Pakistan to get $3bn in deposits,
direct investments from Qatar
Pakistan has recently received
loans from the World Bank and investments from the Saudis.
Updated: June 25, 2019View
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Qatar
is making $3 billion dollars worth of new investments in Pakistan, in the form
of deposits and direct investments, said Special
Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq
Awan on Monday.
The
economic partnership between Qatar and Pakistan will reach $9 billion, Qatar
News Agency quoted foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al
Thani as saying.
“The
Qatari-Pakistani economic partnership will amount to $9 billion. Qatar affirms
its aspiration for further development in the relations between the two
countries at all political, economic, sports and cultural levels,” said the
foreign minister.
The
announcement comes a day after Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani
wrapped up his visit to Pakistan during which he
held a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan. Delegation-level talks
were also held between the two sides.
The
prime minister’s adviser on finance, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, thanked the Emir
for “announcing $3 billion in deposits and direct investments for Pakistan and
for Qatar’s affirmation to further develop relations between the two
countries.”
Dr
Awan, while talking to the media, thanked the Qatar Emir and his cabinet for
the announcement, said Radio Pakistan.
She
said that this amount will help Pakistan overcome its economic challenges,
adding that Prime Minister Imran’s announcement to grant visa on arrival for
Qatari citizens will develop tourism sector in Pakistan.
She
also hailed Qatar lifting the ban on Pakistani rice, saying it was good news
for rice exporters and the economy of the country, Radio Pakistanreported.
MoUs
signed
On
Saturday, following the Emir’s arrival, Pakistan and Qatar signed three
memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on trade and investment and
cooperation on financial intelligence and tourism.
The
signing of the MoUs was witnessed by Prime Minister Imran and Qatari Emir
Sheikh Tamim.
The
MoUs related to the establishment of the Pakistan and Qatar Joint Working Group
on Trade and Investment, cooperation in the field of tourism and business
events and cooperation in the exchange of financial intelligence related to
money laundering — associated offences and terrorism financing. The last MoU
was signed between Qatar’s Financial Information Unit and Pakistan’s
Financial Monitoring Unit.
Vow
to work for regional peace
On
Sunday, President Dr Arif Alvi and Emir Sheikh Tamim held wide-ranging talks,
particularly the Afghan issue.
Alvi
lauded Qatar’s role in promoting efforts for peace and reconciliation in
Afghanistan, which was a notable contribution to regional peace.
While
thanking the government and leadership of Pakistan for the gracious invitation
and hospitality extended to him and his entourage during his two-day visit, the
Qatari emir acknowledged the sacrifices made by Pakistan in the fight against
terrorism.
Taking
note of the progress achieved in Afghan peace talks, the two leaders agreed to
continue working closely for regional peace and stability.
President
Alvi conferred Nishan-i-Pakistan upon Sheikh Tamim at a special investiture
ceremony.
Farmers must
change to feed world up to 2050
25 Jun 2019
Last summer Europe was abnormally hot, with
temperatures topping 30°C in the Arctic Circle. Fields across northern and
central Europe grew parched and shrivelled and farmers faced crop failure and
bankruptcy. The prolonged warm conditions are in line with anticipated trends
and demonstrate the damage that climate change could inflict on food
production.
So will
people be going hungry by 2050 because of climate change? Some
countries and crops are more vulnerable than others, a new study suggests, but
with sufficient adaptation and use of technology it will still be possible to
feed the planet.
Scientists have assessed how climate change
might impact crop yields since the 1980s. Most studies show that the impact is
likely to increase over time, and that tropical and low-income countries will
be hit hardest. Meanwhile, others have investigated ways that farmers might
adapt to reduce their vulnerability.
Now a team affiliated to Consortium of
International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) has carried out a global
meta-analysis of the knowledge to date. Using 157 studies published since 1984,
the researchers produced a database of over 27,000 points. This revealed
country-level climate change impacts on rice, wheat and maize crops up to 2080,
as well as the potential for adaptation.
Without adaptation the scientists estimate
losses by the 2080s of around 12 to 15% for wheat and rice, and 20% for maize.
With adaptation measures in place these losses fall to around 4 to 6% for wheat
and rice, and 13% for maize.
However, the losses are not spread evenly. For
maize the most vulnerable regions found by the study included South Asia and
Sub-Saharan Africa. Rice crops were most at risk in central America and central
Asia whilst wheat suffered worst in South and central Asia and Scandinavian
countries.
“These
regions are more vulnerable for two main reasons,” says Pramod
Aggarwal, based at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in
New Delhi, India. “Firstly, their growth rate of food production already lags
behind the projected demand, and secondly climate change impacts are relatively
large here, which makes them even more food insecure.”
Such losses are still large enough to be
extremely challenging, but the findings suggest we should still be able to meet
food needs up to 2050, as long as farmers embrace adaptation measures. Typical
adaptations include greater use of stress-tolerant varieties of crop, improved
irrigation techniques and better fertiliser management. But such changes won’t
necessarily be easy.
“It will
require massive science-guided investment, along with policy and institutional
support,” says Aggarwal, who published the findings in Environmental
Research Letters (ERL). “In addition, the most vulnerable countries
will need greater research focus to develop new crop varieties and to
diversify.” The researchers also sound a note of caution, saying that localised
climate extremes could potentially increase the impact on food production.
Nonetheless, the findings provide an overview
of how climate change is likely to affect food production, and should enable
policy makers and advisors to assess where adaptation measures are needed with
most urgency.
Burying the evidence
Last
year, scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, along with researchers
at the University of Washington, made a pretty important finding: They found
that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lowered the
nutritional value of rice.
The
study, which also was done in collaboration with researchers from China, Japan
and Australia was important for a number of reasons, not least because rice is
the primary food source for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
An
estimated 600 million people, many of them in Southeast Asia, get more than
half their daily calories or protein from rice.
Published
in Science Advances, the study said these CO2-induced changes would likely
"exacerbate the overall burden of disease and could affect early childhood
development."
One
would think that sort of news would be important to share.
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture apparently didn’t think so — not according
to a Politico investigation, which revealed over the weekend that USDA has
refused to publicize "dozens" of government-funded studies from its
Agricultural Research Service that have warned about the impact of climate
change.
One
of those studies included findings that climate change is likely to increase
agricultural pollution and nutrient runoff in the lower Mississippi Delta.
That's an important issue in agriculture-driven states like Iowa and Illinois.
Another
study that got little notice was a 2019 finding that increased temperature
swings could already be boosting pollen levels. Ask anybody in the Quad-Cities
who's an allergy sufferer whether this is something they'd want to know about.
We
in the Midwest have long known the value of the Agricultural Research Service.
It has been a valuable resource for farming and agribusiness, the foundation of
our economy, for years.
Previous
administrations also have known the value of this agency's work. Under George
W. Bush and Barack Obama, the USDA publicized far more climate-related reports
than it has since Donald Trump became president, according to Politico.
In
2005, during the Bush administration, the ARS published eight articles
involving climate change; in 2007, it was 15. Under the Obama administration,
there were even more. But as of June 7, the Trump administration had just two
such reports this year. There were fewer in the previous two years.
The
studies being buried aren’t about what is causing higher levels of CO2; they
simply are measuring the impact of an undeniable phenomenon.
The
USDA says there is no directive ordering these reports to be squelched. But we
found it interesting that Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue had this to say in
a CNN interview released Tuesday when asked about whether humans cause climate
change: "You know, I think it's weather patterns, frankly. And you know,
and they change, as I said. It rained yesterday, it's a nice pretty day today.
So the climate does change in short increments and in long increments."
It
would be better if Perdue and other administration officials accepted the
science behind what causes climate change.
At
the very least, though, we don't think USDA should be burying solid scientific
studies that document the impact of changes in the atmosphere. People in
southeast Asia need to know about these changes; so do people in southeast
Iowa.
It
is vital that these studies get attention. Hiding the consequences of climate
change doesn’t make it go away; it only delays our ability to fashion
effective, efficient solutions to deal with it.
Can the EAT-Lancet diet work for the global south?
A woman holds ingredients, which
will be used to cook for children a nutritious porridge made from locally
available products. Photo by: UNICEF Ethiopia / CC BY-NC-ND
STOCKHOLM — In January,
researchers unveiled a global reference diet designed to address
the twin problems of rising malnutrition rates and the food system's
contributions to climate change.
This month’s EAT Stockholm Food
Forum centered on the hard work of translating that diet into reality, and
how governments can develop healthy, sustainable food systems while maintaining
popular support.
Scientists have charted an
ambitious new plan to transform the global food system by 2050. For the plan to
succeed, the development community will need to join governments, businesses,
and consumers.
But some participants noted that
there was little discussion of issues that particularly affect countries in the
global south. That includes how governments can ensure communities are still
able to afford food if prices rise to reflect higher nutrition and
sustainability standards — or what happens if they don’t.
“The shift from low-price, cheap,
and not-so-good food to healthy food that internalizes all these costs [of
sustainability] will inevitably make food more expensive,” Jean Balié, platform
leader on agrifood policy for the International Rice Research Institute, told
Devex. “But magically, people will not become richer in these countries.”
