growing concern about irrigated
rice fields emitting too much methane, second in importance after carbon
dioxide as a greenhouse gas, responsible for global warming.
Adoption of a simple technology called
Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), can cut irrigation water use by a third,
and halve the methane emissions from rice fields, experts told Dhaka
Tribune.
In the practice of AWD, farmers do not
maintain flooded rice fields all the time. Rather they are advised to use water
more judiciously in an alternate wetting and drying pattern that helps them cut
the cost of irrigation, save precious groundwater, where the water table has
been falling at an alarming rate. This ultimately results in less emission of
methane, harmful for the ozone layer of the earth's stratosphere that absorbs
most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation.
It’s a pity though, that for the past decade
or so, AWD has been widely accepted as a water-saving, climate smart farming
technology, but has not been adopted.
Recently, an IRRI-led (International Rice
Research Institute) initiative, the Northwest Focal Area Network, (otherwise
known as FAN), demonstrated AWD to thousands of Bangladeshi farmers.
Success has come in the wake of the
demonstration, and many rice growers have started appreciating the value of
AWD.
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) has
also recently conferred the ‘Innovation in Behavioral Change’ award to the FAN
project for its effort in reducing methane emissions in rice production.
Bangladesh and five other countries – Canada,
Ghana, Mexico, Sweden, and the United States – joined forces with the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in founding CCAC in 2012. The CCAC aims to
catalyze rapid reductions in climate pollutants to protect human health,
agriculture, and the environment.
Dr SM Mofijul Islam, a Senior Scientific
Officer of the Soil Science Division of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute
(BRRI), has been working on rice field methane emissions for the past seven
years.
“In my study I found some 250 to 350 kilograms
of methane being released from each hectare of rice field in a growing season.
Our research shows if AWD is practiced, it not only saves water and cuts
irrigation costs, but also more importantly, it potentially halves the emission
of methane from rice fields,” Dr Islam told the Dhaka Tribune.
IRRI Consultant Dr. Ahmed Salahuddin, who has
been spearheading the cause of promoting AWD in Bangladesh, told this
correspondent that over the past three years they’ve demonstrated AWD in over
3,000 hectares of rice lands in the Greater Rangpur-Dinajpur, Rajshahi, and
Naogaon regions.
“We found that farmers practicing AWD needed
35 percent less water, thereby cutting their rice production cost by 20
percent. This also helped up to 50 percent reduction in methane emissions.
Furthermore, fields where AWD was practiced, were less prone to pest
infestations and diseases, and overall output was higher by 10 percent,” said
Dr Salahuddin.
IRRI, FAN, and the Gobeshona Network of International
Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) of Independent University,
Bangladesh (IUB), are now jointly spearheading the adoption of climate-smart
technologies for agriculture in Bangladesh in a project called “Mitigation
Options to Reduce Methane Emissions in Paddy Rice.”
In Bangladesh, dry season Boro rice is the
biggest contributor to the country’s yearly rice output in three rice growing
seasons – Aus, Aman, and Boro. And other than Aus, the monsoon rice,
Boro is fully irrigated, and Aman is partly irrigated.
Farmers in Bangladesh use over 1.4 million
shallow tube wells (STWs) to draw irrigation water from underground, and due to
over-mining of groundwater, the water table has been falling over 0.6 metre a
year, exposing the country to an ecological disaster.
According to BRRI-run Bangladesh Rice
Knowledge Bank, “The savings of irrigation water will have impact on the
environment because of reduced withdrawal of ground water and a reduction in
burning diesel. This may also reduce arsenic contamination in rice grains and
straw.”
What is
AWD?
Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) is a
water-saving technology that farmers can apply to reduce their irrigation water
use in rice fields without any yield penalty. In AWD, irrigation water is
applied a few days after a well irrigated field dries out. Hence, the field is
alternately flooded and non-flooded. The number of days of non-flooded soil
between irrigations can vary from 1 day to more than 10 days, depending on a
number of factors such as soil type, weather, and crop growth stage.
How to
implement AWD?
A practical way to implement AWD safely
(without yield loss) is to monitor the depth of ponded, standing water in the
field, using a perforated ‘field water tube’ (pani pipe). After irrigation, the
water depth will gradually decrease. When the water level drops to about
15 cm below the surface of the soil, irrigation should be applied to re-flood
the field to a ponded water depth of about 5 cm. From a week before flowering
to one week after flowering, the field should be kept flooded, topping up to a
depth of 5 cm as needed. After flowering, during grain filling and ripening,
the water level can be allowed to drop again to 15 cm below the soil surface
before re-irrigation. AWD can be started one or two weeks after transplanting.
The Field Water
Tube (pani pipe)
The field water tube can be made of 30-cm long
plastic pipe or bamboo, and should have a diameter of 10- 15 cm so that the
water table is easily visible, and it is easy to fit one’s hand inside the tube
to remove soil. The tube has to be perforated with many holes on all sides, so
that water can flow readily in and out of the tube. It has to be hammered into
the soil so that 15 cm protrudes above the soil surface. The tube should be
placed in a readily accessible part of the field close to a bund, so it is easy
to monitor the depth of the ponded water. The location should be representative
of the average water depth in the field (i.e. it should not be in a high spot
or a low spot).
Why is Curbing
Methane Emissions So Important?
With global temperatures rising due to climate
change, the emission of methane – that traps about 25 times more of the sun’s
heat than carbon dioxide –plays a significant role in global warming. Wetland
rice fields have recently been identified as a major source of atmospheric
methane. Flooding a rice field cuts off the oxygen supply from the atmosphere
to the soil, resulting in anaerobic fermentation of organic soil matter.
Methane is a major end product of anaerobic fermentation. It is released from
submerged soil to the atmosphere by diffusion and ebullition, and through the
roots and stems of rice plants. Global estimates of emission rates from wetland
rice fields range from 20 to 100 Tg/yr (teragrams per year), which corresponds
to as much as 29 percent of total annual anthropogenic methane emissions.
Eminent rice scientist appointed new SEARCA director
Published
Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio has been appointed as new Director of the
Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture
(SEARCA), an inter-government treaty organization hosted by the Philippine
government on the campus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB),
for a three-year term.
He assumed office on May 1, 2019.
Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio
Dr. Gregorio is the eleventh to hold the top SEARCA post since
its establishment in November 1966 by the Southeast Asian Ministers of
Education Organization (SEAMEO).
Dr. Gregorio is also an Academician at the National Academy of
Science and Technology (NAST) of the Philippines and is currently a professor
at the Institute of Crop Science of the UPLB College of Agriculture and Food
Science.
A distinguished rice scientist, Dr. Gregorio served the
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for almost 30 years, including a
five-year stint as IRRI’s rice breeder in Africa based at Africa Rice Centre
station at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria from
2004 to 2009.
Throughout his career, Dr. Gregorio has bred more than 15 rice varieties, most of which are salt-tolerant varieties that have greatly helped farmers in Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, and the Philippines. He also led efforts to develop micronutrient-dense rice varieties to address anemia and malnutrition in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Throughout his career, Dr. Gregorio has bred more than 15 rice varieties, most of which are salt-tolerant varieties that have greatly helped farmers in Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, and the Philippines. He also led efforts to develop micronutrient-dense rice varieties to address anemia and malnutrition in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
But rice breeding is not Dr. Gregorio’s only forte. Prior to his
appointment as SEARCA Director, he also served as Crop Breeding Manager for
Corn at the East-West Seed Company, Inc. from 2015 to 2018 where he was the
global lead of the sweet corn and waxy corn breeding programs for South and
Southeast Asia, the Latin Americas, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Gregorio has been the recipient of numerous awards,
including Outstanding Young Scientist Award (OYS 2004) and Outstanding
Publication Award given by NAST; The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM 2004) in the
field of Agriculture-Plant Breeding and Genetics; the Ho Chi Minh Medal Award
for great contribution to the cause of agriculture and rural development in
Vietnam; Ten Outstanding Youth Scientists (TOYS 1981) of the Philippines given
by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the Philippines; Honorary
Scientist, Rural Development Administration (RDA), Korea; and other awards for
his outstanding research and research management achievements.
He has authored and co-authored at least 90 articles published
in various scientific journals, chapters on rice breeding in 14 books, and five
scientific manuals and bulletins. He mentored and supervised 20 PhD and 27 MS
graduate students and more than 40 BS students in plant breeding and genetics
at UPLB and other universities in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America; and
he continues to hone scientists and future scientists as a mentor and teacher.
Dr. Gregorio obtained his PhD in Genetics, MS in Plant Breeding,
and BS in Agriculture at UPLB. (Growth Publishing for SEARCA)
Approval for GM rice in Bangladesh soon
Emran Hossain | Published: 00:19, May
19,2019
They said that if all rice and rice-derived products in their countries were replaced with golden rice its contribution to increasing vitamin A intake among their citizens would still be negligible.
Golden in colour, the golden rice is genetically modified to produce in its endosperm beta carotene, also known as pro-vitamin A, which human body can convert into vitamin A.
Touted for long by its developers and pro-GM campaigners as a potentially effective food to combat vitamin A deficiency, the golden rice is in the final stage of getting approval for commercial release in Bangladesh.
‘I am not aware of any report ever suggesting that the golden rice contains low vitamin,’ Bangladesh Rice Research Institute director general Shahjahan Kabir told New Age.
BRRI is among the institutions which, over the last two months, repeatedly referred to the golden rice assessments by the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as part of a campaign that promised that golden rice was safe.
In February, BRRI, in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute, the developer of the rice variety, held a workshop for journalists to highlight that the said countries had found golden rice safe for consumption as conventional ones.
They, however, never mentioned that the countries had also concluded that the vitamin A content in the golden rice was so low that it could not claim a health benefit.
Like many other parts in the world, movements against GM technology was gaining ground in Bangladesh for a long time as the health, environmental and other impacts of the technology were still unknown to scientists.
Anti-GM activist Farida Akhter said that GM technology developers were releasing or highlighting part of the truth that was helpful for introducing businesses based on GM technology.
‘They want the GM crops out in the field anyway. The best way to go about it is to mislead the people and confuse the policymakers,’ said Farida, also the executive director of non-government organisation Ubinig.
‘The vitamin A campaign is just one of their tricks,’ she said.
The food regulators in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand carried out their assessments of the golden rice at the request of IRRI between 2016 and 2018.
IRRI requested them to consider the golden rice as safe food to avoid trade disruption after the release of the rice in South and Southeast Asian countries.
IRRI said that though it did not intend to release the golden rice in the countries it may inadvertently be present in food items imported by them.
All the data used by the four countries during their assessment were provided by IRRI.
‘Although the concentration of beta carotene in GR2E rice (golden rice) is too low to warrant a nutrient content claim, the beta carotene in GR2E rice results in a grain that is yellow-golden in colour,’ the US Food and Drug Administration said in its report in May 2018.
Canadian food regulator Health Canada said that if all rice and rice products in the country were replaced with the golden rice it may result in a very small increase – from 0.8 to 8 per cent only – in the beta carotene intake by their population.
The Food Standards Australia New Zealand, the food regulator for the two countries, said that replacement of all rice in Australia and New Zealand with the golden rice may result in two to 13 per cent increase in the beta carotene intake by their populations.
The resulted increase in the beta carotene intake, the regulator said, is equivalent to the amount of beta carotene received from approximately just one teaspoon or less of carrot juice.
