Climate extremes play significant
role in global crop yield: study
E-mailXinhua, May 3, 2019
SYDNEY, May 3 (Xinhua) -- A global
team of scientists revealed on Friday that extreme climate events such as
drought, heatwaves and floods as being responsible for 18 percent to 43 percent
of variation in global major crop yields.
These events are expected to
increase with the effects of climate change, posing a significant risk both to
local and global food security.
“With climate change predicted to
change the variability of climate and increasing the likelihood and severity of
climate extremes in most regions, our research highlights the importance of
adapting crop production to these changes,” study lead author Dr. Elisabeth
Vogel from Melbourne University said.
Vogel and her team, comprising
scientists from Australia, Germany and the U.S, used a global agricultural
database along with climate and extreme weather datasets to determine which
climate factors played the greatest role in influencing crop yields.
They found that year to year
changes in climate were responsible for 20 percent to 49 percent of yield
fluctuations in maize, rice, soy and spring wheat crops worldwide.
While extreme climate events such
as intense temperatures, drought or heavy precipitation accounted for 18
percent to 43 percent.
“Interestingly, we found that the
most important climate factors for yield anomalies were related to temperature,
not precipitation, as one could expect, with the average growing season
temperature and temperature extremes playing a dominant role in predicting crop
yields,” Vogel said.
The study also looked at global
hotspots such as North America for soy and spring wheat, Europe for spring
wheat and Asia for rice and maize, “regions that are critical for overall
production and at the same time strongly influenced by climate variability and
climate extremes,” Vogel said.
“Increasing the resilience to
climate extremes requires a concerted effort at local, regional and
international levels to reduce negative impacts for farmers and communities
depending on agriculture for their living.” Enditem
Processing
of rice imports to take maximum of 28 days
By Panay News
Friday, May 3, 2019
MANILA – Rice importation is set to take a month – with the
processing of permits to be shortened to a maximum of 28 days – under the Rice
Liberalization Act, government officials said Monday.
In a press conference in Manila City, Finance assistance
secretary Antonio “Tony” Joselito Lambino II said securing permits to import
rice will only take a maximum of 28 days.
President Rodrigo Duterte in February signed into law the Rice
Liberalization Act, which effectively removed the quantitative restrictions on
rice, and imposed a 35-percent tariff on imports from the country’s neighbors
in Southeast Asia.
As of the April 28 draft guidelines of the Rice Liberalization
Act, the milled rice importation process will take a maximum of 28 days, with
several government agencies involved.
Securing permits from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) will
take a maximum of 14 days – six days for registration, and another seven days
for the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC).
It will take six to seven working days to secure permits from
the Bureau of Customs (BOC), six to seven days from the Philippine Ports
Authority (PPA), three days from the registration with the Philippine
International Trading Corporation (PITC), and another eight days for the PITC
import consolidation.
“Kung tutuusin, maybe all in all,
three weeks, four weeks, nandiyan
na ‘yung bigas,” Trade secretary Ramon Lopez said.
“As long as wala
nang kinuhang NFA (National Food Authority) permit, it’s
really just the quality and then the actual procedure of importation, nandiyan na ‘yung bigas in
less than one month,” he added.
Trade undersecretary Ruth Castelo noted, however, that the
actual process could be shortened given the Anti-Red Tape Act (ARTA) of 2007.
“Binibigyan lang namin ng allowance para masigurado na maka-comply pa rin sila,” she said.
“With ARTA Law, maximum of three days for simple applications, mami-minimize pa po itong 28 days na binigay natin,” Castelo added. (GMA News)
Dispute breaks out over RCEF funding as DA insists on P10B
May 2, 2019 | 10:01 pm
THE Department of Agriculture
(DA) has signaled that it will claim the full amount of P10 billion once
tariffs start generating funding for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund
(RCEF), arguing that a P5 billion advance provided in 2018 was meant for other
rice projects.
“There was confusion on the
initial P5 billion that was released to the DA on Dec. 28… it’s meant to
support the rice program of the DA,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol
said in a briefing Thursday.
“Definitely, the P5 billion is
not part of RCEF,” he said, with the liberalization of rice imports only
implemented this year, while the initial P5 billion was given last year.
The RCEF is meant to be funded by
tariffs generated by rice imports, raising P10 billion each year to improve
farmers’ access to financing, rice seed, machinery and know-how, among others.
He said that the DA has fully
allocated the P5 billion released in December, with P4 billion going to the
regions before the end of 2018, and P1 billion set aside for lending programs.
The Department of Budget and
Management (DBM) has requested for the latter to be returned to help finance
the acquisition of rice drying facilities and other equipment.
The financing will be provided by
LANDBANK and the Development Bank of the Philippines, which will charge 2%.
National Economic and Development
Authority (NEDA) Assistant Secretary Mercedita A. Sombilla has said that the P5
billion was meant to be used for projects that meet the RCEF mandate while the
Rice Tariffication Law, which authorizes the RCEF, was still being implemented.
The Rice Tariffication Law aims
to bring down the price of rice by liberalizing the imports of cheap foreign
grain.
The need to support farmers while
imports increase their footprint in the market is intended to help make them
more competitive. The threat of more imports has already exerted pressure on
domestic prices of palay, or unmilled rice, reducing farmer incomes and
highlighting the need for them to be more cost-efficient.
“I talked to Secretary Mon (Ramon
M.) Lopez and he agrees that that amount should not be part of the RCEF. Binalik
lang naming ’yung P1 billion para lang makatulong na hindi na
masyadong maghanap ng pera ang gobyerno [We returned the P1 billion to
help ensure the government is not pressed for funding],” Mr. Piñol said.
He said the DA will initiate a
dialogue on the matter.
For the deployment of the actual
RCEF funds, he said, “We are still in the process of organizing the project
steering committee… when organized, I will ask all the agencies involved in the
RCEF to make a presentation of their programs. As the only accountable officer
for the P10 billion, I will have to ask them to present their project proposals
and I will have to make sure that money really goes to the rice farmers.”
— Vincent Mariel P. Galang
Cabinet Reshuffle Signal at the End of Jokowi–JK’s Administration
Penulis: Safrezi Fitra
Editor: Yura Syahrul
The reshuffle is planned to happen after the announcement of the
presidential election results or after Eid al-Fitr.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) hinted at the possibility of
reshuffling his ministers. It will be done after the announcement of the 2019
Presidential Election results from the General Elections Commission (KPU) on
May 22, or after Eid al-Fitr in early June.
Although his Working Cabinet
still has a remaining five-month working period, Jokowi is reportedly going to
replace several ministers for a number of reasons and considerations.
As reported by Koran Tempo on Monday (4/29), Jokowi stated that
he is currently considering a cabinet reshuffle. It will be done before the oath-taking
ceremony of the newly-elected president in October.
In this fifth reshuffle of the Working Cabinet, Jokowi will
provide opportunities for figures with political
backgrounds to take ministerial positions. “There are also professionals,” he
said.
The news about the cabinet
reshuffle has been circulating a week after the General Election on April 17.
Three sources in government told Katadata.co.id that the president is indeed
considering replacing a number of ministers due to various reasons.
Some of the reasons include the
existence of legal cases against his ministers, the results of the presidential
election that were not very encouraging for Jokowi's team, performance
appraisal, and strategic considerations for the formation of a new cabinet
after the inauguration of the newly-elected president in October.
The reshuffle is likely to happen
in June or after Eid, says the sources in government last week. By replacing
‘troubled’ ministers early on, the sources added that Jokowi wanted the new
cabinet formed after the inauguration of the newly-elected president to be able
to work immediately.