That left some forum participants
emphasizing the need to integrate perspectives and knowledge from the global
south as the work of transforming the reference diet into actual diets begins.
More than 30 researchers were
involved in mapping out the EAT-Lancet Commission’s universal
guidelines, of whom about a third were either from countries in the
global south or have extensively focused on it during their careers. The
guidelines aim to meet the nutritional requirements for most of the world's
projected population of 10 billion people by 2050, while significantly reducing
the climate impact.
The researchers distilled the
guidelines into the image of a plate of food, more than half of it reserved for
fruits and vegetables, but with segments for grains, dairy, meat and other
proteins. What actually ends up filling that plate and how it is grown, will
differ from community to community and from meal to meal.
"It does not give us the
answers for each country or culture, nor the specific pathways for how to get
there," Gunhild Stordalen, founder and president of the EAT Foundation,
said at the conference.
Even in its basic composition,
though, it may already be out of reach for many. While many people living in
higher-income settings will need to eat less — and particularly less
animal-sourced protein — people in lower-income countries would struggle to
meet the standards the reference diet has set.
The recommendation of one to five
eggs each week, for instance, will not be possible for many people in
sub-Saharan Africa, said Jan Low, principal scientist for the International Potato Center, who has spent
much of her career in sub-Saharan Africa working on integrating nutritional
concerns into agriculture programs.
She said there are opportunities
for flexibility within the guidelines — such as focusing on products that make
the best use of soil and water resources — which may allow communities to
achieve some of the recommendations.
More broadly, though, the diet’s
focus on quality over quantity means lower-income countries will need to chart
a different trajectory from the one the industrialized world has followed,
Balié said. That comes with significant challenges, not least of which is
ensuring that people are actually able to afford food.
Lower-income countries need
people willing to invest in farming and food production, not snazzy new protein
sources such as bugs and fake meats, advocates at the EAT Stockholm Food Forum
say.
Whereas the path to development
has traditionally favored making cheap but unhealthy food available to urban
workers, countries in the global south will need to favor policies that
encourage the availability of healthy, sustainably-grown foods — from investing
in infrastructure to improve farmers' access to markets, to more extreme
measures such as blocking the import of foods that are deemed unhealthy or
unsustainable.
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This will have long-term payoffs
in terms of reducing environmental damage and curbing the spread of
noncommunicable diseases, but it will also come at an actual cost to consumers,
who will see much of their budget continue to go on food. That's because food
costs will need to reflect externalities like the cost of water or soil
regeneration — costs that higher-income countries have "passed to the next
generation," Balié said.
It will require a paradigm shift
that researchers and global institutions cannot impose on countries, who must
work with their citizens to set up policies that reflect local realities and
priorities instead.
"We can help articulate
these tradeoffs and make sure these scenarios are well-assessed to help
governments make these decisions," Balié said. "But that has to be a
democratic process," which begins with making sure that governments and
members of civil society are integrated into the discussions.
Some noted there was limited
representation from the global south at the Stockholm Food Forum, though.
Mameni Morlai, who is Liberia's government focal point for the Scaling Up Nutrition movement, said the
EAT Foundation has made an effort to reach out to representatives in Asia and
Africa. But in her own country of Liberia, she said, knowledge about the
EAT-Lancet report remains low. Other experts at the forum also acknowledged the
problem.
Fabrice DeClerck, EAT's science
director, said the forum's location in Stockholm can make it difficult to engender participation, because
of visa restrictions and travel costs. But he said they have made efforts to
take the report elsewhere, including a launch event at the African Union in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, in early February.
"We see Africa as a priority
of the next five years and expect intense focus on that region," he told
Devex. Ultimately, he said the goal is to create an African Food Forum,
headquartered on the continent.
Representatives from the global
south said they also expect to see high-income countries and corporations
putting equal energy into reforming their practices to meet the guidelines —
and they pointed to opportunities for mutual learning.
Bioversity International, a
research-for-development organization, used the forum to launch its first-ever Agrobiodiversity Index. Juan Lucas Restrepo,
the organization's director general, said agrobiodiversity is critical to the
sustainability of farming efforts, boosting soil health, and increasing
resilience, but it is not widely followed.
Of the 10 countries the
organization considered for the index, though, India and Kenya had the highest
scores in sustainable production, having made commitments and taken actions to
implement agrobiodiversity.
"We will see, over time, the
developing countries setting the new bar and the examples on how we can mainstream
agrobiodiversity over time," Restrepo said. "It's going to be south
to north and that would be fantastic."
Update, June 25: This story was
updated to correct the spelling of Bioversity International.
This focus area, powered by DSM,
is exploring innovative solutions to improve nutrition, tackle malnutrition,
and influence policies and funding. Visit the Focus
on: Improving Nutrition page for more
Gambia commences
creation of next generation of plant breeders
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Young research scientists of breeders and agronomists
working on variety development or testing in the public and private sectors,
yesterday commenced another five-day training course on rice, maize and
groundnut breeders in The Gambia. The training is on the Concepts and
Principles of Plant Breeding and Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) at the
NARI head office in Brikama.
Twenty-six participants from
the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), The Gambia College School
of Agriculture, National Seed Secretariat, National Coordinating Organisation
of Farmer Associations Gambia (NACOFAG) and variety release committees are
currently participating in the course. Some two weeks ago, another crop of
senior and junior research scientists also underwent similar training at NARI,
both targeting to develop the next generation of young home-grown agricultural
breeders to adapt modern tools for enhancing the precision and efficiency of
their breeding programmes.
The course component is part of
the European Union (EU) funded 20.5 million Euro, about 1.2 billion dalasis
from its 11th European Development Fund implemented by the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations under its “Agriculture for Economic
Growth and Food Security and Nutrition to mitigate migration programme and WFP.
Director general of NARI
Ansumana Jarju reminded the young research scientists at the start of the
course on Monday that the training was just the beginning and that they do not
have to become professors to be breeders. “We count on you for agricultural
researches.”
The course will provide
theoretical background on modern breeding methods and techniques including use
of biotechnology, experimental techniques, planning, information management
tools and software to able to adopt good principles of breeding methodologies
and to improve the quality of their research.
Project consultant and FAO
senior breeder Moussa Sie said the course became a requirement and need because
currently there is no breeder at NARI and the University of The Gambia is not
providing breeder programme. “We need to improve capacity by combining both
practical and theoretical trainings. Due to climate change, some plants cannot
work here but they can be nurtured to produce new varieties.”
He said the course will also
provide opportunity to share experiences with other crop breeders and enable
the young scientists to provide latest updates on areas relevant to rice
breeding and the worldwide exchange of rice genetic resources.
Gambia is a net importer of
food and produces only half of its national requirements of staple foods. The
government’s effort to address the deficit in the agriculture sector has
resulted in designing a project aimed at creating sustainable production and
productivity of crops and livestock; reduce food insecurity, malnutrition and
create enabling environment for improved national economy.
Kebba Drammeh, NARI director of
Crop Research admitted that the agriculture research institute has been
handicapped in the area of research for a long time and the training will help
in the creation of next generation of researchers. “For more than 30 years NARI
have been depending on outside expertise for crop breeding. This is expected to
lift the burden of hiring outside breedership on NARI.”
Reviving indigenous seeds: A silent
revolution in India’s rice growing states
The
Save our Rice Campaign, launched in India in 2004, has been able to revive
1,500 indigenous seeds in various regions in India.
·
Tuesday, June 25, 2019 - 16:21
In
the first week of June, in the predominantly paddy growing village of
Thiruthuraipoondi in Thiruvarur district (erstwhile part of Thanjavur district,
the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu), 10,000 farmers came together in the biggest ever
seed sharing event – the Nel Thiruvizha or Paddy Festival. A festival that
began in 2007, it has been organised every year ever since. The aching
difference in its 13thedition was the absence of “Nel”
Jayaraman, as he was popularly known, the pioneer seed saver and organiser of
the event. Young at 52, he passed away in December 2018, after a two-year
battle with cancer.
Indigenous
seeds, or naattu ragangal (desi seeds) as they are known in
Tamil Nadu, has been the key motivating factor behind the success of the Nel
Thiruvizha. In the 2018 edition of the Thiruvizha, 8,200 farmers had come to
look at the 174 varieties conserved by the Save our Rice Campaign and CREATE,
the local organisers in Tamil Nadu. The farmers collect 2 kg of their preferred
varieties which they return doubled the next year. Usually, 60% farmers return
the seeds for further distribution, some bringing them in sacks out of their
commitment to the campaign. This article looks at how it all started, why
indigenous seeds are making a comeback, and what motivates farmers to move from
the Green Revolution High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) and Hybrids to indigenous
seeds.
The
2004 Kumbalangi workshop
The
paddy seed conservation efforts in Tamil Nadu was an outcome of the Save our Rice
Campaign (SoRC) launched in India in 2004, the same year the
world celebrated the second International Year of Rice (IYR2004). This campaign
aimed to empower communities to build a sustainable food security movement in
the rice regions of India.