Addressing the question whether the golden rice suppliers should issue a nutrient claim, it said that the suppliers would not be able to do so for a very low amount of vitamin A was present in the rice variety. A nutrient content claim would be misleading because it would give people the impression that ‘the food contributes a nutritionally significant amount of this vitamin (vitamin A),’ it said.
Partha S Biswas, former project leader of BRRI’s Golden Rice Project, said that the low-rice consuming developed countries needed higher vitamin concentration in rice for a health impact.
‘But the golden rice could be an important source of vitamin A for the countries that predominantly consume rice,’ said Partha.
Rice consumption is, however, rapidly falling in Bangladesh following rapid economic development.
The latest data collected by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics showed that per capita rice consumption in Bangladesh went down to 367 grams in 2016 from 416 grams in 2010, an 11 per cent fall.
Partha said that each gram of golden rice contained 10 micrograms of beta carotene, enough to meet 50 per cent of daily demand for vitamin A in adult males who consume average amount of rice.
Reduction of vitamin A deficiency in human body is difficult through a single food source as its absorption in the body depends on a number of conditions, including physical ability, and the type of the food consumed, nutritionists say.
BRRI’s senior scientific officer Jannatul Ferdous said that the capacity for beta carotene absorption from foods may vary from 2 per cent to 65 per cent depending on varying physical ability.
The Health Canada refrained from making any comment on the efficacy of the golden rice in reducing vitamin A deficiency without studying its impact on affected people.
India-based anti-GM activist and researcher Afsar Jafri, who was following developments regarding release of the golden rice in Bangladesh, accused IRRI of deceiving people through the issuance of generalised statements like ‘the golden rice was cleared by the regulatory processes in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand’.
She said that the golden rice would need to undergo separate tests should its marketing is ever intended in the countries in question either for human consumption or to be used as fodder.
‘IRRI is telling half-truth to influence Bangladesh’s regulatory process,’ she said.
Humnath Bhandari, IRRI representative for Bangladesh, said that they were not influencing anyone anywhere.
He said that they referred to international assessments to allay people’s concerns about whether the golden rice was safe for consumption.
Regarding the low vitamin A content in the golden rice, he said that the conventional rice varieties did not contain vitamin A at all.
‘The golden rice has extra benefits and it is safe for consumption,’ he said.
Saving rice landraces, ecotypes, ecosystems
by Mohammed Ataur
Rahman | Published: 00:00, May 19,2019
— New Age
THERE were thousands of varieties
of rice, the most important grain crop in Bangladesh, but more than 5,000 local
rice varieties have become extinct in the past few decades. Nearly I0,000
landraces are considered to exist in Bangladesh and it is estimated that about
1,20,000 varieties of rice exist in the world.
About 8,200 germplasm have been preserved by the BRRI genebank till date. Available data of the Digital Herbarium of Crop Plants show that only 135 varieties are in cultivation now. The situation is alarming both for food security and biodiversity. Ongoing rapid changes in agricultural practice that favour agronomically improved varieties have become a serious threat to the persistence of indigenous rice varieties.
Thus, conservation and management strategies are urgently needed to prevent further loss of genetic diversity inherent in indigenous rice varieties in the region. A detailed understanding of the genetic structure and diversity is needed for the planning and implementation of effective conservation, management and use of rice germplasm in the whole region.
Therefore, along with the genetic forced crop improvement, climatic adaptation and improvement of environmental factors through climatic manipulation and aggregate farming using multiple varieties of crops, pets and aquatics etc are of utmost importance for food and nutrient security in this climate change situation.
To ensure the conservation of biodiversity, protection of soil health and water quality and ultimately for the betterment of human health, the government, researchers, research organisations and policy-makers should consider the direct and indirect benefits of rice landraces without further delay.
Rice has the wide adaptation ability under different agro-ecological niches of Bangladesh. It can be cultivated on the slope of the hill, plain lands, floodplains and semi-dry to very deep flooded areas. Widely adapted with different climatic seasons, it can be cultivated throughout the year. Rice is the best-adapted cereal crop in the lowland soil in the wet season. No other crops have this ability to cope with the situation.
When the vast areas of Bangladesh go under flood water for a considerable time in the rainy season, or when intermittent flash flood affects majority of the low land, or when tidal water rises and falls down twice a day, rice remains the only crop option in such conditions. Thus, rice can be cultivated in such vast areas in an unfavourable condition.
Traditionally, jhum or shifting cultivators had paid careful attention to soil resilience by practising short cultivation, following long fallow system with minimum of disturbance to the surface soil to avoid erosion and to help facilitate forest regeneration. Jhum as a means of slope-land cultivation has, thus, been traditionally quite sustainable.
Keeping to variations in climatic seasons and topography, there evolved different kinds of rice with many characters and specialities. Aromatic, non-aromatic, glutinous and non-glutinous, coarse and fine grain, long-, medium- and short-grain, with varied colours — brown, white, red and black, etc.
Rice is, perhaps, the most sustainable food crop in the world in providing energy and nutrition and has versatile food preparations, preservation and regeneration opportunities. Compared with vegetable crops, other grain crops, tuber and root crops and even fruit crops, rice is cheaper and handy.
Rice is considered to be an auspicious symbol of life and fertility. Starch is the most important source of carbohydrates in human diets and accounts for more than 50 per cent of the carbohydrate intake. It occurs in plants in the form of granules and these are particularly abundant in cereal grains and tubers, where they serve as a storage form of carbohydrates. Potato is often throught as a ‘starchy’ food, yet other plants contain a much greater percentage of starch — potatoes 15 per cent, wheat 55 per cent, corn 65 per cent and rice 75per cent. Although potatoes are cheaper than rice, they are one-fifth efficient compared with rice and, therefore, are costlier than rice.
Residue management practices affect physical properties of the soil such as soil moisture content, temperature, aggregate formation, bulk density, soil porosity and hydraulic conductivity. An increased amount of rice residues on the soil surface reduces evaporation rates and increases duration of first-stage drying. Thus, residue-covered soils tend to have greater soil moisture content than bare soil does except after extended drought.
The straws are very good fodder for cattle used in both green and dry conditions. Straws contain cellulose lignin and many minerals which decompose in the field or recycled via cattle through enzymatic and microbial process, enriching food chain adding value with protein, fat and minerals. The cellulose is the carbohydrate like starch with similar basic unit glucose. Therefore, both rice and straw contribute to energy conversion and nutrient supply chain and, in biogeochemical cycle, more efficiently than any other crop.
Usually the yield of vegetable crops is high and whole plants are consumed; thus, all nutrients are ingested by human. Very little of them are recycled through the involvement of other animals. As a result, short-cycled recycling of the human faeces or excreta is not easy especially in quickly growing urban areas. Therefore, nutrients do not get back to their origins and the soil nutrition status declines sharply mainly in vegetable fields.
Practically in urban and peri-urban areas, huge faeces are remained unused for years together in septic tanks; the black water overflows to rivers or wet bodies through the sewerage system. Unfortunately, most of the wet bodies are deadly polluted with chemicals, oils and other pollutants discharged from industries, transports, hospitals and tanneries, etc. As a result, the productivity of fish and other aquatics is also very poor in such wet bodies. On the other hand, urban green garbage is rarely recycled and is, rather, dumped in landfills. Other than the faeces, average urban waste generation rate is estimated at 0.41 kilogram per capita a day, with food and vegetable accounting for 67.65 ie about 0.28 kilogram per capita a day. For now, the urban 40 per cent of the total population produces 20,160 tonnes of green waste every day a very negligible quantity of which is recycled. Thus, the soil fertility status has on a sharp decline and farmers are becoming increasingly dependent on chemical fertiliszers. Rice-based home-centred farming system for short-cycled biomass recycling is, therefore, essential. The diversified landraces of rice have the ability to supply the necessary energy and nutrients to humans and other animals associated in the cropping circle in this region.
According to recent IPBES Global Assessment Report: Since 1970, trends in agricultural production, fish harvest, bioenergy production and harvest of materials have increased in response to population growth, rising demand and technological development. This has come at a steep price, which has been unequally distributed within and across countries. Many other key indicators of nature’s contributions to people such as soil organic carbon and pollinator diversity have, however, declined, indicating that gains in material contributions are often not sustainable.
The pace of agricultural expansion into intact ecosystems has varied from country to country. Losses of intact ecosystems have occurred primarily in the tropics, home to the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet. Bangladesh needs to revise its agriculture policy to save the ecosystem, biodiversity and to protect human health.
About 8,200 germplasm have been preserved by the BRRI genebank till date. Available data of the Digital Herbarium of Crop Plants show that only 135 varieties are in cultivation now. The situation is alarming both for food security and biodiversity. Ongoing rapid changes in agricultural practice that favour agronomically improved varieties have become a serious threat to the persistence of indigenous rice varieties.
Thus, conservation and management strategies are urgently needed to prevent further loss of genetic diversity inherent in indigenous rice varieties in the region. A detailed understanding of the genetic structure and diversity is needed for the planning and implementation of effective conservation, management and use of rice germplasm in the whole region.
Therefore, along with the genetic forced crop improvement, climatic adaptation and improvement of environmental factors through climatic manipulation and aggregate farming using multiple varieties of crops, pets and aquatics etc are of utmost importance for food and nutrient security in this climate change situation.
To ensure the conservation of biodiversity, protection of soil health and water quality and ultimately for the betterment of human health, the government, researchers, research organisations and policy-makers should consider the direct and indirect benefits of rice landraces without further delay.
Rice has the wide adaptation ability under different agro-ecological niches of Bangladesh. It can be cultivated on the slope of the hill, plain lands, floodplains and semi-dry to very deep flooded areas. Widely adapted with different climatic seasons, it can be cultivated throughout the year. Rice is the best-adapted cereal crop in the lowland soil in the wet season. No other crops have this ability to cope with the situation.
When the vast areas of Bangladesh go under flood water for a considerable time in the rainy season, or when intermittent flash flood affects majority of the low land, or when tidal water rises and falls down twice a day, rice remains the only crop option in such conditions. Thus, rice can be cultivated in such vast areas in an unfavourable condition.
Traditionally, jhum or shifting cultivators had paid careful attention to soil resilience by practising short cultivation, following long fallow system with minimum of disturbance to the surface soil to avoid erosion and to help facilitate forest regeneration. Jhum as a means of slope-land cultivation has, thus, been traditionally quite sustainable.
Keeping to variations in climatic seasons and topography, there evolved different kinds of rice with many characters and specialities. Aromatic, non-aromatic, glutinous and non-glutinous, coarse and fine grain, long-, medium- and short-grain, with varied colours — brown, white, red and black, etc.
Rice is, perhaps, the most sustainable food crop in the world in providing energy and nutrition and has versatile food preparations, preservation and regeneration opportunities. Compared with vegetable crops, other grain crops, tuber and root crops and even fruit crops, rice is cheaper and handy.
Rice is considered to be an auspicious symbol of life and fertility. Starch is the most important source of carbohydrates in human diets and accounts for more than 50 per cent of the carbohydrate intake. It occurs in plants in the form of granules and these are particularly abundant in cereal grains and tubers, where they serve as a storage form of carbohydrates. Potato is often throught as a ‘starchy’ food, yet other plants contain a much greater percentage of starch — potatoes 15 per cent, wheat 55 per cent, corn 65 per cent and rice 75per cent. Although potatoes are cheaper than rice, they are one-fifth efficient compared with rice and, therefore, are costlier than rice.