Jokowi (Cahyo | Presidential Secretariat Press
Bureau)
A strong signal for cabinet
reshuffle also came from the existence of legal cases in the hands of the
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) against a number of ministers. First is
Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi for bribery related to a grant from the
ministry to the National Sports Committee (KONI).
KONI Secretary General Ending
Fuad Hamidy was charged for bribing the Deputy IV of the Youth and Sports
Ministry Mulyana and two of his staff with money of around Rp 400 million to
smooth out the disbursement of a grant proposed by the committee to the
ministry. He is still acting as a witness in the case. In a hearing on Monday
(4/29), Imam who is a politician of the National Awakening Party (PKB) also
claimed to have used his ministry’s fund for umrah (a minor Islamic
pilgrimage).
Second is Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita related to the
bribery case of Bowo Sidik Pangarso, a member of the Indonesian House of
Representatives Commission VI from the Golkar faction. He claimed to have
received Rp 2 billion from Enggar to secure the ministry’s regulation about
refined crystal sugar trade through commodity auction market. Last Monday, KPK
searched Enggar's officeand confiscated a number of documents
related to sugar auctions.
The anti-corruption commission
had also summoned Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin. He was a
witness for a bribery case centering on promotion process at the Religious
Affairs Ministry, which also involved the United Development Party (PPP)
General Chairman Romahurmuziy. Lukman is a PPP representative in the Working
Cabinet.
Poor Economic Performance Leads to Reshuffle
Economic performance, which has
not yet improved and has been highlighted by the opposition during the 2019
Presidential Election campaign in recent months, is reportedly also one of
Jokowi’s considerations to overhaul his ministers in the economic field.
Several economists also propose the same thing. Economist
from the University of Indonesia (UI) Fithra Faisal believes a number of
economic ministers need to be replaced because their performance is very
burdensome to the government.
He recommended the reshuffling of
three ministers: Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita, Industry Minister
Airlangga Hartarto, and Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman. The three
ministerial sectors are considered to have a myriad of problems.
Under Minister Enggar, the
current account deficit in 2018 reached the worst point in the last four years.
The poor performance of non-oil and gas trade coupled with an increase in imports
led to a deficit.
Confusion over agricultural data and deindustrialization overshadowed the
Industry Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry. The food import policy without
a clear database is also a problem for the two ministries.
One example is the commotion over
imported rice last year. Trade Ministry and Bulog argued about the decision to
import rice. Bulog said imports were not needed due to sufficient domestic
production, but the Trade Ministry stated rice imports were required to
maintain price stability in the market.
Can obesity really be cured by eating more
rice? Study says so
There's a whole world of slimming in that
pilau... or maybe not. Photo: Getty
Eat more rice, cure obesity – this is the news that went around the
world in the past 24 hours, largely without critical analysis. Is there a grain
of truth in such a bold declaration?
Or has an interesting observation by Japanese scientists been
over-cooked by hype? The secret is more likely to be in portion sizes, not the
food itself.
A study from Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto,
Japan, found obesity levels are “substantially lower in countries that consume
high amounts of rice” – meaning an average of 150 grams per day, per person.
Countries with an average lower rice intake – 14 grams per day –
were found to have higher obesity levels.
There’s a link, but what does it really mean?
The study, presented this week at the European Congress on
Obesity in Glasgow, concluded: “An extra quarter cup of rice per person per day
may be enough to lower worldwide obesity levels by 1 per cent.”
The researchers analysed data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
This included relative consumption (grams of rice per day per person) and
energy consumption (kilo calories per day per person) in the diets of 136
countries, which were eventually categorised into low and high (rice)
consumption groups.
Also factored were estimates of obesity prevalence, average
number of years spent in education, percentage of population over 65 years old,
gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and health expenditure.
Poorer countries eat the most rice
Bangladesh ranked first at 473 grams per day per person (3.3 per cent of the population obese);
Laos was second with 443 grams per day (3 per cent obese);
Cambodia third with 438 grams per day (2.9 per cent obese). These
countries also had lower consumption of energy.
At the other end of the scale, where obesity is in plague
proportions: Australia was 67th with 32 grams per day and two thirds of adults
overweight or obese; the US 87th with 19 grams per day and one in three adults
obese); France was 99th with 15 grams per day, and about one in four adults are
obese.
The college’s Professor Tomoko Imai, who led the
research, interpreted the numbers this way: “Eating rice seems to protect
against weight gain. It’s possible that the fibre, nutrients, and plant compounds
found in whole grains may increase feelings of fullness and prevent
overeating.”
Professor Lynn Riddell is Associate Dean in the Faculty of
Health at Deakin University.
“The reason why these countries have typically lower obesity is
that their overall energy intake is compromised,” Dr Riddell told The New Daily.
“You have high levels of wasting and stunting in child
populations … and overall an energy deficit traditionally in those countries.”
Not just any rice
Another problem with the study: the researchers used “rice” as
an umbrella term for brown or unrefined rice, white rice and highly refined
rice flour. The more refined the grain, the less fibre and micronutrients.
Dr Riddell advised there was no reason to choose rice over any
other grain – or any one food – as protection against obesity. She did advise
people who chose to eat grain to opt for whole grain, as research showed it was
conducive to lower body weight.
Dr Gunter Kuhnle, Associate Professor in Nutrition and Health,
University of Reading, posted similar comments in his response to the study at
the Science Media Centre:
“White rice consists mainly of carbohydrates, and there is no reason to assume
that carbohydrates from rice – and not other sources such as grains or potatoes
– have a different effect on obesity.”
Japan, not so grainy
Finally, there is a contradiction in Professor Imai’s final
recommendation: “The observed associations suggest that the obesity rate is low
in countries that eat rice as a staple food. Therefore, a Japanese food or an
Asian-food-style diet based on rice may help prevent obesity.”
There is a big difference between a heart-friendly Japanese diet
and sugar-rich Thai food or ghee-based curries.
And the Japanese diet isn’t overly rice heavy.
According to 2015 figures, Japan ranked 50 with 119 grams per
person per day being eaten. It enjoys the lowest obesity rate (3.7 per cent) for the
developed world. Smaller portions might be helping.
The New Daily wasn’t able to read the study paper, which hasn’t been
published – and has relied on a statement from the European Association
for the Study of Obesity.
Paddy bugs
have wreaked extensive havoc, entomology dept has failed rice farmers
By Staff Writer
Dear Editor,
The entomology department of the Burma Research Centre has once
again failed the country’s rice farmers by alerting them too late about the
invasion of paddy bugs and the very poor effectiveness of the pesticide
being used.
It has been a well-known fact that when a certain chemical is
used for a protracted period the particular insect biologically will build up
resistance against such chemicals. This very sensitive information was always
delivered at workshops and seminars by articulate research personnel. This kind
of service had been available in the past not so any more. Can the head of GRDB
please tell me why such services have stopped suddenly? Every farmer needs to
know. But then, if you fail to disclose same, you are guilty of hiding vital
information from all rice farmers.
Paddy bugs have wreaked extensive havoc in the entire country
all because the entomology department failed to put in place a very
comprehensive plan on how to deal with the impending invasion of paddy bugs. If
ever there was any application of strategic action to counter the paddy bugs
invasion, it came at a time when the damage was already done. Statistics will
tell you of the extensive damage done in every rice farming community. It is
alarming and devastating. It has been too much for us to bear such losses.