The
campaign was launched by Thanal, a voluntary group based in Kerala, through an
Indian Workshop on Rice (IWR2004) at a small village called Kumbalangi in
Kerala. This village itself has the heritage of an indigenous agroecological
paddy cultivation system of paddy-fish rotation – called Pokkali, which today
has a Geographical Indication tag. More than 140 practitioners and experts from
10 states attended the three-day workshop. At the end, it came up with the
Kumbalangi Declaration, and a five point agenda:
- conserving
rice ecosystems
- sustaining
rice culture and diversity
- protecting
traditional wisdom
- preventing
GMOs and toxics
- ensuring
safe and nutritious food
Green
Revolution and negative effects
The
significance of the Kumbalangi workshop can be understood in the backdrop of
the degrading rice ecosystems in India. In 2004, under the initiative of the
United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the world
celebrated the second International Year of Rice (IYR2004).
At
that time, Thanal, which was actively engaging with the Asian Rice Campaign (a
pan-Asian initiative of the Pesticide Action Network - Asia and the Pacific
(PANAP)), was concerned about the sustainability aspect of farming and about
the safety and sovereignty issues in agriculture. Before IYR2004, the First
International Year of Rice (IYR1966) was also the year when the Green
Revolution (GR) was launched in India. GR brought in a productivity centric
approach in farming, supplemented by the introduction of chemical fertilisers
and chemical insecticides, which today is blamed for poisoning our food and
ecosystems, a few even banned, and hundreds designated as Highly Hazardous
Pesticides, and have to be banned.
GR
surely increased productivity, as we now know, by about 50%, but has left
behind poisoned food, water and depleted groundwater, brought down soil
quality, reduced returns for farmers due to higher cost of cultivation and
failing crops, and impacted the health of the ecosystem and its people. GR
undoubtably delivered on production, but at the cost of our natural resources
and the quality of life of farmers, which formed the backbone of the agrarian
systems in India. Today as much as the soil degradation is a documented
disaster, so is the life and welfare of the farmers, whose crop losses and
mounting debts has led to the agrarian crisis – a fatal one, with farmers
taking their lives in large numbers every day in the nation.
The
worst impact, owing to its irreversibility, the Campaign felt, was on
agro-biodiversity. India, which had some 1.5 lakh varieties of paddy, that had
evolved over 10,000 years of its farming history, ended up with a few thousands
after GR, eliminated aggressively through government programmes for pushing
High Yielding Varieties (HYVs). And lost with it were varieties that could have
addressed some of the most critical concerns of today’s agriculture –
productivity, climate resilience, special nutritional needs, pest and disease
resistance, etc. For instance, in the 1980s India’s top rice scientist, Dr
Richharia, found that in his collection of 19,000 indigenous varieties of
paddy, 8% had High Yielding potential. This essentially means that even in such
a relatively small collection, the total number of HYVs far outnumber all the
lab-created HYVs ever developed under GR in India.
Highlights
of the Kumbalangi workshop
The
discussions at IWR2004 went deep into the problem caused by GR as well as the
global paradigms propounded by the IYR2004 as well. This covered aspects from
rice ecosystems, seed, knowledge, culture, threats to rice, and safety aspects
for farmers and consumers. Food policy experts like Devinder Sharma, and
organic farming experts like Dr Nammalvar and Vanaja Ramprasad led sessions
that charted the course of the campaign.
Two
major developments on the rice genome globally was seen to be a threat. One was
an attempt by agri majors to patent the rice genome. The other was the attempt
to introduce the first genetically modified rice – Golden Rice. Both were mired
in controversy, the first on issues related to the Intellectual Property Rights
of a staple crop that is predominantly an Asian crop and in the public commons.
The other related to the biosafety aspect of Golden Rice, both at the
environment and health levels and of its IPR issues.
Warning
about the attempts by major agribusiness corporations to appropriate the rights
over the rice genome, Devinder Sharma said in the workshop, “The daylight
robbery of genetic wealth – appropriately termed as biopiracy – continues
unabated in connivance with top scientists, international organisations and
policymakers.” He added, “The International Year of Rice 2004 is in reality a
celebration of the private control of one of the mankind’s most precious
heritage – the rice plant.”
The
IYR2004 did carry a larger agenda – not much on the critical aspects of ecology
and sustainability of the farming systems or the welfare and returns to the
farmers, but more about the appropriation of rice as a property and innovations
that could benefit rice scientists, breeders and major agri-business houses.
In
14 years, SoRC has expanded diversely in conception and practice in various
regions in India – mainly Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Orissa,
Chhattisgarh, and parts of Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Together
from all these regions it has been able to revive and drive 1,500 indigenous
seeds back into the farmers’ fields. This was made possible through various
efforts by many NGOs, farmers, seed savers and other passionate social
entrepreneurs. The seeds thus revived are maintained in 26 community level seed
banks run by farmers and 26 Rice Diversity Blocks (RDBs) that cultivate and
propagate the seeds among fellow villagers. Seeds and rice are also traded
locally through 21 organic rice trading networks, some formal, others informal.
Jayaraman
with students
“Seeds are a common heritage of the community, they have to be saved, used and controlled by the farmers, especially the women in the community. With diverse people, we had diverse methods, many that they developed, and that is the beauty of this campaign,” says S Usha, a horticulturist who walked out of a stable government job and later found and led SoRC.
“Seeds are a common heritage of the community, they have to be saved, used and controlled by the farmers, especially the women in the community. With diverse people, we had diverse methods, many that they developed, and that is the beauty of this campaign,” says S Usha, a horticulturist who walked out of a stable government job and later found and led SoRC.
Some
of these groups even formed formal companies like the Thaiman Traditional Agri
Producer Company, started by Jayaraman and colleagues, to market their
indigenous organic rice. Many resourceful farmers and seed savers have by
experience become resource persons and have established formal and informal
Rice Resource Centres in their villages. In many states, governments and
institutions have also responded to the groundswell and changed policies. For
instance, in Tamil Nadu the state government now procures indigenous varieties
of paddy from farmers for distribution in their official seed supply programme,
which once used to be only HYVs.
This
silent revolution happening in villages in these states stems from a holistic
understanding of the agrarian life in India. India’s production challenge and
food security is not as much about improved seeds as it is about the local
climate, culture, social relations, natural resources, and its unique legacy of
farming evolved over thousands of years. Correcting the mistakes of the myopic
GR policy and moving forward through reviving time-tested indigenous seeds,
practices and farmer-level knowledge was the key. This could ensure continuum
of the process of experience and adaptation, and enable evolving local,
adoptable sustainable farming practices specific to each agro-ecological
region.
How
Nel Thiruvizha is reforming farming in Tamil Nadu
In
2004, both Nammalvar and R Ponnambalam of CREATE (then FEDCOT, a pan-TN
consumer federation) attended the Kumbalangi workshop. Nammalvar saw in it a
potential to revive indigenous seeds in the landscape of Tamil Nadu’s toxic
agriculture. He encouraged Jayaraman, at that time a young farmer and trainer
at FEDCOT, to set up a centre and start conserving indigenous varieties of
paddy.
In
2006, Jayaraman got a patch of land, leased out to CREATE by a philanthropist
in his village Adhirengam in Thiruvarur district, and started with the 15
varieties they collected. In the collection were two versatile varieties called
Kattuyanam and Mappilai Chamba. Farmers who adopted Kattuyanam found that it
was both drought resistant and flood tolerant, a property unheard of in any
HYVs known till then. Mappilai Chamba was traditionally known to have medicinal
value and was good for improving muscle strength; it was also a variety with
comparably good yield.
Jayaraman
conducting training on indigenous storing of paddy
Jayaraman’s collection of seeds was highlighted in a farm magazine, and soon he got calls from all over Tamil Nadu. At least 600 farmers wanted the varieties. This is what led to the Nel Thiruvizha. That year, 2007, they had 600 farmers come, collect 2 kg of an indigenous variety of their choice and promise to return 4 kg the next year for further distribution. This became an annual event. Each year it grew in numbers of seed varieties and farmers.
Jayaraman’s collection of seeds was highlighted in a farm magazine, and soon he got calls from all over Tamil Nadu. At least 600 farmers wanted the varieties. This is what led to the Nel Thiruvizha. That year, 2007, they had 600 farmers come, collect 2 kg of an indigenous variety of their choice and promise to return 4 kg the next year for further distribution. This became an annual event. Each year it grew in numbers of seed varieties and farmers.
Slowly
the Nel Thiruvizha became a flagship programme of the SoRC in Tamil Nadu.
Through the years, SoRC also conducted farmer field schools, train the trainer
workshops for organic farming and indigenous seed conservation, outreach
programmes for schools, colleges, etc. It even maintained an insitu field of
varieties every year, cultivating them in a RDB. A local seed bank was also
maintained.
Many
farmers voluntarily started maintaining RDBs and seed banks. One of them is Sriram
Ramamoorthy, an IT professional turned farmer.