Residue management practices affect physical properties of the soil such as soil moisture content, temperature, aggregate formation, bulk density, soil porosity and hydraulic conductivity. An increased amount of rice residues on the soil surface reduces evaporation rates and increases duration of first-stage drying. Thus, residue-covered soils tend to have greater soil moisture content than bare soil does except after extended drought.
The straws are very good fodder for cattle used in both green and dry conditions. Straws contain cellulose lignin and many minerals which decompose in the field or recycled via cattle through enzymatic and microbial process, enriching food chain adding value with protein, fat and minerals. The cellulose is the carbohydrate like starch with similar basic unit glucose. Therefore, both rice and straw contribute to energy conversion and nutrient supply chain and, in biogeochemical cycle, more efficiently than any other crop.
Usually the yield of vegetable crops is high and whole plants are consumed; thus, all nutrients are ingested by human. Very little of them are recycled through the involvement of other animals. As a result, short-cycled recycling of the human faeces or excreta is not easy especially in quickly growing urban areas. Therefore, nutrients do not get back to their origins and the soil nutrition status declines sharply mainly in vegetable fields.
Practically in urban and peri-urban areas, huge faeces are remained unused for years together in septic tanks; the black water overflows to rivers or wet bodies through the sewerage system. Unfortunately, most of the wet bodies are deadly polluted with chemicals, oils and other pollutants discharged from industries, transports, hospitals and tanneries, etc. As a result, the productivity of fish and other aquatics is also very poor in such wet bodies. On the other hand, urban green garbage is rarely recycled and is, rather, dumped in landfills. Other than the faeces, average urban waste generation rate is estimated at 0.41 kilogram per capita a day, with food and vegetable accounting for 67.65 ie about 0.28 kilogram per capita a day. For now, the urban 40 per cent of the total population produces 20,160 tonnes of green waste every day a very negligible quantity of which is recycled. Thus, the soil fertility status has on a sharp decline and farmers are becoming increasingly dependent on chemical fertiliszers. Rice-based home-centred farming system for short-cycled biomass recycling is, therefore, essential. The diversified landraces of rice have the ability to supply the necessary energy and nutrients to humans and other animals associated in the cropping circle in this region.
According to recent IPBES Global Assessment Report: Since 1970, trends in agricultural production, fish harvest, bioenergy production and harvest of materials have increased in response to population growth, rising demand and technological development. This has come at a steep price, which has been unequally distributed within and across countries. Many other key indicators of nature’s contributions to people such as soil organic carbon and pollinator diversity have, however, declined, indicating that gains in material contributions are often not sustainable.
The pace of agricultural expansion into intact ecosystems has varied from country to country. Losses of intact ecosystems have occurred primarily in the tropics, home to the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet. Bangladesh needs to revise its agriculture policy to save the ecosystem, biodiversity and to protect human health.
Professor Dr Mohammed Ataur Rahman, a crop climatologist, works
at the International University of Business Agriculture and Technology.
Growers, millers ask govt to ensure fair
paddy price
United News of
Bangladesh . Dhaka | Published: 17:39, May 18,2019 | Updated:
00:58, May 19,2019
Bangladesh Auto Rice Mills
Owners’ Association and farmers organise a press conference at Dhaka Reporters
Unity on Saturday. — UNB photo
Farmers on Saturday urged the government to
save them by ensuring that they get fair price for paddy.
They made the call at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity. It was jointly organised by Bangladesh Auto Rice Mills Owners’ Association.
Their demands included ‘identifying real farmers’, disbursing loan at two percent interest, and reducing electricity bill for irrigation.
‘We can survive if the government fixes price of per maund at Tk 800-1,000,’ said Sohrab Hossain, a farmer from Rangpur.
He urged the government to accept their demand. ‘We’ll be forced to stop producing paddy if we have to count loss,’ he said.
Each maund of paddy was currently being sold at Tk 500-600, an amount lower than the production cost, he said.
AKM Khorshed Alam Khan, president of BARMOA, demanded reopening the rice mills that have been shut down. He also pitched for lowering interest rate and electricity price.
‘We’ll be able to export around one million ton of rice if the closed mills are reopened,’ he said.
They made the call at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity. It was jointly organised by Bangladesh Auto Rice Mills Owners’ Association.
Their demands included ‘identifying real farmers’, disbursing loan at two percent interest, and reducing electricity bill for irrigation.
‘We can survive if the government fixes price of per maund at Tk 800-1,000,’ said Sohrab Hossain, a farmer from Rangpur.
He urged the government to accept their demand. ‘We’ll be forced to stop producing paddy if we have to count loss,’ he said.
Each maund of paddy was currently being sold at Tk 500-600, an amount lower than the production cost, he said.
AKM Khorshed Alam Khan, president of BARMOA, demanded reopening the rice mills that have been shut down. He also pitched for lowering interest rate and electricity price.
‘We’ll be able to export around one million ton of rice if the closed mills are reopened,’ he said.
LS polls:
Battle lines drawn between BJP and Mahagathbandhan in Karakat
Karakat will go to polls in the seventh and
final phase on May 19
Shikha Shalini | New Delhi Last Updated
at May 18, 2019 20:43 IST
Women voters
show their fingers marked with indelible ink after casting vote during the
first phase of the general elections, at Umpher in Ri-Bhoi district
The Rastriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) was a key ally of the BJP-led
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) when the Karakat and Ujiyarpur
constituencies went to vote in the last parliamentary elections.
But this time, the scenario is quite different.
RLSP’s chief Upendra Kushwaha, who is contesting these two seats,
is now a nominee of the Grand Alliance led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Besides Kushwaha, the other key candidate in the Karakat
constituency is Mahabali Singh of Janata Dal United or JD(U), the NDA
candidate.
Karakat will go to polls in the seventh and final phase on May 19.
Singh is said to be a close aide of Bihar chief minister Nitish
Kumar. Singh won the Karakat seat in 2009 while Kushwaha got this seat in 2014,
defeating Kanti Singh of the RJD. Interestingly, both the candidates are from
the Koeri (OBC) caste.
After Kushwaha became a member of Parliament, he hogged the
limelight in national politics. Kushwaha's party, the RLSP, managed to win
three seats apart from Karakat in the last Lok Sabha election. Kushwaha became
the minister of state for human resource development.
Currently, the Karakat Lok Sabha constituency comprises six Vidhan
Sabha seats. These are Bikramganj, Dehri, Karakat, Goh, Obra and Nabinagar.
Majority of the people in Karakat are the Yadavs, Koeris and
Rajputs who have about two lakh votes each. Scheduled caste, Brahmin, Bhumihar
and Muslim votes would have to also be factored in before any of the candidates
can claim victory.
Singh is expecting to get the mandate of the upper caste and
Mahadalits whereas Kushwaha is hoping to get Yadava, Kushwaha (Koiris) and
Muslim votes.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Kushwaha left the NDA when his
demand for three seats was rejected. He joined hands with the Grand Alliance
and got five seats during the negotiation process.
People of this parliamentary constituency say the expectations they
had with Singh and Kushwaha were not met.
Rice mills of this area are in huge debt and have been forced to
shut down. In fact, only 10 per cent of the rice mills are operating but are on
the brink of closure.
These mills are not getting any relief from the government. These
rice millers have no hope in this election. At the same time, farmers say due
to online registration, their crops do not reach to government agencies for
procurement.
Madan Bhuiyan of Nuaon Tola at Karakat parliamentary constituency
says, “The leaders never pay attention to the water problem here. The farmers
have to pay the irrigation tax every year even after not getting water.”
Dinesh Pasi of Siarua village says Kushwaha became Union minister
but he didn’t pay any attention to the road to Sanzhouli-Siarua.
Another villager Antu Paswan feels Kushwaha could pip Singh in the
poll, even though he was not happy with the RLSP chief. Antu says, “A road of
this area was being constructed under the Prime Minister’s Road Scheme. But
owing to the low quality material, the people stopped the project.”
But Mahabali Singh is upbeat about his prospects. “In Karakat,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas’ scheme is an important
issue. Modiji enhanced the honour of the country. As far as my work is
concerned, I raised the fundamental problems of this area in Parliament after
winning this seat in 2009. In my tenure, 3-4 mega bridges were built and 208
roads inaugurated.”
Deepak Gupta, also a resident of the area, is of the opinion that
the key issue is the safety and security of the country and this is where Modi
scores over others.
But Ashutosh Ojha from Natwar area says, “Singh and Kushwaha never
visited our area. What is the advantage of such MPs who live in Delhi and
Patna? We will vote for a candidate who is available during our need,” says
Ojha.
Although Ojha hit out at Singh, he said he will press the Lotus
symbol this time because he benefitted from the Prime Minister’s Ayushman
Bharat scheme.
Samajwadi Party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Karakat Ghanshyam Tiwary
had written an open letter to PM Modi where he said he will be submitting the
curriculum vitae of a large number of unemployed youth of his constituency.
This gesture had got him a lot of attention.
But despite this, it seems only Kushwaha and Singh are in the fray.
Meanwhile, Kushwaha is also trying his luck from Ujiarpur where he
was pitted against BJP’s state president Nityanand Rai. Here, polling was held
in the fourth phase on April 29. Interestingly, both these candidates had
campaigned for each other in the 2014 parliamentary elections.
Ensure fair paddy price: Farmers
to govt
Independent
Online Desk
18 May, 2019 06:10:35
PM / LAST MODIFIED: 18 May, 2019 06:56:08 PM
Bangladesh Auto Rice Mills Owners’ Association
(BARMOA) and farmers organise a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity on
Saturday, May 18, 2019. Photo: UNB
Farmers on Saturday urged the
government to save them by ensuring that they get fair price for paddy.
They made the call at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity. It was
jointly organised with Bangladesh Auto Rice Mills Owners’ Association (BARMOA).
Their demands included
‘identifying real farmers’, disbursing loan at two percent interest, and
reducing electricity bill for irrigation.
“We can survive if the government
fixes price of per maund at Tk800-1,000,” said Sohrab Hossain, a farmer from
Rangpur.
He urged the government to accept
their demand. “We’ll be forced to stop producing paddy if we have to count
loss,” he said.
Each maund of paddy is currently
being sold at Tk500-600, an amount lower than the production cost, he said.
AKM Khorshed Alam Khan, president
of BARMOA, demanded reopening the rice mills that have been shut down. He also
pitched for lowering interest rate and electricity price.
“We’ll be able to export around
one million ton of rice if the closed mills are reopened,” he said.UNB.
China accelerates rice cultivation in
saline soil
Friday 17th
May, 2019
CHANGSHA, May 17, (Xinhua/GNA) - A leading saline
soil rice research center in eastern China's Shandong Province made the
decision to expand its experimental land to over 667 hectares early this month.
The Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center in
the coastal city of Qingdao said the move aimed to speed up research and
development and optimize various types of saline soil rice.
The center said one other important purpose of the expansion was
to seek the best cultivation methods.
"All strains of rice to be grown on the experimental land
passed regional experiments in different types of saline soil," said Zhang
Guodong, deputy director of the center.
Zhang noted that regional experiments were conducted in Xinjiang,
Bohai Gulf in eastern China, northeastern China and coastal areas in
southeastern China.