As I see it our entomologist needs further training. I would
recommend a refresher course for her if it is possible. Because of poor
performance and lack of experience, rice farmers have suffered hundreds of
millions of dollars in earnings and the millers have had a field day by doling
out grades recently unheard of. Some farmers have had to dump their harvested
paddy and on the Essequibo coast farmers were paid $500 and $1300 per bag. The
equivalent poundage was far beyond the stipulated amount. It cost the farmers
$2800 – $3200 to produce one bag of paddy. In earlier times the millers used to
award the farmers grades from Extra ‘A’ to negotiable but, now he has in
Place the sample grades 1-12, each sample grade has a variation
of price per bag. I wish to ask Mr. Hassan the general manager of GRDB if he
has knowledge of “sample grades” at the mills. I need a direct answer and may I
ask do you still have GRDB grading officers at the miller’s grading offices, if
not why not? The presence of such person rules out under-grading.
Research and GRDB extension services have become very poor and
we need to know why this has been so? As I have often said extension services
are an important link between the research station and rice farmers. There is
laxity in every department at the Burma Research Station and I have no
apologies in saying so. Something is not right up there. I urge our honourable
minister to investigate, this is within your portfolio minister!
Be good, be alert and save the rice industry.
Yours faithfully,
Ganga (Bobby) Persaud
RDB says loans
to be repaid in time
Chea
Vannak / Khmer Times
The Rural Development Bank (RDB) said all loans disbursed under
the emergency fund since last October will be repaid in time because the last
few rice harvests have been successful.
RDB director Kao Thach said the maturity date of the loans will
not have to be extended to help borrowers pay, as it happened last year.
“Loan payments are due in June, and we expect that all rice
millers will pay back in time,” Mr Thach said. “The rice sector has been doing
well during this period so we expect no problems with payments.”
. .
In October RDB disbursed $50 million of government funds to rice
millers as part of its emergency fund.
Launched in 2016, the government-led emergency fund aims to help
rice millers purchase paddy rice from farmers.
Mr Thach said the bank plans to increase the emergency fund in
upcoming years.
“The government aims to export up to 1 million tonnes of rice to
international markets,” Mr Thach said. “With only $50 million in the emergency
fund, this will probably not happen.”
Last month, China signed an agreement that expanded its import
quota for Cambodian rice from 300,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes for 2019 and
2020.
. .
Sustainability Report: The Greatest Yields
By Lesley Dixon
Report highlights: Second in a nine-part series.
ARLINGTON, VA -- Efficiency is the bedrock of sustainability. Rice farmers must utilize the land to its fullest while ensuring its continuing health. Increased productivity allows farmers to feed a growing population using less water and energy and get the most out of what each acre of soil has to offer.
The U.S. Rice Industry Sustainability Reportprovides a comprehensive look at just how much U.S. rice farmers have achieved when it comes to yields. In 1980, total national rice production was at 146 million hundredweights. By 2015, that amount had been raised to 193 million. But this 32 percent increase is not a result of farmers farming more land nor is it a result of farmers employing Genetically Modified Organisms -- the commercial crop is GMO-free. Thanks to research, technological advances, and a lot of hard work within the industry, farmers have been able to grow more rice on their land than ever before. Rice yields per acre have increased an impressive 62 percent since 1980, and that means farmers are getting more rice out of every inch of soil they till.
Why is this important? For one, it means more rice: more food for a growing domestic population, as well as more exports to provide foreign markets with an affordable commodity that is a staple in cuisines worldwide. It also means we have more to give back to our communities, whether it be through stimulating the local economy or donating to food banks and participating in international food aid programs. But as much as yields are about more, they're also about less.
By increasing yields per acre, farmers are reducing energy and water use. Higher yields mean fewer passes in the combine, and each grain of rice takes a lot less water to grow. The numbers speak for themselves: during the time period covered by the study, water use has decreased by 52 percent, energy use has decreased by 34 percent, and greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 41 percent. This proven efficiency in land use is foundational to the U.S. rice industry's sustainability mission.
"Why would a farmer want to waste anything?" said Arkansas rice farmer Ryan Sullivan. "It costs money to pump every gallon of water, so we are conservative in order to stay profitable."
Innovative techniques and improvements in U.S. rice production have also reduced the time farmers spend in the fields to just seven man-hours per acre. This is an especially significant number when compared to the 300 hours often still required for rice production in less developed countries, and it speaks to how committed our industry is to streamlining every element of the process. The less labor that each acre requires, the more time and effort U.S. farmers can put into improving their operations and implementing new sustainability practices.
As our nine-part series covering the highlights of the U.S. Rice Industry Sustainability Report continues, we will explore the many innovative practices farmers have employed to make such a drastic yield increase possible, and how they plan to continue to raise yields in the future.
The full report can be found online and you
can contact Steve Linscombe if you would like hard copies of the
report.
USA RICE DAILY
CAN CAULIFLOWER BE
'RICE'? SOME STATES SAY NO.
New state
measures are targeting riced vegetable products to protect the rice industry.
(Photo: Marco Verch/Flickr)
Touting a version of this scenario, at least four states have
passed or are considering measures to ban food companies from using the word
"rice" unless the product is made of, well, rice. Louisiana's
measure, which passed the state Senate last week, targets cauliflower rice in a
bid to protect the state's rice industry (and its top
agricultural export). USA Rice supports these measures, arguing
that, since the grain has no national "standard of identity"—a Food
and Drug Administration definition for foods—rice is vulnerable to attacks from
its cauliflower competitors.
On the surface, this is a fight between industry insiders: USA
Rice has squared up against another trade group, the Plant Based Food
Association. But both sides have positioned the consumer as the victim, using
arguments based on health or free speech. The rice battle is happening alongside
others at the state and national level over the meaning of milk and meat; some
measures, like Louisiana's, target multiple plant-based alternatives.
'RICE IS A GRAIN, NOT A SHAPE'
In the milk debate, the dairy industry has embraced former FDA
Commissioner Scott Gottlieb's infamous
phrase: "An almond doesn't lactate." Michael Klein, vice
president of marketing, communications, and domestic promotion for USA Rice,
says the rice industry has a similar battle cry: "Rice is a grain, not a
shape."
Klein argues that use of the rice moniker misrepresents the
product and misleads consumers. He says industry groups would settle for
"riced cauliflower," as opposed to "cauliflower rice"—a
change that some frozen food brands, such as Birds Eye and Green Giant, have
already made.
However, these arguments have not convinced anyone on the
plant-based side when it comes to milk and meat. The same goes for rice: Isn't
the general public able to distinguish between foods in the grocery store?
The Plant Based Foods Association, which represents 136 food
companies (some of the biggest are Blue Diamond, Brookside, and Campbell Soup),
has said these bans are inventing consumer concerns to protect traditional
agriculture industries like rice, which have the benefit of support from United
States Department of Agriculture-funded marketing services and checkoff
programs.
"Consumers are not confused, they know exactly what they
are buying and are choosing plant-based alternatives for a variety of reasons:
health, environmental concerns, ethical reasons and taste," the group
wrote in a letter to the Louisiana bill's sponsor, Senator Francis Thompson, as
reported by the Advocate in
Baton Rouge.
A
GRAIN WITH NO NAME
According to Klein, the real threat is that rice's competitors
(or as he calls them, "rice pretenders") have started to mimic their
packaging. For example, he says one brand has adopted a hue suspiciously close
to "Uncle Ben's orange."