“When
I first went to the Nel Thiruvizha some 6 years ago, my farm was a conventional
one. Listening to Nammalvar Ayya and others, my father and I shifted to organic
farming and started using indigenous varieties. Now it’s become the SVR Organic
Way Farm and is even a regional council for organic certification,” says
Sriram, whose says his life changed through the Thiruvizha. He now conserves
about 65 varieties of paddy and experiments on various methods of cultivation
including System of Rice Intensification (SRI).
Today
many of the varieties that have been revived, conserved, multiplied and adopted
by farmers across Tamil Nadu are picking up in the consumer market as well.
Mappilai Samba, Kattuyanam, Kichadi Samba, Thooyamalli and Mysore Mallige have
become preferred in various regions in Tamil Nadu. Ever since the Green
Revolution, we have not had rice being demanded by names of varieties. It is
happening now.
One
of the concerns addressed by SoRC is the downgrading of rice from a nutritious
staple to a mere starch, filling people with only carbohydrates. This was
clearly post-GR and is squarely blamed on the reforms in the milling process,
where modern mills removed all the bran and started selling polished rice. The
bran that was removed went to the food supplement and pharma industry, and the
oil from the bran became rice bran oil. Ironically all these were termed “value
addition” of rice, where rice brought in more economic value, but at the cost
of nutrition to the consumers.
The
downgrading of rice has even become a health issue, as polished rice is now
blamed for the rise in diabetes in the rice regions of India. SoRC ran various
programmes to highlight the dangers of polished rice and the need to consume
semi-polished and unpolished rice as an important source of nutrition. Red rice
melas and Desi rice melas were conducted to highlight the importance of red
rice and indigenous rice. Now black rice, the most nutritious variety, is
picking up in the market, especially ones like Karuppu Kavuni in Tamil Nadu.
SoRC
at the national scale has a story to tell from each region, where parallel
adoption of indigenous seeds was seen. The silent seed revolution has only
begun, and Nel Jayaraman’s efforts in Tamil Nadu has triggered many more seed
festivals across Tamil Nadu. On a count last year, it was at least 100. But for
Jayaraman himself, the health and self-reliance of the farmer household was
priority. He once said, “Our biggest success perhaps is that farmer families
have started eating the rice that they grow. Earlier in the Thanjavur delta
region, farmers produced paddy only for the Public Distribution System or the
markets, while they bought cheap rice from the market to consume. With
indigenous rice, we are now consuming what we produce and only selling the
surplus.”
That
makes farming a matter of culture, one that has a belonging, an emotional
connect, not a mechanical job to produce for the nation. It’s through this
culture of agriculture that even a nation can benefit along with the farmers.
Sridhar
Radhakrishnan is Programme Director at Thanal and Coordinator (Campaign &
Policy) of the Save Our Rice Campaign. His work is focussed on agriculture,
food sovereignty, environmental policy and advocacy.
Views
expressed are the author’s own
Gambia commences
creation of next generation of plant breeders
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Young research scientists of breeders and agronomists
working on variety development or testing in the public and private sectors,
yesterday commenced another five-day training course on rice, maize and
groundnut breeders in The Gambia. The training is on the Concepts and
Principles of Plant Breeding and Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) at the
NARI head office in Brikama.
Twenty-six participants from
the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), The Gambia College School
of Agriculture, National Seed Secretariat, National Coordinating Organisation
of Farmer Associations Gambia (NACOFAG) and variety release committees are
currently participating in the course. Some two weeks ago, another crop of
senior and junior research scientists also underwent similar training at NARI,
both targeting to develop the next generation of young home-grown agricultural
breeders to adapt modern tools for enhancing the precision and efficiency of
their breeding programmes.
The course component is part of
the European Union (EU) funded 20.5 million Euro, about 1.2 billion dalasis
from its 11th European Development Fund implemented by the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations under its “Agriculture for Economic
Growth and Food Security and Nutrition to mitigate migration programme and WFP.
Director general of NARI
Ansumana Jarju reminded the young research scientists at the start of the
course on Monday that the training was just the beginning and that they do not
have to become professors to be breeders. “We count on you for agricultural
researches.”
The course will provide
theoretical background on modern breeding methods and techniques including use
of biotechnology, experimental techniques, planning, information management
tools and software to able to adopt good principles of breeding methodologies
and to improve the quality of their research.
Project consultant and FAO
senior breeder Moussa Sie said the course became a requirement and need because
currently there is no breeder at NARI and the University of The Gambia is not
providing breeder programme. “We need to improve capacity by combining both
practical and theoretical trainings. Due to climate change, some plants cannot
work here but they can be nurtured to produce new varieties.”
He said the course will also
provide opportunity to share experiences with other crop breeders and enable
the young scientists to provide latest updates on areas relevant to rice
breeding and the worldwide exchange of rice genetic resources.
Gambia is a net importer of
food and produces only half of its national requirements of staple foods. The
government’s effort to address the deficit in the agriculture sector has
resulted in designing a project aimed at creating sustainable production and
productivity of crops and livestock; reduce food insecurity, malnutrition and
create enabling environment for improved national economy.
Kebba Drammeh, NARI director of
Crop Research admitted that the agriculture research institute has been
handicapped in the area of research for a long time and the training will help
in the creation of next generation of researchers. “For more than 30 years NARI
have been depending on outside expertise for crop breeding. This is expected to
lift the burden of hiring outside breedership on NARI.”
UK
scientists develop climate-ready wheat to survive drought conditions
Jun 25, 2019, 8:00am
UK scientists have found that engineering bread wheat to have
fewer pores on their leaves makes more efficient use of water, potentially
helping farmers facing more frequent drought conditions
Scientists at the University of Sheffield’s Institute for
Sustainable Food found that engineering bread wheat to have fewer stomata helps
the crop to use water more efficiently while maintaining yields.
On average, it takes more than 1,800L of water to produce 1kg of
wheat.
As droughts become more common even in the UK, farmers will need
to produce more food than ever with even fewer resources to feed a growing
population.
Wheat uses stomata to regulate its intake of carbon dioxide for
photosynthesis, as well as the release of water vapour.
When water is plentiful, stomatal opening helps plants to
regulate temperature by evaporative cooling – similar to sweating.
In drought conditions, plants normally close their
stomata to slow down water loss – but wheat with fewer stomata has been found
to conserve water even better, and can use that water to cool itself.
During the study, which has been
published in the Journal of Experimental Botany,
the scientists grew wheat in conditions similar to those expected under climate
breakdown – with higher levels of carbon dioxide and less water.
Compared to conventional wheat, the engineered plants used less
water while maintaining photosynthesis and yield.
The research builds on the Institute for Sustainable Food’s work
to develop climate-ready rice, which found that rice with fewer stomata used
40% less water than conventional breeds and was able to survive drought and
temperatures of 40ºC.
Julie Gray, professor of Plant Molecular Biology at the
Institute for Sustainable Food, said: “Wheat is a staple food for millions of
people around the world – but as extreme droughts become more frequent, farmers
face the prospect of dwindling yields.
Developing wheat that uses water more efficiently will help us
to feed our growing population while using fewer natural resources – making our
food systems more resilient in the face of climate breakdown.
In a separate study published in Plant,
Cell and Environment, scientists at the institute also found that
plants engineered to have fewer stomata are less susceptible to diseases. They
hope to be able to replicate these findings in crops such as wheat and rice.
Newly identified rice gene could help develop drought-tolerant
biotech crop varieties
ISAAA | June 25, 2019
Image: Krishi Jagran
Drought is one
of the abiotic factors that affect the yield of crops. Studies have shown that
basic leucine zipper motif (bZIP) transcription factors play an important
regulatory function in plant drought stress responses. However, the functions
of bZIP transcription factors in rice are still
mysterious. Scientists from Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center identified and characterized a
novel drought stress-related bZIP transcription factor in rice—OsbZIP62.
The findings are published in BMC Plant Biology.
Results showed that the
expression of OsbZIP62 was induced by drought, hydrogen
peroxide, and abscisic acid (ABA). Overexpression of OsbZIP62-VP64 (OsbZIP62V)
led to improved tolerance to drought and oxidative stress exhibited by
transgenic rice …. Furthermore, analysis showed that the expression of several
stress-related genes was upregulated in OsbZIP62V plants.
The findings imply that OsbZIP62 is
important in ABA signaling pathways and positively regulates rice drought
tolerance by controlling the expression of stress-related genes, and this gene
could be used to genetically engineer important
crops with better drought tolerance.
Read full, original article: Crop Biotech Update, June 20,
2019
Punjab pushes ‘pesticide free’
Basmati
Basmati exporters and Basmati
growers in the state are now working together to use less pesticides in order
meet the new guidelines of the European Union (EU) and other countries
regarding the Basmati import from India.
Written by Anju Agnihotri Chaba |
Jalandhar |
Published: June 25, 2019 8:38:41 am
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This effort is to achieve total
compliance with EU Maximum Residue Level (MRLs). (Express photo)
To save Basmati export to Europe,
USA and Arab countries, Punjab, which is highest user of fertilisers and
insecticides per hectare in the country — much above the national average, has
launched a ‘pesticide-free’ Basmati campaign in the state.