"We were surprised by parts of the experimental data last
year. And this year, we are not only expanding the test area but also making
stricter test parameters in order to better simulate actual production,"
Zhang added.
The center has set a target of 300 kg yield per mu (one mu is
equivalent to 667 square meters). Meanwhile, researchers will study which rice
types are suitable for which areas and which saline-alkali land needs to be
ameliorated.
Rice is a staple food in China, as well as many other Asian
countries.
China has about 100 million hectares of saline-alkali soil, of
which about one fifth could be ameliorated to arable soil.
"This is not a small amount. We want to ameliorate 6.7
million hectares of saline-alkali soil at first, and then expand the area
gradually. But the task cannot be done by any single institution; we need to
work together," Zhang said.
To scientifically exploit and use saline soil, increase the grain
output of China, as well as prevent disasters of saltwater intrusion into paddy
fields at home and abroad, organizations and institutions have now strengthened
cooperation.
"From the experimental field to farmers' land, there need to
be repeated experiments at different stages," said Li Xinqi, a saline soil
rice expert.
Li said the regional experiment was one of the key links of the
whole production process, which could lay the foundation for the strains of
saline soil rice.
So far, multiple organizations and institutions, including the
research center in Qingdao, Hybrid Rice Research Center in central China's
Hunan Province, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences and China National
Rice Research Institute, have jointly established a National Salt-Tolerant Rice
Regional Trail Alliance in May 2017.
The alliance then set standards for the regional experiments of
saline soil rice and lead the experiments. The organization is currently
discussing saline soil rice's production standards.
"The establishment of the alliance facilitates the research
and development of saline soil rice in China," said Peng Jiming, an
official with the research center in Hunan, adding that the alliance also helped
to attract over 20 enterprises and scientific research institutions to join the
research and development of saline soil rice.
Experts said it was necessary to establish an authoritative
organization to work out standards, collect the latest trends of saline soil
rice studies and solve problems.
Chinese tech giant Huawei has also participated in the development
of the saline soil rice. It has worked with the research center in Qingdao to
develop a saline soil rice intelligent agricultural system based on
technologies of the Internet of Things and big data.
The system is expected to make headway in the fourth quarter of
this year.
The research and development of saline soil rice in China have
drawn international attention. The Republic of Congo, Pakistan, India and
Nigeria have expressed strong interest, while China will soon build up
saline-alkali tolerant rice research and promotion centers in the Middle East
and Africa.
Yuan Longping, known as the "father of hybrid rice,"
also urged the establishment of a national research and development center on
saline-alkali tolerant rice and to make use of more saline-alkali land to
increase rice yield.
GNA
Magid Hires in
New York and Salt Lake City
May 17 2019
US-based strategy and custom research company Magid has appointed
Brian Katz as Senior Vice President, Product and Data Strategy, in New York;
while qualitative researcher Jason Rice has joined its Gaming and Esports
practice in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The company, which was founded by television 'news doctor' Frank N. Magid in 1957, studies how human
behavior is affected by content and advertising across traditional and new
media platforms. Katz (pictured) joins with a background in media research,
data strategy and audience attribution. Most recently he worked for video
marketing tech firm Eyeview as VP, Head of Advanced TV; prior to which he was
TiVo's SVP, Audience and Purchaser Insight; VP, Research at NBCUniversal
Domestic TV Distribution; and Research Director at Paramount Pictures. In his
new role, Katz will support the company's eDNA dataset, which captures and maps
the nuances of consumer emotion across both linear and OTT television content and
advertising.
Kate Morgan, Chief Product Officer and Head of the Global Media & Entertainment practice, comments: 'We are excited to have Brian's extensive knowledge and experience on our team as we look to integration opportunities and new eDNA product extensions, including movies. His experience will be invaluable to ensuring we meet our clients rapidly evolving needs in the area of attribution, advertising context and audience measurement'.
Separately, Rice joins as Director of Qualitative Research, leading research and consulting projects for clients in both domestic and international markets. He spent the past four years at Greenberg Strategy, leading multiple engagements for clients, and meanwhile travelling globally, conducting qualitative sessions to help inform brand positioning, concept evaluation and refinement, product development, and explore white space opportunities. Prior to Greenberg, he was a freelance writer and analyst, contributing to several video game culture sites.
Web site: www.magid.com . .
The company, which was founded by television 'news doctor' Frank N. Magid in 1957, studies how human
behavior is affected by content and advertising across traditional and new
media platforms. Katz (pictured) joins with a background in media research,
data strategy and audience attribution. Most recently he worked for video
marketing tech firm Eyeview as VP, Head of Advanced TV; prior to which he was
TiVo's SVP, Audience and Purchaser Insight; VP, Research at NBCUniversal
Domestic TV Distribution; and Research Director at Paramount Pictures. In his
new role, Katz will support the company's eDNA dataset, which captures and maps
the nuances of consumer emotion across both linear and OTT television content and
advertising. Kate Morgan, Chief Product Officer and Head of the Global Media & Entertainment practice, comments: 'We are excited to have Brian's extensive knowledge and experience on our team as we look to integration opportunities and new eDNA product extensions, including movies. His experience will be invaluable to ensuring we meet our clients rapidly evolving needs in the area of attribution, advertising context and audience measurement'.
Separately, Rice joins as Director of Qualitative Research, leading research and consulting projects for clients in both domestic and international markets. He spent the past four years at Greenberg Strategy, leading multiple engagements for clients, and meanwhile travelling globally, conducting qualitative sessions to help inform brand positioning, concept evaluation and refinement, product development, and explore white space opportunities. Prior to Greenberg, he was a freelance writer and analyst, contributing to several video game culture sites.
Web site: www.magid.com . .
UPDATE
1-MODI PROCLAIMS A CLEANER INDIA, BUT THE REALITY MAY BE MORE MURKY
5/17/2019
* World Bank-supported survey has
many lapses, say survey insiders
* Modi had promised to eliminate
open defecation by October 2019
* Gov't says it stands by
authenticity of World Bank-backed survey
* Gov't denies allegations raised
by surveyors & RICE researchers (Adds government comment)
By Sachin Ravikumar and Munsif
Vengattil
KOPPAL/SHIKRAWA, India, May 17
(Reuters) - Every morning around dawn, dozens of people gather by the dusty
banks of a stream snaking through Shikrawa village, two hours south of India's
capital, New Delhi, to do the same thing: defecate in the open.
"There are close to 1,600
houses in Shikrawa. And I know for a fact that some 400 of those don't have
toilets," said Khurshid Ahmed, a village council official in Shikrawa, in
the northern state of Haryana.
Federal government records say
Haryana - with its population of more than 25 million - is squeaky clean. The
state, along with most others in India, is classified "open defecation-free",
while a World Bank-supported nationwide survey says only 0.3% of Haryana's
rural population defecates outside.
But interviews with over half a
dozen surveyors involved in the World Bank-supported study, and two
participating researchers, all raised significant concerns with the methodology
of the survey, and its findings.
India's sanitation programme had
"succeeded in lifting more than 550 million people out of open defecation
in a short period of less than 5 years", India's Ministry of Drinking
Water and Sanitation said in a release on Friday in response to a Reuters'
article.
In Shikrawa, interviews with 27
people showed at least 330 villagers still defecate in the open because of a
lack of toilets, issues with accessing water, or simply a dogged opposition to
changing old habits. An hour away in the village of Nangla Kanpur, things
aren't any different.
The ministry said it "is
difficult to comment on isolated incidents of non-usage", but it believes
that households may try to hide that they have a toilet, in the expectation of
receiving further financial incentives to build toilets.
Studies link open defecation to
public health issues, as it increases the spread of parasites due to water
contamination. The World Bank said in 2016 one in every ten deaths in India is
linked to poor sanitation.
In a country plagued by sexual
assault crimes, the lack of toilets also disproportionately affects women, who
have to walk long distances before dawn or after dark to relieve themselves.
In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi announced the "Swachh Bharat", or "Clean India",
campaign and vowed to eliminate open defecation nationwide in five years.
Modi, who is seeking re-election
for a second term in polls that conclude on Sunday, has often used the success
of Swachh Bharat in campaigning. "We got more than 100 million toilets
built," he said at a rally in north India on Sunday.
Swachh Bharat, a
multi-billion-dollar programme backed by money from the government and a World
Bank loan, has indeed built millions of latrines, but critics say official
statistics paint an overly optimistic picture of its success.
"The whole point of this is
for people's health," said Payal Hathi, a researcher consulted on the
World Bank-backed survey. "It's unfortunate that the data is so
misleading."
Data from the World Bank-supported National
Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) that concluded in February shows that
only about 10% of rural Indians defecate in the open. The survey was conducted
using funds from a $1.5 billion World Bank loan for Swachh Bharat.
A separate study conducted over a
similar timeline by the non-profit Research Institute for Compassionate
Economics (RICE), where Hathi was a researcher, shows 44% of the rural
population across four large states still defecate in the open. (See graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2JF2LFB)
The ministry said: "RICE has
been repeatedly attempting to undermine the achievements of the Swachh Bharat
Mission." It said RICE has a history of "biased, motivated and
untruthful" reporting.
RICE was not immediately reachable
for further comment.
"IMPOSSIBLE" FINDINGS
Hathi and fellow researcher Nikhil
Srivastav also say they witnessed several lapses at meetings held to design the
survey.
The specific goal of reporting low
open-defecation levels was communicated clearly by government representatives
to Kantar Public — the company contracted to conduct the survey — and by Kantar
to the surveyors, the two said.
Kantar, owned by advertising giant
WPP, did not respond to requests for comment.
Hathi told Reuters the NARSS
questionnaire contained leading queries about toilet usage that may have
influenced respondents, and the government ignored suggestions aimed at fixing
queries.
The ministry said it
"categorically dismisses and denies the claims of the two RICE researchers."
Seven surveyors who collected NARSS
data and had a direct view of the sanitation situation in their respective
regions gave Reuters state-wide estimates of open defecation that were sharply
higher than the findings in the survey.
Two called NARSS findings
"impossible" and said very little time had been spent questioning
respondents.
The surveyors interviewed by
Reuters worked in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh
and Karnataka and declined to be named for fear of losing their jobs.
A NARSS surveyor in western
Rajasthan state said surveyors would mark a village as ODF - for open
defecation-free - even if they spotted faeces on the ground or people
defecating outside — a violation of government guidelines.
"If we see some open defecation
in stray cases away from the main centre of a village, we cannot mark the
village as non-ODF," he said, adding trainers from the ministry told
surveyors to follow such practices.
The ministry denied the allegations
and said NARSS surveyors typically have "very limited" knowledge of
state-wide data.
TUTORED RESPONSES
Despite researcher concerns around
the lapses in the survey, the World Bank has so far given NARSS-linked funds of
$417.4 million to India, a right-to-information request shows.
"The World Bank has not
received any formal expressions of concern related to the work of the
surveyors," said a World Bank spokesman in a statement. "An exercise
of this scale will have inconsistencies."
Reuters also visited the southern
state of Karnataka. Across seven villages in Koppal district, at least 150
people defecate in the open, interviews with over 50 people showed. The Indian
government also classifies Karnataka as "open defecation free".
Many people in north and south
India told Reuters that a lack of toilets near fields where farmers spend their
day, and poorly built toilets, all contribute to people defecating in the open.
Some say they were beaten or shamed
by authorities publicly if found to be defecating outside. Others said they
were threatened with food ration cuts.