Some of this packaging also contains health claims, which are under the
purview of the FDA. The brand RightRice markets its blend of
lentils, chickpeas, and green peas as "healthier" and more
nutritious than rice, calling it a product for people who no longer eat
the grain but want to "enjoy rice again." Klein objects to such
marketing. "It implies rice is wrong," he says, noting that such
products have a "completely different nutrient profile."
While the FDA does not regulate "rice" itself, it does
define "standards of identity" for 300 foods across 20 categories.
Sherbet gets one; so do peanut butter and milk. Any manufacturer claiming to
sell these products must meet the FDA's specifications, or risk a
lawsuit. The rules are the reason that food companies have had to maintain
a certain ratio of cherries for every frozen cherry pie—one of several
regulations the Trump administration has proposed to roll back this year,
the Associated Press reports.
Klein points out that rice makes an appearance in the Codex
Alimentarius, an internationally recognized list of food standards from
the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations and the World
Health Organization. Here, it's defined as "whole and broken kernels
obtained from the species Oryza sativa L." But it has no standard of
identity in the U.S., meaning state-level laws are the only guidelines defining
rice.
BATTLE
OF THE CROPS
It's no secret that agriculture interests have pushed these
measures at the state level. In Louisiana, the Advocate reports that
representatives from the rice and cattle industries have backed the bill.
The four states that are contemplating these bans—Louisiana,
Texas, Missouri, and Arkansas—are among the biggest rice producers in the U.S.
Most of the country's rice comes from the Arkansas prairie, Mississippi Delta,
Gulf Coast, and California's Sacramento Valley. "Things are pretty
tough for farmers as it is," Klein says. "Anything that threatens
those folks and their livelihood is a problem."
The dairy industry claims it's lost more than a billion dollars
in sales to plant-based milk competitors. Klein
fears this could happen to the U.S. rice industry. He says that, when
alternative rice products began to emerge about three years ago, one of the
first calls he made was to a dairy industry trade group.
Unlike the milks, rice and cauliflower may not seem like natural
foes: Rice is a global food staple, and the U.S. exports about half its
crop. Meanwhile, overall U.S. vegetable consumption is falling, but cauliflower
is on the rise. Of
course, most people who buy riced alternatives do so to accommodate a dietary
restriction. (A pending patent for
a riced cauliflower blend offers a gluten-free substitute for wheat-based dough
"with regards to mouth feel, texture, [and] flavor.")
So how realistic is that image of a single mom in the grocery
store, shopping blindly for rice? There's some evidence that American
consumers misinterpret food labels, and that packaging
measures fail to improve health across classes. Choosing
between cauliflower and rice is not as significant a health decision as
that of milk or meat substitutes, nor can personal choice
significantly mitigate agriculture's carbon footprint. But if the rice
industry has its way, this debate will play out in legislation instead of the
frozen food aisle.
Rejoice Asians!
This study says eating rice could help you lose
PHOTO: NORA SCARCELLI/IRD
Generations of archaeologists have studied plant domestication
in the Middle East as well as in Asia and the Americas. “But Africa has very
much lagged behind,” says Dorian Fuller, an archaeobotanist at University
College London. Plant fossils and farming artifacts are less likely to be
preserved in Africa's warm, moist environments, funding is scarce, and field
research often faces political and logistical challenges.
Genetic studies, however, bypass some of these difficulties. In
2002, Nora Scarcelli, a population geneticist colleague of Vigouroux's at IRD,
took an interest in yams, the most important root crop in Africa before the
introduction of cassava in the 1500s and still more important than maize in
parts of Africa.
The vines of the African yam (Dioscorea
rotundata) produce large tubers that look a bit like American sweet
potatoes (sometimes mistakenly called yams), but the plant is a different
species that is also distinct from Asian yams. But whether the modern African
crop was derived from D.
abyssinica, a wild yam that grows in the savanna, or D. praehensilis, which thrives in
the wetter rainforests, was not known. Hoping to resolve the issue, Scarcelli
and colleagues recently sequenced and compared 167 genomes of wild and
domesticated yams gathered from Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The DNA of
savanna wild yams was fairly similar, but the forest wild yams split into two
groups, one centered in Cameroon and another much farther west.
Scarcelli, Vigouroux, and their colleagues further identified
forest yams in the Niger River Basin, between eastern Ghana and western
Nigeria, as the source of the modern domesticate. Their analysis could not
pinpoint the date of domestication, but it did identify genes that changed
along the way. Variations in genes for water regulation probably helped convert
a forest dweller into a plant that thrives in open sun. Alterations in root
development and starch production genes also likely made tubers regularly
shaped and richer in starch.
A similar study of pearl millet (Cenchrus
americanus), the most important cereal for arid areas of Africa and
Asia with poor soils, also pointed to a West African origin. When Vigouroux and
his colleagues sequenced and compared the genomes of 221 wild (Pennisetum glaucum monodii) and
domesticated millets, they concluded that all domesticated pearl millet
varieties came from a single ancestor growing north of the Niger River in part
of the western Sahara Desert that today includes northern Mali and Mauritania.
The genetic work, reported last year in Nature
Ecology & Evolution, dovetails nicely with a 2011 discovery of
4500-year-old pearl millet remains in an archaeological site in southeastern
Mali, Fuller adds.
Previous studies had shown that about 6000 years ago, probably
before millet was domesticated, a moist climate created a network of lakes in
the region, yielding abundant wild food. As the climate dried and those lakes
vanished, Vigouroux hypothesizes, the local people began to cultivate plants.
And over more time, people and plants shifted southward, with
cultivated plants intermittently interbreeding with wild plants. The mingling
slowed full domestication but added genetic variation to the millet. “Our findings
stressed the importance of wild-to-crop gene flow during and after crop
domestication,” Vigouroux and his colleagues wrote.
African rice (Oryza
glaberrima) is less important today than the other traditional
crops, having been mostly replaced with Asian rice. But it, too, got a West
African start. Last year in Current
Biology, Vigouroux and his colleagues analyzed 163 varieties of the
domesticated African rice and 83 samples of wild rice collected from west and
east Africa. Their analysis showed the cultivated species has about half as
much genetic diversity as the wild species, and that it arose from wild
relatives in northern Mali. They also found that some of the same genetic
changes central to the taming of Asian rice, such as a gene deletion that made
the plant grow more erect, also played a part in the domestication of African
rice.
Other researchers have tracked down additional genes that aided
African rice domestication. In the March issue of PLOS
Genetics, they described the evolution of genes that make rice
seeds less likely to fall off the stalks. Such a detailed history is easier to
piece together for African rice than Asian rice because so many wild
populations are still intact, says evolutionary geneticist Michael Purugganan
of New York University in New York City, who led the work. Studies in Africa
“may tell us more about crop domestication than what people have learned about
other crops elsewhere,” he adds.
While Vigouroux focuses on climate to explain why agriculture
arose in this part of Africa, archaeologist Sylvain Ozainne from the University
of Geneva in Switzerland suggests movements of Saharan pastoralists called Nok
helped initiate and spread a culture of crop growing, particularly of pearl
millet. “Rather than a direct response to abrupt climatic change, the expansion
of African agriculture may be better explained through a more complex process,
which involved socioeconomic transformations,” he says.
In Africa, as elsewhere, crop domestication was a long,
drawn-out process (Science, 29 June 2007, p. 1830). It happened outside the Niger River
Basin as well. Sorghum was likely tamed in East Africa. Last month, Nature Plantspublished a genetic
analysis of wild and domesticated sorghum samples excavated from an
archaeological site in Egypt that spans several thousands years. It showed that
early farmers either deliberately crossed this crop—now the sixth most widely
grown in the world—with wild relatives and with domesticates from other places,
or cultivated varieties that naturally interbred.