Basmati exporters and Basmati
growers in the state are now working together to use less pesticides in order
meet the new guidelines of the European Union (EU) and other countries
regarding the Basmati import from India.
This effort is to achieve total
compliance with EU Maximum Residue Level (MRLs).
The Department of Agriculture,
through its network of field officers, would recruit fresh agriculture
graduates to fan out to all the Basmati clusters in the state and directly
remain in touch with the farmers.
Farmers too are happy with this
joint move of government and exporters as they said that they always wanted to
have precise knowledge about the usage of pesticides and fertilisers.
In Punjab, farmers mainly grow
Basmati Varieties 1509 and 1121, the sowing of which would be started in July.
The state has also asked pesticides
companies to strictly comply with the instructions of PAU and not to pitch the
sale of banned pesticides for the Basmati crop.
Basmati farmer Satnam Singh of Tanda
in Hoshiarpur, said that such step of government would be a big help for
farmers who are being fleeced by the private companies to sell their pesticides
and some times they overused them due to lack of knowledge.
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“We have been spending huge amount
on the pesticides and if we can grow Basmati without using that, it would be a
great achievement,” said another farmer Ajit Singh of Salempur Masanda Village
in Jalandhar.
Punjab uses highest fertilisers per
hectare in the country at 212 kg, while the usage of insecticides has come down
by 40 per cent in past two decades but still it is high with 556 gm pesticides
per hectare.
“Rice exporters and Punjab
government with active collaboration with Agriculture Export Development
Authority (APEDA) under the Ministry of Commerce have joined hands this year to
launch traceability (Backward Integration) through Internet services to
register the Basmati farmers across Punjab,” said Punjab Agriculture Secretary
KS Pannu, adding that this service would link the Basmati farmers for all
backup services including update on the use of pesticides and fertilisers from
exporters and the department.
He stressed upon that the Basmati
growers must go by the advice of the APEDA for judicious use of only
recommended pesticides by the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana and
the Department of Agriculture as any excessive use of prohibited chemicals
would thwart our efforts to export this Basmati in large quantities.
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The president of Punjab Rice Millers
and Exporters Association Arvinder Pal Singh said that the area under Basmati
cultivation will go up from 5.68 lakh hectares to 6.5 lakh hectares as the
price of Basmati had touched a new high last season.
He added that though government’s
efforts started last year, exporters became a part of the campaign only this
year.
Director of the Association Ashok
Sethi said the awareness programme would continue from July onwards till
October end and will include farmers’ workshops and camps involving experts
from APEDA and the PAU.
Agricultural sustainability for a
growing population
SPONSORED CONTENT
JUN 25, 2019
On a sunny weekend during
rice-planting season, the people of Japan’s largest rice-producing prefecture,
Niigata, welcomed ministers and delegates from the 20 major economies of the
world as well as six invited countries and eight organizations, as the G20
Niigata Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting was held there on May 11 and 12.
At a news conference held on the
second day of the event at Toki Messe Niigata Convention Center located in the
heart of the city of Niigata, Agriculture Minister Takamori Yoshikawa said that
the meeting concluded successfully because of a declaration that aims to ensure
the sustainability and productivity of the agri-food sector to feed a growing
global population.
“The G20 meeting confirmed the
importance of encouraging innovation in agriculture through the utilization of
new technologies, including the latest information and communication
technologies, artificial intelligence, and robotics,” said Yoshikawa.
He also noted that discussions
included topics such as developing human resources to include women and younger
generations; agro-food value chains; as well as collaborations with nonfarm
businesses, the public sector and academia.
“I introduced efforts made by
Niigata Prefectural Agricultural College to obtain Global G.A.P. certification
as an example of best practice of human resource development during the
meeting,” said Yoshikawa. The college has engaged its students in the process
of obtaining the Global G.A.P., a worldwide standard for good agricultural
practices, for the rice and strawberries they produce.
The meeting also confirmed that
society needs to tackle issues concerning food loss and waste, measures against
food price volatility and animal and plant health at the global level. Participants
also confirmed a need to keep striving for alleviating hunger and malnutrition
in line with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Students have their say
During the plenary session held
on the first day, students from Kohshi Secondary School presented a proposal
addressing imbalances in the food supply among advanced and developing
countries. “Some countries suffer from food shortages while others face
problems surrounding food loss and waste,” said one of the presenters,
expressing her shock when learning about the tremendous gap between the
students’ lives and those of the 821 million undernourished people in the
world. The students also explained there are many areas in the world where
there is not enough water for conventional irrigation systems.
Then, they suggested that drip
irrigation can reduce water usage to one-fifth of conventional irrigation use.
At the same time, they proposed a bold and novel idea of what they call the
“agricultural Olympics” to help solve the financial difficulty in introducing
drip irrigation technology. “Developed countries form teams with developing
countries with similar climate and geographical conditions, and work together
to improve irrigation, promote mechanization and develop infrastructure,” a
presenter said. This may serve as an opportunity for researchers and providers
of advanced technologies to test the full capabilities of new machinery,
products and services and for participating developed countries to win
international recognition for their contributions.
‘Japan’s Farming Village’
At a reception following the
first day of summit proceedings, guests sampled various delicacies made using
seasonal ingredients from Niigata Prefecture and areas hit hard by the Great
East Japan Earthquake such as Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures. Yoshikawa
mentioned at a news conference the following day that serving high-quality
products from disaster-hit areas was significant in demonstrating their
recovery to the world and encouraging ongoing support from the global community.
The theme of the reception was
“Japan’s Farming Village in Early Summer.” Displays and stalls depicted fields,
forests, a pond and a farmer’s house. Guests enjoyed tea ceremony presentations
and picking tomatoes and strawberries.
Niigata Gov. Hideyo Hanazumi greeted guests at the beginning of
the reception and highlighted Niigata’s significance as one of Japan’s major
agricultural prefectures in hosting the meet where sustainability of
agriculture was discussed. “Niigata continues to try new things in the
agricultural sector such as using yukimuro (snow rooms) to age
and improve the flavor of various foods and has developed a new varietal of
rice, Shinnosuke,” he said.
Niigata Mayor Yaichi Nakahara
made a toast, saying that it was an honor for Niigata as a city with a good
balance of advanced urban functionality and rich nature. Koshi no Kanbai Junmai
Daiginjo Kinmuku made by Ishimoto Sake Brewery in Niigata was used for the
toast.
The area’s Restaurant Bus was
also there to offer a space for guests to enjoy different foods, such as sweets
using local Echigohime strawberries. The bus is used in area tours as one
element of Niigata’s “Gastronomy Tourism” campaign, which offers special
experiences of Niigata’s gourmet, culture and history for tourists.
Reception guests were also
treated to displays of traditional and contemporary performing arts originating
from the prefecture.
The first performance was Niigata Furumachi Geigi, a
200-year-old performing art and important cultural legacy drawing from local
geisha history, consisting of traditional singing, dancing and music by female
professional performers in kimono. The second performance was a dance and
Japanese drum parade by participants of the Niigata Soh-Odori, one of Japan’s
largest dance festivals that started in 2001. Guests enjoyed taking pictures
and some even joined in playing wadaiko Japanese drums with
the performers.
A warm welcome
During the two-day ministerial
meeting, local children and volunteers warmly welcomed delegates with flowers
and plenty of photo opportunities at Niigata station and airport, the entrance
of the meeting venue and other places.
Colorful welcome message cards
drawn by children from 37 elementary and junior high schools in Niigata
Prefecture decorated a large panel in the atrium. Another panel at the entrance
of the venue was adorned with a mosaic made up of about 1,500 photos of Niigata
residents smiling; representatives from all participating countries and
organizations took an official photo in front of the panel.
Some of the delegates posted
photos and videos on social media to express their delight to people back home.
A MICE destination
The city of Niigata contributed
to the success of the event with warm hospitality, efficient traffic control
and transportation arrangements, as well as appropriate security both inside
and outside the venue, displaying the city’s pride and capability as one of the
G20 Summit MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) venues in
Japan.
Toki Messe previously hosted the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Ministerial Meeting on Food Security in 2010
and Group of Seven Agricultural Ministers’ Meeting in 2016.
Toki Messe stands on what used to be a small island called
Bandaijima but is now connected to the mainland. It lies at the mouth of the
Shinano River. Japan’s longest river that also flows through the city of
Niigata into the Sea of Japan. The area has long been prosperous as a port
town, especially during the Edo Period to the Meiji Era when it was one of the
ports of call for kitamaebune, cargo ships that
traveled on the Sea of Japan.
The city of Niigata continues to
be a key point for transportation, with easy access from Tokyo by shinkansen;
via air, it is accessible from many of Japan’s major cities including Tokyo,
Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Fukuoka as well as from cities overseas including
Taipei, China’s Harbin and Shanghai, and Seoul.