Such coercion, sanitation experts
say, discourages honest answers about toilet usage as villagers fear reprisals.
"The respondents will give you
false answers," said Nitya Jacob, a water and sanitation consultant.
"They're all tutored to say 'yes-yes,' we use toilets."
The ministry said allegations that
the responses would be "tutored is naïve at the best and malicious at
worst". It said it encourages anyone finding incidents of coercion to
bring them to its attention and it would act.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar and
Munsif Vengattil Editing by Euan Rocha and Philip McClellan)
Growers count heavy losses
200 silos would be built to store 10 lakh tonnes to be
bought from farmers: food secy
Md Owasim Uddin Bhuyan |
Published: 01:19, May 18,2019 | Updated: 02:41, May 18,2019
The government intervention created no impact on the situation as the authorities continue to procure rice from the millers though officially the government is required to procure un-husked rice from the growers.
Though food ministry fixed the price of un-husked boro rice at Tk 1,040 for 40 kg, the growers are forced to sell it for Tk 500 to Tk 600, that is less than a day labourer’s daily wage, according to farmers and agriculturalists.
Bumper production is causing the growers’ misery by the middlemen.
Low price compelled growers to burn and destroy boro rice crop.
Food secretary Shahabuddin Ahmed told New Age that the government was planning to procure ‘un-husked rice’ directly from the farmers as the procurement from the millers failed to ensure fair price to the growers.
He said that under the plan ‘200 Paddy Silos would be built across the country to store 10 lakh tonnes of un-husked rice to be procured from the growers.
He said that each silo would have the capacity to store 5,000 tonnes of un-husked rice.
He said that dryers inside the silos would be used for drying and preservation of un-husked rice.
He described the low rice price as a matter of ‘concern’.
A grower at Kalihati, Tangail burnt his boro crop on the field in protest against low price.
Farmer Waizur Rahman of Zampara, Nikhli, Kishoreganj told New Age that he got good harvest but was compelled to sell at below the production cost.
Sohel Bhuiya, a rice miller at Bajitpur, Kishoreganj, said that the growers were selling 40 kg of dried un-husked boro rice for Tk 550-Tk 650 depending on quality.
Department of Agricultural Extension officials told New Age that the boro crop had been fully harvested in seven haor districts but 60 per cent in the remaining 57 districts.
They said that in the haor districts the yield per hectare was 3.77 tonnes.
Procurement policy good, Will take rice from Millers: FCI officers
Hyderabad: Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials were all praises on the
Paddy procurement system is Telangana. They said Telangana government has taken
all measures in making arrangements in procurement policy according to the
increase of yield year by year. FCI has given
assurance of taking 3.44 lakh metric tons of Raw Rice available with Rice
Millers in Telangana state. They said they will sort out delays in
certification process of CMR and speed up the obtaining rice.
Chief Advisor
for FCI S.P. Kar, General Manager, Operation Hemanth Jain, Telangana FCI
General Manager Ashwini Kumar met with Civil Supplies official on Friday at
Civil Supplies Bhavan, Somajiguda, Hyderabad.
Commissioner
for Civil Supplies Akun Sabharwal requested FCI officials to resolve the issues
being faced by Telangana government from FCI pertaining paddy procurement, CMR,
storage space and other issues. FCI officials gave assurance that they will go
through all the issues and resolve them sonly.
Commissioner
said that till now 68 lakh metric tons of paddy is been procured during this
year Khariff and Rabi seasons and for this storage space is required to store
23 lakh metric tons of rice. He made notice to FCI officials that as FCI is not
providing sufficient storage space several problems are arising in storage of
rice. They are facing difficulty in collecting Custom Milling Rice (CMR) as Raw
rice and Boiled rice is piled up FCI godowns. He requested to FCI officials to
move this rice through Rail route to other states. On this request FCI
officials made positive response and assured that they will transfer the rice
to Kerala, Karnataka immediately.
FCI officials
said that as there is shortage of godowns space in Khammam, Bhupalpally,
Mahabubabad, Jagitial, Siriclla, Kamareddy, Kothagudem districts they will
discuss with concerned districts Joint Collectors and sort out the problem. Lot
allotment would be made to millers even if it is less than 6 ACKs. On
acceptance of rice in Gunny Bags of 2017-18 they will discuss at Delhi and will
take decision.
'Stop Eating Foreign Rice', Customs Boss Hameed Ali Begs
Nigerians
“We always ask for assistance from Nigerians to apprehend these
smugglers, but up till now, there is no private citizen that has walked up to
us to give us information, the only people giving us information are the rice
millers.”
BY
SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORKMAY 16, 2019
Hameed Ali (rtd), the Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service, has appealed to Nigerians to stop consuming foreign rice riddled with chemicals.
Ali spoke at a news conference organized by the ministry of finance on Thursday.
He said: “A chemical must have been added to sustain its freshness and that chemical is harmful.
“Also, it has been re-bagged with a new date given as the production and expiry dates, and that is what we consume here which causes diseases.
“So, I appeal to Nigerians to please patronize our own rice, it is available, more nutritious and if you do that you will assist customs by making sure these people (smugglers) are put out of business.
“We always ask for assistance from Nigerians to apprehend these smugglers, but up till now, there is no private citizen that has walked up to us to give us information, the only people giving us information are the rice millers.”
UPDATE
1-MODI PROCLAIMS A CLEANER INDIA, BUT THE REALITY MAY BE MORE MURKY
5/17/2019
* World Bank-supported survey has
many lapses, say survey insiders
* Modi had promised to eliminate
open defecation by October 2019
* Gov't says it stands by
authenticity of World Bank-backed survey
* Gov't denies allegations raised
by surveyors & RICE researchers (Adds government comment)
By Sachin Ravikumar and Munsif
Vengattil
KOPPAL/SHIKRAWA, India, May 17
(Reuters) - Every morning around dawn, dozens of people gather by the dusty
banks of a stream snaking through Shikrawa village, two hours south of India's
capital, New Delhi, to do the same thing: defecate in the open.
"There are close to 1,600
houses in Shikrawa. And I know for a fact that some 400 of those don't have
toilets," said Khurshid Ahmed, a village council official in Shikrawa, in
the northern state of Haryana.
Federal government records say
Haryana - with its population of more than 25 million - is squeaky clean. The
state, along with most others in India, is classified "open
defecation-free", while a World Bank-supported nationwide survey says only
0.3% of Haryana's rural population defecates outside.
But interviews with over half a
dozen surveyors involved in the World Bank-supported study, and two
participating researchers, all raised significant concerns with the methodology
of the survey, and its findings.
India's sanitation programme had
"succeeded in lifting more than 550 million people out of open defecation
in a short period of less than 5 years", India's Ministry of Drinking
Water and Sanitation said in a release on Friday in response to a Reuters'
article.
In Shikrawa, interviews with 27
people showed at least 330 villagers still defecate in the open because of a
lack of toilets, issues with accessing water, or simply a dogged opposition to
changing old habits. An hour away in the village of Nangla Kanpur, things
aren't any different.
The ministry said it "is
difficult to comment on isolated incidents of non-usage", but it believes
that households may try to hide that they have a toilet, in the expectation of
receiving further financial incentives to build toilets.
Studies link open defecation to
public health issues, as it increases the spread of parasites due to water
contamination. The World Bank said in 2016 one in every ten deaths in India is
linked to poor sanitation.
In a country plagued by sexual
assault crimes, the lack of toilets also disproportionately affects women, who
have to walk long distances before dawn or after dark to relieve themselves.
In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi announced the "Swachh Bharat", or "Clean India",
campaign and vowed to eliminate open defecation nationwide in five years.
Modi, who is seeking re-election
for a second term in polls that conclude on Sunday, has often used the success
of Swachh Bharat in campaigning. "We got more than 100 million toilets
built," he said at a rally in north India on Sunday.
Swachh Bharat, a
multi-billion-dollar programme backed by money from the government and a World
Bank loan, has indeed built millions of latrines, but critics say official
statistics paint an overly optimistic picture of its success.
"The whole point of this is
for people's health," said Payal Hathi, a researcher consulted on the
World Bank-backed survey. "It's unfortunate that the data is so
misleading."
Data from the World Bank-supported
National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) that concluded in February
shows that only about 10% of rural Indians defecate in the open. The survey was
conducted using funds from a $1.5 billion World Bank loan for Swachh Bharat.
A separate study conducted over a
similar timeline by the non-profit Research Institute for Compassionate Economics
(RICE), where Hathi was a researcher, shows 44% of the rural population across
four large states still defecate in the open. (See graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2JF2LFB)
The ministry said: "RICE has
been repeatedly attempting to undermine the achievements of the Swachh Bharat
Mission." It said RICE has a history of "biased, motivated and
untruthful" reporting.
RICE was not immediately reachable
for further comment.
"IMPOSSIBLE" FINDINGS
Hathi and fellow researcher Nikhil
Srivastav also say they witnessed several lapses at meetings held to design the
survey.
The specific goal of reporting low
open-defecation levels was communicated clearly by government representatives
to Kantar Public — the company contracted to conduct the survey — and by Kantar
to the surveyors, the two said.
Kantar, owned by advertising giant
WPP, did not respond to requests for comment.
Hathi told Reuters the NARSS
questionnaire contained leading queries about toilet usage that may have influenced
respondents, and the government ignored suggestions aimed at fixing queries.
The ministry said it
"categorically dismisses and denies the claims of the two RICE
researchers."
Seven surveyors who collected NARSS
data and had a direct view of the sanitation situation in their respective
regions gave Reuters state-wide estimates of open defecation that were sharply
higher than the findings in the survey.
Two called NARSS findings
"impossible" and said very little time had been spent questioning
respondents.
The surveyors interviewed by
Reuters worked in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh
and Karnataka and declined to be named for fear of losing their jobs.
A NARSS surveyor in western
Rajasthan state said surveyors would mark a village as ODF - for open
defecation-free - even if they spotted faeces on the ground or people
defecating outside — a violation of government guidelines.
"If we see some open defecation
in stray cases away from the main centre of a village, we cannot mark the
village as non-ODF," he said, adding trainers from the ministry told
surveyors to follow such practices.
The ministry denied the allegations
and said NARSS surveyors typically have "very limited" knowledge of
state-wide data.
TUTORED RESPONSES
Despite researcher concerns around
the lapses in the survey, the World Bank has so far given NARSS-linked funds of
$417.4 million to India, a right-to-information request shows.
"The World Bank has not
received any formal expressions of concern related to the work of the
surveyors," said a World Bank spokesman in a statement. "An exercise
of this scale will have inconsistencies."
Reuters also visited the southern
state of Karnataka. Across seven villages in Koppal district, at least 150
people defecate in the open, interviews with over 50 people showed. The Indian
government also classifies Karnataka as "open defecation free".
Many people in north and south
India told Reuters that a lack of toilets near fields where farmers spend their
day, and poorly built toilets, all contribute to people defecating in the open.
Some say they were beaten or shamed
by authorities publicly if found to be defecating outside. Others said they
were threatened with food ration cuts.
Such coercion, sanitation experts
say, discourages honest answers about toilet usage as villagers fear reprisals.
"The respondents will give you
false answers," said Nitya Jacob, a water and sanitation consultant.
"They're all tutored to say 'yes-yes,' we use toilets."