All this genetic exchange ultimately helped improve the final
crop, says Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie, an archaeobotanist at the University of
Ibadan in Nigeria. The new findings, he adds, “speak about how intelligent our
ancestors were in terms of selecting and managing crops for a variety of uses.”
Fixing agriculture a decade after
cyclone Aila: A farmer recollects
by Sahana Ghosh on
3 May 2019
Ten years after Aila ravaged Bay of Bengal, farmers are still adjusting to the changes in soil quality due to saline-water ingress in the Indian Sundarbans. - Aila
also forced farmers to think of the trade-offs between food security and
high productivity in the context of paddy and overuse of chemical
fertilisers.
- Research
by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) shows that farmers opt
for different rice varieties across wet and dry seasons and their choices
depend on economic importance and stresses such as salinity and
submergence.
- As
the Bay of Bengal prepares for Cyclone Fani, expected to hit the region
this weekend, the story highlights the challenges faced by farmers and how
they adapt, in the aftermath of a cyclonic event.
It has been a decade since Cyclone Aila ravaged the Bay of Bengal. But
paddy farmer Tapan Mondal, is wary of growing legumes and watermelon in the
still-recovering soil of the Sundarbans, which has been much abused by the
overuse of chemical fertilisers.
When Aila raged through Bengal in May 2009, he and others
belonging to the agrarian community in the low-lying islands of Sundarbans lost
all standing crops, overnight, to the tropical cyclone.
“We used to grow legumes and watermelons, besides paddy, which
were a good source of income, but that too was destroyed after Aila because of
salinity rise. Legumes (such as moong) and watermelon could not survive the
saline ingress,” rued Mondal.
“Even four to five years after the storm, there were no crops.”
In the aftermath of Aila, agricultural fields in the Sundarbans
lay marooned in salt water as flood waters had gushed in, breaching
embankments.
For the next few months, water stagnated in the low lying fields,
ratcheting up salinity and rendering farms unproductive. Untimely rains in 2012
further played havoc with production.
Much to the consternation of villagers, who had expected these
rains to wash the salt out of the soil, the salts that had permeated the soil
infact began seeping up due to capillary action and forming coatings on it,
wiping off possibilities of an immediate decent harvest.
Mondal recalled his lush green paddy fields in Sundarbans’s
Satjelia island turned brownish-black as the crops suffered from this change in
soil quality.
“Agriculture became expensive as more amount of fertilisers was
needed to supplement high yielding varieties (HYV) of rice in the
cyclone-damaged soil and hiring farm hands became expensive in the aftermath as
labourers migrated in significant numbers to look for temporary jobs in other
states in India,” he said.
Now, Mondal primarily continues to grow paddy in his farm plot
and admits he is quite successful at it.
“I primarily grow rice and supplement the income by vegetables
grown in 16 bigha (4.8 acres) of land. Rice cultivation during the aman season (the main season)
yields 180 sacks. We use the majority for sale and a little (15 sacks) for
consumption,” Mondal told this visiting Mongabay-India correspondent.
Aman paddy is sown in the rainy season (July-August) and
harvested in winter.
Interview with farmer Tapan Mondal. Interview by Sahana Ghosh, edited by Kartik
Chandramouli.
Aila triggered a fresh
realisation on food security
However, Mondal refuses to blame Aila alone for the high input
of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The successive influx of chemical
fertilisers, much before Aila whipped through the region, has wreaked havoc on
soil quality, claimed Mondal.
“We admit that earlier (much before Aila) we used to apply a
lesser quantity of fertiliser because we were growing low-yield traditional
varieties of rice. But now we need much more fertiliser because we have been
growing high-yield varieties year after year.”
“For HYVs, the yield is almost three times as much as the
indigenous paddy but the downside is the heavy use of chemical fertilisers. So
for an investment of an additional Rs. 5 in fertiliser costs, we get Rs. 1000
more as income from paddy. Who does not want more money,” Mondal asked.
A 2017 report by Visva Bharati University notes
that the average productivity of these traditional varieties is significantly
less than that of the HYVs. “This is the major reason why these newly
introduced varieties could displace the local varieties and are mostly
cultivated by the local farmers,” the report said.
Mondal and his neighbours have been reaping the financial
benefits of HYVs for over 20 years.
“Farm labourers who visited other West Bengal districts such as
Burdwan for work noticed different HYVs (such as the CR Dhan varieties) and
they brought it here from time to time. We started preferring those varieties
over time.”
According to agronomist Sudhanshu Singh of International Rice Research
Institute, perception of a healthy crop also matters for them
favouring chemical fertilisers.
Farmers apply only nitrogen fertilisers (mostly urea) as they
believe that their crop should look dark green.“The lack of balanced use of
nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic sources affect the soil fertility,”
Singh said.
Mondal said, in addition to
fertilisers, indiscriminate use of pesticides has also become problematic.
“A good amount of pesticides is also required for the HYVs,
which has added to our concerns because gradually pests are acquiring
resistance to the chemicals,” said Mondal.
Mondal conceded: “And now without fertiliser, the soil refuses
to give in.”
In the post-Aila scenario, however, the absence of legumes (such
as moong) and watermelons in his farm has spelt further disaster for soil
quality in Mondal’s farm. Legumes and watermelons, once regular occupants of
his farm, disappeared after Aila brought in salt water.
“Legumes add nitrogen to the soil because they have
nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their root nodules. Since legumes were unable to
grow in the saline soil after Aila, the soil quality was further hit,” said
Mondal.
“In addition, the decomposing leaves of legumes add organic
matter to the soil which was highly useful for soil fertility and to counter
the effects of high chemical fertiliser use,” he said.
“Even watermelon which required low water input does not grow
now. Legumes and watermelon were good sources of income,” Mondal iterated,
worry writ large on his visage.
Mondal hopes in the next two to five years, if an Aila-like
cyclone doesn’t recur, the soil will have revived enough to let him farm
legumes and watermelon.
“Because of low pressure, there are storms and cyclones.
Frequency is more. I won’t say that there were no incidences earlier but it has
increased. So anything that supplements paddy cultivation is good for
sustainability,” he added.
Aila also forced farmers to think
of the trade-offs between food security and high productivity. They are now
starting to revert to the salt-tolerant local varieties to insure against total
loss of crops due to saline water ingress, according to the Visva Bharati
study.
Rice for all seasons and stresses
Research by the International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) shows that farmers opt for different rice varieties across wet
and dry seasons.
“Originally farmers preferred bold grain tall plant types during
the wet season. Tall plant types (140 to 170 cm) are suitable for low-lying
land. And they felt that bold grain types of rice satiated longer when cooked
and are also more suitable for parboiling,” Sudhanshu Singh explained.
These high yielding varieties take a longer time to mature
(160–170 days) and are able to cope in the lowlands where water stagnates in
the field for about four months (July to October).
For the dry season, farmers’ went for high yielding, salt
tolerant, early maturing (115–130 days) varieties with long slender grains and
good quality that fetches a better market price.
“Over time farmers have started growing rice in the dry season
with long slender grains mostly for sale because the productivity of rice is
higher in the dry season as it can be grown under controlled conditions with
better management practices as compared to the wet season,” he said.
Most of the rice produced during the dry season is sold in the
market, observed Singh based on participatory varietal selection (PVS) process
that was implemented in 2008–2014 in the Indian Sundarbans region.