Toki Messe is five minutes by
taxi and 15 minutes by bus from Niigata Station on the JR Joetsu Shinkansen
Line. The venue is about 20 minutes on foot from the station, and makes for a
pleasant walk during fine weather. It takes about 20 minutes by taxi from the
airport to Toki Messe. Buses are also available between the airport and Niigata
Station.
The Toki Messe convention complex
is comprised of an exhibition hall, 13 conference rooms of various sizes and
the Hotel Nikko Niigata. A panoramic view of the city of Niigata with the vast
Niigata Plain in the background can be enjoyed from the observatory on the 31st
floor of the hotel.
During the G20 Summit ministerial
meeting, students of Miyaura Junior High School in Niigata offered guests a
thorough explanation of Niigata’s climate, geography, history, culture and
nature as they showed visitors a 360-degree view of the city from the observatory.
Tasty technology
Dozens of companies and
organizations set up booths to display their agricultural technologies and
products outside the hall where the ministerial meeting took place.
The G20 Niigata Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting Promotion Council
displayed agricultural, forestry and fishery products of Niigata including 88
kinds of sake, tomatoes and a variety of edamame called chamame,
mangoes grown in greenhouses heated with hot spring water of 64 degrees
Celsius. Various “functional” foods promoted by the prefecture including food
processed using high-pressure techniques, food designed to be eaten during
disasters and during rescue operations, and low-protein rice for patients with
kidney problems were also displayed.
A project featuring smart agriculture
conducted in the city of Niigata was also on display. Several companies
specializing in new technologies useful in agriculture such as remote sensing
systems to monitor crop conditions using satellites and drones, and farm
management application for PCs and smartphones collaborated to support the
event.
The council also showcased
Niigata crafts such as Niigata lacquerware, delicate wood carvings from
Murakami and hammered copperware from Tsubame.
Niigata’s Shirone district is
famous for its giant kite battle, an annual event dating back about 300 years.
In the ministerial meeting atrium, two of the giant kites used in actual
battles were displayed. There was also a booth introducing Niigata’s Sado
Island, two-and-a-half hours travel by ferry from Niigata Port. It is a
picturesque island blessed with nature that has been designated as a Globally
Important Agricultural Heritage System by the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations.
Students of Niigata Prefectural
Kaiyo High School had a booth displaying a soy sauce made using local marine
ingredients such as salmon and kelp, which they produced with their teachers.
Hands-on fun
Additionally, a field tour took
delegates to several notable locations on May 12.
At the Northern Culture Museum, delegates
participated in various cultural experiences including tea ceremony. The museum
used to be a private residence of Niigata’s wealthy, land-owning Ito family
during the Meiji Era (1868-1912). The delegates enjoyed their time as they took
commemorative photos with full-blown Japanese wisteria behind them.
The delegates then went to
Komehachi, a company that grows rice, soy beans, wheat, vegetables and other
produce through smart agriculture utilizing cutting-edge information and
communications technology; a demonstration of an unmanned rice-planting machine
was among the activities.
Chohan grills Sharifs for
‘deceiving’ nation
LAHORE: The Punjab government spokesperson Fayaz-ul-Hassan Chohan
has warned that any harm to the health of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
will be the result of his love for eating.
He demanded Punjab Assembly Speaker immediately cancel the
Production Order of Opposition leader in PA Hamza Shahbaz for violating the
rules. Talking to media outside Punjab Assembly immediately after the press
conference of Opposition leader Hamza Shahbaz, Fayaz-ul-Hassan Chohan stated
that for last 10 days Nawaz Sharif had been constantly eating mutton and rice.
He said that a patient having cardiac issue should avoid meat but
the food menu of former prime minister between June 11 and June 21 clearly
showed that he had been eating mutton. Besides, he said he had been dubbed as
diabetic by his family but the former PM, instead of avoiding rice was
regularly consuming them.
Chohan went on to say that the daughter of the former prime
minister, Maryam Safdar tried to gain sympathy of the nation in her press
conference just like the characters of Star Plus dramas. He said both father
and daughter were deceiving the nation.
Chohan stated it was strange that Maryam Safdar was comparing
former Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi with her father Nawaz Sharif adding
one devoted his life for Islam and other was declared ‘Sicilian mafia’ by the
court.
He added that Nawaz Sharif was declared guilty and disqualified by
the Supreme Court for life time on the charges of money laundering and his
nephew Hamza Shahbaz should stop lying to the nation.
Grilling Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz, Fayaz
Chohan said when Imran Khan was playing cricket and earning name and fame for
the country, Hamza was seen roaming in the streets of Gawalmandi.
To a question over the ban imposed in National Assembly to call
Prime Minister as “selected PM” he said the “defected Bhuttos” and
“disqualified Sharifs” were raising objections against an elected Prime
Minister of the country. He said Imran Khan had come to power through people’s
vote.
To a query related to bar PML-N workers from seeing their leader
Nawaz Sharif, he said when a person is ill, he is advised to take rest and
avoid seeing visitors but in this case, Hamza and Safdar wanted more people to
visit him.
The Punjab government spokesperson on the occasion also requested
to immediately cancel the Production Order of Hamza Shahbaz Sharif for
breaching rules of procedures. He said according to his information, a person
on Production Order couldn’t address media but Hamza Shahbaz wasn’t following
the rules.
Rice exports face tough time amid
huge global supply
Update: June, 25/2019 - 08:25
Farmers harvesting rice in the
Mekong Delta. Photo english.vietnamnet.vn
HCM CITY — With an abundant global supply
and high inventory in major exporting countries, Việt Nam is expected to
struggle to secure exports of rice in the second half of the year, speakers
said at a conference held in HCM City on Monday.
Trần Quốc Khánh, deputy minister of Industry
and Trade, said that Việt Nam’s rice exports in the first half of the year
experienced great challenges due to a drop in demand from major
importers.
Except for the Philippines, the country’s three
major traditional rice importing countries such as China, Indonesia and
Bangladesh all imported much less in the first half of the year.
image: http://image.vietnamnews.vn/uploadvnnews/Article/2019/6/25/20634_HP1.jpg
Speakers at a conference held
yesterday in HCM City discuss the status of Viet Nam's rice
exports in the first half of the year. VNS Photo Bồ Xuân Hiệp
The trend is expected to continue for the rest
of the year because of the high inventory in China, an election
year in Indonesia, and Bangladesh’s ongoing recovery from
flooding, Khánh said.
The decline in imports from these markets has
also affected two other leading rice exporters, India and
Thailand.
In the first five months, Việt Nam exported a
combined 239,000 tonnes of rice to China, Indonesia and Bangladesh,
compared with 1.44 million tonnes over the same period last year, according to
the Export and Import Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In recent years, many rice importing countries
have imposed rice tariffs and allowed other rice suppliers to
participate in the G2P (government-to-private) tenders in order to buy rice of
higher quality at more competitive prices.
Meanwhile, countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia,
and Pakistan are trying to increase their rice export output.
In addition, China is not only the largest rice
importer, but also one of the world’s major rice exporters.
Solutions
The Ministry of Industry and Trade is
working with agencies such as Việt Nam Food Association and rice exporters
to implement solutions, such as reviewing policies of foreign markets,
according to Deputy Minister Khánh.
While negotiating bilateral and multilateral
free trade agreements, the ministry has discussed with foreign partners
about tax reductions and removal of trade and technical barriers for Vietnamese
rice products.
The ministry has also updated information for
local enterprises and associations about regulations on food hygiene and
safety, quality control and traceability.
Many programmes on trade promotion and brand
development have been luanched, including trade fairs in mainland China, the
Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as France,
the Netherlands, Ghana, Ivory Coast and the US.
To assist businesses in studying customer
demand and promoting exports, the ministry has worked with localities that
produce high outputs of rice, such as An Giang, Long An, and Kiên Giang
provinces, Cần Thơ City, and HCM City.
Experts have recommended that Vietnamese
exporters diversify export and import markets and avoid dependence on
only certain markets.
New
decree
Taking effect in October last year, Decree
107/2018/ND-CP, which replaced an older decree, aims to remove legal barriers
for rice businesses to expand to foreign markets.
According to the new decree, rice-exporting
businesses will no longer be required to own rice storage or paddy milling
and grinding facilities with processing capacities of 5,000 tonnes of rice and
10 tonnes of paddy per hour, respectively.
Instead, they now can rent such facilities from
other agencies and organisations. The capacity volume requirements
have also been removed.
Trần Văn Công, deputy director of the Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Agro Processing and Market Development
Authority, said the new decree would help rice traders cut costs significantly.
Khánh said the decree was a breakthrough in
institutional policy regarding rice export activities, removing
difficulties for rice firms.
The decree also stipulates additional
regulations on the responsibilities of ministries, sectors and localities
in rice export management.
According to the General Department of Customs,
Việt Nam’s rice exports reached 2.76 million tonnes in the first five months,
down 6.3 per cent compared to the same period last year. The country
earned US$1.18 billion worth of exports in the period, a decline of 20.4 per
cent over the same period last year.