The ministry said allegations that
the responses would be "tutored is naïve at the best and malicious at
worst". It said it encourages anyone finding incidents of coercion to
bring them to its attention and it would act.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar and
Munsif Vengattil Editing by Euan Rocha and Philip McClellan)
Govt plans to export rice, restrict imports
Published at 09:57 pm May 19th, 2019
File photo of Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal
Last couple of seasons witnessed a substantial
growth in rice production
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Sunday
hinted about rice exports and restricting imports in a bid to bring relief to
the growers hit hard by lower pieces of paddy.
“The country will export rice even though it
needs subsidy,” said the minister while addressing a program at planning
ministry in the capital.
The farmers were suffering not getting fair
price of their produce as the markets had higher amount of stocks than what was
needed.
Meanwhile, the rice, imported in recent years,
increased the stocks, lowering the price further.
The minister, in the program, also criticized
the rice import and said that the import would be banned immediately.
“The country’s farmers need to be saved and
for that import must be stopped,” he said.
According to food ministry data, the country
imported 2,00,000 tons of rice over the last 10 months of the current fiscal
and 3,80,000 more tons are under process of import.
The government promoted rice imports two years
ago withdrawing the import duties to meet rice supply shortage caused by 2017
flood, which badly affected crops, especially in hoar areas.
The government then had said they would
require 10,00,000 tons of rice but a total of 60,00,000 tons were imported in
last two years, said the food ministry.
Besides, last couple of seasons witnessed a
substantial growth in rice production.
As a result, the prices of rice were not
rational with farmers’ cost of production, which caused losses to the growers.
Meanwhile, boro rice has started coming to
market, bringing down the rice prices further.
“Boro rice has started coming, adding to the
stocks, which was already higher than the demand,” said HM Asad, a Karwan
Bazar-based wholesaler.
“As a result, we have to cut the price by
Tk300-400 per 50kg bag of rice to maintain market competitiveness,” he told the
Dhaka Tribune.
“The government initiative to keep the rice
prices in favour of consumers deprives farmers of fair prices,” he claimed.
During a visit to several markets of the
capital on Saturday, the Dhaka Tribune has found rice selling at Tk30 to Tk50
depending on their verities, which was Tk38 to Tk65 last week, a Tk8-15 fall
per kilogram.
Experts were repeatedly calling for reducing
production costs though increasing yield.
The minister Mustafa Kamal said the use of new
technology could reduce the cost of production, bringing more profit to the
harvesters.
Hinting at government initiatives for
technological revolution in agricultural sector, he said that the government
would bring high-tech agriculture machineries for the farmers.
“We want to provide such machineries at
subsidized rates but the farmers are not interested to buy those,” the minister
expressed frustration.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/commerce/2019/05/19/govt-plans-to-export-rice-restrict-imports
Farmers unnerved by depressed
paddy prices
Restriction
on rice import sought
Economists suggest for buffer
stock
Monday,
May 20, 2019
Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The government should impose immediate restriction on rice import to fairly deal with the depressed local paddy prices that causes difficulties for farmers, economists said on Sunday.
They feared that paddy prices might fall further if no steps were taken immediately to curb the rice import.
If a farmer sells paddy at the current market rate, which is Tk500 to Tk 600, he will lose Tk 300 to Tk 400 per maund.
"Production cost of per mound rice is about Tk 906.50," according to the Ministry of Food and Rice Mill Owners Association. Â
"Rice importation needs some sort of restriction in view of falling paddy prices. The bumper paddy production in this season is sufficient to feed the nation," Dr Moinul Islam, an economics professor at the University of Chittagong told The New Nation yesterday.
He said that farmers made a good harvest, but they are unable to sell their produce at a reasonable price because of the imports. "Big millers and middlemen made profit by forcing farmers to sell their produce at lower prices."
"The government should create a buffer stock of rice buying it directly from the farmers. The stock can be sold to poor people at subsidized rate through open market sale. Such a measure can help protect farmers' interest as well.
This can also help curb the market syndication of the large milers and wholesalers," added Prof Moinul Islam.
Dr Moinul Islam, a former chairperson of Bangladesh Economist Association (BEA) also cited that India and Vietnam are rice surplus country. Both the countries are applying such technique to help the pappy growers.
"Rice import despite surplus paddy production are  pushing the local paddy prices low," Economist Dr Jamaluddin Ahmed told The New Nation.
He said, loophole in distribution mechanism is another cause for the current market prices of paddy.
"A proper distribution system is a must to counter the nexus of big rice millers and middlemen to ensure fair paddy prices," he noted. Â
Dr Jamal Uddin, who is also a Director of Bangladesh Bank's Board, mentioned that procurement of paddy must be done directly from farmers to help growers get a good price of their produce.
He also observed that though paddy farming is becoming costly, farmers have limited access to credit facilities. So, the government should allow all the farmers to get easy-term loan to grow paddy.
According to the Ministry of Food, in the last 10 months of the current fiscal year, government and private importers imported 2.0 lakh metric tonnes of rice. More 3.80 lakh metric tonnes are in the import pipeline.
In the last one and half months, about 15,000 metric tonnes of Indian rice entered Bangladesh through Hili land port being imported by private parties. Â
Until March last year, there were 13.67 lakh metric tonnes of rice in the government's warehouse and it was sufficient to meet any emergency.
"Rice production has become costly in Bangladesh and that has created the problem. We have to adopt mechanization in rice farming to reduce the production cost. Otherwise, farmers will be deprived from fair prices." Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute (PRI) told The New Nation.
 He said Bangladesh could be a rice export if automation is done in paddy cultivation and harvesting. "We will be able to get the edge like Thailand and Vietnam in export market once the mechanization is introduced in the farming." When asked, he said, "A high import duty is put in place in rice import. And further curb in import is the government's political decision." Â
"Bangladesh witnessed a rice glut following bumper paddy production for the last couple of years and huge entry of imported rice. This has led to drastic fall in paddy prices depriving farmers from getting fair prices of their produces," Dr ATM Shafiquil Islam, a Professor at the Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University told The New Nation.
He warned that if rice import is not restricted, the country's agro-economy will face a disaster soon.
The government should impose immediate restriction on rice import to fairly deal with the depressed local paddy prices that causes difficulties for farmers, economists said on Sunday.
They feared that paddy prices might fall further if no steps were taken immediately to curb the rice import.
If a farmer sells paddy at the current market rate, which is Tk500 to Tk 600, he will lose Tk 300 to Tk 400 per maund.
"Production cost of per mound rice is about Tk 906.50," according to the Ministry of Food and Rice Mill Owners Association. Â
"Rice importation needs some sort of restriction in view of falling paddy prices. The bumper paddy production in this season is sufficient to feed the nation," Dr Moinul Islam, an economics professor at the University of Chittagong told The New Nation yesterday.
He said that farmers made a good harvest, but they are unable to sell their produce at a reasonable price because of the imports. "Big millers and middlemen made profit by forcing farmers to sell their produce at lower prices."
"The government should create a buffer stock of rice buying it directly from the farmers. The stock can be sold to poor people at subsidized rate through open market sale. Such a measure can help protect farmers' interest as well.
This can also help curb the market syndication of the large milers and wholesalers," added Prof Moinul Islam.
Dr Moinul Islam, a former chairperson of Bangladesh Economist Association (BEA) also cited that India and Vietnam are rice surplus country. Both the countries are applying such technique to help the pappy growers.
"Rice import despite surplus paddy production are  pushing the local paddy prices low," Economist Dr Jamaluddin Ahmed told The New Nation.
He said, loophole in distribution mechanism is another cause for the current market prices of paddy.
"A proper distribution system is a must to counter the nexus of big rice millers and middlemen to ensure fair paddy prices," he noted. Â
Dr Jamal Uddin, who is also a Director of Bangladesh Bank's Board, mentioned that procurement of paddy must be done directly from farmers to help growers get a good price of their produce.
He also observed that though paddy farming is becoming costly, farmers have limited access to credit facilities. So, the government should allow all the farmers to get easy-term loan to grow paddy.
According to the Ministry of Food, in the last 10 months of the current fiscal year, government and private importers imported 2.0 lakh metric tonnes of rice. More 3.80 lakh metric tonnes are in the import pipeline.
In the last one and half months, about 15,000 metric tonnes of Indian rice entered Bangladesh through Hili land port being imported by private parties. Â
Until March last year, there were 13.67 lakh metric tonnes of rice in the government's warehouse and it was sufficient to meet any emergency.
"Rice production has become costly in Bangladesh and that has created the problem. We have to adopt mechanization in rice farming to reduce the production cost. Otherwise, farmers will be deprived from fair prices." Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute (PRI) told The New Nation.
 He said Bangladesh could be a rice export if automation is done in paddy cultivation and harvesting. "We will be able to get the edge like Thailand and Vietnam in export market once the mechanization is introduced in the farming." When asked, he said, "A high import duty is put in place in rice import. And further curb in import is the government's political decision." Â
"Bangladesh witnessed a rice glut following bumper paddy production for the last couple of years and huge entry of imported rice. This has led to drastic fall in paddy prices depriving farmers from getting fair prices of their produces," Dr ATM Shafiquil Islam, a Professor at the Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University told The New Nation.
He warned that if rice import is not restricted, the country's agro-economy will face a disaster soon.
US
to help Pakistan introduce genetically-engineered corn
May 20, 2019
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Agricultural
Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said that
future collaborative projects between the US and Pakistan include using
American soybean feed in poultry, fish farming and dairy industries, introducing
genetically-engineered maize and working with various government departments to
develop uniform food safety standards.
“Soybean from the United States
will serve as raw material for poultry, fish farming and dairy industries in
Pakistan. We are working collaboratively with the government and the industry
not only in poultry but also in the new and exciting area of fish farming which
is in the pipeline,” Casey E. Bean, USDA official based in US Embassy in
Islamabad, told Dawn.
“Approval of genetically-engineered
maize is currently being considered in Pakistan. It would offer farmers a tool
to increase their production and reduce use of agricultural chemicals,” he
claimed.
Talking about the complicated
relationship between the two countries, Mr Bean told Dawn,
“While political highs and lows in the relations between the two countries
occurs, US-Pakistan cooperation in the agricultural sector has always been an
important part in our bilateral relationship of seventy years.
“The deep relationship between the
agricultural scientists of the two countries is evident in the collaboration on
developing seeds for wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton. Agriculture sector is
an incredibly important sector in Pakistan and is a priority for the US. For
these reasons the USDA mission has an office in Islamabad,” he said.
Allies in fighting terrorism,
Pakistan and the US have a knotty relationship, especially over Afghanistan. In
the past the Washington has accused Islamabad of playing a double game but in
February this year US President Donald Trump said that the United States had
developed a “much better relationship” with Pakistan.
Uniform food safety standards and
food security are two other areas where the USDA is working with local
government departments, Mr Bean said. USDA is working with the Department of
Commerce, the Ministry of National Food Security and agribusiness sector to
implement food safety standards such as food labels illustrating ingredients
contained in food products.
The federal government’s food security
authority would be able to provide oversight to provinces to adhere to
international standards consistently ultimately benefiting consumers, Mr Bean
said.
USDA will assist the ministry of
national food security and research for the national food system project, as
after devolution, it has become important for Pakistan to have a central food
security authority. In this area, USDA is working with Pakistan Agriculture
Research Council scientists for reducing aflatoxin (toxic fungus) in food
crops.