P31.46-M aid allotted for rice
farmers in Davao Region
MAY 3, 2019 5:34 PM
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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/03 May) – A
total of P31.46 million has been provided to rice farmers in Davao
Region who will be affected by the implementation of Republic Act 11203 or the
Rice Tariffication Law, a measure that eliminates import restrictions on rice,
more than two months ago.
Jose D. Pascua, focal person
for the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management of
the Department of Agriculture (DA)-11, said the assistance,
which would be used for seed intervention, is part of the P10-billion Rice
Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) established by RA 11203, to modernize
the rice industry and increase its productivity.
He said the agency would also be
providing assistance for the mechanization of rice farms under the RCEF.
National Economic Development
Authority-Davao director Maria Lourdes Lim said modernizing the rice industry
is necessary to support the local rice farmers by providing them pre-harvest
and post-harvest equipment.
She said the government would
play a key role in helping modernize and improve the productivity of the local
rice farmers through the RCEF implementation.
She said part of the annual RCEF
fund would be allocated to “procure rice farm equipment, including tractors,
threshers, rice planters, harvesters, and irrigation pumps and will be given as
a grant-in-kind primarily to eligible farmers, rice farmer associations, and
registered rice cooperatives.”
At least 30 percent will be given
to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) to develop, propagate and
promote inbred rice seeds to rice farmers and organizations of rice farmers; 10
percent will be given to Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of
the Philippines for the creation of a credit facility with minimal interest
rates and collateral requirements; and 10 percent will be used for skills
training in rice crop production, modern rice farming techniques, seed production,
farm mechanization, and knowledge and technology transfer through farm schools
nationwide.
Lim said the projects for
irrigation development and farm-to-market roads must be pursued to help in the
production of rice and the transport of products from the farms to the markets
in the region.
The performance of the
agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing (AHFF) sector improved by 2.9
percent in 2018, registering a total output of P42.610 billion, propelled by
the growth in agriculture and forestry subsector, which posted a 3.5-percent
increase last year, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority
showed.
Output in the fishery, however,
decreased to P1.9 billion last year from P2.059 billion in 2017.
The AHFF contributed at least
10.6 percent to the gross regional domestic product of the Davao Region. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
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Dispute breaks out over RCEF funding as DA insists on P10B
May 2, 2019 | 10:01 pm
PHILSTAR
THE Department of Agriculture
(DA) has signaled that it will claim the full amount of P10 billion once
tariffs start generating funding for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund
(RCEF), arguing that a P5 billion advance provided in 2018 was meant for other
rice projects.
“There was confusion on the
initial P5 billion that was released to the DA on Dec. 28… it’s meant to
support the rice program of the DA,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol
said in a briefing Thursday.
“Definitely, the P5 billion is
not part of RCEF,” he said, with the liberalization of rice imports only
implemented this year, while the initial P5 billion was given last year.
The RCEF is meant to be funded by
tariffs generated by rice imports, raising P10 billion each year to improve
farmers’ access to financing, rice seed, machinery and know-how, among others.
He said that the DA has fully
allocated the P5 billion released in December, with P4 billion going to the
regions before the end of 2018, and P1 billion set aside for lending programs.
The Department of Budget and
Management (DBM) has requested for the latter to be returned to help finance
the acquisition of rice drying facilities and other equipment.
The financing will be provided by
LANDBANK and the Development Bank of the Philippines, which will charge 2%.
National Economic and Development
Authority (NEDA) Assistant Secretary Mercedita A. Sombilla has said that the P5
billion was meant to be used for projects that meet the RCEF mandate while the
Rice Tariffication Law, which authorizes the RCEF, was still being implemented.
The Rice Tariffication Law aims
to bring down the price of rice by liberalizing the imports of cheap foreign
grain.
The need to support farmers while
imports increase their footprint in the market is intended to help make them
more competitive. The threat of more imports has already exerted pressure on
domestic prices of palay, or unmilled rice, reducing farmer incomes and
highlighting the need for them to be more cost-efficient.
“I talked to Secretary Mon (Ramon
M.) Lopez and he agrees that that amount should not be part of the RCEF. Binalik
lang naming ’yung P1 billion para lang makatulong na hindi na
masyadong maghanap ng pera ang gobyerno [We returned the P1 billion to
help ensure the government is not pressed for funding],” Mr. Piñol said.
He said the DA will initiate a
dialogue on the matter.
For the deployment of the actual
RCEF funds, he said, “We are still in the process of organizing the project
steering committee… when organized, I will ask all the agencies involved in the
RCEF to make a presentation of their programs. As the only accountable officer
for the P10 billion, I will have to ask them to present their project proposals
and I will have to make sure that money really goes to the rice farmers.”
— Vincent Mariel P. Galang
RECOMMENDED
Nagpur
Foodgrain Prices Open- MAY 03, 2019
MAY 3, 2019 / 2:24 PM
* * * * * *
Nagpur Foodgrain Prices – APMC/Open Market-May 3, 2018 Nagpur, May
3 (Reuters) – Gram and tuar prices firmed up again in Nagpur Agriculture
Produce and Marketing Committee (APMC) on good seasonal demand from local
millers amid tight supply from producing regions. Good rise in pulses in other
foodgrain mandis and reported demand from South-based millers also helped to
push up prices. About 2,900 bags of gram and 1,100 bags of tuar reported for
auction, according to sources.
GRAM
* Gram varieties ruled steady in open market here but demand was
poor.
TUAR
* Tuar gavarani and tuar Karnataka reported higher in open market
on good seasonal
buying support from local traders amid weak supply from producing
regions.
* Moong dal Chilka reported weak in open market on poor buying
support from
local traders.
* In Akola, Tuar New – 5,400-5,550, Tuar dal (clean) – 8,000-8,200,
Udid Mogar (clean)
– 6,900-7,800, Moong Mogar (clean) 8,000-8,600, Gram – 4,400-4,550,
Gram Super best
– 5,600-5,900 * Wheat, rice and other foodgrain items moved in a
narrow range in
scattered deals and settled at last levels in weak trading
activity.
Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100
kg
FOODGRAINS Available prices Previous close
Gram Auction 3,800-4,325 3,800-4,290
Gram Pink Auction n.a. 2,100-2,600
Tuar Auction 4,750-5,610 4,700-5,550
Moong Auction n.a. 3,950-4,200
Udid Auction n.a. 4,300-4,500
Masoor Auction n.a. 2,200-2,500
Wheat Lokwan Auction 1,750-1,900 1,700-1,890
Wheat Sharbati Auction n.a. 2,900-3,000
Gram Super Best Bold 5,800-6,000 5,800-6,000
Gram Super Best n.a. n.a.
Gram Medium Best 5,200-5,600 5,200-5,600
Gram Dal Medium n.a. n.a
Gram Mill Quality 4,350-4,450 4,350-4,450
Desi gram Raw 4,250-4,350 4,300-4,400
Gram Kabuli 8,300-10,000 8,300-10,000
Tuar Fataka Best-New 8,400-8,500 8,400-8,500
Tuar Fataka Medium-New 8,000-8,200 8,000-8,200
Tuar Dal Best Phod-New 7,600-7,800 7,600-7,800
Tuar Dal Medium phod-New 7,200-7,500 7,200-7,500
Tuar Gavarani New 5,650-5,750 5,600-5,700
Tuar Karnataka 5,850-5,950 5,800-5,900
Masoor dal best 5,500-5,700 5,500-5,700
Masoor dal medium 5,200-5,400 5,200-5,400
Masoor n.a. n.a.