The country’s rice products are exported
to 150 countries and territories, including the Philippines, Malaysia,
Indonesia, mainland China, Cuba, Hong Kong, Singapore, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Ghana
and Mozambique. — VNS
Think Rice? Think Summer Programming
By Michael Klein
BEAUMONT, TX - USA Rice has teamed
up with Texas AgriLife Extension Service for their annual "Read and
Feed" summer food program that provides lunch and educational activities
for children ages 18 and younger. The
program is designed to educate students on nutrition and highlights the
"Path to Plate" concept which explores how and why food grown in the
United States is safe, and how to prepare more natural and less processed
foods.
USA Rice provided a collection of
resources including "U.S. Rice in the Culinary Classroom" school
curriculum binders, K-2nd coloring books, 4-6th grade "U.S.-Grown Rice in
the Classroom" activity books, rice samples, and a variety of promotional
items.
"I am grateful to USA Rice for
their continued support of the enrichment component of the program," said
Jefferson County Precinct Four Commissioner Everette "Bo"
Alfred. "Any assistance you provide
to educate the youth of our community is greatly appreciated."
USA Rice's "U.S. Rice in the
Culinary Classroom" was used as the underlying curriculum of the week-long
program and presentations to the students were created based on it.
"Any opportunity where USA Rice
can educate students living in a rice-growing state on the work that goes into
producing rice and the importance of choosing U.S.-grown is a win/win
scenario," said USA Rice Domestic Promotion Manager Cameron Jacobs. "The fact that this summer program also
provides lunch to these students is the cherry on top."
Throughout the summer, USA Rice will
continue to support Texas AgriLife Extension Service for additional programs at
area libraries, youth camps, and the Community Health Program. USA Rice will follow-up in the fall at the
county's Child Care Conference helping out with a breakout session focusing on
farm-to-table and rice production. This
summer the Three R's get a boost from another smart R: Rice
Rice in Schools
USA Rice provides all the resources
you need to create healthy, satisfying school meals. From breakfast to lunch
and after-school meals, rice-based dishes deliver nutritional benefits and the
great tastes your students want.
K–12 Recipe
Ideas
To browse our library
of K–12 recipe ideas, click here »
Rice fields help threatened California snakes
By Joshua Rapp Learn
Giant
garter snakes have lost most of the historical range in Central California.
©Matt Meshriy, USGS
Federally threatened garter snakes in California are using flooded
rice paddies as refuges, but irregular management practices may limit the help
these agricultural landscapes can provide the reptiles.
“They probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the rice,” said
TWS member Brian Halstead, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S.
Geological Survey’s Western Ecological Research Center and the lead author of a study published recently in Global
Ecology and Conservation. But he believes that better rice
farm management practices might give the snakes a better buffer from the
threats they continue to face.
Giant garter snakes (Thamnophis
gigas), listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, were
traditionally found in Central California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.
The snakes thrive in wetland areas where they hunt frogs, tadpoles and fish.
But development over the years meant much of the former wetlands
were converted to orchards and row crops. The snakes, once abundant in the San
Joaquin Valley, were almost extirpated other than a few remnant populations due
to the landscape changes. The snakes had also suffered a huge blow to their
range with the drying of the Tulare Lake in the 20thcentury due to its tributary
rivers being rerouted for municipal water supplies and to irrigate crops. These
changes have caused the snakes to lose about 95% of their historical habitat.
At some point, farmers in the Sacramento Valley began growing
rice, and the rice fields provided snakes with the right conditions. “The rice
agricultural system provides surface water during the summer when the snakes
are active and marsh-like conditions provide the cover, habitat and prey that
the snakes need,” Halstead said.
In 2014, Halstead and his colleagues wanted to see how the snakes
would deal with the drought in the area. During dry years, farmers choose not
to and sometimes cannot plant rice, instead selling off their water as it
brings a higher price than the yield from the rice itself would, Halstead said.
“The original intent was to see whether the snakes were going to
be able to move to where there was water,” he said.
Halstead and his colleagues trapped snakes in rice farms and
equipped those weighing more than 7 ounces with radio transmitters. They tagged
58 snakes, only four of which were males due to the males’ smaller size, and
tracked their daily activity and survival.
They found that the snakes made the most use of rice fields only
after the rice plants had grown large enough to break through the surface of
the water around early June, remaining in this habitat until September when
farmers drain the fields.
Snakes typically had higher survival rates when more rice fields
were within 1640 feet of their home range.
“If they were chronically exposed to less rice, then their risk of
mortality was higher and their survival was lower,” Halstead said.
But the snakes weren’t actually found much in the fields
themselves, but rather in the water canals that ran alongside the fields and
fed into them.
Halstead believes this higher survival rate may be due to the
effect rice fields have on dispersing wading birds and other predators that
feed on garter snakes. When the fields are flooded, many of these predators
will disperse away from the canals where the snakes concentrate. But when the
fields are dry, the canals become crowded with a whole assortment of threats to
garter snakes.
It might also be due to a spillover effect. “These rice fields are
really shallow, warm aquatic environments, and they’re highly productive,” he
said. They export nutrients and invertebrates into nearby canals which in turn
feed snake prey like frogs, fish and tadpoles.
Halstead and his co-authors also found that the snakes didn’t
actually use rice fields during the spring after emerging from hibernation — a
period that also showed the lowest snake survival rates. This might reflect
snake vulnerability, since the reptiles basically don’t eat from October
through March and perhaps into April.
In a natural system, snowmelt from the mountains would typically
ensure an abundance of good habitat for the snakes to forage in during these
spring months when they emerge.
But many farmers now prefer to keep their rice fields dry during
this period.
“There is the difference from the historical conditions, which
puts stress on the snakes at this time of year,” Halstead said.
“Rice is great for the snakes compared to nothing, but that rice
probably isn’t the best thing for the snakes,” he said, adding that this is due
to the incongruity between when the water is delivered and when the snakes need
it.
This relationship could be improved, he said, if farmers could
adjust their seasons to get water into the fields a little earlier and with
more consistency over the years.
|
Joshua Rapp
Learn is a science writer at The Wildlife Society. Contact him at jlearn@wildlife.org with
any questions or comments about his article.
|
Rice exports shrink in first five months
By Hung Le
June 25, 2019 | 08:55 am GMT+7
Grains are seen on assembly line of a rice processing factory in
Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. Photo by Reuters/Kham.
Vietnam’s rice exports fell 6.3
percent in volume and 20.4 percent in value in the first five months of 2019
compared to the same period last year.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said at a conference in
Ho Chi Minh City on Monday that the country exported a total of 2.76
million tons of rice worth around $1.18 billion in the first five months.
Apart from the Philippines, Vietnam's exports to its main markets
like China, Indonesia and Bangladesh fell during this period.
Vietnam exported only 239,000 tons of rice to these three markets,
compared to 1.44 million tons in the same period last year, a six-fold drop.
This situation is expected to drag on until the end of the year,
as a result of various reasons including high levels of rice inventory from
China’s last harvest, Indonesia having general elections this year, and the
recovery of post-flood production in Bangladesh, the ministry said.
Export prices of rice also fell sharply this year, averaging only
$427.5 per ton, a decrease of $77 per ton over last year.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development,
Vietnam is the third biggest rice exporter in the world behind India and
Thailand, selling the grain to some 150 countries and territories.
In 2018, rice exports grew 5.1 percent in volume (6.1 million
tons) and 16.3 percent ($3.08 billion) in value year-on-year.
Monsoon covers most parts of cane,
cotton, soybean fields in India
JUNE 25, 2019 / Mayank Bhardwaj
3 MIN READ
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Monsoon rains have covered most parts of
cane, cotton, and soybean fields in western India and some parts of rice-sowing
areas in central and northern India, the country’s weather office said on
Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: A woman takes photographs with her mobile phone against
the backdrop of monsoon clouds at a beach in Kochi, India June 8, 2019.
REUTERS/Sivaram V
After a limp start, the rains have covered nearly half of the
country, a weather department official told Reuters on Monday.
A shortfall in monsoon rains has narrowed to 37% of the long-term
average against 44% between June 1 and June 19, the office said.
Conditions are now favorable for the southwest monsoon to further
advance into the western state of Gujarat, and a few morusene parts of the
central state of Madhya Pradesh and northern states of Uttar Pradesh and
Uttarakhand, the weather office said.
Monsoon rains are crucial for farmers who plant cane, corn, cotton,
rice and soybean in June and July, with harvests from October.
Nearly half of India’s farmland lacks irrigation and the monsoon
season delivers about 70% of the country’s annual rainfall - key to the success
of the farm sector in Asia’s third-biggest economy.
The agriculture sector accounts for about 15% of the country’s $2.6
trillion economy, but employs nearly half of India’s 1.3 billion people.
The India Meteorological Department defines average or normal
rainfall as between 96% and 104% of a 50-year average of 89 centimeters for the
entire four-month season beginning June.
Poor rains have delayed planting of summer-sown crops, but experts
say crop yields could be robust if rains pick up in the next two weeks.
Water is typically scarce in the summer months, but the situation
has been particularly grim this year in western and southern states that
received below-average rainfall in the 2018 monsoon season.