USDA and USAID launched a programme
sometime last year to introduce aflatoxin control in Pakistan currently at
field trial stage. Aflatoxin is produced by molds, and it often grows on food
crops such as corn, peanuts, chillies, ground nuts but even cotton seeds are
susceptible. US scientists were working with a private sector maize company in
Pakistan to develop a technology to combat aflatoxin, said the US official.
About cotton, he said this sector
is tremendous win-win situation for Pakistan. Textile is a large export earner
for Pakistan in which cotton as raw material imported from the US has a
significant share in Pakistan’s textiles.
Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2019
NFA restructuring under way
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:08 AM May 20, 2019
The restructuring of the country’s grains agency National Food Authority (NFA)
has finally begun more than a month after the government released the
implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the rice import liberalization law.
The
Department of Agriculture said on its website that the members of the agency’s
policy-making body convened last week to discuss proposals on how NFA must
proceed with its tasks now that the rice industry has been deregulated.
Under the
new policy, the grains agency will be limited to securing and maintaining the
country’s rice reserves for emergency situations, and will be stripped of its
power to license importers and regulate the entry of imported rice.
The NFA
Council, composed of officials from various agencies including the Department
of Trade and Industry, National Economic and Development Authority, Land Bank
of the Philippines and representatives from the farm sector, met last Thursday
to discuss the agency’s inventory, procurement, and distribution.
Nothing
specific was mentioned about the displacement of NFA employees with the
agency’s eventual downsizing.
NFA Council
chair and Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the body would “have to
work fast” as the agency was given just 60 days from the effectivity of the IRR
to restructure and reorganize.
Port users decry ‘arbitrary’ shipping lines’ fees
Published
By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat
Truckers, brokers and importers decried what they alleged as
“arbitrary” fees imposed by shipping companies, as they urged government to
intervene in this logistical nightmare that they said is causing prices of
consumer products to skyrocket and affecting the economy.
Mary Zapata, vice-president of the Confederation of Truckers
Association of the Philippines (CTAP), told a press conference that port users
have to endure with all kinds of “arbitrary” fees such as demurrage, detention,
container imbalance surcharge, control fees, peak season, among others.
A pioneer in the trucking industry, Zapata said importers used
to pay P40,000 per container overall cost, but now they have to pay as much as
P100,000 per container.
For instance, importers are given up to 5 days of free storage after
which they will be slapped with demurrage fees of P500 per day to P1,000 per
day of delay.
Once they have emptied the containers, the empties have to be
returned to the shipping lines within a specific timeframe. But, Zapata said
that, shipping lines no longer have space to accommodate their empties. As
such, they are directed to park at privately-owned container yards (CYs) where
truckers need to line-up for a long time to be accommodated.
Worse, they are slapped with detention fees (P5,000 a day for 20-footer
and P10,000 for 40-footer container) for not being able to return these
containers on time.
Since it is taking longer to return their empties, truckers can
no longer make second trips. The slow turnaround has already affected their
profitability and the income of drivers and helpers. There are 10,000 trucks
servicing Manila ports and employing 20,000 workers.
These highly skilled drivers earn P2,000 per trip. Should they
be able to make a second trip, their salaries could have been very competitive
compared with the rates for truck drivers in Saudi Arabia.
It is also no longer profitable for truckers. Most have scaled
down operation while others have closed. Zapata, who used to have 1,500 trucks,
is now down to 500. “I’m tired,” she said.
Zapata stressed it is the responsibility of these shipping firms
to provide for warehousing facilities for their empties but, “they are just
busy collecting fees.”
“Your warehouses are full so we cannot unload our empties on
time and you are charging me for your own fault. I am talking here about
fairness,” said an importer, whose current 20-container shipments have been
withheld by a shipping company unless he settles the P6 million fees for his 40
empties that cannot yet be accommodated by the shipping line.
In the meantime, Zapata said consumers are the ones affected as
importers have to pass on all these high logistics cost to prices of these
goods.
Zapata said that this problem has been there for the past three
decades but only worsened in the last few years because of the country’s
reliance on imports. This was highlighted in 2014 when Manila City Mayor Joseph
Estrada imposed the truck ban.
In fact, shipping lines also imposed container imbalance
surcharge, which is a penalty to importers because for every five containers of
imports, there is only one container of export that they can carry.
In one meeting, Zapata said all CY operators admitted of 125
percent utilization rate but in one instance some CYs outside of Manila said
they have utilization rate of only above 50 percent and yet they could not
accommodate their empties.
Zapata was skeptical about the utilization rate. She noted that
some empties are actually being dumped into the country because it is cheaper
(P30 to P50 only per container) to stock these empties here than in other
countries.
This congestion is expected to further worsen with the
anticipated 2.8 million metric ton rice importation this year as a result of
the rice tariffication law. Flour traders are also expected to import 200,000
MT this year.
Traders expect port congestion to aggravate starting July this
year.
Port users have been urging the government to intervene but they
could not find a government agency that is directly in charge of regulating the
shipping companies’ operations.
Zapata said there are 39 foreign shipping firms, which are
dominated by Chinese owners.
“Government should look at the operation of shipping lines,”
said Zapata.
So far, Zapata claimed that only Department of Trade and Industry was responding positively and listening to the plight of the traders but the agency cannot do anything other than facilitating all these meetings and discussions.
So far, Zapata claimed that only Department of Trade and Industry was responding positively and listening to the plight of the traders but the agency cannot do anything other than facilitating all these meetings and discussions.
The only solution they see is the implementation of the Joint
Administrative Order (JAO) of the Department of Trade and Industry, Department
of Finance and the Department of Transportation. DTOR Secretary Art Tugade has
yet to sign the JAO.
Once implemented, the JAO will put the Bureau of Customs on top
of regulating shipping firms’ operations, including their charges and fees. But
Zapata said the JAO has been pending for 5 months already.
“In the port congestion problem, some parties are making money,
it is a fortune to others, but it is a misery to us truckers,” as she pointed
out to specific firms and sectors that made fortunes and displacing small port
service providers.
Frustrated over this inaction, Zapata expressed hope that this
issue will reach President Duterte, who she said “hates” those who take
advantage of others.
Zapata traced the port logistics problem to the high volume of
imports that caught government off guard or “they have the intention not to be
effective”, saying the issue can be simply addressed operationally.
There Is No Rush to Give Food Aid to N.Korea
May
20, 2019 13:25
Is North Korea really suffering from a food
shortage as it claims? According to the International Trade Center, North Korea
imported more cigarettes and fruit than essential food from China in the first
quarter of this year. The North imported US$16.44 million worth of flour from
China from January to March, down almost 40 percent on-year, but cigarette
imports totaled $17.7 million and fruit imports $26 million. Imports of rice
and other grains stood at just $1.8 million over that period. How could a
starving country buy more cigarettes and fruit than staple foods? Meanwhile the
price of rice in open-air markets in North Korea has apparently fallen
significantly since the end of last year, suggesting there is no dearth at all.
Some foreign experts are also skeptical. One
former World Bank executive said, "Considering North Korean trade data and
market price trends, there are no signs so far of a food shortage. The current
shortage concerns only the spring harvest due to a drought." It is also
strange for the North to blame U.S.-led sanctions for its apparent food shortage
since they do not cover food imports. One former U.S. special representative
for North Korea told the Wall Street Journal that the North may be exaggerating
its food shortage situation to amplify the sufferings of its people and
blackmail the international community into easing sanctions.
The only data the South Korean government is
citing for its eagerness to throw free food at the North is a dubious World
Food Programme estimate of a 1.36 million-ton grain shortage. But there is a
strong chance that the WFP simply used figures provided by North Korea. The WFP
estimates North Korea's grain output this year at 4.9 million tons. During the
famine of the 1990s, when millions starved to death, North Korea produced 3.5
million tons a year. The New York Times last week wrote, "No report of
mass starvation has emerged yet from North Korea." There is an equally
strong likelihood that the North is simply trying to cadge free food so it can
spend the money it saves that way on weapons.
But the government here is completely unwilling
to listen to such suspicions. Cheong Wa Dae officials are only interested in
creating another North Korea-related event to make political capital. The
presidential secretary for national security said the decision to provide food
aid to the North "has already been made" and Cheong Wa Dae will
convene a National Security Council meeting to decide whether to provide the
food through international aid agencies or directly. It wants to spend another
$8 million on North Korea in addition to the food aid. What kind of signal will
that send to North Korea now it has just resumed missile tests? Surely the
timing is absurd. This is not the time to rush to provide food aid to North
Korea, but to carefully consider the impact such a move would have when the
international community is tightening its sanctions. There is no rush at all.
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Dept changes delivery plan of milled
rice
|
Posted at: May 20, 2019, 7:37 AM; last updated: May 20,
2019, 7:37 AM (IST)
|
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|
Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, May 19
The Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department has
postponed the delivery schedule of custom-milled rice (CMR) by a month,
acceding to the demand of rice millers. District Food and Supplies Controller
(DFSC) Anil Kumar has confirmed this.
This means, the
first tranche of 20 per cent of the CMR was to be delivered to the Food
Corporation of India (FCI) by December 2018, the next 20 per cent by January,
the next 20 per cent by February, and remaining 25 per cent and 15 per cent by
March and April, respectively.
The department has also accepted the demand for reimbursing
or adjusting the holding charges imposed on rice millers for the delay in
delivering the CMR. It has issued directions to procurement agencies in this
regard.
“A delegation of
rice millers had approached CM Manohar Lal Khattar recently, requesting him to
waive holding charges imposed in November as they could not deliver the CMR
owing to several matters,” said Vinod Goel, senior vice-president, Haryana Rice
Millers and Dealers Association.
Buy
paddy directly from farmers: JC Hans News Service |
19 May 2019 11:43 PM
East Godavari joint collector A Mallijkarjuna
addressing rice milers at district collectorate in Kakinada on Saturday
HIGHLIGHTS East Godavari joint collector A Mallijkarjuna asked the rice millers
to avoid middlemen in purchase of paddy from farmers for MSP and the millers
should purchase directly from farmers. Kakinada: East Godavari joint collector
A Mallijkarjuna asked the rice millers to avoid middlemen in purchase of paddy
from farmers for MSP and the millers should purchase directly from farmers.
Addressing the millers at collectorate
meeting hall on Saturday evening, the JC said that in collecting paddy from
paddy purchase centres (PPCs) neither the organisers nor the millers should
claim transport charges and only farmers are entitled to get the transport
charges if they bring paddy to PPC's on their own. Mallikarjuna made it clear
that the millers who submit bank guarantees by May 20 evening, will be allotted
the custom milling of rice (CMR) for milling for the present Rabi season. DM
civil supplies M Jayaramulu, DSO P Prasad Rao, East Godavari rice miller's
association president Ambati Ramakrishna Reddy and others attended. More On
https://www.thehansindia.com/andhra-pradesh/buy-paddy-directly-from-farmers-jc-530698
https://www.thehansindia.com/andhra-pradesh/buy-paddy-directly-from-farmers-jc-530698
Farmers not doing well
12:00
AM, May 20, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 11:49 AM, May 20, 2019
Low paddy prices hit growers across country; govt yet to find an
immediate fix
A
farmer staring at his paddy with sheer frustration at Ranir Haat in
Chattogram’s Rangunia upazila. At this time of the year, the wholesale market
is usually crowded with paddy growers and millers. But this year the picture is
different. Farmers reportedly invested around Tk 800 to grow each maund of
paddy but the prices are hovering around Tk 500. Photo: Rajib Raihan
But there was nothing to make them
happy. The offers the buyers were making only deepened their frustration,
written on their faces.