Moong Mogar bold (New) 8,000-8,800 8,000-8,800
Moong Mogar Medium 6,800-7,500 6,800-7,500
Moong dal Chilka New 6,800-7,700 6,800-7,800
Moong Mill quality n.a. n.a.
Moong Chamki best 8,100-9,000 8,000-9,000
Udid Mogar best (100 INR/KG) (New) 7,800-8,500 7,800-8,500
Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG) 6,000-7,300 6,000-7,300
Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG) 4,500-4,700 4,500-4,700
Mot (100 INR/KG) 5,550-7,050 5,550-7,050
Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg) 4,850-5,050 4,850-5,050
Watana Dal (100 INR/KG) 5,600-5,800 5,600-5,800
Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG) 6,700-6,900 6,700-6,900
Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,200 2,100-2,200
Wheat Mill quality (100 INR/KG) 2,000-2,050 2,000-2,050
Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,600 2,500-2,600
Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,600 2,500-2,600
Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG) 2,200-2,400 2,200-2,400
Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG) n.a. n.a.
MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG) 3,400-4,000 3,400-4,000
MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG) 2,800-3,200 2,800-3,200
Rice Parmal (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,200 2,100-2,200
Rice BPT best (100 INR/KG) 3,300-3,800 3,300-3,800
Rice BPT medium (100 INR/KG) 2,700-3,100 2,700-3,100
Rice BPT new (100 INR/KG) 2,800-3,200 2,800-3,200
Rice Luchai (100 INR/KG) 2,900-3,000 2,900-3,000
Rice Swarna best (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,700 2,500-2,700
Rice Swarna medium (100 INR/KG) 2,300-2,400 2,300-2,400
Rice HMT best (100 INR/KG) 4,100-4,600 4,100-4,600
Rice HMT medium (100 INR/KG) 3,600-3,900 3,600-3,900
Rice HMT New (100 INR/KG) 3,600-4,000 3,600-4,000
Rice Shriram best(100 INR/KG) 5,300-5,500 5,300-5,500
Rice Shriram med (100 INR/KG) 4,600-5,000 4,600-5,000
Rice Shriram New (100 INR/KG) 4,400-4,600 4,400-4,600
Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG) 9,000-14,000 9,000-14,000
Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 5,000-7,500 5,000-7,500
Rice Chinnor best 100 INR/KG) 6,500-7,200 6,600-7,200
Rice Chinnor medium (100 INR/KG) 6,200-6,400 6,200-6,400
Rice Chinnor New (100 INR/KG) 4,700-5,000 4,700-5,000
Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG) 2,350-2,550 2,350-2,550
Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG) 2,050-2,250 2,050-2,250 WEATHER (NAGPUR)
Maximum temp. 44.2 degree Celsius, minimum temp. 24.6 degree Celsius Rainfall :
Nil FORECAST: Partly cloudy sky. Maximum and minimum temperature likely to be
around 44 degree Celsius and 26 degree Celsius. Note: n.a.—not available (For
oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but included in
market prices)
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Laos’ rice
exports are expected to plummet
Asia News Network | Publication date 30
April 2019 | 11:10 ICT
Laos set a target of $45.6 million for rice exports last year but
could only achieve $31.4 million. VIENTIANE TIMES
LAOS is anticipating reduced
income from rice exports this year in the wake of widespread flooding across
the country last year.
The country set a target of $45.6
million for rice exports last year but could only achieve $31.4 million,
according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
This year, the government is
expecting to earn only $25.2 million from rice exports, a significant decline
compared to last year’s figure.
Low rice yields in 16 provinces
have been attributed to widespread flooding in the rainy season, the Ministry
of Agriculture and Forestry reported.
Some 101,000ha of rice were
affected by last year’s floods, about 12 per cent of the total planted area of
817,800ha.
About 66,000ha of the rice crop
was estimated to have been destroyed by floods.
Last year, the government set a
rice production target of 4.2 million tonnes and hit about 3.6 million tonnes
or 86 per cent of the plan.
China is potentially a huge
market for Lao rice but has stringent requirements as far as quality is
concerned.
Laos’ rice exports to China hit
$14.2 million in 2016, dropped to $5.6 million in 2017, and sank to about $5
million last year.
Minister of Industry and Commerce
Khemmani Pholsena recently requested that China consider a rice import quota of
50,000 tonnes along with accepting other industrial goods as part of efforts to
bolster bilateral trade.
The call for the increased rice
quota comes after 20,000 tonnes were shipped to the northern neighbour in 2017
by China’s Xuanye (Lao) Co Ltd following approval by China’s National
Development and Reform Commission.
Vietnam and Thailand are also
significant markets for the Lao-grown staple.
Rice is an important commercial
crop for the Lao market and for export, along with coffee, corn, bananas,
sugarcane, cassava and rubber.
Local estimates expect the
agriculture sector to expand by at least three per cent this year if Laos does
not encounter any natural disasters.
According to the Asian
Development Outlook 2019 forecast, the agriculture sector is expected to expand
by 2.5 per cent.
The sector has grown gradually,
but fell from a growth rate of 2.9 per cent in 2017 to 2.5 per cent last year,
the National Institute for Economic Research reported. VIENTIANE TIMES/ANN
RPT-Asia Rice-Thailand
MAY 3, 2019 /
rates gain; weak demand hurts Indian prices
Harshith Aranya
(Repeats story with no changes to text)
* Bangladesh to review export ban after Boro harvest -official
* Vietnam prices flat after rising last week
* Indian export prices down for fourth straight week
By Harshith Aranya
BENGALURU, May 2 (Reuters) - Rice export prices in Thailand rose
this week as demand ticked up, while weaker overseas buying weighed on rates in
leading exporter India.
Thailand’s benchmark 5-percent broken rice RI-THBKN5-P1 prices rose
to $385-$402 a tonne on Thursday, free on board Bangkok, from $385-$388 last
week.
Demand inched up following a drop in price last week, Bangkok-based
traders said. Demand in May was expected to remain flat, as Muslims will be
fasting during Ramadan, before picking up in the second half of the year, they
added.
Middle Eastern countries are among the top buyers from Thailand,
the world’s second-largest exporter.
Meanwhile, India’s 5 percent broken parboiled variety RI-INBKN5-P1
was down for the fourth consecutive week, at around $373-$376 per tonne from
last week’s $375-$378.
“There is no improvement in demand. Buyers are delaying purchases,”
said an exporter based at Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
India’s rice exports in 2018/2019 dropped 7.2 percent from a year
earlier to 11.95 million tonnes due to poor demand for non-basmati rice from
Bangladesh and African countries, an Indian government body said on Thursday.
The aggressive selling of old inventory by China to African buyers
was also weighing on prices, exporters said.
In Vietnam, rates for 5 percent broken rice RI-VNBKN5-P1 were
relatively flat at $365 due to the Reunification Day and Labour Day holidays
which closed markets and government agencies from Monday to Wednesday.
That compares with a range of $360-$370 last week, the first rise
after five weeks of flat trading, with a trader in Ho Chi Minh City saying
relatively higher Vietnamese prices were hurting demand.
“Prices won’t likely decline in the near term as domestic supplies
are falling and because partial water shortage is threatening the upcoming
summer-autumn crop,” the trader said.
Rice exports from Vietnam in April are forecast to have fallen 10.6
percent from March to 620,000 tonnes, the government’s General Statistics
Office said earlier this week.