Farmers have planted summer-sown crops on 9.1 million hectares, as
of June 21, down 12.5% compared with the same period a year ago, according to
provisional data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
Cotton sowing was down 12%, while soybean planting has lagged by
57% during the period.
India is the world’s biggest exporter of rice and the top importer
of vegetable oils.
India imports about 60% of its vegetable oil needs at an annual
cost of up to $10 billion – its third-biggest import item after crude oil and
gold. A drop in oilseed output could lift the country’s imports of edible oils
such as palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil, dealers said.
Policy makers are keeping their fingers crossed.
The water resources minister on Monday warned that a water shortage
could cut food exports from India, which has emerged as a leading supplier of a
number of food products to the world.
Rice exports face tough time amid
huge global supply
Update: June, 25/2019 - 08:25
Farmers harvesting rice
in the Mekong Delta. Photo english.vietnamnet.vn
HCM CITY — With an abundant
global supply and high inventory in major exporting countries, Việt Nam is
expected to struggle to secure exports of rice in the second half of the year,
speakers said at a conference held in HCM City on Monday.
Trần Quốc Khánh, deputy minister of
Industry and Trade, said that Việt Nam’s rice exports in the first half of the
year experienced great challenges due to a drop in demand from major
importers.
Except for the Philippines, the
country’s three major traditional rice importing countries such as China,
Indonesia and Bangladesh all imported much less in the first half of the
year.
image:
http://image.vietnamnews.vn/uploadvnnews/Article/2019/6/25/20634_HP1.jpg
Speakers at a conference
held yesterday in HCM City discuss the status of Viet Nam's rice
exports in the first half of the year. VNS Photo Bồ Xuân Hiệp
The trend is expected to continue
for the rest of the year because of the high inventory in China,
an election year in Indonesia, and Bangladesh’s ongoing
recovery from flooding, Khánh said.
The decline in imports from these
markets has also affected two other leading rice exporters, India
and Thailand.
In the first five months, Việt Nam
exported a combined 239,000 tonnes of rice to China, Indonesia and
Bangladesh, compared with 1.44 million tonnes over the same period last year,
according to the Export and Import Department under the Ministry of Industry
and Trade.
In recent years, many rice
importing countries have imposed rice tariffs and allowed other rice
suppliers to participate in the G2P (government-to-private) tenders in
order to buy rice of higher quality at more competitive prices.
Meanwhile, countries such as
Myanmar, Cambodia, and Pakistan are trying to increase their rice export
output.
In addition, China is not only the
largest rice importer, but also one of the world’s major rice exporters.
Solutions
The Ministry of Industry and Trade
is working with agencies such as Việt Nam Food Association and rice
exporters to implement solutions, such as reviewing policies of foreign
markets, according to Deputy Minister Khánh.
While negotiating bilateral and
multilateral free trade agreements, the ministry has discussed with
foreign partners about tax reductions and removal of trade and technical
barriers for Vietnamese rice products.
The ministry has also updated
information for local enterprises and associations about regulations on food
hygiene and safety, quality control and traceability.
Many programmes on trade promotion
and brand development have been luanched, including trade fairs in mainland
China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, as well
as France, the Netherlands, Ghana, Ivory Coast and the US.
To assist businesses in studying
customer demand and promoting exports, the ministry has worked with
localities that produce high outputs of rice, such as An Giang, Long An,
and Kiên Giang provinces, Cần Thơ City, and HCM City.
Experts have recommended
that Vietnamese exporters diversify export and import markets
and avoid dependence on only certain markets.
New decree
Taking effect in October last year,
Decree 107/2018/ND-CP, which replaced an older decree, aims to remove legal
barriers for rice businesses to expand to foreign markets.
According to the new decree,
rice-exporting businesses will no longer be required to own rice
storage or paddy milling and grinding facilities with processing
capacities of 5,000 tonnes of rice and 10 tonnes of paddy per hour,
respectively.
Instead, they now can rent such
facilities from other agencies and organisations. The capacity volume
requirements have also been removed.
Trần Văn Công, deputy director of
the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Agro Processing and Market
Development Authority, said the new decree would help rice traders cut costs
significantly.
Khánh said the decree was a
breakthrough in institutional policy regarding rice export activities, removing
difficulties for rice firms.
The decree also stipulates
additional regulations on the responsibilities of ministries, sectors and
localities in rice export management.
According to the General Department
of Customs, Việt Nam’s rice exports reached 2.76 million tonnes in the first
five months, down 6.3 per cent compared to the same period last year. The
country earned US$1.18 billion worth of exports in the period, a decline of
20.4 per cent over the same period last year.
The country’s rice products
are exported to 150 countries and territories, including the
Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, mainland China, Cuba, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Iraq, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Mozambique. — VNS
SunRice sees Top End rice bowl, but ag support base
needed
25 Jun 2019,
1:30 p.m.
SunRice
chairman, Laurie Arthur, in an irrigated rice crop he helped grow in the
Kimberley in Western Australia's far north in 2010.
Northern
Australia's opportunity to bloom as an export food bowl may have to wait
another decade or two because the support service networks required to make
that dream really grow simply don't exist.
Australians,
also, do not yet fully understand the reality of global food security and
Australia's need to service a hunger for more agricultural production, says
SunRice chairman, Laurie Arthur.
"Unfortunately,
the infrastructure to build new farming industries just doesn't arrive
overnight," Mr Arthur said.
Although
a keen advocate of northern Australia's potential for irrigated cropping and
more livestock industries, Mr Arthur said there was more to growing the Top
End's agricultural export capacity than just adding cheap water tapped from
huge Lake Argyle's 10.7 gigalitre reserves on the Ord River.
Everything
from machinery spare parts to processing industries and scientific backup
tended to be thousands of kilometres from the continent's remote northern
regions.
Even
so he was confident Northern Australia could eventually deliver big volumes of
grain, cotton, horticultural crops and meat for hungry near neighbours.
If
I had a problem with a rice harvester, the replacement parts were probably 4500
kilometres away-
Laurie Arthur, SunRice
Mr
Arthur knew first hand as a former rice grower in Western Australia's Kimberley
region, the north had potential, but at present it was still a challenging and
often expensive place to be a pioneer.
He
developed irrigated country for rice at Kununurra a decade ago, but retreated
home to the NSW Murray Valley after just two seasons.
"If
I had a problem with a rice harvester, the replacement parts were probably 4500
kilometres away in southern NSW, or maybe just 3000km away (in Perth or North
Queensland) for other farm equipment," he said.
Equipment
suppliers, spare part services, skilled technicians and a host of other farm
inputs, product handling infrastructure and back up businesses all took time to
evolve in agricultural communities - just as they had when Australia's rice
industry emerged in the 1920s, eventually underpinning the Murrumbidgee
Irrigation Area's success.
Northern
crop processing options were still limited.
Mr
Arthur and partners had to send their first harvest to Papua New Guinea, in
shipping containers, to be milled.
Their
second crop was baled for cattle feed after being infected with rice blast
disease in the tropical conditions.
"You
can certainly grow rice in the north - in about two thirds the time it takes in
NSW - but while the water's cheap, it's still a high cost proposition because
of many factors, including new pests and diseases we need to understand and
research," he said.
SunRice's
northern focus
In
North Queensland SunRice has been rebuilding the rice industry's former toehold
in the Burdekin, Tully and Gordonvale regions, backing new research into
varietal breeding, crop nutrition needs and disease management.
The farmer-owned company, one of
Australia's best known export food names, has also invested in production and
research in PNG and recently bought a processing mill in Vietnam where it has
farmers growing crops under contract.
"I
think we're in a great position to take serious steps towards having rice as
part of the northern agricultural picture," Mr Arthur said.
"Our
industry is well positioned to grow a lot of food for markets around the world,
but agribusiness will have to do a lot of other leg work first.
"When
Australia gets serious about understanding global food security there'll be
more attention focused on what needs to be done in the north.
Laurie
Arthur during his northern rice harvest.
However,
I'm not sure if that issue will bite home for maybe another 20 years or
so."
Trusted
globally
Fortunately,
SunRice enjoyed enormous trust in export markets because of Australia's clean
farm product image, and it was building market share on that reputation.
Yet
"like all Australian food production", the rice industry had its
challenges delivering enough prized Australian product to export buyers, with
drought adding to that challenge.
SunRice
had subsequently adapted to market and seasonal pressures, finding additional
supply sources and buying subsidiary businesses in the US, Jordan and Vietnam
to service its customer base with product carefully matching the company's
brand reputation.
"We
enjoy a strong brand presence in many of the world's premium markets, including
Japan," he said.
"Consumers
want to trust where their rice comes from.
"Within
a year we will even be able to show consumers, on the pack, exactly where their
SunRice purchase was grown."
Mr
Arthur said the company took seriously its responsibility to reliably meet
consumer expectations, build premium markets and strengthen its value-added
processing commitment in regional Australia.
"I
regard our industry as the very model of what good Australian agribusiness
should be - diverse, innovative, sustainably-focused and driven hard by
research and development."
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