“My heart wrenches when I am
offered Tk 400 or Tk 450 for one maund of paddy,” said Sohrab Hossain, a farmer
of Dargadhala village in Barmi union.
“Only I know how hard I worked to
grow paddy but I have never counted it in terms of money. I just want back the
cash I spent,” he said.
For growing BRRI Dhan-28 on one
bigha of land, Sohrab spent Tk 16,800 including Tk 2,000 on ploughing the land,
Tk 2,000 on planting saplings, Tk 3,300 on irrigation, Tk 2,000 on fertiliser,
Tk 1,500 on pesticide, Tk 5,000 on harvesting and Tk 1,000 on transportation.
In his estimate, Sohrab excluded
cost of his own labour and other expenses like daily meals for hired
labourers.
Production of paddy was 22 maunds
from each bigha of his land, and he got Tk 12,760 selling it at maximum Tk 580
per maund. That means he incurred a loss of around Tk 4,040 per bigha.
In the last Boro season, he sold
his paddy at maximum
from page 1
Tk 750 per maund, he said.
According to a market survey by the
Department of Agriculture Marketing, production cost of Boro paddy is Tk 988
for one maund. It includes family labour, interest on working capital and cost
of lease or rent of land.
During a visit to Dhan Mahal of
Barmi Bazar on Wednesday, a well-known paddy market in Gazipur region, the high
yielding varieties BRRI 28 and BRRI 29 were selling at Tk 500 to Tk 550 per
maund.
The price went up to Tk 580 in the
afternoon.
In Naogaon, Jirashail paddy, a fine
variety, was selling at Tk 700 per maund. The price was up to Tk 1,000 last
year, said Jahur Ali, a farmer in Raninagar upazila of the
district, over the phone on Friday.
In the hoar region of Sylhet, paddy
is selling at maximum Tk 600 a maund. Last year, it was Tk 750, said Abdul
Kader, a farmer of Madongouri village in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar.
In Kushtia, the price range of
different varieties is Tk 580 to Tk 850 per maund.
In Dinajpur, BRRI 28 and BRRI 29
are selling at Tk 550 per maund whereas last year it was Tk 850, said Shisnabi
Mondol, a famer in Surail village under Chirirbandar upazila.
The paddy market has been
witnessing such low prices since the end of January, a month after Aman paddy
hit the market.
A maund of paddy was selling at
about Tk 600 in early February, and the price further dropped to around Tk 500
after Boro harvesting started in late April.
Farmers in different areas blamed
millers for the fall in paddy prices.
The millers, who are the major
buyers of paddy, are not making purchases since the harvests began, they alleged.
Addressing the allegation, KM Layek
Ali, general secretary of the Bangladesh Auto Major and Husking Mills
Association, said millers are still overburdened with the paddy they bought in
the last Aman and Boro seasons.
“Our warehouses are full and we don’t
have money. So, how do we buy the paddy?”
Abdul Muyeed, director of the field
service unit at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), said a bumper
production of paddy in the current Boro and last Aman season has played a role
in pulling paddy prices down.
In the immediate past Boro season,
the hybrid, high yielding and some local varieties were grown on around 49.34
lakh hectares of land, which is one lakh hectares more than the target.
In the last Aman season, rice
production stood at 1.53 crore tonnes, or 13 lakh tonnes more than target, the
director added.
The total production cost of a
maund of paddy was around Tk 960, he said.
Layek Ali, secretary of the
millers’ association, also cited the same reasons for the fall in market
prices.
After crop damage in the hoar areas
in 2017 due to flash floods, a large quantity of rice was also imported, he
mentioned.
In 2017-18, around 39 lakh tonnes
of rice was imported, while it is 2 lakh tonnes till May 9 this fiscal year,
according to data from the food ministry.
Layek Ali further said if the
government decides to export fine rice, farmers may then get good prices.
Abdul Muyeed, director of the field
service unit, said the government was preparing a list of farmers to buy paddy
directly from them.
This effort would increase paddy
prices in the country, he added.
However, Agriculture Minister Abdur
Razzaque said procuring paddy directly from farmers would not push up the
price.
“It’s very difficult to solve the
problem immediately,” he said on Saturday. “Export could be one solution. But
this will create a problem in case of natural calamities.”
The food ministry data till April 9
shows the stock of rice in the government-owned warehouses is 10.36 lakh
tonnes. It is quite sufficient with no possibility of food grain deficit
currently, reads a statement on the
ministry
The total production of rice in
2017-18 was 363 lakh tonnes, according to the DAE.
The total rice consumption in
Bangladesh is 352 lakh tonnes per year, meaning that there is a surplus, the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited in its GAIN report 2019.
Ramzan without haleem?
Impossible!
Savour Shaan E Haleem at all Punjab Bistro
outlets across the city till June 14. The cost for two is Rs 1,500 approx.
Published: 18th May 2019
06:26 AM | Last Updated: 18th May 2019 02:46
Haleem
Express
News Service
BENGALURU: Oh, how beautiful the city
looks during the holy month of Ramzan! When the sun goes down and the iftar
celebrations begin, there is not a single word that can describe the joy on
people’s faces.
CE too joined in the festive fervour by indulging in the numerous delicacies available this month, and the mouth-watering haleem is of course, the star of the season, which can never be overlooked by a foodie.
Punjab Bistro in Koramangala brought over a Nawabi feast from the old by-lanes of Hyderabad to give you the festive feel on the eve of Eid Al Fitr. The rich culture brought seven kinds of haleem to the table, and much to our surprise, there was haleem for vegetarians too.
CE too joined in the festive fervour by indulging in the numerous delicacies available this month, and the mouth-watering haleem is of course, the star of the season, which can never be overlooked by a foodie.
Punjab Bistro in Koramangala brought over a Nawabi feast from the old by-lanes of Hyderabad to give you the festive feel on the eve of Eid Al Fitr. The rich culture brought seven kinds of haleem to the table, and much to our surprise, there was haleem for vegetarians too.
Apart from the traditional mutton haleem, we
tasted duck, chicken, prawn and turkey in the non-vegetarian section. The duck
haleem had been oven-roasted for over six hours and cooked along with a variety
of spices and condiments, giving off a vibrant flavour that tantalised our
taste buds. The turkey haleem was an exotic blend of the meat along with slices
of turkey.
The thickness of the dish played efficiently with both the duck and the turkey, but our vote went to the former one, as it had more flavour and made us ask for more. The chicken haleem is for those who love chicken, and with the ghee garnished on top, it tasted richer and more flavourful. The prawn haleem smelled ‘fishy’ and could have been cooked a bit more for the pungent smell to go away.
The thickness of the dish played efficiently with both the duck and the turkey, but our vote went to the former one, as it had more flavour and made us ask for more. The chicken haleem is for those who love chicken, and with the ghee garnished on top, it tasted richer and more flavourful. The prawn haleem smelled ‘fishy’ and could have been cooked a bit more for the pungent smell to go away.
What surprised us and became the winner out
of the seven was the jackfruit haleem. Because of the meaty taste of the
‘kathal’, a lot of people use it as a veg substitute, and the texture of the
haleem was so scrumptious that the dish had us bowled over. The last of this
league was the vegetable haleem that consisted of seven types of vegetables,
with two different whole grains and five types of lentils. Quite healthy and
ingenuously well put, came the verdict.
Next came the quintessential delight of the
season -- boneless chicken and mutton biryani. The softness of the meats and
the rich flavour of the basmati rice and various exotic spices left us craving
for more. The desserts included Qubani-Ka-Meetha, which is a traditional
Hyderabadi dessert of dried apricots served with Rabri and stewed with sugar and
saffron. It was sweet and tart, but the Rabri lifted up the aura of the dessert
to make it unique.
Gil-E-Firdaus was mostly sago, stewed bottle
gourd and milk pudding which was served chilled in a kullad. The health factor
came in with the mashed chironji, but eating a dessert from a kullad has always
been exciting. Who knew a bottle gourd and sago will make for a lip-smacking
dessert?
The last of the lot was Doh Ka Meetha, ‘Double roti’ and apricot pudding, which was a unique combo of two famous desserts from the City of the Nizams. We took a few bites of the delicious-looking dish, thanked Chef Shashikant Kalyanee and bid goodbye to the place.
Savour Shaan E Haleem at all Punjab Bistro outlets across the city till June 14. The cost for two is `1,500 approx.
The last of the lot was Doh Ka Meetha, ‘Double roti’ and apricot pudding, which was a unique combo of two famous desserts from the City of the Nizams. We took a few bites of the delicious-looking dish, thanked Chef Shashikant Kalyanee and bid goodbye to the place.
Savour Shaan E Haleem at all Punjab Bistro outlets across the city till June 14. The cost for two is `1,500 approx.
Stay up to date on all the latest Bengaluru news with The New Indian
Express App.Download
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Bifocal
seats to remain vacant this year too, feel colleges
Abhishek Choudhari | TNN | Updated: May 20, 2019, 11:32
IST
TimesPoints
NAGPUR:
Colleges feel the over supply of STD XI bifocal
seats in the city has killed the competitive admission landscape as
majority of the seats remain vacant. Academicians expect the scenario to be the
same this year as well where more than half the bifocal seats remain vacant.
In 2018, 63% bifocal seats were vacant which is a big indicator of things to come. A principal, who did not wish to be identified, blamed the education department. “They are giving approvals for the extra section to anyone who comes to their office. We have a situation where there are more than half a dozen sections of science stream in a single college with many of them having bifocal seats. Every college thought that bifocal seats will be premium ones and will attract admissions, but in 2018, that myth got busted. The demand-supply situation is now skewed drastically in favour of students, where they can literally cherry pick institutes,” the principal said.
In 2018, 63% bifocal seats were vacant which is a big indicator of things to come. A principal, who did not wish to be identified, blamed the education department. “They are giving approvals for the extra section to anyone who comes to their office. We have a situation where there are more than half a dozen sections of science stream in a single college with many of them having bifocal seats. Every college thought that bifocal seats will be premium ones and will attract admissions, but in 2018, that myth got busted. The demand-supply situation is now skewed drastically in favour of students, where they can literally cherry pick institutes,” the principal said.
Last year,
out of 8,105 bifocal seats only 3,021 got filled. Another principal said the
coaching class industry has taken over the entire admission scenario. “Don’t
let any college be under the impression that their faculty or past academic
performances are the reason why students are lining up for admissions. It is
the coaching classes that tell their students where to take admissions. The
online form is filled accordingly with preferences marked clearly. Just check
which colleges get the maximum admissions and you will also find out that their
students attend the same coaching class,” said the principal.
He added that it is because of the prodding by coaching classes that these admissions are done in a particular college. “That’s why students don’t clamour for bifocal seats as for them admission in that particular college is more important. If not bifocal, then general science stream is chosen. This is the reason why bifocal seats in so many colleges are vacant,” he said.
He added that it is because of the prodding by coaching classes that these admissions are done in a particular college. “That’s why students don’t clamour for bifocal seats as for them admission in that particular college is more important. If not bifocal, then general science stream is chosen. This is the reason why bifocal seats in so many colleges are vacant,” he said.
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