It said rice shipments from the country in the first four months of
this year fell 7.9 percent from a year earlier to 2.03 million tonnes.
Bangladesh, the fourth biggest producer, will review its
long-standing ban on rice exports within a few weeks after the harvesting of
summer rice ends, a food ministry official said on Thursday.
Farmers in coastal areas in Bangladesh have been instructed to
harvest their paddy fields ahead of a severe cyclone due to make landfall on
Friday.
The summer-sown crop, also known as Boro, usually contributes more
than half of Bangladesh’s typical annual rice production of around 35 million
tonnes. (Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat in Bangkok, Khanh Vu in Hanoi,
Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Additional reporting by Nallur
Sethuraman; editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Usher
Agro's MD Vinod Chaturvedi held for defrauding foreign bank of Rs 17.8 crore
By Vallabh Ozarkar, Mumbai Mirror | Updated: May 2, 2019, 07:29 IST
Prison-
arrest
Mumbai Police’s
According to the police,
As
the defaults kept piling up, the bank appointed a private forensic auditor, who
found that there had been no physical sale or purchase and that the invoices
submitted – involving eight ‘supplier companies’ and seven ‘client firms’ –
were bogus.
“The bank then lodged a complaint and an FIR was registered,” a source said. “During the investigation, it was found that the 40 bills that were generated were bogus. The sale and purchase bills, transport bills… they were all forged. The companies that he ostensibly did business with were just a front,” the source said.
“The bank then lodged a complaint and an FIR was registered,” a source said. “During the investigation, it was found that the 40 bills that were generated were bogus. The sale and purchase bills, transport bills… they were all forged. The companies that he ostensibly did business with were just a front,” the source said.
The accused, along with other ‘directors’ and ‘owners’ of the ‘companies’, had conspired to defraud the bank, the source added.
“The ‘directors’ of the other ‘companies’ were known to the accused. They would get a cut from him in exchange for their cooperation. Many of these ‘companies’ had the same address. The investigation is continuing,” said a police officer.
The accused have been booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
Smallcaps that earned Anil Goel a Rs 150 crore bonanza in 4
months
Goel's
portfolio increased to nearly Rs 970 crore as of April 25 from Rs 815 crore.
By
, ETMarkets.com|
Updated: May 02, 2019, 10.47 AM IST
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Getty Images
Goel was
holding at least 35 smallcaps in his portfolio as of March 31, 2019, data on
Ace Equity showed on April 25.
Related
- Anil
Kumar Goel, LIC reap golden harvest in sugar stocks; but D-Street cagey
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Dalal Street mavens bought & sold in January-March
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Anil Kumar Goel, one of Dalal Street’s leading individual investors known for
his love for smallcaps and microcaps, has already made more than Rs 150 crore
so far this calendar.
Data available with corporate database Ace Equity showed the worth of his portfolio increased to nearly Rs 970 crore as of April 25 from Rs 815 crore at the beginning of the year.
Goel was holding at least 35 smallcaps in his portfolio as of March 31, 2019, data on Ace Equity showed on April 25.
So what worked for him? Select companies from sugar, auto ancillary, consumer food, textile and steel sectors mainly moved his portfolio higher in the recent market rally, which lifted BSE Sensex nearly 2,500 points, or 7 per cent, to 38,730 on April 25.
The BSE Midcap index declined nearly 2 per cent, while the Smallcap index gained marginally by 0.50 per cent in this period.
Goel made a couple of changes in his portfolio during the quarter gone by. He increased his holdings in Avadh Sugar & Energy, Triveni Engineering & Industries and Uttam Sugar Mills in March quarter; stocks that rallied up to 42 per cent on a year-to-date basis till April 25.
Analysts say government measures and projections of lower sugar production in Brazil mainly supported the sugar counter during the February-April period.
Majestic Auto, another stock in Goel’s portfolio, has more than doubled the share price from Rs 89.10 on January 1, 2019 to Rs 207.10 on April 25. Curiously, Goel slightly reduced his stake in the company to 1.92 per cent from 2.13 per cent during this period.
Basmati rice processing company KRBL delivered him 24 per cent in four months. Goel held 4.12 per cent stake in it as of March 31 against 4.13 per cent at December end.
Shares of Amarjothi Spinning Mills, in which he upped his stake to 3.26 per cent from 3.24 per cent, dipped 11 per cent in these four months.
Goel also sold some holdings in Samtex Fashions and Srikalahasthi Pipes during March quarter. His name did not appear among key shareholders of Srikalahasthi as of March 31.
However, he stayed put on most other holdings including Uttam Sugar Mills, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Mazda, Dwarikesh Sugar, Avadh Sugar Industries, Sanghvi Movers, KG Denim and Vardhman Special Steels. These stocks have risen between 4 per cent and 42 per cent so far in 2019.
Meanwhile, some of his other holdings like Omaxe, Panama Petrochem, Cosmo Films, Ador Fontech, South India Paper Mills, Swelect Energy Systems, JBM Auto, Shivam Auto, Austin Engineering, Sterling Tools, Thirumalai Chemicals, Star Paper Mills, Sarla Performance, IG Petrochemicals eroded up to 30 per cent of wealth during the same period.
Data available with corporate database Ace Equity showed the worth of his portfolio increased to nearly Rs 970 crore as of April 25 from Rs 815 crore at the beginning of the year.
Goel was holding at least 35 smallcaps in his portfolio as of March 31, 2019, data on Ace Equity showed on April 25.
So what worked for him? Select companies from sugar, auto ancillary, consumer food, textile and steel sectors mainly moved his portfolio higher in the recent market rally, which lifted BSE Sensex nearly 2,500 points, or 7 per cent, to 38,730 on April 25.
The BSE Midcap index declined nearly 2 per cent, while the Smallcap index gained marginally by 0.50 per cent in this period.
Goel made a couple of changes in his portfolio during the quarter gone by. He increased his holdings in Avadh Sugar & Energy, Triveni Engineering & Industries and Uttam Sugar Mills in March quarter; stocks that rallied up to 42 per cent on a year-to-date basis till April 25.
Analysts say government measures and projections of lower sugar production in Brazil mainly supported the sugar counter during the February-April period.
Majestic Auto, another stock in Goel’s portfolio, has more than doubled the share price from Rs 89.10 on January 1, 2019 to Rs 207.10 on April 25. Curiously, Goel slightly reduced his stake in the company to 1.92 per cent from 2.13 per cent during this period.
Basmati rice processing company KRBL delivered him 24 per cent in four months. Goel held 4.12 per cent stake in it as of March 31 against 4.13 per cent at December end.
Shares of Amarjothi Spinning Mills, in which he upped his stake to 3.26 per cent from 3.24 per cent, dipped 11 per cent in these four months.
Goel also sold some holdings in Samtex Fashions and Srikalahasthi Pipes during March quarter. His name did not appear among key shareholders of Srikalahasthi as of March 31.
However, he stayed put on most other holdings including Uttam Sugar Mills, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Mazda, Dwarikesh Sugar, Avadh Sugar Industries, Sanghvi Movers, KG Denim and Vardhman Special Steels. These stocks have risen between 4 per cent and 42 per cent so far in 2019.
Meanwhile, some of his other holdings like Omaxe, Panama Petrochem, Cosmo Films, Ador Fontech, South India Paper Mills, Swelect Energy Systems, JBM Auto, Shivam Auto, Austin Engineering, Sterling Tools, Thirumalai Chemicals, Star Paper Mills, Sarla Performance, IG Petrochemicals eroded up to 30 per cent of wealth during the same period.
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